JimofPennsylvan
Platinum Member
- Jun 6, 2007
- 900
- 582
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Was God trying to send the American people a message with the California fires? The answer to that question is a matter of faith for one cannot prove an affirmative answer, I would venture to say that a lot of Americans including this writer believes yes! The American government is failing its people life is way too financially hard for people and the dangers whether it be from drugs like fentanyl or crime are beyond understandable levels. I am not saying God ordained or brought these fires about because good people were seriously and unjustly hurt by them and God by his nature who is all good would not do such things but what I do believe Is God kept his hand at his side instead of raising it to stem the harm from this natural fire event. How could he have stemmed the loss or helped one might ask, according to the Associated Press evacuation orders for the Palisades community was not issued until forty minutes after some Palisades homes were on fire the American public saw pictures of traffic jams of these residents trying to flee their community and because of the shortage of time and the fire threatening the traffic jam people had to abandon their cars and flee on foot and ultimately these cars were consumed by the fire (God's grace could have eliminated that delay), America has never seen a large scale fire like these LA fires where the fire hydrants didn't work on a large scale basis (God's grace could have diminished the loss of such a vital resource for the firefighters). God's grace could have allowed for better preparation why was the entire community allowed to be caught completely off guard about the fire threat; authorities knew a couple of days beforehand the Santa Anna winds were going to pelt the LA communities with devastating winds like sixty miles an hour winds and authorities knew that southern California had little rain in recent months so the landscape was in a kindling state why weren't residents advised that the day before the wind event hose down your lawn and trees and shrubs and pick-up lose branches and on the morning of the wind event hose down your roof, these communities caught on fire like they were pools of kerosene if everything wasn't so receptive to burning fire fighters could have had a better chance of saving more homes. LA communities didn't need power lines creating sparks or arson behavior to pose a grave fire threat to their communities the most innocent fire causing event was a threat to these entire communities with these Santa Anna winds that could pick of embers and transport them twenty-five to fifty yards, the wild fire danger was as in your face as it could be!
Why is the American government so miserably failing its people because collectively its elected officials aren't doing what is good and why is that? Because many of them are only interested in getting reelected not in doing what is best for the American people, many of them don't have to consider different sides of an issue they can ignore wide swaths of members of their community that hold a different ideology than they do because of gerrymandering where voting districts are drawn to give a pronounced numbers advantage to one political party so politicians can largely ignore citizens from the other party in their district and the campaign money problem where wealthy Americans are able to pour money into election races and change the dynamic of elections from whose the best candidate to who can be politically wounded more to the point of being killed as a candidate. America desperately needs the Constitution to be changed to have term limits, to draw voting district by algorithms based solely on geometric considerations and ban Political Action Committees and non-candidate and non-political party organizations from running advertisements for three months prior to a general election where candidates are shot to pieces!
Why is this California fire a good opportunity to send the message that governments in America need to start appropriately serving their people? Because California is a notoriously bad government for its citizens, it is the Darth Vader of state governments. This is from the State of California government itself one of its own offices where it reported at the end of 2024 that over the past four years a "mid tier" home in California had its monthly payments including mortgage, tax and insurance expenses increase seventy-five percent (75%) to $5500.00/month and for lower-priced homes jump eighty percent (80%) to $3400.00/month. In a nutshell, the California government does not adequately care about the impact of their policies on individual Californians, it doesn't care about the financial burden they are experiencing. Examples include the following: new residential homes (those three stories or less) have to have solar panels {this is at least a fifteen thousand dollar expense on Californian families that buy such homes}; the latest California building code as far as I can tell will essentially be mandating beginning in January of 2026 "heat pumps" be installed in new homes for heating, air conditioning and hot water generation in the home (I think it back doors this because it mandates that new home's heating system get at least sixty percent of its heating from on-site renewable energy and the only real way to do this is through a heat pump) - this writer is a big fan of geothermal heat pumps which are much simpler than regular heat pumps and it is important to note regular heat pumps are not without draw backs their life of service is not as long as traditional HVAC systems their life span is fifteen years and they are very complex systems they will have a higher maintenance costs. California has a really screwy building code system that it gives the energy commission and the building code commission the power to change the building code adding enormous expense to home construction and such changes don't have to be approved by the state legislature. The California legislature made the home insurance system of last resort in California the "Fair Plan" a very onerous financial back stop system, specifically, if fire events are large enough in the state so that the plans reserves are run through then "all" California home owners that have home insurance would pick-up the shortfall costs by being charged an increase for their home insurance - obviously the state legislature should find the money to cover the shortfall from somewhere else. The government of California and this state policy wasn't even approved by the California legislature has banned the sale of new cars that are combustion engine driven beginning in 2035; this is so inconsiderate of the Californian consumers EV's cost more for original purchase, are more costly to insure, aren't as convenient to utilize because of charging unavailability and time needed to charge, are greater fire hazards and are more costly to service, if Californian representatives cared about their fellow Californian citizens the way they should they would no way make this move which will be significantly burdensome on these citizens!
