Now in our 12th year on KPFT!

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. More than 100 Texans active in the Jan. 6 insurrection among those pardoned;
2. Oil companies leaked less methane in West Texas, a new report says. Environmentalists are skeptical.;
3. UnitedHealth CEO says U.S. health system ‘needs to function better’;
4. Chief justice slams officials who dare question Supreme Court rulings;
5. Fox News headed for trial, again, over 2020 election fraud claims;
6. Canada could cut US energy supply in reply to Trump’s tariffs;
7. Can Trump Rename the Gulf of Mexico With an Executive Order?;
8. Trump Triggers a Crisis in Denmark—And Europe;
9. Did Elon Musk give a Nazi or Roman salute, and what’s the difference?;
10. German ambassador warns [that] Trump will test the US constitutional order, report says;
11. MIKE: AS A FINAL COMMENT

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:

1. Live online at KPFT.org (from anywhere in the world!)
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3. Visiting Archive.KPFT.ORG

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. More than 100 Texans active in the Jan. 6 insurrection among those pardoned; A Texan was the first to breach the Capitol and many others joined the assault. The presidential pardon helps cast all of them as folk heroes. By Robert Downen | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Jan. 21, 2025. TAGS: Courts, Criminal justice, Politics, Donald Trump, Texas,
   1. A far-right militia leader convicted of seditious conspiracy. A U.S. Marine who pepper-sprayed law enforcement. Three men who attacked police with flag poles. A QAnon adherent who graffitied “Murder the Media” on a U.S. Capitol door.
   2. They are among the some-120 Texans charged or convicted for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection who are included in a sweeping pardon issued by President Donald Trump on his first day in his office.
   3. Announced Monday evening, Trump’s directive all but ends a four-year effort by the U.S. Department of Justice to prosecute those involved in the riot, which ultimately resulted in five deaths, injuries to 140 police officers, at least $2.8 million in damage, and roughly 1,575 federal criminal cases. Of those defendants, two-thirds pleaded guilty and roughly 250 were convicted by a judge or jury. Only four defendants were acquitted of all charges, and fourteen had their cases dismissed.
   4. Trump promised on the campaign to support the rioters — “hostages,” as he began to refer to them — and on Monday said his mass pardon “ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people.”
   5. Texans played central roles in the event. In the lead up to Jan. 6, they helped craft the Trump administration’s legal attempts to overturn the election, and spread baseless and debunked election fraud conspiracy theories on the outgoing president’s behalf.
   6. On that January day, Texan-led militias stockpiled guns just outside of Washington, D.C., and carried out the main assault on Congress. A Texan was the first person to breach the Capitol. At least 37 Texans — including many with ties to far-right militias or violent conspiracy theories — were charged for assault or other violent crimes, according to an NPR database. Many others were charged with disorderly conduct, destruction of property, theft, [and/or] conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.
   7. Experts on political violence and extremism fear that Trump’s mass pardon is likely to make folk heroes of figures such as Stewart Rhodes, the Granbury-based leader of the far-right OathKeepers militia sentenced to 18 years in prison for seditious conspiracy. Rhodes has for years argued that he is a “political prisoner” — akin to a Jew living in Nazi Germany. Rhodes was released from prison on Tuesday, as was Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the violent Proud Boys street gang who was serving a 22-year sentence for seditious conspiracy.
   8. [Said Elizabeth Neumann, who served as a senior Department of Homeland Security official for three years under Trump,] “It’s extremely concerning. We just released the leaders of two terrorist organizations. However you want to think about Jan. 6, their role in it was premeditated. It was intended to overthrow the U.S. government, and it was violent. People died. It’s a very sobering thing to realize that, in the name of politics, we have just released violent criminals out onto our streets.”
   9. The mass pardon includes those who used firearms, stun guns, axes, mace, bike racks, fire extinguishers, bear spray, batons, baseball bats and metal whips to attack police officers, storm the Capitol and threaten lawmakers. Texans were among the armed, and many openly celebrated or egged on the violence.
   10. Brian Scott Jackson, of Katy, was sentenced in August to three years in prison after pleading guilty to assault and other charges. The FBI said Jackson speared police officers with a flag pole, and celebrated the violence after leaving Washington. …
   11. Guy Wesley Reffitt, of Wylie, arrived [at] the Capitol with a handgun, body armor, and zip ties, and prosecutors say he told fellow members of the Three Percenters militia that he planned to drag House Speaker Nancy Pelosi out of the building by her ankles, “with her head hitting every step on the way down.” He was the first person tried for his role in the riot, but had his sentence reduced last month to six years and seven months in prison.
   12. At his first trial, Reffitt’s son, Jackson, testified that his father threatened him and his sister, saying that “if you turn me in, you’re a traitor, and traitors get shot.” Jackson Reffitt said Monday that he was stunned by Trump’s decision to pardon his father, who as of Tuesday was no longer listed as in federal prison custody.
   13. [Jackson Reffitt told CNN,] “I’m honestly flabbergasted that we’ve gotten to this point. I’m terrified. …I’ve got a gun, I’ve moved, and I’ve gotten myself away from what I thought would be a dangerous situation, and [from] staying where I thought my dad could find me, or other people that are going to feel so validated by these actions, by this pardon.”
   14. MIKE: Apparently, unjailed felons love company.
   15. MIKE: I don’t think there’s anything I can add to the horror of this story that the author and you listeners haven’t already imagined.
2. Oil companies leaked less methane in West Texas, a new report says. Environmentalists are skeptical.; By Carlos Nogueras Ramos | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Jan. 21, 2025 Updated: 1 hour ago. TAGS: Energy, Environment, Politics, Permian Basin, Climate Change, Global Warming,
   1. Less methane escaped into the atmosphere from certain oil and gas equipment and oil wells in 2023, according to a report released earlier this month by an energy analytics firm that industry leaders promoted.
   2. Environmental experts said more information was needed.
   3. Equipment used to find and produce crude oil, including those that control the pressure and flow of natural gas, pumps and pipes, leaked 25% less methane than in 2022. The report’s findings, published by S&P Global, a New York-based company, also included information on the methane leaking from the 162,000 oil wells, from which emissions also decreased.
