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Minty's avatar

Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1818)

I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away

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Jack Jordan's avatar

Sounds like very good reason to make sure that's not how our story ends.

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Hannah's avatar

Definitely we will need to make the teardown loud, broadcast everywhere, and memorialized.

Then we move on. We have rebuilding to accomplish.

Put this awful man in history where he belongs.

Never again.

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Chuck Kessler's avatar

Couldn’t agree more - but we need to build one item to go along with what is being torn down - wherever an item is torn down, where appropriate, there needs to be a marker listing all the grifters and oligarchs that supported the creation of these monstrosities. In addition , there needs to be a tax levied on these individuals to pay for the removal/demolition costs.

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Bren M's avatar

The only thing that should be named after him is the law enacted to keep him and others like him from ever doing this to our country again.

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Lesley's avatar

amen, Paul, you're playing my song—eradicate everything he is doing now to mark the territory with his foul branding. because that's what this is: him trying to hijack our attention even after he's gone. and every single one of these appropriations must be undone as soon as we assume power. we gotta have that symbolic reclaiming of America as ours, not his. no dear leader's name or image to remind us of the degradation he's now imposing on us. it will reassure the country that there is a future without him so we can devote our resources to the daunting task of restoration.

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Arlene Rosner's avatar

Well done! Something to hold fast too, he’ll be gone…along with all the rest of his sycophantic subhumans

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Richard Brody's avatar

“Two bit grifter” says it all. He wants to create a legacy to enjoy while alive, to enhance his pomposity. Not to mention filling his pockets and coffers at the expense of our citizens and profiting himself and his family. Sick.

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donna F. bonus's avatar

Bravo, Paul Waldman! Bravo!

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Linda Weide's avatar

Yeech to Trump Monuments!

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Dan Leithauser's avatar

Please write the full name, "The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy MEMORIAL Center for the Performing Arts" [CAPS mine for emphasis]. A memorial to yourself? Before passing?

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Mark In Colorado's avatar

“When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.”

― Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

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CE's avatar

The teardown of Trump Tat will be swift and complete. Every public thing that bears the treacherous touch of the tiny orange paw will be restored. I would like Trump to be alive to see it. To see that, and the dancing in the streets when he leaves the White House forever.

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MPT's avatar

Thank you for that clear message of casting everything with a trump brand into the nearest landfill. I don't believe there are many buildings, ships. coins, or visas' named after Hitler, Mussolini, Saddam, Idi Amin, Pol Pot or other malevolent, evils. While trump might not yet be as horrible as those barbaric, psychopaths, he is committing war crimes and is a convicted felon, held liable for sexual assault. Not a ringing endorsement for for naming rights to anything of value or decency. I do have this feeling that he will invent the trump peace prize in 2026, since the Nobel committee isn't likely to change its tune after seeing trump commit war crimes and abandon allies in favor of war criminals. On the other hand, I can see trump's name on a toxic waste dumpsite, urinal cakes, and sinkholes... Hopefully thumb tradionally weak dems follow your advice.

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Katherine Marple's avatar

I love my Public Notice subscription. I feel normal reading the work of the brilliant authors, that the real world still exists. We just visited the Cuban Diaspora museum in Miami and my takeaway was that this could be us right now. It is very worrisome. Nothing like having a sociopath running things to ruin everything.

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Krikit's Songs's avatar

Trump steaks. Trump sneakers. Trump casinos. Trump university. Trump watches. Trump bibles. Oh, where are they now? Nothing this man "builds" (i use the term loosely) endures. So it has been, so it shall always be. From our keyboards to God's ears.

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David J. Sharp's avatar

We’re all waiting for l’Arc de Trompe.

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