It used to be that most news was bad. Now, it is just bizarre.

I say that as a resident of Washington DC, where the president of the United States:

1. Is building a ballroom with room to host almost 1000 people on the grounds of the White House.
2. Is painting the bottom of the Reflecting Pool “U.S.flag blue” and eliminating any relection.
3. Is going to build a victory arch between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington Cemetery which will be 25 stories tall, taller than any building in DC.
4. Has plastered North Korea-size pictures of himself on government buildings throughout the city.
5. Is conflating his 80th birthday with the 250th birthday of the country.
6. Is building a platform on the White House grounds to celebrate with a UFC fight.
7. Wants to hold a celebratory concert on the White House grounds featuring musicians who do not want to perform.
8. Who wants American military troops to attend all these events, providing they are neither too short or too heavy.
9. Has determined that Dulles International Airport should be renamed after himself.
10. Who wants to rebuild Washington’s three public golf courses to be tournament worthy, rather than friendly public courses.
11. Who wants to take one of D.C.’s large parks and turn it into a sculpture garden with statues of 250  “American heroes”.

Now, it turns out there was a 14th item on the list – renaming the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center as the Donald Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center, shutting it down for two years and rebuilding it into the greatest arts venue in the history of the world. Yesterday, a federal judge told him he can not do that on his own, and all Trump name references must be removed within two weeks.

Trump’s reaction surprised me. He didn’t say he would ignore or appeal the ruling. He said he would simply take his ball home and disappear. Now, Trump had fired everyone on the board of directors than ran the center, made himself chair, and hired toadies as board members. The regular KenCen performing groups, including the National Symphony, Washington Opera, Washington Performing Arts Society and others have made alternative plans and no performances have been booked for the next two years. What is going to happen next? The president does not care, it seems. Not his problem.

Washington has been badly hurt by COVID and then by Trump, with significant job losses and corresponding office, retail and restaurant vacancies downtown. Recovery will be slow and await Trump’s departure. I think our current three term mayor, Muriel Bowser, has done a very good job coordinating with an eccentric president in leading a city so dependent on the federal government. Her term will end in January and we are now wittnessing a campaign to succeed her. The two leading candidates (the primary is in a little over two weeks) are, in my view, both rather week. One is a progressive, and one more business oriented. The progressive is favored to win, and I think, at 38, she is too young for the job and her views too pre-determined. In addition, they are both engaged in an unfortunate bash-the-opponent campaign that I find disheartening. And, also unfortunately, they both engage in “Trump will not tell us what to do” rhetoric, which I think may hurt the city more when they take office.

So, yes, the news is all bizarre. But let me rephrase my starting statement. The news is also mostly bad as well.