Terrific op-ed from Dana Milbank today! His focus is Jeff Bezos’ recent order that “We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. …viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.”
Milbank writes: "[T]his much is clear: If we as a newspaper, and we as a country, are to defend his twin pillars, then we must redouble our fight against the single greatest threat to “personal liberties and free markets” in the United States today: President Donald Trump."
When will Milbank and other Washington Post writers (like Eugene Robinson) join Jennifer Rubin at the Contrarian in response to Jeff Bezos meddling in what the paper presents? An open forum in the 4th Estate is how we become better informed citizens and voters. This form of censorship is destroying it.
Here is the start of Milbank’s op-ed (which I urge you to read):
Over the last 48 hours, I’ve been receiving from readers and friends the sort of notes one gets upon losing a loved one, or perhaps receiving a terminal diagnosis.
“So very sorry.”
“Hang in there.”
“Sending you love and strength.”
“With appreciation and sorrow.”
The cause of death? The belief that Post owner Jeff Bezos has just ended the tradition of open debate that has guided this paper’s editorial page for generations.
Democrats introduced many amendments to stop tax cuts:
• First, stop tax cuts for those making over $10 million a year—Republicans voted no.
• Second, they tried to set the cutoff at $100 million—Republicans still said no.
• Third, they tried to set the cutoff at $500 million—Republicans still said no.
• Fourth, they tried to set the cutoff at $1 billion— Republicans said they were for giving billionaires a tax break on the backs of the poor and the elderly.
1) Republicans, 217 of them in the House, won’t even block tax cuts for people making $1 billion in a single year.
2) Republicans, 217 of them in the House, are more than happy to slash funding for kids with disabilities and seniors in nursing homes to give billionaires a financial break.
If you voted for one of these Republicans you are complicit in their actions.
Here I thought a couple of years ago: time to exchange my green card for citizenship, so I can vote, in the optimistic belief that would sway us in favor of democracy......
It doesn't make sense to wait until the next election, as Jeffries, Schumer and Carville argue. I appreciate leaders like Jamie Raskin, Chris Murphy, and Adam Kinzinger who are fighting each in their own so proactively and visibly now. They are not waiting for a manufactured crisis for Trump to flex autocratic power, a la Reichstag Fire. One clear five-alarm fire was the recent firing (!) of the US armed forces judge advocates general (JAGs) highlighted in Rachel Maddow's 2/25 Interview with former/just fired US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall (https://youtu.be/zDd-OPYJUc0?si=qTOQmWj00LEWJqPA). Kendall stated bluntly that America has a "rogue president and a rogue administration" which we need to acknowledge and respond to. Kendall underscored the additional firing of the JAGs, who have legal authority over the people in uniform, and who determine and communicate what behavior is permissible or not, including the use of military force on US citizens. These military judge advocates have now been removed. Kendall cited the other signs of lawlessness we have seen: Attack on birthright citizenship, the use of non-government employees (Musk and unvetted staffers), the firing of IGs, the 75 lawsuits. But in his 2/28 Substack (The Wolf is at the Door”: https://substack.com/inbox/post/158077707?utm_source=podcast-email&publication_id=2898796&post_id=158077707&play_audio=true&utm_campaign=email-play-on-substack&utm_content=watch_now_button&r=8866x&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email) , Andrew Weismann brought home soberly and chillingly about the hollowing out of governmental institutions so that they are like Western town stage sets, one inch of veneer of those institutions that give the appearance of government, with no content. He too pointed out that the firing of the three JAGs have nothing to do with efficiency, and asks can you think of a benign reason to fire the mere three judge advocates in the military, who “stand in the way” of Trump’s unitary power and ability to “do things”? (Or the IGs if you really cared about waste fraud and abuse)?
Norm, can we contribute funding for a new lawsuit to reinstate at least those three JAGs for unlawful firing? Contrarians, contact your representatives who serve on the congressional US Armed Services Committee: https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/. Someone from Maryland get through to Jamie Raskin, who is coordinating lawsuits in Congress? (No one answered, but I left a message at Mr. Raskin’s office (202) 225-5341). Mayday!
