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How the severity of the California wildfires is Donald Trump’s fault!

Also read: William Teach, “Climate Cult Is Concerned You Stupid Peasants Will Continue Demanding More Power“

I might be stealing William Teach’s schtick with this one, but it’s too good to pass up.

Burning Teslas in LA Add to Toxic Mix Hindering Wildfire Cleanup

  • Electric cars add a new dimension to the mess left by fires

  • Specialized removal means longer delays for victims

By Eliyahu Kamisher, Laura Curtis, and Kara Carlson | Thursday, January 16, 2025 | 8:16 PM EST | Updated Friday, January 17, 2025 | 8:31 AM EST

As the smoke clears from devastating Los Angeles wildfires, efforts to clean up the affected areas are being complicated by burnt-out electric and hybrid vehicles and home-battery storage systems.

Lithium batteries from Tesla Inc., along with those from other carmakers, have added to the mix of toxic materials requiring specialized removal in the wake of the fires, delaying the fire victims’ return to their properties.

“A lot of the cars in the evacuation area were lithium batteries,” said Jacqui Irwin, a state assembly member representing the Pacific Palisades, one of the neighborhoods hardest hit by the fires. “We’ve heard from firefighters that those lithium batteries burned fires near homes – like those with power walls – for much longer.”

So, Teslas and their lithium batteries made things worse, and if they’re Teslas, that makes them Elon Musk’s fault. And since Mr Musk supports Donald Trump, then by extension, it’s all Donald Trump’s fault!

There were over 431,000 Teslas in operation in the Los Angeles area as of October 2024, according to data from S&P Global Mobility. Based on new registrations, their market share locally was three times that of the rest of the nation. The Tesla Model Y was the biggest-selling vehicle in the state through September, according to the California New Car Dealers Association.

Fires in lithium batteries can require large amounts of water to put out with automakers publishing guides for first responders detailing how to respond.

If you have a gasoline-powered vehicle, it could ignite very quickly, and explode, but that fire burns itself out in short order, and requires no more water than normal.

It’s more than just electric vehicles. Note that the article from Bloomberg pointed out homes “with power walls.” If a resident had a home with a solar system using storage batteries, that burned longer as well.

California Governor Gavin Newsom is also aware of the complications. In an executive order this week, he said the state is “still adapting to newer technologies” like lithium-ion batteries, which can pose distinct risks when exposed to high heat from fires. Two years ago, Newsom signed an executive order requiring all vehicles sold in the state be zero-emission by 2035, while the state has become a leader when it comes to battery storage.

In a state with hot, dry conditions, a state which receives far less rainfall than areas east of the Mississippi, and a state which has wildfires every year, 2028 Democratic presidential nominee Gavin Newsom keeps pushing something that makes wildfires worse. But, it doesn’t matter: it’s still all Donald Trump’s fault! He won’t be President for another 68½ hours, but it’s still all his fault!

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You in a heap o’ trouble, boy

Thanks to Stacey Matthews, who has been writing as Sister Toldjah for twenty years now — she ‘outed’ herself from her anonymity when a stalker ferreted out her identification and was getting ready to publish it — on RedState, I found this gem, from The Sacramento Bee:

Darrin Bell, Sacramento-based comic strip creator, arrested on suspicion of child pornography

By Darrell Smith | Updated: Thursday, January 16, 2025 | 7:37 AM PST

A prominent Sacramento-based comic strip creator, cartoonist and author has been arrested on suspicion of possession and creating child pornography. Darrin Bell, 49, who won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning, was arrested Wednesday morning at his south Sacramento home by Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office investigators. Deputies had served a search warrant against Bell following an investigation by the Sacramento Valley Internet Crimes Against Children Detectives task force.

Also see: Robert Stacy McCain, “Least Surprising News of the Week?“

The Sheriff’s Office said it was the first arrest by the task force connected to AI-generated material, which was incorporated into existing child pornography law on Jan. 1. Bell is best known for his comic strip “Candorville,” which features three childhood friends of color and their daily lives in the inner city. Bell was the first Black cartoonist to have two nationally syndicated strips, the other being “Rudy Park,” which was created by Theron Heir. “Candorville,” ran Sundays in The Sacramento Bee from 2021 to April of 2023.

Bell was 20 when he began his career in 1995, drawing as a freelance cartoonist for the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle and Washington Post, while the cartoonist at the Daily Californian, the newspaper of UC Berkeley.

