🦠 Algae! In the Reflecting Pool
📚 Why do the Vances act like that?
🏘 Trump blocks housing affordability package
Hi friends,
Chris Vazquez, your Friday newsletter writer here. Here at LNI, Dave often holds our hands through scary news stories with very unscary delivery. As the longtime black cat to his golden retriever, I’m here to tell you that the opposite is also true.
The objectively funny algae bloom in the Reflecting Pool is also indicative of where we’re at in the climate crisis. JD Vance (accidentally) hilariously acting like he’s never met his wife on her podcast about childhood literacy raises a host of questions around the administration’s attacks on childhood literacy. And, of course, none of us can afford housing, and racist voter suppression tactics are now also tied up in that.
That all sounds bad and hard to read about! I get it! But I promise we’ll keep holding your hand through it all. Let’s dive in.
There’s algae everywhere
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has been full of algae since the completion of renovations that President Donald Trump announced. In fairness, it also had algae in it before then, and water experts told PBS that it’s unclear how much Trump’s renovations led to the current algae blooms, but painting it a darker shade at Trump’s behest could have made the pool warmer and the blooms worse.
So what if you do not live in or visit DC and could not care less about this Reflecting Pool problem you keep hearing about? I fear the algae still may come for you. Pollution and climate change are causing algae blooms more generally, leading one climate scientist to tell The Washington Post that algae blooms like the one in the Reflecting Pool are “probably the biggest water quality problem in the world.” And on top of it all, the Trump administration is defunding research into this.
You wouldn’t know this from listening to Trump, though. He went on social media to say without evidence that vandals cut a 250-foot-long gash that caused the Reflecting Pool’s problems. He also lied to reporters about former president Barack Obama spending $100 million on repairs (it was actually $35 million) and that the pool “never even opened.” (It opened.)
And speaking of Obama, the former president had previously struck a deal with Iran that allowed international inspectors at their nuclear facility. The Trump administration tore up that deal during the president’s first term, then launched a war on Iran alongside Israel four months ago, and is now struggling to get Iran to agree to the exact same thing now.
This brings us to this week’s media literacy tip from our friends at MediaWise!
Don’t know why JD Vance is rapping about the news but it is quite informative.
What to say about Usha Vance’s story time show?
In late March, Second Lady Usha Vance launched “Storytime with the Second Lady,” a podcast where she reads children’s books with guests. As others have pointed out, the podcast to promote childhood literacy comes amid the Trump administration’s assaults on both childhood and literacy.
The Cut reports that the show debuted after the administration laid off over 1,300 Department of Education employees, moved over 100 programs out of the department to other agencies, and revoked hundreds of millions of dollars in education research contracts. And Mother Jones writes that the children’s show comes as the Trump administration was detaining and deporting kids, and after reportedly shooting a missile at an Iranian elementary school.
The apparent effort to deflect from all of this with a cute story time show backfired last weekend, when Vice President JD Vance appeared on the podcast in what critics and literal body language experts are calling an extremely awkward interaction with his wife.
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They keep making it impossible to afford a condo so might as well keep blowing money on $10 lattes
Good news for people who care about their rents and mortgages from skyrocketing and about our deeply polarized country: Congress pulled itself together and passed a bipartisan package aimed at lowering how much we pay for housing. It aims to stop corporate landlords from buying up as much property as possible, it’ll give more money to local governments building lots of housing — including affordable housing — and it’ll speed up construction.
Bad news for people who care about their housing costs not skyrocketing and about our deeply polarized country: Trump won’t sign the thing. Not because of nuanced concerns around what it means that this package would streamline environmental reviews when we’re in a climate crisis, or around whether it sufficiently addresses other factors fueling the housing crisis. Instead, he’s holding the legislation hostage until Congress agrees to require proof of citizenship for all voters.
You may have heard of this effort as the so-called SAVE Act, a piece of legislation that would bar eligible voters from participating in elections because millions don’t have easy access to documents like birth certificates or passports. Getting access to those documents can be pricey, prompting critics to compare the SAVE Act to racist Jim Crow-era poll taxes.
Each week, after running through the news Dave has covered in the past week, I turn things over to him for some analysis. Dave, take it away!
Unsurprisingly the duet format of holding up cue cards while showing a very real clip of an awkward politician, or even a McDonald’s CEO trying a cheeseburger, continues to thrive.
It is very gratifying to see that video take off on Instagram in particular, where we’ve always had a more difficult time getting viral hits. It’s also the tiniest bit frustrating that these videos take about two hours to make, while other certain Uncle-Sam-rapping, multi-scene-changing, algae-infested videos that took an entire day get less traffic. But I digress!
I am here to give my take on Vice President JD Vance and his wife, the second lady, Usha. First, here’s what we know:
They have been married for a while.
His politics shifted nearly a decade ago, so I do not buy into this idea that she was surprised he suddenly went full MAGA for Trump in 2024. He did run for Senate and win before all this, after all.
Mr. Vance often says “I” when talking about family decisions. It’s pretty weird specifically that he attributed having another kid to something he wanted.
There’s no concrete evidence they are unhappy in their marriage.
While this latest clip is especially awkward, I tend to think it has more to do with them as individuals, not as a couple. Vance is known for his gaffes, bad jokes and terrible comedic timing. Meanwhile, the second lady has always been seemingly uncomfortable on camera. The first “director duet” video I ever did was her announcing their trip to Greenland (afterwards, she was taken off the itinerary).
In the full video, there are one or two moments that aren’t entirely cringey. They seem human, at least … not AI, as some commenters speculated out loud. Most likely, they’re just really weird and awkward and it doesn’t go beyond that.
If I put on my cynical hat, the way Mr. Vance talks about his kids crosses the line from cringey to problematic a few times. In this video and previous appearances, he will make a joke out of how annoying they are (he told his son to “shut the hell up about Pikachu!”). It’s not that parents don’t get annoyed with kids, but it’s strange that that is his default. Finally, the second lady’s body language feels uptight and on edge. We’ve seen her nervous in other videos from the ‘Storytime’ series, but she still looks more relaxed. In my view, she seemed nervous and on guard.
I really lean toward the former observation. We can’t pretend to know them. We can, however, get a good chuckle over just how strange it is to greet your wife like you are currently suffering from amnesia and just learned you’re married to the pregnant woman sitting across from you.
Thanks, Dave!
If you made it to the end of this newsletter, you get two rewards. The first is a pet picture from a loyal reader. This is Fred!
His million-yard stare is quite relatable.
Your second reward is the reveal for this week’s link scavenger hunt, in which I hide a non-news link in the body of this email and wait until down here to tell you where it is. This week, while writing about the algae bloom, I linked out to a current DC Comic book wrapping up a 1980s storyline about Swamp Thing, a fictional character and not a real-life creature brewing at the bottom of the Reflecting Pool. As far as we know.
Until next week!
Chris
