Pay close attention: Trump didn’t claim that there was any actual interference in voting or election results. At no point did Trump say or point to any evidence that a single vote was changed or altered. Indeed, even White House conspiracy theorist John Solomon admitted as much to reporters afterwards. That’s because it did not happen. Audits, recounts, certifications, federal investigations, and more than 80 judges, including those appointed by Trump himself, have all uniformly rejected his attacks on the 2020 election.

What we got instead on Thursday was a rehash of four myths, all of which fall apart on close examination.

1. Myth: Purported Vulnerabilities in Electronic Voting and Ballot-Counting Systems

   Trump spoke broadly about vulnerabilities in voting machines, but he did not say there is evidence that voting machines or votes were breached. And that’s because they weren’t. He wants to scare you with the hypothetical, but truth is that our election officials put safeguards in place to minimize any vulnerabilities. Their dedicated work and vigilance ensure our elections work as intended, protected from technological exploitation.

2. Myth: China’s Acquisition of American Voter Data

   This is a scare tactic. Trump made wild claims about the compromise of election data, but let’s be clear: He did not say that votes were exploited or compromised. The voter registration data he is in a twist about actually consists of basic and publicly available data such as names and addresses — far less personal information than what the average American shares when ordering clothes on Temu.

3. Myth: Michigan Voter-Registration Investigation

   Again, there was zero evidence of voting fraud here. Trump didn’t point to any and can’t. Though there were isolated cases of irregularities in registration, local election officials flagged them in real time. Our elections systems worked as intended to unearth them. This is a backhanded endorsement, not a critique.

4. Myth: Noncitizens on State Voter Rolls

   Trump has made these wild claims of folks improperly registering over and over again using baseless allegations and wrong lists, such as the error-ridden and oft-abused Department of Homeland Security SAVE databases. The truth is that Americans follow voter registration laws and cast ballots in good faith, as we documented in our Democracy Defenders Action report with LULAC on The Big Lie.

Then there was the avalanche of documents Trump said would prove him right. They did just the opposite. For example, they show Russia, not China, was working to interfere in the 2020 election — to help Trump! If all of this is the best he and the election deniers have, they are in trouble.

Thursday was a flop — a predictable one. One of us (Norm) was asked by cable TV to do a curtain raiser for the speech. The forecast was for a comically loony mish-mash along the lines of other famous conspiracy theories, and boy did Trump deliver:

Trump lost in 2020. This will remain true no matter how many pieces of bogus evidence he invents or floats. The truth is Trump and his fellow election deniers are not just trying to prove bizarre counterfactuals about prior elections. They’re trying to fool us into doubting the next one.

But we will not let that happen. And with your help, Contrarians, we will call them out on their actions. In America, leaders do not choose their voters; voters choose their leaders. The American people will not let Trump and his cronies take our vote or our voice.

Thanks to you, we stand ready for whatever Trump and his administration may throw at us next. Your paid subscriptions help make our Democracy Defenders Fund and Action election protection work possible and also help power the rest of our over 300 legal cases and matters. If you’re not a paid subscriber, please consider becoming one.

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And of course, your paid support also makes possible our phenomenal daily democracy coverage. Take a look at the best of the Contrarian this week, assembled by our wonderful colleagues:

Dept. of Injustice

Trump’s Cronyism Signals a Chilling — and Familiar — Story

Brian Tyler Cohen analyzed how Trump’s corruption is following an all-too-familiar global playbook — Putin’s — and what we need to do to step out of Russia’s post-Soviet footsteps. “If the next Democratic administration doesn’t take note and prosecute the criminals of today to the fullest extent of the law, then that criminality is doomed to repeat itself.”

The Tea ft. Alphonso David

Global Black Economic Forum President Alphonso David joined April Ryan to talk about Lindsey Graham’s Senate replacement, Trump’s renewed attacks on Georgia’s senators, and what a Todd Blanche DOJ would mean for minority and underserved communities.

Trump DOJ’s NYT Subpoenas Are the Latest Encroachment on Press Freedom

Josh Levs wrote on the latest moves of an administration actively hostile to a free press and how coverage has fallen short by ignoring the history of reporter subpoenas. “It’s crucial information because it shows the media’s successful track record in fighting back.”

Trump’s Lawyers Should Be Sanctioned

Erwin Chemerinsky argued — apropos of a federal judge shutting down Trump’s outrageous IRS lawsuit this week — that all lawyers complicit in Trump’s abuses of power should expect repercussions for egregious misconduct. “Abuses of the legal system, even at the direction of the president, are unacceptable.”

Voting & Candidates

Who Will Replace Graham Platner in Maine?

Tim Dickinson wrote on the slow-then-fast fall of former progressive darling Graham Platner and the newly restarted race to challenge Susan Collins in one of the most important contests of 2026. “Two things are increasingly clear. Democrats dodged a major bullet in Platner. And as Maine goes — so goes the Senate in 2026.”

Diluting the Youth Vote

Diamond Brown and Amelia Letson wrote on how voter suppression tactics target young voter participation in the wake of Louisiana v. Callais and a slew of other Republican efforts to limit who is going to the polls. “These tactics do not operate in isolation.”

The Next Generation Rises

This week, The Contrarian spoke with several of the candidates working to turn the House blue this November: former federal scientist Kristin Hook in Texas’ 21^st District; Matt Maasdam in Michigan’s 7^th District, hoping to be the first Democratic Navy SEAL in Congress; and San Diego City Council and former Peace Corps member Marni von Wilpert in California’s 48th District.

The Global View

Lindsey Graham and the Limits of the Warhawk Imagination

Brian O’Neill wrote on Graham as one of Washington’s last unapologetic hawks and how “his death offers an opportunity to examine a worldview that dominated both political parties after the Cold War and survived … long after its underlying assumptions had ceased to match reality.”

Renewed Strikes on Iran, June Jobs Report, and AI’s Impact on the Workforce

On the podcast this week, economists Jared Bernstein and Aya Ibrahim looked at how the economy is processing new violence in Iran and more.

‘Aramco Is a Supervillain’: How the Saudis Weaponized Soccer

Sammy Roth wrote on Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s master plan to culture-wash Saudi Arabia — and how the irony of the World Cup’s sponsorship by oil-state companies is hard to ignore as the climate crisis affects players in real time. “For all their talk of diversification, the Saudis plan to pump oil for a long time.”

Fighting back

Undaunted

In this week’s Undaunted column, Jen Rubin celebrated the Epstein survivors and others tenaciously confronting acting Attorney General Todd Blanche during his confirmation hearings. “Survivor Dani Bensky’s gut-wrenching testimony put the blame directly on Blanche for releasing victims’ names and images.”

Create ‘Good Trouble’ and Fight Street-Camera Surveillance

In this week’s Calls to Action, we highlighted ongoing Freedom Summer events (including a large rally in Atlanta Saturday afternoon), ways to demand accountability from ICE in the wake of the killing of Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a new way to oppose street-camera surveillance, and more.

The Contrarian Covers the Democracy Movement

This week, we saw protests over ICE deaths in Houston and Maine, protests against AI data centers, and more events in North Carolina, Delaware, Wisconsin, Colorado, and elsewhere. Get help organizing from Indivisible, find protests in your area at mobilize.us, and send us your protest photos at submit@contrariannews.org.

Culture, Cartoons & Fun Stuff

This week, our cartoonists took on string pulling (Puppet Show, Nick Anderson; Operating at Arm’s Length, Michael de Adder), paper shredding (Redacted, RJ Matson), and yarn spinning (Tom the Dancing Bug, “Stigmatized!”; Digging Up Evidence, Michael de Adder).

Why the Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger Should Scare Film and TV Lovers

Meredith Blake wrote on what’s at stake as 12 states sue to block the $110 billion merger that would bring two of Hollywood’s biggest studios under the control of Trump allies. It’s “something that should trouble anyone who cares about movies, TV, and American popular culture.”

This Chickpea Pasta Just Solved Airline Enshittification

Lol, not really, writes Emily Beyda. But she’s hoping it will make her 10-hour flight home more bearable (and it might work for your next trip, too!).

Contrarian Rescue of the Week

Last but never least: meet Duke!

Hot Mic

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He’s out with his second book, The Day After, How to Wield Power in a Post-Trump World, which looks at the GOP’s effective way of abusing power and the Democrats’ opportunity to actually step up and fight back to protect democracy. Norm and Brian also react to Blanche and Clayton’s tense congressional hearings on Wednesday, and they push back against Trump’s latest false election interference claims.

The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan’s sweeping adaptation of the Ancient Greek epic about a triumphant military leader who encounters some serious delays on the journey home from war, is finally in theaters after years of development and months of online backlash.

The film, which opened Friday, stars Matt Damon as Odysseus, the heroic king of Ithaca, who leaves his devoted wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and infant son Telemachus (played as an adult by Tom Holland), to fight in the Trojan War. He spends the next 20 years trying to vanquish the enemy and return to his family safely, battling mythical creatures and his own demons along the way. The high-wattage ensemble also includes Zendaya as Athena, the goddess of wisdom, Charlize Theron as the nymph Calypso, Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy, and Robert Pattinson as Antinous, Penelope’s scheming suitor.

As reimagined by Nolan, The Odyssey is a high-minded work of cinematic spectacle. It’s a great adventure, yes, but it’s also the haunting story of a military hero transformed by his wartime deeds and unsure how to return to a life that now seems utterly foreign.

