Fire and Ice! One Storm Effecting My Past and Present!

Last night, I watched as my beloved Los Angeles was in flames. This morning, I woke up to snow which will be an ice storm shortly! A state of emergency has been issued both for California and Georgia. The thing that makes this incredible is that it is the same storm which has crossed the United States. My heart is broken and I wait to see how the snow and ice will effect me over the next few days.

I am lucky because I will be able to stay home and do nothing but watch as my beloved California burns and the ice comes down in my back yard. My child informed me that the High School that my father attend was burned down. I am watching and wondering if the schools that I attended as a child will be burned down. Or the Community College that I attended will be effected. Last I looked, the fire was on the other side of the freeway but the lost of Pasadena City College would be incredible as they have a lot of equipment which helps track earthquakes in the state.

In one way, this does not effect me in any way as I have been out of California for over 20 years but the memories of by childhood will be swept away and reminding me that you can never go back. In another way, this storm has created fire in my childhood backyard and ice in my current backyard.

I am trying me best not to be political but I can’t believe that the blame game has been started. The fact is both parties are to blame and most, if not all, the world leaders are to blame for this fire and ice storm. The truth is that humans and our effect on climate are making these weather events more and more. I think back to my childhood and the smartest people in the world tell us that this kind of weather is what we should expect.

Bill Nye (the science guy) might be a joke but he was making science simple for children. Al Gore took to climate change as he left office. The science warned us but greed had taken over and we ignore the smartest people in the room and take advice from those that are greedy. I wish that this would change but I know that it will not.

For years, scientist have been telling and warning us to change our environmental ways. Hurricane Helene left a post apocalyptical landscape and the residents are still trying to recover. In November, I stayed at a hotel as I was traveling and meet several people that did not have a home to go to from the Hurricane. In addition, they were having issues get ahold of government programs as they were overwhelmed and underfunded.

The person that I was talking to was also in a situation that they were not seeing their child most days as the child was living with the other parent who’s housing was not effected. It was best for the child to do so but hard as this was the parent that was the main caregiver. The custody changed in a moment without the courts being involved but if this person can’t find a new housing situation quickly, they might lose custody all together. In addition, they don’t have a job as there work was also effected. They do have family several states away but if they take them up on the housing then they will lose being close to their child and most likely custody as courts tend to stop children from moving out of state.

Those that were effected by Hurricane Helene are also in the track for this ice storm. The ice storm effect on buildings and structures that are being held together with duck tape will be yet another blow for North Carolina residents and others that were effected by Hurricane Helene. In addition, a lot of residents are being pressured to sell out to cooperate land grabbers for pennies on the dollar to take over land in the areas. Within the next few years, this land will turn over to them as residence with not be able to get taxes paid or get ahead enough to rebuild.

But looking at the current situation with destruction in California, I can see were this greed will be high on and these neighborhood will be taken over by corps as the land in California even more so than the land in South Carolina. The homes in Malibu will be rebuilt as most of the residents will have both the insurance and the money to do so. But the homes in Altadena and Pasadena might not be. The residents in this area will be pushed into selling their land for small amounts compared to the amounts that they were worth. These residents will never get back on their feet completely as these was their home and future retirements. In addition to the emotional trauma that they will have in losing everything that they own. This will also effect the areas around the area as these people will need housing until things are built up.

Housing is already a premium in Southern California which is a reason that I choose not to move home after my divorce. This fire will made things even harder on those that are living paycheck to paycheck as property owners will have the ability to raise rents in the area. I heard that a lot of hotels and other short term rental properties have been great to those running from the fires as they have allowed pet into places that have always been pet free.

Those that were able to get home and get their pets were very lucky as this will not be talked about much but many family pets will have burned to death during the fires as their owners were not home and they could not get out of the house. It was shown on TV that police and neighbors helped get pets out of some properties. On another property, the gate was opened to allow horses to run from the fire but were on their own as far as safety.

