Well, thanks so much for joining us. We're obviously a big basin state park, which is California's oldest park state park founded in 1902, about 800,000 visitors from California, the nation and around the world visit here every year. And this was the site of a mass evacuation as part of the the CZU fire complex in which our Cal Fire and partners, as well as our state parks team, evacuated, as I understand it, thousands of people from this park. And we're here today to share with the governor and our FEMA administrator the impact of this wildfire on the park, which as we understand is unprecedented in modern history. We're standing in front of one of the historic structures that burned virtually all of the structures in this park headquarters burned. And of course, we're amidst trees, some that are well over a thousand years old that have burned as well, but will likely remain resilient. And believe it or not, survive this. So I wanted to ask the governor, who's obviously led the response to the wildfire and will lead its recovery from the wildfire to share thoughts on the visit here today. Okay. And this is an opportunity for the first time publicly to introduce and invite to speak our new director of the State Department of Parks and Recreation, or what we know as state parks. Armando Quintero brings a career of service and leadership in parks and specifically over two decades at the National Park Service. He's also known in California as a leading environmentalist and an expert on natural resources and brings with him to this job tremendous passion that I know the governor shares to expand access for all Californians to our parks here. So without further ado, Armando, I'd invite you up and just to share reflections here as you take on this role, what this visit here means to you today. Thank you very much. And as you all heard, this is the first state park. And that was actually made possible through a partnership with the State of the Redwoods League. It was through their political pressure and engagement with leaders in California to create this as the first state park in California. Immediately after this park was created, there was a park bond that was unanimously passed by the voters. And it was a bond that set aside $6 million for purchasing new lands to be added to this park system. And an important note in that effort was that that money could only be spent if it was matched by philanthropy and the citizenship in order to make those land purchases. And so really at the very onset, these state parks have a DNA that includes partnership with stakeholders and with nonprofits. And that was, that was almost, well, just almost 100 years ago. And now we are at a turning point, having seen the devastation and the need to look at how we rebuild a park like this. As I mentioned earlier, it's really an opportunity to bring in all of the stakeholders, save the Redwoods League, Semper Virens Fund, and others to work with the state parks agency as well as the other partners here FEMA and other state agencies. To now take a look at the next 100 years. And together, I think we have an opportunity to actually show the world what the parks of the future could look like. As we look at climate change, the, you know, the need to bring together diversity in both the populations and also diversity in how we manage these landscapes. We've gotten a lot of learning, we've done a lot of learning in terms of how to manage landscapes like this. And again, this opportunity provides us yet another deep dive into how these systems work. And I do think that historically the world has looked to the United States and California for ideas about parks and how they are to be managed. And so we really do have an opportunity as a state, frankly, to lead the world in how we think about public lands, particularly in a moment where around the world, these landscapes have become essential landscapes. Thanks so much. Chief Boro, just give us an overview of where we are in context of the CZU fire, what's happening, not only in terms of the containment and the scope and scale of the CZU, how we're doing on the SCU nearby, and you up at the LNU yesterday and maybe introduce a few of the folks behind you, including who's kind enough to have been with us the last couple of days. Certainly, Governor, and thank you for the opportunity to speak. Also, I wanted to make sure and recognize our unit chief here from the Cal Fire CZU or Santa Cruz San Mateo unit, Ian Larkin, a long time resident and has worked his career here in these mountains and seen a lot over time, but nothing like this. And then the rest of the team of Cal Fires here with us for questions as well as our National Guard OES and CHP partners. What happened here, and I'm speaking to you from a perspective of the state wildland fire chief as well as the state forester. I hold both of those titles. I have had numerous discussions and calls from my state forester partners from throughout the nation just watching what's happened here in California and most of us have spent a career here in our states watching what's happening. And for me in particular, I've watched early in my career in Southern California, the mountain islands or the forest islands in Southern California be decimated by beetles and then wildland fires. Cuiamaca State Park had a similar event to this that actually consumed about 90% of all of the timber trees on that state park in Southern California. Then into the Southern Sierras with Beetlekill again 10 plus years ago into five or so years ago. And now we're starting to see these same kind of catastrophic wildfires and I'm saying catastrophic from an ecological perspective. Yes, these trees are going to survive, but there are ecological changes that are going to happen from this event that we haven't seen in European history on this land and probably hasn't happened to this scale for 500 or more years. So how does that reflect where we are today? And so back to your question governor kind of where we are with this CZU complex today. We had a conflagration of all these fires coming together over several day period and then a blowout of fire going in many different directions consuming a lot of ground. Well over 80,000 acres 85,000 acres and today we're at 72% percent contained thanks to a lot of hard work that has happened to make that a reality, but also a change in the weather. We really got blessed with some moisture from the marine layer coming in and then this fire while it is immense and is a very complex incident. We have two of the largest three fires in the state still burning right now in Santa Clara or the Santa Clara complex or SCU and the LNU complex up in Lake Annapa and that region. Those two fires are number one and two and they keep, I mean number two and three and they keep seesawing back and forth not to mention all of the fires we have on federal lands in the north and the south. There is more acreage burning in California right now at this point in the season than we have in records over the last 50 years. Maybe longer than that still doing some research so that's where we are governor and we're feeling good about where we are with this fire but it's going to be a long time recovery. Mark you want to just talk a little bit about last day or so and then at this feet just to make sure you don't have to speak but I just appreciate your theme. Alright Mark Gilarducci I'm director of the governor's office of emergency services. The office of emergency services role is really coordinating the overall states response to these disasters, these fires, it's the response and then the recovery in support of Cal Fire and support of state parks and support of our local government and being able to make sure we have enough resources and whatever is necessary not only to respond to the fires but then as we transition and pivot to respond to the recovery or engage the recovery. We've been doing that along the way with our FEMA partners and we actually are appreciative that the FEMA administrator is here from Washington D.C. Pete Gaynor and the regional administrator Bob Fenton many of you seen Bob and myself many times together on these events. We work very very closely aligned and really what we're looking at today is we're assessing what the damage is here of course and as previous speakers mentioned the idea is to rapidly clean up the park and clean up our communities, get individuals, get the park back into a way where they can continue to move forward in their recovery effort. So this is a little bit of a marathon not a sprint we're going to work through all this under the governor's direction, a state of emergency. We have all the assets of the state and now with FEMA support the president did declare a major disaster for this area and with evidence by the administrator being here seeing firsthand and collectively we're going to work together leveraging all the resources to be able to get ourselves back up on our feet. So we really appreciate them being here. Chris can I torch you a little bit? Don't worry this is not like a this is not a real press conference Chris even though I mean I want to say respect to the press that are here but there are only a few and it's not live and it's really for us and so you're here and it would be remiss because all of us are here and I know you a great deal of gratitude for the work you're doing and work you've done but I know this is a special place for you and you have a special and I think very heartfelt feelings about this very emotional and I just think it would be very impactful if you can just talk a little bit more about your connection to where we're standing quite literally and moreover about the devastation you've had experience over the last week. Thank you governor. Appreciate that and I appreciate everybody coming here. Yeah, I've been coming here for 25 years and there was a moment where as a volunteer I was able to work on a prescribed fire in this park 25 years ago that really cemented my commitment to wanting to work for state parks. I've worked in the natural resource side of management for most of my career here. I've spent a lot of time thinking about these trees and the effects of fire on it. Trying to do the best we can to manage these forests with prescribed fire with our sister agency Cal Fire we've done that for years. Seeing this event unprecedented the effects that we're seeing in this forest so significant to both our cultural history here and our natural history and my heart really does break. Not only for my staff who have given everything to get through this but for the people that I know how much this means to them the memories here the generational commitment that people bring their families here year after year I mean I've seen people come here and literally break down when the first time they've been here it's so incredible to them. We have people from across the nation across the world who've reached out to us since this event because it means something to them to see the change that's come here. But I know that we will get past that and I know that there's so much support out there both for this park for our state park system and for what it means to steward public land for the public's good in perpetuity. That means so much. It's such a good idea. Having our new director step in on day one here today and be confident that we're going to get through this. It makes me feel great. Having the governor, the resource secretary and everybody from Cal Fire and from FEMA here it really cements the fact that this is a very meaningful place to all of us and I look forward to working with everyone to find our way into the future so that we have a sustainable park for the future generations. So thank you. Awesome, awesome. Thank you Chris for everything you're doing and thank you for putting this in perspective and thank you all, all of you. Cal Fire behind me and folks rather in front of me. Cal Fire in particular for all the heroic work you guys are doing, all the mutual aid that's ongoing in this fire. We've got over 900 fires that have sparked just in the last few weeks in the state of California close to 16,000 firefighters currently out on the lines, 15,600 or so out in the lines working these fires. We've been on the phone with governors from all over the country. We now have 93 engines from eight plus states and National Guard support from additional states. Tragically we lost the life of a young firefighter yesterday from Oregon. Kate Brown, Governor Brown from Oregon was kind enough to reach out to me a week ago saying we provided some support but let me know if you need more support and we said we need more support. She not only sent down a number of engines, she sent down her son who was working the lines and fortunately it was part of the strike team where this incident occurred yesterday where the accident occurred. Fortunately her son's okay but our heart goes out to loss of a firefighter and others that were injured on that rig and it just reinforces how dangerous this work is and how heroic those men and women are that are out there on the lines doing kind of work. That all of us frankly have come to appreciate and admire and often just expect that we take times for granted that has really done everything we can to be here where we are today quite literally to save this majestic forest.  