For starters, my first Forest Service seasonal ff job was in 1980, seems like, well a long time ago.
The bottomline up front; the wildland firefighting agencies in the US (USFS, BLM, NPS, FWS, and most state agencies, here it's CalFire) have been on a long slippery slope of dysfunction for decades. Education from liberal (ie not based on reality or historical fact) universities, and quota fulfilling gender or ethnicity points overshadowed decades of hard work. People (mostly those filling in those quota goals) with a BS in Forestry (and often near zero real world, out in the woods experience) got management and leadership positions, and faced near zero recourse when they failed. Those with the experience left, kept their heads down until retirement or converted to the prevailing trend (DEI before it was called DEI).
In my area (central Sierras) there has been a lot of fake news about cuts, but little if any ever took place. It is a bit early, north of the LA basin, most seasonal ff come on between mid May and mid June, but as of today I have not heard of any cuts.
As to combining all the federal agencies, I see a very mixed bag of possible outcomes.
The positive would be a significant reduction in upper level management duplication.
On the negative side, each federal land management agency has very different purposes, directives and doctrine. That hurdle, making firefighting strategies and tactics uniform across the country would be difficult at best. Making the Park Service take on the same land management rubrics as the Forest Service would be like asking Catholics to adopt Scientology.
The problem isn't so much the various agencies, it is the disfunction of government "experts" and the myopia of their perspectives. The forests (and homes, and people, and infrastructure, and wildlife, and watersheds) will burn to dust before some will base their actions on current and expected fire behavior.
And forest (and chaparral) "management" was lost thirty years ago when spotted owls, condors and obscure salamanders took precedence over human life.
Trying hard not to sound like the curmudgeon old guy, but here's one example. "Back in the day" when we weren't actually on a fire, we spent one day every two weeks training, and the rest were spent working on a fuelbreak, or actual forest management project. Now, at least in my area, zero fuelbreaks are cut, let alone maintained, zero.
So what's the answer(s)? No, the agencies are not being gutted. And if anyone decides to "fix" them it will have to be a cultural sea change.
Locally (N Idaho) it seems like fire is the one area that isn't being decimated by cuts to federal workforce. So I guess that's good, though as you said in your comment, the "old school" fire crews did tons of rehab and improvement saw work while waiting for fires. The new "professional" model of fire doesn't do anything at all. That will have knock-on effects to fuel levels throughout the districts.
As for agency coordination, in the 1990s we had fire crews from both the federal side (USFS) and state (Idaho Dept Lands) working at cross purposes sometimes. They've since made one interagency dispatch that handles all fire activities for the region, which is smart since it saves resources and also ensures better coordination. A rare win for the good guys.
I do share your skepticism about whether standardizing fire under a federal umbrella is a good idea. I tend to believe anything the govt touches it destroys, so I have very little doubt that this will also turn into a massive boondoggle that costs a ton of money and accomplishes nothing useful.
I also have to give a 1000% agreement with your "DEI before DEI was a thing" comment. We had a fire crew boss in the 90s who'd worked all over the country as a wildland firefighter, was a former smokejumper, hotshot, etc.-- highly qualified, extremely experienced, and a nice guy. He was "interim" crew boss however, waiting for his appointment to be made as permanent boss for our crew. Imagine our surprise when he was passed over for a female silvicuture tech from a neighboring district, who had essentially zero fire experience but was not male!
On our first controlled burn with the new boss in charge, we burned over a hose lay meant to hold the flank of the burn, burned up the hill and scorched and nearly destroyed a brand new fire truck holding the top boundary of the unit, and me and another guy had to literally sprint through a wall of flames to get out because she had burned below us by (badly) directing a helitorch to burn the wrong areas. So yeah, it's been happening for a long time.
Thank you for your insights. I’m curious as to what firefights do today in their downtime when not fighting fires- why aren’t they still training and maintaining fire breaks? I don’t get it.
The simple answer is they are spending much more time training, or what is categorized as training. Every agency has become a part of the data age, and similar to insurance company coding, every activity is coded for tracking. Much of the training is repetitive, but little is beneficial (according to friends and relatives still working). They are simulating what used to be learned through actual doing.
