Great job. I’ve been covering it as you know for 47 years. I will no longer cover it. Nor will I set foot in it. Our opera critic of 31 years has said she will no longer attend WNO performances there. This infantile move will cost them.
By "them" you mean of course the hundreds of musicians/actors/artists (like me) that work at the KC. And by "them" you certainly don't mean Trump & his acolytes, who could give a shit if the whole building gets swallowed up by a sinkhole.
Trump's board is not going to allow any artist or performer who doesn't fully support him to perform there. One of the first thing fascists take over is the arts.
?? Absurd and easily debunked with a five-minute google search. Search "National Symphony Orchestra personnel" or "Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra personnel."
Both groups consist of the same personnel that existed last year (plus or minus a handful of retirements and new hires), & provide the vast majority of performances at the Kennedy Center. Thanks to CBAs negotiated over the years by our strong AFM Local, it is impossible for the KC Board to fire or appoint musicians.
Perhaps it's easier for people to boycott the Kennedy Center if they invent a narrative wherein it only hurts the occasional Trump-approved headliners like Lee Greenwood & Kid Rock?
I guess because admitting the truth - that 95% of Kennedy Center expenses are paying non-political professional musicians/performers/admin who work there, and boycotting the KC almost exclusively hurts them - is too hard, and people want things to be simple and easy.
I don't understand why you just cannot process the fact that Trump will allow only his brand of "patriots" to perform at the Kennedy Center, which means he is politicizing the arts. And that is indeed what fascist strongmen do. You certainly didn't do a very thorough job of googling.
Because I work there (from time to time), know most of the people in the OHO and NSO, and nearly all of them have been in those groups prior to Trump firing the board, and almost all of them are normal, non-MAGA people.
I know Grenell can’t directly fire the orchestras, and he can’t dictate programming because the CBA forbids it, and I know this because I’m a 33-year member of the DC AFM Local and have been on a number of CBA negotiating committees, and I’ve personally reviewed the CBAs within the past few weeks.
Not sure what you want me to say - you’re drawing conclusions with almost no information and there aren’t many people with more actual first-hand information than I.
Sometimes people just know more than you ma’am; whether you want to listen to them is your choice. You are free to have your opinions but you don’t get to make up reality.
Harry, as the discussion continues about the responsibility of members of the military to disobey clearly illegal orders, it’s worth noting that civil servants are bound by similar rules.
Yet more desecration and profaning of what we all thought to be consecrated places, duly named for public servants who earned and deserved such honors...and then this Creature from the Black Lagoon emerges to cast all this aside in order to affix his accursed name — like the mark of Cain — upon OUR heritage, ffs! Fuck this despicable subhuman, deserving only of a tormented death and burial in an unmarked grave.
A memorial, like the one trump just attached his name to, honors a person in death. Just sayin....if only there existed an intrepid reporter to ask him about his demise
I live in CT and used to drive past the Trump Parc Stamford condo every day. Until Jan 2021, when his name was removed and the shadow sandblasted away.
that day will come for the Kennedy Center, the Institute of Peace, and many other things that are being "renamed." And it will be as satisfying as the day I saw his name on the Trump Parc Stamford in the morning, but it was gone by nightfall.
So they've just illegally defaced a National memorial? (Add to that that it looks incredibly stupid). The people who have gone along with this, approved it, sanctioned it and made it a reality all need to spend some time in jail (and that goes for the Trump board that was evidently muting anyone who tried to speak up in desent.
Yeah but they bolted the portraits of the Orange Carbuncle and his wife to the walls.
Reminded me of when I lived in Jordan, where it is required that every business display a portrait of King Abdullah prominently. If they didn't, they would be arrested and thrown in jail.
We can thank the 6 seditionist Supreme Court justices for the desecration of this National Monument by granting the Office of the President the right to break the law while conducting "official duties" subject only to impeachment and removal by supermajority of fellow seditionists that support the malignant, narcissistic and lawless president.
