They're going about the algae problem all wrong. They are photosynthetic organisms that need sunlight to survive. So, all they need to do is cover the reflecting pool with a giant tarp.
More to the point, painting the reflecting pool blue, a darker color, increases heat retention and improves the environment for algae growth. Thank you, Sir, say the deplorable algae.
I think this is probably the case. Before the paint job, the concrete gray had its own absorptive characteristics. I don't know the exact absorptive/reflective nature of the original reflecting pool concrete. But now it's a dark blue color and this will probably impart more latent heat into the water than the concrete itself did.
As I noted yesterday, fixing the water pipes and filtering system is the proper way to deal with the algae, but that's a $100MM fix, I've read. Instead we got the Q&D fix, which doesn't seem to fix anything, and won't last very long.
You are correct. One notable exception was when Microsoft told IBM back in the day that they had an operating system for IBM's PC. But they didn't. However they raced back to Seattle, and were able to buy QDOS from the Seattle Computing Company for $50K and that became DOS, and that started the MS Empire. QDOS stood for Quick & Dirty Operating System. MS changed it to Disk Operating System.
Sorry no. Covering an algae invested pool will not solve the problem. Covering a pool will only allow existing algae to thrive. I know because I have a pool, I am the pool 'boy,' and I attended Pool Chemistry U at my local pool shop. What's needed is Shock. And remove floating gunk, much sweeping of sides and bottom, filtration. Frankly, I think Shock works better than cover if we're speaking metaphorically.
That may be true where you live, Alondra, but in the District of Columbia (due to a variety of complex geological and meteorological factors), virtually any problem can be solved with a giant tarp.
And watch as he orders a brilliant american flag tarp to go over the pool. And he hands out a no bid contract to have someone do it. And they install it face down. That is the most fitting way.
But for real, just balance the chems. If the chems are balanced the environment in the water won't allow for algae growth. But those are details that aren't fun to talk about. You can't hold a sign up about how your chemicals are taller than a building
This, Insertname, is actually not a bad idea, though epoxy is a poor choice due to its inherent lack of UV resistance. However, the gist of a solid media isn't the worst idea, though the maintenance would be a bitch.
Both? I also would expect the flag to only have 46 stars and not have 13 stripes. How would the right and trump know what the details are of the flag? They only waive MAGA ones
Or, just throw JFK, Jr. in the reflecting pool . . . he's a human-form Vampire Amoeba.
"Vampire" Amoebas (Vampyrellida): Vampyrella is a genus of amoeba specialized entirely in hunting algae (especially filamentous varieties like Spirogyra).How it eats: Instead of swallowing the algae whole, it latches onto the rigid algal cell wall, bores a precise hole through it, and literally sucks out the green protoplasm inside, leaving an empty glass-like husk behind. (Science News)
Algae thrive on light. But I hear that disinfectant knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning?
I cannot keep the 5gal fish tank in my family room free of algae, regardless of my efforts, because there is too might sunlight on it. I'm not sure why they think pronouncements in ALL CAPS is the solution.
America voted for Trump because they wanted him to run the country like a business, and he is doing exactly what they wanted, running the country like one of his businesses. He tore up the diversity policy, hired some great guys he knows to do the work without any kind of vetting, cooked the books in various ways to siphon off funds and set up slush funds, launched various new product lines in order to take more money from gullible customers, meanwhile he's not worrying about trivial details like costs or quality or competency. And after a certain amount of time, like his businesses, he will leave the country fully bankrupted. Then he'll probably try to start up a new country so he can bankrupt that one, too.
I think it's worse than that, James. America voted for Trump because America has devolved into a decadent, morally vacuous nation. A healthy nation does not give the nuclear codes back to a man who attempted a coup.
Tim, they told us it was because of Biden's economy not because of decadence or moral degeneracy. I do take some glee in watching the moral degenerate tank their beloved economy. Too bad I'm also in that economy.
I find it amusing that America didn't hold 700K excess COVID deaths against Trump, but did hold Biden accountable for the supply chain shocks that resulted from COVID. That tells you all you need to know about the electorate, doesn't it.
I'm in the economy, too, but I'm weathering the storm decently at the moment. Key phrase is "at the moment".
And therefore don't possess the ability to think critically. It must be nice for them to go through their days being told what to think without taking responsibility for their decisions.
This is why the US needs to split up into at least 3 or 4 countries. Let the Bible Belt yahoos live in the Fox Nooze-created world they want to believe in while the rest of us live in reality and don't have to prop up those otherwise failed states.
I've heard repeatedly the rationale by Trump voters of voting for him bcuz he'll run the country (and the world) like a business. Only problem, chowder-heads, is that is a small part of how govts work, especially a world power, at the nat'l & int'l levels.
