Newsom Has Been ‘Trump-Proofing’ California Rather than ‘Wildfire-Proofing’

More than 100 wildfires are tearing through Southern California burning down entire neighborhoods. Homeowners are reporting that insurance companies recently cancelled their fire insurance. Firefighters report that fire hydrants are dry or have little water pressure. The Globe called this “California’s perfect storm” earlier Wednesday – a mishmash of 1) destructive water policy, 2) ridiculous environmental policy, and 3) a very political insurance crisis.

Each of these issues can be traced to California Democrat politicians and their “progressive” policies – only their policies are anything but progressive.

This wildfire lays at the feet of California’s Democrat politicians, starting with Governor Gavin Newsom. In 2014, while Gavin Newsom was Lt. Governor, California voters approved $7.12 billion in bonds for state water supply infrastructure projects. Of that, $2.7 billion was designated for water storage projects. But more than 10 years later, there are no new dams or reservoirs, or other water storage projects to collect and store California’s winter runoff, 80% of which is sent to the Pacific Ocean for environmental purposes.

And now Southern California is in yet another drought, and on fire.

How is it that Gov. Newsom and Gov. Jerry Brown before him, hasn’t gotten any actual water storage built? The short answer is they don’t want it. Both would rather have the $30 billion Delta Tunnels project instead, which would destroy California’s very important Delta region.

Under Brown’s original Delta tunnel plan two tunnels would be 150 feet below ground, 40 feet in diameter and 30 miles in length, and would be bigger than the English Channel Tunnel.

Gov. Newsom is opting for one Delta Tunnel, ignoring that California voters have passed more than $30 billion in water bonds to build additional water storage and two new reservoirs, which would accomplish more water delivery to Southern California without destroying the Delta, its inhabitants, and its prime farmland.

During his 2016 Presidential campaign, Donald Trump vowed to “open up the water” in drought-stricken California, acknowledging that the “drought” was political. California’s drought conditions are actually historically normal. California’s droughts are usually billed by the state and media as “the driest period in the state’s recorded rainfall history.” But that is pure hyperbole; scientists who study the Western United States’ long-term climate patterns say California has been dry for significantly longer periods — more than 200 years.

Knowing this truth, one would logically assume that California’s elected politicians would see to it that adequate water storage was the priority, strategically located around the state, so the residents of the state would not suffer during times of naturally occurring droughts.

Instead, state of California officials have flushed trillions of gallons of water out to the Pacific annually to help save a few fish, instead of providing the water to Central Valley growers and millions of California households – water that would have been enough to sustain millions of Californians for many years.

California’s Democrat politicians and officials who adhere to radical environmental policies, have been killing off California agriculture lands by denying water, sending 80% of California’s water to the ocean in unimpaired flows for “environmental” purposes, resulting in entire Central Valley towns without water, farms drying up, and threats of rationing to urban water users.

And Governor Newsom has removed four dams on the Klamath River to save fish. Democrats prioritize fish over people in California.

It’s almost as if California’s politicians have been trying to create a water shortage…

Read the entire story of Jerry Brown’s 4-term failed history of water infrastructure.

Wildfire Prevention Treatment 

As we reported, on day-one of becoming governor in 2019, Newsom issued an executive order to do forest management and wildfire prevention treatment to 90,000 acres in the state. However, a joint CapRadio and NPR investigation found that by June 2021, Newsom overstated the number of areas treated with fuel breaks and prescribed burns by 690%, the Globe reported. Governor Newsom claimed that, due to his executive order, 35 of his priority projects had treated over 90,000 acres with wildfire prevention treatments. However, data from the state only showed 11,399 acres actually treated.

In early 2020, Gov. Newsom had declared “mission accomplished.”

This is standard Gavin Newsom – even when he fails he claims victory. That’s why the joint CapRadio and NPR investigation was so important.

However, Newsom curiously survived his 2021 recall election and was elected to a second term in 2022 – a classic case if there ever was one of failing up.

California voters have been far too tolerant of Newsom, and should instead demand that he put on his big boy pants and be a real governor, or resign. Thus far he’s shown voters that he can’t take the heat. He’s shown voters that he doesn’t take criticism well. He’s shown voters that he doesn’t pivot or recuperate when he fails.

Newsom has shown the voters that he’s imperious and sees himself as California aristocracy. He’s shown the voters that he doesn’t have anything in common with the middle class or working class. He’s shown the voters that he’s detached and has no respect for the real people who make California work.

Gavin Newsom shows up for photo opps, and gives ludicrous speeches and press conferences because they really are for his political consultants and campaign contributors, and not the people.

And then when a real crisis happens, he calls a state of emergency and asks for federal funding.

He is so isolated from reality and the people of California.

What happened to a coordinated emergency response to the Palisades fire? Why did it take so long to call in the National Guard? Why weren’t fire departments posting fire engines in neighborhoods ready to respond knowing these were hurricane strength winds?

The LAFire Department Chief may be good at prioritizing the hiring of DEI fire fighters, but she failed in wildfire preparedness. LA Mayor Karen Bass who was in Ghana, West Africa, took an extra day to get home, and then at the airport refused to answer any of a dozen questions when reporters asked her why she was gone during the fires, knowing that they were expected, and after cutting $17.6 million from the LA fire department’s budget.

Gavin Newsom slashed roughly $150 million from Cal Fire’s wildfire prevention budget.

Assemblyman Bill Essayli announced Wednesday afternoon, “I just sent an official letter to Governor Gavin Newsom calling on him to convene a special session to address our ongoing unmitigated wildfire disaster. Instead of ‘Trump-Proofing’ California, Newsom needs to FIREPROOF our state! Enough is enough.”

Here is his letter:

These miserable and unqualified politicians may finally be kicked to the curb for failing down, but at what cost to California?

This is Gavin Newsom’s latest unbelievably arrogant Tweet – I’ll let him speak for himself: