All Marx had was a good understanding of human nature. The one thing democracy demands of the voters is to choose carefully in selecting leaders. We only need to do it every 2 years, and some of us just aren’t up to the task.
If current events & IQ tests aren’t constitutional for voting, how about for eligibility to run for office?
I'm always up for a good conspiracy hypothesis, though I do insist on something like evidence of the hypothesizer's probable contact with reality and at least an attempt on his part to make an argument for his suspicion.
You seem to be of such a mind, that is, to hypothesize conspiracies if not necessarily to be in touch with reality. Please, tell me who planned it "since way back." ( That level of exactness is always a promising sign. )
I can remember back in 2020, that these same people were saying that Trump had hundreds of thousands of covid deaths on his hands. when asked to prove how they arrived at this number…oh wait, nevermind, no one actually asked them to prove this because the good guys are always good and truthful.
for the first 3 years of his term, we heard all about how authoritarian Trump was…until covid came along and overnight, he wasn’t authoritarian enough!
I saw this ‘stupid vs. evil’ argument ad nauseam all during the Covid bullshit. I’ve decided it doesn’t matter/makes no difference, as the end result is the same either way. Now I focus instead on not complying with any rules which I deem ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’.
I don’t see this as stupidity, which I define as a good person simply unable to reason correctly. They have the facts & the objective, they care, but they just can’t figure out the answer.
This I see as indifference to reality. (One notch below WANTING evil to happen.) They simply do not care about the outcomes of their decisions because they do not bear the consequences (except in freakishly rare circumstances when justice prevails).
Is Karen Bass responsible? My impression is that she’s dumb as a stump. I think the real responsibility belongs to those who installed her and the LA City Council. They KNEW she is an idiot, and they bet no calamity would arise. And 26,000 homeowners and over 2 dozen people have paid the price.
In an indirectly related news item, the lot of the largest U-Haul dealer in Knoxville is full beyond the gills with full size (26’) box trucks. I didn’t pull in to check for CA plates, but I’d bet $100 they’re over-represented.
I would say it's certainly hubris and narcissism. We're the experts, we always know what we're saying and doing, the stupid peasants complaining are racist sexists and consume misinformation. Pride is a deadly sin.
I try to read comments in sequence (so I don’t repeat a thought), so I’d read your comments before adding mine. I agree with your thoughts in general, except for 2 points:
1) Stupidity. It inherently lacks intent. The difference between damage and sabotage is intent. Someone who used a flint lighter to smoke on board a zeppelin because he didn’t know hydrogen was flammable is stupid, not a saboteur.
2) “Criminal negligence” occurs when a person should have been aware of a danger they are causing as well as the extent of potential harm that could occur, and does nothing to mitigate the danger or warn potential victims. The aforementioned zeppelin smoker who disregarded warning signs is criminally negligent, not stupid.
I truly believe this more accurately describes the facts & state of mind of the LA authorities than massed stupidity.
The LAFD has a fleet of 360 vehicles (total of all types). It’s reported that 75 were down for lack of mechanics. That’s 20.8%. During fire season.
I don’t know how that’s stupidity and not criminal, or even gross, negligence. (“Gross” negligence occurs when the actor WAS AWARE of the danger he was causing and intentionally did it anyway.)
I think the only thing that will save the mayor & fire chief from 27 counts of criminally negligent homicide for the decision to cut the fleet by 21% to fund superfluous HR activities would be a woke DA, and he just got thrown out of office.
And why would it not be gross negligence? Surely the mayor and fire chief are responsible for being able to, and doing, predictive analysis. They don't have to be told by others what dangers lie ahead, because when they do need to be informed by others, it's their duty to staff competent people who then inform them. There is no way that it wasn't possible ahead of time to run the numbers on fires breaking out where they did. They had all the information available or the means necessary to identify that information should be gathered and then go do it, including the rising rates of fires set by the homeless and the location of homeless camps; the weather, terrain wind models, and the relative dryness of the land; and what water, equipment, and staff are available.
1) The new LA DA (since 12/4/24) is Nathan Hochman (formerly Republican, now Independent).
2) it’s easy to prove “should have known,” and much of your analysis goes to what can be “expected” of the holder of a senior management position. What’s necessary is to prove she ACTUALLY knew the consequences of the budget decisions. That’s why search warrants would go after budget recommendation memos, emails, memos from the FD laying out consequences, etc. to prove she knew that laying off mechanics would cut 21% of vehicles from the fleet. The reason for this exacting demand is that “gross” negligence depends on “mens rea” (guilty mind). With business defendants, this is commonly done by showing earlier parallel situations with far safer decisions.
A likely avenue would be to indict the Fire Chief and in a plea bargain, motivate her to recite chapter & verse on the Mayor’s knowledge & indifference as to the increased lethal danger.
Local small-scale evil unchecked scales to higher levels of increasingly devastating evil. Evil men do evil to others and to the degree they're not stopped they'll do more evil to more people.
