http://www.californiadroughtupdate.org/pdf/20161215-California-Drought-Update.pdf
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”
Opening paragraph of “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens
While we do have this week one headline that mimics the title of Charles Dickens’ 1859 great novel of the French Revolution (“A tale of two droughts in California”), more fundamentally, the nation itself reflects, on one hand, the apparent division seen in the Presidential election, but, on the other, actually demonstrates the unity of the American people, well beyond what most commentators are capable of understanding.
The vote on November 8 should have made clear to all that the American people have rejected 25 years of failed policy; 25 years of globalization, bank bailouts, regime change wars, and the idea that, as Francis Fukuyama’s 1992 book “The End of History and the Last Man,” asserted, the neo-liberal/neo-con world order shall rule forever.
Like the Brexit vote, the French vote for Presidential candidates who call for the end of sanctions on Russia, the Italian vote against submitting the nation to the European Union super-state, the President of the Philippines telling Obama to go to Hell, the Japanese shift toward Russia, and more, the American people have had enough of the poverty and degeneracy of globalization.
But, do they understand, and does Trump understand, how to fix the broken system. Unfortunately, not yet. So, this week’s report includes our feature on what must be the first thing the new President must do, while he repairs the U.S. relationship to Russia, stops arming the IS terrorists in Syria (as Obama has done), and joins with China in building the New Silk Road. That first thing is to restore the Glass-Steagall banking law, busting Wall Street. Next week I’ll discuss the second step: Restoring the Alexander Hamilton American credit system.
Now, on to the drought.
While the northern part of the state is wet, the central and southern sections remain deep in drought. Coverage of this divide made headlines this week, as you will see below.
But, the big news, though I wish to stress it does nothing to solve the long-term water management and water supply system, is that the Congress passed a bill last week, The Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act, that, it is claimed, will provide more water to farmers and less to fish.
Below I shall summarize the bill and provide excerpts from others’ reports.
The final article in the drought section is the celebration of the one year anniversary of the successful operation of the Carlsbad desalination plant.
