"Election Integrity" Means Restriction
Amanda Carpenter on why we can't have a reasonable debate when people are trying to cancel votes.
Leading The Bulwark…
“Election Integrity” Means Restriction
AMANDA CARPENTER: You can’t have a reasonable debate about voting rights with people who wanted to cancel votes.
🎧 On the Pods… 🎧
Bill Kristol on the GOP's Anger Management
On today’s Bulwark podcast, Bill Kristol joins host Charlie Sykes to discuss the Biden COVID-19 speech, how the right is overreacting to it, and the internal arguments about cats and dogs.
B2D: Is There a Trapdoor in the Recovery Plan?
AEI's Desmond Lachman analyzes the inflation risk in our gargantuan spending and loose money policies. The panel then considers the border crisis and the GOP's outreach to the working class.
Who’s French? (Episodes 3 & 4)
Sarah and Ben talk about episodes 3 and 4, including who exactly counts as “French” in the French village, what happens to France after the German occupation, what the Communists are up to, and who that guy was who fell out of the sky was.
For Bulwark+ Members… 🔐
THE TRIAD: Fact Checking Joe Biden
JONATHAN V. LAST on the “Lamestream Media”’s fact-checking Joe Biden’s speech last night. The results will shock you.
SECRET PODCAST: Biden Speaks; America Celebrates
JVL and Sarah on why the dawn is breaking.
TNB: Biden’s First Big Speech
Mona, Charlie, Amanda, and Tim talk about Biden’s COVID-19 address, H.R. 1 and the COVID spending bill, as chat about cat people and dog people: can’t we get along?
From The Bulwark Aggregator…
Emails show HHS official trying to muzzle Fauci – Sarah Owermohle, Politico
My Party Has Been Overtaken by ‘Cancel Culture’ Trolls – Matt Lewis, The Daily Beast
Unlocking the Mysteries of Long COVID – Meghan O'Rourke, The Atlantic
Newsom Recall Effort Organizers Announce Over 2 Million Signatures Collected, Reaching Goal – Tom Tapp, Deadline Hollywood
Cuomo Faces New Threat: Impeachment Inquiry Led by Democrats – Luis Ferré-Sadurní, J. David Goodman and Jesse McKinley, The New York Times
Full transcript of President Biden’s address to the nation – The Washington Post
Pompeo sought flurry of unmaskings last spring – Josh Gerstein, Politico
Texas AG files lawsuit against Austin over mask mandate – Lexi Lonas, The Hill
In Today’s Bulwark...
Are Pre-Buys Bad for Independent Movies?
JAMES EMANUEL SHAPIRO: The year's biggest Sundance sale raised a red alert during Berlin, but it’s not going to destroy the market for indies.
MORNING SHOTS: Tucker Drags The Troops
CHARLIE SYKES on how Tucker’s monologue backfired.
🚨OVERTIME 🚨
What a difference a year makes…
A Friday Must Read. This BuzzFeed item on a reporter’s mom’s journey with QAnon is well worth the investment of your time.
How Tabasco is made. A fascinating look at how one of America’s most iconic exports is made is going to make you want to fry up some eggs for dinner and douse them in Tabasco (if that’s your hot sauce.)
“Brought to you by Carl’s Jr.” Life imitates Idiocracy.
Step back, Bar Closing… A new bar coming to DC will feature an old D.C. metro car. If the region had foresight, they’d come up with express trains and bar cars. Alas, from where I used to live in Alexandria on the Beltway, it takes 79 minutes to get to the nearest station in Reston, and 36 minutes by car. And that only gets you mostly there! You’d have to take a cab, Uber, or a bus from Rosslyn (which puts your trip at 129 minutes) When the system is back to normal and they complete the last phase of the Silver Line, it will still be inefficient.
Sometimes, you have to have a little foresight, and a third track could have solved a lot of WMATA’s problems. But even with this multi-billion dollar expansion, they’ve learned nothing.
It takes bravery to write an item like this… A two star Army General talks about his struggles with bipoloar disorder in Task & Purpose.
Love prevails. Back when I was in college, there was a local politician my Democratic friends all were enamored with named Jeff Smith. They even made a documentary about him! But he had a fall from grace, and went to prison. After he got out, we periodically chatted on Twitter and traded barbs. (I wrongly though Josh Mandel was going to defeat Sherrod Brown and bet him a beer.) We met briefly at the 2012 DNC convention, and I said hello. I still owe him that beer.
But right before he went to prison for campaign finance violations, he fell in love. His girlfriend moved in with him. Many people would walk away, but his true love did not. She waited. Today is their tenth wedding anniversary, and that’s love. And it should be celebrated.
A big win for #TeamBeans. The hat sale raised a lot of money yesterday for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. There’s still time to buy one.
Funny or Die gets into True Crime. Seems like this could be an interesting series.
Speaking of crime… Who is Peter Cahill?: The Judge On The Chauvin Trial is one in a series you should check out from Bloomberg Law.
The Tabouli Mystery… Ben Dreyfuss is a very enjoyable writer to read, and here, he paces through the divorce of his parents and a childhood love of Tabouli, and the lifelong friendship he formed with his housekeeper, who made the best Tabouli. (And there’s a recipe.)
Gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you there… In what universe is this remotely true?
Vaccine Spotter. If you’re like me, and not old enough or in a risky class of Americans, you’re wondering when you might get vaccinated. But not all vaccines get used in time, and the market provides a solution.
A Boebert deep dive… Reveals some potential problems for the GOP’s answer to #TheSquad and her “origin story.”
Over and over, Boebert says she started allowing her staff to carry guns after a man was killed outside her restaurant. But we’ve obtained police and coroner reports that show her story is mainly fiction.
Turns out meth is a hell of a drug, and it helped give the United States Congress Lauren Boebert. (Sadly.)
Pandemic pursuits. At Defector, a look at how Albert Burneko has spent the last year. And as a former nail biter who chipped a tooth in an editorial meeting, I wouldn’t go so far as to paint my nails, but I, too, have been spending more time in nature by my house with my dog. Maybe you have been, too.
Well, that’s it for me for today. Questions? Concerns? Deep thoughts? Criticism? You know how to reach me: swift@thebulwark.com.
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