I'm a white guy who had a car accident when I was 21. It was a black man who found me & got the help that saved my life. "Man, I wish he was white" is something I never freaking thought & nobody in trouble gives a damn either. How did we get here? 🤦♂
Exactly. It's a shame I have to worry whether or not the first responder or healthcare professional isn't a goofy, delusional white supremacist in an emergency. And yous pretend not to know what privilege is.
... i had a post but youtube deleted it because I said 'm!nority'... THIS is how 'we got here' the road to 'here' was paved by m!norities. and walked by b!gots. and both sides where coddled by nannybot
911 what's your emergency? "Hi I need someone who looks like me to come to my house asap...' 'Sure, can you please send me a photo so you can assist you better?'
Assistant Chief Kristine Larson says... DEI ''People want firefighters who show up to look like them. It makes them feel more comfortable'' I believe that was the exact philosophy of the Klu Klux Klan.
13.3 per cent base rate is nothing. Stop complaining about taxes. low taxes equal low services. If 13.3 is considered high 7:29 no wonder L.A. is in ruins. I pity the lower taxed states
@@joegatto9320First off I’m not American. So I don’t care if you agree. I wasn’t complaining about the tax amount. I was alluding to the fact that considering how much money there is, and how poorly services are funded and managed is an utter disgrace.
@kadourimdou43 you misunderstood, l am not criticising you. l am criticising Maher for thinking such a low tax was high. The largest tax collection for the population of California is to be expected, but it is still low. Like you I am not American THANK GOD.
The only thing more disgraceful is that a state like Alabama, which takes more money federal money than it pays in - subsidized largely by California tax payers every year - takes even more federal money in hurricane relief and then elects the least successful college football coach in the state as a senator to publicly say "California does not deserve funding" to deal with the fires.
All those people currently in HR who got their college degree in Lesbian Dance Theory, who were told "good luck getting a job with that degree!" Well guess what, they did get jobs in HR, and now they're getting their revenge by making us attend several mandatory DEI and cultural sensitivity classes every year to instruct everyone on how to behave. Along with sending out a 15 page memo on "the use of proper pronouns."
Bill needs a good long look in the mirror for the answer to that question. Identity politics, DEI, wokeism, whatever you call it, is a leftist ideology that he supports until it's his mansion that is at risk of burning down.
Bill is one of those people who teaches people bullshit. For one example. There's a lot of them. Bill has lost any touch he had. Now he's like Andrew Tate's bitchy old american auntie.
Who teaches this bullshit? University professors and administrators. I know, I've worked in the UC system for 25 years. They've educated a generation to value virtue signaling and posturing over real content, real action, and real ideas
American tax payers pay more per capita for medicine than any country in the world, including EVERY country with free health care. Who the fuck are you talking to, exactly?
@@augurseer which is why it was so disappointing when Bill had Gavin Newsom on as a guest. I don't think I ever saw his eyes so big and smiling so wide and fawning like crazy
@@itstrboHighly doubt Cali is focusing on roads and schools, and those are issues the Mayor takes on. It's complete failure top to bottom. It's also not once in a lifetime event, that was Hawaii, this happens every year seemingly
@@itstrbo guess what emergency services are probbably more important than school because little timmy scholastic wont matter if he becomes a roast. Lets be real even if nothing but the house burnt down id imagine focusing on school maybe a tad much. Lifes matter more than if the computer lab gets an upgrade.
It's good to see all the Republicans who are suddenly all about infrastructure spending and not cutting budgets. Now if we could just get them to believe in climate change.
This is misinterpreted. Most conservatives believe climate change exists. However, they do not think it is an existential crisis or they think that the climate change policies are a failure. Conservatives have a view that if nations like China and India are not doing anything to address the issue, then the US should not either at the expense of its citizens living more economically prosperous lives.
@Brisingr-b5f if most conservatives actually think that then most conservatives need to start saying that. Pretty much every conservative I've ever known or talked to says it's fake.
You would first have to prove that climate change wasn't just a method of funelling tax money into corrupt green energy projects that ultimately make no difference. Why did Obama just buy a house on the shore BTW? The tide will be rising any day now for sure.
@@WardenJune Are they educated? I find that many uneducated conservatives have a very surface level understanding of the issues and just say basic slogans. Intellectual conservatives go into more depth on their views while the uneducated ones (who are more of the working class) just say it's fake. They know it is real but they don't view it to be a serious issue like liberals or progressives do, so just say it is fake.
While I agree with Bill's points, & understand Bill's making jokes, that laughing can be a defence mechanism & that laughter can heal, here in Australia if any political or socio-political commentator made jokes concerning the mismanagement that increased the suffering or damage caused by a wildfire, very few people would laugh, if any. Yet there's people in this audience that seem to be having the time of their life, while LA lies in ruin. The LA fires have been depressing, & the laughter here almost makes it more depressing.
It's gotta be hard being Bill and trying to find where to direct your intolerance from day to day. I remember seeing Bill talking about how even with climate change the one thing that he couldn't give up was flying on private jets. Real Time, Billy Mirror.
Essential service should have nothing to do with DEI. Your fire department should only ever be made up of the best of the best, not trying to fill a quota.
@@willhiggins9563 Not yet, but one of her chief deputies is on record of replaying to the question "are you able to carry my husband out in a fire?" to which she replied "if I needed to do that, your husband got himself in the wrong place". I mean, did you not watch this video? Ummmm........
That's just another way for the politicians in California to deflect. Their PR teams are working overtime to keep the real issues out of the media. There is more than enough rain in California for the state to store it. The problem is that regulations and corrupt bureaucrats have stalled the ability to build the storage.
It's not just them. The entire California legislature has to take some blame. They seem to think that virtue signaling is much more important than doing the job.
From an objective standpoint, what I’m not hearing is how the things Bill focuses on - an empty reservoir, stolen fire hydrants - hindered the ability to slow or stop the fires. Given the factors involved, would these things have had a measurable impact? Hoping someone can explain this with supporting information.
They need to hear it. I'm a lifelong democrat too, and barely voted for Bass, really wavered, but next time I'll vote for Caruso. I can't stand Newsom. These fires, something's changed in me. I'm done with the programming and the brainwashing. I see my liberal friends literally downplaying the city's failings with parroting rhetoric about climate change and it's like - if you know climate change is so bad, why aren't you preparing?? And that Sierra Club has CA by the balls with these ludicrous environmental regulations. Now that makes me wonder who's running it - it's almost anti-survival, those policies. Anyway, I hope he keeps speaking out. He's right about never wanting to listen to anything Trump says.
Nonsense. That’s why we love him. Even if he has TDS (for reasons that aren’t necessarily unfounded), he speaks the truth. I agree with Bill on most things, except his insistence that the Far Left is less dangerous than the Far Right.
I think Bill just set another fire in LA with those massive burns. I really appreciate your dedication to preaching facts as you see them regardless of what side is deserving of them at the time. Keep thinking for yourself, question the policies, dont pick a side.
Tell that to Gov Abbot when hundreds of Texans froze to death & the Senator Raphael Cruz bailed with his family to Cancun when Texas' power grid failed under a deep freeze...
GDP of India(the whole country) is less than the GDP of California and we have more powerlines underground than California has powelines. 'High cost' is not an excuse to not do it for a place like California.
Fire is so much a part of California that the redwood trees NEED fire to reproduce. Complaining about fire in California is like complaining about hurricanes in Florida
You did go watch the full video. It’s literally seconds after she said the part about looking like the people. and don’t let the partisan hacks in the comments try and gaslight you into thinking this shouldn’t have immediately disqualified her and the chief for leaving her employed to the tune of them both making over $200,000+ per year.
I feel for Bill here, because it's difficult to write something funny about a disaster. It's just unfortunate that he chooses to push a lazy narrative: "Yeah firefighting is tough in a hurricane, but that wokeness surely didn't help at all!" How about having an expert on that discusses future engineering solutions for fire resistance? When cities in tornado alley get destroyed, we don't talk about how stubborn red state politicians weren't prepared, or how their carbon emissions caused extreme weather events, or how dumb they are for rebuilding only to watch the house get destroyed again. A comedian who strives to have smart takes on news should spend more time researching than regurgitating different forms of his same narrative.
