Now that we have a new thread, in order to ensure that this thread continues to meet TL standards and follows the proper guidelines, we will be enforcing the rules in the OP more strictly. Be sure to give them a complete and thorough read before posting!
NOTE: When providing a source, please provide a very brief summary on what it's about and what purpose it adds to the discussion. The supporting statement should clearly explain why the subject is relevant and needs to be discussed. Please follow this rule especially for tweets.
Your supporting statement should always come BEFORE you provide the source.
On June 25 2026 01:56 Acrofales wrote: [quote] That... doesn't hold up to actual probability theory. Unless the flood caused them to change things (like move their campsite to somewhere less likely to flood), the chance of it flooding again this year is exactly as high as it flooding last year.
This is what causes people to build their homes near rivers with the excuse that the "once in a generation" flood happened two years ago, so that means they're safe for a generation...
Agreed. I assumed that Simberto was being sarcastic, since obviously thoughts and prayers and partisan stubbornness are all notoriously terrible at accomplishing anything.
Also, there is a special type of irony attached to a Christian camp being unprepared for a devastating flood.
Yes, i was joking there. I just kind of find bad math to be funny.
I liked it.
Christian camp unprepared for flood isn‘t really something I find entertaining, much like I don‘t find it entertaining when mosques or synagogues get targeted deliberately.
You can be atheist without being straight up anti-religious or taking delight in the desecration of beliefs.
You're not passing.
Elaborate ?
On June 25 2026 15:23 doubleupgradeobbies! wrote:
On June 25 2026 09:24 Vivax wrote:
On June 25 2026 07:18 KwarK wrote:
On June 25 2026 02:20 Simberto wrote:
On June 25 2026 02:07 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:
On June 25 2026 01:56 Acrofales wrote: [quote] That... doesn't hold up to actual probability theory. Unless the flood caused them to change things (like move their campsite to somewhere less likely to flood), the chance of it flooding again this year is exactly as high as it flooding last year.
This is what causes people to build their homes near rivers with the excuse that the "once in a generation" flood happened two years ago, so that means they're safe for a generation...
Agreed. I assumed that Simberto was being sarcastic, since obviously thoughts and prayers and partisan stubbornness are all notoriously terrible at accomplishing anything.
Also, there is a special type of irony attached to a Christian camp being unprepared for a devastating flood.
Yes, i was joking there. I just kind of find bad math to be funny.
I liked it.
Christian camp unprepared for flood isn‘t really something I find entertaining, much like I don‘t find it entertaining when mosques or synagogues get targeted deliberately.
You can be atheist without being straight up anti-religious or taking delight in the desecration of beliefs.
At the same time, you can appreciate that there is a certain irony of people of a faith who's canon feature a great flood, not being prepared for floods.... without that being a desecration of their beliefs.
Being an atheist that doesn't hate religion doesn't mean you never get to laugh at religious people for their religious beliefs. You can treat them like any other idea or deeply held belief. Religious ideas aren't some special class of ideas you can never discuss or critisize, they are just ideas.
The same way critisizing the actions of Israel (or even jews) isn't necessarily anti-semiticism.
Maybe I read special type of irony the wrong way. As in, like it was showing delight.
Oh. No. The flood is a classic destruction myth, especially well-known in Christianity from the Bible. That God would smite this Christian camp with a flood / That Christians wouldn't prepare against the potential of a flood is some kind of irony, I think, but that's not the same thing as saying it's delightful.
Fine, I read it wrong then and got a bit snappy. The floods nowadays are also watery, but not exactly water. Not algae-free either.
Presumably you’re not a native English speaker, so pretty understandable there’s a misunderstanding of a specific bit of phraseology!
Conveying over text is inferior, depending on what its purpose is, which also depends on the expected reader.
Nowadays you need a form of radar when forum posting, apparently. And tire clamps. But I guess enjoying the weather beats focalizing on orchestrated clusterf*cks.
On June 25 2026 03:58 LightSpectra wrote: If you're wealthy and support socialism, you get called a hypocrite. But if you're poor and support socialism, you get called envious.
Yes. That's correct. The addendum is the wealthy are actually envious also.
Power-seeking rich socialists coopt the envy of the naive poor, for self-centered power grabs based on the facade of an ideology that they don't really believe or know can't work as advertised, except a few sincere holdouts like Bernie.
This is why something like "abolish prisons" and "defund the police" get picked up when they have nothing to do with economic policy. They just serve to make worse the lives of normal people, in a way that doesn't affect gated community socialists and multi/hundred millionaire politicians, to distract the normal people from the power grabs and the loss of control and the loss of political and economic freedoms that the rube socialist supporters then suffer. It's control.
