Hackwhackers: California wildfires

Showing posts with label California wildfires. Show all posts

Monday, February 3, 2025

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

After nearly a month of destruction, smoke, and ash, the Eaton and Palisades fires that once ensconced Los Angeles have been fully contained, according to Cal Fire.
The two fires sparked on Jan. 7 during a historic wind event and swept through the Pacific Palisades and Altadena, killing at least 29, burning over 37,000 acres, and leaving destroyed homes and livelihoods in their wake.
"The conditions, that night, were unbearable," LA County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said during an interview with 60 Minutes. "It was a devil wind that came out, you know, that extreme Santa Ana wind condition."
The two blazes, currently under investigation, are the second and third most destructive wildfires in California history, according to Cal Fire.
Pacific Coast Highway is set to see a limited reopening on Monday, with one lane of traffic each way and a reduced speed limit, according to an announcement by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. Checkpoints in the area will remain in place, with responsibilities transferring from the Los Angeles Police Department to the California Highway Patrol and National Guard.
The announcement said continued checkpoints came as a response to concerns the community had over safety in the burn area. The city had originally planned to remove the checkpoints on Sunday, according to the Los Angeles Times.
"This plan secures the Palisades and eases the strain on LAPD, whose ability to respond across L.A. has been impacted for nearly one month," Bass said in the announcement. "My priority continues to be rebuilding the Palisades as rapidly and safely as possible."...

Thanks to our genius Malignant Fascist turning on that giant faucet, no doubt. It certainly had nothing to do with the heroic and valiant efforts of the firefighters (some from Canada and Mexico) who battled the fires, amirite?!

The bad:

As part of President Donald Trump’s new war on diversity programs, conservatives are renewing a long-running legal battle over the meaning of the Constitution’s guarantee of “equal protection” that dates back to the post-Civil War era.
Trump, as previewed in one executive order purporting to target diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, is seeking in some instances to overturn decades-old policies aimed at protecting and empowering minority groups, both within the federal government and outside.
His administration is also likely to radically change the federal government’s enforcement priorities by using laws enacted during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and ’60s to target diversity programs.
At the same time, conservative groups are pursuing court cases challenging policies they view as unlawfully promoting racial preferences. The Trump administration could throw its weigh behind some of those efforts.
With a 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court, which has already ended the consideration of race in college admissions, the Trump administration is likely to have a sympathetic audience when cases on race-related issues arise.
“It’s shocking and appalling what this administration is doing,” said Jin Hee Lee, a lawyer at the Legal Defense Fund, the group that won landmark cases during the civil rights era under the leadership of future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
“I would hope that the Supreme Court, regardless of their ideologies and so forth, would recognize that this is antithetical to the rule of law,” she added. [snip]
Writ large, the fight is over what exactly the 14th Amendment’s promise of “equal protection of the laws” means. It has been raging since the amendment was ratified in 1868, when the Reconstruction period, which progressives hoped would usher in a new era of racial equality, was swiftly followed by the Jim Crow era, in which Southern states enforced racial segregation by law...

The Republican Supreme Court has not only given the Malignant Fascist immunity for "official acts" while in office, it has also declared we live in a colorblind society, so no racism, no problem! As for the "rule of law," that ended right after the MF finished taking the oath of office (without his hand on the Bible).

The ugly:

US President Donald Trump has said he will cut all future funding to South Africa over allegations that it was confiscating land and "treating certain classes of people very badly".
Last month, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law a bill that allows land seizures without compensation in certain circumstances.
Land ownership has long been a contentious issue in South Africa with most private farmland owned by white people, 30 years after the end of the racist system of apartheid.
There have been continuous calls for the government to address land reform and deal with the past injustices of racial segregation.
South Africa's president responded to Trump by post on X: "South Africa is a constitutional democracy that is deeply rooted in the rule of law, justice and equality. The South African government has not confiscated any land."
He added that the only funding South Africa received from the US was through the health initiative Pepfar, which represented "17% of South Africa's HIV/Aids programme".
The US allocated about $440m (£358m) in assistance to South Africa in 2023, according to US government data.
Elon Musk, who was born and grew up in South Africa and is now a Trump adviser, has also joined in the debate, saying the new law discriminated against white people...

Once again, South African fascist and illegal immigrant co-President Elon Musk (a.k.a, Kekius Maximus, Maximus Anus) is getting the MF to dance to his tune. The MF likely doesn't know where South Africa is, even when you spot him the "south." But, given a chance to bully a foreign country and damage American interests abroad, the bulbous bronzed buffoon will take it. Also, you think Musk has investments in South African land that are being threatened by those he likely considers Kaffirs, we ask rhetorically?

