After watching Fireaid concert, people should have more respect for us geezers

e·col·o·gy

e·col·o·gy /ēˈkäləjē/ noun/ the branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings.

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a branch of science concerned with the interrelationship of organisms and their environments 

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the totality or pattern of relations between organisms and their environment

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Blogger: We Are All Connected to Everything 

Adam Schiff 'drops the hammer' on Trump, Meidas Touch Video

Watch Here: FED UP Senator Schiff DROPS THE HAMMER on Trump

Drain the swamp and you end up with dead bodies in the river.

my Bluesky feed

https://bsky.app/profile/rogueagent48.bsky.social 

They could have nuked us, so turning Trump loose on USA is actually benevolent

Project 2025 is NOT fascism. It's a blueprint for making USA an Islamic state. Oh boy no more having to shave my legs...

Kay Ebeling

A lot of Arabic nations are angry at USA, especially since Iraq and Afghanistan, where America conducted years of illegal warfare, accomplishing nothing, but to kill a lot of brown civilians, including children, with our misaimed drones.

They could have nuked us. Arabic nations certainly have the resources. Instead they were wily. They used information warfare and took advantage of Americans' inherent hatred and greed, developing messages that appealed to an inherent desire to blame some group for everything going wrong in their lives. They knew we'd worship anyone with money and power and how to make use of that. The Saudis hired Russians who did the research, wrote the scripts, and produced the messages, based on over a hundred years of experience in subterfuge and propaganda.

Remember, Saudi Arabia and Russia together make up most of what we call Big Oil or Global Oil.

Now a good half of America thinks the election of Donald Trump is a victory for "their side" of USA, a division that did not even exist until Fox News and its extensions took over a good half of Americans' brains and tore our country apart.

It should not take too long, a few months at most, for Trump supporters to realize they've been had, realize the horrible damage they've done to this wonderful experiment American democracy. (continues below).

I hope they wake up before it's too late.

Look at all the cash the Saudis gave Trump's daughter. Trump sold us out; nothing in his career contradicts his being willing to sell out our nation for enough $$$. 

We are now an Arabic colony, they are just letting us down gradually, because Muslims are benevolent. 

They could have nuked us. Instead they financed Fox News and brainwashed enough of the dumbest meanest American voters to make taking over the country through an election easy. No warfare, no casualties except a few persons' rights. And now some airline passengers' lives. No sloppy Gaza devastation. 

We are now all Muslims like it or not. At least Islam believes in sharing wealth. That is real reason Repubs don't want us to learn about Islam. Because it's a very Fair social structure where wealth has to be shared with the village.

-ke

For the first time in my life I'm grateful to be poor because I have nothing to lose in this insanity. I'm also grateful I became crippled as I have an excuse to stay home and avoid all the insane people. Because when someone is brainwashed, they can be convinced to do anything. So I'm staying to myself for now..

Trump is putting incompetents in leadership roles as This Is An Attack on USA. We already have casualties. Trump is a trojan horse, now inside our walls, beginning to destroy USA from within https://bsky.app/profile/rogueagent48.bsky.social

Trump is doing what Saudi Russia hired him to do. He is a Trojan Horse; it took 10 years but he got inside. Now he is regurgitating weapons and beginning the attack. This Is War nothing less. How do we attack back?  

trump is destroying more than the economy. He is a Trojan Horse. All he had to do to get elected and inside the nation was convince 48 percent of the dumbest meanest people in america to vote for him. So he did things like pretending to give head to microphones or that stupid dance at rallies. That brought out the "new" voter who never voted before and has no idea what he was doing. Now Trump the trojan horse is destroying the whole country and those people who voted for him still think they won something.

whimsy for wednesday

 GOP Jesus 

I meed more comedy

-ke

Deportations of undocumented workers are economic suicide as are Trump tariff policies, says veteran Tahoe food industry consultant

Guest Editorial at City of Angels Blog

By Aaron Maffitt

After over 40 years in the food industry, I’ve never been this disgusted. The reckless policies of this administration are gutting our food system, and let’s be clear: this mess is the direct result of a Republican electorate so blinded by hatred and their desperate desire to “own the liberals” that they voted against their own best interests—and ours.

They’re Destroying the Backbone of Our Food System

Mass deportations of undocumented workers, who make up 50-70% of the agricultural workforce, are nothing short of economic suicide. These are the people who harvest our crops, process our food, and keep the supply chain running. Without them, fields will sit empty, shelves will go bare, and prices will soar. Who exactly do they think is going to step in and do this work? Spoiler: it’s not the people who voted for this insanity.

Economic Incompetence on Display

And as if that’s not enough, let’s talk about the trade policies and tariffs that are strangling our economy. Food prices are already through the roof, and these shortsighted moves will make it even worse. Families are struggling, businesses are bleeding, and for what? Some pathetic political point? It’s maddening.

Environmental Neglect for Short-Term Greed

And let’s not overlook the environmental carnage. Rolling back sustainability measures to prop up outdated, destructive practices is as stupid as it is short-sighted. Farming depends on healthy land and water, and these fools are gambling with resources we can’t replace.

