THE LIARS ARE WINNING, BUT HEY, AT LEAST THE TRUTH FINALLY LOCATED ITS BOOTS

So I learned from The New York Times today that the lack of water in California fire hydrants is perfectly understandable:

Officials now say the storage tanks that hold water for high-elevation areas like the [Palisades] Highlands, and the pumping systems that feed them, could not keep pace with the demand as the fire raced from one neighborhood to another. That was in part because those who designed the system did not account for the stunning speeds at which multiple fires would race through the Los Angeles area this week.

“We are looking at a situation that is just completely not part of any domestic water system design,” said Marty Adams, a former general manager and chief engineer at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which is responsible for delivering water to nearly four million residents of Los Angeles.

Municipal water systems are designed for firefighters to tap into multiple hydrants at once, allowing them to maintain a steady flow of water for crews who may be trying to protect a large structure or a handful of homes. But these systems can buckle when wildfires, such as those fueled by the dry brush that surrounds Los Angeles’s hillside communities, rage through entire neighborhoods.

In fact, this has happened in other states, including a red one:

As urban growth spreads into wilderness areas around the country and climate change brings more challenging fire conditions, an increasing number of cities have confronted a sudden loss of water available for firefighting, most recently in Talent, Ore.; Gatlinburg, Tenn.; and Ventura County, Calif.

But ... but ... we were told it's all President Biden's fault!

Or Mayor Karen Bass's fault, as the Times strongly suggested yesterday:

Rick Caruso, a real estate developer who lost to Ms. Bass in the mayoral race in 2022, said that he had a team of private firefighters in Pacific Palisades on Tuesday night helping to protect a major outdoor retail space he owns, as well as some nearby homes. All night, he said, they were telling him that water was in short supply....

“The lack of water in the hydrants, I don’t think there’s an excuse,” Mr. Caruso said. “This was very predictable,” he said, referring to the forecasts that predicted the devastating windstorm.

Mr. Caruso, who served two stints as president of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said that it will take time to account for why firefighters struggled to get enough water to fight the fires.

Apparently it won't take time to account for why the water wasn't there, because we already know that our systems aren't built for this, and remedying that would be very, very costly, and possibly ill-advised:

Greg Pierce, a researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies water resources and urban planning, echoed the concerns over water systems that are designed for urban fires, not fast-moving wildfires. But redesigning water systems to allow firefighters to take on a broad wildfire would be enormously expensive, he said.

A more fundamental question, he said, is whether it’s a good idea to rebuild neighborhoods adjacent to wildlands, an issue that has been broadly debated across the West as climate change increases the frequency and intensity of fires on what is known as the wildland-urban interface.

If Caruso proposed a crash program to upgrade the water infrastructure of Los Angeles at great expense when he ran for mayor, I'm not aware of it.

The lie that the lack of water is all liberals' fault has gotten halfway around the world -- but hey, at least the truth belated knows where its boots are.

*****

That saying about lies and the truth could also apply to Donald Trump's Cabinet nominees. Remember how Democrats reacted late last year, when Trump announced that his Cabinet would include a motley crew of lunatics, sleazebags, and incompetents? We were told that Democrats didn't want to raise a fuss right away:

“The mood is slightly different than the last time and there is a sense that if you are freaking out about everything, it becomes really hard for people to sort out what is worth worrying about,” Sen. Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii, told CNN.

Democrats wanted to keep their powder dry because there'd be plenty of time to object:

“Until these folks are scheduled to face the Senate, Democrats are going to let the Republicans do the knifing,” one senior congressional Democratic aide told The Post.

But Republicans didn't actually do any "knifing" after they'd dispatched with Matt Gaetz. And now that hearings on the nominees are about to start, Democrats are discovering that -- having squandered a great deal of time by keeping their powder dry -- they might not have the opportunity to challenge the worst nominees properly because the hearings will be rushed:

A quiet but bitter partisan clash is underway on Capitol Hill over President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choices for key cabinet posts, as Republicans face immense pressure to fast-track confirmations and Democrats charge that they are cutting corners on vetting for critical administration jobs.

... Democrats on the committee have begun raising objections about a potential lack of access to background materials such as an F.B.I. report on [defense secretary nominee Pete] Hegseth....

“Republicans choosing to rush nominees is quickly becoming a pattern,” Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, said on the Senate floor on Thursday. “It’s hard not to wonder what are the Republicans trying to hide about these nominees from the American people.”

So when these people were first appointed, you said nothing (or nothing apart from "I want to seem cooperative with this president, even though he calls me and everyone else in my party evil and treasonous, so I'll give all his nominees a fair hearing"). And now the big chance you claimed you'd have to confront the nominees will come and go in an eyeblink, because Republicans plan to rush the process -- which is something you could have foreseen.

The lie that got halfway around the world is that Robert Kennedy Jr., Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, and other extraordinarily unfit nominees are reasonable choices to help run America. While this was happening, Democrats ensured that the truth wouldn't put its boots on. They could have been making a lot of noise for weeks. But now all of these people will probably be approved, and most Americans won't even know why that's a problem.