THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 2025
Cultures can be destroyed too: It's worth recalling that cities used to burn down fairly often. We were a high school student—in California, no less—when we first heard these lyrics from an old American song:
The Baltimore Fire
[...]
Amid an awful struggle of commotion
The wind blew a gale from the ocean.
Brave firemen struggled with devotion
While their efforts all proved in vain.
"Fire, fire," I heard the cry
From every breeze that passes by.
All the world was one sad cry of pity.
Strong men in anguish prayed
Calling loud to heaven for aid
While the fire in ruin was laying
Fair Baltimore the beautiful city.
We first heard the old song on the Folkways album, The New Lost City Ramblers, Volume 3. It was the first of our many albums by those keepers of Americana.
(The fire in question occurred in 1904. To hear that recording, click here.)
The disaster continues in Los Angeles—and there's still no way of knowing how bad the gale may decide to make it. That said:
Cultures can be burned to the ground too. As the City of Angels continues to burn, so does our own nation's failing culture.
How bad will it get in the City of Angels? We can't tell you that. With respect to the way our culture is burning, we'll offer this handful of signposts.
Claims about mishandling of the fire:
For starters, we'll recommend the new post by Kevin Drum which appears beneath this headline:
Elon Musk is the new emperor of misinformation
Kevin starts with a list of eight claims about the fire which Musk has retweeted. "Every single thing on this list is either badly misleading or flat-out wrong," Kevin writes.
Is Kevin's assessment accurate concerning all eight of those claims? We can't necessarily tell you that, hut his post comes with links to news reports which contradict the various things the vastly disordered Musk is pushing on this particular day.
Here are the first three of those retweeted claims:
They didn't fill the reservoirs.
They cut $17 million from the fire budget.
They sent [fire] supplies to Ukraine.
In his post, Kevin links to actual news reports—actual news reports which contradict those claims. Truly, a claim can move across the world faster than wind-driven flames.
(Such claims can be true or false, though false claims tend to move faster.)
These first three claims moved quickly last night, leaping from Stepford to Stepford. Most specifically, we saw them being repeated all over the Fox News Channel last evening, and then again on this morning's Fox & Friends.
We recommend that you click the links in Kevin's post to see the reporting in question. In fact, the fire budget was increased by $50 million, Politico reports.
Claims about climate:
The last of the eight claims retweeted by Musk was this sarcastic coup de grace:
But yes, this [Los Angeles fire] is all caused by "climate change."
The "scare quotes" are meant to suggest what people are still explicitly told on the Fox News Channel, by such arsonists as the pitiful Greg Gutfeld and Jesse Watters.
Viewers are still told that climate change is a "scam" and a "hoax." That continues to this very day by the well-paid corporate trumpets who appears on the Fox News Channel.
The astonishing RNC:
Our culture is being burned to the ground by the conduct of entities like the Fox News Channel. MSNBC has been bad enough. The Fox News Channel is worse.
Then too, our culture is being burned to the ground by the kinds of flyweights who would issue a press release like the one shown below.
It came from the RNC. As David Gilmour reports at Mediaite, its factual claim is flatly false. Sadly, that's not even what we're talking about at this point in time:
Text of tweet by RNC Research:
California Senator Adam Schiff (aka Pencil Neck) just did a six-minute primetime interview on MSDNC.
He didn’t mention the wildfires currently plaguing his state ONCE—he just ranted about President Trump.
What a scumbag.
Truly, that's astounding. We refer to the way overt name-calling of a certain type is now an established part of American political discourse.
In that tweet, Senator Schiff is given a new nickname, "Pencil Neck." At the end, he's dismissed as "a scumbag." A childish nickname is included for a cable news channel too.
This degraded culture comes to us, live and direct, from the mouth and the mind of the incoming president, who introduced this cartoonization of public speech during the 2016 presidential campaign.
As Gilmour notes, the factual claim in that tweet was flatly bogus. Schiff actually had discussed the Los Angeles fire at substantial length.
It's the braindead name-calling to which we call your attention today, a type of dumbnification which tracks directly to Trump. If a sitting president can be referred to as "Sleepy Joe," why can't a senator be "Pencil Neck," or of course "Shifty Schiff?"
