Much Too Soon

​In an interview late last week, Dr. Pat Soon-Shiong (owner of the Los Angeles Times) said it's “crazy” that California “doesn’t elect leaders with competence.”
 
This from the man who blocked his newspaper from endorsing Kamala Harris against an incompetent convicted felon, found liable of rape and guilty of fraud -- with dementia.
 
Moreover, Dr. Soon-Shiong had what seemed to have been a TwiXter meltdown last week, as well, and posted a relentless stream of tweet rants about the Los Angeles fire which not only come across as repeatedly ignorant -- and wildly irresponsible, not waiting until after the fire is contained and lives are saved -- but he doesn't appear to even be reading his own newspaper.
 
Reading through his TwiXter timeline on Saturday and seeing a stream of almost manic statements from him continually slamming Mayor Karen Bass so shamelessly in ways that had little bearing on the truth, I tried responding to them all until it just became far-too many and got to the point where if I continued replying to many more, I might have been detained for stalking.  At a minimum, I got tired of typing different versions of “For someone so supposedly-concerned with ‘competence,’ your comments, which purportedly are supposed to seem wise and profound, are shockingly devoid of knowing the truth.  Which is a starting point of competence.”
 
As I say, there were far, far, far too many tweets from him – each and every one overflowing with inaccuracies, or lies or disinformation (take your pick, it was a buffet…) – that I can’t repeat them all, but as an hors d'oeuvres here’s just one that will serve will as an example of them all.  He wrote --
 
“Proactive vs reactive planning and the need to fund water infrastructure is so clear. Why no fire breaks when we clearly anticipate wildfires? #competencematters.  State to probe why Pacific Palisades reservoir was offline, empty when firestorm exploded.”
 
What I replied was --
 
"You have experts at @latimes you own -- ask them, they'll tell you!

"January is NOT wildfire season. It's May-Oct. So, we don't "anticipate' fires NOW, let alone SIX CATASTROPHIC WILDFIRES!

"The article YOU QUOTED explains the reservoir was damaged & they were doing maintenance!"

And yes, honest, the Los Angeles Times article he himself quoted really did write about the repair work being done on the Santa Ynez Reservoir.  There is nothing to "probe."  As the article clearly states -- and that's the "Los Angeles Times" he owns -- there had been damage during the previous Palisades fire last February, and it was being repaired.  You couldn't miss it -- it wasn't buried, it was in the second paragraph!  "Officials say the Santa Ynez Reservoir had been closed since about February for repairs to its cover."
 
But further, what Soon-Shiong got wrong is that Santa Ynez Reservoir is a small, standalone faciiity in Pacific Palisades – not connected to the main system, and it isn’t even the reservoir that the Palisades relies on!  That’s the Stone Canyon Reservoir near UCLA, which was operating normally and flowing water to the Pacific Palisades.  The Santa Ynez Reservoir, on the other hand, is used for the higher ground of forestland  above the Palisades – but because of the massive demand on the water system dealing with six fires (in January, not the wildfire season), experts say that even if had been operational, the water pressure would likely have been too low to reach the higher altitude of the foothills and been of little use.  And had no affect on the village of Pacific Palisades.
 
Hey, if I knew this, one would like to think that Competence Maven Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong would know it, too.  He owns the Los Angeles Times, after all.  Or at least check it out with his staff (or Google) before trying to sashay his supposed expertise and posting online.  That would have been really cool -- and competent! -- especially given that (did I mention?) he owns the Los Angeles Times and a great many people probably assume that he reads his paper, knows what he’s talking about and trust him.  Silly them.
 
And this was just one tweet out of a bundle that he kept posting.
 
The good news is that, seeing all of his pontificating, smarmy, inaccurate posts made me feel slightly better about having canceled my subscription to the paper.  Something I’d been torn over doing.

I can’t imagine what it must be like for people working at the paper.  Who are career journalists.  Who believe in journalism.  And fact checking.  Getting your story right or risk being fired if you get it wrong time after time.  And knowing that this is their Peerless Leader.
 
And again, this is also the guy, ranting about “competence,” who blocked his newspaper from endorsing Kamala Harris who was running against an incompetent convicted felon, found liable of rape and guilty of fraud -- with dementia.  That can't be said too often.

