In 1934, Harold Ickes, the US Secretary of the Interior issued a proclamation few are aware of today:  halting the construction of the Parker Dam.  Why would he do a thing like that?

He had little choice after the Governor of Arizona declared a de facto war on California and mobilized the National Guard to halt construction of the dam intended to divert Colorado River water towards Southern California.

This is my review of Tio Rodrigo Churro Stout:

While stories about an Arizona governor mobilizing the guard to achieve political aims is nothing new around here, this time around its more than just a cute story because the fight continues to this day. Since joining the Arizona LP, this is one of those issues that come up because quite frankly Arizona is a desert and that fact is a lot more apparent to residents than other states in the west.  The other issue is how often LP candidates get tied up when speaking to the press, who tend to highlight the fact the LP has nothing for the “free sh—” crowd American politics is often pandering to.  The other reason is in conversations with others throughout the state, a potential untapped source of recruits to the LP can be brought on board should any party take a coherent position on the issue.  Both major parties play lip service to this issue and maintain the status quo out of convenience and here is an opportunity for the LP to appeal to voters by taking a radical position.

This will be a two part feature, the first outlining the problem and next week attempting to come up with a solution.  This is intended as a policy proposal of sorts for an insurgent movement within the LP in an effort to build more grassroots support.  Having an answer or at least an understanding of to the issue is certainly better than looking confused, and asking “what’s Aleppo?” on national television.

What is the issue?

The Colorado River is the main source of water for nearly 40 million Americans in seven states in the mountain west.  It is divided into the Upper Basin (CO, WY, UT, NM) and the Lower Basin (CA, AZ, NV).  The Colorado River Compact was signed in 1922 by the aforementioned states and is regarded as  the “Law of the River” that appropriates 7.5 million acre feet of water per year…until the end of time, apparently.

Unfortunately for those that live in those seven states, particularly in the Lower Basin, the amount of water stored in existing infrastructure is becoming alarmingly low.  With the increase in population migrations to these arid states, the dependency on this limited infrastructure will only be exasperated.

This is all climate change, right?

Not really.

Seriously? This has to be happening because of climate change.

Nope. Just ask the far right, chronic science denying outfit, Mother Jones, who reported in 2014 on NOAA studies suggesting the most recent drought in California was not caused by man made climate change:

But according to new research by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, California’s drought was primarily produced by a lack of precipitation driven by natural atmospheric cycles that are unrelated to man-made climate change. In other words, climate change may have worsened the impacts of the drought, but it isn’t the underlying cause.

…although assuming the climate data models are in any way correct, it probably doesn’t help.  The west is dominated by a desert climate, and this is not a new development that occurred due to industrialization.   This problem was caused primarily by government mismanagement of natural resources.

This shouldn’t be surprising for anyone with access to a history book.  The best example is the Aral Sea in the former Soviet Union.  There the region around what was then the world’s fourth largest freshwater lake was viewed as an ideal location to grow cotton.  So irrigation canals were built along the the two rivers feeding the lake.  Naturally, with no water going into the lake, it eventually dried up and is now 10% of its former volume.  Not to mention the environmental impact to the region.

Delusions of American Exceptionalism cannot overcome F.A. Hayek’s knowledge problem, and thus our government is no less capable of erring on a catastrophic scale.  When the Colorado River Compact was signed by those seven states in 1922 they overlooked one very big detail:  the total water to allocate was significantly less than they anticipated.

This is all California’s fault?

Californians moving in? We have a solution!

Its more complicated.  Going back to the the 1934 Parker Dam Water War, California noticed the population in the southern half of the state was growing at a rate beyond existing resources within the state, and sought to build the dam and an an aqueduct towards the population centers in Southern California.  Arizona mobilized the guard because the perception then was California was simply taking a bigger share of the Colorado River than they previously agreed.  The hostilities ended in short time after a few embarrassing incidents…for Arizona, and eventually the Parker Dam was built with aqueducts going both east and west.  Gov. Moeur was vindicated to a degree in the ensuing decades:

The Central Arizona Project, the longest and most expensive aqueduct in U.S. history, originated at the Parker Dam and transported water southeastward. Congress approved the project in 1968 and it was finally completed in 1993. California protested the endeavor, however, since it depended on consuming the surplus left over by the unused allotments of other states. As late as 1997, the Colorado River still provided more than 60 percent of the water consumed in Southern California, constituting 20 percent more than the state’s allotment.

