Friday Funnies

A Sobering Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has been a grand tradition in our house, as I know it is across our great land.  This uniquely American experience allows us to sit back and take stock.  It gives us a chance to gather and cherish our loved ones.  Every Thanksgiving we have experienced has been great.  For some we have been separated during our Navy career days, but for the most part we have grabbed Thanksgiving by the throat and wrung every last happy experience out of it we could.

This year was no different.  We spent the morning prepping for dinner.  Our son and his family from the East coast called and we had a great conversation with them.  We always miss them terribly at the holidays but the reality that living across the country force us to not see each other as much as we would like.  We've come to accept it and are grateful that they can be together with our daughter-in-law's family at this time of year.  When our daughter and her family arrived we basked in the controlled chaos that is present whenever teenagers descend.  We had invited newly arrived neighbors and had a delightful time getting to know them.  The company, the food, the conversations, the love and respect were all sublime.  I wouldn't change a thing about the day.  Almost perfect!  Everyone reluctantly bid goodbye as the evening waned and headed home.  It really couldn't have been a better day.  

And then the news came.  We had been in contact with the wife of my college roommate over the past few days as he faced some health challenges.  We heard this evening that he died this morning.  He was a great guy with a loving family and will be sorely missed.  Not only was he a good friend in my formative years but his wife was a friend of my wife's since Junior High.  And they introduced us so many years ago.  But it's not like we were close.  It's not like we had even seen each very much in the past several years.  We were close but our lives had diverged in a way.  But we had history.  History that is unique.  Whenever someone dies with a shared history with you I think a little piece of you dies with him.  It's a weird feeling.  There are so many shared experiences and great times that feel like they are gone forever.  And when you get to a certain age, mortality slaps you in the face more often than you'd like.  You start to see horizons that weren't there before.  You start to look lovingly at so many wonderful and yet normal things and people that make up life around you.  Not to be fatalistic, but you start to see the end.  But here's the good news.  Those feelings are sporadic.  They come to you at times like tonight when you are reminded of your mortality.  Tomorrow is another day.  Tomorrow will be beautiful.  And tomorrow will be cherished like never before! 

A Sordid Mess

Eddie Gallagher’s case has been screwed up from the beginning.  He's the Navy SEAL who was tried for "war crimes" in Afghanistan a while back and eventually found not guilty of most charges.  Did he do some nasty things on the far side of the world and in a situation that none of us can imagine or want to experience?  Probably.  But whatever happened, his failures were made in a combat situation, under unbelievable stress and in the blink of an eye.  But from everything I’ve read and heard, he was targeted and the Navy JAG was determined to make an example of him.  But the JAG officers screwed this up big time.  They put a decorated Navy SEAL in confinement pending trial.  They illegally spied on many aspects of his defense.  I've never heard what happened to the lawyers responsible but in the civilian world they certainly would have been disbarred.  When the President heard about the confinement and directed him to be released pending trial, they put him in a housing situation in which access to his lawyers was extremely restricted.  It was plainly vindictive.  Now don’t get me wrong.  He was no angel and he didn't do himself any favors with his shipmates and some of us veterans by speaking out as loudly and aggressively as he did on social media and to sympathetic news organizations.  He turned into someone who most people just wanted to go away.  But I don’t understand singling him out and probably never will.  Maybe there is something else, but the charges against him were out there for all to see.  And in the end the Navy couldn’t make the case.  In fact, an immunized witness confessed to the worst crime.  What lawyer in the world would let that happen.  It was a mess and one the Navy should have closed the book on and walked away.

So they get him on the posing with a corpse charge (a bogus charge that he might wind up with a letter of reprimand in most cases) and throw the book at him.  Trump clearly had had enough and pardoned him.  So then they decide to take him to a SEAL review board when he is days away from retirement and all this was blessed by the Navy Rear Admiral in charge of the SEALS.  I get that he might have been thinking "good order and discipline" but again, this reeks of vindictiveness.  This isn’t like a FNAEB for a person with wings.  Those things don’t happen when someone has one foot out of the door.  They are designed to take someone who is not performing as an aviator and allow him or her to go to another field where perhaps they are more suited.   To me this was clearly a last, disparate attempt to hurt him.  Once again the President stepped in and said enough.

