As California Burns, Saint Gavin Fiddles

If Gavin Newsom is not the worst governor of California, he will be by the time he gets through with it.

Know-it-all “pretty boy” Newsom, predictably elected in a deeper-than-deep blue state, has no regard for anyone who thinks differently from how he does…if “thinks” is the word.

Newsom is willing enough to accept President Trump’s pledge of federal funds to help California in its battle against the fires raging across the state.

But he is not interested in any practical “advice” from the chief executive concerning fire prevention since he labels Trump among those “deniers” who refuse to embrace the concept of global warming with the governor’s cultic zeal.

It is convenient for liberals to blame all shortfalls on a heating planet, a condition for which they hold humans — especially those in capitalistic societies — largely responsible.

Any caveats are dismissed in the dictatorial manner of rigid religious who condemn all opposition as heretical. (Perhaps they believe that all dissenters should be put to the stake.)

“Forest management” is not an original concept with the current administration. The clearing of debris from forest floors, the considered culling of trees to create fire-breaks, and the building of better access roads to and from forested areas make abundant good sense.

So does the idea of not locating rural communities too close to the wilderness, and of making housing closer into urban areas more affordable.

But even as the president emphasizes such cautionary measures, he is dismissed as an ignorant nuisance.

Those who are allowed an opinion on the subject must first pledge allegiance to “global warming” as Public Enemy Number One. (Next to Trump himself, of course!)

On the other hand, those who question the extent of man’s role in climate change are labeled “Flat Earthers” by a global warming establishment that unscientifically cherry-picks opinions among scientists and excludes those that contradict the party line.

They are the saints, and all others are the sinners, destined for the fires of hell.

Saint Gavin’s lack of judgment is not confined to this subject alone. If anyone dares, for instance, to blame Sacramento for not addressing the mounting numbers of homeless blighting California cities, Newsom turns his fire hose of wrath in that direction.

The same denial of reality with which the Democrats viewed the “manufactured” border crisis is evident in their failure to acknowledge the severity of other national problems.

So despite California’s current woes, Newsom remains defiantly full of braggadocio for his state and himself. One of the dubious claims he likes to throw in Trump’s face is that California is more fiscally sound than is the federal government.

But duplicitous accounting can easily add up to no more than a semblance of solvency, and among the budgetary smoke and mirrors is the un-factored in outsized pension obligation down the road to California’s estimated 370,000 employees.

And Newsom backs a Medicare-for-all single-payer plan, which the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office in California estimates would cost more than double the state’s current budget and put taxpayers on the hook for $200 billion a year.

Even without that costly medical system, economists predict that California is on a fast track to arrive at insolvency far sooner than ex-governor Jerry Brown’s boondoggle bullet train could take them there.

The undisclosed funds squandered (thus far) on that mismanaged project might have been better spent on, say, buying new forest-clearing and firefighting equipment and improving the infrastructure into communities nestled near California’s forests.

Naturally, our “leaders” in Sacramento and Washington don’t want to talk about that. Or if they do, it is all talk.

While areas of Adam (Ahab) Schiff’s district in Southern California burned to the ground, he hunkered down in a cramped Capitol basement office — possibly with a torture rack in one corner — figuring out how to harpoon the great orange whale in the White House.

It is hardly surprising that all Democrat presidential wannabes are obligated to worship the deity of global warming, even though the outrageous “Green New Deal” — first proposed by a radical congressional neophyte from the treeless New York jungle — would burn up all the money in the U.S. Treasury.

The most vociferous support for that draconian measure comes from those who won’t have to pay for it, but who expect rich corporate fat cats — those responsible for global warming in the first place — to foot the outrageous bill.

The guiltless “victims” might piously do without plastic straws or recycle cardboard pizza boxes, but that’s where their noble intentions end.

As for all the rhetoric about grounding airplanes or mandating costlier hybrid cars or predicting the end of the Earth within less than their own lifetimes — that’s just meaningless, threatening chatter.

Would they feel the same if all electronic devices were suddenly found to contribute to global warming and thus had to be eliminated? The do-gooder line is consistently drawn at the point of self-interest.

The Left would not be nearly as furious at Trump for “deserting” the Kurds or pulling out of endless wars, for example, if the United States had a policy of universal draft.

Meanwhile, California sporadically burns — and those living there also find themselves in the hot seat for high taxes; skyrocketing housing costs; deteriorating, gridlocked roads; and communities plagued by homelessness, litter, and crime.

So while Governor Newsom myopically sees greatness in the once-Golden State, others suspect that it is on a dangerous downward spiral to mediocrity. I was part of the growing exodus leaving California for other, “friendlier” states.

Almost a year to the day, I relocated from Southern California to Las Vegas. The move, I’m pleased to report, has proved worth the gamble. As for Gavin Newsom, I’m sure he was more than happy to see me go.

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