LIBERALS ARE EVIL, ACCORDING TO THESE RULES WE JUST MADE UP

Hi -- I had some weather-related travel interruptions, but I'm back. Thank you, Yas, for great work while I was away.

In my absence, I see that the right found a couple more reasons why liberals are evil: they violate rules and norms the right made up.

One evil liberal is Chuck Redd:

The Kennedy Center says it plans to file a $1 million lawsuit against jazz artist Chuck Redd, after the musician canceled his annual Christmas Eve performance. The Associated Press first reported that Redd pulled out of the show days after President Trump's name was added to the exterior of the performing arts center in Washington, D.C.

Redd violated a rule of the performing arts that a government spokesperson appears to have invented:

In an email to NPR on Saturday, Kennedy Center spokesperson Roma Daravi said Redd's decision is a disservice to the arts.

"Any artist cancelling their show at the Trump Kennedy Center over political differences isn't courageous or principled—they are selfish, intolerant, and have failed to meet the basic duty of a public artist: to perform for all people," she said.

Did you know that it's "the basic duty of a public artist ... to perform for all people"? I didn't -- and if it is, then the Beatles, who had a rider in their performing contract stating that they must "not be required to perform in front of a segregated audience," and who threatened to cancel a 1964 show in Jacksonville, Florida, if the audience was segregated, violated the rule. So did Frank Sinatra, who championed civil rights for many years and refused to sing for segregated audiences -- yes, Stephen Miller's hero.

Watched the Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra Family Christmas with my kids.

Imagine watching that and thinking America needed infinity migrants from the third world.

— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) December 26, 2025

(Sinatra and Martin were, of course, the children of immigrants from Italy, a country many Americans believed was not sending its best during the wave of Italian immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.)

I'd also point out that while Kid Rock didn't really say that he's refusing to perform in New York City in the aftermath of Zohran Mamdani's election as mayor, there's been no backlash to the rumor -- no one on the right appears to believe that he has a "basic duty ... to perform for all people."

The president of the Kennedy Center, Richard Grenell, invented another accusation against Redd:

In a post on X on Friday, Grenell wrote: "The left is boycotting the Arts because Trump is supporting the Arts. But we will not let them cancel shows without consequences. The Arts are for everyone - and the Left is mad about it."

Does Redd want to deny art to conservatives? No.

According to a Kennedy Center online biography, Redd has been involved with The Smithsonian for more than two decades, serving as artist-in residence at The Smithsonian Jazz Café from 2004-2008. The Kennedy Center is part of the Smithsonian Institution.

That means he maintained ties to the Smithsonian during George W. Bush's presidency and Trump's first term.

We also have Elon Musk making up a rule about New York mayoral appointees:

Tech billionaire Elon Musk on Friday slammed New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani (D) for appointing a non-firefighter to lead the city’s fire department.

“People will die because of this. Proven experience matters when lives are at stake,” the former White House adviser wrote in a post on the social platform X, which he controls.

Mamdani's appointee is Lillian Bonsignore, who seems to have a lot of relevant experience:

The mayor-elect defended the appointment:

Experience does matter, which is why I appointed the person who spent more than 30 years at EMS. You know, the workforce that addresses at least 70% of all calls coming into FDNY? https://t.co/shTYVvvy4C

— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) December 27, 2025

I haven't verified this, but Musk's own AI platform says that 22 New York City fire commissioners had no firefighting experience:

The outgoing mayor, Eric Adams, has appointed two fire commissioners who were never firefighters, apparently without offending Musk's sense of propriety. Laura Kavanaugh, who held the job from 2022 to 2024, had experience in emergency response but hadn't fought fires:

Prior to her appointment as Fire Commissioner, Kavanagh spent several years with the FDNY, involved in the agency's response to major incidents including the Ebola outbreak of 2014 and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.... Kavanagh's tenure as commissioner was met with opposition by rank-and-file members of the FDNY based on her relatively young age, lack of any experience as a first responder and allegations of her department's demoting older and more experienced fire chiefs.

A subsequent appointee, Robert Tucker, who served for more than a year in 2024 and 2025, had no relevant experience whatsoever, but appeared to appeal to Adams for ... um, other reasons:

Following law school, Tucker worked as special assistant to the District Attorney in Queens County....

In 1999 Tucker became chairman and CEO of T&M Protection Resources, a company specializing in security, intelligence and investigations....

Tucker was appointed FDNY fire commissioner by New York City Mayor Eric Adams on August 12, 2024. Six weeks before Tucker was appointed FDNY commissioner, eight employees of Tucker’s former business made political contributions to Adams on the same day.... Tucker has never been a firefighter or emergency response official. He is a self-described "fire buff" who cites his time as a young boy chasing fire engines as inspiration for his service.

Tucker very showily resigned as fire commissioner immediately after Mamdani was elected, citing Mamdani's criticism of Israel, and gave his first interview to Bari Weiss's CBS News a couple of weeks later.

I'd also like to remind Musk that the first fire commissioner appointed by Rudy Giuliani, the right's favorite New York mayor, was Howard Safir, who also had no experience as a firefighter -- his career prior to his appointment was all in law enforcement, at the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the U.S. Marshals Service.

So Mamdani violated a made-up rule, which right-wingers will invoke if any fire in New York during his tenure is handled with less 100% skill. And Chuck Redd is facing a lawsuit, which ought to inspire some activism:

If I were a wealthy, commercially successful non-Trump Kennedy Center honoree, I would very publicly offer to pay 100% of Redd's legal fees, all the way up to the Supreme Court, as well as any fines imposed.

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— Steve M. (@stevemnomoremister.bsky.social) December 27, 2025 at 8:41 PM

Past Kennedy Center honorees include Robert De Niro, Barbra Streisand, and Bruce Springsteen. What do you say, folks?