Gaza is on the brink of a catastrophic man-made famine.

 

Starvation is already widespread; one in three people are going days at a time without food, and children are dying daily of hunger-related causes. After imposing a full blockade for months, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is now letting in only a fraction of the aid needed, and the current distribution sites are functioning as nightmarish death traps. Over 1,000 Palestinians trying to feed themselves and their families have been killed by Israeli forces (and possibly US contractors) since May.1 The images are so heartbreaking, the situation so dire, that we are beginning to see calls for action from across the ideological spectrum. Even Trump has publicly broken with Netanyahu over the images on his TV. But words mean little. Our elected leaders from both parties need to demand that Trump use US leverage to address this manufactured humanitarian crisis immediately. Call your senators. Tell them to push Trump to actually deliver on his offer to increase humanitarian aid and ensure that aid is safely delivered by trusted third parties. Then, call your representative. This is the bare minimum. If the US used all its leverage (as we’ve long called for), it could achieve a ceasefire, end what we -- and leading international human rights groups -- consider to be an ongoing genocide, and secure the release of all the hostages.2 Tragically and infuriatingly, we have neither a president nor a Congress at this time remotely willing to do so. But most Democrats and an increasing number of Republicans in Congress do agree that this intentional starvation of civilians must end. And now that Trump has echoed those sentiments, Congress must loudly call on him to follow through with action. Tell your senators to demand immediate action to end the intentional starvation of Gaza. In solidarity, Indivisible Team P.S. Netanyahu’s restrictions are making it difficult for World Central Kitchen to do its work, but it remains on the ground in Gaza offering hot meals. Please consider a donation to support its heroic mission. [1] US contractors say their colleagues are firing live ammo as Palestinians seek food in Gaza, AP, 7/2/2025 [2] That list includes Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Doctors Without Borders, and leading Israeli human rights org B'Tselem.

Israel’s measures do nothing to stop Gaza starvation crisis, say aid workers

 

The UN has called for a full ceasefire and for Israel to allow humanitarian aid in.

Children sit near a food distribution point in Gaza City amid widespread food shortages. Photograph: APA Images/Shutterstock

Aid workers have said Israel’s new measures – meant to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza – fall far short of what is needed and aid access continues to be blocked amid the population’s spiraling famine. The new measures, which came into effect on Sunday and include daily humanitarian pauses, as well as airdropped aid and humanitarian corridors for UN aid trucks, were announced by Israel as international pressure mounted to alleviate the hunger crisis. Aid groups have said Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip is the principal cause of the starvation crisis, which has seen 151 Palestinians die of hunger, more than half of whom died in the past month alone. While the crisis has deepened, Israel’s military has continued its attacks, killing at least 48 people seeking aid in Gaza on Wednesday, according to the territory’s ministry of health. Meanwhile, the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, said the country will also formally recognize Palestine during the UN general assembly in September, after France and 14 other countries co-signed a declaration. How much aid is now needed? The number of aid trucks that have been entering Gaza since the new measures were announced has increased, with more than 200 trucks entering on Tuesday, according to Israeli customs authority (COGAT). But it falls far below the 500-600 trucks the UN has said is necessary to sustain the 2 million residents of Gaza.

Jem Bartholomew, The Guardian

Surprising Alzheimer’s breakthrough: Sugar in neurons might be the missing link

 

A new study has identified an unexpected contributor to Alzheimer’s disease: glycogen, a complex sugar stored inside brain cells. While traditionally associated with muscles and the liver, glycogen appears to accumulate abnormally in neurons affected by Alzheimer’s and other tau-related disorders.

Scientists found that this buildup may worsen neurodegeneration by disrupting how cells manage energy and oxidative stress. Their findings, published in Nature Metabolism, suggest that breaking down glycogen could help protect neurons and offer a promising new direction for treating or preventing dementia.

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurological condition that impairs memory, thinking, and behavior. It is the most common cause of dementia, especially among older adults. The disease is marked by two key biological abnormalities in the brain: plaques made of amyloid-beta protein and tangles made of another protein called tau.

These protein accumulations disrupt normal cell function, leading to inflammation, cell death, and brain shrinkage over time.

Despite extensive research, effective treatments for Alzheimer’s remain elusive. Most drug development has focused on clearing amyloid or tau from the brain, with limited success. Many researchers now believe that other factors, such as energy metabolism, inflammation, and oxidative stress, may play a role in determining who develops the disease and how quickly it progresses.

“Alzheimer’s disease, first identified over a century ago, remains one of the most challenging neurodegenerative conditions. Despite decades of research and numerous clinical trials aimed at targeting these aggregates, success has been limited,” said study author Pankaj Kapahi, a professor at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging.

“Surprisingly, many people with these protein buildups show little or no cognitive decline, and not everyone with hereditary risk factors develops the disease. This has led scientists to suspect that other overlooked factors may contribute to the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s.”

“Recent research has started to shine a light on the role of environmental and lifestyle factors—particularly diet—in shaping brain health. That question sparked our curiosity: could a rich diet influence the development of Alzheimer’s?”

Glycogen is the storage form of glucose, a sugar that serves as a vital source of energy. The liver and muscles contain most of the body’s glycogen, which is broken down when energy demands increase. The brain, though highly energy-dependent, contains only small amounts of glycogen, mainly in support cells called astrocytes. Neurons—the primary information-processing cells of the brain—have long been thought to store very little glycogen and to rely mainly on a continuous glucose supply from the bloodstream.

However, recent studies have hinted that neurons might store more glycogen than previously thought, especially in disease states. The Buck Institute researchers were interested in whether abnormal glycogen metabolism might be a hidden driver of Alzheimer’s and related tauopathies, and whether correcting it could slow or prevent the disease.

