Saturday, September 12, 2020

Trump Country Burns, Trump Doesn't Care

Trump's relative silence on the West Coast wildfires is a little puzzling. He probably doesn't care because they're blue states.

But the thing is, they're blue because of their urban and suburban populations. The rural areas are Trump country. And those are what's burning. But their votes won't change things, so Trump doesn't care.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Trump Country:
Coronavirus infections in the Dakotas are growing faster than anywhere else in the nation, fueling impassioned debates over masks and personal freedom after months in which the two states avoided the worst of the pandemic.
...
South Dakota has also posted some of the country’s highest positivity rates for COVID-19 tests in the last week — over 17 percent — an indication that there are more infections than tests are catching.
They could be breaking out in pustules and eating their neighbors, but they'll still vote for Trump, so he doesn't care about them, either.

6 comments:

  1. Now having to wear a mask for two reasons when I go out here in Oregon. I see that some of my right leaning neighbors are now doing so as well. I guess it's not fake smoke.

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  2. The teachable moment Muse, is in general the way the smoke hangs in the air is very much how the Trump Virus vapors hang in the air. While I avoid using either tobacco or cannabis indoors - it's an Oregon thing, right? - I have had my best success in describing transmission to a certain audience by blowing out a big cloud of smoke in a sunlit room. That's how the Trump Vapors hang.

    Most of my early observations on this have been born out, my only regret was in March or April admonishing folks it's not some pale green zombie gas just hanging out waiting for someone to breathe it.

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  3. The Creek Fire is 196,667 acres with 8% containment and three ridges to the east of here. And yup, this is Republican territory.
    Apparently Fergus seems to think we don't sweep the forest enough.
    My by eyeball guesstimate would be that a third of the standing timber is dry and dead because of the beetle infestation that moved into previously healthy forests during the drought.
    The triple digit temperatures of Labor Day weekend, when combined with those dead trees and the overloaded understory made this a disaster that didn't surprise anyone who lives here.
    The past two days the smoke has been thick enough to block enough sunlight to lower the temperatures and slow the fire's spread, at least in our direction.
    My dad worked for the US Forest Service for thirty years, and I can state with confidence that it didn't used to be this way.

    -Doug in Sugar Pine

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  4. And Kristi Noem is using COVID money for tourism ads.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The SD Ledge ( dominated by the POT) has finally said “wait a minute” to who gets to determine how the $$ gets spent/.
    Living under one-party rule sure is grand.

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  6. I live in rural and Red Ca. And the fire danger is indescribable. My Spring grass cuttings are still lying there like kindling. No rain has come to decompose them. We have local Buckeye trees that inconveniently lose their leaves in the driest part of Summer.
    Just yesterday there was a smoke check that turned out to be somebody burning their brush in a pile. The day before those very same people had been given a ticket for burning their trash outside. From the report, they got loud with the Fire Dept. this time, and cops were called. I can only imagine who they would vote for.
    The locals love them some Donny and nothing he has done will turn them away. I suspect even denying them aid after the next fire, still won't sway them.
    That Koolaid is stronger than human love.
    w3ski

    ReplyDelete

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