Daily Caller
Like Administrative Arson, California’s Bad Ideas Spread Like Wildfires

From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Frank Ricci
California’s wildfire crisis is a result of a mix of poor public policy, excuses and administrative overreach. This crisis is not solely due to natural phenomena but is exacerbated by years of misguided priorities and policy mismanagement.
In California, regulation has often been elevated to a near-religious status, where compliance with progressive ideals sometimes comes at the expense of public safety. This regulatory environment turns practical solutions into bureaucratic nightmares, where even simple tasks require navigating an endless maze of permissions and paperwork.
The result is a state where water resources are mismanaged, from inadequate retention to failing to have sound contingency plans for pumping when power is out or ensuring the system is designed to handle the fire load.
There is an overemphasis on environmentally friendly policies without adequately balancing the needs of the population or accurately measuring their impact and effectiveness.
When your home is on fire, you need a quick, competent response, properly supported by staffing, resources and clear lines of authority.
The prioritization of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) over merit-based hiring is evident in places like the Los Angeles Fire Department under Chief Kristin Crowley. Her commitment to DEI is often highlighted, leading one to question if this has potentially compromised operational readiness.
The primary focus of fire departments should be on the priority of life safety, incident stabilization and property conservation. When diversity overshadows meritocracy, there’s a shift from equal opportunity to equal outcomes.
Across blue states, there is a trend where HR managers focus more on diversity and soft quotas than ensuring applicants have the necessary physical strength, mechanical aptitude and cognitive ability for the job, regardless of immutable characteristics.
LAFD Assistant Chief Kristine Larson, in a recorded statement, responded to a query about her ability to rescue someone from a fire by saying, “Am I able to carry your husband out of a fire? Well, my response is he got himself in the wrong place if I have to carry him out of a fire.”
In the same clip, she focused on the racial composition of firefighters rather than their competence.
Merit should be blind to race or sex; it is about ensuring that firefighters or officers can master the skills, knowledge and ability needed to do the job.
Victor Davis Hanson has commented: “It was a total systems collapse from the idea of not spending money on irrigation, storage, water, fire prevention, force management, a viable insurance industry, a DEI hierarchy. You put it all together and it’s something like a DEI-Green New Deal hydrogen bomb.”
Moreover, fire departments in cities like Los Angeles, Seattle and New York are still dealing with the aftermath of the pandemic. There is a call for the reinstatement of firefighters who were dismissed for not being vaccinated, suggesting this was an opportunity to purge viewpoint diversity.
Elected officials should not socially engineer fire departments. True diversity comes from educational opportunities like school choice, opportunity scholarships and breaking the stranglehold of teachers’ unions while holding superintendents accountable.
Qualified personnel and proper water management alone won’t mitigate fires. Congress and California need to untangle the web of conflicting government agencies in wildland fire and forest management, ensuring clear lines of authority for public safety.
Environmentally friendly logging and cooperation with fire services for forest management could provide jobs, create fire lines, and ensure quicker response times.
Advanced technology for early detection, such as sensing fire towers, drones and satellites, should be utilized to direct air assets, allowing for a rapid response with helicopters or fixed-wing aircraft to stop or slow the spread of fire from the onset.
America does not have enough staffed air assets stationed, properly geographically deployed and on alert to respond at a moment’s notice. This means deploying air assets throughout the West Coast and in some cases changing policy to allow flying at night and ensuring availability seven days a week. The same applies to bulldozers and other heavy equipment; they must be pre-approved and ready to respond before any incident occurs, cutting through the red tape.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) and the federal government have not met expectations, offering excuses rather than solutions. The public demands accountability not just promises. It is time for California to adopt common-sense wildfire management, focus on merit, manage natural resources wisely and reduce the bureaucratic hurdles that hinder effective action.
Only then can we address this crisis with the urgency and efficiency it demands.
Frank Ricci is a Fellow at Yankee Institute and was the lead plaintiff in the landmark Supreme Court case Ricci v Destefano. He retired as a Battalion Chief in New Haven CT. He has testified before Congress and is the author of the book, Command Presence.
Daily Caller
‘Joe, You’re Fired’: Trump Revokes Biden’s Security Clearance

