By next week’s Update, Trump will be President.  He’s already introduced subjects we’d given up on, and is putting everybody on notice.  The Panama Canal?  They’re probably running around like chickens with their heads cut off.  He’s going to take it back?  Says the rules have been broken and now…  We’ll have to wait and see.  

The whole world is jumping around in expectation of Trump being the boss.  We have no idea what is about to happen.  The idea that this global warming doctrine is going extinct and we’re about to start drilling is mind-boggling.  You have to go back to the early eighties to get rid of the global warming doctrine.  Young people can’t even remember a time when it wasn’t dogma. 

Imagine a world where global warming is no longer an issue.  They’ve been cramming this nonsense down our throats since the 80’s, and with any luck it has run its course.  How are you going to get it under control, assuming you believe in it, if China and India aren’t playing ball?  You’re not.  It was probably a bogus theory anyway, but we’re all through being the butt of the world’s jokes.  Nobody’s laughing anymore.

We just got news that the inauguration will move indoors.  I bet those responsible for making sure nothing goes wrong are relieved.  But I don’t think killing Trump will turn this thing around.  He’s already named most of his cabinet and important positions, and they think like we do.  We’d given up hope that the U. S. would ever return to its senses.  The media was in lockstep.

We were so deeply entrenched that it looked like there was no going back. But here we go!  All the way to the Panama Canal.  My dad used to do programs on how the United States used to control the sea lanes, and the Panama Canal was a big deal.  Trump looks like he wants to right many of the wrongs that have been done in the name of some righteous cause.  Jimmy Carter might have been a good man, but he was a terrible president.  Some have outdone him since.

The world is going to start looking different now that the United States is taking it’s rightful place in the grand scheme of things.  I don’t know about you, but I think they pushed things too far.  We’ve been quiet, polite I guess, but they awakened everybody with men winning all the medals in women’s sports events.  You can’t even imagine getting to share the locker room with the girls.  But it was just too much.  Eventually everybody saw red.  

Elon is scaring the Germans, and the Trump effect will be massive.  Everybody better start doing the right thing, or there’s going to be trouble.  Probably nobody will dare take on the United States. If they do, it will be the end of something.  Trump keeps saying they’d better get the war under control and return the hostages, or “all H— is going to rain down” or words to that effect.  Then he strides confidently off stage, leaving that as a last thought.  They’re working feverishly on it.  Probably most of the unreturned hostages are dead though we hope not.  We can’t imagine the mental anguish, the degradation they’ve experienced.  

In California?  The Santa Ana winds come every year.  Sometimes they’re really strong, like 80 miles an hour.  Fires are always a concern.  Drain the reservoirs and send the available water out to sea, and there’s devastation.  The photos are enough to make you cry.  Imagine what those people are going through.

The whole world is about to change.  We’re getting another chance to make everything right. 

Mark

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We got through the world’s Halloween observance without incident.  Maybe they’ll start removing the spider webs and flashing inflatables from the neighborhood yards, and the skeletons from the entries of every dollar store.  Not that we’re frightened or upset.  We’ve got enough concerns in real life to worry about all the ghastly rubber and plastic that’s not fit for the trash bin.  My neighborhood saw a few adults shepherding little children up and down the streets with their bags of candy.  Wouldn’t you love to hear what they’re telling their impressionable youngsters in explanation?

Yesterday was supposed to be the drop-dead date for Brexit, deal or no deal.  But that didn’t happen.  The EU has agreed to another delay, this time to late January.  Northern Ireland is apparently one of the major sticking points, and Boris has arranged a deal that will leave Northern Ireland subject to EU regulations while exempting the rest of the UK.  Nigel Farage, known as the godfather of Brexit, says Boris’ new deal with the EU is little better than the utter capitulation offered by Theresa May.  The concern is that EU policies will remain in effect as part of Brexit!  Meanwhile, Boris faces another national election in mid-December.

