Pictured above is the USS Bonhomme Richard on fire at a dock in San Diego. The four-day blaze was allegedly started by a sailor who now awaits trial by a military court, but the results of the investigation into the blaze are only now becoming apparent. The ship will be scrapped and cost $3-4 Billion to replace. On November 2nd, Waronrocks.com published an article titled More than just a fire: The Bonnie Dick Reveals a Navy in Shambles, by Seth Cropsey and Harry Halem of the Hudson Institute:

For all the high technology of modern military forces, the United States still needs sailors, soldiers, airmen, and marines to fight its wars. No technological wizardry will remedy the personnel crisis that the Navy faces. Only a coherent strategy that justifies the necessary budget will.… And even as unmanned systems replace traditional fighter aircraft, automated processes simplify targeting, and small unmanned vessels are fielded, traditional warships require significant crews for damage control. Indeed, damage control is the single most labor-intensive task in a modern Navy. It is also critical because the United States both lacks the capabilities to rely only on “standoff strikes” and will expose its ships to enemy fire. A fleet short on sailors will not be able to keep its ships fighting. Even minimal damage will slash U.S. combat power. 

In 2004, the Harvard Business Review published an article titled “New Business with the New Military”, and it’s a must read if we want to understand why corporate capitalism is destroying the country as well as the military:

The Defense Department is yielding its monopoly on every aspect of national security and adopting a more businesslike model in which the military’s warfighting capabilities are supported through outsourcing and business alliances... Civilians are replacing military personnel in many noncombat roles. Military functions with corporate equivalents are candidates for outsourcing and privatization. (In this case, “privatization” means the transfer to business of major DoD functions and processes, including planning, financing, organization, and operations, with DoD’s oversight of outcomes but not detailed, day-to-day control of processes.)…

Accordingly, we developed a model that reflects four segments of the military market. The first consists of customers: the military services, commands, agencies, and other buyers. The second consists of consumers: service members, retirees, their families, and DoD civilians. The third comprises suppliers: companies that serve both customers and consumers. Those three segments intersect in programs: the mechanisms for managing DoD’s activities.

The scrapping of the USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6) comes at a time when the investigation into the “Fat Leonard” bribery scandal and forthcoming trial of six naval officers reminds everyone that the Navy’s “Business Model for Success” is an invitation for corruption and fraud at the highest levels of the military. When billions of dollars are involved, is anyone surprised that corporate-state corruption and the U.S. military go hand-in-hand as a business model?

FOUR MILLION DOLLARS: Merry Christmas Ridgecrest!

The City of Ridgecrest, Kern County, Inyo County and San Bernardino County are “Suppliers” to the U.S. Navy at China Lake. The merger of local and county government with the Navy’s “new” business model is nothing new at Naval Air Weapons Station. It’s where the Harvard business model was developed over 50 years ago, and where the Military Industrial Complex was born.

What’s going on in the Indian Wells Valley with the Groundwater Authority? In a nutshell, the City of Ridgecrest is whining about attorneys fees and lawsuits, Inyo County is trying to kick the IWV Water District off the rotation IWV Groundwater Board Chair position in 2022, the Navy is “concerned” about lawsuits. (12/9 edited with apologies to Kern County’s counsel). And finally, you have lost $4,100,000 to date:

Merry Christmas Indian Wells Valley!

Mayor Eric Bruen, council members Peggy Breeden, Kyle Blades, Scott Hayman, Solomon Rajaratnam, former Kern County Supervisor and NAWSCL Commander Mick Gleason. Navy Region Southwest.

What could we buy with our $4,000,000 Christmas gift?

16 – Brand new houses at $250,000 each

80 – Brand new $50,000 Toyotas or Fords

20 – Brand new Police Cruisers at $200,000 each (Price includes the new turret sunroof with 50 cal. machine guns*)

177,304 – Turkeys (16 lb each at $1.41 per pound)

*Just kidding Mr. Strand, but we could’ve bought a turkey for every household in the IWV every year for the next ten years with the $4 million that’s been wasted on the GA. The City of Ridgecrest and the Navy are literally stealing food off your table while bonding your children and your grandchildren’s water forever!

In a forthcoming post, we’ll explain how the Department of Defense and Navy Region Southwest have orchestrated the Groundwater Authority’s “plan” from the very beginning. In the meantime, look through this post and you’ll see how the Navy corrupted the process from the creation of SGMA to the final Groundwater Sustainability Plan.

The IWV Groundwater Authority “Is a Mess” Say California’s Water Attorneys

The truth is that the consequences of the State of California’s new law on groundwater are just now becoming apparent, and the vast majority of residents in the Indian Wells Valley are only beginning to see the early damages on their water bills. As the all-powerful “Authority” closes its fifth year in shambles while running out of startup money, City and County residents won’t be spending $4,100,000 this Christmas shopping in Ridgecrest, dining out or buying food and gas. No, that’s how much money you’ve ostensibly paid to import water and pay for your sewage treatment plant, which becomes more expensive with each passing day (see Currency Collapse below).

Finally, it’s a great way to pad the City’s budget with millions in new revenue. Who should we thank for all of this?

On January 1, 2020, IWVGA submitted its Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP) to DWR for review and
comment. The GSP contained six major elements to provide for SGMA compliance including two major
infrastructure requirements (interconnection facilities and water recycling facilities) totaling between
$129.7 million and $277.7 million. These projects are in early planning and permitting stages.

Put simply, it’s a new tax on water and sewage treatment, previously known as the “Replenishment Fee”. You’ll be paying $4 million per year every year, forever. The Authority now wants to call it an “augmentation fee”. Let us spell it out for you:

W a t e r -> S e w e r -> T a x

You won’t get a damn thing “new” other than a pipeline from Lancaster to sustain your City’s growth along with a tertiary treatment facility so the City can sell your treated sewage back to you. It’s a sweet deal for the City and a big stinker for you.

