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

“There’s a reason why you separate military and police. One fights the enemy of the State. The other serves and protects the People. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the State tend to become the People.” ~ Commander Adama, “Battlestar Galactica” (“WATER”, Season 1 episode 2, at the 28 minute mark.)

“… In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression …

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way …

The third is freedom from want …

The fourth is freedom from fear …

VIDEO: FDR’s Four Freedoms Speech (1941) FOUR FREEDOMS-SPECIFIC EXCERPT, WITH TAX FAIRNESS — 31:13 to 33:29  

FULL SPEECH TRANSCRIPT: Voices of Democracy: The U.S. Oratory Project

[1m 02s] Welcome to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig on KPFT Houston at 90.1-HD2, Galveston 89.5-HD2, and Huntsville 91.9-HD2. KPFT is Houston’s Community radio.

And welcome to our international fans from Singapore, Taiwan, Cambodia, and elsewhere.

On this show, we discuss local, state, national, and international stories that may have slipped under your radar. At my website, THINKWINGRADIO-dot-COM, I link to all the articles I read and cite, as well as other relevant sources. Articles and commentaries often include lots of internet links for those of you who want to dig deeper.

It’s the 24th week of Trump’s military occupation of Washington DC; 15 weeks since Trump deployed National Guard troops to Memphis, Tennessee; and an ongoing federal law enforcement invasion in Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and elsewhere.

As a result of a federal circuit court decision, Guard troops have been withdrawn from Los Angeles, Portland and Chicago.

Due to time constraints, some stories may be longer in this show post than in the broadcast show itself. 

