Events of the weekend have left me in a slightly more positive mood than before, as at last there are some signs of moral rectitude stirring in ‘Murica. All over the country, from New York and Boston across the country to LA and San Fran, down to Texas and Saint Louis, Democrats have been taking to the streets and walking, marching, demonstrating, using their constitutional right to Free Speech and to show their opposition to their idiot orange dictator and his sycophantic black-hearted cronies.

So far, despite news reports saying that the protests have been sighted “all over the country”, I’ve not seen any images coming in from the inbred hicksville states like Alabama, Kentucky or Wyoming, or either of the Dakotas or Alaska, but I’m not sure if Democrats are legal in some of those states.

No Kings they say, and surely we can hope that for a Dic that watches so much TV, I hope that he gets to see some of the signs that so brilliantly skewer him, although of course the poor delicate flower has such a sensitive thin skin that there is a good chance that he will call out the National Guard to slaughter the protestors.

A similar thing is happening in the UK, where sensitive politicians have changed the law so that protesting senior citizens with placards are being locked up by the hundreds for wielding “offensive weapons” or some other such bullshit.

And I am sure that you have all seen Banksy’s brilliant “offensive” graffiti of the law lords beating a protestor to death, stencilled almost indelibly on the front of the “Royal Courts of Justice.”

Almost….


But what, I hear you say, has this to do with Architecture and Urban Design in our capital city? Well, borderline relevance to be sure, but I thought it might be interesting to observe the taste (or lack of) and self-aggrandisement of the Blimp in Chief, who, like Midas, seemingly cannot resist the lure of gold.


The Rump resident has not only concreted over the Rose Garden at the White House in order to spend $250 million on a Ball Room, but has also desecrated almost every room inside the White House with hideous gold tat.

No doubt when the Ballroom is completed the world will be subjected to yet more video footage of Rump “dancing”, ie swaying side to side like a drunken bull elephant. There are more important things to be concentrating on – perhaps this is all a giant smokescreen? But from what? This?

He now also wants to build a Triumphal Arch somewhere in the city of Washington DC, directly facing the Lincoln Memorial. An Arch about as big as Paris’s Arc de Triomphe, apparently. And in memory of himself, no doubt.

We all know that there is no end of the vanity of this man, and how closely he is observing the playlist of the Modern Dictator’s Playbook. Quite extraordinary – and all broadcast live so that we can watch him live, although I have to turn the sound off as I can’t stand the sound of him talking / lying / bullshitting (all the same thing really). I’ve been watching reruns of the West Wing on TV at the same time and it is fascinating to observe how principled and hopeful the fictional democrat President Bartlett was, compared to the (fictional?) republican Resident Bump is. Such a contrast. Temper that with some Slow Horses for what seems a lot more real than this weird alternative reality we live in. I mean, seriously, could you make this shit up?

I’m kicking myself – I should have seen the Grand Arch coming, we have all heard about his legendary love for the Golden Arches. And this one is a big one! The impulse he will face will be to plaster his name across it somewhere / everywhere, and probably to cover it in fake gold leaf as well.


As crap as Luxon is as leader of this country, and as incompetent as Willis is at being a Minister of Finance (the worst since Muldoon? or since NZ began?), at least we do not have a despotic tyrant at the helm. Instead we have a man who ran an airline once, and who wonders why we aren’t all buying his bullshit about the country being back on track when clearly we are sliding backwards quite fast.

But maybe it is time that we went back to concentrate on: Why doesn’t NZ have a Constitution? We have a Bill of Rights, that I guarantee that no-one has read (except you Chico…!), and we have two versions of a Treaty, which Seymour wants to flag away (because apparently the poor white folk are not being given enough privileges already). But we don’t have a Constitution, because i think that Geoffrey Palmer forgot to write one? And perhaps with all the palava over Charles and Andrew and Harry and Meghan and all – perhaps it is time that we started saying “No Kings” here as well?