On June 25 2026 03:58 LightSpectra wrote: It's almost like it's a bad faith accusation to prevent people from talking about billionaires (and now a trillionaire) existing in a world where child poverty and medical debt are common.
"Talking about billionaires existing" lol. Entire ideology relies on the fixed pie fallacy.
Elon Musk was not born into a pile of $1 trillion in fungible liquid resources that could cure all child poverty and medical debt that he just happened to choose to make rockets and electric cars with.
Wealthy progressive socialists do not want to "talk about" Elon Musk out of the Robin Hood goodness of their heart.
On June 25 2026 06:55 LightSpectra wrote: Whether it was good or bad publicity, it inspired you to learn more about the position of your own impetus. Would you have done so if she took the safe route by saying "of course serial murderers still need to be imprisoned"?
A politician used hyperbole to get people talking? Such a 4D genius move we should all respect.
Whether or not there is a fixed pie is irrelevant when billionaires use their dragon hoards of gold to buy elections and cut taxes, audits, and regulations for themselves, and that hole in government revenue is plugged by cutting social services the working class rely on.
Wealthy progressive socialists do not want to "talk about" Elon Musk out of the Robin Hood goodness of their heart.
Do wealthy conservative Republicans cut his taxes out of the goodness in their hearts, then?
The dem problem is the lack of a good bench. I know they haven't picked a governor since Clinton but none of thr big blue state governors really have a track record to run on nationally. Newsom, Pritzker, Hochul etc. Even Polis's star seems to have faded. All a GOP candidate has to do is point at domestic migration numbers and say "don't make America *insert state*." But Dems keep choosing senators for the most part, but it is a field of mediocrity. Enough in bad times maybe, but that's probably one reason Kamala still leads the polls. There aren't really enticing alternatives. Even people like Ossoff or Warnock seem overhyped, but maybe that's just me. Despite some hype I don't think any of the House members can ultimately win the nom either, much less a general. It really isn't a thing that happens.
On June 25 2026 02:06 GreenHorizons wrote: Democrat's chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus lost their primary to democratic socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier.
Mamdani cast Avila Chevalier as the future of the Democratic Party, saying as he announced his endorsement on MS NOW that she will be “on the front lines” of showing that Democrats “have to be fighting for a vision that reckons with the fact that working people were not left behind just four years ago or 16 years ago. They were left behind a long time before that.”
“And it will take a new generation of leadership to ensure that the heartbeat of this party is once again the struggles of the working class,” Mamdani said.
Avila Chevalier is also a vocal critic of Israel, calling its war against Hamas in Gaza a genocide. A Columbia University alumna, she participated in the pro-Palestinian protests at the university and was present during last year’s standoff with police at Hamilton Hall, which she described as “quite horrific.” She also attended a controversial pro-Palestinian rally the day after Hamas’ 2023 attacks in Israel — an event that Brad Lander, the former city comptroller also sporting Mamdani’s endorsement in his congressional bid, condemned.
Avila Chevalier has voiced support for legislation to block certain arms sales to Israel, also known as the “Block the Bombs” bill. She has also called for abolishing ICE, “Medicare for All” and national tenant protections.
That seems like a reasonably significant development regarding US politics?
Essentially this means:
Unless Democrats go with somethng crazy, like making Hunter their candidate, Republican wins next presidency.
Trump has two huge things against him just from election to 2026:
The Iran war was started under a mishmash of reasons, and none of the main ones were accomplished + Show Spoiler +
Roughly speaking, the toppling of the Iranian regime, retrieval of all nuclear material, demolition of their ballistic missile stockpiles, and *later* permanent reopening of the strait
before we freed up Iran to resume selling oil and operating its proxy Hezbollah and using previously frozen assets. That's somewhere between an absolute surrender and 90% of one.
The energy crisis and the tariffs have individually and collectively hurt the American economy, and Trump's love of tariffs will likely continue to hurt the economy. I've seen it with talking to Republicans of my acquaintance. Their suppliers are hurting and their bottom lines are hurting and their upstream buyers are hurting. This is unlikely to change before the election in 2028.
(If you want to stretch, a third would be the size of the corruption between crypto and Kushner's business and all the other self-dealing which would be too much for me to summarize right now)
Democrats will somehow find a way to ruin it, perhaps, like they managed to turn Biden's 2020 win into Biden failing to hand off the reins and oopsie being forced to and Kamala/Biden's 2024 loss. But it's theirs to lose unless something big happens.
bolded - this was what I was thinking after Trump election, that next one will go to Democrats by default.
