#libraryofcongress — Public Fediverse posts

Library News

https://barland7.wordpress.com/2026/09/06/library-news-25/

Library News

https://barland7.wordpress.com/2026/09/06/library-news-25/

Library News

https://barland7.wordpress.com/2026/09/06/library-news-25/

Library News

https://barland7.wordpress.com/2026/09/06/library-news-25/

Library News

https://barland7.wordpress.com/2026/09/06/library-news-25/

"Soul Man" is a 1967 song written and composed by #IsaacHayes and #DavidPorter, first successful as a number 2 hit single by #AtlanticRecords #soul duo #SamAndDave, which consisted of #SamuelSamMoore and #DavidDavePrater. In 2019, "Soul Man" was selected for preservation in the #NationalRecordingRegistry as "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant" by the #LibraryOfCongress.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTWH1Fdkjow

"Soul Man" is a 1967 song written and composed by #IsaacHayes and #DavidPorter, first successful as a number 2 hit single by #AtlanticRecords #soul duo #SamAndDave, which consisted of #SamuelSamMoore and #DavidDavePrater. In 2019, "Soul Man" was selected for preservation in the #NationalRecordingRegistry as "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant" by the #LibraryOfCongress.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTWH1Fdkjow

"Soul Man" is a 1967 song written and composed by #IsaacHayes and #DavidPorter, first successful as a number 2 hit single by #AtlanticRecords #soul duo #SamAndDave, which consisted of #SamuelSamMoore and #DavidDavePrater. In 2019, "Soul Man" was selected for preservation in the #NationalRecordingRegistry as "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant" by the #LibraryOfCongress.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTWH1Fdkjow

"Soul Man" is a 1967 song written and composed by #IsaacHayes and #DavidPorter, first successful as a number 2 hit single by #AtlanticRecords #soul duo #SamAndDave, which consisted of #SamuelSamMoore and #DavidDavePrater. In 2019, "Soul Man" was selected for preservation in the #NationalRecordingRegistry as "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant" by the #LibraryOfCongress.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTWH1Fdkjow

"Soul Man" is a 1967 song written and composed by #IsaacHayes and #DavidPorter, first successful as a number 2 hit single by #AtlanticRecords #soul duo #SamAndDave, which consisted of #SamuelSamMoore and #DavidDavePrater. In 2019, "Soul Man" was selected for preservation in the #NationalRecordingRegistry as "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant" by the #LibraryOfCongress.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTWH1Fdkjow

What To Watch On YouTube Right Now – Part 138

Welcome back my readers, YouTube viewers and all others who followed this series of articles focused on YouTube videos worth watching.

Have you been searching for something fun or interesting to watch on YouTube? Do you feel bored right now and you crave for something to see on the world’s most popular online video destination?

I recommend you check out the following videos I found.

#1 How To Get The Strongest And Most Optimized Spaceship Crew In Starfield – This year, Bethesda launched several important updates to make their 2023 science fiction role-playing game Starfield better and they also offered new DLC for those who crave for new content. One of the more defining aspects of the game is space travel and this includes setting up your own crew for your spaceship and there is impact on its functions and capabilities. If you want to learn how to get the stronger and most optimized crew for your ship, I encourage you watch the video below.

https://youtu.be/vy8iOx7eqVU?si=gn7W1mZxTOQ4SSrd

#2 Mari Iijima And The Defining Song of Macross: Do You Remember Love? – I really love watching the 1984 anime feature film Macross: Do You Remember Love? Apart from the great animation, the spectacle, the memorable characters and the solid storytelling, the movie also has a great soundtrack made to delight the long-time Macross fans. Still, the movie has its very own song performed by none other than Mari Iijima (Minmay) and it is a classic among Macross fans. In the videos below, you will see Mari Iijima perform the song live in a 1980s TV broadcast and the song playing with selected footage of Macross: Do You Remember Love? Enjoy these!

https://youtu.be/OfuW_Wbt73c?si=Q1DE8eJxo4Zk90pc

https://youtu.be/uJBMYV9e1Nc?si=veDGYU4r7s0flQ_H

#3 The Tuna City In Japan Is Changing With Tourism In Mind – If you plan to visit Japan at all, you might want to discover Miura City located in Kanagawa Prefecture. Miura City is famous for its fresh tuna and in recent times there has been a series of changes as several room-only hotels and new trends have sprouted as the locality is finding new ways to turn visitors into overnight guests. This is a place I would like to visit someday if ever I get the opportunity to return to Japan. Watch and learn from the Nippon TV video below.

https://youtu.be/fUPP30fYH78?si=MrC6Dml3IRVe7fcV

#4 Women’s Rights Activist Marries Islamist And Things Went Wrong – Did you notice that there is a gradual rising number of feminists and women’s rights activists who not embrace Islam (wicked and ugly) but also marry Islamists believing that things will be alright and they can just continue their activism. Of course, many of them activists and feminists do not fully understand Islam nor the full content of the Quran. As such, when things go very wrong, they are get into deep trouble. Watch and learn from the video below.

https://youtu.be/bx3YvoyP6cw?si=omxqhyR8CQfpfhYK

#5 Islamists Violate Hindu Women In India And Get Arrested – Let’s be very clear here. Islamists are oriented to conquer others even though they may not be numerous within a locality. Believe it or not, a group of such people who wielded power inside a business violated the Hindu women (plus at least one male employee) with regards to cultural norms and doing things that go against their faith. Even forced religious conversion happened. Watch and learn from the video below.

https://youtu.be/9xjFS-3Vuws?si=xuDIivIonrp9tQux

#6 Meatballs Reaction And Retrospective – When it comes to cinematic comedy, Bill Murray is iconic and his early work in 1979’s Meatballs already involved the late Harold Ramis and the late director Ivan Reitman. That said, there is something about Meatballs – produced for less than $2 million – that helped it achieve tremendous commercial success with ticket sales of $70 million. Remember, three of the creative minds behind the classic Ghostbusters are involved in this old movie and you will see how You, Me and The Movies react to it in the video below. Be aware that as of this writing, there are not too many movie reaction videos about Meatballs on YouTube. Also posted below is an in-depth retrospective about Meatballs by GoodBadFlicks.

https://youtu.be/nhR9xUCvpAI?si=Zh6gjAX0SdIrtSfT

https://youtu.be/D0BS-K3K_vE?si=HtyR_VThLUKv0Wj6

#7 Ashleigh Burton Reacts To The Thin Man – Have you ever heard of The Thin Man? It’s not a UFO reference. It’s the 1934 American pre-Code comedy-mystery movie that was eventually named to the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress having been deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” in 1997. Apart from its reputation in American film history, The Thin Man also resulted in five sequels. If you want to discover the 1934 movie but you don’t have the time nor resources to watch the movie, watch Ashleigh Burton’s reaction video and see how it impacts her.