However…

Compounding the issue was the problem that the 1922 compact was based on erroneously high estimates of river flow. Thus, states were promised between 15 and 25 percent more than the true long-term average flow, later deduced from tree-ring studies and other geologic proxies.

Simply put, laying this problem at the feet of Californians is as productive as insisting this can be fixed by forcing the entire world to drive electric cars.  The truth is even if they are using more than half of the available resources, they are not the only ones in the Lower Basin is using more than what is available.

? ?  ? White Girl Beer Alert ? ?  ?White Girl Beer Alert

A churro, for those who are unaware, is a deep fried Mexican pastry covered in cinnamon and sugar.  Often served with melted chocolate or a white icing for dipping.  This pastry is unbelievably sweet and is downright dangerous for Sugarfree to be around.  Same as this beer. Its a 7.5% abv “pastry stout” that goes heavy on the cinnamon and vanilla.  If not for the alcohol it would be sold at Starbucks. Tio Rodrigo Churro Stout: 2.4/5

About The Author

mexican sharpshooter

mexican sharpshooter

WARNING: Glibertarians.com contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. https://youtu.be/qiAyX9q4GIQ?t=2m22s

131 Comments

  1. l0b0t

    I would absolutely love a churro stout. There is a wee old lady who pushes a churro cart by my kid’s school at dismissal time; I can’t say no to a churro.

  2. The Late P Brooks

    Ewwww.

  3. The Late P Brooks

    Call it zero sum thinking, if you like, but adding consumers without increasing supply accordingly is pretty much guaranteed to cause problems.

    • juris imprudent

      It’s worse than that. Federal law grants agriculture preference (subsidized price) and so the morons use that to grow cotton and alfalfa. Of course they like to throw out the “we grow food” bullshit to cover up the cash crop reality. If they had to pay a market rate for water, they’d use it more wisely.

      • mexican sharpshooter

        I’m covering that next week.

      • Galt1138

        Looking forward to this. In principle, water isn’t any different than any other scare resource, and the price mechanism of an actual free market would solve this problem.
        If market costs for certain parties in CA had to pay higher rates, they may allocate resources differently, or innovate to deal with scarce resources.

        I take particular interest in this topic living just northwest of Los Angeles (at least until my wife retires and we can move out of this admittedly beautiful but run by a group of god forsaken idiots state).

    • Zwak,The Baddest Johnny on the Apple Cart

      Yeah, and the primary on the blame list is Jerry Brown. During his first term, he put a stop to a lot of public works projects in CA, from freeway expansion to reservoir building. He also tried to lower the working temps in state owned office buildings in winter, and that turned out to be a boondoggle. He had all the thermostats reset to 68*, and the very next day every state worker in brought in a space heater. Blew fuses, drew more energy than before, etc. Dude was an idiot.

  4. Yusef rides a Bike

    Churro flavored Stout? What Devilry is this?
    Great write up on the water wars MS!

  5. Scruffy Nerfherder

    *barf*

    • TARDis

      Commenting on the governmental ineptitude and malfeasance, or the “beer”?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The former only makes me want to drink, the latter is making me too nauseous to do so.

      • Chafed

        Win-win.

      • Zwak,The Baddest Johnny on the Apple Cart

        Welcome to CA, here is your complimentary pumpkin spice latte.

  6. kinnath

    I moved to Arizona in 85 and left in 92. CAP was constantly in the news while I was there.

  7. Hank

    Just get the water out of the tap like everyone else.

  8. Q Continuum

    Churros are delicious, but I wouldn’t want it in a beer.

    Ecofascists would never let it happen, of course, but Kalifornia could solve their issues with nuclear powered desalination. More people live in LA county than in all of Arizona and it happens to sit next to the largest body of water in the world. But you’d have to use nuclear power and risk maybe sucking a few fish into an intake pipe, thus angering a vengeful Gaia and making the logical solution untenable.

