The Woke Fires Turning California Red

By John Kass

Sunday, January 12, 2025

Don’t make the political mistake about California that so many others are making now.

They’re saying that La La Land was unprepared for the wildfires that destroyed tens of thousands of acres, destroyed thousands and thousands of homes and businesses and burned up billions of dollars worth of wealth. Not to mention all the human misery.

But suggesting the flames took California unaware would be a big fat lie.  It would be like saying you were surprised by the gunshot, though you loaded that gun yourself and then pulled the trigger.

Now California will dangle its votes before incoming President Donald Trump and the ascendant GOP. With the Olympics and World Cup coming, the woke lords of the West will expect that the rest of the country bail them out, pay for the damage and make them whole. I think the people of California need our help, but first how about the Californians admitting what they’ve done to themselves?

The wildfires destroyed Southern California, burning tens of thousands of homes to the ground in one of the worst wildfires in history. It wasn’t an accident. And please don’t say California Democrats like Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass were unprepared. That suggests what happened was by chance. But everything the Democrats did before the fires burned Los Angeles was deliberate, extremely so.

This was no accident. California was exceedingly prepared for what the left-wing Democrats who run the state wanted, because the left-wing Democrats were catering to the left-wing voters in the bluer-than-blue areas of Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica and Malibu. The fire hydrants ran dry in the Pacific Palisades because they let the reservoirs run dry, but they had plenty of DEI politics. The problem was DEI politics was not all that useful for putting out fires.

It was no accident that here was no water for the fire hydrants, no water in the reservoirs even though billions of tax dollars had already been spent for reservoirs. And more on dams up in Northern California to direct much-needed water to the south were blown up. The dams impeded the happiness of a tiny fish as big as your index finger, the smelt. And Newsome bragged that he had done something stupendous with the waters–he let all that water run out into the Pacific. So he checked the boxes claiming constituencies, from the radical environmentalists to the Indians who wanted the rivers to be restored so the tribes could harvest salmon and make a buck.

For decades and decades, the California Democrats blocked logging companies and prevented the clearing of dead brush in the hills and the forests. The environmentalists called this victory. But some who respected nature, like the loggers and hunters and campers and fishermen and just about everyone who have built a fire in the fireplace knew it by another name:

dry kindling.

And what happened to California was only a matter of time.

Just a few years ago, there was a television show that captured the the ethos of the woke California environmentalists, the ones who waged war on the logging companies and fell in love with their Subarus, the folks who wanted to rid the earth of gaseous cows and revered Barack and Michelle and still believe that humans are bad for the environment. The TV show was was called “Life Without People,”  showing us in graphic detail what would happen to our great cities, these temples of the West once all the people were gone. The jungle and its vines would take the skyscrapers.

The first three episodes were the realization of the leftist enviro fantasy: “The Bodies Left Behind,” “Outbreak,” and “The Capital Threat,” in which, according to the producers, “Forces of nature threaten to destroy the landmarks and treasures of Washington, D.C., in a world without people; wilted palms set the stage for a massive inferno in Los Angeles.”

If you got the sense that the radical environmentalists would rather get rid of all humans and cattle, you’d be right.

Back in the unreal woke world preparing for the inferno,  Los Angeles Mayor Bass left town despite the warning that the Santa Ana Winds were about to blow heavily and dangerously.  Anyone who ever fought a forest fire knew there  were many warnings. She ignored them to burnish her DEI politics credentials. Rather than staying home protecting her city, Mayor Bass was in the West African nation of Ghana for her woke cred. She returned to a burning city and just stood there like an idiot in the airport when a reporter asked her why she left.

But before she left and ignored warnings about the Santa Ana winds, Bass did something important. She cut more than $17 million from the Los Angeles Fire Department budget. So yes, the fires shouldn’t have been a surprise.

Though they cut fire department budgets and stopped the clearing of brush and paid to destroy the dams and empty water reservoirs, Mayor Bass, Newsom and other California Democrats spent more than $24 billion on the homeless, who love LA because it’s so warm and they can get high on the street and defecate in public without shame or worry, and the California Democrat politicians shower money on them.

There wasn’t enough water for the fire hydrants—they ran dry–but California Gov. Gavin Newsom was busy.

He was preparing a special legislative session to raise money to legally fight policies that California Democrats deem threatening, coming from incoming President Donald Trump.

And those Los Angeles fire hydrants that ran dry? That was no accident either. Trump accused Newsom of protecting a “worthless fish” and putting the fish’s welfare over human beings.

