Julia Payne

UPDATE: More donors funding the demolition of the East Wing for Trump's $250M ballroom have been identified

BOYCOTT THEM ALL. The Jets and Bucs are my new least favorite football teams

The New York ****ing Jets are sponsoring the demolition of the White House. Ofc they are.

Garbage franchise doing garbage things.

Joyce is a voice of reason, sanity and hope in our time. Now she has a book with lessons from American history about how we can overcome threats to our common democracy. Read it!

It's so good! Friends please do yourself a favor and please check out the great @joycewhitevance.bsky.social's new book *A Manual for Keeping a Democracy*

Available at your favorite online or neighborhood bookstore or here 👉 www.amazon.com/Giving-Up-Un...

It’s book launch day for Giving Up Is Unforgivable: A Manual For Keeping A Democracy, my first book. I hope you’ll read it or listen to it. a.co/d/43dbybC

More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days. The government does not track how often immigration agents grab citizens. So ProPublica did. Our tally — almost certainly incomplete — includes people who were held for days without a lawyer. And near...

NEW: The government does not track how often immigration agents grab citizens. So ProPublica did.

We found more than 170 such incidents since the start of the second Trump administration. Our tally — almost certainly incomplete — includes nearly 20 children, two of whom have cancer.

What you see if you look long enough A photo of a formerly enslaved man is dangerous to a regime that wants regression, not progress.

His name was Peter. Shalise Manza Young shares his story.

Be Loud — For America By Governor JB Pritzker

Governor J.B. Pritzker gives us hope. In this exclusive piece for The Contrarian, he calls on us to work together to reaffirm the values that actually make our country great.

A must-read:

Trump Administration Live Updates: President Says Broadcasters Should Lose Licenses for Criticizing Him

Trump Administration Live Updates: President Says Broadcasters Should Lose Licenses for Criticizing Him .. that is fascism folks www.nytimes.com/live/2025/09...

Yesterday Trump announced he will designate Antifa as a terrorist organization. Only there is no such organization, as outlined repeatedly the last time he tried this in 2020.

So who is he really targeting? Anyone who dissents.

The world’s greatest mathematician avoided politics. Then Trump cut science funding. Terence Tao, a renowned mathematician at UCLA, faced funding challenges after the Trump administration froze federal research funds.

www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...

Trump lawyer Cleta Mitchell says Trump may try to declare a “national sovereignty” crisis in 2026 to claim “emergency powers” over elections and override the states

"You Are a Hazard to the Health of the American People"

RFK Jr. Goes to Washington DC

176. Illinois v. Texas A quick look at President Trump's (apparent) plan to send uninvited and un-federalized Texas National Guard troops into Illinois—and how it could (and maybe should) quickly end up in the Supreme Court

Via "One First," my quick stab at the legal authority President Trump will likely claim allows him to deploy un-federalized Texas National Guard troops to Illinois; why such a deployment without Illinois's consent *ought* to be unlawful; and the options Illinois will have for litigating that issue:

A 20 year retrospective: Mitch Landrieu on the legacy of Hurricane Katrina "They're absolutely awful at coming up with a solution to the problem...and they just happen to be really bad at governing well."

A must watch @mitchlandrieu.bsky.social is phenomenal open.substack.com/pub/contrari...

Column | When it comes to gilding the White House, Trump is just getting started Ostentatious and anachronistic Oval Office changes don’t bode well for a 90,000-square-foot addition to the executive mansion.

www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...

If Swifties get it, why can’t Trump and corporate America?

Pete Hegseth made clear whose history he celebrates When he says “we recognize our history,” the “we” is white people recognizing their history in this country.

"They were losers, Pete." open.substack.com/pub/contrari...

Muriel Bowser, Letitia James, and the hazards of being a Black woman in power D.C.’s mayor and New York’s AG are under scrutiny, and we all know why.

Trump has a pattern when it comes to powerful Black women. Carron J. Phillips explains how Muriel Bowser, Letitia James, and others have found themselves in his crosshairs.

Woody Guthrie used songs to sort out his feelings and ideas, and to build connection A new collection of Guthrie's music and lyrics opens a window into the artist's storytelling.

"He [Guthrie] set out to tell stories he thought were important, to resist oppression and greed, to use songs as a way to sort out his feelings and ideas, and to build connection."

JD Vance has been chillin' like a villain

The numbers add up, so why pull out? Trump's reckless dismantling of PEPFAR is a threat to global health and human life.

"An administration that claims to prioritize America’s best interests need only look to the data: PEPFAR saves lives, strengthens economies, and creates new markets with more reliable trading partners."

Trump’s Fake Emergencies are Straight Out of the Authoritarian Playbook Five (other) instances when President Trump used baseless "emergencies" to seize unwarranted power

"Let us be clear: Violent crime is a serious, ongoing problem in Washington – but there is no 'crime emergency.' Trump is lying to justify his own authoritarian desire to deploy the military on the streets of America’s cities, while also commandeering a police force from a Democratic mayor."

"I am the commander-in-chief of the Maryland National Guard. Period and full stop." @govwesmoore.bsky.social

Watch the interview with April Ryan here: youtu.be/_zRI94Al2P8

ANCHORAGE…

Kristi Noem is living rent free in home used by Coast Guard commandant A DHS spokesman said Noem must live on the military base because she had been “so horribly doxxed and targeted that she is no longer able to safely live in her own apartment.”

all about the grift “She added that it was ‘sad’ for a Post reporter to ‘suggest a rancher should have to pay a second rent because of a reporter’s irresponsible decisions to dox where she lives.’
Noem earns more than $200,000 in annual salary as secretary, and estimated net worth at $5 million”

‘She Needs to Have a Democracy to Grow Up In’: The Moms Who Left Texas to Defend Its Future Democratic lawmakers fled the state to protest a Trump-backed redistricting plan. For the mothers among them, leaving meant juggling summer milestones, first days of school — and showing their kids wh...

From @19thnews.org: Democratic lawmakers fled the state to protest a Trump-backed redistricting plan.

For the mothers among them, leaving meant juggling summer milestones, first days of school.

“I’m sad that I won’t be there to see her after her first day of school."

More great reporting with helpful context from @emineirmakyucel.bsky.social on GAO’s short blogpost here, with quotes from yours truly.

Link to article here: talkingpointsmemo.com/news/congres...

NPR: “Less than five years after urging rioters to "kill" police at the Capitol, former Jan. 6 defendant Jared Wise is working as a senior adviser for Trump’s Department of Justice…”

But ‘Back the Blue’, right?

More: www.npr.org/2025/08/07/n...