Transcript

1.13.25 · Washington Post

0:00
Speaker 1: Warning everybody, and welcome to the reading of the Washington
0:03
Post for this Monday, January thirteenth. As a reminder, RADIOI
0:09
is reading service intended for people who are blind or
0:12
have other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
0:16
Your reader for today is Rod Brotherton, and on Monday,
0:21
by listener request, we begin by reading Paul Prather's weekly
0:25
column from the Lexington Herald Leader. This week's article is
0:30
entitled Historian shows how much Jesus turned world upside down.
0:38
Tom Holland might be one of the smarter and more
0:41
engaging guys i've heard. The British novelist, popular historian and
0:47
podcast host who attended Cambridge and Oxford Universities, seems to
0:52
know everything that can be known about ancient cultures. Plus
0:57
he possesses the rare kind of mind that can put
1:00
it all together for simpletons like me. Some of his
1:05
insights are surprising, including his contention that modern developments, including
1:11
the transgender rights movement and a recent spike in atheism,
1:15
probably wouldn't exist if it weren't for the West's Christian,
1:20
philosophical and moral foundations. In addition to writing award winning books,
1:27
Holland co hosts with Dominic Sandbrook a top ten rated
1:31
podcast called The Rest is History. I first encountered him
1:38
during the holidays on a podcast other than his own,
1:42
Barry Weiss's Honestly Fortunately. Weiss is a fine an interviewer,
1:49
as Holland And is a rock onteur. Their topic was
1:55
how Christianity remade the world. For Holland, that's not an
1:59
exact He says, everything from the way we measure time,
2:05
to our fondness for underdogs to the American and French
2:08
revolutions was generated largely by the life and teachings of
2:14
Jesus in the West. Even secular progresses who dismiss Christianity
2:20
as superstitious mumbo jumbo are actually driven by early Christian
2:25
assumptions about the nature of God, humans, and justice. Without
2:30
realizing it, such critics are the slaves of some defunct theologian.
2:36
Holland said he makes these observations although he doesn't much
2:41
believe Christianity is true. He was raised in the Church
2:45
of England, but developed early on as an atheist. Gradually
2:51
in adulthood, his pleasure with atheism war off. I found
2:56
it boring. Ultimately, he said, as a scholar of ancient cultures.
3:02
He kept finding himself running into the works of great
3:05
Christian writers. He also remembered the teachings of his Anglican youth,
3:11
in which he rediscovered enormous beauty. Today, he says he
3:15
exists in the shadowlands, somewhere between belief and agnosticism. He
3:23
likes to think the ancient Christian version of God would
3:26
be true and could be true, although he mainly still
3:29
doesn't think it is. It makes my life more interesting,
3:34
he told Weise. What's beyond question is Christianity's unique staying power.
3:40
He said, Jesus turned the world upside down, and it's
3:47
never been the same since Jesus did something almost entirely new.
3:53
It wasn't beyond comprehension for Romans, say, to believe a
3:57
man could become a god or a rise to have
4:00
to join his divine father.
4:01
Speaker 2: There.
4:03
Speaker 1: Roman said Julius Caesar had become divine, as had his
4:07
own son Augustus. When Augustus died, he supposedly ascended to
4:13
sit at Julius's right hand in heaven. What through the
4:17
Romans and nearly everybody else off kilter was the contention
4:22
that Jesus had done these things after being crucified.
4:27
Speaker 2: For them.
4:29
Speaker 1: Crucifixion was the ultimate bad news about Jesus. The scandal
4:35
of death by crucifixion was almost beyond our ability to comprehend.
4:41
It was a state execution carried out by public, humiliating torture,
4:48
reserved for rebellious slaves and the worst criminal dregs. Roman
4:54
society was all about empire, about winning, conquering, dominating. It
5:01
idolized the strong. The heroic people perceived as losers, slaves,
5:08
the poor, prisoners, the sickly, the conquered were fit only
5:13
for contempt and abuse. Jesus came along, teaching unprecedented things
5:20
about such outcasts. Blessed are the poor, the hungry, the sick.
5:26
The last will be first, the first last. When he
5:31
was crucified, and then he was resurrected, then he was
5:36
raised into heaven as the rightful air of God, as
5:39
if it were God himself, or as if you might
5:43
say he was the cosmic Caesar. The idea that a
5:49
crucified person could do this was simply madness. It made
5:54
a hero of victims. It implied that God is closer
5:58
to the weak than to the mighty, that any beggar
6:02
might be divine that the slave had triumphed over the master,
6:07
that the tortured had vested the torturer. Yet this new
6:12
faith stuck for multiple reasons. Beyond my limited space here,
6:17
people who weren't atop the cultural hierarchy found Christianity appealing. Obviously,
6:25
sat soon expanded the message, making in local everyone is
6:30
equal in God's sight. Paul proclaimed, there's neither slave, nor
6:36
free man, nor woman, June nor Greek. God loves everyone
6:41
and will accept you, regardless of your station in life.
6:46
These two were staggering concepts. Within four centuries of Jesus' death,
6:53
Christianity was the official religion of the Roman Empire, as
6:58
Wise observes in her innerdation to the podcast. By then,
7:03
Christianity had thirty million followers, half of the empire. The
7:08
Christian message proved inherently subversive kings were no more important
7:14
to God than any given beggar. Every human deserved to
7:18
be treated with dignity. As the centuries rolled along, such
7:23
teachings sowed the seeds of revolutions. As I mentioned, they
7:27
eventually led to the rights of free speech and religious practice.
7:32
Everyone being made in God's image could keep her own conscience.
7:37
And speak her own mind up to and including denying
7:41
God's existence. Because Christianity began with Jesus, the ultimate victim
7:47
of misused power, it bestowed an inherent virtue within victimhood.
7:53
Holland said, the idea that to be oppressed is the
7:59
source of power. I mean, it's a very radical idea
8:02
that Christianity weaponizes and has weaponized again and again and again.