You would think that the Right would be happy to see one of Hollywood’s most celebrated filmmakers tackling a foundational text from the Western Canon. Yet ever since the trailer dropped in May, MAGA grifters, nitpicking history nerds, and racist trillionaires with too much time on their hands have been stoking outrage over the film’s supposed inaccuracies.

The backlash started with Elon Musk, who shared posts on X mocking Elliot Page, who plays a brave soldier named Sinon in the film, and declared that “Chris Nolan desecrated the Odyssey” by casting Nyong’o as the woman whose transcendent beauty set off the Trojan War, according to Greek myth. Professional grievance farmer Matt Walsh also chimed in, saying that “not one person on the planet actually thinks that Lupita Nyong’o is the most beautiful woman in the world,” a claim that is blatantly racist and demonstrably false.

Other pedants took issue with the helmets, armor, and ships pictured in the trailer.

Complaints about historical accuracy conveniently ignore that The Odyssey is set in a fantastical realm inhabited by armed giants and enchanting Sirens whose hypnotic singing lures sailors to their deaths. Strenuous realism was never the point — and fretting over historical details ignores the timelessness of Homer’s poem, which continues to resonate thousands of years after it originated.

But such quibbles are nothing new, especially — for some reason — when it comes to the fantasy genre: toxic fans have freaked out over the casting of non-white actors in Snow White, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, The Little Mermaid, and House of the Dragon. By this twisted racist logic, a whimsical talking crab makes sense, but a Black Hermione is too far-fetched.

But because I can also be a pedant, I was immediately struck by the fact that virtually everyone in The Odyssey speaks with a regionally nondescript American accent, no matter where the character, or the actor playing them, is from. This was especially noticeable given how many of the film’s most prominent stars (Pattinson, Holland, Samantha Morton) hail not from the United States but from England. Why did the soldier played by Himesh Patel — a Brit raised by Indian parents in Cambridgeshire — sound like he grew up in Anytown, U.S.A.? If Nolan deliberately cast The Odyssey so that it visually reflects the gloriously multicultural world we live in now, shouldn’t it sound that way too?

Accents are a tricky thing in historical dramas, especially when you have actors speaking in languages their real-life counterparts never would have spoken. Some viewers who loved everything else about Chernobyl, the acclaimed HBO series about the 1986 nuclear disaster, couldn’t get over the fact that the Russian and Ukrainian characters spoke with British accents. But that was a conscious decision by creator Craig Mazin, who felt that “Russian accents can turn comic very easily,” and opted to let the cast speak in tamped-down versions of their normal accents.

For ancient tales with elements of fantasy, like The Odyssey, the question of how characters should sound is even more fraught. There’s no reliable way of knowing how people who lived in continental Europe thousands of years ago might sound speaking modern English. Filmmakers portraying ancient times have to take linguistic license out of necessity. But they tend to do so in ways that subconsciously reflect the geopolitics of the day. What the heroes and the villains in our movies look like — as well as how they speak — says a lot about the society we live in.

In Hollywood sword-and-sandal epics for most of the last century, from Ben Hur to Gladiator, the default accent for Ancient Roman characters is a generic upper-crust English. It’s a choice that works for modern American audiences because it’s just different enough to track as “foreign” and maybe even “regal,” but isn’t so distracting as to take anyone out of the story. But it also registers on a more profound level, because of the implicit connection between the British Empire and the Ancient Roman one; between Britain’s recent history of conquest and the broader story of Western Civilization. Put another way: if you want someone who sounds like they could be a brutal, marauding imperialist, a British accent tends to do the trick.

So why did Nolan subvert this longstanding cinematic paradigm and make his Ancient Greeks vocally indistinguishable from your average suburban Yank? It may have started with his lead. As we all know, Damon can do a wicked good Southie accent, but his track record for sounding anything other than American, especially in movies involving swords and armor, is not as impressive. Maybe Damon felt more comfortable using his natural accent and Nolan simply opted to make everyone else sound American too, for the sake of consistency.

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But the film’s American flavor also works on a thematic level. Though it is set thousands of years earlier, The Odyssey feels almost like the third installment in a trilogy that includes Dunkirk and Oppenheimer — films by Nolan that examined the horrors of war from different perspectives. Dunkirk embedded audiences with terrified soldiers trapped on a French beach, while Best Picture-winner Oppenheimer told the story of a brilliant scientist who used his genius to create a weapon of mass destruction.

The Odyssey is also about the terrible things humans are capable of doing to one another in wartime, but it’s more concerned with the psychological aftermath of violence — with the literal and metaphorical impossibility of going back to who we once were after the depravity of combat.

The question at the heart of The Odyssey, and the one that haunts Penelope and Telemachus for years, is why it takes Odysseus so damn long to get back to Ithaca. Sure, there’s some bad weather, there’s a man-eating cyclops, and there’s a lengthy interlude spent eating lotus flowers with Charlize Theron (which is going to be hard to explain to Penelope, if we are being honest).

But the real reason for Odysseus’s delay becomes clear near the end of the film. (Minor spoilers ahead.) Disguised as an old beggar, Odysseus tells an unsuspecting Penelope why her husband has taken so long to return and opens up about the terrible things he witnessed during the fall of Troy.

A harrowing flashback sequence shows Odysseus and his men crawling out of the giant wooden horse given to the people of Troy as a peace offering, then laying waste to the city. It reframes the familiar story of the Trojan Horse not as a neat military trick, but as a heinous war crime that violated the most basic laws of humanity.

That night, Odysseus realized that “to burn the walls of Troy was to burn the world-entire, including his home.” Not unlike the nuclear bomb, the siege of Tory unleashed something awful that can’t be reversed.

“Our age of bronze is collapsing,” Odysseus says, “and maybe he couldn’t bear to see the ruins of what he’d done anywhere — least of all, his home.”

Odysseus is tormented by guilt and remorse — emotions that ultimately make him more heroic (but which our current military leaders would probably dismiss as evidence of “low T.”) He might be wearing sandals, but he sure sounds a lot like the conflicted war veterans we’ve seen in movies like The Deer Hunter and Coming Home.

If The Odyssey is ultimately a film about a weary soldier trying to reckon with the atrocities he committed in war, and a society crumbling because of a lack of basic decency, then it makes perfect sense these Ancient Greeks sound like Americans. (Or at least as much sense as if they sounded like posh Brits.) Whatever motivated Nolan’s decision to give everyone the same accent, the result is the same: we don’t have to strain to see ourselves in this timeless story.

Meredith Blake is the culture columnist for The Contrarian.

Name: Duke

Age: 2 years old

Breed: Boxer/lab mix

Hobbies: Wrestling with his foster brother and other neighborhood buddies, going on long walks in the woods (and looking for deer!), lounging on the back patio, sitting for treats (LOTS OF TREATS), and playing with toys.

Best moment: We learned he’s a champion swimmer! We took him and my dog to the lake for the first time and, while my dog was confused, Duke bounded right in (on a long tether of course) and swam beautifully like the lab he is. He loves it. Everything in life just gives him joy, and his sweetness and exuberant personality bring joy to everyone around him.

Worst moment: Duke bounces!! He gets so excited playing and wrestling with friends that he will frequently fall off the bed or a sofa. But that doesn’t stop him! He bounces right back up for more.

Duke is looking for his forever home! Visit his adoption page at City Dogs and City Kitties to learn more.

Maura McDonough is a principal at Dewey Square Group.

You look online. Add-on meals cost around $50 to $60 each and look dismal even in the carefully managed social media the airline shares. Clearly not a viable option. It’s time to start meal planning — and mourn the enshittification that has struck again.

The Golden Age of Travel?

First popularized by writer Cory Doctorow, the term enshittification was initially used to describe the decline in quality for online goods and services. Nowadays, though, it seems like almost every part of modern life is suffering from this gradual erosion of quality and care. Back home, the collapse of the Food and Drug Administration has led to an outbreak of noxious parasites that makes eating even vegetables risky — so much for making America healthy again. Shrinkflation is making serving sizes smaller and quality worse. Skimpflation is making products less palatable with lower-quality ingredients. Enshittification feels ubiquitous, and nowhere is this process more visible than in the declining quality of airline travel.

My parents liked to travel, and my father often worked in random places around the world, so I’ve seen the decline of airlines from the 1990s until now happening in real time. Granted, I was much smaller then, but I remember when traveling on an airplane meant decent meals, late-night snacks, and seats that were big enough that I could sprawl out in them comfortably. Now? Not so much.

Meal issues aside, airplane seats seem to miraculously shrink by a few all-important inches between each flight. My sweet, over-6-foot-tall husband almost had a panic attack on our last flight, crammed into a middle seat so my toddler, baby, and I could share the seats with the functional arm rest between them. Even the toddler barely fits! There’s not a lot I can do about the size issue, but I figured with a little ingenuity I could at least make sure we would be eating well while packed in like sardines.

First, though, it was time to take a poll and find out how other people were pulling it off.

The Fine Art of Airplane Snacks

Listen, I’ve never been one to turn my nose up at airplane food, even the most dismal of overcooked pastas, stuff I’d never dream of eating back on terra firma. There’s something kind of charming about those little square dishes, so efficient, like a sky-high bento box. But perhaps facing the challenge of airline self-catering head on could be an opportunity to upgrade into a higher class of consumption. A chance to take a setback as a potential gain and dramatically reduce my family’s in-flight sodium consumption while I was at it.

