...but I'm sure he didn't get rich having any shame or conscience.

...inherent in this weasel's attitude is a hallmark of the textbook sociopath. He would probably advocate "canned hunts" of the less affluent for the amusement of the ostentatiously wealthy, if he could get away with it.

The rich are the first ones who should be expected to die of thirst, because they're far more expendable than the rest of us.

'If you can pay for it, he argues, you should get your water.'

We're the only ones to stop watering our lawns.

i don't care how much you pay in taxes or how much money you have.

i watch HGTV's "flip or flop" and they keep putting huge amounts of grass on those lots.

Inland CA areas are hot in the summer and fake grass just absorbs the heat -- not good for kids and dogs at play. It also can get nasty in very wet times of year if it doesn't drain properly.

Better solution is to resod the recreational area with low water grass varieties and change out the rest of the lawn to drought-tolerant plantings with an emphasis on native plants.

only a small area in front and back are landscaped. we use native plants and rock. there are some areas of phoenix where they have grass. when we first moved here 26 years ago there was a lot of grass especially around businesses, but that has changed.

there's no water where i live. we all have our own wells -- some shared.

or in FL or in AZ...

We have two California buckeye trees that we planted from buckeyes gathered on the street. They're beautiful from late winter until mid-summer when they go dormant.

We have Cleveland sage bushes that are so beautiful and unusual that people always comment on them and the Matilja poppies. Where the planting aren't native, they're Mediterranean or South African plants because they are used to our climate and water cycles.

About the only gardens that requires more than a sip of water are the vegetable beds and a small patch of lawn off the patio. That lawn is brown now and probably will never be revived.

even if there not blooming (purple) they never get brown. also have 2 hesperaloe. the back has several different agave plants and different cactus. one cactus is huge -- has 8 arms so it's really old. when we built the house we didn't lose any cactus and this big one is right in the center of the back yard. can see it as soon as you come into the house. the whole back of the house has triple sliding glass doors. we have awesome views from every room.

our driveway is not paved. it's dirt -- packed down with 1/4 minus rock on it -- very natural looking. it's a long winding driveway.

there are only a few houses up here. every house has to be on at least 1 acre. many are on 2 or more acres.

i'd post pics if i knew how.

Just wondering...

it's not shared either which is good.

so I think it's a safe bet you'll see a lot of low water landscaping/plumbing etc emphasis in the next year as shows aired this year work their way through the pipeline.

But a lot of their shows are Canadian so those shows will presumably be doing weird cold weather stuff I don't understand (vapor barriers, digging up oil tanks in the yard) forever.

I think the screw you mindset goes along with the right wing's gun fetish. Why do you think Ted Bundy is a Fox News hero? He grazes his cattle on federal lands without paying the appropriate fee, then fools a bunch of militia types to defend his right to free load.

Ted was the serial killer.

are a pain generally, and when they are rich, specifically, very selfish and without principle or a goddamn conscience.

Says he doesn't miss it at all. (Friday night on Real Time.)

No doubt some rich assholes believe their money will save them from any kind of problem that comes along.

on that show a few months ago said some homeowner's associations don't allow fake grass.

they are right - we are not all that greedy. Unfortunately I assume it is going to have to get a lot worse before they even begin to understand that we need to work together or we are all doomed.

Reduce your water usage or the state comes out and sprays your entire yard with roundup.

All of a piece with Nestlé's water practices ("if I could increase it, I would!" and this insightful analysis).

That is, between 1.25 and 1.5% of assessed value based on most recent sale price plus 2% inflation factor each year. Cry me a river.

Second, yeah you should have brown lawns just like everyone else in the state. Buck up.

As for the "war on suburbia," it's only a war on water hogging suburbia. In my suburban San Francisco area we're under only a 16% reduction demand because we already are pretty good at conserving water (small lawns, lots of drought tolerant landscaping and dry-scaping)

You can afford it. Once the drought is relieved, you can roll it up and store it for future droughts.

If you have money, you can impose a sort of economic anarchy, using your wealth to deny me water, food, clothing, medical care, etc. If I have a gun or a machete, I can get back some of the stuff from you. Actually, all I can do is kill you to prevent you from monopolizing what I need to live. I mean, I don't WANT to chop you into little pieces, just as I'm sure you don't want to use your money to starve me to death, but it appears life has assigned us certain parts to play, so you go ahead and run those sprinklers.