1. There are run-off elections.
   1. Early Voting starts this week, on Wednesday, JAN 21 and runs through Tuesday, JAN 27^th.
   2. Early voting poll hours are 7AM – 7PM, except Sunday, January 25 when hours are Noon – 7PM
   3. Election Day Polling hours are Wednesday, January 31— 7AM – 7PM
   4. It’s always important to remember that if you are on line to vote by 7pm, you cannot be turned away.
   5. Oddly, the Texas Secretary of State’s office doesn’t show any runoff elections.
   6. If you are unsure whether you qualify for voting in a runoff election, check for your personalized sample at HarrisVotes-dot-com.
   7. You are permitted to bring your pre-marked sample ballot to the polling place with you as long as you take it when you leave.
   8. Outside of Harris County, election information and ballots can be found at your local county clerk or election clerk website. Links for nearby counties can be found at the bottom of this show post. Please notify me of any bad links.
   9. I already got my mail-in ballot for the CD-18 run-off and returned it. If you applied for a mail-in ballot, you should have yours as well. I suggest mailing it in at least a week before election day.
   10. If you fit the legal criteria, it’s not too late to apply for mail-in ballot. You can find your Harris County mail ballot application at the site I’m linking to in this show post at ThinkwingRadio-dot-Com.
   11. Remember: If you don’t vote, someone else is making the choices for you, and elections have consequences.
2. If you’re in the mood for a little dark humor, there’s this story from KHOU — Houston homeowners blown away by discovery in new home; Author: Collin Van Buskirk | KHOU.COM | Published: 12:33 PM CST January 11, 2026. TAGS: Harris County, Explosives, Harris County Constable Precinct 3, Harris County Sheriff’s Office Bomb Squad,
   1. Talk about an unexpected housewarming surprise.
   2. What began as a normal day for new homeowners in eastern Harris County quickly turned serious after several items discovered inside the home appeared to be explosives, triggering a response from deputies and the county’s bomb squad, authorities said.
   3. Harris County Constable Precinct 3 officials said dispatchers received a call Saturday afternoon from concerned homeowners who had recently purchased a home in the 7400 block of John Ralston Rd. While going through items left behind, the residents came across objects they believed could be dangerous.
   4. Deputies arrived at the scene and were shown multiple types of ammunition and other firearm-related items inside the residence. As deputies conducted an inventory, they located what they believed to be hand grenades along with improvised explosive devices.
   5. At that point, the situation escalated quickly — but calmly.
   6. A supervisor was notified immediately, and the Harris County Sheriff’s Office Bomb Squad was called in. Bomb technicians examined the devices and determined they were live. The explosives were safely removed from the property without incident.
   7. No injuries were reported.
   8. Officials praised the homeowners for using extreme caution and not attempting to handle the items themselves, noting that the situation could have posed a serious risk to the residents and surrounding neighbors.
   9. “Teamwork keeps our community safe,” Precinct 3 officials said in a statement, thanking deputies and the bomb squad for their swift response and expertise.
   10. Authorities did not say how the explosive devices ended up inside the home. The investigation remains ongoing.
   11. For the homeowners, it was likely not the kind of “welcome home” anyone expects — but thanks to quick thinking and a coordinated response, the potentially dangerous discovery ended safely.
   12. MIKE: After reading this article, I couldn’t help imagining a conversation between the previous homeowners after this story broke.
   13. MIKE: HUSBAND – “Honey, where did you pack the bombs and explosives? I can’t find them anywhere.”
   14. MIKE: WIFE – “Where did *I* pack them? Where did *you* pack them?!”
   15. MIKE: HUSBAND and WIFE look at each other, eyes wide, mouths agape.
   16. MIKE: HUSBAND and WIFE (Together) – “UH-OH!”
3. From The Texas Tribune — Texas hands over complete list of registered voters to Trump administration; By Natalia Contreras, Votebeat and The Texas Tribune, and Gabby Birenbaum, THE TEXAS TRIBUNE | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Jan. 9, 2026, 5:00 a.m. Central. TAGS: 2026 Elections, State Agencies, Texas, U.S. Justice Department, Texas Secretary of State, Voter Rolls,
   1. Texas officials have turned over the state’s voter roll to the U.S. Justice Department, according to a spokesperson for the Texas Secretary of State’s Office, complying with the Trump administration’s demands for access to data on millions of voters across the country.
   2. The Justice Department last fall began asking all 50 states for their voter rolls — massive lists containing significant identifying information on every registered voter in each state — and other election-related data. The Justice Department has said the effort is central to its mission of enforcing election law requiring states to regularly maintain voter lists by searching for and removing ineligible voters.
   3. Alicia Pierce, a spokesperson for the Texas Secretary of State’s Office, told Votebeat and The Texas Tribune that the state had sent its voter roll, which includes information on the approximately 18.4 million voters registered in Texas, to the Justice Department on Dec. 23.
   4. The state included identifiable information about voters, including dates of birth, driver’s license numbers and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers, Pierce said.
   5. Experts and state officials around the country have raised concerns over the legality of the Justice Department’s effort to obtain states’ voter rolls and whether it could compromise voter privacy protections. The Justice Department has said it is entitled to the data under federal law, and withholding it interferes with its ability to exercise oversight and enforce federal election laws.
   6. The department has now sued 23 states and Washington, D.C., for declining to voluntarily turn over their voter rolls. Those states, which include some led by officials of both political parties, have generally argued that states are responsible for voter registration and are barred by state and federal law from sharing certain private information about voters. In an interview with “The Charlie Kirk Show” last month, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said 13 states, including Texas, had voluntarily agreed to turn over their voter rolls.
   7. In a letter to Nelson dated Friday and obtained by Votebeat and The Texas Tribune, the Democratic National Committee said the move to hand over the voter roll could violate federal election law.
   8. DNC Chair Ken Martin said the turnover of such data is tantamount to a “big government power grab” and would invite privacy violations and could result in eligible voters being kicked off the rolls. The DNC, he said in a statement, “won’t stand idly by as the Trump DOJ tries to get access to Texas voters’ sensitive information.”
   9. In its letter, Daniel Freeman, the DNC’s litigation director, requested records related to the Justice Department’s request, and warned the party could take further action.
   10. Some election officials and voting rights watchdog groups have raised concerns about what the Justice Department intends to do with the information provided by the states, with some suggesting it may be used to create a national database of voters.
