May 24, 2021: Western U.S. Drier than Ever

 

5/24/21: Scientists are warning that the West may be in for an even worse fire season than in 2020. (Last year featured record burns.)

 

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“It’s like having gasoline out there.” 

Brian Steinhardt, foresee fire zone manager

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Soil is drier right now than in any other year on record, for the date. Vegetation in some areas is drier than experts have ever seen, at any time of year. Fuel for flames is everywhere, especially in the Southwest. Dead juniper trees, needles brown, are like giant torches, 20, 30, 40-feet tall, waiting to ignite. “It’s like having gasoline out there,” Brian Steinhardt, forest fire zone manager for Prescott and Coconino national forests in Arizona, tells ABC News. Almost three-quarters of California is in an “extreme drought” condition, compared to 3% at this time last year. 

Conditions of extreme or exceptional drought exist across much of the region. In Utah, 90% of the state is ready to burn. The same can be said of 86% of Arizona and 75% of Nevada. One worried scientist struggled to find cause for hope, finally settling on this: “All we have going for us is dumb luck.”

 

This is more evidence that climate change is upon us; addressing the challenge is certain to be complicated. At least President Biden isn’t calling climate change a “hoax,” or focusing on how much water he gets out of a showerhead, like his unenlightened predecessor. (See: 6/16/21.) 

Instead, he’s focused on getting people vaccinated and bringing the pandemic to an end. Today, he tweeted: “More than 20,000 pharmacies coast to coast are now offering walk-in vaccinations with no appointment necessary.” 

Find a location near you at http://vaccines.gov. 

(It is possible for a President of the United States to tweet without insulting anyone or bragging about how great they are.) 

 

FUN FACT: Asked by Dana Bash, on CNN, if he thought President Trump was to blame for the events of January 6, former GOP Sen. Scott Brown, who served as Trump’s ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa, didn’t blanch. “Absolutely, I mean he bears responsibility. I think his presidency was diminished as a result of this, and I think he’s paying a price. He’s been impeached twice. He was impeached for those actions.” 

 He told Bash he supports the call for an independent commission to look into events surrounding the attack on Capitol Hill. “To have a commission like this to find out who was responsible, what went wrong, to make sure it never happens again, it should be a no-brainer.” 

 

FUN WITH AMBASSADORS: We also learn that former ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, is suing Mike Pompeo and the State Department. At issue: $1.8 million in legal expenses incurred when Ambassador Sondland testified as part of President Trump’s first impeachment. 

Sondland alleges that Pompeo reneged on a promise to pay after Sondland told lawmakers that Trump had indeed proposed a quid pro quo. He would give Ukraine military aid they requested – but only if the President of Ukraine agreed to tell the world that Hunter and Joe Biden were involved in corruption in his country. 

After Sondland testified to that effect (under oath), he was asked to resign his post. As the Washington Post explains, 

“Ambassador Sondland confirmed he would not resign because he did not do anything improper. After that, everything changed. Ambassador Sondland did not receive his attorneys’ fees, notwithstanding the promises from the State Department that the attorneys’ fees would be paid,” the suit alleges.

 

Sondland joins former Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and several others as casualties of the first impeachment hearings. 

All of whom told the truth, as best they could. 

Under oath.