https://youtu.be/IJRQXuw–20?si=mSYY7_Eb4EK6reBY

+++++

Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

Plunder, Mystery, and Intrigue: Visiting the British Museum and the British Library

After leaving the Lake District, I traveled to London by train, for the third part of my trip. This was where I saw the most libraries during my trip. On my last day in London, August 3rd, I visited the British Museum, located in London’s West End, which was overcrowded with tourists. This made viewing the so-called “chronicle of Western collection,” which was acquired through extensive plunder and theft, as American tour guide Rick Steves describes the museum, very uncomfortable. Even so, there were two highlights. The first was the stately and round reading room. English writers Virginia Woolf and Beatrix Potter, Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen, radical thinkers Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, Black nationalist Marcus Garvey, women’s rights campaigner Sylvia Pankhurst, independence activist Mohandas K. Gandhi, and Irish author Bram Stoker all studied there.

Note: This serves as second part of my series on this blog about my library tourism last year, with the first part, about my attempted and successful library tourism in Edinburgh and Northern England, posted on this blog last week. The series begins, chronologically, with my guest post on Reel Librarians, on February 11th, in a post entitled “Edinburgh and the National Library of Scotland: Library tourism redux.” It will be reposted on here over a month later. There will be one more parts of this series, focusing on my continued library tourism in Belgium coming next week.

Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, as noted in Doyle’s “The Complete Sherlock Holmes,” studied in the reading room. In the 1893 short story “The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual” (sometimes abbreviated as “The Musgrave Ritual”), he studied “those branches of science which might make me more efficient” in the reading room. He learned other information from the British Museum in chapter 15 of 1902 novel The Hound of the Baskervilles and “The Tiger of San Pedro” chapter, within a 1917 collection entitled His Last Bow: Some Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes (sometimes abbreviated as “His Last Bow”). There are mentions of libraries in the short stories “The Five Orange Pips”, “The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb”, and “The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet” in the 1892 short story collection The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

The same is the case for “The Musgrave Ritual,” “The ‘Gloria Scott’”, and “The Reigate Squires” all within the 1893 short story collection The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, and the stories “The Adventures of the Three Students” and “The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez” in the 1905 short story collection The Return of Sherlock Holmes. Apart from that, chapter 10 of The Hound of the Baskervilles, chapter 7 of the 1915 novel The Valley of Fear, and the story “The Problem of Thorn Bridge” in the 1927 set of short stories The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes feature libraries as well. Lastly, there’s a mention of a London Library in St. James’s Square and Lomax, who is said to be a “sublibrarian,” in “The Illustrious Client.” This is another short story within The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes.

In an email communication, Nathalie Belkin, an archivist who works for the London Library, told me that Doyle was a library member, joining in 1896 after his friend, and fellow writer, Arthur Griffith, nominated him. According to Belkin, Doyle was an active library user, even serving on the library’s committee. In fact, it is believed that The Illustrious Client, also entitled The Adventure of the Illustrious Client, was written in the library’s main reading room. While the borrowing history from the time has been lost, he was a “well-known fixture” of the library.

Otherwise, Karl Marx formulated ideas on communism, including within Das Kapital (also known as Capital), in the aforementioned reading room within the British Museum. Displays within the room describe it as a place for diverse thought. Many patrons left behind their mark in the visitors log. It was even one of the first places in London to have electric light (in 1879)! The room could, at maximum, hold 302 readers sitting at 38 tables, sitting across from each other, and was heated from underneath. Readers would consult a catalogue of printed books in the room’s center, then fill out a request form. In some ways, this makes this room similar to the Library of Congress’s Reading Room, since books for the British Library could be accessed there until they were moved to their current location in 1997. In fact, 62,000 people came when this reading room opened in 1857. A sign, when looking into the reading room, tells visitors to be quiet, feeding into the common conception of libraries as quiet places, which is not always the case for all libraries anymore.

What Rick Steves didn’t mention is that the historic reading room only re-opened to the public in 2024 after being closed for eleven years. The room was designed by Sydney Smirke, inspired by Rome’s domed Pantheon, and opened in 1857. It first re-opened to visitors in 2000 (after it stopped being an active reading room in 1997), then closed in 2013, when it was used for archival storage. The room, described by some as “legendary,” “stunning,” and an impressive sight for bibliophiles (protagonist and book-defender Elianna Bernstein of Bibliophile Princess would be right at home there) is not technically a library anymore. You can’t borrow any of the 25,000 books, and photography is now permitted (it wasn’t previously). Even so, it is still a marvel to see. You can even go on a twenty-minute tour there and there is currently a plan to completely transform the galleries and reading room.

The second highlight was the Enlightenment Gallery, formerly known as the King’s Library. It once held the British Library’s treasures when it was founded in 1753. Today it holds objects about the Age of Enlightenment, as Rick Steves notes. A display board, when you enter the room, says that it was developed in partnership with the House of Commons Library and the Natural History Museum. The current books on display are being loaned from the House of Commons Library. The aforementioned display notes that those who lent non-book artifacts to the gallery included the British King, the Science Museum in London, King’s College in London, Wellcome Collection, Society of Antiquities of London, Victor and Albert Museum, the Linnean Society of London, and the Royal Asiatic Society (also in London). Of these institutions, most have their own libraries. In fact, the D. Leonard Corgan Library at Kings College, the college’s main library, served as a location in Dan Brown’s controversial novel The Da Vinci Code. The building’s exterior appeared in the 2020 film Enola Holmes, a mystery film about Sherlock Holmes’ teenage sister.

The room itself was originally created, in 1823, to house King George II’s library, hence the original name. It was designed by architect Robert Smirke, known for the British Museum’s main facade and block, along with various clubs and houses within London. Of these, the Inner Temple, for which he did some work on, has a library, which continues to operate to this day, as did Bickley Hall. Smike also completed building restoration of the Bodleian Library’s Upper Reading room, which is part of the “old library.” As for the Enlightenment Gallery, it has a Greek Revival design, with neoclassical decoration. It’s said to be in keeping with the “styles of libraries in grand houses all over Britain” at the time, with claims it has echoes of “ancient wisdom and learning.” In 1998, the British Library moved to a new location across from the current St. Pancras station. The latter is not to be confused with pancreas or the Japanese anime film which centers on libraries and librarians, entitled I Want to Eat Your Pancreas. It is far too easy to call it “pancreas” by mistake, a name that almost stuck with me.

