Tag: california drought
How Donald Trump’s Doublespeak Really Works—And Is Highly Calculated

How Donald Trump’s Doublespeak Really Works—And Is Highly Calculated

Published with permission from Alternet.

Donald Trump’s speaking style is said to be off the cuff and spontaneous. Far from it. He’s actually using a very sophisticated doublespeak.

One of the obligations of a candidate is to commit to policy solutions. You review a public problem, decide what you will do when in office, and report in detail how you will address the problem. You make yourself accountable for your position.

Instead of doing this, Trump practices what one might call “multiple-choice communication.” Whenever he speaks on a given topic, he gives multiple options on what he might mean.

For instance, at a recent rally in Fresno, Trump stated that, despite five years of low rainfall in California, “There is no drought. They turn the water into the ocean. If I win, believe me, we’re going to start opening up the water so that you can have your farmers survive.”

Now, this is a very confusing statement. What could he mean? Go ahead and choose your answer to this multiple-choice problem. Does Trump mean that:

  1. There never was a drought (perhaps the drought was a myth?)
  2. There was a drought, but it has ended naturally.
  3. There was a drought, but somebody’s fixed it.
  4. There is no drought, because what others call a drought is simply their inability to drain the Sacramento River Delta and use its water for farming.
  5. There is drought, but as president of the United States, Trump will singlehandedly change California water policy. The fact that a huge engineering project, like draining the Sacramento River Delta, is theoretically possible, is the same as there never having been a drought in the first place.

Do you see how many options Trump gives us to believe? Which answer did you choose?

Now imagine some attendees at Trump’s rally. They get to choose their own answers, just like you. Some people simply feel reassured by Trump’s words there is no drought. Whew! What a relief.

Some are farmers who hear Trump say he will send them water. Thank you, Donald Trump!

Some are anti-government and are happy that climate change is a myth. No further government intervention needed. Amen!

Some are pro-government and welcome a huge engineering project. This would destabilize the ecology, the water table, real estate values, and would have countless other consequences. If you want this option, you want heavy government intervention.

These different listeners at the Trump rally are not in agreement on what needs to be done. However, because the speech is given in multiple-choice format, each hears a different promise. It may seem they’re cheering together, but they’re cheering for different results.

Back in the Republican primaries, Trump got massive media coverage by making extreme promises about immigration, trade and religious discrimination. This won him the loyalty of political extremists such as anti-foreigners and white supremacists. At this point in the campaign, Trump needs to expand his share of the American voter base by appealing to more moderate voters.

How does he appeal to moderates without losing his early extremist fans? Multiple-choice communication. This enables him to speak separately to the different listeners without changing his tune. He still speaks to the racists. But he now he’s also speaking to the moderates.

Here’s how it works.

At a rally in San Diego Trump spoke publicly about a judge presiding over a lawsuit against Trump University. After calling him a “very hostile judge” and a “hater,” Trump adds, “What happens is the judge, who happens to be, we believe, Mexican, which is great. I think that’s fine.”

In fact, the judge, Gonzalo Curiel, was born in Indiana.

So let’s do the multiple-choice. Which of these is Trump saying?

  1. Anyone who gets in my way, I can single them out in a speech and focus the crowd’s hate on them.
  2. I can single out any American at any time and bring public focus on their ethnic or religious heritage.
  3. I can describe any American as foreign (as “Mexican”) rather than as an American.
  4. My racist fans may follow my lead and also single out other Americans based on their ethnic, cultural or religious heritage.
  5. Judge Curiel’s professional behavior may be based on his being Mexican.
  6. Judge Curiel’s ethnic heritage is up to my approval, and I think it’s great that he is Mexican (even though he’s not Mexican).

Let’s imagine how this sounds to the different listeners.

Say one of the people in the audience is a man named Tim, who is a white supremacist. As he listens, he hears Trump say that this American-born judge is essentially a “Mexican.” Tim thinks, “I can’t believe Trump can say this out loud! A candidate after my own heart.”

Another listener, Maria, hears this: Anyone who gets in Trump’s way might suddenly be singled out and labeled as a non-American. Especially if you’re “Mexican.” You could lose your citizenship rights. Scary! Keep your head down.

