this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2025
343 points (99.4% liked)

politics

19776 readers
4277 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Officials in California have revealed that President Donald Trump nearly flooded the region’s farms when his administration tried to send an excessive amount of water south, a feat he bragged about on Friday.

“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!” Trump gloated in a Truth Social post.

Experts told The New York Times that the water released by the Army Corps on Friday has no way of reaching the region affected by the wildfires, which is over 200 miles away, and could have been useful to farmers months from now as irrigation.

all 45 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] xenomor@lemmy.world 117 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

This is terrorism and people need to start treating it that way. The State of California should seriously start considering seizure of federal lands and facilities within our territory.

The state should also start negotiating treaties directly Canada, Mexico and China that circumvent the petty and counterproductive economic warfare enacted by the administration.

[–] ShadowRam@fedia.io 36 points 3 days ago (3 children)

states rights? right?

That's what Repub's want more than anything

[–] T00l_shed@lemmy.world 15 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 days ago

And the get to hurt women, children, and then rest of the people they hate.

[–] Arbiter@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago

Only the states right to be racist.

They care about state's rights as much as they care about legal immigration.

[–] spencerwi@lemm.ee 12 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Yeah! Let's start with Fort Sumner!

...wait

[–] Boddhisatva@lemmy.world 90 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Flood the fields now, then they won't have enough water in the summer dry season to irrigate the fields with. Good thinking, moron.

[–] Nightwingdragon@lemmy.world 61 points 3 days ago (3 children)

How cute, you think he's thinking that far ahead.

6 months from now, when crops fail because of this bullshit, he'll blame it on the Green New Deal.

Then he'll probably try to irrigate the fields with water straight from the Pacific Ocean. "Free unlimited water, right at our doorstep? So what if our food tastes a little more salty? Free Water = less costs = cheaper food #MAGA"

[–] grue@lemmy.world 38 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

How cute, you think he isn't doing it on purpose.

Seriously though, stop pretending Trump is incompetent. Because it carries with it an implicit assumption of good intent, characterizing what he does as a mistake paradoxically gives him too much credit.

Even if he is incompetent, there are enough competent people around him to negate it as any sort of excuse. Trump absolutely knows that this is fucking over California -- "woke" urban people and Big Ag alike -- and he insisted upon it anyway because he is malicious and intending to destroy.

[–] Nightwingdragon@lemmy.world 12 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

He can be both malicious and incompetent. The two don't have to be mutually exclusive. A competent man with malicious intent in Trump's position would be able to do a lot more damage.

[–] Hobbes_Dent@lemmy.world 13 points 3 days ago

Then when the plants all die because they can’t absorb water he’ll blame fire prevention, which of course is DEI. 175 million people will agree with him and the rest shrug.

But have we considered trying to irrigate with Brawndo? I hear it has what plants need!

[–] DaddleDew@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago

In his office a few days ago: "Fire bad. Water puts fire out. More water means more better."

"But Mr President, what about the flo-"

"YOU'RE FIRED. I SAID MORE WATER!"

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 26 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I was expecting a fascist coup, even the camps aren’t that surprising, but I honestly wasn’t expecting the “weaponizing civilian infrastructure” part of the war to start in less than 2 weeks.

[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 54 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Fun fact: all those farmers probably voted for Trump, and now they get to experience the devastation he promised them.

[–] ShadowRam@fedia.io 19 points 3 days ago (6 children)

Did they thou?

So many farmers got absolutely FUCKED first time around with the Tariff stuff, you would have thought they learned that lesson.

[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 22 points 3 days ago (1 children)

They always blame it on the Democrats.

[–] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 16 points 3 days ago

https://www.politico.com/2024-election/results/california/

The red parts are mostly farming areas. There are some exceptions, like Napa and Sonoma, but they’re wine counties and tend to attract a different crowd.

[–] ubergeek@lemmy.today 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

And they voted for him again. And still think he is doing the right thing.

Like, this will probably pivot to be "anti woke " flooding.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 3 points 3 days ago

I watched a man that owns a trucking company rip apart, bit by bit, some y'all quaeda YouTuber claiming that tariffs weren't going to cause prices to go up and fuel prices would come down. That trucking company owner has no degree but plenty of sense. Would there were more like him.

[–] frezik@midwest.social 9 points 3 days ago

They learned the lesson to the same degree that America as a whole did.

