http://www.californiadroughtupdate.org/pdf/20170817-California-Drought-(and-Flood)-Update.pdf
We just had a great set of briefings upstairs on our infrastructure agenda. My administration is working every day to deliver the world-class infrastructure that our people deserve, and frankly, that our country deserves. That’s why I just signed a new executive order to dramatically reform the nation’s badly broken infrastructure permitting process.
Our infrastructure will again be the best in the world. We used to have the greatest infrastructure anywhere in the world. And today we’re like a third world country. We’re literally like a third world country. Our infrastructure will again be the best and we will restore the pride in our communities, our nation and all over the United States, we’ll be proud again.
I think that’s going to have a huge, positive impact on race relations. You know why? It’s jobs. What people want now, they want jobs. They want great jobs with good pay. And when they have that, you watch how race relations will be.
Transcript of President Trump press conference Aug. 15, 2017
A Note To Readers
The quotes above from the President’s press conference two days ago you probably did not see or hear from any media you may have been subjected to. Instead, the hysteria that began Saturday in Charlottesville, VA has been the focus of the media, and both the distraction intent and the intent to remove the President continues. The President denounced the Nazis, the KKK and the so-called Anti-Fa, the “two sides” in the bar-room-style brawl; all of them a pathetically small part of the American population; all of them ignorant, violent, emotionally disturbed and, of course, having no idea of, or intent to inspire or uplift our nation. The notorious role of the FBI in using such groups is well-known.
Mr. President: Your words about building infrastructure are the right words, but still you have not confronted the problem that infests your administration– the Wall Street parasites who are determined to prevent the only policy that can build the infrastructure the nation needs. That policy begins with restoring the Glass-Steagall banking law and then returning our nation to the American System national credit policy begun with Alexander Hamilton.
More on this will be found in the last section of this week’s report.
This Week’s Report
Two climate studies, one of them, from NASA, with the usual “its global warming” theme, do provide useful material on the time it takes for a drought hit region to recover.
The Oroville Dam update this week begins with two videos on the construction process. Then a few more items include a briefing from the deputy director of the State Water Project, and two items on money, money, money– who pays and who gets what, maybe.
Water storage here we come, I think, is an appropriate title for all the action on building more water storage in the state that has made the news this past week. The state is finally moving to decide on which projects get funding that was approved by voters in 2014. Both the proposed Sites Reservoir and Temperance Flat Dam seem to be moving. Of course, moving is relative. It would be a decade before they will be completed, if they are a go.
Water quality in California has as bad a problem as Flint, Michigan, or worse. Aubrey Bettencourt, of the California Water Alliance, presents a very provocative report on the topic. My headline for it is: “Don’t Drink the Poisoned Water”
Wildfires are becoming more intense, more destructive and more difficult to stop. The fire season is also lengthening. One article discusses that, and another reports on the latest fire.
The Colorado River is in better shape this year and it is not expected that rationing in 2018 will be required, which was the forecast one year ago.
The final section this week includes President Trump’s press conference on infrastructure of August 15, and more on the theme “If China can do it, so can we.”
