The Bulwark

Trump on the Reflecting Pool: "I was disappointed with Jeanine Pirro, really disappointed with Jeanine Pirro. She folded like an umbrella and people get away with it, and it's a disgrace."

The case before the Hawaii Supreme Court did not warrant such an impassioned condemnation of the U.S. Supreme Court. But Associate Justice Todd Eddins and his colleagues wanted to send a message to the country. Read it. https://www.thebulwark.com/p/a-blistering-critique-of-the-roberts-supreme-court-hawaii?utm_source=threads&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=subs

"A water-treatment facility may appear to have little connection to national defense until one considers the cascading consequences of disabling it." There are no surprises here, really. Mark Hertling on the water system cyber attacks: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/the-attack-we-knew-was-coming-cyber-threats-civilian-infrastructure-iran-estonia?utm_source=threads&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=subs

Todd Blanche wants you to think the so-called "anti-weaponization fund" established as part of a purported settlement between President Trump and the IRS is dead. Don't believe him; it’s just sleeping. New from Philip Rotner: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/dont-believe-todd-blanche-about-trump-slush-fund-from-hell-cornyn-tillis?utm_source=threads&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=subs

Bill Kristol on Sens. Cornyn and Tillis supporting Todd Blanche’s nomination for Attorney General after saying they would oppose it. “Democrats can say, if you want any check on Trump, you need to vote for a Democratic Senate because this Republican Senate, after a little bit of squawking and squealing ends up bending the knee.”

Blanche has either bamboozled Cornyn and Tillis by giving them meaningless written “assurances” that assure nothing, or they have simply caved to pressure from Trump, Senate colleagues, the right-wing blogosphere, or their own allies and supporters. https://www.thebulwark.com/p/dont-believe-todd-blanche-about-trump-slush-fund-from-hell-cornyn-tillis?utm_source=threads&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=subs

"This was not an audience asking about conspiracy theories, or making arguments about Jews, or wanting to debate whether they were winners or whiners. This was an audience that had their wallets on their minds. They wanted to know how the math worked." https://www.thebulwark.com/p/vivek-ramaswamy-reality-check-county-fair-ohio?utm_source=threads&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=subs

Sen. Thom Tillis on voting yes to advance Todd Blanche out of committee: "I got to yes because Todd Blanche operated in good faith…He's proven to me he's a man of his word, that he is doing the hard work. This is a difficult administration to work in."

"U.S. statistical agencies have for generations been the envy of the world, because they produce reliable information that voters, businesses, consumers, and families rely on. They have been one of our most unsung economic (and democratic) strengths." https://www.thebulwark.com/p/donald-trump-maga-war-on-reality-comes-for-the-census-bureau-voting-citizens-fraud-bogus-report?utm_source=threads&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=subs

"'Purges' is not the authoritative word on purges (Goldring will write this in a decade or so, I expect). But it moves forward our knowledge of contemporary authoritarian politics." https://www.thebulwark.com/p/autocrat-guide-to-purging-inner-circle-coups-dictators-edward-goldring?utm_source=threads&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=subs

"It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the HHS secretary sees deaths from outbreaks of diseases we had beaten or contained, like measles and cyclosporiasis, as a form of social hygiene that kills off the weak and susceptible." https://www.thebulwark.com/p/rfk-jr-toxic-world-vaccines-contamination-safe-hhs-autism-ocd?utm_source=threads&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=subs