California - The Not So Golden State

[The Great Chandler]

I suggested that we make a thread on this state before.

California needs its own thread.

Well that was no joke. Before we delve down the lolcowdom of this state, first we should have a quick summary of this state.

California is known as the "Golden State" due to its pretty rich history and largest economy in the country(and the Gold Rush). It's also the most populous state making up about 1 out of 7 of the whole US population. The name of the state originates with a fictional Muslim queen, Calafia, from a Spanish story. It also houses Silicon Valley which we all know is one of the largest technological centers in the world.

California itself stands out as the most liberal state in the country. However, it's not because of its political ideology, but rather how it executes it and the people who run it. As of recently, they proposed a law that downgrades unprotected sex without telling the partner of being HIV-positive no longer a "felony". This means AIDs can be spread to various groups rapidly especially among minority groups like the LGBT and ghettos without repercussions. Why this? For the sake of tolerance of course!

I'm not done here, it has the largest enclave of SJWs. Most notably the college town of Berkeley which is best known for its chimp outs.

We embrace everyone...

...unless you're white cis straight male...

...and Jewish.

If that's not enough Cali, then here's how they reacted when Trump won.
http://www.yescalifornia.org/

Looks like Florida is on his run for Champion of The Most Eccentric State. Go Florida Man!

 

[Varg Did Nothing Wrong]

California is called the Golden state because there was a massive gold rush there in the 19th century.

 

[Null]

Contrary to popular believe we are not a /r/The_Donald satire site.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

I wouldn't mind if The Big One happened tomorrow and California were to fall into the ocean.

 

[Elwood P. Dowd]

California Spending May Doom The Boom

California is the Titanic of states in terms of financial health. But, eh, it is increasingly diverse. And that's all that matters, right?

Middle-income workers have left in droves, seeking lower living costs, more-affordable housing and job opportunities in nearby states. From 2004 to 2013, 5 million Californians departed, while just 3.9 million people moved in from other states, a net loss of more than 1 million in population. California's population still grew overall, due to immigration and in-state births. But those who left took a net $26 billion in annual income with them.

Businesses are also skedaddling. Last year, business relocation firm Spectrum Location Solutions said that since 2008 nearly 10,000 companies either had left the state or cut back on investments, due largely to its tax and regulatory policies. And a planned hike in the state minimum wage to $15 an hour, which could destroy 600,000 jobs, will only make the business exodus grow.

 

[Disgruntled Pupper]

The worst part about Californians is that they're flooding into other states and, having learned nothing from shitting up California, continue to push the same poor financial, real estate, and social decisions to shit up their new homes as well.

 

[Maiden-TieJuan]

Holy shit. I live here. The biggest problem California has is not wealth, it's water. Los Angeles and San Francisco hold a large percentage of the reservoir water for their own use. Lis Angeles has sucked lakes dry with their constant draw of water and their mismanagement of it. Here in Central California, the drought has brought the .farmers really low, and in some places the land its self had dropped over 10 feet in places. Some areas, farmers have gone from 6 acre feet of water a month to 3 INCHES. Fucking water is the biggest issue, California produces most of the food but we don't get enough water to do it!!!

Sorry, but water is a HUGE issue here, but people don't see that.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

Holy shit. I live here. The biggest problem California has is not wealth, it's water. Los Angeles and San Francisco hold a large percentage of the reservoir water for their own use. Lis Angeles has sucked lakes dry with their constant draw of water and their mismanagement of it. Here in Central California, the drought has brought the .farmers really low, and in some places the land its self had dropped over 10 feet in places. Some areas, farmers have gone from 6 acre feet of water a month to 3 INCHES. Fucking water is the biggest issue, California produces most of the food but we don't get enough water to do it!!!

Sorry, but water is a HUGE issue here, but people don't see that.

Yeah, of all the States, California has definitely been hit the hardest with drought, it's one of the nastier cases in the country, if not the world. I remember back around 2007-ish there was a brief big deal involving environmental kooks successfully preventing a certain watersource from being used by farmers because they wanted to protect a fucking two-inch fish from extinction.

This may sound like a tinfoil-hat theory so take it with a grain of salt, but this site called GeoEngineering Watch appears to claim California is one of the testing grounds for global climate engineering, which may be causing such severe drought.

 

[Maiden-TieJuan]

Yeah, of all the States, California has definitely been hit the hardest with drought, it's one of the nastier cases in the country, if not the world. I remember back around 2007-ish there was a brief big deal involving environmental kooks successfully preventing a certain watersource from being used by farmers because they wanted to protect a fucking two-inch fish from extinction.

This may sound like a tinfoil-hat theory so take it with a grain of salt, but this site called GeoEngineering Watch appears to claim California is one of the testing grounds for global climate engineering, which may be causing such severe drought.

