Biden’s Focus on the Future
Plus: Mike Murphy on why it's time to rally around Nikki to stop Trump
Recently in The Bulwark:
CHARLIE SYKES: Down Goes Pence
SONNY BUNCH’s Bulwark Goes to Hollywood 🎧: Zoey Ashe's Life in the (Future) Panopticon
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JILL D. LAWRENCE: Joe Biden’s Surprising Focus on the Future.
JOE BIDEN IS OUR OLDEST PRESIDENT, as everyone keeps saying, but he’s also—despite and possibly because of his age—an unusually forward-looking president.
I’ve had this thought often throughout this administration, and it struck me again when word leaked that Biden would be signing a sweeping executive order this week on artificial intelligence. It’s not the first one, but based on a draft order it obtained, Politico deemed it “the most significant single effort to impose national order on a technology that has shocked many people with its rapid growth.”
MATTHEW D. TAYLOR: Mike Johnson, Polite Extremist.
HOT-OFF-THE-PRESSES PROFILES of Mike Johnson, the new speaker of the House, contain a seeming paradox. Some emphasize that he is a “mild-mannered,” “soft-spoken,” and temperamentally courteous individual. They similarly describe him as a “Christian conservative” and a “deeply evangelical Christian.” But many of the same profilers have also highlighted Johnson’s troubling activity surrounding the 2020 election and Trump’s attempt to overturn the American people’s verdict. Johnson’s involvement was substantial enough that he has even been labeled the “mastermind of the January 6 plot” and “a threat to democracy.”
So which is he: an anti-democratic politician and an insurrectionist, or a mild-mannered Christian? Part of the problem is that we have come to imagine that a person cannot be both at the same time. Mike Johnson shows that you can.
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MIKE MURPHY: You Are Helping Trump.
THE PRE-PRIMARY YEAR is winding down and clarity is coming to the Republican presidential race. While it is true that New Hampshire’s and Iowa’s primary voters only start to focus in the ten weeks before their January contests, it is also true that the holiday season must be a moment of hard clarity for every contender.
Mike Pence has already made the right, tough decision: He dropped out on Saturday.
Governor Christie: You’re up next. It’s over. Get out of the race now; by staying in, you are only helping Trump.
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy Monday! I hope you took some time to see the Fall Foliage™ if it is making an appearance where you live. For area resident Sam Barsky, every day is sweater day.
Do you hear that sound? It’s the sound of an expulsion vote. But will the House get 2/3 to rid itself of George Santos?
RIP Frank Howard… At the Post, remembering the late Washington Senator: “When the Nationals arrived in RFK Stadium more than three decades after Mr. Howard’s final game, players looked at the distant white seats in the upper deck and could not believe a baseball could be hit that far.” “The Capital Punisher” (an Ohio native and OSU grad) was 87.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz sees through the cynical IRS “pay for” …. And exposes it for what it is: A cynical ploy that has no chance of becoming law.
Disney Files Scathing Memos… in Fed Lawsuit Blasting DeSantis’ ‘Farcical’ Excuses for ‘Unconstitutional Restructuring’ of Tax District. It is thorough and brutal.
Moms for Liberty? Try Birchers in Heels, argues Robert Tracinski, who brought receipts. Weirdly, a poll pusher today handed me literature where the local school board candidate near where I live was bragging about his endorsement. They handed me a printed version of this article, with highlights. Seriously.
In Missouri, rural healthcare access is diminishing… And one study concludes it is worse than it was 100 years ago. And in cities, bodies are being found in the street. Show me decline.
A J6er relives 1/6… Before getting sent directly to jail.
Biden issues EO on “Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence”… I’m not sure I’ll ever trust AI, but this is a good step in a very long road to preventing negative externalities from occurring, from discrimination to SkyNet killing us all.
“His choice is not even one choice. It will be many choices, every day…” Former PA Rep. Conor Lamb observes “I do believe [Biden] has far more info than people on this site, plus the tools, experience, and compassion to see the choice is not between massacre and ceasefire.” Beware of black and white.
The mysterious fate of the Baychimo… the ghost ship that haunted the Arctic for decades.
How the Far Right and Trump Found Each Other… Reed Galen explains.
If Fox News…. Covered the Middle East like it does the Super Bowl.
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