Monday, January 13, 2025
The week in review with Bill Katz, the editor of Urgent Agenda
The week in review with Bill Katz, the editor of Urgent Agenda.......We will review the latest Middle East deal, LA fires and what comes next, NY Judge no conviction after all these months, Trump on Greenland & Panama and China, plus other stories. Click to listen:
Blue is burning
Blue is burning - American Thinker https://t.co/q1QQDC9Z1L
— Silvio Canto. Jr. (@silvio_canto) January 13, 2025
he situation in Los Angeles is not good. Now, it’s the winds. It’s horrible to watch and there are more neighborhoods under threat:
Firefighters were slowly making progress in their battle to contain the inferno that has burned wide areas of Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades neighborhood to the ground, but spreading flames and strong winds still threatened communities in the populous San Fernando Valley on Sunday.
Aircraft dropped water and fire retardant on steep hills to stem the eastward spread of the Palisades Fire and KTLA television reported that ground crews had managed to save a number of houses, although others were lost.
“LA County had another night of unimaginable terror and heartbreak,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said.
Six simultaneous blazes that have ripped across the second-largest U.S. city since Tuesday had killed at least 14 people as of Sunday morning. At least 16 people are estimated to be missing.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said he expected the death toll to rise. “I’ve got search and rescue teams out. We’ve got cadaver dogs out and there’s likely to be a lot more,” he told NBC’s “Meet the Press” program.
It’s unreal that we’re watching scenes like this in a civilized country. You’d expect the fire hydrants to pump water, but not in Los Angeles. It’s a horror movie except that this time it’s not Hollywood making it.
There is a lot of blame to go around. Yes, Mayor Bass is in over her head and Governor Newsom is not far behind. However, what we are seeing here is the collapse of the blue model. The Democrat Way used to be about taking care of workers and their families, but this is not your father’s party. This modern version of the Democrats is more into pronouns, making excuses for criminals, and making everything about race.
We have not started counting heads for the 2030 census but the projections don’t look for the guys with a “D” on their caps. This is what we are expecting to happen:
If these trends continue for the balance of the decade, California would lose 4 of its 52 congressional districts in reapportionment — only the second time the Golden State has ever lost representation. New York, meanwhile, would lose three seats, Illinois two, and Pennsylvania one, leaving all three states with congressional delegations half the size they were in 1940.By contrast, the South has emerged as this decade’s growth engine, adding almost 3.9 million people and accounting for nearly all U.S. population gains since 2020.
Four booming southern states stand out in particular: Texas, Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina. These rapidly growing states by themselves account for more than 90 percent of American population gains since the 2020 census, with Texas and Florida alone accounting for 70 percent of growth.
Based on the most recent trends, Texas would gain four seats and Florida three seats in the next reapportionment, placing Texas within striking distance of becoming the largest state, perhaps as early as 2040. Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee also would each gain a new congressional seat, as would three mountain states: Arizona, Idaho, and Utah.
I should add that the aforementioned article is from December 2023 but the trend is clear. The blues are shrinking and the reds are growing. What it means is that those four districts from California will likely be replaced by four GOP representatives in Texas, especially given what happened with the Hispanic vote. The three from New York will likely go South Carolina or Florida.
So LA is burning. The larger point is that the blue model is burning, whether it’s crime in New York City, Philadelphia, and Baltimore or public schools in disarray in Chicago.
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January 13, 1982: Air Florida crash and a day for heroes
It was also a day for heroes, such as the stories of passengers Arland Williams and Lenny Skutnik plus bystander Roger Olian. The 3 were awarded the Coast Guard Gold Lifesaving Medal.
Later, the bridge was renamed the Arland D. Williams Jr. Memorial Bridge.
It was a day of tragedy and heroes!