Adapt TO climate change!
The Head Groundskeeper is experiencing an unfamiliar sensation — call it “empathy” — for the victims of the multitude of fires in greater Los Angeles. People are hurting.
We do not do class envy; it’s unrealistic to say that no one should build in the Pacific Palisades. Who could resist those ocean views!? Just don’t make the indentured servants subsidize your lifestyle (average home value $3.4 million) or your political choices.
We visited that very area in early March 2020, right before the coronavirus pandemic shut down Mother Earth. Drove through Topanga State Park, near the historic Will Rogers home (now burned to the ground), up into the Santa Monica Mountains to see the Paramount movie ranch, unaware that it had been leveled by wildfire two years earlier. Dined oceanside at Moonshadows on U.S. Hwy 1 in Malibu, hoping to see Jack Nicholson. It’s a smoldering ruin today.
Climate chutzpah
So what explains our tepid emotions? A little bit is Hollywood’s virtue signaling. (Might be why we are bingeing The Sopranos. For that matter, might be what elected Trump!)
Could be emotionally calloused by Soros-funded district attorneys decriminalizing crime. No excuse for the Los Angeles mayor for jetting off to Ghana after being warned of the coming disaster.
Most of our high dudgeon is reserved for the Climate Change lobby. Gavin Newsom may preen as Lord Protector of Planet Earth but don’t try it in the Palisades! California has all but banned gasoline. Spent billions on the still uncompleted high-speed train to nowhere. How much carbon has the five L.A. conflagrations poured into the atmosphere? Along with what other toxins from torched Teslas and electronics? Even that red fire retardant the airplanes are dropping comes packed with dangerous heavy metals.
Here’s a thought: spend more time adapting to climate change rather than, like King Canute, trying to reverse it! — a project that would take decades even if China and India cooperated! A map of the devastation in the Pacific Palisades shows a lonely island untouched by fire: Getty Villa.
As flames encroached upon the villa’s landscaping, the museum’s fire prevention systems sprang into action, saving the Los Angeles cultural oasis and its priceless artifacts. Years of prioritizing fire mitigation efforts, clearing nearby brush as well as installing an on-site water tank, proved crucial in keeping the $10 billion collection safe from harm. — CNN
What does that suggest, class? Water tanks, every few blocks. (The neighborhood, population 24,000, did have three, quickly drained.) Ocean-water scooper planes at the ready (Canada loaned the ones being used; although salt is bad for the environment, too.) More “brush beasts” to keep down the high-octane dry chaparral. Clearing the perimeter around housing. (Problem is, in heavy rains, what holds the soil back from landslides?) And yes, no lumber, no wood shingles or siding in the rebuilds, as the current building codes specify. Would goats help?
Platinum subscriber Steve lambastes the insurance industry for not replacing a friend’s home, lost to a hurricane in Florida. Don’t be a Luigi Mangione, bro! This is the marketplace saying Don’t Build There! Drunk drivers pay more for insurance, if they can get it. A flood-prone town in Wisconsin, Soldiers Grove, actually moved to higher ground. Fire insurance typically does NOT cover wildfires, especially in California. (Insurance premiums are low in Wisconsin.)
Blaska’s Bottom Line: Because Los Angeles spent more on homelessness ($1.3 billion, with little impact) than the fire department ($837 million) the city now has 100,000 more homeless and counting. For all the environmental posturing, air filtration systems are sold out in the L.A. metro area and N95 face masks make more sense than they ever did in the Covid-19 pandemic.
President Biden has put the American taxpayer on the hook for paying the entirety of the disaster response for the next six months — a figure sure to reach the multiple billion$. So, yeah, we got skin in this game way out here in Madison WI.
How much more are you willing to pay for your insurance
so that high rollers can build at the edge of the volcano?
26 responses to “Good luck, Los Angeles”
Lots of history & beautiful scenery destroyed. So sad . Destruction of human life, property & flora & fauna.
