It’s interesting that Cruz’s Cancun trip cost him nothing, politically—he’s still a senator. Apparently only Democrats have to answer for their missteps.
You should do a critique of Trump’s comments about the fires and Newsom Chris. Where are they? Stop focusing on Democrats when the real story is the insane behavior of Trump during a national disaster. This is another example of biased right wing reporting.
If you are inferring from Chris' video drop that HE is right wing you need some counseling. Moving on - There is nothing newsworthy about Trump's reaction to anything. It is always over the top, over the edge, over the ...whatever. Everyone expects it (or should expect it). This is not a National disaster. This is a CA disaster. It's terrible, it's horrible, but if the people of CA had not elected these folks to office they might, I said MIGHT, have had resources and infrastructure to mitigate the situation. The problems with CA go back decades. They don't call it the Left coast for nothing. If you haven't seen Adam Carolla's rant from his hotel after his own evacuation go take a look. I think the man may be on to something - I hope so.
This makes me so livid. I can still see the flames of the Palisades fire, the nearest part of it being about 5 miles from my home, which is also my office. There are so many that have lost everything, and we know a number of these people. My husband has a disabled sister who has had to evacuate. We are lucky to have competent and clear-speaking leaders in California. Trump is incoherent, selfish, and completely uninformed.
Chris. Perhaps you should apologize for your slanted take or at least explain what motivated you to zero in on using the Republicans critique. Do
You feel more aligned to Republicans than Democrats?
A better format in order to be neutral is to use Hegelian critique. Thesis, antithesis, synthesis. That way you can get in all points of view.
Trump is clearly incompetent in a crisis. History, not rhetoric tells us that. Obscuring that from view, is the reason why Zuckerberg no longer wants fact checkers on Facebook. And why the mainstream media are spiking anti Trump stories.
If you truly are a truth teller, you need to be more careful when writing stories. But perhaps no one will read them or respond if they don’t rage bate the Democratic subscribers. Mainstream media has the same problem.
I thought that Chris' comments were reasonably objective. But we've become so polarized politically that any opinion that doesn't attack Trump relentlessly (from the left) or doesn't praise Trump effusively (from the right) is seen as a partisan attack on Truth with a capital "T."
All djt did was lie. No FEMA funds have been used for the green new deal, which the green new deal is not even a policy. FEMA is not out of funds.
And the fires are not a result of incompetence by anyone.
Emergency response was prepositional before the winds were forecast to begin. They were positioned near where wildfires are prone to happen, not near these densely populated residential areas where wildfires are not prone. And when fighting multiple wildfires over thousands of acres, being driven by 80 to 100 mph winds over parched dry land there is no amount of emergency aid that can stop them. Water dropping aircraft can not be deployed in those types of winds, and fire hydrants are for fighting house fires, not hundreds of acres of fast moving wildfires.
I appreciate this comment. This was indeed unprecedented. No one could have predicted how severe this was going to get. Fires in urban areas are a different ballgame. We are being told to conserve water so there is enough to fight the large fires that, at this point, have little to no containment. Think of when you turn on every faucet in your house, have everyone take a shower, run the dishwasher and washing machine and there is just dripping water coming into the water system. We've had no rain since Spring. We have additional wind coming, which may take out the ability of the air drops to happen. This is NOT NORMAL. I felt bad for Karen Bass when she came back. She took a MILITARY plane to get back as fast as possible and had been monitoring the situation while in flight. I can guess that I would not be in great shape after a flight like that and being hit with aggressive questioning immediately upon deplaning. It is not unreasonable for our leaders to attend international events. California has a global image, and Los Angeles is a world-class city.
Fire hydrants are for fighting a house fire, not for fighting raging wildfires over thousands of acres burning every single home in its path, moving extremely fast in 80 mile an hour winds. I guess you think fire hydrants can be moved while fighting a huge wall of fire 40 feet high moving at great speeds?
The hydrants did work, all the water was used up by trying to fight the wall of fire. Plus homeowners hosing down their roofs while every single hydrant was in use caused water pressure to drop and fail.