I want folks to know we come and go. These trees see around me, some of them have been up for 13, 14, 1500 years, been alive for 14, 1500 years. They have scars that make this fire look modest in comparison and yet they're still standing. It's a testament to Mother Nature's resiliency, it's testament to our resiliency and it's a testament to my optimism and my hope our optimism about our fate and future. Armando talked about this is an opportunity to think anew in terms of how we can reimagine a park system and this is a state that led the nation, this is a nation that led the world in stewardship and invested in generations by investing in place like this. And so our opportunity to re-establish that, to reinvigorate that mindset, that commitment, that devotion to this collective cause that transcends our time on this planet is very much alive and present at this moment. And so I want to thank the team assembled, I want to thank everybody for believing in the national park system, our state park system, in particular this, the state's oldest park and a big part of the movement that became the national parks movement all across this nation inspired, as I said, other natures around the world. Pericles wasn't alive when a few of these trees were born but I recall a wonderful quote from Pericles who said to the Athenians, we do not imitate for we are a model to others. And I say that in the spirit of what Tom and others were saying about the spirit of leadership as it relates to stewardship and that leadership and that commitment to stewardship to the environment, to Mother Nature, to leading by example is still not just surviving but thriving here in the state of California despite these historic obstacles. 1.48 million acres, that's as of last night, how many acres are burned here now in the state of California. This is unprecedented in modern recorded history to date. While we have 900 fires that have sparked 34 additional fires last night, most of them, in fact, not most overwhelmingly those fires are now part of stats, part of our past. We have a couple dozen that are still active that we're still working hard to mitigate the LNU and the SCU being two of the three largest fires in terms of acreage that have burned in the state of California, ongoing tough stubborn fires but real progress is being made in that 60, 70 plus percent range and containment and we're holding the line quite literally not just figuratively. Again, testament to Tom and his team and all the incredible mutual aid we're getting. That mutual aid and forgive me extending this is profoundly important because that mutual aid extends not just other states but the federal government. We have Pete here. It's a big deal, guys. I have the head of FEMA here in the state of California. He was just out there battling floods in Louisiana, Texas and elsewhere. He's dealing with more challenge, more stress and probably any previous FEMA director in modern history as we're dealing with things that happen every 500 years. It seemed to happen every five years.  And so I just want to thank Pete and his team for being out here. And Bob, the regional director for their incredible steadfast support of this region, the state. We simply could not do it without them. We don't have to ask anymore. The answer seems to be yes before we even ask the question. That's how strong this partnership has been and I just be remiss not to say that in front of them, not just over press release or over the media. Let me just close by making one additional point and that is the spirit Chris's comments. It's remarkable how many people quite literally that saw images of what you see behind me reached out directly to say, what can I do to help? How can I give back? I remember being there as a kid. I remember like yesterday I was there with my grandfather. I remember bringing my own kid out there to the amphitheater and seeing their connection wasn't intellectual as visceral. They were connected in a congruent way to Mother Nature of the Earth and they became little environmentalists. I didn't have to say another word because of that experience. What can I do to contribute to the cause of rebuilding? It's been extraordinary, that sentiment and that commitment. And so again, it's just in the spirit of optimism. I say that because it's just a demonstrable proof point, a demonstrable example of why we should be optimistic about our capacity to recover and be resilient and use this as a teaching moment. Use this as a moment where the scars of previous moments are clearly marked in trees behind me that was stood fires over millennial ago. But a teaching moment to remind people of how vulnerable we are and what we mean in the larger construct. And that is to put our stuff in perspective. All our differences, our angst, our feeling of inadequacy or perhaps our feeling of significance in perspective when you contextualize what Mother Nature has provided in all her bounty. And so I thank you guys for coming out and I again appreciate the opportunity to be here with so many special folks including Wade Crowfoot, our resource director, has just been doing an extraordinary job. So with that we're happy to answer questions on this topic and then I will let these poor folks go so you can talk about A, B, X, Y, Z, S, B, this, Y, and sort of bring us back down to Earth. But just as we're right here, wondering if you guys could just shed a little more light on kind of the possible timeline for bringing the public back in here and the timeline for reconstructing some of these buildings and things like that. And if you could also just give us a sense of how much of the old group around the park. Yeah, great questions, JD. Thank you. Chris, you want to help with that? Sure. Thank you. So from what we've seen right now and what we expect to see in the coming winter, some of the trees that are still standing right now are definitely going to come down. They're fire weekend. We've had two weeks of burning that are going to have effects. And so the idea that we could bring the public in safely in the next year is unlikely. I don't want to really give you guys, I don't know after that, but I would say at least a year we're going to have, we have to probably let Mother Nature a year from now. Yeah, I mean, that's as far as I could go out. But the hope would be that wind stress on these trees will let us know which trees are going to make it further than a year. What comes down will be able to clean up once we get the tree hazards safely removed. We're going to have a fair bit of debris flow and runoff. We probably have a lot of hydrophobic soil that was caused by the intensity of the heat of the fire. And so runoff is going to affect our drainages. It's going to affect our trail system. It's going to maybe affect the road system. So I'd say at least a year before we can assess that and know when we can bring the public back in safely. You were talking about how, you know, your connection to this park started 25 years ago with a prescribed burn. And that's a very hot issue. No comment, you know, this is a question for anyone who wants to answer it, I guess, but hopefully the governor too. What's the future of prescribed burning in California? How much more of that do we need to do? Are you taking a look at getting more of that done? Yeah, let me ask Chief Porter answer that. He's quite literally made a career around doing not just answering the issues related to that topic. But I'll just reinforce and remind you we did 35 high profile projects, vegetation, forest management projects that focused on not just areas of high concern but equity areas of concern that actually had impact on vulnerable communities. Some 200 communities that were represented in our assessment to prioritize 35 projects, including one up here on Highway 17 that we completed over the last year. We announced just a few weeks ago a new partnership with the U.S. Forest Service to match our commitment over half a million acres a year. So we'll be doing a million acres a year in partnership with the federal government to support our efforts. Not only in the 3% of forested property or rather forested land that the state owns in California, but the 50 plus percent, 56 to 57%, the federal government is responsible for. For new partnerships, reinvigorated commitment to vegetation management, forest management, that includes prescribed burns. New partnerships that we've advanced and we're moving away from the old paradigm that either or paradigm and really I think building an area of some collaboration and recognition that prescribed burns need to be part not just of our past over 100 years ago, but need to be part of our future and with that maybe Tom you can fill in the blanks with a little bit more specificity and scientific know-how. Well sure and just kind of speaking in general on a statewide perspective, we are building toward a 500,000 acre number on non-federal lands. Our federal partners are working toward a 500,000 acre. By and large we're looking to do most of that with prescribed fire.  It in fact is actually the cheapest tool when we do it appropriately, do it at the right time of year. We will be putting smoke into the atmosphere but not like the smoke we've been seeing from these events. It's not all coming in 15 days. It'll come over an entire year and that's something that we need to do annually. And Secretary Crowfoot is here as well but we have a shared stewardship agreement just signed within the last month with the Forest Service. Thank you Governor for signing that and Secretary for shepherding that through. But we have the mechanism to do this on a statewide basis in conjunction with our federal partners in ways that we never have before. And so that partnership is there. We are committed to doing more and more of prescribed burning across the landscape in different eco types to ensure that we preserve California's natural plant communities and watersheds, but also appropriately manage for catastrophic events that we can avert in the future. I might just add, I'll answer your question, but I add that these partnerships extend to tribal communities. California tribes have been introducing prescribed fire on the landscape for thousands of years and in many cases were legally prohibited from prescribed fire when European settlement arrived. And so we're actually at our agency learning from these tribal communities and their traditional practices about how to improve prescribed fire practices. And then as I think Chief Porter would tell you regarding the work that we need to do in the coming year and years, you're right that building resilience, building forest health across millions of California acres will take years to accomplish. But we will bring the urgency this coming year to this effort that Governor Newsom referenced last year. And that is we've identified high priority projects to protect communities and make forests more resilient. And you will hear more in coming weeks about these projects that the Cal Fire team will prioritize getting done this winter in preparation for next fire season. I think, Tom, you've got over 500 that you've lined up, right? Yeah, we have 500 on a list. Yeah, just maybe just quickly. Sure. So we have been building our inventory of projects and getting them through various levels of CEQA review that are required for different types. And we have over 500 projects statewide that are on that list ready to go. So we are in the process of sorting those and making sure we identify priorities that will meet Governor's intent of vulnerable community protection and then other resource means as well. As far as the timing for getting this done, each year we're getting more and more work done. We're getting more areas where we have prepped them and they're ready for the use of prescribed fire. And some places you just can't put prescribed fire on the ground right here today. You need to do a lot of work before you can get to that. So as far as the 500,000 acre treatment for the state and private lands, we're shooting for a target of making that by the end of 2023. So we're getting close. And we are about 75 to 80% of the way there this year to getting to that annual number. Forest service is about the same. And their commitment of MOU is for 20 years. And one of the things we're doing is we're not waiting around for the usual environmental process. And I say that as an environmentalist. In this context, it could take literally over a decade. We actually did one of our sites up near Placer County up near Auburn. That we had on docket for 10 to 15 years from now by the normal regulatory process. We're able to fast-track and get that project done last year. What we did is I signed a declaration of emergency before the emergency took shape in order to allow us to fast-track the movement on these sites. And so it gives you a sense of the urgency we put in place last year in the seriousness of purpose. We're going to be advancing this and over the course of the next few years. We just did, Cal Fire just got 830 new seasonal positions. We did that just 60 days ago. 830 of the 858 actually have been hired. We did an emergency appropriation, $72.4 million to move forward to get that seasonal workforce. I also added over $85 million to the baseline budget that was just approved a few months prior to get baseline ongoing. 