Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

When we show up, we win.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

We won’t go back.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

White supremacy is terrorism.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Smearing Poop on the Wall

Smearing Poop on the Wall

by | 94 Comments

This post is in: ,

Maybe in the scheme of things, this isn’t that big a deal. (I honestly can’t keep up anymore.) Unlike other Trusk-Mump actions, this possibly illegal gambit won’t directly contribute to deaths from disease or starvation or put public safety at risk. It’s a pettier form of vandalism, more like rioters smearing poop on the walls of the Rotunda than beating up DC cops. (NYT)

Trump Says He Will Dismiss Kennedy Center Board Members and Install Himself as Chair
The move by the president, whose authority to make the changes was not clear, is the latest attempt to bring a Washington institution under his control.

President Trump announced his intention on Friday to bring the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington more firmly under his control, saying he would dismiss several board members and install himself as chairman.

“At my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., GREAT AGAIN,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform.

Mr. Trump said he would “immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees, including the Chairman, who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture.”

He added: “We will soon announce a new Board, with an amazing Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP.”

After the majority of voters had the good sense to punt Trump in 2020, I remember thinking he was leaving an indelible orange shit stain on our national fabric anyway, even if we tried to tell ourselves he was an aberration. He and his horrible tacky, grasping family would remain an inescapable part of our history.

Well, they were more inescapable than I ever imagined, and here we are. This grotesquerie’s “Golden Age in Arts and Culture” will be the nightmare puke-stream AI barfs up after ingesting the decorating aesthetic of Liberace, the collected paintings of Jon Naughton and the musical oeuvre of Lee Greenwood. In other words, poop on the wall.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

94Comments

  1. 1.

    Lord Fartdaddy (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    Well, it’s lucky he doesn’t have anything else important to do…

  13. 13.

    AM in NC

    But stuff like this is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO mockable!  It’s a great gift.

    Like I said in a previous thread, I wish I had videographer skills, because I’d be making videos where “Trump” announces he’s disbanded the Emmy Board and appointed himself and that “The Apprentice” has retroactively been awarded “Best Reality Show” and he has been awarded “Best Reality Show Host”.

    Also one with the Oscars and how he has been named “Best Actor in a Motion Picture” for his appearance in “Zoolander”

    Just mock the shit out of this kind of stuff and bomb it across social media!  We need to be throwing everything against the wall, and this stuff seems like low-hanging fruit.

    Maybe it’s useless, but I think we need to deflate this asshole. While going after him seriously and legally for EVERYTHING.

  17. 17.

    matt

    awards only to Republicans. It’s going to be funny watching as Republicans burn the corpse of bipartisanship in the street, in the faces of all the bipartisanship fetishists.

  19. 19.

    oldgold

    A few additional facts:

    Only 16% of the Kennedy Center’s operating budget comes form the Federal government.
    The 36-member board is currently evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. Each member serves a six-year term.
    The Center’s current board chair is financier and philanthropist David Rubenstein, who has held the position for more than a decade and was scheduled to stay in the role until September 2026—Rubenstein had been appointed to the board by President George W. Bush.

  20. 20.

    bbleh

    I did kinda wonder, “why this?”  About all I can come up with is (1) the usual grandiosity of pathological narcissism, which gets worse with age (and by some accounts at an accelerating rate), (2) a throwaway swipe at Costal Ee-leets as red meat for the rubes, and/or (3) some long-held grudge about some performer he didn’t like, or some perceived snub, or some other pouty reaction that’s been carefully nurtured in his Little Box Of Things I Hate, which we all know is VERY important to him.

    I’m just waiting for him to start awarding himself medals and sporting a newly-designed Commander-in-Chief uniform.

    Whatever, yes, point and mock and laugh.  And make sure to do so in front of his admirers, because they just KNOW you’re laughing at THEM.

  23. 23.

    K-Mo

    This is a nice diversion.  Trying to think of a roster to be inducted during the anti-culture era.  Let’s reinvent some schlock purveyors as prescient commentators on the descent into mindlessness.

    music: Milli Vanilli, Nickelback, Lara Trump

    acting: Pamela Anderson, Pauly Shore, Donald Trump

    comedy: Dane Cook, Carrot Top, Joe Rogan

    painting/visual art: Target, Costco

  24. 24.