   11. Votebeat and The Texas Tribune have asked the Texas Secretary of State’s Office for a signed copy of the agreement between the state and the Justice Department, known as a memorandum of understanding, governing how the sharing of the voter data would work and steps the state has agreed to take in response to any questions about voter eligibility raised by the Justice Department. The state has not yet released it.
   12. In a proposed memorandum of understanding sent to Wisconsin officials last month and publicly released by state officials, the Justice Department said that upon receiving the state’s voter data, it would check the state’s voter roll for “list maintenance issues, insufficiencies, anomalies or concerns.” The department would then notify the state and give it 45 days to correct any problems. The state would then agree to resubmit the voter roll to the department. Wisconsin declined the agreement, and the Justice Department has since sued the state.
   13. In his letter to Nelson, Freeman identified two potential legal violations associated with some of those clauses, though acknowledged he didn’t yet know whether Texas had signed such an agreement and asked for records.
   14. Freeman wrote that the 45-day removal period as laid out in the public versions of the memorandum would run afoul of a provision in the National Voter Registration Act that lays out specific conditions, such as having missed two elections after receiving a notice from the state, for states to remove registered voters from the rolls.
   15. Freeman also wrote that federal law also bars states from doing systemic voter removals from the rolls within 90 days of a primary or general election. Because Texas has an upcoming March 3 primary, May 26 runoff and Nov. 3 general election, the state cannot conduct such list maintenance until after the runoff, Freeman wrote. The 90-day moratorium would then kick in again on Aug. 6, ahead of the November election.
   16. Texas agreed to the memorandum of understanding and released the data, but told the department that it did so with the understanding it wouldn’t “limit or affect the duties, responsibilities, and rights” of the state under either the NVRA or other federal laws, according to two letters the Texas Secretary of State’s Office sent the Justice Department in December and released to Votebeat and The Texas Tribune.
4. This leads directly to our next story from The San Antonio Current that had a follow-up on this story titled — “DNC warns Texas could face lawsuit for turning over voter rolls to Trump administration;”.
   1. The Democratic National Committee has fired off letters to officials in Texas and nine other states urging them to reject a Justice Department request to hand over their unredacted voter files. 
   2. The DNC warned states that the proposed agreement with the White House, which requires state officials remove any alleged ineligible voters found during a federal review, would break a variety of federal election laws. …
   3. The DNC letter, signed by Litigation Director Daniel L. Freeman, gives the Texas Secretary of State’s Office 30 days to produce paperwork showing what communication it’s had with the Justice Department about the voter rolls. Freeman writes that his staff wants to ensure Texas isn’t violating any laws, but asserts that the committee is ready to pursue legal action should violations come to light.
   4. [DNC Chair Ken Martin said in an emailed statement,] “The DNC won’t stand idly by as the Trump DOJ tries to get access to voters’ sensitive information and put eligible voters at risk of being wrongfully purged from voter rolls.”
   5. The DNC sent similar letters to elections officials in Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Utah. …
   6. MIKE: It’s funny how all these rightwing conservative Republicans that are always screaming about “State’s Rights” roll over for a Republican-dominated federal government that’s the most fascist we’ve ever seen.
   7. MIKE: It just goes to show that there really aren’t “Conservative Principles”. There’s really just Conservative hunger for power and domination.
   8. MIKE: I hope that American voters remember that in 10-1/2 months.
5. From the NYTIMES — P.A. to Stop Considering Lives Saved When Setting Rules on Air Pollution; By Maxine Joselow, Reporting from Washington| NYTIMES.COM | Jan. 12, 2026. TAGS: Environmental Protection Agency, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Air Pollution,
   1. For decades, the Environmental Protection Agency has calculated the health benefits of reducing air pollution, using the cost estimates of avoided asthma attacks and premature deaths to justify clean-air rules.
   2. Not anymore.
   3. Under President Trump, the E.P.A. plans to stop tallying gains from the health benefits caused by curbing two of the most widespread deadly air pollutants, fine particulate matter and ozone, when regulating industry, according to internal agency emails and documents reviewed by The New York Times.
   4. [MIKE: So much for “Make America Healthy Again”. Continuing …
   5. It’s a seismic shift that runs counter to the E.P.A.’s mission statement, which says the agency’s core responsibility is to protect human health and the environment, environmental law experts said.
   6. The change could make it easier to repeal limits on these pollutants from coal-burning power plants, oil refineries, steel mills and other industrial facilities across the country, the emails and documents show. That would most likely lower costs for companies while resulting in dirtier air.
   7. Fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, refers to particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream. Ozone is a smog-causing gas that forms when nitrogen dioxide and volatile organic compounds are emitted from power plants, factories and vehicles, and mix in the air on hot, sunny days.
   8. Long-term exposure to both pollutants is linked to asthma, heart and lung disease, and premature death. Even moderate exposure to PM2.5 can damage the lungs about as much as smoking.
   9. Under the Biden administration, the E.P.A. tightened the amount of PM2.5 that could be emitted by industrial facilities. It estimated that the rule would prevent up to 4,500 premature deaths and 290,000 lost workdays in 2032 alone. For every $1 spent on reducing PM2.5, the agency said, there could be as much as $77 in health benefits.
   10. But the Trump administration contends that these estimates are doubtful and said the E.P.A. would no longer take health effects into account in the cost-benefit analyses necessary for clean-air regulations, according to the documents. Instead, the agency would estimate only the costs to businesses of complying with the rules.
   11. Over the past four decades, different administrations have used different estimates of the monetary value of a human life in cost-benefit analyses. But until now, no administration has counted it as zero.
   12. [Said Richard Revesz, the faculty director of the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University School of Law,] “The idea that E.P.A. would not consider the public health benefits of its regulations is anathema to the very mission of E.P.A.”
   13. [Said Mr. Revesz, who led the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs under President Biden,] “If you’re only considering the costs to industry and you’re ignoring the benefits, then you can’t justify any regulations that protect public health, which is the very reason that E.P.A. was set up.”
   14. Carolyn Holran, an E.P.A. spokeswoman, said in an email that the agency was still weighing the health effects of PM2.5 and ozone, but wouldn’t be assigning them a dollar value in cost-benefit analyses. [Ms. Holran said]. “E.P.A., like the agency always has, is still considering the impacts that PM2.5 and ozone emissions have on human health. … Not monetizing does not equal not considering or not valuing the human health impact.”
