DEI Green New Deal Hydrogen Bomb—Watt?

from american thinkers

That’s how Victor David Hanson describes this week’s catastrophic wildfires in California.

“It's a complete system collapse because there's no money spent on irrigation, storage, water, fire protection and forest management, a viable insurance industry, a DEI hierarchy, and you put all of that together and it's like a DEI Green New Deal, it's like a hydrogen bomb. …Gavin Newsom is playing around, he's almost Nero Newsom. It's unimaginable… What we're seeing in California is a state of 40 million people. The managers believe that this place should be restored to the pastoral scenery of the 19th century. They are decivilizing, deindustrializing, and deagriculturalizing the country, but they have not told 40 million people that their way of life will have to return to the 19th century. , you didn't have fire protection at that time…California didn't have enough water. You didn't have enough power. So we made these decisions intentionally not to develop the energy industry, not to develop the lumber industry, not to protect the insurance industry. Houses and property. We do it almost in a purely nihilistic way.

Any honest accountant will stress the veracity of his assessment.

Los Angeles is burning. And those responsible for dereliction of duty worry that they will be found out to be liars and empty shells. The left-wing voters who support them are furious at the hell out of their chosen politicians giving the green light – as if they are shocked, appalled by the consequences of their vote.

Here are just some of the most glaring examples of California’s poor governance that led to this disaster, in case your news sources passed them by with feature stories about the toll and bullshit of climate change. (California’s average annual rainfall has remained constant since the late 19th century, and California has not experienced drought conditions since 2022. Sometimes it rains and sometimes it doesn’t. Therefore, particularly smart management of water resources is necessary , this has been ignored. The fire weather watch was declared a week before the fire by people who hold elected office, including Karen Bass, a longtime Castro fan. Leaving to attend a junket in Ghana anyway was hardly part of her job description. Her deputy mayor for public safety was on leave after the FBI raided his home, “allegedly because of the incident earlier this year.” A bomb threat was issued from the city hall”.

On his first day in office, the mayor allocated $1.3 billion to address homelessness and cut $17.6 million from the Fire Department. For her and her three female fire chiefs, DEI is more important than preventing and responding to fires. The publicly stated philosophy that drives her priorities is that there are too many white male firefighters, and huge efforts are made to force them out and not rehire them (even though firefighters often require an upper-body strength that few women possess). In Pacific Palisades, where the original fire broke out, there is a reservoir that can hold

117 million gallons of water. Los Angeles era The reservoir was initially reported to be empty and in need of repairs, but has remained empty since 2009. The reservoir is empty. She also had to know that many fire hydrants were missing or empty. Without prompting help from Canada or elsewhere to bring in planes capable of pumping water from the Pacific, the governor brought rain to California after destroying dams to save the smelt.

Billions of dollars in damage, much of it uninsured. This is because the state imposes price controls on insurance premiums and insurance companies cannot make a profit on the maximum limits set by the state, so they cancel coverage. (No doubt the same idiots who elected the people who made this stupid decision will paint the insurance companies, not the irresponsible legislators, as the ones responsible for their massive losses. Failed Public The only good thing about the education system is the large number of truly stupid voters.

Most of these failures were points made years ago by the president-elect who had experience as a builder in California, all of which were ignored by Governor Newsom because playing good hair in governance seemed to work well enough for Californians

Given the vast bureaucracy that regulates housing construction in California, it will take a long time, if at all, for burned areas to be rebuilt. If it does happen, these homeowners will be on the hook for huge taxes (which, if history is any guide, will continue to be allocated to everything but essential services.)

Another amazing “coincidence”, California just passed a new tax law where if your house burns down and you don't rebuild it within two years (not possible in California), you lose your tax base. YOUR PROPERTY TAX SKYROCKET IS EQUIVALENT TO THE PROPERTY'S NEW VALUE Think about a home purchased for $5 million many years ago. Let's say they paid $65,000 in property taxes per year. Real estate prices increase a lot over time, especially in Those areas. Maybe the value today is $30 million. If not, if they can't shift the tax base, then they have to pay $400,000 a year.” “In 2020, California voters approved a bill that basically Say, if your house is in a fire, you can transfer the tax basis of that property to something you bought or something you built, so you only have two years to do that. The most expensive homes and properties will be reassessed to pay the highest property taxes.

Despite spending $24 billion on “homelessness” (probably paying salaries and political operations to friendly left-wing NGOs), homelessness has increased by 40% under Newsom %. (Read the full article for the best understanding.) Here’s why they failed:

… They express gratitude to wealthy, radical left environmentalists and social justice donors who live in places like Marin County and Hollywood. These are the people who have funded radical left groups like the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council, which have successfully blocked desalination and water storage plants, the proper removal of flammable debris from forests, and the effective management of landscapes around housing developments for 45 years. Previously, the same groups and financial interests halted the expansion of nuclear power, the perfect energy source for desalination. [snip] For decades, Hollywood has produced movies and TV shows that depict the depletion of natural resources and a climate-driven apocalypse. Yesterday, some journalists and scientists blamed Los Angeles' lack of rain on climate change. This is ridiculous. From 1877 to 2024, there is no trend in annual rainfall. Destroying civilization has proven costly, not cheap. Californians pay the highest taxes on gas, electricity and water, which are among the most expensive in the nation. [snip] Both ancient wisdom and modern psychology tell us that one can understand a person's motivations through the consequences of his actions. California Democrats, progressives, and politicians lie when they say their top priority is protecting the people of California. When they say they care about social justice, they lie. When they say they care about protecting the environment, they lie. Instead, they are concerned with destroying a civilization they have long since identified as evil. All civilizations need a story. The story of building Los Angeles and California is one of human progress. The story of Destroy It is about human sin. For decades, progressives, Democrats, and the news and entertainment media have preached that civilization is evil and doomed. Slavery, Aboriginal genocide and climate change are evidence of this. Now, as the City of Angels smolders, it's clear that progressives are reaping the consequences.

Meanwhile, fires continue to smolder, with many suspecting they were caused by arsonists, and robbery groups lingering in areas where homeowners have evacuated. Newsom eventually called in the National Guard to better control the outbreak, but about a week late.

In a better world, the state could be taken over and its assets properly managed, or else many of the state's agencies and offices would be ripe for a thorough accounting and cleanup.

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