24-7 firefighters in Cal Fire, a historic amount of money in the last 3-4 years in terms of new equipment and new commitments along the lines of what we just expressed on vegetation and forest management. So we're doing more than we've ever done and we'll continue to do even more still. We were tested by 130-degree temperature and tested by this heat dome over the entire west coast of the United States and something unprecedented in our state's history. 14,000 lightning strikes and as a consequence our mutual aid system was tested. But we are committed to long haul and I'm committed individually to continue to build despite historic, well close to historic budget shortfalls. We were able to still make historic investments in Cal Fire as a priority of this administration to keep people safe. We are and we have been so it has been an historic year in many ways, whether it's wildfires in California, hurricanes, we're going down the alphabet in a rapid pace or COVID-19. It continues to occur. We are fully funded by Congress and the administration and the disaster relief fund right now $60 billion that we can use towards COVID response, loss wages program that the administration instituted and obviously disasters that have happened and any future disasters that may happen. So I'm fully confident that we have all the resources that we need and this is just not about FEMA. This is really about great partners. So response recovery works best when it's locally executed, state managed and fairly supported. And we're here today to support the state of California and this disaster and give them all the support they need and we'll stand by the governor and his staff until the disaster is behind us. Well, I'm not sure about that, but the president just approved a major disaster for California. So that's his commitment to California and every other disaster around the country. I just let me stand appreciation of the president for signing that disaster declaration as quickly as he did. And for all what we refer to as FMAGs that have been done, Bob and Pete and his team done a remarkable job. So, you know, all of that to me is tangential. The substance is what really matters. The partnership is real. And by the way, just so you know, you may have heard Pete reference lost wages. Pete's now responsible for those unemployment checks FEMA. So he is also responsible for the $300 supplemental checks that we're going to be getting out in the next week or so. So thank you, Pete and FEMA for that as well. I don't know that we did, but if you really want to, you guys can you're all excused.   The burnt out trees. Yeah. I don't see that's necessary. If we find it's necessary, specific issue is necessary. I'll consider it. But right now we are looking forward to working through hundreds and hundreds of bills. And I'll be making decision on where we stand on many of those bills. We've been part of the process of of mending number of bills and other bills were amended last minute. We'll take a close look and make determination of where we stand on many of these last night close to midnight. I did sign one of those bills on evictions. It's probably important to get it done by midnight so that we can impact and mitigate prospective millions of Californians being vulnerable to eviction notices this morning. Would you consider a special session though for prison reform or sorry, police reform or employment benefits or running out and families around the state are approaching financial disaster? I always consider a special session as needed. So I mean that's it's always as it has needed. It's very easy simple process to do. So we'll consider that as needed $300 going out. We're just setting that system up. We thank FEMA for their support and those dollars going out around the 10th of this month $300 supplementals, billions of billions of dollars. I'll be distributed over the next few weeks with the support of the federal government on the unemployment insurance side. Number of police reform bills did get through. I've landed on my desk. We'll take a close look at those. We worked on a number of those and a lot of bills didn't make it through across the spectrum of issues. And we'll adjudicate those and work through where we stand on those and work with the legislative leaders to dust things off. The legislative session may be over. We're just starting. I'm not taking a break.  We're still working all the issues all the efforts that need to be advanced to keep people protected in the state educated in the state healthy in the state continue and I'm already working on next year's budget. We're working with agency directors, department heads and over the next few weeks be making very substantive decisions about where we are on our budget next year and hoping the federal government gets a new cares act and are done. So that will substantially aid our efforts in that space. Yeah, we're taking a look. I've been working on that issue since I was lieutenant governor, been very active in that space active on prison reform active working with our partners at Cal Fire, the union and others. I'll take a look at the details of all these pieces of legislation, but that's an area long been an area of interest to me and and purpose and and something that I look forward to to reviewing the bill itself. We have a lot more work to do in that space, regardless of that bill, and I'm committed to that process as well. Well, we passed 18 bills last year, just because you pass a bill, you don't solve a problem. So just passing a bill alone is not going to quote a solution. We got a lot of work to do in that space. It's going to take us decades. We put an historic amount of money last year into tax credits and infrastructure grants put on press about our money and the homeless issues. I'm very proud of the work that we did in the budget work that was also helped advanced in the legislature on project room key, which now we're referring to as project home key is we're purchasing these assets to get folks permanently off the streets tens of thousands of people, some 22,000 people have gotten off the streets since project room key. All that's been happening in the last few months. And we still have a lot more work to do in that space and a lot more work to do in housing. But we, we've been, as you know, challenged by this pandemic that has put a lot of things in perspective. I will put though this in perspective today, we're at 4.9% positivity rate, seven day period, 5.3% over 14 day period, some 3,712 positive cases today. It's one of the lower end of the numbers we've seen sometime still encouraging signs, 24% decline in two weeks and hospitalizations, 20, roughly 24, roughly the same in ICU over the last two weeks. So we're making real progress. That's going to aid and vet our efforts to reopen our economy to recover, be more resilient, moving out also help us with housing starts and our efforts on homelessness as well. Well, I don't look at it negative terms. I look at it more opportunistic terms. Opportunity and new to bring someone is quality and insights demonstrable in terms of his career, not just his resume, particularly his work at partnership with UC Merced. You know, I were just talking about the opportunities to help new partnerships, regional partnerships with our UC system, long overdue at a different scale. His focus on equity enlivens me, should enliven you. This is the most diverse state in the world's most diverse democracy. We need to focus on equity, equity of access to parks like this can change the director of a young person's life. That's not afforded all our diverse communities. So he's here for a reason. He's here for a purpose. And I don't know if there's greater purpose and reason to be sworn in the day that we're here today that sort of underscores. I think his weight of responsibility. But my enthusiasm in terms of his capacity to deliver on that. But was there a precipitating event that led to... The precipitating event is I've been active looking to get someone who's committed to all of the things that I just advanced. And so that's why he's here. And I have nothing but good things to say about the former director. In fact, working right now to help her with her next career path too. It's just an opportunity to bring in new people. I've only been governor 20 months, less than 20 months. So I'm just getting started here. We're bringing in a team. We're going to be hiring folks. And so expect more decisions. It's kind of exciting. We do for like an active fire coming for an earthquake. Are you considering any kind of statewide smoke alert system? Well, we have that. But to the extent my health director is not here. He talked about this a couple of days ago and refer back to the press comments we had. I think either it was Monday or Friday. He talked in more specific terms about some of those advisories. I'll provide you a little more contemporary information on that building on what he advanced last week.  And if this is not a gut punch, then you're not fully conscious as a human being. And in another reminder of how important it is to be stewards and how important it is to have a sustainable mindset. Not just a situational one.  That's a situational mindset. And frankly, most of the world's problems come from that mindset. This is all about sustainability. And when we talk about sustainability here, you're talking thousands of years, not just dozens of years, even hundreds of years. And so I think that's a healthy thing to bring that mindset and the work we're doing, long term, not short termism. And so to me, that connects with not just the head, it connects with the heart also connects, as you say, with, you know, childhood memories. These are indelible. We're talking to Mark Giladucci who grew up in and around here and was just sharing the same emotional connection to the site and his memories.  You just remember the architecture of the old cabins. You remember the old bear signs. You remember the sounds of smells. You remember the canopies. Of course, you lose that. You lose a little bit of those memories. And those, you know, memories in this respect are seared in a different construct than they were as a child. But they're precious and they're magical. And his life at the end of the day is about magical moments and people that spend time places like this experience those magical moments. And so this is just a reminder of how we need to give more people to be stewards, more people to feel truly connected, particularly folks that live a few miles away that don't even know this exists. And if nothing else, this will remind them how blessed we are and how precious life is and how extraordinarily precious a magical forest like this is as well. One more thing. The new four-tier color code system that people could understand where they weren't as confused as we saw them be. Why don't it take this long to get to that kind of system? By implementing it, are you admitting that some counties were allowed to reopen too quickly? We made the commitment in partnership with the counties, with our federal partners in recognition of the importance of more clarity, not just for the counties, not just for health directors, but more importantly for the public and for industry leaders. We did all that in partnership in an iterative process. It's a dynamic process.  There was no rule book. There was no playbook. There was no manual that said, here's what you're doing. We learned from 50 other states. We learned from different nations. We learned from our own experiences. We bring all that to bear in a constant effort to be dynamic, to meet the moment and be more flexible in our approach and attitude. And that's what created the energy to put together the new tiered strategy. And to the extent that we'll learn from this experience over the next 60-90 days, I imagine we'll try to tweak that as well moving into January, February, March. Thank you all. Thank you.


