Why is it always California?

According to an AP report out three days ago:

The state of California filed a lawsuit against some of the world's largest oil and gas companies, claiming they deceived the public about the risks of fossil fuels now faulted for climate change-related storms and wildfires that caused billions of dollars in damage, officials said Saturday.

The civil lawsuit filed in state Superior Court in San Francisco also seeks creation of a fund — financed by the companies — to pay for recovery efforts following devastating storms and fires. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement the companies named in the lawsuit — Exxon Mobil, Shell, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and BP — should be held accountable.

Then we learned yesterday that there's more to the story.  Per an article by Kevin Killough from Cowboy State Daily:

The suit is seeking money for alleged damages but doesn't ask that the companies be stopped from producing oil and gas.

So let's just get this straight, shall we?  California is alleging a corrupt conspiracy in which fat-cat capitalists prioritized profits before people and intentionally deceived the public about looming "catastrophic" climate change consequences they "knew" would manifest as a result of their product's use, but the state isn't even asking the court to prohibit the defendants from continuing this alleged criminal behavior?  Instead, Gavin Newsom, California attorney general Rob Bonta, and all the other Machiavellian civil servants will drop the lawfare just as long as the defendants agree to foot the bill for the recent spate of storm-related damages and finance a fund for future losses, too?  This sounds eerily similar to...extortion.

This is one big exercise in Look!  Squirrel!

Pay no attention to the stormwater systems now obsolete and disintegrating because we were too preoccupied with doling out universal welfare to millions of illegal aliens instead of building crucial flood control infrastructure.  Look!  Over there!  Big Oil!

Never mind the big government red tape that requires "environmental impact" studies before construction projects like dams, levees, and drainage systems can break ground.  Look!  Over there!  Big Oil!

Don't focus on the incompetent and unqualified agency hirees developing asinine policy, because California is a government of "diversity" and "equity" (not brains and merit).  Look!  Over there!  Big Oil!

Ignore the fact that "settled climate science" dictating "fire exclusion" was the best course of action turned out to be completely wrong, creating overly dense forests (five times what is natural) that explode into infernos instead of regenerative and small-scale burns.  Look!  Over there!  Big Oil!

And whatever you do, keep your eyes glued on Greasy Gavin as millions of taxpayers (and their tens of billions of dollars) flee the state, seeking refuge after a brush with death by taxation, because look!  Over there!  Big Oil.

Image: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons, unaltered.