Watching the Rams-Vikings game Monday, held in Glendale AZ rather than Los Angeles due to the fires, got me doing a little research. This was after seeing the obligatory “Moment of Silence,” and the coaching staff donning LAFD clothing, none of which helped the beleaguered people of California.

Regardless of what the liberal media and so-called “fact-checkers” are reporting, the California fires can be placed squarely at the feet of the people running CA, particularly Governor Newsome and LA Mayor Karen Bass.

You will gain more information should you want to wade through all the media’s stories or listen to the very informative Tucker Carlson, a CA native, interview of Michael Shellenberger, a journalist and environmental advocate from CA. Surmising you don’t have time for a 2+ hour podcast to listen, here is what I discovered.

At the time of this commentary, it is known that 24 people perished in the fires, over 12,000 structures and 40,000 acres were burnt, and 180,000 people fled from their homes. Many of those fires are not even half contained, and it is known the fires are not over.

Fact checkers are having a feeding frenzy trying to hide or stretch the truth about the issues behind the fires, along with blaming Trump (who else?) for spreading misinformation. They also fault the dry conditions and Santa Ana winds, despite the fact that dryness and winds come every single year in CA – they should be planned for. Closer inspection will bore out other facts that will tell a different story from liberal fact checkers.

Under CA’s liberal policies, there are nearly 171,000 homeless people living outdoors. It’s known by officials that half the fires in CA are set by homeless people. It’s said meth heads particularly are infatuated with fire. According to CBS News, CA spent $24 billion dollars from 2018 to 2023 on the homeless, money that could have gone towards fire prevention. CA doesn’t even have reliable data on where that money went. Just clearing the homeless out would have the potential to decrease half their fires.

Air quality in the LA area is at dangerous levels due to the various products being burnt. Scientists warned CA officials the fires were coming due to the combination of winds, dryness and homeless setting fires – it bothered Mayor Bass so much she left the country for Ghana the following day.

Depending who is reporting the story, the fire department budget was cut by $48 million dollars (reported by Fox News, ABC News and Politico) for the last fiscal year. Fact checkers claim the budget was increased by $17 million. What is known Mayor Bass tried to cut the fire department budget by 17%.  I tend to believe Fox, ABC, and Politico in the matter.

Ridiculously, the Fire Department in LA in recent years has concentrated heavily on DEI – Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, rather than the best and fittest of firefighters. They spent over a million dollars on DEI staffing and recruitment of underrepresented groups for the fiscal year 2022-2023. They followed up that bone-headed plan by spending $1.8 million in f/y 2024-2025 for the same DEI initiatives. Almost three million dollars spent for DEI, for perhaps lesser candidates, rather than money for firefighters or equipment. Meanwhile, there were one hundred firetrucks out of service at the time of the fire.

The Santa Ynez Reservoir, a 117-million-gallon water reserve was dry at the time of the fires, supposedly because it did not meet safe drinking water regulations. The reasoning was because of a rip in the cover, so they drained it eleven months ago according to the liberal LA Times. This caused fire hydrants to go dry for a lack of pressure.

Newsome and Bass are butt-hurt over any blame, often claiming ignorance of the issues, while at the same time being defensive so to avoid Trump blocking Federal Aid. Now Newsome is calling for independent investigations as to why CA was so unprepared while at the same time CA officials are begging for monetary aid to help them out of the mess they made.

To show how incredibly out of touch CA officials are to the plight of water management and public fire safety, as LA burnt CA Democrats met in a special session to pledge $50 million to resist any Trump initiatives – $25 million for defending against Trump administration policies and $25 million to defend against deportation of illegal immigrants.

Perhaps that money too should have gone for fire preparedness to a state that has a long yearly history of wild fires. CA, the 6^th largest economy in the world, made their mess, perhaps they should dig themselves out of it.