What's It All About, Algae?

The most wildly entertaining, if numbing story on social media is the meltdown by Trump and his circle, along with MAGAs trying to support them, over the disaster with his renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.  It’s a remarkable story in its faux outrage and comic weirdness, as well problematic for Trump on its own terms, but much worse for Trump is how it’s morphed into something else.  More on that later.

 To show you how engrossing, odd and problematic this is, none of that even includes that Trump had promised to get the repair done for $1.5 million, and the cost ballooned to $14 million.  And that the job was given in a no-bid contract to Trump’s pool guy with zero experience for the restoration -- since the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is 2,030 feet long, and a completely different kind of structure from a hotel swimming pool.  All of that is just preamble.

In fact, the Trump meltdown story doesn’t even include that within days, after painting the bottom of the Reflecting Pool a deep, rich American Blue, and re-opening it for the public to massive “See How Great It is What Trump Has Done That Joe Biden Didn’t!!!” fanfare, algae began to grow in the Reflecting Pool which turned green.  Trump conspiracy theorists started to cry that it was sabotage by The Libs.  (Yes, algae conspiracy.)  Alas for them, professional experts quickly responded by explaining in reality that the algae was caused by two circumstances:  one, it was build-up inside the old pipes that had been shut down during the long renovation and now had been turned back on again, and two (which many experts warned beforehand), that using dark blue paint (like all dark colors) absorbs heat, so combined with the normal Washington, D.C. summer temperature in the sweltering upper-80s, this is the ideal condition for algae to bloom.

 But hey, don’t take it from me.  Here’s a tweet from pool renovation expert Steve Goodale who had warned online from his @poolandspaguru account -- "If we change nothing else except the color, absolutely you're going to have more prolific algae growth. It's a foregone conclusion."  (Fun Fact:  Making this all the more whimsical is that Mr. Goodale is Canadian.)

At which point, to kill the algae, the clean-up crew poured highly toxic 12% hydrogen peroxide into the Reflecting Pool.  Never mind that it has already killed some birds and ducks who come to rest there.  Nor does it include that the name of the company run by Trump’s pool guy is actually called “Greenwater Services.”  Honest.  Don’t tell me God doesn’t have a sense of humor.

And none of that is the vaudeville act I’m referring to.  It’s just the “In a galaxy, far far away” scroll on the movie screen to fill you in on the background as you settle in with your popcorn.

 No, the entertainment began when huge chunks of the blue paint began floating to surface, and the full-blown meltdown took over.  It’s hard to properly describe the circus, because so much of it overlaps, but I’ll try.

 Immediately, Trump began blaming “Vandals,” without any evidence, of course (this is Trump after all, who needs evidence and reality), a charge picked up by his circle.  And then he began to claim there had been many arrests of these “Vandals” – without any evidence, of course, because this is…oh, you know. 

And then Jonathan Karl of ABC News did a report on the floating blue debris, tilting a chunk that was sitting on the surface for a better view by the camera -- and Trump began crying out that Karl had vandalized the Reflecting Pool, and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro (whose record of “Let me please Trump” indictments is pathetic) joined the fray, threating that Mr. Karl might be investigated and indicted.

And the cries of “Vandals” grew, and the news stories about Trump blaming Vandals” and him claiming this problem was all the work of “Vandals” began to be reported.  Never mind that the words, “Trump has blamed" and "Trump claimed" may be the two least-substantive phrases in the English language and should always be followed by "without evidence."

But best is when in one of Trump’s long tweet meltdown screeds, he wrote that "criminals" had poured "corrosive and destructive chemicals" into the Reflecting Pools.  Never mind that Trump's own clean-up team had themselves literally poured highly toxic 12% hydrogen peroxide into the water!!!  Which is what experts say has apparently caused the damage. 

