WTF-Beta

My care-ometer is broken.

Wow. Is my Motorola phone spying for China?

I don't use the app but watch the videos on YouTube. It's the the only short film aka shorts platform of which I'm aware.

I guess I'll have to live without it.

Blah.

No, not easily. And using to write anything other than my signature would be an exercise in futility.

Lol. But sorry for your horrible experiences, Chas.

Wishing you the best.

I have one left. I'm buying more. I use surgical masks but, as I planned, used the last one to do chores yesterday. I hung it on a hanger when I was done. I'm going to use it again. It was amazingly helpful not to breathe mold and chemicals. I have reasons to believe I have a compromised immune system. I'm switching back to them.

I stand corrected, again. It was sold to the Catholic Church, at some point, apparently.

This video is fascinating. It tells the history of the place and shows many historical photographs.

You can see the difference between the interiors today vs. how they looked in their heyday.

Link to video

You'd have to be a billionaire.

I met a few billionaires when I worked as a driver. I drove them back and forth from their estates in Millbrook and Quaker Hill to their apartments in the City and back and forth to the airports.

None of the houses I saw came close to being as impressive as this.

I wouldn't buy it if I could, though. 50,000 square feet?

No way!

Lol, Jodi.

I stand corrected. There was a seven year restoration.

Link to video

Elle Fanning, American actress and model, 28.

This reminds me of William Randolph Hearst.

Newspapers have a long history of not being objective.

I've been a fan of Jesús Enrique Rosas for a long time. He has a single 'brand" now but his videos about the British royal family used to be a separate YouTube channel.

Link to video

I'm not invested in the concept of "DEI" and, in fact, "DEI" came into place at a time when I was paying no attention whatsoever. I didn't learn about it until well after it was established as, "something."

So, I'm not saying anything about it.

I'm only saying as a discrete observation I agree this lady is a sociopath.

She's talking about almost unimaginable tragedy and she's grinning without stop.

Yikes.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/675-Ramapo-Valley-Rd-Mahwah-NJ-07430/37952783_zpid/?utm_campaign=iosappmessage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare

Link to video

The interior seems to glow because of the wood.

The interior hasn't fallen into disrepair, been put to a different use, or needed restoration from the looks of it.

I like the exterior, the central hall, and the pipe organ.

View from news helicopter after smoke cleared--

Link to video

Well, there was a fascist coup attempt against FDR. The plot involved installing a general as head of state. The attempt failed when the general betrayed the fascists.

It certainly could happen here.

I saw a death toll of 16 given but didn't catch the name of the media outlet. I'd be willing to bet this number is very far from accurate.

Her contributions were invaluable.

I miss her.

Big Al, thank you for the information. I'll bet, though, some of what he says about this topic is correct.

Link to video

Victor David Hanson, California's Catastrophe

He explains the man made factors I suspected existed. This is worth all eight minutes, imho.

Living through the first Lahaina fire is something I won't forget. The house was filled with thick smoke. You could see it as it blew back and forth and through the rooms. Lahaina Town was blocked off from the outside world by the federal and state governments. There came a time when there was no escape.

This happened during the second Lahaina fire as well. In fact, during the second one, the police turned many vehicles around who could have escaped. Some of these vehicles included entire families. People eventually had to escape into the ocean. I assume some of these people lived and some died.

The most horrific aspect of it to me was listening to the sounds of explosions. Every one of these sounds was a gasoline powered vehicle exploding filled with people trying to escape.

The causes of and responses to both Lahaina fires proved much too complex to write off either one as "a natural disaster."

There was no water to fight the fires because it had corruptly been diverted to the resorts. The utility company didn't maintain the electric polls the way they were supposed to and they came crashing down in the wind onto grounds that hadn't been maintained.

The macabre fact of the authorities preventing people from escaping is something I will never understand.

I lived through one major earthquake in the eighteen years I lived in Hawaii. The first Lahaina fire was worse. The second one was an apocalypse beyond imagination.

I'm sure my limited personal experience pales in comparison to what is happening in real time in Los Angeles. I wish there was something I could say or do to make the nightmare end.

@wtg said in California fires:

I knew that it was bad but didn’t realize how bad until I saw the national news this morning. Talk about apocalypse.

CNN talked with actor James Woods, whose home is gone. Here’s a bit of the interview.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/08/us/video/la-wildfire-james-woods-close-call-digvid

James Woods has become a sensation on social media after being filmed freaking out about his house because he's a committed Zionist who is on record saying every Palestinian man, woman, and child should be killed let alone displaced.

Cry me a river.

Link to video

Wow.

I survived the first Lahaina fire. I would have died in the second one.

I'll bet that when the dust settles they'll find there was no water in some places where it should have been accessable and multiple similar man made failures both in the fire starting and spreading and in the response to it unfortunately.