Diogenes-Light: 35 killed in wildfires

BY JACK CROWE

September 14, 2020

At least 35 people were killed over the weekend in wildfires that ravaged much of the northwest. The fires, which have now consumed some five million acres of forest in Oregon, California, and Washington, have been burning since mid-August, when a pair of tropical storms caused more than 15,000 lightning strikes in and around the bay area.

The devastation has displaced tens of thousands of residents, many of whom are now living in their cars or camping out on high school football fields — and anywhere else they can safely set up tents and access food and water.

Record temperatures and high winds in Northern California and the surrounding area unleashed fires of unprecedented size and speed. Climate change undoubtedly played a role in creating the conditions for the fires and have allowed the state’s elected officials to lean heavily on an “act of God” narrative in an effort to absolve their utter failure to prevent what Oregon's Office of Emergency Management Director Andrew Phelps has called a potential “mass fatality event.”

“Talk to a firefighter if you think that climate change isn’t real,” Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti said on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday. “It seems like this administration are the last vestiges of the Flat Earth Society of this generation.”

But in the rush to connect the fires to the roll back of environmental regulations at the federal level and President Trump’s dismissive climate change rhetoric, state officials have largely escaped scrutiny for the policy failures that allowed high winds and temperatures to cause destruction on such a massive scale.

Forest management experts were warning months ago that the west was primed to burn this summer due to the excess of dead timber covering forest floors.

Normally, this timber would be dealt with through controlled burns, which eat up the fuel that an uncontrolled wild fire typically feasts on. But the people who live in these densely wooded areas don’t much like seeing smoke waft over their neighborhoods and, working with environmentalists and conservationists of different stripes, have successfully prevented the use of controlled burns in many jurisdictions. The problem was made worse this year as COVID made it difficult for the state to recruit teams to do controlled burns.

In California and Washington, environmental regulations have dramatically reduced logging, further contributing to the excess of dead and dying trees. In the Sierra Nevada forests, where many of the largest fires are burning, the U.S. forest service has counted 163 million dead trees, many of which died following a 2017 draught but have yet to be cleared.

The excess timber building up in western forests obviously contributed more to the devastating outcomes that manifested over the weekend than anything happening in Washington, but given the media coverage, one could be forgiven for thinking it was Trump’s EPA that forbid the Newsom administration and its counterparts in Oregon and Washington from pruning the tinder boxes growing in their states.

Trump Set to Visit California to Assess Damage Done By Deadly Wildfires

President Trump is set to visit California on Monday to assess the damage caused by almost 100 wildfires burning through the West that have killed at least 35 people.

Several people remain missing in the region as the president heads to McClellan Park in Sacramento County to receive a briefing on the fires.

Trump had approved a Major Disaster Declaration for the state, beginning on August 14, to allow for individual and public assistance. More than 4,100 structures in the state have been destroyed since then, according to USA Today.

“Since mid-August, President Trump and Governor Newsom have spoken by phone and the White House and FEMA have remained in constant contact with State and local officials throughout the response to these natural disasters,” White House press secretary Judd Deere said in a statement. (USA Today)

Riots Erupt in Lancaster after Police Shoot Man Wielding Knife

Riots erupted in Lancaster, Pa. on Sunday after a police officer fatally shot a man armed with a knife, police said.

The officer was responding to a call that 27-year-old Ricardo Munoz was becoming aggressive with his mother and was attempting to break into her house, the Lancaster City Bureau of Police said.

After the officer responded to the call at 4:15 p.m., bodycam footage released by the department shows a woman fleeing the house while Munoz is yelling inside, the district attorney’s office said in a statement.

The video then shows Munoz running out of the house holding a knife before the officer shoots him several times and the 27-year-old falls to the ground. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Biden Calls for Gun Control after Attack on L.A. Sheriff's Deputies

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden called for a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines on Sunday, one day after a gunman ambushed and critically wounded two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies in their squad car in Compton.

“Weapons of war have no place in our communities,” Biden said in a tweet. “We need to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.”

In an earlier tweet, the former vice president called for the perpetrator of the “cold-blooded” and “unconscionable” shooting to be brought to justice and said anyone who commits an act of violence “should be caught and punished.”

The 31-year-old female deputy and 24-year-old male deputy underwent surgery Saturday evening and were listed as in “critical” condition, Fox News reported. The search for the suspect continued on Monday. (Fox)

Cotton Announces Bill to Revoke China's 'Most Favored Nation' Status

Senator Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) announced Monday that he is introducing legislation to repeal permanent most favored nation trade status, a designation that guarantees equal trading opportunity among a nation’s trade partners.

In an appearance on Fox & Friends, Cotton criticized China’s status as a most favored nation, and said he would introduce legislation this week that would require the president and congress to reassess the status each year.

Under Cotton’s new legislation if China were to “shoot missiles at our ships in the Western Pacific” or crack down on Hong Kong as it has done this year, “then we would be able to say each year we are not going to renew most favored nation status for China,” he said.