Fire itself is fairly simple, and the concepts can be boiled down into easily understood mnemonics (the fire triangle, the ten standards, fuels+weather+topography, etc.). The implementation however becomes exponentially
more difficult though when it is realized that human nature (of both those in harm's way, and those tasked with taking action) becomes the compounding factor.
As to the fuel breaks, the primary drivers against them are political NIMBY screechers ("those are ugly", "too much noise", or "dust" (while work is done)) and the eco-extremist faction that claims EVERYTHING MUST be left to nature, except of course their million dollar house (unnatural), powered by 10,000 volt antiquated power lines (unnatural), with their very expensive non-native landscaping (unnatural) which can't be touched, changed or regulated. The hypocrisy is thicker than the eventual smoke column that follows.
The argument in the news, in its current form, is that Trump is making it harder for them to do that part, too, because they don't have the staffing. I suspect there's a good amount of hysteria and exaggeration in that, but I'm not sure it's completely false.
hi chris, i am a subscriber to a few folks who actually do research instead of regurgitation. you are one of my favorites: probably because i live in california and have to deal with the ftb, pge, etc., and get to watch fires burn out of control around empty reservoirs and dry fire hydrants up close and personal. thanks for telling the truth.
Nothing like a brave former super secret Gman in flak vest and web gear, but no Fing Kevlar Helmet…not even reaching mid wit levels he shopped for just the right moment to memorize his trip tot the Ukraine. As an aside, if this boob congressman were in the the Marine Corps he would not only have his helmet on his coconut, the chin strap would be buckled at ALL times. Shrapnel does wonderful things to human flesh and bones. What a Marrooon as Bugs would say.
As to the US Forest Service, everything they touch turns to absolute disaster, the planning is is mismanaged, the harvesting when they allow it, is mismanaged, the over sight, the intrusive regulations and in the main our forest that they mange are very very sick. Head to Finland if you want to see forest management. They practice brain surgery and we practice amputations. But “hands off” damn it! These are the dedicated hard working federal bureaucrats making Smokey the Bear proud. The people Chris met on his rounds are the doer’s and getting ready for the crunch. The pencil pushing briefers? Well we saw how good some can be when a small inferno turned to a catastrophic loss of life and property in Los Angeles. But you can trust these sorts! Honest Johns all, they’re not like the rest. That fire truck you see there was owned by a little grandma who only drove it in Fourth of July parades, a real cream puff…exactly, it was in the fire truck boneyard because it didn’t operate properly anymore. Cheer up all! The weekend is approaching and we will be treated to more Baby Boomers in their Tie Dyed shirts, Hemp pants, open toed Birkenstocks and signs, signs, every where a sign. Go boomers go! Save the whales! Except on the East Coast where we are killing them putting up massive wind generation that doesn’t work!
We better be careful the whole whale inclusive community may want to burn us at the stake for parochialism in mis gendering our whales on both coasts! Keep the great posts coming Chris, every word counts!
When I see stuff like the 'choose your fighter' video, I look at who the dufus is who put it up. Under the person's screen name 'sulheejessica' are the words 'girls make the world a better place'. Well, actually, describing the women in this video montage as 'girls' tells me that they are adult age children. These 'girls' are ridiculous, need to grow up and should be nowhere near Congress.
But enough about these forest things, let’s discuss Judy Chu! Did you know she’s the first Chinese American elected to the House of Representatives? Can you say, “Who gives a shit?” I knew you could!
But seriously, folks, what use are these “elected officials” if we are unable to contact them and they are not even versed in the issues affecting the area they “represent?”
And that cringe video…holy hell, Chu can’t even make a half-way fighting stance! Did she even ball up her fists? Performative nonsense.
Don’t feel so bad, Chris. I think my rep is Chris Holden.
I stand corrected. It’s Gil Cisneros. I don’t remember voting for this guy. I think I left it blank.
We had Chris Holden for years. I used to live around the corner from him in Pasadena, back when he was on the city council. But I lived in Adam Schiff's congressional district for years, and nearly a decade with Henry Fucking Waxman, so everything after that is mere crap.
Convenient. First, they gut first responders by selecting for blind compliance (through covid jabs). Then they reorganize the remainder so as not to interfere with DEW-driven military operations.