A third listener, Steve, is a moderate independent who came because he was curious. When he hears Trump saying, “it’s great to be Mexican” he thinks “Gosh, I was worried Trump was a racist. But he says Mexicans are great. I guess he’s not racist.”

You see, if Trump communicated his proposed policies (build the wall, deport, ban Muslims) like a normal candidate, we would be seeing him as an extremist and as a cruel man. That would not be very fun and would not win more voters. It’s smarter for Trump to court moderates and undecided voters by confusing them with multiple-choice statements.

Multiple-choice communication is not unique to Donald Trump. You may also have seen it in advertisements, especially when the advertiser doesn’t intend to deliver on their promises. For instance, you may see shampoos that promise men “thicker hair.” Men buy it thinking they will solve their hair loss. Nope. The shampoos make your individual hairs thicker, but don’t stop hair from falling out. The shampoo maker knows customers will make this mistake, but it’s not false advertising. You simply heard the wrong option.

The problem, of course, is that people at a Trump rally each leave having heard a different promise. And if Trump should become president, there is no way he can fulfill all of those different expectations. Which reminds us that the people who would be most let down by a Trump presidency are the people who believe in what he says.

Mark Peysha is CEO and cofounder of the Center for Strategic Intervention.

Photo: U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Sacramento, California, U.S. June 1, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

California Dreamin’ With Donald Trump And Alex Jones

California Dreamin’ With Donald Trump And Alex Jones

Republished with permission from The Washington Spectator

Donald Trump keeps on upping the ante. Consider what he said at a rally last week in Fresno, on the subject of California’s apocalyptic drought.

Make that “drought,” for according to Donald J. Trump, there isn’t one. Never mind that the years between late 2001 and 2014 have been the driest in California history since record-keeping began; nor the 12 million trees that have died from “drought” in Southern California; nor predictions that the 2015 El Nino would bring relief, though the amount of rainfall actually decreased.

In Fresno, Donald approached the podium. He led off with a customary boast. (“What a crowd . . . I saw on television this morning, five o’clock in the morning, people were lining up. This is crazy, crazy!”) He referred to some real estate transaction he was working “probably 10 or 12 years ago” in their fair city: “They had a problem. You remember the problem, right? They had a problem, I think it was Running Horse, and I was going to take it over and do a beautiful job.” Then, in mid-thought, he pivoted incoherently into the subject on everyone’s minds in that parched agricultural region: “Fortunately, I didn’t do it, because there isn’t any water, because they send all the water out to the ocean, right?”

“I made a fortune by not doing it,” he said. The crowd cheered. Only in Trumplandia do the citizens cheer when they’re not afforded the benefactions of their orange-haired overlord. (I looked it up. His proposal to take over the foundering Running Horse golf course development apparently fell apart because the city refused his demand to dispossess homeowners over a nine-square-mile area through eminent domain.)

He commented that it was too bad he didn’t go through with the deal. Because: “I would have changed the water. . . . You have a water problem that is so insane, that is so ridiculous. Where they’re taking the water and shoving it out to sea.” Loud cheers.

He continued. “It’s not the drought. They have plenty of water. No, they shove it out to sea. Now, why? Because they’re trying to protect a certain kind of three-inch fish.”

“If I win, believe me, we’re going to start opening up the water so that you can have your farmers survive.” Then he moved on.

It made the news: “Donald Trump Tells Californians There Is No Drought.”

Then, however, reporters moved on to the next story, with no time to Google from whence Trump derived this crackpot notion about water taken from farmers and “shoved out to the sea.” The answer, apparently: InfoWars, the website of lunatic conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Who believes, for instance, that the school shooting in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, was staged by the government, using actors, in order to force gun control down the American people’s throats.

The theory that California’s water shortage is all the fault of the Environmental Protection Agency is, like most conspiracy theories, grounded in an actual fact. The EPA has, in fact, caused 800,000 acre-feet of water annually to be flushed into San Francisco Bay to maintain its marine ecosystem. The program, however, dates to the early 1990s, and California’s water system, all told, manages over 40 million acre-feet a year. The practice that Trump describes so darkly involves 2 percent of that—and an economically vital 2 percent at that. California fisheries produce jobs in the hundreds of thousands. But not in Fresno.

