Category: Domestic Affairs

The Colorado River is Drying Up

The Colorado River, major river of North America, rising in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, U.S., and flowing generally west and south for 1,450 miles (2,330 kilometres) into the Gulf of California in northwestern Mexico.

The Colorado River basin is drying up thanks to less snow and rain.   Sadly the seven states are not working together to find an equitable agreement on sharing the shrinking amount of available water.

After Colorado River Basin states failed to meet a deadline for emergency drought reductions, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said it would continue to work with affected states and tribes to reach an agreement.

Lake Powell and Lake Mead are at historically low levels and risk falling to “dead pool” status, which would mean there isn’t enough water to generate hydroelectricity for the tens of millions of people that rely on it, according to United Nations Environment Programme. 

The seven states that benefit from the Colorado basin have been told to develop plans to drastically reduce water use by 2 million to 4 million acre-feet, but talks have grown acrimonious. At a press conference Tuesday, federal officials said that an agreement was urgently needed and that it was also declaring a tier 2 shortage for the next water year.

Under tier 2 shortage conditions, Arizona’s annual water apportionment will be reduce by 21%, Nevada’s by 8% and Mexico’s by 7%. There is no required water savings contribution for California however.

This situation will undoubtedly lead to a court fight over how much water each state must reduce consumption. There have been growing tensions between the states of the river’s Lower Basin — California, Arizona and Nevada — and those of the Upper Basin — Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Utah.

A few calm meetings would be far better than a court fight.

Donald Trump is Guilty of Treason

The Mar-a-Lago search warrant identifies three federal crimes that the Justice Department is looking at as part of its investigation: violations of the Espionage Act, obstruction of justice and criminal handling of government records. The inclusion of the crimes indicates the Justice Department has probable cause to investigate those offenses as it was gathering evidence in the search. No one has been charged with a crime at this time.

In 1951, Julius and his wife Ethel Rosenberg were tried and convicted of espionage for providing the Soviet Union with classified information. They were executed in 1953. Their trial remains controversial today.

What do you suppose Donald Trump planned to do with that classified material?  It is frightening to imagine what that classified information can mean to an adversary.

The politics of this situation could mean that Trump will never be tried for treason.  Millions of Americans still believe that the 2020 election was stolen.  The January 6, 2021 insurrection tells us that there are Americans who are willing to fight for Trump.

Can Attorney General Merrick Garland convince a majority of Americans that Donald Trump is guilty of espionage? Frankly I doubt it.

Trump should be executed but it probably won’t happen.

Today in the Los Angeles Times Garry Trudeau hits the mark. He correctly says “Now is the time to announce that the election is rigged.”

For those of you who are not familiar with Jim Crow (not Jimmy Crow). Jim Crow Laws were statutes and ordinances established between 1874 and 1975 to separate the white and black races in the American South. Thus the term “separate but equal” supported the idea of races being separate, so long as they received “equal” facilities and treatment to that which the whites had or received. In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) that separate accommodations based on race was constitutional. 58 years later in Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka (1954) the court ruled that separate accommodations based on race were inherently unequal and so unconstitutional.  

Should AR-15 Weapons be Banned?

The House of Representatives on Friday passed a bill that would ban assault weapons following a summer of deadly mass shootings that reignited calls for increased gun control.

Though the measure passed mostly along party lines, two Republicans and five Democrats broke with their parties on the vote, according to the official tally. 

Assault weapons have been used in numerous mass shootings, including killings this year in Uvalde and Buffalo; Parkland, Florida in 2018; Las Vegas in 2017; and Newton Conn. in 2012.

Among the the five Democrats who voted No was Vicente Gonzalez of Texas. James Rivera, a spokesperson for Gonzalez said “There are tens of millions of assault rifles already in circulation across America, many of them are used by responsible gun owners for hunting in South Texas, and a ban on some of those models will do nothing to reduce overall risks. Our focus should be on keeping guns out of the hands of people who are a danger to themselves or others.”

There are 20 million AR-15 type weapons in the United States. Do we need more? 

Trump’s Crimes Against the United States

The Los Angeles Times July 24, 2022 editorial defined some of Donald Trump’s crimes but not all. A Donald Trump trial could result in a civil war.

There is no doubt that Donald Trump is “guilty of conspiring to defraud the United States and conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding” but also plotting an insurrection, dereliction of duty and dishonoring his sworn oath when he took the office of president.  He ought to be tried and convicted. Sadly millions of Americans still believe Trump won the 2020 election as evidenced on January 6, 2021 and are willing to take up arms.  If found guilty, the country would experience a second civil war.  His followers have demonstrated their willingness to do his bidding. There are an estimated 393 million civilian-owned firearms in the US and 20 million of them are AR-15 style rifles.  Are those trying to uphold the Constitution prepared to go to war to retain this democracy?

An abridged version of this posting appears on the letters page of the July 26, 2022 Los Angeles Times.    

