I’ll see you two dead Kennedys and raise you an arch.
asserted
I → see → arch
But in current context, the graves of President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, both assassinated.
asserted
graves → assassinate → Kennedy
When President Donald Trump laid a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery on Remembrance Day, Veterans Day in the United States, it was a performative tableau amidst pushback from the Kennedy clan against his monstrous 76-metre (250-foot) triumphal arch, a vanity project — among a slew of tributes to self — that is being challenged through the courts.
asserted
that → lay → courts
As Trump admitted in an interview with New York Magazine this year, explaining why he’s hell-bent on proactively erecting legacy monuments, planting his face and name and follies across Washington, D.C.: “Nobody will do it once I’m gone.
asserted
I → admit → it
When I leave here, nobody will.”
asserted
nobody → leave → ?
Trump covets the gilded marble arch, which would loom over a traffic circle just outside the cemetery’s main entrance, to be emblazoned with the slogan, “Golden Age of America.”
asserted
which → covet → America
And JFK and Robert and Edward Kennedy — what the Kennedys describe as the emotional heart of the national shrine.
asserted
Kennedys → describe → shrine
On Tuesday, nine members of the Kennedy family — but not the late Sen. Kennedy’s son, repellent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — formally joined a lawsuit filed against construction of what’s sarcastically been dubbed the Arc de Trump.
asserted
what → join → construction
The project, which would dwarf the Arc de Triomphe in Paris by some 30 metres (about 100 feet), had drawn ire and lawsuits from three Vietnam War veterans, Arlington County, the state of Virginia and the District of Columbia.
asserted
which → dwarf → Columbia
“The gigantic proposed arch is an illegal interference with the Arlington National Cemetery and the heroes remembered there, including at the gravesites and memorials of the Kennedy brothers and Ethel Kennedy,” reads a statement issued by the Kennedy family’s lawyers.
asserted
statement → propose → lawyers
“Only Congress has the institutional power to authorize an intrusion of this magnitude.”
asserted
Congress → have → magnitude
Further disturbing the tranquility of Arlington Cemetery would be, as Trump has recently suggested, turning the arch into a “military complex” housing fleets of drones and snipers, for alleged security purposes.
uncertain
Trump → disturb → purposes
WASHINGTON (AP) — In his first public appearance after an election that soundly repudiated h…
The incoming Democratic-majority Congress could indeed block the abomination.
uncertain
Congress → repudiate → abomination
But even before the blue wave midterms last week, Trump had orchestrated an end-run to fast-track the project by stacking the deck on federal commissions and authorizing panels.
asserted
Trump → orchestrate → panels
They did his bidding, just as Trump’s appointees to the Kennedy Center — Trump made himself chairman of its board — voted last December to impose his name on the exterior of the institution, rebranding it as The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
asserted
himself → do → Arts
Earlier this year, a U.S. District Court Judge ruled that adding Trump’s name violated a federal statute and required Congressional approval.
asserted
adding → rule → approval
An enraged Trump has threatened to tear the place down.
asserted
Trump → threaten → place
The accelerated pace to get shovels in the ground for the arch was halted last week by another judge who issued a 14-day day pause in its construction while weighing a longer-term delay.
asserted
who → get → delay
But that might offer only a temporary delay if Trump can get ahead of Congress or appeal a thumbs-down through the courts on an expedited timeline.
uncertain
Trump → offer → timeline
Recall that in August the Trump-acquiescent Supreme Court allowed construction of Trump’s new grandiose ballroom and demolition of the East Wing to proceed, while litigation over its legality continued.
asserted
litigation → recall → legality
Last week, Trump’s lawyers were back before the Supremes, asking the justices to kick a lower-court ruling that halted above-ground construction to the curb.
asserted
that → ask → curb
Trump’s vanity projects have completely consumed him, even more so now that he’s a lame duck president whose policies and capricious decisions were thoroughly repudiated in the midterms, amidst historically low job approval ratings.
asserted
policies → consume → ratings
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is celebrating its 250th year.
asserted
States → celebrate → year
The rampage of the bulldozer includes: Paving over Jackie Kennedy’s Rose Garden, cutting down hundreds of trees (in defiance of a judge) for a proposed takeover of a historic Washington public golf course, a proposal for a $40 million (all figures U.S.) National Garden of American Heroes (250 life-sized statues of personages from George Washington to Elvis) and a new helipad on the White House’s lawn.
asserted
rampage → include → lawn
To say nothing of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool (widespread blistering of the replacement lining and a severe green algae bloom) that ended up costing 10 times the $1.5 million originally estimated
asserted
that → say → million
In all, Trump’s vanity indulgences for D.C. have cost American taxpayers up to $1.8 billion.
asserted
indulgences → cost → billion
His biggest legacy, besides an unnecessary war he can’t win and global revulsion for Trump?
asserted
he → win → Trump
The Aporia
