When California starts looking a little redder

This might be a bit of an exaggeration, but some people we might not have expected to turn toward the red seem to have modified their positions. And some who were already reasonable have become more vocal. We have seen a lot of terrible information coming out of the Los Angeles area over the past few days about Blue Government, but more jaw-dropping details drift out with the smoke from the fires.

Let's start with some pre-fire news by Team Blue California, though:

Big Accomplishment for Team Blue

On January 6, Gavin Newsom participated in a ceremony to drive spikes into a "first rail" of Jerry Brown's dream for High Speed Rail extending from San Diego to San Francisco (then Los Angeles to San Francisco, then . . .

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (FOX26) - - Governor Gavin Newsom announced that the California high-speed rail project is poised to begin laying tracks, marking a significant milestone in the long-awaited infrastructure endeavor.

Newsom announced in Kern County on Monday, where he participated in a ceremonial event by driving spikes into the first track.

"The fact that we are here today to make visible finally we are here to lay some track to make real invisible all of the hard work of the last decade, decade and a half is a big damn deal," Newsom said.

The governor highlighted that the high-speed rail project, which spans the 171-mile route from Bakersfield to Merced, has already created 15,000 jobs.

He noted that 50 major projects, including bridges and other structures, have been completed, and the state has acquired 99 percent of the private parcels needed for the route.

"I've never thought of this fundamentally as a project that's just about rail," Newsom said. "It's about economic development. It's about creating a sense of place. It's about up zoning around the rail."

The Biden administration has contributed more than $6 billion to the high-speed rail project, though future federal funding remains uncertain.

Reminds you of the completion of transcontinental railroad, doesn't it? Ceremonial spikes and all . . .

IT'S NOT ABOUT HIGH SPEED RAIL, FOLKS! It's about transferring money to people favored by government.

Despite the criticism, Newsom remains committed to the project, dismissing detractors as "cynics" and emphasizing the importance of moving forward.

He stated that track laying for the high-speed rail is only months away, with early commitments on train sets also expected soon.

The project got its official start in 1996 after years of planning.

Track laying is only months away!

Even this remnant of Jerry Brown's dream is still facing opposition:

From December:

A Republican lawmaker has set his sights on federal funding for California's high-speed rail, driven by the ambitious initiative's escalating costs and significant delays.

On Wednesday, California Representative Kevin Kiley announced that he would be proposing a bill to halt federal funding for the "failed California High-Speed Rail Project."

"California's high-speed rail project has failed because of political ineptitude, and there is no plausible scenario where the cost to federal or state taxpayers can be justified," Kiley said on Wednesday. "Our share of federal transportation funding should go towards real infrastructure needs, such as improving roads that rank among the worst in the country."

When contacted for comment, Kiley's office said that the bill would be introduced at the beginning of the 119th Congress, set to commence on January 3.

THEN THE FIRES HIT

Yesterday at Powerline, Wildfire of the Vanities, with efforts of the press to protect Democrat officials. Plus supercuts of officials trying to protect themselves.

And then, some strong words from a farmer, classicist and war historian, (VDH) with a transcript:

I’m here in California. I’ve been a lifelong resident of the state, fifth generation to live in the same house. I had a house in the Sierra, and it would almost burn down three years ago during the Aspen Fire, and I’m speaking on the evening when you’ve all heard about the disastrous fire in Los Angeles.

As I’m speaking on a Wednesday night, there have been 15,000 acres, 1,000 structures destroyed. Nobody knows how many people are killed or missing. And how do we characterize this? Everybody’s talking about the Santa Ana winds, climate change—I mean everybody, the people in power.

But it was preventable. And once it started, this fire, it could have been assuaged. You could have had it lessened, that the severity didn’t have to be as catastrophic. So, I would characterize it as a DEI–Green New Deal hydrogen bomb. It’s something out of “Dante’s Inferno.”

And what I mean by that is, it’s a systems breakdown, a civilizational collapse. When you look at the people in charge, [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom flew in, to sort of do these performance-art stunts, but he has systematically ensured that water out of the Sacramento River and the watershed of Northern California would go out to the sea, rather than into the aqueduct, so Los Angeles didn’t have sufficient amounts of water.

Performance Art: On my social media, the true lefties are mightily upset that Trump would "politicize" the fires. That is worse that the negligence of the officials in charge. During his first term, Trump repeatedly advised Newsom to manage forests and brush better, and increase water storage (per his legislation). But in April of 2021, Newsom promised much better fire prevention with the election of Biden. How did that work out?

Back to VDH:

He bragged not very long ago that he blew up four dams on the Klamath River. They provided 80,000 homes with clean hydroelectric power. They offered recreation, flood control, irrigation. He blew them up.

California’s fire management, whether we look at the Paradise Fire or the Aspen Fire near where I’m speaking, it destroyed 60 million trees. We have no timber industry in California. [Newsom’s] dismantled it.

We don’t clean the forest. We don’t let loggers come in and have a viable livelihood by harvesting trees. It’s sort of considered natural to let these things burn or to at least create the conditions in which they will inevitably be burned.

It’s almost as if we don’t like humans. We worry about grubs and worms and birds and the ecosystem.

The second breakdown was the mayor, Karen Bass, was in Africa. . .

It’s almost as if we don’t like humans. We worry about grubs and worms and birds and the ecosystem.

Looks nice, does not deliver water. At least is hasn't been stolen yet.

The head of the DWP makes $750,000 a year, a big boost from the previous head because she had experience at PG&E(!). AND THEY CAN'T ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW LONG THE RESERVOIR ABOVE PACIFIC PALISADES HAS BEEN DRY.

Celebrity News

Many on the left celebrated the loss of James Woods' home, but:

A miracle has happened. We managed to get to our property and our home, that we were told is gone forever, is still standing. In this hellish landscape “standing” is relative, but smoke and other damage is not like the utter destruction around us. The view from our deck area: pic.twitter.com/JZU2kTJC52

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) January 10, 2025

Breitbart to Zuckerberg

An interesting little article. Check it out.

Holy crap Zuck seems (almost) like a biological human being on Rogan! I don’t think people give Joe enough credit.

— Seán Ono Lennon (@seanonolennon) January 10, 2025

Lefty contacts on FB are certain that Zuckerberg, Bezos and Musk are now slaves to Donald Trump. They are not too enthused about the idea of participating in community notes on FB. Heh.

Weekend

Steven Hayward: The Week in Pictures: Gulf of America Edition!

Music

Swaying Palms

Hope you have something nice planned for this weekend.

This is the Thread before the Gardening Thread.

Last week's thread, January 4, Conspiracy Theories about Conspiracy Theories

Comments are closed so you won't ban yourself by trying to comment on a week-old thread. But don't try it anyway.

posted by K.T. at 11:20 AM

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