It's an ACCURATE narrative. When you hire on any other basis than MERIT, including in part, you get less qualified people. That's MATH. The best of 20% of a pool will not provide equal potential merit as 100% of the pool. It keeps proving a disaster for the QUALITY of outcomes.
@@P2Reflectschannel-hh2zlit’s not accurate, because he’s got it totally wrong. Building codes are the thing that are needed (and California adopted the Wildland-Urban Interface code in 2005, but most of LAs building are far older than that). In 80mph winds, a bit more water would just have meant more pissing in the wind. There’s compelling research that shows diversity programs INCREASE organization’s performance as it reduces group think. The narrative that it’s leading to worse performance due to low performers being hired isn’t supported by the research. It’s just the gut feeling of people on the right.
Are you ready for the droughts, Arizonan? Do none of you realize that climate change really will effect all of us? It's easy to point fingers at California, but fuck, do really think water shortages and hot weather events won't effect you? They will. People have already died of heat in India, and that's like a fish drowning. You're a fool if you don't understand you're next.
More diverse orgs of all kinds seem to do better generally. Funny how you guys can’t point to one material problem with these supposed DEI hires? They are in charge the people to have put out and contained fires, who’ve saved homes and lives doing so. But all you can complain about is out is a interview she had, where she doesn’t say she couldn’t carry a man out of burning building, just that it’s a stupid situation to end up in.
@@willhiggins9563well I'm sure if your loved ones got stuck in a fire and burned because a dei hire wasn't qualified to do their job and told you "he shouldn't have gotten himself in there", you'd smile and nod in agreement 🤡🤡🤡
@@willhiggins9563I can think of a thousand different ways that an able-bodied man can become trapped in a burning building and would have to be carried out by an emergency responder. My guy, DEI is a lot less appealing when someone’s dad winds up dying of smoke inhalation because the firefighter weighs 130 pounds soaking wet.
Actually a lot of the federal taxes paid by Californians go to bail out welfare states like Alabama - who then elect senators that publicly say "California doesn't deserve funding" to deal with the fires!
"I'm not saying Alabama would have done better with fires by fighting them with prayer in school", no but they're doing just fine by taking more federal money than they pay in - largely from California tax payers - while their senator says "California doesn't deserve funding" to help combat the fires.
Stupidity isn't only found in California. In Florida, people build and rebuild homes 4' above sea level when the hurricane storm surges are 12-20'. They also ride out a hurricane because they live on the 2nd floor, but leave their cars in the parking garage that is below sea level. People in North Carolina didn't evacuate, including the big white Fire Captains who didn't move their station trucks or personal vehicles to higher ground before Hurricane Helene hit, even though there were already streams, rivers, and reservoirs above flood stage. I could go on and on and on.
You realize we don't build our houses in Florida like they do in the northeast because taller structures catch more wind. Single story homes tend not to catch so much wind.
Those are individual decisions not government incompetency - I realize you may not be able to process the MONUMENTAL difference between the two.... but if you choose to stay in a disaster, you reap the consequences of your OWN decisions! Being a victim because liberals cut off funding to the fire department, didn't bother to maintain fire equipment, and didn't bother doing proper forest management.... is an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT ISSUE.... much like the liberals in Hawaii that shut off evacuation routes..... lol.... so go on and on if you want, but be warned - you are just embarrassing yourself- lol, as if you people needed any help.
Fires in CA happen almost non stop, hurricanes have seasons, floods don't happen often, those people forgot the training, there is not excuse to relax in CA.
The power lines not being underground is something that always baffles me when seeing well known American cities(neighbourhoods. It looks more like a poor south East Asian city than a rich American city to me, but I have realised I need to reconsider.
Funny how DEI doesn’t exist in professional sports. So if a short Latino guy who’s played some basketball in high school tries out for the Lakers, what chances of playing next to Labron. So is that racist then🤔
nope. he didnt research the situation well. people on the ground has posted this is akin to a volcano than standard wildfire. the fire happened just at the time when wind was blowing 90mph. no amount of water would kill it.
@@ianw0ng I live in Los Angeles. I am on the ground. This was done intentionally. The 3 first fires started at the same exact moment. There is video showing the Direct Energy Weapons (DEW) hitting land. And water will always put out fire. Duh!
The fires were a prime example of the horseshoe-theory. "We have way too many white male firefighters because of racist right-wing policies and the prevalence of a patriarchical society. Employment based on race and gender can't be allowed. Let's hire our future firefighters based (primarily) on race and gender." And, as Bill said; the sentence "You want to see somebody ... that looks like you." is a thing that would be (rightfully) unacceptable if some southern sheriff said it, but seems totally okay in this situation. We can't fight racism, homophobia or misogyny by doing the same/equivalent thing. That is not "fighting fire with fire", but just doing the same thing that you want to get rid off.
Preach it Bill. Right leaning independent Californian here and I’m sick of paying such high taxes in this state and getting nothing in return, and the nonsensical woke policies has got to go.
Left leaning Independent Californian here who takes the time to learn the facts. Pisses me off that people start blaming before they even learn what really happened. Our society is getting dumber by the day.
When you vote in idiots, with idiot policies, what can you expect, but complete IDIOCY!!! Maybe this terrible situation will wake some people up, but I unfortunately doubt it. 🤔 🔥 😥
Just remember, any fire expert would comfortably tell you, there is no city or metropolitan area in this country that has a water hydrant system that would not have faced all the same issues trying to battle a fire of this size. But facts be dammed.
He opened his act stating people fling at each other instead is solving then spent the whole damn monologue whining about wokism. I initially welcomed Bill’s shift to the Center and found some of his earlier parries at political correctness welcome. However, Bill has turned into a one-trick pony. Boring! The fact that he totally left out FOTUS’ disgusting attacks and Mel Gibson’s looney conspiracy theory about Dems starting fires in an area bluer than Gibson’ face in Braveheart makes me think bill is preparing to bend the knee. He no longer seems to want to take jabs at both sides. Me thinks he has sold out and wants a seat at the table.
So true. But we have those who like to jump to DEI with the loudest voice in the room. Best interview was by Adam Conover "Debunking LA Wildfire Myths with Climate Scientist Dr. Daniel Swain" fyi.. learned that SF has the only accessory water system for fires built after 1906 earthquake. Imagine the cost to build that now.
LA has had a municipal water shortage for close to a decade. Farmers just as long, but nobody talks about that because they're an important voting (funding) bloc. No, I think Detroit or Cleveland could have handled this better, because they would have had enough water. We maybe should be talking about the water shortage, and not people doing what they can to trim budgets. There literally just isn't enough water in California. That's the problem people should be talking about, but if you do, suddenly you're a climate extremist.
Mr Maher’s rant reveals his fundamental childishness and intellectual laziness. He much prefers simply running his mouth over conversing with someone who actually knows what they’re talking about.
I'm from Australia and know all too well about catastrophic fires. The last time I watched with my son water bombers several blocks from my house. All the very best and keep together.
Been watching religiously for 20 years. I’m done Bill. Just stopped recording your show. Out here spreading bullshit Fox News takes as if there’s any water system in the entire world that could have stopped this fire. 100 mph winds. Shame on you.
So it was better that the Santa Ynez Resevoir in the Palisades with over 100 million gallons of capacity was dry when this all started? Or it was worse for the situation that it was dry? And how many months was it dry? How about arguing with facts instead of name calling.
As every single fireman has said, there is no amount of water that would have prevented this. There is no municipal system anywhere in the world that could have kept up. So yeah I guess you’re right, LA should have invented a magical unicorn hydrant system that can shoot down embers in 100mph winds for 8000 homes simultaneously
I thought it was clear…residential fire hydrants can handle maybe 50 houses, but you had 10,000 homes on fire, so yea, you can’t fight industrial fires with residential fire hydrants..
OK sure but given what we know about these wildfires and fire-prone areas, why hadn't anyone thought of this? Honestly, as an Angeleno, our leadership seems more than anything just completely stupid. Look at the school system. We're just dumbing down or something. I'm 46 and it didn't use to be like this.
