As Bureaucrats Squabble, The Colorado River Dies In The Desert

 

As Bureaucrats Squabble - The Colorado River Dies In The Desert

 

In the past nineteen years, I have written about Lake Powell and the Colorado River twenty-five times. With some overlap, I have written about Glen Canyon Dam fifteen times, Lake Mead eight times, and Hoover Dam six times.

By 2013, I was openly questioning the originally stated need for Lake Powell. Back in the 1950s, officials and boosters touted Glen Canyon Dam as a flood control dam that also happened to produce electrical power. The unspoken reason for its construction was to decrease siltation downstream at Lake Mead. There, unchecked sedimentary flow was already becoming an operational issue. In 2015, I publicly called for the decommissioning of Glen Canyon Dam and the draining of Lake Powell.

Now, in late summer 2026, both nature and water politics have doomed Lake Powell and possibly Lake Mead. Had federal water managers at the Bureau of Reclamation, Department of the Interior taken bold action in 2015, the infrastructure to alleviate a potential “dead pool” at Lake Powell could be in place and ready for action.

As it is, those same water managers and their political overlords kicked the can down the road. They took no action to drill new bypass tunnels around Glen Canyon Dam. Belatedly, they released water from several upstream reservoirs and into Lake Powell. This action, over the past few years, delayed the day of reckoning and subsequent demise of the Colorado River, as we know it.

In 2026, the Lower Colorado River Basin States of Arizona, California and Nevada reached a truce and agreement regarding water usage over the next few years. The Upper Basin States of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming refused to participate. Instead, they held firm to their “water rights,” as defined in the 1922 “Law of the River.” Their refusal to engage in negotiations tossed the decision-making process back to the federal water managers. Now, the issue is in the hands of the same bureaucrats who previously ignored the facts on the ground, and in the water.

The Colorado River Compact of 1922, as is officially known, wildly overestimated the sustainable flow of the Colorado River. Currently, after two decades of drought, the concept of the old agreement both literally and physically does not hold water. Now, there is not enough water in the Colorado River to go around and there will never be.

Lake Powell –

What remains at Lake Powell is a declining reservoir, losing vast amounts of water to dwindling inflow, banking, evaporation, and upstream development. The system must also absorb a “heat island” effect, which redirects storms away from the Colorado Plateau. To save power production at Glen Canyon Dam, water managers have tapped upstream reservoirs while simultaneously constricting outflow to Lake Mead.

On August 4, 2026, when I began writing this post, the surface of Lake Powell was at 3,522 feet elevation. Now, on September 14, 2026, the lake level is at 3,517 feet elevation, which is an all-time low for the reservoir.

With upstream reservoirs mostly drained and a diminishing snowpack in the Rocky Mountains, minimum power pool, at 3,490 feet elevation may occur by January 1, 2027. As minimum power pool approaches, the turbines at Glen Canyon Dam will spin down and produce less power each day. By the time we celebrate New Year’s 2027, the last turbine might stop, and the dam could go dark. To keep the dam itself functioning without turbine power, the operators would be forced to rely on what remains of the Western Power Grid.

At a date uncertain, Colorado River water will no longer flow via gravity to the Lower Basin, which includes the Grand Canyon, Lake Mead and beyond. Just 149-feet down the hydrological ladder from Lake Powell's current elevation is “dead pool,” at 3,370 feet elevation. At a steady rate of decline, dead pool will occur in late 2028. There is no guarantee that the rate of decline will remain steady.

Lake Mead –

Sequestered behind the venerable Hoover Dam, Lake Mead began filling in 1935. As with Lake Powell, upstream, Lake Mead was last full in July 1983. With occasional fluctuations to the upside, it has been draining and evaporating ever since. Currently, it stands at 1,038 feet elevation, only three feet above the “Power Cliff Threshold.” To prevent “cavitation” at 1,035 feet elevation, twelve of Hoover Dam’s seventeen power turbines will then go offline. Some reports say that the twelve high speed turbines are already offline. The remaining five power turbines have an “open blade” design which allows continued flow, for now. When the twelve turbines stop spinning, seventy percent of Hoover Dam’s electrical power production will cease.

When Lake Mead reaches minimum power pool at 950 feet elevation, all electrical power production at Hoover Dam will conclude. Water will still pass through the dam through gravity until dead pool, at 895 feet elevation. With limited water releases coming from Lake Powell, no one knows for certain when Lake Mead will reach any of these milestones.

