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Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig (@ThinkwingRadio), a listener call-in show  airing live every Monday night from 2-3 PM (CT) on KPFT-FM 90.1 (Houston). My engineer is Don Dwayne

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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:
      1. HarrisVotes.com (Election Information Line (713) 755-6965)
      2. VoteTexas.gov
      3. Who’s on the May 22 Texas primary runoff ballots?, By Ryan Murphy [TEXAS TRIBUNE] 
      4. More than 30 Texas primary races are headed to a runoff. Here’s what you need to know. [TEXAS TRIBUNE]
      5. March 14, 2018
         1. Early voting for the May 22 runoffs begins on May 14 and ends on May 18.
2. Federal appellate court upholds embattled Texas voter ID law – The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld Texas’ voter identification law, reversing a lower court ruling that found it discriminated against voters of color. by Alexa Ura April 27, 2018 Updated: 6 PM
   1. … a federal appeals panel on Friday OK’d state lawmakers’ efforts to rewrite the law last year to address faults previously identified by the courts.
   2. On a 2-1 vote, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s ruling that tossed out the state’s revisions through Senate Bill 5. The lower court had said the changes did not absolve Texas lawmakers from responsibility for discriminating against voters of color when they crafted one of the nation’s strictest voter ID laws in 2011.
   3. But the Legislature “succeeded in its goal” of addressing flaws in the voter ID law in 2017, Judge Edith Jones wrote in the majority opinion for the divided panel, and the lower court acted prematurely when it “abused its discretion” in ruling to invalidate SB 5.
   4. The 5th Circuit panel’s ruling is a major victory for the state after years of losses in an almost seven-year legal battle over its restrictions on what forms of identification are accepted at the polls.…
   5. Key to the state’s defense was a change in the 2017 law that allows Texans without photo ID to vote if they present alternate forms of IDand sign affidavits swearing a “reasonable impediment” kept them from obtaining the proper ID. Those voters could present documents such as utility bills, bank statements or paychecks to confirm their identification, but lawmakers also wrote into law that those found to have lied about not possessing the proper photo ID could be charged with a state jail felony.
   6. Arguing before the 5th Circuit in December, attorneys representing the voting and civil rights groups suing the state said the “reasonable impediment” provision was a faulty remedy because of the possibility that voting “under the express threat of going to jail” would have a “chilling effect” on voters without photo ID.
   7. They also pointed out that the list of permissible IDs remains unchanged under the state’s new ID law: a state driver’s license or ID card, a concealed handgun license, a U.S. passport, a military ID card, a U.S. citizenship certificate or an election identification certificate. …
   8. Judge James Graves Jr. employed striking imagery to lay out his dissent to the majority opinion. “A hog in a silk waistcoat is still a hog,” he wrote before explaining that the original voter ID law was an “unconstitutional disenfranchisement of duly qualified voters.” …
   9. … With a loss in hand, opponents could be derailed in their efforts to persuade the courts to place Texas back under federal oversight of its election laws — a process called preclearance.
   10. For decades, Texas was on a list of states and localities needing federal permission to change their election laws, a safeguard for minority voting rights.  The U.S. Supreme Court wiped clean the list in 2013 but left open the possibility that states could return to the list if they intentionally discriminated in the future.…
   11. … The challengers can still appeal the ruling. They can ask the full 5th Circuit to reconsider the case or they can look to the U.S. Supreme Court for relief.
3. Former George W. Bush ethics lawyer ditches GOP, to seek U.S. Senate in Minn. as Democrat – Richard Painter will take on Tina Smith, who holds the seat now as Al Franken’s successor. By Paul Walsh [Star Tribune] April 30, 2018 — 12:13pm
   1. Richard Painter, a longtime Republican who was chief ethics lawyer for George W. Bush’s White House, intends to run for the U.S. Senate in Minnesota this year as a Democrat, according to a filing he made recently with federal elections officials.
   2. Painter, a persistent and frequent critic of President Donald Trump on national cable TV news appearances and on Twitter, is expected to announce his candidacy at a Monday news conference.
   3. He’s running for Democrat Al Franken’s former seat.
4. What did you think of Michelle Wolf’s performance at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner?
   1. Did you see it?
   2. Did you know who she was before the gave it?
   3. Watch here. (Slate.com)
5. Donald Trump’s tax law firm has ‘deep’ ties to Russia, By Pete Madden & Matthew Mosk [ABCNews] May 12, 2017, 2:33 PM ET
   1. The lawyers who wrote a letter saying President Trump had no significant business ties to Russia work for a law firm that has extensive ties to Russia and received a “Russia Law Firm of the Year” award in 2016.
