Spanberger hunts for votes in MAGA-rich pockets of Virginia and more state headlines
The state Capitol. (Photo by Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury)
• 'A Virginia Democrat hunts for votes in rural pockets where MAGA has strengthened its grip.' — Associated Press
• 'Shannon Taylor touts her experience in run for Virginia attorney general.' — VPM News
• 'How much revenue do tolls bring in to Northern Virginia?' — WUSA9
• 'Small child diagnosed with measles confirmed as Virginia's third case in 2025.' — WRIC
• 'Local judge indicted on charge of bribery of a Spotsylvania County public official.' — Fredericksburg Free Press
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18 minutes ago
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The Real Message Behind Les Misérables
The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. On February 7, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts suffered a presidential coup. Donald Trump filled its board of trustees with loyalists and declared himself its 'amazing Chairman.' On June 11, he is set to celebrate the dawn of what he has called a 'Golden Age in Arts and Culture' by attending a Kennedy Center performance of one of his favorite musicals, the globally popular adaptation of Victor Hugo's epic novel Les Misérables. Several cast members plan to boycott the opening. Perhaps they find it strange or even disconcerting that Trump is a big fan of Les Mis. Having declared of his Kennedy Center, 'It's not going to be woke,' why would he enjoy a tale in which the official victimization of society's underdogs is contrasted with the civilizing power of love, charity, and forgiveness? The term misérables can translate roughly to 'the wretched,' 'the dirt poor,' or even 'the scum of the Earth.' The frequent Trump epithet losers would be a suitably pejorative modern equivalent. This despised underclass is pitted against a punitive regime that honors bullies, sycophants, and plutocrats. They are not the sort of people who might expect compassion and understanding from the current administration. I find the gaudy, mass-market musical's appeal to Trump ironic but not surprising. Since it premiered on London's West End in 1985, the show, with its rousing anthems and its tear-jerking tale of victory over oppression, has thrilled more than 100 million people. We know that Trump has a weakness for bombastic 1980s musicals, and Les Mis is certainly that. Having spent four years writing a biography of Hugo, I can't help but find it a sweetened, antiseptic version of his weird, digressive underworld of moral and literal sewers. The original book would surely bamboozle and exasperate Trump if he ever undertook the journey through its 1,500 pages. [Read: America now has a minister of culture] The author himself wouldn't seem to hold much appeal for the leader of the MAGA movement. The president mentioned Hugo in 2018 at a White House dinner for Emmanuel Macron and the French delegation: 'This is the divine flame, which Victor Hugo wrote that 'evil can never wholly extinguish,' and which 'good can make to glow with splendor.'' Trump was referring to the shared military glories of France and the United States from the American Revolution through the Second World War. In fact, the words were taken from a description of the central character of Les Misérables, destitute following his conviction for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister's starving children. The narrator wonders whether Jean Valjean's soul has been destroyed, or whether an immortal 'spark' (not 'flame') has survived his dehumanization by a vindictive justice system. When Les Misérables was published in 1862, Hugo was an outcast. The founder of two distinct periods of Romanticism, he was the world's most famous living writer and an international symbol of freedom and democracy. By then, at the age of 60, he had spent 10 years in exile after opposing the coup d'état led by Napoleon Bonaparte's nephew, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, the self-crowned emperor of France who reigned as Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870. Hugo, as a refugee in the Channel Islands, was an embarrassment to the British government. The intelligence services of France and the United Kingdom considered him a socialist menace. Spies reported his dealings with suspected immigrant terrorists. His diatribe against 'Napoléon le Petit' was smuggled across the English Channel in walking sticks, sardine tins, and women's underwear. Miniature copies were concealed in souvenir plaster busts of Napoleon III. The exiled poet was criticized for his arrogant attempts to influence British and American foreign policy. He was mocked for his poor English and his wild appearance, as he recalled in his notebooks: 'To the English, I am shoking, excentric and improper'; 'I oppose the death penalty, which is not respectable'; 'I am an exile, which is repellent, and on the losing side, which is infamous.' I would venture to say that Hugo would not be made welcome in the Oval Office today: 'I look like a workman,' he wrote, and 'I fail to wear my tie in the correct fashion.' Les Misérables is one of the last universally read masterpieces in Western literature. In its own day, it was as popular as its musical adaptation would be in the next century. In France, it was bought even by people who had never learned to read. It was devoured by soldiers in the trenches of the American Civil War. Like all great works of art, it has a mind and momentum of its own. [Read: The fame of Victor Hugo] This ostensibly simple tale contains labyrinthine complexities and contradictions. Hugo had been a monarchist in his youth and then became a moderate liberal. At the time of the 1832 revolt, which takes up almost one-fifth of Les Misérables, he was a property-owning family man firmly opposed to violent protest. 