I cannot possibly see how this could end badly. “This” being a “smart meter” that gets installed on suspected “water wasters” (now there’s a phrase that didn’t take long to spring up, huh?) in – for now – Long Beach, California. Once installed, it tracks for illegal water use – I cannot believe that I had to write that phrase in reference to an American state – and if it sees some it then finks out the treacherous kulak to the water department. All of this is done via the ‘cloud,’ because apparently this story is designed to be extra-painful to digital libertarians*. Continue reading Annnnd here we go with California on the prowl for ‘water wasters.’
Tag: California
Across the board water restrictions come to California. Across the board attempts to evade them to follow.
And it’s going to be brutal:
As state officials announced that lowest-ever snowpack in the Sierra Nevada — the source of nearly a third of California’s fresh water — Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday said mandatory conservation measures would go into effect for the first time in history.
Among other actions, the governor’s executive order will require urban areas to reduce water use by 25 percent.
That’s an important point, by the way. From the executive order:
The State Water Resources Control Board (Water Board) shall impose restrictions to achieve a statewide 25% reduction in potable urban water usage through February 28, 2016. These restrictions will require water suppliers to Californias cities and towns to reduce usage as compared to the amount used in 2013. These restrictions should consider the relative per capita water usage of each water suppliers’ Service area, and require that those areas with high per capita use achieve proportionally greater reductions than those with low use. The California Public Utilities Commission is requested to take similar action with respect to investor-owned utilities providing water services.
It *may* be the last year of California as we know it. *May*.
The LA Times is more or less running on the razor’s edge of panic right now: “As our “wet” season draws to a close, it is clear that the paltry rain and snowfall have done almost nothing to alleviate epic drought conditions. January was the driest in California since record-keeping began in 1895. Groundwater and snowpack levels are at all-time lows. We’re not just up a creek without a paddle in California, we’re losing the creek too.” The op-ed calls for severe water rationing in California across the board… which means the parts of California that have, up to this moment, not suffered overmuch from the drought. Victor Davis Hanson, from earlier this year:
Even as a fourth year of drought threatens the state, canal water from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir in Yosemite National Park keeps Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area a verdant oasis. This parched coastal mountain range would have depopulated long ago without the infrastructure that an earlier, wiser generation built and that latter-day regulators and environmentalists so casually deprecated. (See “California’s Promethean Past,” Summer 2013.) Gardens and lawns remain green in Palo Alto, San Mateo, Cupertino, and San Francisco, where residents continue to benefit from past investments in huge water transfers from inland mountains to the coast. They will be the last to go dry.
Continue reading It *may* be the last year of California as we know it. *May*.
Rep. Janice Hahn (D, California-44) bails out of Congress.
Normally I would say that Janice Hahn cut and ran, but CA-44 is a D+32 district. That’s… pretty safe for a Democratic candidate. Anyway, we all missed this news from last week; and, her reasons for retiring? It is to laugh:
“The problem is, Washington is broken, it’s increasingly mired in political gridlock, and there’s virtually zero cooperation between the two parties. That’s not the kind of government I grew up with, and it’s precisely why I know I can do more for the Los Angeles region on the Board of Supervisors,” Hahn said in a statement announcing her decision.
Continue reading Rep. Janice Hahn (D, California-44) bails out of Congress.
When and if Californians flee Dust Bowl 2.0, please note this…
…REMEMBER WHY YOU LEFT. Because if you don’t, you will probably be pointedly reminded by the native inhabitants of your new states*. And if you have the supreme idiocy to still own a Green Party membership card… SHRED** IT BEFORE YOU LEAVE CALIFORNIA. Better safe than sorry, boychik.
Moe Lane Continue reading When and if Californians flee Dust Bowl 2.0, please note this…
Witness the awesome power of the Blue State model in Democratic-controlled California!
To wit: they’re creating actual nomad clans over there.
Over the last two years, street encampments have jumped their historic boundaries in downtown Los Angeles, lining freeways and filling underpasses from Echo Park to South Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, a city-county agency, received 767 calls about street encampments in 2014, up 60% from the 479 in 2013.
Some residents believe the city is exporting its downtown homeless problem to their neighborhoods. But social service agencies and volunteers say it isn’t that simple. They say that although downtown development and skid row cleanups are squeezing out some homeless people, many camps are filled with locals.
Can you really trust your wine now, California? REALLY?
This is horrible, in that specialized and frankly pro-forma way that comes from being told about a poor situation that doesn’t really affect me: “Cabernet sauvignon grapes from California’s Napa Valley have been among the most prized on earth for fine wine, justifying the cost per bottle of $100 or more. But it seems that one of the area’s top master blenders for elite brands has been fooling gourmets into paying top dollar for bottles that might really be jug quality wine.” …I mean: I generally don’t drink cabs. And I don’t buy $100 bottles of wine, because I can’t tell the difference between them and a $30 bottle.
…Apparently I’m not the only one, huh?
Via
Horrible. RT @irishspy: 'Two-Buck Chuck'? Faux Cabernet Scandal Hits Napa’s Elite Brands – Breitbart http://t.co/SjxhiUzpFX
— Scott Lincicome (@scottlincicome) January 26, 2015
Quote of the Day, Actually, Dude, It’s Not A Stunning Fact At All edition.
I mean, I get that Ronald Brownstein of the National Journal has a narrative to feed, but come on.
It’s a stunning fact that a Republican Party that still depends on whites for 90 percent of its votes has more viable minority leaders to consider for its 2016 presidential ticket than do Democrats.
It’s only stunning if you assume that white people will not vote for minorities. Now, I grant that this is true for Democrats, historically speaking: and before you say ‘Barack Obama’ let me just note that the President typically comes across as the reincarnation of Woodrow Wilson*. At any rate, getting a white Democrat to vote for a minority in a statewide race or better is like pulling teeth with a pair of pliers. It can be done, but not gently. Continue reading Quote of the Day, Actually, Dude, It’s Not A Stunning Fact At All edition.
Tom Steyer reportedly mulling California Senate run.
Or, as I would put it, Tom Steyer thinking of eliminating middleman by signing up to directly lose a Senate seat: “Billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer is mulling a run for Barbara Boxer’s Senate seat, according to a person close to the former hedge fund trader.” …and there’s the trouble, right there for Mr. Steyer: all those adjectives. ‘Billionaire’ is at best, neutral. ‘Environmentalist’ is not really all that helpful, even in California. And ‘hedge fund trader’ is going to be a really fun club with which to beat the prospective candidate. Continue reading Tom Steyer reportedly mulling California Senate run.
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D, California) cuts and runs.
“Prepare the viands, prepare the foods, prepare the strange wines, for tonight is indeed a great night!” – The Martian Chronicles.
Barbara Boxer is retiring. If you listen, you can hear the faint sounds of Democratic politicians all across California as they get up from their breakfasts and calmly go to open up their weapons caches. For there will be a Democratic war in the primaries over this. A California Senator’s seat? Oh, my, yes, but there will be a Time Of Troubles. Lots of people want that job, and they won’t be shy about trying for it. I cannot wait to see how far the Democrats involved will go…
Moe Lane (crosspost)
PS: The Republican party of California needs to do precisely two things, here. One: it must limit the viable candidates for this seat to two, no more, no less, and I don’t care if the CA GOP has to enforce this with a club with a nail in it. Two: those two candidates must absolutely resolutely ignore each other before the jungle primary. If they can’t say anything nice about each other, they shouldn’t say anything at all. I do not say that following this advice will ensure victory: but I will say that following this advice could not hurt.