When I started this blog, back in 2008, my intention was to get accurate and timely information on wildfires out to an audience who seemed to need and want it. Then it expanded to include landslides and road closures. Those have always been my primary focus. I often threw in lost or found dogs (I can’t help myself) and non-profit events and miscellaneous Big Sur Information. I have almost always stayed away from politics — especially since it has become so polarizing.

Unfortunately, since this administration has invaded — yes, invaded — California, I feel this fight for our sovereignty and for freedom of speech and right to peaceably assemble is important and I support all efforts by Californians to retain these rights. It is not really about immigration, that is just the way the administration wants to frame it so it is likely to find support. The real goal, as the majority of us know, is really a play to do away with our current government. This will not stop with LA or California. We are just the test balloon to see if it will fly with what is left of the GOP and his base and the courts. I will be covering these events until the invasion of California ceases. I will continue to cover Big Sur as well, and definitely am keeping my eye on fires in MoCo, SLO, and Santa Cruz counties for you and as a reporter for Watch Duty. That is still my focus, but if it is relatively quiet here, I will be bringing information about the invasion to your inbox, FB, X, blue sky, threads, instagram, etc as long as it is necessary. Once the invaders retreat (remember, TACO), I will avoid politics once again in this space. FB, on the other hand, has always been fair game. Thanks for putting up with my recent tangents.

I subscribe to a Substack by Terrence Goggin, a history professor from The West Point. His post this morning is particularly helpful and hopeful. He equates Trump with the Wizard of Oz.

”What is this guy really up to?

He is using a clever fantasy OF “SEIZING POWER” to create fear in the American people. To get his way without real force, but use a “pretend” force. Like a few thousand solders, Marines and ICE agents sent to LA and, drum roll….a Russian Style Birthday Military Parade in the Capitol. He wants to scare the hell out of us. Just like the Wizard of Oz.

It’s not working! California’s Governor Gavin Newsom has called his bluff. In a nationally televised address he stripped away the curtain to see a scared little man punching buttons, yelling in a microphone and ringing bells.

People are massing in protest against this ridiculous man. As is their constitutional right. They are not afraid of this little man. He has said that any protests against his $150 million Parade in the Capital on Saturday will be meet with “very big force”. Really? The DC National Guard again? This “fear thing” is one gigantic farce to instill fear. Just what FDR warned us against:

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself..nameless unreasoning unjustified terror that paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance”.

And that’s what Governor Newsom, the citizens of California and the National Latino community are doing. They are shucking off Trump’s fantasies of “seizing power” and daring him to stop them. “See you in Court!”. And “See you in the parades of protesting military veterans all over the country shouting Shame On You! “

If interested subscribe to: The West Point History Professor on Substack for a different perspective. This man is a nice addendum to Heather Cox Richardson.