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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   4222 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 3, 2026

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In the Small-Scale Sunday of June 21, 2026, there was this thread talking about the possibility of vandals being the cause of the debacle with the Reflecting Pool and its 2026 renovations. To summarize the various positions of mottizens:

  1. Some think there was vandalism by people who are against the Trump administration.
  2. Some thinks this isn’t vandalism but just the typical problem that would already typically plagues the Reflecting Pool
    1. I assume the implication is that public media is just having TDS
  3. Some thinks this is incompetence at preventing vandalism
  4. I personally thought it was incompetence driven by corruption though concede there are other clear cut case of vandalism (“8647” on the National Mall).

The only person that was ever indicted is former olympian David Hearn, with the grand jury indictment announced by Jeanine Pirro on July 2:

Today, a grand jury has returned a felony indictment against a defendant, David Hearn, for felony destruction of property for which he faces 10 years in prison. The indictment is in response to an incident that occurred on June 19th of 2026 in which the defendant Hearn ripped a piece of recently installed sealant on the bottom of the reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial. The evidence shows will prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Hearn willfully destroyed property at the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. This was a deliberate act to damage the reflecting pool at the National Mall that members of the National Park Service actually have worked hard to restore and have witnessed. By Hearn's own admission on June 19th, he reached down into the pool. Our evidence further shows that the National Park Service employees observed Hearn actually forcefully and violently pulling up and removing the bottom liner with both hands. According to witnesses, Hearn damaged approximately two square feet of sealant from the bottom of the pool. A parks employee actually told Hearn to stop to stop his behavior and stop what he was doing. Hearn reacted by shouting at that park's employee, saying that she cared too much about the reflecting pool. And why did she even care since it wasn't her pool? Now, Mr. Hearn's behavior was characterized by witnesses as belligerent, rude, and disrespectful according to National Park Service employees that witnessed the event.

In the same press conference Pirro had this to say when pressed:

Question: Was this part of the pool, you know, there has been some damage. Was this part of the pool specifically if some of the was the uhsealant already partially removed? Can you [garbled] it back and just describe in detail? Because he [garbled] that it looks the same as it did before he arrived. That's his position.

Pirro: You know, I'm not going to get into the evidence, but what I told you is what our witnesses saw and experienced. There was an effort, a violent effort to rip up the sealant from the bottom of the pool. And irrespective of whether or not you know we think that you know there there is some situation needed it we can state and prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he caused damage and that damage is over $1,000.

Well, on Friday, DOJ has moved to dismissed the indictment:

Based upon the initial reports provided by the Department of the Interior (“DOI”) and the USS. Park Police (“USPP”), the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia (“USAO-DC’) presented the grand jury with evidence that damage to the Reflecting Pool was caused by vandals, including the defendant in this case, David Hearn. However, it was not until after the return of the indictment, that the DOI provided additional documents to the USAO-DC indicating that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in June 2026 was the result of flawed installation by the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings (“AIC”), and the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration in the weeks surrounding Independence Day 2026. It was not until after these documents were produced that USAO-DC first became aware of information showing that the damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism as initially represented by DOI. Indeed, USAO-DC could only rely (on the information provided by DOI that the damage was entirely caused by vandals, including the defendant in this case, David Hearn. Because these recently-produced materials significantly undermine the evidentiary basis for the indictment initially supplied by the DOI and U.S. Park Police, the USAO-DC respectfully moves to dismiss the indictment without prejudice.

I highly recommend reading the motion to dismiss, it’s hilarious to see how Pirro’s office is trying to cover their ass by repeatedly pointing fingers at Doug Burgum’s DOI for giving them incomplete information.

My takeaway from this is that my position is correct regarding incompetence. Incompetence at planning the renovations. Incompetence by the contractor and overspraying. Incompetence by DOI officials and personnel in protecting the Reflecting Pool (or at the very least chase down the vandals if they exist). Incompetence by DOI officials in not giving Pirro’s attorney office complete evidentiary information. In fact, I give points to Pirro and her office for approving this dismissal, she must have known that Trump wouldn’t like it:

I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, on the Reflecting Pool. I don’t know what she was thinking? To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM, that included the grass, which had a big 86 47 emblazoned in giant letters on it, and other elements of the surrounding area. There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS! President DJT

[attached image of the 8647 on the national mall]

As for corruption, well I think it’s very likely but it’s also unlikely that Trump’s government or the Republicans would investigate themselves.

I also had the following few thoughts:

  1. Pirro is another female member of the Trump administration that is floating into his crosshairs. Burgum doesn’t when it should be said both the Reflecting Pool and the National Mall are on his watch.
    1. My personal theory is that all the corruption (the government-doled contracts) would be under Burgum so why attack your personal money-maker.
  2. I was researching on no-bid contracts under Obama and Democrats are the one who investigated him. This is reinforcing my thoughts that even if “there is corruption on both side”, the magnitude is different.
    1. Current republicans in Congress are spineless.
    2. Republican voters don’t mind corruption as long as their cultural objectives are satisfied.
    3. Regarding the above, I personally think they’re willing chumps.
    4. Regarding above, I suppose Republicans would call it acceptable tradeoffs.
  3. I still have yet to see video and images of the cuts in the reflecting pool. I’m sure Trump would have loved to “truth” it out.
  4. If there is Trump Derangement Syndrome, there is growing evidence of Reverse Trump Derangement Syndrome where genuinely bad things done by Trump and his administration is downplayed and excused by his supporters.
    1. Which I suppose is what we do for our tribe.

