Fire !

Fortunately, most of our clients have left Los Angeles long ago (due to the high prices and city management), so as such haven’t been directly impacted by the fire. But some ARE involved in the firefighting and rescue operations so our hearts and prayers are with them.

Of course, the staff at D-J knew it wouldn’t be long until some miscreants and media sources started pontificating on ‘climate change’ as being the cause. And we weren’t disappointed; within a few hours of the tragedy mainstream media was spouting ‘climate change.’ Dupes, drones, and miscreants LOVE to cite ‘climate change’. It seems that ‘climate change’ has been espoused by the left when just about ANYTHING bad happens, except perhaps premature ejaculation.

And we’re sure even that’s coming quickly.

Why ?

We turned to staff consultant Professor Sook Ahn Mahogg (of South Korea) for an answer:

“Basically, it’s the classic psychological game of shifting blame. We’ve long debunked the ‘science’ behind ‘climate change.’ There is NO WAY that humans burning hydrocarbons can appreciably affect the climate OR the temperature of the earth. None. But by citing ‘climate change’ — and falsely assuming a link between hydrocarbon use and climate–people can shift the blame away from themselves and on to YOU. It’s not THEIR fault that reservoirs were empty, brush wasn’t cut, trees were left standing, and no real plan was in place. It’s YOUR fault for driving your car and eating steak. Pretty old game.

It’s been used throughout history by supposed ‘scientists’ and political leaders. Ancient cultures went as far as to sacrifice human beings to please the gods and get rain. Or better crops. Or ward off natural disaster. The practice was used until recently (and is still used in some cultures) to appease Mother Nature and stave off bad events beyond human control.

The ‘climate change’ cult is simply an extension of this into modern times; using junk science and a theory to ‘prove’ ‘incontrovertible evidence.’ Really no different of a scam except it’s translated into modern times with modern-day marketing and technology.

What we are hearing, and what we will hear over the next few weeks will be those directly responsible for exacerbating the tragedy attempting to shift the blame using this ‘climate change’ straw man. It’s the ultimate form of ‘straw man’ in that since everything on the planet pretty much uses some type of hydrocarbon (or carbohydrate) for energy it can be used for just about every situation where something bad happens. Fires, hurricanes, malaise, depression, earthquakes, mudslides, floods, heat, cold, tornadoes, thunderstorms, hail, stampedes, killer bees, etc.

What REALLY happened was the people managing the situation completely bungled it in every way. The very ones trying to shift blame. It didn’t happen overnight or even over the span of a year or two but has been developing over the span of many years.

It’s likely man discovered fire through a wildfire–capturing it for his own use–and keeping a flame constantly lit–before he discovered how to make it himself. Wildfires and forest fires are nature’s own way of cleaning herself; converting overgrowth and forestry to ash which later over centuries regrows. It distributes massive amounts of particulates, carbon, nitrogen, and ash over wide areas allowing nature to propagate herself; much like mammals do through migration and DNA (but with flora rather than fauna). Nature is extremely wild and ruthless; it really doesn’t care much for any species caught up in the fire or other conflagration. And she often tends to do things quickly and violently; like a volcano pressure builds over centuries and things blow all at once. Same as for forest fires.

While man can’t control nature, he can tame her. And to some extent shape his local environment to deal with nature. In the case of wildfires, man can clearcut potential combustibles (trees) and make fire breaks. He can leave some flora and trees to look nice while clearing trees and brush overgrowth which are nothing more than latent fuel. He can water frequently with irrigation and diverted water or wells to dampen combustibility while planning careful firebreaks (things like wider roads or graded areas where fire will have difficulty jumping). And he can plan for things to go wrong like filling massive reservoirs with water and having fire suppression available for when things go south. Santa Ana winds are nothing new and can achieve some pretty impressive speeds going through the funnel-like terrain like a forced blower into a boiler. But it has to be carefully planned and developed much like building a dam for flood control.

Even early American Indians knew this; they’d arrange for controlled burns to clear brush and trees before overgrowth became unmanageable. And intentionally destroy forest overgrowth after building fire breaks–letting sections of growth and trees burn to keep from having an uncontrolled burn later.

There’s a Curb-Your-Enthusiasm episode about a ‘spite store’ (ironically it seems Larry David leans fairly far left). The store eventually burns down through a comedy of errors taking its spited competitor with it. The fire is initiated by a tranny with an unusually large member (a real life Swingin’ Dick as it were) inadvertently turning around while changing in a storeroom knocking off the innovative ‘keep coffee warm’ battery powered coffee cups off a shelf. The cup overheats igniting the nearby hand sanitizer (which was a feature of the spite store) stocks. The fire quickly spreads to the store. Meanwhile, responding fire trucks are delayed by Larry (who’s irritated by emergency responders’ Siren Abuse–using sirens to get to the coffee store more quickly or get food more quickly) refusing to get out of the way of the fire trucks responding to the bona-fide fire (thinking it’s another case of Siren Abuse). Once there, the fire trucks are hindered by tables bolted to the floor which they can’t circumnavigate (the spite store featured no-wobble tables) and the entire thing burns to the ground.

The current fires pretty much replicate what happened in this comedic microcosm.

