Trump administration blames Obama after Reflecting Pool turns green after $14M refurb
Blaming Obama for his failed 16+ million dollar attempt at entering the algae-based bio fuel industry.
How sad.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-obama-reflecting-pool-washington-green-b2996395.htmlOpen linkView original on lemmy.world761
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On the occasion of Iran's victory US has decided to make the pool green as per Iran's flag red white and green.
Thanks Obama /s
And just like that, an antique meme gets new life!
I doubt it was this, but I hope Obama left one minor prank on his way out, like a whoopie cushion, or an upside down desk drawer.
Obama leaves a letter on the desk for Trump's first day. It reads:
"Mr. President,
On this, your first day in office, congratulations again on your victory. Although it's clear to us both by now that we may never see eye-to-eye on many important issues, I want to express my hope for your success in this new position. Very few people will ever understand the challenges endured while carrying the weight of a nation, if not the entire free world, on one's shoulders like we do. Along those lines, I humbly offer you my full support, putting aside whatever differences we might have, in the interest of serving our shared and highest value, the well-being and advancement of this great country. Should you ever want it, I am prepared and willing to give whatever assistance possible with utmost diligence and discretion.
We're all counting on you. Good luck!
Sincerely,
Barack Obama
P. S. I left a little something in the upper right-hand drawer just to show there's no hard feelings."
After reading it, Trump opens the drawer and hundreds of marbles spill out along with a note card.
I think this why he's so mad at Obama.
I heard it was a ten pound glitter bomb but the rest of the story was the exact same.
Is that why it always looks like glitter makeup got rubbed off on him? I also assumed it was from much worse events.
Yeah no, that’s stripper glitter.
You have the potential to be the next shittywatercolor account
I never stopped saying it lol
"Obama shit my pants"
This guy has Obama Derangement Syndrome.
He is struggling to form new memories so he's stuck on Obama
I'm surprised he didn't blame Biden.
He wanted to but forgot the name. Something with a B. Hillary Obiden or something mm you know that black guy.
He forgot Biden was president in the mean time. Dementia does that to a person.
Do these people not understand that algae tends to grow in water unless the water is treated? For most previous administrations, this would be a rhetorical question, but in this case I’m honestly not sure.
Yould probably need a good developer to understand technical stuff like that! A good developer with great contractors, with whom the developer has a great working relationship!
Maybe we can fill the reflecting pool with Brawndo.
What the hell man? It's got what plants crave. Do you want super algae?
It's got to be better than toilet water though, right?
It also happened in 2012 when the 2 year renovation was completed by Obama and it was pretty bad. I did check to make sure that was true but anyways the algae isn't that abnormal of an occurrence after work was done to it.
What is abnormal is how much focus has been placed on some algae and not the blatantly obvious grift of the taxpayer through the no bid contract that ballooned in cost. Yeah, fuck the algae and it does stem from some mismanagement - that will get cleaned up in the next week or so - but the real story is the disgusting level of corruption.
I just can't get over how wantonly, cartoonishly, absurd "is this even real life" levels of corruption the Trump administration has right now. I mean ... Fuck ... Carter gave up his peanut farm and now we're here?
What is happening to this nation in its 250th year is so ... Only older cringe AF millennials should see this so avert your eyes if you aren't one... >!... So so sooooooo retarded.!<
Apparently it’s been a problem for a while not a constant issue but off and on and I also don’t get it. Just chlorinate the shit out of it? I don’t know why putting a pool liner would matter either way but just nuke it with pool chemicals? It’s not like people go in there or drink it or anything
Ducks get in there, probably other wildlife. Dunno how good that would be for them.
Obama was last president a decade ago
Yeah but that no good Barrack "HUSSEIN" Obaam-a drove over to my pond and poured algae into it! I seent it!
His dementia is so bad he thinks it's still 2018.
Well Obama was so powerful that he still controls the nation but he was also completely ineffectual at the same time. Win win!
Same thing they say about Biden. Sleepy old bumbling idiot. And an evil mastermind that controls literally everything at the same time.
And that's why the reflecting pool was never painted pool-bottom blue, you fucking Orange
Now it's Mother Earth Green.