China threatens the U.S. Empire, not the U.S. itself. Notes from the Edge of the Narrative Matrix. So many empire-apologist arguments depend on pretending the U.S. Empire doesn't exist. Pretending the U.S. is just a normal country, sitting there minding its own business. If you do that, it really does look like Russia and China are picking on Ukraine and Taiwan, completely unprovoked. If you act like the U.S. isn't the hub of an empire that is projecting power all over the globe, then the fact that it has a hand in every major international conflict becomes obscured, and it just looks like evil barbaric foreigners doing evil things for no good reason. Take the empire out of the equation and Assad wasn't reacting to western-backed regime change proxy warfare.  China isn't responding to U.S. encirclement, it's just being aggressive to its neighbors because it is evil. Because the globe-spanning power structure loosely centralized around the United States is an unacknowledged, unofficial empire that doesn't look like the empires of old, its apologists can just insist that it doesn't exist, like mob lawyers used to do with the mafia. By doing that, they can assign others responsibility for the empire's crimes. A large amount of empire apologia in 2022 is also built around pretending that provocation isn't a thing. That this concept we've all lived our entire lives knowing about and understanding is suddenly a freakish and ridiculous invention of Moscow and Beijing. If I provoke someone into doing something bad, then they're guilty of doing the bad thing. But I am also guilty of provoking them. This is the plot behind any movie or show with a sneakier manipulative villain. It's the subject of entire Shakespearean plays. I'm not saying anything new here. This notion wasn't just invented. Most of us learn this as children with siblings kicking the other under the table or whatever to provoke a loud outburst. And we've understood it ever since. But in 2022, everyone's pretending that this extremely basic, kindergarten level concept is some kind of bizarre alien gibberish. China poses no threat to the United States of America, the country. What China poses a threat to is the U.S. empire and the hegemonic unipolarist ambitions thereof. That's what various government agencies are talking about when they describe China as the number one, quote, threat. Talking about China's territorial disputes with its neighbors without talking about the U.S. empire's efforts to establish strategic domination in those areas is the same as lying. Normal person. China's misdeeds have been greatly exaggerated by Western propaganda, and the U.S. is quantifiably far more murderous and destructive. Crazy person. Oh, so you think China is a perfect communist utopia and the CCP never does anything wrong? Why don't you move there? Pretending the U.S. government has been taken over by Marxists lets the populist right feel as though their shrieking about communism is punching up and fighting the power. When really they're just facilitating long-standing neocon agendas against China and long-standing CIA FBI agendas against Western socialists. It was scary when Russiagate first started and liberals began turning into Cold War zombies. You could just tell the brainwashing was going to be used to get them to consent to ugly dangerous things. The brainwashing about China is even scarier and it's just getting started. If your government is showing a clear interest in the outcome of a foreign war and your first response isn't to do some rigorous and intellectually honest investigation as to whether your government played a role in starting that war, then there is something wrong with your mind. If this is you, don't feel bad. There's something wrong with most people's minds. What's wrong with most people's minds is that the powerful pour a vast amount of energy into manipulating them toward their advantage. This has been known about and studied for a long time. There really is a widespread mainstream belief that it is the job of news media and watchdog organizations to help Ukraine win a propaganda war against Russia. Here's an article by Bloomberg. Amnesty's impartiality plays to Russia's advantage. Subtitled. The human rights group has fallen into a fairness trap. Its secretary general's response to critics has been more disturbing still. Do people really not understand that wanting the media and watchdog organizations to tell the truth and wanting them to help Ukraine win an information war are two mutually exclusive concepts? You cannot have both. You either want to be lied to or you want to be told the truth. Americans are the most propagandized population on earth and US military personnel are the most propagandized Americans.  Here's a tweet by Charles Booker, the progressive Senate candidate running against Rand Paul. He says, Rand Paul is now calling to repeal the espionage act after the world learned Donald Trump is under investigation for violating it. When I am elected to the Senate, you will never have to question my loyalty to our country. After a while, you start to notice that people who only support healthy agendas for partisan reasons don't really support healthy agendas. Democrats didn't really oppose the Iraq war, they just opposed Bush. Republicans don't really oppose the FBI, they just support Trump. If you only oppose something because it's politically convenient, then you will see supposing it as soon as it ceases to be politically convenient. All those anti-war Democrats from the Bush era provided zero opposition to Obama's warmongering and fully support Biden's warmongering. I used to get hopeful when I'd see things like mainstream Republicans expressing skepticism of the CIA or whatever. But then I'd notice that skepticism immediately evaporate when the CIA targeted governments they don't like and seeing them cheering on Mike Pompeo.  I've found it's a lot more helpful to just work to sow healthy ideas around so they can take root, rather than try to make use of apparently healthy sentiments that only arise from partisanship. If it's partisan, it's fake. It won't last a minute beyond its political usefulness. Things you can make money out of. War, ecocide, sickness, finite commodities. Things you can't make money out of. Peace, a thriving biosphere, health, energy sources you can't control. While we use money to value things, we will never be free.


