The Fire This Time

In their first 2025 video chat, Claire and Neil do a pre-Inauguration Day news wrap-up, and have a more personal conversation about the wildfires still raging in Los Angeles

The fire that consumed the Palisades neighborhood in Los Angeles. Photo credit: Fernando Astasio Avila/Shutterstock.com

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Today’s main topic is the devastating fires in Los Angeles, but we started with breaking news: Minutes before we logged in, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the TikTok ban. It is set to begin on Sunday. Claire summarized what she thinks might happen next, something she laid out in more detail in Monday’s post.

Our news roundup included:

• In his Farewell Address on Wednesday, President Biden’s warned about the rise of an American oligarchy: we discussed what purpose Farewell Addresses serve.

• Things are getting more dangerous on the abortion front. Caroline Kitchner’s story at the Washington Post on Texas’s plan to amplify its attack on women by initiating a “partner-based” ad campaign on Facebook and X that will encourage men to turn in the women they have impregnated. The campaign hopes “to reach the husbands, boyfriends and sex partners of women who have had abortions in the state—with the goal of recruiting them to file lawsuits against those who assisted the women in ending their pregnancies.” We discuss the implications of this for women already in abusive relationships, and how it gives abusers another tool to control them.

• Speaking of East Germany-style citizen surveillance: Claire and Neil turned to a report from Alexandra Berzon and Hamed Aleaziz at the New York Times about Thomas Homan, Trump’s once and future border czar. Homan, who helped orchestrate the family separation policy in Trump I, is planning a mass deportation campaign that may include a hotline for reporting people believed to be undocumented. Ordinary Americans could join the project of terrorizing neighbors, co-workers, exes, their parents, and anyone they think might be an undocumented person with one phone call.

• We discussed the awful Pete Hegseth, whose nomination for SecDef made it out of committee (shame on you, Iowa Senator Joni Ernst), despite lies, evasions, and a general ignorance of anything he needs to know about how the military functions above the level of the company. We discuss Hegseth’s false assertion claim that he didn't object to women in the military or in combat, but only a separate set of standards for women in elite combat roles: this is not true.

In our conversation about the fires, Neil—as a resident of West Hollywood—took the lead. But we also talked about the history of fires in the region, and why this moment was exceptional. A few sources viewers might want to consult include:

• Jill Filipovic, “It’s Not Just Stuff,” (Jill Filipovic, January 13, 2025).

• Judd Legum, “Landlords Gouge Victims of LA Fires,” (Popular Information, January 14, 2025).

• Becky Nicolaides, My Blue Heaven: Life and Politics in the Working-Class Suburbs of Los Angeles, 1920-1965 (University of Chicago Press, 2002).

• Karen Zraik, “L.A. Fires Revive Calls for a ‘Climate Superfund’ Law in California,” New York Times (January 17, 2025)

• We emphasized the need to give money to people and organizations you know and trust: unfortunately, there will be people trying to take advantage of this tragedy.

• Resources for those affected by the fires can be found here.

See below for an offer: funds from all paid annual subscriptions for the rest of the month will go to California Wildfire Relief.

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Here’s a sample of this paid subscriber feature:

The first segment is part of our conversation about the new rules of engagement for immigration enforcement; the second from our exchange about the Hegseth hearings; and the third from our conversation about the Los Angeles fires.

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Your hosts:

Claire Potter is a historian of politics and media, a writer, a podcaster, and the sole author and editor of the Political Junkie Substack. Her most recent book is Political Junkies: From Talk Radio to Twitter, How Alternative Media Hooked Us on Politics and Broke Our Democracy (Basic Books, 2020), and she is currently writing a biography of feminist journalist Susan Brownmiller.

Neil J. Young is a historian of religion and politics, a journalist, and a former co-host of the Past Present podcast. His most recent book is Coming Out Republican: A History of the Gay Right (University of Chicago Press, 2024).

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If you like what you hear, try my book podcast, Why Now? available for free on Apple iTunes, Spotify, or Soundcloud.