Environmentalists have nothing to protect now. Bad decisions by leaders who are not taking responsibility. A good example of elections have consequences. I feel sorry for the not too rich people who have lost everything. The celebrities will just move to their second & third homes ; they will do ok & should use their millions to help less fortunate people.
California invests over $1,000,000,000 a year and gets 100,000 more homeless people. That’s quite a return for the Unhoused-Industrial Complex spending.
In other words, “What you subsidize you get more of.”
Except Delta smelt.
The same catastrophically idiotic bureaucratic impotence of elected/appointed officials (OVERWHELMINGLY despicable Lefties) which Leveled Maui.
The Gotch
This could happen here too if you look at the 4 foot tall weeds that are overgrown in many neighborhoods. All it takes is a dry spell, a match and zoom, many houses will be nothing but burned sticks.
Except this has never happened. It ain’t Peshtigo, pilgrim.
It’s good that the UW is scrounging the underbrush in the Arboretum. For years, mistakenly thought that undergrowth was pre-Columbus but the Indians (native Americans) groomed the ground, often with fire. Helps, though, that it’s wet here. The houses deep in the Arboretum should worry, regardless.
I just hope they have electric fire trucks in California so they aren’t polluting the air with those diesel engines when pumping water fighting the fires.
Nice to hear you feel that way Dave. I don’t see anyone bitching that the fire-fighters that are risking life and limb around the clock might be a DEI hire. If these dumb asses are so wound up about it; just send them home. Next time we have a massive snowstorm maybe some of your more prolific posters should call the city and ask that anyone who may have been DEI be sent home because they disagree with the hiring policy. Next time those hillbillies down south get blowen away; just tell them to pull YOURSELF UP BY YOUR BOOTSTRAPS!
Re: the next snowstorm, not really concerned here as physical strength doesn’t seem to be a big factor. At the risk of pulling an Eric Hovde, don’t they just drive big trucks? Now if DEI mandated a certain percentage of those drivers had to be visually impaired then I’d be concerned.
I also think there is truth to what that person said about “you got yourself into that situation”. You might be NFL football player strong and have 0 chance of carrying out a morbidly obese person.
This whole thing has me wondering- has the percentage of female garbage and recycling truck drivers gone up since Madison went to the current system, which DOES require less physical strength than the old system? I’m guessing no.
Well whaddya know, looks like the Land of Fruit Cakes and Nut Jobs is, and has been, using Prisoners as Slave Labor to help fight fires.
It gets worse.
When she wasn’t…um…tending Willie Brown’s…er…needs, Kacklin’ Kamala was (heh!) knee deep in it; to wit:
How Kamala Harris Fought To Keep Nonviolent Prisoners Locked up
MONEY QUOTE: “In September 2014, attorneys for Harris argued in a court filing that THE STATE SHOULD NOT FREE SOME PRISONERS as part of efforts to reduce prison crowding ‘BECAUSE IT WOULD NEGATIVELY IMPACT PROGRAMS THAT PUT INMATES TO WORK FIGHTING WILDFIRES. That would SEVERELY IMPACT FIRE CAMP PARTICIPATION— A DANGEROUS OUTCOME WHILE CALIFORNIA IS IN THE MIDDLE OF A DIFFICULT FIRE SEASON AND SEVERE DROUGHT.’ A judge ruled against Harris’ office’s request.“(bolds/caps/italics mine)
Ah Lefty; so MUCH damning hypocrisy, so little time!
The Gotch
You can stop slut-shaming, Gotch. The VP lost the Presidential election.
She “fought to keep non-violent offenders locked up…”. Outgoing VP Harris was doing her job as California’s top prosecutor.
BtW, why are you interested in other peoples’ sexuality? Trump’s past encounters were numerous. Funny he didn’t come down with a case of Cupid’s Measles. Maybe he did…
“You can stop slut-shaming”
And you can stop denying reality.
“The VP lost the Presidential election.”
Saints be praised! That outcome is an epic net positive for the known Universe!
