I once worked for the San Jose (CA) municipal budget office, quite a few years ago now. And it was a running joke that the police and fire departments every year would ask for huge increases in their budgets. And they would justify them by claiming they wouldn't be able to handle their basic duties if they didn't get the additions. Here it looks like the fire chief's budget rhetoric came back to bite her. Because here she's arguing that the Fire Department had done every necessary preparation for a situation like this.
And of course, every official is going to be looking to duck any blame for the disaster. And to give the press and the public alternative scapegoats.
The oligarchic press – “establishment press” doesn’t really do justice to the current news monopoly companies and their cohorts in the fossil fuel industry – will also look for scapegoats to avoid politicians talking about climate change. And the Trumpistas will blame the whole thing on the “Dem-u-crat Party.”
Sam Seder on today’s Majority Report made an important point that we’re very likely to find out that the above-ground power lines contributed significantly to the speed of the fires’ spread. Underground power cables are just plain better than the overground ones. They aren’t nearly as subject to damage in high winds. When you hear about forest fires in Northern California, they often turn out to have been started by overground power lines that blow down in high winds.
Extended interview: L.A. fire chief on how budget cuts limited fire response "to a certain factor". CBS News 01/09/2025. <https://www.cbsnews.com/video/l-a-fire-chief-on-whether-budget-cuts-impacted-the-fire-response/> (Accessible: 2025-09-01).
No comments:
Post a Comment