Picking up from last night's "Donald Chump stinks up the Kennedy Center," Audrey Gibbs (NASHVILLE TENNESSEAN) reports the worst entertainment news I may have ever heard in my life:
President Donald Trump has appointed Nashville singer-songwriter Lee Greenwood to the Kennedy Center board after announcing himself as the new chairman of the performing arts center's board.
Jacob Bryant (THE WRAP) reports:
Issa Rae also announced today that she was cancelling her upcoming spotlight event at the Kennedy Center citing recent events as placing "an infringement on" its artistic values.
"Unfortunately, due to what I believe to be an infringement on the values of an institution that has faithfully celebrated artists of all backgrounds through all mediums, I've decided to cancel my appearance at this venue," Rae wrote on her Instagram stories.
And Joseph Hudak (ROLLING STONE) reports:
Low Cut Connie, the Philadelphia rock and soul band fronted by Adam Weiner, has canceled a scheduled March 19 concert at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., citing President Trump's takeover of the formerly non-partisan arts venue.
"I was very excited to perform as part of this wonderful institution's Social Impact series, which emphasizes community, joy, justice and equity through the arts. Upon learning that this institution that has run non-partisan for 54 years is now chaired by President Trump himself and his regime, I decided I will not perform there," Weiner wrote on Instagram.
He cited Low Cut Connie's diverse fan base, which includes members of the LGBTQ community and people of varying faiths. "Many of these folks will be directly negatively affected by this Administration's policies and messaging," he wrote. "Arts institutions are one area that should be immune from our corrosive political culture. I sincerely wish for the Kennedy Center to return to a non-partisan community-building model of arts programming. Until that occurs, I won't perform there."
Closing with C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"
Friday, February 14, 2025. Chump's disapprovals increase even more as he and his minions set out to wreck the United States and fleece the public of every dime they can.
Convicted Felon Donald Chump has thus far eluded accountability, responsibility and justice. As a result, he seems to think that breaking the law is meaningless. So he did a deal with corrupt NYC Mayor Eric Adams. As a trial for him loomed for bribery, a crook got into the White House and a deal was reached. Suddenly bribery and foreign money didn't matter -- not to Chump. And Chump wants charges dropped against Adams to stop the scheduled April trial. This has created a major problem for the Dept of Justice. Rachel Maddow explained it last night on MSNBC.
Rachel was covering events last night. Yesterday afternoon, when Alisa Chang discussed the issue with Ryan Lucas NPR's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, only three were known to have objected to the move to drop charges against Eric Adams -- since Rachel's broadcast the number has risen to eight:
LUCAS: So first off, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Danielle Sassoon, has resigned. She's a veteran prosecutor with a conservative legal pedigree. She clerked, for example, for the Supreme Court Justice - the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who, of course, is a legal icon on the right. The Trump administration had tapped Sassoon to lead the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan last month on an interim basis, but then three days ago, the acting No. 2 official in the Trump Justice Department, Emil Bove, directed her in a memo to drop the corruption case against Eric Adams, a New York City mayor.
Now, Bove said in his memo that this decision wasn't based on the evidence in the case. Instead, he alleges that the case against Adams, who is a Democrat, was politically motivated, even though it was brought during the Biden administration. The memo also says the case should be dropped because it interferes with Adams' ability to help the Trump administration with immigration enforcement.
Now, it is highly unusual for department leadership to interfere like this in a case. Former prosecutors say that it's shocking. Sassoon says in a letter to the attorney general that the law doesn't support dropping the case. She cannot, in good faith, move to do so, and so she has decided to quit over it.
CHANG: Wow. OK. Has the Justice Department said anything about any of this?
LUCAS: The Justice Department, I contacted. They did not respond, but I did obtain an 8-page letter from Bove to Sassoon in which he says that he accepts her resignation. He also accuses her of losing sight of her oath by suggesting that she has the discretion to interpret the Constitution in a way that is inconsistent with the policies of the attorney general and a democratically elected president.
Now, in this letter, Bove also says that two of the prosecutors who worked the Eric Adams case are being placed on leave. He says that those two prosecutors and Sassoon will be investigated by the Office of the Attorney General and the department's internal unit that handles allegations of misconduct. Just an aside here, one of those line prosecutors is a U.S. Army veteran and a winner of two Bronze Stars.
