The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: California—New Wildfires, Same Faces

Episode Date: January 28, 2025

Over 10,000 homes destroyed, and $50-$100 billion in damages as California battles another explosive wildfire. Find out why nothing has changed and who's accountable: “The estimate of the damage is somewhere now between, perhaps, $50 and $100 billion, and we don't have enough homes for the people who were left. But here's my point, nothing has really changed. Karen Bass is still the mayor. The deputy mayor, Brian Williams, is still under house arrest, or he's under investigation for phoning in a bomb threat.” “And we still have this mysterious thing, don't we? Who causes these fires? It's taboo. You cannot mention the word homeless, but there are no lightning strikes. There are no other exegesis that might explain why these things keep happening. But you do have tens of thousands of homeless people spread all over the L.A. area, of 18 million people, many of them in the hills that camp out. So, my point is, we now have another fire.” “So, my point is, the perfect storm of water mismanagement, timber mismanagement, insurance mismanagement, civic government mismanagement, the role of DEI—they're all in place.” For Victor's latest thoughts, go to: https://victorhanson.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We'd love to talk. Business. Like an update on these fires, we're looking at 250,000 people that are without homes. The estimate of the damage is somewhere now between perhaps $50 and $100 billion. Nothing has really changed. Karen Bass is still the mayor. Gavin Newsom is nowhere to be found. The credibility of the fire chief is at an all-time Nadir.

So my point is, we now have another fire, and it is exploding. Hello, this is Victor Davis-Hanson for the Daily Signal. I'm still out here in California. I like an update on these fires. After the devastating palisides fire, Pasadena fire, we're looking at 250,000 people that are without homes. And the estimate of the damage is somewhere now between perhaps $50 and $100 billion. and we don't have enough homes for the people who were left.

But here's my point. Nothing has really changed. Karen Bass is still the mayor. The deputy mayor is Brian Williams is still under house arrest or he's under investigation for phoning in a bomb threat. The credibility of the fire chief is at an all-time Nadir, and you see other people giving public announcements. The assistant fire chief is sort of in hiding after suggesting that if you were

If you were male, she had to carry you or out. That meant you, not her, were culpable at being in the wrong place. The water and power person, Ms. Keones, who for some reason left the reservoir empty at palisides, what I'm getting at is they're all the same. And now we have the same conditions. We have the Santa Ana winds. We have the dry hills. And they have not been cleaned of the chaparral and the brush.

And we still have this mysterious thing, don't we? Who causes these fires? It's taboo. You cannot mention the word homeless. But there are no lightning strikes. There are no other exegesis that might explain why these things keep happening. But you do have tens of thousands of homeless people spread all over the L.A. area of 18 million people. Many of them, the hills that camp out.

So my point is, we now have another fire. It's near what you, some of you may have been there before. It's near Magic Mountain, so-called U's fire, San Fernando Valley, and it is exploding. It's zero percent contained as I speak. It's got 5,000 acres, and it's coming down the hills toward that very congested area. Gavin Newsom is nowhere to be found. He keeps saying that the reservoirs are full. The reservoirs are full.

The reservoirs are full. They're only full because we had an abnormal wet November and December. rainfall and they filled up not he doesn't mean they're 100 percent they're 70 percent and he calls that full because of the expectation of the runoff in the spring you need room to fill up the other 30 percent but there is no runoff we're in a severe drought we only have 30 percent of the normal snowpack and you can tell that I'm telling the truth because he is his Department of Water Resources has announced that people who take water out of the aqueduct this year are going to get 10% of their delivery.

And when he says all the reservoirs in Los Angeles are full, they're not. There may be 90% full. And they can be exhausted very quickly if they have to fight these fires. So my point is, the perfect storm of water mismanagement, timber mismanagement, insurance mismanagement, civic government mismanagement, the role of DEI, they're all in place. It's almost like all these matches are still here, and then nature is in place. And by that I mean the Santa Ana Wins, the dryness, no storms on the horizon, the chaparral still there. So why wouldn't there be another fire? And we're getting another fire, and we're going to have more and more thousands of people

dislocated, we're going to have more death, we're going to have more billions of dollars, which begs this question. They don't have the resources as they look toward the 2008 Olympics, they being Los Angeles, to fix this problem. So Donald Trump does, but Donald Trump says, I will fix it and I will put a czar there if you change your timber and forest management and hillside management. If you release more water from the Sacramento tributaries and keep that aqueduct and all the reservoirs full, and if you reform your insurance industry so you don't cap what the insurance companies can charge so that they don't go broke, and if you look very carefully at how you hire people in water, power, and fire management, that's a lot of ifs. because Donald Trump is against another impediment.

A lot of people look at this devastation, and I'm not kidding. And they think, wow, this is a way to build a new Los Angeles, high rises, light speed, light rail, density, low-income housing. We'll take Pacific Palisades. We'll take Pasadena. We'll make it into sort of a European village. And some of you have been to Italy or France and outside of the major cities. cities, you can see what we're talking about. Large high rises, condos, green areas, but the point is, all controlled and subjugated by the same people,

the same people who gave us the fire. Thank you very much. It's Victor Davis-Hanson for the Daily Signal. Thank you so much for tuning in today. Please subscribe to the Daily Signal for our next episode.