   2. … the law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, which has served as tax counsel to Trump and the Trump Organization since 2005, wrote a letter in March released by the White House on Friday stating that a review of the last 10 years of Trump’s tax returns “do not reflect” ties to Russia “with a few exceptions.”
   3. In 2016, however, Chambers & Partners, a London-based legal research publication, named the firm “Russia Law Firm of the Year” at its annual awards dinner. The firm celebrated the “prestigious honor” in a press release on its website, noting that the award is “the latest honor for the high-profile work performed by the lawyers in Morgan Lewis’ Moscow office.”
   4. According to the firm’s website, its Moscow office includes more than 40 lawyers and staff who are “well known in the Russian market, and have a deep familiarity with the local legislation, practices, and key players.” The firm boasts of being “particularly adept” at advising clients on “sanction matters.”
6. After death of Ford Taurus, Fusion, Fiesta, will Ford fans buy a Chevy?, By Chris Woodyard and Nathan Bomey, USA TODAY Published 2:11 a.m. ET April 28, 2018
   1. This is a non-trivial, macro-economic question, and not just for FORD.
   2. “Will loyal owners switch to competing brands? Despite an 11% decline in passenger car sales in 2017, Americans buy several million new cars every year.”
7. Huawei has been building its substitute to Android for a rainy day. Is that day looming?, By Li Tao Yingzhi Yang 26 Apr 2018 [South China Morning Post] PUBLISHED : Friday, 27 April, 2018, 4:35pm, (UPDATED : Friday, 27 April, 2018, 9:00pm)
   1. Having an alternative smartphone OS may have taken on added urgency for China with rising trade tensions with the US. Huawei has been developing and perfecting its own system, according to people familiar with the matter.
   2. The US ban that bars Chinese telecommunications equipment maker ZTE from using American products and services has served as a reality check for China’s technology ambitions. The prospect that ZTE could lose its license to use Google’s Android operating system for smartphones has also raised the question: does China need its own smartphone OS as a backup?
8. Prom dress prompts ‘cultural appropriation’ row, By Chris Bell, [BBC UGC & Social News] April 30, 2018, 2 hours ago
   1. Twitter user Keziah, who is not Chinese, posted pictures of herself wearing a cheongsam, or qipao – a traditional Chinese dress – for her prom.
   2. In a widely-shared response to the pictures, one Twitter user, Jeremy Lam, tweeted: “My culture is not your… prom dress”.
   3. The original tweet, and Lam’s criticism, have attracted hundreds of thousands of likes, tens of thousands of retweets, and thousands more comments as supporters and critics clashed over the concept of cultural appropriation – the adoption of minority cultures, typically by dominant cultures. …
   4. … Mr Lam explained on Twitter why he found the photos troubling. He said the qipao began as a formless gown for house cleaning and was turned into a symbol of female empowerment.
   5. “In a time where Asian women were silenced they were able to create not only a piece of art but a symbol of activism,” he wrote.
   6. “This piece of clothing embraced femininity, confidence and gender equality through its beautiful, eye-catching appearance. The style was then spread throughout Asia as a beautiful garment and sign of women’s liberation.
   7. “I’m proud of my culture, including the extreme barriers marginalised people within that culture have had to overcome those obstacles. For it to simply be subject to American consumerism and cater to a white audience is parallel to colonial ideology.”
   8. Cultural appropriation: exchange of ideas or the politics of power? [AUDIO CLIPS]
   9. When does cultural borrowing turn into cultural appropriation?
   10. MIKE: Having grown up in a culture that imitates and is imitated, I’m confused. I can understand there are boundaries, but where? What cultural “values” are rightfully avoided out of respect, and when does the idea of cultural appropriation become a form of victimhood?
   11. When Irish dance became popularized by “River Dance,” the Irish were saying that this was Ireland’s cultural moment.
9. Former model eaten alive by scabies in Georgia nursing home – According to a pending lawsuit filed by the family, 93-year-old Rebecca Zeni died in 2015 from scabies at the facility, by Andy Pierrotti, WXIA-TV, Atlanta [USA Today Network] Published 2:08 p.m. ET April 28, 2018 | Updated 5:12 p.m. ET April 28, 2018
   1. A Georgia nursing home resident who died from a scabies infestation is believed to have been eaten alive over the course of months or years.
