What I’ve learned from the wildfires that have devastated Southern California is the profound impact of neglecting nature and making everything about a political dynamic.

• The potential damage of wind-whipped fires was well-known and predictable.
• The political leadership ignored public safety concerns and preparations to concentrate their attention on political power dynamics, namely pumping funding into social programs to aggregate voters while targeting one individual that symbolized the opposition to their narrative-driven ideology.
• These fires aren’t just a product of environmental factors but a stark reminder of how human activity, poor land management, and inadequate infrastructure can create the perfect storm.
• Communities are being left to fend for themselves, struggling with the aftermath of physical destruction and the emotional cost of lost homes and livelihoods, while politicians and bureaucrats fight to preserve their cushy positions, political influence, and a profitable symbiosis with special interest supporters.

It’s your fault for not understanding the faux-complexity of a simple proposition.

It’s your fault, the elites say, for not grasping the faux-complexity of a simple proposition. Instead of offering clear, logical solutions, their rhetoric is cloaked in convoluted jargon designed to make you feel inadequate for questioning the subject.

Terms are thrown around without explanation, and their meanings are often abstract or contradictory, leaving the public feeling alienated and confused. This deliberate obfuscation prevents honest discourse, pushing people to accept these ideas unquestioningly or be labeled ignorant or insensitive.

Ultimately, the focus shifts from finding practical, effective solutions to creating an illusion of intellectual superiority while the real issues go unresolved.

Fire protection involves preventative measures, building and pre-staging adequate resources, and reacting quickly and resolutely to ignition events.

My observations…

I have noticed a disturbing reoccurrence of brush fires in certain areas, such as the Sepulveda Basin, the area near Hansen Dam, and the area near the Santa Clara Riverbed --- all of which have concentrations of homeless individuals. The simple solution to these accidental or deliberate fires appears to be to remove the homeless, especially those with drug addiction and mental health issues.

However, in the name of compassion, we find progressive communist democrats waffling on and on about homelessness being a multifaceted issue with deep-rooted causes, including lack of affordable housing and mental health struggles. All while these fires are a dangerous byproduct of the man-made conditions in which many individuals are allowed to live. The progressive communist democrats cannot, or will not, see beyond the billions of dollars that only seem to enlarge the problem as an entire bureaucracy springs up to support homeless individuals – and that includes well-paid special interests such as developers and landlords who exploit the situation.

The progressive communist democrats promote a complete reversal of sanity where the cause is always the fault of the political opposition, and the solution involves elites seeking more political power over the populace and funding for what turns out to be scientifically unsupported theories that produce despair, damage, and eventually derangement.

Compassion requires “tough love.”

In the name of compassion, progressive communist democrats often advocate for sweeping changes that seem aimed at solving societal issues. However, these well-meaning efforts frequently lead to a troubling reversal of sanity. The pattern is predictable: when problems arise, the blame is placed squarely on the political opposition, portraying them as the sole cause of all societal ills. The proposed solutions, however, are less about practical resolutions and more about consolidating power in the hands of elites—those who claim to know what’s best for everyone.

These solutions often rely on funding for theories that, upon closer inspection, are not grounded in science or reality. Despite their lack of empirical support, these ideas are fervently pushed forward, claiming to be the keys to solving complex problems. Ultimately, they do not lead to progress but instead foster despair, damage, and societal derangement.

The result is a growing divide, where people are told that their challenges are the fault of others and the only path forward is more control by those in power, all while abandoning reason and scientific integrity. In pursuing compassion, we risk losing the sanity that can help us solve our problems.

Bottom line…

We know how to manage brush and undergrowth, hold utilities responsible for power lines in remote brushy areas, remove the homeless from dangerous places, and incarcerate teenagers who use fireworks and hang out around illegal campfires.

It’s time to get tough and enforce the laws on our books, or else we are so screwed.

-- Steve