Evening Roundup, May 28...plus a special thank you to our Contrarian family
Featuring Jen Rubin, Katherine Stewart, Brian O'Neill, Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, Josh Levs, Andy Borowitz, Olivia Julianna, and Frederick J. Frommer
Good Evening, Contrarians. Friends, tomorrow is a thrilling day for us, as we will be crossing the threshold of our 1,000th POST since we launched in January! We’ve arrived here because of our courageous leaders, Norm & Jen; our fierce, devoted team; our stable of brilliant writers and contributors; and most of all YOU, our Contrarian community! Thank you for embracing independent opposition media, for sharing your opinions and ideas, and for sticking with us through our first few months of existence. We have so much more to do and an unpredictable road ahead, but we’re heartened every day by your commitment to upholding our democracy.
If you’ve enjoyed our content, want to see more of it, and would like to continue supporting our work in the court of law and the court of public opinion, please be sure to subscribe, upgrade, or offer the gift of The Contrarian to a friend. Thank you so much for helping us reach this millennial milestone.
Over to you, Jen!
Reflections on travels
JEN'S LAST TRAVEL PIECE (for this journey...)
Our final, glorious days in London included a magnificent special exhibit at the Courtauld Gallery (which has its own stunning impressionist and post-impressionist collection); an enchanting day at the London Zoo (where we could walk into enclosures and stand within arms’ reach of lemurs or a collection of rainforest animals…
Welcome To Postmodern Authoritarianism
In recent days, the Trump administration has violated the Constitution in ways that would have been considered shocking and even impossible only four months ago. The distinguishing feature of these extraordinarily anti-democratic moves is that they are all performed in the open.
Another salvo fired at Harvard
By Brian O’Neill
National security has nothing to do with this latest folly.
When news out of the nation’s capital feels like too much to bear, take the fight local
Last week was another raucous week in Congress, with continued discord over the fiscal, social, and societal implications of President Donald Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful bill” as it heads to the Senate.
Biden, a book, and a big media fiasco
A new book on President Joe Biden triggered a firestorm of controversy, for good reason. It’s a powerful reminder of why so many Americans have lost trust in legacy media. Above all else, it’s a testament to the media’s willingness to profit off of its own profound failure.
Honorable mention for this essential reading from our friend Andy at The Borowitz Report:
Olivia Julianna asks Congressional Democrats about the way forward
How can Democrats best combat the Trump administration’s authoritarian overreach? How will they convince Americans of the urgency of this fight? And how do they plan to win back the ground they lost in 2024? Democratic strategist Olivia Julianna takes a trip to Capitol Hill to ask leading Democrats about their vision for the party’s future.
David Souter went his own way
By Frederic J. Frommer
The George W. Bush appointee was one of a host of GOP-appointed Supreme Court justices who didn't follow a party line.
Join Norm and guest Contrarian April Ryan tomorrow at 9:15 a.m. for Coffee with the Contrarians.
Not a coffee drinker, but can’t get enough of April? Not a problem! She’ll be back at 5:00 p.m. ET with “The Tea, with April Ryan”! Join her and two fabulous guests on Substack Live.
A storm of brilliantly informed posts.
Kudos Jen, Norm and the whole gang
RE: TAPPER and the loss of faith in the legacy media. Many were suspicious after it looked like certain reporters kept all the good stuff until they wrote their books.