The photos — brought back memories ... I spent 3 summers as a Tanker Truck Operator in the Mogollon Rim country of Arizona, but also worked with hot-shots and helitack. Recognized those nomex-shirts on the helmeted fighters.
The video link — brought back cringe. Political animals posing as 'super heroes'? I suspect this is a reflection of how Rome fell.
Good times, Chris. Simpler times. When not cutting down trees (blazing at the top like normal lightning strikes), putting the piss-pumps to work, and digging away the duff around the tree, we were visiting the look-outs or taking a cross-border trip to a bodega for the weekend. Now ... everything and its mother is disrupted, suspended, or corrupted — by premeditated design.
Through Telegram, I have forwarded a link to your post to YouTube podcasters / authors Traci and Shane of "Brush Junkie" ... https://www.youtube.com/@brushjunkie6384
I really have nothing intelligent to add as I have zero expertise in fighting forest fires.
But, Congress DOES suck. My question is if anybody in LA who had their house burn down in the recent conflagration is making any progress toward rebuilding?
This is like trying to blame current inflation on Pres Trump, though it was caused by the money printers under Puppet Biden.
Let's hope that more and more federal public land is placed under state management. We will be able to witness who really cares for our land and inheritance, which governors and legislatures will manage it and put it to careful and practical use. Will it be the blue states that are overrun with criminality and corruption and filth, or the red ones that enforce laws and try to exist within their budgets.
If properly done, a strategy could be formulated under state stewardship that could pay for itself, while local peoples would benefit and have a say in their public land use.
No one anywhere in politics or the media cared about that, while a bunch of normals thought it was outrageous and stupid. The perception divide, illustrated.
Three-mag Mike [Brian] is a Dem when it comes to guns. Guns for him, not for you. Here's how Wikipedia describes his record:
"In 2018, Fitzpatrick was the only Republican endorsed by the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, the gun control organization founded by former U.S. representative Gabby Giffords. He voted to expand background checks and restrict assault weapon sales. He voted against a bill that would require states to recognize concealed-carry permits issued by other states.
"In March 2021, Fitzpatrick was one of eight Republicans to join the House majority in passing the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021,
"On July 29, 2022, Fitzpatrick and one other Republican, Chris Jacobs, joined the Democrats in voting for a bill banning assault weapons.
"In the 2022 midterm elections, Fitzpatrick was the only Republican member of Congress to receive an "F" rating from the NRA Political Victory Fund.
"On June 13, 2023, Fitzpatrick and one other Republican, Thomas Kean Jr. of New Jersey voted with Democrats against HJ 44, a bill repealing the ATF's new regulations on Pistol Braces."
But 3-Mag WAS in the FBI, where his role was to clean up corruption in Kiev (Keev!), Mosul, and DC!
I got the name wrong. It's Brian Fitzpatrick, not Mike, and he represents mostly Bucks County, or as Wikipedia puts it, "the wealthiest congressional district in the state of Pennsylvania." The positions I quoted are correct for Brian. Mike Fitzpatrick, deceased, as mentioned by Doc Hammer, was a congressman from northeastern PA.
FAR north east PA, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area. Just had to look it up myself. Kind of shocking that an anti-gun tit like that would get elected up that way. I was expecting he was from around Philly.
His twitter profile says he's ex-FBI. I think we all know that law enforcement types tend to be conservative, but gun rights are a big hole in that worldview. Too many cops (and one ex-FBI I knew and a few former Secret Service agents I used to work with) believe that civilians should not be allowed to possess the same weapons law enforcement carries. Not that they think their weapons are anything special, just that they want the public to be hobbled in their self defence capabilities.
NO! NO! and NO! Hands Off! Whole Bureaus are closing! No one knows anything except that Evil _______ (fill in the blank daily after NPR switches to tiny desk concert). It’s been NINETY EIGHT DAYS! We are ruined. Lexie for Prez. Save us Lexie.
It would be so easy, instead they’ve made it so exhausting. Good luck you road warriors. Keep the faith. I can’t even.
Response on Saturday morning from Robert Garcia, the Angeles National Forest fire chief:
"Although staffing challenges vary unit to unit across the state, staffing on the Angeles National Forest is looking very good. All of our modules which includes engine companies, hot shot crews and Aviation unit will be fully staffed this summer."