And, Trumpers, he's failed miserably at the business end of govt, creating yuuuuuggggge deficits.
Rick Wilson tells the story of how he'd sit in focus groups circa 2015-2016 and hear the participants say Trump was the richest man in the world and owned every building in Manhattan. They said this because they believed what they saw on "The Apprentice". Rick would attempt to correct these people, but it was no use. They didn't believe him. It was then Wilson knew we were fucked.
Anyone who uses the "...run the country like a business..." line should be shunned with extreme prejudice, even if they're a *competent* business leader. Let alone this clown show.
Everything trump touches dies, except algae. Go, algae! It is a beautiful reminder of the constant failures of the trump admin and their wasting of taxpayer dollars.
Now I'm picturing a ceremony where Trump shows up dressed as Moses, complete with staff, and dramatically touches the Reflection Pond to clear away the algae.
The problem is that he might have to play both Moses and Pharaoh. Moses was supposed to end the plagues, while Pharaoh was the guy helping cause them. Given how many of today's self-inflicted messes seem to trace back to Trump's decisions, that's a bit of a casting challenge.
On the bright side, if everything Trump touches dies except algae, this may be the first environmental success story of his political career.
He already has his AI "doctor" robes. Maybe AI Dr. Trump can heal the reflecting pool by throwing his magical balls of light at it while tearfully joyous National Park employees, some fighter jets and some floating gorgon headed demons look on.
Depends how we leave it. After a nuclear holocaust, set off because the observably increasingly feeble-minded Felon pushed "The" button believing he was ordering another double-cheeseburger, won't be much for it to start with....
Don't believe the haters, the pool is desperate for a deal, it wants to stay blue. Probably in less than two weeks we will have a signed agreement. The pool will never be able to grow, buy, trade or otherwise acquire algae ever again. - YouTube commenter yesterday
"There’s ‘No Excuse’ for John Bolton… GABRIEL SCHOENFELD revisits the charges against the former national security advisor as he reportedly prepares to plead guilty."
I often wonder if Bolton remembers when he refused to testify in trump's impeachment, at a time when he had standing within the Republican party and enough Senators may have taken him seriously enough to vote to convict. Does he remember that a President convicted during an impeachment can never hold office again?
I remember. I also remember that Bolton was more interested in selling a book to enrich himself, and staying in good standing with a party he hoped would provide him with a lucrative career making speeches...
Why, exactly, should I care about a guy that put himself and his own fortunes ahead of our country's? I don't.
Exactly. It's no different to me than the media - for years they've been wanting us to care about freedom of the press, and for the most part, we have! Only to watch so many of them cave without a fight...
The reflecting pool would be a great production system for algae-based biofuels. It's shallow, gets lots of sunlight, and you can pump CO2 in to help with the growth. This should be looked at as a feature and not a flaw.
Hydrogen peroxide isn't the solution I would have picked, but the guys from the National Park Service did, so, just for fun, let's see what it would take to kill off that algae, shall we?
Hydrogen peroxide is an oxidizing biocide, so it WILL kill algae. It really comes down to effectiveness and that depends on the species of algae, how fast you want this taken care of and the amount of peroxide you need to inject to do that.
The range for effective algae kill for peroxide is really wide because of all that: 50 - 300 ppm as active H2O2, so...
The volume of the reflecting pool, from what I can tell, is 6.75 million gallons. That's 56 million pounds of water. To get to 50 ppm, that would take 3,153 pounds of peroxide. The jugs they were dumping in there yesterday were only 12% active, so you would need 26,271 pounds of that solution. The density of 12% hydrogen peroxide is 8.75 lbs/gallon, so you would need just over 3,000 gallon jugs to do the initial shock treatment.
Seems like a lot more jugs than I was seeing yesterday. And that's just the initial slug. It would have to be maintained at some concentration for some period of time. I did this calculation for the low dosage, 50 ppm, to get to 300 ppm would take six times more stuff.
Just going by personal experience, but the National Parks Service people I've met have been wonderful people. Every one of them has cared a lot about their jobs and maintaining these public spaces.
I don't know when the Reflecting Pool was constructed, but it wasn't yesterday and my guess is it hasn't had the maintenance budget it's needed, just like every park in the country, so they've probably been just keeping it running as best they could with the resources they've had.
Then along comes Musk and Trump and they clean house and fire a lot of very capable people who were keeping all that creaking old infrastructure working. And then Trump comes along with his pool guys who've never done anything like this in their lives and they mess some stuff up. (The color of the pool, I don't think, has much impact on any of this, but only God knows what other mistakes they made.) And then, because it's summer and they drained and refilled the system, they get an algae bloom. Happens all the time. So now what? Well, in a perfect world, they'd feed some copper sulfate to kill off the algae and make sure the filtration system is working to get rid of it. A little skimming and cleaning is probably called for.
