Transcript

1.9.25 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of the Washington Post for Thursday,
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January the ninth of twenty twenty five. EU readas are
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Perry Dana and Alis DNA. We are back until the
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twenty eighth of this month, so we will be here
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today and then Saturday and the next week, and then
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I think we're gone anyway. Here are the headlines. Oh
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RADIOI is a program for those blind or other disabilities
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that leave them difficult to hold printed or read printed material.
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And here's today's front page of the Washington Post on
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the far left report on one Trump case to be
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put on hold, Special Council findings on handling of classified
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documents delayed, and that is by Jeremy Roebuck and Perry Stein.
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Then below that Biden won't take the new rulers of
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Syria off terrorist list by John Hudson, and I'm gonna sneeze,
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excuse me. There are pictures of the destruction fires in
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Los Angeles under a headline La Blazes unleash destruction and
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you can just see the flames. In the background, a
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fireman holding a hose stuff hung in a tree, and
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below that a man holding a cloth over his mouth,
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and to the right of that the Santa Anna winds
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blowing palm trees with a totally destroyed house below, and
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this is all under La Blaze's unleashed destruction. The first
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article along sunset block after block is reduced to rubble
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by Brianna Sachs and Brady Dennis. And then on the
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far right, vast swaths of land left in ashes, no
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control over flames feels like Armageddon by Mary Benton, Holly
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Bailey and Inn Kirkpatrick. And then below the fold on
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the left, in an era of cynicism, Carter believed in
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the idealist as he broke with the playbook. The outsiders
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he brought in left their mark on Washington and that
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is by Mark Fisher. And then the final article on
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the front page, X users say fact checked system coming
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to Medican feel futile by Teresa Sadani and will Ormus.
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And with that Gary will start off.
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Speaker 2: I'm starting off with an articles as the headline, Justice
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Department says it won't yet release Trump classified document report,
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but Attorney General Merrick Garland intends to make public the
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Special Council's report about Trump's election interference case. A court
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filing said. The article is by Jeremy Roebuck, and Perry Stein,
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and it reads the Justice Department is not planned to
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public early Special Council Jacksmith's findings on Donald Trump's allegedmis's
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handling of classified documents until litigation against his co defendant's concludes,
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according to court filing on Wednesday, but prosecutor said that
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Attorney General Merrick Garland will make public abortion the Smith's
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report outlining his investigation into Trump's efforts to undo the
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twenty twenty election, and to permit select of Congress to
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review the withheld portion about the classified documents probe. The
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report could explain the strategy that the government would have
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employed against Trump if either case had gone to trial,
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as well as the full scope of the evidence gathered
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against him. This limited disclosure will further the public interest
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in keeping Congressional leadership apprized of a significant matter within
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the Department, plus safeguarding defendant's interest, the Justice Department wrote
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in its filing before the US Court of Appeals for
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the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta. The filing arrived a day
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after the U. S District Judge Ivy M. Cannon, the
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federal judge in Florida who oversaw the Classified Document's case
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before dismissing them as charges last year, temporarily barred the
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Justice Department from releasing Smith's report. Her ruling was in
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response to an argument from two others charged to the
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classified documents case, who said making report public would negatively
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affect them in ongoing litigation. A Canon's order prohibited any
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public sharing of the report until three days after the
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Eleventh Circuit rules. On a request from those co defendants,
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long time Trump employees Walsiam Nauda and Carlos de olivie Era,
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to keep the entire Special Council report from public view,
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Justice Department lawyers asked the appellate court to overturn that
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ruling in their fighting filing. On their filing on Wednesday,
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that would clear the way for Garland to release the
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volume of the report dealing with the election interference case
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and share the fightings on the Classified Documents case with
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key members of Congress, although any decision was the Eleventh
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Circuit Court could also be appealed. Attorneys for NATA and
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the Oliviera took issue with that plan and their own
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filing on Wednesday evening, fearing that members of Congress leaked
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the report. They urged the appellate judges to sendicates back
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to Canon for a full hearing on the issue. There
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is no way, they wrote, to restrain members of Congress
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from disclosing their opinions regarding the report or from disclosing
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the contents thereof, nor this a way to prohibit them
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from disclosing the materials to members of their staff, or
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to prevent members of their staff from men leaking the
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contents of that report. According to the Justice Department's filing,
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it was Smith who originally recommended that the Attorney General
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release only the election interference portion of the report until
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the litigation involving NATA and Theolivia. In agreeing with that strategy,
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Garland will almost certainly hand the decision on whether the
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classified documents portion ever becomes public to Trump's Justice Department.
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Trump said he will appoint several of his defense lawyers
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to top positions in that agency, including to Blanche, has
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picked for Deputy Attorney General, the number two position in
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the Justice Department. Blanche has represented Trump in three of
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his four criminal cases. Co wrote a filing to Canada
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on Tuesday saying Smith's report should be kept under raps.
