SANTA MUERTE 

As pandemic rages, Mexicans pray to death 'saint'

Their arms raised towards the sky, worshippers of Mexico's "saint" of death pray before a giant cloaked skeleton asking for protection from the coronavirus and its devastating economic fallout. 

© CLAUDIO CRUZ Mexico's 'Saint Death' has no shortage of followers during a pandemic that has claimed tens of thousands of lives

© CLAUDIO CRUZ Some devotees arrive on their knees to worship at a shrine in Mexico City's Tepito neighborhood

The Grim Reaper-like figure, whose devotees include drug cartel members as well as ordinary Mexicans, has been rejected by the Roman Catholic Church as blasphemous.

But with tens of thousands of Mexican lives lost to Covid-19, there is no shortage of followers of "Santa Muerte."

"With the pandemic, more devotees want to come to ask for health and protection," said 30-year-old Cristel Legaria, whose late mother erected the 22-meter (72-foot) fiberglass statue in Tultitlan near the capital

.

© CLAUDIO CRUZ The Grim Reaper-like figure has been rejected by the Roman Catholic church as blasphemous

Wearing a golden robe, the skeleton stands with its bony arms spread out against the blue sky, like a statue of Jesus.

Historians trace Santa Muerte back to the 18th century, when indigenous people turned images of the Grim Reaper brought by Spanish conquistadores into an icon, prompting the Church to destroy chapels devoted to the folk saint.

© CLAUDIO CRUZ Others indoctrinate their children into the cult of Santa Muerte

After many decades underground, the practise emerged from the shadows in the mid-20th century, particularly in the capital, as Mexicans arrived from the impoverished countryside.

© CLAUDIO CRUZ Some followers have tattoos of Santa Muerte on their neck or chest

- 'Always there' -

The number of followers grew in 2001, when a woman named Enriqueta "Dona Queta" Romero displayed her Santa Muerte figure in Mexico City's rough neighborhood of Tepito.

Hundreds now visit the shrine on the first day of each month to worship Santa Muerte.

Video: Mexican devotees pray to death 'saint', ask for protection from pandemic (AFP)

"I came to thank her for everything that she's given us this year, which has not been easy due to the pandemic," said 34-year-old stylist Suri Salas, returning for the first time after months of confinement.

"Fortunately, she's always there to support us," said Salas.

The faithful -- some shuffling on their knees -- arrived with effigies of Santa Muerte, while others offered flowers, sweets and liquor.

Few wore face masks and social distancing was almost impossible. The aroma of marijuana filled the street, where street vendors hawked Santa Muerte statues and candles.

"Since the pandemic began I've never closed," said Romero, who welcomes visitors from as far afield as the United States and Europe after word of the saint of death spread.

Some have tattoos of Santa Muerte on their neck or chest and indoctrinate their children.

"She helps you when you're on the razor's edge, facing insecurity, economic troubles or -- like now -- health problems," said Alfonso Hernandez, a journalist and official chronicler in crime-plagued Tepito.

- Heresy to Church -

The worship of Santa Muerte is "an adaptation of a harsh world," but heresy for the Catholic Church, said Bernardo Barranco, a sociologist who specializes in religions.

"It's not a religion. It's a cult. You can be Catholic or Evangelical and be a follower," he said.

Some devotees are also believers in the Virgin of Guadalupe, patron saint of Mexico, the world's second-biggest Catholic country.

In 2016, during a visit to Mexico, Pope Francis alluded to the veneration of Santa Muerte when he said he was concerned about people who worship "macabre symbols."

But that does not seem to bother Rodrigo Oliva, who travels 70 kilometers (44 miles) from the capital to Tultitlan, where face masks, temperature checks and social distancing are compulsory.

The 28-year-old photographer follows the Afro-Cuban religion Palo Monte, but his temple closed due to the epidemic so he prays to Santa Muerte.

With Covid-19 "there are more people who have taken an interest in a cult," he said.

"We pray to her so she protects us, but that does not make us immune," he added.

With around 84,000 deaths, Mexico has the world's fourth-highest coronavirus toll, and many have lost a relative, friend or neighbor.

"The only thing I ask of my saint is to give me strength, health and harmony. Nothing else matters if you don't have good health," said 23-year-old shoeshiner Jonathan Flores.

nc/axm/dr

Activists have long said a Santa Fe monument celebrated the killings of Native Americans. Crowds toppled it this week

By Christina Maxouris, 

At least two people were arrested in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Monday after a crowd toppled a monument that Native American community members have long called on to be removed

© Stephanie Korupp/Instagram Protesters tear down obelisk in Santa Fe

Demonstrations around the monument -- an obelisk found in the middle of the city's Plaza Park that activists say celebrated the killings of Native Americans -- began Saturday, Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber said, when protesters chained themselves on the obelisk.