The notion that rules governing 800,000 acre-feet of water are the cause of the much larger problem, and that business about the “three-inch fish,” dates—word for word—to an April, 2015, InfoWars article entitled “Environmentalists Caused California Drought to Protect This Fish.”

Since last year, Rachel Maddow has been on the case of Donald Trump’s deep ties to Alex Jones. On the morning of December 2, she wrote in a syndicated column, Jones hosted Trump for an extended live interview. “After about 30 minutes of mutual compliments, and Jones telling Trump that ‘about 90 percent’ of his listeners support him, the presidential candidate wrapped things up by telling Jones: ‘Your reputation is amazing.’”

Maddow continued, “That same day, after that interview, 14 people were killed and 21 others were injured in the mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif. Within hours of that news breaking, Jones and his website—predictably—were hosting discussions of how San Bernardino, like Newtown, like the Boston Marathon bombing, and of course like 9/11, was a hoax. Either it didn’t happen, or if it did it was perpetuated by the government.”

In mid-March, Jones took up the cudgels for Trump in a rant that began: “Everyone’s having their water poisoned, everyone’s having deadly vaccines pushed on them, everyone is having weaponized television aimed at them. . . . It is a metric, scientific, mathematic algorithm of tyranny, that is extremely sophisticated, that can even predict the future.”

“A few thousand people are in on the whole deal. And through compartmentalization, they’re rolling it out.”

Jones explained that shooting “all two million police in the country” in the back of the head wouldn’t help, because “there would just be anarchy and all sorts of problems and they would just bring in foreign troops.”

“The globalists are building a world, in their own words, where normal human life is over. . . . It’s the devil. And the churches are not going to tell you. It’s an alien force, not of this world, attacking humanity, like the Bible and every other ancient text says.”

He screamed at the top of his lungs: “IT’S NOT HUMAN INTELLIGENCE WE’RE FACING! . . . WE’RE UNDER ATTACK! EVERYONE’S UNDER ATTACK!”

And even shooting two million cops could not beat them back.

He proposed, however, something that could. “The elite hate Trump, let me tell you. And if he is a psy-op, let me tell you, he’s the most sophisticated one I ever saw. And even if he is, he’s a revelation of the awakening . . . Humanity’s gotta get off-world, we’ve got to get access to the life-extension technologies . . . I want the advanced life extension! I want to go to space! I want to see inter-dimensional travel! I WANT WHAT GOD PROMISED US! AND I’M NOT GOING TO SIT HERE AND LET SATAN STEAL IT!

Donald Trump appreciates this man’s amazing reputation, has appeared on his program, and is leveraging InfoWar’s insights to feed his symbiosis with his mob. The bigfoot political press missed that story, and will likely continue to miss it, because their entire business model and worldview is predicated upon the idea of two equivalent sides fighting for national power.

That’s not what our nation’s founders promised us. And I’m not going to sit here and let the orange-haired monster steal it.

 

Rick Perlstein is the Washington Spectator’s national correspondent.

Photo Credit: Tristan Bowersox

Tom Selleck Accused Of Stealing Water For His California Ranch

Tom Selleck Accused Of Stealing Water For His California Ranch

By Matt Hamilton, Sarah Parvini, and Amanda Covarrubias Los Angeles Times (TNS)

LOS ANGELES — The vehicle that officials say was used to pilfer water from a Ventura County water district’s fire hydrant was a white water tender truck, not a red Ferrari driven by a mustachioed man in a Detroit Tigers baseball cap and a Hawaiian shirt.

But in a complaint filed by the Calleguas Municipal Water District, the utility points the finger at “Magnum, P.I.” star Tom Selleck — and they say they hired a real P.I. to prove it.

As California’s historic drought worsened, water from a public hydrant was delivered to Selleck’s sprawling Hidden Valley ranch, according to court documents filed against the veteran actor.

On multiple occasions between 2013 and 2015, a white truck filled up at a Thousand Oaks hydrant and hauled water to Selleck’s 60-acre property, according to the complaint. To document their case, the water district spent nearly $22,000 to hire the real private investigator.

Calleguas says the “Blue Bloods” star and his wife, Jillie, who is also named in the complaint, are barred from using water from the hydrant because their property is located in a different water district, Hidden Valley Municipal Water District.