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Smith turned over the full Special Council report to Garland
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on Tuesday. It is typically the Attorney General's decision to
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decide which parts to release for now. The Wednesday filing
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says that Garland intends to allow only the chairs and
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ranking minority members of the House and Senate Judiciary committees
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to review the classified document's lawyume, and only after they
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agree not to release any information from it publicly. When
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Trump won the presidential election in November, Smith said that
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he would wind out both of the federal cases against Trump,
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citing Justice Department regulations prohibiting the prosecution of a sitting
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president and the DC election interference execution. Smith asked a
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judge to dismiss the indictment. Cannon had already dismissed the
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Floor to Classified the Document's case, which accused Trump of
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mishandling classified documents and alleged he and Nada and de
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Olivieria this obstructed government efforts to retrieve that material. Smith
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was in the process appealing Cannon's dismissal in that case.
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When Trump was elected to another term. Instead of abandoning
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the appeal, Smith dropped the Trump dropped Trump as a
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party in the case. The Justice Department's continuing litigation with
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not and de Olivieria as co defendants. Because they could
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still go to trial if the appellate court restores the indictment.
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Garland decided not to release that portion of the report
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and risk violating their rights. Justice Department lawyers wrote Smith
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has told people that he intends to step down before
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Trump takes office, and the classified documents appeal has been
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transferred from the Special Council's office to the US Attorney's
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office in Southern Florida. The motion on Wednesday morning was
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followed by the principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the
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Justice Department headquarters and the top prosecutor in South Florida,
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not by Smith. Alice back to you.
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Speaker 1: The second article is Biden will defer to Trump on
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TARA label for serious Islamist leaders. The US will keep
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HTS on the list of foreign terrorist organizations for the
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remainder of President Biden's tenure, Officials tell the Post. This
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is by John Hudson. And there's a picture of Siria's
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de facto leader, Ahmed l Sharra, who speaks with the
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media after a December meeting in de Mascus with Gatari officials,
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and he has the beard, and he's dressed in his
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suit with a white collar showing the Biden administration has
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decided to maintain the terrorist designation of Siria's new Islamist
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rulers for the remainder of President Joe Biden's tenure, leaving
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a critical decision about Heyat Tier al Sham and its
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leader Ahmed al Sharrah to the incoming President Trump's administration,
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said three US officials familiar with the matter, The terrorist
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designation for HTS, that's the Hayat Tihra al Shalam, is
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a key obstacle to Siria's long term economic viability, The
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US officials said. The Islamist rebels, who's done the world
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last year by overthrowing Syrian President Bashar al Asad, must
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demonstrate they have made a clean break with the extremist groups,
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in particular Al Qaeda before the label can be lifted.
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Actions speak louder than words, said one senior US official,
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noting Washington's lingering concerns about the inclusion of foreign fighters
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and others jihadist in positions with serious defense ministry. The official,
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like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss
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a sensitive policy matter. President elect Donald Trump has appointed
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hardline critics of Islamist extremism to top White House jobs,
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including Sebastian Gorka for a Senior director for counter Terrorism
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and Michael Waltz for National Security Advisor. Leaving the terrorist
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designation decision to Trump is expected substantially to substantially extend
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the timeline of powerful US sanctions imposed on Syria during
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the Aside regime HTSS. Placement on the Foreign Terrorist Organization
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List makes it illegal for US citizens to provide material
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support or resources to the group, and allows for financial
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sanctions or prosecution. A spokesman for the Trump Band's transition,
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Brian Hughes, declined to address specifics on the designation, but
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said Trump is committed to diminishing threats to peace and
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stability in the Middle East and to protecting Americans here
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at home. There's broad consensus in the international community that
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Syria desperately needs more aid and reconstruction initiatives after more
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than a decade of civil war. While keeping the terrorism
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designation in place, the Biden administration on Monday eased several
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key restrictions on Syria aimed at jumpstarting the nation's recovery
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and building goodwill with its interim government. The US Treasury
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Department issued a general license for six months that authorizes
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a range of transactions with the Syrian government, allowing humanitarian
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groups to provide services such as water, sanitation, and electricity.
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It also allows for certain transactions with the Syrian government
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without the fear of sanctions, such as energy sales. The
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end of Bashah Elsad's brutal and repressive rule, backed by
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Russia and Iran, provides a unique opportunity for Syria and
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its people to rebuild, said Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adamo.
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During this period of transition, Treasury will continue to support
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humanitarian assistance and responsible government in Syria. As a result
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of the U S decision, foreign government such as Guitar
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planned to bankroll public sector wages for a huge number
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of workers in Syria, a US official told The Washington Post.
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The Gaitari plan, first reported by RUTS, is key to
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shoring up Syria's interim government, which pledged a four hundred
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percent pay increase for public sector workers. Syria's new finance
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minister estimated that such a promise would cost one hundred
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and twenty million a month, covering more than one point
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twenty five min alien workers own the government payroll. A
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US official said the move would provide a major boost
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to the Syrian economy. This kind of stabilization of people's
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day to day lives will have an enormous impact, the
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official said. HTS, a former affiliate of al Qaeda, publicly
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broke with the terrorist network in twenty sixteen over strategic disagreements.