A crowd swarmed the plaza Monday while city council members held an emergency meeting, the mayor said, and began tearing down the fence surrounding the monument before destroying the obelisk. One person was arrested for battery on a peace officer and resisting an officer and a second person was arrested for resisting an officer and criminal trespass.

The monument's destruction took place as New Mexico celebrated Indigenous People's Day and comes following a summer of racial reckoning and unrest during which protesters have torn down other statues and monuments honoring controversial figures and racist parts of the country's past.

Webber condemned Monday's violence and said it was "not only a violation of the law, it is a violation of the ties between people in our community."

"There is no place for people taking the law into their own hands. There is no place for people destroying historic monuments on their own," Webber said.

Monday's actions come months after the mayor announced he was calling for the removal of the monument -- along with two others -- saying it was "long overdue."

That was in June, when Webber said he would create a commission to review different monuments in the city and evaluate whether "they cause pain" and "tell an honest version of history," he said. That commission would decide "how each should be treated," he had said in a statement.

Responding to the mayor's June announcement, Pueblo of Acoma Governor Brian D. Vallo had said he was grateful for the decision that included the "the obelisk with an inscription referencing Pueblo people as 'Savage Indians' located in the center of the historic plaza."

"There is absolutely no place for these symbols that glorify the mass killing of our people," Vallo said in a June statement. "It is clear that times have changed and there is a new openness to discuss how to better memorialize our shared history in a way that promotes deeper understanding and cooperation. Our Pueblo stands ready to participate in these conversations, and we thank Mayor Webber for his leadership on this matter."

Following the statue's destruction on Monday, city officials said in a statement there were "a variety of legal issues under review" by the city attorney's office related to the obelisk.

"Everyone should acknowledge that these situations are complex and the issues we're engaged with are complicated," a news release from the city said.

"We know individuals want to be heard. There is work underway to review the legal issues surrounding the removal or preservation of statues and monuments that are in public places. There is also work going on to review different approaches to a task force or working group that can undertake a community-wide discussion around statues and monuments, histories and cultures," the release said.

A recommendation should be coming out soon, it said.

© Stephanie Korupp/Instagram Protesters tear down obelisk in Santa Fe

Black History Month UK: Black children must be able to believe in themselves

Opinion by Akyaaba Addai-Sebo 

Black History Month (BHM) is a celebration of our diversity -- all the colors of the rainbow that sparkle out of the black hole of creation. We share common roots in the dark, tropical wombs of our mothers and our strength lies in the variety within our oneness.

© CNN/Akyaaba Addai-Sebo

BHM pays eternal tribute to this fact of our origins during the splendor of the days following the Fall Equinox, a glorious spectacle of seasonal balance, a harmony we also need in our relations with one another.

October is a period of recognition, reconciliation, renewal and a review of the state of Black Britain.

BHM was created for the younger generation to own and fill with rich and enabling content. It was inspired by six-year old Marcus, whose mother named him after legendary Black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey. She and I worked at the Greater London Council (the capital's main governing body, now replaced by the Greater London Authority), and she came in distraught one day because her son had asked her why he could not be White. She felt that British society and the school system had failed Marcus by making him question his identity at that early age.

Something had to be done to make the Black Child believe in themselves. After weeks of reflection, what stirred in me was the urgency of creating a permanent celebration in the UK of Africa's contribution to world civilization from antiquity to the present, and especially its contribution to the development of London, and the United Kingdom as situated in Europe.

I had lectured about African traditions in the United States, and children and their parents told me it had given them a new sense of self. Despite all its grand institutions of higher education, the UK was still a touchstone for colonialism, imperialism and racism.

I devised a plan with the help of the pioneering team at the GLC's Ethnic Minorities Unit (EMU), ably led by Ansel Wong. We launched the GLC Historical Lectures and Concerts, which took place in February through May 1986 to affirm Africa's contribution to civilization. For a week, we filled the Royal Albert Hall with schoolkids to listen to inspirational music and talks. Speakers toured the communities and generated a buzz.

We helped draw attention to heightened campaigns against systemic racism in the UK and apartheid in South Africa at that time. This work radiated from the EMU to all corners of the UK and across Europe to Africa and the US. Rev. Jesse Jackson, Angela Davis, Winnie Mandela, Marcus Garvey Jr., Sally Mugabe, Graca Machel, John Henrik Clarke, Yosef Ben-Jochannan, Burning Spear, Ray Charles, Max Roach, Hugh Masekela and many more came to London between 1985 and 1988 at the invitation of the GLC to support the anti-racist and anti-apartheid campaigns.

The lectures were compiled into a book and published under the title "Our Story," which I edited with Ansel Wong.

Coincidentally, 1987 was the 150th anniversary of Caribbean emancipation, the centenary of the birth of Marcus Garvey and the 25th anniversary of the Organization of African Unity, an institution dedicated to advancing the progress of African states. The new London Strategic Policy Unit declared it African Jubilee Year, calling on UK authorities to recognize the contributions of Africans to the economic, cultural and political life of the UK, take their duties as enshrined in the 1976 Race Relations Act seriously, be relentless in their support against apartheid and ensure that Black children enjoy positive images of themselves.

The African Jubilee Year declaration gave birth to Black History Month. October was chosen because it was shortly after the UK summer vacation and was the traditional harvest period and time when African leaders gathered to settle differences and appraise the state of the community. The month is now dedicated in the UK to the celebration of the African Story in the creation of our one humanity. The greatest of all teaching is "Man, know thyself" and the national curriculum and the playground must not fail the Black Child. Many hands and brains helped to give birth to Black History Month and we salute them all.

I am pleased to see the communal BHM activities that people independently initiate and the flood of solidarity messages that pour in from government, mayors, corporate leaders, the police, and others. It has long been my desire to see a formal opening ritual broadcast live on the night of September 30.

As British Prime Minister Boris Johnson articulated, Black History is Our History. The confluence of Black Lives Matter and Covid-19 has exposed the fragile underbelly of our humanity, which has to be handled carefully, like the proverbial African egg placed in your palm. The adage is that if you squeeze too hard the egg will crack, and if you let it loose in your grip it will fall and break.

BHM makes demands on authorities to name monuments, parks and buildings after illustrious African leaders, and to ensure that Black children do not lose the fact of their genius. BLM has caused the tearing down of monuments that affirm the Doctrine of Discovery used by colonizing nations to give currency to the trans-Atlantic slave trade and plantation economy. BLM has triggered the removal of statues of Christopher Columbus and Belgium King Leopold, and BHM is demanding the removal of the noose of the French colonial tax. Both are a rallying call.

Ansel and I have been working on preparing the youth for the future development of Africa and people of African descent. We are passing on the baton of social justice and we are happy with the trend towards humanizing society. The abuse of power must be excised from society. Social media has made the world a global village for the youth, making them aware of the mess my generation has caused, from environmental degradation to genocidal wars. The raging fires of California and the roaring tsunamis of Mozambique; earth, wind and fire are now of popular concern. I hope it is within the scope of the younger generation to make this world a better place as they reach out and touch hands.

For Black History to matter, Black Lives must matter. For Black Lives to matter, Black History must matter. To deny a person's history is to deny their humanity and to enslave them. This noose and jackboot of enslavement as represented by lynching and asphyxiation continues to be enacted by people in uniform, and it is revulsion at this humiliation that is at the heart of the Black Lives Matter revolt against systemic racism. These uniforms have come to crystallize the impunity of racism in private and public life, which defiles our common humanity.

Where lies your duty of care? Despite all the armaments of war and display of human arrogance, we remain so fragile, and as such we must remain each other's keepers and celebrate the beauty in each other. For you cannot crush a caterpillar and be astounded by the beauty of a butterfly. Black Lives Matter; so does Black History.

© Courtesy Akyaaba Addai-Sebo Akyaaba Addai-Sebo, pictured in London in 1988, established Black History Month in the UK to help inspire Black children.

© Courtesy Akyaaba Addai-Sebo Addai-Sebo (second right) and Ansel Wong, Principal Race Equality Advisor at the London Strategic Policy Unit (second left) at the London launch of their book "Our Story" in July 1988, with Bernard Wiltshire, Deputy Leader of the Inner London Education Authority (left) and Vitus Evans, Race Relations Advisor at the Association of London Authorities.

Amazon workers in Germany strike on 'Prime Day'

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German trade union called on workers at seven Amazon warehouses to go on strike on Tuesday to coincide with the global "Prime Day" promotion event that was postponed due to operational challenges from the coronavirus pandemic.

© Reuters/RALPH ORLOWSKI FILE PHOTO: Employees handle packages at an Amazon logistic center in Mannheim

Verdi said it was organising the two-day strike as part of a long-running battle with Amazon in Germany over better pay and conditions, noting that a coronavirus bonus introduced for workers in Germany in March had been scrapped again in May.

An Amazon spokesman said the majority of employees were continuing to work as normal despite the strike call. He said the company offered "excellent salaries", with benefits and working conditions comparable with other important employers.