Our culture is being burned to the ground in this dumbnified fashion. For the record, we Blues have played a role in this too. We'll return to that problem tomorrow.
The city of Baltimore burned to the ground. Strong men in anguish prayed as the conflagration continued.
Fair Baltimore, the beautiful city! Within two years, it was largely rebuilt. Rebuilding a culture is harder.
Who knew?: The McGarrigles recorded that old song too. To hear them, just click this.
It basically dates to Charlie Poole. This was the look and the sound of Americana in the old days, way back when.
Why did we lose? Because we’re the war party.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/jan/09/democrats-war-foreign-policy
Right. That's why the US is engaged in exactly zero wars as Biden's term comes to a close.
DeleteSo, then, you're a lying war party?
DeleteBiden ended the 20+ year war in Afghanistan.
Delete"Why did we lose?"
DeleteWhy do all the TV shows I like best get cancelled? I suspect the answer to these two questions is the same.
Probably the shows you like feature women and people of color, and other such sophistication, which is verboten among Republicans, who are just as squeamish as Somerby is when they encounter women and people of color.
DeleteI'll bet Somerby's favorite show is AP Bio, but I'll bet he thinks it is a documentary. It mocks elites and shows high school kids doing fine without learning a thing. Right up his alley.
Delete
ReplyDeleteWell, Schiff is a scumbag. That's a scientific fact. You must believe the science, Bob.
But tell me this: is there enough homosexuals among the LA firefighters? Are there any men pretending to be women among them?
This is very important. Without homosexuals and men pretending to be women, no fire can be put out, obviously. I'm sure Soros-bot Kevin Drum knows it, but did he state it clearly in his posts?
There are female firefighters. Also criminals on work release do firefighting.
DeleteThe flooding fall grew grass, winter drought dried it out, and there is nothing that can be done to stop burning embers spread by 100 mph wind. Nothing. Even 100,000 manly weirdo men like you pissing on it would have no effect. But keep going with the stupid, it works for you.
DeleteIs Soros a centrist right winger? Drum is.
DeleteGotta love the constant cry of the mighty Soros evil intent. Yet on the other hand they loves them some real billionaire pukes, Murdoch, Thiel, Musk, the felons incoming cabinet, etc.
Delete
DeleteI am a man pretending to be a woman, and I am a firefighter. I am a firefighting Chief Diversity Officer, and I am paid $300K/yr. I love my job.
The last time Pacific Palisades burned was in 1978 and 30 homes were destroyed. This fire has zero containment and winds are gusting at 60+ mph. Already more than 1000+ structures have been destroyed with damage estimated in the tens of billions. No one was killed in the evacuation but there have been 5 deaths reported. Three other fires in other parts of Los Angeles are also burning, including one near the Hollywood Hills.
ReplyDeleteMaking political hay out of a tragedy like this shows a lack of empathy and a lack of humanity. Many of those living in the fire area are no doubt Republicans and Trump supporters, given the wealth in those neighborhoods. There are no poor people and very few immigrants inhabiting the endangered and burned areas. Rich people live in those hills and canyons.
That's why it strikes me as especially stupid when those who dislike Newsom try to point fingers while their own supporters are the ones suffering. They should be mobilizing help, not pretending everyone who lives in LA is automatically a Democrat or a blue voter. This includes Somerby, who confuses the house fires that arose before electricity provided warmth and like are anything like this modern unstoppable wildfire in a much more densely populated present. Every major city has had its fires and been rebuilt, that's true, but those fires fought with bucket brigades were nothing like what is happening today. Nothing at all.
warmth and light (not like)
DeleteOver 5300 structures burned now.
DeleteUp to past 9600 now.
DeleteAppreciate your comment, but drought, extreme winds and fire were just as hot in 1880 as 2025. Thing people don't think about is once the wind is strong enough to transport glowing embers it is over. No containment is possible. Fire will spread until runs out of fuel or the wind dies down.
DeletePopulation density increased in LA, more development than in 1880. Winds are stronger and daily temps higher, drying out vegetation. No rain in winter is new. Winds are stronger due to hotter desert temps, just as hurricanes are stronger now due to warmer ocean temps.
