Frederick the Great once remarked of his grandfather that he “mistook vanities for true greatness”. That quotes has come to my mind a lot as Trump continues to blow his political capital on nonsense like sticking his face on passports or renaming the Kennedy Center.
My wife attends dc for an annual conference and one of her colleagues said she felt quite fearful in dc last time with all the armed presence as a Mexican green card holder and didn’t want to go to places in the high traffic areas unlike the Biden years .
I have only been to dc once and loved it. But that just puts a real chill in my spine. I don’t know if she’s being irrational but she’s not like an acab kind of person or anything who hates authority or law enforcement.
The thing is, it’s mostly a cartoon police state right now. The gaggles of National Guard troops appear bored, wandering around in groups, chatting, walking through the farmers’ market or Trader Joe’s. There are loads of other police here—city police, National Park police, the Secret Service (who drive around in ver un-secret marked cars), Georgetown, GW, American U, UDC, the Smithsonian—everyone has their own “force.” In many cases these are supplemented with what I think of as fake police—people wearing “security” company jackets while slumped on a folding chair, scrolling on their phones.
I have seen a few weirdly intense traffic stops in the past year and a half, but mostly I see this, and it seems more dumb and wasteful than scary (of course I, an invisible middle aged white lady, don’t have a good reason to be afraid, but the immigrant tradespeople I know seem to be doing ok).
"fundamentally understands that urban parks are more important than rural recreation"
That's a thousand scoville hot take. My utilitarian ego knows it's true, but my id who utilizes rural recreation a lot had the same visceral culture war emotion as if you'd attacked my race or gender.
If you think it through, protecting the north slope of alaska is really silly from a human perspective. An area the size of Montana has about 12,000 people and very few tourists. Drill baby drill.
It's genuinely astounding to me that anyone would name something after himself. Truth is always stranger than fiction because nobody could write a book with Trump as a protagonist even as satire, because it is too ludicrous.
I can already imagine myself having mixed feelings as a New Yorker in the future when Trump funds the excellent idea of housing at Sunnyside Yards but makes Mamdani and the city name it “Trump Yards” before he gives out the money
Long after this man has gone and perished from the Earth, whatever dying embers there are left in the Republican Party will have to come to grips with the fact that Donald Trump was the hill the party died on. And in the recesses of my sometimes twisted mind I take great pleasure in this.
Just about right. I'm a little less mad about the Kennedy-Trump center but mainly because it was so unpopular that it undermined his ability to do harm elsewhere.
It does, BTW, demonstrate in tiny detail, why Congress has delegated to much power to the President. A president ought not to be able to take over the board of an institution like the Kennedy Center any more than he should the Fed or, pace SCOTUS, the FTC. It is good that Congress should give some institutions a charter to do stuff and a gradually changing board to do it. There is no sensible way in which there is a Trump-ish or Obama-ish way to be a Kennedy Center or a Fed. [The degree of insulation from Executive influence depends, of course, on the possible damage done, so the Fed is an should be an outlier.]
On the National Guard, I'm more positive. These young men and women are very well behaved and probably added to the GDP of the DMV in addition to their marginal contribution to reducing crime. Our protesters ought rather to focus on how much MORE crime would be reduced if Trump just gave the money to DC for the MPD. Like most cities, we really need a lot more policing by real professional police officers.
Barcelona realised they hadn't been involved in any successful wars for centuries but felt a great city needed a triumphal arch so built one just for the hell of it.
The guard is stupid. Lobbying to fix certain public spaces unrelated to their represented areas is low priority for many politicians. Trump is just uniquely so unconcerned with governing, policy, or leading that he finds superficial things that he sees and focuses on those.
It did not. The leadership changed in DC police and they basically started prioritizing enforcement activities and giving officers political support. Previously the DC city council tried to “defund” the police but failed so they instituted a hiring freeze and no political support of cover for enforcement.
Since when has America not done arches? In NYC there's a nice arch in Washington Square Park (didn't you grow up nearby?) and great one in Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, celebrating the Civil War, a military triumph (though not an imperial one). While France has some good arches too, the concept comes from the Roman Empire where several are still standing.
That said, I agree with your larger point: Decent idea, poor execution. The renderings of the Trump arch show a not great design that is too large (which is on brand for Trump) and too plain (which is just odd).
Frederick the Great once remarked of his grandfather that he “mistook vanities for true greatness”. That quotes has come to my mind a lot as Trump continues to blow his political capital on nonsense like sticking his face on passports or renaming the Kennedy Center.
> You can’t just call it “Hopper Calhoun College” as a compromise. That’s stupid.
[stares in Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport]
My wife attends dc for an annual conference and one of her colleagues said she felt quite fearful in dc last time with all the armed presence as a Mexican green card holder and didn’t want to go to places in the high traffic areas unlike the Biden years .
I have only been to dc once and loved it. But that just puts a real chill in my spine. I don’t know if she’s being irrational but she’s not like an acab kind of person or anything who hates authority or law enforcement.
