Grew up and lived 50 years in the northern San Joaquin Valley of California.
The reservoirs were originally conceived in the late 1800s to control floods and irrigate farmland in the semi-arid conditions of the valley. Electricity was a by-product. See the history of the Oakdale Irrigation District, the Modesto Irrigation District, Merced Irrigation District, Fresno Irrigation District, and more for more history. I could go on all day...
The history of water in the West and specifically, California is quite intriguing.
San Francisco gets its water from Hetch Hetchy which gravity-feeds the city from more than 100 miles away. John Muir lost the battle to stop the dam. It's quite the story how the city's Mayor quietly bought the land for the dam to take care of his precious city. Contrast that to today!
Los Angeles (where there is little to no rainfall) gets its water from the Colorado River, Mono Lake and the gigantic water projects stretching to the San Luis Dam and beyond. And yes, the agriculture is killed off when they want water. And, of course, the commie whackos flush much water into the Pacific Ocean because, to them, the little fishies are more important than the people.
No surprise parts of the water system are owned by billionaires as they have not only a vested interest in water for their "assets", but this also provides the politicians with a steady income.
And, in 2025, we are beginning to uncover just how vast the corruption is.
As if these people cannot be any worse; I just read that Gavin published a link on X to donate to the "victims". However, that link is to a democrat super pac, that skims a certain percent right off the top and then decides on how to distribute the money. Like we will donate it to this democrat's campaign because he/she will help the victims. California is lost. Illegals can vote and that is why they want to protect them. Virtually all voting is mail in with no voter ID check. Which is ironic because they checked the ID of everyone who signed the petition to recall Newsome. California is never coming back, anyone productive has either left or is leaving.
Nestlé "owns" rights to a lot of the remainder of the ground water in Cali. gifted below-market-value pricing by the government to consistently suck up more than their allotted cap and resell it as bottled
My awakening during COVID has turned me to an anti-capitalist. Utilities should be public. If we could recreate high trust communities in which we were the government we would be comfortable with public utilities because we would be socializing services to our neighbors and ourselves.
Good luck with that. Capitalism is the least corrupt system out there. I would think after COVID you would trust the government far less. They have power in mind, not your best interest.
if I had the least bit of control over government, I might agree.
almost everything is UCC corporations masquerading as government these days. cities, states, the feds... all incorporated under UCC rules.
I get the questionable privilege of voting for some otherwise unaccountable bureaucrats to legislate rules that harm me directly.
best example I've got lately... the 6 person city council unilaterally throwing out a petitioned onto the ballot referendum law passed by a huge majority in a general election (over 80%) that banned the city from requiring the use of roll carts.
now there's a 1.5 million per year rental contract for the new mechanical arm trucks paid to one of their cronies via a corporate bank loan, backed by revenue from local property tax payers who specifically voted against the entire concept. can't even opt out of the "service" to haul my own trash to the nearby landfill for less money, because of an older piece of city code forcing all residential property owners (or renters by proxy) to subscribe to the city's waste mismanagement program.
my only useful option is to save up to off-grid my utilities (I can deal with power, and water supply with a 5-figure-cost permitted well or following state regulations which would allow me to put one in myself with a much cheaper commercially produced drilling rig.)
as far as the trash "service" goes my only option would be to fight the city in court.
that's how great "public" utilities are here. and don't get me started on the city's water monopoly or the county "cooperative" monopoly on power distribution, both of which are also considered public utilities that the consumer has zero control over the activities of.
The are members of the Aspen Institute, which is aligned with Rockefellers, the UN and Club of Rome. The usual globalist suspects pushing depopulation and Smart City bullshit.
Water has been a financial and political football and weapon in California for a century or more. This is an amazing and unbelievable example of corruption and stupidity on the part of people - politicians, the ultra-wealthy/elites and all other citizens.
How can there be ANY water shortages or battles over water living alongside the largest body of water on the planet?
How can Californians be so moronic as to allow a manufactured "water situation or crisis" to exist, living next to the Pacific Ocean?
Simple and inexpensive technology to convert seawater to potable water has existed for over 70 years.
Yet Californians allow themselves to be trapped in a corrupt system that prevents use of the ocean, and which artificially and intentionally creates water shortages for the benefit of a tiny fraction of the population at the expense of everyone else.
I understand corruption, economics, land use, etc, but I can't wrap my mind around such insanity and stupidity as the water situation that has existed in CA for so many decades.
Grew up and lived 50 years in the northern San Joaquin Valley of California.
