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Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig (@ThinkwingRadio), a listener call-in show  airing live every Monday night from 9-10 PM (CT) on KPFT-FM 90.1 (Houston). My engineer is Bob Gartner.

Listen live on the radio or on the internet from anywhere in the world! When the show is live, we take calls at 713-526-5738. (Long distance charges may apply.)

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For the purposes of this show, I operate on two mottoes:

• You’re entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts;
  

  Houston Mayor Annise Parker [L] with Mike, just before the show. (Dec. 7, 2015)

• An educated electorate is a prerequisite for a democracy.

SIGNOFF QUOTE[s]:

 

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1. Are you ready for the runoffs? Make sure you are registered to vote.
   1. Make sure you are registered:
   2. HarrisVotes.com
   3. VoteTexas.gov
2. Who’s on the May 22 Texas primary runoff ballots?, By Ryan Murphy March 14, 2018
   1. Early voting for the May 22 runoffs begins on May 14 and ends on May 18.
   2. More than 30 Texas primary races are headed to a runoff. Here’s what you need to know.
3. What I Saw Treating the Victims From Parkland Should Change the Debate on Guns – They weren’t the first mass-shooting victims the Florida radiologist saw—but their wounds were radically different. By Heather Sher [THE ATLANTIC] Feb 22, 2018
   1. In a typical handgun injury, which I diagnose almost daily, a bullet leaves a laceration through an organ such as the liver. To a radiologist, it appears as a linear, thin, gray bullet track through the organ. There may be bleeding and some bullet fragments.
   2. I was looking at a CT scan of one of the mass-shooting victims from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, who had been brought to the trauma center during my call shift. The organ looked like an overripe melon smashed by a sledgehammer, and was bleeding extensively. How could a gunshot wound have caused this much damage?
   3. …Routine handgun injuries leave entry and exit wounds and linear tracks through the victim’s body that are roughly the size of the bullet. If the bullet does not directly hit something crucial like the heart or the aorta, and the victim does not bleed to death before being transported to our care at the trauma center, chances are that we can save him. The bullets fired by an AR-15 are different: They travel at a higher velocity and are far more lethal than routine bullets fired from a handgun. The damage they cause is a function of the energy they impart as they pass through the body. A typical AR-15 bullet leaves the barrel traveling almost three times faster than—and imparting more than three times the energy of—a typical 9mm bullet from a handgun. An AR-15 rifle outfitted with a magazine with 50 rounds allows many more lethal bullets to be delivered quickly without reloading.
   4. I have seen a handful of AR-15 injuries in my career. Years ago I saw one from a man shot in the back by a SWAT team. The injury along the path of the bullet from an AR-15 is vastly different from a low-velocity handgun injury. The bullet from an AR-15 passes through the body like a cigarette boat traveling at maximum speed through a tiny canal. The tissue next to the bullet is elastic—moving away from the bullet like waves of water displaced by the boat—and then returns and settles back. This process is called cavitation; it leaves the displaced tissue damaged or killed. The high-velocity bullet causes a swath of tissue damage that extends several inches from its path. It does not have to actually hit an artery to damage it and cause catastrophic bleeding. Exit wounds can be the size of an orange.
   5. With an AR-15, the shooter does not have to be particularly accurate. The victim does not have to be unlucky. If a victim takes a direct hit to the liver from an AR-15, the damage is far graver than that of a simple handgun-shot injury. Handgun injuries to the liver are generally survivable unless the bullet hits the main blood supply to the liver. An AR-15 bullet wound to the middle of the liver would cause so much bleeding that the patient would likely never make it to the trauma center to receive our care.
   6. MIKE: Let’s talk about the .223 caliber high velocity bullets that goe in an AR-15-like assault weapon.
      1. Design objectives:
         1. Weight
         2. Quantity
         3. Lethality
4. Trump’s ‘Good Relationship’ With Russia Is Slipping Away – By shuttering a consulate and expelling 60 diplomats in response to the spy poisoning in Britain, he’s taken a remarkably hard line against Putin. By Uri Friedman,[THE ATLANTIC] 3-26-2018 5:20 PM ET
   1. Donald Trump says building a “good relationship” with Russia isn’t about his interests, but America’s. Russia “can help solve problems…
   2. On Monday, however, the U.S.-Russian relationship went from bad to worse. The Trump administration shut down the Russian consulate in Seattle and ordered 60 diplomats to leave the United States in retaliation for the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter with a nerve agent. Canada and several European countries also booted Russian officials, in what the British prime minister has described as the “largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in history.” The United States and its allies have blamed the Russian government for the chemical-weapon attack, which targeted British citizens on British soil.
   3. Speaking to reporters on Monday, [unnamed] Trump administration officials stated that the United States can’t improve relations with Russia while the Kremlin is denying responsibility for the attempted murder, messing with America’s friends, and engaging in a “steady drumbeat of destabilizing and aggressive actions” in the U.S. and around the world. Russian agents “hide behind a veneer of diplomatic immunity while actively engaging in intelligence operations that undermine the country in which they are hosted and the democracies they seek to minimize,” [an unnamed] senior administration official
   4. Now Trump has expelled more Russian officials than his predecessor ever did. In closing the Russian consulate in San Francisco in August and Seattle today, he has wiped out Russia’s diplomatic presence on the West Coast and substantially degraded its covert capabilities in the United States. “This is absolutely [the president’s] decision,” a senior administration official said on Monday, without answering whether Trump has personally discussed the nerve-agent attack with Putin.
5. [U.S. Congressman Steve] Stockman spent charity funds to collect dirt on political opponent, witness says, By Gabrielle Banks, Houston Chronicle Updated 4:01 pm, Friday, March 23, 2018
