Edifice Complex

Let's talk about the Kennedys. Interestingly the family was held in generally high regard, with a couple of scandals granted, but President Kennedy and Robert Kennedy are generally admired. But As I have written in the past, Robert Kennedy Jr. and now President Trump have brought the family name into the headlines once again. Bobby, because he is a raving looney and Trump because of his childish envy.

Now, as he sowed distrust of vaccines and science in general producing the largest number of measles cases in 26 years and idiotically connected immunization to autism, you'd think his work was done now. But the Secretary of Health and Human Services has announced a new crusade. He wants to investigate chemtrails.

What's that, you say as a member of the reality-based community? Why chemtrails, of course. That white, puffy smoke that trails behind an airplane at high altitude.

Now, I have known people who were convinced that the smoke was actually part of a government plot to spread chemicals over the population. These chemicals vary depending on which flavor of conspiracy kool-aid your drinking. They could be for weather control, population reduction, human sterilization, or mind control. Or maybe just heavy metals, viruses, sedatives or simply to turn everyone trans. They are carried in special hidden tanks on airliners and pilots are told to release them at certain points in the flight.

Or, an alternative explanation for those of you who slept through high school chemistry or physics class, it's just water vapor.

They are actually known as contrails and they form between 6 and 12 kilometers (30,000 to 40,000 feet) above the earth where temperatures are extremely cold (often below -40°C).

Burning jet fuel releases hot water vapor, carbon dioxide, and tiny soot or sulfur particles. The hot, wet engine exhaust hits the freezing outside air, causing the water vapor to condense and freeze instantly around the exhaust particles into tiny ice crystals. This is similar to seeing your breath on a cold winter day.

And they don't have to be jets...

But Bobby is actually going to spend time and money researching what we already know to be nonsense. Next, did we really land on the moon? I know. The University of YouTube has it's doubts.

Now, the other Kennedy in the news is a building, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Now, you would think the administration has bigger worries these days. With a stalemated war to manage, for instance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is concerned with careful hair grooming and troop testosterone levels. The later gives new worlds of meaning to the terms Attention! and At Ease!

But the President has that worry plus midterm elections, gas prices, bond rates, interest rates, inflation, trade disputes we began and dwindling weapons supplies. But his focus seems to be triumphal arches, reflecting pools that shed their skin, $84,000 in signs to tell visitors the Smithsonian is full of it, a multi-million dollar golf course in Washington and now, the Kennedy Center.

The Center was originally to be built as the National Cultural Center, and President Kennedy led much of the fundraising for it. After the assassination, it was decided to name it after him as a living memorial, like the ones for Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, FDR and more. That's why there is no statue on the mall to JFK, the center is his memorial.

And like any large theatre, it requires staff and upkeep. Congress appropriates money each year for maintenance and repairs, and did it this year as well to the tune of $257 million. In normal times, the center itself turns a profit of around $30-40 million, despite the President saying it loses tens of millions yearly.

In 2024, the Center had a $41 million surplus.

So, the President's statement is simply not true. Events and ticket sales did dry up when Trump took over the board and proposed to slap his name up on it as well. When his handpicked board of lickspittles, which include Lee Greenwood for crying out loud, voted to make it the Trump-Kennedy center, a court challenge blocked it. Now, in a fit of pique, he has closed it for two years and will not do the necessary repairs unless his name goes on the wall.

In short, the thing he wants to do created the financial emergency he claims the thing he wants to do will solve.

Understand, he's not paying for repairs himself, the money is there. He just won't spend it. He is now in violation of the 1974 Impoundment Control Act which said the President cannot refuse to spend appropriated money without coming to Congress with a good reason. Then they rule on it. If only we had a Congress these days to act on that.

And now, a member of the legal team for U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat who has challenged President Donald Trump's actions involving the Kennedy Center, wrote in a court declaration that she saw a forklift repeatedly run into pillars at the building.

As to getting credit for repairs in terms of his name on the wall, a little history. The Washington Monument got it's first major repairs and refurbishment under FDR, and major repairs after an earthquake during the Clinton administration.

The Lincoln Memorial has a museum underground beneath the statue that was begun under President Biden. Clinton oversaw the building of the FDR Memorial and WWII Memorial.

You will notice no presidential names attached to any of them, except the man being memorialized. No one even thought of doing that, until now. This is the best use of AI I've seen yet, by the way. Forgive the crudeness.

But this affair is both unseemly and unprecedented, and how many times have we heard that word lately?

Maybe someone from CNN will ask the President about it at the next Oval Office press conference. No, wait,...