The GA’s “Plan” was bought and paid for by the Navy based on a model provided by the Navy’s partner Desert Research Institute, and a very expensive “POAM” or Plan of Action and Milestones that was produced by Navy that was orchestrated by former NAWS commanding officer and County Supervisor Mick Gleason. Result: SNAFU.

Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority Teeters on FAILURE

Let’s be clear. The Indian Wells Valley is not running out of water anytime soon. In fact, there’s likely over 45 years of water stored in our “basin”. We don’t have enough data, due to Navy’s undue influence on the GA, to know how much water flows into our basin annually, but the actual amount is likely 2,000 to 5,000 acre feet per year more than Navy’s useless DRI model that only covered a small area within the Indian Wells Valley watershed boundary.

What’s worse, the Department of Water Resources may have to step in and take over the “Authority”. In the meantime, DWR officials are grappling with other basins that are in severe overdraft, including the San Joaquin Valley.

We tried to report on this over a year ago. You won’t easily find information in the papers or the GA’s website. The public (that’s you) is pretty much in the dark. In addition, the new law called SGMA is very complex, and groundwater and sewage treatment aren’t the hottest topics when a global plandemic and war is on the table.

The “Authority” doesn’t really exist except on paper, and it’s written by attorneys, bureaucrats and politicians with conflicting agendas. It took 5 years for the new government agency to produce anything close to a budget or financial statement, meetings were closed to the public with only video access, and public comments were made by cell phones. Most importantly, the critical decisions were made behind closed doors well before you had a chance to vote on any of it. The implementation of SGMA was anything but a democratic process and no consideration was given to the job losses and economic impacts that result, including but not limited to the negative impact on real estate values. Who wants to buy real estate in the Indian Wells Valley when the Navy owns everything, including you and your water?

Banks want their piece of the action

Last month, the Authority hired a “municipal advisor” which is the bureaucrat’s term for a mortgage broker. These people are the first hogs in line for your money, and like cousin Vinny the loan shark, they’re prepared to make the case why you should borrow millions and millions of dollars to fund future growth. It’s for your own good. It’s not about groundwater sustainability or even running out of water. You don’t own your water anymore. The State and the banks will own your water…

In retrospect, who could think that Kern County, the City of Ridgecrest and the U.S. Navy could do anything other than making matters worse? After five years of division and controversey, it’s time to put the IWV’s Groundwater Authority on a ventilator. The Department of Water Resources should step-in to mediate a settlement. The Indian Wells Valley can’t afford to pay $5,000,000 per year to import water. It’s not feasible, the water isn’t guaranteed, and it’s playing into the State’s water trading market which has it’s own controversies and corruption. (SJVWater.org)

You’re not going to be paying hundreds of millions of dollars to buy and import water from Lancaster, Palmdale or the State’s water project. The entire GSP is not only infeasible, it’s unsustainable in and of itself. California’s water system is a rolling disaster, drought or no drought, and forcing the IWV into a corrupt water-trading market is bound to result in a bullet-train-like failure. Instead of a train to nowhere we get maybe-some-water from somewhere. In addition, with inflation roaring and an extended drought, buying water futures is like buying expensive call options at the top of the stock market before a crash. It’s really, really stupid and the timing couldn’t be worse. See below for information on what’s called inflation and a collapse of the dollar.

The GA as structured was a mistake from the beginning, Declare “bankruptcy” and start over. Either that or the IWV Water District should use the “nuclear option” and ask the judge for a Injunction and put the collection of the “replenishment fees” on hold.

Inyo County’s Obstruction: Coso Geothermal and Rose Valley

Why are Inyo County and San Bernardino County on the board of the GA? They have nothing to do with our water basin or how it’s managed. Other than having their grubby hands in our tax base, they aren’t stakeholders but freeloaders protecting their tax revenues from the Navy. Inyo County has their water, and Coso Geothermal isn’t “protected” from the GA for any reason other than the privately operated facility is Inyo’s largest taxpayer!

Redraw the lines when thinking about what we’re talking about, i.e. a geographic basin of water. Inyo County is not only obstructing any project involving the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, it’s threatening the Indian Wells Valley Water District’s position as the 2022 board chair (The News Review 11/26/21) while protecting their revenue from Navy’s Coso Geothermal. Inyo County could cooperate along with LADWP and solve this problem, and it wouldn’t cost them a nickle. They could probably use some of that $250 million we’re wasting.

Please see Coso Geothermal In Play With Just the Facts for more information and you’ll know why the GA, Inyo County and the Navy are corrupt as hell. Why wasn’t Coso Geothermal, a large valley “pumper” included in the Groundwater Authority Management Area? Why isn’t Coso Geothermal subject to “replenishment fees”? Ask Inyo County and the Navy. It doesn’t fit their business model and you are an encroachment that provides little or no value:

Inflation is just another name for the Collapse of the Dollar

Finally, let’s look at the chart below. Anyone who is 65 years or older knows what’s coming. The inflation the world is about to experience will be unlike anything we’ve seen before. The chart below shows what happened after the Vietnam-era inflation of the 1970’s. The only question today is whether the inflation we’re seeing occurs over a period of 10 years or less. We could easily see prices on everything double in 7 years or less. If prices double in less than a few days or months, that is what’s called a finance 101 currency collapse. Shadowstats.com is widely recognized as the source for true cost of living stats. Take your choice, “Transitory”, Weimar or the Great Reset, the truth is that the global financial system is in serious trouble and so is the IWVGA’s bond broker. That $250 million water pipeline may cost half a billion dollars if it ever gets built.

Christmas has been Cancelled.