Dear Everybody:
The Kennedy Center continues to be the top story today as Trump defies court orders, emergency injunctions are applied for, and Trump looks like he’s going to tear the building down:
–Yesterday forklifts put up black metal fencing all around the Kennedy Center and repeatedly rammed into its columns. (Note: The building has thin, rectangular, wooden columns, the kind that could easily be “accidentally” knocked down and then the whole porch would collapse.)
–Trump then called it “the former Kennedy Center.”
–And then last night Trump posted more threats and was spotted through a plane window looking at a large placard headed, “Kennedy Center Demolished.” After the flight, Bill Pulte was photographed carrying the placard off the plane. Both incidents were added as evidence to the emergency injunction filed by Dem Rep Beatty and others this morning at 10 a.m. EDT.
–The emergency injunction said, in part: “It is possible Defendants intend to undertake immediate steps in order to make public access practically impossible for the foreseeable future, including by demolishing public avenues of access to the building, and thereby evade the Court’s order by fait accompli.”
–Unlike the East Wing of the White House, Trump doesn’t even have specious authority to tear the Kennedy Center down even as board chairman. He also doesn’t have the right to withhold the $250 million that Congress appropriated for its maintenance and renovation.
–it’s also important to remember that in 2024, the Kennedy Center made a $40 million dollar profit.
–Hands off the Arts will hold a protest on Friday, making a human chain around the building. (I only hope it’s not too late.)
–Trump was asked, “Why is it so important for you to have your name on the Kennedy Center?” Trump: “Because it’s a mess. I think the Trump administration should certainly have recognition.”
–Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance: “We know how Trump operates. The lawyers may need to go back to court to seek an injunction to prevent him from tearing the Kennedy Center down. Today he told the press, ‘For me to go to fix and subsidize it, I think the Trump administration should have recognition. If we don’t do that, it’s going to close and get ripped down.’ It doesn’t get much clearer than that.”
–George Conway: “It’s pretty obvious where this is headed. He’s saying renovations are needed because the facility is unsafe. But the money for renovation isn’t available unless his name goes on the building.”
–Patient to Purpose: “You need to remember he told everyone he was only going to redo part of the East Wing, then impulsively got a wrecking ball swinging at it before we could get into a courtroom to stop him. We are going to wake up to the whole place being demolished overnight.”
–AntiNarcopathy Pharm D: “Consistent with his pathology and need for domination, power, and control, the narcissist’s psychological pathology uses coercion to get his way. Trump will destroy the building if his name is not on it, destroyed without approval like the East Wing.”
–Sebastian2: “It was always about delegitimizing and later destroying the legacy of a president who was generally beloved, because Trump is a vain, selfish sack of shit.”
–Jim Acosta: “Somebody who is this obsessed with putting his name on the Kennedy Center isn’t well. He’s not normal. He’s out of control.”
–John J Guy: “(Trump) is now out of control. It has been heading this way from Day One. People have simply been indulging and delaying the inevitable. Well, now the inevitable has arrived.”
–Deborah Paley: “It shows clearly the depths of (Trump’s) hatred for all of us that he would not just destroy a building, but the memories of Kennedy and the cultural history of the center itself.”
As proof of the need for the Kennedy Center to be torn down, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick’s wife posted photos of the lobby ceiling collapsing and a big chunk of plaster falling to the ground:
–(Note: Howard Lutnick’s wife is on the Kennedy Center board. And Howard Lutnick is mentioned multiple times in the Epstein files and has lied about being on the island.)
–Trump claimed that the collapse happened because of “collapsing concrete and steel that is rotting” (????). He claimed a guard avoided being hit by the plaster by mere minutes.
–Journalists suspect that the photo was staged. Lutnick claimed the photo was taken by surveillance cameras, but they don’t point at the ground and the yellow “Danger–Caution” sign was directly under the fallen plaster.
–Mike Nellis: “This is the most staged shit I’ve ever seen.”
–An inside source at the Kennedy Center said, “The roof is flat and plaster. Buildings that are soaked with the torrential rainfall DC experienced almost two weeks ago can expect water damage. It’s an easy fix, and I believe they are choosing not to fix it.”
In Iran War news:
–CBS News released shocking new photos of the damage done to US bases in the Middle East.
–They were sent anonymously to CBS by active duty service members.
–Simon Rosenberg: “This is major damage to our bases that hasn’t been communicated to the American public. We’re standing there with our eyes closed getting punched in the face.”
–At the same time, the Pentagon is now admitting that iranian attacks damaged and destroyed hundreds of buildings and structures at US bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, and Jordan.
–They also admitted that dozens of US aircraft have been destroyed: 4 F-15s, 30 MQ9 Reaper drones, one F-35, and 7 KC tanker aircraft.
–A UN fact-finding mission has found grounds to believe the US committed war crimes in Iran.
