Truthiness Just Won't Go Away

“If you believe it, it’s not a lie”, or a variation on that theme, seems to be the foundation the Republicans are functioning from these days.  As a result, they can say anything they want to, anytime, anywhere for any reason whatsoever.  What a freeing feeling that must be!  Never having to look up and verify the source of your statements.  Just think of all the time one can save by not having to verify.

“I wrote a blog about this sort of thing in October of last year, True Facts vs. Truthiness, because it was already beginning to be such a problem that Stephen Colbert created the term, truthiness, to cover it.  Truthiness as a word is pretty funny, one has to admit, but the cause for the need for such a term is not.”  6/29/12  Shirley You Jest.

When I wrote this back in 2012, I wrote it about Republicans on the Federal level, but the use of “truthiness” has dribbled down to the local level as well.  For those not familiar where this local level is, it is San Luis Obispo County, located on the coast in Central California.  We have a candidate for County Supervisor asserting that she will not vote to do away with Proposition 13 as her opponent has done.  Well, Prop 13, as it is called, happens to be law voted in by the people of California to limit property taxes, and it was voted in 1978. About the only way it can be voted out is if the people of the state have another initiative to overturn it.  Further, since her opponent could not vote to overturn Prop 13, this is an out and out lie. 

In California our government system is tiered.  In our county, at the very bottom are Advisory Councils.  These councils have no government authority, but are the listening posts for county supervisors to hear what constituents have to say during meetings about issues that are of interest to local citizens.  Above that are Special Districts.  These districts have specific duties related to why they were formed in the first place.  Cemetery Districts obviously deal with cemeteries; School District deal with schools; and Services Districts deal with providing their constituents with water supplies and systems, waste water treatment systems, lighting, fire suppression, and perhaps ambulance service in remote areas.  The next level up is cities, then counties, then the State. 

Right now our local services district is having a really hot election.  Since I don’t live in the district, my concern is sort of academic except for the fact I have good friends who do.  As anyone who reads a newspaper or watches TV knows, California is in a real drought situation, with the bull’s eye for this drought the central coast.  The topography of our region consists of several creeks that provide water either to ranches or, in two cases, communities as well.  This year, however, the watersheds that feed into the aquifers that supply the water are extremely dry.  How dry is that?  Usually CalFire (our California Fire Department) requires that there be two inches of rain in the autumn before they call and end to the fire season.  This year they are requiring 3-5 inches. 

As a result of the drought, and some particularly bad decisions made by past Boards, the community that gets its water from the creek we live by that drains into the aquifer that supplies the larger community, is just about out of water.  The creek is virtually dry, with an occasional puddle of pretty yucky water.  The Emergency Water Project, both brackish reclamation and ultimately desal, will be very expensive for the community, but it is either that or take a 50% to 50% chance it will rain enough this winter to recharge the watershed.  And with climate change, one doesn’t really know what the future will bring.  The people who oppose these projects are opposing for some really shaky and, at times, bizarre reasons.  One person wants to build a reservoir to supply the community with water.  He does not discuss what he will fill it with if it doesn’t rain.  Another is afraid that the method used to dispose of the treated water effluent will contaminate everything in its way.  He does not discuss the fact that the location has already been contaminated by years of secondary effluent disposal.  Another maintains that the District only wants to have the desal so it can issue more building permits.  Ignore the fact the District cannot, by law, issue building permits.  And on and on. 

I first wrote several years ago, “Does anyone else out there feel like he/she has fallen down a rabbit hole?  Only instead of the Red Queen threatening to cut off everyone’s head, we have a bunch of whackadoodles saying anything they want, because if they think it, it must be true.”