Hart said his group had supported Trump’s campaign-trail calls for more efficient government. But now, he said, the #Trump admin was moving in the opposite direction, & wrongly invoking the upcoming celebrations as an “emergency”, to justify bypassing legally required competition [+ oversight & review].
“We’ve known that this is going to be America’s 250th anniversary for 250 years,” Hart said. “It’s not like we didn’t have time to plan.”
John Hart, chief executive of the conservative watchdog group Open the Books, said that the government seemed to be flying blind, embarking on an expensive project without knowing for sure what it would cost or how well it would work.
“The first thing any rational homeowner, family or business does is they solicit competitive bids,” Hart said. “Because when you rely on sole source contracting, it opens the door to extraordinary waste.”
Now that the repair work is underway, other documents indicate that the same #contractor had—at least initially—not been able to perform one of the most critical parts of its repair job: sealing the gaps between the concrete slabs at the pool’s floor.
Water has leaked out of those gaps for decades, creating a costly problem that #Trump has vowed to fix. But the contractor’s attempts to seal those gaps failed in 2 trials earlier this month…
#ReflectingPool Contract Has ‘#Inflated’ #Profit Margin, Government Analysis Finds
Atlantic Industrial Coatings, the Virginia-based contractor, is being paid $13.1 million, which is seven times the amount that #Trump initially said the work would cost.
The firm that was given a no-bid contract to “repair” the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, is charging 20%. The typical profit margin is 6% to 12%, internal records show.
#GovernmentWaste #scam #economy
nytimes.com/2026/05/27/us/poli…
The #US military carried out new #strikes overnight in #Iran targeting a military site that officials claimed posed a threat to US forces & commercial maritime traffic in the #StraitOfHormuz, a US official told Reuters on Wednesday.
The official…said the US military also intercepted & shot down multiple Iranian drones that they claimed posed a similar threat.
#TrumpsWar #IranWar #ForeverWars #Trump #RulesOfWar #law #Congress #WarPowers #economy #EnergyCrisis
reuters.com/world/middle-east/…
Backside of the world economy. Cartoon published today in Belgian newspaper De Morgen: demorgen.be/puzzels-cartoons/t…
#US & #Iran Agree “In Principle” to Reopen #StraitOfHormuz, US Official Says
The official said Iran had also agreed to dispose of highly enriched #uranium, but stressed that a deal had not yet been signed. US & Iranian officials have described the terms differently.
#TrumpsWar #IranWar #Trump #WarCrimes #law #Congress #WarPowers #geopolitics #NationalSecurity #MiddleEast #economy #inflation #affordability #CostOfLiving #oil #energy #EnergyCrisis
nytimes.com/live/2026/05/24/wo…
“We used to be a country that others wanted to emulate. That narrative no longer exists,” said Juliette Kayyem, faculty chair of the Homeland Security Project at the Harvard Kennedy School….
Kayyem explained that #SoftPower …is weakening with a filtered story being told to those outside the country: “If you’re a foreigner now, what you’re absorbing about the United States is a #dysfunctional government, #ICE raids, Americans being killed, crime everywhere.”
That’s not just bad for those working in the service & #tourism industries. The impact of a #SelfInflicted decrease in international visitors of this magnitude has implications on the #US’ world standing, its #SoftPower #diplomacy & the #economy as a whole.
CNN first reported worrying trends last August that have manifested in a 5.5% drop in international tourism in 2025. It’s the worst single-year decline in 2 decades, with the exception of the 2020 pandemic.
Travelers cite presidential rhetoric & policies manifesting in highly public #wars — both figurative & literal — as reasons for staying away.
Four million fewer foreign visitors came to the US in 2025 compared to 2024, with total spending decreasing by more than $8 billion.
#economy #recession #Trump #trumpcession #immigration #WhiteChristianNationalism #HateSpeech #StochasticTerrorism
Staggering dip in #US #tourism is a troubling sign for the future
There’s no sugarcoating it. The complete 2025 data is in, & the message is clear: International visitors stayed away from the US in the first real year-over-year decline since the COVID19 pandemic. The drop in visitors was larger than during the global #recession of 2008.
This time, it wasn’t a pandemic or a collapse of the market—it was #Trump.
#economy #immigration #WhiteChristianNationalism #HateSpeech
cnn.com/2026/05/25/travel/anal…
This is not true. But it's accurate about the military business or Israel, thanks to disgusting criminals in Europe.
Israel tourist and agriculture is in crisis, so is the hightech because of the large number of citizens who left the country in the past 2 years.
economist.com/middle-east-and-…
#israel #economy #WarProfiteers #genocide #BDS #EUpol #Palestine
We’re being conditioned to surrender to automated authority. It’s time to break the cycle and demand structural accountability.
Read my latest on reclaiming human agency:
open.substack.com/pub/brandonb…
Images & text assisted by AI.
#NUPA #UBI #UHI #policy #technology #politics #economics #economy #government #psychology #finance #fintech #Al #robots #futureofwork #writing #reading #substack #business #physics #science #markets #money #future #Terminator #Netflix #BlackMirror #RoboCop
SpaceX led by Elon Musk has moved closer to a Wall Street listing on Wednesday after filing plans for what could become the largest initial public offeringEUROPE SAYS