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The United States designated HTS as a terrorist group in
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twenty eighteen, and the group has been on a UN
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Security Council sanctions list for more than a decade, entailing
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an arms embargo and global assets freeze. The US officials
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held their first formal meeting with Sharab, the HTS leader,
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formerly known by his Noum daguer Abu Mohammad al Jael,
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in Damascus last month and informed him that the US
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was lifting its ten million dollar bounty on him. The
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US assurance was made after al Chera said he would
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not allow terrorist groups in Syria to pose a threat
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to the United States or Syria's neighbors. Armed al Charak
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committed to this. The top US diplomat for the Middle
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East to Barbara Leaf said after meeting him. US diplomats
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have made several trips to Syria to engage with the
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group in what a US official called a proactive and
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prudent process. The official noted that lifting a foreign terrorist
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organization designation is a cumbersome process. Another US official said
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that the steps HTS much take to come off the
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list will take time, and that the Biden administration made
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the right call by not forcing the USB political calendar
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on the Syrian government and the Syrian people. Robert Ford,
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a former US ambassador to Syria, said the US government
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should provide clear and specific metrics to HTS about how
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to come off the list. Ford said the best thing
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going forward is for them to develop a set of
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benchmarks or criteria and present those to the HTS leadership
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and to begin a discussion about that. An adviser to Trump,
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Rick Grinnell described the militant groups that overthrew Asade as
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a mix of a lot of different types of people.
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We are going to judge them by their actions, he
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said in an interview last month with NEWSMAC Gary Back
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to you.
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Speaker 2: Continuer now a piece that's headlined much of the Pacific
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Palisades neighborhood in Los Angeles is gone as homes still burn.
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Residents tried to douse fires with water from swimming pool.
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This was written last yesterday evening and afternoon at six o'clock.
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It's by Brianna Sachs Sachs and Brady Dennis. The home
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after home is gone. Old apartment buildings and mansions, cottages,
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generational homes gone, community centers, parks, gas stations, coffee shops, banks,
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grocery stores. They're all at Around ten am on Wednesday morning,
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Pacific Palisades, a coastal community of about twenty three thousand people,
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was still burning from the wildfires that have swept through
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the city this week. The town looked as if several
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large bombs have gone off. Flames were still leaping through
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an apartment complex next to retirement community, its top floors
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caved in. The glease and super market across the street
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was torched. A gas station where a Washington Post reporter
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stood on Tuesday talking to police about how bad this
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fire was getting, was also gone. The cars left in
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its parking lot, algas, shelves of brown steel in the square.
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A popular community spot, the Starbucks inside the iconic light
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Pink Bank of America building was gone behind it. The
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smoking devastations stretched for blocks. Heavy winds, rock sheet metal
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signs like swings and cause swoldering fires to re ignite
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in some blown out storefronts. Firefighting and emergency response officials
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have been stretched to the limiteds. Three major fires blew
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up around Los Angeles, flanking much of the region and
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spurring mass evacuations. On Tuesday, Manny Palace Day. Residents barely
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made it out as flames quickly ripped through the dry,
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brushy hills, with winds sending embers feeling down towards the
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densely populated neighborhoods along Sunset Boulevard. The winding two way
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road that cuts through much of Los Angeles. Street after
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street has been reduced to rubble or is still burning.
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Glowing flame really the only thing visible through the thick
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blanket of black smoke that still covers much of the area.
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The smoke gets worse the farther north you go. Green
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grass and a looming concrete bell tower are all that
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remain of the pales Banes Presbyterian Church, small flames evident
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beneath its cross. Is there anyone who didn't lose their house.
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Those are the questions we were asking, said Kills in
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that book. Who grew up in the Palisades, and it
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is confident all that is of her childhood home is
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a chimney in her neighborhood. What's app chat. It feels
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as everyone is confirming that their house has gone to
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the community home to beloved mountain trails, nature parks. It
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was July fourth grade and a five k race, a
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critical high school for the area, a yogurt shop every
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kid who grows up there goes to, and a theater center.
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Feels like a total loss. Van Hooks sad. Van Hook's
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home was gone, along with nearly every other home on
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her street, near the town center. All that remained was
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a clementine tree, its bright, small fruit scattered all over
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the black and front yard. As homes still burned, the
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neighborhood was mostly deserted. There were a few firefighters to
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There were few firefighters to be seen, except for one
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crew trying to dowse some flames that were dancing from
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a building at Palisades High School. Another crew was seen
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responding to a fire in the remnants of a hair salon,
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its windows shattered. A sign that ran joy to all
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still hung from its red door. Around noon, more crews arrived,
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spreading out its homes, and the bank again surged into flames.
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Residents who stayed, especially those in the Bluffs neighborhood, said
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there were no fire crews around them, there was no
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running water. They were using buckets for swimming pools to
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doubt what they could. Residents and firefighters faced similar issues
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during the twenty eighteen Woolsey Fire in Alibu, when some
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hydrants also ran dry. Fire officials were blunt on Wednesday
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about the lack of adequate resources and how thin their
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ranks had been stretched by multiple massive wildfires. Los Angeles
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County Fire Chief Anthony Maroney said that his department was
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prepared for one or two major bush fires, but not
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for this type of widespread disaster. There are not enough
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firefighters in LA County to address four separate fires of
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this magnitude, he said. Maroney told reporters Wednesday morning that
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the Palisades fires had grown to more than five thousand
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acres and had destroyed more than a thousand structures and
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continued to grow. We have no percentage of containment, he
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said that the fire, adding that its caused, he said
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of the fire, adding that its cause remains under investigation.
