Trump Started the Fire. I Said What I Said.
So did every Republican, Democrat, Big Oil and Big Ag exec, and donor who successfully fought against climate-change mitigation
Jan. 9: It’s time to start blaming climate deniers for the consequences … Massive union union … Dem senator fronts for prayer breakfast … Immigration bill bordering on insanity picks up Dem votes in Senate …
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Say what you will about Think Progress, if you even remember it, but once upon a time a muckraking, subversive, progressive TV news producer could count on them to unload an arsenal of facts with sexy links to primary sources you could marshal to push back on the lies of the rich.
Today, there’s no such equivalent, and RePresident-elect Donald Trump’s stupid remarks about the Los Angeles wildfires have no single, substantive source of debunking pushback out there that I can steal cite and link to. Looks like we’re fucking the news on our own today, Newsfuckers!
I’m also old enough — clean living!1 — to remember the days when climate disasters were couched in the language of uncertainty. Who knows if climate change helped Katrina drown New Orleans?
Then we shifted into the uncertainty of causality. Okay, climate change made Helene stronger, but we can’t say which companies or U.S. policies caused that.
Well, the uncertainty stage is over. Welcome to the Fuck It, I’m Blaming Everyone era. The historical/insane accident of having Donald Trump in office again after a hiatus means we’ll be able with certainty to pin the climate disasters of Trump2.0 at least in part on the climate-policy disasters of Trump 1.0.2 In fact, we can start blaming him now — along with pretty much every politician this side of the Green New Deal.
The Los Angeles fires as of this morning have killed five people, destroyed at least 2,000 structures, and forced an estimated 130,000 to abandon their homes and run for their lives. In a major world metropolis.
The trumpiest — meaning most false and most dumb — thing that Trump said yesterday was that Los Angeles hydrants ran out of water for some made-up reason involving fish, blaming Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA). CalMatters has a good explanation of what Trump was trying to talk about and its wrongnesses.
But Newsom’s rapid response and prep wasn’t just about fighting wildfires, he also responded to the Trump bullshit that was spreading like a wildfire. Newsom outlined some of the steps the state had already taken before the fires:
Increasing spending on wildfire-resilience measures from $2.5 billion to $4 billion.
Adding 2,000 state firefighters for a total of 12,000 and giving them shorter workweeks to avoid, uh, burnout.
Adding seven C-130 air tankers and 16 choppers, giving California the world’s largest aerial firefighting force.
All kinds of high-tech shit to detect fires and map them in real time for firefighters.
And let it never be forgot that Trump’s preferred wildfire-prevention tactic is to rake forests.
And the reality about L.A.’s hydrants is that some ran dry because the reserves were depleted. But the reserves hadn’t been low beforehand, they were filled to capacity.
The water shortages occurred because the demand for it was unprecedented. In fact, the demand was four times greater than the city’s ever experienced.
And that’s the real point here. Los Angeles isn’t equipped to prevent this kind of thing or extinguish it immediately because no one is.
Vice President Al Gore warned us that any cost to prevent climate change was worth paying because climate change would cost exponentially more. But because Gore was kind of dorky and because millions of Americans worship stupid businesspeople who want money now even if it’ll cost more blood and treasure later, most Americans shrugged their shoulders.
Some Democrats have tried and failed to do what was necessary. Some, however, were Joe Manchin. And the days of Republicans acknowledging climate change are gone along with temperate summers.
In a 2023 poll, most Americans said fighting climate change was more important than greed “the economy.” Democrats and Independents agreed. Only Republicans said “the economy” was more important than a planet to put it on.
This, by the way, is a terrible poll, because it’s not climate change or the economy. It’s not like we have the option of never paying for climate change. The choice is paying a lot now or a lot² later. Eventually, we all pay for climate change. Even those of us who are the economy.
But with Republicans preferring their money over their kids’ planet, when Trump was president he hacked away at measures to mitigate climate change and slashed away at resources for dealing with the inevitable consequences.
And when Newsom was fighting wildfires during Trump’s presidency, Trump’s prescription then, as now, was better forest management.
