Dinner Date
One of the best political surprises of the past few years has been the character of Senator John Fetterman. He has turned out to be a man of principle over party and someone who can actually get things accomplished in congress.
Fetterman began his political career as the Mayor of Braddock, a small town in PA. The mayor's salary only paid $150 and looking back on it, such service was public service in the best sense of the word. I only knew of Fetterman during his run at the job of Senator for PA. At the time he had just gone through what seemed to be a debilitating stroke. He managed to win the seat anyway and I said to myself the dems pulled it off again. Since then, I have become pleasantly surprised at how open minded and non-partisan Fetterman has turned out to be.
Most recently, Fetterman was invited by President-elect Trump to Mar-a-Lago. Fetterman accepted because he is willing to talk to anyone and wants the President-elect to be successful.
"In an interview last month with ABC News' "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl, Fetterman said he hopes Trump is successful in his second term and that he's not "rooting against him."
"If you're rooting against the president, you are rooting against the nation," Fetterman said. "So country first. I know that's become maybe like a cliche, but it happens to be true."
Democratic Sen. Fetterman accepts Trump's Mar-a-Lago invitation
I like John Fetterman.
In other news:
Today the SCOTUS will hear arguments in the TikTok case. The Court also rejected Trump's request to put of the sentencing in the bogus NY case. Amy Coney Barrett joined the progressives on the vote.
A new fire has broken out in the West Hills section of LA. The two largest fires, Palisades and Eaton, continue to spread. They are among the top five most destructive in California’s history. The fires have killed 10 people and destroyed about 10,000 structures.
Gov Gavin Newsom asked president Biden to fund up to 75% of California's firefighting needs. Biden responded by committing the federal government to fund 100% of California's needs for 180 days. In other words, the hate-filled Biden is committing Trump to the funding during his Presidency. Hopefully Trump can brush it all off.
Most Senate Democrats joined Republicans in advancing the Laken Riley Act, which should be the first bill that President Trump signs into law.
Donald Trump will appear virtually at 9:AM for sentencing in the bogus NY trial.
A federal judge struck down the Biden administration’s "protection for transgender students" because it violated the rights of just about everyone else for forcing them to use students’ preferred pronouns.
The House passed a bill to impose sanctions on officials of the International Court, in response to war-crimes charges against Israeli leaders. The bill’s chances of becoming law are high. The times are a changing!
A federal analysis links high fluoride exposure to lower IQ in children. It might just mean that RKF JR was right on the issue.
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Good morning
Trump warned Newsom long ago:
I'm keeping an eye on the road gang. I have Juan Merchan picking up trash along the roadside.
Your posing as a conscientious prison guard is hilarious. Delusions of grandeur.
The tables have turned.
Nobody is above the law!
Except for 34 count felon Trump.
... convicted felon.
[✘]
The killing of the important cases dealing with Trump's attempt (while PotUS) to steal the 2020 election with fraud, coercion, lying, and incitement show that Trump is above the law.
The bogus cases had no place in American law.
What you're saying is absurd and just not true
I spoke of the two cases dealing with Trump while PotUS. You know, those where he violated his oath of office while attempting to thwart the CotUS and disenfranchise the electorate.
The killing of the important cases dealing with Trump's attempt (while PotUS) to steal the 2020 election with fraud, coercion, lying, and incitement show that Trump is above the law.
A brilliantly persuasive argument.
Nothing like a 'nuh-uh' argument delivered with passion.
Are you not aware of the fact that there will be no trial on the Jack Smith indictments? That Trump will NOT be held accountable? Surely you know this so where do you get the notion that Trump skirting accountability is NOT Trump being above the law?
Never should have gotten this far.
The law is the one who made the decision. So, therefore, it stands to reason that the law has spoken. They had jack shit and they know it. Otherwise, they are charged with upholding the law and realized the pure bias and silliness with which they "charges" and "information" was based on Feeeeelings.
Misdefelon not felon. A creation of lawfare liberals with a chronic case of Trump butthurt.
You deny that Trump tried to steal the 2020 election???
Not much of an argument against Trump being above the law. If you are going to argue that jurisprudence always gets it right then I would expect you to stop complaining about Trump's felony conviction.
You are ignoring the facts. Just pathetic to see this continuous blind support for Trump in complete denial of reality.
Like Nero
The important thing seems to be that the Smelt have survived.
More right wing lies about budget cutting for the LAFD, as usual flapping lips and hot air makes the ‘’hot air express’’ AKA Republican Party.
ttps://www.ocregister.com/2025/01/09/factcheck-was-the-lafd-budget-cut-no-it-actually-increased-heres-how/
"Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass faced scorching criticism Wednesday as it was revealed she cut the city’s fire department budget by $17.6 million ahead of this week’s devastating fires — as she prioritized funds for its massive homeless population that largely went unspent, according to a report.