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While no deaths have been reported in the Palisades fire,
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five people died in the Eton fire northeast of Los Angeles,
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which has now burned more than ten thousand acres. Official
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send That fire also remained entirely undercontained, Rooney said, and
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has claimed at least one hundred structures. Roney said more
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than fifteen hundred people working to combat the out of
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control fires. It wasn't in the enough. Police officers told
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The Washington Post that they forced dozens of people to
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abandon their cars because the fire was right on top
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of them. A Tuesday afternoon, it seemed that firefighters had
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gotten a small handle in the area. There with the
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blaze spark. They had protected the Self Realization Center, the
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famous Temple sat in a statement and were putting out
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spot fires in a sushi restaurant and a bakery. But
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then the winds shifted and flames quickly roared east across
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Sunset toward the Palisades High School. On Wednesday morning, most
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of the stretch was incinerated, and the tree lined streets
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for apocalyptic. A few people inside the fire perimeter drove
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and walked around in a daze, stopping in front of
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burning homes, taking in the wreckage of the town center.
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Others got past police barricades by walking or scootering along
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the smoke covered beach, the gray fumes so thick that
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the ocean had disappeared. Sarah Kandar fled Pacific Palace Ads
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on Tuesday as flames approached her son's school, first by
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car until she hit gridlock, then on foot. She found
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an airbnb in northern Santa Monica, but it quickly became
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an evacuation zone as well, so she and relatives went
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further south, bunking up in hotels. By Wednesday morning, they
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again found themselves in an evacuation zone. Walking back from
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Target with the dog and the kids called me and said,
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we smelled smoke in the hotels at Candar forty three.
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As psychologists and a mother of three, I think we
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might need to go someplace further out. The hope was
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to stay nearby you could get back in. Kendor's husband
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had managed to walk back into Pacific Palace Age on
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Wednesday morning with a neighbor. They found the neighbor's house first.
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They sent me a pick sure, it's not there anymore.
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The man began searching for Candor's mother's house and where
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he's noble. The house next door was on fire when
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she left. After that, they were looking for her sisters
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above hallis Ades high which her fifteen year old daughter attended.
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We have a video of that catching on fire, so
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I'm not very hopeful, she said. Condor's family home in
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the Highlands area was too far away, she said, but
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so far everything they had seen in the village was
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absolute devastation. It's obliterated. I really don't even know where
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our rebuild begins, she said.
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Speaker 1: Alice, Oh, it just it's so tragic. It is so
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tragic the devastation that nature does to areas, even in
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Kentucky with the floods and now fire across everywhere, devastating
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and deadly wildfires rage in Los Angeles, with more feared
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with flames driven by hurricane force winds. It feels like armageddon,
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said one woman who was forced to evacuate. It's just
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smoke and darkness. And there is a picture of Megan
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Mantilla and her boyfriend Thomas returning to Mantilla's fire damaged
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home after the Eton fire swept through in Aladina, Altadena, California,
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and you just he has on a mask. I think
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they both have on masks, but oh, it's just like
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a bomb went off. The article is by May Reston,
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Holly Bailey, and Inn Kirkpatrick out of Los Angeles. Burgeoning
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wildfires burned uncontrollably across a wide swath of Greater Alty,
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Los Angeles on Wednesday, transforming the landscape into scenes of
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apolyptic destruction, with blocks and blocks of neighborhoods reduced to ash.
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Authorities called the situation one of the most catastrophic fire
28:16
events in California history. Fueled by hurricane force wind gusts
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upward of one hundred miles per hour, at least five
28:26
fires covering tens of thousands of acres raged out of
28:30
control to the west, north and northeast of downtown Los Angeles,
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with almost zero percent containment as of late Wednesday. At
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least five deaths and a high number of significant injuries
28:48
were reported, according to officials, as thousands of exhausted firefighters
28:54
struggled to keep up amid continued severe weather and a
29:00
water supply. At least one hundred and thirty thousand people
29:05
across the sprawling metropolitan area were under evacuation orders, while
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nearly one hundred and a half million residents one point
29:17
five million residents were without power. Smoke from the various
29:22
blazes combined to turn the sky a dark, ominous orange.
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Air quality ranged from unhealthy to hazardous. More than a
29:36
thousand structures had been destroyed by late afternoon, including homes, businesses,
29:43
houses of worship, and neighborhood landmarks. Among the worst hit
29:49
swaths a large part of the Pacific Palisades, an affluent,
29:55
celebrity packed neighborhood in the rolling hills of West Los
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Angeles overlooking the Pacific Ocean. In less than two days,
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the Palisades fire had consumed nearly sixteen thousand acres and counting,
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with ten thousand acres burned since Wednesday morning alone. It
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feels like armageddon, said Teresa Cochrane, forty nine, who is
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desperate to find out if her family home there had
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survived after she had evacuated to a friend's house in
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nearby Bellaa. I woke up this morning and looked at
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in its dark clouds. You can't even see the sun.
