“The point to make is that we stopped preparing for that likelihood, slipping into the ease of the place on a raft made of luxury beliefs.” YES. To paraphrase Adam Corolla, government elites are blaming everyday people for their leadership failures. Ridiculous.
Corolla's idiot friend, Jimmy Kimmel, had a bit about people being afraid the firefighters "aren't white enough".
Like anyone gives a shit if it's Kunta Kinte dragging them out of a blazing inferno. I just don't want some brain damaged Umpa Loompa trying to do it and getting sassy claps for their stunning and brave effort because at least my teeth made it for the identification.
How did Kimmel wind up being such a dishonest pile of shit when his boys Corolla and Rogan are so admirable? Does he really feel that bad about the girls on trampolines?
The last person I want coming to rescue my family from a fire is a short, fat, out of shape, gender-fluid freak with a nose ring and "problem glasses" on, that occasionally identifies as a barnyard animal, replete with a tail sticking out of their ass...just sayin '
The parents of daughters would prefer to continue glutting the 'colleges' with their princesses, while maintaining an academic climate of 'hate the males'. This has been going on for half-a-century now.
We all have choices. Daughter-daddies don't care if God is angry at them for turning their girls into 5th-rate boys, and don't care if their nation burns and fails around them due to female incompetence, arrogance, and privilege.
Yes, POS Jimmy K is still trying to make up and do pentence for his role in The Man Show and various other anti-progressive sins he committed before he became an über-woke Hollywood glitter-mensch.
Kimmel is such a dirtbag. I remember when he was doing his comedy stuff on TV sports shows, and he wasn’t even funny then. The things that come out of his mouth…he’s despicable.
Excellent piece on the Mike Davis beads of truth about a civilization ’Born to Be Wild’, free to be the exhaust pipe of America, mocking the carbon footprint even as they worship Fortune — ease at the glow of Molech’s altar to climate change, presuming on the seasons of Earth’s abundant favors to deny Hell’s consequences, the rewards of their own choices.
Mike Davis apparently had a corner on understanding what random means in the context of a civilization drunk on wine made from the grapes of wrath. Escapes from the ravages of nature are ephemeral when the equation is already established. Man versus nature — confronting reality is the only true test of strength. Confronting anomalies of nature requires community overriding anything placing man at increased risk. And when man is denied community help by omission, then commission of essential services become critical by orders of magnitude.
Was Mike Davis questioning the capacity of greater LA to manifest wisdom, or meaningful community? Will community always be basically just man against nature? Or man against man?
Apparently there have been problems with choices regarding battles in ‘man vs. nature.’ Deep political problems. Values, sovereignty, election integrity, financial management, corporatism, consensus, apathy and hate(?): Man against man to the point that success is remote in man against nature.
People like to think of themselves as having an emotional bond to the land they live in, immediately. Even to the point of war: War against nature? Or man?
What I have been fretting about for the past couple of days of the continuing inferno is: What is going to happen when the next Northridge-scale earthquake occurs? Which it will. What will we find out these incompetents were not prepared for in that case? What infrastructure has been allowed to disintegrate? What building codes have been ignored, bypassed and bribed away? To what degree have workable gas shutoffs been installed? How many DEIs does it take to not respond to a disaster? Is any responsible adult in charge thinking of this and not his hair?
Before the Hairgel & Cameltoe era, I thought CA government was misguided, but within those philosophical differences, basically competent.
But now, I think CA is headed for San Francisco 1906, coupled with Bangladeshi building practices, and immigration ideals that would welcome the Visigoths. We are witnessing societal de-evolution.
These developments have been SO insane that the voters turning away from the proponents for the long run is NOT assured. I don’t mean voting Republican – I just mean the voters demanding the Democrat candidates being rational.
City of LA is requiring upgrading of tuck under parking which was an huge issue in the northride quake, and freeway support columns have been improved. So we are able to weather larger earthquakes, that are catastrophic for other countries.
My gut feeling is California has low corruption in building codes / enforcement. There are other issues. Insurance companies are forcing upgrades to electrical and city of LA has their own requirements, so a huge backlog on compliant panels. There is a continual issue of corruption on getting building / construction approvals in LA. Of course with homeless, building and health codes are not enforced in LA, unfortunately.
Add mudslides, gridlocked traffic , horrific smog, hordes of illegals high cost of living toss in a large dose of corrupt California politicians to the Los Angeles salad bowl and you have an unpalatable meal. Los Angeles has burned before and it will burn again because the politicians will scream climate change and the lemmings will re-elect them.
Having been a 24-year resident of southern CA and recent refugee to Texas, the paradise with its inherent natural dangers was indeed highly livable - despite Mike Davis’ lies to the contrary - UNTIL it slipped into the abyss of one party political incompetence that has been making it progressively unlivable the last 15 years.
It's like we have an endless caravan of Inspector Clouseaus, in white Ford Broncos, going the wrong way on I-5, and thinking the gridlock is a surprise hero's parade just for them!...yeah!...
When I commented about the Santa Inez reservoir being empty for almost a year due to a torn cover, some 🤡 on LinkedIn asked if I knew the reason or was I just “spreading misinformation”. 🙄. I posted a quote from LADWP and then said the actual reason is incompetence! No other explanation needed.
It was empty in 2022, as well. In a community paved with swimming pools, the government can't keep a reservoir up and running and full of water -- even if they are paying the responsible person more than $700,000 a year.
Do you have a link for that? I was trying to find one I could use, I read that also somewhere but need something to back it up with. Thanks! Can’t believe they’re paying their useless LADWP CEO $750,000 a year. Disgusting.
I left Northern California in 1983 and moved to Kansas. That's about 42 years ago. During that time I have personally seen two tornadoes close enough to be lightly showered by the pieces of houses and trees that were pulled up into the atmosphere. There were other twisters that occurred around the state during that time. It's a thing that happens out on the Great Plains. Oh, yeah, I just remembered... About 5 years ago a horrendous range fire destroyed many ranches and killed many cattle and wild life.
People around here don't blame the tornadoes on climate change. We consider them naturally occurring events. Range fires, too. Notwithstanding, we do have fire engines and crews that do their best to put out the fires and people do build tornado shelters in which to retreat. Home insurance is pretty common, too.
Something else I think is pretty common is a tendency to become complacent about whatever kind of natural menace it is to which your region is most prone. I also live in tornado country. And we tend towards a kind of tornado machismo. A tornado watch merits barely a shrug. And a warning, unless it clearly designates your particular community or township might prompt you to, at most, glance up at the sky or at the weather report. It's not uncommon for people to stand outside in the gathering wind to look up at the gruesome cloud formations to determine if those are really funnel clouds and, if so, whether anything looks to be headed our way. And to actually make your way to a basement or other shelter is often regarded with bemusement as perhaps a bit of an overreaction.
You are right. Also, media have encouraged this while at the same time lecturing citizens to get in their shelters. The encouragement? Fame! TV news always features close up, dramatic stills and movies on their newscasts that were taken by citizens risking the peril. It's a conundrum because modern news thrives on "eyewitness" video. They can't turn it down and thus encourage it.
That’s interesting. I hadn’t thought of it from that angle. Although, the attitude I’m describing, a bit tongue in cheek, predates the contemporary phenomenon of making your own video and having it aired on the TV news. In a way, that attitude serves as a form of resistance to being dictated to by the news and official information sources. You want to be able to assess the situation for yourself and don’t want to feel obliged to drop everything and get to a shelter just because someone issues a weather alert.
Yes. It is my opinion that the media/government alignment is constantly projecting a need for "fear" to the public. How often have we heard, "It's too icy; it's too hot; it's too sunny, the air is of poor quality (even out here on the Great Plains); get this shot or you will die/get sick/lose your job; don't eat this or that; and my personal disfavorite 'Be Safe Out There'..."Man, I can go on and on. Me, I chose to ignore the totality of it while still trying to maintain a watchful eye. With regard to the all-important "SAFETY" goal pushed by The Collective, I have adopted this mindset:
Safety is NOT a goal - it is the product of good planning and good execution.
So much of what we do in modern life is inherently "unsafe" but we do what we need to do in order to make the risks tolerable and the outcomes successful.
Some folks see Big Sur and think what a beautiful place. I’m here to tell you it’s nothing but pain and death when you fall off a cliff and tumble down 200 feet and, lying broken and battered, are gored to death by a rutting sea lion! There are coyotes in the Los Padres! I’ve seen ‘em, and they’re scarier than Haitians!
No thanks. I’ve seen some local squirrels become hawk food. I’ve got a small dog too that I look after when she goes out. My neighbor’s Yorky pup was enough.
BTW, I was talking to one of my boy’s scout leaders who told me about his two dogs playing tug of war with a squirrel they caught. I asked which dog won? His answer, “Welll, I can tell ya the squirrel lost.”
Nature ain’t always so kind! Why should we humans expect any different?
I spent a year in the hellscape of Monterey, and barely survived our wedding at Quail Lodge in Caramel by the Sea.
The only way to shake off the nightmares of such a miserable shit-hole was to spend a glorious year in a plywood box in Bagram, Afghanistan. (Truth is the country is beautiful, Bagram looks like Salt Lake City without infrastructure.)
I live in Carmel and it would be easy to forget all the trouble elsewhere, the basically one square mile that is Carmel-by-the-Sea has its own police and fire department, 2 libraries, 50 restaurants, and constant
patrolling by law enforcement. Which is probably why I saw 20 million dollar homes with Harris-Walz signs in their front yards. But one day I was heading into our little post office and an 80 year old WW 2 vet tripped on the three steps but caught himself before he hit the ground, then smiled and said "It's gonna take more than a few steps to get me!" and walked on. America has gotten a little more pussified in certain areas, and those people are the ones who make them quit cutting fire breaks in So Cal back in the 80's cuz they said it endangered some type of field mouse. It's gone downhill from there to the point where a man who wants to feel tough will say he's a woman so he can spike a volleyball into some chick's face. Do that to my daughters and I'll have a real quick chat with that dude. During the game, not after. Cuz I might be a woman for a few minutes and walk onto the court. Sorry, that's off the subject, but not too far.
You do live in Heaven on Earth, for sure. Good for you! I loved my time 'up the hill' as we'd say at DLI--in fact, I intentionally failed a few tests hoping they'd roll me back a few classes (this was their way of 'holding you back', and they usually did this before failing you out completely).
I totally knew I'd likely never live is such a beautiful place, enjoy such a stimulating environment, the school was hard, we were 'voluntold' to be on the run team if one's 2 mile time was below a certain time, we surfed nearly every day after class--it was one of the best years of my life.
My senior instructor, this serious Russian gal, pulls me into her office, "Brian (gotta imagine the Russian rolling of the R's as she said my name-super thick Russian accent) why did you fail this test?"
"Gospajxa Furman, it was just so hard. I think I'm slipping behind..." I answered fully embracing my academic malingering.
"No. You're not. I'm going to drop you for LOE (lack of effort)!"
(This was double plus ungood. You were forced back to your previous job, and it was a bit of a scarlet letter for any future Army life.)
"Ma'am, I uh, I uh, I uh..."
"You will retake this test tomorrow. I won't see you in my office anymore will I?"
"Nyet."
My heart lifted about the 80 old WWII vet. No victim. No drama. Agreed about momentarily become a female to throttle some dysphoric threat to another woman, especially a daughter.
BSN, although it became life altering, it's quite cool that Russian instructor couldn't be fooled into thinking you aren't as smart as you are (always love your comments) She gave you no slack. But if you had flunked your way into a longer DLI run, maybe one of your bonus weeks would've seen your surfboard having a tug of war with a Great White trying to catch the same wave, and you were going to end up like that squirrel in H.W. Black's comment above, but only God knows what woulda been. But that Russian instructor saw you as too smart to pull off dumb, so you made it to Quail Lodge as planned, and got even luckier than you got later that night because Tuesdays AND the day you were there are Non-Hell Hole Days. But for the hat trick? You shoulda played Scrabble that night, cuz your instructor's name is worth a shit ton on that Scrabble board!)
Fred! Thank you. Too kind and funny! My lot in my academic life has always been the dummy in the gifted class...which always 'feels like' I'm nearly drowning, but maybe when looking around at the broader population in school I was doing OK.
Coyotes are out of control in LA County. I’ve seen so many flyers of missing small dogs and cats in my area.
