The two billionaires that own 80% of California’s water.
Thursday, 13 Mar 2025
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The only minority fucking America up are the billionaires
on to them.
British person here: are these the Wonderful Company people? Is the argument that they’re diverting all the water to their agricultural endeavours, drying California the fuck out and leaving it vulnerable to these fires?
Tax them dry.
Infrastructure is not sexy, and usually gets built in great bursts and then tweaked as maintenance fails and new development needs to be connected. It is so damned hard to get public mandate to fix the root cause of problems.
Wildfires have multiple “causes,” just like coral bleaching and honeybee colony collapse. If we want to solve it long term, we need to go back to the drawing board with California natural resources management.
You need farming with permaculture practices which hold onto irrigation water and diversify crops. You need to bring beavers back and rehydrate the landscape. You need to change the LA River from a concrete flume a truck and motorcycle can race down to a wetland delta. Land development is accelerating and stormwater management is not adequate to handle the pollutants, projected flooding, or wildfire risk.
When you have a fur trade which kills a hundred million beavers, you fry the landscape. When you cut down millions of acres of old growth conifers, you lose the cloud-collecting molecules they release and the shade and drainage they provide. The only reason we have rain more than 400 miles inland is transpiration from trees.
With biodiversity collapse from development and climate, we have disturbed soils getting taken over by invasive shrubs and grasses, which burn easy. Their seed bank is already in the soils developers use to build subdivisions, and regulators don’t have the mandate to force them to stamp out the seedlings before they take over and add more fuel.
Beyond the money needed to fight the symptom, we need to invest in the cause (including stopping desertification and plutocratic water management). In this country as it is configured, that will be impossible with the short term profits of agriculture and real estate and Silicon Valley holding the power in California and the West. The system will fight back with violence when we make choices for the greater good.
Edit: LA River gets fresh water out of the drainage basin as fast as possible because dealing with flooding is inconvenient: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6z9qws7M8q8&pp=ygUYdGVybWluYXRvciAyIGNoYXNlIHNjZW5l
2nd: Beavers: the Watershed Engineer https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FYIiyYlc-OM&pp=ygUbQmVhdmVycyB3YXRlcnNoZWQgZW5naW5lZXJz
AND https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Qny4CDcftrI&pp=ygUUQW1lcmljYXMgYmlnIG1pc3Rha2U%3D
[removed]
They look tasty.
For Luigi! We must do this.
So many things I’d like to do to them…
Depose
Is this real? How can people own water and not the state?
As a European i always saw movies like hunger games, judge dredd and all other apocalyptic movies with a fun non-serioud futuristic distance. Just as a do with star wars. However, the older i the more i realize Americans probably dont see them in the same light.
Billionaires are anathema to democracy and need to be removed and prevented from ever existing again.
This is the Resnick family. [The Dollop](https://youtu.be/38R-OOVfz7A) does a fantastic episode on these guys.
SparkNotes:
They lobbied heavily for sanctions on Iran in order to gain control of the pistachio market and are fueling the [Israel-Palestine conflict](https://yasha.substack.com/p/california-pistachio-billionaires) in order to maintain control of it
They capitalized on [misinformation](https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2010/09/ftc-complaint-charges-deceptive-advertising-pom-wonderful) to fuel sales to Pom Wonderful, their pomegranate juice company
They used some [fucked up practices](https://perfectunion.us/how-this-billionaire-couple-stole-californias-water-supply/) to gain control of 80% of California’s water supply
Something something [Halo oranges](https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304373804577521241458781700) and [abusing migrant workers](https://civileats.com/2019/04/08/the-farmworkers-who-pick-your-halo-mandarins-just-organized-a-massive-labor-strike-wonderful-company/)
They treat their workers like shit
They are behind all the shenanigans with Fiji water
I think they own some wineries and there’s most likely plenty of fuckery surrounding that
So much more that I can’t even list it all
These guys have their fingers in so many products that it’s hard to even boycott them, and despite all the bad press they’ve gotten, not much has changed, and as a pistachio lover, it makes me feel extremely guilty every time I give in and get some, because supposedly they have a monopoly on pistachios in the US.
