Washington DC—A cheering team calling itself the “Team Algae” put on green costumes and brought their green signs, snark, jokes, and plenty of trolling to the edge of the Reflecting Pool on Sunday. One wore a pink frog costume with “Amphita,” a one-two jab combination of Amphian and Antifa. Their antics were a major troll to Trump’s flag-blue paint job which despite nearly $16 million in contracts, has turned it from green to blue and back to green again.
Their antics were the crowning achievement of jovial laughter within the resistance movement which is finding itself overwhelmed with daily crisis created by the White House and its enabler billionaires. The Iran War, War in the Caribbean, War on Migrants and green card holders, the economic crisis everyone is struggling through, and efforts to rebrand Washington DC with Trump’s name and image, are but a few among the many distractions compounding difficulties for the resistance movement.
Team Algae enjoined onlookers with silly chants like, “Give me an A!’ Give me a L! … Give me an E! What’s that spell?” “Algae!,” the crowd chanted back. They blew bubbles to mock the ozone nano-bubble treatment that was still being pumped into the green pool. Then Team Algae performed skits that referenced certain qualities that algae has that are lacking in others like perseverance, surviving many attempts at its life, and standing up to Trump and his no bid contractors. One of the jokesters praised the algae for staying there in the pool and prayed for its survival.
Their chants were meant to personify the algae in the pool as a resistance fighter “standing up to Trump, fighting fascism, and beating him at it,” as effectively as no other resistance campaign had so far been able to do.
They gave the crowd what it needed but hadn’t expected: a Reflecting Pool show with jokes and laughter in a time of tension and anxiety. Dozens took video and begged Team Algae for selfies. Tourists lined up laughing and cajoling the green team. Many thanked them for being there.
One of the team members dressed as a pink frog carrying a banner reading “First they cane for the Algae” and on the reverse side it read “Team Algae.” The reference is to the famous Martin Niemöller quote “First they came for the communists…” Belying the serious sentiment of the quote while casting it in a comedic manner showed in a way how much of a divide there can be in trolling authoritarians while being respectful of the seriousness of the pain of victims. For there is a marked difference in how authoritarians see themselves as opposed to how those they oppress view them. And that Team Algae rephrased the quote that way both made light of the situation the U.S. sees itself while recognizing that the U.S. may not survive as a republic much longer…unless resistance fighters like algae step into the breach. They were there to honor their algae ally.
There were plenty of media news crews queuing to interview them. Chanels 7 and 10 were summoned to the Reflecting Pool to take video for their evening newscasts. Several independent media streamers also caught onto their messages which had spread all across social media in the hours they were there. One from the UK also interviewed them.
No surprisingly there were about ten federal law enforcement officers shadowing the small group of three jokesters and about ten National Guard Soldiers staked out following them as well as they slowly made their way around the Reflecting Pool, cracking jokes and performing ad hoc skits. That’s about a 7:1 ratio of enforcement to citizens having some fun at the expense of an authoritarian regime. (Video depicts this below)
There was one person arrested Saturday for an unrelated incident. for allegedly reaching into the water and touching the peeling paint. According to a published report, David Hearn, a former Olympian, was charged with misdemeanor destruction of government property. He said he touched the blue peeling paint out of his curiosity to observe it more closely and that he “did not vandalize anything,” according to the report in Raw Story.
Still, the incident highlights how sensitive this self-created issue is for the White House. Placing many National Guard troops purportedly to fight crime in the city is one thing. Guarding a green Reflecting Pool with Federal agents and National Guardsmen numbering over 20 brings the sensitivity index to another level entirely.
Trump has claimed the Reflecting Pool’s peeling paint saga is the result of vandalism. But earlier attempts to kill the algae bloom with concentrated hydrogen peroxide, combined with improper cleaning and sealing the granite basin before the blue paint was sprayed into the basin is more likely the result of the peeling paint, not the result of vandalism. The algae bloom was the result of missing several critical steps in water purification as we reported earlier this weekend.