I’m a fly fisherman (or at least I was, once) and so wanted to examine this worthless fish called the Delta Smelt. It turns out that I grew up eating them. They’re delicious. We Greeks call them marithes.

Dredge lightly in flour, sautéed in butter and olive oil and there you go. Don’t forget to squeeze lemon.

So, we visited one of my old favorites, Greek Islands Chicago and ordered up a plate.

The marithes were superb.

But would I burn down an entire city for the marithes, plunging millions of people into chaos and misery just for smelt?

No.

Newsom who thought he once could be president ran to his ultra-rich political donors—those who hadn’t been burned– unleashed a counter offensive, a pack of spinners to protect him. The same media type who lied to us about the origins of COVID and insisted the Hunter Biden Laptop was just Russian propaganda have been working furiously to spin us about the wildfires.

But that doesn’t change the fact that firefighters couldn’t get water because the hydrants ran dry. It doesn’t change the fact that California Democrats were so concerned about the smelt that they obliterated the dams. And on top of all this pain being suffered by the people of California, there is more pain:

The state is suffering an insurance crisis, because Gavin Newsome and California Democrats refused to let insurers do proper pricing for risk.

So rebuilding will be incredibly costly, if not impossible.

And who will pay? Not Gavin of the greasy hair. I don’t think  he paid for his meal when he showed up at the French Laundry for a gourmet dinner, while Democrats and their Karens wanted us masked and at home. So who’ll pay? California homeowners and taxpayers will pay for the mistake. And the rest of us will be asked to pay. I just saw Newsom on a video meeting with the other phony, China Joe Biden, Newsom was railing against “misinformation,” the last refuge for authoritarian scoundrels.

Many years ago, the late Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley—the city’s great mayor who would have looked for a curb to scrape Newsom and Bass from the bottom of his shoe—had a saying for close aides at Chicago’s City Hall.

He’d say “take care of the little things, and the big things will take care of themselves.”

Daley was a practical commonsense Democrat. long before Democrats were infected by the woke mind virus  spread by Barack and Michelle Obama. Now the Democrats are like Karen Bass and Gavin Newsom. And they don’t take care of the little things, like making sure the hydrants have water. They don’t make sure the reservoirs are full. They prize their left wing tribalism over competence. They invent scenarios and rail about “misinformation” which will work only as long as the corporate media carry their water.

They don’t take care of the little things. They take care of themselves and their liberal cred and their hair. Like mad woke Neros watching it all burn. When I think of Gavin Newsom and Mayor Bass and their team of spinners lying through their teeth to avoid a just reckoning, building layer upon layer of lies, I think of the great song by Bob Dylan, “Idiot Wind,” which is metaphor for the Newsom and Bass political careers.

You cover up the truth with liesOne day you’ll be in the ditchFlies buzzin’ around your eyesBlood on your saddle

(Copyright 2025 John Kass)

-30-

About the author: John Kass spent decades as a political writer and news columnist in Chicago working at a major metropolitan newspaper. He is co-host of The Chicago Way podcast. And he just loves his “No Chumbolone” hat, because johnkassnews.com is a “No Chumbolone” Zone where you can always get a cup of common sense.

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Comments 78

  1. I grew up in Los Angeles, long before the prissy current governor or the smarmy, unctuous mayor. The city, by itself 504 square miles, is only a few square miles smaller than the county I now live in here in Illinois. It is not ungovernable, but it has become unimaginable. Someone please tell me how the compensation of “public servants”, for example, at the Dept. of Water and Power (itself a formidable oligarchy for over a century) can pay numerous leadership positions upwards of $700,000 annually and have the outcomes they’ve experienced? LA’s political elite, aided by the entertainment elite, have done an excellent job, over the years, of slowly – like boiling frogs – put the electorate to sleep, and the day of reckoning has arrived. The elites, of course, have second/third/fourth homes in Montecito or, perhaps, even London. But the cashiers, dockworkers and truckers? The “little people”? I guess they can move out to Palmdale for the rest of their days. Rest in Peace, City of Angels.

    1. I grew up in LA, college there too. In The Palisades. Pali high grad. Worked at the 31 Flavors in what’s called The Village. John Denver would come in and juggle three scoops of ice cream to the delight of all. Of course he’d ask for different flavors to have more of an impact. He was as ‘elite’ as it got.

      We lived right on the edge of the heavily forested canyon in a modest rented home. Was evacuated twice. Always a little scary. Really no ‘elites’ then. Or anyway not many. Truly hard working. In the ’60’s most of my friends were Jewish, ‘upper middle class’ families. Most teachers lived locally. Yes, many actors, but unknowns and not at all rich. I could name them off, but you’d shrug your shoulders.

