January 14th 2025
Los Angeles braces for dangerous winds
Strong winds are expected to return to Los Angeles, threatening to reverse some of the hard-fought gains that firefighters have made in battling the devastating blazes there. Here’s the latest.
Officials issued a rare fire-danger alert for today through tomorrow afternoon, when the heaviest gusts are expected. The same kind of alert was issued a week ago, before the start of the Eaton fire, which has burned parts of Altadena and Pasadena, and the Palisades fire on the west side of Los Angeles.
In anticipation of the new threat, fire crews and resources are being deployed to at-risk areas, officials said. Winds in the coming days might not be as strong as those last week, but their duration could increase the danger.
Death toll: The Eaton fire has killed at least 16 people, making it one of the deadliest in California’s history, and at least eight people have died in the Palisades blaze. Another 23 people have been reported missing, and officials have warned that the number of fatalities is likely to rise. Here’s what we know about the dead and the search for the missing.
Evacuations: About 92,000 people are under evacuation orders, down from more than 100,000 on Sunday. The largest fires have damaged more than 12,000 houses, cars and outbuildings, among other structures.
Comment California is famous for its Gold Rush. That mindset has not changed. Los Angeles is hideously overdeveloped. It is the epitome of J K Galbraith’s ‘private wealth and public squalor.’ There is a Grand Canyon divide between rich and poor in a fake democracy where mainstream media works with defence and other big businesses to keep the masses divided, deluded and in their place. Careers come first, before accountability, in the United States, just as they do in their parent nation; the United Kingdom. U.S doesn’t need terrorism while it is run by greedy morons. Its dangerous infrastructure, like the electricty’s companies, were the most immediate likely cause of so called ‘wild fires.’
R J Cook
Intense fighting in Russia’s Kursk region
Five months after Ukrainian forces swept into the Kursk region of Russia, the two armies are engaged in some of the most furious clashes of the war there, fighting over land and leverage in the conflict.
The territory could play an important role in any cease-fire negotiations. Facing the prospect of an unpredictable new U.S. president who has vowed to end the war swiftly, Ukraine hopes to use Russian territory as a bargaining chip, while Russia hopes to knock it out of Ukraine’s grasp.
In recent days, on a road in Ukraine approaching the Russian border, a steady stream of tanks, armored personnel carriers and other vehicles rolled past broken-down and blown-up equipment. Russian bombs and rockets exploded with thunderous force in border villages, and Ukrainian missiles could be seen streaking across the sky in the opposite direction.
North Korean troops: An estimated 11,000 North Korean soldiers have been deployed to help Russia in the conflict. They are taking heavy casualties in unfamiliar territory, and their government has not told its people about their deployment.
U.S.-Russian relations: Suspicious cargo fires in Germany, Britain and Poland over the summer led White House officials to question whether Moscow had a much bigger plan in mind: bringing the war in Ukraine to American shores.
Liberal Media Have Warned Him – By R J Cook
Comment I am sick of hearing our pampered global media and fat cat priggish parasite, pleasure bent politicians telling us that this war is all Russia’s fault and is being fought for democracy. As a former maths teacher, I know that the numbers don’t add up. The western fat cats of Anglo U.S led Nato started this war in 2014 and Putin was way to slow to react. Putin was supposed to continue Yeltsin’s process of neutering and dismembering the Russian Federation. In return he would be treated like all the other Russian and Ukrainian oligarch whores like former corrupt Ukraine President Poroshenko, ‘The Chocolate King.’
I have worked with and discussed the situation with a lot of East Europeans, as well as studying and teaching East European politics. Post communist corruption under EU auspices has been off the scale. The EU is a corrupt gravy train causing misery across and outside its boundaries. Real opposition parties like AFD are effectively banned. Their youth party has been declared a terrorist orrganisation. The wrong man won the Roumanian Presidency so the EU declared it null and void because they ‘just knew’ the Russians rigged it.
Yesterday lefty Saint Joe Biden was having a laugh when he said he had stopped World War III. He was and still is a rich sly dangerous idiot. World War III has only just begun. We are in the foothills of destruction and despair. It remains to be seen whether Donald Trump will put his money where his mouth is. If he tries, he will face a lot of opposition, as the Democrats and Liberal media have warned him.
