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Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig (@ThinkwingRadio), a listener call-in show  airing live every Monday night from 3-4 PM (CT) on KPFT-FM 90.1 (Houston). My co-host is Andrew Ferguson.

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;
• An educated electorate is a prerequisite for a democracy.

SIGNOFF QUOTE[s]: “People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power.” ~ Bill Clinton, Democratic Convention Speech (Wednesday, August 27, 2008)

 

 

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MAIN TOPICS: TOPIC: Voting Info, July 15 Tax Deadline, Maintaining Your Parked Vehicle, SpaceX and NASA – their historic first astronaut mission, British Doctors Say Ventilators From China Could Kill Covid-19 Patients, Trump calls protesters with guns in Michigan Capitol ‘very good people’, The world is on lockdown. So where are all the carbon emissions coming from?, MORE.

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Make sure you are registered to vote! (Voting and election info are items 1 thru 6. Show information begins after Item 4.)

This program was recorded on SUNDAY, MAY 3. You will NOT be able to get on the air, so please do not call the call-in number. We love our callers, but unfortunately live call-in is one of the casualties of COVID-19.

1. Next Harris County election is a runoff, originally scheduled for May, and is now scheduled for July 14, 2020 – Primary Runoff Elections (at HarrisVotes.com)
2. PRESS RELEASE (In Part): “(Houston, Texas) – The Harris County Clerk will close its main office and annexes to the public on the advice of county leadership as a measure to help contain and mitigate the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) … and continue until further notice…. Employees will continue serving the public by email and phone, but residents are reminded that they can access most services online. Among these, electronic filing in real property, electronic filing in the courts (county, civil and probate) and personal records. Electronic filing for campaign and personal finance is also available online. … The Harris County Clerk’s Office is currently working on a plan to continue to make voting accessible for the upcoming elections.”
   1. General business for county Clerk: https://www.cclerk.hctx.net/
   2. The city of Friendswood Updated at 12:34 p.m. March 27: At the board of trustees special meeting on March 23, the board voted to postpone the district bond election to November.
      1. https://communityimpact.com/houston/pearland-friendswood/government/2020/03/19/city-of-friendswood-friendswood-isd-elections-postponed/
3. Make sure you are registered to vote!
   1. For a personalized, nonpartisan voter guide visit vote411.org (DO NOT!! go to 411Vote!!
   2. If you are denied your right to vote any place at any time at any polling place for any reason, ask for (or demand) a provisional ballot rather than lose your vote.
   3. HarrisVotes.com  (Election Information Line (713) 755-6965) Dr. Diane Trautman, Harris County Clerk
   4. VoteTexas.gov
   5. HarrisVotes.com – Countywide Voting Centers
      1. HARRIS CTY – IDENTIFICATION REQUIRED FOR VOTING: Do not possess and cannot reasonably obtain one of these IDs?
      2. Fill out a declaration at the polls describing a reasonable impediment to obtaining it, and show a copy or original of one of the following supporting forms of ID:
      3. A government document that shows your name and an address, including your voter registration certificate
      4. Current utility bill
      5. Bank statement
      6. Government check
      7. Paycheck
      8. (a) A certified domestic (from a U.S. state or territory) birth certificate or (b) a document confirming birth admissible in a court of law which establishes your identity (which may include a foreign birth document)
   6. You may vote early by-mail if
      1. you are registered to vote and meet one of the following criteria:
      2. Away from the county of residence on Election Day and during the early voting period;
      3. you are registered to vote and meet one of the following criteria:
