Below is my column in The Hill on the familiar bust-and-boom cycle of socialism, where failure is used to call for even more radical changes. While House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries this week reaffirmed that Democratic Socialists are part of the Democratic Party, radical figures are demonstrating how extreme this agenda is for some. For example, Socialist State Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher has declared that stealing should be legal for those in need. If socialism takes hold in New York, many will indeed need five-finger discounts in the Big Apple.
From New York to California, the American left is proving that nothing succeeds like failure. In areas ranging from immigration to taxes to health care, politicians are playing to their past fiascos to push an even more radical agenda.
Take immigration. Many, including the Democratic Socialists, have called for open borders or disbanding ICE. After the Biden administration chose to allow millions of undocumented people to enter the country, most Democrats are now calling for “pathways” to make them citizens. After all, they argue, there are too many to deport.
We now know the open border was a choice. The Trump administration immediately stopped crossings using the same laws Biden had refused to enforce. As expected, Democrats are expressing horror at the thought that the government would try to deport the millions that they allowed and even encouraged to enter the country.
The same is true on public health policy. Remember when ObamaCare was going to reduce health care costs and improve health care options? While insisting that they did not want government-run single-payer healthcare, Democrats promised that ObamaCare would lower costs while allowing you to keep your own doctor and health care plan. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama promised his plan would “lower your premiums by up to $2,500 per family per year.”
By that measure, ObamCare, or the Affordable Care Act, is a colossal failure. Premiums have nearly tripled since the law took effect, and deductibles have more than doubled. “The cost of coverage for a family of four has increased by more than $10,000,” according to studies.
In 2026 alone, median premiums increased by 20 percent, and that has already risen by another 15 percent in 2027. Meanwhile, enrollments continue to plummet across the country.
Democratic leaders and advocates are now responding to that failure by calling for more regulations and “Medicare for all.” As with immigration, the failure is the basis for doubling down on bad policy with even worse policy.
The same is also true of public education, which has failed families in major cities for generations. The solution has been to increase budgets while lowering proficiency standards. The one thing teachers unions and school districts oppose is a market-based system that lets families choose between programs through voucher systems. The solution is, again, more staff, more funding and more control over families’ options. The system gets worse and more expensive, and the teachers unions get more powerful, including greater ability to block reforms.
No one has perfected the politics of failure more than Zohran Mamdani. In New York, chaos only undermines the status quo. For example, his demand for free buses has predictably led to thousands of commuters — including affluent citizens — skipping fares, costing the Metropolitan Transportation Authority tens of millions of dollars. After all, only a chump would pay a fare that is about to be eliminated.
As the transit budget implodes, the calls for greater state subsidies will only increase — as will calls just to accept the reality and make public transportation free to the user (and expensive to the taxpayer).
Then there is rent reform. With Mamdani promising rent controls, landlords are predictably raising rents. Rent costs have reached their highest level ever under Mamdani, with the average apartment now costing $4,965 per month — and $6,655 per month in Manhattan.
So Mamdani can now push for even more significant regulations and rent controls by pointing to the rise in housing costs in an endless loop. As rent control inevitably constrains supply and prices for market-rate apartments skyrocket, he can call for even greater controls.
Failure can also solve problems through attrition. Mamdani was recently booed off stage at a law enforcement event in New York. The officers and their families are clearly upset with his embrace of figures calling for the defunding of police and his long hostility toward law enforcement. The result, however, is precisely the downsizing that many on the left have wanted. The NYPD has been losing as many as 300 officers a month.
What is true for police officers is also true for wealthy taxpayers. Mamdani has taunted affluent citizens with his new taxes and attacked them as not “paying their fair share.” As a result, the wealthy are fleeing New York and taking tax revenues and jobs with them.
Success through failure is especially evident in the housing policies. Mamdani has brought in socialists who called for “seizing the means of production” (as he has) and wiping out private ownership of housing.
