All natural disasters are, in some form, political tests, and they aren't always fair. No government can save every life when a hurricane rages, floodwaters rise, or fires scorch thousands of parched acres in a matter of days. As much as technocratic competence matters, there's only so much it can accomplish.
The reality for Bass is that her political career might be coming to an end. She broke a pledge not to travel abroad as mayor, finding herself in Ghana on a specious political trip as the wildfires first erupted.
The actual story behind cuts to the local fire department under her leadership is rather complex, and it's far from apparent a few extra million dollars would have mattered in a cataclysm that is doing tens of billions of dollars of damage to the city.
But the criticism of Bass, especially from figures like Elon Musk and Donald Trump, hasn’t been fair; the circumstances surrounding these catastrophic fires are deeply woven with historical financial decisions and environmental factors.
Collection
[
|
...
]