Edit 1: Looks like Trump got some more words today about how much Pirro "folded like an umbrella" and "choked" on this case.

Edit 2: David Hearn was the only one indicted, there were at least 3 others also charged and publicly named but their cases were also dropped. Earlier I said David Hearn was the only one charged.

Sure, I’ll take a crack at it, it’s a beautiful night for an argument.

Have you been to Washington DC lately? Trump got the National Guard to clean up the worst of the homeless blight. Union Station looks beautiful right now. Trump got money to turn the fountains back on. They’re gorgeous, they hadn’t been turned on in decades. I was out with a friend near the Capitol at night and we were stunned. I’ve even heard liberals admit that Meridian Hill Park is more beautiful now, thanks to Trump.

There are still some problem spots. There’s a church downtown, I think it’s the one on I street and 5th Northwest, where the ministry lets the homeless congregate on their property in a tent city. Sometimes I’ve seen them congregating on the bridges just within the Virginia boundaries. Virginia doesn’t like them either, but they’re not under Trump’s control and won’t just do what he tells them.

Have you ever been to a Trump property? His hotels are genuinely very nice, his restaurants have good food, the service is excellent. The Trump Hotel in Vegas has a good claim to being the nicest hotel on the Strip. The Trump Hotel in DC has noticeably declined ever since they got turned into the Waldorf — both of the last two times I’ve been there the wait staff have hassled me over $300 because some man who sat at the same table as me walked away to some other side of the room and they wanted to close the table down. And Trump Tower in New York is a gorgeous building that genuinely turned the corner for Manhattan in the 80s. The last time I was there, which admittedly was a few years ago, huge swathes of it had to be closed down to security threats. There are always liberals who want to vandalize it.

So now we come to the Reflecting Pool. There were protesters holding up signs saying that between Trump and the algae, they were rooting for the algae. There’s a minor black market selling chips off the tarp, because people reached their hands in and got some. There are bars all over town where you can order drinks like a “Blue-Green Reflecting Pool Margarita”.

There is, in short, a whole class of people who are cheering for decay, they want to see things break because they get to gloat when it happens, and when it does happen they will deny any responsibility as they cheered it on.

I am now receiving a lecture in incompetence from those people.

Look, it’s actually not a blow to my ego if the pool guys did a shoddy job. That happens sometimes. It’s not like Trump personally drained the pool and laid down the tarp down. He’s just going to get some guys to fix it.

You probably see that as a failure because you’re not used to setbacks because you’ve never built anything.

It’s not like Trump interrupted the left’s stellar record of building things on time and under budget. Those fountains have been off for twenty years and the Reflecting Pool has been collecting algae for at least that long. What did Biden do about it? Bush? Obama spent multiples of what Trump has spent so far and didn’t get any better outcomes. But I don’t get treated to rants about how Obama was incompetent. All I’m hearing here are defenses of how Democrats had such integrity because they conducted go-nowhere investigations so they could get a TV spot about how they’re willing to criticize their president. Maybe if I went looking I could find examples of Republicans criticizing President Trump, I don’t know, it might be really hard.

So it’s Trump’s Fault because, why, exactly? He skipped the biddings process? The famous Washington DC bidding process that always produces great and cheap results on time? The great fantastic bidding process that makes sure no mistakes or setbacks are ever had? Yeah Washington DC works so well why doesn’t Trump follow the Washington DC process? If only we’d spent more money having more meetings everything would have turned out ok. Trump must be too incompetent to hire a contractor.

TLP had this great distinction about omnipotence vs omniscience. The man who chases omnipotence is out in the world acting. The man who chases omniscience sits in the corner watching smugly with the attitude that his “understanding” is actually superior. Trump didn’t follow the rules, which proves he’s incompetent. Because I know what the rules are, which I read in a newspaper just now, I’m actually more competent than Trump.

So here’s something like a flow chart prediction of what will happen next:

  • Trump will hire contractors to fix the Pool again. If the first contractors are found to be at fault, the Federal Government will win back money, and liberals will say this proves Trump is incompetent. If the first contractors are not found to be at fault, liberals will say that Trump is lying and so he must be incompetent.

  • Once the pool is fixed, if it stays fixed, we will all basically move on forever. Liberals will never give credit for fixing the Pool, because the first time he fixed it it didn’t work.

  • If the pool is fixed and gets broken again, this is double proof that Trump is incompetent. In no way would this ever possibly suggest that anybody is trying to break it. If that were possibly true, Trump should be able to indict the vandals in a city that sides 95-5 with the vandals.

Because, at the end of the day, the people cheering for algae and homeless shelters in front of the churches, who will actively sabotage every attempt to clean anything up, will then deny that there could possibly have been any sabotage. The people who won’t build anything will explain why you can’t build anything. Well, actually, we can build anything, we just choose not to, we have to go through all this environmental review, contract bidding, community impact, it’s really complicated.

I’m dreaming of the anti-Trump future. Every town in America has a building permit for high-speed rail from California, and a grocery store run from New York. The fountains are all turned off so we can save money to fight climate change. Elon Musk’s wealth is confiscated so we can give it to someone who knows how to build things, like Barack Obama. And the Reflecting Pool is given over to the algae, in honor of the Piscataway, Pamunkey, Nentego-Nanichoke, and Nanticoke-Lenape tribes, whose land this originally was.

Virginia doesn’t like them either, but they’re not under Trump’s control

Clearly virgina does like them if virginia is inviting them to stay

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