At this point I think it’s a good idea to include what was written online by Laurence Boorstein. Mr. Boorstein’s social media bio explains he’s Project Management Professional, with an MBA in Finance from Columbia University, and a Masters degree in Civil Engineering from Columbia, 40  years of experience, and projects in 18 states and 29 countries.  He wrote --

Donald Trump's renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is a FAILURE which epitomizes what's wrong with his Administration. –  Trump's idea to recoat the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was a STUPID idea. The concrete bottom of the pool had admixtures to make it watertight. Most of the leaking was from joints, not the concrete slabs, as well as from piping. It was UNNECESSARY to seal concrete that is already watertight. - The concrete admixtures made it virtually impossible for the polyurea coating to adhere, resulting in rapid delamination. - Trump MICROMANAGED the recoating project, handpicking his pool contractor who handles Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia. They did not have prior experience as a Government contractor and lacked the technical experience and expertise needed to carry out the work successfully. - Picking a contractor who is doing other work for Trump was a conflict of interest, and carries a high risk of cost shifting between public and private work unless a thorough audit is performed. Trump is an 80-year old hack real estate developer from Queens, New York, not a master builder.

​​Well, okay, then, there’s that. 

And it brings the story along to this past weekend and the story of the cyclist who was arrested for putting his hand in the water and touching some of the floating blue paint chunks.  (Yes, really.  Hey, I did say that this all was the entertaining and weird part.) 

Well…okay, that’s the way many news stories reported the story, and MAGAs on social media began referring to this dastardly saboteur as a Liberal boomer activist criminal.  Though if anyone had taken just a moment to get an update from reality --

The “cyclist” (or just “the man,” as early outrage dismissively called him) was 67-year-old David Hearn, a three-time Olympian who represented Team USA (“USA!  USA!!) in Whitewater Canoe Slalom.  He has won Gold Medals at two World Championships, and in 1995, was even named USA Canoe/Kayak Male Athlete of the Year.  So, the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is the kind of facility he was very well-acquainted with.  It's a 2,000-foot water structure like many of those he's spent a lifetime training in. (Some Olympic rowing events are, in fact, 2,000 feet.) He had been cycling around the Reflecting Pool, and said that he saw something odd floating in it, and so (being attuned to what 2,000-foot pools should look like) he stopped and went to touch it.  And that’s when Park Police arrested him and put him in handcuffs on a misdemeanor charge of destruction of government property.  

“I didn’t vandalize anything,” Hearn told the Washington Post.  “I didn’t destroy or break or peel anything. By the time I realized what was going on, I was being put in handcuffs.  I reached in there, and I was able to grab the end of that flapping piece, the already peeling piece. It was still attached to the bottom. I didn’t remove anything.” 

It’s hard to imagine that the charges won’t be dropped, since touching floating debris hasn’t yet reached the level of crime, even in Trump’s dystopia.  But the story not only began to create extensive MAGA meltdown, but the Reflecting Pool now has more police patrolling around it -- even the National Guard (yes, really, I’m not making this up) -- protecting the water and algae as if grabbing rubble is of critical national importance. 

The Reflecting Pool debacle has gotten so bad at this point that Trump (after all the “Look at What Trump Did!!!!! Praise) says it will again have to be emptied and redone.  Caused by all the “Vandals,” and all the “criminals.” 

Anything to distract from the actual reason Trump’s pool renovation is a disaster.  It was mishandled from the first by a no-bid contract to a Trump pal with no experience who made off with $14 million, 10 times the original budget, and then the problem was worsened by pouring toxic hydrogen peroxide in the water.  So…yeah, blame “Vandals.”  Blame The Libs.  Call out the police.  Arrest the journalist, arrest the Olympian, arrest the mythical criminals who weren’t actually arrested.

At least this time, though, Trump can again say he Drained the Swamp. And really did it!

 But lest you think all this three-ring entertainment is from the “outraged” side – oh, no, it’s ratcheted high up even more by those ridiculing it all.  And there is plenty to ridicule.  Indeed, this is the most entertaining part of the story of all.  For many reasons. 

And those reasons start with the obvious:  that everyone can see the once-blue water is now green.  And everyone saw Trump’s clean-up team pour toxic hydrogen peroxide into the Reflecting Pool.  And everyone can see chunks of blue paint floating on the water.  This isn’t “a cyclist” is who destroyed the Reflecting Pool.  This isn’t “news reporter Jonathan Karl” is who destroyed the Reflecting Pool.  Everyone can literally see it all.  Even the ones who don’t want to believe reality.  

So, the only people who will conceivably believe these Trump “Vandals” idiocies are the very bottom of Trump’s base who will never accept he ever made a mistake and believe that The Libs and “others” are the problem for everything in the world, including algae.  Meanwhile, everybody else gets it.  Because it’s really easy to get.  Because everyone can see it.  And by Trump, his circle and MAGAs trying to make the issue “Vandals,” cyclists and conspiracies, rather than say it was handled poorly, they all keep the debacle alive.  And give it massively more attention far beyond nothing more than just screwing up a pool. 

