POSSIBLE TOPICS: VOTER INFO, VOTING FAQ, ADVANTAGES OF A DEPRESSIVE PERSONALITY IN THE ERA OF TRUMP, Trump Says He Will Protect Cops Who Attack Protesters: ‘You Gotta Be Able to Fight’, NYPD union endorses Trump: ‘We need your strong voice across the country’, AOC blasts NYPD union’s endorsement of Trump, Georgia State Patrol trooper charged with murder after shooting a Black man, U.S. citizen accused of insulting Islam shot dead in Pakistan courtroom, U.N. Security Council votes not to extend arms embargo against Iran, Shifting Dynamics of the Mideast Pushed Israel and U.A.E. Together, For Palestinians, Israel-U.A.E. Deal Swaps One Nightmare for Another, Climate change: Greenland’s ice sheet has melted past the point of no return, more.

SHOW AUDIO: Link is usually posted within about 72 hours of show broadcast. 

This program was recorded on SUNDAY, August 16, 2020 at about 4:30 AM.  Due to Covid-19, shows are being prerecorded beginning March 13th and until further notice. We miss our live call-in participants, and look forward to a time we can once again go live.

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 and Editor is Andrew Ferguson.

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Make sure you are registered to vote! (Voting and election info are items 1 thru 2. Show information begins after Item 2.)