Obama hasn't been president for a decade. This is so stupid I feel like my brain cells are committing suicide.
I'm still pissed about James Polk buying slaves during his presidency. I carry a grudge.
but the magats will eat it up. #BlameObama
Someone should make a new version of Bame Canada (from South Park), "Blame Obama".
It has to be "thanks obama"
Despite having the exact same number of syllables as ‘blame Canada’ it just doesn’t roll off the tongue the same.
You have braincells left?
At least one left to write thi
F
Fuck, even that one quit before the end of your sentence...
F
"That's what it says: 'Castle Arrrgggghhhh'!"
"Look if he was dying he wouldn't bother carving it he'd just say it!"
"Perhaps he was dictating?"
American families are struggling, the millennial generation may never get to participate in the American dream, and THIS is what their President feels needs his attention?
Not only that, but he fucked it up. He spent attention on it and made it worse than it was before. He's a talented fuckup
See also Iran, his cancelled "Freedom 250" concert, some bankrupt casinos, and pretty much everything else he ever did. And never forget Four Seasons Total Landscaping.
The Four Seasons Total Landscaping is my favourite fuck up of all time. The fact that they still held the press conference there and tried to pass it off as if it was planned is just hilarious! Best representation of the clown show going on over there. It's just a shame they're also fucking evil.
He couldn't even do an insurrection properly and he was the goddamn president at the time.
Incredible, just few hours ago I read a sarcastic piece how Trump will blame this mess on Obama. And now he did it for real.
Nothing new, but this orange piece of shit is the bigest joke the human race has ever brought up. And americans voted him into office..... TWICE. 10 facepalms a second are not enough for this epic failure....
During the Bush administration, they blamed EVERYTHING on Clinton, and by the second term, people were pretty sick of it.
Then Katrina came along, and the administration's response was appallingly terrible, and they were getting called out from every direction.
Finally they tried to blame Clinton for the response somehow, after Bush was into his second term, and the people weren't having it. It was the final straw. The response was so negative, that if Katrina had happened during his first term, there is no way he would have been reelected.
They couldn't blame Clinton after that, and the Bush legacy became that the corruption, negligence, and incompetence of the Bush administration led to the avoidable deaths of over 10,000 Americans (and countless foreign nationals), and the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
I eat the Onion every damn time now because it's literally the same headlines as the actual news.
He cheated and rigged the election twice. Most Americans aren’t THAT dumb.
Even if, big enough of a margin would have to vote for him to hide the cheating. This sucker doesn't deserve 1 vote, but has gotten a big chunk of legit votes regardless.
Three times, if you count 2020. Although, there's a certain irony in the election where he had the most control over the outcome being the one he lost.
So much of 2016 and 2024 were the end result of policy changes Democrats oversaw and facilitated. 2024 was exceptionally galling, as Harris lost states her downticket party allies won, entirely because she'd chosen to take advice from reactionary #NeverTrumpers over her own popular party faithful.
He didn't cheat. Biden didn't cheat, either. What is wrong with you people?
They don't need to cheat. Money= win. No intrigue needed.
I'm a bit sceptical... Who wrote this article and what were it's sources? Could it be AI with The Onion as a source? Wouldn't be the first time a satirical article was used as a source for a real news paper.
Literally a decade since that guy was president...
They probably spent $100 on that and pocketed the millions. Corrupt as fuck.
Oh, absolutely. This is a classic real estate development kickback scheme, which is Trump's Bread & Butter. Why do you think he went on such a tear, renovating the pool, the ballroom, the Kennedy Center, the Arch, etc.? It allows him to hand pick his contractor, so he can choose a guy whom he knows will play ball.
Construction is such a shady industry it's really quite amazing. I assume it's global and not just North America.
Yeah, the dog murderer obviously and blarantly did that with that stupid ad depicting her on a horse.
Some More News' recent episode on maga morons seeing a sliver of concequences was kinda satisfying - seeing a serious person confront Kristi about where the fuck the money went was chefs kiss. The DOGE guys were also hilarious in such a terrible way. It isn't often a Some More News episode is so positive, it was kinda nice for a change.
