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Governor ProgBot

As virtually everyone is now aware, the historic wildfire that has ripped through the Hawaiian island of Maui has been devastating for parts of that island. Hundreds of homes and businesses have been destroyed. Nearly a hundred people are confirmed dead because of the blaze (as of the time of writing). It is a nightmare scenario of compounded problems and complexity from the speed of the fire's spread to the absence of effective warning.

The devastation of a major fire calls for competence, leadership, sympathy and calm. If you have happen to have a progressive robot governor, however, any of these will be hard to come by. Hawaii has such a robot. Governor Josh Green has an unremarkable resume. Undergrad in anthropology followed by med school, followed by a residency. From there, into the HHS' National Health Service Corps. This program helps pay off student loans for doctors in exchange for participation. He was deployed to Hawaii to work as a doctor in rural parts of the Big Island.

After three or four years of this, he ran for office and won, entering the Hawaii House of Representatives. After four years in Hawaii politics - longer than his stint as a subsidized doctor in the state - he ran for the state senate and won. He lasted longer there, racking up 10 years before running as Lieutenant Governor for David Ige. During his time in that office, he also headed up the state's ineffective and oppressive COVID policy - after all, he's a doctor! - and in 2022, he finished rolling up the government ramp and landed in the governor's mansion.

Governor Josh Green has responded about as well as should be expected for a long-term professional politician with zero real-world experience in anything. His entire career from academia to doctoring to politics has been marked by lurching between one subsidized appointment to the next. He has no knowledge of the real world or real people, and it showed during this fire. It started out okay (sort of). He gave firm warnings to those who had fled that they needed to be prepared to witness total devastation:

"We will continue to see loss of life," Green said during a news conference late Thursday. "We also have many hundreds of homes destroyed, and that's going to take a great deal of time to recover from." ... "Now I want to caution everyone, Lahaina is a devastated zone," Green warned Friday in an interview with local station KHON. Returning residents "will see destruction like they've not ever seen in their lives. Everyone, please brace themselves as they go back."

Fair enough. That's the reality right now and those going back into the burn zone to sort through the wreckage should be forewarned that it's going to be bad. But what to do about it now? What are causes? How do Maui generally and Lahaina specifically recover? Here's where it goes off the rails. There will, of course, be an investigation - ahem, I mean a "comprehensive review" - of the fire to "understand" it:

Green said he has authorized a "comprehensive review" of the response to the fast-moving fires. Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez will spearhead that review, her office announced Friday.
"My Department is committed to understanding the decisions that were made before and during the wildfires and to sharing with the public the results of this review," Lopez said in a statement. "As we continue to support all aspects of the ongoing relief effort, now is the time to begin this process of understanding."

We must "understand" the events leading up to and following the blaze. Being nice and gentle and loving and progressive, however, the governor and his AG dare not call it an "investigation."

Not that an investigation is needed when the causes are already known. It was, of course, professional incompetence on the part of the telecommunications companies and the Dread Global Warming that are to blame for the apparently poor response and the fire itself, respectively:

"The telecommunications were destroyed very rapidly," the governor said, blaming the rapid spread of the fires on "global warming, combined with drought, combined with a superstorm."

On rebuilding, Governor Green keeps up the talking points. Recovery will be slow and expensive due to Hawaii's remoteness, but we can't forget the ongoing devastation caused by the hangover of COVID policies (policies he himself helped to develop and push with grotesque abandon), which will make everything harder:

Green added that restoring utilities will likely to be a lengthy process because of Lahaina's remote location, as workers and raw materials cannot simply be driven to Hawaii. "This is not to make an excuse. This is just to explain the realities of the island, especially in the post-Covid era," he said.

I am sure the families of the dead and those who have had their way of life reduced to cinders will find comfort in the governor blaming global warming, telcos and a severe chest cold a couple of years back for what ails and will continue to ail them.

But eventually, after great time and expense, Lahaina and the other destroyed areas will be rebuilt. The residents there can rest assured that it will be a progressive undertaking - one in line with their "values:"

"All of those buildings virtually are going to have to be rebuilt," Green said Thursday. "It will be a new Lahaina that Maui builds in its own image with its own values."

Whatever the hell that means.

None of what Governor Josh "ProgBot" Green has said has any meaning whatsoever. Every statement is a platitude that shows no knowledge or understanding. The excuses are as rote and predictable as the politically-sanitized statements of mealy-mouthed pseudo-sympathy. There is nothing that Governor Green has said or done that could not have been generated by any of today's currently available - albeit deeply flawed, often incorrect and sometimes deceitful - "AI" systems. Other than Green's physical shell, there's little evidence that he isn't one.