I strapped on a smile and tried to maintain a positive attitude as I set about polling friends and family about their go-to in-flight meal options. The friend who tipped me off to the budget airline, a man in his mid-30s with a husband and thriving career, said he isn’t organized enough to pack food on planes — he lets his mother do it. What does she pack? Mostly nuts and fruit. “Squirrel dinner,” he quipped.

Another friend told me she gets a couple of gigantic Los Angeles burritos to pack on her flights; a third brings banh mi. A good idea in theory, but we’re in a sleepy neighborhood where the restaurants won’t open in time to provision our afternoon flight. We’ll have to fend for ourselves. Inspired by this savory focus and armed with the knowledge that my plastic-avoidant husband has provisioned us with a set of sturdy metal containers, I came up with the perfect plan for airplane self catering: a quick pasta e cici.

Pasta e Cici: An Elegant (Hopefully) Solution

Pasta e cici is one of my go-to meals when we’re on the road. I hate buying herbs, spices, and sauces I’ll just have to leave behind, so I’ve become a scholar of the three-ingredient recipe. Pasta e cici fits the bill. Cheap and cheerful, as our British friends say, it’s something my entire family loves eating, including my 3-year-old and the baby, who gobbles it up by the handful — something we’ll hopefully be avoiding by eating while she sleeps on the plane. The girl is hitting the solid food with an enthusiasm our fellow travelers might not fully appreciate.

I’ll make a pot while we rush around packing before the flight. We’ll transport it in our backpacks, under the magnetic puzzles and library books, baby toys, and tiny cars. We’ll break it out a few hours into the flight, when everyone is grumpy and hungry and ready to be home. We can’t do anything about those shrinking seats and declining service levels, but hey, at least we won’t be hungry.

Emily Beyda’s writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Built, Refinery29, Smartmouth, Fodors, the Thrillist, the Austin Chronicle, and more. Her novel, “The Body Double,” was published in 2021.

The question at top of mind: Who will step up to challenge Maine Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins — the faux “centrist” whose persistent, tragicomic pose of “concern” vis-à-vis Trump’s worst behavior hasn’t stopped her from enabling Trump’s reactionary Supreme Court or ICE’s brutality.

Platner’s Rise and Fall

The collapse of the Platner campaign comes after a meteoric political rise for the gruff populist — boosted by a noxious determination from prominent supporters (including progressive Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Chris Murphy, and others) to ignore a flurry of red flags about Platner’s suitability for public office.

Platner, a forty-one--year-old oyster farmer with a prickly beard and a Marine Corps combat record, was plucked from obscurity by Daniel Moraff, a progressive consultant who previously helped elevate Dan Osborn, a union machinist, for a surprisingly competitive Senate run in Nebraska.

For a party determined to reconnect with the white working class, Platner looked like he’d stumbled out of central casting. He proved to be a gifted communicator and organizer. And his coding — as an avatar of the blue collar male the party has been hemorrhaging for decades — led supporters to turn a blind eye to scandals that would have tanked any normal campaign. (His vetting, at the hands of the callow Moraff, was laughable.)

The list of loutish behavior included:

• A Reddit comment history rife with bigoted, racist, and misogynistic sentiments, including writing that sexual assault victims should “take some responsibility.”

• A chest tattoo of a Nazi skull and crossbones — a totenkopf — which Platner hastily covered up in October after its existence became public. Platner denied knowing the symbol’s meaning, saying he’d gotten it while inebriated with military buddies abroad. But a former girlfriend recalled him teaching her its significance years ago, and referring to it as “my totenkopf.”

The Platner campaign’s narrative was that he’d gone through a “very dark period,” reeling from untreated PTSD and alcohol abuse, and that he’d since evolved as a person. But what was always missing from this redemption arc was the pivot — some moment where Platner expressed real contrition or took responsibility for the past harms he’d caused. Instead, as each new scandal materialized, Platner seemed mostly peeved to be called to account.

Chuck Schumer had a backhand role in enabling Platner’s rise. The Senate minority leader from New York cleared the mainstream Democratic field for outgoing Gov. Janet Mills to seek the nomination. The normie Mills, seventy-eight, didn’t have the stamina to last even until the primary.

Platner’s top progressive political backers stuck with him through his (landslide) primary victory, and beyond. They excused not only the Nazi tattoo, but also reports of alleged mistreatment of past female partners, and a more recent sexting scandal, involving multiple women who were not his wife. With each revelation, they shrugged as if to say: With MAGA coding comes MAGA morality; whatcha gonna do?

Then the final bombshell dropped: A rape allegation that Platner drunkenly entered a former romantic partner’s bedroom and forced himself on her despite her insistence that he stop. (Platner called the allegation “categorically untrue.”)

At last, normal Democratic mores snapped into place. Warren, Murphy, and finally Sanders called on Platner to drop out of the race. The Democratic Senate Campaign Committee declared Platner would receive no further support from the party. When Platner did ultimately withdraw, he once again, blamed outside forces rather than take personal accountability for a reckless run for office that could have fouled Democratic hopes of capturing the Senate.

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What’s Comes Next?

Platner’s exit has created a sudden scramble to determine who should succeed him. Will it be another working-class progressive? Or a politician more in line with the establishment priorities of Schumer & Co.?

The good news for Maine voters is that Platner dropped out prior to the end of a safe harbor period — meaning that the state party can qualify a replacement for the November ballot. There is not enough time for a proper primary contest or popular vote. So the nominee will be chosen via delegates to a party convention, with the final selection expected by the evening of July 25.

The rush is now on for candidates to formally declare for the contest, and for Maine’s counties to select the delegates who will name the new nominee. No surprise: The process is a bit convoluted. Democrats from across the state’s 16 counties will meet this weekend to select 500 delegates. In conjunction with 101 previously elected members of Maine’s Democratic State Committee, these will be the actual voters at the state’s nominating convention on the 25th.

Who are the leading candidates?

Troy Jackson, 58

A former president of the state senate, Jackson is fresh off a run for the party’s gubernatorial nomination, where he occupied the populist lane, endorsed by both Platner and Bernie Sanders. (He finished third in a closely fought contest.) Jackson is significantly older than Platner, but the longtime logger and union leader would slot in fairly seamlessly as a new frontman for the progressive electorate that gave Platner the Senate nod. Jackson has already been endorsed for Senate by the Sanders-allied activist group, Our Revolution.

Shenna Bellows, 51

Bellows is Maine’s secretary of state, who previously won election to a state senate district won by Donald Trump. The first woman to serve in her statewide post, Bellows is campaigning on her hardscrabble upbringing and her past work directing the ACLU of Maine, where she championed marriage equality and same-day voter registration.

Dan Kleban, 49

Kleban is the founder of Maine Brewing Company, a popular beermaker in the state. He briefly entered the Senate fray in the original primary, before backing out to endorse the establishment candidate, Mills. In a Substack post declaring his renewed candidacy, Kleban struck a more populist tone, denouncing a “system that’s been rigged by corporate interests” as well as the influence of “meddling” out-of-state consultants.

Nirav Shah, 49

An economist and epidemiologist, Shah previously directed the state’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (Before that, he directed Illinois’ Department of Public Health.) Shah was also a candidate in the recent gubernatorial primary, finishing second. Shah is a technocrat by orientation, with a platform largely focused on health care cost and accessibility.

Jordan Wood, 36

Wood is a former congressional staffer who also briefly ran for Senate in the primary before seeking a House nomination to fill the seat being vacated by Democrat Jared Golden. Wood took third in that primary contest. Along with Shah, Bellows, and Jackson, he earned a slot in a Thursday Senate candidate debate.

Can Any of These Folks Win?

The Republican incumbent, Susan Collins, is now seventy-three, has served five terms, and has worn out her welcome with many Maine voters.

Collins was a pivotal vote to place Brett Kavanaugh on the High Court — where he soon after voted to overturn Roe, and with it a constitutional right to abortion. (Nominally pro-choice, Collins recently declared she does not “regret” supporting Kavanaugh.) Just months ago, Collins offered a key vote enabling the superfunding of ICE through Trump’s term. This week, ICE agents gunned down one of her constituents.

In a wave election, any solid, generic Democrat could probably send her packing. And a poll this week shows Jackson, Shah, and Bellows would each start out roughly even with Collins.

The exit of Platner may bring less national heat to the race, but his late replacement also risks putting forward another poorly vetted candidate who may carry baggage and skeletons of their own.

Two things are increasingly clear. Democrats dodged a major bullet in Platner. And as Maine goes — so goes the Senate in 2026.

Follow Ruben Bolling on Substack; join Tom the Dancing Bug’s Inner Hive subscription club; and please visit the Tom the Dancing Bug website, with information about The Complete Tom the Dancing Bug collection of books.

Every day (Monday-Friday), we’ll update this space with protests, signs, and other public demonstrations against the actions of the administration. Keep checking to see how Americans all across the country are protecting and defending democracy. Get help organizing from Indivisible, find protests in your area at mobilize.us, and send us your protest photos at submit@contrariannews.org.

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Courageous individuals this week showed tenacity and devotion to the rule of law in confronting acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, an unapologetic presidential flunky nominated for AG who lacks rudimentary legal ethics and has consistently subverted justice to meet the whims of his boss.

U.S. Judge Kathleen M. Williams of the Southern District of Florida, in a ruling on Monday, demolished Blanche in finding Donald Trump’s IRS lawsuit a scam used to concoct a slush fund for insurrectionists and grant Trump and his family immunity from future tax audits. Williams further held that Blanche’s role in devising a collusive suit violated federal Rule 11 and warranted referring him for Florida state bar discipline.

“[T]he Court finds that this matter was brought for an improper purpose — to gain the imprimatur of judicial legitimacy for a ‘settlement’ that had no viable basis in law or fact,” Williams wrote, noting Blanche’s glaring conflict of interest (namely: having previously represented Trump personally).

In her unequivocal slap down of Blanche and the other DOJ attorneys, Williams removed any doubt about the current DOJ’s utter lack of integrity and, specifically, the unfitness of Blanche to serve in, let alone lead, DOJ.

Well in advance of Blanche’s appearance Wednesday, the survivors of pedophile Jeffrey Epstein launched a massive campaign to block his confirmation as AG. They continued their efforts the week, flooding the airwaves to urge the Senate not to reward Blanche, the architect of his scheme to illegally withhold release of the Trump-Epstein pedophile files. Their PSA was courageous and compelling:

After Blanche’s deceitful testimony in which he falsely stated he was prohibited from meeting with victims, survivor Lara Blume McGee said at a press conference:

Under Mr. Blanche’s watch, the Department of Justice has released materials tied to the Epstein investigation in ways that exposed survivors’ names, medical and financial details, and other identifying information that should have been protected.

She continued. “For many of us, the DOJ’s redactions were not merely inadequate — they were another violation, reopening wounds we had fought to keep closed.”

Survivor Dani Bensky’s gut-wrenching testimony put the blame directly on Blanche for releasing victims’ names and images:

She attested to “real and irrevocable harm” and called him out for refusing to meet with victims despite spending 9 hours to meet with Ghislaine Maxwell.

“To add insult to injury, the information that Todd Blanche gathered in the White House Situation Room last summer to curb the political fallout from the Epstein files was absolutely abhorrent. Instead of following investigative leads, our government treated and continue to treat this as a political crisis that needs to be managed,” she explained, utterly demolishing Blanche’s credibility.

Senators who vote to confirm Blanche in the face of such damning evidence of ethical depravity and professional unfitness should face the wrath of voters and the condemnation of history. By contrast, Judge Williams and the Epstein survivors deserve full credit for courageously defending truth, decency and the rule of law.

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Don’t forget about Buttigieg

Democratic fresh faces such as Texas Senate nominee James Talarico, thirty-seven, and midterm standout campaigner Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), thirty-nine, have earned praise for their media savviness and ease in connecting with voters. However, Democrats should not ignore the continued maturation of former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg as a first-rate political leader and communicator.

Of the current batch of lithe, highly articulate, Obama-level-cool political stars, Buttigieg, forty-four, is literally and figuratively the veteran — given his military service, tenure in the Biden administration, and extended national media presence. Thanks in part to his greying beard, he no longer comes across as a precocious college kid. Instead, he brings a unique degree of gravitas and refreshing distance from the internecine squabbles between factions of the party.

As the 2020 Iowa caucus winner, he snagged the plum spot of headlining last Sunday at Iowa Democrats’ “Liberty and Justice Celebration” fundraising dinner, a high-energy affair that benefited from Democratic enthusiasm over its strong contenders for governor, Senate, and the 1^st and 3^rd House congressional districts.

Buttigieg argued persuasively that the elite corruption endemic in our politics is why “we cannot have nice things.” Reminding the crowd that “[o]ur political and economic and social systems have been letting us down for a long time,” he explained that “our economy is unfair because our politics is unfair.”

Our democracy has been hijacked by the current “carnival of corruption,” Buttigieg observed, pointing to Trump’s defective jet gifted by the Qataris and his grotesque self-enrichment, including crypto graft; the Supreme Court’s indulgence of Trump’s tyrannical whims with a grant of absolute criminal immunity; and congressmen’s participation in ethically galling insider trades and utter lack of interest in checking executive overreach. “This hurts us. This is why things aren’t working properly,” he explained. “This is why they can make you pay more at the pump for a war you never asked for; how they burned down the Department of Education while we are worried about kids who cannot do math or read like they are supposed to.”

Buttigieg conceded Democrats have too often gotten “boxed in” as defenders of the status quo. “But the answer cannot be to put everything back the way it used to be. We are not going to all this trouble to find the shards of everything they smashed up and try to tape it back together to look just like it used to,” he implored the crowd.

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Eschewing buzzy descriptors (“socialist” or “center left”), Buttigieg demonstrates that the real imperative for Democrats is boldness, the determination to offer concrete, dramatic solutions to bolster our democracy and ensure widespread prosperity for ordinary Americans.

“Don’t tell me we cannot take big swings, take real risks, do big work,” he proclaimed to rising applause, “Don’t tell me it’s bad politics to talk about diesel prices and democracy in the same breadth because they are all part of the same picture.” Buttigieg says that it is not too much to demand a political system in which everyone’s vote counts the same and the top vote getter is the winner (i.e., dump the Electoral College), or in which we redesign the Supreme Court’s size and jurisdiction to re-establish its legitimacy, or in which we end — by constitutional amendment if needed — dark money’s iron grip on our politics.

Rather than hector one part of the party, Buttigieg leans into his Midwestern values and speaks to unifying sentiments. He insists that “the American flag does not belong to one political side in this country, just as surely as we know that God does not belong to a political party in the United States of America.” And he argues that genuine aspirations for security and stability do not require we bathe in reactionary nostalgia. “We know it means to know your past without going back to it.”

Buttigieg offers a formula for unifying Democrats and forging a broad pro-democracy coalition: dramatic political reform; wages sufficient for an ordinary worker to live on one job; access to affordable childcare, worldclass healthcare, and public schools; and taxing corporations and the richest people at least as much as working people.

Whether he runs for president in 2028 (why wouldn’t he?), Buttigieg deserves kudos for his undaunted, unabashed, and unequivocal defense of America’s foundational values and commitment to pursuing our “more perfect union.” Democrats are fortunate to have him as a model for progressive, dynamic, optimistic political leadership.

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Marni von Wilpert is the Democratic nominee running for Congress in CA-48. She talked to Tim Dickinson about serving in the Peace Corps, introducing gun control legislation in California, and fighting for affordable healthcare for all.

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Marni von Wilpert is a Member of the San Diego City Council. She previously served in Congress as counsel on the House Education and Labor Committee. She is now running for Congress in California’s 48th district.

The following transcript has been edited for formatting purposes.

Tim Dickinson

Hey, this is Tim Dickinson for The Contrarian. Our guest today is Marni Von Wilpert, who is a candidate for Congress in extreme Southern California, east of San Diego. Marni, welcome to The Contrarian.

Marni von Wilpert

Thank you so much for having me today. I’m happy to be here.

Tim Dickinson

I always like to start off by having people introduce their district because this is a national audience. So tell us what makes California’s 48th great.

Marni von Wilpert

So it’s San Diego County where I grew up, my hometown, which is beautiful, and all the way up to Riverside County and this beautiful city of Palm Springs. We have Temecula, which is a wonderful wine country. We have Anza Borrego, which is one of our dark sky communities, so you can see the whole Milky Way every night. It’s just an incredibly diverse, wonderful, beautiful place to be.

Tim Dickinson

And California 48, is one of the true swing contests, right? I think I’ve looked at the partisan distribution. It’s basically 50-50. And so this is like, if Democrats are going to regain control of Congress, this is the kind of seat they absolutely must win. So can you tell us a little bit about the political texture of this race and why you think you’re the best candidate?

Marni von Wilpert

So, this district was specifically redrawn, the boundaries were redrawn for Democrats to win. You know, after Texas wanted to work with Donald Trump to gerrymander their congressional districts to try and get more Trump Republicans in Congress, California fought back. and we redrew five districts, and this is the fifth one. So we need to flip this district red to blue, and we already know that we’re going to win, because this was Daryl Issa’s old seat, a Republican who was rubber stamping everything Donald Trump ever said. He decided to retire instead of run for reelection in this new district because even he knew that Democrats are going to take the seat. But it will be a fight. Like you said, it’s about 50 50 partisan breakdown. And I’ve beaten Republicans before. I actually flipped the most conservative city council district on in San Diego from red to blue in 2020. And now I’m going to flip this district red to blue and take back Congress. You know, we need Democrats to be in control so we can stand up to Donald Trump and take our country back.

Tim Dickinson

You have a really interesting resume. Just a long, long and diverse list of public service from the Peace Corps, starting a legal clinic. Working in Washington, D.C. as a Hill staffer and Hill attorney. Can you talk a bit about your qualifications for this job?

Marni von Wilpert

Yeah. So I’ve spent my entire career in public service. Honestly, helping people is my north star. And after I graduated from college at UC Berkeley, I went and joined the Peace Corps in Sub Saharan Africa helping take care of children born with HIV whose parents had died of AIDS. And it was the PEPFAR program, one of the most important diplomatic programs the United States of America has ever embarked on. Not only is it the right thing to do to help prevent disease and the spread of viruses across the world, but I worked alongside Foreign Service, USAID, the State Department, and we were able to help make sure that the AIDS, HIV/AIDS virus start to be contained. But also the diplomacy was amazing. We had so many great relationships all throughout Africa, and I’m watching all of those crumble ever since Donald Trump and Elon Musk in the Doge department fired everyone in our foreign service. So I wanna bring that back when I get to Congress. I then became an attorney and decided to start my career as a civil rights lawyer in Mississippi. So I understood exactly what was going to happen when the Supreme Court finally crushed the very last parts of the Voting Rights Act. And we’ve seen it left and right. Minority districts have been completely crushed by the state legislatures. So I want to bring back the Voting Rights Act. I want the John Lewis Voting Rights Act to be amended, the Freedom to Vote Act. We need to make sure we protect our rights. And then I worked for President Obama as a labor attorney at the National Labor Relations Board, enforcing workers’ rights on the job, especially women’s rights to equal pay under the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. I argued cases before both Brett Kavanaugh and Merrick Garland. I thought that Brett never read the briefs, you could tell.

