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Forget crumbling democracy: America’s biggest crisis is a stagnant, murky pool

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When you hear the word “pool” in these sun-baked days of summer, you might think of taking a cheeky dip in the water to cool off the skin that is conspicuously peeling off your haggard body. Everyone (except me) loves a pool. Donald Trump really loves a pool, but not the kind you can swim in. Or stand too close to. Or enjoy at all, really.

The state of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool rehabilitation effort has become the primary crisis affecting the United States. That is, if you ask the current administration. Limiting the right to vote is running a close second in the World Cup of Political Football, but it’s the reflecting pool that is attracting the most fervent attention. As emergencies go, it’s as thrilling as watching a really large body of still water in the middle of a park. The paint is peeling and it’s full of green algae.

While the inability to keep the pool from looking like a stagnant lake in the Ozarks carries some pretty serious environmental omens about the perilousness of our global water supply, the site itself is not exactly a massive national emergency. I’m more concerned with my Apple Watch beeping about my heart rate after a third martini than I am an artificial lake that … shows you a reversed version of the........

© The Guardian