JFK Memorial Remains Closed
Dispensing with the need for an emergency hearing, U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper of D.C. quickly moved yesterday to prevent President Trump from demolishing the Kennedy Center — but left unresolved for now this week’s closure of the building and its ultimate fate.
Notably, Judge Cooper sidestepped at least for the moment a confrontation with Trump and his hand-picked board over whether they are in flagrant and repeated direct violation of his court orders.
Instead, the judge made clear that he would hold them to their word given in a companion case that they will “inform Plaintiffs and the Court if there is any change in the Board’s plans that would constitute a reversal of the Center’s position that the building will not be demolished and that no new structure will be constructed.”
In case that still left any doubt, Cooper added two new conditions: the notice must be in writing and more than 30 days in advance of any work.
Among the concerns Cooper’s order didn’t immediately address:
… this week’s “temporary” closure of the Kennedy Center to the public, the day after its Trumpified board voted to close for what Trump has called “Reconstruction and the Renovation.” Cooper asked for a detailed status report on the temporary closure — which the Kennedy Center’s executive director said can be extended week to week indefinitely — but didn’t signal whether he considered the closure a violation of his previous orders in the case. Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), the ex officio board member fighting to preserve the Kennedy Center, argues convincingly that the temporary closure is a smokescreen to effectuate the board’s decision to close without seeming to violate Cooper’s orders.
… any renovations or construction that fall in the vast space between a complete demolition and the status quo. The midcentury modern building may not face the same fate as the East Wing (RIP) of the White House, but Trump has repeatedly shown his ability to create irreversible facts on the ground before courts can or do act. Preventing a maximalist “demolition” doesn’t necessarily put a stop to lesser but still serious mischief that could do substantial damage to the building, its purpose, and its mission.
Despite the shortcomings of his emergency ruling, Judge Cooper did allow Beatty to conduct potentially very interesting discovery into what a photographer captured Wednesday night: Trump on Air Force One perusing a giant poster board with “Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED” across the top.
Another photographer captured Trump instigator Bill Pulte, the former acting DNI, disembarking from Air Force One after Trump while carrying poster boards, a prop he is already famous for using in meetings with Trump, to the consternation of White House staff. It’s not clear whether Pulte was carrying the Kennedy Center poster board in the photo:
The Destruction: Monumental DC Edition
While the Kennedy Center teeters on the brink, President Trump is lawlessly pushing ahead with other vanity projects in and partisan attacks on D.C.’s monumental core:
Ousted board members of the dismantled U.S. Institute of Peace raced to federal appeals court Thursday to try to block what they allege is the imminent carving of President Donald Trump’s name into the stone facade of its iconic headquarters in D.C. Trump’s name was added to the facade in December, but not carved into stone.
The National Park Service admits that Trump’s garish 250-foot triumphal arch will adversely affect dozens of historic sites — including Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial — but must be built anyway, according to internal documents and emails obtained by the WaPo.
The Trump administration is preparing about a dozen signs, expected to cost roughly $7,000 apiece, to station outside of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History warning visitors of what Interior Secretary Doug Burgum calls “the personal viewpoints that the curators of the exhibits are seeking to advance,” the WaPo reports.
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Trump DOJ Watch
Active political campaigning ahead of the midterm elections by Attorney General Todd Blanche shatters ethical norms dating back to Watergate, the NYT reports.
Under Harmeet Dhillon, the Trump DOJ’s gutted Civil Rights Division — more than 300 of its 400-plus lawyers left in the past 19 months — is being stacked with lawyers steeped in conservative advocacy and Republican politics with a new mission to wage partisan fights and defend gun rights, Bloomberg reports.
ICE Agent Released on Bond
ICE agent Christian Castro made his first court appearance in state court in Minnesota yesterday where he faces four counts of felony assault for the January shooting of a Venezuelan national during Operation Metro Surge. After spending the night in the county jail, he was released on a $200,000 bond.
As a condition of release, Castro waived his right to fight extradition from Texas, where he lives. With that assurance in hand, Minnesota dismissed its lawsuit against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) that had sought to compel him to follow the Constitution and federal law and honor its extradition request.
Castro is due in federal court today to face parallel though less serious charges of lying to federal investigators about the shooting.
For Your Radar: Midterms Edition
At least one judge on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals seems intent on reviving the Missouri redistricting fight before the midterm elections even though the Supreme Court put that to rest last week.
Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones warned in a letter to Secretary Markwayne Mullin that DHS agents’ hunt for elusive voter fraud “potentially violates several Virginia laws.”
Mostly Crickets …
TPM’s Christopher Mathias asked 28 Republican electeds in Florida about his scoop this week that Marshall Rawson, a GOP nominee for state rep, marched with the “Unite the Right” Nazis in Charlottesville. Not a single one denounced Rawson.
In related news: “Republicans don’t have a Nazi problem—they are the Nazi problem, writes The Handbasket’s Marisa Kabas.
More Pics of Iran-Inflicted Damage
On the heels of a similar report this week from CBS News, ABC News has obtained photos of the extensive damage Iran has inflicted on U.S. military bases and assets in the Middle East — damage that has been downplayed, obscured, and kept under wraps by the Trump Pentagon:
“It’s being kept a secret, and we’re acting like it’s no big deal, but, you know, there are drone strikes and ballistic missile strikes actively landing on bases every day,” an unidentified service member told ABC News.
See Ya Back Here Monday
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"Another photographer captured Trump instigator Bill Pulte, the former acting DNI, disembarking from Air Force One after Trump while carrying poster boards..."
Jaysus, if it's not Ed Martin it's bloody Bill Pulte pulling trump's wire about some nasty bit of thuggery or misfeasance...how do these people manage to have the influence that they apparently trade on? So bewildering and counterproductive, but nobody within trump's inner circle can stop these constant plays upon trump's most destructive impulses...smh.
"Republicans don’t have a Nazi problem—they are the Nazi problem", writes The Handbasket’s Marisa Kabas.
THAT is today's Internets winner!
Qué ganas de pasar a la posteridad de cualquier modo que tienen estos presidentes como Trump, o Milei en Argentina...es de idiotas!
Me pregunto lo mismo que Lance Khrome: "¿Cómo es posible que esta gente tenga la influencia que, al parecer, ejercen? Es desconcertante y contraproducente, pero nadie en el círculo íntimo de Trump puede detener estas constantes manipulaciones de sus impulsos más destructivos... ¡Qué vergüenza!" y me contesto, es posible porque nosotros, como pueblo, lo naturalizamos hace rato...ya no hay más democracias, son tiranías...
Gracias David por tu trabajo! Hasta el lunes!