    • one true athena

      The big problem with desalination plants is — the coast line. There was movement to try to build them ~ 30 years ago but (then, I don’t know about now) they’d have to be built on the coast and NIMBYism is a nuclear force for people with beach houses. Not happening until and unless their water actually gets cut off. There was more recently a plan for desalination in TJ, supported by the Saudis or one of the Emirates who have the most modern facilities IIRC, but I don’t know if that actually went anywhere.

      • Chafed

        San Diego County managed to get one deal plant up and running. It took a titanic struggle to get it approved.

      • Zwak,The Baddest Johnny on the Apple Cart

        There are enough good spots that wouldn’t be affected by beach house NMBY’s. Diablo Canyon is one example, in Norcal the back bay, on the north side, would be good, LA harbor could work, and so on. But, the overall NIMBY’s of CA would doom it.

        Seriously, if you mention nuclear to them, all they can think of is Hiroshima. Bunch of ignorant, provincial dweebs.

  9. Dr. Fronkensteen

    Pipelines from the Great Lakes. Never mind the Rockies. You heard it here first.

  10. Dr. Fronkensteen

    My town has a green energy program. They made it so you had to opt out. I being a black hearted libertarian did so but I wonder how many people are in the program because they didn’t notice or bother opting out.

  11. The Late P Brooks

    Well blow me down

    Wind power was the No. 2 source for power generation in the U.S. for the first time ever on March 29, surpassing coal and nuclear power, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Thursday.

    Wind turbines in the continental U.S. produced 2,017 gigawatthours of electricity on the 29th, according to data from the EIA. While there have been days in the past when wind generation separately outpaced coal and nuclear generation, the 29th marked the first day that it surpassed both power sources.

    Natural gas remained the top source of power generation on March 29, comprising 31 percent of power generation, followed by wind, nuclear and coal. The milestone comes a little more than two years after nationwide wind capacity outstripped nuclear capacity in September 2019. This did not immediately result in higher wind power output than nuclear, because wind generators are designed to run at lower capacity than nuclear generators.

    We’re saved.

    • db

      That’s great; now show me the wind output one week prior to and one week after that date.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      2017 giga watts. Great what was the net energy usage after building all of those turbines. You know we can get fusion power at a net loss too.

      • mexican sharpshooter

        You can’t even power Doc Brown’s DeLorean with that amount of juice.

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        It only requires 1.21 gigawatts to power the DeLorean

      • db

        Due to bad editing, it’s questionable whether Doc said “one point twenty-one” or “twelve point twenty-one.”

      • mexican sharpshooter

        I thought he said 1.21 million gigawats? Now I need to rewatch it.

      • Not Adahn

        He said “jiggawatts,” not gigawatts.

      • UnCivilServant

        There’s a reason he had so much trouble making it work. He never did figure out the units.

      • rhywun

        Jigga, please.

      • mexican sharpshooter

        He said “jiggawatts,” not gigawatts.

        Is this a gif vs. jif thing? Leave me the hell out of it.

      • rhywun

        Is this a gif vs. jif thing?

        Ugh Geico has a commercial with some ass arrogantly telling his pal that “jif” is incorrect.

        Wrong. Just ask the creator of the thing.

      • Galt1138

        “Wrong. Just ask the creator of the thing”

        He’s wrong. I don’t care how he thinks it should be pronounced. The ‘g’ stands for graphic, and it should be pronounced as such.

      • db

        I used to work at a coal fired power plant that had three units, each capable of about 850 net MW. In 24 hours at base load we would produce 61,200MWh (61.2 GWh). So all that wind generation produced only as much as about 33 equivalents of my plant. And we could do that day in, day out, for months at a time between forced outages.

        Now consider that our entire plant was built on a 400 acre site (and took up only about two thirds of it), compared with the millions of acres dedicated to wind generation in the US.

      • TARDis

        Yeah, but how many birds feathered CO₂ emitters did you kill in day?

      • Tres Cool

        I love me a steam plant. Ive been to Paradise.

  12. Fourscore

    So, too many people for too few resources. Easy fix and Newsom is on top of it. Make SF and LA unlivable and keep raising taxes and it will drive people to move to places where resources are available. See, Hollywood can work out of TN or TX or SC where water’s available.

