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Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: The LA fires, fact and reality [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-01-11

LAist:

Fact check: What really happened with the Pacific Palisades water hydrants? LADWP’s explanation for the shortage comes down to three nearby water tanks, each with a storage capacity of about a million gallons. These tanks help maintain enough pressure for water to travel in uphill areas through pipes to homes and fire hydrants — but the pressure had decreased due to heavy water use, and officials knew the tanks couldn’t keep up the drain forever. “We pushed the system to the extreme,” LADWP CEO Janisse Quiñones said in a news conference. “Four times the normal demand was seen for 15 hours straight, which lowered our water pressure.” According to LADWP, the tanks’ water supply needed to be replenished in order to provide enough pressure for the water to flow through fire hydrants uphill. But officials said as firefighters drew more and more water from the trunk line, or main supply, they used water that would have refilled the tanks, eventually depleting them.

Those fires needed air based firefighting, prevented by the same winds spreading the fire. Sometimes, there’s not much anyone could do. But that won’t stop exploitation of the disaster.

x “Despite Trump’s claptrap, plenty of fresh delta water is being pumped south to fill fire hydrants firefighting aircraft. Hundreds of millions of gallons of water flow daily down the California Aqueduct. Major Southland reservoirs are at historically high levels.” https://t.co/Wiqrl4H15t — Mark Z. Barabak (@markzbarabak) January 10, 2025

A longish tweet post because it’s of great interest [Threadreader is unavailable]. Jake Bittle is an environmental reporter for Grist.

x 3/ You probably would guess that the rich hillside neighborhood recovered faster and easier than the flatland subdivision, and I did too, but that wasn't the case, for a few reasons that I think are relevant to the LA fires. — Jake Bittle (@jake_bittle) January 10, 2025

x 5/ The homes in Fountaingrove, meanwhile, were on steep slopes, like in parts of Malibu, and rebuilding them was an engineering nightmare. They were huge, multi-story, many had been custom built, so getting the permits was a nightmare. A lot of wealthy homeowners just gave up. — Jake Bittle (@jake_bittle) January 10, 2025

x 7/ The result was that the modest homeowners in Coffey Park could afford to use their insurance payouts to rebuild standard bungalow models, but the rich homeowners in Fountaingrove were left without the insurance they needed to rebuild in the hills, unless they used savings. — Jake Bittle (@jake_bittle) January 10, 2025

John Stoehr/Editorial Board:

Trump won’t implode on his own. The chaos is the point Some say he’ll “overstep,” but amid the insanity, what does that mean? “Trump cannot help himself,” the Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson told Salon Monday. “He’s an agent of chaos who has to inject himself into every story, whether it’s helpful or not. He nearly derailed the budget to cause a shutdown and weakened [House Speaker Mike] Johnson even more. He empowered [Elon] Musk and is now upset he’s stealing the spotlight … As always, I remain hopeful the American people will see the terrible consequences and push back to correct his oversteps.” But the chaos isn’t a liability. It’s how Trump is going to prevent his supporters from feeling the consequences of their choices. Liberals and Democrats believe those people fucked around when they voted for him. Now they’ll find out. They won’t.

x • SCOTUS denies Trump sentencing delay 5-4 • Trump considers appeal of SCOTUS ruling to Judge Cannon — Greg Dworkin (@demfromct.bsky.social) 2025-01-10T13:10:56.684Z

Adrian Carrasquillo/The Bulwark:

‘He’s compromised’—NYC Dems Fear Mayor Will Trade Deportations For Trump Pardon Eric Adams is politically vulnerable, under indictment, and has just one card left to play. Adams’s tough-on-immigration turn reflects a larger shift among Democrats across the country as they try to stabilize their standing after November’s election losses. But unlike the rest of his party, the New York City mayor has an incentive that isn’t entirely political. Hounded by prosecutors, who on Wednesday revealed they had uncovered “additional criminal conduct” by Adams, facing a possible trial in April, and staring down the possibility of 45 years in jail if convicted, there appears to be one last hope for hizzoner: a pardon from Trump. And Trump knows it. Asked at a Mar-a-Lago press conference in December if he would consider a pardon for Adams, the president-elect said he was open to it. “Yeah I would,” Trump said. “I think that he was treated pretty unfairly.”

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