He's not removing the tarp. Are we going to court to order him to do so? Also wondering if the name removal left holes in the building siding that have to be repaired, perhaps that's the hold up. Not saying it is, but just saying, it can't be as simple as just removing the name...
I kept waiting for some of the passersby to pull the tarp aside and throw literal sunlight onto the wall for the cameras -- but no. We're too deferential. Sam Adams would have been disgusted.
Right. We are talking The Donald! "Known for his, "Only the best ... ya da ya da ya da" .... LOL Still, I think we have a case. He did not have any right what-so-ever to put his name or anyone else's up there without Congressional approval. Soooo not only does he need to pay for taking it down, he has to reimburse us for putting it up there, in the first place. That is 'We' as in "We the People". - Whose money he is spending like there was no limits and that WE do not have a huge debt to pay off and people who are going hungry, because of his indifference.
Norm, this is one of my favorite lines you've written since starting The Contrarian: "The scale of Trump’s corruption makes Richard Nixon look like a piker — and Trump’s bumbling makes the Watergate burglars look slick." All so true. Thanks for helping restore The Kennedy Center. That's one less mess we'll have to clean up after the grifting buffoon is ousted. This adds another brick to the load he's carrying on his back. He's already essentially a lame duck, having alienated the U.S. Senators who lost their primaries. They have no reason to vote with him now, so I hope The Kennedy Center is a sign of much misery to come. And once this creep is vanquished, we have to elect Democrats who are willing to get tough, change laws, write into law practices that were previously unwritten because no one was ever crooked enough to challenge them, and protect and preserve Democracy so our nation doesn't make the colossal mistake again of putting a bandit in the White House.
It is, as you say, another brick to add to his load, and is also a brick removed from his foundation, which is beginning to shake.
Honor and good intentions are clearly not enough to keep an unprincipled brigand out of the presidency. You are correct; we need stronger guard rails to prevent a recurrance.
Thank you. I've had many English teachers in my 78 years on this planet who encouraged me to develop a useful and varied vocabulary, unlike our current president.
Same here, esp. the part about the Watergate burglars. The Republicans don't make criminals as well as they used to, and that's a good thing.
And yes to "we have to elect Democrats who are willing to get tough . . ." but we also need elected officials *and an electorate* that understands that Trump is the godawful endgame of a process that's been going on for many decades -- at least since Reagan and more accurately since Nixon.
Yes, especially your comment about needing a more active and responsible electorate. Too many of us, especially those who are white, economically secure, and who speak unaccented English, believe they are safe and aren’t paying attention. They need to wake up.
Yes -- and I'd add that not enough of us with color and class privilege realize just how quickly we can become economically insecure. Trump II was a shock to many USians. It shouldn't have been.
Indeed. I don't know why so many people took a career criminal and pathological liar at his word. I can't understand how supposed "Christians" thought this oaf was some sort of deity. But many of them are now in a buyer's remorse stage. Maybe it took Trump to wake many of them up.
Totally agree. The wolf will come to everyone's door eventually, though I'm heartened by the lower courts. They have helped keep the crook in check a bit. If we can only hold on until November!
And we need to remember that a chunk of people voted for him precisely because they wanted him to break rules and norms, defy the establishment, and make trouble. They might be just a small number, but that is sometimes all it takes to disrupt and destroy.
This is what happens when so many voters don't begin to understand how "the system" works or how it's supposed to work. Including what causes inflation. So they act mostly on the basis of very expensive PR. And please don't anybody forget the racism. I'm pretty sure that many white people use "inflation" as a polite cover for their main motive.
I wish suffering on no one, but the reliable red state voters are dealing with suffering on a massive scale, enough, in my opinion, to convince them that they'd made a terrible mistake voting this huckster into office.
I see Senator Cassidy has re-discovered he has a voice and a spine since Trump caused him to lose the Republican primary for Senator. Better late than never. He and Senator Booker deserve kudos for filing that brief.
Senator Massie had already found a voice, which is why he lost *his* primary. Add in Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who got exiled a few years ago, and it sure looks like the Trumpified Republican Party is eating its own. I wonder how much of it is going to survive.
I would like to know how much it cost to put his name on the Kennedy Center, and how much it cost to build that ridiculous scaffolding and tarp, when it could easily have been removed with a simple cherry picker. Is someone going to invoice Trump? This is a problem he made and needs to pay for.
This he needs to pay for, along with the removal of the atrocity on the South Lawn,and it's restoration to orignal condition (same for the East Wing and the Rose Garden). Why should taxpayers foot the bill for restoring what he destroys?