      Turn of the century so called elites began moving in. No kids anymore so the high school had to become a charter school for kids all over West LA. Mostly a good thing so black, brown, Asian kids (and true middle class ones too) could come in from inner city areas. Fires were always around. Kind of a way of life. So were the Santa Ana winds. An eerie feeling if you’ve never experienced. Very eerie. Sometimes easy and rolling, sometimes scary and viscous. Always warm on the verge of being hot.

      Water was always precious. Early settlers worked hard to get and hold it. When my farther was in art school near downtown in the 30s, most bungalows had structural ways to capture and store water.

      City leaders led by developers scored water in any way they could. Remembering how angry my father was (an avid fisherman) that it was ‘stolen’ from Sierra runoff. Owens Lake went dry, Owens valley desolate, Mono Lake left for the coyotes to more easliy eat eggs laid and protected by migrating birds.

      Recently no one seemed to care about water. Without water from other sources LA wouldn’t exist. Simply, it would NOT exist. They were all oblivious and concerned about other things. It’s not that they didn’t care, they simply forgot that they needed to be vigilant and aggressively proactive. But were oblivious to the unwavering pursuit of their predecessors. Living in their own fantasy world(s). They weren’t vigilant and now much of LA does not exist.

    2. As long as we have far left sympathetic media to spin everything, the responsibility for the wild fires in Los Angeles will never be attributed to those folks ultimately culpable, particularly the odious Gavin Newsom. Our greatest fear should be that Gov. Newsom wants to become President Newsom.

  2. The voters got the type of government that they voted for. Vote for idiots, get idiocy. And you can bet they will vote the same way next time, because their brain refuses to believe what their eyes see. No common sense – actually, no sense at all.

    1. John, common sense requires trained use of the pre-frontal cortex of the brain. Most progressive democrats do most things based on emotion, lazily only using the lymbic brain, and therefore, respond to emotional stimuli vs. real facts and needs!

  3. This is just the start of the pain and problems the progressives of California are going to experience from here on out because of the crazy policies and beliefs. They can spin all they want, but their media lackeys are no longer believed in anymore. The party is really over!

  4. Sad sad sad. Job One of government is to provide safe and effective infrastructure. Now, perhaps, they can redub their Train to Nowhere as the Train Outta Town.

  5. Back in the late 70’s when the tree huggers fought and won to stop proper forest management to save the spotted owl, my Dad predicted this would happen. He was right. The democrats has trashed this once beautiful state. I don’t see it recovering in my lifetime or that of my children. So sad.

  6. Governor wise I don’t think Illinois is too far removed from the insanity we call California. Are you listening JB?

    Great piece John. Happy Sunday everyone.

  7. Having spent much of my career in both California and Illinois, I always figured that California/Los Angeles and Ilinois/Chicago were racing each other to the bottom. Until the fires, I had Chicago squarely in the lead, but I think that it is now a neck-to-neck race to the final lap.

      1. John, with the total value of homes and business’ being zeroed out, what is the LA County tax assessor going to do about the income level of real estate taxes? Time to cancel Olympics and World Cup.
        Tom

        1. I was just wondering if those organizations can rescind their offers to LA & grant them to the runner-up cities. And if they can, will they? If they stay in LA, I fear that’s where the rebuild focus will be – definitely not on those who suffered.

  8. Too true! DEI hires failed LA, failed NOLA, and will fail somewhere else next [Chicago, Philly, NYC?]. For all his many flaws, Chis Christie was out front, engaged, and active before, during, and after during Sandy and the daily news conferences were never CYA jokes – in contrast to Katrina, NOLA, and, now, LA.
    NJ rarely has really big forest fires [unlike Southern California], but last November responders responded, they had water [despite the drought], air support, and alerts were straightforward, rational, and never hysterical. Even Gov Murphy [atypically] conducted himself well [and certainly didn’t run off to his Italian villa. I’m hoping for a sea-change election here this November! I hope California has one soon too.

  9. The water and lack of forest management are, of course, important aspects of the incredible incompetence of California’s political leadership. Yet, all through the media, we get ‘climate change’ as the incontrovertible cause of this disaster.

    Wrong. It’s epic mismanagement, detailed in my book, The Newsom Nightmare.

    4 years ago, in the midst of the historic shutdowns of the Covid pandemic, I noted that hundreds of airplanes were idle and available for purchase. Still the politicians here were spending billions on a train to nowhere that could have been used to buy those planes, outfit them with tanks and create an ‘air armada’ to tackle these fires.