Often the most dangerous situation is, when people are participating in small actions that brush with evil, but don't breach it, and think they are doing "good"., i.e., the way children were treated during covid...in particular with the masks...or with the depravity being normalized at school these days.
This can be applied to myriad situations, because this type of evil has a long arc and is not easily detected by normal people...until sometimes too late.
They can not see that each brush leads, if given enough time, to a critical mass, in which the aggregate of each individual action can lead to unspeakable evil.
I'm hoping this is California's Chernobyl moment, but I'm not sure Californians have reached the same level of scorn and scepticism as the late Soviets. There's still a lot of ruin left in this state.
Which we know because Newsom et al won't shut the fuck up about it bring the nth largest economy in the world. Not that there trying to distract from the epic mismanagement or anything.
People who lost their homes will never get a permit to build another. One woman who is 85 said she would rebuild. I thought to myself, she better live to be 185, it’ll be 50yrs before she sees that permit. Just like officials not allowing people to return, to see the ashes. The answer will always be “it’s not safe.” Air isn’t safe, soil isn’t safe, ashes aren’t safe, etc etc… Hopefully, in their grief they’ll realize they don’t live in paradise, they live in a communist hellhole, sold as paradise.
Article today in the New York Post about State Farm not running ads during the Super Bowl. The article is written to blame State Farm for pulling out of California. Well welcome to what happens when you have price controls. Gruesome Newscum, said he wouldn’t stand for price gouging. Welcome to more price controls. These idiots can’t get out of their own way. Meanwhile since hurricane Ian, 80% of the homes in Florida have been rebuilt. It’ll be 100yrs before this happens in lalaland.
I lost my cabin in the Sierra to the Sequoia Complex Fire about 4 years ago. We were encouraged by Tulare County to rebuild quickly and obstacles were minimized.
The chances of that happening in LA County are low, but that has happened.
There's talk that these fires were somehow set deliberately or allowed to happen in order to pave the way for SmartLA2028 for the summer Olympics. There's no way in hell that a "smart city" will be built upon the remains of Pacific Palisades in 3.5 years.
I will be curious to see what % rebuilds. The cost to rebuild in California is a lot compared to the rest of the country. I'll be curious who leaves and what the given reason is.
I doubt that building material suppliers can produce & deliver the myriad requirements for 26,000+ large houses within the current owners’ tolerance limit.
Meanwhile, in CA Newsom have declared an emergency due to bird flu, making it "unsafe" to eat eggs and drink milk, with egg prices through the roof. Even though respiratory diseases don't spread through food.
They can just build a makeshift shanty or pitch a tent, maybe find an old beat up RV and park it on the sidewalk and claim they are houseless. LA doesn’t do anything about that.
I keep going back to the Jordan Peterson / Cathy Newman interview in my mind. Lefties see something they can't or don't want to understand, filter it through their brain, and out it comes, contorted to fit some delusional, pre-conceived narrative... Even, and especially if it completely invalidates the known priors.
I think that's what is going on here. It's not exactly motivated reasoning, because there is little, if any, reasoning involved. It's not cognitive dissonance, either, at least in the human sense of cognition. Fire may or may not be hot, and water may or may not be wet, but orange man is bad.
THAT was the true essence of the Newman interview. Not a misunderstanding of what Peterson was saying, but a malign & incessant mis-restatement of 100% of his comments in order to discredit him. Reminiscent of the last few days of confirmation hearings.
Ultimately it is arrogance and vanity - the deadliest sin. Even with the actual resultant death they still insist it is a virtue.
But they can’t reform as a group, they can only reform individually. But individual courage - an actual virtue - scares the hell out of them. Virtues don’t come easily.
If virtue did come easily, it wouldn’t be called virtue. It’d just be normal. But man is a fallen creature, and must be watched – by his family, his neighbors and his co-workers to signal displeasure at bad behavior. And that scares the Hell out of the Left too.
No! Water is NOT wet! Ask me about it. I live in (metro) New Orleans where pocketing thousands$ while NOT doing your job has been perfected into a fine art. One solution is to relocate to a nearby (unflooded, unburned) suburb, if you're self-employed like me, and rebuild your life. My California friends are all wonderful people, kind and generous, who support the governor and mayor. Do we live in two different lands? I'm staying here with my deplorables.
I don't think so. I think the infatuation with being on the "right side of history" is jacked right into their lizard brain and steers every other piece of broken machinery in their skull. Everyone does this to an extent, but they are so committed at this point there's no way to turn back without losing every bit of (fake) virtue they have.
The "right side of history" is liberal euphemism for “Be sure to pick the winning side.” I have zero doubt the modern liberal would be donning her swastika arm band in late 1930s Germany. They would have criticized Bonhoeffer as being on the “wrong side of history.”
Before Covid, I would have considered such a statement hyperbole. Not any more. That is *exactly* what the modern "liberal" is, only with ugly-ass women and trains that don't run at all.
I’m seeing too many who don’t even try to convince us. They seem genuinely shocked and horrified that anyone dares to question them. ‘How dare you’ and ‘Stop talking’ are hardly cogent arguments, or even attempts at cogent arguments.
