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Before I started writing at PJ Media, I spent about 15 years as an architectural designer. I never really loved the work, mostly because I never worked at a firm that tackled the kind of big, ambitious projects that really excited me. But even if I had, there's one project I would've hated regardless: the Obama Presidential Center. And trust me, it’s not just because it's Obama's vanity project. The building is hideous. The Obama Presidential Center is a 225-foot-tall gray monstrosity rising on Chicago's South Side, and it looks more like a prison than a museum. The project has...

The odd design of former President Barack Obama’s new presidential center is supposed to evoke unity and not Darth Vader, according to an Obama Foundation official, who explained the bizarre look of the austere building. The $830 million monolith — slated to open in Chicago next year — has drawn comparisons to the “Death Star” on social media, and some locals have described it as a “concrete tomb” and a “monstrosity.” “The shape of the building was actually meant to mimic four hands coming together to show the importance of our collective action,” Obama Foundation Deputy Director Kim Patterson told...

Finally, we are seeing some pushback. In North Carolina, a public library board was disbanded for pushing transsexual indoctrination on little kids. The Blaze reports: The controversy involved the “Call Me Max” book that tells the story of a girl asking teachers to refer to her by her chosen identity rather than the biological reality. The board in Randolph County had reviewed the book and found that it fit within the county’s guidelines in October. No one who attempts to undermine the sanity of impressionable children so as to groom them for a twisted realm of sexual depravity should be...

One week after the Sioux Center Library board voted 8-1 to continue offering a sexually explicit book called “Icebreaker” to any patron with a library card, it has been discovered that the library also stocks a book called “Identical” in the 12-year-old section of the library.Bookshelves The book graphically details multiple incidents in which a 9-year-old girl is sexually abused by her father, including one incident while her identical twin sister watches. In addition, the book contains violence, including self-harm and suicidal ideations, profanity and derogatory terms and drug and alcohol abuse. The abuse of the daughter, Kaeleigh, started when...

In Berlin’s Charlottenburg district, there is an unusual library. The Library of Conservatism (Bibliothek des Konservatismus or BdK) was founded in 2012, based on Caspar von Schrenck-Notzing’s extensive private collection of right-wing and libertarian non-fiction books. Today, it has a catalogue of roughly 35,000 titles from German and European writers—including early prints from authors such as Roger Scruton, Edmund Burke, Ernst Jünger, and Carl Schmitt. Soon, though, none of these titles will be accessible to many German academics and researchers. Without any explanation, the BdK is being thrown out of the Gemeinsamer Bibliotheksverbund (GBV), one of the largest library networks...

A 48-year-old Davenport woman faces a felony theft charge for library materials overdue for 13 years, according to Scott County Court documents. Stacey Diehn faces a charge of second-degree theft, a Class D felony, court records show. According to a Scott County arrest affidavit, Diehn and a relative checked out library materials from the Davenport Public Library, 3000 Fairmount St., on April 3, 2012, and also on other dates, with April 19, 2012, as the last date of activity.

A dramatic bid to block Donald Trump's presidential library from being built in Miami is being masterminded by an 85-year-old retired professor who has repeatedly compared the Republican to Adolf Hitler. Dr. Marvin Dunn, 85, who has claimed Trump's use of the state to target political enemies is 'no different' from the German dictator, launched the legal case that is threatening to upend ambitious plans for the commander in chief's legacy. It makes Trump the latest president to face problems over his library, which is expected to house a massive archive of two terms of records and artifacts, including a...

Chicago taxpayers could be on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars for the costly Obama Presidential Center after new tax filings show the Obama Foundation has only deposited $1 million into its promised $470 million reserve fund. That’s the conclusion of an in-depth report by Fox News as it looked at what it described as a “sweetheart deal” to create the reserve fund “to spare taxpayers should the project ever go belly up.” **SNIP** He said that “the city never should have signed over the large section” of the park. “They put a million dollars into a $400...

Yes, we trash can. President Barack Obama’s austere new presidential library is getting roasted with comparisons to the Death Star, garbage bins and other domineering monoliths in a hilarious social media thread sparked by Sen. Ted Cruz. “Locating the Death Star in Chicago was a bold move,” Cruz (R-Texas) wrote on X Tuesday while reposting a video of the latest work on Obama’s Chicago presidential center. The facility, a slab of concrete and granite rising 225 feet above Chicago’s Jackson Park, has faced ridicule from critics since its design was first unveiled nearly 10 years ago — and the peanut...

The tale of two buildings in Chicago says more about American politics than anything. The building above was built by a developer with his own money raised from banks who trusted him after decades of doing business with him. Please note the beauty and light from the 92-story skyscraper. It stands 1,388 feet tall. It cost $847 million when completed 16 years ago. The other building is Obama’s presidential library, which is under construction and stands 225 feet tall. The original estimate was $300 million for construction. The estimate this month is $850 million. It is paid through the Obama...

