As I said yesterday, Democrat failures abound in the California wildfire debacle. From Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to Governor Gavin Newsom, there’s plenty of blame to go around. I had intended to focus today on how Democrats made California uninsurable, but there’s simply too much to say not to delve into more of it. So here goes.

First of all, pray for the people of California. Hundreds of thousands of our fellow Americans there are in tremendous distress, many have lost everything, and some have lost loved ones. Sadly, many Californians are all too willing to acknowledge the power of nature — or to blame humans for climate change — without giving glory to the Creator. I pray that changes.

Much attention has focused on how State Farm canceled insurance policies for roughly 1,600 homes in Pacific Palisades just a few months ago. The company’s reason was the state’s refusal to mitigate the risks of entirely predictable and likely wildfires, along with price controls that prohibited setting premiums at the necessary rate for coverage. Yet, according to leftists who cheer the assassination of insurance company CEOs, this is simply evil and greedy capitalists ensuring that people suffer without help.

State Farm’s president and chief executive, Denise Hardin, explained the decision in a letter to California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara last year: “Although there haven’t been significant wildfire losses for several years, windstorm catastrophes in early 2023 and increasing trends in non-catastrophe water losses and liability claims (especially commercial lines and personal umbrella policies), without the additional premium needed to support those cost increases, have generated large underwriting losses.”

In other words, the state is failing, and neither State Farm nor the other companies reducing their footprint in the Golden State want to be left holding the bag.

The state’s response? “In December,” Newsweek reports, “the state passed a new regulation which will require insurance companies to offer coverage to residents in at-risk areas. Insurers will be required to write policies in areas ‘equivalent to no less than 85 percent of their statewide market share.’” Yet another heavy-handed mandate won’t fix it, but California Democrats have a hammer, so everything looks like a nail.

Losses could exceed an eye-popping $50 billion, in part because of high home values in affected neighborhoods. Most people aren’t without insurance, though. They were forced onto the state’s FAIR plan, which is funded by … drumroll, please … taking money from insurers operating in the state.

Unless the politics in California change, the insurance crisis will almost certainly worsen.

Blame Democrats’ unwillingness to learn any lessons. Despite fire being one of the chief dangers in many parts of the state, Los Angeles cut its fire department budget by $17 million last year. “The reduction … has severely limited the department’s capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies, including wildfires,” Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley warned in a memo in December.

That’s true, but let’s talk about the LAFD, and especially Chief Crowley, who seems primarily interested in her own sexuality and status as the first woman and lesbian fire chief. She’s focused on DEI hires for the department — literally. Upon her nomination in 2022, she promised to “fully commit to fostering a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture within the LAFD.”

LAFD Assistant Chief Kristine Larson, also a lesbian and a founding member of the Equity on Fire (EOF) coalition, appeared in a DEI video in which she argued that skin color and other physical attributes might just be more important than a firefighter’s ability to do the job. “You want to see somebody that responds to your house, your emergency — whether it’s a medical call or a fire call — that looks like you,” she pontificated. If a question arises about whether a woman can do the job if it involves carrying a man out of a fire, she said her response is, “He got himself in the wrong place if I have to carry him out of a fire.”

LAFD Assistant Chief Kristine Larson:

“Am I able to carry your husband out of a fire? He got himself in the wrong place.” pic.twitter.com/BofTVr6dWP

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 9, 2025

As a middle-aged white man, I feel triggered and micro-aggressed.

This same LA Fire Department, by the way, suspended a number of firefighters for not complying with Governor Newsom’s COVID vaccine mandate, finally rehiring some of them last year.

As for cutting budgets, LA wasn’t the only entity doing it. A 2021 investigation by CapRadio and NPR’s California Newsroom found that “Newsom slashed roughly $150 million from Cal Fire’s wildfire prevention budget.”

Speaking of Newsom, when he wasn’t busy trashing Donald Trump or touting his own supposed successes, he was pretending to be on the phone with Joe Biden so he didn’t have to interact with a fire victim.

“I’m literally talking to the president right now,” he told a distraught woman who chased him down in the street to plead for help. When she asked to hear the call, he showed her that he was not, in fact, connected to the president but stuttered, “I can't— it doesn't— I’m sorry, there’s literally— I’ve tried five times, that’s why I’m walking around to make the call.” Sure thing.

Newsom’s manifold failures are practically a matter of routine. Yet the Leftmedia downplays his record whenever possible while attacking Republicans on his behalf. “If Newsom was a Republican,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis shot back at a hostile reporter asking politicized questions, “you guys would have him nailed to the wall for what they’re doing over there.”

That’s true, though if Newsom were a Republican, he’d have governed the state better.

When the preparation for and response to these blazes isn’t practically criminal, the sparks that started them might very well be. In fact, citizens detained a 30-something vagrant for allegedly starting one of the fires.

With high winds, it may be that most ignition sources were downed power lines, but the fact that there are five different fire ignition locations with substantial separation between them is highly suspect. It certainly demonstrates how much chaos can be initiated with a few matches, and regardless of the original ignition source, this will inspire copycat arsons. In fact, that trend has already been on the rise.

If any of these fire origins were arson, I hope California will reconsider the death penalty.

To sum it up, there are myriad failures in the Left Coast’s one-party Democrat state, and the consequences are dire and deadly.