Some Say the World Will End in Fire

Reports coming out of Los Angeles are un-fucking-believable. The acreage burned by the now-six out-of-control fires is bigger than the island of Manhattan.

These reports are in sharp contrast with the completely frozen landscape I’m observing from my bedroom window.

Cue the Dickensian-named poet Robert Frost:

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.



I know the firestorms’ path a little bit: People Magazine used to summon me down to their LA office approximately twice a month when I worked for them in the ‘90s.

And my charismatic ICM boss Maria has—had?—a futuristic mansion in the Hollywood Hills.

Climate change manifests as a series of increasingly apocalyptic disasters that look so great on Instagram, you are bound to net simply loads of new followers when you post pix:



Rest of America really hates California.

Message boards across the Internet are spilling over with Schadenfreude: These people think they’re above it all, that the rules and laws they impose on us don’t apply to them. And during the Biden years the Democrats tried to do to the entire country what they’ve done to poor California. Leftists ruin literally everything they touch and control - there are no exceptions.

I don’t honestly see how political ideology factors into fire control.

The right-wing press is making a very big deal out of the fact that the current LA mayor shaved $17 million & change from the fire-fighting budget & cost-shifted it to the fighting-homelessness budget. But I think there is a good chance that one or more of these fires started in a homeless encampment.

And anyway, I’m not sure what an $17 million additional dollars might have done. I mean, LA’s fire department is overwhelmed because they were fighting first four and now six infernos simultaneously. How many hundreds of additional fire-fighters would they need to tackle six raging blazes? Would $17 million actually have covered the cost of the men and their equipment?

Plus LA’s reservoirs are actually full. The fire hydrants did run out of water, but that’s because high water demand outpaced the speed at which water service officials could replenish the tanks—and the water storage facility tanks had just been filled to full 3-million-gallon capacity on Monday.

The magic bullet for firestorm prevention is said to be brush control.

2023 was an unusually rainy year in Southern California, so I imagine there is a lot of brush.

I don’t know anything about what brush control measures were being taken around Los Angeles, and whether those measures are the responsibility of individual homeowners or the state of California.

I do know there are a number of federal parklands around Pacific Palisades, so the responsibility for brush control there falls upon the Feds. Don’t hold your breath waiting for Trump to allocate $$$ for brush control on California’s federal lands!



I imagine the political fallout from these fires is going to be horrendous.

Enough to turn California into a Red State?

Maybe.

Northern California will remain steadfastly progressive & Blue, but Southern California is where the population is, and an event like this one strikes me as one of those 180-degree-turn-around, come-to-Jesus events— not unlike Sept 11th—which veered a number of my left-leaning pals to the right.

On the plus side, this is the most diverse, equitable, and inclusive fire in LA’s history!

And I do loathe Gavin Newsome, so I will not be sorry if this ends his political career.