Trump blames Biden and California Gov. Gavin Newsom for deadly wildfires

It’s not a good look because the top factors in wildfire spread were all present: 1) plenty of dry fuel, 2) wind, and 3) hillsides. All of this was known and they treated it like a small brush fire. I’ve seen three fire trucks respond to a homeless encampment catching a small fire and somehow five trucks with hurricane force gusts only warranted five? That’s mind boggling to me.

 

Saw a blurb yesterday that took a different take on the insurance companies leaving CA.

Their job is risk. They run the numbers, look at all the outcomes. They saw this fire happening long before the govt did. They also saw the inaction from the CA govt to mitigate it. So they cancelled policies and got out.

They were the canary in the coal mine (not my words) but no one was paying attention.

 

If "any fire was going to be potentially catastrophic" than resources should have been prepositioned. The wealthiest state with one of the highest tax burdens cut funds for firefighting and failed to deliver the water infrastructure they promised. Money was diverted to putting incompetent people in positions of great responsibility. Money was squandered on climate initiatives and dealing with the illegal immigration and homelessness they encourage.

The truth about many leftists is they wanted fires. How many fires were set by Antifa when Trump was president? Hundreds arrested. Thousands of fires set. Antifa wanted to weaken our economy and depress our citizens. Didn't Kamala help raise bail money for fire-starters/antifa/BLM? Virtually every Too Hot Democrat voted for this insanity.

I'd bet money that if you look at leftist jurisdictions you'll find that the average distance between trees and powerlines is less than what you'll find in Republican controlled areas. Save the trees not the people.

Who favors clearing underbrush and who opposes it? Democrats mocked Trump when he told Democrats to "rake" our forests?

Who favors building bare dirt fire breaks and who has opposed it?

Who worries about having adequate water for our communities and farms and who favors bringing in illegals that threaten our water supply? (Besides mdgator, AzCat and VA)

Who likes single family homes and who wants to get rid of them and replace them with multi-family dwellings?

Who spent $90 billion on fiberoptic infrastructure and seemingly delivered nothing? Who spent $8+ billion for EV charging stations and delivered only 7 or 8? Cali took $billions from taxpayers a decade ago to build pipes and reservoirs and delivered jack diddly squat.

Big government takes our money to line their pockets and gives us the debt. How long before half the federal budget is for servicing the debt?

Some of the leftists want to set fires and destroy America so they can bankrupt our citizens and achieve systemic collapse. Then they can hand out uniform basic income and control us while rebuilding their utopian globalist dream society on the ashes of what came before. Cloward-Pivens strategy.

LA is a sanctuary city with a huge homeless population. Half of these wildfires are set by the homeless. Leftists ask for trouble by design. How many hotel rooms that fire victims needed were occupied by illegals? How much extra are people paying for rents and hotel rooms because of subsidized illegal immigration?

Side note for mediator, AzCat and VA: Illegals cost Cali almost $31 billion/year (even more when they set fires that cost $250-$300 billion). Feel free to quibble with the exact numbers. Opinions will vary
FAIR: Illegal Immigration Costs California Taxpayers Nearly $31 Billion a Year

These leftist controlled governments are really "administrative terrorists." The people who caused this disaster should be prosecuted and imprisoned where warranted, per Robert Barnes, who understands the law.

America can't give LA all the money it wants to rebuild. Let California do that. If Cali doesn't feel enough pain there will not be the necessary accountability.

 

You might not believe in climate change but your insurance company does

 

CA and FL are facing similar issues regarding insurance, for different reasons ( fires vs hurricanes)

 

A subset of liberals hate the modern world. They hate Western civilization. They hate people, especisllyly white people. Many are in government.

If they cared about people and their property then after the National Weather Service issued a warning on January 2 that conditions were ripe for a catastrophic fire, they would have staged a couple hundred firetrucks and firefighters in areas at the highest risk of fires. The National Guard should have been deployed. The 117 million gallon reservoir would not have been empty during fire season. Why was the reservoir empty for the better part of a year? To fix a tear in the tarp that covers it from bird poop.

