LA Fires Evoke Reality: US Government Leaves Americans Behind, While Destroying Countries Abroad & Enriching Elite

An unprecedented series of infernos has impacted not only elite celebrities and millionaires but many working class Angelenos who are quickly discovering their government is a sinking ship.

Los Angeles, the city of fleeting dreamscapes, has been burning for over two weeks as the death toll has risen to 27 people so far, with many missing or suffering from side effects of the toxic smoke. It may be months before a proper count is actually presented, but it may take years to assess the extent of direct and indirect casualties which could be in the hundreds if not thousands, similarly to what we’ve seen emerge after other natural disasters years later. Some parts of LA County, without exaggeration, will never be the same.

The fires which began with Pacific Palisades (which is at 72% containment) and spread into Eaton ( which is finally at 95% containment) have burned a combined area larger than the city of San Francisco. In spite of firefighters containing five fires: the Lidia Fire in Antelope Valley, the Sunset Fire in the Hollywood Hills , the Woodley Fire in the Sepulveda Basin, the Archer Fire in Granada Hills, and additionally the Kenneth Fire near Hidden Hills, which surpassed 1,000 acres and then the Hurst fire, the combined blazes have forced the evacuation of nearly 200,000 people, burned over 40,000 acres in the LA area, and will cost between $250 and $275 billion-making it the costliest in history.

More recently, firefighters in northern Los Angeles County were battling the fast-spreading Hughes Fire on Thursday, that forced schools to close and prompted thousands to evacuate their homes. This new blaze begun just this past Wednesday near Castaic Lake, a reservoir located about 45 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. The flames quickly scorched more than 10,000 acres, prompting authorities to issue warnings of an "immediate threat to life”. The Los Angeles County Sheriff reported that roughly 31,000 people were under mandatory evacuation orders, while an additional 23,000 were facing evacuation warnings. By Thursday morning, the fire was 14% contained, according to Cal Fire.

The burning (pun-intended) question on everyone’s mind is how did this all happen and who’s to blame? And while the drought and Santa Ana winds were relentless, we’re seeing a live political blame game battle between democrats screaming “climate change” into the void and republicans crying about “DEI lesbians and communists”. The reality is we cannot pin point at one exact cause, because it’s clear the main cause has been the continuous corruption in the private sector protected at the root by a crooked government run by an elite mafia. In essence, California is a mere reflection of the declining U.S. empire, quite literally on fire and gasping for air in the hazy chaos of it all.

Bass and The City: Budget Cuts, No Firefighters, Celebrity Hires

There’s been a huge shortage of fire fighters due to budget cuts and low wages. California state firefighters earn around $52,000 annually, while U.S. Forest Service “wildland” firefighters make about $36,000 with no hazard pay or health insurance. That’s added to long 18-22 hour shifts during the dangerous fire season and with common layoffs after.

So naturally when the Palisades fire took hold the focus was on billionaire and millionaire homes in Malibu and Palisades because the fires began here, so the small forces that existed were sent there, leaving less affluent Altadena, Eaton, Sylmar and others to fend for themselves when those fires began. Teacher and Los Angeles native, Melissa Michelson, went to Altadena and told me she saw one officer and no firefighters or trucks early on, as the houses became engulfed in flames.

In fact in these areas of Pasadena and Altadena most news outlets and media coverage are grossly underestimating the amount of burned houses that have been lost in these areas. According to the Los Angeles County Fire Department, Altadena had over 17,600 structures but with with 98% of the inspections completed there’s been at least 9,366 destroyed, 6,000 single family homes, 97 multi family, 5 mixed (residential and commercial), 153 commercial, and 3,111 other minor structures. In total there’s been around1,062 damaged, 742 single family, 28 multi family, 2 mixed (residential and commercial), 32 commercial and 258 other minor structures. Effectively Altadena’s working class and historic district is no more-it’s been entirely burned down.

