Paradise Lost
A homeless woman pushes her belongings as the Palisades fire rages down the hills in Pacific Palisades, California, on January 7, 2025. (Wally Skalij via Getty Images)
The burning of L.A. is not just a natural disaster. It’s a man-made catastrophe.
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The first job of the government is to keep people safe. Failing that, its job is to show that someone is in charge when crisis erupts. On 9/11, there was nothing then–Mayor Rudy Giuliani could do to keep the World Trade Center from falling. Yet he became, in that long-ago era, the most popular person in America by staying on the scene and leading at his…
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