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California: Running On Empty (VVDH)
PJ Media ^ | 6-21-2015 | Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on 06/22/2015 5:20:12 AM PDT by Sir Napsalot

The air in the San Joaquin Valley this late-June is, of course, hot and dry, but also dustier and more full of particulates than usual. This year a strange flu reached epidemic proportions. I say strange, because after the initial viral symptoms subsided, one’s cough still lingered for weeks and even months. Antibiotics did not seem to faze it. Allergy clinics were full. Almost every valley resident notices that when orchards and vineyards are less watered, when row cropland lies fallow, when lawns die and blow away, when highway landscaping dries up, nature takes over and the air becomes even filthier. Green elites lecture that agriculture is unnatural, without any idea why pre-civilized, pre-irrigated, and “natural” California was an empty place, whose dry, hazy climate and dusty winds made life almost impossible. The state is running on empty.

(snip)

We suffer in California from a particular form of progressive immorality predicated on insular selfishness. The water supplies of Los Angeles and the Bay Area are still for a year longer in good shape, despite the four-year drought. Neither area is self-sufficient in water; their aquifers are marginal and only supply a fraction of their daily needs. Instead these megalopolises depend on intricate and expensive water transfer systems — from Northern California, from the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and from the Colorado River — that bring water and life to quite unnatural habitats ......

Why then do those who have access to water delivered in a most unnatural way seek to curtail supplies to others? In a word, because they are either ignorant of where their own water comes from or they have not a shred of concern for others less blessed, or both.

(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...


TOPICS: Government
KEYWORDS: californiadrought; vdh
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(VDH's last paragraph excerpt)

"The pretensions and vanity of postmodern civilization will do no good. What value is the ubiquity of transgendered restrooms, when there is no water in the toilet or sink? Who needs a reservoir on the back nine, when there is no water for putting greens? Who cares whether plastic grocery bags are outlawed, when one cannot afford the tomatoes or peaches to put in a paper bag? What does it matter whether the homeless or ex-felons are ensured a job on the high-speed rail project, when there is no money or water to build it? Who cares about a new Apple watch, when he stinks to high heaven without a shower?"

Time of reckoning is soon upon "those".

1 posted on 06/22/2015 5:20:12 AM PDT by Sir Napsalot
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To: Sir Napsalot

What is happening in California is indeed scary. When you see (supposedly) a 200-foot water drop where is used to rise up to a bridge. All those boats trapped at the bottom where you can’t get to them.

And now they’re saying a town of 15,000 could get their water cut off. And if they make a deal, it’s only good for a year.

Just wow.


2 posted on 06/22/2015 5:22:11 AM PDT by SaveFerris (Be a blessing to a stranger today for some have entertained angels unaware)
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To: Sir Napsalot

(VDH’s last paragraph excerpt) -—> (More VDH excerpt)


3 posted on 06/22/2015 5:24:16 AM PDT by Sir Napsalot (Pravda + Useful Idiots = CCCP; JournOList + Useful Idiots = DopeyChangey!)
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To: SaveFerris
And now they’re saying a town of 15,000 could get their water cut off. And if they make a deal, it’s only good for a year.

A tyrant's wet dream. What more precious commodity could you control than water? This is precisely why little will be done to actually alleviate the situation. Like all leftists, the CA government would rather have the issue with which to manipulate a very vulnerable population than the actual solution.

4 posted on 06/22/2015 5:25:30 AM PDT by ScottinVA (The election of Obama was a hate crime.)
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To: Servant of the Cross

ping to VDH list


5 posted on 06/22/2015 5:27:10 AM PDT by Sir Napsalot (Pravda + Useful Idiots = CCCP; JournOList + Useful Idiots = DopeyChangey!)
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To: ScottinVA

It was a place I’d never heard of - Mountain House

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-0618-mountain-house-20150618-story.html

Watch out - it’s the Times


6 posted on 06/22/2015 5:27:14 AM PDT by SaveFerris (Be a blessing to a stranger today for some have entertained angels unaware)
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To: Sir Napsalot

Jackson Browne - Running on Empty w/ lyrics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq25ZJwZJzU


7 posted on 06/22/2015 5:29:24 AM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
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To: Sir Napsalot

Besides LA and SF, about the only places not suffering from a shortage of water are Obama’s Palm Springs golf courses and the marijuana cartel’s groves (or orchards or plantations or whatever they’re called) up here in Northern California.


8 posted on 06/22/2015 5:30:16 AM PDT by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: Sir Napsalot

Looks like Caliphonia is no longer going to be “The Land of Fruits and Nuts”. It is heading toward being a barren land of wealthy leftist and poor thirsty, starving peons. Just what the elitists ordered.


