“Trump has screwed up the Reflecting Pool in ways that I never could’ve imagined.”

That’s my quote on NPR’s All Things Considered, which did a great story on the hold that the Reflecting Pool has on our collective interest. They call Trump’s changes to the pool a reality show but it’s more like a horror flick. Seeing the Mad King take a timeless symbol of this country and defile it hurts the soul.

I have been taking photos of the Reflecting Pool since the construction project began in May, seeking to document the damage. Check out my Flickr Album for almost 200 photos of the pool in various stages of deconstruction.

The regime hid the demolition of the East Wing of the White House, putting up fences and closing parks so that photographers (like me) couldn’t get photos of our heritage being knocked down and carted away in dump trucks.

But they couldn’t do that with the Reflecting Pool, its very size and centrality defeating attempts to hide their colossal fuckup.

We all saw when the Reflecting Pool turned lime-green in a spectacular algae explosion. And we all witnessed blue sheets of pool liner unfurling like the tattered flag of a fading nation.

MAGA cult members insisted that this was AI, like the AI slop that they pollute the online world with, data centers in the exurbs churning through water and power to produce tributes to Dear Leader.

That’s another reason why I took so many photos. I wanted people to see the undeniable truth. I wasn’t sitting in front of a computer somewhere, I was up at dawn, sitting on the marble steps, camera in hand, documenting what the Reflecting Pool looked like on a near daily basis. 

The draining of the pool. The no-bid contractors spraying blue paint and sealant all over the concrete, driving over their hoses, working while the surfaces were still wet, water pooled in the corners.

And then refilling the water, sparkling with nanobubblers and “looking good, sir!” for a couple of weeks, flurries of self-congratulations from Trump and his minions, before the pool turned fluorescent green, like a flavor of Gatorade, NPS staff with long hoses futilely trying to clean up the mess, bottles of chemicals dumped in but you can’t defeat algae, only contain it, then chips of blue sealant floating to the surface, big sheets peeling up, the networks covering it live 24/7, claims of sabotage, arrests and protesters appearing with banners supporting Algaetifa before the administration gave up, fenced off the pool and drained it.

Oh, and there was no 350 foot yard gash in the pool, caused by a vandal, like Trump claimed. I was there to document the truth the morning the pool went dry, my most popular tweet ever with more than two million views.

The Reflecting Pool is empty now and there is no 300 yard long gash that’s been peeled up. That line running down the middle is for drainage and was there before pic.twitter.com/Z6VXQ7HuSf

— Joe Flood (@joeflood) July 14, 2026

The fix of the Reflecting Pool was supposed to take a week and cost $2 million. Instead, it’s been months and has ballooned to $16 million and counting.

So similar to another water-based quagmire that Trump stumbled into around the same time: the Gulf of Hormuz. He can’t keep either body of water open, defeated by algae at home and Iran abroad.

Like I said in the NPR story, “The Reflecting Pool was fine.” The pool did what it was supposed to do – reflect water. Maybe it was a little murky at times but at sunrise, with the sun coming up from behind the Capitol, no one noticed. It was a gorgeous Washington vista that seemed timeless and inviolable until Trump violated it.

Now, the Reflecting Pool is empty, just acres of bare concrete under a summer sky, surrounded by a fence, monitored by security cameras on poles and watched by National Guard soldiers.

---

To support my reporting from DC, donations are appreciated!

The USA vs David Hearn is a bullshit case that will never see trial and is a total waste of court resources.

Hearn was charged with felony destruction of property, one of several “vandals” who allegedly damaged the Washington Monument Reflecting Pool. According to Jeanine Pirro, US Attorney for the District of Columbia, he ripped out a chunk of the pool liner with both hands.

This amazing act of antifa destruction occurred during the middle of the day, with dozens of Park Police and National Guard nearby, none of whom witnessed or recorded it on their bodyworn cameras. It wasn’t captured, either, by the numerous photojournalists present (the Reflecting Pool was in the news) nor by the dozens of tourists with their iPhones. If it was filmed by the security cameras mounted on the Lincoln Memorial, Pirro didn’t mention it.

There is video of him being arrested next to the Reflecting Pool but he’s not holding a piece of pool liner, there’s no ripped pool liner nearby and there’s no paint on his hands.

But Trump wanted a vandal arrested so they found one.