You don't fight fires in 80-100mph by spraying water from hoses on them. That's close to literally pissing in the wind. You can't even fly the planes and helicopters to airdrop water on them. My brother was covering the fires as a journalist (and he was once an embedded reporter with a fire service, so he's seen a lot of previous fires). He was there as fire fighters were trying to save a Chase bank, but with the flames moving sideways like a blast furnace, there was nothing they could do regardless of how much water they had. They had to leave it to burn. The first way you fight this situation is through building codes. California adopted the 2005 Wildland-Urban Interface building code, but that doesn't help with all the old buildings. I think you're shooting in the wrong place on this one Bill. You could have used this segment to talk about Trump immediately trying to use the situation to assign blame to Democrats (did he do the same to Republicans when Texas burned in 2022?), spouting a load of uniformed garbage that completely failed to conceptualize the situation on the ground. Here's what one Michael Colleary wrote on Facebook: "Dear FB Friends - I have received many messages and emails particularly from friends and family on the East Coast, asking after our safety. A million thanks for your care and concern. At the moment we are fine, although our neighborhood is now within sight of the Palisades fire which overnight spread to Brentwood. Shan is packing her clothes. I have to go inside and get my 94-year old mother - already evacuated once with just the clothes on her back - up and ready to go should we be ordered to leave. In this lull I'd like to address a few questions I have been asked repeatedly from those following the news from afar, particularly about fire hydrants and smelt and firefighting crews and LA's overall response to the fires. As shocking and overwhelming and devastating as this has been for so many thousands and thousands of people - my sister and brother-in-law lost their home; his niece and nephew both lost homes in separate fire areas - it is excruciating to hear the imbecilic lies and blaming and appalling gibberish about how DEI and budget cuts somehow caused or contributed to this absolutely apocalyptic disaster. Because what has happened here is much closer to a volcanic eruption than a runaway brush fire. Let me try to provide a little perspective for those who don't live in LA. The Palisades fire began as a wilderness brush fire at 10:30AM on January 7th. Brush fires are common here. They are part of our ecosystem, in fact. We have a fire season. But this time, the fire started when LA was being hit by Santa Ana Winds that blow in from the Mojave Desert far to the east. These are harsh, dry winds that suck all the moisture out of the atmosphere. (Not that there was much moisture, as we have been in a prolonged drought.) These winds were particularly strong. Hurricane-force, in fact. Blowing 80-100mph through those canyons. And when those oxygen-rich winds hit burning scrub and chaparral - dense, desiccated, and filled with oily tree sap - it doesn’t just spread flames. It explodes. What results is a hurricane that, instead of rain, is composed of fire. Sheets of flames, 20-30 feet tall, hurling plumes of embers in funnels 50-60 feet high - launching them for miles ahead of the flames themselves. Any one of these embers - as small as a toenail - can start a blaze that will consume a house, a neighborhood, a town. And this fire was shedding billions and billions of them. This time - unlike so many past fires - they didn't just consume the rolling scrublands that surround LA. This time, the winds - as fast as a race car - pushed that firestorm down out of the hills, into Pacific Palisades. Meantime, an entirely different fire erupted on the east side of LA, likely caused when the high-winds knocked down power-lines. This fire - the Eaton fire - soon spread into the residential town of Altadena, in the foothills above Pasadena. By 10:30AM on January 8th - 24 hours after it started - the Palisades fire had burned 12,000 acres and hundreds of structures. Even the superhuman efforts of LA fire crews - the best-trained and most experienced in the world - to contain it, let alone extinguish it, are no match for that scale of inferno. And they were facing down TWO massive fire events. The only chance to even slow down these fires was thwarted -because air tankers and water-hauling helicopters can’t fly in 80-100 mph winds. So, to recap: 24 hours, 12,000 acres burned. For my New York friends: Central Park is 850 acres. So, imagine a firestorm that incinerates 14 Central Parks in 24 hours. Or more to the point perhaps, imagine a firestorm that blows through Central Park, incinerating every blade of grass FOURTEEN TIMES in 24 hours. For my NJ friends: our hometown of Montclair gets off a little easier. At 4000 acres, it would have been reduced to ash only THREE times in 24 hours. Imagine every building in Montclair being incinerated in one night. Imagine every single resident of Montclair becoming homeless in one night. Imagine the violent energy required for that to happen. Because it did, here, in the Palisades, 3 times over. And remember - the Palisades firestorm is only one of the massive fires burning here. The Eaton fire has burned 14,000 acres on the eastern edge of LA, destroying Altadena and leaving more thousands homeless. Itself, a staggering disaster. It's almost a week now, and the fires are still burning. As of this minute, the destruction is reported to be 40,000 acres. If true, that's bigger than San Francisco (thankfully most of it is - for the moment - in remote canyons teeming with scrub foliage; yes, LA is that huge). So, I hope you see the scale of this a little more clearly. It is as close to a war zone as I ever hope to see in the USA. I hope you understand that no city, no county, no state, no country on the planet would or could be prepared and equipped to confront what's happened here. Blaming the mayor and the governor for this is like blaming Rudy Giuliani for 9/11. The on-going lies are absurd, shameful, and an inexcusable distraction from the tragedy all around us. Example: among the first to distort the reality of this catastrophe was a billionaire who accused city leaders of incompetence because city fire hydrants were inadequate to fight a firestorm, "forcing" him to hire a private fire-fighting team. So what did this hero save first? Homes? Palisades High School? Corpus Christi Catholic Church? The library? No. He let all that burn down to save the generic, medical-bungalow-quality strip mall that he had stuck into the middle of Palisades Village a couple of years ago. Sure, all the supermarkets are gone, but at least the 10 people whose homes weren't destroyed can take comfort knowing the Yves St. Laurent store will be ready and waiting for them. Instead, we should be lauding a real hero - whoever made the always-unpopular decision to evacuate from a potential fire zone. Because whoever made that call likely saved the lives of 100s if not 1000s of Palisades residents had they been at home to "wait and see" through that first terrible night. Friends, I know there's not much you can do from far away - aside from donate to the Red Cross, etc. But I humbly ask that - if you hear someone spreading the all-too prevalent lies being spewed for political score-settling - tell that person - from me - to STFU. Tell them that they are as despicable as looters and gougers, exploiting agony and catastrophe for their own chickenshit profit. And they are not experts in anything other than embarrassing themselves. And if you happen to see Megyn Kelly, ask her - should her house be on fire - would she refuse help from an "obese lesbian" firefighter? I think we all know the answer. Apologies for the long post. Thanks for listening."
Great response! Bill had the opportunity to tell the truth about the winds. As someone who grew up in Venice, I remember the yearly Santa Ana winds. No amount of water would have helped during the peak of this wind storm. Common sense! You should post this everywhere! Bill should read this because sometimes the educated need to be educated.
I don't think so. Are you here? OK, your brother is a journalist. I'm an Angeleno. Even outside of the damn fire hydrants, the palisades fire was from a firework, from a fire that reignited a week later from a NYE fire started with an illegal firework (and there's no felony charge for fireworks, which is insane). The LAFD should have been patrolling it, as this is the way the Maui fire started. Yes, you can blame the leadership. I am a democrat who voted for Bass and Newsom, and, like most Angelenos, am fed up. The fire department also got the severe red flag wind warnings and did not position trucks or have workers double shift. They went home. It was gross incompetence.
You nailed. I hope Bill reads it. Especially: "But I humbly ask that - if you hear someone spreading the all-too prevalent lies being spewed for political score-settling - tell that person - from me - to STFU." Got it Bill? STFU.