A huge component of this were also budgets cuts that reportedly affected the Los Angeles Fire Department’s (LAFD) ability to train, prepare and respond to large scale emergencies like these fires. That’s what the own department’s chief, Kristin Crowley, said to media, adding that they “needed help, and “the city let them down,” after a 17.6 million dollar budget cut and the elimination of these positions already had and would severely impact their ability to fight the fires.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was the one who approved these cuts. In June 2024, Bass approved a nearly $13 billion city budget that included the 17.6 million (2.7%) reduction to the LAFD’s budget of approximately $820 million, following her initial proposal to cut even more at $23 million. The city approved an additional $53 million in salary increases for firefighters, along with another $58 million for new firetrucks and other equipment in November, resulting in a more than 7% increase to the LAFD’s budget compared to the previous fiscal year, according to the Los Angeles Times. But that did not help the massive dent and in December, Crowley alerted Bass and other officials that the LAFD’s overtime budget had been slashed by about $7 million.

In response to criticism, Bass stated that after the fires are extinguished, LA County officials will “assess the emergency response” and offer a “full accounting of what worked and especially, what did not”. Crowley was called into a meeting with Bass with unconfirmed reports by the Daily Mail that she was fired, but those reports were false per Bass’s own office who denied the rumors.

Now let’s take a look at the growing use of “private firefighters,” who are trained mostly to prevent and mitigate fires, not as first responders but for the wealthy or those who can pay. The government in California has been hailed by many as one of the most corrupt and useless in response to emergency situations and people who have the means have been increasingly relying on private firefighters to secure their homes and interests instead on relying on the state to do it. This also lessens the cost on insurance companies but as stated, not everyone can afford it.

Hollywood celebrities have been called out on social media for not only using these services but even using or promoting certain friends and family on the GoFundMe fundraising website, in spite of having millions to spare. This has obviously sparked significant controversy as these elite homeowners are going to great lengths to protect their properties, spending tens of thousands of dollars on measures like fire-retardant gels, water storage systems, and on-call private firefighting services. Some of these services are billed as comprehensive wildfire defense packages, costing a minimum of $25,000 with the possibility of even higher fees for emergency response during active fires.

Rick Caruso, a billionaire developer and the 2022 Los Angeles mayoral candidate who ran against current mayor Karen Bass and would have likely gutted even more from the LAFD, because he is a huge fan (not surprisingly) of developers, was seen using private fire crews to protect his shopping complex known as the Palisades Village, from the blaze. According to the New York Times, while fire hydrants ran dry on Wednesday, private water trucks arrived to save Mr Caruso’s properties, with an “s”. Caruso compared what was left to a “war zone”. Footage later revealed how his luxury shops were left perfectly intact and were nearly the only structures untouched by the blaze.

The criticism stems from concerns that such practices reflect a growing divide between the wealthy and the general population, especially when wildfires are a communal risk. While the rich are plastered all over media crying about the loss of one of five mansions they own, they can afford to shield themselves from the devastation and even consequences of rebuilding. Unfortunately those without the same financial means will be faced with greater vulnerability that does not get seen. The ethical and practical implications of this display a failed system working well for those holding power and utterly failing for the rest.

Gavin Newsom Has No Idea How Anything Happened, But Remember Who He is & Covid.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has said he does not know why the 117 million gallon reservoir in Palisades was empty (yes that’s the guy in charge of the state of California) and has ordered a probe to look into the matter. The LA Times reported the Santa Ynez Reservoir was offline this month for “scheduled maintenance.”