The Blame Lies with the Republican Electorate

But here’s the real kicker: none of this would be happening if it weren’t for the Republican voters who gleefully enabled this disaster. In their obsessive hatred of liberals, they voted for people who are dismantling our food system, destabilizing our economy, and jeopardizing our future. Well, congratulations—you “owned the libs.” Too bad you also screwed the rest of us in the process.

Enough is Enough

I’m angry, and I hope you are too. This isn’t just bad policy—it’s a reckless, hateful agenda that’s harming every single one of us. If you care about food security, if you care about economic stability, if you care about this country’s future, it’s time to stand up and fight back. Because if we don’t, this madness will destroy everything we've built

***

Aaron Maffitt  is a restaurant operations consultant who says on his Facebook profile he's a "culinary adventurist, ski for life, yachtsman, student of all things?

* 

cartoon just came through my Bluesky feed

https://bsky.app/profile/rogueagent48.bsky.social

Blogged by Kay Ebeling

I watch Looney Tunes videos like this one on one screen while keeping track of Trump USA news on other screen

Dancing cartoon figures are keeping me balanced and sane 

THE BIGGEST LOONEY TUNES (Over 10 Hours)- CARTOONS COMPILATION (HD 1080p) from classic comedy channel on Youtube

 

 hahahahaa -ke

Trump Plots Scheme for Ross Ulbricht bitcoin- Meidas Touch Video

"Is Trump considering having MAGA Congress pass a bill to give Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the online heroin and coke black market, back the BILLIONS of dollars he forfeited in Bitcoin to the federal government for his crimes? Michael Popok takes a deeper diver into the sordid tale of the relationship between Trump and Ulbricht, whom Trump admires as a crypto- rockstar and what it could mean for future business dealings of Ulbricht and Trump, now that Trump sprung him from a Life prison sentence in a supermax prison."

Video; Trump Plots SCHEME with PARDONED Convict?!

 

Meidas Touch video at city of angels blog

WHO comments on US intent to withdraw, Geneva Statement 21 Jan 2025

The USA was a founding member of WHO in 1948 

The World Health Organization regrets the announcement that the United States of America intends to withdraw from the Organization.

WHO plays a crucial role in protecting the health and security of the world’s people, including Americans, by addressing the root causes of disease, building stronger health systems, and detecting, preventing and responding to health emergencies, including disease outbreaks, often in dangerous places where others cannot go.

The United States was a founding member of WHO in 1948 and has participated in shaping and governing WHO’s work ever since, alongside 193 other Member States, including through its active participation in the World Health Assembly and Executive Board. For over seven decades, WHO and the USA have saved countless lives and protected Americans and all people from health threats. Together, we ended smallpox, and together we have brought polio to the brink of eradication. American institutions have contributed to and benefited from membership in WHO.

With the participation of the United States and other Member States, WHO has over the past 7 years implemented the largest set of reforms in its history, to transform our accountability, cost-effectiveness, and impact in countries. This work continues.

We hope the United States will reconsider and we look forward to engaging in constructive dialogue to maintain the partnership between the USA and WHO, for the benefit of the health and well-being of millions of people around the globe.

21 January 2025 Statement Geneva 

Press Release original at WHO site https://www.who.int/news/item/21-01-2025-who-comments-on-united-states--announcement-of-intent-to-withdraw

Driving Through the Aftermath: Sunset Boulevard Shows Devastation From Palisades Fire

 Watch Santa Monica Closeup video from YouTube here

 

My Home Town - ke

The planet is heating at an alarming rate, a NASA scientist told me in 1979. Soon after, DOD predicted mass migrations as a result of climate crises. So WTF?

They knew mass migrations were coming. Back in the '80s and '90s the DOD issued papers warning that increased heat would destroy crops and food supplies, and entire populations would have to migrate, which might "cause global security problems" I remember that specific warning. I read those papers, and you used to be able to find them by doing a Google search; but recently when I tried again, a whole lot of other stuff came up instead.

"Illegal immigration" is happening all over the world now, report several international news sites. Humans could have been preparing for it since the '80s and '90s. Instead globally, apparently, the global oil industry controlled the message for decades, and everyone looked the other way.

Now the damage of decades of over producing CO2 is driving populations to have no choice but to move, as their home regions become uninhabitable, and the migrants aren’t the ones pouring pollution into the air. Our leaders have allowed this situation to develop and are now blaming the victims.

* * *

I don't know if the Air Force showing up and changing NASA from an open source civilian agency to whatever it is now had anything to do with the silencing of scientists about global warming, I'm just pointing out that both things happened at around the same time.

* * *

I first heard about global warming in 1979 when I worked in the Newsroom at NASA Houston and I was interviewing a scientist about discoveries he'd made concerning Earth's North and South Poles. As I was packing up to leave, he said, "You know what's a real story. The ice caps are melting." I stopped and listened. "I go to both of them every year and it's noticeable and alarming. The polar ice caps are melting. We're pouring so much CO2 into the atmosphere that everything is overheating and it's alarming. If the ice caps melt, it will disrupt the entire ecology of the planet, every balance will become unbalanced…."

I don't remember his exact words but that was his message.

Weeks later I saw him in the cafeteria where other people were nearby and asked him, can you tell me more? I'd like to follow up and maybe do a story about what you said, about the icecaps melting-

He FREAKED

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said turning red and turning away from me angry, looking scared.