   15. In a Dec. 11 email reviewed by The Times, an E.P.A. supervisor wrote to his employees that political appointees in the Office of Air and Radiation planned to insert language about the “uncertain” benefits of reducing PM2.5 and ozone in all new clean-air rules.
   16. The language states that “historically, the E.P.A.’s analytical practices often provided the public with false precision and confidence regarding the monetized impacts of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone.” It says that “to rectify this error, the E.P.A. is no longer monetizing benefits from PM2.5 and ozone.”
   17. This language will appear in documents called regulatory impact analyses that accompany new rules, according to the email. It will apply to all proposals by the E.P.A.’s Office of Air and Radiation, including the forthcoming repeal of limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
   18. A version of the language already appeared in a regulatory impact analysis posted online on Monday. The document accompanied a final rule that would weaken limits on nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide emissions from combustion turbines used at gas-burning power plants.
   19. The head of the E.P.A.’s air and radiation office, Aaron Szabo, said at his Senate confirmation hearing that he had a personal stake in clean-air rules because he suffers from cystic fibrosis. [He said,] “Because of my lung disease, I have always been acutely aware of air quality.”
   20. Szabo is a former registered lobbyist for the oil and chemical industries. His clients at the firm CGCN Group included the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, a trade association for oil refiners that has opposed stricter PM2.5 standards.
   21. Holran, the E.P.A. spokeswoman, said that Mr. Szabo had consulted with agency ethics officials and recused himself from potential conflicts of interest. She noted his cystic fibrosis diagnosis and said, “He is working hard to advance E.P.A.’s core mission of protecting human health and the environment.”
   22. [MIKE: To me, this is just another reason why confirmation hearings are relatively pointless. Yes, it’s only fair that nominees should be permitted to respond to questions about past statements or actions — perhaps in writing — but the fact is that those past actions and statements are far better predictors of future behavior than any post hoc rationalizations offered by nominees. Continuing …]
   23. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest business lobbying group, has also pushed for the E.P.A. to fix what it has described as problems with its cost-benefit analyses. Neil Bradley, the executive vice president and chief policy officer at the chamber, wrote in 2018 that the agency should be more transparent about “uncertainty in cost and benefit estimates, particularly with respect to health benefits estimates.”
   24. Marty Durbin, the president of the Global Energy Institute at the chamber, said in an emailed statement, “We appreciate the efforts of this administration to rebalance regulations with a common-sense approach. We look forward to examining the proposal from E.P.A.”
   25. The change could address longstanding criticism from many business groups, which have argued that the government gives too much weight to the benefits of reducing PM2.5 when setting limits on other pollutants like mercury and lead, said Jeffrey Holmstead, the former head of the E.P.A.’s Office of Air and Radiation under President George W. Bush, and an energy lawyer at Bracewell LLP. ([Parenthetically,] Technology that captures mercury and lead from power plant smokestacks would also reduce PM2.5 emissions.)
   26. The EP.A.’s new approach is likely to draw legal challenges and could ultimately make rollbacks of pollution limits more vulnerable in court, legal experts said.
   27. James Goodwin, the interim co-executive director and policy director at the Center for Progressive Reform, an advocacy group, said the move appeared to ignore the 2015 Supreme Court case Michigan v. E.P.A. In the majority opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that if an agency considers the benefits of a regulation, it must also consider the costs, and vice versa.
   28. [Mr. Goodwin said,] “Scalia was making the point that you can’t judge a regulation’s reasonableness just by looking at one side of the ledger.”
   29. The Trump administration has taken other, smaller steps to overhaul the cost-benefit analyses underpinning environmental rules.
   30. In May, the White House ordered agencies to stop considering the economic damage caused by climate change when crafting regulations, except in cases where it is “plainly required” by law. That directive effectively shelved a powerful tool, known as the “social cost of carbon,” that the Biden administration had used to strengthen limits on carbon emissions from cars and power plants.
   31. MIKE: On a strictly human level, it’s remarkable tome that the people against these regulations must think that they are immune to the consequences of weakening them.
   32. MIKE: Do they think that they are immune to the environment that they live in? Maybe — MAYBE — they think that wealth can insulate them from dirty polluted water, air, soil, and food, but even great wealth can only do so much.
   33. MIKE: Even purified water may contain “forever chemicals”. Food grown on farms will absorb pollutants from the environment around them. And unless they carry tanks of purified air with them and breath from oxygen masks, air pollution will still affect them, even if their homes are somehow hermetically sealed and the air magically purified.
   34. MIKE: Maybe they think that if they get sick, their money will cure them, but plenty of rich people die from diseases that are related to various kinds of environmental pollution from gases, chemicals, radiation, particulates, and more.
   35. MIKE: Wealth isn’t inoculation, and power is not the same as invulnerability. But too many people can’t see that when blinded by potential profit.
6. This next story is an opinion piece and analysis from the EURASIANTIMES, which is an India-based organization. Thus, stories usually touch upon, or are based around, Indian geopolitical issues. — “Islamic NATO” Rising? How India & Israel’s Defense Bond Threatens To Puncture Pakistan-Turkey Axis; By Air Marshal Anil Chopra | EURASIANTIMES.COM | January 11, 2026. TAGS: Turkey-Pakistan-Saudi Arabia alliance, Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement (SMDA), NATO, Islamic NATO, India, Israel, Armenia, Cyprus,
   1. The possible Turkey-Pakistan-Saudi Arabia alliance became a major geopolitical development after reports emerged that Ankara was in advanced talks to join the Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement (SMDA) signed by Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in September 2025.
   2. This pact treats any aggression against one member as an attack on all, mirroring NATO’s Article 5. The trilateral bloc, if materialized, would combine Saudi Arabia’s massive financial resources, Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal & large military, and Turkey’s geopolitical dominance, being NATO’s second-largest military contributor.
   3. The potential “Islamic NATO” vision stems from Washington’s fluctuating policies, concerns over Iran, and overlapping interests in South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
   4. If finalized, the alliance could seriously challenge and even threaten countries like India, Israel, Armenia, and Cyprus, among others.
   5. … India has not recognized Somaliland as an independent state, a position it reaffirmed by strongly backing Somalia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity following Israel’s recognition.
