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.
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.
Leave a Reply