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TACTICS or STRATEGY? – March 2022

2022-03-11T00:32:26+00:00

TACTICS or STRATEGY? by Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed Tactics are knowing what to do when there is something to do. Strategy is knowing what to do when there is nothing to do.” Savielly Tartakower (professional chess player). While I lacked the patience or even the inclination to play chess, Tartakower’s observation struck a responsive chord when I stumbled upon it recently. Over the course of my career, I attended - mostly through compulsion – many formal strategic planning sessions/exercises/workshops. Now, they were not all bad, but most resembled exercises in “group write,” with attendees debating alternate phrasings of the [...]

TACTICS or STRATEGY? – March 20222022-03-11T00:32:26+00:00

History Should Matter to Emergency Managers – Feb 2022

2022-02-08T20:40:17+00:00

History Should  Matter to Emergency Managers By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed My recent blog entries, based mainly on my own "history" in emergency management and public safety roles, have warned that failure to acknowledge and prepare in advance for disruptions to foundational elements of our society could pose serious problems when an actual crisis occurs. Last year I observed, well before the fact, that the peaceful transfer of power, a symbol of our nation's unity (no matter how disappointing the outcome to the losing side), might be challenged violently by those espousing unfounded theories about the fairness of [...]

History Should Matter to Emergency Managers – Feb 20222022-02-08T20:40:17+00:00

1/6 – A Year Later – January 2022

2022-02-08T20:37:55+00:00

1/6 – A Year Later By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed January 6, 2022 Twenty years from now, historians will no doubt exhaustively parse the meaning of January 6, 2021’s insurrection, attempted coup, rebellion, the act of sedition (pick your descriptive term). In 2021, I offered my recollections/reactions on the 20th anniversary of two major events – the Nisqually Earthquake and the 9/11 attacks. I will go out on a limb (just a bit!) and suggest that in 2041 I probably will not write a piece remembering 1/6/21 (I’ll be 94 or hope to be!). It is way too [...]

1/6 – A Year Later – January 20222022-02-08T20:37:55+00:00

A Perverse Meritocracy

2021-12-15T18:58:06+00:00

A Perverse Meritocracy By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed A tsunami warning for the West Coast of the United States following the 2011 Sendai earthquake presented a  challenge in public messaging about the safety of our citizens because of false projections that toxic materials were en route to our coast. As Washington State‘s Emergency Management Division (EMD) director,  I  recommended that the state’s response be viewed credibly and headed by a state agency (Natural Resources or Health) that had relevant expertise and resources. My boss, the Adjutant General, took it to the Governor. He reported back that “EMD will [...]

A Perverse Meritocracy2021-12-15T18:58:06+00:00

Interdependencies – November 2021

2021-11-09T21:14:53+00:00

Interdependencies by Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed The 1950’s health crisis was a crippling and killer disease, polio, that parents feared every time their children complained of headaches, tiredness, stomach pain, etc. Once developed, polio vaccines were quickly embraced, administered in schools; that health crisis was abated.  We depended on and trusted medical science to free us from polio. In that same era, Cold War science fiction movie scriptwriters - largely to avoid “Red Scare” condemnation promoted by conspiracy theorists of that day - created “otherworldly” threats, requiring that the nations of the world unite to “save the planet”  [...]

Interdependencies – November 20212021-11-09T21:14:53+00:00

Time to Shake Up the Great American Shakeout? – October 2021

2021-10-20T13:17:21+00:00

Time to Shake Up the Great American Shakeout?   By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed Let there be no mistake: the Great American Shakeout is an excellent effort to raise awareness of the earthquake risk and the damage it could create. It is essential to raise awareness about the damages that could occur, not just for the West Coast of the United States (widely acknowledged as “earthquake country”) but elsewhere as well - for example, the Central US. An unsuspecting population might find itself shocked at the likely impacts of an earthquake of even lesser magnitude than what West Coasters [...]

Time to Shake Up the Great American Shakeout? – October 20212021-10-20T13:17:21+00:00

9/11/01-1/6/21 and Beyond – Is the Homeland Secure?

2021-09-29T18:56:23+00:00

9/11/01-1/6/21 and Beyond - Is the Homeland Secure? By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed Unrelenting false claims of election fraud led to the attempt to violently overthrow the government of the United States on January 6, 2021. Sometimes it sucks to be prescient. In June 2020’s “Emergency Management Once Removed,” I wrote this: “… how huge a leap is it from refusing to honor and enforce existing laws to threatening to take up arms against the state or national government (which has and is happening), to refusing to accept election results?” 9/11 demonstrated our vulnerability to external forces. However, [...]

9/11/01-1/6/21 and Beyond – Is the Homeland Secure?2021-09-29T18:56:23+00:00

9/11/01-1/6/21 and Beyond – Eroding Confidence in Government

2021-09-29T18:54:52+00:00

9/11/01-1/6/21 and Beyond – Eroding Confidence in Government By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed Although the 9/11 terrorists owed their success in some measure to poor coordination between federal government agencies, the feds “generously” sought to share responsibility for their lack of preparedness; protecting the “homeland” suddenly became a shared responsibility that local and state governments were “unprepared” to fulfill (duh!). In 2003, twenty-two federal agencies, including FEMA, were merged into the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Congress and the Administration enticed participation in “protecting the homeland” - dangling vast grant sums in front of governors, mayors, police, and [...]

9/11/01-1/6/21 and Beyond – Eroding Confidence in Government2021-09-29T18:54:52+00:00

9/11/01 -1/6/21 and Beyond

2022-02-24T02:57:11+00:00

9/11/01 -1/6/21 and Beyond By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed On September 10, 2001, I naively thought I had enough problems on my plate. The new Bush Administration was attempting to redirect virtually every unallocated federally appropriated dollar to address “new” priorities (emergency managers may recall the assault on funding for “traditional” natural hazards programs). My Seattle Office of Emergency Management was wrapping up the previous February’s Nisqually Earthquake recovery process. I was immersed in internal budget battles with Seattle’s Police Department hierarchy. Everything changed shortly after 6 AM on September 11, 2001. In rapid succession, terrorists had hijacked [...]

9/11/01 -1/6/21 and Beyond2022-02-24T02:57:11+00:00

What Now? – June 2021

2022-02-24T00:16:06+00:00

What Now? By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed We must have an unflinching but hopeful and constructive post – COVID assessment. Can one prepare a useful and truthful COVID -19 after-action report to spur national planning for the next pandemic in our volatile political climate? How to minimize the impulse to reproach or defend while maximizing emphasis on the measures that should be taken next time? Regular readers must be aware of where I would place much of the responsibility for the scope of the COVID -19 disaster. But, in this instance, I would strive to curb that inclination [...]

What Now? – June 20212022-02-24T00:16:06+00:00
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