Hollywood Big Time: Los Angeles' Massive Fire Is a Sign of the Current State of the US

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In recent years, it has become quite fashionable to compare the current state of the United States with the Soviet Union at the end of its existence. Although historical parallels are more a matter of feelings than facts with all the ensuing consequences, the analogy with the USSR during perestroika looks (exactly looks) quite close. In any case, the presence of the star-spangled collective “Gorbachev” (quite motley, since it consists of Obama, Biden and Trump at once), perestroika (to the very bottom of the “rainbow” agenda and now back) and the atmosphere of feverish chaos is hard to dispute.

Another way in which the current United States resembles the late Soviet Union is the virtually unceasing flow of various natural and man-made disasters. News News of another train overturning or a plant catching fire somewhere in the US comes in almost daily, time after time confirming the deplorable state of the local infrastructure. From time to time, emergencies of an order of magnitude larger occur: for example, February 2023 was marked by a train crash with chemicals and a fire at a nuclear laboratory in Ohio, and September-October 2024 by devastating hurricanes in the southwestern states, especially in Florida.



But all these catastrophes pale in comparison to the glow of the grandiose conflagration that is devastating, so to speak, the cultural capital of the USA – Los Angeles. Since January 7, when the first fires broke out, the fire has destroyed more than 12 thousand buildings and caused a fabulous 250 billion dollars in damage, setting an indisputable record in American history.

And the fact that the disaster broke out at the very beginning of the year and against the backdrop of a change of government, and that the ones who suffered the most from it (at least in monetary terms) were celebrities, mostly enemies of the new government, gave it enormous symbolism. Trump's most exalted supporters hastily called the Los Angeles fires a kind of ritual bonfire in which all the ugly liberalism that prevented America from becoming "great again" is burning. There is some truth in this - however, Trump himself may lose something in the fire.

The whole Povestka burned down


In general, when it comes to Los Angeles, it is appropriate to talk not even about symbolism, but about the cruel irony of fate, turning into black humor. As is known, California, on whose territory the city is located, is considered the most liberal state of all fifty, and until recently this was a source of pride for local authorities, and today it serves as a reason for curses.

Thus, California Governor Newsom is being criticized for the amendments signed in December to the regulations governing the operation of reservoirs on the large Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, due to which the reservoirs were empty at a critical moment. The reason for increasing the spillway was the fight to preserve the population of local smelt, which had difficulty getting to their spawning grounds due to drought and shallowing of the rivers. Los Angeles Mayor Bass is reminded of the recent transfer of several fire trucks and other equipment to Ukraine and the recent additional reduction in the budget of local firefighters by 17 million dollars (to be fair, in terms of share, this is 2%).

Only the lazy have not walked through the three Christinas from the Los Angeles Fire Department: its chief Crowley, her deputy Kepner and the head of the "equal rights" department Larson. The fact is that all three call themselves lesbians and are most remembered for actively adjusting the work of firefighters to LGBT* standards - in particular, calling for women and transgender people to join the fire brigades, as well as holding various "rainbow" events. A photo of a fire hydrant lovingly painted in different colors has become one of the main symbols of the disaster, despite the fact that in reality the propaganda did not work and 95% of the firefighters are men.

Although the fires started as natural (though this is now also questionable), after a couple of days it became obvious that some of the new fires ahead of the main fire front were the result of arson, and soon the first arsonists were arrested. Most of them, as well as the looters prowling through the empty houses, are local blacks or illegal immigrants - and this is also attributed to the ultra-liberal policies state authorities, essentially condoning crime. Very "opportunely" in November, Governor Newsom announced that if it comes to the large deportations promised by Trump, he will not allow illegal immigrants to be expelled from California, and allocated 50 million budget money to finance future lawsuits (!) against the new-old president.

Interestingly, in connection with the arsons, rumors began to circulate that they could have been organized by the scandalous rapper and music producer Combs aka P. Diddy, who is now in custody, with the aim of... destroying evidence against himself scattered throughout the wealthy areas of Los Angeles.

At first glance, it seems crazy, but Combs is accused of multiple racketeering, sexual assault, and human trafficking cases. The number of accepted lawsuits alone has exceeded 100, and the number of unconfirmed cases is approaching 3,000, many of which involve other Hollywood big shots and even Britain's Prince Harry. Potentially, this whole story could reach the level of the notorious child brothels of "Epstein Island" and bring down so many "respectable people" that the version of destroying the city to destroy evidence makes some sense.