I thank the Donald J. Trump Sewage Treatment Plant for its dedication to removing feces and sludge from our public drinking water. Sewage and sludge are what the plant is all about.
So it's clearly illegal, but DJT did it anyway; and, ho hum, the world still turns. That seems to be where we are. Nothing is too illegal, i.e., 100 or so people killed in boats without evidence of any wrongdoing, too nasty, too self-serving. Regarding the Center, I can only hope people stop going in numbers greater than currently are staying away and hope that performers will increasingly eschew performing there. Make it a giant boycott!
Fwiw, when I was working in DC as a young political polling analyst in the late 1970s, I ushered at the Kennedy Center. I can still remember the pinching of my black dress shoes, and some of the good people I met and shows I saw there. Not much of a stake, but enough that I take this law-breaking personally as well as legally.
Trump can turn it into a MAGA shrine -- I hope *everyone else* has the backbone to boycott, until he is gone, his name removed, and the spirit of JFK and the diverse artistic community restored.
Great job. I’ve been covering it as you know for 47 years. I will no longer cover it. Nor will I set foot in it. Our opera critic of 31 years has said she will no longer attend WNO performances there. This infantile move will cost them.
By "them" you mean of course the hundreds of musicians/actors/artists (like me) that work at the KC. And by "them" you certainly don't mean Trump & his acolytes, who could give a shit if the whole building gets swallowed up by a sinkhole.
Trump's board is not going to allow any artist or performer who doesn't fully support him to perform there. One of the first thing fascists take over is the arts.
?? Absurd and easily debunked with a five-minute google search. Search "National Symphony Orchestra personnel" or "Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra personnel."
Both groups consist of the same personnel that existed last year (plus or minus a handful of retirements and new hires), & provide the vast majority of performances at the Kennedy Center. Thanks to CBAs negotiated over the years by our strong AFM Local, it is impossible for the KC Board to fire or appoint musicians.
Perhaps it's easier for people to boycott the Kennedy Center if they invent a narrative wherein it only hurts the occasional Trump-approved headliners like Lee Greenwood & Kid Rock?
I guess because admitting the truth - that 95% of Kennedy Center expenses are paying non-political professional musicians/performers/admin who work there, and boycotting the KC almost exclusively hurts them - is too hard, and people want things to be simple and easy.
Sad for them. Trump is tragic for all of us.
No disagreement with that, ma'am.
But we have an opportunity to avoid falling into his trap and doing his work for him.
I don't understand why you just cannot process the fact that Trump will allow only his brand of "patriots" to perform at the Kennedy Center, which means he is politicizing the arts. And that is indeed what fascist strongmen do. You certainly didn't do a very thorough job of googling.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/20/donald-trump-kennedy-center-takeover-arts#:~:text=8%20months%20old-,Trump's%20weird%20obsession%20with%20the%20arts%20is%20part%20of%20the,towering%2C%20chandelier%2Dhung%20foyers.
Because I work there (from time to time), know most of the people in the OHO and NSO, and nearly all of them have been in those groups prior to Trump firing the board, and almost all of them are normal, non-MAGA people.
I know Grenell can’t directly fire the orchestras, and he can’t dictate programming because the CBA forbids it, and I know this because I’m a 33-year member of the DC AFM Local and have been on a number of CBA negotiating committees, and I’ve personally reviewed the CBAs within the past few weeks.
Not sure what you want me to say - you’re drawing conclusions with almost no information and there aren’t many people with more actual first-hand information than I.
Sometimes people just know more than you ma’am; whether you want to listen to them is your choice. You are free to have your opinions but you don’t get to make up reality.
Trump doesn’t even realize this is him telling the world he is a needy, pathetic little child.
Exactly! I just said, “How vain and insecure do you have to be to do this?”
Harry, as the discussion continues about the responsibility of members of the military to disobey clearly illegal orders, it’s worth noting that civil servants are bound by similar rules.
Ugly and gross and against the law! Glad you got the pictures to prove our case.
