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OT: American Politics

Wayward DP said:
I would wager that to the extent any of the fires were caused by human activity, they were accidental, not deliberate.

but again, I think this misses the point.

the severity is a result of climate change. when the environment creates conditions favourable to wildfires, you're gonna get out of control wildfires. scientists keeps warning us, and we keep ignoring them. maybe we'll start listening soon?

I'd bet good money that to the extent there is any arson, it is not a major cause or contributor to the current fires.

and we know MAGA bots are only amplifying that talking point to distract folks from what I think ought to the be main takeaway here
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Agree.

Negligence is far likelier than arson.

And the drought conditions are obviously the 800 pound gorilla to begin with.
 
AH$$$ said:
I am not a conspiracy theorist and hate the MAGA idiots on X, but there is some truth to this.

My sister and brother in law lost their second home in Malibu yesterday due to the fire and had to evacuate their main residence last night in west LA.

According to both there is an arsonist somewhere. No way this is normal in terms of fire patterns for SCal. It’s insane what’s happening with random fires starting away from the main fire in the palisades.
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While the origins of the fires should be investigated, without evidence that theory is just that, a theory.
AH$$$ said:
News reports NBC LA

Maybe not arson but definitely human triggered.
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Someone tossing a match or finished cigarette out a car window is not arson
 
thehabhater said:
While the origins of the fires should be investigated, without evidence that theory is just that, a theory.

Someone tossing a match or finished cigarette out a car window is not arson
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Yeah, it might be also that in normal life, these little fires would get handled quickly and not spread. But since presumably the whole system is being taxed, some accidental thing that would usually only cause damage to one random house has a chance to spread and grow and cause more issues.
 
lecoqsportif said:
Agree.

Negligence is far likelier than arson.

And the drought conditions are obviously the 800 pound gorilla to begin with.
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Even "negligence" might overstate it.

If you throw a cigarette out the window or your bbq flames up yeah it's "negligence" but usually doesn't burn down a neighborhood.
 
AH$$$ said:
Not really. Last thing the news needs to do is cause mass panic.

On top of that, my initial intrusion regarding arson was regarding the random fires startong elsewhere which have no connection to the Palisades
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And understanding how quickly fires can spread over distances is something your friends' "lived experiences" haven't given them expertise in.

Also, drought conditions would mean multiple different fires are likelier.
 
AH$$$ said:
Not really. Last thing the news needs to do is cause mass panic.
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how is the news causing mass panic?

if anything, it's the opposite. people are complaining that they cannot get accurate or up to date (or in some cases, any) information about the fires, particularly from social media sites.
AH$$ said:
On top of that, my initial intrusion regarding arson was regarding the random fires startong elsewhere which have no connection to the Palisades
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the Palisades is but one of I believe five different fires burning out of control.

and what makes these fires 'random'? they are burning the way they are because of the environmental conditions on the ground. they are actually in many ways the opposite of random.

I really don't understand the point you're trying to make, but I would like to.
 
and ABC confirms there are five active fires:

LINK

Thousands of firefighters are battling at least five sprawling wildfires spread around the Los Angeles area, as well as several smaller blazes. Thousands of structures have been damaged or destroyed and more than 100,000 people evacuated as uncontrolled infernos spread.
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Wayward DP said:
and everyone should keep in mind if this happened when Trumpy was pres there is no guarantee that he would sign a federal emergency declaration.

in fact, I doubt he would.
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Depends how many friends are in the areas. Palisades at least is a rich area I think, so odds are they'd have a quick emergency declaration.

I mean, obviously if it was some random black neighbourhood, he wouldn't. Depends if his like of the rich overrules his dislike of California.
 
UWHabs said:
Depends how many friends are in the areas. Palisades at least is a rich area I think, so odds are they'd have a quick emergency declaration.

I mean, obviously if it was some random black neighbourhood, he wouldn't. Depends if his like of the rich overrules his dislike of California.
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there's a story from his first-term about Trumpy having to have his dick dragged over broken glass before approving an emergency declaration in California, even though the folks who would mostly benefit from it were Trump voters (that is apparently what ultimately convinced him). will see if I can find it
 
Wayward DP said:
there's a story from his first-term about Trumpy having to have his dick dragged over broken glass before approving an emergency declaration in California, even though the folks who would mostly benefit from it were Trump voters (that is apparently what ultimately convinced him). will see if I can find it
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Trump refused to give California emergency aid until told how many people voted for him

Mark Harvey, who was Trump’s senior director for resilience policy on the National Security Council staff, told E&E News on Wednesday that Trump initially refused to approve disaster aid for California after deadly wildfires in 2018 because of the state’s Democratic leanings.




But Harvey said Trump changed his mind after Harvey pulled voting results to show him that heavily damaged Orange County, California, had more Trump supporters than the entire state of Iowa.
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