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After a record breaking seventh ATP trophy Novak Djokovic has topped the rankings for yet another year We talked about that last week when he wrapped up the world number one ranking after winning one match at the adb finals Let's go have a look at the rankings and see how we end 2023 season But first let's go to what happened at the adb finals So the only result we had this week was Novak Djokovic playing Yannick Sinner in the final of the adb finals And of course Djokovic losing to Sinner in the group stage but winning the title 6-3 6-3 in the final He was on another level. He was serving amazing and he wins his seventh trophy at this event But Sinner had a great year as well great to end of the season to add a little bit of a boost to his rankings as well Let's do a bit of an overview of the rankings this year and see who's actually gone up the highest from this time last year And also who's dropped down the lowest starting with some of the players that have gone up the most this year Wondrusova she's gone up 85 spots finishing the year at number seven in the world She started at number 92 in the world So that's a huge boost for her in the rankings Mukava She goes up to number eight in the world, which is a career high for her 143 spots higher than last year. She actually started the year off at 151 in the world and Ben Shulton He's got up 79 spots to finish the year off at number 17 in the world starting the year off just inside the top 100 And now well and truly into the top 20 So some big jumps for those players and no surprise that all of those players did well at the slams And that's mainly reason why they've actually gone up in the ranks Some of the players that went down to the rankings throughout the year and her soccer She started the year off as number 42 in the world and she is currently unranked dropping more than a thousand spots to lose all their points Of course, we're gonna see her at the Australian Open hopefully so she can regain her ranking Nick Kirios Same thing He's dropped all his ranking points and is now considered unranked after being number 22 in the world at the start of the season Rafa Nadal he started the year off as number two in the world and he is currently ranked 664 in the world, which is a drop of 662 places of course after getting injured in the first few weeks of the season that definitely didn't help him So he's gonna come into the new season relatively unranked as well So some big names there that didn't get to play much tennis this year and some of them didn't even play any tennis Losing a lot of ranking spots. All right. Let's start with the WT rankings. We've already gone through this But let's recap with Shrion tech at number one Sabal anchor at two not too far behind Which could be interesting to start the season next year We've got gov at number three we were back in her at four Pagula stated five with Jabir at six Von Drussever at seven Mukhaver at eight Sakari at nine and Krajikova rounds out the top ten for the 2023 season three check players and two Americans in the top ten Really interesting to see how these players do next year and how many of them can stay in the top ten in 12 months time And over to the ATP we had no changes to the rankings just to the points no back Jokovic He extends the lead against Carlos Elcraz It's gonna be very hard for Elcraz to get to world number one again until maybe I don't know maybe the grass maybe maybe the u.s Open series. I don't know. He's a number two Elcraz with Mehvedev at number three Sinner adds a thousand points to his total after this week gets number four for the end of the year and rubles at five We've got Sidney passes six there of at seven Brunner at eight her catcher nine and Taylor Fritz rounds out the top ten For this year, but like I said Elcraz doesn't have any points to defend at the Australian Open So there's a chance he could close the gap But it's very unlikely that he's gonna get world number one ranking until I mean I don't know until Djokovic decides to get bored of it I guess there it is the final ranking show we're done the rankings are set Shriyantek Djokovic they end the year at world number one It came down to the last match for Shriyantek last week That was awesome and Djokovic He only needed one match to win at the adb finals to wrap that up, but look Elcraz and Sabalenka. They're still not that far behind I mean Elcraz a little further behind needs to do a little bit more work next year The French Open is definitely his for the taking I feel next year and of course Wimbledon is the defending champion So you just never know but let me know down the cost below What's been the most exciting part of the year for the rankings for you? I mean has it been that Djokovic Elcraz back and forth felt like every week We did this show there would be a new world number one Of course on the women's side the Shriyantek Sabalenka battle that was a fun one as well Maybe it's somebody like a Rabakina who finally gets to the top of the game where she deserved to be last year Of course Wimbledon didn't give her any points So that means she wasn't up the top But maybe it was that maybe it was the resurgence of Daniel Medvedev after dropping out of the top 10 Then he comes back in maybe it was that but let me know down the comments below What's been the biggest part of the rankings for you this year and the favorite part of the rankings But no back Djokovic Igor Shriyantek you're in number ones again


From Edo Street now to a number of states where government is set to partner with the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria Man and organize private sector to achieve its administration's industrialization goal. According to Governor Chukuma Saludo, reviving the fortunes of Onitsha and its environs is a major move. For man and the organized private sector, here you have a partner. But we must also now require you to actively come. You have to be deliberate. This kind of partnership will not be the one who go for conferences and talk and we have to partner. Let us be very intentional.


Make Rakshabandhan memorable, get sisters to voluntarily give up their rights. Said a letter by Dilip Singh Prajapati, a Tehsildar in Digor Tehsil Rajasthan on Rakshabandhan this year. Women's organizations have condemned the statement, calling it obnoxious. They have demanded immediate suspension of the Tehsildar. What is a woman's right in her ancestral property under the Hindu Succession Act In 2005, the amendment of the Hindu Succession Act allowed daughters to inherit an equal share in their father's property, also known as copper scenery rights. Before 2005, it was only granted to sons, not daughters. Kerala was the first state in 1975 to have abolished this discrimination by doing away with the Hindu joint family system altogether. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu too made changes in the law before 2005. But the discriminatory clause for agriculture land awarded to sons remained. A three-judge panel headed by Justice Arun Mishra in the case Vinita Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma 2020 ruled that a daughter's inheritance rights are absolute, that is free of any condition. The court also ruled that the daughter's children could also demand a share in that inheritance even if she passed away before 2005. Let us look at the status of married women seeking property rights in marital homes. The status of a Kapasana's wife, who is a member of a Hindu undivided family, remains the same. Wives only have rights of maintenance and cannot seek a part in their husband's property. But if a husband dies without making a will, a widow has legal heir status to his property. We must note that all these rights are for Hindu women. Muslim and Christian women's laws are different and need to be understood separately. Since women receive valuable gifts during their wedding, dowry and festivals, it is believed that they must give up any claim to parental property. Women who do claim their rights are often faced with a legal war with the family. They are banned from visiting their parental village and suffer of falling out with their family. This patriarchal strategy is insured in customs, but a woman is entitled to the properties of both her husband and her father. It is ironic that women are expected to bring property from paternal homes but are not given any legitimate share of ancestral property. Indian economist Bina Agarwal says despite equality in inheritance laws, only a small percentage of women own land in rural land-owning households. Globally, it is known that women owning land would enhance their well-being, improve children's health and education, reduce domestic violence, raise farm productivity, increase family food security and empower women socially and politically. Women with assets such as land have greater bargaining power leading to gender-equal allocations of benefits even from male incomes. Neither the agricultural census nor the NSSO surveys on ownership holdings account for gender ownership figures. We urgently need more gender-based data on land ownership and innovative policies to increase women's actual ownership. The problem is, fathers fear losing control over land if given to married daughters. Daughters fear damaging family relations if they claim their shares. Policymakers say they fear land fragmentation. Notably, despite vast numbers of women joining the ongoing protests against farmers, we hear barely a whisper about their claims in family land.