–Trump: “That war? That war is gonna end very soon. Watch. You just watch, Trump was right about everything. You watch. They’re getting decimated. And they want to make a deal so badly. They call. ‘We want to make a deal.’”
—-The US Embassy in Riyadh posted a Level 3 Advisory to Americans, telling them to reconsider travel to Saudi Arabia due to the risk of Iranian drones, missile targeting of American interests, armed conflict, terrorism, and exit bans. They said, “Do Not Travel to the Yemen Border due to Threat of Terrorism.”
–According to The Intercept, as the US military faces relentless attacks on its bases, the Iran conflict is “ultimately sustainable,” one US official told the Intercept.
–Attorney General/ press secretary Todd Blanche: “Secretary Hegseth is doing a phenomenal job. The secretary of war doesn’t just go off and do things. He follows the law–you called it a ‘war.’ I disagree with that characterization.”
–Missing The Point: “Pete Hegseth, Secretary of I Can’t Believe It’s Not War.”
–The House voted against an appropriations bill to fund the Iran War, a major slap in the face for Trump and Hegseth.
In political news:
–Speaker of the House Mike Johnson adjourned the House early (AGAIN!) to avoid having to hold a floor vote on GOP Rep Thomas Massie’s articles of impeachment against Pete Hegseth. (They did the same thing a couple of weeks ago to avoid a floor vote on a bill demanding the release of more Epstein files.)
–Speaker of the House Mike Johnson: “This House has been the second most productive session of Congress in the history of the institution since 1789.” (Ha!)
–Vice President JD Vance is now begging for Republicans to vote for them in the midterms: “There’s a lot of good that’s been done, but there’s a lot of work left to do. Give us another chance, or give us another couple of years to continue to work on amazing things that we’ve been doing the past two years.”
In Travels with Natalie news:
–The White House is continuing to go after Aaron Rupar for daring to post a photo of Natalie Harp with Trump in Ireland with the caption, “Look who made the trip to Ireland.” (That was all, and if Trump had been smart, they’d have ignored it, but none of them understand the Streisand Effect AT ALL, so the White House official account posted, “President Trump does, in fact, travel with staff. Aaron, on the other hand, is a sick, deluded freak (in his 40s) who sits behind a keyboard and posts creepy things like this.”
–And as if that wasn’t enough, the next day the White House account posted: “Aaron is gutter trash (in his 40s) who spends his days hiding behind his keyboard and making disturbing comments about women doing their jobs. Truly a sick fuck!”
–Aaron Rupar: “For the second straight day, the White House’s taxpayer-funded incitement account is attacking me and oddly mentioning I’m in my 40s (which I know makes me way too old for the president.) When they do this, it results in a flood of harassing and threatening messages, which of course is the point.”
–And now Trump has got another problem: an AI photo of him kissing Natalie Harp on the golf course has gone viral. Snopes says it’s definitely AI, but the first version of it was too blurry to spot the watermark or other AI clues, and it was all over the internet before Trump could deny it.
–This time, however, the White House’s “Rapid Response” team didn’t respond at all for hours. When they did, all they said was, “This is clearly a fake photo.” They didn’t offer real photos of Trump and Harp golfing for comparison. The whole response was…um…unusually muted.
–One Twitter user argued, “The fact we’re even talking about it means there is some truth to this. AI or not, there is a reason why these rumors exist.”
–TMID 2.0: “The problem is that people thought ‘Well, of course they did.”
–Trump to Billy Bush: “I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait.”
–Staid Winnow: “Melania does not think it is a fake.”
In other Trump dementia/madness news:
–Trump went to North Carolina yesterday to do a rally, presumably for candidate Michael Whatley, only his speech was all about himself, and it was the usual crazy stuff.
–Trump blamed the Democratic governor for Hurricane Helene: “Cooper was governor when you had Helene. They call it the biggest water hurricane. It was all water.” (Note: There is no such thing as a ‘water hurricane.’”
–He also directly threatened North Carolina: “We spent more than $2 billion dollars in FEMA funding, you know. You’re waiting for some additional money. I’m going to get that to you, Michael. Now if Michael loses, I’m not sending it.” (This is called extortion, and it’s a crime.)
–Gavin Newsom: “This is SICK! Donald Trump is threatening to hold disaster relief hostage based on how people vote.”
–Trump: “I was quite impressed with my intelligence. I’m a high IQ person after all.”
–Trump said if Canada attempted to join the EU, he would consider that “a hostile act.”
–Trump: “If we lose $50 billion dollars a year with a country, and we say, ‘We’re not going to trade with you anymore,’ we don’t lose $50 billion dollars a year. It’s very simple, right?” (No. That’s not how this works. It’s not how any of this works.”
–Dr. Henry David Monahan, professor of psychiatry, fears Trump has become too unstable to be trusted with the nuclear codes.