    The Mississippi River could easily be damned, flood IL and AR and any other place necessary and would still have water leftover.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      Outdoor toilets/ sidewalks don’t use water either. I owe the California politicians an apology. I thought they were incompetent. They’re just playing the long game.

    • mexican sharpshooter

      A decent enough solution except they keep moving to AZ.

      • Zwak,The Baddest Johnny on the Apple Cart

        Or Oregon.

      • Chafed

        I might come to resemble that remark.

  13. The Late P Brooks

    The milestone comes as the Biden administration has made increased wind power installations a central part of its agenda to reduce U.S. carbon emissions by half by the end of the decade. The Interior Department has signed off on a number of offshore wind projects, including most recently the first wind power lease off the Carolinas in late March. The Biden administration has set a goal of leasing 30 gigawatts’ worth of offshore wind power.

    If only we could generate electricity using good intentions.

    • R.J.

      In hurricane country? That will end well.

    • hayeksplosives

      THERE IS NOTHING FUCKING WRONG WITH. CARBON! IT IS NOT POISON. CO2 IS NOT A POLLUTANT!!

      Fuck, people are stubbornly ignorant.

      • TARDis

        You mean it’s got what plants crave??? Heresy!

      • rhywun

        Look at this science-denier up here. SMDH.

    • Zwak,The Baddest Johnny on the Apple Cart

      Unicorn farts are a good propellant I hear.

  14. hayeksplosives

    The town of Pahrump NV, my new home, is derived from Native American word for “water rock” because of the abundant Artesian wells here.

    Sadly, fucking “greenies” have grifted themselves a contract with the Bureau of Land Management to install thousands of acres of solar panels directly adjacent to the town. The panels and power conversions need cooling water, which they plan to pump right out of the Artesian wells we live on!! The solar company is foreign owned, and the electricity is going to be sent to California.

    It’s so obviously an ecological disaster for this area (breaking the desert “crust” is hugely harmful and will almost certainly kill hundreds of endangered desert tortoises) but greenies get to virtue signal and not suffer or even see the consequences.

    I’m thinking of getting one of those huge clay pots to collect rainwater.

    Road Warrior is going to be about water, not gasoline.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      I’ve been reading and listening to the permaculture farmers as of late, and it amazes me how much water one can retain using trees and leaf litter and the like. Doesn’t work as well in the middle of the desert, though. I put a few inches of crushed up leaf litter on top of all my container raspberry plants, and the only difference between the ones getting daily water and the ones getting sporadic water is how deep in the leaf mulch I have to go before it is damp. Water retention, whether by natural means or by using giant pots, should be designed into every property in an area where “drought” is ever uttered.

    • l0b0t

      Is this the project connected to Harry Reid? The one that exchanged land of endangered turtles with FedGov lands upon which the Bundy folk had been grazing their cattle?

    • mexican sharpshooter

      Careful, in some states it’s illegal to collect rainwater.

      I’m serious. HOA might rat you out.

      • Yusef rides a Bike

        It belongs to the GOV! They are really shitty about it here, in a swamp, surounded by lakes.

      • TARDis

        Checks laws for GA. 75 pages of bureaucratic BS.

        *SMDH*

        And yeah the D-bag on my HOA board would rat me out in second.

      • rhywun

        Seriously? I’ve never heard of such a thing.

        But I’ve mostly lived in areas with enormous amounts of rain.

      • Hyperion

        I don’t care, I’m putting a rain barrel on my deck, they can fuck off.

      • TARDis

        I like that here it’s for outdoor use only. What, am I going to do, run a line to all my toilets?

        “Son, I’m off to take a dump. Go fill this pitcher with flush water for me.”

      • Hyperion

        One thing there is not a lack of here in spring-fall is rain, I’m talking monsoons. That’s why I’m going to use that stuff to fill my hyroponic reservoirs, a lot cheaper than bottled spring water.

      • TARDis

        I don’t think we’ve had a dry summer in over a decade. The only I watered was with new sod. And it’s the same here. When it rains, it pours.

      • TARDis

        That might work for us, but it’s too heavy for the deck I think.

