California’s Post Recall Future Part 1

far right governor lifted all water restrictions on farmers. This sparked a new state wide race to use what water was available before it ran out. Lake Mendesino was already low at the beginning of the year, and for the first time in your memory, it is now completely empty. San Francisco isn't doing great either, but it's much better off than where you live. The Russian River Watershed relies almost entirely on rainfall and is isolated from state and

federal aqueducts. After the governor lifted water restrictions, new almond and pot farms started sucking up ground water, and by the end of the summer, they'd started pumping from the river to feed their thirsty crops. By mid July, your town implemented a twenty five gallon limit per person per day. That's about as much water as you go through during a five minute shower. The first thing you sacrificed was

your garden. Then you stopped flushing after you peid. These tweaks added up, though, and without water, the lifestyle you'd loved just stopped being possible. Your brother in San Francisco offered to let you move in with him. You weren't a fan of the big city, but at least you'd be able to shower again. And so you find yourself sipping an empty soda can and loading up your last few boxes into the U haul. You give your brother a quick call saying you're all packed up and about

to head out. He sounds worried and mentions something about his school letting new teachers go do to budget cuts. You can't really afford to think about that. Now, you just need to leave. Since you're all sweaty from loading the U haul the last few days, you decide to hop into the shower one last time. You knew it wouldn't last long, but you still seemed surprised when the water turned off after what felt like only two minutes.

You quickly dry off and grab some clean clothes from your backpack and throw your damp towel into the passage your seat of the truck. You say goodbye to your home of ten years and to your old succulent plants, and begin the three hour drive down to San Francisco. Water scarcity is a problem you're probably already familiar with,

especially if you live in the Southwest. California has dealt with particularly brutal droughts over the last twenty years, and the Golden States water problems could be about to get much much worse, because in just a few days, California might find itself helmed by a far right governor with

a near religious hatred of water conservation. Electoral politics are not generally a big focus on this show, but what's going on in the state of California could have serious implications for many people, including those outside the West Coast. The ongoing recall campaign against Governor Gavin Newsom started out in June of with Republican politicians and activists unhappy with Newsom's handling of the pandemic. Newsom's opposition to President Trump's

cracked down on undocumented immigrants also played a role. This is actually the fifth recall attempt against Newsom since he took office in twenty nineteen, but it's the first one to gain traction. It's fueled in part by Newsom's own

hypocrisy and hubris. On November six the recall effort gained court approval for a signature gathering extension, and later that night, Governor Newsom went to a birthday party for a Sacramento lobbyist and friend at French Laundry, a pricing Napa Valley restaurant. Soon after, photo surfaced of Newsom mingling maskless at the packed restaurant. He faced heavy criticism and apologized, but the damage was done. Republicans latched onto this as an opportunity

to finally push the recall effort through. The recall petition, which had only fifty five thousand and five signatures on the day of the dinner, had nearly half a million a month after the November sixth incident. California's recall process is probably the least democratic one in the United States. Gathering signatures to authorize a recall election is a pretty standard thing, but California has among the lowest signature requirements and states that allow for the recall of an official.

Most states require that the recall campaign must gather signatures equal to twenty five percent of the votes cast in the last election. California requires just twelve percent for executive officials. The li Times notes quote that might have been a high bar in nineteen eleven, when the population was scattered across the seven hundred and seventy mile length of the state, But is it too low in twenty one when petitions for ballot measures are gathered and moss by paid staff

and parking lots. And that's not the only questionable aspect of California's recall process. On recall election day, voters will face two questions on the ballot. First, yes or no on whether to recall Governor Gavin Newsom from office. Second, and this one is technically optional, If so, who among the forty six candidates do you want to take his place? The first question is decided by a simple majority, just like other ballot measures, but when it comes to the

second question, the percentage requirements change. The replacement candidate doesn't need more than fifty percent to win, So if more than fifty percent of the voters say yes on the recall question, Governor knew Some must step down, even if he has more overall support than any other individual challenger on the ballot. The replacement question is determined by who gets the most votes among the challengers on the ballot,

which Newsom cannot be on. So forty nine point nine percent of the voters can back Mr Newsom and he can still lose to someone who is supported by only say of the electorate or even a smaller fraction. For other California elections, including special elections triggered by the death or resignation of an official, a candidate cannot win without the support of a majority of voters. If a candidate doesn't win over fifty outright, then the top to compete

in a runoff election. Not the case for California's recall process. Organizers of the recall campaign submitted two point one million signatures by the March seventeenth filing deadline. One million, seven hundred nineteen thousand, nine hundred signatures were ultimately determined to have been valid, which was enough to trigger the recall.

