Los Angeles Democratic Mayor Karen Bass has faced a number of criticisms over her leadership amid the wildfires destroying large portions of the city.
First, there was the fact that Bass spent the first part of the crisis several thousand miles away on an entirely separate continent, attending an official trip all the way in Africa as the horrible situation unfolded.
Then, there was the revelation that she had tried to slash almost $49 million from the Los Angeles Fire Department budget one day before the Pacific Palisades fire started.
The move came after more than $17 million in cuts the previous year.
If Bass did not want to spend money on fighting fires in a state which lives under a constant threat of such disasters, then the question of what the city funded instead must be raised.
The budget resolution for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, which said on the front cover that the document was submitted by Bass herself before being modified and adopted by the Los Angeles City Council, indeed revealed some rather foolish spending priorities.
There was a “Midnight Stroll Transgender Cafe,” for which Bass suggested a $100,000 slush fund, an amount that was fully approved by the City Council.
The funding was meant to “support a safe haven for unsheltered transgender individuals in Hollywood between the hours of 9:00 pm and 7:00 am.”
One has to wonder whether those “unsheltered transgender individuals” will still be able to take their midnight strolls in that area, or if that area will be reduced to rubble by the fires.
Is it appropriate to say, L.A. voters are getting exactly what they voted for?
There was $8,230 allocated to the Ebony Repertory Theatre, a project which attempts to “provide a permanent home for artists of color that enables those artists to explore, experience and present a wide-ranging variety of programs that reflect the significant canon of African-American literary, artistic and cultural achievements.”
There was meanwhile $8,670 earmarked for the ONE Archives Foundation.
That entity supports the largest repository of “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer” materials in the world at the University of Southern California.
They recently ran an exhibition called “Sci-fi, Magick, Queer L.A.: Sexual Science and the Imagi-Nation.”
“Sexual Science and the Imagi-Nation considers the importance of science fiction fandom and occult interests to U.S. LGBTQ history,” the event description said. “Science fiction and occult communities helped pave the way for the LGBTQ movement by providing a place for individuals to meet and imagine spaces less restricted by societal norms.”
In other words, rather than spending money on stopping her city from potentially becoming a smoldering hellscape, Bass spent money on making the city a spiritual smoldering hellscape.
It seems like her efforts were successful on both fronts.
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