    Many of these fires start and grow in areas unaccessible by conventional firefighters. The key to stopping these is to extinguish them BEFORE they turn into disasters. The few air assets the state have are woefully inadequate.

    https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/oct/7/california-group-calls-fighting-wildfires-air-arma/

    Maybe this disaster will wake up Californians and get them to vote for competence.

  10. By the way, here’s a Chicago Way talking topic for you and {Mr Lipson?}; the 2030 Census. In 2000 the four regions used by the Census [9 districts] all had roughly equal populations. We are undergoing another internal migration now and apparently the South [3/9 districts] now has about 40% of the population. That means Ca, NY, Pa, Mi, Il, & Wi will all lose 6-10 Congressional seats [and electoral votes] to Tx, Fl, SC, & Tn[?]. Having lost Senate seats in Mt and WV [and Ga probably next] the Dems really can’t realistically gain control of the Senate for the next decade or more. That’s a shift that could spell the end of our divided politics and [possibly] lead to a decade or two of GOP dominance. The Red states are winning the battle for people and a calmer and more stable political and economic life appears to be in the offing. I’m just an old HS History teacher – your [others?] thoughts?

    1. That would be valid if illegals weren’t counted in the census and their numbers used for apportionment of congressional seats. Trump tried to put a citizenship question on the census forms for 2020, but the Supreme Court blocked it. So any losses felt by states like California of citizens fleeing will be made up by some of Joe Biden’s 10-15 million illegals.

  11. I’m old enough to remember that Ronald Reagan was in the shower at his home at 1669 San Onofre Drive in Pacific Palisades on the night he won the presidency in 1980 when Nancy came to tell him President Carter was on the phone to congratulate him on his landslide victory. That makes me sad knowing that the home that was built on that spot years later after the Reagans sold that property one year into his first term is probably no longer there. But if there is such a thing as a collective electoral epiphany in CA, this would qualify as the ignition source fueled by their rage at the lack of reasonable explanations for what former Mayor J. Daley was trying to convey to his closest aides way back when he stressed frequently to them to “take care of the small things and the big things will take care of themselves.” So simple and yet profound! Are there enough Justine Batemans in the Golden State to turn it red? I have my doubts. But in 1980 when I was 20 years old, there was a former actor in his shower taking a call from Jimmy Carter congratulating him on his victory while polls were still open in Washington, Oregon and California. I will always content myself with that landslide victory!

    1. That GOP control of Ca in Presidential elections resulted in a GOP ‘lock’ on the presidency: Reagan 2x and Bush41 once. The Dems CANNOT win a presidential election w/out Ca – and Ca’s Electoral & Congressional clout is shifting to Tx & Fl. Our volatile national politics might be coming to an end, but the Dems will fight to bitter end and beyond [and fight dirty] to try to check that.

  12. Well said John. Started traveling to California on business in ’74. Was close to paradise. Then Hollywood (or most of it) was still occupied by real Americans, not the scum we see now. Am hoping criminal Joe won’t write a blank check to this scum. As far as this ex Roseland guy is concerned, let them rot, and that especially goes for the majority of the 13.2% voters that put Bass and Newsome in office. Just like they’ve done to Chicago, and other cities. Let them figure it out without wasting more of my hard earned money.

  13. I wish I could believe that with all the Democrat incompetence that voters will wake up (see what I did there? lol) and stop voting for them but it wont happen. Voters will be swayed by the goodies that Santa Democrats promise and go to the polls and continue voting for them, because after all, they are suffering because of those racist Republicans.

  14. Nicely done, John.

    But in reading all of this and knowing how pretty boy and gluteus mirror each other so closely in political beliefs and fantasies –

    what natural disaster is coming to Illinois ?

    Just wondering

    1. Ken…we in Illinois are sitting on top of the New Madrid Seismic Fault Zone…more near the southern part of the state. Something big could happen here. I don’t trust that the state under it’s current leadership would be very helpful. Now if something like an earthquake should actually occur here in the next four years, Pritzker would just blame Donald Trump.

  15. I’ve noticed something distinctly different about this latest fire crisis- a noticeable lack of sympathy. I guess most of the country has regained a bit of common sense, quite evident from the Presidential election. As to California, I hear a lot of the same-“Too bad, but f*%# ‘em. They did this to themselves.”
    As to Chicago, wait for it. Something will happen that will have the rest of the country saying the same thing.

    1. You mean your heart strings aren’t tugged when you see selfies of a teary-eyed kardashian creature or Paris Hilton being upset that one of their many homes has /even burned? You are a monster!

