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Trump's Mar-a-Lago pal — a convicted criminal named John Cafaro — got a no-bid contract for $14 million and counting to renovate the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. He didn't do the top-notch work he's known for, and now they have to drain the pool and start from scratch. The president, per usual, is blaming everyone else: ABC's Jon Karl, "dirty cop James Comey," and a cast of alleged vandals — five of whom have apparently been arrested, including a former Olympic canoeist who says he was just reaching into the pool to feel the detached liner. Trump then threatened the rest of us with a 10-year prison sentence for the destruction — or even the attempted destruction — of such things, which he said "will be fully enforced."In the Oval, he claimed there was a 300-foot slit cut through the liner with a box cutter or knife, and that the National Guard and police had been all over the Mall. When reporters asked for proof — photos, videos, anything — he waved them off: "When you have a 350-foot slit from one end to the other, you think that's proof?" Reporters went down there the same day looking for the slit he described. There isn't one. It's the size of a football field. It didn't happen.And that's the moment this stopped being funny. Look at the pattern. You make a big deal about how you're finally going to fix the pool because Barack Hussein Obama and Joe Biden couldn't. You hand a no-bid contract to a guy who is the crony picture in the crony entry of the dictionary. You declare victory. Then the algae comes back. So you have your people lie about it — posting pictures saying it's perfect, it's perfect, it's perfect. The lie draws more attention, reporters start covering it, so you start blaming saboteurs who don't seem to exist. That generates more coverage. Now you're arresting random people for checking out the mess you've made. A silly little story about a pool renovation has become a case study in gross incompetence, corruption, and rising fascism.Because that's what this is. We're at the point where federal cops are patrolling the National Mall to arrest people for pointing out things that embarrass the Dear Leader. TMZ DC was down there all day with footage of people being detained — some of them just looking down to take pictures. Park Police, DC police, the works. It's complete madness. And it's worth remembering who's now empowered to act on this stuff. You watch Jeanine Pirro ranting away on Fox, six Chardonnays deep, doing a prime-time hit — and then you remember: oh wait, this woman can issue indictments now. That's actually a little scary.We also know how serious this administration is about punishing people who destroy federal property. Every single person who did that on January 6th — completely free, pardoned, commuted. And now they're arresting random people taking pictures of a pool.The next step is obvious. They're going to build a wall around this thing. They're going to cover it up so people can't photograph it — the same way they built that giant wall around the ballroom renovation because they didn't want embarrassing pictures getting out. This isn't going to go away. The reflecting pool is just there. It's eight acres. It's a defining feature of the National Mall. And it is not going to be fixed for a long time, because they don't know how to fix it.Follow us on Facebook or subscribe to our free Substack newsletter: https://libertylens1.substack.com/