Libraries are cutting back on staff and services after Trump's order to dismantle small agency

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Independent

Sunday 18 May 2025 05:31 BST


Libraries across the United States are cutting back on e-books, audiobooks and loan programs after the Trump administration suspended millions of dollars in federal grants as it tries to dissolve the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Federal judges have issued temporary orders to block the Trump administration from taking any further steps toward gutting the agency. But the unexpected slashing of grants has delivered a significant blow to many libraries, which are reshuffling budgets and looking at different ways to raise money.

Maine has laid off a fifth of its staff and temporarily closed its state library after not receiving the remainder of its annual funding. Libraries in Mississippi have indefinitely stopped offering a popular e-book service, and the South Dakota state library has suspended its interlibrary loan program.

E-book and audiobook programs are especially vulnerable to budget cuts, even though those offerings have exploded in popularity since the COVID-19 pandemic. “I think everyone should know the cost of providing digital sources is too expensive for most libraries," said Cindy Hohl, president of the American Library Association. “It’s a continuous and growing need.” Library officials caught off guard by Trump's cuts. President Donald Trump issued an executive order March 14 to dismantle the IMLS before firing nearly all of its employees.

Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/maine-donald-trump-libraries-united-states-south-dakota-b2753130.html

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The continued dumbing down of America to be replaced with RW loon "information".

[NickB79]

1. I've had a running battle on Facebook with my old school librarian

She's conservative, from our very small town, but she taught my dad, uncles, and me to love reading as kids, and ran both the school and town library before retiring, so we're still friends. She assured me that the cuts wouldn't be THAT bad. I disagreed vehemently, because I remember all the fund raising drives she personally organized to keep our libraries funded.

I just posted this to Facebook to see her reaction.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. Unfortunately

there are many many (probably the majority) who pooh-pooh what they think is nothing more than "hubris" and "hair-on-fire" reactions from those who warned about what was about to happen - basically along the line of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf".

But unfortunately in that parable, one day the wolf DOES appear and gets the sheep, and we have arrived at that day. And people are caught completely off-guard and sit there stunned into silence like deer-in-headlights or may utter a weak "Buh buh buh.. I didn't think it would... ".

And this outcome is just sad. They end up in a complete stupor trying to process it while the damage continues. You see that type of blubbering reaction reflected in the interviews of those impacted that appear in various articles.

I am hoping that eventually they "snap out of it" and seek revenge at the ballot box.

[AZLD4Candidate]

3. In Nazi Germany, many Germans never thought Hitler would be what he became and when he did, it was too late

Am I violating Godwin's Law?

[BumRushDaShow]

4. We are literally living through

how it happens. And back then, they had nowhere near the types and quantity of media that we have today (which makes it worse today because of the constant drumbeat of misinformation coming from everywhere).

Godwin recently "modified" his stance on his "law" via a WaPo Editorial.

Yes, it’s okay to compare Trump to Hitler. Don’t let me stop you.

December 20, 2023

By Mike Godwin

Mike Godwin is an attorney and author in Washington.


My very minor status as an authority on Adolf Hitler comparisons stems from having coined “Godwin’s Law” about three decades ago. I originally framed this “law” as a pseudoscientific postulate: “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.” (That is, its likelihood approaches 100 percent.) I first offered this axiom in 1990 as an observation about the discussions that had expanded like algal blooms in the nascent ecologies of online newsgroups.

But within a handful of years, the law had taken on a life of its own, leaping beyond the internet and reaching into our broader popular culture. I felt vindicated because I had designed Godwin’s Law to be viral — to self-propagate among internet users. I had a theory that an individual could have a positive effect on culture by making a catchy joke about people’s worst tendencies toward rhetorical excess. The next step was to release the joke into the wild, then hope others found it clever or funny enough to be worth repeating.

Years after I’d let Godwin’s Law run free, I learned that an actual political philosopher, Leo Strauss, had made a somewhat similar remark a few years before I was born about debates trending toward Hitler. Strauss (whom I confess I still haven’t read) chose to classify Hitler comparisons as a special instance of a particular logical fallacy: reductio ad Hitlerum. He was right about that, but he also missed how funny such an inappropriate comparison might be. The sitcom writers of “Seinfeld” didn’t miss the goofiness — consider their “Soup Nazi.” Similarly, I loved Mel Brooks’s subversion of Hitler in “The Producers” when I discovered it as a kid in the 1960s.

But when people draw parallels between Donald Trump’s 2024 candidacy and Hitler’s progression from fringe figure to Great Dictator, we aren’t joking. Those of us who hope to preserve our democratic institutions need to underscore the resemblance before we enter the twilight of American democracy. And that’s why Godwin’s Law isn’t violated — or confirmed — by the Biden reelection campaign’s criticism of Trump’s increasingly unsubtle messaging. We had the luxury of deriving humor from Hitler and Nazi comparisons when doing so was almost always hyperbole. It’s not a luxury we can afford anymore.

(snip)

[usaf-vet]

5. All part of the purposeful plan to dumb down the electorate so the will continue to believe what ever bullshit....

..... 45 feed them. The dumber the better is the plan.

[k_buddy762]

6. I have been buying and collecting books

for 40+ years now. Thousands, probably over 10,000 at this point. Someday politics or AI is going to try to re-write world and national history, and REAL BOOKS will hold the truth.