As the wildfires rage across California, reports are now coming in that many who aren't being affected by the fire directly are at least suffering from its effects in other ways. 

According to KTLA-TV, southern Californians have lost power by the millions due to the flames: 

Widespread power outages in Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego counties were impacting more than 4 million customers at 2:30 p.m., according to the California Office of Emergency Services.

Los Angeles County, where the Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire destroyed hundreds of homes, had the largest share of power outages, with nearly 1.9 million customers impacted.

The exact number of people without power wasn’t known, as each “customer” could represent an apartment or a home with several people living in it. Businesses are also marked as customers.

KTLA reports that a lot of the outages were caused by damage to the infrastructure thanks to high winds and wildfires, but some are being shut off for preventative reasons, purposefully to stop downed power lines from starting more fires.

As Bonchie pointed out in his own article, much of the issue regarding the wildfires and the problems caused by them is thanks, in large part, to the incompetence of the Democrats who run the state. Gavin Newsom has been attempting to push the responsibility off of himself in order to avoid damaging his political aspirations, despite the fact that he is in charge of all this centralization: 

California is the most centrally controlled and planned state in the union. No one can do anything there without the Democrats at the state level giving their blessing. For Newsom to deflect to local officials when pressed on what is a devastating infrastructure failure, when he controls the infrastructure, is his entire political career in a nutshell. 

Don't get me wrong, the local officials, including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, are also deeply responsible for the lack of preparedness and response to these fires. Newsom is not a bystander, though. The state that he has led for eight years (and was lieutenant governor of the eight years prior) has failed to build a new reservoir since 1979 despite multiple ballot propositions passed to fund those projects. 

During Donald Trump's first term, he sued the federal government to stop water diversions that would have lessened the dry conditions that led to wildfires. Newsom has wasted hundreds of billions of dollars over the years on boondoggles like "high-speed rail" while bending the knee to environmentalists that have put California in grave danger.

Anything Newsom says, at this point, is likely going to make Californians only angrier. 

It's hard to believe shameless propaganda when you're suffering, which was seen in a very large way during the 2024 election, which saw President Donald Trump elected, and whom Gavin Newsom and other Democrats are currently pearl-clutching about as Trump rightfully pointed out that these fires are the fault of the Democrats running the show. 

Gavin Newsom appears to be on the verge of tears after Trump blamed him for the California fires.

Newsom has directed billions of gallons of water into the ocean and has refused to take safety measures to prevent fires. pic.twitter.com/KQ0aPFy9t2

— Media Lies (@MediasLies) January 9, 2025

The bottom line is that Californians are suffering, and this is likely due to the mismanagement many are realizing they voted for in error.