One thing is sure. Even if dead pool occurs, the newest of Las Vegas’ water intakes, completed in 2015 will still draw “fresh water” for the city. Commonly known as “The Third Straw,” it is located in the depths of Lake Mead at 860 feet elevation. The Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) currently draws up to 242,000-acre-feet of water annually from Lake Mead. It also discharges 224,000-acre-feet of treated wastewater directly into Lake Mead.

As a great gift to humanity, the SNWA cleans its discharge by an extra four percent, compared to its semi-polluted inflow. The second and third straw intakes are near the rapidly receding and eroding Boulder Beach. After processing, the treated water outfall is at the aptly named Las Vegas Bay. Depending on the water level at the time, the geographic distance between inflow and outfall is six or seven miles.

In late July 2026, the heavy lift system used to build Hoover Dam in the 1930s experienced an unexpected movement and shutdown. Only the heavy lift system can raise and lower power turbine components into the bowels of the dam. Until engineers resolve the heavy lift issue, the twelve oldest power turbines will remain idle and in place. With the reservoir declining and the heavy lift system in question, the future of power production at Hoover Dam is unclear. Do the water managers recognize that further replacement of power turbines at Hoover Dam is a lost cause?

– Implications

Fifty years ago, in 1976, Don Henley of The Eagles rock group wrote a song called “Life in the Fast Lane.” Since 1935, we, the people of the Southwest, have been living in that fast lane. Even today, The Eagles lyrics seem apropos:

"Call the doctor, I think I'm gonna crash. The doctor says he's comin', but you gotta pay in cash. They went rushin' down that freeway, messed around and got lost. They didn't care, they were just dyin' to get off, and it was...Life in that fast lane.”

As the elevation of Lake Mead drops, the receding water pulls vast amounts of lakeshore mud into the reservoir. Visible from space, the turgid water drifts inexorably toward Hoover Dam. This phenomenon, known as “the delta effect,” manifests as an underwater silt stream. All that dense silt, formerly compacted by the heavy, deep water above it, is now on the move. Based on hydrological surveys, silt has now topped the original cofferdam, which lies submerged upstream of the Hoover Dam we know today. As it flows into the final depression at the base of the dam, the silt settles into an uneasy mixture more than one hundred feet high. As such, it approaches the lowest elevation power turbine intakes. If it reaches that level, the five remaining power turbines, unable to digest the corrosive silt, will be retired.

The SNWA, anticipating at least the water level portion of this story, spent over one billion dollars to create its “last gasp,” also known as “The Third Straw.” At a time uncertain, that water intake, feeding the water taps in Las Vegas, will start sucking silt from the dead pool. Soon thereafter, whole system could cavitate and collapse. So too will the water supply of approximately three million Southern Nevada residents.

Where do the forty million people who rely on the Colorado River stand today? Soon, twelve power turbines at Hoover Dam will go dark. Then, the power turbines at Glen Canyon Dam will cease operation. Soon thereafter, Lake Powell will slacken to dead pool, followed by cessation of power production at Hoover Dam. Finally, no water will pass downstream from Hoover Dam, which currently irrigates alfalfa and winter vegetables in the Imperial Valley and provides drinking water to Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, and Tucson.

After all of the flowing water disappears from the Colorado River, and one hundred years after its namesake event, there will be a “reverse Dust Bowl” migration. Without adequate or affordable water and power supplies throughout the Desert Southwest, millions of residents will migrate to regions where sufficient water and power still exist, if only briefly.

I have been publicly calling for the decommissioning of Glen Canyon Dam and the draining of Lake Powell since 2015. As I did then, I would like to say that it is time for bold action. But now, as the hydrological dominoes along the Colorado River continue to fall, it may be too late.

Email James McGillis

 

Simi Valley, California - Disqualified As "Tree City USA"

In April 2026, the City of Simi Valley accepted its 26th consecutive Tree City USA Award from the Arbor Day Foundation and CAL FIRE. Mayor Dee Dee Cavanaugh mentioned that she was once a member of the Tree Advisory Board, which last met in August 2010.

At the April 2026 meeting, the City Council unanimously approved the Oak Road South Development Project, a 60-unit condo project, which will destroy five protected native oaks, including the 350-year-old Heritage Oak.