You’ve undoubtedly seen footage from the several wildfires across the state of California.  In its infinite wisdom, the power company PG&E has cut power to hundreds of thousands out of concern that the high winds will cause tree branches to come into contact with live wires and ignite fires.  Many hands went up when the question was asked at the recent Feast about how many had had their power shut off.  When the blackout goes for days, there goes all the food in the refrigerator and the freezer.  It was particularly idiotic when the Indian guru appeared in his blue headgear to proclaim that global warming was generating fire danger.  Anybody who lived in Southern California, say, in the sixties or seventies knows that these winds, known as the Santa Ana winds, blow every year at this time and always present the danger of raging wildfires.  Back then, they told us that a new ice age was coming.  They think they can feed us any line of nonsense with grave sincerity, and we’re just expected to nod and agree.

California’s leadership is the author of many of the horrible problems driving thousands out of the former paradise.  You don’t need us to tell you of the rampant homeless situation that’s been allowed to spread out of control.  Not only do they have bums living in filth all up and down the streets, they’ve created a crime wave that’s killing businesses.  It seems that theft and shoplifting is way down the list of law enforcement priorities, so they’ve reduced the penalty for any theft under the amount of $950 to a misdemeanor.  So now, the “homeless” can steal whatever they want, run out the door and sell it for half the price, then go back and steal some more to support their homeless habits. Reports say it’s become brazen and takes place often in broad daylight.  Nothing will be done about petty theft, so it’s become a way of life for the down and out all across the state, spreading from San Francisco.

And as goes California, we’ve learned the hard way, so goes the nation.  These types of laws are already in effect in Dallas, TX, where an employee is not even allowed to make contact with a thief carrying stolen goods from a store, under penalty of being fired.  So that means a petty thief can shoplift at will, as long as he doesn’t go over the amount deemed a felony.  It’s another milestone on the road to communist Utopia.

Since the inception of the United States, one philosophy has reigned and been stated in various ways by the founders and past presidents.  That is that the USA will not be defeated by a foreign enemy.  The real danger is internal.  If the majority ever determines to elect representatives that will hand them every earthly need at government expense, look out.

Why is socialism so popular, particularly among the nation’s youth?  One of the largest, most hobbling debts on the nation and on the younger set is student debt.  It prevents young adults from getting married, buying houses and realizing the lifestyle to which they feel entitled.  When someone comes along and says, “We’re going to forgive your student loans,” it sounds like a panacea.  That appears to be the price of patriotism for big crowds cheering socialism.

Open borders, free health care for all!  Free college, and government programs to cover all your needs.  That sounds like a terrific deal to adult kids living with their folks because they’re too hobbled with debt to make a go of it.  We’ve got people promising them that every need will be provided at somebody else’s expense, and they’re falling for it.  All this free stuff may bankrupt the most prosperous nation on earth.  And somebody should tell them.  Socialism destroys everything it touches.  For the sakes of our kids and grandkids, we hope and pray they don’t have to learn by experience.

Meanwhile, it’s impeachment talk around the clock.  We’ve learned that the “whistleblower” has been part and parcel with the push to get rid of President Trump all along.  It’s rather disconcerting when the idiots reporting the news know so much less than we do.  But that’s where we are.  May God see that they suffer the embarrassment they deserve, and the masses see through the onslaught of deception.

Mark

Source: http://www.intercontinentalcog.org/fridayupdates.php

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Good morning.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/19/us/california-today-100-million-dead-trees-prompt-fears-of-giant-wildfires.html

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Roy Rohter, 84, and his wife, Theresa, were swept from their Montecito home, the headmaster said. Theresa was rescued, said Michael Van Hecke, headmaster of St. Augustine Academy in Ventura, which Rohter founded in 1994.

Authorities have not confirmed the names of the dead. Children are among the victims, said Santa Barbara County fire spokesman Mike Eliason.

Heavy rains early Tuesday caused rivers of mud and debris to run down from hillsides in Santa Barbara County, demolishing homes in the affluent seaside community of Montecito weeks after wildfires in the area. Many people are on edge, awaiting news about missing loved ones.

Latest developments

• Deadly storm: The 17 deaths were reported in Santa Barbara County, authorities said.

• More missing: Officials said 17 people were unaccounted for.

• Rescue operation: More than 500 first responders and 10 dogs continued to search for people in Santa Barbara County.

• Trapped residents evacuated: First responders used a helicopter to rescue some of 300 residents trapped by debris blocking their way out of Montecito’s Romero Canyon area, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown. Some residents wanted to stay in their homes, Brown said.