The cut was the second-largest in Bass’ 2024-25 fiscal budget, city figures show — and it wasn’t even the gutting she wanted.
If she’d had it her way, the LAFD budget would have been slashed by $23 million.
LA budgeted $837 million for the Bravest in fiscal year 2023-2024 — which was shockingly 65% of the $1.3 billion slated for the homeless, according to Fox News .
A city comptroller study found that nearly half of that funding went unused, according to the outlet."
LA Mayor Karen Bass cut fire department funding by $17.6M
There it is: THE TRUTH.
Not the truth at all, Vic. You should actuallly read the link it’s from the Orange County Register a very rightwing paper, there are also articles in LA times and many other publications
Keep swinging.
You tried to destroy the truth with a leftist fact checker.
Sorry, you won't get a passing grade.
Hilarious that some will criticize the source you use to prove a point, saying the source is lying, but then try and deflect you to sources that more fit their narrative, many of which could be lying.
They take on any amount of proof with next to nothing as a defense.
Here he cites an opinion piece in the Orange County register. Facts are facts. The LA mayor was forced to cut the Fire Department budget by her own words. Her priorities involved illegal migrants. The Fire Department budget was cut. Equipment was given to Ukraine. There is no getting away from it.
As much as I feel sorry for everyone in California right now, another fact is that Karen Bass was their mayor, Gavin Newsom was their governor, Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla are their senators, Kamala Harris is their vice president, and Joe Biden is their president. That is the bottom line.
‘now, another fact is that Karen Bass was their mayor, Gavin Newsom was their governor, Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla are their senators, Kamala Harris is their vice president, and Joe Biden is their president. That is the bottom line.’
Every one of them a loser in their own right.
Some of this thread was removed to prevent it from becoming worse and being personally insulting
Biden tells reporters to "fire away" at a news conference about the California wildfires. Best description of why he would be so callous.
This is the President of the United States, Thanks assholes.
Obviously In Name Only
If Fetterman had become say, AOC or Bernie Sanders friendly , instead of Trump friendly y'all would still be talking about how brain damaged he is.
Speaking of brain damaged, how about that nap Biden took yesterday during the Carter funeral.
Biden likes to close his eyes and reflect , and perhaps pray, during such commemorations. This "allegation" that he is sleeping during such occasions has been disproven more than once. But you cant help yourselves.
But the bigger question is why are you still campaigning against Biden?
LMAO!
This "allegation" that he is sleeping during such occasions has been disproven more than once. But you cant help yourselves.
Yup, another "cheap fake Biden video."
But the bigger question is why are you still campaigning against Biden?
Let our friend speak for himself. I'm always against the tool who nearly destroyed this country.
Bidens sleeping must have been contagious.
Joe Biden is the current president. For him to consistently fall asleep during events show he is not, nor has he ever been, fit for the job he now holds.
Thank God Jan 20 is only a few days away.
That included his Marxist VP as well.
I guess there really wasn't much love for Carter after all.
Great point!
As long as Biden carried out the radical left's agenda, nobody cared how far gone he was.
A discerning person would have noticed that George and Laura Bush , one row behind Biden, were also "sleeping'. Right wingers are not often discerning though.
God only knows why you think such lame posts are effective. All you are proving is that multiple people closed their eyes in reflection or prayer. You need to go back to debating school.
A discerning person would have taken note of what bugsy correctly pointed out; THEY AREN"T PRESIDENT. BIDEN IS!
Not for this group, I don't!
LOL.
What does that have to with closing your eyes and praying? Presidents are not allowed to do that?
You bet.
Tonight, I'll close my eyes in prayer for about 8 hours
Biden style
Fetterman has recovered from his stroke, you don't get better from dementia John, which is what Biden suffers from. and if he had become more AOC or Bernie friendly he would just be your typical liberal asshole, nothing really special about him. He is becoming the lefts Liz Cheney.
Here is Gov Newsom lying about talking to the president on his cellphone:
Obviously., we’ve reached the point where the obvious disaster in Los Angeles must be spun by democrats as a triumph and any criticism of the horrid planning. leadership preparedness etc ,is fake news, no matter what the reality we can all see is.
It’s a version of “Biden is as sharp as ever, those unedited videos are fakes! “ reality denying playbook democrats rely on.
"Newsom and President Joe Biden announced last month new rules to carry water to California farmers, as well as Los Angeles area residents, as a modification to the 2019 Trump-era regulation. Environmental advocates had pushed for the new rule in order to protect fish, including smelt ."
Trump Blames California Wildfires on Democrat Gavin Newsom: 'He Wanted to Protect Essentially Worthless Fish'
As only Trump could describe it: "A worthless fish."
