Voluntarist
Member

The video was picked up by Newsweek. Tonight (1/17) it played on the "New Rules" segment on Real Time with Bill Maher. What I've yet to see is any political damage control being done about it by government authorities.

I thought I'd let you know the story has gone mainstream. Newsweek has an article: LAFD Deputy Chief Faces Backlash for Past Remarks on Fire Victims

At least that one makes some sense. It wasn't a Dept of Transportation inspection as reported, but rather a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection inspection; to ensure they've got the right equipment to enter the chaos. I wouldn't doubt that there was also some impromptu training on coordinating with other fire crews, assignment of radio frequencies, command and control, and all that. The same type of briefing military units do before entering the battlespace. Hmmm, makes me wonder if they have the same type of digital Common Operational Picture that the military maintains for each of its operations. The smog inspection was a hoot though.

AF, this is going to be difficult, but you gotta take a break from this ... spend some time breathing in that clean, frozen New Hampshire air ... Snort some maple sugar. The story is from Genesius Times, which describes itself as "The Most Reliable Source of Fake News on the Planet". Yes, Oregon sent 75 engines and 300 firefighters; they arrived in LA yesterday without being stopped for emissions testing. Don't feel bad, my AI agent fell for the fake story too:

To answer the question: State to probe why Pacific Palisades reservoir was offline, empty when firestorm exploded

Townhall picked up the story from Freebeacon.com: Democrat Donor Arrested for Starting Massive Fire Democrats Blamed on Climate Change Townhall states: FreeBeacon states: Note: Edward Frederick Wackerman, the 71-year-old man accused of starting the 2022 Oak Fire in Yosemite, is currently in custody. He was arrested on June 16, 2023.

Update: Man detained near Kenneth Fire not accused of arson === Edited === Which is not to say they won't eventually charge him with arson; they just don't have the evidence to do so yet. Whereas they do have the evidence to hold him on felony probation violation. Bird in the hand, as it were.

OMG AF, you've got to go look at this. I asked my AI, "Are the physical capability requirements for a female fire fighter in the LAFD the same as those for a male?" ... and the answer I got back was: ... so I went to the referenced webpage ... and what did I see: === Edited to add === It hadn't been archived for posterity; so if it changes, you can find it at: https://web.archive.org/web/20250110025204/https://www.joinlafd.org/candidate-physical-abilities-test?form=MG0AV3

Now hold on there (heh), I thought hoses were toxic masculinity. Really though, they might have done better just pissing on the fire.

Canada PM Trudeau to announce resignation as early as Monday, Globe and Mail reports

I realize there's only 31 words to the pledge, and she left out three of them ("flag of the"); but they really make sense to leave out (not that I'll grant she left them out on purpose). I no longer recite any part of the pledge when it's demanded (demanded by social convention, that is). And those three words were the first ones I came to leave out while I was still reciting the pledge (no piece of cloth has my allegiance) - followed not long thereafter by "under God". It was something about the War in Vietnam that made me realize I held no allegiance to this country, I just happened to have been born here and live here.

It's rather difficult for me to mourn the man's passing. The issue of my adolescence and early adulthood, and probably the one that led me most to libertarianism, was that war and, particularly, the military draft. I turned 18 in 1971, my draft lottery number in 1972 was 91 when they expected to draft up to 93. I lucked out when the U.S. military draft for the Vietnam War officially ended on January 27, 1973 (that was the year I would have been drafted ... I mean, really, how close a call can you get?). Nixon ended draft registration in 1973. Jimmy Carter (backed by a Democratically controlled Congress) was the one to reinstate draft registration in 1980. It's difficult for me to forgive that. And despite supposedly having a totally-volunteer military, neither party has abolished the military draft when they had control of both the presidency and the congress. As far as I'm concerned, that's Jimmy Carter's legacy. To all those women who tell me I'll never know what it's like to be denied the liberty of "My Body, my choice", because I'm a man ... just go fuck yourselves. And to all those women who think that Hillary Clinton believes in the concept of "My body, my choice", I'd remind you that she advocated just the opposite. And a final thought. If you transition from a man to a woman, do you still have to register for the draft? How about if you just self-identify as a woman? I guess you can tell just how much of a rat's ass I give about Jimmy Carter's passing.

Well yeah, let us at that 52 billion barrels of oil equivalent that's in the offshore waters. And there's probably a whole hellava lot more if we could just melt those glaciers that are covering it. Whatever happened to that libertarian philosophy of letting the people living there decide what to do with it? Has anyone asked the Greenlanders what they want to do? The Inuit Ataqatigiit party came into power in 2021 and are independence-minded. However, the people of Greenland are rather left-leaning, particularly environmentally, so I suspect they won't be too accommodating to outside influences wanting to exploit their resources.

Current conflicts still are; but face it, for current adversaries, they're overkill on the order of taking out a mosquito with a hand grenade. Overpriced for what you're doing with it. As long as the US is up against mere nuisances (you know, the ones screaming at us to keep our filthy hands off their deserts), the current naval force is a McClaren that you only drive to the local market and back. Even at that, though, they're only good in the open ocean. I posted recently about the USS Gettysburg downing a US F/A-18 in the Red Sea - there just isn't enough time to react in close quarters while doing due diligence. For future conflicts though (WWII-size conflicts with another superpower), they are insufficient to the task - on the order of how Patton described the Maginot line ("Permanent fortifications such as the Maginot line are a tribute to man's stupidity"). Ooooooo, they're 4,000 miles away and cruising at us at 25 knots; what shall we ever do? One of the naval fighting forces that does make sense, though, are submarines. Basically undetectable. They can crawl within 20 miles of shore and don't even need to surface to fire a hyper-sonic missile. They're also the only part of the nuclear triad that still makes any sense. Callout to XNavyNuke to get him to weigh in.

I've heard that Denmark is now offering to buy the U.S.

Remember the five dollar foot-long at subway? And that was without a coupon. Last month's coupon: "Get a footlong for $6.99" This month's coupon: "Get a footlong for $7.99" Last month's coupon: "Get a six inch for $3.99" This month's coupon: "Get a six inch for $4.99"

I forgot about that one, it's already happened and is still happening.Actually, it's a case of state funding to the cities being legally intercepted to pay pensions September 19, 2019: East St. Louis faces interception of state funds for $2.2M pension debt December 3, 2023: East St. Louis in financial turmoil, city at risk of layoffs and payless paydays February 6, 2024: IL should divert state money from East St. Louis to fund police, fire pensions, boards say

From the article:

They list: So how do you deal with that? (1) Eliminate pensions going forward (2) Shorten the payout period for existing recipients (wink wink)