“President Trump’s visit Saturday to the fire-ravaged California town of Paradise seemed to be going fine, until he began explaining his understanding of forest policy,” as the San Jose Mercury News is reporting. “Apparently, California needs to buy more rakes.
“’You gotta take care of the floors. You know the floors of the forest, very important,’ Trump told reporters, as Gov. Jerry Brown and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom stood nearby. ‘You look at other countries where they do it differently and it’s a whole different story. I was with the president of Finland and he called it a forest nation, and they spend a lot of time on raking and cleaning and doing things and they don’t have any problem. And when they do, it’s a very small problem.’
“Trump appeared to be talking about the need to thin forests that are overgrown from decades of fire suppression, something that Brown accelerated this fall when he signed a law approving $1 billion in state money over the next five years for forest thinning projects and controlled burns.
“Trump did not mention the role of drought or climate change in drying out the state’s forests, or power lines.
“Or the fact that many of the fires, particularly in Southern California, aren’t burning in forests at all, but in chaparral, or that fact that this one began in an area of federal land, the Plumas National Forest. His communications staff immediately cut off further questions.
“Social media users pounced, noting that while California has a mostly dry Mediterranean climate, Finland is a Nordic country at the same latitude as Siberia, Greenland and Alaska, where temperatures reach -45 F in the winter, and the local animals include reindeer.”
The article is here.
Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report 
But wait, there’s more! Trump just called the fire-ravaged town “Pleasure” instead of “Paradise” https://tendaily.com.au/news/politics/a181118qfe/trump-just-called-fire-ravaged-town-pleasure-instead-of-paradise-by-accident-20181118
The stable genius.
New York Times version of this article: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/18/world/europe/finland-california-wildfires-trump-raking.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&fbclid=IwAR18t_OhG6klDWFW1cyTTmRpilM_Py7HNMA7DxZ8Ir1w6BkqQ32nAOWAjfg
Maybe the pubbers will make raking the forest a condition for getting food stamps. But wouldn’t that be a form of socialism?
And our local wingnut blogging contingent led by George “Raghead” Rebane babbles on “As a lifelong (60+ years) California resident and a student of its land, weather, and horticulture” …… , and they voted for Donald “Make America Rake Again” Trump? Go figure!
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/11/finns-ruthlessly-mock-trumps-claims-take-care-floors-forests/
Lifelong: “lasting or remaining in a particular state throughout a person’s life.”
Isn’t George an immigrant which would make the statement “throughout a person’s” life a ‘trumpism’?
Paper towels for Puerto Rico Hurricane relief. Rakes for Forest Fires- It is inevitable that Trump steps on his own **** when he opens his mouth. He cannot string two sentences together without one of them being an insult, and the other showing how ignorant he is of whatever he’s looking at, at the time. .
Trump has access to the best scientist that could explain to him at least the basics of what is going on, but Trump wants none of that “science stuff”. This country is so screwed with such a complete self centered bone head like him as POTUS. God help us if there is a national emergency. (the god thing is just an expression)
Not to mention his visit to “Pleasure” California. Then again…40 odd % stayed home to make their “principled statement” because Hillary was as bad as Trump, and 30 odd % voted for this brainless homunculus. That’s 70%. Do you think, maybe, that collectively, we deserve this monstrosity of a government? The rest of the world sees us as exactly what we are…fools of the farce.
In my recent travels to London and Shanghai this fall (highly enjoyable advetures), I can confirm that President Trump has largely made “America Great Again” in his own eyes. And how about that stock market — getting crushed this fall despite The Donald’s “tax reform.” You go, The Donald! Keep on raking!
You can bet just like Trump instantly took credit for the economy and the stock market gains in late 2016 and early 2017, if there is a recession, the economy will go right back to being the Obama economy and Trump had nothing to do with the slowdown.
The twitterverse is having some fun, and folks in Finland are having a good laugh. “Rake America Great Again” and “Make America Rake Again” both getting play.
In the era of Trump being POTUS, you have to find the humor where ever you can.
(This from the Chronicle) Raking and Flaking!
Just days after Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke told Californians that it’s not time for “finger pointing” on the cause of the state’s wildfires, he blamed “radical environmental groups” for getting in the way of sound forest management and fanning the flames.
The Interior secretary joined Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Tuesday in calling for more clearing of the thick, fire-prone vegetation that has helped spread the recent blazes, including the deadly Camp Fire in Butte County. Both Cabinet members minimized the role of other factors like climate change in boosting fire activity and singled out environmentalists for opposing fuel-reduction work.
“Let’s take a look at who is suing. Every time there is a thinning project out, who is suing,” Zinke said during a joint media call with Perdue. (Federal records compiled by the Center for Biological Diversity show that about 7 percent of the vegetation management projects on Forest Service lands in California and Hawaii between 2009 and 2017 were challenged in court.)
He claimed “radical environmental groups” would “rather burn down the entire forest than cut a single tree.”
The two pushed for amendments to the Farm Bill, currently being debated in Congress, to loosen rules on tree removal and herbicide use on federal timber lands. Zinke oversees the Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service while Perdue oversees the U.S. Forest Service.
Not one word for the survivors-