Featuring Ben Wikler & Jen Rubin; Austin Sarat; Joshua Kolb and The Democracy Index; Brian O'Neill; Ezra Levin & Jen Rubin; Meredith Blake; Marissa Rothkopf; Ruben Bolling; and our Pet of the Week!
As valuable as Ezra and Leah's work at Indivisible is, thousands of protests nationally DO NOT have the enforcement power to stop this DICTATORSHIP. You and EZRA ought to be focusing on getting the 3-5 Democratic candidates running in Special Elections on April First to have plenty of national attention! (FL-01 and 06, NY and CO, too) THERE ARE ONLY 8 DAYS LEFT!!! Waiting till the midterms will be FAR TOO LATE! ONLY CONGRESS with House and Senate Democratic MAJORITIES will have the POWER to impeach, subpoena, indict, confirm judges with spines, and order the marshals service to arrest. I think there are 4-5 Senators who just might switch their party. (Tillis, Cassidy, Collins, Murkowski, Wicker?) Move on this, Jenn and Ezra! You have the power---USE IT!
Thank you for fighting the good fight. I note in HCR today that Trump is calling for 20 years' imprisonment for who he terms "Tesla vandals " and hinting at imprisonment in El Salvador.
HCR quoted Trump's posting on social media: “I look forward to watching the sick terrorist thugs get 20 year jail sentences for what they are doing to Elon Musk and Tesla. Perhaps they could serve them in the prisons of El Salvador, which have become so recently famous for such lovely conditions!”
Gulag, anyone? Trump's horrid attacks on democracy are so many that it is difficult to pick battles for large-scale resistance. This is one such battle. Who is he sending to El Salvador? Why? How much is he paying? This is cost indulgence, not cost savings that came with commercial flights to home countries. How can he get away with no trials and then the use of foreign prisons? Why doesn't the military resist this transport? Where is the widespread outrage? Where is the legislation to stop imprisoning people without due process? Where are the lawsuits or the legislation to stop the practice of sending ANYONE to El Salvador or other foreign prisons? And now Trump is heading toward imprisonment of political protestors. We must not give in. Now is the time for courage of convictions -- and time to charge and attempt to convict Musk of crimes against the United States. Then deport him.
Thanks from Canada, Contrarians. I heard some upsetting news today about Canadians who were visiting the US getting turned away at several gas stations by people who apparently believed there was a “flood” of fentanyl coming though our shared border. (In 2024, 43 lbs of Fentanyl was seized from Canada. Over 21,000 lbs were seized from Mexico.) Eventually they found service on a reserve. General comments from them, and others, that Americans were rude and inhospitable. As an ex-pat, this is hard to hear. We could talk about the flood of guns that come to Canada from the US, but that’s for another day.
Thank you so much for these roundups!!
Great writing from all the Contrarians! Great Interviews! Coffee with The Contrarians is a great feature. Lots of stuff here to like!
The Friday roundup is such a healthy balanced diet, so many thanks to all the contributors!
Spare a thought for Ukraine’s abducted children:
https://open.substack.com/pub/nativecpeaker/p/lights-out-kids?r=n511g&utm_medium=ios
As valuable as Ezra and Leah's work at Indivisible is, thousands of protests nationally DO NOT have the enforcement power to stop this DICTATORSHIP. You and EZRA ought to be focusing on getting the 3-5 Democratic candidates running in Special Elections on April First to have plenty of national attention! (FL-01 and 06, NY and CO, too) THERE ARE ONLY 8 DAYS LEFT!!! Waiting till the midterms will be FAR TOO LATE! ONLY CONGRESS with House and Senate Democratic MAJORITIES will have the POWER to impeach, subpoena, indict, confirm judges with spines, and order the marshals service to arrest. I think there are 4-5 Senators who just might switch their party. (Tillis, Cassidy, Collins, Murkowski, Wicker?) Move on this, Jenn and Ezra! You have the power---USE IT!
An excellent pet of the week!
I hope that our local non-profit theater will get Every Little Thing
Thank you for fighting the good fight. I note in HCR today that Trump is calling for 20 years' imprisonment for who he terms "Tesla vandals " and hinting at imprisonment in El Salvador.
HCR quoted Trump's posting on social media: “I look forward to watching the sick terrorist thugs get 20 year jail sentences for what they are doing to Elon Musk and Tesla. Perhaps they could serve them in the prisons of El Salvador, which have become so recently famous for such lovely conditions!”
Gulag, anyone? Trump's horrid attacks on democracy are so many that it is difficult to pick battles for large-scale resistance. This is one such battle. Who is he sending to El Salvador? Why? How much is he paying? This is cost indulgence, not cost savings that came with commercial flights to home countries. How can he get away with no trials and then the use of foreign prisons? Why doesn't the military resist this transport? Where is the widespread outrage? Where is the legislation to stop imprisoning people without due process? Where are the lawsuits or the legislation to stop the practice of sending ANYONE to El Salvador or other foreign prisons? And now Trump is heading toward imprisonment of political protestors. We must not give in. Now is the time for courage of convictions -- and time to charge and attempt to convict Musk of crimes against the United States. Then deport him.
Thanks from Canada, Contrarians. I heard some upsetting news today about Canadians who were visiting the US getting turned away at several gas stations by people who apparently believed there was a “flood” of fentanyl coming though our shared border. (In 2024, 43 lbs of Fentanyl was seized from Canada. Over 21,000 lbs were seized from Mexico.) Eventually they found service on a reserve. General comments from them, and others, that Americans were rude and inhospitable. As an ex-pat, this is hard to hear. We could talk about the flood of guns that come to Canada from the US, but that’s for another day.
Thankyou for these upbeat interviews. We actually have a chance - - or so some think. May it be so!!!