WASHINGTON (AP) — The president of the Kennedy Center on Friday fiercely criticized a musician’s sudden decision to cancel a Christmas Eve performance at the venue days after the White House announced that President Donald Trump’s name would be added to the facility.

“Your decision to withdraw at the last moment — explicitly in response to the Center’s recent renaming, which honors President Trump’s extraordinary efforts to save this national treasure — is classic intolerance and very costly to a non-profit Arts institution,” the venue’s president, Richard Grenell, wrote in a letter to musician Chuck Redd that was shared with The Associated Press.

In the letter, Grenell said he would seek $1 million in damages “for this political stunt.”

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[–] 75 points 10 months ago (6 children)

Isn't the political stunt the illegal renaming of the Kennedy Center?
Confusing....

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  • [–] 45 points 10 months ago* (3 children)

    This is how fascism works, there'd be news articles about how people are making things political by refusing to get into the cattle cars, too.

    The article should have lead with how this is an illegal renaming.

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  • [–] 19 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    This is what's been so frustrating to me is that news outlets that nominally disagree with fascism and Trump in general don't put things into their wider context and just focus on the minutia of the particular story to the exclusion of The wider reality. I call this sane-washing.

    One particular example more or less related to this is when NPR said something to the effect of stopping focusing on Tylenol and instead focus on other causes of autism, as if Tylenol was a cause of autism.

    Even they seem to be falling prey. They have lost control of the language.

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  • [–] 31 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    efforts to save this national treasure

    Oh please do get all the way fucked. Trump like a kid with a can of spray paint is tagging up his name everywhere because he knows he’s going to die soon, and he also knows that we’re going to piss on his name and grave when he does

    He’s getting the “Nancy Pelosi’s Schmear” special for eternity

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  • [–] 15 points 10 months ago

    Yep, keep this shit up and the only acts you're gonna be able to book will be kid rock and snoop dogg.

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  • [–] 13 points 10 months ago

    The Pedophile Centre for the Performing Arts.

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  • [–] 11 points 10 months ago

    Little bitch who caved for the wannabe king mad at people who think he's dumb. More at 11

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

    Trumps pawn who is currently in charge criticizes someone who voted with their feet.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago* (2 children)

    Fuck these people, I have no tolerance for them trying to take the high road while destroying the country.

    These people don't seem to realize when they lose power we will turn it all back into non-partisan and we will jail and remove all the people who went along with this nonsense.

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  • [+] -20 points 10 months ago (5 children)
  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Then why do you care that the musician canceled? Both should be equally meaningless to you.

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  • [+] -7 points 10 months ago (2 children)
  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    But what are you commenting on?! Did you just click on a random post, with a random comment? Or does your comment come with context? Reading comprehension would suggest that you not only disapprove of the musicians actions but don't understand rule of law or understand morality.

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  • [+] -6 points 10 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago

    Your thoughts are irrelevant to the conversation. Do you go into posts about food and say you don't like cars? No... And now I'm sharing my thoughts on your waste of time and energy comment. So I asked questions that are relevant to your comment trying to figure out your point. But I guess you're just typing into the void then getting mad when the void types back.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (1 child)
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  • 43 comments in c/news@lemmy.world view that post
    [–] 136 points 10 months ago

    Thank You Chuck Redd!!!! You made the right decision. Stand by your decision, do not waver. You are an American hero!!
    Also I like that they still refer to themselves as The Kennedy Center, even while criticizing Redd’s decision.

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  • [–] 213 points 10 months ago* (2 children)

    "The Kennedy Center" didn't criticize Redd for cancelling, Richard Grenell who is a far right wing MAGA republican and was appointed to the position by trump is the only one who criticized him.

    Wording it as they did is disingenuous given the reality, like there's a consensus of a group of people at the Kennedy center. It's just a MAGA cultist. It always is.

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  • [–] 26 points 10 months ago

    Yeah well it’s AP news. Their own journalists get sniped by Israeli militant terrorists and they won’t even call it murder. Like most corpo media these days, it’s devolved into a right wing rag.

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  • [–] 93 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (3 children)

    Typical fascist regime. In the past the statement would have been something like, "We're sorry that you were unable to join us...." "We hope that in the future...."

    Now it's just, "You are a traitorous pig for not worshipping our living Jesus...."

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  • [–] 19 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    I like to think of him as Baron Harkonnen, specifically from the 80s film, all bloated and puss filled.

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  • [–] 62 points 10 months ago*

    No artist is under obligation to cooperate with treasonous pedophile propaganda. He had a contractual obligation to the Kennedy Center, not the Trump-Kennedy Center. Had he known it was a MAGA Pedophile venue, he would have refused the gig. Treasonous Pedophile MAGAs don't get to enjoy Christmas.

    If he loses the lawsuit, I will personally contribute to his fine, and I won't be alone.

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  • [–] 61 points 10 months ago

    Chuck Redd booked The Kennedy Center, not the center for pedophiles who shit their pants

    MAGA alters agreement, gets angry

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  • [–] 120 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    “Your decision to withdraw at the last moment — explicitly in response to the Center’s recent renaming, which honors President Trump’s extraordinary efforts to save this national treasure — is classic intolerance and very costly to a non-profit Arts institution,” the venue’s president, Richard Grenell, wrote in a letter to musician Chuck Redd that was shared with The Associated Press.

    In the letter, Grenell said he would seek $1 million in damages “for this political stunt.”

    Well done to the Kennedy Center for self-fucking themselves on future bookings with this stunt. Nothing says "come play at our venue!" like suing the talent.

    It's going to be Kid Rock, Ted Nugent, and some shitty country artists for them moving forward. Fun!