Verdi has been organising strikes at Amazon in Germany since 2013, most recently in June in protest over safety after some staff at logistics centres tested positive for the coronavirus.

Germany is Amazon's biggest market after the United States.

Prime Day, typically held in July to boost summer sales, is now a kickoff to what will be an earlier holiday shopping season. The member-only discounts are a key way Amazon markets Prime, a fast-shipping and media-streaming service that incentivises subscribers to do more shopping on Amazon.

A report by news site Reveal said the week around last year's Prime Day was the most dangerous for injuries at Amazon's fulfillment centers, prompting criticism by a prominent union. Amazon disputed the claims.

(Reporting by Matthias Inverardi and Emma Thomasson; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)

Trump keeps funneling money to farmers and rural America ahead of the election — topping out at $46 billion

Published on October 12, 2020 By Sarah K. Burris

Farmers. (Shuterstock)

President Donald Trump is continuing to try and funnel money to rural America and to farmers as the election approaches.

During Trump’s trade wars, farmers and manufacturing took a brunt of the hit. As the administration continued it’s war on the Affordable Care Act, funding to rural hospitals dried up and they began to close. Funding cuts to the Postal Service means rural post offices are also closing. Trump’s only option left is to continue flooding farmers with cash in hopes he can buy their loyalty.

“Federal payments to farmers are projected to hit a record $46 billion this year as the White House funnels money to Mr. Trump’s rural base in the South and Midwest ahead of Election Day,” the New York Times reported Monday.

The American Farm Bureau calculated debt in the farming sector is expected to increase by 4 percent, reaching a record $434 billion. Farmer bankruptcies have been record-setting as well with another 8 percent increase charted August 2019-2020. As the Wall Street Journal pointed out, throwing money at the problem hasn’t stopped the bankrupcies.

“The pandemic has pressured prices for many commodities, squeezing farmers who raise crops and livestock, and prolonging a six-year downturn in the Farm Belt,” the Journal explained at the time.

Trump’s pledges to save rural America have not only turned out to be another in his line of broken promises.

“Farmers are not the only constituency benefiting from the president’s largess: He has promised $200 prescription drug cards to millions of seniors, approved $13 billion in aid to Puerto Rico, which could help his prospects in Florida, and he directed his Agriculture Department include letters signed by him in millions of food aid boxes that are being distributed to the poor,” the Times recalled.

It’s remarkably similar to the empty promises Trump made just weeks before the 2018 midterms in which he swore there would be a “middle-class tax cut” after the election. It never came either.

“There are both economic and political motivations for these payments,” said University of Missouri’s Patrick Westhoff, who directs the agriculture research center.

Democrats and ethics groups are concerned that the move is another attempt for Trump to bribe voters ahead of an election.

“For the first time in history, a president has repeatedly usurped congressional authority in order to personally dispense tens of billions of dollars in federal farm subsidy payments that would not otherwise have been paid,” said Ken Cook, president of an organization that tracks the spending. “This is an authoritarian power grab used to buy political support from voters who are essential to his re-election.”

Trump has only made it worse, announcing at a Wisconsin campaign rally that he’d be delivering another $13 billion in aid to farmers. Trump even shifted $100 million from an account that barred subsidies to the tobacco industry to a fund that could help prop up the North Carolina industry as it’s appearing more and more like a swing state with a crucial Senate election.

The Government Accountability Office also took issue with $14.5 billion in farm aid from 2019 when they published a report in September. They found that the aid was being allocated with politics taken into consideration, with “the bulk of the money went to big farms in the Midwest and southern states, including Mr. Perdue’s home state of Georgia.”

Read the full report from the New York Times here.

Man arrested in plot to kidnap Michigan governor previously profiled in Swedish newspaper





By: WXYZ Staff
Posted at 6:27 AM, Oct 12, 2020

One of the men arrested for his involvement in a militia group's planned kidnapping of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was the subject of a feature story in a Swedish newspaper in June.

In a report originally published by Expressen on June 21, reporter Nina Svenberg and photographer Joel Marklund met the subject of their next story, 21-year-old Paul Bellar, at an anti-coronavirus lockdown rally in Lansing, Michigan dubbed "Judgment Day."

"(Bellar) spoke about the Boogaloo movement," said Svanberg, a U.S. correspondent for Expressen. "He said that they were a part of the Boogaloo movement and he also said, 'Well, I'm going to get in trouble for saying this.'"

After the rally, the journalists met at Bellar at his home in Milford, Michigan where Bellar showed off his weapons and talked about his views on the government.

"I feel like the American civilization has to know that it's going to possibly revolt against the tyrannical government," Bellar said during an interview with Svanberg at his home on May 14. "I feel people have had enough of it and they're willing to pick up arms for it."