Officials said the Santa Ynez Reservoir had been closed since February “for repairs to its cover,” leaving a 117-million-gallon water storage complex in the heart of the Palisades empty for nearly a year including when the fire exploded. Newsom ordered an “independent investigation” of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power over the loss of water pressure and the empty reservoir, calling it “deeply troubling”. “We need answers to how that happened,” Newsom said in a letter to leaders of DWP and L.A. County Public Works. However in an interview with MSNBC’s Meet the Press, he said the “state” reservoirs were not empty and said people were spreading misinformation when saying all reservoirs were empty and that’s why he’s launching an investigation. In another interview Newsom didn’t make things any better when he was asked about the water situation and hydrants, and washed his hands off the issue, indicating fire hydrants weren’t his problem saying, “local folks have got to figure it out…” and that the system was overwhelmed. In fact, every time Newsom has done an interview he’s hurt his own credibility even further by the chaotic and seemingly nonchalant way he’s talked about the devastation. He recently told a reporter he had spoken to Josh Green, the disgraced Governor of Hawaii, regarding the issue of “speculators buying up land” and his body language appeared off, almost “giddy,” which made people feel that another Lahaina issue of developers buying up the land is in play.

The problem is his excuses and the explanations behind them (or lack-there-of) are not passing the smell test with the majority of Angelenos, even those who previously supported him and naïvely thought the government cared about its citizens-especially during a crisis. For most, it’s inexcusable that the governor of the State of California, one of the most vital to the country’s economy, doesn’t know what happened in his own state. But Sacramento has one of the most corrupt governments in the entire country and having lived in Southern California and been involved in earlier attempts to infiltrate the California Democratic Party with actual progress, in other words “change it from the inside,” I can say corruption goes deep and reforming it is lost cause because of the mafia-like level of corruption.

Gavin Newsom’s ties go deep, as he was born into the wealthy family of William Alfred Newsom III, a state appeals judge and attorney for The Getty Oil Dynasty. His aunt was married to Ron Pelosi, the brother-in-law to former House Speaker and current representative Nancy Pelosi. With money and influential friends Newsom started a business in the wine industry under PlumpJack Associates L.P. on May 14, 1991. Family friend from his father Alfred’s work, Gordon Getty, the fourth child of oil tycoon Jean Paul Getty Sr (J.Paul Getty), was a key investor in this business and then invested in 10 other of Newsom’s ventures, as well as his political campaigns, referring to him as a “son”. From 1996 until 2001, Newsom was already earning more than $429,000 a year and by 2002 his business revenue was valued at $ 6.9 million. Newsom politically then worked on Willie Brown’s (yes the Kamala Harris Willie) mayoral campaign in 1995, who appointed him to the Board of Supervisors, and then went on to become Mayor of San Francisco in 2004, Lieutenant Governor from 2011-2019 and then Governor since 2019.

Before conservatives went after Newsom, it was the Bernie Sanders left, progressives, Greens and independent factions across California who opposed him for being backed by special interests groups, the entertainment industry, real estate developers, big oil, and AIPAC. Now of course who can forget the national outrage of the “French Laundry” scandal in November of 2020, when he was constantly asking people to stay at home, mask up and avoid others and yet was exposed of having secretly attended a 12-person maskless, fancy dinner party at the “French Laundry,” an ultra-exclusive restaurant-violating his own pandemic rules. It also hit home for many who lost their jobs, were forced to inoculate themselves with an experimental vaccine, or lost their homes and businesses due to mandated closures and the government shutdown. This initiated the “recall Gavin Newsom” movement which ultimately led to a recall election on September 14, 2021, which failed to remove him with only 38% voting in favor of removal.

From election interference to disappearing funds for the housing and homeless crisis, to disappearing water, the democratic party has its hands in all of it and Gavin Newsom has been in power for a huge portion of the most recent events in the state. Homelessness has become an epidemic with the high cost of rent and money for the cause going into the pockets of politicians. The COVID disaster in the state. caused people to flee en mass. I have walked through and spent time on Skid Row and the homeless crisis has expanded into wealthier parts beyond downtown Los Angeles, full not just of drug addicts but people with part-time or full-time jobs who simply cannot afford to live. Crime has now become a huge problem, especially since COVID, when even I got my own house in Pasadena and car broken into. However this is but a reflection and microcosm of the entire country, whether Republican or Democrat. Elite, selected politicians sit on key and powerful positions to profit and bring more profit to their elite friends, while the majority of the people pay the price and turn to desperation.