Emergency response was pre-positioned in areas prone to wildfires before the winds were forecast to begin. These fires are not in areas prone to wildfires, they are densly packed residential areas. But, I bet you think politicians can control hurricanes so they should have been able to stop the worst fire in the history of Los Angeles because they somehow knew where and when it would happen
"Watch how Newsom and Bass handle themselves over the next few days. It will matter — like it or not — to their political futures." I am once again in "Wow! Just...wow!" mode. Watch how Newsome handles himself??? Newsome has handled the situation honestly and without a misstep. Trump, on the other hand, has emitted a stream of lies and blame unbefitting anyone, much less a president-elect. I may in Wisconsin but I spend enough time in California each year to understand the drought, vegetation and water supply. As we see so frequently with Trump and his supporters, there is no law against being really stupid but you shouldn't advertise that fact.
I am so disgusted that our incoming president cannot offer support to the fire containment efforts or solace to those who have lost their homes. Instead, it's just a chance to bash the Democrats. What is wrong with our country that we elected this man?
So we see, yet again, Trump in all his egomaniacal cruelty. Not even thoughts and prayers, or rolls of paper towels (maybe in this case, he’d be throwing bottles of water?) BUT that would require him to be there - way too much trouble and time consuming, since he’s too busy trying for the last ditch effort to keep from being sentenced in New York and having DOJ reports released.
Chris - not one word of criticism about how trump is handling this. Obviously you can cover this however you want. But you need to stop advertising yourself as evenhanded, or unbiased. This article alone proves that lie.
Indeed. But one should also keep an eye on what Trump will do about this when he does become President. He is not one to do very well "at the national level" in time of crisis. All he always does is blame everyone except for himself. He is a moron. People are losing everything they own and dying. He should concentrate on trying to help. He should get his billionaire friends in cabinet and outside (EM for e.g. to step up to the plate and help in fighting this and the eventual re-construction. Of course he won't. If they do eventually help, they will use taxpayers’ money not theirs.
Trump will do NOTHING about this when he is President. When he was President last time when California had fires, what did he do? He suggested the state rake the leaves in the forests.
" I said, you gotta clean your floors, you gotta clean your forests...." THAT was Trump's suggestion in 2020. Never mind climate change and Big Oil paying off Congress to look the other way. Raking leaves is and will be Trump's response to this, and calling the Governor names.
In Sept of last year Calif had some devestating fires, and djt said he would not send FEMA aid to California until they complied with water policies he favored!
Chris has let us know that he is "critical" to "both sides"....but the flaw in that mainstream media mindset (which is dying just like the mainstream media itself is dying) is readily apparent in this subject and Chris's post.
Chris writes...
"Natural disasters were once the great unifier, politically speaking. Politicians were urged to put aside, well, politics and focus on saving as many lives (and as much property) as possible.
No longer. Immediately after a natural disaster or, in this case, during one, the political posturing — and blame —begins. "
What Chris does NOT say, which is dishonest by omission is that the "political posturing" that has reduced natural disasters as "the great unifier" is almost ALL because of REPUBLICAN POLITICIANS.
In particular Donald Trump who has made natural disasters in Blue states and cities a tool to cast blame and unimaginable vicious INSULTS. He has even gone to great lengths to PUNISH those in areas that did not vote for him by withholding aid and will do it again.
Yes, it's mature for the president-elect to call the governor of California, Gavin Newscum. Chris, please address how silly it is for Americans to be represented by a classless individual. America will never be great if this is the bar it sets.
I just cannot believe that the past and future president continues to call people purile names: "Newscum", *especially* in the time of such a crisis. That is really disgusting and just goes to show that there is no low that is low enough for him to stoop to.
Please remind me which Democrats fomented attacks on Republicans *during* natural disasters? Yes, the response is sometimes criticized in the aftermath, but I don’t recall major Democrats blaming Trump during hurricanes. The exception might be the magic marker/map incident, but that was just patently absurd to begin with. Even when Trump would refuse to provide aid until his assistants proved to him there were GOP voters there, or when he demanded the local officials call to kiss his ass — Democrats largely held fire.
