Robert Reich has an "8-Point Plan for a New Democratic Party," and I fully expect Floyd County's Democrats to whittle it down to less than zero.

Has a single local ranking Democrat had anything intelligible to say since the debacle on November 8?

Donald Trump ran roughshod, but roughly 40% of the county opted for Hillary Clinton, and it stands to reason that these people might be interested to know what's next.

(crickets chirp)
(pins drop)
(somewhere, a dog forlornly barks)
(the flutter of this passing moth's wings is deafening)

I resent being proven wrong again; after all, I thought local Democrats couldn't display any fewer leadership skills.

But when the going gets tough ... water park!

Robert Reich's 8-Point Plan for a New Democratic Party, by Tessa Stuart (Rolling Stone)

Former labor secretary says the party must be rebuilt from the ground up, and has some ideas on how it should be done ... "the entire organization has to be reinvented," Robert Reich says of the DNC.

During the 2016 primary, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich was an outspoken supporter of Bernie Sanders. When he threw his weight behind Hillary Clinton's bid in the general election, he did so while also calling for the formation of a new progressive party to take up Sanders' cause after the election. In the wake of Democrats' humiliating defeat in November – not just for the presidency, but in a number of Congressional races – the UC Berkeley professor and co-founder of Inequality Media says the Democratic Party must be rebuilt from the ground up, and he has some ideas about how it ought to be done ...

... This requires a completely different kind of politics in response, and the Democratic Party needs to think at a much, much larger and more ambitious level than a lot of the Democrats I've been talking to over the last week have been. Here's Reich's blueprint for the future of the party."

To learn the details, click through. Here is the title list:

1. Overhaul the DNC
2. Embrace populism
3. Mobilize, energize and educate the base
4. Expose Trump as a fraud
5. Focus on 2018 now
6. Look to the state and local level
7. Protect groups threatened by Trump
8. Failing all else, look outside the party

Look outside the party? That's interesting.

"All I can tell you at this point in time is that millions of people are afraid of what's to come. They want to know what to do. They want to be engaged and involved. They want to be part of a peaceful resistance army, with regard to what they expect to happen over the next months or years. And that expectation it is, it seems to me, justified and realistic. The Democrats would be wise to take advantage of this upsurge in public concern, and this desire to be directly involved."

The problem for our local Democrats is when you've been this bad for this long, even Santa Claus isn't returning your calls.

But look, they're already hard at work mobilizing, energizing and educating the base!

"If we start to address segregationist policies, we may have some hope of creating fairness."

Read about Louisville's 9th Street divide.

Just one of those periodic reminders to those of you who insist on believing the playing field is level.

America’s history of separate lives is a root cause, by Natalie Y. Moore (The Guardian)

Nobody chooses to live in segregated districts, they were created by a rigged system that still operates

 ... Many of our cities are defined by entrenched residential segregation that created black ghettos and continues to perpetuate inequity. This was not by accident. In the 20th century, the government created housing policies that discriminated against black people and favoured white people in terms of wealth building. Despite the idea of “separate but equal” being struck down by our courts, the ideology still lingers in housing and public education. This isn’t about hokey ideas of harmony, of black and white people smiling and getting along just for the sake of getting along. Instead, if we start to address segregationist policies, we may have some hope of creating fairness.

Clever traps set for pedestrians at 4th and Elm. The idea is to convince them to drive instead.

The Green Mouse received a message: "Check out the death traps on the northwest corner of 4th and Elm."

You mean these two holes?

The lawyers call this "premises liability," but of course it's a sidewalk, not a street -- people too poor to have cars insist on walking, and taxpayers are the ones in automobiles -- and so the city doesn't care.

Here's the Board of Public Works and Safety dialogue, recreated every Tuesday morning.

Utility Contractor: We have to tear up a bunch of shit. 

Warren Nash: Will it affect traffic?

Utility Contractor: No -- we'll dump the shit we tear up, right there on the sidewalk.

Warren Nash: What's the board's pleas ... whatever -- APPROVED.

It's not in the water, folks. It's in the institutional DNA of a dysfunctional city.