Tim Dickinson

That’s great.

Marni von Wilpert

But I want to bring my legal background to bear in Congress. And, you know, we need to do Supreme Court reform. We need to stand up to the Supreme Court and make sure that they are not overreaching. They need a code of ethics to make sure that their their decisions are valid and and start there. But I’m really excited to bring these skills to Congress and continue my public service and serving my country.

Tim Dickinson

And most recently, you’ve been a city councilor. Do you want to talk just a little bit about that kind of work and what that constituent service and that connection to the community, how you can bring that to Congress?

Marni von Wilpert

Yeah, so when I was working in DC, I was not going to be a good fit for the Trump administration. I was campaigning for Hillary Clinton, thought that was going to be our next step, and I moved back home to San Diego, and I first became a deputy city attorney, and I sued corporations that broke the law. I got to sue Monsanto for polluting our bay with chemicals. I got to sue the Purdue Pharmaceuticals and everyone who contributed to the opioid epidemic. And it was incredible work, but I decided to run for office and get elected to the city council because I thought, well, I can help people one case at a time, as each case and each lawsuit comes across my desk. But if I become a legislator, I can write laws to help a lot of people at once. And the first law that I wrote when I won my city council seat was about gun violence. You know, I’m a member of the Columbine generation in America. I watched the high school kids from Columbine running for their lives on the TV news when I was in high school. And so we had a mass shooting in the downtown San Diego tourist area, actually, in April of 2021 when I first got elected. And I found out the shooter bypassed background checks because he used a ghost gun. So I wrote the first law in California banning the sale of untraceable parts of weapons that were being used to build guns at home, which the police were calling ghost guns because they’re untraceable in the system. And I won when the NRA group here sued me. They’re called the San Diego County Gun Owners. They’re the local theater chapter for the NRA, and they sued me, and the federal court upheld my law. And then the Ninth Circuit did too, so then Los Angeles passed the ghost gun ban, San Francisco passed the ghost gun law, I wrote Oakland, the state of California finally took action, and so that’s what it meant to me to be a legislator. You can actually use your power in law writing to help people, and that’s what I want to do in Congress. We don’t need to be a rubber stamp for the executive branch of the Trump White House. We can assert our power as leaders in Congress and stand up to Donald Trump and take our country back.

Tim Dickinson

And so, tell me a bit about your hopes for, if you do become a member of Congress, what is your agenda? What do you think that you can do for the people of San Diego, or the greater area?

Marni von Wilpert

Yes. Well, first of all, we need to undo the horrible things that the Big Ugly Bill, as I call it, is doing to everyday Americans. You know, we’re already seeing Planned Parenthoods closing because the big ugly bill defunded them, prohibited. Planned Parenthood providers from billing services to Medicaid as simple as breast cancer exams or cervical cancer exams, and they’re shutting their doors. When the Medicaid cuts hit in January of next year under the Big Ugly Bill. It’ll kick 32,000 residents in my congressional district alone off of healthcare. And so the person who wins this congressional seat will have the power to decide who gets access to healthcare and who does not in this country. And I’m gonna fight for access to healthcare. You know, Tim, I wanna share something very personal. With you, with everyone right now, and it’s important that I share this story, but in the middle of my campaign, running for office, I went in for a routine mammogram about two months ago, thinking I would just get it out of the way for the year, and my doctor called back two weeks later and diagnosed me with early stage breast cancer two months ago. And I went through surgery 3 weeks ago, it was very successful, the cancer had not spread, my lymph nodes are clear, so I’m in the clear, I don’t need to do chemo, I’m very grateful. And the reason that I’m sharing my story is because early diagnosis do save lives for women. So please do, get your, get your mammograms done. But Tim, as I was sitting in the doctor’s offices and waiting for test results. I kept thinking how lucky I was that I could afford my mammogram, my biopsies, and my surgery without ever wondering if it was going to bankrupt me just to save my life. But there are millions of Americans who are not gonna have that same security because of what Donald Trump’s administration is doing to health care in this country. So it’s another reason that I am running to fight back to restore affordable healthcare. Instead of giving tax breaks to the wealthy, how about everyone in this country gets to afford healthcare? We need to address the cost of living, too. I met with teachers who want to stay in public schools, but they can’t afford to live in Southern California. So I started the first teacher down payment assistance fund with private dollars, with developer money, and it worked. I’m getting teachers to stay, buy homes in Southern California, and teach in our classrooms. We need to end this reckless war in Iran, which is causing prices to go up. And guess what? My opponent, Jim Desmond, has been endorsed by Donald Trump. He is a MAGA Republican. And when gas prices spiked in California because of this reckless war in Iran, Jim Desmond told the people of this district, hey, no pain, no gain, right? wow, is that who you want representing you? When you go to them with a problem, he says, no pain, no gain, whereas I’m going to stand up, fight against Donald Trump, and take our nation back.

Tim Dickinson

Well, let me back up and say, first, thank you for your candor and telling your story, and I’m so happy that your health prognosis is so great.

Marni von Wilpert

Thank you.

Tim Dickinson

And your point about the affordability crisis and that leading directly into healthcare is really well spoken and well taken. Jim Desmond is a county councillor or county board member, I understand.

Marni von Wilpert

County Supervisor, yes..

Tim Dickinson

Supervisor. I’m sure he’s pretty well known in the district, and so can you talk a little bit about the contrast between you? I mean, you’ve started to, but contrast yourself to him and his priorities, and what you think, you know, would mean for the district if he’s elected.

Marni von Wilpert

So, Darrell Issa retired, decided to retire at the very last minute before the filing deadline, literally hours before we had to file to run for office for the seat. And he hand selected Jim Desmond to take his place and he endorsed him immediately. And then Donald Trump endorsed Jim Desmond, my opponent, and he welcomed it. And just this last week, Speaker Mike Johnson flew across the country to have a fundraiser with my Republican opponent on a mega yacht in the San Diego Bay, because nothing cost of living like fundraisers on a mega yach So, he is a hardcore MAGA Republican, and if Jim Desmond wins this seat, he will continue to be a rubber stamp for the Trump administration. That’s why it’s so critical that we’ve been fighting back so hard. You know, even in the primary, which I won two months ago. We knocked on 26,000 doors with my field operation team. We made 17,000 phone calls to voters. Because we know every vote’s gonna count in this race, and I’d love everyone’s help. You know, I was just actually speaking with the local Sierra Club of Riverside County yesterday, and a voter there said, Marni, look what I got in my mail. It was a handwritten postcard. from a volunteer in San Francisco who said, if you want to take back Congress, vote for Marni Von Wilpert. I didn’t even know that kind people are volunteering to write postcards for me in San Francisco, but it already made a difference! It got a voter! So believe me, everything everyone can do, texting, phone calling, door knocking, will help, and I’d love to have your help on this race.

Tim Dickinson

Well, Marni, it’s been wonderful meeting you, and I appreciate your enthusiasm, your energy, the vision that you have. Are there other thoughts that you want to share with our audience, our listeners, our viewers, to help them get a better sense of you or the race?

Marni von Wilpert

Yes, I am so excited to be stepping up to serve our country on the national level, and I am running for office because I believe that we need to have a democracy where everyone can afford access to healthcare and a roof over their head and good education and good jobs. I am running because I believe we must take care of our planet for the next generation. And I’m running because I believe that no matter who you are, who you love, where you’re from, what country you come from, what religion you believe in, you deserve to be treated with dignity and respect in our country, and you deserve a government that promotes that.

Tim Dickinson

While I have you, San Diego, the Otay Mesa ICE facility has been a flashpoint. I wonder if you have, you know, given the news this week and last week of ICE killings, if you have something to say about the role of Congress in determining a saner immigration and enforcement policy.

Marni von Wilpert

I’m heartbroken by the two deaths of the fathers who were killed in Texas and in Maine by ICE. You know, here in the city of San Diego, I’m the chair of the Public Safety Committee, and we train our police officers not to shoot into moving vehicles. ICE is a completely lawless and reckless agency, and it needs to stop. And I’m not waiting till I get to Congress. I actually led the vote of the city of San Diego to join Minneapolis as a large sister city in suing ICE to stop them from their lawless immigration raids. I started a petition in a town next door called Escondido, who’s part of my congressional district. 3,000 residents marched to City Hall asking them to stop using ICE at their firing ranges. We shouldn’t be cooperating with immigration enforcement in California. But what we can do is actually have a functioning immigration system. I grew up on a border town. I know we can have a strong, secure border that prevents Drugs and guns and bad actors from coming through but promotes. Good immigration, a binational economy, you know, nurses, doctors, family members coming across. We also need to have a path to citizenship. We need to make sure people like the DACA students, the dreamers who’ve done nothing other than go to college, get jobs, have families, they need a path to citizenship in this country. And that’s what we should be focusing on, not these lawless raids that ICE is doing.

Tim Dickinson

Well, thank you so much for your time today. I wish you luck in your race and hopefully we’ll get to see you on The Contrarian again.