8:09
It would seem mad to the Romans that to be
8:12
a victim would be something that you could weaponize, but
8:16
that it is still going very very strong today. We
8:21
encounter such ideas in the air. We breathe not to
8:24
mention the news we consume, We take them for granted. Nevertheless,
8:29
they and our way of life wouldn't exist without Jesus
8:33
and the religion he inspired. Christianity has never managed to
8:38
fully embody all the lofty ideals it proclaimed. It's taken
8:43
a sadly circuitous path in its quest for equality, justice
8:47
and mercy with countless failures, but it is undeniably the
8:55
source for much of what is best about our way
8:58
of life. And as you know, Paul Prather his pastor
9:03
Bethista Church near Mount Sterling, and you can email him
9:08
at PRTPD at yahoo dot com. Now let's turn to
9:14
the Washington Post stories for today and the lead story.
9:19
LA's wildfires have leaders fighting on two fronts, nature and politics.
9:26
As California continues to battle catastrophic wildfires, consuming entire neighborhoods
9:33
and taking lives, state and local officials are also fending
9:38
off President elect Trump and his allies efforts to blame
9:41
them for the destruction. At least twenty four people are
9:45
dead and as many are missing as roaring flames ravage
9:49
southern California, and what Governor Gavin Newsom, the Democrat, said
9:54
he expects will be the worst natural disaster in US history.
10:00
Arms of the scale and scope of damage, there will
10:03
also probably be a lot more depths added to the
10:07
fatality told Newsom said in an interview that aired Sunday,
10:11
the number of missing is expected to quickly increase by
10:15
the dozens. Search crews continue their work. Instead of offering
10:20
words of sympathy or pledges of rebuilding, Trump, his billionaire
10:25
ally Elon Musk, and top Republicans have spent much of
10:30
the past several days blaming Democratic leadership in the state
10:34
for the crisis. Exacerbating the already high tensions between the
10:39
Republicans set to soon be in charge of the federal
10:43
response and the mostly Democratic officials on the ground. The
10:48
fires are still raging in LA. The incompetent palls have
10:53
no idea how to put them out, Trump wrote on
10:56
Social truth on Sunday morning. They just can't put out
10:59
the fire. What's wrong with them? Many of Trump and
11:03
Musk's attacks are rooted in misinformation, but their responses to
11:08
the ongoing destruction could pose a political risk to incumbent
11:12
California Democrats. We're already seeking investigations and accountability efforts of
11:18
the fires. FEMA Administrator Diane Criswell said her agency has
11:24
sufficient funding to support its response to the Los Angeles wildfires,
11:30
thanks to roughly twenty seven billion dollars in additional funding
11:34
Congress recently authorized.
11:37
Speaker 2: We have the.
11:37
Speaker 1: Funding to support this response, to support the recovery, but
11:42
also to continue to support the recovery from Hurricanes Helene
11:45
and Milton, and the other one hundred and seventy nine
11:48
disaster declarations that we had last year alone across the
11:52
United States. Criswell said Sunday on ABC's This Week, The
11:59
scope and true cost of the destruction are far from
12:02
clear whether officials are predicting that Santa Anna wins, which
12:07
can fan flames and carry dangerous members, will ramp up
12:11
early Monday and continue through Wednesday. Government officials' responses to
12:17
natural disasters can bolster their reputations or damage them irrevocably.
12:23
In times of emergency, voters reward actions from politicians, both
12:29
at the local and state and the federal level, said
12:32
John Gasper, an economics professor at Carnegie Mellon University. What
12:38
we actually saw in some of our research is that
12:41
when a state governor would request aid and that aid
12:45
was denied by the federal government, the voters would still
12:48
reward the governor. Casper said. The incumbent governor would get
12:52
a bump at the next election. The federal president would
12:56
be punished. So that tells us that the voters have
12:59
at least ability to figure out kind of who's acting
13:03
on their behalf. Then President George W. Bush, the Republican,
13:09
saw his approval ratings hit a new low after Hurricane
13:12
Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in twenty
13:15
oh five. Clear majorities of Americans disapproved of the way
13:20
officials at all levels of government were handling the storm recovery.
13:25
According to a Washington Post ABC News poll conducted the
13:29
month after the hurricane, Michael D. Brown, FEMA administrator at
13:35
the time, at Eddie Compass, who was serving as New
13:38
Orleans Police superintendent, both resigned in the aftermath of the storm. Conversely,
13:45
Chris Christy, Republican governor of New Jersey, saw his approval
13:49
rating hit an all time high in the wake of
13:52
Hurricane Sandy. Other officials tied to the response at the time,
13:57
including President Barack Obama, New York Governor Andrew bin Cuomo,
14:01
the Democrat, and New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, saw their
14:05
favorability ratings rise after Sandy. Two Democrats in California are
14:12
already bracing for the impact of the President elect's second term,
14:16
working to Trump approve the state during a special session
14:22
in the state legislature late last year, even as Trump
14:25
has become more popular in California in recent years. In
14:30
the twenty twenty four presidential election, he won thirty eight
14:34
point three percent of the state's voters, up from thirty
14:37
four point three percent in twenty twenty and thirty one
14:40
point nine percent in twenty sixteen. Last week, President Biden
14:46
said that the federal government will cover one hundred percent
14:49
of the disaster assistance cost to California for the next
14:52
one hundred and eighty days, promising We're going to be
14:56
around for a long while to help the federal government.
15:02
Los Angeles County, with a population of more than ten million,
15:06
more than that of at least forty one states, also
15:11
has considerable clout when it comes to politics, economics, and
15:15
campaign fundraising. But it's clear just how much Trump may
15:20
honor or Steymy the continuation of federal aid when he
15:24
takes office. Local leaders say they've been in touch with
15:28
Trump's team and are working to identify a time for
15:31
the President elect to visit. For his part, Newsom issued
15:36
an executive order on Sunday cutting red tape and regulations,
15:41
including environmental review requirements, to allow victims of the recent
15:45
fires to restore their homes and businesses faster. Newsom on
15:50
Sunday said he was deploying one thousand additional California National
15:54
Guard members, bringing the total to twenty five hundred guardsmen.