   6. This stance aligns with India’s longstanding commitment to the two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which it continues to support through UN votes and diplomatic statements. Additionally, India maintains close strategic and economic ties with Iran, a key adversary of Israel.
   7. Despite these differences on regional issues, India and Israel enjoy a very strong military and defense partnership, marked by extensive cooperation in technology, arms procurement, and counter-terrorism.
   8. India’s Defence Acquisition Council recently approved an $8.7 billion procurement that included 1,000 SPICE missiles from Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.
   9. India is Israel’s biggest defence customer, accounting for 34 percent of all exports between 2020 and 2024. …
   10. MIKE: The article then digresses into a long, detailed, and somewhat technical discussion of the kinds of defense cooperation in which Israel and India engage. The story then sums up this way:
   11. … India and Israel share a common stance on many geopolitical issues. While Israel is very close to the US, it is conscious of the pro-Palestinian positions and opposition to Israel of many European countries.
   12. Israel maintains “practical” and balanced relations with both Russia and China. India hopes that the Israel-Gaza and other conflicts in the region do not continue for long. This is important for India’s uninterrupted defence supplies and defence partnership.
   13. Israel has had a threat to its existence from the Arab nations surrounding it, who support the Palestinian cause. India now has three front threats from China, Pakistan, and now less-friendly and radicalised Bangladesh.
   14. Multiple sources, including former CIA officers and declassified intelligence reports, detail an alleged plan in the 1980s, in which Israel offered to help India destroy Pakistan’s uranium enrichment facility at Kahuta.
   15. Israel feared the development of an “Islamic bomb” and the potential proliferation of nuclear technology to hostile Middle Eastern countries like Libya.
   16. More recently, Israel, Cyprus, and Greece have a strong, deepening trilateral strategic partnership focused on security, defence, energy (gas, electricity grid), and technology, often seen as a counterbalance to regional instability and Turkish assertiveness in the Eastern Mediterranean.
   17. Turkey and Pakistan have been working very closely. India, too, is concerned about this nexus. India has also been working more closely with Greece and Cyprus. India and Israel could coordinate more closely in the Mediterranean.
   18. The success of any military operation is heavily dependent on accurate intelligence. The Israeli Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations, popularly known as Mossad, is a world-acclaimed intelligence agency.
   19. It has contributed significantly to the success of all Israeli military operations. India needs a near-equivalent but more robust setup. The continuous Israeli military training follows the dictum “the more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.”
   20. Expecting war at short notice, Israel keeps high weapon stockpiles and has secured supply chains. India has begun doing the same.
   21. The world has a lot to learn from Israel on close combat in an urban environment, as has been especially evident in Gaza and South Lebanon. Israel has been practicing criticality of organic lethality and rapid engagements.
   22. The ability to responsively employ precision fires in close proximity to friendly forces, and give higher priority to air-delivered fires. Israel believes in what Clausewitz taught students of strategy: war is not an end in itself. War is a means to an end, the application of organized violence to achieve geopolitical objectives.
   23. Israel has had both intelligence and military failures and has constantly tried to learn from them and make amends. Israel has no illusions about a permanent resolution to the conflict. As has often been observed, eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Israel believes in “Do plan for the day after. …
   24. For India, Israel remains a very reliable, ‘no-questions-asked’ defence systems supplier. Joint Ventures are today the preferred route. India is a significant market. Make in India is cheaper and also fits into India’s “Atmanirbharta” thrust.
   25. Future India-Israel defence cooperation will focus heavily on joint development, co-production, and technology transfer in cutting-edge areas like AI, cyber, and drones, shifting from buyer-seller to strategic partnership, solidified by recent MOUs for advanced systems like hypersonic defence, enhanced UAVs (Heron upgrades), and integrated defence ecosystems, aiming for self-reliance and enhanced operational capabilities against terrorism.
   26. MIKE: I thought this was an interesting story because while the US is wrapped up in its own problems, thanks to Trump, the world continues to evolve in spite of, and also because of, the problems that Trump has created for the US globally.
   27. MIKE: Especially since Trump began alienating allies and adding unpredictability to US policies and promises, the world is becoming more multipolar, faster. This does not work in our long-term favor.
7. Next, from BUSINESSINSIDER — A NATO-Russia war would be bloodier than Ukraine, where ‘golden hour’ is already gone, officer says; By Jake Epstein | BUSINESSINSIDER.COM | Jan 2, 2026, 7:20 AM CT. TAGS: Ukraine, Russia, Drones, NATO, ‘Golden Hour’, NATO-Russia War,
   1. NATO forces would likely see heavier losses than Ukraine has in a war with Russia, a senior officer told Business Insider, and that possibility is driving a rethink of battlefield medical care.
   2. Drones are watching much of the front line, making it nearly impossible to get wounded troops access to medical care within the “golden hour,” the critical first 60 minutes after a severe injury when access to medical care may determine life or death.
   3. Golden hour is found only in books, said Ukrainian Col. Valerii Vyshnivskyi [PRON: vish-NYEV-ski], the country’s senior representative to the NATO-Ukraine Joint Analysis Training and Education Centre (JATEC).
   4. “It does not exist,” he said.
   5. Now, there’s only a golden day or month, he continued. “The battlefield is visible 100%. That’s why medical evacuation cannot be done in the old way.”
   6. The sky above the battlefield is filled with drones of all types executing both reconnaissance and strike missions. That saturation means Ukrainians often have to wait for unfavorable weather conditions and poor visibility to evacuate casualties. Some solutions, such as ground robots, are becoming more popular, but those systems aren’t without their problems. They are vulnerable to attack, they break down, and they are susceptible to jamming.
   7. In a high-intensity conflict against Russia, NATO forces would probably face the same casualty evacuation issues that Ukraine is dealing with, Vyshnivskyi said. However, he believes the military alliance would suffer heavier combat losses, as such a war has the potential to be significantly more destructive.
   8. … Now nearly four years into the war, neither Ukraine nor Russia has publicly disclosed how many of their soldiers have been killed or wounded in combat. However, the total losses across both sides are unquestionably high.
   9. Ukraine has suffered an estimated 400,000 casualties, including up to 100,000 troops killed, according to figures reported over the summer. Russia’s toll is even grimmer: the UK defense ministry said last month that Moscow has likely taken more than 1.1 million casualties since its 2022 invasion and is now losing over 1,000 troops a day.
