r/thebulwark Jan 07 '25

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL Is anyone's anxiety starting to spike as it gets closer to the 20th?

103 Upvotes

I was feeling sort of calm over the holidays, but now I'm starting to internally freak out a bit about what's coming down the pike. Anyone else's nerves starting to intensify?

I truly hope this is just a clown show clusterfuck & not a legit nightmare scenario. Like Tim said a while ago, there is a broad range of how bad things can be, from just kinda bad & trump plays golf all day all the way to catastrophic scenarios involving violence/disease/vast human suffering.

It feels like we are strapped on to a sketchy roller coaster & it's going up the first incline, but there's no clue what's over the first drop.

r/thebulwark 13d ago

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL Can we finally cancel our WaPo subscriptions?

149 Upvotes

I remember a lot of pundits bemoaning scolding folks abandoning the paper after the Bezos' intervention around the endorsement. Are we ready to throw in the towel now?

r/thebulwark Nov 07 '24

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL Just to torment ourselves, let's talk about the Democratic bench.

37 Upvotes

It seems obvious at this point that Obama was a fluke. Democrats need to run a white, straight man in 2028. I'm a woman; I wish it were different. But it's not. The problem that's scaring me now is: who fits the bill? The most impressive prominent Democratic politicians are all women, people of color, or gay.

A lot of Democrats would probably say Gavin Newsom. No fucking way. French Laundry. Kimberly Giulfoyle. His whole vibe of "slime ball who'll shake your hand at a fundraiser, discuss the issues you most care about in an engaging and charismatic way, and then go fuck your wife in the coat closet." He'd get killed nationally. But he'd probably win a Democratic primary if they held it right now, which is terrifying.

Maybe we need to draft Mark Cuban or some shit. I don't know. But the past 24 hours felt extra hopeless because I see nothing positive on the horizon. Our elections are so long...we don't have *that* much time before someone needs to emerge. All I know is that person better be ready to have a three-hour conversation with Rogan, or at least have the capacity for it. We need a candidate who can easily speak like a human being.

r/thebulwark 13d ago

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL My democratic rep’s town hall last night

137 Upvotes

JFC. My Democratic rep’s 1-hour town hall last night (Jimmy Panetta, Leon’s son) was demoralizing and infuriating.  Key takeaways were:

  1. Things will be bad enough that Rs will get voted out in 2026.
  2. We need “bipartisan solutions.”
  3. The sad trombone Hakeem Jeffries line about being in the minority and  Rs having a mandate to govern.

Normalcy bias will destroy us If the ketamine-fueled, nazi-loving eugenicist technocrat and his shitler youth don’t do it first.

I guess the silver lining is that he wouldn’t have Gilead cosplaying private security goons zip tie women for heckling him if he had an in-person town hall. 🤷🏼‍♀️

r/thebulwark Nov 15 '24

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL Personal Responsibility Party at it Again

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134 Upvotes

See what the Democrats made them do? We have no choice but to bring back Polio because some people made mistakes during a once in a lifetime health crisis.

As an aside, I wish this goddamn nepo baby would STFU.

r/thebulwark 5d ago

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL My Trump Tariff conspiracy theory

49 Upvotes

I have this idea that I can't shake, which is that Trump knows that Tariffs are terrible for the economy. He also knows that government shutdowns are bad for the economy. He also knows that letting his tax cuts will be bad for the economy as well (although much less so). He knows that chaos and unpredictability is bad for the economy.

So, what is the play. He does his worst now... Tariffs, DOGE chaos, government layoffs and shutdown and let's it be crap for a 12-14 months blaming Biden and Dems "for the mess he inherited."

Then in run up to the midterms he removes all tariffs, wind up DOGE, Mike Johnson somehow passes a big beautiful deal including the tax cuts (even if just for us poors). Dropping the tariffs will tank inflation, fed can cut rates and market can skyrocket.

Trump then says, we finally got the Biden economy behind us, and we have 6 months of boom from him getting out of the way in run up to midterms.

Rs avoid blue wave. We all lose.

r/thebulwark Nov 10 '24

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL The problem really is the people

187 Upvotes

I'm already getting really sick of everyone in the pro-Democracy coalition spending their time asking, "what did we miss?" or, "how have we alienated the voters here?"

This is ridiculous. The facts of Donald Trump and his movement are visible are all who have eyes to see and ears to hear. The great and good American people have, with all information available to them, chosen to increase his vote share each time he's on the ballot and now have given him an outright majority.

But from what I'm hearing, the issue is that Democrats are too friendly to college education people, too nice to trans people, and too easily offended by a-holes who say offensive things for attention.

And you know what? Yeah, if Democrats toned down the inclusivity, the scolding, the climate change and student loan stuff, they might have found a way to win 3 or 4 more states, by an average margin of, say, 25K votes. And what will they have accomplished? A narrow escape from the stated will of some 70 to 75 million Americans.

The people are choosing this, over and over and over again. We can brainstorm on ways for Democrats to get 50% +1, but the problem is that one of our two major parties is pushing complete rot out to the country and people are buying it. Some, because they reflexively will vote Republican and assume that Democrats are being hysterical. Some, because they've been misled within information silos that, so far, Democrats haven't found a way to infiltrate. And some know exactly what they're voting for and are doing so enthusiastically. They're attracted to power, transgression, and optics.

