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:
____________________________________
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.
In 2016, Karen Bass released a eulogy praising the recently deceased Fidel Castro. Her eulogy is quoted in an article that apparently came out in 2020. From the Roger Simon article:
Karen Bass first went to Cuba in the early ’70s. Her praise of Castro in her 2016 eulogy indicates that in the four decades since she first came to Cuba with the far-left Venceremos Brigade, her view of Castro had not changed much. However, her perspective on Castro had drastically changed by the time of the 2020 interview.
What caused her to drastically revise her opinion of Castro from 2016 to 2020?
It appears that the prospect of being considered as a candidate for the Democrat Vice Presidential nomination, where she would face a lot of flack from voters of Cuban origin in Florida, was the deciding factor. She had four decades to reconsider her initial opinion of Castro, but did not do so until the prospect of national office caused her to “develop” her “perspective.”
Note that Roger Simon stated that it took only a few years to change his opinion from what he believed about Castro when he was a callow youth. It took Karen Bass over 40 years, and did not do so until the prospect of national office prompted her to change her mind.
Karen Bass’s long delay in calling the Castro regime “brutal” reminds me that it took Pete Seeger about 50 years to say something similar regarding Stalin.
(BTW, if you want to infuriate a lefty, tell the lefty that Pinochet had a better record than Castro in reducing Infant Mortality. Which he did. 🙂 )
Other commenters have pointed out that lots of “little people” got hurt in these fires, even in Pacific Palisades. For instance, look at the photo of the burned-out trailer park.
@Kate:Other commenters have pointed out that lots of “little people” got hurt in these fires, even in Pacific Palisades.
If I see anyone claiming there weren’t any “little people” hurt in these fires, I’ll pass that on–I see that my 5:02 comment can be read that way which is not what I intended.
But the people who saw to it that people like Newsom and Bass were elected do not care what happens to little people. They care deeply about what happens to big people; this time the failure of the government they supported affects them personally, and the big people may be looking for more competent leftists pretty soon, something like what happened recently in San Francisco.
Gringo — Didn’t forget what a total non-Catholic leftist idiot the current Pope is and the damage he’s doing to the Church.
Re: “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.”
The Democrats rigged the system so that it is EXTREMELY difficult for them to lose. If nothing else, they hold off on announcing winners until the “find” enough votes for the Democrat.
I think Adam Carolla is overly optimistic that this will turn those blue voters, red. The wealthy will just keep throwing money at lawyers and contractors to deal with the post-disaster permitting hassle. (And you have to get a permit for EVERYTHING. I heard about someone who had dead animals on their property for MONTHS after a previous wildfire.) And the wealthy progressives who lost everything will just keep firing the lawyers and contractors who can’t get it done fast enough, not realizing that the PROCESS is just THAT bad that it’d take a miracle to get it faster.
Besides which, people have EXTREMELY short memories. By the time Newsom and Bass are up for reelection, the voters will have forgotten the hell they went through. Or else at that point they will allow themselves to be gaslighted enough to believe that the hell was entirely Trump’s fault.
I love the optimism of these conservatives who think the blue voters will see the light. Did any of you watch that video of Dershowitz that Neo posted here? His wife voted for Harris!! I just read an article in The Atlantic about a concerted effort to infiltrate big red areas (like Texas) to turn it blue. Read it. It’s depressing.
Niketas Choniates, you are right that this time some Big Cheeses in the celebrity world got hurt, and maybe that will lead to some improvements in the administration of the state. We can hope so.
Wow. Just looking at the melted glass in the antique car’s headlight.
Yet rejoice, everyone! The Glacier water cooler lives! And not a scratch on it too!
:/
The LA Fire Chief criticized the Mayor for budget cuts to the fire department, and Bass fired her.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14272935/fire-chief-kristin-crowley-fired-mayor-karen-bass-humiliated.html
Houses on both sides were destroyed…
Trash tycoon reveals how ‘miracle’ Malibu house survived wildfires when everyone else’s burned
Just heard a newscast about the Insurance situation, during which they interviewed the former CA Insurance Commissioner.
A couple of months ago, a lot of policies covering many high value homes–which have now been burnt to the ground–were not renewed, and those without insurance can apply for reinsurance to a California government program called–of course, it’s California–the “Fair” program.
According to what I heard, the Fair program has about $5 billion in assets, and if that isn’t enough to cover all of the losses of those without insurance, this program can then assess each of the insurance companies which do business in CA to gather up another collective billion dollars.
But, if I understand what I heard correctly, if that still isn’t enough, each one of the insurance holders in CA will they, themselves, be assessed to make up the difference.
Bet these other policy holders, whose properties weren’t burnt to the ground or damaged by these wildfires, aren’t going to find this very “Fair” to them.
Just heard a newscast about the Insurance situation, during which they interviewed the former CA Insurance Commissioner.
A couple of months ago, a lot of policies covering many high value homes–which have now been burnt to the ground–were not renewed, and those without insurance can apply for reinsurance to a California government program called–of course, it’s California–the “Fair” program.