In July 2026, the Simi Valley Planning Commission approved a fifty-eight-home development on East Cochran Street. By claiming that the development included enhanced open space elements, City Staff and the developer avoided seeking an amendment to the General Plan.

By calling it a “Cluster Development,” the Planning Commission unanimously approved a plan that contradicts both California State and Simi Valley open space laws. Acting as the Tree Advisory Board, the Planning Commission also approved removal of five protected trees.

In August 2026, the City Council approved the 364-home Lost Canyons Development Project. Prior to final approval, the developer was already busy destroying protected oak trees within Phase One of the project area.

If you plan to develop a property in Simi Valley, hire a licensed arborist to value the protected trees as depreciating assets. The older the tree, the lower its cash value will be. Any older tree can easily be classified as being in "poor condition." Then, pay a nominal fee for a Tree Removal Permit and replant the same number of trees you plan to annihilate.

Given a penchant for destroying both its neighborhoods and its arboreal heritage, the Simi Valley City Council should rescind its hypocritical Tree Preservation Ordinance and replace it with a simple fee structure. Whatever the value of a protected tree may be, the developer should pay ten times that amount. Only then might a developer think twice about destroying what little remains of a once beautiful Simi Valley, featuring an abundance of oaks and other majestic trees.

Email James McGillis

 

The Horror Of Short-Term Rentals Comes Home to Simi Valley

In 1959, When I first saw Simi Valley, California, the population was 8,000. I visited Corriganville Movie Ranch, where Rin Tin Tin was wrapping up filming of a fifth successful TV season. Yet untouched by wildfire, the iconic “Fort Apache” still stood. At the time, I had no idea where I was, but it felt like the Wild West.

In the 1960s, my barber in Burbank purchased a new home in Simi Valley. To travel from Burbank to his new home, he had to navigate the narrow and dangerous Santa Susana Pass. Although paved, the route was unchanged since its origins as a stagecoach road in 1861.

By 1969, when the City of Simi Valley incorporated, new home construction had accelerated dramatically. In 1970, the population had jumped to 60,000. By today’s standards, land was cheap, lumber was plentiful, and construction costs were a fraction of what they are today. In 1979, the 118 Freeway, known as the Ronald Reagan Freeway in Ventura County, surmounted Rocky Peak. That ushered in a new era of high-speed travel between the San Fernando Valley and Simi Valley. Once again, the residential land rush surged. By 1980 the population reached 77,500 and the focus was on construction of single-family ranch style homes.

In 1982, an unheralded event took place at 4267 Roxbury Street in Simi Valley. There, at an unassuming suburban house, Tobe Hooper filmed Poltergeist, a supernatural horror film written by Steven Spielberg. Other than the usual hubbub caused by filming, almost no one remembered that anything out of the ordinary had ever happened on Roxbury Street. In the movie’s most famous scene, child actor Heather O’Rourke said hauntingly, “They’re Back.”

And now, they “are back.” For only $1,376, you can spend the night at the selfsame “Poltergeist House.” After an intense bidding war, sale of the property resulted in it becoming an illegal short-term rental (STR). Now, included with every stay are icy stares from all the neighbors on Roxbury Street. Rest assured that STRs are not legal in Simi Valley, but the City Council has decided to look the other way. Now anyone with the money can buy a house in Simi Valley, rent it out nightly for an outrageous sum, and pocket all the cash. There are no transient occupancy taxes or city registration required.

If you and your “crew” want to stay close to the action, then Simi Valley is the place to be. There are no limits regarding the number of occupants, so invite all your friends to party hearty in Simi Valley. If you plan to “boost” your income while staying here, there is a Home Depot nearby. If you think the Hollywood Hills are hot, you do not know Simi Valley. Here you can rent a suburban home in a formerly quiet neighborhood and remain undetected by local police. If you were not a Simi Valley “booster” before, you will be soon.

Recently, the Ventura County district attorney indicted at least fourteen people for over six hundred retail thefts at Home Depot locations throughout Southern California. Not surprisingly, the Home Depot in Simi Valley was a favorite of the “crew” that stole $10 million in merchandise from the home improvement chain.

Whether your “crew” is looking for “fencing” or just to “boost” your inventory of electrical components, here is the plan. Purchase a prepaid debit card, create a new online persona, and borrow a work truck from friends of your crew. Then, book a short-term rental on a quiet residential street in Simi Valley. Get a good night’s sleep, then wake up early and head for the Home Depot. Even in summer, wear a bulky parka to stash your high value electrical components. When it is time to check out, use your spotter to call and indicate that the coast is clear. Then, head out to your work truck, drive a block away and unload your goods into the tool bins. If you have sufficient time, head for the Oxnard Home Depot, or go right back into the Simi Valley location and repeat the process.