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  • [–] 32 points 10 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 13 points 10 months ago

    In before, "they can't, Ace died earlier this year"

    Gene will just use AI to replace Ace and call it another farewell tour for like the sixth time. Loving money is fine I suppose, the bills aren't gonna pay themselves, but he kinda makes himself a target.

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  • [–] 37 points 10 months ago

    The law explicitly prohibits the board of trustees from making the center into a memorial to anyone else, and from putting another person’s name on the building’s exterior.

    Yeah, because that's clearly been working so far...

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  • [–] 35 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    demanding 1 million dollars from a jazz musician.

    i hope no one ever agrees to play The Kennedy Center again.

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  • [–] 34 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    It's weird - this admin set out to "own the libs" and by that, they mean, annoy normal people.

    When normal people refuse to engage with them, the RW trolls then clutch their pearls and feign outrage.

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  • [–] 24 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    They really kept both The's? smh. God that's tacky.

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  • [–] 27 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Makes it easier to remove in three years?

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago

    I think it's quite literally the idea that it'll be removed the moment he kicks the bucket. Between this, the new battleship named after him, announcing a new jumbo jet design. It's increasingly clear that they're distracting him while they get actual shit done.

    The entire trump regime is like putting on Dora the Explorer for your kid so that you can get some damn housekeeping done.

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  • [–] 15 points 10 months ago

    I thought the same thing! I think this is the first picture of the whole stupid title, and I’ve been laughing about it since I first assumed they left the original “The” in place.

    Around the same time they did this, I also saw the picture of the sign they put outside the Oval Office. Like it’s a fucking restaurant! So now these two stupid things that stupid man did are forever intertwined in my head.

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  • [–] 22 points 10 months ago* (2 children)

    The name makes it sounds like Trump was shot dead too.

    What a stupid thing.

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  • [–] 20 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    The fonts don't even match ffs. They couldn't even get that part correct.

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    [–] 17 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    > the donald trump memorial center

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Start a petition to name the new east wing of the White House the Donald Trump Memorial Ballroom.

    Right now, we’re neither waiting for him to die or leave office.

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  • [–] 12 points 10 months ago

    Eat my balls, a free citizen can fuck off when they choose

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  • [–] 12 points 10 months ago

    Hey, Orange Jackass, this is what's commonly known as "suffering the consequences for your actions."

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  • [–] 12 points 10 months ago

    "How are the Joseph Stalin Memorial Stadium bookings going?"

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago

    I told my sister that she can't bring her son to my house for Christmas because he is an insufferable MAGGOT. She came without him and he was PO'd. I hope he doesn't sue me for a million dollars.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    Yes, by all means, let’s just keep bringing more attention the the backfire with a failed misdirect.

    Can we all stand outside the Kennedy center singing springtime for Hitler?

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  • [+] -14 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    While I appreciate the idea behind the resignation, the history of my country, Italy, teached me that "not being part of" something is a statement that can go down bad in history: when the left parties left our parliament during Mussolini's rise, they just keep acting like the fascists they were, but without even the minum disapproval.
    I don't criticize the musician, but sometimes it can be better yo be there and be vocal, so no one can just forget.

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  • 17 comments in c/politics@lemmy.world view that post
    [–] 84 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    I’m not sure threatening performers with million-dollar lawsuits is the best way to attract new performers to your venue.

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  • [–] 55 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    President Trump’s extraordinary efforts to save this national treasure

    In the sense of "this is a nice arts center. Would be a shame if something happened to it"?

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  • [–] 10 points 10 months ago

    I'm particularly impressed with the mental gymnastics in the next part of that sentence:

    is classic intolerance

    Right, intolerance is when you hurt the feelings of the shitstain doing his very best to rid the country of anyone browner than his Pampers pull-ups.

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  • [–] 42 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    You know... this is the first time I saw the tacked on "Donald Trump" they didn't even manage to match the font of the original name. They somehow did a worse job then "The Ichy & Scratchy & Poochy show" did in the Simpsons.

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  • [–] 18 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Everything about this administration, starting with Taco, is just so pathetic.

    Every headline I read about all of these people and their ideology, what they say, and how they execute their roles just screams: "pathetic".

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    Don't forget tacky. I'm pretty sure if Putin is really pulling the strings, he's not just dismantling America from the inside out, he's making it a complete laughing stock on the international stage for the rest of America's future. Nobody will ever have trust or taste in the Americam way of life, making America, the grossest-looking second-world country since the USSR.

    He's not just going scorched earth doctrine, he's salting the earth, too.

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  • [–] 47 points 10 months ago

    Get fucked, fascist!

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  • [–] 23 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Oh you don't like that?

    Well here's some advice for ya

    Suck a dick, suck a dick, suck a dick, and by the way suck a dick.

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  • [–] 14 points 10 months ago

    It sounds like the Kennedy center needs to cease to exist. It would be better for it not to be there than it would for it to branded by a dictator and presided over by this piece of shit Grenell.

    As of right now, the center has no significant value and is a disgrace.

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    He kept two “the’s” lol

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    I was going to call out the same thing. This looks so pathetic. It’s basically the new version of that dumb sharpie modification he made to the weather map in his first term. What a loser.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    Cons really are the world's biggest snowflakes.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    This is all the saddest shit. The US is like watching your best friend get addicted to drugs and become a prostitute. Intervention is needed!

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    Worst part is, whenever you try to do anything about it or even talk to someone about the fact that there’s a problem, you are told you are the crazy one, and that we just need to give it a little time.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago*

    Shoulda booked kid rock. It could probably use the work.

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