We're also footing the bill for the National Park Service employees, the Secret Service who had to check all the materials, and the flyover that will happen with the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds, which is a waste of military resources.
"The removal of Trump’s name was thanks to our client, Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), to my colleagues at Democracy Defenders Action, to our co-counsel Washington Litigation Group — and to your paid subscriptions, which help fuel my and my colleagues’ pro-democracy litigation."
This is a reason to smile and cheer. Dan Rather articled it in his Sunday Substack 'Reason to Smile' series. Now, take down the tarp along with the scaffolding, and the job is really done!
Also, a fine summary of the dismantling of the $1.8B slush fund. The continued theft from the taxpayers should not be tolerated.
and to ensure that the add-on to the slush fund, the immunity from IRS audits and prosecutions for Trump, his spawn and his companies, also bites the dust.
I know Joyce is getting a lot of heat here in Ohio for things she's perhaps neglected, but she should absolutely be celebrated for this. And while we're celebrating kudos to my wonderful congresswoman Shontel Brown for aggressively pushing back against all the horrible things Trump is doing.
The REAL victories are in the 2 cases involving “A scheme deliberately designed to recast insurrectionists — including those who perpetrated violence against law enforcement officers — as victims and legitimate prosecutions as persecution does not merely rewrite history,. It creates incentives for similar conduct in the future, with the explicit encouragement of the officials responsible for administering justice.” Judge Brinkema read from the bench. In the USDC SDFL case, Trump sued in his PERSONAL capacity, probably waiving immunity.
Meanwhile, although Trump says he made a deal, after Hezbollah attacked again, Israel retaliated, bombing Beruit again. NYT -- The Israeli military said Sunday that it had struck a Hezbollah target on the outskirts of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, in retaliation for the Iran-backed group launching drones and rockets toward northern Israel.
"The escalation on Sunday complicated an already delicate moment as President Trump and Iran appeared to be edging toward signing a framework peace agreement."
Pretty sure you (and every sane American) know very well that you can't believe anything Felon47 says or tweets. Given what a demented moron he is, pretty sure his actual involvement in the negotiations is extremely peripheral at best.
Trump rants and raves every day that reality is fake — fake news, fake media, fake judges, fake elections. He cannot bear to see — and let his followers see — his name removed from the Kennedy Center. It’s reality, harsh reality. And it’s blinding for a man who insists that he can make reality whatever he believes it to be.
So thank you, Norman Vincent Peale, for giving us Donald J. Trump. And now it’s time to take down the tarp so Americans who voted for this wizard can see behind the curtain.
So proud that Joyce Beatty is my representative in Congress! My thanks to her and all the Contrarians who contributed to make her legal case to remove Trump’s name from THE JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER. I’m also proud to be a Contrarian!
this is a totally terrific step in the right direction. but so long as the Kennedy Center's board is populated 100% by trump's stooges, the curse will remain...
Thanks Norm for making it possible to remove the offensive name from our beloved Kennedy Center facade. I hate to be the pessimist, but your group may have to go back to the courts to get that hideous tarp down. We need to see the cleaned up facade once and for all.
You are my hero! I was delighted to see the name removed from the Kennedy Center where I performed for many years with The Washington Chorus. The appearance of rainbows that night were perfect. Now if the pettiness of leaving the tarps up by a toddler can be overturned, so much the better. Thank you, Norm, your colleagues and Contrarians.
We need some enterprising pranksters to pull that tarp curtain down.
Preferably today, on the fascist felon's birthday.
Or project the real name onto the tarps
To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, "Mr. Trump, tear down this tarp!"
brilliant!
He's not removing the tarp. Are we going to court to order him to do so? Also wondering if the name removal left holes in the building siding that have to be repaired, perhaps that's the hold up. Not saying it is, but just saying, it can't be as simple as just removing the name...
I thought I read somewhere that the letters of his name were just stuck on the building with some sort of adhesive, no holes drilled.
You mean, slime?
Alas, the slime is still at the White House.
I hope that's correct.
I kept waiting for some of the passersby to pull the tarp aside and throw literal sunlight onto the wall for the cameras -- but no. We're too deferential. Sam Adams would have been disgusted.
I'm sure they have security onsite. This is, after all, the Trump regime.
Send in the National Tarp Guard!
I wonder what the penalty would be? Of course, Trump would insist they were rioters and should be imprisoned. Putz.
Maybe someone could just walk behind it and take a friggin' photograph, which would instantly go viral.
