The so-called leaders are not there to serve the electorate. They are there to enrich themselves and/or because they like the intoxicating taste of power. I would have difficulty naming a single person in local or federal government that can be called a dedicated public servant without reservation. And especially in blue areas where the pragmatism and managerial skills were long ago replaced by partisanship and identity politics. Why was Karen Bass elected a mayor of one of the largest cities in the country? What expertise is listed on her resume that made her look like a competent candidate? According to Wikipedia, “She spent her career as a physician assistant and community activist before seeking public office.” Why would anyone expect more from this symbolic figurehead?
I know plenty of physician's assistants and if this woman was ever a PA, I was a brain surgeon before landing the Airbus 320 I was once on in the Hudson River.
Wow, thanks for the link. I am from the East Coast and never had much interest in the CA progressive personalities until now. But what an astonishing publication. I had no idea. If residents of LA knew her background and still voted for her, it is insane.
But then Di Blasio was elected a mayor of New York - another community organizer with no other credentials to qualify for the position. His wife mismanaged about $1 billion in mental health funding. It is a mystery what she did with the money, and nobody seems to be interested. Ideology means more to people on the left than their own safety and education and safety of their children. And no natural or man made disaster seems to change that. Read comments to any NYT article. Those who fell for the left ideology are incorrigible like religious fanatics. Today’s poll on Smerkonish shows that the overwhelming number of viewers (over 74%) blame the devastation brought by CA fires on climate change and not on government mismanagement of resources. We are not ready for a positive change in the government. The division and indoctrination, and the inability to think critically have put down deep roots.
Meanwhile, in my 60% red suburb, we primaried our Republican county commissioner for our precinct because he was only paying attention to the roads and infrastructure projects in the wealthy section of the precinct where he lives.
Now we’ve got a Republican county commissioner for our precinct who is actually responsive to the other roughly 50% of his mostly middle-class constituents.
The local official wasn’t doing his job so we replaced him.
lets take this a step further SC, maybe they were installed because they're so incompetent that they'll leave the public begging for the computer to step in and save them? same thing happening in every institution: medicine, the judiciary, manufacturing...if only we'd let the computer predict this fire lol and save us!
You're missing the fact that elections are rigged/fake, and the people they install are only ever meant to be placeholding apparatchiks, by-standing enablers in the destruction of America. When they're done we'll be unable to resist being rolled into the Communist World Order, whence they will replace Old Glory with the UN sodomy/fornication flag.
They think governing means giving pompous self-congratulatory speeches, ribbon cutting, and other symbolic acts. L.A. “leaders” will plant another rainbow flag and pretend the catastrophe didn’t happen. Yes I live here.
SF cancelled policies because CA mismanagement of the land raised the risk factor too high. Those with cancelled policies had 4 months to replace them. Their own fault if they chose not to.
I am sorry to hear that man. It's stories like this that make me think we should just privatize the government and tell them all to pound friggin' sand. The social contract is broken, mea culpa, shouldn't have trusted them.
I will take the evil I know and can stop paying at will over the evil I have seen the last four years. The good news is MAGA Carta seems to have won the day, but this disaster has been one too many.
It is horrible. My house went down in 2015 - the only house in the neighborhood. But these entire city fires taking every building in town is - there are no words. A war zone after the war.
I know the fear, the loss, the recovery that really isn’t recovery at all, just time that passes.
That this was an avoidable tragedy makes it all the worse. So many affected, who have lost everything, are older & realistically may no live long enough to rebuild.
That's horrible. What makes it even worse is that this was very likely preventable. I hope you've got people who can offer you a temporary refuge whilst you pick up the pieces from what must surely be a major shock.
An Englishman's home is his castle really encapsulates just how we come to rely upon our homes as a base of operations and sanctum sanctorum.
Great post and it isn't limited to Blue States or cities. I live in Calgary AB. We're just a colder version of Texas. But our mayor and majority of councillors are very Left. The day after the mayor was elected, the first thing she did was declare a "Climate Emergency". A year later we had a MAJOR water main break that completely cut off water for a quarter of the city and forced water restrictions on the rest of us for 6 months. Then we had 2 other major water main breaks, all due to neglect over the previous 10 years. The mayor before this one was a fat gay Muslim former Harvard prof. We have very DEI hiring policies with a very DEI workforce but the absolute basics of civic management are completely ignored. It isn't just California, it's EVERYWHERE that progs get elected. Not that conservatives have been any better. Leftism is a disease that is killing Western Civilization.
but don't worry, once everything we know is dead and buried, the theorist class has promised that Utopia will be just over the horizon—this was only the first of the many Five Year Plans yet to come.
Not trying to teach you to suck eggs, but so long as your ID and financial paperwork is safe and secured all you’d need is an efficient getaway and longsleeved woolen outerwear to soak in water for the escape.
During the last great fire where I am, I resolved to walk/run rather than risk my safety. No posession is ever worth an injury. My position downstream from Horace: mihi res, non me rebus…possessions/things exist for me, not me for them.
The next wave of building in LA will presumably involve lots of fire mitigation: rainwater storage tanks, specially fitted gutters, steel cladding over woodwork, sprinklers in strategic positions, fire resistant landscaping. Ambitious architects will be boning up on this.
