Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/523854
I received a phone call from a survey com- pany representing ESPN last week; the caller was seeking my opinions about so called deflate gate. I told her I didn't have an opinion, I didn't have the facts, and it was all show business anyway. She said I had to answer yes or no. SixtyyearsagowhenIwas playing quarterback the foot- balls were not as streamlined as today. There were actual rub- ber bladders in the leather balls, and the laces on the ball were pulled tight to secure the leather around the bladder. In an unrelated matter, a deflated Sepp Blatter stepped down from FIFA this week after his top aides were in- dicted for corruption and he had whined he couldn't watch everybody. Most likely there was too much money fly- ing around to concentrate. Of course, FIFA is just entertain- ment, not real life. Meanwhile, in the real world, we are becoming more and more aware of the astro- nomical amounts of money being raised and spent for po- litical elections, and we have learned that, just how astron- omy has learned to deal with dark matter, United States politics is now dealing with black money; some even claim there is a black hole in politics that has just sucked money into the system since the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Citizens United case that re- moved prior limitations on corporate contributions to po- litical campaigns. That esca- lation is dramatic by any mea- sure. Will Rogers once said: "Pol- itics has become so expensive it takes a lot of money even to be defeated." Lindsay Graham, the sen- ator from South Carolina, added his name to the me- nagerie of potential Republi- can presidential candidates, earlier this week. While he may have some good ideas, his speaking voice is off-putting, he is the only career bachelor in the mix, and he faces a for- midable task to secure ade- quate funding for his efforts. There was speculation that he had one ace up his sleeve, however, that might make a difference. Those speculat- ing thought he could garner a significant contribution from a Las Vegas mogul who has bankrolled candidates with extremely large contributions. It seems that Lindsay Gra- ham authored a bill outlaw- ing Internet gambling; the bill was defeated, however. Nev- ertheless, one of the strongest proponents of banning gam- bling on the Internet is Shel- don Adelson, the very same Las Vegas mogul mentioned above. Adelson has been a very big contributor to vari- ous politicians whom he fa- vors. He contributed $12 mil- lion to Newt Gingrich's failed campaign in 2012. According the Elizabeth Drew, who has researched this thoroughly, Adelson contributed at least $92 million to support Repub- lican candidates during that same election period. Corporate lobbying has taken on new dimensions; cor- porate lobbying expenditures that can be measured now ex- ceed the combined operating budgets of the House of Rep- resentatives and the Senate. That amount is approximately $2.6 billion versus the con- gressional operating budget of $1.978 billion. In the past we used to complain about union lobbying or lobbying by public interest groups, but now for every one dollar those orga- nizations spend, corporations spend $34. It costs big money to run a presidential campaign. Os- car Ameriger once said: " Pol- itics is the gentle art of get- ting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich while promising to protect each from the other." That was a late 19th century per- spective; in the post Citizens United 21st century the politi- cal messages may be the same, but fund raising is an even bigger focus than before. For Johnny Citizen it is be- coming an even bigger chal- lenge than before to have an impact on our elected repre- sentatives. I have written recently about the withdrawal from community life, and particu- larly the abysmally low per- centage of those of us, if we bothered to register and vote, who actually turn out at the polls, particularly at off year elections. We witness voter registra- tion suppression in certain states; we learn of Congressio- nal junkets sponsored by cor- porations; we see politician indicted for corruption. This is not FIFA or the NFL; this is our government; it is seri- ous business. It will continue to drift away from us if we do not stand up and speak out, vote, and pester our represen- tatives. We can start right here by attending City Council and Board of Supervisor meet- ings, insisting to be given up to date information from City and County administra- tion. Asking such questions as "why did the police un- rest go unseen?" and insisting on reasonable answers, not like those of the FIFA chief and our city manager both of whom said they were not mi- cro-managers. Monday is a good begin- ning; try attending the May- or's forum from 10:00 to 11:30 at the City Council Chambers. A long time ago that Greek sage, Plato, said, "One of the penalties for refusing to par- ticipate in politics is to end up being governed by your in- feriors." That may be Greek, but it makes sense to me. JoeHarropisaretired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net. JoeHarrop The price of not paying attention Cartoonist's take As California enters yet an- other year of drought, we are entering increasingly dire straits. At this current point in time, over 47 percent of the state is currently in "excep- tional" drought, and that num- ber may increase as we enter the dry season. In spite of all this, however, efforts to conserve water have accomplished very little. Ef- forts made by our governor are being fought every step of the way. Brown has mandated a 25 percent cut in our water us- age, the exact amount varying from region to region, but it'll be months at least before it can actually be enforced. The polit- ical fighting is getting increas- ingly bitter. It's not that Californians don't care about wasting water; most have indicated that they are concerned about the drought and some believe current mea- sures do not go far enough. A far bigger difficulty is that most don't even realize they're doing it. "I'm not wasteful; everyone else is." Be honest: how many of you reading this actually believe you're wasting water? Person- ally, I think I've done pretty well with my efforts, but I'm not per- fect; nor is anyone else. We're also looking for easy scapegoats to blame for the drought; a simple solution is what people love best, however rare they might be. I've been lis- tening