The Trump administration proves what some of us long feared and suspected: the crackpot fringe of the right wants to dumb down the populace by eliminating funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
These Yahoos hate education. They want the public to be raised in ignorance of science, history, and art. They want to eliminate funding for programs that educate the public. As long as you have a Bible, what more do you need?
Arts organizations across the country are rallying to save the meager amounts of federal funds that is available to supports the arts, humanities, and culture.
“As the news spread that the White House budget office had included the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities on a list of programs it was considering trying to eliminate, arts leaders at large and small organizations around the nation reacted with alarm — and began making plans to fight for their survival.
“The federal government plays a very small role in funding the arts, especially compared with other affluent countries. Together, the three programs that may be targeted account for less than one-tenth of 1 percent of annual federal spending. But even if the arts get only crumbs, administrators said, they are crumbs worth fighting for: much-needed money that supports community projects, new works and making the arts accessible to people in different parts of the country and to those who are not wealthy.
“And after years of culture-war debates in which conservatives took aim at the programs, questioning the value of some of the art that was publicly funded, arts groups are pressing the case that the federal money they receive supports organizations — and jobs — in all 50 states, both red and blue.
“The N.E.A. has a big impact in the middle of country — even more so, I suspect, than in urban areas where funding is more diversified,” said Martin Miller, the executive director of TheatreSquared, a regional theater in Fayetteville, Ark., that bills itself as the northwest part of the state’s only year-round professional theater.
“Losing the N.E.A. would mean that many smaller, mid-American arts companies couldn’t weather a recession,” he said, noting that the endowment supports both state and regional arts councils. “Losing these companies would mean fewer jobs, a lower quality of life and less local spending in the small towns that need it most.”
“Many arts officials said they were gravely concerned that the programs were back on the chopping block.
“It’s another example of our democracy being threatened,” the actor Robert Redford, the president and founder of the Sundance Institute, which helps filmmakers, said in a telephone interview. “Arts are essential. They describe and critique our society.”
“President Trump is already facing pressure from some of his allies to preserve the programs. Daryl Roth, a prominent Broadway producer (“Kinky Boots,” “Indecent”) whose husband, Steven Roth, is a Trump adviser, said that she opposed eliminating the programs and that she had expressed her view to the Trump administration and would continue to do so.
“The concept of ending federal funding to the N.E.A. and to the many nonprofit arts organizations, artists, writers, cultural institutions, museums and all recipients that would be affected is of course of grave concern to me,” Ms. Roth wrote in an email. “Arts education in the schools, theater groups, music and dance programs help revitalize local communities, both spiritually and economically, across the country.”
“The fate of the three organizations is still far from clear: An internal memo that circulated within the Office of Management and Budget last week, which was obtained by The New York Times, noted that the list of programs targeted for elimination could still change. Officials at both of the endowments said they had not received any official word from the White House. But the programs have long been in the cross-hairs of conservatives.
“Romina Boccia, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, said Congress should eliminate federal arts grants altogether. “The minuscule portion of art funding that comes from the federal government does not support the arts in any meaningful way; rather, it distorts the art market toward what is politically acceptable,” she said. She also questioned the need for the federal government to support public broadcasting.
“But arts administrators around the nation said in interviews that culture had enjoyed bipartisan support in recent years, and that they were hopeful their elected officials could be persuaded to keep the programs. They began making plans last month to make the case for the arts to their audiences, their well-connected board members and Congress.”
This has been standard fare of the Republicans going back to Reagan. You could count on this political talking point with every incoming Republican administration. Bush 41 changed the script a little by trying to emasculate them politicized leadership, most notably in the term of the hateful, destructive Lynne Cheney. The difference this time is that they may actually be successful.
Trump administration plans to eliminate government.
How can one consider the Trump administration to be government??
Actually, the terms “government” and “governing” are not understood by Trumpsters in the same way the rest of us do. They equate it with terms like “imposition,” “obstruction,” “ideological certainty,” and deny the concept of “opposition.”
