Lex Anteinternet: CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 125th Edition, part two. Monumental Stupidity Edition.

Lex Anteinternet: CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 125th Edition. Monum...:   Geez, this is stupid. Harrison Design, you should be ashamed of yourselves. Last edition: CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 124th Edition. On ...

Something really weird is going on with Donald Trump and Washington D.C. architecture.

First he started putting up gold crap all over the White House.  Then he ripped down part of the White House in order to build a ballroom.  After that, there was the paver application to the Rose Garden.  Now he wants to put up a Triumphal Arch.  This past week he had this done:

And now we're learning that fountains at Lafayette Park, which the Biden administration estimated would take about $3M to repair, have been repaired at over $15M in a no bid contract.

Of all of these projects, only the fountain really should have been done, and it shouldn't have been done on a no bid contract.  Everything else shows Trump to be just what he is, an old demented hotelier with abysmally bad taste.

Why is he doing this?  

The longer this goes on, of course, the harder it will be to undo. The fountain, fortunately, won't need to be undone.  The gold crap can be tossed into a dumpster.  The paver taken to Home Depo and sold as second.  

Human instinct will mitigate against tearing the ballroom, if it gets build, and the arch, if it does, down.*  It's wasteful.  But it will need to be done as a symbol that is a democracy, not a hotel.  The reflecting pool will have to be addressed, but that will be expensive.

To the extent that any of this was done illegally, the next administration should file suit and seek the costs of restoration as damages from whomever benefitted.  Harrison design should never get another public contract, which is the same for both architectural firms that worked on the ballroom.  Not much can be done about the recipients of no bid contracts, and the work on the fountains, seems well done, if very expensive.  The contract that turned so expensive needs to be looked at.

Frankly, at this point, if we manage to survive another couple of years of the reign of this demented vandal, we need a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

By the way, the damage to the reflecting pool is permanent, as a practical matter.  The industrial-grade, "American flag blue" swimming pool coating bonds to granite and is designed to last fifty years.  It'll take over a century for the effects to wear off.

Unless its reconstructed, of course, which a lawsuit to cause Trump to pay for should be contemplated, if possible.

Footnotes:

*The arch will not be solid, so there's one legitimate reason to leave it up, and that's a tomb for those killed in Trump's wars.  Both sides.

But not for Trump.

But that won't be done, so it'll just need to come down.

Last edition:

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist, 125th Edition. Monumental Stupidity

 

Geez, this is stupid.

Harrison Design, you should be ashamed of yourselves.