Will California’s Wildfire Failures Usher in a Common Sense Political Era?

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:

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.