WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 2025
...he does what such people do: At Raw Story, Brad Reed reports the anger being directed at Donald J. Trump.
The incoming president is expounding as Los Angeles burns. The report begins as shown:
'Hope he has a massive stroke': Critics pounce on Trump mocking California amid fires
President-elect Donald Trump's decision to attack California Gov. Gavin Newsom while his state is suffering from catastrophic wildfires has drawn the ire of many online critics.
In the wake of a Wednesday Truth Social post, in which Trump labeled the California governor "Newscum" and blamed him personally for the fires, many critics expressed fury, but not surprise, that the president-elect would use a horrific tragedy to lob attacks at his political rivals.
"I hope he has a massive stroke," raged the anonymous X account that goes by the name of Spiro's Ghost. "He is a deeply sick man."
And so on from there. But as sacred Thoreau said, long ago, "Men [sic] labor under a mistake," and that's true even today.
Is Donald J. Trump "a deeply sick man?" It's all a question of how you score it! But he's simply doing the type of thing that sociopaths do—and our Blue elites have agreed that this fairly obvious state of disorder must never be discussed.
They've insisted on that for the past dozen years—and certainly so, dating back to the arrival of Dr. Bandy X. Lee's best-selling book in 2017.
This state of affairs must not be discussed! The whole world has agreed on the premise, and the failure to come to terms with this state of affairs is larded all through the angry remarks Reed has compiled.
Meanwhile:
On the Fox News Channel, viewers are still told, by such employees as Gutfeld and Watters, that a related state of affairs is a hoax, a scam. We refer to climate change, which is presumably a factor in the Los Angeles fires.
The tools are still pimping this bilge on the Fox News Channel. As they do, our own Blue elites agree to look away.
At The Atlantic, Conor Friedersdorf quite sensibly warns that this fire is "potentially transformative." His short essay starts and ends as shown:
The Particular Horror of the Los Angeles Wildfires
Southern California is no stranger to fires. But the dreadful blazes that began yesterday are potentially transformative.
[...]
Things may only get worse from here. The Palisades Fire, having already spread at least to Malibu, destroying homes and businesses, now threatens Santa Monica and beyond––that is to say, it could still spread from the edges of greater Los Angeles to a swath of its dense core. Weather is the biggest factor in the city’s fate.
Strong, gusty winds are forecast to continue in much of the region throughout the day today. Wind is howling outside my window an hour south, in Orange County. And for many miles in every direction, a new catastrophic fire could start at any moment. I’ve lived through 45 years of Southern California wildfires. I can’t recall having as much uncertainty about how not just one community but the region as a whole will fare in the next 24 hours.
The entire Democrat party is a party of severe mental illness including sociopathy. They delight in drugging children and mutilating their genitals after telling them they have the wrong bodies. They feel moral for abusing children this way. They view abortion as a luxury spa treatment that delivers happiness. An ugly and grotesque mentality, a sickness worse than the average sociopathy but it is part of it.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you delight in? Be honest.
DeleteThe Anon @ 4:49 delights in thinking about children's genitals.
DeleteI delight in pornography.
DeleteChildren have cute little odorless genitals. What’s not to like?
DeleteToo bad the Republicans are making pornography illegal in 17 red states. Of course, child pornography is illegal everywhere because it hurts children.
DeleteHere's a good run down of Trump's most recent sociopathic fit:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ud-zbEdHuI
Sociopath is a modern term for a very bad person. The term doesn't excuse anything about such a person's behavior.
ReplyDeleteThe media have been describing and discussing Trump's bad behavior. The article by Brad Reed, from which Somerby quotes, is an example. How can Somerby quote such a complaint and then say no one is complaining about Trump? That is one of the more nonsensical things Somerby says here on a regular basis.
I miss my Cecelia.
ReplyDeleteYou can find plenty of Cecelias over in the Republican blog comments.
DeleteYes, 5:00 PM, go find her. Take your time.
DeleteSomerby says that the fires in Los Angeles are presumably due to global warming. LA has always had such fires because of the Santa Ana wind patterns that come off the desert at high speeds. A complication is the increased development in the areas that are burning, higher population density in fire areas. That leads to more structures, more fires (of human origin) and more congestion making the areas more difficult to evacuate and to move equipment into in order to fight the fires. The high winds spread the fires quickly and make them dangerous to fight, creating firestorms that generate their own microclimates. There are four burning now.
ReplyDeleteClimate change has produced more very hot days that dry out the plants and create more fuel for fires. A major problem for homeowners has been the decrease in availability of insurance coverage for fires. Democrats have worked to require insurers to make insurance more widely available. In a fire area where one cannot get insurance, one cannot sell their home either.