A Demagogue

A political leader who seeks support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people rather than by using rational argument. “a gifted demagogue with particular skill in manipulating the press”

What is an example of a demagogue?

Modern demagogues include Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Huey Long, Father Coughlin, and Senator Joseph McCarthy, all of whom built mass followings the same way that Cleon did: by exciting the passions of the mob against the moderate, thoughtful customs of the aristocratic elites of their times.

Donald Trump clearly meets the definition. Trump is the 21st century version of McCarthy. It was Joseph Welch finally asked the question of McCarthy: “Have you no decency, sir?” Unfortunately Donald Trump has no decency.

After Roe vs. Wade reversal, a new war between the states

It is accurate to say that the United States is in a period similar to 1850-1860 — the decade that led to the Civil War.  The president in 1850 was Millard Fillmore. By championing the Compromise of 1850 he can be credited with delaying an American civil war for more than a decade. The compromise admitted California as a free state, left Utah and New Mexico to decide for themselves whether to be a slave state or a free state.

The similarities today could not be more apparent.  Each state can now decide whether abortions are legal.  Likely same sex marriage and voting rights laws will also be determined by each state.

The words “a house divided cannot stand” come to mind.  California, Oregon and Washington State see the world through a different lens.  As an example it is clear that California and Texas have little in common. Texans are concerned with an invasion of illegal aliens and California accepts them as if they came to the United States legally.    

Without a civil war perhaps it would be best if we all went our separate ways.

Divided America

Based on news reports thousands and maybe millions of Americans believe the 2020 election was fraudulent.

The disparate responses from the governors of the two most populous states in the nation highlighted the stark political divide in America, deepened by radically different approaches to healthcare, gun control, the COVID-19 pandemic, LGBTQ rights, immigration and now, once again, reproductive rights.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, Governor Kate Brown of Oregon, and Governor Jay Inslee of Washington joined together in announcing a multistate commitment to defend access to reproductive health services and contraceptives.

Bill Maher’s monologue on Friday’s episode of “Real Time.” joked that “It’s gonna be a fun America that we’re going to live in, isn’t it?” and eventually lamented that “we are going to be living in two very different Americas.”

On Saturday June 18 thousands of Texas Republicans approved a new platform at the 2022 party convention in Houston calling on the state legislature to authorize a referendum on secession from the United States. There are 275 planks in the platform and among the planks it defines homosexuality as “an abnormal lifestyle,” marriage as only between “one biological man and one biological woman,” and supports eliminating sex education from schools altogether. On the political side, it calls for abolishing the direct election of U.S. Senators, nullifying Supreme Court decisions, ending birthright citizenship, repealing the Voting Rights Act, and holding an Article V convention to rewrite the U.S. Constitution.  I am not making this up. The convention decisions were reported in The Week magazine.

Perhaps it is time for the United States to split apart. The Calexit plan started in 2015 calls for succession of California. The South, those that tried to succeed in 1861, calling themselves the Confederate States of America never really surrendered. The Confederate flag is still in prominent use.

Abraham Lincoln speech June 16, 1858: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” He was correct but his solution has not brought peace to the people of those southern states.

I believe is it is time we all went our separate ways. 

Juneteenth Day

Juneteenth, also called Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. June 19, 1865 — more than two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation had been implemented, America’s remaining enslaved men, women, and children are freed.

Originating in Galveston, Texas in 1866, it has been celebrated annually on June 19 throughout the United States as an official federal holiday since 2021, when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act.

Carnivals and parties in celebration are all over the country. US post offices will be closed and mail will not be delivered from the USPS on Monday, June 20. Because the federal bank reserve will be observing Juneteenth on Monday most banks will be closed including Bank of America, Wells Fargo and JP Morgan. However, TD Bank will be closed Sunday, as is their normal schedule, and will be open Monday.

A Phony Effort to Control Guns in America

Senators felt the necessity to show they care about the never ending mass shootings. So a bipartisan group of senators said Sunday that it has an agreement in principle on gun control legislation, though the lawmakers did not provide specific and detailed legislation.

The group said its plan “increases needed mental health resources, improves school safety and support for students, and helps ensure dangerous criminals and those who are adjudicated as mentally ill can’t purchase weapons.”

The agreement doesn’t include a provision that would expand background checks for all firearm sales or transfers in the country. Currently, background checks are not required for gun sales and transfers by unlicensed and private sellers. Also left out is a federal ban on military-style assault weapons. Additionally, the agreement doesn’t include a change to the age at which a person needs to be to purchase an assault-style weapon.

This absurd effort to prevent mass shootings does nothing to control the guns now in the public’s hands. Today, one of out of every five firearms purchased in this country is an AR-style rifle, according to a NSSF (National Shooting Sports Foundation) estimate. Americans now own an estimated 15 million of those weapons.

We love our guns more than we love our family and friends.