Most recently, Mamdani has embraced figures such as Tracy Rosenthal, the privileged daughter of a well-known music industry figure who has refused to pay rent. Despite her family’s wealth, she has been effectively squatting on property. The co-founder of the Los Angeles Tenants Union and co-author of “Abolish Rent: How Tenants Can End the Housing Crisis,” Rosenthal is a darling of the far left. In New York, she declared that rent is “a ransom,” and “We pay rent at the peril of our need.”
Rosenthal portrays landlords as bloodsuckers and rallied the left to refuse to pay rent even though “if we don’t make this payment, our landlords can call on agents of state violence who can use physical force to throw us outdoors.”
Rosenthal has perfected not only the squatter culture but also the use of regulations to take effective control of properties. In allegedly squatting in California, Rosenthal reportedly pushed to get her building placed under the Housing Preservation Department’s Alternative Enforcement Program. Under that, a landlord must fix problems or risk losing the property.
Mamdani is pursuing a similar model. He has ramped up tenant coordination to bring complaints to his advocacy offices. As landlords are hit with snowballing complaints and costs, they can be forced to surrender their properties or have them seized by the city. The Mamdani administration wants those failures to result in tenant or non-profit ownership of businesses. What it will do is ensure that fewer rental units come on the market, making the problem worse and creating new excuses to take further harmful action.
This pattern of success through failure has manifested itself on an even larger scale in history. Socialists often destroy economic conditions, resulting in greater unemployment and greater demand for government subsidies. That expansion of government power continues until conditions grow so severe that emergency actions are needed.
In “Rage and the Republic” I discuss how this pattern played out in Great Britain and France in the last century, when socialist policies devastated those countries’ respective economies. Great Britain ultimately had to be rescued by the International Monetary Fund, as if it were a third-world nation.
This bust-and-boom cycle is now repeating itself. As these policies fuel decline in these areas, demand grows for expanding the policies and government controls. If McDonald’s were to offer ever-shrinking food items at ever-increasing prices, it would go out of business. Government is the only industry that grows with failure.
For radicals, social and economic upheaval is not a tragedy but an opportunity. Lenin told the Bolsheviks to “utilize” crisis to “hasten the collapse of the rule of capital.”
The future seems bright for the American socialists. After all, with just a little more failure, who knows what Mamdani and others can achieve in America.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”
In a truly classic Orwellian move, Mamdani stated today that, since his proposed city owned grocery stores “might” impose financial hardship on neighborhood stores, he is prepared to issue grants to local grocery stores that are losing business because of his plan.
People the vote Dem are committing lifestyle, financial, and freedom suicide. The bad thing is that the rest of us suffer because of their votes.
Rosenthal’s bleat about non-paying renters being liable to “agents of state violence” refers to the police and the legal system being called in to enforce the law, which law is also based on common sense: if you want to live in a certain place and the owner will enter into some form of contract with you for a price, then you get something you want from someone who has what you want, which is merely a version of the buyer-seller dynamic that fuels the economy.
Here is AOC’s running mate for the 2028 presidential election:
“Kill landlords. Let the streets run red with capitalist blood. Destroy the white race. M***f*** the Constitution.” (Hasan Piker, the vanguard of the Left’s “thought” leaders)
It is claimed that socialism “works.” It does. If your goal is to enslave the individual to the state and create mass deprivation. And to see blood run in the streets.
Wow, hyperbole much? We don’t’ even know if AOC will be running at all. Hang on to those pearls real tight Sam.
the financialization issue is universal today in American culture. By that, I mean that in the 21st century in particular, the focus of American “free market” capitalism has changed from the robust production of the highest-quality goods at the lowest price to a narrowly defined profit motive. Not for the nation and certainly not for the workers at the involved companies, but for the shareholders of the companies. The theme of shareholder value, promoted beginning around half a century ago, has completely obliterated the value and purpose of the manufacturing industry to the health and security of the nation. A lack of historical perspective is one of the main drivers of the drift of the so-called educated class to the idea that socialism, as an economic system, is superior to free market capitalism.