No penny spent today and I was actually disappointed that I received multiple requests for donations today…are Dems not honoring this boycott? I donated yesterday & will again tomorrow but damn….
Where can we send letters of apology and support to President Zelensky that he will be certain to receive?
I have just called my senator, my representative in the House, my governor (first time ever), written an email to Rachel Maddow, commented in Joyce Vance's newly posted column by a colleague of hers, sent an email to my other senator who does not take phone calls and am now writing to you.
President Zelensky needs to get a deluge of grateful messages from the vast majority of Americans who support and admire him and are mortified, angry and disgusted by the outrageous, juvenile and dangerous, bullying show of grift, ignorance and dictatorship performed by our mentally incompetent president and his ridiculously subservient vice president.
Can you please help direct those of us who feel compelled to let President Zelensky know how upset we are at the travesty of justice he endured at the hands of our disgusting, ignorant, bully of a president and his boot-licking vice president?
Thank you in advance for any help you can give on this subject and for all the great content you and Norm Eisen have provided us via The Contrarian.
P.S. Since we can't be certain if this "performance spectacle" by Trump was strictly to appease Trump's Russian overlord or to hide some new illegal attempt to rip our government apart--or both, I hope those in the know will keep a lookout for any Friday Surprise this "administration" might slip into the late news tonight.
Sounds as though Schimel is just a real peach, one who clearly deserves to go live in the Middle Ages. He'd be much happier there, but probably wouldn't get as many bribes, er donations, from the far, far, far right.
Do donations count as "spending money" today when there's the spending strike? It seems to me they're completely different, but I want to do my part today.
All Republicans need to do to balance the budget is; NOTHING. Let the Trump tax cuts expire and the billionaires will be picking up their fair share of living in America.
Otherwise, the working class people paying the price for the billionaire's enjoying their free ride through life.
Republicans have been great at doing NOTHING, so let us play to their strengths. Let the tax cuts expire.
It would not balance it, but it sure would go a long way.
If we had the same revenue to GDP that we had under Clinton (and by the way his economy and GDP growth was far better than any president since) we would have 2.9% more revenue to GDP.
.029 X 30 trillion = 870 billion more in revenue and less in deficits.
This would be 1/2 way there. Most of the rest is Mandatory spending like for SS and Medicare and Medicaid - so we need to boost the payroll tax a bit more or make the cut off for paying this tax higher, but allow us to deduct all of this tax not just 1/2 from income to get taxable income. Lower income self-employed folks are double taxed due to some of the payroll taxes.
Of course this means we would need to get rid of Bush's tax cuts too.
I'd like to keep the standard deduction high though, because it helps lower income folks the most.
You are absolutely right. But it is a faltering step in the right direction. In addition to your suggestions, we need to take the max income cap off of SS tax. Our children and grandchildren deserve at least this gesture.
What safeguards prevent Trump from taking over the military and send shady Browncoats to arrest all the Contrarians? I wanted to see that story MONDAY.
Stop writing for educated New Yorkers and use vocabulary everyone understands. Otherwise you will marginalize yourselves as elites who only understand each other. Even your self title has the ring of precious superiority. You need a newspaper reporter from a flyover state to take your message to a broader audience.
As one of the audience/readers in a flyover state (Illinois), I have no problem with the language or ideas expressed in this site. The writing doesn't need to be dumbed down: it's perfectly understandable. It's also entirely credible. The complaint and observations appear to be unfounded.
AOC AND JASMINE CROCKETT! GO GIRLS! DEMOCRACY NEEDS YOUR COURAGE!
Don’t forget Melanie Stansbury of NM.
Got to pressure Republicans. https://jerryweiss.substack.com/p/remove-impeach-impeach Picket. Sit in. Call. Write.
Boycott today.
PERSONAL LIBERTIES & FREE MARKETS?
Terrific op-ed from Dana Milbank today! His focus is Jeff Bezos’ recent order that “We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. …viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.”
Milbank writes: "[T]his much is clear: If we as a newspaper, and we as a country, are to defend his twin pillars, then we must redouble our fight against the single greatest threat to “personal liberties and free markets” in the United States today: President Donald Trump."
https://wapo.st/3DaSKxX
(PS. As we well know, Jennifer Rubin left the Washington Post, and founded The Contrarian, in order to better do precisely that!)
