I have to give up saying, “This is unbelievable,” because during the Trump era, incompetence and incoherence is the new normal.
Trump just appointed a new leader for the National Endowment for the Arts. In the past, this position has been held by arts administrators, even artists. No more. The new leader of the agency is a Florida political operative who worked for Governor Rick Scott and on Trump’s inaugural committee. She specializes in opposition research.
Why was she chosen? Her daughter attends a school for the arts, so that makes Mary Anne Carter qualified to lead the federal agency that funds the arts.
Ironically, I learned about this appointment on the same day that the New York Times published a scathing opinion piece about the total absence of any culture in the Trump White House, written by novelist Dave Eggers.
He wrote:
“This White House has been, and is likely to remain, home to the first presidency in American history that is almost completely devoid of culture. In the 17 months that Donald Trump has been in office, he has hosted only a few artists of any kind. One was the gun fetishist Ted Nugent. Another was Kid Rock. They went together (and with Sarah Palin). Neither performed.”
Be grateful for that.
“Since his inauguration in January 2017, there have been no official concerts at the White House (the Reagans had one every few weeks). No poetry readings (the Obamas regularly celebrated young poets). The Carters began a televised series, “In Performance at the White House,” which last aired in 2016, where artists as varied as Mikhail Baryshnikov and Patricia McBride performed in the East Room. The Clintons continued the series with Aretha Franklin and B. B. King, Alison Krauss and Linda Ronstadt.
“But aside from occasional performances by “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band, the White House is now virtually free of music. Never have we had a president not just indifferent to the arts, but actively oppositional to artists. Mr. Trump disparaged the play “Hamilton” and a few weeks later attacked Meryl Streep. He has said he does not have time to read books (“I read passages, I read areas, I read chapters”). Outside of recommending books by his acolytes, Mr. Trump has tweeted about only one work of literature since the beginning of his presidency: Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury.” It was not an endorsement.
“Every great civilization has fostered great art, while authoritarian regimes customarily see artists as either nuisances, enemies of the state or tools for the creation of propaganda. The Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev asserted that “the highest duty of the Soviet writer, artist and composer, of every creative worker” is to “fight for the triumph of the ideas of Marxism-Leninism.”
“When John Kennedy took office, his policies reacted against both the Soviet Union’s approach to the arts and that of Joseph McCarthy, who had worked hard to create in the United States an atmosphere where artists were required to be allegiant and where dissent was called treason. Pivoting hard, Kennedy’s White House made support of the avant-garde a priority. The artists Franz Kline and Mark Rothko came to the inauguration, and at a state dinner for France’s minister of cultural affairs, André Malraux, the guests included Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Robert Lowell, Geraldine Page and George Balanchine. Kennedy gave the Spanish cellist Pablo Casals, who had exiled himself to France and then Puerto Rico to protest Franco’s fascism, a forum in the East Room. Casals had performed in the White House once before, at the young age of 27. Now 84, and a man without a country, he played a mournful version of “The Song of the Birds.”
George W. Bush, he writes, was
“..was open-minded and active. He met Bono in the Oval Office. He hosted a wide range of musicians, from Itzhak Perlman to Destiny’s Child. He was an avid reader — he maintained a long-running contest with Karl Rove to see who could read more books in a year. Laura Bush has long been a crucial figure in the book world, having co-founded the Texas Book Festival and the National Book Festival in Washington, now one of the country’s largest literary gatherings.
“But perhaps no Republican could match the presidency of Ronald Reagan, whose guest list was a relentless celebration of the diversity of American culture. He and Nancy Reagan hosted Lionel Hampton. Then the Statler Brothers. Then Ella Fitzgerald. Then Benny Goodman. Then a night with Beverly Sills, Rudolf Serkin and Ida Levin. That was all in the fall of 1981. The Reagans did much to highlight uniquely American forms, especially jazz. One night in 1982, the White House hosted Dizzy Gillespie, Chick Corea and Stan Getz. When Reagan visited Mikhail Gorbachev in Moscow in 1988, he brought along the Dave Brubeck Quartet.
