California wildfires. (Photo: fire.ca.gov)
Will California’s Wildfire Failures Usher in a Common Sense Political Era?
Make politicians and appointees answer questions about policy, procedures, funding, orders and priorities
By Katy Grimes, January 15, 2025 2:55 am
The eye-opening failures we’ve witnessed in the Pacific Palisades and Los Angeles fires could potentially occur all over the state. Because, it boils down to a top-to-bottom lack of leadership. This lack-of-leadership stems from hidden agendas, which stem from incompetent politicians who have failed up their entire careers.
As newly elected Assemblyman David Tangipa (R-Fresno) said Monday at the Legislative Republican press conference (calling for a special legislative session on the fires and poor response), fires are taking place in Los Angeles in January – if it can happen in January in LA, it can happen everywhere else in the state.
The bigger message is the rest of the state shouldn’t feel comfortably smug just because the fires are not happening in nearby cities or regions.
Politicians from Governor Gavin Newsom, to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, to LA County Supervisors and LA City Council, have insisted that nothing could be done to put out the fires. Nitwits in the media are parroting the same ridiculous message. However, this is merely making a mockery of the politicians and appointees, patting each other on the back during press conferences, boasting publicly how well they have done in preparation.
These tone-deaf professional officeholders are incapable of understanding the concerns and difficulties of the people… even the people who elected them.
They are attempting to justify their incompetence, as well as their obvious distractions of “equity” and “social justice” priorities as Janisse Quinones admitted on camera; she heads up the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power for an annual $750,000 salary, and said, “it’s important to me that everything we do is with an equity lens.”
Do not let them justify their incompetence. Hold them accountable. Make politicians and appointees answer questions about policy, procedures, funding, orders and priorities.
They let LA burn while virtue signaling their counterfeit ethics. It’s assuagement and appeasement of their failures that they hide behind diversity, equity and inclusion.
Diversity is an “assortment.”
Equity is “fairness.”
Inclusion is “involvement.”
Individually, they have meaning. Taken together, DEI is not a “program” or a “plan.”
Vote of No Confidence?
Assemblyman Carl DeMaio sent an email out Tuesday with a new statewide poll on the California fires showing that less than 1/3 of California voters approve of the way Gov. Newsom has handled the LA fires: 42% disapprove, 30% approve.
DeMaio continues:
- NEWSOM IS RESPONDING TO OUR PRESSURE: Newsom and CA Democrats are feeling the pressure of our campaign to hold them accountable! After days of us demanding Newsom call a special session of the state legislature to deal with fire preparedness and response, yesterday he caved in and convened one. Newsom is now agreeing to Republican ideas – but saying it and implementing them are two very different things!
- TRUMP CAN ORDER FEDERAL INVESTIGATIONS: CA politicians will NEVER investigate themselves for their failures. That’s why yesterday I sent a letter to President Donald Trump asking him to order a federal investigation of any policies or mismanagement by CA state and local politicians that contributed to the severity of the disaster. Trump is the only way we get to the truth!
The negligent handling of these fires is the WAKE-UP CALL for many voters – but we must keep getting our message out to the public and ultimately give them quality candidates to support to replace the negligent Democrats who failed them.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has a massive PR team he pays using your tax dollars. The only way we can get our message out is through our campaign team.
Remember, Monday at the Legislative Republican’s press conference calling for a special session on the fires, DeMaio said the state makes $3.6 billion off of a tax on California insurance premiums. Where is that money going? Into the general fund? What is the governor doing with that $3.6 Billion? It could have paid for a lot of fire prevention work, as well as hiring more fire fighters, as a starting point.
What we are watching in real time in California is that from the top of the state, all of the way down to the most local agencies, stunning incompetence from elected officials, appointed officials and staffers, resulting in devastated lands, loss of property, and staggering loss of life.
Right now, at this crucial moment, common sense is the theme, and plenty of Californians have loads of it.
We hope this is rock bottom – for the highest taxed state in the country, the people of California deserve properly and well-functioning services and public safety, strong, resilient infrastructure, and politicians who give a damn.
If not, voters know what to do next.
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I would like a federal audit of exactly where our money is going. Our streets are crumbling, yet climate and homeless NGO’s are quietly flourishing, and the problems are worse.
Everything starts somewhere.
In California the downward slide started with ballot harvesting in an opaque ballot system that saved a trip to the cemetery by simply mailing out ballots to “Last Known Address”, valid or not.
Absolutely not. Almost every article about and peripheral to the fires suggests the “fires” were a boon to the climate change zealots: Like the ultimate promotional and supportive event came to pass.
The (controlled) media’s position reflects certainly the sole cause of the fires is climate change.
Prediction: Newsom will soon throw Karen Bass under the bus for her many mistakes leading up to the fire. Newsom will also attempt to control any investigation to deflect blame for his cutting the fire budget, ignoring the clearing of the forests, and bungling water policy. That is why it must be a federal investigation. In the news today California politicians are already deeming as “outrageous” the idea that aid come with “conditions” despite the obvious negligence exposed by the fires and the need to take corrective actions to ensure public safety. Our state couldn’t look more ridiculous so far- allocating $50 million to “Trump proof” but still asking for an outrageous amount of money from President Trump for disaster relief.
It is sad that an event this catastrophic has to occur before the bungling bureaucracy is exposed.
This will continue to be an issue as long as the subject does not get moved to page 10 of the news.
Please, keep their feet to the fire, no pun intended.
Ah yes, equity. I can’t think of anything more equitable than when everyone’s houses burn down and everyone’s lives are destroyed. DEI at its finest!