Monday, January 13, 2025

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly -- LA Fires Edition

The good:

Many things went wrong for Aaron Samson on Tuesday morning. But a few lucky breaks – and the kindness of two strangers – allowed him and his 83-year-old father-in-law, Ron, to escape the deadly Palisades fire as it swiftly closed in around them.
After getting an alert about the impending wildfire on his phone, Samson sprang into action at Ron’s home in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, where the retired cardiologist had lived for nearly 50 years. Samson grabbed clothes and medication for his father-in-law, who has Parkinson’s disease and was recovering from a recent surgery, and texted his own wife and kids, who were back home in Berkeley.
But the situation was surreal and chaotic, and Samson wasn’t sure what to do next.
“Your mind’s not thinking [correctly],” he said. “I’m thinking that we’re gonna be gone, and I haven’t fed him, he hadn’t eaten yet. So I fried two eggs. You know, there’s a fire going on, and I fried two eggs. I’m like, ‘You need to eat!’”
Samson then called 911 and an Uber, hoping someone could help them, without success. A neighbor happened to be leaving the empty neighborhood and gave them a ride, but they quickly met deadlocked traffic as other frantic people streamed out of their homes. As the fire neared the road – close enough that Samson could feel the heat from inside the car – police officers started telling drivers to abandon their vehicles and flee on foot.
Samson, Ron and their neighbor got out and trekked down the steep hill, embers flying into their faces and thick black smoke choking the air. Ron pushed a walker unsteadily. At one point, Ron told Samson that if the fire caught up to them, he should leave him behind and save himself. But they hurried on, continuing along the apocalyptic-looking road for 10 or 15 minutes.
It was then that Andrew Lin, a stranger, spotted them trudging through the smoke. Behind them, burning palm trees were exploding. Samson and Ron seemed to be some of the very last people to come down the hill. Though Lin had been in the midst of trying to drive back to his own home in the Palisades to save his dog and two cats, it was a no-brainer to stop and take the duo the rest of the way to safety, he said.
“I was going that way, they were going this way,” Lin said. “But it was just like, ‘OK, everything just exploded around us, get in the car. I don’t know who you are, but just get in the car.’”...

Sometimes the worst brings out the best in people. There are many more stories like this of people helping people survive. Then, there are those who don't feel the suffering and only want to use tragedies to promote their agendas (more on that below). By the way,

As for Lin and Samson, in the days after their dramatic escape from the Palisades, they’ve been texting each other brief fire updates.
Lin and Samson’s father-in-law later learned that both of their homes had burned to the ground. But incredibly, Lin’s three pets survived; a fellow neighbor grabbed the dog first, and the two cats were rescued by a different neighbor within an hour of Lin’s house burning down.
On Friday, Lin texted Samson with the somber update that his home was gone – but he also sent a photo of his cats.
“The cats are safe and they’re alive,” Samson said. “Again, a glimmer of hope among the ashes.”

Unfortunately, harrowing situations like this are still occurring in the Los Angeles region.

The bad:

The death toll from the wildfires ravaging the Los Angeles area rose to 16 as crews battled to cut off the spreading blazes before potentially strong winds return that could push the flames toward some of the city’s most famous landmarks.
Five of the deaths were attributed to the Palisades Fire and 11 resulted from the Eaton Fire, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said in a statement Saturday evening.
The previous number of confirmed fatalities before Saturday was 11, but officials said they expected that figure to rise as teams with cadaver dogs conduct systematic grid searches in leveled neighborhoods. Authorities have established a center where people can report the missing.
Joseph Everett, assistant chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department’s west bureau, said it has been difficult to see such destruction in an area where he, his father and grandfather all have worked as firefighters.
“It resonates with me heavily,” he said at a community meeting Saturday night. “Please be patient as we are up there … we’re still aggressively fighting fire out there.”
There were fears that winds could move the fires toward the J. Paul Getty Museum and the University of California, Los Angeles, while new evacuation warnings left more homeowners on edge.
By Saturday evening, Cal Fire reported the Palisades, Eaton, Kenneth and Hurst fires had consumed about 62 square miles (160 square kilometers), an area larger than San Francisco. The Palisades and Eaton fires accounted for 59 square miles (nearly 153 square kilometers).
In a briefing posted online Saturday evening, Michael Traum of the California Office of Emergency Services said 150,000 people in Los Angeles County were under evacuation orders, with more than 700 people taking refuge in nine shelters.
Crews from California and nine other states are part of the ongoing response that includes 1,354 fire engines, 84 aircraft and more than 14,000 personnel, including newly arrived firefighters from Mexico, he said.
With Cal Fire reporting containment of the Palisades Fire at 11% and the Eaton Fire at 15% on Saturday night, the fight is set to continue.
“Weather conditions are still critical and another round of strong winds is expected starting Monday,” Traum said...