This gallery is where thousands of objects can be viewed and serves as an introduction to the British Museum’s collections. Even so, for me, I visited it at the end of my time at the overcrowded museum. I was inspired to visit this room by one particular scene in the December 2011 anime film, K-On! the Movie, a spinoff from the 2009-2010 anime series, K-On!. It features two episodes with libraries, including one about studying in the library and featuring a student librarian at an information desk. In fact, I rewatched this film before my trip to London, just for this scene. During the film, Yui Hirasawa, Ritsu Tainaka, Mio Akiyama, Azusa Nakano, and Tsumugi Kotobuki bop around London, visiting many sites, including walking through the strangely empty Great Court of the British Museum. They make their way into the gallery. During a short scene, Azusa points out that the Rosetta Stone (she put it on their itinerary) is also a replica. In fact, they used a replica in a school play as the death stone for a Romeo & Juliet play, because the fake tombstone they wanted to use had been misplaced.

The British Museum also has the actual Rosetta Stone in the Egyptian sculpture room, but like Yui, Ritsu, Mio, Azusa, and Tsumugi, I only looked at and touched the replica. The aforementioned gallery likely would have been overcrowded, as the gallery rooms I visited were extremely overcrowded and not suited for visitors. They had inadequate airflow and no overhead fans. As for the film, there were a few other short library scenes in the private all-girls school the protagonists attend, Sakuragaoka High School.

The same day I visited the British Museum, I visited the British Library. It sits across from St. Pancras station, and would be the last library I visited in the U.K. As Rick Steves put it, the British empire built its “greatest monuments out of paper.” The library holds every publication within the U.K. and Northern Ireland, with over 170 million items, such as sacred texts, maps, the Magna Carta, Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebook, plays by William Shakespeare, and lyrics of songs by the Beatles. This library, established by an act of Parliament in July 1972 and opened in July 1973, is one of the biggest in the world. It’s only rivaled by the Library of Congress, Russian State Library in Moscow, or Shanghai Library in China. Many such institutions are the legal deposit libraries for their respective countries. Anyone is open to explore the British Library reading rooms and peruse exhibits. You can get a readers registration pass if you are over 18, allowing you to enter the reading rooms.

When I visited, on August 3rd, the reading rooms for humanities, manuscripts, rare books, music, science, maps, and Asian and African studies, were not open. I even saw rooms reserved for the sole purpose of prayer, and went through the “Treasures of the British Library” exhibit in the St. John Ritblat Gallery. It contained many of the artifacts I noted in the previous paragraph. Perhaps because they have the space, the British Library holds the library collections of the British Museum. Rare books fill the middle of the library in a massive climate-controlled column, allowing the upper floors to only be accessed by stairs or elevators, and affecting the structure of each floor. There was also a fascinating collection of foreign currency, stamps, and other postage from former British colonies, called the Philatelic Collection. It could be easily overlooked, but was fun to look through, especially in the way it was displayed.

Like the British museums I visited during my travels, they asked for a donation, but they were free to enter, without payment or restriction. The number of visitors using the study area made clear that they were open to all, in line with library ethical principles, as did the books in their bookshop, some of which would likely be on banned books lists of in U.S. libraries. In the next part of this series, I’ll talk briefly about the university library I visited in Belgium.

© 2025-2026 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Sources used

• “About this Reading Room,” Library of Congress, 2025.
• “About Us,” British Library, 2025.
• “About us,” House of Commons Library, 2025.
• “About us,” Royal Asiatic Society, 2025.
• “About us,” Wellcome Collection, 2025.
• “Archives,” London Library, 2025.
• Barker, Sam. “The British Museum’s Secretive Round Reading Room Has Reopened To The Public,” Secret London, 4 Jul. 2024.
• “Bickley,” Wikishire, 13 Jul. 2025.
• “D. Leonard Corgan Library,” Kings College, 2025.
• “Dana Research Centre and Library,” Science Museum, 2025.
• “Everything you ever wanted to know about the Rosetta Stone,” British Museum, 2025.
• Fox, Caroline. “Every Enola Holmes Filming Location (And What Every Place Looks Like Now),” ScreenRant, 26 Oct. 2020.
• Funk, Alex. “The British Museum’s mysterious domed Reading Room has officially reopened to the public,” TimeOut, 3 Jul. 2024.
• Hermann, Burkely. “Librarians and libraries in anime,” Pop Culture Library Review, 2025 (orig. 25 Jul. 2020).
• Hermann, Burkely. “More than a coming-of-age drama: The value of libraries and librarians in “I Want To Eat Your Pancreas”,” Pop Culture Library Review, 8 Jan. 2024.
• Hermann, Burkely. “Recently added titles (March 2025),” Pop Culture Library Review, 2 Apr. 2025.
• Hermann, Burkely. “The fictional library and the value of studying redux,” Pop Culture Library Review, 30 Jul. 2024.
• Hickley, Catherine. “British Museum’s historic Reading Room opens to the public after 11 years,” The Art Newspaper, 3 Jul. 2024.
• “History of The London Library,” London Library, 2025.
• “Library,” Linnean Society of London, 2025.
• “Library & Collections,” Society of Antiquities of London, 2024.
• Mathur, Rhea. “The British Museum’s Reading Room: Past and Present,” gowithyamo, 2 Sept. 2024.
• Moran, Sarah. “The British Museum’s Stunning Domed Reading Room Reopens to Public,” Home Journal, 27 Sept. 2024.
• “National Art Library,” Victor and Albert Museum, 2025.
• “Philatelic Collections: Introduction,” British Library, 29 Mar. 2010.
• Hermann, Burkely. “Remembering “Bibliophile Princess” and its significant fictional depiction of libraries,” Pop Culture Library Review, 14 May 2024.
• “Spaces at the Bodleian Old Library,” Bodleian Library, 2025.
• “Spotlight: the Reading Room,” British Museum, 2025.
• Steves, Rick and Openshaw, Gene. London (24th Edition, US: Avalon Travel, Sept. 2022): 212, 214-215, 236, 238, 240, 244-247, 249.
• “Strand Campus: Self-guided tour,” King’s College, 5 Oct. 2014, p. 8.
•  “The British Library Philatelic Collection,” The Royal Philatelic Society London, Nov. 2005.
• “The Present Buildings,” Inner Temple Library, 2025.
• “Treasures of the British Library,” British Library, 2025.
• “Update on progress with the Masterplan,” British Museum, 19 Dec. 2024.

