“No one said you shouldn’t have gone on a trip.”
—Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass in a local TV interview, explaining why she flew to Ghana as the disastrous wildfires in her city had already started.
In addition to being a spectacularly desperate excuse for irresponsible and incompetent conduct, Mayor Bass’s statement is such a poor use of the English language that it is almost undecipherable. What she was trying to say is that nobody told her not to leave the city she is supposedly in charge of running to go on a junket to Africa as a life-and-death threat loomed.
Still, isn’t that statement great? First, it’s an easy Unethical Quote of—what, the month? The year? The millennium? Second, it is the equivalent of wearing a blinking neon sign that reads, “I am an incompetent!” as if the residents of her city that have two brain cells to rub together haven’t figured that out yet. Third, it’s a rationalization so desperate, impotent and moronic that one has to be about six to try it. (And yes, I must add “Bass’s Lament” to the list.) Let’s see:
Ken Lay, asked why he oversaw the Enron scam: “Nobody told me not to!”
Lance Armstrong, asked why he used banned doping techniques to win all those races: “Nobody told me not to!”
Richard Nixon, asked why he allowed the Watergate cover-up: “Nobody told me not to!”
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, asked why he organized the attack on Pearl Harbor: “Nobody told me not to!”
Bass’s excuse works for serial killers, rapists, cheating spouses, arsonists, and playground bullies. It’s so versatile!
The context of Bass’s instant classic was a recent interview on LA’s Fox 11 in which she explained Bass explained that the Biden administration asked her to go to the Ghana to represent the U.S. “It was going to be a very short trip – over a weekend and two business days.” Now, she told the outlet, she is mounting an investigation into why she was MIA when the city needed leadership most. We need to look at everything about the preparation and all of that for the fires… I think when we evaluate that, we will find that although there were warnings – that I frankly wasn’t aware of.” “I think our preparation wasn’t what it typically is,” the mayor continued, apparently unaware of the axiom, “When you are in a hole, stop digging.” “That level of preparation really didn’t happen. If it had, I wouldn’t even have gone to San Diego, let alone leave the country…it didn’t reach that level to me.”
If you are wondering whether there is any chance that voters in single-party California will reconsider their knee-jerk political affiliations after the horrible performance of Bass, considered a star on the Democratic Party’s representatives of-color Congressional team (she was on Biden’s short list to be Vice-President), the answer is probably not, in part because Bass’s apparent unawareness of the concept of “accountability” is barely being publicized. I had to learn of it from the British tabloid “The Daily Mail.”
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Pointer: Old Bill
Ethics Alarms 
When you work in Customer Service, this is known as the “Where’s the Sign?” excuse. If you ask a customer not to do something or that something is not permitted, the pushback response is always, “I don’t see a sign stating I can’t do that!”
(In fact, even if there were a sign, it wouldn’t keep them from doing it. They’d just make a crack about “fine, fine, fine print” or some other rationalization as to why it doesn’t apply to them, but that’s neither here nor there)
Mayor Bass is essentially using a variation of “Where’s the Sign?”
Back in the ’60s, a family relative in the engineering department at Homelite chain saws reported that, upon analysis, customers’ problems starting their saws were invariably attributable to “the jerk at the end of the cord.”
Should chain saws have “For External Use Only” disclaimers…?
PWS
And/Or, “Not a Handle, Hold By Other End“
That’s similar to the old IT description “PEBKAC” (problem exists between keyboard and chair)….
So then the network broadcast and print media in California dropped the ball?
Okay. I choose Admiral Yamamoto’s use of the excuse as the best of those four. Maybe Adolf Hitler? “Nobody told me not to start a war of attrition on two fronts (maybe three including Italy/North Africa) against countries with significantly larger populations, natural resources and manufacturing bases?”
Yamamoto actually councilled against starting a war with the US. But when the higher-ups insisted, that was when he planned the Pearl Harbor attack. According to Wikipedia he said they’d have to March on Washington DC itself in order to win, and the government chose to spin it as, “We’ll march on Washington DC itself!”
Nobody told me not to go up against a Sicilian when DEATH is on the line!
–Dwayne
Oh, Vizini, where art thou??
jvb
I do think this has potential as a parlor game.
Literally, the George Costanza defense: https://youtu.be/IgFEfzxuBHE?si=vDrWog-vB3pMU3sX
I thought Jack was going to go right to George. She must have some “Seinfeld” alumni writers in her “communications department.”
Err… why is Lance Armstrong in that list? You specifically mention his use of ‘banned doping techniques;’ what is a ban if not being explicitly told not to do this?
Nobody told him not to cheat, of course. (The use of “er” that way here is discouraged, unless I do it.)
Isn’t this excuse basically the basis for qualified immunity? My understanding is that if there isn’t precedent finding the behavior impermissible, regardless of how facially absurd the act, police cannot be held personally liable for their actions.
So in order to lose qualified immunity, not only do they have to do a particularly stupid thing, but they also have to at some point have been told not to do it.
It reminds me of “There us controlling legal authority” used by Al Gore.
jvb
Has anyone given us any examples as to how much better things would have turned out if Bass had been present (in her office, in LA) the entire run of the fires? Having worked almost all of my employed life down near, or at, the “pointy end”, I have trouble coming up with any emergency (including life-and-death) situation where the presence of the higher ups made things better.
The problems in the LA fires stemmed from, as she admitted, came from poor or inadequate planing and equipment maintenance, all of which was something she cold have addressed, although it had to happen many months earlier. And to be honest, she picked a Fire Chief who shared her disregard for preparation.
There is no way she can get off this hook. [in my opinion.]
The issue is not whether she could have done different things. It is about leadership, which requires availability and accountability. She failed across the board as did Newsuance.
jvb
“Nobody told me surrounding myself with brown-nosing ‘yes’ advisors would get me a bad decision!”
I wonder if Mayor Bass went to Ghana to visit this town heralded as a new homeland for people of African descent to return to Africa:
https://www.npr.org/2024/02/25/1225192589/a-new-home-for-the-african-diaspora-in-ghana-stirs-tensions
jvb