Good morning! Here are some of the stories we’re reading this am…

“Have we learned nothing?” –> At The Guardian, Steven Thrasher writes of Saturday’s murder of two NYPD officers that nobody should have to live with the constant threat of violence. AND: The Daily Beast’s Mike Tomasky looks at a “vile” war that the NYPD union is waging on the de Blasio administration.

The Dixie party –> Now that Republicans have consolidated their hold on the deep South, officials in five Southern states are trying to put together a “Southern Super Tuesday” early on in the Republican presidential primaries. James Hohmann reports for Politico that some party strategists worry that “the deep-red complexion of the Southern states’ primary electorates would empower a candidate who can’t win in general election battlegrounds like Ohio and Colorado.” AND: At Rolling Stone, Matt Taibbi says that tea partiers are right to be wary of Jeb Bush, who is “literally the biological spawn of the political establishment.”

“The president said surprisingly smart things…” –> Ben Adler writes at Grist that all signs suggest that the Obama administration is going to reject the Keystone XL pipeline.

The poor rich –> At Salon, David Sirota looks at what he says is a “uniquely American” phenomenon: “The tendency of extraordinarily rich people to cast themselves as everyday members of the middle class.”

Dystopia –> TNR’s Rebecca Leber considers what the world may look like by the end of this century if humanity can’t or won’t tackle global warming.

“My rubles are losing their value every day” –> Alec Luhn reports for Politico that, for now at least, Russians are responding to their plunging currency value by going on a massive shopping spree. AND: Paul Krugman writes that neither Vladimir Putin nor our own war hawks have learned that “war makes you poorer and weaker, even if you win.”

“A highly selective appreciation of federalism” –> The Denver Post blasts Republican attorneys general in Nebraska and Oklahoma for filing a lawsuit demanding that the government shut down legal marijuana in Colorado, Washington and Oregon.

Punished for procreating –> Despite assurances that Wal-Mart was reforming its temporary disability policy to address the needs of pregnant workers, Michelle Chen reports for The Nation that the retail giant “continues to alienate, not accommodate, its most vulnerable pregnant workers.”

Flim-flam man –> Terrence McCoy reports for WaPo that a study published in the British Medical Journal found that half of the advice offered by “Dr. Oz,” the TV health advocate, is either wrong, or not based in sound medical science.

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