 

Yeah, they saw climate change coming. See also why they are leaving Florida and Louisiana. From McKinsey (4 years ago):

Opportunity and threats of climate change on insurance | McKinsey

 

One factor people don't consider is that like Florida and other states, the state regulators don't allow these companies to price that risk accordingly, and the state risk pools end up subsidizing the costs when the worst case scenarios happen. Its an easy out for a big insurer to drop policies. DeSantis and whoever comes next isnt going to sign off on 500% rate increases to wealthy homeowners who live in high risk areas, and neither is Gavin Newsome. I'm not sure the companies want that either, especially when there is a "last resort" pool to push people to that isnt terribly costly. Market failure has sort of led to the worst of both worlds. People keep rebuilding in these places because the risk and cost isnt an enormous or costly burden to them. I dont know about CA, but in Florida, the person in charge of insurance regulation is an elected official who has to run on his record. And who wants to run on pricing insurance to the actual risk?

 

Private insurers dont sell wind coverage on the Texas gulf coast either, they have a state wind pool.

 

Enemies of the people:

 

This is so crazy it sounds like an exaggeration, and maybe it is:

After being warned that conditions for a catastrophic fire were in place...

 

What a sanctimonious pile of poo this post is. Fire breaks? How do they work in hilly, high desert areas where scrubs grow like weeds whenever there is rain? And how many fire breaks work in 80+mph winds? There simply isn't enough flat land in the hills above LA for fire breaks to be big enough to be effective.

And why would I want to see this part of LA burn? I have elderly extended family that live here and had to be evacuated. I not only care about them, but the 10,000 others who have been displaced or worse, the 25 (and counting) death toll.

And before you say I want Malibu and Palisades to burn to build apartments, let's first look at solutions that don't displace or kill a single person!!! Like let's figure out what to do with the 30%+ vacancy rate in downtown LA for office space, and 25% vacancy rate for the entire county. Not all this real estate can effectively be rezoned Residential, but much of it can be. No fire needed. No homes need be to be lost, and zero dead. A much better solution for all.

As for homeless, LA has always had an issue because of its moderate climate. But instead of whining and complaining, let's again, look for solutions, like again, turning vacant commercial properties into lower cost Residential areas? Subsidies for the working poor to be able to afford said housing. And increased mental health funding and facilities to help the homeless with mental health and addition issues.

Undocumented immigrants? Let's not just look at what they cost, which your estimate is also poo. But what they produce. Construction is a $3 trillion industry in the US, and undocumented immigrants make up about 1/3 of the work force. Agriculture is a $1 trillion industry and immigrants are about half the workforce there. What's the plan to replace this needed labor? Or, are you just whining some more about problems and not offering a single solution?

Speaking of construction, whom do you think is going to help rebuild Palisades and Malibu? Those who cannot afford to live there, but are happy to have jobs, and may or may not have documentation. I don't see Rich Barnes ever picking up a hammer and grabbing his tools, or a fruit basket and picking crops in San Joaquin Valley! No, immigrants, many undocumented do a good portion of these jobs.

Last, just because people are politically different than you doesn't mean they are always wrong, or deserve to be punished for their beliefs. Did any D politicians say those in North Carolina need to learn a lesson, or it was their politics that caused the hurricane? Or, was it just Mother Nature, and hurricanes are just part of the ecosystem of the American SE region? Know what? Fire is a natural part of the ecosystem in the American west, and while we don't know the source of ignition, know what fanned the flames and turned this fire into a monster? Mother Nature caused 80+ mph winds. Know what municipal system is designed to fight a wildfire in 80+ mph conditions? Not a single one in the world!

Hindsight is always 20/20, and the risk of fire in this area was well known. So well known that insurance companies were pulling their fire insurance, and the Palisades area passed an ordinance and tax to help residents update their fireproofing. Sadly, this ordinance just passed and took effect 1/1/25, and the fire happened before any of the updates.

Sure, the LAFD could have agreed to overtime and put more engines in the area. But this was not the only area in danger, and the LAFD has to cover the entire city. Santa Ana winds are a common occurrence in the city, and the city can't afford to cover OT every time the wind blows. It's not in the budget. No fire breaks out and then people are complaining about all the OT taxpayers are paying for.

