70 points

Feel free to look up Terminus Dam at Lake Kaweah and Schafer Dam at Lake Success. Both runoff rivers flow AWAY from Los Angeles and basically drain into other lakes or into the soil (at least as far as I can tell from the maps). There was no plan to capture any of this water, and Trump is demanding the release of water from several more dams shortly.

So not only has he wasted water which won’t be used to help fight the fires (and wouldn’t have been of any use anyway), but he has greatly depleted the reservoirs used to grow crops this coming Summer. He’s not trying to fight fires, he’s just depleting the food that the US will have available this year.

Trump – too dumb to know that water doesn’t flow uphill.

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48 points

Trump – too dumb to know that water doesn’t flow uphill.

The fact that people still think he doesn’t know what he’s doing (or his advisers, anyway) is concerning. None of this is accidental, it is all about manipulation of the food supply and economy, and deliberately worsening living conditions for most people to make us even easier to exploit and oppress.

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30 points

I guess he could be trying to provoke mass unrest so he can declare a national emergency and start shooting people.

But I’m pretty sure he could declare a national emergency and start shooting people whenever he wants, no need to actually create mass unrest. Just declare that there’s mass unrest, who cares if it’s real?

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7 points
*

no need to actually create mass unrest. Just declare that there’s mass unrest, who cares if it’s real?

I joked with my buddy earlier today about something similar. Tensions are so high that someone could realistically kick off a revolution simply by convincing people that the revolution had already started. Get a few fake (but convincing) articles about revolutionaries across the country. Spread them far and wide, and shout them as loud as you can… If you got enough reach to hit critical mass, there’s a sizable part of the population that would likely go “well fuck it, I guess we’re doing this” and hit the streets with a real revolution.

Things have gotten to the point where if I woke up tomorrow morning to news of a revolution, I wouldn’t really be shocked. And that says a lot about the current state of affairs…

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2 points

Nah he’s probably just fucking with California because he hates them for not voting for him, and also not liking their governor.

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0 points

I guess he could be trying to provoke mass unrest so he can declare a national emergency and start shooting people.

He’s running the Hitlerian playbook. Why do you think he’s engaging in mass persecution of various minority groups? Behind hatred, his real goal is power. If you put the screws on people hard enough, eventually people start setting off bombs and executing reprisal shootings. If you ruin enough people’s lives, some are bound to respond violently. Then you can use that violence to declare an emergency. And as we saw after 9/11, nothing increases a presidential power like acts of terrorism.

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17 points

I’m really not sure… The way he rants about things, I feel like he’s dumb as a rock. On the other hand, the people who have gotten in close to him? It’s not hard to figure out that for someone with Trump’s ego, all it takes are a few careful suggestions, something to make him think people will admire him, and he’ll be happy to do the rest.

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15 points

The idea that someone just stumbles their way in to a presidency is wild. It’s also ableist to blame his bigotry and oppressive actions on how intelligent you think he is, that has nothing to do with it.

So I’ll reiterate - the fact that anyone can still think that what’s happening is accidental or not thought out is frankly more than concerning, it’s scary.

These people are following a playbook, they’ve got their own playbook for fucks sake, and they will do as much damage as they fucking can deliberately and with forethought. Pretending otherwise because it’s easier to punch down and dismiss him as “dumb” than to confront the reality of things and punch up at a much bigger and scarier target is counterproductive.

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7 points

He’s no rocket surgeon but he’s also not as dumb is he pretends to be. All politicians are actors, and Trump is a master of kayfabe.

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4 points

So you think he’s slapping Gavin Newsom around with this. And deliberately screwing over California crop GDP and the little guy via increased grocery prices. Trump isn’t good for farmers. When will farmers realize that?

I initially saw it as political theater to go with his false statements about fire preparedness.

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10 points

It seems to be part of the plan.

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3 points

https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-01-31/trump-california-dams-opened-up

And his own voters have had to beg to get the flow shut so that their farms don’t flood.

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4 points

Wait, you’re telling me that trump lacks a fundamental understanding of California’s hydrology and is just lying to get what he perceives as a political win? That doesn’t sound like him at all.

Do I need to say /s?

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3 points

Of course you need to say /s !!! MAGA doesn’t get jokes, especially when they’re the target.

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1 point

By the time they run out of water it will be too late and people will have forgotten all about this.

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11 points

I think this is the worst thing he has done.

This will impact the number of calories the US produces and may lead to a famine. Starving your own citizens and countries that rely on US exports is beyond cruel. Hunger does not discriminate (except for the very wealthy of course)

Who relies on US food exports? Surprise! Its China, Mexico, and Canada.

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1 point

No food for them, but in turn no food for us from Mexico, and no gas from Canada. Since the tariffs were announced to begin today, I’m surprised gas prices haven’t jumped yet.

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2 points

My theory is he’s doing this to fuck with the billionaire landowners in California who haven’t bent the knee yet

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10 points

My favorite part is how they buried the issues releasing the water will cause a the bottom of the piece. At least they put it in there at all as opposed to the other RFK piece they just botched.

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