The Reflecting Pool as Metaphor

The whole Trump administration is summed up by what has happened with that Reflecting Pool. It is a metaphor for everything wrong with Trump.

The following chain of events is pure speculation on my part, but one thing is true: when Trump babbles, his stream-of-consciousness lies often echo the myths and tall tales he is being told by his White House staff and Cabinet, to manipulate him or distract him. These echoes are very obvious when he talks about the Reflecting Pool project. So this is what happened, I think:

1. Keeping Trump distracted with meaningless pointless make-work projects is one of ways the White House staff and Cabinet keep him feeling busy and productive while they get on with looting the country (see: the Rose Garden, the gold crap all over the White House, the walkway to the Oval, the East Wing destruction, the Ballroom, the Kennedy Center, the UFC fight, the Arc d'Trump, the new Air Force One, etc etc.)

2. The Reflecting Pool was just another pointless busy-work project. Nobody knew or cared anything about that pool three months ago. It wasn't much of a problem either. National Parks just needed to clean out its annual accumulation of debris and it would have been good to go. But White House staff started filling Trump's ears with lies about the awful state the pool was in, how Obama had ruined it, how Biden had ignored it, only you can fix it sir... and when Trump demurred that he didn't really care much about the pool, his staff talked up how big it is, its really really big sir, its lots bigger than the Empire State Building really!!!

 
3. So Trump jumped into it, made it an emergency, didn't bother with research, didn't consult anybody about its history or previous maintenance issues, just hired "some pool guy" to paint the pool blue for July 4. Easy peasey!

4. Result: another Trump disaster. #ETTD Everything Trump Touches Dies. Resurfacing a granite pool base 15 blocks long and a block wide is a lot bigger project than just paving a garden and buying some new tables and chairs. And pool paints aren't all the same. And algae prevention/ drainage technology isn't simple either. So instead of looking beautiful and pristine, the pool is now ruined. So now Trump has had to hire a "pool cleaner guy" to fix it. But really, nobody can repair it now unless it is drained, scraped, cleaned off and refilled;  that ain't gonna happen in two weeks before July 4. 

I expect their next move will be to throw a tarp over it to hide it, like they did at the Kennedy Center.
Or blame Antifa.

Wasn't that a beautiful game? Plus Carney gets things done and Trump fumbles.

Vancouver went slightly mad today, and took the rest of the country with them.

View on Threads

This is the Red Sea of Canada supporters at the World Cup. Each one of these pictures is the most Canadian thing I’ve ever seen. Welcome to Vancouver!

[image or embed]

— M31🍁 (@m31author.bsky.social) June 18, 2026 at 6:20 PM

HISTORY IN VANCOUVER 🙌 Canada's 6️⃣-goal performance vs. Qatar marked the highest-scoring game by #CANMNT at the #FIFAWorldCup EVER. 😳

[image or embed]

— TSN (@tsnofficial.bsky.social) June 18, 2026 at 8:56 PM

Canada sits atop Group B standings after its dominant win over Qatar! 🙌🇨🇦 #FIFAWorldCup

[image or embed]

— TSN (@tsnofficial.bsky.social) June 18, 2026 at 6:09 PM

Things that make me say hmmmm..... from that awful MOU to our MAID anniversary. Plus World Cup stories and today's Pride updates

I saw lots of good posts and comments today, but I'm just focusing on the ones that made me think about things a little differently.
First, cartoons! 

About that MOU to end the Iran War ...hmmm

View on Threads

View on Threads

I’ve read the MOU and the key point is this: JD Vance will not be President.

- Scott Galloway

Read on Substack

Today's News: Carney saves Trump's bacon, America laughs at Trump, and banning social media for teens has gone viral. Plus more World Cup stories

Carney gave an interview today to CNN and I hope Trump and his whole feckless administration appreciate the extent to which Carney has America's back about this Iran War MOU.

Carney's positive framing of the agreement will give it a credibility and substance that it didn't have before now - he calls it "well structured", "a game changer", "performance-based", and says "everyone in the G7 is behind it".
Oh, I hope he is right!
I can't find this interview posted anywhere except on X:

Full CNN interview with Carney... is he jumping the gun on the US communication strategy

Smartest guy in the room or his own mind?

