Real Clear
Clinical Psychologist and Psychoanalyst addresses relevant political and social issues of our times in a straightforward and honest manner. Taking on anti-logic factions that are growing in society. News and opinions that you can rely on for integrity and depth!
Real Clear
An Empire Burned by Incompetence
California faces a crisis characterized by devastating wildfires and mismanaged resources. The episode emphasizes the disconnect between government priorities, community needs, and the increasing dangers posed by environmental policies.
The planet is a new God to be worshiped, and humans should never do anything rational in order to preserve their own existence because that might detract from the ideology that states that we can and should reduce the temperature of the entire planet before we do anything else.
- Wildfires signify failures in resource management
- The abandonment of pure meritocracy
- • 50% of California’s water is diverted to environmental initiatives
- • $5 billion annually spent on homelessness with little impact
- • Poor emergency preparedness contributes to fire crisis
- • Cultural emphasis on representation dilutes competency in leadership
- • Calls for a reevaluation of approaches to fire and water management
- • Importance of accountability in government actions
And welcome back to Real Clear everybody. I'm your host, lucas Klein. It's been a while since I recorded regularly. I had some episodes with guests I released throughout the last couple months, but I had some political fatigue, let's say, and I wanted to reevaluate how I was ending my year and looking forward to the next one. Thanks for all of you who stayed in and only one of you left in terms of memberships. Everyone else stayed in. Thank you, appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately, today's news is not going to be a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed commentary on the world, given that we have the burning infernos in California to kickstart us off on 2025. And this does need to be addressed. There's a number of things unfolding that I think represent much larger tectonic shifts in our society. In short, my view of some of these fire disasters over recent years, and certainly this one they represent end of empire functioning. They represent end of empire functioning. There are a lot of facts that I think you should know. First and foremost, an enormous amount of water flows out of California every year. Around 50% of the state's available water flows to the ocean annually. And what's the purpose of this? These are to support wildlife, habitat, fish populations and maintain river systems. Only about 10% of the state's water goes towards human use. I'm differentiating environmental flows, which are 50%, versus agricultural use 40%. Do you realize? Only 10% of the state's water resources are used for human survival. And this is obviously coming into full view right now as Los Angeles is swallowed up by the Palisades fire. Over a thousand homes burn down to the ground in suburban and urban communities, places where you don't traditionally see wildfires take over, but they have. Right down to the Malibu coast along the highway, the PCH. You drive down this highway, the iconic home structures on the hillside and on the other side of the road, right on the beach, burned to a crisp. People's lives set up in smoke.
Speaker 1:Now, amidst every disaster, there is always the existential drive to want to pretend as though it could be fully averted. That's innate to all of us, that we want to think that if something's happened, we can find someone to blame and this didn't need to happen. And sometimes that's a defense against recognizing how fragile and vulnerable we are in existence. We are for sure, but we also could do a lot better than this. California spends money on nothing. It spends around $5 billion per. If any of you have ever been to San Francisco or greater Los Angeles or even downtown San Diego. You understand that $5 billion might as well be monopoly money burnt in a pile, it doesn't do anything. The state is completely feckless in its capacity to use funds to marshal them forward towards any good purpose, and we spend around $3 billion a year in fire prevention management. We're seeing the effect of that expenditure right now.
Speaker 1:There are some important questions that I think just typical people who are thinking clearly should be asking at this time. How is it that a state that once built the greatest aqueducts in the world, back even under Democrat governors, who were fully functional and very good decades ago, built the exploded seven dams on the Klamath River with the rationalization that they're going to divert water more effectively? I have a question, just a common person question why would you blow up your existing dams before you have built the catchments for the new ones? There's no good answer to that as far as I can see. Moreover, why have there not been water reservoirs outside of every major metropolitan region, built with extension aqueducts capturing more of that runoff water that I'd mentioned at the top, ready and able to combat enormous fires that I guess are going to increase in size, scope and frequency.
