Baby It’s Hot: The world is cooking.

  Heat advisories are in effect early this week for Texas, much of the Central and Southern Plains, most of Oklahoma and Arkansas, southwestern Missouri, and southeastern Kansas. All those areas could experience the hottest weather of the summer with highs reaching 102 to 110 degrees.

  Heat warnings are in effect for Southern California and parts of the Southwest, including Arizona and New Mexico.

  Hot weather is also feeding wildfires in France, Spain, and Greece. Record-breaking temperatures are expected in Britain, as high as 104 degrees today in a country built for wearing sweaters.

  This weather hits just after West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a Republican in Democrat clothing, killed President Biden’s plan to fight climate change with little public reaction. Americans are more worried about the Covid pandemic and the price of food and gasoline than they are about global warming.

  In a recent New York Times/Siena College poll only 1 percent of voters listed climate change as the most important issue facing the country. Even among voters under 30, the group thought to be most concern only 3 percent said it was a big issue for them.

Police Failure: A 77-page report, issued by a special Texas House committee found that officers from local, state, and federal agencies collectively failed to take swift action in the Uvalde school massacre.

  The report says responders  “failed to prioritize saving innocent lives over their own safety.” This confirms what was evident from in-school surveillance video that showed the cops waiting more than an hour before moving in on the shooter.

  The report cites  “systemic failures” committed by scores of officers and particularly those who waited outside a pair of connected classrooms where the gunman killed 19 children and two teachers. 

  Although Uvalde school police chief Pete Arredondo was present, other officers told investigators it was never clear who was in charge.  Arredondo said he didn’t think it was him. The committee says that the decision to charge in on the gunman was made by a small group of officers, including specially trained Border Patrol agents and a deputy sheriff from a neighboring county.

  The report says that a more immediate response probably would not have saved most of  the 19 children who died of devastating wounds from an assault rifle but that “it is plausible that some victims could have survived if they had not had to wait” for rescue.

Martial Law: A little-known conservative lawyer in December 2020 wrote President Donald Trump a memo basically suggesting that he should seize control of the government to stay in office.

  In the memo titled “Preserving Constitutional Order” obtained by The NY Times,  Virginia lawyer William J. Olson pitched several extreme ideas, including firing the acting head of the justice department and appointing someone who would pursue legal action on behalf of the president. “The media will call this martial law,” he wrote, saying “that is ‘fake news.’” 

 After speaking to Trump on the phone Christmas day, Olson wrote, “We have suffered massive election fraud, and state and Federal courts avert their eyes. Election crimes have occurred, and the FBI and the Department of Justice see nothing. We have had a near collapse of the institutions of our government.”

  No one has produced evidence of election fraud. But Olson said in his memo to Trump, “It is no understatement to say that the very existence of our Constitutional Republic is slipping away – that which was entrusted to our generation by the Founders and each succeeding generation – unless you act, and act promptly.” 

The War Zone: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky  fired his country’s chief of domestic intelligence and the prosecutor general as the result of investigations into officials cooperating with Russia.

  The prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, had been in charge of investigating Russian war crimes. The intelligence chief, Ivan Bakanov, had been a childhood friend of Zelensky’s

  Zelensky said did not say that either of them had done anything wrong. He said he was responding to a large number of treason investigations opened into employees of law enforcement agencies, as well as the prosecutor general’s office and the domestic security agency. 

The Spin Rack:  A large cargo plane operated by a Ukrainian company carrying more than 11 tons of munitions from Serbia to Bangladesh crashed and exploded in northern Greece, killing all eight crew onboard. The plane was loaded with illuminating mortar shells and training shells. — Conservative wacknut Steve Bannon goes on trial today on charges of contempt of Congress. — Six people died Friday night in Big Horn County, Montana, when a dust storm resulted in a 21-car pileup on Interstate 90.

Social Pages: Actor Ben Affleck and singer Jennifer Lopez were married in Las Vegas over the weekend.

  The pair dubbed “Bennifer” by the tabloids had originally dated and become engaged back in 2002-2004 then gone separate ways. 

  This is the second marriage for Affleck, who has three children with actress Jennifer Garner, and the fourth for Lopez. She and ex-husband Marc Anthony share twins.

The Carpetbagger: One of the issues in the race for Senate from Pennsylvania is that Dr Mehmet Oz, the television personality and Republican candidate, isn’t really from Pennsylvania. He’s got a big mansion in New Jersey, even though his campaign claims he lives 12 miles over the border in a Philadelphia suburb.

  Democrat John Fetterman has enlisted  Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi from the reality series “Jersey Shore” to troll Oz for leaving her beloved state. In a twitter video Snooki says,  “I heard that you moved from New Jersey to Pennsylvania to look for a new job and personally I don’t know why anyone would wanna leave New jersey cause it’s like the best place ever.” But she assures Oz “Don’t worry, you’ll be back in Jersey soon.”

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