I figured after Trump took a drive through the Reflecting Pool on the Beast (or version thereof), a good ol fashion journalist would take the catnip and try and make an issue of the renovation.

The scandal, Trump gave a $6.9 million "no-bid" contract to a company that has worked on his golf course in an attempt at croneyism.

But if you read past the headlines, you will learn that there has been a problem with the reflecting pool being anything other than an algae ridden swampy cesspool reflecting the culture of the political I guess.

Back to the scandal. The article goes on to say several paragraphs in that Obama admin spent 5x the amount ($35 million, I rounded down) on a FAILED attempt to resolve the algae.

Braintrust Biden? They just drained it (evidently that's free cause the journalist didn't bother with that detail). A deflation they did mention? The firm had never been awarded a federal contract. I looked them up, they are a woman owned business with a long history working with state DOTs.

Burn Trump, sprucing it up for the summer of 250th events is enriching his friends with contracts. Turns out he is cost effectively addressing an eyesore the Great Husseini could not solve prior to a summer when the national mall will be on display like no time in our history as a nation.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/09/trump-no-bid-contract-lincoln-memorial-reflecting-pool

Coach Sumlin's pool boy is still looking for a job, but he would want the reflecting pool switched over to salt water.

Previous failures by other administrations still doesn't explain why the contract needed to be directly awarded to that vendor without competition.

Who cares

Is the job getting done? Is it getting done under budget? Previous contracts couldn't do anything.

He knew they could do it, and it's getting done

Idk, maybe b/c Trump was familiar with their work and knew they could do the job after numerous other contractors wasted public money by not fixing the problem.

pagerman @ work said:

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Previous failures by other administrations still doesn't explain why the contract needed to be directly awarded to that vendor without competition.

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You should call your congressman!

Mucho austin said:

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Who cares

Is the job getting done? Is it getting done under budget? Previous contracts couldn't do anything.

He knew they could do it, and it's getting done

---

Corruption, the prevention of which is the reason Federal Acquisition Regulations (i.e. the law) exist.

pagerman @ work said:

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Mucho austin said:

---

Who cares

Is the job getting done? Is it getting done under budget? Previous contracts couldn't do anything.

He knew they could do it, and it's getting done

---

Corruption, the prevention of which is the reason Federal Acquisition Regulations (i.e. the law) exist.

---

You're describing all the previous administrations that spent money on cleaning it up but never got it clean, right?

Right?

You know who else cleaned up a pool?

That's right...Hitler.

Interesting company Trump keeps. Int.....air....uh....sontay!!!

Ag with kids said:

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pagerman @ work said:

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Mucho austin said:

---

Who cares

Is the job getting done? Is it getting done under budget? Previous contracts couldn't do anything.

He knew they could do it, and it's getting done

---

Corruption, the prevention of which is the reason Federal Acquisition Regulations (i.e. the law) exist.

---

You're describing all the previous administrations that spent money on cleaning it up but never got it clean, right?

Right?

---

What previous administrations did or didn't do has zero bearing on this situation. At all.

Now I realize that on this board the number one, automatic, knee jerk defense of team A is to ignore the accusations against team A and point out some potential previous failing of team B, because if team B did something wrong well that completely absolves team A of any and all wrongdoing, both now and in perpetuity.

Except it doesn't. Previous malfeasance by any and all administrations has no bearing on what this administration may have done.

If previous administrations have been corrupt, start a new thread and present the evidence. But nothing presented in that thread will be exculpatory of what the current administration may have done.

It's really not difficult to.

pagerman @ work said:

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Ag with kids said:

---

pagerman @ work said:

---

Mucho austin said:

---

Who cares

Is the job getting done? Is it getting done under budget? Previous contracts couldn't do anything.

He knew they could do it, and it's getting done

---

Corruption, the prevention of which is the reason Federal Acquisition Regulations (i.e. the law) exist.

---

You're describing all the previous administrations that spent money on cleaning it up but never got it clean, right?

Right?

---

What previous administrations did or didn't do has zero bearing on this situation. At all.

Now I realize that on this board the number one, automatic, knee jerk defense of team A is to ignore the accusations against team A and point out some potential previous failing of team B, because if team B did something wrong well that completely absolves team A of any and all wrongdoing, both now and in perpetuity.

Except it doesn't. Previous malfeasance by any and all administrations has no bearing on what this administration may have done.

If previous administrations have been corrupt, start a new thread and present the evidence. But nothing presented in that thread will be exculpatory of what the current administration may have done.

It's really not difficult to.

---

Ok cool.

Describe EXACTLY what corruption happened and on which contracts.

Should be easy for you to give us details, since you're pretty adamant about the "corruption".

I await your detailed response.

pagerman @ work said:

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Ag with kids said:

---

pagerman @ work said:

---

Mucho austin said:

---

Who cares

Is the job getting done? Is it getting done under budget? Previous contracts couldn't do anything.

He knew they could do it, and it's getting done

---

Corruption, the prevention of which is the reason Federal Acquisition Regulations (i.e. the law) exist.

---

You're describing all the previous administrations that spent money on cleaning it up but never got it clean, right?

Right?