Democrats however managed to mess this up: essentially Democrats are now anti Trump or socialists. Socialists - well, yes you have New York and California, but then there are also other states, inhibited by sane people. Anti Trump - "Trump bad" argument is not the one which will work well against "John Smith", if it was Trump first term they would probably won next election, but it isnt.
Generally Republicans are in unique position, where their candidate can say "that was Trump, I am different", because Trump is outlier (if for some reason Trump popularity goes up, they can ride this wave). On the other hand, Democrats have no one to vote for. Thats why, semi jokingly, I said Hunter, his recent tweet outburst made him more likeable than entire Democratic party.
Both parties will be in this position for the 2028 presidential election. This is typical when a president's second term is ending, since there's no true incumbent running for re-election:
The Republican presidential primary can be a spectrum of candidates figuring out how closely they want to align themselves with Trump's presidency / approach (with Vance possibly having the hardest time distancing himself, if he even wants to).
The Democratic presidential primary can be a spectrum of candidates figuring out how closely they want to align themselves with Biden's presidency / approach (with Harris possibly having the hardest time distancing herself, if she even wants to).
Whether or not there is "no one to vote for" is completely subjective and entirely a different subject. Polls this early - years early - are pretty useless indicators of who will do well in the primaries. We'll have to see which platforms each candidate focuses on championing, how they distinguish themselves from their primary opponents, etc.
One thing to keep in mind for Rayzda is he is from Poland originally and likely old enough to remember what USSR communism was like and it was freaking horrible. Especially when you didn’t live in Moscow or St. Petersburg. So when people talk about communism or socialism that is what he thinks of, not the Nordic countries. Then when he hears moronic tankies talking about how it was mostly or all capitalist propaganda and the USSR was mostly good, he then thinks probably everything they say is wrong. And the sad part is all the reasonable people who just want a more equitable system get lumped in with the moronic tankies.
On June 25 2026 22:46 Billyboy wrote: One thing to keep in mind for Rayzda is he is from Poland originally and likely old enough to remember what USSR communism was like and it was freaking horrible. Especially when you didn’t live in Moscow or St. Petersburg. So when people talk about communism or socialism that is what he thinks of, not the Nordic countries. Then when he hears moronic tankies talking about how it was mostly or all capitalist propaganda and the USSR was mostly good, he then thinks probably everything they say is wrong. And the sad part is all the reasonable people who just want a more equitable system get lumped in with the moronic tankies.
Do we have to bear it in mind all that much?
I mean I was showered in glass by a huge bomb the next street over at a police station as a youngster, have a family member who was killed by the IRA. I’m perfectly capable of not hating Irish people and my partner is Irish incidentally
If Razyda can’t differentiate literal USSR Communism from like, milquetoast capitalism with some redistributive elements that’s on him
I’m not indulging that, we’re all adults here, plenty of people make plenty of good, informative and interesting posts.
The lumping in is a very intentional process to try to tarnish the reasonable with the unreasonable, it’s an effective trap but it’s not one somebody has to jump into necessarily
I think understanding where people long standing beliefs come from is the best way to know how respond in ways that they understand. Now if you just want to dunk on rayzda by all means do, can’t claim innocence on that personally.
But in the bigger picture this is was people who are fighting for democratic socialism have to fight for. They need to make it clear that they are not aiming to be the USSR or whatever awful thing China is.
Ingram “ will any democrat urge people to not vandalize the reflecting pool”
Harwood “ will any Fox News anchor urge Donald Trump to stop telling preposterous lies so dumb that third-grader would spot them.”
In before Oblade shows up to say how the (Trump led) fbi doctored all the video footage of the amphifa frogs entering the pool and making 2000 foot gash in it.
On June 25 2026 23:15 Billyboy wrote: I think understanding where people long standing beliefs come from is the best way to know how respond in ways that they understand. Now if you just want to dunk on rayzda by all means do, can’t claim innocence on that personally.
But in the bigger picture this is was people who are fighting for democratic socialism have to fight for. They need to make it clear that they are not aiming to be the USSR or whatever awful thing China is.
How much clearer can many of them make it?
I mean it’s hard, sure. But I don’t really think one is fighting against USSR or Chinese associations, they’re more an excuse. What you’re often fighting against is ‘I don’t want to do thing x you’re proposing’, but shrouded in other justifications.