This is a good comment. It’s hard to understand, but Marx was in the tradition of Adam Smith and Ricardo. Today supposedly “leftist” economists like Michael Hudson and Richard D. Wolff are great at explaining how capitalism increased efficiencies and build social value through unleashing forces of production that had been hobbled by feudalism’s entrenched bad habits. THey are also good at explaining “financialism” which is where a parasitic class of FIRE sector plutocrats (finance, insurance, real estate) kicked the teeth out of American industry with “globalization” to maximize their profits at the expense of wider society. Though Trump talked a good game early on, he failed to execute on his “reindustrialization” plan, in part because he is obviously beholden to his peers in the FIRE sector and their notorious tribal kinsmen. I say this with some irony, for like Marx, Hudson and Wolff are tribal kinsmen too. Though I greatly admire their work in economics!
Tune into Hudson and Wolff also for meaningful explanations of how free market forces were skillfully used by the Communist party in China to rapidly develop the nation, and how American economic policy could be adjusted to improve our situation here too.
it’s too simplistic to say so and so is a communist, leftist, etc. If you get down to the brass tacks of economics, or political economy as it was called in Adam Smith’s time, there is quite a bit in common from Smith to Ricardo to Marx, and right on down to today’s dreaded See See Pee (CPC).
Sal Sar
The critique of socialism needs to be a short-term-good, long-term-bad argument. People who are just scraping by (60% of Americans) are probably correct that socialistic wealth transfer will benefit them in the near-term — and that’s their focus of attention…next month and the month after that.
The long-term picture is comparatively grim — fewer jobs offered by an anemic private sector, inflation, and heavihanded bureaucrats everywhere imposing ever more arbitrary rules. Propaganda to cover-up a failing system takes hold of media.
Let’s tell it like it is. Socialism looks good at first by transferring wealth to those struggling to get by. But with every passing year, its inability to create new wealth chips away at standard-of-living and freedom to save and prosper over the long term. It’s a short-termer’s bad bargain — a tradeoff with the devil.
Turley’s claims are nothing more than a desperate attempt to stymie the idea that “socialist” ideas may actually work. It’s scary for Republicans to see a successful ‘socialist’ idea because it ends up showing people that they actually work and do benefit people despite the fear mongering and demonizing those on the right do.
Trump’s current policies are NOT working and in fact they are making things worse. The war with Iran is not going well. Prices on goods are still high and continue to rise. Job losses are starting to hit the economy and the tariffs have not produced the economic boom Trump claimed we would have. Instead we are getting flubbed repairs to reflecting pools, increasingly costly White House “improvements”, gold statues, our military having a trillion dollar budget and still demanding more without any evidence of an effective use of this money. The only thing really keeping the economy afloat is the boom in data center building. But that comes at a high cost with higher utility bills or ordinary folks and more water usage in drought areas.
We are already depleting our SPR oil reserves and once that is gone gas prices will continue to get higher and everything else will cost even more. Republicans are gonna lose the house and more likely the senate. Trump will likely not even make it to the end of his term if his health gets worse. Once’s Trump dies or becomes useless with a democratic controlled congress MAGA will go down with him.
Once again it will be up to a democrat to clean up the mess Trump made.
The loss of Karoline Leavitt is horrible. Karoline, you are the best ever. You should run for president. You are irreplaceable. A gift. A genius. A treasure. You will be missed terribly. Terribly.
And you are an incredibly stupid female.
Addressing Estovir’s False Claims
Further down troll Estovir wants to bring up the Los Angeles fires of 2025 in some lame attempt to smear blue states. Estovir parrots Trump talking points as if they had real credibility. But make no mistake, it was lack of rain, more than anything that led to those fires.
* * * * * * *
From January 25, 2025
The Santa Ana winds that have fueled wildfires for weeks in Southern California finally stopped blowing on Friday, and an unusually long period of dry weather was on track to end in Los Angeles County as a cold storm arrived late Saturday.