It’s been a life long wet dream of the GOP and the right wingers to kill off CPB, NEA, PBS and NPR. The GOP/libertarians want 100% full bore Fox News and Hate wing radio all the time everywhere. Actually, they have already succeeded with radio; talk radio is 97% far right wing all across the country. Now they want to convert TV to 99% right wing propaganda or Rush Limbaugh type TV on steroids.
Trump and his Goebbels-like spokespersons are unrelenting in their bullying of the media and the press. Eventually the media will pull back and be more cautious. Trump is a menace to democracy and sanity. His flunkies (Miller, Spicer, Conway, Bannon, Sebastian Gorka, etc.) are amoral conscienceless shameless BS propagandists.
Here’s an idea, force/bait/trick Trump into going after the actual truly fake news: all the rightwingnut sites and tabloids, etc. And himself, and his team.
Recall his trip to his lobby just before the election to get a dose of support when things looked dismal. He’s not just stir crazy, he’s desperate for support/confirmation right now. He can be baited/manipulated. We need to get to him before Putin does.
These proposals have been in the “atmosphere” and on my Google alerts for some time. As yet, nothing is resolved. This post notes the uncertainties.
“The fate of the three organizations is still far from clear: An internal memo that circulated within the Office of Management and Budget last week, which was obtained by The New York Times, noted that the list of programs targeted for elimination could still change. Officials at both of the endowments said they had not received any official word from the White House. But the programs have long been in the cross-hairs of conservatives.”
The National Endowment for the Arts has been trying to immunize itself against conservative threats. That started by eliminating grants to individual artists (except for writers). It has encouraged and invested in programs that tout the economic benefits of arts organizations and “creatives,” especially in urban and rural communities.
There are two major lobbies for NEA.
One is Americans for the Arts, oriented toward supporting professionals in the arts, especially non-profits. It produces research on employment trends and levels of participation in the various arts, including popular arts and arts available online. It raises funds for the non-profit arts with a lot of help from the Ad Council of America and for-profit entertainment industry
The other lobby is the Arts Education Partnership. It has a strong focus on educational programs for schools, including after-school, summer, field trips and artist programming in school. The Arts Education Partnership had depended on a flow-though of money from NEA to the Council of Chief State School Officers, including space for activities in their Washington Offices. The Arts Education Partnership is now operating under the auspices of the Education Commission of the States. One of the best services is tracking state polices on arts education in every state.
Then there is the National Science Foundation, a third organization emblematic of the nation’s interest in the creation of knowledge, and a little older that the two endowments.
I think there are enough anti-science people in the current administration to add the National Science Foundation to the list of “let’s get rid of it;” if not the whole outfit, then some of its programs. I also see big budget vulnerabilities for many programs at NASA and branches of the military who have to invest in monitoring the effects of climate change. Some of the same programs are part of the national security apparatus.
There are other federal agencies at risk, including those supporting public libraries and public museums, and national monuments, and national parks. I do not know of any one website where these alerts are posted. In the meantime, thanks to Diane for the heads up.
Since the National Endowments were created, rabid conservatives have tried to zero out their funding.
I recall that when I was in graduate school in the 1960s, my favorite professor talked about how televisions has had a democratizing effect on culture. He said that one performance of an opera–say “La Boheme”–is seen by more people in one day than in the entire history of the opera. Such programs never appear on commercial television. They appear on public television.
I was around in 1965. NEA was brand new and trying to figure out if it had any obligations to work in K-12 education.
NEA offered up a trial “artists-in schools” program. Variants are still going strong and offered through state arts councils who charge schools a fee. A then-new regional R & D educational laboratory (CEMREL) evaluated of the program. The evaluations was unfavorable but it did not kill the program.
Reblogged this on Lloyd Lofthouse.
This move is not surprising since the president seems intent on sharing his ignorance with us. The “rabid conservatives” believe the federal government should provide the military, corporate welfare and nothing for people that pay taxes. They believe anything the federal government does is “corrupt.” Thanks to ALEC, these right wing notions are gaining traction.
