http://www.californiadroughtupdate.org/pdf/20170406-California-Drought-(and-Flood)-Update.pdf
The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
A Note To Readers
First, of note, as this is being written, President Trump is in the first of two days of meetings in Florida with President Xi of China. It should be recalled that China has offered to invest hundreds of billions of the U.S. Treasury bills it holds in building U.S. infrastructure. China has also invited the U.S. to join its One Belt One Road, or New Silk Road, policy, which is already the greatest infrastructure building program in world history. This meeting may be the beginning of something great. Here is an article on it: Will President Trump Join the New Silk Road? https://larouchepac.com/20170404/will-president-trump-join-new-silk-road
The Preamble to the U.S. Constitution is, unfortunately, something most Americans are unfamiliar with today. And as readers of this report, I am sure have noticed, that with the dramatic shift in the nation’s direction with the election of a new President, we have decided that the report no longer needs to be a mere chronicler of the unfolding disaster of the California water management system. We now have the opportunity to take the words of that Preamble and wield the profound intent it gives us, and fix the disaster that system and the nation have become.
It is not my purpose here to expound at length on the Preamble, but to just highlight a few points that its authors, Alexander Hamilton and Gouverneur Morris, intended with this statement that defines the mission and purpose of Constitution itself. The phrase to form a more perfect union recognizes that the idea of perfection is not a fixed thing, permanent and unchanging, but is a process of development. It is the idea, that what was established by this Constitution, provides the foundation for a continuous uplifting and improvement of the nation as a whole and its people. It is a promise to be fulfilled by the generations to come; it defines a future that is to be.
Finally, but by no means does this exhaust what can be said about this compact and profound statement, we are entering a period in which, once again in our history, the phrase promote the general Welfare shall define exactly how we will or will not move forward with trillions of dollars of infrastructure projects. For whether we create a government directed national bank-like structure or we flounder with ideological driven “privatization” schemes depends on recognizing the central role of the government’s commitment to the general welfare of all the people of the nation.
This Week’s Report
This week’s report begins with where we are: The status of the drought, the potential of Spring floods, the condition of the reservoirs, or as was said by Anthony Quinn in Zorba the Greek, “the whole catastrophe.”
The condition and operation of the Oroville Dam is central to the entire state’s water supply, and an update on developments there follows.
It may surprise most in the state that jumping into California with big money is that federal government some love to hate. President Trump has issued four presidential declarations of state of emergency for the state totaling $540 million. That is for Oroville Dam and the flood damage from the storms this winter.
That leads into a series of reports on infrastructure, including the President’s plans, concluding with some of his remarks at the conference of the Building and Construction Trades this week.
To wrap this up I want to present some comments of my colleague Diane Sare from a conference call on April 4, which communicates the quality of spirit I think is necessary for our citizens to exhibit today:
Everything will move very quickly, if we do our job. The population doesn’t believe that anyone will give them this opportunity. We don’t know what Trump will say when he meets with Xi. But we know the Chinese sovereign investment funds are interested in putting capital behind dealing with the huge U.S. infrastructure deficit. With the labor force we’ve got, we couldn’t handle more than $2 trillion. This situation forces us to recognize how bad things have gotten. That’s good. We see that large portions of the youth are revealed as morons. OK just temporarily morons, if we put CCC-type programs in place, based on construction work. Nothing recruits young males away from doing dumb things faster than physical labor in a project deemed impossible, and having them accomplish it. How fast? Only as fast as our imagination conceives of making it happen.
In 2008, you heard how fast the Wall Street bailout was done. Trillions of dollars were mobilized overnight. So for anyone asking how fast can we do this? How fast put Americans to work? here’s the answer: Try two weeks.
What I do like, is the idea, that being president is not a popularity contest. Every President, enters
office as an imperfect individual. But when you become President, the point is that the better angels of your nature are supposed to kick in. Your powers of thought and action, become subordinated to the position. Its only as real as the American people make it real, when they have that opportunity, to make that change.
You see, we are responsible for the policy of the United States. The President of the United States is responsible for executing policy. But it is no longer believed by the majority of the American citizens that they have the duty to formulate policy, to advocate policy, and to cause policy to become that which the executive actually carries out. This is no longer believed in the United States.
