At least Nero fiddled in Rome the whole time it burned.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem chose to absent herself for a two-day trip to Washington, D.C., this week while the per capita stats placed her state No. 1 in the nation for new COVID-19 deaths and No. 2 for new infections.
Between Nov. 16 and 17, she met with a series of Trump Cabinet members who will soon be out of a job and unable to do anything for South Dakota, even if they were so inclined. One thing they could do was provide Noem an opportunity for Noem to post pictures of her meeting with them when she could have been back home addressing a crisis.