In Charlie Kirk news:
–A statue of Charlie Kirk was unveiled in Times Square on the anniversary of his killing. This makes it sound like it was installed permanently there, but it wasn’t. It was actually on the back of a truck, which left 2 minutes after the unveiling.
–They did not have a permit for the statue.
–The 6.5 foot statue was of Charlie Kirk sitting on a bench wearing a sweatshirt that said “Freedom,” microphone in hand, with an American flag waving behind him.
–A crowd gathered for the unveiling consisting of Charlie Kirk fans, anti-Charlie Kirk protesters, Proud Boys, and far-right groups, including January 6 insurrectionist Jake Lang, who made an anti-Muslim speech. There were angry shouting matches, a shoving match, and at least one fight before police broke it up.
–The sculptor made the statue at his own expense, assuming that someone would buy it, but no one did, so he started a GoFundMe for $150,000. He has collected $12,000 so far.
–For days before the unveiling people had been threatening to urinate on it–one Twitter user commented, “Public bathrooms are hard to find in New York,” and a similar statue at Turning Point USA’s headquarters in Phoenix had red paint splashed on it.
–Only two people have been honored with permanent statues in Times Square. They are George M. Cohan, the father of musical plays who was an actor, playwright, composer, lyricist, singer, dancer, and theatrical producer. He composed and performed “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy,” “You’re a Grand Old Flag,” and “Over There.” His statue stands on Broadway and 46nd Street.
–In the Duffy Square part of Times Square stands a statue of Father Francis Duffy, Chaplain to the Fighting 69th and the most decorated cleric in the history of the US Army. He was involved in combat in World War I, accompanying litter bearers into the thick of battle to recover wounded soldiers and caring for wounded and dying men. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Army Distinguished Service medal, the Conspicuous Service Cross, the Legion d’Honneur, and the Croix de Guerre.
In Cracks in the Dam news:
–lberelson (who has been contacting potential voters): “I reached one woman who said she’d been a registered Republican for over 53 years. She is now registered independent and voting STRAIGHT BLUE.”
–When a Republican soybean farmer was asked about Trump’s tariffs: “Absolute stupidity. A man-made crisis caused by Trump.”
–Joe Rogan (who helped Trump get re-elected by endorsing him) called Trump’s supporters “fucking nuts, man. They’re rabid.”
–GOP Rep Maria Elvira Salazar, who’s running for re-election in Florida, just released a campaign ad warning that Trump’s mass deportation campaign was too extreme and had caught up too many immigrants without criminal records. (50%, as a matter of fact.) “The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today.”
In Don, Jr.’s wedding news:
–The guy who financed the wedding, Umar Kremlev, also married the daughter of Jeffrey Epstein’s former banker.
–Jon Ossoff: “Here are questions I have. Is it the case that Kremlev was in China with Putin just days before he attended the wedding and gave what appears to have been a lavish gift to the President’s son? And what are his ties to Russia’s secret services?…These folks are not just corrupt. They’re clowns.”
–Whatsnuts: “It seems there were more Russians there than close friends.”
–GOP Rep Anna Paulina Luna said there couldn’t be anything wrong with Kremlev financing Don, Jr.’s wedding because he is “too rich to need to take money.”
In historical news:
–Today in 1787, Congress adopted James Madison’s draft of the Constitution, making today Constitution Day.
–It’s said that after the adoption of the Constitution was announced, a woman stopped Ben Franklin and asked, “Well, what have you given us?” Franklin replied, “A Republic, madam, if you can keep it.”
in other news:
–The Air Force announced that the US deployed its first space-based weapon.
–Trump awarded a $45.3 million dollar contract to construct a flight simulator which will train pilots to fly his Qatari-gifted plane. (Note: They are saying it will take years to build the simulator, by which time Trump will have taken the plane to be in his “presidential museum.”
–The EU opened the door to Canada to become its first associate member.
–The Trump administration deleted FEMA data.
In good news:
–West Virginia gave 54,000 low-income families a $200 school clothing allowance at the start of school.
–A protest group put luggage with Epstein-related messages on it on the baggage carousels in Dallas for Republicans arriving for the Trumpapalooza. The messages read, “Elon to Epstein: ‘What day/night will be the wildest party on your island?’” and “Kevin Warsh partied with Jeffrey Epstein,” and “Trump on Epstein: ‘I’ve known Jeffrey for fifteen years. Terrific guy!”
–Protesters also pasted stars to the sidewalk around the convention center in an Epstein Walk of Shame. Each star held the name of someone mentioned in the Epstein files.
Best meme of the day: A campaign poster that says “TRUMP $20.28 (A Gallon.)”
Best comment of the day, from Simon Rosenberg’s “The Hopium Chronicles:” “Trump is unraveling. The wheels are coming off. Things are spiraling out of control. Wow, are things going to shit now. The rot is growing! He’s melting!!!!”
Keep calm and carry on,
Connie Willis