   1. Shortly after taking office in 2013, U.S. Congressman Steve Stockman hired a crew of amateur spies to perform political surveillance on a rising star in his own state Republican party, according to witnesses Thursday at the former lawmaker’s federal corruption trial in Houston.
   2. Stockman gave $32,000 in charitable funds to a political operative to conduct surveillance of state Rep. James White, R-Woodville and two other GOP officeholders.
   3. After three months of trailing White at work and leisure, planting a fake intern with surveillance equipment on his staff and combing through public records, the conservative operative and attorney Benjamin Wetmore, testified his crew netted nothing, or “bupkis,” as he put it.
   4. Wetmore was associated with the American Phoenix Foundation, an Austin-based group that claimed in May 2015 to have amassed hundreds of hours of covert video footage of Texas lawmakers with the goal of proving corruption.
   5. Prosecutors in Stockman’s criminal trial contend he funneled thousands of dollars from a charitable donation into one such surveillance operation in hopes of uncovering what Wetmore called “salacious” gossip about White, one of the few African-American Republican lawmakers in Austin and a perceived political rival.
   6. Prosecutors in Stockman’s criminal trial contend he funneled thousands of dollars from a charitable donation into one such surveillance operation in hopes of uncovering what Wetmore called “salacious” gossip about White, one of the few African-American Republican lawmakers in Austin and a perceived political rival.
   7. Stockman is charged with 28 criminal counts, including allegations that he illegally converted major charitable donations to pay for personal and political expenses.
6. ICE Deports U.S. Army Veteran to Mexico After Serving Two Tours in Afghanistan – Emotional Goodbye As Detroit Resident Of 30 Years Deported To Mexico, By Joe Difazio [NEWSWEEK.COM] 3/25/18 at 5:53 PM
   1. Miguel Perez Jr., 39, was brought to the U.S. from Mexico without going through the proper immigration process when he was 8, according to the Chicago Tribune. Perez, who held a green card, attempted to retroactively gain citizenship as a veteran, but was denied due to a felony drug conviction.
   2. Perez mistakenly believed that he automatically became a citizen when he enlisted, according to Slate, a fate that has befallen a number of veterans who have arrived in the U.S. illegally and then joined the military.
   3. Perez joined the Army in 2001 and served until 2004. Upon returning Perez was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder from a Chicago-area Veterans Affairs hospital.
   4. “After the second tour, there was more alcohol and that was also when I tried some drugs,” said Perez last month. “But the addiction really started after I got back to Chicago, when I got back home, because I did not feel very sociable.”
   5. In 2008 Perez was caught attempting to sell two pounds of cocaine to an undercover officer and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Perez was being let off early when he was then transferred to ICE custody for deportation. It was then that Perez learned he had not successfully become a citizen. Perez attempted to become a citizen retroactively, but was denied because he did not show “good moral character,” in the department’s eyes – a main requirement for citizenship.
   6. Illinois’ Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth, a veteran herself, and several activists fought to keep Perez in the country, but to no avail.
7. The United States is finally confronting China’s economic aggression, By Josh Rogin, [The Washington Post , Global Opinions] March 25, 2018
   1. Lost in last week’s coverage of tariffs and trade deficits was the Trump administration’s landmark decision to confront China’s unfair and illegal practices that threaten our economic security. It’s the opening salvo of the key economic battle of the 21st century and part of a worldwide struggle the United States must lead.
   2. The Chinese government’s strategy to amass control of critical technologies while undermining the rules-based trade system built by the United States and its partners will be hard to combat. Exactly how the administration plans to tackle the task remains unclear. But the implications of that long-term project reach far beyond the short-term battle over tariffs or deficits now brewing between Washington and Beijing.
   3. The Trump administration is now basing U.S. policy on a recognition that the massive scale of China’s technology transfer effort cannot be addressed with the usual levers of trade policy. That means the United States and other countries will have to respond with new tools and a new attitude.
   4. Top of Form
   5. Bottom of Form
   6. “Technology is probably the most important part of our economy,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer said Thursday. “And we concluded that, in fact, China does have a policy of forced technology transfer; of requiring licensing at less than economic value; of state capitalism, wherein they go in and buy technology in the United States in non-economic ways; and then, finally, of cybertheft.”
   7. … A bipartisan commission chaired by retired Adm. Dennis Blair and former Utah governor Jon Huntsman estimated the loss to the U.S. economy due to intellectual property theft overall to be between $225 billion and $600 billion annually. The commission’s 2017 report named China as the “principal IP infringer.”
8. Toys ‘R’ Us will close or sell all US stores – Toys “R” Us is closing its doors after 70 years in business, by Chris Isidore, Jackie Wattles and Parija Kavilanz   [@CNNMoney] March 15, 2018
   1. In a bankruptcy court filing Thursday, Toys “R” Us said it had a horrific holiday season, “well below worst case projections.” It earned just $81 million in pre-tax profit in the fourth quarter, $250 million below the company’s target and a quarter of what it earned a year earlier.
   2. “The company was taken over by private equity giants KKR, Bain Capital and real estate investment company Vornado in 2005. Together they paid $6.6 billion, but saddled the company with $5.3 billion in debt.”
   3. The internet isn’t the only thing killing U.S. retailers, By Aimee Picchi [CBS MoneyWatch] May 12, 2017, 5:00 AM Last Updated May 15, 2017 12:09 PM EDT
      1. Private equity (PE) funds operate by raising money from investors and using the funds to acquire companies that, while distressed, still have value. PE executives then direct management to make strategic and operational changes in order to boost a business’ performance. The goal, buyout firms say, is to turn companies around and eventually sell them for a profit. PE firms make money by collecting fees for managing funds and in taking about 20 percent of the earnings when a business is sold.
