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California governer Gavin Newsom has faced criticism for the state's response to the wildfires, fanned by Trump and his allies across social media. Alamy Stock Photo
Los Angeles
'I'll fill the hydrants myself': LA resident confronts California Governor over wildfires response
Ten people have died in the series of wildfires, driven by ferocious winds, that have raged through the Los Angeles area, ravaging communities from the Pacific Coast to Pasadena, forcing more than 179,000 people to leave their homes.
A WOMAN FROM the fire-ravaged Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles has offered to “fill up the hydrants myself” as she confronted California Governor Gavin Newsom over his response to the disaster.
Rachel Darvish, a lawyer who has lived in the Palisades all her life, was forced to flee her home along with many thousands of others because of the devastating flames.
Out-of-control wildfires are continuing to rip across parts of Los Angeles, leading to at least 10 deaths and the destruction of over 10,000 structures, as well as evacuation orders for nearly 180,000 residents across the city.
Despite the efforts of over 1,400 firefighters, the biggest blazes remain totally uncontained – with weather conditions and the underlying impact of climate change expected to continue fanning the flames for days to come.
'Can I hear your call to the President, because I don't believe it.'
This is the moment a woman in LA confronted the California Governor Gavin Newsom over the wildfires. https://t.co/g1yZAnHJkc
In the video, LA-based mother Darvish approached Newsom, saying that her daughter’s school had burned down due to wildfires.
She demanded to know what action Newsom was taking in the battle against the blaze, and asked to join the phone call to President Biden that the governor was trying to make at the time.
Darvish questioned why fire hydrants in the Palisades ran out of water while firefighters were tackling the huge blazes. She told the governor that she would “fill up hydrants myself” and asked Newsom if he would do the same. “I would do whatever I can,” Newsom replied.
A spokesperson for Newsom has since told US media that the governor got through to Biden after speaking to the affected Darvish, with the US president announcing that the federal government would cover 100% of costs for the response to the Los Angeles wildfires for at least 6 months.
The spokesperson also told reporters that they later spoke with Darvish to connect her with recovery services and other information.
Government response
Governor Gavin Newsom has addressed the public several times in recent days, saying that the state and national government are “throwing everything at our disposal” to tackle the wildfires.
Newsom has also overseen the deployment of the National Guard service members in affected areas “to protect communities in the days to come”.
Los Angeles officials and Newsom continue to receive criticism from local residents and political figures such as President-elect Donald Trump over the preparation and response to the wildfires.
In a social media post yesterday, Trump took aim at Los Angeles Mayor Bass and Gavin Newsom – both Democrats – for what he described as “gross incompetence” in dealing with the fires.
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“One of the best and most beautiful parts of the United States of America is burning down to the ground,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“It’s ashes, and Gavin Newscum should resign. This is all his fault!!!,” he wrote, misspelling the governor’s name in an apparent jab.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has also faced questions about her leadership during the ongoing wildfires, which are still spread across Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass pictured with city Fire Captain Frank Lima and Gavin Newsom while surveying damage during the Palisades Fire on Wednesday. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
Bass was away from the city on a planned diplomatic trip to Ghana when the Palisades Fire first erupted on Monday, and has been hit by critics for her leadership during the disaster.
Rick Carusoa, a Republican mayoral opponent to Bass in the 2022 elections, has accused her of “abandoning her post” in an interview with Politico.
The mayor, who did post a warning about the windstorm on social media Monday, declined to respond to a reporter earlier this week when why she did not return to the city “fast enough”.
On her return two days ago, Bass was confronted at the airport by a Sky News reporter, who asked if she owed Angelenos an apology for her absence during the fires.
Bass refused to answer as the reporter followed her down the gangway.
At a press conference yesterday, Bass stated that her “number one focus” was to “save lives and save homes”.
“When that is done, when lives have been saved and homes have been saved, we will absolutely do an evaluation to look at what worked, and what didn’t work, and to correct or to hold accountable any body, department, individual, etc.,” Bass said.
“But my focus right now is on the lives and on the homes.”
‘Constant contact’
According to US media, it is unclear when Bass was informed about the fires and decided to return to California.
Bass had left Los Angeles City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson as mayor pro tempore in her absence.
At a news conference Wednesday morning, Harris-Dawson acknowledged the work of the first responders doing “heroic work in the face of grave danger.”
“Last night was one of the most devastating and terrifying nights that we’ve seen in any part of our city, at any part of our history,” he said.
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A path of destruction left behind by the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
On Wednesday night, Bass told reporters she had been in “constant contact” with local, federal, and county officials marshaling the response to the fires as she made her way back to the United States.
“I took the fastest route back which included being on a military plane which facilitated our communications. So, I was able to be on the phone the entire time of the flight,” Bass said, adding she also had phone access during her commercial flight “like most people do.”
“I was on the phone on the plane almost every hour of the flight. So, although I was not physically here, I was in contact with many of the individuals that are standing here throughout the entire time when my flight landed, immediately went to the fire zone and saw what happened in Pacific Palisades.”