It’s more difficult for wildfires to take hold if the fuel is removed. In Australia, the State Governments minimise wildfires with regular controlled “burn offs” and ground clearings in the off seasons. Doing this makes it a bit easier for firefighters to control wildfire outbreaks. Your government let you down California. M
@ it’s not as simple as that. California does perform controlled burns, but there’s a massive backlog of built up fuel in forests due to previous bad policy of fire suppression (incidentally that was first championed by a religious zealot who believed wildfires were being started by the devil). The focus for controlled burns has been on forests where the build up problem is most severe. These recent LA fires were not in forests. They were in chaparral that had only been growing for around five decades. Much less time than is considered to be long enough for excessive accumulation of fuel to have built up. That may need to be revisited now based on the hindsight of this extreme event, but no one would have been prioritizing burns in these areas before now. Then there’s the issue that LA County is densely populated and it sits in a natural basin. This is where it gets it notorious bad air reputation from, and even the Chumash native American’s name for the area translates to "the valley of smoke”. It’s not an area conducive to extensive controlled burns because of the impact it would have on air quality. The public would not have stood for large burns. Especially those with family members with breathing difficulties like asthma. How many deaths would it take before the fire department got sued to stop the burns? Tragedy of the Commons, maybe, but it’s the reality of the situation.
She was voted in. But I get it… she not a straight unqualified white man … like Pants Down Drunk Pete Hegseth. Who was nominated as a white affirmative action candidate. And said himself he doesn’t have qualifications of 30 who preceded him, including the black 4 star general.
Talk is cheap Bill! California has the best fire fighting system in the world. The most firefighters, the best prepared. None of that mattered when you had a wet spring, a dry fall and winter, and then hot 70-90 mile an hour winds spreading embers like a blizzard. Nothing they could have done would have changed anything. The only thing that could change the outcome is if everyone had moved out of LA. before it happened. Why do you have to repeat Trump's talking points. You sicken me!
Thank you. I thought I had completely lost my mind... Outside of you and Piers, I couldn't find a single democrat criticizing the pure incompetence of what happened. All it was all week were people either ignoring, excusing, criticizing the people who criticize... I was genuinely thinking "have all dems completely lost their minds?"
But someone has to call out the worsening insanity of the illiberal left. All Utopian movements from Fascism to Communism to Wokery try to rewrite history and claim any success must be stolen, redefining beauty and forcing art into the service of a political agenda. 'Ashamed of nothing, offended by everything".
@6:32 --- *TRANSLATION:* _"I care more about acquiring a job than actually being worthy of said job or caring about performance and people's safety, so I make up a BS excuse about appearances to justify why I should be the one to get said job instead of someone else more qualified and worthy of said job who would've performed better keeping communities safe."_
I'm a white guy who had a car accident when I was 21. It was a black man who found me & got the help that saved my life. "Man, I wish he was white" is something I never freaking thought & nobody in trouble gives a damn either. How did we get here? 🤦♂
'get here' kid... are you aware ov the road that got us 'here'? its paved by minorities and walked by bigots.
I KNOW how.but AOL will ban the TRUTH..but let's start with the ONE word that STARTED this all....OBAMA..Yes it's OBAMA.
Exactly. It's a shame I have to worry whether or not the first responder or healthcare professional isn't a goofy, delusional white supremacist in an emergency. And yous pretend not to know what privilege is.
We're not but social media makes you think that we are (maybe in the south though).
... i had a post but youtube deleted it because I said 'm!nority'... THIS is how 'we got here'
the road to 'here' was paved by m!norities. and walked by b!gots.
and both sides where coddled by nannybot
911 what's your emergency?
"Hi I need someone who looks like me to come to my house asap...'
'Sure, can you please send me a photo so you can assist you better?'
😂
🤣🤣🤣
Assistant Chief Kristine Larson says... DEI ''People want firefighters who show up to look like them. It makes them feel more comfortable''
I believe that was the exact philosophy of the Klu Klux Klan.
6:32 that is absolutely disgusting. I cannot be believe how openly racist someone can be and get away with it
they've convinced everyone (hyper leftists) that racism can only be against people of color. It's freaking insane
4 decades of antiwhite propaganda is how this happens
The Alphabet People in CA are definitely a protected people.
@@WinslowLeach1974 Protected from "offensive" pronouns more than the state is protected from fire
Dude they have dozens of youtube channels dedicated to talking about how evil we are. I mention black crime statistics and my comments disappear.
The state that has the largest tax collection, and a larger economy than most countries can’t get the funding?
That’s just disgraceful.
13.3 per cent base rate is nothing. Stop complaining about taxes. low taxes equal low services. If 13.3 is considered high 7:29 no wonder L.A. is in ruins. I pity the lower taxed states
@@joegatto9320First off I’m not American. So I don’t care if you agree.
I wasn’t complaining about the tax amount.
I was alluding to the fact that considering how much money there is, and how poorly services are funded and managed is an utter disgrace.
@kadourimdou43 you misunderstood, l am not criticising you. l am criticising Maher for thinking such a low tax was high. The largest tax collection for the population of California is to be expected, but it is still low. Like you I am not American THANK GOD.
@@joegatto9320 Keep in mind, Americans don't get any health care for their taxes. That comes on top.
The only thing more disgraceful is that a state like Alabama, which takes more money federal money than it pays in - subsidized largely by California tax payers every year - takes even more federal money in hurricane relief and then elects the least successful college football coach in the state as a senator to publicly say "California does not deserve funding" to deal with the fires.
I think people should hire or promote individuals based on merit or their abilities and skill and not based on their gender or how inclusive they are
You must be a genius! Or something not at all like that.
What would you do if you interviewed two equally qualified candidates, but one was a woman and one was a man?
@@TBD-wt2xqI would hire both. What are you tryna prove here?
@@shakenbabeeDid I say something wrong? Ik it seems like common sense but clearly some people in the US lack that
That's enough for them to call you a "fascist"
“Who teaches people this bullshit?”
As succinct as it is correct.
All those people currently in HR who got their college degree in Lesbian Dance Theory, who were told "good luck getting a job with that degree!" Well guess what, they did get jobs in HR, and now they're getting their revenge by making us attend several mandatory DEI and cultural sensitivity classes every year to instruct everyone on how to behave. Along with sending out a 15 page memo on "the use of proper pronouns."
Bill needs a good long look in the mirror for the answer to that question. Identity politics, DEI, wokeism, whatever you call it, is a leftist ideology that he supports until it's his mansion that is at risk of burning down.
Look in the mirror Bill. You vote for this. This is your crowd.
Bill is one of those people who teaches people bullshit. For one example. There's a lot of them. Bill has lost any touch he had. Now he's like Andrew Tate's bitchy old american auntie.
You did, Bill. For decades.
Who teaches this bullshit? University professors and administrators. I know, I've worked in the UC system for 25 years. They've educated a generation to value virtue signaling and posturing over real content, real action, and real ideas
Well where do they teach refusing to hire qualified blacks to protect whyte mediocrity?
Mopping floors and cleaning the toilets doesn't exactly qualify you to opine on the educational integrity of the professors though.
Exactly. Which is why nobody asked you for your opinion... @@markweber4854
@@markweber4854which is why nobody asked you for your opinion...
@@markweber4854 I was gonna say that! hahaha fin moron
“Who teaches people this bullshit”?
The exact ones you vote for.
He loves Gavin Newsome. On him.
Bill has never agreed with virtue Sig or over-regulation.
But you people have a 2 party system. Your limited in the nuance of each party.
American tax payers pay more per capita for medicine than any country in the world, including EVERY country with free health care. Who the fuck are you talking to, exactly?
@@augurseer which is why it was so disappointing when Bill had Gavin Newsom on as a guest. I don't think I ever saw his eyes so big and smiling so wide and fawning like crazy
yea..but then maga voted the biggest bullshiter to be prez.
Honestly you would expect a major city like LA to be prepared for such climate disasters. Tokyo does really well in this department.
The problem is that most people in this country are idiots who don't prepare for anything.
When I was younger they did. Also there were fewer people living in the hills at the time.
They collect over $200 billion in taxes every year (I've heard) Maybe they should prioritize a little better?
Where would you take risk if you were running the city? On a once in a lifetime fire event or on roads and schools that citizens use daily?
@@itstrboHighly doubt Cali is focusing on roads and schools, and those are issues the Mayor takes on. It's complete failure top to bottom. It's also not once in a lifetime event, that was Hawaii, this happens every year seemingly
@@itstrbo Roads are sh**, public schools are God awful. Yeah that's not where the moneys going. You must not live in California
@@itstrbo guess what emergency services are probbably more important than school because little timmy scholastic wont matter if he becomes a roast. Lets be real even if nothing but the house burnt down id imagine focusing on school maybe a tad much. Lifes matter more than if the computer lab gets an upgrade.