Dont want to wind you or anyone else up, but I’d expect that residents are already receiving sms and email from real estate agents. After a certain age, disasters no longer reveal much, just confirm everyday experiences.
Rest assured plenty of people all over are praying for you all even those splashing about in doubt's boundless sea.
But at least with conservatives, the basics get provided while they rip you off. With liberals, they increase your taxes and then waste it all, and condemn you for complaining.
NYC was built on an ocean of corruption, but it got built. It wasn’t until the liberals arrived in the 60’s that NYC started it collapse.
We all know damn well the “leaders” were warned of all the urgent issues weeks if not months ago. They simply don’t want the job, just the position. Like the fired police chief of Oakland, incompetence is not a hinderance to getting their next position.
"here's an extended scene in our film that illustrates how ineffective water becomes when a wildfire really gets going"
Which is obviously why, when the firefighters hooked their hoses up to the *fire hydrants* they were being *fucking morons.* I mean, who just goes up to a fire hydrant to get water to put out a fire? What kind of asshole does that?
Sure, NOW the sheer quantity of GPM that it takes to put out a fire seems impossible. But it takes a finite amount of water to make a wall that the fire is not going to pass. A large, but finite amount, which the mutual aid system is designed to provide as quickly as possible when a fire pops off… if the water is there to use. No water -> less effective initial attack -> bigger fire -> harder to contain or turn from structures.
So, you're a passenger on a cruise ship. You bought a ticket at a heft price for the privilege to be on the ship. You also pay a weekly fee to remain on the ship. It cruises in beautiful oceans, and passes stunning scenery, and makes port calls at interesting places.
After a couple weeks, you notice that things aren't as promised. The buffet only has hot dogs and corn from a can. The bathrooms aren't cleaned. The shows are cancelled most nights. You talk to the staff, working your way up to a chat with the captain. They nod their heads, and go about their business. But nothing gets better. Things continue to deteriorate.
But, you pay your weekly fee, again and again. At the ports, you get off the ship and have a great time in nice places. But then you come back to the ship, and live in squalor. And you pay your weekly fee. Week after week, months after month.
You notice that other passengers got wise--some after only a day, some after a week, some after a month--and got the hell off the hell-ship. But you stay on--because....the scenery is beautiful, my relatives are on the ship with me, etc, etc.
This is what's going on in California. You're paying that weekly/monthly/annual fee in various taxes. But the services crumble and the staff ignore you. And you keep paying. Smart people got the hell out of the hell-hole years ago.
There really is no excuse for any sane person to remain in California. Get the hell off the ship. It'll sink on its own. No reason at all to keep paying them.
I wouldn't give my little boy to the state school system of CA at gunpoint. Especially if he was white. Within a couple of years, the state will have removed him from my home, chopped his pieces off and made him take pills that would permanently destroy his little body. Oh, hell no.
Completely. Try using a parking meter in Los Angeles. Odds are it will be completely unreadable, in such a poor state (scratched, screen faded, pixels virtually gone) that you are literally guessing how much you are paying and how long it is good for.
Is it that hard to maintain parking meters that actually are a profit center for the city?
I had to park near old town Pasadena. The only spot near the office I was meeting at had a meter that was OBVIOUSLY broken. I parked there. I received a ticket. I took photo graphs and appealed to the the city that the meter was broken. They denied my appeal. This was in 2016. But it was clear evidence of the problem with unaccountable bureaucracy. This is the sort of stuff (and we all have numbers of stories) that pushed me from being a classic liberal conservative to a libertarian leaning conservative. Most days, conservative doesn't cut it in my mind any more.
When did accountability stop being a thing? Am I just imagining a time when people would resign or be forced out for poor performance or failure to prepare adequately?
Once upon a time, disgraced CEOs/political figures would express regret and then commit ritual suicide.
I’d settle for the expression of regret. Usually involves bowing low on television. Can you imagine anyone involved in the present calamity prostrating themselves in shame on national TV? I can’t either.
Do you have fire insurance on your home, Chris? Because even if you do, that might not last. I say this in all sincerity - why not relocate while someone might still buy your home? You would be so welcome in so many better states. :)
I was a TV writer back in the 80’s, then after my daughter was born I taught high school English to 12th graders. The former filled my bank account; the latter filled my soul.
Until it didn’t, when the woke crap moved in. I retired to Texas, where it snowed today.
This is my kids' dilemma too, being in the biz. But so much can be done from somewhere else (I keep telling them)... and you can always fly back for the important stuff (I also keep telling them that). They even own property here, ready to go, but I literally fear there may come a day when their home there is unsellable because of crap like this week.
Between COVID and the death of the hard disk in our DIRECTV receiver, we discovered that we no longer need network TV. I’m glad to be included in the “non-watching” multitudes.
May I start the bidding to provide his relocation site? Of course, right now it’s snowing like a MF here in East Tenn, but our government is limited and generally works very rationally.
I am pissed and I live in FL. I can't imagine how the thinking people of CA feel about this.
Time to try the Red model. Hope the voters have come to the same conclusion.
I found myself yelling at my computer today when I read several articles trying to justify why not having enough water wouldn't have helped. In one case, the explanation was that "well every major city has water distribution systems that wouldn't work if they had a large wildfire or similar event". Well guess what, NY, Baltimore, Chicago, Philadelphia, etc have many problems but wildfires (which are foreseeable but not predictable) ain't one of them. The people LA should be asking the local and even state emergency management folks did we ever consider what happens if we have a wildfire when the reservoir is out of commission. Could the repairs have been expedited? At what cost? Did anyone consider it?
