John Drake

You've misread me. I don't favor tax cuts for billionaires being renewed either.

Where does funding for illegals, refugees, and asylum seekers fit in that chart? That was the biggest component of what he was asking about.

An entire military overhaul might be needed. All volunteer military is too expensive. Bring back the draft. Lots of benefits: young people learn discipline; pay is reduced to that appropriate for national service; and best of all deployment to foreign wars becomes much more difficult when the entire society is at risk of seeing family sent to fight instead of just those desperate for military benefits.

No taxpayer benefits to anyone who is not a citizen.

How about DOGE start with eliminating Elon's Tesla tax credits?

Here's some Mexican history for you: the Yaqui extermination war of the 1880s, in which Yaquis ended up seeking refuge from the Mexican army in Arizona and Texas. Northern Mexico has always been unstable; it is today. And wars against Indian peoples has persisted in Mexico from the time of the Spanish conquest on through until today.

Can't really make out what you're saying, here. What is UD? Mexico didn't exist; it was a Spanish colony subject to unstable governance, which is why, for example, Texas gained independence from Mexico in the same way Mexico gained independence from Spain. When were the settlers slaughtering each other? Not all Native Americans were slaughtered. Far from it. I am, for example, myself part Choctaw and Cherokee, native to the area in which I was born, unlike Spaniards and Mexicans.

Except for one congratulations post on X, Vivek has gone completely quiet since December 30. Is he hoping to resurface or is he finished for good? My money is on the latter, because of all the revelations about his Pharma stock scam that came out with his support of H1Bs. I hope this means DOGE is done and finished. I don't want him anywhere near determining what goes into the federal budget. At least for now, on X, nobody's at home. https://x.com/vivekgramaswamy?lang=en

Mexico as a nation state did not exist until 1824. Before 1821, when Spain gave it independence, Mexico was a Spanish possession.

No handbags?

Nothing belonged to Mexico in the 18th century. It belonged to Spain.

Some celebrities came through without a loss. Others wiped out. Interesting note: I saw many pro-Gaza accounts on X celebrating the fact that actor James Woods lost his house. Turns out his house is okay. There is a celebrity/A-Lister chart in this story: https://nypost.com/2025/01/10/entertainment/james-woods-home-survives-la-fires-after-he-thought-he-lost-it-forever/

The National Weather Service was on top of this situation from the beginning. They began issuing alerts a week before the fire, and their alerts continued to escalate until the fire broke out. How did the state and the city respond to these alerts?

Good question. How much prepositioning was in place? I don't want to read cut and paste jobs from gavinnewsomdotcom trying to explain away ill preparedness. However bad this fire was going to be, preparation could have mitigated some things. If nowhere else, at least around the edges. The below National Weather Service alert went out a day before the fires began.

I'm inclined to agree with your suspicions, and I'm seeing all sorts of claims on X about foreign gangs setting fires and then looting. I just want some agency that is credible to lay out the scenario.

The National Weather Service issued a fire alert/warning for LA a week before the fires. What preparations came of it? Why did the mayor check out and head for Ghana?

100 percent of "disaster response?" Wonder how that breaks down. And for the next 6 months? Can Biden direct the federal response to continue as he wants after he is out of office?

If deliberate, who is setting them? Any news or ideas?

Where are the new reservoirs? Where are the firefighters after cutting their budget by $17 million?

Eventually, all the owners of those ultra expensive homes in Pacific Palisades are going to need to get a rebuild permit from the California Coastal Commission. Watch their eruption when one after another they're denied.

It seems to me that a lot of these elephant sanctuaries are suspect. Wasn't the Swiss doctor kicker in Phuket running one of these "non-profits" and living high off the hog?

Why is mayor Karen Bass in Ghana while her city is burning down?

Partially. But population seems to be part of the problem. Just too many people in California consuming limited resources in an arid and semi-arid environment. Having 20 million there in the 70s was probably too many people. Having 40 million there now is unsupportable.

Just stuff I'm seeing on Twitter/X but it's all reporting that reservoirs were not refilled. No water to fight the fires. Just like Maui. Don't know if this true, but if it is . . .

LA Fire live dispatch. https://www.broadcastify.com/webPlayer/38651