President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

Robert De Niro approves.

 

We're going to wind up running an east to west water pipeline(s), and it won't be long before the Western states are really talking it up. Infrastructure week.

 

I hope such a thing is never allowed.

 

There are tens of millions of people living out West that are going to get desperate. Either they all move East or we figure out how they get water. Desalinate the Pacific? We pump millions of barrels of oil, we can do the same for water. Is that "Not out of my back yard"?

 

Is Pompeo sick? Or did someone tell him there's only room for one Fatfuck in the GQP clown car?

 

I’ve been saying for years they should have water trains with tanker cars.

 

There isn't going to be a lot of water to spare. Future Widespread Water Shortage Likely in U.S. - Science in the News

I've read and watched a lot more on the topic I didn't bookmark, but it doesn't sound pretty for a large portion of the country, not just the West.

I'm all for making sure the people of the West have drinking water. Water for agriculture or industrial purposes? Sorry, if the land can't support you, you shouldn't do business there.

It'll be a reckoning of the policies and acts of the late 19th and 20th centuries by short-sighted Manifest Destiny believers who thought recent rain amounts would continue forever, and water hundreds of miles away belonged to them, to hell with the locals.

It is a terrible situation and will be horrific, but at the end of the day, you don't need to grow fruit in a region that's otherwise naturally desert. Probably shouldn't have cities with populations in the millions, either.

 

I don't think the recent exodus of Californians has much of anything to do with politics. It's all about the insane housing prices/costs, and people either trying to take advantage of them, or to escape them.

Even the dumpiest places are going for ridiculous, and honestly, unfair prices that they are not really at all actually worth. It is truly not a reasonably affordable place to live anymore. People who already own homes are trying to figure out where to move to that they can buy for half the money (or less) than they will sell their current places for.

Before doing that, though, we also have to figure out/realize why -- seriously, why -- are people paying close to a million dollars to buy nice-but-average/standard suburban homes on small parcels that were bought for prices in the neighborhood of $300,000 just 20 years ago? Why are places (exactly) like my 50-year-old, 810 sq. ft., 2 bd, 1 ba condo with no outdoor space in one of the oldest complexes in town going for over asking price and fetching $385,000? And we have to then decide if we really want to leave. Because once you leave California, you might not be able to afford to move back.

Also, there actually is a reason people like living in California. It sounds simplistic, but a lot of it has to do with the good, consistent weather. Climate really is a big deal when it comes to living well, and living easily, particularly as you age. There is a lot to be said for consistently temperate conditions -- ones that don't include concerns about hurricanes, tornadoes and tropical storms, etc.

These are all questions/things I am wrangling with and trying to decide, myself, because it feels like it might be something I should do soon, if I'm going to do so. But it's not easy to pull the trigger with a definitive decision unless you're absolutely positive about what you want to do and where you want to go.

 

Problem is, "consistent weather," for much of the state is going to mean scorching temperatures, dry conditions, and wildfires that grow larger by the year (unless/until the forests burn completely).

I feel for you, WT, and hope things will work out. I can't imagine having to live through trying to make a decision to uproot like you and many others.

 

CNN video from a few months ago on Climate migration... to Duluth.

 

AOC Met Gala Scandal

Day 1 -- Wearing jewelry that costs more than your house
Day 2 -- She should be investigated for attending because it violates congressional rules on gifts
Day 3 -- She wasn't wearing a mask while servers and photogs were required to.
Day 4 -- ?????