After the election of Donald Trump as president, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is the Democrat leader in the failed never-Trump movement, immediately convened a special session to ask for $25 million to fight the Trump Administration.
Newsom has made a name for himself as the head of the resistance against Trump and although many thought he should replace Joe Biden this year as president, his political hands were tied. He has been a strong possibility to run for president in 2028.
Newsom said in November he needed the money to protect “California values,” which include being a sanctuary state for illegal immigrants and the child gender mutilation industry.
Newsom is now battling to preserve his political future, but he has not been helped by the slow federal government.
It wasn’t until late Wednesday that the Biden Administration announced it would send additional firefighting personnel and capabilities to California to assist in battling the series of out-of-control wildfires. When those assets will arrive is uncertain, but wind-driven fire weather is expected to remain until Friday in Southern California, where the footprint of the fires are small, but are many and are in urban areas that now look like war zones.
Newsom is being blamed for focusing on the wrong things, and not being ready for the fires, which have destroyed hundreds of homes and killed five people in the past week.
“Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way,” Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social, the social media platform he started after the old Twitter management kicked him off of that platform.
Newsom says Trump mischaracterizes the complex water system in California. But as the leader of the anti-Trump movement, he and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass appear to be ineffective leaders and are fighting battles on two fronts: The disaster response and the political fallout for them both.
“Fire is spreading rapidly for 3 days — ZERO CONTAINMENT. Nobody has ever seen such failed numbers before! Gross incompetence by Gavin Newscum and Karen Bass….And Biden’s FEMA has no money — all wasted on the Green New Scam! L.A. is a total wipeout!!!” Trump posted on Thursday morning on Truth Social.
The left-leaning Los Angeles Times categorizes that as false, but in fact, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 authorized the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Recovery and Emergency Act to provide financial assistance for costs associated with low-carbon construction materials and net-zero energy projects. FEMA’s 2022-2026 Strategic Plan includes “whole of community in climate resilience” and encourages states to build climate-resilient communities. This is a vast expansion of the original Stafford Act, signed into law in 1988 and designed to provide a framework for the federal government to offer financial assistance to state and local governments when dealing with major disasters. It allows the president to declare emergencies and major disasters and to provide federal aid in situations like hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, fires, and other natural events, essentially supplementing state and local efforts to save lives and protect property.
Hundreds if not thousands of structures have burned and over 100,000 Los Angeles residents have been ordered to evacuate while their neighborhoods burn out of control. Opportunistic looters have snuck into the burned-out wealthier neighborhoods to take advantage of the evacuation, and only two have been arrested for looting.
With entire communities in the Los Angeles County area burned to the ground, Mayor Bass and Gov. Newsom have just watched as their political futures were also torched by the city and state governments’ inability to prioritize what is the first role of government: To protect citizens.
It’s a cautionary tale for the leaders in Anchorage, where hillside residents face some of the same conditions, with dry weather and high winds combining at times to create wildfire conditions. While the mayor and Assembly of the city focus on equity and diversity, crime has spun out of control in the city and never discuss hardening the hillside surrounding Anchorage against fires, which are increasingly started in homeless encampments that migrate from one greenbelt to another.
Just as in Pacific Palisades, the canyon neighborhood that burned in greater Los Angeles, many areas of the hillside in Anchorage have winding and narrow roads with limited access and no fire hydrants. The mayor and the Assembly of Anchorage, meanwhile, have made it their priority to remove the dam on the Eklutna River that serves as a reservoir for Anchorage’s water supply.
To the innocents we pray for God’s comfort, blessing and protection.
Also, many of the people of California have voted for this: the dei, the placing of fashionable optics over competence, the creation of a one party state with its attendant corruption and lack of accountability, and on and on. Learn from this. Change for a better future. When I was a young man California was regarded, as Chuck Berry sang, as the “Promised Land”. We can all hope that the once beautiful state becomes so again.
One day, we’ll have an epic tragedy, similar to what’s playing out in Southern California, similar circumstances of failed leadership. The deserved response, unfortunately, will be … “You get what you voted for!”
