Soros Strikes Back At Facebook; Demands Congressional Oversight

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The Soros machine has hit back at Facebook after the social media giant admitted to using a Republican PR firm to cast liberal critics as operatives for the Hungarian-American activist billionaire, a claim first revealed in a November 14 New York Times exposé. 

In response to Facebook's "Thanksgiving eve" admission, the head of Soros' foundation, Patrick Gaspard, tweeted: "So @facebook decides to drop a turkey on Thanksgiving eve, with admission that Definers was tasked by company leadership to target and smear George Soros because he publicly criticized their out of control business model. Sorry, but this needs independent, congressional oversight"

So @facebook decides to drop a turkey on Thanksgiving eve, with admission that Definers was tasked by company leadership to target and smear George Soros because he publicly criticized their out of control business model. Sorry, but this needs independent, congressional oversight

— Patrick Gaspard (@patrickgaspard) November 21, 2018

On Wednesday evening, Facebook's outgoing Head of Communications and Policy, Elliot Schrage, fell on his sword and issued the following admission: 

Did we ask them to do work on George Soros?

Yes. In January 2018, investor and philanthropist George Soros attacked Facebook in a speech at Davos, calling us a “menace to society.” We had not heard such criticism from him before and wanted to determine if he had any financial motivation. Definers researched this using public information.

Later, when the “Freedom from Facebook” campaign emerged as a so-called grassroots coalition, the team asked Definers to help understand the groups behind them. They learned that George Soros was funding several of the coalition members. They prepared documents and distributed these to the press to show that this was not simply a spontaneous grassroots movement. -Elliot Schrage

COO Sheryl Sandberg added at the end of the "Thanksgiving eve" admission that while it was indeed Facebook's collective decision to go after Soros, "it was never anyone’s intention to play into an anti-Semitic narrative against Mr. Soros or anyone else." It just happened... and it wasn't even Putin's fault this time?

I also want to emphasize that it was never anyone’s intention to play into an anti-Semitic narrative against Mr. Soros or anyone else. Being Jewish is a core part of who I am and our company stands firmly against hate. The idea that our work has been interpreted as anti-Semitic is abhorrent to me — and deeply personal.

Both Sandberg and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg denied any knowledge of the company's hiring of Definers - despite the company's official statement describing their relationship as "well known in the media." 

Gaspard responded to this on CNN Tuesday night, stating "I find it hard to believe that one would go after someone like George Soros...without some clearance at the highest levels."

In his own CNN interview 

The day after the NYT story broke, Gaspard and Soros adviser Michael Vachon issued harsh rebuikes; with Vachon writing: "It is alarming that Facebook would engage in these unsavory tactics, apparently in response to George’s public criticism in Davos earlier this year of the company’s handling of hate speech and propaganda on its platform."

The Times’ story raises the question of whether Facebook has used similar methods to go after other critics or public officials who have tried to hold Facebook accountable. Zuckerberg and Sandberg’s claim that they were unaware of what the company was doing is more alarming than reassuring. What else is Facebook up to?
 
The company should hire an outside expert to do a thorough investigation of its lobbying and PR work and make the results public. 

Until then, this episode further demonstrates that Facebook continues to pursue its narrow corporate interests at the expense of the public interest. -Michael Vachon

Gaspard similarly responded, saying in a statement: "I was shocked to learn from the New York Times that you and your colleagues at Facebook hired a Republican opposition research firm to stir up animus toward George Soros," adding: "As you know, there is a concerted right-wing effort the world over to demonize Mr. Soros and his foundations, which I lead—an effort which has contributed to death threats and the delivery of a pipe bomb to Mr. Soros’ home. You are no doubt also aware that much of this hateful and blatantly false and anti-Semitic information is spread via Facebook."

Facebook has spent much of 2018 apologizing for the massive Cambridge Analytica data harvesting scandal, and has come under fire by lawmakers for allowing Russian disinformation to thrive on the platform surrounding the 2016 US election. 

When asked recently if he would ever step down as Facebook's chairman, Zuckerberg said "I don’t think that that specific proposal is the right way to go."

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Gun Bill To Require Buyers To Hand Over Social Media Passwords & Search History

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Submitted by Joseph Jankowski of Planet Free Will

The bill, drafted by state Senator Kevin Parker and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, would give state officials the ability to review up to three years worth of internet search history, reports WKBW Buffalo.

