The Rust Belt Empathy Burnout

These are working class Americans and American farmers. They had their sensibilities insulted and turned their back on Democrats.

Why they voted for Trump.

This is not unusual. The Democrats can be the moral party and represent the minority interests of the country, but, if they want to be effective for those folks and women they can’t scare others. That is the way I see this point of view. 

These Americans did not vote for Trump. They voted against the unknown and unfamiliar. Trump was simply the other choice. 

Joe Rogan?

I rarely listen to hate radio, I just happened to run across an article that featured Rogan speaking to the California wildfires and I found his commentary rather dangerous. This might be typical of these guys, but, Rogan is not qualified to be dismissive of the cause of such enormous damage to our country.

I think the Americans that lean to the right and especially the extremists tend to dispel the authority of being learned. I think Rogan is the best example of this today. 

Rogan has no college education. He specialized in physical competition at any early age and then found success in beating up Democrats and now hosts an experience everyday that brings him an audience and guests that can add to the political incompetency of that audience. Today, from the article I read, he was actually dangerous in his radio leadership. 

Joe Rogan is blaming the homeless for the wildfires that occurred in California. He enjoyed demasculinating Governor Newsom as if incompetent. He stated the climate crisis so basically a hoax and not the reason for the wildfires that killed, maimed, endangered, and destroyed.

I looked at the burn scar that was the beginning of the New Year’s Eve fire and there is a possibility it was a careless individual or party of people that caused that initial fire. After the initial fire reignited it was the wind that escalated that reignition out of control.

While a spark lit the initial fire it was the climate crisis that caused the infernos that took lives and burnt homes and businesses into ash destroying entire communities. There is absolutely no way the homeless can be blamed for the wildfires in California.

I find Joe Rogan immature, irresponsible, completely uninformed, and an absolute danger to every listener of his program. He CAUSES attitudes that decrease awareness, limit options, cause MISDIRECTION, and quite frankly it is those attitudes that may have ignited the initial fire on New Year’s Eve.

When the public is blind sided like that, danger rather than awareness and preparedness are the outcomes allowing immature, irresponsible, uninformed, and dangerous attitudes even about one’s own life.

The next four years are going to see an escalation of the climate crisis. Like the pandemic the choices Americans will make will either save their lives or waste them causing more damage and loss to the country. 

I have just one question for Rogan and those like him; does he ever take responsibility for the misinformation he spews knowing the actions of his listeners and the lack of moral content in their lives that actually would protect their lives from adverse outcomes?

I find Rogan’s type of misinformation dangerous and uncalled for in generating dangerous behaviors in his audience. Like the irresponsible behavior that sparked fire in a droughts area.

Recognizing Hate Radio and refusing to listen should be a dialogue Americans should be having? 

Below is what grown-ups sound like.

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Too radical to be a good president.

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Donald Trump is far too radical to be effective internationally. The rest of the world really is disgusted with such leadership. I think the USA is going to be spurned by many leaders. 

Trump counts on the USA economy to be such a powerful entity internationally that he can simply walk all over every other country and leader in the world. Considering Trump’s extremist views and especially the severity of the climate crisis he won’t be as accepted as one thinks. The USA did not impress other leaders during the pandemic. We had the highest number of cases and the highest death rate. Trump’s history is not a good one.

Reassuring

The TikTok decision validates the Biden’s White House focus on national security. It has been all too easy for China to send spy balloons, have listening posts at ports all over the country, Chinese hacked the Treasury Department and who knows what else, trafficking and drug smuggling (click here), and election interference. 

It is about time China live within it’s own borders, rather than being the Wall Street darling of cheap labor.

I think China has become a very bad actor. It changed character considerably under Xi. China when it sponsored its first Olympics was a very different country and far more interested in peace and prosperity than today. Its affiliation with Russia since the 2000 friendship pack has resulted in a communist country with expansionist goals. Today, China exhibits far more hostile communist ideology than 24 years ago, partly from alliances with

North Korea.

Today’s bright, shiny object?

Ah. An exploding rocket.