When will Milbank and other Washington Post writers (like Eugene Robinson) join Jennifer Rubin at the Contrarian in response to Jeff Bezos meddling in what the paper presents? An open forum in the 4th Estate is how we become better informed citizens and voters. This form of censorship is destroying it.
You just formulated the question that I find myself pondering!
Here is the start of Milbank’s op-ed (which I urge you to read):
Over the last 48 hours, I’ve been receiving from readers and friends the sort of notes one gets upon losing a loved one, or perhaps receiving a terminal diagnosis.
“So very sorry.”
“Hang in there.”
“Sending you love and strength.”
“With appreciation and sorrow.”
The cause of death? The belief that Post owner Jeff Bezos has just ended the tradition of open debate that has guided this paper’s editorial page for generations.
Democrats introduced many amendments to stop tax cuts:
• First, stop tax cuts for those making over $10 million a year—Republicans voted no.
• Second, they tried to set the cutoff at $100 million—Republicans still said no.
• Third, they tried to set the cutoff at $500 million—Republicans still said no.
• Fourth, they tried to set the cutoff at $1 billion— Republicans said they were for giving billionaires a tax break on the backs of the poor and the elderly.
1) Republicans, 217 of them in the House, won’t even block tax cuts for people making $1 billion in a single year.
2) Republicans, 217 of them in the House, are more than happy to slash funding for kids with disabilities and seniors in nursing homes to give billionaires a financial break.
If you voted for one of these Republicans you are complicit in their actions.
https://bit.ly/4hUbbWU
Here I thought a couple of years ago: time to exchange my green card for citizenship, so I can vote, in the optimistic belief that would sway us in favor of democracy......
Sadly we ended up with:
Donald J Trump
the greatest
PestRresident
of the United States
ever 😡
We need to continue to fight this....
Thank you for all you do
It doesn't make sense to wait until the next election, as Jeffries, Schumer and Carville argue. I appreciate leaders like Jamie Raskin, Chris Murphy, and Adam Kinzinger who are fighting each in their own so proactively and visibly now. They are not waiting for a manufactured crisis for Trump to flex autocratic power, a la Reichstag Fire. One clear five-alarm fire was the recent firing (!) of the US armed forces judge advocates general (JAGs) highlighted in Rachel Maddow's 2/25 Interview with former/just fired US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall (https://youtu.be/zDd-OPYJUc0?si=qTOQmWj00LEWJqPA). Kendall stated bluntly that America has a "rogue president and a rogue administration" which we need to acknowledge and respond to. Kendall underscored the additional firing of the JAGs, who have legal authority over the people in uniform, and who determine and communicate what behavior is permissible or not, including the use of military force on US citizens. These military judge advocates have now been removed. Kendall cited the other signs of lawlessness we have seen: Attack on birthright citizenship, the use of non-government employees (Musk and unvetted staffers), the firing of IGs, the 75 lawsuits. But in his 2/28 Substack (The Wolf is at the Door”: https://substack.com/inbox/post/158077707?utm_source=podcast-email&publication_id=2898796&post_id=158077707&play_audio=true&utm_campaign=email-play-on-substack&utm_content=watch_now_button&r=8866x&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email) , Andrew Weismann brought home soberly and chillingly about the hollowing out of governmental institutions so that they are like Western town stage sets, one inch of veneer of those institutions that give the appearance of government, with no content. He too pointed out that the firing of the three JAGs have nothing to do with efficiency, and asks can you think of a benign reason to fire the mere three judge advocates in the military, who “stand in the way” of Trump’s unitary power and ability to “do things”? (Or the IGs if you really cared about waste fraud and abuse)?
Norm, can we contribute funding for a new lawsuit to reinstate at least those three JAGs for unlawful firing? Contrarians, contact your representatives who serve on the congressional US Armed Services Committee: https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/. Someone from Maryland get through to Jamie Raskin, who is coordinating lawsuits in Congress? (No one answered, but I left a message at Mr. Raskin’s office (202) 225-5341). Mayday!
NO FACEBOOK TODAY! Please, only shop local today, we are boycotting all big businesses. Thank you!