The research team used both fruit fly models and human stem cell-derived neurons to study tauopathies—diseases characterized by tau protein accumulation. In the fly experiments, they used genetic tools to overexpress human tau protein, including a mutant version linked to frontotemporal dementia. These flies developed signs of neurodegeneration, such as shortened lifespan, brain cell death, and structural damage.

The researchers compared flies fed a normal, protein-rich diet to those fed a low-protein, calorie-restricted diet, known to extend lifespan in many species. They also tested the effects of drugs and genetic changes that promote glycogen breakdown.

In parallel, they studied neurons derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), including cells with two different tau mutations associated with dementia. These human neurons were grown in the lab and analyzed using fluorescent markers to assess glycogen accumulation, oxidative stress, and related metabolic activity.

The researchers found that tau-expressing neurons—both in flies and in human-derived cells—accumulated large amounts of glycogen. This buildup appeared to be linked to the tau protein itself, which physically interacted with glycogen and prevented its breakdown. The result was a toxic cycle: tau caused glycogen to build up, and the glycogen buildup made the tau accumulation worse.

When the researchers restored activity of an enzyme called glycogen phosphorylase (GlyP), which initiates glycogen breakdown, the effects were striking. In both flies and human neurons, breaking down glycogen reduced oxidative stress, lowered tau burden, and prevented cell death. It also extended the lifespan of tau-expressing flies by nearly 70 percent.

Rather than fueling energy production through glycolysis, the glycogen-derived glucose was diverted into the pentose phosphate pathway. This pathway produces antioxidant molecules like NADPH and glutathione, which protect cells from damage caused by reactive oxygen species. The researchers confirmed that oxidative stress levels dropped sharply in cells with active glycogen breakdown. Blocking this pathway erased the protective effects.

The team also found that dietary restriction increased glycogen phosphorylase activity through a well-known signaling mechanism involving cyclic AMP and protein kinase A. Treating flies with a drug that mimics this pathway had similar effects to calorie restriction, reducing cell death and extending lifespan. This may help explain why drugs used to treat diabetes and promote weight loss—such as GLP-1 agonists—show early signs of benefit in Alzheimer’s trials.

“Sugar metabolism in neurons is different from what was previously believed,” Kapahi told PsyPost. “We found that stored sugars in brain cells can help reduce reactive oxygen species—harmful byproducts of normal metabolism.

However, when these sugars accumulate too much, they can bind to toxic protein buildups and make the condition worse. We identified a pathway that breaks down this sugar buildup in neurons.”

Proteomic and metabolomic analyses supported these findings. The researchers identified dozens of metabolic and mitochondrial genes affected by diet, tau, and glycogen metabolism. Importantly, they found similar changes in brain tissue from Alzheimer’s patients, including upregulation of enzymes involved in glycogen metabolism.

“Using a fruit fly model, our team uncovered a powerful link between a rich diet and the progression of Alzheimer’s-like symptoms,” Kapahi explained. “Under the leadership of postdoctoral researcher Dr. Sudipta Bar, we made a fascinating discovery: neurons in Alzheimer’s patients accumulate an unusual amount of glycogen—a complex sugar molecule not typically found in large quantities in healthy brain cells. Because of its complex structure, glycogen can attach to toxic proteins and may accelerate their aggregation.”

“Even more intriguing, Dr. Bar found that neurons metabolize glycogen differently than other organs, hinting at a unique metabolic vulnerability in the brain. He also identified key upstream proteins and signaling pathways that may be harnessed to prevent or reverse this harmful process. This unexpected connection between diet, sugar metabolism, and protein aggregation opens exciting new avenues for Alzheimer’s research and potential therapies.”

Although the results are promising, the study has several limitations. Most of the experiments were conducted in fruit flies or lab-grown neurons, which do not fully replicate the complexity of the human brain. While human data were used for comparison, more work is needed to confirm whether glycogen metabolism plays the same role in living patients.

It is also unclear whether glycogen accumulation is a cause or a consequence of neurodegeneration, or whether it occurs early enough in the disease process to serve as a useful therapeutic target. Long-term studies in animal models and clinical trials will be needed to explore whether enhancing glycogen breakdown can slow cognitive decline or improve brain health.

The researchers plan to continue exploring how glycogen interacts with tau and other proteins, and whether certain diets or medications can modify this process. “Our long-term goal is to develop therapeutic strategies based on our findings,” Kapahi said.

“In addition, we aim to explore the many questions this study has raised, such as: How does glycogen breakdown help rescue disease pathology? Which metabolic pathways are altered by glycogen breakdown? And how does glycogen bind to toxic proteins?”

“We would like to acknowledge the valuable contributions of Prof. Lisa Ellerby, Prof. Birgit Schilling, and Prof. Tara Tracy from the Buck Institute, as well as Prof. Nicholas Seyfried from Emory University, along with their lab members, for their support and collaboration in this study.”

-Eric W. Dolan

The study, “Neuronal glycogen breakdown mitigates tauopathy via pentose-phosphate-pathway-mediated oxidative stress reduction,” was authored by Sudipta Bar, Kenneth A. Wilson, Tyler A. U. Hilsabeck, Sydney Alderfer, Eric B. Dammer, Jordan B. Burton, Samah Shah, Anja Holtz, Enrique M. Carrera, Jennifer N. Beck, Jackson H. Chen, Grant Kauwe, Fatemeh Seifar, Ananth Shantaraman, Tara E. Tracy, Nicholas T. Seyfried, Birgit Schilling, Lisa M. Ellerby, and Pankaj Kapahi.