   10. Western leaders have warned that the carnage, while presently unfolding on the battlefield and in Ukrainian cities, could expand deeper into Europe.
   11. [NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said in a speech last month,] “Russia could be ready to use military force against NATO within five years,” … later adding that such a conflict would result in “extreme losses.”
   12. NATO is becoming increasingly aware of the threat that drones pose to the treatment and evacuation of wounded troops in armed conflict, and it is preparing to meet that challenge. The alliance is working to source solutions from the medical and defense industries to save lives on a drone-infested battlefield.
   13. Companies from 20 nations submitted 175 applications to showcase solutions at an “Innovation Challenge” hosted by NATO Allied Command Transformation (ACT) and JATEC — a key initiative that uses real-time lessons from the war to inform Western defense planning — in London last month.
   14. Ten finalists presented ideas, which included a portable system to treat kidney failure, a jury-rigged stretcher design for evacuation over rough terrain, a secure communications portal for medics, ballistic plates for makeshift shelter, and other innovative solutions.
   15. British Army Col. Niall Aye Maung, the medical branch head for NATO’s ACT and the medical advisor to the alliance headquarters in Brussels, referred to the ideas as a “system of systems,” where there’s no single solution for battlefield casualty treatment and medical care. Instead, they’d function together.
   16. ACT officials are now examining how to overhaul the NATO medical system to meet the demands of a large-scale war, Maung told Business Insider — and they’re turning to Ukraine’s experience to find medical solutions, including through events like the innovation challenge.
   17. … Vyshnivskyi the Ukrainian officer, said Western leaders and industry are starting to understand the challenges that Ukraine is dealing with on the battlefield.
   18. However, one of NATO’s biggest problems, he said, is that building new capabilities takes far too long — much slower than the battlefield is changing.
   19. MIKE: There may come a point — maybe there must come a point — where battle fields are simply unsurvivable by humans.
   20. MIKE: As military hardware becomes more and more powerful and sophisticated through the use of Ai, drones of all sorts, humanoid and non-humanoid robots, super-high rate-of-fire weapons shooting hundreds of rounds per minute, directed energy weapons of all sorts, non-nuclear explosives rivaling the power of small nukes, etc., warfare between high-capacity peer powers may end up looking like the battlefields depicted in the Terminator movies, except that machines will be fighting on behalf of humans on both sides.
   21. MIKE: As one example of a directed energy weapon, when the US kidnapped Maduro, it’s reported in a link I’m including called, “’Head Exploding From Inside’: How U.S. Hybrid Warfare Left Maduro’s Soldiers Vomiting Blood In Blacked-Out Caracas”, that US forces used a relatively non-lethal directed sound weapon that essentially immobilized and neutralized some of Maduro’s guards, as well as other weapons and tools.
   22. MIKE: I believe that in the not-so-distant future, there will come a time that lesser powers will be entirely unable to compete with such forces without being either neutralized in some way, and/or slaughtered on the battlefield like cannon fodder.
8. From the KYIVINDEPENDENT — Ukraine officially awards lithium deposit to Trump-linked investors, $179 million set for development; by Dominic Culverwell | KYIVINDEPENDENT.COM | January 13, 2026 7:07 pm. TAGS: Investment in Ukraine, United States, Ukraine, Kirovohrad Oblast,
   1. Ukraine’s prime lithium deposit has been officially awarded to a U.S.-linked group of investors as the country courts U.S. President Donald Trump with business deals amid ongoing peace proposal talks.
   2. The winner of the competition, launched in August 2025, is Dobra Lithium Holdings — a joint venture between TechMet, a U.S. government-backed mining firm, and The Rock Holdings, Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko [PRON: see-va-ree-DEN-ko] wrote on Telegram on Nov. 12.
   3. The New York Times reported last week, citing anonymous Ukrainian officials, that the government was ready to approve the investment group, which also includes Trump ally Ronald S. Lauder — the man credited with the idea for the U.S. to take control over Greenland.
   4. For now, the specific terms of Dobra Lithium Holdings’ proposal have not yet been made public. The company has simply been awarded the rights to a product-sharing agreement with the Ukrainian government, meaning profits will also be shared with the state.
   5. Dobra Lithium Holdings told the Kyiv Independent it “looks forward” to the next phase of negotiations over the terms of the product-sharing agreement with the government.
   6. [The company said,] “Once developed, it will make a significant contribution to the economic recovery and reconstruction of Ukraine.”
   7. The announcement comes as President Volodymyr Zelensky leverages Ukraine’s economic potential to win over Trump’s support for Kyiv’s 20-point peace proposal. As part of ongoing peace talks, Kyiv also announced an $800 billion “prosperity plan” to attract American and European investors over the next 10 years.
   8. [MIKE: I’ll note here that the article includes links to a December story outlining the 20 points of the proposed peace plan as well as to the prosperity plan. Continuing …]
   9. TechMet was long seen as the competition’s likely winner, in part due to it being backed by the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), a government agency established under Trump’s first term.
   10. Lithium is a highly in-demand mineral for its use in the AI, robotics, defense, and energy sectors. The untapped Dobra deposit, located in the central Kirovohrad Oblast, has been touted as one of Ukraine’s most promising mineral sites, containing between 80 and 105 million metric tons of lithium.
   11. If the project is successful, it could attract in total over $500 million in investments, Deputy Economy Minister Yegor Perelygin [PRON: Peh-REH-lih-gin] wrote on Facebook on Jan. 13.
   12. Under the competition’s terms, the winner is required to invest a minimum of $179 million in capital investments into the site, Perelygin wrote. This includes $12 million for new geological surveys and audits within 2.5 years.
   13. If the surveys and audits show that the deposit is worthwhile for the company to commercially mine, then at least $167 million will be directed towards production and enrichment in another four to five years.
   14. The product sharing agreement with the state lasts for up to 50 years, according to the Economy Ministry.
   15. In the first four years of the extraction, Dobra Lithium Holdings will pay the Ukrainian government 4% of the direct share of the profits, as well as a rental fee, corporate tax, and employees’ taxes, totaling 13% of the company’s profits, Perelygin said.
   16. [This made me think of film profit sharing, where the studio says the movie never made a profit, and the profit sharing agreement is effectively useless. I would suggest that Ukraine calculate the profit sharing based on the gross, just like A-list actors do. Continuing …]
   17. Once Dobra Lithium Holdings is in its fifth year of lithium production, the government gets a much bigger share — 22% — after the company recoups its initial costs.
   18. Zelensky’s administration drew attention to the deposit last year, following the signing of a minerals deal in April, and the subsequent creation of a U.S.-Ukraine reconstruction fund. The 2025 agreement gives preferential access to U.S. investors through the fund, and was jointly developed with the DFC.