Another interesting way to teach people how to recognize BS.
http://callingbullshit.org/
Great course description. I’m bookmarking this — the profs say they may share video’d lectures online.
In ’90’s when my kids were small, my mother sent them a video (perhaps by pbs or annenberg?) aimed at teaching the young to spot when they are being targeted by marketers. Bullshit radar for kids. I don’t know if it was that, or just coming up in the internet era (w/ competing opinions & peer-group feedback at their fingertips), but as adults they are skeptical by nature, & carefully research before buying into opinions and products.
Gates and Buffet will buy, uh, I mean, save them. Everything is to be privatized. Culture won’t die; it will be “brought to you by…” (Not so much Orwell, but Huxley.) See what’s happening in education. The regulated, public service is financially strangled so that private interests can take over. See schools, energy, military, shipping and mailing, prisons, scientific research, and now art. All the world is to be privatized.
You make a good point about privatization. If they truly believe the market can shape policy, why do they try so hard to rig the market? Personally, I find this a ridiculous idea in a democracy. In education the people with the most money like Gates and Broad buy representatives to promote their projects. That is not a free market. In energy, wind and solar are making incredible strides that can compete with fossil fuels, yet the pipelines keep on encroaching on private property. The wealthy keep buying policy.
This has been going on for a long time. I remember free pbs. I was unpleasantly alerted to Reagan-era cuts in pbs funding, finding my shows suddenly previewed by large visuals announcing Exxon was supporting the show. Obviously funding cuts have continued: today, we have week-long pledge-drives every month or two. And every pbs show ends 5 mins early for ads– 3 for other pbs shows, 2 for products.
Another bee in my bonnet stemming from Reagan years: the advent of advertising for professional services. In my early days w/an engrg firm, commercialism was verboten. There was a big hoo-ha when, in the mid- ’70’s, my first corporate employer introduced colors into the previously-low-profile, B-W ‘Bechtel Bug’ logo. In short order, under Reagan, we had our first ads for medical & legal services, including local ambulance-chasers. Today [at least in my region], every single ad-break for MSM & many cable channels is dominated by ads pushing big-Pharma panaceas for everything from shingles to psoriatic arthritis & lupus.
Of course.
One of the fundamental pillars of Fascism is state/corporate control of culture. The only acceptable culture is that culture which is wed to and enforces nationalism.
PBS, NEH, NEA, etc. are the opposite…..the government advancement of art and culture for art and culture’s sake. And knowledge. And general advancement of the human mind.
Why is this shocking that Trump and his Republican enablers want to dismantle this stuff? Whenever the right wing gains power, this is a routine theater…..putting the government-enabled arts and culture stuff on the chopping block. Of course Trump, in his rise to fascist authoritarianism was going to go after them….and unfortunately, he probably means it.
What did we think a Trump victory would mean?
It’s hard to smartly resist in a state of perpetual shock.
Dictators assault artists and writers early in their regime. They don’t like divergent thinkers. They want conformity and nationalism.
Let’s not give up quite yet. Couldn’t the Democrats agree, in a show of bipartisanship, to add Scott Baio and Lee Greenwood to this year’s list of Kennedy (shouldn’t that be Reagan) Center Honorees. That act alone should save the NEA. And when Trump’s base figures out that cutting off funding for PBS will mean no more reruns of Lawrence Welk and his Champagne Musicmakers, I think the massive, hopefully peaceful, demonstrations across the heartland should suffice to save CPB.
It’s all up to Sylvester Stallone.
(I am a former Public Broadcasting Service employee) The concept of eliminating funding for PBS goes back at least as far as President Reagan. Currently, PBS is funded by a mix of Federal funding (The Corporation for Public Broadcasting), state funding. Private underwriters (Corporations and foundations which donate to CPB/PBS), and private dollars provided by fund drives.
The Federal Government set up the groundwork for public broadcasting in the Federal Communications Act of 1934. (We were barely out of communicating by smoke signals, and morse code, then).