Do we even need the MSM anymore ? It's always the same , just fill in the blanks. 'Not enough money', 'taking our money', 'severe cuts' alongside Daddy Law coming in: 'more rules! more regulations! more laws! more fines!'. Sometimes sprinkled with 'we will raise minimum wage to $50 an hour to fight inflation'!!!
Crumpet— Seems to me that MSM can be summed as "Your Constant and Daily Reminder that the Orange Man is Very, Very, Very Bad." I don't know about other people, but I do not need the MSM. I do not find it useful, neither do I not find it interesting. I used to subscribe to a bunch of MSM pubs, canceled them all back in 2021, and some earlier than that.
Personal observation: all the people in my world who are still reading NYT et al are sick or are feeling kinda lousy and having to upend their lives to care for relatives who are sick.
So... someone listening to experienced fire-fighters and trying to set things up the way the people in the know wants it set up so they can do their best?
So much to unpack and discuss ...
For starters, my first Forest Service seasonal ff job was in 1980, seems like, well a long time ago.
The bottomline up front; the wildland firefighting agencies in the US (USFS, BLM, NPS, FWS, and most state agencies, here it's CalFire) have been on a long slippery slope of dysfunction for decades. Education from liberal (ie not based on reality or historical fact) universities, and quota fulfilling gender or ethnicity points overshadowed decades of hard work. People (mostly those filling in those quota goals) with a BS in Forestry (and often near zero real world, out in the woods experience) got management and leadership positions, and faced near zero recourse when they failed. Those with the experience left, kept their heads down until retirement or converted to the prevailing trend (DEI before it was called DEI).
In my area (central Sierras) there has been a lot of fake news about cuts, but little if any ever took place. It is a bit early, north of the LA basin, most seasonal ff come on between mid May and mid June, but as of today I have not heard of any cuts.
As to combining all the federal agencies, I see a very mixed bag of possible outcomes.
The positive would be a significant reduction in upper level management duplication.
On the negative side, each federal land management agency has very different purposes, directives and doctrine. That hurdle, making firefighting strategies and tactics uniform across the country would be difficult at best. Making the Park Service take on the same land management rubrics as the Forest Service would be like asking Catholics to adopt Scientology.
The problem isn't so much the various agencies, it is the disfunction of government "experts" and the myopia of their perspectives. The forests (and homes, and people, and infrastructure, and wildlife, and watersheds) will burn to dust before some will base their actions on current and expected fire behavior.
And forest (and chaparral) "management" was lost thirty years ago when spotted owls, condors and obscure salamanders took precedence over human life.
Trying hard not to sound like the curmudgeon old guy, but here's one example. "Back in the day" when we weren't actually on a fire, we spent one day every two weeks training, and the rest were spent working on a fuelbreak, or actual forest management project. Now, at least in my area, zero fuelbreaks are cut, let alone maintained, zero.
So what's the answer(s)? No, the agencies are not being gutted. And if anyone decides to "fix" them it will have to be a cultural sea change.
To save typing, here's a comment I made on one of Chris' earlier articles with my background as a FS firefighter: https://chrisbray.substack.com/p/writhing-in-agony-and-despair-as/comment/95826571
Locally (N Idaho) it seems like fire is the one area that isn't being decimated by cuts to federal workforce. So I guess that's good, though as you said in your comment, the "old school" fire crews did tons of rehab and improvement saw work while waiting for fires. The new "professional" model of fire doesn't do anything at all. That will have knock-on effects to fuel levels throughout the districts.
As for agency coordination, in the 1990s we had fire crews from both the federal side (USFS) and state (Idaho Dept Lands) working at cross purposes sometimes. They've since made one interagency dispatch that handles all fire activities for the region, which is smart since it saves resources and also ensures better coordination. A rare win for the good guys.
I do share your skepticism about whether standardizing fire under a federal umbrella is a good idea. I tend to believe anything the govt touches it destroys, so I have very little doubt that this will also turn into a massive boondoggle that costs a ton of money and accomplishes nothing useful.
I also have to give a 1000% agreement with your "DEI before DEI was a thing" comment. We had a fire crew boss in the 90s who'd worked all over the country as a wildland firefighter, was a former smokejumper, hotshot, etc.-- highly qualified, extremely experienced, and a nice guy. He was "interim" crew boss however, waiting for his appointment to be made as permanent boss for our crew. Imagine our surprise when he was passed over for a female silvicuture tech from a neighboring district, who had essentially zero fire experience but was not male!