While in the new session of Congress bills designed by DOGE to bilk the American people are being written for introduction.

Hm?

(Click here)

First, congrats to Blue Origin. And maybe it is just the photography, but, is the rocket fuel different or not? It initially exhausts blue in color. Does Bezos manufacture his own fuel? Is it patented? It might be classified and he can’t speak to it. But, I don’t recall a blue flame on other rockets. Just curious.

Fraud scam to overturn a NC election.

(Click here)

The NC Governor and/or AG should start a fraud investigation into the claim 60,000 early voters are proven to be false ballots. There are already decisions in the country regarding complaints about strange requirements for early voting.

This is the problem with having a criminal president-elect. If Cannon is corrupt and will throw an election then why won’t everyone else?

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With Republicans…

 …the word “politics” is a cover for corruption all the way to the Supreme Court. Why has it been necessary to demand better policing of ethics with the Roberts’ Court? They use the idea that lies and corruption are actually political tools while they go on vacation and fly flags adversely as a front to societal norms.

To Republicans, lies, corruption, and scandals are necessary to make vast amounts of money. You, know; “Put on your big boy pants.” Now, with Trump coming to power and having his kick back inauguration donations, corrupt big boys are safe to be as bad ass as they want. “No problem!” says Bondi. 

Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. Therefore there is no evil. Not even when a million Americans die of Covid-19 in the face of very effective vaccines.

I think it is long overdue for the Cheney Republicans to start a new political party with Democrats of like minds. Why have moral uncertainty in the world of the 21st century? The Cheney Republicans know right from wrong. They prefer the Rule of Law over the rule of men. It seems clear to me, the Old Guard was good, but, spawned Trump. The Cheney Republicans need a paradigm shift discarding old baggage.

Pam Bondi

Queen of corruption. Commit the crime and she looks the other way. 

That is the whole thing with Trump and why he was re-elected, the corruption is never an issue. 

“…2/3rds of Americans have lost faith in the DOJ…” That might be true, but, the reasons it might be true is because Garland didn’t lock up Trump and Associates, like Pam Bondi. This is all racketeering. Jack Smith should have engaged Bondi in interrogatories about her involvement in creating the stolen election fiction. Was she in the phone call with Georgia’s Raffensperger? She never reined in Trump for his lawbreaking? Really? She should have her license pulled.

She is given premium jobs in the government of Trump’s minions and she conducts the office outside of the rule of law. 

(Click here) 

This is such a joke. Pam Bondi IS the reason people have lost faith in the DOJ. She always backs Trump’s racketeering initiates. 

She drank the cool aide and lives in the alternate universe where right is wrong and there simply isn’t anything wrong. Wrong isn’t even in the dictionary.

Pam was the one that THUNK up the story about eating pets in Springfield (There are 67 populated areas named Springfield in the USA. Springfield is a very popular name in the UK as well.) 

(Click here).  

She lives in fear for dog and cat welfare. Pet injustices are her bright, sinewy object while the corruption under her watch runs rampant.

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Rumor has it that when with Trump she makes it easy for his voyeurism. 

I agree with Former First Lady Michelle Obama.

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I was going to write an entry on January 20, 2025, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day; but, I may as state it now.

January 20th is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and should be observed by anyone with a conscience, especially since the inauguration is a bigot and racist.

It is my opinion if you believe in God, as Martin Luther King, Jr. did, it is very plain to see what God had planned and Satan succeeded in carrying out. This January 20th is a stark reminder of the hate exhibited by the supporters of Trump. Trump is a convicted criminal. His non-profit has been dissolved, because of nefarious activity, and he carried out a conspiracy to dismantle the USA Constitution. The man being inaugurated will never live up to the oath of office. He didn’t live up to the first one.

The ONLY reason Trump was elected to a second term was because of a wannabe Trillionaire with an ego so big even he can’t satisfy it. Trump was elected by a majority of dollar bills that never cast a vote, but, manipulated a campaign of lies, deceit, and votes bought for a million dollars a day.

I stand with Michelle Obama and the observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on January 20, 2025. It is the right and moral thing to do.