The “misinformation” ass clowns are everywhere. Finally had to block one in a LinkedIn discussion. Kept challenging my posts regarding the fires and saying it was misinformation but also acknowledged that he didn’t bother to open any of the links I posted that proved him wrong. 🤦🏼♀️
I very much hope that the county's firefighters are too busy to be scrolling through social media, looking for affirmations of their worthiness, yet also terrified of being "crushed" by "suspicion that they didn’t put their best foot forward."
I'm interested to see how the propaganda department handles this long term. I think they're in a bit of a Catch-22. On the one hand they're not allowed to criticize California's glorious, diverse leadership. But on the other hand, are they going to say "We literally cannot do anything about these fires, hopefully we just get lucky from here on out. Please invest another $3 million in a new home, ty!"
There are things that can be done, structures survived those blazes - for good reasons: You need steel or other non-combustible roofs, same case for siding, shutters on windows - no plastic casings, steel only - and so forth. I've reproduced (and sourced) a list of design specs in the following: https://streamfortyseven.substack.com/p/cant-beat-dumb-yes-fires-can-be-put
And you need at least 15 foot setbacks from property lines - else expect chain reaction fires, no oil plants near structures - eucalyptus, juniper, mesquite, palms, and a good sized swimming pool for water supply..
It will be interesting to see how the press tries to avoid reporting about the state FAIR insurance program slow walking claims and not remunerating for any contents list inside the buildings.
Cultural transmission really is a fascinating thing. I once worked for a DoD program where the office in charge was moved across the country, placed under an entirely different military service, and with no more than a couple of people actually transferred - yet the culture of that [failing] organization arrived intact and infected the new office and all of the new people.
Never did figure that out. The standard bureaucratic practice was only part of it, though obviously a necessary precondition. But to so completely replicate itself when it seemingly shouldn't have, that's still a mystery.
Low level management, not senior, and flunkies. You wouldn't have thought that sufficient given the whole new slate of people that filled the top and key positions.
Lindsay Horvath says LAFD is demoralized and that it hurts their feelings when a pack of homeless burned out citizens think they didn’t do a good job. What a strange thought pattern. Should those that lost their towns and neighborhoods and businesses be grateful to those who utterly failed to do what was required?
You can’t blame the firemen on the ground for not having water and equipment but that doesn’t mean that everyone needs to get a participation trophy it means management needs to be FIRED!
When taking classes to operate commercial vessels you are told that when two boats collide the Coast Guard assigns blame. Each boat involved in the accident gets 100 percent of the blame. The idea is that if you are operating a boat that has an accident you didn’t do enough. It was your responsibility and you failed therefore even if the other boat hit your boat you should have done something, anything to make sure that your boat stayed safe. Cities burned. There’s too much gaslighting and whining when it’s pointed out that there was incompetence built into the system.
When everyone from James Woods to Caitlyn Jenner is punking you, take the loss. Hey Karen Bass, Gavin Newsome has two shimmying shoulders to cry on. California Justin Trudeau.
If only we were as wise as the experts we would have realized how foolish we were to assume that it takes water to put out fires. Yes, it is the same playbook they have used in the past: 1. deny, 2. diminish, 3. qualify, 4. distract and 5. admit. By the time they admit their errors they are hoping that we will no longer be paying attention.
One wonders if it is incompetence as a result of focusing on equity rather than merit or, if it is something more sinister. At least they are all being exposed. Will the homeowners who watched their homes burn down trust their elected officials ever again? It is painful to watch what was once paradise burn down before our very eyes. We will never forget.
And "5. admit" comes with the "this is old news, and it's time to move on" story.
"I'm not going to dwell on the past. I'm going to keep moving forward, and it's time for bitter, small-minded people to stop focusing on finding fault so we can work together to make Los Angeles better for everyone."
Yes, never dwell on the past when it’s squarely in the rear view mirror and blame/incompetence for what happened falls squarely on those in positions of authority. Rather - look forward together, sing Kumbayah and believe in the wisdom of your leaders. Yeah, right.
“I'm not going to dwell on the past. I'm going to keep moving forward, and it's time for bitter, small-minded people to stop focusing on finding fault…”
Sounds like an interesting defense ploy at the criminally negligent homicide trial (26 counts) of a BUNCH of LA city officials.
It is old news, it has happened before - These fires are not a new occurrence - see https://streamfortyseven.substack.com/p/some-interesting-history-behind-the - and building, zoning, and fire codes need to be changed to reflect the real risks. And trusting elected officials over your own common sense and knowledge of past history is folly.
The first interest of the legacy media is to retain their position as arbiter of truth. Secondary to that is news-reporting and then only if and in such a way it serves the first interest.
(So far so obvious.)
Someone needs to be singled out though, and it's starting to look as if Bass is on the hook, pardon the pun. It's not possible to blame DEI (i,e, racist against whites and men) hiring practices, it's too ingrained as an intrinsically Good Thing with both the media and the polity, but blaming an individual works just fine, and is far easier to focus the public's attention on.