On our first controlled burn with the new boss in charge, we burned over a hose lay meant to hold the flank of the burn, burned up the hill and scorched and nearly destroyed a brand new fire truck holding the top boundary of the unit, and me and another guy had to literally sprint through a wall of flames to get out because she had burned below us by (badly) directing a helitorch to burn the wrong areas. So yeah, it's been happening for a long time.
Thank you for your insights. I’m curious as to what firefights do today in their downtime when not fighting fires- why aren’t they still training and maintaining fire breaks? I don’t get it.
The simple answer is they are spending much more time training, or what is categorized as training. Every agency has become a part of the data age, and similar to insurance company coding, every activity is coded for tracking. Much of the training is repetitive, but little is beneficial (according to friends and relatives still working). They are simulating what used to be learned through actual doing.
Fire itself is fairly simple, and the concepts can be boiled down into easily understood mnemonics (the fire triangle, the ten standards, fuels+weather+topography, etc.). The implementation however becomes exponentially
more difficult though when it is realized that human nature (of both those in harm's way, and those tasked with taking action) becomes the compounding factor.
As to the fuel breaks, the primary drivers against them are political NIMBY screechers ("those are ugly", "too much noise", or "dust" (while work is done)) and the eco-extremist faction that claims EVERYTHING MUST be left to nature, except of course their million dollar house (unnatural), powered by 10,000 volt antiquated power lines (unnatural), with their very expensive non-native landscaping (unnatural) which can't be touched, changed or regulated. The hypocrisy is thicker than the eventual smoke column that follows.
Great comments. Appreciate the insight from experience.
John - thank you.
If the forestry service practiced good land management, they wouldn't need to worry as much as about fires.
Clear the underbrush, get rid of the trash, and create a few firebreaks. Set up reservoirs, and so on. Be proactive.
The argument in the news, in its current form, is that Trump is making it harder for them to do that part, too, because they don't have the staffing. I suspect there's a good amount of hysteria and exaggeration in that, but I'm not sure it's completely false.
Sure, but what’s their excuse for not already doing that stuff over many past years?
And of course if the feds give control of the forests to Californicate none of that will happen...
That's already been proven. Californians are incapable of land stewardship.
But the Rousseauean untouched wilderness is so spiritual
hi chris, i am a subscriber to a few folks who actually do research instead of regurgitation. you are one of my favorites: probably because i live in california and have to deal with the ftb, pge, etc., and get to watch fires burn out of control around empty reservoirs and dry fire hydrants up close and personal. thanks for telling the truth.
Nothing like a brave former super secret Gman in flak vest and web gear, but no Fing Kevlar Helmet…not even reaching mid wit levels he shopped for just the right moment to memorize his trip tot the Ukraine. As an aside, if this boob congressman were in the the Marine Corps he would not only have his helmet on his coconut, the chin strap would be buckled at ALL times. Shrapnel does wonderful things to human flesh and bones. What a Marrooon as Bugs would say.
As to the US Forest Service, everything they touch turns to absolute disaster, the planning is is mismanaged, the harvesting when they allow it, is mismanaged, the over sight, the intrusive regulations and in the main our forest that they mange are very very sick. Head to Finland if you want to see forest management. They practice brain surgery and we practice amputations. But “hands off” damn it! These are the dedicated hard working federal bureaucrats making Smokey the Bear proud. The people Chris met on his rounds are the doer’s and getting ready for the crunch. The pencil pushing briefers? Well we saw how good some can be when a small inferno turned to a catastrophic loss of life and property in Los Angeles. But you can trust these sorts! Honest Johns all, they’re not like the rest. That fire truck you see there was owned by a little grandma who only drove it in Fourth of July parades, a real cream puff…exactly, it was in the fire truck boneyard because it didn’t operate properly anymore. Cheer up all! The weekend is approaching and we will be treated to more Baby Boomers in their Tie Dyed shirts, Hemp pants, open toed Birkenstocks and signs, signs, every where a sign. Go boomers go! Save the whales! Except on the East Coast where we are killing them putting up massive wind generation that doesn’t work!