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It's just smoke and darkness. On the other side of
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the city along Eaton Canyon. The Eton Fire had burned
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more than ten thousand acres andce It flared up Tuesday evening,
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leaving wide destruction in al Tandina as it moved south
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towards Pasadena. A third wildfire near Salmar north of Los
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Angeles in the San Fernando Valley had grown to more
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than seven hundred acres as of late Wednesday. And there's
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a picture of the raging flames. Raging flames of the
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Eton fire in Pasadena. I have a friend there and
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I need to check on her. Firefighters also were responding
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to smaller fires and other flare ups, including near Encino, Malibu,
31:38
Santa Monica, and the Hollywood Hills, and authorities warned of
31:42
the contained continued danger. A forecast of diminishing winds into
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the evening and overnight into Thursday might not be enough
31:52
to slow the already raging infernos, officials, said. Los Angeles
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County Fire Chief Anthony Marone gave a stark early assessment
32:05
of what his department was facing. It was prepared for
32:09
one or two major brush fires, but not for this
32:14
type of widespread disaster. There are not enough firefighters in
32:20
La County to address fires of this magnitude that was
32:28
apparent Wednesday, as flames quickly consumed neighborhoods in and around Altadena,
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where tearful residents armed with hoses and pots of water
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waged a mostly futile effort to protect their homes. On
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many blocks, there are no fire trucks in sight. We're
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all alone, one woman crowd to a local television crew
32:55
as she ran with a pot of water to put
32:57
out flames on a neighbour's bush, as her own roof
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began to smoke and ultimately burn. As fire licked the
33:06
sky and then jumped from house to house, large explosions
33:10
could be heard. One woman watched in horror, falling to
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her knees on the street in front of her home
33:19
as it became consumed. Moments later, as she turned to
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run with nothing but her cellphone, another loud explosion filled
33:30
the air. The magnitude of grief people are experiencing. I
33:36
don't think we've even touched the surface, Los Angeles County
33:41
Supervisor Lindsay Horboth said as she headed to meet evacuees
33:45
at the Westwood Recreation Center on Wednesday afternoon. At least
33:51
a hundred schools were shuddered, with Pasadena officials saying students
33:55
might not return to their classrooms for days. Hollywood's DIDD
34:00
closed too, and still evacuation orders kept expanding. Hervath said
34:08
she had not heard reports of firefighters facing water sword
34:12
reduce in the areas where the county takes the lead,
34:17
but she noted there have been some reports of the
34:21
city infrastructure in the Palace Aides area falling short because
34:27
of the tremendous demand on the system and the inability
34:32
to have an aerial assault. The water system in Palisades
34:39
was not built for an urban wildfire, she added, but
34:44
rather for a couple simultaneous structure fires. Governor or California
34:52
Governor Gavin Newsom, Democrat, counciled a scheduled trip to Washington,
34:57
where he planned to attend the state funeral of former
35:00
President Jimmy Carter to seize some of the destruction firsthand.
35:06
He toured an area of the Palisades with Los Angeles
35:09
Mayor Karen Bass, Democrat, and defended the state's response amid
35:14
criticism it had not mobilized enough for sources quickly enough
35:22
in Washington, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said Wednesday that the
35:27
California National Guard would add two planes equipped to firefighting capabilities,
35:33
and that the Nevada National Guard was preparing two mole
35:38
when pressed, and while the Defense Department was not immediately
35:41
providing more equipment in personnel, she said, California authorities have
35:46
significant capability regardless. Windy conditions had limited the ability to
35:52
fight the fires from the air. Until we can get
35:56
more assets in the air, There's only so much we
35:59
can in bravade. Singh said that was scant consolation to
36:06
Angelinos such as Robert Salazar, who had evacuated from his
36:11
grandmother's house on Molino Avenue in Altadina with his cousins.
36:18
They first went to an aunt's house, then retreated to
36:22
the parking lot of a local Volatra grocery store after
36:27
the danger again got too close. At one point, a
36:32
neighbor called to warn the family that the grandmother's garage
36:34
had caught fire along with the house next door. And
36:39
neighbor called us saying that there was somebody a guy
36:42
out there putting out the fire, so we all decided
36:45
to come and help. Salazar said, his grandmother's sixth son
36:50
and many younger cousins jumped from their cars and dragged
36:53
garden hoses from neighbour's yards, pointing them at the two
36:56
story flames leaping from the already gutted house next door.
37:02
The group grabbed buckets and filled them with water from
37:05
puddles and the gutters, as others ran inside the home
37:09
to grab important papers, shoes, and boxes of possessions. The
37:14
family's efforts, the sixteen year old Sallazar said, ultimately saved
37:20
their grandmother's home. A cousin, Valerie rue Volcaba, eighteen said,
37:27
fire trucks kept passing by without stopping. You're hoping somebody
37:31
will help, but nobody's helping, she said, So really, what
37:35
can you do but try to find ways to help yourself.
37:40
Residents in the neighborhoods who had stayed put Wednesday despite
37:45
orders to leave, were on their roos with green garden hoses,
37:49
making a last attempt to soap the shingles and save
37:53
their properties. Others were wielding chainsaws in their front yards
37:57
and those of neighbors, cutting down hedges and tree limbs
38:00
to clear out vegetation that would help fuel the flames.
38:04
Sweeping giant palm froms onto the street. By midday, many
38:09
houses along the once tree lined streets along the Altadena
38:14
foothills were scattered by burned out cars and the ghostly
38:19
silhouettes of cacti and lemon trees. It's not scattered, they
38:25
were littered by burned out cars and the ghostly silhouettes
38:29
of cacti and lemon trees. Residents and firefighters said that
38:34
water pressure was so low virtually nothing came through in
38:38
hoses of fire hydrants. Altadena homeowner Eric Polstrom said, last night,
38:46
before I left, I wanted to turn on the sprinklers.