  16. Well I guess using Only DEI Can Prevent Forest Fires is no longer an option. Right?
    I have family in Santa Monica that I have been in contact with. As with any tragic event it’s worse than we can see from tv.
    Praying for all in harms way, for those who have lost all, and the firefighters who are battling the fires.
    Thanks for your words.

  17. Γιάννη,
    And yet, even if they dump their mayor and/or slick governor, they’ll no doubt vote in more leftist dems with woke or DEI mentality! They just don’t get it. Some years ago when I worked in 3 refineries, I was always amazed that none of the offices I frequented had family pictures or human subjects! All were pictures of things! Harleys, campers, vistas, cars…no people!! What did that sa×y about them???

  18. I almost feel like giving up on criticism of leftists for their dim-witted war against individual freedom, a healthy culture, constitutionalism and capitalism, even basic governance. Though the policies and prejudices of woke leftists are disastrous, they’re just symptoms of a deeper disease. The destruction of California and the valuation of smelts over human beings dramatize the fixed problem of leftists:

    They’re at war with reality.

  19. Thank you,John. This story brought back a great memory of my dad taking me and my brothers to the lake(some where near McCormick place) and explaining what smelt fishing was.

  20. Yes, the little things. The unglamorous, hard work that nobody thinks about. That is the essence of good governance.

    Most of what Hollywood produces is crap, and I’m not going to shed a tear about their burned Malibu homes, but The Matrix was a great movie, partly because of a line by the bad guy towards the end – “human beings are a virus.” Sadly, this is how radical environmentalists think, but they never walk the walk by removing themselves from the planet. They genuinely believe that the primitive hunter gatherer existence is a Garden of Eden.

  21. I think there is a lag time here, between the citizens inital shock and numbness to them turning to tremendous anger. This is a disgrace. Let’s hope that our California friends turn on their woke politicians and soon. Newsome and Bass should be thrown out of office asap.

  22. Six years ago I moved south, to a well run red state (hey we have a budget Surplus!) Flyover country for the Dem Elite, but Donald was here in person. Growing up in Chicago for six decades the effort to “take care of the little things” made Chicago “The City that Worked.” Clean water, clean streets, pick up the trash – and a few bucks to the alderman for a new 55 gal drum. Firehouses fully staffed with working fire trucks. Police on the street. (a recent post in Second City Cop mentioned an acute shortage of paramedics/ems “buses”, and front line fire equipment that is properly maintained)
    Mayor Panic Attacks is in way over his head but the members of the CTU will wet their beaks each time a contract or dispute occurs. I love the phrase “Don’t
    Cali(fornicate) (insert red state) if you move here. Do I feel sorry for family and friends affected, sure but the DEI Tree huggers now have a bitter lesson to learn. “Disinformation”? Prima facie evidence of what and how things happened. Ya wanna live in an inaccessible canyon filled with brush, well your fire insurance premium will reflect it. No wonder insurance companies cancelled fire coverage. Mayor Bass refused FDNY assistance because “they are not trained for wildfires”. Two thoughts. You don’t put them in one spot by themselves. But alongside experienced FF’s, or backstop LACFD houses so their crews can fight the wildfires. Old med school adage. “see one do one teach one” applies here.
    Thanks for an excellent column.

  23. What is the natural disaster that could happen that would befall Chicago? Bilandic caught the “can’t get re-elected virus” due to a snowstorm. Emanuel had a snowstorm, but his “can’t get re-elected virus” was videotape.

    It’s not going to be city finances because of the virtue of the muni bond market and the funds that play in it. They have to be 100% invested, so they will always buy a slice of Chicago debt just to take some risk and juice returns, provided the covenants in the bonds explicitly make sure the taxpayer is on the hook.
    (I am @pointsnfigures1 on X)

  24. When the federal government money spigot gets turned on to reimburse those California millionaires, remember what the Feds did to North Carolina and eastern Tennessee this year when the floods happened.

  25. Here’s a thought worth exploring: who’s going to rebuild your house? There’s already a labor shortage. Motivated labor is hard to find. Skilled labor is even harder to find. Highly skilled tradesmen are impossible to find.

  26. John,
    You hit the nail on the head! Too bad it took a devastating fire to start to turn California into red.
    A very costly lesson indeed. Thanks for another great column.

  27. “They invent scenarios and rail about “misinformation” which will work only as long as the corporate media carry their water.”

    What with the Hunter Biden laptop, the Trump Scandal O’ The Week, the Economy Is Good lie and There’s Nothing Wrong With Joe/We Were Fooled Ourselves lies, I don’t think anyone’s listening to the corporate media anymore. They’ll still vote Democrat though, it just might not be for Newsome.