      • Hyperion

        Thanks, but regardless, they can fuck off. Let them enforce that, lol.

      • Tulip

        Yep. Colorado is one.

  15. The Late P Brooks

    Sadly, fucking “greenies” have grifted themselves a contract with the Bureau of Land Management to install thousands of acres of solar panels directly adjacent to the town.

    “Caution: Grown-ups at Work.”

  16. Tundra

    Fascinating topic. Thanks, MS!

    I’m told that many, many people have been murdered here over water rights. Deserts are a challenge.

    I think I’ll pass on that beer and just have a churro with a normal beer!

    • Hyperion

      Deserts wouldn’t be as much of a challenge without governments. Look at Israel for instance. Governments could make the Sahara run out of sand.

  17. Hyperion

    HIPSTER JUICE!!! I FEEL BETTER!

      • Hyperion

        Even better, pour tons of hops into the batch and call the bitter swill IPA.

  18. Hyperion

    Boa tarde Glibs, wokesters, willers of hipster juice, and Neo-Postciv-Stoics.

    • MikeS

      Guten tag. I am about to head to the beer store. Maybe I will get some hipster juice.

      • Hyperion

        Hmm, that sounds like a plan, time to get on the Drizly…

    • Chafed

      For some reason I read that as Slavic Chicks.

  19. Hyperion

    I thought that Cali were doing a fine job themelves of depriving themselves of fresh water. I don’t think AZ can do any better on that front. So my advice to AZ is invade CA and ensure gnashing of teeth, pouring of ashes on hipster heads, rending of garmetns, and lamentation of the wiminz folk. Then build a giant wall around CA so they can’t get back on this side of the fence. We all thank you in advance.

    • mexican sharpshooter

      I swear, the solution to this problem is always “just nuke CA”.

  20. Tres Cool

    So whichever of you lot posted the recipe for the “low-carb” jambalaya- I just made it. Jugsy, forever being my test subject, only said “more please”.

    I did add some sliced okra winfrey as a thickener. If I do it again I feel that bacon grease needs to be a fundamental ingredient.

    • Animal

      Bacon grease is always a fundamental ingredient.

      • Tres Cool

        “cajun” cookin’ after all

    • l0b0t

      Filé, powdered sassafras, is the other thickener often used in Cajun/Creole cooking. Okra was brought over by the Africans, the sassafras comes from the local Indians. A true American melting pot dish.

      • Tundra

        My poor wife is deathly allergic to seafood. Otherwise we’d have a pot of that going right now.

      • l0b0t

        Maybe try it with chicken and sausage?

    • one true athena

      When was this? I missed it. 🙁

    • Hank

      I’d say it’s like the Onion when the Onion was funny, but I’m not sure my memory stretches back that far.

      • Tundra

        I loved the Onion in their early days. The Bee is superior in every way.

        And I’m positive one of their staff hangs out here. Too many coincidences.

      • robc

        Smells Like Splattered Brains remains my favorite onion headline.

    • Hyperion

      Lol, that Elon Hitler is everywhere!

    • Galt1138

      Taxing that second one to share on FB for Easter. Thanks!

  21. Hyperion

    Damn, my local store ran out of the margarita mix pack of Truly. I had to buy some Claw juice.

    • Hyperion

      7 minutes and 3 seconds after placing that order, hipster juice at door. I’m starting to like the intertoobz again…

  22. robc

    My watershed series might eventually suggest a solution to the AZ problem. Or not.

    • Tundra

      Don’t build in the desert?

  23. Old Man With Candy

    These churros are making me thirsty.

  24. Tres Cool

    WRT the article: gimme some water

    *Best Eddie song ever. Change my mind.

    • Tundra

      No argument. My first concert was Eddie Money opening for April Wine. Amazing show.

      • Tres Cool

        Mine was here in 1985. AC/DC with Yngwie Malmsteen as the opener. Their “Fly On The Wall” tour.

      • hayeksplosives

        Yngwie’s Icarus DreamSuite is a masterpiece.