When I called the right department in LA county, after seeing some in front of my house, I was unofficially told they no longer do trapping due to fear of being front page news.
The only time you see action is when a person gets bit, as happened a while back in Montebello.
Coyotes are common here in the Smokies. I keep a .357 on the table in the foyer which I take with me when I take the dogs out after dark (along with a 3200 lumen tac-lite). You hear them from time to time, but in 8 yrs have only seen 2.
Coyotes, please. They're everywhere. They're in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. They're IN town! I've seen a pack of 5 in the field behind my house. I've seen 3 on more than one occasion. They're not special.
Bandit: agree. We live in west-central Wisconsin, in the woods. Of course there are critters! Black bears, Fox, coyote, squirrels, raccoons, fishers, etc. And many of these critters are also in town. And thank goodness there are still some around. People no longer know how to live in the natural world…I’m always annoyed by this. They are irresponsible about their pet dog or cat, then cry when their unsupervised pet gets killed by a wild animal.
This brings to mind a conversation I participated in on election night at a bar that had Fox on reporting the results.
One of the gentlemen who was seated around the bar is a skilled hunter. And he spoke with knowledge and precision about where coyotes could be located in the area, including on at least one occasion he described, inside the town where we live. I was fascinated by what he was telling us. I know there are coyotes around here. And sometimes when I'm out walking at night I'll hear a pack of them howling in the distance. But I have no idea how I would go about tracking them down.
But, as we were watching the results, he had a lot of questions about the results that were being reported and about what they meant. And they were the kind of honest questions that revealed that he had retained, at best, a rather hazy grasp of whatever he might have been taught in Civics class about our constitutional structure of government.
His buddy, who clearly had paid attention in class and had kept up with the news, replied with straightforward explanations of what was being reported and its significance. I occasionally chimed in with additional information and explanations. At one point, the hunter guy sheepishly admitted that he didn't really understand much about politics or government. To which I replied, "Yeah, but you know where all the coyotes are!" He laughed in appreciation.
But not all Newsom's beliefs are luxurious. Take EVs. I assume each and every one of the seaplanes, helicopters and even the working fire trucks in LA fighting the fires was powered by electric battery. Or pixie dust. Anything but fossil fuels.
A feature of all socialist regimes, and as Hitler pointed out, there was very little difference between them all, is that, when there is a problem or some sort of catastrophe, the Leadership is not to be blamed. Instead, it is the fault of the proletariat, the workers, the kulaks, the hoi palloi, the masses, or some other such group of what is called elsewhere, "the citizenry". Sitting in his bunker as Soviet infantry and tanks crushed the remnants of the Wehrmacht and Germany more broadly, Hitler blamed the catastrophe not on himself, but on the German people, all of whom, he said, did not have enough "ardor" to defeat the world he'd started a war with. So, methinks that you, Chris, and all the other citizens of California must immediately develop a program to increase your "ardor" for the brilliant leadership you have everywhere in 5th largest economy in the world. After all, it can't be their decisions: many of them have credentials from impressive universities. I think the person who would lead this effort the best, if you can find her, is the woman who was ahead of you in the bagel shop. It might take a couple of years, but she'd come up with some sort of program, eventually.
Solution (not that the French want one): turn off all utilities and deny food. Make food & drink available 500 ft from the theater on a no-return basis.
Wall Street Apes on X: "Here’s why Governor Gavin Newsom will NEVER resign despite being responsible for the Los Angeles fires and financially destroying California Tucker Carlson explains the truth about Gavin Newsom “I know Gavin Newsom. I think a lot about Gavin Newsom, many different things about https://t.co/2qFl8VzhFb" / Xhttps://x.com/WallStreetApes/status/1878515664031539625?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Here’s why Governor Gavin Newsom will NEVER resign despite being responsible for the Los Angeles fires and financially destroying California.
Tucker Carlson explains the truth about Gavin Newsom “I know Gavin Newsom. I think a lot about Gavin Newsom, many different things about Gavin Newsom but one thing I know for a fact about Gavin Newsom is he has the capacity to beat a lie detector test. Gavin Newsom will say anything he needs to say”
“Gavin Newsom's palms don't sweat. His respiration doesn't increase. His body temperature doesn't change. Nothing changes in Gavin Newsom when he lies to your face, and there are not that many people like that, actually.”
Interviewer: “You’re saying he's a sociopath? He can lie and not care?”
“I’m not a psychiatrist and I don’t want to diagnose the category. All I can say is there are not many people who can do that."
I’m wondering how the folks in Florida think about this…
The possibility of experiencing a hurricane there each year is much better than not. Yet, they persevere and love the sunshine when there aren’t any storms. I’ve got a friend there that loves it. He just went through two hurricanes this last summer.
As I shoveled my regular 3” of snow this morning, I’m happy to be here where the seasons change and I thank God for the global warming that caused the glaciers to melt to leave me with all the wonderful lakes I get to enjoy around here.
Remember when the mockingbirds and FEMA said it would be impossible for Florida to recover from the Ian hurricane (class 5) for at least 3-5 years.
Well, DeSantis said "impossible is nothing" and had vital bridges (that were completly destroyed) functional in 3-5 days! It took less than 30 days for him to essentially put Florida back together. Most of the neighborhoods that were destroyed have already been rebuilt and are now virtually hurricane proof.
How'd he do this? Well he didn't listen and let the free market do what it does. Leadership matters and that's why he won by 20% margin landslide.
But hey, if these socialist understood economics or how to run institutions, they wouldn't be socialist.
DeSantis would be on deck to be inaugurated in 5 days if the situation hadn’t called for a “barbarian” to expel hordes of the insane from every vestige of our Federal, State & local governments.
It's all relative, of course. Before the ice ages, there were eons with no ice at the poles and much of what is now North America covered by water. But trying to stay alive living under a mile of grinding ice, ice that carved mountain valleys as recently as 20,000 years ago, would be the worst. As Crocodile Dundee might say, "now that's climate change." So yes, thank God for global warmth.