The latest BS trying to say that even if the reservoir was full and operational, it would have helped for only so long. Maybe-Maybe not. Perhaps jumping on the problem with unlimited water resources initially might have extinguished many of the embers that were wind blown to adjacent properties that might have also been able to have been soaked down. To try to white wash the fact that they screwed up and really don't give a shit or want to be challenged on their shitty policies is all anyone who votes needs to remember the next election. I would suggest that voters begin the recall process ASAP.
Gaslighting. The advice of the firefighters in my city is to use tap water to wet the areas around the house and under large trees. They explicitly said not to worry about hydrant pressure. They are on a different system than potable water.
Yes to the wetting things down. If the random wind drifted embers can’t catch, that avenue of spread is reduced. Lots of little steps end up whittling it down and keeping it small. Same principle as any big project. One can either do all the steps and stop most instances of problems from becoming large, or just throw up the hands with a cry, “if it gets big we’ll never get it under control, so why even bother”.
The turning point will come when liberals are angry. Not over mean tweets from Trump, over something they were not told to be angry about.
Example, many are coming to realize what a mistake getting vaccinate was as their health become undeniably poor, but they are not angry. If they are angry at all, it is with the anti vaxxer conspiracy theorist who tried to save them.
The longer they don't get angry from their own discovery, at actual sources to blame, DEI, Firetrucks to Ukraine, competent firefighters forced out by vaxx mandates, inept bureaucracy, money spent on illegals, poor water management, etc, basically EVERY DEM policy, the more likely they will buy into the next narrative.
Thankfully the media is not playing along (very much). The longer it takes to coalesce around a #narrative, (Imagine how much worse it would have been with Trump! we would have lost ALL of LA) the more burned out residents will have to think. Nothing will happen until the center left (and thus a solid majority) gets angry...
A famous millionaire is said to have responded to the question, “How did you go bankrupt?” with “Slowly at first, then all of a sudden.” Reading your many articles about the failure of Blue Governments and the demise of their cities’ infrastructure reminded me of the millionaire’s response. The implosion of our cities happened slowly at first and now it’s all at once. What’s become of our once great nation?
This is not happening by accident. The voters of CA have voted repeatedly over the decades to beef up water supplies and reduce fire risk with controlled burns, etc.
CA has failed to build a single reservoir since 1979, despite a 2014 voter-passed $7.5 billion water bond ballot initiative that authorized the creation of new reservoirs and several other water infrastructure projects.
I'm so sorry you have to report on (and live through) this predicable tragedy. Sun Tzu called it - the evil enemy will burn the his own nation and rule over the ashes. Evil is all around us. Have hope all Good men who read this. We will find each other on the other side of this nightmare and rise like the Phoenix.
Also consider that CA officials may be reluctant to spend money to protect the lives and property of people who live in the affected areas, because they think that such spending will encourage more of the “cancer” of human development at the expense of Sacred Nature.
As soon as the covid closures ended in Salt Lake City, apartments have been going up in every nook and cranny available in the city. It make me think that this metro is intended as a smart/15 minute city. Blue or red party colors mean nothing for the long-term planners of the world.
My 1st job out of college was for the Fed gov (won’t say which agency - you’d hate it). The application process awarded points for various “experiences.” My 5 pt experience was for wearing the Army green for 3.5 yrs (72-75). Admittedly, they gave 10 pts for combat, IIRC. Another 5 pt “experience” was being black. To be clear, EXISTING as black. I think being female or Hispanic also was worth 5 pts. Not sure when EEO started (or where the ratios were beforehand in Houston), but by 1979, the local Federal workforce was comprised of women, blacks Hispanics and white male veterans. I’m sure it was considered by its designers as a great success.
The water system, as generally done, one single pipe network for potable water and fireflow, doesn't work in wildfire areas. They should have installed a dual system that tapped into the Pacific, because that reservoir requires constant replenishment due to evaporation and inundation. But those sort of ideas would require forethought and leadership. Instead, we are getting a bullet train that doesn't work and goes nowhere.
We could even be healthier if the Democratic Party just moved away from the Full Stalin. Pat Brown and Tom Bradley were Democrats, but they wouldn't have tolerated this state of ruin.
One difference: Stalin actually guided things in the USSR (to his own political advantage of course). These woke-cause-du-jour folks are like players vibrating around randomly on an old-time electric football game. Todays politicians are clumsily surfing the wave, hoping not to to fall off & get eaten.
Move Tom Bradley and his policies etc forward 30 years and he'd have an R after his name. Read his online bio and they call him a Liberal Mayor. How things have changed.
Don’t insult Stalin. He took USSR from an agrarian society to an industrial superpower. If democrats were a tenth as good as Stalin I would be ecstatic.
I have hundreds of unread emails and comments, and am trying to get offline for a bit to see the world outside the front door. Will catch up soon.
How dare you leave us! Return to your post immediately!!
😂
The 'leaders' have had it so good for so long -- including the death of the adversarial media -- that they literally don't know how to govern.