Then the Air Force showed up and became employees at LBJ Space Center.  With no warning, guys in uniform were in the cafeteria, at chili cookoffs, in offices down the hall. All of us suddenly had to get a higher security clearance than we'd needed when I was hired, and I knew I wouldn't pass because- well read City of Angels Blog 3 12 and 15 for explanation.

I don't know if the Air Force showing up and changing NASA from an open source civilian agency to whatever it is now had anything to do with the silencing of scientists about global warming, I'm just pointing out that both things happened at around the same time.

The planet is heating at an alarming rate, a NASA geologist told me in 1979. Then the Air Force showed up and he went silent.

DOD papers warned that climate change would cause mass migration in the 80s and 90s. Our "leaders" chose to ignore both climate change and its effect on populations.

Now we all get to learn how devastating it can get when the planet gets too hot. Oh boy.

*

I learned in 2014 that humans have passed the "tipping point" for CO2 release, we went beyond the point where we could do anything about it, according to climate scientists who'd been trying to get governments to take action for decades but were unable to succeed. Of course there were optimists, but I believed the tipping point thesis, as I pay a lot of attention.

That's why I moved to Tahoe. We have clean water here, lots of it, relatively cool weather, and, so far, a manageable amount of population. I think that's what people need to do. If it's getting too hot and dangerous where you live, better pack up and move to a more habitable climate.

At some point, you too may have to migrate to survive.  

*

By Kay Ebeling

I wake up blogging

 

USA was destroyed, not by an atom bomb or terrorist attack, but by a TV station 

More new ways to kill Americans, as 30 year attack on USA from within accelerates; will L.A. look like Puerto Rico soon? Is Melania cheering?

If there's another pandemic, how will we even know?

It's happening. When I saw Melania staring out at Southern Californians after the fires, I knew it. This is it. The decades long information warfare attack on USA was now ready to do real damage. Now Melania, who helped make it all happen by "turning" Trump in the nineties, gets to watch victory in action.

Why would she make this trip if it wasn’t to see in person the damage, to secretly cheer for the devastation, while she glares out at the Americans, who she's hated since her childhood in the Soviet Union, where her father was a Communist Party official.

This blogger thinks she accompanies Trump when he visits disasters so she can send back first hand reports to whoever in whatever country has been running the Trump campaign since at least 2015, whoever she's been working for since the 1990s when she arrived in USA on a "genius visa" and seduced the lusty playboy Trump with a photo of herself nude grabbing her own p---y, then sat him in front of a TV tuned to Fox News and began re-educating him. 

Now Trump in charge of rebuilding Southern California makes all the repulsive years she's had to spend with him justifiable.

Now a thirty year attack on USA from within is coming to fruition.

Now Trump shouts "drill baby drill" in response to the climate crisis. Just what Big Oil wants him to say. 

Yesterday he withdrew USA from the World Health Organization just as another deadly flu virus is spreading, in Birds. I mean, if you wanted to spread a virus and kill Americans as fast as possible, what better way than a virus spread by birds, Bird Flu, first cases passing to humans this week. 

So Trump issued an order forbidding public health groups from releasing any news or information about flus or other health concerns for the next month.

*

NPR Federal health agencies told to halt all external communications

In a memo obtained by NPR, acting Health Secretary Dorothy Fink forbade staff from public communications on most matters until Feb "Employees of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services were told to halt all public communications Tuesday."

***

Another new way to kill Americans. Like 9-11.

If a pandemic comes to our region, how will we even know?

Especially me living among the brainwashed red hats who think this is all wonderful.

At 3 AM today I woke up thinking, L.A. is going to be like Puerto Rico soon. I'm surprised he did not throw water balloons at Angelenos.

*

By Kay Ebeling

computer challenged for at least another week

Post Note: For decades climate scientists warned of New Viruses emerging from melting ice caps and we had Covid now Bird Flu. I will watch foreign news reports to learn more for future posts. -ke

Geniuses w arrested development and megalomania now run USA; what can go wrong...

No billionaire role models beyond Batman

Billionaires with brains addled by sophisticated drugs jump into megalomania like that's all there is to do with all that money. Fueled and stimulated, they get crowds and investors and now politicians to join them by speaking to large rallies acting crazy jumping up and down and roaring like wild animals, like Adam Neumann of WeWork and Elon Musk of the Trump campaign. 

Neumann

They rise up and live in rarefied air above everyone but a few other billionaires doing same, and they don’t see how their sucking up and blowing all the wealth leaves the rest of us in ever lowering living standards, scrabbling to survive.

These products of twenty first century America and autism have a unique kind of arrested development and genius; so with all the power their money gives them, they mimic super heroes from cartoons and comics instead of philanthropists. Never bothering in college to take humanities, as our culture encouraged their math overbalanced brains, they probably don’t even know to make a connection between Rockefeller Center and John Rockefeller and the Getty Museum and J Paul. For entertainment they must just read comic books, so they have no billionaire role models beyond Batman. 

