"Well THAT Was Scary."
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Well, that was scary. Oh my goodness me. This is another edition, welcome to it, of the Politico-Rat Daily Podcast. Yours truly, Omar Moore, on this, I can't even say my name properly, yours truly, Omar Moore, on this Thursday, December the 5th, 2024. Shaken but not stirred, as James Bond 007 would say, after a tsunami warning here in San Francisco, actually a tsunami warning from the

Oregon, California border all the way down to Davenport, California, which is around roughly 70 miles or so south of San Francisco, if not a bit longer, further south than that, after two massive earthquakes earlier today that rocked the northern part of Northern California, the really upper northern part in Humboldt County, which is some 200 or so miles north of San Francisco, California. And

The first earthquake was in the water in the Pacific Ocean at 7.3 on the scale. 7.3. That is an almighty earthquake. And had that happened on land, there would have been untold damage out in Humboldt County. But the second earthquake was almost as severe at 6.1, I believe it was. 6.0 at least on the scale scale.

at, wow, quarter to 11 local time this morning. And my goodness me, I could feel that one 200 miles south here in San Francisco. The walls were actually, I mean, the walls were shaking. I mean, the walls, you could see the pictures on the walls, I should say, were shaking. So much so that one of the pictures actually fell down in a delayed reaction. And it was a massive picture. It wasn't hanging on the wall. It was propped up against the wall. And I was like,

And I was fearing the worst, but luckily the blooming thing didn't smash. Maybe I should be getting plexiglass for these. That might be a good idea, Omar. But the bottom line here, dear listener, is that yours truly and company are safe and people in this town are safe. And it is a relief.

to be able to still be here because, you know, I evacuated and went to higher ground. There was a tsunami warning here and on the radio, which I hadn't turned on for months. Seriously, I'm not kidding. They warned the National Weather Service that there was going to be tsunami activity, tsunami waves scheduled to hit San Francisco at 10.

10 past 12 in the afternoon, local time today. And so with about 20 minutes to go before that happened, I got the hell out of Dodge and sought higher ground, which we were instructed to do.

by the National Weather Service. And so luckily around in San Francisco, hills are a plenty. So it's not too difficult to get to higher ground here. Certainly when you were near the coast and that evacuation, as I said, stretched nearly statewide all the way down to Central California almost. I mean, it was a long, long and all the way up to the California-Oregon border. So within a few minutes, I was way, way up

away from sea level and certainly way up there, 100 feet plus easily, because there are so many hills in this town. You can get to a hill pretty much anywhere within about five minutes or even 10 minutes at the most in San Francisco, because that's just the way it is here, yeah?

And people complain about the hills, but I don't because I was very thankful for the hills today. And let me tell you that. As for those people, though, who are in Humboldt County, spare a fault, a fort, a fault. Maybe that's a Freudian slip because there was a fault in which that earthquake, two earthquakes resided. But spare a thought for the people in Humboldt County in in upper California, in northern California, way up in northern California.

because they have been experiencing aftershock after aftershock, quake after quake now for the last few hours and counting at least 30 different

earthquakes or as they say aftershocks since those two the 7.3 that happened in the water and the 6.0 that I felt again here 2,200 miles south of there so just imagine it was a shallow quake so it obviously did some damage but so far there's not been any news of

of anybody being killed or any major damage in terms of structural, which is really, really good news. I hope that it stays that way. But these aftershocks can be very disconcerting, some of them as high as 5.0 on the scale and sometimes even higher than that. And that's what they're experiencing in Humboldt County. And I know earthquakes happen across the world.

in a number of countries that are much more scary or as scary. We've seen them in Japan. We've seen them in numerous countries. We've seen them in Haiti, of course. Last year, I think, maybe even this year, I think last year, the year before, we saw them definitely in 2010 as well. The massive earthquake there that took hundreds and hundreds of lives, thousands of lives. We've seen this across the world. So when this hits you,

And then I listen, I wasn't even near I was still 200 miles south of it, for God's sakes. But when it hits you, you still get very antsy. And here in California, we get so used to quakes that anything under a five is just a ho-hum day. But when you're getting to five and above, it gets really scary. It can be no matter how long you've been living in California, it can be very disconcerting.

And especially the ones that happen in the middle of the night. And I've experienced those. Those are the worst. Because you do not know what the hell's going on. At least in the daytime, you can get a sense of things. But when in the middle of the night, um,

When you are awakened by these things shaking and sliding, as I have been, it is a very, very disconcerting thing. Enough to make you not want to live in California. But you know what? I wouldn't change it for a single day. Does the words go of a famous song from Johnny Hates Jazz called Turn Back the Clock? Go and listen to that if you know what I mean.

