In media-saturated cultures, it is easy to focus on the statements or affairs of those who often appear on screens, records, and radio. Thus, one might feel that, when discussing the losses experienced by film stars in the terrible Los Angeles area wildfires, one is neglecting many whose names are not well known. But the tragedies visited upon numerous of those celebrities are emblematic of the troubles experienced by thousands of others, and, in many cases, their hopefulness, gratitude to be alive, and concern for others also is emblematic, and helps encourage others.
Such is the case for actor Mel Gibson, who, while in Texas for an interview with Joe Rogan, suffered the loss of his Malibu home to the vast, fast, uncontrolled, and deadly wildfires.
In conversation about the loss, he told News Nation that the loss of the material objects was not important and that “these are only THINGS,” and he stressed the safety of his family and neighbors. He brought levity in noting that his chickens survived, and didn’t become “roast chickens,” and he lightly joked that at least he won’t have those pesky plumbing problems he’d once had.
Subsequently, Mr. Gibson offered additional key words when he remarked about the governmental misconduct and maladministration that paved the way for the tragedy and made the situation worse, focusing his criticism on the egocentric, self-promoting, responsibility-dodging Gavin Newsom.
When asked on January 10 by Fox News’ Laura Ingraham if he had a message for Governor Newsom or LA Mayor Karen Bass, he thought for a moment before, in his inimitable low-key fashion, offering, “Spend less on hair gel.”
“Any message for Governor Newsom… tonight?”
— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) January 11, 2025
Mel Gibson: “Spend less on hair gel.”
pic.twitter.com/uKg2i9rVdP
Gibson went on to add, “That’s it. You know, what can I say to them. Not a big admirer of either of them.”
And, as he did with the earlier observations about his home, Mr. Gibson seems to have hit a resonant chord with many who are suffering, who are focusing on the immediate dangers and fears of neighbors, but who also reserve intellectual space for, and critical awareness of, the government role in setting up this horrific disaster and making it worse.
He's not rancorous. He’s not petty. He offers a springboard to look at the two major force vectors the government took on, and which its agents and political figures utterly have mismanaged.
Those two come in the form of preparation/mitigation of risk, and infrastructure/response, both of them are interdependent, and both have suffered because of the underlying assumptions that government should be involved in water control, land “preservation,” fire response, and power supply, all of which lead to bickering over how much to spend, where to spend it, and more.
Currently, civilian investigators are uncovering numerous acts of mismanagement, ranging from the fact that, as I recently noted for MRCTV, in his first term as President, Donald Trump moved to redirect millions of gallons of California water from going into the sea, and Newsom sued to stop the action, to the fact that, as reporter Michael Shellenberger explains, the Palisades Reservoir was EMPTIED by the government that already had used tax money to build it.
Investigators also are noting the bald-facedly sick fact that the LA Fire Department suffers from a lack of firemen in part because the government mandated the mRNA jabs as a condition of continued employment, and the fact that the now former Fire Chief Kristin M. Crowley pushed unrealistic “Diversity” policies that reduced the on-hand physical ability of fire-fighting teams to perform dangerous, life-saving tasks even as id discouraged qualified males from trying to join the team.
Then, there is the $7.5 Billion in water projects that the California voters approved in 2014, which saw nary any action on the part of Newsom and the state bureaucracy.
And there is the budget differential between what Chief Crowley wanted and the amount to which the Mayor agreed, which, though, of course, government agencies always ask for larger budgets, and when the overall spending rises, but might not rise to the demanded amount, many call the new increase a “cut,” the difference between the requested and the allocated tax cash now is on the lips of many, worldwide.
And then there are the facts that the state of California virtually stopped controlled burns recently, and that LA Mayor Bass in 2022 “donated surplus fire equipment” to… Ukraine.
Oh, and, lest one forget, Mayor Bass used to sit on the board of the National Endowment for Democracy, which, as Time Magazine noted in August, is tied to numerous CIA schemes and favors all over the world.
So, why not see her shuffle firefighting tech to Ukraine, one of the places the CIA has loved, and in which it has worked with fascist groups, for decades?
Related: LA's Head of Water Makes $750K/Yr., Yet Fire Hydrants Left Dry
And, hey, don’t worry about Janisse Quiñones, the LA head of water resources, being focused on “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” while raking in $750K a year.
There’s plenty more to see, and The Daily Caller’s Eireann Van Natta covers some key facets of the LA city waste, including a “Midnight Stroll Transgender Cafe” and a Gay Men’s Chorus, that drew away from the Fire Department.
“Los Angeles allocated $100,000 to the Civil + Human Rights and Equity Department for a ‘Midnight Stroll Transgender Cafe,’ according to its 2024 to 2025 budget. The funding’s purpose is to ‘support a safe haven for unsheltered transgender individuals in Hollywood,’ the document noted.”
Safety. As LA and surrounding cities burn, that seems to be in low supply right now.
“Similarly, the Cultural Affairs Department Special Appropriations budget allocated $100,000 for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Awards.”
That’s an awards ceremony. Why should taxpayers be forced to pay for it?
Then there’s the “magick” and “Queer LA” spending:
“The budget also appropriated $8,670 for the ‘One Institute the International Gay and Lesbian Archives.’
The ONE Archives at the University of Southern California (USC) Libraries currently has an exhibit titled ‘Sci-fi, Magick, Queer L.A.: Sexual Science and the Imagi-Nation,’ which focuses on the occult and ‘the LGBTQ movement.’”
There’s the aforementioned chorus…
“The budget also allocated $13,000 for ‘Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Heritage Month Programs” and $14,010 to the “Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles.’”
How about not forcing anyone to pay for any chorus?
And there’s the seemingly ubiquitous need to virtue-signal on race, using tax cash, of course. Hence, the Mayor made sure these got funds:
“Los Angeles’ African American History Month, American Indian Heritage Month, Latino Heritage Month and Asian American History Month Programs were each allocated $13,000.
The budget also appropriated $170,000 in total for “Social Justice Art-Worker Investments.”
Now, the point here is not that some or all of these endeavors are ill-conceived or unworthy of support. The point also is not to claim some kind of omniscience as to how much of a budget for fire-fighting is sufficient.
The point is to recognize that the long-inculcated idea that government should handle things like water, energy, or even fire-fighting is misguided, immoral, and creates a constant battle of disparate interests and values. Collectivism always presents these problems, pitting interest against interest, neighbor against neighbor, in a never-ending struggle for political control in order to shape the world the way the various interests want it shaped.
Only private property can address the problems the way people want them addressed, and do so in a competitive way that sees those offering services deliver better work for less.
Government monopolies and taxation stop people from deciding what takes precedent for their own lives. Government control suppresses the recognition of real hazards and costs.
Each of us has a property in ourselves, which translates to mutual hands-off our earnings and the physical items we acquire. If politicians prevent us from handling those affairs, they, by definition, tell us that we lose those rights to control our own lives.
One might not see recognition of individual sovereignty fully restored in Los Angeles or anywhere in the US for a long, long time, but, after acknowledging how poorly the collectivist LA system has operated, perhaps more earnest people will begin focusing on dismantling larger portions of that centralized bureaucracy.
That is just one of the big projects the survivors of the LA fires will have to handle, as they try to rebuild their lives, homes, and businesses.