Holy fuck. The Delta smelt. That piece of shit fish was responsible for many farmers losing their asses for a few years. Governor Moonbeam can take his "I am saving the fishies!!!!" Ass and blow. Most of the country seems to think that California is a state that is about 20 miles wide, all beaches, and begins with San Francisco, the middle is all Yosemite, and ends with LA/Hollywood/San Diego. They don't realize what makes up most of the state is farm land. People in the larger cities have a HUGE disconnect with the central Valley and northern California. I read an amazing piece that explaimed why the is such a huge political divide between the cities and ag towns.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-1101-hanson-rural-urban-divide-20151101-story.html

http://www.economist.com/news/unite...ing-chronic-problems-its-heartland-down-farms

And here is an amazing interview with Tucker Carlson on Fox News about WHY there is such a huge gap between beliefs and politics in Central California and larger cities like SF and LA. It pins it down excellently, so give it a shot.

http://thehayride.com/2017/03/video-victor-davis-hansons-appearance-with-tucker-carlson/

 

[The Great Chandler]

there is such a huge gap between beliefs and politics in Central California and larger cities like SF and LA..

So let SF and LA secede? Got it!

 

[millais]

The mainstream media outside of California makes it sound like the drought crisis there is due to the greedy almond and lime farmers and agribusiness corps who grow water-hungry crops that they export exclusively to other states, leading to a water deficit within California's borders.

 

[Some JERK]

You'd need an entire subforum to adequately ridicule all the bullshit that goes on here.

 

[Maiden-TieJuan]

The mainstream media outside of California makes it sound like the drought crisis there is due to the greedy almond and lime farmers and agribusiness corps who grow water-hungry crops that they export exclusively to other states, leading to a water deficit within California's borders.

All I know is that the county I live in sells 80% of their Reservoir water to LA, and this is a huge ag area. Due to the drought, farmers went from 6 feet per care foot of water to 3 inches per acre foot, but they still sold THE SAME EXACT AMOUNT OF WATER TO LA that they had sold in no drought years. They also had enough profit to outfit all the glass in their business offices to bulletproof glass, because "farmers have guns and are mad". We have a right to be pissed off at the way our state/water boards rations US, but gives LA our water to do with as they please.

 

[Some JERK]

All I know is that the county I live in sells 80% of their Reservoir water to LA, and this is a huge ag area. Due to the drought, farmers went from 6 feet per care foot of water to 3 inches per acre foot, but they still sold THE SAME EXACT AMOUNT OF WATER TO LA that they had sold in no drought years. They also had enough profit to outfit all the glass in their business offices to bulletproof glass, because "farmers have guns and are mad". We have a right to be pissed off at the way our state/water boards rations US, but gives LA our water to do with as they please.

I'm pretty sure I know which county you're talking about, and if I'm right, that shit's been going on for a while. It was definitely going on when I lived there, and it's been a minute.

 

[Lackadaisy]

The worst part about Californians is that they're flooding into other states and, having learned nothing from shitting up California, continue to push the same poor financial, real estate, and social decisions to shit up their new homes as well.

Fuckers keep moving into my area, shitting it up with hipsters and making rent skyrocket. 10/10 would kill Californians again

 

[Maiden-TieJuan]

I'm pretty sure I know which county you're talking about, and if I'm right, that shit's been going on for a while. It was definitely going on when I lived there, and it's been a minute.

Yeah. I think you might. It is pretty damn bad here. Like "farmers are letting their crops die for the insurance payouts" bad. It costs $10k to drill a well 1000 feet down. Most of the ground water here is lower then that. If you have a well, you can irrigate your farm, if you don't? Hope that 3 inches per acre foot waters those crops for ya!

 

[Pikimon]

Yeah, of all the States, California has definitely been hit the hardest with drought, it's one of the nastier cases in the country, if not the world. I remember back around 2007-ish there was a brief big deal involving environmental kooks successfully preventing a certain watersource from being used by farmers because they wanted to protect a fucking two-inch fish from extinction.

This may sound like a tinfoil-hat theory so take it with a grain of salt, but this site called GeoEngineering Watch appears to claim California is one of the testing grounds for global climate engineering, which may be causing such severe drought.

The delta smelt is only used as an indicator species of the health of the Delta itself. If it starts dying it usually means the water outflow to the Bay is too low and that salt is beginning to creep into the San Jose Delta. A certain amount of water outflow has to be made in order to prevent salt water inflow into the delta.

If salt water from the Bay enters the water table via the delta, it means that the water table in that region is going to be ruined for good. Which means that no amount of amending will return the water table for agricultural, urban, or industrial usage and makes the water problem in California worse. And that's without going into the immense damage saltwater inflow will cause for the ecology of the delta.

The usage of water in California isn't as simple as "Look! That water isn't being used and we're in a drought! We better use the rest of it all!" there is an entire web of things that have to be taken into consideration to preserve the precious water resources that we have.

In terms of water usage agricultural is the largest usage by and far (about 80% of total usage) and a large reason is because California has the largest agricultural outputs per acreage of land, the longest growing season, the least amount of agricultural pests, and the most stable climate in the United States.