15:59
He also thanks Texas Governor Greg Abbott, the Republican An
16:03
ardent Trump ally for sending more than one hundred and
16:06
thirty five fighter firefighters and one forty five emergencies to
16:10
help fight fire, Red Blue Republican Democrat and moments like
16:15
this we Come Together, Newsom posted on x. Some of
16:19
Trump's closest allies, however, have been actively stoking divisions. Trump,
16:25
in the barrage of ex posts disseminated to his two
16:29
hundred plus million followers in recent days, also seized on
16:33
false claims and racist ideas to cast blame on Democrats
16:37
and diversity politics for the wildfires. According to a Washington
16:41
Post analysis, Musk downplayed the role of climate change, placing
16:47
blame on individual female firefighters of color and lesbian firefighters,
16:52
posting their names and faces, but providing no evidence that
16:55
they were responsible for the continued spread of the fire.
16:58
So responded to an eye hour long propaganda video by
17:01
right wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones that claimed the fires,
17:06
which experts say were caused by the combination of dry
17:09
conditions and incredibly strong winds and were exacerbated by climate change,
17:14
were part of a larger globalist plot caused the collapse
17:18
of the United States. True, Musk responded. Musk repeatedly amplified
17:26
claims that the Los Angeles Fire Department's investments in diversity,
17:30
equity and inclusion the old DEI programs cost lives by
17:34
wasting money that could have been spent on disaster response,
17:39
and Vice President elect JD. Vance, in an interview with
17:43
Fox News Sunday, accused Biden of being asleep at the
17:46
wheel for a number of different crises. The attacks of
17:51
the latest in a pattern of Trump and his allies
17:54
blaming California Democrats and spreading false information about the government's
17:59
response to natural disasters. On the campaign trail last year,
18:04
Trump threatened to withhold federal aid from California unless the
18:07
state changes how it managed water, and he spread misinformation
18:12
about the government response to Hurricane Helen. During his first
18:16
presidential term, Trump blamed Newsom for wildfires in California, suggesting
18:21
the state should have raked its forests better. Democrats have
18:26
repeatedly pushed back against the claims, and a letter issued
18:30
on Friday, Newsom invited Trump to meet with the Americans
18:34
affected by these fires, see the devastation first hand, and
18:38
join me and others in thanking the heroic firefighters and
18:42
first responders who putting their lives on the line. He
18:47
also emphasized that we must not politicize human tragedy or
18:51
spread information from the sidelines. I called on him to
18:56
come out and take a look for himself. We want
18:59
to do it in the sphere of an open hand,
19:01
not a closed fist. Newsom set of his invitation to
19:04
Trump in an interview that aired Sunday on NBC's Meet
19:07
the Press. When NBC News correspondent Jacob Subaroff asked Newsom
19:13
if he had received a response from Trump, he answered no.
19:17
A spokesperson for Trump's transition team did not reply to
19:20
a request for comment on Sunday afternoon. In remarks on Thursday,
19:25
without naming Trump, Biden sought to debunk rumors about the
19:30
fires in simple, straightforward language. He also warned that in
19:35
a crisis, rumors and fears spread very quickly. One major
19:41
point of criticism among conservatisms and conservatives has been funding
19:45
levels for Los Angeles Fire Department, with House Speaker Mike Johnson,
19:50
the Republican of Louisiana, decrying supposed but non existent cuts
19:56
to the firefighting budget as evidence of effeckless leadership by
19:59
Newsom and Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass. Overall funding for
20:04
the Los Angeles Fire Department increased by eighty million dollars
20:08
their nine point one percent in the twenty twenty four
20:10
to twenty five fiscal year. Some Trump supporters have also
20:14
seized on reports of sporadic looting and arson as examples
20:18
of lawlessness in the country's second most populated metropolitan area.
20:24
Officers have arrested at least twenty nine people for crimes
20:27
related to the fire. La County Sheriff for Robert Luna
20:31
said in a briefing Sunday, one of the suspects was
20:34
wearing a fire jacket and a fire hat so convincing,
20:39
Luna said that it tricked him at first. The man
20:42
was charged with impersonating a firefighter, the sheriff said. Some
20:47
Angelinos have criticized the response to fires, following reports that
20:51
overtaxed fire hydrants ran dry and Holmes stood burning with
20:56
seeming few firefighters in sight. Water experts have said that
21:01
at least part of the reason for the empty fire
21:04
hydrants was that increased demand for water to fight the
21:07
fires lowered the water pressure, leaving hydrants sputtering. Bass has
21:13
also been criticized for being away from the city when
21:16
the fires began, traveling to Ghana on a presidential delegation
21:21
despite predictions of potentially dangerous wind gusts, Bass who returned
21:26
to Los Angeles on Wednesday, has pledged to evacuate and
21:30
evaluate what may have gone wrong once the fire crisis ends.
21:35
Newsome and others have called for an independent investigation into
21:39
the water shortages and the next story, well, what caused
21:43
the Big Palisades blaze. Visual evidence points to a recent
21:48
fire nearby. About thirty minutes after the Palisades fire started
21:53
on Tuesday, the firefighters radio crackled. The flames were coming
21:58
from a familiar sliver of a mountain ridge. The foot
22:02
of the fire started real close to where the last
22:04
fire was on New Year's Eve, said a Los Angeles
22:07
County firefighter. According to a Washington Post review of archived
22:12
radio transmissions, looks like it's going to make a good run,
22:16
one chimed in the dispatch. The posts analysis of photos, videos,
22:21
satellite imagery, and radio communications, as well as interviews with witnesses,
22:27
offers new evidence that the Palisades fire started in the
22:31
area where firefighters had spent hours using helicopters to knock
22:36
down a blaze six days earlier. Investigators from state and
22:41
federal agencies descended on this area in recent days, interviewing
22:45
residents and looking for evidence, including around the burned scar
22:50
of a New Year's Eve fire, of what sparked the blaze.
