'We the People, in order to form a more perfect water district ...'
Depressed? Look at the bright side: Oust MWD's plutocrats, reform state government & overthrow The Fascist Beast. Here's why and how. Part 1
Most of us understand that human-induced climate catastrophe is an urgent and escalating issue of life, which I favor, versus death. It demands an immediate and collective response to minimize humanity’s self-inflicted evolutionary collapse and ensure a life worth living for future generations.
The ability of Southern Californians to minimize and adapt to climate catastrophe depends on four key factors: the President of the United States and Congress, the Governor of California and the State Legislature, the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) and its General Manager, and the member agencies, like the Municipal Water District of Orange County and the San Diego County Water Authority.
Currently, as diligent news watchers know, the climate future for SoCal residents looks bleak on all fronts. Here’s why:
The new president, Donald Trump, withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement, the deal that bound all but three nations of the world—Iran, Libya and Yemen—in an effort, however lacking, to “fight climate change.” In another first day executive order he directed United States Department of Agriculture and the Forest Service to “identify and archive or unpublish any landing pages focused on climate change” from their websites.
California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom badly wants us to believe that he’s a progressive, and a true environmentalist, and that he is our national leader in the fight against MAGA overreach. But he’s also perceived as a limousine liberal and is compromised by the state’s Big Agriculture industry and other corporate campaign backers.
When MWD hired Adel Hagekhalil as general manager in 2021, it marked the first time in its history that it seriously valued inclusion in the workplace and sustainable water management policies designed for an era of climate catastrophe. However, internal factional backlash and a power struggle led to Hagekhalil's unethical dismissal last January, despite an outside investigation that cleared him of any wrongdoing. Now, it appears MWD will revert to its previous policy of relative complacency over climate catastrophe.
In fact, the situation may be worse than we think. After all, Trump has other things on his mind besides helping California, whose wokeness and environmentalism he and his devout followers loathe and blame for the LA fires.
During his first term in office Trump successfully rolled back over 100 environmental rules, according to a survey by the NY Times published in 2021. This left a “truly unprecedented legacy” that included significantly increasing greenhouse gas emissions, which a study by the New York School of Law in 2019 estimated would lead to “thousands of extra deaths from poor air quality each year.”
This time, Trump’s fascist beast within is more fully unleashed. His lawlessness is better planned than ever and fully backed by a Supreme Court the tilts his way on Constitutional law and recently ruled that presidents have almost complete immunity for criminal behavior conducted while holding office. Plus, he owns a majority share of both houses of Congress.
It’s not hard to figure out which MWD faction, new or old guard, his administration will favor, indirectly or directly, through his incendiary politics and by controlling funding. The effects could be significant.
We’re so depressed. WTF can we do?
But what can we do? Before we delve into the severity of the challenges facing Southern California, let’s inoculate ourselves against cynicism by looking back at the most inspiring moment in our nation’s history: the American Revolution.
Starting with the “shot heard round the world” in 1775, America’s founding revolutionaries fought for independence from Great Britain, officially declared on July 4, 1776. They believed in “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” and envisioned a new government based on consent of the governed, liberty, equality, and democratic republicanism. While these ideals weren’t unique in history, their eventual codification—through 27 amendments—into a constitution as the guiding force for a new nation-state was unprecedented.
But the new Constitution came with a caveat. Just after the original version was signed in 1787, Benjamin Franklin reportedly answered a question, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” with, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution, with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a General Government necessary for us, and there is no form of government, but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered; and believe further, that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government. - Benjamin Franklin, Monday, September 17, 1787
How bad is it?
Franklin’s answer from 1787 is more relevant today than ever. Whether we can maintain our democratic republic and remain faithful to the Constitution—from the White House down to local government boardrooms—is key to how we respond to climate catastrophe. Another crucial question is how much we value life itself versus our insatiable greed, selfishness and lust for power. This brings us first to the figures of Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who embody these destructive tendencies better than anybody else in America today.
Der MAGA Führer and his Nazi-saluting co-despot, acting true-to-form, are sacking thousands of highly qualified, ethical, merit-based civil service employees across the federal bureaucracy, replacing them with unqualified but loyal MAGA partisans. They are vowing to persecute resistors as they dismantle, destroy and weaponize vital government agencies not only in paranoiac retribution for opposing Trump in the past but for personal financial gain and to push the nihilist MAGA agenda forward without transparency and unopposed by laws and regulators.
They are aided with obedient praise by the thin MAGA majority in Congress, encouraged by its barely-pulsed opposition Democratic Party leaders, and honored by fellow billionaire media hobbyists come before them on bended knees.