Plus, it serves as base for calls for more transparency and oversight committees (in the sense of more opportunities for grift and parallel power structures for Newsom's gang to exploit).
But, silver lining:
Free - real - journalists such as you and many of the people you refer to are putting great pressure on the legacy media. If you increase the pressure and manage to reach more "normies" (detestable term, but whatever am one to call people who only get their news from the likes of MSNBC and such?) and get them to start looking, start asking and start making demands - then you'll eventually see Newsom too being tossed out as a sacrifice.
Frame it in military tactics for preventing a retreating enemy from regrouping and digging in, because the free media insurgency is just about ripe to become organised enough to mount a real Blitzkrieg.
Maybe...someday...a reporter for the LA Times or some other major news outlet will locate his or her previously misplaced integrity and step up and say, "I tried to tell the truth, but my editor made me rewrite my piece and claim it was misinformation."
The editor just rewrites it - faster that way. The reporter then learns his lesson when he reads the published version of his story and sees half of it isn’t his work and the narrative is different. The ones that learn their lesson soonest get to be TV journalists.
My life partner of 47 years passed away in August, 2024. We had lived in Long Beach since 1985. I was wondering what to do, but this broke my spirit. Not the fact that there were fires, but the fact that our California Political Class can cast about looking for people to blame while thousands of taxpaying citizens have had their lives upended. LA has a mayor who must think this is funny. She can’t seem to wipe that silly grin off her face. And our reptilian Governor who can’t give a straight answer other than “not my job” blathers on.
So while, thankfully, my home appears to be out of harms way (for now), this Cluster Fuck Shit Show goes on. And maybe it is time to take my chips off the table and move on. A very sad end to an extremely trying year.
No, my house is still in tact. But as I try to decide what to do next, the question is “do I stay, or do I go?” And I was struggling with the decision to go. Now there is no question. The “leaders” show me (and everyone willing to listen) that we are each on our own. Sad.
Your house is likely to go for a *lot* more money now, given the shortage of available housing. These fires are not a new occurrence - see https://streamfortyseven.substack.com/p/some-interesting-history-behind-the, and the losses could have been prevented - by clearing away dead brush, by not building with combustible materials in a high fire risk zone - which would include nearly all of Southern California with its near desert climate, and by not building houses so damned close together. Here in Flyover Country, minimum setbacks are at least five feet - not so in SoCal - where they should be at least triple that. If you live in a place with that kind of high density housing - unless you want to get rid of all and any exposed wood on sides or roof - it's a very risky thing, and I'll bet not many insurers after this will want to take the gamble to cover it.
"This Man Warned Everybody About California Fires," with Todd Herman and a disheveled Chris Bray, recorded this week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICGxu8W0Zks
Stupidity at scale is far worse than evil.
Stupidity at scale becomes evil.
Bingo.
evil can and has emerged as a byproduct of systems/organizations self-arranged by unthinking utter incompetence
"Always attribute to malice that which has continued too long to be explained by stupidity."
~ Yuri Bezemov [attributed]
Or evil masked as stupidity/incompetence.
Good point.
People can be stupid and evil as well
Most serial killers are below average IQ, if i remember correctly.
whose systems? this was planned since way back. seems to me that marx really could see what would eventually come down the pike
All Marx had was a good understanding of human nature. The one thing democracy demands of the voters is to choose carefully in selecting leaders. We only need to do it every 2 years, and some of us just aren’t up to the task.
If current events & IQ tests aren’t constitutional for voting, how about for eligibility to run for office?
I'm always up for a good conspiracy hypothesis, though I do insist on something like evidence of the hypothesizer's probable contact with reality and at least an attempt on his part to make an argument for his suspicion.
You seem to be of such a mind, that is, to hypothesize conspiracies if not necessarily to be in touch with reality. Please, tell me who planned it "since way back." ( That level of exactness is always a promising sign. )
“The banality of evil transmutes into the banality of sentimentality. The world is nothing but a problem to be solved by enthusiasm.” — Teju Cole
Ref-
Avaaz: The Emperor of the NGO Network ~ by Cory Morningstar | The Wall Will Fall
Evil at scale (or even not at scale) becomes stupidity, a weakness that, for me, is a source of some hope.
I can remember back in 2020, that these same people were saying that Trump had hundreds of thousands of covid deaths on his hands. when asked to prove how they arrived at this number…oh wait, nevermind, no one actually asked them to prove this because the good guys are always good and truthful.
for the first 3 years of his term, we heard all about how authoritarian Trump was…until covid came along and overnight, he wasn’t authoritarian enough!
This reminds me of the old "are they stupid or evil?" question. It's obvious that they're both.
I saw this ‘stupid vs. evil’ argument ad nauseam all during the Covid bullshit. I’ve decided it doesn’t matter/makes no difference, as the end result is the same either way. Now I focus instead on not complying with any rules which I deem ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’.