The Insurance Companies Dip, Developers Make Bank, Vanguard and BlackRock Win

In the months and weeks leading up to the fires, multiple insurance companies including State Farm, Allstate, and Nationwide, among others, canceled people’s fire insurance. This has been confirmed by several residents, rich and working class, including the woman here in this video who said, “My parents have been in this house for 75 years and they've had the same insurance & these insurance people decided to cancel their fire…insurance.” State Farm among others said they did so to avoid financial failure with the increasing risk of fire. We saw similar actions taken after Hurricane Helene in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, where some people’s flood coverage was canceled and others never got it because they were not at risk to begin with. In total only a reported 2% of households in these flooded parts got coverage.

But while the insurance companies have the legal right to cancel if their costs for coverage will be too high, which is basic business practice in a capital-driven economy, this clearly reflects a for-profit made problem that creates a much bigger disaster. While wealthy celebrities like Woods can pay for high premiums for deciding to build in areas that are “high-risk” like Malibu and Palisades, the majority of people in the Altadena area and other areas may not have the funds and therefore cannot pay. In fact, many homes in historic Altadena have been around a while and the fires have not reached the city in a long time and never like this. One they were told they did not need it and two, what are they expected to do even if they have insurance and it’s canceled? Move their entire life? That’s not a long-term, viable solution for the millions of residents who not only were told they were not at great risk, but whose government also failed to protect them.

If the home insurance companies like health or other natural disaster coverage can cancel at a whim and the government isn’t there to protect citizens in case of a disaster, then the most catastrophic thing for these residents will come after the fires stop and they’re denied claims or left hanging. Only those with the funds to have lawyers and people set to fight for them will be fine. The rest will be left alone as developers take over everything and push them out, a common occurrence these days, much like we saw in North Carolina and Lahaina, where many have yet to recuperate.

We are in fact already seeing this at play in real time, as social media has been full of numerous people citing incidents of landlords price-gouging the cost of rentals, which is illegal past 10% of the rental amount prior to the disaster. In one instance, a modern three-bedroom condo in a downtown LA high-rise that was offered at $5,500 USD in October, was seen recently on Zillow going for $8,500 USD. This listing as well as others were removed because a violation is a misdemeanor punishable with jail time and a $10,000 fine per violation.

Michelson also led a group of concerned Altadena residents to protest against the numerous intents from real estate speculators, offering to buy up the homes of displaced citizens for well under market value, often as they were burning. The group’s message was “Altadena not for sale,” a message to developers that the residents of the area refuse to allow the neighborhood’s diverse make up to change into another luxury-filled, affluent town.

The question is if the government and insurance companies knew this was coming, why was nothing done? The answer depends on whether you think failure is an accident, a purposeful intent or a combination of both. As we’ve seen, developers are huge in LA and will easily turn a profit off of any burnt homes by taking the land from those who are in financial ruin, building more high-end rentals, commercial sites, or ultra-luxurious homes. Like it or not this is called “disaster capitalism,” and no it’s not another “woke” mantra but the very real practice of exploiting disasters, whether natural or man-made, for a profit, using crises to push more deregulation, privatize public assets and further their economic interests. It’s notably occurred in the Caribbean, Puerto Rico, all over Florida, North Carolina and Lahaina, Hawaii.

Who allows these developers to do this? The State and the politicians who receive loads of developer money. And with the “you’ll own nothing and love it,” WEF agenda, this will easily happen in the working class areas extremely quickly. Small mom and pop businesses will also be unlikely to come back, as they simply do not have the cash flow to recover as quickly, making it easier for corporations or those with wealthy backers to take over. This brings us to the next chapter of nefarious factors involved in this preventable, dark event.

It’s no coincidence, and after the last few years in U.S. politics, coincidence is non existent, that two of the largest stakeholders of Edison International, the electrical company accused of being responsible for the Eaton Fire, are Vanguard & Black Rock. The Vanguard group holds 12.15% of the shares, making it the single largest shareholder while BlackRock Inc. has about 9.86%, along with 8.41% for State Street Corporation, meaning that in total institutional investors own nearly 87.22% of company shares. The entire existence of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager (with assets worth 6.3 trillion US dollars) and Vanguard, is to own the entire world via as much capital as possible. Not getting conspiratorial here though they’ve been largely right the last few years, but the dry fact is that nothing helps this as much as buying up companies and land.