DeleteSomerby's endless nostalgia grows tiresome. Folklore is interesting but there is also so much going on in current events that Somerby appears demented himself while he sits and rocks and muses about the old days before there were cars and those fire wagons were pulled by horses. It is an insult to ignore the real events happening to real people as if one were wrapped in a blanket, sitting on one's front porch and musing about when children had to go search for eggs for their breakfasts and the world was a simpler place.
ReplyDeleteIt is an insult that Somerby can muse but not muster up a speck of compassion for those caught in the fires in LA. Instead, he is worried because bad people are calling their political enemies names. Is that really the most pressing concern of the day?
Well said.
DeleteBasically, the LA fires are not a good metaphor for the burning down of culture because Republicans call Dems names. The LA fires are a metaphor for holocausts of similar destructiveness, and "Shifty Schiff" isn't it.
ReplyDeleteI’d settle for Somerby trying to offer up a coherent definition for “culture”, or any of the subjects his loony posts focus on. Somerby’s mind is so weak and warped, frankly, it makes me want to poop every time I read his nonsense.
DeleteAh, excuse me
Oh, will you excuse me
I'm just trying to find the toilet
Has anybody seen the toilet?
Please
(Have you seen the toilet?)
I ain't seen the toilet
(Where's that confounded toilet?)
According to Trump, plumbing is so bad in LA that the toilets have not a drop of water in them. All the water went out to the sea. After the fires recede, those waterless toilets will be the only thing left standing.
DeleteThe Crunge!
DeletePencil neck, scumbag, MSDNC, lies about the fire, climate change (an existential threat to life) a scam and a hoax…
ReplyDeleteTell us again what dumb things “we” say that turn off voters?
Somerby has nothing to say about Jimmy Carter, but fortunately there is an interview with Carter himself:
ReplyDelete"HEAVEN (The Borowitz Report)—In a wide-ranging interview on Thursday, former President Jimmy Carter said that the best part of Heaven “by far” is the knowledge that he will never see Donald J. Trump again.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m very grateful for the gift of eternal life,” he said. “But an eternity without Trump is the greatest gift of all.”
Carter said that he was “far from alone” in appreciating his Trump-free existence, adding, “Nelson Mandela just said the same thing.”
Asked if he had seen Trump on cable news criticizing his sale of the Panama Canal, Carter responded, “We don’t have cable news up here. I’ve heard it’s on nonstop in the other place.”
Ha! Pretty good.
DeleteJeff Tiedrich addresses the racism expressed by Fox hosts and others to blame the firest in LA on the fire dept leadership (not macho enough) and the ignorance of those who blame the fires on conservation efforts in the San Francisco estuary (says Trump, who claims CA is sending all of its water out to sea to save smelt).
ReplyDeletehttps://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/no-idiots-los-angeles-isnt-on-fire
Blaming disasters on DEI is another way of pinning blame on minorities. Fox said DEI was responsible for the Key Bridge collapse, the doors falling off Boeing planes, and now the LA fires. That is what racism looks like and Fox is spewing this racist shit 24/7 using the fires as an excuse to blame minorities for things that are not even happening (such as supposed water shortages that are not a problem in this fire.
Somerby wants to claim that Republicans are not [all] racists, but how can he do that when their own mouthpieces on Fox News have gone full racist during coverage of the LA fires? Where are the voices on the right contradicting this racist bullshit? Silent.
The word for this is scapegoating.
DeleteBlaming disasters on DEI is another way of pinning blame on the brain-dead liberals. Where a large part of it does, in fact, belong.
DeleteLiberals are al "Black people are equal to white people", am I right?
DeleteWhite males have been dominating society for a few thousand years. I mean what could go wrong? Sure there’s lots of misery for women and people of color, but do they really matter? Everyone should know their place and keep to it.
Delete"White males" haven't been dominating anything, Soros-bot.
DeleteAll those battles of your phoney liberal identities are only happening inside your master's sick head.
Mmmm I seem to recall a few hundred years of women not voting, and racial slavery, but you do you, you fucking moron.
DeleteWhen it seems to you that you recall something, go see a psychiatrist, Soros-bot.
