I will order the Shadowlands book. I have previously read Narcotopia. It was a fascinating read. I couldn’t help but get invested in the characters. Looking forward to more in 25.
Thank you for the article. Ioan, I also enjoyed the interview you did with Patrick. It’s all fascinating stuff. I hope 2025 is a good year for you and all of your readers.
Excellent stuff. Doesn't Myanmar have one of the world's longest running civil wars? Since like the late 1940s I think. Damn it's about as old as the Israel Palestine conflict. More older than the Colombian conflict too. It's a very fascinating country. It was a major focal point in ww2 between the British empire and the empire of Japan. I remember first hearing about the country when I watched rambo 4 lol. Rambo goes to Burma and fights the ruthless military junta and helps the Karen rebels. Much like in rambo 3 when he went to Afghanistan and helped the Mujahideen fight the soviets lol. We know how that turned out
Yeah rambo 4 was the last one. 5 doesn't exist to me lol. It was awful. He goes to Mexico in 5 and fights the cartels but it was shot in Spain and none of the actors are Mexican. They were spainards playing Mexicans and it was cringe as hell
Yeah it's very angering that my state's leadership is incompetent that they can't even have better fire measures. Now entire neighborhoods are gone. LA gets a lots of hate and for good reason sometimes but it's also a very iconic American city. And it hurts
It is the whole Democratic political machine in California's fault. Gov. Newsom in his term of office has never increased the fire fighting air support in California and has even reduced the number of planes. He destroyed 4 dams because of very doubtful environmental concerns. Newsom has never been interested in funding the plans for providing a water storage infrastructure and a dedicated fire suppression infrastructure including desalinization plants. Fire departments around the state were never funded to be able to expand their number of fire fighters and stations. Diversity, Equity and Inclusive hires have been a disaster. People have been hired who have had no experience in the department they are heading. The worst examples are hiring fire fighters who cannot meet the original minimum requirements for lifting. Those standards were set aside years ago to hire more women in the fire departments.
Los Angeles is the worst example. Funding for fire fighting, adjusted for inflation is about the same as 60 years ago. The number of fire stations is the same as 30 years ago and just last week, the mayor of Los Angeles was proposing an additional $49 million dollar cut to the fire department budget and close an additional 16 fire stations which really would have further increased the response time to a fire. Brush management and tree management was not existent not only in Los Angeles but all over California. Los Angeles and the whole of California has spent more money on allowing junkies to live and shit and piss on the streets then funding fire fighting and other necessary infrastructure needs.
I can catalog pages and pages of insane rural and urban policies especially since I was involved in opposition to the power companies trying to cut down trees for no reason because they refuse to replace wire connectors only rated for 40mph winds to connectors rated for 110mph and insurance companies requiring the removal of all leaves from your property which deprives the trees of a mulch bed that retains moisture, important doing a drought. I had a police standoff on my property for 2 hours because I threatened the power company with violence for coming on to my property to topple the trees without permission.
Here is a link to Adam Carolla, comedian and one of the first podcasters and also a building contractor-
Alot of people are blaming him. But he hasn't been well liked in general since his time in office. Others say the blame is misguided. But people should have every right to be angry. Their homes are gone.
Gritty, as always, on CrashOutMedia!
Indeed. All best and happy 2025 John.
I will order the Shadowlands book. I have previously read Narcotopia. It was a fascinating read. I couldn’t help but get invested in the characters. Looking forward to more in 25.
Fantastic stuff there Daniel. Yep, come on 25. Crazy stuff coming.
Thank you for the article. Ioan, I also enjoyed the interview you did with Patrick. It’s all fascinating stuff. I hope 2025 is a good year for you and all of your readers.
Thanks
Well appreciated Mark and back at yer.
Excellent stuff. Doesn't Myanmar have one of the world's longest running civil wars? Since like the late 1940s I think. Damn it's about as old as the Israel Palestine conflict. More older than the Colombian conflict too. It's a very fascinating country. It was a major focal point in ww2 between the British empire and the empire of Japan. I remember first hearing about the country when I watched rambo 4 lol. Rambo goes to Burma and fights the ruthless military junta and helps the Karen rebels. Much like in rambo 3 when he went to Afghanistan and helped the Mujahideen fight the soviets lol. We know how that turned out
Yeah, it's a crazy civil war with many sides. I also saw the Rambo movie. Ha ha. It was quite good.
Yeah rambo 4 was the last one. 5 doesn't exist to me lol. It was awful. He goes to Mexico in 5 and fights the cartels but it was shot in Spain and none of the actors are Mexican. They were spainards playing Mexicans and it was cringe as hell
At least breaking bad had latino actors lol
I didn't even know about Rambo 5 against cartels. That sounds truly terrible.
The only really good one was Rambo First Bloody - which is a classic.
Yeah I felt like Stallone was trying copy the sicario movies a bit. But like you know at least shoot the film in Mexico like sicario lol
Also a bit unrelated but keep LA in your prayers ioan. It's really tough right now. It sad seeing my birthplace go through these wildfires.
Yeah, sorry to hear about Los A. Looks terrible.
Yeah it's very angering that my state's leadership is incompetent that they can't even have better fire measures. Now entire neighborhoods are gone. LA gets a lots of hate and for good reason sometimes but it's also a very iconic American city. And it hurts
Since it's so close to the border it gets the best of both worlds.
Yes, it looks very grim. I know nothing about the politics on this. You think it's really the governor's fault?
Here is a link to a real interesting fact concerning the lack of proper fire equipment in California-
https://weapons.substack.com/p/bad-water-policy-and-us-sanctions
It is the whole Democratic political machine in California's fault. Gov. Newsom in his term of office has never increased the fire fighting air support in California and has even reduced the number of planes. He destroyed 4 dams because of very doubtful environmental concerns. Newsom has never been interested in funding the plans for providing a water storage infrastructure and a dedicated fire suppression infrastructure including desalinization plants. Fire departments around the state were never funded to be able to expand their number of fire fighters and stations. Diversity, Equity and Inclusive hires have been a disaster. People have been hired who have had no experience in the department they are heading. The worst examples are hiring fire fighters who cannot meet the original minimum requirements for lifting. Those standards were set aside years ago to hire more women in the fire departments.
Los Angeles is the worst example. Funding for fire fighting, adjusted for inflation is about the same as 60 years ago. The number of fire stations is the same as 30 years ago and just last week, the mayor of Los Angeles was proposing an additional $49 million dollar cut to the fire department budget and close an additional 16 fire stations which really would have further increased the response time to a fire. Brush management and tree management was not existent not only in Los Angeles but all over California. Los Angeles and the whole of California has spent more money on allowing junkies to live and shit and piss on the streets then funding fire fighting and other necessary infrastructure needs.
I can catalog pages and pages of insane rural and urban policies especially since I was involved in opposition to the power companies trying to cut down trees for no reason because they refuse to replace wire connectors only rated for 40mph winds to connectors rated for 110mph and insurance companies requiring the removal of all leaves from your property which deprives the trees of a mulch bed that retains moisture, important doing a drought. I had a police standoff on my property for 2 hours because I threatened the power company with violence for coming on to my property to topple the trees without permission.
Here is a link to Adam Carolla, comedian and one of the first podcasters and also a building contractor-
https://x.com/EricAbbenante/status/1877207054105886836
Alot of people are blaming him. But he hasn't been well liked in general since his time in office. Others say the blame is misguided. But people should have every right to be angry. Their homes are gone.
Excellent. Mr. Winn just sold another book.
Boom. A wise buy and all best there Brian!