Post Mortem: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for an “independent” commission to investigate the 6th January insurrection at the US Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump.

  The commission would have to be established by law.

  In a letter to members of Congress Pelosi said the commission would be modelled on the inquiry into the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.  The commission, she said, “would investigate and report on the facts and causes” of the attack; “the interference with the peaceful transfer of power”; and the “preparedness and response” of both the Capitol police and other branches of law enforcement.

  One thing already exposed by the insurrection is right wing extremism in the military and law enforcement. At least 30 active duty cops and members of law enforcement took part in the rally and riot.

Family Politics: Republicans who voted to convict impeach or convict Donald Trump are already paying a political price, but for Adam Kinzinger, a six-termer from Illinois, it’s a little more personal — it’s family.

  Kinzinger received by certified mail a two-page handwritten letter saying he was in cahoots with “the devil’s army” for voting against Trump.  The letter written by Kinzinger’s cousin Karen Otto said, “Oh my, what a disappointment you are to us and to God!” It said, “You have embarrassed the Kinzinger family name!”

  Kinzinger is one of only 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump. He’s already been censured by his party.

  About his extended family he said, “I hold nothing against them,’’ he said, “but I have zero desire or feel the need to reach out and repair that. That is 100 percent on them to reach out and repair, and quite honestly, I don’t care if they do or not.”

The Mess With Texas: It’s colder in Texas this morning than the day Ted Cruz was elected to the Senate. It’s 13 in Houston, 2 in Waco, and 3 in Dallas.

  The weather forecasters like to say that it’s colder in Texas right now than it is in Alaska because it’s a comparison they can’t make in the length of football fields.

  The state is in a weather crisis under a blanket of snow, a coating of ice, and rolling blackouts. As many as four million people were without power. Cold weather east of the Rockies and west of the Appalachians is expected to hang in there for another day. 

  The storm system is expected to move on bringing heavy snow and freezing rain in parts of the eastern Great Lakes and New England before sliding up into eastern Canada. 

Viral News: Supplies of the Covid-19 vaccine are running short as states are open mass inoculation sites. The states say they could inoculate more people, but supplies of vaccine are not keeping up.

  In Los Angeles over the weekend, the mass vaccination operation at Dodger Stadium had to close for lack of supplies.

  Still, the US is administering 1.7 million vaccinations a day and 38.8 million people have been vaccinated so far.

  In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo for the first time admitted that his administration was not forthcoming about the number of deaths in nursing homes during the early days of the pandemic. “There was a delay,” Cuomo said yesterday, using the passive voice of the politically guilty.

  More than 15,000 people have died from the coronavirus in New York’s nursing homes and long-term care facilities. But even into late January, the state reported only about 8,500 fatalities, eliminating from their statistics residents who were infected in their home facilities but died somewhere else. 

  Overall, the national numbers are vastly improving. Less than 1,000 Americans died yesterday and new cases were just over 55,000.

No-show Trial: The trial of Myanmar’s civilian leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who was deposed in a military coup two weeks ago, and the country’s president, U Win Myint, began today by video and without the defendant lawyers. The two face charges that could put them in prison for six years and three years respectively.

  Aung San Suu Kyi is accused of violating import restrictions for possessing walkie-talkies and other foreign equipment were in her villa compound. She was also charged with mingling with a crowd during the coronavirus pandemic. 

The Bulletin Board: Oprah Winfrey has booked an “exclusive” 90-minute show with British royals Meghan and Harry. — Jaguar Land Rover, makers of the luxury Jaguar and the British equivalent of the Jeep, announced the company is going electric. You’ll probably still need a full time mechanic to own a Jaguar. — Some long-time customers of Publix, the Florida-based grocery chain, are boycotting the stores because a member of the founding family donated $300,000 to Donald Trump’s January 6^thWashington rally that led to the Capitol insurrection. — Republican David Perdue, who just lost a runoff election to Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, says he’s running again for the seat in 2022.

The Society Page: Actress Olivia Wilde, who has two children with former fiancé Jason Sudeikis, an alumnus of Saturday Night Live, has moved in with singer Harry Styles, with whom she has no children. Styles and Wilde met while shooting a movie she directed.    

  Wilde is 36 and Styles is 27. Sudeikis is 45, just old enough to be Styles’ father. The kids are six and four so it will be a few years before they are featured in the tabloids.

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