Firebombing on the Pacific

Over 25,000 acres are ablaze in Los Angeles in the Pacific Palisades fire, a veritable living hell.

Some 12,000-plus structures were incinerated. More than 250,000 souls have been evacuated and are in need of shelter.

No one has really taken charge yet. And now even the woke culprits for the catastrophe are blame-gaming each other to determine who was the more incompetent, which in this case translates to the most woke.

No one knows how many have died; all know the number will escalate in the next few days. The eventual price tag of the ruin will exceed $200-300 billion. And there are still some fires that are completely uncontained.

The Los Angeles apocalypse was a multisystem, green-woke collapse—and a disastrous reminder that when Soviet-style, anti-meritocratic ideology permeates all aspects of modern life in California, disaster is inevitable.

First, note that the culprit of the catastrophe is not climate change; it is not Donald Trump. Those are excuses for arrogant incompetency and disdain for the public. And it is not racism or homophobia to fault those who paraded and virtue signaled their tribal identities so extraneous to their actual responsibilities for public safety.

One Democratic senator resorted to “toxic masculinity”—a cardinal sin on the left—by repeatedly talking over Bondi and mansplaining his partisan talking points.

But Bondi wasn’t having it. She clapped back at Senator Alex Padilla (D-California), leaving him looking like a… pic.twitter.com/apkOiQ7wKU

— The Vigilant Fox ? (@VigilantFox) January 15, 2025

Now that is how a BOSS treats unruly children.  Pam Bondi deftly handled all the Dem nincompoops as she did Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA).

Several of Donald Trump’s most important cabinet nominees have now undergone confirmation hearings. I have watched them live in bits and pieces as I have been able, and have seen many clips posted here and elsewhere. Some obvious common threads emerge.

First, Trump’s nominees have uniformly done well. Pete Hegseth, Pam Bondi, Marco Rubio, Chris Wright, Scott Bessent, and Doug Bergum have all come across as competent and likable, in contrast to most of their Democrat interlocutors, who have been shrill at best, and often dim-witted.  Very often.

My favorite moment so far might be when the bizarre Mazie Hirono asked Pam Bondi whether she had ever made any unwanted sexual advances. Bondi’s puzzlement was understandable.

America’s Independence Day, observed annually on July 4, is a national holiday that honors the ratification of the Declaration of Independence. This pivotal document marked the founding of the United States of America and its liberation from British tyranny and oppression.

In the mid-1990s, a song with the same title was awarded Country Music Song of the Year. Performed by Martina McBride, it celebrates a woman’s liberation from her abusive husband.

What are the commonalities? Oppression and abuse. Is anyone else sensing a strong stench of these in America, what used to be a shining city on a hill?

Could January 20, which is less than a week away, become Independence Day II for Americans who strive for freedom against a tyrannical federal government?  The answer is Yes.

What would an Independence Day II in America look like? Eight years ago, the appetizer was served, but the main course begins next week.

Thank you Chairman Wicker, Ranking Member Reed, and all members of this Committee for the opportunity today. I am grateful for, and learned a great deal from, this "advise and consent" process. Should I be confirmed, I look forward to working with this Committee — Senators from both parties — to secure our nation…

It is an honor to come before this Committee as President Donald Trump's nominee for the office of Secretary of Defense. Two months ago, 77 million Americans gave President Trump a powerful mandate for change. To put America First — at home and abroad.

I want to thank President Trump for his faith in me, and his selfless leadership of our great Republic. The troops could have no better Commander-in-Chief than Donald Trump.

As I've said to many of you in our private meetings, when President Trump chose me for this position, the primary charge he gave me was — to bring the warrior culture back to the Department of Defense. He, like me, wants a Pentagon laser-focused on warfighting, lethality, meritocracy, standards, and readiness. That's it. That is my job.

To that end, if confirmed, I'm going to work with President Trump — and this committee — to:

Putin Death Skull Banner across from Russian Embassy in Riga, Latvia

The Russian offensive in Donbas has stalled in the last few weeks to a crawl, and in the Kursk oblast, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order to expel the Ukrainian forces remains a failure.

This at the cost of up to 2,000 dead or badly wounded Russians and North Koreans a day could create a favorable situation for an inaugurated Trump opening peace negotiations with Putin.  Yet the Kremlin is signaling its full commitment to its maximalist demands of Ukraine’s capitulation (Rossiiskaya Gazeta, January 10).

The working assumption in Moscow appears to be that Washington D.C. must produce attractive incentives for Russia to agree on a pause in hostilities because Trump’s ability to generate pressure is limited (Svoboda.org, January 10). This confidence amounts to self-deception because Trump has at least four heavy-impact levers for compelling Putin to shift from ultimatums to reasonable flexibility and beyond.