         1. Away from the county of residence on Election Day and during the early voting period;
         2. Sick or disabled;
         3. 65 years of age or older on Election Day; or
         4. Confined in jail, but eligible to vote.
         5. Make sure you are registered:
   7. Ann Harris Bennett, Tax Assessor-Collector & Voter Registrar
      1. CHECK REGISTRATION STATUS HERE
         1. CLICK How to register to vote in Texas
      2. POLL LOCATIONS & BALLOTS: Find your ballots with simple information entries
   8. Outside Texas, try Vote.org.
4. IRS Announces New July 15 Tax Deadline For Expats, Trusts, Estates And Corporations, Includes June 15 Estimated Payments Fix, By Ashlea Ebeling, Senior Contributor | FORBES.COM| Apr 9, 2020,06:54pm EDT
   1. … Notice 2020-23 confirms get … until July 15 to file and pay federal income taxes. …
5. Tips For Maintaining Your Parked Vehicle, Courtesy of “Pep Boys”
   1. Tips on tires, oil, battery, and more.
   2. Tire Tips – Proper Inflation: Make sure to keep your tires inflated to the proper PSI. This information can be found on the inside of your driver-side door, on each tire’s sidewall, or within your owner’s manual. If you don’t have a tire pressure gauge, your local Pep Boys will check your tire pressure for free.
   3. Battery Basics – Drive Around the Block: At least once a week, start your vehicle and drive it around the block to get the fluids moving through the engine and get the vehicle up to proper temperature.
   4. Unplug Chargers: Unplug any phone chargers, which are a small but constant drain on the battery.
   5. Check Your Charge: If your vehicle is slow to start, Pep Boys can check the charge for free.
   6. Oil Change Tips – Check Your Manual: You may not be driving as frequently, but did you know that motor oil can break down over time, as well as miles? Check your owner’s manual to make sure you haven’t passed the manufacturer’s recommended mileage and/or time interval.
   7. Make An Appointment: If you’ve gone past the manufacturer’s recommendation, make an appointment for an oil change. It’ll be good for your engine, and one less thing on the to-do list when life gets busy again.
   8. Brakes Basics – Avoid Your Parking Brake: If possible, don’t apply the parking brake for extended periods of time unless parked on a severe incline. Corrosion can cause the brake to ‘freeze’ and leave you stuck in park.
   9. Automatic Transmission: With an automatic transmission, simply place the vehicle in park.
   10. Manual Transmission: If the car has a manual transmission, put it in first or reverse gear and use wheel chocks to help hold the vehicle in place.
   11. Sunshades: If your car is exposed to constant sun, use a sunshade to help prevent the UV rays from damaging or fading your dash and interior. If you need a sunshade, we’ve got you covered.
   12. Windshield Wipers: Run the windshield wiper fluid for a few seconds to both wash the window and keep the blades from drying out. If you do need wipers, we install them for free.
6. SpaceX and NASA break down what their historic first astronaut mission will look like, Darrell Etherington@etherington | TECHCRUNCH.COM | 1:47 pm CDT • May 1, 2020
   1. NASA and SpaceX’s most defining moment of our current space era is coming up at the end of this month, with its Demo-2 mission on May 27. The mission will be the first-ever launch for SpaceX with humans on board, and for NASA, it’ll mark the first return to U.S.-based astronaut launches since the Shuttle program flew its last flight in 2011. On Friday, representatives from both SpaceX and NASA briefed the media on the mission and the specifics of what it will involve when astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley board the Crew Dragon for its debut crewed performance.
   2. The first thing to note about this mission is that it’s still technically a test, as noted in the “demo” name. This is the capstone demonstration in a series of such missions that will fully human-rate the SpaceX Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 for operational use. As noted during today’s press briefings, a big chunk of the actual human rating process occurs during this final mission — in fact, the majority of the actual final human rating happens on this flight, despite the many years of preparation and live tests to date, including the Demo-1 mission, which was essentially a full round-trip flight, just without any astronauts on board. …
   3. … The mission itself doesn’t sound all that complex when broken down step-by-step, but it represents the culmination of years of hard work on both SpaceX and NASA’s part. The U.S. has been without a homegrown ride to the ISS since 2011, and this is the closest yet we’ve gotten to a return to an era of regular human spaceflight from American soil, so it’s definitely going to be something you’ll want to watch live when the launch happens on May 27.
7. British Doctors Say Ventilators Purchased From China Could Kill Coronavirus Patients, By Katherine Fung | NEWSWEEK.COM | 4/30/20 at 3:58 PM EDT
   1. Senior British doctors and medical managers have raised concerns over 250 ventilators the United Kingdom purchased from China.
   2. If these ventilators are used in hospital, the group warns “significant patient harm, including death,” according to a letter seen by NBC News. …
   3. … The letter detailed serious concerns over the “basic” quality of the ventilators, calling the oxygen supply “variable and unreliable.” The doctors said that the machines are also unfamiliar to British doctors and were built for ambulance use, rather than hospital use.
