Evening Roundup, September 8 Featuring Ryan Cummings, Austin Sarat, "Offsides with Pablo Torre," Jared Bernstein, Brian O'Neill, Michael de Adder, and "Talking Feds" Sep 8 The jobs numbers are safe for now, but the labor market might not be Ryan Cummings · 4:02 PM Last month, President Donald Trump took the extraordinary step of firing Erika McEntarfer, the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) after the monthly jobs report (more formally, The Employment Situation) showed a labor market that appeared to be treading water and getting worse. Read full story Judges must address Trump's radical constitutional refashioning Austin Sarat · 2:02 PM There have been too many instances to count of a Trump administration policy rightly being called unusual or unprecedented. That is because the regime has a thorough plan to refashion the Constitution into an authoritarian document. Read full story Offsides with Pablo Torre: A secret $28 million deal & boos at the U.S. Open Jennifer Rubin and Pablo Torre · 7:43 PM In another episode of Offsides, Pablo joins Jen to talk about his bombshell reporting on a secret $28 million deal between L.A. Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard and a carbon-credit company. The owner of the Clippers, Steve Ballmer (who also happens to be a $50 million investor into the company), claims he had no idea about the salary-cap-breaking deal. Read full story An Open Letter from Former CEA Chair Jared Bernstein to President Trump Jared Bernstein · 5:31 PM When it comes to the economy, you’ve got a serious problem. I know, because we had a similar problem when I worked in the White House, though I think yours is even worse. What’s more, you brought this on yourself. The bad news is that you’ve made a series of big, own-goal kicks. The good news is … Read full story ICE trains for the camera, not the field Brian O’Neill · 8:00 PM Do you have stress dreams? Mine are the predictable ones: missing a final exam or showing up for a test in a class I had skipped all semester—the former is something that did happen to me in college. Once in a while, though, I have a different one: I’m back at Fort Benning… Read full story 'Fake news' Michael de Adder · 6:02 PM Michael de Adder is an award-winning editorial cartoonist. You can find him on Substack here. Read full story Talking Feds Epstein Returns and the Courts Push Back Harry Litman and Sen. Heidi Heitkamp · 4:31 PM Senator Heidi Heitkamp and CNN's Aaron Blake join Harry to break down a week that saw a series of sharp legal setbacks for the Trump administration and the return of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. Trump is working Congress to keep Epstein materials from the public eye, but the hydraulic push from victims may prove too much to ignore. Read full story The Contrarian is reader-supported. If you feel our work has value and you want to join our community of good troublemakers, please get involved as a free or paid subscriber.