   4. The report focused only on the stage of oil production where companies search, drill and draw crude oil, known as upstream.
   5. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere. It is a particle that scientists say is a main culprit in climate change, with 80 times the potency of carbon dioxide. And it is released in remarkable volumes in the Texas oil fields through unintended leaks, and when companies flare or vent gas to relieve gas build-up in the equipment.
   6. Kevin Birn, a vice president at S&P Global that focuses on emissions, said there is no consensus on tracking methane, a colorless and odorless gas, adding that he hopes the report provides a standard.
   7. The report was released ahead of President Donald Trump’s second term. On the campaign trail, Trump promised to relax regulations on oil and gas companies that the Biden administration ratcheted up during the last four years. The report offers evidence that oil and gas companies can reduce methane emissions while still producing a record amount of oil — and profits. …
   8. The report’s findings used data collected by another company, Insight M, which has been tracking methane emissions for operators since 2014. The company flew an aircraft 15,000 feet above the Permian Basin, a part of Texas abundant in oil and natural gas. Sensors on the craft detected plumes collecting in sunbeams bouncing off the ground. If parts of the sunbeams were missing, it meant methane collected there. The company deployed the plane 700 times in 185 days. It flew above operators who produced no less than 200 barrels of oil daily, [thus] accounting for operators producing significant amounts of crude oil and natural gas. [The report’s authors said that] The flyovers accounted for 96% of production in the region …. That includes more than 85% of operators in the region.
   9. Raoul Leblanc, vice president at the firm, said the data collected during those flyovers account for specific sources of emissions, which operators can use to find the equipment that is leaking. He said such information points to a specific process during oil and gas production for emissions that could go undetected.
   10. [MIKE: It’s unclear to me what that last statement actually means. Continuing …]
   11. The report sheds light on the industry’s efforts to pollute the air less. Still, it’s far from a full understanding of how much methane escapes oil field operations, said Jon Goldstein, vice president of energy transition at the Environmental Defense Fund.
   12. Goldstein said emissions under 10 kilograms, which the sensors could not detect, also account for a significant portion of air pollution, even if it is harder to track. He said that, as a result, the conclusions should be taken with a grain of salt. For equipment releasing less than 10 kilograms of methane [per] hour, researchers used wind gauges detecting plumes of methane in the wind. This method provided an estimate of how much methane certain equipment released.
   13. eCompanies and regulators can use multiple instruments to track fugitive emissions or gases that leak, such as satellite, aerial, and vehicle trackers. …
   14. Goldstein said that oil and gas operators could be working to comply with methane reduction regulations set by the federal government in 2024, which the industry supported and contributed [to]. Oil and gas companies can be fined if they breach the amount of methane they are allowed to leak. Texas does not require operators to capture methane emissions in their field operations.
   15. [Goldstein said,] “There’s no consistency. We’re talking about an industry that’s incredibly diverse, hundreds and hundreds of companies in the U.S. alone that are engaged in oil and gas development. Each one may have a different voluntary program (to reduce methane emissions) that they’re implementing with different technologies, and so it’s really hard to have an apples-to-apples comparison.”
   16. Virginia Palacios, executive director of Commission Shift, an oil and gas watchdog group in Texas, said regulatory agencies should be more active in emission reductions. She said that putting [in place] rules that push for monitoring, like satellite and aerial technology, could reduce waste.
   17. Oil and gas companies, Palacios said, shouldn’t wait for the market to decide to reduce methane emissions.
   18. [Palacios said,] “There is still a role for oversight agencies to play in preventing waste and reducing climate-warming emissions when operators lack a financial signal to do so. Regardless of cost-effectiveness, the public is harmed when scarce natural resources are wasted or when methane warms the climate.”
   19. MIKE: It’s certain that the Trump administration will do everything they can to dismantle regulations and financial incentives for controlling methane emissions, because their overarching policy goals amount to disruption and chaos, but it’s still entirely possible that oil and gas companies will not only adhere to current regulations, but also improve on them as they look forward to a next administration’s rules.
3. As you listen to the next story, pay attention to the statements that amount to blame-shifting, and cries of “not my fault!”, and “not it!” — UnitedHealth CEO says U.S. health system ‘needs to function better’; By Rob Wile | NBCNEWS.COM | Jan. 16, 2025, 12:47 PM CST / Updated Jan. 16, 2025, 3:40 PM CST. TAGS: UnitedHealth Group, UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty, Brian Thompson, US Healthcare System,
   1. The CEO of UnitedHealth Group said [last week] that shortcomings of America’s health care system must be addressed.
   2. On the company’s first earnings call since the fatal shooting of UnitedHealth executive Brian Thompson, CEO Andrew Witty said that while the U.S. provides world-leading care in many respects, there are systemic flaws that are working to drive up health costs for people in the country. 
   3. [Witty said,] “The health system needs to function better,” adding that the “variety” of state, federal and private sector structures and programs have created a “confusing,” “complex” and “costly” health care landscape. 
   4. Witty began the call expressing gratitude for the condolences received in the wake of Thompson’s death. …
   5. While past UnitedHealth earnings calls have featured general remarks about the company’s desire to deliver improved outcomes for its customers, Witty’s comments Thursday acknowledged the broader debate about the state of U.S. health care that has emerged in the wake of Thompson’s shooting. 
   6. Witty’s remarks came as United Health reported record 2024 revenues. Shortly before Thompson was killed, its stock price was at an all-time high.
   7. Prior to addressing the company’s financial performance, Witty discussed some of the shortcomings of the profit-driven model of U.S. health care head on.
   8. “Participants in the system,” he said, derive benefit from high health care costs. While lower prices and improved services can be good for consumers and patients, Witty said, they can “threaten revenue streams for organizations that depend on charging more for care.”
   9. Witty did not discuss to what extent UnitedHealth itself was a beneficiary of such circumstances. 
   10. When it comes to drug costs, for example, [Witty] said U.S. health care participants “pay disproportionately more than people in other countries,” citing the cost of the weight loss drug GLP, which he said in Europe costs approximately one-tenth its price in the U.S. 