The Los Angeles area has seen its driest start to the rainy season on record and has not measured significant rainfall since last spring. Since May 1, the Weather Service’s gauge in downtown Los Angeles has measured just a little more than a quarter-inch of rain. This weekend’s expected storm has the potential to bring nearly four times that amount.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/25/us/los-angeles-fires-rain-risk-mudslides.html?smid=nytcore
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KEY PASSAGE ABOVE:
“..an unusually long period of dry weather was on track to end in Los Angeles County..”
” it was lack of rain, more than anything that led to those fires.”
BZZT Wrong.
You seem to think that California does not have weather.
Droughts in CA occur on a cycle.
Regardless, Some fires are going to occur no matter what.
But we have been seeing much larger fires – in CA in Canada, in other parts of the US in Europe – the larger scale of recent fires is the result of bad forest management.
This is not a secret.
“..an unusually long period of dry weather was on track to end in Los Angeles County..”
Unusual as in more than last year, or more than in the last decade – maybe. Truly unusual NOPE.
Regardless, large scale fires require many things – one of those is vast areas of dense FUEL.
We have had a growing century of environmentalists who have opposed to anything to create firebreaks and reduce the fuel density of the eco system.
And in the past few decades we have learned how stupid that is. Many places are now doing better.
California is not one of those.
Forest management alone is not a cure-all because persistent climate extremes override localized landscape treatments. Long-term droughts have transformed Western ecosystems into highly combustible tinderboxes. Focusing exclusively on “bad management” oversimplifies a complex crisis and shifts blame away from systemic macro-environmental factors.
High winds blow embers past engineered fuel breaks. That’s how homes catch on fire. Even when there are fire breaks.
Tending millions of rugged acres is physically impossible.
Then there’s the poor funding streams to do the kind of management you propose. We know the Trump administration has been cutting funding for such measures while blaming states for the lack of management.
When extreme dry spells lock in, even pristine, perfectly managed habitats become highly vulnerable to rapid ignition. Furthermore, downplaying these climatic shifts while ignoring critical infrastructure failures—such as neglected power lines—prevents comprehensive regional safety strategies.
Weather plays the biggest role and persistent dry spells due to long running droughts is indeed the biggest factor.
It was the lack of responsible planning for a regular threat. The Democrats under Gavin Newsom failed to establish an Emergency Preparedness Plan and see that all resources were allocated for dealing with the annual fire threat. Reservoirs remained empty, personnel were not available, fire trucks and equipment were not staged. Florida goes through this type of process every year for Hurricane season. The reasoning and cause for this negligence are not too hard to figure out, it’s Democrats.
If you want a depression, Trump is the guy to follow.
^ The most sophisticated, penetrating deep analysis ever written, wow, just wow ^
Really.. Got any proof on that.
You stoopid F.
The 10 year Treasury yield. Know what that means dustoff?
Yes BIden was a breath of fresh air, oops, I meant stinky farts.
Only a fool would follow a brain dead president that showered with his young underage daughter.
With? How do you know, were you in the shower too?
It’s you who sound depressed. TDS will do that but know this: When Trump is retired and playing golf, you will miss him and seek that TDS rage-rush again. There is no cure for TDS but they’re doing wonderful things with medications these days.
Mideast Headlines
– Iran Lurching Toward ‘Severe Economic Collapse’ As War Takes Its Toll
– ‘Limited options’ for many Iranians as war with US chokes economy
– Iran’s Fuel Freeze and $127 Billion IOU: Why Economic Failure Is Becoming a Political Crisis
Dear Mr. Turley,
I am your fan, but why do you keep placing fake “Russian” posters for illustration of Socialism? Russia is not Socialist country anymore and these posters are not authentic Russian posters.
Those posters are good art, regardless of ‘who’ produced them.
Are you so ignorant you don’t know those are posters from the now defunct United Soviet SOCIALIST Union?
Although the Bolsheviks did not have extensive political experience, their portrayal of the revolution itself as both a political and symbolic order resulted in Communism’s portrayal as a messianic faith, formally known as communist messianism.
It took Russia approximately 74 years to overthrow communist rule, from the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
It’s easy to vote yourself into socialism, it’s extremely hard to get rid of socialism once you are in it. It takes revolution to get out of communism.