Providing more information on the newly-drafted bill, Rochester First is reporting that the search history will come from major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

Also, anyone applying for, or renewing a pistol permit would have to give up all login information, including passwords, for any social media sites they’re a part of.

Posts from the past three years on sites like Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat would be reviewed for language containing slurs, racial/gender bias, threats and terrorism.

“There should be more restrictions on how guns are purchased. We should have more background checks,” Paul McQuillen, director of the Buffalo chapter of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, told WKBW.

“We’ve obviously seen some of the mass shooters have a social media history that should have sent red flags,” McQuillen added.

James Tresmond, a gun rights lawyer, told the local NY station that the bill would violate multiple constitutional rights.

“The first, the second amendment, the fifth amendment, the fourth amendment, and the 14th amendment,” Tresmond said.

Some are arguing that the subjective nature of the bill is highly concerning.

“The judge who grants or denies a permit has fairly broad digression under New York State law.  And it has to have a rational basis. So they can’t say they don’t like your gender or your race,” Sheldon Boyce, an attorney with Brenna Boyce PLLC, told WIVB 4.

“For example, religious practice- are we going to deny permits because a person goes to church or goes to a mosque?” Boyce asked. “In the case of Heller vs District of Columbia in 2008, the US Supreme Court held that the possession of a hand gun in the home is a fundamental constitutional right so anything that infringes upon that right is subject to challenge,” he explained

The bill is currently in committee with a scheduled vote still pending.

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Facebook Admits To Targeting Soros In PR Attack

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Late on Wednesday, with markets closed and much of America stuck in traffic headed to their Thanksgiving venue of choice, Facebook admitted to paying a Republican PR firm to cast liberal critics as operatives for liberal financier George Soros, following a shocking exposé in the New York Times last week which shed light on a wide scope of questionable damage control techniques employed by the social media giant in the wake of several scandals.

We hired Definers in 2017 as part of our efforts to diversify our DC advisors after the election. Like many companies, we needed to broaden our outreach. We also faced growing pressure from competitors in tech, telcos and media companies that want government to regulate us.

This pressure became particularly acute in September 2017 after we released details of Russian interference on our service. We hired firms associated with both Republicans and Democrats — Definers was one of the Republican-affiliated firms. -Elliot Schrage

The admissions come from the company's outgoing Head of Communications and Policy, Elliot Schrage, who appears to be the company's chosen scapegoat. 

In the Wednesday release, Facebook admitted that it used the Washington, DC PR fiirm Definers for several purposes, which included the Soros smear. 

Did we ask them to do work on George Soros?

Yes. In January 2018, investor and philanthropist George Soros attacked Facebook in a speech at Davos, calling us a “menace to society.” We had not heard such criticism from him before and wanted to determine if he had any financial motivation. Definers researched this using public information.

Later, when the “Freedom from Facebook” campaign emerged as a so-called grassroots coalition, the team asked Definers to help understand the groups behind them. They learned that George Soros was funding several of the coalition members. They prepared documents and distributed these to the press to show that this was not simply a spontaneous grassroots movement.

In response to the Times article, Soros adviser Michael Vachon and the Open Society Foundation president, Patrick Gaspard, penned angry responses to the Times article, lambasting Facebook for smearing Soros amid "a concerted right-wing effort the world over to demonize Mr. Soros and his foundations." 

So... Facebook is now the Soros-funded alt-right?

The social network also admitted to having Defenders "respond to unfair claims where Facebook was been [sic] signaled out for criticism," referring to claims that Definers coordinated with a third party company to publish negative articles on Google and Apple which called out questionable business practices, in an effort to downplay Facebook's responsibility in the data harvesting and Russia scandals. 

Mr. Kaplan prevailed on Ms. Sandberg to promote Kevin Martin, a former Federal Communications Commission chairman and fellow Bush administration veteran, to lead the company’s American lobbying efforts. Facebook also expanded its work with Definers.

On a conservative news site called the NTK Network, dozens of articles blasted Google and Apple for unsavory business practices. One story called Mr. Cook hypocritical for chiding Facebook over privacy, noting that Apple also collects reams of data from users. Another played down the impact of the Russians’ use of Facebook.