"He said it's a tyranny," Svanberg said later. "He repeatedly talked about the system as a tyranny."

Svanberg also says he talked about his militia, which held training preparing for different scenarios.

"He even said at one point, 'We are not crazy people, we are not planning to burn things or something like that, we are just here to protect our country,'" Svanberg said.

However, according to the FBI and Michigan State Police, they were planning much more than that. Investigators allege Bellar was appointed "sergeant" of the "Wolverine Watchmen," an anti-government group conspiring to target law enforcement, attack the Capitol in Lansing and kidnap Whitmer.

"He talked about them communicating via encrypted chat groups," Svanberg said. "He pulled out his phone and said there were about 50 people in that chat group consisting of men and women, former veterans, all kinds of backgrounds."

A federal investigation, aided by two informants inside the group's encrypted chats, kept police up to date with the group's plans, movements and training.

"He said he had been followed by the police, he was aware that the police were watching him as he described it," Svanberg said. "His big fear was that the feds or the police would come knocking on his door, he said that was what he was expecting."

On Thursday, what Bellar said he was expecting happened. Bellar was arrested in South Carolina and now faces charges for weapons, gang membership and terrorism.

"He also said that his worst nightmare was to be described as a domestic terrorist and that the feds would come and take his guns because, and I quote, 'that won't end well,'" said Svanberg.

Now, Bellar is currently in the process of being extradited back to Michigan to face trial for those charges, which would carry a maximum of 42 years in prison.

To read Svanberg's story, click here.

This story was originally published by Brett Kast on WXYZ in Detroit.

Copyright 2020 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

 

BERNIE SANDERS CELEBRATES HIS HOME STATE’S MARIJUANA REFORM MILESTONE

BRENDAN BURESOCTOBER 13, 2020

In partnership with The Fresh Toast

“Let me congratulate the state legislature for making Vermont the 11th state in the country to legalize marijuana and also for expunging past marijuana convictions,” Sanders tweeted.

Vermont made history in 2018 by becoming the first state to legalize recreational cannabis through the Legislature. Lawmakers forgot one thing, though — to create a regulated and legal marijuana market in the process.

The state prohibited cannabis sales for the past two years, even though residents could possess and consume the substance without penalty. That changed last week when Vermont Gov. Phil Scott allowed a bill that would legalize recreational cannabis sales without his signature. He also signing separate legislation that would expunge prior marijuana-related records statewide.

RELATED: Pandemic Boosts Marijuana Legalization Support In New Jersey

Congratulating his home state was none other than Sen. Bernie Sanders, who was happy Vermont will soon have safe and legal access to cannabis products.

“Let me congratulate the state legislature for making Vermont the 11th state in the country to legalize marijuana and also for expunging past marijuana convictions,” Sanders tweeted.

“Now, it is time for Congress and the federal government to end the war on drugs and legalize marijuana nationwide,” he added.

Sanders ardently supported federal cannabis reform throughout his 2020 presidential run, stating in interviews that our current marijuana laws are “insane” and “too many lives are being destroyed.” He said that if elected president, he would have legalized cannabis nationwide his first day in office.

Photo by rabbit75_ist/Getty Images

Since Joe Biden became the Democratic presidential nominee, Sanders has remained an important voice around cannabis issues and policies. When civil unrest broke out this summer following the killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and other Black Americans, it started a dialogue in this country around police reform. Sanders argued that legalizing cannabis should be part of the conversation.

“State after state have moved to legalize marijuana, and it is time for the federal government to do the same,” he said. “When we talk about police department reform, we must end police officers continuing to arrest, search or jail the people of our country, predominantly people of color, for using marijuana.”

RELATED: Kamala Harris Promises Decriminalization, Cannabis Stocks Surge

Sanders created a “unity” task force with Biden to decide important policy stances around criminal justice reform, which led to some heated discussions around cannabis. The task force ultimately did not recommend ending marijuana prohibition, in part because Biden supports decriminalization but not legalization.

During the vice presidential debates last week, VP nominee Kamala Harris declared a Biden-Harris administration would prioritize decriminalizing cannabis if elected. It represented the biggest promise made by a national party’s presidential nominee around marijuana reform to date.

Harris said, “We will decriminalize marijuana and we will expunge the records of those who have been convicted of marijuana.”

Read more on The Fresh Toast

 

CALIFORNIA FIRES BURN FOR RECORD 4 MILLION ACRES IN 2020

ISAI ROCHAOCTOBER 12, 2020LA WEEKLY

Between record-breaking heat that Gov. Gavin Newsom attributes to climate change and lightning strikes sparking fires in the forest brush, more than 4 million acres of California land have burned in 2020, including the state’s very first “Gigafire.”