Read more at PsyPost

 

Bribes, Bias, and South Park: Trump’s Authoritarian Agenda Hits Primetime

 

The media’s job in a democratic society is to speak truth to power, not to suck up to it. But last week, CBS and its parent company Paramount waved the white flag, handing Donald Trump a $16 million bribe and agreeing to censor their own newsroom to curry favor with a twice-impeached, multiply indicted rapist authoritarian who lost the popular vote twice.

That is not journalism. That’s capitulation. And it’s devastating to democracies.

The CBS merger with Skydance should never have been a political issue. In normal times, regulatory agencies like the FCC operate independently, applying laws without fear or favor. But these are not normal times.

Trump’s FCC — under the control of far-right ideologue Brendan Carr, who helped draft the fascism-friendly blueprint known as Project 2025 — made it clear they’d block the deal unless CBS “cleaned house.” Carr even bragged on CNBC that the merger only went through because Skydance promised to remove “bias” from CBS News. By “bias,” of course, he means “truth.”

Trump and Carr appear to be demanding that CBS stop telling the truth about the GOP’s fascist drift, stop investigating corruption, and stop airing facts that make Trump and the MAGA movement look bad. And CBS didn’t just roll over: they cut a personal check to Trump for $16 million, reportedly threw in an equal amount in free advertising, canceled Stephen Colbert’s show to eliminate critical comedy, and agreed to install a literal “monitor” in their newsroom to hunt down and eliminate so-called “leftwing bias.”

This is not just grotesque. It’s dangerous.

Installing government-friendly “monitors” in newsrooms to silence dissent is one of the first things authoritarians do when they take power. It happened in Hungary under Viktor Orbán. It happened in Russia under Putin. In Germany in the early 1930s, Hitler handed control of the media to Joseph Goebbels and banned reporting that contradicted Nazi talking points.

What Trump and Carr are doing is textbook fascism: co-opting the press, criminalizing dissent, and demanding personal loyalty above all else across both government and the media. The problem, of course, is that reality has a well-known leftwing bias. That’s because reality, unlike rightwing ideology, is rooted in facts. For example:

Trickle-down economics has never helped the working class; it’s a scam to transfer wealth to the rich.

Immigrants are not more likely to commit crimes; they’re less likely.

Late-term abortions are rare and almost always involve severe fetal abnormalities or risks to the mother; women don’t “love getting abortions” or do so with little thought.

Unions raise wages and reduce inequality; they don’t “steal from workers.”

Climate change is real and accelerating, and fossil fuel companies and Republicans have known it — and spent billions to cover it up — for decades.

Renewable energy is cheaper than coal, gas, or oil in most of the world.

People on public assistance are usually not “lazy” but are either disabled, working or actively seeking work, or living in areas where there is no work.

Raising the minimum wage doesn’t increase unemployment; it boosts the economy which increases employment.

Universal healthcare works in every other developed nation; it’s not “impossible” to implement here in America.

The U.S. was not founded as a Christian nation, but as a secular republic.

Yet when these facts and others become “too political” for CBS to air — when truth is treated as liberal bias — we’re in real trouble. If CBS can’t push back on obvious lies because it’s afraid of offending Trump’s FCC, how long before every newsroom falls in line?

This is exactly how freedom of the press — and then freedom for everybody — dies: not with a bang, but with a checkbook and a veiled threat. When media companies start self-censoring to avoid regulatory retribution, they become lapdogs, not watchdogs.

And Trump isn’t even trying to hide this. He’s bragging about it.

Last week, the White House even released a full-on tantrum of a statement attacking South Park for mocking Trump. The show dared to suggest that combining the powers of the presidency with lawsuits and bribes might be a bad thing for democracy. In response, Trump’s staff accused the show of being “irrelevant” and “desperate for attention.”

Can you name any other president in American history who issued a press release attacking a cartoon? But Trump’s not just punching down with his words: he’s using the full weight of the federal government to go after anyone who defies him. He’s already targeted universities, law firms, prosecutors, and journalists with bogus DOJ investigations and regulatory harassment. Now he’s turned the FCC into his personal censorship bureau.

The bribes paid by CBS and ABC weren’t one-offs, they were the first installment in a classic protection racket.

That’s not America. That’s a mob state being run by a man who behaves like a mob boss.

So, what do we do? First, we must stop pretending this is normal. It’s not. CBS didn’t make a “business decision,” they submitted to a political shakedown. And the rest of the media should not let them get away with it.

Second, we must speak out, loudly and relentlessly. Let CBS know that rolling over for a wannabe strongman is unacceptable. Tell your local stations you want truth, not Trump-approved propaganda. Support independent journalism and media outlets willing to tell the truth even when it’s unpopular. Subscribe. Donate. Amplify their work.

And finally, we need to get serious about defending our democracy. That means voting like our freedoms depend on it, because they do. It means rejecting candidates who would silence the press and stack the courts and install “monitors” in our newsrooms. It means recognizing authoritarianism when it’s right in front of us and calling it what it is. It means getting inside your local Democratic Party and fighting for real progressive change and the survival of our republic.

Trump has shown us, again and again, that he will use every lever of power to silence his critics and punish his enemies. Now he has the FCC and a major news network doing his bidding. If we stay silent now, we may not get another chance.

Democracy dies when people stop caring. Let’s prove that we still do.

-Thom Hartmann

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Due process: What it means in US law and its implications for migrant rights

 

As the United States edges up to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026, one of the core principles the founders sought to advance – that the government must act with accountability and in accordance with the rule of law – is being strongly tested.

In their deliberations leading up to the declaration, the founders would not just raise deep concerns that the government of King George III was violating the Colonists’ rights, which they described in the declaration. They would also enshrine these principles in the U.S. Constitution over a decade later through the concept of “due process.”