"We will help as we can with the Strait of Hormuz" - Carney

Kudos "And it was at a time when people were not focused on Iran because I've always… pic.twitter.com/cvRkOu1vMw

— cbcwatcher (@cbcwatcher) June 17, 2026

TLDW (Too Long, Didn't Watch) Here is a shorter clip from the interview:


And here is another press conference held at the G7:
I cannot remember a time before this when international press wanted to hear the thinking of a Canadian prime minister.

Catching up with the News: Carney in Europe, Trump failing, Laughing at Alberta separatists, Canada good news, World Cup stories

A map of Washington state that Seattle Tourism is handing out to World Cup visitors - isn't it great?

Ok, on with today's news:

Carney in Europe - in Ireland and at the G7

View on Threads

View on Threads

Sunday Funday: More cartoons, plus the Riders win & the Knicks win! Funny posts and neat posts, Carney Hat-Trick, TrumpWatch, Animal Crackers

Starting with a few cartoons:

Cartoons about this week's news, plus It was the day that the name came down. And updates on the World Cup and Pride

That Gordie Howe Bridge Opening

View on Threads

Some good lines here from Mulcair:

Today's news: CUSMA is On Tilt, Trump's Nelson moments, About the World Cup, Canada Good News, and some interesting reads by Colin Gorrie, Mike Sowden, Howard Yu, and Culture Explorer

CUSMA is On Tilt
US Ambassador Pete Hoekstra told a meeting in Toronto that Canada needs to kowtow to Trump, and here's Tod Maffin's riposte:

youtube.com/shorts/zYk2F... What he said 👇🍁☮️🇨🇦💯

[image or embed]

— This Canadian 🇨🇦💯 (@adeighton.bsky.social) June 11, 2026 at 7:16 PM

Canada isn't fooled:

As the CUSMA talks veer toward failure, we are reminded July 1 is not a cliff. Minister Leblanc is right. July 1 is a glide path to a restored Canadian sovereignty. By failing to trigger a renewal, the current talks will result in a countdown to July 1, 2036 when CUSMA will cease to exist entirely. That gives us - at most - ten years to land somewhere that Canada can be as free, as prosperous and as powerful as possible. We share a continent an authoritarian and predatory nation, and that won’t change anytime soon. I’ve written elsewhere about how CUSMA is a Dead Man Walking. Without a functioning dispute settlement mechanism, it is not free trade. The June 10 statement by President Trump just reminds us the U.S. does not accept us as sovereign equals. He wants us to submit to U.S. dominance, and of course we will never accept this. Of course, the glide path to Canadian sovereignty will be bumpy. We’ll have to deal with gusts of U.S. tariffs as they blow here and there. We’ll have to manage panicky passengers, as some stakeholders weigh their specific interests in a deal with the national interest in sovereign equality. And we will have legitimate debates about the destination we should glide towards. Where do we want to land? Who do we partner with to present the largest possible market of a free and open exchange in goods and services? How do we make sure trade and investment actually brings wealth to Canada and Canadians? How do we structure our economic relationships on a way that reinforces our security and our freedom rather than compete with them? We may have much less than ten years if the wreckage of CUSMA is swept away through an invocation of the six-month termination clause. Whether we discard the scrap metal of CUSMA now or in 2036, it’s important that we not get distracted from the real work. We should continue to negotiate with the U.S., to mitigate the brunt of their attacks. But while we protect our flanks let’s focus our principal energy on guiding our nation’s flight to its new destination. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6yzvz6unV8

- Canadian Sovereignty

Read on Substack

Today's News: Keep on truckin' and just maybe you can win! Plus, updates on Epstein-gate, CUSMA, and Pride

In sports, today's message is "keep on truckin' and just maybe you will win!"

First, a spectacular comeback win by The Knicks

This is the only time ever in the NBA Finals that a team had overcome a 29-point deficit at half-time. They broke the Trump Curse and all of New York was just ecstatic.

Cast of Laocoön and his Sons (Roman version of a lost Greek original), 100BC-50AD

[image or embed]

— ArtButMakeItSports (@artbutmakeitsports.bsky.social) June 10, 2026 at 9:51 PM

Now is the Summer of our Discontent... Plus today's updates on the World Cup and on Pride month

It just feels like 2026 will be The Summer Of Our Discontent.
And I do hope the rest of Richard's complaint will not come true:

... I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,
By drunken prophecies, libels and dreams...

