I travel the United States. There's one thing I've noticed.

Eisenhower got the freeway systems built. Now it's freeways to what?

Where's the water to go along with it? It's virtually desert from west Texas to the Calfornia cost.

While here we've been bickering among ourselves about all kinds of divisive issues. Gun control and moral questions.

The Chinese have been building huge projects to move themselves forward.

Lots of our big projects were built during the Depression. 'Make work'. Labor intensive. 'More bang for your construction dollar'.

The other thing the Southwest needs is cheap electricity for AC for one thing. Electric rail to move into the future.

That points to nuclear power and that is stalled by hysterics and 'do nothing' obstructionists.

Anyhow are we going to do something about it or just continue with inaction and indecision?

 

Electricity is an easier problem than water. The southwest and similar places on the planet can become huge solar producers and I think that will win over nukes unless/until the new designs come online.

Water is s whole other challenge. I've lived my whole life within a couple hours of the world's largest fresh water reserves and it wasn't until I flew around the country that I realized how rare that is. Sure we can use energy to desalinate, but moving mass around is a lot harder than moving electrons, and the distances are greater.

Right now we don't need the land badly enough to bring in the utilities it would require to live and farm there. The Israelis do, and they're working on these technologies.

 

'we don't need the land badly enough'

Depends on your view point. I think people need to spread out A WHOLE LOT!

I see it over and over again. Density around the cities and then suburbs.

Increase farm living and small towns and cities.

Give people an option to urban and suburban current system.

 

you start talkin bout water out west and you'll start a fight.

 

Just be glad that California isn't close to the Mississippi. If they were, they would have had a law passed in Congress saying that they owned it and all the water, then they would have dammed it and piped all the water to their backyards. Couldn't happen? That's what they did with the Colorado river. They take so much of its water that the Mexicans on the downside get nothing but a small, brackish trickle from what once flowed there.

 

Give people an option to urban and suburban current system.

You've got that backwards. People have had the option all along and they've voted with their feet. They've chosen to leave the farm and go to the city. That's where the freebies are, among other reasons.

 

To me........expecting water in the southwest....is like expecting living in NO and it not flooding. And when it does.....they want the taxpayer to pay for it. CA wants us to pay for their moonbeam tube. And now they want us to pay to built water storage......which was lobbied not to be built by the greenies. Not even to mention the CA state debt.

see how it works. the taxpayer gets to pay for ALL the scabs.

 

To me........expecting water in the southwest....is like expecting living in NO and it not flooding. And when it does.....they want the taxpayer to pay for it. CA wants us to pay for their moonbeam tube. And now they want us to pay to built water storage......which was lobbied not to be built by the greenies. Not even to mention the CA state debt.

see how it works. the taxpayer gets to pay for ALL the scabs.

I think so far it has been cheaper to move the people to the water than the other way around.
But you guys are being a little hard on California. Phoenix and Tucson get Colorado river water and California is towards the bottom of the list in givers and takers to the Federal coffers.
Solar power is getting bigger in Arizona. Amortized over 20 years it's about 1/3 the cost of fossil fuel electricity.

The California Central Valley, which stretches 450 miles between the Sierra Nevadas and the California Coast Range, might be the single most productive tract of land in the world. From its soil springs 230 varieties of crops so diverse that their places of botanical origin range from Southeast Asia to Mexico. It produces two thirds of the nation’s produce, and, like Atlas with an almond on his back, 80 percent of the world’s almonds. If you’ve eaten anything made with canned tomatoes, there’s a 94 percent chance that they were planted and picked in the Central Valley.

 

California is facing some major issues because certain companies were allowed to grow almonds in a desert. Profitable - yes. Good decision - depends on whether you care about the future...

http://www.water.ca.gov/groundwater/maps_and_reports/index.cfm

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/02/09/central-california-continues-to-sink/

the water situation in California is mind-blowing to me... https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/co...entary-explores-water-and-power-in-california

 

'then they would have dammed it and piped all the water to their backyards'

That's the idea exactly. Plus from wherever else there is too much water.