Unremarkable is not a synonym for qualified!

It is unwise to install these lines if flooding is an issue.

(Click here)

I have advocated for this before on this blog. 

If flooded it is impossible to ask repair personnel into the water without receiving an electrical storm of shocks. 

The conspiracy goes beyond Trump

A power line down

That is the most recent assessment by California. A power line capable of withstanding 55 mph winds was hit with 75 mph winds. The lines faltered and sparked. 

(Click here)

Power lines sway, break, are broken by trees and struck by lightning. The power lines in California were good quality infrastructure not prepared for a climate crisis storm.

Blue Origin

I think I like Jeff Bezo’s heart. He named his space venture after Earth and New Glenn after a very brave man. 

These guys have to tough. I remember when Astronaut John Glenn was picked up in the ocean. There was peril even then for the astronaut and divers as they fit a floatation collar on the Mercury spacecraft. 

Today, the private companies are reusing a good part of the launch vehicle. That means there has to be coordination between the land based operation and sea operations. Not an easy task when the climate is dealing high winds and high seas.

The Blue Origin space center is impressive. Bezos doesn’t impose on NASA’s programs to use facilities paid for by taxpayers. Very interesting. It took a lot of capital to build an independent operation.

I am grateful there were no accidents today in the USA private space program.

Everyone have a better day.

Fireworks?

From what I am reading the investigation is leaning into fireworks that caused the original blaze on New Year’s Eve. 

Wow.

There was a time in this country when a person needed a permit and the display was carried out by a government agency with the fire department on site. That was about a decade or two ago. 

Now, the economy comes first before safety and anyone with a driver’s license can carry out their very own fireworks display.

Our society has become a “jack-ass” society where throwing caution to the wind is common practice and no one listen’s to wiser voices. It has gone so far that we now have a ringmaster for a president of the USA.

I certainly expect severe consequences for those who foolishly displayed fireworks in a known zone where drought was reported by a federal authority. There are dead, injured, and cities devastated by a self-indulgent fireworks display. 

I read Steve Bannon is back in town. Maybe Trump will have his old puppet master back. Maybe, just maybe some small degree of sanity might return. One can only hope.

I am sure Governor Gavin Newsom will set a day of mourning and the country needs to pay attention.

The drought

When comparing the two maps, the drought in Southern California had gotten worse in one week. High winds as experienced that week were partly responsible if not completely responsible for worsening conditions.

The worsening area is exactly where the winds were. Wind can be very drying. 

This is being very hard on all those that lost everything, but, when there are dangerous conditions there cannot be ANY behaviors that can result in even the most remote possibility of a spark. Drinking, smoking, or taking of substances that alter awareness is as much a catalyst to disaster as the wind that caused the drying. 

After stating that, this probably wasn’t preventable. People are allowed to be people and there is no reason for self-blaming. These are extreme conditions that were a perfect storm. Going forward, any and all precautions of any kind, including behavioral self awareness has to be practiced and not just discussed. The climate is unforgiving. I said this before, California did not deserve this.

Live updates: (Click here)

Emergency services were incredible.

Firefighters are a special breed. They are all heart. They literally fight for every house, barn, field, or whatever calls them into service. It is like their own is on the line. They are masters of the ability to save lives.

This fire took lives. Some were taken very tragically. But, this tragedy could have been much, much worse. The emergency workers were as good as they get. Everyone should be grateful for the heroes they are when they are called. 

Reignition is very possible.

I am more interested in what started the New Years’ Eve fire.

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If the fire crews responded more slowly the second time is is likely fatigue. It could have also been a question of available equipment and supplies. They had just put out a huge fire and the public was being warned in public service announcements about reignition.

The wind caused the second blaze. I think there is little doubt, but, what caused the original fire? The timing states human activity. I am curious as to any potential natural causes that could have done that. I always thought it was primarily residential. There is a reservoir near there that was receiving repairs. Workmen should be asked if they know of any ignition causes. If sounds like a spark of some kind. New Years Eve, cigarettes, fireworks, almost anything for as dry as the area was.