One problem I see with the government of California is that the people that run the government of California are not serving ordinary Californians, the system needs to change to weaken the political parties and give more power to grass root groups in California and to facilitate people being elected to the California legislature that are fully committed to working for their constituents in their district not the political party and special interests. The specific problem I see in California is twofold ; first the state legislature is too small and the term limit system is screwy it helps the political party instead of good representatives. The California legislature has 120 people in its legislature eighty in the Lower Chamber "The Assembly" and forty in the Upper Chamber "The Senate". Ideally they should have one-hundred and fifty in the Lower Chamber and fifty in the Upper Chamber. California is the largest populated state in the nation with 38 million people, Texas has a population of 30 million and a lower chamber size of 150, New York has a population size of 19 million and lower chamber size of 150, Pennsylvania has a population size of 12 million and a lower chamber size of 203 and Georgia has a population size of 11 million and a lower chamber size of 180. Dramatically more voting districts in California would make it harder for the Parties to control everything and empower individual candidates and grass root groups that would work for the mass of Californians not special interests resulting in public policy that better works for ordinary Californians. The second problem with California state government is its term limit system the rule is that there is a twelve year term limit rule for the entirety of both the Senate and the Assembly meaning if you serve in the Assembly for eight years you can only serve one term in the Senate (Senate term is for four years). California should adopt the eight year term limit rule that ten states across America have meaning one can serve a maximum of eight years in the lower chamber and a maximum of eight years in the Upper chamber. Insuring members can have eight years in a chamber will allow them to build relationships with other members in their chamber where they can work over the eight year period to accomplish good things. Term limits are critically important at the state level because you want state legislature members working for the best interests of their constituents not to facilitate them getting re-elected so term limits should not be scuttled!
What America needs is another Space Race of sorts, a Race To The Moon effort like America had in the 1960's and early 1970's, a galvanization of the American people to achieve a goal as it pertains to these fires that are decimating communities across America every year! Could America come up with a product that would not be too heavy where it would be like a large screen with two layers that could be readily pulled over a house in danger of being subjected to a wild fire that would block embers and the wild fire flames from igniting the house. Or come up with a product that is sort of like a fire retardant mix in three foot long plastic like fire extinguisher canister that would shoot like thirty feet when the trigger was pulled that homeowners in danger of a wild fire could readily spray the mix on the roof of their house and it would make an impenetrable fire resistant coat for the house to protect it from fire. For Homes that have pools came up with a spray system that utilizes the pool water to stop the house from catching fire or put out fires that start have like four flag pole like pipes equally distant around the house where water runs through them and comes out the top and sprays the roof with water in a sweeping motion and eliminate home gutters (have the gutter function be done by laying pipe in the ground at the base of the house to collect storm water and move it away from the house) eliminate the gutters so the water being sprayed on the roof would run down the side of the house and also protect those side walls from catching fire. Come up with a battery powered pumping system so that when the power from the local utility drops out the system still works.
Why is the American government so miserably failing its people because collectively its elected officials aren't doing what is good and why is that? Because many of them are only interested in getting reelected not in doing what is best for the American people, many of them don't have to consider different sides of an issue they can ignore wide swaths of members of their community that hold a different ideology than they do because of gerrymandering where voting districts are drawn to give a pronounced numbers advantage to one political party so politicians can largely ignore citizens from the other party in their district and the campaign money problem where wealthy Americans are able to pour money into election races and change the dynamic of elections from whose the best candidate to who can be politically wounded more to the point of being killed as a candidate. America desperately needs the Constitution to be changed to have term limits, to draw voting district by algorithms based solely on geometric considerations and ban Political Action Committees and non-candidate and non-political party organizations from running advertisements for three months prior to a general election where candidates are shot to pieces!
