SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

YIKES – FROM REUTERS:   The US House of Representatives canceled its planned Thursday session after the Capitol Police warned on Wednesday of a possible plot by a militia group to breach the building, an threat that echoed the deadly Jan. 6 attack.  The House had been scheduled to debate and vote on a police reform bill on Thursday. But a House Democratic aide said that the police warning, based on intelligence that "an identified militia group" could present a security threat, contributed to the change in plans.  The Senate will convene as planned to begin debating President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19-relief bill on Thursday.  Authorities have said right-wing extremists were part of a mob of supporters of former President Donald Trump that stormed the Capitol in January, interrupting the formal congressional certification of President Joe Biden's election victory.  Thursday marks the date when some right-wing conspiracy theorists have falsely claimed that Trump, defeated by Biden in the Nov. 3 election, will be sworn in for a second term in office.  Such heroes, those members of Congress.  How can we thank them for their bravery?

SOME COMMON SENSE – FROM FOX:   A Republican can win this year's mayoral election in New York City, longtime radio host Curtis Sliwa told "America’s Newsroom" Wednesday. Sliwa, a GOP candidate who founded the Guardian Angels civilian patrol group to help combat widespread violence in the late 1970s, explained that New York did not experience "crime issues" when Republican mayors like Rudolph Giuliani were in office.  "I’ve seen it come full circle, from when I started the group back in 1979 when crime was out of control, to what has just transpired in the city over the summer," he said.  The number of shootings and murders in New York City soared in 2020, according to year-end crime data released by the New York Police Department (NYPD) in January. The number of shootings jumped 97% from 2019 and murders jumped by 44%, the New York Post reported, citing data provided by the NYPD.  Recalling the unrest in the city that followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody, Sliwa claimed that "only the Guardian Angels were in the streets because the mayor ordered the police to stand down, and unfortunately the police, the NYPD, the most efficient and well-respected police department in the world, has now had to become reactive.  We've said here many times that New York could elect a Republican mayor to counter the wreckage of the hard-left de Blasio administration.  But Republicans don't seem much interested in finding a new Rudy or running an effective campaign.  The election is this year.  There is no stirring on the right.  So difficult to get out of bed.

March 3, 2021