Looting arrests
L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna announced several measures yesterday to ramp up security in areas that have been evacuated because of devastating fires in the area.
More than 20 arrests have been made on suspicion of looting over the last few days.
“The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has officially requested the support of the California National Guard for both fires,” Luna said. “They will be assisting us with traffic control and critical infrastructure protection.
“Having additional resources, having the National Guard with us,” he added, “will help send a stronger message, keep people out of the impacted areas, so we don’t continuously victimize the people who have already been victimized.”
Fire crews battle the Kenneth Fire in the West Hills section of Los Angeles. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
The sheriff also said the agency was working to implement a curfew that would run from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. “within the specific impacted areas around the two fire areas,” he said, referring to the Palisades fire in Pacific Palisades and the Eaton fire, the worst of the five blazes impacting the city.
He said he hoped to have it in place by this evening.
L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger emphasized that the curfew was not to punish residents but to keep the area safe.
Newsom also spoke out strongly against those taking advantage of affected areas.
“And to those who would seek to take advantage of evacuated communities, let me be clear: looting will not be tolerated,” the state governor said.
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@Brendan O’Brien: another post ruined by you and Basildon Joe, I honestly pity you both, got nothing going on in your pathetic lives than to type absolute sh!te on here every waking hour
@daragh harmon: Jesus was sacrificed, wasn’t he? And he’s sacrificed again at every mass, and he body eaten and blood drank. Also, your god aborts more ‘unborns’ than humanity does.
@Dave G Doe: That isn’t what happened.
Unfortunately he is still being paid, despite being unemployable. (There is no way any Irish school will employ him.)
@Meatball Martin: I am neither angry or frustrated,just a pity that you have taken over the comment section with your half dozen bs accounts.
Oh well I suppose that is what happens when you don’t work and sit at home in your bedroom all day ,must be a blessing for you after getting kicked of X .
You can maybe try for that job stacking shelves in your Dunn’s
@A D: Enoch Burke showed up outside the school again today.
When asked by the media, he said “It’s not the first day I have been out in the cold. I am not protesting, I am reporting for work.”
I suppose his father is driving him several hours to get there, and collect him. It’s obvious the fines need to be increased.
@eoin fitzpatrick: No, you lot are. So much so you want Ireland filled with them. Then it’s game over. Women should worry about weak men like you ever getting power or say.
@eoin fitzpatrick: which are already 10 a penny in most towns. paying 4 or 5 euro to someone to mix beans with hot water. of which the farmer is earning a fraction of 1 cent for providing said beans.
@Injustice Cop: Which part of what Jack wrote is wrong?
And which part is bitter?
Would it not be far more true that it is you who is bitter that your religion of lies, misery and evil is being discarded by society, and that you will no longer be able to control people and commit evil with impunity?
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: No, it would not be far more true that I am bitter for pointing out a disrespect comment that can easily be interpreted as being from a bitter person. You think religion has the monopoly on evil? Risible and quite puerile commentary from, what appears to be an ingénue. Good luck to you!
@Meatball Martin: I’m not angry, in fact I’m a bit said. Religious faith gives piece and support to many, that that is fine for them. Even as an Atheist I believe Jesus existed and wrote important pacifist teachings, that accepted the marginalised and downtrodden, which is all the more remarkable given the context of the time, a brutal Roman occupation. People are welcome to their beliefs once they don’t force it on others, or indeed use to to conquer land and minds.
@David Jordan: jesus wrote nothing, he would most have been illiterate had he existed, for which there is no proof. There is also nothing in his teachings startingly original either.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: There’s independent evidence that a person, called Jesus by his early followers after his execution, did indeed exist. We find Jesus (not named as Jesus, but identified as a charismatic Jewish religious leader) mentioned by several Roman writers. Josephus, Tacitus, Pliny the Younger and Suetonius.
While some accounts were certainly embellished by early christians (Josephus), most secular scholars agree these contemporary and near contemporary accounts give credence to the existence of an important jewish religious leader who was executed by the Romans around 30 – 35 AD, that christians would call Jesus. He was not the only Messiha.
One of the most prominent other Messiahs, not long after Jesus, was Simon bar Kokhba, who led the Bar Kokhba revolt (135 AD). His death led to the ultimate schism between Jewish Christians and Jews (up to about 100 AD, Jewish Christian were permitted to pay in synagogues, as they were considered to be a sect within Judaism, but their decision to accru members who were not Jewish by doing away with Jewish Mosaic law, led to friction and opposition).
It is fascinating to see that in the first couple of decades after Jesus’ death, his followers mostly stuck to recruiting other Jews, but after that did not work out a few disciples broke ranks and started recruiting non-Jews. This led to arguments within the early Jewish Christian sect, and in 48-50 AD, in Council of Jerusalem, they decided to end the requirement for Mosaic law, circumcision, and officially open their sect to non-Jews.
But it wasn’t until c. 135 AD (around the time of the death of Simon bar Kokhba) that Christians were fully seperate from Judaism, an official document was published and read in Synagogues excommunicating them. This separation also consolidated Jewish identity, since identity is often only defined by self-identity, but knowing who you are not.
