Reflections on Fascism
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
This keeps happening, and I love it!
I wanted to talk about the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, but I like having two topics which tie together in some way. That’s why I sometimes simply search on a word or phrase, then see if there’s anything I find new and interesting. That’s how I learned about the Icelandic band Mammút, for example.
In this case, I searched on the word ‘reflections’, and found the band Reflections. I had never heard of them, and thought this might be interesting, so I had a look. As it happens, they were (pin in that) a progressive metalcore band formed in Minneapolis–Saint Paul in 2010. I was not familiar with that particular flavour of ‘metal’, nor had I heard the term ‘djent’, so I was diverted for a bit while I went down a few rabbit holes...
Remember the pin? Well, as it happens, the reason the past tense is used is that band members Patrick Somoulay and Francis Xayana announced that they had left the band and made comments about bandmate Jake Wolf.
But so what? Band members leave all the time, don’t they?
Yes. They do. But this particular departure was a bit different.
As it happens, the departure was in the middle of so-called ‘Operation Metro Surge’, for which I use quotes because I do not consider it a ‘law enforcement’ or ‘immigration enforcement’ operation in any way. In my opinion, this was a clear attempt to use armed and masked thugs to kidnap people without due process and suppress legal and legitimate protest. As such, I consider it entirely illegal, and think that the vast majority of those involved should face legal charges.
Interestingly, the article in the Wayback Machine shows a date of 26-Jan-2026, while the Wikipedia article notes 21-Jan-2026 as the departure date for the band members. I was unable to confirm the actual date of the departure, though. This is interesting to me mainly because Renée Good was murdered on 7-Jan-2026, while Alex Pretti was murdered on 24-Jan-2026. Either way, Xayana made the reason for the departures clear:
“Jake has always had control of the band. There’s a reason Patty left even though he is the primary writer. Jake is an ICE apologist and I will not fuck with someone like that. I don’t give a flying fuck what we’ve been through. I cannot trust a person who thinks this is necessary. And honestly fuck you if you support this ICE shit. You’re a fucking bitch. And instead of getting into your fucking feelings y’all should have been listening to Black voices this entire time. Now when a white person is killed in the same form they’ve experienced for centuries, we are at end game. There is no going back. This is the beginning of the end if people continue to turn a blind eye. He’s going to kill anyone who opposes him.”
Which brings me back to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
I consider the debacle around Trump’s ‘plans’ to ‘renovate’ the Pool to be an interesting microcosm for his general approach to everything he does, and an illustration of the apparent truism that ‘Everything He Touches Turns to Sh*t’.
The timeline suggests that his focus on the Reflecting Pool is tied to EO 14252 – Making the District of Columbia 'Safe' and 'Beautiful' (scare-quotes mine), and was probably intended to distract from the Iran War he had already botched by this time, and also as part of the hijacking of preparations for the US Semiquincentennial.
This ‘project’ began by the Department of the Interior giving a no-bid contract to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, and somehow inflating the $1.8 Million (USD) price Trump announced to $13.1 Million (USD). For anyone else, this would be a scandal. For Trump, corruption as usual.
Long story short, he promised that everything would be perfect, ignored the people pointing out issues, pushed unrealistic timelines, lied, over-reacted, under-reacted, got angry, threatened, back-tracked when he was proven to be lying, etc, etc.
There were, however, a few items I found particularly interesting.
First, the knife. After bragging about how the coating would be so strong that “If you had a knife, you can’t even cut it, so strong, so powerful”, he later decided that the “100- ... I think 290-, 300- foot slit right through it” damage to the coating was caused by “a box cutter or a knife of some kind.” He also claimed that there were “numerous slashes” and described the cause as “a very sharp knife or razors.”
To summarize, he doesn’t understand what was done, or how durable it was, and adjusted his lies to what he wanted to believe at the time. Most of the quotes I saw from Trump included references to ‘vandals’, particularly the charges made (and dropped) against Olympian David Hearn, but then he started talking about ‘Vandals’ and I wondered where they came in – I mean... my understanding was that they disappeared as a separate nation around the sixth century CE, and I wouldn’t have thought they would be interested in a monument like the Reflecting Pool...
At any rate, I was also interested in the some of the other points made, particularly where the conclusions were different from what I had understood.
When I saw the coverage around the algae problem, followed by dumping large quantities of hydrogen peroxide into the pool (which I could easily imagine to be a panic-response), followed by reports of large chunks of the coating coming off, it certainly seemed plausible when I heard assertions that the hydrogen peroxide caused the damage to the coating.
But not so, as I learned. Experts who were consulted about the matter expressed the opinion that damage resulting from such action would have taken longer to become apparent, and that the most likely explanation for the peeling was an issue with the application. Not nearly as appealing a story (no pun intended), but still entirely consistent with the general incompetence of everything Trump is involved with.
Similarly, when I saw the pictures of Trump’s motorcade driving on the drained Reflecting Pool and the apparent tire tracks, this seemed plausible as well, particularly when I recalled hearing that the Beast (the presidential limousine) was enormously heavy – possibly as much as 9,100 kg. That such a vehicle could damage the coating seemed quite plausible, so I was a bit disappointed that the evidence did not support the assertion that Trump’s motorcade had caused that sort of damage.
A pity, I suppose, but I think it’s important to point out cases where a story you find particularly compelling turns out not to be true – it helps keep us honest.
Ultimately, though, the most important question remains the same – how can we ensure that this sort of thing doesn’t happen again?
Well, I think Nuremberg 2.0 would be a good place to start. Identifying and holding accountable the people responsible for the crimes of the Trump administration is a necessary first step in addressing the damage and trying to fix as much as possible.
I’d also point out that nihilism is not the answer. Anyone saying that there’s no point in doing anything is falling into the trap of giving up their power. And, while it is true that there are tipping-points, there are a great many of them, and there is always something which can be done – if not to make something better, then at least to make something less bad.
My own position is best described as pragmatic optimism. If you can’t find a ‘good’ option, search for the least bad – that way, you can always make things better, if only a little.
Cheers!
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