And in another idiotic chapter in this story, the legal team charged with the prosecution put themselves in for a bunch of awards (medals) when the case was over.  Trump being Trump heard about this incredibly brazen act and cancelled them.  So that didn't exactly endear him to the establishment.

I’m solidly in Trump and SECDEF Esper’s corner on this.  As SECNAV, Spencer can’t go directly to the White House, I don’t care who he told.  So Esper doesn’t have email or text capability while on travel?  Please.  I also think the SEAL Admiral should be fired.  He clearly wasn’t listening.  Simply, Trump is the CINC.  Full stop.  He has the power of pardon and the military must carry out his orders faithfully.  From what I’ve read and heard, the Admiral was obstructive. I'm not a Trump supporter to a fault or no matter what and he sometimes gets things wrong or acts like a jackass, but in this case I think he did the right thing.

And now we start to see articles from so called experts in the media about the rift between Trump and  the military, that the morale in the building is low, that senior military officials are depressed and frustrated.  Here’s the reality.  You can pick any period of time in our history and find similar comments.  In talking to friends in the know and consuming what is probably too much info about today's force, I think that the military is generally happy that they have a CINC that has fought for higher defense budgets, is not sending them willy-nilly around the globe to police the world, appreciates their service at every opportunity, and doesn’t mind cutting through the BS using the power of his position.

Motivation Monday

Don’t be upset by the results you didn’t do.

You want it, you build it!

Impeachment...the Shiff Show Ends

The House Intelligence Committee completed it's so-called impeachment inquiry this week after two weeks of testimony.  The witnesses seemed to be mostly deep state actors who were largely critical of President Trump.  They were for the most part career diplomats or staffers who by their words and body language have a clear disdain and disapproval of Trump.  There was the odd political appointee but even though appointed by Trump, didn't seem all that loyal to him.  I'm not saying they should be loyal to a fault, but their language again didn't engender confidence in his decisions.  But there was one thing they all had in common.  Not one of them could point to any laws that were broken.  And all of them agreed that he was eager to go after corruption in Ukraine.

I said at the outset of these hearings, that his actions could be interpreted two ways.  You can read it here.  I now think there is a third.  I think that there is a lot of evidence (despite what the cool and confident Ambassador Fiona Hill said) that corruption has been rampant in the Ukraine and some of it lent itself to disruption of the U.S. elections in 2016.  One of the things Trump won on was a determination to root out corruption.  When the new Ukrainian President was elected on the same platform, at some point Trump decided to see if he could help.  I think the Biden thing was an aside.  That Joe and Hunter were up to their eyeballs in corruption in Ukraine is undeniable.  The compliant media will deny it, but any thinking person can read just a few accounts and see what was going on.  It's probably so complicated and convoluted that we'll never find out though.

I'm not surprised that the Dems are outraged and making all kinds of statements about Trump's unlawful behavior and that he deserves to be impeached and removed.  That is their agenda.  It doesn't matter what the evidence says.  I am a bit surprised that the Republicans have stood together.  I thought they'd do their typical thing and a few of them would cave.  But that doesn't appear to be the case.  But we'll see.  I'm also not surprised that the compliant media is solidly in the impeachment camp.  They hate him and will do anything to get rid of him.

One group continues to surprise me though.  The traditional Republicans and others who have become never-Trumpers continue to do damage to Trump.  They just can't or won't understand his convention shattering methods.  They seem to mired in another era (Reagan?) and yearn for a genteel leader who will amicably roll over and capitulate on his principles as long as he doesn't break the norms for conventional behavior accepted inside the beltway.  A good example is one of my favorite writers, Peggy Noonan.  She wrote a column this week called "Trump's Defenders Have No Defense".  You can read it here.  In any argument about this whole issue, you can make arguments for both sides that have validity.  But I think Peggy lets his overall behavior overshadow the incident in question.  It's a frustrating for those of us who see him for what he is and can stomach the rudeness, the arrogance, the crassness and all of his other foibles if he will continue to wage war against the deep state.

