Jeff Tiedrich is a web designer and graphic artist who has a consistently hilarious and outrageous blog. I can’t redact all the F words, so forgive that. I curse at home, but never in public or in print. Jeff has different rules.
He posted this commentary about Trump politicizing the fires in Los Angeles.
He titled it: Elderly Convict Won’t Stop Running His Ignorant Mouth About L.A. Fires.”
He wrote:
no one has ever accused America’s First Felon of learning. Donny Convict knows what he knows, and he’ll be god-fucking-damned if he’s going to let something stupid like facts change his stubborn mind.
we saw this during the botched response to Covid, where Donny never stopped insisting that that virus that was killing thousands of people a day was going to magically disappear all on its own, “like a miracle.”
we’re seeing again right now, where, as Southern California burns to the ground, he’s refusing to allow a single fact to penetrate his thick skull.
it’s not like experts haven’t already worn themselves out trying to explain to Donny how climate change will affect California’s ecosystem.
CA official: “if we ignore the science and put our head in the sand … we’re not going to succeed together in protecting Californians.”
Donny: “it’ll start getting cooler. you just watch.”
CA official: “I wish science agreed with you.”
Donny: “I don’t think science knows, actually.”
that was Donny in 2020, insisting — without any facts or evidence — that “it’ll start getting cooler,” because “science doesn’t actually know.”
let’s fast forward to right now, and see if Donny was right.

hmm. I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure a hurricane made of fucking fire is not a hallmark of lower temperatures in California.
the First Felon continues to flap his gums about California’s water system. he was at it again the other day.

“Governor Gavin Newscum should immediately go to Northern California and open up the water main, and let the water flow into his dry, starving, burning State, instead of having it go out into the Pacific Ocean. It ought to be done right now, NO MORE EXCUSES FROM THIS INCOMPETENT GOVERNOR. IT’S ALREADY FAR TOO LATE!”
oh look — the location of the imaginary building-sized faucet that takes a day to turn has moved from Canada to Northern California. where will it pop up next? maybe right here in the room with us?

praise the lord, someone in the media finally pointed out that most of Los Angeles’ water does not come from Northern California.
Trump appeared to be referring to water imported south from the Bay-Delta, fed by Northern California rivers and snowmelt. But most Los Angeles water does not come from Northern California. It comes via the city’s 112-year-old aqueduct that runs from the Owens Valley east of the Sierra Nevada, not the Delta, as well as groundwater. The city also imports water from the Metropolitan Water District, which relays water from the Colorado River and Delta to numerous local agencies. The city was the main motivating force for the building of the Colorado River Aqueduct in the 1930s.
and, of course, we’ve all explained until we were blue in the face that Los Angeles’ hydrant problem stems from having to fight too many fires in too many locations all at once, not because there’s some imaginary faucet that Gavin Newsom won’t turn — but MAGA isn’t listening. they don’t give a fuck about explanations. not when there are political points to be scored.
here’s a thing that happened way back in 2016. the town of Gaitlinburg burned to the ground in what to date has been one of Tennessee’s largest natural disasters.

The 2016 Great Smoky Mountains wildfires, also known as the Gatlinburg wildfires, were a complex of wildfires which began in late November 2016. Some of the towns most impacted were Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, both near Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The fires claimed at least 14 lives, injured 190, and is one of the largest natural disasters in the history of Tennessee
as happened this week in Los Angeles, the fires severely overtaxed Gaitlinburg’s infrastructure, to the point where —

Firefighters from across the state flocking to Gatlinburg to battle a growing firestorm couldn’t be sure the fire hydrants they uncapped would provide any water.
And within two hours of the mega wildfire reaching the city on Nov. 28, the hydrants were running dry.
the wingnutsphere must have shit a massive brick, and called for then-Governor Bill Haslam to resign, right? because as we all know from this week’s howls of MAGA outrage, empty fire hydrants are a sure sign of gubernatorial incompetence.
nope, crickets. there was nary a peep from the Fox News crowd. no one blamed it on DEI, and no one called for witholding aid to Tennesee until they change their conservation policies — which is definitely a thing Republicans are threatening to do right now to California.

let’s see how Loudmouth J. Fuckwad reacted.

