It’s so easy and convenient to blame the Democratic Party who controls California’s government for our recent wildfires and how we manage our forests when one is a know nothing, ignorant AF, MAGAt sycophant who drains his or her brain on Fox ‘News.’ However, opinions, albeit ignorant as some are, and facts that do not support ignorant opinions are two different things: 57 percent of California’s 33 million acres of forest are controlled by the federal government
In December, 44 Republicans voted against HR 10545, the American Relief Act of 2025, which provided funds for wildfire prevention measures, including $75,000,000 for the “construction or maintenance of shaded fuel breaks in the Pacific Regions.” The funds allow states like California to create barriers to stop the spread of fires. According to the San Mateo County’s Fire Safe website:
"A fuel break is a strip or block of land on which the native vegetation has been permanently reduced and/or modified so that fires burning around it can be more readily and safely controlled. Fuels within fuel breaks are reduced in volume through thinning or pruning, or are changed to vegetative types which burn with a lower intensity and offer less resistance to fire control efforts."
A fuel break will not stop nor prevent a wildfire but it will serve as strategic “defensible landscape” to reduce fire speed and severity, improve suppression by ground crews and air attack. The purposes of strategic fuel modification are to separate communities or groups of structures from the native vegetation and break up large expanses of flammable fuel into smaller blocks, all with the purpose of reducing fire loss and damage.
A fuel break is a strip or block of land on which the native vegetation has been permanently reduced and/or modified so that fires burning around it can be more readily and safely controlled. Fuels within fuel breaks are reduced in volume through thinning or pruning, or are changed to vegetative types which burn with a lower intensity and offer less resistance to fire control efforts.
These 10 Republican Senators voted against bill:
- Mike Braun (R-IN)
- Mike Crapo (R-ID)
- Josh Hawley (R-MO)
- Ron Johnson (R-WI)
- John Kennedy (R-LA)
- Mike Lee (R-UT)
- Rand Paul (R-KY)
- James Risch (R-ID)
- Mitt Romney (R-UT)
- Eric Schmitt (R-MO)
The following 34 Republicans voted against the bill containing wildfire prevention funding:
- im Banks (R-IN)
- Andy Biggs (R-AZ)
- Dan Bishop (R-NC)
- Lauren Boebert (R-CO)
- Josh Brecheen (R-OK)
- Tim Burchett (R-TN)
- Eric Burlison (R-MO)
- Michael Cloud (R-TX)
- Andrew Clyde (R-GA)
- Eli Crane (R-AZ)
- John Curtis (R-UT)
- Scott DesJarlais (R-TN)
- Russ Fulcher (R-ID)
- Tony Gonzales (R-TX)
- Bob Good (R-VA)
- Lance Gooden (R-TX)
- Glenn Grothman (R-WI)
- Andy Harris (R-MD)
- Diana Harshbarger (R-TN)
- Wesley Hunt (R-TX)
- Debbie Lesko (R-AZ)
- Ken Lopez (R-CO)
- Nancy Mace (R-SC)
- Thomas Massie (R-KY)
- Rich McCormick (R-GA)
- Cory Mills (R-FL)
- Alex Mooney (R-WV)
- Andy Ogles (R-TN)
- Scott Perry (R-PA)
- Matt Rosendale (R-MT)
- Chip Roy (R-TX)
- Keith Self (R-TX)
- Tom Tiffany (R-WI)
- Beth Van Duyne (R-TX)
Fact-checking criticism of California Democrats over fires:
What has Trump claimed? (Translation: What Bullshit Does The Felon Guy Tell His Ignorant Sycophants?)
In a social media post on Wednesday, Trump said Governor Newsom “refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water” to put out the fires.
But the specific declaration he mentions doesn’t appear to exist.
The governor’s press office issued a statement in response, saying: “There is no such document as the water restoration declaration – that is pure fiction.”
Although southern California is currently experiencing a drought, data shows its reservoirs are almost all currently above the historic average for this time of the year. None are at significantly low levels.
One large reservoir in Pacific Palisades, the Santa Ynez Reservoir, was closed for maintenance and empty when the fire broke out, the LA Times reported.
Officials from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) said that if the Santa Ynez Reservoir had been operational, it might have increased the supply of water, but that it’s unclear what the ultimate effect might have been.
Fuck Off! Signed, California:
Is there no water for fire hydrants’?
On Friday, Governor Newsom confirmed reports that have been swirling this week that a water shortage hit the fire hydrants, hampering the emergency response.
Firefighters in Los Angeles have told the BBC firsthand that they experienced shortages.
Newsom called for an independent investigation into the loss of water pressure to hydrants and the unavailability of water from the reservoir.
In a letter addressed to the heads of the LA Department of Water and Power and LA County Public Works, Newsom said that reports of inadequate water supplies are “deeply troubling” .
“Losing supplies from fire hydrants likely impaired the effort to protect some homes and evacuation corridors,” he wrote.
“We need answers to how that happened,” he continued, adding that he expects the agencies to “fully and transparently” share information and records for the state’s probe.
Did LA Mayor cut fire department budget?
LA Mayor Karen Bass has faced criticism over cuts to the city’s fire department budget.
For the latest financial year, the LA Fire Department (LAFD) budget was reduced by $17.6m (£14.3m).
In a memo to Mayor Bass last month, LA Fire Chief Kristin Crowley warned that the cuts had “severely limited the department’s capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies, such as wildfires”.
Mayor Bass responded to the criticism, saying: “I think if you go back and look at the reductions that were made, there were no reductions that were made that would have impacted the situation that we were dealing with over the last couple of days.”
The LAFD has an overall budget of almost $820m, and it isn’t the only department responding to the fires.
For example, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the Los Angeles County Fire Department are part of the relief efforts, along with the federal government.
“LA County has some of the most advanced and sophisticated wildfire fighting resources of any location in the world. If you had to chose one place on earth that was best place to tackle this sort of disaster, it would be LA county,” says Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the California Institute for Water Resources.
“The disaster isn’t as bad as it is because there’s a lack of resource, the reality is there’s a limit to how effective wildland firefighting can be under extreme conditions like we experienced this week.”
Here’s how California has increased forest management and wildfire response in the face of a hotter, drier climate
Protecting Californians in a hotter, drier world
Governor Newsom has dramatically ramped up state work to increase wildland and forest resilience, as well as adding unprecedented resources to support wildfire response. California officials treated more than 700,000 acres of land for wildfire resilience in 2023, and prescribed fires more than doubled between 2021 and 2023.
Updates: 2025 Los Angeles Fires
Resources for Californians Impacted by Los Angeles Fires
Taking Away ‘Black Jobs?’
From the MarKODA Files-Ignorant AF Edition:Jesse Watters Blames “The Indians” for CA’s Wildfires:
JESSE WATTERS (HOST): It gets worse. Gavin's been tearing down dams. Why? Because the Indians wanted some of the river back so they could catch salmon. Gavin didn't just knock down one dam for the Indians, he knocked down all four.
...
And these dams were a go-to source for firefighters to pull water from to fight fires up north. Gavin's literally tearing down western civilization for fish and Indians. Nothing against the Indians, I love the Indians. But really?
***BTW: Shasta Lake/Shasta Dam is a FEDERALLY owned lake/dam; it is NOT part of the State Water Project.