38:50
All he got was uh dribbled. Huge plumes of pitch
38:55
black smoke obscured the mountain range behind the town, and
38:59
the air was thick with ash and the smell of
39:01
burning wood. Some residents who had first evacuated Tuesday tried
39:06
to return to salvage whatever photographs, keepsakes in key documents
39:11
they had left behind. Gavino Gonzalez, twenty two, who works
39:17
for an HVAC company, was helping his father bring his horse,
39:21
Poncho Vila, as well as another friend's horse to safety.
39:27
Gonzalez had already lost his own home, along with all
39:30
of his belongings, watching in horror as his entire street
39:35
was overtaken. Everyone was just running away. You can't fight
39:40
a fire like that, he said. I just grabbed my dogs.
39:45
That was all that really mattered to me. He and
39:48
his father walked the horses miles through the dense smoke
39:52
towards the Rose Bowl, which had been transformed into a
39:55
refuge for large animals and livestock. But the men were
40:00
at shore, where they would find shelter for themselves that night. Nearby,
40:05
the All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena was not an
40:09
official shelter, but it hosted one hundred and eighty evacuees
40:13
Tuesday night. Reverend Susan Russell had been the first to arrive,
40:18
showing up with her wife and three dogs. They were
40:21
soon joined by church staff, community members, and their pets,
40:25
all fleeing the fast moving Eaton fire. By Wednesday morning,
40:32
many had left, Russell said, either because they had managed
40:35
to book a hotel room, moved to be with the relatives,
40:39
or were the lucky ones able to return home. But
40:43
the remaining evacuees told Russell they wanted to stay, and
40:47
so staff decided they could handle one more night. Russell said,
40:54
it's really kind of apaileptic right here. Now. We're still
40:59
in to evacuation and we're not convinced we're going to
41:03
come out on the right side of this one. It
41:05
was an inferno, no way, even with the best resources
41:10
to fight it. But there were some blessings amid the devastation.
41:16
The historic Pasadena Jewish temple and center were among the
41:20
structures reduced to nothing but charred remains, but a rabbi
41:24
confirmed that members had saved its sacred Toro scrolls. Winds
41:30
are expected to begin to decrease in southern California late
41:35
Wednesday afternoon into Thursday, though another surge of winds is
41:40
probable late Thursday into Friday. That has prompted fears that
41:45
the wildfires could push into other densely populated areas around
41:50
Los Angeles, including where those driven from their homes last
41:54
night have sought refuge. Sarah Kumdar, forty two, had fled
42:01
Pacific Palisades as flames approached her son's school, Calvary Christian
42:06
on Tuesday, first by car until she hit gridlock, then
42:10
on foot. She found an airbnb in northern Santa Monica,
42:15
but that area quickly became an evacuation zone, so she
42:19
and relatives led again to hotels further south. By Wednesday morning,
42:24
they were again in an evacuation zone. Where would they
42:28
go next, she wondered. She returned briefly to her neighborhood
42:32
to find all the landmarks gone, the library, the recreation center,
42:39
the yogurt shop. Absolute devastation.
42:46
Speaker 2: Gary Bettle piece headline, how Jimmy Carter's to stain for
42:56
GC politics changed Washington in a cynical time. Jimmy Carter
43:02
spurned the establishment and attracted a generation of idealists. Pieces
43:09
written by Mark Fisher. Marcipour was on the streets of
43:15
Chicago's Near Northwest section, fending off real estate developers and
43:21
a mayor who aimed to raise a struggling neighborhood. Alexis
43:26
Herman had been a social worker with Catholic charities, trying
43:31
to find jobs for poor people on a shipyard in
43:34
Passing Would, Mississippi. Mary Elizabeth King was running a group
43:39
designed to boost the poultry number of women in the
43:42
top ranks of the federal government, and Joan Kraybook was
43:46
one of Ralph Nader's raiders. The cadre of lawyers and
43:51
researchers around the country pushing for consumer protections. In nineteen
43:56
seventy seven, they and a few hundred idealists at Young
44:00
Smart activists like them came to Washington to join Jimmy
44:04
Carter's new administration, an injection of outsiders into a White
44:08
House that took pride in breaking out from the standard
44:12
DC playbook. Suddenly, the government assaulted with battalions of aids
44:17
and agency chiefs who came not from Capitol Hill jobs
44:21
or lodging firms, but from the anti Vietnam War as,
44:25
civil rights movements, environmentalist and feminist groups, and an array
44:30
of other nonprofits. In the aftermath of the Watergate scandal
44:35
and Richard M. Nixon's disgracing of the White House, the
44:38
country seemed cynical about government at all institutions of power.
44:43
Along came Carter, the Democratic governor of Georgia, who was
44:48
allergic to a lobbyists, sustainful of Washington's powerful social networks,
44:53
and adamant that government could be a force for good.