Here's another thing that I think was pretty interesting.  Many of the witnesses seemed to intimate that the biggest crime the President committed was not not listening to his advisers and following long-standing conventional policy.  As if the President of the United States doesn't have the right to set his own policy.  It was a good example of the power and resistance that has come to define some of these bureaucrats.

So now it will go to the Judiciary committee and they are likely to draft articles of impeachment.  It will be another one-sided show and then will move on to the Senate.  If you think the House hearings have been a lot of drama, wait til it gets to the Senate.  Because that is when both sides can call witnesses and tell their side of the story.  It will be ugly, acrimonious, and unsuccessful.  The Republicans have the majority, simple as that.  And even though it's a thin majority, you need 67 votes to convict.  I can't remotely imagine that many Republican Senators deserting the President.  At least I can't today based on what's been presented.  If there is some bombshell that is unanticipated, then that's a different story.

But for me here's the bottom line.  I can't believe and really am saddened to believe that these Congressmen, Congresswomen, and Senators are willing to let an impeachment of the President move forward, either out of Congress or to a vote by Senators that is so one-sided, partisan, and doesn't remotely have ironclad proof.  This is terrible for the country and makes them look like hacks.  Shame on them.

Friday Funnies

Brothers From Another Mother?

And there's this.  He asked Congressman Nunes (his senior) to address him as Lieutenant Colonel Vindman.  I would bet my house that he'll never be referred to as Colonel Vindman.  

Midway

Have you seen Midway yet?  It's been in theaters about a week and a half and is doing well.  We saw it about a week ago and thought it was terrific.  That is the reaction that I've heard from almost everyone who has seen it.  Of course, there are nits to pick and I thought some of the acting wasn't the greatest, but that is true of any movie.

In case you aren't attuned to history, Midway is the story of the six months between the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941 and the culminating battle of Midway June 3-5, 1942.  Most Naval historians rank Midway as the most consequential battle in U.S. Navy history and a crucial event that turned the tide of war.

After Pearl Harbor, the U.S. was clearly on it's heels.  All the Pacific Fleet battleships had been trapped and sunk or severely damaged on that fateful Sunday.  Over 3000 people were killed.  The country was reeling.   And it was up to the U.S. Navy to provide a response.  We were immediately at war and since the theater of this battle was the Pacific, the Navy was clearly in the lead.  The problem was that they were down to 3 aircraft carriers, Hornet, Yorktown, and Enterprise.  Their pilots and crews were a long way from battle tested.  And yet they prevailed.  The movie documents the big events during that fateful 6 months.  It went from the fateful attack on Dec 7 to the Battle of Coral Sea to Col Jimmy Doolittle's launch in bombers from the deck of the Hornet on a one way mission to bomb the Japanese homeland (which by the way in my estimation is the biggest act of ingenuity coupled with bravery I've ever seen) and culminated in the Battle of Midway.  I won't ruin the story for you but suffice to say the outcome wasn't predetermined, the U.S. was blessed with a fair amount of luck, and the bravery of the pilots and crew was unmatched.

After Midway, the war could have been over.  The Japanese were severely damaged.  But their culture wouldn't permit acquiescence.  So we slogged across the Pacific island by island until the end in 1945.  Thank God we developed the the atomic bomb that would end the war in a few swift strokes.  Otherwise, millions more would have been killed.

Motivation Monday

The "He Said, She Said" Impeachment

If you've been paying attention at all to the impeachment follies, you probably have an opinion.

If you think it's been proven that President Trump has committed bribery to get dirt on his political opponent, Joe Biden, that he has broken the law in several different ways, and that he has obstructed justice by refusing to cooperate with what he calls a sham, then this probably isn't the place for you.  You have hated Trump since day one, the hatred has built to a crescendo and you feel that no punishment is adequate to hold him accountable for irretrievably damaging the country.  So move on to some echo chamber that can confirm your views.  It would make you happier and your blood pressure probably would remain under control.