#AncientEgypt #archives #ArthurConanDoyle #artifacts #BeatrixPotter #Belgium #BibliophilePrincess #BlackPatrons #BlackPeople #BramStoker #BritishLibrary #BritishMuseum #China #ChinesePatrons #colonialism #communism #electricity #EnolaHolmes #HouseOfCommonsLibrary #JapanesePatrons #JenniferSnoekBrown #KOn #KOnTheMovie #KarlMarx #LibraryOfCongress #libraryStereotypes #libraryTourism #LondonLibrary #MarcusGarvey #MohandasKGandhi #quiet #railroads #reading #ReelLibrarians #restrictions #RickSteves #RosettaStone #royalLibraries #royalty #Russia #RussianStateLibrary #ShanghaiLibrary #SherlockHolmes #SunYatSen #SylviaPankhurst #TheBeatles #TheDaVinciCode #TheIllustriousClient #trains #VirginiaWoolf #WhiteLibrarians #WhiteMen #WhitePatrons

@dinelli

Você pode gostar de navegar por esta coleção de pôsteres da WPA.

You might enjoy browsing this collection of WPA posters:

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/wpapos/

#Posters #GraphicArt #WPA #WorksProjectsAdministration #WorksProgressAdministration #USArt #NewDeal #LibraryOfCongress

Trump’s campaign of retribution: At least 470 targets and counting – Reuters

A REUTERS SPECIAL REPORT

Trump’s campaign of retribution:
At least 470 targets and counting

Reuters documented at least 470 targets of retribution under Trump’s leadership – from federal employees and prosecutors to universities and media outlets. The list illuminates the sweeping effort by the president and his administration to punish dissent and reshape the government.

By PETER EISLER, NED PARKER, LINDA SO and JOSEPH TANFANI

Another 224 people were caught up in broader retribution efforts – not named individually but ensnared in crackdowns on groups of perceived opponents. Nearly 100 of them were prosecutors and FBI agents fired or forced to retire for working on cases tied to Trump or his allies, or because they were deemed “woke.” This includes 16 FBI agents who kneeled at a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020. The rest were civil servants, most of them suspended for publicly opposing administration policies or resisting directives on health, environmental and science issues.

The retribution took three distinct forms.

Most common were punitive acts, such as firings, suspensions, investigations and the revocation of security clearances.

Reuters found at least 462 such cases, including the dismissal of at least 128 federal workers and officials who had probed, challenged or otherwise bucked Trump or his administration.

The second form was threats. Trump and his administration targeted at least 46 individuals, businesses and other entities with threats of investigations or penalties, including freezing federal funds for Democratic-led cities such as New York and Chicago.

Trump openly discussed firing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for resisting interest rate cuts, for instance. Last week, he threatened to have six Democratic members of Congress tried for sedition – a crime he said is “punishable by DEATH” – after the lawmakers reminded military personnel they can refuse “illegal orders.” This week, the Defense Department threatened to court-martial one of them, U.S. Senator Mark Kelly, a former Naval officer.

The third form was coercion. In at least a dozen cases, organizations such as law firms and universities signed agreements with the government to roll back diversity initiatives or other policies after facing administration threats of punishment, such as security clearance revocations and loss of federal funding and contracts.

It’s a campaign led from the top: Trump’s White House has issued at least 36 orders, decrees and directives, targeting at least 100 individuals and entities with punitive actions, according to the Reuters analysis.

Trump openly campaigned on a platform of revenge in his latest run for the presidency, promising to punish enemies of his Make America Great Again movement. “For those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution,” he said in a March 2023 speech. Weeks later, while campaigning in Texas, he repeated the theme. “I am your justice,” he said.

Today, the White House disputes the idea that the administration is out for revenge. It describes recent investigations and indictments of political adversaries as valid course corrections on policy, necessary probes of wrongdoing and legitimate policy initiatives.

Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Trump’s campaign of retribution: At least 470 targets and counting

#2025 #224People #470Targets #America #DemocraticCities #DonaldTrump #Education #FBI #FBIFirings #Firings #FreezingFunding #History #Investigations #Libraries #Library #LibraryOfCongress #Opinion #PeterEisler #Politics #Resistance #Retribution #Reuters #RevokeSecurityClearances #Science #Suspensions #Trump #TrumpAdministration #TrumpSCampaign #UnitedStates #WhiteHouse

One of music’s best kept secrets celebrates 100 years, quietly – NPR

Music

One of music’s best kept secrets celebrates 100 years, quietly

The story of Coolidge Auditorium, at the Library of Congress, is one of American ingenuity, cultural integrity and a century of free concerts.

October 25, 20258:18 AM ET, Heard on Weekend Edition Saturday

Tom Huizenga 6-Minute Listen Transcript

The year is 1925. The Great Gatsby is published, the jazz age is swinging, and on October 28th, a new concert hall opens at an unlikely spot — the Library of Congress, in Washington D.C. If only its cream-colored walls could talk. For 100 years, performers of all stripes have graced the Library stage, from classical music luminaries like Béla Bartók and Igor Stravinsky to Stevie Wonder, Audra McDonald and Max Roach. Today, it remains one of the capitol city’s most beautiful, best sounding and perhaps best kept secrets.

The idea for a concert hall at the Library of Congress did not stem from congress. It came from philanthropist Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge — and one bespoke piece of bipartisan legislation. “She was indefatigable and intrepid,” says Anne McLean, senior producer for concerts at the Library, “a remarkable woman, six feet tall, a brilliant pianist.” McLean is sitting with me on the stage, overlooking the empty auditorium. To mark the centennial, celebratory concerts and commissions have been heard in the hall all year. But not now. The government shutdown has forced the hall to close its doors, and unless a deal is reached before Tuesday, it’ll be closed on the anniversary itself.

Coolidge was born into a wealthy Chicago family in 1864. She studied music, traveled abroad, married a Harvard-trained orthopedic surgeon and, in 1924, came to Washington to establish a foothold in the nation’s capitol. She approached Carl Engel, the Library’s music chief, about the possibility of adding a small concert hall to the Library’s voluptuous — and voluminous — Thomas Jefferson building, designed after the Paris opera house and completed in 1897. You can’t see the hall from the outside, as it’s tucked inside the building’s Northwest Courtyard.

Eager to get started, Coolidge wrote a check for $60,000 to the Librarian of Congress, Herbert Putnam, on Nov. 12, 1924. And yet there was no legal mechanism in place for a civilian to make such a monetary gift to the U.S. government. Congress worked quickly, taking only a little over a month to pass a bill allowing such a contribution.