And I've seen this before, in 1970s when Tim Leary and John Lennon and Tom Smothers and others joined up with really rich people, I think from California, early Silicon Valley. Like today's billionaires, they were trying to defy death and aging, taking mega doses of strange new "vitamins" to stay young, and looking into cryogenics so they can freeze their dying bodies to be defrosted in the future, for… what? Almost all those death defiers ended up dying early like in their fifties.

And am I the only one who's noticed the same investors who grew WeWork are now going to fund Donald Trump's AI factory? 

-ke

Manifest destiny to Mars while we on Earth all watch from our tents; today's blog post w Maddow video/ transcript, Spy vs Spy and more

I was going to stop blogging, then watched Colbert and 

I told you Melania was a spy

Based on a joke by Stephen Colbert last night; also read more posts about Melania the Spy here

https://cityofangels25.blogspot.com/search?q=melania+spy

***

First official use of “Gulf of America” was from Florida, a state that denies global warming, announcing a snow storm coming in from the west in January. (per Stephanie Miller) Right now New Orleans is having a blizzard. Snow blizzard same month California had fire during rainy season. And Trumpsters still deny climate change due to a heating planet, they want it to heat more. Ayayayaya 

***

How Melania got dressed yesterday 

***

“I was saved by God to make America great again,” says Trump.

Hmnnnnn... ...

Matthew 24:24

"For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect."

***

TRUMP'S PLAN FOR THE WALL

***

Wow. I read that Trump has already withdrawn USA from the Paris Climate Accords and a belch came up from deep inside that, I swear, made me taste gas, car exhaust, CO2 in my mouth. My first thought was I knew it, living in pollution is what has made me this sick in the first place. I also felt a kind of connection with Earth as the gases came up from my insides into my mouth. Our planet is sick too… 

**

Elon Musk et al have read too many comics and not enough astrophysics

***

8 years ago this photo was my post on Facebook; oh how naive we all were

***

This really is happening

  

The Rachel Maddow Show 1/20/25 "This is not a drill"

TRANSCRIPT 

Earlier in the day, we started seeing messages fly from january th, defendants and their families claiming even before any official pardons had been signed, that they were getting word that their charges were being dropped or they were being processed for release from prison. This is one of the earliest messages we saw today online. This man claiming the justice department was dropping his pending criminal case. This is a man who had been charged with beating police officers with a baseball bat. That's him with the black bat there on the left side of your screen. That's at the capitol building. Obviously, on january th, there had been word, including from vice president j.d. vance, that nobody charged with violence against police officers would be pardoned by trump. But this man today posted online that he'd heard that his case was being dropped tonight. Within the past hour, we got word that there appears to not have been a distinction made between those convicted of just participating in the january th attack and those who participated violently in the attack, including those who attacked police officers physically. The list of people whose sentences were commuted by trump today commuted to time served so they can be released. Released from prison includes some of the people convicted of violence against police officers. It includes paramilitary leaders who were sentenced for seditious conspiracy for attempting to overthrow the u.s. government by force. You may have seen today that the proud boys put on their full colors and marched today in washington in advance of tonight's announcement, saying, free our boys. Well, now, their leaders and their members convicted of trying to overthrow the government and of violence against police officers, they are all being sprung out of prison, people all together, either receiving pardons and commutations from trump tonight, of all the possibilities considered about what trump would do with the people who committed violence on his behalf on january th, this was the maximalist option. Pardoning and commuting all of their sentences so that all of them are released. This was the maximalist option, and, you know, like the blatant transactional, open for business corruption, you know, founding his own currency that you can buy to put money in his pocket the weekend before he becomes president. Aside from all of that, just blatant open for business corruption. What we're seeing here with the january th pardons, this kind of thing does have the benefit of novelty, right? We've never quite seen something like this before, but like with the corruption, the boring thing about it is that we know exactly what this leads to. Authoritarian rulers all over the world have always liked to have paramilitary, loyal, but unofficial perpetrators of violence and menace to work on their behalf to intimidate and hurt anyone in opposition, to make it too scary for normal people to participate in politics or civic life. To make everybody who might oppose trump in any way worry about the thugs that might turn up at their door. Trump pardoning and released from prison the january th defendants, including the paramilitaries, means he is effectively immunizing his followers from committing violence in his name. He's making clear, you know, if you support me, the law doesn't apply to you. Not incidentally, the people he's pardoning and their families will feel like they owe trump everything and that they therefore should and now can do absolutely anything for him. In authoritarian hungary, viktor orban's government pardoned a far right agitator who had set fire to the homes of orban's political rivals in turkey. Erdogan had pardoned the leader of a far right nationalist paramilitary group that mobilized on his behalf and engaged in street violence in zimbabwe. Robert mugabe pardoned hundreds of people who carried out election related violence on his behalf. Pinochet in chile and fujimori in peru gave blanket amnesties to their security forces. If you're on my side, the law doesn't apply to you. Don't even ask me about the essay in germany. Don't get me started. But this is day one, unfolding pretty much the way we expected it to. And yes, this is novel in american history, but it is also knowable in world history because it's the same stuff every other would be authoritarian leader does. In every country that has had to contend with a leader like that, and as americans, you know, we've had bad inaugurations before, including the one where one of the principals was too drunk to stand. We've had blatant cash in envelopes to the vice president corruption before we've had political violence before we've had civil war. But before each of those things has been treated as a calamity and a scandal. This time, it's a platform. This is textbook authoritarian takeover tactics, which means today and literally over the next few days, they're going to see what they can get away with and how much they can cow people into not opposing what they're doing and not speaking out about what's wrong with it. More than ever, this is not a time to pretend this isn't happening. You're going to want to have a good answer. When you get asked what you did for your country. When your country started to take a turn. This radical. We are here. It is happening in our lifetimes.