When it is time to head to your home-base in the San Fernando Valley, no matter how hungry you are, do not stop at the In-N-Out Burger at Stearns Street. In the median by the entrance, there is a license plate reader camera that could bring the police running. Just obey the speed limit and drive back over Rocky Peak as if you are a real contractor.

At a recent meeting, the Simi Valley City Council unanimously agreed to provide $70,000 per year to the Simi Valley Chamber of Commerce. This taxpayer money will help promote local businesses and an annual street fair. At the fair, you can rent a space and sell all your recently “boosted” products back to the residents of Simi Valley. Prior to funding this “business promotion business,” the city should require the Chamber to explicitly state its opposition to short-term rentals. The Chamber should instead offer its full support to the legitimate hotels and motels in Simi Valley.

Now in 2025, the 125,000 residents of Simi Valley have a choice to make. Will they allow their City Council to “whistle past the graveyard” that is the Poltergeist theme house? Will the City Council continue to ignore its primary function, which is to provide "a safe and healthy living environment" for its citizens? My bet is that they will kick the can down the road. Soon enough, it will be too late to do more than register and tax a horde of “hotels next door.” After all these years, isn’t Simi Valley still the Wild West?

Email James McGillis

 

Short-Term Rentals Create Havoc in Simi Valley Neighborhoods

On August 4th, 2025, the Simi Valley City Council discussed short-term rentals, or “STRs”, as they are commonly known. While the Council voted to postpone a ban on STRs, thank you, Mayor Dee Dee Cavanaugh, for your lone dissenting vote. Indicating deference for proposed state laws, Council-member Rocky Rhodes said that voting on the issue of STRs is “probably two months premature.”

Research shows that state bills will focus primarily on taxes, transparency, and local control. California Senate Bill 346 authorizes local agencies to require short-term rental facilitators to report information to assist in enforcing the collection of transient occupancy taxes.

Even if Senate Bill 346 passes, the legislature will throw the regulation of STRs back to the individual cities. In the near term, there will be no comprehensive statewide solution.

At the August 4th and August 18 meetings, several residents spoke up, asking the council to enact a full ban on STRs. Two speakers expressed the horror of having a party house in their neighborhood, including noise, trash, and constant disruption. Speaking of “horror,” the “Poltergeist House,” used in filming of the 1982 movie by the same name is now an unregistered STR in Simi Valley. It is so famous that Los Angeles TV station Channel 9 featured it on both their newscast and their website. It was an open invitation to party at what looks like any other home in the neighborhood.

Since the incorporation of Simi Valley in 1969, it has always been known as an “owner occupied,” bedroom community. Now, between seventy and one hundred known STRs operate unregulated and unlawfully throughout the city. With the City of Los Angeles’ current ban on “second home” STRs, the number of scofflaw STRs in Simi Valley could grow exponentially. Chatsworth, which is a neighborhood in Los Angeles is only minutes away via the 118 Freeway.

Once affordable, homes in Simi Valley’s 1960’s Texas Tract now list for $900,000 and above. Each sale of a single-family home removes one more parcel off the list of properties that once were owner-occupied. Each sale to an investor or corporation decreases ongoing supply and drives up prices. With two out of nineteen homes on our block now advertised as STRs, there are no longer any school aged children here. Continuation of this trend could lead to teacher layoffs and school closures.

Simi Valley is rapidly becoming an investment Mecca for those with indifference to the disruption their STR might cause to a neighborhood. I know. For over ten years we lived next to a notorious Simi Valley party house. After calling the police fourteen times regarding wild parties, we lost track. Despite constant noise and disruption, police issued only a single citation. With the police-force already stretched, increased calls regarding raucous parties at STRs will further dilute crime fighting resources. 

Recently, my other next-door neighbor silently became a corporately owned STR. It now features glowing Airbnb reviews for its location in a “quiet neighborhood.” How long will it be before we see rogue parties at that location? Will we ever see owner occupancy or a long-term renter there ever again?

Wherever you may live in Simi Valley, (or anywhere in California) do you want an unregulated and unlicensed business operating next door to you? Should we wait until it is too late to stop the destruction of our beautiful Simi Valley community, in favor of corporate greed and meager additional tax revenue?