        When I was a wee college lass in Stockholm, Yngwie had a an autograph signing scheduled at a major department site downtown. He apparently left in a huff because there was nobody in line for his autograph when they opened!! Problem was that the publicists totally failed to get the word out. Otherwise I would have been there with bells on and gotten autographed CDs for my brother, myself, my friends, etc.

        And back then, he mighta even given me the time of day.

      • Hyperion

        Yngwie doesn’t count in music, he has white priviledge, only reason he’s that good. His guitar riffs just dripping with Nazi like racism.

      • Zwak,The Baddest Johnny on the Apple Cart

        Huey Lewis and the News, ’83 at the county fair. I was 12 and went with my mom. Awesome show.

    • Hyperion

      And yet, outside of small circles of groups of people who can actually think for themselves, like here on Glibs, very few will ever even know about this. Thinking is hard, doing your own research is even harder, that might take minutes per week out of their valuable time spent watching mindless tv shows. They don’t need to think, they have MSNBC and CNN to tell them everything they need to know.

      • Tres Cool

        “they have MSNBC and CNN to tell them everything they need to know.”

        By design.

    • rhywun

      One of the many things I don’t understand about all of this – perhaps the main thing – is WTF does the US supposedly gain from all these machinations?

      • Sean

        Single Ukrainian wimmenz?

      • Zwak,The Baddest Johnny on the Apple Cart

        Yeah, I used to have a Ukrainian girl work for me. Miraslava.

        Insane in the Ukraine.

      • Hyperion

        If by US, you meant US citizens, nothing, in fact we lose.

        But Biden and his cronies gain billions.

      • TARDis

        This. It’s flat out treason. The swamp sold us out to the global fascists long ago. As someone has said, the the length and breadth and depth of the American government is a criminal operation.

      • rhywun

        we lose

        Yeah, it’s why I added ‘supposedly’. As in, what are Biden and friends even pretending is the benefit to us chumps? I’m not seeing anything much other than Putin Man Bad.

      • Hyperion

        Look, they are saving us from Iran potentially developing a nuclear weapon, and potentially somehow developing the rocket technology to deliver that nuclear weapon to the US, while at the same time trying to provoke a country with enough nuclear weapons to destroy the entire population of the earth just sitting there ready to go, into a full on WW3.

        Does that make any sense to anyone with a functioning brain? My hatred of these bastards is already hotter than 1000 blue giant suns.

      • rhywun

        they are saving us from Iran potentially developing a nuclear weapon

        It amazes me that anyone actually believes that. I assume nobody in the Deep State believes it, but there must be millions of ordinary citizens they have conned into believing it.

      • Yusef rides a Bike

        ^ This

  25. Tres Cool

    Im going to bed. Some of us have to WORK ALL NIGHT!

    /looks for Rufus

    • Hyperion

      Have good dreams of sex, drugs, drink, and rock and roll, the way God intended it to be!

    • Yusef rides a Bike

      Not til Monday Sucker!
      /4 tens

  26. Hyperion

    Is this the dead thread now? I can’t find the live one…

    • rhywun

      Nope nope nope nope. Co-worker tried to get me to do that. NFW.

  27. Hyperion

    But finally some good news.

    In Fusion News

    Finally after decades of fusion being 25 years away, we’ve made so much progress that now it’s only 30 years away.

  28. Hyperion

    Aetheism is not rational

    Just a one up on the author’s thoughts. I’ve always felt that aetheism is just another religion. Most of them I talk to are just contrarians to religous people who somehow know there is a god, because they talk to him all of the time, or something. Why I am agnostic, I’m not religous. I cannot say there is a god, because I never saw him and he never talks to me, maybe because he doesn’t approve of my posts on Glibs, or he doesn’t like LED lights. I cannot say there is not a god because there is no way for me to know that even though I am the smartest person who ever lived, I’m still, admittedly, not smart enough to know such unkowable things.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    I’m not seeing anything much other than Putin Man Bad.

    There is an alarming lack of negotiation or even desired end point. It’s all punitive actions aimed at Bad Putin Man.

    • TARDis

      He was a convenient foil, but now it is time to get real. OMB didn’t plan properly because of his ego. Maybe Putin did. I say Putin gets assassinated, but I hope I’m wrong because of the consequences. Fuck Zelensky and all of his NAZI supporters.