***

Watch MSNBC video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2lMQ6pysAs&t=1s

***

Kay is still blogging

First they came for the journalists. We don't know what happened after that.

Finally the message about a heating planet is reaching mainstream 

 

Just a few decades too late

When the sun comes back out, I'm like a bird, I start chirping

I went to TikTok One Time, found it was childish and dumb, never went back. What did I miss? 

blogged by-ke

If nothing else, this is a fascinating time to be alive.

I spend hours each day reading news about everything from melting ice caps and the heating planet to the arrival of Donald Trump and more displaced humans, I read and watch one news outlet to the next, my wi-fi my only connection to humanity and it's wonderful.

Watch Gavin Newsom interview at LA Food Bank about fires and unamerican response of Trumpists

Newsom is brilliant, thinks on his feet, is forceful as well as compassionate; transcript below of "MUST SEE: Gavin Newsom SMACKS DOWN Trump & Elon Musk over fire lies" From Brian Tyler Cohen channel on YouTube. TRANSCRIPT below

ROUGH TRANSCRIPT**

I'm joined Now by Governor New thanks for joining me today it's good to be with you so we are at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank the we're going to talk about that in a few moments the people who are working here are doing God's work um delivering very much needed help to the people of Los Angeles who are impacted by these fires more broadly though the people of California need Federal help and so what will the federal aid that Biden release be able to do for us and do we have any worry more broadly that in a few days when Trump is sworn into office that he'll be able to intervene yeah so there were two on on the first part of your question two things President Biden did right away and I mean right away we got a major disaster declaration um within hours that's unprecedent in modern emergency history we got it over a text message I asked the president just on the immediate Disaster Response to move from a % reimbursement uh from FEMA uh to a % he said no uh I said gez Mr President he said no I'm going to do % uh he stepped up and he continues to including just a few hours ago with what they call the C to G grants it was the last major part when the C tog grants mean is playgrounds parks and schools and community centers getting that % reimbursed so significant support FEMA now is out there on the line doing $ uh debit cards just for incidentals groceries and those are those are immediate immediate that doesn't mean that all these people are getting a $ that's no but that's just immediate before you even get to the application to get up to $, go to disasterassistance.gov look all that said what you did frame is what happens next week what could happen into the future uh and that's to be determined we're trying to button everything up we possibly can including today quite literally a few minutes before I got here I saw an executive order allowing uh the US EPA to come in with their HazMat team so already phase one of the debris removal has begun and we're trying to now lock in phase which is the master debris removal contract and then get Federal support again all in anticipation of what could occur next week can I have your reaction to Mike Johnson speaker of the house um coming out in support of establishing the precedent of conditioning disaster relief and him doing it from from the state of Louisiana like thisy it's not like this guy's any stranger to to what would happen if we start playing politics With Disaster Relief so can I have your reaction to that um I I you know I hope looks in this heart um the pain and suffering the American people uh the trauma that everybody's experiencing uh in his country he's the speaker uh of the House of Representatives for the United States of America one nation under God indivisible uh liberty and justice for all not some who may have a political a point of view by the way I didn't ask anyone what their political affiliation was when we're down here uh working uh to try to protect people uh and the community from the ravages of these fires and these unprecedented winds but you know what nor did we ever ever never in California questioned whether or not we as taxpayers in the largest state in the Union should support the people Louisiana in a time of emergency and need we never conditioned it we never talked about putting the full fate in credit of the United States of America with the debt ceing bill so we can get tax cuts for billionaires and corporations that don't need it and then put it risk the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans that happen to live in California and this by the way is California as a donor State as arguably the biggest owner state in the country size of State populations combined a state with millions and millions of trump supporters speaker Johnson and Mr president-elect millions of your supporters are out here they need your help they need your empathy they need your care whatever compassion you can express as opposed to condemnation and divisive language that has aided and embedded nothing except Miss and disinformation that's flamed fear and flamed a lot of anxiety for folks that are simply trying to recover uh and at the same time our First Responders trying to address the emergency at hand which still hasn't been fully buttoned up as far as the disinformation efforts go we have seen that from Mike Johnson from Trump from others in the Republican Party how much of an impediment to your job is contending with thisinformation when you should be focused on more important things anything else other than that at first the mindset I'm putting my head down that's just noise and then I started realizing my head down I'm out in the community people are reflecting stuff that made no sense I said what why didn't you send us water there's no state water you why you care about the smell I said what are you talking about and I started to realize this misinformation is impacting people's lives is actually impacting their ability to trust and reason um and so we started to push back and yeah we've had to spend a lot of time putting a fact side up that every couple minutes we're just having to update I mean people there are there are people that have millions and millions of views that talk about the fact that somehow this was an intentional fire in order to get rid of tunnels because Donald Trump was going to prosecute everybody out here for pedophile rings and it got millions of views and there are actually people out there reasonable people God bless them that are misinformed and start to believe this crap and so we have to push back and look I never you to be in the middle of this to deal with hurricane Force wings that attached to a fire at the same time we're dealing with hurricane Force misinformation and intentional disinformation not just by the president of United States but guys like Elon Musk that will platform uh all this as well and forgive my language that's what it is