Friday, January 31, Donald Trump authorized release of billions of gallons of water from two Valley reservoirs. Most of the water went into the dry Tulare Lake basin, followed by (very) muted protests from Valley farmers.
There could hardly be a better lesson in the interactive valences that have generated the rhetorical appeal of the Trump media platform. First, it’s crucial to understand that the Trump persona has been generated by impulse media, most especially television. Trump himself is a product of television, literally a character from a reality television show; he’s obsessed with ratings and crowd sizes. He watches television compulsively.
Trump’s improbable runway to presidential power was constructed long before he took office. It was built not only by television, but also by talk radio. Rush Limbaugh began debasing traditional political discourse long before Trump took office, around the time the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) did away with the Fairness Doctrine during the Reagan administration and not long after the the Supreme Court decided money is speech in Buckley vs Valeo. Limbaugh’s talents for injecting anger, sarcasm, demeaning epithets, misleading hyperbole and outright lies into political discourse became a model for Trump’s imitative performances during his rallies and public appearances.
While radio and television provided Trump’s runway via talk shows and Fox News, it was social media that gave him wings. Even more than radio and television, social media, the ultimate in impulse platforms, eliminated far more efficiently than any governmental edict the research, reflection and review that compose the three “r’s” of constructive thinking. Absent constructive thinking, Trump’s blitz media tactics can be overwhelming, not unlike the “Gish Gallop” tactics he used to bewilder Joe Biden, whose age and fatigue made him an easy target during the presidential debate.
Impulse media depend heavily on generating emotions, especially fear, anger and lust for retribution. When Trump released water that Valley farmers were depending on after what looks like another dry year, we might have expected much more anger than we saw. Instead, the overall response to the release, at least from farmers, was muted and even feeble. Any anger was directed at Gavin Newsom, who was falsely charged with holding water back that could have helped fight fires in Los Angeles.
We can look to George Orwell for an explanation why Trump wasn’t held accountable. Orwell’s genius was never more acute than when dissecting the effects of totalitarianism on human behavior and psychology. One effect is “doublethink.”
Valley farmers who supported Trump and witnessed his ignorance about water, an ignorance that led directly to negative effects, experienced severe cognitive dissonance. How could the man they supported have been so clumsy and callous with their water?
Rather than acknowledge that Trump’s actions were solely in service to his political and performative ambitions, the farmers reverted to doublethink: They had to accept two contradictory facts: (1) Donald Trump acted stupidly and in direct opposition to their own welfare and (2) They supported and continue to support Donald Trump in the belief he will act in their interests.
The key element the farmers may be missing is that Trump’s public appearances and actions are almost always demonstrative exhibitions of power that serve only to magnify his potency and diminish that of those he sees as opponents.
Trump used the water release to attack Gavin Newsom. His purpose was to force associations between water, Newsom and the Los Angeles fires. Forced associations are a common rhetorical tactic, especially in television commercials. Trump’s release of Valley water served two purposes: (1) It gave him a public platform to associate Gavin Newsom (“Newscum”) with fire, water, and, supposedly, failed policy and (2) It enabled a show of force.
Frequent displays of power in the form of name-calling, seemingly arbitrary executive actions and mass firings are standard tactics from the authoritarian playbook. Initially, the water releases from Lake Kaweah and Lake Success would have led to severe flooding and damage had local authorities not intervened at the last minute and talked the Army Corps of Engineers into releasing far less water.
“’It was a scary moment,’” said Tom Barcellos, president of the Lower Tule River Irrigation District, who owns a dairy and grows pistachios and other crops in Tulare County.” Barcellos had learned almost too late that Army Engineers had planned to release water at “channel capacity,” the maximum rate possible.
Trump himself bragged about the release.
“It’s a great thing. It’s too bad they didn’t do it themselves. I had to do it, and it was not easy. We did it in a very rough way.”
Even after the threat of flood and widespread damage was averted, Trump’s “very rough way” cost local farmers precious summer irrigation water. It will be interesting to see whether and how the Trump administration compensates them for their losses.
For most any other politician, Trump’s gaffe would have resulted in a loud scandal. Imagine if Gavin Newsom had done such a thing. For Trump, the occasion was a political triumph. He not only attacked “Newscum,” he reminded Valley farmers that he can be “rough.” That message won’t be lost on anyone alert enough to realize Trump will play rough any time it serves his purposes, no matter how irrelevant they may be to the public interest.
In fact, Donald Trump’s favored executive tactic rarely involves expert opinion, local input or reflection. Instead, whenever possible, Trump favors extortion; he prefers to hold a hammer over peoples’ heads to negotiating on the basis of equal status and mutual interests.
Anyone who doesn’t acquiesce, no matter how much they’ve been previously loyal, suffers the wrath of Trump — just ask Mike Pence what that’s like. All Pence did was obey his oath to uphold the Constitution. For that, Trump set an angry and violent mob on him.
As for Valley farmers, who’ve already suffered losses when their workers stayed home for fear of deportation, they will have to reckon with far more cognitive dissonance as Trump’s tariffs are answered with counter-tariffs, his economic policies with shortages and inflation, and his water policy subject to random opportunities for material or political gain.