Marni von Wilpert

Yes, thank you. I love your podcast. I’m a huge fan. I’m honored.

Tim Dickinson

Thanks so much.

Democracy is not a spectator sport. Whether you want to exercise your right to vote, join a protest, call your elected officials, run for office, or keep tabs on the week’s hottest issues and protests, The Contrarian has you covered.

Here are our top suggestions for getting involved in the days ahead. These are heated times; we encourage non-violent and lawful activism.

Make ‘Good Trouble’ This Weekend

Good Trouble Lives On — a group that carries on the legacy of the Civil Rights icon and former Rep. John Lewis — is organizing a nationwide “weekend of action” July 17-19 to oppose the MAGA assault on democracy and voting rights.

The weekend seeks to revive “the spirit that fueled Selma, Montgomery, and the March on Washington.” And it is organized around three pillars: Teach, Reach, and Preach. Organizers seek to teach affected communities about “the power of civic participation,” to reach individuals through “trusted relationships,” and to preach “a message of hope, justice, and collective responsibility” that creates empowerment in the defense of our democracy. Watch a know-your-rights training on how to responsibly make the kind of “good trouble” Lewis championed, and find an event near you.

Freedom Summer Rolls On

The Freedom Summer campaign, sponsored by the Black Power War Room, is sponsoring prodemocracy events this weekend in conjunction with the Good Trouble actions, including a large rally in Atlanta on Saturday afternoon, July 18.

You can also check out the group’s map and calendar for opportunities to plug into other prodemocracy events from California to Indiana to North Carolina.

Demand Accountability from ICE

ICE keeps killing people in the streets. Last week, federal immigration agents shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, during an enforcement operation in Houston. This week, ICE agents shot and killed a Colombian immigrant with legal status, Joan Sebastian Guerrero, 25, near Portland, Maine. Neither man was the target of an ICE warrant. The agency — which has been caught time egregiously misrepresenting facts — claims both men “weaponized” their vehicles against the ICE officers who shot them. Sign the League of United Latin American Citizens’ petition calling for a full, transparent investigation into the Houston shooting. Contact your members of Congress to demand permanent changes to ICE practice, including ending routine vehicle stops.

Oppose Blanche for Attorney General

Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer and current toady Todd Blanche is scheduled for a confirmation vote that could make him the nation’s attorney general, further weaponizing the Department of Justice against Trump’s perceived enemies. Take it from Contrarian contributor Ben Sheehan: This would be bad news for anyone who cares about the rule of law. Contact your senators using this tool from Common Cause.

Fight Flock Surveillance

Is Big Brother watching you when you drive?

A huge web of AI-powered cameras has been installed along roadways in recent years across the country. The street cams can identify your vehicle and track your location and share that data with potentially thousands of law enforcement agencies. The largest network belongs to Flock, a company that has generated controversy both for its secretive surveillance practices and for its CEO’s dismissive response to backlash from privacy advocates.

DeFlock is an organization devoted to fighting the invasion of privacy posed by ALPRs — or automated licence plate readers — which it describes as being able to “capture and analyze images of all passing vehicles, storing details like your car’s location, date, time, make, model, color, and identifying features” and installed for the use of “police departments, businesses, and HOAs.” The DeFlock website offers resources to report ALPR locations, view a map of cameras in your area, and sign up for a National Week of Action in mid-August.

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Stop Russ Vought’s Federal Coup

In recent weeks, more than 500,000 people submitted public comments in opposition to Russ Vought’s push to politicize federal research with a proposed Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance. This rule would “require all scientific grants to be approved by political appointees,” snatching approval power from career experts and undermining the scientific process. All funding would be aligned with “administration policies and priorities.” Now, OMB must review and respond to every substantive comment submitted prior to a proposed October 1 implementation date, or risk “serious litigation,” according to Colette Delawalla, CEO of Stand Up for Science. Use the group’s action center to “contact Congress incessantly” to oppose this rule and demand OMB fully comply with its mandate to address the flood of public comments.

Protect Public Lands

The Trump administration is moving to revoke federal protections from nearly 90 percent of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah. The move breaks commitments negotiated with local Tribal Nations, and puts these spectacular wild areas, rich with archaeological sites, at risk for drilling, mining, and other private-interest resource extraction. (Trump previously attempted to strip protections from a smaller portion of these monuments during his first term — and even sold oil leases on the lands — before the Biden administration reversed his destructive actions.)

Use the Conservation Lands Fund website to write letters to the executive branch and your members of Congress to demand preservation of these national treasures.

Keep Human Rights Central at the World Cup

Soccer fans from across the globe have been attending FIFA World Cup matches in U.S. host cities. The ACLU offers a handy know-your-rights guide that also explains the risks of attendance. “Fans, players, journalists, and everyone alike should be prepared for potential … racial profiling by law enforcement, invasive social media screening, searches of electronic devices, suppression of speech and protest, and other threats to civil liberties,” the ACLU warns. Separately, Amnesty International is encouraging soccer fans to tell FIFA to promote respect for human rights across the tournament. “FIFA promises a tournament where everyone ‘feels safe, included and free to exercise their rights.’” Amnesty warns. “But the reality tells a very different story.” Indeed, a FIFA agent was caught on tape confiscating Iranian flags from fans.

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Preparing for the primary, Democratic candidate Matt Maasdam sat down with Tim Dickinson to discuss kicking corporate interests out of Congress, maintaining moral courage in politics, and using his military background as preparation for public office.

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Matt Maasdam served as a Navy SEAL for over 20 years and deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, and the Pacific. He later served as President Obama’s White House Military Aide, where he was responsible for carrying the nuclear football. He is now running for Congress in Michigan’s 7th district.

The following transcript has been edited for formatting purposes.

Tim Dickinson

Hi, this is Tim Dickinson for The Contrarian. Our guest today is Matt Maasdam, who’s a primary candidate for Congress looking to serve in Michigan’s 7th District. Matt, welcome aboard.

Matt Maasdam

Thank you. I appreciate being here. Thank you.

Tim Dickinson

The first question I always like to ask is, what makes your district great?

Matt Maasdam

Oh, that’s a good one. So much. You know, this is a place where we say we make things and we grow things. Michigan spectacular environment to, you know, to grow things. We have a ton of farming and kind of the birthplace of the middle class in terms of union and labor support. And so both things are really, really important to this district.

Tim Dickinson

And just so people are aware, if Michigan is the mitten, you guys are kind of in the palm there.

Matt Maasdam

Yeah, we are in the middle. And so like smack dab in the middle and the district kind of goes from Lansing a tiny bit west, but mostly east to almost Detroit. And so it goes to kind of like the exurbs of Detroit.

Tim Dickinson

And this is a pivotal swing district in what is perhaps the Ur swing state. And just for people’s knowledge, this is where Elissa Slotkin had served before, now a Republican is in that seat, and so this has gone back and forth a little bit. What makes you the right person to serve in this district?

Matt Maasdam

You know, you said this district is swingy. I’ve heard it described as the swingiest district in the swingiest state this time around. It’s exactly 50-50. I’m somebody who’s entirely focused on service. I just want to see America on the right path. And I think we can be doing better than we’re doing right now. And so I’m excited to help out from a service perspective. I’m somebody that feels like leaders are there to serve their people, not be served by their people. And I’m here to fight for the district and and the state and the, you know, the country.

Tim Dickinson

Now, you have a really interesting bio. You’re a former Navy SEAL. At one point, you were in possession of the nuclear football for President Obama. Do you want to just talk us a bit through how that experience prepares you for this next step in public service that you’re seeking?

Matt Maasdam

Yeah, so I was a SEAL for 20 years. You know, I fought for the Constitution that whole time. I fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. I deployed to Africa and Asia as well. And so when I came back from all those deployments, my wife… before I say that, my wife was a helicopter pilot. She went to the Naval Academy. We met at survival school. And so that’s where you learn to be, like, POWs, and we did that, you know, hand in hand, so it was fun. we were married you know a couple years right after survival school and then 9/11 happened we both went overseas a lot and when we came back from overseas I got picked up to be President Obama’s military aide so that means you carry the nuclear football for him, and you also coordinate the efforts of the White House military office so that’s the people the military members that are stationed at the White House, and it’s everything from Air Force One, to the helicopters, to the drivers communicators, and it’s about 3,000 people. So you’re coordinating their efforts on a daily basis with the Secret Service. and the White House staff to make sure the president can do their job. So you’re a very busy person in that role. And Obama’s the president you want to see in the White House, right? I miss him greatly, particularly today. And so it’s one of those, he was an incredible combination of both like super competitive, like Michael Jordan competitive, and super easy going. And so. He balanced those two things really well to get, you know, get what he wanted done, done. And at the same time, he led with kindness, he’s very smart, he was a great dad and husband, and just a really wonderful person to be around.

Tim Dickinson

And so tell us a bit about what your priorities are for the district. I saw that anti-corruption was a big part of what you were talking about.