I agree with your assessment of LA life. Back in the early to mid 80's my bros and friends and I would ride our Honda motorcycles from Hollywood to the beach below Temescal Canyon, we'd stop at the KFC that used to be on Sunset Blvd in the heart of Pacific Palisades and eat our chicken on the beach, then drive back to Hollywood with just bathing suits and flip flops on (I had a Honda 750 and weighed 150 back then, skinny as hell and thought I was hell bent with layovers in my single apt with twin beds for 380/month in the heart of Hollywood... I had 3 room mates, 2 bros and a friend, two of us slept on the twin bed box springs and two on the mattresses and we all worked in souvenir shops on Holly Blvd and it was good times compared to childhoods back and forth between NYC and Pittsburgh. My now wife then girlfriend lived on 9600 Reseda Blvd in Northridge and the quake collapsed the apt building across the street at 9603 and it was a bad quake. When it hit early morning I rolled on top of her and said (famously idiotic) "Welp, LA's gone!" It wasn't and that building across the street was sad, and the worst number of related casualties, but we drove to Hollywood and many biz's were open and I thought "good weather helps". Republican governors started getting voted out of office and these days Cali's in the strong grip of Soros-style Leftists and Schiff and Newsom and Pelosi types and something like 47 of the 54 Congressional seats are Democrat looking for side money with crime and homelessness soaring and LA's become one hell of a "Before" and "After" that has nothing to do with the type of lightbulb I use.
In my 20s, we rented a giant house in Pasadena so we could break up the rent -- to $240 each -- so we could spend the time in the mountains or at the beach or seeing new bands. It was all very "two of us slept on the twin bed box springs and two on the mattresses," and yes.
40 years ago I moved to the metropolis of Edmonton Alberta, moved in with 5 other people and (at one point) 17 cats, had milk crate end tables and lots of amazing decor from Value Village. A drawer with 10 different silverware patterns and all the butter knives with burnt ends for some reason 😎
I think being too rich and not going through those lean times is a lost education for some.
To forget about the fires for just a moment, doesn't it get boring to wake up to another sunny day? In England our summer is short but by the end of it I'm looking forward to a change, even a change for the worse, weather-wise.
Grew up in NJ, moved to San Diego in my mid-20s, and - eventually - missed the damned snow! So after 27 years of sunny SoCal weather, I got seasons again in the mountains of AZ. Love it. Everyone's different - vive la difference!
As a transplant from a place with four actual seasons, including glorious leaf shows in fall and snowy winters, yeah I do miss that (and it’s hard to get the timing right to catch those perfect fall or winter days on visits back). But I don’t miss: long gray Novembers after the leaves are gone but before the snow falls; wading through brown slush on city streets as the temperature hovers around freezing; the piles of dog turds revealed when the snow melts; or mosquitoes, blackflies, deerflies and horseflies. (Sadly, we do now have way more mosquitoes in SoCal than when we first moved here. No bueno.)
Chris, well said, as always. Dropped my kids off at school today. Negative five on a balmy January morning in the upper Midwest. Oh, the humanity!!! How did we survive it? Coats, hats, mittens....and a full understanding of reality....nature wins when you let your guard down. Propane tanks were prebought and filled last June because....winter is coming.
That is the story of life on earth. We struggle, sacrifice and brave the elements of nature. We prepare. We live in reality. People have leaned on the giants of innovation and preparation for too long. Those who toiled before them have been forgotten. Nothing runs forever on this woke bullshit. Now everyone pays the price.
After 28 years in Los Angeles, I relocated to Oklahoma in 2022. As everyone knows, our distinctive disaster is the tornado, and more generally the extreme weather that generates high winds and (localized) baseball-sized hail every Spring. The prevailing Okie attitude is that we know the risks, we've done what we can to avert the worst, and the rest is up to God. The storm-chasers, who drive their specially equipped trucks into storms to report to the TV meteorologists, are local heroes. Even the smallest towns have warning systems, both old-fashioned sirens and newer phone alerts, which are conscientiously maintained. Everyone (well, everyone I know) has a designated room (no windows, farthest from the exterior walls) as a place of refuge. Nevertheless, every year, there are weather-generated tragedies, people killed and property destroyed, but no one laments that this is a hellish place where no one should live. It's about as far as possible from the L.A. attitude.
“The point to make is that we stopped preparing for that likelihood, slipping into the ease of the place on a raft made of luxury beliefs.” YES. To paraphrase Adam Corolla, government elites are blaming everyday people for their leadership failures. Ridiculous.
speaking of Corolla, check this out...mic drop:
https://x.com/DisrespectedThe/status/1877376211581604162?s=19
Corolla's idiot friend, Jimmy Kimmel, had a bit about people being afraid the firefighters "aren't white enough".
Like anyone gives a shit if it's Kunta Kinte dragging them out of a blazing inferno. I just don't want some brain damaged Umpa Loompa trying to do it and getting sassy claps for their stunning and brave effort because at least my teeth made it for the identification.
How did Kimmel wind up being such a dishonest pile of shit when his boys Corolla and Rogan are so admirable? Does he really feel that bad about the girls on trampolines?
“How did Kimmel wind up being such a dishonest pile of shit?”
When ABC offered him a shitload of money. 30 pieces of silver if I’m not mistaken….
Truth.
bsn
Lmao!
The last person I want coming to rescue my family from a fire is a short, fat, out of shape, gender-fluid freak with a nose ring and "problem glasses" on, that occasionally identifies as a barnyard animal, replete with a tail sticking out of their ass...just sayin '
The parents of daughters would prefer to continue glutting the 'colleges' with their princesses, while maintaining an academic climate of 'hate the males'. This has been going on for half-a-century now.
We all have choices. Daughter-daddies don't care if God is angry at them for turning their girls into 5th-rate boys, and don't care if their nation burns and fails around them due to female incompetence, arrogance, and privilege.
So burn, baby. Burn.
I am still laughing at your teeth. Brilliant analysis.
I knew I she/he/they/it reminded me of something...UMPA LOOMPAS! CLASSIC! Well done!
bsn
Yes, POS Jimmy K is still trying to make up and do pentence for his role in The Man Show and various other anti-progressive sins he committed before he became an über-woke Hollywood glitter-mensch.
Kimmel is such a dirtbag. I remember when he was doing his comedy stuff on TV sports shows, and he wasn’t even funny then. The things that come out of his mouth…he’s despicable.
LoL!
Excellent piece on the Mike Davis beads of truth about a civilization ’Born to Be Wild’, free to be the exhaust pipe of America, mocking the carbon footprint even as they worship Fortune — ease at the glow of Molech’s altar to climate change, presuming on the seasons of Earth’s abundant favors to deny Hell’s consequences, the rewards of their own choices.