What did the framers likely mean when they did so? That’s no longer simply an academic question for legal scholars like me. The meaning and application of due process has become a crucial issue in the U.S., most often with respect to the Trump administration’s migrant deportation efforts.

Over the past several months, the U.S. Supreme Court has made several rulings in deportation-related cases with respect to what’s called the due process clause of the Constitution.

In April 2025, in the case Trump v. J.G.G., the court seemed to state quite clearly that deportations could not take place without due process. More recently, however, in D.H.S. v. D.V.D., the Supreme Court prevented a lower court from providing due process protections to a group of men the administration wanted to deport to South Sudan, where they are at risk of facing torture and even death.

These seemingly contradictory rulings not only make it unclear when due process applies but probably leave many asking what the term “due process of law” even means and how it works.

Over the past several months, the U.S. Supreme Court has made several rulings about due process in deportation-related cases. (Mike Kline, Moment/Getty Images)

The origins of due process

The American concept of due process can be traced from medieval England to its modern formulation by the U.S. Supreme Court. Doing so allows the meaning of due process to come into focus. It also calls into question the court’s most recent ruling on this issue.

The concepts of due process and the rule of law largely emerged in the 13th century in the Magna Carta, a formal, written agreement between King John of England and the rebel aristocracy that effectively established legal constraints on government.

One key passage from the Magna Carta provided that “No Freeman shall be taken, or any otherwise imprisoned, or be disseised of his Freehold, or Liberties, or free Customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or destroyed; nor we will not pass upon him, nor condemn him, but by lawful Judgment of his Peers, or by the Law of the Land.”

This accord established formal constraints on a previously unrestrained regent, setting English law on the course that would prioritize rule of law over the whims of the monarch.

Over a century later, Parliament would pass the English statute of 1354 that said “That no Man of what Estate or Condition that he be, shall he put out of Land or Tenement, nor taken nor imprisoned, nor disinherited, nor put to death, without being brought in Answer by due Process of the Law.”

These principlesd evolve over time in British law and then informed the emerging revolutionary spirit in the American Colonies.

Released in January 1776, Thomas Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense would help galvanize and steel many Colonists for the revolutionary conflict to come. The work shifted the focus of Colonists’ anger from trying to force the king to treat them better to more radical change: independence and a country governed by the rule of law.

Thomas Paine wrote in this influential 1776 political pamphlet, ‘For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other.’ Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collections Division

What the Colonists wanted, Paine wrote, was not a monarch: “So far as we approve of monarchy, that in America THE LAW IS KING. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other.”

Defining due process

After independence, many of the original 13 states adopted their own constitutions that would enshrine principles akin to due process to protect their constituents from government overreach, such as that government was to be bound, as it was in Virginia’s Declaration of Rights in 1776, by “the law of the land.”

But it was not until the nation adopted the Bill of Rights – the first 10 amendments to the Constitution – in 1791 that the federal government could not act in a way that deprived the populace of life, liberty or property without due process of law. After the Civil War, the 14th Amendment would apply these same protections to all government action, state and federal.

The contemporary and most comprehensive formulation of what due process requires can be found in the Supreme Court’s ruling in the 1970 case Goldberg v. Kelly, brought by welfare recipients challenging their loss of such benefits without a hearing.

In that case, the court determined that when governments attempt to deprive someone of their life, liberty or property, the target of those attempts must receive fair notice of the charges or claims against them that would justify that loss; be given an opportunity to defend against those claims; and possess the right to have such defenses considered by an impartial adjudicator.

The Supreme Court in 1976 would accept that due process protections in different settings will vary based on a number of variables. Those include what is at stake in the case, the likelihood that government might make a mistake in a particular setting, and the benefits and burdens of providing certain forms of process in a given situation.

When someone’s life is literally on the line, for example, more exacting procedures are required. At the same time, regardless of how important the interest that is subject to due process – whether it is one’s life, one’s home, one’s liberty, or something else – the components of fair notice, an opportunity to be heard, and to have one’s case decided by an impartial adjudicator must be meaningful.

As the court said in Mullane vs. Central Hanover Bank & Trust Co. in 1950: “Process which is a mere gesture is not due process.”

Ray Brescia, Associate Dean for Research and Intellectual Life, Albany Law School for The Conversation

 

This Week in The Contrarian

 

One of the defining characteristics of the Trump administration has been its heinous assaults on hard-working migrants who are guilty of no crime other than wanting to become American citizens. He has assaulted them at every turn, devastating migrant families and communities–a far cry from his campaign promise to target criminals.

Perhaps the most outrageous of these Trump administration acts was the illegal abduction and rendition of hundreds of men to El Salvador, some on bogus claims that they had broken the law or were gang members when no such thing was true.

Because this is still the United States of America, we Contrarians do not need to take this lying down. That is why I was so proud, working with friend of the Contrarian Juan Proaño and his organization LULAC, to file on Thursday the very first Federal Tort Claims Act case that seeks accountability for the administration's wrongdoing. We did so on behalf of Neiyerver Adrián Leon Rengel, who was unlawfully detained and removed from the United States. (You can read the New York Times report on this landmark case here.)

Mr. Rengel was among a group of Venezuelan nationals forcibly transferred by the Trump administration to CECOT, the notorious maximum-security prison in El Salvador, despite a federal court order prohibiting that.

No damages claim (here for over $1 million) can erase the trauma Mr. Rengel has suffered. But, this legal action is a necessary step toward accountability and justice. We and our LULAC partners will press to ensure the government gives Rengel and his family the resources they need through their recovery.

We will continue to fight Trump’s illegal and inhumane policies on this and many other fronts thanks to your help. Because the Contrarian is owned by nobody, all profits go to support legal matters like this one and more than 100 others that my colleagues and partners have filed. Your paid subscriptions not only get you the Contrarian’s unparalleled coverage of our democracy every day, but they also fuel the effort to preserve it. If you're not a paid subscriber, please consider becoming one today.