Los Angeles County is still battling the Bobcat Fire that has burned through 115,796 acres of the Angeles National Forest and destroyed 87 homes. The blaze is now at 92 percent containment, but not before a month-long battle that saw as many as 1,600 personnel joining the fight.

The Bobcat Fire started near Azusa on September 6, after 200 acres had already burned. Officials from the Unified Incident Command of the Angeles National Forest, Los Angeles County Fire Department, Monrovia Fire Department and the L.A. County Sheriffs said the fire moved quickly and by the end of that first day, it had burned through more than 1,800 acres.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti spoke on the record-breaking fire season, saying, “The climate crisis isn’t some far off threat — it’s here at our doorstep. How we rise to confront it will determine our very survival.”

As the Bobcat Fire continued to push through terrain in the San Gabriel Valley, it remained at zero percent containment for five consecutive days. In that span, foothill communities in Duarte, Bradbury, Monrovia, Arcadia, Sierra Madre, Pasadena and Altadena were all given evacuation warnings, being asked to have evacuation plans in place with emergency supplies and personal belongings packed. Those evacuation orders were eventually lifted as crews were able to corral the fire before reaching the San Gabriel Valley homes.

Fears of the Santa Ana winds pushing the fire closer to communities never materialized, as the winds instead pushed the fire north, helping fire crews along the way.

By September 11, fire crews consisting of more than 500 personnel, using 50 engines, two aircrafts, five dozers and five water tenders brought the fire to 6 percent containment, a number that stood for four days and eventually went down to 3 percent as the fire “outpaced containment,” according to the Angeles National Forest.

Thick smoke from the Bobcat Fire billowed down throughout the county, forcing a smoke advisory that declared the air quality unhealthy and in some cities, hazardous. L.A. County residents were asked to avoid outdoor activities, especially for children, older adults and sensitive groups.

“It is difficult to tell where smoke, ash or soot from a fire will go, or how winds will affect the level of these particles in the air, so we ask everyone to remember that smoke and ash can be harmful to health, even for people who are healthy,” Muntu Davis, Health Officer for Los Angeles County said. “If you can see smoke, soot or ash, or you can smell smoke, pay attention to your immediate environment and take precautions to safeguard your health.”

The Bobcat Fire is part of a record-breaking 4 million acres that have burned throughout California this fire season. In comparison, 118,000 acres had burned in California by this same time in 2019.

“This is the largest fire season in terms of total acreage impacted we’ve had in some time,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said. “You put it in comparison terms … to last year, it’s rather extraordinary, the challenge that we’ve faced so far this season.”

While the source of the Bobcat Fire is still being investigated, Southern California Edison believes it could have been started by a malfunction in its utility equipment, according to the Associated Press.

Edison is working with federal investigators and has turned in the equipment in question.

Outside of L.A. County, Northern California is experiencing the largest fire in California history. As of this writing, the August Complex Fire has burned more than 1 million acres, becoming the first “Gigafire” in modern history. The fire has burned for nearly two months and was ignited by lightning strikes on August 16, according to CAL Fire.

“If that’s not proof point, testament, to climate change, then I don’t know what is,” Newsom said of the million-acre fire.

After California recorded its highest temperature of all time at 137 degrees in Death Valley this August, and Los Angeles County felt a record high temperature of 121 degrees on September 6 in Woodland Hills, Newsom reiterated his ongoing sentiment that climate change is “self-evident.”

President Donald Trump visited California on September 14 in order to assess the fire season himself. In a meeting to discuss the fires, Newsom looked to find “an area of commonality” with the president, as Trump said he believed the culprit was vegetation management, not climate change. California Secretary for Natural Resources, Wade Crowfoot, emphasized that the science of climate change cannot be ignored, to which Trump responded, “It’ll start getting cooler. You just watch.” Crowfoot then responded with, “I wish the science agreed with you,” to which Trump said, “I don’t think science knows, actually.”

Despite the differing opinions, Newsom continued that California needed more federal help, with 57 percent of California being federal forest land, to which President Trump said, “I’m all for it. That’s something I feel strongly about.”

“We really need that support,” Newsom said to Trump. “We need that emphasis of engagement and we are fully committed to working with you to advance that cause.”

Continuing his emphasis on climate change, on September 23, Newsom turned to the automobile industry, signing an order that would ban the sale of all gas cars by 2035, saying, “ Cars shouldn’t give our kids asthma, make wildfires worse, melt glaciers, or raise sea levels.”

Since then, Newsom has frequently noted the connection between gas cars, climate change, how it has affected California weather and in turn, the wildfires that burn through the state every year.

