Excellent work. I’m not an expert in law or FEMA or climate change (I.e.weather) but I am an expert in root cause analysis and it’s clear that these people do not want to get to the root cause because it will shine a spotlight on them.
My only quibble is allowing any concession to “climate change”, as progressives interpret and employ it, being something that impacted this disaster. As you pointed out, Santa Ana winds, drought and dry vegetation are all known quantities, not unexpected conditions that took officials by surprise. Also, these fires are likely to be entirely man made, from the arsonists who started the fires (or stupid campers or homeowners, or perhaps even PG&E) to the bureaucrats who failed miserably, to LAFD being unprepared, all of it can be laid at the feet of humans. Possibly evil, certainly incompetent, humans.
There are mounting evidences that at least some of the fires were caused by human activity, whether it was arson or just simple carelessness.
However, I would say that my argument is not making any concession to "climate change", but rather that the nature of civic planning and government makes the question of "climate change" irrelevant.
It does not matter why Los Angeles County is in a moderate drought (D2 level, which US Drought Monitor ironically labels "severe"). It does not matter why the Santa Ana winds were blowing with sufficient intensity to persuade officials to ground firefighting aircraft.
The why of such things cannot matter because the duty of the civic planner is to account for such things REGARDLESS of their cause. Even if the prevailing narrative as to the cause of the drought and the Santa Ana winds was a puritanical "God is mad with us" instead of "climate change", it would still be the duty of DWP and LAFD to account for such exigencies in their fire preparedness plans.
One of the most egregiously offensive aspects of climate change alarmism--and progressive ideologies in general--is the presumption that man is helpless and impotent. The whole of human history stands as categorical rejection that man is ever helpless or impotent. We are powerful creatures, blessed with intellect and imagination, and the power to use both to solve all manner of problems in this world.
Each of us has power. Each of us has potential. Each of us can impact the world for better or for worse.
By idolizing imperfection and impotence, progressives encourage people to impact the world for worse and then seek to make virtues out of their viciousness.
As a people, we need to reject such degenerate thinking, and the sooner the better.
I don't know why any idiots would try to blame "climate change" and I don't think that was the point. The real point was to try and discredit Lara Trump to try to embarrass President Trump. They have all been doing this for years. But here is the thing: climate change is not an excuse for being unprepared, it is an indictment. They can't say "we weren't prepared because climate change has gotten so bad so fast". Because if they REALLY believe that, then they should have known that they needed to prepare even more than ever since things were getting so bad so fast. And if the mayor believed that, then why would she cut the fire department budget?
The more inept someone is, the more they refuse to admit they didn't do anything wrong, and they just double down trying to make excuses. If the ones in charge can't come up with real solutions and instead just make excuses, then they need to resign and be fired. Ridiculous.
The idiots are trying desperately to blame “climate change” because the idiots are the ones in charge: Gavin Newsom in Sacramento, Karen Bass in Los Angeles, Kristin Crowley at the Los Angeles Fire Department. If they didn’t blame climate change they would have few options but to accept accountability themselves—and that they absolutely refuse to do.
Huffpost and corporate media certainly set out to embarrass Lara Trump, just as they routinely set out to embarrass Donald Trump. However, with anyone who has even a soupcon of actual experience planning and preparing for disasters and emergencies, corporate media has not embarrassed either Lara or Donald Trump, but themselves.
This is why I wish you were on the Supreme Court, Peter: you have the most perfect reasoning of any person I’ve ever encountered. I am in awe of your mind.
The local media is daily pushing the excuse that these fires were “climate change”, and I wish I could tie them all to chairs and make them read your column into microphones for all to hear. Instead, the best I can hope for - although it’s in poor taste - are comedians starting their monologues with, “ It’s not that the reservoir was DRY, it’s just, y’know, there was no WATER in it…”
Exactly! And the only way these kinds of travesties end is if the incompetents are held criminally liable. I’d like to see several CA politicians, agency heads, and bureaucrats not only lose their positions, but be PROSECUTED.
Given that the environmental conditions were far from the worst LA has ever experienced, this may indeed be a time when government maladministration rises to the level of criminally negligent homicide.
At least 24 people have died in these fires. Perhaps Chief Crowley and Mayor Bass should stand trial for those deaths.