The so-called leaders are not there to serve the electorate. They are there to enrich themselves and/or because they like the intoxicating taste of power. I would have difficulty naming a single person in local or federal government that can be called a dedicated public servant without reservation. And especially in blue areas where the pragmatism and managerial skills were long ago replaced by partisanship and identity politics. Why was Karen Bass elected a mayor of one of the largest cities in the country? What expertise is listed on her resume that made her look like a competent candidate? According to Wikipedia, “She spent her career as a physician assistant and community activist before seeking public office.” Why would anyone expect more from this symbolic figurehead?
Yup.
California has now become like dating a supermodel; beautiful to look at, but batshit crazy
If current Californians had to qualify for land ownership based on rationality, most of them would have to leave.
On second thought, some might come here…never mind (Emily Litella)
Keyboard Clean-up - lolololo - sigh.
Except it’s not even beautiful to look at anymore. So many of our neighborhoods are unimaginably deteriorated.
Here's some interesting details about the LA Mayor B*ass:
https://pjmedia.com/victoria-taft/2025/01/09/next-time-la-dont-elect-a-commie-who-doesnt-like-your-country-n4935835
I know plenty of physician's assistants and if this woman was ever a PA, I was a brain surgeon before landing the Airbus 320 I was once on in the Hudson River.
...Yeah, that's the ticket!!
Wow, thanks for the link. I am from the East Coast and never had much interest in the CA progressive personalities until now. But what an astonishing publication. I had no idea. If residents of LA knew her background and still voted for her, it is insane.
But then Di Blasio was elected a mayor of New York - another community organizer with no other credentials to qualify for the position. His wife mismanaged about $1 billion in mental health funding. It is a mystery what she did with the money, and nobody seems to be interested. Ideology means more to people on the left than their own safety and education and safety of their children. And no natural or man made disaster seems to change that. Read comments to any NYT article. Those who fell for the left ideology are incorrigible like religious fanatics. Today’s poll on Smerkonish shows that the overwhelming number of viewers (over 74%) blame the devastation brought by CA fires on climate change and not on government mismanagement of resources. We are not ready for a positive change in the government. The division and indoctrination, and the inability to think critically have put down deep roots.
The article in this link explains a lot, regarding how LA is ‘managed’.
Astonishing
Meanwhile, in my 60% red suburb, we primaried our Republican county commissioner for our precinct because he was only paying attention to the roads and infrastructure projects in the wealthy section of the precinct where he lives.
Now we’ve got a Republican county commissioner for our precinct who is actually responsive to the other roughly 50% of his mostly middle-class constituents.
The local official wasn’t doing his job so we replaced him.
What a concept.
Yeah. The salaries of the Mayor, the Fire Chief and her Assistants are just amazing. And they can’t even fake doing their jobs.
Isn't that pretty much Obummer's resume? 🤔
Yes, many are community organizers: Obama, Di Blasio, Sanders. They are activists, not managers.
You just boiled it all the way down. Simple but profound
lets take this a step further SC, maybe they were installed because they're so incompetent that they'll leave the public begging for the computer to step in and save them? same thing happening in every institution: medicine, the judiciary, manufacturing...if only we'd let the computer predict this fire lol and save us!
All of it. Every. Single. Institution. needs to be razed.
And then salt the fields. Let not a seed be left for the bureaucrats/technocrats replenish their field of lies!
You’re channeling Rome’s destruction of Carthage! 👍
lot's wife
You're missing the fact that elections are rigged/fake, and the people they install are only ever meant to be placeholding apparatchiks, by-standing enablers in the destruction of America. When they're done we'll be unable to resist being rolled into the Communist World Order, whence they will replace Old Glory with the UN sodomy/fornication flag.
be sure not to drive over the mural of the flag painted on the intersection.
They think governing means giving pompous self-congratulatory speeches, ribbon cutting, and other symbolic acts. L.A. “leaders” will plant another rainbow flag and pretend the catastrophe didn’t happen. Yes I live here.
^^This!^^
I can confirm. Just got off phone with FIL. House burned down this morning and the hydrants were not working.
I am sick to my stomach.
Palisades?
Yup. Between there and Santa Monica.
Just disgusted. California is broken
Sorry to hear it. It's a shockingly ugly week.
Sorry RG
Dittos.
so sorry RG did he have insurance or state farm?
Not sure. He was scrambling. So I just let it "rest".
State Farm dropped tons of policies 4 months ago, right on time:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14267081/LA-homeowners-celebrities-slam-state-farm-insurance-fires-coverage.html
SF cancelled policies because CA mismanagement of the land raised the risk factor too high. Those with cancelled policies had 4 months to replace them. Their own fault if they chose not to.
Terrible news, Ryan. I'm so sorry, but that sentiment just doesn't express my feelings.
They live close to Wil Roger's park
Beautiful area. Should be paradise.
Small world, I lived on Temescal Canyon Rd\Radcliff for a year. And the tards burnt it down.
Beautiful area.
I am sorry to hear that man. It's stories like this that make me think we should just privatize the government and tell them all to pound friggin' sand. The social contract is broken, mea culpa, shouldn't have trusted them.
Based on all the woke CEOs I'm not sure privitization is the answer you think it will be
I will take the evil I know and can stop paying at will over the evil I have seen the last four years. The good news is MAGA Carta seems to have won the day, but this disaster has been one too many.
There’s always Mario’s brother.