   19. [Wrote [Prime Minister] Svyrydenko,] “The (Dobra) project will provide an impetus for further attracting more investors. … Attracting investors from the U.S. and the EU also enhances international attention to Ukraine, brings in modern extraction and processing technologies, and creates additional security guarantees for our country.”
   20. MIKE: This sounds to me like a corrupt bargain that the US forced on Ukraine in a way that seems repugnant, not to mention socialist, since part of this company is apparently owned by the US government.
   21. MIKE: I personally don’t have an issue in principle with a certain amount of socialism, but this feels like naked mercantilism. Maybe a more appropriate name for the US-owned partner, TechMet, would be the East Ukraine Trading Company, which would have a relevant historical connotation.
   22. MIKE: As the saying goes, everything Trump touches turns to crap. I don’t expect this deal to be any different. We’ll see.
9. From the NY Times — Why China Is Suddenly Obsessed With American Poverty; By Li Yuan | NYTIMES.COM | Jan. 13, 2026, 12:00 a.m. ET. TAGS: Communist Party of China (CCP), Donald Trump, United States, American poverty,
   1. Chinese commentators are talking a lot these days about poverty in the United States, claiming China’s superiority by appropriating an evocative phrase from video game culture.
   2. The phrase, “kill line,” is used in gaming to mark the point where the condition of opposing players has so deteriorated that they can be killed by one shot. Now, it has become a persistent metaphor in Communist Party propaganda.
   3. “Kill line” has been used repeatedly on social media and commentary sites, as well as news outlets linked to the state. It has gained traction in China to depict the horror of American poverty — a fatal threshold beyond which recovery to a better life becomes impossible. The phrase is used as a metaphor to encompass homelessness, debt, addiction and economic insecurity. In its official use, the “kill line” hovers over the heads of Americans but is something Chinese people don’t have to fear.
   4. The depiction of the United States as a place where economic hardship is deep and widespread has been a go-to of official Chinese messaging for years. But the use of the “kill line” phrasing and imagery is new. The power is in the simplicity of what it describes: an abrupt threshold where misery begins, and a happy life is irreversibly lost. The narrative is meant to offer China’s people emotional relief while attempting to deflect criticism of its leaders.
   5. The worse things look across the Pacific, the logic of the propaganda goes, the more tolerable present struggles become.
   6. It’s not a coincidence that there is a swell of these messages now. China’s economic growth is half what it once was. Youth unemployment is high. Familiar paths to security — stable jobs, rising property values, steady upward mobility — have become less predictable. For many families, the margin for error feels thinner than it once did.
   7. In an essay published online in late December, the legal blogger Li Yuchen argued that the appeal of the “kill line” idea was its convenience. It allowed Chinese people to condemn a distant system while avoiding uncomfortable questions about their own lives, he wrote.
   8. The term “functions less as an analytical tool than an emotional interpreter,” he wrote. His essay was removed by censors, joining a long list of content erased for questioning official economic narratives.
   9. The fact is that societal inequality is a problem in both China and the United States. And the American economy no doubt leaves many people in fragile positions. The causes are complex.
   10. Yet in China, poverty is experienced and perceived differently. In most Chinese cities, street begging and visible homelessness are tightly managed, making them far less prominent in daily life. Many urban residents encounter such scenes only through foreign reporting, rebroadcast by Chinese state media, about the United States and other places.
   11. Economic insecurity remains widespread in China. Some 600 million people, or about 40 percent of the population, make about $1,700 a year. Rural pensions often amount to only $20 or $30 a month, and a serious illness can send families into a financial crisis. That fear of running out of money is one reason China has among the world’s highest household savings rates. But such pressures are portrayed as part of a culture of endurance and responsibility that leaves families prepared to overcome unpredictable life events.
   12. For older Chinese, the enlistment of American poverty in service of domestic politics is familiar. During the Cultural Revolution, a famous slogan proclaimed that “happy Chinese people deeply cared about the American people living in misery,” even as most Chinese themselves were living in poverty.
   13. When [I, the author,] was growing up in China in the early 1980s, my family subscribed to China Children’s News, which ran a weekly column with a simple slogan: “Socialism is good; capitalism is bad.” It described seniors in American cities scavenging for food, and homeless people freezing to death. Those stories were not invented, but they lacked context and were presented as the dominant experiences in American society. Much of Chinese society was still closed off from the world, and reliable information was scarce.
   14. That many people accepted such narratives was hardly surprising. What’s striking is that similar portrayals continue to resonate today, when access to information is relatively much greater despite state control.
   15. The formula is simple: magnify foreign suffering to deflect from domestic problems. That approach is taking shape today around the “kill line” metaphor.
   16. The phrase is believed to have been first popularized in this new context on the Bilibili video platform in early November by a user known as Squid King. In a five-hour video, he stitched together what he claimed were firsthand encounters of poverty from time he spent in the United States. His video used scenes of children knocking on doors on a cold Halloween night asking for food, delivery workers suffering from hunger because of their meager wages, and injured laborers discharged from hospitals because they could not pay.
   17. The scenes were presented not as isolated cases but as evidence of a system: Above the “kill line,” life continues; below it, society stops treating people as human.
   18. The narrative spread beyond the Squid King video, and many people online repeated his anecdotes. Essays on the nationalist news site Guancha and China’s biggest social media platform, WeChat, described the “kill line” as the “real operating logic” of American capitalism.
   19. Others cited examples of Western journalism that they felt presented the America-China contrasts. A Financial Times article published on Dec. 24 about Connecticut’s wealth gap — affluent Greenwich, struggling Bridgeport — was recast in Chinese media. Even a modest financial shock, such as a missed paycheck, the loss of health care benefits or a sudden expense, can trigger a rapid downward spiral.
   20. Another widely circulated example drew on “Hillbilly Elegy,” the 2016 memoir by Vice President JD Vance. People online highlighted his account of selling plasma while struggling with student debt. If even a future national leader had to drain his body to stay afloat, Chinese commentaries asked, what chance does an ordinary American have?