   11. Witty directly blamed drug companies for discrepancies like those, while stating that UnitedHealth’s pharmacy-benefit managers (PBMs), who help negotiate retail drug prices and who have come under increasing public pressure for their role in setting drug prices, continue to work to pass savings on to customers. 
   12. [Witty said, without elaborating, that] UnitedHealth’s improved PBM performance “will help make more transparent who is really responsible for drug pricing in this country: the drug companies themselves.”
   13. In a statement late Thursday, a representative for PhRMA, which represents drug companies, pushed back on Witty’s assertion.
   14. [Alex Schriver, PhRMA senior vice president of public affairs, said in an email,] “Congress, the FTC, state attorneys general, and others who have looked at this issue have all come to the same conclusion: that PBM abuses are driving up costs.”
   15. [Schriver continued, saying,] “Investigations have exposed big insurer and PBM companies for charging thousands of different prices for the same medicines at the same time. The FTC just released a second report showing the same companies mark-up medicines at their own pharmacies 10 times or more. These big health care conglomerates make billions in profit from controlling what medicines people get, the price they pay and what pharmacy they can use. That’s why there’s unprecedented bipartisan support for holding them accountable.”
   16. For the quarter, UnitedHealth reported worse-than-expected results, sending its shares down more than 4% [last] Thursday.  
   17. “Health care in every country is complex and the solutions are not simple, but you should expect this company to continue to work at it,” Witty stated. 
   18. MIKE: “Obamacare” — the ACA — limits how much profit a healthcare company can take from client premium payments. This cap requires that 80-85% of premiums go toward benefits. Put another way, the ACA allows health insurance companies to mark-up their healthcare costs by about 17-25%.
   19. By comparison, according to KFF[dot]ORG, the cost of Medicare administrative spending for Medicare is relatively low. “In 2021, administrative expenses for traditional Medicare (plus CMS administration and oversight of Part D) totaled [only] 1.3% of total program spending …”
   20. So in a nutshell, there is no possible way that the private health insurance industry can possibly compete with the admin cost efficiencies of Medicare, because Medicare is not built around making a profit.
   21. As UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty said in so many words, “Participants in the system” derive benefit from high health care costs. While lower prices and improved services can be good for consumers and patients, Witty said, they can “threaten revenue streams for organizations that depend on charging more for care.”
   22. Further, according to the KFF page, “In 2022, payments to Medicare Advantage plans are estimated to be 104%of what traditional Medicare would have spent on these beneficiaries, on average, according to MedPAC [Medicare Payment Advisory Commission].”
   23. The same holds equally true for pharmaceutical companies. Essentially, all of the for-profit players benefit from high prices for care and drugs, and are only harmed if those prices go down. Therefore, except for public relations purposes, they have no real incentive to cut healthcare costs. The rest is just lip service.
   24. Consequently, the only healthcare model that makes financial sense for both individuals and the country-at-large is Medicare-For-All. The only losers would be the healthcare companies.
   25. As an aside, for those who worry about the employees of the healthcare companies, there would be plenty of jobs for them administering Medicare and Medicaid.
   26. I’ve attached reference links below this blog post to where I got my information.
   27. REFERENCE: Medical Loss Ratio — CMS.GOV (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)
   28. REFERENCE: What to Know about Medicare Spending and Financing — KFF.ORG,Published: Jan 19, 2023
4. Chief justice slams officials who dare question Supreme Court rulings; By Morgan Stephens (@Morgan Stephens), Daily Kos Staff | COM | Thursday, January 02, 2025 at 3:30:06p CST. TAGS: #Billionaires, #ClarenceThomas, #Corruption, #Courts, #Democracy, #DonaldTrump, #HouseOversightCommittee, #JamieRaskin, #JohnRoberts, #Law, #RoevWade, #SamuelAlito, #GinniThomas, #HarlanCrow, #SupremeCourt, #RBG, #AlexandriaOcasio-Cortez
   1. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts released his annual report Thursday, calling for “all Americans to appreciate this inheritance from our founding generation and cherish its endurance.”
   2. [He wrote,] “It is not in the nature of judicial work to make everyone happy. Most cases have a winner and a loser. Every Administration suffers defeats in the court system — sometimes in cases with major ramifications for executive or legislative power or other consequential topics.”
   3. “Nevertheless, for the past several decades, the decisions of the courts, popular or not, have been followed, and the Nation has avoided the standoffs that plagued the 1950s and 1960s,” Roberts continued. “Within the past few years, however, elected officials from across the political spectrum have raised the specter of open disregard for federal court rulings. These dangerous suggestions, however sporadic, must be soundly rejected. Judicial independence is worth preserving.”
   4. This comes as the Supreme Court has been shrouded in secrecy, corruption, and political bias — instigating particularly the ire of Democrats. 
   5. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top two ranking Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, sent a letter to Roberts over “renewed concern about Justice Samuel Alito’s apparent refusal to abide by the Supreme Court’s Code of Conduct or constitutional and statutory guarantees that impartial judges hear cases.”
   6. The country’s trust in the Supreme Court fell to its lowest point in 50 years after it overturned Roe v. Wade, and it doesn’t seem to be bouncing back. In particular, women no longer have the respect of the institution that they once held. 
   7. Among the Supreme Court’s laundry list of corruption is Justice Samuel Alito’s acceptance of luxury trips from billionaires, and — shortly before the court’s ruling that Trump has broad immunity for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection — Alito’s wife Martha-Ann’s flying of a far-right flag in support of insurrectionists. 
   8. It’s also been reported that Justice Clarence Thomas has accepted lavish gifts, real estate deals, and vacations from billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow for two decades. Meanwhile, his wife Ginni praised a group that opposed Supreme Court reform.
   9. Roberts has previously refused to answer questions from the Senate regarding how his justices’ actions have potentially damaged the institution, raising doubts about Americans’ ability to trust the court’s objectivity.
   10. The nation’s highest court faces a critical moment in history as the actions of several justices have raised fundamental questions about its integrity and impartiality. 
   11. [Roberts said in his report,] “As my late colleague Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote, an independent judiciary is ‘essential to the rule of law in any land. Yet it ‘is vulnerable to assault; it can be shattered if the society law exists to serve does not take care to assure its preservation.’”
   12. With increasing public scrutiny, reported conflicts of interest, and political polarization, the court’s credibility is at risk — eroding the public’s faith in the judiciary and, ultimately, undermining democracy. 
   13. MIKE: This is another example of the creeping damage now approaching a crisis point that Trump, the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Roberts, and the extremely rightwing Republican Party generally, have done to the democratic and Constitutional institutions of this country, and the corrosive effects on trust — however sometimes grudging — that Americans have had in their national, state, and local governments.
   14. MIKE: I hate to say it, but something’s got to give.
5. Fox News headed for trial, again, over 2020 election fraud claims; By David Folkenflik | NPR.ORG | January 10, 2025@8:44 PM ET. TAGS: Fox News, Defamation, 2020 Presidential Election, Smartmatic,
   1. Fox News appears to be headed once more to court over the lies involving election fraud it aired about the 2020 presidential race. This time, it’s over the false claims that election tech company Smartmatic sabotaged the reelection of then-President Donald Trump.
   2. In April 2023, on the eve of a trial in Delaware in which Fox founder Rupert Murdoch was set to testify, the network and its parent corporation agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle a defamation suit filed by Dominion Voting Systems.
   3. A flood of revelations from the pre-trial process of discovery yielded damning internal communications. The judge found that network figures from junior producers to primetime hosts, network executives, Murdoch and his son Lachlan knew that Joe Biden had won the election fairly. Yet, they allowed guests to spread lies that Trump had been cheated of victory to win back Trump viewers. Some hosts amplified and even embraced the claims.
   4. Now, an appellate court ruling in New York state is allowing Smartmatic’s parallel, $2.7 billion suit to press ahead. The same ruling also dismissed some counts against the network’s parent company, Fox Corp.
   5. Pro-Trump Fox hosts including Maria Bartiromo and the late Lou Dobbs invited guests making unsubstantiated and wild claims about Smartmatic on the air, and at times appeared to endorse those allegations themselves.
   6. Amid outcry, Fox News and Fox Business Network ran an awkward segment with a voting tech expert, Edward Perez, to present viewers with a rebuttal to those outlandish claims. Newsmax, a right-wing channel in competition with Fox for viewers who supported Trump, did much the same.
   7. Fox forced Dobbs off the air just a day after Smartmatic filed its suit in February 2021.
   8. … [Said] Smartmatic’s lead attorney, Erik Connolly, said in a statement, “Fox Corporation attempted, and failed, to have this case dismissed, and it must now answer for its actions at trial. Smartmatic is seeking several billion in damages for the defamation campaign that Fox News and Fox Corporation are responsible for executing. We look forward to presenting our evidence at trial.”
   9. Unlike Dominion, whose voting machines were used in two dozen states, Smartmatic says its technology was used only in Los Angeles County in 2020. Fox has sharply questioned the value of Smartmatic and the contracts it says were jeopardized and lost.
   10. … [A] network spokesperson said in a statement, “As a report prepared by our financial expert shows, Smartmatic’s damages claims are implausible, disconnected from reality, and on their face intended to chill First Amendment freedoms.”
   11. In the Dominion case, Fox also relied on arguments that its shows and hosts were simply relaying inherently newsworthy allegations from inherently newsworthy people — the then-president and his allies. The presiding judge in Delaware, Eric M. Davis, rejected that argument; he found that Fox’s executives, stars and shows had broadcast false claims and defamed Dominion in doing so.
   12. Fox has said that the New York case offers a new venue, with slightly different implications, although Davis applied New York defamation law in his Delaware proceedings.
   13. Fox settled, as it has in many other cases, before opening arguments of the trial with Dominion. It maintains it will fight the allegations Smartmatic is making in court.
   14. MIKE: When I was reading this article, a thought occurred to me.
   15. MIKE: It’s understood that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has no jurisdiction over cable programming, and specifically cable news, because it only regulates over-the-air broadcasting using federally-owned radio spectrum. Since cable broadcasting uses privately owned transmission lines, they are exempt from FCC rules. But perhaps the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) can play a role here.
   16. MIKE: Cable and streaming amount to interstate commerce. After the disruption and chaos of the coming Trump years, that could provide an opening for more regulation of non-broadcast speech that amounts to lying and deception, based on a “truth in advertising” premise. We’ll have to wait and see.
6. Canada could cut US energy supply in reply to Trump’s tariffs; By Mickey Djuric | POLITICO.COM | 01/15/2025 06:37 PM EST. TAGS: Tariffs, Canada, Donald Trump, Donald Trump 2024, Justin Trudeau, Energy,
   1. Canada is considering cutting off its energy supply to the United States should President-elect Donald Trump impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian goods.
   2. “Everything is on the table,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday, following a meeting with Canada’s provincial and territorial premiers.
   3. The leader of Canada’s oil-rich province, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, kept her name off a joint statement from the leaders that attempted to project a united front against an economic attack from Trump that is just days away.
   4. [Smith posted on X,] “Federal government officials continue to publicly and privately float the idea of cutting off energy supply to the U.S. and imposing export tariffs on Alberta energy and other products to the United States. Until these threats cease, Alberta will not be able to fully support the federal government’s plan in dealing with the threatened tariffs.”
   5. [Government data shows that] Canada is the largest supplier of energy to the U.S., supplying Americans with about 60 percent of its crude oil im And as of 2020, Canada supplied the U.S. with 98 percent of its natural gas imports, 93 percent of its electricity imports, and 28 percent of its uranium purchases. …
   6. Trump has threatened to slap 25 percent tariffs on Canada if it doesn’t tackle the flow of fentanyl and illegal migration at their shared border, although Trudeau has argued that fewer than 1 percent of illegal crossings and fentanyl seizures were at the Canadian border.
   7. The Liberal government has nonetheless revealed a C$1.3 billion spending package to improve border security, while Trudeau and his Cabinet continue to hold talks with the incoming Trump administration.
   8. Premiers for the top oil-producing provinces have warned of a “national unity crisis” if Ottawa leverages Canadian oil in response to tariffs, deepening a regional divide between Ottawa and Western Canada.
   9. Smith and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe are also pressuring Trudeau to call a federal election to ensure Canada’s prime minister has a strong mandate to negotiate with Trump. Trudeau, who resigned as Liberal leader earlier this month, will remain prime minister until at least March.
   10. The Liberal Party is simultaneously consumed with the race to replace Trudeau, emboldening some premiers to assume command over tariff talks. Last week, Smith visited Mar-a-Lago, where she said she spoke to Trump twice. She warned Canadians tariffs are coming, while Trudeau’s government accused Smith of selling out Canada’s interests.
   11. Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who oversees more than C$493 billion in two-way trade with the U.S., showed up to Wednesday’s meeting in a MAGA-style blue cap that read “CANADA IS NOT FOR SALE.” He urged his counterparts to remain united during the trade negotiations ahead.
   12. [Ford said,] “He’s going to try to devastate our country. He’s gonna try to divide our country, and we cannot have division in our country.”
   13. Other premiers agree with Trudeau that all options need to remain on the table — even if it means using Canada’s energy as a bargaining chip.
   14. [Said Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey, whose province produces oil and hydroelectricity that makes its way into the United States,] “I see energy as Canada’s queen in this game of chess.”
   15. A trade war will hurt Americans, Quebec Premier François Legault warned in an op-ed directed at Washington lawmakers published ahead of Wednesday’s meeting. Writing in “The Hill,” Legault warned that tariffs on Canada and Mexico could reduce U.S. GDP by at least 1 percent over one year, not including the influence of inflation.
   16. [Legault] noted that Quebec supplies U.S. companies with 64 percent of [their] raw aluminum. “Tariffs of 25 percent would therefore only result in increasing the prices of beer cans, car parts, airplane parts, and a host of other products for American consumers and businesses,” he said.
   17. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce is warning that widespread tariffs on Canadian goods could push Canada’s economy into a recession by the middle of the year.
   18. Ten weeks ago, Trudeau’s government worked to convince the country [that] everything would be fine. On Wednesday, they told Canadians to get ready for negotiations and to brace for impact.
   19. The communique noted that if Ottawa retaliates, it will use any new revenue to help Canadian workers and businesses. The leaders also agreed to increase defense spending, advance energy projects and enhance security at the Canada-U.S. border.
   20. MIKE: It’s always worth remembering that the United States has the longest demilitarized borders in the world due to our past and current friendly relations with Canada and Mexico.
   21. MIKE: We disrupt that status at our peril.
   22. MIKE: Our demilitarized borders save us vast amounts of money, and give the US an unparalleled freedom of diplomatic and military movement around the world. It also adds immeasurably to our overall national security.
   23. MIKE: Only fools would endanger this status quo for such a stupid reason.
7. Also along the same lines — Can Trump Rename the Gulf of Mexico With an Executive Order?; The most important thing in any name is not what some official institution or a collection of old maps says. Spontaneous order tends to rule the day. Eric Boehm | REASON.COM | 1.21.2025, 2:10 PM. TAGS: Maps,Donald Trump,Trump Administration,Mexico,Free Trade,Executive order,Executive Power,Borders, Gulf of Mexico,
   1. Amid the head-spinning flurry of “Day 1” executive orders that stretched presidential power to new (and potentially illegal) heights, President Donald Trump attempted to leave his mark on the globe. Literally.
   2. As part of an executive order promising to restore “names that honor American greatness,” Trump told acting Secretary of the Interior Walter Cruickshank to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.” Doing so, Trump wrote in the order, would reflect the gulf’s status as a “flourishing economic resource and its critical importance” to America’s economy and people.
   3. But can he do that?
   4. The answer is not straightforward. Technically, Trump ordered that the federal Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) should be updated to reflect the new name, and ordered the secretary to “remove all references to the Gulf of Mexico from the GNIS.” Additionally, he ordered that “all federal references to the Gulf of America, including on agency maps, contracts, and other documents and communications shall reflect its renaming.”
   5. So, yes, as far as the federal government is concerned, the body of water between Florida and the Yucatan Peninsula will officially be the Gulf of America within the next month (the order allows 30 days for the change to be made).
   6. Things are complicated by the fact that the Gulf of Mexico is a body of water that extends outside the borders of the United States—and thus beyond the bounds of federal law. There is no international body that officially names international bodies of water. The closest thing that exists is the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO), which was established in 1921 and aims “to ensure all the world’s seas, oceans and navigable waters are surveyed and charted.”
   7. But don’t expect the IHO to get involved here. “Today, there is no formal international agreement or protocol in place for naming maritime areas,” John Nyberg, the organization’s director, toldThe New York Times.
   8. In reality, the name of any body of water is the result of spontaneous order — we call the Atlantic Ocean by that name because that’s just what everyone unofficially agrees it is.
   9. There are plenty of spots on the map where that order is significantly [fuzzier]. Saudi Arabia, for example, insists that the Persian Gulf is really the “Arabian Gulf” — which is a bit confusing since the gulf is adjacent to the Arabian Sea, and because “Arabian Gulf” was an old-time name for what’s now called the Red Sea. Japan and South Korea have never agreed on what to call the body of water that lies between the two countries. [And] What Americans know as the South China Sea has a bunch of different names in the non-China countries that border it.
   10. History might count for something too. The Gulf of Mexico has been called that since at least the early 1600s. Earlier this month, in an apparent attempt at trolling Trump, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum publicly displayed a map made in 1607 that not only included the “Gulf of Mexico” label. Notably, it also marked much of the current United States as “Mexican America.”
   11. Of course, powerful nations have always sought to mark their influence on the map. And Trump is a master of branding, known for slapping his name on buildings that he didn’t build or own. Is there some psychological edge gained by renaming the Gulf of Mexico just as Trump is about to embark on a campaign of trade and immigration policies that casts Mexico as an antagonist to American greatness? Perhaps, but it would be better for everyone involved to avoid such a conflict. …
   12. If most people start calling the body of water between Texas and Cuba “the Gulf of America,” then that’ll be what it is. Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R–Ga.) have already adopted the new nomenclature. What Google and Apple decide to label that body of water probably means more than anything else.
   13. If, as is far more likely, yesterday’s executive order ends up being widely ignored and quickly forgotten (and perhaps reversed by some future administration, as executive orders tend to be), then the Gulf of Mexico will remain “the Gulf of Mexico.”
   14. MIKE: As I’ve said many times before, all nations hold historical grudges they would like to avenge. Mexico’s grudge goes almost 180 years back in time to the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848 which resulted in the United States taking all of northern Mexico that now consists of the US states of California, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona, and parts of Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming.
   15. MIKE: Most Americans may have forgotten this part of history, but believe me when I say that the Mexicans have not. That we have kept Mexico as a friendly neighbor for most of the last 100-plus years in spite of this history is actually nothing short of remarkable.
   16. MIKE: During WW1, Germany attempted to win Mexico over to its side with a secret proposal discovered in the so-called Zimmermann Telegram. The Kaiser’s Germany promised that if the US should join the war in Europe, and if the Mexicans then attacked the US, a subsequently victorious GermanY would award back to Mexico large pieces of the territory lost after the Mexican-American War.
   17. MIKE: For reasons owing at least partly to Mexico’s own internal politics and instability at the time, the offer was declined, but you can see how history might well have turned out very differently if the US had a hostile nation along its southern border.
   18. MIKE: Trump renaming the Gulf Mexico the “Gulf of America” is not just a harmless American ego boost ala Trump. Rather, it serves to reopen old scars between the US and Mexico by once more presenting the image of the US as Mexico’s neighborhood bully and robber of national territory.
   19. MIKE: This is not a road we want to go down.
8. Trump Triggers a Crisis in Denmark—And Europe; By Anne Applebaum | THEATLANTIC.COM | January 18, 2025, 2:30 PM ET. TAGS: Donald Trump, Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen, Denmark, Greenland, NATO,
   1. [MIKE: This article is written in first person, so I’m going to read it that way. The author is an ATLANTIC staff reporter.]
   2. What did Donald Trump say over the phone to Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, on Wednesday [last week]? I don’t know which precise words he used, but I witnessed their impact. I arrived in Copenhagen the day after the call — the subject, of course, was the future of Greenland, which Denmark owns, and which Trump wants — and discovered that appointments I had with Danish politicians were suddenly in danger of being canceled. Amid Frederiksen’s emergency meeting with business leaders, her foreign minister’s emergency meeting with party leaders, and an additional emergency meeting of the foreign-affairs committee in Parliament, everything, all of a sudden, was in complete flux.
   3. The result: Mid-morning, I found myself standing on the Knippel Bridge between the Danish foreign ministry and the Danish Parliament, holding a phone, waiting to be told which direction to walk. Denmark in January is not warm; I went to the Parliament and waited there. The meeting was canceled anyway. After that, nobody wanted to say anything on the record at all. Thus have Americans who voted for Trump because of the putatively high price of eggs now precipitated a political crisis in Scandinavia.
   4. In private discussions, the adjective that was most frequently used to describe the Trump phone call was rough. The verb most frequently used was threaten. The reaction most frequently expressed was confusion. Trump made it clear to Frederiksen that he is serious about Greenland: He sees it, apparently, as a real-estate deal. But Greenland is not a beachfront property. The world’s largest island is an autonomous territory of Denmark, inhabited by people who are Danish citizens, vote in Danish elections, and have representatives in the Danish Parliament. Denmark also has politics, and a Danish prime minister cannot sell Greenland any more than an American president can sell Florida.
   5. At the same time, Denmark is also a country whose global companies — among them Lego, the shipping giant Maersk, and Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic — do billions of dollars worth of trade with the United States, and have major American investments
   6. They thought these were positive aspects of the Danish-American relationship. Denmark and the United States are also founding members of NATO, and Danish leaders would be forgiven for believing that this matters in Washington too.
   7. Instead, these links turn out to be a vulnerability. On Thursday afternoon Frederiksen emerged and, flanked by her foreign minister and her defense minister, made a statement. [She said,] “It has been suggested from the American side that unfortunately, a situation may arise where we work less together than we do today in the economic area.”
   8. Still, the most difficult aspect of the crisis is not the need to prepare for an unspecified economic threat from a close ally, but the need to cope with a sudden sense of almost Kafkaesque absurdity.
   9. In truth, Trump’s demands are illogical. Anything that the U.S. theoretically might want to do in Greenland is already possible, right now. Denmark has never stopped the U.S. military from building bases, searching for minerals, or stationing troops in Greenland, or from patrolling sea lanes nearby.
   10. In the past, the Danes have even let Americans defy Danish policy in Greenland. Over lunch, one former Danish diplomat told me a Cold War story, which unfolded not long after Denmark had formally declared itself to be a nuclear-free country. In 1957, the U.S. ambassador nevertheless approached Denmark’s then–prime minister, H. C. Hansen, with a request. The United States was interested in storing some nuclear weapons at an American base in Greenland. Would Denmark like to be notified?
   11. Hansen responded with a cryptic note, which he characterized, according to diplomatic records, as “informal, personal, highly secret and limited to one copy each on the Danish and American side.” In the note, which was not shared with the Danish Parliament or the Danish press, and indeed was not made public at all until the 1990s, Hansen said that since the U.S. ambassador had not mentioned specific plans or made a concrete request, “I do not think your remarks give rise to any comment from my side.” In other words, If you don’t tell us that you are keeping nuclear weapons in Greenland, then we won’t have to object.
   12. The Danes were loyal U.S. allies then, and remain so now. During the Cold War, they were central to NATO’s planning. After the Soviet Union dissolved, they reformed their military, creating expeditionary forces specifically meant to be useful to their American allies.
   13. After 9/11, when the mutual-defense provision of the NATO treaty was activated for the first time — on behalf of the U.S. — Denmark sent troops to Afghanistan, where 43 Danish soldiers died. As a proportion of their population, then about 5 million, this is a higher mortality rate than the U.S. suffered. The Danes also sent troops to Iraq, and joined NATO teams in the Balkans. They thought they were part of the web of relationships that have made American power and influence over the past half century so unique. Because U.S. alliances were based on shared values, not merely transactional interests, the level of cooperation was different. Denmark helped the U.S., when asked, or volunteered without being asked. “So what did we do wrong?” one Danish official asked me.
   14. Obviously, they did nothing wrong — but that’s part of the crisis too. Trump himself cannot articulate, either at press conferences or, apparently, over the telephone, why exactly he needs to own Greenland, or how Denmark can give American companies and soldiers more access to Greenland than they already have.
   15. Plenty of others will try to rationalize his statements anyway. The Economist has declared the existence of a “Trump doctrine,” and a million articles have solemnly debated Greenland’s strategic importance. But in Copenhagen (and not only in Copenhagen), people suspect a far more irrational explanation: Trump just wants the U.S. to look larger on a map.
   16. This instinct — to ignore existing borders, laws, and treaties; to treat other countries as artificial; to break up trade links and destroy friendships, all because the Leader wants to look powerful — is one that Trump shares with imperialists of the past.
   17. The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has also crowed over the alleged similarity between the U.S. desire for Greenland and the Russian desire for territory in Ukraine. Lavrov suggested a referendum might be held in Greenland, comparing that possibility to the fake referenda, held under duress, that Russia staged in Crimea and eastern Ukraine.
   18. Of course, Trump might forget about Greenland. But also, he might not. Nobody knows. He operates on whims, sometimes picking up ideas from the last person he met, sometimes returning to obsessions he had apparently abandoned: windmills, sharks, Hannibal Lecter, and now Greenland. To Danes and pretty much anyone else who makes plans, signs treaties, or creates long-term strategies using rational arguments, this way of making policy feels arbitrary, pointless, even surreal. But it is also now permanent, and there is no going back.
   19. MIKE: I hope our military remembers, without being reminded, that they are sworn to defend not only the US Constitution, but also to disobey any illegal orders.
   20. MIKE: I would also remind our military leaders that we have Constitutionally legal alliances, approved by Congress and signed into law and of which we are a part, particularly NATO.
   21. MIKE: Therefore, if they are ever ordered to invade Greenland, which is the territory of a NATO ally, such an order would be illegal according to law and they would be bound to disobey it.
   22. MIKE: There are three sources of US power in the world: 1- Our economic strength; 2- Our giant and enormously expensive military; and 3- Our network of alliances and partnerships with countries around the world.
   23. MIKE: Much like the mess that Trump threatens to make of our relationships with our border nations, Trump is threatening to damage or destroy a web of alliances that may be unique in world history, and is instrumental in our strength and influence around the world.
   24. MIKE: And as I write this, the Trump government has only been in power for less than 48 hours. If Trump were taking orders from Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping, he could not do more damage to United States influence more quickly than he already has.
   25. MIKE: To share THE ATLANTIC story without a paywall, CLICK THIS LINK.
9. Did Elon Musk give a Nazi or Roman salute, and what’s the difference?; By Ashifa Kassam | THEGUARDIAN.COM | Tue 21 Jan 2025 14.14 EST. TAGS: Donald Trump Inauguration, Elon Musk, The Far Right, Fascist Salute, Roman Salute
   1. Some of Musk’s supporters rushed to defend him, claiming that he had instead been giving the Roman salute. “The Roman empire is back, starting with the Roman salute,” Andrea Stroppa, a Rome-based adviser to Musk, wrote on in a post that he later deleted.
   2. We delve into what is meant by the Roman salute, whether it’s different from the Nazi salute, and how this distinction has been seemingly promoted by the far right in recent years….
   3. Stroppa later posted that the gesture was “simply Elon, who has autism, expressing his feelings by saying ‘I want to give my heart to you’.”
   4. Others also weighed in. The Anti-Defamation League said on social media that Musk’s gesture had not been a Nazi salute. Instead, it said Musk had “made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm,” in a post that added: “All sides should give one another a bit of grace.” 
   5. [MIKE: I imagine that a lot of people made similar comments when Hitler became Chancellor in 1933. Continuing …]
   6. A number of historians countered that view. “It was a Nazi salute and a very belligerent one too,” Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history and Italian studies at New York University, wrote on social media.  
   7. Claire Aubin, who researches Nazism in the US, echoed Ben-Ghiat’s sentiment. “My professional opinion is that you’re all right, you should believe your eyes,” she wrote online. 
   8. Many argued that Musk’s increasing outspokenness over his own political views contextualised the gestures. After spending about $200m (£160m) to help secure Trump’s return to the White House, Musk has used his influence to back far-right and anti-establishment parties across Europe.
   9. Most recently he has vigorously campaigned for Alternative für Deutschland, whose leader in the eastern state of Thuringia, Björn Höcke, has twice been convictedof using the Nazi slogan “Everything for Germany” at political events. A former history teacher, Höcke has called for an “about-face” in Germany’s culture of Holocaust remembrance and atonement. 
   10. As reaction to his gesture dominated headlines on Tuesday, Musk weighed in with his own response, writing: “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.” 
   11. [MIKE: On the other hand, Maya Angelou said something to the effect of, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them.” Continuing …]
   12. [So,] What is the Roman salute?  Fascist ideology in the 1920s claimed that the Roman salute – which involves placing a hand over one’s heart and then raising it upwards in a straight-armed, palm-down salute – originated in ancient Rome.  
   13. But a 2009 book by the classics professor Martin M Winkler that delved into the Roman salute found no evidence of this. [He wrote,] “Not a single Roman work of art – sculpture, coinage, or painting – displays a salute of the kind that is found in Fascism, Nazism, and related ideologies. It is also unknown to Roman literature and is never mentioned by ancient historians of either republican or imperial Rome.” 
   14. Instead, Winkler argued that what came to be known as the Roman salute was invented in the 19th century to be used in melodramas set in the Roman empire. The gesture eventually made its way into films set in the same period, leading the myth to endure, he said.
   15. Is there a difference between the Nazi salute and Roman salute?  
   16. After the salute was adopted by Italy’s fascist leader, Benito Mussolini, and his party, the Nazis in Germany copied the idea, adopting a similar gesture with a slightly lower extended hand. By 1933 it had become the German greeting, the author Torbjörn Lundmark wrote in his 2010 book, Tales of Hi and Bye.  
   17. It soon went on to become one of the most potent symbols of Nazi ideology in 1930s Germany. “Five-year-olds were taught how to thrust the arm in the air… and people were refused service in shops unless they did the salute,” Lundmark wrote.  
   18. Both the Roman and Nazi salutes are considered hate symbols by the Reporting Radicalism initiative, which is managed by the US-based NGO Freedom House and reports on extremist groups and individuals in Ukraine. It considers them to be similar but separate symbols.  
   19. It also notes that there is little ambiguity about the meaning of the Nazi salute and those similar to it. The US abandoned a gesture known as the Bellamy salute … in 1942 because of its resemblance to the fascist and Nazi salutes. …
   20. The gesture is banned in a handful of countries, including Germany. In Italy, in contrast, the country’s top court ruled last year thatperforming the fascist salute was not a crime, unless it endangered public order or risked reviving the banned fascist party. The ruling, sparked by an incident in Milan, came days after videoemerged of hundreds of men giving the salute during an annual gathering in Rome. 
   21. Why are some seeking to differentiate the Roman and Nazi salute?  
   22. It appears as though efforts to rebrand the Nazi salute stretch back years. After members of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement held a small rally in the US state of Georgia, a Huffingon Post reporter asked its former leader, Jeff Schoep, about the Nazi salutes performed by some of those who had been on stage alongside him.  
   23. “It’s a Roman salute,” [Schoep] said in an exchange caught on video. The reporter insisted: “You know that’s not what that means. You know what people think that means.” Schoep [then] threatened to have him removed from the park for being “disrespectful”.  
   24. As debate swirled online as to the meaning of Musk’s gesture on Monday, Rolling Stone reported that some on the far right had drawn their own conclusions and were celebrating the moment on social media.  
   25. The leader of the neo-Nazi Blood Tribe, Christopher Pohlhaus wrote: “I don’t care if this was a mistake. I’m going to enjoy the tears over it.” The founder of the far-right social media platform Gab, Andrew Torba, echoed his sentiment. “Incredible things are happening already,” he wrote.
   26. On the neo-Nazi forum Stormfront, a user posted an image of Musk striking the pose under the words: “Heil Hitler.”
   27. The Australia-based neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell also shared the video of Musk, describing it as a “Donald Trump White Power moment”. 
   28. MIKE: Musk’s fascist salute should be taken at face value as a fascist salute. If he didn’t mean it that way, he might have apologized, but instead, he doubled down.
   29. In response, Musk is quoted by BBC as replying on X, “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.”
10. Next, a German government official had some comments on Trump taking power even before Muskler’s fascist salute. So, if you want to lose a bit more sleep over our recent change in government there’s this— German ambassador warns [that] Trump will test the US constitutional order, report says; COM | Updated 10:12 AM CST, January 19, 2025. TAGS: German Foreign Ministry, US, US Constitution, Separation of Powers, Donald Trump,
    1. The German ambassador to Washington wrote in a report back to Berlin that he expects Donald Trump in his second presidency to largely undermine the system of democratic checks and balances in the United States, the German news agenda DPA [which stands for Deutsche Presse-Agentur] reported on Sunday.
    2. Ambassador Andreas Michaelis said in his confidential diplomatic report that the Trump agenda would rob the legislative branch, law enforcement and media of their independence.
    3. His diplomatic note was sent to the German Foreign Ministry and to the office of Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin last week, DPA reported.
    4. The report was made available to several media outlets, including DPA, and was being reported in Germany on the eve of Trump’s inauguration Monday.
    5. Michaelis wrote that he expected Trump’s agenda to bring a “maximum concentration of power in the hands of the president at the expense of Congress and the states.”
    6. [Michaelis wrote that] His policy “of maximum disruption, the breaking up of the established political order and bureaucratic structures as well as his plans for revenge, ultimately mean a redefinition of the constitutional order.”
    7. The Foreign Ministry said it does not comment on internal papers, analyses or embassy reports as a matter of principle. However, it said it is clear that the U.S. is one of Germany’s most important allies.
    8. “The Americans chose President Trump in a democratic election. Of course, we will also work closely with the new U.S. administration in the interests of Germany and Europe,” it said, according to DPA.
    9. MIKE: In the movie, “War of the Roses (1989)”, a lawyer played by Danny Devito tells a prospective client, “When a lawyer who earns $400 an hour gives you free advice, take it.”
    10. MIKE: Well, when a German ambassador warns you that your new president is going to try to steal powers from the other branches of government, take it, because if anyone knows a potential dictator, it’s a German.
    11. MIKE: Not all of us can go protesting out on the street. That might be due to matters of health, lack of courage, the need to earn a living to pay bills, etc.
    12. MIKE: But all of us must try to do what we can to help preserve freedom and democracy in our country over the next four years. This might include letters to elected representatives, letters to newspapers and news organizations, donating money or time to political candidates and causes, or whatever else you can think of to do.
    13. MIKE: So, I say to anyone and everyone listening to this show or reading this blog post, please … Do whatever you can, however you can.
11. MIKE: AS A FINAL COMMENT, let’s be clear about Trump and his Trumpist Republican Party: Their goals are not to build or improve anything in ways that most of us would understand. Rather, their plans revolve around destruction of institutions and policies that have mostly served our country well for over 200 years.
    1. This has meant corruption of our courts; damage to our air, water, and soil where those things interfere with the profits of the already wealthy few; and the creation of an oligarchical system not so different from Putin’s Russia which has impoverished that country for the vast majority of its citizens.
    2. This might sound like hyperbole to some, but I fear it’s not. I believe that this is a Defcon 1 moment for our nation.

=====================================================

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