Disasters got politicized when the GOP didn’t want to provide assistance for Sandy in New York, after everyone had voted for southern hurricane relief for decades. Before that, how many times did the religious right blame disasters on gays or sin or whatever other fantasies they concocted — with no pushback from GOP politicians? Trump was telling people not to work with FEMA in North Carolina after the floods and claimed the money went to immigrants. Now he is blaming Newsom and Biden for fires (which isn’t new — remember when he wanted to “rake” the forests?). Remember when he was threatening to withhold aid to Puerto Rico? How about when he wanted to withhold aid to California until aides proved to him GOP voters actually lived there.
Yes, politicians can hurt themselves by appearing aloof or out of touch, but the media calls that out, as it did with Cruz and Bass.
But, claiming that the politicization of disasters is a “both sides” thing is another example of lazy ‘bothsideserism’.
The local leaders in CA want to have it both ways. On one hand, they're the experts, they trust the science, put them in charge and they will solve the hard problems. Then, when they have complete control and things go badly, any criticism is "playing politics". Sorry, can't have it both ways. It's a terrible look, and if they'd just be honest, answer the questions openly they'd be surprised how much better things go -- people do want to like their leaders, especially during a crisis.
To Trump, the fires are just another opportunity to "own the libs". He could not care less about the people suffering in CA or anywhere else. And that sociopath is soon to be the leader of the free world. Way to go, America.
my great bother in all of this is that we know someone who lost everything. We know someone who died of COVID early on. We know someone who was the vicim of a random shooting.
Fires are part of life in CA. One was stopped 2 blocks from where I lived in LA 40 years ago. They do not result from political malpractice, though an inadequate recovery response can be political suicide. CA has one of the most complete firefighting systems in the world, regardless of administration. When nature overwhelms it, that's not a political failing.
Weird to say “it matters how politicians act in a crisis” when the country just reelected the guy who bungled COVID, and likely made things worse.
It’s interesting that Cruz’s Cancun trip cost him nothing, politically—he’s still a senator. Apparently only Democrats have to answer for their missteps.
You beat me to the punch - I was thinking the exact same thing when I read it.
You should do a critique of Trump’s comments about the fires and Newsom Chris. Where are they? Stop focusing on Democrats when the real story is the insane behavior of Trump during a national disaster. This is another example of biased right wing reporting.
Exactly. That's the point. Trump's violating every norm of decency to score political points.
If you are inferring from Chris' video drop that HE is right wing you need some counseling. Moving on - There is nothing newsworthy about Trump's reaction to anything. It is always over the top, over the edge, over the ...whatever. Everyone expects it (or should expect it). This is not a National disaster. This is a CA disaster. It's terrible, it's horrible, but if the people of CA had not elected these folks to office they might, I said MIGHT, have had resources and infrastructure to mitigate the situation. The problems with CA go back decades. They don't call it the Left coast for nothing. If you haven't seen Adam Carolla's rant from his hotel after his own evacuation go take a look. I think the man may be on to something - I hope so.
Chris is not right wing.
This makes me so livid. I can still see the flames of the Palisades fire, the nearest part of it being about 5 miles from my home, which is also my office. There are so many that have lost everything, and we know a number of these people. My husband has a disabled sister who has had to evacuate. We are lucky to have competent and clear-speaking leaders in California. Trump is incoherent, selfish, and completely uninformed.
Chris. Perhaps you should apologize for your slanted take or at least explain what motivated you to zero in on using the Republicans critique. Do
You feel more aligned to Republicans than Democrats?
A better format in order to be neutral is to use Hegelian critique. Thesis, antithesis, synthesis. That way you can get in all points of view.
Trump is clearly incompetent in a crisis. History, not rhetoric tells us that. Obscuring that from view, is the reason why Zuckerberg no longer wants fact checkers on Facebook. And why the mainstream media are spiking anti Trump stories.
If you truly are a truth teller, you need to be more careful when writing stories. But perhaps no one will read them or respond if they don’t rage bate the Democratic subscribers. Mainstream media has the same problem.
I thought that Chris' comments were reasonably objective. But we've become so polarized politically that any opinion that doesn't attack Trump relentlessly (from the left) or doesn't praise Trump effusively (from the right) is seen as a partisan attack on Truth with a capital "T."
All djt did was lie. No FEMA funds have been used for the green new deal, which the green new deal is not even a policy. FEMA is not out of funds.
And the fires are not a result of incompetence by anyone.