People don’t want to do the thing, and if they don’t want to do the thing they don’t. Many will say they’re ok with the thing, they just don’t want things to go full USSR and that’s their issue. But the US is obviously not remotely close to the USSR, and going full Occam’s on it, they just don’t like that suite of policies.
Which, fine but you end up trying to morph the message to appeal to people who say ‘if only x’ who aren’t being particularly honest on that to begin with.
On June 25 2026 23:15 Billyboy wrote: I think understanding where people long standing beliefs come from is the best way to know how respond in ways that they understand. Now if you just want to dunk on rayzda by all means do, can’t claim innocence on that personally.
But in the bigger picture this is was people who are fighting for democratic socialism have to fight for. They need to make it clear that they are not aiming to be the USSR or whatever awful thing China is.
How much clearer can many of them make it?
I mean it’s hard, sure. But I don’t really think one is fighting against USSR or Chinese associations, they’re more an excuse. What you’re often fighting against is ‘I don’t want to do thing x you’re proposing’, but shrouded in other justifications.
People don’t want to do the thing, and if they don’t want to do the thing they don’t. Many will say they’re ok with the thing, they just don’t want things to go full USSR and that’s their issue. But the US is obviously not remotely close to the USSR, and going full Occam’s on it, they just don’t like that suite of policies.
Which, fine but you end up trying to morph the message to appeal to people who say ‘if only x’ who aren’t being particularly honest on that to begin with.
I think if you interacted with MAGA people and conservatives over here on the regular you would be surprised at how many people think you mean that kind of socialism, and how many ascribe to the slippery slope style of thinking. I also think when people talk to our far leftist they do not realize that USSR is basically what he wants and is talking about.
I wish our words more distinct and people were more direct, but neither of those things are ever getting fixed. So what are you going to do?
On June 25 2026 23:15 Billyboy wrote: I think understanding where people long standing beliefs come from is the best way to know how respond in ways that they understand. Now if you just want to dunk on rayzda by all means do, can’t claim innocence on that personally.
But in the bigger picture this is was people who are fighting for democratic socialism have to fight for. They need to make it clear that they are not aiming to be the USSR or whatever awful thing China is.
How much clearer can many of them make it?
I mean it’s hard, sure. But I don’t really think one is fighting against USSR or Chinese associations, they’re more an excuse. What you’re often fighting against is ‘I don’t want to do thing x you’re proposing’, but shrouded in other justifications.
People don’t want to do the thing, and if they don’t want to do the thing they don’t. Many will say they’re ok with the thing, they just don’t want things to go full USSR and that’s their issue. But the US is obviously not remotely close to the USSR, and going full Occam’s on it, they just don’t like that suite of policies.
Which, fine but you end up trying to morph the message to appeal to people who say ‘if only x’ who aren’t being particularly honest on that to begin with.
I think if you interacted with MAGA people and conservatives over here on the regular you would be surprised at how many people think you mean that kind of socialism, and how many ascribe to the slippery slope style of thinking. I also think when people talk to our far leftist they do not realize that USSR is basically what he wants and is talking about.
I wish our words more distinct and people were more direct, but neither of those things are ever getting fixed. So what are you going to do?
On June 25 2026 02:06 GreenHorizons wrote: Democrat's chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus lost their primary to democratic socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier.
Mamdani cast Avila Chevalier as the future of the Democratic Party, saying as he announced his endorsement on MS NOW that she will be “on the front lines” of showing that Democrats “have to be fighting for a vision that reckons with the fact that working people were not left behind just four years ago or 16 years ago. They were left behind a long time before that.”
“And it will take a new generation of leadership to ensure that the heartbeat of this party is once again the struggles of the working class,” Mamdani said.
Avila Chevalier is also a vocal critic of Israel, calling its war against Hamas in Gaza a genocide. A Columbia University alumna, she participated in the pro-Palestinian protests at the university and was present during last year’s standoff with police at Hamilton Hall, which she described as “quite horrific.” She also attended a controversial pro-Palestinian rally the day after Hamas’ 2023 attacks in Israel — an event that Brad Lander, the former city comptroller also sporting Mamdani’s endorsement in his congressional bid, condemned.
Avila Chevalier has voiced support for legislation to block certain arms sales to Israel, also known as the “Block the Bombs” bill. She has also called for abolishing ICE, “Medicare for All” and national tenant protections.
That seems like a reasonably significant development regarding US politics?
Essentially this means:
Unless Democrats go with somethng crazy, like making Hunter their candidate, Republican wins next presidency.