The rash of news coverage was no accident: NTK is an affiliate of Definers, sharing offices and staff with the public relations firm in Arlington, Va. Many NTK Network stories are written by staff members at Definers or America Rising, the company’s political opposition-research arm, to attack their clients’ enemies. -NYT

Schrage said that responsibility lied with him, and that "Mark [Zuckerberg] and Sheryl [Sandberg] relied on me to manage this without controversy."

I knew and approved of the decision to hire Definers and similar firms. I should have known of the decision to expand their mandate. Over the past decade, I built a management system that relies on the teams to escalate issues if they are uncomfortable about any project, the value it will provide or the risks that it creates. That system failed here and I’m sorry I let you all down. I regret my own failure here. -Elliot Schrage

COO Sheryl Sandberg added that while it was indeed Facebook's collective decision to go after Soros, "it was never anyone’s intention to play into an anti-Semitic narrative against Mr. Soros or anyone else." It just happened... and it wasn't even Putin's fault this time?

Thank you for sharing this, Elliot.

I want to be clear that I oversee our Comms team and take full responsibility for their work and the PR firms who work with us. I truly believe we have a world class Comms team and I want to acknowledge the enormous pressure the team has faced over the past year.

When I read the story in New York Times last week, I didn’t remember a firm called Definers. I asked our team to look into the work Definers did for us and to double-check whether anything had crossed my desk. Some of their work was incorporated into materials presented to me and I received a small number of emails where Definers was referenced.

I also want to emphasize that it was never anyone’s intention to play into an anti-Semitic narrative against Mr. Soros or anyone else. Being Jewish is a core part of who I am and our company stands firmly against hate. The idea that our work has been interpreted as anti-Semitic is abhorrent to me — and deeply personal.

I know this has been a distraction at a time when you’re all working hard to close out the year — and I am sorry. As I said at the All Hands, I believe so deeply in the work we do and feel so grateful to all of you for doing so much every day. Thanksgiving seems like the right time to say a big thank you once again.

And there you have it - Facebook casually admits to smearing detractors as Soros operatives and using Definers to attack Apple and Google with factual information, as opposed to "fake news."

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Was Global Warming A Significant Factor In California's Camp Fire?

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Via Cliff Mass Weather & Climate blog,

The Camp Fire that struck the northern California town of Paradise and vicinity is a profoundly disturbing environmental disaster of first magnitude.  Nearly 100 people have lost their lives, approximately 10,000 homes have been lost, a major community has essentially been destroyed, and millions of people have been exposed to high concentrations of smoke.  Tens of thousands of people have been displaced and lives of millions substantially affected.

And beyond the heart-wrenching losses noted above, it is doubly tragic that this disaster was both foreseeable and avoidable, resulting from a series of errors, poor judgment, lack of use of available technology, and poor urban planning.

It is more than unfortunate that some politicians, environmental advocacy groups, and activist scientists are attempting to use this tragedy as a tool for their own agenda, make the claim that the Camp Fire was result of global warming.

As I will discuss below, this claim has little grounding in fact or science.  Global warming is a profoundly serious threat to mankind, but it has little impact the Camp Fire and many of the coastal California fires of the past few years (e.g., the Wine Country Fires of October 2017).  And blaming global warming takes attention away from the actions needed to prevent such  tragedies from happening again.

Analyzing the Origins of the Camp Fire

Winds

A central causative factor was the strong, offshore-directed, winds that both initiated the fire and drove it rapidly towards the town of Paradise.   These winds are known as Diablo winds, and are driven by the difference in pressure between the intermountain interior (e.g., Nevada) and the coast.

The easterly (from the east) winds that struck that day were not that unusual, something that is evident by looking at the wind climatology at the nearby Jarbo Gap USDA RAWS weather station.  The sustained winds on the day of the fire initiation (November 8) accelerated to 32 mph (with gusts to 52 mph), with peak winds at 4 AM that day.   Looking at the entire record at Jarbo (back to 2003), northeasterly winds of 30 mph or more have occurred 508 times in those 15 years--not an unusual event.  And my inspection of the individual records does not suggest an increasing trend.

Furthermore, there is no reason to expect that Diablo winds will increase under global warming; in fact, the opposite is the case.  Global warming preferentially warms the interior of the continent compared to the eastern Pacific.  Thus, human-caused warming would tend to weaken the interior high pressure, thus lessening a key driving force of the Diablo winds.   There are several studies in the peer-reviewed scientific literature  (e.g., this one) that show that global warming should weaken southern California's Santa Ana winds, which are also driven by the pressure difference between the western interior and the coast.