Months before the fire, the Edison was criticized for falling behind transmission line inspections, in high risk areas. The company had deactivated the distribution lines early on during the Eaton fire before it spread into a canyon near Altadena, but the transmission lines remained active. According to the company, transmission lines are larger and stronger and can function “safely” at higher wind speeds. A huge portion of California’s transmission system is extremely old, with intermittent construction occurring, though the most major work was done as far back as 1959 when Pat Brown was governor. Unsurprisingly many of California's most devastating wildfires in recent decades have been linked to this outdated electrical infrastructure. The 2018 Camp Fire was triggered by a century-old high-voltage transmission tower, while the 2019 Kincade Fire resulted from a line built half a century ago. Therefore, even if California's older utility systems are inspected, they’re inadequate for today’s demands.

At least five lawsuits have been filed at Southern California Edison, alleging the company failed to de-energize all of its electrical equipment despite red flag warnings issued by the National Weather Service. Edison has denied fault in the Eaton fire and in a statement to The Times, they said that their work to mitigate wildfires cut the risk of catastrophic fires by 85% to 90% compared with the risk before 2018, according to their data. The CEO has stated that investigations are under way.

Chinatown: Water Wars and The Resnick Zionist Water Nut Mafia vs Iran

The issue of water shortage which has ALWAYS been a problem in Los Angeles. Just watch the movie Chinatown which centers around LA’s water wars and the mafias that control water supplies, secretly diverting them AWAY from a reservoir, rendering the land unusable, allowing them to purchase it on the cheap. The point is to construct a new dam, resulting in an increase in land value for them to exploit, effectively capitalizing on a drought. The film was loosely inspired by the real-life California water wars, where Los Angeles secured water rights from Owens Valley through dubious tactics, causing significant environmental destruction in the area.

On top of the existing drought problems, the water pressure from fire hydrants was taken to where there was most need, so when residents in these fire-burdened areas tried to use their hoses, there was no pressure as all of it was being used by the fire department or others with access, so it exacerbated the situation. Drought is a thing in SoCal and fires are a yearly occurrence but fires like these are the worst we’ve seen in modern times, and yet they still should be preventable and proactive measures should have been taken. The government has failed the people. Democrats may be in power in California but we’ve also seen failures in Republican Texas, in Republican Florida and in Democrat North Carolina, all due to natural disasters.

A huge point that has many reeling with anger is the deeper history of the mentioned LA Water wars and how they continue to exist in this modern era. Billionaire couple Stewart and Lynda Resnick, with a combined net worth of $9 billion, control much of California’s water supply through their company, “Wonderful.” In a controversial deal in 1994, the Resnicks acquired the Kern Water Bank, which is California’s largest water reserve, effectively privatizing a major public resource. As California’s drought deepens (and it has) their water usage grows, while local communities get rationed and prices skyrocket. This type of hoarding worsens the impact of wildfires, intensifying the state’s water scarcity. Since 1994, the Resnick empire’s consumed over 150 billion gallons annually while local working class communities face droughts, rising costs, and water shortages.

The Resnick’s agricultural kingdom spans across water-intensive crops like almonds and pistachios in California’s Central Valley. Their brands include FIJI Water, Pom Wonderful, and Wonderful Pistachios, In case you were not aware, nuts in particular require heaps of water. In 2015 the Resnicks were exposed for watering their Wonderful company’s pistachio orchards with treated fracking waste water. Around the same time, Stephen Colbert was the face of the $15 million “Get Crackin” campaign, that culminated in a Super Bowl ad, which reportedly made the Resnicks a ton of revenue.