DeleteBlaming disasters on DEI is another way of pinning blame on minorities. Fox said DEI was responsible for the Key Bridge collapse, the doors falling off Boeing planes, and now the LA fires. That is what racism looks like and Fox is spewing this racist shit 24/7 ...
DeleteBut don't you dare care them racists, Dickhead in Cal will have a fit.
White males have been outclassed by immigrants in our labor market for decades.
DeleteWhat kind of Soros-bot does one have to be to not notice?
Somerby says: "Fair Baltimore, the beautiful city! Within two years, it was largely rebuilt."
ReplyDeleteDoes he imagine that rebuilding Los Angeles with its 5300+ destroyed homes and tens of billions in damage will take two years, because look how quickly Baltimore recovered? Did Baltimore really recover in two years?
"The fire raged for 30-plus hours, destroying more than 1,500 buildings on 86 city blocks in the heart of what was then America's sixth-largest city. Miraculously, the fire killed only four or five people, but it left 35,000 people jobless."
Did those four or five people spring back to life? How did 35,000 people find news jobs in the destroyed city? Was Baltimore still the 6th largest city after that? I'll bet not.
Easy for Somerby to sit in the safety of his home and chide Angelenos about how quickly they'll recover from their own losses (still fresh). This is NOT what empathy and compassion are like. This is like saying to an amputee: "I see you've lost your hand. Don't worry, you'll be back to juggling in no time. I know someone who lost both hands and he's doing fine with his stumps."
Somerby is an asshole.
Here is the response of the Obamas:
Delete"Michelle and I are thinking of everyone impacted by the wildfires in California, and are grateful for the work of the heroic firefighters and first responders."
The Baltimore fire burned for 30 hours. The Los Angeles fire has been burning for 2-1/2 days. Structures lost are nearly 10,000 so far. Another death was reported in Pacific Palisades, totaling 6. While the Hollywood Hills (Sunset) fire is contained, the Pacific Palisades fire has zero containment and a new fire is burning near Calabasas (that makes 5).
I get it that the Baltimore fire in 1904 was a disaster for the people involved, but it was nowhere near the magnitude of this Los Angeles fire situation, driven largely by hurricane force winds and consuming dried vegetation due to a late start to the rain that usually falls in winter in Southern CA (it is the only time the hills are green without irrigation).
Perhaps it wasn't Somerby's intent to minimize the disaster in CA, but the last thing people want to hear now is someone trying to tell them things aren't so bad, because look what happened in 1904. Or is Somerby trying to imply that there were fires long before global warming, so this fire wasn't made horribly more severe by the combination of high winds (100 mph) and drought (no rain in 300+ days)?
What is Somerby doing trying to minimize the natural disasters that occur due to global warming? Another right wing talking point or does he truly not care what happens where he personally doesn't live?
People aren’t motivated to vote for Dems because Republicans treat Dems crassly with dumb insults; and the same, vice versa.
ReplyDeleteOf all the electoral analyses, this is THE DUMBEST.
Some of the fires in LA are already suspected to result from arson, possibly all of them, and the least surprising thing would be if the culprit is a right wing/Republican extremist Trump voter.
Republicans, though, should take care of LA/CA since it provides most of the labor and gdp that Republicans live off of, feed off of, as they laze around in their McMansions and trailer parks, high off of Fox News, corporate power, authoritarianism and meth. Some, I assume, are good people; there are very fine people on both sides.
Please cite a source for the arson claim. I haven't seen it in any of the official or local reporting. I have read that the fire originated in a residential area but the first report was about a brush fire. They will figure out how it started but that will take a long time. Winds are spreading the fires without needing any help from "arsonists".
DeleteSpokesperson for the fire department said arson is a possibility in a news conference today, I saw it live.
DeleteThey’ve also caught looters in the Palisades.
Many of the recent fires in the LA area for the past few years have been the result of arson, so it’s reasonable for the authorities to suspect arson, or not rule it out.
Possibility doesn't mean arson happened. They will investigate and then we will know. I did see the reports of looting. That always happens with an evacuation because the first priority for police is saving lives not property. People inevitably ignore the evacuation order so police must go door to door getting them to leave. Then people try to go back and guard their homes while others try to loot. It is ugly behavior but happens in every fire (or earthquake or other disaster).