First, it will be a Summer of Discontent in the United States, as Trump and his captive Republicans twist and turn to try to avoid the drubbing they can expect in the midterm elections this fall.
Their most recent tactic is to undermine confidence in elections by pretending that Republican losses are all just one big conspiracy theory. Americans do love their conspiracy theories - three centuries ago, they accused 200 people of being witches and killed 20 of them. Believing looney, ridiculous, evidence-free conspiracy theories is an American tradition!

The latest is All Elections Are Rigged Against Us (except the ones we win)!

Catching up on the news: mobilizing to Stay, Poilievre loses the plot, the Knicks lose the game, today in Screwworm Chronicles, Andy Rooney on D-Day, Canada U18s win the Americup, and Today's Pride Update

Thomas Lukaszuk (photo by Serena Mak)

Mobilizing to Stay

You know, it occurred to me today that Danielle Smith may well have shot herself in the foot with her Referendum Lite stuff.
She jury-rigged the motion to add a separatist referendum question onto her previously-announced list of nine constitutional questions. I'll bet she thought that adding the separatism question to her list would get her a larger turnout.
But if Alberta anger at the separatists generates a significant "Stay" turnout, then we might well see Smith lose on all of her anti-immigrant anti-federal, pro-MAGA "questions".

Ha!
We're seeing lots of Stay supporters in Alberta now - a substacker who calls himself "FortBison" will be writing about them daily until referendum day in October. Today FortBison is writing about the bus tour of former Alberta deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk:

I like Thomas Lukaszuk’s “Forever Canadian Unity Bus” tour of Alberta, as it mostly runs on heart. That one red-and-white RV could be called the official vehicle of the “Stay Side” who will vote in the province-wide October 19 referendum on whether Albertans wish to stay in Canada or not.
The bright red-and-white maple leaf wrap of the Unity Bus is loveable because it is so unlikely a sight in Alberta. In a land that prefers not to think of national patriotism, thank you very much, the Lakaszuk Forever Canadian Unity Bus does so unabashedly.
Lukaszuk, a former deputy premier of Alberta, posted this on social media: “My strategy for separatism is the same as my strategy for pierogies; stab it with a fork, deal with it directly, and don’t leave any leftovers.”....

The whole article is worth reading.

Sunday Funday: Some funny posts and neat posts. Plus Pride Update, Getting Old(er), Everybody Hates AI, Carney Hat Trick, TrumpWatch, Animal Crackers

Funny posts
Does anyone still remember Wayne and Shuster?
We were watching one of their funniest skits the other day, and I thought I just had to share it.
The setup: A stage director from Hollywood (Johnny Wayne) wants to give the House of Commons a new look and style so it can be more appealing to the public. The NDP party is to wear overalls and carry lunchboxes, and the Liberals and Conservatives are to wear red or blue suits to distinguish them, along with musical accompaniment.

Moving on:

I made $5,000 in one month on Substack. Here's how: I found a niche for my newsletter. I posted every day. I created a value proposition, offering premium content to a focused audience. I sold my 2003 Toyota Corolla. 

- Archer Parquette

Read on Substack

Today's Round-up plus some Canada good news

Hey, I'm feeling not to spunky tonight so this won't be lengthy.

But here are some interesting comments and posts I saw today:

 
A substacker named Linda T is not impressed with the "He Yells" critique of Prime Minister Carney:

There’s a new story making the rounds in Ottawa, and it picks up neatly where an older one left off: apparently, Mark Carney likes to yell at annoying, incompetent politicians.
He must be going hoarse on the Liberal benches...
...The more progressive Liberals complain that he’s too managerial, too pro-growth, too friendly to energy, too dismissive of caucus feeling, the more he looks like someone separate from the very Liberal brand Canadians had grown sick of. The more MPs leak that he’s harsh behind closed doors, the more he looks like a man trying to drag an entitled caucus back to work. The more they warn that he isn’t a real Liberal, the more many voters may think: good.
That’s the irony. Carney’s distance from the Liberal Party may be one of his strongest political assets.
The Liberal brand was badly damaged before he took over. Canadians were tired of the lectures, the scandals, the identity games, the broken systems, and the sense that the country was being governed by people who were always performing virtue while avoiding accountability. Carney gives voters a way to keep the Conservatives out without having to pretend they still admire Trudeau-era Liberalism. He’s a permission structure for exhausted Liberal voters, soft Conservatives, centrists, and institutional Canadians who wanted a change without wanting Pierre Poilievre.
So when Liberal MPs complain that Carney doesn’t treat them with enough deference, they’re misunderstanding the transaction. Carney’s appeal isn’t that he restores the Liberal Party to its old self. His appeal is that he appears willing to discipline, ignore, or override that old self.
That leaves the caucus trapped.
They can’t easily remove him, because he saved them. They can’t easily defy him, because he has numbers. They can’t easily embarrass him, because their own public reputation is worse than his. They can’t credibly present themselves as guardians of democratic accountability after years of swallowing every Trudeau excess. And they can’t appeal to voters by saying, in effect, “please help, the prime minister we backed for power now has too much of it.”
No one is coming to help them.
Carney owns them. Not emotionally, maybe not even ideologically, but structurally. He has the office. He has the majority. He has the polling. He has the floor-crossers. He has the ability to replace troublemakers with new loyalists. Most importantly, he has the one thing caucus MPs usually respect more than principle: the appearance of being able to win.
That’s why the leaks are a bluff. They’re not a rebellion. They’re a flare shot into the sky by people who’ve realized the ship captain isn’t taking orders from them.
And if they keep pushing it, they may find the public reaction colder than they expect...

