SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

REAL SMALL TIMER – FROM WBAP:   New York City will terminate business contracts with President Donald Trump after last week’s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday.  The Trump Organization is under city contract to operate the two ice rinks and a carousel in Central Park as well as a golf course in the Bronx.  The Trump Organization profits about $17 million a year from those sites, de Blasio said.  “I’m here to announce that the city of New York is severing all contracts with the Trump Organization,” de Blasio said.  It is the latest example of how the Jan. 6 breach after a Trump rally is affecting the Republican president’s business interests.  The small timers are at work, getting in their kicks at the president.  Bill de Blasio is one of the smallest of them all, and an absolutely horrible mayor.  I guess this is as brilliant as he gets. 

HER AGAIN – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:   President-elect Joseph R. Biden on Wednesday named Samantha Power, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the Obama administration, as his pick to lead the U.S. Agency for International Development.  Mr. Biden also elevated the position to be in the National Security Council (NSC).  “As USAID Administrator, Ambassador Power will be a powerful force for lifting up the vulnerable, ushering in a new era of human progress and development, and advancing American interests globally,” Mr. Biden said.  Before she served as U.N. ambassador from 2013-2017, Ms. Power was on the NSC staff from 2009-2013 as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights.  Another recruit from the failed foreign policy of the Obama administration.  We'll have a kind of shadow government, where the shadow of Barack will be seen in every hallway.

January 13,   2021