Nope, we use it for DEI initiatives!
Brilliant Bil, you put things into perspective than no one else.
I think we can all agree now that safe spaces and pronouns don't get the job done
Neither did meritocracy
Yep that’s why trump is more popular than ever
People are sick of it
Meritocracy is not suficient but it is certainly necesary. Safe spaces and pronouns are not suficient nor necesary, they are counterproductive.
It's good to see all the Republicans who are suddenly all about infrastructure spending and not cutting budgets. Now if we could just get them to believe in climate change.
This is misinterpreted. Most conservatives believe climate change exists. However, they do not think it is an existential crisis or they think that the climate change policies are a failure. Conservatives have a view that if nations like China and India are not doing anything to address the issue, then the US should not either at the expense of its citizens living more economically prosperous lives.
@Brisingr-b5f if most conservatives actually think that then most conservatives need to start saying that. Pretty much every conservative I've ever known or talked to says it's fake.
You would first have to prove that climate change wasn't just a method of funelling tax money into corrupt green energy projects that ultimately make no difference. Why did Obama just buy a house on the shore BTW? The tide will be rising any day now for sure.
@@WardenJune Are they educated? I find that many uneducated conservatives have a very surface level understanding of the issues and just say basic slogans. Intellectual conservatives go into more depth on their views while the uneducated ones (who are more of the working class) just say it's fake. They know it is real but they don't view it to be a serious issue like liberals or progressives do, so just say it is fake.
Ummm....there is not enough fire hydrants..they are only meant to treat 3 houses each.
Bill is really furious in this video.
Yeah he's not even trying to be funny here.
well, he literally lives miles from the fire and lives in fire territory up in the hills. He knows one day he'll have to fight the fires himself.
As he should be. As we ALL should be. You listen to some of these homeowners and it's like Stockholm Syndrome.
While I agree with Bill's points, & understand Bill's making jokes, that laughing can be a defence mechanism & that laughter can heal, here in Australia if any political or socio-political commentator made jokes concerning the mismanagement that increased the suffering or damage caused by a wildfire, very few people would laugh, if any. Yet there's people in this audience that seem to be having the time of their life, while LA lies in ruin. The LA fires have been depressing, & the laughter here almost makes it more depressing.
Their laughter is cued
@@7jjessie To my mind, that's even more depressing granting the subject matter.
@@Nathan-May-or-May-Not Agreed
It's gotta be hard being Bill and trying to find where to direct your intolerance from day to day. I remember seeing Bill talking about how even with climate change the one thing that he couldn't give up was flying on private jets. Real Time, Billy Mirror.
Bill Burr gonna be big mad if he sees this.
Oh I can't wait for it.
Bill Burr has some pretty good points too if you care to listen.
@WardenJune And sometimes he's wrong too. Who would have thought?
@@dr.feelgoodmalusphillips2475 tell me exactly what Bill Burr is wrong about the fires.
@WardenJune Did I say I was talking about the fires in this context knob?
Bill was righteously (and rightfully) pissed for this one.
Yet, he will keep right on voting for Democrats.
I'm a communist. Every "communist" I've ever met has stabbed me in the back.
I'm still a communist. I just realized they aren't.
and as per usual, he talks big but with a slanted perspective and without proper research.
well, he literally lives miles from the fire and lives in fire territory up in the hills. He knows one day he'll have to fight the fires himself..
Fire fighters have a saying. Winds at 10 mph, we're heroes, 40 mph winds we're observers. The winds were hurricane force 80 mph.
Thanks Bill great segment. Right on target.
Missed it this time.
Essential service should have nothing to do with DEI. Your fire department should only ever be made up of the best of the best, not trying to fill a quota.
Can you prove the chef isn’t the best if the best? Did she leave a man to die in a burning building. Has she made any unforced errors in her job?
@@willhiggins9563👈performance guy. Do pay attention will you. 😊
You have examples of her messing up or not?
@@willhiggins9563 Not yet, but one of her chief deputies is on record of replaying to the question "are you able to carry my husband out in a fire?" to which she replied "if I needed to do that, your husband got himself in the wrong place". I mean, did you not watch this video?
Ummmm........
shut up. you don't knowanything about anyone's qualifications.
RECALL GAVIN NEWSOM AND KAREN BASS!
They already tried to recall Newsom. It didn't work.
Surprised he didn't mention the privatization of water usage rights 🤑
That's just another way for the politicians in California to deflect. Their PR teams are working overtime to keep the real issues out of the media. There is more than enough rain in California for the state to store it. The problem is that regulations and corrupt bureaucrats have stalled the ability to build the storage.
"I love when these politically correct ideas crash and burn and wind up in the shit house!"
-George Carlin
Who elected the mayor and Gov?
It's not just them. The entire California legislature has to take some blame. They seem to think that virtue signaling is much more important than doing the job.
@bigguy671 and that's why Kamala Harris lost.
Democrats
California voters. Duh!
@ you r very smart - thank you. The question was in a sarcasm. ;-)
From an objective standpoint, what I’m not hearing is how the things Bill focuses on - an empty reservoir, stolen fire hydrants - hindered the ability to slow or stop the fires. Given the factors involved, would these things have had a measurable impact? Hoping someone can explain this with supporting information.
Why is the audio weird?
I noticed that when watching it on TV.
Seems like a close mic went out so they just boosted a room mic
@@jasons6368 Thanks . . .
Bill keeping it real like always!
Bill's fanbase isn't going to like this. Too much honesty here.
They need to hear it. I'm a lifelong democrat too, and barely voted for Bass, really wavered, but next time I'll vote for Caruso. I can't stand Newsom. These fires, something's changed in me. I'm done with the programming and the brainwashing. I see my liberal friends literally downplaying the city's failings with parroting rhetoric about climate change and it's like - if you know climate change is so bad, why aren't you preparing?? And that Sierra Club has CA by the balls with these ludicrous environmental regulations. Now that makes me wonder who's running it - it's almost anti-survival, those policies. Anyway, I hope he keeps speaking out. He's right about never wanting to listen to anything Trump says.
Trump's fan base has the same problem with honesty.
If they don't like too much honesty then I question if they are true Bill Maher fans!
Yeah true!@@howardwylie1620
Nonsense. That’s why we love him.
Even if he has TDS (for reasons that aren’t necessarily unfounded), he speaks the truth.
I agree with Bill on most things, except his insistence that the Far Left is less dangerous than the Far Right.
I think Bill just set another fire in LA with those massive burns. I really appreciate your dedication to preaching facts as you see them regardless of what side is deserving of them at the time. Keep thinking for yourself, question the policies, dont pick a side.
Unqualified isn't so cute anymore..
let's elecet Donald Trump, the most quialifed guy of the guys
Tell that to Gov Abbot when hundreds of Texans froze to death & the Senator Raphael Cruz bailed with his family to Cancun when Texas' power grid failed under a deep freeze...
@@sunnyside9273 I'm talking about here- I'm talking about now.
@@HJ-jy7fw yeah but you're saying stupid things.
"California" Spanish for "Furnace" OH, YOU NAILED IT BROTHER BILL
Idk why but I think the way the authorities in LA handled the fire wasn't upto the mark
see here you go saying stupid things again
GDP of India(the whole country) is less than the GDP of California and we have more powerlines underground than California has powelines. 'High cost' is not an excuse to not do it for a place like California.
Your cities still smell of shit..back to the drawing board
Fire is so much a part of California that the redwood trees NEED fire to reproduce. Complaining about fire in California is like complaining about hurricanes in Florida
What ye sow, so shall ye reap.
OMG Bill I love how you say what all of us are thinking! Thank you!
Not all of us.
@@OsirisIxchel Oh yeah? How do you feel about incompetent CA Gov and LA Mayor's handling of the fire??? Please tell?
How do you like your buddy Newsom now?
