Saturday’s Forum
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14 responses to “Saturday’s Forum”
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A handful of people who were retaliated against for social media posts criticizing right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk after his death have been awarded more than $2.2 million in First Amendment lawsuits settled so far this year, and there are thought to be hundreds of similar cases working their way through the legal system.
…Groups like the FIRE Foundation, a nonprofit legal group specializing in free speech, and the American Civil Liberties Union stepped up to file suits on behalf of those punished, and pending lawsuits include those filed by Tennessee state employee Monica Meeks, fired for calling Kirk a “White Supremacist,” and South Carolina teacher’s aide Lauren Vaughn, who posted a verbatim quote from Kirk with “Thoughts and prayers” as the only added commentary.
What started as a Republican pressure campaign is now turning into one of the most expensive First Amendment reckonings in recent memory…
According to reports compiled in the aftermath, at least 50 education-sector employees lost their jobs within weeks of Kirk’s death, while a Reuters investigation found roughly 600 workers across the private sector were fired over social media activity related to the controversy.
…Among the most significant settlements was a $485,000 agreement between the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and biologist Brittney Brown, who was fired after reposting a meme critical of Kirk on her personal Instagram account.
…Ball State University agreed to pay $225,000 to settle a lawsuit involving Suzanne Swierc, who was fired after posting about Kirk on Facebook. Austin Peay State University in Tennessee agreed to reinstate professor Darren Michael and pay him $500,000 following his termination.
Retired police officer Larry Bushart secured one of the largest payouts, receiving an $835,000 settlement after being arrested and jailed for 37 days over a meme he shared regarding a vigil for Kirk.
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Republicans on Capitol Hill are seething that Donald Trump is not more focused on the economy as this year’s midterm elections approach, warning it could obliterate the narrow GOP congressional majority.
Polling indicates that voters are souring on Trump and his Republican allies in Congress ahead of his November’s elections that will prove fateful for the President’s agenda.
In addition to the lack of attention to fixing the economy, senior aides also identified the nomination of Federal Housing Finance Director Bill Pulte, a close ally of the President, to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence as an unforced error, as well as the focus on the anti-weaponization fund.
All that groveling, all that bootlicking, all that toadying, all that ball-licking, and this is what they got in return.
Con men don’t do gratitude, grifters don’t do loyalty, psychopaths don’t even do pity. Better to die on your feet than live on your knees.
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I’m not sure who ordered the tarp up at the scaffolding at the Kennedy Center, but my gawd what a delicate snowflake he is.
Between that and the order that the National Parks are not to remove or cover up historical facts that the administration doesn’t like, and the weather forecast for tomorrow, it sounds like he is getting the birthday he deserves.
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@Jen: He’s getting the birthday *we* deserve 🙂
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Today’s Letters from An American
WRT Kennedy Center
Today was the deadline set by Judge Christopher R. Cooper of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia for Donald Trump’s name to come off the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, more commonly known as the Kennedy Center.
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As soon as he took office in early 2025, Trump replaced trustees on the Kennedy Center board and appointed himself a trustee as well. Now weighted with loyalists, the board elected Trump chair and then replaced the president of the Kennedy Center. Then the board voted to change the center’s bylaws to concentrate their own power. Then, in December, the board voted to rename the Kennedy Center the “Trump Kennedy Center,” and the name went up over the Kennedy Center portico the next day.
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Late this afternoon, the board of the Kennedy Center filed an emergency appeal to the D.C. Circuit Court, asking for a stay in the order to remove Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center. It was, perhaps, hasty work. Legal analyst Liz Dye called it “bonkity-bonkers, while lawyer Norm Eisen of The Contrarian went for “batsh** crazy” and noted that Trump “clearly wrote big pieces himself.”
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For the first time, the board alleged that “The Bylaws of The Trump Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Foundation state, unequivocally,” that the board must strip all funding from the Kennedy Center unless Trump’s name stays on it.WRT stealing money from the Washington National Opera:
According to a lawsuit filed yesterday by the Washington National Opera, about $17 million of the money Trump appears to be claiming from the Kennedy Center belongs to the Washington National Opera. For fifteen years, the suit says, the opera and the Kennedy Center had a contractual relationship, in which the center managed donations to the Washington National Opera for the opera’s benefit.
“By the second half of 2025, the Kennedy Center stopped performing many of its obligations under the governing affiliation agreement, including marketing, fundraising, and administrative support, as well as timely reporting on the growth of WNO’s funds,” the suit says. “Despite repeated requests from WNO, the Kennedy Center did not remedy its non-performance. Instead, it proposed that the parties end their long-standing affiliation. That affiliation came to an end in January 2026.”
And then the Kennedy Center refused to return the WNO’s money, instead using it as collateral for its own line of credit.
WRT the UFC Cage match:
Yesterday Ashleigh Fields of The Hill reported that federal agencies and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) are putting at least $60 million toward the White House cage fight on Trump’s 80th birthday Sunday. That money has paid for the fighting arena on the South Lawn of the White House, as well as paying up to 900 workers since May 20.
A political activist and military veteran from Virginia tried to stop the event from proceeding, calling it a “deeply corrupt” event that uses national monuments to shill for private businesses, in at least one of which—UFC’s parent company TKO Holding Group—Trump owns significant amounts of stock. They noted that although Trump used the 250th anniversary to justify ignoring environmental review and congressional approval, the event is clearly designed not for the nation’s birthday, but for his own.
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@Michael Reynolds: Aw, c’mon Michael. What can they do? Going back beyond 1929 has any Republican ever evidenced any idea how to actually improve the economy?
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When your white trash birthday party is too tacky for the trailer queen..
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@Jen: The tarp was probably the contractor’s idea. The process may have involved some grinding and, as normal, efforts must be made to contain a mess. Also, there is definitely a chance a looney MAGA might take a few pot-shots at people desecrating the Dear Leader’s name.
A double rainbow appeared in the sky as they were taking Trump’s name down, btw. Baby Jesus unhappy with Orange Caligula Jesus?
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I can totally see why Republiqans would find this upsetting.
They are accustomed to getting shit at these events, not urine.
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“The Abundance Movement” is nothing but astroturfed billionaire techbro stupidity – and should be ignored moving forward. Fun stuff about Ezra Klein also.
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