'We should not allow barbarians to bespatter our flag with red,' he wrote in his diary. The barricade at the heart of the novel and the musical is actually a scene from the savagely repressed uprising of June 1848. Hugo had just been elected to the National Assembly as a right-wing moderate. When the rioting broke out, he fought with the forces of law and order against the insurgents, whom he considered innocent but misguided. These were the starving unemployed of the Paris slums, the malodorous and degraded masses that polite society called 'les misérables.' He took prisoners and was directly responsible for deaths and deportations. Tormented over his culpability, he had a crise de conscience and joined the socialist opposition to the dictatorship of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte. Hugo became the mascot and inspiration of liberation movements in Greece and Italy and throughout Central and South America, so it is fitting that the musical's opening and concluding song, 'Do You Hear the People Sing?' has been chanted in this century by antigovernment protesters in China, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Belarus. Less obviously appropriate is the adoption of Les Mis by Trump and the MAGA movement. No artistic genre is the exclusive property of one faction. As the Trump administration demonstrates, forms of moral discourse evolved by left-wing thinkers can serve the purposes of right-wing ideologues. The novel and the musical both have roots in popular 19th-century entertainment—vaudevilles, comic operas, and newspaper serials. Both were sneered at by middle-class reviewers and adored by the public. The MAGA reading of Les Misérables is just the latest example of its populist appeal. It also typifies the volatile nature of political buzzwords. [Read: Trump's Kennedy Center debut: 'Les Mis' and six-figure checks] Misérables was an insult that French insurgents picked up and brandished as a banner. By the same process, after Hillary Clinton called Trump's supporters 'deplorables' during the 2016 election campaign, her dismissive term inspired the digital backdrop of a Trump rally in Miami: Under the words les deplorables, a doctored image from the musical showed a crowd storming a barricade, waving the French Tricolor and the Stars and Stripes. That evening, the crowd sang a MAGA version of 'Do You Hear the People Sing?' In 2025, the U.S. Army Chorus sang this appropriated anthem of popular revolt at the White House Governors Ball. Hugo would likely have been repelled and fascinated by Trump's demagoguery, his rambling mendacity, his grammatically illogical but easy-to-follow oratory. The writer might have been reminded of Napoleon III, who hovers in the background of the novel as a sinister, clownish figure. Two significant differences are that Napoleon III had a long-standing interest in justice, and that he was never envious of Hugo's fame. After granting him and his fellow outcasts amnesty in 1859, Napoleon III lamented the great man's decision to remain in exile. In 1862, he allowed Les Misérables to be advertised and sold in France, leading his government to review its penal and industrial legislation and to concern itself with the exploitation of women and orphans, as well as the education of the poor. Trump's attacks on universities, the arts, and free expression increase the likelihood that any future American equivalent of Les Misérables will also have to be written in exile. But none of this knotty history need spoil Chairman Trump's triumph when he sits in the royal box at the Kennedy Center and hears the people sing for his pleasure. Article originally published at The Atlantic
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Laura Loomer faces internet backlash after ‘body shaming' AOC during NYC's Puerto Rico day
The Internet has come out in full force against far-right activist Laura Loomer after she 'body shamed' New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — with Internet sleuths digging up a photo of the Trump ally in a similar-looking outfit. 'Yikes AOC has gained at least 50 pounds since getting into Congress,' Loomer wrote on X while sharing a clip of Ocasio-Cortez wearing a red dress as she spoke at New York City's Puerto Rican Day Parade on Sunday. 'She's getting massive,' Loomer added before tagging the congresswoman. However, social media users did not take kindly to Loomer's bizarre criticism. Her post drew in over 13,000 largely negative comments by Monday morning. 'Body shaming isn't the way,' one person commented under the post. Another chimed in: 'I am no Democrat but you attacking another woman's look is very disgusting.' Countless Internet users took the attack on AOC as a moment to dunk on Loomer's appearance. 'If I looked in the mirror and saw what you see staring back at me, I would never speak about another person's appearance,' one person wrote. 'You look like you're wearing a purge mask, no offense,' another chimed in. 'You are the last person who should comment on someone's appearance, Looner. You're a walking plastic surgery nightmare,' a commenter added. 'She could gain another 100 and still be more attractive than you,' another person wrote. Some users even dug up photos of Loomer donning a similar red tank top dress – which they claim looked even worse on the MAGA activist. 'Here's you in an almost identical dress. What's with the belly? Pregnant?' one person wrote. 'Haha good one, is this you?' another person wrote alongside the same photo of Loomer. Other took pity on Loomer's apparent cry for help, with one commentator writing,' You are not being a very nice person. Have you considered going to therapy? @betterhelp can help.'