As LA neighborhoods burn, residents breath a sigh of relief knowing that the LA Fire Chief, the Mayor and Governor were all sharply focused on Woke, DEI and Trump-proofing California. 😔
They don’t call it Los Anchorage for nothing, You get what you vote for.
Great article;
On day one, President needs to bring in every fire fighting resource available including U.S. army, order states to allow National Guard and equipment to put out those fires if its not too late and let Gov. Newsom know that California cannot secede from the union and all illegal aliens will be deported. So there!
So it we get 90 mph winds in July down on the Kenai Peninsula and fires rip through the countryside we should expect President Trump to chastise both Governor Dunleavy and all the Peninsula mayors for being grossly incompetent? Thanks for the sensitivity during a national disaster.
You forgot what Joe said to the survivors in Maui where some lost their entire family.
They were in shock and disbelief in what he said to them when he complained about nearly losing his family over his kitchen fire.
I don’t recall the Alaska governor rejecting plans to build reservoirs and aqueducts to bring water to LA. We also haven’t seen the governor devote $25 million (that could have been better served for fire fighting) just to resist Trump. So it’s a swing and a miss on this one, Buck-O..
Yes Sebastian. It is called accountability and responsibility.
We are in the age of information. If leadership is not prepared for the forces of nature and how to handle emergencies, then what exactly is the job they are suppose to be doing?
Perhaps less identity and inclusion BS and more focus on infrastructure and preparation?
We see these disasters from afar. Leadership better take the time to gather tools and implement training right now. The opportunity knocks loudly on the door for them to be proactive and productive.
No more excuses.
Trump must politicize everything. Southern California is in a severe drought, less that a 1/4 inch of rain this season. They are pumping all their reserves dry. What the water restoration declaration would have done was transfer water to allow farmers who planted non-indigenous water intensive crops in southern California to have cheap access to water. Maybe if Trump had succeeded in building the water line from Alaska to California all of this could have been avoided. It really is Trump’s fault as he failed during his 1st term. Next up he will be blaming the Democrats has the south gets blasted with the cold front heading in. Will the Texas power system fail once again? Will Cancun Cruz head out of state?
Newsom wants to Keep California From Being Great.
Political correctness and liberal dogma will indeed see the Anchorage hillside burn to the ground. Remember just a few years ago when the huge homeless cans behind Tozier Track was burning wiring to get at the copper for re-sale allowed the blaze to get out of control. It looked like the hillside was going to go up in flames. Thankfully the AFD and tanker planes were on the job quickly. That said, ALL the Anchorage media refused to acknowledge the homeless mega-camp that was in the area and reported as if the blaze somehow spontaneously combusted.
Liberal politics and liberal policies have failed every state and every city in this nation. Proverbs 26: 11-12
Compared to Trump, Newsome is a little squirt of a piss-ant. By the time 2028 rolls around, California will be renamed.
This tells you where the governor of California mind is not on California and firefighting, but on Trump. Way to go California you’ve got a guy that really cares about you. Let your city burn down.
On a per capita basis Gov Dunleavy asked for many more $$$$’s to argue senseless lawsuits against the Biden administration Trump’s election is a boon for lawyers
Gov. Dunleavy is also suing Trumps Army Corp. of Engineers pebble permit denial also, though the Supreme Court threw out the lawsuit without explanation.
Oh boy! Another reason for our home insurance policies to get more expensive. And maybe new regulations can reduce water flow in home plumbing fixtures even more, to “conserve” (more) water. Here’s to less water, less water pressure, more restrictions on agriculture and higher costs on food! We’ve seen all this before – nothing new here. Viva la California!
It is time the people of Anchorage ask for the resignation of Anchorage Assembly members just like the Liberal Party of Canada did to Justin Trudeau. Let’s return to in person voting with voter ID and see if any of the liberals get elected the next go round. Anchorage is not a sanctuary city and taxpayer funds should NOT be wasted on homelessness, DEI, ESG, climate change, and woke ideologies.
How about the State of Alaska, Native Corporations and Catholic Social Services taking care of the homeless crisis that they created.