1mo ago

California fires live: 6m people under critical fire threat as dangerous winds expected; governor says conditioning aid ‘un-American’

www.theguardian.com California fires: LA fire crews make progress as officials expect ‘much-needed break’ from dangerous weather – as it happened | California wildfires | The Guardian

Firefighters report gains in containing Eaton and Palisades fires; more than 120,000 people still without power

Forecasters have warned of another “particularly dangerous weather situation” across northern Los Angeles where residents are braced for new wildfire evacuation orders.

Los Angeles, and parts of Ventura county to the north, faced “extreme fire risk” warnings through Wednesday, with officials warning of “significant risk of rapid fire spread” due to the Santa Ana winds – which have gusts of up to 75mph.

This is the fourth time in recent months that Los Angeles has faced a “particularly dangerous weather situation”, and the three previous warnings all resulted in major wildfires, the Los Angeles Times reported.

15 comments

I saw some asshole on another forum say that people in L.A. who lose their houses will survive okay sleeping on the streets in a windbreaker. Difficult, but not all that difficult.
I didn't even bother asking them which brand of windbreaker is best for keeping ash out of your lungs.

It's not un American. It's inhuman.
- So very much American.

California should withhold what it annually gives to the federal government until conditions are met.
- Over half a trillion dollars. That's what California makes the feds every year. We're the fifth fucking largest GDP on the planet.
- They could also withhold the nation’s food supply as well

Is there any actual evidence that CA has had aid going to places it wasn't allocated (aka someone pocketing it), or is this just continuing to push right wing talking points? What are the chances that the real estate companies that wanted to buy up all of this "discount real estate", and perhaps large financial companies funding them, just might be in the ear of Rights mouth pieces?
And audit afterwards should certainly be conducted as they should for all aid responses involving emergency funds, but we shouldn't be withholding aid based on it. If something is found during the audit is when any issues should be addressed, not during a disaster. This is just Trump and his minions trying to make CA bend the knee, just like he did with NC during the hurricane/tornadoes spreading fake FEMA info.

looks at how California treats their "normal" homeless
Is that America unconditional aid in the room with us?
- Yes, because that's a problem unique to California...
  
  Did I say it was? Calling someone hypocrite doesn't mean I'm claiming they are the only asshole in the room.

Without actual proposed conditions there can't really be an intelligent discussion on the topic. This story isn't ripe yet.
Certainly there are some reasonable conditions e.g. a report and audit on the dispersal of aid to ensure it isn't landing in a politician's pockets.
- While that might seem reasonable, shit's on fire. We can and should audit for any fraud or diversion of aid after the crisis, and those guilty should face very steep punishment. But you put the fire out, in this case literally. Preconditions are simply evil. It's playing politics with human lives.
  
  We can and should audit for any fraud or diversion of aid after the crisis
  Naturally it's not like there's any point in an audit of spending before spending occurs. I was asserting that post conditional terms (like CA must return unaccounted expenditures) or requiring the preservation of records for such and audit is a reasonable condition.
  Most financial aid and transactions these days is strictly digital and easy to audit because of that.
  Other forms of aid like diversion of fire suppression helicopters have other simple means of establishing records that can later be audited after the end of the emergency (e.g. adding a comment on the pre flight checklist).
  But if we decide 9 months from now CA has to pass an audit and they tossed their receipts it'll be impossible.

15 comments