Tuesday, December 2, 2025

John F Kennedy's Center Re-Vamped By Takeover of Trump

 Nadene Goldfoot

 A Jewish dancer fired; Jane Rabinovitz, later Jane Raleigh nee Rabinovitz:  why?  Was it because she is Jewish?  That sounds like the days of Nazis. Director of Dance Programming was her job, something others outside of the field would know nothing about.  Well, Trump did hire a dancer, all right, but for reasons other than doing a great plie' (french ballet word) like plee-ay, not even anti-semitic ones.  It was politics and money.   Jane said, ""While I was told my dismissal was due to a 'loss of confidence in my leadership,' I know this firing to be in retaliation for my public support of the ongoing union organization drive at the Center."  She was a dancer who leapt to the top of her field;  then the  Trump Administration fired her.

                                  Stephen Nakagawa
   Appointment and background: Stephen Nakagawa was appointed Director of Dance Programming in August 2025. His career includes over a decade with The Washington Ballet, where he performed in productions such as Swan Lake, Company B, and Sleeping Beauty.

  •  His appointment follows the firing of the previous dance programming team, led by Jane Raleigh. Nakagawa has publicly stated a desire to inspire and uplift audiences and ensure dance thrives as a vibrant part of culture. He had previously expressed concern about "radical leftist ideologies in ballet" in a letter to the Kennedy Center's president, but there is no President except Trump's interim one.  
  •  Donald Trump has not named a new president, but has appointed Richard Grenell to oversee daily operations as interim replacement for former President Deborah Rutter. 
  • Previous team's dismissal: The previous dance programming team was fired in August 2025 amidst a period of changes at the Kennedy Center. The former director, Jane Raleigh, stated that she believed her dismissal was a retaliation for her support of a union for Kennedy Center workers.                                                                              


When she walked up to the Kennedy Center on the first day of her internship in 2013, she was Jane Rabinovitz, a recent grad from William & Mary, fresh off a stint as stage manager for an Argentine aerial tango company performing in Miami, and newly determined to forge a career in the arts.                           

By the time security escorted her out with her personal belongings 12 years later (2025), she was Jane (Rabinovitz) Raleigh, a veteran employee who’d risen in the ranks to become director of dance programming. 

In August, she and her small team were fired amid the upheaval fomented by President Donald Trump, who in his second term has installed himself as Kennedy Center chairman and attempted to reshape the institution.  

Jane was Director of Dance Programming.  Trump took over as Chairman of the Kennedy Center and fired her.  He's now running the Kennedy Center-named for a Democrat while he's a Republican.  He's stomping on all Democratic former Presidents of the USA, it looks like. 


 The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, commonly known as the Kennedy Center, is the national cultural center of the United States, located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C.. Opened on September 8, 1971, the center hosts many different genres of performance art, such as theater, dance, classical music, jazz, pop, psychedelic, and folk music. It is the official residence of the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington National Opera.

Its activities include educational and outreach initiatives, almost entirely funded through ticket sales and gifts from individuals, corporations, and private foundations. The center receives annual federal funding to pay for building maintenance and operation.  FEDERAL FUNDING.  THAT'S WHERE TRUMP HAS CONTROL.

It happened this way.  In 1968, George London became the Kennedy Center's first executive director (often called "artistic director" by the press). In 1991, Lawrence Wilker assumed the newly created position of president. In 2014, Deborah Rutter became its third president and the first woman to hold that post.

 In 2025, President Donald Trump was elected the center's chairman by staff he appointed upon firing the previous board members, including Deborah Rutter.   In May of 2025, Richard Grenell the Kennedy Center's new acting president, appointed by President Trump, announced that a new audit of the finances of the Kennedy Center under Rutter showed $26 million of 'phantom revenue, fake revenue.  Former board chair David Rubenstein also refuted Grenell's allegation, stating: "With full transparency, the financial reports were reviewed and approved by the Kennedy Center's audit committee and full board as well as a major accounting firm." NPR - May 21, 2025.

  • Management changes: In 2025, President Trump appointed a new board for the Kennedy Center, with staff reports suggesting he became its chairman. 
  • Trump was elected by a board that excluded the 18 Democratic appointees purged by the president last week.
  •  New board members, according to a statement from the Kennedy Center, include the Vice President's wife, Usha Vance as well as Susie Wiles, Dan Scavino, Allison Lutnick, Lynda Lomangino, Mindy Levine, Pamela Gross, John Falconetti, Cheri Summerall, Sergio Gor, Emilia May Fanjul, Patricia Duggan and Dana Blumberg.
  • This shows that it's a war between Democrats and Trump's Republicans.  

Current Attorney General Pam Bondi was a member of the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees and a member of the Audit Committee also during Rutter's tenure.

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Monday, December 1, 2025

Spiderman, Step Back and Introduce J-Rod, the Insectman, According To Area 51

 Nadene Goldfoot                                               



I'm watching a video on Area 51.  They are holding Insectman, who is not an alien from Mars or anywhere else but Earth.  The surprise is that he was from humans of the future.

There was supposed to be a terrible even that happened in the future, wiping out most of the people.  They went underground to live, and divide into two groups, one being from our Insectman.  

Heaven help us!  I hate to think of my descendants looking like that! 


 Area 51 is a highly classified U.S. Air Force facility in Nevada used for experimental aircraft testing and weapons development, not extraterrestrial activity. Its strict security, including no-fly zones and surveillance, fuels conspiracy theories, but the base's confirmed purpose is a flight testing site for Special Access Programs.  
According to some, the extraterrestrial worked at Area 51 for some years. Alien Autopsy room, UFO Museum in Roswell. Credit: John Manard,  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0/Wikipedia

Area 51 is a U.S. military base associated with UFO and alien conspiracies, such as claims about reverse-engineering alien technology or contact with an alien named J-Rod. The "insect man from the future" concept is not directly linked to Area 51, but appears in separate, speculative narratives about time travel and the possibility of humans evolving into insect-like forms in the future, sometimes seen in fiction or internet content.                       

Frankly, I liked the story better about the little green alien who lands his

 UAP and gets a flat tire.  He starts wandering around the city looking for something he can use as a replacement, and comes to a Jewish delicatessen. He sees some bagels in the window and goes inside to ask for one.                                     


"Hello," he says. "Can I have one of those flying saucer tires?"

The guy behind the counter has to lean way over the counter to even see the little green man. He looks at where the alien is pointing and says, "That's not a flying saucer tire. That's a bagel!"

"A bagel? What's a bagel?"

"It's food. You eat it," the guy says and holds one out to the little green man. "Here, try one."

The little green man takes it, takes a bite, chews for a while and then says, "Huh! You know, this would be really good with some cream cheese and lox!"

Such ideas as Insectman could have come from Native American lore. 

The Hopi, Lakota, and other Native American tribes have legends of people living underground, often protected by "Ant People" during periods of cataclysm like those caused by fire or ice. These stories describe humans taking refuge in subterranean dwellings, either guided by benevolent spirits or seeking shelter in the earth until the surface world was safe again. These tales are sometimes linked to the actual archaeological evidence of ancient peoples dwelling in caves and cliffside homes, like those of the Anasazi, according to vocal.media. 

One of the most intriguing Hopi legends involves the Ant People, who were crucial to the survival of the Hopi—not just once but twice. The so-called “First World” (or world-age) was apparently destroyed by fire—possibly some sort of volcanism, asteroid strike, or coronal mass ejection from the sun. The Second World was destroyed by ice—Ice Age glaciers or a pole shift. During these two global cataclysms, the virtuous members of the Hopi tribe were guided by an odd-shaped cloud during the day and a moving star at night that led them to the sky god named Sotuknang, who finally took them to the Ant People—in Hopi, Anu Sinom. The Ant People then escorted the Hopi into subterranean caves where they found refuge and sustenance.  

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Venezuela And America's Drug Problem

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                 

Caracus, Venezuela, the capital. :  The population of the Caracas metropolitan area is approximately 3 million to 5 million people, depending on the source and how "Caracas" is defined. The city proper's population is lower, with estimates around 1.9 million to 2.9 million people. For 2025, the metro area population is estimated to be around 3.015 million.   

