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Monday Miscellany, 1/13/25

Monday Miscellany, 1/13/25

Last updated on: January 13, 2025 at 1:21 pm by Gene Veith

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Monday Miscellany, 1/13/25 2025-01-13T13:21:21-05:00 Gene Veith

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The Great Los Angeles Fire. Why UK officials ignore the groomer gangs. And almost no world leaders are popular.

The Great Los Angeles Fire

The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 burned down much of the city, killing 300, destroying 17,000 structures, and leveling 3.3 square miles, and doing $5.7 billion in damage (in today’s dollars). Also likely to go down in history is the Great Los Angeles Fire of 2025.

LA is not as densely populated, of course, as old Chicago. As of this writing, the California fires have killed 10 and destroyed 10,000 structures. But they have leveled 45 square miles, about the size of San Francisco. The damages may come to $150 billion.

California has a history of wildfires, but these broke out in the sprawling city itself, including some of its priciest residential areas. Different outbreaks–in Pacific Palisades, Eaton, Sunset, Hurst, Lidia, Woodley–were fanned by 100 mph Santa Ana winds blowing in from the desert, spreading embers everywhere. Fires have reached or currently threaten some of California’s most iconic areas: Hollywood Hill, Malibu, Pasadena, Santa Monica. . . .

The fire damage has been compounded by California’s cuts to fire departments, water mismanagement, environmental rules that prevent thinning out of brush, and other actions and inactions of state and local governments.

And after the smoke clears, another problem awaits. California regulates the insurance industry so much that companies aren’t allowed to charge what it would take to cover L.A.’s stratospheric cost of homes. As a result, major insurers are leaving the state and refusing to write new fire insurance policies, forcing many homeowners to buy bare-boned policies from the state. Shortly before the fires broke out, thousands of homeowners had their policies canceled.

UPDATE: Now the death toll has risen to 24, with 12,000 buildings destroyed and 60 square miles leveled. And the fires are still raging.

UPDATE: Thanks to longtime reader Todd Jerabek for informing me about the worst fire in American history, which happened in northern Wisconsin on the very day of the Great Chicago Fire, October 8, 1871. The Peshtigo fire burned 1.2 million acres and killed over 1,500 people. Read the hair-raising details at the link.

Why UK Officials Ignore the Groomer Gangs

“It’s the biggest crime—and cover-up—in British history,” observed the Free Press editor Bari Weiss. “And most people, at least until recently, haven’t even heard of it.”

Thousands of young girls, mostly children, were systematically groomed and raped by immigrant gangs across the UK over a period of decades. Police turned the girls away. Detectives were discouraged from investigating. Politicians and prosecutors did their best to sweep it under the rug. Journalists skipped the biggest story of their lives. A culture of silence enveloped the United Kingdom. Why?

The answer to that question is that the gangs were Pakistani Muslims. And the young girls, some no more than 11, were white.

Because of the racial angle, you just can’t bring that up. Those who did–including the reporter who broke the story and activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, both of whom Weiss interviews–were labeled “racist” and “Islamophobic.”

Abigail Anthony, in her article Sexual Terrorism in Britain, gives some details, though I’ll refrain from quoting the horrific abuse she describes: “Since at least the 1990s, networks of abusive men in England have sexually exploited thousands of young girls. Generally, the gangs recruit youngish males to pose as generous boyfriends and seduce young girls with gifts; eventually, the girls (sometimes as young as eleven) are introduced to drugs, older men, and prostitution.” Anthony quotes some official responses:

The authorities, including the police and social services, had been concerned that pursuing justice would inflame racial and religious tensions. Why? Well, in part because there was a clear trend among the offenders: “There is a problem with networks of Asian offenders both locally and nationally,” reads an excerpt from one document. “There appears to be a significant problem with networks of Asian males exploiting young white females.” A 2010 report for the Rotherham Safeguarding Children Board stated that the crimes had “cultural characteristics . . . which are locally sensitive in terms of diversity.” The report continued: “There are sensitivities of ethnicity with potential to endanger the harmony of community relationships. Great care will be taken in drafting . . . this report to ensure that its findings embrace Rotherham’s qualities of diversity. It is imperative that suggestions of a wider cultural phenomenon are avoided.”

“A lot of this covering-up was ideological because they [government officials of both parties] were committed to the model of multiculturalism,” said Ayaan Ali. “This model is now bankrupt.” Weiss calls it “‘tolerance’ run amok.”

Almost No World Leaders Are Popular

The people of the world come from many different cultures, with many different values and belief systems. But they have at least one thing in common: They don’t like the leaders of their governments. At least this is true of most of the world’s democracies.

Back on December 13, the Wall Street Journal‘s Max Colchester and David Luhnow reported on Morning Consult’s study of the approval ratings held by the leaders of the world’s top 25 democracies.

Of the world’s industrialized democracies, only Switzerland gave its leader a positive rating. India’s Nahrendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist, is liked by 75% of his countrymen. Interestingly, Argentina’s Javier Milei has a 65% approval rating, despite–or maybe because of–his policy of “shock therapy” to halt hyper-inflation by “taking a chainsaw” to government benefits. Mexico’s first female president Claudia Sheinbaum has just over 60% popularity.

After that, every other leader is underwater. In fact, among the twelve largest democracies, no other leader is above 40%.

This article was published on December 13, based on data collected earlier. By now, many of those leaders have been ousted or their parliamentary government has fallen: The USA’s Joe Biden (38%), Canada’s Justin Trudeau (25%), Germany’s Olaf Scholz (19%), France’s Emmanuel Macron (18%), Korea’s Yoon Suk Yeol (15%).

The Wall Street Journal article cited an expert who says that the unpopularity of democratically-elected leaders “doesn’t bode well for liberal democracies.”

I disagree! The people holding their leaders to account and being willing to throw them out of office bodes very well for liberal democracies. That is liberal democracy.

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