He NEVER accepts responsibility for anything. It is truly amazing.
Edit: ...for anything BAD.
That's literally what narcissism is. The circuitry in your brain that is responsible for feeling shame and guilt and finding fault within yourself just doesn't exist in an affected brain. The idea that something negative that happened could be his fault is like you trying to understand how 2+2 could possibly equal 5. It doesn't even cross your mind as a thing that's worth considering as a possibility.
I don't think he has a physical brain issue, he's just an utter arse because of his god awful father, which has left him with debilitating daddy issues, and the fact that he was born into wealth and never told no. All of which is not helped by the fact that he has an IQ that a 6-year-old would be embarrassed by, and has dementia on top of all of that.
I believe it is. See my reply to DrSoap in this thread for details, but it's a famously difficult task to put oneself in the mind of another, especially one with a definable mental illness. It's much simpler to imagine evil being an intentional act. It allows us to hate a person we consider evil without any strings attached, because it was their choice to be evil. It's a bit uncomfortable to imagine evil acts being caused by a mental condition that's listed right alongside autism and schizophrenia, which we usually consider as sympathetic, but I think that's what we're dealing with. Most of his followers get roped in with a cult ideology, which is its own bag of worms. To clarify, I don't see this as an excuse, only a reason. It's hard to remember that, in his mind, he's doing the right thing, because he's doing what's best for himself, and that is the only thing that has any value to him. I try to view this sort of thing the way I would see a rabid dog. I don't hate the dog, and I know it's not the dogs fault that it has rabies, but that doesn't mean that it can keep going around biting people either. He has to go away.
In case anyone reads all that, and their only take away is that I don't hate Trump, yes I do, he's in the worst category of humans that plague the planet, but I try to keep these things in mind, because unbridled hate only and always leads to more hate.
It's because the fragility is so great, any bruise to the ego, however small, would shatter their sense of self. They literally can never find a fault in themselves because it would break them and then send them into a full on rage. I think that's why he has his outbursts. Things shatter his narcissistic bubble in a way that he can't refute and he just gets violent and loud as a result.
I don't think you fully understand how narcissistic personality disorder works. If a healthy person starts getting a little too full of themselve, either because of frequent success making them feel infallible, or the Dunning-Kruger effect making them think they know more than they do, they can be brought back down by a reality check, or an embarrassing failure that inescapably shows them that they too have flaws. That's the "shattering" or the "bubble" you're referring to. That's a healthy response. His mind literally doesn't have the capacity to choose "personal failure" as an option for the cause of ANYTHING except positive results, because it isn't even in the drop-down list. It's super tempting to just say that it's because he's an asshole (he is though), but it's a mental illness just like OCD, or schizophrenia. He could probably have masked it a little bit better when he was younger, but the clearly worsening dementia just makes it more obvious now.
Super interesting! I'll read more about it!
That's not fair. He always takes credit when it's something he's not smart enough to understand will make him look bad.
Oh right. I should've clarified. He invented the airplane, won ww2, etc.
That’s why people like him and voted for him. MAGAts see themselves in Agent Orange. They all suffer from neurodegeneracy, because of all the chemicals they have been huffing since childhood. Dementia reduces empathy and increases self-centeredness, which are very similar symptoms to narcissism. And Trump is the most biglyiest narcissist on the planet, believe me.
Also not surprising that rural folk are Trump supporters, they breath in a higher than average amount of Monsanto chemicals every year.
This should be bare minimum litmus test for any representative or even an employee yet many people are simply too naive or dumb to realize this. I just don't understand how could you ever trust a person like that unless your goal is self harm.
Propaganda. Tradition. Wealth.
Let's make it a true reflecting pool and fill it with mercury. I don't know how that could go wrong.
And then throw trump in it.
Now I'm imagining his fat ass skittering over a shiny metal pool like a bug over the water. Not the new image I was expecting, but here we are.
Unfortunately even if you tied an anvil to him he’d float.
Wouldn't have to worry about it evaporating. Great idea.
Let’s make it a real reflecting pool and put a mirror there.
A concave one.
Or shields
Pefect! Then we can make the entirety of Washington DC in miniature around it, with life sized models of each member of the armed forces surrounding it in formation!