Excellent news: Donut Rump has confirmed that he did indeed watch footage of the No Kings parades (latest estimates: 7 million attended) by posting a very mature response to the protests. An AI-generated video of himself flying a jet fighter and bombing the protestors with shit. Mature, really mature. What a dick.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/360859218/trump-shares-ai-video-showing-himself-bombing-protesters-brown-liquid-during-no-kings-marches
CA Governor Gavin Newsom lobbed it back at the Toddler in Chief, by changing the targets to the Jan 6 putsch-goers.
Gavin Newsom surely has to be a front runner for the next Democratic nomination for President, doesn’t he? Intelligent, witty, highly capable, and most importantly for the majority of Americans : he is white, male, wears a suit, and as far as i know, doesn’t have an irritating laugh or a criminal record.
Nemo: Andy Beshear, Pete Buttigieg and JB Pritzker would also be up there too. There have been discussions about AOC – not from herself I hasten to add – but she’s far better suited to the US Senate.
It alsways seems suspicious to me that the American people seem to care more about the Amendments to the Constitution, than to the Constitution itself. The actual document starts well, by claiming in Washington/Jefferson’s words: “We, the people, hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal” or some such, and then they stuff it up with a bunch of Amendments such as The Right to a Well-Armed Militia, and the Right to Bear Arms, and the Right to Not Perjure /Incriminate yourself. Nothing in there as far as I know that says The Right of Black People not to be Slaves? Or the Right to not be Ruled by a Dictator. Was that added later?
Interestingly, no, that appears to be incorrect. The official website says the text starts:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” then some sections:
Section 1 – All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
Section 2 – The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.
No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.
Section 3 – blah blah. Nothing about slavery….
And then the Amendments:
Amendment I (1791) – Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Amendment II (1791) – A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Amendment III (1791) – No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Amendment IV (1791) – The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, blah blah blah
Amendment V (1791) – No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except blah blah military
“Well-regulated” :D
Yes. Nowhere does it say: a bunch of rednecks armed to the hilt with military-grade munitions, policing their town under their own steam, enacting judge, jury and executioner roles at the same time.
The comic book Edge Dredd was written as a parody, but some have swallowed it wholesale. As Dredd says: “I am. The Law.”
“We, the people, hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal….” is from the Declaration of Independence. A concept not deemed to be required in the Constitution it seems.
Knew I must have heard it from somewhere. Thanks Starkive. But it is odd, because didn’t the same group of men write both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution at the same time? From what I remember they all holed up for about 3 days and wrote some things down – John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and two others. That became the Declaration.
No, it seems My memory is wrong. The Declaration committee operated from June 11, 1776, until July 5, 1776. That’s almost a month, not 3 days. The Constitution, as Wikipedia tells me, came into law on March 4, 1789 – some 13 years later, by a whole bunch of different people – Rutledge, Randolph, Gorham, Ellsworth, Wilson, and later Hamilton, King, Madison, Johnson and Morris.
I’m learning a lot today.
When NPR posted the Declaration of Independence on the Former Bird Site in 2017, it was immediately mistaken for Trump Derangement Syndrome by the MAGAlomaniacs.
https://apnews.com/general-news-united-states-government-45c9fd6838a8450a849d95ff7daefa34
Comment on BookFace from an experienced Architect. Very revealing about how much hogswash this all is.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10239929889406493&id=1274633714
Thanks Seamonkey. Here are his (Andrew Kerr) comments:
·
Here’s why the new White House ballroom project is not real. (The demo is obviously real.) Some background – I am a licensed Architect with 20+ years of experience. I have worked on multiple Federal projects with sensitive building programs that required background checks.
*** EDIT 10/24 ***
Some people pointed out the exterior rendering I used was discredited by Snopes. My apologies – I found the image on a reputable news site. I have updated the images to be from White House sources. My analysis remains the same.
******
1. With a projected size of 90,000sf and a newly revised budget of $300M, the cost per square foot would be $3,333. No building costs anywhere near that. $1,000/sf is astronomical.
2. Let’s assume, since we are drawing in the classical, style, that the proportions of the building adhere to the Golden Ratio. A 90,000sf would be a building with a footprint roughly 380′ x 235′. Longer than a football field and 1.5x as wide.
2. The building is projected to accommodate 999 people. 15sf/person is required for a banquet area; 20sf/person is pretty comfortable. What you see in the rendering below is closer to 20sf/person. That’s only 20,000sf, or a space that is 200’x100′. It’s supposed to be a ballroom, so let’s be extraordinarily generous and provide 10,000sf for the ballroom support functions, and another 10,000sf for pre-function. Extraordinarily generous. That’s STILL only 40,000sf, not even half of the supposed building.
3. There are no drawings for the building. The renderings are poorly coordinated – exterior views do not match the interior views. See below – the White House is 70 feet tall, to the roof. The interior renderings show a room that is roughly 100′ x 200′, with a ~20 foot ceiling. The exterior renderings show a building footprint of 4.5x that amount.
Those are renderings that could be produced by young staff in a week or two, at most. Nothing else exists.
Sadly, I think that Andrew Kerr (the person Seamonkey referred to in the Facebook post above) is suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS from DJT). Some counter arguments:
1. Clearly the demolition is real. Trump clearly lied (nothing new there) when he said that nothing would touch the White House – but has now demolished the Annex off the East Wing. $3,333 / sq ft is about $35,000 / m2 which is a lot, but then his revised price of $1000/sqft is $10,500 / m2 which is pretty normal in NZ for a Commercial building.
2. Size for 1000 people seems adequate to me. Remember, if it is a place for both Dinner and Dancing, then there needs to be two large rooms, and / or a place to store all the furniture. So, large size seems ok.
3. Of course there are drawings – it is just that Rump has not released them, and nor does he have to – in his mind, he does not even need to as for consent, as he is, after all, the Resident of ‘Murica.
For a counter argument, read this:
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2025/oct/23/trump-white-house-ballroom-architecture-critic-dictator-bling
I’ve heard comparisons to Ceausescu’s “Palace of the People”.
https://medium.com/the-masterpiece/the-white-house-90-000-square-foot-ballroom-that-would-make-ceau%C8%99escu-blush-de81540fd0f8
https://observer.co.uk/news/international/article/white-house-ballroom-he-is-following-the-classic-despots-playbook
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/trumps-gilded-ballroom-and-the-fall
https://www.tremr.com/angkor/why-dictators-love-gilded-palaces
Hmmmm. I remember very well the last day of Ceausescu and his regime, when both he and his hideous wife were publicly hanged, and their bodies hung in public.
I look forward to the day when this happens to a modern dictator…
Rump has now demolished the ENTIRE East Wing, without any push back from anyone. Muttering but nothing more. Throw the fucker in jail !
Interesting read from Mr. Trotter.
https://www.interest.co.nz/public-policy/135883/chris-trotter-notes-vast-edifices-paid-wealthy-aristocrats-secure-favours-have
That is a fanTAStic read from Mr Trotter. Very much enjoyed reading that, thanks Seamonkey.
a quote from it:
“What, then, does it mean that the East Wing of the White House has been demolished in the absence of formal public consultation, and without congressional approval?”
“The actions of the 45th President, Donald J. Trump, can be construed in only one way. That he believes himself to be the effectual owner of the Executive Residence, and that he is, by virtue of that ownership, perfectly entitled to knock down anything he goddamn pleases. Trump does not believe himself to be a tenant of the American people, but the sole executor of their estate.”