More Unbelievable By The Minute

Friday, January 2, 2026

A few days ago I found myself hopelessly trying to explain to someone here in Tennessee how bureaucratic, how draconian, how 1984-ish California became during the pandemic.  I say “hopelessly” because my interlocuter just could not believe what I was telling them.  They just did not believe an American government could operate that way – especially when it came to the shuttering of churches and the enforcement of that dictate.  As the story of the now year-old and massively destructive Palisades fire in Los Angeles unfolds, I fear the same thing is happening in the rest of the nation – they just can’t believe it.

Back just before Thanksgiving was the last time I covered this and I opened that post this way:

Long long ago, as the fires burned, I said that government ineptitude was at the root of all of it regarding the Los Angeles fires of last January.  But that it would never be exposed because the bureaucratic stew was too thick to pick through.  That it would end up with a bunch of agencies pointing fingers at each other with the responsibility ending up so diverse there would be no one person or agency to hold accountable.  As investigations and reporting continue, that is in fact exactly what is happening.

And so it continues.  In that post it was developing that state wildlife agencies had ordered the LAFD shutdown of the underlying Lachman fire to preserve endangered plants.  Well, in the latest developments the wildlife agencies have released transcripts claiming the FD stood down because of the endangered plants voluntarily, in accordance with their training.  As if that is somehow exculpatory given that it was the wildlife agency that likely ordered the training to begin with.

Come to think of it, people don’t believe me about this overburdensome and conflicting regulatory stuff either. Decades ago an overseas company (not China) approached me about helping them establish a manufacturing operation in California.  I encouraged them to do so in a neighboring state given the regulatory climate in California, even at that time.  I told them horror stories similar to this fire mess and they did not believe me.  We got the plant open, but about 15 years later they wanted to expand and I offered the same advice.  They again did not believe.  Last year they shuttered the plant altogether as five years and over $15 million later the expansion was not occupied because the permits could not be obtained.

These stories about the total breakdown of reasonable government function in California, whether related to covid or these fires, are not getting any traction elsewhere in the country, I think because people just cannot believe it is that bad.  IT IS THAT BAD.  Despite the fact that the Rose Parade was still beautiful, even in the rain, on TV yesterday and the sun came out on the Rose Bowl as Indiana dominated Alabama, it is that bad.  Just because Pasadena manages to pull it together one day a year, it is not good.  (I had that city for a client at one time and had to triple my pricing to cover the bureaucratic costs of their regulations and vendor systems.)

California is failing.  The migration that is occurring away from that state already threatens wonderful parts of this country as they cannot cope with the rapid growth they are experiencing.  Soon the California failures will become a much larger problem for the rest of the nation.  I fear its collapse will catch the nation unawares in such a fashion that we will have to mount a Dunkirk-like evacuation of the state.  Let’s avoid that and get strategic about it now.  Even if there is nothing we can do at the moment, we need to prepare.  I shutter to think what will happen when a truly large scale emergency hits that state – like the predictable massive earthquake.