But that kind of thing is inconceivable now. Admittedly, at a time when Mr. Trump’s policies have forcibly separated children from their asylum-seeking parents — taking the most vulnerable children from the most vulnerable adults — the White House’s attitude toward the arts seems relatively unimportant. But with art comes empathy. It allows us to look through someone else’s eyes and know their strivings and struggles. It expands the moral imagination and makes it impossible to accept the dehumanization of others. When we are without art, we are a diminished people — myopic, unlearned and cruel.”
Face it, friends, the barbarians are inside the gates of the White House. Trump is unquestionably the most ignorant, unlettered, incurious, closed-minded person to ascend to the presidency at least in recent memory. Perhaps some one can reach back and find a president who was less educated, less aware of history and culture. I can’t. Perhaps the watchword of this administration will be “Ignorance and Indifference Are Bliss.”
I feel like we are living in some kind of right wing/libertarian dystopian nightmare, cheered on by millions of clueless ordinary working class Americans. With every day, things just keep getting worse, Trump and the GOP keep pushing the government and governance further and further rightward. There are some glimmers of light in all this darkness (Cynthia Nixon, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie, all the demonstrations and marches) but that still does not alter the fact that Trump and the GOP are in control of the government and the GOP controls too many state legislatures. Vote them out.
“Trump just appointed a new leader for the National Endowment for the Arts. In the past, this position has been held by arts administrators, even artists.”
EVEN ARTISTS!
G-D you people are insufferable. It is a hard choice who is more hate-worthy, arts administrators or Republican opposition research operatives, but for an artist, arts administrators are more personally repulsive.
Also, ironic to now see accolades to Reagan who at the time was absolutely loathed by both arts administrators and leftist political operatives. Or am I repeating myself?
Arts administrators (y’know, the museum directors and historians and curators and conservators and fundraisers and grant writers who actually keep the arts going in this benighted country) are hated? In what universe are you living? Or are you just bitter because your grant for a free ride to Burning Man got ashcanned?
Oh, for Christ Sake !! Either speak to the issue —does the Chair of the country’s National Endowment for the Arts need to have some kind of serious professional knowledge of and relationship to the arts in America or not??!! And does that person also need to know how to intelligently and fairly maximize the benefits of a breattakingly small pittance of an annual arts budget for everything [on the order for years of one penny per every four
dollars allocated to the Federal Highway
Administration], or not?? Either get serious, get real, or take your stupid stuff elsewhere and shut up
We have come to show that the Handsmade Tale has come to be our reality, not just a TV show.
Damn close;☹️
Listening to or watching an artist perform in the White House would mean that the spotlight would be off the narcissist, which would of course be intolerable to him. He is a culture of one.
I have run out of words to describe my contempt for this man. Just remember he lost the popular vote. We have to work overtime to get out the vote in November and in 2020 to restore a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
Not a government of the plutocracy, by and for the plutocracy.
Ruled by a willing tool.
“There is one thing worse than a fool, and that is a man who is conceited.” (we can check this one for Trump)
Proverbs 26:12 Living Bible (TLB)
There’s more:
If being a fool isn’t bad enough, two qualities put us in a category more reviled than fool:
Know it all’s (we can check this one for Trump too):
Proverbs 26:12 (ESV) Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for hi
Every negative quality about a fool seems to stem from being wise in your own eyes.
Blabbermouths (we can also check this one for Trump):
Proverbs 29:20 (ESV) Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
I can certainly empathize with what you and many are saying. As an educator, it is heartbreaking to see people leading important building blocks such as education and the arts. They lack experience or quality of experience to lead such significant and impactful departments. What it hurts is our children and education where they are growing up under someone who seems more interested in dividing our nation rather than uniting us all. I agree- we need to restore a government that is “…of the people, by the people, and for the people” . Hopefully with continued advocacy by enough people, we will have that in 2020.
I keep expecting to wake from this nightmare and wake up in a universe where President Clinton just introduced legislation to strengthen Social Security and raise car emission standards to encourage more manufacturers to switch to electrics or hybrids.
“President Clinton just introduced legislation to strengthen Social Security and raise car emission standards”
The GOP dominated Congress would have killed it and the only way Clinton could have even slipped through a splinter of what he wanted was to compromise with the Alt-Right.
Presidents cannot directly introduce legislation to Congress. They have to find a Senator or Congressman to introduce it for them.