But that's not what they did. Don't know why. I wouldn't guess it was sabotage.
I was surprised that wasn't the solution. There must be a pump room somewhere that feeds the Reflecting Pool. Inject some copper sulfate there. No muss, no fuss, no smells, kills the algae. The only downside to copper sulfate is that it produces a lot of sludge and, the more you use it, the more you need, but that's not really a problem in a system like this because there's got to be filtration installed. It's not like they have to dredge the pool. (They might clean it out on some kind of schedule, I suppose.)
And what happens if all that peroxide raises the liquid level of the pool to the point that it sloshes over? Will the EPA declare the entire area a biohazard to humans? Oh, wait, I forgot. The EPA has been neutered and basically destroyed. Carry on.
Well, that wouldn't happen, but shock dosages of oxidizers like that can bleach stuff, like the clothes of the people walking by the pool. And it can smell chlorine-y.
Andrew! This is CLASSIC - made me LOL!! "Or maybe it’s just the fact that, in this case, the fight Trump is losing happens to be one against a single-celled organism."
Trump should be well pleased with the actual outcome of his efforts regarding the National Mall's reflecting pool. I mean, I never got that whole "flag blue" thing to begin with. Next to gold, the color of money is his favorite color, isn't it?
I’m trying to think of another blunder of equally startling proportions in the international policy realm and Hitler invading Russia is the only one I can come up with. Anyone else have anything that is this bad when it comes to unforced errors?
Also, many folks will say that a future threat of a Strait closure is mitigated by the Arab countries finding alternate routes for oil, BUT, there are about a dozen other products that can’t be similarly detoured and so the world economy will continue being held hostage.
Russia invading Afghanistan (10 years and 100,000 lives before defeat )
Keeping it among t***p's heroes there is Putin invading Ukraine (4 years stalemate ) . Russia swept into Crimea (like Venezuela ) in 2014 and thought Ukraine proper would be a piece of cake , like t***p thought about Iran .
Bay of Pigs, but the pull back came early enough to avoid sunk-cost fallacy to make it a perpetual motion policy. Although, 60 years later it looks like a do-over is a possibility.
Actually, Hitler had his meteorologists studying weather patterns. The year he invaded Russia, the forecast was for a mild winter. Napoleon did not have that information and failed. Hitler had information, but weather never listens to humans, and he blundered as well. FYI.
The Sharpie never fails him, never talks smack about him, never shitposts about him on social media... what's not to love about a Sharpie if you are DJT?
Nicholas II deciding that it would be a jolly good idea to intervene in the Austro-Serbian dispute following the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand to prove his commitment to Pan-Slavism and position Russia to capitalise on all the east and central European territories that would be available to conquer if the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires collapsed.
Also Britain and France thinking that this would a fine chance to prove that they could still go toe to toe with near peer powers after a series of one sided and unsatisfactory colonial wars by entering the war on Russia’s side to keep the world safe for autocracy.
That led to World War I, the Russian Revolution and pretty much everything bad that happened in Europe during the 20th century.
It’s funny how all these examples involve Russia.
I’ve been thinking for a while that the closest historical analogue to the contemporary United States is late Imperial Russia. Both continental scale (mostly) contiguous land empires with vast variations in culture, income and economic development between regions with the inter regional resentments those things generate; massive wealth inequality; ethnic tensions around who constitutes a ‘real’ Russian/American; public discourse dominated by conspiracy theories and culture war bullshit; a simmering rural-urban conflict; the spread of cults and folk religions loosely based on Christianity; and an ineffective legislature steamrolled by an over mighty executive. That’s not an exhaustive list.
Even unitary executive theory is an adaptation of the principle of autocracy developed by conservative Russian political thinkers in the 19th century to provide the intellectual scaffolding to support the argument that regional assemblies (zemstvos) and the civil service were illegitimate usurpations of the absolute power of the Tsar to exercise executive authority.
There’s also a parallel to COVID in the famine of 1891-92 which killed roughly the same number of Russians as COVID did Americans while the ruling class in Moscow refused to accept it was happening and did nothing save engage in magical thinking as the death toll mounted. The children who lived through that were hardened and radicalised so tended to be the most vicious during the Revolution on the Land.
I re-read Orlando Figges’ A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924 recently and it’s incredible the number of parallels there are between Russia and the US in the first third or so of the book, which sets out the state of Russian society in the period leading up to the revolution. It was first published in 1996 so Figges wasn’t deliberately trying to draw comparisons with the US of the 2020s.
