Two things tonight, first up The Kennedy Center. Carl Gibson reports:
President Donald Trump's attempt to add his name to
the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is not yet complete, as it
requires an act of Congress for the name change to become official.
Trump may have to wait a little longer, according to legislation to fund
the federal agency that oversees the facility.
On Monday, House Appropriations Committee chairman Tom Cole
(R-Okla.) announced the release of finalized legislation to fund various
government agencies through Fiscal Year 2026. The bills fund the
Departments of Commerce, Interior, and Justice, and also agencies
overseeing federal investments in science, energy and water development.
A provision in the Appropriations Committee's legislation to fund
the Interior Department specifically refers to the "John F. Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts," and New York Sun correspondent Matt
Rice observed on X that Trump's name is conspicuously absent from that
section. The bill allocates $32.34 million "for necessary expenses for
the operation, maintenance and security of the John F. Kennedy Center
for the Performing Arts" through September of 2027.
Early last year, Trump named himself chairman of
the Kennedy Center and replaced the institution's board with a
hand-picked cadre of political loyalists. That board voted last month to
change the name to put Trump's first, though the name change was
criticized as "illegal" as Congress has to officially vote on the name change.
Should the Interior Department funding bill become law, it would mean
that Congress has officially refused to recognize Trump's attempted name
change throughout the remainder of the 2026 fiscal year.
It is not currently the name of the building despite what
Chump had painted on it. I loved Stan's "Weekend Box Office, PARADISE" from last night but he is
even more right to call THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER out for using the
terminology "Trump Kennedy Center For The Arts." Some comments on the
article:
user-h7fypfgacv
19 hours ago
I mean it's a "memorial" so very confusing he is insistent on
this. He's made it very clear he is extremely jealous of the Kennedy
legacy but sad he can't just create his own memorial to himself instead.
L Neagle
6 hours ago
One- a memorial is named after a dead person. Two- congresses
didn't approve of this with a legal act. Three- you don't add another
name, on a named memorial.
This memorial naming requires a congressional act of congress; it
was named after the death of JFK a Kennedy. No matter how much any
person wants to see their name lit up along with a Kennedy, if you are
not a Kennedy it shouldn't be there. Memorials are for one person alone.
One more time, Robert Davis (RAW STORY) notes, "Trump
has been trying for months to rebrand the Kennedy Center as the
"Trump-Kennedy Center," a move that has caused a swarm of musicians to
boycott the acclaimed concert hall. He has affixed his name to the
building's exterior, although officially changing the name requires an
act of Congress because the center was created by federal law."
Kind of shocked by news in Larisha Paul's ROLLING STONE article about what happened during the making of BURLESQUE:
“The song that I did in the movie, he said, ‘I’m cutting that song
out ’cause I don’t want Cher to ruin my movie,'” Cher said, seated next
to co-star Kristen Bell, who noted that this was the first she’d heard
of this happening, but agreed it was a “hard shoot.” While Christina
Aguilera led the soundtrack as Ali, Cher recorded two songs for the film
as Tess, though she doesn’t specify which was in danger of being axed.
Early in the movie, Cher performs “Welcome to Burlesque” at the Los
Angeles burlesque club she owns, which plays a pivotal role in
inspiring Aguilera’s character to pursue her Hollywood dreams there.
Later on, with the possibility of losing her club due to financial
hardships weighing heavily, Cher performs the knockout solo “You Haven’t
Seen the Last of Me.” Both are foundational to the film.
I like BURLESQUE and always did. I think it gets richer
with each viewing. My one complaint was and remains that Cher's only got
two songs. That movie wouldn't have made a dime if Cher didn't have
two songs. Cher is an Academy Award winning actress and no one has a
longer span of hits than she does -- she has a number one in every
decade starting in the 60s. And the album? Three singles were released
from it. Only one was Cher singing -- "You Haven't Seen The Last Of
Me." It went to number one on the dance chart and was the only song
that was a hit.
That movie would have been nothing without Cher's two songs.
Closing with C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"
Tuesday, January 6, 2025. Chump and Bondi continue to withhold Epstein
documents, envious Pete Hegseth goes after Senator Mark Kelly, Kristi
Noem thinks that the American people should foot the bill for putting
ICE agents up at a Hilton, and much more.
"When officers attempted to book rooms
using official government emails and rates, Hilton Hotels maliciously
CANCELLED their reservations," the statement continued. "This is
UNACCEPTABLE. Why is Hilton Hotels siding with murderers and rapists to
deliberately undermine and impede DHS law enforcement from their mission
to enforce our nation's immigration laws?"
