Trump orders military to flood California
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What’s happening here is that an extremely stupid and ignorant man who doesn’t understand anything about any of this, and who is getting even more erratic as he approaches his eighties, is issuing insane orders to the US military, which is following them because he happens to be president of the United States, and therefore he’s at the top of their chain of command.
Trump administration officials began releasing significant amounts of water from two dams in California’s Central Valley on Friday in a move that seemed intended to make a political point as President Trump continued to falsely blame the Los Angeles wildfires on water policies in the Democratic-run state.
The releases, as ordered, have sent water toward low-lying land in the Central Valley, and none of it will reach Southern California, water experts said. Nonetheless, President Trump said on Friday that the same action would have prevented the Los Angeles wildfires on the other side of mountain ranges over which that water has no way of traveling.
“Photo of beautiful water flow that I just opened in California,” President Trump posted on Friday on social media in an apparent reference to the dam releases. “Everybody should be happy about this long fought Victory! I only wish they listened to me six years ago — There would have been no fire!”
Experts expressed dismay on Friday that releasing so much water now served little use for farmers, who typically have higher irrigation needs in the spring and summer months when agricultural fields are abundant.
State and federal officials do release some water from dams before storms to make room for incoming flows, and moderate precipitation is expected in the region over the next 72 hours. But it is a delicately choreographed effort, and water managers usually try to release as little water as possible to ensure there will be enough supplies for farmers and residents later in the year. They also need to ensure that communities below the dams are not overwhelmed by water.
“I’ve never seen them do this, other than in a major flood,” said Robert Thayer, a supervisor in Kings County, which is downstream of the Tulare County dams.
The episode appeared to arise from an abrupt order by the Trump administration to “maximize” water supplies in California after the president made a series of spurious claims about the state’s water policies. The president’s social media post said that 1.6 billion gallons of water was being released in California on the first day; federal data showed on Friday that increased water releases from Terminus Dam at Lake Kaweah and Schafer Dam at Lake Success would total roughly that amount by day’s end.
Since the fires began on Jan. 7, the president has charged, falsely, that Gov. Gavin Newsom of California could solve water shortages in Southern California with the turn of a valve if California were less concerned about endangered fish species. He has said incorrectly that California has access to great amounts of water from the Pacific Northwest and Canada, even though there is no pipeline that flows from the state’s northern neighbors.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly said this month that the fires could have been extinguished had the governor released more water from the north.
So Trump is trying to flood the Central Valley to put out fires in Los Angeles, which is on the other side of a very large mountain range, and where the fires are pretty much already out.
Responding to questions about the reasons for the sudden increase in water flow, Gene Pawlik, a spokesperson at the Corps’ headquarters in Washington, said in an email that the action was “consistent with the direction” in Trump’s recent executive order to enact “emergency measures to provide water resources” in California.
Pawlik said the Army Corps was releasing water from the dams “to ensure California has water available to respond to the wildfires.” It was not immediately clear how or where the federal government intends to transport the water.
The tone of the last sentence is going to come in handy over the next four years, for journalists who would like to keep their jobs and possibly their freedom.
Let’s check in on the Maximum Leader’s comments:
@realDonaldTrump
Photo of beautiful water flow that I just opened in California. Today, 1.6 billion gallons and, in 3 days, it will be 5.2 billion gallons. Everybody should be happy about this long fought Victory! I only wish they listened to me six years ago – There would have been no fire!
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I think my friend Steve pretty much nails this one:
Would love a deep dive report tracing this Mad King order from the top.
Did everybody/anybody down the chain convey the obvious fact that this water release was at best useless, at worst harmful, and would not/could not ever get to Southern California, where it was not needed anyway? It’s not an illegal order, and it’s the military, so they followed it, but it’s not like there isn’t feedback. These aren’t automatons.
We’ve had many discussions about whether Trump believes his own BS, and what that even means. This time I think he really does believe it, and the chain of command snapped to. The emperor commanded the sun to come up in the west and the Corps built a giant floodlamp. “I did it!” says the emperor.
This apparently came through Hegseth, so this is one consequence of confirming lickspittles.
No adults in the room this time around kiddies!
This isn’t some eleventydimensional propaganda campaign: Trump believes what he’s saying, because the central fact about him is that he’s a complete idiot. What happens when he really does order the Air Force to nuke a hurricane next fall?
At this rate I’m going to end up with decidedly mixed feelings about a military coup, assuming some uniformed patriots eventually decide to rid us of this turbulent moron.
“Everyone says he is crazy – which maybe he is – but the scarier thing about him is that he is stupid. You do not know anyone as stupid as Donald Trump. You just don’t.”
Fran Lebowitz seven years ago.
I guess my caveat to this wise dictum is that I have come to know the marginal American voter.