Why doesn’t anyone check the news on non-political topics? There seems to have been a huge smokescreen lately when it comes to natural disasters. We are constantly told that such events are the “worst” in history. We recently saw Hurricane Harvey flood the Houston TX area, we were told it was the worst hurricane damage in history. Is not true. We were told that such a flood in that region was unprecedented, it is not true either, Houston has major floods at least twice a decade, yes this was the worst in years, but not the worst in history, just that there will be more people there now. flooded.

The following week there was a large brush fire (nicknamed: La Tuna Fire) in Southern California, in Los Angeles County near Burbank and Glendale CA. It burned about 7,000 more acres. He told us it was the largest fire in Los Angeles County history, looked directly into the television cameras with a straight face, and told a blatant lie. It was not by far the worst wildfire, wildfire or the biggest property damage or costly for that matter. Not even close.

For example, from September 28 to October 6, 2005, the Topanga Fire burned 24,175 acres; or the station fire from August 26, 2009 to October 16, 2009 that burned 160,577 acres and we lost 209 structures and there were 2 deaths. The Springs Fire that started in Ventura County and declared on May 2, 2013 burned 24,000 acres of which more than 8,000 acres were in Los Angeles County.

And, keep in mind that these are fires not so long ago, in fact, there is still fear of brush burns on the trails; you can see when you hike, burnt brush will still stain charcoal on your legs when you race Believe me I’m an avid trail runner and I come back often with black streaks on my legs from fires nearly a decade ago. In fact, in the La Tuna fire, firefighters received a rainstorm that significantly knocked down the fire and it was completely extinguished quite quickly in a short time.

Why all the fake news? I think it is so politicians can claim “devastation” to bring more federal and state money into the area of ​​Emergency Disaster Relief Funds. So that they can generate more support from the Federal Government to pay for the support of the aerial fire trucks and to grow bigger while they run for governor or try to be re-elected mayor. Regardless of why, they know that they are not telling the truth and they think that “we” citizens are so stupid and have so little memory that we do not know the difference or that they can deceive us because the media keeps repeating the lie.

“Where are the fact-checkers?” I dare to ask why fire chiefs, police chiefs, public works administrators stand by these politicians and remain silent, do they know the truth, has it taken them decades to become department heads? Could it be that they became department heads by going with the flow and living the lie in exchange for high-paying jobs, pensions, and benefits? Scary thought, especially considering this trend.