Mike Davis apparently had a corner on understanding what random means in the context of a civilization drunk on wine made from the grapes of wrath. Escapes from the ravages of nature are ephemeral when the equation is already established. Man versus nature — confronting reality is the only true test of strength. Confronting anomalies of nature requires community overriding anything placing man at increased risk. And when man is denied community help by omission, then commission of essential services become critical by orders of magnitude.
Was Mike Davis questioning the capacity of greater LA to manifest wisdom, or meaningful community? Will community always be basically just man against nature? Or man against man?
Apparently there have been problems with choices regarding battles in ‘man vs. nature.’ Deep political problems. Values, sovereignty, election integrity, financial management, corporatism, consensus, apathy and hate(?): Man against man to the point that success is remote in man against nature.
People like to think of themselves as having an emotional bond to the land they live in, immediately. Even to the point of war: War against nature? Or man?
Who will pay for this war? At what cost?
What I have been fretting about for the past couple of days of the continuing inferno is: What is going to happen when the next Northridge-scale earthquake occurs? Which it will. What will we find out these incompetents were not prepared for in that case? What infrastructure has been allowed to disintegrate? What building codes have been ignored, bypassed and bribed away? To what degree have workable gas shutoffs been installed? How many DEIs does it take to not respond to a disaster? Is any responsible adult in charge thinking of this and not his hair?
Before the Hairgel & Cameltoe era, I thought CA government was misguided, but within those philosophical differences, basically competent.
But now, I think CA is headed for San Francisco 1906, coupled with Bangladeshi building practices, and immigration ideals that would welcome the Visigoths. We are witnessing societal de-evolution.
These developments have been SO insane that the voters turning away from the proponents for the long run is NOT assured. I don’t mean voting Republican – I just mean the voters demanding the Democrat candidates being rational.
City of LA is requiring upgrading of tuck under parking which was an huge issue in the northride quake, and freeway support columns have been improved. So we are able to weather larger earthquakes, that are catastrophic for other countries.
My gut feeling is California has low corruption in building codes / enforcement. There are other issues. Insurance companies are forcing upgrades to electrical and city of LA has their own requirements, so a huge backlog on compliant panels. There is a continual issue of corruption on getting building / construction approvals in LA. Of course with homeless, building and health codes are not enforced in LA, unfortunately.
I hope and pray you are right.
"How many DEIs does it take to not respond..?"
Brilliant Lydia. In the Army we'd say, "Target! Target! Target! Cease Fire."
bsn
"How then would ye endure such horror, oh pilgrim, to live thus amid such blood and death? How bearest thou brutal existence upon this land?"
Needed this...lolol.
Chris, what are you worried about?
At least the reservoirs are full in CA. I mean air is something...so they are indeed "full". Just please stop the conspiracy theories!....:)
Add mudslides, gridlocked traffic , horrific smog, hordes of illegals high cost of living toss in a large dose of corrupt California politicians to the Los Angeles salad bowl and you have an unpalatable meal. Los Angeles has burned before and it will burn again because the politicians will scream climate change and the lemmings will re-elect them.
Having been a 24-year resident of southern CA and recent refugee to Texas, the paradise with its inherent natural dangers was indeed highly livable - despite Mike Davis’ lies to the contrary - UNTIL it slipped into the abyss of one party political incompetence that has been making it progressively unlivable the last 15 years.
Rule by Lesbians.
Can "Lesbomoracy" become a word?
I’m thinking it’s more like “Lesbocracy”
Exactly.
It's like we have an endless caravan of Inspector Clouseaus, in white Ford Broncos, going the wrong way on I-5, and thinking the gridlock is a surprise hero's parade just for them!...yeah!...
Don’t disrespect inspector Clouseaus! He made stupid, funny. Kinda like the Stooges. Can’t say that about our politicians.
I know. Fond memories.
I used to watch all things Peter Sellers in the 70's with my grandpa
The Party, where he created havoc at an elite Hollywood party, probably one of his finest. Get a cold six pack, watch and split your sides.
When I commented about the Santa Inez reservoir being empty for almost a year due to a torn cover, some 🤡 on LinkedIn asked if I knew the reason or was I just “spreading misinformation”. 🙄. I posted a quote from LADWP and then said the actual reason is incompetence! No other explanation needed.
It was empty in 2022, as well. In a community paved with swimming pools, the government can't keep a reservoir up and running and full of water -- even if they are paying the responsible person more than $700,000 a year.
Do you have a link for that? I was trying to find one I could use, I read that also somewhere but need something to back it up with. Thanks! Can’t believe they’re paying their useless LADWP CEO $750,000 a year. Disgusting.
LA Times. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-01-10/as-flames-raged-in-palisades-a-key-reservoir-nearby-was-offline
I read that too. Unbelievable!
Can you spell DEI?
DIE
I left Northern California in 1983 and moved to Kansas. That's about 42 years ago. During that time I have personally seen two tornadoes close enough to be lightly showered by the pieces of houses and trees that were pulled up into the atmosphere. There were other twisters that occurred around the state during that time. It's a thing that happens out on the Great Plains. Oh, yeah, I just remembered... About 5 years ago a horrendous range fire destroyed many ranches and killed many cattle and wild life.
People around here don't blame the tornadoes on climate change. We consider them naturally occurring events. Range fires, too. Notwithstanding, we do have fire engines and crews that do their best to put out the fires and people do build tornado shelters in which to retreat. Home insurance is pretty common, too.
Right?
Something else I think is pretty common is a tendency to become complacent about whatever kind of natural menace it is to which your region is most prone. I also live in tornado country. And we tend towards a kind of tornado machismo. A tornado watch merits barely a shrug. And a warning, unless it clearly designates your particular community or township might prompt you to, at most, glance up at the sky or at the weather report. It's not uncommon for people to stand outside in the gathering wind to look up at the gruesome cloud formations to determine if those are really funnel clouds and, if so, whether anything looks to be headed our way. And to actually make your way to a basement or other shelter is often regarded with bemusement as perhaps a bit of an overreaction.