This week, the Contrarian also offered some of the hardest hitting coverage of the Trump-Epstein scandal as enumerated in the roundup below—and, with your help, I also filed multiple FOIA requests across the government demanding the Trump-Epstein files. Indeed, after we filed, the media revealed that the exact documents we were seeking did in fact exist.

My colleagues believe that the FOIA requests helped smoke that out. The Trump-Epstein files we are demanding on your behalf matter so much to our democracy (as I explained in a column this week). This administration is by far the most corrupt that we’ve seen in modern American history and the Trump-Epstein scandal exemplifies that. As with the Big, Brutal, Betrayal Bill and Trump’s massive paydays from the same crypto industries his government is in charge of regulating, this latest scandal is about benefiting his wealthy cronies and the terrible harm to the most vulnerable.

I believe all of that is why Trump's popularity has been steadily sinking since he was inaugurated. This week, with the Trump-Epstein scandal, it dropped to a startling 37%. The American people don’t like targeting innocent immigrants, the Big, Brutal Betrayal, the crypto cash-in, the Trump-Epstein connection, and the corruption all of that exemplifies.

Of course, here at The Contrarian, neither we nor you needed public opinion polls to tell us that Trump would be an authoritarian disaster. We knew that based on his own words during the campaign— including promising to be a dictator on day one—and his deeds. They ranged from the chaos of his first administration to his actions leading up to and on Jan. 6, 2021, to his 34 felony convictions. It hardly took a political genius to anticipate what the past six months were going to be, and yet you and we understood it when so many others did not. And we have kept on getting it! This was another huge week for our Contrarian contributors….

Trump Should Be Panicking over Epstein

In the wake of reports of a potential meeting between Ghislaine Maxwell and Deputy AG Todd Blanche, Jen Rubin laid out exactly how the scandal threatens Trump’s survival as president and, by extension, the entire GOP. "Will Republicans go along with a massive coverup, the sort of corrupt self-protection racket that authoritarian leaders pull to defend indefensible conduct?”

Maurene Comey’s unjustified firing looks even more corrupt today

Mimi Rocah and Jacqueline Kelly wrote on the DOJ’s disturbing choice to fire Maurene Comey, the prosecutor who helped take down Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, without reason last week—or at least, without any reason that isn’t sheer corruption. "In any other DOJ universe, the prosecutors who finally held Epstein criminally accountable would be given the highest awards—not fired."

How deep does this conspiracy go? Rep. Raskin on the Epstein coverup

Rep. Jamie Raskin joined Jen to discuss the administration’s refusal to release the Epstein files despite bipartisan support, why MAGA feels betrayed by Trump’s noncompliance, and the incomprehensible lack of accountability for the accused abusers. "Donald Trump has this unusual habit of always returning to the scene of the crime."

E. Jean Carroll's take on the Trump-Epstein scandal

E. Jean Carroll gave her indelible thoughts on what it will take to hold the powerful accountable in the Epstein case, and how Trump’s base has clung to belief this long. "They will never accept a truth that goes to the heart of the cult, which is that Donald Trump is this Savior, and he's the one who's going to protect them against the evil Democrats….”

Public health–new and evolving threats

Our entire healthcare system is in jeopardy: Bruce Siegel on rural hospitals, Medicaid, & the social safety net

Bruce Siegel, CEO of America’s Essential Hospitals, joined Jen to explain how cuts to social welfare benefits will have a massive ripple effect on American society, including roughly 16 million people losing their health care coverage. "This is the biggest step backward for the safety net and just for caring for our fellow people I think in American history."

Tennessee opens a new front in its unrelenting attacks on bodily autonomy

Jennifer Weiss-Wolf wrote on a new law in Tennessee that allows doctors to deny treatment based on “conscience,” and which has already been used to deny a woman prenatal care. "One thing is certain: These kinds of laws double as an affront to democracy."

Abandoning Public Media Is a Threat to Public Health

Allyn Brooks-LaSure of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation explained the essential role public broadcasting serves in times of crisis, saving lives with timely local updates during floods, fires, and other disasters. With the extreme defunding in Trump’s budget bill, more than media literacy will be lost in communities nationwide.

The Monster Behind the Big Beautiful Bill

Author and anti-hunger advocate Mariana Chilton wrote on the devouring corporate greed behind the coming decimation of SNAP and Medicaid. “Something else is at work that has been present since America’s inception…Many people know it but seem afraid to lift the veil.”

No more politics as usual (and how Democrats must respond)

Republicans are brazenly rigging the 2026 midterms

Max Flugrath of Fair Fight wrote on the Trump DOJ’s backing of Alabama Republicans after a court found they intentionally suppressed Black voters—and how Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott are racing to gerrymander while they can. "It’s authoritarianism in motion.... Republicans move full speed ahead. If Democrats won’t defend the people’s rights with equal resolve, the game is already over."

Booker’s lament can't stop Senate Republicans from acting as Trump's henchmen

In a congress that has effectively ceded the power of the purse to the executive branch, wrote Austin Sarat, Sen. Booker’s pleas to work across the aisle can only fall on deaf ears. "Reciprocity, courtesy, cordiality, and decorum were what used to make the Senate work. All that is long gone." Democrats must find their own version of the only game in town: hardball.

Democrats can wrangle back checks and balances with the 2026 budget

Tom Malinowski looked ahead to a new budget fight at the end of the (fiscal) year, on Sept. 30, arguing that it represents a vital opportunity for Chuck Schumer and his caucus to draw a new line and reclaim the power of the purse from the administration. “Let the mantra be: No budget guardrails, no budget deal."