The deadline for casting your vote is September. If the recall succeeds, the new governor would be in office for the remainder of Mr. Newsom term through January, and that leaves a lot of time for executive factory, especially considering the new front runner. Far right radio talk show host and frequent Fox guest Larry Elder, has emerged as the likely candidate to replace Newsom in the event the recall goes through. Elder, who was sixty nine, jumped into the

race relatively late in the game during mid July. At that time, it was more of a toss up between Republican candidates Kevin Falconer, a former San Diego mayor, and businessman John Cox, who lost badly to Newsom in the gubernatorial election. Assemblyman Kevin Kylie and former athlete in media

personality Caton Jenner pulled less well. But as Larry Elder entered the race, he almost immediately became the front runner in polls and raised lots of money from small donors, and the three weeks after he announced his campaign raised nearly four and a half million dollars according to fundraising disclosures. That's more than every other Republican challenger sans multimillionaire businessman

John Cox, who's largely funding his own campaign. Elder has been a central figurehead of the right wing radio talk show scene since the nineties, but has always been hesitant to run for public office, deeming the state of California ungovernable due to its liberal supermajority, But after talking with his friend and mentor Dennis Praeger of the neo fascist propaganda outlet Praeger You, he figured it might be worth a shot, and has expressed desire to use the emergency

powers of the governor to push the state right words. Elder was born in Los Angeles, but moved to Cleveland to attend law school and opened his own firm in nineteen eighty. Elder's career began as a bit of an accident. He'd been invited on a Cleveland station as a guest. He did so well on air that when the regular host went on vacation the following week, the program director asked Elder to fill in. Soon enough, Elder had his

own weekly time slot on the Cleveland station. In the early nineties, a guest most from Los Angeles, Dennis Prager, visited Cleveland. Elder quickly impressed Praeger with his on air wit and talent, coupled with the uniqueness of a black man openly expressing extreme conservative views. Praeger persuaded his home station KBC in Los Angeles to give Elder a shot.

Quoting the l a Times, Elder returned to his hometown in nineteen ninety four, two years after the civil unrest, following the acquittal of the officers who beat Rodney King, and in the midst of the O. J. Simpson murder case. The program director at rival k f I, David G. Hall, felt KBC made a creative move bringing on this guy from South Central who swung the other way on race. Almost from the beginning, the self proclaimed sage from South

Central whipped up a fewer. He mixed sound bites from Representative Maxine Waters with a recording of a barking dog. He said, Blacks exaggerate the significance of racism, while women did the same in regards to sexism. For nearly four years, Elder has slapped many members of his own race in the face on radio, belittling them as whiners or losers, holding himself up as a model of African American excellence.

He's become a darling of white listeners, who seemed to almost gush when they telephone him on k ABC Talk radio. They are astonished to find a black man who not only isn't going to chastise them, but who also often agreed with them, a black man who declared that race was no longer a significant factor in American society. Elder

also doesn't believe that racial profiling exists. This is despite telling The Times editorial Board that police pulled him over between seventy five and a hundred times the first year he had his driver's license. Elder's regressive, provocative content angered mine Angelinos and black citizens of California led a boycott of advertisers on the show. It worked, and by the late nineties the show had begun losing millions in ad revenue.

But thanks to syndication, changing networks, podcasts, and TV appearances, Elder has been able to remain a central figure of the right wing content sphere. He most recently starred in a video series for far right propaganda organization and literal cult, The Epoch Times. According to Elder's campaign, the central recall issues, he is focusing on our rampant crime rising homelessness, out of control costs of living, water shortages, disastrous wildfires, rolling

brown outs, and repressive COVID restrictions. For this show, we'll be focusing on the last three as they relate to the rapidly shifting and hostile climate. For the past thirty years, Elder has been a classic conservative climate denier. He had a whole section of his website devoted to debunking the Gore bull warming myth like Al Gore bullshit warming myth. Yeah,

it's a bad pun. In a CNN interview prior to the two thousand eight election, Elder called global warming a false myth, while disparaging and making fun of both John McCain and George W. Bush for discussing global warming is a serious issue. However, more recently, Elder has shifted his rhetoric around the climate. In an interview last month, he expressed belief that some warming is taking place, but by using old soft denialist talking points climate is always changing.

