Sewage-filled Potomac river risks ruining America's birthday(telegraph.co.uk)
telegraph.co.uk
Sewage-filled Potomac river risks ruining America's birthday
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2026/03/07/poop-filled-potomac-river-risks-ruining-americas-birthday/
11 comments
Fitting - as this is likely emblematic of the way America is failing more broadly: we can't fix real problems with pipes, roads and other infrastructure because we created a generation (s) of people who were taught to look down on that kind of work. And we're at the end of our ability to fund adequate fixes to those things with national debt.
Pete Seeger - "We're filling up the seas with garbage (garbage, garbage, garbage)"
I don't think that's the main problem. Yes, we can't fix stuff, but labor is among the smallest parts of the problem.
> we can't fix real problems with pipes, roads and other infrastructure because we created a generation (s) of people who were taught to look down on that kind of work.
The problem:
"It's people's fault" (tm).
"The Solution" (by B Brecht):
“Would it not be simpler, for the government, to dissolve the people, and elect another?”
Seriously, why not AI as a solution? That's where all the capital goes... how do you fix anything without capital?
The problem:
"It's people's fault" (tm).
"The Solution" (by B Brecht):
“Would it not be simpler, for the government, to dissolve the people, and elect another?”
Seriously, why not AI as a solution? That's where all the capital goes... how do you fix anything without capital?
Also seems fitting for the state of DC today.
And, by the extension, of the UK.
Every single river is a sewage. Beaches have untreated human faeces, sometimes swimming in the sea is a risk to life because of sewage-borne illnesses.
Decades of capital extraction and the governments trying really really hard not to see it.
Every single river is a sewage. Beaches have untreated human faeces, sometimes swimming in the sea is a risk to life because of sewage-borne illnesses.
Decades of capital extraction and the governments trying really really hard not to see it.
I'm not really pro-UK or pro-anything in Europe, but most of Europe was built out before modern sewage treatment. Or for that matter the germ theory of disease. It's more than easy to understand why rivers have untreated sewage is dumped into rivers. At the time of construction, it was state of the art.
The US in unusual in that most of it's population boom happened after modern sanitation. Yet we still have areas that discharge sewage into rivers on and ongoing basis.
The US in unusual in that most of it's population boom happened after modern sanitation. Yet we still have areas that discharge sewage into rivers on and ongoing basis.
Are we sure the smell isn't just the pile of Krasnov's used diapers that have been piling up next to the destroyed wing of the White House? I hear they haven't been putting them in the regular trash pickup on "national security grounds", and the regime insists it's fine because his shit doesn't stink.
it's fine
the people who will be on camera are profesionals and will follow the script, nodding and smiling along with the, few, political elites who's job it is to "celebrate", knowing that anything that smells that strong must be money.
the people who will be on camera are profesionals and will follow the script, nodding and smiling along with the, few, political elites who's job it is to "celebrate", knowing that anything that smells that strong must be money.