California Doing California Things

[Derec]

I’m thinking there are a lot of high figure GQP donors affected,

People living in $4M houses in LA are more likely to be Democrats though.

 

[robnisch]

I blame William Mulholland.
The dream of a green paradise in a dry scrub land.
Hollywood, the dream maker of the American myth.
Plastic Fantastic love affair.

 

[thebeave]

I’m sure that if the government would try to invest the money it would take to prepare for such a fire they would be voted out for wasteful spending.

Not so sure about that. They didn't get voted out for spending billions of dollars to build a high speed rail between Merced and Bakersfield. We sure do need a high speed train between two California shithole cities.

 

[Politesse]

It seems to me that addressing wildfires at all requires recognition that the climate has changed in ways that greatly exacerbate fire risk, and a willingness to spend taxpayer money on improving and expanding public safety. Within this thread, you are generally a supporter of a political party that rejects uncensored scientific study of the climate, income taxation, and more than a bare minimum of public spending. You're attempting to portray these wildfires as exclusively the result of Democratic policy, but they seem to me to be a failure of both policy and education, which go far beyond any question of partisan policy. There is no party that believes in supporting fire prevention or preparation if it comes at a significant cost or requires specialized knowledge. Especially during the times of year when there aren't many big fires yet but elections are around the corner.

Yup, it's actually the rainy season there right now. Yet no rain.

To say that Southern California has a "rainy season" would be a rather severe exaggeration. But it's true this isn't the time of year when wildfires were at their most dangerous, in past decades. The climate has changed in some fundamental and permanent ways. CALFire and the Forest Service know it too, but they're working with scraps compared to what they really need to adapt our response system and better educate the public on what they need to do. Actually the public is a pretty serious problem here, too - the mood in this country is angry defiance of anything the government proposes, no matter how simple, obvious, and life-saving. You can't tell ME what days to burn trash on my property and when not to, dammit!

 

[Politesse]

I’m sure that if the government would try to invest the money it would take to prepare for such a fire they would be voted out for wasteful spending.

Not so sure about that. They didn't get voted out for spending billions of dollars to build a high speed rail between Merced and Bakersfield. We sure do need a high speed train between two California shithole cities.

Those who live there (for instance, the more than two million people who live along that route) may not disagree that

1. They live in shitholes
2. Or if they do, maintaining that shithole status in perpetuity - as opposed to building new economic opportunities - is a worthy goal.

 

[Politesse]

Seriously, conservatives come here from god knows where trying to tell our state what to do, and the best policy advice they can actually come up with is a big fat nothing. Don't build anything, don't fund anything, don't learn anything, don't plan for any kind of future. No wonder Republicans have lost control of state politics as soundly as they have! We're one of the last corners of the country where a lot of people still think the country has a future, and all they can think to do is shit on the very idea of it. I notice they're not too good to eat our food, hire our graduates, use our tech, take the meds we develop, rely on our defense grid to protect them from China and Russia, or even to watch our movies. But they can't stand to see someone looking prosperous while most of the rest of the country founders in its socially regressive and economically spiraling tomfoolery.

You know, this has been one of the worst fires in our state's history already, and obviously it isn't over yet. But I'm still confident that Pacific Palisades will be rebuilt - and looking absolutely beautiful again- in ten year's time. Because we're swimming with passion, ingenuity, and money, and we'll use it to reinvent, not just rebuild, what we've lost. Because that's what "Californians doing Calfiornia things" actually looks like from the ground.

 

[Politesse]

I’m thinking there are a lot of high figure GQP donors affected,

People living in $4M houses in LA are more likely to be Democrats though.

Depends which neighborhood. But yes, it is true that Democrats are usually more materially prosperous in life than their Republican counterparts. The latter should spend more time than they do pondering why that might be, instead of just pointlessly griping about it and throwing matches at our pretty houses.

 

[TSwizzle]

Not so sure about that. They didn't get voted out for spending billions of dollars to build a high speed rail between Merced and Bakersfield. We sure do need a high speed train between two California shithole cities.

The people of California did vote to borrow billions to build HSR. But they are easily fooled into voting for these things. They never seem to learn. They keep voting for stupid things. Like Newsom for example.

 

[thebeave]

Not so sure about that. They didn't get voted out for spending billions of dollars to build a high speed rail between Merced and Bakersfield. We sure do need a high speed train between two California shithole cities.

The people of California did vote to borrow billions to build HSR. But they are easily fooled into voting for these things. They never seem to learn. They keep voting for stupid things. Like Newsom for example.

Yep. That was Jerry Brown's little pet project, because as he said, "I likes trains". It was all a total scam regarding the claims of ridership volume, initial cost and financial sustainability. It would have been better for everyone if he satiated his love for trains by buying himself a Lionel train set and setting it up in a spare bedroom. I also think he wanted a legacy of something big for California so he could compete with the big infrastructure projects (e.g. State Water Project) that were started under his father's administration. I get a sick feeling in my stomach whenever I think about how much money is being spent on that boondoggle while our budget deficit continues to skyrocket.

 

[Politesse]

It would just be so terrible to complete a major infrastructure project successfully! Our Dark Age ancestors would be so ashamed of our ingenuity. And our impiety of course. Don't you know God hates human ambition?

You know the entire modern world except for the US uses train transit routinely, right? Hell, we killed our own train network, for stupid croney capitalist reasons that the average citizen ought not give a shit about because they never benefited from it. You really think we're better off for only having fucking Greyhound buses to get around on? I mean have you ever actually ridden on one? They're fucking terrible. Whereas the Coast Starlight is nice, and I'm sure the Acelas or whatever we buy for the high speed will be nice also.