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

1. Next election is he General on November 3rd. Make sure you are registered!
   1. VOTING FAQ
   2. Make sure you are registered to vote!
   3. For a personalized, nonpartisan voter guide visit VOTE411.ORG (DO NOT!! go to 411Vote!!)
      1. 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.
      2. HarrisVotes.com (Election Information Line (713) 755-6965), Harris County Clerk
   4. VOTETEXAS.GOV – Texas Voter Information
   5. HARRISVOTES.COM – Countywide Voting Center
      1. HARRIS CTY – IDENTIFICATION REQUIRED FOR VOTING: Do not possess and cannot reasonably obtain one of these IDs?
         1. 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:
         2. A government document that shows your name and an address, including your voter registration certificate
         3. Current utility bill
         4. Bank statement
         5. Current utility bill
         6. Bank statement
         7. Government check
         8. Paycheck
         9. 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. Sick or disabled;
      4. 65 years of age or older on Election Day; or
      5. Confined in jail, but eligible to vote.
      6. 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. Outside Texas, try Vote.org.
2. ADVANTAGES OF A DEPRESSIVE PERSONALITY IN THE ERA OF TRUMP
   1. Those who have never experienced depression or are not prone to it, may have been especially hurt by the national experience of the last 4 years.
3. Trump Says He Will Protect Cops Who Attack Protesters: ‘You Gotta Be Able to Fight’, BY ARISTOS GEORGIOU | newsweek.com | 8/15/20 AT 6:36 AM EDT
   1. President Donald Trump has said he would protect officers who “fight back” against unruly protesters during a speech on Friday evening.
   2. The president made the remarks during a mini-rally at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey with members of the New York City Police Benevolent Association (NYCPBA), the largest police union representing officers from the NYPD, in attendance, Mediaite reported.
   3. `Trump began his speech by citing several recent incidents where police have been attacked by members of the public. …
   4. “You’re not allowed to fight back, you fight back, you lose your pension. You lose your life. They put you in jail, you fight back,” Trump said. “No, you gotta be able to fight back.”
4. NYPD union endorses Trump: ‘We need your strong voice across the country’, By Vincent Barone | NYPOST | August 14, 2020
   1. The New York City Police Benevolent Association personally endorsed President Trump on Friday night for the next election as the commander in chief leans into his “law and order” platform. …
   2. “I cannot remember when we’ve ever endorsed for the president of the United States until now — that’s how important this is,” said Pat Lynch, the combative PBA president at an event with Trump in his Bedminster club Friday evening. …
   3. After the union stayed neutral in the 2016 election, Lynch has since lambasted the Democratic-controlled city and state for passing laws that increase transparency around cops’ disciplinary records and ban chokeholds like the one that led to the death of Eric Garner.
   4. In a speech that also featured an appearance by Rudy Giuliani, Trump attacked Democrats for waging “a left-wing war on cops” and called out Mayor Bill de Blasio specifically for launching a so-called “crusade against the police.”
   5. Mon, 6/1/2020, 3PM (CT) #KPFTHouston 90.1FM. POSSIBLE TOPIC(s): Voting Info, July 15 Tax Deadline, SpaceX’s historic Demo-2 Crew Dragon astronaut launch, How Democracies Control the Military – Can it apply to policing?, CAPTURED COURTS – The GOP’s Big Money Assault On The Constitution, The Federalist Society has lied about its mission, Republicans are realizing the crisis is pulling them toward disaster, MORE. Guest: [AUDIO/VIDEO]
5. AOC blasts NYPD union’s endorsement of Trump, By Jon Levine | NYPOST.COM | August 15, 2020 | 10:24am
   1. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Queens) thinks the NYPD union endorsement of President Trump is inappropriate.
   2. “NYPD union endorsed Trump. I’m sure this is part of their neighborhood outreach plan,” she said. “Also, does anyone else see a potential problem with police unions — enforcement arms of the state with lethal weapons — promoting ‘preferred’ candidates for office or is that just me?”
   3. In his announcement Friday, union boss Pat Lynch acknowledged it was almost unheard of for the PBA to endorse for President of the United States, but said current circumstances required it. …
   4. President Trump, who has long touted his “law and order” bonafides, returned the favor on Twitter.
6. Georgia State Patrol trooper charged with murder after shooting a Black man, By Alaa Elassar and Hollie Silverman | CNN | Updated 9:56 PM ET, Sat August 15, 2020
   1. A Georgia State Patrol trooper has been arrested and charged with felony murder after fatally shooting a Black man during an attempted traffic stop.
   2. Jacob Gordon Thompson, 27, was arrested on Friday in connection with the fatal officer involved shooting in Screven County that occurred on August 7, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) said in a news release.
   3. Thompson attempted to stop Julian Edward Roosevelt Lewis, 60, for a traffic-related offense. When he refused to stop, Thompson gave a brief chase before using a “precision Intervention technique,” sending the car to a stop in a ditch, according to the GBI.
   4. Thompson then fired one shot, striking Lewis in the face. He was pronounced dead on the scene. An autopsy is being conducted at the GBI Crime Lab, according to the release. …
   5. “The FBI is aware of the Screven County matter and we have been in contact with local and state authorities. The FBI is always prepared to investigate whenever information comes to light of a potential federal violation,” [FBI Atlanta public affairs specialist Kevin Rowson] said.
   6. Francys Johnson, the attorney representing the Lewis family, issued a statement Friday. “The unprecedented pace of the investigation is a direct result of years of activism on these issues along with a sea-change in law enforcement leadership at the top of the GBI,” Johnson said. “This was not business as usual. The GBI and now the FBI, who have launched a separate civil rights investigation, have done what was right at this stage. I rarely get to say that.”
7. U.S. citizen accused of insulting Islam shot dead in Pakistan courtroom. CBSNEWS.COM/AP | July 29, 2020 / 2:50 PM
   1. A young Pakistani Muslim walked into a courtroom in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Wednesday and shot and killed a fellow Muslim who was on trial for blasphemy, a police officer said. It was not immediately clear how the assailant, identified as Khalid Khan, managed to get into the court amid tight security. …
   2. The man on trial, Tahir Shamim Ahmad, had claimed he was Islam’s prophet and was arrested two years ago on blasphemy charges, according to Azmat Khan, the police officer. Ahmad died before he could be transported to hospital.
   3. The U.S. State Department identified the victim as a U.S. citizen, and urged Pakistan “to take immediate action and pursue reforms that will prevent such a shameful tragedy from happening again.”
   4. Blasphemy is an extremely controversial issue in Pakistan, where people convicted of the crime can be sentenced to life in prison or the death penalty. But crowds and individuals in Pakistan often take the law into their own hands.
