Featuring Carlos Eduardo Espina in conversation with Jennifer Rubin; Daniella Ballou-Aares & Jen Rubin; Amy Spitalnick; Marvin Kalb; Jeff Nesbit; The Democracy Movement & Bonnie Siegler
Once again, I plead with those who produce The Contrarian — more articles, fewer talking heads. Most of us come here as print refugees — to read and discuss the uncensored word, not to watch re-runs of MSNBC debates. I know some prefer podcasts but most of us have little patience for sitting down and doing nothing while other people talk at us. Thank you.
Hi Corbin, thanks for reading. We appreciate the feedback, but would also note that out of the seven pieces of content in this Roundup, only two of them are interviews. We always skew more heavily in the direction of written material. However, we trust our community respects and understands that many people strongly prefer material that they can watch and listen to--whether it's because they do so in transit, because they find reading challenging, or simply because they find it easier to retain information in that manner. There's always an option to read interviews rather than watch them. Alternatively, you can just read the multiple uncensored articles that we post Monday through Friday. Thanks for being a Contrarian!
So I meant to say I like the spoken word, I take great heart in the morning coffee time, and think Jen does interviews that focus on facts and action. No talking heads, no pundits (who get things so horribly wrong often).
So elegantly stated. My PoV exactly. I read much faster than people talk. Particularly, Trump's voice is the one I most avoid (except when Mary Trump distorts it to sound like he's inhaled helium - that totally works). I skim the paragraphs and skip the chat. I think we will not miss much by reading only.
Thanks, Corbin! Some substacks provide synopses of interviews. Transcripts don’t make the grade. We want more substance, fewer words. We appreciate the Contrarian but it could be better.
I enjoy the interviews because sometimes the person being interviewed can provide a bit more perspective and nuance to the conversation than if someone had just simply written an article about what they said. Jen does a terrific job with those interviews.
Dear Jen and Norm, Have you read Liz Cheney's call to real, powerful fighting? Wow! Soem of what she suggests is happening but in fractured ways. She's calling for what I believe we MUST do and calling out elected Dems for asking for money daily and expecting everything will be wonderful after some dreamed of midterm election. I'd post the whole call and her plan here, but it's too long. Find it and make it a topic and invite her onto the Contrarian!!
What an eerie and ugly parallel may be drawn between the abductions of Kilmar Garcia and Edmund Dantes during the time of Napoleon in Alexander Dumas' "The Count of Monte Cristo".
For both Garcia and Edmund Dantes, neither had committed a crime and neither were afforded a trial before they were abducted and spirited away to notorious prisons, Garcia to the hellish prison of CECOT in El Salvador and Dantes to the infamous Château d'If on a desolate island in the bay off of Marseille (Which my wife and I visited a number of years ago and could almost hear the echos of the tortured prisoners still winding their way around the heavy walls.)
No one had ever escaped from the Château d'If before, and Garcia is unlikely to escape in the future where he will no doubt live out his tortured life because the man who put him there claims that it's no longer his responsibility.
"It is difficult in some cases to get to the very heart of the matter. But in this case, it is not hard at all," a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit wrote. "The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order."
Took one day.
DOJ could appeal the Fourth Circuit's decision to the Supreme Court.
"In response to a request for comment on the appellate order, the Justice Department shared prior coverage of Attorney General Pam Bondi. Bondi on Wednesday told reporters that it's up to El Salvador to bring Abrego Garcia back, and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said he does not have the power to return him. "He is not coming back to our country," Bondi said.
"Meanwhile, agency officials at the Homeland Security and State departments must abide by Xinis's order, which requires them to be questioned under oath about the steps taken and challenges faced in order to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return. Xinis said this would clarify what, if anything, has been done and if the government is acting in good faith."
Gulags for profit...Trump & El Salvador Bukele's idea of "economic development". Trump: "Home-growns are next". Foreign gulags for US citizens while Trump's lackeys JD, Rubio etc laugh...Trump corruptly targets critics, & adversaries for baseless prosecutions & retribution. We allow the Trump administration to abandon the constitution & the rule of law at our peril. #Resist
The language used in the court orders and the hearings emerging from these cases including a scathing unanimous decision written by a Reagan appointee suggests how seriously the judges in the five separate courts that have touched them are taking the administration’s recalcitrant approach. The words and phrases they have employed — “grievous error” “shocks the conscience” “unconscionable” — are themselves an indication of how out-of-bounds and unchastened they believe the White House has been.
Meanwhile, in El Salvador, they are bound by mutual treaties, including among the OAS, which protects asylum.
If I were the ACLU I would have hired local counsel to bring a habeus corpus under Salvadorean law.
"Lawyers hired by the Venezuelan government filed a legal action Monday in El Salvador aimed at freeing 238 Venezuelans deported by the United States who are being held in a Salvadoran maximum-security prison.
"Jaime Ortega, who says he represents 30 of the imprisoned Venezuelans, said they filed the habeas corpus petition with the Supreme Court’s Constitutional Chamber. He said that by extension they requested that it be applied to all Venezuelans detained in El Salvador.
"The maneuver essentially compels the government to prove someone’s detention was justified.
"The Salvadoran government has been silent about the status of the Venezuelan prisoners since the U.S. government sent them more than a week ago, despite a U.S. federal judge’s verbal order to turn the planes around."
Hello,,,,,,, Has anyone else read this ....If TRUE..... This is not ok............
Alt National Park Service
·
Every day, it just gets worse. Now Elon’s staff is moving to hide their actions — by secretly using Starlink.
At the General Services Administration (GSA) headquarters, a device on the rooftop patio: a rectangular unit with a wire trailing down the building and into the GSA administrator’s office window.
Turns out, it was a Starlink transceiver — quietly connected to Musk’s private satellite network. The device and raised serious concerns. Why? Because this setup violates federal laws designed to protect public data.
Musk’s people are bypassing government systems entirely now — operating in the shadows, using his own infrastructure. This is not efficiency. This is a takeover.
Once again, I plead with those who produce The Contrarian — more articles, fewer talking heads. Most of us come here as print refugees — to read and discuss the uncensored word, not to watch re-runs of MSNBC debates. I know some prefer podcasts but most of us have little patience for sitting down and doing nothing while other people talk at us. Thank you.
Hi Corbin, thanks for reading. We appreciate the feedback, but would also note that out of the seven pieces of content in this Roundup, only two of them are interviews. We always skew more heavily in the direction of written material. However, we trust our community respects and understands that many people strongly prefer material that they can watch and listen to--whether it's because they do so in transit, because they find reading challenging, or simply because they find it easier to retain information in that manner. There's always an option to read interviews rather than watch them. Alternatively, you can just read the multiple uncensored articles that we post Monday through Friday. Thanks for being a Contrarian!
So I meant to say I like the spoken word, I take great heart in the morning coffee time, and think Jen does interviews that focus on facts and action. No talking heads, no pundits (who get things so horribly wrong often).
I agree.
So elegantly stated. My PoV exactly. I read much faster than people talk. Particularly, Trump's voice is the one I most avoid (except when Mary Trump distorts it to sound like he's inhaled helium - that totally works). I skim the paragraphs and skip the chat. I think we will not miss much by reading only.
Thanks, Corbin! Some substacks provide synopses of interviews. Transcripts don’t make the grade. We want more substance, fewer words. We appreciate the Contrarian but it could be better.
I enjoy the interviews because sometimes the person being interviewed can provide a bit more perspective and nuance to the conversation than if someone had just simply written an article about what they said. Jen does a terrific job with those interviews.
Dear Jen and Norm, Have you read Liz Cheney's call to real, powerful fighting? Wow! Soem of what she suggests is happening but in fractured ways. She's calling for what I believe we MUST do and calling out elected Dems for asking for money daily and expecting everything will be wonderful after some dreamed of midterm election. I'd post the whole call and her plan here, but it's too long. Find it and make it a topic and invite her onto the Contrarian!!
The Plights of Edmund Dantes and Kilmar Garcia
What an eerie and ugly parallel may be drawn between the abductions of Kilmar Garcia and Edmund Dantes during the time of Napoleon in Alexander Dumas' "The Count of Monte Cristo".
For both Garcia and Edmund Dantes, neither had committed a crime and neither were afforded a trial before they were abducted and spirited away to notorious prisons, Garcia to the hellish prison of CECOT in El Salvador and Dantes to the infamous Château d'If on a desolate island in the bay off of Marseille (Which my wife and I visited a number of years ago and could almost hear the echos of the tortured prisoners still winding their way around the heavy walls.)