N.B. This should not be taken as me saying I believe that the US is about to experience a communist revolution; just that something big and almost certainly bad is going to happen to the US at some point in the near future. Russia appeared to be sliding into some form of proto-fascism until WW1 came along, opening up more possibilities and arming the peasantry (by way of desertions from the army - the US rural population is already heavily armed of course).
"National Park Service teams could be seen scurrying around Monday and Tuesday, brandishing pool skimmers and gallon jugs of 12 percent hydrogen peroxide solution in a ferocious attempt to restore the pool to its “American flag blue” glory."
I strongly encourage Tom Emmer or some other degenerate GOP Trump suck-up to propose the easiest fix to this: don't change the reflecting pool, change the stars and stripes. Let's get rid of the red, white, and blue; let's make a new American flag to replace the old, tired rag. Betsy Ross not only is dated, but she was a woman, and that's DEI, so the flag could use a badly needed update. I want Emmer to introduce the Trump Real Updated Magnificent Pennant bill, which ditches Old Glory in favor of a green flag with "Trump and Jesus" inscribed in gold letters. In fact, Trump and Jesus could even be the GOP ticket in 2028. But fixing the pool is hard; changing the flag is much easier.
The algae mess gives us a harmless example to laugh at of the same dumb script that has had devastating consequences in so many other arenas. And is it just me, or do the 'pool guys' with their jugs of hydrogen peroxide remind anyone of the "inject bleach" comments during COVID? Again, much less dangerous but just as cock-eyed.
For the record hydrogen peroxide is perfectly safe for killing algae in ponds. You wouldn't want to splash it on wildlife undiluted or anything but all they're doing is trying to retweak the PH so it's less alkaline, which algae like. Still funny though!
I hope the National Park workers take precautions not to get it on themselves, including goggles and peroxide-resistant gloves. They were apparently using 12% H2O2, not the wimpy 3% H2O2 you get in the drugstore. The 12% version comes with many precautions about not getting it on your skin, near your eyes, etc.
They're going about the algae problem all wrong. They are photosynthetic organisms that need sunlight to survive. So, all they need to do is cover the reflecting pool with a giant tarp.
There is a lot of hydrogen peroxide available now that Pam Bondi has left town . . . . .
Maybe DJT should use some hydrogen peroxide to dye his hair. Oh, it is already. white
Bam!
More to the point, painting the reflecting pool blue, a darker color, increases heat retention and improves the environment for algae growth. Thank you, Sir, say the deplorable algae.
With tears in their eyes.
I think this is probably the case. Before the paint job, the concrete gray had its own absorptive characteristics. I don't know the exact absorptive/reflective nature of the original reflecting pool concrete. But now it's a dark blue color and this will probably impart more latent heat into the water than the concrete itself did.
As I noted yesterday, fixing the water pipes and filtering system is the proper way to deal with the algae, but that's a $100MM fix, I've read. Instead we got the Q&D fix, which doesn't seem to fix anything, and won't last very long.
Q and D rarely works out .
You are correct. One notable exception was when Microsoft told IBM back in the day that they had an operating system for IBM's PC. But they didn't. However they raced back to Seattle, and were able to buy QDOS from the Seattle Computing Company for $50K and that became DOS, and that started the MS Empire. QDOS stood for Quick & Dirty Operating System. MS changed it to Disk Operating System.
Accidental Empires...
A stable genius!
Can we take him, his staff and cabinet, lay them in the algae laden pool, then tightly cover it. Don't open till inauguration day 2029.
If you laid them end-to-end in the Reflecting Pool, I'd be in favor of it.
Dorothy Parker wouldn't be a bit surprised. :-)
Why so soon?
but put sharks in first
Sharks, with frickin' laser beams on their heads... and charge ONE BILLION dollars to release them from the pool ;)
And a plugged in toaster oven , make mine well done .
Why would you want to subject the sharks to such torture?
Sorry no. Covering an algae invested pool will not solve the problem. Covering a pool will only allow existing algae to thrive. I know because I have a pool, I am the pool 'boy,' and I attended Pool Chemistry U at my local pool shop. What's needed is Shock. And remove floating gunk, much sweeping of sides and bottom, filtration. Frankly, I think Shock works better than cover if we're speaking metaphorically.
That may be true where you live, Alondra, but in the District of Columbia (due to a variety of complex geological and meteorological factors), virtually any problem can be solved with a giant tarp.
And watch as he orders a brilliant american flag tarp to go over the pool. And he hands out a no bid contract to have someone do it. And they install it face down. That is the most fitting way.
But for real, just balance the chems. If the chems are balanced the environment in the water won't allow for algae growth. But those are details that aren't fun to talk about. You can't hold a sign up about how your chemicals are taller than a building
Fill the whole thing with clear epoxy. Algae problem over.