We are also killing whales on the West Coast, but ours are a mix that includes untreated Tijuana sewage being pumped into the ocean.
We better be careful the whole whale inclusive community may want to burn us at the stake for parochialism in mis gendering our whales on both coasts! Keep the great posts coming Chris, every word counts!
When I see stuff like the 'choose your fighter' video, I look at who the dufus is who put it up. Under the person's screen name 'sulheejessica' are the words 'girls make the world a better place'. Well, actually, describing the women in this video montage as 'girls' tells me that they are adult age children. These 'girls' are ridiculous, need to grow up and should be nowhere near Congress.
But enough about these forest things, let’s discuss Judy Chu! Did you know she’s the first Chinese American elected to the House of Representatives? Can you say, “Who gives a shit?” I knew you could!
But seriously, folks, what use are these “elected officials” if we are unable to contact them and they are not even versed in the issues affecting the area they “represent?”
And that cringe video…holy hell, Chu can’t even make a half-way fighting stance! Did she even ball up her fists? Performative nonsense.
Don’t feel so bad, Chris. I think my rep is Chris Holden.
I stand corrected. It’s Gil Cisneros. I don’t remember voting for this guy. I think I left it blank.
We had Chris Holden for years. I used to live around the corner from him in Pasadena, back when he was on the city council. But I lived in Adam Schiff's congressional district for years, and nearly a decade with Henry Fucking Waxman, so everything after that is mere crap.
WOW!, that is some seriously bad bat shit crazy representative juju, ... if it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say you weren’t the constituent they were representing.
You’ve NEVER been represented. 😕
Schiff and Waxman? in one life? God has a hard-on for you!
You’ve tolerated quite a lot of crap in your day , hats off , deep respect.
South Pas can sometimes be a curse. Try driving on Fremont Avenue at 4:00 PM on a weekday.
Is she left or right handed? Glasses or Contacts? Boxers or Briefs?
So many catagories to be filled on the way to equality!
Way too eminently sensible, Chris. You need more strawmen and angry slogan shouting!
Convenient. First, they gut first responders by selecting for blind compliance (through covid jabs). Then they reorganize the remainder so as not to interfere with DEW-driven military operations.
The photos — brought back memories ... I spent 3 summers as a Tanker Truck Operator in the Mogollon Rim country of Arizona, but also worked with hot-shots and helitack. Recognized those nomex-shirts on the helmeted fighters.
The video link — brought back cringe. Political animals posing as 'super heroes'? I suspect this is a reflection of how Rome fell.
Three summers on the Mogollon Rim sounds like a dream job.
Good times, Chris. Simpler times. When not cutting down trees (blazing at the top like normal lightning strikes), putting the piss-pumps to work, and digging away the duff around the tree, we were visiting the look-outs or taking a cross-border trip to a bodega for the weekend. Now ... everything and its mother is disrupted, suspended, or corrupted — by premeditated design.
Through Telegram, I have forwarded a link to your post to YouTube podcasters / authors Traci and Shane of "Brush Junkie" ... https://www.youtube.com/@brushjunkie6384
I really have nothing intelligent to add as I have zero expertise in fighting forest fires.
But, Congress DOES suck. My question is if anybody in LA who had their house burn down in the recent conflagration is making any progress toward rebuilding?
https://nypost.com/2025/03/27/real-estate/l-a-approves-4-permits-to-rebuild-in-pacific-palisades-after-fires/
Wow. Aren’t people going batshit over this?
This is Los Angeles. This is how it works.
Four permits is a lot. Those residents must have bribed some city council members.
This is like trying to blame current inflation on Pres Trump, though it was caused by the money printers under Puppet Biden.
Let's hope that more and more federal public land is placed under state management. We will be able to witness who really cares for our land and inheritance, which governors and legislatures will manage it and put it to careful and practical use. Will it be the blue states that are overrun with criminality and corruption and filth, or the red ones that enforce laws and try to exist within their budgets.
If properly done, a strategy could be formulated under state stewardship that could pay for itself, while local peoples would benefit and have a say in their public land use.
Stop trying to dig up facts and make any sense… there’s an inquisition we’re trying to have, and you are just getting in the way.