According to what I heard, the Fair program has a few billion in assets, and if that isn’t enough to cover all of the losses of those without insurance, this program can then assess each of the insurance companies which do business in CA to gather up another collective billion dollars.
But, if I understand what I heard correctly, if that still isn’t enough, each one of the insurance holders in CA will they, themselves, be assessed to make up the difference.
Bet these other policy holders, whose properties weren’t burnt to the ground or damaged by these wildfires, aren’t going to find this very “Fair” to them.
I worry about wildfire terrorism.
Why bother hijacking a jet 9-11 style, when some basic map study, a decent pair of hiking shoes and a Bic lighter can get the job done?
And with a far greater chance of surviving the attack and not getting caught.
Watching more news footage, I would say these fires are on a 9-11 scale for people in SoCal. They aren’t going to get over this easily.
Americans after 9-11 shifted hard Republican and W won the 2004 popular vote by three million votes. Well, that didn’t last forever, but it lasted a while.
I consider it inevitable that LA Democrats will shift to the right. The only question is how far.
I’d also argue that it enhances the stench of Democrat incompetence and DEI corruption, which will make a Dem comeback harder.
Snow, and we all will be paying higher premiums for our house insurance, no matter where we live.
And just like Karen Bass, Gavin Newsom is done.
Let’s play that elapsed-time footage of the LA fires burning down the houses again.
Newsom is not going anywhere in 2028.
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Nowhere to run to, nowhere to hide.
–Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, “Nowhere to Run”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQRIOKvR2WM
“ hiking shoes and a Bic lighter”
How 20th century. Drones dropping incendiaries far and wide or perhaps incendiary suicide drones. Cover a lot more area and not be spotted anywhere close to ignition points.
@ huxley & Chases Eagles: Arson on a terrorism scale is certainly possible, but for now the looters will take what they can get.
https://notthebee.com/article/lapd-launches-arson-investigation-arrests-homeless-man-in-connection-to-kenneth-fire-in-woodland-hills
“This guy was just arrested for arson in Woodland Hills. Let’s talk about him and the gangs of “organized looters” running around Los Angeles.”
America is the land of magic dirt!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3664695/Land-free-home-busty-American-women-revealed-having-biggest-natural-breasts-world-Brits-come-fifth-Filipinos-last.html
It was Nov. 8, 2018 at about 11:30 PM and I’d finished watching the local TV news about the fire in Paradise, which had been on all day. When I checked in on American Digest and saw Gerard’s post, this is what I immediately commented here:
“It seems California is cursed as one tragedy follows another. A well known friend of Neo’s who comments here regularly, Gerard Vanderleun, may have lost his home and personal belongings today in a devastating fire that has destroyed the entire city of Paradise, California. He is safe for now at his mother’s home nearby. Keep him in your thoughts and prayers.”
The month-after pictures Neo just posted show the quiet ashen ruins well. The graphic live pictures on TV that day were like something out of hell. Lines of people trapped in burning cars. Cyclone flames swirling above the pine trees. Total panic.
The last and final time I visited Paradise was in 2022, a year after the million acre Dixie Fire which started in the Feather River Canyon just south of Paradise and destroyed the mountain town of Greenville. It is very understandable why Gerard didn’t want to go back. The lush greenery and shade of the Ponderosa Pines is gone. The few old apple orchards are no more. It’s now a shell of a community with still dying trees, empty lots, and feeble attempts at rebuilding.
The buildings not burned but abandoned like the Cinema’s 7 are repeatedly vandalized. The Feather River Hospital closed leaving the town without emergency care. It’s now Paradise Lost.
Never forget. Ever.
Angelinos willingly voted for Karen Bass as their mayor. Nobody forced them.
Angelinos willingly voted for Gavin Newsome as their governor.
You get the government you vote for.
Thanks, Neo, for great pictures.
When will True Believers stop believing in Democratic Party lies, half-truths, and speculations falsely called facts? Only after they stop being True Believers.
Fires can’t be totally stopped, but fire damage amount is a political choice. Dems chose, and choose, big damage.
Especially Green Dems who scream about Climate Change, without preparing for it: more floods, more droughts, more mudslides, more ice storm damage, more fires. Damage from each of those can be reduced, and reasonable govt would insure low damage.
Maybe Jews will lead the rethinking way?
https://jewishinsider.com/2025/01/anti-defamation-league-jonathan-greenblatt-antisemitism-meta/
Lots of people need to be fired, thrown out of office, some charged with wilful neglect but I doubt anyone will and those who are elected will get reelected and move up the government ladder.
DEI is deadly.
To your job, your home, your county, state, country.
Ideaology over reality.
The Gods of the copybook headings.
I agree Neo, the rebuild will tell the tale. Many of the people who would vote against the current government will move out rather than face the rebuild regs.
I suppose it could be compared to a dopamine hit; the sense of being ostentatiously just and righteous. So…whatever the Outrage Industry tells you is necessary for another hit is what you think. And how you take in information. And how you vote.
