Donald Trump has a profound misunderstanding of geography.
Or he is simply lying.
Or both.
Here is what he wrote:
No, he did not send in the U.S. military.
No, he did not turn on the water to L.A.
No, the water from the Pacific Northwest and beyond does not flow to Southern California.
No, there is no "Fake Environmental argument" valuing nature over the people that is denying Los Angeles water from the Pacific Northwest.
The staggering ignorance would be funny if people weren't taken in by him. People cheered the news on social media.
---"Figured out who is boss yet, Gavin Newsom?"
--- "We voted for a leader and we got one MAGA!"
Elon Musk tweeted:
"Congratulations to the administration and DOI's Bureau of Reclamation for more than doubling the federally pumped water flowing toward Southern California in less than 72 hours."
Trump's claim notwithstanding, Oregon and Washington rivers flow west into the Pacific Ocean. Even the Klamath River, which starts in Southern Oregon and then flows into California, flows mostly west, and enters the Pacific just south of the Oregon border, 700 miles from L.A.
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| The Rogue River from my farm, looking downriver. Downriver is west. The river's mouth is 750 miles from L.A. |
Water is complicated in California, but put simply: Sacramento River water feeds Central Valley agriculture, not urban Los Angeles fire response. The fires in Los Angeles did not spread because there was a lack of Northern California water due to environmental concerns. The problem was the size and capacity of the urban infrastructure -- the capacity of the water mains and hydrants. The wind-whipped fire overwhelmed their system.
The California Department of Water Resources put out a statement
"The military did not enter California. The federal government restarted federal water pumps after they were offline for maintenance for three days. State water supplies in Southern California remain plentiful.
Trump is good at selling a narrative. He has the presidential microphone, he is energetic, and he tells a story that fits an existing mental template that explains the world as he presents it: An out-of-control fire in L.A. happened because woke crazy-progressive California loonies, with lesbian fire chiefs, were hobbled by environmental extremists who diverted water L.A. needed to fight fires to protect a tiny fish no one cares about. But don't despair. Trump is the hero who rides in with the cavalry to carry out a rescue. Thank God for Trump.
Trump has Fox, conservative talk radio, and Twitter/X to broadcast and amplify that simple, clear message.
The water that flows into the San Francisco Bay and keeps the smelt alive also keeps salt water from entering and inundating some of the most productive agricultural land in the world, and the source of much of America's food. That reality needs a spokesperson as loud, vivid, and persuasive as Trump.
Democrats need to wake up. There is no credible neutral truth-teller in the form of Walter Cronkite or newspaper reporters and editors to explain press releases and complicated realities. Those neutral "explainers" have lost their audiences and their nerves. Facebook, Instagram, Reels, and YouTube have given up content moderation.
Biden -- even when he was president and a candidate -- was overwhelmed by Trump's louder, clearer voice. Biden's profound communication incapacity trained Americans, including the remaining news media, to go to Trump to hear from the newsmaker or to fellow citizens to hear what the latest rumor is. Trump tells preposterous, easily refuted lies, but they can be believable ones, and he tells them with bluster and apparent confidence.
Dishonesty is not a requirement for a counterargument. The truth can be interesting and persuasive, and it has the advantage of being congruent with observable facts. This will be the political Era of Trump until a Democrat emerges who can tell a counter-story as well as Trump. The position is open and available.
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8 comments:
Is it that Trump is so good at selling a narrative, or that his followers are so stupid that they believe what they want regardless of the facts? Trump’s countless lies and numerous crimes are a matter of public record, yet still they eagerly lap up whatever he vomits. As Peter says, the staggering ignorance would be funny except for all the people who wallow in it. What’s even scarier is that Trump might even believe his own bullshit. When the leader of the free world is delusional, it won’t be long before our freedom becomes a delusion.
The movie Meritocracy is becoming less a farce and more a documentary. When ignorant rants are viewed as equal to educated, thoughtful responses based on fact, the outcome can only go downhill. Carl Sagan worried about this in 1995 with his concern becoming reality. It would be nice to find a loud scientist who ignorant people would happily follow. It could happen, just needs the right personality.
I expect this sort of nonsense will be regular fare. How long do you think it last before the Emperor is finally seen for what he is?
I wouldn’t be surprised if this imaginary gesture were all the disaster relief Trump intends to provide California. Anything more would be out of character.
Today, the Democrats saw an opening in Trump's bluff and bluster when he was forced to rescind his executive offer, pausing Federal spending on Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security benefits, and all entitlement programs. There is hope that his overreach will eventually be his downfall.
The problem is, environmental extremists have taken advantage of environmental laws to enforce results that most people think are crazy. The endangered species laws were passed because people wanted to protect majestic species like whales and tigers and elephants, not tiny little insignificant creatures that most people have never heard of and don’t care about. There have been so many examples of this that telling one more story like it is quite believable, even if (in that particular case) the details do not match reality.
Trump is surfing on deep, experience-based storylines. Successful opposition will have to operate on that same level. PBS-level “appeals to reason“ are just not going to cut it.
The Trump cult swallows all kinds of stupid, crazy stuff, such as the 2020 election being "stolen," that Jan. 6 was "a day of love" and that immigrants are "eating our cats and dogs." Blaming it on those pesky environmentalists is certainly a novel approach, but the simplest explanation is that Trump's chumps are really crazy and/or stupid.
Trump's "chumps" won the 2024 election. The Democrats need to seriously figure out what happened, because otherwise those "chumps" will continue to make "chimps" out of them.
Which is to say that calling the voters derogatory names because they didn't vote how you wanted them to is like what chimps do when they fling feces at things they don't like. It's not a political strategy that is likely to succeed.
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