For years, due to environmental Marxism, water was diverted from the LA basin into the Pacific to save a minnow which wound up nearly extinct anyway. This not only bankrupted human farmers wanting to grow food in the fertile valley (and decreased the human food supply) but prevented capturing runoff water for the increasing population in Los Angeles. In fact, governor Newsom fancies himself as a modern day ‘dam buster’ — pillaging flood control and water source dams for human use over some misguided environwacko cause. California–like many other areas–has times of excessive rainfall and extreme drought (driven by nature over which we have no control). As such, water storage is essential and every drop counts. Mankind CAN make the desert bloom, but it requires we make the effort to do so. Newsom did everything he could to reverse this, restrict water supply, and force drought.

While it’s not a pleasant thought, some of the water we drink has been used by other creatures–including mammals. It’s possible one might draw water from a 600 foot well which is 25,000 years old minimizing how much of it’s recycled, but much of our water supply comes from rivers, open reservoirs, and lakes. Even shallower wells (perhaps 150 feet) contain water that has been used by some other animal at some point in the past. The ground naturally filters this such that contaminates are removed and the water is as good as water gets–the other good thing nature does is add iron and sulfur which act as natural decontaminants and kill bacteria (hydrogen sulfide and sulfuric acid formed by trace elements in soil are wonderful bactericides and while stinky are great at killing germs). But the key point is that the water we drink–other than that which has been ironically produced by burning hydrocarbons–has likely been used by some other living entity. And bacteria as well as algae and other microorganisms will actively grow in ANY reservoir.

Most municipalities simply accept this–and draw from uncovered reservoirs, lakes, streams, and rivers. Choosing to treat the incoming water through filtration and chlorination (some of it being quite sophisticated involving reverse osmosis for potable water). These methods–particularly proper chlorination–are very effective at killing anything bad and while the water might not be all that tasty is safe and fit to drink. And customers can always filter the water through aftermarket filters.

California — being California — decided it needed to ‘cover’ its reservoirs. The marketing ploy is that birds and animals and people might pee or poop in them and ‘contaminate’ them (which has likely happened with most water people consume anyway). But it was a scam looking at more taxpayer dollars. Now, it IS a concern that in the dry climate some water might evaporate, but this is easily made up for by diverting the supply of runoff water going into the ocean into the reservoirs. So while there was some justification for an effort to mitigate evaporation there was NEVER a justification to pull an entire reservoir out of commission just to repair its cover. SOME water is better than NO water.

Which is exactly what happened with the 117-million gallon Palisades reservoir. Pulled out of commission to repair its cover.

Now, I’m not saying that losing 117-million gallons would’ve made the difference in ending the fire, but it certainly would have helped. Most of the issue came from the fuel available for the fire.

Which again was driven by the ‘environmentalists’ in the state. I use that term in quotes because these environ-marxists always create a bona-fide environmental catastrophe by their dastardly deeds in the claimed name of protecting the environment.

This disaster was preventable. It was preventable by mitigating the fuel available for the fire (brush and trees) and constructing man made fire breaks. As I said, the Santa-Ana winds are well know as are periods of drought. It’s essential that potential sources of fire sustainment (meaning trees and brush; particularly dead trees) be clear cut. So one would think California would be extremely proactive in making this happen.

Nope.

Due to ‘protected species’ laws (for those who care particularly LA municipal code section 46.00 and follow on laws protecting trees and brush), clearing brush is an ordeal. In fact, LA limits the ability of residents to clear cut very strictly to very narrow parameters. When coupled with the endangered species habitat laws, most residents simply decided that it was too difficult and let things be. So trees and brush continued to grow unabated providing plenty of fuel.

All while the onerous rules for constructing roads or intentional fire breaks prevented their construction. As did rules preventing controlled burns which haven’t happened in close to a century. Not to mention the requirement for a permit to clear a tree for what might be a habitat for something or other — the spotted owl being the most prominent offender.

So we have the perfect storm–overgrown areas whose clear cutting is prevented by some law. Restrictions on water–claimed due to ‘drought’ but in reality caused by diverting potable water into the pacific over some environmarxist BS–preventing residents from freely watering their lawns and mitigating fire danger. A natural event fanning the flames. And inept leadership responding–the same leadership who made the rules which created the fire in the first place. Who’ll attempt to shirk by claiming ‘climate change.’

I could go into the woke appointment of inept lesbians to lead the fire department regardless of qualification but that’s more insult to injury. Or the delays to fire fighting equipment from out of state to meet California DOT standards (real Atlas Shrugged there). I think it’s readily apparent to everyone that the fire spread was exacerbated by inept leadership by the mayor and leadership of the FD. But that takes away from the hard working people fighting the fire and in the trenches who actually ARE capable so I’m not going to go there. What I would hope people carry away from this is to thank those fighting the fire and hope they fire the political leaders in charge of the city, the FD and the state–they’re the REAL reason this disaster happened. The fire itself was merely the culmination of long term environmarxist policies perverting and pervading the state.

And in their marketed supposed caring for the ‘environment’ Governor Newsom, the mayor of LA, and the Democrat legislators actually CAUSED this REAL extreme environmental disaster. I heartily recommend firing them and anyone else who uses the term ‘climate change’ in relation to ANY disaster that occurs anytime, anywhere.”

As usual, we think Suk is spot on and hope the American People respond accordingly.