The fallout from the LA fires
A great many people seem to think that the abysmal and disgraceful failure of those in charge in California will lead to political change – that is, a turning to the right. I’m sure that will be true of some people, but I doubt it will be widespread enough to end one-party rule in that state.
There’s so much news around the LA fires that I’m going to resort to a roundup on the topic:
– A reservoir that serves Pacific Palisades was empty and being repaired at the time of the fire.
– Suspected arsonist arrested in Kenneth Fire.
– LA Mayor Karen Bass’ pro-Communist roots, by Roger L. Simon.
– Governor Newsom passes the buck to locals.
On a personal note, the photos of the burned-out areas of LA don’t surprise me at all. They look like Paradise did in 2018, except that was the whole town. When I went there about a month after the fire, I took tons of photos. They don’t do justice to the scope of the thing, but since I don’t believe I ever posted them, here are a few:
Bricks survive:
Antique cars:
This was an area where I used to walk:
The local Safeway and some shopping carts:
Arrival at Gerard’s house:
Leaving Paradise in the fog:
As I said, the photos don’t do it justice. Almost no buildings were left standing in a town of 30,000 people.
I’m watching Fox News and somehow, the FEMA Director found him to give an update. The Fox guy did get in a question about if FEMA had enough money “in the right buckets” to take care of Cali as well as the hurricane victims from Helene. She said yes, but it will be interesting to see what happens in the long run.
If you think about it, the geography of the areas are similar – mountains that funnel either the winds or the water to cause damage.
Since my comment on your previous LA fires article also mentions the far left background of Karen Bass that Roger Simon discusses, I will repost it.
LA Mayor Karen Bass, it is fair to say, has failed in her duties as Mayor of Los Angeles. She went to Cuba eight times in the 1970s as a leader in the SDS-founded Venceremos Brigades, to help build houses in Cuba. That is, to provide propaganda for the Castro regime. Cuba had no lack of construction workers, but it needed propaganda. Thus the SDS-sponsored construction workers, who before going to Cuba probably couldn’t distinguish between a hammer or a hammerhead shark. Biden VP Favorite Karen Bass’ Journey From the Radical Fringe.
Similarly, Bill DeBlasio, formerly known as Warren Wilhelm, will go down in history as one of the worst mayors of New York City. In the 1980s he was an outspoken supporter of the Sandinistas. He honeymooned in Cuba.
Chesa Boudin was elected San Fransicso’s District Attorney in 2020. His woke policies of coddling criminals was too much for even ultra-liberal San Francisco, as he was turned out of office in a recall election in 2022. He worked as a translator for Hugo Chavez in 2005. His foster parents were Weatherpeople Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. David Gilbert and Kathy Boudin, Chesa’s Weather-parents, were imprisoned for their role in a murder-bank robbery to raise money for the Revo.
Lesson: Those who support Latin American commies/tyrants, when elected to office in the US, fail in the performance of their duties.
Pretty much the whole town of Pacific Palisades is gone. Much of Altadena is gone. I have this from relatives in California.
The response of the insurance commissioner in CA is to prohibit insurance companies from canceling any more policies. Companies that got out were wise to do so.
Since big people were affected and not little people as in the Paradise fire, there’s a good chance some government scalps will get claimed. But what left-leaning people want is competent leftist government, and not incompetent leftist government, but they prefer either to Right-leaning government.
For the foreseeable future, positive change in California is going to be had by working within the Democratic party, people in the Clinton-Gore mold. Of course, it was people like them (along with their counterparts in the establishment GOP) that created the conditions for the progressive takeover. I don’t know that those types can hold the line for very long or deliver more than temporary improvement.
@Kate:The response of the insurance commissioner in CA is to prohibit insurance companies from canceling any more policies.
Lol. California cannot force insurers to stay in business when they hemorrhage money. This is a prelude to a state takeover of homeowners’ insurance, because people in other states will not appreciate seeing their rates go up to subsidize California.