100%
Somebody told me a housefire is like a death in the family. Sorry for your family
It is horrible. My house went down in 2015 - the only house in the neighborhood. But these entire city fires taking every building in town is - there are no words. A war zone after the war.
I know the fear, the loss, the recovery that really isn’t recovery at all, just time that passes.
Now we have gone through it.
I’m so sorry to read this.
Ryan that's horrible, I am really really really sorry buddy
None of its surprising. But they lost everything.They're in pretty good spirits tho.
Thanks for the well-wishes.
My condolences to you—and everyone who’s hurting. Chris’ former stories put the lie to climate change BS. This was—in large part—an avoidable tragedy.
That this was an avoidable tragedy makes it all the worse. So many affected, who have lost everything, are older & realistically may no live long enough to rebuild.
Oh Ryan I'm so sorry. There are few words for this other than I will pray for him. God knows who he is.
Thank you. That's all that's left to do.
God's good
All the time.
That's sad news, Ryan. Just sad. I'm sorry.
Not unlike COVID..... our government is our worst enemy. And we get the bill. Just sickening....
So sorry to hear that. So sorry.
Thanks, man.
California has now become like dating a supermodel; beautiful to look at, but batshit crazy
So, so sorry to hear that. So utterly devastating to watch your whole (material) life disappear.
Is everyone OK?
Yes. Thank God.
Appreciate your thoughts.
I think they got most of their pictures and other important stuff loaded in the car the night before when the took off.
Thank goodness they had a little notice to gather some important and irreplaceable things! It's only a small comfort, but it's something.
So sorry to hear that. Damn.
Yup. Exactly. Damn
I am so sorry to read this. Such unspeakable and unnecessary tragedy. It makes me sick to my stomach too.
That's horrible. What makes it even worse is that this was very likely preventable. I hope you've got people who can offer you a temporary refuge whilst you pick up the pieces from what must surely be a major shock.
An Englishman's home is his castle really encapsulates just how we come to rely upon our homes as a base of operations and sanctum sanctorum.
Indeed. Just so.
Very Sorry
I'm sorry to hear this, Ryan. I take it they're ok?
Yes. They'll be fine. They're shaken...but robust in spirit
🤗
So sorry to hear this, Ryan. No words.
Thanks Snow. I appreciate your thoughts.
Cheers!
I am so, so sorry.
Great post and it isn't limited to Blue States or cities. I live in Calgary AB. We're just a colder version of Texas. But our mayor and majority of councillors are very Left. The day after the mayor was elected, the first thing she did was declare a "Climate Emergency". A year later we had a MAJOR water main break that completely cut off water for a quarter of the city and forced water restrictions on the rest of us for 6 months. Then we had 2 other major water main breaks, all due to neglect over the previous 10 years. The mayor before this one was a fat gay Muslim former Harvard prof. We have very DEI hiring policies with a very DEI workforce but the absolute basics of civic management are completely ignored. It isn't just California, it's EVERYWHERE that progs get elected. Not that conservatives have been any better. Leftism is a disease that is killing Western Civilization.
Climate emergency / broken water mains. Yes.
just doing what is what designed to do!
but don't worry, once everything we know is dead and buried, the theorist class has promised that Utopia will be just over the horizon—this was only the first of the many Five Year Plans yet to come.
Good. There you are. And safe
hey, thanks for checking in on me! much appreciated.
sorry to hear about your family losing their home, this all is such an overwhelming disaster.
we are in beverly glen, just south of mulholland, which is currently a safe zone, but who knows for how much longer. the air reeks of fire and ash.
our car is packed and we are monitoring the FD alerts in case we need to evac.
god bless
Good man. This is one of the few times a mask could come in handy.
Godspeed
yes, my wife just ventured out all masked up.
gonna be ugly for awhile here
good lord!
Stay safe!
Have not seen you on FbF threads recently. Stay safe. Sounds like you know what you are doing.
I live in proximity of mostly eucalyptus bushland that is vulnerable to fire, so I have some appreciation of the predicament in LA.
Hey, thanks for checking in on me, is much appreciated.
We are in the hills about 3-5 miles to the east of the Palisades fire and have been in warning mode for about a week now.
Bags have been packed by the door but as of now it looks like we'll be safe and not have to evacuate.
Fingers crossed!
Not trying to teach you to suck eggs, but so long as your ID and financial paperwork is safe and secured all you’d need is an efficient getaway and longsleeved woolen outerwear to soak in water for the escape.
During the last great fire where I am, I resolved to walk/run rather than risk my safety. No posession is ever worth an injury. My position downstream from Horace: mihi res, non me rebus…possessions/things exist for me, not me for them.
The next wave of building in LA will presumably involve lots of fire mitigation: rainwater storage tanks, specially fitted gutters, steel cladding over woodwork, sprinklers in strategic positions, fire resistant landscaping. Ambitious architects will be boning up on this.
Dont want to wind you or anyone else up, but I’d expect that residents are already receiving sms and email from real estate agents. After a certain age, disasters no longer reveal much, just confirm everyday experiences.
Rest assured plenty of people all over are praying for you all even those splashing about in doubt's boundless sea.
But at least with conservatives, the basics get provided while they rip you off. With liberals, they increase your taxes and then waste it all, and condemn you for complaining.
