California Wildfires

[PUB78 1,523]

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5076027-donald-trump-gavin-newsom-california-wildfires/

No doubt aided by the Liberal lunacy in this state. Gavin Newsom is a menace to society. His arrogance will do him in.

[PUB78 1,523]

And more information.

https://www.indiatoday.in/world/us-news/story/palisades-wildfire-california-governor-gavin-newsom-shrugs-responsibility-for-empty-fire-hydrants-says-locals-will-figure-it-out-2662391-2025-01-09

[TexasTiger 15,953]

This is what the so called Conservative movement has become. During the middle of a crisis the movement media looks for the blame angle to exploit and hits it hard. The supposed conservative leaders point fingers and complain, spread disinformation, etc. There’s always plenty of time after a crisis for clear, thoughtful assessment and critique. So called conservatives no longer give a damn about the people involved. They just savor the opportunity.

[homersapien 12,851]

Falsehoods around the L.A. fires are proliferating on the right

Anything to keep the realities of climate change from spreading.

Philip Bump

There is nothing political about the wildfires that have annihilated thousands of buildings around Los Angeles this week, with two exceptions.

The first is that California and Los Angeles are run by leaders from the Democratic Party, meaning that anything bad that happens in those places happened on their watch.

The second is that the conflagrations are in part a function of an unusually hot, dry period in the region — precisely the sort of extreme that scientists who study climate change expect to be more common as the world warms. The world was probably warmer during 2024 than it has been at any point in recorded history. There’s no real question that climate change contributed to what’s happening in Los Angeles.

Over the past two decades, though, climate change has gone from a peripheral concern of scientists to a global problem to an issue that’s viewed through the lens of political partisanship. Taking action to combat climate change enjoyed a brief moment of bipartisan support, a unity that collapsed as Republican politicians leaned into rhetoric (stoked by fossil fuel companies) that downplayed the risk and accused the left of seeking to restrict American freedom rather than carbon dioxide emissions.

The result by this point is that any declaration that the various examples of climate-change-linked disasters as being climate-change-linked is seen as a left-wing talking point. So the right, across its mouthpiece television channels and social media bubble, lines up for partisan warfare.

As is nearly always the case at this point, President-elect Donald Trump led the charge. In multiple social media posts, he accused California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) — a longtime Republican foil — of having failed to prevent or control the fires. He accused Newsom of declining to sign a “water restoration declaration” aimed at diverting water from Northern to Southern California. He said that there was “no water for fire hydrants, not firefighting planes,” presumably meaning “or” rather than “not.”

That line about the hydrants is, like many of the attacks that have unfolded over the past 24 hours, rooted in something real. Hydrants near some of the blazes that are ripping through neighborhoods around the city have failed to produce water. On CNN, an official with the Los Angeles Fire Department explained that this was because so much water had been pulled from local reservoirs that were intended to battle house fires, not wildfires. Other experts have noted that high demand can cause pressure in the system of hydrants to drop, making it harder to extract the water.

But this is a political fight, not a debate over resources and systems. So Trump and his allies cherry-pick things that are unrelated to the struggle to contain the flames and present them as the real reasons that houses are burning down, particularly if those unrelated things serve as indictments of other perceived elements of left-wing politics.

We should begin by noting that most of the criticisms — about the hydrants or water diversion or the LAFD itself — have nothing to do with why the fires erupted and spread so quickly. Instead, hurricane-force Santa Ana winds quickly spread small fires across areas that were unusually dry. Wildfires have long been a challenge in California; what’s unfolding in Los Angeles is an overlap of factors that increase the risks of wildfires spreading.

So when actor James Woods, a prominent voice on right-wing social media, declares that the fires are because of “liberal idiots like Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass,” saying one of them “doesn’t understand the first thing about fire management and the other can’t fill the water reservoirs,” he is incorrect. For example — and in contrast to Trump’s claim about diverting water from Northern California that was aimed at agriculture, not firefighting — reservoirs in Southern California are at or above historic levels. That’s good news for firefighting aircraft that need the water to douse flames, except that those high winds prevented them from flying for several hours.

It doesn’t matter, either, that Trump complained to Joe Rogan about California’s wildfires shortly before the election. He made the same claims about water that he did this week (and that he has for years now). He also reiterated claims about the need to engage in the herculean task of raking dry leaves out of forests — claims that are irrelevant to fires that have destroyed tightly packed residential areas.

