The billionaires are driving a narrative about Gov. Newsom and Karen Bass

[senseandsensibility]

Of course social media is running with it and blaming both of them for the fires. CNN is very onboard too, and now Tur is pushing it on MSNBC. It's so transparent. They get to escape any responsibility to do anything about climate change, and at the same time take it out on "liberals". If they can turn natural sympathy against Californians who lost everything, they can blame the victims for their own fate and even limit resources that must be approved by R's from getting to them.

The stark truth is that climate changed caused this. It was an act of God, (in the secular sense) and once those winds reached hurricane like levels "dousing" the flames with water was not the answer. It was too fast moving and the infrastructure was not built for those conditions.

MSNBC just showed a fire victim yelling at Newsom, who of course handled it well. I have noticed for the past two days, CNN has been all over Karen Bass. I think they got their orders early.

All of this drama does nothing to solve the issue: climate change. But it does distract, and keep the focus off the fact that R's are soon to be charge and the responsibility for dealing with climate change is theirs now.

[onecaliberal]

1. Ppl in California know better. The tards aren't majority.

[Voltaire2]

2. If only people here would, at long last, stop ingesting and regurgitating this crap.

This is what fascist media does: it deliberately generates outrage using disinformation and does so by expertly triggering emotional reactions.

[Klarkashton]

3. Misdirection is the key to success.

[Mosby]

4. The Santa Ana winds are nothing new.

Worst year was 2011:

...sustained winds at 97 mph (156 km/h), and gusts up to 167 mph (269 km/h).

[mnhtnbb]

10. Actually the Santa Ana winds

at those speeds are new. And new in January, too. There were no Santa Ana winds like the last few days when I lived there

I lived in the San Diego to L.A area from 1965-88. My last house was in Rustic Canyon between Pacific Palisades and Santa Monica. As near as I can tell from the fire maps, that street has not been affected, but the fire may be within 100 yards.

Typically, Santa Ana winds come in the fall, and usually are at most 40 mph.
Santa Ana winds - Wikipedia https://search.app/Ueoj86DqpoFb68JK8

[Mosby]

12. Your link

The Santa Ana winds and the accompanying raging wildfires have been a part of the ecosystem of the Los Angeles Basin for over 5,000 years, dating back to the earliest habitation of the region by the Tongva and Tataviam peoples.[22] The Santa Ana winds have been recognized and reported in English-language records as a weather phenomenon in Southern California since at least the mid-nineteenth century.[1] During the Mexican–American War, Commodore Robert Stockton reported that a "strange, dust-laden windstorm" arrived in the night while his troops were marching south through California in January 1847.[5] Various episodes of hot, dry winds have been described over this history as dust storms, hurricane-force winds, and violent north-easters, damaging houses and destroying fruit orchards. Newspaper archives have many photographs of regional damage dating back to the beginnings of news reporting in Los Angeles. When the Los Angeles Basin was primarily an agricultural region, the winds were feared particularly by farmers for their potential to destroy crops.[1]

In early December 2011, the Santa Ana winds were the strongest yet recorded. An atmospheric set-up occurred that allowed the towns of Pasadena and Altadena in the San Gabriel Valley to get whipped by sustained winds at 97 mph (156 km/h), and gusts up to 167 mph (269 km/h).[23] The winds toppled thousands of trees, knocking out power for over a week. Schools were closed, and a "state of emergency" was declared. The winds grounded planes at LAX, destroyed homes, and were even strong enough to snap a concrete stop light from its foundation.[24] The winds also ripped through Mammoth Mountain and parts of Utah. Mammoth Mountain experienced a near-record wind gust of 175 mph (282 km/h), on December 1, 2011.[23]

I have family living in that area of Socal since the early 1900s.

[mnhtnbb]

13. Exactly.

They have been part of the ecosystem for a damn long time, but NOT with wind speeds of 100 mph nor usually in January.

From my perspective, this episode -- and the one cited in 2011-- are examples of climate change intensifying normal extreme weather events. Just like we've seen with hurricanes in the last decade or so, the intensity of this Santa Ana winds event has been greater than normal and also come at at an unusual time of year.

My dad was born in L. A. in 1910. My mom grew up in the San Joaquin Valley on a citrus ranch. Her father worked the oil rigs from Pennsylvania to Kansas to Oklahoma to California.

