Venandi

Cool, then let the brush collect, don't charge the hydrants, defund the fire department and sell off the water bombers. LOL, actually I guess that was what happened... so do more of it and do it faster. God provides worms for Robbins but he doesn't pry their beaks open and stuff them down their throats. Cheers

Just because you can't do everything doesn't mean you should do nothing. No one expects you to arrest the criminal robbing your neighbours house... calling 911, writing down a licence number and description of the bad guys is a possible option though. Maybe installing a security system in your own home might be in order too. Totally irrelevant to the task at hand and you know it. Clearing brush, charging hydrants, funding emergency services is job one. I don't care whether you're liberal, democrat, conservative. or republican, if you can't do that stay home. Clearly so is not adapting, it's a choice and voters will be the ones to make it. Nothing like experience to clarify priorities. Just curious... if the remnants of a hurricane are forecast to hit your town tomorrow, do you go outside, take a look around, pick up and store loose items, maybe cut down that dead tree you meant to get rid of last month? Or... do you throw your hands in the air, blame the hurricane on global warming and chafe about who you didn't vote for decades ago and blame your neighbour for having a different opinion? I don't understand this mindset at all and I don't know anyone IRL who thinks that way. Sheltered military life maybe but that's why I find this forum so fascinating.

Well, can't help you then. I f you need unanimous agreement on global warming before clearing brush, charging hydrants, staffing departments, etc etc then hunker down with marshmallows. DUH

Whether people get baptized into your cult or not is tragically irrelevant. There's no need for them to agree with you about WHAT dried out the brush or WHAT drives the wind. They accept the fact that there's too much brush, it's dangerously dry, the wind is blowing and there are lunatics with blow touches off the reserve and running naked through the burbs. You seem stuck on winning an academic debate but even a glorious victory won't solve the most pressing issues at hand. I'm not sure what you're after here, do you want to be right or do you want to fix the problem? I guess there's a third option, we could simply wait until a world accord on emissions is reached and nature returns to levels you think it should and the threat is mitigated of its own accord. I'm just not willing to wait that long.

The fact that you want to adapt is heartening, I won't bother to ask who failed (miserably) to adapt in California or what that failure to adapt cost... it's sufficient to want to mop up the mess and get on with the grunt. When Democrats are ready to stop screaming climate change, role up their sleeves and begin trying to mitigate its effects you'll find no shortage of cooperation. And you may be surprised to see that it comes from people who don't even support the notion of global warming. They simply see piles of dry brush, no water, LAFD budget cuts, the lack of aviation resources, insufficient early detection, and they feel the Santa Anna wind in their face. They've been saying "hey, let's get on with this" for years. Up until now they've only gotten a lesson in global climatology from Herb and Robo, and they can't even find a brush pile when a blind monkey leads them to one.

I'm suggesting that by virtue of sad experience even the woke are less woke now. Those seasoned warriors you sarcastically refer to never were woke to begin with. If you can't look around, asses a threat and create a reasonable plan to address it you need to find a new job. I'm not looking for perfection here, but in the scenario debrief you had better be able to articulate what you were thinking. Blaming climate change for massive incompetence doesn't work for me and in the near future, I think you'l see that it doesn't work for California voters either.

All I want is some common sense, the ability to turn an obvious threat assessment into a workable defence plan... I'll even settle for a good effort. If you accept global warming as a given and believe the dangers you articulate in support of that opinion are true, you have zero excuse for the lack of preparation on display here. Were you seriously expecting a different result here?