I cannot get behind this regressive agenda for the country at all. A nation should have a future they are actively working toward, not just nostalgic and inaccurate memories of shit that they used to have.

 

[TSwizzle]

It would just be so terrible to complete a major infrastructure project successfully!

But they haven't delivered anything!! ffs they have spent billions of dollars since 2008 and delivered fuck all! And there is no sign of anything meaningful being delivered.

Why do you defend this shit?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

You seem to be shocked that 500 miles of high speed railroad hasn't been completed yet.

 

[Politesse]

It would just be so terrible to complete a major infrastructure project successfully!

But they haven't delivered anything!! ffs they have spent billions of dollars since 2008 and delivered fuck all! And there is no sign of anything meaningful being delivered.

Why do you defend this shit?

They've done quite a lot of work on it, actually! There's a route, around 400 miles of which has been acquired and cleared through environmental review. Around 120 miles of rail are currently in the process of being laid. A little over half of the bridges and viaducts needed for the central section are completed, and most of the others are in some stage of construction. The project has also poured $18 billion dollars into the California economy, $7 billion of which were direct wages to California workers. Is it late and overbudget? Yes, but if it were up to you knuckleheads it wouldn't be on time or under budget, it just wouldn't exist at all. So no one would have any work, dreams, or even food on the table, and we'd never join the 20th century, late or otherwise.

In short, fuck your talentless, penniless future, I want one with nice things in it.

 

[TSwizzle]

It would just be so terrible to complete a major infrastructure project successfully!

But they haven't delivered anything!! ffs they have spent billions of dollars since 2008 and delivered fuck all! And there is no sign of anything meaningful being delivered.

Why do you defend this shit?

They've done quite a lot of work on it, actually!

They haven't delivered any working trains to anywhere!! That is the whole point of the fucking project, a working product! They can work on it forever and still not deliver a working train.

There's a route, around 400 miles of which has been acquired and cleared through environmental review. Around 120 miles of rail are currently in the process of being laid.

"in the process" lol. The whole thing has been "in the process" since long before 2008 and delivered no working trains!!

Is it late and overbudget?

Yes, and if this wasn't a government project it would have been aborted years ago.

Yes, but if it were up to you knuckleheads it wouldn't be on time or under budget, it just wouldn't exist at all.

Good because we don't fucking need it!! You know what we do need? Reservoirs, build them rather than a dumb vanity project. The voters in California were duped again.

In short, fuck your talentless, penniless future, I want one with nice things in it.

<Deleted by Moderator>

 

[Politesse]

Good because we don't fucking need it!! You know what we do need? Reservoirs, build them rather than a dumb vanity project. The voters in California were duped again.

California has one of the most complex water collection and delivery systems in the world, which has allowed one of the great world cities to be built and thrive in what is naturally an isolated desert basin. Said system includes more than 1300 reservoirs, that cumulatively store 20 million acre-feet of water and irrigate an agricultural zone which produces fully 12% of the national agricultural supply from less than 40 million acres of land, much of which was also desert or itinerant alkaline lakebed before our canal system was contructed to turn it into a horticultural paradise. You live in a land of wealth, creativity, and technological miracles, and you hate it for no rational reason.

lol, boo-hoo, you sound like an ill tempered toddler that has just been told they can't go to Disneyland.

Disneyland was also an innovative, highly lucrative California construction project, which continues to reap considerable dividends for this state and others. Go back to the Middle Ages with your anti-future, anti-intellectual, anti-prosperity nonsense.

 

[TSwizzle]

Good because we don't fucking need it!! You know what we do need? Reservoirs, build them rather than a dumb vanity project. The voters in California were duped again.

California has one of the most complex water {snip}

So I guess we don't need any more reservoirs?

You live in a land of wealth, creativity, and technological miracles, and you hate it for no rational reason.

Behave yourself. I have a problem with a multi billion dollar failed vanity project. I don't know why you defend this shit but it's irrational.

Disneyland was also an innovative, highly lucrative California construction project, which continues to reap considerable dividends for this state and others. Go back to the Middle Ages with your anti-future, anti-intellectual, anti-prosperity nonsense.

Thank fuck Brown and Newsom weren't the ones in charge of that project or we'd still be waiting on it opening.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Good because we don't fucking need it!! You know what we do need? Reservoirs, build them rather than a dumb vanity project. The voters in California were duped again.

California has one of the most complex water {snip}

So I guess we don't need any more reservoirs?

Well, another Lake Mead would be nice.

 

[Elixir]

I have a problem with a multi billion dollar failed vanity project.

Yeah, they should have spent those billions on Santa Monica.

 

[Politesse]

So I guess we don't need any more reservoirs?

Not really, if you ask me. But the state is also pursuing the construction of two new reservoirs, and the repair or upgrade of several more. A fact for which they are being savagely attacked by the right wing press at the moment! (Owing to the Santa Ynez Reservoir being under repair and therefore empty when the Palisade fire started). Apparently, you all are so fucking stupid that you think reservoirs sould only be built, never maintained, repaired, or improved. Would you agree? Is it a "waste of money" to fix things when they break?

Republican dipshits pretending they know anything about engineering.

 

[unapologetic]

only having fucking Greyhound buses to get around on? I mean have you ever actually ridden on one?

In July I went from NYC to Buffalo and back, 9 hours each way, overnight. It only makes that trip once a day, so it was packed.
The bus itself was nice enough. But the driver was an asshole. Left a lady behind at a truck stop, an hour away from NYC. Even thou people yelled to him as he pulled out.