I’m not celebrating the LA holocaust, you insufferable twit. What are you doing, though? Running interference for the collection of incompetent boobs whose years-long misgovernment of California has ensured that a bad situation will be much worse, that’s what. Well, you’re wasting your time. For Gavin Newsom and a host of Californian elected officials, the day of reckoning is at hand. Now get lost.
This is an extract from a National Review article by Ryan Mills that explains much about the causes of the devastating LA fires:
“And while the topography is different - the fires around L.A. are burning the chaparral landscape in the mountains and foothills around the city, not in forests — the lesson is the same, said Edward Ring, director or water and energy policy at the conservative California Policy Center: The L.A. fires have gotten out of hand largely due to poor land management.
"Historically, that land would either be deliberately burned off by the indigenous tribes or it would be grazed or it would be sparked by lightning strikes," said Ring, an advocate of continuing to manage the chaparral land's oaks and scrub brush with grazing animals, mechanical thinning, and controlled burns.
But that hasn't happened, he said, due to public policies, bureaucratic resistance, and pushback from environmental activists. The result: The L.A. foothills were primed to burn.
But Ring and others say the biggest problem that has allowed the fires to do as much damage as they have is tied to a lack of land management in the L.A.Basin. He blames the problem on state and local government bureaucracies, lawmakers in the pocket of environmentalist and renewable energy lobbyists, and legal challenges from activist groups that can grind the ability of landowners to manage their property to a halt.
Environmental groups, including the California Chaparral Institute, the Sierra Club, and the California Center for Biological Diversity, have aggressively fought against thinning and burning that state's chaparral landscape. In a 2020 letter to lawmakers, they argued that "adding even more fire to native chaparral shrublands" is not an acceptable policy.
"They make it virtually impossible to do controlled burns of any kind. They make it virtually impossible to do mechanical thinning. And they make it very difficult and in many cases impossible to even have grazing on your property," Ring said.
"Everything requires an environmental impact statement, and everything requires permits from the [South Coast] Air Quality Management District," he continued. "All of these things are just impenetrable bureaucracies. They just tie everybody up in knots."
Ring said a focus on single-species management, rather than total-ecosystem management, makes it easy for environmentalist lawyers to find a single bird or lizard that could be affected by a land management project to put the project on hold.
"The Endangered Species Act and the California Environment Quality Act have both turned into monsters that have not only prevented any kind of rational land management, but they've actually had the perverse, opposite effect in many respects," he said.”
“U.S. News and World Report ranks each state on a wide variety of categories. In the most recent assessment, California ranked dead last in opportunity, dead last in affordability, 47th in employment, 47th in energy infrastructure, 46th in air and water quality, 45th in growth, 42nd in public safety, 42nd in short-term fiscal stability, and 37th in K–12 education. The Tax Foundation ranks California 48th in its most recent State Tax Competitiveness Index. For five straight years, California has ranked highest in people moving out of the state, according to U-Haul’s data. BankRate found California was the 47th-best state for retirement. California ranks fifth-worst in roads and third-worst in drivers, second-highest in accident rate, and second-worst in drunk driving.”
It seems to me that the conflagration in Los Angeles (actually it’s a series on conflagrations) is a perfect metaphor for the collapse of governmental competence all over the western world.
What do they all share in common? Sadly the answer is an obsession with posh concerns that are fundamentally divorced from the real issues that political leaders should focus on. While Los Angeles is literally burning to the ground, Canada and the most important European nations are figuratively burning to the ground.
Whether Trump can make a dent in repairing the damage remains to be seen.
Living in the UK, I can report that this country is not burning: no fire would dare risk exposure to how freezing it is here at the moment, even my bicycle complains of the cold as I cycle into work.
Free Palestine protesters are celebrating while America Burns too.
MAGA and Free Palestine both get a chubby when America suffers.
I’m not celebrating the LA holocaust, you insufferable twit. What are you doing, though? Running interference for the collection of incompetent boobs whose years-long misgovernment of California has ensured that a bad situation will be much worse, that’s what. Well, you’re wasting your time. For Gavin Newsom and a host of Californian elected officials, the day of reckoning is at hand. Now get lost.
This is an extract from a National Review article by Ryan Mills that explains much about the causes of the devastating LA fires:
“And while the topography is different - the fires around L.A. are burning the chaparral landscape in the mountains and foothills around the city, not in forests — the lesson is the same, said Edward Ring, director or water and energy policy at the conservative California Policy Center: The L.A. fires have gotten out of hand largely due to poor land management.