22:55
The Posts analysis showed that the new fire started in
22:58
the vicinity of the old old fire, raising the possibility
23:02
that the New Year's fire was reignited, which can occur
23:06
in windy conditions, Experts said. Residents also told the Post
23:11
and investigators on scene that firefighters response Tuesday was much
23:17
slower than on New Year's Eve. Have you confirmed by
23:21
radio transmissions from Colorado to California to Hawaii? Flare ups
23:27
of previous fires, known as reignition, have been the cause
23:31
of some of the nation's most catastrophic and deadly wildfires.
23:35
This past summer, California officials coordinated a social media campaign
23:40
to warn residents that terrain scorched but seemingly extinguished can
23:46
spawn deadly new fires for weeks after the old ones
23:50
appear to have gone out, as fire can smolder almost
23:54
undetected underground or inside wood.
23:58
Speaker 2: Despite that, and warner.
24:00
Speaker 1: Of an intense and dangerous wind event last week, a
24:03
Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman told the Post on Friday
24:08
that it was not the department's department's practice to maintain
24:11
protocols of past fire sites, even for a few days
24:15
after fires have gone cold. We know that fires rekindled
24:20
in transition from smoldering to flaming, said Michael Gallalmer, a
24:25
professor of mechanical engineering and fire scientist at the University
24:29
of California at Berkeley who reviewed the Post's materials. It's
24:34
certainly possible that something from that previous fire within a
24:37
week had rekindled and caused re ignition. Investigators are only
24:43
beginning to hunt for the cause of the Palisades Fire,
24:46
the first and largest of what became a terrifying days
24:50
long series of firestorms that would touch nearly every corner
24:55
of the sprawling Los Angeles region. After a Sunday law
25:00
and winds, the death toll citywide was still rising, with
25:03
twenty four dead and more than twelve thousand homes had burned.
25:10
Higher fire risk was expected to return Monday through Wednesday,
25:14
with speculation ranging ranging from down to power equipment to
25:19
arson and identifying the origins of the fires will have
25:23
huge and possibly expensive implications for the state and how
25:27
it manages growing wildfire risks. The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms,
25:34
and Explosives is taking the lead on the investigation. Official
25:38
SID in a statement, and ATF spokesperson said the ATF
25:43
certified fire investigators did an initial survey of the area,
25:47
but the investigation is not begun. In response to questions
25:52
about reignition as a possible cause, the LAFD said this
25:57
is an ongoing active investigator and the team will not
26:02
comment on an ongoing investigation. From the start of the
26:07
fire Tuesday, authorities have known that the smoke began in
26:10
a stretch of the Temescal Ridge in the Santa Monica
26:14
Mountains where the earlier fire, believed by residents to have
26:17
been sparked by fireworks, occurred. The Post identified the burn
26:22
scar of the New Year's Eve fire using false color
26:26
satellite imagery taken before and after the blaze. The technique
26:31
tracks changes to vegetation and satellite imagery healthy plant cover
26:36
appears red, while scorched ground appears blue to brown. In addition,
26:42
satellite imagery taken Tuesday at ten forty five am, about
26:46
twenty minutes after videos showed the Palisides Fare fire began.
26:51
It indicates that the origin of the smoke overlapped the
26:54
burn scar from the New Year's Eve fire. Smoke extends
26:58
in the direction of the wind to the south, away
27:02
from the previously burned area. The question of what caused
27:06
the fire has weighed on the minds of many who
27:09
have lost their homes, while also fueling conspiracy theories online.
27:14
Residents and business owners are considering lawsuits seeking who might
27:19
be to blame for damages and economic losses that Wells
27:22
Fargo estimates could range from sixty billion to one hundred
27:28
and thirty billion dollars. Investigators from local, state, and federal
27:34
agencies have been combing the sight of the fire, speaking
27:37
with people.
27:38
Speaker 2: Who stayed behind.
27:40
Speaker 1: Officials said determining the cause could take weeks or months.
27:44
On Friday, fire officials, arson, investigators ATF and the FBI
27:50
converged in the Hillside neighborhoods near the Skull Rock trailhead,
27:54
close to the site of the earlier fire. ATF officials
27:58
knocked on the doors of the powerless pink retarded covered
28:02
homes that were still standing, asking residents about what they saw,
28:07
what they thought they might have caused it. Darren Hurwitz
28:12
said he was hiking around nine am Tuesday near Skull
28:15
Rock at the base of the burn scar, and faintly
28:18
smelled smoke, but it disappeared on his way back down
28:22
the trail. In another conversion, a residents who was cleaning
28:26
ash out of his home told a Post reporter and
28:29
an ATF officer who knocked on the door that this
28:32
disaster was started by idiots on New Year's Eve. It
28:36
happens every year, said the resident, who spoke on the
28:38
condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
28:42
People go up at night and party when they're not
28:45
supposed to. His family heard fireworks popping off and noticed
28:50
a fire had started around twelve twenty a m.
28:54
Speaker 2: He said, you.
28:56
Speaker 1: Gotta know better, he said, his voice huffing through a mask.
28:59
It's dry, there's no precipitation. I don't know if you've
29:02
ever been camping, but when you go camping and put
29:05
out a fire, that doesn't mean that it's not hot below.
29:09
When the Santa Annas came on Monday, that's what started.
29:13
That's what reignited the fire. Shortly after midnight on January first,
29:19
firefighters responded to the fire northeast of the Pacific Palisades neighborhood.
29:25
It initially covered three to four acres of heavy brush
29:28
and had a slow rate of spread. Winds were relatively light,
29:33
and helicopters were able to make water drops. Four camp
29:37
crews were dispatched and firefighters were in place.
29:40
Speaker 2: To defend at least one home.
29:43
Speaker 1: Still with almost ideal conditions, it took about four hours
29:48
to contain the blaze. At four forty six am, the
29:51
Los Angeles Fire Department reported that the fire was contained
29:55
and that mop up operations would continue to ensure no
29:59
flare ups. Two experts who reviewed the post's visidual evidence
30:04
that it was possible that the remnants of the New
30:06
Year's Eve fire could have reignited, although it was not definitive.
30:11
The evidence you have here indicates that it is at
30:15
least conceivable that remnants from the earlier Lochmann fire gave
30:20
rise to the Palisades fire. Jacob Bendix, a professor emeritus
30:24
of geography and the environment at Syracuse University, said by email.