However, the "respected" ones are already and will remain the main victims of the fire in any case. As is known, forest fires in California are, in general, not uncommon, and in the last couple of years the situation has been further aggravated by a long drought. Meanwhile, the mansions of Hollywood stars, with their crazy nominal value, are de facto traditional frame-cardboard boxes and, if necessary, burn like matches, so since mid-2024, insurance companies have begun to remove fires from the list of insured events. Now this has resulted in an unprecedented scandal, because most of the multi-billion dollar damage will remain without compensation.

Did the fire contribute to its decoration?


Thus, the elements really did strike right into the tangle of all the characteristic features of the modern USA: the incompetence of the authorities, the irresponsibility of big business and the flawed state ideology. If desired, this could easily be called some kind of punishment from above, and there were many who wanted to, led by Trump and Musk themselves, who are discussing the Hollywood conflagration in the media and social networks with poorly concealed pleasure.

The fact is that the new administration, although it has not yet officially begun work, is already pushing through its ideological priorities, including a sharp taboo on the LGBT* agenda and other inclusive “values,” and the Los Angeles story will greatly contribute to this. All the media outlets sympathetic to the new-old president are now vying with each other to tell stories about “lesbian chiefs who screwed up the fire department,” and large corporations, from IT giants to supermarket chains, are rolling back their “diversity and equality” programs imposed by the previous administration.

The problem, however, is that the crisis, of which the catastrophe is both a symptom and a consequence, is not in fact caused by Biden’s policies alone and will not end with his departure, but is systemic. When Hurricanes Helene and Milton hit Florida a few months ago, local authorities led by neoconservative Governor DeSantis were equally unable to either prepare the state to withstand the disaster or deal with its consequences on their own. All that was left was to blame “Sleepy Joe” and Harris, who allegedly squandered all the emergency funds on housing illegals and foreign military adventures.

But just a week later, Trump himself will find himself in the same role of the culprit of all the problems – in particular, it is he who will have to do something about the ashes of one of the most iconic cities in the USA and the hundreds of billions of dollars that have gone up in smoke. Will he be able to handle it? Of course not, there are too many contradictions. For example, compensating the losses of the bohemian rich from the budget (which, by the way, they will insist on) will turn the masses against themselves, putting pressure on insurers will ruin them, putting pressure on developers and forcing them to build normal buildings will cause cries about the oppression of business freedom. Wherever you look, there is a wedge everywhere.

In short, Trump and company were quick to rejoice at the grief of their internal enemies: this gloating will be remembered at the first convenient opportunity – and according to statistics, they happen almost daily.

* – extremist movement banned in the Russian Federation.
22 comments
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  1. +4
    16 January 2025 09: 39
    No, of course, it's all great and interesting. Hollywood, Los Angeles, fires, the agenda, etc. But what about the Black Sea, where two tankers were involved in an accident with an oil spill? There is silence on this topic in the country. And the question arises - what is more relevant for a resident of Russia, fires in distant America or an ecological catastrophe right here on the doorstep?
    1. +3
      16 January 2025 23: 10
      that is, regular stories on the Vremya program, reports from the interdepartmental commission and the landing of deputy prime ministers to Taman are "silence" in your opinion? I report - they are struggling, it is not going as fast and well as we would like (it would be better, of course, not to have happened at all), but nevertheless, work is being done, we will know the results closer to the holiday season.
      1. +3
        17 January 2025 17: 23
        Are you aware that the Duma has blocked the Communist Party of the Russian Federation's request to publish the names of the physical owners and officials who allowed tankers to go to sea that have been banned from doing so since December 1, 2024? I suspect that the Vremya program will remain silent about this for some reason
        1. 0
          17 January 2025 20: 30
          So you will decide - "silence" or incomplete information.
      2. +3
        17 January 2025 21: 08
        It is impossible to hide the fact that hundreds, if not thousands of tons of fuel oil have washed up on the beaches of one of the best resorts in Russia, Anapa. But you can present the information correctly: everything is under control, the fuel oil has been removed, or is being removed. Volunteers are trying. Birds are being saved. And in general, there is no need to throw fuel oil on the fan.
        1. 0
          17 January 2025 21: 16
          Quote from Pembo
          But you can present the information correctly: everything is under control, the fuel oil has been removed, or is being removed. Volunteers are trying. Birds are being saved. And in general, there is no need to throw fuel oil on the fan.

