@eyo
They are people too.

It feels selfish to post such hyper-local nonsense, but headlines are headlines so as things fall apart:

PG&E’s stock soars on New York Stock Exchange as its financial outlook brightens

With Cal Fire absolving PG&E for causing the fatal 2017 Tubbs fire, the company’s stock rebounded sharply Thursday even though investors and attorneys remain uncertain over the utility’s financial outlook and whether its expected bankruptcy filing is warranted.

California’s largest utility said last week it would seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors on Jan. 29, citing $30 billion in potential damages related to active and potential lawsuits resulting from the 2017 and 2018 California wildfires.

On Wednesday, PG&E increased its estimated liabilities to between $75 billion and $150 billion, anticipating a federal judge soon will order the company to take the expensive steps of inspecting its entire electrical grid and starting a broad vegetation management effort before the 2019 fire season in Northern California.

The expensive steps of what now? Maintenance and upkeep? huh So glad to pay all my life to bail out private "investors" again. Thanks legislature, Jerry Brown. keep flushing

Side note: The Chamberlain Creek prison gang (bunch of nice hard working criminals in orange jump suits) just finished four days of fire reduction all along the RR tracks and the area surrounding the water department. It is right there on the dawg walking path. The first day out I said to my neighbor quite loudly "there's kamala's prison gang, right on guys how ya likin' your dollar an hour?" raising my fist, because "join me in oakland". They were all extremely polite and just smiled and waved, that day and the following ones too. They did a fantastic job by the way, per usual. Thanks a lot PRISONERS, slave wage earners. oof keeping me safe from the firestorms

Erin Brokovich is back trying to block PG&E bankruptcy, I think that made headlines here already. For six years I drove passed that contaminated site in Willits, another disgusting tribute to corporate malfeasance. Perhaps there will be another movie. Of course! This is California. keep flushing
Tubbs fire report a blow to plaintiffs suing PG&E

“We have taken out loans, and we’re talking about loans in the hundreds of thousands, so we were counting on something from the Tubbs fire (litigation),” he said. “Ten minutes ago it would have been ‘We are.’ Now it’s ‘We were.’ I don’t know how these things work, but it’s usually not a good sign if Cal Fire says it was not caused by PG&E.”

Banks win! We are missing the real FIRE suppression, as the world burns. Finance, Insurance, Real Estate.
Jerry Brown, omg I am still struck speechless. Just when I thought it could get no more Orwellian, now he returns as Dr. Doomsday. Talk about headlines, what an asshole! arrrgh he does make me feel irrational hate, or whatever that phrase is. close enough

amerika's coming attraction
the future happens here first
later peace

@Tall Bald and Ugly thanks, I don't know when it started but it never ends.

This morning I saw a map posted in Hot Air that showed no forests in the U.S., a big blank area between Boreal Canada and Rain Forest South America. It was intended to show something else, instead sent me down this rabbit hole: North American Forests in the Age of Man
I cut out all the history up until my ancestors, the ones I know about anyway. not prehistoric

... After Columbus, Europeans and their descendants also modified forests for their benefit, but with major differences. Paramount was the near-universal perspective that forests were either a threat that hid enemies, an obstacle to settlement, a resource to be converted to profit or all the above. In 1807, Irish author Isaac Weld wrote that Americans had an “unconquerable aversion to trees.” This attitude was backed up by steel axes, saws and plows that greatly increased the efficiency of converting forests to pastureland and crop fields. Selling fuel wood, bark for tanning and other wood products helped cover the cost of clearing the forest or provided extra income for established farmers. Initially, the pace of clearance was relatively slow, but the impacts accelerated with the ever-expanding population, which, by the 1800s, was doubling every 20 to 30 years. By 1850, the lowland forests of the Atlantic seaboard, New England and much of the Midwest had largely been cleared.

INTRODUCING INDUSTRY
[...]

Just kill me now, because it only gets worse from there. Same things over and over, humans are greedy and mostly stupid. Sorry for the big ego.

