The Last Days of Pompeii: President Trump yesterday vetoed the big defense policy bill, pardoned 26 more people including convicted associates, then left to spend Christmas at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida.

  He gave no further indication whether he would veto the coronavirus bailout, but suggested on Tuesday that he will.

  The defense bill gives a 3 percent pay raise to the military and commits $740 billion to military programs and construction. In opposing it, Trump set himself up for what could be the first veto override of his presidency. The House and Senate are prepared to return to work next week to do just that.

  These final weeks promise to be turbulent as Trump flails against losing the election, denies Russian computer hacking, pardons the unpardonable, and spends his time consulting with conspiracy theorists.

  Trump in his veto notice noted several provisions in the bill he doesn’t like, including one that would remove the names of Confederate leaders from military bases. Ft. Hood, Texas, for instance, is named after rebel Gen. John Bell Hood. He also has demanded that the bill include a provision that would repeal a legal shield for social media companies, which has nothing to do with defense policy and spending. 

 “My administration has taken strong actions to help keep our nation safe and support our service members,” Trump wrote in his veto. “I will not approve this bill, which would put the interests of the Washington, D.C., establishment over those of the American people.”

  Trump also made it clear that supporters who committed crimes can skate. He pardoned his criminal cronies Roger Stone, former campaign manager Paul Manafort, and Charles Kushner, father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared.

  Stone was convicted of lying to Congress while Manafort pleaded guilty to lying in the Russia investigation and also was convicted of bank and tax fraud, illegal foreign lobbying, and witness tampering. 

  Charles Kushner has already done time nearly 20 years ago for tax evasion, witness tampering, illegal campaign contributions, and lying to the Federal Election Commission.

  One of Kushner’s convictions was for retaliating against his own brother-in-law. He did that by setting up his sister’s husband with a prostitute then sending video of the encounter to his sister. President Trump found him worthy of a pardon.

The Bulletin Board: The drug company Pfizer has made a deal with the federal government to provide an additional 100 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine by the end of July. — Twenty-three people were rescued yesterday morning after an explosion in the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company building. Nine people were in critical condition and one was in serious condition. — Xin Xing, the oldest Giant Panda in captivity who was mother to 10 cubs and is responsible for a lineage of 138 bears, has died at age 38 in the Chongqing Zoo in southwestern China. Her name meant “New Star” in Mandarin.

The Obit Page: Leslie West, who rose to fame with the rock group Mountain and its anthem “Mississippi Queen,” died of cardiac arrest in Florida at age 75.

  Rolling stone called Mountain “a louder version of Cream.”  West told the website Best Classic Bands that, “I didn’t play fast — I only used the first and the third finger on the fingering hand in 2011. So I worked on my tone all the time. I wanted to have the greatest, biggest tone, and I wanted vibrato like somebody who plays violin in a hundred-piece orchestra.”

Eye of the Beholder: President Trump signed an executive order on Monday saying that new federal buildings around the country should be “beautiful” and that classical architecture is the preferred style. You know; Roman, Greek, Italianate.

  His order said, “New Federal building designs should, like America’s beloved landmark buildings, uplift and beautify public spaces, inspire the human spirit, ennoble the United States, command respect from the general public, and, as appropriate, respect the architectural heritage of a region.” 

  The President particularly eschews the modern styles known as Brutalist and Deconstructivist, although both are his personal style for dealing with other people.

Merry Christmas: Have a holiday that we can all hope will bring a little fun and spark to one of the most troubled years in American history.

 Millions of Americans are out of work and facing eviction, families are separated by the pandemic, and packages are delayed in Postal Service warehouses.

 Better times are coming. A vaccine is on the way, and so is the inauguration, a cure for what ails politics. Have fun. The NORAD Santa Tracker reported the man and his sleigh were over Trudovoye, Russia as we went to press this morning. We’re still going to have Christmas.

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