Evening Roundup, April 14
Featuring "Courage is Contagious;" Brian O'Neill; Bill Braniff & Jen Rubin in discussion; Max Stier; Democracy Movement; Stephen Richer; Gina McCarthy, Janet McCabe, & Joe Goffman; and "Talking Feds"
Happy Monday, Contrarians!
'Out of our hands': The most dangerous lie in Trump’s deportation doctrine
By Brian O’Neill
The stalling—thinly disguised as deliberation—only reinforces the truth. The refusal is political.
The Contrarian covers the Democracy Movement
Monday: Protests in California, Tennessee, Massachusetts, and at military bases around the world, Bernie at Coachella, and more.
Bill Braniff on the Great Replacement Theory
In the latest collaboration between PERIL and The Contrarian, Jen is joined by Executive Director Bill Braniff. This week’s topic of discussion is “The Great Replacement Theory”, an alt-right conspiracy theory claiming that the white population (and white “culture” at large) is being systematically displaced by non-white populations.
Confusion continues after North Carolina Supreme Court rules in Riggs case
By Stephen Richer
Why are only some ballots affected?
Why Donald Trump Is SpongeBob SquarePants
By Max Stier
Though we can laugh at SpongeBob and Patrick as they claim victory while their city burns, what is happening in America today is real life, and it is deadly serious.
Bad Faith and Worse Policy in Trump’s EPA
By Gina McCarthy, Janet McCabe, and Joe Goffman
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin swore “to protect human health and the environment”—and is on a mission to do anything but.
The Madness of King Donald
It was a week in which Trump’s broad and malign influence on civil society took another giant step forward. He single-handedly brought the economy to the edge of a recession with erratic and ill-considered tariffs and commandeered several more large law firms. Jason Kander, Zoe Lofgren, and Charlie Sykes (To the Contrary) join Harry Litman to break it all down.
Our malevolent, criminal out of control, disgusting president crossed the line of democratic governance into the land of dictatorial dictatorship. He's given up any pretense of respect for due process. It's especially ironic since due process alone kept him out of prison for all his crimes against America after his first term.
If we want to keep our democracy, we must not stop until our criminal, King/dictator is removed from office and sent to prison, either in the US or maybe El Salvador.
What Was Really Said in Today's Showdown Between Presidents Trump and Bukele
Things Got Ugly In Trump's Fierce Fight to Have Garcia Returned
Setting: The Oval Office:
Participants: President Trump and President Bukele of San Salvador
Donald Trump: The courts in the U.S. told me that I have to ask you to return Garcia to the U.S. even though I don't want him back. But if you, Mr. President, don't want to send him back, I totally understand. I really understand. I truly understand, and, by the way, we transferred that $50 million into your country's treasury and a little something extra into your own offshore bank account.
President Bukele: Thank you Mr President. Now that I think about it, we'd like to keep Mr., what's his name, Garcia for at least, shall we say, the next 4 years, and of course we'll need to bill out the costs for his annual upkeep, say $10 million a year?
Donald Trump: No problem. That's chump change next to what I can siphon off from our universities unwilling to push out my propaganda. You know my hands are tied on this. It's not like I can say that we'll invade your country, like Panama or Greenland, if you don't agree to my request. I certainly wouldn't want to begin World War III by invading your flea-bitten country.
President Bukele: Totally understand Donald. Somebody could get hurt if you launch a Normandy style invasion on our beachheads, so I'm happy that we could resolve this peacefully. Rest assured that you can advise your courts that we have welcomed Mr. Garcia as a guest of our country and will treat him accordingly. My guess is that he'll love it here so much that he wouldn't want to go back anyway.
Donald Trump: Thank you Mr. President. I'll be sure to pass that along to our courts.
[Trump and Bukele exchange winks and smirks and toast each other for their mutually satisfactory resolution.]
And so concludes a hard-hitting, knock-down, drag-out heated struggle initiated by Donald Trump to relentlessly comply with the Court's order to have Garcia, whom his deputies mistakenly spirited off to San Salvador, returned to the U.S. Well, as Trump will tell us, he did all he could to bring Garcia back.