    Suzanne

    @bbleh:

    I did kinda wonder, “why this?”

    Because there’s a shit-ton of class resentment and aesthetic resentment on the right. They know we think they’re trashy (yes, Morgan Wallen fans!) and they are offended by that a great deal. So, because they deal with their personal feelings of inadequacy in mature and reasonable ways, they try to destroy cultural institutions they know to be respected by Coastal Liberal Elites.

  25. 25.

    Harrison Wesley

    So the acronym is GAAC? How fitting.

    99 bottles of poop on the wall, 99 bottles of poop…..

  28. 28.

    Lyrebird

    Mornin’ Betty C and valued commenters!

    Maybe in the scheme of things, this isn’t that big a deal.

    I think it could be a minor but useful self-own at least!

    Used to go by and sometimes in the Ken Cen on the regular.  The people who go there are mostly rich or people who are not rich but they LOVE certain kinds of music so much that they save up for a yearly pilgrimage, at which point they try to dress like they’re rich, too.

    What “certain kinds”??? OPERA fergoshsakes.  Chorales.  Bach.  Orchestra.

    Not the stuff that fires up his hardcore MAGA white supremacist fanbois, like “OOH I WILL SLAM BEYONCE HEAR ME ROAR” that did seem to help him in the election.

    Part of why I am glad Rep. Connolly is in there fighting is bc he is rep to a huge chunk of the intelligence community, ones whose decades of careful work is being shat upon.  And who knows whether this is more than (sorry!) a fart in the wind, but sliming the Ken Cen is so stooooopid on his part.

    I assume that his main objection is that they have honored Black and Hispanic musicians, since I cannot think of any way that a concert hall has put a crimp in Felon Musk’s business plans (like USAID dared to do)

    Trust me the main patrons are not from the Occupy movement or anything.  I hope they get very mad!

  30. 30.

    tobie

    I posted downstairs about the cuts to NIH grants announced last night. They will limit overhead on current and future grants to 15% which is a third of what most academic institutions get. This will end not only academic medicine, but research universities in the US. Just about every employee of an academic institution in the US got a message from the institution last night saying that the school’s financial stability is now in jeopardy.

    From TPM:

    [T]his one seems like the most concrete and explicit to date. The big picture is that this is a very intentional attack on academic institutions and medical research, part of what is best seen as a culture war that the new administration is waging against half of the country. American primacy in the sciences globally seems really in doubt going forward.

  31. 31.

    TBone

    And furthermore

    “But on second thinking, I dare to differ more specifically from the booksie-wooksies. . . . For years, you see, I have been crouching in corners hissing small and ladylike anathema of [author’s name here—in this case, it’s Theodore Dreiser]. I dared not yip it out loud, much less offer it up in print. But now, what with a series of events that have made me callous to anything that may later occur, I have become locally known as the What-the-Hell Girl of 1931.” (from a review of Theodore Dreiser’s Dawn in The New Yorker)

    My frequent solace

    https://lithub.com/a-dorothy-parker-quip-for-every-occasion/

  35. 35.

    Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)

    @K-Mo: Taco’s “Puttin’ on the Ritz” video – complete with the original blackface segment – should win something here.

  36. 36.

    robtrim

    @oldgold: This is all about getting rid of David Rubenstein. Trump hates him for being liberal with a backbone. I’m surprised he didn’t appoint Zuckerberg or Bezos.

  39. 39.

    MazeDancer

    While there are likely BJ folk too modest – or too busy – to post similar accomplishments, this woman in SoCal has organized her entire PTA of her burnt down school into a mini FEMA/USAid.

    Just read this thread and then applaud.

    @K-Mo: Not Costco. They loudly support DEI. Just joined – and got a Costco credit card – in support.

    Target is now dead to me.

  40. 40.

    BC in Illinois

    Lyrics, “Sympathy for the Donald” :

    Allow me to introduce myself.

    I’m a man of wealth.

  46. 46.

    hells littlest angel

    … our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture.