Matt Maasdam

Yeah, that’s one of the three. I feel like too many people are going to D.C. right now to enrich themselves, and so getting corruption out of politics, you know, it’s a tall order, but it’s something I want to see happen. And so, from day one, I’ve been a no-corporate PAC, no stock trading in Congress person. I don’t think you’re there to get rich. I think you’re there to serve your constituents, and I think your constituents, the voters in particular, are the ones you’re there to serve, not corporations. I’ve also been endorsed by End Citizens United. Right. I want to see dark money out of politics. I didn’t like the idea of money in politics before I was a candidate, and I like it even less now. You know, there’s too much of it, and I want to see it out as much as humanly possible. So it is an important part of it. I’m fighting for the Constitution. You know, I feel like I’ve fought for it overseas for 20 years, and I’m watching Trump rip it up in front of me every day, and I think a lot of people feel that way, too. And so, whether it’s reckless ICE agents in streets or unnecessary wars, I think there needs to be real accountability when somebody violates the Constitution. And then third, I’m fighting for people’s wallets because things are way too expensive and we’re not doing anything to make that better. It’s getting worse. And so whether it’s groceries or gas or housing or health care, all the prices are going up and I want to do something about it.

Tim Dickinson

You strike me, just in our brief interaction, as a doer, somebody who wants to get things done, and Congress can be a frustrating place for people of your inclination. I wonder, what makes you feel like this is the right place to put forward your talents and your service right now?

Matt Maasdam

I think, you know, it’s a place where, you… you want to have people who are focused on action, and focused on, kind of, country over party, and have the… somebody who has the ability to reach across the aisle. I think that’s why people like veterans who run for Congress, because they feel like they’re mission-oriented individuals who can get things done, and do so by focusing on what’s important to the country, and I fit in that category. I was, you know, not part of my bio usually, but I was at the National Counterterrorist Center for a little bit of time, and I was a piracy expert. So, piracy doesn’t come up a lot for the United States, but when it does, you want people who are good at it to be able to talk to the president and to the leadership about it, and so you have to be ready, and you have to have those experts ready all the time, so when that challenge arises, you can get things done. And I feel like I’ve been used in that capacity by the country for that. Before, you know, we have to prepare to get things done. And in Congress, you have to be ready and have the plans to enact when the time arises that you can actually accomplish the thing that you’re there to do.

Tim Dickinson

So Michigan has a late primary, your primary’s coming up in August. Can you talk a little bit about why you think that you’re the best person for this district, vis-a-vis your opponents?

Matt Maasdam

Yeah, it is a late primary. August 4th is tough, and so it just doesn’t give a lot of time for the general election, but, I’m a great candidate for this. I’ve, you know, first off, I would say, you know, I’m a no stock trading in Congress, no corporate PAC person. And so I want to see that. I challenged the other members of this race to do the same on day one. One person took me up on it, one person didn’t. But I’m united, or I mean, I’ve been endorsed by End Citizens United as well, like I said, and that, that is very helpful in distinguishing myself. I want money out of politics, I want corruption out of politics. I think that’s very important. Second, I’m a big pro-labor person, so I’ve been endorsed by more unions than anybody else in the group. Everybody from the plumbers and pipefitters to the firefighters to the Teamsters. I’m working hard for that group of people. I think they’re doing a great job of looking after the middle class and making sure things like training and safety and wages and retirement and healthcare are all looked after for their members, and when they do well. all of the American workers do well. I want the American working class, and by that I mean anybody who works for a living, to do well, because I think we’re doing I think the country is taking care of billionaires and giving them tax breaks, and I don’t feel like we’re taking care of the middle class and the working class the way we should, and so I feel like we’re stealing the American dream from a lot of those people so that we can get billionaires tax breaks, and that’s not okay with me. And then third.

Tim Dickinson

Oh, I’m sorry, go ahead.

Matt Maasdam

Go ahead. No, please go ahead.

Tim Dickinson

No, I was just gonna pivot to the incumbent in this seat, assuming that you make it through to the next round. What is it that you offer? How would you contrast yourself and your platform to his service?

Matt Maasdam

So Tom Barrett is the incumbent and this is one of those seats where I feel like I’m there to look after all my constituents, and I’ve heard people say that he has told them, “If you didn’t vote for me, you’re not my constituent.”

Tim Dickinson

Wow.

Matt Maasdam

I feel like his only constituent, honestly, is Donald Trump. And he is… you know, he should be… he was a veteran. He ran on a veteran platform. I’m here to take that away as an advantage and actually talk about the issues. He voted for the Big Bill. He voted to take away the ACA subsidies, and so he’s taking healthcare away from tens of thousands of people. He’s taking SNAP benefits from kids. He took over half a billion dollars from Michigan State, which is in the district. I think most of the votes that he takes harms this district, and I don’t think that’s okay. And so I’m excited to kind of do the opposite of what he’s doing, but still do it with a… you know, from the perspective of a veteran. So I would be the first Democrat Navy SEAL in the history of the House of Representatives, so it’s fantastic.

Tim Dickinson

Well, I that’s that really would be something novel. I hadn’t realized that. I wanted to… I noticed in your platform you had sort of an open mind about AI development, which is just sort of an interesting issue right now. It’s kind of a hot point for a lot of people as to whether data centers should be going in. Do you want to explain just a little bit about your point of view on that?

Matt Maasdam

Yeah, and so, those are related, but a little different. You know, AI is a race that I think we need to win against China, and I think we’re in the lead, and we need to stay that way. I share people’s concern and skepticism about data centers. I do think it’s a local issue. I want to make sure, things are transparent, that there aren’t NDAs, we need to know who we’re dealing with. I want to see the environment be adhered to right from, both what’s going to power it. The Michigan legislature has said they want 90% of the power to come from renewable energy by 2030. I think that’s fantastic. But also water usage as it, you know, as it relates to the data centers. And then, I want to make sure the ratepayers aren’t getting stiffed in this whole thing, and it’s causing rates to go up. I actually want to see ratepayers’ rates go down. And so that is something that is really important to me. So those three things are critical, but as… being in the federal space, what I want to do is provide these local municipalities, often whom are really, really, really tiny, make sure they have the resources they need to fight these behemoth companies that are coming in and wanting to put in the data centers.

Tim Dickinson

I wanted to get your perspective on President Trump’s use of force. Your military background, I think, makes you someone unusually qualified, and particularly these questions about piracy, which sometimes comes up in the Strait of Hormuz or around Yemen. I just wanted… the open-ended war that we now find ourselves in, and not able to extricate ourselves from, how do you think about this thorny issue, and what kind of influence would you hope to yield in Congress if you get there?

Matt Maasdam

I mean, I want to stand up for what’s right, and, you know, I don’t want to see war. And, you know, as a SEAL, I got to see the downsides. It’s pain and suffering, and you don’t want to have to go there unless you absolutely need to. And so, I don’t think, as it relates to Iran, I don’t think President Trump presented the United States or Congress evidence that said, this is why we need to be there. Or said, like, this is the mission we want to accomplish, or said, this is the plan to accomplish that mission, or this is how we’re going to leave. None of that was presented up front. We just kind of went, and, it seemed thoughtless and not, aware of the potential fallouts that could exist. And then other uses of force are, you know, ICE. It’s come up a couple times in the last week, where somebody’s died at the hands of ICE. you know, I had particularly visceral responses to the Renee Good and Alex Pretti shootings in particular, to see Americans die at the hand of American forces in American streets was both nauseating and saddening and just enraging. And if a SEAL had committed, or participated in an event like that, that SEAL would be in jail. Right? And so, I want to see that kind of accountability writ large in our government. And if bad things happen, we need to investigate them, and, you know, that needs to have consequences. And so I just don’t see that kind of thing happening under Trump. I want to see when people violate the Constitution, I want to see there be real accountability for that.

Tim Dickinson

It is a troubling time, and including with these, you know, lawless strikes on so-called drug boats and return you know, double shots. I just, I wonder, you seem to have a strong moral drive that’s, that’s centered in both your service and your, in your military service and, and your, your, interest in joining Congress. Can you just talk about your… how you find yourself, how you describe yourself, or how… where your moral center comes from? Where is that?

Matt Maasdam

You know, well, what I would say is one of the things that I find in shortest order, as I run for office is moral courage. And so the idea of standing up for what’s right, regardless of the consequences, and regardless of what’s happening. I… my kids play hockey. And we were in Philadelphia for a hockey tournament a couple months ago, and we took the boys to Independence Hall, because that’s what you do when you’re in Philadelphia, and on the wall in Independence Hall, there are three words: “Independence,” “freedom,” and “virtue.” And I feel like politics today is entirely void of virtue. That like moral excellence, we’re going to do the right thing because it’s the, you know, it’s what we should do. I just don’t see happening that often. A lot of the things that we took kind of on our honor or as norms are being violated. And I think we need to codify a lot of that stuff in law, whether it’s for the executive branch. the judicial branch or the legislative branch, we need to actually say, like, no, these are no longer norms. We’ve proven that we can’t follow those. We’re gonna actually make those laws, and laws that have teeth, so that so that people don’t feel free to violate what is the right thing to do. And we just need to get the country in a place where people care about doing the right thing again.

Tim Dickinson

I’m mindful of our time, but I want to give you a chance to just sort of open this up and share any final thoughts that you want to leave with our listeners and our viewers.

Matt Maasdam

You know, one exciting thing that happened today that’s happening kind of right now is that Elissa Slotkin is endorsing me for Congress, which is spectacularly exciting for me. She knows how to win a tough district. She has really carved a path in this space, for me to walk through. It’s an honor that she trusts me, to get this done, and to flip this seat so that we can turn the house back to blue. And so, I appreciate that for her, and, I’m excited to do the hard work.

Tim Dickinson

Well, we’ve got some breaking news right here on The Contrarian. Well, congratulations for that. Thank you for your time and your thoughtfulness. I wish you well in your endeavors, and maybe we’ll see you back here once you’re officially in Congress.