30:30
While the passage of time reduces the probability of restarting,
30:34
the elapsed time does not make it unrealistic, especially in
30:38
the absence of intervening precipitation. Bendix noted that he published
30:42
the paper in twenty eighteen, indicating that a fire could
30:46
smolder for up to ten days before being reignited by wins.
30:51
It is typical for weather flareups after a fire to
30:54
cause rey kindling, Gallner added, but he agreed that it's
30:57
hard to make a determination without further investigation into how
31:00
much fuel remained on the site after the New Year's
31:03
Eve fire or other external factors. An eight acre fire
31:09
is sizable, expert said, and it's hard to ensure fires
31:12
are completely cold. That often requires firefighters to go over
31:16
the area by hand, which is difficult for fire departments
31:20
that are often understaffed and responding too many incidents and emergencies.
31:26
On Tuesday morning, with wins topping eighty miles an hour LA,
31:32
firefighters immediately saw the danger when they reached the patch
31:35
of scarred mountainside from the previous fire. They called in
31:39
again for air support and estimated that structures could be
31:43
threatened within twenty minutes. It's pushing directly toward palisades. This
31:48
thing's got a wide path to travel already.
31:50
Speaker 2: A firefighter called in.
31:53
Speaker 1: Michael Valentine, who owns two homes in the neighborhood right
31:56
by the fire's origin in one on Via Pacifica and
32:01
one on Via La Costa, was home for both blazes.
32:05
The response for the New Year's incident was swift and impressive,
32:09
he said. Sirens blared up the street. Firefighters jumped out
32:14
of their trucks and made their way through thick brush,
32:16
breaking down his gate and attacking the fire with hoses
32:19
and hand crews and men coming in these tractor vans
32:24
to do a perimeter, he said. Almost a week later,
32:28
his wife was up on the hill walking their dog
32:30
and saw a huge plume of smoke being fanned by
32:33
the wind. He said she thinks she was one of
32:37
the first people to call nine to eleven at ten
32:39
fifteen am. Valentine, a former District attorney for Los Angeles,
32:45
said that he also called around ten forty five am
32:48
when he saw smoke coming from the same place, but
32:51
that the line was busy and then he waited. According
32:55
to radio traffic, LAFD crews were at almost the same
32:59
time on two incidents.
33:01
Speaker 2: In other parts of the city.
33:04
Speaker 1: Both said they would send resources when they could. At
33:08
ten thirty three firefighters responding said they saw the camera
33:13
show smoke showing smoke from a second brush in the
33:16
Palisades and that we're going to divert. Several minutes later,
33:21
and official fighting a small brush fire in West Hollywood
33:24
told dispatch, we're working really hard to spare as many
33:28
resources as we can. About the same time, a helicopter
33:32
carrying water reported that it could not respond because of
33:37
the wind. In Valentine's recollection, the fire was ripping for
33:42
about forty five minutes when he saw a helicopter go
33:46
over it, but it didn't have water.
33:49
Speaker 2: For the next ten minutes or.
33:50
Speaker 1: So, firefighters called back and forth asking who was responding,
33:55
who was on the scene LA from city fire forward
34:00
or do you have ground resources up at the palis
34:02
Age yet? Answer firefour LA standby. We're still showing en route.
34:10
Currently it's a ten acre brush fire and heavy fuel
34:14
on top of a ridge line and officials set at
34:16
ten forty eight am. It is one hundred percent in
34:20
alignment with wind. It has the potential for a few
34:23
hundred plus acres in the next twenty minutes. We have
34:27
a potential for structures being threatened in the next twenty minutes.
34:32
Radio traffic records show that fire trucks were still en
34:35
route to the fire twenty five minutes after it ignited.
34:39
For the longest time, I didn't see any police firefighters,
34:43
not on the ground or in the air, Valentine said.
34:47
I was disappointed because the second fire was moving so
34:50
fast and there was no one there standing outside. Around
34:54
eleven thirty or eleven forty five, Valentine said he saw
34:58
the first fire trucks drive up to his neighborhood, but
35:01
they looked at a street and made a U turn
35:04
and left because the fire had extended far into the
35:08
hillside and kept traveling. According to radio traffic, first responders
35:13
arrived in the Pacific Palisades shortly before eleven am and
35:17
were focused on the foot of the fire near Palisades Drive.
35:22
By five pm, the fire, spurred by wind driven embers
35:26
that were traveling up to two miles away, had spread
35:30
across most of the community, threatening Valentine's mother and sisters
35:34
homes as well as his own. We just got out
35:38
of their control. It just got out of their control
35:41
real quick, he said. On Friday morning, a Post reporter
35:45
hiked up to the New Year's burn footprint, now enveloped
35:49
in the sweeping scar that covers the scorched mountain. What's
35:53
left of the shrubs and other vegetation that once covered
35:56
the ridges and canyon is black and gray, and dead
35:59
was drifting over the seared landscape. Los Angeles Department of
36:05
Water and Power equipment stretches across a part of the
36:07
Santa Monica Mountains near the origin of the fire. Unlike
36:12
many other utilities, the LADWP does not shut off power
36:17
to customers during dangerous winds, stating in its wildfire mitigation
36:23
plan that it determined that the adverse impact on health, safety,
36:27
and quality of life of its customers outweighs the perceived
36:31
benefits derived from preemptive power shutoffs. That led some residents
36:36
and attorneys to speculate that burned equipment of the start
36:40
of the fire may have had a role in causing
36:42
the disaster, as has power equipment in many fires, But
36:47
in this case, the LEDWP told the Post of the
36:51
lines had been de energized for five years. As a
36:56
Post reporter walked up and down the ridge, workers from
36:59
the LADWP and PGNE arrived to assess what remained of
37:04
the infrastructure. Then a number of officials from the fire
37:08
department and other investigators showed up, with some driving up
37:12
the trail in ATVs. LA Fire Department arson investigators, members
37:18
of ATF and the FBI were also driving around the
37:22
neighborhoods for most of the day. Early on after the
37:26
fire started, LA Fire Captain Adam Van Gerpin said in
37:31
a televised interview that it began in a backyard and
37:34
spread up a ridge line where erratic winds and embers
37:37
pushed this throughout all of the palisades. In an interview Friday,
37:42
van Gerpin said he had been mistaken. His initial description
37:46
was based on the first dispatch communications to responding firefighters,
37:50
and conditions on the ground turned out to be more
37:53
dire when firefighters arrived. Van Gerpin said his department remains
37:58
focused on fighting the active fires across the region and
38:02
would shift to investigating their origins once they're contained. As
38:07
whether the LAFD had left firefighters on patrol in the
38:11
areas of the New Year's Eve fire to watch for
38:13
flare ups, Van Gerpin said that would not have been
38:16
the standard practice, especially a week after the initial blaze.
