Trump's Second Term

[Reformed Offlian]

Another example of how trump doesn't understand the world, in fact I think he's constitutionally incapable of understanding how Wikipedia works.

He's also wikipedially incapable of understanding how the Constitution works, which is an even bigger problem...

 

[Garrison]

Yes.

Just, yes. I live in a state that is mostly desert, but also contains a strangely large lake. The problem is that the lake is drying up. It's only about half the size it was ten years ago, and is projected to dry up entirely in perhaps five years unless water policy here radically changes. Dry lakebeds are not an uncommon feature in the American Southwest, but this one happens to share a valley with 1.2 million people. When lakes dry up, all the heavy metals and other minerals they have accumulated over tens of thousands of years become airborne.

And that's entirely tangential to the main problem that 1.2 million people need something to drink. We've been in an ongoing drought for decades, and other aspects of climate change have prevented developed our seasonal snowpacks in the mountains. (As I sit here now and write this, New Orleans has received half again as much snowfall as we have this season so far.) The problem with the lake is that we're diverting more and more of its supply for use. The more showers we take and the more we water our lush, green lawns, the less ends up in the lake.

And to make matters even worse, a huge amount of our domestic water supply is allocated to growing alfalfa. Fine, growing crops is a reasonable thing to do with lots of land. But alfalfa is a very water-hungry crop. Deciding to grow that crop in a desert makes you stop and think. "But it's a useful crop," they say. "You can feed it to livestock." And that argument would matter if that's what's happening. Almost all our alfalfa is exported, mostly to China. This is a cash crop. The relatively few number of farmers who do this (including our governor) are turning a disproportionate share of our scarce water into money into their pockets and no one else's.

As you can imagine, the solutions proposed for our drying-up state have not emphasized using less water. We have to keep that unwise crop growing, apparently, and watering our dozens upon dozens of golf courses. The most popular solutions involve elaborate plans to pump water from faraway places to replenish the Great Salt Lake. Apparently you can't tell some Americans that they're using too much of something and that no, there won't always just be more.

This image seems appropriate, the Horizon games seems more and more realistic as time goes on:

 

[a_unique_person]

Yes.

Just, yes. I live in a state that is mostly desert, but also contains a strangely large lake. The problem is that the lake is drying up. It's only about half the size it was ten years ago, and is projected to dry up entirely in perhaps five years unless water policy here radically changes. Dry lakebeds are not an uncommon feature in the American Southwest, but this one happens to share a valley with 1.2 million people. When lakes dry up, all the heavy metals and other minerals they have accumulated over tens of thousands of years become airborne.

And that's entirely tangential to the main problem that 1.2 million people need something to drink. We've been in an ongoing drought for decades, and other aspects of climate change have prevented developed our seasonal snowpacks in the mountains. (As I sit here now and write this, New Orleans has received half again as much snowfall as we have this season so far.) The problem with the lake is that we're diverting more and more of its supply for use. The more showers we take and the more we water our lush, green lawns, the less ends up in the lake.

And to make matters even worse, a huge amount of our domestic water supply is allocated to growing alfalfa. Fine, growing crops is a reasonable thing to do with lots of land. But alfalfa is a very water-hungry crop. Deciding to grow that crop in a desert makes you stop and think. "But it's a useful crop," they say. "You can feed it to livestock." And that argument would matter if that's what's happening. Almost all our alfalfa is exported, mostly to China. This is a cash crop. The relatively few number of farmers who do this (including our governor) are turning a disproportionate share of our scarce water into money into their pockets and no one else's.

As you can imagine, the solutions proposed for our drying-up state have not emphasized using less water. We have to keep that unwise crop growing, apparently, and watering our dozens upon dozens of golf courses. The most popular solutions involve elaborate plans to pump water from faraway places to replenish the Great Salt Lake. Apparently you can't tell some Americans that they're using too much of something and that no, there won't always just be more.

There will always be a politician who tells them he can make it happen. You just need to turn on a tap.

 

[P.J. Denyer]

As someone who has regularly chipped in a few quid to help it out I say, no. Another example of how trump doesn't understand the world, in fact I think he's constitutionally incapable of understanding how Wikipedia works, you might as well try to explain quantum mechanics to him.

If you made a website of everything Trump.doesn't understand it would BE Wikipedia.

 

[Mojo]

As someone who has regularly chipped in a few quid to help it out I say, no. Another example of how trump doesn't understand the world, in fact I think he's constitutionally incapable of understanding how Wikipedia works, you might as well try to explain quantum mechanics to him.

Members of the reality-challenged communities regularly turn up on Wikipedia threatening to not donate money to it if it keeps saying mean things about homeopathy/FOTLers/Trump.

 

[Garrison]

Members of the reality-challenged communities regularly turn up on Wikipedia threatening to not donate money to it if it keeps saying mean things about homeopathy/FOTLers/Trump.

Well then its a sort of democracy in action, which side is really willing to donate, those who believe in reality or the fantasists like the homeopaths and Trumpers?

 

[crescent]

The map thing is good way of forcing companies to choose loyalty or opposition. Millions of people use Google maps. Mine (Google Earth Pro on my PC) still calls it the Gulf of Mexico - but Google will probably come under pressure to change that.

That said, I don't know how Google decides which names to use on other disputed name places. If I look at the Falklands Islands, it names them "Falkland Islands (Isla Malvinas)". If I were to log in from an Argentine IP, would it still say that or would it just list as "Islas Malvinas"? If I log in from Saudi Arabia would the body of water to the north be labeled as the "Persian Gulf" (as it is on my PC) or the "Arabian Sea"? Log in from Mexico is the water body next to Baja the "Gulf of California" (what it shows now) or the "Sea of Cortez"?