One of the things that most people don’t know is that this fire in California will be effecting people across the country. Simple things like Grey’s Anatomy filming, 97th Academy Awards, the LA Rams vs the Minnesota Viking wild card game, the LA Lakers vs the Charlotte Hornets game, lots of Award in Hollywood, and lots of Premieres. Not a big deal, right! Wrong! These awards, games, and premiers that have been canceled or delayed. Do effect other areas of the country is small ways.

The Academy Awards bring out people to the local movie theaters. The Rams vs the Vikings will hold small business that need to make things like T-shirts and mugs for the Superbowl delayed to make the right souvenirs and those sales will be slowed. Again, small items that will effect the local communities around the United States.

But there is another thing that is even more important that most people don’t realized that will be effecting them through taxes. As Los Angeles burns with over 10,000 structures burned at this time and the fires are still burning, you are looking at the displacement of over 10,000 people. I know that some of these structures are school, businesses, etc. but some of these structures are also apartment buildings.

Therefore, lets say that each structure has 3 people living in them. 2 adults and a child with 50 percent of those being homes that have 2 working adults and half that only have one. This would give you 30,000 thousand people that are now homeless. Many who are also jobless as their businesses and/or their work places are not longer standing. Or they might have lost their daycares and will not be able to work for a while until things settle down. The taxes that these individual would pay into social security, Medicaid, and federal taxes with not being adding to the Federal Budget.

In 2018, the Federal Government had a $4.5 trillion dollars for it’s federal budget. California State tax payers helps fund the federal government to the tune of $456 billion in 2018 which is the highest of any state and over 10% of the National Budget. New York was at $281 billion with Texas being the next highest at $280 billion. Californians have been the top payers since before 2011. What did California get back in Federal programs? In 2018, they only got $120 billion back which is 3% of the federal budget. (I know that these are old numbers but it is hard to find the newer one but they are still on track at about the same amounts.)

With that said, I saw a “Republican Friend” of Trump say that California should not be giving any funds unless they make concessions to Trump and the Republican Party. I am guessing that these include abortion and other items that Republicans don’t like about California. With this fire, they want a state that pays over 10% of the Federal Budget every year and only gets back 3% of the Federal Budget. That extra 7% helps states like Montana, New Mexico, West Virginia, Mississippi, Alaska, and other state get who get more back from the Federal Government.

I find it very rich (dripping sarcasm) that all those that want to stop paying “Welfare Benefits” are actually the ones that get the most. I know it was before 2010, but I was reading something that showed that West Virginian got $1.24 cents for every $1 that they paid into the Federal Government. Californian, on the other hand, paid $1 for every 74 cents that they got from the Feds. The States that hate California are the same states that have their “Welfare” paid by Californians, i.e. Demarcates pay all those Republican States bills. (Note: the reason I single out West Virginia is that they are very Republican except for their Senators have been Demarcates to get as much monetary benefits from Federal Money, i.e. Joe Manchin (2010 to 2025), Robert Byrd (1959 to 2010), Jennings Randolph (1958 to 1985), and Jay Rockefeller (1985 to 2015) were all Demarcates.

The Republicans are also making up things and trying to take out the Mayor of LA and the Governor of California for this disaster. But this is a storm that has never been seen in known history. Hindsight is 20/20. Did the emergency service do everything right? No. Did they do the best they could with the information that they had? Yes. There will be a report and that report will show how to do this better next time. I would say in case but with climate change, there will be a next time.

This should not be a political issue. This should be Americans getting behind a National Disaster that is happening to other Americans not unlike California’s did when Hurricane Katrina happened. At the time, I was living in the Bay area. If I remember correctly, the Bay area took in 100,000 refuges and Californian gave millions in funds personally and Corporately with workers, donates, and charity events. It is unbelievable that the politianal attacks are being done at this time while the City of Angeles is burning.

What happen to decency and decorum? What happen to people offering a helping hand when someone is in need and not expecting something back? If this is our new world, then I am sad for the future children!