You are right. Also, media have encouraged this while at the same time lecturing citizens to get in their shelters. The encouragement? Fame! TV news always features close up, dramatic stills and movies on their newscasts that were taken by citizens risking the peril. It's a conundrum because modern news thrives on "eyewitness" video. They can't turn it down and thus encourage it.
That’s interesting. I hadn’t thought of it from that angle. Although, the attitude I’m describing, a bit tongue in cheek, predates the contemporary phenomenon of making your own video and having it aired on the TV news. In a way, that attitude serves as a form of resistance to being dictated to by the news and official information sources. You want to be able to assess the situation for yourself and don’t want to feel obliged to drop everything and get to a shelter just because someone issues a weather alert.
Yes. It is my opinion that the media/government alignment is constantly projecting a need for "fear" to the public. How often have we heard, "It's too icy; it's too hot; it's too sunny, the air is of poor quality (even out here on the Great Plains); get this shot or you will die/get sick/lose your job; don't eat this or that; and my personal disfavorite 'Be Safe Out There'..."Man, I can go on and on. Me, I chose to ignore the totality of it while still trying to maintain a watchful eye. With regard to the all-important "SAFETY" goal pushed by The Collective, I have adopted this mindset:
Safety is NOT a goal - it is the product of good planning and good execution.
So much of what we do in modern life is inherently "unsafe" but we do what we need to do in order to make the risks tolerable and the outcomes successful.
Live not in fear!
Exactly. Everywhere in the world has ‘something’. Nobody is ever completely ‘safe’. People have become both ignorant and stupid.
Amen.
Some folks see Big Sur and think what a beautiful place. I’m here to tell you it’s nothing but pain and death when you fall off a cliff and tumble down 200 feet and, lying broken and battered, are gored to death by a rutting sea lion! There are coyotes in the Los Padres! I’ve seen ‘em, and they’re scarier than Haitians!
I went to Nepenthe once for lunch, and I'm still dead.
My neighbor had a Yorkshire Terrier puppy snagged by a hawk (true story, and NOT in the FJB way). Am I worthy of this conversation?
Come to rural Louisiana! Where you can enjoy watching a kitten being torn apart by warring hawks. ;)
No thanks. I’ve seen some local squirrels become hawk food. I’ve got a small dog too that I look after when she goes out. My neighbor’s Yorky pup was enough.
BTW, I was talking to one of my boy’s scout leaders who told me about his two dogs playing tug of war with a squirrel they caught. I asked which dog won? His answer, “Welll, I can tell ya the squirrel lost.”
Nature ain’t always so kind! Why should we humans expect any different?
Nepenthe was the best near death experience I ever had Chris!
I bet you won’t often make that mistake again.
I spent a year in the hellscape of Monterey, and barely survived our wedding at Quail Lodge in Caramel by the Sea.
The only way to shake off the nightmares of such a miserable shit-hole was to spend a glorious year in a plywood box in Bagram, Afghanistan. (Truth is the country is beautiful, Bagram looks like Salt Lake City without infrastructure.)
bsn
I live in Carmel and it would be easy to forget all the trouble elsewhere, the basically one square mile that is Carmel-by-the-Sea has its own police and fire department, 2 libraries, 50 restaurants, and constant
patrolling by law enforcement. Which is probably why I saw 20 million dollar homes with Harris-Walz signs in their front yards. But one day I was heading into our little post office and an 80 year old WW 2 vet tripped on the three steps but caught himself before he hit the ground, then smiled and said "It's gonna take more than a few steps to get me!" and walked on. America has gotten a little more pussified in certain areas, and those people are the ones who make them quit cutting fire breaks in So Cal back in the 80's cuz they said it endangered some type of field mouse. It's gone downhill from there to the point where a man who wants to feel tough will say he's a woman so he can spike a volleyball into some chick's face. Do that to my daughters and I'll have a real quick chat with that dude. During the game, not after. Cuz I might be a woman for a few minutes and walk onto the court. Sorry, that's off the subject, but not too far.
You do live in Heaven on Earth, for sure. Good for you! I loved my time 'up the hill' as we'd say at DLI--in fact, I intentionally failed a few tests hoping they'd roll me back a few classes (this was their way of 'holding you back', and they usually did this before failing you out completely).
I totally knew I'd likely never live is such a beautiful place, enjoy such a stimulating environment, the school was hard, we were 'voluntold' to be on the run team if one's 2 mile time was below a certain time, we surfed nearly every day after class--it was one of the best years of my life.
My senior instructor, this serious Russian gal, pulls me into her office, "Brian (gotta imagine the Russian rolling of the R's as she said my name-super thick Russian accent) why did you fail this test?"
"Gospajxa Furman, it was just so hard. I think I'm slipping behind..." I answered fully embracing my academic malingering.
"No. You're not. I'm going to drop you for LOE (lack of effort)!"
(This was double plus ungood. You were forced back to your previous job, and it was a bit of a scarlet letter for any future Army life.)
"Ma'am, I uh, I uh, I uh..."
"You will retake this test tomorrow. I won't see you in my office anymore will I?"
"Nyet."
My heart lifted about the 80 old WWII vet. No victim. No drama. Agreed about momentarily become a female to throttle some dysphoric threat to another woman, especially a daughter.
Hard times make strong men...
bsn
BSN, although it became life altering, it's quite cool that Russian instructor couldn't be fooled into thinking you aren't as smart as you are (always love your comments) She gave you no slack. But if you had flunked your way into a longer DLI run, maybe one of your bonus weeks would've seen your surfboard having a tug of war with a Great White trying to catch the same wave, and you were going to end up like that squirrel in H.W. Black's comment above, but only God knows what woulda been. But that Russian instructor saw you as too smart to pull off dumb, so you made it to Quail Lodge as planned, and got even luckier than you got later that night because Tuesdays AND the day you were there are Non-Hell Hole Days. But for the hat trick? You shoulda played Scrabble that night, cuz your instructor's name is worth a shit ton on that Scrabble board!)
Fred! Thank you. Too kind and funny! My lot in my academic life has always been the dummy in the gifted class...which always 'feels like' I'm nearly drowning, but maybe when looking around at the broader population in school I was doing OK.
Have a great week!
bsn
Well that, and Mormons don’t traffic in young boys before marriage…
Coyotes are out of control in LA County. I’ve seen so many flyers of missing small dogs and cats in my area.
