I’m a California boy. I was born in a small mountain town in Plumas County, Northern California and when I was 10 years old in 1970, my family moved to Sonoma County in the S.F. north bay. I lived there until 2022, when my wife and I made the difficult choice to move to North Carolina. Moving was the hardest decision my wife and I have ever had to make, as we’re both California born and bred. We had to leave behind both of our adult daughters, (the oldest has still not forgiven us,) friends, family, former co-workers and neighbors, not to mention our townhome that we had called home for 30 years.
Like tens of thousands of other Californians, we were faced with no other choice. People here in NC always ask me why we left, and my answer is always the same, the uniparty state government has taken the greatest, most beautiful state in the Union and turned it into a hell-hole. I tell them about how amazing California is, especially the “Wine Country” in Sonoma County, how people from all over the world make it a premium vacation spot. The weather is fantastic, the countryside is reminiscent of the south of France and until Covid, it had a vibrant economy. Yeah, it’s expensive, taxes are way too high, but the quality of life made it worthwhile. Now, I tell people, “its a nice place to visit but you don’t want to live there.”
The fires in southern Ca brought to mind all of the reasons why we left. The chickens have finally come home to roost, as they say. California is proof of why the electoral college is perhaps the most brilliant example of government ever devised. California has been a one party state for decades, even when they had a Repugnican Governor. Deukmejian, Pete Wilson and (Ugh) Aaahnald Schwarzenegger were at best ineffective and at worst like Aaahnald, Rinos. If California had an electoral system like the federal Government, it wouldn’t be ruled by the major cities. As it stands now, Sacramento, San Francisco and Los Angeles voters decide the statewide and federal election winners. All of those cities are decidedly very liberal. Trump flipped 10 counties red in 2024 and won more of them than Harris. The electoral map of California counties is mostly red, but he still lost by a wide margin. As a result, conservative voters really have no voice, and the wildfires that erupt EVERY FREAKING YEAR are a none to subtle reminder of what a one party government, led by the thoroughly loathsome, despicable, lying Governor, Gavin Newsom, can do to a once great state.
If anyone deserves reparations, it’s folks like me. I’m not saying I want them, I’m just saying that because of DemonRat policies, I lost my job that I had for 35 years, had to sell my home and move across the country to a state that although it’s great and I love it, it’s not California. The perception of those who haven’t lived in Ca., is that everyone who lives there must be some kind of weird, but in truth, there are Californians who are just as regular, normal, conservative bible believing people as anywhere else. In fact, there are a whole lot of them, the reason they stay and put up with all the crap is because it’s CALIFORNIA. In the famous words of sportscaster Dick Vitale, “its awesome baby.” Still, I realize that NC is where God wants my wife and I to live, the events that led to us selling our home at the exact right moment in time, finding our new home and everything in-between demonstrated unequivocally that this is where we are supposed to be, and as much as I get homesick from time to time, I truly love it here in North Carolina.
I still pay attention to what’s going on in The Golden State. When I heard about the L.A. fires, I wasn’t surprised, in fact I was surprised that it hadn’t happened years ago. When I was a kid growing up in a small town in the Sierra Nevada/Cascade mountains, our school would send us on field trips into the forests. We would talk to rangers and learn about forest management, we were introduced to Smokey The Bear, and his catch phrase “only you can prevent forest fires!” We visited outlook posts where rangers were stationed to spot distant smoke from a possible fire. The most important thing we learned was forest management. The most important factor in forest management is clearing out dead debris, it’s not rocket science, it’s basic common sense. Remove the most dangerous fuel source. The state government, bowing to pressure from environmental groups, has steadfastly refused to do that basic fundamental thing.
All throughout the day on Thursday, there was story after story of how firefighters were running out of water by the 2nd day of the fires. It’s incomprehensible, to scream about incompetence doesn’t begin to describe the gross, murderous negligence and outright stupidity of the people in charge. When the Biden regime came into power, Newsom went on T.V. and boasted how he now had a partner in D.C. to help clear the forest of brush and debris. Great speech, except it didn’t happen. In 2024, despite record rainfall and the knowledge that the Santa Anna winds were going to be severe, the reservoirs that feed the L.A. area were not filled, if fact one that feeds the Pacific Palisades which has a capacity of 117 million gallons of water, was closed and empty because it was under repair. The moronic Mayor of L.A. (uh, what’s a URL) spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer bucks grifting for the homeless/industrial/ complex, so she had to slash over 17.6 million dollars from the fire dept. budget. She wanted to cut even more, in fact in a memorandum issued a week before the fires, she wanted to trim another 48 million dollars from the LAFD. That proposal would have closed 16 fire stations around LA. The Fire Chief publicly complained about the budget reduction, but failed to mention that over 100 firefighters had been fired for refusing the Covid Clot-Shot. She was ok with that, because her stated main priority was DEI, she wanted to replace those men with more women and LGBTQRSTUVWXYZ people. There is a reason why it’s a male dominated field, being a firefighter requires a great deal of physical strength, that’s just a fact of life. That obvious fact didn’t stop a Deputy Fire Chief from releasing a video that said if a woman is not strong enough to rescue a grown man from a fire, then the man shouldn’t have gotten himself into that situation in the first place, unbefreakinglievable! This DEI Chief wasted millions on her DEI b.s., money which could have gone to offset the budget cut. In addition, they sent a bunch of surplus equipment to freaking Ukraine, to call these people stupid doesn’t begin to describe them. To call it a clown show, is a grave insult to clowns.
