More hot air flew into the Los Angeles Basin Friday, threatening the ability of the United States of America’s second largest city to recover.

It may fan the flames of discontent, but in reality it’s a tad Shakespearean.

To quote the Bard giving voice to Macbeth, “It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

React however you must to the president channeling Monty Hall when he touched down in LA minus his three recently appointed “ambassadors” to Hollywood — Mel Gibson, Sylvester. Stallone, and Jon Voight — but it is an inopportune time to play “Let’s Make a Deal” or pen a sequel to the “Art of the Deal.”

Put politics aside for a second, if that is even possible in the USA in circa 2025, and do the math.

The same goes for the countering winds.

Had the big bird that landed as the Santa Ana winds were in a lull ended up instead on the tarmac at Fresno Yosemite International Airport some 200 miles to the north, the sales pitch for federal aid for California would have been soaked up by the media — legacy, social or otherwise — in Mark Ruiz Evans’ town.

It’s a town with reddish tendencies under often smoggy skies.

The median home price in Fresno is $394,000.

This is not an arbitrary tidbit of information. It goes to the crux of our collective dysfunction of being unable to see what is in front of us.

Down LA way in the Altadena fire zone, the median home price is $1.2 million

It’s a fact that more than a few, even Californians, misread as meaning the fire victims in Altadena are filthy rich as compared to a hurricane zone in let’s say North Carolina.

Altadena is not Pacific Palisades or Malibu. In terms of economic survival in the playing field that is the Los Angeles Basin, the people of Altadena have fiscal realities and lifestyles that mirror more of those households in Fresno living in a home worth $394,000 or those in much of North Carolina.

And when it comes to farm country, the epicenter is in Fresno, not Wichita.

But most seem to think California is the land of swimming pools, movie stars . . . and of course, wackos.

Check out some of the weird things that come out of red-hot Florida, but l digress.

The president demanding voter ID in California and sending even more water from the north state, of which much originates from the “Nation of Jefferson”, to LA immediately in exchange for federal wildfire assistance is a big burn to many compatriots.

And that demand ignores the math.

There are 52 members of Congress in California, of which there are currently nine Republicans.

Open friendly fire on them, and at least four, if not five will be toast in 2026.

The occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue ultimately needs Congress on their side.

Elected officials tend not to listen to political strategists that advise them they should emulate Kamikaze pilots in targeting voters.

The math isn’t there to back up the threat when the final showdown over federal aid, if you will, ever comes.

Of course, one may not think that if they believe time and urgency is on their side meaning opposition will crumble.

And while the Commander-in-Chief views the California Legislature as being somewhere in between the Twilight Zone and the political version of Sodom and Gomorrah, there are a few Republicans.

Included is Assemblyman Heath Flora of Ripon who spent a couple of years working with Cal Fire. 

It might do someone well if they called on Flora for counsel about whether draining Oroville Dam and building more places south of the Tehachapi mountains to squirrel the water away on top of existing stored waters, equal to almost three years of south state needs, is the correct answer when it comes to reducing  wildfire carnage.

But the water issue is really about that pesky little Delta smelt a bunch of well-heeled Fresno area farmers successfully bent his ear when the 47th visited their town when he was just the 45th and Kevin McCarthy was Speaker of the House.

The demand has nothing to do with a lack of water stored in the south state region as it is for corporate farms and to fuel even more SoCal development at the expense of the north.

Now let’s get back to Mark Evans.

He also has a disconnect with math and perhaps reality.

On Thursday, the California Secretary of State cleared an initiative to start collecting the 546,651 signatures of registered voters to qualify a measure for the November 2028 ballot.

Evans, as head of CalExit, is the mastermind behind the measure that basically is a cotton candy referendum on whether California should become an independent country.

If 50 percent of the registered voters cast ballots and 55 percent of those mark “yes”, it sets in motion spending $2 million annually for a 20-member state commission charged with exploring national sovereignty and independence for California.

Here’s the kicker: Even if the commission provides data and a solid case that justifies breaking away, it means nothing.

There is no provision in the federal constitution for a state to succeed.

So that means three quarters of Congress would need to approve a constitutional amendment that in order for it to become effective three quarters of the legislatures of the 50 states would need to ratify.

The math is even more wacko than believing every California Republican member of Congress is going to gulp down the Kool-Aid being served up as 900 plus people did once upon a time down in Jamestown.

Jockeying for leverage is one thing.

But does anyone really think going about it the way both sides are that it is going to end well or result in lasting change that is beneficial?

Perhaps it is time to turn to the “X”.

No, not Elon Musk.

We’re talking Fox Mulder and Dana Scully of the “X Files” fame.

What is going on now is right up there alley of sorting out the paranormal and the unexplained.

The truth is out there.

It just isn’t coming from a secession movement or shooting from the hip.

This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com