My view is different.  I think I've expressed it pretty well since this whole idiotic charade started over the past few weeks.  You can go back and refresh if you'd like.

If you've been paying attention at all you're aware of the testimony by former Ambassador Yovanovitch in the circus called an impeachment inquiry yesterday.  It was quite the dramatic theater.  I won't provide detail for every little thing she said but let me give you a layman's interpretation.  She is a 30 year career Foreign Service officer.  She has been detailed all over the world but in looking at her bio, it appears to me that her expertise is in Eastern Europe.  She is smart, well educated, experienced, a patriot and a dedicated civil servant.  She had achieved what is the epitome for a foreign service officer, namely an Ambassadorship.  No matter what happens for the rest of her life, her title is Ambassador and she will receive appropriate respect.  But Ukraine is no bed of roses.  Corruption is endemic.  The Russians have invaded and are barking at the doors.  And their names are incredibly difficult to pronounce.  I'm sure she did some things right and was challenged in many areas.  She is used to working within the construct of diplomatic norms of a U.S. President's administration.  She feels comfortable there.  This means she had rules and regulations that she knew really well and could work within those boundaries with no problem.  I don't know this 100% but I bet she was a huge fan of Obama and solidly in Hillary's camp.  That is just logical.  I'm positive (but have no evidence) that she went to more than one cocktail party or diplomatic soiree and rolled her eyes when Trump was mentioned.  Then the unthinkable happens.  Trump wins.  And everything she knows, everything she has done for 30 years, every norm that she has worked to achieve is turned upside down.  Overnight she has to work within a construct of "America first", and that is a huge diplomatic unknown.  I didn't watch the whole thing, but what I did watch was painful.  She was clearly befuddled and baffled by the new President.  As I've commented in many, many other posts on this blog, he is a rough and tumble New York businessman and can be an insufferable jerk.  I would never want to work for him!  That he fired her was probably inevitable.  She not only was too much of what he views as a swamp creature, but in her answers she was not aggressive at all in defending both him and America.  I thought that the most interesting comment from her was a lament that they didn't have to be so mean in firing her.  But that's who they are.  If you're going to play, you gotta be tough.  I'm sure she's tough in her own way, but not in the way that was needed.

The other hugely important thing that she said is that she can identify no law that he broke and no impeachable offense that he made.  There is simply nothing there.  So that's sorta it.

Now others will testify next week but if there's not more than they've paraded so far, the Dems don't have close to enough.  It all seems to be a "he said, she said" drama with nothing more than operating outside conventional, generally accepted swamp dweller norms.  The thing I can't wrap my arms around is these reports of the conversation between Ambassador Sondland and Trump in which there are indications that Trump cared more about investigations than Ukraine.  So what?  It's a conversation.  Of course he cares about investigations.  He feels his charter in this area is to root out corruption.  And he feels that the Biden's are at the center of it.  But we'll see where it goes.  For me it's a big nothing burger.

So it should be a fun week.  As I've said previously, it's all good theater.  And when it gets to the Senate, it'll get even juicier.  People lament that nothing is getting done, but my view is that while they are tied up with this bullshit, at least they aren't making more laws to screw us over.

Friday Funnies...the Impeachment Version

Impeachment...the First Witnesses

Yikes!  As the old song goes..."Is that all there is"?  So there were two "star" witnesses today.  I think it would be fundamental to start off any big event, and indeed any event, with the best you have to offer.  I didn't see that today.  I had some time on my hands today so I watched a lot of the initial hearings and I've got to say it was pretty much as I had expected except that the Dems didn't remotely make their case, based on these two witnesses.

