Unreal: Bass Sipped Cocktails in Ghana While LA Burned

Make Nero Great Again? 

Perhaps that’s not the greatest political slogan of all time, but it’s even worse when it becomes policy. Karen Bass’ political descent has likely accelerated as pictures of her junket to Ghana emerged yesterday at the LA Times and elsewhere, showing Bass attending a cocktail party rather than concerning herself with the crisis erupting in Los Angeles. One photo of Bass at the party has a timestamp just minutes before the city issued an evacuation order of the Palisades:

As the Palisades fire exploded in Los Angeles on Jan. 7, Mayor Karen Bass was posing for photos at an embassy cocktail party in Ghana, pictures posted on social media show.

By the time she departed the gathering for her flight home, massive plumes of smoke were visible across a wide swath of the city. …

Bass appeared to have been posing for photos at the party just before 8 p.m. Ghanaian time the day the fire ignited, or just before 12 p.m. in Los Angeles, according to a photo posted on social media where a partygoer’s watch is visible. (Accra, Ghana is 8 hours ahead of Los Angeles.)

Evacuation orders were issued in the Palisades minutes later.

This Instagram collection includes two pictures of Bass from the reception in Ghana, posted by the apparent master of ceremonies, a Ghanaian celebrity named Nathan Attoh. 

Remember when Boris Johnson got pilloried for having a party (or two, or three, or … 19?) at 10 Downing Street during the COVID lockdown in the UK? The scandal eventually pushed him out of office, likely to the regret now of Britons dealing with Keir Starmer’s fascist regime. But at least Johnson remained on the job and at his post, rather than sipping his cocktails thousands of miles away while a crisis unfolded.

And let us not forget the context of Bass’ junket to Ghana and her attendance at the embassy cocktail party. The LA Times reported a week ago that Bass had been warned about the extreme risks for fires in the western areas of the city before deciding to depart, although they buried that lead below the fold:

The National Weather Service began warning of potentially strong winds — amid “extreme fire conditions” — on Thursday, two days before Bass left for Ghana. Those warnings intensified over the subsequent days. By Monday, officials were bracing for a potentially life-threatening and destructive windstorm.

Eric Spiegelman, a Los Feliz resident who served for several years on the city’s Board of Taxicab Commissioners, said Bass should have booked an earlier flight home no later than Sunday, after the National Weather Service issued a fire weather watch for L.A. and Ventura counties. That bulletin warned of “strong and damaging winds” and “critical fire conditions.”

“She should have been here on Tuesday, full stop,” Spiegelman said. “They kept upgrading the danger level.”

Not only was Bass not there, but her backup had been suspended a month earlier, which Bass knew all too well. Deputy mayor Brian Williams had been relieved of his duties after the FBI identified him as a suspect in a bomb threat against City Hall. At the time, Bass’ office claimed that she took the situation seriously:

FBI agents on Tuesday raided the home of Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Brian Williams in connection with a bomb threat he allegedly made against City Hall earlier this year, a spokesperson for Mayor Karen Bass said.

The mayor’s office was notified of the search, according to a statement released Wednesday afternoon by Bass’s spokesperson Zach Seidl.

Williams “was immediately placed on administrative leave,” the statement said. “The Mayor takes this matter very seriously. When the threat was reported, LAPD investigated and determined there was no immediate danger. Following additional investigation, LAPD referred this matter to the FBI for further investigation.”

So, let’s recap in time order. A month ago, Bass’ choice for her backup had to be placed on leave for calling in a bomb threat against his own government. The Biden administration then invited Bass to go on a junket to Ghana for purely ceremonial purposes, and she agreed even with her #2 suspended. The National Weather Service alerts Bass and other LA officials that the risks of wildfires would be “extreme” in the days ahead, which the city announced the next day. Not only did Bass leave the day after that anyway, her city administration didn’t even bother to pre-stage assets to deal with it, as David will explain in an upcoming post. And when those warnings became the cataclysmic reality, Bass still attended the cocktail party even while her administration issued evacuation warnings for the Palisades.

That isn’t leadership. It reveals a narcissistic grift by a longtime crank and radical who has no idea what it means to provide leadership and assume responsibility. Perhaps no mayor in the country has as many resources as Bass has, and perhaps no mayor in history has squandered those with as much destructive force as Bass had.

Voters need to demand her resignation and, if that isn’t forthcoming, organize an immediate recall. Bass should count herself fortunate that the pillory and the tar-and-feather method of dealing with malevolent corruptocrats have gone out of fashion.