I'd get an expensive beating apparatus and float on it for fun
Look, I know a lot of people will find this absurd cause Trump blames people for his failings all the time. But did anyone consider that Obama could have been there with a fleet of dump trucks pouring algae into the water in the middle of the night? He could be the next Banksy because he's so good at covert missions! Wait, let's make him our next super-spy (American James Bond). Also, he stole some jewels[0].
Nah, Obama would have used green jello
Exactly. I still wonder how they pulled it off to make it look like Obama was in the US, while he took down Osama. Also why did they send a whole Seal team with him? Feels like a waste of taxpayers money.
"Advanced nanobubbler technology"? That's what they're calling hydrogen peroxide now?
I'm confused.
At one point, the spokesperson is quoted as saying, "The nanobubbler technology has successfully destroyed the algae bloom that has plagued every pool reopening since 1922 ..."
But then they call it "advanced nanobubbler technology."
Is it more than a century old, or is it advanced? Pick one.
algae blooms have been happening every year since 1922, is pretty clear what that’s saying to me, and the spokesperson is claiming the nanobubbler has stopped that.
Okay, I can see that. I was parsing the sentence differently.
Also, it's happened every year for over a century, but it's totally Obama's fault
Hydron Proxide
A hydrogen peroxide molecule is 0.2 - 0.3 nm. So I suppose we could call it nanotech.
Obama shit Trump's pants too!
It was painted for maximum algae growth. they could also install ozone generators and pumps to mitigate the algae growth. I don't know if it already has any pumping to maintain the movement of the water.
Obama did install ozone generators in 2012.
More info on the renovation.
Prior to the 2010-2012 renovations, it was filled with municipal water, and leaked 500,000 gallons a week, it lacked significant plumbing systems, and had to be drained twice a year and cleaned. It used about 30 million gallons of treated drinking water a year. It also lacked key accessibility features, like paved paths around the pool.
The renovations cost upwards of $34 million. They got the pool off of municipal water and connected it to the tidal basin. They made the pool shallower to use less water, and painted the bottom of the pool a darker color to enhance its ability to reflect the monument.
They didn’t manage to fix all the leaks but who cares when the water comes from the tidal basin that it leaks back into?
I think Trump is doing this to try to step on Obama’s accomplishments while giving hand outs (no bid contracts) to cronies.
It did not need to be done. He’s just an asshole.
They have about 2 weeks (until July 4th) to fix the algae, afterwards Trump couldn’t care less about the pool. It’s likely that Congress will have to step in or it’ll get kicked down the road for the next president to deal with.
And you know that if a Dem wins focks nooz will not shut the fuck up about for months. All the algae will be their fault, desecrating important American monuments, then anything they do to try and repair it will be "this is what they're wasting tax payer dollars on"
I've never been to Washington, but I know the exact layout of the place thanks to 4000 hours in The Division 2. Tidal basin is a fun mission...
I watched my dad die in the Jefferson Memorial. I remember the reflecting pool being so thick with hostile green scum, you'd need military grade hardware to clean it all out.
Wasn't he going to drain the swamp, not build one?
Nice one
Classic narcissistic bullshit. When you cause a problem, blame literally anyone else and never accept responsibility since only weak men do that.
/s (please for the love of god I hope that wasn't needed)
Only weak men would love a man like Trump.
But PBD said Trump is the biggest alpha male in the world /s
Of course he's alpha, he's not remotely prepared for the public.
Obama Derangement Syndrome
It's a sign of a weak man, to never admit ones mistakes while constantly blaming others...
Weak man with small hands.
Oh and also a pedophile. Not related to the pool, just stating the facts, so we don't forget. Pedophile with nuclear codes.
That man finally created his swamp to drain.
Did they turn off the algae treatment system Obama installed?!?
They tore it all out.
A metaphor for the Obama Iran deal
Thaaanks Obama...
You literally cannot make this shit up.
According to data found online about controlling alge in pools with H2O2, they'd need 1800 gallons of H2O2 to treat the reflecting pool.
Here's one:
Thank god they got some army guys there to watch out for him.
