Fires Burn And People Die All Around Oregon, And Kate Brown Does What She Does Best, Nothing
September 16, 2020 8:30AM PDT
Picture by KGW
Last night, former GOP candidate for Oregon Governor Allen Alley sent me a truly brilliant presentation on the fires burning in the Northwest (video below).
You may have heard my shows over the last 9 days as I’ve pounded home one particular point: officials at the state and federal level KNEW of fires that had been burning for nearly a month before the East winds blew them up.
They did NOTHING.
I keep hearing the excuse that a POLITICAL boundary stopped Gov Kate Brown from acting (because it was on federal land)
This is insane in my book
Allow me this comparison
Your neighbors house catches fire. He’s not home.
1. You have no authority to enter his property (imagine a 6 foot fence with a locked gate)
2. You have no responsibility for a fire on his property (maybe you don’t even get along with him (Like Brown & Trump)
3. The fire on HIS property puts YOUR home at risk (radiative heat ignites your homes siding or roof).
What to do?
Call 911 of course.
But then sit on your thumbs when you could act? (Lunatic and immoral at the same time)
Of course you act. You break the latch on the gate (a crime but “choice of evils” defense if needs be)
You take your neighbors hose (trespass) and put water on the fire)
If you can move his parked car away…you do
If you suspect his teenage kids are asleep inside you break a door or window to get them out.
What were Late Kate’s options in August?
Ask USFS to put the fires out
Offer to send crews (largely unencumbered those two weeks)
When you’re turned down, reach out to the hated Trump admin…say Ag Sec Sonny Purdue
Tell him, “the fires are on your land but they are in MY state. Put them out, let us help you and if you won’t, we will”.
Did any of this happen?
There’s no indication ANY of that happened
THEN come the forecasts of fierce, dry East winds in the days ahead
The Gov repeats the message to the admin above with the same urgency you have used:
1. Demanding federal help with China Virus,
2. or the same resolute refusal to hold illegal alien criminals
3. Object the way you did when POTUS offered help with riots you tacitly sanctioned
Assume Kate Brown sent in crews without authority the week before Labor day (winds in the forecast and Beachie fire at 150 acres) and put the fires out or substantially contained/ controlled them
WHO WOULD OBJECT?
And what exactly is the legal consequence if a Governor of a state violates political boundaries to extinguish a budding fire right before the East winds blow. A harshly worded letter from USFS?
two weeks ago a tiny fraction of the crews now on fire lines could have done the job.
Two weeks ago four of the people now dead from the Beachir/Santiago fire were still alive. Two weeks ago, hundreds of homes now ashes still stood.
In the court of public opinion Governor Brown would have been declared a hero and not a scofflaw
She let a political boundary keep her from saving the lives and homes of citizens.
Can you imagine a cop letting a woman die within his sight because she’s attacked on the other side of such a line.
Can you imagine the thanks your neighbor would shower on you when you picked up that garden hose…even if you only SLOWED the fire next door?
The ashes of dead citizens blacken the hands of Governor Kate Brown.