All links are to the Texas Tribune.

First, climate change is real, it's getting worse, and it's exacerbating an already extant winter Wildfire season in West Texas. That said, to expand on the Trib, while the Panhandle wildfire area is not currently in drought, much of it was both last summer and the summer of 2022.

Second, Strangeabbott and his emergency management folks say the cause of all Wildfires, and the Smokehouse in particular, remain under investigation. But, as of that time, the first (of surely many) lawsuits had been filed, and that over a downed Xcel power line. Shades of California wildfires, and shades of utility company capitalism in action.

Meanwhile, many families look for thoughts and prayers at church. This secularist knows that, per the Twitter hashtag, all that's really there is tots and pears. As with tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes and mass shootings (including those at a church), where was your god at the time? And do NOT give me the "inscrutability of god" bullshit.