"Historically, that land would either be deliberately burned off by the indigenous tribes or it would be grazed or it would be sparked by lightning strikes," said Ring, an advocate of continuing to manage the chaparral land's oaks and scrub brush with grazing animals, mechanical thinning, and controlled burns.
But that hasn't happened, he said, due to public policies, bureaucratic resistance, and pushback from environmental activists. The result: The L.A. foothills were primed to burn.
But Ring and others say the biggest problem that has allowed the fires to do as much damage as they have is tied to a lack of land management in the L.A.Basin. He blames the problem on state and local government bureaucracies, lawmakers in the pocket of environmentalist and renewable energy lobbyists, and legal challenges from activist groups that can grind the ability of landowners to manage their property to a halt.
Environmental groups, including the California Chaparral Institute, the Sierra Club, and the California Center for Biological Diversity, have aggressively fought against thinning and burning that state's chaparral landscape. In a 2020 letter to lawmakers, they argued that "adding even more fire to native chaparral shrublands" is not an acceptable policy.
"They make it virtually impossible to do controlled burns of any kind. They make it virtually impossible to do mechanical thinning. And they make it very difficult and in many cases impossible to even have grazing on your property," Ring said.
"Everything requires an environmental impact statement, and everything requires permits from the [South Coast] Air Quality Management District," he continued. "All of these things are just impenetrable bureaucracies. They just tie everybody up in knots."
Ring said a focus on single-species management, rather than total-ecosystem management, makes it easy for environmentalist lawyers to find a single bird or lizard that could be affected by a land management project to put the project on hold.
"The Endangered Species Act and the California Environment Quality Act have both turned into monsters that have not only prevented any kind of rational land management, but they've actually had the perverse, opposite effect in many respects," he said.”
All true. And yet, they all still get reelected in dark blue stayes and cities.
Insightful analysis, Thomas, especially the NOLA analogy. See also Tablet Magazine’s coverage: https://open.substack.com/pub/thedailyscroll/p/jan-10-theories-on-the-burning-of?r=3cmx2&utm_medium=ios
California has been a failed state for at least 10 years. This is just one more reason.
If California were its own country it would be one of the most powerful nations on Earth.
I know it's fun for your side to see Americans burn, but there is no merit to your position.
I don’t think it’s fun to see it burn at all. It’s devastating in so many ways.
My husband is a small business owner and it’s very clear to me why businesses are leaving California in droves. It’s run by plaintiffs lawyers.
California is a mess:
“U.S. News and World Report ranks each state on a wide variety of categories. In the most recent assessment, California ranked dead last in opportunity, dead last in affordability, 47th in employment, 47th in energy infrastructure, 46th in air and water quality, 45th in growth, 42nd in public safety, 42nd in short-term fiscal stability, and 37th in K–12 education. The Tax Foundation ranks California 48th in its most recent State Tax Competitiveness Index. For five straight years, California has ranked highest in people moving out of the state, according to U-Haul’s data. BankRate found California was the 47th-best state for retirement. California ranks fifth-worst in roads and third-worst in drivers, second-highest in accident rate, and second-worst in drunk driving.”
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/california
It seems to me that the conflagration in Los Angeles (actually it’s a series on conflagrations) is a perfect metaphor for the collapse of governmental competence all over the western world.
Karen Bass=Gavin Newsom=Emmanuel Macron=Keir Starmer=Olaf Scholz=Justin Trudeau=Joe Biden.
What do they all share in common? Sadly the answer is an obsession with posh concerns that are fundamentally divorced from the real issues that political leaders should focus on. While Los Angeles is literally burning to the ground, Canada and the most important European nations are figuratively burning to the ground.
Whether Trump can make a dent in repairing the damage remains to be seen.
Metaphors might be clever, but they can backfire. In the link Frank Furedi exposes those blaming Israel for the Californian fires with some chilling metaphors > https://frankfuredi.substack.com/p/woke-activists-are-scapegoating-israel
Living in the UK, I can report that this country is not burning: no fire would dare risk exposure to how freezing it is here at the moment, even my bicycle complains of the cold as I cycle into work.
St. Philip Neri said “Men are generally the carpenters of their own crosses” — California voters are crucifying themselves.
Many will leave California (as the exorbitant costs of rebuilding) become apparent.
But those lefties will continue to vote Dem. - "This time it will be different".
Like Bourbons, Dem never learn anything, or forget anything.
Well, we shall see...
A harsh but just judgement...