“Our 630,000 customers are ripping out their lawns, drastically cutting back on the water they use,” said Eric Bergh, resources manager for the Calleguas Municipal Water District. “The water that we have secured for them, that they have paid for, should remain in district boundaries.”

Representatives for Selleck have not responded to several requests for comment. The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department reviewed the allegations and was unable to establish that a crime had occurred, according to a department spokesman.

Before filing the complaint, the water district tried to get Selleck to stop taking water from the hydrant. In November 2013, Calleguas sent cease-and-desist letters to both Selleck’s home and an Avenue of the Stars address linked to the property, according to court papers.

As recently as March, the water truck was spotted on four days filling up at the same hydrant and delivering water to Selleck’s estate, according to the complaint.

The incident highlights the fragile water supply at the private enclave of Hidden Valley, whose 37 ranches are owned by celebrities and business elite. Selleck, son of the late San Fernando Valley real estate magnate Robert D. Selleck, has lived there for nearly three decades.

Hidden Valley properties are not connected to the public water supply, and the Hidden Valley Municipal Water District does not actually provide water. Instead, residents rely on about 100 wells to supply their needs, according to county records.

Some wells dry up during a drought, forcing residents to look elsewhere, Bergh said. Another Hidden Valley resident also received a cease-and-desist letter and apologized to Calleguas, Bergh said.

In 2009, when the state was mired in its final year of a previous drought, Selleck and about five others gained permission to fill up trucks from a water hydrant in nearby Lake Sherwood, said Reddy Pakala, then the director of water and sanitation for the Ventura County Public Works Agency.

That special agreement lasted a few months. Pakala said it was canceled after he learned about a law that bans transferring potable water outside a district’s boundaries.

To those living near the Thousand Oaks fire hydrant named in the complaint against Selleck, the site of a truck filling up with water was common.

“It’s always the same guy and truck,” said Rick Kaiser, who lives down the street from the hydrant.

Anna Guzman, who has a clear view of the hydrant from her front yard, said a truck typically arrived about 6 a.m. Her daughter, Alejandra Yela, who lives with her mom, wondered why officials didn’t step in sooner if water was being drawn surreptitiously.

“We’re in a drought,” Yela said, “and everyone’s trying to save water.”

(c)2015 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

To Encourage Californians To Conserve, A Tweak In Wording Can Help

To Encourage Californians To Conserve, A Tweak In Wording Can Help

By Chris Megerian, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Fighting California’s drought is a bit like running a political campaign, complete with carefully calibrated messages crafted with polling data.
Even details like colors are used for maximum effect.

Officials at the state’s Save Our Water conservation program recently tweaked their “brown is the new green” message, advising instead that residents let their lawns “fade to gold.”

The shift was the result of polling funded by the Association of California Water Agencies, which surveyed 800 voters over three days last month.

A variety of phrases were tested to see which ones were most appealing. “Brown is the new green” received the most negative response.

Voters best liked “Stay Golden, California,” a slogan used to encourage energy efficiency. Other favored phrases included “Let it go” (not related to the song from the hit Disney movie “Frozen”) and “Turn it off.”

“We felt like it was a good switch,” said Brendan Wonnacott, program manager for Save Our Water. After all, he said, “California is the Golden State.”

New signs that residents can print and display on their lawns are scheduled to be available on the campaign’s website next week.

There are hints that the conservation message is sinking in as the drought continues for a fourth year — including the fact that water use in urban areas fell 29 percent in May, officials announced this week. Gov. Jerry Brown had set a reduction target of 25 percent.

A bigger challenge will be cutting back water use throughout the dry summer. New numbers for June, the first month since mandatory restrictions took effect, are not yet available.

The poll also asked voters whom they would most likely listen to on the subject of conservation. Gov. Brown was rated lowest, at 61 percent, while firefighters led the pack at 84 percent.

Save Our Water has already started highlighting firefighting in its advertising.

A recent post by the program on Twitter said, “Every water drop saved is an extra drop to help fight dangerous fires.”

An attached picture juxtaposed a leaky faucet and a blazing wildfire.

The poll was conducted over the phone by Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates, and had a margin of error of plus or minus 5.8 percent.

(c)2015 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Photo: Ian Abbott via Flickr