I & I Editorial BoardA reader chastised us for an editorial we’d written a couple of weeks ago about the left’s unhinged reaction to the Reflecting Pool work that President Donald Trump had authorized.
“This article aged like milk,” the reader commented. “Paint is already peeling off and floating to the top. The real question is who got the $14MM and why was it a no-bid contract? Those are illegal.”
Let’s back up a bit. Before the work on the Reflecting Pool was finished — part of Trump’s effort to clean up the city’s monuments before the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration — critics were pulling their hair out, saying that it would ruin the aesthetic by making it look like a swimming pool.
“Was the freakout worth it?” we asked. (See: “Now We Know: The Reflecting Pool Reflects TDS.)
In the days since that editorial ran, problems have emerged with the renovated pool, including the reemergence of algae and the (supposed) peeling of the blue-tinted material applied to the bottom that was meant to seal leaks.
So, has the editorial “aged like milk”? Not if you read it. The point is as valid today as it was then. The freakout was entirely unfounded.
At the time, we had no reason to believe that the work had been done in a shoddy manner. (We’re still not entirely sure that the “peeling paint” story is even true, given the untrustworthiness of the hysterically anti-Trump mainstream reporting these days and the willingness of Trump haters to sabotage things.)
If taxpayers are indeed on the hook for a lousy job, that’s something that has to be rectified. It’s hardly a crisis, however. Although it could be a black mark for Trump, given the amount of time he spent boasting about the project, and because it’s something the public can easily relate to. But even at $14 million, it pales in comparison to the billions lost to Medicaid fraudsters (which doesn’t seem to bother those complaining about the pool in the least).
All this only supports the main point of the editorial. Which is that, as Chicken Little learned, the constant screaming that the sky is falling makes it harder for people to believe you when there actually is a problem, or to have any perspective on its seriousness.
So, we continue to assert that, no matter how boggy it is, the Reflecting Pool reflects TDS with perfect clarity.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
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It also reflects the swamp that is Washington, DC.
The TDS is strong. Further reports are that the pool liner was being damaged by people with knives cutting out sections. Another report had people biting buckets of alga and dumping them into the pool. I do not know if that algae report is true but I was a picture of the liners that was obviously cut. These people are NUTS!
I’m sure it was the biggest act of vandalism ever, period; the people who did it were also eating cats and dogs; and meanwhile, thousands of Muslims in Jersey City were cheering. But don’t worry. The President has the concept of a plan to fix it. He’ll have it done in 24 hours and make Mexico pay for it. Right?
Trump Derangement Syndrome. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
If MIchael Crognale’s assertions are correct then the only thing the Reflecting Pool reflects is the lengths that the rabid TDS curs will go in order to defame President Trump.
So this article argues that even if the US President did authorize an expensive, illegal no-bid contract to a low-quality crony and it resulted in defacing an iconic national monument, medicare fraud exists so the critics are the ones who are wrong? Did I get that right? Then do you agree the tan suit thing was overblown too? (Rolls eyes.)