Tag: culture
Corrupt: China-Linked Firm Buys Up $300M Of $Trump Memecoin

Corrupt: China-Linked Firm Buys Up $300M Of $Trump Memecoin

A struggling tech firm with connections to China and a reliance on the Chinese social platform TikTok has reportedly secured funding to purchase up to $300 million worth of President Donald Trump's memecoin.

The New York Times reported that GD Culture Group on Monday became the latest foreign-linked entity to capitalize on $TRUMP, Trump's cryptocurrency initiative that funnels profits directly to the Trump family.

GD Culture Group, who has only eight employees per its public filings, is said to have recorded zero revenue last year.

Former Rep. Charles Dent (R-PA), who was the chairman of the House Ethics Committee, told the Times: “Make no mistake. These foreign entities and governments obviously want to curry favor with the president.”

“This is completely out of bounds and raises all sorts of ethical, legal and constitutional issues that must be addressed," Dent added.

The group has announced plans to allocate $300 million to amass a reserve of Bitcoin and MAGA tokens. They intend to fund this acquisition through proceeds from a stock sale to an undisclosed buyer in the British Virgin Islands, a known tax haven. This investment strategy was officially confirmed in a securities filing released late Tuesday, per the report.

"The purchase would create clear ethical conflicts, enriching Mr. Trump’s family at the same time that the president tries to reach a deal that would allow TikTok to keep operating in the United States rather than face a congressionally approved ban," the Times said.

The report further notes that in its financial disclosures, the company indicated that its subsidiary, Shanghai Xianzhui, may be subject to influence from the Chinese government, though such language is typical for Chinese firms. A purchase by GD Culture Group would mark the first known instance of a China-linked company acquiring Trump’s memecoin.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Shrinking American Culture To Fit Those Small MAGA Minds

Shrinking American Culture To Fit Those Small MAGA Minds

So much of the American character is in peril, including the cultural touchstones I often reference, probably more often than my column editors would like. But I believe most Americans’ lives are enriched by the TV shows and music, theater and films that make skeptics and even hate-watchers tune in for the Academy Awards or Super Bowl halftime show.

I long ago embraced the fact that the arts (high and low) bring joy, knowledge and — often, just in time — an escape. But to Donald Trump they have become yet another part of American life he can control.

His administration is eviscerating the division that preserves and maintains more than 26,000 art pieces across the country, including renowned paintings and sculptures, owned by the government.

Under Trump’s influence, museums are canceling exhibits that feature diverse artists, films are stripping out characters that represent the underrepresented, and internships and scholarships that expose all communities to the arts are ending.

In just one example, the young musicians who auditioned for and won a coveted learning experience with the U.S. Marine Band were disappointed when an executive order canceled their workshop and “Equity Arc Wind Symphony.” This time, military band veterans stepped up, and the story and tuneful results were seen by the millions who watched and listened on “60 Minutes” on CBS.

However, not every Trump-induced nightmare has a fairy tale ending.

In Washington, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, under the new Trump-appointed management and a board that shockingly elected him chair, intends to narrow the kinds of work it will present in the future, a scary thought even if you adore the Trump-favored musical “Cats.” How many times can a person hear “Memory”?

Isn’t the beauty of culture choice? With diverse offerings available, there is bound to be something that’s appealing to every individual taste.

The president gave away the game when he admitted that in all his years in Washington, he had not been a fan of the Kennedy Center. “I didn’t go,” he said when asked. “There was nothing I wanted to see.”

Nothing piqued the president’s curiosity? Nothing that might inspire, surprise or simply entertain?

Maybe that’s why Trump never laughs, or hardly smiles, unless it’s that weird smirk that spreads across his face when he thinks his sophomoric insults are somehow witty. A hint: Just because sycophants guffaw, it doesn’t mean you’ll be the next recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, awarded from that Kennedy Center stage.

Oh, wait a minute.

So, exactly what “woke” shows did the president reject, sight unseen? Perusing the programming when he was in office, I wondered. Was it touring productions of The Book of Mormon or Hello, Dolly! ? Maybe On Your Feet! the story of Cuban American musicians Emilio and Gloria Estefan? Didn’t Cuban Americans turn out for him in Florida?

Considering Trump’s coziness with Vladimir Putin, you’d have thought Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, performed in conjunction with the English company of Cheek by Jowl and the Pushkin Theatre Moscow, would have caught his eye.

But, no. With all those varied shows on the schedule, as well as the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington National Opera, the uninterested Trump mostly decided to pass.