Today's News: Canada now has an AI strategy. And not a moment too soon.

Prime Minister Carney announced Canada's  AI for All strategy on Thursday, as part of our Artificial Intelligence Ecosystem. The announcement says:

....Over the next five years, this strategy will introduce new legislation, investments, and programs that ensure AI is adopted responsibly, in a way that truly serves all Canadians – building trust, expanding opportunities, and reinforcing control of our sovereignty.
The AI for All Strategy targets an additional $200 billion of economic growth to create 250,000 new AI-related jobs over the next five years and to increase AI adoption from just over 12% to 60% by 2034. The strategy will provide up to 90,000 AI-related jobs and work placement opportunities for young Canadians and make our industries more competitive in the global economy.
Canadians must have confidence that AI is being developed and deployed safely, transparently, and in ways that reflect our values....

The CBC Power and Politics panel talked about it on Thursday:

TL,DW: Panelists Michele Cadario, Shachi Kurl, Rebeca Schulz and Andrew Thomson discuss Carney's AI for All strategy and the issues that AI raises for data centre environmental impacts, water uses, and AI impacts on jobs. They agree that Canadians are neither knowledgeable nor enthusiastic about AI in general.

Today's News: Carney leadership and Alberta separatism and tariffs and Trump and Hunter Biden. Plus today's Pride Update

Today in Carney leadership
I'm shocked SHOCKED! that Carney gets pissed sometimes at Liberal MPs. 

Lack of focus and meandering response killed Trudeau's leadership and I can understand why Carney now says "my way or the highway" - the country, and the Liberal party, needs to get things done bigger and faster. 

In the Toronto Star, columnist Althia Raj has become the go-to journalist for any Liberal caucus MP who wants to bitch about Carney - watching her on the CBC At Issue panel lately, its been pretty clear that Raj doesn't like Carney one bit.

Today Raj writes a mish-mash column of complaints - did you know that Carney sometimes yells at people? Oh, the horror....

...Over the course of several caucus meetings now, [gift link] Grit MPs report Carney lashing out at certain members when he doesn’t like the message they deliver. They include Nova Scotia MP Jaime Battiste, a Mi’kmaw from Cape Breton, raising concerns over negative perceptions of the government’s changes to the Indian Act and receiving a stunning rebuke; Winnipeg MP Doug Eyolfson, a physician, being told not to come to the prime minister with his concerns over the lack of federal response to Alberta’s two-tiered health care Bill 11; and Laval MP Angelo Iacono, who wanted the prime minister to visit his riding and was met with Carney insisting he’d been to Laval recently, though he had not. The experiences have left a lasting imprint on several MPs.
“He yells,” said one MP who, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid retribution from the Prime Minister’s Office. “He punches down at caucus all the time.”
Carney has told his caucus members he doesn’t want to hear their concerns, he wants solutions. While it’s a message that resonates with some, hearing complaints can be useful....
Last week, some MPs felt the prime minister’s message was that he’s not interested in what they have to say.
Carney was making the case that the government is focused on national unity, on the CUSMA talks, on growing the economy; it has a plan, and message discipline is key. “If you don’t agree with our agenda, I don’t want to hear it. If you have criticism, keep them for yourself,” was the way another MP portrayed it....

IDK, but it wasn't surprising to me that Carney would be impatient if he hears complaints instead of solutions.