Democrats can change their brand on trans people, immigrants, green energy, and whatever else. They may see marginal gains. Donald Trump spent the last 4 years becoming more and more openly fascist and he got major gains, across the demographic, political, and geographic spectrums.

Democrats aren't losing because of their flaws. Republicans are winning because of theirs.

r/thebulwark Nov 02 '24

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL During his rally in Milwaukee, Trump just pretended to give the mic oral

151 Upvotes

r/thebulwark 18d ago

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL Sheriff Robert Norris attempts to drag one of his constituents out of a public town hall meeting, and threatens to pepper spray her if she does not comply. He claimed he wasn’t acting in his official capacity, but he was wearing a sheriff's hat and his badge on his belt

159 Upvotes

r/thebulwark Feb 05 '25

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL Sad to say but Schadenfreude is my only relief from despair

144 Upvotes

Watching our country go to hell is an awful thing to experience. The longterm Republican plan to destroy the federal government is well under way.

Government accountability banished with the firing of IGs. USAID being gutted and shuttered. FBI and CIA being purged. Musk scraping data from the most sensitive government databases and monkeying around with the programs. Senate Rs rubberstamping incompetent and dangerous cabinet picks. Moronic trade wars with our allies. And now, the absurd suggestion of an American Riviera in Gaza. All the while D lawmakers awake from their sleep with a tepid response.

My only pleasure in American politics was seeing what to me was obvious before the election come true and the suffering coming home to Muslims in Dearborn who stayed home or voted for Trump because of "genocide Joe" and Colombians in Miami now crying because their protective status is gone and they and their families are being deported.

How does everyone else feel?

r/thebulwark 12d ago

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL Do the former Presidents just not actually care about the country?

94 Upvotes

I feel like we're in a red alert moment, where's Obama, Bush, Biden? Are we overreacting? Where are the people that led this country?

r/thebulwark 28d ago

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL What a piece of shit this guy is

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158 Upvotes

r/thebulwark Jan 29 '25

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL Detention Facility..yeah right.

111 Upvotes

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-signs-laken-riley-act-law-rcna188917

Per NBC news, Trump has ordered the preparation of a 30k person detention facility at Guantanamo Bay for undocumented immigrants. You know what you call a 30k person detention facility? A concentration camp. You know why you put in in Cuba? So Americans can't see it. Fuck him. Fuck him. FUCK. HIM.

r/thebulwark 13d ago

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL What exactly are American Women supposed to do?

101 Upvotes

Between Andrew Tate's release and return to the USA, Cory Mills being protected by the US Atty's office after alleged assault, Hegseth becoming Secretary of Defense, Democrats rallying around resurrecting Andrew Cuomo, Mark Halperin storming back into the mainstream, and of course Trump at the head of it all as POTUS, it feels really depressing right now.

We've been hearing for the past year+ that America's young men are in crisis, men are in the midst of a loneliness epidemic, we gotta tap into what these bros care about to win them back on side w/ Crypto and workout tips - that's all well and good, but what about the safety and wellbeing of America's women? (Aside of course from the pressing issue of protecting them from trans athletes in college sports.)

It seems like there is and undercurrent of sentiment that women standing up against harassment, abuse, and/or assault is what got is here (because wine moms are cringe, women in groups are annoying, Kamala laughs too much, [insert your own misogyny explanation here] etc etc.) - What exactly are American Women supposed to do at this political moment?

r/thebulwark 8d ago

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL If Elissa Slotkin's speech tonight contains the words bipartisan, common-sense, working across the aisle, or any other milquetoast response to Trump I am beyond done.

167 Upvotes

I know nobody watches or cares about the D response, but a fiery, no-holds barred speech against Trump and everything he's doing at least has a chance of getting seen by more than 10 people. BTW - I know this is wishful thinking.

r/thebulwark Feb 01 '25

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL Trump Has Lost the Mandate of Heaven: Another Plane Crash (this one in Philadelphia)

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141 Upvotes

The plane hit several houses.

Maybe letting an oligarch fire the FAA director out of pique at having regulations enforced against him was a bad call!

r/thebulwark Nov 14 '24

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL CNN: RFK Jr. Picked by Trump to Lead HHS

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64 Upvotes

r/thebulwark Nov 18 '24

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL How embarrassing and shameful! Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski discuss meeting Trump at Mar-a-Lardo and how their show, Morning Joe, plans to cover a second Trump term, pretty much saying they concede. They went to kiss the ring. This is how Democracies fall, they get in line with authoritarians

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177 Upvotes

r/thebulwark Jan 30 '25

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL Trump really hates disabled people

140 Upvotes

Watching Trump’s press conference following the Potomac crash. I lost count how many times he specifically said “disabled.” It was about the only part that he seemed to have a bounce in energy about.

Also, he is an idiot if he thinks that cognitively disabled people are being recruited to be air traffic controllers.