Initiation of the fires

There is strong evidence that that Camp Fire was caused by failure of PG&E powerlines, not by any natural causes that could be linked to global warming.  In fact, nearly all wildfires in California are caused by human error or arson. 

Increased population in California would clearly lead to more human fire initiation.  Thus, global warming is not a factor in fire initiation.

Surface dry conditions

One of the most popular handwaving arguments about why global warming is enhancing wildfires is through temperature and precipitation changes.   It is argued that warming temperatures are causing more evaporation and thus drying the "fuels" at the surface.  And it is argued that global warming is causing increasing drought that dries fuels and encourages fires.

Now this sounds reasonable enough on the surface, but when you examine the facts more closely, it rapidly becomes clear that global warming has little role in producing the dry conditions that assisted  the Camp Fire, the wine country fires, or the fires in coastal southern CA.

The truth is that California is quite dry during nearly half of the year and that fuels such as grasses, bushes and small vegetation dry out during any typical summer.   Even more important, virtually all of the fires noted above (including the Camp Fire) were associated with offshore, downslope winds which rapidly dry out vegetation, even it is wet the day before!

A nearby landscape.  Not all the grass and small vegetation

The fire weather community divides fuels by how quickly they dry.  1-h fuels are less than 1/4 of an inch in diameter and can dry in LESS THAN AN HOUR.  This includes grass and small weeds/plants.  10-h fuels have diameters of 1/4 to 1 inch and dry in less than 10 hours, and include small bushes, branches, and the like.

In much of California, and particularly in the areas of the fires noted above, most of the fuels were grasses and small stuff--mainly 1 and 10-h fuels.    Thus, they dry very quickly, such as when Diablo winds start to blow.  This kind of small diameter fuels is known as chaparral in California, and there was a lot of such ground cover north and east of Paradise.

Now let me prove to you that global warming had nothing to do with the dry conditions near Paradise on the morning of November 8.  Below is a plot of the ten-hour fuel moisture at the nearby Jarbo Gap observation side, a site that was in the path of the fire, for the five years ending November 20.  You will note a repeatable pattern, with values reaching around 27% during the winter, but 3-8% every summer and early fall.  The fuels are not getting progressively drier.  I should note that I was told by local fire experts that values below approximately 10% are plenty dry enough to burn.

Looking at a blow-up image of the fuel moisture of the last 3/4 year you can see the summer drying clearly and something else very important....there are short dry periods even in the middle of winter when rain is falling occasionally.  Why?  Because there are diablo wind events that can dry out the vegetation even then.

The bottom line is that the vegetation is plenty dry enough to burn every summer right now...and has been like that forever.  Even if global warming is increasing temperatures a few degrees (and it probably is), IT DOESN'T MATTER.  The fuels are plenty dry enough to burn already.  That is why the handwaving argument that global warming is contributing to the fires simply don't make sense.

And then there is the argument that global warming is somehow decreasing autumn rains in the area.  This has little basis in truth.  Here is the plot of precipitation form the NOAA/NWS climate division data set for 1930-2018 for August to October precipitation for the area of the Camp Fire.  There is no obvious trend.  August to October precipitation is typically light (about 2 inches), with lots of variation year to year.  Many years are as dry or drier than this year. And the global warming simulations for the end of the century that I have seen do not show a consistent change in fall precipitation.

As long as I taking on taking on claims of global warming-fire connections, some folks like to talk about tree deaths, bark beetles, and the like, with the claim that global warming is killing trees and thus leading to fires.   The Camp Fire areas is NOT  noted for tree death and besides, most of the fire was on chaparral vegetation.  Below is a satellite photo showing the boundaries of Paradise (brown line), with the fire starting near Pulga (on the NE side of the image).   The fire spread over a region that had been logged, previously burned, and was then mainly grass and small shrubs.

In summary, if one analyzes the situation, it is evident that global warming had little to do with the Camp Fire. 

As I will discuss in a future blog, the Paradise area was a ticking time bomb.    There was a huge influx of population into a wildland area, which had burned many times in the past.  Previously logging and fires had left a conduit of highly flammable grass and bushes, through which fire could move rapidly.  Flammable, non-native invasive grasses had spread through the region. Homes were not built to withstand fire and roadways were inadequate for evacuation. Powerlines started the fires and were not de-energized even though strong winds were skillfully forecast.   Warnings to the population were inadequate.  The list is long.   And global warming should not be on the list if we are to focus on the real problems.

