Harrop: Trump's wildfire tweets ignite firestorm of ignorance

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

It’s been policy hereabout to ignore presidential tweets of no national consequence. Whether Donald Trump likes Roseanne or dislikes Rosie matters not. But Trump’s tweets about the catastrophic California fires do. They demonstrated remarkable ignorance and cowardice. And in the words that weren’t there, they showed a collapse of the leadership needed to defend this country from the onrushing disaster of climate change.

“Bad environmental laws,” he tweeted, have diverted needed water “into the Pacific Ocean,” making the wildfires “so much worse.” That’s the ignorance part.

The claim that firefighters don’t have enough water is not true, and to a moronic degree. “We’re having no problems as far as access to water supply,” said Scott McClean, deputy chief of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Rob Stutzman, a prominent Republican strategist in California, called that tweet “nuts,” as well as “frightening” in its dumbness. Water plays a surprisingly small part in fighting wildfires. The main weapons are flame-retarding chemicals dropped from planes and creating physical fire breaks.

The tweet may also reflect crossed mental wires confusing the wildfire crisis with the ongoing disputes over dividing available water between farms and fish. (As for the fish, it’s not just the Delta smelt. Salmon farming is a huge business.) The connection seems to have flown directly out of the presidential belfry.

The cowardice comes from using the calamity to insert unrelated and unpopular policy goals. “Must also tree clear to stop fire from spreading!” Trump tweeted. Back story: Trump wants to let timber companies resume logging in California’s Los Padres National Forest. There is a solid “fire” argument for removing dry underbrush, but not for chopping down healthy green pines.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/harrop-trumps-wildfire-tweets-ignite-firestorm-of-ignorance/?utm_source=DAILY+HERALD&utm_campaign=dc695742e8-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d81d073bb4-dc695742e8-228635337

[wasupaloopa]

1. The pines are dying because of a pest

You look out at a forest of pines near Yosemite and almost half of them are brown.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

2. Thank you, Mama, you said it so well:

"A collapse of the leadership needed to defend this country from the onrushing disaster of climate change."

His willful arrogance and unrestrained stupidity is costing us too much out here.