If you can, please consider donating to one of these organizations providing emergency help for victims of the wildfires.

The ugly:

Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) on Friday sounded off about his “problem” with California’s policies as he threatened to withhold disaster relief aid amid the devastating Los Angeles wildfires.
“If they want the money, then there should be consequences where they have to change their policies,” said Davidson in an interview with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo.
He later added, “I mean, we support the people that are plagued by disaster but we have to put pressure on the California government to change course here.”
Davidson, moments earlier, declared that officials “need to address” the fires before taking issue with the state’s forest management.
“All these things that they’re doing are making it far easier for fires to grow and spread and be huge,” he claimed of the blazes in Los Angeles that have killed at least 16 people and burned over 12,000 structures with about 57,000 more still at risk.
Right-wing media figures have recently pushed misleading claims that California’s “bad forest management” is to blame for the fires while ignoring how climate change impacts measures to prevent the spread of fires, Media Matters for America reported.
The bad forest management talk marks an apparent regurgitation of right-wing claims from 2018 when then-President Donald Trump blamed California’s Camp Fire — the most destructive and deadliest in the state’s history — on “poor” policy.
“Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!” Trump wrote on social media at the time. [snip]
Davidson’s policy “problem” adds to a right-wing blame game for the recent Los Angeles fires which includes everything from diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives to — in Trump’s case — California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) wanting to protect an “essentially worthless fish” species, the delta smelt.
Newsom, in an effort to fight back against “misinformation” on Saturday, launched a page on his website to address a “lie” that the fires are caused by “mismanagement of forest lands.”...

But, as we all should know by now after decades of the Republican firehose of politically- motivated lies, those lies are halfway around the world while the truth is just getting its boots on... Malignant pustules like Davidson and this tosser are meanwhile just champing at the bit to use imaginary "policy problems" to bring retribution to a deep blue area of a deep blue state.

Thursday, January 9, 2025

News Bits (Bites?)

A few items of note this morning.

Special Counsel report

Special counsel Jack Smith’s highly anticipated report on his charging decisions in Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021, election subversion case will be made public, federal prosecutors said Wednesday, but the same cannot be said of information underpinning Trump’s classified documents case.
Details from that now-dismissed classified documents case should be held back from public view, federal prosecutors said Wednesday, because litigation is still underway in Florida against Trump’s valet and his Mar-a-Lago estate property manager.
The disclosure was made in federal appellate court by Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton in response to a recent request from Waltine Nauta, Trump’s valet, and Carlos De Oliveira, his property manager, to stop the publication entirely. Boynton said this was unnecessary.
Smith, he wrote, already recommended to Attorney General Merrick Garland that to “avoid any risk of prejudice” to Nauta and De Oliveira, it would be best to release only information about the Jan. 6 charging decisions so long as criminal proceedings are pending against Nauta and De Oliveria.
The report will, however, be available for private review by members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees... (our emphasis)

Getting the January 6 insurrection part of the report out in public is the big score, and one of the reasons why the MF most likely has been kicking up all kinds of bonkers distractions (the other reason being imminent decisions on his sentencing on 34 fraud counts by the State of New York; update on that here). He knows it will be a powerful rebuttal to his and MAGA world's ongoing efforts to whitewash the insurrection and the MF's key role in it.

California wildfires

Walls of fire devoured neighborhoods, forcing tens of thousands of residents to flee for their lives. But as a cataclysm fueled by windstorms charred swathes of Los Angeles, Donald Trump spotted an opportunity.

The president-elect responded to six massive blazes by reopening his long-term feud with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, landing an early jab on a Democratic governor and a state likely to emerge as a major opponent to his second term plans.

Trump and Newsom have clashed bitterly in the past, including over fire prevention, environmental policies, climate change, green vehicles and immigration.

And the incoming president wasted no time in laying the blame for simultaneous wildfires raging in the Los Angeles area that have so far killed at least five people...

Of course, the MF would be lying and playing crude politics with the tragedy. He's an irresponsible, narcissistic sociopath, after all, who has taken every opportunity in the past to play politics with tragedies when there's a Democratic officeholder involved. (Here's a fact check on the MF's claims, if it matters to you.) Meanwhile, a real President is responding with FEMA aid and surging U.S. Navy resources to help contain the fires.

Greenland, fires, January 6

Some satiric relief from Desi Lydic, because we need it.