The Arraignment

Hearn was arraigned on the felony in DC Superior Court this morning. He faces up to ten years in prison.

Outside the court, was the largest “court support” demonstration I have ever seen. As his attorney would later argue, Hearn has long-standing ties to the community. That was evident from the number of people who turned out for him.

Many also see this as an abuse of power and a distraction from the real problems of this country, like the affordability crisis and the never-ending quagmire of the Iran War. Their signs read:

The Deflecting Pool: Never Admit Failure

Paint won’t stick; you must acquit

Scapegoat for the Deflecting Pool fail

We are all David Hearn

Trump stuck in a straight of warm ooze

Live via WebEx

After seeing the protest, I rushed home to watch the arraignment via WebEx.

I’m a veteran courtwatcher, having viewed arraignments, status hearings and even trials of chud criminals who do stupid shit and end up before a judge. Most notably, this includes Bryan Betancur, the J6er arrested for touching women’s hair in the Metro. He stalked a friend of mine so I’ve been following his journey through the criminal justice system for more than three years.

Arraignments are typically dismal affairs. Defendants are brought before the court, charges are read and the judge decides whether to release them or not, and under what conditions. It can be depressing, for it is mostly domestic assault cases and the defendants typically test positive for drugs (PCP is a fav).

99% of people are released under personal recognizance, which is a promise to show up back in court. A lot of defendants also receive some kind of restriction, like a stay away order for a person and/or location. Some have to wear a GPS tracker and/or report to pretrial services. You generally only get held if you’re a danger to the community or have a track record of non-compliance (like Betancur).

The USA vs David Hearn was called at 9:30 AM in DC Superior Court. Every seat in the court was taken by supporters and members of the media. There were also two overflow rooms and the WebEx was filled with newbies who had their cameras on (a no-no). This was a huge difference from a typical day, where people cycle in and out of court as their cases are called, usually with just lawyers, defendants, family and maybe a court watcher or two.

He was officially charged and entered a plea of not guilty. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Reddington asked for stay away order from the Reflecting Pool. Mary Dohrmann, for the defense, argued that Hearn was an upstanding citizen with a long track record in the community and that the charge was capricious, for he had been arrested for a misdemeanor that was then changed to a felony. She asked for no restrictions.

Approach the bench, the judge said, and the husher went on so that the court couldn’t hear their private discussion.

No restrictions or a stay away order, Superior Court Judge Carmen McLean ruled. Personal recognizance. A status hearing was scheduled for August 5 to cover discovery motions and any other issues.

The judge indicated that if there’s a trial, it won’t be until February 2027 because court resources are limited and they are focused on custodial cases, i.e., people who are already locked up. 

Think about that for a moment: there are people languishing in jail, possibly innocent, who can’t get their day in court because the judicial system is busy with the case of a man who reached into the water of the Reflecting Pool.

Also, who isn’t getting prosecuted because the US Attorney Office for DC, already short-staffed, is tied up in this case?

Jeanine Pirro is neglecting her duties to keep the people of DC safe because she’s focused on a political prosecution.

The USA vs David Hearn is a bullshit case that will consume months of time that could be spent putting real criminals behind bars. It will bubble along into next year with discovery motions and status hearings, a waste of effort for all concerned, before the prosecution inevitably drops it shortly before trial.

---

To support my reporting from DC, donations are appreciated!

The Reflecting Pool should’ve been a one-day story but the Trump regime’s refusal to admit the truth has turned it into a never-ending saga of regime incompetence.

Trump was proud that he had painted the Reflecting Pool in “American flag blue.” Without other accomplishments to highlight, it was his signature achievement. He crowed about it in the Oval Office and he even brought his own visual aids. Never mind the Iran War debacle, look at the Reflecting Pool!

When the pool turned green on June 15, a totally natural occurrence, whichever blonde is acting as press secretary could’ve put out a statement reading:

The National Park Service is working on the problem.

That’s it. Shift the blame to NPS and move on.

But, instead, bizarrely, they couldn’t handle the verdant truth so Trump toadies flooded Twitter with AI slop depicting a bright blue Reflecting Pool that did not exist in the real world.

It was absurd. And it wasn’t something that was hard to check, like the Iran War negotiations, it was a body of water in a public park.

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
– 1984

I never thought fascism would be so dumb.

When the public rejected the AI fakery, the regime turned to the old enemy: antifa.