Let's start with Pete Hegeseth's push-pull same-sex attraction, the root of his hatred/lust for Senator Mark Kelly.
Three
times. That's the number of times the 45-year-old 'traditionalist'
male has been married. Three. And they don't last. What we're looking
at it a man who apparently spent his entire life in the midst of
homosexual panic. Gets with a woman because she's got a masculine
energy but after awhile? That's not enough for him to get it up. So he
moves on to a more mannish wife -- and the current wife, wife number
three, looks like a man. Someone who knows Pete didn't buy the
hypothesis at first.
But he loves to go to strip joints!
He
does, I agreed. He goes to them with other men. The strippers are
props, not equals an what he's really there for is to see these men he
kind of knows get aroused.
Women are nothing but props for him and that's why he keeps attacking our women who serve in the military.
So
we've got Pete horny for men, desperate for men, and he's going after
Senator Kelly who represents everything that Pete doesn't. Kelly's
honest, he's given real service -- not the mincing and backstabbing that
Pete did during his brief service -- "brief service" -- I hear a Pete
acquaintance laughing at that. The one who told me about how Pete is
all 'don't bathe don't bathe!' whenever he's got one of his man cave
weekend. Pete is a joke.
Senator Mark Kelly issued the following statement yesterday:
“Over
twenty-five years in the U.S. Navy, thirty-nine combat missions, and
four missions to space, I risked my life for this country and to defend
our Constitution — including the First Amendment rights of every
American to speak out. I never expected that the President of the United
States and the Secretary of Defense would attack me for doing exactly
that.
“My rank and retirement
are things that I earned through my service and sacrifice for this
country. I got shot at. I missed holidays and birthdays. I commanded a
space shuttle mission while my wife Gabby recovered from a gunshot wound
to the head — all while proudly wearing the American flag on my
shoulder. Generations of servicemembers have made these same patriotic
sacrifices for this country, earning the respect, appreciation, and rank
they deserve.
“Pete Hegseth wants
to send the message to every single retired servicemember that if they
say something he or Donald Trump doesn’t like, they will come after them
the same way. It’s outrageous and it is wrong. There is nothing more
un-American than that.
“If Pete
Hegseth, the most unqualified Secretary of Defense in our country’s
history, thinks he can intimidate me with a censure or threats to demote
me or prosecute me, he still doesn’t get it. I will fight this with
everything I’ve got — not for myself, but to send a message back that
Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump don’t get to decide what Americans in this
country get to say about their government.”
The
failure that is Pete Hegseth thinks he's going to demote Kelly after
the fact? That might last a second or two but it's not going to stand.
And
the reason Pete's doing it -- yeah, Pete, I know, I'm that far into
your inner circle -- is because he couldn't win a trial against Kelly.
Unlike Pete, Mark has a lifetime of service.
And
a military trial? Pete was told he'd lose big. He was told any
military court would side with Mark. Couldn't take it down to the whore
in Florida because this isn't a civilian case.
This
is a military justice case and no one was going to convict Kelly of the
'crime' of stating basic military policy in public. That's not a
crime. And the military would also see this for what it was --
politicization of the military and that would reject those grounds.
As it was explained to Pete, "You're going to look like a little jealous bitch trying to smear the reputation of a great man."
Pete
being called a "little bitch" in the same sentence that another guy is
called "a great man?" Oh, you know he was on the phone, "Baby, stop
everything and get into bed. It's been a few months but I finally got a
hard on again! No, you don't have to put on the Jake Paul mask. Well
. . . Put it on, itmight help."
The sad life
of Pete Hegseth who could have addressed his panic long ago but instead
gets off on humiliation. He must be in heaven every ay because, if you
love humiliation, the Donald Chump administration is where you need to
be.
Just ask Pam Bondi.
Last weekend, Mike named Pam da Bimbo Bondi "Idiot of the Week" and it may be the only award she's ever deserved to win:
So Thursday morning, I did my pick for Idiot of the Year and had no plan to do an Idiot of the Week this week.
But . . .
When you are so stupid that MORNING JOE is laughing at you, sounds like you're a slam dunk.
Poor Pam, she's just so damn stupid. Adam Lynch reports:
The Guardian reports incoming Attorney General Pam Bondi had no place for ethics training while taking the reins at the Department of Justice.
