Happy Saturday! Overtime is for everyone. If you’re a Bulwark+ member: thank you. If you’re not, there’s no better time to subscribe to Bulwark+ than today. If you like today’s issue, you can share this newsletter with someone you think would value it.
Retired Judges Call Out Trump’s “Unprecedentedly Fraudulent Scheme”
ON WEDNESDAY, A BIPARTISAN GROUP of thirty-five retired federal judges jointly filed an unprecedented motion with the Florida federal court that last week reluctantly agreed to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Donald Trump, his sons, and the Trump Organization against the government headed by Trump.1 The lawsuit had sought $10 billion in damages over the alleged sharing of tax information by a contractor who worked for the IRS from 2018 to 2020. The new motion from the retired judges is astonishing. Calling Trump’s actions a “fraudulent scheme,” the former judges want the court to un-dismiss the “collusive lawsuit,” reinstating it in order for it to be resolved differently by the court—so that the rule of law can stop hemorrhaging.
Programming note: On June 8 at 7pm ET, Mona Charen and Mark Hertling will kick off the Bulwark Book Club with a live chat about Mark’s book, If I Don’t Return: A Father’s Wartime Journal. This livestream is for Bulwark+ subscribers on Substack and YouTube.
The Murder of ‘60 Minutes’
This week a bunch of people you’ve likely never heard of were pushed out of 60 Minutes by Bari Weiss. Simultaneously, Weiss handed control of the program to someone else you’ve probably never heard of.
I know how boring that sounds, but it’s important. What is happening at 60 Minutes is a demonstration of how institutions fail in an age of autocracy. And it is an object lesson in the dangers corporate ownership poses to free media.
Exclusive: A First Look at the Dems’ Version of Project 2025
FOUR YEARS AGO, an alliance of MAGA policy groups led by the Heritage Foundation began organizing a compendium of principles and plans designed to serve as guidance for Republicans should they win back the presidency. Their publication was officially titled Mandate for Leadership, but ever since its release in April 2023, it has been universally known by the name of the group effort: Project 2025.
Ebola Is Back. Hantavirus Is Spreading. Time to Watch These Movies.
Ebola is back. Hantavirus is spreading. So Sonny Bunch and Jonathan Cohn revisited three pandemic "classics"—And the Band Played On, Contagion, and Outbreak—to see which one we're actually living in.
Come join for another installment of Bulwark Movie Club!
🚨OVERTIME🚨
School’s out for summer… And one great way to kick off summer is with some baseball. It was a perfect night in Florence, Kentucky on Friday to watch some Frontier league baseball. The Florence Y’alls defeated the Schaumburg Boomers 17-4 in a game with the home team amassing 24 hits(!), followed by an excellent fireworks show. I hope there’s some great baseball in your future.
📣Comment of the Week: “As an old man who still uses cash, I for one am looking forward to being able to pay for most of my weekly groceries with just one $250 bill.” —Garvin
Comment section discussion prompt: How do you plan to spend your summer free time? Give me a fun thing or two and something you’re doing for the cause of democracy.
I Tried to Sell My House With a Chatbot… Over five frantic days, the NYT’s Stuart Thompson gambled his family’s life savings on a hunch that A.I. could outperform a real estate agent. 🎁
“Garbage intrudes upon our mirages, puts everything on equal footing, and tells the whole story—if you know how to listen.” On my flight back from California last week, I read with great interest Simon Paré-Poupart’s Harper’s cover story on the lives of trash collectors in Montreal. Make some time for it this weekend.
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Editorial photos provided by Getty Images. For full credits, please consult the article.
There should be an ad for democrats that anounces they have stopped REAL waste fraud and abuse above a list of projects stopped like the Kennedy Center or public funds for the ballroom
I was doing my usual morning read of Dr. Richardson's Letters from an American, pretty standard fare for the times in which we live. Then near the end I read this: "Today the United States Postal Service has proposed that it will send mail-in ballots only to voters who are registered with the federal government." That sent a chill down my spine that is still there. This should send alarm bells like klaxons through the halls of congress and every state capitol in the country. By exactly what authority would this be done?