As for the actual, you know, immediate needs of this region, will competent advisers prevail or the evil destroyers? Stay tuned. With the nation's attention turning to the crisis of the Oroville Dam, and another storm on the way there, though, my best ignorant guess is a show of responsible concern will be made. It's his first, and 45 won't want comparisons to 43.
BUT, back to what is being discussed in DC besides defeating California: disaster capitalism. The Heritage Foundation's put out a whole book on how to use disasters to generate huge profits AND as excuses to overturn laws and systems they don't like. Like labor laws. And with global warming, we are seeing more and more natural disasters.
Whether the Oroville situation presents enough opportunity for both remains to be seen, but it's safe to say the kleptocrats and social dismantlers are eagerly looking forward to another Katrina.
GET READY FOR THE FIRST SHOCKS OF TRUMP’S DISASTER CAPITALISM
...The first three items on the RSC list are
* “automatically s
uspend Davis-Bacon prevailing wage laws in disaster areas,” a reference to the law that required federal contractors to pay a living wage;
* “
make the entire affected area a flat-tax free-enterprise zone”; and
* “
make the entire region an economic competitiveness zone (comprehensive tax incentives and waiving of regulations).”
* Another demand called for giving parents vouchers to use at charter schools, a move perfectly in line with the vision held by Trump’s pick for education secretary, Betsy DeVos.
All these measures were announced by President George W. Bush within the week. Under pressure, Bush was eventually forced to reinstate the labor standards, though they were largely ignored by contractors. There is every reason to believe this will be the model for the multibillion-dollar infrastructure investments Trump is using to court the labor movement.
...After all the layers of subcontractors had taken their cut, there was next to nothing left for the people doing the work. For instance, the author Mike Davis tracked the way FEMA paid Shaw $175 a square foot to install blue tarps on damaged roofs, even though the tarps themselves were provided by the government. Once all the subcontractors took their share, the workers who actually hammered in the tarps were paid as little as $2 a square foot. “Every level of the contracting food chain, in other words, is grotesquely overfed except the bottom rung,” Davis wrote, “where the actual work is carried out.”
https://theintercept.com/2017/01/24/get-ready-for-the-first-shocks-of-trumps-disaster-capitalism/
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