Absolutely! Tear down the tarp! And today would be the day……
Would love to see the cost for keeping that scaffolding, tarp, equipment and workers in place. DJT should be paying for all of that!
WE paid for the delays--workers on standby, security for Trump's shame, etc.
If that is the case let's take him to small claims court! We could ask Norm for a little guidance. :-)
Not sure Trump's corruption will fit in small claims court! :)
Right. We are talking The Donald! "Known for his, "Only the best ... ya da ya da ya da" .... LOL Still, I think we have a case. He did not have any right what-so-ever to put his name or anyone else's up there without Congressional approval. Soooo not only does he need to pay for taking it down, he has to reimburse us for putting it up there, in the first place. That is 'We' as in "We the People". - Whose money he is spending like there was no limits and that WE do not have a huge debt to pay off and people who are going hungry, because of his indifference.
I was there yesterday. My thought was to come back during the night and just set fire to the tarps. If only I wasn't 74 years old.
I like your idea, but if there's a chance that a worker could be injured, then no.
Norm, this is one of my favorite lines you've written since starting The Contrarian: "The scale of Trump’s corruption makes Richard Nixon look like a piker — and Trump’s bumbling makes the Watergate burglars look slick." All so true. Thanks for helping restore The Kennedy Center. That's one less mess we'll have to clean up after the grifting buffoon is ousted. This adds another brick to the load he's carrying on his back. He's already essentially a lame duck, having alienated the U.S. Senators who lost their primaries. They have no reason to vote with him now, so I hope The Kennedy Center is a sign of much misery to come. And once this creep is vanquished, we have to elect Democrats who are willing to get tough, change laws, write into law practices that were previously unwritten because no one was ever crooked enough to challenge them, and protect and preserve Democracy so our nation doesn't make the colossal mistake again of putting a bandit in the White House.
It is, as you say, another brick to add to his load, and is also a brick removed from his foundation, which is beginning to shake.
Honor and good intentions are clearly not enough to keep an unprincipled brigand out of the presidency. You are correct; we need stronger guard rails to prevent a recurrance.
Well and uniquely said. "Unprincipled brigand" is a new one on me, but oh so appropriate!
Thank you. I've had many English teachers in my 78 years on this planet who encouraged me to develop a useful and varied vocabulary, unlike our current president.
Same here, esp. the part about the Watergate burglars. The Republicans don't make criminals as well as they used to, and that's a good thing.
And yes to "we have to elect Democrats who are willing to get tough . . ." but we also need elected officials *and an electorate* that understands that Trump is the godawful endgame of a process that's been going on for many decades -- at least since Reagan and more accurately since Nixon.
Yes, especially your comment about needing a more active and responsible electorate. Too many of us, especially those who are white, economically secure, and who speak unaccented English, believe they are safe and aren’t paying attention. They need to wake up.
Yes -- and I'd add that not enough of us with color and class privilege realize just how quickly we can become economically insecure. Trump II was a shock to many USians. It shouldn't have been.
Indeed. I don't know why so many people took a career criminal and pathological liar at his word. I can't understand how supposed "Christians" thought this oaf was some sort of deity. But many of them are now in a buyer's remorse stage. Maybe it took Trump to wake many of them up.
Totally agree. The wolf will come to everyone's door eventually, though I'm heartened by the lower courts. They have helped keep the crook in check a bit. If we can only hold on until November!
And we need to remember that a chunk of people voted for him precisely because they wanted him to break rules and norms, defy the establishment, and make trouble. They might be just a small number, but that is sometimes all it takes to disrupt and destroy.
This is what happens when so many voters don't begin to understand how "the system" works or how it's supposed to work. Including what causes inflation. So they act mostly on the basis of very expensive PR. And please don't anybody forget the racism. I'm pretty sure that many white people use "inflation" as a polite cover for their main motive.
Right. I don't think anyone understood the degree to which this clown would break norms, and that it wouldn't be on their behalf—only his!
I wish suffering on no one, but the reliable red state voters are dealing with suffering on a massive scale, enough, in my opinion, to convince them that they'd made a terrible mistake voting this huckster into office.
I see Senator Cassidy has re-discovered he has a voice and a spine since Trump caused him to lose the Republican primary for Senator. Better late than never. He and Senator Booker deserve kudos for filing that brief.
Senator Massie had already found a voice, which is why he lost *his* primary. Add in Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who got exiled a few years ago, and it sure looks like the Trumpified Republican Party is eating its own. I wonder how much of it is going to survive.
