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California of the Dark Ages
PJ Media ^ | 1-31-16 | Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on 02/01/2016 10:15:14 AM PST by afraidfortherepublic

Edited on 02/01/2016 10:26:49 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]

I recently took a few road trips longitudinally and latitudinally across California. The state bears little to no resemblance to what I was born into. In a word, it is now a medieval place of lords and peasants-and few in between. Or rather, as I gazed out on the California Aqueduct, the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Luis Reservoir, I realized we are like the hapless, squatter Greeks of the Dark Ages, who could not figure out who those mythical Mycenaean lords were that built huge projects still standing in their midst, long after Lord Ajax and King Odysseus disappeared into exaggeration and myth. Henry Huntington built the entire Big Creek Hydroelectric Project in the time it took our generation to go to three hearings on a proposed dam.


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


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Philosophy; US: California
KEYWORDS: agribusiness; agricultulre; california; demographics; drought; economy; progress; vdh; vdhcalif; victordavishanson; water; watertable
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To: Darteaus94025
"DID YOU HAVE TO GO TELL EVERYBODY?!"

Not to worry. They don't believe me.

Hell, most of the people in CALIFORNIA don't believe me. Most folks think Sacramento is a "Cow Town".

I just hope none of them actually decide to see for themselves. And I hope they keep reading VDH lol

21 posted on 02/01/2016 11:50:19 AM PST by Mariner (War Criminal #18 - Be The Leaderless Resistance)
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To: Mariner

One of the most violent cities in the country, and had a nearly 25% spike in 2015. That what most people who don’t own 100 acres of walnut trees know.


22 posted on 02/01/2016 12:16:04 PM PST by DesertRhino ("I want those feeble minded asses overthrown,,,")
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To: afraidfortherepublic

The medieval Greeks would see ancient ruins built by their ancestors and call them “Egyptian castle” or “Hebrew castle” because they had forgotten their own history, but knew about the Egyptians and Hebrews from the Bible—these structures were very old so must have been built by Egyptians or Jews. And they weren’t even subjected to Common Core.


23 posted on 02/01/2016 12:19:35 PM PST by Verginius Rufus
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To: DesertRhino
"One of the most violent cities in the country"

Sacramento? Certainly not in my neighborhood.

24 posted on 02/01/2016 12:27:51 PM PST by Mariner (War Criminal #18 - Be The Leaderless Resistance)
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To: Pelham

“Press 1 for English.”

Years ago a co-worker called a company in California. The machine said “Press 2 for English”. I could hear him ranting and raving at the person on the other end once he was connected!


25 posted on 02/01/2016 12:28:34 PM PST by 21twelve (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2185147/posts It is happening again.)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Interesting observations, though unfortunately short on any vision for how to fix things.


26 posted on 02/01/2016 12:39:12 PM PST by EternalVigilance
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To: Savage Beast; Jim Robinson
The Trump Counter-Revolution promises ascendancy.

Donald Trump hired 150 Polish illegals to do the demolition labor for Trump Tower though a bogus subcontractor he set up as legal protection who had never done that kind of work. He paid the laborers $4-5 an hour, for 12 hour days, seven days a week, with no overtime in a crumbling building with no hard hats, gloves, or breather masks despite the asbestos and lead dust. He was fined a $1 million bucks after stalling for 15 years in court for failing to contribute to the union pension fund as required under the contract.

THIS is the guy you think is going to undo the cheap labor express? Really??

27 posted on 02/01/2016 12:59:29 PM PST by Carry_Okie (The tree of liberty needs a rope.)
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To: Carry_Okie

Published: June 14, 1998 and the case was decades old then? How did the trial turn out?


28 posted on 02/01/2016 1:09:00 PM PST by Jim Robinson (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to to God!)
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To: Savage Beast

Indeed! I have many relatives still living there and they are blind.


29 posted on 02/01/2016 1:16:11 PM PST by afraidfortherepublic
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To: SpaceBar

Yes, I did grow up there. My family (both sides) were pioneers there, and they would be rolling in their graves to see what their progeny made of it.

Mismanagement of water has a lot to do with it. VDH touched on it.


30 posted on 02/01/2016 1:18:31 PM PST by afraidfortherepublic
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To: Mariner

I’m glad to hear it about the northern counties (at least those that are not over-run by marijuana growing. My family is from the same area of the state as VDH. We have suffered mightily due to Nancy Pelosi, her stupid fish, and the Sierra Club.


