Apocalypse Now
A new apocalyptic video released out of Hollywood today, reveals an expanse of complete, total, absolute destruction that is jaw-dropping. Only this video isn’t a Hollywood production. It’s raw drone footage of the mansionburb inhabited by large numbers of Hollywood’s most elite stars, producers, directors, etc.—from Pacific Palisades to Malibu—and it has been completely annihilated in just 48 hours.
The drone flies over what appears to be an atomic blast zone. Every building has been leveled into rubble for miles. It appears that not even a dog house is standing. One of America’s most pre-eminent and beautiful residential areas has fallen. The impact to Hollywood film production may be felt for a long time. Stars, of course, can rebuild their homes, but who knows how much business got burned up inside those homes and what historic archives? Lives unsettled will be less productive. It’s all bound to have as big of an impact on the industry as Covid had because this is where the biggest of the big live.
It’s also where many average people work, many of whom may be without a job, though I suppose their masters will put them to work elsewhere when possible. With a median home value of over $4-million it’s not likely too many of the poor lived there. Not likely too many average people live in even the lesser homes either. So, most will have the resources to rebuild, but the damage they feel to their personal lives will be a heavy weight deep within, regardless, because they are still people with memories vested in the things all around them. Some amazing, storied homes that were part of the fabric of American history and culture, not all of it bad by any means, have also been laid waste. It’s hard to look at the sudden fall of Babylon, as some might think of Hollywood, without horror, awe, and sadness.
In some ways Liberal Los Angeles brought this on itself, though I am sad to watch the human tragedy and loss of beauty and rich history. What I mean is that their foolhardy mayor by some sort of gooey liberal thinking significantly reduced the funding of the fire department. That was as absurd as when the mayor defunded the police in a city high in crime, only to wind up, of course, with more crime. Why on earth would you defund the fire department in a region that has become infamous for fiery holocausts throughout its hills?
For years, Californians have been screaming at the rest of us about how California is burning because of global warming that we are all creating. Instead, of cutting fire-fighting costs, Angelenos should have spent billions extra adding water mains for more hydrants and larger pumps. As for the continual water deficiency, if they lack fresh water supply, maybe they should have tapped into the ocean and put in special water mains able to handle sea water or 100% treated sewer water.
Pacific Palisades and Malibu constitute one of the richest enclaves in the world. They could afford the hardware. In fact, given their drinking-water shortages, maybe they should always use sea water for fire suppression, installing mains with corrosion-proof coatings, etc. Given their own urge to clean up the earth, maybe they should have stored reservoirs full of treated sewer water to spray all over their mansions.
But they didn’t. Why? Why did their poor-thinking mayor actually cut fire-suppression funds when they are often stretched as it is? I don’t know and don’t have time to research that; but let me venture a guess that they could have funded much better systems in the area with a special levy in Pacific Palisades, other than Eugene Levy, the Palisades mayor, so they could, at least, protect that tree-rich neighborhood without hitting poorer Angelenos, and let me guess that Karen Bass, the Los Angeles mayor, also cut fire funding so the greater city could keep from cutting welfare programs for indigents and immigrants. The liberal leaders of Los Angeles have made their city a magnet for drug-infested homeless housing, and they have made it a super-magnet for immigrants by declaring it a “sanctuary city” to thwart Trump’s efforts to curb immigration.
Now, ask yourself, if you cannot find enough water to fight fires and cannot afford to spend money on fire mains that can rapidly put out major fires with an enormous water supply, then why are you bringing in hundreds of thousands of new, poor people who all consume water? When will liberals in California admit the truth to themselves that the state is full? They have far too many people already, and when you keep piling in more and more people and paying welfare to support them and educate their kids and provide medical care, then you don’t have money to take care of infrastructure.
The result was a whole lot more homeless people.
Note: I’ve mentioned on and off how odd it is that my paid subscriber base stopped growing last summer and has been flatlining ever since (with a little bump from the recent sale). I’ve also noted that a number of other Substack writers have said the same thing to me when I inquired about their sites. Yesterday, I received this from yet another Substack writer who has been experiencing this problem, and it contains a warning from his discovery that all Substack SUBSCRIBERS will want to be aware of:
Here is How Deep State Handles Substack Subscribers
After months of investigations of my Substack subscribers data, as well as Targeted Justice and Ana Toledo, we discovered how subscribers e-mails have been handled.
Someone is logging into the accounts, and deleting existing subscribers from the list, while replacing them with the “dummy” e-mail accounts.
Because of this, the total number of subscribers remains about the same, but real subscribers stop receiving notifications when new articles are published.
If you are a subscriber, please make sure that your account is active, and you are receiving updates. If you have been unsubscribed, please re-subscribe, and let both Substack and the Substack Newsletters know this has happened.
While I don’t see any evidence that this is happening with paid subscribers, I’ve noticed for many months that, every single day there are two free subscribers that cancel. Every day like clock work, shortly after I publish an article. Sometimes there are more, but most days for months on end it is exactly two, and I’ve wondered “How non-random is that, and how is that happening?” (I assume the days where more unsubscribe are days when people really do want to exit, but the drumbeat of twos each day is peculiar.)
Anyway, if you do or did get wiped out and didn’t do it, yourself, you can always respond to one of my previous emailed articles by a reply email to let me know.
—David