I’m writing for tomorrow, day 24. It’s evening. I did my research this morning, while the Macy’s Parade passed under my window. Everyone in the parade was bundled against the cold and the rain. The wind prevented any balloons. Of all the parades that have passed under my window, this kept moving the fastest. My COPD is acting up as another winter storm comes in. Snow is forecast for tomorrow. I cleaned up the mess and took a coupled long cat naps.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:09 (average 4:07). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Daily Kos: Oh, no. According to a press release from the Supreme Court:
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg underwent a coronary catheterization procedure this morning at MedStar Heart & Vascular Institute at MedStar Washington Hospital Center to place a stent in her right coronary artery. The coronary blockage was discovered after Justice Ginsburg experienced discomfort during routine exercise last night and was taken to the hospital. She is resting comfortably and is expected to be discharged in the next 48 hours.
My hopes and prayers are that she regains her full health. From a selfish perspective, I can easily see Republicans holding the Court to 3 Justices and 5 Injustices rather than confirm even a anyone left of a fascist goose-stepper. That would be horrible!
From NY Times: Earlier this week, the Environmental Protection Agency announced proposed regulations to curb emissions of ozone, which causes smog, not to mention asthma, heart disease and premature death. And you know what happened: Republicans went on the attack, claiming that the new rules would impose enormous costs.
There’s no reason to take these complaints seriously, at least in terms of substance. Polluters and their political friends have a track record of crying wolf. Again and again, they have insisted that American business — which they usually portray as endlessly innovative, able to overcome any obstacle — would curl into a quivering ball if asked to limit emissions. Again and again, the actual costs have been far lower than they predicted. In fact, almost always below the E.P.A.’s predictions.
So it’s the same old story. But why, exactly, does it always play this way? Of course, polluters will defend their right to pollute, but why can they count on Republican support? When and why did the Republican Party become the party of pollution?
For it wasn’t always thus. The Clean Air Act of 1970, the legal basis for the Obama administration’s environmental actions, passed the Senate on a bipartisan vote of 73 to 0, and was signed into law by Richard Nixon.
Click through for the rest of this excellent Paul Krugman editorial, in which he relates climate change denial to the growing inequality between the super-rich and us, upon whom they prey.
From Upworthy: ProPublica recently did an in-depth analysis and found that black kids between ages 15-19 are 21 times more likely to be shot and killed by cops than white kids of the same age. That’s an insane statistic. That’s per capita, not total. If you are a black teenage boy, you have a 21x higher risk of being shot by police than a white teenage boy.
Also, in 2010, federal prosecutors took 162,000 cases to a grand jury. You know how many DIDN’T go to trial? Eleven.
Mike Brown’s family will never get a state criminal trial to get justice for their son. And the testimony that denied them that right technically doesn’t make any sense. Seriously, go read it.
Police have a hard job. What they do is something I couldn’t ever do. But you know what they rarely have? Accountability. In this case, the prosecutor, Robert McCulloch, always gets indictments — unless it’s a cop. He’s had five cop-involved killing cases and zero indictments. Again, five cases against police haven’t made it to trial at all. He could get an indictment if he wanted one.
Click through for much more information about this police murder and prosecutor cover up. On a related topic, the criminal acts of Wilson does not invalidate the excellent public service delivered my most police officers. Similarly, the acts of a few thugs and criminals, who are using the protests as an occasion to destroy and loot, does not invalidate the message of the protestors, the vast majority of whom are non-violent.
Cartoon:
On Dec. 3, Texas plans to execute an inmate named Scott Panetti, who was convicted in 1995 for murdering his in-laws with a hunting rifle. There is no question that Mr. Panetti committed the murders. There is also no question that he is severely mentally ill, and has been for decades.
White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough met with Senate Democrats Thursday to provide a briefing on President Obama’s immigration plans. But once the immigration talk was over, the meeting reportedly devolved into chaos as an angry lawmaker 
"It makes a lot of people who did really bad things look really bad, which is the only way not to repeat those mistakes in the future," he continued. "The public has to know about it. They don’t want the public to know about it."