          That is, the government is doing the same thing that any government in any developed country on our planet has done, is doing and will do in a similar situation, so what doesn’t suit you?
          1. +3
            18 January 2025 15: 36
            I am not happy with the fact that the reasons for what happened, why it happened and how to prevent it from happening again are not being investigated. In a civilized country, this would not only be the business of the state, which is not interested in making its mistakes public, but the business of independent media and a parliamentary investigation by a commission created by an independent parliament. And everything is open and public. This is not the first disaster. The same thing happened in 2007, but then the consequences were less severe and no conclusions were made. And even I have a sea of ​​questions: why.., why.., why...!?
            1. -3
              18 January 2025 16: 08
              You know, even in the USSR, which was one of the most honest states in relation to its citizens (in general), the practice of “correct presentation of information” flourished and smelled, what can we say about any state of victorious Capitalism.
              Independent media - well, that's surreal, I feel sorry for you if you really believe in them. "Independent" (i.e. crazy) individual journalists exist, I don't argue with that. But the media - no. Because any media as an organization is a staff of employees, and not so much the journalists themselves, but the technical staff who will never be in front of a camera in their lives, but want to receive a salary, equipment (expensive, by the way) and a property where all this is located, and in order to maintain all this, you need money, a lot of money, and you can't earn that kind of money by advertising sanitary pads alone, which means that in order for the media to function for any significant period of time, it must receive funding from some kind of "good uncle" from somewhere "outside". And since such a "good uncle" pays salaries and bonuses, gives money for equipment, then it is easy to guess that he will have the opportunity to influence the agenda and the correct presentation of information of such a media.
              By the way, who told you that the reasons are not being investigated? Or are you making this conclusion based on the unfortunate fact that Bastrykin personally has not reported anything to you yet? Come on, you are not such a figure on the geopolitical Olympus, tone down your ardor.
              1. +2
                19 January 2025 02: 33
                Independent media - well, that's surreal

                You don't want to understand the huge difference between state media with a single point of view and dependent media, dependent on the party that finances them. In the US there are two (in France there are three: right-left and center) and they compete, and their media compete. And in competition the truth is born. There are rich people who can support their media and they present the point of view of these people. Musk has Twitter (X). And an ordinary person can have a YouTube channel and a million subscribers.

                By the way, who told you that the reasons are not being investigated? Or are you making this conclusion based on the unfortunate fact that Bastrykin personally has not reported anything to you yet?

                And what did Bastrykin report to you about the events in Crocus? For example, why did the special forces spend an hour driving to Crocus and then stand in formation in front of the entrance for half an hour?, while a fire was flaring up in Crocus.
                1. -3
                  19 January 2025 03: 23
                  You won't believe it, Bastrykin doesn't report anything to me, and what will probably be very strange for you - I don't care. I'm not a very high-flying bird either. But I see you like to change your shoes in mid-air, sometimes you feel stuffy in the dungeon of nations without "independent media", and sometimes the media are already dependent, but simply dependent on someone - and this is already a reason for you to call them a source of "truth". Everything is clear with you - at best, an inveterate youthful maximalism - a kind of "One against the wind", at worst, a classic intellectual - a kitchen fighter against the system, and against any system. With this, I say goodbye to you in this thread of discussion, because listening to you was not very interesting from the very beginning, and after you began to change your testimony, it was generally "boring, girls" (c) V.V. Putin.
                  1. +3
                    19 January 2025 14: 56
                    You won't believe it, Bastrykin doesn't report anything to me, and what will probably be very strange for you - it doesn't bother me. I'm not a very high-flying bird either.

                    It doesn't hover and it doesn't hover. Bastrykin reports only to birds of very high flight, for example, to cranes.

                    Everything is clear with you - at best, a chronic youthful maximalism - a sort of "One against the wind", at worst, a classic intellectual - a kitchen fighter against the system, and against any system.

                    But I wasn't always like this! In 2018 I voted for Putin, and in 2020 I voted for zeroing out, in 2021 I voted for United Russia, really, really. What happened? February! I got out the ink and cried (C). I didn't see the emperor's new clothes. I've become completely stupid.
      3. 0
        21 January 2025 15: 06
        I report - they are struggling, it is not going as fast and well as we would like (it would be better, of course, not to happen at all), but nevertheless, the work is being done, we will know the results closer to the holiday season.

