Can This End California Wildfires?

No water, poor forest management, and DEI. What are they thinking?

Here is what they don't want you to know about the horror show that's repeating itself.

This was the skyline in San Francisco, California, in 2020.

This picture was taken from Bayview Park about ten minutes from my apartment

The sun hung like a dim ember, barely piercing the smoke-choked atmosphere.

The air was stale, and the ash falling like snow, blotted out the sun.

I thought about the people whose homes were being devoured by flames; the firefighters risking their lives, and the families wondering if they’d have anything to return to.

I’ve always admired those who saw the world’s hardest problems as puzzles to solve. They didn’t chase money; they chased truth, and I wanted to be like them.

I wanted to end the wildfire plague that consumed California year after year.

After all, that's what brought me there.

I moved to California in December 2018 bringing a new technology with me: Drones.

We had already proven their value in the largest utility inspection in history, but I wanted to take them further.

What if we could use swarm drones to patrol utility lines, identify risks, and stop fires before they started?

Imagine fleets of drones working together like bees, constantly scanning for sparks or signs of danger and taking action in real time.

I contracted with Intelligent Energy, a billion dollar company from Loughborough England, to bring hydrogen infrastructure to the U.S. This technology can extend the flight time of a drone from 40 minutes to several hours.

"Spider" shown here flew for over 3 hours, wowing Apple's Tim Cook and several other executives in Sunnyvale, California.

One of my clients, Jonathan Nutzati, CEO of Mothership Aeronautics, partnered with me to build this technology.

Shortly after, my COO and now wife, Annie O'Leary secured interest from Dr. Sam Nazari of DARPA to build this swarming "battalion" for their RACER program.

We started by designing a modular 3D printed vehicle capable of carrying advanced sensors like LiDAR and thermal cameras while keeping costs down and enabling scalability.

Rigorous testing in diverse environments quickly followed, and we solved one difficult problem after another.

With this momentum, we looked to Venture Capital to fuel the technology. After all, we were in Silicon Valley, the heart of innovation and future development, right?

But my pitch had one existential flaw: Hardware.

China could build hardware cheaper, and every VC in California knew it.

The overwhelming majority had vested interest in China controlling our infrastructure, making them even richer at the expense of their own homes.

Gavin Newsom’s administration outsourced funds to BYD, a Chinese company building missiles, and rolled out the red carpet for Xi Jinping in Kim Jong Un style, while the homeless slept on the sidewalks across the city.

After being assaulted by crazed homeless women, threatened with an arrest by the police for reporting a robbery in broad daylight (their rationale was that my proximity put me in danger and the owner should know better than to leave things in their car), and two shootings outside my apartment in less than a month, I had had enough.

I left California shortly after COVID hit after seeing the once great state crumble before my eyes.

The populace swallowed Beijing's vaccine propaganda hook, line, and sinker and threatened, segregated, blacklisted, and ostracized anyone who questioned their false security, including me.

In my new book, Propaganda: Drones, Airspace, and the New World Order, I pull back the curtain on these unseen forces that control the technologies, policies, and narratives governing our world.

From the untold stories of advanced drone technology to the hidden power plays shaping our skies, Propaganda takes you beyond the news headlines and into the heart of the systems controlling your future.

You’ll uncover:

• How wildfire disasters are manipulated by negligent leadership and corporate interests.
• The truth about why life-saving technologies remain buried under red tape and shadows, as seen in New Jersey.
• The geopolitical strategies transforming airspace into the battleground of tomorrow.

This is your invitation to see through the smoke and mirrors of why utility companies continue pouring money into PR campaigns while neglecting basic infrastructure and lying to the people about their progress.

Preventing disasters doesn’t make headlines or increase profit margins, but perpetuating fear does!

Screaming about climate change, global warming, and any other excuse for mismanagement will not save them, and no amount of technology can fix stupid.

The culprit for their destruction is not mother nature or even God, save for the permissive will of allowing us to receive the results of our actions, both good and bad. Believe what you will, we are accountable for the consequences of our actions or inactions.

The Swiss Cheese Model

The phenomena of a series of mistakes leading to disasters is well known to the aviation community and is something we train heavily for when inspecting high risk assets with drones.

Accidents always happen long before they are realized.

The way we mitigate accidents is through understanding the Swiss cheese model, which explains how catastrophic failures occur when multiple layers of protection have inherent holes that align.

Each "slice" of cheese represents a safeguard, and the holes are weaknesses.

When all these holes align, the result is catastrophic.

How do slices align?

Well, let's say you're an average Californian.

You vote for leaders based on how you feel, rather than doing your homework.

Both you and your candidates are divorced from reality.

You promote whichever issue is touted as most important by the mainstream media, and criticize anyone who thinks differently from you.

Laws are passed to strip you of your freedoms and money.

You buy a home and pay property taxes which, in part, fund the fire department.

Your funds are then siphoned to people living in the country illegally and setting fire to your home, diverted from the fire department to support the trans agenda, and the water is drained to save fish.

There are no longer enough resources or manpower to stop the fires because the white male firefighter is considered a scourge on society under the DEI regime and rejected for the color of his skin.

Martin Luther King would be so proud.

The insurance company you trusted to protect you, delays paying your claim, denies it, and forces you into a drawn-out legal battle you can't afford.

Why? Because the less an insurance company pays in claims, the more it profits.

Now instead of owning up to your horrific misjudgment of leadership qualifications, you leave the state and continue voting destruction upon yourself, touting climate change as the reason for the season.