Trump has two huge things against him just from election to 2026:
The Iran war was started under a mishmash of reasons, and none of the main ones were accomplished + Show Spoiler +
Roughly speaking, the toppling of the Iranian regime, retrieval of all nuclear material, demolition of their ballistic missile stockpiles, and *later* permanent reopening of the strait
before we freed up Iran to resume selling oil and operating its proxy Hezbollah and using previously frozen assets. That's somewhere between an absolute surrender and 90% of one.
The energy crisis and the tariffs have individually and collectively hurt the American economy, and Trump's love of tariffs will likely continue to hurt the economy. I've seen it with talking to Republicans of my acquaintance. Their suppliers are hurting and their bottom lines are hurting and their upstream buyers are hurting. This is unlikely to change before the election in 2028.
(If you want to stretch, a third would be the size of the corruption between crypto and Kushner's business and all the other self-dealing which would be too much for me to summarize right now)
Democrats will somehow find a way to ruin it, perhaps, like they managed to turn Biden's 2020 win into Biden failing to hand off the reins and oopsie being forced to and Kamala/Biden's 2024 loss. But it's theirs to lose unless something big happens.
bolded - this was what I was thinking after Trump election, that next one will go to Democrats by default.
Democrats however managed to mess this up: essentially Democrats are now anti Trump or socialists. Socialists - well, yes you have New York and California, but then there are also other states, inhibited by sane people. Anti Trump - "Trump bad" argument is not the one which will work well against "John Smith", if it was Trump first term they would probably won next election, but it isnt.
Generally Republicans are in unique position, where their candidate can say "that was Trump, I am different", because Trump is outlier (if for some reason Trump popularity goes up, they can ride this wave). On the other hand, Democrats have no one to vote for. Thats why, semi jokingly, I said Hunter, his recent tweet outburst made him more likeable than entire Democratic party.
Trump's frankly obsessive concern with loyalty pulls Republicans behind Trump policies. Who can survive a question like, "I supported Trump when he did it, but I privately disagreed and did nothing, and trust me that I'll do all the good things and none of the bad if I'm elected?" It is difficult for me to imagine anyone but Vance being the nominee, and he's incredibly tied to Trump policies.
On June 25 2026 23:15 Billyboy wrote: I think understanding where people long standing beliefs come from is the best way to know how respond in ways that they understand. Now if you just want to dunk on rayzda by all means do, can’t claim innocence on that personally.
But in the bigger picture this is was people who are fighting for democratic socialism have to fight for. They need to make it clear that they are not aiming to be the USSR or whatever awful thing China is.
How much clearer can many of them make it?
I mean it’s hard, sure. But I don’t really think one is fighting against USSR or Chinese associations, they’re more an excuse. What you’re often fighting against is ‘I don’t want to do thing x you’re proposing’, but shrouded in other justifications.
People don’t want to do the thing, and if they don’t want to do the thing they don’t. Many will say they’re ok with the thing, they just don’t want things to go full USSR and that’s their issue. But the US is obviously not remotely close to the USSR, and going full Occam’s on it, they just don’t like that suite of policies.
Which, fine but you end up trying to morph the message to appeal to people who say ‘if only x’ who aren’t being particularly honest on that to begin with.
The US experience is, sadly, incompetent administration of public funds. It doesn't take going full USSR. You can just look to New York which spends around $37,000 per student (top state or top-3) with below-average reading and absolutely abysmal math testing among the states (and poor red states making crazy gains with very low spending). The bar is literally competence at public services to justify an increase in socialist policies. The same results, and results being untied to spending, is in fact a rational criticism.
I wouldn't even say they're more guilty than the far left in "shroud[ing] in other justifications," since I've heard every excuse in the book for why we can't do it now in the big blue states with massive public budgets. Socialism is an easy sell if California spends $10 billion dollars on light rail and its system becomes the goal of the nation's intercity public transportation, and New York becomes known for safe, brilliant schools with well-paid and high-performing teachers. This is related to the Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson "Abundance" argument about just doing things that work with public monies and reap pro-socialism results. Become competent and effective and show it, not doing the same process of excuse-making that the right does on a slightly larger scale at the current time.
You'd think people who have a living memory of the USSR/Warsaw Pact would be more upset about "secret police arresting people for not having papers on them at all times" or "rolling in the military to crush even the mildest of protests".