It IS a nightmare but not one being “cheered on” by millions of clueless ordinary working class. The Mercers and their money had everything to do with the installation of Trump, Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, Kellyanne Conway and so forth. There are many other very wealthy thugs who funded this takeover.
Meanwhile Trump is bragging about how great the ‘wonderful Christmas present tax break for the middle class’ is going. He lies and had no culture, just a love of overly gaudy and gold.
This was posted by the WH. Can you stand to watch him preen?
……..
‘Six months ago, we unleashed an economic miracle’
“The biggest tax cuts in American history,” President Trump said Friday at a celebration of December’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. “It’s my great honor to welcome you back to the White House to celebrate six months of new jobs, bigger paychecks, and keeping more of your hard-earned money where it belongs, in your pocket or wherever else you want to spend it.”
The results are in: The economy is booming and confidence is soaring. Fifty-four percent of Americans rate the economy as good or excellent, the highest ever recorded by CNBC. Businesses repatriated $300 million held overseas in early 2018—another record.
This economic miracle gets less press than it should. Why? Because the tax-cuts boom is proving the President’s alarmist critics flat-out wrong. “What has been sold as a job creator and wage booster will, of course, do little of either,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) claimed. “We are very probably looking at a global recession, with no end in sight,” liberal economist Paul Krugman said the day after President Trump’s election.
Video: President Trump Delivers Remarks Celebrating the Six Month Anniversary of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
The White House
Published on Jun 29, 2018
“Since his inauguration in January 2017, there have been no official concerts at the White House (the Reagans had one every few weeks).” – did this make the author of Reaganomics a better president than Trump?
“The White House is now virtually free of music. Never have we had a president not just indifferent to the arts, but actively oppositional to artists.” – On a positive side, he will not be calling the radio after midnight to request the recording of the concert he liked. The conductor and the performers would not be rounded up by the secret police.
BackAgain: I’d rather have a president who supports the arts and doesn’t want to cut funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.
Trump is busy all day watching Fox ‘news’. That is where he gets information on what a great job he is doing. He isn’t smart enough to endure intelligence briefings. Fox is enjoying this facade of truth and is making money off of supporting Trump. All are happy except for those who know it is destroying America.
The Reagans could and did suck in many ways, but give them their due. They were both actors, both knew literally hundreds of artists, and they both enjoyed high culture. The op-ed is correct: there were dozens if not hundreds of concerts in the Reagan White House, most of them broadcast on PBS. Ditto every single successive administration…until now.
And, for all his extremist flaws (at the time they were extremist — today, they’d be closer to the center of the Democratic platform), President Reagan would have never sold out his country to an enemy like Russia.
Reagan would have never praised monsters like Putin or Kim in NK. Reagan would have never worked to destroy America’s alliance with democracies around the world like the EU, Japan and South Korea.
Reagan would have never separated immigrant children (really young children) from their parents and tossed those children into chain link cages where they picked up lice.
Reagan would have never kicked DACA children out of the US.
I was never a Reagan supporter. I couldn’t stand the man as an elected official, but I’d give up my three remaining wisdom teeth to have Reagan back in the White House instead of Trump. With Reagan we’d have a president that would not work to destroy his own country.
And yet, Reagan said during a campaign speech “Why should we subsidize intellectual curiosity?”
“When John Kennedy took office, his policies reacted against both the Soviet Union’s approach to the arts and that of Joseph McCarthy, who had worked hard to create in the United States an atmosphere where artists were required to be allegiant and where dissent was called treason.” – isn’t it the SAME approach? The art serving the government.
“Pivoting hard, Kennedy’s White House made support of the avant-garde a priority.” – Hmm, did he explicitly support avant-garde because CCF did not feel like supporting it? A two-prong attack, overt and covert:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_and_the_Cultural_Cold_War
https://www.c-span.org/video/?157308-1/the-cultural-cold-war
Not to contest Egger’s fundamental point, but it’s a fact that avant-grade culture was stealthily supported by the CIA and State Department in the fifties and early sixties, along with a host of liberal cultural publications, in order to contrast with the repression and “Socialist Realism” promoted by the Soviets.
And while it’s true that Trump is devoid of any cultural bearings whatsoever, except for the culture of money, we shouldn’t think this antipathy is unintentional , since it sends a signal – that he isn’t going to even pretend to care about these “elitist” pursuits – to part of his political base.