It took less than six months to build the hall itself — the intimate, 485-seat Coolidge Auditorium, with its warm precise acoustics. “There are a lot of secrets to it,” McLean says. “The back wall of the auditorium is slightly shaved to be concave and extremely responsive to string sound. Underneath the stage is hollow. But that hollowness is a factor, as is the cork floor, which was very unusual for its time.” McLean says the sound blossoms in the hall. Keen to spread the sound far and wide, Coolidge even had the building wired for the relatively new medium of radio. She added to her initial sum to establish a fund for the commissioning of new music. Engel dubbed her “The Fairy-God-Mother of Music.”

Coolidge was well-connected and fiercely advocated for music. In 1944, she took to the local Washington airwaves with another bold idea. “I could wish for music, the same governmental protection that is given to hygiene, education or public welfare,” she said over WTOP. “How wonderful, if we could have in the cabinet, a secretary of fine arts.”

Coolidge never got her wish, but what she had already created was arguably more important — a living, breathing concert hall that serves as a cultural beacon — preserving history and cultivating new music through commissions.

Perhaps the most famous commission became one of America’s most iconic pieces of music. Aaron Copland‘s ballet Appalachian Spring, written for dancer and choreographer Martha Graham, received its world premiere at Coolidge Auditorium on Oct. 30, 1944. “I think people knew what they were hearing,” McLean says. The ballet would win the Pulitzer prize for music the following year, along with the New York Music Critics Circle Award. It’s hard to imagine a full ballet produced on Coolidge’s modestly-sized stage.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: One of music’s best kept secrets celebrates 100 years, quietly : NPR

#100Years #AaronCopland #CoolidgeAuditorium #Culture #FreeConcerts #Ingenuity #LibraryOfCongress #MarthaGraham #Music #NationalPublicRadio #NPR #TomHuizenga #WeekendEdition

Vanderbilt Student Government and the Vanderbilt chapter of American Association of University Professors host campus Teach-In in response to Trump administration’s higher education compact – The Vanderbilt Hustler

Vanderbilt Student Government and the Vanderbilt chapter of American Association of University Professors host campus Teach-In in response to Trump administration’s higher education compact

Professors and graduate students gathered at the Teach-In to speak out against the compact.

By Ella Crocco, Staffer-in-Training, Oct 24, 2025

Vanderbilt Student Government and members of Vanderbilt’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors hosted a Teach-In on Oct. 17 regarding the higher education compact Vanderbilt was sent from the Trump administration. Students and faculty at the event discussed how they believe the compact could endanger academic freedom, education policy and the university’s core values, among other topics.   

Jessie Hock, associate English department chair and associate professor of English, opened the Teach-In with contextual remarks. Carwil Bjork-James, associate professor in social movements, indigenous rights and political anthropology, then spoke to the crowd about how he believes that if Vanderbilt agrees to the compact, it could have negative financial impacts for the university.  

“I think that our administrators are being misled by the promise of more research funding by an administration that is clearly cutting off research funding and restricting it at every level,” Bjork-James said.  

In an interview with The Hustler, Bjork-James said that the compact will not help ensure Vanderbilt is a space where students and faculty can freely express their thoughts.  

“I would say faculty are really committed to maintaining this campus as a place where [students] can speak freely, where [students] can come here with any political opinion, with any perspective, get an open education and where there are viable places to do scholarship and research and this compact is not the right way to do that,” Bjork-James said. 

Jada Benn Torres, associate professor in genetics, race and genetic ancestry, followed by speaking about how she believed Vanderbilt signing the compact would limit scientific research and free speech. In a message to The Hustler, Benn Torres said that the compact could contribute to the marginalization of communities and hopes Vanderbilt will continue to be a place where freedom of discussion is practiced.  

“I am very concerned that the compact will upend academic freedom and freedom of expression. Additionally, there are elements of the compact that further marginalize communities that are already marginalized,” Torres said. “Overall, I think that the university needs to be a place where we are free to ask difficult questions and grapple with uncomfortable answers.” 

Rebecca Epstein-Levy, assistant professor of Jewish studies and gender & sexuality studies, spoke about how she believes the compact has anti-trans provisions which would limit her ability to teach and research certain topics about Judaism and sex, sexuality, gender and disability.   

“I’m a Jewish ethicist, and I research and teach courses at the intersection of Jewish text, Jewish thought, and sex, sexuality, gender and disability,” Epstein-Levy said. “The compact’s claim that there are only two genders — a claim which is bigoted, venal and spectacularly wrong — would make it impossible for me to teach these subjects accurately and responsibly.” 

Jonathan Gilligan, earth and environmental studies and civil and environmental engineering professor, spoke about how he believes the compact could limit research and what is taught in science classes because topics may offend conservative policies. 

Gilligan shared in an interview with The Hustler that he and many of his colleagues are worried about government overreach. They believe that if the government enforces politicized versions of science upon universities, they will not stop with the biology of sex and gender.

Editor’s Note: I am proud of hopeful of American higher education. Stand up for your rights, and protect us all with your views and passion for Democracy. –DrWeb

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Vanderbilt Student Government and the Vanderbilt chapter of American Association of University Professors host campus Teach-In in response to Trump administration’s higher education compact – The Vanderbilt Hustler

#2025 #AAUP #AcademicFreedom #America #DEI #DonaldTrump #Education #Health #History #Libraries #Library #LibraryOfCongress #Opinion #Politics #Resistance #Science #StudentGovernment #TeachIn #TheVanderbiltHustler #Trump #TrumpAdministration #TrumpSCompact #UnitedStates #VanderbiltUniversity

Trump’s Unauthorized East Wing Demolition – A Special Report – October 24, 2025

Trump’s Unauthorized East Wing Demolition

DrWeb Editorial:

I was afraid this might be long. So I’ll be brief.
Like the flickering TV and ads and social media posts and messages that fly by like so much dust in the wind (we used to call it a firehose). And in these times, (I have take to calling it Trump2.XKNGS) –some Americans accept the shutdown, some look away, some wait, some hesitate, some ignore. But, I go off on a tangent.
The sudden, complete destruction of American history, the complete East Wing –shows us much is wrong with American Democracy –our protections for it; our legal system for it; our states’ rights to their protections, in a federal system. We are weaker than I thought, less capable of fighting authoritarianism, corrupt and cruel leaders starting with Trump. We need to fix Democracy, too, after his failed administration fails, and he is gone.
Most Americans know that if One Man can do this, and worse, and kill “suspected” drug dealers in the Caribbean –he can do whatever he wants. That is not Democracy.
Oh, he and his broken circle will try to corrupt and disturb the 2025 November elections –trial run for Presidential election in 2028– so they will be monitored by the states and Democratic coverage.
This is an example of our failures –to modernize our government; to ensure protections exist for Trump-like attacks, balance the Supreme Court and enlarge it for balance, reduce Presidential authority over Congress 100%. We have a system with flaws, and GOP and Trump and ghost figures like Musk, Bannon, and Miller and the dark ones in the shadows, and we failed clearly to see Project 2025’s actions were not imaginary after all.
The East Wing Destruction (EWD) is a metaphor for all that’s wrong. In real time. We saw what HE seems to be allowed to do. Today (October 25), I see lawsuit is filed, perhaps more to follow. These are the darkest days of our nation and Democracy since the Nazis. We all allowed some of this darkness to descend. Let’s learn, pull on our asbestos suits, and fight like Hell for the nation WWII and since showed America’s strength. We need that strength now. –DrWeb