The Sheriff’s Office said it received a tip National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that someone had uploaded 18 files of child sex abuse material to the internet. Investigators said they had located “134 videos of CSAM were located and linked to the same account, owned and controlled by 49-year-old Darrin Bell.”

“Detectives recovered evidence related to the case, as well as computer-generated/AI (child pornography),” the Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. “This case was the first arrest by Sacramento Valley ICAC where possession of computer-generated/AI CSAM was charged against a suspect.”

Erick Erickson commented on Twitter, “Cartoonist who attacked conservatives for pointing out grooming behavior turns out to have child porn on his laptop. Surprise. Surprise.”

Jugendverderber is German for “destroyer of youth,” so yeah, cartoonist Bell got the translation pretty much correct: groomers, which Merriam-Webster defines as “someone who grooms (see groom entry 2 sense 3b) a minor for exploitation and especially for nonconsensual sexual activity,” really are destroyers of youth, and the criminal justice system should treat them as such. If Mr Bell is guilty of the offenses for which he has been charged — and he is innocent until proven guilty — he should be locked up for the maximum time allowed under the law.

The Sacramento Bee’s story does not inform readers about Mr Bell’s history of disparaging conservatives concerned about the left attempting to normalize homosexuality and transgenderism, especially in our public schools. That does not surprise me in the slightest.

I guess that he won’t have yet another Donald Trump-bashing editorial cartoon for Inauguration Day.  🙂

The New York Post has more.

Mr Bell isn’t an idiot: idiots don’t get into the University of California at Berkeley! But what possesses people to save child pornography on their computers, knowing what can happen to them if they get caught?

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Killadelphia

It’s been a while since I posted a “Killadelphia” article, but it seems that the City of Brotherly Love, despite a dramatically reduced homicide rate the past couple of years, still likes seeing blood flowing down the gutters.

North Philly teen killed in shooting was a student athlete who had the highest SAT score at Samuel Fels

Another teen, an 18-year-old whom police did not identify, was fatally shot hours earlier on the 6100 block of Vine Street, police said.

Continue reading →

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It was never about “protecting democracy”.

The left have complained loudly that Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter and his support of that wholly radical concept of Freedom of Speech was a horrible, horrible thing, but while conservatives are no longer censored on that social media site, Mr Musk has allowed those on the left the same access they always had.

And thus we have Tristan Snell being able to vent his frustration that former President Donald Trump will become President again at noon on January 20th.

Who is Mr Snell? His self-written Twitter biography states that he is a “Lawyer, commentator, fighter for democracy. Prosecuted Trump University @ NY AG. Author of TAKING DOWN TRUMP. Host of the Tristan Snell Show on Apple + Spotify.” Continue reading →

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The Philadelphia Inquirer beclowns itself . . . again How do you publish a story about Police released images without publishing the images?

This site has reported, many times, on how The Philadelphia Inquirer censors the news, at the direction of publisher Elizabeth “Lisa” Hughes. Miss Hughes told us that “racial justice” concerns will be considered in the newspaper’s “crime and criminal justice coverage,” but today’s story raises it to the laughing out loud level.

Police release images of suspect in jeweled crown heist from Center City church

The burglar broke into St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church at 13th and Ludlow Streets by smashing through a stained-glass window and stole a golden crown, police said.

by Rodrigo Torrejón | Monday, January 13, 2025 | 12:51 PM EST

Image released by Philadelphia Police Department.

Police released images and video of the man they say stole a 125-year-old bejeweled golden crown from atop a marble statue of the Virgin Mary at St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in Center City and asked the public for help in finding him.Around 1:10 a.m. Saturday, police said, the man broke into the church on the corner of South 13th and Ludlow Streets by smashing through a stained-glass window. The burglar was captured on surveillance video breaking through the window, climbing into the upper nave and going straight to the statue and crown, the church’s archivist, Anne Kirkwood, said.

A short clip from surveillance footage released by police Monday shows the man, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, a face mask, grey sweatpants, and red or pink sneakers, walking up an alleyway by the church before climbing what appears to be a fence and disappearing from view of the camera.

Other clips released by police show the suspect’s alleged getaway car, a grey Mitsubishi SUV.

There’s more at the original.

Yet, while talking about the released image and video, and having three photographs illustrating the article, which I used to obtain the images for this article, the Inquirer did not publish the image or video themselves. There were adequate hyperlinks to take readers to those things, but the Inky, for whatever cockamamie reasons they had, at least a of publication time here, 4:25 PM EST, left out the images about which the story was written!

The image at least appears to show a thin male with fairly dark skin, possibly a black male, breaking into the Center City church, but it isn’t quite clear enough for the viewer to be certain of his race.

