It Was An Insurrection

     Quick reminder: January 6, 2021 was an insurrection.  It wasn't a successful one; it wasn't well-coordinated.  Vice-President Mike Pence's stiff neck impeded a critical step and he sacrificed a political career that he'd compromised a lot to advance, in order to preserve the orderly and lawful function of our system of government and prevent an autogolpe.

     I watched live and near-live coverage of the assault on the U. S. Capitol as it happened and it was not a "day of love."  It was a violent, poorly-organized attack on the building and on Congress.  We came within minutes and feet of serious harm to the Senators and Representatives, and multiple police and citizens were injured.  One rioter was killed while charging at law enforcement personnel through a just-broken window in a door with a raging mob behind her.

     There's a real push on the Right to retcon these events as some kind of overly-enthusiastic hijinks at worst; after all, there were lulls in the fighting (as there are in any such conflict.  Sorry, Hollywood tends to skip over the dull parts) and there's plenty of video of that, too.  But men (and a few women), many armed with clubs and more, scaled walls, burst through barricades, smashed windows, broke down doors and put Congress to flight.

     It was an ugly day.  There may be more ugly days ahead.

Snow Business

     There's over half a foot of snow on the ground per the official count.  Around Roseholme Cottage, it falls short of a foot deep, but not by much.

     I'd love to hang around and talk about it, but I've got to creep my way to work.

Unrepeatable

     I probably won't be able to repeat it, but I certainly will if the chance occurs.

     For Christmas dinner, I made a ham -- steamed it, in fact, which came out much better than it had any right to.  It was a big ham; Tam and I had a nice meal and I froze the leftovers in three batches.

     The corner grocery store always has "fresh" (rehydrated) blackeyed peas for New Year's, and I made a nice pot of Hoppin' John for New Year's Eve, using one of the bags of frozen ham, with onions, peppers, canned chilis and both fresh and canned tomatoes.  Good stuff, and there I was, with a couple of bags of leftovers.*

     New Year's Day, we had corned beef and cabbage (and potatoes, carrots, celery and onions), slow-roasted in a covered pan on the closed grill.  The corned beef was tender and flavorful, and there was enough left to freeze for later.

     Friday, I picked up a chorizo sausage, and Saturday, I squeezed it out of the casing, cooked it and drained it before pushing it to the sides of the big stewpot and sautéing a little red onion and mixed peppers.  I took several thickish slices of corned beef, diced them and mixed them in.  Then I added most of a can of some wild stuff: Heyday Canning Company's Enchilda Black Beans, plus a small can of tomato sauce.  I'd been thawing a freezer bag of the Hoppin' John, and I stirred it in, covered the pot and let it simmer with a bay leaf. (Heyday offers an interesting variety of canned soups and spiced beans.)

     That's three kinds of meat, two kinds of beans, red and white onion, chilis, multicolored peppers, tomatoes and seasonings.  Chorizo, honey ham and corned beef; without leftovers, this would take hours and you'd end up with enough for an army, or at least an Elks Lodge.  It was a thick stew, savory and complex, exactly right for a cold evening.

     It's so much different stuff that I can't really say "try this," but if you get the chance, you should, or whatever similar thing appeals to you.
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* Gallon-size freezer bags make this appealing: stand them up, fill them about one-third full or a little more, squeeze out the air and close them up before laying them flat and letting the contents spread out in a thin layer that will freeze quickly and reheat easily.  If you're feeding more people, use bigger bags; they make them up to at least two and a half gallons!

I Admit It: I'm Surprised

     Mike Johnson was re-elected as Speaker of the House with remarkably little fuss.  Indiana's Victoria Spartz, who'd been making holdout noises, blinked: while a couple of Republicans didn't toe the line at the very first, she was not among them.

     For now, the ringmaster's got the clowns under control.  Let's see if he can maintain it.

     Next up, counting the electoral votes on Monday.  Here's hoping for dull routine.  I won't mind if some Congressthings even manage to doze off during the proceedings.  It's not supposed to be exciting.

