Trump and California Fires

When Donald Trump hears the word "forest," he imagines something completely different that what exists in California, particularly in Southern California, where the Maria Fire was burning.

The "forest" there, where I grew up, isn't about trees. it's about something called "chaparral," which is dense brush, with noting more than about 6' high. It is literally impenetrable, and is made up of a pretty broad variety of shrubs, including sage and other plants native to the area.

Since it's a continuous cover, except in very steep areas, you can't even walk into it. That's impossible. So, "raking the forest floor" is not even a possibility. In fact, the chaparral depends on occasional fires to reproduce. Some of the plants drop seeds that can't germinate until after a fire has gone through.

Since Southern California has been in a drought state for several years, that brush has dried up significantly. It survives such droughts because the leaves of many of the plants that make up the chaparral have a waxy coating that helps prevent water from evaporating. That same waxy coating helps fire blaze through the brush, too, which is OK for the brush, but not so much for people who have built homes in such areas.

Trump has no freaking idea what conditions are like where the fires are burning in Southern and Central California. No idea at all. In any case, he hates California, since it votes blue in massive amounts. He, no doubt, wishes, the entire state would fall off into the ocean in a massive earthquake, but he doesn't understand how earthquakes work, either.

Donald J. Trump is a vindictive moron.

Here is a chaparral "forest" in Southern California: