Evening Roundup, September 24 Featuring Brian O'Neill, Tom Malinowski, Roberto Valadéz, Shalise Manza Young, Meredith Blake, Carron J. Phillips, Austin Sarat, RJ Matson, & "Quiz: Choose the Real Headline" Sep 24 Sorry Mr. President, the UN isn’t going away Brian O’Neill · 2:01 PM On Tuesday, President Donald Trump addressed the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on its 80th anniversary, delivering a meandering, often denigrating speech that sounded like one taken from a MAGA convention—ego forward, policy last. He said he had predicted “everything” and told attendees that their countries were “going to hell,” all while drift… Read full story Trump and his regime are not invulnerable Tom Malinowski · 4:30 PM Whenever we despair about the Trump administration’s open corruption—the foreign interests pouring billions into Trump’s crypto scam, the rich donors buying presidential pardons, and now allegations that border czar Tom Homan accepted paper bags full of cash Read full story The Importance of Engaging in Earnest 6:30 PM The revolution is here and your siloes will not save you...we must embrace the messy, uncomfortable work of genuine connection or risk devolving down a path of diminishing returns. By Roberto Valadéz Read full story What you see if you look long enough 9:01 PM A photo of a formerly enslaved man is dangerous to a regime that wants regression, not progress. By Shalise Manza Young Read full story Culture Corner Jimmy Kimmel Defends Free Speech as 'One Thing We Can Agree On' Meredith Blake · 5:31 PM The comedian returned to ABC last night and struck a defiant yet patriotic tone. “The President of the United States made it very clear he wants to see me and the hundreds of people who work here fired from our jobs." Read full story The war against late-night hosts highlights the uneven privilege of free speech 7:30 PM America has traditionally protected rich white men, especially if they tell jokes. That is no longer a guarantee. By Carron J. Phillips Read full story Trump ups the ante on an unconstitutional crackdown on speech Austin Sarat · 3:03 PM Last week was a bad one for freedom of speech in the United States. Read full story 'There's never been anything like that' RJ Matson · 8:30 PM RJ draws several editorial cartoons each week for his substack, e pluribus cartoonum, and for Roll Call, the newspaper of Congress and Capitol Hill. His work is widely syndicated to print newspapers by Cagle Cartoons. Read full story Democracy Movement Quiz: Choose the Real Headline The Contrarian · 8:00 PM We know classic clickbait when we see it. ONE SIMPLE TRICK! YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT SHE LOOKS LIKE NOW! You don’t fall for that spammy, hyperventilating marginalia—except maybe when the claim is so outrageous, or the mystery so tantalizing, that you still can’t help but click through. (“Touché,” I think, when I meet a blizzard of ads and no sign of the p… Read full story This Substack is reader-supported. Please subscribe to join our community of good troublemakers and assist in efforts to hold our government accountable in the court of law. The Contrarian Shop is LIVE! Our limited-time collection is available for preorder! Each purchase helps power our work to boldly defend democracy. https://shop.contrariannews.org

 

Evening Roundup, April 18 Featuring Jen Rubin with Jason Rezaian; Michael Franklin; Liam Scott; Jennifer Schulze; The Democracy Index; Meredith Blake; Ruben Bolling; Marissa Rothkopf; and our Pet of the Week! The Contrarian Apr 18 Is Kilmar Abrejo Garcia a State Hostage? Jason Rezaian explains Jennifer Rubin and Jason Rezaian · 1:11 PM In 2015, Jason Rezaian was unjustly arrested in Iran and detained for nearly a year and a half. Since his release, he has been advocating for other political hostages imprisoned by foreign nations. Now, he joins Jen to discuss the wrongful deportation of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to El Salvador and what the Trump administration’s refusal… Read full story ‘One hairdresser' is the voice of complicity in 2025 2:30 PM By Michael Franklin Andry Hernandez Romero and others whose names we don't know are also victims of state-sponsored violence. Read full story Trump Officials Trolling Journalists is Just the Tip of the Iceberg 4:31 PM By Liam Scott Behind the harassment of individual reporters is a full-scale assault on media freedom. Read full story There’s no vacation from Trump. He’s ruining everything. 6:30 PM By Jennifer Schulze Your summer 2025 travel itinerary could include raging fires, germy cruise ships, and burner phones. Read full story Democracy Movement The Democracy Index Joyce Vance, Joshua Kolb, and 4 others · 7:07 PM Remember in “Mary Poppins” when Julie Andrews sings, “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down…In a most delightful way?” How she made us feel like we could get through an unpleasant task with a positive attitude? Read full story Culture Corner Why the “feminist” Blue Origin space flight was an affront to women like Sally Ride Meredith Blake · 8:46 PM At the height of the pandemic in 2020, comedian Marcia Belsky went viral with a song called “100 Tampons,” about Sally Ride’s history-making trip to space. Read full story Tom the Dancing Bug Ruben Bolling · 3:02 PM Follow Ruben Bolling on Substack here; Join Tom the Dancing Bug’s Inner Hive here; and here is the Tom the Dancing Bug website, with information about the new book, “It’s the Great Storm, Tom the Dancing Bug!" Read full story Lemon posset meets Eton mess Marissa Rothkopf · 8:30 PM “Yet be cheerful knight: thou shalt eat a posset to-night at my house; Where I will desire thee to laugh at my wife.” —Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 5, Scene 5 Read full story Contrarian Pet of the Week Julie Zebrak · 7:30 PM Introducing...Bella! Read full story The Contrarian is reader-supported. To receive new posts and to help us continue to make and amplify good, pro-democratic trouble, please become a free or paid subscriber.