Don't get me wrong.  These two guys, Taylor and Kent, are knowledgeable civil servants who are dedicated to the country and have a great deal of expertise.  They made a big deal out of the fact that they were just giving their observations and opinions.  And that is the problem.  The observations were second, third and fourth hand and the opinions were just that...opinions.  This isn't a court of law but if it were they wouldn't have gotten very far.  No lawyer in the world would allow this kind of hearsay testimony.

The only big or new thing that happened (according to the media) was that Taylor relayed that a member of his staff had overheard a phone call in which another diplomat who has access to Trump said that Trump cares more about the Biden's than Ukraine.  Huh?  More hearsay.  And even if he heard it directly so what? It's another opinion.

I hate to say this but these two guys struck me as the epitome of State Dept people.  Very sure of themselves, very superior, convinced they are the smartest people in the room.  In short...insufferable.  This was confirmed to me when Taylor was being pressed by Republicans on what law was broken that he had direct knowledge of.  He clearly was frustrated and said that it disrupted our diplomatic and policy objectives with the Ukraine.  But here's the deal.  He doesn't get to set the diplomatic and policy objectives.  That's in the purview of the President.  And he serves at the pleasure of the President.  Full stop.

The other thing that these guys admitted was that they never talked to Trump, Mulvaney, Pompeo, or anyone else in the chain of command about their concerns.  Why is that?  Could it be that they really didn't want to get resolution of their concerns but instead were waiting until they could get their moment in the sun to accuse the President of impeachable offenses?  Don't know but it's pretty highly suspicious.

I also think the Dems had a big whiff.  They have clearly stacked the deck by not allowing Republicans to call witnesses, by refusing to allow the so-called whistleblower to testify, and by implementing rules that stifle the Republicans.  It really seems like just a show.

If today is any indicator, two things are apparent.  First is that the Dems are going to vote for impeachment.  Second is that the Republicans are unified against it.  So that will result in nothing happening when it gets to the Senate.  My big hope is that at some point cooler heads in both parties will realize that a partisan impeachment is just about the worst thing that could happen to the country.

The big caveat that I would offer is that this is the epitome of Miles Law..."where you stand depends on where you sit".  Everyone sees this through the prism of their opinions.  Mine is that this is pretty much bullshit.

Motivation Monday

Impeachment...the Playground Version

Are you confused yet?  So far we’ve got some sort of whistleblower report from an avowed never-Trumper who didn’t hear anything firsthand, have heard snippets of testimony from some career diplomats and functionaries who heard of the call secondhand, have had endless analysis from the media telling us of the certainty of crimes, and learned of unfair rules implemented by the majority when they finally get down to business, among many other things.  It’s exhausting.  I was thinking how to break it down to simple terms and I think this is pretty much analogous to what we’re seeing coming out of Washington, DC

Sally told me that she doesn't like Bobby anymore because he talked to Debbie on the playground.  But I heard that Annie likes Bobby but she also likes Jimmy who is the Captain of the football team.  Except Jimmy is going steady with Carol who is the head cheerleader and everyone knows she a bitch and sooner or later she will break Jimmy's heart.

Impeachment...the Whistleblower Follies

It's all coming out isn't it?  I think maybe the Dems have watched a bunch of spy movies or read really clever and convoluted mystery books and think that's real life.  Maybe they think they can just conjure something up and throw it out there and enough people will believe it that the bullshit doesn't matter.  Same with all the so-called witnesses.  They troupe in to offer their opinion without one tiny smidgen of first-hand knowledge and the Dems and their sycophant media fall all over themselves proclaiming the certainty that heinous crimes have been committed that demand removal of the President from office.  If it wasn't so stupid and obvious and amateurish, it'd be hilarious.