“Climate change isn’t something to address in the distant future,” Newsom said. “The climate crisis is here.”

Column: Make way for Slayer Pete. Buttigieg is the Biden campaign’s ruthless secret weapon

(Charlie Neibergall / AP)

By MARY MCNAMARACULTURE COLUMNIST AND CRITIC LA TIMES

OCT. 12, 2020

5:36 PM

Mayor Pete has found his format: the five-minute, remote-feed evisceration.

He always looks so nice, Pete Buttigieg — handsome in that white, Midwestern, college yearbook way, with a smile that seems bucktoothed but isn’t and those perfectly, and apparently naturally, arched eyebrows.

Last year, as we got to know him during the Democratic presidential nomination race, he bore the weight of being the first openly gay presidential candidate easily, as if it was no big deal. Sure, it takes a certain level of, shall we say, personal confidence to imagine that going from mayor of South Bend, Ind., to the White House is a possible career trajectory, but his was a quiet, respectful confidence, befitting a Rhodes scholar and a Naval intelligence officer.

So maybe it should not be surprising to discover that when Buttigieg swore to do whatever he could to ensure the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, that “whatever” turned out to include “speak softly and carry a sling blade.”

Last week, having served as stand-in for Vice President Mike Pence during Harris’ debate prep, Buttigieg must have seemed a natural choice for a predebate interview. Fox News’ Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier certainly thought so, asking Harris’ former rival a preloaded question about her public policy differences with Biden. Standing in front of Kingsbury Hall in Salt Lake City, Buttigieg gave his now viral-famous answer:

“Well, there’s a classic parlor game of trying to find a little bit of daylight between running mates,” Buttigieg said. “And if people want to play that game, we could look into why an evangelical Christian like Mike Pence wants to be on a ticket with the president caught with a porn star, or how he feels about the immigration policy that he called ‘unconstitutional’ before he decided to team up with Donald Trump.”

Cue stunned silence in the studio and the sound of a kajillion social media posts.

Steve Doocy must have missed the segment and the tweets because he had Buttigieg on “Fox and Friends” the next morning. When asked a question about President Trump refusing to participate in a virtual debate, Mayor Pete answered: “I don’t know why you’d want to be in a room with other people if you were contagious with a deadly disease, if you care about other people. But maybe the president of the United States doesn’t care about other people.”

Later in the interview, when Buttigieg brought up the president’s denigration of fallen American soldiers, Doocy, having learned nothing even from his very own interview, interrupted to insist the president had denied those reports. Buttigieg let him down easy with a classic “If you really believe the president now on this kind of stuff,” he said. “I’ve got a bridge to sell you.”

Then, during an MSNBC interview on Sunday, Buttigieg followed a touching response to National Coming Out Day with a calm, cool and collected shredding of Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s just-made opening statement ahead of her confirmation hearings. “This is what nominees do. They write the most seemingly unobjectionable, dry stuff,” Buttigieg said. “But really what I see in there is a pathway to judicial activism cloaked in judicial humility.”

Then he launched into a soliloquy that evoked the award-winning play “What the Constitution Means to Me.”

“At the end of the day, rights in this country have been expanded because courts have understood what the true meaning of the letter of the law and the spirit of the constitution is,” he said. “That is not about time traveling yourself back to the 18th century and subjecting yourself to the same prejudices and limitations as the people who write these words. The Constitution is a living document because the English language is a living language. And you need to have some readiness to understand that in order to serve on the court in a way that will actually make life better.”

He went on to add that even the founding fathers — the guys that these “dead-hand originalists claim fidelity to” — understood the importance of changing with the times.

It’s tough to make a term like “dead-hand originalist” go viral, but Buttigieg pulled it off — and from the comfort of his irritatingly immaculate kitchen, no less.

Certainly, he’s come a long way since April, when Room Rater gave him a 4/10 for a “Morning Joe” interview conducted in front of a bookshelf with a highly regrettable haircut. “Pete on the dangers of cutting one’s own hair,” the arbiter of work-from-home backgrounds tweeted.

Now, with his quarantine buzz cut ‘n’ beard grown back and gone, respectively, Mayor Pete is scoring nothing but perfect 10s, at least on liberal social media, which just last night circulated his 2019 answer to questions about late-term abortions, often with grateful weeping emojis.

The Biden/Harris campaign, naturally, has expressed gratitude for Buttigieg’s high-visibility support (on top of everything else, he does a mean Mike Pence impersonation), and it would be wise for them to continue to do so. It is easier for candidate supporters to offer lacerating commentary than it is for the candidates themselves — that’s why every candidate has a coterie of surrogates. But it’s hard to think of one who has been quite as effective, particularly during a news cycle that threatens to be overrun by the president’s reaction — physical, political and psychological — to his COVID-19 diagnosis.