Embedded video below the fold. Continue reading →

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Shedding a tear for Jennifer Rubin, who’s leaving The Washington Post.

We have reported on warmonger and #TrumpDerangementSyndrome sufferer Jennifer Rubin, the Washington Post columnist, several times before. At a time when foreign terrorists have been rampant and murders in Philadelphia had spiked, she was whining about “domestic terrorism,” and Elon Musk opening Twitter to greater freedom of speech. Mrs Rubin, who has told us of her great commitment to democracy, was appalled that a party she doesn’t like was allowed to run in democratic elections. She combitched about Post owner Jeff Bezos spiking an endorsement for Kamala Harris Emhoff, but didn’t quit over that, as several other Post personnel has done.

But now, she’s hitting the road:

Jen Rubin exits Washington Post, joins Norm Eisen to launch new outlet countering ‘authoritarian threat’

by Brian Stelter | Monday, January 13, 2024 | 8:45 AM EST

Jennifer Rubin, photo via Libs of TikTok

New York: CNN — Veteran opinion columnist Jennifer Rubin is becoming the latest in a long list of Washington Post figures to leave the troubled institution.Rubin is partnering with former White House ethics czar Norm Eisen and launching something new: a startup publication called The Contrarian.

The startup’s tagline, “Not owned by anybody,” is a pointed reference to billionaire Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos and other moguls who, in Rubin’s view, have “bent the knee” to President-elect Donald Trump.

“Our goal is to combat, with every fiber of our being, the authoritarian threat that we face,” Rubin told CNN in an interview ahead of the publication’s introduction.

Clearly, Mrs Rubin has been drinking her own Kool-Aid. While the incoming President might think that Mrs Ruban and her fellow travelers belong behind bars, there’s really no law under which she could be thrown in jail for expressing her opinions. She’s like the lovely Kathy Griffin, who’s been claiming that people need to come see her stand up comedy acts now, before she gets thrown into an ‘internment camp,’ is reaching people. I’d say her claim is overblown, considering that President Trump didn’t have her thrown behind barbed wire following her posting of a picture holding what was supposed to be the President’s bloody head, later saying that “she believes she’s been personally attacked by the president and the first family.” Continue reading →

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No matter how much you hate the credentialed media, you do not hate them enough! The Washington Post is in financial trouble

The First Street Journal has reported, several times, on The Washington Post and its financial losses. We even suggested, perhaps a bit tongue in cheek, how to save the newspaper. This time, it’s The Wall Street Journal’s turn!

The Washington Post Is Limping Into Trump’s Second Term

Financial struggles, concerns over editorial strategy rattle staffers at Jeff Bezos-owned publication

By Alexandra Bruell | Friday, January 10, 2024 | 11:52 AM EST

Donald Trump’s return to the White House should be a moment for the Washington Post to shine. The news outlet has a rich history of hard-nosed political reporting, and its coverage of Trump’s first term led to a huge jump in readership.

But as the president-elect’s second term approaches, the Post is mired in financial challenges and internal drama.

Subscription and ad-revenue shortfalls are taking a toll on the business, which lost around $100 million last year, and leaders are struggling to convince staff that they have a clear editorial vision and continuing commitment to hard-hitting journalism, according to more than a dozen people close to the newsroom. Rivals have poached many top Post journalists in recent weeks, and are in talks with others. Continue reading →

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Our friends on the left will be just spittle-flecked appalled!

Our good friends on the left will be appalled that they won’t get to see any photos of former and future President Trump Donald Trump behind bars. There is the scowling mugshot of him, but what sane people will remember is his fist raised in defiance after the first assassination attempt.

Trump sentenced in hush money case, will not face jail or probation

Continue reading →

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World War III Watch: Joe Biden sends more aid, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy wants us to send ground troops

We have said it before: it doesn’t matter how much money and military aid we send to Ukraine, they cannot defeat Russia absent the US and NATO sending actual ground troops to fight Russia, and fighter aircraft and pilots to gain air superiority. Now Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wants just that:

U.S. announces more Ukraine aid as Zelenskyy calls for NATO to deploy troops to “force Russia into peace”

CBS News | Thursday, January 9, 2024 | 10:00 AM EST

Ramstein Air Base, Germany — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday said Donald Trump’s return to the White House would open “a new chapter” and reiterated a call for Western allies to send troops to help “force Russia to peace.” He made the plea as the Biden administration announced what will likely be its last major military aid package for Ukraine — a promise of weapons and other support worth $500 million. Continue reading →