California’s Camp Fire has been declared the deadliest wildfire in modern US history. The tally so far is 63 dead and 631 missing.
It would be irresponsible at this point for any coverage not to mention the role accelerated Climate Change has played in this latest instance and others like it. Arid climate and vegetation in parts of Northern California contributed greatly to the spread. Forests consumed by the fires had been so ravaged by drought, they were said to be “sucking water from the air” according to ecologists.
In addition to fostering conditions that have made the spread these fires inevitable, the rot of late capitalism can also be evidenced in the state’s use of prison slavery to fight the fires, with inmates making as little as a few dollars a day to put their lives in danger doing jobs that they, in all likelihood, won’t be hired to do upon their release.
Other Items this week
Amazon HQ2 scam is everything the company’s critics have been raging against for years and even much more. The facilities are already slated to wipe thousands of affordable housing units from NYC. Among the revelations this week, taxpayers will be subsidizing Jeff Bezos’s helipad.
Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna, yesterday introduced a bill to force Walmart and similar corporations to address worker conditions at their stores. The Stop WALMART Act will demand that companies pay their workers at least $15/hour, grant up to 7 days of paid sick leave, and cap CEO compensation at 150X median employee wages.
Midterms are effectively over and Nancy Pelosi has made known her plans to run again for House Speaker. Many of the voices calling for new leadership months before the midterms have only grown louder and against this backdrop, the cynical democratic machine has been working overtime to convince the public that this is about her being a woman or her being loathed by the Republican party or both. There are valid reasons why people don’t want Pelosi to continue in that capacity but if you only paid attention to the usual liberal mouthpieces with big enough platforms, you wouldn’t know it. You also wouldn’t know that California Congresswoman Barbara Lee, a much better choice than Seth Moulton, Tim Ryan, or anyone else been mentioned in effort to paint any and all opposition to Pelosi as a sexist, white dudebro insurgency, exists and has recently expressed interest in the position.
Speaking of insurgencies and insurgents, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has managed this week to unite both republicans and centrist dems in a collective pants-shitting over her participation in a sit-in at Pelosi’s office to promote a Green New Deal. From the same corners of liberal punditry that jump at every chance to paint criticism of a Hillary Clinton or a Kamala Harris as sexist behavior, we’ve heard this week, things like AOC needs to learn her place, AOC needs to stay in her lane, AOC isn’t very smart. AOC has her blindspots, that’s for sure, but for people who stubbornly clung to her as the next great Obama-like centrist hope after her thrilling primary upset, it maybe very well be years of pants-shitting ahead.
The recount in Florida has come to a close and sadly, the results are still the same for Andrew Gillum. The recount effort in Georgia are still ongoing and whether or not the results change, the length and breath of Brian Kemp’s election malfeasance as has been sobering for a lot of people to say the least.
In tragic news, Jemel Roberson, a security guard in Chicago’s southside was shot dead by an officer responding to a call of a shooting in a suburban nightclub. Patrons report repeatedly and very loudly informing the officer that the man was a security guard and not the culprit but for reason that should be obvious, that did not dissuade the officer from shooting him dead while he was taking down the actual suspect.
Elsewhere on the Leftorium
What did we miss? What else happened on your side of hellworld this week?