I ask you this, if California was so afraid of climate change, wouldn't they prepare better for such an inevitable event?

Did California fail to prepare for the very danger they fear the most, or did they set the state up for failure through gross negligence, greed, and hubris?

Here, the blame and responsibility for the fires has and will sit solely on the shoulders of California's leaders, and every citizen that stood by and watched, or worse, capitulated with the woke agenda.

The state’s elites have consistently prioritized political optics over practical solutions, allowed utility companies to operate with impunity, neglected forest management, and mis-allocated resources.

The Layers of Failure

Leadership Failures

Leadership at every level, state, local, and corporate, has failed to address the wildfire problem meaningfully.

Governor Gavin Newsom cut $100 million from the state's fire prevention budget, and Mayor Karen Bass slashed Los Angeles' fire budget by $17.6 million.

While Los Angeles faces the most destructive wildfire in the history of the U.S., the department is under-funded and unprepared to manage the escalating wildfire crisis, which has destroyed nearly 10,000 homes and businesses so far; upwards of $50 Billion in damage.

Fire crews reported issues such as non-functioning fire hydrants, untrimmed vegetation, and a lack of resources to contain the fires.

Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone admitted there weren’t enough firefighters to handle the scale of the fires.

With resources stretched thin and leadership distracted by secondary initiatives, entire blocks of homes in areas like Pacific Palisades burned to the ground.

Outdated Operational Methods

Firefighting techniques haven’t significantly developed in decades.

Controlled burns, a proven strategy to prevent massive wildfires, have been banned or limited because of misguided policies.

For generations, California’s Native communities used controlled fires to clear out dry vegetation that serves as “ladder fuel,” which allows wildfires to climb and spread rapidly.

Without these mitigation efforts, vegetation buildup, coupled with hotter and drier conditions, created the perfect firestorm.

You know what doesn't care about your bans? Wildfires.

If you don't control the landscape, mother nature will.

Misaligned Priorities

Technologies capable of identifying fire risks and extinguishing small fires before they spread are ignored in favor of quick returns.

California spends $4 billion annually on wildfire management, yet there’s no investment or implementation of solutions to solve the problem once and for all.

Where's the urgency?

Funds are instead funneled into performative initiatives, while basic safety measures are neglected.

While LAFD’s budget was slashed, homelessness initiatives received more funding for the second consecutive year, highlighting the misalignment of priorities in a state prone to natural disasters.

The county also invested $4.5 million into electric vehicle charging infrastructure and allocated $250,000 for "equity and inclusion" initiatives.

Here are a few examples of Los Angeles County’s budget allocations:

• $14,010 was allocated to the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, an organization that creates musical experiences within the LGBTQ+ community.
• $190,000 went to the Homeless and HIV Program, which includes a syringe exchange initiative for drug addicts.
• $100,000 was earmarked for Juneteenth celebrations.
• $100,000 funded the "Midnight Stroll Transgender Café," providing housing for homeless transgender individuals.

The primary culprits behind California’s wildfires are not acts of nature but poor leaders making poorer policies.

Arson and aging, barely maintained power lines remain major triggers, with utility companies like PG&E failing each of their five years probationary period, which they received for 84 counts of manslaughter after pleading guilty to causing the 2018 "Camp Fire".

A recent audit revealed that utilities still aren’t doing enough to prevent fires, despite overwhelming evidence of their role in the disasters.

How does a company like PG&E with such a tragic record, continue to operate?

Well, like the insurance companies, they have mastered the art of avoiding consequences.

They file for bankruptcy, settle lawsuits, and fund PR campaigns.

But they don’t fix the underlying issues because doing so would mean cutting into their profit margins.

This piece is not about PG&E but the systemic negligence across the state, so if you're interested in learning more about PG&E check out my article Catching the California Utility Serial Killer

Reversing the Swiss Cheese Model

In situations like these, the blame usually falls on the operators, the firefighters, utility workers, or anyone else closest to the problem, able to be scapegoated.

This is called focusing on the sharp end of the problem.

This focus on the “sharp end” ignores the larger, systemic issues at the top.

It’s not the firefighters who cut their own funding.

It’s not the utility workers who ignored vegetation management.

These decisions were made far upstream, in boardrooms and government offices.

If you want to fix California’s wildfire crisis, flip the script.

You can’t solve the problem by throwing more blame, or even more money, at the sharp end.

You need to address the holes in the upstream layers of the system.

Start by holding leaders accountable for their decisions.

Ask the hard questions:

• Why were fire department budgets cut during a time of record wildfire risk?
• Why were controlled burns banned despite being a proven method of reducing fire danger?
• Why are billions of dollars allocated to performative projects instead of practical solutions?
• Why are fish even a factor?

When leaders make decisions that create risks downstream, they need to answer for them.

It's our job to create a culture of accountability that prioritizes results over rhetoric.

You need decision-makers who understand that their choices set the conditions for success or failure.

Leaders must recognize that their policies and priorities are the first layer of defense against catastrophe.

That means funding preventive and proactive measures, empowering the people on the ground, and ensuring every layer of the system is designed with safety first.

The Swiss Cheese model doesn’t have to be a metaphor for failure.

It can be a blueprint for success if you take the time to identify the holes and close them before they align.

You have the power to raise your voice and hold leaders accountable.

If the current leadership won’t act, it’s time for new leaders who will.

Are you one of those new leaders?

Or are you part of the problem?