   21. By late December, the “kill line” framework had gained official momentum. Beijing Daily and Southern Daily, both state-run outlets, launched several “hot topics” on the Weibo platform that usually help draw wider attention. Guancha published more than a dozen commentaries in less than two weeks applying the metaphor to American poverty, health care and working conditions. The site later included “kill line” in its roundup of the year’s top news, linking it to critiques of President Trump’s first year back in office.
   22. In early January, Qiushi, the Chinese Communist Party’s leading theoretical journal, published a commentary addressing the “kill line” as a structural feature of U.S. capitalism. A term borrowed from gaming culture had entered sanctioned political language.
   23. In many of the commentaries, anecdotes about Americans experiencing abrupt financial crises are followed by comparisons with China. Universal basic health care, minimum subsistence guarantees and poverty alleviation campaigns are cited as evidence that China does not permit anyone to fall into sudden distress.
   24. “China’s system will not allow a person to be ‘killed’ by a single misfortune,” one commentary from a provincial propaganda department states.
   25. Many readers expressed shock at American poverty and gratitude for China’s system. “At least we have a safety net,” said one commenter.
   26. Not everyone has accepted the narrative. Some commentators even applied the “kill line” language to domestic policies, including local actions in northern Hebei Province that sharply raised winter fuel costs for rural households.
   27. [One person wrote on WeChat,] “A topic does not gain traction simply because people are foolish. … Often, it spreads because confronting reality is harder.”
   28. The title of the article: “The American kill line is not about America.”
   29. MIKE: I first visited China about 20 years ago. My wife wanted me to meet her family, but also wanted to give me a broader sense of what modern China was like.
   30. MIKE: I spent time in the cities of Harbin and Acheng in northeastern China. I also visited Beijing and Shanghai, as well as some smaller cities.
   31. MIKE: The experience was eye-opening and mostly very impressive, especially after hearing the stories my wife told me about the poverty of her childhood.
   32. MIKE: After growing up during the Cold War in the 1950s and 1960s, when the People’s Republic of China or mainland China was typically referred to as Red China, this was, to use a term, a significant re-education for me.
   33. MIKE: It’s true that at the time, there was increasing affluence in China and a growing middle class. There was construction everywhere.
   34. MIKE: But there were also beggars everywhere, using all kinds of strategies from invoking deep sympathy and pity to almost aggressive panhandling. One child grabbed the waist of my pants, implying that I was so well off that I should give him money. That’s pretty aggressive.
   35. MIKE: I also saw people living in one room brick structures and cooking outdoors, and people bathing and doing laundry in a canal built during imperial times.
   36. MIKE: All societies are complicated. My idea of really touring is not necessarily seeing much of the national landmarks, monuments and museums. I like to tour downtown as well as residential communities. I feel that’s really the best way to learn about a place.
   37. MIKE: Well, China is complicated, as is the United States.
   38. MIKE: The ruling Chinese Communist Party justifies its primacy by claiming that it offers the best possible living conditions and opportunities to the greatest number of Chinese, and historically, that’s absolutely true. But as with many dictatorships, there is no such thing as a free lunch.
   39. MIKE: The tradeoffs are limited freedom of speech and action; a justice system that, although greatly reformed, can still be arbitrary and where verdicts are usually a foregone conclusion. And there is limited press freedom. I read a NY Times article in 2004 about an enterprising Chinese investigative reporter and editor who eventually crossed some official red lines, and he paid some personal prices for that. I’ve never forgotten the quote from him: “In China, supervision by the media can only proceed within the existing system. Freedom means knowing how big your cage is.”
   40. MIKE: The US is far from perfect. Even less so since January 20^th, 2025. But sooner or later, it will get better because most Americans will not allow themselves to get accustomed to suppression, dictatorship, fascism, and tyranny.
   41. MIKE: The Chinese are right, to an extent, There is an American “kill line”, but the popular backlash is already starting.
10. On a slightly lighter note, no pun intended, there’s this interesting bit from Australia by way of FUTURISM-DOT-COM. It’s from November, but I’ve saved it for you — Australia Now Has So Much Solar Power That It’s Giving Electricity Out for Free; By Victor Tangermann | FUTURISM.COM | Published Nov 7, 2025 10:21 AM EST. TAGS: Australia, Free Solar Power, Renewable Energy,
    1. Australia is generating so much solar power that it’s now giving it out for free.
    2. As The Guardian reports, residents in three of the country’s states — New South Wales, south-east Queensland, and South Australia, representing approximately 14 million people, or roughly half of the country’s population — will be receiving at least three hours of free solar power every day, even if they don’t have panels mounted to their roofs.
    3. The country’s federal government even helpfully suggested that Australians should use the period to use their most electricity-intensive appliances, from air conditioners to electric car chargers — a renewable energy boon that less sunny parts of the world can only dream of.
    4. The initiative was designed to ensure that excess power during peak times doesn’t go unused. With countries making strides in building out solar farms and more households installing solar panels, there’s plenty of energy to go around. However, storing all of this power for later use remains a major logistical challenge.
    5. To even out energy usage during the day, when solar power generation hits its peak, the government is hoping to encourage residents to shift their maximum usage — which conventionally isn’t in the middle of the day — to when there’s a surplus.
    6. Proponents of the move argue that this could make the power grid more stable. It could also benefit those who don’t own a home.
    7. [Said climate change and energy minister Chris Bowen in a statement,] “People who are able to move electricity use into the zero-cost power period will benefit directly, whether they have solar panels or not and whether they own or rent. … And the more people [who] take up the offer and move their use, the greater the system benefits that lower costs for all electricity users will be.”
    8. Bowen is hoping 82 percent of Australia’s energy demands could be met with renewable energy by 2030, along with a 43 percent reduction in emissions compared to 2005 levels.
    9. Meanwhile, the situation in the United States looks dramatically different these days. Last month, the Trump administration quietly canceled the country’s largest solar project as part of a staunchly anti-renewable energy agenda.
    10. But it’s not all bad news. Despite the White House’s new focus on deregulating emissions standards and actively undermining the adoption of green energy, the US is still on track to build out a record amount of new solar capacity this year.
    11. MIKE: What struck me about this story is that in the 1950s, electricity generated by nuclear reactors was touted as someday being so cheap that it wouldn’t even be metered. Kind of ironic that it took 70 years, but that may finally be coming from a civilizational switch to solar. 

There’s always more to discuss, but that’s all we have time for today.