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Large study reveals that junk food really DOES increase your risk for cancer

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(Natural News) We all know that junk food is terrible for us, but there may be occasions when you’re tempted to give in. Perhaps the vending machine is the social center at your office and you find yourself chatting and snacking more often than not, or you’ve given in to your kids’ requests that you...

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Some "wonder drug:" Aspirin found to have NO benefits for older adults, and may even cause significant harm

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(Natural News) For years, the “daily baby aspirin” propaganda has suggested that taking a daily dose of the “wonder drug” would help stave off cardiovascular disease and heart attacks. But new research has just confirmed what many have long suspected: The notion that aspirin will prevent heart disease in healthy people is nothing but a...

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Conservative 'Proud Boys' Labeled "Extremist Group" By FBI

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The "Proud Boys", a self-described "Western chauvinist" group founded by Vice Media co-creator Gavin McInnes, has officially been labeled by the FBI as an "extremist group with ties to White Nationalism". News of the classification (which had previously not been made public) was broken by the Guardian, which reported that disciplinary action taken against a female sheriffs deputy in Clark County, Washington led to the designation.

In a warning issued to police departments in Washington state, the FBI described the Proud Boys as "contributing to the escalation in street violence" at political rallies and noted that they are "actively recruiting" in the area.  The report was first issued two months ago.

"The FBI has warned local law enforcement agencies that the Proud Boys are actively recruiting in the Pacific north-west," and: "Proud Boys members have contributed to the recent escalation of violence at political rallies held on college campuses, and in cities like Charlottesville, Virginia, Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington."

Of course, this isn't the first time that a conservative or "alt-right" group like the Proud Boys has been lumped in with overtly racist, white supremacist or otherwise extremist groups. The Proud Boys have repeatedly insisted that they condemn bigotry in all of its forms (though their embrace of traditional gender roles has led to them also being labeled "misogynist".) However, the involvement of the FBI represents a troubling escalation. In recent years, organizations like the ACLU and SPLC have started lumping in socially and politically conservative groups like the Family Research Council with overtly racist groups, effectively opening the door to the criminalization of conservative groups. Meanwhile, groups like Antifa, which regularly participates in street violence and vandalism, have evaded this classification, despite warnings from the Department of Homeland Security.  

The firing of Erin Willey, a sheriffs' deputy who was photographed in a "Proud Boys Girls" sweatshirt, reportedly precipitated the internal law enforcement inquiry that led to the classification. Willey was fired last July after the photo was published by the Vancouver Columbian.

The document, provided to the Guardian by the government transparency non-profit Property of the People, was part of an internal affairs investigation into a probationary deputy in the Clark county sheriff’s department.

The former clark county deputy, Erin Willey, was fired last July after a photo of her wearing a “Proud Boys Girls” sweatshirt was published by the Vancouver, Washington newspaper the Columbian. The Proud Boys Girls is the female auxiliary of the men-only group founded by McInnes in 2016.

The author of the document, headquarters commander Michael McCabe, is in charge of internal affairs, training, background investigation and courthouse security in the Clark county sheriff’s department.

The internal affairs commander who led that investigation said the classification was first disclosed to him back in August during a meeting between local law enforcement and the FBI.

After confirming the authenticity of the document, he told the Guardian in a telephone interview that the FBI’s classification of the Proud Boys as an extremist group was revealed to him in “a briefing we were given by the FBI” on 2 August, at Clark county’s west precinct.

The briefing included agency heads from local law enforcement, and in it the FBI said that they “have been warning [local law enforcement] for a while” about the Proud Boys, “not just in Washington but around the nation”.

The briefing including the Proud Boys was delivered by an FBI analyst, according to information forwarded to the Guardian by McCabe.

It touched on topics including "How the FBI tracks hate/extremist groups," "Brief history of these groups in the Pacific NW," "A description of currently active groups with a focus on the Portland/Vancouver area," and "Current trends or concerns over law enforcement officers/employees involvement with these groups."

