Smoke after the fire

It's a sad reality when tragedy seems like one of our only paths to unity. But it has felt this way in the US for quite some time now. This dynamic goes well outside of politics, of course. It lives outside of everything, really. When shit hits the fan and people are truly in need, you see the best of humanity rise to the surface. This is innate, especially in a land of heroes and lions.

It's not that outward energy I want to carry here though. It's looking the other way; why this unity dynamic unfolds and what it tells us. The first part is easy; we are a good people. We're also a people known to act. Bravado! We mint it in the states. The second question is much more revealing and important to think about. When a hurricane saturates a town here in Florida, we don't worry about who everyone's favorite college team is, or their political tribe. We have dudes with chainsaws, neighbors helping neighbors, generators galore with the linemen operating 24/7 like special forces. It's a powerful thing to behold! Makes you realize our people can move mountains; in fact, we have.

Again, it's sad that it takes such smack-in-the-face loss for us to feel this and display it. What this lack of unity in non-tragic times reveals is saddening. But it's common across all 50. If we don't care about labels and identities in war time, why does it dominate thought so intensely in the good times? That is really one to chew on. I think this California fire is going to make this discussion pop out! It's not the first natural disaster or community tragedy we've had of late. And our people prove worthy of that “good” word each and every time. But this one hit a distinct area. A region of uber wealth concentration. When you think of the term “cultural elites”, this was the hub. And this demographic had become so extremely polarized politically. Directly related, so extremely separated from the masses, and from the basic realities surrounding them.

I was absolutely floored last time I was in Los Angeles. This would have been maybe two years ago when I tagged along on an inlaws’ trip to Orange County. We flew into LAX and spent the first night at Marina del Rey. This place is a jewel of Earth!

It's a very exclusive and wealthy area, as you can see above. Kind of LA's wharf; it reminds me a lot of Bal Harbour in Miami.

But one of the key differences between the two is what you see (or don't see) all over the streets. My wife has been traveling to the Newport Beach area since she was a kid. It's one of her most beloved spots in the US. Her family always operates on routine and they had one at Marina del Rey. She's been going there for decades and knows what it was like before it became what it is now. And we're not talking that long ago.

I took a walk early that next morning and could not believe what I saw. Everywhere! Every inch of every shoulder of every road was packed with these broken down RVs. Hardly any of them looked like they move or even could move. A significant percentage had erected full canopy tailgate-like arrangements. I saw a handful running generators. These were not RVs, they were campsites. But these people weren't camping there, they were living there. Clearly they weren't intending on going anywhere, and clearly there were no laws available to make them move. The whole area looked like shit. Objectively. It was like a scene out of Mad Max. But the scene was the entire area around our hotel. Gorgeous buildings and properties and people going about their business like everything was normal. While now living amongst one giant city-wide gypsy camp.

Now, this doesn't have anything to do with those fires. But it has a lot in similar with why LA was so tragically ill prepared for a natural disaster as predictable as our storms down here. The LA's Mayor is a batshit crazy FrankenFemme Equity ideologue. She was abroad celebrating herself when this broke out. The receipts around this woman are as miserable as her glasses. The head of fire for the city, and her next down, and her next down, and… are all right off the DEI assembly-line. I'm aware the main one has a stellar 20-year record. I'm not really even talking about her. I'm wondering why the whole damn upper-brass are chicks and several are heavy-set short-haired Queer+ Equity-types from a department that puts out deranged Jonestown videos about wanting people saving you from a fire “to look like you”. WTAF! But it's the same spellbook we are so painfully used to by now. And that's kind of my point.

These idiotic ideological crusades received nothing but seal-clapping approval over there in Progress La La Land. Areas like Palisades and Malibu and Calabasas didn't just go heavily for Harris, they are a nuclear reactor for the Progress agenda. And they do that all from these secluded multi-million mansions where they don't feel the pain of the policy they champion. Beyond champion, this demo has largely driven the Hatecraft that turned political dissent into moral abhorrence and evil. I wrote on here about seeing this sign all over the planters of the millions-dollar dream cottages around the Balboa Island walk. The most privileged people the world has ever seen holding community meetings to discuss slavery. But none of them would relinquish this epic lifestyle to make communist-amends for history.

I have to think this all feeds into the broken state of affairs there. Why pumps weren't doing what they should have been. Why their most important reservoir sat empty of water for over a year under repair. Why proper undergrowth maintenance wasn't done. Why their excess fire equipment was shipped to Ukraine. I just read that several of these neighborhoods/mega rich estates had formed their own private-hire fire force. Just think about that! It's The Hunger Games, man. Legit.

And it was these areas now devastated. No, that doesn't bring me some twisted joy. I don't get joy that way. Mine comes from things like kids and friends and accomplishments. I am heartbroken for every one of my countrymen who suffered such immense loss. Something like that could never bring me happy thoughts. It simply nails in harder the concepts I've been forming for several years now. Under this empathy-over-everything crusade the most basic of things are eroding and now breaking. Objectively. And the Hatecraft propaganda cannot cover this up anymore. It gets shocked out when shit hits the fan. I truly believe this loss is going to snap a lot of people out of a haze. Wake up and realize maybe half our nation aren't uninformed uneducated bigoted Monsters afterall. That their own paradise ain't so sainted. That a lot of populist pushback was because a lot of non-highly-educated and trophy-adorned Americans and workers provide a lot of essential functions and grit and mettle in this country and see that things are off-track. No, it wasn't fascism. Or any of the isms and phobes. I’m ready to stand there with my hand out, that's for sure. Even with all I say. Because they're going to need help after this, both the poor and the rich. And because that's what good Americans do.