9 posted on 06/22/2015 5:31:56 AM PDT by Tupelo (I fell more like Phillip Nolan every day.)
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To: Deb; Sir Napsalot; Kaslin; neverdem; EXCH54FE; 2ndDivisionVet; Rummyfan; smoothsailing; Hojczyk; ...

VDH ping ...


10 posted on 06/22/2015 5:32:23 AM PDT by Servant of the Cross (the Truth will set you free)
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To: Sir Napsalot

It is a shame they don’t have a lot of water close to there shore. Water that could be used to water the lawns, trees, and even provide drinking water. OH well, when you are an inland state, one can only dream of an sea of water.


11 posted on 06/22/2015 5:55:11 AM PDT by EXCH54FE (Hurricane 416,Feisty Old Vet !!)
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To: Sir Napsalot

I remember when North Korea had a drought, and millions died. Odd how these natural disasters cluster around leftists.


12 posted on 06/22/2015 6:32:18 AM PDT by Vince Ferrer
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To: SaveFerris

Mountain House is a few miles from Tracy, and I will be there visiting some family in a little over a week.


13 posted on 06/22/2015 6:41:39 AM PDT by Rusty0604
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To: Sir Napsalot

Excellent essay, as usual from Dr. VDH. You can’t almost triple the population and build no water infrastructure in the desert. Environmental kooks convinced people to vote for this insanity and the dreamy utopian leftists and no-info voters went along with their agenda for decades. This crisis was easy to see coming. The big question: is it bad enough for the sheeple to learn a lesson and say “never again”?


14 posted on 06/22/2015 6:58:16 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do not, no explanation is possible)
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To: Sir Napsalot

I suspect a lot of people didn’t have a virus, but a fungus. Coccidioidomycosis even has the nickname of “San Joaquin Valley fever”, or just “Valley fever”. It is caused by Coccidioides immitis or Coccidioides posadasii. It is endemic in certain parts of Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and northern Mexico.

Typically it has an outbreak after a long dry spell, and a brief rain, followed by more dryness.


15 posted on 06/22/2015 7:12:33 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("Don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative." -Obama, 09-24-11)
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To: Texas Eagle
about the only places not suffering from a shortage of water are Obama’s Palm Springs golf courses and the marijuana cartel’s groves

My wife still has friends in the part of CA she left when we got married. They report that the area is overrun with illegals who put up greenhouses to grow pot, and pump up so much water from the aquifer that they're lowering the water table. I'm glad she finally found a buyer for her property there, and we no longer have a connection with the place.

16 posted on 06/22/2015 7:23:30 AM PDT by JoeFromSidney ( book, RESISTANCE TO TYRANNY, available from Amazon)
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To: Sir Napsalot

Speaking of water, here in Phoenix, the Safeway stores have raised its price on their brand of bottled drinking water. What used to be 89 cents/gallon if you have a Safeway card has now been increased to $1.49 if using the card.

Wonder if other stores will follow suit.

And I also wonder if this has to do with the water shortage in California.


17 posted on 06/22/2015 8:23:42 AM PDT by hsmomx3
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To: Sir Napsalot

If you look back in the early history of California, a large portion of it was basically rocky desert until later centuries—when they built pipelines to draw water from the aquifers and lakes. California also had (and still has to this day) a moderate climate, which increased the population post-Gold Rush. The state became a monumental draw to people from all over the world, especially Japan, to enjoy the lush beauty and climate.

California was a desert, then not a desert, now back to a desert.

But I firmly believe is another dynamic at play as to why this state is suffering this multi-year drought, which has no sign whatsoever of ending: the homosexual agenda, the liberal agenda (which go hand-in-hand), pornography, and Hollywood movie-generated filth. God is judging this nation for its decision to serve satan, and since California is known by all as a breeding ground for such and which flies in the face of a Holy God, I believe he looks to empty it of its population, one judgment at a time.

Could a series of shallow 8.0 or larger earthquakes be on the horizon for this state? It might just be.


18 posted on 06/22/2015 8:54:56 AM PDT by Patriot777 (Imagine....that we could see Obama being hauled out of the White House kicking and screaming?)
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To: Patriot777

Interesting theory, but that doesn’t explain the just as liberal Oregon, Washington.


19 posted on 06/22/2015 9:00:03 AM PDT by Sir Napsalot (Pravda + Useful Idiots = CCCP; JournOList + Useful Idiots = DopeyChangey!)
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To: Sir Napsalot

For later.


20 posted on 06/22/2015 9:00:43 AM PDT by Lurker (Violence is rarely the answer. But when it is it is the only answer.)
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