Although laudable, and beneficial, there is no specific authority for the Federal government to be involved in broadcasting in any way. (See US Constitution, Article 1, Section 8).
If you truly wish to see Sesame Street, and Masterpiece Theatre continue on the air, then I encourage you to participate in the fund drives, and donate what you can. You can also write your congressperson/senators and express your desire to keep PBS on the air.
After we finish puking about “F*&KFaceVonClownstick” his mental disorders and his fascist leanings .
It boils down to the fact that he is pursuing right wing Republican dogma. They have been treasonous and deplorable since Nixon.
But I am feeling a little sadistic tonight so I will post this from Baker’s web site today.
Misery loves company
Gleichschaltung. It’s not just for Nazis anymore. Voice of America becomes a propaganda arm of Trumpism: http://www.voanews.com/a/trump-supporters-in-southwest-us-applaud-policies/3730727.html
When I was in the Peace Corps in Borneo back in 1967-68, I’d sometimes listen to Voice of America. What they are now putting out is sickening.
For what it’s worth, a Muslim friend in Malaysia said that Trump is entertaining the rest of the world. (That wasn’t meant in a good way.) She has also said that she wouldn’t come to the US while Trump is President.
Gleichsshaltung per wordreference.com = enforced conformity.
The Voice of America link is disgusting. To whom do they broadcast these days? What is the mission?
Trump wants to eliminate eliminating funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has no problem wasting our tax money in this way:
Headline: Trump family trips cost taxpayers $11.3m in one month – almost as much as Obama’s cost in a year
Jaunts to estate in Mar-a-Lago, and secret service charges for his son’s business trips across the globe, are costing American taxpayers
The US President’s three visits to his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida since his presidential inauguration, combined with his sons’ business trips, reportedly cost $11.3m (£9.1m).
Conservative watchdog Judicial Watch estimated Mr Obama’s travel expenses totalled an average $12.1m in each of his eight years in the White House.
“This is an expensive way to conduct business, and the President should recognise that,” said Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton, speaking to the Washington Post.
“The unique thing about President Trump is that he knows what it costs to run a plane.
“Going down [to Mar-a-Lago] ain’t free.”
The three Mar-a-Lago trips in Palm Beach cost the federal treasury around $10m, based on figures used in an October government report analysing White House travel.
This includes cash for coast guards to patrol the exposed shoreline…
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-costs-trips-security-taxpayer-barack-obama-month-year-a7586261.html
And some people thought it was so noble that this turkey wasn’t going to take a salary.
Drumph is hateful and psycho.
“Art History”
History remembers
A people by its arts
Eternal glowing embers
Of what was in their hearts
No one will be eliminating SomeDAM Poet.
“The glory of not being paid”
A plinth of space
Is gov support
An empty base
For SomeDAM sport
In dam engineering, the plinth connects the dam and the ground.
In engineering a plan to save our schools, Diane’s plinth connects the DAM and the sky.
Damn, I worry about the financial state of artists in these times. I would love a way to help contribute for some poetry, DAM. I don’t think any Billionaire Boy or Betsy would donate, as there wouldn’t be anything for them in it, but I would. Perhaps we could engineer a plan.
A man a plan a canal Panama.
I think I’m being chided, and still I love it.
No chide intended.
It was just the talk of engineering plans, water (a dam) and a man (Billy boy) that triggered an automatic response to repeat the famous palindrome.
Incidentally, there are even longer versions
http://nielsenhayden.com/hoey.html
I guess I wasn’t very aware of palindromes. In word salad, alas, drown I.
LCT you are clearly a poet (as am I). I have long supported this passion as a member of American Academy of Poetry– which gets me two hard-cover copies of the annual prize-winners’ works, helping me stay current. But my most-rewarding endeavor: I long ago convinced my book club that they need an annual session devoted to poetry, which I lead. They are like most folks not accustomed to poetry, so I research the latest & the classics all year long, so as to present them w/a thought-provoking look at where we came from & where we are going.