Supposedly, antifascist super soldiers slipped into the heart of Washington, evaded the National Guard patrols and caused the algae bloom. What started out as a story on a satiric site (the header read: this is not real) became something that was believed by millions of gullible and way too online Trump supporters who earnestly thought that antifa had dumped “concentrated Georgia algae” into the Reflecting Pool.

Are they that dumb? Yes, they want to believe.

I saw it with one of the MAGA livestreamers in DC, who filmed herself waddling around the Reflecting Pool. She asked one of the park workers if antifa had sabotaged the pool. “I don’t know anything about that” he replied and she took that as evidence that, yes, the pool had been sabotaged. She had seen it in his eyes!

Or take the case of the “Reflecting Pool Influencer,” a former journalist fired during Trump 1.0 for being too crazy.

For days, she claimed to have photo evidence of antifa sabotage of the pool that would prove that Trump was right when he said that someone had sliced a 350-foot long section of the pool liner with a knife.

But when she revealed her “evidence” it was gaps and marks in the material that cushioned the pool. Was this sloppy work by the contractor? A natural occurrence? 

She also claimed that people threw objects into the pool. Does she have video or photos showing this? Nope.

Reminder: there are cameras everywhere in Washington.

And there are police, too.

If you want to see what a police state looks like, go to the Reflecting Pool. Tourists are outnumbered by agents of the state, including the Park Police, the National Guard, the US Marshals and deputized officers from other states.

They have arrested people for touching the water. When I was there, I witnessed the National Guard rush up to a Swedish journalist after she dipped her hand in the water as she did her report. “This is your one warning!” they shouted.

There are no signs saying that you can’t touch the water. And sometimes you can. Or maybe some people can. Depends on who you ask.

Ok we are getting conflicting information here. Texas
Marshal told me yes, but National Guard told the Swedish media that if she touches it again, it will be her last time🫠🫠 pic.twitter.com/iwSUcTG5h2

— Anarc-y princess (@SatireAP) June 21, 2026

Every day, there’s a new angle on the Reflecting Pool beat. Reporters hang out on park benches, watching for developments. Photographers prowl the pool to get pictures of the police response. Networks livestream the pool for viewers who want to check the color of the water. Online personalities interview tourists, trying to manufacture viral moments. Activists preen for the cameras.

The cries of sabotage and the clumsy acts of fascism have kept this story alive, day after day. Amanda Moore, a journalist who covers the regime, told me that she’d rather be teargassed than cover this never-ending saga of regime incompetence.

The hottest story online this week is the Reflecting Pool.

This 2000 foot long body of water designed to reflect the Washington Monument was recently “fixed” by Donald Trump by painting the bottom of the pool in “American flag blue.”

This achievement of routine maintenance was announced with visual aids by a seated, briefly awake Trump in the Oval Office. Photos – real and fake – were slopped all over the twitters by his compliant social media gremlins.

The libs were wrong! The Reflecting Pool could be fixed and for cheap, too, despite the job ballooning in time and money from Dear Leader’s original one-week, $3 million cost estimate to six weeks and $14 million.

I rolled by a few times and it sure seemed that the Okies who got the no-bid contract (20% profit margin) didn’t know what they were doing as they slopped blue sealant of various hues on the empty Reflecting Pool.

But what the fuck did I know about pools, as I was told many times by MAGA cultists. Mr. Trump is a builder! He’s got a pool guy! Your President gets the job done!

Well.

Days after its triumphal reopening, the Reflecting Pool turned green and continued to turn green until it became a fluorescent color more associated with glow sticks than with nature.

I posted photos and video showing the algae outbreak and the chuds accused me of fake news. That’s old video from Obamer!

Anarchy Princess cleverly shared a video of the green water that was taken by a MAGA livestreamer. When they attacked her, she could say, “Don’t blame me. One of yours filmed this.”

This is from a MAGA livestream today.
The Reflecting Pool is VERY green and VERY disgusting 🤮🤮
Even on the worst days, I never saw it look this bad before. pic.twitter.com/PzReNHr00f

— Anarc-y princess (@SatireAP) June 13, 2026

Since they couldn’t deny reality, they claimed sabotage. Libs somehow destroyed Trump’s great work by dumping huge barrels of algae into this monument in the most heavily surveilled city on earth. 