Matt Maasdam

Thank you, Tim. I appreciate it. Have a great day.

Tim Dickinson

Take care. Thank you. Bye.

Michael de Adder is an award-winning editorial cartoonist. You can find him on Substack here.

Sudden shakeups in U.S. Senate elections have foisted reproductive rights front and center. The upcoming primary in Maine to replace Graham Platner as the Democratic candidate, combined with deep antipathy voters there have toward Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins, is a golden opportunity to elevate abortion in the midterms — especially given Collins’s recent comment that she has no regrets about her pivotal vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. In South Carolina, Sen. Lindsey Graham’s unexpected death last weekend has created a surge of public attention and momentum for the Democratic candidate, Dr. Annie Andrews, a pro-choice, pro-science pediatrician (with an A+ Instagram game).

Too often, summer is a season all too ripe for sneak attacks on direct democracy. Ohio Republicans made a case study out of the strategy when they orchestrated a special election in August 2023 to quietly raising the threshold for ballot measures — all in service of attempting to thwart a popular abortion proposal. In the end, voters saw the power grab for what it was and rejected the rules change while turning out in force that November for abortion. Now Kansas is resurrecting the play and will hold an August election to decide how state Supreme Court justices are chosen. If the Republican-backed measure succeeds, the current system, which entails commission-based appointments, would be changed to judicial elections. No surprise, the latter will have massive consequences for abortion, as well as LGBTQ rights, education, and congressional redistricting, all of which are in play in Kansas courts. As the New York Times framed it, “Republicans see this as their best hope to finally overturn a 2019 Kansas Supreme Court decision that recognized a right to abortion in the state’s Constitution, a decision affirmed by voters in 2022 when they declined to overturn it.”

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, who is also a former secretary of state, and vice-chair of the first Trump administration’s short-lived Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity and who has long been a purveyor of election conspiracy theories, has begun saying the quiet part out loud: that the real endgame is to circumvent the will of voters. According to the Times article, in 2022, he told anti-abortion activists that judicial elections would be the best way to “slowly and quietly” overturn the 2019 abortion ruling. This time around, he acknowledges the impact goes even deeper: “It’s not just about abortion. It’s about this whole panoply of potential areas where plaintiffs can ask a state supreme court to create a new liberty interest that is far broader than anything created in the U.S. Constitution.”

[The outcome of the Kansas special election also stands to raise the stakes in the billionaire arms race for the judiciary. Recall the 2023 and 2024 Wisconsin Supreme Court elections in which abortion was at the epicenter. Both went on to be the most expensive judicial elections in U.S. history, with $51 million and $100 million spent, respectively.]

New ballot measures are being approved in real time. Voters in Idaho — a state with one of the most restrictive bans in the country — will get to decide in November whether to restore access to abortion. On Monday, Idahoans United for Women and Families announced that the Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act, a carve-out for an array of reproductive healthcare protections, including the right to abortion, met the criteria to be on voters’ ballots for the general election.

Voters in Virginia and Nevada, states with some abortion protections, will get to decide whether to go further and enshrine reproductive rights in their respective state constitutions. And in Vermont and Wisconsin voters will get to weigh in on whether to add an equal protection clause to their state constitution.

And then there is Missouri, the first state to undo its abortion ban via constitutional amendment, which has now turned the process inside out: a new measure to resurrect the ban — and also write into the state constitution a ban on gender-affirming care for minors — will be on the ballot this November. Meanwhile, a special election this summer will give Missouri voters the opportunity to strike down politicians’ attempt to curb ballot measures by requiring majorities in every gerrymandered congressional district.

It has been only a few weeks since the end of Supreme Court term, which included a decision upholding states’ ability to ban transgender athletes from participating in girls’ school sports teams. Since then, Arizona, Colorado, and Washington have put the question on their 2026 ballot; Nebraska is attempting to do so in time for November. In Maine, a measure was also proposed, but Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (one of the potential U.S. Senate candidates) invalidated more than 12,000 signatures on the citizens’ petition that had been forged and/or duplicated: last week a judge upheld blocking the referendum; any appeal will need to be resolved by August 25 for it to appear on the November ballot.

***

It is a tough balancing act — the need to revel in lazy, hazy days of summer and grasp the reality that these fights require our constant vigilance. This is where we have to have hold each other up, Contrarians. Please take the time to refresh and rejuvenate, and be ready to come back swinging.

Jennifer Weiss-Wolf is executive director of the Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center at NYU School of Law. She also leads strategy and partnerships at Ms. Magazine.

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RJ draws several editorial cartoons each week for his substack, e pluribus cartoonum, and for Roll Call, the newspaper of Congress and Capitol Hill. His work is widely syndicated to print newspapers by Cagle Cartoons.

Even when elite institutions appear ready to buckle, individuals and groups with modest financial resources and limited legal protections have proven that they can stand up — at great risk to themselves— and shame the accommodationists, thereby slowing the rush to collaborate with a tyrannical regime. The contrast between feeble ingratiators and principled dissenters has been especially vivid in the realm of higher education.

Penn and a batch of elite universities have compromised academic independence and thrown diversity under the bus to ward off Trump regime threats to slash funding by signing off on agreements that compromise academic independence, allow government oversight, forfeit efforts to recruit a diverse student population, and cede protection for vulnerable LBGTQ+ students.

These sorts of agreements, which have been imposed at Penn and the University of Virginia, have been roundly condemned for abrogating First Amendment rights and academic freedom, two cornerstones of our democracy. “These agreements are vague, contradictory and contain unlawful terms that subject universities to ongoing legal jeopardy,” wrote two Yale alums currently teaching at Penn. “For example, following Virginia’s policy could imperil Yale’s laudable efforts to expand access to low-income and first-generation college students.” Some of these extortionist deals have limited foreign student enrollment and forced schools to discriminate against trans students. They’ve also opened a Pandora’s box of ongoing litigation. “Provisions that conflict with the law and with one another expose institutions to liability from all directions. Also, the use of vague terms such as DEI, gender ideology, and domestic terrorism bolsters executive discretion and invites overcompliance.”

Last month, we learned that the Trump regime was “conducting a far-reaching investigation into whether Yale University’s admissions practices violate anti-discrimination laws, prompting one of the country’s most elite schools to pursue settlement talks with the government,” the New York Times reported. The Justice Department, as it has time and again, has speciously claimed that efforts to expand diversity amount to illegal discrimination. In this case, DOJ is not only attempting to bully the medical school (the focus of its original allegations of “illegal preferential treatment to Black and Hispanic applicants”), but also the law school and undergraduate programs. Not everyone at Yale, however, has been willing to roll over and play dead.

Fortunately, Yale’s law school dean and other faculty are leading the charge against the latest infringement on academic freedom and the crusade against diversity. “The dean, Cristina M. Rodríguez, and a group of law school faculty members have quietly lobbied top Yale leaders in recent days, arguing that the Trump administration cannot be trusted, and that settling would threaten the rule of law and the university’s reputation,” the New York Times reported. “They have even explored whether the law school could be excluded from any settlement with the federal government. Students, faculty, and alumni have been openly pressuring Yale President Maurie McInnis,” a sign that Rodríguez has a reservoir of support.

In an insightful interview with the Yale Daily News, Yale alum and former FTC commissioner Rebecca Slaughter (whom MAGA Supreme Court justices ruled that the president had unlimited power to fire without cause), reminded the Yale community that “it cannot be that I, Becca, normal human, had the wherewithal to challenge something that was wrong and an abuse of power, and Yale — with its $44 billion endowment — does not.” She acknowledged, “It’s not fun to push back — it’s much nicer to sort of think about how to walk away or make it go away in the short term — but it’s so much better in the long term to stand on principle,” adding that “especially as an academic institution, I think Yale has an incredible obligation to do that, and that obligation is to its students, to its alumni, to its faculty, to its employees, to its partners.”

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Courage may prove contagious at Yale, where an array of groups — including the Yale College Council, Yale College Democrats, the Yale chapter of the American Association of University Professors, and an alumni group “Stand Up for Yale” — have mobilized to put the kibosh on capitulation. Yale’s chapter of AAUP put out a letter declaring, “The choice before Yale is not simply whether to settle one investigation. It is whether to participate in a broader campaign to turn civil rights enforcement into a mechanism of political control.”

On Friday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) spoke at Yale alongside Yale students, alums, professors, and Mayor Justin Elicker to push back against collaboration. “We’re at a legacy-defining moment,” Blumenthal said. “Yale will be regarded either as a beacon and a fighter for academic freedom or as the weakling who succumbed and obeyed.”

Whether defenders of academic freedom can prevail at Yale or not, the concerted effort to object to spineless capitulation and force institutional elites to justify their actions is critical in the fight for democracy, preservation of First Amendment rights, and defense of civil society. When elites learn that capitulation will spark fierce criticism and exact lasting personal and institutional cost, they are much less likely to engage in Quisling behavior and more inclined, however reluctantly, to resist authoritarian intimidation.

As the Trump administration and its MAGA enablers now face frequent legal setbacks and edge closer to a potentially devastating midterm election, it is especially critical for democracy advocates to hold the line, refuse to give away precious democratic ground, and deny the Trump crowd any easy wins. Now, more than ever, it is time for Yale, higher education, and civil society as a whole to keep their nerve and refuse to voluntarily concede critical freedoms to a faltering fascist regime growing more desperate by the day to cling to power.

Correction: An earlier version of this column said Harvard had signed an agreement with the Trump administration. It has not. This version has been updated.