She ‘fought to keep non-violent offenders locked up…’. Outgoing VP Harris was doing her job as California’s top prosecutor.”
The Gotch truly hopes, for your sake, that you’re just being obtuse, rather than breathtakingly clueless. Her job was preventing the reduction a dangerously over-crowded prison population of its non-violent offenders…and keeping them incarcerated BEYOND their sentence?
Reckon the ancillary benefit of making them available to work as slave labor justified that, am I right? Anywho, interesting take, that.
FFsS, what part of that Lefty judge intervening doesn’t register?
“why are you interested in other peoples’ sexuality?”
“Interested” is inaccurate; natural curiosity is merely acknowledging well-documented, unethical shenanigans and the deep-seated character flaws necessary for them to occur.
“Trump’s past encounters were numerous.”
No argument, there; but you’re comparing apples to a ’34 Packard
The Gotch
Yes Trump (and Bill Clinton) are just two more examples of men sleeping their way up.
It’s shameful.
There’s a joke Paul Newman tells in “The Verdict”. I think we all know why it’s funny:
Frank Galvin: So Pat says, he says, “They got this new bar… and you go inside and for half a buck you get a beer, a free lunch and they take you in the back room – they get you laid… Mike says, “Now wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Do you mean to say there’s a new bar and you go inside and for a half a buck they give you a beer, a free lunch and they take you in the back room and they get you laid?” Pat says, “That’s right.” “Have you ever been in the bar?” And he says, “No, but me sister has.”
As usual you post your own version of the facts to fit your narrow-minded thinking. There are fire-fighters who are incarcerated for various crimes in California. Because of their experience they can volunteer to fight fires. This means they can live in minimum security camps. They get paid for their work and do get a few additional perks. Pay varies by experience. Currently around 1800 of these men and women are on the job. They are far from “slaves” as you post. If you want to rant about something why not the bottled water companies who suck tens of millions gallons of water out of Cali for next to nothing. Ah Rightie; so much BS so little time.
Some inveterate imbeciles are so catastrophically ignorant that they refuse to acknowledge a fact-based Reality, even when it bites them on their over-sized @$$e$; to wit:
Civil Rights On The Ballot: Why California Voters Should END_FORCED_PRISON_LABOR.
— EDITED —
I didn’t “lambaste” the insurance industry when my friend could not replace his mobile home in FL after a hurricane. I just noted that living in a $3.4 million dollar can mean little if you don’t have coverage, so the class warfare is, well, class warfare. And you never mentioned Altadena–more deaths, acres and structures burned there. It is not part of LA and while it has million dollar homes, that simply is because of crazy SoCal home prices. It is a mixed community, heavy in Latino construction workers, etc. Not movie moguls. Many bought their homes in the 80 for $100k and the property has appreciated. The fires are just as destructive there as in the cliffs along PCH, where you find homes of the super rich, but a definite minority of people living in Malibu (also not LA) or the Palisades….I do agree that a focus on mitigation rather than climate change would be a great idea (read what Bjorn Lomborg says). And if you say don’t live in a hurricane or fire zone, then no one would live in FL, or the mountains of W North Carolina or anywhere in Cali below San Fran.
I take your point: ordinary people have been hurt by Democrat policies, too. Live where you want if you recognize the risks, although I do believe in zoning. And yeah, maybe too many people live in hurricane and fire zones, doncha think?
But like I said, the whole SE of the US is a hurricane –and it often creeps up to Kanada. Then you have ALL the Carribean Islands for hurricanes AND earthquakes and half or more of Cali is a fire zone, and the rest is earthquake city–Remember the SF fire and later the quake that disrupted the world series? The devil is in the details. Maybe Trump can move all those millions out with the illegals?? Move them all to Montana for the grizzlies and wolves, or to Nevada to finish depleting their aquifers so the poor gamblers can’t use their swimming pools and have to drink beer instead of water…..etc, etc, etc…..
