California wildfires

[marg6043]

I heard that the first fire was the fault of the Edison company, and the property owners are suing the company, even when investigations has not shown that it was their fault with faulty equipment.

Plus one of the Kardashians is demanding that the inmates volunteering on the fires should be paid more than 1 dollar and hour, or something like that.

[IdeomotorPrisoner]

Now Edison Electric is someone more to blame than the LAFD, actually. Their lines sparked the Eaton fire (allegedly) and it's the new standard practice to cut power in high risk areas. Despite people bitching about it.

And it works to some degree. Where I am has escaped fire this season and this may be the reason. And It took the 2007 Witch Creek Fire to evacuate 1 million people to implement these safety protocols.

LADWP is next, especially with this getting out:

https://6abc.com/post/possible-links-bet.../15797450/

LADWP, a municipally owned utility company that services the Pacific Palisades, told ABC News that it does not use Public Safety Power Shutoffs in the City of LA.

The above is what could have and probably did cause this. Blame The Department of Water and Power. For not having enough water and too much power.

[xuenchen]

Yup, It's Kim K.  
Maybe inmates need a Union 

Kim Kardashian demands higher pay for inmates battling LA fires: ‘I see them as heroes’
 

I heard that the first fire was the fault of the Edison company, and the property owners are suing the company, even when investigations has not shown that it was their fault with faulty equipment.

Plus one of the Kardashians is demanding that the inmates volunteering on the fires should be paid more than 1 dollar and hour, or something like that.

[putnam6]

Now Edison Electric is someone more to blame than the LAFD, actually. Their lines sparked the Eaton fire (allegedly) and it's the new standard practice to cut power in high risk areas. Despite people bitching about it.

And it works to some degree. We have escaped fire this season and this may be the reason.

LADWP is next, especially with this:

https://6abc.com/post/possible-links-bet.../15797450/

LADWP, a municipally owned utility company that services the Pacific Palisades, told ABC News that it does not use Public Safety Power Shutoffs in the City of LA.[//quote]

The above is what could have caused this.

Pretty much a cascading effect of the wrong decision after the wrong decision assisting an estimated 250 Billion-dollar disaster or opportunity depending on your tax bracket...

[marg6043]

Kardashian — the aspiring lawyer and daughter of the late Robert Kardashian, onetime O.J. Simpson defense attorney — used her platform to highlight the plight of incarcerated firefighters and advocate for better wages.  Continue reading
Those individuals, who are prisoners in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, make up about 30% of California's wildfire-fighting force in any given year and earn as little as $26.90 for a 24-hour shift, according to Times reports. More than 900 of them have helped battle the wildfires ravaging Southern California over the last week.
Kim Kardashian wants higher pay rate for inmate firefighters: 'I see them as heroes'

[quintessentone]

Yup, It's Kim K.  
Maybe inmates need a Union 

Kim Kardashian demands higher pay for inmates battling LA fires: ‘I see them as heroes’
 

Kim K. could really help by getting down to the donation centre and hand out diapers instead of giving lip service.

[IdeomotorPrisoner]

Pretty much a cascading effect of the wrong decision after the wrong decision assisting an estimated 250 Billion-dollar disaster or opportunity depending on your tax bracket...

I would have assumed with Pacific Palisades under the LADWP, who also administers the San Ynez Reservoir, they would use public safety power shutoffs.

So yeah, as much I will not back off they were doomed in almost all circumstances, it's not looking good for the time all the hindsight hearings roll around. Into the lapses of anything that contributed. And it will be a transparency treasure trove.

I think the story will be:

The Utility failed to cut the power in the same area a critical reservoir was offline during a strong Santa Ana. The LAFD, getting it's water from systems operated by the DWP was left dry during a critical event in a critical area. Additionally the FD was critically underfunded by a city that was not necessarily cutting the budget across the board. Seemed to be one the few budget cuts of note.

An LA progressive 2024-25 budget that will now be put under the microscope of all microscopes.

It's a 13.1 billion dollar budget. In which the FDs funding was reduced to 820 million. They are a little over 6% of budget pie and 17.6 million was a compromise from the 23.3 Bass wanted to cut. (Source Forbes) The other 93.7% will be interesting to see exposed.

It's a good opportunity to find her wasteful attempted groundbreaking initiatives that had her racking up flight miles abroad.

If she's compromising on 2% cut to the FD, she has a say in all budget allocations.

She will be lambasted for every silly progressive or unnecessary thing she cut the FDs budget for. Resignation seems likely.

And as much as I need to reiterate (again and again) this was too violent the stop, the benefit better management of the utilities, and funding for those depending on utilities, would have done enough to still matter.

Will authorities try to suppress a downed power line started it in a hard to reach area? (my intuition)

Even if the end (post ignition) is relatively the same, this could possibly turn LA against unnecessary progressive spending (like green things) in favor of basics to infrastructure?

[IdeomotorPrisoner]

Also thought this would be interesting to post. It's long, but my last on this.

The mayor on the current budget under and on fire.

Dear Angelenos,

Over the last year, through our work together, we have broken from the status quo. We’ve moved thousands more homeless Angelenos inside than the year before, housed Angelenos in encampments in every Council District, reduced homicides and violent crime, and addressed 100,000 more service calls from Angelenos.

Cut. So there's progress. They tackled the homeless issue. Fixed more potholes and cleaned more eyesores. They broke the Los Angeles city status quo of not giving a shit.