According to the FBI report, Willey was an active member of the organization for roughly a year beginning in late 2016, helping it to distribute merchandise. Her membership, according to the bureau, violated the CCSD's oath to "protect the laws of the US" and also constituted a "Brady violation" - meaning that defense attorneys could potentially cite Willey's membership in the extremist group as evidence to have criminal charges against minorities arrested by Willey thrown out (based on claims of bias).

The document says that Willey was an active Proud Boys Girls member between November 2016 and October 2017, and in February 2017 she "actively participated in the manufacturing, advertising and selling of Proud Boys Girls’ merchandise on a website."

The document concludes that membership in the Proud Boys may constitute a violation of the Clark county sheriff’s department oath to support and protect the laws of the United States, since Proud Boys “members have been documented as having called for the closure of all prisons, the issuing of firearms to everyone, the legalization of all drugs, the deportation of all illegal immigrants and the shutdown of the government”.

Another concern expressed in the document produced by McCabe – which was handed to the sheriff, Chuck E Atkins, so he could make a decision on Willey’s future in the department – was the possibility that the deputy’s membership in the group would constitute a so-called “Brady violation”.

The Brady doctrine requires prosecutors to disclose any potentially exculpatory evidence to defenses in the discovery phase of criminal trials.

Hate crimes in the United States are on the rise generally. The Southern Poverty Law Center has uncovered 953 registered hate groups across the United States.

You will find more infographics at Statista

But there's no evidence that the Proud Boys have contributed in any way to this increase. In fact, according to a Daily Beast article published earlier this year, several African Americans and other minorities have become heavily involved with the Proud Boys, even rising to lead local chapters of the group.

Perhaps the FBI, while conducting its investigation into the group, neglected to do a simple Google search.

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How the US Creates ‘Sh*thole’ Countries – Consortiumnews

https://consortiumnews.com/2018/11/19/how-the-us-creates-shthole-countries/

Who Or What Is Really Responsible For The Huge Forest Fires In California?

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Authored by Bruce Bialosky, op-ed via Townhall.com,

Once again, faced with the failure of the “press” to educate us on an issue, we decided to go out and research the truth about what appears to be the significant increase in huge forest fires.  Once we did the research, we found out major differences in facts from the random barkings in the MSM.

Let us start with this simple aspect.  Forest fires are a normal thing.  Often caused by lightning or other natural causes, they are God’s way of clearing forests.  In those natural forest clearances, the wildlife that exists in them are threatened or their habitat is destroyed.  What has changed is mankind’s intervention in the natural process.  The question is, what other factors may be causing the change in the intensity of recent forest fires?

We also came armed with a thought.  If you believe that global warming is making life more challenging for forest management, then you should support proper forest clearance. Otherwise we will be left with even more intense fires.

For this column, other than reading everything available, we went to two sources: our national Forest Service and the Union of Concerned Scientists to get different perspectives.

Speaking with Chris French, the Acting Deputy Chief of Forest Service (FS), we received a primer on what is really going on with forest fires today.

When asked what he believes is the primary cause of the intense forest fires, Mr. French’s immediate response was “Forests are overstocked.  There are more trees than 100 years ago.”  He went on to say that part of the problem was the Forest Service’s good work in the recent past stopping forest fires. This meant, however, that their focus was largely directed away from forest maintenance, which caused the elements that fuel a fire like underbrush, dead trees or more density to occur. 

The changes French would like to see would be more active forest clearance and clearance of the underbrush.   He also wants to do more controlled fires when the risks are minimized.  If you are wondering why they are not doing that now it is because of budget restraints.

What government department does not advocate for additional money in their budget?  In this case, there may truly be rationale.  Because of the good work the FS was doing, they were spending 85% of the budget on forest maintenance and 15% on fire suppression.  

Over the recent years as forest fires became more intense, they spent more money on suppression and less on clearance causing a vicious cycle of less money on clearance.  At this point French stated that it was projected that 60% of their budget went toward suppression leaving fewer precious dollars for clearance.  Recent Congressional budget bills have increased the Forest Service budget providing additional funding for clearance, thus hopefully stopping as many fires from happening and less money spent on suppression.

While doing the clearance the Forest Service does, French stated they were controlled by a myriad of federal laws which limit their actions.  These laws include The Clean Air Act, Natural Forest Management Act, Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act to name a few.  The Forest Service must put information out to the public before they do their clearance work.  They are not always questioned, but quite often interest groups jump in armed with legal briefs to stop the planned work.  