For the first time in history, large-scale deforestation took place for no local reason, and mountain slopes were no longer a safe haven for forests.

Timber production soared from one billion board feet in 1840 to 46 billion board feet in 1904, enough to fill more than 10,000,000 modern logging trucks. By 1880, lumber had overtaken agriculture as the most important driver of deforestation. By 1920, more than two-thirds of American forests had been leveled at least once, including the vast majority of eastern forests. Timber companies simply harvested the forest and moved on, from the Great Lakes to the South and across the West, leaving behind stumps, fire prone slash and dead or dying lumber towns. Finally, they were stopped by the Pacific Ocean and forced to begin replanting practices.

But listen to Trump and Newsom about bad forestry management why not. After that part of history, Jerry's dad dammed up all the California rivers and BIG ag took over, but climate change is someone else's fault. ftg

At this point I just want to live in peace, enjoying a frugal life among like-minded people, away from the thought police and the militarized surveillance industrial complex. I'd rather pay half my check to a hippy for rent, but there are no hippies around here anymore. tough beans 51% of my income goes to San Francisco every month, and I am lucky. thanks

love

I'm not quite sure how to formulate this comment?
We, here, for the most part, are aware that the BullShit meter has been pegged at 11 now for a couple of years-I've been waiting for the damn thing to break from the stress-but the vast majority of folks have put a towel over it so they don't have to look.
dRumphs Always been a bullshit scammer(he Ain't no artist), an artist leaves you with a Good Feeling about being took, jabba the dRumph just leaves you with shit in your mouth as he walks with what you Had. I've watched him since the eighties when guys I worked with wanted to Be him-a wheeler dealer, real estate hustler who ripped off his workers. They knew that,, they just wanted the coin and power.
That's what we've been conditioned to go for-that pretty brass ring. Not the Gold, not the Silver, fuck, not even the Bronze!
Brass.
And let's say you get that brass ring, what does that get you? A rung up? On What ladder? And are we Sure the ladder even Goes somewhere we'd like to be? And Look! Wonder of wonders?!
AnOther brass ring.
And hell, we barely get a chance to get our feet on that rung(ring) and we're pushed to go for the Next one, ad infinitum.
I'll leave it here and come back later.

peace

@detroitmechworks that's cool you found a junkyard welding class. My ex gf did some welding for a while, had an anvil and fashioned homemade tools and stuff for her cabin in the woods. No generator for her arc welder off grid, takes a lot of juice. You keep reminding me about those days, being an arc welder's helper in the city, and making charcoal out of hard manzanita in the burn pile up in the woods. Torch bottles are heavy.

I just found an Angry Welding Clown Welders Cap on doogiescaps dot com, no commercial intended. Those hats over there did make me laugh out loud, and I remember getting a hot spark on the top of my head it isn't very nice. Have fun welding with your kids, it sounds great.

P.S. I lived with nubian goats for ten years, they were "de-horned" by a hot poker on their baby heads. One of 'em, the cutter got left a little too long and she grew up not very smart. Always protect a kids noggin, that's what I say, no matter the age. Or species. lol

One thing that's been helping my mental state a lot with regards to the insanity of the world has been getting out and seeing it. Trying to do SOMETHING every day helps. Even if it's as simple as price checking tables or looking for a space.

Found out that apparently there's a junkyard downtown that give basic cutting and welding classes. Sounds like it'll be a hell of a lot cheaper than PCC and doesn't require me to go through the Academy. Yes, these days I'm actively opposed to Universities and their bullshit. I think it started when I learned how to do math the "wrong" way. (3 from 2 is 9, carry the one. A lot FASTER and while yes, I understand HOW to do it the "Right" way I'm not always going to have a calculator. My way works with analog.)

So yeah, going back to my Cynic readings is also helping. Got away from it a while due to depression, but cutting out emotional pain killers lets me know where things are wrong.

I guess that If I'm going to believe Bullshit, I'm going to believe my own. My bullshit has the advantage of being cheap and plentiful, and actually can grow things if I use it properly.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uttlRqHpvNs]