It is also not the case that the LAFD was hampered by having donated a small amount of material to the country of Ukraine three years ago. Donald Trump Jr. shared this story with a harrumph, given that it sloppily loops another left-coded political issue into the fire discussion. But news reports about what was contributed make clear that it was a smattering of surplus gear and that not much was sent.

It’s not the case that LAFD “prioritized DEI over saving lives and homes,” as Trump aide Elon Musk wrote on Wednesday. “DEI,” which stands for “diversity, equity and inclusion,” is a recent target of the right. Referring to programs aimed at ensuring diverse representation within organizations, it has become a shorthand for the idea, popular on the pro-Trump right, that White people are being disadvantaged and discriminated against. By now, declarations like Musk’s — that non-White hires are necessarily less competent — somehow land without raising eyebrows.

A photograph showing LAFD Chief Kristin M. Crowley alongside two other women was lifted up by prominent right-wing voices, including on Fox News, as evidence that the department’s leadership was all women — and therefore a function of diversity efforts.

Crowley worked her way over the ranks for the past 22 years, as her official biography explains. Most of the leaders of the LAFD, meanwhile, are men.

None of this has anything to do with the point. It is not the case that a small fire began in the hills above Los Angeles and a recently hired, incompetent firefighter was standing there spending 45 minutes trying to figure out how to work the hydrant — her wrench having been dispatched to Kyiv — before discovering that the only thing it produced was a note reading, “Thanks for the water. — San Francisco.” The hills were hot and dry and the winds were fierce and a small fire became multiple big ones very, very quickly.

That reality isn’t going to get you many shares on social media or keep your cable news audience angry at your enemies, though. So the eye-rolling about “climate change” — here we go again! — becomes an effort for other explanations, however disconnected. It’s 2020 election denialism wearing a different outfit.

Meanwhile, at least five people have died in the fires.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/09/los-angeles-fires-politics/

Edited Thursday at 05:22 PM by homersapien

[I_M4_AU 9,769]

1 hour ago, TexasTiger said:

This is what the so called Conservative movement has become. During the middle of a crisis the movement media looks for the blame angle to exploit and hits it hard. The supposed conservative leaders point fingers and complain, spread disinformation, etc. There’s always plenty of time after a crisis for clear, thoughtful assessment and critique. So called conservatives no longer give a damn about the people involved. They just savor the opportunity.

I basically said the same thing about the NOLA attack with regard to securing the streets from traffic.  You seemed to have just the opposite stance than you implied here.  Shoe on the other foot I guess.

[TexasTiger 15,953]

1 hour ago, I_M4_AU said:

I basically said the same thing about the NOLA attack with regard to securing the streets from traffic.  You seemed to have just the opposite stance than you implied here.  Shoe on the other foot I guess.

My comments on securing Bourbon street required no falsehoods, distortions or even speculation.

https://www.nola.com/news/crime_police/bourbon-street-attacker-police-car/article_286a6be0-cc81-11ef-9800-03615eb96ade.amp.html

[CoffeeTiger 6,484]

Trump doing what he has always done. Point fingers and 'tweet' away while the adults deal with the crisis. 

 

Can't wait for 4 more years of this.  

 

[JerryAU 2,129]

What has the state of California done in the last 2 decades to prepare, manage and control the fires?  Cali has atrocious forest fires every single year. Have they put plans in place to prevent the spread of fires or control & manage the underbrush & vegetation in order to prevent these annual disasters from taking innocent lives and valuable property? 

[I_M4_AU 9,769]

22 minutes ago, TexasTiger said:

My comments on securing Bourbon street required no falsehoods, distortions or even speculation.

https://www.nola.com/news/crime_police/bourbon-street-attacker-police-car/article_286a6be0-cc81-11ef-9800-03615eb96ade.amp.html

Missed the point I see.  

[I_M4_AU 9,769]

22 minutes ago, CoffeeTiger said:

Can't wait for 4 more years of this.

We agree.  4 years of pointing out the failures of Dems and Dem run cities, states and municipalities.  We have a turning of the tides so to speak.

[TexasTiger 15,953]

16 minutes ago, I_M4_AU said:

Missed the point I see.  

If your point was it “was in the middle of a crisis” you were flat out wrong. It was the aftermath of the crisis. That crisis was over. The fires are raging. You have zero grasp of analogies. You prove it repeatedly.

[JMWATS 527]

The city of LA recently reduced the fire and police department budgets. However, the city is fully funding the Climate Emergency Mobilization Office (CEMO) to respond to climate change, fully funding the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) efforts to invest in renewable energy, and fully funding LAs Green New Deal to achieve carbon neutrality.

