Former Olympian among those charged with vandalizing Reflecting Pool

LeafByNiggle · Jun 23, 2026

Servus said:
I'd say suspected vandalism. The factor of people being arrested for it, takes out of the realm of pure hypothesis.

"Suspected" merely transfers the burden of proof onto the Park Police, which is under the direction of the Department of the Interior, headed by MAGA faithful Doug Burgum, who also oversaw the crackdown on wind power in compliance with Trump's wishes. The fact that the Park Police under a Trump faithful arrested the "suspected vandal" proves nothing about the validity of the claim. Appealing to an unreliable source to establish a fact that you cannot establish by direct evidence is the logical fallacy of "appeal to authority". Sometimes such an appeal is reasonable if we both agree that authority can be trusted, which is not the case here. To me it looks like Trump was embarrassed by the failure of his vanity project and directed his underlings to look for some way to blame someone else.

Servus said:
And in that one has to conjecture what the most likely explanation is for that.

I just did. See above.

Servus said:
Which is the police concluded that they committed a crime.

They did not. Even a normal arrest does not imply a conclusion - only a suspicion. In this case I don't think it even implied that because the arrest was likely Trump looking for a scapegoat.

Servus said:
Less likely is the police made false arrests under the orders of the President so he could make up a cover story regarding a relatively small problem with a reflecting pool.

With Trump in charge there is zero risk of anyone getting in trouble by following orders from above. They can always claim they thought the guy might have been guilty. As there is currently zero evidence of a crime other than the action of the Park Police, this arrest will come to nothing - unless some video is found that shows a tool of some kind being used to cut and peel off the coating. Until that happens, it is still a hypothetical crime.

LeafByNiggle · Jun 23, 2026

Servus said:
What about the report that caustic chemicals were put into the water?

That should be easy to verify by chemical analysis of the water. But you should know that polyurea coatings are highly resistant to most caustic chemicals, strong acids, and petroleum products. It takes something like concentrated nitric acid, high concentrations of sulfuric acid, and certain strong solvents like MEK, methylene chloride, or concentrated phenol to degrade, swell, or dissolve the coating. The concentration is the problem. The pool currently contains over 6 million gallons of water. Even if they poured 6,000 gallons of one of these caustic chemical it would be quickly diluted to a concentration of 1:1000. And how could someone pour 6,000 gallons of caustic chemical without being noticed? That would take driving a tanker truck up to the pool. No, this theory does not hold water.

LeafByNiggle · Jun 23, 2026

Servus said:
I've also heard people have thrown in fertilizer to help the algae blooms grow, because they want to mess up the pool as much as possible. The worse it is, they happier they get.

If that were true it would be easy to verify by chemical analysis of the water.

Servus · Jun 23, 2026

LeafByNiggle said:
"Suspected" merely transfers the burden of proof onto the Park Police, which is under the direction of the Department of the Interior, headed by MAGA faithful Doug Burgum, who also oversaw the crackdown on wind power in compliance with Trump's wishes. The fact that the Park Police under a Trump faithful arrested the "suspected vandal" proves nothing about the validity of the claim. Appealing to an unreliable source to establish a fact that you cannot establish by direct evidence is the logical fallacy of "appeal to authority". Sometimes such an appeal is reasonable if we both agree that authority can be trusted, which is not the case here. To me it looks like Trump was embarrassed by the failure of his vanity project and directed his underlings to look for some way to blame someone else.

I just did. See above.

They did not. Even a normal arrest does not imply a conclusion - only a suspicion. In this case I don't think it even implied that because the arrest was likely Trump looking for a scapegoat.

With Trump in charge there is zero risk of anyone getting in trouble by following orders from above. They can always claim they thought the guy might have been guilty. As there is currently zero evidence of a crime other than the action of the Park Police, this arrest will come to nothing - unless some video is found that shows a tool of some kind being used to cut and peel off the coating. Until that happens, it is still a hypothetical crime.

Okay, you're going with the conspiracy theory.

Say it aint so · Jun 23, 2026

Ignoring the obvious. Defend the indefensible. MAGA.

GoldenBoy89 · Jun 23, 2026

Servus said:
Okay, you're going with the conspiracy theory.

The conspiracy theory is that people are purposely trying to sabotage Trump’s pool project.

The most parsimonious explanation is that it was simply a poor job and these are the results.

sjastro · Jun 23, 2026

Servus said:
What about the report that caustic chemicals were put into the water?

If caustic materials such as sodium and potassium hydroxide were added which facilitated a rapid failure of the coating, assuming the entire area of the coating has been compromised which is a reasonable assumption since observed failures are not found in one spot, then a substantial amount would be required for 19 million litres of water in the pool.

This would leave too major pieces of evidence.
(1) The pH of the water must be very alkaline.
(2) Since the water had also turned green due to the presence of algae, high alkalinity would have killed the algae.

This hypothesis is highly unlikely.

durangodawood · Jun 23, 2026

GoldenBoy89 said:
.....The most parsimonious explanation is that it was simply a poor job and these are the results.

And that the president lies, like he's known to do all the time without blinking an eye.

And that the president uses fed law enforcement for malicious purposes. Like he's also known to do. Not as often as he lies, of course. But we're talking actual abuse of power here.

wing2000 · Jun 23, 2026

Servus said:
The US Park Police determined that a crime of vandalism was committed and arrested those they determined committed the crime. That's how it works. Law enforcement determines a crime took place, then they determine who committed the crime, and then they arrest them.

