[RedState] The disastrous fires that swept through the Pacific Palisades and Altadena neighborhoods of Los Angeles are still very much on our minds here in the Golden State. We live in LA, and right now our friends whose houses burned down are saying this is the hardest time of the year — instead of spending Thanksgiving and Christmas at home, they’re in some rental (if they’re lucky) or have had to move elsewhere entirely, daunted by the prospect of a long, expensive rebuild with faceless bureaucrats standing in the way.
We reported here at length on the many missteps made by both the local and state authorities, from empty reservoirs, a mayor who was overseas despite being warned of severe fire danger, a woke LA Fire Department, state park officials prioritizing plants over people, a governor who’s too busy running a shadow campaign for president to care… the list goes on.
But Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass have mostly stood by their decisions, both past and present. Unfortunately for Karen, though, what she said in a podcast taped in November is going to haunt them both. Both sides, she admitted, “botched” the response.
Talk about a hot mic:
The recording session inside the library at Getty House, the official mayor’s residence, lasted an hour. Once it ended, the two shook hands and the room broke into applause.
Then, the mayor kept talking — and let it rip.
Bass gave a blunt assessment of the emergency response to the Palisades and Eaton fires. “Both sides botched it,” she said.
She didn’t offer specifics on the Palisades. But on the Eaton fire, she pointed to the lack of evacuation alerts in west Altadena, where all but one of the 19 deaths occurred.
“They didn’t tell people they were on fire,” she said to Matt Welch, host of “The Fifth Column” podcast.
Gavin Newsom is sure to be hardest hit because, in his obsession with his national image, he’s telling anyone who will listen around the country that the climate change boogeyman is to blame. That little talking point just took a major punch to the face.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/18/2025 05:25 ||
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Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
#1
That she is running for re-election is a travesty. That she will be the favorite is clown like.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/18/2025 6:56 Comments ||
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#2
We all know now that blame for the disaster can be laid at Bass's feet as well as Newsom's. The only question is whether it was the result of incompetence or were the failures part of a plan to burn out single family homeowners so their wealthy developer friends can buy it for cheap and get even wealthier by turning Malibu and the Palisades into a high-rise "affordable housing" slum?
I know. I know. Embrace the power of "and".
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/18/2025 11:46 Comments ||
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#3
The true tragedy in this story is that the voters of L.A., and most of coastal California, have no understanding of any of this! Unless some Tik-Tok "influencer" or snappy 30 second podcaster quote makes it to their social media views, they are blissfully ignorant of it. And if they were made aware, far too many lack the critical reasoning skills to assemble even a rudimentary set of facts leading to a conclusion about accountability! Thinking be hard in California these days.
Posted by: chris ||
12/18/2025 18:14 Comments ||
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#6
What NoMoreBS says at #3 is true. Only a very small handful of reporters cover Sacramento and the reporters in LA don't have much to say about all the scandals at City Hall.
One hope is that when Newsom runs for president, the other Democrats in the primaries will be ready and waiting for him with his record. If they are smart enough to take advantage of it, his record will be devastating for him. His strategy will be to denounce Trump but that may not be enough especially when Trump won't be running.
Dunno what's gonna happen with Bass. She announce a few days ago that she will run for a second term as mayor of LA. She'll denounce Trump too. She'll rant and rave about ICE while avoiding subjects like wild fires. the homeless and where all the money went.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/18/2025 19:35 Comments ||
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#7
John Kobylt, et al will cover it. The restof teh compliant: LA Times (Geo. Skelton, etc.) won't
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/18/2025 20:12 Comments ||
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[FoxNews] GOP State Rep. Kristin Robbins presented the explosive new findings in a Wednesday hearing
Fox News Digital spoke to Minnesota state Rep. Kristin Robbins shortly after she unveiled millions in alleged fraud in the state’s assisted living program and identified an individual already indicted for fraud who is still receiving payments from the state, adding to the already exploding fraud scandal in the state.
The Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy, chaired by Robbins, held a hearing that focused on a new sector of fraud, the state’s assisted living programs, that comes amid a massive unfolding fraud scandal in the state that has affected a variety of other sectors and resulted in calls for the state’s chief executive, Gov. Tim Walz, to resign.
The committee alleges that a number of individuals tied to other fraud schemes are receiving millions in taxpayer dollars for an assisted living program and that one of those individuals, referred to as "FOF Defendant," is already facing indictment charges as part of the Feeding the Future fraud scheme yet still receiving payments from Minnesota’s Department of Human Services.
In a presentation, Robbins outlined properties owned by FOF Defendant connected to the assistant living facility fraud and what she called an "unbelievable" network of fraud that slipped past any oversight procedures.
"I bring this to your attention because despite months of hearings, we continue to miss the most basic internal controls and the most basic checks and balances when we are enrolling providers," Robbins said during the hearing. "This is just one network. Our researchers has multiple networks that we could have discussed today."
Robbins, who is a Republican candidate for governor to replace Walz next year, says she will be turning her findings over to the U.S. Attorney today for further investigation.
"I just find it unconscionable that they, the department didn't run a basic check of all these Feeding Our Future people who've been indicted or convicted, and make sure that they weren't getting state money in other programs," Robbins told Fox News Digital.
While investigations into fraud have focused mainly on nonprofits who abused COVID-19 and food aid programs, the committee's assertion that adult daycare services and assisted living facilities also engaged in fraud suggests that the scandal is more wide-ranging than previously reported.
"I expect there will be more fraud uncovered in those sectors. And I'm assuming it's happening in other states. as we've seen, there is a similar fraud going on in Maine, and I'm sure many other states. And so I think all agencies around the country need to be attuned to this and need to look at the programs," Robbins said.
She add, "And it's not high finance. It's basic internal controls that they should be doing."
#3
This is the problem with government taxing people ostensibly for the pressing needs of poor people. Taxpayers never know if the money actually goes to help the poor or if somebody steals it. Most likely somebody steals some or all of it. The moral of the story is that government should not aspire to be a charitable organization. Charity is all well and good but when the government forces people to contribute in the form of taxes it isn't charity, it's robbery. If people want to contribute to charity, let them contribute to organizations they can trust.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/18/2025 12:01 Comments ||
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#4
Not really Abu. The major problem in Minnesota is that the local fraud "news" stations in the Twin Cities, Duluth and Mayo POS Rochester all protect the DFL. Keeping the viewers completely in the dark.
[IsraelTimes] A Republican candidate for governor of Florida has published a campaign ad pledging to protect the rights of those who criticize Israel.
“Is Netanyahu a war criminal? Did Israel commit genocide? If you say either of those statements in public, you could be convicted of antisemitism. Criticizing a foreign government or any government is always protected under our constitution. Our Founding Fathers fought and died for that right, and I’ll never let anyone steal it from you,” investment firm CEO James Fishback says in a video posted to social media.
“My name is James Fishback, and I’m running for Florida governor. Because Florida is our home, America is our birthright, and we can criticize whom we please,” he says at the end of the ad.
Fishback made some headlines earlier this week for praising supporters of the far-right activist Nick Fuentes, who regularly employs antisemitic and racist rhetoric.
While the 30-year-old Fishback is part of a crowded field of Republicans and is polling very far behind frontrunner US Rep. Byron Donalds, his decision to make criticism of Israel a central message of his campaign points indicates that such views are gradually taking hold in the GOP, particularly among its younger members.
#1
Kayye West said Jews control Hollywood, which ended his singing career. His next trick was releasing a song, titled I kid you not, "heil Hitler". Haven't heard anything from him since. And likely will ever again.
Fuentes said "Hitler is cool"
Gen Zyklon is being radicalized online.
Needless to say one of the first things Elon Musk did after seizing control of Twitter was to unban Fuentes. Gen Z is only hearing one side of the story, the one Qatar wants told. Schindler's List and all the other WW2 heartbreaking movies were released before they were born.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
