The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, January 14, 2026

Notably: Randy Fine, the esteemed congressman whose district includes Flagler County, on Monday introduced a bill he called “landmark legislation” called the Iceland Annexation and Statehood Act, and said it was “focused on securing America’s strategic national security interests in the Arctic and countering the growing threats posed by China and Russia.” He said: “Iceland is not a distant outpost we can afford to ignore—it is a vital national security asset. Whoever controls Iceland controls key Arctic shipping lanes and the security architecture protecting the United States. America cannot leave that future in the hands of regimes that despise our values and seek to undermine our security.” He also also introduced a bill called the Svalbard Annexation and Statehood Act. You may remember that the Svalbard Islands close to the North Pole have no business belonging to Norway. Fine said: “The Svalbard Islands are not a distant outpost we can afford to ignore—they are a vital national security asset. Whoever controls Svalbard controls key Arctic shipping lanes and the security architecture protecting the United States. America cannot leave that future in the hands of regimes that despise our values and seek to undermine our security.” He also introduced a bill called the Nunavut Annexation and Statehood Act, and said: “Nunavut is not a distant outpost we can afford to ignore—it is a vital national security asset. Whoever controls Nunavut controls key Arctic shipping lanes and the security architecture protecting the United States. America cannot leave that future in the hands of regimes that despise our values and seek to undermine our security.” He also said Nunavut has no business belonging to Canada, especially as a semi-autonomous region. He quoted John Wayne from his May 1971 Playboy Interview: ” Our so-called stealing of this country from them was just a matter of survival. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.” Fine also filed a bill called the Madagascar Annexation and Statehood Act. He said: “Madagascar is not a distant outpost we can afford to ignore—it is a vital national security asset. Whoever controls Madagascar controls key Antarctic shipping lanes and the security architecture protecting the United States. America cannot leave that future in the hands of regimes that despise our values and seek to undermine our security.” Besides, he said, Madagascarians are like Palestinians. They don’t exist.

He needs to get adjusted to an environment in which fixing and hustling have come out of the shadows of black-market speculation to create a wholly open economy of plunder and corruption. I’m not sure he can forget all the things he has to forget before he can become a man who flourishes here.

–From Don DeLillo’s Underworld (1997).

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