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.

From LifeSiteNews

By Doug Mainwaring

‘So is the problem that Elon Musk is influential and rich or is it that Elon Musk is not a leftist?’ asked Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has stated that George Soros, not Musk, is the real threat to elections and sovereignty. 

Speaking at a 2-hour press conference, at which media had expressed concern about the influence that Elon Musk exerts on both Meloni and on democracies throughout Europe, Meloni asked, “So is the problem that Elon Musk is, let’s say, influential and rich, or is it that Elon Musk is not a leftist?” 

Meloni explained that while Musk expresses opinions, Soros interferes with the domestic politics of nations and uses his money to destabilize countries, according to a report by NDTV.   

“In my opinion, the interference on the sovereignty of a country is when billions are spent to affect political choices by paying political figures, and this has unfortunately happened with us in the past and no one tore their clothes as … it happened,” said Meloni.   

Prime Minister Meloni also said: 

The problem is when wealthy people use their resources to finance parties, associations and political exponents all over the world to influence the political choices of nation-states. That’s not what Musk is doing. This, for example, is what George Soros does. 

I am not aware of Elon Musk financing political parties, associations or political exponents around the world. This, for example, is what George Soros does. And yes, I consider that to be dangerous interference in the affairs of nation states and in their sovereignty. 

Musk has come under heavy fire from leftist forces across the western world for his support of Donald Trump. First Musk vigorously endorsed Trump following the latter’s escape from a July 2024 assassination attempt, and then he accepted a role in Trump’s upcoming administration as co-head, along with Vivek Ramaswamy, of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).   

As such, Musk has become the sworn enemy of those serving in bloated western government bureaucracies.  

The billionaire founder of Tesla and SpaceX, the CEO of X (formerly Twitter) and other endeavors, Musk has also become a leading advocate for free speech internationally. Stateside, he has opposed the brutal censoring policies of the Biden administration.  

Meanwhile, the 94-year-old, Hungarian-born billionaire financier George Soros has reportedly been the American Democratic Party’s largest donor for many years. He also has a finger in many European pies.  

“Soros’ Open Society Foundations gives international support to illegal migrants to try to fight the legal system in sovereign nations that try to deport them,” notes Hungarian Conservative (HC) magazine. 

“His Media Matters’ main purpose is to harass advertisers of media companies hosting right-wing content and to manufacture negative press about right-wing public figures,” explained HC.   

“He has also funded the campaigns of Attorney Generals across the United States who are lenient with violent criminals, leading to an increase in crime in the major cities of the US.” 

Nevertheless, European progressives continue to see Musk, not Soros, as a threat.  

In recent weeks, Musk has used his prominent position in social media to repeatedly criticize U.K. Prime Minister Kier Starmer and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for decisions and policies he and many others feel are to the detriment of those leaders’ co-nationals.