Speaker 1:This is the. This is the United States. We have the ability to truck oil from Canada rather run it through pipelines all the way through transcontinental lines. Don't you think we could transport water that comes from our mountaintops down to more effectively serve the communities? And why aren't we doing that? This again, I think, is end of empire stuff. We spend money, basically, on press conferences so that government-appointed employees and consultants can hold meetings, so that they can decide that they need to hold more meetings. We pay off consultants for environmental projects in a way that makes your head spin. In a way that makes your head spin. Has anyone ever heard of the rail to nowhere, the light rail in California that's been in production for years and literally hasn't gone anywhere? Billions upon billions of dollars stand as a testament to the loss of functioning of this state. We're starting to see incompetence at the level of city and state management that blow one's mind.
Speaker 1:Recently, over these last couple days, there's been rumors circulating that the fire hydrants ran dry in the greater Los Angeles area, in the Pacific Palisades, and some speculation is that this was due to Mayor Karen Bass's ineffectual leadership and some of her environmental initiatives. I've not been able to certify that claim, but I did follow the news stories and how they gave ducking cover for this problem, and here's the basic summary of what the problem is the fire officials in LA County have stated that there's plenty of water, but that, because the power companies shut off the power to prevent further fires, that the pumps that were needed to pump this water up hills and sideways in order to meet the fire hydrants were out of operation, and so the existing water that could have been pumped to flow into these hydrants couldn't be pumped. Again, just a common person question why doesn't every county in California have emergency generators that back up these essential pumps? It seems to me that they're just passing the buck. They're saying, no, there's water.
Speaker 1:It's not that we shut off the water, it's that we didn't think about powering the pumps that supply the water. It's not that we shut off the water, it's that we didn't think about powering the pumps that supply the water. Okay, I guess that takes a genius. I guess that takes someone sitting back and thinking about this for about five seconds. Now, the county of Los Angeles is focusing on very important things. You can rest assured that they are putting their emphasis on things that actually matter, and what might these things be? Let's tune in to Los Angeles Fire Department Assistant Chief Christine Larson, and she says that when people's houses are burning down, they want a firefighter who shows up, who looks like them. Listen in.
Speaker 2:You want to see somebody that responds to your house, your emergency, whether it's a medical call or a fire call. That looks like you. It gives that person a little bit more ease knowing that somebody might understand their situation better. Is she strong enough to do this? Or you couldn't carry my husband out of a fire, which my response is he got himself in the wrong place.
Speaker 1:If I have to carry him out of a fire, this is one of those moments where I struggle to know how much of my true sentiments I should let out into the world through this microphone. I must tell you I am enraged. I am truly enraged. That person holds the position she holds, not only because her positions are obscene, are unbelievably offensive and entitled and self-justifying, but because she's frankly moronic. This is a cartoon character hired to play some sort of oddly lauded moron. She's grossly obese, grossly intellectually underqualified and carries positions about firefighting that are not firefighting. She thinks if she shows up to your house and looks like you're relieved, I don't think you give a damn.
Speaker 2:I don't give a damn.
Speaker 1:She also thinks that if your husband burns in a fire because she couldn't carry him out, that's his fault. He shouldn't have got himself in the wrong place if I have to carry him out. The reason that I am emphasizing this clip and people like her is because we have gone culturally insane. We have culturally committed suicide by pretending that merit on its own is not the full breadth of qualification for any position of relevance. We have pretended that these pet projects matter. They don't matter. They actually detract and they kill.
Speaker 1:Emphasizing things like this I believe my theory is is representative of a collective psychosis, meaning that our collective cortical functioning, our prefrontal cortical functioning, the seat of reason in our ability to carry out executive functions, has been so overlaid with psychotic nonsense that we are no longer able to function at the level of public administration. Someone like this couldn't think clearly if she wanted to. But don't worry, it gets better. Let's focus on the actual LA Fire Department chief. I'm sure we're going to find a shining spectacle of competence here. Take a listen to this To keep listening to the episode, and all others go to realclearpodcastcom or click the link in the show notes below. Thank you.