Of course, the climate is changing. The question is what do we do about it? Do we deal with the effects of it, or do we force feed renewables based economy down the throats of people jacking up the price of energy a disproportionate pain for poor people. But of course there's climate change, and the climate is getting warmer, and maybe about a degree or so in the last several years, and it will likely continue. He adds, what

I don't believe in is climate change alarmism. He also said that he was not sure whether climate change is making wildfires worse. Quote fires have gotten worse because the failure of this governor to engage in sensible fire suppression. Elder also blames California's rising housing costs on environmental extremists that jack up the cost of housing so that developers have to wait and wait and get sued over and over.

Agains that finally, when the home is built, it's way more expensive than otherwise it would be without these environmental rules and regulations. Despite the slight back pedaling on climate for better media optics, his potential policies on the topic

are just as horrendous as one might assume. In a recent video news conference, Elder declared that he would in the war on oil and gas and the attack on the logging industry, will also reducing regulation on fracking and stopping California's growing efforts to expand when in solar power, which he calls not very efficient. Elder did not men and climate change during his news conference. Water scarcity will be an increasingly severe concern for California in the coming years.

Drought is already a major political talking point among voters and politicians, and it creates another rift between city folk and rural farmers. Farmers are having a harder time growing crops and feel threatened by water rationing. They're frustrated by the thought that the Democrats running cities will always prioritize pumping extra water into population dense areas. Meanwhile, people in cities are concerned they will be forced to cut back on personal water use, as almond farmers suck up tons

of water to feed their droops. Just building more dams and water catchment systems or aquifers may seem like a solution and have done property. Some of those things might help, but they can't make up for a lack of rainfall and snow melt. Relying on river water has its own problems.

Pulling too much from fresh water that flows through rivers allows for extra salt water to intrude from the bay and ocean salinity in the water negatively impacts local ecosystems and dirties what is supposed to be a freshwater source. Drought is simultaneously pushing migratory fish species like chinook salmon and steelhead trout closer to the brink of extinction. Large numbers of fish are dying off because the rivers they rely on as spawning habitats are too warm or too low.

Anxiety around water, droughts, and crops as among the issues driving some people to vote yes on the recall. A poll conducted last July by the Public Policy Institute of California found that residents sited drought and water supply as their top environmental concern, with about twenty calling it their chief concern, which makes it pull well above the related

problems of wildfires, air pollution, and climate change. Republican politicians have been using anxiety around drought to drum up support for the recall by blaming the current situation on Newsom. The original recall petition against Newsom from early warned that the governor quote seeks to impose additional burdens on our state, including rationing our water use. Last April, Governor Newsom did

declare a drought emergency into northwest California counties. The order allowed state officials to restrict the amount of water diverted from the Russian River and authorized the relocation of fish

stranded in drying puddles. The local county government asked residents to use no more than fifty gallons per day per person, but Newsom himself hasn't mandated water rationing for individual consumers, though he has asked Californians to voluntarily cut consumption by fifteen percent and has suggested that statewide restrictions could be on the table if conditions worsened heading into the fall, Newsom in the Department of Water Resources as a whole

do have ideas in mind for tackling this issue. Last year, Newsom authorized an eleven billion dollar water infrastructure project building a single thirty mile tunnel under the Sacramento, San Joaque and River Delta. The project, which has been discussed for years, is being pushed forward in hopes that it will protect the delta's existing wetland ecosystem and supply enough fresh, clean water to be diverted south for the rest of the state eight but the tunnel concept has faced opposition both

locally and from conservation minded folks. Some residents in the Delta regency it is just a water grab to meet the demands of southern California and the agriculture industry, while the needs of those up north are being ignored. Ecologically focused critics say it could still increase salinity in the Delta and result in notable harm for the ecosystem. Newsom has more recently discussed other action and legislation to help

mitigate the continued drought, quoting the San Francisco Chronicle. In July, the governor signed a state budget that includes five point one billion dollars over four years for new water infrastructure and drought preparation projects, including money to repair delivery canals,

help farmers irrigrate crops more efficiently, and start water recycling projects. Still, Newsom's recent actions have done little to quell anger among many farmers who stay the state's failure to plan for another major drought just a few years after it exited the last one has put them on the brink of ruin.

