Karen Bass Pledged That If She Became Mayor, She Wouldn't Travel Abroad (Did 4 Times Before Ghana)

Posted • January 13, 2025: It goes beyond the unearthed promises of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who has been caught in intense criticism regarding the still-raging fires in the county. It’s been a hellacious week, with multiple fires burning and inflicting damages that will likely make this the costliest wildfire in US history. Bass was in Ghana when the fires broke out. She also said she’d never travel abroad, which has placed her in awful optics, but it gets worse. Months ago, Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley drafted a memo about the lack of personnel and how she needed more manpower. The LAFD was grossly undermanned, and the mayor’s office appears to have scrubbed it. -- Michael Shellenberger @shellenberger: “LA Mayor Karen Bass said that if she became a mayor, she wouldn't travel abroad. "That pledge has been spectacularly broken… Bass has traveled out of the country at city expense at least four other times in recent months before the Ghana visit…"” https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhIjSqJWQAAY94p?format=jpg&name=large

The memo was sent in November, with Chief Crowley adding the numerous areas where training benchmarks were deficient. The city needed more men, but Chief Crowley is also at fault for seemingly prioritizing woke DEI nonsense. She seems to have a grasp of the troubles plaguing her department. How about filling the ranks with firefighters instead of bean-counting according to the diversity checklist? In this field, no one cares if the firefighter who saves one’s home is gay and black. Residents want people who will fight fires, no matter who they may be. -- BOMBSHELL: “Los Angeles fire chief Kristin Crowley warned city officials in November that her department had about half as many firefighters as it needed. When deadly wildfires struck the city two months later, Mayor Karen Bass's administration pulled Crowley's memo from its website.” https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GhI9epkXUAAQzAS?format=jpg&name=large -- Why this got suffocated with a pillow is self-explanatory. Instead of dealing with this, Bass prepared for her trip to Ghana.

What an absolute mess. So, yes, residents have a right to eviscerate the political leadership in the state. Donald J. Trump has every right to bash California politicians. And what the hell was that little special session to Trump-proof the state? Los Angeles County is burning, but this session was to soothe the Trump-deranged tendencies of the nation’s most dense, detached, and idiotic lawmakers when it should have been devoted to the wildfires. It could become not just the costliest wildfire but the worst natural disaster in American history, and the crackerjack brain trust in Sacramento thinks they should waste time on how to fight Trump. No one is going to care, folks. They’ve lost their homes. There’s going to be a red wedding of sorts soon. -- L.A. MAYOR IS ALL SMILES: "Angelenos! We're still going through it!" (…)

• More at: Townhall - We Have a Bombshell Development in the CA Wildfires…And It's Not Good for Karen Bass
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2025/01/13/karen-basss-office-scrubbed-this-lafd-memo-heres-why-n2650410
Washington Free Beacon: Two Months Before Deadly Blazes, LA Fire Chief Said She Needed More Firefighters—Then Karen Bass's Admin Scrubbed the Memo
https://freebeacon.com/california/two-months-before-deadly-blazes-la-fire-chief-said-she-needed-more-firefighters-then-karen-basss-admin-scrubbed-the-memo/