DeleteMost of the fires are caused by power lines down, use of heavy equipment in brushy areas, illicit campfires that get out of control, and similar accidents. The one near my home was started when a gender-reveal party used illegal fireworks that set the hillside on fire. Was that arson? Not deliberately. The cases where a firefighter sets fires in order to demonstrate bravery or a kid sets fires because he is emotionally disturbed are much less frequent. Fires are always investigated for arson unless the cause is obvious. If they don't know the cause yet, they have to say that arson is possible but that doesn't mean a cabal of terrorists set any of the fires.
ugh my goodness girl im not reading none of that just pray for dem ppl of los angeles leave us the fuck alone and have a blessed rest of your day
DeleteMany of the fires in LA in recent years are not caused by downed power lines, in fact many of LA power lines are underground, it’s an ongoing project.
DeleteIt is the cause of some fires, like the one a few years ago they tried to pin on a homeless person, but that one was caused by a power line issue.
They already arrested a suspected arson for the ongoing Kenneth fire, and arson remains a suspected cause for the other fires, unless they can rule that out.
Power was out for 400,000 people in LA because of concern about downed lines during high winds.
DeletePower is out all over LA, including in many areas that have underground power lines, like where I live. SCE is employing an over abundance of “better to be safe than sorry”. Power lines can play a role in LA fires, albeit a diminishing one; but arson also plays a major role.
DeleteArson is suspected in the fires, until it is ruled out, and indeed authorities have already arrested an arson suspect in one of the major ongoing fires.
Agree with 12:07, from on the ground assessment, many of the current outages are in areas with underground power lines (and little/normal wind), and there are vast swaths of areas with above ground power lines and high winds, like West LA, where the power has not been shut off.
DeleteAdditionally, in many areas with power outages, it is selective, where corporate business have power, but the residential houses next to them are out.
Edison does some good stuff, but it’s a private company, with the inherent limitations to the public good that that engenders - corporations are given privileges not granted to citizens, welcome to America.
"WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Moments after the United States Supreme Court rejected Donald J. Trump’s request to delay sentencing in his hush money case, Americans were in a state of shock over the apparent existence of the rule of law.
ReplyDelete“I didn’t see this coming,” said Cincinnati resident Harland Dorrinson, echoing the sentiments of millions. “I thought that the Supreme Court exercising independence was kind of an old-timey thing.”
“This really feels like Throwback Thursday,” he added, shaking his head.
News of the Court’s decision first spread after Mrs. Samuel Alito lowered her flag to half-staff."
https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/nation-stunned-by-apparent-existence
Clarence Thomas similarly lowered his Coke can to half-staff as well.
DeleteNot necessarily in solidarity, apparently he ran out of those blue pills, and his mood has been flaccid ever since. Poor Ginni. Maybe the time has come to revisit Loving v Virginia.
Liberals only believe in the rule of law when the law supports something they want. When the law requires something they oppose, then they oppose the rule of law.
DeleteAs evidence, liberals castigate Trump for trying to expel the illegal immigrants, something the law requires the President to do.
11:28 mocking the real David for how he is woefully unfamiliar with the laws of the land, and who enforces which laws.
DeleteFake David is hilarious.
DeleteImagine someone really being that clueless.
Bravo!
David, I don't remember you cheering for President Obama:
DeleteThe Trump administration has deported fewer overall people than were
deported under former President Obama despite the ongoing crackdown on
immigrants without legal status, according to the Washington Post.
While the Obama administration deported 1.18 million people in his first three
years, the number of deportations has been a little under 800,000 so far under
Trump, according to the Post.
The Obama administration also deported 409,849 people in 2012 alone, while
the Trump administration has yet to deport more than 260,000 people in a year,
the Post reported.
The Post noted it was unclear why there have been fewer deportations under
Trump
They did cut $17 million from the fire budget. That is true. Musk is correct that they cut $17 million from the fire budget.
ReplyDeleteHere is the LAFD Chief complaining about significant operational challenges due to the $17 million cut from the fire budget:
Deletehttps://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-wildfires-los-angeles-fire-chief-budget-cuts/
Funding was restored and increased via a subsequent bill.