  28. This is a two-prong debacle of pain.
    First is watching your house go up in flames. All the questions arise on how/why etc….which we are doing now.
    Then comes the insurance/rebuilding. That will really hurt! That $9M home in Malibu will cost $15M to build and insurance will not cover even half of the original $9M. Not to mention the redlining that insurance companies will be doing or the restrictive building codes that are now needed to follow. How many of those homes have a Matisse or a Jackson Pollack; a nice string of Caspian Pearls? My humble guess is we are not talking in the 10’s of billions of dollars, but upper hundreds of billions of dollars. The insurance companies will go wild! The lawsuits!
    We haven’t seen anything yet.

  29. Dems will continue to believe in their religion. This won’t be their fault and the sheep will believe it. And, I have it on good authority the checklist used for picking their novelty candidates was written on fireproof stone tablets.
    – John, on your road back, maybe start by casting a light rod from the bank on a local pond. The food chain starts at the bank and the good catches are from 2′ to 6′ out. When the weather warms, cast a little rubber-legged popper parallel to the bank, do some short pops and watch the water explode. This can be as good for the soul as fighting the current and cranking out a long cast. –

  30. Its not hard to see why State Farm bailed on California. Three million dollars for a bungalow that would top off at 400k max on the south side of Chicago. Overpriced real estate and shit environmental policies helped create this perfect disaster. Californians had plenty of warnings and opportunities to stop the disaster but rejected them. They elected their current tree stump Mayor over the guy who saved his retail development by hiring his own fire department. Voted to keep their imbecile governor during a recall election a couple of years ago. Trump warned them of this during a campaign stop last year. Anyone but Trump right? I get it. Stand in your pile of ash a scream it out loud. I feel for the people standing outside with their garden hoses faced with overwhelming odds since the outcome had already been determined by
    incompetence. Yes. We need to raise money to help. Let’s throw a telethon. We can add the Hurricane victims in there to drum up interest since most of us wont donate to help absolute idiots. Funny how Hollywood elites didn’t care about people living in tents in the Carolinas till now. Give till it hurts. That three million dollar bungalow ain’t gonna rebuild itself….

  31. Thank you John Kass for this column of real worth. Perhaps LaLa Land should call the Olympic Committee and the World Cup Committee and tell them there is no place for them and LA can NOT afford to have them at this time!
    Yup, your description of Mayor Daley and his scrapping off his shoes in the gutter are a great picture to be shown and put in place for Newsom and Bass to peek at. That is their total worth right now….as if they had any worth from the beginning.
    It is time for the people of California to get on their horses and demand to be taken care of instead of just being the piggy bank for Newsom’s hair gel, or Bass’ trips to Africa.
    In stead of helping CA, how about helping the people of WNC, TN, GA, FL, Lahaina, Palestine, Ohio and a few others still waiting for assistance. Or perhaps Biden is intent on sending a check for $700.00 to each person in LaLa Land?
    John, did you mention how much barf bags were selling for at Walmart? Or was that Walgreens?
    All our best to you John Kass as it is getting along in time for you to start thinking about that roast lamb and getting the fly fishing gear ready for a trip to that secret place with your sons….
    God bless you kind sir.
    Tom

  32. I would like to believe this is a turning point for Cali, from a political perspective. However I can’t get a recent meme I saw out of my head. Something to the tune of, “There is no excuse for the! We need to vote them out! Next time I’m voting for a different Democrat!” It does give me pause.

  33. First it was blamed on Global Warming. Now we find out it’s patronage incompetence.

    68 firefighters short, over six hundred ambulance calls a day, hydrants not checked for water and pressure, shrubbery not cleared.

    The Real Mayor Daley turn over in his grave if he saw the leadership in California and Illinois. Great column JK. Great comments.

  34. Well said, John!
    There is no joy in watching thousands of homes burn and people fleeing for their lives on a moments notice. It a tragedy that is beyond devastating.

    The calvary is not coming to save you when forestry has been mismanaged, water conservation is cancelled, firefighters are defunded and foolish government officials are elected.
    Gross mismanagement. Whatever happened to accountability and “The Buck stops here”!
    Bass and Newsom should resign immediately. Lots of other blame to go around.

    Mayor Daley was right, common sense prevails.
    No Pics of Governor Newsom manning a hose or hoisting a bucket of water.
    BTW where is Alejandro Mayorkas and Homeland Security?
    FEMA funds illegally given to Ukraine and migrants have dried up.