Two millionaires, who are accustomed to getting their way, pay market rates on an available commodity. They can afford that, until they can't.

I mean, what is the appeal of having a grassy lawn in a place not meant for it. Is it some kind of pride thing out west or something?

...OK. If that's the way you want it, we'd be more than happy to oblige.

Where do I sign up?

and that is their sentiment.

That is why the "not all rich people" and "a million dollars is really just middle class" apologists are regressive, simpering lackeys.
Rich people may put on an egalitarian face in public, but know, they really don't think you are their equals in any way.

With cacti.

Oh the humanity! This is sort of the flip side of "let them eat cake" I guess.

This dirtbag probably doesn't believe that global warming is real either.

I live in Sacramento, in a neighborhood where houses start at $500,000. I unequivocally expect ALL yards on my street to be brown. NO exceptions. ALL Californians are in the same boat. All must contribute. It will be very easy to see who thinks they are better than others simple because they have more money.

MY LAWN MUST BE LUSH AND GREEN DURING A DROUGHT, A BLOO BLOO BLOO.

What a bunch of massive crybabies. Why should a parched golf course affect whether you play golf?

Odd logic. "If you can pay or it, you should get your water". If you can pay for it, should you be able to buy (in theory) anything you please? So we should let rich terrorists purchase nuclear missiles? I mean, if you can pay for it, you should be able to have your nukes, right?

These people disgust me. There are social obligations as well as moral ones when it comes to this. Preserve water, so you can have it in the future, so others may also have it. Or... use as much as you like - until there is no more. Use your share, and the share that should have gone to many other families with children. While their lawns die out, while they struggle in the heat with this reduced water limit...

I don't care how rich they are. Their lives are worth no more than the poorest person in their Nation. Their gardens, their lawns, are not more important simply because of their wealth.

Being wealthy is not a fucking virtue. It doesn't make one inherently more useful to society, a stronger or better person. It doesn't even necessarily mean that one pays their share of the burden in taxes. All it means is that someone has money.

Money is money - it has no value beyond what it can buy. It cannot buy freedom, or peace, or an end to a drought. Nor can it, unfortunately, buy integrity, honor, decency, or compassion for folks like Yuhas or Barbre here.

I really want to reach for that pitch fork when I read this kind of stuff. Their wealth, if anything, obligates them to the society that made it possible - to give something back, to be an example, to support, respect, and protect this Nation that gave them so much.

Instead, the working class pays huge corporate subsidies every year while these rich idiots think it's their "right" to use as much water as they want... even during a drought.

The stupid is almost as painful as the utter lack of humanity revealed in the OP. Good god some people are pathetic.

no, really. I do. Why are you looking at me like that?

****YOU PEOPLE LIVE IN THE FUCKING DESERT!!!****

That felt great.

Meanwhile, the rest of the state is just trying to flush a toilet or supply the nations-leading-breadbasket quantity of FOOD to the rest of us. Lets all be worried if Biff and his brahs Chad and Trevor can't find a fourth because the course is browning. The heart aches.

Don't while

Interesting that their water consumption went UP 9% after the requested 25% cuts.

Ah yes, nothing like being rich and wasting water to make you feel on top of the world. It just helps even more when you can see all those poor people suffer - bunch of losers. After all, if they weren't so lazy and had my daddy's money - uh, I mean worked really really hard and made money all by myself... yeah.

Which guess that means they are not parodies.

What bothers me more than asshole like this, are the people who support assholes like this even though this asshole would be the first one to let them be deprived of water so that he can golf on green grass.

I swear, rich folks sometimes; you gotta wonder if their nannies dropped them on their head too many times as a kid.

http://www.wired.com/2015/06/california-finally-brings-water-kings-account/

The latest windfall to California’s legal community came Friday, when the State Water Resources Control Board announced it was cutting certain historical water rights—held by some farmers, communities, and companies for more than a century. In a normal state with a normal drought, this wouldn’t be too much of an issue. But California water policies are so old (and so unsuited to the state’s desert ecosystem) that they might be outside the jurisdiction of the present-day water board. With barely a weekend for curtailment news to simmer, the summer air is already thick with lawsuit rumors.