Trumps handpicked board is still in charge ….😤
I would like to know how much it cost to put his name on the Kennedy Center, and how much it cost to build that ridiculous scaffolding and tarp, when it could easily have been removed with a simple cherry picker. Is someone going to invoice Trump? This is a problem he made and needs to pay for.
This he needs to pay for, along with the removal of the atrocity on the South Lawn,and it's restoration to orignal condition (same for the East Wing and the Rose Garden). Why should taxpayers foot the bill for restoring what he destroys?
We're also footing the bill for the National Park Service employees, the Secret Service who had to check all the materials, and the flyover that will happen with the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds, which is a waste of military resources.
He needs to pay for it all — and lose all the money he's illegally grifted.
"The removal of Trump’s name was thanks to our client, Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), to my colleagues at Democracy Defenders Action, to our co-counsel Washington Litigation Group — and to your paid subscriptions, which help fuel my and my colleagues’ pro-democracy litigation."
This is a reason to smile and cheer. Dan Rather articled it in his Sunday Substack 'Reason to Smile' series. Now, take down the tarp along with the scaffolding, and the job is really done!
Also, a fine summary of the dismantling of the $1.8B slush fund. The continued theft from the taxpayers should not be tolerated.
and to ensure that the add-on to the slush fund, the immunity from IRS audits and prosecutions for Trump, his spawn and his companies, also bites the dust.
Hear hear!!
I know Joyce is getting a lot of heat here in Ohio for things she's perhaps neglected, but she should absolutely be celebrated for this. And while we're celebrating kudos to my wonderful congresswoman Shontel Brown for aggressively pushing back against all the horrible things Trump is doing.
RICI? RICO? RICO?
And don’t forget the double rainbow we all saw Friday eve after the storms passed. A good sign indeed!
It was spectacular!
Happy Flag Day everyone.
This is little league stuff.
The REAL victories are in the 2 cases involving “A scheme deliberately designed to recast insurrectionists — including those who perpetrated violence against law enforcement officers — as victims and legitimate prosecutions as persecution does not merely rewrite history,. It creates incentives for similar conduct in the future, with the explicit encouragement of the officials responsible for administering justice.” Judge Brinkema read from the bench. In the USDC SDFL case, Trump sued in his PERSONAL capacity, probably waiving immunity.
Meanwhile, although Trump says he made a deal, after Hezbollah attacked again, Israel retaliated, bombing Beruit again. NYT -- The Israeli military said Sunday that it had struck a Hezbollah target on the outskirts of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, in retaliation for the Iran-backed group launching drones and rockets toward northern Israel.
"The escalation on Sunday complicated an already delicate moment as President Trump and Iran appeared to be edging toward signing a framework peace agreement."
Pretty sure you (and every sane American) know very well that you can't believe anything Felon47 says or tweets. Given what a demented moron he is, pretty sure his actual involvement in the negotiations is extremely peripheral at best.
Now to get rid of that pathetic cringeworthy ridiculous vengeance tarp. Which cannot hide his humiliating comeuppance, his ego-fueled shame.
Trump rants and raves every day that reality is fake — fake news, fake media, fake judges, fake elections. He cannot bear to see — and let his followers see — his name removed from the Kennedy Center. It’s reality, harsh reality. And it’s blinding for a man who insists that he can make reality whatever he believes it to be.
So thank you, Norman Vincent Peale, for giving us Donald J. Trump. And now it’s time to take down the tarp so Americans who voted for this wizard can see behind the curtain.
In the olden days, we had words for cowards like this, beginning with "chicken" and leading .... other nether places.
Glad his name is off the Kennedy Center. Now it’s time to remove that damn tarp. Happy flag day 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
So proud that Joyce Beatty is my representative in Congress! My thanks to her and all the Contrarians who contributed to make her legal case to remove Trump’s name from THE JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER. I’m also proud to be a Contrarian!
This is a real victory. And I am encouraged by the plans for tarp removal. I was wondering what it would take to get it down.
this is a totally terrific step in the right direction. but so long as the Kennedy Center's board is populated 100% by trump's stooges, the curse will remain...
Thanks Norm for making it possible to remove the offensive name from our beloved Kennedy Center facade. I hate to be the pessimist, but your group may have to go back to the courts to get that hideous tarp down. We need to see the cleaned up facade once and for all.
How long will these idiots keep that tarp up?? Soooooo childish. It needs to come down NOW !!
You are my hero! I was delighted to see the name removed from the Kennedy Center where I performed for many years with The Washington Chorus. The appearance of rainbows that night were perfect. Now if the pettiness of leaving the tarps up by a toddler can be overturned, so much the better. Thank you, Norm, your colleagues and Contrarians.