Morning Roundup: January 28

Paul Krugman contributes to The Contrarian! Read him, founder Jen Rubin, and Kim Lane Scheppele in this morning's roundup

Today we are thrilled to welcome Nobel Prize-winning economist and newly ex–New York Times Opinion columnist Paul Krugman. His first piece for us, Departing the New York Times, is a stunning indictment of the current state of legacy journalism that reveals why staying true to his byline meant leaving his publisher of 25 years.

Also taking a gimlet eye to the imperiled state of public discourse is Jen Rubin, who today introduces a new weekly feature on the Words and Phrases we could do without. First up: “meritocracy,” which Trump’s confirmation hearings have distorted beyond meaning (unless that meaning is “crony” or “billionaire”).

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And in case you missed it from yesterday evening…

• Read Kim Lane Scheppele’s searing piece on how to cut through the noise of “zone-flooding” in the first days of the Trump regime to the signal at its heart: the autocratic politics of Cruelty and Loyalty.

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This week we’ve transitioned from multiple emails per day to just two: a morning and evening roundup of posts. Let us know how you feel about the change—we’re listening!