Same concept are preferring to be judged by the first 12 people in the phone book rather than by the first 12 people in any modern organization.
What’s the over/under for any high ranking Dem losing his/her/their/xir job? I’m going 90/10 against and taking the over.
I don’t see this as stupidity, which I define as a good person simply unable to reason correctly. They have the facts & the objective, they care, but they just can’t figure out the answer.
This I see as indifference to reality. (One notch below WANTING evil to happen.) They simply do not care about the outcomes of their decisions because they do not bear the consequences (except in freakishly rare circumstances when justice prevails).
Is Karen Bass responsible? My impression is that she’s dumb as a stump. I think the real responsibility belongs to those who installed her and the LA City Council. They KNEW she is an idiot, and they bet no calamity would arise. And 26,000 homeowners and over 2 dozen people have paid the price.
In an indirectly related news item, the lot of the largest U-Haul dealer in Knoxville is full beyond the gills with full size (26’) box trucks. I didn’t pull in to check for CA plates, but I’d bet $100 they’re over-represented.
Evil doesn't always show up with a tail and a horns.
Stupidity at a certain critical mass is sabotage, and when scaled is indistinguishable from evil.
Just a different "form" of evil.
I would say it's certainly hubris and narcissism. We're the experts, we always know what we're saying and doing, the stupid peasants complaining are racist sexists and consume misinformation. Pride is a deadly sin.
Read my longish comment right above your's to Keith Klundt.
That's my point.
I try to read comments in sequence (so I don’t repeat a thought), so I’d read your comments before adding mine. I agree with your thoughts in general, except for 2 points:
1) Stupidity. It inherently lacks intent. The difference between damage and sabotage is intent. Someone who used a flint lighter to smoke on board a zeppelin because he didn’t know hydrogen was flammable is stupid, not a saboteur.
2) “Criminal negligence” occurs when a person should have been aware of a danger they are causing as well as the extent of potential harm that could occur, and does nothing to mitigate the danger or warn potential victims. The aforementioned zeppelin smoker who disregarded warning signs is criminally negligent, not stupid.
I truly believe this more accurately describes the facts & state of mind of the LA authorities than massed stupidity.
The LAFD has a fleet of 360 vehicles (total of all types). It’s reported that 75 were down for lack of mechanics. That’s 20.8%. During fire season.
I don’t know how that’s stupidity and not criminal, or even gross, negligence. (“Gross” negligence occurs when the actor WAS AWARE of the danger he was causing and intentionally did it anyway.)
I think the only thing that will save the mayor & fire chief from 27 counts of criminally negligent homicide for the decision to cut the fleet by 21% to fund superfluous HR activities would be a woke DA, and he just got thrown out of office.
Let us hope.
Who's the DA now?
And why would it not be gross negligence? Surely the mayor and fire chief are responsible for being able to, and doing, predictive analysis. They don't have to be told by others what dangers lie ahead, because when they do need to be informed by others, it's their duty to staff competent people who then inform them. There is no way that it wasn't possible ahead of time to run the numbers on fires breaking out where they did. They had all the information available or the means necessary to identify that information should be gathered and then go do it, including the rising rates of fires set by the homeless and the location of homeless camps; the weather, terrain wind models, and the relative dryness of the land; and what water, equipment, and staff are available.
1) The new LA DA (since 12/4/24) is Nathan Hochman (formerly Republican, now Independent).
2) it’s easy to prove “should have known,” and much of your analysis goes to what can be “expected” of the holder of a senior management position. What’s necessary is to prove she ACTUALLY knew the consequences of the budget decisions. That’s why search warrants would go after budget recommendation memos, emails, memos from the FD laying out consequences, etc. to prove she knew that laying off mechanics would cut 21% of vehicles from the fleet. The reason for this exacting demand is that “gross” negligence depends on “mens rea” (guilty mind). With business defendants, this is commonly done by showing earlier parallel situations with far safer decisions.
A likely avenue would be to indict the Fire Chief and in a plea bargain, motivate her to recite chapter & verse on the Mayor’s knowledge & indifference as to the increased lethal danger.
Local small-scale evil unchecked scales to higher levels of increasingly devastating evil. Evil men do evil to others and to the degree they're not stopped they'll do more evil to more people.
Hitler’s secret? He burned the Reichstag rather than the people’s houses.
This. Exactly.
Often the most dangerous situation is, when people are participating in small actions that brush with evil, but don't breach it, and think they are doing "good"., i.e., the way children were treated during covid...in particular with the masks...or with the depravity being normalized at school these days.
This can be applied to myriad situations, because this type of evil has a long arc and is not easily detected by normal people...until sometimes too late.
They can not see that each brush leads, if given enough time, to a critical mass, in which the aggregate of each individual action can lead to unspeakable evil.
Bingo.
I've been operating on the premise that stupid and evil are the same thing. Very clarifying.
20th-century liberals: Question Authority!
21st-century liberals: Never Question Authority!