38:22
Cruz stayed on site until a site is cold, he said,
38:28
Concerned by a lack of firefighters in his neighborhood, Valentine
38:32
stayed put. Around seven pm Tuesday, he ran to check
38:36
on the house he grew up in. Parts of it
38:39
were on fire. He grabbed a garden hose and got
38:42
to work. He then turned around and hiked home up
38:46
Lochman Lane. He passed about thirty homes that were on fire.
38:50
He recalled and there was no one around. His clothes
38:54
became pitted with burn holes, and his hair was singed,
38:58
and when he got back his windows were on fire.
39:01
Valentine had grabbed a trash can from the bathroom.
39:04
Speaker 2: And filled it up from the sink.
39:06
Speaker 1: Running back and forth so many times he lost count,
39:08
he said, he finally extinguished them. For the next few hours.
39:13
He went down his neighbors homes with a bucket, sustaining
39:16
burns and falling on a ladder injuring his back. I
39:20
kept doing it and putting out fires here and there
39:23
all night along, he said, And I would hear and
39:25
see explosions, he said. Late Friday night, eventually the fire
39:29
came for him again. He watched his other home on
39:33
Via La Costa go up in flames. He's just now
39:37
starting to feel the physical wounds as everything and else.
39:40
Speaker 2: He feels fooled.
39:42
Speaker 1: He was lulled in the sense of security.
39:44
Speaker 2: He said.
39:44
Speaker 1: The first fire didn't affect me, and it started in
39:47
the same place. The first one was extinguished so quickly,
39:51
and I thought the same thing was going to happen
39:54
this one. But I was.
39:56
Speaker 2: Wrong and out of politics.
40:00
Speaker 1: Rubio's nomination complicated by attack on Musk's Tesla and China's
40:06
ban When Senator Marky Marco Rubio escalated his broadsides against
40:13
the Chinese government over what he called a grotesque campaign
40:16
of genocide against Ugur or Muslims, Beijing responded in twenty
40:21
twenty with an extraordinary rebuke, banning the Florida Republican from
40:27
the country. Afterward, Rubio not only accelerated his criticism, pushing
40:33
legislation that banned imports from the Xixiang region, where China
40:37
allegedly operated enslaved labor camps, but also attacked Elon Musk's
40:42
electric car company for operating a showroom in the region.
40:47
Right after President Biden signed Senator Rubio's Ugar forced Labor
40:52
Prevention Acts into law, at Tesla opened a store, and
40:56
at Xijiang, Rubio tweeted in twenty twenty six, two nationless
41:02
corporations are helping the Chinese Communist Party cover up genocide
41:07
and slave labor in the region. Now, Rubio's efforts to
41:11
aid the ugers could become a focus of his nomination.
41:14
Hearing to be President elect Trump's Secretary of State. His
41:19
human rights advocacy could not only complicate his diplomatic work
41:24
with one of America's primary adversaries, but potentially pit him
41:28
against Trump and Musk his key ally. Rubio, like many Republicans,
41:35
has already closedly aligned himself for the President's foreign policies,
41:40
particularly on Ukraine. Rubio initially was among the strongest supporters
41:45
of Ukraine after Russia's invasion. In twenty twenty two, as
41:49
Trump is vowed to scale back USA do Ukraine, Rubio
41:53
and April voted against a bill that included billions of
41:56
dollars for Ukraine, calling it legislative blackmail. But Rubio has
42:02
not moderated his stance on China, writing in his twenty
42:05
twenty three book that Chinese leader Xi Jinping heads a
42:09
brutal totalitarian state that seeks complete and total global supremacy
42:16
and advocating for military aid for Taiwan for defense against
42:20
an invasion by Beijing, which claims the islands democracy as.
42:24
Speaker 2: Part of its territory.
42:27
Speaker 1: Trump, by contrast, has sent far more mixed signals on China.
42:32
He's threatened to impose tariffs on Chinese imports, raising the
42:35
prospect of the trade war, but in November he called
42:39
Zee an amazing guy, and in October he suggested on
42:44
Joe Rogan's podcast that Taiwan should pay the United States
42:47
for its military protection. Musk, meanwhile, has deep business ties
42:53
in China. Tesla was unlined to receive three hundred and
42:57
ninety million dollars from automobile emission crews in twenty twenty one,
43:01
awarded via the Chinese government. According to a report by
43:05
Nikai Asia. The nation is the second largest Tesla market,
43:10
and the company's Shanghai factory produced its three millionth car
43:14
in October. Musk said during an April visit to Beijing
43:19
that he had a lot of fans in China. Well,
43:21
the feelings are reciprocated. I'm a huge chan of fan
43:25
of China. As for the Ugers, biographer Walter Isaacson wrote
43:29
that Musk told him China's repression of the ugers has
43:34
two sides. Rubio spokesman Dan Holler asked to respond to
43:40
questions about the potential policy differences on China between him, Musk,
43:44
and Trump. He responded, Rubio as a senator is different
43:49
from Rubio as the Secretary of State. In this role,
43:53
he's going to be implementing the president's policies. Musk and
43:57
a Trump spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
44:01
Speaker 2: Rubio's rhetoric raises.