When that didn’t take, they looked for a non-MAGA scapegoat. A “Reflecting Pool influencer” (yes, there is such a thing) blamed the National Park Service, claiming that algae from the pipes turned the Reflecting Pool green.

Typical. Contractors fuck things up and the regular employees have to fix everything. The “Reflecting Pool influencer” (a real person; read her very entertaining but totally insane Wikipedia) made videos condemning NPS as they stood in slimy water trying to clean up the algae.

Why did the Reflecting Pool turn green? Before the pool was painted, experts predicted that applying dark paint would absorb, not reflect, sunlight and cause the water to heat up. That is what appears to have happened.

Why did this blow up on social media? Every time I posted about the reflecting pool, chuds swarmed me with personal attacks. Anarchy Princess’ tweet got more than 5 million views on Twitter. The story has been covered by NPR, the Guardian, Fox News, the Washington Post – everywhere.

Why did this resonate with the public?

There’s not much Trump can point to as an accomplishment. Cleaning up DC and crowding it with statues is about it.

But after all that AI slop he posted and his rambling Oval Office press conference, the truth was revealed in fluorescent green. Rather than draining the swamp, he created one.

It is also emblematic of everything else he’s fucked up – tariffs, immigration, inflation, gas prices and the Iran War. No amount of Fox News spin or blonde influencers can cover up what Americans see with their own eyes.

It’s as obvious as the green water in the Reflecting Pool.

As we approach the 250th anniversary of American independence, I took three photos that explain what this country is like right now.

Lincoln’s Fight Club

Bedecked with ads for crypto scams and monster trucks, the Lincoln Memorial looks like a scene from Idiocracy. If a time traveler from 2016 arrived and saw this, they would assume that something had gone terribly wrong. They would be right. America elected Donald Trump.

The federal government cannot endorse products. Nor can it accept ads. Yet, it has done both at the Lincoln Memorial, as it turns over this sacred temple to a blood sport.

The law no longer exists in America. Well, it exists for you and me, but if you’re an oligarch, you can do as you please.

Congress, supposedly a co-equal branch of government, refuses to intervene, afraid that a Trump mob will sack the Capitol again.

The only resistance comes from ordinary people, who sue in court, taking on an illegal administration and their dangerous followers. They are braver than any of our so-called leaders.

National Guard Doing Nothing

The National Guard is still here, supposedly to keep DC residents and visitors safe from crime.

The cost of these walking patrols is immense: more than $1 million a day just to have squads of men and women in camo stroll around the National Mall.

They stay in a boutique hotel downtown. I see them all the time in my Logan Circle neighborhood, in front of the Whole Foods, watching shoppers emerge with arugula at 10 AM on a Wednesday morning.

I see them on the Metro, too, but only in the DC stations, but not in MD or VA, as if crime magically stops when it crosses an invisible border. They’re useless here, too. I watched a woman slip through the faregate without paying; the Guard were busy on their phones and didn’t notice.

We could’ve used their help over the winter, when DC was hit with a massive snowstorm. Nope, they just walked around and watched as the city dug itself out.

Maybe not totally useless; they have been busy brutalizing DC residents (especially teens) after dark. One unit stole a couple of DC flags and displayed them as war trophies.

I wonder about their true purpose. If ordered by Trump, will they shoot Americans?

A Lone Protester

A friend of mine who lives abroad asked why Americans are so quiescent? Why aren’t they in the streets setting fire to things?

It’s dangerous to protest. Get your face on social media and you could be doxxed by chuds or investigated by a three-letter agency.

Also, because we’re optimists. Raised on an idealized version of this country, we just assume that things will work because of our system of checks and balances. The MAGA cult cannot last because it is innately un-American to worship one man as a king.

Lost in our own information bubbles (wizardry employed by the oligarchs to distract), it is hard to pierce that illusion.

Rising gas prices will do it. AI slop and breezy Fox News assurances cannot distract people from $4 or $5 gallon gas. Americans may not know who represents them in Congress but they can tell you how much their last fill-up cost.

The Lincoln Memorial turned into a fight club. The National Guard on a mission unknown. A lone protester.

Three photos that sum up the nation’s capital as we approach the 250th anniversary of this great (and possibly doomed) experiment.

Trump has no clout. His latest humiliation arrived courtesy of Morris Day who bailed on his Freedom 250 concert on the National Mall. This man from the “where are they now” file was quickly joined by d-listers such as Young MC and the Commodores, none of whom wanted to perform for the Mad King.

