Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Everybody saw this coming.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

Why did Dr. Oz lose? well, according to the exit polls, it’s because Fetterman won.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

This fight is for everything.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

You are here: Home / Politics / America / A Word From Some of Our Other Disasters: LA Pet Bleg

A Word From Some of Our Other Disasters: LA Pet Bleg

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While we’ve been focused on Harvey and its effects on Texas and Louisiana, as well as potential follow ons from Irma and other developing tropical storms, significant portions of the US are on fire. There’s a very large wildfire in Curry County, Oregon – details here. A chunk of Montana is on fire. Actually from looking at the incident list, Montana is on fire – not just a chunk. And, of course, there is a huge wildfire in the greater Los Angeles area. The Los Angeles Animal Shelter has put out a call for fosters and adoptions as they are over capacity from animals evacuated and/or rescued from the La Tuna Canyon fire.

Urgent need for adopters and fosters NOW. Our shelters are full as we prepare to provide care and shelter for animals being evacuated from the La Tuna Canyon fire.
Fosters Urgently Needed: East Valley – 29, Harbor – 40, North Central -16, South Lost Angeles – 43, West Los Angeles – 14, West Valley – 5
So if you’re in the area and have a safe place and the ability to help, please do. If you’re wondering just how bad the La Tuna Canyon fire is, and you don’t have your own F/A-18E/F Superhornet to fly over and check it out, here’s a fairly recent picture:
If you’re in proximity to these fires, please stay safe.

Reader Interactions

54Comments

  1. 1.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    Combo of unseasonable heat and smoke-tainted air really sucks here in Oregon. Air quality is very bad in some areas, and A/C ain’t exactly a standard feature here…

  3. 3.

    Miss Bianca

    Man, shit’s on fire and underwater everywhere but Colorado. Travelled up to the Front Range on Saturday and was amazed at how hazy everything looked, and wondering what direction the smoke was coming from. Now, I still don’t know, because you’d think we’d be seeing more of the smoke in the central mountains, if its coming from CA and Montana…hoping all our jackals in trouble areas are present and accounted for!

  4. 4.

    Cermet

    While this has been repeated endlessly, these conditions are exactly what human induced global warming calls for – more powerful rain fall/storms in some places, drier in others (so fire has a wonderful time.) Food production in marginal areas will fail more often leading to greater hunger, civil strife and population movement – we are seeing AGW in action and it is still way early in the temperature curve (so some of this is normal variation) but amplifying drivers are there and things will just get more $hity.

  6. 6.

    efgoldman

    If you’re in proximity to these fires, please stay safe.

    Well, this is one occurrence we can’t really blame on Velveeta Voldemort. His proud ignorance really doesn’t matter,
    Now, if he’s cut the budget for Park Service firefighters that’s a different thing (I don’t know if he has or not).
    Asshole Traitor State senators better vote for aid. You listening, Tailgunner Teddy?

  8. 8.

    Percysowner

    @efgoldman: Well we haven’t passed a budget bill yet, but here is what Dear Leader wants to do

    As for the Department of the Interior, it would see its budget cut by nearly 11 percent. Which means the National Park Service would also see a decrease in its FY 2018 budget to $2.55 billion.

    When factoring in the FY17 Omnibus appropriations to the FY18 budget request, this is a decrease of roughly $375 million in their budget. (The FY 2017 budget for the NPS included a one-time cost of the Centennial celebrations for $115 million.)

    So technically not the firefighters, per se, but I’m sure they’ll take a hit as well.

  16. 16.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    The air is better here in the SF bay area since Saturday. Friday going outside was like standing next to the exhaust from a diesel engine the air was so bad. Even today we have this weird yellowish fog.

  17. 17.

    trollhattan

    @Tom: @Achrachno:
    The hallway echoes of the Reagan years are quite loud in the current administration.

    In 1982, Congress charged that the EPA had mishandled the $1.6 billion toxic waste Superfund and demanded records from Gorsuch. Gorsuch refused and became the first agency director in U.S. history to be cited for contempt of Congress.[7] The EPA turned the documents over to Congress several months later, after the White House abandoned its court claim that the documents could not be subpoenaed by Congress because they were covered by executive privilege. At that point, Gorsuch resigned her post, citing pressures caused by the media and the congressional investigation.

  18. 18.

