Sunday, January 19, 2025

GABY CAPLAN1: 30% of all of California's firefighters are incarcerated. The prisoners are typically felons. Prisoners make $2 per day and $2 an hour when they’re on a fire line

California says they don’t have enough firefighters to fight the Los Angeles wildfires, here’s some facts about California firefighters California has spent more than $30 billion on fire services since 2017, yet still - 30% of all of California's firefighters are incarcerated - The prisoners are typically felons - Prisoners make $2 per day and $2 an hour when they’re on a fire line - They're not eligible for worker protections - They are not eligible for worker compensation if they are injured while fighting these fires Another fun fact “As California reforms its prison system and more low-level offenders are sent home sooner, the state may have to entertain the idea of including more violent offenders in the firefighting ranks.”

WHERE DOES THE MONEY GO?? 

FREE PRESS: Over the next few weeks, you're going to see people behind podiums Downtown being like "These are our city's heroes," and I just want you to know the moment they step away from that podium, they're okay with their heroes being treated like dogs

WOAH 🚨 Pacific Palisades fires update The Free Press just completed an investigation into Los Angeles Fire Department. He went to over 20 fire departments, they’re all falling apart, and “If LAFD finds out you've made any of your own repairs, you're punished” “Fire stations are falling apart and there are some that are even dangerous. Over the past few days, I've probably been to 20 firehouses and what I've seen has been absolutely infuriating.” “Most of the firemen I've talked to this week do the repairs at the stations themselves — If LAFD finds out you've made any of your own repairs, you're punished” It’s so bad “The mold infestation at Los Angeles Fire Station 112 was so bad it sent its fire chief to the hospital. He was on life support for three weeks. His leg turned black and they had to amputate his thumb.”

Look at this footage, WHAT IS GOING ON?? 

ERIC HUNLEY: It was called "Operation Midnight Climax" - and it's one of the darkest chapters in CIA history.

from Eric Hunley,
The operation ran until 1966. 
But the most disturbing part? 
White had no regrets. Before his death, he wrote:

"It was fun, fun, fun. Where else could a red-blooded American boy lie, kill, cheat, steal, deceive, rape and pillage with official blessing?" 

Social Justice: What Is It?


Most people think of distributive justice when they hear social justice.  

14:48. I want to get back on the Justice thing.  I've diverted us a little bit.  A false assumption about this is that in a purely private society that we would have to pay exactly the same amount for poor relief that we're paying now, but the bureaucracy, I know for years that the statistic was at 70% of your dollar going through the federal government relief system was getting eaten up before it gets to anybody.  So only 30% is getting there anyway.   So right off the bat, it's just 30%.  Secondly, I do think it's the case that when some anonymous distant institution sends you a check with your name on it, you know, there's no shame associated with that.  I don't think you feel overwhelmingly compelled to get your act together and get off of that.  But when there's people in your neighborhood, and you know they're not doing that great either but they're pitching in for you, well, unless you're a complete and utter deadbeat, you would feel a compulsion to pull your weight, and figure something out come what may. It's interesting.  It's not to deny that people have hard times at times, but you know, as having grown up in a neighborhood where I saw one of the stuff going on, people would be out of work and then suddenly it would turn out that they weren't really out of work.  They were just being paid under the table.  And then when the unemployment benefits ran out suddenly they were employed legitimately.  My point is that the amount that you would actually have to raise to make life livable for these people is much much lower than what we're spending now.

16:40. One more point that has to do with reparations because I think it's linked to what you're saying, the way the whole reparations debate has proceeded people are assuming it'll be personally in that way.  That if you're a black person, you will somehow see that your white neighbor who is struggling more than you is paying you reparations.  That's what people imagine because they say, you know, why should a white person, who is struggling, have to pay to a black person?  But, of course, that's not what's going to happen because I used to ask the same question.  I used to say,  "Wouldn't black people feel ashamed of having reparations when they can see their white neighbors struggling?  So they're getting money.  So let's take the example of people who are getting $220,000 to buy a house.  How would you feel knowing that your neighbor has to struggle to get their house when you just got free money off them to buy yours?  But, of course, that's not how it's going to work.  As you said, they're just going to get a check from the government, so it's coming out of taxes, reparations are coming out of taxes.  It's not coming out of communities helping each other.  So it's such a good example of what you're describing

Weight-loss drug, Ozempic, causes muscle-loss and the heart muscle to shrink. Sheesh