Top Ten Major Media Stories – The East Wing

1. BBC – “Satellite images show extent of demolition at the White House” (October 24, 2025)1
2. CBS News – “Where is debris from the White House East Wing demolition being taken?” (October 24, 2025)2
3. PBS NewsHour – “The East Wing of the White House has been demolished. Here’s a look at its history” (October 24, 2025)3
4. ABC News – “White House East Wing demolished, new images appear to show” (October 23, 2025)4
5. CNN – “See the White House’s East Wing demolition from satellite images” (October 23, 2025)5
6. NBC News – “White House’s East Wing demolition finished as Trump makes way for new ballroom” (October 23, 2025)6
7. CNN – “Why Trump’s sudden East Wing demolition is extraordinary” (October 22, 2025)7
8. Reuters – “White House East Wing will be torn down fully to make way for Trump ballroom” (October 22, 2025)8
9. The New York Times – “See the White House as It Stood and What Trump Envisions” (October 22, 2025)9
10. USA Today – “Trump exposed a ‘loophole’ to demolish the White House East Wing” (October 23, 2025)10

Best Five Images – Major Media

1. CNN Photo Gallery – “In pictures: Trump’s East Wing demolition” – Complete visual documentation of the demolition process11
2. Getty Images – “Trump To Demolish Entire East Wing” collection – 23 professional images12
3. ABC News Australia – Satellite imagery showing complete demolition13
4. PBS NewsHour – “PHOTOS: White House starts East Wing demolition”14
5. Yahoo News Canada – “Photos reveal shocking destruction of East Wing” – Ground-level destruction images15

What in World is Trump Doing Now?
Why Would He Do This?

The Trump administration’s stated rationale centers on a complaint –that no one made–about inadequate space for large-scale diplomatic functions16. Trump also argues –though again, no one said this anywhere–the federal government has lacked adequate space for large gatherings at the White House for 150 years16.
It’s a home, a house, a symbol, a residence, a meeting space for small gatherings, the First Lady’s staff and space. The new 90,000-square-foot ballroom will accommodate nearly 1,000 guests, compared to the East Room’s 200-person capacity14.

However, critics question the timing and priorities. The project costs an estimated $300 million during a government shutdown that has lasted nearly three weeks [as of 10/24/2025], halting most government expenditures16, including damaging Americans health care and food support.

Christina Hurt, director of government ethics at Santa Clara University, questioned whether it’s “justifiable for an administration to embark on costly, primarily aesthetic projects while ordinary Americans are experiencing financial hardships and federal employees are going unpaid”16.

–Christiana Hurt’s view

The funding comes from private donations and corporations, including major defense contractor Lockheed Martin and tech giants like Amazon and Google16. Ethics experts warn this fundraising approach could foster corruption, with companies “clearly doing so to curry favor with the government,” according to Richard Painter, former chief ethics lawyer during George W. Bush’s administration16.

Best Editorial Quotes – Suggested by Perplexity and approved

“This encapsulates Trump’s presidency in a single image. Illegal, destructive, and not beneficial to you.”
— Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)17

“Oh you’re trying to say the cost of living is skyrocketing? Donald Trump can’t hear you over the sound of bulldozers demolishing a wing of the White House to build a new grand ballroom.”
— Senator Elizabeth Warren18

“I didn’t know draining the swamp meant Donald Trump building a $200 million ballroom for billionaires to bend the knee for special favors.”
— Senator Elizabeth Warren19

“The people’s house is basically being sold to the highest bidder. It is corruption at its core.”
— Former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre20

“The companies providing funds are clearly doing so to curry favor with the government and enhance their visibility among federal officials.”
— Richard Painter, Corporate Law Professor and Former Ethics Lawyer16

MLA Bibliography – Thanks Perplexity!

1. BBC News. “Satellite Images Show Extent of Demolition at the White House.” BBC, 24 Oct. 2025, www.bbc.com/news/videos/c4gkrnn4892o.

2. CBS News. “Where Is Debris from the White House East Wing Demolition Being Taken?” CBS News, 24 Oct. 2025, www.cbsnews.com/news/white-house-east-wing-demolition-debris/.

3. PBS NewsHour. “The East Wing of the White House Has Been Demolished. Here’s a Look at Its History.” PBS, 24 Oct. 2025, www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/the-east-wing-of-the-white-house-has-been-demolished-heres-a-look-at-its-history.

4. Hutzler, Alexandra, and Isabella Murray. “White House East Wing Demolished, New Images Appear to Show.” ABC News, 23 Oct. 2025, abcnews.go.com/Politics/new-images-show-entire-white-house-east-wing/story?id=126800684.

5. CNN. “See the White House’s East Wing Demolition from Satellite Images.” CNN, 23 Oct. 2025, www.cnn.com/2025/10/23/us/east-wing-white-house-satellite-photos-invs.

6. NBC News. “White House’s East Wing Demolition Finished as Trump Makes Way for New Ballroom.” NBC News, 23 Oct. 2025, www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/white-house-east-wing-demolished-new-ballroom-rcna239399.

7. CNN. “Why Trump’s Sudden East Wing Demolition Is Extraordinary.” CNN, 22 Oct. 2025, www.cnn.com/2025/10/22/politics/white-house-east-wing-demolition-trump.

8. Reuters. “White House East Wing Will Be Torn Down Fully to Make Way for Trump Ballroom.” Reuters, 22 Oct. 2025, www.reuters.com/world/us/white-house-east-wing-will-be-torn-down-fully-make-way-trump-ballroom-official-2025-10-22/.

9. The New York Times. “See the White House as It Stood and What Trump Envisions.” The New York Times, 22 Oct. 2025, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/10/22/us/politics/east-wing-trump-ballroom.html.

10. USA Today. “Trump Exposed a ‘Loophole’ to Demolish the White House East Wing. Here’s What We Know.” USA Today, 23 Oct. 2025, www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/10/23/trump-white-house-east-wing-demolition-explained/86837471007/.

