THE FIRST HOUR: Donald Trump said that he will begin issuing pardons for nonviolent participants in the January 6^th insurrection during the “first hour” of his presidency as well as starting to deport undocumented immigrants and ramping up oil production.

  Trump made the promises in an interview with Time Magazine, which named him its “Person of the Year.” He also said he would get rid of some childhood vaccines if he is convinced they are dangerous … “the autism rate is at a level that nobody ever believed possible” … and that he plans a “virtual closure” of the Department of Education in Washington.

  He ranted against transgenderism, saying Americans “don’t want to see, you know, men playing in women’s sports. They don’t,” and that, “They don’t want to see all of this transgender, which is, it’s just taken over.”

   The soon-to-be President said that Ukraine should not have been allowed to fire US made missiles into Russia. Posing himself as the world biggest problem solver, he suggested that there will be more momentum for peace between Russia and Ukraine once he’s President. 

  On the Middle East he said, “I think it’s more complicated than the Russia-Ukraine, but I think it’s, it’s, it’s easier to solve.” 

  And after ringing the opening bell yesterday at the New York Stock Exchange, he issued one of his classic Trump superlatives; “We’re going to have an economy the likes of which nobody’s ever seen before.”

A DIFFERENT VOICE: The president-elect announced that he wants to install former Arizona news anchor Kari lake, a staunch ally and 2020 election denier who lost two races for public office, to head the Voice of America.

  This does not bode well for VOA, which installed a new director only a few months ago. The Voice falls under the US Agency for Global Media, which  dissolved into political purges and chaos under a Trump director during his last administration. The President doesn’t usually pick the director of VOA.

  Trump said on social media that Lake will “ensure that the American values of Freedom and Liberty are broadcast around the World FAIRLY and ACCURATELY, unlike the lies spread by the Fake News Media.” 

  The VOA is supposed to be an honest counter to foreign propaganda and a model for free, truthful news coverage. And neither Donald Trump nor Kari Lake are known for telling the truth.  Lake never conceded her race for governor of Arizona and claims to be her state’s “lawful” governor.

  Brian Stelter writes for CNN that some VOA journalists are worried about what could happen under lake, who has become a Trumpy media basher after 30 years in journalism. 

DRONE ON: New Jersey residents and some politicians are in a spin over unidentified drones that have been lingering in the night sky in recent weeks. One woman described a drone she saw as the size of a small car. Drones have also been spotted over a neighborhood in the Bronx.

  Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal said, “they should be shot down, if necessary” and the sheriff of Monmouth County called for declaration of a state of emergency.

   New Jersey Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew claimed that “highly reliable” sources told him the drones could be coming from an Iranian mothership stationed offshore, a claim the Pentagon quickly shot down.

  Multiple videos have shown that something is up there, but they don’t identify what. During a White House briefing, White House national security council spokesman John Kirby said federal investigators have been unable to verify any of the 3,000-plus of reports of car-size drones crusing the night skies in recent weeks.

  Despite so many reports, Kirby said, “Upon review of available imagery, it appears many of the reports of sightings are actually manned aircraft that are being operated lawfully.” 

THE OBIT PAGE: Michael Cole, the actor who along with Peggy Lipton and Clarence Williams played a counterculture undercover police officer on the hit 60’s and 70’s television series, “The Mod Squad,” died this week at age 84.

  The show was one of the first prime-time series to incorporate the hippie counterculture of the times … as well as multiracial casting. “Mod Squad” dealt with racism, abortion, the Vietnam War and drug abuse, although it was still pretty square because it was network television.  Cole played Pete Cochran, a rich kid who was kicked out the house for stealing a car, drafted into the police force. His fellow crime fighters were Linc Hayes, played by Williams, and Julie Barnes, played by Lipton.

  Cole was the last surviving member of the cast. Although “Mod Squad” launched him to fame, Cole recalled that during his casting call before producer Aaron Spelling, he said, ““It sounds stupid, and I hope it never gets on air.”

THE SPIN RACK: After nearly four years of investigation, the FBI’s inspector general determined that there were no undercover agents or informants working for the agency in the crowd during the January 6^th attack on the Capitol. That’s not likely to allay conspiracy theories claiming that FBI operatives stirred the crowd to violence because, after all, the report comes from the FBI itself. — A former stripper and convicted murderer who claimed she was raped in 2006 by three members of the Duke University lacrosse team now says it never happened and she asks forgiveness. In what became a national scandal, Crystal Mangum had said it happened when she was performing at a team party. The three players were found not guilty at trial but before that the university president suspended them from school, accepted the resignation of the coach, and cancelled the remainder of the lacrosse season.

BELOW THE FOLD: British politicians are in an uproar after Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch declared that, “I don’t think sandwiches are a real food,” in a country where the Earl of Sandwich is credited with creating, uuh, you know, the sandwich. 

-30-