Either way, at least for those companies that operate on-line maps, its a good way to force a loyalty test. And one of those companies is Google, that's no small fry.

 

[Mojo]

Well then its a sort of democracy in action, which side is really willing to donate, those who believe in reality or the fantasists like the homeopaths and Trumpers?

The homeopaths and Trumpers just get told to go away.

 

[esquel]

I believe he thinks that there are vast untapped water resources being held back (in order to protect fish or some such thing) that California could instead allow to be used for irrigation and firefighting.

I think it demonstrates how easily he gets things conflated (there are restrictions on water use, especially domestic use, in order to prevent major rivers running dry) and how poor his understanding of the natural world is (maybe he thinks the fires wouldn't have happened if they'd been allowed to turn the [non existent] irrigation systems on in the forests).

This is the same buffoon who conflated "asylum seekers" with "people released from mental asylums."

 

[a_unique_person]

When is New Mexico going to change its name?

 

[Norman Alexander]

There will always be a politician who tells them he can make it happen. You just need to turn on a tap.

Ask them to find that tap.

 

[Aridas]

The reason for this is obvious. If there is no real research that points out and proves that such disparities / problems exist then when someone says such problems etc., exist it can be said there is no evidence for such problems etc., and therefore no problem. Thus the problem is solved because there is no evidence the problem exists because you have made sure such evidence does not exist.

Sounds a lot like what the GOP did with gun violence related research, to poke at a similar easy example.

That was the approach Trump suggested to COVID testing, wasn't it?

Pretty much.

 

[esquel]

Oh I don't think that at all, it's just fresh produce will be the very FIRST thing it effects, the rest will take a little bit longer, but will be effected as well, and there's no stopping it now.

I have never been so happy that I have a chest freezer and a garden.

 

[P.J. Denyer]

The map thing is good way of forcing companies to choose loyalty or opposition. Millions of people use Google maps. Mine (Google Earth Pro on my PC) still calls it the Gulf of Mexico - but Google will probably come under pressure to change that.

That said, I don't know how Google decides which names to use on other disputed name places. If I look at the Falklands Islands, it names them "Falkland Islands (Isla Malvinas). If I were to log in from an Argentine IP, would it still say that or would it just list as "Islas Malvinas"? If I log in from Saudi Arabia would the body of water to the north be labeled as the "Persian Gulf" (as it is on my PC) or the "Arabian Sea"? Log in from Mexico is the water body next to Baja the "Gulf of California" (what it shows now) or the "Sea of Cortez"?

Either way, at least for those companies that operate on-line maps, its a good way to force a loyalty test. And one of those companies is Google, that's no small fry.

Interesting point. I'm logged in from the UK and it has the Argentinean name in brackets in the search bar when I search for Port Stanley, but not on the map itself. If I remember tomorrow I'll log in through a vpn via Argentina and see how it looks.

 

[stanfr]

Next up--Mexican restaurants will be forced to adopt anglo names and call themselves "American Restaurants"--so we will now have restaurants like "The Three Friends" and "Nice House" or "Margaret's House"
And don't even think of ordering a burrito when you go, they are now officially donkeys!

 

[P.J. Denyer]

When is New Mexico going to change its name?

Well at least New 'Murica's initials won't change.

 

[JayUtah]

There will always be a politician who tells them he can make it happen. You just need to turn on a tap.

Yes, maybe Trump will sign an executive order that just says there exists more water.

I should point out that our drying up lake and our meager snowfall are related. Most of our snow is what's called "lake effect" snow. It's the same kind of microclimate as Chicago, but in our case a bit more geographically constrained. We get little snowfall now because there's a lot less water in the lake to make it from. When the lake dries up, Salt Lake Valley may become uninhabitable due to airborne arsenic. And before then, we'll lose our all-important ski industry, and maybe the 2034 Winter Olympics. Lake-effect snow creates a powdery snowpack that isn't found anywhere else in the world.

For being as business-forward as Republicans say they are, they seem to have no idea how to create a sustainable business environment. It's all just a series of short-term cash grabs by individuals and small groups.

 

[Armitage72]

Next up--Mexican restaurants will be forced to adopt anglo names and call themselves "American Restaurants"--so we will now have restaurants like "The Three Friends" and "Nice House" or "Margaret's House"
And don't even think of ordering a burrito when you go, they are now officially donkeys!

I'm suddenly reminded of a novelty bit from the Dr. Dementia show in which a restaurant in Quebec serving traditional English cuisine was forced by the government to post French translations of things like bangers and mash, toad in the hole, and spotted dick.

 

[Norman Alexander]

For being as business-forward as Republicans say they are, they seem to have no idea how to create a sustainable business environment. It's all just a series of short-term cash grabs by individuals and small groups.

That is pretty much how Republicans define business. Just look at Trump...

 

[P.J. Denyer]

Back during the period leading up to the 2008 election, I would sometimes listen to AM radio raving lunatic Michael Savage for a laugh. At one point he played a clip of someone expressing their wish that members of Congress would have enough scientific education to make informed decisions when creating and passing legislation. Savage responded with a literal Godwin.

"You want scientists to be running the country? That's who you want in charge? Hitler was a scientist. That's who you want running things?"

Hmmm, Margaret Thatcher was also a scientist.... [Strokes chin thoughtfully]