LA County has no shortage of water. Trump is a serial liar.
The Fire Department ran out of water:
Later, local news outlet The Los Angeles Scanner wrote on social media platform X (formerly Twitter ) that there was "pretty much no water in the Palisades right now."
Additionally, independent Californian journalist Anthony Cabassa reported: "Multiple sources confirming what was reported, there is NO WATER or resources to fight the fires. What happened? This is a complete failure despite warnings to @MayorOfLA. Karen Bass that these winds would potentially bring unprecedented fires into LA County today - Friday.
Is Los Angeles Out of Water to Fight Wildfires? What We Know
Go to my seed on the CNN fact check of this and you will have your answer. They didnt "run out " of water. Having water and getting on the fires are two separate issues.
LMAO!
Here's what really caused L.A. fire hydrants to run out of water
As unprecedented wildfires raged through Los Angeles, some firefighters suddenly lost access to water. City officials called one shortage a “worst-case scenario”—one they expect to see again in the future.
As multiple blazes ignited across Los Angeles, California on Tuesday, attention quickly shifted to another element: water.
Within seven hours of the Palisades Fire igniting on the west side of the city, Janisse Quiñones, CEO of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said one of three million-gallon tankers available to fill the neighborhood’s hydrants had been bled dry. The next was finished later that evening; the final one reached empty in the early hours of Wednesday.
By the time the smoke-shrouded sun rose, stories of tapped and broken hydrants stationed outside of burning homes were swirling across social media, eliciting a wide range of theories about what went wrong.
But experts say this failure isn’t easily pinned on one issue or failure—instead, it’s the foreseeable result of a system that was never ready for the sort of climate change-fueled fires we now face in urban areas.
A challenge of access, not supply
Over the past decade, California has experienced historic drought conditions, which have resulted in water-restricting policies . And while the past two rainy winters have offered some reprieve in Southern California, 2025 has been off to a record-dry start. Climate scientist Daniel Swain referred to this swing between extreme rain and drought as “hydroclimate whiplash,” which his research found is exacerbated by global warming.
While this boom-bust precipitation cycle creates particularly dangerous conditions for fires, it has allowed for California to see its previously shrinking water reserves fill in recent months. So while drought has been a persistent problem in Southern California, it wasn't behind the cause of the city's water shortages. It also can’t be chalked up to restrictions protecting the endangered Delta smelt, a tiny fish that has proved to be a perennially politically popular scapegoat for water issues. The fish’s protected status limits water usage in its Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta habitat, which some have argued should be freed up for human consumption.
Quiñones instead explained it as an issue of access.
During that roughly 15-hour window from the Palisades Fire sparking and the available water tanks running dry, Quiñones said the demand for water was four times the norm, causing water pressure to lower. This made it difficult to achieve the force needed to get water into the higher-elevation tanks, particularly at the rate necessary to address a fire moving five football fields a minute, boosted by the gusty Santa Ana winds.
"We pushed the system to the extreme," Quiñones said during a Wednesday news conference . “We're fighting a wildfire with an urban water system. And that is really challenging.”
Why urban areas are a unique water challenge
Faith Kearns, a wildfire and water expert at Arizona State University, said understanding the impacts of wildfires on water systems is a relatively new area of study, particularly when it comes to urban areas like Los Angeles. Kearns co-authored a 2021 brief on this intersection, focusing on California and inspired by incidents like the 2017 Tubbs Fire, which burned into the city of Santa Rosa.
“Everybody has known that there was the potential for something like this to happen because we've seen it on a smaller scale,” Kearns said.
While the demand issues Quiñones cited is one aspect of the failure, Kearns believes a number of issues contributed to the overall lack of water where and when it was needed.
The lack of fire hydrants would not have been quite as dire if the wind was not strong enough to prohibit helicopters from flying overhead and dropping waters—a challenge that also plagued firefighters responding to the Lahaina, Maui wildfire in 2023. Fires can also cause power cuts or damage water pipes and other infrastructure, creating additional issues all their own.
The Palisades Fire has proved particularly challenging for firefighters, already recognized as the most destructive fire in Los Angeles County even as it continues to burn and the true toll is still unknown. Still, Kearns believes it speaks to a larger need to plan for these sort of unprecedented situations during which multiple lines of preparation might fail.
“It was like a worst-case scenario, but I think we should be planning for those worst case scenarios,” she said. “You can't predict everything, but also, I do think this is where we're headed.”
Here's what really caused L.A. fire hydrants to run out of waterThe funny thing is the gullibility of the right.
This article is an opinion piece. What she is missing is right here:
And while the past two rainy winters have offered some reprieve in Southern California, 2025 has been off to a record-dry start.