The reservoirs were originally conceived in the late 1800s to control floods and irrigate farmland in the semi-arid conditions of the valley. Electricity was a by-product. See the history of the Oakdale Irrigation District, the Modesto Irrigation District, Merced Irrigation District, Fresno Irrigation District, and more for more history. I could go on all day...
The history of water in the West and specifically, California is quite intriguing.
San Francisco gets its water from Hetch Hetchy which gravity-feeds the city from more than 100 miles away. John Muir lost the battle to stop the dam. It's quite the story how the city's Mayor quietly bought the land for the dam to take care of his precious city. Contrast that to today!
Los Angeles (where there is little to no rainfall) gets its water from the Colorado River, Mono Lake and the gigantic water projects stretching to the San Luis Dam and beyond. And yes, the agriculture is killed off when they want water. And, of course, the commie whackos flush much water into the Pacific Ocean because, to them, the little fishies are more important than the people.
No surprise parts of the water system are owned by billionaires as they have not only a vested interest in water for their "assets", but this also provides the politicians with a steady income.
And, in 2025, we are beginning to uncover just how vast the corruption is.
As if these people cannot be any worse; I just read that Gavin published a link on X to donate to the "victims". However, that link is to a democrat super pac, that skims a certain percent right off the top and then decides on how to distribute the money. Like we will donate it to this democrat's campaign because he/she will help the victims. California is lost. Illegals can vote and that is why they want to protect them. Virtually all voting is mail in with no voter ID check. Which is ironic because they checked the ID of everyone who signed the petition to recall Newsome. California is never coming back, anyone productive has either left or is leaving.
Nestlé "owns" rights to a lot of the remainder of the ground water in Cali. gifted below-market-value pricing by the government to consistently suck up more than their allotted cap and resell it as bottled
My awakening during COVID has turned me to an anti-capitalist. Utilities should be public. If we could recreate high trust communities in which we were the government we would be comfortable with public utilities because we would be socializing services to our neighbors and ourselves.
Good luck with that. Capitalism is the least corrupt system out there. I would think after COVID you would trust the government far less. They have power in mind, not your best interest.
if I had the least bit of control over government, I might agree.
almost everything is UCC corporations masquerading as government these days. cities, states, the feds... all incorporated under UCC rules.
I get the questionable privilege of voting for some otherwise unaccountable bureaucrats to legislate rules that harm me directly.
best example I've got lately... the 6 person city council unilaterally throwing out a petitioned onto the ballot referendum law passed by a huge majority in a general election (over 80%) that banned the city from requiring the use of roll carts.
now there's a 1.5 million per year rental contract for the new mechanical arm trucks paid to one of their cronies via a corporate bank loan, backed by revenue from local property tax payers who specifically voted against the entire concept. can't even opt out of the "service" to haul my own trash to the nearby landfill for less money, because of an older piece of city code forcing all residential property owners (or renters by proxy) to subscribe to the city's waste mismanagement program.
my only useful option is to save up to off-grid my utilities (I can deal with power, and water supply with a 5-figure-cost permitted well or following state regulations which would allow me to put one in myself with a much cheaper commercially produced drilling rig.)
as far as the trash "service" goes my only option would be to fight the city in court.
that's how great "public" utilities are here. and don't get me started on the city's water monopoly or the county "cooperative" monopoly on power distribution, both of which are also considered public utilities that the consumer has zero control over the activities of.
The are members of the Aspen Institute, which is aligned with Rockefellers, the UN and Club of Rome. The usual globalist suspects pushing depopulation and Smart City bullshit.
https://bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/sociopol_globalization37.htm
The Wonderful Company
https://csr.wonderful.com/articles/from-ideas-to-action
The water privatization in California has been happening since the gold rush days and not one governor has tried to remedy it.
Cadillac Desert and Chinatown have both addressed this issue.
Public utilities should never be privatized. But when oligarchs rule the government they get what they want and we are powerless to stop it.
Water has been a financial and political football and weapon in California for a century or more. This is an amazing and unbelievable example of corruption and stupidity on the part of people - politicians, the ultra-wealthy/elites and all other citizens.
How can there be ANY water shortages or battles over water living alongside the largest body of water on the planet?
How can Californians be so moronic as to allow a manufactured "water situation or crisis" to exist, living next to the Pacific Ocean?
Simple and inexpensive technology to convert seawater to potable water has existed for over 70 years.
Yet Californians allow themselves to be trapped in a corrupt system that prevents use of the ocean, and which artificially and intentionally creates water shortages for the benefit of a tiny fraction of the population at the expense of everyone else.
I understand corruption, economics, land use, etc, but I can't wrap my mind around such insanity and stupidity as the water situation that has existed in CA for so many decades.