In a previous life, I was a professional scuba diver and taught recreational diving for a couple of decades. I stressed to my students that catastrophic dive accidents are rarely the result of a single big mistake. They are usually caused by a bunch of small errors, which compound to create a tragedy – such as the Southern California fires.
Prior to the events of this week, California officials made a plethora of bad decisions, which seemed inconsequential individually. But those decisions were errors of judgement, which only appeared insignificant because of a lack of imagination. Nobody bothered to speculate how those decisions could compound problems in a crisis.
- Environmental alarmists prevented good forest management and stifled the construction of reservoirs and aqueducts.
- DEI enthusiasts relaxed hiring standards in disaster management functions, and prioritized inclusion initiatives over crisis management preparation.
- Woke politicians welcomed drug addicts and the mentally ill to camp out in the cities.
- Governor Newsom vetoed a bill intended keep seasonal firefighters on staff.
- Mayor Bass slashed the budget of the fire department, and donated its surplus equipment to Ukraine.
- Insurance regulators chased insurance companies from the state, rather than allow them to price risk into their premiums.
- The Los Angeles disaster management chain of command took a timeout at the worst possible time – with Mayor Bass going to Ghana for an inauguration, after Deputy Mayor Williams had been removed from office for threatening to bomb city hall. (Nope. This article isn’t a satire.)
None of those errors would have individually created the disaster currently underway in California. But when combined with the seasonal Santa Ana winds, they created a catastrophe of unimaginable magnitude.
Homeless people and looters are reportedly starting fires, which are spread quickly by high winds to the abundant dry brush (also known as fuel) littering the ground. The fires spread uncontrollably after fire hydrants ran dry – unable to keep up with the demand. Understaffed and underequipped fire battalions resorted to old-fashioned bucket brigades to throw water on flames they had no hope of suppressing.
This calamity of poor preparation left California with thousands of families, watching in horror as their uninsured homes are burned on the altar of Democrat party policies.
California is a case study in liberal politics taken to the level of absurdity – with imagery too horrific to ignore. Welcome to Dante’s Inferno, where the fires of social justice eventually consume everything.
Author Bio: John Green is a retired engineer and political refugee from Minnesota, now residing in Idaho. He spent his career designing complex defense systems, developing high performance organizations, and doing corporate strategic planning. He is a contributor to American Thinker, The American Spectator, and the American Free News Network. He can be reached at greenjeg@gmail.com.
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