LeafByNiggle said:
"Suspected" merely transfers the burden of proof onto the Park Police, which is under the direction of the Department of the Interior, headed by MAGA faithful Doug Burgum, who also oversaw the crackdown on wind power in compliance with Trump's wishes. The fact that the Park Police under a Trump faithful arrested the "suspected vandal" proves nothing about the validity of the claim. Appealing to an unreliable source to establish a fact that you cannot establish by direct evidence is the logical fallacy of "appeal to authority". Sometimes such an appeal is reasonable if we both agree that authority can be trusted, which is not the case here. To me it looks like Trump was embarrassed by the failure of his vanity project and directed his underlings to look for some way to blame someone else.

Our friend Servus mistakenly believes the Park Service acted independently of the man in the White House.

Pommer · Jun 23, 2026

Servus said:
I think it's mostly parroting what's heard from Rosie O'Donnell, Lawrence O'Donnell, Olbermann, Kimmel, Colbert, The View et al.

Which of these are currently the incumbent President of the the United States of America?

LeafByNiggle · Jun 23, 2026

wing2000 said:
Our friend Servus mistakenly believes the Park Service acted independently of the man in the White House.

As I understand it, Servus' argument was that Park Service police would not risk their careers to follow an order from higher up. Therefore they would act independently out of fear of the consequences of acting in concert with Trump's wishes. But as I pointed out, there is no risk to doing Trump's bidding, as the January 6th insurrectionists found out. Besides, a questionable arrest is such a mild infraction that even without Trump's protection they would not be subject to any real discipline.

LeafByNiggle · Jun 23, 2026

Servus said:
Okay, you're going with the conspiracy theory.

According to Merriam-Webster, a conspiracy is a secret agreement between two or more people to commit an unlawful, harmful, or treacherous act. It involves collective planning and deliberate deception aimed at subverting authority, defrauding others, or achieving a malicious objective while keeping the plot hidden.

Since Trump is the authority, we cannot call Trump giving orders to his Department of Interior "subverting authority". Also it is not unlawful to ask the Park Police to arrest anyone who takes something out of the water. Also lowering the threshold for arrests is not really treacherous either. As for "harmful", the harm to one arrested and then released with a slap on the wrist is not that harmful. As for the "secret" part, this is the normal way in which internal communication to department heads is handled - secretly. It is nothing exceptional. So for all those reasons, I would not call my view a conspiracy theory.

Hans Blaster · Jun 23, 2026

Servus said:
I think it's mostly parroting what's heard from Rosie O'Donnell, Lawrence O'Donnell, Olbermann, Kimmel, Colbert, The View et al.

You got me, I saw it on Colbert last night.

Servus · Jun 23, 2026

Lackey: My lord, a couple of areas of the pool have come loose.
Dictator: Oh no, what am I going to do? This will ruin me.
Lackey: You could blame it on something else.
Dictator: Can I blame it on Comey?
Lackey: My lord it's time for your dementia medication.
Dictator: I don't know what to do.
Lackey: Order the Department of the Interior to pretend it's vandalism and for good measure have them arrest random people.
Dictator: The what?
Lackey: Hank go get the autopen.

rambot · Jun 23, 2026

Servus said:
I'd say suspected vandalism. The factor of people being arrested for it, takes out of the realm of pure hypothesis. And in that one has to conjecture what the most likely explanation is for that. Which is the police concluded that they committed a crime. Less likely is the police made false arrests under the orders of the President so he could make up a cover story regarding a relatively small problem with a reflecting pool.

That was carried about after a nepotistic no-big contract was awarded to a company that did a subpar job.

rambot · Jun 23, 2026

essentialsaltes said:
I heard some cotton candy fell in the pool, and algae loves cotton candy.

I've heard they are now puttin fences up because rabid left wingers keep destroying the pool

rambot · Jun 23, 2026

Hans Blaster said:
You got me, I saw it on Colbert last night.

Lol!
I haven't ever watched a single program from any of those listed people.

Have you?

I guess the Colbert Report waaaaay back in the day.

rambot · Jun 23, 2026

Servus said:
What about the report that caustic chemicals were put into the water?

That was the initial treatment for the blooming algae.
IT was hydrogen peroxide

essentialsaltes said:
I heard some cotton candy fell in the pool, and algae loves cotton candy.

I heard some people are throwing lean protein into the pool because some of the species of algae are Paleo.

freakin hippies.

Servus · Jun 23, 2026

rambot said:
I've heard they are now puttin fences up because rabid left wingers keep destroying the pool

And the lawn. Even though we know that was a result of subpar landscaping.

rambot · Jun 23, 2026

Servus said:
You're so full of bias against the guy and you're getting what I say wrong so much, I really can't continue with this. I feel like you're pretty much just using me as a sounding board to rant against Trump whom you obviously bitterly despise to the nth degree.

For what it's worth, I'm also not a fan of the following people:

Pol Pot
Stalin
Jeffery Dalhmer.
Several bosses and coworkers.

There are a LOT of people who have done horrible things, or who are horrible people, who I have bias against due to their actions.

You seem to believe my rational for my feelings about Trump are all capricious, unfounded, or unjustified. IS one of those (or all) correct?
What do you think are the bases for my bias against Trump? Just absolutely nothing by my own weak mental health and obsessive nature?

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