I have not been evacuated and am nowhere near the fires

[rachelmanija]

In case anyone was wondering. I am in one of the most wildfire-proof parts of LA - no brush or forests anywhere near me. I do have an evac plan in place though. Just in case.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you can google "Woolsey Fire" and "Camp Fire." (There's also a third fire which forced the LA Zoo to evacuate some parrots and lemurs, but it seems less serious.) All three of these blew up yesterday. All of Malibu and 3/4 of Thousand Oaks has been evacuated. I can't stress too much how huge that is - those are both large areas, not small towns. Paradise, a small town, was completely destroyed.

The majority of the people who were present or lost someone at the mass shooting in Thousand Oaks the day before yesterday had to flee for their lives the next day for a completely unrelated reason. Unrelated, that is, except in the sense that both the regular mass shootings and the scope/frequency of fires are directly caused by political choices and are currently things our government is hellbent on making worse.

Apocalyptic photo of smoke over Malibu

Trump's response to 11 dead (and counting), thousands of homes destroyed, and a quarter of a million people evacuated was to blame California and threaten to withhold federal funding. FUUUUUUUUCK HIM.

Comments

[nestra]

I sometimes wish Twitter had an option to let me send someone a throat-tearing scream. A Howler, I guess. I want Twitter to let me send a Howler to Trump. If they were real, he'd never get another moment of sleep.

[rachelmanija]

HARD SAME.

[melannen]

We did that at the protest at the White House on Thursday. It was literally the last thing the speakers asked - "Everybody just look over there and let it all out". We did it for all of you.

(It was cathartic and I may have sprained my vocal cords.)

[nenya_kanadka]

Wow. ❤❤❤

[rachelmanija]

Thank you!

[sartorias]

Oh that is AWESOMMMMMMMMMMME.

[osprey_archer]

That is BRILLIANT. I hope all White House protests for the rest of Trump's presidency follow suit.

[kore]

That's awesome!

[sheliak]

Thank you.

[sholio]

... oh man, I wish that was a real thing.

[sartorias]

I saw that cloud from down here, as I was driving back from yoga.

[wpadmirer]

Glad to hear you're in a safe area.

And Trump should be set on fire, the big orange bastard.

[cofax7]

Up here what we've got is a NE wind blowing all the smoke from the Camp Fire right into the bay. PM 2.5 levels are worse than during the Santa Rosa fires last year, and the sky is a horrifying orange.

[rachelmanija]

The sky is gray but Culver City now also has the orange light of the apocalypse, though presumably from the Malibu fire. I have all windows closed and am going nowhere, not even to the post office.

[loligo]

First there was the news that several, possibly dozens, of the survivors of the Las Vegas shooting last year were at the Borderline during this attack, and then there was the news that many of the Borderline survivors were having to evacuate. And I thought, "Please tell me there's no one in the horrible center of that Venn diagram..." but there is at least one: Dylan McNey, age 22 (though he and his dad decided not to evacuate, despite the order). Jesus, I just want to bake that kid a pie or something.

[recessional]

FUCKING HELL.

That poor boy.

[rachelmanija]

My god. What a fucking year.

[recessional]

...cuz pissing off the ENTIRETY of California is totally a thing that ends well. For anyone. Ever.

You guys have two Beasts. :(

[rachelmanija]

Everyone in Malibu hates him already. Butte County, which is where the horrific Camp Fire is (the one that blew up out of nowhere and burned down an entire town in minutes), went for Trump in 2016. Wonder if that will change? They might believe him when he blamed CA's poor forest management (not the actual problem), but I'm not sure how well it will go over that he followed it up with threats rather than sympathy.

But yeah, while CA has its red areas, Trump seems to be going way out of his way to make the entire state hate him.

[monanotlisa]

God, of all the loathsome things, that tweet...

I didn't give thoughts and prayers but money.

[lilacsigil]

From the second-most bushfire-prone area in the world, I'm really sorry. What a horrible mess.

[megpie71]

Seconded

[naomikritzer]

Thanks for the update and I'm glad you're safe.

What a fucking year this has been.

[ironed_orchid]

Fuuuck. That's awful.

[kore]

That fire is apocalyptic. I bet Trump's just sorry it happened after the midterms.

[sheliak]

I'm very glad that you're safe. Our wildfires are horrific.

And yes. Fuck him.

[dhampyresa]

Good to know you're alright.

[minxy]

I'm north of the fires, but I work in Thousand Oaks.

It has indeed been a completely shit week.

[rachelmanija]

I'll say! Have you gotten back to Thousand Oaks yet?

[minxy]

I am a college teacher. We lost people at Borderline. The only day I wasn't up there was Friday. We've been back for the students. Classes are optional largely, but they are opting in as they can for the normalcy and community, I think.

To make it worse, someone started threatening to blow himself up and light his apartment on fire across the street from the school on Monday. So we came back and instantly got more alarms and alerts. BEFORE another spot fire flared up.

Go home, November, you're drunk.

[rachelmanija]

I'm so sorry. I think what your college is doing is compassionate and sensible. But seriously, what is WITH this year?

[minxy]

I don't even know. It's been over a week and I still feel in a fog about the whole series of events. I did see that Katie Porter won CA 45, though, how cool is that?