On January 29, secret federal police (“Homeland Security Investigations”) arrested journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort for covering, and activists Trahern Jeen Crews and Jamael Lydell Lundy for planning and organizing, a protest at a St. Paul, Minnesota church.

Arresting two journalists for covering an event most Americans correctly condemned — if you want to hold a protest during a religious service, hold it somewhere other than in the church — is a great way to create a “chilling effect” on journalism … and distract the public’s attention from other events.

If Crews and Lydell did indeed to conspire to violate the rights of others (a crime under 18 U.S.C. §241) and to interfere with religious worship (a crime under 18 U.S.C. §248), they’ll hopefully be held to appropriate legal account.

But covering such events as news isn’t a crime. It’s unlikely that the charges against Lemon and Fort will avoid dismissal by a judge and make it all the way to trial, and even more unlikely that a jury will convict them. Their arrests were part of a public relations campaign. Look! Shiny object!

So, why arrest them on January 29?

For the same reason president Donald Trump picked that day to declare yet another fake “state of emergency,” this time concerning the sudden and urgent importance  of the “Threats to the United States by the Government of Cuba” that US presidents have asserted periodically over the last 72 years.

On January 30, the US Department of Justice three million pages of documents, 2,000 videos, and 180,000 images pursuant to its halting, overdue, and partial compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Another three million pages are, according to federal prosecutors, “potentially responsive” the law’s requirements, but DOJ says it’s done bothering with little things like obeying the law where the late sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein is concerned.

Don’t look, Ethel! (Too late).

At least 4,500 of the three million documents mention Trump himself. Those mentions include evidence that he associated with Epstein for longer, and until later, than he’s previously claimed, and that he flew on Epstein’s private jet more times than he’s previously admitted. They also include allegations — not proven — of his involvement in the sexual abuse of minor girls and the murder of an infant born to one of those girls.

Other documents in the tranche shed light on (or at least bring heat on) Epstein’s relationships with  powerful people such as Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Howard Lutnick, and Trump’s prospective nominee to head the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh.

Kinda makes one wonder what’s in the files they AREN’T releasing, doesn’t it?

I guess I can see why Trump and friends picked January 29 to pour some Lemon aid into the ol’ news cycle.

Nice try, but no Cuban cigar.

Thomas L. Knapp (X: @thomaslknapp | Bluesky: @knappster.bsky.social | Mastodon: @knappster) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY

After only two weeks on the job, The Hill reports, Kevin Couch resigned in late January as head of artistic programming at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Couch’s brief tenure might seem surprising, but a better question is why Couch sought or accepted the position in the first place.  With a reasonably impressive record dating back 30 years as a drummer, manager, and midwest talent booker, why swim toward a sinking ship?

And a better question yet is: Why bother to keep that ship afloat at all?

In early 2025, US president Donald Trump fired the Center’s board of trustees, appointed new trustees who elected him chairman, then had the building vandalized to add his name. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that henceforth the institution would be known as the “Trump-Kennedy Center,” even though neither Trump nor Leavitt nor the trustees control its name (Congress does).

Since then, most stories coming out of the Center have consisted of “so and so quit,” “such and such artist or act canceled,” etc.

What I haven’t really seen is much in the way of suggestions that it’s a great time to dissolve the “public-private partnership” behind the Center, auction off its assets, and let the private sector fulfill whatever demand might exist for the events typically held there.

Well, fine — I’ll suggest exactly that myself, then.

The Kennedy Center receives about $40 million in taxpayer money for operations, maintenance, and facilities needs, and additional funding for “capital repair and restoration.” That’s the “public” part of the “public-private partnership.”

With a combined seating capacity of about 6,700 across its three major performance venues (the Concert Hall, the Opera House, and the Eisenhower Theater), that comes to nearly $6,000 per year per seat in annual government funding — not including the repair/restoration money.

That’s before hundreds of millions of dollars annually in “private” donations, ticket  sales, and so forth.

Oh, and the Center’s endowment is pretty flush, too: It has more than half a billion dollars set aside for a rainy day.

More than 100 million Americans attend live concerts every year, and will continue to do so with or without the Kennedy Center.