“My thoughts and prayers are with the great people of Tennessee during these terrible wildfires. Stay safe!”
oh, huh. no bombast, no accusations, no demands that Governor Haslam travel to god knows where and open some imaginary spigot. nope, just some worthless thinking and praying.
why were Donny and the screech-monkeys of the MAGAverse silent? because Bill Haslam was a Republican, and there were no political points to be scored.

Funny, but I could’ve sworn Trump didn’t hold any office yet. What about those actually in power, like Biden (who brags about his oil production record), Newsom and Bass (who cut fire department funding (https://x.com/PplsCityCouncil/status/1877858986231210067) while increasing police funding, then went to Ghana)?
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Dienne,
You haven’t noticed but Trump is using his platform to spread lies and disinformation. He has offered no support to those on the ground but kept up a steady stream of disinformation.
Do you think he has no influence?
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Of course Trump is spreading lies. That’s what he does. Sure he has some influence, but not with anyone you’re going to convince. Anyone listening to Trump isn’t listening to you.
But you know who has more influence? The people currently in power. Those people might be more inclined to listen to some
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I am so relieved I don’t have to spend my days thinking up excuses to defend a traitor.
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Only in liberal land is stating facts “defending Trump”. The fact remains that, whatever nonsense dribbles out of Trump’s mouth, he’s not responsible for the LA fires or the response thereto.
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Of course, Trump is not responsible for the LA fires or the response to them. But couldn’t he offer decency, concern, and support for those who are suffering the loss of their home? Instead, he throws out a steady stream of lies and misinformation and attacks the governor, the mayor, the fire chief, with outlandish conspiracy theories. Do you think the fires were caused by DEI policies? Are Black, female, and gay firefighters incompetent? Is it only white men who are competent? Why doesn’t he just shut up instead of sniping?
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“Why doesn’t he just shut up instead of sniping?”
As I’ve said before, he does it (a) to rile up his base and (b) to get reactions like this out of people like you. You have no control over his base, but it would take a lot of fun out of it for Trump and his base if he didn’t get the predictable reaction every time. For a narcissist, any attention is good attention.
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I remember during first term that you advised that I ignore Trump. When the Idiot is President, it’s impossible to ignore him.
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He’s not president .
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True, Trump is not president. But with his threats to seize or invade Greenland, Canada and the Panama Canal, world leaders are taking his threats seriously. They don’t care about your opinion.
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Trump – and everyone who said it didn’t matter whether Trump or the Dem won in 2016 – IS responsible for the Supreme Court. And the Republicans ARE responsible for their policies that have done far more harm than the “not good enough” Biden policies that are derided and minimized as no better than Trump’s policies by Trump defenders.
It’s depressing to see history repeating itself – where supposedly “good folks” even on here are much more focused on attacking critics of authoritarians – gleefully awaiting their punishment – than they are concerned about what the authoritarian has already done and will do. They minimize the damage done by Trump and minimize the good done by Biden. All while focusing their hate and disgust on Trump critics – constantly insulting, attacking and belittling anyone who criticizes Trump.
“Of course Hitler is spreading lies. That’s what he does. Sure he has some influence, but not with anyone you’re going to convince. Anyone listening to Hitler isn’t listening to you.”
It all boils down to them yelling “shut up” whenever there is criticism of Trump. When Trump makes such criticism of Trump unlawful, they will very likely be among the first to excuse it away because after all, it was wrong to criticize Trump anyway because Trump isn’t listening and neither are his fans.
Why allow criticism, if Trump isn’t listening? All criticism must be exclusively attacking Democrats for not creating the nirvana they want.
Talk about Orwellian.
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I agree, NYCPSP.
No sanewashing Trump here.
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They also take a page out of the right wing playbook and lie with false innuendo.
NO ONE said Trump was responsible for the fires. He is responsible for his RESPONSE.
I notice the double standard – Democrats are responsible for the fires themselves (future budget cuts), and every other bad thing that happens, but Republicans are not responsible for any of the many, many tragedies on their watch.
Democrats always respond to tragedies by trying to alleviate suffering, and Republicans always respond by trying to maximize political advantage and scapegoat one of their enemies.
