The fire

Click on graphic. The Reb's place and my place are indicated by the green dots at left.
The fire has spread eastward and northward. From our perspective, it is "behind"
Santiago Pk. and the north end of Trabuco Canyon (i.e.. Holy Jim Canyon).
The fire can seem quite menacing, especially at night, but that is owing to various
illusions mostly. For instance, last night, Santiago Peak was weirdly aglow, and yet,
according to the map, the fire was well behind and below the peak. We've been dealing
with such illusions since Monday.
At night, it's best not to look at Mr. Fire.
He looks like the Hellmouth.
Hellmouth, OC.

Updated map: the fire is spreading quickly
The wind continues to blow about 10 mph to the east/northeast, which is bad for
Corona/Elsinore but good for us in OC
As you can see, despite the wind, the fire has crept up the slope toward the top of
Santiago Peak, but, at the top, the winds will be favorable for containment.
I think.
Hope so.

Most recent map (see secondary red area)

Here is the latest update from the US Forest Service:

Holy Fire Evening Update

August 10, 2018, 1800

Trabuco Canyon, CA (August 10, 2018) – The fire remained active today and is currently estimated at 19,107 acres and containment increased to 10%. The combination of air resources, dozers and fire crews made great progress along the fire edge to control the fire spread and provide structure protection. Containment lines have been strengthened on the northwest side of the fire in Coldwater Canyon, north of the North Main Divide Road. Air resources continue to drop fire retardant around structures to create a fire break while firefighters work to strengthen lines east and southeast of the fire. A dozer line has been constructed around El Cariso Village to keep fire from entering the community.

Steep terrain, dry fuels, and inaccessible areas continue to be a factor in fire spread. Expected high temperatures, low humidity and easterly monsoonal moisture aloft will continue through tomorrow and gradually decrease through the weekend. This weather pattern could result in critical fire behavior and large column development. Air quality in the surrounding areas may be impacted.

Suppression efforts remain focused on community defense, and limiting the spread south towards Hwy 74. Firefighting efforts will continue overnight with 2 night flying helicopters and multiple ground crews. Currently, a total of 5 firefighting personnel have been confirmed injured.

A damage assessment team began assessments this afternoon. The number of structures burned remains at 12. More than 20,000 people have been placed under mandatory evacuations with others under evacuation warning. Residents are asked to evacuate as early as possible so as not to hinder firefighting operations. 

The Idiot in Chief

Did Trump Call Most Chinese Students Spies?
(Inside Higher Ed)
Politico reports that the president called "almost every student" from China a spy.
By Elizabeth Redden; August 9, 2018

     President Trump characterized the vast majority of Chinese students in the U.S. as spies during a dinner Tuesday night with CEOs at his private golf club in New Jersey, according to a report in Politico.
     According to the report, which quoted an unnamed attendee:

At one point during the dinner, Trump noted of an unnamed country that the attendee said was clearly China, “almost every student that comes over to this country is a spy.”

     The White House declined Politico’s request for comment. An account of the dinner from CNN is much more mild, noting that during the dinner "Trump expressed concern that some foreign students were acting as foreign agents, particularly from China, according to one of the attendees."
     There are more than 350,000 Chinese students studying at U.S. universities — the largest group of international students by far — and Chinese students earned about 10 percent of all doctorates awarded by American universities in 2016….

Transfer fail

Report: Most Transfer Students Leave College Without 2-Year Degree
(Inside Higher Ed)
By Ashley A. Smith; August 8, 2018

     A new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center found that only 60,000 students out of more than one million who started their educations at two-year institutions [i.e., fewer than 6%] transferred to another college after receiving a certificate or associate's degree.
     The report also found that more than 350,000 community college students transferred to another institution without getting a degree….
. . .
     Transfer students who go on to earn a four-year degree don't count toward the graduation rates of community colleges unless they also earned an associate's degree....

Rescued From the Flames of Judgment: A Family’s Escape from the Holy Jim Fire
(OC Weekly)
LIAM BLUME; AUGUST 7, 2018

...They were running out of land ahead of them, and to remain still would mean certain death. Melodi wanted to stay on the trail and continue the clear ascent to the Mesa clearing. Tilson wanted to scramble the face of the mountain to the clearing. Tilson’s route would be shorter, but more daunting, and for the Schumates–who’d already struggled through nearly ten steep miles of rugged terrain–the choice between weary expediency over bushes and an unimpeded longer path could also be the choice between life and death. After a short argument, they chose Tilson’s route, climbing toward the Mesa, hoping a rescue helicopter would pull them from the flames....

