An ideal REFLECTING pool has perfectly still water. That’s why.
It should be mentioned that what they did was totally unnecessary. Trump wanted to paint the pool blue so it resembles the swimming pools he is used to at his McMansion in Florida, and that was what he paid an associate of his 17 mil to do.
All of this is caused by Trump making a stupid, corrupt and costly decision, which pretty much sums up all of his life. It is not part of how the pool is usual serviced.
IIRC it pulls from natural surface waters and may even be a flow through design. It’s not a closed system like a pool. So it will always be getting water from the Potomac or other local sources which are already heavily polluted, and algae and algae like life such as dinoflagellates will instantly bloom with very minor pollution, especially when competing biofilms on the bottom and sides were just removed. Also, I know marine algae is notoriously difficult to filter out by mechanical means, so I assume similar for aquatic. I think that unless it get turned into a closed loop chlorinated swimming pool, the “best” it will ever be is a natural looking reflecting pond for the ducks and geese - and I’m okay with that, I’ll bet the ducks and geese prefer it too.
It does have filtration, but its swamp water, and they chose to fill it in peak algae season.
Off the top of my head:
- The device might look ugly on the National Mall.
- The device might cost about as much, if not more, especially if it’s being run every six hours.
Personally, I think that slavers don’t deserve monuments, i.e. I hope it looks as bad as possible

The reflecting pool is part of the Lincoln Memorial.
Yes, that Lincoln. The one who freed the slaves.…when it was politically convenient to do so to garner support for the war, especially from Britain.
— Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln commanded his soldiers to fight the Confederates to protect another evil: settler colonialism, i.e. the Union. He viewed an undivided
as the more stable version of the settler-colonial project.Every President of
voluntarily helmed a white supremacist settler-colonial entity. There are no good Presidents, and there never will be, because Presidents are categorically monsters. Monsters don’t deserve monuments.That’s called Shifting the Goalpost.
“I don’t like it for this reason!”
Shown that reason doesn’t apply.
“Doesn’t matter, I’m still right because I have a whole other reason!”
I’m sure that’s also not the reason you don’t like it. But it doesn’t matter because, whatever anyone says you’ll have another
excusereason right behind that. Not worth playing that game.That’s called Shifting the Goalpost.
oh my God who the hell cares?Shown that reason doesn’t apply.
Actually you haven’t. Under Lincoln’s presidency, the Union went on to nominally outlaw slavery — except as punishment for a crime. The 13th Amendment has been used to keep penal slavery illegal. Lincoln himself did not personally own slaves, but he was absolutely complicit as a President in maintaining the institution of slavery. So if not a literal slave owner, every President, as the figurehead of a massive institution of slavery, is a slaver by any reasonable definition.
I’m sure that’s also not the reason you don’t like it.
The reason I reject the monuments is because I am an outspoken anarchist and
is a shining beacon on a hill for everything anarchism identifies as wrong [1] about the world, therefore we shouldn’t celebrate people who lead it. Every other “excuse” is a special case of my disgust for systems of oppression and hierarchy.[1] Edited from “I despise” to “anarchism identifies as wrong”, because it’s not about my personal preference, it’s about what these monuments represent, in particular the systems of domination they reinforce. My personal distaste for them is irrelevant to the argument. (Actually, my personal taste is even stronger: I don’t like any monuments, even for people I like, because hero worship is a cognitive distortion.)
Lincoln himself did not personally own slaves, but he was absolutely complicit as a President in maintaining the institution of slavery.
This is maybe the most absolutely deranged thing I have ever read.
Yeah it’s pretty deranged that he chose to do that, and it’s pretty deranged that you pretend like
hasn’t always been a slave nation.Sees instance
Settler detected

Lincoln tricked racist northerners into dying in a war against the most heinous form of slavery the world has ever seen, and he still doesn’t pass your purity test. Fucking wild.
I think that slavers don’t deserve monuments […]
Lincoln himself did not personally own slaves, but [yada, yada, yada]You’re just making a different shift here.
Shifting the definition of slaver, from one commonly understood usage, to your own personal version.But that doesn’t even matter, as you admit that’s not the reason you don’t like it.
The reason you don’t like it, isn’t any rational practical reason. It’s an ideological dogmatism. A decree. Because you don’t like it, other’s shouldn’t be allowed to. Which is kind of funny coming from “an outspoken anarchist”.Shifting the definition of slaver, from one commonly understood usage, to your own personal version.
I literally cited the dictionary definition. A slaver is any person involved in the slave trade.
The reason you don’t like it, isn’t any rational practical reason.
You literally don’t have to have a practical reason to like or not like stuff. Like I could’ve been like “I don’t like the monuments because they look like doo doo” and that is a legitimate aesthetic preference.
Because you don’t like it, other’s shouldn’t be allowed to.
When did I say that others should be banned from liking it? I just want people to understand what the thing they’re liking actually represents, which is the vile
settler-colonial project.Which is kind of funny coming from “an outspoken anarchist”.
I just want people to understand what the thing they’re liking actually represents,
It doesn’t actually represent anything. It’s a public pool.
You just imagine it represents something. Something specific to you.
Just as anyone else could imagine it represents anything else.And what you really want, is to convince others your imagining is real. Because you believe it is. And since you can’t choose what you believe or don’t, all you can do is try to convince others to believe what you do.