44:57
His oldest idealistic aims always produce results, and Carter, who
45:03
died December to twenty ninth at one hundred years old,
45:06
had to learn the hard way that in Washington, massaging
45:10
people could be as important as having the facts on
45:13
your side. A Carter's roster of activists changed the face
45:17
of government for his four years in office, and in
45:20
some ways for decades to come. All those other administrations
45:26
people go to dinner parties for thirty years and then
45:30
get their big government job. Saint King, a veteran civil
45:33
rights activist who had worked on anti poverty programs in
45:37
Georgia before being hired as Carter's Deputy Director of Action,
45:42
the agency that ran volunteer programs such as a T
45:46
Score and Miss done with Carter. People who viewed themselves
45:51
as agents of social change just sensed that he was
45:55
completely different animal. She said. The Carters were not themselves
45:59
movement people. They didn't go to demonstrations, but they were
46:03
tuned in to the injustices the movements were fighting. Carter
46:09
also saw in the activints a source of knowledge that
46:12
he valued more than political savage. He's the engineer who
46:16
became president, Saint ki Byrd, author of the recent biography
46:21
The Outlier, The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter. He valued expertise.
46:27
He hired dozens of Route nat or acolytes because of
46:30
their expertise on policy and their emphasis on making things work.
46:35
Carter brought to Washington with an idealism about clean government
46:39
and about making government work. Said Stuart Eisenstaff, who was
46:43
a young lawyer ran the new president's domestic policy shop.
46:48
It wasn't an express desire to have people without Washington experience,
46:53
but we were really admonished by Carter to open up
46:56
and bring in new people, to include women, blacks, and Hispanish,
47:00
a young, bright, diverse staff. We really didn't just once
47:06
an older group from the Hill. For Captur, the transition
47:10
at age thirty from inner city Chicago urban planner and
47:13
activist to the White House urban policy advisor grew out
47:17
of a spiritual foundation and a political outlook that she
47:20
shared with Carter. Both had a faith faith desire to
47:25
push back against developers and big city politician and instead
47:30
invest in grassroots housing and jobs programs in struggling urban neighborhoods.
47:36
Carter's interest in investing in black neighborhoods emerged from his
47:40
Christianity and his childhood in a majority black town in Georgia.
47:46
Keptur had worked for a Catholic priest who ministered the
47:50
poor urban communities, and pushed banks to finance projects and
47:54
low income areas. I was certainly someone who came into
47:58
the administration from a very different place, said kept to her,
48:02
who has been a Democratic congresswoman from Ohio for four decades,
48:07
a path, she said, I could not have imagined if
48:11
Carter hadn't seen me as the kind of person he
48:14
wanted in a government. So this day, every time I
48:18
gabble my committee into session, I think, President Carter, this
48:23
is for you. But Captaur, like other Carter alumni, said
48:30
that the president's good intentions often fell short of full
48:33
achievement because he was so preoccupied with the Arab oil
48:37
embargo of the Iranian hostage crisis. And I often felt
48:42
like such a failure because again and again the voice
48:45
that people got overwhelmed by the big money interest. Although
48:50
administration alumni argued that Carter achieved far more than his
48:54
failure to win re election and his mediocre popularity raising
48:58
and the polls indicate, they concede that his disconnect with
49:02
the Washington establishment, including his preference for outsiders, hindered his performance.
49:09
The chemistry was never there, said Eisenstott, who wrote a
49:12
history of the administration President Carter. The White House hears
49:17
Carter could never satisfy the liberal wing of the party.
49:20
He ran as an outsider, but when you're president, you're
49:23
the ultimate insider. He tried to send a message by
49:27
carrying his own luggage. He banned hail to the Chief
49:30
for the first month until he convinced him that there's
49:33
a certain majesty to the presidency. But the staff believed
49:37
in him. Young, very idealistic people who worked twenty four
49:41
to seven and gone a lot done. They were crushed
49:44
by his defeat. Four years after Carter arrived as the clean,
49:49
soft spoken anecdote to Nixon's dark citicism, he was swept
49:53
out of office by another Washington outsider, Ronald Reagan, who
49:58
captivated Americans with the opposite promise to get the government
50:02
out of people's lives and dismantled many of the initiatives
50:06
Carter had fought for. But although the ready rhetoric of
50:10
limited government became a powerful trope in the posts Carter era,
50:14
the generation of idealistic liberals who served this administration remained
50:20
an influential presence in Washington, serving for decades as the
50:24
intellectual and political engine of much of democratic policies. Maybe
50:30
we were really hired as understudies, Capture said, and now
50:34
through fate, we could really do something for our country.
50:37
During and after his presidency, Carter was widely criticized by
50:41
historians and politicians for taking his outsider approach too far
50:46
and alienating establishment figures who could have helped him achieve
50:50
more of his goals. It's true that there was a
50:54
cultural disconnect between Carter and the Capitol Hill veterans, lobbyists
50:59
of Washington lawyer who view themselves as the country's permanent
51:03
power structure. Bird said Carter had no experience with the
51:07
Georgetown said. He said he more than once turned down
51:10
the invitations from Katherine Graham and the publisher of the
51:14
Washington Post, and a strong believer in the power of
51:17
social relationship to grease the wheels of government. Still, Carter's
51:22
biographers concluded that the young idealists he seized throughout the
51:26
federal bureaucracy changed American life and the nation's role in
51:29
the world by leading the deregulation of the airline and
51:32
trucking industries, engineering diplomatic recognition of China, and emphasizing human
51:39
rights in the US Foreign policy after Watergate, we were
51:43
sort of the good guys, said Jay Beck, who came
51:46
to the Carter White House from Georgia and has worked
51:49
for decades since coordinating the Carter Center's relationship with a
51:53
lumni of the administration. I spent the Watergate period screaming
51:57
at the TV, and now the fearing feeling was let's
52:02
go tilts and windmills, let's do something good for the country.