44:03
Speaker 1: The question of whether he will clash with Musk or
44:06
Trump on China or curtail his criticism if he is confirmed,
44:12
and whether Trump will tolerate the scent rather than firing
44:15
his secretary of State as he did with Rex Tillerson.
44:19
Zi Feng, China's ambassador to the United States, did not
44:23
respond to a request for comment. New Ping Ju, a
44:27
spokesmanman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, did not respond
44:31
directly to questions about Rubio and whether Beijing would lift
44:35
the ban on him entering the country if he becomes
44:37
the secretary of State. Instead, the spokesman said via email
44:42
that the embassy would not comment on Trump's election and
44:46
his pick of Rubio. What we want to say is
44:50
that developing China US relations well serves the fundamental interests
44:55
of the two countries and their peoples, the spokesman said.
44:59
For Rubio, though his battle for human rights in China
45:02
runs deep. In his books, media appearances, and Senate speeches,
45:08
he's drawn a line from the communist dictatorship in Cuba
45:12
to the suffering of minorities in China. In twenty twenty
45:16
one testimony to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom,
45:21
Rubio vowed that I will not stop fighting, nor will
45:25
I remain silent until all.
45:27
Speaker 2: Ugers are free.
45:30
Speaker 1: Rubio has often spoken about his parents journey as they
45:34
came to America following Fidel Castro's takeover. As he had
45:39
said on his official Senate website, Rubio's parents were admitted
45:43
for permanent residence more than two years before Fidel Castro
45:48
overthrew the Cuban government and took power in nineteen fifty nine,
45:52
as rubio biographer in Washington Post reporter Manuel Rogue Franzia
45:57
has reported, Rubio said in a response at the time
46:01
that his parents wanted to return to Cuba, but could
46:04
not do so because of the rise of Castro. In
46:07
any case, the story of Castro's rise and the effect
46:12
of Cuba and Rubio's family became central to his worldview
46:17
as a politician. Because of his upbringing, Rubio thought he
46:21
knew better than most of his Senate peers about the
46:24
effect of communist rule. He wrote in his twenty twenty
46:27
three book Decades of Decadence. What he has seen in
46:32
China and other authoritarian countries, he wrote, has convinced him
46:36
that external threats posed by such countries to the United
46:40
States are still very much with us. After joining the
46:47
Senate in twenty eleven, Rubio used his perch to focus
46:51
attention on autocrats in Latin America, Russia, and elsewhere. Rubio
46:57
did at time speak hopefully about USA China relations, including
47:02
at the twenty fourteen confirmation hearing of Senator Max Bacchus,
47:05
a Democrat from Montana, to be the ambassador to China,
47:09
where he said, our policy isn't to contain China. On
47:14
the contrary, I think we see a growing economy that
47:18
we can be trade partners with a billion people. We
47:22
can sell our products and services too. As the hearing ended,
47:27
Bacchus said. In an interview with The Washington Post, Rubio
47:31
told him that he planned to take a trip to Asia.
47:35
Are you going to China, baucas said, He asked, h no,
47:39
I'm not.
47:39
Speaker 2: Going to China.
47:41
Speaker 1: I'm afraid of China, Rubio said, according to Bacchus, Bacchus,
47:45
who was unanimously confirmed as ambassador, said Rubio's response troubled
47:50
him because very few American high level officials have been
47:53
to China and understand China or no China.
47:57
Speaker 2: It's a huge problem we're facing. Holler.
48:01
Speaker 1: Rubio's spokesman disputed some details of the exchange, saying it
48:05
is definitely not true in the context around the conversation.
48:09
As Mariyo wasn't going to China, he jokingly said they
48:13
might not let him out if he goes. In testimony
48:16
during the Foreign Relations hearing, Rubio said that if China
48:20
was willing to use its newfound economic and military might
48:24
to commit itself to respect for human rights, I think
48:27
that would be an extraordinary developed for mankind. According to
48:32
a transcript, but if China used that power to oppress
48:36
neighbors and people within their own country, I think we've
48:39
got a big problem and a major major challenge, Rubio said.
48:45
Jonathan Slimrod, a former executive assistant in Rubio's Senate office,
48:50
who later served as policy director during the senator's twenty
48:53
sixteen presidential campaign, said that early in his first term,
48:58
I don't know if he fully grasp the threat of China,
49:02
But as Rubio traveled the country and ran for president,
49:05
he heard from real people who did feel left behind
49:09
by trade and other areas where China is to blame.
49:13
He spent a lot of time on the Intelligence Committee.
49:16
He learned a lot about the threat from China that
49:19
shapes how he thinks today. By twenty eighteen, Rubio had
49:24
become convinced that his concerns about China had become a reality,
49:29
a view that was hardened after a fateful meeting with
49:32
a woman named Rushan Abbas.
49:36
Speaker 2: Abbas was born in.
49:37
Speaker 1: The Xijiang region and attended Xijiang University, where she helped
49:42
organize pro democracy demonstrations in her homeland before she moved
49:47
to the United States in nineteen eighty nine and became
49:50
a US citizen. In twenty seventeen, China began its campaign
49:55
to forcibly assimilate Ugur's, a Turkic speaking people whose mo
50:00
Muslim faith has put them at odds with the official
50:03
atheistic government, which critics say has used methods such as
50:07
re education to squash dissent and quel potential separatist movements.
50:14
Scholars estimate that more than one million Ugers were detained
50:18
for weeks or years. China has denied charges that it
50:22
polices about that its policies amount to genocide. Abbas said
50:28
in an interview with The Post that in September of
50:30
twenty eighteen, six days after she spoke on a panel
50:34
hosted by the conservative Hudson Institute in Washington called China's
50:38
War on Terrorism, her sister Glushin A Boss, disappeared in Xinjiang.
50:46
Speaker 2: A Boss has.
50:47
Speaker 1: Never spoken with her since then, and she says she
50:51
thinks her criticism of the government.
50:53
Speaker 2: Led to her sister's disappearance.