Last time Trump was in office, he denied FEMA funds to victims of the Paradise fire, which wiped out a whole town in Northern CA causing many deaths. Trump showed then that he had no empathy for fire victims. I don't know why anyone would have voted for Trump after that, but too many people did, including rural Californians. Now he will pull a similar, heartless stunt. Presence or absence of global warming has little to do with this, nor is there much Newsom could do to prevent fires in the state. The ones in Northern California are started by lightning strikes in forested areas. Making this a political issue is majorly stupid, whether it is Trump doing it, or Somerby today. Somerby lived on the coast when he was a teenager and knows nothing at all about wildfires or CA or sociopathy either. If Somerby cannot express empathy, he should keep his mouth shut. Trump is motivated by political expediency, not mental illness. Every time Somerby excuses him on that basis, he wrongs those who are actually ill by lumping them in with a truly bad person whose choices are dictated by self-interest, not hallucinations.
This is why Somerby is a huge asshole.
Trump didn't deny FEMA funds to victims of the Paradise fire though. This is why you are an idiot.
Delete“ Mark Harvey, who was Trump’s senior director for resilience policy on the National Security Council staff, told E&E News on Wednesday that Trump initially refused to approve disaster aid for California after deadly wildfires in 2018 because of the state’s Democratic leanings.
DeleteBut Harvey said Trump changed his mind after Harvey pulled voting results to show him that heavily damaged Orange County, California, had more Trump supporters than the entire state of Iowa.”
Politico
The Paradise fire was in 2018, part of the FEMA relief requested by CA.
Delete"Whatever you do, please don't mention or discuss the attendant states of affairs!"
ReplyDeleteDoes Somerby think we Democrats don't know how bad Trump is? That makes Somerby the deluded one around here.
"As much of the city of angels burns...."
ReplyDeletePeople in Los Angeles like the name of their city. Somerby's snide designation "city of angels" while CA is experiencing a natural disaster is particularly inappropriate. It is still a great city and its residents do not deserve to be mocked for something they can do little about, any more than FL deserves to be mocked for its hurricanes or the South for its flooding.
I suppose Somerby thought he was being clever, but it is obvious irony. That makes it low hanging fruit that someone with any sensitivity at all would have discarded the moment it popped into their mind.
Somerby has the sensitivity of a turd.
“City of Angels” is not snide.
DeleteYes, it is. Angels do not characterize the hell of LA on fire. Somerby chose that phrase on purpose because the contrast appealed to him, but it is hurtful to those affected by this disaster, caused by nature not devils or angels. The magnitude of the tragedy seems to have escaped Somerby, that he would use word play to mock those who are burning.
DeleteHere is a good description of what is happening:
https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2025-01-08-conflagration-in-la/
I myself have lived in Pacific Palisades and in Santa Monica. I have fond memories of that same fish restaurant on PCH. It is hard to imagine it burned down. I moved from CA during covid because of the wildfire in Oak Glen, which similarly made the air unbreathable while we watched the hillside burn. The tankers loaded water from the pond in the regional park across the street from my house. That was too close for me, so like Dave Dayen who went East, I left CA.
When people are in trouble, you don't say the equivalent of "ha ha, not so angelic now, are you?" You say, that's awful, how can we help? Otherwise you come across like Trump.
"The city of Los Angeles got its name from Spanish settlers who founded the city in 1781. The original name was El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río Porciúncula, which translates to "The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of the River Porciúncula". The name was later shortened and anglicized to its current form, "Los Angeles".
The name refers to the Catholic figure of the Virgin Mary. The name "Angeles" is a gender-neutral name of Greek and Spanish origin that means "angels" and "messengers of God"."
Well done. “City of Angels” is still not snide, just as “Golden Gate City” and indeed “Golden State” are not snide.
DeleteContext matters.
DeleteIn context, it’s not snide.
DeleteYes, it is. Only an excessively literal reading would take it as just the use of the city’s nickname (not its actual name) for no particular purpose.
DeleteIt’s like calling Somerby “Bob”. Not snide at all.
DeleteSuppose Newsome's poor leadership is one reason the fire is so bad. Then it seems reasonable to me to criticize Newsome at this moment.
ReplyDeleteNewsom's name is spelled N-E-W-S-O-M. Fires do not respond to leadership. They are driven by physics.
Delete@6:44 Fires respond to uncleared brush. Fires respond to running out of water. These are things a Governor can affect.
DeleteI agree with your criticism of Trump's childish changin of Newsom's name
Pacific Palisades isn't in a forest, David. There's no "uncleared brush" for miles. And how do you propose a governor can increase the water supply?
DeleteThey are running out of water because of the fires, that didn’t cause them. It is not possible to “clear brush” in CA. Fire locations are not predictable. Homeowners are already required to create defensible space around homes but a 35+ mph wind drives fire to jump normal spaces and creates huge walls of flame. Trump doesn’t know what he is talking about.
DeleteCA engages in many efforts to prevent and fight fires. Trump is saying idiotic things.
DeleteSome fires are started by poorly maintained electrical wires & transformers that cause sparks due to high winds. It is desirable to put wires under ground. PG&E was at fault in the Paradise fire, that Trump also blamed on Dems.
DeleteThere’s a big faucet. Governor Newsom could have turned it on. That would have taken a week, so he needed to get started two weeks ago. He didn’t, because he wants to make President Trump look bad.