Yahoo
an hour ago
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‘Bring in the troops!': Trump raises the stakes as ICE tactics spark protests in L.A.
For those concerned about Donald Trump and his authoritarian-style agenda, the last few days have been, at a minimum, unsettling. On the East Coast, for example, military vehicles, including tanks, are getting into position to roll down the streets of the nation's capital, for a June 14 military parade to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army — which also happens to coincide with Donald Trump's birthday. And then, of course, there's the West Coast. As The Associated Press summarized: Tensions in Los Angeles escalated Sunday as thousands of protesters took to the streets in response to President Donald Trump's extraordinary deployment of the National Guard, blocking off a major freeway and setting self-driving cars on fire as law enforcement used tear gas, rubber bullets and flash bangs to control the crowd. In recent months, federal officials, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, have engaged in overly aggressive and legally dubious tactics while executing the White House's deportation agenda, sparking a predictable public backlash. As NBC News reported, it was against this backdrop that ICE officers on Friday carried out raids in three locations across the city, where dozens of people were taken into custody. California Gov. Gavin Newsom condemned the raids, calling them 'chaotic federal sweeps' that aimed to fill an 'arbitrary arrest quota,' and protests soon followed. It was the next day when Trump announced that he was calling up 2,000 National Guard troops to quell the protests, ignoring the objections of the state's Democratic governor. As The New York Times reported, 'Governors almost always control the deployment of National Guard troops in their states,' and this marked 'the first time since 1965 that a president has activated a state's National Guard force without a request from that state's governor.' (Sixty years ago, it was Lyndon B. Johnson who sent troops to Alabama to protect civil rights demonstrators.) Last year, while serving as South Dakota's Republican governor, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that if Joe Biden tried to federalize National Guard troops, it would constitute a 'direct attack on states' rights' and spark a 'war' between Washington and GOP-led state governments. Over the weekend, however, Noem took the opposite position. Around the same time, by way of his social media platform, Trump proceeded to celebrate the 'great job' National Guard troops did in Los Angeles before the troops actually arrived, which was bizarre but consistent with the incumbent president's general approach to reality. For his part, Newsom — whom Trump keeps describing as 'Newscum' because the president has the temperament of an ill-tempered tween — accused Trump of 'inciting and provoking violence,' 'creating mass chaos,' and 'militarizing cities.' The California Democrat added, 'These are the acts of a dictator, not a president.' After Tom Homan, the administration's 'border czar,' raised the prospect of arresting state and local elected officials, Newsom effectively dared Homan to try. There's no reason to believe that conditions will improve quickly. The governor has formally asked Trump to pull Guard troops, an appeal that will likely be ignored. In the meantime, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has suggested he's prepared to deploy U.S. Marines onto American streets — a point that was echoed by U.S. Northern Command. Asked whether Americans might soon see active-duty Marines on the streets of Los Angeles, House Speaker Mike Johnson told ABC News that he doesn't believe such a step would be 'heavy-handed.' Soon after, the president told reporters that he's meeting with U.S. military leaders, and after publishing a statement about Los Angeles having been 'invaded and occupied,' there was renewed speculation about whether the Republican might be preparing to invoke the Insurrection Act. Indeed, Trump also wrote that he was directing Noem, Hegseth and Attorney General Pam Bondi, 'to take all such action necessary to liberate Los Angeles from the Migrant Invasion.' Shortly after midnight, on Monday morning, Trump also wrote online, 'Looking really bad in L.A. BRING IN THE TROOPS!!!' He similarly told reporters that he expects to have U.S. troops 'everywhere.' In his latest New York Times column, David French concluded, 'It's too early to declare a constitutional crisis, and in any case, debating the label we attach to any new event can distract us from focusing fully on the event itself. But each new day brings us fresh evidence of a deeply troubling trend: America is no longer a stable country, and it is growing less stable by the day.' A few weeks before Election Day 2024, as he referred to Americans he disagreed with as 'scum,' then-candidate Trump talked about the possible deployment of the National Guard or the U.S. military on American soil to be used against those he labeled 'the enemy from within.' At the time, it led many to wonder whether Trump, if returned to power, might be willing to use — or in this case, abuse — military resources to stifle dissent. Republicans characterized such concerns as hysterical and paranoid. Eight months later, those fears are suddenly relevant anew. This is a developing story. Check back for updates. This article was originally published on