Russian Revolution, 1991
The so‐called second Russian revolution occurred in August 1991 when the coup by hard‐liners wishing to prevent the demise of communist power and the Soviet Union was defeated. The coup took place on the eve of the signing of a new union treaty that envisaged the transfer of power from the center to the republics.
It was a peaceful walkaway from Communist state bureaucracy, planned economy, and empire. The words “revolution” and “coup” don’t really fit when the existing government simply gives in and abandons a system almost everyone perceives as a failure.
Gas was cheaper under Bill Clinton.
Herbert Hoover’s presidency, the average price of gasoline was about $0.20 per gallon. So what Clinton was 26 years ago. A lot happened in the world since then. How about comparing to Obummer and O’biden?
Obama Term high $3.96 at the pump\
$5.68 in 2025 dollars
Pump: May 9, 2011
Biden Term high $5.01 at the pump · nominal
$5.46 in 2025 dollars · adjusted
Pump: June 13, 2022 ‘
That was just Democrats lousy policies, they were trying to stop the world from nuclear Armageddon.
Biden released gas from the strategic energy reserves that Trump filled with low price oil his first term to bring gas prices down.
Thank goodness we have the phenomenal success of trumps invasion of Iran. Thank you DJT for killing those Iranian school girls. Can you imagine the threat they proposed? I mean what were the odds of DJT having sex with them? Near zero, get rid of them. Thank you DJT for causing the Straight of Hormuz to be closed. Who needs all those stinking tankers filled with crude oil, fertilizer, and sulphur?
DJT Iran invasion success. Thank you.
I’m moving to Iran for its economic prosperity and opportunity.
I’m moving there for the freedom to speak publicly against the government. Ain’t no way they’d execute me for that. Oh, sorry.
And The Tutsi’s blood cries out, “Where was President Clinton when the Hutu’s obliterated us?” The Blood of a million innocent, unarmed men, women and children.
And wok is silent. Always.
What a misguided and wrong view. Trump has them RIGHT where he wants them. Apparently, he also has YOU right where he wants you.
You can probably pin that yuuuuge mistake right on Palantir and Oracle who have bragged about their AI targeting systems. Sal Sar
Trump is Herbert Hoover!
ANON IS A DF MORON!!
Dustoff again folks!
Mister we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again.
Hoover was a progressive republican.
Amity Shlaes did an excellent history of the great depression called “the Forgotton man” It starts with Coolidge and covers the entire era, and all the people involved and the mistakes they made.
New Poll: Democrats Better On Economy
A new poll shows Democrats with a 6-point advantage over Republicans on the economy two months away from the midterm elections.
The survey, published by the Financial Times and conducted by Focaldata, found that 44 percent of registered voters said that Democrats are better at handling the economy, compared with 38 percent who said Republicans are more effective at managing the economy.
Eighteen percent of respondents said they were unsure which party was better equipped to handle the economy.
The economy is seen as the most important issue in the midterms, with 29 percent of survey respondents saying the economy and jobs are the No. 1 issue ahead of the general election. Forty percent of respondents said inflation and the cost of living were their most pressing concerns.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/6032806-inflation-cost-living-top-voter-concerns/
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This poll tells us that despite the DSA horror stories, the public actually has more faith in Democrats with regards to the economy. That doesn’t say much for Republicans!
You do not poll people to determine facts.
Republicans are not good – democrats are worse.
That is just reality.
Reality is changing. Republicans are losing the economy messaging game. Trump’s failing iran war is making things worse. His policies are not improving things, they are making it worse. And that makes Democrats ideas and polices more attractive and practical compared to what Republicans are offering now.
Notice how none are talking about the massive budget deficits and the constantly growing national debt. Saying Democrats are worse is no longer a credible argument. That is why the professor is working hard to push these “socialist” articles. Not because they are failing ideas, but because they are actually showing they CAN succeed. Republicans are terrified of ‘socialist’ ideas actually working because it will make their ideas which are not working more attractive.