Delete"Pacific Palisades isn't in a forest, David. There's no "uncleared brush" for miles"
DeleteYou are ignorant as fuck. Its suffering from a brush fire. What is the matter with you idiots?
Pacific Palisades is not a brush fire. Over 1000 homes have burned. These are streets with houses, lawns and trees. Santa Monica is urban, with houses, strip malls, businesses. That retaurant that burned down was on the beach facing the ocean. No brush to clear there. A parking lot on Pacific Coast Highway, a four-lane street.
DeleteOkay. It's safe to say you've never spent any time in Pacific Palisades.
Delete"Brush Fire Fanned by High Winds Devastates Pacific Palisades"
Deletehttps://mynewsla.com/crime/2025/01/08/brush-fire-fanned-by-high-winds-devastates-pacific-palisades-17/#google_vignette
Dumb shit - better call the locals and give them your lecture about brush and forests.
You're stupidity and arrogance is just off the charts.
DeleteThe term only differentiates wildfires from domestic or industrial building fires. It doesn’t literally refer to brush.
DeleteFuck you. You are fucking so dumb. There's no uncleared brush for miles?? Fuck you you fucking stupid jack off cocksucker.
DeleteI can see now that "Pacific Palisades isn't in a forest," is a meme on Twitter that the fucking moron Quaker Oats pulled from, since they have no fucking original thoughts of their own. It must be some kind of organized disinformation campaign aimed at people that don't know anything about the area.
DeleteIt's pretty crazy. "There's no brush for miles around Pacific Palisades". People saying that with a straight face. I don't understand how it's political and that would be something that Democrats would want to push though. Quaker is one gullible dumb fuck though. God damn.
(I've had to look at pictures of two of my friend's houses there that were burned to the ground, so I'm upset.)
DeleteThe fire may have started in brush in a canyon, but it quickly spread and is burning in a neighborhood of streets and blocks with houses, fenced yards, lawns and trees. Hillsides there have planted groundcover not brush. Go to Google Maps and see what it looked like for yourself. Burning brush doesn’t matter. Burning homes and dead people do. That’s why these fires are a big deal. You can’t clear brush in canyons without napalming them. There is no way to clear all the vegetation so that a wind-drivan fire cannot spread. Trump is a moron.
DeleteLook at 745 N Swarthmore Ave, Pacific Palisades. Where is the brush? Look at 1132 Iliff St. Where is the brush? There are open spaces with brush, but Trump can’t seriously be suggesting that CA must remove all plants from open spaces. No state does that, except to plant crops or build more homes.
DeleteOn multiple occasions over time DiC has misspelled the name of the governor of California. What are the chances that an educated person would routinely misspell the name of the longstanding governor of the state he lives in? I wager zero.
DeleteThe quickness and distance of spread is due to those hurricane strength winds. Burning embers are carried a long way by the wind, crossing stretches where there is little fuel, so those spaces would normally be fire breaks but are not because the wind helps the fire jump. I’ve seen fires cross a freeway with four lanes in each direction. The idea that clearing brush would make a difference is ludicrous.
DeleteAll one needs to do is turn on the TV to see the wildfires spreading through residential suburban areas much like was seen a few years back in Boulder Colorado. During that disaster the winds blew over semi trucks. Embers fly from one burning house to another and lodge in foliage. To suggest that there is some special role for brush, apart from perhaps its involvement at the onset is ignorant.
DeleteDonald Trump ate the Haitian immigrants who were supposed to clear the brush.
DeleteAnon @9:01 is begging for my attention. If he explains why, I might give him just a little.
DeleteFor the rest of you, here's a link to a gift article in the Washington Post with before and after arial shots of some of the affected area. As Anon@9:08 correctly observes, it's a fully urbanized area. There's no brush.
DeleteI assume that 9:01, 8:50, 8:33, and 8:31 are the same potty mouthed belligerent MAGA. It would be a shame if there were more than one of them.
Delete
DeleteIf governor Newscum and millions of his pencil-pushing officials couldn't immediately stop a fire in urbanized area with no brush, then they are real dumbass Democrats. And of course they are.
Quid pro quo:
ReplyDelete"Justice Alito Speaks with Trump
January 8, 2025 at 6:29 pm EST By Taegan Goddard
“Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito spoke to President-elect Donald Trump by phone Tuesday to recommend one of his former law clerks for a job in the new administration,” ABC News reports.
“The call occurred just hours before Trump’s lawyers on Wednesday morning filed an emergency request with the justices asking them to block a New York judge from moving forward with sentencing Trump on Friday in his criminal hush money case.”
This is what bribery looks like.
"IT WAS A PERFECT CALL!"
Delete
ReplyDelete"Trump is doing what such people do. "
Such people? Matthew 7:3.
If this was happening in a state with Republican governor, all your state-run media and your Soros-bots would've been doing this and worse 24X7 for months.
Of course, disasters of similar proportions in red states with republican governors have not occurred in the last several years to put that statement to the test historically.
Delete
Delete2005, hurricane Katrina, New Orleans catastrophe.
Democrat governor, so the Republican president had to be the scapegoat.