After being attacked by Trump for years, Barack Obama should be an ‘angry Black man’

Carron J. Phillips highlighted one Democrat Trump has been targeting with belittling, dishonest, racist vitriol for a political lifetime—Barack Obama—and argued that it’s high time the former president stopped turning the other cheek. “Barack Obama embodies everything that Donald Trump aspires to be but knows he can’t…[and] with Obama’s oratory skills, his words will always do more damage than any sticks and stones could.”

Who’s fighting back

The Contrarian covers the Democracy Movement

This week we covered billboards bringing the Epstein files message home, Good Trouble living on protests in Colorado, California, New Jersey, Tennessee, and more. Get help organizing from Indivisible, find protests in your area at mobilize.us, and send us your protest photos at submit@contrariannews.org.

Rural America is worth saving: Jess Piper on finding blue dots in red states

Jess Piper joined Jen to warn how GOP-led cuts to Medicaid, public media, and weather services are devastating rural communities—but also to spread the word about real excitement in rural spaces and new avenues for Democrats to build local power and hope. “Trump might win this state. But you can win the school board. You can win the city council.”

How Andor is Inspiring Fans to Fight Authoritarianism in the Real World

Meredith Blake joined Indivisible’s Leah Greenberg to discuss the unlikely link between Star Wars fandom and real-world resistance. It turns out that fighting an Empire can get people excited about, well…

Three mayors are reducing crime by investing in residents

Shalise Manza Young wrote on three Black mayors–in Chicago, Baltimore, and Birmingham—who are leading historic declines in shootings and homicides by proving that investing in people, not policing, can reduce violent crime.

Fun stuff

This week’s cartoons brought broken “MAGA Goggles” in Tom the Dancing Bug, fascist-forward footwear in Nick Anderson’s If the shoe fits, and a getup only Trump could love in RJ Matson’s Nothing to see here….clearly, the emperor could use some new clothes.

Marissa Rothkopf Bates blessed us with another fantastic summer dessert. This week, she taught us how to bake a peach galette with ginger frangipane! This treat has a 100% success rate for satiating a sweet tooth!

This week, we were so lucky to feature the wonderful, the spectacular, the REGAL Stripey as The Contrarian Pet of the Week. Stripey is a 15 year old American Shorthair who loves to rest, watch TV with the family, and solve puzzles to earn some treats.

 

That's it for now Contrarians. Have a great weekend and see you at 9:15 AM ET on Monday for Coffee with the Contrarians! Warmly, Norman Eisen

 

Trump Epstein Obama

When the walls start closing in, Donald Trump doesn’t lawyer up: he doubles down. With Epstein’s ghost rattling through the headlines and the threat of explosive disclosures looming, Team Trump has rolled out its most cynical, racially-charged distraction yet: accuse Barack Obama of treason.

It’s not about justice. It’s not about truth. It’s a deliberate psyop meant to hijack the news cycle, enrage the MAGA base, and erase Epstein’s name from every chyron in America. Which is why it appears that the Trump White House is closing in on the conclusion that the only story that could be “big enough” to blow Epstein off the front pages will be “Obama Committed Treason!”

They’re busily assigning investigators, FBI agents, lawyers, and others in the Justice Department to find everything they can that might implicate our first Black president in having committed High Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Democrats and many in the media are essentially ridiculing the effort, arguing that nobody is naïve enough — or malicious enough — to believe such a story. But things that seem illogical or even flat-out nuts to reporters and Democrats may, according to a scientific study published in recent months, make perfect sense for Trump supporters.

Titled Malevolent vs. Benevolent Dispositions and Conservative Political Ideology in the Trump Era and published last fall in The Journal of Research in Personality, the authors looked at the personality factors that showed up consistently among Trump supporters versus the rest of the American population.

What they found is both shocking and absolutely consistent with the observations and suspicions of those of us who have to regularly interact with Trump followers: they’re sick, at least by the standards of liberal democracy. They lack empathy and even get pleasure out of watching other people in pain.

In the conclusions section of their published article, the University of North Texas Psychology Department researchers explain: “We examined the associations between broad dispositions with political ideology that included views of Trump. Malevolent (+) and benevolent (−) dispositions predicted this ideology. In aggregate, those favorable to Trump reported greater malevolent and lower benevolent propensities, less empathy, and more enjoyment of others’ suffering.”

Given that Trump is quickly moving America toward autocracy, it shouldn’t be surprising that he himself displays the so-called Dark Triad of personality characteristics that are so easily observed in historical figures like Hitler, Pinochet, Mussolini, and modern-day autocrats like Putin, Orbán, and Erdoğon:

“Autocrats manifest socially aversive personality, including malevolent traits in the Dark Triad: narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism, and the same has been found for Trump. Similar results have been found for authoritarians’ loyal foot soldiers. … Thus, it is not surprising perhaps that voters with aversive traits tend to prefer aversive political figures.”

They point out that there are numerous studies that have been done over the years showing that people with “malevolent” dispositions tend toward conservatism while those with “benevolent” personalities are more likely to be liberals. They define their terms in clear, analytical language:

“A malevolent disposition reflects wishing ill will or doing harm to others, while a benevolent disposition involves intending or showing goodwill or kindness to others. …

“A malevolent disposition is measured via aversive features of Machiavellian manipulativeness, psychopathic callousness, and narcissistic self-absorption, all negatively associated with empathy and positively associated with antisocial behavior.”

As they note, Trump rings all the malevolent bells, but they wanted to know if his followers also had the same antisocial personality traits:

“A political candidate who boasts about being able to shoot someone can be understood in terms of a malevolent disposition. We seek to understand the voters who embrace such a politician and propose that insight may be gained by examining the links between malevolent dispositions and political ideology.