Donald Chump and his minions want to circumvent the law. They think is they threaten and bully, they can get their way. Chump, it might have worked on your wedding night but no one following this story is in love with you and willing to endure marital rape. Tom Boggioni (RAW STORY) explains:
Reacting to the explosive legal drama playing out in New York where an acting U.S. attorney resigned rather than drop corruption charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams, a former member of Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said it could have a major ripple effect across the country.
Late Thursday, interim U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Danielle Sassoon and five other officials resigned when pressured by the acting No. 2 official at the Justice Department, Emil Bove, to drop the case.
That set off explosive accusations of a quid pro quo deal between Donald Trump's DOJ and Adams' lawyer that has the legal community reeling.
Lawrence O'Donnell addressed the issue last night.
Convicted Felon Donald Chump does not want -- or know -- how to make America great. He only knows how to turn it into Chump land how to steal from the American people and hand the money over to his fellow grifters.
Did someone say Alien Musk?
I'm not really big on foreigners -- triple citizenship makes you a foreigner -- slamming our system and our processes. Especially when, every time they open their mouths, they demonstrate how they never bothered to learn a damn thing about the third country they decided to pretend was home. Yes, we are talking about Alien Musk. Alex Woodward (INDEPENDENT) reports:
Elon Musk wants a federal judge to be “fired” after Donald Trump’s administration was ordered to restore public health data that was removed from government websites.
The removal of public health data created a “dangerous gap in the scientific data available to monitor and respond to disease outbreaks, halt or hamper key health research, and deprive physicians of resources that impact clinical practice,” plaintiffs wrote.
On Tuesday, Bates — who was appointed by President George W. Bush — ordered the restoration of those websites and blocked the administration from making changes.
Washington, D.C. – Following Senate Republicans voting to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released the following statement:
"Putting Kennedy in charge of the nation’s public health is a huge mistake. When dangerous diseases resurface and people can’t access lifesaving vaccines, all Americans will suffer. And thanks to his serious, unresolved conflicts of interest, RFK Jr.’s family could continue getting richer from his anti-vaccine crusade while he’s in office.”
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Military families protesting the Defense Department's anti-DEI push heckled Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on his arrival at United States European Command headquarters in Germany on Tuesday.
The Defense Secretary signed an order restoring the name of a storied special operations forces back to a confederate general undoing the Biden administration's efforts to remove names that fought against the liberation.
Hegseth must be drinking wine before beer because things are just not going his way. As Ann noted, he was protested in Germany -- by US military families. Things did not get batter after that. MB Mack (LATIN TIMES) reports:
Middle school students on a U.S. military base in Germany walked out in protest during Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's visit, opposing the Pentagon's removal of diversity programs in military schools.
Since President Donald Trump's return to office in January 2025, his administration has swiftly moved to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives across the federal government, including the Department of Defense (DoD).
On Tuesday, 55 students at Patch Middle School staged a walkout and gathered in the courtyard for approximately 50 minutes to protest recent Pentagon actions targeting diversity programs in Department of Defense schools, Stripes reported.
The demonstration coincided with Hegseth's visit to Patch Barracks in Stuttgart, where he was attending meetings at U.S. Africa Command and U.S. European Command.
President Donald Trump's favorable rating among Generation Z voters has dramatically fallen since the 2024 election, according to a poll.
A survey from The Economist/YouGov released Wednesday revealed the president's net favorability rating among those aged 18-29 is minus 18 points. This is a drop from the plus 19 favorable rating he scored among this demographic in the days following November's race.
Donald Trump's press secretary warned that "nobody has the right to ask the president questions" after the White House blocked an Associated Press (AP) journalist from an event over the news agency's continued use of the "Gulf of Mexico" in its coverage.
The organisation said it was given an ultimatum over its editorial decision to refer to the oceanic basin by its original name “while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen" — the Gulf of America.
New York Times White House correspondent and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman confronted Trump White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt over DOGE czar Elon Musk, asking if President Donald Trump has complied with a conflict of interest law.
Haberman’s reporting has been immensely influential by virtue of her deep experience reporting on Trump and a network of Trumpworld sources that give her up-to-the-minute insights. But after his election to a second term, as her NYT bio states, “Now I am covering his second, nonconsecutive term as president after his election win.”