Why has no one mentioned the fact that most of LA is built on land where human beings shouldn’t be living in the first place? Hilly, fire-prone, semi-arid (if not outright desert) with deep canyons and little to no natural water. And this terrain claims America’s second-largest city! The real wonder is that it hasn’t burned to a crisp before now. There’s such a thing as paying too high a price for an ocean view.
Sam Kinison and U-hauls comes to mind.
Gavin Newsom Named U-Haul Salesman Of The Year The Babylon Bee
The Gotch
“little to no natural water.”
Noah Cross (John Huston in the inimitable Chinatown) had the answer to that minor problem:
“You See, Mr. Gittes, Either You Bring The Water To L.A., Or You Bring L.A. To The Water; Simple As That”
The Gotch
Nope, LA is NOT desert. In the hills it is chaparral. In the LA basin, it normally is cool and temperate and does not have fires. It is the surrounding areas in the foothills that are mostly fire prone, due to their dryness…..One fire seems to have been caused by fireworks. THAT is a simple problem to deal with. Death penalty!!
Nice to see the MAGAGOP imploding. Anyone that doesn’t fall in line with Dementia Don will be primaried. He went back on his word about appointing people from 2025. Vance crapped in his Fruit Loops over pardons and Cannon released his records. Magabags are pi##ed about all the non-elected people telling them what to do. The “unelected swamp is alive and well. Zillionaires, PT Faux News reporters were not on the ballot. Even Hulk Hogan, in his last appearance got booed out of the building. Migrants will not be dealt with because Musk needs H-1B workers and Mar-A-Largo needs servers for Dumps dinner parties. The Cali gop were all in Fld eating steaks and chocolate sundaes while fires raged. They spend all their time looking for cartoon villains and congratulate themselves on their 4% approval rating. “Trump cares about all Americans”; the biggest lie ever told.
From The Internet Is Forever department:
L.A. Mayor’s Wildfire Blunder Looks Even Worse After Campaign Promise Resurfaces
Didn’t Earn It hire MONEY QUOTE: “(N)ot only would I of course live here, BUT I WOULD ALSO NOT TRAVEL INTERNATIONALLY— the only places I would go would be D.C., Sacramento, San Francisco and New York, in relation to L.A.” (bolds/caps/italics mine)
Ruh roh!
It gets better.
New Coalition-Saving California-LAUNCHES NEWSOM RECALL EFFORT
The Gotch says make it TWOFER; get rid of the dangerously incompetent BASS, too!
The Gotch
Here is my opinion of the LA area wildfires.
The people up and down that California coastline have been building in areas that are prone to wildfires for many decades. It’s become very clear over the past few decades that high population areas are not immune to the wild fires. They ALL should be paying a premium for their insurance if it covers wild fire damage to their property and that includes those in cities up and down the coast. Their premiums for fire coverage should increase a LOT while the premiums in areas like south central Wisconsin should stay low. Insurance is about accessing risk and distributing cost out over lots of people and lots of years, but if you live in a high fire risk area then you pay a very high premium because your risk is very high.
As for Biden saying that the US government will pay for all the cost to fight the fires for 180 days, I think Biden is a damn fool and this should not have been done. Sure help them out with some disaster relief dollars but not 100% of the firefighting cost for 180 days, that’s insane! What’s next, the US government pay to have their homes rebuilt too? The cost needs to fall upon the people that choose to live in those fire prone areas of California. Those hills and mountains have caught fire every year in my lifetime and burned every year long before I was born and that was long before the nut jobs started blaming everything on climate change. It’s their choice to live in fire prone areas. Also the government could offer low interest loans with a long period of time to pay it back (not a give away) to help people through their post-fire transition; if people take the loans they better pay them back!
I do have some sympathy for the people whose lives have been overturned by these fires but I’ll be damned if I’m paying for their choice to live in an OBVIOUS fire prone area.
All that said; donations to reputable places like the Red Cross and make your donations specifically for those fire victims will go a long way to help many of them. Avoid donating to random pop up organizations that make claims to help the victims.