Wobbly water solution
Your recent Jeff Davi op-ed touting Cal Am’s wobbly “three-legged stool” argument omitted important details. First, this stool is standing on quicksand and will be rendered inoperable due to its seven desalination slant-wells only having a lifespan of 25 years. Second, the well-heads will be covered with sand due to sea level rise and beach erosion with no relocation site possible. Third, this “three-legged stool” cannot stand because it does not have sufficient water rights to operate from the get-go, per the State Water Resources Control Board. Fourth, these wells would be installed in the critically over-drafted Salinas Valley Groundwater Basin aquifers. This disastrous slant-well placement will devastate the SVGB, contradicting the stated mission and goal to restore and revitalize these threatened aquifers.
Despite good intentions to cure the Peninsula’s water woes, this wobbly desalination proposal won’t stand. And 25 years from now just when we actually need more water it will become inoperable.
Public agency ownership of our water supply, as modeled in the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District, Monterey One Water, and Marina Coast Water District, exemplifies water management perfection. These three public water agencies have provided ample water supplies for decades to come, including drought years – with no profit to a private corporation and its shareholders. We don’t need Cal Am’s exorbitantly priced, redundant and unworkable desalination plant to bankrupt us! And we don’t need their avarice giving us sleepless nights!
— Margaret-Anne Coppernoll, Marina
The attack on Iran
Our military is a group of haphazard Keystone Cops. Our guys may have shot down three of our own aircraft with friendly fire. Trump says those things happen.
No, they don’t! Not with a knowledgeable group of military leaders. But, Mr. President, you fired all those savvy men and women generals. You were looking for loyalty instead of quality.
Mr. Trump this disaster is all yours. Fix it now. Or resign.
— Dan Presser, Carmel
March is the anniversary of the unlawful, immoral invasion and destruction of Iraq. All of it was based on known lies. The U.S., UK, and NATO allies brutalized, tortured, and killed Iraqi citizens, permanently contaminated the land and the people with toxins including depleted uranium resulting in horrible birth defects, blew up oil wells (that was the U.S., not Saddam), stole and destroyed national treasures, including Iraq’s agricultural seed bank, destroyed the electrical, sanitary, and water infrastructure, and ended the country as it was.
Here we go again – same leaders, the same institutions lying repeatedly. “Democracy” and “human rights” are PR window dressing.
“Submit” is the name of their game, what the Washington and Wall Street gangs say to their victims. Republican or Democrat, it doesn’t matter. It’s about coming out on top and standing over the victim, briefly satisfied until they pick the next victim. They never have enough; they’re never satisfied. The goals are ceaseless empire-building, world and space domination, eviscerating nations, heritages, and communities, stealing resources, imposing American toxic products on virgin lands. Marine Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler wrote “War is a Racket” about this reality. Bush 1 said, “If the American people knew what we have done, they would string us up from the lamp posts.”
And this “hatred of life” ideology attacks us at home.
Peace, stability, respect for other nations’ sovereignty and security, coexistence, communication, truth, dismantling our weapons and institutions of war, starting at home, and valuing nature – that is the country I want to build. Stop the attack on Iran.
— Nina Beety, Monterey
State of the Union
It is hard to believe that the Democrat Party is still operating after their wild blunder at the Feb. 24 State of the Union Address. The President declared, “The first duty of the American government is to protect Americans, not Illegal aliens.” Nothing revolutionary, but almost every Democrat remained seated and silent even after the President asked everyone to stand and applaud if they agreed. The Democrats just scowled.
How can any political party side with illegal aliens over American citizens? Our government has no responsibility toward illegal non-citizens, many of whom just openly walked in. Our government’s primary duty is to protect U.S. citizens, period.
Interestingly, hardly anybody complained about President Obama’s deportation of more than three million illegal immigrants.
After watching this fiasco unfold, all I can say is that the Democrats must have a death wish.
— Lawrence Samuels, Carmel
I watched the entire State of the Union Speech. I think it would be more accurate to call it the State of the Disunion. Quite a number of Democrats didn’t even show up, but the ones who did got gamed by President Trump. What fools they were to sit on their hands during the State of the Union speech, shouting insults, glowering, even sleeping. One Democrat waving a protest sign had to be physically removed from the chamber. The Republican half, on the other hand, looked better. They were standing up, honoring or remembering American heroes in the past and present, cheering “USA” and having a grand old time. It was an American celebration. They were even dressed better than the disrespectful and obviously disengaged members on the other side. I realize that California votes 60% with the Democratic Party in all elections. But let’s give this a second thought. There are two Republicans running for governor against nine Democrats in the California June Primary election. Please try to consider voting for one or both of these Republican candidates. California needs a break from those gloomy, pessimistic, badly behaved members in the other party.
— Carol Marquart, Pacific Grove
