* Obama suddenly reverses himself, publicly decrying 'cancel culture'. (Gee. Wonder why.)
* Adam Schiff tries to conduct a kangaroo court, with him as chief inquis... uh ... judge.
* Jim Jordan is loaded for bear, and Nancy Pelosi has fur on her legs. (BANG!)
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This is war!
I know I sound like a broken record, but it would be irresponsible of me not to spread the warnings.
This is what's out there, sharpening it's knives, lying in wait for us.
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FIRE!
California is burning.
Again.
Having spent several years of my life there, I know that this is the season. One year, in mid-October, my wife and I went out for our regular, Friday night treat (our date night), this time to the Carl's Jr. at 24715 Pico Canyon Rd over in Stevenson Ranch, which is close enough to where we lived that we just came to think of all Santa Clarita as one big town. This is to say that we weren't far from our house. But, as we arrived, the sky was black as night, which, being mid-October, wasn't out of the ordinary, except that the lights of the city reflected off the sky, much as when it snows. And it did look like snow. The ash from the nearby fires fluttered to the ground all around us like gray, fluffy snow. Not a fraction of an inch deep. And it smelled like sulphur.
Just then, a convoy of trucks rushed by carrying heavy equipment; bulldozers, graders, backhoes. We knew where they were going, and why. This would have been about 2007, and the fires were that bad, and that close to us, that we were practically in the middle of the war-zone. On our date night.
You learn a whole new normal in California.
We would later learn that this particular fire had been started by a couple of ... undocumented ... visitors, who, in a moment of desperation (Really?! Desperate for what?! They get everything they need!) resorted to selling whatever scrap-metal they could scrounge. And what they scrounged that night was a manhole cover. (I REFUSE to call them people-hole covers, or, as CA now does, simply access covers.) Eager to flee the supposed scene, they simply hit the gas of their pickup truck, dragging the manhole cover behind them. All the way out of town and up into the hills. Showering sparks all along the way.
Now, I don't know about you, but, to me, this sounds like what they call in the movies a 'likely story'.
Let's not forget that it was also in California where a remote power sub-station was disabled by dozens of rounds from multiple, high-powered hunting rifles fired from various locations in the surrounding hills. They never caught the perpetrators, but it was obvious that someone was testing our infrastructure to see just what it would take to bring it down.
By the way, those big transformers can't just be bought off the shelf. They're hand-made in Germany. They're then shipped by special boats, and moved by special trucks to their final destination. We're talking MONTHS to replace just one.
Remember me telling you about Trump ordering the nation's power providers to harden their systems? You can bet that armor plating will be part of that hardening effort.
But, coming back to the fires, I'm now hearing a lot of talk about PG&E's cutting edge, wireless power meters being the cause of the most recent fires. Something about them overheating, even exploding in a shower of sparks, not when power is cut, but when power is restored. And, in California, this can be a problem. The state has been taxed so much for so long that most buildings and homes are in want of maintenance. Trash accumulates. Shrubbery grows unchecked right up against homes. Even their famous palm trees are really just giant kindling piles ready to explode at the slightest provocation. And, by the way, these very same 'Tina Turner Trees' provide refuge for the many, many rats which still run amok there. And, when those trees ignite, flaming rats scramble in every direction, spreading the fire even to nearby cars which, otherwise, would have remain unscathed. And when 10-15 gallons of gasoline detonates, so do the nearby homes. Forget all the talk about particle-beam weapons. This is the real reason the houses, and even entire neighborhoods suffer the worst damage in these fires, often leaving the surrounding woodlands, even trees in the very yards of entirely destroyed homes, still standing.
But that's only part of the problem.
There was a big scandal in the news when we lived there. Some guy was ordered by the fire department to cut down a tree near his house because it posed such a serious fire hazard to him and his neighbors. It cost him thousands to have the tree removed. But then came a fine from the state for having destroyed an endangered species of tree (which isn't even native to California anyway). And that fine was ... $75,000! I don't recall the outcome, but I do know the guy lost his house, having had to mortgage it, and then getting caught up in the 2008 crash.
News flash! All conforming home loans can be called by the lender at any time, and, if you're upside down on it, that becomes more likely. Take out a $200K loan on what was a $400K home last month, but becomes a $100K home next month, and you suddenly find yourself upside down.
Don't you ever think that this isn't ultimately a war to get the land away from its rightful owners. The previous rash of fires just so happen to have swept all the homes from precisely those areas the state wanted for its high speed rail boondoggle.
And that brings us to the next part of the problem.
With the economy in shambles, and prices so high, people tend to fall behind on their power bills. So PG&E cuts them off. And the the consumers scramble to come up with the balance due, plus penalties and reconnect fees, so PG&E reconnects them. Except with their fancy, new wireless meters, all they have to do is send a signal, and the power flows again. But that, according to many, is just the beginning of the problems. Many are saying that these meters often explode, and, when they explode, it's always after a recent restoration of service. What's more, I've read some reports indicating that PG&E's own technicians have been reporting the same thing.
Now, we may actually have video proof.
Ignore the inane rambling about the plane(s), and especially the nonsense about the comet. (Dude! What on earth would that have to do with some random neigborhood in California?)
Kincade fire in Sonoma County ignited by something Against the Grain
Even he points out the public light cutting off just as the fire starts.
And then there's this:
By the way, in conjunction with our faltering magnetic field, the jet streams, and, along with them, global weather patterns, have shifted. California, which had been in a decades long drought when I last lived there, and even until a few years ago, has recently been experiencing so much rainfall that their dams have been in danger of bursting. So, they're not as dry as they once were. And the resevoirs are (or should be) full. (Assuming some sabateur hasn't ordered the water released into the sea again like Jerry Brown did a couple of years ago.)
So why is California burning?
Again!
PG&E? I'm looking at you!
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From my playlist
You probably remember the Norwegian group, A-ha, from their famous 1985 hit, Take On Me. What you probably don't know is that they had other hits. Not many. Most of their stuff is ... um ... an acquired taste, as is most European ... um ... everything. (Don't order pizza, a hamburger, hot chocolate, or a milkshake over there until you know what you're in for.) (And forget about PB&J.) And not here in the states. But they did have other hits. Here are the few I like.
Take On Me
Interesting video. Interesting song.
I Wish I Cared
Another interesting video for an interesting song.
And my favorite:
Velvet
First, I didn't post the video because it can be just a tad too racy for some of my audience, but, of course, you can always look it up yourselves.
Second, the video has a completely different message from the song. They're utterly unconnected. And there's even a touch of anti-Americanism hidden in it when the female who just electrocuted Morten Harket struts off wearing a stars-n-stripes bikini. Not too hard to translate that message.
And yet, third, it was written by the lead guitarist's, Paul Waaktaar-Savoy, American wife, Lauren Savoy.
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