NYC was built on an ocean of corruption, but it got built. It wasn’t until the liberals arrived in the 60’s that NYC started it collapse.
Torontonian here: we have Comrade Chow to deal with, I feel your pain.
And I happen to be ex-Torontonian.
Grew up in the working class "beaches".
Retired now, and relocated to cottage country.
Now I only go to Toronto for funerals, and the occasional wedding.
I dread driving to my hometown that I once loved...
Chaiman Chow: yeah, let's spend $5 Million renaming Dundas St...
Have you seen Allen Gardens?
Sorry, Toronto is now a shithole...
Same thing when I enter where I grew up in San Diego.
It's almost as sense of dreary foreboding when I have to go back to visit, etc.
The fact is, is there's still a lot of sane people there, but they've been demoralized to the point of apathy.
We all know damn well the “leaders” were warned of all the urgent issues weeks if not months ago. They simply don’t want the job, just the position. Like the fired police chief of Oakland, incompetence is not a hinderance to getting their next position.
They simply don’t want the job, just the position*
Bingo.
And worse; they feel entitled to the job...and to doing nothing when they get that job.
Where in the end stages of living under 3 decades of kakistocracy.
they can control the planet's climate if you give them enough money and live under severe restrictions, but can't maintain the local roads.
You just got to the nub of it.
Literally pot hole repair trucks....wait for it...getting stuck in potholes.
From the Mann Made Cinema tweet:
"here's an extended scene in our film that illustrates how ineffective water becomes when a wildfire really gets going"
Which is obviously why, when the firefighters hooked their hoses up to the *fire hydrants* they were being *fucking morons.* I mean, who just goes up to a fire hydrant to get water to put out a fire? What kind of asshole does that?
It's suspiciously MAGA to think that water can put out fires
Dude has a point. But he’a missing the point.
Sure, NOW the sheer quantity of GPM that it takes to put out a fire seems impossible. But it takes a finite amount of water to make a wall that the fire is not going to pass. A large, but finite amount, which the mutual aid system is designed to provide as quickly as possible when a fire pops off… if the water is there to use. No water -> less effective initial attack -> bigger fire -> harder to contain or turn from structures.
Same principle I guess, but wetting down a non-burning structure tends to help it remain non-burning…
Racist & mysoginist too, not to mention some penis thinking baked in there.
Oh, come on, I'm a woman and I thought water could extinguish a fire.
Obviously you’re a TERF… 😂
You know I've heard The Donald and Musk are to blame because...of course they are...sigh. Thanks for a fantastic summary of the problem. Restacked.
Source????!
It's also clear you're a big meanie and don't like little fishies that get stuck swimming in the reservoirs.
So, you're a passenger on a cruise ship. You bought a ticket at a heft price for the privilege to be on the ship. You also pay a weekly fee to remain on the ship. It cruises in beautiful oceans, and passes stunning scenery, and makes port calls at interesting places.
After a couple weeks, you notice that things aren't as promised. The buffet only has hot dogs and corn from a can. The bathrooms aren't cleaned. The shows are cancelled most nights. You talk to the staff, working your way up to a chat with the captain. They nod their heads, and go about their business. But nothing gets better. Things continue to deteriorate.
But, you pay your weekly fee, again and again. At the ports, you get off the ship and have a great time in nice places. But then you come back to the ship, and live in squalor. And you pay your weekly fee. Week after week, months after month.
You notice that other passengers got wise--some after only a day, some after a week, some after a month--and got the hell off the hell-ship. But you stay on--because....the scenery is beautiful, my relatives are on the ship with me, etc, etc.
This is what's going on in California. You're paying that weekly/monthly/annual fee in various taxes. But the services crumble and the staff ignore you. And you keep paying. Smart people got the hell out of the hell-hole years ago.
There really is no excuse for any sane person to remain in California. Get the hell off the ship. It'll sink on its own. No reason at all to keep paying them.
I will define it the opposite way: If you have minor children, do not move to California for any reason.
Why would any sane person, with or without minor children, move to, or remain in California?
I wouldn't give my little boy to the state school system of CA at gunpoint. Especially if he was white. Within a couple of years, the state will have removed him from my home, chopped his pieces off and made him take pills that would permanently destroy his little body. Oh, hell no.
Excellent comment!
Completely. Try using a parking meter in Los Angeles. Odds are it will be completely unreadable, in such a poor state (scratched, screen faded, pixels virtually gone) that you are literally guessing how much you are paying and how long it is good for.
Is it that hard to maintain parking meters that actually are a profit center for the city?
Can confirm!
I had to park near old town Pasadena. The only spot near the office I was meeting at had a meter that was OBVIOUSLY broken. I parked there. I received a ticket. I took photo graphs and appealed to the the city that the meter was broken. They denied my appeal. This was in 2016. But it was clear evidence of the problem with unaccountable bureaucracy. This is the sort of stuff (and we all have numbers of stories) that pushed me from being a classic liberal conservative to a libertarian leaning conservative. Most days, conservative doesn't cut it in my mind any more.
Exactly. They're going to get their pound of flesh one way or another
Let me guess: The bright red “Out of Time” arm is in perfect shape with a strong spring to pop it up?
When did accountability stop being a thing? Am I just imagining a time when people would resign or be forced out for poor performance or failure to prepare adequately?
It caught the bus out with meritocracy and morality.