This embarrassing episode was marked by the usual Trumpian incompetence. The performers were not told about the event until they were booked. 

And they didn’t even get the right Milli Vanilli! The duo they invited were a copy of the original musical frauds. A fraud of a fraud.

C+C Music Factory is another group that’s not authentic, leading to the funniest headline I’ve read all year:

Milli Vanilli & C+C Music Factory Factions Clash As Even More Artists Bail On Trump’s Freedom 250 Concerts

Factions! The purported head of the Factory issued an angry statement while sitting on the toilet, working up a SWEAT!

Vanilla Ice, of course, is still in because he needs someplace to go during the day. 

The musicians that dropped out of Freedom 250 know a loser when they see one. And they know that they can rebuff the Mad King without penalty.

A Losing Streak

Trump has been losing all year. Remember when Canada was going to be the 51st state? Trump wanted our neighbors to the north and yet they are still free. 

Greenland defied Dear Leader, too, despite being protected only by polar bears. 

And, of course, Iran. We lost the war, a fact that Trump and the mainstream media refuse to admit. Lost it on the first day when the US Navy sailed out of the Strait of Hormuz not to return. The core duty of a superpower is to keep the sea lanes open. The British lost the crown during the Suez Crisis of 1956, another war of choice in the Middle East with an Israeli ally. History repeats itself.

Domestically, the regime has been losing in court all year, the latest being the Broadview Six case which collapsed under prosecutorial misconduct. 

They don’t know what they are doing…

The Department of Justice purged the competent people (like the January 6th prosecutors) and replaced them with recent graduates and loanees from JAG who are unfamiliar with the criminal system.

I’ve been following the Metro Hair Toucher case in DC. It’s personal, since he stalked a friend of mine. You can watch criminal proceedings on Zoom and it is worrying. I watched a judge wave a law book at a government attorney and ask him if he understood a statute. He ordered the lawyer come to the bench so that they could read it together. It was humiliating, like being called to the front of the class by teacher.

They can’t even win against the bicyclists! A judge stopped the National Park Service from destroying the 15th St bike lane, since NPS didn’t follow any of its own rules and regulations.

Trump is a bully but the only people he can beat up on are people in his own family. I don’t mean his blood family; I mean the MAGA cult.

So, he does that, taking out his frustrations on allies like Senator John Cornyn, who he saw replaced with the corrupt and evil Ken Paxton. His intervention may turn Texas blue.

And in another manic act of dementia, he’s taken a paint brush to Washington, slathering the Reflecting Pool in blue and cluttering Freedom Plaza with statues, including one of a Delaware slavemaster.

The fountain in Meridian Hill Park has been fixed, something that the chuds in my mentions love to crow about. That’s their big accomplishment? Gas prices have soared, food is becoming unaffordable and millions are out of work but the fountain is ON. Hurrah!

There is an online rumor that Trump is going to put a statue of himself in Lafayette Square. Seems unbelievable but so did slapping his name on the Kennedy Center or staging a UFC fight on the South Lawn.

The Emperor Cannot Stay Awake

This is all going to end badly, and more quickly than we think.

Trump is dying. He cannot stay awake in his own Cabinet meetings, even with toadies like Marco Rubio shouting praise into his ear. He can barely stand and spends every night mad-tweeting while his doctors fabricate his medical record.

Like Hitler, Trump is going to tear it all down before he leaves this earth, unwilling to allow a world without his presence in it.

The good news is that he’s surrounded by incompetents. It will be Gotterdammerung meets Idiocracy. The Ring Cycle but written by a fool and performed by Vanilla Ice.

During Trump 1.0, I always assumed it would end with me fleeing the city as it was struck by disaster. January 6th was close to that.

Trump 2.0 will end in similar fashion. But bigger. More spectacular. A grand finale for the American Empire.

---

Follow me on Twitter, Bluesky, or Instagram for more DC content. Donations are appreciated, too!

Like a modern-day Nero, Trump is obsessed with statues.

His latest abomination is to clutter Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC, with a jumble drawer of figurines that represent “heroes” in American history.

The plaza is a big, treeless space near the White House that is used primarily by skateboarders during the week and demonstrators on the weekend. It was home to the anti-capitalist OccupyDC protest in 2011 and pro-Trump rallies in 2020. The park also hosts 5K races, street parties, festivals and more.