Looks like the US army is rolling back their vaccine freedom choice from not to long ago after bases got ravaged with the flu. I bet the people in the right wing “alpha “ male vortex of stupidity and Fox News viewers never even hear how bad the policy ended up working out and why it had to be reversed.
On June 24 2026 04:34 LightSpectra wrote: If the contractor weren't a Trump donor picked for blatantly corrupt reasons, we'd probably have a laugh about the algae but it wouldn't be a major scandal.
It's the combination of nepotism, incompetence, and mouth-foaming about Obama that turned it into a disgrace.
All of the above. I think any time a government completes a big project and it immediately doesn't work and needs to be redone is scandal worthy. And the algae came back comically fast. Also, maybe he didn't come in with foreign policy experience but building and business contracts is the thing Donald J Trump is supposed to be good at. This is his wheelhouse. Also, it was Trump himself who was hyping up the reflecting pool project. The bigger he made it, the funnier it is when it failed.
And the fact that there were no bids and the contract went to Trump's neighbour and donor, in any normal political world, you own that one. This is a personal screw up without a lot of room to blame the bad boyars. But the Party of Personal Responsibility is out here pointing fingers at mysterious vandals cutting the length of football field, arresting curious gawkers (are the mockers next? ).
It's the wreckers, I tell you, infected by the counter-revolutionary spirit.
And oBlade is out here saying the only issue is that it needs to be fixed. The pool is broken. (Ignore how). Fix it. Trump is on the job, ready to fix! erm. It just was 'fixed'. By Trump's guy. And right after it was 'fixed' by Trump's guy, it was broken: algae, liner split, paint peeling. That's the problem. And you think Trump's vandal excuse is reasonable? "Amazin!" JLP. Do you think his claim that together HUSSEIN Obama and Biden spent hundreds of millions on the same pool is also plausible?
On June 23 2026 14:56 Falling wrote: Very good to know that the Arab HUSSEIN Obama and Biden spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the reflecting pool, but he, Donald J Trump, has only spent $14 million (so far) on a no vid contract to donor and neighbour to Donald J Trump.
But if only there weren't so many vandals. Vandals and wreckers. Cutting 290, or 300 foot slit in the Reflecting Pool without anyone noticing. Amazing.
I have a pavlovian reflex to ask oblade what his thoughts on the reflecting pool controversy are ?
Is it A) Ninja vandals B) Obama left too much of a mess to fix the pool C) We don't have all the facts yet and oblade'll give his opinion on this when the official reports comes out in 2 years
Controversy lol.
I feel, based on your two-word answer, like you don't understand why there would be a controversy, or if there is, that it's a meaningless or unimportant one.
So let me break it down in some more specific questions:
A) How do you feel about no-bid contracts being given out by washington for Millions of tax-payer dollars to possibly friends and donors ? Is it ok for the president/government to hand these out ?
Dude.
The pool is broken.
In the 4th Century, Aristotle wrote: For it is a characteristic of an educated man to look for as much precision in each subject as the nature of a particular area of enquiry admits.
Fix the pool.
Millions of dollars is exactly correct. It's not a $200 job and it's not a billion dollar job.
On June 23 2026 21:20 Geiko wrote: B) How do you feel about the president unilaterally deciding on renovations, major changes to landmarks (reflecting pool, white house) without approval from the responsible federal authorities? Are you generally fine with the president bypassing all legal process to get things moving faster ?
Today you learned, to your chagrin, that as actually elected president, whether you like it or not, Trump is the top figure in the entire government and has valid and significant legal authorities that the, let's say, "hall monitor" class of "real government" that you imagine he reports to, does not overrule.
You also learned that no-bid contracts are EXPLICITLY allowed by statute SPECIFICALLY because of urgency, like for example my beautiful country's upcoming 250th birthday.
On June 23 2026 21:20 Geiko wrote: C) What is your opinion on the cause of the new-reflecting pool being filled with algae and the coating being damaged ? If the answer is not "Vandals", are you generally fine with the president blatantly lying about it on TV ? If the answer is "Vandals", could you provide a quick and plausible explanation on how the vandals managed to to pull this off with guards and cctv around ?
Refer to A: The pool is broken.
This can be because it's a 2,000 foot long pool that has been subsiding for decades.
It can be because of vandals.
It can be because of both.
The answer is: Fix the pool.
You do not know DC. I've seen people smoking weed in gazebos* on the grounds of the Capitol.
Your faux skepticism outrage worldview of "How could the people who did this without being arrested or identified possibly do anything to the reflecting pool? Why would any mentally ill person exist who wants to vandalize something they see as being connected to Blumpf?" lacks persuasive merit.