Peter, is it true that Crowley left a paper trail throughout 2024 on the LA government failures - such as up to 25% of LAPD units being inoperative - which were ignored, and which Bass has attempted to hide?
Within every city government and every city bureaucracy there is invariably a paper trail documenting who was told what and when.
How damning Crowley's paper trail is, either to herself or to Mayor Bass, will of course be the subject of ongoing debate for the foreseeable future.
That being said, it is absolute fact that Chief Crowley did state in a memo to the Mayor's office last month that budget and staffing cuts were going to impact fire department readiness.
The reality of my IT career is that I am very much what in HR-speak would be called a “subject matter expert” in disaster recovery and business continuity. Getting things working again after the stuff hits the fan is one of those things I have been particularly good at (I actually had a client tell me once that he had a disaster recovery plan, “I just call Peter”).
I know what it takes to prevent a disaster like the Palisades fire, and I know that disasters like the Palisades fire ARE preventable. It takes organizational will, and discipline, and resources, but it IS doable.
I know this because in the IT realm I’ve done it. More than once.
When Internet viruses such as NIMDA and Code Red were wreaking havoc across corporate networks, not a single one of my clients was ever hit with them—for the very simple reason that the ways those viruses entered a computer network via the Internet were blocked off by my firewall configurations. A simple default rule at the bottom of the access list to “deny any any” meant that only the traffic I wanted coming in was coming in, and for the traffic to be coming in there had to be a reason it was coming in.
Fire chiefs and water department managers have an obligation to the public to plan for things like Santa Ana winds. There was nothing in the environmental conditions on January 7 that the LAFD had not seen before in fairly recent memory. The LAFD has seen worse environmental conditions in fairly recent memory. They had a duty to the people of Los Angeles County to plan and prepare for drought in winter and high Santa Ana winds, and that the wildfires have been such an epic disaster means they failed in that duty by definition.
Excellent work. I’m not an expert in law or FEMA or climate change (I.e.weather) but I am an expert in root cause analysis and it’s clear that these people do not want to get to the root cause because it will shine a spotlight on them.
The Governor, the mayor, the fire chief; 100% incompetent, sociopathic, narcissistic liars.
They all need to be charged with negligence.
Great headline- "It takes an Expert".....🤣
My only quibble is allowing any concession to “climate change”, as progressives interpret and employ it, being something that impacted this disaster. As you pointed out, Santa Ana winds, drought and dry vegetation are all known quantities, not unexpected conditions that took officials by surprise. Also, these fires are likely to be entirely man made, from the arsonists who started the fires (or stupid campers or homeowners, or perhaps even PG&E) to the bureaucrats who failed miserably, to LAFD being unprepared, all of it can be laid at the feet of humans. Possibly evil, certainly incompetent, humans.
Couldn’t agree more.
There are mounting evidences that at least some of the fires were caused by human activity, whether it was arson or just simple carelessness.
However, I would say that my argument is not making any concession to "climate change", but rather that the nature of civic planning and government makes the question of "climate change" irrelevant.
It does not matter why Los Angeles County is in a moderate drought (D2 level, which US Drought Monitor ironically labels "severe"). It does not matter why the Santa Ana winds were blowing with sufficient intensity to persuade officials to ground firefighting aircraft.
The why of such things cannot matter because the duty of the civic planner is to account for such things REGARDLESS of their cause. Even if the prevailing narrative as to the cause of the drought and the Santa Ana winds was a puritanical "God is mad with us" instead of "climate change", it would still be the duty of DWP and LAFD to account for such exigencies in their fire preparedness plans.
One of the most egregiously offensive aspects of climate change alarmism--and progressive ideologies in general--is the presumption that man is helpless and impotent. The whole of human history stands as categorical rejection that man is ever helpless or impotent. We are powerful creatures, blessed with intellect and imagination, and the power to use both to solve all manner of problems in this world.
Each of us has power. Each of us has potential. Each of us can impact the world for better or for worse.
By idolizing imperfection and impotence, progressives encourage people to impact the world for worse and then seek to make virtues out of their viciousness.
As a people, we need to reject such degenerate thinking, and the sooner the better.