“I
think the reason to fire the senior ethics attorney at DOJ is pretty
clear. It’s to send a message,” said Joseph Tirrell, an attorney
responsible for overseeing ethics compliance across the agency and
training top officers in their obligation. “The message is: ‘Do what we
tell you to do, or you’ll lose your job.’”
Tirrell
was nearing the end of a July vacation when he got an email from the
Department of Justice on his personal account. The notice, signed by
Bondi, misspelled his name as “Jospeh W Tirrell,” and did not give a
reason for his firing. The Guardian reports Tirrell bosses initially
seemed as surprised as he was before confirming that he had indeed been
removed from the payroll.
Tirrell, 51, joined
the FBI as an ethics lawyer in 2006 before moving to the justice
department in 2018. During that time, he fielded requests about whether
or not employees could accept certain gifts or attend certain events and
other conflicts of interests. He notes that Bondi and her chief of
staff appeared focused on questions of whether the attorney general
could accept commemorative challenge coins from subordinates in the
department during training.
“There seemed to be
a lot of importance by these officials placed on [the] appearance of
them getting stuff, on the appearance of them showing their willingness
to accept that gift,” Tirrell said.
Tirrell
recalls telling Bondi: “We’ve pretty much said you can’t accept gifts
from employees unless it’s your birthday or Christmas or Hanukkah or a
similar kind of holiday where people give gifts,” and added that “We
spent more time than I thought was warranted on … whether or not you
could accept a challenge coin from whomever.”
The
attorney said he caught his first whiff of Bondi’s ethical failings
when she received a box of cigars from the mixed martial artist Conor
McGregor. The value of the gift, he said, exceeded what Bondi could
accept under the department’s ethics rules, so he spelled out three
options for her: reimburse McGregor for the gift, send it back, or
destroy it.
“Immediately I got the sense they were reluctant to send things back or destroy stuff,” said Tirrell.
“’No, we can’t send it back,’” the administration told him. “’I mean what does that say?’”
A
buffoon and a crook. She really found an administration she belonged
in, didn't she. It's as though the missions statement when Chump was
putting together his cabinet was: Give me your most f**ked up and your
most corrupt
That's certainly what he got.
They continue to flounder.
The illegal actions in Venezuela?
Ben goes over that this morning on MEIDASTOUCH NEWS.
David Rothkopf addressed the issue in greater detail on THE DAILY BEAST podcast yesterday.
Last night on MS NOW, Rachel Maddow addressed the ever changing claims of the Chump administration.
Some more commentary and analysis.
Of
course, one of the reasons -- one among many -- he launched the
operation was to try to distract from the fact that The Epstein Files
are not being released. He and Pam Bondi are in violation of the act of
Congres ordering the release of the files. Pam has missed every date
on the Epstein Act so far, by
the way. Jennifer White (THE HILL) reports:
The
Justice Department (DOJ) has drawn criticism for releasing only parts
of the records required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Many
documents were heavily redacted, and some were temporarily removed. The
law, signed in November 2025, set a strict deadline of December 19,
2025.
President Donald Trump defended the rollout and said the government had provided more than 100,000 pages. However,
However,
on December 31, the DOJ admitted that it had identified approximately
5.2 million pages of records that fall under the law, far more than the
100,000 pages cited by Trump.
Senate
Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY),
and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) are among those pressing for contempt measures
against Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Schumer
said, “Initiate legal actions. This is a blatant cover-up. They are
shielding Donald Trump from accountability, and the Senate has a duty to
act. The law Congress passed is crystal clear: release the Epstein
files in full so Americans can see the truth.”
As we all know, one reason Chump attacked Venezuela was to try to distract from his ongoing Epstein problem. Jennifer White (SACRAMENTO BEE) reports:
A
January 7, 2020 email from a New York prosecutor said flight logs
showed Trump took eight flights on Epstein’s jet. The trips included at
least four with Ghislaine Maxwell aboard.
Maxwell
is serving a 20-year sentence for helping Epstein sexually abuse
underage girls, and the email noted that women on other flights could
have been potential witnesses in her case.
A buffoon and a crook. She
really found an administration she belonged in, didn't she. She's
missed every date on the Epstein Act so far, by the way. Jennifer White (THE HILL) reports:
The
Justice Department (DOJ) has drawn criticism for releasing only parts
of the records required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Many
documents were heavily redacted, and some were temporarily removed. The
law, signed in November 2025, set a strict deadline of December 19,
2025.