Are there ways forest management might prevent or mitigate wildfires? Maybe! Are we researching the best ways?
That’s why we’ve got the federal Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP)3…
…which Republicans have been burning down for 20 years. Pres. Barack Obama was forced by congressional Republicans to make big budget cuts, which included cutting JFSP research on how to prevent wildfires from $12.9 million a year to $8.9 million.
After Trump got into office, the Washington Post reported in 2020, he tried to kill the entire JFSP in 2018. And then again in 2019. He failed — because Trump — but he and his party did manage to get the budget down to half of what it was under Obama: Just $6 million a year.
And Trump’s now had five years to read this Washington Post article in which scientists say there’s no way to manage a forest into being fireproof. Certainly not against storm-force winds whipping through drought-desiccated woods.
That’s why humans screwing up the atmosphere doubled the amount of forest acreage lost to wildfires annually between 1984 and 2015.
But we saved $6 million in 2020!
Then there were the Trump cuts to the federal Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program. And eliminating the Global Climate Change Initiative’s entire $350 million even though global climate change changes America’s climate. Trump killed $2 billion already pledged to the UN’s Green Climate Fund.
Can you tell I found Trump’s first budget? It mentions “climate” just six times — each time in the context of eliminating spending.
One mention: “Discontinues funding for the Clean Power Plan, international climate change programs, climate change research and partnership programs, and related efforts—saving over $100 million for the American taxpayer.” Y’know what would’ve been a good use for that $100 million? Fighting climate change!
The absurdity of Trump’s economy-now approach to the environment is in full breathtaking display in this sentence: “[T]he Budget reorients EPA’s air program to protect the air we breathe without unduly burdening the American economy.”
Because, y’know, you’ve gotta strike just the right balance between the Dow Jones Industrial Average and oxygen.
But wait, there’s more. Trump didn’t just fuck Earth generally, he fucked wildfires specifically. His budget says it “Fully funds wildland fire preparedness and suppression activities at $2.4 billion, 100 percent of the 10-year average for suppression operations.”
But here’s the thing about math, if you freeze future funding at its average level, you’re actually cutting it from at least some previous years. And you’re not accounting for either inflation or the increase in wildfires that your climate-change cuts will cause, leading to Trump starting the Los Angeles wildfires.
HISTORY’S MYSTERIES Former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso was one of the chowderheads weighing in on the fire, because he was asked to weigh in by media chowderheads despite being so stupid he has a billion dollars.
Caruso called it “absolute mismanagement” that some hydrants went dry. As for how Caruso — a Republican who ran as a Democrat because he wanted to win — would have managed climate issues, let’s travel back to the distant past of 2022, shall we?
We’re now in the halcyon days when the Los Angeles Times did things like endorse presidential candidates. Into this wild-west of journalism stepped staff writer Sammy Roth, whose coverage included asking the mayoral candidates about their climate policies.
Caruso skipped the League of Conservation Voters debate. And wouldn’t talk to Roth. Then the Caruso campaign said they’d issue a written climate plan. Then they didn’t do that.
And while it’s true that Caruso had plenty of money to pay for someone to fake up a climate plan, the flipside of being a billionaire is being not smart enough to do smart things with the money you earned have.
Organized Labor Just Got Organizeder
Twenty years after splitting off, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is rejoining the AFL-CIO.
This is a big deal when it comes to winning big deals from employers. Especially under a Trump2.0 administration likely to be hostile to labor, despite a not-terrible-seeming appointment for Labor secretary.
SEIU represents two million workers, many of them in low-paying jobs such as janitorial. A lot of them are immigrants, and not all of those are here legally.
But now the SEIU won’t be going up against the Trump2.0 administration alone. The AFL-CIO has 12.5 million members.
Democrat Co-Chairing Event Funded by Anti-LGBTQ+ Group
EXCLUSIVE Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) will co-chair next month’s National Prayer Breakfast, I reported exclusively over on the Jonathan Larsen Substack where I do that kinda thing. As I previously reported, the event is funded by the Fellowship Foundation.