DeleteThat is not exactly accurate. I understand what you are trying to say though. The mayor's office said there was extra money set aside to increase the budget but it had not been dispersed and wasn't going to be until late next year.
DeleteThe point is you can't call what Musk said a lie or badly misleading. The Fire Chief was complaining about operational difficulties due to budget cuts just a month ago - making no mention of any forthcoming increased funds.
(None of this means or is meant to say you are not one of the most brilliant people ever born.)
DeleteThere will be an influx of funds to deal with the fires according to Biden. No increase would have prevented this disaster. Musk is an idiot.
DeleteWhatever you say Mr. Soros.
DeleteOnly a Soros-bot would think Republican voters aren't a bunch of bigots.
Delete“That assertion is wrong. The city was in the process of negotiating a new contract with the fire department at the time the budget was being crafted, so additional funding for the department was set aside in a separate fund until that deal was finalized in November. In fact, the city’s fire budget increased more than $50 million year-over-year compared to the last budget cycle”
DeleteSorry but a 2% (~$17 million of ~$850 million) cut in the budget, apparently due to one time purchases and eliminating outdated/unfilled positions, is a drop in the bucket and not going to impact the fire department’s readiness. It potentially was going to impact some upper management salaries, but at any rate it never came to fruition - the additional funding was not withheld it was made available through a separate fund, and then the budget was ultimately increased.
Musk was wrong, Musk was misinforming by illegitimately trying to suggest that a 2% cut in budget impacted the fire department’s readiness. Musk’s assertion is false.
Musk was right. The budget was cut. There were reductions in the allocated budget for specific line items (e.g., salaries, overtime, and equipment). These reductions directly impacted operational capabilities, as the Fire Chief says in her memo from a month ago:
Deletehttps://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gg44aShWcAAQulF?format=jpg&name=large
No one is saying you're not a brilliant, brilliant man. But saying that the reductions are a drop in the bucket and not going to impact the fire department’s readiness, is different from saying Musk was lying. The main point though is that you are so smart in so many ways.
This is what the Fire Chief wrote a month ago after the 17 million dollar budget cuts that Musk mentioned:
Delete"The Los Angeles City Fire Department (LAFD) is facing unprecedented operational
challenges due to the elimination of critical civilian positions and a $7 million reduction in
Overtime Variable Staffing Hours (V-Hours). These budgetary reductions have adversely
affected the Department's ability to maintain core operations, such as technology and
communication infrastructure, payroll processing, training, fire prevention, and community
education.
In addition to these impacts, the reduction in v-hours has severely limited the Department's
capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies, including
wildfires, earthquakes, hazardous material incidents, and large public events. Specialized
programs and resources, such as Air Operations, Tactical EMS Units, Disaster Response,
and Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), which rely heavily on v-hours, are
now at risk of reduced effectiveness.
This report provides an in-depth analysis of these cascading impacts, underscoring the
critical need for resource restoration to ensure operational readiness, firefighter safety, and
the delivery of high-quality public service."
That's all. Democratic advocates who comment on blogs all exist on a higher intellectual plane that the rest of the world. Each and every one is brilliant through and through. No one is disputing that. And yes, it is natural to move the goal posts to say the budget cuts would not have made a difference in stopping the fire. That is probably true.
It was fun when you pulled this out of your ass "the additional funding was not withheld it was made available through a separate fund, and then the budget was ultimately increased."
DeleteIt's fun when the most brilliant people in the world make shit up because they are scared to admit they made a mistake. But the main point is how great you are on every level.
Word salads aside, the proposed funding cut was 2%, due to one time costs, elimination of unfilled positions, and unnecessary pay increases, and no a 2% cut does not impact readiness. As it turns out, the funding was not cut, funding was provided through a separate fund as the budget was negotiated.
DeleteThat you have to mislead in order to make your argument, indicates your weak position.
Furthermore, Musk did not merely point to the budget negotiations, he claimed the budget was cut - it wasn’t - which then impacted readiness, a completely false assertion. Musk was wrong, and he intentionally attempted to misinform to push his personal agenda.
As a 45 year fire protection engineer I am telling you there is simply no way to stop burning embers spread by high wind fires, no matter what the fucking budget is.