Take Mayor Mamdani’s free public transport idea. It worked in KC and it actually increased economic output.
Launched in 2020, the ZeroFare KC initiative demonstrated that eliminating fares increased ridership, allowed low-income residents to access better-paying jobs, and saved families thousands of dollars annually, acting as a direct economic multiplier.
The Kansas City zero fare initiative started in 2020 and it has been a massive success. This is what Mayor Mamdani wants to duplicate and it has a chance to succeed.
The data gathered from academic and civic reviews highlights the quantitative impact of the fare-free system:
+22% Ridership Boom: Controlled transit studies revealed that Kansas City’s sustained post-policy ridership tracked 22% higher than comparable cities that kept fares.
Pandemic Resiliency: During the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, KC’s transit ridership held strong at 80% of pre-pandemic baselines, whereas standard fare systems nationwide plummeted to just 40%.
New Rider Influx: Independent evaluations found that 17% of respondents began utilizing the public bus system strictly because it became free to use.
Increased Frequency: Nearly 40% of pre-existing transit users reported taking more frequent bus trips once fare constraints were dropped.
Direct Access Expansion: A comprehensive study for the Urban League of Greater Kansas City revealed that over 80% of riders reported the policy directly improved their ability to get or keep a job, buy food, and access healthcare.
This shows this ‘socialist’ idea actually works and improves the lives of those that do use the system. KC proved Mamdani’s ideas can be successful.
Funding public infrastructure open to use by everyone is not socialism. It’s capitalism with generous social benefits the taxpayers shower on themselves. Socialism spends taxpayer $ on private consumption.
It’s socialism the kind of socialism Nordic countries exercise. Government paying or subsidizing public transportation to make it free to anyone is a socialistic system. When taxpayers “shower themselves” with these benefits it means the government is paying for it through their taxes. Not private companies.
Losing the messaging game? Now how in the fookin world are you all-knowing George, you’re just the local geriatric idiot who spews nonsense and lies.
Apparently you don’t keep up with the news or….read. But keep on whining it suits you.
Hey George yo got any facts to go along with that c_rap?
Oh there’s plenty. Google is your friend. Have you noticed how Republicans are NOT talking about the massive federal budget deficits, inflation, cost of as going up. Jobs being lost, and the massive debt still growing? They are pretty quiet about the economy. Which means it is not doing too well under Trump’s management.
“During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kansas City’s transit ridership “recovered to” roughly 80% of its pre-pandemic baseline by late 2020″ actual quote
During the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, KC’s transit ridership “held strong” at 80%
lying wok scum
i sniff out wok scum with incredible ease
You didn’t show the stat is wrong.
It’s wrong. and we aren’t going to throw ourselves off the socialist cliff. We’re not stupid, We have a system for everything.
“We are not stupid”…yet you keep proving this to be wrong.
“though the city officially reinstated fares in June 2026 due to funding constraints.” wok tries and lies
Because the federal subsidies dried up. It did not end the program. It reduced it to targeted routes which are still proving the program is successful.
What it DID show is such programs are successful. Not failures.
Anything can be considered ‘successful’ with enough federal funding. You were just talking about the deficit. Where do you think that came from?
Taxpayers disagree on your definition of ‘success’. You are not good disseminating propaganda cause you’re slippin.
Nope. all hype and you know it x. It’s a numbers game. There has been no socialism instituted in the USA. governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods. not happening. I’m also typing this on MY computer. Our social programs are not socialism. Of course that’s not what you’d have us believe in order to promote creeping socialism. It’s all in your little red book X. Socialism is not free stuf to those who qualify. you’re such a propagandist, but a lame one.
Name me one policy other than raising taxes the Democrats have announced to increase affordability? All they do is criticize Trump and spew propaganda but what are the Democrats policies to increase affordability.
Rent controls won’t do it. Government grocery stores won’t do it. Medicare for all won’t do it. Open borders won’t do it. They will all increase taxes. Can you explain to me how raising taxes increases affordability? You can’t because it doesn’t. The government is inefficient, wasteful and filled with fraud so it doesn’t work. More people on benefits doesn’t work.