Clintons.
I think that's Japan you're thinking about. Nothing like that has been seen in this country in decades.
Once upon a time, disgraced CEOs/political figures would express regret and then commit ritual suicide.
I’d settle for the expression of regret. Usually involves bowing low on television. Can you imagine anyone involved in the present calamity prostrating themselves in shame on national TV? I can’t either.
we're in the age of narcissism and complete lack of personal responsibility
Manny - exactly. So much going on in these recent years is a result of the lack of individual responsibility.
Do you have fire insurance on your home, Chris? Because even if you do, that might not last. I say this in all sincerity - why not relocate while someone might still buy your home? You would be so welcome in so many better states. :)
My wife is a television writer. I'd leave in a heartbeat, but we have to be near the business she works in.
Are the hydrants around the studios working?
Always! IT PROTECTS THE PRECIOUS.
One may always count on the self interest of the corrupt. Is it wrong to benefit from such corruption?
It can be. What’s sinful is what’s called “material and formal cooperation with evil.”
If you run a gas station and Hitler’s motorcade pulls in for gas, it’s OK to sell it to them.
And if you’re a chemical company and a ship captain asks to buy Zyklon B to fumigate his ship, it’s OK to sell it to him.
But Hitler’s people ask to buy Zyklon B, then no, it’s both sinful and immoral to sell it to them.
I leave it to you to figure out where the studios fit on this spectrum…
They are Hitler? or Stalin?
I was a TV writer back in the 80’s, then after my daughter was born I taught high school English to 12th graders. The former filled my bank account; the latter filled my soul.
Until it didn’t, when the woke crap moved in. I retired to Texas, where it snowed today.
❄☃️❄🤗🤗🤗
Snowed here, too! Started about noon. Was still snowing at 8 tonight. I haven't looked since. It's gorgeous!
This is my kids' dilemma too, being in the biz. But so much can be done from somewhere else (I keep telling them)... and you can always fly back for the important stuff (I also keep telling them that). They even own property here, ready to go, but I literally fear there may come a day when their home there is unsellable because of crap like this week.
Television. Another industry committing suicide.
Between COVID and the death of the hard disk in our DIRECTV receiver, we discovered that we no longer need network TV. I’m glad to be included in the “non-watching” multitudes.
May I start the bidding to provide his relocation site? Of course, right now it’s snowing like a MF here in East Tenn, but our government is limited and generally works very rationally.
I was lobbying for Texas lol
Joe Rogan moved to TX.
Yeah. That's a real draw. 🙄
Why would I give a crap about where Joe Rogan lives?
I am pissed and I live in FL. I can't imagine how the thinking people of CA feel about this.
Time to try the Red model. Hope the voters have come to the same conclusion.
I found myself yelling at my computer today when I read several articles trying to justify why not having enough water wouldn't have helped. In one case, the explanation was that "well every major city has water distribution systems that wouldn't work if they had a large wildfire or similar event". Well guess what, NY, Baltimore, Chicago, Philadelphia, etc have many problems but wildfires (which are foreseeable but not predictable) ain't one of them. The people LA should be asking the local and even state emergency management folks did we ever consider what happens if we have a wildfire when the reservoir is out of commission. Could the repairs have been expedited? At what cost? Did anyone consider it?
The latest BS trying to say that even if the reservoir was full and operational, it would have helped for only so long. Maybe-Maybe not. Perhaps jumping on the problem with unlimited water resources initially might have extinguished many of the embers that were wind blown to adjacent properties that might have also been able to have been soaked down. To try to white wash the fact that they screwed up and really don't give a shit or want to be challenged on their shitty policies is all anyone who votes needs to remember the next election. I would suggest that voters begin the recall process ASAP.
Gaslighting. The advice of the firefighters in my city is to use tap water to wet the areas around the house and under large trees. They explicitly said not to worry about hydrant pressure. They are on a different system than potable water.
Yes to the wetting things down. If the random wind drifted embers can’t catch, that avenue of spread is reduced. Lots of little steps end up whittling it down and keeping it small. Same principle as any big project. One can either do all the steps and stop most instances of problems from becoming large, or just throw up the hands with a cry, “if it gets big we’ll never get it under control, so why even bother”.
120 million gallons “wouldn’t have helped anyway?!?”
Yes. Recall. Proof of dereliction beyond belief.
"To try to white wash the fact that they screwed up and really don't give a shit or want to be challenged on their shitty policies..."
Leftism in a nutshell.
The turning point will come when liberals are angry. Not over mean tweets from Trump, over something they were not told to be angry about.
Example, many are coming to realize what a mistake getting vaccinate was as their health become undeniably poor, but they are not angry. If they are angry at all, it is with the anti vaxxer conspiracy theorist who tried to save them.
The longer they don't get angry from their own discovery, at actual sources to blame, DEI, Firetrucks to Ukraine, competent firefighters forced out by vaxx mandates, inept bureaucracy, money spent on illegals, poor water management, etc, basically EVERY DEM policy, the more likely they will buy into the next narrative.
Thankfully the media is not playing along (very much). The longer it takes to coalesce around a #narrative, (Imagine how much worse it would have been with Trump! we would have lost ALL of LA) the more burned out residents will have to think. Nothing will happen until the center left (and thus a solid majority) gets angry...