It’s nice to hear you speak the truth about California and the idiots that are running it
7:11 Did I hear that right, the fire chief believes victims of fires "got themselves" into their situations? That's fuctupthinking.
You did go watch the full video. It’s literally seconds after she said the part about looking like the people. and don’t let the partisan hacks in the comments try and gaslight you into thinking this shouldn’t have immediately disqualified her and the chief for leaving her employed to the tune of them both making over $200,000+ per year.
The Chiefs assistant, not the chief herself.
Deputy fire chief
@@mexicanspec assistant to the Fire Chief
@@nefigushki Sometimes words in English fail me.
I feel for Bill here, because it's difficult to write something funny about a disaster. It's just unfortunate that he chooses to push a lazy narrative:
"Yeah firefighting is tough in a hurricane, but that wokeness surely didn't help at all!"
How about having an expert on that discusses future engineering solutions for fire resistance?
When cities in tornado alley get destroyed, we don't talk about how stubborn red state politicians weren't prepared, or how their carbon emissions caused extreme weather events, or how dumb they are for rebuilding only to watch the house get destroyed again.
A comedian who strives to have smart takes on news should spend more time researching than regurgitating different forms of his same narrative.
It's an ACCURATE narrative. When you hire on any other basis than MERIT, including in part, you get less qualified people. That's MATH. The best of 20% of a pool will not provide equal potential merit as 100% of the pool. It keeps proving a disaster for the QUALITY of outcomes.
@@P2Reflectschannel-hh2zlit’s not accurate, because he’s got it totally wrong. Building codes are the thing that are needed (and California adopted the Wildland-Urban Interface code in 2005, but most of LAs building are far older than that). In 80mph winds, a bit more water would just have meant more pissing in the wind.
There’s compelling research that shows diversity programs INCREASE organization’s performance as it reduces group think. The narrative that it’s leading to worse performance due to low performers being hired isn’t supported by the research. It’s just the gut feeling of people on the right.
Get ready for the mudslides, bill.
Are you ready for the droughts, Arizonan? Do none of you realize that climate change really will effect all of us? It's easy to point fingers at California, but fuck, do really think water shortages and hot weather events won't effect you?
They will. People have already died of heat in India, and that's like a fish drowning. You're a fool if you don't understand you're next.
money goes to social nonsense. social crap doesn't make a secure society.
More diverse orgs of all kinds seem to do better generally.
Funny how you guys can’t point to one material problem with these supposed DEI hires? They are in charge the people to have put out and contained fires, who’ve saved homes and lives doing so.
But all you can complain about is out is a interview she had, where she doesn’t say she couldn’t carry a man out of burning building, just that it’s a stupid situation to end up in.
@@willhiggins9563👈😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣 are you a dei hire?
@@willhiggins9563well I'm sure if your loved ones got stuck in a fire and burned because a dei hire wasn't qualified to do their job and told you "he shouldn't have gotten himself in there", you'd smile and nod in agreement 🤡🤡🤡
@@willhiggins9563I can think of a thousand different ways that an able-bodied man can become trapped in a burning building and would have to be carried out by an emergency responder. My guy, DEI is a lot less appealing when someone’s dad winds up dying of smoke inhalation because the firefighter weighs 130 pounds soaking wet.
Actually a lot of the federal taxes paid by Californians go to bail out welfare states like Alabama - who then elect senators that publicly say "California doesn't deserve funding" to deal with the fires!
Well said sir!!!
"I'm not saying Alabama would have done better with fires by fighting them with prayer in school", no but they're doing just fine by taking more federal money than they pay in - largely from California tax payers - while their senator says "California doesn't deserve funding" to help combat the fires.
Smokey the Bear laid this all out for everybody: "Only you can prevent forest fires"
Yet, you will still vote for the same clowns.
When will this be available on Amazon Prime Video?
Stupidity isn't only found in California. In Florida, people build and rebuild homes 4' above sea level when the hurricane storm surges are 12-20'. They also ride out a hurricane because they live on the 2nd floor, but leave their cars in the parking garage that is below sea level. People in North Carolina didn't evacuate, including the big white Fire Captains who didn't move their station trucks or personal vehicles to higher ground before Hurricane Helene hit, even though there were already streams, rivers, and reservoirs above flood stage. I could go on and on and on.
So, the logic is because other people are stupid California should continue to be as well?
Sound.
You realize we don't build our houses in Florida like they do in the northeast because taller structures catch more wind. Single story homes tend not to catch so much wind.
Those are individual decisions not government incompetency - I realize you may not be able to process the MONUMENTAL difference between the two.... but if you choose to stay in a disaster, you reap the consequences of your OWN decisions! Being a victim because liberals cut off funding to the fire department, didn't bother to maintain fire equipment, and didn't bother doing proper forest management.... is an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT ISSUE.... much like the liberals in Hawaii that shut off evacuation routes..... lol.... so go on and on if you want, but be warned - you are just embarrassing yourself- lol, as if you people needed any help.
Fires in CA happen almost non stop, hurricanes have seasons, floods don't happen often, those people forgot the training, there is not excuse to relax in CA.
The power lines not being underground is something that always baffles me when seeing well known American cities(neighbourhoods.
It looks more like a poor south East Asian city than a rich American city to me, but I have realised I need to reconsider.
On the state of 100 faultlines you want to bury the electric lines?
@@Kit-Ballou3664And what about Japan?
The fire engine boneyard 😂
They should refund everyone's money who got a fine for parking within 15 feet of a fire hydrant
Funny how DEI doesn’t exist in professional sports. So if a short Latino guy who’s played some basketball in high school tries out for the Lakers, what chances of playing next to Labron. So is that racist then🤔
Sports is one of the last great meritocracies left standing.
@@nutt1674Bronny James is the exception
Check the rosters/staffs for coach's kids. It absolutely does exist.
@ That's a good point
@ I’m talking about the actual players. The actual team. DEI does not exist there.
Bill is the GOAT!!!
I am loving this awakened version of Mr. Maher. Huge fan from WV
he's just upset about la. Definitely didn't fact check but we will let him spew this week.
@@theresa922 if you actually researched what he said, he is correct. He is not just “spewing”.
Time for you to wake up Theresa
nope. he didnt research the situation well. people on the ground has posted this is akin to a volcano than standard wildfire. the fire happened just at the time when wind was blowing 90mph. no amount of water would kill it.
@@ianw0ng I live in Los Angeles. I am on the ground. This was done intentionally. The 3 first fires started at the same exact moment. There is video showing the Direct Energy Weapons (DEW) hitting land.
And water will always put out fire. Duh!
@@marigut i hope you and your family are doing okay. ❤
Amazing summary from Bill. Hope more people watch this.
D > didn't
E > earn
I > it
yea..like the white guy who is about to be sworn in as potus.
@@ianw0nghe’s not white. He’s orange.
One of the few moments Bill keeps his head above water
If they delivered services properly Trump wouldn't get elected
So now it 's LAFD's DEI policies that gave us the orange Turd-in-the-punchbowl 2.0?? Doesn't it get tiring being "right" all the time?
Wow, the first time, in over 10yrs, I Don't think he completely Full of Sh*!...
Bill’s nailed it again👍
The fires were a prime example of the horseshoe-theory. "We have way too many white male firefighters because of racist right-wing policies and the prevalence of a patriarchical society. Employment based on race and gender can't be allowed. Let's hire our future firefighters based (primarily) on race and gender."
And, as Bill said; the sentence "You want to see somebody ... that looks like you." is a thing that would be (rightfully) unacceptable if some southern sheriff said it, but seems totally okay in this situation. We can't fight racism, homophobia or misogyny by doing the same/equivalent thing. That is not "fighting fire with fire", but just doing the same thing that you want to get rid off.
Preach it Bill. Right leaning independent Californian here and I’m sick of paying such high taxes in this state and getting nothing in return, and the nonsensical woke policies has got to go.
move then 🤷🏻
@@manlab66 That makes way too much sense.
Left leaning Independent Californian here who takes the time to learn the facts. Pisses me off that people start blaming before they even learn what really happened. Our society is getting dumber by the day.
I noticed bill says he pays 13% of his income in taxes. How tf is he only paying that much?? I make way less and I’m paying almost 28%!!