“Taken together, we propose that more extreme (malevolent) dispositions are necessary for understanding today’s modern incarnation of conservatism that includes a positive view of Trump.”

What they found was that — among white men — the stronger the constellation of antisocial personality characteristics a person carried, the more likely they were to support Trump and support him with a fervor that reflected the intensity of those qualities.

It was so vivid that even those on the extreme end of the antisocial spectrum — psychopaths — were generally enthusiastic about Trump and his policies, regardless (or perhaps because) of how many people those policies hurt:

“Across two different samples, we found a positive association between conservative ideology/positive view of Trump and malevolent disposition. For white men, psychopathic propensities predicted conservative ideology/positive view of Trump. …

“Thus, the current results add to a growing literature on a link between malevolent (aversive) dispositions and conservative ideology. Moreover, our results are in line with Barber and Pope (2019) who found those tied to a Trumpian symbolic ideology were most inclined to be uncivil to others. The results from both samples found that latent psychopathic and malevolent disposition means were significantly elevated among individuals who viewed Trump favorably.”

Interestingly, they noted that among racial minorities and women carrying many of these same personality characteristics, there wasn’t the same strong correlation between antisocial personalities and support for Trump; they mused that “sociocultural factors must be at play as well.”

This was because, they concluded, discrimination and the violence often associated with it had shaped even the authoritarians among minorities and women to be more liberal, more accepting of others, and less willing to go along with policies that hurt other people:

“Longitudinal research suggests that race/ethnicity may moderate the associations of RWA (Right Wing Authoritarianism) and SDO (Social Dominance Orientation) with conservative political behavior and gender might moderate the association between personality and conservatism with a stronger association for males than females. These moderation effects may be due in part to the fact that RWA and SDO are linked with racism and sexism.”

Which brings us to the big question they must be debating right now in the White House: Will indicting or even trying Obama for treason be enough to cause even “liberal” college-educated reporters and media executives to decide that it’s a big enough story to eclipse their now-nearly-constant coverage of Trump’s association with Epstein and the young women and girls they are widely believed to have exploited?

Trump and his people already know that going after our nation’s only Black president is good politics when it comes to their base, and right now that’s the group they’re most freaked out about losing. If the base goes, Trump won’t be far behind; it wasn’t until Nixon’s public approval ratings had collapsed among the GOP base in 1974 that Barry Goldwater felt safe visiting the White House and telling him it was time to leave.

That suggests that they’ll go all in on attacking Obama, perhaps even manufacturing information or — like Tulsi Gabbard is now doing — coming up with straw man arguments that are close enough to truth to confuse the majority of Americans. The strategy seems to be working over on Fox “News” and on rightwing hate radio, which have been pounding on the Obama “treason” story for several days now with few signs of letting up.

I’m skeptical, however, that mainstream media outlets will go along with this unless they’re subjected to overwhelming pressure from the Trump White House. And until those news and opinion operations have a change of focus, Trump is going to find it very hard to put Epstein and his victims behind him.

Their second bet on this, being acted on by House Speaker Mike Johnson, is to assume that if they can shut down Congress for a month it’ll put a halt to all political conversations during the August summer vacation season, leading to a recess of sorts on the Epstein issue. Historically — as I’ve learned from doing political talk radio for 23 years now — the summer is pretty dead when it comes to politics.

This is probably wishful thinking in the Epstein/Trump case, however, because Trump can’t keep himself off the TV. He has a deep, neurotic need for attention and approval (which he interprets as love) that, as I lay out in detail in my new book The Last American President: A Broken Man, a Corrupt Party, and a World on the Brink, drives him to constantly draw attention to himself.

Also, when Congress reconvenes in September it’s likely the discharge petition requiring a full confidential disclosure to members of Congress of the Epstein files — that will have “ripened” by then and thus be subject to a vote — will still be there.

Nonetheless, because Trump and the people around him all suffer from the same collection of personality disorders and assume that most other people think the same way they do, I’d bet that they’ll still go after Obama in as big a way as they can.

This isn’t just a political maneuver: it’s a scorched-earth strategy born of desperation and malevolence. Trump and his enablers know their only way out is down, dragging the country with them into a pit of conspiracy, vengeance, and manufactured outrage.

If the media blinks, if Democrats shrug, if the public falls for the bait, the damage won’t just be another headline. It’ll be a rupture in the fabric of truth itself.

The only question now is: 

Will America call the bluff, or fall for the con?

Will it succeed?

Will it backfire?

Will Obama finally get up on his hind legs and start fighting (unlike when the GOP stole his nomination of Garland to the Supreme Court and he didn’t say much at all)?

Will JD Vance finally get the shot at the presidency that he so clearly seems to crave?

-Thom Hartmann: My daily work depends on readers like you. Subscribe for free to stay in the loop or become a paid subscriber to power the fight for democracy!

 

Captain Benjamin L. Salomon

   

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Captain Ben L. Salomon was serving at Saipan, in the Marianas Islands on July 7, 1944, as the Surgeon for the 2nd Battalion, 105th Infantry Regiment, 27th Infantry Division.

The Regiment's 1st and 2nd Battalions were attacked by an overwhelming force estimated between 3,000 and 5,000 Japanese soldiers. It was one of the largest attacks attempted in the Pacific Theater during World War II.

Although both units fought furiously, the enemy soon penetrated the Battalions' combined perimeter and inflicted overwhelming casualties. In the first minutes of the attack, approximately 30 wounded soldiers walked, crawled, or were carried into Captain Salomon's aid station, and the small tent soon filled with wounded men.

