Fallen Arches

You may recall that on February 3rd of this year, I presented an Ass Clown Special Award to - for the first time - an inanimate object. No, not the GOP Congressional majority, the Arc de Trump, the latest gold-plated monstrosity that Der Furor plans to erect to ensure that Americans will remember him forever. As if we'd be able to forget.

I'd sort of hoped that the whole stupid idea would go away when Der Furor blundered into launching a useless and expensive war with Iran, but that was not to be. Last Friday, the administration released a package of architectural drawings of a hideous gilded monstrosity projected to sit between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. You can review the whole ghastly thing here, but here's one image from the plan: 

I don't know about you, but I can think of a lot of things this country needs more than a gaudy "triumphal arch." Affordable health care comes to mind, as does affordable housing, protection of the environment, and a Department of Justice that actually focuses on justice rather than Der Furor's burning desire for revenge against his enemies, real or perceived. 

Somehow, I can't imagine the founders, as they drafted a constitution for their new nation that envisioned a government responsive to the people rather than the whims of an all-powerful monarch, thinking that the capital of that new nation needed a gaudy triumphal arch. Nevertheless, now that Der Furor has stocked the Federal Fine Arts Commission with his stooges, it looks like we'll get the damned thing ... and his $400,000,000 White House ballroom, too.

You could say that I'm the arch enemy of garish architectural fluffery that wastes money better spent on people's needs in a difficult time. Fallen arches are painful. Expensive, ghastly, gilded arches that are a stye in the national eye are even more painful.

Have a good day. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo