I’ve avoided bringing up the reflecting pool debacle, because it’s just too ridiculous. Trump wasted $16 million in a no-bid contract to one of his cronies, who drained the reflecting pool, painted it badly a dark blue, which then led to an algal bloom, that they tried to correct with buckets of hydrogen peroxide, and then the paint started to peel. None of this is Trump’s fault, he’s now blaming everyone else.
Of the MANY Statues and Fountains that we rebuilt, renovated, cleaned, and fixed, the only one that was Vandalized was the Reflecting Pool, which is being taken care of, ASAP! It has been given a 300 foot long gash, chemicals have been illegally placed in the water, and the beautiful new grass field has been destroyed with a gigantic 86 47 chemically carved into it (Probably inspired by Dirty Cop, James Comey!). Please remember that there is a 10 year prison sentence for the destruction, or even the attempted destruction, of such things – Which will be fully enforced!
Don’t worry, Jeanine Pirro has put everyone ON NOTICE!
Weird, isn’t it, how the pool has been there since 1922, and this is when suddenly the whole thing starts falling apart, right after the president puts this guy in charge.
If they’re going to start handing prison sentences, maybe they should start with the sleazy cigar-chomping clown with the silly haircut. Or the creep who is obsessed with redecorating the US Capitol badly.
Has anyone ever informed such folks that a “1960s used car salesman” vibe isn’t a good look for anyone?
I’m not one to criticize people based on their looks, but this guy is practically a stock cartoon villain. Give him a top hat and he’s 3/4ths the way to Snidely Whiplash.
It sounds like they’ve already started hunting for scapegoats. Fortunately one of the first people they arrested is a former Olympian so the first big public knowledge people have of him won’t be Trump’s lies.
I’m almost as far from DC as PZ is so I won’t get roped into this mess. But if I was I’d want them to be VERY specific about what vandalism they were accusing me of. With the current clown show in the DOJ I feel like you might get lucky and have them describe offenses that could let you point back to what Trump and his cronies have done to it.
I hope they plan to extend this enforcement to the vandals who tore up the White House south lawn, the East Wing, American science and medicine, USAID and more.
NEWS FLASH – the vandals have been identified. The chief suspects are John Barron, John Miller, Carolin Gallego and David Dennison
The minute that guy starts going gray, he’s going to demand photos of Spiderman.
The common saying is that everything Trump touches dies.
He is proving that every day now.
He is literally wrecking Washington DC, one feature at a time.
.1. Tore down the East Wing of the Whitehouse.
.2. Redecorated the Whitehouse, notably the oval office, in a style that probably looked tacky 400 years ago.
All that unnecessary gold colored clutter and gratuitous paintings just look tacky.
.3. Turned the Rose Garden into a patio that is almost never used.
.4. Wrecked the lawn by setting up that UFC cage match.
.5. On to the Reflecting pool where Trump fixed a problem that didn’t exist.
He is really just leaving a trail of destruction behind him.
What is becoming obvious is also Trump’s sheer incompetence.
To take just a few examples.
.1. His handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, which was a disaster and led to his loss in the next election.
He started out OK, setting up the vaccine programs that ultimately ended the lethal phase of the pandemic.
Then he started interfering in counterproductive ways.
All he had to do is step back, let the experts do what they know, and he would have been a hero.
.2. The war in Iran.
No thoughts, no planning, chaos, and a huge loss for the USA.
If he had done nothing, we would be way ahead at this point.
AFAICT, his whole life has been him making messes which other people end up cleaning up.
That worked until the messes got so large that no one could easily clean them up.
jimf “this guy is practically a stock cartoon villain”
Or as Trump would say, he’s “right out of central casting.”
Per the peanut gallery (known as the comment section in these more modern times), you can buy relecting pool paint remover at the Antifa store.
raven @5:
Algae are thriving. And screwworms. And bedbugs!
Maybe he is rebuilding the pool as a suitable breeding pool for his amphibian extra-terrestrial masters? After they spawn, the eggs can easily be incubated inside nearby humans. The climate change and increased carbon dioxide atmosphere makes the world more similar to their home planet. They are exoworld-forming the Earth!
@birgerjohansson #10: You want see the ruins, my friend?
A meme I’ve seen: More people have been arrested for touching the water in the Reflecting Pool than for touching underage girls on Epstein Island.
At least five people arrested in alleged tampering of Reflecting Pool, official says
We need a new term to describe this petty blame redirection. I suggest Trumped-up charges.
I have no idea who that Agatha Christie murder victim is. Can someone elucidate who this slimy case is?
Looks like a used-car salesman and a porn distributor had an unholy offspring.
gijoel, look at the URL of the image, paste the name therein to a search engine.
(https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/files/2026/06/john-cafaro.jpg)
@gijoel #14:
According to a Chris Hayes video clip (7:50): That is John J Carafo, controller of a holding company that owns Greenwater Services. He’s a Trump donor and Mar-a-Lago neighbor. Greenwater was awarded a $1.7m gov contract to install cleaning systems in the pool, and its corporate address is his mansion. Carafo had previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe a corrupt Ohio congressman.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/22/what-happened-dc-reflecting-pool-vandalism-arrest-algae
↓
Another no-bid contract was awarded to a Trump donor who is a neighbor of Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida club. John J Cafaro’s water treatment company got a $1.7m contract for the filtration system intended to address issues with algae.
That Congressman was the late James Traficant who also looked rather interesting.
According to people who know a lot more about this than me, the paint isn’t likely to be a significant cause of the algae. That’s caused by them refilling the whole pool from the municipal water supply, which contains enough phosphates to prevent corrosion of lead pipes, which is also well above the concentration that will provide nutrition to cause massive algal blooms. It happened last time the whole thing was refilled during the Obama administration. It could have been prevented by removing the phosphates from the water, but that would have meant consulting and listening to scientists, which is a bit too high a bar for Trump to clear.
“the only one that was Vandalized was the Reflecting Pool” Along with the Kennedy Centre, The Rose Garden, the East Wing and the rest of the White House.
@drmarcushill #20: Phosphates WERE the important bit, but that expert’s theorized water source was probably mistaken. See this summary of her thread and replies. She acknowledged this in a later SciAm interview.
It turns out knowing your stuff when renovating a reflecting pool matters. With an administration that is always flying ‘by the seat of the pants’ and ‘feels’ Iran will not block the Strait of Hormuz if they are attacked.
.
The next idiot who says leadership does not need any elitisty ‘experts’ should have his face shoved into the slimiest part of the pool.
Boing Boing:
Grandpa Pudding Brains is hunting for vandals in his $14.7 million algae farm
I bet the vandals who drove their armoured vehicles on the newly laid paint won’t be arrested and charged….
https://youtu.be/fZDtYhwhD18?si=WvrpBwEWvxBBySjx
Memorandum to:
United States Attorney for the District of Columbia
re: Vandalism on the National Mall
Recent vandalism on the National Mall — not just the Reflecting Pool, but substantial street damage to Constitution Avenue just north of the Reflecting Pool, destruction of a portion of a government building, and substantial defacing of other government buildings by graffiti — has resulted from a conspiracy of elites. I request and require that you employ the full powers and personnel of your office to investigate and bring to justice not just the low-level henchmen, but the leaders of the conspiracy. There is incontrovertible photographic proof that those leaders’ maintain a business address on Pennsylvania Avenue between 1327 and 1902, although their exact office addresses seem to change from time to time. This photographic proof has been supplemented by audio recordings that appear to be admissible evidence establishing the scope of the conspiracy and unlawful intent.
You have promised to prosecute all of those who vandalized the Reflecting Pool to the fullest extent of the law. That necessarily includes all of the conspirators, and related acts in furtherance of that conspiracy. Do your duty.
Sincerely,
The American Public
Controlling the algae in a shallow pool that size is an entirely separate issue from the new coating peeling off in large sheets.
Surface preparation is the crucial component of resurfacing anything. Any moisture or dirt in the surface will result in exactly what has happened. The lining did not bond, it’s coming off in large chunks and sheets.
DC is known to have a high water table, due to it literally being built on filled in swamp.
I assume the contractors were incompetent, and/or the client decided to ignore the contractor in order to get that pool refilled in time for his sad birthday party. Between this snafu, the Kennedy Center memorial tarp that hides where his name was removed, and his failure of a peace plan, his ego is having a terrible week!
(And it’s only Monday)
Tethys,
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/22/what-happened-dc-reflecting-pool-vandalism-arrest-algae
↓
Who took on the renovation project?
The Trump administration claimed the work needed to be done at “Trump speed”, and bypassed the competitive bidding process typically required for federal projects and awarded a no-bid contract.
This went to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, a Virginia-based business that has not previously won any federal contracts. About $14.7m has been allocated to the firm, which Trump said had previously worked at his golf club in Virginia, though the company did not confirm this tie.
[oops, wrong quotation text, Tethys]
I’m surprised no one has pointed out the logical implications of someone being able to vandalise the 300ft reflecting pool using only a box cutter as Trump claims.
The words that dribble out his demented mouth make no sense at all.
@John
I don’t know who you’re quoting or why. I didn’t ask, and I have seen plenty of the Bubba who did the work. He may or may not be competent. I suspect that coating requires far more drying and curing time than it had before refilling.
I also suspect that subjecting said surface to vehicle traffic would void the warranty completely.
Tethys, it was you I intended to quote, thus your name: “I assume the contractors were incompetent, and/or the client decided to ignore the contractor in order to get that pool refilled in time for his sad birthday party.”
Somehow I pasted the section paragraph over the quotation.
I only noticed after posting, thus the erratum.
Thus, “[oops, wrong quotation text, Tethys]” to indicate the misquotation.
Not the source, the text. I thought that was quite evident. I was wrong.
I understood your error John. I still don’t know why you are answering questions nobody asked. No need to explain tho. I am not surprised by the algae or the grifters utter failure at relining the reflecting pool.
The massive algae bloom is exactly what happens when new ponds are refilled. PH, aeration and constant filtration are rather important components to keeping ponds and pools from turning into pea soup.
Because I told you who the contractor was, so that “I assume the contractors were incompetent, and/or the client decided to ignore the contractor in order to get that pool refilled in time for his sad birthday party.” is subject to examination. I told you the contractor (singular for that, it’s different to the featured one).
It is evident you read neither my adduced link (those two contractors are there) or CA7746 @22, which notes that outcome is conditional.
Ah well. Jon did a good job here, I reckon:
It is evident that you just can’t help yourself snidely explaining things nobody asked in the first place.
A competent contractor would have informed their client of the prerequisites for getting a proper bond with a pool resurfacing/ waterproofing material, and would have refused to rush the job to satisfy a tyrants whims. That did not happen, obviously.
Tethys, how is it problematic at all?
Not explicitly. But “I assume the contractors were incompetent, and/or the client decided to ignore the contractor in order to get that pool refilled in time for his sad birthday party.” is clearly assumption.
I was helpfully informing you about the contractor for that specific activity, so that you need not assume.
Adding information and context, not explaining anything.
It is evident I failed to be unhelpful. It is my nature.
Gotta say, is an epitome of poisoning the well.
Precisely.
Therefore,
Tethys,
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/22/what-happened-dc-reflecting-pool-vandalism-arrest-algae
↓
Who took on the renovation project?
The Trump administration claimed the work needed to be done at “Trump speed”, and bypassed the competitive bidding process typically required for federal projects and awarded a no-bid contract.
This went to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, a Virginia-based business that has not previously won any federal contracts. About $14.7m has been allocated to the firm, which Trump said had previously worked at his golf club in Virginia, though the company did not confirm this tie.
(See? There is no need to assume; it is analytic)
@ 16 and 17 Thanks. I’ve been seeing his face all over Beta this week, but couldn’t work out who he is.
Smear poop in the Capitol, get a pardon. Touch green water, go to jail.