I'm hoping this is California's Chernobyl moment, but I'm not sure Californians have reached the same level of scorn and scepticism as the late Soviets. There's still a lot of ruin left in this state.
Minor quibble - they NEVER meant question OUR authority.
It'd be nice to predict peak destruction.
There will be a lot of real estate to be gobbled up.
Which we know because Newsom et al won't shut the fuck up about it bring the nth largest economy in the world. Not that there trying to distract from the epic mismanagement or anything.
People who lost their homes will never get a permit to build another. One woman who is 85 said she would rebuild. I thought to myself, she better live to be 185, it’ll be 50yrs before she sees that permit. Just like officials not allowing people to return, to see the ashes. The answer will always be “it’s not safe.” Air isn’t safe, soil isn’t safe, ashes aren’t safe, etc etc… Hopefully, in their grief they’ll realize they don’t live in paradise, they live in a communist hellhole, sold as paradise.
Article today in the New York Post about State Farm not running ads during the Super Bowl. The article is written to blame State Farm for pulling out of California. Well welcome to what happens when you have price controls. Gruesome Newscum, said he wouldn’t stand for price gouging. Welcome to more price controls. These idiots can’t get out of their own way. Meanwhile since hurricane Ian, 80% of the homes in Florida have been rebuilt. It’ll be 100yrs before this happens in lalaland.
I lost my cabin in the Sierra to the Sequoia Complex Fire about 4 years ago. We were encouraged by Tulare County to rebuild quickly and obstacles were minimized.
The chances of that happening in LA County are low, but that has happened.
There's talk that these fires were somehow set deliberately or allowed to happen in order to pave the way for SmartLA2028 for the summer Olympics. There's no way in hell that a "smart city" will be built upon the remains of Pacific Palisades in 3.5 years.
Your fact pattern suggests the residents of Tulare County are not insane. LA County OTOH…
I will be curious to see what % rebuilds. The cost to rebuild in California is a lot compared to the rest of the country. I'll be curious who leaves and what the given reason is.
All I know is they need to stay in the hellish blue states. We DO NOT need them coming to a good red state to f us over.
I doubt that building material suppliers can produce & deliver the myriad requirements for 26,000+ large houses within the current owners’ tolerance limit.
Meanwhile, in CA Newsom have declared an emergency due to bird flu, making it "unsafe" to eat eggs and drink milk, with egg prices through the roof. Even though respiratory diseases don't spread through food.
What are you a doctor? 😉😊😋😂
They can just build a makeshift shanty or pitch a tent, maybe find an old beat up RV and park it on the sidewalk and claim they are houseless. LA doesn’t do anything about that.
Ignore the rules. Build anyway. Or camp on your foundation and call yourselves homeless
I keep going back to the Jordan Peterson / Cathy Newman interview in my mind. Lefties see something they can't or don't want to understand, filter it through their brain, and out it comes, contorted to fit some delusional, pre-conceived narrative... Even, and especially if it completely invalidates the known priors.
I think that's what is going on here. It's not exactly motivated reasoning, because there is little, if any, reasoning involved. It's not cognitive dissonance, either, at least in the human sense of cognition. Fire may or may not be hot, and water may or may not be wet, but orange man is bad.
What you're saying is....
THAT was the true essence of the Newman interview. Not a misunderstanding of what Peterson was saying, but a malign & incessant mis-restatement of 100% of his comments in order to discredit him. Reminiscent of the last few days of confirmation hearings.
Ultimately it is arrogance and vanity - the deadliest sin. Even with the actual resultant death they still insist it is a virtue.
But they can’t reform as a group, they can only reform individually. But individual courage - an actual virtue - scares the hell out of them. Virtues don’t come easily.
If virtue did come easily, it wouldn’t be called virtue. It’d just be normal. But man is a fallen creature, and must be watched – by his family, his neighbors and his co-workers to signal displeasure at bad behavior. And that scares the Hell out of the Left too.
No! Water is NOT wet! Ask me about it. I live in (metro) New Orleans where pocketing thousands$ while NOT doing your job has been perfected into a fine art. One solution is to relocate to a nearby (unflooded, unburned) suburb, if you're self-employed like me, and rebuild your life. My California friends are all wonderful people, kind and generous, who support the governor and mayor. Do we live in two different lands? I'm staying here with my deplorables.
Nah. They see and know. It’s wildly entertaining to watch them tie themselves in knots trying to convince the rest of us it’s fine.
I don't think so. I think the infatuation with being on the "right side of history" is jacked right into their lizard brain and steers every other piece of broken machinery in their skull. Everyone does this to an extent, but they are so committed at this point there's no way to turn back without losing every bit of (fake) virtue they have.
The "right side of history" is liberal euphemism for “Be sure to pick the winning side.” I have zero doubt the modern liberal would be donning her swastika arm band in late 1930s Germany. They would have criticized Bonhoeffer as being on the “wrong side of history.”
Before Covid, I would have considered such a statement hyperbole. Not any more. That is *exactly* what the modern "liberal" is, only with ugly-ass women and trains that don't run at all.
