Now look at what Biden Inc. has done the last 4 years, and continues to do up until the split-second Trump takes the oath of office on the 20th.

The Equipment issue is worse than I thought it was. I caught hints of it from the comments made during the 17 million dollar cut hearings.

Per the Daily Mail:

“LA fire chief Kristin Crowley said in an interview with CNN: ‘We have over 100 fire apparatus out of service. Having these apparatus, and the proper amount of mechanics would have helped.'”

And the LAFD only has 183 trucks total.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14282009/fire-trucks-Los-Angeles-fires.html

on anothe rnote…

EXCLUSIVEI was fully indoctrinated into the Democrat ‘cult.’ Here’s why I left my liberal influencer life behind to raise money for Trump
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14278643/lindy-li-liberal-defected-democrat-cult-raising-money-trump.html

A former high energy Democratic fundraiser, failed congressional candidate and social media influencer is now raising money for President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural committee.

Lindy Li made the shocking 180 after an extraordinary journey though a crazy year in Democratic politics culminating in Kamala Harris’ historic loss to Donald Trump.

‘It’s been one of the most painful and rewarding moments of my life,’ Li told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview.

etca

And voila!
A CA commenter at Turley’s website says exactly the same thing.
https://jonathanturley.org/2025/01/12/new-hampshire-supreme-court-rejects-hate-speech-enforcement/comment-page-3/#comment-2478775

Rebuilding will take years, again thanks to Democrat Policies. Malibu has a reclamation rule in some parts, that if Mother Nature destroys your home, you won’t be allowed to rebuild. The goal is to replace the homes with open space. Permits can take years. The construction costs have skyrocketed. Then there are the surveys and regulations. In order for one neighbor to get insurance, she was required to plant trees, but the fire department ordered her to cut the trees, because they would be too close to the structure. Regulations duel with each other, and no one wins.

Read the full comment and another one (link below) for corroboration by a local about most of what we’ve seen in the news, with some additional “on the ground” perspectives. There is more on the Wi-fi and gas generator situation in the other comment I quoted above.

https://jonathanturley.org/2025/01/12/new-hampshire-supreme-court-rejects-hate-speech-enforcement/comment-page-3/#comment-2478758

Karen S says: January 13, 2025 at 4:56 PM
I’m going to go off on a tangent, and report on the state of California, a Democrat Supermajority.

My husband was down south working in Pacific Palisades when the fire broke out, and he and his employees got out of there in time. His friend, who was working at another location, was not so lucky. He was trapped on a narrow road, blocked when people in front panicked and abandoned their cars, trapping everyone behind them. Cops went down the line and told everyone to leave their cars and make a run for it. He made it out on foot, but his work van with his tools burned.

Although the 5 fires were all well to the south of us, we had our power cut off for days. Luckily, we have a gas generator that we could run during the day, but we shut it off at night. We live in an area without cell service, so once the generator shut off, we had no WiFi, which we’d relied upon for texts and emergency alerts. Throughout the day, we kept getting false alarms to evacuate immediately. Once the generator shut off, I lay awake all night, eyes wide open like that character from “Clockwork Orange,” wondering if any new fires cropped up near our home.

The following are ways in which Democrat policies either directly contributed to the spread of the fires, the inability to evacuate, or made people more helpless:
…
3. The Los Angeles Fire Department budget was cut by over $17 million. LA mayor Karen Bass wanted to cut that budget by over $60 million more. If she had succeeded, there would have been 16 fewer fire stations to respond to that fire.
…
6. Gov Newsom has banned gas generators, starting in 2028, if I recall correctly. Without gas generators, during the regular power outages, those of us on a well won’t have water. No water pump, no water. That means no water for fire crews, either, as once that large water tank is drained, they can’t access the underground water resource.
7. Go Newsom has mandated that higher and higher percentages of vehicles be EVs in coming years. The power is regularly cut in CA, especially in rural areas, due to high wind fire hazards. No power, means no way to charge an EV, which means no escape from wildfires. There is a video of a man in a truck who found a woman sobbing on the side of the road in the middle of the fire, crying that she couldn’t start her car and escape with her 4 dogs, because it’s a hybrid.

8. Sierra Club sued to prevent preventive burns.
…
California has been a super majority for decades. Republicans have zero to do with California policy.
…
Democrat rule is an unmitigated disaster.

Here is one article, by Leighton Woodhouse, which the editors call a “smart take,” followed by a selection of Letters from people who don’t agree.

https://www.thefp.com/p/stop-blaming-politicians-los-angeles-wildires

https://www.thefp.com/p/letters-to-the-editor-los-angeles-fires-leighton-woodhouse

I would say Woodhouse gave a decent analysis of the natural situation faced by the cities, but he sort of gives a brush-off to the incompetence currently on display, and appears to think (as the respondents suggest) that the only solution is for everyone to move out and let nature have it all back.

Which might happen if the building regulations are as onerous as some people have indicated.

https://www.thefp.com/p/paradise-lost-karen-bass-los-angeles-fires

There’s nothing really new in it, but Weiss is still an influential Democrat in the blogosphere (unlike Jen Rubin).
However, IMO, it still sounds like she wants competent Democrats, rather than Republicans.

“This is a story about the failure of California to prevent, or capably mitigate, a long-predicted catastrophe, and how a state that was once a model of good governance came to prioritize the boutique concerns of ambitious politicians over the basics of what government must do.”

Conservatives have been telling them that for decades, and they (the majority urban electorate) continued to vote for Democrats and their boutique concerns (Bari calls it their “niche ideology” in her Fox appearance).

Elections have consequences, as another influential Democrat once said.

KTLA also had this map that shows the damaged structures situation so far.
https://ktla.com/news/california/wildfires/palisades-eaton-wildfire-damage-maps/

Did you watch the videos?

You can’t be ready for a California wildfire with a reservoir empty for almost a year because of repairs needed for a cover. You can’t be ready for a California wildfire without clearing brush. You can’t be ready for a California wildfire by cutting funds for fighting fires. You can’t be ready for a California wildfire by not building the dams the people voted for, and for letting the rain run off to the ocean in order to protect a smel. And you can’t be ready for a California wildfire without taking into account the Santa Ana winds, which come regularly.

Megyn Kelly says that her one woke friend lost her house and is voting Republican next time. That friend says that all her woke friends likewise.

–Megyn Kelly, “Woke Failures in California Bringing Backlash to the Left After Deadly Wildfires, with Stu Burguiere”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdB1teyT6ac

I think these fires are a 9-11 event for Angelenos and probably many Californians, especially when combined with Trump’s 2024 victory.

Nice run-down!

In a similar vein VDH calls the LA Fires a “systems breakdown.”

–“Victor Davis Hanson: How DEI Caused a Multifaceted ‘Systems Breakdown’ in Los Angeles”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqTIB-4mE28