      2. But PE firms also tend to fund their acquisitions partly with debt raised by the target company. That can leave already struggling businesses swimming in red ink, hindering their recovery — or pushing them into insolvency.
      3. “When you are in public relations for private equity, you say leveraging up the company imposes discipline, because they have to generate a certain amount of cash to pay the debt,” said Jude Gorman, general counsel at Reorg Research. “It sounds great until you say, ‘But what happens when some sort of secular trend hits and the company doesn’t have the cash to make the loan payment?'”
      4. The result, he noted, are companies like Rue21, which are struggling to juggle their loan repayments while figuring out how to get consumers back in their stores.
   4. Many of the worst-performing retail bonds are backed by private-equity companies, according to Bloomberg News.
   5. Private Equity’s Retail Debt Carnage – Business is bad, covenants are weak and assets are walled off, By Lisa Abramowicz and Shelly Banjo [Bloomberg.com] March 17, 2017
      1. Not all poorly performing retail bonds are created equal. The worst of the bunch have a shared feature: They’re all backed by private-equity companies.
      2. Loss Leaders – Debt of PE-backed retailers has plunged more than those of non-PE owned peers (*= Not PE-owned)
         1. Neiman Marcus, Claire’s, Tailored Brands*, Rue 21, Sears*, Bon-Ton, Petsmart, Toys R Us, Hot Topic, Limited Brands*
      3. [MIKE]: Also, SEARS isn’t PE-owned, But K-Mart (Sears’ acquirer) was.
9. Uber’s Self-Driving Car Just Killed Somebody. Now What?, By Aarian Marshall [www.wired.com] 03.19.18
   1. At about 10 pm on Sunday evening, a self-driving Uber struck and killed a woman crossing the street in Tempe, Arizona. The crash appears to be the first time a self-driving vehicle has killed someone—and could alter the course of a scantily regulated, poorly understood technology that has the power to save lives and create fortunes.
   2. The Tempe Police Department reports the Volvo XC90 SUV was in autonomous mode when the crash occurred, though the car had a human safety driver behind the wheel to monitor the technology and retake control in the case of an emergency or imminent crash. The woman, Elaine Herzberg, was transported to a local hospital, where she died from her injuries. The police department will complete its full report later today.
   3. Uber, Waymo, and other autonomous vehicle developers like Arizona not just for the sunny weather and calm conditions but for the near total lack of restrictions on how they test: Self-driving vehicles don’t need any sort of special permit, just a standard vehicle registration. And their operators don’t have to share any information about what they’re doing with the authorities.
   4. Thus far, only California demands developers make public specific data on their operations, including descriptions of any crashes, how many miles they drive each year, and how often their human safety operators take control from the robot. Even those numbers are less than helpful in understanding the pace of their work or just how well these things really drive. The state will begin allowing the testing of totally driverless vehicles—without safety drivers for backup—on public roads next month.
   5. …companies … await legislation that would put the federal government firmly in charge of all autonomous vehicle design, construction, and performance, and allow even more testing—as many as 100,000 vehicles per manufacturer—all over the country. The bill, called the Self Drive Act, passed in the House this fall. But the companion Senate bill, the AV Start Act, has been held up by a few senators who wonder whether the young technology needs more aggressive oversight.
   6. … Tempe police report the woman was outside the crosswalk when she was hit and killed.
   7. … human drivers kill just 1.16 people for every 100 million miles driven. Waymo and Uber and all the rest combined are nowhere near covering that kind of distance, and they’ve already killed one.
10. What is a “Populist”?
    1. From Wikipedia: … a political philosophy supporting the rights and power of the people in their struggle against a privileged elite.^[1] Critics of populism have described it as a political approach that seeks to disrupt the existing social order by solidifying and mobilizing the animosity of the “commoner” or “the people” against “privileged elites” and the “establishment”.^[2] Populists can fall anywhere on the traditional left–right political spectrum of politics and often portray both bourgeois capitalists and socialist organizers as unfairly dominating the political sphere.^[3]
       1. Political parties and politicians^[4] often use the terms “populist” and “populism” as pejoratives against their opponents. Such a view sees populism as demagogy, merely appearing to empathize with the public through rhetoric or unrealistic proposals in order to increase appeal across the political spectrum.^[5]
    2. From Merriam-Webster:
       1. 1: a member of a political party claiming to represent the common people; especially, often capitalized : a member of a U.S. political party formed in 1891 primarily to represent agrarian interests and to advocate the free coinage of silver and government control of monopolies
       2. 2 : a believer in the rights, wisdom, or virtues of the common people
    3. oxforddictionaries.com:
       1. A person, especially a politician, who strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups.
11. America’s Cultural Revolution, by Catherine Rampell
    1. Last month in Shanghai, Chinese venture capitalist Eric X. Li made a provocative suggestion. The United States, he said, was going through its own “Cultural Revolution.” …
    2. Li said he saw several parallels between the violence and chaos in China decades ago and the animosity coursing through the United States today. In both cases, the countries turned inward, focusing more on defining the soul of their nations than on issues beyond their borders.
    3. He said that both countries were also “torn apart by ideological struggles,” with kinships, friendships and business relationships being severed by political differences.
    4. “Virtually all types of institutions, be it political, educational, or business, are exhausting their internal energy in dealing with contentious, and seemingly irreconcilable, differences in basic identities and values — what it means to be American,” he said in a subsequent email exchange. “In such an environment, identity trumps reason, ideology overwhelms politics, and moral convictions replace intellectual discourse.”