Although I’m usually skeptical of Trump/Nazi quotes, there’s always Goebbels, “When I hear the word ‘culture’ I reach for my pistol.” I think there’s some of that going on here.
We underestimate Trump, a political Idiot Savant, if we think this is only his ignorance and indifference on display.
Exactly what avant-garde culture and liberal publications were supported by the CIA and the State Department? news to me.
In the 1950s, the CIA supported pro-democracy organizations in the US and abroad as part of the war of ideas.
It was called Operation Mockingbird — I do not think the CIA ended that program.
The Church Committee concluded:
“In examining the CIA’s past and present use of the U.S. media, the Committee finds two reasons for concern. The first is the potential, inherent in covert media operations, for manipulating or incidentally misleading the American public. The second is the damage to the credibility and independence of a free press which may be caused by covert relationships with the U.S. journalists and media organizations.”
https://www.veteranstoday.com/2018/02/17/archival-operation-mockingbird-cia-media-mind-control/
I don’t think I can believe anymore that Trump is just a bumbling, incompetent idiot. I really think that his presidency is a concerted, conscious effort to demolish our democracy and destroy our country. I think it relates to his relationship with Russia in some way and hopefully, Mueller will tell us how. The Republican attitude also makes me think they are benefitting in some way. Why else would they be traitors to their constitutional oath? I am sure now with every strand of this spider’s web, that this is a blatant attempt to destroy this country.
There are reports than Cohen is going to flip with damaging evidence. I hope this is true and we can impeach this lying, disaster capitalist.
retired teacher: The former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak, was just arrested according to his lawyers. He was horribly corrupt. His wife had a collection of purses that ran into the hundreds of thousands. Many expensive watches were found. Over a billion mysteriously appeared in his account.
My email to my Muslim friend concerning this news was:
“It’s about time.
Hope to some day see Trump arrested.”
Her Reply was:
“I hope too that justice will prevail.”
People overseas know what is happening in this country.
I was just thinking today, with the emphasis on “skills” and “competency-based education,” that students could go through with their entire school careers without learning ANY content. Trump is the perfect example of what happens when education doesn’t focus on actually learning things about the world, but only a set of very focused (and redudant and boring) “skills.” I’m not necessarily saying that Trump’s education was devoid of content, but that he didn’t pay attention and/or care.
I must be feeling punchy from all the doom & gloom, as this cracked me up: “with the emphasis on “skills” and “competency-based education,” students could go through with their entire school careers without learning ANY content.”
We’re 1/2-way down the garden path to… ELA students who can parse fiction & non-fiction snippets for main idea, authorial intent et al – but have never read a book… Elem kids who can explain how & why arithmetic operations work but can’t use them… Hisch grads who took Math & ELA back-to-back w/Math & ELA test prep, but only 3 or 4 semesters combined of History & Sci (& no for-lang, music, or art)… & a big basket of deplorable ‘private consumers’ who got tax $ & diplomas for Bible coursework.
Who’da thunk it? Wasn’t stds/aligned hi-stakes ed reform + enabling alt consumer choices all about teacher-proofing the classroom to force high-bar content into those little vessels, & enforcing it via free market competition? Dam!
Gallows humor.
Daily Kos: Trump Threatens Americans Who Disagree with Him in Slobbering FOX News Interview
EXCLUSIVE: Trump Interview with Maria Bartiromo Fox News 7/1/18
Political News
Published on Jul 1, 2018
President Trump gives an exclusive wide ranging Interview with Maria Bartiromo during her Sunday Mornings Future show aired on Fox news; 7-1-18: No Commercials
Carol, 30 mins of Trump? On Fox?
Pass.
bethree5: I agree. I couldn’t watch the whole video. It’s impossible for me to watch him boldly lying and being proud of himself.
He’s living out a bizarre idea about life as a brand. It’s medieval monarchy meets Coca Cola. And there is no art here, only branding images. Humanity? Well, it’s reduced to lines in advertising, lots of it negative, attacks on other brands, winners and losers, etc. There is no room for art here.
Consider the images, the branding, the scheme: positive stories only!