We got some big updates with these Baltimore Ravens and Marlon Humphrey Sit back relax. We're probably gonna be here for a little while But anyway to keep it clean make sure you subscribe to the channel So you don't miss updates like these and really everything when it comes to covering the Baltimore Ravens leave a like on the video So YouTube can keep telling you about the channel and they can tell your friends and family about the channel too And I mean you can do that if you want to as well anyway Let's get into it Marlon Humphrey it came out yesterday that Marlon Humphrey He was dealing with an injury and the initial report on Marlon Humphrey was that he might Maybe require a medical procedure and we said it in yesterday's video that that was just really a nice way of saying Marlon Humphrey might need to have surgery what happened like not even an hour after that first update came out They said that Marlon Humphrey he had surgery They said it was a foot injury that he was dealing with and he did have surgery on it and Ian Rappaport reported He said that um Marlon Humphrey is expected to have the surgery and the hope is that he's back in a little over a month So he's gonna be out for the first couple of games that rolls a lot of questions with Ravens fans a lot of concerns with Ravens fans as This should be like man one of those concerns was Because it was said that this was a lingering injury. So if something is lingering that means it's been going on for a while So fans were wondering like man, why didn't he take care this injury way before why the Ravens wait until now to do the surgery? What what was the holdup and that's a reasonable concern and I get it But Jeff Zrebek said that he was doing fine He never missed a rep in training camp and practice anything like that He didn't miss any time anything like that So he had been doing just fine and I guess it was one of those things that they just felt like alright If it ain't bothering them then he'll be straight, but I guess something messed it up and whatnot And he had to have surgery on it So that was the deal with that now when it comes to Marlon Humphrey big concern is the defense Obviously Marlon Humphrey the best cornerback on the team one of the best and most consistent players On the team so missing him is a big blow but I did see somebody make a an interesting point and they talked about Mike McDonald and him having a zones zone defense and with the defense being primarily a zone scheme type of defense that The Ravens will be able to absorb this blow a lot easier than they normally would had they played more man coverage So we'll see we'll see how that goes And with Marlon Humphrey another thing that is a bit concerning Just really for the Ravens overall because I mean while they could absorb the blow and like I said in yesterday's video Too a lot more weight is now going to be put on the offense because of the offense out there They scored 35 40 points a game and Ravens the whole teams to 15 20.  I mean it said the hope is that he's out for the first couple of games The timetable for his return That's gonna be another concern because what you need to do you have to make sure again This is why they hired that coach from the Titans a couple of years ago that recovery coach You got to make sure when Marlon comes back That ain't no setbacks that he's fully ready to go that he's fully ready to jump into things that You don't bring him back when he's 75% 80 but no he got to be all the way ready Because you don't want this injury to Recur you don't want this injury to happen again then at the same time How long is it gonna take for Marlon to jump back out there? How long is it gonna take for him to be himself again? So that that's a slight concern again Marlon is a veteran though. He's been in the game for a long time He's dealt with some injuries before not many so that's not too big of a concern But it's just they got to make sure that he comes back, right? so Lot of Ravens fans are wondering alright, we lost Marlon Humphrey EDC you time to make a move a lot of people Talking about trades and whatnot and I feel like right now if the Ravens were to trade for a cornerback I wouldn't mind if they did it But if they were to trade for a cornerback teams could really try to strong on the Ravens Because they know that there is a need in the Ravens depending on how desperate they would be to acquire certain cornerbacks from other teams and via trade Instead of safe just using it as an example The Ravens wanted to give up a fourth round pick for a cornerback just an example now But the Ravens wanted to give up a fourth round pick for a cornerback and a team like oh They just lost Marlon Humphrey. Oh, no no no they really want this cornerback They got to give up more so give us a fourth a fifth a sixth a seventh give us all of that So a team could try to do that with the Ravens because they know that there's a clear need in their secondary But Ravens they decided to take another route Because Ronald Darby our free agent Ronald Darby he played for the Broncos last year veteran guy been playing since 2015 He visited or he is visiting the Ravens today So they are looking to feel that need and now they did have in William Jackson a couple days ago They had him in for a visit. So they they had William Jackson before this whole thing happened with Marlon Humphrey So Ravens that there has been a clear need at corner for the Baltimore Ravens For just more quality depth for the Baltimore Ravens even before Marlon Humphrey went down because Rocky St He was down too. So it's like Like was talked about before and like y'all know already because y'all are very Y'all y'all have plenty of knowledge on this every single year Ravens cornerback depth gets tested like crazy every single year and now Ravens number one and Number two corners are out right now Now they're not expected to be out forever for the whole season, which is great That's so we got to take the the good news with the bad or really the bad news with the good because Since this is not a season ending in was not expected to be it shouldn't be but since it's not a season ending injury Then that is great news and we will hold on to any type of great news that we could possibly get Especially when it comes to injuries on this team, but anyway, Ronald Darby He played for the Beals. He played for the Eagles. He played for the commanders. He played for the Broncos So he been around he's a he's a journeyman But we'll see if they can get something done with him We'll see if they want to get something done with him But somebody else who they could possibly get something done with or somebody else who don't even got to act That's their own agent right now is Bryce Callahan and he's known to be an inside a slot a nickel corner and then coincidentally Kyle vanoy who visited with the Ravens who the Ravens have apparently still been talking to He had some interesting things to say and he said this he said I'm shocked Ain't no corner needy team has picked up Bryce Callahan I feel like folks don't watch film like that But he was an elite star last year and battled out an injury all season his toughness IQ and tackling would help so many teams He's a ball player So it feels like Kyle vanoy trying to get the Ravens to do sort of like a two-for-one type of deal to where they get Both Bryce Callahan and him Kyle vanoy they pick them up But it's all negotiated through one person that being Kyle vanoy. So we'll see how that works his self out now We know that the the joint practices with the commanders That's officially over it was just for the past two days And it had a lot of interest and stuff that went down now One of the most interesting things that happened in some of those practices were the fights They were the fights and again this Nobody should be surprised or shocked when Players from two different teams were guys that are very hungry and dudes that are just stressed out Because they trying to make the team again. It's 90 men rosters out there and only 53 people can make it Yeah, of course, there's this practice squad too But people trying to get on that active roster because it's a lot more money on the active roster than it is on a practice squad Even on a practice squad you can still make some bread too. But anyway Nobody should be surprised when fights happen. It's part of the game So with there was a fight Either no, there was fights on both days yesterday and the day before yesterday, but there was one with a manual forbs and a manual forbs Hey, you start put a tight him and Tyler Wallace. They start pushing and shoving and swinging and whatnot and then This wire receiver from Texas he came out of nowhere. Shout out to my guy Raven See he gladly reminded me of that. Yeah, that's a Texas Raven But um, he came out of nowhere that being Devin DuVernay They picked up a manual forbs and swung them to the ground Throw them to the ground Okay, dude. Hey, I know you a little pit bull, but I know you was like that like that And then the Ravens was this a petty move or not? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know I don't know. Y'all know say But the Ravens for wallpaper Wednesday They put Devin DuVernay. It would have been DuVernay and the manual forbs. I don't think he liked that I don't think he liked that because coincidentally he quote. Well, I was about to say quote tweeted He reposted it but and he said lol. That's funny Then say anything else after that But you would have to think that he might have feel like the Ravens were propping up Devin DuVernay after DuVernay Slammed him on the ground. But anyway, that's all training camp stuff. So, yeah Now that y'all are up to date caught up. We can move forward now Hopefully with Ravens like they they get this whole cornerback situation worked out I mean, I know another thing that's happened to I've seen a lot of Ravens fans have the conversation. Oh, man Why we draft Trenton Simpson? We shouldn't have never drafted Trenton Simpson. We should have took a corner in that spot and And I I get it. I get it But I see it's like a lot of Ravens fans are sort of like not necessarily switching up but Hindsight is 20-20. Now, there's some people that were saying that from before They're definitely some people that were saying that from before but hindsight is 2020 and what that means when you look back at a situation, it's easy to say Oh, man, I could have done that. I should have done that man I would have done it's easy to do that. It's super easy, but life happens things change and It is what it is. So I'm not I'm not knocking the Ravens for not taking a corner then. I mean the previous draft They just drafted two corners.  They even brought in Arthur Millet. He got hurt Marlon Humphrey Obviously, he's hurt Jalen armored Davis. He's hurt. Rock your scene. He's hurt All they cornerbacks just they hurting right now. So I feel like Ravens while they weren't the best prepared For their corner back they they were in decent shape like it ain't like the corner was like, oh man Like we ain't got nothing. No, they were straight But then the injuries just took over so that was that so team keeping clean. I love y'all so much I appreciate y'all The season is not over. It is not over Because I know Marlon Humphrey is a huge huge blow huge blow But that does not end the season again offense just got to do that much more and really so does everybody else I love y'all. I appreciate y'all and like Marlon Humphrey is hopefully for a an extremely limited amount of time We out