Heh…
lol yeah
A congressman carrying spare mags in Ukraine? Are there photos of him with a rifle?
There’s a photo of possibly him firing artillery. Go back a few of Chris’ posts.
No one anywhere in politics or the media cared about that, while a bunch of normals thought it was outrageous and stupid. The perception divide, illustrated.
"...outrageous and stupid"
Outrageous and stupid have their place. That stunt was pointless.
Let me guess…taxpayers paid for that ignoramus to go to Ukraine and make that inane video?
Oh, good God, what a tool.
Three-mag Mike [Brian] is a Dem when it comes to guns. Guns for him, not for you. Here's how Wikipedia describes his record:
"In 2018, Fitzpatrick was the only Republican endorsed by the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, the gun control organization founded by former U.S. representative Gabby Giffords. He voted to expand background checks and restrict assault weapon sales. He voted against a bill that would require states to recognize concealed-carry permits issued by other states.
"In March 2021, Fitzpatrick was one of eight Republicans to join the House majority in passing the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021,
"On July 29, 2022, Fitzpatrick and one other Republican, Chris Jacobs, joined the Democrats in voting for a bill banning assault weapons.
"In the 2022 midterm elections, Fitzpatrick was the only Republican member of Congress to receive an "F" rating from the NRA Political Victory Fund.
"On June 13, 2023, Fitzpatrick and one other Republican, Thomas Kean Jr. of New Jersey voted with Democrats against HJ 44, a bill repealing the ATF's new regulations on Pistol Braces."
But 3-Mag WAS in the FBI, where his role was to clean up corruption in Kiev (Keev!), Mosul, and DC!
.....and this loser is from where?
I got the name wrong. It's Brian Fitzpatrick, not Mike, and he represents mostly Bucks County, or as Wikipedia puts it, "the wealthiest congressional district in the state of Pennsylvania." The positions I quoted are correct for Brian. Mike Fitzpatrick, deceased, as mentioned by Doc Hammer, was a congressman from northeastern PA.
Thank-you!
FAR north east PA, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area. Just had to look it up myself. Kind of shocking that an anti-gun tit like that would get elected up that way. I was expecting he was from around Philly.
His twitter profile says he's ex-FBI. I think we all know that law enforcement types tend to be conservative, but gun rights are a big hole in that worldview. Too many cops (and one ex-FBI I knew and a few former Secret Service agents I used to work with) believe that civilians should not be allowed to possess the same weapons law enforcement carries. Not that they think their weapons are anything special, just that they want the public to be hobbled in their self defence capabilities.
Are there photos of him on the front lines getting shot at? (Not serious.)
Sadly no. But seeing an FPV drone impacting him would have been good
NO! NO! and NO! Hands Off! Whole Bureaus are closing! No one knows anything except that Evil _______ (fill in the blank daily after NPR switches to tiny desk concert). It’s been NINETY EIGHT DAYS! We are ruined. Lexie for Prez. Save us Lexie.
It would be so easy, instead they’ve made it so exhausting. Good luck you road warriors. Keep the faith. I can’t even.
Response on Saturday morning from Robert Garcia, the Angeles National Forest fire chief:
"Although staffing challenges vary unit to unit across the state, staffing on the Angeles National Forest is looking very good. All of our modules which includes engine companies, hot shot crews and Aviation unit will be fully staffed this summer."
Do we even need the MSM anymore ? It's always the same , just fill in the blanks. 'Not enough money', 'taking our money', 'severe cuts' alongside Daddy Law coming in: 'more rules! more regulations! more laws! more fines!'. Sometimes sprinkled with 'we will raise minimum wage to $50 an hour to fight inflation'!!!
Crumpet— Seems to me that MSM can be summed as "Your Constant and Daily Reminder that the Orange Man is Very, Very, Very Bad." I don't know about other people, but I do not need the MSM. I do not find it useful, neither do I not find it interesting. I used to subscribe to a bunch of MSM pubs, canceled them all back in 2021, and some earlier than that.
Personal observation: all the people in my world who are still reading NYT et al are sick or are feeling kinda lousy and having to upend their lives to care for relatives who are sick.
So... someone listening to experienced fire-fighters and trying to set things up the way the people in the know wants it set up so they can do their best?
Isn't that racism?
Probably. 😒🙄