The thing is, it’s mostly a cartoon police state right now. The gaggles of National Guard troops appear bored, wandering around in groups, chatting, walking through the farmers’ market or Trader Joe’s. There are loads of other police here—city police, National Park police, the Secret Service (who drive around in ver un-secret marked cars), Georgetown, GW, American U, UDC, the Smithsonian—everyone has their own “force.” In many cases these are supplemented with what I think of as fake police—people wearing “security” company jackets while slumped on a folding chair, scrolling on their phones.
I have seen a few weirdly intense traffic stops in the past year and a half, but mostly I see this, and it seems more dumb and wasteful than scary (of course I, an invisible middle aged white lady, don’t have a good reason to be afraid, but the immigrant tradespeople I know seem to be doing ok).
Potemkin Police State
"fundamentally understands that urban parks are more important than rural recreation"
That's a thousand scoville hot take. My utilitarian ego knows it's true, but my id who utilizes rural recreation a lot had the same visceral culture war emotion as if you'd attacked my race or gender.
If you think it through, protecting the north slope of alaska is really silly from a human perspective. An area the size of Montana has about 12,000 people and very few tourists. Drill baby drill.
Come on if there is a city for arches, it is Rome not Paris.
Sincerely agree the arches of Titus and Constantine are incredible and thousands of years older than Parisian arches.
Aqueducts make it feel like double counting
It's genuinely astounding to me that anyone would name something after himself. Truth is always stranger than fiction because nobody could write a book with Trump as a protagonist even as satire, because it is too ludicrous.
Augustus named a month after himself and we still use it.
I can already imagine myself having mixed feelings as a New Yorker in the future when Trump funds the excellent idea of housing at Sunnyside Yards but makes Mamdani and the city name it “Trump Yards” before he gives out the money
People often quote the banality of evil, but there is also the sheer abject stupidity of some evil too.
Long after this man has gone and perished from the Earth, whatever dying embers there are left in the Republican Party will have to come to grips with the fact that Donald Trump was the hill the party died on. And in the recesses of my sometimes twisted mind I take great pleasure in this.
This is the long run implication of “Everything Trump touches dies.”
Just about right. I'm a little less mad about the Kennedy-Trump center but mainly because it was so unpopular that it undermined his ability to do harm elsewhere.
It does, BTW, demonstrate in tiny detail, why Congress has delegated to much power to the President. A president ought not to be able to take over the board of an institution like the Kennedy Center any more than he should the Fed or, pace SCOTUS, the FTC. It is good that Congress should give some institutions a charter to do stuff and a gradually changing board to do it. There is no sensible way in which there is a Trump-ish or Obama-ish way to be a Kennedy Center or a Fed. [The degree of insulation from Executive influence depends, of course, on the possible damage done, so the Fed is an should be an outlier.]
On the National Guard, I'm more positive. These young men and women are very well behaved and probably added to the GDP of the DMV in addition to their marginal contribution to reducing crime. Our protesters ought rather to focus on how much MORE crime would be reduced if Trump just gave the money to DC for the MPD. Like most cities, we really need a lot more policing by real professional police officers.
Barcelona realised they hadn't been involved in any successful wars for centuries but felt a great city needed a triumphal arch so built one just for the hell of it.
As often with Trump he is a bit of a clueless idiot but it feels like his predecessors didn't think about things at all or do even basic steps.
What are you referring to? Basically every issue listed here has been discussed extensively in the past, except maybe Memorial Circle.
Funding the fountains and deploying the national guard.
The guard is stupid. Lobbying to fix certain public spaces unrelated to their represented areas is low priority for many politicians. Trump is just uniquely so unconcerned with governing, policy, or leading that he finds superficial things that he sees and focuses on those.
The guard and the fountains aren't particularly important but he is doing things previous presidents didn't do.
Two links for you to consider.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politician%27s_syllogism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_wei
But the things he has done are good.
How to address crime in DC is actually something lots of people have considered in the past.
But he did something that other presidents didn't do and it kind of if inefficiently worked.
It did not. The leadership changed in DC police and they basically started prioritizing enforcement activities and giving officers political support. Previously the DC city council tried to “defund” the police but failed so they instituted a hiring freeze and no political support of cover for enforcement.
People respond to incentives.
LOL at "squarely in the middle" for the reflecting pool. I know it's meant to be tongue in cheek but exemplifies grading Trump on a curve!
This is not mere resist slop, this is resist Soufflé
Since when has America not done arches? In NYC there's a nice arch in Washington Square Park (didn't you grow up nearby?) and great one in Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, celebrating the Civil War, a military triumph (though not an imperial one). While France has some good arches too, the concept comes from the Roman Empire where several are still standing.
That said, I agree with your larger point: Decent idea, poor execution. The renderings of the Trump arch show a not great design that is too large (which is on brand for Trump) and too plain (which is just odd).