It is actually fascinating to read about how the decisions they made were practical and logical, not directed by religious revelation or direction, but they just changed the rules to suit themselves as they needed more members. And that’s why they got kicked out of synagogues, too much prostalysing and opening up to non-Jews. So we have Christianity, not a sect that remained within judaism, once popular but withered and died.
By the way, a lot of numerology (number 3, 7, 14, 40 etc.) and symbology in the the New Testament was written for Jews who would have understood the meaning of specific symbols. These symbols were incorporated into the NT when Jewish Christians were trying hard to convert other Jews from within Judaism. The meaning of this numerology were lost by the time Christianity got to Rome, early 2nd century, but they compensated with the Book of Revelations, that added a lot of symbology and hidden meaning about Emperor Nero (died 68 AD) that kept Roman citizens interested.
@David Jordan: none of your “evidence” stands up to scrutiny. In a court of law, all the evidence for jesus would be disallowed as heresay. There were several Jewish teachers, indeed non Jewish too, but one of the criticisms by non Christian scholars of Christians was that these stories were allegorical and never meant to be taken literally. Even Josephus in his mention of Christians, described their beliefs as superstitious nonsense, albeit his mentions of the cult don’t stand up to scrutiny. Deification was common at the time, many Roman emperors were declared to be divine, including one contempory of Jesus whose name escapes me at the minute. This Emperor had an auspicious birth, raised the dead and there are contemporary references to his Gospel. I believe it’s all mythology.
@Dermot Blaine: I am not claiming that Jesus was divine or supernatural, I’m merely pointing out there is reason to believe that there was a historical person who fits the description of a physical person no more supernatural than you or me, who likely founded an Jewish Christian (Nazarenes) sect in the early 1st century, when Judaism was was in turmoil due to Roman occupational and Greek Hellenisation. It’s just interesting to read how the geopolitics of the time and a few clever decisions made by the sect ensured Christianity ended up a dominant world religion.
Even through some slime burps from the usual chatroom armpits, this has been a better read than the article. The problem with atheism tho is that it does owe part of its development to Christian theology
@Meatball Martin: Atheists don’t give a flying fk about religious nonsense. The closure is a progressive sign that society is moving on from the church.
Thankfully, we have Fianna Fail back in government, it is wise to keep the strong bond with the Church, as a staunchly Catholic nation, it is imperative that we hold on to wholesome family values
Let me get this straight, who wrote these “Religious” books? Certainly wasn’t a typing pool of Angels or Gods, it was busybody humans. And they certainly didn’t “channel the word of God”, maybe the other voices in their heads, not “God”. Good Riddance to fake industries like these, preying on the poor and gullible.
@Meatball Martin: he got jailed because he wouldn’t call a him a her. Absolutely bananas. If a non Christian did it no problem. Norma Foley washed her hands totally if it.
@Pork Hunt: yes, but the anti Catholic bigots on here can’t accept that it’s not about religion, but everything to do with science, it’s a biological fact
@Pork Hunt: he got jailed for disobeying a court order, which was put in place because of his behaviour. Which order he disobey again yesterday. Norma Foley couldn’t do anything as the hearing into his dismissal hasn’t yet taken place, why? because Burke keeps blocking it. She did keep paying his salary though, I wouldn’t have. He needs psychiatric help, he’s got a martyr complex.
@Dermot Blaine: he didn’t call the trans by the new name got kangaroo courted by school BOM and didn’t agree with procedure. Norma coulda stepped in and said cop on the lot of ya but was fine to stay mute and woke off
@Pork Hunt: there was a hearing pending into his intolerant and uncaring refusal to agree to the request of a troubled teen, but before the hearing could happen, he verbally attacked the school principal at a social event, for which he was rightly fired. There are ongoing attempts to have a hearing into his sacking, but he keeps blocking it. And he keeps blocking it because he knows he will lose and his salary will stop. Even the evangelical groups in the US who originally supported him have run a mile. I blame the mother, poor lad needs mental help. This is 100% on him and his dysfunctional family.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: so a male can become pregnant, have periods, and breast feed? I must have been asleep in class when they covered that chapter, ya clown lol
@Pork Hunt: Nothing to do with the child involved, he was told not to go to the school by the judge aka by court order and broke it.
Nothing else. They are the facts. Clear and simply put.
@Meatball Martin: No, loads of people believe that and there is no court order saying you cannot believe that.
There is one saying that Enoch cannot go to the school!
Facts, they really upset people at times.
@Pork Hunt: There are procedures to follow and they were. The Ministers staff would have checked them to see everything was done correctly. If they were there is nothing that she can do. She too has to follow the rules and regulations and the procedures and protocols in the department.
@Pork Hunt: nothing to do with that. He got jailed because he was asked to stay away from the school and refused to do so. Disobeying a court order is a crime. He didn’t lose his job because he didn’t adhere to a child’s pronouns. He lost his job because he assaulted his principal.
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