‘Trump’s loyalists knew.’ The Bulwark’s Amanda Carpenter says real-time texts sent to Donald Trump’s White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows Jan. 6—texts that Rep Liz Cheney read to the U.S. House yesterday—reveal Fox News hosts, members of Congress and even one of Trump’s sons begging him to stop the Capitol insurrection.
■ The Daily Beast’s Jose Pagliery: Cheney hinted at “where this is going: Federal criminal charges for President Trump.”
■ Meadows was headed toward criminal charges for failing to appear before the House.
Smoking PowerPoint. Despite Washington Post and New York Times characterizations of a 38-page presentation sent to Meadows Jan. 5 as “extreme,” and “wild,” Popular Information’s Judd Legum says the document largely tracks what actually Trump did.
■ Rolling Stone: “Two Jan. 6 Organizers Are Coming Forward and Naming Names.”
■ Media critic Dan Froomkin: Corporate news organizations’ coverage of Fox’s misdeeds has been “timid and tunnel-visioned.”
■ Tribune columnist Rex Huppke channels the voice of Trump’s failed coup: “Thanks to Democrats and the media, nobody’s afraid of me!”
■ The Onion goes darker: “Political Analysts Say GOP Could Take House If A Few Key Assassinations Break Their Way.”
Companies behaving badly. NBC News reports that supervisors told workers who sought to leave the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory destroyed in Friday’s tornadic assault that they’d be fired if they left early—even though warning sirens had sounded.
■ The U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration is investigating whether Amazon broke workplace safety rules before its Edwardsville, Illinois, plant collapsed.
■ The Intercept: Employees on Amazon’s internal employee message board complain they’ve gotten virtually no emergency training.
■ A woman who lost almost everything in the storm struggles to explain to her autistic 3-year-old that they don’t have a home anymore.
Brace yourself. New research concludes that global warming means winter tornadoes will get stronger and stay on the ground longer.
■ Glaciologists warn that one of Antarctica’s biggest glaciers—already shedding 50 billion tons of ice into the ocean every year—is rapidly becoming more unstable.
■ Record high temps are possible in Chicago Wednesday.
Pandemic benches Bulls. A coronavirus outbreak has postponed tonight’s and Thursday’s games—the first COVID casualties of this year’s NBA schedule.
■ The Calgary Flames’ COVID cluster postponed last night’s Blackhawks game, too.
■ Early findings suggest the omicron variant is milder than its predecessors—but better at evading vaccines.
■ Chicago’s COVID-19 Community Response Corps is gearing up for a rough winter.
‘If you’re on a boat, you want everybody rowing in the same direction.’ Cook County Board President and county Democratic Party chief Toni Preckwinkle defends a demand that candidates who win party backing sign an oath not to back candidates who aren’t slated.
■ Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey has picked a running mate: A former right-wing Chicago radio host who described herself in 2016 as “#NeverTrump” but then, after the 2020 election, hailed him as “the greatest POTUS of our time.”
■ Conservative kids at a Chicago public high school are fighting to restore a canceled club affiliated with a racist national group founded by a suburban guy.
■ The Onion again: “GOP Warns Loophole In New Bill Could Still Allow Teachers To Sing About Critical Race Theory.”
‘Apple’s strangest service.’ Among a raft of new features in a flock of Apple operating system updates, TidBITS reports: A discounted Apple Music option you can access only through Siri—no visual browsing allowed.
■ Also: A new App Privacy Report showing what your device is sharing about you—and how often.
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