Then I can't wait to find out what they screwed up with the epoxy and how they have to fix it again
This, Insertname, is actually not a bad idea, though epoxy is a poor choice due to its inherent lack of UV resistance. However, the gist of a solid media isn't the worst idea, though the maintenance would be a bitch.
Face down or upside down?
Both? I also would expect the flag to only have 46 stars and not have 13 stripes. How would the right and trump know what the details are of the flag? They only waive MAGA ones
Or a Sharpie!
imagine all the big and beautiful things that Trump could draw with a sharpie! oh wait, he NEVER does that........
Justin Lee: Yes! Do the Kennedy Center one better. Put his mug shot on it. Will be perfect for the July 4 shindig.
Or, just throw JFK, Jr. in the reflecting pool . . . he's a human-form Vampire Amoeba.
"Vampire" Amoebas (Vampyrellida): Vampyrella is a genus of amoeba specialized entirely in hunting algae (especially filamentous varieties like Spirogyra).How it eats: Instead of swallowing the algae whole, it latches onto the rigid algal cell wall, bores a precise hole through it, and literally sucks out the green protoplasm inside, leaving an empty glass-like husk behind. (Science News)
R
Since RFK Jr loves snakes, throw him in with a bunch of them.
There’s a gigantic tarp available close by, needlessly covering the front of a prominent D.C. landmark . . .
The reflecting pool is 2,030 feet long. So, to paraphrase a Spielberg classic, "You're gonna need a bigger tarp."
We could lay the Empire State Building on top of it...
You'd still be short...
In addition, cover The White House with a tarp.
Only if you know that the Felon, the Cabinet and Squeeker Johnson are all inside at the time.
And if the tarp is air tight.
Maybe they can shine a powerful light on it?
Algae thrive on light. But I hear that disinfectant knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning?
But will they swallow it, can algae even swallow. Injection is the right answer, Justin.
So, that, you're going to have to use medical doctors with. But it sounds — it sounds interesting to me.
Perhaps something with the power of THE SUN? Where oh where might they find such a device? I'm sure AI can figure it out.
It isn't algae. It's Soylent Green, as the Iranian leadership will continue to kill its ppl w Trump's "peace deal."
touché!
I cannot keep the 5gal fish tank in my family room free of algae, regardless of my efforts, because there is too might sunlight on it. I'm not sure why they think pronouncements in ALL CAPS is the solution.
Justin, they don't understand words longer that one syllable. That's why their favorite is GRIFT.
They can call the color of the tarp "American Flag White"
Yup that will work .
Make sure to use an American Flag Blue tarp. It will look fantastic!!
"Or maybe it’s just the fact that, in this case, the fight Trump is losing happens to be one against a single-celled organism."
Andrew, you deserve a bonus for that descriptive sentence alone!!!
You can’t bribe a one-celled organism. Unfair!
Algae bloom for president!
Who says? Didja ever try it?
That observation from Andrew made me laugh - always a welcome moment.
America voted for Trump because they wanted him to run the country like a business, and he is doing exactly what they wanted, running the country like one of his businesses. He tore up the diversity policy, hired some great guys he knows to do the work without any kind of vetting, cooked the books in various ways to siphon off funds and set up slush funds, launched various new product lines in order to take more money from gullible customers, meanwhile he's not worrying about trivial details like costs or quality or competency. And after a certain amount of time, like his businesses, he will leave the country fully bankrupted. Then he'll probably try to start up a new country so he can bankrupt that one, too.
I think it's worse than that, James. America voted for Trump because America has devolved into a decadent, morally vacuous nation. A healthy nation does not give the nuclear codes back to a man who attempted a coup.
Tim, they told us it was because of Biden's economy not because of decadence or moral degeneracy. I do take some glee in watching the moral degenerate tank their beloved economy. Too bad I'm also in that economy.
I find it amusing that America didn't hold 700K excess COVID deaths against Trump, but did hold Biden accountable for the supply chain shocks that resulted from COVID. That tells you all you need to know about the electorate, doesn't it.
I'm in the economy, too, but I'm weathering the storm decently at the moment. Key phrase is "at the moment".
To be fair, a lot of the electorate views come directly from propaganda mills.
And therefore don't possess the ability to think critically. It must be nice for them to go through their days being told what to think without taking responsibility for their decisions.
This is why the US needs to split up into at least 3 or 4 countries. Let the Bible Belt yahoos live in the Fox Nooze-created world they want to believe in while the rest of us live in reality and don't have to prop up those otherwise failed states.
Too many gullible low information (xtian) voters.
Steve Schmidt could not have said it better!
I've heard repeatedly the rationale by Trump voters of voting for him bcuz he'll run the country (and the world) like a business. Only problem, chowder-heads, is that is a small part of how govts work, especially a world power, at the nat'l & int'l levels.
