By American Thinker
This is how Victor David Hanson describes this week's catastrophic wildfires in California.
“It was a total system collapse because of the idea of not spending money on irrigation, storage, water, fire protection, forest management, a viable insurance industry, a DEI hierarchy, all put together and it's something like a DEI Green New Deal.” Hydrogen bomb… Gavin Newsom fumbled, he's almost Nero Newsom. And that was something that was simply unimaginable… The system collapse. And finally, in California we see a state with 40 million people. And yet the operators believe that it should return to a pastoral state like in the 19th century. They decivilize the state, de-industrialize the state and de-economicize the state. But they don't tell the 40 million people that their lifestyle must return to the 19th century, when there was no protection from fire… There wasn't enough water in California. You didn't have enough strength. You didn't pump any oil. So we consciously make these decisions not to develop energy, not to build a timber industry, not to protect the insurance industry, not to protect homes and property. And we do it in an almost purely nihilistic way.”
And every honest accounting underlines the correctness of his assessment.
LA is burning. And the sleazy people in charge are afraid that they will be exposed as charlatans and empty suits. The left-wing voters who made it possible are becoming angry at the inferno that their elected politicians have green-lit – as if they are shocked, shocked by the consequences of their choice.
Here are just a few of the most glaring examples of the mismanagement in California that contributed to the disaster, in case your news source misses them with stories about losses and nonsense about climate change. (California's average annual precipitation has remained unchanged since the late 19th century, and California has not experienced a drought since 2022. Sometimes it rains in California, sometimes it doesn't. Therefore, particularly wise use of water resources is required, and it is the case were ignored.) No water reservoirs were created or maintained, no firebreaks were created, and the removal of dry brush in its forests was prohibited. Those holding elective offices have shown indifference and incompetence towards the citizens of the state. A fire watch was declared a week before the fires broke out. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (a longtime Castro supporter) left anyway for a trip to Ghana, which is hardly part of her job duties. Her deputy mayor for public safety was on leave after the FBI searched his home “allegedly because of a bomb threat to City Hall earlier this year.”
On her first day in office, the mayor committed $1.3 billion to combat homelessness and cut $17.6 million from the fire department. DEI was a bigger priority for her and her three female fire chiefs than preventing and responding to fires. The openly expressed philosophy that motivated their priorities was that there were too many white male firefighters and that great efforts were being made to push them out and not hire more of them (even though firefighters typically require the kind of upper body strength that few women have). own). . In Pacific Palisades, where the fire first started, there is a reservoir that can contain the fire
117 million gallons of water. The LA Times initially reported that the reservoir was empty due to repairs, but it has been empty since 2009. Lavishly paid waterworks manager ($750,000 a year) Janisse Quinones knew months before the fires that the reservoir was empty. She also had to know that many fire hydrants were missing or empty. There were no timely efforts to seek help from Canada or elsewhere to deploy aircraft capable of scooping water from the Pacific, where the governor had sent California's rains after destroying dams to catch smelt to save.
Losses in the billions, much of it uninsured. That's because the state imposed price controls on insurance premiums and insurers couldn't make a profit on the state's mandated maximums, so they canceled the insurance. (The same idiots who elected the people who made this lame decision will no doubt blame the insurance companies, not the reckless legislators, for their significant losses. The only benefit of a failed public education system is an abundance of really stupid voters.)
Most of these failures were arguments made by the president-elect years ago, who had experience as a contractor working in California, all of which Governor Newsom ignored because Californians apparently are well enough to play government with a good haircut
Given the vast network of bureaucracies that regulate housing in California, it will take a long time, if ever, to rebuild burned-out areas. And if that's the case, those homeowners will be hit with massive taxes (taxes that will continue to be collected on everything but essential services, if history is any guide).
What another AMAZING “coincidence” California just passed new tax laws. If your house burns down and you don't rebuild it within two years (which is impossible in California), you lose your tax basis. Your property taxes will skyrocket based on the new value of the property. “Think about a house purchased many years ago for $5 million. Let's say they paid $65,000 per year in property taxes. In these areas in particular, property values increase significantly over time. Maybe it's worth $30 million today. They go to rebuild it. If that wasn't the case and they couldn't transfer the tax basis, they would have to pay about $400,000 a year.” In the event of a fire, you can transfer the tax basis of that property to something you buy or build. But you only have two years to do that.” As a result, some of the most expensive homes and properties around the world are now being reassessed to pay maximum property tax.
Despite spending $24 billion on “homelessness” (probably to fellow left-wing NGOs for salaries and political operations), homelessness has increased 40% under Newsom.) Michael Shellenberger has a good explanation for how the left’s absurd hatred on Western civilization and human progress has led to this point. (Read everything for better understanding.) One of the reasons for their failure is this:
… They are beholden to wealthy, left-wing environmentalists and social justice donors who live in places like Marin County and Hollywood. These are the same people who fund radical left-wing groups like the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council, who have successfully blocked desalination and water storage facilities, the proper disposal of combustible waste in forests, and the effective management of landscapes around residential developments for over many years 45 Years. Previously, the same groups and financial interests had stopped the expansion of nuclear power, which is the perfect energy source for desalination. [snip] For decades, Hollywood produced films and television shows that portrayed the depletion of natural resources and the climate as triggering the apocalypse. Yesterday, some reporters and scientists blamed climate change for LA's lack of rain. This is ridiculous. There is no trend in annual precipitation from 1877 to 2024. We have wet and dry years. The destruction of civilization proved expensive, not cheap. Californians pay the highest taxes for the most expensive gasoline, electricity and water in the country. [snip] Both ancient wisdom and modern psychology teach us that one can understand a person's motivation by looking at the consequences of their actions. California Democrats, progressives and politicians lied when they said their top priority was protecting the people of California. They lied when they said they cared about social justice. And they lied when they said they cared about protecting the environment. Rather, they were concerned with destroying the civilization that they had long ago believed to be evil. All civilizations need a story. The story that founded Los Angeles and California was a story of human progress. The story that destroyed it was about human sin. For decades, progressives, Democrats, and the news and entertainment media have preached that civilization is evil and doomed. Slavery, indigenous genocide and climate change were the proof. And now, as the City of Angels smolders, it's clear that progressives have reaped what they sowed.
Meanwhile, fires are still smoldering, many suspected to have been caused by arsonists, and gangs of looters are roaming areas where homeowners have been evacuated. Newsom eventually called in the National Guard to better control the situation, but it is about a week too late.
In a better world, the state could be placed under receivership and its assets properly managed, otherwise many agencies and offices in the state would be ripe for a thorough accounting and cleanup.
Like this:
Load…
Related
Explore more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to receive the latest posts by email.
Comments are closed.