Tragedy in California

As tragic as is the ongoing wildfire destruction in California is, using it as a claim to get financial assistance from the citizens⁽¹⁾  of other states needs to be questioned, if not resisted. We really don't yet know the true story of the sequence of events that occurred (and are still occurring) in California and there already does appear to be some leaning toward trying to assign blame for the problem(s) there.

By continuing to elect and re-elect officials in their State that are predominantly Democrats and more Left Leaning Democrats at that, Californians may need some assistance in the learning what the results of that practice can be (and all too often ARE). Although not always the case, elected Democrat officials do, in the author's opinion, tend to focus a lot more of their time and efforts on political matters (such as getting other Democrats elected and themselves re-elected) than do Republicans.

It is not yet known who actually made the initial decision to send five fire trucks to the scene of the fire when it initially broke out. The nature of the initial report to the fire department has not, yet, been released. It is possible that that initial report only indicated a single house on fire and sending five fire trucks may well have been department policy for such. However, the fact that the wind was known to be blowing and blowing HARD should probably been a consideration in that decision.

With regards to Los Angeles Mayor, Karen Bass, she was in Ghana attending the inauguration of that nation’s new President and returned to Los Angeles quickly when informed of the fire.

The Los Angeles Fire Chief, Kristen Crowley was, indeed “at her post” in Los Angeles when she learned of the Palisades fire. Earlier in 2024 she had complained regarding the $23 million dollar cut that Bass had ordered on the Los Angeles Fire Department’s budget.

The area in Southern California where the fires occurred (and are still ongoing as of 1/16.25) is beautiful and has many many people to build homes and businesses there in which to live and work. That has, of course, made the property very expensive over the years and, as a result, has often resulted in close proximity of the various structures. That, combined with the potential of relatively high wind certainly increases the likelihood of fires spreading and spreading rapidly. However, with those facts being well known, does it justify any attempt to ask for people living elsewhere to help financially in re-building the structures lost in the fires? In this author's opinion, the only justifiable financial assistance by people living elsewhere MUST be limited to loans and any such loans to be made charging the current rate of interest.

1. It is very important to realize that the so called "Federal Funding" that California officials will likely be seeking all (100%) comes, not from Government, but from the pockets of taxpayers.