Now is the time for the Simi Valley City Council to enact a full ban on Short Term Rentals.

Email James McGillis

 

Ongoing Waste, Fraud and Collusion in the California Solar Industry

In 2012, I wrote a blog article about the “New Industrial Desert.” The article included mention of the Ivanpah Solar-Thermal Station (ISTS), then under construction in Ivanpah Valley, California. Backers touted the ISTS as the newest and most promising technology for large-scale solar energy production. Until commissioning of the ISTS, Israel’s small-scale demonstration plant was the only solar-thermal plant in the world.

BrightSource Energy, Bechtel Corporation, Google (now Alphabet), and our federal government invested $2.2 billion in what turned out to be the world’s largest bird fryer. Estimates are that over 6,000 birds annually fly into the solar flux generated at the ISTS, there to die instantly in flight. Because of the tiny smoke trails the dead birds make in the sky, plant workers call them “streamers.”

Not only were desert bird species decimated by this “new technology,” but 3,500 acres of desert tortoise habitat fell to bulldozers as well. With battery storage and low-cost passive solar arrays just a few years away, it was a case of “birds and tortoises be damned.” At that time, Southern California Edison (SCE) and Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) were racing to “go green” with energy production. PG& E signed a fifteen-year contract to buy electrical production from Units One and Three. SCE contracted for power generated by Unit Two.

Not wanting to risk financial exposure, both Google’s $168 million investment and Bechtel’s undisclosed investment in Ivanpah garnered a $1.3 billion Department of Energy loan guarantee. In other words, you and I, the U.S. taxpayers will now pay for this incipient failure.

Over the years, I authored several articles about the Ivanpah project on this blog. As a lifelong environmentalist, I was amazed at the reckless speed in which this half-baked idea materialized. I will not detail all my criticisms here, but a quick reading of my previous articles will update you.

Now, in March 2025, NRG Energy (which sounds redundant to me), is the current operator of the ISTS. Recently, it announced that Units One and Three would cease operation in 2026. Under an undisclosed agreement, PG&E will terminate its power purchases before the end of its fifteen-year contract. SCE, for its part, continues to buy overpriced electrical power from Unit Two.

In 2018, faulty SCE equipment caused Southern California’s Woolsey Fire, creating liability for property damage of $2.2 billion. As of this writing SCE transmission lines are under investigation for causing the January 2025 Eaton Fire. Is SCE whistling past the “graveyard of birds” known as Ivanpah? They are afraid to take a financial write-down on their ill-conceived purchase agreement with ISTS.

Even as Ivanpah became a financial and environmental disaster, the federal government continued promoting construction of passive “solar farms” throughout the Desert Southwest. In the Ivanpah/Primm Valley, the Stateline Solar Farm and the Silver State North/South projects have come online since 2016. The three projects combined, all within view of the ISTS, have a footprint similar in size to the failing solar-thermal plant.

To compare net energy production between the solar-thermal plant and its three passive solar neighbors is an exercise in frustration. Since the ISTS requires a gas-fired generator to get it started each morning, the net energy produced by the plant is far lower than the amount it supplies to the grid. Meanwhile, since the addition of 3,500 acres of passive solar near the ISTS, no other solar-thermal plant has materialized anywhere in the world. If BrightSource, Google, Bechtel, and the federal government had waited less than a decade, the ISTS would never have happened.

In California, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) continues to promote large scale “solar farms” throughout the Mojave Desert. This ongoing industrialization of the desert will require additional electrical transmission lines and further destruction of fragile habitat.

In 2023, the PUC ended “net metering”, which allowed rooftop solar owners to buy and sell electricity to the grid at market rates. Newer home connections buy at full price but sell excess power to the grid for a pittance. Now, the PUC has plans to scuttle net metering, even on older rooftop solar installations. To add contractual insult to financial injury, the PUC plans to allow utilities to charge all rooftop solar owners additional fees. These fees shall be for the honor of connecting to a costly, inefficient, and often dangerous electrical grid.

To finance large-scale additions to the New Industrial Desert, investor-owned utilities, major corporations, and land developers will rely on those fees. As such, the unelected California PUC will continue their financial punishment of all homeowners who have installed rooftop solar.