So the whistleblower's identity is now known.  He's a 30ish Yale grad who is one of those dime-a-dozen professional staffers who will bounce around Foggy Bottom, Langley, the White House, maybe the Pentagon, perhaps Capital Hill and maybe even land a gig on K Street to make some money before returning to academia to poison the minds of your kids while you pay enormous amounts of money for the degree.  I've spent enough time in Washington, DC to spot them a mile away.  This guy is a big time Dem, he is a never-Trumper, is a hold-over from the Obama NSC, originally was from the State Dept which makes him superior to any other human being, has worked with Biden, Brennan, Clapper and some other slime buckets, and didn't actually witness, hear, have first hand knowledge of anything that Trump said.  And he was fired from the NSC because he was a leaker.  But he filed a whistleblower report.  YGTBFSM!  Any other human being would be embarrassed to be so stupid, but he's a swamp creature, so he's superior.  And what were the Dems thinking?  That he wouldn't be found out?  I don't even think they tried very hard.  I don't even think they thought about it.  Because they are so superior.

And then they decide to hold secret hearings and parade of a bunch of never-Trumper witnesses from State and NSC who also didn't have first hand knowledge of anything.  And their defense is that they are long time employees who are so superior or military officers who can't be challenged.  Please.  These folks had their storyline down and regurgitated it.  And it's already falling apart.  And they haven't even faced any tough questioning.  At least I don't think they have but since the hearings are secret, who knows.  And the Dems thought this would work.  I mean, they gotta start thinking a little better.

So then they set the rules for the impeachment.  I get that the majority makes the rules and in any normal circumstance likes to fuck the minority as badly as they can with no mercy.  But this is an impeachment.  It's like they aren't even aware of what they are doing.  If whatever they do isn't bipartisan they are going to get their lunch handed to them.  They don't even seem aware that a U.S. President has never been removed from office through impeachment.  If a monumental racist prick like Andrew Johnson couldn't be removed, how do they expect Trump to be removed for what he is accused of.  Let me be clear in my opinion.  The quid quo pro argument is bullshit.  It's a talking point.  Diplomacy is the definition of quid pro quo's.  You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.  And as Trump likes to say, read the transcript.  He was looking for help in finding and rooting out corruption in the 2016 election.  And the Biden's were hip deep in it.  The whole withholding of money is also bullshit.  They didn't even know.  The Dems act like this is something that they can control and the other side is going to roll over and ask for more.  But here's the deal.  Trump and his team have some really smart lawyers.  It's not gonna be pretty.

And they issue subpoenas like candy and expect that the executive branch is going to meekly send people up to testify.  And Trump basically tells them to shove their subpoenas up their ass.  I'm not a lawyer, but this could get tied up in courts for months and months and months.  But the Dems don't want that so they just roll over.  I think their tactic is to lump all the refusals together and charge Trump with obstruction.  Good luck with that.  Obstruction of a witch hunt isn't such a bad thing.  And the Dems will never let it get to a court because of how long it will take.  So they are screwed.

The Dems are screwing up big time.  They have no viable Presidential candidates, they are pursuing impeachment of a President based on hearsay and innuendo, their witnesses are easily discredited, they are opening the door for Trump's lawyer to dredge up an incredible amount of dirt, and they will run out of time.  If they are smart, they will decide they overreached and figure out a face saving story on why they are abandoning the impeachment effort.  But as I said, I think they are a long ways from smart!

TULSI

I can't help it.  I really like Tulsi Gabbard.  I don't like some of her policies but I think she would be someone who would listen and take reasonable actions.  And she is a total badass!  When Hillary went after her she didn't flinch and grovel, she took the mad hag on.  And she did it intelligently, passionately, and devastatingly.  Same with the bitches on The View.  I know, I know...I can get in trouble with that language.  Or at least not be able to run for office.  But that's okay...I'm not remotely planning on that.  Anyway, I like her spunk.  I like her directness.  I like that she will talk to anyone including Fox News.  Now don't get me wrong, I probably couldn't vote for a Dem, but if I could she would be the one!

Friday Funnies

Social Media

I'm on a couple social media sites and for the most part they prove to be fun, informative, and a good communication tool.  Of course, like anything else they can be abused.  And in this day and age of connectivity, a lot of people worry about compromise of your personal info and think that using social media could only exacerbate this problem.  There is some validity to that but we have all become so connected with so much info in the web that I think if someone wants your info, they're gonna get it.  Strong passwords and diligence to things that are suspicious are musts, but we all are vulnerable.