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna883111
Consider the images, the branding, the scheme: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/7/2/17519414/ocasio-cortez-campaign-design-campaign-posters-tandem-branding
The branding isn’t the distasteful part. Every candidate has to preent an image that will convey whatever image they wish to create. the distasteful part is that the Trump’s apparently profited from these images.
cx: presents, The, Trumps
Ocasio was smart not to go with the traditional red, white, and blue motif. Campaign posters begin to blend together when they all sport the same patriotic meme. Her posters drew the eye.
It’s one thing to brand, and it’s part of our culture, like Coca Cola.
It’s another to live it and think it, not just use it for business or politics.
And it’s a whole other thing to live it and think it as a sitting president of the United States of America.
” It’s medieval monarchy meets Coca Cola.” Akademos thanx 4 this hilarious mental image. I’m off this wk: gonna make this image on paint 🙂
Trump wouldn’t know art if it flipped on him.
There is only one solution: Vote Democrat.
And focus on defeating Trump instead of focusing on all the ways no Democrat can ever reach the perfection required by the same people who insisted that Trump’s win would be no big deal and stopping an evil Democrat from winning was far more important.
Don’t listen to the people who are complicit. Resist. Vote.
Agree but you know that the usual suspects will be whining and kvetching in 2020: “Oh no, I will not vote for the “lesser evil,” blah, blah, blah.”
I will vote Democratic in 2018 and 2020.
As will everyone who believes Trump is dangerous and the Republicans are the most corrupt and co-opted party in recent American history.
But there will be some saying that it is the Democrats who should be the focus of our ire and we should make sure every voter in the country understands that it is the Democrats who will betray them. And they will be the complicit ones. And they are almost always smug white folks who feel protected and repeat the right wing talking points that the Dems only care about “identity politics” and selling out workers.
I notice that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez keeps her main focus on the ugliness that is the Republican Party and you never hear her claiming it is the Democrats who are the real problem. Hopefully she will be a model for those self-righteous white progressives whose hatred of the Democrats helps Trump.
“I notice that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez keeps her main focus on the ugliness that is the Republican Party and you never hear her claiming it is the Democrats who are the real problem.” – So, she is not stupid. She will not have a chance as an independent or dem-soc or green or whoever else in the de-facto two-party system.
Actually, Ocasio-Cortez has been very outspoken on the issue of the Democrats’ silence on Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories and the suffering and deaths of the Palestinian people.
In fact, I think you’ll find that AOC is hardly going to be a good, meek GAGA Democrat who keeps quiet to maintain party unity. She has been very clear about the direction the Democrats need to head and how they need to start speaking with and to the people if they want to win.
The point is she shares her opinions/positions without feeling the need to demonize those who may not share all of her ideas. She appears to recognize that if she wins the general election, she will be working with people whose support she may want. Trashing them is certainly not going to endear her to them.
Something certain progressives who kept insisting that Donald Trump is not any worse than the evil Democrats have never understood:
There is a difference between being critical of a politician’s positions on an issue and claiming that because the politician disagrees with you on that position it means that he or she and the entire Democratic party is corrupt and will sell out voters in a nanosecond and are absolutely positively not one smidgeon better than Trump so it doesn’t matter if Trump and the Republicans take power.
Wrong. And the hypocrites have a double standard. They decide that throwing over public education is fine (“DFER Democrat of the month but he’s ‘progressive’ so it’s okay”), but being pro-Israel means you are a corrupt tool who needs to be defeated even if it means Donald Trump has free reign.
I don’t believe that Ocasio-Cortez has ever said that the Democrats are no better than the Republicans and I don’t believe she has ever said we should focus all of our hatred and condemnation on the evil Democrats because the Republicans are no worse. She would not have won enough votes because most sentient people who supported her understand that we need to defeat Trump and his enablers.
But please feel free to cite where she is turning a disagreement on policy into a claim that means that we should vote for anyone but a Democrat even if that means that Trump and his enablers win another election.
I doubt very much if Ocasio-Cortez is vacuous enough to help the right wing win by claiming that the evil Democrats are just as bad. She is much, much smarter than some complicit progressives who got played for fools by the right wing in 2016. I sure hope they learned their lesson and model themselves after her and not their own past misjudgments.
