Bill Maher went scorched earth on California politicians Friday night. You can guess the subject.
The Los Angeles Times reported a few troubling facts as well:
As the Los Angeles Fire Department faced extraordinary warnings of life-threatening winds, top commanders decided not to assign for emergency deployment roughly 1,000 available firefighters and dozens of water-carrying engines in advance of the fire that destroyed much of the Pacific Palisades and continues to burn, interviews and internal LAFD records show. Fire officials chose not to order the firefighters to remain on duty for a second shift last Tuesday as the winds were building — which would have doubled the personnel on hand — and staffed just five of more than 40 engines that are available to aid in battling wildfires, according to the records obtained by The Times, as well as interviews with LAFD officials and former chiefs with knowledge of city operations. The department started calling up more firefighters and deploying those additional engines only after the Palisades blaze was burning out of control.... But several former chiefs with deep experience in LAFD tactics said most of the more than 40 available engines could have been pre-deployed to fire zones before the Palisades blaze started, while others were kept at stations to help with the increase in 911 calls. Those engines were eventually used to fight the Palisades fire and other blazes or to fill in for other engines deployed to the front line, current LAFD officials said.... Rest of article.
21 comments:
I also hope they get better forestry practices. After all,, all those endangered species you are trying to save will die as well in a fire...
Yea Bill Maher makes great points; except LA does not need to be rebuilt because it is "his home." The math is simple: the milkvetch is way too important to bury the power lines, so they certainly do not need to disturb anything by rebuild the houses.
The environmental damage was tremendous and a repeat should not be an option. California idiots, including Bill Maher, one of Gavin NewSCUM's biggest supporters, voted for this stupid DEI BS, so, as ye sow, so shall ye reap i.e. let Californians figure it out.
Very good. Thousands of spaced out liberals just woke up to find out they don't have so much money that they can overcome stupid choices and non-sensical priorities. But if they do have that much money let them pay for their own folly. But the rest of the country must tell California and other unrealistic social experimenters that we will not subsidize stupid policies whether it's New Orleans, Jackson, New York, or even Hollywood. We only subsidize common sense.
Is there any doubt that he voted for Bass and will do so again?
"Because wildfires in California are like boob jobs in a strip club: inevitable, and they are only going to get bigger'... ha! whoever writes his jokes is spot on and funny!
You’re right. Three years ago LA crime began skyrocketing but guess what? Keep electing the democrats that continued to reduce sentences and bail
Come on, Bill. Cheap shot about prayer and schools. Surely you have heard of responsible forestry practices. You know, things like fire lanes and controlled burns. Southern states know how to do this, but Cali will never learn.
California could hire 3-5 Mississippi State forestry grads to consult and fix the problem forever. However, we mustn't forget that Californians are infinitely smarter than the rest of us.
The Santana 1962
https://youtu.be/UxnC1WW95XE
California is gorgeous. This simply provides opportunities for millions of others to enjoy the area. Growth will occur and probably some sensible regulations. California will Be just fine.
Is Hollywood burning?
One might want to consider the total number of homes within Greater Los Angeles. Then, it would be reasonable to compare that number to the number of homes which have recently burned. The area's population estimates are between 12 million and 18 million. Assuming a number in-between, the area has 15 million residents. At five residents per home, that's 3 million homes. If around 15 thousand homes have burned (I'm reading "over 12,000 structures"), that's one home in one thousand.
Like most middle class Mississippians, my husband and I (and our entire peer group) planned to flee Mississippi. Well into the '90s (when LA's deteriorating demographics became impossible to ignore), Los Angeles was a logical choice. The area came to loom-large in our lives.
My Decorator and I shopped Melrose, for marble mantels for our Jackson-area homes, and searched the Staff Shop attics at Paramount and Warner Brothers, for Silent Movie Era architectural details to embellish our Jackson Metro homes and commercial buildings. The studios were Inland from Beverly Hills and Cedars Sinai (we didn't trust Jackson doctors and dentists), and so we took Mulholland Drive (essentially the crest/spine of the Hollywood Hills) more than a few times.
We'd encounter puzzlingly-blank areas, along Mulholland, where, "You'd think somebody would have put a subdivision here! Look at that VIEW!" Wellll.... what we slowly came to realize, was that there HAD BEEN subdivisions in those spots. Wildfires....
What I'm saying, is that what's in the current news, is not unusual for the area. And, in the scheme of things, it's no big deal - or shouldn't be. Maybe that the fire reached water's edge, in Malibu (the little house in 'The Colony', where we rented, two summers, seems to be gone), is unusual. And various governmental incompetencies, coupled with government's preventing homeowners' staying to save their properties, seems newish (but then, anyone who experienced Katrina knows that government suppresses individual effort, since government functionaries want everything to be about THEM).
But I would posit that plenty equally-bad things have happened to Malibu. We bought a homesite, high above Malibu. It seemed to float above the Pacific. Our children, though, found kids, there, to be "as stupid as the Kourtneys and Treys in Jackson". Nor were they impressed with Pepperdine, which we'd assumed would be a nice first college for them. So, we flipped the land.
But our sending of tentacles into Malibu, made us aware of trends, there. We took note of Larry Ellison's snapping-up of Malibu beachfront properties. And we were aghast at the rash of Detox centers (protected by big government - even to the extent that GATED communities could not prohibit Malibu mansions from being converted to detox centers). Our kids saved us from much grief.
It would be interesting, to note similarities, as they unfold, between what happened in/to Lahaina, and events/trends in Malibu and Pacific Palisades. How much, in both situations, was SHAPED, and toward what ends, will be open to well-considered speculation. Can you say, "LAND GRAB!"?
7:35, surely you left something out... ?
Those who live in tornado alleys and build on beaches subject to hurricanes and who build homes, roads and parking lots and businesses in flood zones without regard to the topography while having building and fires codes standards and environmental regulations that are the lowest allowed, shouldn't cast stones.
7:35 could have just said "hey, look at me."
TMI, @7:35. W
TMI @7:35. We bought a modest home in northern Maine on a lake not far from the ocean, spent a little money on improvements, bought secondhand car to use while we're there, and flee back to our home in Mississippi when it starts getting too cold for our old bones. No doubt Maine or Mississippi could burn, just like Malibu. No one ever told us that we are guaranteed risk-free living anywhere.
9:32 Kinda missed the point.
How much are they paying workers in L.A.?
Instead of resenting my ostentation, 9:AM, you COULD have checked my math. It was wonky. I was off by a factor of 5: one in 200 homes (assuming my loose population/number-of-homes estimations were correct, and 15,000 homes burned, out of 3 million), instead of one in one thousand. So, the disaster IS a big deal. That's beyond the elasticity of the region. As I was typing those numbers (while distracted by zooming numbers on another screen: THANK YOU, DONALD!), a little voice was saying, "Iz eppes a farblondjet." But did I listen? (eventually, I did revisit the calculation, during an unbusy moment) So, you see, you COULD have had a far better basis for slapping-me-down.
Hey 7:35.. Surely the "person" replying to you at 1:40 isn't a real person..? Perhaps an AI sorta thing...? HaHa
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