I won't even bother trying to understand your logic here... Anyone who can characterize any of this as hilarious though might be entertained by the fact that some people in California are actually talking like seasoned soldiers now. Some of the dreamers have awakened and they're looking at things like terrain, weather, and the lineup of opposing forces with a critical eye. They even seem to acknowledge that incompetent people don't realize the extent of their own incompetence. Without a trail of shit, Robo and Herb can't track a damn thing. Before long these folks will be talking about selection and maintenance of the aim, unity of command and all round defence as if they considered them important the whole time. This may be a turning point for some, it's tragic that only experience can bring that about. https://www.foxnews.com/video/6366887835112

Guess I'm just not accustomed to dealing with deliberately generated nonsense in support of narratives that can't be defended without it. That's a good thing though as I no longer feel inclined to fact check ridiculous assertions... it appears that you and some of your colleagues here deliberately misrepresent what is actually being said and the very point that is trying to be made in the telling. As I recall he was talking about neuro-structures, biological continuity, social structures, social hierarchies, PTSD and the like... suggesting that there were examples of such things in the animal kingdom that were analogous to humans and that by observing them in a rational manner lessons could be learned. He did use lobsters as example, I remember listening to that video. I would also have remembered if he said that lobster brains and human brains worked exactly the same way, he was merely pointing out biological continuity between diverse species. That said, I'm beginning to think your characterization of it has demonstrable merit in some cases here, So OK... I looked it up for ya, this is actually what he said:

But we don't have to allow his crime to be devastating by virtue of our own inaction (some might call the inaction negligence). Priorities need to make sense and it only takes casual observation to realize that logical actions went undone to the point that true believers of climate change (as being causal) should literally be horrified by the ground they've lost. As a for instance, the California fires of 2020 created about twice as much GHG as were saved between 2003-2020. The reductions achieved in that period were in the order of 60-65 metric tons and the fire season total for that year was somewhere around 130 metric tons if memory serves. Now granted, statistics like that can easily be packaged in that self serving "look I was right" manner that I've come to despise but if I qualified as a true believer, I sure wouldn't want to see my efforts (over an extended period) wiped in a single year. I wouldn't want ANY of them wiped out AT ALL. Doesn't that just make sense? In order to prevent such losses from happening I'd be looking to lock in the gains I worked hard to achieve and the first step in deciding what those actions might be is as simple as looking around (with eyes open) and the motivation to define (and address) those things that might wreck my plans and ruin my efforts. I can't help but think that any sensible person walking the land with a critical eye could have made a list of tangible things that needed to be addressed. They could have done the same thing with emergency preparedness and funding priorities. Even a blind monkey could follow that trail... I suspect even Robo could do it if the monkey agreed to hold hands with him.

Agreed, that's pretty much the crux of it and we're horribly late getting started. Not withstanding the accuracy of the observation, getting agreement on it seems to be problematic... I don't even see why agreement on complex modelling is (for some) a mandatory precursor to the mitigation and suppression efforts clearly required. And it's way past time to get on with it IMO. Time to roll... How easy was that eh?

You seem to have all of this backwards.... The trail left by forest creatures are called tracks, sometimes tracks are found on trails. I see how it could be confusing for you. On the other hand, it seems that the latent prints of your logic have a certain odour to them.

Surprisingly enough you even managed to get that backwards... I actually believe your logic is shit.

Only if you have trouble with situational analysis and setting priorities. Deflecting the effects of reality doesn't actually modify reality or extinguish the existence of it... staying dry under an umbrella doesn't mean it isn't raining, only that you adapted to the reality of rain.

Here's a bogus headline I just made up that reflects the sort of policy Robo and Herb would defend to the death.... it sounds like another Toronto (tough on gun crime) "this is totally unacceptable" assertion: Blowtorch arsonist on bail for blowtorch arson re-arrested for arson with a blowtorch while under a life time blowtorch ban for 10 previous arson convictions with a blowtorch. Picking a windy day to work your blowtorch magic doesn't sound like a "Blame It On The Wind" country classic to me.

Thank you, my sentiments exactly... makes perfect sense no matter who is pre chewing cat food for Herb. Sometimes, if you ride the land, look at a map, consider the prevailing winds and pretend you're a hungry forrest fire it all becomes clear. If you fear fire, understand what fire eats... then remove its source of food. Write that one down Herb... I just made it up, sounds like an African proverb eh?

Anyone want to trade my daily limit in smelts for their house... PMs only please. Robo... you could trade me your house for a bag of smelts and move in with Herb, I promise to rent it to an immigrant who hates you.