• Hundreds of calls: As the storm hit hard between 3 and 6 a.m. Tuesday, sheriff’s office dispatchers handled more than 600 phone calls for assistance, Brown said.

• Rescues: Dozens of people have been rescued in Santa Barbara County, officials said. The US Coast Guard said it used helicopters Tuesday to collect people from rooftops, including a couple and their three children in Carpinteria.

• Injured: Twenty-eight people were hurt in Santa Barbara County, officials said.

• Destruction: Floodwaters and mudslides destroyed 100 homes and damaged another 300 residences in Santa Barbara County.

• Road closed: US 101 in parts of Montecito and Santa Barbara will remain closed for at least 48 hours because of the muddy debris covering it, authorities said Tuesday.

‘I just want to find my friend’

In Montecito, east of Santa Barbara, home after home is damaged or encircled by mounds of mud, furniture and fallen trees.

Diane Brewer has hopes of finding her missing friend Josie Gower, 69. Gower was at home with her boyfriend early Tuesday when a mudslide swept through the neighborhood.

“For some reason, she opened the front door” and was swept away, Brewer said.

The boyfriend also was carried away and became stuck between boulders before being rescued, Brewer said.

Brewer and others planned to search the property.

“I just want to find my friend,” Brewer said, in tears.

Hours later, Brewer confirmed Gower’s death.

“Josie grew up right around the corner from me; she was 15, I was 5,” Brewer said.

She added: “It was always a full a life with Josie. Now, it’s just a hole.”

The missing

Family members waited for word about their missing loved ones. Many turned to social media in their search.

James and Alice Mitchell, an elderly couple from Montecito, are among those missing, the couple’s granddaughter, Sarah Weimer, told CNN Wednesday. Weimer said her mother was in Montecito helping with the search.

Rebecca Riskin, the founding partner of Riskin Partners, a Montecito real estate company, is also missing, a relative, Lynne Creighton said.

Riskin began selling real estate in Los Angeles. In 1990, she moved to Montecito, where she climbed to the top of real estate industry, according to the biography on her firm’s website.

‘River of mud’

Thomas Tighe was outside his Montecito home when he heard “a deep rumbling, an ominous sound I knew was … boulders moving as the mud was rising,” he told CNN affiliate KCAL.

He saw two cars moving sideways down the middle of the street “in a river of mud.”

Peter Hartmann said the destruction was everywhere.

“There were gas mains that had popped, where you could hear the hissing,” he told the TV station.

“Power lines were down, high-voltage power lines, the large aluminum poles to hold those were snapped in half. Water was flowing out of water mains and sheared-off fire hydrants.”

Before the storm hit, Santa Barbara issued mandatory evacuations for 7,000 people, including in parts of Carpinteria, Montecito and Goleta, which are below areas scorched by wildfires, county spokeswoman Gina DePinto said.

“While some residents cooperated with the evacuations, many did not. Many chose to stay in place,” said Brown, the sheriff.

Sheriff deputies spent Monday conducting door-to-door evacuations for 7,000 people in a mandatory evacuation area. But the area where homes were destroyed, south of Highway 192, was not in a mandatory evacuation zone.

Rescue personnel still have areas to search, Brown said.

“It was literally a carpet of mud and debris everywhere, with huge boulders, rocks, (downed) trees, power lines, wrecked cars — lots of obstacles and challenges for rescue personnel to get to homes,” Brown said.

Oprah: Debris is ‘everywhere’

Oprah Winfrey posted a video on social media of her trudging through the mud in the yard of her Montecito home.

“There used to a fence right here,”she said, pointing in the direction of a neighbor’s home. “My neighbor’s house, devastated.” Winfrey said debris is “everywhere.”

“Thanks everyone for your prayers and concern,” Winfrey wrote on the social media post.

She said her home had minor damage, but it pales in comparison to what her her neighbors suffered.

The debris also shut down parts of the oceanside US 101, a major thoroughfare connecting Northern and Southern California.

A stew of floodwater, mud, tree limbs and other debris covered the highway in Montecito, making it impassable. Some cars were left on the highway, mired wheel-deep in the muck.