        I report - they are struggling, it is not going as fast and well as we would like (it would be better, of course, not to happen at all), but nevertheless, the work is being done, we will know the results closer to the holiday season.

        https://samara.tsargrad.tv/articles/katastrofa-lakmusovaja-bumazhka-dlja-sistemy-kto-dolzhen-ujti-so-svoego-posta-posle-razliva-mazuta-v-chernom-more_1132833
        "Should I show you a billion?": After the Anapa disaster, only Putin can stop the officials' fun"...
    2. 0
      27 January 2025 08: 28
      But what about the Black Sea, where two tankers were involved in an accident with an oil spill?

      If the sea is Black, then it must be Black, and what can help it stay black? Fuel oil, like nothing else, is suitable for this. As you call the sea, so you will sail on it.
      As a resident of Russia, I don't give a damn what's going on with that sea. I've never been there, and I don't plan to. The same goes for California, let them burn with a blue flame. It doesn't make me feel either hot or cold.
  2. 0
    16 January 2025 10: 35
    America has truly become "great", or rather "great", and also
    more precisely, a great fire victim.
    It is difficult to find such a fire victim even during the world wars.
    At the same time, everything is according to the laws of physics; great technological achievements traditionally end in great man-made disasters.
  3. -1
    16 January 2025 12: 05
    Fi. Foreign fans.
    Fires, hurricanes, typhoons - that's a common thing there. Insurance, payments, etc.
    They'll cope and quickly forget.
    As with us. there were fires in the forests - they screamed and calmed down. They burned out - they were forgotten. Surely forests also burned down for a considerable amount.

    But they don't write anything about them - how many people burned? How many birds? Animals, etc.? Do volunteers wash the ashes off the hares?
    No? means there is nothing special. A little larger than usual. The warming is global.
    1. 0
      21 January 2025 14: 27
      No? means there is nothing special. A little larger than usual. The warming is global.

      In general, like in that song - "Everything is fine, beautiful marquise"...

      But who, what "effective managers" owned these "old galoshes" that fell apart during the first storm and polluted the water area for many years to come - that's not important...
      Just like the leaky tanks from rust and the rivers, lakes, hundreds of square kilometers of tundra that were polluted with diesel fuel - those were, it seems, "Potanin's"... Also silent.
      As well as the fact that the ecosystem of the North is a very fragile mechanism, where all sorts of "effectively defective" people can stick their noses in anyway, as they say -

      With a pig's snout - yes, in the kalashnikov row
      1. 0
        21 January 2025 14: 49
        Well, the population is more or less aware. Someone has already died there, from poisoning in Crimea, they wrote.
        But the note is about the “horrors of America”
        1. 0
          21 January 2025 15: 12
          But the note is about the “horrors of America”

          Sergey, "a smart person learns from the mistakes of others, a fool cannot be taught even by his own" - to paraphrase a popular saying.
  4. +4
    17 January 2025 10: 50
    What conclusions will Russia draw from the fire in Los Angeles?
    The planet's temperature continues to rise, which means large-scale fires are inevitable.
    Are we ready to create an air squadron of 200-50 BE-100 amphibious aircraft?
    Such a detachment, standing in a circle, could effectively extinguish a forest or any other fire.
    We have enough rivers and lakes to collect water from. The air squadron's mobility is quite high.
    For me, the need for such a detachment is obvious. But it does not exist.
    Even about the production of such necessary aircraft, nothing is heard.
    So, are we going to burn?!
  5. +1
    17 January 2025 17: 28
    There is no "Hollywood scale". The area of ​​the ashes was only 160 sq. km, which is 4 times smaller than the area of ​​Moscow
  6. 0
    18 January 2025 07: 48
    The spectacle of a fire is striking in its scope. And where is the firefighting aviation? Which in the 60s was almost the best. After the transition to a professional army, this type of troops began to wither. Or simply optimized. This happens all over the world. A simple question arises - if you can't protect your own property, then why strive for someone else's?
    1. 0
      18 January 2025 15: 17
      question: if you can’t protect your own property, then why strive for someone else’s?

      Who are you asking?