Ernest Buddy Mendez, a lifelong farmer in Fresno County and Republican county supervisor, said he was forced to let hundreds of acres where he used to grow cotton and wheat dry up this year after his allotment of river water was slashed to zero. He's relying on groundwater pumped from wells to keep his grove of almond trees alive. Mendez said he hasn't decided whom to support as a replacement candidate, and the recall just that he will vote hell yeah

to remove newsom. Let's face at Newsom. Damn is a four letter word, Mendez said, we haven't done anything in twenty years about building storage. California already does have one of the most extensive damn systems in the country, with nearly fifteen hundred reservoirs. Building new on river dams would cost billions of dollars if such efforts even survive legal challenges,

which are all but guaranteed. Amid the struggle to save endangered fish species, there are not many areas left that would make sense or be sustainable to build a new large reservoir. One other, more cost effective solution could be to store more water collected during wet years and underground aquifers.

One of the solutions to this problem is the same as the solution to a number of other climate related problems, which is that we simply have to cut the amount of resources we're consuming, whether that means using our energy use or cutting down on wasteful water use. You can only build so many dams. The trend of California farmers growing thirstier crops has made an existing problem much worse. Today, the state produces three times as many acres of almonds

as it did twenty five years ago. With California most likely entering a third straight year of disappointing rainfall and snow melt, anxiety around drought and increased severity of water restrictions won't get any better, and if the Lenina weather pattern hits the West coast, as it's poised to, that would mean the western US will have a drier and

hotter winter than average. Last August, water regulators made an unprecedented move to begin cracking down on water use in the sprawling Sacramento River in San Joaquin River watersheds, ordering farmers, water districts, and other landowners, including the City of San Francisco, to stop drawing water from the basins of the river or face penalties of up to ten thousand dollars a day. The city has enough water in its reservoirs to meet demand for at least a couple of years, and stored

water is not affected by the state restrictions. Water agencies also can seek an exemption from curtailments of human health or safety or compromised. This does hit rural areas and agriculture the hardest because most cities have alternative supplies and stored water to tap into. Looking to attract voters, Larry Elder and other Republican challengers to NEWSOM have made it a recurring point to say that farmers should not have to endure such cuts, but they don't really give any

perspective solutions to prevent rationing. When water levels at reservoirs, lakes, and wells are all plummeting. Larry Elder said drought is not inevitable and said he supports building more reservoirs and dams to store runoff, but he has also voice support for permitting to salinization projects. The salinization devastates ocean life,

costs much more than other alternatives, and uses tons of energy. Also, soon it will be made obsolete by increasing focus on water recycling, explaining to salonization quickly ocean water is collected and run through pipes to remove the largest solids, and then pump through reverse osmosis filters to remove salt, while fish and other creatures die upon being sucked in or

just from the four of the water flow. In a report studying it is salinization plant in the early two thousands, it was found that on average over a five year period, nineteen point four billion larva were caught up at intakes and about two point seven million fish, along with marine mammals and sea turtles, were killed by intake equipment. For every gallon of drinking water, desalinization leaves another gallon of

salty brine behind. The plants then just mix that with two parts ocean water before pumping it back into the ocean. These measures can negatively impact the environment for this generation and generations to come. This type of resource extract of thinking reflects how we got into the problem in the first place. Battling over water allotments will only get us so far when dealing with lackluster rainfall. What can help is permaculture programs to help farmers learn ways to irrigate

more effectively and cultivate healthier soils that retain water. Moving away from water heavy crops like almonds and towards more sustainable and moisture efficient crops must also be done if we want to stave off the worst effects. Putting Larry Elder in office won't make it rain, but it will put the state least another year further behind on taking the kind of action necessary to ensure California remains habitable. It could Happen here as a production of cool Zone Media.

For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website cool zone media dot com, or check us out on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It could Happen Here, updated monthly at cool zone Media dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.