Emergency response was prepositional before the winds were forecast to begin. They were positioned near where wildfires are prone to happen, not near these densely populated residential areas where wildfires are not prone. And when fighting multiple wildfires over thousands of acres, being driven by 80 to 100 mph winds over parched dry land there is no amount of emergency aid that can stop them. Water dropping aircraft can not be deployed in those types of winds, and fire hydrants are for fighting house fires, not hundreds of acres of fast moving wildfires.
I appreciate this comment. This was indeed unprecedented. No one could have predicted how severe this was going to get. Fires in urban areas are a different ballgame. We are being told to conserve water so there is enough to fight the large fires that, at this point, have little to no containment. Think of when you turn on every faucet in your house, have everyone take a shower, run the dishwasher and washing machine and there is just dripping water coming into the water system. We've had no rain since Spring. We have additional wind coming, which may take out the ability of the air drops to happen. This is NOT NORMAL. I felt bad for Karen Bass when she came back. She took a MILITARY plane to get back as fast as possible and had been monitoring the situation while in flight. I can guess that I would not be in great shape after a flight like that and being hit with aggressive questioning immediately upon deplaning. It is not unreasonable for our leaders to attend international events. California has a global image, and Los Angeles is a world-class city.
I hope ypu and everyone you know stay safe.
Thank you. Safe, yes, but know a number of newly homeless.
I am not very impressed with "competent and clear thinking" leaders when the fire hydrants don't work - but you do you
https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/why-did-pacific-palisades-water-hydrants-run-dry
Fire hydrants are for fighting a house fire, not for fighting raging wildfires over thousands of acres burning every single home in its path, moving extremely fast in 80 mile an hour winds. I guess you think fire hydrants can be moved while fighting a huge wall of fire 40 feet high moving at great speeds?
The hydrants did work, all the water was used up by trying to fight the wall of fire. Plus homeowners hosing down their roofs while every single hydrant was in use caused water pressure to drop and fail.
Emergency response was pre-positioned in areas prone to wildfires before the winds were forecast to begin. These fires are not in areas prone to wildfires, they are densly packed residential areas. But, I bet you think politicians can control hurricanes so they should have been able to stop the worst fire in the history of Los Angeles because they somehow knew where and when it would happen
Trump is a vile human being. No fact checking necessary.
"Watch how Newsom and Bass handle themselves over the next few days. It will matter — like it or not — to their political futures." I am once again in "Wow! Just...wow!" mode. Watch how Newsome handles himself??? Newsome has handled the situation honestly and without a misstep. Trump, on the other hand, has emitted a stream of lies and blame unbefitting anyone, much less a president-elect. I may in Wisconsin but I spend enough time in California each year to understand the drought, vegetation and water supply. As we see so frequently with Trump and his supporters, there is no law against being really stupid but you shouldn't advertise that fact.
I am so disgusted that our incoming president cannot offer support to the fire containment efforts or solace to those who have lost their homes. Instead, it's just a chance to bash the Democrats. What is wrong with our country that we elected this man?
So we see, yet again, Trump in all his egomaniacal cruelty. Not even thoughts and prayers, or rolls of paper towels (maybe in this case, he’d be throwing bottles of water?) BUT that would require him to be there - way too much trouble and time consuming, since he’s too busy trying for the last ditch effort to keep from being sentenced in New York and having DOJ reports released.
Chris - not one word of criticism about how trump is handling this. Obviously you can cover this however you want. But you need to stop advertising yourself as evenhanded, or unbiased. This article alone proves that lie.
Indeed. But one should also keep an eye on what Trump will do about this when he does become President. He is not one to do very well "at the national level" in time of crisis. All he always does is blame everyone except for himself. He is a moron. People are losing everything they own and dying. He should concentrate on trying to help. He should get his billionaire friends in cabinet and outside (EM for e.g. to step up to the plate and help in fighting this and the eventual re-construction. Of course he won't. If they do eventually help, they will use taxpayers’ money not theirs.
Trump will do NOTHING about this when he is President. When he was President last time when California had fires, what did he do? He suggested the state rake the leaves in the forests.
