OT: So things are getting pretty bad out west...
Firstly, our thoughts are with all of you dealing with this right now. I've been there myself, as our second child was born while we were evacuated from our San Diego home in 2007. It's scary stuff.
Secondly, there doesn't seem to be any hint of rain in the forecast until Tuesday. If 500K are under one of the three evacuation levels now, how high will that number be by the end of the weekend?
Lastly, does anyone really think this won't get worse every year from here on out in the PNW?
September 11th, 2020 at 6:29 PM ^
You people are exhausting. I suppose you probably think Donald Trump's administration is extremely competent, right?
September 12th, 2020 at 2:51 AM ^
I for one am SHOCKED you live in Portland. The Antifa US HQ! Land of the walking zombies meth'd out of their minds. Burning the Elk Statue because Racism!!
This place would be a comedy if it weren't real. But yeah, all of it is Trump's fault. Has nothing to do with tolerating adult babies throwing their tantrums on a daily basis, in some of the nicest parts of the city.
And you can't call bullshit, I basically lived there for months (work project). The place is a f***ing disaster. I saw it day after day. But yeah bro, the sad state is Totally Trump's fault
September 12th, 2020 at 3:08 AM ^
What amazing place do you call home? I've traveled all over the country and have lived in several places in the Midwest in very recent years. Portland is by far the best place I've lived. Sorry you were scared of the big spooky Antifas protesting after 10pm on like two blocks, with life otherwise being completely normal in the city.
Also, at no point in my post did I blame Portland on Trump (though the protests got dramatically larger and more violent when he sent in his thugs). I was merely pointing out the sheer idiocy of an obvious Trumper accusing any government official of being incompetent.
September 12th, 2020 at 2:01 PM ^
Sorry you were scared of the big spooky Antifas protesting after 10pm on like two blocks, with life otherwise being completely normal in the city.
People like you enable the antifa terrorists. There are no terrorists at all where I live, so it’s better than Portland.
September 12th, 2020 at 2:47 PM ^
Terrorists? Man, turn off Fox News and OAN for a second. That shit is rotting your brain. I live one mile from the main protest site and a few blocks from the ICE center, which is where the protests occasionally take place. My life is barely affected by the protests. The city is not burning, people aren't gripped with terror, etc. Life is pretty damn normal if you aren't in one of the isolated spots where the protests take place after 10pm.
September 12th, 2020 at 3:04 PM ^
Call me crazy, but I have no desire to have black clad murderers lighting police stations on fire anywhere near me.
Yes they are terrorist and I’m glad you’re not affected but it doesn’t change the fact that they are violent anarchists.
Any sane DA would have ended this long ago.
September 12th, 2020 at 3:23 PM ^
There has been exactly one person killed by "Antifa" throughout the entire country since the George Floyd murder. Heavily armed right-wing dickheads have been a much greater threat to public safety (like the boogaloo boys murdering cops).
September 12th, 2020 at 2:51 PM ^
People like you enable Trump and all the right wing, white supremacist groups. You enabled that kid in Wisconsin to kill two people.
See, I can play that game too.
September 12th, 2020 at 2:38 PM ^
I’m with you Chunk. Best place I have ever lived hands down. Screw the haters.
September 12th, 2020 at 3:20 AM ^
What part of Portland was a disaster? Where did you live while working in Portland?
September 12th, 2020 at 9:48 AM ^
For... basically... months.
Wow. We bow to your superior knowledge and experience.
I wouldn't go as far as to say that this situation is "all" Trump's fault, but he has certainly fanned the flames at every opportunity. We all know exactly why, though you'll never acknowledge it.
September 11th, 2020 at 6:33 PM ^
I knew you'd be back. That spelling is top notch!
September 11th, 2020 at 6:41 PM ^
Yes you are but you are speaking to a board that leans heavy to the left. If there were any Republican cities on that list, could you imagine where that blame would be placed!?! I see the CNN chat rooms have migrated over to MGoBlog over the last several months.