It will be fascinating to see whether Valley farmers, ordinarily independent, resourceful, and vociferous defenders of their own rights and interests, will succumb to doublethink about an executive whose pattern of impulsive action in service to power will be harder and harder to excuse as it causes more and more damage.
It may be that our farmers will gain enough psychological reward from Trump’s Newsom-bashing to compensate for their losses. There’s always a certain satisfaction from hurling taunts and epithets at one’s political opponents. Problem is, taunts and epithets don’t water the crops.
Meanwhile, it’s critical to maintain local history with careful and durable recording of facts. Facts are critical elements in history, and fact-based history is the best record of all for assessing truth and passing judgment.
In George Orwell’s 1984, a dystopian novel about living under totalitarian rule, Winston Smith’s job is deleting and revising history. We should never let that happen here. Donald Trump’s actions, both in the Valley and nationwide, form a fact pattern. That pattern should be ample enough for most anyone to determine where Trump’s real interests lie. Above all, it seems clear that Donald Trump believes Valley water belongs to him. Given his long history of transactional “deals,” it might behoove us all to consider carefully what he might do with “his” water when his favored oligarchs decide it might have better uses elsewhere.
Midwestern farmers succumbed to the same nonsense during Trump’s first term when retaliation to his tariffs decimated international markets for their crops. He had to put them on welfare, but the farmers saw him as a savior who bailed them out. The normally independent and resourceful farmers were forced to feed off the public trough, and they had no shame in doing so. We’re in for the same sad cruel times.
I hope you’ll have an opportunity to interview fired federal workers who will lose their homes and share their stories with us. Americans need to see how Trump’s roughness hurts and demeans our neighbors, the ordinary people we claims to help. Remember, he told a group of evangelicals that he doesn’t care about them, he just needs their votes.
As a follow up to my previous post, WaPo is requesting information from anyone who is affected by the government layoffs or cancellation of government contracts that will devastate the individual livelihoods and local economies that may collapse housing markets. Hannah Natanson is gathering information. Her email and phone number is early in the article. Trump, aka Elon Musk, wants to eliminate many agencies including civil rights and employment discrimination offices mandated by law. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/02/15/doge-fire-federal-employees-trump-dei/
Shout out to our Valley farmers. We appreciate and respect you!
Yeah, I know, the following sounds extreme.
Nearly 100 years ago in Germany a man and his motley crew organized, failed, applied their own style of critical thinking and reorganized. Then they slowly, methodically moved forward as as they gained momentum they took over a party, a nation, a region and nearly a world.
Trump is making the same moves in his own modern fashion. He tried and failed in his first term. He and his reformed motley crew is trying again. He has tamed the Executive Branch, gained the power edge in the Legislative Branch, and is attempting to bull his way through the Judicial Branch which he made a dent in during his first term.
His envy of Putin’s power, wealth and bravado is an example and a path on which he has set his decisions, movements and goals.
He has stated as much in past statements of envy of Hitler.
The American Hitler is on the rise and much of the American populace is cheering him on just as the German populace of the 1930’s enabled Hitler.
Sounds far fetched? The people of Germany would have stated the same.
Vance’s recent Munich speech endorsing Germany’s right wing parties and scolding the EU members is another example of Trump’s March toward destruction of our Constitution and democracy.
The San Joaquin farmers’ feeble protest of the water release shows how well Trump Think has taken hold of hard working people use to near slave labor.
Is it time for people in the center to join with those left-of-center in getting down in the dirt against Trump and his kind just as America did in WWII?
Now do I sound alarmist, extreme?
I mean to. This, to me, is a turning point, not just in California or America, but in the world.
Just ask Ukraine.
We have several German friends who are facing a potential takeover of the government by the far right AfD. They believe that Trump and Musk interfered in the German election campaigns, especially Musk’s virtual address to the AfD rally. Many Germans are taking to the streets to protest. The far right just seems to get stronger while we struggle to keep our democracies alive. It’s INSANE!
Our friend “JAT” tried to post and could not. Could the Evil Empire be blocking his comments? We don’t know, but we’re delighted to post his comment below. Let us know whenever you have trouble posting and we’ll do our best to make sure you are heard. Here is JAT’s comment:
“He is a religion now. A cult. He can and will never do anything wrong, ever.
Point out that he lies constantly, and nobody cares. Point out that the transfer of wealth from everyone to the rich will continue even more dramatically under him (and did under his last term) — won’t matter. Mention that the mythical weaponization of the government has now become an actual weaponization, and you are a deep state threat. Don’t get on board and you get excommunicated. The last firewall against a shiny new authoritarian regime looks to be laws and courts. How long do they have until Musk and Vance talk Drumpf into brushing them aside too?
Only an America in decline would tolerate such a morally twisted goof as Trump. Conservatives now worship a man who wears makeup, plays with prostitutes, marries for sport and sells Bibles and basketball shoes with his name on them. Conservatives worship this. This is why people without a basic/decent education shouldn’t be allowed to vote. Sorry Repubs — this is on you. The founding fathers didn’t trust you, and this is why.”