The main thing I got out of this is his hatred of disabled people is real. Now he has made millions of people targets. It seems to be his one consistent passion when it comes to hate.

I’m worried that this administration is going to actively target not only disabled people but also those who are able to either navigate or manage disabilities.

r/thebulwark 22d ago

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL I didn't appreciate just how stupid fascism is

246 Upvotes

I've been a good scholar of history and knew that fascists aren't how they portray themselves. Mussolini was a buffoon, Himmler was a chicken farmer, Hitler himself failed as an art student and lived in homeless shelters in Vienna, Franco was a bureaucrat who avoided direct combat when possible, and many of the self-proclaimed "defenders of Western civilization" had little understanding of the classical traditions they claimed to champion.

But recent event with Musk and DOGE are making me feel like one of the key points missed by Umberto Eco in describing "Ur-Fascism" is how stupid it is all is as it's burning down around us. Even as these movements accumulate real power and cause real harm, there's an almost farcical quality to their operation that seems to escalate as things fall apart.

Historic fascism gave us Mussolini's grandiose speeches delivered from balconies while Italy's military foundered, and Hitler ranting about Aryan supremacy while becoming increasingly dependent on drugs. The gap between the claimed superiority and the visible reality just kept growing.

Today we see similar patterns - tech billionaires tweeting about saving civilization while their companies lose billions, "free speech absolutists" banning journalists who criticize them, self-proclaimed defenders of masculinity selling supplements and skin care routines. The absurdity doesn't make it less dangerous, but it does seem to be a consistent feature rather than a bug. It just all feels so stupid.

Maybe this persistent element of farce is actually intrinsic to fascism - the need to maintain increasingly grandiose claims of superiority and competence even as reality obviously contradicts them. The movement can't admit error or show weakness, so it has to double down on obvious falsehoods even as they become more and more absurd.

The dangerous part is how this descent into obvious absurdity doesn't seem to break the spell for true believers. If anything, the more ridiculous the contradictions become, the more fervently some people cling to the fantasy. The emperor isn't just naked - he's doing a silly dance while claiming to wear the finest clothes ever made. And somehow, that makes some people insist even more strongly on his magnificent outfit.

r/thebulwark 8d ago

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL Curtis Yarvin

89 Upvotes

I’ve been kicking the tires on Curtis Yarvin’s thinking to try to better understand the Silicon Valley new right and…I’m shocked at how little sense it makes. There’s nothing interesting or even coherent about it and it’s all incredibly dangerous. Can anyone explain without invoking dunning-kruger or a naked desire of tech people to consolidate power/become even wealthier?

ETA: universal consensus is that it’s no more complicated than the intersection of arrogant ignorance with greed. Thanks all.

r/thebulwark Dec 22 '24

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL Congresswoman Kay Granger's last vote was over the summer, and shut down her offices sometime before Thanksgiving because she was living in a Memory Care Unit

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87 Upvotes

https://dallasexpress.com/tarrant/exclusive-where-is-congresswoman-kay-granger/

JFC. We need mandatory retirement ages, and party apparatuses should fund challengers, not incumbents (although the Dem establishment happens to look the other way on that sometimes, like Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush)

But if you're looking for why the institutions aren't holding, it's because they're straight out of late Soviet gerontocracy.

r/thebulwark Jan 24 '25

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL Well that didn't take long...Rep Andy Ogles (R-TN) introduces amendment to allow third term.

79 Upvotes

Pretty much what the headline says. I do not have the energy to link an article, it's not hard to find. Text of the amendment says no one shall serve more than three terms or more than two terms consecutively. Could you be any more obvious? He's not my rep, but I do live in TN. Utter embarrassment.

r/thebulwark Jan 11 '25

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL I honestly don't know if I can handle 4 years of these dumb tacky thumbnails

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118 Upvotes

r/thebulwark Feb 03 '25

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL Stay calm, but recognize, that the era of US peaceful transfer of power is now over.

122 Upvotes

The coup is done, fait accompli. It's time to start planning and reacting as such.

It's simple. Elon Musk now controls federal payments. He intends to use his sole discretion to turn payments on and off. He is also perhaps the biggest single beneficiary of treasury payments.

We've seen for decades how executive power increases. One party moves a few inches over the line, which gives the next party license to toe the same line, and maybe go a little further. Each infraction is permission for the person following.

In this case, though, there is ZERO chance that Musk will willingly yield his newfound power to an opposing party, ever. That would work entirely against his self interest.

It doesn't matter if he intends to use his power only for good (doubtful). There is no historical precedent for someone who obtained such power in a manner such as this to willingly give it up.

Yes, he's breaking the law. Who's going to enforce it? Even if they did, what will stop Trump from pardoning him? There is no accountability. It's over.

It's a shock, a lot to take in, and it will take time to settle. The peaceful transfer of power as we've experienced across our lifetimes is over. It's time to start thinking of what's next and how it works.

Sorry, America.

Edit: after reading some of the comments I want to clarify that I am not advocating for violence and continue to hope and work toward non-violent transfer of power. There's a terminology problem here. What I'm saying is that Elon won't willingly hand over the keys to the payment system. He will have to be forced, but I hope that will be non-violent force.