   4. …The [Department of Health and Social Care] (DHSC) said the Shangrila 510 ventilator model is being kept as a reserve and is not currently in use at any hospitals.
   5. “Ventilators need to pass robust regulatory tests to ensure they are up to standard before they’re delivered to NHS hospitals,” a government spokesperson told Newsweek. …
   6. … The U.K. is not the only country that has faced problems with medical equipment from China. Both the Netherlands and Finland have reportedly found that masks bought from China had not met the required standard in hospitals. Accuracy of testing kits purchased from Chinese manufacturers for the novel coronavirus were also called into question in Spain and the U.K, according to media reports. …
   7. … On April 15, the Chinese government addressed counterfeit and faulty exports, promising to “mete out punishment with zero tolerance” to companies found exporting such equipment, said Zhao Lijan, a Foreign Ministry spokesman.
   8. Meanwhile, the outbreak is currently improving in the U.K., with spare ventilator capacity in all areas of the country.
8. Trump calls protesters who carried guns into the Michigan Capitol ‘very good people’ and says the governor should ‘make a deal’ with them, Grace Panetta | BUSINESSINSIDER.COM | May 1, 2020 9 hours ago
9. The world is on lockdown. So where are all the carbon emissions coming from?, By Shannon Osaka | GRIST.ORG | on Apr 27, 2020
   5. Pedestrians have taken over city streets, people have almost entirely stopped flying, skies are blue (even in Los Angeles!) for the first time in decades, and global CO2 emissions are on-track to drop by … about 5 percent.
   6. Wait, what? Even with the global economy at a near-standstill, the best analysis suggests that the world is still on track to release 95 percent of the carbon dioxide emitted in a typical year, continuing to heat up the planet and driving climate change even as we’re stuck at home. …
   7. … Transportation makes up a little over 20 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, according to the International Energy Agency. (In the United States, it makes up around 28 percent.) That’s a significant chunk, but it also means that even if all travel were completely carbon-free (imagine a renewable-powered, electrified train system, combined with personal EVs and battery-powered airplanes), there’d still be another 80 percent of fossil fuel emissions billowing into the skies. …
   8. … [U]tilities are still generating roughly the same amount of electricity — even if more of it’s going to houses instead of workplaces. Electricity and heating combined account for over 40 percent of global emissions. Many people around the world rely on wood, coal, and natural gas to keep their homes warm and cook their food — and in most places, electricity isn’t so green either. …
   9. … In the United States, 60 percent of electricity generation still comes from coal, oil, and natural gas. (There is evidence, however, that the lockdown is shifting when people use electricity, which has some consequences for renewables.) Manufacturing, construction, and other types of industry account for approximately 20 percent of CO2 emissions.
   10. …The reality is that emissions need to be cut by 7.6 percent every year to keep global warming from surpassing 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels — the threshold associated with the most dangerous climate threats — according to an analysis by the United Nations Environment Program. Even if the global lockdown and economic slump reduce emissions by 7.6 percent this year, emissions would have to fall even more the year after that. And the year after that. And so on. …
10. Coronavirus: Will Covid-19 speed up the use of robots to replace human workers?, By Zoe Thomas Technology reporter | BBC.COM | 19 April 2020
    1. As a pandemic grips the world, a person could be forgiven if they had forgotten about another threat to humanity’s way of life – the rise of robots.
    2. For better or worse the robots are going to replace many humans in their jobs, analysts say, and the coronavirus outbreak is speeding up the process.
    3. “People usually say they want a human element to their interactions but Covid-19 has changed that,” says Martin Ford, a futurist who has written about the ways robots will be integrated into the economy in the coming decades. “[Covid-19] is going to change consumer preference and really open up new opportunities for automation.”
    4. Companies large and small are expanding how they use robots to increase social distancing and reduce the number of staff that have to physically come to work. Robots are also being used to perform roles workers cannot do at home.