    I do believe we should help rebuild the Los Angeles area, rich or poor,
    they are our American Brothers and Sisters.
    They are us, catastrophes can happen to any of us at anytime.
    I think of the people in the North Carolina mountains, living this winter in
    tents and still suffering from Hurricane Helene.
    However, there needs to be accountability from Day One on every dollar provided.
    God help us all.

  35. There are two problems here. First, you ask: “So who’ll pay? California homeowners and taxpayers will pay for the mistake.” And then they will vote again for the Newsoms and Basses of the world. Second, they have already gone to their time proven “get out of jail” card: “Climate change”. And the idiots in the legacy press, and their other water carriers have already bought in. It was all climate change and nothing could have been done.

  36. Only yesterday Joe Biden went on the TV and “prayed God ” that the incoming President Trump would do some thing to save LA. And he spent all his money into wasteful projects in the past few weeks so as not to leave a penny to TrumP! Why can’t he just pay off some from his 6500 sq ft home he is going to move in after leaving office?

  37. My daughter who is a die-hard demoRat like rest of my family, lives in the south east corner of Orange county. Though it’s a republican town, she is going to pay 3 times more on her town home insurance next year due to this fire and yet would blame conservatives for all this! A week ago when she, whose alma mater is NW, saw the book ‘How the president and his son sold America to foreigners”, she quipped “the author (who is also a NW alum) is a bitch”!

  38. Perhaps the people of Commiefornia need our help, but they brought this on themselves.

    I’d rather see us help the people of North Carolina, people suffering through no fault of their own. Let Cali get in line behind the people who FJB kicked out of hotels in the middle of a snowstorm.

  39. This could really end up hurting the Dems big-time in more ways than one. As someone pointed out this week, Malibu, Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, etc. is probably their single biggest ATM machine for campaign contributions!

  40. So far we all read the political and other reasons as to how the fires have started and why they couldn’t be prevented or stopped. Now let us consider the spiritual reasons: Hollywood have become since long as Sin Capital of the world. A lot of religious right, including myself, believe that sexual revolution of the sixties where lot of young people (particularly men) were hurt, brought in the breast cancer. And as the premarital sex had become the norm of the society, the cancer got permanently set.

    Then, Hollywood had gone against the nature, making the same sex behaviour as the norm and spreading it across the country and the globe faster than the wild fire that they have been experiencing! The result is the Covid -19 Pandemic that killed millions. Now let us examine the process: While world leaders like Obama & Biden, the Queen of England and others planted the seeds for pandemic, people like Antony screwball Kennedy and the 3 witches in the SCOTUS made it happen and incubated the seeds and the Pope, Francis kicked the virus off the grounds from Vatican when in 2019 Summer he beseeched the nations of the world to approve the same-sex activity and recognize their union! He did it all hoping he would be made a saint some day by people like Lady Elton John who in the first place tossed the idea! Now you know where it all started and ended and Hollywood and the nation paying the hefty price.

  41. “Liar, Liar, Pants On Fire”, comes to mind while reading main stream media’s whitewashing contributory liability of previous Californication legislations respecting recent scorched earth LA destruction.

  42. I live in Chicago’s 19th ward (down the hill over the tracks.) The Democrat voters on my side of the neighborhood would vote for Biden or harris todayif allowed, they love Brandon Johnson and don’t see a connection of their votes and the misery their candidates bring….so no, California isn’t going red in any way.

  43. The media can get away with blaming the fires on Santa Ana winds and droughts and various other so-called ‘acts of God’ because we associate fire with accidents and other things beyond our control.
    The public may be suspicious but not disbeiieving of such claims. You got 40 million people in California to worry about and keep safe, so there really is no excuse for how out of control things got there.

  44. When the fires have finished, and the smoke clears, you will be able to drive around Bel Air and Beverly Hills etc as see all but a few mega mansions still standing, untouched, because the Liberal Elite were able to afford private firefighting. With everything else burnt to the ground around them.

    That imagery, right there, is the Democrat party. That was our future as a Nation, had Nov 5 turned out differently.