Mike Johnson's Tea Leaves

     House Speaker Mike Johnson wants to keep his job.  His party's bare majority in the House means he can't lose even one GOP vote* and word is that he already has.  Kentucky's Thomas Massie has already said he won't vote for the Johnson.  Right behind him, you'll find Indiana's Victoria Spartz in full maverick mode, and while I frequently find myself wondering just what she's up to at any given moment, her position of being a more seriously conservative conservative than all of her fellow conservatives, especially over fiscal restraint, certainly makes for interesting moves.

     With two holdouts and a certain loss, there's no reason for any other Republican looking to earn brownie points or extract concessions to hang back, so the whole thing becomes an exercise in party discipline for a party increasingly given to infighting.  Or possibly a kind of piñata, with everyone taking a whack and hoping goodies will fall out.

     The House needs to put a Speaker in place before the official tally of electoral college votes on January 6.†  They've got three days and the stopwatch is ticking.  They're not fast-moving even on their best days.  This will be interesting, and possibly a preview of the next two years.
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* Unless he's got a secret best buddy among the Democrats who will break ranks.  There are probably several who'd be happy to have him stop by their backyard cookout, but votes like this are a whole other thing.
 
† My goodness, why does that date seem so familiar?

The New Year

     It would be nice to have something profound to say, but I'm right out of "profound" and running low on "glib."  2025's liable to be an A-ticket ride, and not in a good way.  Better buckle in, and make sure the safety bar is down and locked.  It's already moving!

Tragic Start To 2025

     Like you, I'm monitoring the reports from the truck-ramming attack in New Orleans that has killed at least ten people and injured over thirty.  The bare facts are about all that has been released to the public.  It is known to have been a deliberate act, not a drunk or incapacitated driver.  The FBI is on the scene and is investigating it as a probable act of terrorism.

     There are, in fact, a lot of State and Federal agencies at work on this in the French Quarter, and during the first news conference this morning, MayorLaToya Cantrell used an interestingly specific term, referring to the "unified command."

     That tells me that it's not chaos; it's from the Incident Command System, originally developed to coordinate public safety agencies fighting wildfires in California, but adopted and greatly expanded by FEMA, which had already learned the hard way what doesn't work.  ICS does work, and pretty much anyone in a position of command at a public safety agency has at least had the short course on how to work it.  I've taken the online version -- it was required in order to be certified to access the various sites my where employer has equipment during an emergency situation.

     "Unified Command" comes right out of ICS, and lets me know that the highest-ranking members on the scene from every responding agency are metaphorically -- and probably literally -- sitting around the same table, pooling information, setting shared objectives and timetables, and sorting out who does what, within a framework they're all already familiar with.  It's a tool that prevents conflict and avoids wasted or duplicated effort, designed (perhaps uniquely, as things fed.gov go) to be flexible.  Internal chains of command are not disrupted: your boss is still your boss, but he (or his boss) is in steady contact with the bosses of every other department or agency working the incident.

     ICS command staff numbers expand and contract as the situation requires, task-oriented rather than position-oriented.  One person might wear many hats, or only one.  They may have a subsidiary staff or work solo.  And there are rules of thumb for figuring that out.  At its best, it's staggeringly effective; even when it's just clunking along, it ensures that the people out at the leading edge have ways to resolve conflict that run through their own communications and land in the laps of someone who can work it out with his or her opposite number(s).

     The system's working in New Orleans right now.  It's not magical, but it ensures FBI, the NOPD and the Louisiana State Police (etc.) are all on the same page.  There probably won't be a whole lot of details released to the Press until this evening; the next press conference* will be at noon and I don't expect to learn more from it than an update on the killed and injured, and perhaps early details on the perpetrator.  But the Mayor's use of one uncommon term has told me that the response is coordinated and organized, with clear goals.  They'll figure this crime out.
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* "Public Information Officer" is one of the defined jobs of the ICS Command Staff, and you may see a spokesperson or just a quiet coordinator in the background of the next news conference, but count on someone having the official details, probably an FBI agent; the rest of whoever will be there are only present because it is expected of them -- Mayor, probably the police chief and so on.