And, Trumpers, he's failed miserably at the business end of govt, creating yuuuuuggggge deficits.
Rick Wilson tells the story of how he'd sit in focus groups circa 2015-2016 and hear the participants say Trump was the richest man in the world and owned every building in Manhattan. They said this because they believed what they saw on "The Apprentice". Rick would attempt to correct these people, but it was no use. They didn't believe him. It was then Wilson knew we were fucked.
Anyone who uses the "...run the country like a business..." line should be shunned with extreme prejudice, even if they're a *competent* business leader. Let alone this clown show.
and bankruptcies
Yep. DJT run it like his family businesses.
I'm sure Cuba and Greenland can't wait for a Trump Inc. acquisition.
Everything trump touches dies, except algae. Go, algae! It is a beautiful reminder of the constant failures of the trump admin and their wasting of taxpayer dollars.
This point seems t-shirt worthy to me. A picture of algae in the pool with “I survived Trump” below?
Where do I go to get one?
That was a good line! Thanks.
Now I'm picturing a ceremony where Trump shows up dressed as Moses, complete with staff, and dramatically touches the Reflection Pond to clear away the algae.
The problem is that he might have to play both Moses and Pharaoh. Moses was supposed to end the plagues, while Pharaoh was the guy helping cause them. Given how many of today's self-inflicted messes seem to trace back to Trump's decisions, that's a bit of a casting challenge.
On the bright side, if everything Trump touches dies except algae, this may be the first environmental success story of his political career.
He already has his AI "doctor" robes. Maybe AI Dr. Trump can heal the reflecting pool by throwing his magical balls of light at it while tearfully joyous National Park employees, some fighter jets and some floating gorgon headed demons look on.
This is a great comment! I totally laughed out loud at my desk. :)
And the fact that this planet will live on long after we’re gone.
Depends how we leave it. After a nuclear holocaust, set off because the observably increasingly feeble-minded Felon pushed "The" button believing he was ordering another double-cheeseburger, won't be much for it to start with....
I'm on Team Algae!
solve it green
Step 5: Claim victory, the likes of which we've never seen before.
Step 6: Denounce all skeptical observers as "Panicans"
Rinse. Lather. Repeat. Never fails, Andrew.
Step 7: Blame anyone else for the idea when it becomes clear it was a failure.
The REAL, actually perfect solution will take two weeks.
Right. No other President does the things he does. Can’t imagine why!
Don't believe the haters, the pool is desperate for a deal, it wants to stay blue. Probably in less than two weeks we will have a signed agreement. The pool will never be able to grow, buy, trade or otherwise acquire algae ever again. - YouTube commenter yesterday
Now Trump will want $500trillion to re-stock the nation's peroxide supply.
"There’s ‘No Excuse’ for John Bolton… GABRIEL SCHOENFELD revisits the charges against the former national security advisor as he reportedly prepares to plead guilty."
I often wonder if Bolton remembers when he refused to testify in trump's impeachment, at a time when he had standing within the Republican party and enough Senators may have taken him seriously enough to vote to convict. Does he remember that a President convicted during an impeachment can never hold office again?
I remember. I also remember that Bolton was more interested in selling a book to enrich himself, and staying in good standing with a party he hoped would provide him with a lucrative career making speeches...
Why, exactly, should I care about a guy that put himself and his own fortunes ahead of our country's? I don't.
Just think, he wouldn't testify in front of congress because he saved it for his book. Now it could be prison time for the Bolt. Schadenfreude!
Exactly. It's no different to me than the media - for years they've been wanting us to care about freedom of the press, and for the most part, we have! Only to watch so many of them cave without a fight...
His decision bit him in the ass. But, he's so arrogant, well it couldn't be more appropriate.
Bolton always seemed to be a one-trick pony to me. Bomb-Bomb-Bomb....Bomb-bomb-Bomb...Iran...
Since I was formerly GOP...it's like the veil has been totally ripped away revealing their total and complete hypocrisy.
We are back to the allure of money and power theme again.
The reflecting pool would be a great production system for algae-based biofuels. It's shallow, gets lots of sunlight, and you can pump CO2 in to help with the growth. This should be looked at as a feature and not a flaw.
Yah, but biofuels are woke, so...
Don't give them any ideas. We'll only end up subsidizing yet another welfare queen Oklahoma company to do it.
Also superior natural remedies, better even than ivermectin.
Convince the socialites with way too much money that bathing in algae is good for the skin, and they'll be lining up to bathe in it.
Hydrogen peroxide isn't the solution I would have picked, but the guys from the National Park Service did, so, just for fun, let's see what it would take to kill off that algae, shall we?
Hydrogen peroxide is an oxidizing biocide, so it WILL kill algae. It really comes down to effectiveness and that depends on the species of algae, how fast you want this taken care of and the amount of peroxide you need to inject to do that.
