this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2024
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The former President's plan to bring water to the California desert is, like a lot of his promises, a goofy pipe-dream.

In an apparent effort to address the pressing issue of California water shortages, Trump said the following: “You have millions of gallons of water pouring down from the north with the snow caps and Canada, and all pouring down and they have essentially a very large faucet. You turn the faucet and it takes one day to turn it, and it’s massive, it’s as big as the wall of that building right there behind you. You turn that, and all of that water aimlessly goes into the Pacific (Ocean), and if they turned it back, all of that water would come right down here and right into Los Angeles,” he said.

Amidst his weird, almost poetic rambling, the “very large faucet” Trump seems to have been referring to is the Columbia River. The Columbia runs from a lake in British Columbia, down through Oregon and eventually ends up in the Pacific Ocean. Trump’s apparent plan is to somehow divert water from the Columbia and get it all the way down to Los Angeles. However, scientific experts who have spoken to the press have noted that not only is there currently no way to divert the water from the Oregon River to southern California, but creating such a system would likely be prohibitively expensive and inefficient.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I really tried to give the benefit of the doubt in interpreting the dumb shit he said, but there just is no version of his idiot ramblings that actually makes sense.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

No, it's perfectly feasible: the water's on top of the map, the desert at the bottom. Now, naysayers may interject that there are thousands of miles of distance and elevation and mountains and whatnot in between, but I bet our genius Trump already has the solution: pick up the map, tilt it and draw an arrow with a sharpie so that the water knows where exactly to flow.

Take that, "scientists"!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago

Dimbulb donnie is just everyone's Crazy Uncle Liberty, and it's been Thanksgiving since about 2015.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Trump lives in some sort of reality pastiche of Richard Scary and Marquis de Sade.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I wish he would be in prison as frequently as the Marquis was. Both violent rapists though, so that tracks.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

It's not impossible as many are thinking. However I would never vote for another Republican lying bastard asshole ever again. But think about how we move oil around the country besides stupid trains. We use pipelines. So now just build one and fill it with water rather than oil. It won't pay for itself because the price of water is so much lower than oil. But if you all want some water, it's just a long ass straw.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

They sont have any pipelines running into California because the terrain makes them prohibitedly expensive. If BP and Exxon Mobile say it is cheaper to import Saudi crude to California because it is too expensive to pipe Texas crude, then there is no way. Canada has one pipeline to connect Albertam oil to Vancouver, but it is so expensive to pipe that oil across the Canadian Rockies that the pipe it downhill to Saskatchewan where it can then be pipped downhill all the way to Texas. Pipelines across mountains are just not feasible unless you are trying to move stuff from the top of the mountain to the bottom.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Much like oil it would probably be easier to haul the water via train than make a pipe which can cover that terrain.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The issue is how much water people actually use on a given day. The average American uses 82 gallons of water every day. Los Angeles (not the surrounding cities or suburbs) needs an average of 320 million gallons of water to meet just consumer water requirements every day. Thats 10,617 train cars or 16 LR1 Oil tankers a day for just water, for just the city of Los Angeles. The only feasible solution is discouraging people from living where there isn't any water.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Oh, I 100% agree. Trains are not feasible. They're just more feasible than a pipe over that kond of terrain.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

It’s still a stupid idea. Taking the runoff from a mountain and pumping it thousands of miles is more expensive than getting water from natural aquifers locally. Heck, even building a local desalination plant and turning saltwater from the city’s coast is cheaper than this giant pipeline idea. There’s a reason NYC doesn’t need to build a pipe all the way from Niagara Falls.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

Well I will leave it to you to turn the faucet as large as the building behind you in a day. If you fail to do it in a day... Which doesn't exist, and therefore impossible, come back and let me know how it isnt impossible

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 weeks ago

He’s a 10 year old child that likes to make pretend without ever having to face any consequences should his little fantasies ever come true.

That’s our job. We’re the ones that face the consequences.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

I know this is the politics community so forgive me for saying "this comment aside," but we really need to figure out a cheaper and cleaner way to desalinate seawater.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago

We need to stop encouraging people to live where there isn't any water. There's a reason nearly 3/4 of the US population lives east of the Mississippi, and that reason is the Eastern half of the country gets a straight up order of magnitude more rain water than the Western half

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

Solar desalination is very viable. It's just that water is so cheap at the moment that it's not worth the investment.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

This is a nonstarter because there is a quarter pound of salt in every gallon of salt water. A small town of 50k would easily produce close to a million pounds of salt a day. Now try to scale that up to 20 million people in LA for instance.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

They got a lake ready for it and everything!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

As an Oregonian, I have no idea what faucet he's talking about.

Bonneville Dam maybe? 🤔

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonneville_Dam

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Someone on Reddit theorized that he saw the term Delta and associated it with Delta Faucets the company, and that is where the faucet idea of his comes from.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

It’s the faucet he read about on truth social, which means it’s real. There was even a picture of the faucet, and we all know those can’t be faked. /s

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

No it's the faucet across from the toilet he has to flush ten, sometimes fifteen times, which is also where he got this idea.

[–] [email protected] 53 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

Amidst his weird, almost poetic rambling, the “very large faucet” Trump seems to have been referring to is the Columbia River. The Columbia runs from a lake in British Columbia, down through Oregon and eventually ends up in the Pacific Ocean. Trump’s apparent plan is to somehow divert water from the Columbia and get it all the way down to Los Angeles. However, scientific experts who have spoken to the press have noted that not only is there currently no way to divert the water from the Oregon River to southern California, but creating such a system would likely be prohibitively expensive and inefficient.

The fucking sane-washing continues. He's not being poetic. He's not laying out an "apparent plan" that we need to vet with "scientific experts". He thinks there's literally a fucking big faucet up there already as big as a building that "takes a day to turn" and he's the only person smart enough to think of "turning the faucet" or the only one strong-willed enough to kill the smelt for the good of the forests or whatever.

People keep grafting actual concepts onto this absolute moron's imbecilic utterances and giving him a leg to stand on...just fucking quote the asshole and move on with your day.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The ag lobby told him there's an ocean of fresh water, and the only thing stopping it is all the evil librul greens demanding they protect the mosquitos or something.

The farmers in the central valley believe the same thing, they get 80% of California's water and still fervently believe we're all holding out on them and there's a lake superior we've been hiding behind our backs all along out of spite.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

The ag lobby told him there's an ocean of fresh water

I'd say that he just says whatever. If it'll get him more popular and/or more money then there's no need to figure out if he actually believes something or not. It usually is self serving in some way, truth doesn't matter.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah, but does he have concepts of a plan?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I mean, I was vomiting in stanzas when I read this....

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 weeks ago

Iamblech pentameter

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago

The PNW isn’t immune to the drought pal.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago

What a fucking idiot. The only dumber people are those that believe him.

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