to the constant complain- ing about almonds since they're rather water-intensive crops, around one gallon required per almond. Some crops are even worse and agriculture counts for approximately 75-80 percent of total water usage in California — though this is only non-environ- mental consumption. Others are pointing to frack- ing in California, or to all the water being bottled and sold throughout the nation. Yet these are only a minuscule fraction of the total amount of water being used annually, the equivalent of a couple dozen golf courses in Southern California. I get that people are unhappy about it, en- vironmentalists in particular, but it's not the problem. People in government are calling California's situation "the new normal." I would have to disagree with it. Drought is a fact of life in California. Since 1900, during 43 of 115 years we have been in a state of drought. Granted, this has become an es- pecially severe one, but drought is not unusual for this state. Much of California south of the Bay Area is a desert. Not only that, but tree ring records indi- cate that the 20th century was an unusually wet period in the Golden State, the second wet- test in 14 centuries, and that was when we built our infra- structure, population and agri- culture. Where I differ from most is that my focus is not on the cur- rent drought. Sooner or later, this will end, same as all the others. Instead, I believe we should start preparing for the next drought. The longest gap between droughts in the 20th and 21st centuries is only 12 years. Most are considerably shorter than that. The first thing we need to do is expand our water infrastruc- ture. Our system is decades old, designed for a population less than half our current size. No major reservoir has been built in over 30 years; indeed, a cou- ple of them have even been de- molished. Any proposal to build more always turns into bitter le- gal fighting and the projects are either cancelled or delayed to the point where they might as well be. Nor should we invest in dams and reservoirs alone. Desali- nation technology has come a long way in the past couple of decades, in cost, energy con- sumption and environmental friendliness. The areas of Cali- fornia where our major popula- tion centers reside are arid or at least semi-arid climates. I will admit that such plants are ex- pensive, hence why they have never been built on a large scale in this country despite giving us access to virtually unlim- ited water. Other concerns have been possible environmental impacts and just the fact that they look ugly and obstruct the view of individuals who live out on the coastal areas. One in San Diego is sched- uled to go online in two years that is supposed to be capable of supplying a fifth of the city's water demands, but the polit- ical fighting has been holding it back. If the drought gets se- vere enough, suddenly possible effects on the environment and appearance won't matter, save to dedicated interest groups. An expansion of gray wa- ter and recycled water would help assuage the drought as well. During Australia's massive drought during the last decade, around a third of the water con- sumed in their cities was recy- cled. We can expand such sys- tems and with improved technol- ogy, become more efficient in our use. The question is, of course, whether Californians would be willing to water their lawns and fill their toilets with what was previously sewer water. Throughout all of this, we cannot forget agriculture. Any reduced consumption will be in- significant in the long run if we ignore it. It is estimated that a million acres of farmland in the Golden State will remain fallow this year. Admittedly, agricul- ture is a small part of the state economy, but the drought has still cost us the loss of billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs. To compensate for dry years, farmers have been resorting to using vast quantities of ground- water to compensate for the loss of what they would have or- dinarily received. The obsta- cle with such an approach is that even groundwater is run- ning out, forcing businesses to dig ever deeper for wells. Unlike reservoirs, which are replen- ished in a few years, groundwa- ter takes decades, even centu- ries to recover. We need more efficient irriga- tion systems, such as drip irri- gation. This uses much less wa- ter and delivers more water to the plants, thus ensuring that the crops are consuming it in- stead of a significant portion of it being wasted. Over 90 percent of Israel's farms use drip irriga- tion — a country with a chronic water shortage. I will admit, however, that all of this will be expensive and time-consuming — although still less expensive than the over 100 billion we're willing to spend on a train few people will use. Personally, I am skep- tical that any of this will be im- plemented, at least in the short term, but I decided to mention our options anyway. All of it is worth considering. Even small steps, even individuals can make a difference. There are a few hopeful signs that we may receive more rain this winter. Granted, even a wet winter is very unlikely to end the drought entirely, but it will at least lessen its severity. As a rule, people aren't will- ing to change their behavior un- less a complete disaster strikes and, however bad the drought looks right now, we're not nearly at that point yet. The claim that we only have a year of water left is complete nonsense. Even in the worst case-scenario, if the megadrought some climatolo- gists fear does indeed come to pass, we'll survive. California will have to adapt, we'll have to change, but California would go on. Trevor Bacquet lives in Tehama. Trevor Bacquet We need to adapt to deal with the drought Corporate lobbying has taken on new dimensions; corporate lobbying expenditures that can be measured now exceed the combined operating budgets of the House of Representatives and the Senate. GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIAL BOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@ redbluffdailynews.com Fax: 530-527-9251 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 545 Diamond Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS Joe Harrop We're also looking for easy scapegoats to blame for the drought; a simple solution is what people love best, however rare they might be. OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, June 6, 2015 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4