Roger L. Simon – I recalled she was an admirer of Fidel Castro, but had forgotten how recent her fulsome praise was, less than a decade ago. From left-leaning Politico August 2020 :
“Okay, we’re grownups here and I will admit that I at first thought Fidel was pretty cool too. I even went to hear him speak in Central Park. But I was still in high school then and it was 1960.” Karen’s Answer
Karen Bass gave this answer in an interview with Roger about her communist leanings and she kind of made stuff up. Born in 1953 Karen was seven years old in 1960 and most likely not in high school.
This may very well be the end of Bass but she will just be replaced by some Democrat that is maybe a little better but not much will change.
Of the thousands whose homes have been destroyed a fair amount will move to Nevada, Arizona, Texas, etc. and about half of them will then vote for the Democrats there. And I know people say that hasn’t been the trend in Florida, Tennessee and some other states the last couple of years but these people from California are the most hard core people you will find and they aren’t going to just switch like that.
Hope I’m wrong but I’ve lived the invasion of the California people in WA and they have greatly helped to create a mini California here in WA state and they have done similar things in Oregon and Colorado.
There is a certain degree of resentment, as the news coverage of the fires focuses on the wealth-laden Pacific Palisades neighborhoods, and not the long-established, working and middle class neighborhood in Altadena, or the distant new and working-class Santa Clarita. My brother and his family live in Santa Clarita – they are ok, as the fire seems to be moving away from habitations. My sister’s family live in Altadena, near Lake and New York – they have had to evacuate for now, but their house is OK. It looks like they have managed to beat back the fire into the Angeles National Forest, where it is still burning merrily away. Most usually, a California brush fire can be contained before it goes very far into the long-established built-up grid of suburban streets, as Altadena, Pasadena and Sierra Madre are. Not this time, it seems – and I wonder how much blame for the situation will be laid at the door of the feckless mayor, and the lesbian-heavy upper ranks of the FD.
Side note – Orange County, just to the south of LA had suffered from the same weather and winds, has the same back country of flammable brush and mountainous terrain … but don’t seem to be on fire. Odd, that.
Commenters are furious about wealthy celebs begging for donations for their burned-out friends and kin, and making a show of their own charitable donations. Also – drawing bitter parallels to the speed at which FEMA and Biden and all are attending on the LA fires, while seeming to ignore the victims of previous disasters.
@Griffin:Hope I’m wrong but I’ve lived the invasion of the California people in WA
Tell me about it. States don’t have “magic dirt” that makes people fit in any more than America has “magic dirt” that makes people fit in, or school districts have “magic bricks” that turn poor-performing students from outside the district into high-performers when bussed in.
It’s all application of the “wet streets cause rain” theory where you notice a correlation and then invert cause and effect. We can get all the rain we want if just we spray water on the streets…
Old Texan, Roger Simon put in quotes the Politico article discussing Karen Bass. He did NOT put into quotes seeing Fidel speak in Central Park in 1960. That wasn’t Karen Bass speaking, but Roger Simon speaking. It was Roger Simon who saw Fidel speak in Central Park in 1960.
Karen Bass can be faulted for many things, but she cannot be faulted for saying in a Politico article that she saw Fidel speak in Central Park in 1960. She never said that. Roger Simon said/wrote that.
Roger Simon:Is LA Mayor Karen Bass Still a Communist
My son is between Pasadena and Glendale. We persuaded him to move out of the smoke for a few days to await developments.
Gerard wrote a lot of words that affected me. Nothing he produced hit me so hard as that first post-fire photo of nothing but a chimney left.
You get what you vote for.
I’ll take the optimist side. America has been under the jackboots of the DEI State for too long. As the old Daria MTV theme song put it:
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Excuse me … you’re standing on my neck.
–“Daria Intro Theme”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjiMQ3sW0c4
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I think America is undergoing a true sea change against woke, against California-style governance. Even Democrats can get a clue when there was no water in the hydrants and their houses burned down.
I’m an optimist, though not so much as to argue this will end one-party rule in California.
My folks lived in Magalia, a couple miles up the road from Paradise, for 45 years. Mom would often carry on, “this place is gonna burn to the ground one of these days”. Being so green up there, I didn’t think it possible. During the fire they hunkered down because the car was very low on gas, no electricity to pump, and couldn’t get down the hill. Missed perishing by half a mile.