FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: He’s Suing Because He Got High on the Stuff He Bought to Get High On. “It’s time for your much-needed break from the serious news, and this week we have the frivolous lawsuit to beat all frivolous lawsuits, how not to hit on a cop, and what not to do on a flight from San Francisco to the Philippines.”

I DO BELIEVE HE’S FALLEN UNDER ELON’S INFLUENCE: Zuckerberg does Rogan.

Alternatively, all the sociopolitical data he has from Meta has shown him which way the wind is blowing, and how hard it’s likely to blow. Either is fine with me.

Related:

UPDATE:

JOANNE JACOBS: Misbehavior is worse, say educators. “The 2024 survey results were slightly worse than in 2023, despite schools’ efforts to engage students and strengthen student-teacher relationships, she writes.”

WHY NOT MORE FIRES IF GLOBE IS WARMING? Good question, especially in light of the many “experts” attributing the recent increase in California wildfires in part to the drought in the area.

In fact, according to Just Facts Daily, (check out the “Global Rainfall Trends” question) there is no record of more or fewer droughts or floods in the past 150 years. One might expect that a correlation of wildfires and droughts would be evident going back centuries, but that just doesn’t appear to be the case.

“Contrary to predictions that global warming would cause more droughts and floods, studies published by the International Journal of Climatology, the Hydrological Sciences Journal, the journal Theoretical and Applied Climatology, and the Journal of Hydrology all found no significant trends in rainfall or droughts over periods that extend back to as far as 150 years ago,” Just Facts explains.

“Previous studies had examined shorter timeframes and found changes that were blamed on global warming, but the results were generally not statistically significant and ‘not entirely surprising given that precipitation varies considerably over time scales of decades.’ These facts drive home the importance of examining the broadest possible range of evidence instead of cherry picking data, time periods, or geographic areas,” Just Facts continued.

 

LITTLE SUPPORT AMONG HILL AIDES FOR ADDING CANADA: More than two-thirds of congressional aides who gave their opinions anonymously in a recent Capitol Pulse survey said they oppose President-elect Donald Trump’s trial balloon regarding Canada becoming our 51st state.

CALIFORNIA’S IN THE BEST OF HANDS: Pacific Palisades reservoir was offline and empty when firestorm exploded.

A large reservoir in Pacific Palisades that is part of the Los Angeles water supply system was out of use when a ferocious wildfire destroyed thousands of homes and other structures nearby.

Officials told The Times that the Santa Ynez Reservoir had been closed for repairs to its cover, leaving a 117 million gallon water storage complex empty in the heart of the Palisades.

The revelation comes among growing questions about why firefighters ran out of water while battling the blaze. Numerous fire hydrants in higher-elevation streets of the Palisades went dry, leaving firefighters struggling with low water pressure as they combated the flames.

I’m sure this is all the fault of global warming and Donald Trump:

NEW: Bass Demanded $49M in Additional LAFD Cuts One Week Before Wildfires.

The LAFD is still going through a FY2024/2025 $48.8 million budget reduction exercise with the CAO. The Fire Chief, Board of Fire Commissioners, COA, and UFLAC are steadfast in their message of defending what resources we currently have in place. The only way to provide a cost savings would be to close as many as 16 fire stations (not resources, fire stations); this equates to at least one fire station per City Council District. The details of this plan have not yet been developed. This is a worst-case scenario and is NOT happening yet. The Fire Chief will have a “Chat with the Chief” webinar next week to clarify the situation and the budget.

I’ll just assume that the webinar was postponed … indefinitely.

The LAFD has already had its budget slashed enough that it can’t conduct necessary maintenance tasks, on its own equipment and on infrastructure for fighting fires. One LAFD veteran told the Daily Mail that they don’t even have the budget to test hydrants any longer, and that Bass has been draining those resources to fund homeless programs:

‘They’re trying to allocate more money for the homeless, and they need to start taking from everybody.

‘But we already exhausted our budget. It’s already tapped. That’s why they cut the fire academy in half, so they could save more money. That’s why we’re not testing if hydrants work any more. We’re doing everything we can to save money.

