Today's Pix

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Today's Belle

The US is not the most powerful nation in the world if all we have is a bloated military stick, and no soft power carrot.

Classic tough guy stupid mistake.

Reagan knew he could stand on a stage in Berlin and tell Gorbachev to "tear down this wall", because we had a good alternative to offer people - and not simply trading one asshole dictator for another.

Trump doesn't understand one fuckin' thing about any fuckin' thing.

Art As A Predictive

Turns out, "Idiocracy" wasn't so much hopeful warning...

... as it was dark prophecy

Another Payoff

Emotional support fees

That Ad

Doug Ford is said to have aired this in some US markets, and it apparently put a knot in Trump's Underoos, so of course, he threw one of his little tantrums and cut off all trade talks with the Canadians.

Trump's knee jerk tweet:

The message in the ad was indeed edited, but the editing didn't change the gist of Reagan's remarks.

Trade barriers always end up being bad for everybody - especially when they're imposed with no real thought by a petty vindictive numbskull like Trump.

Amanda's Roundup

The "Ballroom"

Overheard on a friends FB page (Andrew Kerr):

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.

1. With a projected size of 90,000 sq ft, and a newly revised budget of $300M, the cost per square foot would be $3,333. No building costs anywhere near that. $1,000/sq ft 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 90,000 sq ft would be a building with a footprint roughly 380' x 235'. Longer than a football field and 1.5 times as wide.
3. The building is projected to accommodate 999 people. 15 sq ft/person is required for a banquet area; 20 sq ft/person is pretty comfortable. What you see in the rendering below is closer to 20 sq ft/person. That's only 20,000 sq ft, or a space that is 200'x100'. It's supposed to be a ballroom, so let's be extraordinarily generous and provide 10,000 sq ft for the ballroom support functions, and another 10,000 sq ft for pre-function. Extraordinarily generous. That's STILL only 40,000 sq ft, not even half of the supposed building. 
4. 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.