Gotta lead off with reminding people what you've done.

Amidst national, state and local economic uncertainty driven by broad economic trends and the coming national election, this budget continues our momentum toward change, prioritizes core city services and serves as a “reset” – so that our budgets moving forward are more honest and transparent and are squarely focused on doing a better job for Angelenos.

A euphemism for the power of LA's hybrid strong mayor shaking up spending..

To retain the City workforce and maintain these services, we must pay fair wages for those who keep us safe and those who improve our city every day like police officers, sanitation workers, pothole repair teams, park rangers, traffic safety officers, custodians and more. Meanwhile, we are continuing to urgently house Angelenos, keep L.A. safe, build a greener city and provide Los Angeles families with opportunity to thrive.

But at least she is not cutting everyday people's jobs. For the workers that make the city great!

Just vacant jobs to address budget shortfalls and also pay to house all the homeless they moved off the street at a rate $500,000 per renovated motel room.

We must take advantage of this current opportunity to evaluate the entire budget process and make the changes necessary to ensure City departments are functioning as effectively and efficiently as possible.

This budget will continue to hire for critical positions including sanitation, street services, police officers, firefighters and more while eliminating vacancies that in many cases departments have carried on the books for years.

We are investing taxpayer dollars in services and those that provide them – not empty desks. Immediately after this budget is finalized, I will direct my staff to conduct a comprehensive analysis of all City departments, and I look forward to working with you on this endeavor

I look forward to our continuing work together to make change and build a new Los Angeles of which every Angeleno can be proud.

Sincerely,

KAREN BASS
Mayor of the City of Los Angeles

She got more 'splainin' to do than Lucy, and it's not really that funny.

I got sick of doing annotations but I get why people gravitate towards Trump politics, I really do, because this several times over contradictory bit of political bullshit is hard to read.

I will bring transparency... with a devil in details letter that hides the intention of my budget. Textbook spin and politispeak.

Plus she took the time to mention a greener Los Angeles, so you know she's planning on building parks! Cuz that's what greener means. But really it means lucrative contracts to a slow moving goliath of wasted efficiency.

So I'll play Autistic Musk and The Waste Spending Action Brigade.

The problem is in Bureaucracy. The problem is it costs 8.5 million to renovate a dilapidated 17 room motel in South Central. Or the new fire station anywhere costs 30 million all expenses totalled. The problem is the new green park, or green EV charging stations, or fire station takes a foot-dragging contractor years to complete. How hard is and how many entities are needed to build a row of things in a parking lot, a 4200 square foot structure, or a recreation center and a new open space?

Or that every pothole demands a crew of 25. Looking at Caltrans too. It is like a Polish joke, 1 to do the work and 24 to stand around. That's the freaking swamp. And it's all about capitalist greed.

The argument against government waste is actually treading into territory that is pretty damn communist sounding. Exacerbated free market shit shows of lucrative contracts and greedy collective bargaining getting the absolute most out of every deal. And taking forever to do it.

It's about a capitalist system creating too many useless bureaucratic workers. Despite what that line actually intended.

The green agenda is the apex of useless wasteful capitalism. The agenda to progress is not the problem, but the insane capitalist blood orgy of greed that tries to overvalue every world of tomorrow upgrade to unbelievable levels and profit off the overvalued absurdity.

It's efficient only when capitalism is at risk. Contracts just move faster if it blocks The Port of Baltimore. Otherwise it's more profitable to take as long and charge as much as possible.

LA had to cut LAFD's budget, in part because the project to fix the San Ynez Reservoir's covering, yes covering, takes 2 years and how ever many well positioned greedy ass contractors to pull off.

To fix the fucking roof. Not the agenda but the intentionally foot dragging swamp of financial greed and ridiculous cost valuations.

Let's just say that if Musk misses that aspect of government overspending, he's a token puppet not really doing anything.

[putnam6]

All we really need to see is the itemized budget, and what was financed and funded at the bottom. Isn't it almost a certainty they are funding some rather frivolous programs at a frivolous dollar amount? Amounts that easily add up to the 17 million dollar LAFD shortfall and be cut from programs less essential than say maximum fire service capabilities, after all this is Los Angeles is full of America's wealthiest zip codes.  

The weird part is that with this being LA, the Mayor will probably stay in office but will have her X.com privileges revoked. Regardless one has to wonder has her political trajectory already reached it's zenith

[xuenchen]

So who actually believes this story about a big shot big time investor that supposedly invested $27 Million into a Malibu house and only expects to get $3 Million from insurance?

Real extra sharp investor here eh roflol 

I say the story is BS and is some kind of pre-rebuttal to some kind of liar-scam garbage. 

Story says this genius was "forced" to go with FAIR insurance 


An investor who spent $27 million on a mansion that burned down on ‘Billionaire’s Beach’ only expects $3 million from insurance

 

• Real estate investor Robert Rivani reportedly spent $27 million buying and renovating a luxury beachfront home in Malibu. After it burned down in the Palisades fire last week, he only expects a $3 million insurance payout.
  

Real estate investor Robert Rivani spent $27 million buying and renovating a luxury beachfront home on Malibu's famed "Billionaire's Beach," but only expects a fraction of that amount from an insurance payout after it burned down.
 
According to the Wall Street Journal, he was planning to list the five-bedroom mansion this spring for $40 million after buying it for $19.55 million in 2022. But the Palisades fire destroyed it last week.