The California Wildfires and Crazy-Ass Men

Satellite Image of Los Angles on fire

As I walked the underground route to the other building where the cafe` is located in my independent living facility I was thinking, What am I going to blog about this week? It's about a half a block walk in between the elevators to building one and building two and along the way, every so often, are red letters stenciled on the walls proclaiming, "two hour fire barrier." I've often wondered exactly what that means. Can we safely hide in the underground parking area for two hours before a fire would get to us, or does it mean a fire would have to be out of control in the area two hours before it would burn through to the apartments above? As I got off the elevator my line of sight set me on a course toward the lobby's fireplace to warm up before heading to the cafe`. The underground route is kept at 50 degrees but I was still cold. I'm always cold. 

While I was warming up I decided I should write about the terrible wildfires in California but it's such an over-whelming disaster that I didn't know where I'd begin. It's heartbreaking and sad to see so many people's lives torn apart with years of hardships ahead of them to rebuild what they've lost. Not just homes but entire neighborhoods, business districts, churches, schools and jobs. Just finding temporary shelter would be over-whelming. Then comes dealing with insurance companies---if half those people even have fire insurance. A lot of companies quit selling and even revoked existing polices in California that cover fires. And there's sure to be studies, meetings and endless fights over new zoning and building regulations and new land use restrictions. Many people won't be able to afford to rebuild and will end up selling their ash-filled property to developers.

And while the fires are still out of control and raging we have the president-elect not offering words of support or comfort, not pledging disaster relief help but rather he's playing the blame game to renew an old feud with California's Democrat governor who he blames for everything. 45/47 could be asking his de facto V-P, the richest man on earth, to pledge some his "pocket change" to help rebuild the infrastructure in the effected areas. But he won't and I'm guessing Elon wouldn't do it anyway. Neither one of these man-boys have a philanthropic bone in their bodies. Elon Musk is too busy blaming the fires not on hurricane force winds in an area that hasn't seen rain since last May nor on climate changes. He's blaming the fire departments for, "prioritizing DEI over saving lives and homes." In other words he thinks having women and people of color working in the fire departments are the cause of not getting the fires under control. Both these man-boys are masters at spreading disinformation.

And I don't know who started the bitching about having over 900 incarcerated prisoners working among the 7,500 California firefighters, but it wouldn't surprise me if these two clowns had a hand in that as well. Granted, the 30 inmate fire camps in the state to train prisoners to fight fires have been controversial since their inception a few years ago but still, I don't get the timing of the critics bringing the controversy back up now, while those inmates are actively putting their lives on the line. On one side of the issue is Kim Kardashian who is advocating to pay the prisoners more than the $1 an hour they are paid now and on the other side of the issue are the people who think the prisoners are taking jobs away from other people and/or are putting the communities in danger while they are not behind bars "where they belong."

I also don't get why governor Newsom's is being vivified by the incoming president and not getting any credit for building up the state's aerial firefighting fleet so that it's the largest in the world, has nearly doubled the number firefighters on the ground since 2018 and has vastly expanded the program to do controlled, low intensity burns to keep the forest floors free of under-grown in over 400,000 acres annually. California's fire response here and here.

 

A few years back I was invited to hike in a Michigan park where a several weeks earlier the fire department had done one of these fires. It was eerie walking through the area because it wasn't until after we'd finished the trail that we learned that it was a controlled burn---we'd started at the end instead of the beginning where they had a notice posted. The objective is to get rid of dried leaves and dead wood on the forest floor that fuels the wildfires---the very stuff 45/47 STILL claims Newsom should have been "raking up." Sure, then what? Bury the stuff? Not that California or any other state is going to do controlled burns in neighborhoods like what we see burning on TV. My point in bringing it up, is I'm upset over ALL the finger pointing while lives are still in danger and fire fighters are working around the clock and fire-displaced Americans have to search for shelter and food. There will be plenty of time for finger pointing later on when all the facts and factors have been investigated and studied. I'm upset---but not a bit surprised---that our president-elect is showing his true colors once again. He's an agent of chaos. Always has been, always will be. 

 

45/47 will be the president in a few days but he spends more time on his crazy-ass ideas to acquire Greenland and the Panama Canal than the wildfires crisis at hand. His nasty-ass attitude has also resulted in a serious threat from Argentina to revoke our air force's privilege to use one of their bases as a stop-over. He's fighting with other world leaders when he should be getting a team ready to hit the ground running to help California. But, no, he sent an envoy to Greenland to mess with them instead! Heaven help us, as my mom used to say. If I was into investing money I'd buy stock in a company that makes blood pressure medications. I suspect they'll be a lot of it sold over the next four years.

Until Next Wednesday. ©