Midweek Memes- California Wildfire Edition

293,000 Evacuation Orders So Far

This is one time that I wish the poll feature on substack had let me provide more than five options. I can think of eight or nine possible causes off of the top of my head. The longer this extends on the less natural and the more insane it looks. Anybody is welcome to add their own theories.

The fires are still raging around Los Angeles and now there are five of them. The most recent the Sunset Fire has broken out in the Hollywood Hills nearby the infamous sign. If there was ever an apocalyptic made for move image to share, this one seemed like it.

This was the eerie view from the Santa Monica Pier not far from the old penthouse we stayed in:

Speaking of which areas of Santa Monica are now under evacuation orders. Based on the most recent updates the order now stretches to about five blocks from where I used to live:

This is a somewhat recent update on acres burned. I’m pretty sure it is over 30,000 by now.

Here’s a photo of some of the aftermath in Pacific Palisades. I still note the oddly unburnt trees. Cars melted with trees still standing in Malibu where everything est of the PCH appears to be gone.

Self Realization Fellowship at Lake Shrine (I am pictured there with my ex Joe and Jasmine and a friend) in Pacific Palisades has said that as of 3:30 PM most of the buildings surrounding the lake from the Ashram to the gift shop were still standing. Everything has been closed and all monks have been evacuated, of course.

A story is beginning to emerge regarding the usual suspects on this one, much as was true in Lahaina and in Paradise, California. They’re testing some sort of weaponry, methinks. These ones are still too ongoing and catastrophic to think otherwise. The Palisades fire alone is already the most destructive in California history. It is still ongoing and it just started yesterday morning.

The magnitude of the impact is nearing apocalyptic, even if it is just the land of the fruits and nuts we’re dealing with. But with the fires 0% contained and with the dust nowhere near settled I have to ask myself who benefits? What is the motivation here to start these blazes? I am not buying the bad luck/high wind/climate change story. Conditions just like this have been present countless times over the decades.

There’s a theory that Coulson Aviation did it to secure a new firefighting contract. Could it actually be something that petty though?

These are companies and people in the alternative media space who are supposedly affiliated with the investment arm:

At the rate this is going the entire LA Basin could be reduced to ashes by tomorrow morning.

I was talking to my daughters earlier today and Eliza sent me an odd photograph from her flight back to Michigan. “There were like these weird lights in the air.” She told me.

“What do you mean by weird lights? I see clouds in the picture.”

“No Mom it was way weirder. It was like they were moving and they had this yellow light.”

“This was when you were close to landing?”

“Yes. Jasmine took a picture of one but I was like no no no. It was too demonic for me. I didn’t even want to look at it.” My 11 year old daughter’s choice of the word demonic alarmed me.

“Get Jasmine on the phone. I want to see this picture.”

Here’s Eliza’s pictures of this on descent into Detroit:

And here is Jasmine’s picture:

“It was like they looked like clouds but like they had a yellow spotlight on them from above.” Jasmine explained to me.

“Had you ever seen anything like that before?” I asked her.

“No. Definitely not.”

Joe says they’re aliens. At this point it could be. Eliza thought they were moving but Jasmine thought the light source was moving, whatever that means. Who knows?

Somebody took a picture of their flight landing in LAX during the Palisades blaze last night:

I’d go through my handy checklist of the similarities to the Maui fires but I’ll let an Aloha correspondent do so instead. She covers it well.

Whenever the ashes settle many lives will be irreversably changed and will often be much more difficult in the aftermath. Joe and Jasmine had to move out of the Venice Beach penthouse due to a fire in 2014. It was a small blaze supposedly started by Joe’s new roommate while my ex and my daughter were in Ohio attending my father’s funeral. The roommate was accused of having been cooking meth which started the blaze, but it was blamed on Joe for not doing his due diligence regarding subleasing to him, even though he had landlord approval. Joe had been under rent control on the Venice Beach Boardwalk for almost two decades and they wanted him out of there badly so that they could get market rates. Within a few weeks the Red Cross shelter money was gone and it became difficult to fight the legal battles because of being forced to move out of the area to somewhere more affordable. Hotels and temporary shelters only last so long.

These land grabs are nefarious. They know time and money is on their side especially in high rent areas. Is this simply part of the Great Taking in plain sight?

Can we at least start to get a handle on what kind of technology is being used to do this?

I have had this song going through my head since this morning. Beyond Alan Paul best known as part of Manhattan Transfer leading the SRF choir for a time, Gary Wright came on as a guest maestro for a few rehearsals and our big show. This is his best known and perhaps his only major hit song. It seemed appropriate.

A few more pictures of the devastation:

I did a quick cross check of this meme by looking up monthly rain totals in Santa Monica. It appears correct, although there has not been any rain in several months. It’s been well above average rain for 2023-2024…make of that what you will.

Prayers for us all…

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