Those two rainy winters could have provided California with the necessary water, but California did not build reservoirs to store it. If there is one place in this country that needs such reservoirs it is California.
Furthermore:
California has been diverting a significant amount of rainwater into the ocean , which has caused frustration for farmers in the drought-stricken Central Valley 1 2 4 . Environmental rules designed to protect imperiled fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta have ignited anger among bipartisan lawmakers, who say too much of California’s stormwater is being washed out to sea instead of being pumped to reservoirs and aqueducts
Did California flush rainwater into the ocean? - Geographic FAQ Hub: Answers to Your Global Questions
End of story.
The funny thing is that the left keeps lying.
right...................
The actual "end of story" is that LA County was not short of water. The issue was getting the water on to the fires.
Carry on with your misrepresentations if you must though.
Oh, no one could have foreseen the water needed to get to the fires and planned for it in advance. So I guess all is good. S/
It is called FACT.
The water from the northern California watershed and the Sacramento River should have gone into a reservoir. LA did not have sufficient amounts of water. Newsom recently bragged about blowing up four dams which provided 80,000 homes with clean hydroelectric power as well as irrigation for farmers. California no longer cleans up its forests. It has no forest industry.
At the time of the fire the mayor of the third largest city was in Africa. She had been warned that the Santa Ana winds were at 100 mph and there was a danger of fire and she went off to Africa after cutting the Fire Department budget.
Those are FACTS John.
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Former Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee formally announces campaign for Oakland mayor.
Okay it is up to the people of LA. Want more of the same?
Oakland is nothing more of a mirror of the shithole LA, including and because of their leftist politicians.
She will do nothing more than screw up a blue city more than it already is.
California leftists seem to love their loser politicians.
I couldn't agree more.
How much can those people take?
Watching the fires.
Thinking about s'mores
Senate Democrats are forcing a delay in Tulsi Gabbard's confirmation hearing next week, claiming she hasn't provided required vetting materials — while Republicans accuse them of playing games, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: It's the first taste of what's expected to be a drama-filled few weeks as the Senate takes up some of President-elect Trump's most controversial Cabinet picks.
The other side: Gabbard completed the background check process last week, according to a source working with the nominee. Her active security clearance also means the process will be expedited.
Between the lines: Either way, without the materials or sign off from Democrats, the hearing for one of Trump's most vital national security officials could be pushed to late next week — if not the week following.
Scoop: Senate Dems delay Tulsi Gabbard nomination
Is anyone surprised by the shit they pull?
Fire Chief
Kristin M. Crowley is the 19th Fire Chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD). With her wife and children by her side, Chief Crowley took the oath of office on March 25, 2022 – becoming the first female and LGBTQ Fire Chief in the LAFD.
Chief Crowley leads a diverse department – about 3,400 sworn and more than 350 civilians – in protecting four million people in Los Angeles (LA) – the Nation’s second-largest City. From the ocean to the mountains, the Valley to the Port of LA, the LAFD responds to over 1,300 emergency calls a day.
As a 22-year veteran of the LAFD, Chief Crowley has proven her credibility and character by promoting through the ranks. She served as a Firefighter, Paramedic, Engineer, Fire Inspector, Captain I, Captain II, Battalion Chief, Assistant Chief, Deputy Chief, Chief Deputy, and Fire Chief.
She has gained valuable experience in both field assignments on emergency apparatus and administrative duty in multiple areas within the Department. Before her appointment, she served as a Chief Officer for nine years as the Commander of Battalion 13 (South Los Angeles), Battalion 6 (San Pedro), the Professional Standards Division, Fire Prevention and Public Safety Bureau, and Administrative Operations.
Chief Crowley has been instrumental in the LAFD’s youth development program. She has served as the program director on two youth fire academies in the harbor and valley areas in the City. This program has trained over 1,000 LAUSD students from local high schools on the fundamentals of becoming a firefighter focusing on graduating from high school and having good citizenship.
She served as an executive board member for the Chief Officers’ Association and The Women in the Fire Service. Chief Crowley chairs the Fire Code Committee for Los Angeles and serves at the Los Angeles Fire Department Leadership Academy as a facilitator and instructor.
Creating, supporting, and promoting a culture that values diversity, inclusion, and equity while striving to meet and exceed the expectations of the communities are Chief Crowley’s priorities, and she is grateful for the opportunity to serve the City of Los Angeles.
Job well done
The Deputy Mayor whose portfolio includes supervising the fire department is on leave for making bomb threats. With a track record of identifying talent like that, how could anyone suggest that the fire chief isn't the right person for the job?
I heard a reporter ask why he would go see Trump. His response was he wanted to be pope of Greenland. You have to admire his ability to call a reporter and his question ignorant without using the word ignorant.