President Donald Trump defended the rollout and said the government had provided more than 100,000 pages. However,
However,
on December 31, the DOJ admitted that it had identified approximately
5.2 million pages of records that fall under the law, far more than the
100,000 pages cited by Trump.
Senate
Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY),
and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) are among those pressing for contempt measures
against Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Schumer
said, “Initiate legal actions. This is a blatant cover-up. They are
shielding Donald Trump from accountability, and the Senate has a duty to
act. The law Congress passed is crystal clear: release the Epstein
files in full so Americans can see the truth.”
As we all know, one reason Chump attacked Venezuela was to try to distract from his ongoing Epstein problem. Jennifer White (SACRAMENTO BEE) reports:
A
January 7, 2020 email from a New York prosecutor said flight logs
showed Trump took eight flights on Epstein’s jet. The trips included at
least four with Ghislaine Maxwell aboard.
Maxwell
is serving a 20-year sentence for helping Epstein sexually abuse
underage girls, and the email noted that women on other flights could
have been potential witnesses in her case.
Only
the inept and crooked can serve in Chump's administration. Let's wrap
up by noting Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem's latest
problems. Abby Church and Matt deGrood (HOUSTON CHRONICLE) report:
Houston
City Council Member Edward Pollard penned a letter to the city's U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office Monday asking the
agency to adopt a policy that would prohibit agents from wearing face
coverings during enforcement operations and require agents to identify
themselves "as soon as reasonably practicable."
In
his letter, Pollard said the agency's tactics, like using face
coverings and lack of identification, have damaged his constituents'
trust and made encounters with law enforcement less safe.
He
cited a recent example where a father and son were pulled over by ICE
agents who started banging on their vehicle's windows. The pair fled in
fear and found refuge in a nearby store, only for agents to track them
down, allegedly tackling and beating the father.
Pollard
listed numerous benefits to implementing the policy, like lessening
confusion between ICE and local officers to avoid negative interactions
and adding a layer of prevention so residents don't try to impersonate
federal agents.
"I am a strong advocate of
having a secure border and responsible pathway to citizenship, and I am a
strong advocate for ensuring all people, regardless of background, are
afforded basic human rights and are treated with dignity and respect,"
Pollard wrote to Houston's Field Office Director Bret Bradford.
The troubles never end for Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem who overseas Chump's gestapo. David Edwards (RAW STORY) notes:
Department
of Homeland Security (DHS) officials cried foul after Hilton Hotels
refused service to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
The department expressed outrage in a Monday post on X.
"NO
ROOM AT THE INN!" the post exclaimed. "@HiltonHotels has launched a
coordinated campaign in Minneapolis to REFUSE service to DHS law
enforcement."
Good
for Hilton. They're not Motel 6 so that probably confused Kristi
Noem. They have a higher end cliental and those consumers really aren't
going to want to stay at a place that's helping destroy lives. Sorry
for Kristi but I'm sure she knows fleabag motels across the country --
from her own experiences -- that will take anyone and probably she also
knows which ones rent by the hour.
And
one more thing there, we're not paying for them to stay in pricey
digs. Get it? We the American taxpayer are not paying for cushy suites
for the gestapo. Chump made members of the National Guard sleep on the
floor in California, but we're putting these ICE freaks up at a
Hilton? Oh, no, no, no.
We'll close with this from Senator Jack Reed's office:
WASHINGTON, DC -- In response to the Trump Administration’s arbitrary and unscientific changes to the childhood vaccine schedule announcement today, U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) issued the following statement:
“It is astounding that at the same time the Trump Administration is making health care more expensive for families it is weakening the health of children and our communities.
“U.S. vaccine policy has long followed the science based on what medical experts in the U.S. recommend is best for children’s health. The Secretary of Health and Human Services is not a doctor, a public health expert, nor a vaccine scientist. This unilateral, non-transparent decision upends that entirely. It isn’t based on science. It will spread confusion and disease. It will weaken public trust in health. And it will likely increase preventable deaths of innocent children.”
The following sites updated:
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The Demise of Donald Chump's Brain11 hours ago
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We all laugh at Chump11 hours ago
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Demented Donald has lost his mind11 hours ago
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grab bag11 hours ago
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Weekend Box Office, PARADISE11 hours ago
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Things that are disgusting11 hours ago
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The con artists11 hours ago
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The Real Donroe Doctrine1 day ago
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Daniel Caesar: Tiny Desk Concert1 day ago