I had a conversation with my youngest daughter before we moved. I tried to explain to her what being a conservative means. I explained that the word itself explains what it is, conserve. We want to conserve the things that work, like faith and family. I explained that in the Bible, man was given stewardship over the earth and that means we have been charged by God to manage all of the earth’s resources for the betterment of not just humanity but all life on the planet. That’s why a forest needs to be managed, why water is so very crucial. The environmentalists, (heavy on the mental part) see man as the problem, not the answer. Instead of conserving precious rainwater, California diverts it to the ocean to save the delta from being overcome with brackish water from the S.F. bay, which would result in damage to farms in the area and the killing of among other creatures the Delta Smelt. It’s a short-sided solution to what is obviously a long term problem. I don’t know, maybe a dam might be able to fix it, that’s one idea I’ve heard, I’m sure there are many others, but that would take to long and not be as virtue signaling as standing up for a 4 inch fish. The environmentalists don’t want to clear the dead undergrowth from the forest, because it might disrupt the habitat of the Spotted Owl and other animals. I have to ask them, what’s worse, a well-managed forest or estuary, that animals can, and do adapt to, or one that’s uninhabitable because it’s been destroyed by a preventable fire?
Sometimes you have to hit bottom before you decide to claw your way out of the hole you’ve dug for yourself. This maybe that moment for California. Hopefully it’s not too late to save her. I mentioned before that Trump flipped 10 counties in Ca this time around. There are plenty of people who are getting fed up with Newsom and even some leftists are calling for his resignation. (please God, PLEASE!)
The next few weeks are going to show how much crap liberal Californians are willing to tolerate. We saw this in northern Ca when the 2017 Tubbs fire destroyed an entire neighborhood in Santa Rosa called Coffee Park. It also ravaged the foothills in and around Santa Rosa and took well over 3 years to rebuild. The first year, practically nothing was being rebuilt because people had to go through the permit process, which in Ca is completely insane. The real kicker was that the homeowner, someone who had just had their home destroyed was now responsible for the cleanup. The hazardous waste regulations alone are not only incredibly burdensome, but also very expensive. In fact, the exact same thing is going on here in western NC. For those rich California movie stars and celebrities trying to rebuild their fancy homes, I wish you good luck, just wait until you have to deal with the Ca. Coastal Commission, which gained notoriety because of their clash with Elon Musk and his endorsement of Trump. These people are in for a rude awakening. Couple that with the fact that insurance companies have been cancelling thousands of fire insurance policies in Ca. They understood the policies of Newsom and his cronies have made providing fire insurance too big of a gamble, they realized a massive fire in SoCal was inevitable and trust me, they are not in the business of going broke. It’s incredibly sad that something as predictable and horrific as this had to happen, but maybe it just might change liberal’s attitudes towards the people they elected. They are the people directly responsible for this mess. One can only hope for a silver lining in this dark cloud of destruction.
The one thing I wanted to see about this whole tragic event is how the federal government will handle the aftermath. This is the 4th major disaster they’ve had to deal with. The first was East Palestine, Ohio, the second was Lahaina, Hawaii and the third was western North Carolina. The devastation in NC is unbelievable, whole towns washed away, geography changed, toxic chemicals washed into the flood zone, a final death toll that will NEVER be known. I my opinion, the failures of FEMA and the Feds in each of these 3 prior events are tantamount to murder, their actions and inactions have cost the lives of American taxpaying citizens. As of this writing, there is a winter storm watch in the Smokey Mountains. A lot of people living there can’t get a hotel voucher, so basically, they’re homeless. In addition, a great many others were denied the paltry $750 check FEMA boasted about. There are still people living OUTDOORS IN TENTS! The only reason it hasn’t been even more horrendous is the incredible spirit of the people here in NC. Yet I just heard that according to ABC news, good ‘ol Uncle Joe has promised the “Federal Government will cover 100% of costs for initial LA fire recovery.” Gee, is that because of all the DemonRat campaign doners that reside in LA? Us hicks in Hawaii, Ohio and NC, just aren’t important enough to help out, we’re not rich liberal doners, or illegal aliens or members of the Alphabet Mafia. We all saw what FEMA did after Hurricane Milton slammed Florida, workers there were told to stay away from houses that displayed Trump signs. These leftists don’t even bother to hide their hatred for the average American. I’d like to see Newsom spend a few nights in a western NC tent. Let’s have the cast from “The View” spend a week in East Palestine and drink the water. You think Oprah is going to be giving some of her vast Hawaiian real estate to some of the poor people in Lahaina? Hell, she just made over a million bucks shilling for Komrade Kama-la-la Dingbat, but somehow, I don’t think that’s going to happen.
After Trump won, you saw a lot of these leftists, like the deranged hypocrites Joe and Minka Scarborough, travel to Mar-a-Lago and “kiss the ring.” Try to make all nicey-nice with The Donald. All of the sudden the same people who just weeks earlier, were calling Trump and conservatives Hitler and fascists, are realizing their b.s. is being called out and they certainly don’t want the gravy train to stop delivering mega-bucks to their bank accounts. Now they have to deal with the very real consequences of their politics. Their political stances that have not only cost them their pricey views of the Pacific Ocean and large financial loses, but human lives as well. I’m pretty sure most of them don’t give a damn about the people who died, unless it was one of their own kind, but the material loses might just get them to re-think their politics. They’ve proven they have no real moral compass, so a hit in the ol’ wallet, just like the Bud-Lite boycott might get them to stop voting for D-isgusting E-mptyheaded I-diots! Maybe, just maybe we can MAKE CALIFORNIA GREAT AGAIN! Turn the Trump YMCA dance into “M-C-G-A.” I can hear7 it now, “M-C-G-A. we’re gonna M-C-G-A! ” “Without a doubt, we’ll throw them bums out, we’re gonna M.C.G.A.!” (Kinda catchy ain’t it.)
Rock on Brothers and Sisters!
Comments