The US is already fighting a war against Venezuela — in the form of drug traffickers and narco-terrorists, whose poisons kill more Americans in a year than died in Vietnam, Sen. Dave McCormick warned on Sunday. McCormick (R-Pa.) underscored the thousands of American deaths from drug traffickers while defending President Trump’s declaration Saturday that Venezuela airspace is closed — as ramped up pressure om the regime.  “We have a war that’s coming through fentanyl, through opioids, through cocaine. It killed 100,000 Americans last year. That’s twice the number of people that died in eight years of Vietnam — 4,000 Pennsylvanians,” he told “Fox News Sunday.”

The US began deploying Navy warships and personnel to the Caribbean in mid-August. Donald Trump announced on 2 September 2025 that the US Navy had carried out the first airstrike in the Caribbean on a boat from Venezuela, killing all 11 people on the vessel; he released a video of the incident, which Venezuelan sources said had occurred on 1 September. The next day, Pete Hegseth, the US secretary of defense, said military operations against drug cartels in Venezuela would continue and Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, suggested that similar strikes could follow. As of 16 November 2025, at least 83 people have been killed in 21 strikes on 22 vessels. (The US military has killed 83 people in strikes that have destroyed 22 boats as part of a campaign that Washington says is aimed at curtailing the flow of drugs into the United States. There had been three survivors of those strikes, two of whom were briefly detained by the US Navy before being returned to their home countries. The other is presumed dead after a search by the Mexican Navy.)

  Yes, Venezuelans are being deported from the U.S. due to the expiration of Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and the U.S. government has resumed direct repatriation flights for those lacking a legal basis to remain. Following the Supreme Court's ruling in October 2025, many Venezuelans lost their protections, putting them at risk of deportation unless they can secure a different legal status. Loss of TPS: The ending of the most recent TPS designation for Venezuelans is putting hundreds of thousands at risk of losing their legal status and facing deportation. Direct repatriations: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has resumed direct flights to Venezuela to deport individuals who are in the country without legal status.

We have been shooting at boats that may have drugs in them.  The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has declared recent reporting that he may have illegally ordered all people to be killed in a military strike in the Caribbean as “fake news” on Friday evening, adding that the series of strikes of people on boats had been “lawful under both US and international law”.

Hegseth lambasted reports about his role in the strike as “fabricated, inflammatory and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland”.

The remarks came after a Washington Post report this week alleged that Hegseth ordered defense officials to “kill everybody” traveling on a boat that was being surveilled by analysts on 2 September, the first strike of many carried out in recent months by the Trump administration. The White House said – without proof – that the people in the boats in the Caribbean, killed in Pentagon operations, were drug smugglers.

Who are the people of Venezuela that are our enemy?  Venezuela's population is predominantly of mixed European, Indigenous, and African descent, with the mestizo population making up the largest group. Religious demographics are dominated by Roman Catholicism (71%), followed by Protestantism (17%), with a notable percentage of the population identifying as irreligious. Irreligious: About 8% of the population is irreligious.  Other Religions: Other faiths, such as Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism, account for the remaining 3%.Today, there are an estimated under 6,000 Jews living in Venezuela, a significant decrease from a peak of 25,000 in the 1990s. Many have emigrated due to the country's ongoing socioeconomic and humanitarian crisis. The remaining community is predominantly concentrated in Caracas.  Santería accounts for 1% ( an Afro-Caribbean religion that blends Yoruba beliefs with Roman Catholicism).

House and Senate committees launch inquiries into 2nd strike on alleged drug boat.  We usually don't aim and kill people in the water struggling for their life.  The USA does not do things like that.  

Why were any Jews  living in Venezuela?  The Sephardim Jews were the first, arriving about 1850.  They came from the West Indian areas.  Sephardic Jews moved to Venezuela around 1850 primarily to escape antisemitism and find economic opportunities, drawn by the new country's relative stability and religious freedom after its independence from Spain. They were also part of a larger migration from the Dutch Caribbean, particularly Curaçao, and some came from Morocco seeking to establish a life away from difficult conditions in their homelands. Religious freedom: The new Venezuelan constitution of 1819 called for religious freedom, which was a major draw for Jews seeking to practice their faith openly without fear of persecution, especially since the Inquisition had been abolished in the former Spanish colonies.  Migration from Curaçao: A significant wave of migration came from Curaçao, a neighboring Dutch colony with a well-established Sephardic community. Some Jews had strong ties to Venezuela from the wars of independence, where they had provided support to Simón Bolívar and his army.  Seeking refuge: The move was also a response to challenges in their home countries, such as antisemitic riots in Coro, Venezuela, which pushed some Jews to seek refuge in Curaçao and then later consider other options like returning to Venezuela once conditions improved. Some Jews from Morocco also arrived around this time seeking better opportunities.