    NMgal

    @Miss Bianca: Also feeling fortunate down here in New Mexico. And yes, we’ve been trying to figure out where the smoke haze is coming from. West Coast and Montana seem too far away, but the atmosphere can do odd things. Conditions are wet and cool enough here that there have been a few controlled burns going on even, but not enough to account for the AQ. To be sure, we can still see 60 miles, but we can see only outlines that far now instead of detail. Sending damp thoughts to those in fire areas and dry thoughts to those in flood…

  19. 19.

    trollhattan

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:
    Even knowing it’s a cyclical occurrence it’s unnerving to see wildfire immediately adjacent to a dense urban area. We get plenty of smoke here in my part of the north, just not the proximity. Folks in the Oakland and coastal hills are a lot closer to the action.

  20. 20.

    Interstadial

    @Percysowner: The National Park Service, which runs the national parks, is often confused with the U.S. Forest Service which runs the national forests. These two agencies are in different cabinet departments (Interior vs. Agriculture) and have very different missions and policies. The Forest Service manages far more land in the lower 48 states than does the Park Service and is the primary federal fire-fighting agency. Cuts in the Park Service budget will have little to do with the overall budget for fighting wildland fires since their piece of the firefighting pie is so much smaller.

  21. 21.

    feebog

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    How long do you think it has been since that area burned off? Has to be close to 20 years or more I would think. All we got in the North Valley was some smoke, mostly due to prevailing winds.

  23. 23.

    mainsailset

    @Gemina13:yes, eastern washington state has become a first-class mess. I’m just south of the Diamond Creek fire and we’ve had 1/4 mile visibility since July 23, ash fall is ugly stuff!

  26. 26.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @trollhattan: Isn’t the EPA denouncing some reporters article for flooding of Super Fund sites because they know nothing is wrong from looking at Google Maps?

  29. 29.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @trollhattan: Most of those that had a problem were those that live up in the hills(Burbank, Glendale, and Sunland). In the last 20 years there’s been more of an effort to restrict building on the hillsides and keep them as open space. We only lost a couple of homes in this fire, but there will be quite a bit of mud flows when the rains come for the folk that have house up in the hills.

  30. 30.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Percysowner: A lot of the firefighters are actually National Forest service which is Dept of Agriculture with some also under BLM which if I recall correctly is under Interior Dept. A lot of local firefighters get called into these things too.

  31. 31.

    Kelly

    140 day hikers spent Saturday night outside in the Columbia Gorge on the very popular Eagle Creek trail after a fire started near the trail head. All safely evacuated Sunday. I’m surprised at how many of the fires are spreading over old burn scars. The gigantic Chetco fire in Curry county is mostly reburning the Biscuit Fire(2002) and Silver Fire(1987). I thought the old burns would be resistant to new fire due to reduced fuel loads.

  32. 32.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @feebog: The northwestern part of the Verdugos haven’t burned in my lifetime, so about 60 years. Most of the fire was on the northern side of the range, there’s more fuel since it gets and keeps rainfall. The north-central part burned about 12 years ago.

  33. 33.

    scav

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Besides, in an article mentioning that all the Superfund sites visted were underwater, NO mention was made of all the Superfund sites past, present or future that are potentially not underwater! The nerve and lack of balance!

  36. 36.

    trollhattan

    @efgoldman:
    Pruitt is setting a damn high bar in the competition for vilest administration leader. Speaking of vile, haven’t heard much from Bo-ree-gard lately.

    Loomis has a piece today on Trump appointing an industry insider as head of Mine Safety and Health. This sounds about right.

    Trump on Friday named David Zatezalo, the former chairman of Rhino Resources, to be an assistant secretary of Labor overseeing the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). The position is currently vacant, according to the Department of Labor’s website.

    During Zatezalo’s time as an executive at Rhino, the company was issued two “pattern of violations” letters from MSHA over safety issues at their mines, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported. The letters were sent in 2010 and 2011.

  37. 37.

    tobie

    @efgoldman: Nothing would give me greater satisfaction than seeing the 2016 election invalidated and that smug sack of poopoo named Gorsuch kicked off the bench. I know it won’t happen but it’s still nice to dream…

    In the meantime, stay safe, BJers, on the west coast and in the mountain states.

  39. 39.

    trollhattan

    @Kelly:
    The soggy PNW forests (especially western slope Cascades and coast ranges) fill in very quickly but it takes the better part of a century to become mature second-growth forest. Will guess they replanted a lot of the burn areas with fir and other commercially attractive species, which short-circuits the natural progression of first to second-growth. Been a long while since I’ve had a forestry class but will guess the replanted forests are more, not less susceptible to burning. Our unprecedented long, dry and hot summers surely have a large role, it should have rained intermittently to keep the forests moist–more than half of my summer camping trips as a kid up there featured copious rain.

