November 11, 2018: Trump Examines Fire Damage in California - Suggests He May Screw Victims

 

11/11/18: Yesterday, too much rain kept the pansy president indoors. Today, lack of precipitation in California briefly holds Trump’s attention. That means he must try to show “compassion” for victims of two deadly fires sweeping the state. 

Stupidly. 

He tweets: 

There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor. Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments [emphasis added].

 

The smoking wreckage of Paradise Elementary School.

That’s how Trump responds to disaster when it strikes people he doesn’t like, namely people living in areas that don’t vote for him and politicians and citizens who don’t profess undying love. 

Tens of thousands of Americans have seen everything they cherish reduced to ashes. “I lost everything that I received from my mom, from my grandparents from the baby grand piano to china,” Ilene Mickens, whose story is typical of so many others, tells reporters. “I lost my wedding album. I lost my children’s baby albums.” 

The massive Camp Fire essentially wiped out the town of Paradise, destroying 9,700 homes and 144 apartment buildings; 71 are known to have died in the flames. Almost every police officer and firefighter in town lost his or her home while fighting valiantly to halt the blaze. 

Trump? Trump has to tweet. 

The Woolsey Fire has incinerated 600 homes, killed three, ruined roads, burned up power lines and poles, compromised water lines and infrastructure and charred 140 square miles in the state. The situation remains confused and (as of November 17 ) hundreds of Americans are still missing. 

The President of the United States attacks state authorities for poor forest management and threatens to cut off disaster funds. 

That’s who Trump is. 

 

POSTSCRIPT: Brian Rice, president of the California Professional Firefighters union, responds in a statement: 

The president’s message attacking California and threatening to withhold aid to the victims of the cataclysmic fires is ill-informed, ill-timed and demeaning to those who are suffering as well as the men and women on the front lines.

 

At a time when our every effort should be focused on vanquishing the destructive fires and helping the victims, the president has chosen instead to issue an uninformed political threat aimed squarely at the innocent victims of these cataclysmic fires.

 

Rice also points out that 60 percent of California’s forests are managed, poorly or not, by the federal government. 

“Natural disasters are not ‘red’ or ‘blue’ – they destroy regardless of party. Right now, families are in mourning, thousands have lost homes, and a quarter-million Americans have been forced to flee,” the statement concludes.