Yup ya got me there. Admittedly, I was wrong not to recognize the signs in plain view... foolish optimism maybe. In my own defence I can only say that I'm used to the sign left by furry forest creatures who leave a trail of logic to follow.

Please explain to a simple soldier why that admission matters to anyone, especially someone who lost a house in LA. Suppose you chase down a global consensus on climate change, institute policies across the world that limit emissions, what then... do we all wait patiently for that to happen and the effects of it to manifest? Do you see that consensus happening in less than 10 years? Do you see the effects of it changing outcomes in your lifetime? And what if you encounter entire countries along the way who don't admit it, like China. Got a solution for that? Planetary climatology suggests that change is the norm, that periods of static profiles are brief and that transitions can be sudden. Once upon a time, one of my houses was under the ocean... I'm pretty sure that at some point in the future it will be again. Here's my suggestion.... get your a$$ on a horse and get out on the land. It doesn't take long, likely less time than you spend on this forum (in a month) will generate enough WTF questions to enrage Herb. And here's a snippet of practical wisdom for ya, if it chokes a troll you can be pretty sure you're on the right track. I doubt there's any accord you can strike that will make red trees turn green again. Y'all better embrace the suck here because the reality of prevailing winds and single roads in and out of valley towns aligned with those winds remains a problem in need of a solution. Especially if the hills to the north, the hills to the south, and (gasp) the hills to the west are emblazoned with pretty red trees and piles of brush. Isn't that exactly how MAGA hyenas build outdoor pizza ovens?

Unfortunately though you just posted about hyenas not understanding the role of climate change in wildfires and I fear these dog like rejects will jump on that statement with all four paws. So, as you can imagine, I remain concerned about our messaging at the press conference....What if some hyena from FOX suggests that mitigating these combined threats isn't: at all. Some of these mad MAGA fools may even suggest that this is the very point of having the exchange in the first place. A couple of them seem to think that the combined effects of climate change, fire mitigation strategies and suppression options need a re-think. No accounting for hyenas eh?

Yes that's clearly what the hyenas are thinking, so after extended reflection and collaboration with Herb that's your considered opinion is it... best ya got? I'm wondering how that assertion applies to the task at hand. Lets say I have a change of heart, that i now attribute all of this to global warming, I join your club and call anyone with the temerity to point to brush piles, budget cuts, known weather patterns, no water etc hyenas. Now what? Since you've now convinced me that the hyenas are untrainable, lets stop wasting time insulting these low intelligence creatures who can't grasp the depth of our combined brilliance anyway. Congratulations, DEI Offender, Herb and I just promoted you to Fire Captain... what's your plan skipper? Just a practical observation but given the task at hand, I'd place some of the thinking here somewhere between irrelevant and self defeating... pretty much on par with flying drones into water bombers operating in restricted airspace. AND: Lest you not believe it from other outlets that our newly formed alliance has labeled FOS, I took the liberty of using CNN as a source: https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/10/us/super-scooper-drone-collision-la-fire-canada-hnk-intl/index.html

Somehow I feel relived by that, it renders you irrelevant. I had nothing to do with Trump's election but I'm beginning to think you did. Without you and the general malaise you spawned Trump wouldn't be a blip on that radar screen you seem unable to interpret without a hyena. I see your point, multitasking isn't for everyone, your time would be better spent caring about where you're headed than where I've been, I don't remember seeing you there anyway. Cheers

Laughing and not caring makes up the bulk of that sentiment doesn't it? Unfortunately, it pretty much represents the "reality" many veterans are facing these days. Forget global warming... just mitigate that for me.

Ok, I guess we're done here. If this poor hyena didn't know where the sun rises and sets then you wasted a lot of money training him... and you should never have trusted such a creature with the keys to a 60 million dollar airplane that you payed for. How's that for reality?

I'm referring to the lack of effort to mitigate known threats and actions that run contrary to even acknowledging the existence of them. What I've learned here is that taking the time to answer questions like yours is wasted. You could easily do your own homework but you won't. Watch the video, test the veracity of some of the statements and decide what you would have done if you were running the war room.