More than 25 million Americans attend live stage productions every year, and will continue to do so with or without the Kennedy Center.

So far as I can tell, those web search figures don’t include smaller acts in nightclubs and so forth.

Why are the taxpayers shelling out $40 million per year to do a job the private sector clearly has well in hand?

Instead of arguing about the name, making it a political football, and trying to track down talent to keep an ailing institution in business, cut it loose to sink or sail.

Thomas L. Knapp (X: @thomaslknapp | Bluesky: @knappster.bsky.social | Mastodon: @knappster) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY

“Alex Pretti was murdered, in public and on camera, by thugs. Period. If you’re lying to others about that, shame on you. If you’re lying to yourself about it, seek help.”

That’s my hot take on the Border Patrol’s public execution of an ICU nurse in Minneapolis over the weekend, and the varying reactions to it.

That’s exactly the reaction one might expect, given my prior disposition toward the war on immigrants and the ever-increasing militarization of the American police state, but the facts that have subsequently emerged don’t seem to merit substantive changes.

Pretti, an ICU nurse, came to the assistance of a woman who’d been knocked down and pepper-sprayed by badge-flashing goons, and was then knocked down and pepper-sprayed himself before being shot multiple times while pinned to the ground and unarmed (his pistol, which he hadn’t drawn, brandished, or fired, had already been stolen by one of his attackers at the time he was shot).

It’s a sad thing, and I don’t want to understate the sadness . His family and his friend and co-worker circles are now permanently one member lonelier. His previous and prospective patients are now one care-giver short. The world is a smaller and darker place due to his absence from it.

It feels almost blasphemous to look for an up side to this vicious crime, but I’ve got a Panglossian streak, so I’m going to give it the old college try (I dropped out of college, so think of it as a freshman attempt).

You may have heard of something called the Overton Window. Briefly defined, the “window” covers the range of positions on issues that enjoy mainstream acceptance. A position outside the “window” is, by definition, “extreme.” When a position stops being “fringe” and becomes “mainstream,” the “window” has moved.

Even a few weeks ago, my position on something like the murder of Alex Pretti — sadly not an uncommon occurrence, as cops kill hundreds, sometimes thousands, of Americans per year, many of them unjustifiably — was well outside the Overton Window.

Even a few weeks ago, most Americans “backed the blue” for the most part, even when “mistakes were made” or some unlucky innocent ran into a “bad apple.”

The ICE gang’s murder of Renee Good on  January 7 (also in Minneapolis) felt like someone grabbing the handle of the “window” and trying to take it loose.  SOME people still bought the lies and the excuses, but others took second, longer looks and accepted that what they saw was in fact what they saw.

The shots that killed Alex Pretti   shattered the window entirely.

Not just because it was obviously cold-blooded murder, but because the few government and “law enforcement” officials who tried to justify it were so clownishly dishonest and cartoonishly evil in their deliveries that no one with a shred of self-esteem could pretend to, and no one with an IQ over 40 could actually, believe them.

Even  US president Donald Trump, notorious for his ability to brazenly lie his way through nearly any scandal, has begun throwing his sycophant subordinates under the bus and driving over them to get to the center of the “window.”

Border Patrol gang shot-caller Gregory Bovino  was the first to go. He’s fled Minneapolis, minus his “commander-at-large” title and accompanied by panicked underlings.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi “Ice Barbie” Noem’s neck has an ax hanging over it. If that ax falls, her plastic surgeon probably won’t be able to re-prettify it.

Democrats, and even a few Republicans, in Congress seem inclined to withhold funding for DHS, ICE, and Border Patrol unless the stormtrooper stuff stops. Some, perhaps, on principle, but mostly because every member of Congress prefers re-election to its alternative and the voters are, well, pissed off about this. As they should be.

The Overton Window is open … and we just may find a way to throw ICE out that window and slam it closed on Border Patrol’s trigger fingers.

There’s your up side, folks, your silver lining.  I wish we could have Alex Pretti, Renee Good, and the other victims of the immigration police state back, but since that’s not possible, the next best thing is to disarm, fire, and maybe even imprison their murderers.

Thomas L. Knapp (X: @thomaslknapp | Bluesky: @knappster.bsky.social | Mastodon: @knappster) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY