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Going forward, new shows will post for Thursday at 6PM (CT) broadcast and re-run on Sundays at 1PM and Wednesdays at 11AM.

AUDIO:

TOPICS:

1. Houston officials help homeless population seek shelter amid cold weather;
2. Greg Abbott said to be exploring deal to send Houston water to West Texas;
3. Millions of email users at risk — passwords could be exposed to hackers, experts warn;
4. The 2028 Democratic primary is already underway. But the first real moves are just around the corner.;
5. Trump speaks with Justice Alito amid push to halt criminal sentencing;
6. Trump refuses to rule out use of military force to take control of Greenland and the Panama Canal;
7. NATO’s newest members update their civil preparedness guides for risk of war;

Welcome to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig where we discuss local, state, national, and international stories. 

Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig (@ThinkwingRadio) is now on Wednesdays at 11AM (CT) or Thursdays at 6PM on KPFT 90.1 FM-HD2, Houston’s Community Media. You can also hear the show:

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Except for timely election info, the extensive list of voting resources will now be at the end.

Welcome to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig on KPFT Houston at 90.1-HD2, Galveston 89.5-HD2, and Huntsville at 91.9-HD2. KPFT is Houston’s Community Media. On this show, we discuss local, state, national, and international stories that may have slipped under your radar.

1. Houston officials help homeless population seek shelter amid cold weather; By Kevin Vu | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 5:07 PM Jan 8, 2025 CST/Updated 5:07 PM Jan 8, 2025 CST. TAGS: Houston, Houston Office Of Emergency Management, Homeless Population, Cold Weather Shelter, Houston Police Department’s Homeless Outreach Team (HOT),
   1. Houston officials are continuing efforts this week to provide shelter to the city’s homeless population during the recent cold weather.
   2. … Brian Mason, the director for the city’s Office of Emergency Management, said in a Jan. 8 statement that the Mayor’s Office of Public Safety and Homeland Security has been coordinating with existing facilities to move vulnerable populations indoors.
   3. The Houston Police Department’s Homeless Outreach Team (HOT), in partnership with the Coalition for the Homeless, reached out to individuals this week experiencing homelessness to provide information on available non-city shelters. Blankets and sleeping bags were also distributed to those unwilling to go to a shelter.
   4. Houston Mayor John Whitmire said the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County has also employed a mobile warming center across the city.
   5. “To the best of our knowledge, no one that needed a shelter was going without,” he said during the City Council meeting Jan. 8.
   6. As of Jan. 8, city officials have not opened any warming centers. Mason said that is due to the current weather not meeting the threshold that would warrant the city to open warming shelters—24 degrees, or 15 degrees with windchill, for at least two hours or more.
   7. Despite this, Mason said there are nonprofit and non-government active shelters that Houstonians are welcome to use to warm up during business hours.
   8. These facilities include:
   9. The Beacon John S. Dunn Outreach Center, Located at 1212 Prairie St., Houston | 713-220-9737 | org/gethelp …
   10. Star of Hope Men’s Development Center, Located at 1811 Ruiz St., Houston | 713-226-5414 | org … Note: Men only. …
   11. Salvation Army Center of Hope, Located at 1717 Congress St., Houston | 713-752-0677 | org/. … Note: Men only
   12. Star of Hope – Women and Family Development Center, Located at 2575 Reed Road, Houston | 713-748-0700 | org. … Note: Women and families only
   13. Salvation Army Jones Family Residence, Located at 1603 McGowen St., Houston | 713-650-6530 | org/. … Note: Women and families only
   14. Salvation Army Young Adult Resource Center, Located 1621 McGowen St., Houston | 713-658-9205 | org/. … Note: Drop center for youths (ages 18-24)
   15. Covenant House Texas, Located at 3412 Beulah St., Houston | 713-630-5601 | org. … Note: Emergency center for youth (ages 18-24)
   16. The Harris Center – Bristow Center – Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH), Located at 2627 Caroline St., Houston | 713-970-7000 | theharriscenter.org. … Note: For mental health resources
   17. Additionally, the Office of Emergency Management provided recommendations for Houstonians to stay warm during this cold period: Dress in warm layers to retain body heat, [and] Limit outdoor activities whenever possible to avoid prolonged exposure.
   18. [Check] on family, friends and neighbors, especially older adults, or those with medical conditions.
   19. Be cautious of carbon monoxide poisoning by ensuring proper ventilation when using space heaters and never using stoves, ovens or grills for indoor heating.
   20. MIKE: For the purpose of reading on this show, I’ve edited out a lot of information applying to each shelter such as intake times, limited capacities, and services available at individual shelters.
   21. MIKE: If you or someone you know might be in need of these shelters or services, I encourage you to check out the full article which I’ve linked to, and to pass the information on.
2. Greg Abbott said to be exploring deal to send Houston water to West Texas; By Benjamin Wermund, Abby Church, Staff writers | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM | Jan 8, 2025. TAGS: Gov. Greg Abbott, West Texas, Mayor John Whitmire, Houston, Water,
   1. Greg Abbott is said to be exploring a plan to buy water from Houston and [sending] it to West Texas — a potentially contentious idea that comes as he has teased “totally transformative” measures in the upcoming legislative session aimed at keeping the state from going dry. 
   2. Mayor John Whitmire told the Houston Chronicle that the governor called him to discuss the state purchasing “excess” water from the city — an idea Whitmire said he is open to if it means Houston can get much-needed infrastructure funding. …
   3. Conversations between the city and state began sometime in the fall, said Greg Eyerly, director of Houston Water. Houston produces 183 billion gallons annually and supplies it to millions of Southeast Texas residents, as well as infrastructure critical to the state like the ship channel and refineries.  
   4. Communities and businesses that operate in the Permian Basin have been clamoring for access to more water as their aquifers run low after decades of largely unrestricted drilling. And data centers for AI and cryptocurrency that are cropping up around the state need vast supplies of water to cool their servers.
   5. But the idea of moving water across the state has long faced pushback from some state lawmakers, including advocates in East Texas who worry about draining the region’s lakes and reservoirs. And according to a recent State Water Plan, the 15-county region that includes Houston could face a water shortage for municipal needs by 2030.
   6. The governor’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the conversation. Whitmire did not elaborate on it, and he did not respond to a request for more information about his discussions with the governor. 
   7. In September, Abbott told a gathering of local officials in South Texas — a region facing significant water needs — that “substantial conversations” were already underway with lawmakers about bills that would be “totally transformative” for the state’s water supply. 
   8. “We’re working on plans to ensure that we will be water plenty way past 2050,” Abbott said, without offering details. “This is going to be a generational-type approach to comprehensive water development across the state.”
   9. A report filed last month by a state Senate committee said the chamber “must act to address water supply shortages soon in order to avert serious consequences.”
   10. Whitmire said the city could build new reservoirs to hold water it sells to the state, and in exchange, the city could receive funding to help shore up its crumbling infrastructure. Houston needs about $15 billion in estimated water fixes alone, Eyerly said – some of which the city is obligated under an agreement with the federal government to complete. Houston has lost 36 billion gallons of water due to leaky pipes in the past two years – enough to supply the 900,000-person city of Fort Worth with water for a year. 
   11. Local leaders have long cited a need for repairs to the Houston water system, namely pipes and the rebuilding of an entirely new East Water Purification Plant, which supplies 65% to 70% of city residents with water.
   12. Local officials could try to use the water infrastructure demands as a bargaining chip with Abbott.
   13. Josh Sanders, Whitmire’s head of intergovernmental affairs, said the administration is still determining what the city needs for its water infrastructure. Projects like pipe replacement, new pump stations that treat water for the ship channel and for chemical plants on the southeast side, and emergency water for the Texas Medical Center could all be on the table.
   14. The potential deal doesn’t come without worries from area water advocacy groups like West Street Recovery, which works on disaster relief. Ben Hirsch, the group’s co-director of organization, research and development, said the public needs to be engaged in any potential decision. …
   15. The state could also try to seize the water if the city doesn’t cooperate – though it hasn’t had luck with that approach previously. In 2019, lawmakers passed a bill forcing Houston to sell its rights to water in a proposed Allens Creek Reservoir for $23 million. 
   16. Then-Mayor Sylvester Turner blasted the move as a gift for the oil and gas industry at the city’s expense. The Brazos River Authority, a state agency that owned most of the rights to the reservoir to which the law would have forced the city to sell its share, said at the time that petrochemical plants downriver were foregoing expansions because of a lack of water. 
   17. A court blocked the law later that year, but the city eventually sold the water rights anyway. The Brazos River Authority is moving forward with building the Allens Creek Reservoir, but construction won’t begin for another decade.
   18. Turner told the Chronicle he never had conversations with Abbott about selling water to West Texas during his time as Houston mayor.
   19. Charles Perry, a Republican from Lubbock who has long pushed for more state investment in water infrastructure, said he plans to introduce a bill in the coming weeks that would dedicate state dollars to new supply projects like marine desalination. Rather than leaving water funding to local jurisdictions, Perry said, lawmakers need to “move to a statewide infrastructure conversation, just like we do roads and bridges.”
   20. But it’s still unclear whether Houston has the water to spare. While the city may have plenty of water, Perry questioned whether the region has enough to supply other parts of the state. Parts of Harris County and surrounding counties already face water shortages, he said. 
   21. Perry, however, said Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have both asked whether work could be done to collect flood water from the San Jacinto River and other waterways that could be sent to other parts of the state. 
   22. “The conversation early on was, ‘Can we help the flooding in Houston by diverting this water and creating a new supply?’ And I’ve said absolutely, and always have said that,” Perry said. 
   23. If Houston were to show that it does have plenty of excess water, Perry said, the state should consider it. 
   24. “The existing water supply systems that have been identified, it doesn’t say, Houston,” he said. “If Houston wants to send water, and they have water, and the science dictates that they can give it up — but I would be surprised. Houston proper is in pretty good shape. But outside of Houston, there’s areas where those aquifers are going dry.”
   25. MIKE: I think that the knee-jerk reaction from Houstonians would be that the State could have our water when they pry it from our dead, dry hands. But when considered analytically, there are things to consider here.
   26. MIKE: According to a Chronicle article from Aug. 2024, over a span of about 17 months, Houston lost about 36 Billion gallons of water due to leaky pipes. That’s enough, the article claimed, to supply a city of 900,000 people for a year.
   27. MIKE: Aside from the appalling waste, there are other downsides to this leakage. For example, soggy soil endangers other infrastructure such as roads, by increasing expansion and contraction of the soil, thus causing premature road damage and failure. This same process further endangers the city’s water infrastructure by this same process of shifting soil based on how much water leaks around the pipes.
   28. MIKE: As the story points out, “Not only does water loss mean increased operating costs, but it could also lead to … system reliability, unplanned outages, and lower water pressures…”
   29. MIKE: As any homeowner knows, soil heaving caused by changes in water content in the soil can cause serious foundation damage that can have very expensive consequences.
   30. MIKE: Most of Texas is semi-arid or even desert. So, if the State of Texas wants to buy water from Houston, there are conditions that could make this a net benefit to both the city and the state.
   31. MIKE: First, if the State would finance Houston’s much needed replacement of leaky water infrastructure, most of the water saved could be sent to dry areas of Texas. This would not only benefit west and south Texas, but would also make Houston’s water supply more reliable. This would have the side benefit of protecting other infrastructures that alternately soggy and dry soil now damages.
   32. MIKE: Another aspect of this discussion would require the State to develop massive water transportation infrastructure to move water from the Houston area to other parts of Texas.
   33. MIKE: Now imagine a scenario where there are major rain storms or a hurricane in east and southeast Texas. The water shed begins to swell and all that water runs downstream toward the Gulf until the various water authorities have to release it further downstream to protect water control infrastructure, regardless of the damage that water will cause.
   34. MIKE: Now imagine a scenario where that water can be diverted away from the dams and inhabited areas so that instead of causing loss of life and property, it can be sent to areas where it’s really needed and wanted.
   35. MIKE: For as least 30 years, I have periodically mentioned the idea of creating a national flood control and transportation system that could help to alleviate disastrous flooding by moving unwanted flood waters to areas that need that water desperately. At various times, I’ve mentioned that idea on this show. I’ve also spoken to a couple of experts and even once to Sheila Jackson Lee.
   36. MIKE: Because of the costs and politics, as well as what some saw as the necessity and practicality of the idea, it’s never been taken seriously.
   37. MIKE: My argument has been that the savings realized from lower flood insurance costs, reductions in damage to private and public property from flooding, and other advantages, it’s an idea long past due.
   38. MIKE: As a comparison, consider the US Interstate Highway System created by the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 , and now sometimes referred to as the Dwight D. Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defense Highways.
   39. MIKE: A similar highway system had been proposed at least as far back as 1938 during the Roosevelt administration both to fill a prospective national transportation need and also to create necessary jobs.
   40. MIKE: Now, in an era of climate change that will make weather both harsher and less predictable, perhaps the idea of a national flood control and water transportation system will be seen as less ridiculous and more inevitable.
   41. MIKE: Texas could lead the way.
   42. MIKE: Portions of the system can work by gravity, perhaps even generating power as it flows. Other portions will need pumping stations to transport water uphill.
   43. MIKE: The technology to accomplish all this is not new or fancy. It simply needs to be justified by cost-benefit analyses.
   44. MIKE: So maybe instead of resisting Abbott’s idea based on politics or old habits of thought, we should look at the potential of this notion as part of a bigger idea that could have statewide and even national implications that could benefit everybody in one way or another.
   45. MIKE: I’ve included three reference links below this story’s blog post that anyone wanting further information might find interesting.
   46. REFERENCE: Houston lost 36 billion gallons of water from leaky pipes since 2023. That’s enough to supply an entire city — HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM | AUG. 30, 2024
   47. REFERENCE: Houston needs $4.93 billion for water repairs. Will Texas lawmakers help pay the bill? — HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM | AUG. 27, 2024
   48. REFERENCE: Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956: Creating The Interstate System — HIGHWAYS.DOT.GOV
3. Millions of email users at risk — passwords could be exposed to hackers, experts warn; By Alyse Stanley | TOMSGUIDE.COM | Published 2025-01-04. TAGS: Shadowserver Foundation, POP3 (Post Office Protocol version 3), IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol), TLS (Transport Layer Security, Email Security, Mail Servers,
   1. MIKE: For most of you, I think that this paragraph buried at the bottom of the story will be of the most important: “The organization advised all email users to check with their email service provider to be sure that TLS is enabled and the latest version of the protocol is being used. Thankfully, the latest versions of Apple, Google, Microsoft and Mozilla email platforms all enable TLS, so users there can rest assured that their information is already safeguarded.”
   2. MIKE: Now, continuing from the top …
   3. New research from security experts has revealed over 3 million mail servers are still using an aging protocol without encryption enabled, leaving millions of usernames and passwords vulnerable to hackers.
   4. This week the Shadowserver Foundation, a nonprofit security organization, pushed out an alert on X and that it found 3.3 million POP3 and IMAP servers are operating without transport layer security (TLS) encryption enabled. To translate, POP3 (Post Office Protocol version 3) is an aging protocol used by email clients to access emails from a mail server, and it’s often used alongside the newer protocol IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol). TLS encryption, meanwhile, is a protocol that encrypts the communication between web applications and servers, preventing hackers from intercepting potentially sensitive information while you’re chatting or checking your email.
   5. Without TLS encryption enabled during transmission, both the contents of your messages and your log-in credentials like username and password are sent in plain text, leaving that information out there for any bad actor to come across using eavesdropping networks.
   6. “We have started notifying about hosts running POP3/IMAP services without TLS enabled, meaning usernames/passwords are not encrypted when transmitted,” the ShadowServer Foundation said.
   7. Almost 900,000 of these sites are based in the U.S., with another 560,000 and 380,000 in Germany and Poland respectively, the organization found, adding: “We see around 3.3M such cases with POP3 & a similar amount with IMAP (most overlap). It’s time to retire those!” You can check out vulnerability reports for both POP3 email servers and IMAP email hosts on the Shadowserver Foundation site.
   8. How to stay safe amid threats of email password exposure
   9. Email service providers have been using TLS to encrypt messages for decades, and Microsoft began enabling the latest version, TLS 1.3, by default with Windows 11. Though the Shadowserver Foundation warned that “regardless of whether TLS is enabled or not, service exposure may enable password-guessing attacks against the server.” …
   10. … As for general online security tips, it’s always a good idea to make sure you’re using the best antivirus software to protect your PC, the best Mac antivirus software to protect your Mac and one of the best Android antivirus apps to protect your Android phone.
   11. MIKE: About that last sentence, it’s interesting that iPhone is omitted from security software.
   12. MIKE: The last I heard, iPhones are not particularly susceptible to malware like viruses and trojans, but that doesn’t mean they’re totally immune to activity from bad actors.
   13. MIKE: Nonetheless, as I understand it, the best way to protect your iPhone from threats is simply to reboot it periodically. At least once a day might be ideal.
   14. MIKE: The reason is that while the iPhone iOS isn’t particularly vulnerable to most malware, any malware it’s exposed to it tends to go into working memory rather than long-term storage.
   15. MIKE: For that reason, rebooting your iPhone clears out current working memory and boots fresh. That protects you from most malware that isn’t highly sophisticated like that sometimes used by state-sponsored actors.
   16. MIKE: The article also provides links for those who want more information on this topic.
   17. MIKE: If anyone has further advice on this score, I invite you to comment at the blog post for this show, or contact me at ThinkwingRadio(at)msn.com.
4. You may think you’ve had enough election news for a couple of years, but for potential Democratic candidates, it’s never too soon. And of course, there is the issue of whether there might be light at the end of the very dark tunnel we’ll soon be entering. The following story is in the format of a round table discussion. I’ve lightly edited the story for length and added my own thoughts after each set of responses. — The 2028 Democratic primary is already underway. But the first real moves are just around the corner.; [POLITICO’s] reporters look ahead to the 2028 primary, and how the next year will set the stage. By POLITICO Staff | POLITICO.COM | 12/27/2024 @ 05:00 AM EST. TAGS: Hillary Clinton, DNC, Democrats, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, Donald Trump 2024, Kamala Harris, JB Pritzker, Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders 2020, Pete Buttigieg 2020, Gretchen Whitmer, Andy Beshear, Women and Politics,
   1. Kamala Harris is weighing whether to run for president again, and some Democrats seem open to the idea.
   2. But she’s hardly likely to clear the field next time. Potential rivals on Democrats’ deep bench were already beginning to maneuver for 2028 during her short-lived second candidacy. And it’s widely expected that the earliest stages of the party’s next primary will start to pick up not long after Donald Trump’s inauguration next month.
   3. With 2024 drawing to a close, we pulled together five of our plugged-in politics reporters to talk about Harris’ political future, how the rest of the party’s most ambitious pols are positioning themselves and how Democrats’ post-election reckoning will reverberate into 2028.
   4. MIKE: The POLITICO analysts are Christopher Cadelago (California bureau chief); Lisa Kashinsky (National political reporter); Holly Otterbein (National political reporter); Elena Schneider (National political reporter); and Adam Wren (National political correspondent).
   5. David Siders [comments]: Let’s start with the vice president. What’s her calculation, what’s her timing like, and if she does run, does she freeze out the other ambitious Californian, Gavin Newsom?
   6. Christopher Cadelago [says]: Harris needs to decide not what people think she should do — but what she herself really wants to do when she leaves office on Jan. 20. As we’ve reported, she has as close to a clear path to become California governor as anyone in recent memory. But if she runs for that office in 2026, it will send an unmistakable signal that she’s exceedingly unlikely to compete for president in 2028 given the timing of that primary.
   7. Holly Otterbein [says]: Despite her defeat, people close to Harris believe she ran a strong presidential campaign and isn’t like typical losing candidates who are more unpopular at the end of their bids than the beginning. As for her timing, they think that she doesn’t need to make a decision about her future ASAP. But the calendar is what it is, which means she likely needs to figure out if she’s running for governor in 2026 by sometime around the middle of next year. …
   8. MIKE: It’s unusual for losing presidential candidates to run a second time for president, let alone win. The closest analogy to Kamala Harris in modern history is Richard Nixon. Nixon was a sitting vice president who ran for president in 1960 and lost. He then ran for governor of California in 1962 and lost. Nixon then ran again for president in 1968 and won.
   9. MIKE: With Nixon’s experience being so similar to the possible scenario Harris now faces, I’m sure Harris and her people are looking at the Nixon experience and wondering if past is prologue.
   10. Siders [comments]: … Who’s emerging early as a contender, and what moves are they making?
   11. Elena Schneider [says]: I’ll start by saying that I never would’ve predicted in January 2019 that I’d be covering the mayor of South Bend’s romp through Iowa one year later. … But for those I’m keeping an eye on, I’d be watching folks who did not come up through the traditional party ranks, who maintain a voice that hasn’t been shaved down by consultants. Think Wes Moore, who worked in TV and business before he became the governor of Maryland, or Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, who serves as a pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.
   12. Adam Wren [says]: Speaking of the former mayor of South Bend. … The outgoing transportation secretary. In some ways, he has emerged from the election among the best positioned for 2028. His fundraising network is very much intact. He raised more money for Harris-Walz — $16 million — than even [Gavin] Newsom. He lives in the battleground state of Michigan this time around — not Indiana — and he’s agile on the podcast circuit. Easy to see him doing Joe Rogan’s show. But he might not run: He’s very clearly eyeing running for governor, too. He has frequently said since the election that Democrats’ salvation in the coming years will come at the local and state level.
   13. Otterbein [says]: The 2028 presidential primary began years ago …, and the potential candidates have been making moves for a long time: Moore, Warnock, Shapiro, Whitmer, Pritzker, Pete Buttigieg, Andy Beshear, Cory Booker, Jared Polis, Ro Khanna, John Fetterman, Amy Klobuchar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez … it’s a long list. [T]he 2028 primary is poised to be a big, unruly field.
   14. Lisa Kashinsky [says]: Not to keep beating the New Hampshire drum, but look at every Democrat who came through the state this year. … Newsom, Buttigieg, Khanna, Booker, Beshear, Klobuchar and Fetterman. Heck, even Sen. Michael Bennet swung through. That’s a pretty big list of 2020 also-rans and future hopefuls, all getting facetime with this early primary state’s biggest Democratic activists, years in advance. That’s not to even mention everyone who spoke at the state’s delegation breakfasts at the DNC. Who sponsored those, by the way? None other than New Hampshire frequent-flier Khanna.
   15. Otterbein [says]: The moves that some of these potential candidates have made since Trump’s win have been telling: On one end of the spectrum, you have Newsom positioning himself as the leader of Resistance 2.0 and calling for a special legislative session to “Trump-proof” California. On the other end, you have Fetterman, who has joined the Trump social media site Truth Social, met with some Trump Cabinet nominees, and called for a Trump pardon — essentially positioning himself as the future Dem presidential candidate who could win over some MAGA voters.
   16. Cadelago [says]: … Democratic governors in particular are in an interesting spot given their reliance on Trump to come through for their states with funding rather than shun them over political vendettas. While there’s plenty of political incentive for them to stand up to Trump, some likely 2028 candidates also hail from states with lots of voters who were drawn to Trump’s most populist appeals. Even Newsom after calling for the special session has said outright he’s not trying to stymie Trump so much as stand up for his own state. That could narrow their opportunities to stand out in the likely crowded field and give others — senators, perhaps — more leeway to make moves, especially early on.
   17. MIKE: Pete Buttigieg is now only 42 years old. The next governor’s race in Michigan is in 2026. If Buttigieg decided to run for governor of Michigan that year, and if he wins, he could serve a 4-year term, possibly run and win again, and still be able to run for president in 2032 at the age of 50 or in 2036 at the age or 54. Basically, Buttigieg is so young that he has lots of political options looking far into the future.
   18. MIKE: My personal opinion is that current California governor Gavin Newsom will be the one to beat. Newsom and Buttigieg are both incredibly smart and articulate speakers, but I think that Newsom currently has a built-in constituency of Democrats eager to vote for him. Fetterman is an interesting character. Making nice with Trump may help him with Pennsylvania voters, and maybe with some Republicans and swing voters, but I think he will have alienated many Democrats from voting for him in the primaries.
   19. MIKE: There are a raft of other currently prominent Democrats who may run in 2028, and there may be some that will suddenly become prominent as the process develops, but there are too many for me to discuss individually here.
   20. Siders [comments]: Let’s talk about that. What are the best opportunities — and pitfalls — for Democrats looking to stand out next year and separate themselves from the pack?
   21. Wren [says]: What strikes me about what Chris noted about Newsom and [what] Holly noted about Fetterman is there is no party-wide post-election consensus on what the message should be. Both of their responses are divergent, though of course they have different electoral roles. Now, even in the DNC race, the party seems focused more on small bore tactics than any existential searching for what went wrong.
   22. Kashinsky [says]: This is where the dynamics among Democratic governors get really interesting. You have some of those who were in during Trump’s first term — Newsom, Pritzker — resuming their roles as foils for his second [term] to varying degrees because that helped elevate their profiles the last time. You have others, like Whitmer, in a battleground state Trump won, pledging to find ways to work with him. And then you have newer governors — Shapiro, Moore — who have been pretty quiet so far. That’s for two reasons: First, because outright Trump-bashing is no longer en vogue, and second, because they need to build up their governing records if they’re going to position themselves to run, and they’re going to need federal funding and other aid from the Trump administration to do it.
   23. Schneider [says]: I’m fascinated not only by how they try to stand out, but where these Democrats will make their case. The 2020 primary … [will be] lived on MSNBC and CNN. Who got the Rachel Maddow interview? Who appeared most frequently on Morning Joe? Who went viral from their CNN town hall? We all know viewership for cable news has taken a hit, so where do these Democrats go to take their case? Will it be on a podcast, or a YouTube show? Whoever figures that out — where Democratic voters live now in the media ecosystem and how to connect with them — will ultimately be more important than what’s on a candidate’s resume.
   24. Cadelago [says]: There’s lots of opportunities to punch back at Trump, particularly from a values standpoint. Almost every day after he takes office, Trump will do things that are deeply unpopular with the Democratic base. If you’re a governor in a state where Trump is building staging grounds to deport people [that are] here illegally — even if he starts with convicted felons — the line from Democrats is going to be, well, who’s to say he’s going to stop here? Democrats writ large oppose separating families. There are so many other issues — from health care to climate — where there will be opportunities to call Trump out and make headlines.
   25. Then [says Cadelago], there are the moves they are making that get far less attention, such as building out the apparatus it takes to run. Besides Harris and to a smaller degree Booker or Klobuchar, only Buttigieg has proven he could build a network combining big donors and small-dollar supporters to raise significant money. Newsom has spent years now growing his email list and raised more than $20 million for Democrats in 2024. Pritzker has immense wealth of his own, but he’s also worked as an operator to bring the DNC to Chicago, and help seed a number of ballot measures on abortion in states outside Illinois. These are important factors in proving they have what it takes to build the kind of operation one needs to be successful in a primary.
   26. Otterbein [says] I know this sounds a little nuts given that she just lost all the swing states and the popular vote, but I’m curious whether one potential challenge Democratic 2028-ers will have to deal with is the Harris factor. She is in a better position in the polls today than Biden was in 2016. She’s leading her next-best 2028 opponent by 30-plus percentage points. Harris is not ruling out another presidential run. And across the party, many Dems are saying (publicly, at least) that she ran a great campaign. How do the other potential candidates navigate that? Do they or their allies try to force a more candid conversation about why she lost, in order to make room for themselves?
   27. MIKE: As I mentioned earlier, it’s rare for a losing presidential candidate to run again, let alone win. Nixon is one example of a loser who subsequently won. But Adlai Stevenson ran against Dwight Eisenhower twice and lost both times. Then you have Grover Cleveland who ran once and won, ran again for a second term and lost, but then ran a third time for president and won his second term, so history doesn’t really give us any hard and fast outcomes to judge by. It’s a crap shoot either way.
   28. Siders [comments]: How about ideologically? We’ve seen some Democrats hewing more to the right — some even embracing some of Trump’s populist proposals. Is that something that’s going to stick, or will the primary pull them back to the left?
   29. Wren [says]: … [Q]uestions about what mediums will play out in 2028 are interesting. The party always fights the last war. But podcasts and the way they dominated the cycle don’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.
   30. Cadelago [says]: [O]ne potential issue for Harris is the calendar. Sure, she could dominate in the first primary state of South Carolina, if it’s still held there, but if that’s what everyone is expecting, that win won’t have the same impact if she can’t carry her momentum into the next few states. New Hampshire, where she didn’t even compete in 2019, would be a big one for her.
   31. Schneider [says]: Democrats obviously took notice that Republicans used Harris’ comments on transgender issues during the 2020 primary against her in 2024. Looking ahead, I think there’s going to be a lot more wariness about filling out these “issue surveys” from various groups, where some of these purity tests tied up the 2020 contenders. At the same time, I could also see a lane opening up, as the party hews more to the center, for someone to unapologetically lean into a more liberal pitch. There are definitely voters who don’t want Democrats to apologize for their stances on social issues, and if there’s an enormous primary field, [so] someone could definitely take that lane successfully.
   32. Cadelago [says]: At the end of the day, this is still a Democratic primary, and Democrats will not score many points simply by agreeing with Trump. I think by 2027, you’ll be far more likely to hear Democrats praising Biden and his record than trying to cozy up to the Republican president.
   33. Wren [says]: I don’t see a traditional right-left valence being a relevant category in 2028. Trump reimagined what it means to be a Republican in a way Democrats now need to reimagine what it means to be a Democrat. Down-ballot figures like Rep. Pat Ryan and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez outperformed the top of the ticket, and defied conventional party messaging.
   34. Kashinsky [says]: We’re seeing in the fallout from this election a recognition among Democrats that the party needs to figure out how to reconnect with everyday Americans — and that broad [swaths] of the electorate appear more interested in a candidate who talks about pocketbook issues than ideological ones. But old habits are hard to break, and the question is whether anyone follows through on lessons learned by the time the next primary starts ramping up.
   35. Otterbein [says]: After 2016, a lot of the party thought the answer to Trump was to move to the left. There was a view that Clinton lost because she didn’t motivate the base. Bernie Sanders was enormously powerful, and many 2020 Democratic hopefuls quickly signed onto his Medicare-for-All bill. Sanders’ ally, Keith Ellison, ran for DNC chair and came close to winning. In fact, it was in this world where Harris made some of the controversial super-liberal comments that came back to bite her in 2024 (like the ones on transgender issues …).
   36. The immediate response to Trump’s second victory has been different. Many DNC members are saying they want a return to the center. The Sanders movement is diminished. DNC chair candidates are running to change tactics, not make huge ideological shifts. But a lot could change in four years. Just think of how quickly the news cycle has moved in the last 48 hours alone. …
   37. MIKE: I have nothing to add to these comments.
   38. Siders [comments]: OK, outside of ideology, there has been a robust discussion following the election about the role that gender played in the campaign, with a lot of Democrats arguing sexism was at work in the result. What implications, if any, does that have for women considering running in 2028?
   39. Otterbein [says]: After Trump beat Clinton in 2016, I think all of us met Democratic voters in Iowa and New Hampshire (many of them women) who said they were reluctant to nominate a woman again in 2020 because they worried such a candidate couldn’t win. After Harris lost, I can’t imagine that women contenders won’t face those same fears again in 2028.
   40. Cadelago [says]: A lot of this will depend on the mood of the Democratic electorate in 2027 and whether, like in 2019, voters tend to prioritize “electability” over everything else, as they ultimately did with Biden. After Harris in 2024 and Clinton in 2016, doubts about whether a woman can win a general election, at least in my early conversations with party officials and operatives, have only grown rather than subsided. I’ve even had several Democrats speculate that the first woman president is more likely to be a conservative Republican, at this point. That said, the two Democratic women of late have come pretty darn close, and I don’t see it dissuading anyone from running. If they have a compelling message and can prove themselves in the anticipated large field, that can go far in quieting the doubts in the back of some voters’ minds.
   41. Schneider [says]: Strongly agree with Holly [Otterbein] That feeling was very explicit among Democratic party leaders and strategists in the immediate aftermath of Harris’ loss. I don’t see how women who run in 2028 won’t face the same “electability” questions, which was the euphemistic way of saying, “how can a woman win,” that the women candidates faced in 2024.
   42. Kashinsky [says]: There’s an argument to make that Harris and Clinton were flawed candidates — and/or that their campaigns were felled by factors beyond their control. But I agree that won’t quell the electability questions (no matter how much of a fan some New Hampshire voters already are of Whitmer, for instance).
   43. Otterbein [says]: And it seems telling, in some respects, that the DNC chair field right now is four white men.
   44. Wren [says]: I agree with Lisa that these two candidates were uniquely flawed. Let’s not forget Harris dropped out before other candidates in her own, much longer presidential bid in 2020. Still, this year’s loss doesn’t help the cause. More broadly, though, it’s unclear whether a candidate will ever prosecute candidates’ gender with the blunt force Trump did in 2016 or 2020.
   45. Cadelago [says]: It does make me wonder — now that it’s happened twice — if the argument for a woman will include the fact that both Harris and Clinton lost to Trump, who won’t be on the ballot in 2028.
   46. MIKE: My view is that after this next four years of Trump, “electability” will be the Number One consideration for most Democratic primary voters. If it becomes a coin flip between a man and a woman as the primary leaders, I think Democrats will pick the man. If it comes down to a tossup between a white person and person of color, I think it will be the white person.
   47. MIKE: The calculation here will be interesting, because it’s not to say that Democratic primary voters are more likely to be racists or misogynists, but that at least some Democratic primary voters will assume that Republicans and some swing voters in a general election are more likely to be racists or misogynists.
   48. MIKE: I think that will make the Democratic primaries very challenging and unpredictable.
5. Trump speaks with Justice Alito amid push to halt criminal sentencing; Alito spoke to Trump to recommend an ex-clerk for a job in his administration. By Katherine Faulders, Jonathan Karl, and Devin Dwyer | ABCNEWS.GO.COM | January 8, 2025, 4:39 PM. TAGS: President-elect Trump, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, William Levi,
   1. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito spoke to President-elect Donald Trump by phone Tuesday to recommend one of his former law clerks for a job in the new administration, ABC News has learned.
   2. [Justice Alito confirmed to ABC News Wednesday that,] “William Levi, one of my former law clerks, asked me to take a call from President-elect Trump regarding his qualifications to serve in a government position. I agreed to discuss this matter with President-elect Trump, and he called me yesterday afternoon.”
   3. The call occurred just hours before Trump’s lawyers on Wednesday morning filed an emergency request with the justices asking them to block a New York judge from moving forward with sentencing Trump on Friday in his criminal hush money case.
   4. Alito said that he and Trump did not discuss that matter.
   5. [Alito said,] “We did not discuss the emergency application he filed today, and indeed, I was not even aware at the time of our conversation that such an application would be filed. We also did not discuss any other matter that is pending or might in the future come before the Supreme Court or any past Supreme Court decisions involving the President-elect.”
   6. It is not unusual for a sitting justice to offer a job recommendation for a former clerk, but it is rare, court analysts said, for a justice to have such a conversation directly with a sitting president or president-elect, especially one with an active stake in business pending before the court.
   7. Late last month, Trump waded into a momentous case over the future of the video-sharing app TikTok, asking the justices to delay an impending ban on the extraordinary grounds that he “alone possesses the consummate dealmaking expertise, the electoral mandate, and the political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform while addressing the national security concerns expressed by the Government.”
   8. On Wednesday, Trump asked the justices to immediately halt all criminal proceedings against him in New York, including Friday’s sentencing, warning that failing to do so during a presidential transition would “damage” the presidency and disrupt “national security and America’s vital interests.”
   9. The Supreme Court has asked for a response from prosecutors in New York by Thursday at 10 a.m. ET. It’s expected to weigh in on Trump’s request by Friday morning.
   10. Levi is being considered for various legal jobs in the incoming administration, including general counsel of the Department of Defense, sources said. Levi, who clerked for Justice Alito from 2011-2012, served in the first Trump administration as chief of staff to then-Attorney General Bill Barr.
   11. [Said ABC News contributor Kate Shaw, who clerked for former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens,] “The justices of the Supreme Court are, among other things, employers to their law clerks. So providing a reference for a former employee is not atypical, whatever job a former clerk may be applying for — an academic job, private sector job, or even a government job.”
   12. But Shaw said such a call between a justice and a president-elect is highly unusual, especially when the president-elect is engaged in multiple legal actions with the potential to go before the Supreme Court.
   13. A spokesperson for Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
   14. Alito has previously faced calls to recuse himself from cases …
   15. Trump is due to be sentenced Friday after he was found guilty in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
   16. The president-elect has asked the Supreme Court to consider whether he is entitled to a stay of the proceedings during his appeal; whether presidential immunity prevents the use of evidence related to official acts; and whether a president-elect is entitled to the same immunity as a sitting president.
   17. Trump faces up to four years in prison, but New York Judge Juan Merchan has signaled that he plans to sentence Trump to an unconditional discharge — effectively a blemish on Trump’s record, without prison, fines or probation — in order to respect Trump’s transition efforts and the principle of presidential immunity.
   18. Defense lawyers argued that sentencing still “raises the specter of other possible restrictions on liberty.”
   19. MIKE: As if the Supreme Court generally and Justice Alito specifically needed any more questions raised about their apolitical status, their impartiality, and their resistance to political and economic influence, this is about as damning as it gets.
   20. MIKE: Alito could have simply offered to write a letter of recommendation rather than create the appearance of impropriety that this phone call represents. But Alito and Thomas and even Chief Justice Roberts have long since passed the point of worrying over appearances of impropriety.
   21. MIKE: This Court is corrupt. It will take years, if not decades, to clean it up and restore anything resembling a reputation for honest and impartial rulings, and that even assumes that the political will by Congress and a president can ever be found.
   22. MIKE: If any Republican ever accuses Ukraine of being corrupt, I hope they are loudly told to look at the glass house of their own country before casting stones.
6. If King George III was the mad monarch, then I think we can call Trump the felonious preposterous president. From AP News — Trump refuses to rule out use of military force to take control of Greenland and the Panama Canal; By  WILL WEISSERT and ZEKE MILLER | APNEWS.COM | Updated 7:11 PM CST, January 7, 2025. TAGS: Donald Trump, Panama Canal, Panama, Greenland, Denmark, NATO,
   1. President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday said he would not rule out the use of military force to seize control of the Panama Canal and Greenland, as he declared U.S. control of both to be vital to American national security.
   2. Speaking to reporters less than two weeks before he takes office on Jan. 20 and as a delegation of aides and advisers that includes Donald Trump Jr. is in Greenland, Trump left open the use of the American military to secure both territories. Trump’s intention marks a rejection of decades of U.S. policy that has prioritized self-determination over territorial expansion.
   3. “I’m not going to commit to that,” Trump said, when asked if he would rule out the use of the military. “It might be that you’ll have to do something. The Panama Canal is vital to our country.” He added, “We need Greenland for national security purposes.”
   4. Greenland, home to a large U.S. military base, is an autonomous territory of Denmark, a longtime U.S. ally and a founding member of NATO. Trump cast doubts on the legitimacy of Denmark’s claim to Greenland.
   5. The Panama Canal has been solely controlled by [Panama] for more than 25 years. The U.S. returned the Panama Canal Zone to the country in 1979 and ended its joint partnership in controlling the strategic waterway in 1999.
   6. Addressing Trump’s comments in an interview with Danish broadcaster TV2, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called the United States Denmark’s “most important and closest ally,” and that she did not believe that the United States will use military or economic power to secure control over Greenland.
   7. Frederiksen repeated that she welcomed the United States taking a greater interest in the Arctic region, but that it would “have to be done in a way that is respectful of the Greenlandic people,” she said.
   8. “At the same time,’ [Frederiksen said,] “it must be done in a way that allows Denmark and the United States to still cooperate in, among other things, NATO.”
   9. Earlier, Trump posted a video of his private plane landing in Nuuk, the Arctic territory’s capital, in a landscape of snow-capped peaks and fjords.
   10. “Don Jr. and my Reps landing in Greenland,” Trump wrote. “The reception has been great. They, and the Free World, need safety, security, strength, and PEACE! This is a deal that must happen. MAGA. MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!”
   11. In a statement, Greenland’s government said Donald Trump Jr.’s visit was taking place “as a private individual” and not as an official visit, and Greenlandic representatives would not meet with him.
   12. Panamanian Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha said his government hasn’t had formal contact with Trump or representatives of the incoming administration but reiterated previous comments from the country’s president, José Raúl Mulino, who said last month that the canal will remain in Panamanian hands.
   13. [Martínez-Acha said,] “The sovereignty of our canal is not negotiable and is part of our history of struggle and an irreversible conquest.”
   14. Trump, a Republican, has also floated having Canada join the United States as the 51st state. He said Tuesday that he would not use military force to invade the country, which is home to more than 40 million people and is a founding NATO partner.
   15. Instead, he said, he would rely on “economic force” as he cast the U.S. trade deficit with Canada — a natural resource-rich nation that provides the U.S. with commodities like crude oil and petroleum — as a subsidy that would be coming to an end.
   16. Canadian leaders fired back after earlier dismissing Trump’s rhetoric as a joke.
   17. [Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said in a post on X that,] “President-elect Trump’s comments show a complete lack of understanding of what makes Canada a strong country. Our economy is strong. Our people are strong. We will never back down in the face of threats.”
   18. Justin Trudeau, the country’s outgoing prime minister, was even more blunt.
   19. “There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States,” he wrote.
   20. Promising a “Golden age of America,” Trump also said he would move to try to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America,” saying that has a “beautiful ring to it.”
   21. He also said he believes that NATO should dramatically increase its spending targets, with members of the trans-Atlantic alliance committing to spend at least 5% of their GDPs on defense spending, up from the current 2%.
   22. In June, NATO announced a record 23 of its 32 member nations were on track to hit that target as Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine has raised the threat of expanding conflict in Europe.
   23. [MIKE: I assume that statement means that 23 nations will meet or exceed the 2% mark. Continuing …]
   24. Trump also used his press conference to complain that President Joe Biden was undermining his transition to power a day after the incumbent moved to ban offshore energy drilling in most federal waters.
   25. Biden, whose term expires in two weeks, used his authority under the federal Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to protect offshore areas along the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and portions of Alaska’s Northern Bering Sea from future oil and natural gas leasing. All told, about 625 million acres of federal waters were withdrawn from energy exploration by Biden in a move that may require an act of Congress to undo.
   26. “I’m going to put it back on day one,” Trump told reporters. He pledged to take it to the courts “if we need to.”
   27. Trump said Biden’s effort — part of a series of final actions in office by the Democrat’s administration — was undermining his plans for once he’s in office.
   28. “You know, they told me that, we’re going to do everything possible to make this transition to the new administration very smooth,” Trump said. “It’s not smooth.”
   29. But Biden’s team has extended access and courtesies to the Trump team that the Republican former president initially denied Biden after his 2020 election victory. Trump incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles told Axios in an interview published Monday that Biden chief of staff Jeff Zients “has been very helpful.”
   30. In extended remarks, Trump also railed against the work of special counsel Jack Smith, who oversaw now-dropped prosecutions over his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol and possession of classified documents after he left office in 2021. The Justice Department is expected to soon release a report from Smith summarizing his investigation after the criminal cases were forced to an end by Trump’s victory in November.
   31. MIKE: First, let me establish that the rantings by Trump in this story make it hard to see him as anything other than a madman with imperialistic ambitions that sound like they mirror Vladimir Putin’s.
   32. MIKE: Second, I don’t think that there has been a president-elect in living memory — and maybe not in US history — that has started acting like the actual president, and undercutting the actual serving president, in such a way before his inauguration.
   33. MIKE: Trump was elected as a Constitutionally-mandated “lame duck” who cannot run for office again. Or so the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution
   34. MIKE: Instead of seeing this as a political weakness, it appears that Trump is using this lame duck status as an excuse to “go for broke” with insane statements about taking over territory that belongs to other nations.
   35. MIKE: It makes one wish that Congress could or would start impeaching this warmonger on “Day One’, but that’s not going to happen. Now the question is, what will Trump actually be able to do that could irreparably harm the United States long after he has left the scene. And what institutions are there — whether governmental or non-governmental — that will be able to inhibit him?
   36. MIKE: It appears that the next four years will be the most terrifying, hair-raising four years for this country and the world since World War 2.
7. NATO’s newest members update their civil preparedness guides for risk of war; By  JARI TANNER and JAN M. OLSEN | APNEWS.COM | Updated 9:27 AM CST, November 18, 2024. TAGS: Sweden, Finland, NATO, Civil Defense, Russia,
   1. Sweden and Finland, which recently gave up neutrality and joined NATO following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, sent out updated civil preparedness guides on Monday with instructions how to survive in war.
   2. The guides are similar to those in Denmark and Norway, though none mentions Russia by name.
   3. In January, Sweden’s former military commander-in-chief Gen. Micael Bydén said it openly: Swedes should mentally prepare for the possibility of war. Sweden in March formally joined NATO as the 32nd member of the transatlantic military alliance, nearly a year after Finland.
   4. The updated Swedish guide explains how to respond to an attack with nuclear, chemical or biological weapons: “Take cover in the same way as with an airstrike. Shelters provide the best protection. After a couple days, the radiation has decreased sharply.”
   5. [Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin told a press conference last month,] “It is no secret that the security situation has deteriorated since the previous brochure was issued in 2018.” The Swedish Baltic Sea island of Gotland sits a little more than 300 kilometers (186 miles) from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad [MIKE: Which I will note used to be part of eastern German called Königsberg, but which Stalin never disgorged. Continuing …]
   6. In Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometer (832-mile) land border with Russia, the guide is compiled by the government, which has stressed that “preparedness is a civic skill in the current global situation.”
   7. The Nordic countries all urge people to stockpile drinking water, canned food, medicine, heating, toilet paper, money and flashlights and candles. And if possible, keep the car fully refueled.
   8. The checklist also includes iodine tablets, in case of a nuclear event.
   9. MIKE: This story called up a question I’ve occasionally had: If or when the US should really consider rethinking our civil defense posture?
   10. MIKE: During the 1950s and 1960s, with the Soviet Union as a potential nuclear threat, there was some thought and money dedicated to civil defense in terms of shelters or sheltering against an enemy nuclear attack. In some places these shelters were actually stocked with food and supplies, but this was not usual.
   11. MIKE: There was even concern that the robustness of Soviet plans for civil defense enhanced the possibility that the Soviets might feel themselves sufficiently prepared to risk a first strike. Thus, civil defense posture took on strategic aspects.
   12. MIKE: The Nordic nations have always been more proactive in preparing their civilian populations for potential military conflict because of their proximity to Russia, their history with Russia, and the asymmetrical power imbalance between themselves and Russia.
   13. MIKE: By the way, if you’re interested, I did find an English PDF version of the Swedish booklet. You can download it with the link I’m providing in the blog post. This is a good opportunity to consider the policy and human implications of civic preparedness and how it might or might not apply to the United States.
   14. MIKE: While I have a spare minute, after writing my comments for this story, I got to thinking about the defensive problems NATO faces for protecting Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.
   15. MIKE: Before Finland and Sweden joined NATO, defending those countries was a real conundrum. There were many who said that the Baltic nations never should have been admitted to NATO because their geography — pinned between Russia in the east, Belarus in the south, and Russian Kaliningrad to the west — made it exceedingly difficult to reinforce them for anything like an adequate defense. Without cooperation from neutral Sweden and neutral Finland, the best that NATO could hope to accomplish was a holding action to delay Russia until mobilizations for defense could occur further west and south in Germany and Poland.
   16. MIKE: Now it’s a whole different story. The Baltic Sea is effectively a NATO lake. It’s Kaliningrad that appears all but indefensible, pinched between NATO nations Lithuania and Germany. NATO navies could completely cut off Kaliningrad from reinforcement, limiting it to weapons and supplies on hand.
   17. MIKE: What a difference 2 years makes.
   18. REFERENCE: Kaliningrad — From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
   19. REFERENCE: Civil defense in the United States— From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
   20. REFERENCE: — The Day Called ‘X’— From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
   21. REFERENCE: A Day Called X (1957) [VIDEO] — YOUTUBE.COM
   22. REFERENCE: Important Information To All Residents Of Sweden: In Case Of Crisis Or War — MSB.SE
   23. REFERENCE: Kaliningrad, Russia. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

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