to that point then I mean this is somebody who bought up Twitter to be able to have a bigger platform to reach most the majority of the people in this country and for example one of the things that he brought up was this idea that looting is decriminalized in California and so not only is that false information that people are going to that people are going to consume outright lie keep going not not only a lie but it also gives something of a permission structure for people who want to do it to then think oh well I heard from Elon Musk who has the biggest platform on on biggest voice on this platform that it's okay yeah so the asymmetry of that is off the charts in an emergency situation it's it's it's something that shouldn't happen uh that said back to just noise push back take some of that serious ly uh but the literal responsibility we have is the task at hand we have , firefighters as I speak working the line , Personnel National Guard trying to address the issue of looting CHP as we speak we have the EPA starting to do phase one and the Der removal we're doing individual Home Inspections and we're working through that in record time so we can get people back on their feet we're addressing the insurance crisis just met with all the CEOs around the insurance issues and we're addressing temporary housing we're addressing temporary food needs and emergency assistance uh and we want to give people hope that feel helpless and all of that is a deep distraction uh and it is what it is it's the world we're living in we can't deny it it's not what happens it's our response to what happens and our response is to focus on the mission at hand helping people in need well for posterity while I have you I do want to try to push back on some of that disinformation and give you the opportunity to to introduce some positive information into the Zeitgeist here so can you just give some of that accurate information as it relates to prioritizing smelt as it relates to this idea that there is a spigot that can be turned on from NorCal down to SoCal on this idea that there's not enough that there's not enough water here in Los Angeles well let's start with it well go backwards we have above average near record water stored in Southern California we have no spet that we can go and move as you I mean I I think he actually believes it yeah because I've been hearing this for six or seven years he talked about a non-existent act that somehow I literally made up there's not a human being that understands what he's talking about that right next to Michigan man of the year is yeah I mean and the smell what that has to do with the issues down here nothing it's nonsense uh this notion of forest management I have literally doubled the number of prescribed Burns in the last year , Acres we treated we x x the budget on an annual basis since I became governor of California it was million a year I took the million and we spent an additional . billion a week before this fire we announced an additional A billion for vegetation management and Forest management we have a memorandum of understanding with the US Forest Service that has % of the land California just % of the land we don't care about jurisdiction we care about partnership and we've Advanced unprecedented partnership doubled the size of our state fire force we increased by new helicopters the size of our our aerial Fleet which is a largest civilian air fleet in the world and we pre-positioned pre-positioned engines we met on Saturday before the Tuesday event we got folks down here at p.m. on Sunday we prepositioned engines we pulled them from Northern California in anticipation of this wind event water tenders helicopters hand Crews including the National Guard that were there within minutes of the fire I had the opportunity to be here within a few hours I intimately am aware of the Winds because we went up the canyon and we had to drive back immediately thrown back into the car Embers in the hair because we had hurricane force winds and these guys even with the finest water system in the history of mankind they were literally trying to push the Embers down to create evacuation quarters to keep people alive M hour winds the heroism of these folks I saw it sheriff's deputies police deputies paramedics the whole crew the mutual Aid System that was at hand and the mutual Aid System that's expanded from now States and two countries as well so I just have deep Pride for these guys thousand plus that were on the line fighting those fires and it did heroic work did the best they could possibly do look there is those Investments and all the preparation that was taken into account in in in the leadup to these fires actually exploding onto the scene but then obviously there is the the mass destruction that followed and so I know there are going to be folks who look at that and say well it wasn't enough because look at look at we're looking at , Acres burned and so what's your reaction to the disparity that's on display right now in terms of you know the the the the preparation and the investment that that California's made versus the the reality of the situation which is that there was so much destruction regardless yeah no I mean this was a we we we had what we call PDS we've had four of them um two in the last four years we've had four of them in the last three months uh and and these are unprecedented wind events or at least with little precedent wind events uh that are Beyond a Red Flag Warning mph winds uh with the driest conditions we've had since in Southern California structure to structure fires overwhelming everything unimaginable destruction and by the way it's also destruction that's devastatingly and tragically familiar with other major disasters we've seen in Maui we saw the campfire in Paradise California , structures people that lost their lives there um Mother Nature's Fury um wind and fires uh and unprecedented strains in a complex in a theater where we were at Peak Seven fires that we were active addressing around the same time I want to talk about insurance for a moment um in the last few years I think since about Californians have or , Californians have have lost access to to their insurance um insurers will no longer Ure the properties here in California so what can we do to prevent even more Californians from losing their insurance in in the aftermath of what we're seeing right now so there's are moratorium for a minimum of a year we're trying to get that extended but already locked down moratorium no one can have their their policies canceled for at least the next year that's the immediate number one number two I signed an executive order about months ago we went through a process with the insurance commissioner that is substantially improving and stabilizing the market don't take my word for it I'll give you a proof point and this one is ironic and tragic at the same time a week ago in Paradise California one of the major insurers said we are reentering the market because of the forms that have taken place in the last year in California their words