Earlier quoted context omitted.
Shouldn’t have built expensive houses for a start
> Shouldn’t have built expensive houses for a start Why not?
They burn down the same as cheap ones.
LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed
431–440 of 691 posts
Re: LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed
#432Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times, slammed Bass in an X post claiming the mayor slashed the Los Angeles Fire Department’s budget, despite the high risk of wildfires in the region, and raised questions about reports that some fire hydrants in the Pacific Palisades had run dry. It's kind of rich that a local billionaire would complain about this. I'm going to guess that the $23M was…
"fair share" is always defined as more than they pay now, I've noticed.
Is your opinion that extremely wealthy don't try to reduce their tax share as much as possible, either through clever accounting on their current year taxes or by influencing politicians/policies to lower their taxes directly?
Why do most middle class earners pay more than their millionaire and billionaire counterparts as a percentage? Sure you might say W2 tax rate is higher than capital gains, but why is that the case?
Re: LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed
#433Earlier quoted context omitted.
If crime is rampant at a $2,000,000,000 spend, then you're spending it poorly. If the strategy isn't working at $2 billion, what makes you think it will start working at $2.1 billion? The responsibility is on the supporters to demonstrate the efficacy of the current approach. Where are the results?
Couldn't the same be said of a fire department with a $800,000,000 budget? Clearly they're not doing so hot, we should cut it further.
no. not really. The spread of the viewline fire was contained, the getty villa was saved, the hurst fire is being contained and they were on the sunset one pretty quickly. There was one in culver city and woodley that they quashed quickly as well. They got the divide fire from igniting angeles national forest and the lidia. The royal fire is about where the 2018 fire was and that was taken down as well today as was the sunswept, freddy, and emma fire.
that's the past 24 hours.
If you've been following this, they've done a fairly amazing job at knocking out maybe a dozen fires in the past day. Many of these had the potential to be giant infernos and you can actively see very clear evidence of them being contained and suppressed as the fire crews responded.
The evacuation orders and rescue operations were also effective and remarkably little life has been lost.
On the contrary, with crime, there's things like the 1992 Watts truce, which is credited with a rapid decline in LA street violence, which happened without law enforcement at all.
So unlike with say fire-fighting, there's empirically more effective strategies for dealing with crime. They do, however, require us to not be ideologically committed to punitive incarceration.
Re: LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed
#434Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's always a slight chance of arsonists. Every few years in Australia we get a story of arsonists setting fires. Sometimes they're firefighters, too.
> There's always a slight chance of arsonists. Actually, that was my first natural reaction. (Though I do live in the neighborhood of Russia, here probability of foul play is much higher up the list) > Sometimes they're firefighters, too. That is messed up.
> That is messed up.
A "visit" or two are often all that is necessary to convince folks to pay protection money to gangs. Protectors always have a perverse incentive to remind people what they need protection from.
One shouldn't rush to accuse though.
Re: LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed
#435Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, there are parts of California that are uninsurable against wildfires. Technically they could be insurable but State regulators will not allow insurance companies to raise premiums sufficient to cover the actuarial risk. The necessary premiums are prohibitively expensive for homeowners, but anything less risks bankrupting the insurance companies and increases their reinsurance costs which also must be passed on t…
> More proactive and competent wildfire mitigation would reduce the risk and therefore make insurance premiums more reasonable. Or... not building mansions next to forestry? In Germany we have pretty strict requirements on distances, so it's rare for damages to occur. Also, most of our power grid infrastructure is buried below ground, so videos like the ones circulating on Twitter from arcing lines setting bushes and…
Fwiw these aren't really forest fires, they are brush fires.
Re: LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed
#436Earlier quoted context omitted.
This was also to be expected in the sense that forecasters for a week now have been warning about century long record wind speeds and the fire dangers those bring along with them
Sure but that's quite different from implications that the conditions of the past year pointed to this. I follow the Dought Monitor regularly and as a California resident, I want to know if rainfall patterns point to danger. I don't see indications here (see link in my parent post).
Wind speeds and live fuel moisture level are the critical measures of fire risk in chaparral. Fuel moisture levels have been approaching critical this season in Southern California and, due to lack of rain, didn't follow the seasonal pattern:
https://fire.lacounty.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/All-Are...
Some relevant research: https://moritzfirelab.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/denniso...
Drought is a more comprehensive measure that includes snowpack, rainfall, resevoir levels, etc.
Re: LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed
#437Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm sorry for your loss. Are you lucky enough to be in a place where insurers in California are still operating? Hopefully you can at least get financial situation taken off your mind
> Are you lucky enough to be in a place where insurers in California are still operating? California has had a state fire insurer (FAIR) of last resort for over fifty years and fire insurance is practically mandatory for mortgages so there aren’t many places that are excluded. It’s entirely funded by premiums and has never been bailed out by state or federal funds. It’s not like the National Insurance Flood Program t…
Mortgage firms demand Home insurance policies which it covers some fires, but not all fires. E.g. if there’s an earthquake and it causes a natural gas fire, you’re not covered by home insurance. Same goes for if there’s a flood and it causes a fire, not covered.
I suspect long term fire insurance due to wildfire will not be covered by home insurance policies. As it’s not a “random” event, and instead a risk of certain areas.
Re: LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed
#438Earlier quoted context omitted.
> yeah, I expect there are some foundational differences in world view at play. Agree. I find it fascinating that perspectives can be so different. > It it is sought after because it is an improvement over the alternative. Yep, no objection from me. > I'm honestly unsure how this can be framed as a negative. To me it's the part where prison is apparently even worse than risking your life fighting fires for free. The…
> To me it's the part where prison is apparently even worse than risking your life fighting fires for free. Makes perfect sense to me, even if the prison was a five-star hotel. The human mind is hard-wired to want to explore and get out . Universally, one of the most difficult parts of being in prison is being forced to stay within the prison walls. The fact that these walls exist is a necessary compromise between ke…
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Re: LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed
#439Earlier quoted context omitted.
> yeah, I expect there are some foundational differences in world view at play. Agree. I find it fascinating that perspectives can be so different. > It it is sought after because it is an improvement over the alternative. Yep, no objection from me. > I'm honestly unsure how this can be framed as a negative. To me it's the part where prison is apparently even worse than risking your life fighting fires for free. The…
> To me it's the part where prison is apparently even worse than risking your life fighting fires for free. Makes perfect sense to me, even if the prison was a five-star hotel. The human mind is hard-wired to want to explore and get out . Universally, one of the most difficult parts of being in prison is being forced to stay within the prison walls. The fact that these walls exist is a necessary compromise between ke…
> The human mind is hard-wired to want to explore and get out.
We also have a self preservation instinct.
Re: LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed
#440Earlier quoted context omitted.
Correction: among the most pleasant _when natural wildfires don't burn everything down_. People need to take long-term conditions into account when choosing locations for habitation.
Does anyone do this? SoCal, NorCal, Seattle - Earthquakes SoCal, NorCal - Fires Midwestern States - Tornadoes North Easy - Blizzards South Easy - Hurricanes Which part do you suggest everyone move to?
New Mexico is pretty relaxed