As Al writes, “The Atlantic’s George Packer joins us to discuss his recent piece titled ‘The End of Democratic Delusions’. Packer discusses the new era that Donald Trump has ushered in and what that means to politics moving forward. Trump won a close election, but it’s a moment for the Democratic establishment to take a look at their shortcomings and redevelop their messaging and platform in the years ahead.

On this week’s Naked Lunch podcast, hosts Phil Rosenthal and David Wild have a special episode where they take listeners’ calls to discuss the recent wildfires in Los Angeles -- among them, check-ins from Brad Paisley and David's wife Fran Wild. They also write that “To learn more about building community through food and ‘Somebody Feed the People’ visit the Philanthropy page…” here at philrosenthalworld.com.

The other song, "Look for Small Pleasures," is quite nice, in a small, charming way.  In fact, it even had a bit of life outside the show and was recorded by several people, with moderate success.  ​

​And of course we have to follow that up with something from 1776, with music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards.  So, here then is "The Egg."

Every once in a while, you make one of those revelatory "light bulb moments," when the bulb goes on over your head and something comes to you that you're surprised hasn't occurred to you before.  It was big realization about the wrong-headed slams by the MAGOP at how Democrats supposedly mishandle fire management, which they then use to justify the unjustifiable -- their reprehensible claim that they may not provide emergency aid to California during a catastrophic disaster without any "strings".  Or perhaps not give any aid at all.
 
Putting it aside for the moment that Democrats do not mishandle fire management, and no MAGOP has really explained how they do (other than Trump suggesting that they use brooms to sweep up debris…) -- even if someone on the extreme right chooses not to believe that fire management is mishandled and instead blindly (and wrongly) insists (wrongly) that Democrats in California really do screw up fire management, and that’s why the state shouldn’t get emergency aid --
 
-- there's the very-simple, basic, near-impossible to not understand reality that anyone should be able to grasp: 

The forest that surrounds Altadena where one of the major wildfires has been burning out of control is…Angeles National Forest.  Which, of course, is..."national"! It’s controlled by the federal government, and so California has absolutely zero to do with managing it.  As for the other major fire in Pacific Palisades, that is surrounded by two separate forests.  One of them is Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area…which again, is…(yes, you've figured it out by now) national.  The other forest is state – Topanga State Park -- but (okay, are you ready?)…it’s actually part of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area!!!

Which, y'know, is again -- national.
 
Don't believe it?  Well, okay, here's a screenshot from the National Park Service website, with information about its properties.  You can't miss it -- there's "National Park Service" at the top, and "Topanga State Park" at the bottom.  And you can read about it here.

​In fact, there's even a page on the National Park Service website devoted to Fire Management in the Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area.  Rather then type it in second-hand, I figure it's best to see it direct --

​(Moreover, back in 2012, Congressman Brad Sherman, who represents the district that the SMMNRA is in, got federal funds that helped restore sections of the park's popular Backbone Trail.  So, yes to reiterate -- those were federal funds, not state.)​

In other words, almost all the current wildfire damage in Los Angeles forests has been on federal land.  Some parts are overseen by state management, but all is controlled by the federal government.  Yes, of course, there have been wildfires in state forests and state parks in California over the years.  But these major wildfires -- right now -- here in Los Angeles, these forests are federal.

I will anticipate your question:  “So, why is no one else mentioning this??!”  The answer is – I don’t have the slightest idea.  Is it possible that the state of California is involved with some of the forest management?  Absolutely possible, if not likely, though only on state grounds.  But not on national forest land -- and it's the national forest and national recreation area that overwhelmingly have predominated in these two most-major and devastating wildfires.  Perhaps there is some coordination that overlaps -- I don't know.  But I do know that the only forestland around Pasadena is Angeles National Forest.  And that all the forestland around Pacific Palisades is under the oversight of the National Park Service with the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

So, why has this seemingly gone unmentioned, as far as I can tell?  At times, this is one of my burdens in life…  Who knows?  Having worked years ago for Will Rogers State Historic Park helps grasp the fact, but that’s no explanation why it's been largely overlooked.  But overlooked or not -- it's reality.

The only guess I can make is that most officials and reporters are focusing on the immediate hell of the forests and homes burning, and they hear “Topanga” and "Pasadena and Altadena" and it’s all in Los Angeles, so that just viscerally says local -- and their other focus is the repugnant, but serious threats of MAGOPS in the White House and Congress to withhold aid, so they’re dealing with resolving that.  And while dealing with these critical issues, they can't see (no pun intended, but oh, does it fit) the forest for the trees.

But it's still the reality.

It might be an inconvenient reality for those on the right tied to trying to screw people in the midst of a catastrophic disaster who (whatever their party affiliation) live in a state that votes Democratic.  But it's reality nonetheless.

The wonderful Bob Uecker passed away today at the age of 90.  Impressively, he was still announcing Milwaukee Brewers baseball even through last season.  Because his lousy baseball career (which turned out to be immensely profitable for him in his hilarious self-effacing ridicule about it), appearing in the Major League movies, starring in the series Mr. Belvedere, appearing in commercials and other announcing, he had a seriously wide-ranging career.

I didn't hear much of his Brewers announcing, though -- since you could pick up the Milwaukee radio station from Chicago that carried their games -- I did periodically listen to a few of his games.  He wasn't as funny as his persona in his play-by-play, but he was very professional in calling the games and enjoyable to listen to.  Though I didn't hear this one particular game, my brother (who lived in Milwaukee for several years) did and told me about it -- it was a ballgame that went extremely long, and when they got to the 14th inning, he lead the crowd again in a second Seventh Inning Stretch.

As lousy has his playing career, his announcing was top-notch enough to get him voted the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003.  And his acceptance speech was hysterically funny.  I actually heard it live on the radio.  (The ceremony wasn't broadcast on TV yet, that didn't come until later when the MLB Network started in 2009.)  When I finally was able to watch the video of the speech, it was almost funnier -- that's because you could watch all the baseball legends behind him laughing throughout the whole thing.

Here's that speech.  Even if you don't like baseball or sports, I think it's still highly worth watching.  You might not get a few jokes, but you'll get almost all of them, and you'll get the point behind the others.  And as a heads-up, I'll just make clear that the point is he's totally ridiculing his utter incompetence.  In pretty much everything.