The funny part about the evacuation was that my wife was feeling really weird about leaving dirty dishes behind in the sink. Rationally she knew it wasn’t the highest priority but still had to fight the instinct.
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When faced with a catastrophe, it’s human nature to distract one’s self with quotidian minutiae.
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Just learned my cousin lost her home to the LA fires. She and her husband & dog made it out safely.
Goddamn.
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How awful! but so glad they got out OK!
So very sorry.
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So sorry for her, her husband, and their doggie, but I’m glad they are all okay.
Here’s a hug for them
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Thanks guys.
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Man. What a distopia!
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-prisons-firefighters/
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So similar to his punishing Democratic areas and blue states by cutting off PPE supplies to them during the COVID pandemic.
Petty beyond my ability to describe.
He wants the governor to fail hard, and he wants a MAGA sycophant to rule California… quite often one of the biggest states to challenge MAGAs and 
.
It’s going to be interesting how soon this piece from the NIH will disappear from their web server:
…
Our account of executive‐centered partisanship and how it affected the Trump administration’s response to COVID‐19 sheds new light on contemporary crisis management and the political nature of administrative power. Other presidents would have responded differently, perhaps with greater success in stemming the spread of the virus; other presidents might have attempted to centralize administrative power more aggressively in fighting the pandemic, rather than deflecting responsibility to states and private entities. Nevertheless, Trump’s actions were not irresolute. They were defined by a purposeful pursuit of partisan objectives: a denigration of bureaucratic expertise and an attack on the “deep state”; the politicization and racialization of federal administrative procedures to crack down on legal and undocumented immigration; a campaign of “law and order” to quell civil rights demonstrations; and a punitive form of federalism, defined by partisan retaliation against “blue states.”Contrary to dominant analyses that paint an administration in disarray, we argue that the Trump administration responded to the crisis through a tactical redeployment of national administrative power to fulfill partisan goals, within a party system beholden to executive power.1
As such, we conclude that given the current political and institutional context, American presidents are less likely to offer unifying leadership during national crises, or to suffer the political consequences for failing to do so. Instead of subjecting his party to the “blue wave” many Democrats hoped for, Trump’s polarizing leadership agitated a highly mobilized and fiercely contested election that sharpened, rather than ameliorated, partisan conflict. Republicans did better than pre‐election prognostications implied down ballot, where they gained 11 seats in the House and maintained control of most state legislatures. Moreover, Trump’s term in office enabled Republicans to solidify a conservative majority in the courts. As a result, his successor, Joe Biden, came into office having to navigate public health and economic crisis with a bare majority in the Senate, statehouses and governors more deeply divided than Congress, and a judiciary in which 28 percent of all sitting judges were appointed by Trump, including three new justices on the U.S. Supreme Court. Most tellingly, despite his personal defeat, Trump reigned over his party and reveled in the adulation of its base supporters. In short, the American state offers modern presidents not only the opportunity to strengthen their commitment to partisan tactics under the cover of national emergencies, but also the power to do so without the traditional constraints of party, Congress, and the states. That this strategy mobilized the Republican base and did not arouse a national repudiation of the president’s leadership is evidence of the power bestowed on the modern presidency to advance partisan objectives in a deeply divided nation.
…
I suppose The Wayback Machine might possibly be the only place left to have it, 4 years from now.
ETA:
See also:
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Got a text from my brother last night that my SIL’s BFF had her home and the school she taught at both burned to the ground. She is currently crashing with her husband and dog at her kid’s apartment, but will have to clear out when his roommates come back. He said he sent some money to help her find a hotel or something, but she says there is just nothing to be found. Any ideas of ways to help folks in these situations?
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That sucks… I’m glad they’re safe.
Same for them… this is fucking awful.
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Not just Trump. Failed L.A. mayoral candidate billionaire Rick Caruso (who registered as a Democrat to run for mayor) has taken to the airways of radio and TV to blame Karen Bass for all the fires in Los Angeles County. Let’s remember that the Eaton Fire has affected the cities of Altadena and Pasadena and unincorporated county property. The Palisades fire has spread to Malibu and Santa Monica, both of which are their own municipalities.
But Mayor Bass mistakenly took a quick trip to Ghana because she was invited to the Ghanian Presidential inauguration, so she is to blame for being out of country when the winds came.
How dare Karen Bass take a few days off during her four year tenure! Doesn’t she know that as a black woman mayor she must not travel out of the city limits 24/7/365 for four years? /S
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