     

    A ban on “degenerate art” will soon follow.

  47. 47.

    Lyrebird

    @MazeDancer: FWIW, Walmart contributed to bringing back the Trump – Musk regime, but Target did not.  Anyhoo,

    THANKS for that link to Ms. Wang, her example and the example of so many Altadena and SoCal folks is amazing!!

  49. 49.

    Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: that is brilliant.

    ETA: too many remember the Shrubbery’s Misadventure in Mesopotamia, when pallets of currency were airlifted in and subsequently “lost”. Rethugs seem unable to view any public effort as more than literally throwing money at a problem.

  50. 50.

    Almost Retired

    I’ve been to the Kennedy Center a few times.  I just don’t see how it can be repurposed to hold monster truck rallies, but I don’t have an architect’s eye.

  51. 51.

    K-Mo

    @Lyrebird:

    @MazeDancer:

    Yeah this would have worked better with Walmart.  I was just reaching for anything mass produced.  FWIW, the best piece of art I own was produced by my son in kindergarten (and displayed for a while in the Baltimore Museum of Art).  He’s not an artist but something just came together on that day.

  53. 53.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq): Read the comments, apparently at lest two of the Kansas Reps GOP representatives have made statements supporting these food programs because how it benefits the farmers in their district. What these MAGA dipshits aren’t getting is that money spent the Over There, is really being spent in their communities.

  56. 56.

    West of the Rockies

    Well, they sure won’t get Heart honoring Led Zeppelin.  It will probably be the Iowa Junior Kazoo Band performing a medley of Pat Boone’s most forgotten hits.

  57. 57.

    K-Mo

    @Almost Retired: I’ve done a couple details at OMB over the years.  One of the little perks you get is being able to sit in the President’s box at KenCen on occasion (there’s a lottery for each performance).  Under Obama I won twice in 6 months.  Under Trump 0 times in 12 months.  I suspect he sold it out to his supporters.

  61. 61.

    Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: OF COURSE they did. That was predictable. “Fiscal responsibility” is fine and dandy until it impacts their constituents. There has been a wave of GQP legislators recognizing how DOGE impacts their voters and raising concerns. I’ll wait until they pass legislation forcing those programs to continue before celebrating their newfound concern.

  63. 63.

    oldgold

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: “The food stuck in Houston totals more than 31,000 tons and was part of more than 500,000 tons of food valued at $450 million now at risk of going to waste,” writes the Houston Chronicle’s  James Osborne. USAID food shipments are also being held up in Boston, New York, and Miami, as well as four other ports.

     

    Democratic Congress members should be at each of these docks Monday morning raising hell.

  67. 67.

    Anonymous At Work

    @tobie: I had a relative who spent a decent bit of their career reviewing and buying up scientists and their careers from foreign governments after the Soviet bloc fell because the Soviets no longer supported their research.  China will now be doing to us what the US did to the Eastern bloc.  We did it through legal channels; China has no such scruples.

  68. 68.

    SFAW

    @AM in NC:

    Interesting thought. I don’t disagree at all, but what I’d REALLY like to see (or read about) is some intrepid reported asking Shitgibbon:

    “Mr. Trump, does Elon Musk make you call him and refer to him — in private — as ‘President Musk’? Or does he make you call him ‘Emperor Elon’? And when he talks to you, doe he call you “My Minion’? Many people are wondering about this.”

    My hope is that it would cause either apoplexy, or cause Musk’s Minion to eliminate Musk and his fanbois from the government.

  69. 69.

    Papa Boyle

    Please try reacting to less of what Trump says. It’s said mostly to overwhelm and distract the majority of Americans from what he’s doing, and what he’s not doing (bringing down the cost of living).

  70. 70.

    Gvg

    This may have something to do with Trumps reported resentment that the New York charitable elite shunned him because he didn’t actually do any charity for good causes which they felt was their duty. And yes he was and is vulgar and tasteless. I remember noticing that 50 years ago in middle school when I first noticed him. It was also the time of so many tacky TV evangelicals who seemed to favor the same style of vulgar gold painted tasteless. So now Trump is trying to take over what he didn’t earn, just like when he barged onto a stage without giving any money.