    5. Walmart, America’s biggest retailer, is using robots to scrub its floors.
    6. Robots in South Korea have been used to measure temperatures and distribute hand sanitiser.
    7. With health experts warning some social distancing measures may need to be in place through 2021, robot workers may be in greater demand. …
    8. …Food service is another area where the use of robots is likely to increase because of health concerns.
    9. Fast-food chains like McDonald’s have been testing robots as cooks and servers.
    10. In warehouses, like those operated by Amazon and Walmart, robots were already used to improve efficiency. The Covid-19 outbreak has both companies looking to increase the use of robots for sorting, shipping and packing. …
    11. … Once a company has invested in replacing a worker with a robot it’s unlikely the firm will ever rehire for that role. Robots are more expensive to create and integrate into businesses but once they are up and running, robots are typically cheaper than human workers.
11. Program Eligibility by Federal Poverty Level for 2020
    1. FROM HEALTHCARE.GOV: Federal Poverty Level (FPL): The 2020 federal poverty level (FPL) income numbers below are used to calculate eligibility for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). 2019 numbers are slightly lower, and are used to calculate savings on Marketplace insurance plans for 2020.
    2. How federal poverty levels are used to determine eligibility for reduced-cost health coverage: Income between 100% and 400% FPL: If your income is in this range, in all states you qualify for premium tax credits that lower your monthly premium for a Marketplace health insurance plan.
    3. The Federal Poverty level in California for a family of four is $103,000, according to this chart from com.
    4. MIKE: Think about that, and the overall ramifications on health and opportunity. And what about other states?
    5. Ramifications:
       1. Minimum wage
       2. Executive pay disparity with workers
    6. Impact on public health, the economy, and more.
12. Will empty middle seats help social distancing on planes?, By John Walton | COM | 22nd April 2020
    1. As more countries mull lifting Covid-19 lockdowns, airlines are examining what flying might look like as travel restrictions start to be relaxed. Carriers are haemorrhaging money and it’s very much in their interests to get planes back in the air. Passenger confidence will be one of many hurdles to overcome, however, with many worried about keeping a reasonable distance from their fellow travellers.
    2. Several airlines are exploring the idea of keeping middle seats empty, to avoid passengers sitting directly beside each other. …
    3. … Removing the unloved middle seat option would lead to a hearty hooray from the travelling public. Sit by the window and you get a view, plus a bulkhead to snooze against. In an aisle seat, you can pop to the toilet or stretch whenever you like. The middle seat has no such benefits, unless you’re one of those people who strikes up conversations with their seatmates.
    4. But would blocking middle seats actually help us maintain proper social distancing and if so, how long could airlines keep doing it? Is it a realistic option beyond the very short term? …
    5. …Planes are very much not set up for social … Billions of dollars have been spent in recent years in particular to fit as many people as possible into smaller spaces. For example, when the big wide-body, twin-aisle, twin-engine Boeing 777 started flying in the 1990s, most of them had nine seats per economy row on long-haul flights. Today, almost all airlines flying the plane – whether long-haul with the likes of Emirates or short-haul within Japan – have 10 seats, meaning narrower seats and narrower aisles. …
    6. …LIFT Aero Design’s Daniel Baron points out that there are a number of other measures that airlines can use to try and make travel safer. “Let’s not forget that cabin air circulation is on par with operating theatres,” he says. “A combination of pre-flight screening, thorough cabin sanitising, smart seat assignments and masks will likely be the way forward in the short to medium term.”
    7. … Delta Air Lines has changed the way it boards aircraft, and is now boarding them strictly from the rear to the front, so passengers sitting at the back don’t have to pass those sitting at the front. The airline is also boarding fewer people at a time to improve physical distancing of passengers.
    8. Many airlines are also cancelling or reducing inflight food and beverage service to reduce interactions on board: Southwest is serving individual cans of water rather than its usual full drinks round, for example. Some airlines are offering to-go bags in the gate area instead.
13. What went wrong with the media’s coronavirus coverage? And can we do better?, By Peter Kafka | VOX.COM | Apr 13, 2020, 7:10am EDT
    1. … Much of the mainstream media amplified [the] slow and muddled reaction to the rapidly spreading virus. Since alarming reports about Covid-19 began to emerge from China in January, the media often provided information to Americans that later proved to be wrong, or at least inadequate.