50:57
Speaker 1: A Boss's story came to the attention of Rubio, who
51:00
found parallels with the way Cubans were treated by the
51:03
Castro regime, and he embraced her cause as a symbol
51:07
of what he called China's genocide of the Ugurs. In
51:11
February of twenty nineteen, A Boss testified before the Foreign
51:15
Relations Committee, on which Rubio sits that what the Chinese
51:20
government is doing is evil a crime against humanity. Rubio
51:25
then invited a Boss to be his guest at the
51:27
twenty twenty State of the Union speech, saying she had
51:30
tirelessly raised awareness of the atrocities taking place in Xinjiang
51:36
at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party. That turned
51:40
out to be a decisive step in highlighting the Ugur plight.
51:45
At the time, we were still not getting a lot
51:47
of platforms. Inviting me on the way he did provided
51:51
a very essential platform to raise awareness of the root
51:55
cause and exposed China's atrocities as well as highlighting Mysis's case.
52:00
A Boss said, Rubio brought a Boss to Congress to
52:05
focus attention on proposed legislation that would forbid the import
52:10
of goods suspected of being made with enslaved labor in
52:14
the Xinjiang region. The efforts won plawed its across party lines,
52:19
although the Trump administration had reservations. It wasn't until the
52:24
last days of the Trump administration that Secretary of State
52:28
Mike Pompeo declared that China had committed genocide and crimes
52:32
against humanity. Pompeo said that the United States had gathered
52:36
evidence that decades long repression against Ugers had escalated since
52:41
at least March of twenty seventeen. By acting in the
52:46
last hours, the Trump administration avoided a diplomatic blow up
52:50
with China, leaving it to Biden. Rubio meanwhile, plowed ahead
52:55
on his legislation. Rubio worked closely with Senator Jeff Murkley,
53:01
a Democrat of Oregon, on what became known as the
53:04
Uger Forced Labor Prevention Act, which was signed into law
53:07
by Biden in December of twenty twenty one. Murkley said
53:12
in an interview from his experience working with Rubio that
53:15
showed him that the senator from Florida has brought a
53:18
serious mind foreign policy issues and has been a tireless
53:22
advocate for the Ugers and other victims of repression. He
53:27
was deeply concerned about human rights issues in China, including
53:31
what Murkley called the effort to obliterate the culture of Tibet.
53:35
Burkeley said, we had a kind of affinity for each
53:39
other's views on China that continues to this day. Rubio meanwhile,
53:44
was banned in July of twenty twenty from entering China
53:47
because of his statements about the Ugers. A month later,
53:50
he was sanctioned by China for an unspecified action in
53:54
which he and others behaved egregiously on Hong Kong related issues.
54:00
Rubio responded with a taunting tweet last month at China
54:04
banned me. Today they sanctioned me. I don't want to
54:08
be a paranoid, but I am starting to think they
54:11
don't like me.
54:14
Speaker 2: Soon, he turned his ire.
54:15
Speaker 1: To Tesla's decision to open a showroom in the Xijiang region,
54:19
a critique he doubled down on in his twenty twenty
54:22
three book, writing, if Tesla cares about America's future, it
54:26
would prioritize expanding production lines in the United States, not
54:31
opening a showroom in Xinjiang or new factories in Shanghai.
54:37
Rubio has also been particularly outspoken in support of Taiwan,
54:41
including providing military aid for defense against an invasion by Beijing.
54:47
China claims Taiwan is its own and regularly threatens to
54:51
take control of the self governing island by force should
54:54
Taiwan declare formal independence. Rubio wrote in his book that
54:59
one reason US support of Taiwan is so important is
55:02
that Chinese leaders who want to take over Taiwan have
55:06
been watching closely, very closely what happens there as Russian
55:10
President Putin seeks to absorb Ukraine by force. In a
55:15
twenty twenty three report entitled Diversity over Diplomacy, How Wokeness
55:22
is Weakening the US State Department, Rubio accused Biden's State
55:26
Department of not prioritizing a strong hand against China in
55:30
favor of a more liberal cultural policy. The report alads
55:35
that the State Department's top priority is to promote a
55:39
woke agenda, which China and other adversaries have exploited to
55:45
make inroads in countries that don't share US interest.
55:49
Speaker 2: In such matters.
55:51
Speaker 1: A State Department spokes and responded that Secretary of State
55:54
Anthony Blincoln believes that efforts at diversity are about bringing
55:58
as many perspectives is to the policy making table as
56:02
possible to make US foreign policy stronger, smarter, and more creative.
56:08
At times, Trump has been tough on z and he
56:12
campaigned last year on a pledge to impose a ten
56:14
percent tariff on Chinese goods. But Trump has sent conflicting
56:19
signals while many of his top picks for military and
56:23
diplomatic positions are strongly in supporting of arming Taiwan. Trump
56:28
complained on the Joe Brogan podcast in October that Taiwan
56:31
doesn't pay us money for the protection. You know, mob
56:34
makes you pay money, right. Trump said that Taiwan stole
56:38
our chip business, referring to computer microchips manufactured on the island.
56:43
The production in the United States of such chips has
56:46
declined in recent years, leading to a shortage of the
56:49
crucial components from everything from cars to weapon systems. That
56:54
prompted Congress to pass and Biden in twenty two to
56:57
sign the Chips and Science Act, which provides fifty two
57:02
billion dollars in subsidies to the semiconductor industry to spur products,
57:06
saying we put up billions of dollars for Richmond East.
57:11
Musk said at the twenty twenty three All in the
57:14
Summit that Beijing's policy is to reunite Taiwan with China.
57:19
From their standpoint, you know, maybe it's now just like
57:22
Hawaii or something like that. Musk said, this situation is
57:26
getting to a very high temperature and that Beijing has
57:29
made clear that it must be resolved, with the question
57:33
being whether that it will be through military or diplomatic means.
57:38
Musk's comment prompted to Tiewan, he is official to respond
57:41
that Time one is not part of China and not
57:44
for sale. And this concludes the reading of the Washington
57:47
Post for today, Monday, January thirteenth. Your reader has been
57:50
Rod Brotherton. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions,
57:54
please feel free to call us at eight five nine
57:56
four two two sixty three ninety. Thank you for listening,
58:00
and now please stay tuned for continued programming on Radio
58:04
I