I would not change a single day and I would certainly not change living in California and listen I know there's an occupational hazard about earthquakes and some people would never come out here for that reason to live here because of that but it beats living in snowstorms and in

tornadoes and all the rest of it. Even though we get the mudslides and the wildfires here and we do get the earthquakes here, I'd rather that as much as I'm loath to say, rather that than any of this ice cold freezing old blizzard weather that people on the East Coast often get. But don't forget earlier this year, if not last, there was an earthquake in New York, so there. So these things can happen anywhere and you've got all these other things going on, the climate and all the rest.

But yeah, nerves jingling and a blooming jangling following that tsunami warning. But thank goodness that the National Weather Service thought it would be a good idea to cancel it because the warning turned into really little of anything for most of us across California, at least up and down the northern part of the state.

And so some five and a half million of us were subject to this for a time earlier today. And as I say, rather disconcerting stuff. Anyway, I'm going to take a deep breath and I'll be right back. Welcome back. And really, this is going to be an abbreviated episode and I promise that. And this part of the episode on this Thursday, dear listener, is about you, your story, who you are, where you've come from.

where you've been and where you're going. You have a story to tell. I have a story to tell. We all have a story to tell. And I really think it's important that we tell it. I told you a story, my story of this day today. Absolutely nerves jingling and jangling after these earthquakes and that tsunami warning. And that's but one part of my story.

And you have many different stories to tell, but you can tell a story of your own, something about you. And you can tell it to the world. You can tell it to yourself. You can tell it to your friends, to your family. You can tell it to anybody, your diary. But for heaven's sakes, please tell your story. It is so important to speak your truth. It is critically important.

to articulate yourself in the best way you know how. And that can be done in a multiplicity of ways. Whether it's through sign language, whether it's through the spoken word, whether it's through the written word, there are so many ways to tell your story. Your story belongs to you and you alone. Nobody else can tell your story but you. Yeah, of course, you could get a screenwriter and

some director or some actors to tell your story, but it's your story. And you can put it on a stage on Broadway. You can put it on a big screen. You can put it in a documentary if you wish. It remains your story. You can put it in a book. You can put it in a song. But the story belongs to you. It's your story. And of course, yes, the legal wranglings and the copyright issues and all the rest of it.

Your story is yours. It belongs to you. So tell your story. Make sure that you do. Now, everyone may not be able to write a book. We all have the capacity to do that if we so desire. If we had the energy and the mental fortitude to do it and the patience to write it over months and months and months, we all have the ability to do it. It's about whether we choose to want to do it or not.

And some of us are fortunate enough to get published, but there is something called self-publishing. We can do those things in this day and age. In an age where technology has often failed us, and in an age where technology can be very illustrative and helpful, we are now compelled, I think, more than ever before, to tell our own stories. We can tell it in a short form video. We can tell it on one of these social media networks online.

But really, your story belongs to you and you must. We are all people with a past, a present, and a future. And whichever facet you choose to write next, make sure that you do. And make sure that your story is told by you. Short and sweet as I promised. Well, maybe just short.

You can find yours truly on social media, on sez.us. You can find me on, of course, the likes of Fanbase, fanbase.app forward slash popcorn, R-E-E-L. Remember to invest in Fanbase today. The social media revolution is taking place on Fanbase. Isaac Hayes III's social media platform. Invest in Fanbase today.

Start engine.com forward slash fan base. There is spoutable spoutable.com forward slash popcorn R E E L. Of course there is threads threads.net forward slash popcorn R E E L and blue sky popcorn R E E L dot B sky dot social. Of course you can also find me on X as well at the popcorn R E E L, but I really don't post there anymore because

And so it's been two weeks now since I have posted that maybe a bit more than two weeks, about two weeks since I last posted on X. And maybe sporadically I'll post there, but I don't plan to post there anytime soon as lots of people have already left X and literally cut the cord, if you will, from X and they've just wiped their accounts off. But I'm not going to do that because I do think that the more platforms you're on, the better. But

But what we need are platforms that represent our interests as black people. And it's tremendously important. That's why I keep talking about Fanbase, Isaac Hayes III's platform. It is very, very important. And we need to be on that platform. So make sure that you join Fanbase today.

Make sure you also, by the way, subscribe to this podcast. The Politocrat can be found on numerous podcasting platforms, including Apple and Spotify and GoodPods and Amazon and Pandora and Audible and Odyssey. Yep, there are a number of platforms to join. And I should say that during the course of the day, there was actually a prank caller who called in

to KCBS radio here in San Francisco, pretending to be a California earthquake official. Maybe I'll play that audio tomorrow because I don't think this is the right episode for it. Thank you very much for listening to this edition of The Politocrat. I'm Omar Moore.