If you really want to increase affordability, cut taxes dramatically and let people spend their money on what is important and critical to themself. We work 4 months just to pay all our taxes.
Tax Freedom Day is calculated as if Americans work from January 1 solely to pay federal, state, and local taxes, then begin “working for themselves.” The latest comparable state-by-state figures I can substantiate are from 2024:
State Tax Freedom Day Approx. share of year:
Wisconsin May 1, 2024 about 33.3%
Illinois May 2, 2024 about 33.6%
New York May 11, 2024 about 36.1%
California May 18, 2024 about 38.3%
“Name me one policy” Huh? You want us to name you “one policy”, then why use an anon meme?
so no policies that YOU can provide? you gave up? he wins the argument just like that? I guess the left is really getting used to losing lately.
Don’t like anon’s? self-hating anon? explain yourself you dolt
If the right has a better track record of success, then why did the voters vote for the left?
Where is this successful track record?
Los Angeles County is deep blue. Thousands of homes were burnt to a crisp due to gross mismanagement of water, forest, and energy resources. One man offered a different way, a way of improvement. The voters turned that down, opting instead to vote for more misery and destruction. What other explanation is there, than that they have mass psychosis.
Estovir, Los Angeles burned from lack of rain that year. This nonsense about ‘mismanagement of forests and whatever’ is just the conclusions of some MAGA redneck who’s never been to California.
Boy are you delusional. Even the left-leaning google AI bot disagrees with you.
AI Overview
The devastating January 2025 Palisades Fire in Los Angeles was ignited by residual underground embers from an earlier arson-set fire (the Lachman Fire) that flared up during extreme Santa Ana winds. However, intense public debate, lawsuits, and reviews point to resource management vulnerabilities that worsened the disaster.
Water Resource and Infrastructure Failures
– Dry Hydrants: As hundreds of homes burned, fire hydrants in the Pacific Palisades lost pressure or went completely dry.
– Depleted Storage Tanks: Local water tanks feeding the hilly neighborhood emptied out rapidly as demand overwhelmed the system’s capacity to pump replacement water.
– Maintenance Backlogs: Critics and civil lawsuits highlighted offline or under-repaired regional water assets, such as local reservoirs down for maintenance, which compromised reserve flexibility during peak emergency.
Vegetation and Land (Forest) Management
– Overgrown Brush: Lawsuits filed by fire victims claim that local authorities neglected brush clearance rules on vacant, city-owned lots in high-risk zones.
– Chaparral Fuel Loads: The dense, dry chaparral terrain of the Santa Monica Mountains provided a receptive, volatile fuel bed that allowed the wind-driven embers to explode into an urban conflagration.
Energy and Operational Controversies
– Grid and Utilities: Scrutiny was directed at regional utility infrastructure and coordination during extreme red-flag wind conditions, with affected residents alleging systemic unpreparedness.
– Emergency Response Coordination: Post-fire evaluations and after-action reports noted communication breakdowns, command shifts, and initial difficulties in containing the smoldering foundation of the original New Year’s Day burn scar.
Estovir, what’s the source on this?? No links! And does any of this mean lack of rain wasn’t the main factor?? No, it doesn’t. The first rain of the season came about 3 months late that year. That’s highly significant. And brush is always growing on canyon slopes. Without that brush the slopes will slide. It’s not like mowing the lawn.
^ This is Estovir ^
The sad fact is, left-wing SoCal politicians are way more interested in virtue signaling and funneling billions of taxpayer dollars to their cronies to fund inefficient green energy boondoggles than they are about keeping the energy grid in good shape so as not to spark wildfires. That combined with lousy forest management by failing to clear out underbrush . . . again in thrall to the green cult. All of which adds up to thousands of homes burned to a crisp due to bad government. Yet, the lunatic voters in LA want more of the same. I use the word lunatic in the technical sense of people being mentally ill.