That is lovely, Bethree. I love poetry too.
In looking at the “alternative facts” campaign, de-funding public broadcasting, vilifying the media who don’t agree with him, insinuating that protesters are paid operatives and playing pop-a-mole with a twitter account, it’s becoming very clear as just what the IPOTUS, and ultimately Puppenspieler Bannon’s endgame is.
“Eternal Legacy”
Everything is fleeting
Except for art and science
A heart that keeps on beating
In endless death defiance
I am thankful.
As long as you have a Bible, what else more do you need? Diane nails the Trump administration on the head with this one liner. By defunding programs that support the arts, humanities and public television, the government would be taking away education. Arts and humanities are what drives culture around the world. If you are white and a Bible thumper, then maybe this makes sense to you. But for the rest of the educated American population we need to grow as a society and embrace facts, research and use science to our advantage. Diane also mentioned in another post that Tump lies so often that about 14% of what he says in only half true. I do not think he is lying about defunding these programs. I believe that across the country the arts and humanities need to be prepared to fight for what they may lose if they are denied funding. It does not surprise me that Trumps administration wants to get rid of the finer things within our culture. Art can inspire new ideas and spark change within the nation. Trump doesn’t want us to do as much thinking or getting new ideas because that would mean we have an educated population that questions the actions of our government. Which would mean we are holding Trump accountable for his actions.
Believe Trump when he says he will do something: like deporting millions of undocumented immigrants or building a wall. But when he makes a claim or offers a reason for anything he does, understand that most of the time he lies.
Diane Ravitch’s blog alerts us to the cuts that are included in the Trump administration’s new budget which eliminates funding for the Corporations for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities. While federal funds account for a miniscule percentage of federal spending, these “crumbs” are still critical in making the arts available, particularly in rural and low income areas of the country.
My concern here is that in the world of No Child Left Behind, we will indeed be failing our children if these cuts are put into effect. We should be cognizant of research that demonstrates that the study and experience of the arts contributes to student achievement and student success. With the No Child Left Behind Act, the government began assessing students’ achievement and progress solely on scores on math and reading tests (“Arts and Smarts”, 2008, Evans). A study by the Center on Education policy highlights that as schools fell behind on tested core subjects, the more time they spent studying and testing those subjects. This had a significant effect on those schools with predominantly minority children (“Arts and Smarts”, 2008, Evans). Several recent studies have demonstrated that there might be a link between arts and improved math and reading skills (“Arts and Smarts”, 2008, Evans). It is clear that the arts can be used as a tool to train attention and arouse passion, which in turn, improves children’s cognition. Gains in measurable learning have correlated academic scores to arts education. In fact, cognitive neuroscientists from seven of the nation’s leading universities have recently begun to use sophisticated brain imaging technology to examine how music, dance and visual arts contribute to cognition and performance (Dana Consortium Project, Learning, Arts and the Brain, March 2008). These studies demonstrated that while participating in the arts, different regions of the brain are activated resulting in increased divergent thinking and brain activity. As educators, we have to reach a collective understanding that all children benefit from learning about and experiencing the arts. Increased time spent in the arts improves creative and critical skills, and students gain knowledge that they can take away and master other subjects with greater facility (“Arts for Life!”, 2014, Bush). Moreover, students who spend more time engaging in the arts score better on standardized tests, and even showed improvements outside of the classroom. These improvements included less TV time, more community service and less boredom in school (“Arts for Life!”, 2014, Bush). As the arts support biological development of the brain in ways that enhance the social and academic performance of our students, we should fight for every crumb of federal funding.
I choose to look at this as Trump throwing a bone w/a bit of red-meat attached to small-govt, TP, libertarian segments of his core supporters. The NEA, PBS, etc have already been cut to the bone by Republican admins since Reagan. Remember that Trump tends to throw a bone out there– or throw spaghetti to see what sticks. So WRITE AND CALL YOUR REPS to make your opinion known.