Ruth Ben Ghiat a Professor of History and Italian Studies at New York University, Advisor to Protect Democracy, and the recipient of Guggenheim and other fellowships. She has been a consultant on historical feature and documentary films and advises governments and corporations (including the U.S. House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol) on autocrats and authoritarian parties and the threats to democracy they pose.
Please be sure to support Ruth on her own page, Lucid, where each week, subscribers receive essays and posts about the most pressing issues of the day.
Professor Ben Ghiat gives us insight on what to expect from Trump now that he has been inaugurated.
Eisen and Rubin join us as tonight’s guests for Five Questions. I’ll let them tell you the story of how they hatched a plan to create a new media company called The Contrarian and what they hope to achieve. It’s a compelling story of how, through community and support for fellow pro-democratic voices, we’re going to make it through Trump 2.0 and come out strong on the other side. You can subscribe to The Contrarianhere.
“Five Questions” is a feature for paid subscribers, my way of thanking people who are able to support this work so that I can devote the necessary time and resources to it. I appreciate everyone who reads the newsletter and works to stay informed, so free subscriptions, with access to all of the other posts, will always be available.
Joyce: So, tell us how you came up with the idea for The Contrarian? How did you get from Jen wanting to step away from her job at The Post to, “Hey, let’s start a whole new media company?”
Jen and Norm: It was all one big leap of faith. Jen had grown disgusted with The Post’s capitulation to Trump and was convinced we needed an alternative to the billionaire and corporate owned media. Norm had a vision for an unabashed, pro-democracy outlet that would not only feature politics and law but also culture. [...]
Joyce: What has the early response been like? And what about The Contrarian do you think people are responding to?
Jen and Norm: We are blown away! It has been one of the biggest launches in Substack history. Not only have we passed 275,000 subscribers in just a few days but we have been flooded with writers wanting to contribute and other outlets who want to collaborate. Our early success completely confirms our thesis that people are hungry for something like this.
Joyce: I’m incredibly excited that my project, The Democracy Index, will be part of the Contrarian.
Jen and Norm: Yours is at the top of the list. Helping people process the daily barrage of authoritarian maneuvers is critical. In the short run we are very excited about our Inauguration Day coverage. Can’t bear to watch those who will normalize and even venerate Trump? We are going to have satire, mockery, and gleeful derision.
Biden's address this evening was at least as poignant and salient as Eisenhower's just before JFK was inaugurated in 1961. Ike warned of the dangers of power concentrated in the Military Industrial Complex. Biden warns of unprecedented concentration of power and wealth in the hands so few.
At the 23:50 minute mark of the video (btw, President Biden doesn't begin until 16 minutes or so into the vid), Biden warns of the dangerous concentration of power into the hands of a small number of ULTRA wealthy people. Today, an extreme oligarchy is forming in America that literally threatens our basic rights and freedoms.
*****
Today I also received this from Democracy Docket reflecting on Jack Smith's January 6, 2021 report (released just a day or so ago):
Were it not for President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory, an investigation found that there was enough evidence to convict him in a trial for his crimes. [...]
[T]he full report nonetheless offers the most comprehensive view yet into the overwhelming evidence of Trump’s alleged election subversion crimes.
Trump was charged in August 2023 with four counts for his [TREASONOUS] efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election: Conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against the right to vote and have one’s vote counted.
“[F]or more than two months following election day on November 3, 2020, the Defendant [Donald Trump] spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won,” the indictment read. “These claims were false, and the Defendant knew that they were false.”
One disappointment I have at this time in history is that broadcast/print and many on social media NOW write as if Trump has already retaken the Oval Office. He has not. He may do so next Monday at noon Eastern Time. Remember Yale historian Professor Timothy Snyder's guidance to refuse to obey in advance.
It may be short, but there IS still time for Congress to bar Trump, for good and proper cause, from ever taking office again. They should enact legislation declaring him ineligible for office pursuant to the United States Constitution, 14th amendment, Section 3.
In the meantime, I refuse to express in MY WORDS that Trump has retaken office.
Released roughly an hour ago by Attorney General Garland, the only place I have found Special Counsel Jack Smith's report on Trump's interference with the January 6, 2021 case thus far is on MSNBC.com
The report is 174 pages and so far, one has to read it without downloading it.
I suspect several journalists will be staying up to read it. Look for more insight on what it contains after YOU get a good night's sleep unless you have plenty of coffee already brewing.
If Donald Trump wasn’t elected president in November, the Justice Department had ample evidence to convict him of trying to obstruct the 2020 election results, special counsel Jack Smith said in a report released early Tuesday morning.