“The point is she shares her opinions/positions without feeling the need to demonize those who may not share all of her ideas.”
Thank you, speduktr. Had I read your pithy response I would not have made my unnecessarily long-winded one.
“I think you’ll find that AOC is hardly going to be a good, meek GAGA Democrat who keeps quiet to maintain party unity.”
Hello?? Is Elizabeth Warren one of those?
Shame on you for deciding that anyone who understands that party unity in an ELECTION YEAR when Trump and his agenda are at the ballot box is just a “good, meek GAGA Democrat”. What a nasty, nasty insult you just threw at Sen. Warren.
Mitchell Robinson does a great job in describing the lack of qualifications for Trump’s appointment to lead the National Endowment for the Arts —a political operative who seems to have been chosen because she has a daughter who attends a school for dance.
I doubt there will be many formal complaints from the arts community, especially because state and local arts council administrators depend on funding from NEA.
The NEA has been threatened with shutdowns since it was founded in 1965. In 1985, the 99th Congress called for a study of the state of arts education as part of the reauthorization of the National Endowment for the Arts. Not much has happened since then other than continuing variations on the artists-in-schools programs. https://www.americansforthearts.org/by-program/reports-and-data/legislation-policy/naappd/toward-civilization-a-report-on-arts-education
I do wonder who will be appointed to lead the National Endowment for the Humanities and the older National Science Foundation.
In the meantime the Trumpsters are hell-bent on editing “democracy” out of textbooks. Will the censors be nominated for positions at the National Endowment of the Humanities? https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/7/1/1777042/-New-Authoritarian-GOP-Removed-Democracy-from-Textbooks-As-Too-Partisan?detail=emaildkre
Donald Trump will choose a human to head the NEH, a human who worked on his campaign. Education not necessary.
Thanks for urging us to read the full piece by Robinson. He draws a parallel that had occurred to me as well yesterday: it’s quite possible this individual was appointed to close the NEA (the expressed goal of the administration) – note the slashing of its budget from $150 to $29 million (2019 proposed budget).
Robinson compares her to our Sec of Education, and we’ve seen recently how this doing away with the Department of Education is envisioned. (I think they should have called it “The Department of ‘Training’ and Workforce Preparation”, but that’s just me.)
It’s pretty simple: CABINET INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1) Did you contribute to my campaign?
2) Will you be loyal to me?
3) (for the few woman and people of color) Will you stand in some (but not all) photo ops with me?
If we could only add:
4) Will you serve as a character witness for me when…?
and a note on loyalty – The Democrats on the Senate hearing committee to rubber stamp the Supreme Court choice MUST ASK: Has the President asked you to be loyal to him? If not and he does ask, how will you respond?
Trump keeps working to alienate our allies. They aren’t dictatorial and haven’t worked to stroke his narcissism.
………
The New York Times
Breaking News Alert
July 02, 2018
NYTimes.com »
BREAKING NEWS
President Trump sent sharply critical letters to NATO allies, demanding they spend more on defense and warning the U.S. is losing patience
Monday, July 2, 2018 5:39 PM EST
The letters, which went out last month, are the latest sign of acrimony between Mr. Trump and American allies as he heads to a NATO summit in Brussels next week.
He is determined to destroy the western alliance and replace it with the US-Russia-North Korea alliance.
I’m going to add a few words to your
“He is determined to destroy the western alliance and replace it with the US-Russia-North Korea alliance” — with Donald Trump as America’s Dear Leader for Life and his family in a line of succession to replace him when he is gone.
In addition, Trump envisions, repeatedly dreams, of prison-labor camps like North Korea, has where he can send anyone he doesn’t like or approve of.
You would not fare well as a political analyst.
BackAgain: Trump prefers dictators like Putin and Kim Jong Un. They don’t have anyone who protests. He would love to be declared ‘Dictator for Life” and support those who think like him.
I think I manage quite well as a political analyst, especially as compared to you, who thinks most children should not be educated. I’ve lived 80 years, seen a few presidents close up, and I have the sense to know what fascism is. I’m pretty tired of your asinine comments. You can stop wasting the time of readers who are far more intelligent and thoughtful and compassionate than you. Frankly you are a bore.
backagain –
Then how do you describe the end game.
He alienates our allies.