31 posted on 02/01/2016 1:21:56 PM PST by afraidfortherepublic
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To: American in Israel

That may be what the retailer gets, but not what the grower gets. I really don’t know. I just think that $1/lb in 1950 to $3/lb today would be a decline in price. Consider that a beginning teacher today, just out of school starts at around $26,000/yr. In 1959, it was $5,000/year. It’s called inflation.


32 posted on 02/01/2016 1:26:12 PM PST by afraidfortherepublic
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To: American in Israel

They have been talking about splitting the state — north and south — my entire, long life. It’s never came to anything. I doubt that the US Congress would take very kindly to 2 additional Senators in their “Club”.


33 posted on 02/01/2016 1:28:13 PM PST by afraidfortherepublic
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To: afraidfortherepublic
But I hear you got, at least, average rain and snow this year?

Bring the water back and a lot of other things are mitigated.

34 posted on 02/01/2016 1:32:19 PM PST by Mariner (War Criminal #18 - Be The Leaderless Resistance)
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To: Jim Robinson
Published: June 14, 1998 and the case was decades old then?

Show me how the man's character has changed. I've tracked his record in business up to 2011 and see no such sign. Honestly Jim, I think the man is a fraud.

How did the trial turn out?

As far I can tell Trump lost.

35 posted on 02/01/2016 1:42:10 PM PST by Carry_Okie (The tree of liberty needs a rope.)
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To: Carry_Okie

Well, Trump was denying the charges in that article and looked liked the trial that was scheduled was postponed because the judge quit the case. You’re declaring him guilty so thought you must have knewn how the trial went.


36 posted on 02/01/2016 1:51:00 PM PST by Jim Robinson (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to to God!)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Same here.


37 posted on 02/01/2016 1:51:27 PM PST by Savage Beast (The Trump Phenomenon is a Revolution. Actually a Counter-Revolution.)
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To: Mariner

I live in Wisconsin, so I didn’t get any California rain. Watching the news, however, I think a lot of those storms missed Fresno completely. But, it really doesn’t matter how much rain they get, the state has diverted much of the water.

I haven’t been back since 2014 when my mom died, but we probably will take a trip out there this year for a class reunion. It was heartbreaking to see the state of the area on my many trips toward the end of my mom’s life. I have cousins over on the coast in the Santa Cruz area and the dried up farms, orchards, and reservoirs were a sight to behold. On one, extended, trip, I watched an entire peach orchard go un-picked and then plowed under. Pathetic.

I saw orchards of small nut trees allowed to dry up and die for lack of water. Nearby there would be other orchards that were flourishing because those farmers had drilled deeper wells.

I remember when the Central California Irrigation System (not the right name, but it’s been a long time) went in after WWII. The farmers were promised water allotments for their crops. Then the state changed the rules and cut them off. I remember my uncle Tommy turning on the tap on his fields when the system first went into effect. He was so proud when the water flowed into the furrows, and he explained to my dad how it would work and the promises made to the farmers. That was probably around 1948.

There are people (Sierra Clubbers) who want to drain Hetch Hetchy because it is supposed to be “another Yosemite” under all that water. If they do that, San Francisco will sit up and take notice. They might even vote Pelosi out of there! (Fat chance!)


38 posted on 02/01/2016 1:56:37 PM PST by afraidfortherepublic
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To: Jim Robinson

Here’s an article from 1990 that gives some more details and a look at the other players and their possible motives.

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/13/nyregion/trump-says-he-didn-t-know-he-employed-illegal-aliens.html

And a hugely detailed legal decision from 1989

http://www.leagle.com/decision/19891786874F2d912_11634/DIDUCK%20v.%20KASZYCKI%20&%20SONS%20CONTRACTORS,%20INC.


39 posted on 02/01/2016 2:00:24 PM PST by Tijeras_Slim
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To: Jim Robinson
You're declaring him guilty so thought you must have knewn how the trial went.

No trial. Trump settled. Even the NY Daily News says that Trump stiffed some of the workers.

Jim, the point is this: Will a guy who runs his business this way, importing Polish illegals for labor as opposed to hiring Americans, suddenly become a champion of the American worker? I say no. His whole career is FULL of dirty deals. His campaign consists of bogus claims and vague and malleable promises, leaving him plenty of opportunity to change that deal as something other than the public perception of it. He even says in his book that he plays to people's fantasies. Why, in this year when we have perhaps our best and LAST opportunity to elect a conservative government in nearly a century, WHY should we trust this man with the Presidency?

I don't see it.

40 posted on 02/01/2016 3:04:25 PM PST by Carry_Okie (The tree of liberty needs a rope.)
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