***WATCH: Senator Murray questions Education Secretary nominee Linda McMahon***
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), pressed Linda McMahon, President Trump’s nominee to serve as Education Secretary, on how she would approach the job of leading our nation’s Department of Education as President Trump calls the Department a “con job,” says he wants it closed “immediately”, hopes McMahon will “put herself out of a job,” and as Trump, Elon Musk, and DOGE have already begun illegally gutting the Department.
Senator Murray began by pressing McMahon on whether she will ensure enacted funding gets out to serve students as directed and on DOGE staffers setting up camp at the Department of Education, where they have reportedly fed sensitive personal and financial data from the department into artificial intelligence software. “They’ve already been given access to highly-sensitive student data, and have already started holding back money that Congress decided, on a bipartisan basis, was needed to help our schools and students,” Murray said.
“We are also hearing, as you know, about an Executive Order coming any day that will seek to dismantle the Department of Education. These are bipartisan laws–you indicated that you understood that… if confirmed, do you commit to getting every dollar we have invested in our students and schools out to them?”
McMahon responded that the DOGE staffers were “doing an audit,” to which Murray pressed further: “I understand an audit. But when Congress appropriates money, it is the administration’s responsibility to put that out as directed by Congress, who has the power of the purse. So what will you do if the President or Elon Musk tells you not to spend money Congress has appropriated to you?”
McMahon said at first that the Department would “certainly spend” money Congress passed, before immediately following up with: “But I do think it is worthwhile to take a look at the programs before money goes out the door. It’s much easier—it is much easier to stop the money as it’s going out the door than it is to claw it back.”
Murray made clear in response: “The process by law is that you look at that, you make recommendations to Congress. …. So, I mean the question really is–who decides how much federal funding public schools get in Seattle, where it’s already been allocated… Elon Musk or Congress?”
Murray continued her questioning by asking Ms. McMahon about the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), bipartisan legislation to rewrite the No Child Left Behind Act that Murray negotiated while Ranking Member of the Senate HELP Committee. The legislation gave states more flexibility in using federal education funds, eliminated one-size-fits-all mandates, and established strong federal guardrails to hold states and schools accountable. Murray argued that the Department of Education must do more to implement the law—pointing out that less than 42 percent of schools identified for comprehensive support and improvement had a plan that met all requirements of the law, and the recent National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that our lowest-performing students continue to fall furthest behind and exacerbate pre-pandemic achievement gaps.
“What specific actions will you take to implement the ESSA law?” Murray asked. “Can you name a couple of the requirements that are in that law that you will make sure are implemented?”
When McMahon declined to name a single requirement of ESSA, Murray pressed on: “Do you know what the requirements are? Do you know about the requirements for targeted support and improvement schools, or the annual report card requirement? Can you name any of the requirements?”
When McMahon demurred, Murray asked again about any provisions she could name.
McMahon responded, “No, I want to study it further and get back to you on that.”
Next, Murray asked about reports that Elon Musk and his DOGE staff have been given access to the personal information of students and their families—including their Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, date of birth, and what college they are enrolled in. While DOGE’s access is temporarily paused due to litigation, Murray noted, “There is a real potential for that kind of information to be abused, or for students’ privacy to be placed in jeopardy if the courts end up ruling against the students. And we know that DOGE could use that highly personal information to then target students and target their families or cut off access to Pell Grants for students at a college that someone perceives opposes, maybe, President Trump’s policies.”
“So I want to ask you, do you believe that DOGE employees should have access to private student data?”
When McMahon suggested that DOGE employees are operating “under certain restraints,” Murray pressed on: “I have to tell you it is deeply concerning that we have DOGE staffers—we don’t know who they are, they’re not held accountable—getting access to students’ private information. I think that should frighten everyone.”
A senior member and former chair of the HELP Committee, Senator Murray has championed students and families at every stage of her career—fighting to help ensure every child in America can get a high-quality public education. Among other things, Senator Murray negotiated the bipartisan Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), landmark legislation that she got signed into law, replacing the broken No Child Left Behind Act. As a longtime appropriator, she has successfully fought to boost funding to support students and invest in our nation’s K-12 schools, and she has secured significant increases to the Pell Grant so that it goes further for students pursuing a higher education. Senator Murray also successfully negotiated the FAFSA Simplification Act, bipartisan legislation to reform the financial aid application process, simplify the FAFSA form for students and parents, and significantly expand eligibility for federal aid.
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Let's wind down by noting that Joy Reid interviewed House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries yesterday on MSNBC.
The following sites updated:
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