No penny spent today and I was actually disappointed that I received multiple requests for donations today…are Dems not honoring this boycott? I donated yesterday & will again tomorrow but damn….
Great choice- AOC is so gifted...
Where is the Wikler/Rubin conversation? I couldn't access it. Is there a trick to getting to it?
Today is economic blackout day and I think we should have economic blackout day at least once a month until they start listening to us.
Maybe we should include a no, to low, carbon day with it, as well - no driving at all or buying gasoline once a month, too.
Thus, maybe the last Saturday of every month?
If Trump won't address climate change, maybe the rest of us can keep up our efforts with this same boycott.
Please address the shouting match in the Oval today. I have never been so upset by anyone's behavior as I was by Trump and Vance piling on Zelensky.
I am pleased that I joined the Contrarian. Great content and from a diverse group of people.
Thank you
Hello Jennifer Rubin,
I hope you will get this message.
Where can we send letters of apology and support to President Zelensky that he will be certain to receive?
I have just called my senator, my representative in the House, my governor (first time ever), written an email to Rachel Maddow, commented in Joyce Vance's newly posted column by a colleague of hers, sent an email to my other senator who does not take phone calls and am now writing to you.
President Zelensky needs to get a deluge of grateful messages from the vast majority of Americans who support and admire him and are mortified, angry and disgusted by the outrageous, juvenile and dangerous, bullying show of grift, ignorance and dictatorship performed by our mentally incompetent president and his ridiculously subservient vice president.
Can you please help direct those of us who feel compelled to let President Zelensky know how upset we are at the travesty of justice he endured at the hands of our disgusting, ignorant, bully of a president and his boot-licking vice president?
Thank you in advance for any help you can give on this subject and for all the great content you and Norm Eisen have provided us via The Contrarian.
P.S. Since we can't be certain if this "performance spectacle" by Trump was strictly to appease Trump's Russian overlord or to hide some new illegal attempt to rip our government apart--or both, I hope those in the know will keep a lookout for any Friday Surprise this "administration" might slip into the late news tonight.
Sounds as though Schimel is just a real peach, one who clearly deserves to go live in the Middle Ages. He'd be much happier there, but probably wouldn't get as many bribes, er donations, from the far, far, far right.
Do donations count as "spending money" today when there's the spending strike? It seems to me they're completely different, but I want to do my part today.
We need to be shouting this from the rooftops:
All Republicans need to do to balance the budget is; NOTHING. Let the Trump tax cuts expire and the billionaires will be picking up their fair share of living in America.
Otherwise, the working class people paying the price for the billionaire's enjoying their free ride through life.
Republicans have been great at doing NOTHING, so let us play to their strengths. Let the tax cuts expire.
It would not balance it, but it sure would go a long way.
If we had the same revenue to GDP that we had under Clinton (and by the way his economy and GDP growth was far better than any president since) we would have 2.9% more revenue to GDP.
.029 X 30 trillion = 870 billion more in revenue and less in deficits.
This would be 1/2 way there. Most of the rest is Mandatory spending like for SS and Medicare and Medicaid - so we need to boost the payroll tax a bit more or make the cut off for paying this tax higher, but allow us to deduct all of this tax not just 1/2 from income to get taxable income. Lower income self-employed folks are double taxed due to some of the payroll taxes.
Of course this means we would need to get rid of Bush's tax cuts too.
I'd like to keep the standard deduction high though, because it helps lower income folks the most.
You are absolutely right. But it is a faltering step in the right direction. In addition to your suggestions, we need to take the max income cap off of SS tax. Our children and grandchildren deserve at least this gesture.
What safeguards prevent Trump from taking over the military and send shady Browncoats to arrest all the Contrarians? I wanted to see that story MONDAY.
Stop writing for educated New Yorkers and use vocabulary everyone understands. Otherwise you will marginalize yourselves as elites who only understand each other. Even your self title has the ring of precious superiority. You need a newspaper reporter from a flyover state to take your message to a broader audience.
As one of the audience/readers in a flyover state (Illinois), I have no problem with the language or ideas expressed in this site. The writing doesn't need to be dumbed down: it's perfectly understandable. It's also entirely credible. The complaint and observations appear to be unfounded.