  45. Hi John, been awhile since I commented on your post(under Mattew Jennings), and as usual with me this one is off topic but I want to comment before the recent news about Cha Cha Jimenez gets put down the rabbit hole like the topic of my comment. In 1969, Cha Cha Jimenez and his Puerto Rican gang of thugs, The Young Lords, illegally occupied McCormick Theological Seminary in Lincoln Park in Chicago, and the local media has been puffing up these terrorists as heroes upon the recent demise of Jimenez. I remember reading an account(I cannot recall the name of the publication)of a couple of leftie white female sympathizers who were part of this occupation and were raped by these thugs.. They claimed the left quashed their concerns, ala Great Britian. Any info available on this? JJ

  46. Just like when you go to a restaurant and you see an “exit” sign, you expect an exit to be there. They are important if a fire should break out. But, know that brains are wired to leave the same way you enter. That’s why there are stampedes and people die attempting to all use the same exit. Believe me; this translates to urban/wildland firefighting. I’ll explain: in our communities, a fire hydrant is a stark reminder that you live where you should have an uninterrupted supply of water. Firefighters see a hydrant and expect to get water from it when needed. Hydrants are visual reminders that we have a safe community.
    BUT, for hydrants to work when they are needed most, they must be tested every year for flow rates and if not working properly, be repaired. There is no worse feeling than catching a hydrant that is “dry”.
    Water leaks in a water system also steals valuable pressure from a firefighting effort. Imagine a hose with a hole in it and yes; it’s like that. Fire demands a certain water flow rate for extinguishment and broken hydrants and leaking water mains won’t get you there.
    So, when there isn’t an exit behind an exit sign or water doesn’t come from a fire hydrant, we are treated to that “false sense of security”. Then, come the lawsuits.
    What about urban vs. wildland fire tactics?
    It is true that urban firefighting training is so different from wildland firefighting. I won’t list them. Let’s say there are many.
    However, there is what is known as urban/wildland INTERFACE. This is where tactics from both are joined to extinguish fire. Basically, urban departments protect life and property in an urban setting and the wildland firefighters do their thing, such as creating fire breaks, back burning and establishing fire dead zones where fire can’t burn anymore.
    One of the scariest fires that firefighters face are in structures where hoarding is present. Lots of fuel for fire and obstacles that can entrap firefighters. Hoarding fires are nightmares.
    Well, environmentalists are hoarders. They want to hoard all of the dead trees and vegetation in the name of the environment. They fight de-forestation efforts as damaging the environment. And that’s just fine until there’s a fire, fueled by decades of dead trees and vegetation, high winds and limited water sources.
    Fire trucks are designed to siphon water from water sources and then apply that water to fire. Water reservoirs are certainly a valuable source, but so are rivers, streams, lakes, ponds and if you live in a forward-thinking area, underground water tanks. Taking down water source for repairs without having alternate sources is wrong, wrong, wrong.
    Climate change didn’t start the fires. Climate DOES affect fire and suppression efforts, but fire needs an ignition source. Yes; lightning can trigger a fire, but that’s one in a million.
    Fire departments are rated by insurance companies for their ability to protect a community. If you are the best of the best, you have a Class ONE rating. If you have no fire protection or very little fire protection, you could have a Class TEN rating. Fire premiums for property owners are determined by this process and a Class TEN, though the worst rating could cost you the MOST in dollars.
    Insurance companies are not required to provide insurance, especially property that is tucked in between the dead forests with no discernable water source with only one way in and one way out. We know insurance companies aren’t in the business of losing money.
    Let’s talk about the fourth leg of this stool-MONEY.
    Wildland fires are BIG money for firefighters, contractors, vending/canteen companies, equipment operators, NGOs, charity organizations and environmental activist organizations. BILLIONS of dollars. Every. Single. Year.
    I’ll close with this: California politicians have killed their once great state. A fire chief who allows the cutting of their budget so that illegals can receive benefits, is in the wrong business and has no business leading a large metropolitan fire department. And paying someone $700,000 a year to “manage” water? Ridiculous.
    Pro tip: the next time you go out to eat or see a show or go to a game, look around for the exits. Plan your way out in the event of an emergency. I never sit with my back to the door and I always plan a way out, if need be. You can do that and still enjoy your evening out.
    Situation awareness, group. We are smarter for it.

  47. Newsweek reports that the arsonists who started the L.A. fires turned themselves in: https://www.newsweek.com/suspect-admits-starting-fire-los-angeles-blazes-persist-2013681

    One wonders, beyond pyromaniacs, why they did it, and where. Malibu comprises some of the most wealthy beach homes in the country. Was it another attempt to “eat the rich”? Additionally, the MSM made it seem like the entirety of L.A. was burning; in actuality it was four patches of L.A., admittedly tragic as 16 people are dead.

    Most wildfires, those not caused by downed electric poles, are started by arsonists. Yet, 6 days before the fires started, according to the Post, firefighters put out a blaze at the exact location where the mega fires started.

    And another thing: those expensive houses had home insurance, to be sure. Real Estate is the most lucrative investment besides land and farms…

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