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Apologies about starting up a new O/thread, but I found it interesting that the Mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, who was on a 'fact finding' trip to Ghana while the fires raged around her city had never had a proper job (outside of politics) that could have prepared her for becoming Mayor.
All her life has been about political and community activism before she entered paid politics in 2004. Prior to that, she was a medical assistant. She's now 71.
While in office, she redirected millions of dollars from public services (fire etc.) to helping the homeless.
How do people with no relevant experience get these jobs?
Is she a perfect example of a technocratic appointment?
Hall Of Fame
On the topic in the title, my former business partner, a close friend, has lost his family home in the Pacific Palisades fire. Thousands of buildings have been lost and a current conservative estimate is that the total damage to date is in excess of $50bn. Terrible times out there.
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It is. I didn't know about the Palisades until this morning and apparently, it's one of the most palatial parts of the USA. I think the insurance in the USA is a bit odd too. I believe you have to request fire insurance and the loading that insurance companies place on this, is way too much for people to pay, so they risk it without it.Originally Posted by SwalePie
We have friends in Florida who were impacted by Hurricane Milton and they said that many didn't have 'weather' insurance.
The most important thing is that people get out safely, but in the ashes of the aftermath, if you've lost everything, how do you pick yourself up?
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Same scenarios will happen here before long . Folks won't be able to afford insurance because of corporate greed.
Long established businesses , trading for decades, closing down because of the inflated costs of overheads and materials.
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Yes, you're spot on regarding the weather/natural disaster element to domestic insurance provision over there. Very different way of doing things in their insurance industry.
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The word out of the US is that the problems were exacerbated by the policy of redirecting water into the Pacific Ocean, that was formally sent down to California, thus making many areas of California bone dry and susceptible to forest fires.
The state government also had a policy of not removing old debris from forests and preventing trees from being cut down in and around residential areas, as used to happen, to prevent forest fires getting out of hand.
Added to that, under funding of the fire service in California had led to fire hydrants running dry.
You couldn't make this up.
A similar policy of preventing 'hazard reduction burning' was also in place in Victoria, Australia up until the bushfires of 2009, that killed over 170 people.
It appears that our leaders are playing games with our lives and then blaming climate change for the catastrophic fires that sweep through populated areas.
Even the BBC are questioning the policy of not carrying out proper forest management.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46183690
Last edited by Lullapie; 10-01-2025 at 01:37 AM.
Hall Of Fame
Looking at her history she was first appointed to an elected role in 2004, so 20 years experience at various levels, and yeah it sounds like she had some varied real world experience before that.
What's the issue? Other than you don't like her policies? What CV would you prefer she had?
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No doubt there are many factors involved, but this report from a declared non-partisan site (reporting on the working week for firefighters) indicates that CalFires budget has increased massively over the past decade although there has been a much publicised recent cut of 17.5 mill to LAFD budget.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4886
CalFire Budget and Staffing Have Increased Substantially in Recent Years. Driven by augmentations such as those discussed above, we estimate that CalFire?s total base wildfire protection budget has nearly tripled over the past ten years (from $1.1 billion in 2014‑15 to $3 billion in 2023‑24). As shown in Figure 3, CalFire?s overall budget also has increased, with its combined budget for fire protection, emergency fire suppression, and resource management and fire prevention more than doubling over the past ten years (from $1.7 billion in 2014‑15 to $3.7 billion in 2023‑24). Correspondingly, CalFire?s staffing levels also have increased significantly over the past decade. Specifically, between 2014‑15 and 2023‑24, the number of positions that CalFire categorizes as related to fire protection increased from 5,756 to 10,275, and the total number of positions at the department grew from 6,632 to 12,000 (representing roughly an 80 percent increase in both cases).
https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-...unding-2011568
The adopted budget for the 2024-2025 fiscal year increased the amount for the fire department to $819,637,423, according to a summary on the city administrative officer's website. That meant the department's funding saw a decrease of $17,553,814, rather than almost $23 million.
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If your house burns down with all your possessions in it and you couldn't afford the relevant insurance for wild fires, what the hell do you do? Unbelievably awful situation to find yourself in. Imagine having kids and no home or stuff left. And on such a huge scale. It's a proper nightmare.
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It seems like a good excuse to have a go at what some people see as the left. If there was an earthquake they would probably get blamed for that as well. When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
It does seem the fire service was subject to a funding cut but this is what happens when all the focus is on tax cuts for the rich rather than funding services. The US is a great place to live until something goes wrong, like your house burning down or getting sick, then you're on Skid Row with the rest of them.
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