Why is this California fire a good opportunity to send the message that governments in America need to start appropriately serving their people? Because California is a notoriously bad government for its citizens, it is the Darth Vader of state governments. This is from the State of California government itself one of its own offices where it reported at the end of 2024 that over the past four years a "mid tier" home in California had its monthly payments including mortgage, tax and insurance expenses increase seventy-five percent (75%) to $5500.00/month and for lower-priced homes jump eighty percent (80%) to $3400.00/month. In a nutshell, the California government does not adequately care about the impact of their policies on individual Californians, it doesn't care about the financial burden they are experiencing. Examples include the following: new residential homes (those three stories or less) have to have solar panels {this is at least a fifteen thousand dollar expense on Californian families that buy such homes}; the latest California building code as far as I can tell will essentially be mandating beginning in January of 2026 "heat pumps" be installed in new homes for heating, air conditioning and hot water generation in the home (I think it back doors this because it mandates that new home's heating system get at least sixty percent of its heating from on-site renewable energy and the only real way to do this is through a heat pump) - this writer is a big fan of geothermal heat pumps which are much simpler than regular heat pumps and it is important to note regular heat pumps are not without draw backs their life of service is not as long as traditional HVAC systems their life span is fifteen years and they are very complex systems they will have a higher maintenance costs. California has a really screwy building code system that it gives the energy commission and the building code commission the power to change the building code adding enormous expense to home construction and such changes don't have to be approved by the state legislature. The California legislature made the home insurance system of last resort in California the "Fair Plan" a very onerous financial back stop system, specifically, if fire events are large enough in the state so that the plans reserves are run through then "all" California home owners that have home insurance would pick-up the shortfall costs by being charged an increase for their home insurance - obviously the state legislature should find the money to cover the shortfall from somewhere else. The government of California and this state policy wasn't even approved by the California legislature has banned the sale of new cars that are combustion engine driven beginning in 2035; this is so inconsiderate of the Californian consumers EV's cost more for original purchase, are more costly to insure, aren't as convenient to utilize because of charging unavailability and time needed to charge, are greater fire hazards and are more costly to service, if Californian representatives cared about their fellow Californian citizens the way they should they would no way make this move which will be significantly burdensome on these citizens!
One problem I see with the government of California is that the people that run the government of California are not serving ordinary Californians, the system needs to change to weaken the political parties and give more power to grass root groups in California and to facilitate people being elected to the California legislature that are fully committed to working for their constituents in their district not the political party and special interests. The specific problem I see in California is twofold ; first the state legislature is too small and the term limit system is screwy it helps the political party instead of good representatives. The California legislature has 120 people in its legislature eighty in the Lower Chamber "The Assembly" and forty in the Upper Chamber "The Senate". Ideally they should have one-hundred and fifty in the Lower Chamber and fifty in the Upper Chamber. California is the largest populated state in the nation with 38 million people, Texas has a population of 30 million and a lower chamber size of 150, New York has a population size of 19 million and lower chamber size of 150, Pennsylvania has a population size of 12 million and a lower chamber size of 203 and Georgia has a population size of 11 million and a lower chamber size of 180. Dramatically more voting districts in California would make it harder for the Parties to control everything and empower individual candidates and grass root groups that would work for the mass of Californians not special interests resulting in public policy that better works for ordinary Californians. The second problem with California state government is its term limit system the rule is that there is a twelve year term limit rule for the entirety of both the Senate and the Assembly meaning if you serve in the Assembly for eight years you can only serve one term in the Senate (Senate term is for four years). California should adopt the eight year term limit rule that ten states across America have meaning one can serve a maximum of eight years in the lower chamber and a maximum of eight years in the Upper chamber. Insuring members can have eight years in a chamber will allow them to build relationships with other members in their chamber where they can work over the eight year period to accomplish good things. Term limits are critically important at the state level because you want state legislature members working for the best interests of their constituents not to facilitate them getting re-elected so term limits should not be scuttled!
What America needs is another Space Race of sorts, a Race To The Moon effort like America had in the 1960's and early 1970's, a galvanization of the American people to achieve a goal as it pertains to these fires that are decimating communities across America every year! Could America come up with a product that would not be too heavy where it would be like a large screen with two layers that could be readily pulled over a house in danger of being subjected to a wild fire that would block embers and the wild fire flames from igniting the house. Or come up with a product that is sort of like a fire retardant mix in three foot long plastic like fire extinguisher canister that would shoot like thirty feet when the trigger was pulled that homeowners in danger of a wild fire could readily spray the mix on the roof of their house and it would make an impenetrable fire resistant coat for the house to protect it from fire. For Homes that have pools came up with a spray system that utilizes the pool water to stop the house from catching fire or put out fires that start have like four flag pole like pipes equally distant around the house where water runs through them and comes out the top and sprays the roof with water in a sweeping motion and eliminate home gutters (have the gutter function be done by laying pipe in the ground at the base of the house to collect storm water and move it away from the house) eliminate the gutters so the water being sprayed on the roof would run down the side of the house and also protect those side walls from catching fire. Come up with a battery powered pumping system so that when the power from the local utility drops out the system still works.