Cuts taxes to benefit the wealthy and cuts social services to balance it out
He alienates our allies
He sees “both sides” of the white supremicist rallies
He has his base believing these split immigrant familes and DACA students are all rapists and gangsters (and somehow all got to Long Island)
So what does he do when there are no jobs, no health care, no services from his privatized caste system.
What are the next sentences?
OR – What if Putin, for example says, “We want Alaska and its oil back?” Think our former allies will support us?
OR – When Putin reveals what he’s blackmailing president with.
The WPA was designed to “make America great” too – – and even they supported ART and writers and artists…
When will Trump be inviting Buddy Guy back to the White House?
I’m old enough to remember when Jimmy Carter invited Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Charles Mingus and Cecil Taylor (!) along with Teddy Wilson and Pearl Bailey to be honored and perform at the White House.
After Taylor played, Carter, an enthusiastic amateur pianist, sought him out privately, asking how on earth he’d learned to play like that.
George W. Bush, moron that he was, had proximity to his decent, book-loving wife. But this guy in there now, it really isn’t an exaggeration to think of him as barbaric/nihilistic in so many ways…
Plus W genuinely liked country music and Broadway shows – here’s a list from his web site of some of the ones he hosted in the East Room:
B.B. King
Disney’s The Lion King
Itzhak Perlman
Jersey Boys
Kenny Chesney
Lee Ann Womack
Marvin Hamlisch
Naomi and Wynonna Judd
Natalie Cole
Rascal Flatts
Steven Curtis Chapman
The Oak Ridge Boys
The Temptations
Vince Gill and Amy Grant
Yo Yo Ma
Most of that’s not high culture, but just because it’s not classical music or slam poetry doesn’t mean it’s not enjoyable or worthwhile.
Diane, I think you’re confusing two different people named Mary Anne Carter. The current acting chair Mary Anne Carter was Senior Deputy Chair under Jane Chu. That seems to be a different person than the political operative from Florida.
It is definitely the same person. NEA confirms this, except she is Acting Chair, not the Chair. The US Senate must vote first.
So she is Rick Scott’s political operative
Diane, I don’t think that the NEA’s Mary Anne Carter is the political operative. https://www.arts.gov/staff/mary-anne-carter
There is another Mary Anne Carter. She worked for Gov. Rick Scott in Florida. She has zero experience in the arts, other than that her daughter goes to an arts school. https://www.bradenton.com/latest-news/article34514625.html
You were right the first time. It is the same person. Trump put her in last year to watch over Chu. Now Chu is gone, & Carter is running the place.
Are you truly surprised?
As a Canadian more familiar with a parliamentary system of government, I wonder what mechanism you have for freeing your country, not just from a president, but from a whole administration who seem determined to destroy or undermine everything that was best about American democracy?
We have to vote his party out of power this fall and defeat him in two years.
As I’ve said for years: the Republicans are out to repeal the entire 20th century.
In her paper, The Arts and The Search for Social Justice, Maxine Greene states “Artists have always been the real purveyors of the news, for it is not the outward happening in itself which is new, but the kindling by it of emotion, perception and appreciation.” Trump is uncultured because art is powerful. It can bring an awareness of the world that he doesn’t want to see. It reveals truths and connections that would interfere with his agenda. He has no time or desire for self-reflection, for abstract thought or any true intellectual ponderings and therefore finds no value in art. Besides, he plays golf, that’s all the culture he needs.
I am by no means a Trump defender or fan, but this isn’t about Trump. It’s about Mary Anne Carter, so this article is misleading, and unfair to her. She is much more than a woman with “a daughter who attends a school for the arts.” She was already senior deputy chairwoman of NEA, so how could you write that she has NO experience? She was the next in line so she filled in, and Trump just took the easy route and appointed her because, as you mention, he is not involved with, or interested in, the arts.
Sorry, Rob, two different people with same name.
Are is this the same person who was Gov. Rick Scott’s political operative who was appointed by Trump to be deputy chair of NEA with no experience?
Respectfully it IS the same person. Trump put Carter in last year to oversee Chu. This is a basic Google search.
At least even Hitler admired Wagner.
I’ve read that Hitler was even nice to his dog. I wonder if Trump treats his wife as well as Hitler treated his dog.