I'm primarily on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn and I guess you say this blog is a form of social media.  I also watch Twitter.  More on that later.  But I came across an article on social media and I was a bit astounded at how many sites there are.  This one article listed over 65.  Yikes.  That's a lot of energy going into what even 10 years ago did not even exist.  Makes you wonder how we existed without it.  Anyway, the top sites are:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Snapchat
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• Reddit
• TikTok

You've probably heard of all these and all of them have some redeeming value.  Like I said, they are generally fun and informative.  If you have kids or grandkids, you definitely want to monitor what they are looking at and how they are engaging.  That is a must do.  There are programs out there that will allow you to monitor your kids activity.  Make sure you're taking advantage of them.  Because if you don't some cretin could be taking advantage of your kids.  Just sayin!

The one that stands out for me as the most dangerous is Twitter.  It is a cesspool.  Now I know that President Trump uses Twitter to get his message out and that's fine.  I still have an account and a couple times a week will browse through tweets to check out what people are saying.  The thing about Twitter is that it can be anonymous and incredibly nasty.  If you decide to engage on Twitter, don't take it too seriously because you never know who's really tweeting.  Every time I browse through Twitter I see the most idiotic and nasty comments.  But as I said, it can be an information source so I keep engaged.

Motivation Monday

California Fires

Every year in September and October the Santa Ana winds sweep through California and devastating fires become the topic of the day.  Homes are lost, large swaths of ground is burned, and lives are lost (although thankfully this year not too many).  It's a tragedy and the stories of loss are beyond sad.  We've known several people who have lost everything in wildfires and it's devastating.

Of course, with any tragedy, there is blame.  While it's true that a large part of the blame lies upon the lack of clearing of brush and timber, that's sort of an easy out.  The other side of the story is that the State and Federal governments have done a great job in creating and staffing a fire response infrastructure that has had considerable success in combating fires.  So it's a bit of a good news, bad news story.

I majored in Forestry in college and worked for the Forest Service fighting fires.  It was a challenging curriculum and certainly the toughest, dirtiest work I ever did.  And I came to have an enormous respect and appreciation of our heroic firefighters.  I also came to have enormous respect for the nature of fire.  It is nothing to be trifled with.  And I have always believed that the answers to the problems of wildfires is not simple.  In fact, it's very complicated.  I've been seeing a lot of comments in the press and over on FB playing the blame game.  While understandable, it's just not productive.  And unfortunately I know a bit about this subject so when I see someone offering an opinion that is just full of sh*t, it makes me cringe.  But a friend has posted the essay below from a guy who is a former Marine and flys for the Forest Service.  He has clearly thought about this and his opinions are formed from experience.  The points he makes are spot on as is his depiction of how complicated the issue is.

Trying to come up with some concise points on this is a challenge, just like the problem we're discussing. I'll give it a shot. I would like to add that, much like when I was in the Corps, I would be happy to have someone hand me a pink slip and say my services are no longer needed in the present career that I have flying for the US Forest Service. There is much value and meaning in what we do in the reaction to fires, but I don't want to give the impression that I'm a fan of fire because of the industry it supports. I have always said that life in fire has a morally challenging aspect to it...like anything we do, you want to work and spend your time properly, but for us to do that means there have to be fires and that isn't always a good thing. 

When decisions were made in the early 1900s to enact a policy of "full suppression" on wild fires, we affected a condition that has occurred historically - naturally and man caused. As the article stated, overgrowth is an issue. I won't dispute that, but it wasn't caused by people who didn't care, which many times these articles seem to lean towards that idea. Looking at just California, you have 33 million acres of forested land to deal with. This makes for an immense task and it isn't one that lends to machinery. There is a balance between logging, building roads, clearing slash, prescribed burning and forest use, scenic value, protection of the environment, etc... 