Was there a vandal who did something to the reflecting pool? Certainly plausible. Is that the single and main and but-for cause of the pool needing more work? Answer:Fix the pool.
If today's the day you want to pretend to be a pool expert also I'll entertain your good-faith detailed theories so long as France will agree to foot the bill for the Statue of Liberty's centennial renovations.
On June 23 2026 21:20 Geiko wrote: Thank you for your attention to this matter.
"Even my personality and speech is being assimilated into the person I'm obsessed with"
I never said we shouldn't fix the pool ? Why are you repeating "fix the pool !" ?
I understand your argument is "There was urgency for ´fixing' the pool before July 4th, therefore a no-bid contract is acceptable and legal.". My questions to you: 1) Couldn't this have been forseen since the 250th birthday is not a surprise ? 2) If one is forced to do a no-bid contract, in a normal presidency, wouldn't they want to chose a company that they do not have any links to ? Wouldn't one also want to chose a company that has experience in the sort of works that are required ? I'm asking for your personal opinion, I'm not asking you to tell me "Trump did it, he's the authority and therefore it's legal"
Regarding your answer to B), are you saying that congress (and the people that congress have given power to) are mere "hallway monitors" and the president can disregard the law when he sees fit ?
If I understood correctly, your answer to C) is you don't know why the pool is full of algae with paint pealing off. (And also "fix the pool!"). I agree with you the pool must be fixed. With that out of the way, here is my theory as to why the pool is broken today. Trump gave away a multi-million no-bid contract to his friends and donors who had no prior experience working on a structure of this scale. The team made mistakes, applied an improper coating and didn't take into account temperature rises that come from painting something a darker color. Now Trump os lying about it to protect his friends saying vandals did this. This seems very unlikely seeing that the paint is pealing off over 300feet. That's my theory regarding why a pool that's just been fixed for millions of dollars is still broken today. I'm not saying it's the absolute truth, I'm just saying that that is what makes the most sense to me currently.
Can you give me your reasonable explanation for why the pool is still broken a week after it has been repaired ?
This seems reasonable, but have you considered the counterpoint:
Ninjas with boxcutters and a hatred of pool linings.
Occam's razor is likely the tool they used to slice the pool lining undetected.
The peeling paint and algae looks like government incompetence. If there's anything to the intentional vandalism arrests, the government will have to show the evidence in court. I saw 5 arrested.
What do you mean government incompetence ? I'm assuming the government asked for a pool with no algae or peeling paint. It looks more like contractor incompetence. Or do you mean the government was incompetent because they chose the wrong contractor for the job ?
Oversight, no-bid contracting, the works. You still have submittals for the contract and it's on the government to review them. It's not like multiple competitive bids solves the problem of nobody at the helm reviewing them.
On June 23 2026 14:56 Falling wrote: Very good to know that the Arab HUSSEIN Obama and Biden spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the reflecting pool, but he, Donald J Trump, has only spent $14 million (so far) on a no vid contract to donor and neighbour to Donald J Trump.
But if only there weren't so many vandals. Vandals and wreckers. Cutting 290, or 300 foot slit in the Reflecting Pool without anyone noticing. Amazing.
I have a pavlovian reflex to ask oblade what his thoughts on the reflecting pool controversy are ?
Is it A) Ninja vandals B) Obama left too much of a mess to fix the pool C) We don't have all the facts yet and oblade'll give his opinion on this when the official reports comes out in 2 years
Controversy lol.
I feel, based on your two-word answer, like you don't understand why there would be a controversy, or if there is, that it's a meaningless or unimportant one.
So let me break it down in some more specific questions:
A) How do you feel about no-bid contracts being given out by washington for Millions of tax-payer dollars to possibly friends and donors ? Is it ok for the president/government to hand these out ?
Dude.
The pool is broken.
In the 4th Century, Aristotle wrote: For it is a characteristic of an educated man to look for as much precision in each subject as the nature of a particular area of enquiry admits.
Fix the pool.
Millions of dollars is exactly correct. It's not a $200 job and it's not a billion dollar job.
On June 23 2026 21:20 Geiko wrote: B) How do you feel about the president unilaterally deciding on renovations, major changes to landmarks (reflecting pool, white house) without approval from the responsible federal authorities? Are you generally fine with the president bypassing all legal process to get things moving faster ?
Today you learned, to your chagrin, that as actually elected president, whether you like it or not, Trump is the top figure in the entire government and has valid and significant legal authorities that the, let's say, "hall monitor" class of "real government" that you imagine he reports to, does not overrule.