“Charlie Peters’ ‘Fireman First’ principle says you always threaten to cut firemen in order to create a public outcry against budget cuts. You’re not supposed to actually do it,” Mickey Kaus tweeted yesterday, as a reminder of just how incompetent Bass is.

More at the Free Press: Paradise Lost.

But this isn’t just about Bass. A great city can survive a bad mayor, or even a series of bad mayors. This is a story about the failure of California to prevent, or capably mitigate, a long-predicted catastrophe, and how a state that was once a model of good governance came to prioritize the boutique concerns of ambitious politicians over the basics of what government must do.

There are always excuses in moments like these, some more valid than others. California is, in a sense, built to burn: Its warm climate and vast woodlands can, and often are, a deadly combination. Any city, regardless of who’s running it, would struggle with winds reaching 100 miles per hour, especially one sitting on a tinderbox of dry vegetation. Climate change exacerbates the issue.

But none of that explains how one of America’s great cities—the biggest in the fifth-largest economy in the world—is burning to the ground. The failure here, at heart, is an entirely human one.

California loves to spend, increasingly moving toward a model of governance where good money constantly chases after bad. Newsom has spent some $22 billion to combat homelessness since he took office and yet, there has been a 3 percent increase in homelessness in the last year. Newsom also made California the first state to have its Medicaid program cover illegal immigrants. This blatant sop to progressive activists is now expected to cost Californians $6.5 billion a year.

Finally, as Glenn warned in August of 2020, when “defund the police” fever was in full bloom in David Brooks’ latte towns across America, “the breakdown of law and order won’t go as [leftists] hope. Ultimately, the police are there to protect criminals from the populace, not the other way around. Get rid of the police, and armed vigilantism is what you’ll get. And what you’ll deserve.”

Especially if this is the same man, given that there’s a yellow blowtorch is visible in both tweets:

DIRECTIVE 10-289:

Insurance companies were already pulling out of California.

MILE MARKERS ON THE ROAD TO DETROIT: Pharmageddon: Walgreens to shutter 12 San Francisco stores.

A day that began with a new mayor’s promises of a cleaner, safer, and more prosperous San Francisco ended with a deflating dose of reality. Walgreens will close a dozen locations around the city at the end of February, The Standard has learned.

The closures include known theft hot spots and the Market Street store where a security guard fatally shot alleged shoplifter Banko Brown in 2023.

A Walgreens spokesperson told The Standard via email that the closures are due to costs from “increased regulatory and reimbursement pressures” that hamper the company’s ability to pay for rent, staffing, and supply needs. The pharmacy chain pledged to work with the community to minimize “customer disruptions.”

Gooder and harder, Northern California.

WELL, YES:

JIM TREACHER: California Dreamin’ Meets Reality.

It’s pleasant to believe things that aren’t true. It comforts you and makes you feel good about yourself. It wraps you in the warm, cuddly delusion that you’re better than the people who disagree with you.

Right up until the moment reality burns your house down.

It turns out the greatest danger to Los Angelinos isn’t sexism or fascism or 1/6 or the price of almond milk. It’s fire. And all that tax money they keep paying to their state and local government hasn’t saved them.

I hate when people say “Let me see if I get this straight,” because usually they don’t. But here’s my understanding of the Los Angeles wildfires so far:

Fortunately though, California officials are laser-focused on resolving this crisis. And when I say laser-focused, what I really mean is this: CA Dem Becomes Sputtering Mess When Asked Why Assembly Is Holding Special Session on Trump As Fires Rage.

JAN 20 PREVIEW: Trump prepares 100 executive orders to enact once in office.

President-elect Donald Trump and his advisers told Republican senators that the incoming administration is working on 100 executive orders that will be enacted once Trump is sworn into office.

The orders will focus on immigration, a topic Trump has been adamant about fixing while campaigning for the presidency.

“He says he has almost 100 executive orders that will go a long way to securing the border again and also put the energy sector back in play,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) said Thursday on Fox & Friends.

However, the Oklahoma senator also cautioned that Trump’s executive orders could be reversed or undone if they aren’t backed up by congressional action.

“As he said, it’s not permanent,” Mullin said of the orders. “I’d like reconciliation so we can start making this up into legislation, so we can move forward.”

That’s where things get tricky.

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