California voters have had sufficient examples of what voting dem gets them to stop doing it. Except for those needing the Hit.
But someone in the Sierras who enjoys the annual snowpack doesn’t necessarily see what happens then the Delta Smelt does…something, something, to the Central Valley farmers. Or if he does…he’s not involved on either side and so…it won’t come back to bite him. Problem is, that’s not the only dumb thing which will be done with his ballot stapled to it. Even if, through chance, he’s never directly affected. Indirectly…taxes, regulations necessary to do…a bullet train…? Doesn’t see the connection. And the Hit….
Those burned out…Trump’s fault. Climate change.
2024 Election:
Pacific Palisades – all (5) precincts
Trump – 27%
Harris – 71%
Others – 2%
They voted for this $hit and have learned nothing from it.
Schadenfreude – I really don’t care.
huxley: “I worry about wildfire terrorism.”
There’s a story floating around on X about an alleged video of someone pouring gasoline on the ground and lighting it up before the Palisades fire broke out. This may not prove to be true. If terrorists haven’t previously considered this method, they may now.
Someone Else:
Given the land area and population of California this is a very, very small event. A tragedy undoubtedly for the people affected. But affecting relatively few. I don’t think there is a grasp of the size or impact of the events needed to actually convert people from one view to another. The people affected, if I were to guess, would want competent people in charge of the fire department, water, etc. that hold their views on immigration, trans, DEI, etc.
According to a map here, the Palisades precincts voted heavily for Caruso for mayor in 2022.
https://www.latimes.com/projects/2022-california-election-neighborhood-vote-los-angeles-mayor/
Kate
To me, that’s like Staten Island, New York voting Republican and the remainder of the five boroughs voting Democrat.
I expect there may or may not be a push for competence. But in a choice between competent/Republican and incompetent/Democrat my guess would be for the latter. Maye I’m wrong. I hope so.
Betting pool on how many homes the Coastal Commission actually approves to be rebuild.
The Palisades fire is moving northeast, now threatening Brentwood, where Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff have a house, as well as many glitterati.
Sure some of those that lost homes will start voting differently. But the large population of California will keep it reliably Democrat. Maybe Malibu, the Palisades and Santa Monica will vote for republicans but it won’t make a difference for the state as a whole. And what kind of republicans will they be anyway?
In the recent press conference, there was an announcement of high-powered effort to find or stop arsonists. ATF was to be the lead agency. Shoot first, I suppose.
A good/informative discussion about the Palisades fire by the guys (and girl) at All-In Podcast. FF to the 9 minute mark. First off is the obligatory connection to global warming (these are democrat/libertarians), but the discussion of the failings of the LA/California bureaucracy and the problem of how/why insurance companies are/have left the California market.
Chamath brings up the Sepulveda fire in 2018 and asks the question what was done to protect/prevent future fires like this one.
Discussion about the Coastal Commission, its origins and whether they will facilitate the wealthy Democrats that have supported/brought about the one party rule in California or will they use their power to prevent rebuilding along the coast.
They also talk at length about the Zuck’s conversion, a NVIDIA AI computer for the masses, why absorbing Greenland and Canada make sense and even who built the pyramids.
LA’s Wildfire Disaster, Zuck Flips on Free Speech, Why Trump Wants Greenland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is1QAZ7ShRU
George Clooney and the California Coastal Commission?
duck://player/vN-R_E-XBPk
The YouTube address to George Clooney and the California Coastal Commission (not really, “Hail Caesar”)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vN-R_E-XBPk
One wonders if the amazing house used in the film has survived.
Somewhat off topic,
Why Donald Trump can’t buy Greenland. – Anders Puck Nielson
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GlK3f1cs_l4
He is a Dane BTW.
@ Neo’s astounding and poignant photos: “The local Safeway and some shopping carts:”
That full cage of propane tanks may have been empties, but I doubt it.
It the Paradise inferno didn’t cause them to explode, nothing will.
I used to worry about AesopSpouse’s collection of propane tanks for his camping expeditions, especially the ones stored in our sun-drenched shed by the back fence.
Not anymore.
My take on the CA fires going back more than a decade is that the state government and voters have to decide: poor decisions regarding fish and forestry practices, or fewer people? As it stands right now, CA has exceeded its carrying capacity. There are too many houses, too many businesses, too many cars and too many people for the public resources that are available. That includes reservoirs, domestic water supplies and agricultural water, and a whole lot of other resources. And now is the perfect time to cut the population — reduce the number of building permits in SOCAL by half. Raise prices for water and electricity. Increase property taxes. Institute a capitation tax, payable by movie stars and people living under freeways alike.
It is already a feudal state with lords (movie stars and Silicon Valley multimillionaires) and serfs (gardeners, hospitality workers and Philippinos running unlicensed hospice homes — I know: a good friend lived out his last years in one.
I know: most of these suggestions border on unconstitutional. It’s either that or expect major die-offs every decade, as happens to populations of wild animals who exceed their carrying capacity in a cyclical fashion.
Has Blackrock started buying up distressed properties yet, as happened in Maui?