 

Democrats will closely scrutinize every signature calling for a recall of Gavin Newsom. They should try doing that for general elections..

 

private groups of firefighters are there working for individuals and/or insurance companies. communities are organizing to help themselves to keep any flares under control..

These L.A. Homeowners Installed Private Fire Hydrants. Here’s How They Fared.

 

the fire was going and LA sent FF home rather than send them to help. Unless the AHJ in PP said it was under control, you keep sending more when the match is lit and the wind is blowing

 

Severe mismanagement and governance by design. You guys believe in DEI? Then don't come running to normal Ameticans to fix the problems caused by your mental issues.

"But LA firefighters themselves disagree. They say the reason they arrived too late to stop the fires from becoming catastrophic was because of severe budget cuts. The Fire Department did not pre-deploy fire engines to strategic locations, and helicopters arrived half an hour too late to put out the Palisades.
“That [Santa Ynez] reservoir being closed did not allow helicopters to drop and suck water up from five minutes away,” a new firefighter whistleblower, the third who has come forward, told me. “Instead, they had to fly 10 to 15 minutes away to go get water somewhere else.

The problem is that the LA Fire Department is one of the most severely understaffed of America’s 10 largest cities. It has less than a single firefighter per 1,000 residents compared to Chicago, Dallas, and Houston, which have twice as many.
...
As such, the problem is not poverty, it is severe mismanagement and bad governance. Not only is the city’s mismanagement to blame for LA’s disastrous response to the fire, but it’s also responsible for the city’s ongoing homelessness disaster.
Why is that?
Part of the reason is the city’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) programs. “The city will only purchase from vendors that support DEI,” said the firefighter. “So we'll go with a vendor that we have to pay twice as much, or the shipment may take twice as long, in order for it to be a DEI vendor rather than the vendor who has it at half the price and can get it to us tomorrow."

 

Burn back better!

 

The Santa Ynez Reservoir was completed in the 1950s. Like any 70+ year old man-made structure, it needs maintenance on a regular schedule. The decision to drain the reservoir wasn't made a few days, willy-nilly before the fire started. And scheduling the maintenance in January makes sense based on the calendar. The Santa Ana winds usually end around Thanksgiving, when the rainy season starts. Starting maintenance in January gives the weather a few extra weeks, plus it gives employees time off during the Holidays. Do the maintenance in January and you also might hopefully get help from Mother Nature to help fill it with rain.

But despite a storm that hit the area Thanksgiving week, Mother Nature decided to be extremely cruel. Not only did she keep the jet stream from dipping, keeping most storms hitting the west on a northern track, she also turned back on the Santa Ana winds. In January.

As for the LAFD being understaffed, this is not a new, DEI phenomenon. This sheet outlines the shortages back in 2010, long before anyone could claim the fire Chief to be a DEI hire. Budget and resource allocation is always a challenge for any organization, business or government. Hindsight is always 20/20, and it's easy to say they should have done this or that, but if the LAFD approved overtime and extra rigs to be on call every time the Santa Ana winds blew, they would blow their budget out by the end of the fall. And most of the days the winds blow, there aren't major wildfires.

Speaking of budget, even with the $17million cuts, the LAFD FY 2024 budget showed an increase over FY 2023. It's doubtful the $17million would have made any difference. The Santa Ynez Reservoir may have made a difference, but only in the first few minutes. But once neighborhoods started to burn, the water pressure was limited by the size of the pipes. And Santa Ynez may have given the firefighters only a few more hours of water to fight a monster being fed by 80+mph winds.

If you think forest management would have made a difference, the hills above LA aren't old growth forests. Old growth requires the fuel on the ground to be cleared out to keep fires from getting out of hand. But high desert scrub? That's going to grow real fast when any water is present. And again, water was present Thanksgiving week. Under regular weather patterns, more rain would have come over the next few weeks. But once again, Mother Nature said FU, I'm not only turning off the water, I'm turning the Santa Ana winds back on! That's not the fault of DEI, or the LAFD budget.