California – Page 3

Droughtshaming continues to grow as a California social movement, or perhaps ‘mob.’

Begun, the water-based Stasi snitching in California has:

Take Los Angeles resident Jane Demian, for example. She recently got a letter from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s Water Conservation Response Unit, about an unverified report of prohibited water use activity at her home in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of L.A. Demian says she was called out for water runoff onto the sidewalk, driveway and gutter, and the unauthorized “washdown of hardscapes” like the walkway to her house.

[snip]

Besides not knowing whose water she’s getting in trouble for, Demian also doesn’t know who called her out. She thinks it may be another neighbor down the street, getting revenge after she previously complained about a noise violation from his house.

Continue reading Droughtshaming continues to grow as a California social movement, or perhaps ‘mob.’

Oakland protesters upset that they can no longer block traffic.

The horror: “Police made arrests as demonstrators marched in downtown Oakland against the city’s new get-tough policy for monitoring street protests — the second such gathering in as many days… Officers watched closely Sunday night as the protesters marched several blocks. About 100 to 150 people marched before organizers ended the event and then a group of 15 to 20 started another protest, spokeswoman Johnna A. Watson said.” Basically, the city of Oakland has decided that protesters need to stay on the sidewalks, and not take over the streets – and, not incidentally, refrain from destroying people’s cars.

Oakland, as you probably know, has what protesters would probably call ‘a vibrant commitment to social justice culture’ and everybody else would call ‘a sometimes literally bloody nuisance.’ To give you an idea: protest culture is so, ah, vibrant that in 2003 freaking Moonbeam Brown (who was then mayor of Oakland) felt the need to disperse the crowds with wooden and rubber bullets. It takes a good deal of skill and ingenuity to be too over the top for a hardcore liberal icon like Jerry Brown, but then I guess that any group that thinks that it needs to have formal pre- and post-protest protests is probably up to the challenge. Continue reading Oakland protesters upset that they can no longer block traffic.

This year, Californian celebrity water-wasters are just barely funny.

If there’s a drought next year, some of these estates may get rocks thrown at them.

Experts predict California reservoirs have less than a year’s worth of drinking water left. An emergency law passed last week forces local cities to conserve water immediately. The Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, which supplies many of these elite enclaves north of Los Angeles, will have four weeks starting next month to cut water use by a staggering 36 percent. But the mandate is toothless, with the maximum fine a paltry $100.

“We’re right up there with Beverly Hills,” said one official who estimates 70 percent of the district’s water is going to the lawn maintenance of about 100 manicured estates. “And that means we have to get the A-listers on the bus.”

Continue reading This year, Californian celebrity water-wasters are just barely funny.

Rogue Masonic Police Scandal in California!

Yeah, like I’d pass this one up.

An aide to state Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris and two others are accused of operating a rogue police force that claimed to exist for more than 3,000 years and have jurisdiction in 33 states and Mexico, authorities said Tuesday.

Brandon Kiel, David Henry and Tonette Hayes were arrested last week on suspicion of impersonating a police officer through their roles in the Masonic Fraternal Police Department, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Continue reading Rogue Masonic Police Scandal in California!

California’s class-based water woes.

If you can put aside for the moment the New York Times’ stubborn use of the “farmers use 80% of the water in California” canard*, this article isn’t too bad. It certainly notes the deep class divisions that are taking place in the state. To put it simply: the rich buy their way out of the restrictions and everybody else… can’t.

The fierce drought that is gripping the West — and the imminent prospect of rationing and steep water price increases in California — is sharpening the deep economic divide in this state, illustrating parallel worlds in which wealthy communities guzzle water as poorer neighbors conserve by necessity. The daily water consumption rate was 572.4 gallons per person in Cowan Heights from July through September 2014, the hot and dry summer months California used to calculate community-by-community water rationing orders; it was 63.6 gallons per person in Compton during that same period.

Continue reading California’s class-based water woes.

Well, it’s not that I want California to actually burn.

Americans live there. Shoot, illegal immigrants live there, and I don’t want to see any of them hurt in a societal crash, either. But I cannot pretend that watching the state have a -3 or -4 Electoral Vote crash after the next Census wouldn’t appeal to me, and while Jerry Brown is merely the symptom of California’s problems he’s a fairly blatant one: Continue reading Well, it’s not that I want California to actually *burn*.

California is apparently normally just a semi-arid place.

It’s fascinating to see the duckspeaking on display here…

The drought, now in its fourth year, is by many measures the worst since the state began keeping records of temperature and precipitation in the 1800s. And with a population now close to 39 million and a thirsty, $50 billion agricultural industry, California has been affected more by this drought than by any previous one.

But scientists say that in the more ancient past, California and the Southwest occasionally had even worse droughts — so-called megadroughts — that lasted decades.

Continue reading California is apparently normally just a semi-arid place.

California nervously clears (dry) throat, contemplates desalinization plants.

Amazing how a thirst can concentrate the mind, no?

Every time drought strikes California, the people of this state cannot help noticing the substantial reservoir of untapped water lapping at their shores — 187 quintillion gallons of it, more or less, shimmering so invitingly in the sun.

Now, for the first time, a major California metropolis is on the verge of turning the Pacific Ocean into an everyday source of drinking water. A $1 billion desalination plant to supply booming San Diego County is under construction here and due to open as early as November, providing a major test of whether California cities will be able to resort to the ocean to solve their water woes.

Continue reading California nervously clears (dry) throat, contemplates desalinization plants.

The Democrats are killing off agriculture like they apparently killed off the delta smelt.

I hope that the fight over the delta smelt was worth it (it was not), because this controversy over water rights will end with somebody being shot. I’d also suggest that the AP at least mention that one major reason that the farmers are not getting that water is because of a three inch fish that may, in fact, be extinct in the wild at this point. …And wouldn’t that be a kick in the teeth? The Democrats can’t even keep their goram pet fish alive; and yet, they want to set ecological policy. And cut off all the bits of agricultural policy that don’t fit in this particular Procrustean bed, of course.

Moe Lane

PS: Sorry: the AP has some very cranky, and ultimately self-defeating, attitudes over ‘fair use.’ Short version: some farmers in California are taking their water and justifying it with existing water rights. It’s going to end badly. Very, very badly.

More on the California Water Waster Fink Squads.

Remember that thing I wrote yesterday about how Long Beach, California was going Full Metal Snitching on ‘water wasters?’ Guess what! Yup, it’s going statewide:

…the California Water Resources Board plans to lay out a more detailed water restriction policy. One will include a statewide system where people can report neighbors or business owners who waste water. That system is expected to be up and running in the next few weeks.

The system is ‘online,’ which to me at least says ‘anonymous.’ That means that it also kind of shouts the ‘Get even with your enemies!’ that any self-respecting internal security apparatus needs to function. Which would be bad enough, but the fact that we’re seeing this sort of thing being set up implies how the state government of California plans to handle the drought. Continue reading More on the California Water Waster Fink Squads.