11. CNN. “In Pictures: Trump’s East Wing Demolition.” CNN Politics, 22 Oct. 2025, www.cnn.com/2025/10/22/politics/gallery/east-wing-white-house-demolition.

12. Getty Images. “Trump To Demolish Entire East Wing To Build White House Ballroom.” Getty Images, 2025, www.gettyimages.com/editorial-images/news/event/trump-to-demolish-entire-east-wing-to-build-white-house-ballroom/776405723.

13. Allison, Charmayne. “Satellite Images Show the White House’s East Wing Has Been Demolished.” ABC News Australia, 24 Oct. 2025, www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-24/white-house-east-wing-demolished-trump-ballroom/105930582.

14. Associated Press. “PHOTOS: White House Starts East Wing Demolition to Build Trump’s Ballroom.” PBS NewsHour, 21 Oct. 2025, www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/photos-white-house-starts-east-wing-demolition-to-build-trumps-ballroom.

15. Yahoo News Canada. “Photos Reveal Shocking Destruction of East Wing as Crews Work to Build Trump’s $300M Ballroom.” Yahoo News, 22 Oct. 2025, ca.news.yahoo.com/photos-reveal-shocking-destruction-east-193833511.html.

16. Deutsche Welle. “Trump’s White House Ballroom Sparks Criticism Amid Shutdown.” DW, 23 Oct. 2025, www.dw.com/en/trump-ballroom-project-white-house-renovations-shutdown/a-74478671.

17. The New York Times. “The White House Wrecking Ball.” The New York Times, 22 Oct. 2025, www.nytimes.com/2025/10/22/us/politics/trump-white-house-demolition.html.

18. Benzinga. “Elizabeth Warren Says Trump Is Deaf To Cost Of Living ‘Over The Sound of Bulldozers.'” Benzinga, 21 Oct. 2025, www.benzinga.com/news/politics/25/10/48320523/elizabeth-warren-says-trump-is-deaf-to-cost-of-living-over-the-sound-of-bulldozers-knocking-down-white-house-wing-for-new-grand-ballroom.

19. QuiverQuant. “Press Release: Senator Elizabeth Warren Critiques Donald Trump’s $200 Million Ballroom for Billionaires.” QuiverQuant, 15 Oct. 2025, www.quiverquant.com/news/Press+Release:+Senator+Elizabeth+Warren+Critiques+Donald+Trump’s+$200+Million+Ballroom+for+Billionaires.

20. Fox News. “Trump White House Ballroom Sparks Liberal Outrage Over Demolition.” Fox News, 24 Oct. 2025, www.foxnews.com/media/democrats-liberal-media-figures-fume-over-trump-demolishing-white-house-east-wing-ballroom.

Additional Citations – Added October 25, 2025

What’s Been Lost In Donald Trump’s Teardown Of The East Wing To Build A White House Ballroom – Analysis- https://deadline.com/2025/10/trump-white-house-east-wing-demolition-1236595980, October 23, 2025

White House East Wing demolished, new images appear to show – https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/new-images-show-entire-white-house-east-wing/story?id=126800684 October 23, 2025

The Daily, New York Times’ podcast, “The Trump administration completed its demolition of the East Wing of the White House on Thursday to make way for a new presidential ballroom” – https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/podcasts/the-daily/demolition-white-house-east-wing-ballroom.html October 24, 2025

Google News – Lawsuit(s) East Wing – https://news.google.com/search?q=lawsuits%20east%20wing&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen October 25, 2025

#2025 #America #Demolished #Demolition #Destroyed #DonaldTrump #DrWebEditorial #EastWing #Education #Health #History #Images #LawSuits #Libraries #Library #LibraryOfCongress #Opinion #PerplexityAI #Politics #Resistance #Science #SpecialReport #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates #WhiteHouse

In his new book, author Dan Brown tackles the ultimate mystery : NPR

Author Interviews

In his new book, author Dan Brown tackles the ultimate mystery

September 9, 2025, 4:27 PM ET, Heard on All Things Considered

By Scott Detrow, Tyler Bartlam, and Jeanette Woods
5-Minute Listen Transcript

Author Dan Brown is known for storylines that delve into myth and conspiracy theories. His new book — The Secret of Secrets — tackles the ultimate mystery: human consciousness.

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

Robert Langdon is back in action, the dashing and brilliant Harvard professor who has a knack for wandering into situations where he unearths big philosophical questions and at the same time gets chased around by bad guys who do not want those questions answered. Langdon is, of course, the recurring main character in author Dan Brown’s thrillers “The Da Vinci Code,” “Angels & Demons” and many others. In Brown’s latest novel, “The Secret Of Secrets,” Langdon has traded the mysteries of Christianity and the mysteries of Freemasonry for the even bigger mystery of the nature of human consciousness. Dan Brown, welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.

DAN BROWN: Thanks for having me.

DETROW: So this is by my count your sixth book starring Robert Langdon. How has he changed over the years?

BROWN: (Laughter) Well, he’s aging much more slowly than I am, I’ve sensed.

DETROW: (Laughter).

BROWN: You know, this book took eight years to write. And Langdon, who is always – he’s always skeptical about all things conspiratorial and paranormal and all that sort of stuff. And in this book, he is sort of dragged out of his comfort box by a noetic scientist named Katherine Solomon. And he becomes a believer in aspects of consciousness that to most of us, myself included, seem quite out of this world.

DETROW: I want to ask about the topic of the book. How much were you personally thinking about these big questions of consciousness? Was that how the book started out? Is that something you were wrestling with or wondering about and wanting to learn more about?

BROWN: Absolutely. I mean, it’s no secret I like to write about big, sweeping, important topics, you know?

DETROW: Yeah.

BROWN: There really is no topic bigger, that I can imagine, than consciousness. It’s the lens through which we see reality, see ourselves, see our interactions with other people. And I wrote the character Katherine Solomon maybe 10 or 12 years ago as an ancillary character in another book, and she was a noetic scientist. And through the research for that book, I started to learn about noetic science. And some of these mind experiments who have results that are simply – you cannot believe them. You hear what the result is and you say, that’s impossible. And you read more, and you find out that reality is a much stranger thing than we ever imagined.

DETROW: For those of us who aren’t as familiar, can you briefly explain noetic science?

Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: In his new book, author Dan Brown tackles the ultimate mystery : NPR

#2025 #AllThingsConsidered #Books #DanBrown #HumanConsciousness #Interview #Libraries #Library #LibraryOfCongress #NationalPublicRadio #NPR #Opinion #Published #Reading #TheSecretOfSecrets #UltimateMystery

Alina Habba ‘unlawfully’ working as US attorney in New Jersey, judge rules – POLITICO

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Alina Habba ‘unlawfully’ working as US attorney in New Jersey, judge rules

As a result, Habba cannot participate in prosecutions by the office.

Alina Habba, former lawyer for President Donald Trump, is at the center of battle to lead New Jersey’s U.S. Attorney’s Office. | Mary Altaffer/AP

By Ry Rivard and Matt Friedman08/21/2025 03:37 PM EDTUpdated: 08/21/2025 05:36 PM EDT

A federal judge rejected President Donald Trump’s use of a loophole to keep Alina Habba in place as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor.

In a 77-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann said Thursday that Habba “is not lawfully holding the office of United States Attorney” and has been in the position without legal authority since July 1.

Editor’s Note: The PDF ruling document is embedded at the end of this article.

As a result, Habba, who had previously worked as Trump’s personal attorney, cannot run the office the president attempted to keep her in charge of after her 120-day interim appointment expired. The Trump administration employed a series of maneuvers to try to retain Habba’s control of the office after district judges ousted her in July.

“Faced with the question of whether Ms. Habba is lawfully performing the functions and duties of the office of the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, I conclude that she is not,” Brann wrote.

Brann put his ruling on hold, pending the Trump administration’s possible appeal, but the fallout could be a staggering mess across the executive branch. Brann said Habba’s actions in New Jersey for the past seven weeks “may be declared void” and Habba must be disqualified from participating in any of the office’s cases as its leader. The office handles thousands of criminal and civil cases at any given time.

The ruling by Brann — a Republican and Obama appointee who sits in Pennsylvania’s Middle District — could also have wider implications for other U.S. attorney’s offices in Los Angeles, Nevada, New Mexico and upstate New York, where the administration has effectively sidestepped or overridden both the Senate confirmation and judicial appointment processes for selecting U.S. attorneys.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Justice Department would “immediately appeal.”

She said on social media Habba “is doing incredible work in New Jersey — and we will protect her position from activist judicial attacks.”

A spokesperson for Habba did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Brann’s ruling came in response to legal challenges to Habba’s authority by defense attorneys trying to get charges against their clients thrown out by arguing the Trump administration illegally kept her on and without being confirmed by the Senate.

Those challenges came amid days of confusion over who is leading the office because of complex and contested rules over filling vacancies when there isn’t a Senate-confirmed leader.

The judge declined to throw out the charges against the defendants, Julien Giraud and Cesar Pina, but said anyone who prosecutes them “under the supervision or authority of Ms. Habba” would be subject to disqualification.

Brann’s formal order only applies to the defendants in the case before him, but his opinion is written to broadly apply to everything Habba does.

“I think it would be deeply irresponsible for the department to move forward with Alina Habba as the highest Justice Department official signing indictments or other pleadings,” said James Pearce, an attorney who represents the Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey in the case.

Brann said that allowing stacked interim appointments would effectively void the need for confirmation. “Taken to the extreme, the President could use this method to staff the United States Attorney’s office with individuals of his personal choice for an entire term without seeking the Senate’s advice and consent,” he wrote.
His ruling also has findings that could embolden those who want to check Trump’s moves to strengthen the White House’s grip on government.
“Congress is expected to speak clearly when it rebalances the separation of powers, and courts should be chary of Executive branch interpretations of structural enactments that result in greater arrogation of power to the President,” Brann wrote.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/21/alina-habba-new-jersey-us-attorney-ruling-00518559

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, the No. 2 official at the Justice Department, has started putting his name on some of the New Jersey office’s work in recent days, an unusual move that appears designed to head off challenges to the authority of those prosecutions if they were signed by Habba alone.

Brann’s ruling also has implications for other agencies, said Anne Joseph O’Connell, a Stanford Law School professor who studies the appointments process. She said modern agencies run on the delegation of authority in the face of a broken Senate confirmation process and that some of the particulars in Brann’s ruling would affect other administration officials, like the current head of FEMA.

“If upheld on appeal, this ruling would upend common practice of acting officials under Democratic and Republican Administrations,” Joseph O’Connell said. Editor’s Note: Below is the judge’s opinion in full, courtesy of Politico.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Alina Habba ‘unlawfully’ working as US attorney in New Jersey, judge rules – POLITICO

#2025 #America #DonaldTrump #FederalJudge #Health #History #Libraries #Library #LibraryOfCongress #MatthewBrann #Opinion #Politico #Politics #Resistance #Science #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates

Trump’s remarkable statement against states’ rights | CNN Politics

Trump’s remarkable statement against states’ rights

President Donald Trump’s announcement Monday that he will sign an executive order aimed at getting rid of mail-in ballots and voting machines seems unlikely to amount to much. He doesn’t appear to have any such authority, and legal challenges would surely follow.

But it was instructive in one way: It made clear the president elected to lead the party of states’ rights has very little regard for states’ rights.

Indeed, he almost seems to disdain them.

It’s difficult to read his comments any other way, especially as he has spent much of his second term attempting to chip away at states’ rights — or at least, the ones he doesn’t like.

While selling his new pitch to get rid of mail-in voting and voting machines, Trump included this remarkable pair of sentences.

“Remember, the States are merely an ‘agent’ for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “They must do what the Federal Government, as represented by the President of the United States, tells them, FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY, to do.”

Trump has described the states as “agents” of the federal government before in this context, but without casting them as subservient to him personally.

This is a rather novel take on the Constitution, to put it mildly.

As CNN’s Daniel Dale notes, the Constitution says the “Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections … shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof.” Congress has a role, in that the Constitution says it can “make or alter such Regulations.” But there is no role for the president.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Trump’s remarkable statement against states’ rights | CNN Politics

#2025 #America #CNN #CNNPolitics #DonaldTrump #Elections #Health #History #Libraries #LibraryOfCongress #NationalElections #Politics #Resistance #Science #StateLegislatures #StateRights #StatesRights #Steal2026 #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates

@torrentfreak Copyright should go back to 14 years, with one 14-year renewal term. This would follow the letter and spirit of the #Constitution, as copyright was originally intended to be.

#copyright was never intended to be a continuing income stream for the creator, and certainly not for the #heirs and #estates.
#statuteofanne #library #libraries #publicdomain #publicdomainart #publicdomainday #publicdomaindedication #congress #loc #libraryofcongress #books #publishers #publishersweekly #bookpublishers #bookpublishing #bookpublisher #SimonandSchuster #hachette #hachetteaudio