Hmm, what to believe: deranged vandals or incompetence?
It's really a tough one.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2026/07/16/reflecting-pool-pe...
36% of Americans will believe Vandal destruction
or whatever bullshit BamBam Rubble pushes and it doesn't matter if you have time lapse video showing application error.
First they sack Rome, then they ruin our pool
by Jeff (BGS) 
, A starter home in suburban Tempe, Saturday, July 18, 2026, 05:12 (3 days ago) @ hobbs
Damn Idahoans!
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At night, the ice weasels come.
That's some really thorough research on an utterly hilarious
by Joe I , Thursday, July 16, 2026, 09:56 (5 days ago) @ BPH
and trivial issue, but one that characterizes so much of what is wrong in the moment. Meanwhile, the Administration continues to bilk billions of dollars from US coffers and the American people, while tirelessly working to destroy constitutional freedoms and whitewash critical US history across the land (Guardian: https://archive.ph/psBO8).
Oh yeah, and as Grantland mentions, tonight's speech is expected to be full-on dystopian. Good times, folks!
Sometimes the trivial matters elicit the most public outrage
It's a weird phenomenon. It's like NYC under Bloomberg when people were more outraged by his ban on jumbo sized sodas than stop-and-frisk and other more pernicious shit.
Everything is so baked-in with Trump that I simply don't know what would move the needle for people. But the reflecting pool debacle presents everything wrong with Trump's second term in a way that's accessible to even inattentive citizens. It's got the obvious corruption of the contract, the shoddy work (which, among other things, illustrates the importance of a competitive bid process), malicious prosecutions, the casual and obvious lying by the president and spokespersons, etc. Its triviality is the thing that has the potential to open some eyes: that the administration is reacting the way it is with something so low stakes maybe is more revealing for the average citizen.
I figured something like the tariffs or rising prices as a result of a pointless war with Iran would move the needle -- most citizens actually feel the effects of those policies in a way that should sour them on the president. Maybe we need a trivial scandal to get people to wake up. I don't think this is it, but if summarily executing immigrants and protestors and stuff like that doesn't inspire public outrage commensurate with the seriousness of those actions, maybe the most we can hope for is overreaction to a relatively pointless scandal.
The Atlantic had a good article that said much the same
For those who can read the full thing, link here: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/06/reflecting-pool-america-250-trump/687716/
A few bits:
Trump’s Reflecting Pool debacle is, by definition, a national embarrassment. But America is no stranger to self-inflicted humiliation these days. (See: Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, Qatar’s gift of a luxury jet to Trump.) Why, then, is Trump crashing out so hard about the Reflecting Pool? Why does it stand out as the enduring metaphor for an incompetent administration that can’t stop providing enduring metaphors of its own incompetence?
Poolgate is something more—a textbook example of how the Trump administration operates. It’s a way that one can explore the anatomy of Trump debacles, which tend to unfold in a (roughly) 13-step process. The Reflecting Pool drama is not all the way through this process yet, but I’d bet good money we’ll get there.
The 13 steps:
1. Devise unnecessary spectacle.
2. Disregard expertise.
3. Bypass normal procedures.
4. Declare victory too early (bonus if done by AI-slop post).
5. Spend way more than estimated.
6. Ignore the haters.
7. Realize it is not going well.
8. Bypass normal procedures once again.
9. Allege conspiracy and sabotage.
10. Redeclare victory.
11. More blaming.
12. Losing interest.
13. Pretend it never happened, and move on to the next thing.
Steps 2, 3, 5, and 8 are where the monetary corruption lies. But whether it's Iran, destroying the East Wing, decimating various governmental departments, accepting a new Air Force One from a foreign government, or [pick a Trumpian moment of your own], this is the basic pattern.
It's just more clear and visible - heh, puns - in the green reflecting pool.
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The 2007 ND-UCLA game was a once in a lifetime experience, I hope
It betrays the weakness of the Roy Cohn rules
Steadfastly holding to the Rules work with the credulous on large and complex matters like war and the economy. But refusing to admit error or fault, or to acknowledge even the most mundane and logical explanation that everyone can plainly see, when no stakes are at play, clues enough of the howdedodats into the fact that you might just be lying about other things.
If you've convinced me that spaceships are real, and then when the neighbor kid lobs his toy spaceship over the fence, you insist to me that it also is a real alien ship, I'm probably going to retroactively downgrade my belief in your claims.
That's a really good analogy.
by Joe I , Thursday, July 16, 2026, 15:39 (5 days ago) @ IrishGuard
even if there still remain many people willing to go all in on one's spaceship claim.
Exposing the root of corruption and incompetence in such a tangible scenario as the reflecting pool will hopefully begin to open some eyes that have otherwise remained closed. But who knows...
Tonight's address should be a doozy.
- No text -
Am I correct to understand
that tonight isn't going to be about current actual issues for Americans, but rather more rambling, bumbling bullshit about the 2020 election that he lost?
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"F--- everyone who isn't us."
#Team128
Pretty much
by Jack , Thursday, July 16, 2026, 10:45 (5 days ago) @ Chris
I would rather stick needles in my eyes than watch that crap.
I don’t think the networks are broadcasting it, as they have deemed it a political address. So it will be on FoxNews and Newsmax.