After thirteen years studying the Ivanpah Solar-Thermal Station, here is my prediction for its future. The reflectors, towers, and their attendant infrastructure will all go to a desert landfill. In its place will arise 3,500 acres of passive solar arrays, providing electrical power to the grid. Next time someone tells you that they have a  revolutionary way of producing New Energy, be skeptical of their assertions.

Email James McGillis

 

Fodor's Complete Guide to the Soviet Union - 1988-2025

In 1948, English author George Orwell authored his dystopian novel and cautionary tale, “1984.” Thematically, it focuses on the consequences of totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and repression of people and behaviors within society. Set in the future thirty-six years hence, it presaged conditions in the Soviet Union, which was then only twenty-two years old. In the Stalinist era, which lasted until 1953, every horror of Orwell’s imagination had come true for the citizens of the Soviet Union (USSR).

The Berlin Wall, a symbol of the Cold War, fell in November 1989. By 1991, the old Soviet Union was in complete collapse. The German Democratic Republic, also known as Eastern Germany, also demised. The Federal Republic of Germany then took full control over both West and East Germany. In Russia, there was an incipient spate democracy. An opening to western ideas, institutions and trade gave great hope to the people of the former Soviet republics. There was a rapid rise in health, wealth, and the general standard of living throughout the former Soviet Union.

On December 31, 1999, following the resignation of President Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin became Acting President. He was first elected President of Russia on March 26, 2000, and then re-elected in 2004, 2012, 2018, and 2024. In 2005, Putin told his nation that the collapse of the Soviet empire “was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.” Secretly and then more openly as time passed, he sought to reconstitute Russia as a world power. His plan was to regain hegemony over all lands that had ever been under Russian control. Under his direction, Russia conducted warfare in Chechnya, Georgia, and Syria, to name a few.

In February 2014, Russia invaded the Crimean Peninsula, then and now an internationally recognized region of Ukraine. In March 2014, Russia officially annexed Crimea. Eight years later, on February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, proper, with the goal of reintegrating the entire country as part of Russia. By November of 2024, Russia had gained significant territory, but had lost almost 750,000 men, killed, wounded, or captured. Some analysts put the casualty total closer to one million. The Russian economy was in tatters, with the exchange rate between the Russian ruble and the U.S. dollar falling below one hundred to one. In other words, the Russian ruble was worth less than one U.S. cent.

On June 27, 2024, the U.S. State Department, issued a travel advisory, which said, in part, “Do not travel to Russia due to the consequences of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russian military forces. U.S. citizens may face harassment or detention by Russian security officials, arbitrary enforcement of local laws, limited flights into and out of Russia, and the possibility of terrorism. The U.S. Embassy has limited ability to assist U.S. citizens in Russia.”

Ironically, well before the 1989 fall of the Soviet Union, travel to many parts of the USSR were open to U.S. and European travelers. Although the Beatles never played in the Soviet Union, Elton John received a visa and became the first “out-and-out rock artist” to play there. Sir Elton’s 1985 album, “Ice on Fire” featured the song, Nikita. In the accompanying video, English athlete, actor, and model Anya Major played the role of a beautiful female Russian soldier.

Wearing white tank-top and red shorts it is Major who hammer-throws the sledgehammer into the screen of Big Brother in Apple's famous 1984 Macintosh commercial. The unidentified “Big Brother” in the Ridley Scott directed commercial was not the Soviet Union. Rather, it was tech entrepreneur Bill Gates. His company, Microsoft, then held the dominant operating system in the emerging personal computer field. Steve Jobs of Apple fame had commissioned the television commercial as a rallying cry against the perceived tyranny of Microsoft. Orwell, himself died in 1950, so no one knows what he might have thought about themes in his seminal book appearing as black comedy in a later television commercial. My guess is that he would have appreciated the irony.

The travel guide known as Fodor’s issued its “Fodor’s Soviet Union 1988” in English, targeted toward Western travelers. Among other sections, it featured “Ukraine and Moldova – Breadbasket of the USSR.” and “The Crimea and the Black Sea – From Odessa to Batumi.” One example of travel opportunities available to Westerners in 1988, included Ukraine’s regional capital of Kherson. In 1988, Fodor’s said, “Kherson is your final stop on the Dnieper River. Founded as a fortress in 1788, it is both a river and a seaport. From here you can visit the new town of Novaya Lakovka and see the Kakhovka Dam and its hydraulic power plant. This is where you leave the Dnieper River, but you can take a 300-seat hydrofoil to Odessa, which is only two hours’ ride.”

In 1991, Ukraine declared independence from the USSR. Although uncontested at that time, in 1996 Ukraine agreed to return its entire nuclear arsenal to Russia, including an estimated 1,900 strategic warheads, 176 intercontinental ballistic missiles, and forty-four strategic bombers. In exchange for receiving the third most potent nuclear arsenal in the world, Russia offered debt forgiveness, plus economic and security assurances to Ukraine.

In March 2022, early in the invasion of Ukraine, Kherson fell to Russian forces, without a fight. The fall of Kherson was due to treachery on the part of several local officials. On November 11, 2022, the Armed Forces of Ukraine wrested control and liberated the city of Kherson from Russian control.

In the early hours of June 6, 2023, the Kakhovka Dam failed, causing extensive flooding along the lower Dnieper River. At that time, the dam was under the control of the Russian military, which had seized it in the early days of the conflict. Although Russian authorities have denied the accusation, many experts agree that Russian forces blew up a segment of the dam to hinder a planned Ukrainian counter-offensive. What resulted was an environmental and human disaster. Hundreds were killed, along with the flooding of towns and agricultural fields.

Because of its proximity to the active war front, Kherson remains vulnerable to Russian artillery, drone, and missile attacks. For example, on October 1, 2024, Reuters reported that "six people were killed when Russian forces struck the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson. Another six people were wounded in the artillery strike on a central bus stop, prosecutors said in a statement. Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said the strike also hit a central market while residents were shopping." On December 30, 2024, Russian troops shelled thirty settlements in the Kherson region. One person was killed and four were injured, as reported by Prokudin.

In 1988, westerners could travel to the U.S.S.R without fear of harassment or intimidation, and many did. Although the country was not free by Western standards, it was accessible. After 1989, the country was still not a place of free expression, but western tourism and investment were welcome. Western corporations and banking enterprises flocked to Russia and its former vassal states. With a combined total population of 290 million inhabitants, the importation of Western goods and services set off a period of great economic growth.

In 2014, with the invasion of Crimea, the international political and financial climate soured. Several Russian companies and individuals were sanctioned, but there was no military response from the Western powers. Russian natural gas and oil continued to flow unabated to Western Europe. Until April 2023, contracts between Russian oil companies and their U.S. counterparts allowed Russian oil deliveries to California refineries. U.S. producer Phillips 66 plans to idle its 139-Mb/d Los Angeles Refinery in late 2025. Although unstated in official announcements, loss of crude oil supplies from Russia was a major factor in reduced output and profits at the refinery.

In an unexpected diplomatic turnabout, on July 18, 2019, the Donald J. Trump administration withheld $250 million of U.S. military aid to Ukraine. Seven days later, President Trump conducted a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during which he asked Zelensky to collaborate with his then lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and U.S. Attorney General William Barr. During the call, Trump pressed Zelensky to investigate Ukrainian business dealings of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

By December 2019, after a formal House of Representatives inquiry found that he had solicited foreign interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, Donald Trump's first of two impeachments took place. He was accused of seeking Russian help in his re-election bid and then obstructing the inquiry itself by telling his administration officials to ignore subpoenas for documents and testimony.

The February 2022 the Russian “Special Military Operation” intended to take all of Ukraine under Russian control launched with a thirty mile traffic jam of Russian military equipment. According to reports at the time, the operation was expected to last between three and ten days. Today, as I author this article, we have passed the 1,000th day of an all out and illegal war against the country and people of Ukraine.

I think back now to how naive many Westerners were and continue to be about the threat that Russia represents to world order. In 1988, I could have booked flights, hotels, and an excursion on a 300-hundred seat hydrofoil in Soviet dominated Ukraine. Today, U.S. travel and commerce within Russia or a simple tourist visa to Ukraine are not an option. For as long as the current Czar of Russia rules, he will continue his illegal war in Ukraine. The only person for which the war remains necessary is Mr. Putin, himself.

Slava Ukraini.

Email James McGillis

 

Moab Memories - The Gemini Bridges Road 2006

September 26, 2006 - Despite the threat of rain between Dead Horse Point and the La Sal Range in Moab, Utah, we decided to head home via the back-country road past Gemini Bridges. On paper, it would be a shortcut, but in reality, it was a real challenge. In those days, I thought my Nissan Titan truck could tackle any four-wheel drive road. One road was as good as another, or so I thought. I have since learned that nothing could be further from the truth. Some tracks are good for a full-sized truck, others for only a Jeep. As the roughness of a road increases, it takes a specialized rig or even a motorcycle to conquer some paths. As the afternoon wore on into twilight, we learned that this was a road fit for specialized vehicles not for a normal light duty 4X4 truck.