Without meaning to condone anything about Trump, one reason his White House is so devoid of music and culture is that many artists and musicians do not want to be associated with him. Would you perform, play, or attend a gathering there?
Boo hoo hoo. Saving money!
If POTUS #45 did invite an artist to appear and perform at the White House, who would accept that invitation? None! Refusals would be more cannon fodder for the leftist media.
Trump would like to turn our county into ignorant fearful little people, ready to kill at the drop off the hat, to please the master.
Andrew Jackson was probably as anti-cultural as Trump. “A barbarian who could not write a sentence of grammar and hardly could spell his own name.” John Quincy Adams
45 wouldn’t know culture if it was in front of him. #resist
Goebbels supposedly said, “Whenever I hear the word ‘culture,’ I reach for a gun.”
Gives me shivers to think of that.
“The title is a reference to the often-mistranslated quotation commonly attributed to Hermann Göring —
“When I hear the word ‘culture’, that’s when I reach for my revolver” — the actual quote is “Wenn ich Kultur höre … entsichere ich meinen Browning!”
“This translates as: “Whenever I hear [the word] ‘culture’… I remove the safety from my Browning!” The line is uttered by the character Thiemann in Act 1, Scene 1 of the play Schlageter, written by Hanns Johst.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/That%27s_When_I_Reach_for_My_Revolver
I cannot imagine a person being appointed to head the NEA without some background in the arts to support a critical part of our national culture. I have stayed quiet far too long, but this has struck a BIG nerve!!😩💀🕷🚧🗡⁉️ A nation ➗ed!
Lest you forget, FLOTUS had some ballet dancers performing The Nutcracker in the Ice Walkers Christmas White House, which she stared at, motionless and expressionless, for awhile.
He’s revolting.
One can only ask “Why is this isolationist president, who once stated “I love war!”, attempting to turn our United States into a third world country? He is bargaining with the devil himself.
Trump “is” Beelzebub, the Lord of the flies. He doesn’t bargain with anyone.
Judy, in third world countries the wealthy run everything. Corruption is rampant. Isn’t that what Trump espouses? More for the top and screw everyone else?
Even Hitler appreciated Wagner, if only for his nationalistic themes and anti-semitic personal stance.
By not inviting artists to the White House, Trump does not have to suffer the indignity of the artists turning down the invitation. Because that would totally happen! Think about the inauguration: he could not get any prominent musicians to perform!
If it weren’t because it hurts to read Casals referred to as the Spanish Pablo, rather than the Catalan Pau, i would forward this post. Pau Casals was named Pau and not Pablo. and he identified himself as Catalan and not Spanish. For your information, since you moan the lack of music in certain quarters, he himself said it loud and clear at the United Nations in 1971 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ugrDYxWJDo
The horror of the administration’s war (or just indifference?) against the arts is that they and their base are PROUD of their ignorance. It’s almost as if Mr. Trump is saying, “Look how far I got without the things you believe are important.” He tried art, but he apparently got ripped off with a forged painting (that despite evidence to the contrary he still asserts it is an original) and now rejects art as a worthwhile endeavor. When Andrew Jackson, another populist president, was elected, he allegedly threw open the gates to the White House and allowed in all his supporters. The White House was trashed by muddy boots and too much liquor. Once again ignorance is in control, but this time it is a calculated ignorance. Don the Con does only what his base wants. His base hasn’t been exposed to the arts because virtually all funding for the arts in schools has gone away. His base wouldn’t know a Mark Rothko from a Winslow Homer because they were never exposed. Maybe the best way to get art back in the White House is to start with his base.
Really sad you cannot see the forest for the trees
Prior to becoming the acting chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, Mary Anne Carter was the senior deputy chairman. In that role, Carter managed the day-to-day operations of the agency. Her support for the arts stems from her daughter, who was diagnosed with learning difficulties at the age of seven. Carter found a school that infuses the arts in every course, allowing for the learning process to be productive and enjoyable for her daughter. Carter understands the power of art, as her family lives it every day
What was Carter’s expertise before Trump made her senior deputy chairman? In which arts organizations did she play a role? Was she a member of the board of a museum? She was a political appointment. She was a political operative who worked for Tea Party hero Rick Scott, governor of Florida.