Day: August 19, 2020

Fire 13-4 is now the Walbridge Fire

benfell

Walbridge Fire

“Fire 13-4” now has a name: The Walbridge Fire. Don’t ask me. I have no idea how they come up with these designations. The evacuation areas (whether mandatory or warning) seem to have expanded, but Sonoma County’s incident map seems to be down and the notifications I get refer to map grids on a map I don’t know where or how to find.

Pittsburgh

Bill Peduto condemned the plainclothes arrest of a protester mentioned in my most recent blog post[1] and ordered that such tactics not be used in future misdemeanor arrests,[2] but protesters continued to target him, demonstrating outside his home. It would seem the mayor does not appreciate demonstrations that disturb the neighbors in the wee hours. Poor baby. He could have met with them as they demanded, but instead accused one of a felony.[3]

Megan Guza And Abby Mackey, “Police disperse overnight protesters at Peduto’s house, mayor decries neighborhood harassment,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, August 19, 2020, https://triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-allegheny/police-disperse-overnight-protesters-at-pedutos-house-mayor-decries-neighborhood-harassment/

  1. [1]David Benfell, “Off with their heads,” Not Housebroken, August 17, 2020, https://disunitedstates.org/2020/08/17/off-with-their-heads/↩
  2. [2]Lindsay Ward, “Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto Speaks Out After Putting An End To Tactics Used In Controversial Arrest At Oakland Protest,” KDKA, August 18, 2020, https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2020/08/18/pittsburgh-mayor-bill-peduto-arrest-oakland-tactics/↩
  3. [3]Megan Guza And Abby Mackey, “Police disperse overnight protesters at Peduto’s house, mayor decries neighborhood harassment,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, August 19, 2020, https://triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-allegheny/police-disperse-overnight-protesters-at-pedutos-house-mayor-decries-neighborhood-harassment/↩

Election bullshit, intensified

benfell

Academia

Notre Dame University, “Notre Dame enacts two weeks of remote instruction,” August 18, 2020, https://news.nd.edu/news/notre-dame-enacts-two-weeks-of-remote-instruction/

Horse race

I’m no historian, but I think you’d have to go a ways back to find an election in the U.S. that is so much bullshit.

And you can’t even argue that Joe Biden is a “functioning adult,” as so many yard signs claim to seek, because he plainly suffers dementia.

Fire 13-4

benfell

Fire 13-4

Though I’ve been gone for over a year, I monitor Sonoma County (California) emergencies because my mother is still there:
FireShot Capture 262 - County of Sonoma Fire Incident Application - experience.arcgis.com
Fig. 1. Screenshot of Sonoma County evacuation map, taken by author, August 19, 2020, 2:09 am EDT (August 18, 11:09 pm PDT).

Unlike the Kincade Fire last year, Fire 13-4 (figure 1), as they’re calling it, is west of Highway 101, but in remote, rugged terrain of northern Sonoma County. This is pretty much as remote as it gets in the county. It got my attention especially because the evacuation zones are starting to get closer to my mother’s house.

It’s on the other side of the Russian River from her, but the river isn’t particularly wide here; it is wooded on both sides. And if the fire were to spread south towards Forestville, and indeed to jump the river, it would be in the very patch of forest I worried about last year.

It’s got a ways to go before that happens. But the only areas here that aren’t bone dry are the river itself and vineyards. The latter line Westside Road, which is currently part of the southern boundary of mandatory evacuation zones.