The Wall: President Trump told The NY Timesyesterday that congressional negotiations over his border wall are “a waste of time” and he’s ready to take action on his own. Without saying it directly, he told the Times publisher and two of its reporters that, “I’ve set the stage for doing what I’m going to do.”

  Trump has been threatening to declare a national emergency to build his wall if he doesn’t get Congressional approval. He said, “I’ll continue to build the wall, and we’ll get the wall finished. Now whether or not I declare a national emergency — that you’ll see.”

  It wouldn’t be Trump if he didn’t trash some people and that’s what he did with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who’s trying to block the wall. “I’ve actually always gotten along with her, but now I don’t think I will anymore,” Trump said. “I think she’s doing a tremendous disservice to the country. If she doesn’t approve the wall, the rest of it’s just a waste of money and time and energy because it’s desperately needed.”

Fake News: During the interview with the President, Times publisher AG Sulzberger urged Trump to curb his attacks on the press and his use of the label “fake news.” Sulzberger said it is endangering reporters all over the world.

  “The effects are not just being felt with the outlets who you feel are treating you unfairly,” Sulzberger said. “They’re being felt all over the world, including folks who are literally putting their lives on the line to report the truth.”

  Trump said, “I don’t mind a bad story if it’s true, I really don’t. You know, we’re all, like, big people. We understand what’s happening. I’ve had bad stories, very bad stories where I thought it was true and I would never complain. But when you get really bad stories, where it’s not true, then you sort of say, ‘That’s unfair.’”

The Intelligencer: After dismissing the opinions of his intelligence chiefs and calling them “naïve,” President Trump yesterday claimed that the remarks of his intelligence officers before Congress were quoted out of context by the national media.

  After meeting with the intelligence chiefs Trump said, “They said that they were totally misquoted, and they were totally — it was taken out of context,” Trump said in an exchange with reporters. “I’d suggest that you call them. They said it was fake news, which frankly didn’t surprise me.”

  The entire session before the Senate intelligence committee was on the record and Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats submitted 42 pages of written testimony.

The Freeze: An 18-year-old freshman at the university of Iowa was found unconscious on the ground and later died in a hospital. At least 21 people have been reported to have died as a result of the deep cold in the polar vortex that plunged into the Midwest and the East. One woman froze to death in her unheated apartment. Several more people were found dead in their yards.

  The vortex is expected to move out over the weekend, but it’s 5 degrees in Chicago this morning. Detroit, 0; Buffalo, -1; New York, 11; Windsor, Conn., -2; Boston, 11; Camden, Maine, 8. 

The Gathering Crowd:New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker has announced that he’s running for President. A gifted orator, Booker has been expected for many years to one day run for president. He is the second black candidate to announce for 2020. Booker said in a video, “The history of our nation is defined by collective action; by interwoven destinies of slaves and abolitionists; of those born here and those who chose America as home; of those who took up arms to defend our country, and those who linked arms to challenge and change it.” 

The Doomsday Clock:The US is ditching one of its last remaining nuclear arms treaties with Russia after a disagreement about Russian deployment of a new missile near European borders. Also of concern is the intelligence assessment of an increasingly friendly military relationship between Russia and China.

  The Reagan-era treaty limited deployment of missiles with a range of 300 to 3,400 miles, but new generations of missiles are coming online. Also returning are the so-called “battlefield” tactical nuclear weapons, small nukes launched with a rocket or fired from artillery that can take out a city block. They had all but disappeared at the end of the cold war.

The Obit Page:Jacqueline Steiner, who wrote most of the lyrics in 1949 for the song about the Boston subway known as “Charlie on the MTA,” died in Connecticut at age 94.

  Steiner considered “Charlie” to have been just a lark, almost a throwaway, but it had life. The song was about a poor sap named Charlie who couldn’t get off the train because he didn’t have the additional nickel for a fare hike. The song was kicking around until the Kingston Trio made it a hit in 1959.

         “Charlie handed in his dime at the Kendall Square station
         And he changed for Jamaica Plain
         When he got there the conductor told him, ‘one more nickel’
         Charlie couldn’t get off of that train!

        But did he ever return?
         No he never returned and his fate is still unlearned (poor old Charlie)
         He may ride forever ‘neath the streets of Boston
         He’s the man who never returned”

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