Today’s News: open.substack.com/pub/caeratho...

Only 40 percent of Americans in a recent ABC-Washington Post poll think he has the “mental sharpness to serve as president, down from 47 percent last September,” the Washington Post reported.

"Of course, the United States could win that kind of total war with Iran, if we had to. But Iran was never a problem worth asking thousands of Americans to die for or tanking the global economy to permanently solve. And it’s clear now that Trump agrees it is not."

The Trump administration's latest attacks on women: blocking a women's history museum, erasing "Black" from maternal health legislation, and slashing NIH women's health grants by 30%. The full breakdown:

"The Holocaust was not carried out only by the truly evil and those who ran the death camps. It was carried out by lawyers who drafted the legal justifications, businessmen who used slave labor, bureaucrats who processed the paperwork, and neighbors who looked away."

This is a story about how the billionare class gets to swindle you with impunity: contrarian.substack.com/p/brendan-ba...

Trump does not apparently care that taking down a Republican who would be more electable in November could deprive himself of a Senate majority. He backed Paxton, who he claimed “was also very loyal to your favorite President, ME,” over Republican stalwart Cornyn (“VERY disloyal to me.”)

The White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy is — surprise — understaffed.

“What I really want people to take away from this [museum] is that they are the force behind change and every positive thing that’s happened in the country,” Obama told Colbert.

May 27, 2026 In Texas yesterday, Republican primary voters chose Trump-backed state attorney general Ken Paxton over incumbent senator John Cornyn by more than 27 points to be the Republican candidate for senator. President Donald J. Trump endorsed the scandal-ridden Paxton last week after….

An essential read for anyone recovering from religious trauma and trying to unlearn the lies we were taught about ourselves, Tia Levings’ latest release will guide you on your own journey to self-actualization and healing. #IBelongToMe #BookSky #ReadersOfInstagram #Survivor

May 26, 2026 Yesterday, federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement pepper-sprayed Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ) along with demonstrators outside Delaney Hall, a 1,000-bed detention center in Newark, New Jersey…. heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/may-26-2026

Today’s News: open.substack.com/pub/caeratho...

Today’s News open.substack.com/pub/caeratho...

Tonight, voters in Texas will choose between Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general endorsed by Trump, or four-term Senator John Cornyn in a runoff election. Former advisor to President Obama discusses the primaries & midterms: https://www.contrariannews.org/p/big-problems-require-big-solutions

@chrismurphyct.bsky.social on a potential 2028 presidential candidacy + a special sneak preview from his book. Watch: https://www.contrariannews.org/p/an-america-in-crisis

Something sinister is shimmering underneath upcoming America250 celebrations. Meet Freedom250, the ultra-conservative Christian "nonprofit" driving this secular celebration. https://www.contrariannews.org/p/split-screen-america-250s-vision?r=53ubpn

Zoom out: "European powers remind Americans that free people have agency to reject the siren call of nationalism, racism, isolationism, militarism, and authoritarianism." @jenrubin.bsky.social

BREAKING: Tulsi Gabbard has resigned as the Director of National Intelligence. Her resignation is the latest in a pattern of female cabinet members being forced out https://www.contrariannews.org/p/women-are-the-first-to-go

"The end of The Late Show will also be a loss for anyone who values thoughtful dialogue about religion, theology and spirituality, and thinks that liberals of faith have an important role to play in contemporary political discourse." Meredith Blake reflects on Colbert's spiritual role in late night

What does the future of comedy look like under a Trump presidency? Brian O’Neill has an answer:

@hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social has the latest on a possible War Powers Resolution. WATCH: www.contrariannews.org/p/is-a-war-p...

"Most distressing of all is a culture in which the claim that the DOJ under Biden was “weaponized” is not seriously questioned anymore, with few exceptions."

The idea that Trump remains a powerhouse in American politics — defies reality.

May 25, 2026 Last Friday, just before the long holiday weekend, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard resigned, effective as of June 30, citing her husband’s recent cancer diagnosis as the factor that forced her decision.… heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/may-25-2026

May 24, 2026 For a while now, I’ve been hinting that my team was up to something. And tonight, at last, I have an announcement. Last August, during one of my Politics Chat webcasts, at a time when those trying to impose white nationalism, Christian nationalism, or authoritarianism on our country….

May 23, 2026 President Donald J. Trump’s proposed triumphal arch would sit at a rotary on the Virginia side of the Arlington Memorial Bridge between Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The proposed arch obscures the Lincoln Memorial….

May 22, 2026 On May 22, 1964, in a graduation speech at the University of Michigan, President Lyndon Johnson put a name to a new vision for the United States. He called it “the Great Society” and laid out the vision of a country that did not confine itself to making money….

May 21, 2026 Congress left for the holiday weekend a day early today after a number of Republican members of Congress appear to have mutinied against President Donald J. Trump and his loyalists…. heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/may-21-2026

Your weekly dose of vigilante librarianism. #BannedBooks #ReadFreely #LittleFreeLibrary #Books #BookSky #VigilanteLibrarianism

Today’s News: open.substack.com/pub/caeratho...

May 19, 2026 Yesterday the Department of Justice announced it is creating a $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” to compensate what it calls victims of the Department of Justice under former President Joe Biden. Acting attorney general Todd Blanche said the fund was….

"If you are not Black, the question is whether you understand yet that attacks on Black freedom have always been the core test of what this country is. They are the frontline indicators of whether democracy itself is surviving."

"Let’s dispense with the notion that the weaponized, rogue department now run by Todd “I love you, sir” Blanche is even trying to earn “the public trust.”

"The “Christian nation” narrative imagines a past that never existed and a future that would exclude millions of Americans."

Trump’s war of choice has revealed a lesson about how civilian harm can erode under the combined pressure of tempo, politics, and confidence in technology

Broke down the 2026 midterms, in depth, with @swingleft.bsky.social Executive Director Yasmin Radjy:

Hear @jenrubin.bsky.social's conversation with Mayor Paige Cognetti, who won her primary in PA-8 tonight

@jenrubin.bsky.social spoke with Bob Harvie of PA-1, who won his district primary tonight

More here:

Today’s News: open.substack.com/pub/caeratho...

"MAGA justices delegitimized the Supreme Court; it’s up to the voters, through the elected branches, to end their foray into judicial imperialism that threatens multi-racial democracy."

China is more than happy to sit back and watch America crumble underneath itself. WATCH: https://www.contrariannews.org/p/china-laughs-as-america-stumbles

Ready for deep dive on it all? Look no further

The Emoluments Clause exists for exactly this moment The Founders feared a president who would shake down the American taxpayer & Trump just tried it — to the tune of billions We're fighting back in this week's publisher's note 👇-TN

Our friend & collaborator @elizaorlins.bsky.social is a part of a group standing at a podium in Tribeca and reading the Epstein files out loud for 24 hours straight. Watch here: open.substack.com/live-stream/...

Thousands of people gathered today on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to engage in an eight-hour taxpayer-funded evangelical worship event to “rededicate” the nation to Christianity. The “Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving” event is part of….

Elon Musk suffered the worst defeat possible in his legal battle against OpenAI as a federal jury and a judge ruled he waited too long to bring his claims against the AI startup and its top executives, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman.

Your weekly dose of vigilante librarianism. #BannedBooks #ReadFreely #LittleFreeLibrary #Books #BookSky #VigilanteLibrarianism

May 16, 2026 Seventy-two years ago tomorrow, on May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court unanimously decided Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. That landmark decision declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional because segregated schools denied Black children….