1968

As of Thurs afternoon

OC is changing

Will the Birthplace of the Modern Right Turn Blue?
(NYT)
Thanks to Trump, Democrats have a shot in Orange County.
By Michelle Goldberg

     July 31, 2018, was a Tuesday, which meant that constituents of Dana Rohrabacher, the Republican congressman from Orange County, were out protesting. Until recently, the weekly demonstrations had been in front of his office, but for the summer, activists from Rohrabacher’s district, the 48th, are teaming up with those from the neighboring 45th, represented by Republican Mimi Walters. Fifty people met in a small park in Newport Beach, then stood with protest signs by the side of the road. They earned a surprising number of appreciative honks, given that Orange County was once at the very heart of the American right.
. . .
     A few years ago, this might have seemed fantastical. Since its creation in 1993, no Democrat has ever represented the 48th district. Hillary Clinton won it by 1.7 points in 2016, but Rohrabacher was re-elected by more than 16 points. But since 2016, Rohrabacher’s odd Russophilia has been thrown into high relief by the Russia investigation. (“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said in a secretly recorded 2016 conversation.) Some of his constituents are up in arms by the prospect of oil drilling off their gorgeous coast.
. . .

     The affluent seaside region [OC], after all, used to be so far right that in 1968 Fortune Magazine called it “nut country.” In her book “Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right,” the historian Lisa McGirr described how Orange County activists in the 1960s “organized study groups, opened ‘Freedom Forum’ bookstores, filled the rolls of the John Birch Society, entered school board races and worked within the Republican Party,” believing their very way of life was in danger.
. . .
     Since then, the demographics of the region have changed, thanks to an influx of immigrants from Asia and Latin America. More significant, however, may be the demographic changes in the Republican Party. The former Trump strategist Steve Bannon recently told Vanity Fair’s Gabriel Sherman, “The Republican college-educated woman is done.” Unlike many things he says, this appears to be true. In one recent poll of House preferences, college-educated white women favored Democrats by a staggering 47 points. (College-educated white men favor Democrats as well, but by much smaller margins.) Thanks to the fear and revulsion Trump evokes, the intense suburban civic awakening is now happening on the Democratic side….

Ocasio-Cortez in OC

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Excites OC Liberals to be Bold in Hopeful Address
(OC Weekly)

     Before June, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s name barely registered a blip outside the Bronx. After besting longtime Democratic incumbent Joe Crowley in New York’s 14th congressional district primary that month, now everyone across the nation can’t get enough of the remarkable 28-year-old puertoriqueña. Her newfound political celebrity was on full display at the Anaheim Sheraton last night where OC liberals swarmed her for selfies as soon as she walked into the banquet hall hosting a WELead OC fundraising dinner.
. . .
     “Whoever has traditionally held power usually holds on to it for a really, really long time,” said Ocasio-Cortez. “Despite the demographic changes, despite economic changes, power in this country is overwhelmingly concentrated in the wealthy. But that doesn’t mean that it has to be that way.” ….

Judge Orders DACA Be Restored
(Inside Higher Ed)
By Elizabeth Redden; August 6, 2018

     A federal district court judge in Washington ordered the full restoration of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, but delayed the decision for 20 days to give the Trump administration a chance to appeal.
     Two other federal judges have issued preliminary injunctions that have required the government to continue processing applications for DACA renewals, but Judge John D. Bates’s ruling, if allowed to go into effect, means that the administration would have to begin processing new DACA applications. DACA provides temporary protection against deportation and renewable work permits to hundreds of thousands of young immigrants known as "Dreamers" who came to the U.S. without documentation as children.
. . .
     Judge Bates issued an order in April setting aside the Sept. 5 policy memo ending DACA, finding that the government failed to adequately explain its judgment that the program was illegal. Judge Bates delayed the effectual date for the order for 90 days to give the Trump administration "an opportunity to better explain its view that DACA is unlawful."
     Now that the 90-day period has passed, Judge Bates found that the administration failed to elaborate meaningfully on its rationale….

Seeking a New 'Golden Age' of General Education
 (Inside Higher Ed)
What's a general education? Book by noted literary critic advocates a return to the basics.
By Colleen Flaherty ; August 6, 2018

James Bryant Conant

     …Harpham says that Mr. Ramirez arrived in that classroom at just the right time, during the general education movement. Articulated by Harvard University faculty members in a 1945 report called "General Education in a Free Society" and referred to as the "Redbook," in reference to its cover hue, the movement -- in the words of James Bryant Conant, then-president of Harvard -- was not about the "development of the appreciation of the 'good life’ in young gentlemen born to the purple."
     Rather, Conant said in commissioning the report, "It is the infusion of the liberal and humane tradition into our entire educational system. Our purpose is to cultivate in the largest possible number of our future citizens an appreciation of both the responsibilities and the benefits which come to them because they are Americans and are free."
     Those ideals made such an impression that they influenced the Truman Report, which was commissioned by then-President Truman and is widely seen as spurring the creation of many community colleges with a broad mission of helping students who otherwise might not have gone to college. Crucially, this humane vision for general education applied not only to Harvard but to all institutions, not least community colleges....