The range for effective algae kill for peroxide is really wide because of all that: 50 - 300 ppm as active H2O2, so...
The volume of the reflecting pool, from what I can tell, is 6.75 million gallons. That's 56 million pounds of water. To get to 50 ppm, that would take 3,153 pounds of peroxide. The jugs they were dumping in there yesterday were only 12% active, so you would need 26,271 pounds of that solution. The density of 12% hydrogen peroxide is 8.75 lbs/gallon, so you would need just over 3,000 gallon jugs to do the initial shock treatment.
Seems like a lot more jugs than I was seeing yesterday. And that's just the initial slug. It would have to be maintained at some concentration for some period of time. I did this calculation for the low dosage, 50 ppm, to get to 300 ppm would take six times more stuff.
I was told there would be no math.
;)
I do it so you don't have to...
Says Sarah Longwell.
The public level of incompetence is par for the course.
Is it possible that the Parks ppl know all this and this is actually minor sabotage?
Just going by personal experience, but the National Parks Service people I've met have been wonderful people. Every one of them has cared a lot about their jobs and maintaining these public spaces.
I don't know when the Reflecting Pool was constructed, but it wasn't yesterday and my guess is it hasn't had the maintenance budget it's needed, just like every park in the country, so they've probably been just keeping it running as best they could with the resources they've had.
Then along comes Musk and Trump and they clean house and fire a lot of very capable people who were keeping all that creaking old infrastructure working. And then Trump comes along with his pool guys who've never done anything like this in their lives and they mess some stuff up. (The color of the pool, I don't think, has much impact on any of this, but only God knows what other mistakes they made.) And then, because it's summer and they drained and refilled the system, they get an algae bloom. Happens all the time. So now what? Well, in a perfect world, they'd feed some copper sulfate to kill off the algae and make sure the filtration system is working to get rid of it. A little skimming and cleaning is probably called for.
But that's not what they did. Don't know why. I wouldn't guess it was sabotage.
Copper sulfate helps with algae too.
I was surprised that wasn't the solution. There must be a pump room somewhere that feeds the Reflecting Pool. Inject some copper sulfate there. No muss, no fuss, no smells, kills the algae. The only downside to copper sulfate is that it produces a lot of sludge and, the more you use it, the more you need, but that's not really a problem in a system like this because there's got to be filtration installed. It's not like they have to dredge the pool. (They might clean it out on some kind of schedule, I suppose.)
And what happens if all that peroxide raises the liquid level of the pool to the point that it sloshes over? Will the EPA declare the entire area a biohazard to humans? Oh, wait, I forgot. The EPA has been neutered and basically destroyed. Carry on.
Well, that wouldn't happen, but shock dosages of oxidizers like that can bleach stuff, like the clothes of the people walking by the pool. And it can smell chlorine-y.
...and the paint at the bottom of it...
Andrew! This is CLASSIC - made me LOL!! "Or maybe it’s just the fact that, in this case, the fight Trump is losing happens to be one against a single-celled organism."
Trump should be well pleased with the actual outcome of his efforts regarding the National Mall's reflecting pool. I mean, I never got that whole "flag blue" thing to begin with. Next to gold, the color of money is his favorite color, isn't it?
They should just swap out the blue for green on the flag. Problem solved!
Got an executive order form he can just sign and have a flunkie fill it out with that order?
With a Sharpie. "It's been Red, White, and Green all along!",
I’m trying to think of another blunder of equally startling proportions in the international policy realm and Hitler invading Russia is the only one I can come up with. Anyone else have anything that is this bad when it comes to unforced errors?
Also, many folks will say that a future threat of a Strait closure is mitigated by the Arab countries finding alternate routes for oil, BUT, there are about a dozen other products that can’t be similarly detoured and so the world economy will continue being held hostage.
What a disaster.
Russia invading Afghanistan (10 years and 100,000 lives before defeat )
Keeping it among t***p's heroes there is Putin invading Ukraine (4 years stalemate ) . Russia swept into Crimea (like Venezuela ) in 2014 and thought Ukraine proper would be a piece of cake , like t***p thought about Iran .
Bay of Pigs, but the pull back came early enough to avoid sunk-cost fallacy to make it a perpetual motion policy. Although, 60 years later it looks like a do-over is a possibility.
Actually, Hitler had his meteorologists studying weather patterns. The year he invaded Russia, the forecast was for a mild winter. Napoleon did not have that information and failed. Hitler had information, but weather never listens to humans, and he blundered as well. FYI.
Trump fired all his meteorologists. All he has now is his Sharpie.
The Sharpie never fails him, never talks smack about him, never shitposts about him on social media... what's not to love about a Sharpie if you are DJT?