@@i_do_my_thing6342Well at least he is paying some
Well said.
Over simplified as he does best!
No the worst thing for the environment is too many humans.
When you vote in idiots, with idiot policies, what can you expect, but complete IDIOCY!!! Maybe this terrible situation will wake some people up, but I unfortunately doubt it. 🤔 🔥 😥
THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU APART! 😢😢
Just remember, any fire expert would comfortably tell you, there is no city or metropolitan area in this country that has a water hydrant system that would not have faced all the same issues trying to battle a fire of this size. But facts be dammed.
He opened his act stating people
fling at each other instead is solving then spent the whole damn monologue whining about wokism.
I initially welcomed Bill’s shift to the Center and found some of his earlier parries at political correctness welcome.
However, Bill has turned into a one-trick pony. Boring!
The fact that he totally left out FOTUS’ disgusting attacks and Mel Gibson’s looney conspiracy theory about Dems starting fires in an area bluer than Gibson’ face in Braveheart makes me think bill is preparing to bend the knee.
He no longer seems to want to take jabs at both sides.
Me thinks he has sold out and wants a seat at the table.
So true. But we have those who like to jump to DEI with the loudest voice in the room. Best interview was by Adam Conover "Debunking LA Wildfire Myths with Climate Scientist Dr. Daniel Swain" fyi.. learned that SF has the only accessory water system for fires built after 1906 earthquake. Imagine the cost to build that now.
LA has had a municipal water shortage for close to a decade. Farmers just as long, but nobody talks about that because they're an important voting (funding) bloc.
No, I think Detroit or Cleveland could have handled this better, because they would have had enough water. We maybe should be talking about the water shortage, and not people doing what they can to trim budgets.
There literally just isn't enough water in California. That's the problem people should be talking about, but if you do, suddenly you're a climate extremist.
Dems screwed up. Simple.
Mr Maher’s rant reveals his fundamental childishness and intellectual laziness. He much prefers simply running his mouth over conversing with someone who actually knows what they’re talking about.
I'm from Australia and know all too well about catastrophic fires. The last time I watched with my son water bombers several blocks from my house. All the very best and keep together.
Been watching religiously for 20 years. I’m done Bill. Just stopped recording your show. Out here spreading bullshit Fox News takes as if there’s any water system in the entire world that could have stopped this fire. 100 mph winds. Shame on you.
So it was better that the Santa Ynez Resevoir in the Palisades with over 100 million gallons of capacity was dry when this all started? Or it was worse for the situation that it was dry? And how many months was it dry? How about arguing with facts instead of name calling.
doesnt matter if you cant beat the wind or not, you still need to prepare for the worst. empty reservoir shows lack of care.
What are you talking about? It’s the RAINY season RIGHT NOW and it hasn’t rained. When the hell else would they drain a reservoir? July???
He's spreading politically non-tribal REASON.
As every single fireman has said, there is no amount of water that would have prevented this. There is no municipal system anywhere in the world that could have kept up. So yeah I guess you’re right, LA should have invented a magical unicorn hydrant system that can shoot down embers in 100mph winds for 8000 homes simultaneously
Chief Crowley leads such a diverse department that she even had to get firefighters from Mexico to come and help! *Progress*
He’s back!
Bill, we've missed you and your comeback.... PRICELESS!!! You sound pissed and we are with you!
@@jvmunoz101 Preyz Gord for his wisdom and discernment 🌠👋
LMAO, 100 billion short and 10 years late, but hey at least Bill Maher finally "woke up"
and sad.
He's wrong. If you are interested in taking the time to really know what happened, look up Daniel Swain.
I thought it was clear…residential fire hydrants can handle maybe 50 houses, but you had 10,000 homes on fire, so yea, you can’t fight industrial fires with residential fire hydrants..
I think Bill doesn't understand the enormity of the fire...literally 5 football fields a minute were being burned.
@@yournanna866 JFC man, you know what is even more clear than your excuses? Nobody wants to hear excuses. What are you 12?
Okay, but there wasn't even enough water for that. They were empty.
Where did you get that gawd-awful number "50" from . . . (?) I'll bet you $100 dollars that they can handle more than 50 houses . . .
OK sure but given what we know about these wildfires and fire-prone areas, why hadn't anyone thought of this? Honestly, as an Angeleno, our leadership seems more than anything just completely stupid. Look at the school system. We're just dumbing down or something. I'm 46 and it didn't use to be like this.
Love this show ❤
dont ask your municipal officials to stop the tides and winds...
LA County: 72 genders, 0 working fire hydrants
Clearly, we need some of those genders to identify as fire hydrants. Problem solved!
Not how you stop a forest fire dumb dumb
Brilliant video
You don't fight fires in 80-100mph by spraying water from hoses on them. That's close to literally pissing in the wind. You can't even fly the planes and helicopters to airdrop water on them. My brother was covering the fires as a journalist (and he was once an embedded reporter with a fire service, so he's seen a lot of previous fires). He was there as fire fighters were trying to save a Chase bank, but with the flames moving sideways like a blast furnace, there was nothing they could do regardless of how much water they had. They had to leave it to burn.
The first way you fight this situation is through building codes. California adopted the 2005 Wildland-Urban Interface building code, but that doesn't help with all the old buildings.
I think you're shooting in the wrong place on this one Bill. You could have used this segment to talk about Trump immediately trying to use the situation to assign blame to Democrats (did he do the same to Republicans when Texas burned in 2022?), spouting a load of uniformed garbage that completely failed to conceptualize the situation on the ground.
Here's what one Michael Colleary wrote on Facebook:
"Dear FB Friends - I have received many messages and emails particularly from friends and family on the East Coast, asking after our safety. A million thanks for your care and concern.
At the moment we are fine, although our neighborhood is now within sight of the Palisades fire which overnight spread to Brentwood. Shan is packing her clothes. I have to go inside and get my 94-year old mother - already evacuated once with just the clothes on her back - up and ready to go should we be ordered to leave.
In this lull I'd like to address a few questions I have been asked repeatedly from those following the news from afar, particularly about fire hydrants and smelt and firefighting crews and LA's overall response to the fires.
As shocking and overwhelming and devastating as this has been for so many thousands and thousands of people - my sister and brother-in-law lost their home; his niece and nephew both lost homes in separate fire areas - it is excruciating to hear the imbecilic lies and blaming and appalling gibberish about how DEI and budget cuts somehow caused or contributed to this absolutely apocalyptic disaster.
Because what has happened here is much closer to a volcanic eruption than a runaway brush fire.
Let me try to provide a little perspective for those who don't live in LA.
The Palisades fire began as a wilderness brush fire at 10:30AM on January 7th.
Brush fires are common here. They are part of our ecosystem, in fact. We have a fire season. But this time, the fire started when LA was being hit by Santa Ana Winds that blow in from the Mojave Desert far to the east.
These are harsh, dry winds that suck all the moisture out of the atmosphere. (Not that there was much moisture, as we have been in a prolonged drought.)
These winds were particularly strong. Hurricane-force, in fact. Blowing 80-100mph through those canyons.
And when those oxygen-rich winds hit burning scrub and chaparral - dense, desiccated, and filled with oily tree sap - it doesn’t just spread flames. It explodes.
What results is a hurricane that, instead of rain, is composed of fire. Sheets of flames, 20-30 feet tall, hurling plumes of embers in funnels 50-60 feet high - launching them for miles ahead of the flames themselves.
Any one of these embers - as small as a toenail - can start a blaze that will consume a house, a neighborhood, a town. And this fire was shedding billions and billions of them.
This time - unlike so many past fires - they didn't just consume the rolling scrublands that surround LA.
This time, the winds - as fast as a race car - pushed that firestorm down out of the hills, into Pacific Palisades.
Meantime, an entirely different fire erupted on the east side of LA, likely caused when the high-winds knocked down power-lines. This fire - the Eaton fire - soon spread into the residential town of Altadena, in the foothills above Pasadena.
By 10:30AM on January 8th - 24 hours after it started - the Palisades fire had burned 12,000 acres and hundreds of structures.