When I called the right department in LA county, after seeing some in front of my house, I was unofficially told they no longer do trapping due to fear of being front page news.
The only time you see action is when a person gets bit, as happened a while back in Montebello.
Coyotes are common here in the Smokies. I keep a .357 on the table in the foyer which I take with me when I take the dogs out after dark (along with a 3200 lumen tac-lite). You hear them from time to time, but in 8 yrs have only seen 2.
Coyotes, please. They're everywhere. They're in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. They're IN town! I've seen a pack of 5 in the field behind my house. I've seen 3 on more than one occasion. They're not special.
Bandit: agree. We live in west-central Wisconsin, in the woods. Of course there are critters! Black bears, Fox, coyote, squirrels, raccoons, fishers, etc. And many of these critters are also in town. And thank goodness there are still some around. People no longer know how to live in the natural world…I’m always annoyed by this. They are irresponsible about their pet dog or cat, then cry when their unsupervised pet gets killed by a wild animal.
This brings to mind a conversation I participated in on election night at a bar that had Fox on reporting the results.
One of the gentlemen who was seated around the bar is a skilled hunter. And he spoke with knowledge and precision about where coyotes could be located in the area, including on at least one occasion he described, inside the town where we live. I was fascinated by what he was telling us. I know there are coyotes around here. And sometimes when I'm out walking at night I'll hear a pack of them howling in the distance. But I have no idea how I would go about tracking them down.
But, as we were watching the results, he had a lot of questions about the results that were being reported and about what they meant. And they were the kind of honest questions that revealed that he had retained, at best, a rather hazy grasp of whatever he might have been taught in Civics class about our constitutional structure of government.
His buddy, who clearly had paid attention in class and had kept up with the news, replied with straightforward explanations of what was being reported and its significance. I occasionally chimed in with additional information and explanations. At one point, the hunter guy sheepishly admitted that he didn't really understand much about politics or government. To which I replied, "Yeah, but you know where all the coyotes are!" He laughed in appreciation.
Weelll… I lived 5 miles from downtown Houston for 20 yrs and NEVER saw one by MY house. So there! 😂
😂🤣
Perhaps there are no coyotes and the small pets are wisely migrating to other utopias away from the unlivable hellscape….
The ineptitude of the government, and irrationality of the inhabitants terrify me much more than the fires, earthquakes or bears.
I know how to protect myself from the later, I am still trying to figure out a defense for the former..
Physical distance…and a draw bridge.
😂 A draw bridge.
🙌
But not all Newsom's beliefs are luxurious. Take EVs. I assume each and every one of the seaplanes, helicopters and even the working fire trucks in LA fighting the fires was powered by electric battery. Or pixie dust. Anything but fossil fuels.
Pedals. Especially the DC-10s.
Oh well, theyll save gas when they drive us to the billowing gas furnaces in their zero emission one-way train of box cars.
Sad thing is, Ryan, you think you're kidding.
lol.
NO. I. DON'T
👍
A feature of all socialist regimes, and as Hitler pointed out, there was very little difference between them all, is that, when there is a problem or some sort of catastrophe, the Leadership is not to be blamed. Instead, it is the fault of the proletariat, the workers, the kulaks, the hoi palloi, the masses, or some other such group of what is called elsewhere, "the citizenry". Sitting in his bunker as Soviet infantry and tanks crushed the remnants of the Wehrmacht and Germany more broadly, Hitler blamed the catastrophe not on himself, but on the German people, all of whom, he said, did not have enough "ardor" to defeat the world he'd started a war with. So, methinks that you, Chris, and all the other citizens of California must immediately develop a program to increase your "ardor" for the brilliant leadership you have everywhere in 5th largest economy in the world. After all, it can't be their decisions: many of them have credentials from impressive universities. I think the person who would lead this effort the best, if you can find her, is the woman who was ahead of you in the bagel shop. It might take a couple of years, but she'd come up with some sort of program, eventually.
Danny Huckabee
Ardor. Love that word.
bsn
I’ve only heard it used with respect to the bedroom…
The stupid, it burns!
Literally
If it all doesn't burn down in CA, it might end this way:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14282399/French-theatre-bankruptcy-250-African-migrants-refused-leave-remain-building.html?ito=native_share_article-nativemenubutton
occupational hazard when you run a theatre in the middle of an open-air drug bazaar
Solution (not that the French want one): turn off all utilities and deny food. Make food & drink available 500 ft from the theater on a no-return basis.
They're just waiting for Godot
…who never arrives. Cute.
That's why you don't invite in homeless people.
Take it off us! We be nice to Newsom if he be nice to us!
Wall Street Apes on X: "Here’s why Governor Gavin Newsom will NEVER resign despite being responsible for the Los Angeles fires and financially destroying California Tucker Carlson explains the truth about Gavin Newsom “I know Gavin Newsom. I think a lot about Gavin Newsom, many different things about https://t.co/2qFl8VzhFb" / Xhttps://x.com/WallStreetApes/status/1878515664031539625?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Here’s why Governor Gavin Newsom will NEVER resign despite being responsible for the Los Angeles fires and financially destroying California.
Tucker Carlson explains the truth about Gavin Newsom “I know Gavin Newsom. I think a lot about Gavin Newsom, many different things about Gavin Newsom but one thing I know for a fact about Gavin Newsom is he has the capacity to beat a lie detector test. Gavin Newsom will say anything he needs to say”
“Gavin Newsom's palms don't sweat. His respiration doesn't increase. His body temperature doesn't change. Nothing changes in Gavin Newsom when he lies to your face, and there are not that many people like that, actually.”
Interviewer: “You’re saying he's a sociopath? He can lie and not care?”
“I’m not a psychiatrist and I don’t want to diagnose the category. All I can say is there are not many people who can do that."
I’m wondering how the folks in Florida think about this…
The possibility of experiencing a hurricane there each year is much better than not. Yet, they persevere and love the sunshine when there aren’t any storms. I’ve got a friend there that loves it. He just went through two hurricanes this last summer.
As I shoveled my regular 3” of snow this morning, I’m happy to be here where the seasons change and I thank God for the global warming that caused the glaciers to melt to leave me with all the wonderful lakes I get to enjoy around here.
To each his own!
I love it after spending 49 years in SoCal.