Never mind the Room Rater score; during the Democratic primary race, Buttigieg was often dinged for seeming dull, intellectual and, frankly, a bit nerdy. Even then, this was pretty hilarious, given the fact that he was not only the first openly gay presidential candidate but also the first openly gay presidential candidate who saw active service in the military.

Now it’s even more hilarious and, frankly, a bit startling because now we know better. Now we know that what lies behind that white shirt, dark tie and “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” face is not a policy wonk but a rhetorical assassin. With a loving husband, a really nice kitchen and deadly aim.

So, as Lin-Manuel Miranda (of whom Buttigieg and his husband, Chasten, are fans) asked in “Hamilton,” what do we think, “Treasury or State?”

Irish locals show their colors in Biden’s ancestral home

Published on October 12, 2020 By Agence France-Presse

 

Laurita Blewitt, a cousin of US presidential candidate Joe Biden

Thousands of miles east of the White House in Ireland, a pop-art portrait of US presidential candidate Joe Biden towers over his ancestral hometown of Ballina, County Mayo.

In the town on Ireland’s rugged Atlantic coast, the Democrat’s distant relatives are thrilled to have one of their own bidding for America’s highest office.

“Obviously we’re 100 percent behind Joe Biden,” Laurita Blewitt, the former vice-president’s third cousin, told AFP.

“We’ve got that family connection and we’ve got that friendship and relationship with him,” the 37-year-old said.

Biden’s family roots run deep in Ireland, with a heritage described as “roughly five-eighths Irish” by genealogist Megan Smolenyak.

She has traced his lineage to east-coast County Louth and Ballina — a town of 10,000 people, which is dotted with brightly colored shopfronts and bisected by the River Moy.

In 1851, Biden’s great-great-great-grandfather Edward Blewitt joined the legions of Irish fleeing famine and poverty for a fresh start in New York.

‘Irish soul’

The mural was raised by a band of locals last month, and Ballina is twinned with Scranton, Pennsylvania, where Biden was born in 1942.

The 77-year-old politician has visited twice — first in 2016 when crowds turned out to see president Barack Obama’s deputy.

In 2017 he came back and turned the first sod for a new regional hospice — a cause near to his heart after his son Beau’s death from cancer two years earlier.

Biden wrote that when he dies, “northeast Pennsylvania will be written on my heart”.

“But Ireland will be written on my soul.”

He is mining a rich tradition of American statesmen touting Irish heritage.

In the 20th century, John F. Kennedy was most closely tied to the “Emerald Isle”, and had to overcome anti-Irish, anti-Catholic prejudice to win the White House.

But others including Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama have all claimed ancestral links to Ireland.

‘Soft power’ –

Ten percent of Americans claim Irish heritage — a 31-million-strong bloc vastly larger than the five-million population of Ireland itself.

Those links helped give Washington an intermediary role in resolving the 30-year “Troubles” in Northern Ireland, a sectarian conflict that killed 3,500 in Ireland and the British province itself, before it largely ended in 1998.

Lately, Britain’s Brexit withdrawal from the European Union has threatened the cohesion promised by Northern Ireland’s Good Friday Agreement.

US politicians have stepped in, warning London that a post-Brexit UK-US trade pact could be at risk if the peace is undermined.

Their alarm has reportedly been stoked by energetic briefing by the Irish embassy in Washington.

“The connections between Ireland and the US are incredibly strong,” said Ballina local councillor Mark Duffy.

“It is that soft power,” he added. “Ireland does definitely punch above its weight on the international stage.”

Division –

Thinking of their ancestral homelands, Irish-Americans may evoke a lush green idyll of tight-knit communities.

But in the midst of a bitter US election campaign between Biden and President Donald Trump, America’s own divisions have spilt over into the Irish countryside.

Biden’s third cousin Joe Blewitt — a local plumber — decorated his van with a tongue-in-cheek reference to the campaign: “Joe Biden for the White House and Joe Blewitt for your house.”

He received hate messages and one harassing call from a private number where an American voice told him: “Trump is going to be president.”

“There is an awful lot of hatred,” the 41-year-old mused.

Laurita Blewitt travelled to Las Vegas to canvas for Biden during the Democratic primary process in February.

“Any time I visit the States now it’s not like that friendly, open, welcoming place that it used to be,” she said.

“Everyone’s a little bit more suspicious now.”

But she said after four years of a Trump presidency that has upended all political conventions, a Biden victory next month may provide “a little bit more normality”, both at home and abroad.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to celebrate in style here on the third of November,” she grinned.