California Fires - Politics of Blame

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ColdBlueSteel said:
So do all those blue lines mean the average has been dropping?
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No. Precisely the opposite. It means that the past decade or two has lifted the average so high that a substantial majority of years are under that average. It's like if you've got four players on the court who shoot 30, 36, 35, and 36% from 3, and then you add the Six Million Dollar Man version of Steph who shoots 80% from three. Those four are now going to be below the team average.
 
ZZLPHeels said:
Fair enough, super. And if you will accept it, I'd like to extend my apologies for being an ass to you over the past couple of weeks. We disagree on a lot, but there is a right way and a wrong way to go about it and I've been choosing the latter more often than not.
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We can both do better, and we should. I got carried away on this thread a little bit, after a couple of other threads were really pissing me off. And maybe I've lumped you in with some other posters maybe more than you deserve. I still do remember your excellent post on the impact of COVID on hospitals and ERs.
 
Mulberry Heel said:
Jesus, pretty much every Republican politician everywhere has become nothing but a troll. Let no opportunity to troll liberals pass, even if it means we don't actually solve problems or provide aid to help people devastated by natural disasters. It's going to be a long four years.
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This ain't gonna get cleaned up in four years. I get your point, but the GOP's current idiocracy is so firmly entrenched that who knows how long it will take to clear. It will probably require an 08 style landslide -- but will that get the GOP to reform or double down?

Remember when Bobby Jindal implored the GOP to be something better than "the party of stupid"? That was 2013. And back in 2013, I used to think -- wow, these guys are stupid. Can they go any lower? And in the most world-historically significant version of hold my beer, Trump showed up.
 


This has been widely mis-reported by “citizen journalists” as California requiring emissions tests before allowing the trucks through

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True story: I once handled the financing of a company that leases fire trucks. For cost saving reasons, the vehicle titles were held by the lender rather than taking the time and expense of filing liens on title in states all over the country (I would like to add that was NOT what I recommended). One day I got an urgent call that half a dozen of those vehicles were trying to cross the border into Canada to help with wildfire relief and could not cross without their original title. I arranged for copies to be faxed to a border agent (this was a long time ago) and the originals to be sent via FedEx. The border officials still wouldn’t let the trucks cross without their original title — we finally got someone in a U.S. Embassy to call the right people to let the trucks and fire crews pas that night, before title arrived. Took months to get the titles back from the bastard who was being ridiculous about it in the first place.
 
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From WSJ story above:

“… On Thursday, a new unexpected foe cropped up: Alex Jones, among the world’s most notorious conspiracy theorists, was posting on X that L.A. firefighters were battling the blazes using ladies’ handbags as buckets because officials had donated equipment to Ukraine. The post has been viewed 29 million times.

Scott, the LAFD public-information officer, quickly explained publicly that the “handbags,” were actually canvas bags routinely carried by firefighters to douse small fires, because that is easier and faster than hauling out and connecting hoses.

“We’re trying to battle the most devastating natural disaster in Los Angeles history,” Scott said by phone on Saturday while driving to base camp on the fifth day of the wildfire ordeal. “It takes people and time to track down or debunk social media rumors—it takes us away from doing more important things.”

… Numerous falsehoods about Hurricane Helene surfaced online last September amid rising floodwaters in western North Carolina and in the aftermath.

“Bar none, this was probably the worst I’ve ever seen as far as misinformation and disinformation goes,” said Brian Haines, who helped manage the state’s joint information center.

In response, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety created a still-live “Ground Truth” webpage, and “Hurricane Helene FAQs” that plainly lists and rebuffs the many assertions ricocheting around social media.

Recovery efforts weren’t in fact “a land grab by the State of North Carolina” in disguise, nor were there “morgue trailers hidden with bodies still inside them.” It also wasn’t true, the state assured the public, that impacts from Helene were “due to weather manipulation.”

Officials decided this needed saying: “No technology exists that can create, destroy, modify, strengthen or steer hurricanes in any way, shape or form,” says the government website:

“The best we can do is provide [the public] with the most accurate information we have. Does everybody trust the government? No. We recognize this,” Haines said. “If you don’t steer the narrative to the truth, the lies will take over.” …”
 
nycfan said:


This has been widely mis-reported by “citizen journalists” as California requiring emissions tests before allowing the trucks through

——

True story: I once handled the financing of a company that leases fire trucks. For cost saving reasons, the vehicle titles were held by the lender rather than taking the time and expense of filing liens on title in states all over the country (I would like to add that was NOT what I recommended). One day I got an urgent call that half a dozen of those vehicles were trying to cross the border into Canada to help with wildfire relief and could not cross without their original title. I arranged for copies to be faxed to a border agent (this was a long time ago) and the originals to be sent via FedEx. The border officials still wouldn’t let the trucks cross without their original title — we finally got someone in a U.S. Embassy to call the right people to let the trucks and fire crews pas that night, before title arrived. Took months to get the titles back from the bastard who was being ridiculous about it in the first place.
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ColdBlueSteel said:
So do all those blue lines mean the average has been dropping?
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Each line is a record/data point. You will notice that the number of blue records is drastically decreasing to the right of the chart. Meaning that we are seeing more and more averages above the average.
 
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