The pain and disorientation you feel is quelled by your curiosity somehow. Your last steps will be to take in the destruction that humanity has wrought by a weapon that summons ingenuity and malice in equal measure. Nestled in the backdrop of collapsing buildings and steel stripped of its metal, and remnants of life that once was in the form of houses, cars and playgrounds, is a cloud shaped like a mushroom, an image now so iconic that it has been reduced to cliche. Famously, Robert Oppenheimer proclaimed, Now I am become death the destroyer of worlds after witnessing the destructive power of nuclear weaponry. Then the US would drop atomic bombs in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A scientist realized his work was not ethically neutral, but unfortunately, the revelation of complicity only comes after one commits a deed. These events now live in our cultural memory, in both victims and perpetrators. Art from Japan has been wrestling with the events of that fateful day for decades, whether in books, anime or even games. Akira conjures the imagery of the atomic bomb, of ravaged streets and science run amok and of the horrors that follows in its wake. But so too does Hideo Kojima in Metal Gear Solid. The backdrop is the anxieties of the nuclear age, kicked off by Fat Man and Little Boy, but carried through the entire Cold War. Metal Gear are mobile nuclear weapons, uniting Japan's love for mechs and the trauma of the past. The game's protagonists are asked to disarm these monsters. We are compelled to stop the proliferation of nuclear weaponry and bear witness to its contaminating influence. But then where does Call of Duty 4's scene stand in relation to this? Is it critical or fetishizing of nuclear weaponry? As it rips through wood and metal and human skin without discrimination? Or is there a perverse beauty here? Is it framed with a poetic cinematography that allows us to witness the brilliant achievements of atomic physics? Call of Duty 4 was a revolutionary shooter in many ways. It appropriates the haunting and conflicted iconography of war, the confusion, the camaraderie, the cacophonous symphony of destruction, but marries it with aesthetics, with the beautiful imagery of movies like Black Hawk Down and Saving Private Ryan. However, it creates an aesthetic not out of the binary morality of World War II or the unjust savagery of Vietnam, but the complications and sociopolitical mess of modern warfare, of wars that still ravage to this day in some capacity. Old wars relied on art forms like photography and poetry and television and cinema, the picture of a flag hoisted amidst chaos, a flander's field where poppies grow, but now we have interactive entertainment to give life to our impulse for administering death. How can poetry exist after World War II, some said, to which some replied, how could it not? Out of trauma seems to come art, perhaps as a way to cope or perhaps as a way to glorify, but aesthetics has now gotten confused with representation, from the imagined image to an image that leaves nothing for the imagination. Representations of war can serve many functions, it can be propaganda or it can be critical. Some say an honest representation of war is inherently critical, that all an artist needs to do is to foreground that which already exists. However, is this how war media is really consumed? The strange thing about interactive depictions of war is that it synthesizes our modern consumption of war. It blends the cinematography of film and photography with the aesthetics of visual images, with the real way modern war is consumed, through journalism. There used to be war artists and war photographers, but now there are war journalists and correspondents, depicting war from the first and third person. Call of Duty takes on a new aesthetic dimension that it is a form of participatory embedded journalism, but instead of capturing the war, we are instead captured by it. On television, images filmed by war correspondents and their cameramen let us catch a glimpse of actually being there, amidst the bullets, the dusty terrain and the mechanized monstrosities of modern warfare. In game, we are viewing the world through the lens of a camera. In fact, blood and dust and lens flare and camera shake are all present. It is as if we are filming these horrors for others to see. However, interactivity and the way war games use it adds something else, fun. Levels in Call of Duty are carefully choreographed in edited cross-sections, never resting on one scene, mechanic or scenario. There is always a kind of pseudo propulsion in these games as NPCs berate you to keep pace with the rhythms of warfare. However, everything is expertly paced so as to never feel constraining. The first mission aboard a cargo ship, crew expendable, as you move through its drenched playground like you do a haunted house. There is an approach, a build-up, but also a climactic explosion, gunfight and narrow escape. We are participating in interactive cinema as members of an elite group of SAS soldiers. It is a glorious fantasy. All gillied up shows how entertainment can be sustained even during stealth missions, using the tension of wide open space and the thrill of an assassination mission to keep players vexed. Your squadmate guides you through a carefully manufactured Potemkin village. You crawl through a battalion of tanks and infantrymen, hoping not to be discovered. You navigate through the irradiated remnants of a Chernobyl turn to rust. You find a vantage point to assassinate a leader of an armed insurgency group whilst accounting for the Coriolis effect. This is beautifully rendered in edited interactive drama, with war as the aesthetic backdrop. What's funny about the tight editing and rapid character switches that characterize Call of Duty 4 is that it feels schizophrenic. It feels like a collage of experiences reminiscent of a hazy dream as much as they do accurate depictions of war. I could not tell you what the plot of any Call of Duty game was if I didn't read it somewhere. Experiencing the plot of these games feels like being inundated with exposition from a novel in Latin. It's just noise uttered by men in suits that have very little to do with the reality of war. I suspect this might be an unintentional effect of the way Call of Duty 4 is designed, but it creates a soldier's experience that makes you feel insignificant, disassociated, and disconnected from any kind of geopolitical machinations. Which is why this scene in Call of Duty 4 is so fascinating. It strips away entertainment, momentum, and jarring shifts in action to force us to meditate on the pure aesthetics of warfare, its final culmination. Interactive cinema feels more like photojournalism here. It is a first-person account of war's destruction, a soldier's expendability, and our inevitable disempowerment and forces beyond our control. There have been more explicit attempts at critiquing war and games, to use the language of interactivity to create procedural rhetoric. If Call of Duty is saving Private Ryan, Spec Offs the line is apocalypse now. It appropriates much of the same imagery, tone, and style of modern warfare, but adds tragedy and meta-fiction to it as well. American exceptionalism has turned into a digital diatribe by Noam Chomsky as he lectures us about the tyranny of foreign interventionism and the crass imperialism of modern empires. We murder and kill for the indulgence of an impulse disconnected from the implications of our actions. War is also not just experience from the perspective of a soldier, and to be at war is not always to be mired in conflict. Civilians in the Palestine-Israel conflict are caught in the crossfire, always living on a knife's edge. This war of mine places us as a civilian, as we scrounge for resources to survive amidst the moments of quiet that punctuate the chaos of war. The horrors of war brings out the best of us, but also the worst. We may be forced into stealing, manipulating, even killing. This has a psychological impact though. There are consequences to indulging our inner demons. It was only after we had global wars of unprecedented scale did we diagnose something we now know as pervasive in war, post-traumatic stress disorder. And because of this, war depicted in games can never be authentic because it is always protected by the magic circle of play. Some argue games like ARMA are powerful critiques of war. It is more grounded, more realistic. However, it is never fully immersive because it is always hyper real, a representation, an aesthetic mural of the real thing. This hasn't stopped people from using games both as recruitment as well as training. America's Army is a game sponsored by the US Army, not just to propagandize, but to advocate for enlistment into the military itself. The thing about video games though is that it is actually both a physical medium as well as digital one. There are consoles and computers and peripherals in addition to pixels on a screen. This side of games, the research and development of computational devices and software has always been embedded in a culture of militarism as much as the games they host. War has changed though, as Solid Snake proclaims, when technology blends with our impulse for destruction, new more impersonal and abstract tools of destruction start to arise. The AC-130 mission was another aesthetic revelation for the modern shooter. It portrays war stripped of its beauty and honor, its glory and purpose, its poetry. It is us casting bolts from the sky as Zeus did, incinerating ants on the ground. Strategic optimization whilst ignoring the fictional consequences, this is how we play most games, and this mission for grounds that essential aspect of playing any simulation of war. Was any of this intentional? Probably not. But to take a moment to reflect on what is happening here is always troubling. All the honor of fighting a fair fight is destroyed by the absurd asymmetry of an agent of destruction raining fire from the sky.  And so then, Spec Ops the Line tries to further foreground us. It forces us to walk through the valley of death, our distant weapons of war deliver.  But our use of it here was necessitated by the fiction. We had no choice. I think it's safe to say this scene doesn't exist without the AC-130 mission. It is the antithesis to the thesis that is modern warfare. Regardless, a condor point naturally arises. How absurdly euphemistic is humane killing as a concept? Or something more pervasive, collateral damage? Killing civilians is framed legally as an unintentional consequence of the horrors of war. But I propose this question. Has there ever been a war where civilians were not killed? In fact, where they have not been directly targeted. This makes the no-russian mission in modern warfare too as subversive as it is tasteless and vulgar. This is humanity in its darkest and purest guise, without aesthetics or art. The thunderous machismo of helicopters rolling across the midday sky. The vicarious fantasy of embodying a special operative as you sneak through Russian fields at the break of dawn. The enrapturement of brilliantly devised set pieces and immersive vehicles of embedded journalism. And in many instances, earnest attempts at leveraging war to critique war itself are simply distracting from this one undeniable truth. Murder. This scene is then encompassing in more ways than just a nuclear bomb is. It revels in the aesthetics of modern warfare, appropriating destruction to appease our aesthetic sensibilities. But is also subversive, showcasing its stark and impersonal immorality. It forces us to experience war in the first person as both a journalist and a soldier, real and grounded and immersed in a fictional sensory world that is consumed as escapism. But it is also fake, a designed playground that is immune from the real vicissitudes of war. It is celebratory, but also critical, because this scene is both a novelty in a game about spectacle, but also because it encourages a moment of reflection, divorced from entertainment, from fun. However, its ultimate aesthetic lies in how it simply reveals what war is and always will be, a wasteland devoid of any life.