The Obama library is a massive money laundering operation designed to funnel tax free funds to the worst terrorist elements here and abroad. Tides has also handled donations for Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, which sued the group in California Superior Court last year. It alleged “egregious mismanagement” of more than $33 million in their funds, according to court documents. That lawsuit is ongoing. And what a money laundering operation it is. Obama’s ‘presidential’ library is almost a billion over budget and three years late. It has been in the works for eight years and only half done. Originally,...

When the Obama Foundation snagged a sweetheart deal to build its beleaguered Obama Presidential Center on a Chicago public park, it pledged to create a $470 million reserve fund to spare taxpayers should the project ever go belly up. But new tax filings show the foundation has only deposited $1 million into the fund and has not added to it in years, with critics saying the empty promise could potentially leave Chicagoans on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars. Under its agreement with the city, the foundation was required to create the fund, known as an endowment, in...

Millions of dollars sent to Barack Obama’s foundation has ended up being donated to a progressive fund that supported anti-Israel groups, accused of setting up encampments at Ivy League universities, according to public documents. Donations to the Obama Foundation, set up by the former president to build a 19-acre campus including a museum, athletic facility and fruit and vegetable gardens in Chicago, totaling $2 million were instead sent on to Tides Foundation in 2022 and 2023, according to its latest available federal tax filings. The cash was earmarked to “support local organizations that are working to reduce violence in communities,”...

The Obama library — which isn't a library — has ballooned to a construction cost of more than $615 million, up from the original estimate of $300 million when the edifice was proposed in 2019. As 2024, the estimate had soared to $615 million, with the cost adding up to a whopping $615,674,047. But according to the Chicago Tribune, other estimates have already placed construction costs past the $700 million mark. Along with these massive cost overruns, the Barack Obama Presidential Center has had a very troubled history already, and it hasn’t even been completed yet. Originally, the Obama Center...

This is the wrong kind of book cracking. Two rotten Florida boys allegedly caused over $50,000 in damages to their school library — and were turned in to police by their own moms, according to officials. The alleged bad seeds were identified as 12-year-old Felix Cohen Romero and 13-year-old Bentley Ryan Wehrly, who confessed to the outrageous vandalism of the Friendship Elementary library in Deltona, according to a Facebook post from the Volusia Sheriff’s Office. Chaotic bodycam footage posted to Facebook Sunday showed officers responding to a fire alarm at 1 a.m. — guns drawn as they stumbled through a...

Most presidents, when they leave office, ultimately have a presidential library. It's a place to document their time in office with personal papers, records, artifacts, and often video footage and other exhibits. Currently, we are watching the presidential library of Barack Obama being built in Chicago. It doesn't seem to be going as planned, and so far, it does not look like it will be the most attractive building ever. While the Obama library is under construction, discussion is now underway about Joe Biden's presidential library. That may not be going as planned either. Presidential libraries cost money, a lot...

Former President Joe Biden has chosen his home state of Delaware to build his presidential library — but his new board has opted against setting a budget as the former prez hunts for people willing to donate to the project. The Joe and Jill Biden Foundation tapped a 13-member board of close confidants and former officials, including former Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and longtime adviser Steve Ricchetti, to oversee the project and raise funds to preserve the 82-year-old Democrat’s four years as president. But Biden’s decision comes as construction of former President Barack Obama’s $850 million library and museum...

Former President Joe Biden has decided to build his presidential library in his home state of Delaware, and is set to start a fundraising push to fund the effort soon, according to a senior member of the Joe and Jill Biden Foundation. The effort is expected to be a heavy lift, as presidential libraries carry hefty price tags totaling into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Biden will start fundraising later than his predecessors and the donor requests come as Democrats continue to grapple with their path forward and where to invest money. The library will be a key part...

PENDLETON — An eastern Oregon educator is suing his employer, alleging an order to remove anti-trans children’s books from his desk violated his constitutional rights. Education specialist Rod Theis filed the federal lawsuit in May against the InterMountain Education Service District. He claims the district ordered him to remove two children’s books — “He is He” and “She is She” — from his desk. Theis asserts the two books explain that every child should love and accept themselves as God intended. Theis alleges the district violated his rights to free speech under the First Amendment and equal protection under the...

Don’t be disappointed if you’re anxious to attend the Biden Presidential Library’s opening. It almost certainly will never exist. D.C. swampsters are trying to bury the record, hoping the public forgets how bad things were. Its subject will soon be either in the ground or too incapacitated to solicit funding. Biden staffers retaining criminal defense counsel have no interest in a library containing evidence for prosecutors to mine. No reporters from press outlets complicit in enabling chaos are hounding Biden. DOGE revelations testify to his administration's wholesale graft. FBI servers were purged of controversial data, unburdening what had been.There theoretically...