   2. According to a pending lawsuit filed by the family, 93-year-old Rebecca Zeni died in 2015 from scabies at the facility. The autopsy report shows the cause of death as “septicemia due to crusted scabies.” State health officials were notified about a scabies outbreak at the nursing home multiple times, but did not inspect the LaFayette, Ga. facility.
   3. A forensic pathologist who reviewed the case estimates millions of parasitic mites essentially ate Zeni alive over several months or possibly years.
   4. “… Pruitt Health’s chairman, communications director and an attorney representing the company did not respond to request for comment. According to a response to the lawsuit, Pruitt attorneys denied all of the claims outlined in Zeni’s lawsuit, writing ‘[Pruitt Health] denies that it is a medical or healthcare provider and it, therefore, owed no legal duty to Plaintiff or Ms. Rebecca Zeni for which it could be held liable in this litigation.’”
10. North Yorkshire Moors Railway plans new WW2 scenario, 29 April 2018 [BBC.COM]
    1. A heritage railway line that barred a group who dress as German soldiers for its annual World War 2 re-enactment says it is working on a new scenario.The North Yorkshire Moors Railway said the decision not to include the Das Reich group came in response to negative publicity in the press.
    2. MIKE: I’m always a little concerned about guys who enjoy dressing up in Nazi Wehrmacht and SS uniforms for fun.
11. Stunning scientists, NASA’s only moon rover just got canceled, by Sarah Kaplan [WASHINGTON POST] April 28, 2018 at 5:52 PM
    1. Months after President Trump signed a directive ordering NASA to return astronauts to the moon, the space agency has canceled its only lunar rover currently in development.
    2. … The Resource Prospector was being developed as part of the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. A prototype was field tested in 2015 and underwent vacuum and thermal testing the following year. But recently, [Clive Neal, a University of Notre Dame planetary scientist and emeritus chairman of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group] said, NASA moved to transfer the project to its Science Mission Directorate, which develops robotic missions for mainly research, rather than exploration, purposes.
    3. … In their letter, the LEAG [Lunar Exploration Analysis Group] members advocated for keeping the Resource Prospector as part of the human exploration program. They also emphasized the importance of launching soon. A 2022 launch, they wrote, would demonstrate NASA’s ability to react quickly to changes in space policy, preempt robotic missions being developed by other nations and pave the way for commercial activities on the moon.
12. VULTURE CAPITALISM: Lampert and his ESL Hedge Fund have been sucking SEARS dry for over a decade. Now we appear to be in the end-game.
    1. Sears CEO Eddie Lampert offers tentative deal for real estate, Kenmore, Nathan Bomey, USA TODAY Published 8:53 a.m. ET April 23, 2018 | Updated 10:11 a.m. ET April 23, 2018
       1. Sears Holdings CEO and hedge fund investor Eddie Lampert has offered to potentially buy the distressed retailer’s real estate, Kenmore brand and other assets.
       2. Lampert’s hedge fund disclosed Monday that it had sent a letter to the retailer on Friday offering to work out a deal to help the distressed company raise cash.
       3. Any deal between Lampert and Sears would also deepen the reclusive executive’s financial entanglement with the retailer amid its decline. He has already orchestrated a series of deals in which he has gained control of the retailer’s most valuable real estate and other assets.
       4. Sears investors liked the development. The company’s stock rose 3% to $3.10 shortly after the opening bell Monday.
13. California’s future: More big droughts and massive floods, new study finds, By Paul Rogers | progers@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group [mercurynews.com] PUBLISHED: April 23, 2018 at 8:00 am | UPDATED: April 23, 2018 at 9:18 am
    1. The extreme weather swings that Californians have experienced over the past six years — a historic drought followed by drenching winter storms that caused $100 million in damage to San Jose and wrecked the spillway at Oroville Dam — will become the norm over the coming generations, a new study has found.
    2. Those types of extremes are not new, but because of climate change, they can be expected to occur more frequently, as hotter global temperatures and warming oceans are putting more water vapor into the air, concluded the study, which was published Monday in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change.
    3. And perhaps most ominous, the odds are rising that a mega-storm — like the one that famously flooded California in 1862, forcing Leland Stanford to take a rowboat through the streets of Sacramento to his inauguration as governor — will strike again. Such a storm “is more likely than not” to hit the state at least once in the next 40 years and twice in the next 80, the study found. The 1862 event, the largest recorded flood in California history, saw 43 days of continuous rainfall that washed whole towns away and forced the state capital to be temporarily moved to San Francisco.
14. 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.
15. 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]
    2. 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]
    3. 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
    4. 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.
16. 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.”
17. 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. 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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