is not the leadership America wants right now!
If the Werkes has any consistent principles (and it might! It just might!) there are two:
• Job One of government is to protect its citizens.
• Our freedoms are best guaranteed by rule of law rather than rule by autocrat.
Probably better ways of expressing it (and Hamilton did in Federalist #78 ) but only Blaska can take complex, heavily nuanced subjects and over-simplify them. (You’re welcome.)
Which is why we are fascinated by the Los Angeles fires as a lesson in governance. We are struck by the response of the Los Angeles County fire department. Heeding warnings of hurricane-level winds whipping over bone dry chaparral, Chief Anthony C. Marrone canceled leave for 900 fire fighters “even before any fire had erupted.” The county fire chief authorized overtime pay in deploying bulldozers, helicopters, and four five-engine strike teams. Now that is leadership!
City of Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin M. Crowley, by contrast, “opted against ordering that morning’s departing shift of 1,000 fire fighters to remain on duty,” the New York Times reports in a granular examination of the disaster.
Take charge kind of guy
It well documented that L.A.’s Democrat(ic) mayor was off in Ghana, eight time zones away on the African continent. So when Karen Bass gets back to town and tours the devastated Pacific Palisades neighborhood, “it feels like she’s not in the room,” said one fire victim who described herself to the New York Times as a progressive. Because Donald Trump dominated that room and every one he visits.
President Trump’s inclination is to rule by executive fiat or bended knee. We’re not certain any President can (for example) end birthright citizenship by executive order. The courts will decide. (Whether Trump will accede …) Process is all the Constitution does. The document has no content. Silent on what to do; only prescribes who gets to decide what and how. It is the over-riding purpose of our foundational document to limit and diffuse powers, not to concentrate them. And therein lies the tension; the push/pull of governance.
Americans last November chose leadership and decisiveness over deliberation and accommodation. No more dithering over the southern border. Close the damn thing and deport the illegals! No more kowtowing to tax-subsidized guilt mongers or apologizing for using the wrong pronouns! Voters demanded action and (as H.L. Mencken said in another context) they deserve to get it good and hard. We’ll see how the tariffs play out. (Get your Canadian bacon NOW!)
Contrast with how Mayor Karen Bass addressed the newly homeless wishing to inspect their burned out homes:
“Make sure you’re only here for a short period of time, and that’s mainly for health reasons,” she said. “The first phase is going to begin when the E.P.A. comes in, and in a few days, the county will have a form ready — the right to entry form. Then the second phase, when the debris removal happens, people can go ahead and fill out that form and we’ll give you more information about that.”
Blaska’s Bottom Line: “People want somebody who can snap their fingers and can get things done. She has got to prove that she can do that,” a former aide said of Mayor Bass. Donald Trump has no such difficulty.
11 responses to “Fill out the form”
“Here. Fill out this form.” Now that’s leadership! I would take exception to the implication that the wide-open border of the last three and a half years was the result of “dithering.” It was the result of deliberate actions by Biden and Co. and ended only when it was seen to be a liability with the election looming. I’m generally against Trump’s “revenge” policy, but I’d gladly make an exception for that weasely little toad Alejandro Mayorkas, who did more to rend the social fabric of this country than anyone over the last four years.
Oh hell Trump 1 was “dithering” compared to Trump 2. It’s so wonderful to see Trump (and Elon) all out of f**ks to give.
And none of it would have happened without the leadership of the Democrat party. For that I am forever grateful.
“And none of it would have happened without the leadership of the Democrat party.”
Heh! At the end of the day, we owe ’em that, am I right?
Anywho, when the UNRETOUCHED version of Kacklin’ Kamala’s CBS INTERVIEW hits the street, the good ol’ U.S. of A. will know what a GIGANTIC BULLET it dodged.
It gets better.
Jack Tapper (no Righty, he!) to Timmy Kaine: Why Is Your party SO_STAGGERIGLY_UNPOPULAR?
Rhetorical question, am I right…?
The Gotch
You say that “People want somebody who can snap their fingers and can get things done. …Donald Trump has no such difficulty.”
I kind of have the feeling that your “get things done” refers to true feats of leadership like Pennsylvania Governor Shapiro reopening the collapsed I-95 bridge in just two weeks, https://www.pml.org/2024/10/03/shapiro-administration-gets-stuff-done-pennsylvania-repaired-more-poor-condition-bridges-than-any-other-state-last-year/, and not to President Trumps responding to the LA fires by first claiming the cause was the state’s withholding water from the north, which was a blatant stupid lie, and then to solve the problem that did not exit, and after the fires had been brought under control, he ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to open the dams in the middle of the state, to the east of the coastal mountains, that had no way to be carried over the mountains to LA, and neither helped the Central Valley farmers, because this is winter, and their crops have not yet been planted, so it was wasted and no longer will be available when water is badly needed by those farmers in the summer, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/31/us/trump-water-california-central-valley.html.
Yet with the mindless society that social media has created, with less than 15% any longer regularly reading newspapers who mediate idiocy, Mr. Trump’s base believes that this narcissistic moron “gets things done.”
Where are we headed, Dave? The recurring experience truly boggles the mind.
Every coin has two sides.
“this is winter, and their crops have not yet been planted, so it was wasted and no longer will be available when water is badly needed by those farmers in the summer,” (bolds mine)
The Central Valley is not WESconsin, it has a Mediterranean Climate and plants year ’round.
The Gotch
Read the article. The farmers need dam releases in the summer not winter.
“Read the article.” You ask too much of an elderly man who discovered all the answers 50 years ago.
Los Angeles needed the water in January.
“Los Angeles needed the water in January.”
L.A. also needed strong, competent, all-hands-on-deck leadership; they got neither.
The Gotch
It’s the DOGE, stupid.
Elon has only just begun. Part of his famous algorithm (read Issacson’s biography): If you don’t end up adding back 10% of what you’ve cut then you haven’t deleted nearly enough.