SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET:

REALITY – FROM REUTERS:   NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City will install more than 1,500 new barrier posts on sidewalks and plazas to protect pedestrians from vehicles after at least two instances last year of drivers killing people after mounting the curb, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Tuesday.  The thin, cylindrical, waist-height metal bollards are intended to be a more attractive alternative to the hulking concrete blocks the New York Police Department had deposited in busier areas around the city following the vehicle attacks, de Blasio said.  “We understand what’s happening around the world and we even saw some tragedies here,” the mayor said at a Times Square announcement in front of a line of the posts. Similar bollards were installed in Times Square in 2016.  The mayor is an old leftist, who arranged to be sworn in Monday by Bernie Sanders.  But he wants to run for president in 2020, and is trying to show a tougher image.  Won't work.

NOT GOOD, NOT JUST – FROM PAGE SIX:    The federal grand jury handing down indictments for special counsel Robert Mueller doesn’t appear to include any supporters of President Donald Trump, according to one witness who recently testified before the panel.  “The grand jury room looks like a Bernie Sanders rally,” my source said. “Maybe they found these jurors in central casting, or at a Black Lives Matter rally in Berkeley [Calif.]”  Of the 20 jurors, 11 are African-Americans and two were wearing “peace T-shirts,” the witness said. “There was only one white male in the room, and he was a prosecutor.” Mueller was not present.  The Washington, DC, grand jury, which meets only on Fridays, handed down its first indictments in October, charging Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, and his partner Rick Gates with money laundering and failing to register as foreign agents. The two are pleading not guilty.
Mueller’s team is expected to bring more charges against Manafort relating to his work on behalf of the Ukrainian government in the years before Trump became a candidate.  Sol Wachtler, the former chief judge in New York, once called for abolishing grand juries because they are so easily manipulated that they would “indict a ham sandwich.”  It is not wrong to bring up the backgrounds of grand jurors, or any jurors for that matter.  We correctly abolished all-white juries in this country because they were often blatantly discriminatory.  The same can be said of other juries that represent other groups or neighborhoods.  The jury system is imperfect.  I am deeply concerned about any charges against the Trump people that are brought to a District of Columbia grand jury.  I would much prefer northern Virginia, where more balance can be achieved.

AH, THE BEAUTY OF SOCIALIZED MEDICINE – FROM DAILY MAIL:  Tens of thousands of pre-planned operations could be postponed in January as hospitals battle severe winter pressures.  In a drastic step to try to free up hospital staff and beds, NHS England urged hospitals to defer day-case procedures and routine outpatient appointments until January 31.  To help free up doctors for patients with the most urgent need, the body also said the deferral of non-urgent inpatient elective care - such as hip replacements - should be extended until January 31.  Officials have estimated that this could lead to up to 55,000 deferred operations.  Cancer operations and time-critical procedures should go ahead as planned, NHS England said.
The move comes after leading medics warned that every emergency department in the country is struggling to cope with winter pressures.  Some hospitals have declared themselves at the most severe pressure level while doctors warned that scores are operating at almost full capacity.  Meanwhile a number of ambulance services are also under severe pressure, with two even resorting to taxis to ferry patients to hospital.  Strange, we have winter here, and I'm not reading stories like this about American hospitals.  I wonder why.

January 2,  2018