Yet more desecration and profaning of what we all thought to be consecrated places, duly named for public servants who earned and deserved such honors...and then this Creature from the Black Lagoon emerges to cast all this aside in order to affix his accursed name — like the mark of Cain — upon OUR heritage, ffs! Fuck this despicable subhuman, deserving only of a tormented death and burial in an unmarked grave.
Or, better I think, fed to some actual piggies.
That would be inhumane.... Pigs deserve better
You are right; I stand corrected. Okay, then: dismembered and thrown into a cesspit (from which he came anyway).
😆🤗
A memorial, like the one trump just attached his name to, honors a person in death. Just sayin....if only there existed an intrepid reporter to ask him about his demise
He's probably going to refer to his fake, made up assassination attempt.
I live in CT and used to drive past the Trump Parc Stamford condo every day. Until Jan 2021, when his name was removed and the shadow sandblasted away.
that day will come for the Kennedy Center, the Institute of Peace, and many other things that are being "renamed." And it will be as satisfying as the day I saw his name on the Trump Parc Stamford in the morning, but it was gone by nightfall.
They don't need to be renamed; they need to have a specific malignancy burned out of their exteriors.
So they've just illegally defaced a National memorial? (Add to that that it looks incredibly stupid). The people who have gone along with this, approved it, sanctioned it and made it a reality all need to spend some time in jail (and that goes for the Trump board that was evidently muting anyone who tried to speak up in desent.
Chris Geidner interviewed the poor schmuck assigned to desecrate the building and reported it earlier today: https://www.lawdork.com/p/q-and-a-defacing-kennedy-center?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=899862&post_id=182120016&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=m800n&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Isn't that a link to the article it's commenting on? Did I get turned around somewhere
Yes, sorry, I'm an idiot, thought I was in another tab, trying to share this article. Sorry.
🤔
Genuinely surprised they didn't make Trump's name ten times larger and in gold.
Yeah but they bolted the portraits of the Orange Carbuncle and his wife to the walls.
Reminded me of when I lived in Jordan, where it is required that every business display a portrait of King Abdullah prominently. If they didn't, they would be arrested and thrown in jail.
At least in gold.... Maybe that's yet to come!
We can thank the 6 seditionist Supreme Court justices for the desecration of this National Monument by granting the Office of the President the right to break the law while conducting "official duties" subject only to impeachment and removal by supermajority of fellow seditionists that support the malignant, narcissistic and lawless president.
I’d leave a trenchant comment … but I’m due at Donald J. Trump Safeway to buy a grocery or two.
I thank the Donald J. Trump Sewage Treatment Plant for its dedication to removing feces and sludge from our public drinking water. Sewage and sludge are what the plant is all about.
But first, a stop at the Donald J. Trump Tesla charging station.
Vandal and felon and rapist.
These words best describe our current President.
Am so glad I took my
children, all teens at the
time, to see the real
Washington, DC. Not a
Trump in sight or
thought.
“Trump” and “thought” in the same sentence!
🤣 Sorry, how foolish of me.
Not at all—I love a good fantasy!
So it's clearly illegal, but DJT did it anyway; and, ho hum, the world still turns. That seems to be where we are. Nothing is too illegal, i.e., 100 or so people killed in boats without evidence of any wrongdoing, too nasty, too self-serving. Regarding the Center, I can only hope people stop going in numbers greater than currently are staying away and hope that performers will increasingly eschew performing there. Make it a giant boycott!
Fwiw, when I was working in DC as a young political polling analyst in the late 1970s, I ushered at the Kennedy Center. I can still remember the pinching of my black dress shoes, and some of the good people I met and shows I saw there. Not much of a stake, but enough that I take this law-breaking personally as well as legally.
Trump can turn it into a MAGA shrine -- I hope *everyone else* has the backbone to boycott, until he is gone, his name removed, and the spirit of JFK and the diverse artistic community restored.
well the Kennedy family should tear it down it was illegally put up!!!
"Distrustee" should be a word.