If you’re not familiar with the Fellowship Foundation, aka The Family — first of all, welcome, new Newsfucker! — they have decades of history roping Democrats into their anodyne-seeming world, giving their events an official-seeming veneer…
…and then using that veneer to pull in rich people who want to connect with politicians when they’re done praying — and are willing to fund The Fellowship “associates” who make these connections happen. The toxic stew of religion and money and politics leads in country after country to repressive policies and theocratic leanings, as I’ve reported in Ukraine and Guatemala and Mike Lindell’s brain.
The 2023 co-chair of the National Prayer Breakfast, Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI), was able to travel on The Fellowship’s dime to Uganda’s prayer breakfast because The Fellowship told the Ethics Committee that his travel was related to official duties…namely, co-chairing the (unofficial) breakfast. While in Uganda, Walberg told Ugandans to stand firm behind their president even though their economy was gonna get hit by sanctions related to their new law: A death penalty for same-sex sex.
The Wall Is Back!
Remember how President Donald Trump built a border wall that Mexico paid for, ending undocumented immigration forever? Well, now he’s going to finish that wall and end undocumented immigration forever!
Axios reports that Trump aide and classic Hogwarts villain Stephen Miller last night gave Senate Republicans a preview of 100 executive orders Team Trump is allegedly working on. One is finishing the wall they already built. Others involve re-ramping up America’s cruelty toward migrants.
Among those other, reviving Title 42, a legal measure that lets the government forgo due process for wannabe immigrants by claiming there’s a health emergency, which Trump will say there isn’t the moment there actually is.
Four Quickies
The immigration bill TFN told you about yesterday goes to the Senate on Friday. We’ve already laid out some of its more egregious provisions — including handing over some really problematic unilateral power to MAGA bozos. Another thing it does is require detention — i.e., no shot at bail — for every undocumented immigrant charged with non-violent crimes like burglary. Politico reports that nine senators in the Democratic Caucus say they’ll vote to advance the bill on Friday:
Tammy Duckworth (D-IL)
John Fetterman (D-PA)
Ruben Gallego (D-AZ)
John Hickenlooper (D-CO)
Mark Kelly (D-AZ)
Angus King (I-ME)
Jon Ossoff (D-GA)
Gary Peters (D-MI)
Jacky Rosen (D-NV).
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was asked by the Supreme Court to respond by this morning after Donald Trump requested a postponement of tomorrow’s sentencing. That’s right, after everything, he’s still scheduled for a sentencing hearing. The judge has taken any real consequences off the table for Trump hiding from voters his payments to keep Stormy Daniels quiet. But the sentencing will still make history by formally establishing Trump’s status as a convicted felon in the eyes of the law and not just in our hearts.
Alexander Smirnov, the guy who lied to the FBI and said Joe Biden and his son, history’s greatest monster, Hunter Biden, took bribes or ate babies or something, was sentenced to six years in prison yesterday. Smirnov, an FBI misinformant, misinformed the FBI about his lies under oath, instead of doing it the way you’re supposed to, misinforming Americans on TV with the backing of the full Republican Party.
RePresident-elect Donald Trump liked to claim that leaders of other countries laughed at Pres. Joe Biden. Well, if that was ever true, it’s one area where Trump has already replaced Biden. After Trump’s talk of manifest destinying himself into other countries, Ontario Premier Doug Ford yesterday said Canada should scoop up Alaska and Minnesota. Meanwhile, Trump’s stupid idea of renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America led Mexican Pres. Claudia Sheinbaum to suggest that America get a new name — Mexican America — that’s actually what it was called on a 1607 map she displayed.
TCB
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Go get ‘em, kids!
I wish.
Trump’s single greatest achievement, weirdly, was being so unprepared for the pandemic that it led to a dramatic reduction in driving and therefore carbon emissions.
No idea if that’s the real acronym.
Trump is an adjudicated rakist.
Hmmm… maybe Claudia Sheinbaum is onto something. Make America Mexican Again, MAMA!