Acting on Trump’s order, federal officials opened up two California dams
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers just opened up two California dams. A spokesperson says the flows are 'controlled' and being coordinated with local officials.
Feel free to look up Terminus Dam at Lake Kaweah and Schafer Dam at Lake Success. Both runoff rivers flow AWAY from Los Angeles and basically drain into other lakes or into the soil (at least as far as I can tell from the maps). There was no plan to capture any of this water, and Trump is demanding the release of water from several more dams shortly.
So not only has he wasted water which won't be used to help fight the fires (and wouldn't have been of any use anyway), but he has greatly depleted the reservoirs used to grow crops this coming Summer. He's not trying to fight fires, he's just depleting the food that the US will have available this year.
Trump -- too dumb to know that water doesn't flow uphill.
Trump – too dumb to know that water doesn’t flow uphill.
The fact that people still think he doesn't know what he's doing (or his advisers, anyway) is concerning. None of this is accidental, it is all about manipulation of the food supply and economy, and deliberately worsening living conditions for most people to make us even easier to exploit and oppress.
I guess he could be trying to provoke mass unrest so he can declare a national emergency and start shooting people.
But I'm pretty sure he could declare a national emergency and start shooting people whenever he wants, no need to actually create mass unrest. Just declare that there's mass unrest, who cares if it's real?
I'm really not sure... The way he rants about things, I feel like he's dumb as a rock. On the other hand, the people who have gotten in close to him? It's not hard to figure out that for someone with Trump's ego, all it takes are a few careful suggestions, something to make him think people will admire him, and he'll be happy to do the rest.
So you think he’s slapping Gavin Newsom around with this. And deliberately screwing over California crop GDP and the little guy via increased grocery prices. Trump isn’t good for farmers. When will farmers realize that?
I initially saw it as political theater to go with his false statements about fire preparedness.
It seems to be part of the plan.
Wait, you’re telling me that trump lacks a fundamental understanding of California’s hydrology and is just lying to get what he perceives as a political win? That doesn’t sound like him at all.
Do I need to say /s?
Of course you need to say /s !!! MAGA doesn't get jokes, especially when they're the target.
https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-01-31/trump-california-dams-opened-up
And his own voters have had to beg to get the flow shut so that their farms don't flood.
I think this is the worst thing he has done.
This will impact the number of calories the US produces and may lead to a famine. Starving your own citizens and countries that rely on US exports is beyond cruel. Hunger does not discriminate (except for the very wealthy of course)
Who relies on US food exports? Surprise! Its China, Mexico, and Canada.
No food for them, but in turn no food for us from Mexico, and no gas from Canada. Since the tariffs were announced to begin today, I'm surprised gas prices haven't jumped yet.
My favorite part is how they buried the issues releasing the water will cause a the bottom of the piece. At least they put it in there at all as opposed to the other RFK piece they just botched.
Remember, this is the newspaper with the owner who will creatively edit things to be in tune with Trumps status quo.
Including an editorial being altered to claim RFK was a great way to change healthcare problems.
I’m looking for the reasons you wouldn’t release water right now and can’t find any in the article. Does that mean this is a great idea with no downside or that this article too, has been creatively edited by the Trump licking owner?
Basically this is going to risk flooding at farms and then not have water available later on when those farms need the water. It's also unlikely to help anything right now.
Huh I'm surprised that an LA newspaper would cater to Trump, but it was the first article I found that seemed to have a lot of information (or maybe they've changed the page since I linked it?). Here's another article which is currently very negative of the situation... https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/31/us/trump-water-california-central-valley.html
So basically, dams were opened up spilling water on the other side of a mountain away from the fires. There are no pipes connecting these reservoirs to LA to fight the fires. Even if you wanted to collect the water with fire-fighting airplanes, you would have done that in the reservoir, you can't scoop it up from a river. Basically he drained all the water out into the ground to affect this Summer's crops, there is no other logical explanation.
Political theater. It also reads like a shot across Gavin Newsom’s bow that says he can fuck with CA water whenever he likes. Details that are given include how there was no coordination with CA officials, Trump just went over all their heads and drained water from reservoirs, followed by a social media post of the flow bragging about releasing the needed water.
What is the currency CA needs most? Water. Trump admin showed a distinctive “power over” move here that says to Newsom he can drain the reservoirs whenever he likes.
I think we need to consider authoritarian interpretations of behaviors like these going forward.
Draining the reservoirs in January in a drought-prone blue state? Absolutely no ulterior motive, just the actions of an oaf.
What a waffling article from the LA Times
You and I just read and thought and typed this thought at the same time.
My theory is he's doing this to fuck with the billionaire landowners in California who haven't bent the knee yet
With the way dams seem to be failing in the US, maybe this is a preventative measure? /s
Well, it will certainly prevent the production of food anyway...
By the time they run out of water it will be too late and people will have forgotten all about this.