    2. For instance: While President Trump has been correctly pilloried for describing the coronavirus as less dangerous than the flu, that message was commonplace in mainstream media outlets throughout February. And journalists — including my colleagues at Vox — were dutifully repeating exhortations from public health officials not to wear masks for much of 2020. …
    3. … [I]t’s worth looking back to ask how the media could have done better as the virus broke out of China and headed to the US.
    4. Why didn’t we see this coming sooner? And once we did, why didn’t we sound the alarm with more vigor?
    5. If you read the stories from that period … you’ll find that most of the information holding the pieces together comes from authoritative sources …: experts at institutions like the World Health Organization, the CDC, and academics with real domain knowledge.
    6. The problem, in many cases, was that that information was wrong, or at least incomplete. Which raises the hard question for journalists scrutinizing our performance in recent months: How do we cover a story where neither we nor the experts we turn to know what isn’t yet known? And how do we warn Americans about the full range of potential risks in the world without ringing alarm bells so constantly that they’ll tune us out? …
    7. … Journalists have been doing crucial reporting about what the US government got wrong as the pandemic advanced, and what US leaders could have done to prepare America. They provided analysis that put the news in context. And they have also provided important on-the-ground dispatches from places around the world that have been devastated by the disease — often at great personal risk — starting at its epicenter in Wuhan, China.
    8. But when it came to grappling with a new disease they knew nothing about, journalists most often turned to experts and institutions for information, and relayed what those experts and institutions told them to their audience.
    9. And given that the Covid-19 coronavirus is brand new, even the best-meaning experts and institutions gave conflicting information, some of which now has proven to be inaccurate or up for debate. That includes National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci, who is now the most trusted official in the federal government when it comes to the Covid-19 response, but as late as February was calling the risk from coronavirus “minuscule” and warning people to worry instead about “influenza outbreak, which is having its second wave.” …
    10. … Laura Helmuth, who was the health and science editor at the Washington Post and recently left to become editor-in-chief of Scientific American, says acknowledging gaps in knowledge is crucial but not easy.
    11. “One thing that science journalists have been getting better at is not just saying what we do know, but what we don’t know,” she says. “But most journalists aren’t accustomed to doing that.”
    12. … Mainstream journalists who know how to read and understand academic research reports are a select group and have been for decades. Many midsize newspapers once employed dedicated science journalists, but those jobs have been dwindling for years. …
    13. … In some cases, the screaming was there, but you had to work to hear it. You wouldn’t find it in a headline or the top of a newscast, but if you absorbed the whole thing, you’d find news that would scare you into some kind of action.
    14. My sort-of come-to-Jesus moment started on February 27 when I listened to Times reporter Donald McNeil on the paper’s Daily He said the worst-case scenario was a repeat of the 1918 flu pandemic, which killed 50 million people worldwide and at least 675,000 in the United States.
    15. In that version, McNeil said calmly: Everybody in the US would “know somebody who dies.”
    16. It’s most gripping in audio form, but I want to pull out a section here:
        1. Donald G. McNeil Jr. – Some big chunk of the country — 30, 40, 50 percent — are likely to get a new virus when it blows through. And if you don’t get it in the first wave, you might get it in the second wave.
        2. Michael Barbaro – And 2 percent lethality rate of 50 percent of the country. I don’t want to do that math. It’s really, really awful.
        3. McNeil – It’s a lot of people. It means, you know, you don’t die, 80 percent of people have mild cases. But you know somebody who dies.
        4. Barbaro – That’s pretty horrible … Okay. Now, the best-case scenario.
        5. McNeil – The best-case scenario is one of these drugs works, and basically everybody gets sick next year, but everybody who is hospitalized gets a drug that keeps them from dying and keeps them from going into deep, deep, deep respiratory distress. And we have the equivalent of a bad flu season. And then everybody says, ‘Oh, the media, they blew it out of proportion again.’ You know, it’s all ridiculous. And, you know, I get blamed.
    17. That was enough for me — sort of. I didn’t change my plans to travel to Los Angeles the following week, but I did start assuming that the rest of my spring plans were going to be up in the air. And I told my family that we should start buying food — not in panic, but slowly. And I wondered how The Daily’s millions of listeners would respond.