I wasn’t thinking of COVID when I wrote that, but you’re 100% right. The modern Left’s open intolerance of “individual think” is just stunning.
I’m seeing too many who don’t even try to convince us. They seem genuinely shocked and horrified that anyone dares to question them. ‘How dare you’ and ‘Stop talking’ are hardly cogent arguments, or even attempts at cogent arguments.
‘How dare you’.
Were you channeling Greta? Were “whole ecosystems COH-lapsing?”
The “misinformation” ass clowns are everywhere. Finally had to block one in a LinkedIn discussion. Kept challenging my posts regarding the fires and saying it was misinformation but also acknowledged that he didn’t bother to open any of the links I posted that proved him wrong. 🤦🏼♀️
The function of religion in human life even without a religious institution.
And without the benefits that a religion can bring, such as living a meaningful life and being part of a community.
yeah, I have a built in alarm that goes off as soon as I hear the word
🙄 Ugh!
Shocka!
I very much hope that the county's firefighters are too busy to be scrolling through social media, looking for affirmations of their worthiness, yet also terrified of being "crushed" by "suspicion that they didn’t put their best foot forward."
Well they have tried to increase the number of DEI snowflakes in the department so it wouldn’t shock me.
The Bill Burr thing was bizarre. Guess the conclusive evidence that he is on the Epstein client list didn’t get destroyed in any of the fires.
Fuck Bill Burr.
He got cucked into bolivion by his DEI loving wife
yeah, he's now on my "out" list. another one wife-cucked in Cali. fuck him.
I'm interested to see how the propaganda department handles this long term. I think they're in a bit of a Catch-22. On the one hand they're not allowed to criticize California's glorious, diverse leadership. But on the other hand, are they going to say "We literally cannot do anything about these fires, hopefully we just get lucky from here on out. Please invest another $3 million in a new home, ty!"
There are things that can be done, structures survived those blazes - for good reasons: You need steel or other non-combustible roofs, same case for siding, shutters on windows - no plastic casings, steel only - and so forth. I've reproduced (and sourced) a list of design specs in the following: https://streamfortyseven.substack.com/p/cant-beat-dumb-yes-fires-can-be-put
And you need at least 15 foot setbacks from property lines - else expect chain reaction fires, no oil plants near structures - eucalyptus, juniper, mesquite, palms, and a good sized swimming pool for water supply..
You’re eminently rational & offer pragmatic solutions. Expect to be deported by Newscum as soon as they detect your identity.
It will be interesting to see how the press tries to avoid reporting about the state FAIR insurance program slow walking claims and not remunerating for any contents list inside the buildings.
Cultural transmission really is a fascinating thing. I once worked for a DoD program where the office in charge was moved across the country, placed under an entirely different military service, and with no more than a couple of people actually transferred - yet the culture of that [failing] organization arrived intact and infected the new office and all of the new people.
What was the mechanism of transmission? Rules that pre-ordained the result?
Never did figure that out. The standard bureaucratic practice was only part of it, though obviously a necessary precondition. But to so completely replicate itself when it seemingly shouldn't have, that's still a mystery.
Were the people transferred "management" or flunkies?
Low level management, not senior, and flunkies. You wouldn't have thought that sufficient given the whole new slate of people that filled the top and key positions.
I agree. You'd think upper management would squash it like a bug.
Lindsay Horvath says LAFD is demoralized and that it hurts their feelings when a pack of homeless burned out citizens think they didn’t do a good job. What a strange thought pattern. Should those that lost their towns and neighborhoods and businesses be grateful to those who utterly failed to do what was required?
You can’t blame the firemen on the ground for not having water and equipment but that doesn’t mean that everyone needs to get a participation trophy it means management needs to be FIRED!
When taking classes to operate commercial vessels you are told that when two boats collide the Coast Guard assigns blame. Each boat involved in the accident gets 100 percent of the blame. The idea is that if you are operating a boat that has an accident you didn’t do enough. It was your responsibility and you failed therefore even if the other boat hit your boat you should have done something, anything to make sure that your boat stayed safe. Cities burned. There’s too much gaslighting and whining when it’s pointed out that there was incompetence built into the system.
When everyone from James Woods to Caitlyn Jenner is punking you, take the loss. Hey Karen Bass, Gavin Newsome has two shimmying shoulders to cry on. California Justin Trudeau.
Newsom
If only we were as wise as the experts we would have realized how foolish we were to assume that it takes water to put out fires. Yes, it is the same playbook they have used in the past: 1. deny, 2. diminish, 3. qualify, 4. distract and 5. admit. By the time they admit their errors they are hoping that we will no longer be paying attention.
One wonders if it is incompetence as a result of focusing on equity rather than merit or, if it is something more sinister. At least they are all being exposed. Will the homeowners who watched their homes burn down trust their elected officials ever again? It is painful to watch what was once paradise burn down before our very eyes. We will never forget.
And "5. admit" comes with the "this is old news, and it's time to move on" story.