This is fucking trump in a nutshell. Cares about appearances and looks while everyone in the country can’t afford rent and food.
My mom is like this but on a family scale.
This is what happens when you let the customer decide on the solution instead of the requirements.
$14 million to expand the Swamp. Algae produces oxygen, leave it alone MAGA morons.
I used to be into aquariums, and now I'm wondering how big a plecostomus could grow if released into a tank of that size?
It would probably get cooked. It's very shallow water with a very dark bottom now. That's a lot of surface area to absorbed heat compared to the water it holds.
How deep is the reflecting pool, and how bad do winters get there? I would suggest nerite snails instead, mostly so assholes don't try to catch and eat the plecos.
Edit: Someone else here suggested daphnia. I dunno why I didn't think of that first, that's much more sensible.
Less than 2 foot deep and it gets cold enough in the winter to freeze solid for ice skating although the NPS hates when people do that.
Only gets hard enough to skate if we're really lucky. Usually isn't even frozen
Wow I would have thought it would freeze quickly since it's so shallow. I remember within the last couple years when the majority of the Potomac was frozen solid and people were walking all the way across.
SNAILS ARE GOOD EATIN' TOO
Ha ha ha these pathetic MAGAts just can’t do anything. Losers supported by losers.
I'm not a chemist or even a pool guy... but isn't algae automatic with any long-standing pool of water that isn't chlorinated? What did they expect? Why are they even angry?
I'm no expert, but I think they were supposed to coat the base of the pool with something and apparently it was a shit job and that's why the algae
Because of course he blames Obama.
Of course.
Does any one else get tired of this childish shit? Or is it just me?
Thanks Obama!
Someone convince Trump to strip down and splash around in it to show how great it is.
That's more of an RFK Jr kind of thing.
You want shit in the pool? That's how you get shit in the pool.
Break out the Presidential plunger
Gross, he probably actually has a golden plunger.
You want RFK Junior in the pool? Because that’s how you get RFK Junior in the pool.
Thanks Obama!
I think the big news here is that the pool leaks 16 million gallons of water every year
At least they switched to using tidal water instead of potable drinking water. Funnily enough, that project happened during the Obama administration and probably is a factor of why they've had problems with algae, so like, technically Trump isn't wrong. What he's leaving out though is that painting the pool blue almost assuredly made the algae problem worse.
You can't paint water, dummy
Stupid US two-party system... in other countries the right-wing morons in government would at least have blamed the Greens for those algae.
Pah, in Chicago they do this on purpose and are proud of it!
Add tons of bleach to make the algae water white, then add tons of blue food coloring. What could possibly go wrong?
That's not how bleach works but he doesn't know that either
i'm waiting for them to try dropping blue paint, or food coloring, or fabric dye into it......
Dude literally suggested that people inject bleach to fight COVID so I'm pretty sure this is a safe bet
They've been pouring hydrogen peroxide into it.
The Aussies are on a bender and fuck Donald Trump the sex offender
Spittin' bars
this is one of the stories I see posted about the most on lemmy. it's funny because if a democrat were president and fox news was the one constantly updating everyone about it we would all be making fun of fox news. in my opinion this isn't really newsworthy and definitely doesn't deserve the amount of attention everyone is giving it.
The reason it should be getting attention is that this was obviously another real estate kickback scheme, which is Trump's bread & butter.
You hand-pick a "friendly" and "experienced" contractor (one you can trust to go along with the scheme), give him a huge contract, he does the work with half the budget, and gives the other half to the guy that gave him the contract. And of course, you can always count on cost overruns to pad it. It's a Classic!
Why do you think Trump is doing all these renovations and construction? The Ballroom, the Arc De Trump, The Claw, the Kennedy Center (they stopped that one), etc.? It's all about generating construction vehicles for kickbacks.
They don't even care if the final product is any good, because the objective is to steal as much money as possible, not have a decent construction outcome. Take the Reflecting Pool: The algae is getting all the attention, but that's just hiding the real story, which is that only a few weeks after being finished, the paint is already peeling off in huge sheets. The entire project, $14 million worth, is already squandered. It didn't even last a month. The construction took longer.
But a quality outcome was never the objective.