Tag Archives: California wildfires

national news

Trump to California: Don’t count on me to help you out

Donald J. Trump appears to be laying down a clearly defined marker to residents of states that voted for Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2016 or are governed by politicians of the party other than Trump’s Republican Party.

It is this: Don’t count on the president of the United States to offer words of empathy or support in the event of monumental natural disasters, let alone statements of unqualified federal assistance to help you fight those disasters.

You see, Trump is in a war of Twitter words with California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The president is excoriating Newsom over the state’s forest management policy, which Trump says is the reason that wildfires have exploded across the state.

Trump and Newsom are political foes. They might even be called “enemies.” Newsom’s state happened, I should say, to vote for Clinton by a huge margin in her losing bid to Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

The rhetoric Trump is leveling at California’s elected leadership is not the kind of thing he says to those in, say, Texas or Louisiana or Mississippi, Alabama or Florida. Hurricanes have savaged those states since Trump took office. They all voted for Trump in 2016.

Trump, though, seems to get a bur under his saddle when tragedy strikes California.

I guess I should point out that Donald Trump has emerged as the Climate Change Denier in Chief, calling the issue a “hoax,” despite scientific evidence that suggests that climate change is responsible for the huge fires that are erupting with more frequency and ferocity than ever.

Yes, Trump did say in one of his weekend tweets that the firefighters are doing a “great” job. Then he tees it up against Newsom, saying he should insist on clearing forest floors more frequently and should make sure the state has plenty of water to pour on the fires.

I just find this back-and-forth between the president and the governor of one our states — whose residents are fleeing for their lives ahead of devastating fire — to be unbecoming in the extreme.

There once was a time when the federal government stepped up to lend a much-needed hand to American citizens in distress. Please tell me those days are not gone forever.

environmental news

Trump sees the damage up close

Donald J. Trump took time to look up close at the damage fire has brought to California.

I am glad the president went to the fire-scarred ruins of Paradise, Calif.; I am glad Gov. Jerry Brown and Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom and Paradise Mayor Jody Jones were there to walk among the destruction with him.

I also am glad that the officials — from president to small-town mayor — are expressing hope that we’ll never see this kind of damage done again.

The hope, I fear, is futile. I fear for the worst, not necessarily in the communities already ravaged by the fire, but for others.

It boils down to two words … and they aren’t “forest management.” The two words are “climate change.”

The president keeps denying that the climate is changing. He calls it a “hoax.” He says it’s cooked up by China and that government’s efforts to undermine the U.S. fossil fuel industry.

I do not believe he is correct. I believe that climate change is delivering its wreckage in the form of these fires.

The management of the state forests should not be the concern of the president. The ongoing drought that continues to plague much of the Far West, the Mountain West, the High Plains and the Great Plains deserve the nation’s attention. By that I mean to infer the president’s attention.

These fires will continue to scorch the landscape likely for well past the foreseeable future. It might be too late at this juncture to curb them.

The president did the right thing today by touring the devastation brought by Mother Nature’s fire-borne fury. If only he would dial back his instinct to criticize his political foes and simply listen to the learned voices of those who keep warning us about the real dangers posed by Earth’s changing climate.

And heed their warnings that humankind contributes to it.

national news

This is what heroes look like

Take a good look at this picture, which appeared on social media this afternoon.

It is a picture of firemen trying to grab a couple of winks. They’re dog tired. Exhausted. Whipped. They are covered in dirt and soot.

These are just a few of the heroes fighting those fires in California. They are among the men and women who get paid to do things some of us might have fantasized about when we were kids, but who found other ways to earn a living when we grew up.

These individuals chose to pursue careers dedicated to public service. They are performing that service at the highest levels imaginable as I write these words.

Other firefighters from around the country are rushing to their side to give them relief, to lend their own expertise, skill and courage in helping quell the flames that have killed dozens of victims, decimated thousands of acres of land, destroyed thousands of homes, ruined countless lives.

These heroes are trying to catch their breath before heading back into the hell on Earth that awaits them.

Godspeed to them all.

environmental news

Environmental laws to blame for fires? Huh?

Donald John Trump hadn’t said much — if anything — to offer support for the first responders fighting the fires in California.

Then he weighed in with this message via Twitter:

California wildfires are being magnified & made so much worse by the bad environmental laws which aren’t allowing massive amount of readily available water to be properly utilized. It is being diverted into the Pacific Ocean. Must also tree clear to stop fire spreading!

Huh? That’s what the president of the United States has to say about fires that are ravaging one of our 50 states, killing at least two firefighters, putting residents at risk, endangering human beings?

He talks about “bad environmental laws” that inhibit use of water to fight the fires.

I realize that California went overwhelmingly for the other major-party presidential candidate in 2016. I also am quite certain the good folks in California would appreciate a word of support and assurance that the president has their backs as state and local first responders put themselves in harm’s way to protect the people they take an oath to serve.

Has he offered “thoughts and prayers” for the loved ones of the firefighters who have died?