SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE: 

LATEST WOKE NEWS:   From Legal Insurrection:  Thanks to a $1.2 million government grant, Norway’s University of Bergen is looking into how white paint has contributed to white supremacy around the world.  The U. Bergen study, called “NorWhite,” focuses on whether the Norwegian-developed paint pigment titanium dioxide white helped advance white “as a superior color,” Fox News reports.  Although Norway isn’t a colonial power in the tradition of Spain, England or Portugal, NorWhite shows “how the country has played a globally leading role” in making white a preferable hue.  The study examines the titanium white pigment via “historical, aesthetic, and critical lenses. Whiteness, it says, typically “is understood as cultural and visual structures of privilege,” but NorWhite offers “a distinctively different battleground for politics of whiteness in art and architecture.”  It's about time we confronted this ugly part of our past.  Inwardly, we all knew that white paint was sending a message.  I mean, what do you think the White House is all about?  And how about "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas"?  That tells you everything you need to know about your privilege. 

WELCOME TO NEW YORK:  From the New York Post:  A Fox News meteorologist was pummeled by a group of teens when he tried to stop them from harassing another straphanger on a Manhattan subway early Sunday, cops and the Prognosticator said.  Weatherman Adam Klotz, 37, recounted the vicious attack in an Instagram video, appearing bruised and battered as he described how he was coming home on a train after watching the New York Giants NFL playoff game at a bar when he saw “this older gentleman was being hassled by this group of seven or eight teens.  “I was like, ‘Yo, guys, cut that out.’ And they decided, ‘Alright, if he’s not going to get it, you’re going to get it.’ And boy did they give it to me,” Klotz said. “They had me on the ground. My ribs are all bruised up, too. They got their hits in.”  Police sources said the meteorologist was on a No. 1 train around 1:15 a.m. when he confronted the teens, who may have been smoking weed at the time, too. Nothing new on this.  I doubt if they'll ever catch the assailants.  And, if they do, nothing much will happen to them.  We are living through the possible death of a city.

CHILLING:  From Fox:  The FBI said Wednesday that it is "too early" to determine whether gunfire at a substation in Randolph County, North Carolina, this week was connected to December’s attack on the nearby Moore County’s power grid that still hasn’t resulted in any arrests despite causing outages for tens of thousands.  "The FBI is working with the Randolph County Sheriff's Office to investigate after gunfire damaged an EnergyUnited substation on January 17, 2023," a spokesperson for the FBI Charlotte Division said in a statement to Fox News Digital Wednesday. "At this time, it is too early in the investigation to determine whether this case is connected to the ongoing investigation in Moore County."  On Tuesday morning, EnergyUnited officials responded to an alarm that notified personnel of an equipment issue at its Pleasant Hill Substation in Thomasville, N.C.  Crews found the substation transformer was damaged by gunshots and alerted law enforcement. The Randolph County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene and suspect the attack occurred around 3 a.m. The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force responded to conduct a parallel investigation. The Bureau had better get this right.  We've been warned for decades that an enemy could launch a devastating attack on our power grid, paralyzing the nation for days or weeks.  Are these recent attacks the opening steps?  I have no idea, but they tell us that the threat is out there.  We cannot afford an electrical Pearl Harbor. 

January 22-23, 2023