Freedom Plaza offers a wonderful view down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol. Or did, because now Trump’s statue party obstructs the view.

One of the “heroes” blocking the view is Caesar Rodney, a Delaware slaveholder who raced to Philadelphia to sign the Declaration of Independence. His statue was removed from Wilmington in 2020.

Trump loves his slavemasters. Rodney isn’t the first old white racist he’s placed on a plinth in DC. Last year, he returned Albert Pike to a position of honor in Judiciary Square after he had been dethroned in 2020. Pike was an incompetent Confederate General considered a traitor by both sides during the Civil War – a role model for Trump.

The Park Police assigned a 24/7 guard for the statue after it was reinstalled, which demonstrates how important racist symbols are to Dear Leader.

He also took action against another statue, the Trump-Epstein Friendship Statue. In the middle of the night, the Park Police destroyed this permitted artwork that satires the relationship between Trump and Epstein. 

For all those who say that art doesn’t matter, look how much time the regime spends on creating and destroying statues. They know the power of art.

These statues will be around long after we’re gone. They communicate to future generations what we valued. Statues are like time-capsules, demonstrating what we thought was important enough to preserve.

From tariffs to the Iran War, Trump has fucked everything up, but he can clutter DC with tacky statues in a futile attempt to beat the judgement of history.

The good news is that statues can be removed. New ones installed. We can wipe clean the stain on the nation’s capital. 

“You’re sloppy! You’re not even matching! You look like General Custer’s illegitimate son!”

Three years ago today, I became Red Bike Guy, getting my fifteen minutes of fame for heckling the Patriot Front as they demonstrated in Washington, DC.

Seeing yourself go famous is a surreal experience. It was a whirlwind as I was interviewed on CNN, watched Rachel Maddow sing my praises and saw my name everywhere from the local news to publications halfway around the world.

I’m glad that I went viral for something good. It was overwhelming, at times, and I have a lot of sympathy for people caught up in the social media storm. Every day, social media picks a hero and a villain and I was lucky enough to be the hero. (My book of short stories, LIKES, explores the dangers of social media fame.)

A lot has happened since May 13, 2023. Here’s what has changed and remained the same for Red Bike Guy:

• I still ride red bikes. I’m a huge fan of Capital Bikeshare, the bikesharing system in the nation’s capital. Their red bikes are ubiquitous here and now have been joined by sturdy, gray, electric steeds. The e-bikes are a blast and the best way to get around DC.
• I wrote a book. How I Became Red Bike Guy is a memoir of life in DC during Trump 1.0, explaining how I went from a cynical observer of politics to someone who would mock the Patriot Front.
• The torch has been passed to a new generation. When the Patriot Front came to DC in January, a new hero was there to mess up their photo op. Ginger Boi played clown music and got in the face of Thomas Rosseau, the mini-Custer fascist leader. I met Ginger Boi and he said that he was inspired by me!
• The return of Donald Trump is profoundly depressing. You think that flawed America will eventually make the right decision but then your fellow citizens commit an act of national suicide. Now, we’re all living with the consequences, especially in Washington, DC, which has suffered heavily under the regime.
• I’m still involved. Rolling up that day on a red bike in 2023, I expected counterprotestors to be there. When they weren’t, I felt the need to represent my city. Now, I leave the heckling to professionals like Patricia Eguino. Instead, I take photos and collect information, using my communication skills to highlight dangers and the opportunities to disrupt them.
• It’s a dangerous time to speak out. After I heckled the Patriot Front, I talked to a researcher at the Southern Poverty Law Center about my experience. Now, in 2026, this nonprofit has been targeted by the Department of Justice. Across the river in Virginia, the FBI and other agencies are investigating people who left chalk messages criticizing Stephen Miller – the type of shenanigans that occurred all the time in DC, pre-Trump. The regime is using the vast power of the Deep State (irony) to ban criticism of Dear Leader. But if we obey in advance, they win. This is not the time to give up.

I am very fortunate that when my fifteen minutes of fame arrived, it was for something good. Something worthwhile that inspired others. The internet bestowed the name “Red Bike Guy” on me, which I like, too. Not everyone is happy with their viral media monikers. I still get recognized sometimes, but I’m glad for my anonymity.

And I even occasionally get free drinks :) That is what it is like to be the heckler formerly known as Red Bike Guy.