Identified on maps as the Gemini Bridges Road, those romantic sounding land-forms became the object of our attention. The road down from the high plateau at Dead Horse Point started smooth enough. The easy trail lulled us into thinking that this would be an easy jaunt. Soon enough, we spotted signs identifying the Gemini Bridges, just a bit to the east of our dirt track. As we approached the bridges, we could see that rampant use of four-wheel drive vehicles and motorcycles had torn up the land and created a dead zone of denuded rock. All safety barriers and informational signage had fallen prey to marauders.

In the wild, an arch is a continuous sweep of stone that allows passage beneath. A bridge is similar, but requires that a watercourse, either seasonal or permanent, flow beneath the land-form. The twin rock bridges (hence the moniker Gemini) are hard to photograph from up top, where the trail led us. In the accompanying photo, I am standing on the first bridge, shooting down through the arch of the second bridge and the dry watercourse below. If you visit there, watch your step.

After visiting the bridges, we realized that the light was fading, and that rain threatened. Still, the topography was so fascinating; we stopped often to capture photos in the late afternoon light. Strange, anthropomorphic shapes seemed to arise from the rocks. Far below us, standing in the late afternoon sunlight, was an enormous stone bird, standing erect by the trail. In the photo below, you can see it standing out against the landscape. More about "him" soon.

Guarding the lower reaches of the canyon was a cold-blooded looking serpent. Standing vertically against one wall of the canyon into which we were descending, it stood as a warning of the rough road ahead. By that time, we were traveling downstream in a long dry wash. Having heard stories of thunderstorms above creating flash floods in such canyons, we began to hurry along. Hurrying there was a relative term, since the terrain became rockier and harder to pass.

Soon we came upon what we later learned is “Gooney Bird Rock.” He, for I assumed it was a “he” himself, guarded the lower canyon. In all my research no one has mentioned how tall the Bird is, but he appears to be about 150 feet tall. Later, I learned that it is legal to climb this iconic piece of Wingate sandstone. With the over-climbed demise of the once famous Cobra, farther up the Colorado River, I am amazed that Gooney Bird Rock has not received proper protection from hordes of climbers.

Regardless of erosion and lack of protection, Gooney Bird Rock was a remarkable sight. As the late September sun shone upon its full height, the colors of the sandstone and the filtered light of the sun combined to make him glow in ethereal tones. Realizing that our own light would soon fail, we headed down the trail toward the highway far below.

As I have said before, scale is hard to judge in the canyons. As the Sun set, three Jeeps roared by, heading up canyon. Here, in the adjacent photo, the first Jeep is climbing the roughest and the steepest part of the road. To our astonishment, the Jeeps headed up trail as if on a Sunday drive. In 2006, Jeeps were smaller and simpler than the ones we now see in 2024. Those earlier models could easily glide over rough terrain and the small obstacles of the Gemini Bridges Road. In fact, Moab has been the proving grounds for new Jeep models for many years.

When the Sun finally set, the canyons became dark, and photography became secondary to getting safely down to the highway. Near the end of the trail, the road hugged the side of a rocky mountainside, clinging to a narrow rock-ledge. When I say “rock,” there was not a spec of soil or sand to drive upon. Only the shape of a single-track trail was discernible in the headlights of my truck. Since there was no turnout, we hoped not to meet any late arrivals traveling up canyon.

After an arduous end to what we thought would be a simple jaunt, we finally approached the gathering point near the railroad tracks at Seven Mile Canyon. By then, twilight had faded behind the massive redrocks canyon walls. By the time we started on the short highway trip back to the Moab Rim CamPark in Moab, nightfall surrounded us.

In those days, the Moab Pile was yet untouched by a massive removal project we now know as UMTRA. As such it completely hid the lights of Moab from our view. In 2024, the removal of the Moab Pile has once again created a full view of Moab as one passes by the entrance to Arches National Park.

From the red rock canyons near Moab, Utah in the year 2006, the Gooney Bird says, “Bye, bye.”

This is Part Two of a two-part article. To read Part One, click HERE.

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