Will they ever have enough self knowledge to be able to see the truth, to get angry? I really doubt it. It'll still all be our fault.
A famous millionaire is said to have responded to the question, “How did you go bankrupt?” with “Slowly at first, then all of a sudden.” Reading your many articles about the failure of Blue Governments and the demise of their cities’ infrastructure reminded me of the millionaire’s response. The implosion of our cities happened slowly at first and now it’s all at once. What’s become of our once great nation?
This is not happening by accident. The voters of CA have voted repeatedly over the decades to beef up water supplies and reduce fire risk with controlled burns, etc.
Exactly. So ridiculous.
CA has failed to build a single reservoir since 1979, despite a 2014 voter-passed $7.5 billion water bond ballot initiative that authorized the creation of new reservoirs and several other water infrastructure projects.
Where did the money go?!...rhetorical
Bullet train to nowhere. 😢
Classes in Black Finger Painting.
"The voters of CA have voted repeatedly over the decades to beef up water supplies..."
And new dams never get built. But we have lotsa classes in Black Finger Painting.
Chris-
I'm so sorry you have to report on (and live through) this predicable tragedy. Sun Tzu called it - the evil enemy will burn the his own nation and rule over the ashes. Evil is all around us. Have hope all Good men who read this. We will find each other on the other side of this nightmare and rise like the Phoenix.
MKS
Well said. Thx
Also consider that CA officials may be reluctant to spend money to protect the lives and property of people who live in the affected areas, because they think that such spending will encourage more of the “cancer” of human development at the expense of Sacred Nature.
They seem to be pointing in the opposite direction, with a focus on rebuilding at a much higher population density.
celia farber is on top of this https://celiafarber.substack.com/p/burn-back-better-the-mayor-of-la
As soon as the covid closures ended in Salt Lake City, apartments have been going up in every nook and cranny available in the city. It make me think that this metro is intended as a smart/15 minute city. Blue or red party colors mean nothing for the long-term planners of the world.
In the same “sacred” areas, or “encouraging” people to move into urban cores that can be turned into 15-minute cities?
Sama areas. Rebuild Palisades as apartments. But that's just speculation, for now.
Here's Klaus Slob promizing zat by 2030 private carz vill be band und LA's highvays vill be public parks:
https://www.businesstoday.in/bt-tv/short-video/by-2030-there-will-be-no-more-private-cars-highways-will-become-parks-klaus-schwab-401581-2023-10-11
I'd like to PARK my car on his face. (Not literal.)
Very Soviet of them. Everyone should live in Cabrini Green.
Chris, have you seen Adam Carolla’s comments on rebuilding?
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1877226218052792699
Saw that, and I'm not sure I believe it. The status-foundational preference falsification is at their personal core. But I'd like to see it.
To the many blue pilled, the prognosis is forever.
Yes.
Check this one out. Mic drop.
https://x.com/DisrespectedThe/status/1877376211581604162?s=19
My 1st job out of college was for the Fed gov (won’t say which agency - you’d hate it). The application process awarded points for various “experiences.” My 5 pt experience was for wearing the Army green for 3.5 yrs (72-75). Admittedly, they gave 10 pts for combat, IIRC. Another 5 pt “experience” was being black. To be clear, EXISTING as black. I think being female or Hispanic also was worth 5 pts. Not sure when EEO started (or where the ratios were beforehand in Houston), but by 1979, the local Federal workforce was comprised of women, blacks Hispanics and white male veterans. I’m sure it was considered by its designers as a great success.
And an ownership out of private hands and into corporations whereby the individual cannot build wealth in their homes, they just pay rent forever?
It’s Californias version of rounding them into kinder gentler gulags.
the money was stolen
“confirming a conspiracy theory that people have been spreading online as social media disinformation, of course”
We need to start owning these. Call them, “Conspiracy Facts.”
'Red' news, two years earlier than 'Blue' news. Labeled initially as 'conspiracies'.
The water system, as generally done, one single pipe network for potable water and fireflow, doesn't work in wildfire areas. They should have installed a dual system that tapped into the Pacific, because that reservoir requires constant replenishment due to evaporation and inundation. But those sort of ideas would require forethought and leadership. Instead, we are getting a bullet train that doesn't work and goes nowhere.
I hope you and your family stay safe.
Not holding my breath, but hoping the people of Commiefornia come to their senses and stop voting for idiot woke Democrats.
We could even be healthier if the Democratic Party just moved away from the Full Stalin. Pat Brown and Tom Bradley were Democrats, but they wouldn't have tolerated this state of ruin.
One difference: Stalin actually guided things in the USSR (to his own political advantage of course). These woke-cause-du-jour folks are like players vibrating around randomly on an old-time electric football game. Todays politicians are clumsily surfing the wave, hoping not to to fall off & get eaten.
they had to go to plan b when 30-40% of the population wouldn't take the death shot
Move Tom Bradley and his policies etc forward 30 years and he'd have an R after his name. Read his online bio and they call him a Liberal Mayor. How things have changed.
Don’t insult Stalin. He took USSR from an agrarian society to an industrial superpower. If democrats were a tenth as good as Stalin I would be ecstatic.
Please don't say that. He got there by murdering millions. I get your point but let's not jump from frying pan into fire.
Better for a few top criminals like Gruesome to get Ceaușescu'd--nonviolently, of course.