September 11th, 2020 at 7:00 PM ^
better find a new safe space, snowflake
September 11th, 2020 at 7:02 PM ^
47% of Californian forests are federal land.
For years the GOP, admittedly with help from corporate Democrats, has underfunded the US Forest Service and BLM because they hate functional government. But please, continue to tell us how it's the fault of mayors.
September 12th, 2020 at 2:40 AM ^
that's not the half of it. They take dumps in "designated streets".
I guess that's a step up from San Francisco where they just take dumps on any street/sidewalk.
before you take a shot, p*** off I live in BA, I see it all the time.
September 12th, 2020 at 3:56 AM ^
You live in the Tenderloin, right?
September 11th, 2020 at 6:59 PM ^
We're number one! We're number one!
September 11th, 2020 at 5:41 PM ^
I helped pay for Michigan by fighting fires in the West. On a crew based in Oregon, then another one in Montana, I enjoyed it. We went on a fire anywhere in the West, worked hard—hardest physical work I've ever done—and then had the satisfaction of finishing. Then it was back to the base, and normal 8-hour days, grab a beer and flirt at Diamond Lake, later Flathead Lake.
But now? The job is endless.
September 11th, 2020 at 5:44 PM ^
I've had a lot of tough jobs, but fighting fires seems like it's got to be near the top of any list.
Good on you.
September 11th, 2020 at 7:06 PM ^
Much respect to you for doing that thankless job. Those who are doing it now in Oregon are completely exhausted and dozens are reported as missing just today. They need to be celebrated as heroes.
September 11th, 2020 at 10:14 PM ^
Technically no one thanked us but I wouldn't call it a thankless job. More an ignored one, till it makes the news.
Someone downvoted you for that comment? Is there some hidden political meaning I missed?
September 11th, 2020 at 5:43 PM ^
Decades of poor forestry policy sucks
September 11th, 2020 at 5:51 PM ^
I alone can fix it
September 11th, 2020 at 6:39 PM ^
Oh thank god! You have my vote!
September 11th, 2020 at 5:55 PM ^
It's remarkable how quickly you guys adopt bad arguments from dipshits while completely ignoring one of the closest things to a consensus that exists in the scientific community. Sure forests could be managed better. That doesn't stop the fact that historic forest fires are occurring all over the world constantly in recent years. Scientists predicted climate change leading to more intense fires. Keep blaming the libz.
September 11th, 2020 at 6:07 PM ^
Some of the worst fires in history occurred in the Midwest in the 1871. Peshtigo and the Great Michigan Fire for example.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Michigan_Fire
September 11th, 2020 at 6:21 PM ^
The US drastically altered the way it approached wildfires in the 1930s. Comparisons to times before we started seriously addressing wildfires are pointless.
September 11th, 2020 at 6:39 PM ^
It really isn’t.
It shows that large scale forest fires have always been a thing. Human arrogance in believing that they can “solve“ such issues blinds people to the fact that humans can’t control nature.
September 11th, 2020 at 6:58 PM ^
Large scale forest fires have always been a thing, but they're a thing with an extremely problematic trend that was predicted by scientists decades ago. From NASA, here's the frequency of western forest fires in the US:
And here is the prevalence of megafires, which weren't documented before the 1970s:
September 11th, 2020 at 7:05 PM ^
Who is trying to control nature? The point of policies like the Green New Deal is to actually pay attention to natural phenomena, how they are influenced by human intervention, and to design and implement systems that don't exacerbate the damage we've done.
September 11th, 2020 at 9:27 PM ^
History shows again and again
How nature points out the folly of men
September 11th, 2020 at 6:59 PM ^
https://www.press.umich.edu/11294/ruin_and_recovery
All I know about forest fire management I learned from that book. Climate change is a contributing factor. Forest management is another.
September 11th, 2020 at 10:27 PM ^
I believe you're making an incorrect generalization. The Peshtigo fire, at the same time as the Great Chicago Fire, was a once in a generation fire, if not once in a century blaze. So it's not really appropriate to cite it for the proposition that disastrous fires have always happened.
