The rake flake
by Tom Sullivan
“He came. He saw. He said something stupid,” tweeted NBC producer Ken Olin. Pretty much sums it up. Except several stupid things, really.
Surveying California fire damage he blames on poor forest management, American president Donald J. Trump repeated something he misunderstood from something he half-heard about forest management from the president of Finland. That makes him an expert on the subject:
“We’ve got to take care of the floors, you know the floors of the forest, very important,” he continued. “You look at other countries where they do it differently and it’s a whole different story. I was with the president of Finland and he said… we’re a forest nation, he called it a forest nation, and they spend a lot of time on raking and cleaning and doing things. They don’t have any problem, and what it is, it’s a very small problem.”
All Finnish President Sauli Niinistö remembers is telling Trump is “we take care of our forests.” He only rakes his yard.
“They spent a lot of time on raking and cleaning, they don’t have any problems.”
President Trump has again blamed forest mismanagement for the deadly wildfires in California, saying they should look towards the 'forest nation' of Finland for answers. pic.twitter.com/lGpgYU59VP— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) November 18, 2018
In announcing on “Face the Nation” that Trump would not cut funding to California for fighting fires, California Gov. Jerry Brown called it a “big, big win.” The magic word. Speak it and the sitting president is putty in your hands. But on Saturday, Brown looked like he wanted to be anywhere else except standing beside a fool spewing nonsense.
Finnish social media had a much better time with Trump’s raking comments.
Here I am just #raking around as all us #finns do to prevent forest fires. pic.twitter.com/lNFUiQoqmj— Iida Korhonen (@iidaKorhonen) November 18, 2018
Just an ordinary day in the Finnish forest ~ Ihan normipäivä suomalaisessa metsässä #Trump #forest #firesafety #raking #forestry #Finland #Finnish #CaliforniaFire #RakingAmericaGreatAgain #rakingtheforest #Suomi #haravointi #metsäpalot #rakingleaves pic.twitter.com/YOKA3D6C2K— Pyry Luminen (@pyryluminen) November 18, 2018
Greetings from #Finland! Just finished raking leaves here.#RakeAmericaGreatAgain #RakeTheForest #Trump #SundayFunday #SundayMorning #rakenews #CaliforniaWildFires #ClimateChange #haravointi #metsänhoito #ilmastonmuutos #Suomi pic.twitter.com/vqD99kmUgj— Kristiina Vahvaselkä (@TravelWithXtina) November 18, 2018
Greetings from #Finland! Just taking a break from raking leaves and having a lunch. We have the best rakes in the world! #RakeAmericaGreatAgain #RakeTheForest #Trump #SundayFunday #SundayMorning #rakenews #CaliforniaWildFires #ClimateChange #haravointi #metsänhoito #CampFire pic.twitter.com/gsM8CbLdSi— Kristiina Vahvaselkä (@TravelWithXtina) November 18, 2018
#haravointi
Oh bless your hearts you cute little Finns. It’s so quaint that you frolic among the elves while raking leaves. Here in Canada we have automated with our forest Roomba. The money we saved is going into building a border wall. Guess which border we’re walling off? pic.twitter.com/AvMltRT0x4— Larry Gouge (@sunnyinsooke) November 19, 2018
CBS reports the death toll stands at 76 and the estimate of the missing has risen since Friday to 1,276.
Watch Brown’s head whip around (video at top) when Trump mentions “a lot of study going on.” Brown has actually read “peer-reviewed scientific articles” [timestamp 2:40] attributing a doubling of land burned in California over the last 15 years to climate change. He wisely did not argue the point with the man who thinks the fire threat results from inadequate raking of federal forests by the state of California.