---

What previous administrations did or didn't do has zero bearing on this situation. At all.

Now I realize that on this board the number one, automatic, knee jerk defense of team A is to ignore the accusations against team A and point out some potential previous failing of team B, because if team B did something wrong well that completely absolves team A of any and all wrongdoing, both now and in perpetuity.

Except it doesn't. Previous malfeasance by any and all administrations has no bearing on what this administration may have done.

If previous administrations have been corrupt, start a new thread and present the evidence. But nothing presented in that thread will be exculpatory of what the current administration may have done.

It's really not difficult to.

---

Is this contract cheaper or more than what the full bid contract would have been, do you know?

This contract will be executed and completed before the America 250 Celebration at a lesser price, better job, and done so on time.

Had it been done via full on Fed.gov "normal" processes, it would have been awarded to a historically underutilized business after months, if not a year or more process that historically would be over budget (for a reason), a timeline that was unnecessarily long, and sometimes of lessor quality. That is just how that kind of thing works. I've seen it firsthand, too many times to bet differently. Nine times out of ten, the HUB hires a non HUB as a subcontractor in the end to perform the scope of work resulting in major cost and time overruns.

And before the *****ing gets too fired up, how many grants, gifts, and grift did prior admins hand out and give contracts to that were similar to this one. The only difference is it was TRUMP that did it.

TDS is curable, but one has to let go and get past the denial stage. It is a disorder.

Do y'all recall a term "shovel ready jobs"?


Was this a shovel ready job?


50 billion allocated for shovel ready jobs under Obama and that money just disappeared……
https://www.cagw.org/the-shovel-ready-jobs-swindle/


Newsome - California train to nowhere 16 years $135 billion of your tax dollars that went to the government of California for nothing

Then let's talk about all the Democrat NGO's albeit there were some republican ones as well that had millions of tax dollars going to project administration and the project itself would get less than 5% of the awarded funds.

Stacey Abrahams $2 billion dollars to buy appliances and oops none were bought

But you want to ***** about the mechanics of a couple of million dollar contract that was awarded where work is actually being done and completed…………give it a rest hero there are bigger fish to fry.

You are talking about a literal anthill procedurally when giant mountains of tax dollar money have moved around with no results or accountability what so ever.

$6.9 million, give me a break, where the Billions and Trillions squandered away in fraud that other states allowed without checking on them

pagerman @ work said:

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Previous failures by other administrations still doesn't explain why the contract needed to be directly awarded to that vendor without competition.

---

I don't know how much you know about the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) and the process for competitive awards in Part 6 but the fact that the project must be completed in time for the 250th birthday of the United States in July is plenty sufficient for a contracting officer to make a Determination and Finding (D&F) that a sole-source contract award is justified in order to meet the schedule.

Such decisions are made all the time based on the customer organization's requirements for cost, schedule, and performance. In this case, the requirement seems to be a beautiful blue reflecting pool before July and the customer is the Exexutive Office of the POTUS.

Competitive solicitations take time to advertise the project through SAM.gov or another venue and then to convene a source selection committee to review and score the proposals. A large number of bids significantly increases the time needed to conduct a source selection just to determine the number of proposals that are in the "competitive range." After the source selection committee drafts the recommendation, legal counsel reviews the rationale and reads all the proposals to draft a legal opinion on whether the selection of the winning bidder is likely to be protested by one or more of the losing bidders. The the c9ntract award is announced. Then there is a 30 day period for protests through GAO to be adjudicated. However, if a protesting bidder chooses to file with the Federal Court of Claims the case just gets placed on the docket which means that the case would not be heard for months and a ruling would not be published for at least 90 days after the hearing.

The requirement is obviously schedule driven by the 250th birthday celebration. The President can absolutely set a deadline for when a project must be completed even if that means paying a higher peice to get it done more quickly.

When a contracting officer makes a D&F that a sole-source award is justified, the Justification and Authorization (J&A) to award to a specific company is usually made based on a record of past performance and a review of similar projects. The J&A will describe the past performance on a very short timeline projects because this requirement is schedule driven and not cost driven.

The market research for a sole-source vendor is mostly going to be based on looking at similar schedule driven projects that have been completed on time and within budget. There isn't anything remotely concerning about a $6.9 million sole-source contract awarded on April 3 for a project that must be completed by July 1. It's not as if anyone is going to be unduly enriched on a project of this size because there just isn't a lot of profit margin possible on a project of this scope when the material and labor costs are calculated.

What The Guardian is really pissed about is that a company with a successful track record has been awarded a contract rather than this project being set aside for an 8A disadvantaged minority owned small business located in the Washington DC hub zone.

Screw The Guardian and all the whiny leftists that try claim to be defending competition when they are just upset that a contract wasn't awarded to a supposedly disadvantaged business. They want to worship the process and would not care if the reflecting pool is dry on July 4th.

whoop1995 said:

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Do y'all recall a term "shovel ready jobs"?


Was this a shovel ready job?