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BTW, we need to change the terminology from “science deniers” to “NATURE DENIERS.”
It’s a bit Orwellian, but also in fact, a huge number of scientists, sciences, and scientific fields are devoted to understanding and preserving NATURE and the NATURAL ENVIRONMENT. (Make nature great again.)
NATURE DENIERS. CBK
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Diane: I rarely laugh at profanity, but here, I couldn’t help myself. CBK
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I’ve been posting the following comment on the social media pages of Fox News, Newsmax, and every MAGA page I can stand. Feel free to copy and use:
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quikwit: Where is “the following comment” you posted? Don’t see it., so please repost. Thanks!
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Here’s the missing post:
Trump is demeaning the life-risking work of hundreds of firefighters when he demands to know “why the fires in LA aren’t out yet”.
Ask Trump just how he would go about fighting wide-ranging canyon fires while a non-stop tornado rages for a week with winds gusting to 90mph? Because that’s just what hundreds of firefighters are doing around the clock with nearly no sleep against the strong and long-lasting “Santa Ana” winds.
Four of the five water reservoirs at the fire were 75% or more filled with water. There was no water shortage. Ask the LA firefighters, not Fox News “personalities” broadcasting from 3000 miles away in New York and politicians blabbering away in Washington, DC.
The original Spaniards who settled LA called the winds the “Santana” winds — Satan’s winds, winds from Hell. It was only in the 1960s when some TV teleprompter typist incorrectly “corrected” the word Spanish “Santana” to “Santa Ana” that the winds got the mistaken name that we hear today.
No matter the name, they are powerful and long-lasting tornado-like winds from Hell that make human efforts to fight them look puny.
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In the last six months we have had two major hurricanes and the California wildfires estimated to cost over 120 billion dollars for recovery. Trump has been denying the idea of climate change since he discovered there were enough ignorant Americans to make America great. The problem its that the bill for climate disasters is only going to grow. As Americans suffer through MAGAs incompetence, the worm will turn. Katrina devastated the Bush administration. Future natural disasters will do the same to Trump, but not before significant suffering.
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Now this: “House speaker Mike Johnson says California aid should come with conditions
House speaker Mike Johnson believes there should be conditions on disaster aid to California, citing “state and local leaders [who] were derelict in their duties.”
Johnson, who spoke with CNN Monday, added: “I think that there should probably be conditions on that aid. That’s my personal view. We’ll see what the consensus is. I haven’t had a chance to socialize that with any of the members over the weekend, because we’ve all been very busy. But it will be part of the discussion for sure.”
Congress, which is responsible for approving federal aid for disaster relief, usually does not add conditions to those packages. But Johnson’s comments, focused on “water resource mismanagement, forest management mistakes and all sorts of problems,” suggest the Republican-led House may approach aid differently for California.”
Playin politics with disaster relief. How low can you go.
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I’m not sure if anyone else has mentioned in this thread what I learned over the last few days answering MAGA questions on Quora, that were really propaganda pretending to be questions. Propaganda attacking Governor Newsom and the Mayor of Los Angeles for not fixing problems that have been around for thousands of years in the few years they’ve been in office.
I learned these facts while putting the current wildfires in Southern California in perspective. It isn’t the end of the world. Yet! Still, that may happen sometime after FELON47 returns to the White House.
California has a history of wildfires, more than 20,000 over the last 150 years or so.
California Wildfire History Map
“The wind-fed wildfires have killed at least 24 people and swept through 40,000 acres in the Greater Los Angeles area, destroying entire communities and more than 12,300 structures.”
California wildfires live updates: Death toll climbs to 24 with strong winds to continue
There are more than 3,000,000 buildings in Los Angeles County
https://egis-lacounty.hub.arcgis.com/maps/57f5fc977d6a427a978003a6229ab5e7
LA County covers 4,084 square miles. There 640 acres to one square mile. Do the math and you come up with more than 2.6 million acres.
LA County By the Numbers – COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES
More math —
0.41% — that’s less than one half of one percent of the buildings in Los Angeles County have burned during the latest wildfires.
And 1.54% of the total acres in Los Angeles County have burned so far.
I also point out how the indigenous natives who lived in California for more than 10,000 years dealt with the danger of wildfires. The indigenous natives in Australia use the same methods and after recent fires in Australis, I’ve read the government there is putting those methods back into practice.
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