Estovir, you’re in Alabama. No idea what you’re babbling about. This is simply the same sh!t Trump was talking.
^ This is Estovir ^
WONG liar.
LA failed to keep it’s main reservoir filled.
So the reservoir did it?
The left had more money before the end of USAID which was a Democratic slush fund, the DNC is now going broke. The Democrats lie and scare people in their campaign ads that are nothing but propaganda. Most liberals are ignorant low information voters, and as we see everyday cheating as more and more democratic cheating is exposed. Also the Democrats and their communist allies in the media control the narrative. Billionaires like Soros, Reid Hoffman and JB Pritzker will still be funding them claiming all billionaires are for Republicans. Fools like you buy all that.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has $18.5 million in debt and $16.3 million in cash, leaving it about $2 million short going into the 2026 midterms.
Another Disabled U.S. Ship!
A US guided-missile destroyer reportedly spent four days adrift and without power in the South China Sea in July, furthering concerns about strain being placed on deployed military members.
The USS Benfold, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer which had been sailing with the George Washington carrier strike group, was reported to have been towed to Subic Bay in the Philippines, according to the US Naval Institute News, an independent military publication.
Separately, the Pentagon was ordered to scale back annual joint military exercises with South Korea as his war against Iran stretches the limits of US aircraft carriers. Trump said on Sunday that he had instructed Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, to “substantially reduce” the joint military exercises with South Korea.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/17/us-navy-destroyer-south-china-sea
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This story seems to dovetail with Trump’s decision to scale back naval drills with South Korea. It appears that our entire naval fleet is stressed from Trump’s poorly planned war on Iran.
Got any proof? The Guardian you say. Gawd you blind fool. Last week they published a story that Trump is an illegal alien from Mars.
Turley Writes:
“ObamCare is a colossal failure. Premiums have nearly tripled since the law took effect..
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US gas prices this month are so far the highest ever recorded for August as peace talks between the US and Iran have stalled and Donald Trump launched fresh threats against Oman.
The national average price of gas was $4.06 per gallon on Monday, according to data from AAA, $0.05 higher than last week and $1 more expensive than a year ago. In California and Hawaii, averages hit about $5.50 a gallon.
From Today’s The Guardian
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One concludes from this story that Trump’s War On Iran has been a “colossal failure” for the American public.
Was $6.75 per gallon under BYEDUNG in CA. Which is higher $5.50 or $6.75 DF ANON??
BTW Just paid $4.99 today in CA not $5.50
I paid $3.59/gal this past week in VA. Eggs (18 count) costs less than $3.50, gallon milk about $3.39
getting rid of the psychotic-sociopath troll: priceless. What a sad life he lives to do nothing but troll this blog.
Estovir, you’re on this blog 12 hours per day 7 days per week. Tell us again about the ‘sad lives of trolls’. Give us one of your first person accounts.
^ This too is Estovir ^
So are you ano..
Cry,cry,cry
You stoopid F dustoff.
getting rid of the psychotic-sociopath troll
That troll is, in fact, a bot programmed by the Chinese Communist Party to spread anti-American propaganda. Getting rid of it would require Professor Turley to disallow anonymous comments. Many on this blog who comment in good faith and with a screen name favor that move, but it is Professor Turley’s blog and he has not chosen to do so.
Estovir, you’re the only troll on this blog. And you get more ridiculous all the time.
^ This is Estovir ^
JT is a man of convictions. America can survive CCP propaganda, It’s the CCP that cannot survive American-style human freedom, like freedom of speech. Lets hear it CCP bots…
Estovir,
This is what the story says:
“US gas prices this month are so far the highest ever recorded for August”.
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Get it?? “The highest ever recorded for August”.
^ This is Estovir ^
“One concludes” as long as one doesn’t INCLUDE the Iranian people desiring to be freed from a repressive regime.
We know you don’t care about human rights but don’t you think it’s kind of selfish to say “to heck with those poor souls, I need cheap gas”
I’m surprised you don’t think maybe we should just take em out and take the oil so it doesn’t hurt your change purse.