Yes! There had been anti-Semitic outbreaks at Coro in 1855 and again in 1902. Coro is the capital of the Falcón state in northwestern Venezuela, founded in 1527. It is a historic city, the first capital of Venezuela, and a UNESCO World Heritage site known for its unique mix of Spanish, Dutch, and local architectural styles and its status as one of South America's oldest and best-preserved colonial towns. The city is also known as "La Ciudad de los Vientos" (The City of Winds) and has a rich cultural tradition.   

By the 20th century, eastern European and German Jews entered the country until barred after WWII.  That means they had been on the Axis side of the war, evidently.  

Jews played a leading role in developing the country's trade and in modernizing the capital of Caracas. 

Some 90% of Jewish youth attend Jewish schools. The reason why could be of a more concerned Jewish education was needed, or from anti- semitism, and maybe both.    

Resource:

https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/dhs-continues-direct-repatriations-venezuelan-nationals

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/house-senate-launch-inquiries-reported-second-strike-alleged-drug-boat-rcna246496

https://www.hadassah.org/story/the-jewish-community-of-venezuela

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Venezuela#:~:text=Since%20Hugo%20Ch%C3%A1vez%20took%20power,host%20a%20modest%20Jewish%20population.

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

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Sunday, November 30, 2025

What ! The Leading Country Of The World, Becomes 250 Years Old in 2026?

 Nadene Goldfoot

     We look forward to our 250th birthday party; next year of 2026!  

It's hard to believe but we are such a young country, yet we have been leaders ever since WWI in 1914.  It's as country made up of a few native born, but most have been unhappy refugees of another country looking for something to satisfy their soul.  


Thomas Jefferson wrote the famous line, "all men are created equal," in the preamble to the United States Declaration of Independence. The phrase expresses the ideal that all people are endowed with equal rights, though the historical context of Jefferson and the other founders who owned slaves is a subject of ongoing debate and contradiction.  

Jews hadn't been thought of as equal either, even having a hard time landing a boat of 23 on New Amsterdam (New York) soil. Anyone not white or of a differing religion such as Jews, were not acceptable in thosedays as first class citizens.  

  • In the Declaration of Independence: The complete sentence is, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness".                               

         When Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address during the Civil War in November 1863, 87 years after our birth, several months after the Union Army defeated Confederate forces at the Battle of Gettysburg, he took Jefferson’s language and transformed it into constitutional poetry. “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,” 
  • Lincoln declared. Blacks were freed but many had little idea of how to conduct their life of freedom.  There was no direction given. Black citizens have never been fully equal with white citizens in the U.S., but legal equality was established with the ratification of the 14th Amendment in 1868 and the 15th Amendment in 1870, which granted citizenship and voting rights, respectively. However, it took the civil rights movement and the passage of laws like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to dismantle the systemic discrimination that prevented true equality.Today, I would say that the main division is education and spoken English.  
  • When were our native Americans treated as equals and given their freedom?  They were people first born on this soil.  We whites invaded their land and took it away from them. They were a people unified at the tribal level, with some going beyond that point.  Native American groups were unified in larger units beyond tribes, most notably the Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee) and Tecumseh's Confederacy. The Iroquois Confederacy was a powerful alliance of six nations (Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora), while Tecumseh's Confederacy was an alliance of various tribes that aimed to resist US expansion.                                

  • A very ancient people, Before European invasion, North America had a rich and diverse history of Indigenous peoples with complex societies, with some estimates placing the population at over 10 million in what is now the United States and 50 million in total. By the time of Columbus's arrival in 1492, many distinct cultures had flourished, from the Paleoindian period (c. 13,000–10,000 BCE) to the development of major civilizations like the Zapotec (c. 6th century BCE – 1563 CE) and agricultural societies in various regions. This timeline outlines major milestones leading up to and following the arrival of European colonizers. 

    • Wikipedia
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