The news these past few days has been filled with horror stories out of Los Angeles of family homes burning and businesses being destroyed as wildfires raged out of control, aided by the infamous Santa Ana winds. L.A.’s Democrat mayor, Karen Bass—once under consideration to be Joe Biden’s vice presidential running mate—was out of the country on a boondoggle as her town burned, and stories emerged of fire hydrants that lacked water, rescue forces that were understaffed and an aging infrastructure that made everything that much worse.
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It’s a classic tale of misplaced priorities and incompetent leadership.
A similar, though far less catastrophic, scenario is playing out on the other side of the country as Richmond, Virginia, another city long ruled by Democrats, is facing a water crisis. The town is entering its fourth day without water after its water treatment facility went down following a snowstorm that moved through last Sunday and Monday.
According to officials with the city’s Department of Public Utilities, a winter storm knocked out the water treatment plant’s power around 7:30 a.m. Monday.
The backup generators turned on, but officials said a separate battery back-up and redundant system both failed.
That caused critical damage to the IT system, which is the brains of the whole operation.
It also led to filter gallery valves getting stuck, allowing water to flood into the basement where equipment is located
An advisory wasn’t sent out to the community until ten hours after the malfunction, according to Richmond Mayor Danny Avula, after city officials realized “this is going to have real impact.” Avula also noted that one of the water treatment plants involved is over one hundred years old. For context, Democrats have ruled Richmond, bar one brief stint by a Republican in the 1980s, over the past one hundred years.
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You might say this is a debacle of Democratic proportions.
While some residents of the area have trickles of water coming through their pipes, none of it is fit for consumption. A boil water advisory has been in effect since Monday and officials estimate it will stay in place until at least Saturday.
The situation is so bad that the General Assembly, which meets in Richmond, was gaveled into session on Wednesday and promptly recessed until Monday.
Unlike California, which is saddled with Gavin Newsom—or “Newscum,” as President-elect Donald Trump likes to call him—as governor, the Commonwealth of Virginia has the leadership of Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Republican, to fall back on when Democrats botch things. The governor immediately sprang into action to help.
Much like L.A., Richmond has suffered from years of Democrat rule, with destructive DEI policies being embraced at the cost of necessary infrastructure upgrades being made. It’s hard to understand why residents keep voting for incompetence, as they are always the ones who suffer the consequences, but these two cities seem to be stuck in that pattern.
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Does it take more crises like this to wake people up to the fact that there is no such thing as good governance where Democrats are concerned?