Currently there are groups trying to stop certain aspects of the Farm bill from being passed that would enhance the funding for forest clearance because they are against logging even though it is clear much of the land in question has three times the density that it should.

Just a thought:  If you have a concern about destroying the natural habitat and thus limit the proper clearance of the areas in question, what do you say about what happens to the improperly-cleared forest during a major fire when the habitat is destroyed and the animals’ lives are put at risk?

One other point French made was about risks being higher today.

 He stated “People are living closer to where the fire dangers are, causing more damage and peril to human lives.”  We asked if this is akin to all the people living in flood plains today.  His response: “Exactly.”

This kind of fire has a catchy new name – urban interface fires.  The Forest Servicedefines the wildland-urban interface as the place where "homes and wildlands meet or intermingle". As French described, it's where "humans and their development meet or intermix with wildland fuel".  These used to be called fire areas.  I live in one and we have to do special clearance each year to make sure that if a fire starts there will be little fuel to feed the fire.  Where I live has built up for seventy years.  This new situation describes the recent fires in California where people reached further in to these areas to homestead. 

What is the government’s responsibility in these cases?  Few would restrict people’s rights to build homes on private property.  Fewer would suggest the authorities should not protect those people from danger if there is a fire, mud slide or their home is washed out in a flood. Many will question whether the government should have any financial risk to help the survivors rebuild in the areas in question. Others would say that just encourages questionable behavior.  

While we can all feel sadness for those who have lost their homes in the fires, many have built homes in areas that are inherently dangerous to be “away from the hubbub.”  Their choice; their risk.  To build a home near a forest and not accept the uncertainty of fire verges on insanity.   

When dealing with an environmental group today, one anticipates that a focal point will be global warming/climate change.  In fact, the article I pulled from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) website is titled "Is Global Warming Fueling Increases Fire Risks?"  The column is a mix of warnings about how global warming is increasing wildfires and encouragement to do more forest clearance.  I spoke with Rachel Cleetus, lead economist and policy director with the climate and energy program for the UCS.

Ms. Cleetus painted a somewhat different picture.  She also forwarded a 64-page report she personally authored for the UCS on the matter.  She was very aware of the many factors that are involved and echoed many of the same themes that the FS had stated, including the need for a greater budget especially with the extra monies being spent on forest clearance.  

Cleetus was unclear whether the organization just supported the procedures that the FS argued for or advocated for them.  She stated that they were not involved in stopping the FS from doing their work like some other interests often do.

But she did state the primary reasons for the increased risk of major fires was because of more people living in the areas and the forest management (or lack thereof) being done.  

Whether you believe in global warming/climate change or not, it is quite clear that the forest service needs to get a handle on proper forest management to lessen the risks of major forest fires.  The only way they can do that right now is to throw more resources at the problem to stop the downward spiral of clearance necessary to halt/minimize the risk of major fires.  

Certainly, the federal/state governments need to make clear that they will not assume any liability for financial loss if anyone lives is in a fire zone.  Citizens need to evaluate whether the joy of being in these areas is worth the exposure to their belongings and possibly their lives.  

One thing we know for sure is that the wild charges made by some that this is all due to change in environmental factors is wrong.  Though the UCS is vested in the issue of climate change, they support that there are other factors as proposed by the FS.    

Climate change/global warming is not the answer to everything on our planet.

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The Mosaic of Autoimmunity: Top doctors reveal vaccines turn our immune system against us

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The research is hard to ignore, vaccines can trigger autoimmunity with a laundry list of diseases to follow. With harmful and toxic metals as some vaccine ingredients, who is susceptible and which individuals are more at risk? No one would accuse Yehuda Shoenfeld of being a quack. The Israeli clinician has spent more than three decades studying the human immune system and is at the pinnacle of his profession. You might say he is more foundation than fringe in his specialty; he wrote the textbooks. The Mosaic of Autoimmunity, Autoantibodies, Diagnostic Criteria in Autoimmune Diseases, Infection and Autoimmunity, Cancer and Autoimmunity - the list is 25 titles long and some of them are cornerstones of clinical practice. Hardly surprising that Shoenfeld has been called the "Godfather of Autoimmunology" - the study of the immune system turned on itself in a wide array of diseases from type 1 diabetes to ulcerative colitis and multiple sclerosis.

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