    People can have different taste. They can like tacky if they want. I don’t care for opera or classical music myself either, but don’t need to get pissy about other people liking it or country. It’s the trying to impose one view on everyone that is a problem. These conservatives need to learn to quit bothering people. They are not going to like the backlash they are causing.

  72. 72.

    SleepyMonster

    This is horrible. But its true, there are a lot worse things to worry about. Top of my list that’s flying under the radar right now is the National Archives. I guarantee you, that collection is going to start shrinking. There’s plenty of actual history these people hate, and they’re not above making it disappear.

  73. 73.

    LAC

    Sorry, but i do not find the humor about this.  The Kennedy Center is not just some elitist den where the rich swan about.  It actually has wonderful events that are discounted or free to the public.  I have had many happy times there and was pleased to see the increased diversity in the audience, particularly with young people.  My husband sang in the Washington opera chorus for over 30 years.  I learned to appreciate and enjoy that art form.

    It is an important place and now, sadly, another example of the consequences of this pig being elected.  Maybe not as dire as Musk’s malevolent moves in the governemt, but it is deeply troubling

  75. 75.

    SleepyMonster

    @Almost Retired: He seems like more of a Live Nude Girls kind of ‘arts patron’, but I confess to being mildly curious how he squares that circle with right-wing moralists.

  76. 76.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @LAC:

    My understanding is that Trump has no such authority or power to have any board members actually fired

  78. 78.

    Redshift

    @oldgold:

    Apparently, of the over 2000 performances the Kennedy Center hosted last year, 2 featured drag performances.

    According to local news, his blathering announcement talked about drag shows being “forced on children” it some such. Because wingnuts have no imagination, even when making up things to be outraged about.

  80. 80.

    Redshift

    @Gvg:

    This may have something to do with Trumps reported resentment that the New York charitable elite shunned him because he didn’t actually do any charity for good causes which they felt was their duty.

    Oh, definitely. But it was so much worse – he’d go to charity events and bull his way onto the stage to speak even though he hadn’t donated.

  81. 81.

    Citizen Alan

    @JoyceH:

    Not gonna happen.

    There is a scene halfway through I, Claudius, IIRC,  in which Emperor Caliguia proposes to go before the Roman Senate and announce that he is a god. Delighted, claudius and his co-conspirators encourage this because they think his transparently obvious insanity will lead to the senate removing him from power and restoring the old republic. Unfortunately, when Caligula gives his speech, he is backed by dozens of loyal and heavily armed praetorian guards stationed around the senate chamber, and the senators themselves are too cowardly to do anything other than me cheer his godhood enthusiastically.

    The same principle applies today, with republican cowardice enabling republican insanity and cruelty.

  85. 85.

    No Nym

    I guess he will declare himself winner of the Stupor Bowl tomorrow, too. <Nancy Pelosi condescension clap>

  86. 86.

    XeckyGilchrist

    Garry Trudeau nailed this aesthetic decades ago.

    (Attempted to paste a link to the cover art from “Give those nymphs some hooters!”)

  87. 87.

    Tehanu

    @Citizen Alan: ​
      the senators themselves are too cowardly

    Same as it ever was; ol’ Ben Franklin warned us. My forecast is that The Golden Fleecer is going to name himself as the next Kennedy Center Award winner.

  88. 88.

    Betty Cracker

    @Papa Boyle: I don’t believe there’s One Correct Way™️ to react to tacky fascists dismantling the country. I’ve noticed lots of “concern policing” online, for want of a better term, and it’s mostly pointless bullshit, imo. People care about what they care about, and if I don’t find a topic worth my attention, I’d rather scroll on by than try to convince people their concern is misplaced. That’s really not my call, you know?

  89. 89.

    Ella in New Mexico

    Google “hitler took over the arts in germany” and read the AI Summary.

    History is definitely repeating itself.

  92. 92.

    Lauryn11

    During the Cultural Revolution Mao forbade “western music,” shut down symphony orchestras, destroyed their instruments, and made them do farm labor. Our tinsel version is having to humor someone whose musical tastes are as clapped-out, trashy and Vegas-y as he is.

Comments are closed.