Nicholas II deciding that it would be a jolly good idea to intervene in the Austro-Serbian dispute following the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand to prove his commitment to Pan-Slavism and position Russia to capitalise on all the east and central European territories that would be available to conquer if the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires collapsed.
Also Britain and France thinking that this would a fine chance to prove that they could still go toe to toe with near peer powers after a series of one sided and unsatisfactory colonial wars by entering the war on Russia’s side to keep the world safe for autocracy.
That led to World War I, the Russian Revolution and pretty much everything bad that happened in Europe during the 20th century.
It’s funny how all these examples involve Russia.
I’ve been thinking for a while that the closest historical analogue to the contemporary United States is late Imperial Russia. Both continental scale (mostly) contiguous land empires with vast variations in culture, income and economic development between regions with the inter regional resentments those things generate; massive wealth inequality; ethnic tensions around who constitutes a ‘real’ Russian/American; public discourse dominated by conspiracy theories and culture war bullshit; a simmering rural-urban conflict; the spread of cults and folk religions loosely based on Christianity; and an ineffective legislature steamrolled by an over mighty executive. That’s not an exhaustive list.
Even unitary executive theory is an adaptation of the principle of autocracy developed by conservative Russian political thinkers in the 19th century to provide the intellectual scaffolding to support the argument that regional assemblies (zemstvos) and the civil service were illegitimate usurpations of the absolute power of the Tsar to exercise executive authority.
There’s also a parallel to COVID in the famine of 1891-92 which killed roughly the same number of Russians as COVID did Americans while the ruling class in Moscow refused to accept it was happening and did nothing save engage in magical thinking as the death toll mounted. The children who lived through that were hardened and radicalised so tended to be the most vicious during the Revolution on the Land.
I re-read Orlando Figges’ A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924 recently and it’s incredible the number of parallels there are between Russia and the US in the first third or so of the book, which sets out the state of Russian society in the period leading up to the revolution. It was first published in 1996 so Figges wasn’t deliberately trying to draw comparisons with the US of the 2020s.
N.B. This should not be taken as me saying I believe that the US is about to experience a communist revolution; just that something big and almost certainly bad is going to happen to the US at some point in the near future. Russia appeared to be sliding into some form of proto-fascism until WW1 came along, opening up more possibilities and arming the peasantry (by way of desertions from the army - the US rural population is already heavily armed of course).
When Team Canada didn't use Wayne Gretzky in the shootout at the World Cup, and they lost to Sweden?
Grrr. Wayne Gretzky. Don't remind me. He loves Trump.
"National Park Service teams could be seen scurrying around Monday and Tuesday, brandishing pool skimmers and gallon jugs of 12 percent hydrogen peroxide solution in a ferocious attempt to restore the pool to its “American flag blue” glory."
I strongly encourage Tom Emmer or some other degenerate GOP Trump suck-up to propose the easiest fix to this: don't change the reflecting pool, change the stars and stripes. Let's get rid of the red, white, and blue; let's make a new American flag to replace the old, tired rag. Betsy Ross not only is dated, but she was a woman, and that's DEI, so the flag could use a badly needed update. I want Emmer to introduce the Trump Real Updated Magnificent Pennant bill, which ditches Old Glory in favor of a green flag with "Trump and Jesus" inscribed in gold letters. In fact, Trump and Jesus could even be the GOP ticket in 2028. But fixing the pool is hard; changing the flag is much easier.
With enough green Sharpies, they could color most of the blue out of DC before the Freedom 250 Trump rally.
The algae mess gives us a harmless example to laugh at of the same dumb script that has had devastating consequences in so many other arenas. And is it just me, or do the 'pool guys' with their jugs of hydrogen peroxide remind anyone of the "inject bleach" comments during COVID? Again, much less dangerous but just as cock-eyed.
For the record hydrogen peroxide is perfectly safe for killing algae in ponds. You wouldn't want to splash it on wildlife undiluted or anything but all they're doing is trying to retweak the PH so it's less alkaline, which algae like. Still funny though!
I hope the National Park workers take precautions not to get it on themselves, including goggles and peroxide-resistant gloves. They were apparently using 12% H2O2, not the wimpy 3% H2O2 you get in the drugstore. The 12% version comes with many precautions about not getting it on your skin, near your eyes, etc.
It's number 45,653,287 on the list of "Stupid Decisions Made By Affluent Morons Who Mistook Their Wealth for Expertise."
Egger’s summary of Trump’s solution process is totally on target. No matter the size or scope of the issue, the process is always the same.
"...the fight Trump is losing happens to be one against a single-celled organism" --
that nevertheless has more functioning brain cells than Trump and the people who voted for him.
Trump outsmarted once again.