Remember when the mockingbirds and FEMA said it would be impossible for Florida to recover from the Ian hurricane (class 5) for at least 3-5 years.
Well, DeSantis said "impossible is nothing" and had vital bridges (that were completly destroyed) functional in 3-5 days! It took less than 30 days for him to essentially put Florida back together. Most of the neighborhoods that were destroyed have already been rebuilt and are now virtually hurricane proof.
How'd he do this? Well he didn't listen and let the free market do what it does. Leadership matters and that's why he won by 20% margin landslide.
But hey, if these socialist understood economics or how to run institutions, they wouldn't be socialist.
DeSantis would be on deck to be inaugurated in 5 days if the situation hadn’t called for a “barbarian” to expel hordes of the insane from every vestige of our Federal, State & local governments.
agree. we need a bull in a sacred cow shop right now
Provided the bull is carrying a cattle prod… 😂
It's all relative, of course. Before the ice ages, there were eons with no ice at the poles and much of what is now North America covered by water. But trying to stay alive living under a mile of grinding ice, ice that carved mountain valleys as recently as 20,000 years ago, would be the worst. As Crocodile Dundee might say, "now that's climate change." So yes, thank God for global warmth.
I agree with your assessment of LA life. Back in the early to mid 80's my bros and friends and I would ride our Honda motorcycles from Hollywood to the beach below Temescal Canyon, we'd stop at the KFC that used to be on Sunset Blvd in the heart of Pacific Palisades and eat our chicken on the beach, then drive back to Hollywood with just bathing suits and flip flops on (I had a Honda 750 and weighed 150 back then, skinny as hell and thought I was hell bent with layovers in my single apt with twin beds for 380/month in the heart of Hollywood... I had 3 room mates, 2 bros and a friend, two of us slept on the twin bed box springs and two on the mattresses and we all worked in souvenir shops on Holly Blvd and it was good times compared to childhoods back and forth between NYC and Pittsburgh. My now wife then girlfriend lived on 9600 Reseda Blvd in Northridge and the quake collapsed the apt building across the street at 9603 and it was a bad quake. When it hit early morning I rolled on top of her and said (famously idiotic) "Welp, LA's gone!" It wasn't and that building across the street was sad, and the worst number of related casualties, but we drove to Hollywood and many biz's were open and I thought "good weather helps". Republican governors started getting voted out of office and these days Cali's in the strong grip of Soros-style Leftists and Schiff and Newsom and Pelosi types and something like 47 of the 54 Congressional seats are Democrat looking for side money with crime and homelessness soaring and LA's become one hell of a "Before" and "After" that has nothing to do with the type of lightbulb I use.
In my 20s, we rented a giant house in Pasadena so we could break up the rent -- to $240 each -- so we could spend the time in the mountains or at the beach or seeing new bands. It was all very "two of us slept on the twin bed box springs and two on the mattresses," and yes.
Twin Beds, Quadruple Sleep
Love these memories
40 years ago I moved to the metropolis of Edmonton Alberta, moved in with 5 other people and (at one point) 17 cats, had milk crate end tables and lots of amazing decor from Value Village. A drawer with 10 different silverware patterns and all the butter knives with burnt ends for some reason 😎
I think being too rich and not going through those lean times is a lost education for some.
Anyone see Newsom teetering back and forth like a schoolgirl who has to pee? What is he on?
https://x.com/senatormelendez/status/1878842943949467850
A lot of speculation on social media that it's cocaine.
Maybe Hunter can give him lessons on how to be still.
He’s got the moves! White men can’t dance.
Thank-you! He looked f'n gleeful when answering that question dealing with destruction. He's a bit of a psycho.
Looks gay.
That's what I thought -- what a queen!!!
Every time I see a video of him, I get the heebie-jeebies. It feels as if his mask isn’t completely covering his alien lizard evil self underneath.
Updated version 🤣 https://x.com/thekevindalton/status/1879059777617322300
To forget about the fires for just a moment, doesn't it get boring to wake up to another sunny day? In England our summer is short but by the end of it I'm looking forward to a change, even a change for the worse, weather-wise.
Say that in my living room, and watch the debate that follows between husband from Los Angeles and wife from New York.
Ah, she's gone native.
Grew up in NJ, moved to San Diego in my mid-20s, and - eventually - missed the damned snow! So after 27 years of sunny SoCal weather, I got seasons again in the mountains of AZ. Love it. Everyone's different - vive la difference!
As a transplant from a place with four actual seasons, including glorious leaf shows in fall and snowy winters, yeah I do miss that (and it’s hard to get the timing right to catch those perfect fall or winter days on visits back). But I don’t miss: long gray Novembers after the leaves are gone but before the snow falls; wading through brown slush on city streets as the temperature hovers around freezing; the piles of dog turds revealed when the snow melts; or mosquitoes, blackflies, deerflies and horseflies. (Sadly, we do now have way more mosquitoes in SoCal than when we first moved here. No bueno.)
Chris, well said, as always. Dropped my kids off at school today. Negative five on a balmy January morning in the upper Midwest. Oh, the humanity!!! How did we survive it? Coats, hats, mittens....and a full understanding of reality....nature wins when you let your guard down. Propane tanks were prebought and filled last June because....winter is coming.
That is the story of life on earth. We struggle, sacrifice and brave the elements of nature. We prepare. We live in reality. People have leaned on the giants of innovation and preparation for too long. Those who toiled before them have been forgotten. Nothing runs forever on this woke bullshit. Now everyone pays the price.
After 28 years in Los Angeles, I relocated to Oklahoma in 2022. As everyone knows, our distinctive disaster is the tornado, and more generally the extreme weather that generates high winds and (localized) baseball-sized hail every Spring. The prevailing Okie attitude is that we know the risks, we've done what we can to avert the worst, and the rest is up to God. The storm-chasers, who drive their specially equipped trucks into storms to report to the TV meteorologists, are local heroes. Even the smallest towns have warning systems, both old-fashioned sirens and newer phone alerts, which are conscientiously maintained. Everyone (well, everyone I know) has a designated room (no windows, farthest from the exterior walls) as a place of refuge. Nevertheless, every year, there are weather-generated tragedies, people killed and property destroyed, but no one laments that this is a hellish place where no one should live. It's about as far as possible from the L.A. attitude.