In 2017, he did attend a Fourth of July concert at the Kennedy Center hosted by First Baptist Church Dallas, reported NPR. But when the main event is a performance by the choir and orchestra of a song that includes the lyrics “Make America Great Again” and Trump squeezes in a slam on the “fake media,” I’m not sure that counts.

Now, he wants to deny everyone else, dictating what Americans will see and hear, starting but I fear not ending at the Kennedy Center.

The insistence on seeing art and culture through Trumpian eyes means Kennedy Center audiences will miss the MacArthur “genius” and Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens, who has canceled her show in response.

Having seen Giddens with the Carolina Chocolate Drops delightfully play an eclectic brand of roots music, which elevates the contributions of African Americans, I can say missing a Giddens performance is Trump’s loss.

Giddens has the rare gift of entertaining while teaching you something — in her case, something about America.

I count myself lucky to have had parents who found every free concert, lecture or film at the library. Community programs offering dance and music lessons are disappearing, I fear. Theater and opera tickets didn’t put too much strain on the purse — if you were willing to sit up in the nosebleed section.

My young life included arts and culture, things that I loved and hated and had questions about, that were interesting and fun, that enhanced rather than distracted from the reading, writing and arithmetic many of our leaders would like to solely revert to in public schools.

Though lacking the wealth of the Trump family, my parents realized the importance of a complete education.

I’m certain the president would not have approved of the last show I saw at the Kennedy Center,A Soldier’s Play, Charles Fuller’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, set on a segregated Army base in the South during World War II. It’s grounded in the history Trump and his followers are trying to erase.

Yet, a packed audience was thrilled, a difference in opinion on what is and is not proper art that should be allowed in anyone’s America, even Trump’s.

Mary C. Curtis has worked at The New York Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Charlotte Observer, as national correspondent for Politics Daily, and is a senior facilitator with The OpEd Project. She is host of the CQ Roll Call "Equal Time with Mary C. Curtis" podcast. Follow her on X @mcurtisnc3.

Reprinted with permission from Roll Call


Why I'm Not Commenting Every Time Trump And His Stooges Troll Us

Why I'm Not Commenting Every Time Trump And His Stooges Troll Us

Donald Trump sure has been spending a lot of time trolling the libs and throwing red meat to his base. That's what most of the executive orders were about, that's what his appointment of Elon Musk as Capo de Tutti Capo Destructamundo amounted to, and that's what nearly every one of his cabinet appointments were.

Now he's engaged in rolling out a daily menu of outrages guaranteed to get under the skin of Democrats and liberals. Yesterday he appointed Walt Nauta to the Board of Visitors of the Naval Academy, essentially the group of officials who meet quarterly to oversee the Academy. Nauta is Trump’s former body man whose main job during his last term was to respond with a Diet Coke every time Trump pressed the special red button on his desk.

You will also remember Nauta as one of those indicted along with Trump in the classified documents case for having hidden a stash of Trump's secrets from lawyers for the DOJ when they showed up at Mar a Lago to seize stolen documents from him. Nauta served in the Navy for 20 years as a steward’s mate, essentially a servant on a naval vessel for the ship's officers. Trump also appointed to the Board of Visitors Sean Spicer, his former and very short-lived press spokesman who went on to an equally short-lived television career on Dancing with the Stars.

These are of course not serious appointments, although I guess a case could be made for a former enlisted man to be appointed to oversee the Naval Academy, since most of those who have served in that position have been corporate presidents or other so-called “distinguished” Americans from positions of wealth and privilege. The same sort of backhanded logic would apply to Spicer whose time as White House spokesman was marred by lies he regularly told on orders from Trump. Why shouldn't the world's top liar have one of his sub-liars represent him on one of the Academy’s Boards of Visitors?

It was also announced that Trump has appointed Laura Ingraham, the Fox News host, to the board of the Kennedy Center, along with the anchor of one of the shows on Fox Business, Maria Bartiromo, who happened to interview Trump on a show that ran this morning. Outrage among the major domos of the D.C. art scene was immediate and predictable. But again, why shouldn't Trump be able to appoint whoever he wants to the Kennedy Center, even if they are people whose taste we might consider questionable or nonexistent? The jokes flew online today about who might now receive Kennedy Center honors. Billy Joel and Joan Baez and Philip Glass have had their turns. Shouldn’t rank mediocrity be celebrated along with greatness? Why not Kid Rock and Ted Nugent and Jeff Foxworthy?