As workers clear debris to make areas accessible, more damage is revealed. Along Montecito’s Coast Village Road, the mudslide overturned trees and covered the pavement. At one spot, a car appeared to be sheared in half — its front half pointed skyward, jammed against a pile of muddy wreckage.

More than 1 inch of rain per hour

The rain fell at more than 1.5 inches per hour at one point early Tuesday in parts of Southern California. About a half inch per hour is enough to start mudslides, said Robbie Monroe of the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

The downpour fell in areas charred by recent wildfires, which burned vegetation that otherwise could make the terrain more resistant to mudslides.

The Thomas Fire — the largest wildfire in California’s recorded history — has burned more than 281,000 acres in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties since it began in early December. It was 92% contained, and officials don’t expect full containment until later this month.

Montecito and Carpinteria are especially vulnerable to mudslides because the steep terrain in some places goes from thousands of feet above sea level to sea level in “a matter of just a few miles,” said Tom Fayram, a deputy public works director with Santa Barbara County.

Mudslides are not uncommon to the area and can be deadly. In January 2005, a landslide struck La Conchita in Ventura County, killing 10 people.

CNN’s Faith Karimi, Stella Chan, Paul P. Murphy, Jason Kravarik, Judson Jones, Konstantin Toropin, Cheri Mossburg, Carma Hassan, Pierre Meilhan, Janet DiGiacomo and Dave Alsup contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.kxlh.com/story/37232206/southern-california-mudslides-17-dead-others-missing

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Blustery Santa Ana winds literally added fuel to the fires. which began Dec. 4.

Here are the numbers behind the blazes:

1 death
Firefighter Cory Iverson, from the San Diego unit of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), was killed on December 14. Iverson drove a fire engine and was killed on the east flank of the blaze.

That’s the size of the Thomas Fire, the largest one ripping across Southern California. It started in Ventura County and has been moving across Santa Barbara County.

The fire is the largest blaze in modern California history. It’s torched an area much larger than New York City.

$177 million
That’s how much money has been spent fighting the Thomas Fire, according to Cal Fire. And the cost is sure to grow, given the inferno was 70% contained over the weekend.

18,000 structures threatened

At least 18,000 structures were threatened by the Thomas Fire, according to Cal Fire.

1,000 structures destroyed
An estimated 1,063 structures had been wiped out by the Thomas Fire, Cal Fire reported. About 775 were single-family homes. Twenty-one commercial buildings burned.

More than 1,000 firefighters still involved
About 1,586 firefighters are tackling the Thomas Fire.

The Nevada Department of Corrections and Nevada Division of Forestry, which run conservation camps, sent six trained crews of minimum security inmates to help.

Thousands more firefighters — including from Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Washington state — have been involved in battling other wildfires in the state.

95,000 evacuees
During the two-plus weeks the fires have burned, at least 95,000 residents have been ordered to evacuate, Cal Fire has said. Mandatory evacuation orders for the Thomas Fire have been lifted.

$10 billion
This year has been the costliest for wildfires in US history. Damage has topped $10 billion — and that was before the current fires began in Southern California.

Source: https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/national/california-wildfires-by-the-numbers-177m-spent-1-000-structures-destroyed

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MARCUS YAM VIA GETTY IMAGES

LOS ANGELES ― There is smoke everywhere.

It’s Monday morning at 10 a.m., and I’m driving north up California’s famously stunning coastline toward the Thomas fire, the largest and most uncontrolled of five massive wildfires that have brought devastation to Southern California for the past week. I can see the enormous gloom ahead from 50 miles away ― brown smoke hovering over the southern edge of a fire that had consumed a staggering 230,000 acres so far.

I’m on my way to Ventura County, where the fire first began on Dec. 4 and from where it would eventually grow into the fifth largest in state history over the week that followed. Ventura is an iconic place, a once rugged beach town known for its citrus fruit farming and local surf spots, so often overshadowed by its big neighbor, Los Angeles.

WALLY SKALIJ VIA GETTY IMAGES

By the time I got there, a grey haze had once again settled over the county, and smoke filled the air. To the east, a massive fire was rapidly spreading, producing a thick brown smoke cloud that reached all the way north, to Santa Barbara County. Firefighters and firetrucks peppered the landscape, racing toward the still active sections of the blaze while other rigs drove further up the coast. A pizza delivery driver wore a dust mask to keep some of the smoke out of his lungs as he carried on with his day.