If the Mississippi was controlled, New Orleans would never flood.

The Southwest includes New Mexico, Arizona and California.

Bringing water to the Southwest desert is a national goal not a single state issue.

 

The money being spent on building a wall at Mexican was spent on water or electricity projects

it would improve the economy.

If the economy is good nobody cares about a wall with Mexico.

The business of America is business. Leave out the social engineering. People can decide for themselves

what to do with their lives.

The economy. The economy. The economy.

 

A project that goes side by side with bringing water is a high speed wide gauge rail line.

The rail system now is tapped out. 20 foot wide gauge track. High speed.

Projects that improve the economy. Get American moving into the future.

New markets in the Southwest.More good paying jobs. Rebuild the middle class.

Sorry. A little social engineering by a booming economy year in and year out.

Replace grimly hanging on with hope for the future. Confidence.

I think that's excusable. I hope so.

 

My as well toss in Nevada, Colorado and Utah.

Then add eastern Washington and Oregon.

Then the states between there and the Great Lakes.

The wide open states. Finish the interstate road system. Add rail and electricity for homes and factories.

Build towns and small cities. People living in suburbs in overpriced homes with fences 36 inches from their window is getting a little ludicrous.

A better life for all. People need more space than they are getting now.

 

A project that goes side by side with bringing water is a high speed wide gauge rail line.

The rail system now is tapped out. 20 foot wide gauge track. High speed.

Projects that improve the economy. Get American moving into the future.

New markets in the Southwest.More good paying jobs. Rebuild the middle class.

Sorry. A little social engineering by a booming economy year in and year out.

Replace grimly hanging on with hope for the future. Confidence.

I think that's excusable. I hope so.

I didn't know that Bernie Sanders (well known Socialist) was a contributer here.

 

If the Mississippi was controlled, New Orleans would never flood.

If the sun didn't shine, the first ice age would still be with us. New Orleans isn't the only town flooded by the Mississippi.

I think the Mississippi River flowed long before new Orleans became a village. Besides the Corp of engineers built the levee in an attempt to prevent the flooding.

What do you expect when you build on a flood plain?

 

If the Mississippi was controlled, New Orleans would never flood.

New Orleans floods because it is below sea-level. The Mississippi could be bone dry and NO would still flood.

 

My as well toss in Nevada, Colorado and Utah.

Then add eastern Washington and Oregon.

Then the states between there and the Great Lakes.

The wide open states. Finish the interstate road system. Add rail and electricity for homes and factories.

Build towns and small cities. People living in suburbs in overpriced homes with fences 36 inches from their window is getting a little ludicrous.

A better life for all. People need more space than they are getting now.

Empty the cities and let them all be farmers. Sounds like the perfect utopia to me.

 

New Orleans floods because it is below sea-level. The Mississippi could be bone dry and NO would still flood.

And building below sea level on the coast is freaking stupid.

 

Empty the cities and let them all be farmers. Sounds like the perfect utopia to me.

It's sad to me that socialist/communist ideals are still possible to sell to the young and naive. They've been proven disastrous over and over throughout history, and yet they persist and even thrive. I guess as long as their are people that will fall for ponzi schemes and all the other myriad frauds out there, there will always be suckers to buy into failed political ideologies.

 

Wayne

What are you saying here?

I talked to a Pilot with Aero Mexico or Mexicana airlines in the 90's.

He was was raised in Mexico City and he had enough.

Even he said 'That's it! I'm getting out of here!'

We talked for awhile.

I felt the same way about the LA sprawl.

I knew all the shortcuts and it was getting too much for even me.

I think the quality of life is in the cities that are still below the 'Hypercrowding' level.

'Too many rats in a cage'.

You can see the effects of overcrowding in sprawling areas.

People are nasty and hostile.

Animal reflex saying 'Stay away from my little bit of territory'.

Relieving these situations is not good?