52:07
Alexis Herman was twenty nine on the student trip in
52:09
Europe on the night that Carter was elected, and the
52:12
headline she saw in a Paris newspaper the next morning
52:16
struck her. With Geanette Farmer elected president. This was not
52:21
your standard issue president and that unusual pedigree led Herman,
52:26
then working Atlanta campaign to place women of color and
52:30
corporate jobs, to believe that she and other ordinary people
52:34
were practical with practical backgrounds had roles to play in
52:38
the new administration. Appointed head of the Women's Bureau, an
52:42
office in the Labor Department that develops policies on behalf
52:45
of working women, Hermann found plenty of conflict on the
52:48
staff that included both outsiders eager to change the world
52:52
and people for more traditional places, Hill staffers, Washington law lawyers,
52:58
and even some lobbyists. Was tensioned. We thought we were
53:02
representing the people, and they thought they knew what was
53:05
going on and how to make things happen to Hermit said.
53:08
The result was an array of ambitious plans to push
53:11
American society to be greener, more equitable, and were focused
53:16
on the needs of people who felt disconnected from their government.
53:20
Having people like us in the administration had a big
53:22
impact of the kind of policy initiatives Carter embraced, but
53:28
many of those initiatives didn't get very far, in part
53:32
because of Carter's disdain for the way that Washington works.
53:36
See Claybrook, who served as Carter's head of the National
53:39
Traffic Highway Traffic Safety Administration after years of working on
53:44
auto safety issues with Nader. Carter really intensely disliked the
53:49
logging crowd, all the white men who manipulated the government,
53:54
the people who believed that the way you get things
53:56
done is you train a railroad for an airport. Selak,
54:00
who went on to run NAT's Public citizen organization for
54:03
twenty six years after Carter's term. Carter would have none
54:08
of that. Claybrook said that she got her job because
54:11
the president requested that a number of his quarantees be women.
54:15
She said that she and many other outsiders in administration
54:18
adopted a more flexible approach and Carter's engaging members of
54:23
Congress and building relationships that could lead to deals. Although
54:27
the risk between insiders and outsiders was real, the outsiders
54:31
often help one another push through the priorities. Claybrook said
54:36
she recalled asking everyone that one White House staff meeting
54:41
on regulatory issues to introduce themselves and listening with prime
54:46
as three quarters of the people turned out to have
54:49
worked for Ralph Nader and his public interest research groups.
54:53
Even when veteran activists combined forces with Washington insiders, Carter's
54:59
staffers often styming in their drive to push through major changes,
55:03
but many of the same people stayed in Washington after
55:06
the last to Reagan. Reagan now from purchase at think tanks,
55:11
foundations and other non governmental organizations. Claybook, for example, kept
55:17
working at Public Citizen and finally helped win requirements during
55:21
the Reagan years for airbags and mandatory seat boat US.
55:26
After Reagan came in, a lot of us went into
55:28
public interest job and exercise great oversight and got good
55:33
things done. She said, Alice back to you. Three minutes
55:37
left to go.
55:42
Speaker 1: Three minutes left and I will go with Meta embraces
55:47
fact checking program that X uses say is like wack
55:53
a mole, emulating Elon muss x. Meta is outsourcing it's
56:00
fact checking to users on X. Some contributors say their
56:06
efforts feel futile. This is by Tricia Theedani and will Ormus.
56:17
Before the November election, Walt Wang said he spent ten
56:22
to twenty hours a week debunking falsehoods on X, the
56:27
social media platform owned by Elon Musk, as election related
56:33
lies and propaganda spread throughout the site. He carefully crafted responses,
56:39
backed by reputable sources to counter the false claims before
56:44
they reached millions of users, but often, he said, his
56:49
efforts felt similar to a game of whack a mole.
56:54
He spent hours debunking one conspiracy theory only to watch
56:58
another crop up moment. Wang is part of a legend
57:03
of EX users who volunteer their time policing or policing
57:08
misinformation on the site through a feature called Community Notes,
57:14
which Metas said Tuesday it will adopt in place of
57:18
its extensive fact checking program in the United States, an
57:26
entirely voluntary group of people doesn't have the manpower or
57:30
resources to debunk all of the conspiracy theories. Wang, a
57:35
twenty seven year old who works in healthcare, said over
57:40
x direct message, Inevitably, an increasing number of conspiracy theories
57:46
will slip through. Researchers have hailed community notes as a
57:55
novel idea in content moderation online miss information experts have
58:01
long argued that volunteers are not an adequate replacement for
58:05
trained employees. The policy, many researchers say, will lead to
58:10
more falsehoods swirling around the Internet that will seep their
58:14
way into the real world as shift with unknown consequences
58:19
for society. And I will end on that note with
58:23
stay warm. We had no electricity for a while, but
58:28
fortunately it is back, so I hope you all are
58:32
safe Gary. Anything you want to say.
58:35
Speaker 2: That was just echo Alice's comments about it's quite cloled out.
58:40
Be safe and hopeful
58:42
Speaker 1: Spring hopeless, bring right on, take care, Please continue listening
58:48
to programming on RADIOI