Spoiler: Most Recent Water Usage Numbers

Spoiler: Water Usage vs. Water Supply

Improvements can and have been made by everyone in the state

• Los Angeles has decreased water usage by 75% since the beginning of the drought,
• public institutions are now mandated to put water-saving native plantlife instead of lawns
• Drip-irrigation is slowly replacing flood irrigation, new strains of crops that use less water being produced at UC Berkeley.
• More and more citizens are forgoing lawns for low-water usage gardens or just xeriscaping

The numbers for who is switching to drip-irrigation is encouraging too

Spoiler: Agricultural Irrigation Numbers

The main issue is that farmers and city-dwellers are looking at eachother at who to blame for the drought, when in reality the entire state of California has to work together in order to save water and be smarter with how we manage our water resources.

TL;DR we're workin' on it!

 

[SoberBlitz]

Seeing as we're talking about California and the drought, there's an idea that's been floating around for a while: Transporting water from the Great Lakes west. There were a few studies conducted by the US Army Corps of Engineers back in the 80s/90s, not to mention a few private corporations attempting to find a way to turn a profit, but at the end of the day it would be incredibly expensive and inefficient.

Barring that, the US states and Canadian provinces along the Great Lakes have the Great Lakes Compact to prevent water from being diverted, let alone shipped away from the region. Now, this makes talking about shipping water difficult, because there would need to be some sort of agreement between eight US state and the two Canadian provinces, along with the US federal government and the Canadian national government.

Articles below:
http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/2015/04/19/michigan-great-lakes-water/25965121/
https://greatlakes.org/campaigns/protecting-great-lakes-water/

 

[Barbarella]

I live in CA too, and my county's water is also sent south. So while I have the water police crawling on my property to make sure I don't water more than twice a week and my toilets are so low flow you can't flush a tiny shit; while we can't get water in restaurants or wash our cars, my sister down south -which was a desert -has a huge tropical garden that they water daily.

We can't have bags when we shop, so you either bring your own e-coli covered bags made in China, or you put everything back in the cart and toss it in the back of your car.

California is becoming so strict on narcotic use that terminal cancer patients can't get them. Truth. Personal experience.

California makes you register for ammunition and are about to limit you.

California has people who work for the state whose job it is to go through our garbage to make sure we are recycling.

Certain stamps (I scrapbook) can't be shipped to CA because of what the plastic is made of.

You can't smoke anywhere in CA, including many apartment buildings. (I like it but didn't vote for it) of course, I'm not talking about weed, which is fine.

Now they want to tax us on miles driven because they misused gas money, which was supposed to go for infrastructure.

Infrastructure-our roads are quite literally crumbling, just like our dams. I drive from north to south frequently and it's just rumble all the way.

California is more fucked up than any state in the USA. Except for maybe Kentucky because Amberlynn lives there. . And I would move to AZ or TX in a heartbeat if I could and believe me, I'd bring nothing of California with me.

We do have great weather and scenery, which attracts good doctors and the people in Silicon Valley. That's about all I can say for my home state.

I have a special hate for San Francisco, where I happen to be visiting this weekend. It's dirty, the panhandlers attack and it's always fricking cold. Not to mention unbelievably expensive and you cannot park anywhere. The whole state is bad but SF is the worst. Not sure why anybody would come here on vacation....

/rant......maybe

 

[The Great Chandler]

I live in CA too, and my county's water is also sent south. So while I have the water police crawling on my property to make sure I don't water more than twice a week and my toilets are so low flow you can't flush a tiny shit; while we can't get water in restaurants or wash our cars, my sister down south -which was a desert -has a huge tropical garden that they water daily.

We can't have bags when we shop, so you either bring your own e-coli covered bags made in China, or you put everything back in the cart and toss it in the back of your car.

California is becoming so strict on narcotic use that terminal cancer patients can't get them. Truth. Personal experience.

California makes you register for ammunition and are about to limit you.

California has people who work for the state whose job it is to go through our garbage to make sure we are recycling.

Certain stamps (I scrapbook) can't be shipped to CA because of what the plastic is made of.

You can't smoke anywhere in CA, including many apartment buildings. (I like it but didn't vote for it) of course, I'm not talking about weed, which is fine.

Now they want to tax us on miles driven because they misused gas money, which was supposed to go for infrastructure.

Infrastructure-our roads are quite literally crumbling, just like our dams. I drive from north to south frequently and it's just rumble all the way.

California is more fucked up than any state in the USA. Except for maybe Kentucky because Amberlynn lives there. . And I would move to AZ or TX in a heartbeat if I could and believe me, I'd bring nothing of California with me.

We do have great weather and scenery, which attracts good doctors and the people in Silicon Valley. That's about all I can say for my home state.

I have a special hate for San Francisco, where I happen to be visiting this weekend. It's dirty, the panhandlers attack and it's always fricking cold. Not to mention unbelievably expensive and you cannot park anywhere. The whole state is bad but SF is the worst. Not sure why anybody would come here on vacation....

/rant......maybe

The state is like that one member of the family who wants everyone to be ultra vegans. As a result, you end up lacking the B-12 Vitamin(animal related) to keep your sanity. In this case, infrastructure and livelihood.
Edit: I was born and raised there and I can assure you the education isn't any better.