California Burning

Mismanagement, Speculation, and the Tragic Comedy of Leadership

California is ablaze—again—and the excuses are as tired as they are predictable: climate change, bad luck, a gust of wind, maybe some PG&E negligence thrown in for flavor. But peel back the layers of smoke, and the truth is far uglier. Decades of leftist mismanagement, corruption, and ideological vanity have turned preventable wildfires into an annual tradition.

Add non-working hydrants, firefighting funds shipped overseas, a war on meritocracy, and growing speculation about Directed Energy Weapons (DEWs), and you have a catastrophe so absurd it could only exist in a state that thinks banning plastic straws will save the planet.

And then there’s Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, whose deer-in-headlights silence when confronted with her failures speaks volumes. More on her later.

California didn’t just mismanage its forests—it abandoned them. Controlled burns and forest thinning, tools that have prevented wildfires for centuries, have been all but eliminated to appease environmental extremists. These groups seem to think letting forests overgrow into giant kindling piles is a great way to honor nature. The result? Entire landscapes just waiting for a spark. As though by AI war gamed design, no?

And speaking of sparks, let’s not forget the state’s long crumbling infrastructure. Fire hydrants that don’t work, an electrical grid that might as well come with a goddamn “flammable” label, and PG&E, whose maintenance plan consists of crossed fingers and rain dances. Fixing these issues would seem like an obvious priority—if California’s homicidal leadership didn’t have more exciting things to do, like shipping firefighting equipment to Ukraine or banning gas-powered lawnmowers.

California isn’t alone in its tragic incompetence. Maui’s fires earlier this year followed a similarly disastrous playbook: sirens that didn’t sound, hydrants that didn’t work, and an overall response that felt more like a satire than an emergency plan. North Carolina has had its own spate of unexplained fires and power outages, raising questions about what the fuck is really going on in a world where 100 weather manipulation patents are on file and globalists’ ambitions on record.

In California, firefighters found themselves arriving to scenes where hydrants failed—AGAIN. Add to that the fact that insurance companies have been canceling fire policies en masse, and you’re left with homeowners abandoned in every sense of the word.

It’s hard not to notice the patterns, but harder still to get any SOB in power to acknowledge them. Maybe some of those displaced Hollywood types can invest some of their aggrieved energies into fare transcendent of “2012” and “The Day After Tomorrow”, and just make a fucking film called “Today.”

Then there’s the speculation about Directed Energy Weapons (DEWs), a topic that’s moved from the fringes to mainstream curiosity. In Maui, images of properties mysteriously untouched while others were reduced to ash fueled suspicion. In California, similar patterns of seemingly selective destruction continue to raise eyebrows.

Is this the result of wind, chance, or something more deliberate? Who knows? What’s certain is that California’s alleged leadership has little interest in answering such questions. Dismissing public curiosity with a smirk and a wave is easier than providing transparency.

Let’s not forget half-wit Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’s Sounds of Silence. Embodying the fine art of disappearing in plain sight, when pressed on her handling of the wildfires—particularly her decision to cut $17 million from the fire department’s budget—Bass’s response was a masterclass in avoidance, her spirit animal the deer in the headlights.

While cowardly Bass dodges responsibility, California’s leadership continues its systematic dismantling of competence. Firefighting, a profession that requires skill, bravery, and expertise, has been hamstrung by diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies that prioritize optics over qualifications.

Training programs now spend as much time on cultural sensitivity as they do on actual fire science. Promotions are increasingly based on ideological box-checking rather than merit. The result? A firefighting force hobbled by policies that treat flames as less of a threat than microaggressions.

Fire doesn’t care about quotas or pronouns—it cares if you can put it out. California’s leadership, however, seems more concerned with checking boxes than extinguishing flames.

Indeed, California’s firefighting budget should be robust enough to address these challenges. Instead, it’s been looted for pet projects and political posturing.

• Newsom’s Diversions: Governor Gavin Newsom funneled hundreds of millions earmarked for fire prevention into green energy initiatives, because nothing stops a wildfire like wind turbines.

• International Priorities: Firefighting equipment was shipped to Ukraine, leaving local crews to face record-breaking blazes with outdated tools.

• Budget Cuts: Bass herself redirected millions away from the fire department to fund social programs. One can only hope those programs include classes on how to douse flames with recycled optimism.

Meanwhile, insurance companies have been fleeing the state like a homeowner from an encroaching blaze, canceling fire policies and leaving residents to face ruin without coverage. The timing of all this shit is suspect as hell. And on the heels of Soros’s other appointments and initiatives, all the more suspect.

Before the apologists start dusting off their talking points, let’s address a few of the usual rebuttals:

• “It’s not her fault!” Leadership means owning the outcomes, good or bad. Karen Bass and her counterparts weren’t elected to craft excuses; they were elected to manage crises. If hydrants are dry, budgets are slashed, and policies fail, they are responsible. That’s what leadership is.

• “Climate change is the real issue!” Sure, the climate is changing, but it isn’t why fire hydrants don’t work, why firefighting equipment is sent overseas, or why your insurance got canceled. It’s not why forests were left to overgrow for decades or why controlled burns were abandoned. Those failures lie squarely at the feet of California’s leaders.

• “They’re trying their best!” Would you accept “trying their best” from your airline pilot, surgeon, or even your plumber? Of course not. So why settle for it from people responsible for millions of lives and billions in taxpayer dollars?

• “DEI and affirmative action have nothing to do with this!” Wrong. DEI-driven hiring practices and affirmative action policies have sidelined qualified, experienced personnel for decades, particularly in firefighting. When promotions are awarded based on ideology instead of skill, you end up with a workforce less capable of handling life-and-death situations.

Fire doesn’t care about your diversity quotas or cultural sensitivity training. It doesn’t respect equity. It only cares if you can put it out. By prioritizing optics over expertise, California’s leadership has put lives and property at risk. DEI initiatives might look good on a press release, but they’re utterly useless when you’re staring down a wall of flames.

• “This is a systemic issue, not a leadership one!” Sure, and who’s responsible for the system? Decades of leadership have created the very structures they now claim to be victims of. If it’s systemic, it’s because the system was designed—or neglected—under their watch.

By excusing these failures, defenders of the status quo aren’t just enabling more fires—they’re fanning the fucking flames.

The real tragedy isn’t just financial—it’s personal. Families have lost homes because hydrants failed. Firefighters have risked their lives battling flames with inadequate equipment. Thousands of residents, already devastated, are left uninsured and unable to rebuild.

And yet, California’s leaders continue to posture about banning gas-powered cars and saving the planet, seemingly unaware—or uncaring—that their own constituents are burning.

California didn’t have to burn. The forests didn’t have to be overgrown. The hydrants didn’t have to fail. The firefighting funds didn’t have to be siphoned off. But under leftist rule, these disasters are not exceptions—they’re rituals.

Bass’s silence, Newsom’s diversions, and DEI-driven incompetence are not anomalies; they’re symptoms of a system that prioritizes virtue signaling over results. As the state smolders, its leaders remain untouched, protected by excuses as flimsy as the ash-filled air.