September 11th, 2020 at 10:24 PM ^
Sorry if I seem to be one of "you guys" but you're conflating two different issues. One is climate change, which is making things much worse.
The other is fire POLITICS, where lumber companies and rich people with houses in the woods have clout, and force every fire to be fought and put out. Fire POLICY knew better, knew that letting fires burn HELPS the forest, that it's part of the life cycle of forests.
September 11th, 2020 at 10:19 PM ^
It's less poor forestry policy than bad forestry politics. The timber industry wanted their wood and rich people wanted to build their dream house in the forest, and both of them had clout, so the goal to manage forests got shifted to It's-burning!-PUT-IT-OUT!!
As a result forests didn't get natural management — i.e., fires burning out the dead stuff on the ground, which enabled low vegetation that helped support wildlife — and instead simply built up fuel decade after decade.
September 11th, 2020 at 5:47 PM ^
Good luck to all you mgoOregonians out there. Stay safe, be careful and God bless.
The next president (whoever that is) should bring back the Civilian Conservation Corps to fight and more importantly prevent these horrible fires. They could also work on other major projects relating to climate change. My grandfather was in the CCC back in the day and he helped build Glacier and Shenandoah National Parks and a lot of the other corps members fought forest fires. We need something like this more than ever these days!
September 11th, 2020 at 6:01 PM ^
Yes, we need to bring back the CCC, WPA and similar programs. With a massive impending recession and levels of unemployment unprecedented in the last 80 years, employment and public works programs are desperately needed.
Although, they will hopefully work on projects backed by sound science in the future. Some of the projects they worked on in the past have led to irreparable environmental damage.
September 11th, 2020 at 7:04 PM ^
Thanks to the electoral college, the west coast states are going blue. Which means they can go fuck themselves when the red team is in charge, nevermind the fact that California probably has more Republican residents than Alabama.
September 11th, 2020 at 7:18 PM ^
Wow, you're dumb. The West coasts state are blue because most of their citizens are Democrats. And you're really saying that victims of wildfires, which are intensified by global warming, which is denied by Republicans, ought to go fuck themselves? You fucking ape.
September 11th, 2020 at 7:26 PM ^
Read it again. Your sarcasm detector needs some calibration.
September 11th, 2020 at 7:19 PM ^
Yes, the electoral college and the senate are silly anachronisms.
September 11th, 2020 at 7:31 PM ^
California has >8x the population of Alabama, so quite certainly California has several times the number of Republicans of Alabama.
Not many here in SF, of course.
September 11th, 2020 at 6:58 PM ^
The cynic in me says they would have trouble filling those jobs nowadays.
September 12th, 2020 at 3:58 AM ^
But, but, but, that would be ... Socialism.
September 11th, 2020 at 5:48 PM ^
I’ve lived in the bay area for over 20 years. The last few years of fires, of which this year far exceeds all others, is absolutely unprecedented. I’m not in a wooded area but I can’t leave my house because the air is at a level where the EPA used to say “evacuate” now.
Climate change was not a debate back before the Koch Brothers (All fossil fuel money) started founding think tanks to undermine climate policy. What selfish ass holes.
September 11th, 2020 at 6:01 PM ^
Climate change wasn’t debated because it wasn’t a popular discussion then.
Why you feel the need to lie I have no idea.
September 11th, 2020 at 6:52 PM ^
Actually Climate Change back then was news. Just not for the masses like you that only see the headline news. You also have it backwards. Climate Change wasn’t headline news back then because the fossil fuel industry hadn't started debating it yet.
And you just sunk to a new low with your last comment calling me a liar. You're using the orange fraud’s favorite go to BS tactic when he knows he has no facts to stand on. Next you’re probably going to be calling me fake news. But I’m not going to do your research for you because you really could care less about the facts.
September 11th, 2020 at 7:05 PM ^
A new low? Perhaps you are not familiar with SQ’s posting history.
September 11th, 2020 at 8:10 PM ^
True! And he’s still here and true delusional.