I made it to Ojai Valley by afternoon. Melted wires from burned telephone poles drooped low or lay tangled on the ground. New smoke from spot fires still burned on the side of the road of State Route 150. In the valley, the smoke smelled of campfires and asphalt, where areas had been blackened in the days before. I could feel the heat through my clothes where hot spots still burned or smoldered.

MATT FERNER / HUFFPOST

A town of 7,500 in the Topatopa Mountains, Ojai is world famous for its wine, nearby hiking trails, art galleries and new age shops. The fire had come dangerously close in the first days, but, for now, the small town had been spared from the worst of the blaze.

Now, three massive plumes of smoke surrounded the valley, growing larger by the minute. Dozens of smaller smoke trails caused by spot fires scattered across the landscape were an ominous sign. Who knew whether they would grow larger, too.

I stepped onto the embankment to take a photo of part of a ranch that had burned and collapsed, and I sunk into six inches of white ash. The path of destruction the fire had left in the area was dramatic and erratic. Some ranches were burned to the ground, leaving a stone chimney standing, a charred bathtub, and a burned out car with melted tires and windows. Others, often just directly adjacent, looked pristine ― trees still green, horses and cows eating in their pens.

Further down the road, department of transportation officials chopped down a tree that looked like it was burning from the inside. Others mounted new telephone poles to replace the burned ones.

Firefighters were everywhere ― on almost every street, at the restaurant, the gas station ― loading up their trucks for the next fight. More than 8,000 are currently deployed fighting fires in Southern California. Here in Ojai, they had come from counties up and down the coast. Signs praising the firefighters’ work were everywhere in the valley. “You kick ash,” one read, “We love our firefighters,” another said.

Driving further north, an even thicker layer of haze surrounded the car. The cloud stretched out from the growing fire in the Santa Ynez Mountains to U.S. 101, onto the valleys, onto the quaint towns that coastal California is known for. Through the haze, dozens of palm trees still stood at a tree farm on the shoreline at Faria Beach ― long a landmark among commuters along the stretch ― but their leaves were burned off, their trunks blackened and scorched.

MATT FERNER / HUFFPOST

This scene marked the entrance to an area where the fires were still very much active. Dead and dying cactus were left on the scorched hillsides next to U.S. 101, shriveled and brown. Each mile further north, the smoke-filled skies became darker. Whatever sunlight could penetrate through was a deep orange and red ― as if the sun was setting, all day long.

The dense smoke enveloped the iconic beaches ― Mussel Shoals, Rincon Point, Carpinteria State Beach ― and drifted out over the ocean for what looked like miles. Surfers ― ever dedicated and undeterred ― peppered the large swells that rolled in, filling their lungs with smoke.

MARK RALSTON VIA GETTY IMAGES

In the sleepy beach communities of Carpinteria, Summerland and Montecito, chunks of ash ― former trees, homes, photographs, memories ― rained down. The overhanging smoke was denser, blacker than in the south. For some locals here, dust masks weren’t enough, with many wearing respirator masks instead. A thin layer of white ash lined the streets and sidewalks in the surrounding neighborhoods.

Parked on a ridge across the valley in Summerland in the late afternoon, I watched the flames leaping high off of the Santa Ynez Mountains, devouring dry trees and plants. Smoke poured off of the hillsides. After 30 minutes, my shoulders and head were coated with ash. My eyes stung as the ash drifted into them.

GENE BLEVINS / REUTERS

As night set in, locals gathered on hillsides, sat on top of their cars or rooftops, and watched as the fire continued to creep closer and devastate the land they call home. Planes and helicopters dropped red fire retardant to slow the blaze.

The sun finally set. The sky turned orange, then dark red, then black, and then orange again ― but not from sunlight. It was fire light, which lit up the coast for miles.

NURPHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES

Source:  https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/thomas-fire-reporter_us_5a30598ae4b07ff75afe89b2

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The post On The Road Of Destruction To The Thomas Fire first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

(CNN) One week after the Thomas Fire exploded from a brush fire to a raging inferno, thousands of firefighters made some headway Monday in their struggle to contain it.

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