   5. While authorities have yet to carry out a death sentence for blasphemy, even the mere accusation can cause riots. …
8. U.N. Security Council votes not to extend arms embargo against Iran, By Pamela Falk | CBS NEWS | August 14, 2020 / 7:03 PM
   1. The U.N. Security Council on Friday overwhelmingly voted against a U.S. resolution to indefinitely extend an arms embargo against Iran. Without further action, the 13-year embargo will now expire in mid-October, allowing Iran to buy and sell conventional weapons without U.N. restrictions. …
   2.  The United States, which left the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, argued that the arms embargo should not be allowed to expire because Iran continues to support terrorist organizations. But Russia and China said the U.S. has no place presenting resolutions on a deal that it is no longer a part of, and European allies expressed concern that extending the embargo would cause Iran to withdraw from the deal and begin developing nuclear weapons. …
   3. The White House now has options: Pursue an increasingly hard line against Iran, or forge a compromise with European allies who have said they would consider a temporary extension of the embargo.
9. Shifting Dynamics of the Mideast Pushed Israel and U.A.E. Together – Prime Minister Netanyahu’s quest to open relations with Arab countries without settling the Palestinian conflict long seemed quixotic. External events changed the equation. By David M. Halbfinger and Ronen Bergman | NYTIMES.COM | Aug. 15, 2020
   1. At least since 2009, Mr. Netanyahu had been insisting, against conventional wisdom, that Israel could build full diplomatic and trade relationships with Arab countries in the Middle East without settling the Palestinian conflict first.
   2. At every opportunity, he badgered the Persian Gulf monarchs to bring their not-so-secret cooperation with Israel into the open.
   3. Again and again, they demurred. Settle the conflict with the Palestinians, they said, then we’ll talk.
   4. That was the answer so many times from so many Arab countries for so long that Mr. Netanyahu’s persistence seemed disconnected and quixotic.
   5. When he sealed a deal to normalize relations with the United Arab Emirates this week, it was not because he had suddenly become more persuasive. What had changed, analysts and former aides to Mr. Netanyahu said, was the dynamics of the region and the world.
   6. The Arab Spring uprisings had shown Gulf monarchs that popular anger over repression and corruption were bigger threats to their rule than any blowback over their failure to maintain solidarity with the Palestinians.
   7. Other events changed their security calculus. Washington stood by as a staunch ally, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, was ousted in a popular uprising, and failed to respond militarily when Syria gassed its own people and Iran was blamed for an attack on Saudi oil facilities.
   8. It became increasingly clear to the Gulf states that the Western allies they had relied on for decades to come to their rescue might not be there in a pinch.
   9. Finally, as Iranian-sponsored proxy forces grew more powerful across the region — in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen — the Gulf states increasingly saw Iran as their greatest threat. And the 2015 Iran nuclear deal persuaded them that Washington was not committed to destroying Iran’s nuclear ambitions or keeping Iran pinned down by sanctions.
   10. Israel, by contrast, was unwavering in its campaign against Iran. And according to Yaakov Amidror, Mr. Netanyahu’s former national security adviser, the Gulf countries were hearing from Egypt and Jordan about Israel’s helpfulness and reliability on vital matters of national security.
10. For Palestinians, Israel-U.A.E. Deal Swaps One Nightmare for Another – With annexation of the West Bank off the table and Arab diplomacy turned inside out, the Palestinian struggle, once focused against Israel, now is to remain relevant. By Isabel Kershner and Adam Rasgon | NYTIMES.COM | Aug. 14, 2020
    1. When the unmarked United Arab Emirates plane touched down on the tarmac in Tel Aviv one night in May carrying 16 tons of unsolicited medical aid for the Palestinians, it was rejected by the Palestinian leadership, which said that nobody had coordinated with them about the shipment.
    2. That was just a prelude to a greater humiliation. Palestinian officials maintain that nobody consulted with them before Thursday’s surprise announcement by President Trump that Israel and the Emirates had agreed to “full normalization of relations” in exchange for Israel’s suspending annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank.
    3. If the pullback from annexation was presented as some kind of a balm for the Palestinians, many of them considered it, instead, a stab in the back. The deal was a diplomatic coup for Israel, but it ruptured decades of professed Arab unity around the Palestinian cause. It swapped one Palestinian nightmare — annexation, which many world leaders had warned would be an illegal land grab — for another, perhaps even bleaker prospect of not being counted at all.
    4. “This agreement is very damaging to the cause of peace,” said Husam Zomlot, the head of the Palestinian mission to the United Kingdom, speaking from London, “because it takes away one of the key incentives for Israel to end its occupation — normalization with the Arab world.”
11. Climate change: Greenland’s ice sheet has melted past the point of no return (In the associated video, Harry Zekollari, Glaciologist, Researcher, Delft University, says specifically that the headline is overblown. “To say that we’re going to lose the [Greenland] ice sheet, that is quite exaggerated at this point. …”), FRANCE24.COM/ (REUTERS) | Issued on: 15/08/2020 – 14:58
    1. Greenland’s ice sheet may have shrunk past the point of return, with the ice likely to melt away no matter how quickly the world reduces climate-warming emissions, new research suggests.
    2. Scientists studied data on 234 glaciers across the Arctic territory spanning 34 years through 2018 and found that annual snowfall was no longer enough to replenish glaciers of the snow and ice being lost to summertime melting.
    3. That melting is already causing global seas to rise about a millimeter on average per year. If all of Greenland’s ice goes, the water released would push sea levels up by an average of 6 meters — enough to swamp many coastal cities around the world. This process, however, would take decades. …
    4. The Arctic has been warming at least twice as fast as the rest of the world for the last 30 years, an observation referred to as Arctic amplification. The polar sea ice hit its lowest extent for July in 40 years. …
    5. The new study suggests the territory’s ice sheet will now gain mass only once every 100 years — a grim indicator of how difficult it is to re-grow glaciers once they hemorrhage ice.
    6. In studying satellite images of the glaciers, the researchers noted that the glaciers had a 50% chance of regaining mass before 2000, with the odds declining since. …
    7. “When we think about climate action, we’re not talking about building back the Greenland ice sheet,” said Twila Moon, a glaciologist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center who was not involved in the study. “We’re talking about how quickly rapid sea-level rise comes to our communities, our infrastructure, our homes, our military bases.”