[–] masterofn001@lemmy.ca 6 points 3 days ago

But the mega agro corps live to see the little guys suffer.

[–] auraithx@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 days ago

They did not, and they won’t this time either.

[–] cabron_offsets@lemmy.world 12 points 3 days ago (1 children)

People just don’t get what’s happening here. He’s fucking America’s food supply to please Putin.

[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 3 points 2 days ago

He's wasting the reservoir water so that there will be a drought in the autumn.

[–] CouncilOfFriends@slrpnk.net 16 points 3 days ago

DonOld just wanted to make someone wet for the first time in his life.

[–] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 29 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Man, the media continues to fail to address Trump.

  • NYT: "Trump Officials Release Water in California That Experts Say Will Serve Little Use"
  • WP: "Trump opened the ‘valve’ on California water. It will probably be wasted."
  • LAT: "Acting on Trump’s order, federal officials opened up two California dams"
  • Newseek: "Trump Administration Releases California Dam Water Without State Approval"

LA Times and Newseek both completely omit that it won't help the wildfires from their title. Maybe the State didn't get asked, but that's just Trump bypassing those dithering California Dems. WP and NYT both hedge that it probably won't help or will have little use, but the truth is it won't have any use for the fires and should be reported as such. It's not experts being biased or cautious or the problem being hard so it's not a simple solution, it's useless.

The only mainstream publication on the first page of my search that kinda got it was Politico, but even they didn't mention that it was useless for the fires.

  • Politico: "Trump says he opened California’s water. Local officials say he nearly flooded them."
[–] Gerudo@lemm.ee 22 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Isn't this just going to eventually just run into the ocean? Like, if they can't use it, it's just wasted as washing downstream.

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 35 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

It's not going towards the fires

It was kept in the reservoir to water farmland during the summer drought

It will just flow down to the ocean

Trump is an idiot

[–] auraithx@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 3 days ago

Yes, we are in the dumbest timeline. He flooded the farms and got rid of their water for the summer for a photo op and maga are still gargling his balls

[–] anindefinitearticle@sh.itjust.works 13 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Tulare county?

Good.

That should be a lake, not cotton fields.

Used to be one of the biggest lakes in the US.

In the 1862 flood it was bigger than lake ontario.

Then the cotton farmer arrived post civil war.

Flood 'em and rebuild the natural ecology.

Best thing he could have done for long-term stability of the region.

Gotta give props when he does the right thing.

Refill the swamp!

[–] anindefinitearticle@sh.itjust.works 13 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Only Trump can get away with ruining the land of the cotton barons (wealthy elite) to restore the natural ecosystem. I may not agree with how it's being done, but this one had the right spirit. I hope he keeps it up and gives the great central swamp of California some time to recover. That would help wildfire resilience, and probably improve groundwater stores for the future. No human alive knows this ecosystem, they've just been living in its grave. As the husk dries, it's prone to burning. Let's regrow the wetlands.

[–] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Watchout Texas oil field Barron's! Trump is going to accidentally what?

Fire up the fields?

Dump cement down the gas ports?

Fill them all up with sediment mile high.

[–] anindefinitearticle@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

With the loss of our major cotton fields and high tariffs on imports, clothing will be hard to come by.

Q-tips. Medical gauze.

We need a better relationship with clothing.

Death to fashion. Let's build something new.d

EDIT: yeah, there's other cotton fields, but it was late and I was high and felt melodramatic.

[–] meyotch@slrpnk.net 4 points 3 days ago

No it wont create clothing shortages. There’s enough fast fashion crap already made to keep us modest and warm for decades. I will be rocking that Ocean Pacific t-shirt from high school for another decade at least.

The medical concerns are somewhat based but cotton comes from many regions.

But if I smell what the rock is cooking, a nude protest would make for a fun news cycle.

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

You guys have to stop wearing Q-tips, it's not sustainable!

[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 15 points 3 days ago

There are fires in Florida? Better flood Virginia.

California is bigger than most people realize.

[–] ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org 14 points 3 days ago (1 children)

What a clot... His Project 2025 and billionaire handlers really need to tell him to stop playing with thing he doesn't understand and to confine him to his room.

He isn't making an incompetent mistake. He's making a deliberate choice to fuck over California, and by extension the US.

[–] blakenong@lemmings.world 3 points 3 days ago

You get what you pay for.