There's nothing but upside for Trump trolling us every chance he gets. His base loves it, we hate it, and there's no good way for us to complain about it without looking like elitist snobs, which is exactly the way he wants us to look. So, I'm going to try not to rise to the bait of his trolling, although I'm sure there will be times when I can't resist. The truly bad stuff he's doing to Ukraine, to the NIH and the CDC and USAID is already costing lives, and that's where our attention and efforts should be. He's a master at distraction, but it won't work if we refuse to pay attention.

So, I'm not going to comment on this shit from Trump. Mostly anyway.

Lucian K. Truscott IV, a graduate of West Point, has had a 50-year career as a journalist, novelist, and screenwriter. He has covered Watergate, the Stonewall riots, and wars in Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He is also the author of five bestselling novels. He writes every day at luciantruscott.substack.com and you can follow him on Bluesky @lktiv.bsky.social and on Facebook at Lucian K. Truscott IV. Please consider subscribing to his Substack.

Reprinted with permission from Lucian Truscott Newsletter.

Trump Loyalists Seething After 'Hamilton' Cancels Kennedy Center Run

Trump Loyalists Seething After 'Hamilton' Cancels Kennedy Center Run

The creators of Hamilton refuse to let their hit musical be performed next year at the Kennedy Center, where a now-canceled eight-week run was slated to help celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence—and this snub has MAGA acolytes seeing red.

President Donald Trump purged the board of the performing arts center in February and has since been made chairman, which caused an exodus of board members and performers.

“This latest action by Trump means it’s not the Kennedy Center as we knew it,” show creator Lin-Manuel Miranda said in a joint interview via The New York Times with lead producer Jeffrey Seller. “The Kennedy Center was not created in this spirit, and we’re not going to be a part of it while it is the Trump Kennedy Center. We’re just not going to be part of it."

And while Seller pointed out in a separate statement that their decision had to do with the “partisan policies of the Kennedy Center” and not with the Trump administration itself, the president’s loyalists aren’t very happy.

"Let's be clear on the facts," Richard Grenell, a Trump administration diplomat, said in a post via X. "Seller and Lin Manuel first went to the New York Times before they came to the Kennedy Center with their announcement that they can’t be in the same room with Republicans. This is a publicity stunt that will backfire."

Grenell—who recently campaigned on behalf of accused sex traffickers Andrew and Tristan Tate—then argued that arts are for both sides of the aisle and "not just for the people who Lin likes and agrees with."

"The American people need to know that Lin-Manuel is intolerant of people who don’t agree with him politically. It’s clear he and Sellers don’t want Republicans going to their shows," he added.

Grenell’s comments come at an interesting time, given that Miranda and Seller pulled the show partly because of Trump’s sudden ousting of Democrats from the previously bipartisan board at the Kennedy Center.

“Our cancellation is also a business decision," Seller wrote in a statement posted to Instagram. "'Hamilton' is a large and global production, and it would simply be financially and personally devastating to the hundreds of employees of 'Hamilton' if the new leadership of the Kennedy Center suddenly canceled or re-negotiated our engagement."

He added, "The actions of the new Chairman of the Board in recent weeks demonstrate that contracts and previous agreements simply cannot be trusted."

It’s likely Seller was referring to Trump’s firing of Deborah Rutter, the center’s longtime president. Trump also fired multiple board members, replacing them with his own supporters.

"At my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., GREAT AGAIN," Trump wrote via Truth Social in February.

"Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth—THIS WILL STOP. The Kennedy Center is an American Jewel, and must reflect the brightest STARS on its stage from all across our Nation,” Trump added, though he’s admitted to never having seen a Kennedy Center show.

As Trump has brought his loyalists, those on the other side of the aisle have made their exit.

Singer-songwriter Ben Folds resigned from his role as artistic advisor to the center’s National Symphony Orchestra, as did TV legend Shonda Rhimes as a board member.

Hamilton has a history of butting heads with the Trump administration, with cast members personally pleading to former Vice President Mike Pence onstage in mid-November 2016 to do right by the American people.

“We, sir—we—are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights,” actor Brandon Victor Dixon, playing Vice President Aaron Burr, said to Pence from the stage. “We truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us.”

While Hamilton won’t be gracing the stage and several other performers have canceled in protest, most of the Kennedy Center’s schedule appears to remain intact.

One other play, The Story of a Rose, however, relocated to Northern Virginia. The World War-I themed concert was said to have been moved due to seating capacity, per the New York Times.

However, one performer later told the outlet, “I’m glad at how it turned out. I wanted to do a show that everyone could attend—left, right, and center.”

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

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