1. 7 Reforms After Trump, by Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) 12/3/17, 19:31
   1. Repeal Shelby v Holder (LEGISLATE: Renew Voting Rights Act)
   2. Repeal Citizens United (LEGISLATE/AMENDMENT: Limit Money in Politics, abolish anonymous money in politics)
   3. Abolish/Revise electoral college (or can it be saved?)
   4. Apply anti-nepotism law to White House (It was WRITTEN for White House [Robert Kennedy serving with JFK])
   5. All declared POTUS candidates must release at least 5 years tax returns and medical physical data. (LEGISLATE/AMENDMENT: for how many years)
   6. Presidents may not self-pardon (AMENDMENT OR LEGISLATION: or pardon executive appointees?)
   7. No “self-funding” of campaigns beyond legal donor limit.
   8. Special counsel has power to indict president
      1.  ADD:
         1. 2/3 Senate vote to confirm SCOTUS appointment

TOPICS FROM PREVIOUS WEEKS:

1. What do belts around Proxima Centauri mean for exoplanet research?, By John Wenz  |  Published: Friday, November 03, 2017 [http://www.astronomy.com]
2. TV Talk:
   1. “The Good Place”
   2. “The Orville”
   3. “Adam Ruins Everything”

LINKS:

 SOURCES WHICH MAY BE RELEVANT TO OTHER DISCUSSION:

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