It’s been a rough 24 hours or so. But we are among the lucky ones, as detailed at the top of today’s BradCast. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]
The photo of a massive fire nearby first came in via cell phone from a neighbor before we had even been able to publish yesterday’s show to the blog. The show was, of course, about the ongoing wind and firestorms here in Los Angeles., including an interview with a longtime colleague whose house burned down on Tuesday night in Pacific Palisades.
Now it seemed to be happening to us. The City began sending alerts to all of our phones, telling us to get ready for an evacuation. From my back patio, I could see the huge flames and orange plumes rising out of Runyon Canyon, a park just a few blocks from where we live. It would come to be known as the “Sunset Fire” for some reason, as reported by the national media. Which meant that most of you probably learned more about the fire and what was going on than we did being in the middle of it.
The photo used above for our graphic today was taken by another neighbor at the end of our block about 30 minutes before the “GET OUT NOW!” order came from the City. As you can tell, it was unsettling to say the least.
Long story short (we share the longer version on today’s show, with a bunch of interesting Lessons Learned along the way), after the mandatory evacuation order came, we, and a whole bunch of others folks in the area, grabbed up whatever belongings we felt we needed and high-tailed it out of here. Or, at least tried to. The narrow streets here in the lower Hollywood Hills were packed, in what national media correctly described as a sudden, chaotic evacuation.
Anyway, with the winds having died down from hurricane force levels 24 hours earlier, firefighters were able to get airborne again and knock down “our” particular raging inferno in fairly short order. “Only” 60 acres said to have burned. The mandatory evacuation order was lifted by morning and all was well upon our return. Safe and sound. But, as noted, tune in for more of the harrowing details.
It was inconvenient, and not a lot of fun. But we were among the lucky ones. More than 2,000 10,000(!) structures have now reportedly been destroyed or damaged in at least 4 different raging fires around Los Angeles, in what is being described as the most costly fire disaster in U.S. history, if not the most deadly. Six people are now reported killed, though authorities say that number is expected to climb when, and if, they are finally able to get the largest fires under control. Winds are predicted to pick up again tonight and through next week, though not as high as they had been over the past 48 hours or so. Stay safe out there. But do tune in for a few tips we learned over the past 24 hours about sudden, unexpected evacuations.
Also today, President Jimmy Carter — who, speaking of harrowing experiences, was once lowered into a melted down nuclear reactor core! — was finally laid to rest today. We share details and a few audio excerpts from today’s memorial service at the National Cathedral in D.C.
Finally, Desi Doyen has our latest Green News Report, with more details on the L.A. fires and their connection to climate change, as we miraculously were able to produce both that and a ‘BradCast’ today…which I didn’t see as remotely possible at about 7 or 8pm last night. But we made it. We are among the lucky ones…
PROGRAMMING NOTE: We will be off from Monday’s BradCast due to a previously scheduled, unchangeable appointment. We’ll be back Tuesday, as normal, but I didn’t want you to worry, given everything otherwise underway in L.A. over this past week!
(Snail mail support to “Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028” always welcome too!)
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Wow, Scary stuff! Glad you made it through!
Oh man.
So sorry.
Every time anyone talks of this Los Angeles fire hurricane, they should call trump a name, disgrace him for lying about FEMA (and trying to end FEMA that was founded by Jimmy Carter..thank you!) when FEMA was helping and trying to help people harmed by hurricane Helene that cut people off from supplies, transportation, services. trump traumatized scared, desperate people into a fury.
Then and now trump projects his own failings by accusing democrats of being partisan in an emergency, when trump actually was/is, having to be talked into helping California after a fire disaster until told there were some California Republicans who voted for him.
The supreme court and trump are big losers, illegitimate once they allowed trump and gop to purge as many legal democratic voters as they needed in order to win.
What are democrats doing about this, now? Or, ever?
https://mastodon.online/@GregPalast/113765389784244409
GregPalast
@GregPalast@mastodon.online
We’re working feverishly to get the data to calculate the effect of racist voter suppression trickery on the election’s outcome. Not unexpectedly, we are getting stonewalled by red-state officials about the number of provisional ballots uncounted (> 42.3% we find from well-hidden data), the number of mail-in ballots discarded (> 2 million), and the number of vigilante challenges to legit voters (> 852,000).
Here’s what the numbers are telling us so far :
https://www.gregpalast.com/carter-the-kochs-and-the-donald/
The U.S. media will write about vote suppression tactics during an election. But never would the media report on the effect of suppression on the November 5 vote count.
But the Palast Team does, with precision, based on data and facts. And here’s what the numbers are telling us so far. Absent vote suppression tactics,
“The wholesale attack on votes and voters cost Kamala Harris Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia — which would have brought her to a winning 286 Electoral votes.â€
As Gerald Griggs, President of the Georgia NAACP told me, “Vote suppression and voter intimidation won.â€
Glad to hear you two are ok.
Horrible!
Hang in there Brad. Take all the time you need!