You also learned that no-bid contracts are EXPLICITLY allowed by statute SPECIFICALLY because of urgency, like for example my beautiful country's upcoming 250th birthday.
On June 23 2026 21:20 Geiko wrote: C) What is your opinion on the cause of the new-reflecting pool being filled with algae and the coating being damaged ? If the answer is not "Vandals", are you generally fine with the president blatantly lying about it on TV ? If the answer is "Vandals", could you provide a quick and plausible explanation on how the vandals managed to to pull this off with guards and cctv around ?
Refer to A: The pool is broken.
This can be because it's a 2,000 foot long pool that has been subsiding for decades.
It can be because of vandals.
It can be because of both.
The answer is: Fix the pool.
You do not know DC. I've seen people smoking weed in gazebos* on the grounds of the Capitol.
Your faux skepticism outrage worldview of "How could the people who did this without being arrested or identified possibly do anything to the reflecting pool? Why would any mentally ill person exist who wants to vandalize something they see as being connected to Blumpf?" lacks persuasive merit.
Was there a vandal who did something to the reflecting pool? Certainly plausible. Is that the single and main and but-for cause of the pool needing more work? Answer:Fix the pool.
If today's the day you want to pretend to be a pool expert also I'll entertain your good-faith detailed theories so long as France will agree to foot the bill for the Statue of Liberty's centennial renovations.
On June 23 2026 21:20 Geiko wrote: Thank you for your attention to this matter.
"Even my personality and speech is being assimilated into the person I'm obsessed with"
I never said we shouldn't fix the pool ? Why are you repeating "fix the pool !" ?
I understand your argument is "There was urgency for ´fixing' the pool before July 4th, therefore a no-bid contract is acceptable and legal.". My questions to you: 1) Couldn't this have been forseen since the 250th birthday is not a surprise ? 2) If one is forced to do a no-bid contract, in a normal presidency, wouldn't they want to chose a company that they do not have any links to ? Wouldn't one also want to chose a company that has experience in the sort of works that are required ? I'm asking for your personal opinion, I'm not asking you to tell me "Trump did it, he's the authority and therefore it's legal"
Regarding your answer to B), are you saying that congress (and the people that congress have given power to) are mere "hallway monitors" and the president can disregard the law when he sees fit ?
If I understood correctly, your answer to C) is you don't know why the pool is full of algae with paint pealing off. (And also "fix the pool!"). I agree with you the pool must be fixed. With that out of the way, here is my theory as to why the pool is broken today. Trump gave away a multi-million no-bid contract to his friends and donors who had no prior experience working on a structure of this scale. The team made mistakes, applied an improper coating and didn't take into account temperature rises that come from painting something a darker color. Now Trump os lying about it to protect his friends saying vandals did this. This seems very unlikely seeing that the paint is pealing off over 300feet. That's my theory regarding why a pool that's just been fixed for millions of dollars is still broken today. I'm not saying it's the absolute truth, I'm just saying that that is what makes the most sense to me currently.
Can you give me your reasonable explanation for why the pool is still broken a week after it has been repaired ?
This seems reasonable, but have you considered the counterpoint:
Ninjas with boxcutters and a hatred of pool linings.
Occam's razor is likely the tool they used to slice the pool lining undetected.
The peeling paint and algae looks like government incompetence. If there's anything to the intentional vandalism arrests, the government will have to show the evidence in court. I saw 5 arrested.
Yeah the 5 arrested is the most interesting to me in the things said because it's the most concrete thing that was said. I imagine further information on that front makes Trump look stupid, but I also don't think it's impossible for someone to have suddenly made it look like people were arrested for cutting the pool lining with a knife.
Trump made the bare claim that there's a ~200ft, later changed to ~350ft, gash in the lining from vandals. That's just not believable. We'll see if anything believable comes up in the initial trial filings. I am expecting something like dropped charges for peeling off paint that's already coming off in strips and chunks.
Minor update: The first court filing related to reflecting pool damage has appeared. On June 9, 2026, after the rehabilitation project was substantially complete, the U.S. Park
Police responded to an NPS report of damage to the reflecting pool, including a caulk over the foam sealant that was cut with a sharp knife or razor and destruction of delaminating surface material. In addition, approximately 70 fence post tops were thrown into the pool.
So a pre-Trump parks service employee is willing to swear that Park Police were called to respond to damage to the reflecting pool surface caused by cuts with a sharp knife or razor. DC District Court
EPT
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