Afghanistan’s Terrorist Future
Eric Edelman and Robert Joseph on why the most likely outcomes from the American withdrawal are bad.
Leading The Bulwark…
Afghanistan’s Terrorist Future
ERIC EDELMAN AND ROBERT JOSEPH: The most likely outcomes from the American withdrawal are bad. The worst-case-scenarios are catastrophic.
🎧 On the Pods… 🎧
Editor’s Note: Charlie is on vacation this week, enjoying the vaxxed life. He’ll return soon. In the meantime, we’ll have guest hosts each day.
Perry Bacon Jr. on Why the GOP Isn't Rebranding
On today’s Bulwark podcast, Perry Bacon Jr. joins Tim Miller to talk about the 2020 elections, and how the parties are preparing for 2024. Plus, a discussion about politics and race, and how voters and their standards have evolved (or devolved.)
For Bulwark+ Members… 🔐
How to Think About the J&J Pause 🔐
JVL: It's complicated.
From The Bulwark Aggregator…
Matt Gaetz’s Wingman Paid Dozens of Young Women—and a 17-Year-Old – Jose Pagliery and Roger Sollenberger, The Daily Beast
The mRNA Vaccines Are Looking Better and Better – Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic
Phoenix Police Seized $40K From Him at the Airport, but Never Charged Him With a Crime – C.J. Ciaramella, Reason Magazine
A 23-Year-Old Coder Kept QAnon Online When No One Else Would – William Turton and Joshua Brustein, Bloomberg Businessweek
Republicans will keep up the craziness until they pay a real price – James Hohmann, The Washington Post
In Today’s Bulwark...
Not My Party: We’re Doomed! Send Us Money.
TIM MILLER: Small-dollar fundraising scams exposed.
Four Ways the Tax System Abuses Our Cognitive Biases
JOHN GUSTAVSSON: The federal income tax system is a behavioral economist's nightmare.
Biden’s Afghanistan Withdrawal Puts Symbolism Before Strategy
SHAY KHATIRI: Biden risks repeating the mistakes of his two predecessors.
America’s Primary Elections Are Screwing Up Our Politics
TYLER FISHER: Here's how to fix them.
Bernie Madoff Screwed Everyone He Met. And Plenty of People He Never Met.
R. MARSHALL BRANDT: The king of fraud is dead. But we're still dealing with the fallout from his crimes.
Elon Musk Should Buy the Arclight
SONNY BUNCH: ‘In the Earth’ reviewed. Is it the first great pandemic movie?
🚨OVERTIME 🚨
Happy Thursday! I’m through with shot #2 and feeling dandy. I can taste colors and see sounds. Is that normal? Kidding aside, all I have is a sore arm.
Congrats to Carlos Rodon. It stinks for the Tribe to lose, but Rodon had a great game, almost a perfect one. But throwing a no-hitter is quite the feat.
Speaking of baseball… Happy Jackie Robinson Day. And if you’re a fan of the Tribe or the Yankees, check out this new documentary being created by my friend Andy Billman.
How F-35 pilots train… A cool look at the troubled, but most advanced fighter plane on the planet.
This is really happening.
Is the ship still stuck? A look at how the website created to answer all of our Evergiven questions were answered.
Thinking of old tweets. I don’t delete mine, either. I delete tweets immediately if there’s a spelling error and repost the same thing. I don’t block anyone either. But when you get tapped to be an appointee in a Presidential commission, people look at your old tweets.
When Trump was president, he nominated a murderer’s row of racists, loons, and nutjobs to various commissions. Since these aren’t voted on, there’s no real accountability.
Our friend and frequent Bulwark contributor Adam J. White was appointed to a commission recently, and a reporter started asking him questions about old tweets. Here is his extremely thoughtful response. I’m glad the Biden team brought him on because Adam is one of the smartest people I know, and he’s unfailingly honest. When you create a commission to seek advice from experts, that’s exactly the type of person you should appoint.
It’s even weirder than you think… Check out Sarah Rumpf’s longread at Mediaite about Matt Gaetz. I am not going to spoil any of it for you.
We cannot be caught unprepared again… A short, worthwhile paper from friend of the newsletter Tom Campanella on COVID-19.
That’s it for me for today. We’ll see you tonight on the livestream. Drop me a line if you have any questions or thoughts: swift@thebulwark.com.
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Editorial photos provided by Getty Images. For full credits, please consult the article.