As the perimeter began to be overrun, it became increasingly difficult for Captain Salomon to work on the wounded. He then saw a Japanese soldier bayoneting one of the wounded soldiers lying near the tent. Firing from a squatting position, Captain Salomon quickly killed the enemy soldier.

Then, as he turned his attention back to the wounded, two more Japanese soldiers appeared in the front entrance of the tent. As these enemy soldiers were killed, four more crawled under the tent walls. Rushing them, Captain Salomon kicked the knife out of the hand of one, shot another, and bayoneted a third. Captain Salomon butted the fourth enemy soldier in the stomach and a wounded comrade then shot and killed the enemy soldier.

Realizing the gravity of the situation, Captain Salomon ordered the wounded to make their way as best they could back to the regimental aid station, while he attempted to hold off the enemy until they were clear. Captain Salomon then grabbed a rifle from one of the wounded and rushed out of the tent.

After four men were killed while manning a machine gun, Captain Salomon took control of it. When his body was later found, 98 dead enemy soldiers were piled in front of his position. Captain Salomon's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself his unit and the United States Army.

Details

·       Rank: Captain

·       Conflict/Era: World War II

·       Unit/Command:
2nd Battalion, 105th Infantry Regiment,
27th Infantry Division

·       Military Service Branch: U.S. Army

·       Medal of Honor Action Date: July 7, 1944

·       Medal of Honor Action Place: Saipan, Saipan, Marianas Islands

-Stories of Sacrifice, Congressional Medal of Honor Society

 

"The issue now threatens Trump’s survival as president—and, by extension, every Republican’s political career"

 

If you thought the Trump squad’s deal to conditionally dismiss New York Mayor Eric Adams’s multiple corruption charges in exchange for assistance in the lawless onslaught against immigrants was a “corrupt bargain,” as many attorneys in the South District of New York U.S. attorney’s office and Main Justice did, buckle up.

A potential, disgusting deal between the Trump regime and Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted colleague of Jeffrey Epstein, is gaining new attention. Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years for conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors to participate in illegal sex acts, transporting a minor to participate in illegal sex acts, sex trafficking conspiracy, and sex trafficking of a minor.

In the midst of a firestorm that Donald Trump can no longer contain regarding his refusal to release all materials concerning Epstein and his clients, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche (Trump’s former personal attorney) announced a meeting with Maxwell (whom Trump previously wished well).

Maxwell is currently appealing her conviction. What could possibly be the basis for the number two person in the Justice Department to meet with the woman at the center of the criminal enterprise that now threatens to envelop Trump in a scandal like none other in his sordid career? (Interestingly, Attorney General Pam Bondi, already the object of scorn for her insistence that there is no “list” to release, has now taken a back seat.)

The prospect for such a meeting has set off alarm bells, even within the MAGA camp. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) actually got something right when she proposed that Maxwell could be “bartering for something.” Put more bluntly, Maxwell could be making a deal to pardon or shorten her sentence in exchange for exonerating Trump. This would be the height of corruption, raising the potential for impeachment and/or criminal investigation.

It seems preposterous that anyone would believe Maxwell’s possible exoneration of Trump after getting a deal from the ethically compromised Justice Department. However, Trump may be so desperate to persuade a segment of his most deluded cult members to let up that he is willing to risk elevating the scandal.

So far, it seems to be backfiring. On Tuesday, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) offered a motion in the House Oversight and Government Reform committee to subpoena Maxwell. It passed on a voice vote. Members of Congress will apparently be able to ask questions about Epstein’s associate, her contact with the Trump Justice Department, and the existence of documents. While she might assert her 5^th Amendment rights not to testify (so long as her case is on appeal), the questions posed in and of themselves should be enlightening.

Moreover, the scandal has forced the House to grind to a halt. “Republicans on the House Rules Committee continue to oppose allowing any legislation to reach the House floor for a vote this week,” the Washington Post reported. “That’s because they fear Democrats will introduce amendments related to Epstein. Democrats on the panel did so twice last week, and Republicans faced blowback from constituents and the MAGA base for voting against releasing the files.” The GOP chair of the committee said it might not meet again until September, and the House is set to scurry out of town for recess on Wednesday.

The Blanche meeting, like all the other attempts to divert attention (e.g., an appalling AI video showing President Obama’s arrest, the release of Martin Luther King, Jr. files, demands that the Guardians and Commanders revert to their previous names, and a threat to prosecute Trump nemesis, California Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff) is unlikely to quell the uproar. While clueless, cynical legacy media practicing access journalism might insist the issue is going away (or Trump, at least, is gaining the upper hand), these developments show the opposite.

Trump is in a frenzy. Republicans are no longer complacent about a coverup. The public overwhelmingly disapproves of his handling of the scandal. Social media continues to stay on the case. And now the spectacle of Maxwell’s testimony provides the opportunity for wall-to-wall coverage.

House members on both sides of the aisle are irate with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who refused to move forward with a vote to compel release of the documents. Rep. Tom Massie (R-Ky.) earned the ire of the Speaker (and Trump) after he scolded Johnson: “Who’s he gonna pick? Is he going to stand with the pedophiles and underage sex traffickers? Or is he gonna pick the American people and justice for the victims? … It’s irrespective of what the president wants.”

That comes close to the nub of the issue: Will Republicans go along with a massive coverup, the sort of corrupt self-protection racket that authoritarian leaders pull to defend indefensible conduct? The issue now threatens Trump’s survival as president—and, by extension, every Republican’s political career.

Once the MAGA GOP is seen as the party that protects rich, creepy, abusive, elite men at the expense of everyone else, they will be recognized for the villains they once claimed Democrats to be. After all, a deep state cover-up of sexual predators who victimized children should be the final straw for all but the most deluded Trump cultists.

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