From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Mariane Angela
President Donald Trump took to social media Friday to announce that he is terminating the security clearances of former President Joe Biden and discontinuing his daily intelligence briefings.
In a Truth Social Post, Trump said Biden no longer needs access to classified information. Trump cited a precedent set by Biden in 2021, when Biden directed the Intelligence Community (IC) to cease providing national security details to the 45th President, a courtesy historically extended to former presidents.
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“There is no need for Joe Biden to continue receiving access to classified information. Therefore, we are immediately revoking Joe Biden’s Security Clearances, and stopping his daily Intelligence Briefings,” Trump wrote. “He set this precedent in 2021, when he instructed the Intelligence Community (IC) to stop the 45th President of the United States (ME!) from accessing details on National Security, a courtesy provided to former Presidents.”
In the post, Trump referenced the Hur Report, saying it showed Biden has a “poor memory” and was unreliable with sensitive information even at his best.
“The Hur Report revealed that Biden suffers from “poor memory” and, even in his “prime,” could not be trusted with sensitive information. I will always protect our National Security — JOE, YOU’RE FIRED. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!,” Trump wrote.
Per a senior administration official: “The process to forbid Biden from getting classified information is underway.”
Daily Caller
Things Are Changing Fast

From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Bob Ehrlich
Less than twelve months ago, the Democrat Party’s progressive wing was in firm control of the good ol’ USA.
The cover-up of Joe Biden’s cognitive decline was in full throttle, with only periodic breaks of truth peeking out from behind the White House’s iron curtain. The four criminal cases cooked up to derail Trump’s re-election were proceeding apace, albeit with a degree of cringe, owing to the essential weaknesses and selectivity of the prosecutions.
To boot: Trump had been hit hard with a $430,000,000 civil judgment in New York. But civil cases were only about money. The thought of breaking and jailing DJT was the accelerant for the “Stop Trump” chorus.
Around the country, DEI reigned supreme in corporate C-Suites. Migrants continued to pour over the border. The DOJ’s speech control ops were operational and (mostly) under the radar.
And, with few exceptions, the gender-bending initiative that has placed biological men in women’s athletic contests (and women’s locker rooms) had successfully shamed most (but thankfully not all) female athletes into silence.
And then the whole progressivism gig suddenly spiraled out of control.
A brutal performance at the first (and only) Biden face-to-face with Mr. Trump ended the mental acuity charade. A vice president with the lowest approval numbers in vice presidential polling history was hastily installed by Democrat elders, to the consternation of many party faithful.
The two state prosecutions began to sputter from both ethical issues (Georgia) and perceived political bias (New York). The extent of the (forced) cooperation between Biden’s agencies and social media platforms (focused on fading pro-Trump narratives) was exposed.
And then Harris chose the uber progressive Tim Walz to be her running mate, rather than the attractive high polling, swing state Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro — one of many strategic blunders committed by her campaign.
Nov. 5, 2024 was of course the inflection point — now followed by daily headlines reflecting the remarkable economic-cultural-and foreign policy 180s taking place at blinding speed.
On immigration, daily raids now take down the “worst of the worst” criminal aliens from our streets, to protests from hard left politicians, Hollywood actors, and media wokesters.
On the economy, a renewal of Trump’s original tax cuts and the return of “drill baby, drill” plus no new taxes on tips, overtime, and Social Security benefits will feed supply side fans while the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) focuses on fraud, waste, abuse, and redundancy to increase efficiency and achieve savings for a broken, debt-ridden federal budget.
On culture, the counter-revolution is rolling.
Not a day goes by without some large corporation announcing a pull back on DEI and/or ESG. Now Mark Zuckerberg and META are fully invested in the restoration of free speech on social media, even down to parroting X’s “Community Notes” rather than censoring edgy or controversial speech.
To boot: One cannot watch a college or NFL football game without players (winners and losers) openly professing their faith out loud and proud. Geez, even the woke NFL is newly enthused about patriotism and the people in uniform that protect us from the bad guys.
And then there are the devastating California wildfires at once horrific, and instructive. Horrific for familiar reasons: loss of life; loss of homes; loss of communities. An unmitigated disaster of historic proportions.
But also instructive as Americans (again) gain an up-close look into the failure of a woke left coast leadership that prioritizes progressive values over preparedness, and sound water and forestry practices.
Twelve short months later, America is back to two genders…“Stay in Mexico”… a southern border …”1776”… parent power …“maximum pressure” … presidential press conferences …the lab leak theory … even Diet Coke and “YMCA.” Don’t blink.
Bob Ehrlich is a former governor of Maryland, member of Congress and state legislator. He is the author of five books on American politics and opinion pieces that have appeared in America’s leading newspapers and periodicals. He and his wife, Kendel, can be seen and heard on their weekly podcast, “Bottom Line with Bob & Kendel Ehrlich.”
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