Oh, my goodness gracious, good gods, and golly gee, the Guard in DC and their latest posting is above and beyond. And ridiculous. Once again, Trump’s mind has told him something that is completely divorced from reality. This one is weird and a challenge to understand. Usually, there’s a thread to pull to find out what the cause is for something he has done. Not this time. Definitely not. With appreciation for Raw Story:
The Trump administration has reached the stage of its Reflecting Pool saga where soldiers stand watch over a pond full of algae, and the internet has decided that image needs no embellishment to be devastating. Video circulating Saturday, licensed through FreedomNews.tv, shows National Guard members in uniform posted along the edge of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool while tourists wander past and cleanup equipment idles nearby. The footage spread quickly, and so did the mockery, much of it from across the political spectrum.
Trump made the Guard stand watch over the Reflecting Pool when the cause of the algae and paint peeling had nothing to do with anyone with malicious intent. As multiple readers have told me, along with a different Raw Story article, the green has multiple causes for what should have been expected. It could be from the water system. It could be that the dark paint, combined with sunny and hot weather, created ideal conditions for the algae bloom to start and eventually cover the whole Reflecting Pool. The paint peeling is strictly due to the rushed job (which never should have been done in the first place), which was due to the hydrogen peroxide in a (vain) attempt at killing the algae. No evil anything.
Former RNC chair Michael Steele cut to the obvious question. Responding to a clip of the deployment, he asked simply, “Protect it from what, the algae?” Steven Huffman, posting the same scene, narrated it like a military success story, joked that the Guard and local police “have been dispatched to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to guard the algae” before concluding, “As you can see at the end of this clip, the algae is safe. Well done.”
Others leaned into the absurdity of the optics. Physician Carolyn Barber wrote, “Rest easy, America. The National Guard has been deployed to ensure no one breaches the heavily defended algae pond at the Lincoln Memorial. The republic endures.” Advocate Melanie D’Arrigo tied it to the administration’s spending habits, predicting that “next thing you know, the algae will need a $600 million ballroom.”
These are all hysterically funny! But “defend it from what, the algae?” made me spit coffee on my monitor. There is absolutely no rhyme or reason to have the National Guard at the Pool, unless possibly for optics, ridiculous ones. But overall, it’s something that came from Trump’s head, and we are never going to be able to understand it. The only good thing is all the comments it generated, and there have to be more out there we aren’t seeing.
Beneath the jokes ran a more pointed critique about resources and motive. The account Republicans Against Trump labeled the scene “your tax dollars at work,” framing armed troops at a decorative basin as a waste dressed up as security. Security researcher Robert Graham connected the deployment to the broader enforcement pattern that has accompanied Trump’s vandalism claims, noting that “in support of Trump’s conspiracies about his failures caused by sabotage, multiple police departments and the National Guard are now issuing citations merely for touching the water.” The country is watching armed service members guard standing water while critics ask the question no one in the White House seems willing to answer: guard it from what?
And here we are with the other side. Your tax dollars at work. We absolutely do NOT need to blame the Guard. They had nothing to do with this except follow (stupid) orders. This is just as bad as having them help clean up DC. They are not garbage pickup people. They do not need to stand around a green pool of water. They do not need to issue citations if someone touches it, and they definitely do not need to protect it! Trump’s mind has gone on vacation for this. The only brain cells working right now are suspicious that someone is trying to hurt him because of the green water, because he will do the same thing to anyone since that’s how his mind works. Guard it from what?
See you soon!
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