R J Cook
January 13th 2025
No Hidden Meanings In That One – By R J Cook
Posh Boy Anthony Blinken, Secretary of State, reading his speech introducing his much loved President Biden. Blinken showed his grasp of U.S Cultural reality and diversity when he joined in with a Ukrainain Rock Band. He strummed and shouted along to one verse of Neil Young’s Rockin’ in the Free World and the chorus, smirking at the video camera for an internet sensation. He seemed oblivious of what should have come next, about a young woman, cowering in a dirty alleyway, dumping her kid to get another hit. Bob Dylan was asked by a hardened sneering patronising Time Magazine journalist, did he know what reality was. This was during the making of the legendary documentary ‘Don’t Look Back’ by D A Pennebaker who was covering Dylan in England during his 1965 tour-his last as an acoustic artist. Dylan replied :’Sure I know what reality is. It’s a tramp vomitting into a sewer.’
Back in December 2010, before the Police had me banned from the BBC because of a criminal record created by a corrupt senior police officer and one time family member, I was being interviewed live on Radio Solent, where I had previosly established my broadcasting entertainment value. There were two other musicians in the studio, though Captain Sensible had been asleep for 14 hours and didn’t make it. I was there to talk about my CD ‘Seventh Child’, produced with my musician and song writing partner, vocalist Christine Halpin. I talked about my long time hero ‘Bob Dylan’ as an inspiration. The others mocked me, my obvious enthusiam for Dylan. So a former member of ‘The Glitter Band’ said that nobody knew what Dylan’s songs were about, not even Bob Dylan.
I had to correct this man. I told him that back in 1974, Dylan faced the same accusation from a young female ‘Rolling Stone Magazine ‘ journalist, that he did not know what his songs were about. He replied ‘Sure I know what my songs are about. Some are about 3 minutes, some are about 5 minutes and believe it or not, some are about 15.’
However, it was perfectly obvious from the smirking Anthony Blinken, posing with his well polished Gibson Les Paul guitar, that he had no idea what Neil Young’s ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ was about. It was about the forgotten white American underclass that Blinken and Biden are not interested in knowing about unless they need them for cannon fodder, as in Vietnam.
So on came Biden, to be hugged by Blinken in a nauseating to long a moment of mutual self congratulation. The interesting thing about Biden on this occasion was that he spoke for nearly an hour without looking down at his notes while steadily scanning a room full of his adoring staff and lefty media folk. Had he done that before Harris was brought in to giggle and smirk her way to victory, cavorting on stage, to scavenge for the assumed stupid female and black vote, Biden could have had it in the back. The fact that there are 5 times more homeless people since he took over, is no matter. The massive goverment debt and borrowing costs don’t matter either or World War III. This is because nice comfortable men and women care only for national security, all the wars that go with it, fighting racism and keeping women safe.
Biden had the cheek to present Afghistan as a victory rather than a rapid withdrawal because his goverment were preparing for the Anglo U.S Ukraine Proxy World War III on Russia. Biden boasted how much warfare the U.S had contributed to the world, without putting American boots on the ground. American mother, sisters and wives should listen to Dylan’s’ John Brown went off to war.’ There are no hidden meanings in that one.
Blinken Awful
R.J Cook January 13th 2025
What’s the latest on Los Angeles wildfires and how did they start?
Visual Journalism Team
BBC News
Firefighters are battling to control huge wildfires in Los Angeles that have killed at least 24 people, devoured thousands of buildings and forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.
It’s a rapidly changing situation – these maps and pictures show the scale of the challenge, where the fires are and the damage they have caused.
The largest blaze, in the Pacific Palisades area is the most destructive fire in Los Angeles history. More than 23,000 acres have now burnt.
Placing the area affected on to maps of New York and London gives a sense of how big that is, stretching from Clapham to Greenwich in the UK’s capital, or across large areas of lower Manhattan and Queens.
James FitzGerald and Tom McArthur
BBC News
At least 24people have died in the Los Angeles fires as two major blazes continue to burn across the sprawling Californian city.
Firefighters made progress over the weekend in containing the Palisades and Eaton fires but warn that the return of high winds – forecast until Wednesday – could see them spread again.
They are already among the most destructive in LA’s history in terms of buildings destroyed.
What’s the latest?
The largest fire is in the Palisades and it has burnt through more than 23,000 acres. But over the weekend thousands of firefighters made progress in containing about 14% of it.
The blaze is moving east, threatening the exclusive neighbourhood of Brentwood, home to the Getty Center, a world-famous art museum that has now evacuated its staff.
A red flag warning – indicating a high level of fire danger – will be in place until 18:00 (02:00 GMT) on Wednesday, with the strongest Santa Ana winds expected on Tuesday.
The other fire, Eaton, is more deadly than Palisades so far – responsible for 16 of the 24 dead, with many more still missing.