  41. 41.

    Mnemosyne

    I’m tempted to do some fostering, but G would have to agree since most of the burden would fall on him. I’m not sure he’d agree, because … most of the burden would fall on him.

  42. 42.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @Cermet: Truth, unfortunately.

    I weep for my children’s gen, and their children.

    And I’m counting on them to pull through where my parents’ generation chose ignorance and/or indifference to the threat from greenhouse gas pollution and subsequent climate change spiraling out of control, for what it will be worth.

    And I hope that the opportunity is still there for them – technology-based mitigation is just about all we’ve got left, if it’s not “too late” (whatever macabre meaning one might ascribe to that arbitrary term).

    So we need to fight the political fights necessary to build a solid confident foundation for leadership on fighting the greenhouse effect. We’re winning that fight at the State level, and we won’t be shut out of DC for much longer. We can compete with China over making renewable energy more efficient, instead of engaging in another arms race. And we can sell home battery-based solutions with nice user interface all over the world. Let’s make Tesla, Apple, Amazon, and Google household names known around the world for renewable energy-based “smart home” technology, while we ensure their workforce’s right to equity and right to organize.

    I’m looking forward to a healthy debate among the 2020 contenders about what the Democratic Party stands for today, and I will be listening for a message about what we will build together as a country in response to the gravest threat our country has faced in several generations – global warming.

  46. 46.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Kelly: Regarding the recurrence of fires in areas that have burnt in the past, you might want to read this. I live here in Curry County and this is the third fire in that area in 30 years (1987, 2002, 2017). The study found that salvage logging left more fuels on the ground than the areas that had been burned and not salvage logged. Not only that, but natural conifer regeneration in untouched areas was higher than the regeneration that occurred in salvage logged areas. Note that all of the salvage logging was approved under Republican administrations. The Reagan administration took the position that salvage logging would reduce fire risk in the burned areas, as did the Bush II administration. Think about it a second; an area that has burned out has little fuel left on it and the salvage logging sites were left covered in slash and waste from logging operations. Which area would seem to be more prone to re-ignition in the future?

    I’m going to bet that we will be doing this again since nobody wants to look at this problem.

  47. 47.

    J R in WV

    If hurricanes don’t interfere with traffic in and out of Hartsfield in Atlanta, and wildfires don’t interfere with air traffic in and out of Denver, we’re planning to be in Colorado next week. 4 nights in Denver, two in Pueblo. Haven’t been in Denver to sightsee since the 80s, looking forward to nightlife, museums, seeing the front range (air quality allowing) etc.

    Any recommendations on places to go, see, eat at in Denver?

  48. 48.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Kelly: Regarding replanting in burned areas, with the 2002 Biscuit Fire the areas that were salvage logged were replanted. Salvage logging and replanting is SOP for these fires. The study done in the link in my post above compared the areas that were not logged or replanted with those that were and found that while natural conifer regeneration was slower than replanted areas, the unlogged areas had more seedlings and that they were hardier (more of them survived that winter to be counted the next summer). I have no problem with salvage logging but if it creates a situation were we will have these fires every 15 years then fuck that. The government claims that they make almost nothing on the sale of salvage so this is really nothing more than a make work initiative for timber communities. One other thing to note about the salvage logged areas is that the 2002 Biscuit Fire started in an area that was salvage logged in 1987. Likewise, the 2017 Chetco Bar Fire started in an area that was salvage logged in 2002. Watch the US Forest Service this time, I bet we end up doing the same damned thing again. One other point to note is that the areas that were salvage logged burned more intensely than the areas that had not.

    If they could come in, remove the trees and the waste, replant and properly follow up, this might work. But leaving the forest floor covered in waste has just been setting the stage for the next disaster.

  49. 49.

    chopper

    sweet buttery jesus, that’s a lot of active fires in montana. that’s the better part of a million acres.

  51. 51.

    Doug R

    Smoke in the air constantly here. About 500,000 hectares on ? at one point, a new record. Last week whilst camping in Alberta, ash from British Columbia fires was falling on our campsite.

  54. 54.

    J R in WV

    @Alain the site fixer:

    We will be visiting the friends we went to Italy with, they’ve been there for about 30 years. Their kids are helping put together a 40th wedding anniversary celebration. I expect good food and lots to drink, followed by staggering from the party up to the hotel rooms. If this isn’t what happens I’ll be talking to the Marine Sgt. in charge of organization on site, their son.

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