50 billion allocated for shovel ready jobs under Obama and that money just disappeared……
https://www.cagw.org/the-shovel-ready-jobs-swindle/


Newsome - California train to nowhere 16 years $135 billion of your tax dollars that went to the government of California for nothing

Then let's talk about all the Democrat NGO's albeit there were some republican ones as well that had millions of tax dollars going to project administration and the project itself would get less than 5% of the awarded funds.

Stacey Abrahams $2 billion dollars to buy appliances and oops none were bought

But you want to ***** about the mechanics of a couple of million dollar contract that was awarded where work is actually being done and completed…………give it a rest hero there are bigger fish to fry.

You are talking about a literal anthill procedurally when giant mountains of tax dollar money have moved around with no results or accountability what so ever.

---

Pointing out the obvious to these leftist loons does no good. They are immune to anything except orange man bad.

Laughable but predictable. Good job bringing up these examples though.

That's going to leave a mark.

People with zero experience in contract awards look really stupid on this thread.

pagerman @ work said:

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Mucho austin said:

---

Who cares

Is the job getting done? Is it getting done under budget? Previous contracts couldn't do anything.

He knew they could do it, and it's getting done

---

Corruption, the prevention of which is the reason Federal Acquisition Regulations (i.e. the law) exist.

---

Thats worked brilliantly

Who?mikejones! said:

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pagerman @ work said:

---

Mucho austin said:

---

Who cares

Is the job getting done? Is it getting done under budget? Previous contracts couldn't do anything.

He knew they could do it, and it's getting done

---

Corruption, the prevention of which is the reason Federal Acquisition Regulations (i.e. the law) exist.

---

Thats worked brilliantly

---

The country is on fire with fraud. Billions of dollars. Dim politicians protecting them. And the best response the dims can offer is 'But what about the reflecting pool?'

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/sep/16/death-solar-power-solyndra

Let's not forget about the $450 million that went to democrat mega donors who laundered part of those government funds, your tax dollars, right back into the DNC machine.

The magazine that accuses Trump of malice for awarding a ~$7m contract to a construction company with "ties", glosses over the shadiness of the Solyndra contract. In the end, the Gaurdian concluded it wasn't their fault they went belly up and the money disappeared. No, it was the fault of…. wait for it… capitalism.

Maybe if we had an honest, non biased media more people would care when a question like this is raised. However, it's abundantly clear by the Guardians own history and much of the media isn't asking honest questions. They are using questions to manipulate people into believing their worldview. Nobody is buying that garbage anymore.

pagerman @ work said:

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Ag with kids said:

---

pagerman @ work said:

---

Mucho austin said:

---

Who cares

Is the job getting done? Is it getting done under budget? Previous contracts couldn't do anything.

He knew they could do it, and it's getting done

---

Corruption, the prevention of which is the reason Federal Acquisition Regulations (i.e. the law) exist.

---

You're describing all the previous administrations that spent money on cleaning it up but never got it clean, right?

Right?

---

What previous administrations did or didn't do has zero bearing on this situation. At all.

Now I realize that on this board the number one, automatic, knee jerk defense of team A is to ignore the accusations against team A and point out some potential previous failing of team B, because if team B did something wrong well that completely absolves team A of any and all wrongdoing, both now and in perpetuity.

Except it doesn't. Previous malfeasance by any and all administrations has no bearing on what this administration may have done.

If previous administrations have been corrupt, start a new thread and present the evidence. But nothing presented in that thread will be exculpatory of what the current administration may have done.

It's really not difficult to.

---

Another shining example the left proving that they have no real-wold common sense.

I need a Chicken Little meme.

pagerman @ work said:

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Ag with kids said:

---

pagerman @ work said:

---

Ag with kids said:

---

pagerman @ work said:

---

Mucho austin said:

---

Who cares

Is the job getting done? Is it getting done under budget? Previous contracts couldn't do anything.

He knew they could do it, and it's getting done

---

Corruption, the prevention of which is the reason Federal Acquisition Regulations (i.e. the law) exist.

---

You're describing all the previous administrations that spent money on cleaning it up but never got it clean, right?

Right?

---

What previous administrations did or didn't do has zero bearing on this situation. At all.

Now I realize that on this board the number one, automatic, knee jerk defense of team A is to ignore the accusations against team A and point out some potential previous failing of team B, because if team B did something wrong well that completely absolves team A of any and all wrongdoing, both now and in perpetuity.

Except it doesn't. Previous malfeasance by any and all administrations has no bearing on what this administration may have done.

If previous administrations have been corrupt, start a new thread and present the evidence. But nothing presented in that thread will be exculpatory of what the current administration may have done.

It's really not difficult to.

---

Ok cool.

Describe EXACTLY what corruption happened and on which contracts.

Should be easy for you to give us details, since you're pretty adamant about the "corruption".

I await your detailed response.

---

I have not claimed there was any corruption. I await you quoting where I have done so.

I have pointed out that prior bad acts by previous administrations don't explain why this contract needed to be awarded in this manner, and that the Federal Acquisition Regulations exist for the purposes of preventing fraud (and also for providing an open accounting for how taxpayers' money is spent), sunlight being the best antiseptic.

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Because the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over expecting diffferent results.

That's why TRUMP is in office. You guys lost.

The third term is going to be great.