THOUGHTS ON FIRES IN CALIFORNIA

   The old story was that Emperor Nero played the fiddle while Rome burned.  Then others said, that instrument had not yet been inventted, so he was probably playing the lyre.  Nero was a fan of the arts, and did partake in one of the Olympic games, in the chariot race, awarded the prize, even tho he fell off the chariot.  I think they revoked the prize after his death.  But a fire in ancient Rome did not have fire hydrants, and not many helicopters to drop water to quell the fires.  There can be little doubt, modern fire fighters have certain advantages over those of the Neronian era.

THE FIRES THIS TIME!

     Then how to explain the burnings in Los Angeles?  In an October interview on a podcast, candidate Don J. Trump warned that the green policies of the Democrats were endangering the people of California.  Trump stated, that to save some tiny fish, vast sums of precious water were being emptied from California resovoirs and dumped into the Pacific Ocean, depleting the available water in case of emergency.  He criticized the green policies of the climate change crowd, the eco regulators on various commissions to save obscure frogs, etc., who opposed the clearing of the underbrush, and preferred the leaves to be left to turn brown, and dry up and become tinder for any sparks down the road.

   Trump made this criticism, the WARNING, in October 2024.  The past few years, California has experienced almost record breaking rains.  Water, which had accumulated, was diverted and emptied into the ocean, underbrush dried and accumulated to become tinder.  Democrats, greens and progressives, refused to allow controlled burning of the underbrush, which is dangerous, but if you do not burn it off in small chunks, the later result will be huge uncontrolled fires, as we see now in Los Angeles.  Meanwhile, California money for firefighters was cut, and the new leaders spent more on important projects like DEI.  One experienced gent applying for such a job, was denied one BECAUSE he was a white male.  He was told to come back in 7 years once the fire department had hired more of its quota people.  (One wonders if he might have gotten a job immediately if he had said, I am a male today, but used to be female.) Meanwhile, the fire department was undermanned.  And the water hydrants were NOT underwater, but often OUT OF water.

     And when the first sparks came, and smoldered into fires, fires with flames that sparked and spread in high winds to more fires, and more, and more.  Homes burnt, businesses burnt, schools burnt. neighbor hoods burnt.  Los Angeles began to look like bombed out burnt out Dresden at the end of WWII.  These fires in California may have begun as accidents, but the failure to control them was the result of policies, Democratic Party policies, ecology policies, Green policies, progressive policies.  Cal. Democrat Gov. Newsom fiddles while California burns; Pres. Biden fiddles while America burns.

     We need Pres. Trump now more than ever.        Hugh Murray