Prescribed fires are employed every year - mostly during the late fall, winter and early spring - to clear under story, burn slash piles and improve forest health. The area that is burned has to be manageable to keep the fire contained and prevent it from becoming something you don't want. There is science and art to a prescribed fire; appropriate environmental conditions (present and forecast), manpower, equipment, a written plan, impact studies. Resources are generally not on contract, seasonal employees are laid off and others are attempting to take annual leave and have a life outside of fire during these more appropriate periods. Typically the areas burned are not greater than a couple hundred acres at a time. Attempting to use this technique on 33 million acres? Challenging to say the least. At the end of the 2018 fire season, which was far worse than this year's, there were dozens of prescribed burns managed throughout northern California very successfully. Are these difficult to coordinate? Yes. Due to this, at times decisions are made to allow naturally occurring fires - lightning caused - to burn in remote/wilderness/areas that Forest Management Officers know need to burn. Sometimes these decisions are good and others they become incidents like the Rough Fire in 2015. 

Power lines. Yes, recent fires have been caused by power line issues. I wouldn't attribute them to lack of clearing along right-of-ways based on my observation and close focus on wires throughout the state. With some exception, these power line caused fires have been during high wind events. They don't have to be record winds to cause a problem. Is it crazy that companies have to shut down lines to prevent this? Yes, particularly when you consider the risks associated with reenergizing a line. It's much more complicated than just flipping a switch. 

Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI). Not just California but every western state has issues with the WUI. Areas that may have been allowed to burn in the past cannot be addressed that way now because people have decided, for many reasons, to live further out, abutting and within the forests. Clearance of brush and buffers become a problem when one builds up to a boundary where they are not authorized to clear (federal or state land), and/or they refuse to clear because of the scenic value of their location, their desires, etc...Homeowners insurance becomes an issue. Why would a company want to insure a home that is completely surrounded by a canopy of trees? Recent fires - Napa, Sonoma, and others that gained a foothold in large suburban subdivisions - are forcing wild land and structure fire fighters to consider this a new fuel type. Flammable materials used in building lead to extreme heat and explosive conditions in the WUI. Again, wind plays a huge factor in ember cast, flame heights, fire progression. Surprisingly, during this year's Saddle Ridge Fire that we worked on, the large subdivisions were spared. I am interested in finding out why that was - proper structure protection, fire-resistant building materials/techniques, luck? 

Bug kill. Going back to some of the forest density issues, Pine Bark Beetle infestation has decimated many of the western forests, particularly in the Sierra Nevada. 150 million + standing dead trees, orange with needles, have become another new fuel type. Fire in large stands of bug kill is dramatic, to say the least. We've all seen images of Christmas trees afire...imagine thousands of acres of that. How to clear and remove bug killed trees is an almost insurmountable problem in itself.  

Prior to these past few weeks, the 2019 California fire season was practically non-existent. We joked that "forest raking" must have been successful! The areas where the most recent fires have occurred are not typically "forests" that anyone would have cleared in the first place. Lighter fuels, minus wind, are generally easy to catch and don't become extended attack incidents. Also, Southern California has not had a Santa Ana event of any significance for many years. Some relief from the drought conditions made for higher fuel humidities, wetter conditions in the higher elevations, and less of an opportunity for fire to spread. The irony is the wetter winters usually produce large grass crops that lead to greater fire danger when coupled with wind. I cannot say enough about how much the weather, terrain, and environmental conditions affect a fire. 

Arson. I won't speculate on recent incidents, but I have worked on many man-caused intentional fires. Why? I don't want to delve into the psyche of one who would do that, but they achieve results in areas that likely wouldn't have burned without assistance. I suspect these people also know that starting a fire near power lines gives cover to their actions. This is just my opinion. 

I trust this gives you some idea of why this issue of wild land fire isn't a quick fix. Not to be political but threatening to withhold federal $ isn't a good solution. I don't have the answers, as a friend of mine told me yesterday, "I'm just a fixer" once the problem starts, but I do know that many people from all sides of management, the "-ologists," and fire fighters care deeply about the forests and what they do.