Instead, social media is now wonderfully overrun with giddy comments, jokes, photos and videos of – 

The “real ‘Vandals’” pouring hydrogen peroxide into the pool. 

A photojournalist putting his remote-controlled waterproof camera into the Reflecting Pool to take video along the pool’s destroyed floor. (James Cameron couldn’t have done it better in Titanic – though it would have been much more expensive and taken a lot longer.) 

MAGA memes of “Make Algae Grow Again.”

The National Guard (!) keeping on guard to protect the green Reflecting Pool with floating blue chunks.  (See, I said I was telling the truth.)

Ridicule that Trump isn’t even able to beat algae, so how did he think he could defeat Iran?

Ironic comparisons that Trump and MAGAs want people arrested for damaging government property for touching rubbish floating in a pool while being okay with pardoning 1,600 Insurrectionists who rampaged inside the U.S. Capitol to overthrow the government. 

Derision that while negotiations have started to hopefully end his Iran War, Trump instead is focusing this much attention on a pool of water. 

Noting that more people have been arrested for touching garbage in the Reflecting Pool than for their involvement in the Epstein Files.

 Reminders that the job was done in a no-bid contract by a Trump crony John J. Cafaro, who actually has two felony convictions – and worse, they’re for conspiracy to bribe a member of Congress and campaign finance violations! – and who looks like a rejected character actor for a Bond villain because he’s too clownishly cliched…and whose company is named “Greenwater.”​

​But best and far-above all, as I mentioned at the very beginning, the most important and wonderful result of this incredibly entertaining story that Trump himself has kept everyone’s focused attention on (with his mythical “Vandals” and delusional rants about conspiracies and screeds on non-existent crimes) is that the public is pointing out how the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool utter debacle has become online a metaphor of the Trump administration – 

-- Because once again, here is Trump taking something that had had some recent repairs and algae cleaning, and was considered, for the time being, fine.  and he comes in, destroys it, makes things significantly worse, and he has no idea how to fix the problem.  And people have begun accompanying photos of this green Reflecting Pool and floating blue chunks alongside photos of other Trump debacles:  the demolished East Wing of the White House, the cemented-over White House Rose Garden, and the destroyed White House grounds from his cage-fight circus.  Not to mention reference and photos of his failed war in Iran.

And in his out-of-control ego to stamp his name on everything, made this disaster of the Reflecting Pool a metaphor for it all.  Things that were fine until Trump came in and destroyed it.  Not just the historic government structures he’s demolished, but tariffs shredding the economy, destroying our relationship with our oldest ally Canada, threatening to attack our ally Greenland, undermining America’s reputation in the world, cutting aid to those in need – whether foreign countries or even Americans’ own healthcare and financial assistance, pushing our NATO allies to act on their own, creating distrust in the legal system, distrust in elections, distrust in vaccines and the CDC and World Health Organization, making immigrants (even those who are citizens) afraid, and more.  Things that were fine – until Trump said, “I can renovate” that, and then tore it apart and destroyed it.  “I alone can fix it.”  And the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool became a metaphor for it all.

 Obi Wan Kenobi was right.  Metaphors be with you.

 And in the end…it is a large pool of water.  And not only did Trump hire a no-bid crony who went far over-budget and ruin it, but Trump (being Trump) couldn’t accept that and  has turned it into a manic fiasco about “Vandals” and conspiracies and roaming police guards and arresting Olympians and blaming reports and opening up comparisons of this to all his failures, including his Iran War capitulation.

 All because of a large pool of water.  Because that’s what happens when you have dementia which is degenerative, are a malignant narcissist, and are surrounded by unqualified incompetents who have no ability to help you, but know their jobs rely solely on them saying “yes”, all of it enabled and protected by your party in Congress. 

You get someone who, when asked by Axios last week what he’s learned from his Iran War conflict about the limits to his power, answers -- “I haven’t learned that lesson yet. I know there are, but there are no limits.” 

You get someone who tells a Fox reporter on Sunday that after his capitulating “Memorandum of Understanding” 60-day negotiating period ends, “I can do whatever I want.” 

Man, he hasn’t even learned there are limits to trying to defeat algae.