No one had ever escaped from the Château d'If before, and Garcia is unlikely to escape in the future where he will no doubt live out his tortured life because the man who put him there claims that it's no longer his responsibility.
Nonfiction.
DOJ took an intelocutory appeal.
"It is difficult in some cases to get to the very heart of the matter. But in this case, it is not hard at all," a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit wrote. "The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order."
Took one day.
DOJ could appeal the Fourth Circuit's decision to the Supreme Court.
"In response to a request for comment on the appellate order, the Justice Department shared prior coverage of Attorney General Pam Bondi. Bondi on Wednesday told reporters that it's up to El Salvador to bring Abrego Garcia back, and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said he does not have the power to return him. "He is not coming back to our country," Bondi said.
"Meanwhile, agency officials at the Homeland Security and State departments must abide by Xinis's order, which requires them to be questioned under oath about the steps taken and challenges faced in order to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return. Xinis said this would clarify what, if anything, has been done and if the government is acting in good faith."
https://www.npr.org/2025/04/17/g-s1-61118/appeals-court-deportation-abrego-garcia
Flash. Van Hollen met with Garcia in El Salvador.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/chris-van-hollen-meets-kilmar-abrego-garcia-el-salvador-rcna201830
Gulags for profit...Trump & El Salvador Bukele's idea of "economic development". Trump: "Home-growns are next". Foreign gulags for US citizens while Trump's lackeys JD, Rubio etc laugh...Trump corruptly targets critics, & adversaries for baseless prosecutions & retribution. We allow the Trump administration to abandon the constitution & the rule of law at our peril. #Resist
The language used in the court orders and the hearings emerging from these cases including a scathing unanimous decision written by a Reagan appointee suggests how seriously the judges in the five separate courts that have touched them are taking the administration’s recalcitrant approach. The words and phrases they have employed — “grievous error” “shocks the conscience” “unconscionable” — are themselves an indication of how out-of-bounds and unchastened they believe the White House has been.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZbCyBMfy2c
Meanwhile, in El Salvador, they are bound by mutual treaties, including among the OAS, which protects asylum.
If I were the ACLU I would have hired local counsel to bring a habeus corpus under Salvadorean law.
"Lawyers hired by the Venezuelan government filed a legal action Monday in El Salvador aimed at freeing 238 Venezuelans deported by the United States who are being held in a Salvadoran maximum-security prison.
"Jaime Ortega, who says he represents 30 of the imprisoned Venezuelans, said they filed the habeas corpus petition with the Supreme Court’s Constitutional Chamber. He said that by extension they requested that it be applied to all Venezuelans detained in El Salvador.
"The maneuver essentially compels the government to prove someone’s detention was justified.
"The Salvadoran government has been silent about the status of the Venezuelan prisoners since the U.S. government sent them more than a week ago, despite a U.S. federal judge’s verbal order to turn the planes around."
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/lawyers-defend-30-venezuelans-deported-us-el-salvadors-supreme-court-2025-03-24/
https://apnews.com/article/el-salvador-deportees-us-venezuela-beb288b05df201e5fc42c3811fcf6c57
The US emabssy does referrals and there are a number of American firms that practice there.
Hello,,,,,,, Has anyone else read this ....If TRUE..... This is not ok............
Alt National Park Service
·
Every day, it just gets worse. Now Elon’s staff is moving to hide their actions — by secretly using Starlink.
At the General Services Administration (GSA) headquarters, a device on the rooftop patio: a rectangular unit with a wire trailing down the building and into the GSA administrator’s office window.
Turns out, it was a Starlink transceiver — quietly connected to Musk’s private satellite network. The device and raised serious concerns. Why? Because this setup violates federal laws designed to protect public data.
Musk’s people are bypassing government systems entirely now — operating in the shadows, using his own infrastructure. This is not efficiency. This is a takeover.
Hold anti-Trump/Musk demonstrations in front of Republican' local offices.
I and my husband fear for the wellfare of Garcia.
I would love to read the Democracy Movement segment of the evening roundup, but it’s still not loading properly. Am I the only one?