not mine into Paradise as people repopulating that area point of optimism uh and kids were back in schools the market Farmers saying we're now going to stabilize and start writing policies again so we were finally moving in that direction obviously that's why I met with all the CEOs yesterday and the insurance commissioner uh and we're working uh to to do everything we can to hold the line with the existing policy holders focus on the renewals make sure there's no one that's dropped uh in the fire zone with the moratorium in hand and then look to stabilize that market by continuing to advance the reforms that are underway after the moratorium um I mean this is this is in a sense a Band-Aid because beyond that you know it's it's anybody's guess what's going to happen is there some incentive that's being put forward to prevent insurers from dropping folks right the day after the moratorium Live Well I wish I could show you my notes uh eight CEOs that we had active conversations two dozen that participated eight that particip all said the same thing the reforms that have taken place that are underway allow us more confidence of our ability not only to weather this loss but to address the longer medium and longer term uh uh challenges in California so we are on a pathway the challenges dealing situationally not just with the major insurers uh but also the fair plan which is not a state plan it's a Syndicate pool and the exposure there that's being determined in real time we'll have more clarity on that in just a couple of days look we've got the housing inspectors out there uh they're doing what they call these D DS teams that's the first step once the D process is over we get the Hazmat folks out there you get the insurance adjusters out there people will decide on the debris if they individually want to do all that themselves because they're insured um if they don't want to do it and they're insured FEMA through the process process that we'll announce very shortly uh we'll have a larger contract for the debris removal and then we've already waved all these sequer rules all the coastal act rules uh we have already fast-tracked the permitting on the rebuilds we're looking at all kinds of other temporary housing uh uh EOS that we're advancing price gouging which we're extending uh addressing the issue of price gou extending uh the the uh the prohibition against price gouging for renters uh and we have to now focus on enforcement uh in a lot of these categories after we established the new sets of rules and regulations so we're in Los Angeles the lifeblood of this city is the entertainment industry already the industry is on life support mean I can't tell you how many of my personal friends all all of my my whole circle of friends is all in the entertainment industry I can't tell you how many of them have had to go to not only different cities but different states or even different countries to be able to continue working in the industry that they are here to work in so already this is on life support so what's being done right now to kind of um bolster the industry at a time where very clearly the city needs it more than ever well I just announced just a month or so ago doubling the film tax credit million doubling it now uh getting ahead of New York and it was we thought a shot in the arm a lot of energy around that we're moving it in the budget it is in my budget uh we are working right now more situationally um uh got to give Netflix and others credit they reached out immediately to talk about about specific needs for folks within the industry uh and so we're targeting that from a situational perspective in terms of the emergency response but the sustainable framework is the significant Investments the state wants to make to stabilize our competitiveness Visa these tax credits and and what's your message to the the industry more broadly the studios and the networks in terms of keeping work here in California especially especially again given what's happened given how much the people of Los Angeles need it so we we we announced a couple days ago this Marshall Plan we've already organized a framework uh for an economic and Workforce Development strategy like of which we've never seen in this Region's history I already augmented our special session to get two and a half billion dollars uh of investments billion dollars of flexible Investments down here as quickly as possible down payment to help all of the above but as it relates to uh our larger effort around production this is the time this is the opportunity for those Studios to bring and bring back these Productions to reinvest in their home state uh and I think that is got to be a big part uh of this economic strategy this this larger Marshall Plan and that's an opportunity for this industry to help itself and to create a virtual cycle look we're going to come out of this smarter more flexible more creative across the Spectrum not just from an entertainment framework of creativity building designs building constructions Ingress egress uh vegetation Forest management more broadly defined Beyond and remember this is chaero and grass no large forests right there uh on the edge of Palisades most of that was uh more traditional chaero but we in terms of all of those approaches redundancy systems Life Safety Systems um all of that is all being collapsed in a a new Consciousness uh and integrated in a new relationship of mutuality between the city the county the state and we hope to your opening question the federal government so I know that a lot of the red tape is being cast aside in deference to getting this process moving quicker getting everything rebuilt quicker um with that said a lot of the problems stem from the fact that we didn't have an infrastructure that was able to withstand the reality the climate reality that we're living in right now so in addition to being able to wave some of the red tape is there also going to be some new rules put in place that would actually Harden our infrastructure uh in in anticipation of the next fire well it's exactly what needs to happen when I remember my mayor days we did the redundancy as it relates Investments are a major earthquake a major disaster related to earthquakes and providing that redundancy local governments you know you got counties you got hundreds and hundreds of cities I all these local governments need to take heed to these new realities the new extremes hot's getting hotter Dy is getting drier the atmospheric rivers and yes we have geologists and hydrologists on the scene right now in anticipation of mud flows uh which could be overwhelming uh if the rains come too soon uh and so we're trying to preposition sandbags that'll be part of the guard's work as well and a lot of the volunteers you see here will also be asked to do work in that respect so yes we have to be more climate res we've been preaching this forever yeah t no state does more in Investments at scale we just did a billion climate Bond uh which has resources to be more resourceful and resilient uh we lead in terms of our