I don't know why any idiots would try to blame "climate change" and I don't think that was the point. The real point was to try and discredit Lara Trump to try to embarrass President Trump. They have all been doing this for years. But here is the thing: climate change is not an excuse for being unprepared, it is an indictment. They can't say "we weren't prepared because climate change has gotten so bad so fast". Because if they REALLY believe that, then they should have known that they needed to prepare even more than ever since things were getting so bad so fast. And if the mayor believed that, then why would she cut the fire department budget?
The more inept someone is, the more they refuse to admit they didn't do anything wrong, and they just double down trying to make excuses. If the ones in charge can't come up with real solutions and instead just make excuses, then they need to resign and be fired. Ridiculous.
The idiots are trying desperately to blame “climate change” because the idiots are the ones in charge: Gavin Newsom in Sacramento, Karen Bass in Los Angeles, Kristin Crowley at the Los Angeles Fire Department. If they didn’t blame climate change they would have few options but to accept accountability themselves—and that they absolutely refuse to do.
Huffpost and corporate media certainly set out to embarrass Lara Trump, just as they routinely set out to embarrass Donald Trump. However, with anyone who has even a soupcon of actual experience planning and preparing for disasters and emergencies, corporate media has not embarrassed either Lara or Donald Trump, but themselves.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🎯🎯
This is why I wish you were on the Supreme Court, Peter: you have the most perfect reasoning of any person I’ve ever encountered. I am in awe of your mind.
The local media is daily pushing the excuse that these fires were “climate change”, and I wish I could tie them all to chairs and make them read your column into microphones for all to hear. Instead, the best I can hope for - although it’s in poor taste - are comedians starting their monologues with, “ It’s not that the reservoir was DRY, it’s just, y’know, there was no WATER in it…”
Exactly! And the only way these kinds of travesties end is if the incompetents are held criminally liable. I’d like to see several CA politicians, agency heads, and bureaucrats not only lose their positions, but be PROSECUTED.
Given that the environmental conditions were far from the worst LA has ever experienced, this may indeed be a time when government maladministration rises to the level of criminally negligent homicide.
At least 24 people have died in these fires. Perhaps Chief Crowley and Mayor Bass should stand trial for those deaths.
Peter, is it true that Crowley left a paper trail throughout 2024 on the LA government failures - such as up to 25% of LAPD units being inoperative - which were ignored, and which Bass has attempted to hide?
Within every city government and every city bureaucracy there is invariably a paper trail documenting who was told what and when.
How damning Crowley's paper trail is, either to herself or to Mayor Bass, will of course be the subject of ongoing debate for the foreseeable future.
That being said, it is absolute fact that Chief Crowley did state in a memo to the Mayor's office last month that budget and staffing cuts were going to impact fire department readiness.
https://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2024/24-1600_rpt_bfc_12-17-24.pdf
No doubt there are other documents as well, beyond those which have already been reported.
As always, I greatly appreciate the high praise.
The reality of my IT career is that I am very much what in HR-speak would be called a “subject matter expert” in disaster recovery and business continuity. Getting things working again after the stuff hits the fan is one of those things I have been particularly good at (I actually had a client tell me once that he had a disaster recovery plan, “I just call Peter”).
I know what it takes to prevent a disaster like the Palisades fire, and I know that disasters like the Palisades fire ARE preventable. It takes organizational will, and discipline, and resources, but it IS doable.
I know this because in the IT realm I’ve done it. More than once.
When Internet viruses such as NIMDA and Code Red were wreaking havoc across corporate networks, not a single one of my clients was ever hit with them—for the very simple reason that the ways those viruses entered a computer network via the Internet were blocked off by my firewall configurations. A simple default rule at the bottom of the access list to “deny any any” meant that only the traffic I wanted coming in was coming in, and for the traffic to be coming in there had to be a reason it was coming in.
Fire chiefs and water department managers have an obligation to the public to plan for things like Santa Ana winds. There was nothing in the environmental conditions on January 7 that the LAFD had not seen before in fairly recent memory. The LAFD has seen worse environmental conditions in fairly recent memory. They had a duty to the people of Los Angeles County to plan and prepare for drought in winter and high Santa Ana winds, and that the wildfires have been such an epic disaster means they failed in that duty by definition.