After the rock, Governor Forbus has returned from a weekend of rest in the country, and he told reporters that the next step toward resolving the crisis over the integration of schools in Arkansas's capital is up to the federal government. By the governor's order, the city's four high schools will not open tomorrow. And one report, unconfirmed, has it that the Justice Department will take the first step in the morning to challenge the legality of the governor's move to sidestep compliance with the Supreme Court order for an immediate resumption of integrated classes at Central High School. The Air Force is still officially silent on the performance of the Atlas Intercontinental Ballistic Missile it launched during the night from Cape Canaveral. But the unofficial word is that the test was the third in a row to be judged totally successful, with the nose cone coming down on a target 3,000 miles away. Now the word is, the Atlas will get its first all-out test in a few weeks when it will be aimed at a target more than 6,000 miles distant. From Chicago comes word of the arrest of a man who might be the country's oldest active burglar. His name is Ernest Ruler and his age is 78. It took three men to subdue him when he was found prowling today in a Chicago home. And he told the police, I was just doing what I know best. I can't break the habit. And now a word from Chevrolet. This is Art Baker speaking for Chevrolet.  Remember, drive with care everywhere. Chevrolet brings you the news 12 times each weekend on CBS Radio. This is the CBS Radio Network. You're tuned to WBT Radio, serving Charlotte and the Carolinas with complete weather information. The weather forecast is generally fair and somewhat warmer tonight and Monday. Partly cloudy and warm with a chance of showers in the extreme west. Present temperature on the WBT thermometer, 76 degrees, 7 o'clock. City and in the territory on west, there is just one way to handle the killers of the spoilers. And that's with a U.S. Marshal and the smell of gun smoke. United States Marshal, the first man they look for and the last they want to meet. It's a chancey job and it makes a man watchful and a little lonely. You like that? No. Now we buy it out. Marshal Dillon. From Philadelphia, I arrived on Santa Fe this morning. Huh? I hear a long way from home, Mr. Locke. I'm looking for someone. A girl, as a matter of fact. Oh, he loves girls. No, I do. You shouldn't have much trouble. If you please. Chester, please. Yes, sir. This girl wrote her mother in Philadelphia that she was teaching school here, Marshal. However, she's never been heard of at the school. Oh, well, maybe she moved on somewhere else. But they say she never was at the school. I'm afraid something's happened to her. Well, a lot of things can happen to people out here, Mr. Locke. That's precisely why I've come to you. I want you to find her immediately. Mr. Locke, you're not in Philadelphia, but I'll keep an eye open for her if you will tell me your name and what she looks like. She's about five feet four. She's blonde. Very pretty girl. Her name is Laura Simmons. Laura Simmons? Do you know her? No. He doesn't know her. Neither do I. But I'll see what I can find out for you. Mr. Locke, where are you staying? At the Dodge House. And I must say I've been in better hotels. Well, as bad as it is, you wait there, huh? I'll come to you if I have any news. It's most urgent that I find her at once, Marshal. Sure. Good day. Hello, Marshal Dylan. Hello, Laura. Come in, Marshal. Come in. Thank you. Laura's room. Well, how'd you know where I live, Marshal? You've never been here before. I asked Sam downstairs.  I think Sam's sweet on Laura. Oh, Kitty. Oh, I do. Kitty, why'd he ever do this? Look, you two can gossip about all that later, huh? Right now, I've got some news for you, Laura. Yeah? Yeah, there's a man here looking for you. Oh, who? His name's Philip Locke. Philip? Dodge? Yeah, I figured it might be bad news. Hi. Can I have him find me here? Well, he went to the schoolhouse first, and I told him you'd probably moved on, but he still thinks you're here somewhere. Well, I wrote Mother. I was teaching at school. I must have gone to see her. Honey, if you don't want to see him, you don't have to. I can't see him. I can't have him know I work in this saloon. There's nothing to be ashamed of? Oh, yes. Yes, it is. Especially now. What do you mean, Laura? Well, I was engaged to Philip once before I left Philadelphia. You were? Yeah, we were about to be married when his family found out that my father had been a riverboat captain. I should have told them before, I guess, but anyway, they called off the wedding and I was so ashamed I ran away. I came out here finally. Well, what about Philip? What'd he do? The Locke's are a very aristocratic family, kiddie. I guess he had to do what they wanted. Not much of a man, if you ask me. Aristocrat or not. That was lovely. I think he was with me. Are you still? I don't know. How can I know? He mustn't find me here. This is the sort of life they said I was best suited for. He'd go back and tell my mother and they'd break her heart. Look, Mariah, you could go out to Mar-Riles until he leaves town. I'm sure she'd be glad for a little company. That's a good idea, Matt. Come on, honey. All right, kitty. Thank you. Matt, you might kind of spook this Philip Locke back to Philadelphia. Well, I'll try, kitty. Any warm beer for a nickel? Well, I paid for the beer, Doc. I know, and I thank you for it, Justin. But I hate to see you not get your money's ready. Oh, I'll get it. When you decide it's time to buy us a beer. Oh, I'll buy it. I'll buy it. Is it about time, Doc? Yes, yes. Oh, tell me, Matt. Where's Mariah Lee, please? Oh, you're shy and away from the problem, Doc. But, uh... Anyway, yeah, she's there. Locke isn't likely to leave town this soon. I saw him last night and I told him that I'd heard that Laura had gone to Denver. Yeah, did he believe you? No, I don't think so. But I warned Sam to tell him the same thing in case he came snooping around here. Oh, well, it's a sad story. Poor girl. She's better off without the life of him. They fall in love and that's that. I sometimes wonder if it has anything at all to do with a particular man. Of course it has, Doc. I remember what a little coyote told me one time. She said, Chester, she said... I didn't know you spoke coyote or Chester. Well, I don't, exactly. We use a sign language, finally. You know, uh... Hello, Locke. Marshall, I think you lied to me about Laura. How's that, sir? It most certainly is. There's something mighty strange going on here and I think you're mixed up in it. Look, maybe Laura doesn't want to see you, huh? Have you thought of that?  I'm wearing a gun, Mr.... I don't have to. What do you mean, Mr. Locke? I've hired a man who'll shoot anybody I say for $500. Philadelphia must be quite a town. You have 24 hours to produce them, Marshall. And remember, I'm a man of my word. Yeah, I'm sure you are. All right, somebody left fighting a war for him, Doc. It's all he knows.  He's over talking to people in there at the bar. What? He too? So that's his gun. Looks like it. Now, all that you do, no good. You've drunk him good. He ain't even much of a gunman. I always took Pete Doolan to be a little off. He is, Doc. You never know what Doolan might do. He isn't like other men. And that makes him really dangerous. Oh, this morning, Matt, but she didn't say much. Well, she can't stay at that boarding house forever. Locke hasn't shown any signs of leaving. Maybe she ought to go on the Pueblo or Santa Fe or someplace for a while. Give it time, Matt. Hey, Kitty. Now, what is it, Sam?  What for? Well, you'll see.  I got to take care of the bar. Sam must be drunk. He's sober. Come on, let's have a look. All right. But I still say he's drunk. Sam doesn't drink his own liquor, Kitty. I don't blame him. I wish I didn't have to. I lived on a little chicken ranch somewhere, Matt. Sam's liquor isn't that bad, Kitty. Marcia. Laura. What are you doing here? Hello, Laura. I didn't want to go inside just yet. So I've been sitting out here talking to Sam. You mean you're coming back to work? I've been thinking a lot about everything and I'm going to face it out. Are you sure you're right, honey? There's no other way to do it. Philip came here because he wants me back. I won't lie to him. Well, I guess it's up to you. Where do you want to talk to him? Marcia, would you find him and bring him here? Out here? No. Just take him to the bar inside. I'll meet him there later on. Where is place to meet Laura? Uh-huh.  No. What about you, Marcia? Nothing. Are you dressed like that? If you'll buy me a drink, Philip, I'll tell you. A drink? This is how I earn my living. Do you work here? Yes. Well, will you buy me a drink to start with? You don't mean nothing. No. No, Sam. Just like what his mother said about me. It's true. Philadelphia. Well, I know in Philadelphia. Lace on her paint. Here, Laura. Have a drink. Thanks, Marcia. I need it. Yes, Philip? Laura, I can't leave. I started too, but I can't. I came to find you, and I'm going to take you back with me. You are? Yes. This is quite a shock to me, of course. Seeing you here in this place, but I can forget about that. I'll try, Laura. Will you, Philip? We'll never mention it. Ever. To your family, you mean? To anyone. It'll be a secret. It will. If nobody knows, perhaps it won't matter. I'm not sure, Philip. I think it'll matter. Always. To me. I don't understand. No, you wouldn't understand, Mr. Come on, let's get out of here where we can talk. No. What? You hurt us. You don't want to go. Well, you keep out of this. No, I won't. Kind of a man are you anyway. You ain't done nothing to be ashamed of except earn our living. Which is probably more than you ever done. It makes you think you're good enough to judge her anyways. That's enough. You'll try to forget about it. Did you ever think of anybody but yourself? Mr. You're no good.  I'm prouder. I don't care what she's done or who knows it. You're proud of me, Sam? Of course I am. Are you coming, Laura? Tell them, Laura, go on. No, Philip. I'm not coming. I'm going to stay here. You heard her, Mr.  Goodbye, Laura.  Don't try that luck. You keep dueling out of this. Nobody tells me what to do, Marshall. The pirate dueling's gone. No.  The dueling's crazy enough to hear it, Sam. Now, sir, I'd like to say it. Aren't you there now? Because he's coming right up on the street. All right, Chester. After he comes in, just keep an eye on the door, huh? Sam, you better get out of the sight. Well, I ain't afraid of you. You heard me, Sam. I'll get out of sight with you. Okay, Marshall. I come for Sam. Where at is he? What are you wanting for, dueling? I've been paid to shoot him. That's what, first? You want to hang, dueling? I was born to hang. Where is he? Look, I'm going to throw you in jail for a couple of days. Maybe things will be clearer to you then. Now, come on. No. Marshall, now. Don't do that. I got to earn my $500. All right, but you're going to have to shoot it out with me first. With you? What, what do you got to do with it? I don't want nothing to do with you. There's a law against murder, dueling. I know that. What makes you think you can shoot Sam and get away with it? I got $500 right here in my pocket. You want to see it? Dueling, see if you can understand this.  I ain't going to jail. You want to draw on me?  Then get out fast. I go on. I'm going to leave a man much choice, Marshall. I have to go. So, Sam, you wouldn't have had much of a chance at you anyway. What? Look at Laura there. I wouldn't have missed you, Sam, even if you had got the Marshall. Well, I'll be... Where'd you get that shotgun, Laura? It's yours. The one you keep upstairs. I borrowed it. You know something, Sam? There's blood on this girl. Did she ever tell you that her father was a riverboat captain? Hey, Marshall? Um, Marshall, I'm closing up the bar.  That'll be a pleasure. Laura, I want to hear more about your old man. Sure thing. Sure.