It’s a Luigi time!
“Own water” wild
They man is like wow, I’m a bad guy from Captain Planet.
y’know…if California joins Canada, the argument could be made that Canada did not agree to that, and they can just fuck right off.
I don’t buy any of their overpriced products (POM, Pistachios, Lewis Cellars, Landmark Vineyards, Justin Vineyards, Seedless Lemons, Teleflora, Halo oranges, Fiji water (!!! overpriced tap water!! that they are stealing from citizens)), the conversation needs to be real – about giving water rights back as a utility to all.
Billionaires are going to be the death of all of us, even themselves… bunkers won’t matter when we’ve extracted all the water. It is getting real – the cost of the CA fires this week because drought is REAL. It’s just the start of horrors we are not ready to face, and we all know it’s coming. STOP BILLIONAIRES.
And here I thought the series Goliath 2nd season was fiction.
Left leaning people need to make as big of a deal about this as conservatives are making a deal out of stupid fucking conspiracy theories
I was told the rich powerful and wealthy owning the bare essentials to live and forcing you to steal to live (if you own, you absolutely don’t have to sell or you can price gouge) was a misrepresentation of capitalism
In fact it is much worse than I thought, with a small group of people or even one person owning everything a reality now
So much for capitalism that always trends to monopolies. Rational economic actors my ass. In some cases (most? All?) you can’t avoid wealth redistribution as a species.
Billionaire Squid Game. Let’s make it happen.
He looks like he skins minors alive while she’s holding him on a leash.
Why does this look like a JC Penny photoshoot?
Of COURSE they’ve got a punchable face.
Names?
Gotta love that free market, *am I right?*
Nature will take it all back. You have been warned.
How the fuck can you own water? What’s next – breathing meters?
So fucked up that anyone is allowed to own water
Why do people own water…?
r/FuckNestle r/fuckResnicks r/fuckpomwonderful r/fuckalmonds r/fuckwaterhoarders
[https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/08/lynda-stewart-resnick-california-water/](https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/08/lynda-stewart-resnick-california-water/)
I think that we are really stretching the term “owns” here. How about “exploits an ill gotten and antiquated license scheme.” With emphasis on how we should change this system of distribution.
That’s about as amoral as one can get. ‘Owning’ water. Their entire bloodline should be erased.
I’m glad this was brought to light so I know not to buy any wonderful brand product. These people are scum.
(Me lighting a St Luigi prayer candle)
It’s time for a certain Governor to declare a state of emergency and seize that water.
Long, 8 year old article about them and nothing has changed: https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/08/lynda-stewart-resnick-california-water/
They get away with it by giving a fraction of what they earn to charity. Basically, they have a huge company that owns multiple famous products. They keep the profits instead of sharing it with the workers and then the wife, who has nothing better to do with her life, gives away a tiny bit of their money to avoid criticism and so she can feel good about herself.
I think it was Bolivia they had a water revolution when the government sold all water rights EVEN RAIN WATER. To Haliburton. Ownership of the water supply should be illegal. Should be controlled by accountable government.
Some publicly available background stats:
Stewart and Lynda Resnick. $6.3 billion net worth.
https://perfectunion.us/how-this-billionaire-couple-stole-californias-water-supply/#:~:text=In%20a%20series%20of%20secret,it%20back%20to%20working%20people.
9481 Sunset Boulevard Beverly Hills, CA 90210
I used to work for one of their companies. I never met Stewart but Linda was fucking psycho. I had to go to their LA office a lot to colaborate with corp IT and every damn time we would all be in the elevator and she would get in. Generally yelling or telling someone off on the phone. The other corp IT guys told me she once fired someone because she didnt like how they said good morning, dont doubt it at all.
Gets their portrait done at Sears
It’s wild to think of all the shit that has been sold out from under us for pennies on the dollar.
Enrich one at the cost of millions. The American way
