Yes, this is (currently) new and different for him. It involves yet another monument that he’s turned into a vanity project. People aren’t happy about this. Lawsuits are a-coming, and he can’t pass this off as belonging to someone else. Oh, no, it’s all about him. We can bet that repercussions didn’t even occur to him, and he’s going to be paying the price (we hope). It will hit him in the pocketbook. Thank you, Raw Story:
Donald Trump has been hit with legal action over his renaming of the Kennedy Center. Former White House ethics lawyer Norm Eisen, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney who is among those challenging the name change in the lawsuit, confirmed the president would be taken to task on the damaging name change. Speaking with CBS, Eisen said, “The damages have been substantial, and that will be addressed in the case.”
“They include far more, of course, than the high cost of signage and of the other naming changes. The losses to the performing corps, to the audience base, to the bottom line of the Center, to its memorial and other activities, and indeed to the arts and arts education themselves have been vast.”
The Center is a much faded memory of itself. *No one* wants to go there anymore, be it audience or artists. Trump’s name on it made it abhorrent to the country. It’s not for the performing arts anymore. It’s a ghost that’s fading more and more day by day. No other president has even considered doing this to it. Only Trump. Only a temperamental child trying to grab it for himself and thinking everything else will fall into place. It hasn’t, and it won’t.
Ohio Democrat Rep. Joyce Beatty filed a federal civil lawsuit against Trump calling for a name change to the Kennedy Center. A judge’s order has been sought to return the name to “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts” and to nullify the vote to have changed the name of the arts venue.
The mood in the Kennedy Center since the name change has been commented on by an insider, who says the atmosphere soured soon after Trump waded in to make sweeping changes. A venue insider, speaking to The Guardian’s Charlotte Higgins, says the atmosphere post-name change is very negative. They said it was like a “funeral parlor – there’s a deathly pall over the place”.
One thing is for sure – it’s not going to attract many tourists anymore, if any at all. Artists will certainly be able to find other venues. This is painful just to read about, let alone see. And so, so many questions. Is it going to end up shut down because no one will go there? Is it going to fade into obscurity? How much more damage will be done before we can get rid of Trump? If he kicks off before 3 years from now, what will JD do to it? Will he be smart and put it back to what it was? The more we look at this, the worse it gets.
House Democrats have since introduced two bills that could intervene in the Kennedy Center renaming. Rep. April McClain Delaney confirmed a bill had been introduced to “require the removal of any signage or other identification from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts that differs from the designation ‘John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.'” Delaney said, “A president can’t enshrine himself. This is what authoritarian leaders do, it’s arrogant, and it’s narcissistic.”
All three words describe Trump to a T. He has nothing to do with the arts, not even close. His arts would be waving from his box at the Center (performing arts, right?) and making money, grifting, getting all for him and none for you or me. Oh, and taking awards that belong to other people. Stop the world. We want to throw him off.
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
The lede picture captures his age nicely.
He looks nearly 90.
In many traditions, to rid a building of any negative energy, a cleansing ritual is involved, usually employing sage and in southwestern Native American traditions, this is specifically white sage. Unfortunately, that variety has been so overused by “practitioners” (no intended disrespect with the quotes, just recognition some are legit and others are grifters out for an easy buck) that the species is considered endangered in the wild. And to attempt to cleanse the Kennedy Center of that malodorous Drumpfian stench and aura would completely wipe out the species (aside, presumably, from the seeds that have been collected and stored in that Norwegian research facility).
Okay, now what about that disgraceful Board that Trump installed, full of his asskissers and bootlickers? As long as they run the place, no one will want to come, no matter what name’s on the outside.
ETTD!