Of the many things that's galling about such reactions during the disastrous fires – not just by Dr. Soon-Shiong but by almost everyone who has been “slamming” Mayor Bass and Governor Gavin Newsom during the fires – is their utter ignorance of not understanding that the wildfire season here is May through October.  For even just one fire to occur in January is deeply uncommon – but to have six catastrophic wildfires is otherworldly.  It would put a stress on the system even if it occurred in August, when fires are expected.  But...in January??? 
 
And galling, too, their not understanding that that was traditionally the wildfire season, but now with Climate Change (that so many on the extreme right want to deny), many experts now call it a “fire year.”  We see monstrous hurricanes.  Monstrous tornadoes.  Monstrous winter freezes.  Monstrous heat waves.  So, of course we’re now seeing monstrous winds – during monstrous droughts.  And end up with six catastrophic wildfires at the same time, in January.

But despite all that reality and their ignorance of it or intentional disinformation, there’s so much hatred by MAGOPs of Gavin Newsom because he’s a liberal and may run for president in 2028, and of Karen Bass because (I’m sure because) she’s not only black and a woman, but a black woman.  But beyond not grasping that January is not traditionally wildfire season, there have been all the lies about Mayor Bass – like that she fired the female fire chief (she didn’t) and shut down the Santa Ynez Reservoir (it was, as noted, being repaired) and not being prepared for six catastrophic wildfires in January, which has never before happened in the 243-year history of Los Angeles, and so many more falsehoods.  Including, perhaps at the top of the list, that she supposedly cut the fire department budget by $23 million, when in fact, a) the Los Angeles Times (Dr. Soon-Shiong’s newspaper…) reported that with other additions, the fire department budget actually increased by 7% (darn, if only Soon-Shiong read his own paper), and b) such a charge misses the ludicrous irony of conservatives crying out in fury at a budget being cut -- when “cutting budgets” is what they do for sport.  Man, I can’t even imagine how much they’d cut the fire department budget if MAGOPs were governor, mayor and controlled everything in the state.  For those scoffing, consider that Trump is saying he might not give emergency aid to Callfornia!!
 
But even putting aside that these “critics” don’t grasp that January isn’t the wildfire season, that six catastrophic fires puts massive stress on the system, and that most of their supposed facts are wildly untrue – what might be worse  is that they’re doing all this slamming right in the middle of when officials and the fire department are fighting six catastrophic active fires and trying to save lives and structures…and that the time to criticize how it was handles is not now, when everyone should be working to help those in desperate need, but after everything is contained and you have time to study and assess what didn’t work and what did.

(Side Note:  Things were done wrong.  And right.  This was a catastrophe, after all.  Things go wrong in all catastrophes.  That's a big reason why they're catastrophes.   You know the expression:  "If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans."  That and “No battle plan survives contact with the enemy."  Or Mike Tyson's adage:
“Everyone has a plan: until they get punched in the face."   This is not to let anyone off the hook for mistakes.  Just putting it all in perspective.  There are understandable mistakes based on conditions, and there are inexcusable mistakes based on lack of skill.  The point is, this is why you make adjustments as needed during an event, but wait until after to do an assessment of what went wrong and why.  And what worked, and why.)
 
By the way, to be clear, I don’t know if the attacks against Mayor Bass (who was my Congresswoman for many years) are because she is a black woman.  Many may not be, some or many may be.  But I do know that when you wrongly attack a Black woman in charge, whatever your motivation (and especially when you don’t correct the record and apologize), it gives fuel to all those who are always extremely happy to attack a black woman for racist reasons, and as a supposed “DEI hire.” (Never mind that the people of Los Angeles voted for her after a distinguished career in Congress).  Just like others are happy to hug the lie that Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley was fired and believe that none of these six catastrophic wildfires in January would have happened if there was a white man in charge.  Because, of course, that’s apparently how wildfires work.  And as we know, nothing ever goes wrong when white men are in charge.
  
But in the end, it brings us back to Patrick Soon-Shiong and his World of Competence. If only we had elected officials in California who are competent.  That we wouldn't have six catastrophic wildfires in January.

Me, if I had the same wishes as Dr. Soon-Shiong, I'd have used them for two different things.

One, that all people believed in Climate Change, and we didn't have wildfires in the first place.

And two, I was we had an owner of the Los Angeles Times who was competent.