Given the extent of the Resnick power realm in California, it’s worth pointing out the conditions of those who work for them. Most company workers live in squalid conditions, in a tiny town with the sadly, perfect name of “Lost Hills,” stationed among the Eastern Sierras. There’s no clinic, grocery store, library or freeway, and the median annual salary is under $41,500. Most workers are on disability, chronic disease abounds, housing is toxic and the the water undrinkable. Most families live in substandard trailers with coolers that break quickly due to chemical-laded water, which is recycled from oil company operations and contains petroleum and other cancer-causing chemicals like benzene. Many workers reportedly become sick in their 30s and 40s and most are immigrants, mainly from Mexico. Chevron oil attends many company meetings and in one incident, one public health advocate warned others to avoid the tap water, causing a Chevron rep to scream at her. The oil industry reportedly stores its contaminated water there and treats it with walnut shells before selling it to agriculture.

But what’s also inevitably stood out due to political awareness brought by the 15-month Gaza genocide, is the Resnick’s deep ties to Israel and to the U.S. obsession on taking down Iran. The family backs AIPAC’s offshoot Washington Institute, has donated an accumulation of millions to Friends of the IDF, and also gave 50 million to the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. Meanwhile, they provide the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Fellowship at the National Library of Israel and have partnerships with Israeli companies like Netafim.

But if Washington had not backed and helped overthrow Iran’s government back in 1953, which installed the Shah, Iran wouldn’t have taken 52 Americas hostage from the U.S. embassy in 1979 and the U.S. wouldn’t have used this to issue vast sanctions against Tehran. This crippled Iran’s pistachio industry by cutting it off the global trade market and it paved way for the Resnicks to build their pistachio monopoly, which turned into the empire we see today. Coincidence is again, not something we can afford to rely on these days and history often rhymes.

Meanwhile Joe Biden Helps By Sending Millions to Ukraine & Israel…and America is Onto The Next Thing

While the fires burned and right before departing, Joe Biden approved $8 billion more for Israel and $500 million for Ukraine, because that’s truly what American citizens wanted to hear. Let’s be real, giving people $770, similar to what U.S. citizens got (if they were lucky) after years of COVID, is insulting. That amount fails to cover half of most people’s rent and little else. More recently, newly elected President Trump has said he will not stop funding for Ukraine or Israel, in spite of the majority of Americans being against continuing support for either. And while the focus of our so-called government is on fighting the specter of Communism in China or the Iranian and Russian threats, in the name of “democracy,” the true enemy is lying next to us.

Truthfully more Americans than ever oppose war and mostly not for the altruistic reason that it means killing innocent people abroad, but because the funds and focus are being diverted away from citizens of the States as our infrastructure is crumbling and outdated. Foreign policy is domestic policy after all, and it couldn’t be more clear to Americans now. The real question is what will people do about it? Lahaina united together to help one another but many lost it all and never got it back. With a sliver of silver lining, some Californians have stated that they’ve seen people come together and help eachother like never before. Still, the developers and the predator elite won and they are winning overall across the country. If we are to look at incidents like these with a nefarious lens, the goggles of intent and purposeful ruin, then there’s a dire need to realize just how dependent Americans really are on a technocratic military intelligence corporate entity acting as a government (aka the USA) that’s often intentionally failing the majority of people.

Reminder that the media focus has been on celebrities losing their mansions, not regular people losing their everything-for a reason. Therefore when those on the receiving end of our bombs and sanctions, in Gaza, in West Asia, Global South, in the countries we punish, see what’s happening they can’t help but think, one “karma,” and two, wonder how it’s possible that we the people of the “greatest country on earth,” with many luxuries compared to others, continue the endless cycle of death without finding ways to beat it. Perhaps the answer lies on cleaning out the junk that distracts us like the incessant social media hero worship and the endless political manipulations, by focusing on tangible reality. To put it bluntly, the privilege of never being on the receiving end of the disasters we cause will eventually end. When that happens the fall will be unforgiving if we don’t begin asking the right questions and finding the answers in ourselves, rather than Hollywood versions of Captain America.