Even the superhuman efforts of LA fire crews - the best-trained and most experienced in the world - to contain it, let alone extinguish it, are no match for that scale of inferno. And they were facing down TWO massive fire events.
The only chance to even slow down these fires was thwarted -because air tankers and water-hauling helicopters can’t fly in 80-100 mph winds.
So, to recap: 24 hours, 12,000 acres burned.
For my New York friends: Central Park is 850 acres. So, imagine a firestorm that incinerates 14 Central Parks in 24 hours. Or more to the point perhaps, imagine a firestorm that blows through Central Park, incinerating every blade of grass FOURTEEN TIMES in 24 hours.
For my NJ friends: our hometown of Montclair gets off a little easier. At 4000 acres, it would have been reduced to ash only THREE times in 24 hours.
Imagine every building in Montclair being incinerated in one night. Imagine every single resident of Montclair becoming homeless in one night. Imagine the violent energy required for that to happen. Because it did, here, in the Palisades, 3 times over.
And remember - the Palisades firestorm is only one of the massive fires burning here. The Eaton fire has burned 14,000 acres on the eastern edge of LA, destroying Altadena and leaving more thousands homeless. Itself, a staggering disaster.
It's almost a week now, and the fires are still burning. As of this minute, the destruction is reported to be 40,000 acres. If true, that's bigger than San Francisco (thankfully most of it is - for the moment - in remote canyons teeming with scrub foliage; yes, LA is that huge).
So, I hope you see the scale of this a little more clearly. It is as close to a war zone as I ever hope to see in the USA.
I hope you understand that no city, no county, no state, no country on the planet would or could be prepared and equipped to confront what's happened here.
Blaming the mayor and the governor for this is like blaming Rudy Giuliani for 9/11. The on-going lies are absurd, shameful, and an inexcusable distraction from the tragedy all around us.
Example: among the first to distort the reality of this catastrophe was a billionaire who accused city leaders of incompetence because city fire hydrants were inadequate to fight a firestorm, "forcing" him to hire a private fire-fighting team.
So what did this hero save first? Homes? Palisades High School? Corpus Christi Catholic Church? The library?
No. He let all that burn down to save the generic, medical-bungalow-quality strip mall that he had stuck into the middle of Palisades Village a couple of years ago.
Sure, all the supermarkets are gone, but at least the 10 people whose homes weren't destroyed can take comfort knowing the Yves St. Laurent store will be ready and waiting for them.
Instead, we should be lauding a real hero - whoever made the always-unpopular decision to evacuate from a potential fire zone. Because whoever made that call likely saved the lives of 100s if not 1000s of Palisades residents had they been at home to "wait and see" through that first terrible night.
Friends, I know there's not much you can do from far away - aside from donate to the Red Cross, etc.
But I humbly ask that - if you hear someone spreading the all-too prevalent lies being spewed for political score-settling - tell that person - from me - to STFU.
Tell them that they are as despicable as looters and gougers, exploiting agony and catastrophe for their own chickenshit profit. And they are not experts in anything other than embarrassing themselves.
And if you happen to see Megyn Kelly, ask her - should her house be on fire - would she refuse help from an "obese lesbian" firefighter?
I think we all know the answer.
Apologies for the long post.
Thanks for listening."
Great response! Bill had the opportunity to tell the truth about the winds. As someone who grew up in Venice, I remember the yearly Santa Ana winds. No amount of water would have helped during the peak of this wind storm. Common sense!
You should post this everywhere! Bill should read this because sometimes the educated need to be educated.
I don't think so. Are you here? OK, your brother is a journalist. I'm an Angeleno. Even outside of the damn fire hydrants, the palisades fire was from a firework, from a fire that reignited a week later from a NYE fire started with an illegal firework (and there's no felony charge for fireworks, which is insane). The LAFD should have been patrolling it, as this is the way the Maui fire started. Yes, you can blame the leadership. I am a democrat who voted for Bass and Newsom, and, like most Angelenos, am fed up. The fire department also got the severe red flag wind warnings and did not position trucks or have workers double shift. They went home. It was gross incompetence.
You nailed. I hope Bill reads it. Especially:
"But I humbly ask that - if you hear someone spreading the all-too prevalent lies being spewed for political score-settling - tell that person - from me - to STFU."
Got it Bill? STFU.
It’s more difficult for wildfires to take hold if the fuel is removed.
In Australia, the State Governments minimise wildfires with regular controlled “burn offs” and ground clearings in the off seasons. Doing this makes it a bit easier for firefighters to control wildfire outbreaks.
Your government let you down California.
M
@ it’s not as simple as that. California does perform controlled burns, but there’s a massive backlog of built up fuel in forests due to previous bad policy of fire suppression (incidentally that was first championed by a religious zealot who believed wildfires were being started by the devil).
The focus for controlled burns has been on forests where the build up problem is most severe. These recent LA fires were not in forests. They were in chaparral that had only been growing for around five decades. Much less time than is considered to be long enough for excessive accumulation of fuel to have built up. That may need to be revisited now based on the hindsight of this extreme event, but no one would have been prioritizing burns in these areas before now.
Then there’s the issue that LA County is densely populated and it sits in a natural basin. This is where it gets it notorious bad air reputation from, and even the Chumash native American’s name for the area translates to "the valley of smoke”. It’s not an area conducive to extensive controlled burns because of the impact it would have on air quality. The public would not have stood for large burns. Especially those with family members with breathing difficulties like asthma. How many deaths would it take before the fire department got sued to stop the burns? Tragedy of the Commons, maybe, but it’s the reality of the situation.
13% tax is considered exorbitant? Europe just entered the chat.
Karen Bass = DEI hire
you are a fool.
She was voted in. But I get it… she not a straight unqualified white man … like Pants Down Drunk Pete Hegseth. Who was nominated as a white affirmative action candidate. And said himself he doesn’t have qualifications of 30 who preceded him, including the black 4 star general.
When someone is saving your life, you don’t care if they’re headed to an off to a cosplay event.
Ukraine and Israel are the priority.
Talk is cheap Bill! California has the best fire fighting system in the world. The most firefighters, the best prepared. None of that mattered when you had a wet spring, a dry fall and winter, and then hot 70-90 mile an hour winds spreading embers like a blizzard. Nothing they could have done would have changed anything. The only thing that could change the outcome is if everyone had moved out of LA. before it happened. Why do you have to repeat Trump's talking points. You sicken me!
yup. bill is parotting maga talkingpoint more and more.
Thank you. I thought I had completely lost my mind... Outside of you and Piers, I couldn't find a single democrat criticizing the pure incompetence of what happened.
All it was all week were people either ignoring, excusing, criticizing the people who criticize... I was genuinely thinking "have all dems completely lost their minds?"
You can tell there’s a lot of LA residents in the audience
This is perhaps his new rule ever
And Bill, you voted and constantly defended them. Always gaying over Newsome.
Bill is 100% correct…
They don’t prioritize saving people because there isn’t any money in it.
We are all DOOMED
Jesus he gets worse every year.
Lol. I know right what an idiot.
But someone has to call out the worsening insanity of the illiberal left. All Utopian movements from Fascism to Communism to Wokery try to rewrite history and claim any success must be stolen, redefining beauty and forcing art into the service of a political agenda. 'Ashamed of nothing, offended by everything".
Goats. Thousands and thousands of goats.
@6:32 --- *TRANSLATION:* _"I care more about acquiring a job than actually being worthy of said job or caring about performance and people's safety, so I make up a BS excuse about appearances to justify why I should be the one to get said job instead of someone else more qualified and worthy of said job who would've performed better keeping communities safe."_
Or *TRANSLATION:* "I only care about me. Eff you . . .".
Or cherry picking.
Wildfires are a bitch. We get our share of them too. Cheers from Australia.
"Which would sound racist if a southern sheriff said it." It would wouldn't it?...
He's trying to reason with them. I make that same mistake myself . . . all the time.
It's okay so long as the racist saying it isn't white.🙄
Priorities priorities. Everything is a priority when something bad happens and what you want to have prioritized is what is needed at the time.
Spot on!!! One of Bill’s best!!