Priorities, right? Who needs public safety when we can brag about being carbon-neutral while the city burns and crime rates rise? Truly visionary!

 

[auburnatl1 7,153]

19 minutes ago, JMWATS said:

The city of LA recently reduced the fire and police department budgets. However, the city is fully funding the Climate Emergency Mobilization Office (CEMO) to respond to climate change, fully funding the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) efforts to invest in renewable energy, and fully funding LAs Green New Deal to achieve carbon neutrality.

Priorities, right? Who needs public safety when we can brag about being carbon-neutral while the city burns and crime rates rise? Truly visionary!

 

Some fair points.

[TexasTiger 15,953]

36 minutes ago, JMWATS said:

The city of LA recently reduced the fire and police department budgets. However, the city is fully funding the Climate Emergency Mobilization Office (CEMO) to respond to climate change, fully funding the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) efforts to invest in renewable energy, and fully funding LAs Green New Deal to achieve carbon neutrality.

Priorities, right? Who needs public safety when we can brag about being carbon-neutral while the city burns and crime rates rise? Truly visionary!

 

Link?

[TexasTiger 15,953]

20 minutes ago, auburnatl1 said:

Some fair points.

You don’t even know the details or veracity.

[JMWATS 527]

Yes, Los Angeles cut $17.6 million from the fire department’s budget

 

[Cardin Drake 2,373]

The fires had nothing to do with climate change. But it's oversimplifying to say it's all the fault of incompetent democrats. They contributed, but there never has been a plan to deal with the worst case Santa Ana winds.  Seems somewhat inevitable. 

https://rumble.com/v67d4wy-last-year-a-fireman-told-joe-rogan-that-with-the-right-wind-and-fire-la-wou.html

 

 

Edited Thursday at 09:03 PM by Cardin Drake

[JMWATS 527]

 

[TexasTiger 15,953]

52 minutes ago, JMWATS said:

The city of LA recently reduced the fire and police department budgets. However, the city is fully funding the Climate Emergency Mobilization Office (CEMO) to respond to climate change, fully funding the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) efforts to invest in renewable energy, and fully funding LAs Green New Deal to achieve carbon neutrality.

 

2 minutes ago, JMWATS said:

Yes, Los Angeles cut $17.6 million from the fire department’s budget

 

That’s only one of your claims. You said they cut police— they raised it significantly. You mentioned two other departments that weren’t cut. No link. Budget cuts, per se, never tell the whole story. Was there waste, fraud or abuse? You guys assume there always is.

[TexasTiger 15,953]

1 minute ago, JMWATS said:

 

He’s the most news-free newspaper publisher around. You just posted two links with two different numbers.

[JMWATS 527]

So you are good with the $23M cut to the fire department. makes sense.

[TexasTiger 15,953]

Just now, JMWATS said:

So you are good with the $23M cut to the fire department. makes sense.

Decide on a number. 

[JMWATS 527]

you are good with a cut i understand. supports your narrative(s).

[TexasTiger 15,953]

9 minutes ago, JMWATS said:

you are good with a cut i understand. supports your narrative(s).

No one here knows the particulars of what was impacted by this cut. Few are trying to actually understand it— you certainly aren’t. You see 2 big numbers, cite them both without even recognizing your mistake because you have a clear narrative— Dems caused this! 
 

But without knowing all the particulars of the cuts, I do suspect it’s highly unlikely that there wasn’t 2% that couldn’t be cut from that budget without causing this disaster. That 2% and then some went to police which got a huge increase— even though you lied and said it was cut.

@auburnatl1 being so quick to declare “fair points” highlights the challenges of doing what you claim to want to do— cut spending. 

[I_M4_AU 9,769]

1 hour ago, TexasTiger said:

If your point was it “was in the middle of a crisis” you were flat out wrong. It was the aftermath of the crisis. That crisis was over. The fires are raging. You have zero grasp of analogies. You prove it repeatedly.

The fires started on the 7th and of course they are on going because they are wildfires and are not contained.  I can see your point of not being overly critical until you have time to breathe and analyze things…..just like what happened in NOLA.  Yes, the initial threat was eliminated, but there was the Sugar Bowl to play and city officials should be able to address that before being hounded by why things happened.  The situation  in NOLA was *on going*.

You just don’t see things through to a logical conclusion.  You prove it repeatedly.