This was a preplanned event timed to do maximum destruction just before Trump takes office in an attempt to cripple his administration. This is not the only event they have planned but it is a big one. Reservoirs empty, fire fighters told to take the day off, fire budget cuts, incompetent Communist activists as mayor, fire chief etc., millions of illegals brought in to loot (in Lambo’s no less), thousands of homeless to start fires, DEW’s on camera starting fires and so much more.
@CW, can you please share a link to resources about DEW involvement??? This DID feel like arson, but I figured it was some knucklehead getting his jollies by setting fires, or possibly some nefarious political actor, but the DEW angle is one I’m interested in exploring…. TY!
I have been shown a number of videos that were (I believe) on Telegram or Rumble. I also looked and found an analysis by a person claiming to be a forensic arborist (Robert Braeme) (a real thing apparently) who believes the fire cause was not natural. Then there is the blue VW van that escaped the fires totally untouched (ala Lahaina). I am sure there is much more out there. As always it takes time for the truth to come out.
The van was blue wasn’t it.
That is very curious! Everything else burned around it. Lahaina did not have water for the firefighters as well.
Blue roofed houses did not burn in Hawaii.
It may have been a coordinated effort with drone attack and arsonists on the ground. Nothing can be ruled out at this time and point.
Michael Jaco, a former Navy Seal and CIA Officer, has a Rumble channel where he interviewed author Michelle Melendez, a long-time resident and activist in Maui, who discusses the similarities between the LA fires and the Lahaina fires including the use of DEWs:
(https://rumble.com/v69axcg-similarities-with-the-la-fires-and-lahaina-revealed-by-author-michelle-mele.html?e9s=src_v1_upp)
A YouTube channel called Hustl includes an interview with CIA whistleblower who confirms the Maui fires were the result of DEWs:
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRuAKwTTmqs&t=860s)
A 30% approval rating (of how Newsom is handling the fire crisis) is low, but not low enough. It speaks to something really amiss in Californians. Whether it’s lack of intelligence, gullibility or what is unclear. But it’s a huge impediment to CA’s future and may be the thing that got us here in the first place.
lol, you cannot audit financial expenditure records that don’t exist, or maybe they were burned up in a massive wildfire ??? King Gavin should have put a halt to all spending on a train (estimates now more than 100 Billion, that’s 10% of a TRILLION btw) than CA DOES NOT NEED and diverted monies into more important issues. Fiscal conservatism is a mindset, not a political dogma. Fortunately for California and Federal taxpayers, the new administration has a Department to address efficiency in spending. Run by one of our generations most prolific thinkers……
California has fallen to such depths of despair that its actually difficult to point to things that are working right. When things hit rock bottom there is a simple path forward and involves admitting that we have made mistakes and turning away from those mistakes. In 2nd Chronicles 7:14 the Bible says, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” California needs to restore a right relationship with God. We do that by humbling ourselves and pray that God will forgive us of our wrongdoing (sin). We can see the destruction that pride has brought upon us and will always bring upon us. Now is the time to return to Christ and allow Him to heal our hearts and land,
Amen Hal.
We have a God problem. Many people have fallen away from the church thinking they are in control.
If those who are hurting, alone and scared just take a moment, look up and ask God for help. Just talk. Just start there. Take a moment to he grateful for what you have in your life.
God is good. God keeps his promises.
Look up Psalm 3. It is a beautiful guide on how to live a good life.
Katy Grimes is so right that the rest of the state shouldn’t feel comfortably smug just because the fires are not happening in nearby cities or regions because if Hair-gel Hitler Newsom and the demonic deep-state can get away with burning down wealthy LA neighborhoods, then they will do it everywhere? We’re watching in real time stunning incompetence and also intentional malfeasance that’s satanic in nature? Voters know what to do next, but will their votes make a difference when the criminal Democrat mafia deep-state controls much of the state?
I agree with everything you wrote, with the exception of the last sentence.
If I’ve learned nothing else in my 60 years in this state, I have learned to NEVER underestimate the stupidity of the California voters. As a recent example, we had an opportunity to reverse a tax on gasoline that the legislature passed in the dead of night and behind our backs. What did the voters of California? We defeated the proposition to reverse it. The voting population is our worst enemy…
As I’ve posted on a number of occasions, Winston Churchill had it figured out almost 100 years ago:
“The greatest argument against democracy is a 5-minute conversation with the average voter.”
California suffers from chronic Blue State “progessive” priorities, where accessory WOKE policies obscure basic citizen health and safety needs.
Oh, I guess that mass, open migration have rendered “citizen” meaningless.
Quick answer. No.
Has there been a single hearing in Sacramento on the role of CARB regulations in the huge wildfires over the last decade. Crickets.
And so on.
And watching any of the daily press conferences in LA the last few days only confirms that the insanity is actually going to get worse. You have CalEPA and EPA representatives saying straight out that that all burned out home lots will be treated as pretty much just like SuperFund toxic waste sites. Thats what the words they are saying actually means to anyone familiar with how CalEPA / EPA has enforced they often utterly stupid regulations over the last few decades.
I expect the next big crises to happen when the burned out home-owners start to realize that if CalEPA / EPA have their way it will take many years before they are allowed to rebuild, if ever, because of “toxic waste” created by the wildfire.
Never ever underestimate the willful malevolence of the bureaucracies in state and Federal agencies like CalEPA and EPA. The people in the Palisades know how to look after themselves but I really feel sorry for the ordinary folk in Altadena. Because if Cal EPA etc has its way almost none of them are going to be able to rebuild. If I were in Altadena I’d get the locals to vote immediately for incorporation as a Home Rule City, declare the fire a Force Majeure event, and ignore CalEPA etc regs to rebuild their homes as fast as possible. And then have the state try to sue them. Under the state constitution the people in Altadena would have a very strong case defending their actions to rebuild their homes.
Unfortunately No,the 1 percent in California are controlling everything and voters are to stupid to realize what’s going on.