" I said, you gotta clean your floors, you gotta clean your forests...." THAT was Trump's suggestion in 2020. Never mind climate change and Big Oil paying off Congress to look the other way. Raking leaves is and will be Trump's response to this, and calling the Governor names.
In Sept of last year Calif had some devestating fires, and djt said he would not send FEMA aid to California until they complied with water policies he favored!
Trump knows what to do. Get Canada to turn on that giant faucet that will send water down to put out the fires. :(
Chris has let us know that he is "critical" to "both sides"....but the flaw in that mainstream media mindset (which is dying just like the mainstream media itself is dying) is readily apparent in this subject and Chris's post.
Chris writes...
"Natural disasters were once the great unifier, politically speaking. Politicians were urged to put aside, well, politics and focus on saving as many lives (and as much property) as possible.
No longer. Immediately after a natural disaster or, in this case, during one, the political posturing — and blame —begins. "
What Chris does NOT say, which is dishonest by omission is that the "political posturing" that has reduced natural disasters as "the great unifier" is almost ALL because of REPUBLICAN POLITICIANS.
In particular Donald Trump who has made natural disasters in Blue states and cities a tool to cast blame and unimaginable vicious INSULTS. He has even gone to great lengths to PUNISH those in areas that did not vote for him by withholding aid and will do it again.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/13/trump-disaster-funding-warning
In Red states, he has literally changed the path (in his warped mind) of a hurricane to level his disgusting demagoguery and political attacks.
This effort of "bothsiderim" which ignores the obvious NON-equivalence is a disservice to accurate reporting and to their readers
Yes, it's mature for the president-elect to call the governor of California, Gavin Newscum. Chris, please address how silly it is for Americans to be represented by a classless individual. America will never be great if this is the bar it sets.
I just cannot believe that the past and future president continues to call people purile names: "Newscum", *especially* in the time of such a crisis. That is really disgusting and just goes to show that there is no low that is low enough for him to stoop to.
Ahhh…. More false equivalency. I’m shocked.
Please remind me which Democrats fomented attacks on Republicans *during* natural disasters? Yes, the response is sometimes criticized in the aftermath, but I don’t recall major Democrats blaming Trump during hurricanes. The exception might be the magic marker/map incident, but that was just patently absurd to begin with. Even when Trump would refuse to provide aid until his assistants proved to him there were GOP voters there, or when he demanded the local officials call to kiss his ass — Democrats largely held fire.
Disasters got politicized when the GOP didn’t want to provide assistance for Sandy in New York, after everyone had voted for southern hurricane relief for decades. Before that, how many times did the religious right blame disasters on gays or sin or whatever other fantasies they concocted — with no pushback from GOP politicians? Trump was telling people not to work with FEMA in North Carolina after the floods and claimed the money went to immigrants. Now he is blaming Newsom and Biden for fires (which isn’t new — remember when he wanted to “rake” the forests?). Remember when he was threatening to withhold aid to Puerto Rico? How about when he wanted to withhold aid to California until aides proved to him GOP voters actually lived there.
Yes, politicians can hurt themselves by appearing aloof or out of touch, but the media calls that out, as it did with Cruz and Bass.
But, claiming that the politicization of disasters is a “both sides” thing is another example of lazy ‘bothsideserism’.
The local leaders in CA want to have it both ways. On one hand, they're the experts, they trust the science, put them in charge and they will solve the hard problems. Then, when they have complete control and things go badly, any criticism is "playing politics". Sorry, can't have it both ways. It's a terrible look, and if they'd just be honest, answer the questions openly they'd be surprised how much better things go -- people do want to like their leaders, especially during a crisis.
https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/why-did-pacific-palisades-water-hydrants-run-dry
To Trump, the fires are just another opportunity to "own the libs". He could not care less about the people suffering in CA or anywhere else. And that sociopath is soon to be the leader of the free world. Way to go, America.
my great bother in all of this is that we know someone who lost everything. We know someone who died of COVID early on. We know someone who was the vicim of a random shooting.
Pray for them. Don't use them
Fires are part of life in CA. One was stopped 2 blocks from where I lived in LA 40 years ago. They do not result from political malpractice, though an inadequate recovery response can be political suicide. CA has one of the most complete firefighting systems in the world, regardless of administration. When nature overwhelms it, that's not a political failing.