low carbon green growth strategies changing the way we produce and consume energy uh We've led the nation going back to R Reagan mindful as well that Donald Trump is going to try to vandalize those rules and regulations and uh and so we you know we're going to have to battle on multiple fronts again head down what's noise is noise what's real is real uh but we'll just focus on continuing to make progress but with the urgency uh of of what this moment represents and a recognition of what we're up against not just Donald Trump but Mother Nature herself well to that point the issue of climate has been conspicuously in most of the coverage of all of this and so what's your message more broadly in light of not only what we're seeing right now which is the worst fire that LA City has ever contended with but I mean this is happening at the same time that Texas is dealing with hurricanes that the Midwest is dealing with droughts that I mean look I lived in I lived in New Jersey when when Sandy hit as if we had any schema for what it looks like when a hurricane hits the state of New Jersey and and Lower Manhattan underwater and Soo more broadly speaking can you just speak on the importance of of of actually leaning in to the fight to combat climate change as opposed to moving away from yeah I mean I'll take it back to to no one in my passion in this space and the policies that we've been advancing in addressing the root cause which is the burning of coal natural gas and oil it's not complicated uh and that's why we've been very aggressive on fossil fuels and addressing uh issues related to the Miss and disinformation you want to talk about Miss and disinformation that has been coming for decades uh from the oil interests in the fossil fuel industry and that's why we initiated a lawsuit that's why we initiated two special sessions around price gouging in that space and advanced new oversight and transparency measures in California at the same time our nation leading C and trade program lowc carbon fuel standards program our unprecedented Investments as relates to equity and environmental justice in new technologies and carbon capture and direct air capture uh we've been advancing Investments that are next level on infrastructure more than quarter of all the new vehicles in California are electric uh vehicles or alternative fuel vehicles hybrids and so we want to maintain that leadership because that's how we dominate the future it's how we compete against China it's how we compete in a world that's moving in this direction uh we're going to obviously have setbacks as we've seen before with with the Trump Administration but we're going to try to persist and Prevail and uh again all of this at the same time and more at the same time uh stacking of stress but also stacking of a consciousness of op optimism and opportunity that this also provides change what we how we do pery for housing period we've been fighting this for decades enough it's the original sin in California on affordability and so there's I think a new Consciousness in the legislature that we're now at a point where I think we're going to see some of these temporary rules uh be established with no flexibility as more permanent rules uh where we can come out of this again like the the flag of San Francisco the Phoenix the Phoenix Rising come back stronger than we ever have and again I say that mindful that when I was standing there in the ashes with then president Donald Trump as governor-elect in Paradise California few people thought they would ever recover and people would ever repopulate and their Pro Point hardly full population return but it's making progress you see that progress demonstrably so and and that gives us I think optimism the tubs fire the recovery there optimism that you're going to see this community Thrive not just survive as long as we protect them from speculators people that are doing unsolicited offers I did an executive order there and if we see sort of and I don't mean to malign some of the Black Rock whatever it's not about that anyone that wants to organize a way to gut a community like Altadena which is a middle class disproportionately black and brown Community where generational wealth has been created from the s and s and s uh we're going to go after them and that's that's the mindset we have moving forward so we are in the Los Angeles Regional Food Kitchen right now talk about the significance of this place in light of what's happened well I mean diapers for kids diapers for seniors need to get prepared meals because people don't have stoves don't have access to their their their kitchen utensils uh to see these kids that's inspiring we created we have the largest volunteer Corps in the United States of America it's larger than the Peace Corp it's a point of real Pride I think the solution to so many of our problems uh it comes from service shared experiences and so we have climate core members in the spirit of the conversation quite literally that were reassigned and are now here at the food bank uh we have college core members $ hours $, grants it's the largest it's only uh College corat type in this country they're out here helping folks in need that's the spirit that defines I think the best of our state and our nation uh it's the spirit I hope that Donald Trump could bring to this tragedy uh not the one that he's brought uh to the first week of this experience and finally I know that there are a lot of people who are watching listening right now who want to know how they can best help what would you say to them I I just think the the most important thing you can do is if you want to contribute time do the kind of volunteer work that folks are doing here at the food banks and Red Cross Etc but if you want to contribute money uh the Latino Community Foundation will play a critical role in this context a lot of people mixed status families % of the state is Latino a lot of people here that are documented many that are not documented FEMA grants do not provide that support for people without documentation Latino Community Foundation provides a lot of that Gap funding the California Community Foundation and then the fire Foundation uh where we are directing a lot of our resources and uh that's just an extraordinary Organization no overhead on that and the money is very thoughtfully invested I think those are three great organizations where you can contribute a dollar two uh if you've got more that would be great as way well I'll put the links to all of those uh organizations in the show notes of this episode and the post description of this episode Governor n thanks for taking the time thank you for being out particularly being here at the food bank and and highlighting the incredible work that's being done out there English (auto-generated) Donate now

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At age 76 my hands won't let me go in and put punctuation and grammar fixes in this transcript but it's here for readers to scan and search for words. 

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