[senseandsensibility]

18. Wildfires in general have existed for thousands of years

That proves nothing. I am well aware of Santa Anas, and have relatives who lost their home to them during the 1980's. I know they're nothing new. What IS new is higher wind speeds, and more intense drought. No rain in the Fall and early Winter is a contributing factor and that, again, is due to climate change. I am a Californian and my sources are local. The affected area gets its majority of rain during these months and there was no rain this year. The situation is much worse than it was 5000 years ago and worsening every day that we do not act.

[Mike Nelson]

5. I noticed...

... anti-CA stories are part of their general schedule. Also, they are starting their campaign against "Newsom 2030" early. Disgusting.

[senseandsensibility]

6. Yup

And now they have a black woman to target as well.

[Hekate]

7. What exactly is Katy Tur saying? Is she reporting that "some are saying" (apparently they are) ...

…or is she saying that climate deniers are right and the gov and mayor are at fault?

Showing a fire victim yelling at the gov and the gov handling it counts as news, yes? Or did I miss something?

As for Ms Tur blaming Californians for “their own fate” — umm, you do know she is a born and raised Californian, don’t you? Yesterday she and Jake Soboroff were touring the rubble of the neighborhood and schools they grew up in. Yes, they both grew up in Pacific Palisades and have known each other since the age of 13. It’s gone. All gone.

I don’t get the Katy-hate here and never have, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Just not their own facts, as the saying goes.

[senseandsensibility]

15. My opinion of the segment I saw was that Tur was contributing to the narrative

of blaming Newsom, Bass, and the Democratic government in CA for handling the emergency poorly. I disagree with that for the reasons I stated. I am well aware of her CA roots, which make no difference to me one way or another. I really like Jacob Soboroff and have no problem with his coverage. I am a native CA as well.

[hannah]

8. Actually

Tur said a lot of the negative narrative against Newsome and Karen Bass is coming from billionaire Rick Caruso who ran against Bass in the Mayor election. I do not like Katie Tur, but she did do a segment with Chef Andros of the world kitchen who just got a medal from Joe Biden. He is so wonderful! He is already feeding people affected by the fires!

[SWBTATTReg]

9. These fires were apparently massive and very quick moving. I doubt in most cases, that anything other than having

fifty or 100 firetrucks and 1000 firefighters standing right outside your neighborhood would have been able to stop such fires that moved w/ such reckless abandon, jumping by leaps and bounds w/ the winds that were very prevalent.

The only advice I know and the other reason I'm suggesting this is that I faced huge grass fires on the prairie and the lower SW corner of the Ozarks where sometimes the winds can push fires to unimaginable speeds in spreading, thank god we didn't have many of these types of fires but there are sometimes where in years past, you'll read about the grass fires on the plains, in OK, in KS, in SW MO, etc. We all know how the wind is on the prairie, constantly blowing. Your best bet is to run, run as fast as you can before you're trapped.

Blaming anybody? No. Yeah, sometimes idiots do set fires and try to burn their trash on windy days (in Ozark land), not a good idea.

But blaming anybody and / or everybody doesn't solve any problems, and if anything, all it does is stir up anger when none is warranted, if there is anger to be distributed, it's directed at the one or two idiots that caused the blaze. In the Calif. fires case, I thought I read that some of the fire(s) were accidently started when something sparked. I know in the past that they've caught people who were suspected of starting some of the fires (and I think that they caught such a person this time around suspected of starting fire(s)).

I'm still in shock at the magnitude of the sheer amount of damage. My heart is going out to these people. Some do have good stories that they were able to save their homes (one guy w/ a swimming pool and a pump to use the water in the pool to protect the house) but Jesus, there were still a lot of homes and neighborhoods wiped out, totally wiped out.

[chia]

11. Fires during a major Santa Ana are almost unstoppable until the wind dies down or the flames reach the ocean.

Native Californians know this. First responders are heroes, communities will come together, but there will always be the MAGA types who celebrate any California disaster and blame any Democratic public figure.

[senseandsensibility]

16. Exactly

Climate change is to blame, and anything that distracts from that is counterproductive.

[lame54]

17. Eliminate him for 2028...

Same with the NC hurricane- there isn't a natural disaster they won't exploit

There is no bottom

But it will never be reported that way

[wnylib]

19. Well, the felon claims to be the chosen one

and the savior of the nation, so maybe he should stand in front of the fires holding a Bible and command the Santa Ana winds to stop.

OTOH, his hot air dragon breath might start new fires.