DeleteIdiot @ 2:39 - no one is making that argument, dumb fuck.
Deletehttps://x.com/CollinRugg/status/1877851846330507752
DeleteIdiots: here is the fire chief talking about how the $17 million budget cut negatively impacted the Los Angeles Fire Department's ability to fight fires effectively. She emphasized the department's ongoing struggles with being understaffed, under-resourced, and underfunded, noting repeated calls for interim budgets to address these issues over the past three years.
One of you idiots should call her and tell her there wasn't a budget cut, that the funding was provided through a separate fund as the budget was negotiated. And then tell her assertion the budget cuts impacted readiness is completely false. Since you know so much call her and tell her!
Irony -- Bob wrote "Kevin links to actual news reports—actual news reports which contradict those claims."
ReplyDeleteYet, Bob has devoted a huge part of his column pointing out news reports that are inaccurate.
Kevin didn't link to Fox.
DeleteStudies indicate that Fox News viewers are less informed than viewers of other cable news, and when Fox News viewers switched to CNN for a month, they became better informed.
ReplyDeleteThe accuracy of news depends on the source. Corporate news, particularly right leaning outlets, are less accurate, and their viewers are misinformed.
This circumstance is hardly news, it’s been around for decades.
Somerby often makes sweeping generalizations about news media and its impact on Dem voters; however, polls indicate that a majority of voters that closely or moderately follow news media, voted for Harris.
Corporate media is garbage, it has an unhealthy and outsized influence over politicians and pundits, but it has little significant influence over the electorate, and is not significantly determinative in elections.
In a blind poll, a majority of Republican voters preferred Harris’ policies over Trump’s.
ReplyDeleteSeems like Republican voters have a similar issue with lacking integrity that Republican politicians have (and blog writers too).
BTW the climate change study that Drum refers to about how much burned area is due to man-made climate change must be bullsh*t. There are just too many unknowns. E.g., global warming is supposed to increase rainfall, but nobody knows much of an increase or how much the increased rainfall affects wildfires.
ReplyDeleteAnything a Democrat politician fucks up is a fault of "climate change".
DeleteMeaning: it's a fault of dirty humans who selfishly populate the Earth. But not of the virtuous Democrats, whose private jets only improve the climate.
"E.g., global warming is supposed to increase rainfall,"
DeleteCitation, please. Drum shows his work with links. You make unsupported assertions.
DiC, yes it is slight hyperbole, but in service of a higher goal. Very effective persuasion, just like your hero, the orange abomination.
DeleteRupert Murdoch’s media empire in Australia completely reversed its stance on global warming and human activity after climatologists there attributed the extremely dry conditions to climate change. The Australians rejected his favored climate change denying politicians after the wildfires, handing a loss to his media outlets that control over 70% of the printed news there. They went from climate change skeptics to advocating a no carbon emissions Australia by mid century. So Murdoch’s stance on global warming depends entirely on the continent his media talking heads are preaching to. We will be hearing a lot about the so called failures of the liberals in government from right wing outlets in this country because the base of the Republican Party is large and ignorant enough to elect a president who has called climate change a Chinese hoax. California, during the decades of its population growth was in a period of atypically wet weather on an historic basis and is now, apart from the effects of climate change “reverting to the mean” , I remember hearing years ago.
DeleteRarer than a Libertarian during hurricane season.
DeleteJust like the Haitians are eating the cats and dogs, right Dickhead in Cal?
DeletePer David in Cal, saying bigoted things on the campaign trail, like Haitian immigrants are eating cats and dogs, was a brilliant political move by Trump.
DeleteUnfortunately, David in Cal can't tell us why it was brilliant, because then he'd have to admit the Left has been correct about the Right all along.
We can count on DiC to recognize Bulls**t. He is an expert in it. See below. F**king troll.
DeleteWhat we have now is crazy amounts of rain falling in short periods, followed by extreme drought over an extended period Along with the wind, the exact reasm LA is burning idiot DiC.
DeleteIt took me less than 30 seconds to locate this:
ReplyDeletehttps://gpm.nasa.gov/resources/faq/how-does-climate-change-affect-precipitation
Classic DiC.