Hello and happy Tuesday, though with great respect for the ongoing catastrophe in Los Angeles. There are six days until the inauguration, and President-elect Donald Trump seems to be spending much of it spreading false information about the devastating fires.

Of course, he’s not alone. He’s never alone, really, now that he has Elon Musk as a BFF. The two seem so physically inseparable and emotionally simpatico that I think they deserve their own relationship moniker. So I formally dub the duo Elomp.

And oh, has Elomp been busy! Let me count the ways.

Abandoned wheelchairs and hospital beds on the front lawn and sidewalk Wednesday after patients were evacuated from the Two Palms Nursing Center in Altadena during the Eaton fire.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

It’s the Dems!

As you probably have heard, Elomp has been hard at work attempting to blame the fires on Democrats — individually and collectively.

Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass are taking the brunt of this. Elomp has gone after Newsom with so many false claims, it’s becoming hard to keep track — though his administration has put up an entire web page just to try.

Among some of the most rampantly spreading false claims are that pressure in fire hydrants dropped because of Newsom’s water policies. As anyone who has ever turned on the garden hose, the washing machine and the shower at the same time can tell you, pressure drops when you have too much demand on the system. That is what happened, sadly, in the Palisades — basically every hydrant in use at once.

And also, Southern California does not get the majority of its water from Northern California, despite their claims. So the smelt are innocent.

California firefighters, all too experienced in wildfire, understand this. Which is why they have water tankers — basically mobile hydrants — that were deployed to try to make up for as much of that demand as possible. The hard reality is that with hurricane force winds blowing embers miles ahead of flames, there was no amount of water, no firebreak, no herd of chaparral-eating goats that could have stopped this blaze.

As I wrote last week, much of Los Angeles is in a high-risk fire zone, and though time and investigation will surely show where we could have done better and done more (and even if and how there was negligence), none of it would have changed the pressure in the hydrants or the realities of the wind.

Elomp knows this, because they are not dumb, and also because Musk filmed himself being schooled on it Monday. But still, they’re seemingly not going to lay off that rumor or any of the others.

And there are so many — Musk retweeting disgraced conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, (he of Sandy Hook infamy) who is contending the fires were purposely lit as a part of a “globalist plot” to destroy cities as we know them.

Trump reposting a meme that “It’s not climate change. It’s Democrats.”

My personal contender for most egregious — Musk’s claims that “DEI means people Die.” Because Black and LGBTQ+ people can’t fight fires? Please at least attempt to hide the racism and hate.

The purpose of blame

Now, to be clear, I don’t care about the fate of any particular politician, Democrat or Republican. But truth, that I can get behind. Especially during a time of crisis, when people are hurt, angry and confused. To knowingly dump lies onto that trauma is exploitation. And it’s cruel, because it sends people in false directions, when our time can be better spent.

But it’s rarely done without purpose. Remember when we had to do something — right now — because the immigrants of Springfield, Ohio, were eating cats and dogs? That apparently cleared up just fine on its own after the election. But that was always just a lie to serve a purpose — creating outrage — just like these are.

Elomp’s conspiracy binge is moving their agenda forward in two ways.

First, by supporting conspiracies and lies, they give tacit permission for others to do the same. For example, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has moved from claiming Jewish space lasers were used to start wildfires, to pondering on formerly-Twitter, “Why don’t they use geoengineering like cloud seeding to bring rain down on the wildfires in California? They know how to do it.”

OK, Marge. But also, it’s the drip, drip, drip of truth and science being worn away from our collective consciousness.

Second, and equally important, it gives cover for moving forward actual policies that are going to hurt the people of California. All those claims of incompetence and wrongdoing, given with so much furor and no proof?

It leads to this: Monday, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson told reporters that federal aid to California might be restricted or come with conditions because of these unproven — easily disproven — claims.

“It appears to us that state and local leaders were derelict in their duty,” he said. “So that is something that has to be factored in.”

And there you have it — the politicization of tragedy for a Republican agenda intent on punishing California, pushed from rumor to policy in days.

Faster than wildfire.

What else you should be reading:

The must-read: Live updates: Increasing winds bring potential for ‘explosive fire growth’ across L.A. County this week
The what happened: What sparked the Palisades fire? A beloved hiking trail may hold the grim answers
The L.A. Times special: A reporter reflects on losing his childhood home

Stay Golden,
Anita Chabria

P.S. Aside from The Times, which has made all of its fire coverage available for free, here are three reliable resources for facts about how the state and federal government is responding:

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