"I'm not going to dwell on the past. I'm going to keep moving forward, and it's time for bitter, small-minded people to stop focusing on finding fault so we can work together to make Los Angeles better for everyone."
Yes, never dwell on the past when it’s squarely in the rear view mirror and blame/incompetence for what happened falls squarely on those in positions of authority. Rather - look forward together, sing Kumbayah and believe in the wisdom of your leaders. Yeah, right.
“I'm not going to dwell on the past. I'm going to keep moving forward, and it's time for bitter, small-minded people to stop focusing on finding fault…”
Sounds like an interesting defense ploy at the criminally negligent homicide trial (26 counts) of a BUNCH of LA city officials.
It is old news, it has happened before - These fires are not a new occurrence - see https://streamfortyseven.substack.com/p/some-interesting-history-behind-the - and building, zoning, and fire codes need to be changed to reflect the real risks. And trusting elected officials over your own common sense and knowledge of past history is folly.
Jim Morrison knew in 1971 (LA Woman):
I see your hair is burning
Hills are filled with fire
If they say I never loved you
You know they are a liar
Yeah, well, we're just waiting until the whole shit house is going to go up in flames. Literally.
Better get your kicks on beforehand as Jim said....;)
The first interest of the legacy media is to retain their position as arbiter of truth. Secondary to that is news-reporting and then only if and in such a way it serves the first interest.
(So far so obvious.)
Someone needs to be singled out though, and it's starting to look as if Bass is on the hook, pardon the pun. It's not possible to blame DEI (i,e, racist against whites and men) hiring practices, it's too ingrained as an intrinsically Good Thing with both the media and the polity, but blaming an individual works just fine, and is far easier to focus the public's attention on.
Plus, it serves as base for calls for more transparency and oversight committees (in the sense of more opportunities for grift and parallel power structures for Newsom's gang to exploit).
But, silver lining:
Free - real - journalists such as you and many of the people you refer to are putting great pressure on the legacy media. If you increase the pressure and manage to reach more "normies" (detestable term, but whatever am one to call people who only get their news from the likes of MSNBC and such?) and get them to start looking, start asking and start making demands - then you'll eventually see Newsom too being tossed out as a sacrifice.
Frame it in military tactics for preventing a retreating enemy from regrouping and digging in, because the free media insurgency is just about ripe to become organised enough to mount a real Blitzkrieg.
blaming it on DEI is a diversion. kyle young excellent analysis of DEW attack on palisades - same playbook as lahaina
https://secularheretic.substack.com/p/a-forensics-examination-of-video
plus the pinned comment by amy sukwan who used to live in the neighborhood
https://secularheretic.substack.com/p/a-forensics-examination-of-video/comment/86068840
and brandon just happened to fly in and monopolize all the airspace, day of, so as to keep aerial firefighting off the table? this was planned
In fairness to Brandon, it was a pre-planned trip to praise a federal land shut down. But they should have been faster to cancel.
pre-planned, uh huh
Maybe...someday...a reporter for the LA Times or some other major news outlet will locate his or her previously misplaced integrity and step up and say, "I tried to tell the truth, but my editor made me rewrite my piece and claim it was misinformation."
Probably not, but hope springs eternal...
The editor just rewrites it - faster that way. The reporter then learns his lesson when he reads the published version of his story and sees half of it isn’t his work and the narrative is different. The ones that learn their lesson soonest get to be TV journalists.
My life partner of 47 years passed away in August, 2024. We had lived in Long Beach since 1985. I was wondering what to do, but this broke my spirit. Not the fact that there were fires, but the fact that our California Political Class can cast about looking for people to blame while thousands of taxpaying citizens have had their lives upended. LA has a mayor who must think this is funny. She can’t seem to wipe that silly grin off her face. And our reptilian Governor who can’t give a straight answer other than “not my job” blathers on.
So while, thankfully, my home appears to be out of harms way (for now), this Cluster Fuck Shit Show goes on. And maybe it is time to take my chips off the table and move on. A very sad end to an extremely trying year.
So you lost your house and your partner within 6 months of each other?
Man, good grief. Really sorry.
No, my house is still in tact. But as I try to decide what to do next, the question is “do I stay, or do I go?” And I was struggling with the decision to go. Now there is no question. The “leaders” show me (and everyone willing to listen) that we are each on our own. Sad.
Your house is likely to go for a *lot* more money now, given the shortage of available housing. These fires are not a new occurrence - see https://streamfortyseven.substack.com/p/some-interesting-history-behind-the, and the losses could have been prevented - by clearing away dead brush, by not building with combustible materials in a high fire risk zone - which would include nearly all of Southern California with its near desert climate, and by not building houses so damned close together. Here in Flyover Country, minimum setbacks are at least five feet - not so in SoCal - where they should be at least triple that. If you live in a place with that kind of high density housing - unless you want to get rid of all and any exposed wood on sides or roof - it's a very risky thing, and I'll bet not many insurers after this will want to take the gamble to cover it.