This program was recorded on SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 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.

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.)

Please take a moment to visit Pledge.KPFT.org and choose THINKWING RADIO from the drop-down list when you donate.

1.  “… [A]sk not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country!” ~ John F Kennedy, Inaugural speech, January 20, 1961
2. The Secrecy Voting Envelope: https://www.youtube.com/embed/oxaXleNeQKA
3. The next election is the General Election on November 3^rd, 2020
   1. VOTING FAQ – In Texas, Early Voting Starts October 13-thru-30!
   2. VOTETEXAS.GOV – Texas Voter Information
   3. Last Day to Apply for Ballot by Mail (Received, not Postmarked): October 23, 2020
   4. VOTING BY MAIL: INSTRUCTIONS
   5. HARRISVOTES.COM­ – Countywide Voting Centers, (Election Information Line (713) 755-6965), Harris County Clerk
   6. Make sure you are registered to vote!
   7. On the possibility that the courts make you eligible to vote by mail on Election Day due to the Covid-19 virus, make sure that you are ready with an application to mail in. These are available from HARRISVOTES.COM­.  Follow directions carefully.
   8. For personalized, nonpartisan voter guides and information, consider visiting VOTE.ORG. Ballotpedia.com and Texas League of Women Voters are also good places to get election info.
   9. 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.
   10. HARRISVOTES.COM – Countywide Voting Centers
       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. Government check
          6. Paycheck
          7. 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)
   11. 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:
   12. 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.
4. CORRECTION: Maine 2016 Preferential Ballot referendum
5. PSA, FYI, according to some posters in NextDoor.com, coyotes have been spotted around the heights and other sections of town, so be aware for yourselves and your outdoor pets. Even when you are walking with them.
6. PSA: Fewer than 10% of Americans show signs of past coronavirus infection, study finds; Will Feuer@WillFOIA | CNBC.COM | Published Sat, Sep 26 20203:05 PM EDT (Updated Sat, Sep 26 20204:01 PM EDT)
   1. Key Points:
      1. A large national study published Friday said that fewer than 1 in 10 Americans showed signs of a prior coronavirus infection as of late July.
      2. The finding is consistent with remarks made by CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield, who said that more than 90% of the country remains susceptible to the virus.
      3. That means the country likely remains far off from herd immunity. …
7. I-45 improvement project set to displace homes, businesses along construction route – According to the TxDOT’s final Environmental Impact Study, it includes 160 single-family homes and 433 apartments like Lofts at the Ballpark. By David Gonzalez (KHOU) | KHOU.COM | Published: 10:14 PM CDT September 25, 2020 (Updated: 10:14 PM CDT September 25, 2020)
   1. The Texas Department of Transportation has completed the final Environmental Impact Statement for the project which would expand I-45 and also affect portions of Interstate 69 and Interstate 10.
   2. The new route follows I-45 south until I-10 and then follows I-10 east to U.S. 59 South, pass the George R. Browne Convention Center, until it meets the current highway.
   3. The new route does not use the Pierce Elevated.
   4. The estimated $7 billion project is broken up into three segments: Beltway 8 North to 610, 610 to I-10, and the downtown loop. …
   5. The project would displace people and businesses.
   6. It includes 160 single-family homes and 433 apartments like Lofts at the Ballpark.
   7. Another 486 public and low-income apartments will be acquired including Clayton Homes which would displace 672 residents.
   8. The study states 344 businesses and five places of worship are also in the path of the project.
   9. TxDOT is offering an acquisition and relocation assistance program to those who qualify.
   10. The department hopes to start construction next year.
   11. https://khou.com/embeds/video/285-d55376cc-aefc-4780-92f6-feb594bd63d8/iframe?jwsource=cl
8. High-speed train between Dallas and Houston gets federal approval – The railroad plans to connect Texas’ two biggest cities within 90 minutes. Construction could begin in the first half of next year. by Juan Pablo Garnham | TEXASTRIBUNE.org | Sept. 21, 2020 Updated: Sept. 22, 2020
   1. The high-speed train that promises to transport passengers between Dallas and Houston in 90 minutes has been approved by the Federal Railroad Administration, according to Texas Central Railroad, the company in charge of the project.
   2. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration issued the two key rulings, which provide the regulatory framework and the environmental review for the high-speed train, that Texas officials were waiting on to move forward with the project, according to the company. The announcement was first reported by the Houston Chronicle.
   3. Texas Central expects to start construction in the first half of 2021. The federal Surface Transportation Board still must approve the project before construction can begin. …
   4. The company estimates that the construction for the project will take up to six years, with a total cost of around $20 billion. The train will use the same technology as the Shinkansen bullet trains in Japan, which can reach speeds of more than 200 mph.
   5. The project has seen resistance from property owners in rural areas of Central Texas, where the railroad would travel through. According to Texas Central Railroad, they already have control of over 600 parcels of land — approximately 40% of the parcels they need for the project — as well as sites for stations in Dallas, Houston and the Brazos Valley.
   6. U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, represents part of the areas affected by the project. In a statement, he said the rulings still don’t allow use of eminent domain or for Texas Central to start construction. The Surface Transportation Board needs to approve the construction, but the use of eminent domain is a state matter, according to agency documents. In May, Texas courts ruled in favor of the project and against landowners trying to stop the eminent domain process. A landowner plans to appeal. As of September, the company hasn’t needed to use eminent domain.
9. Foreign hackers compromise Hamilton County’s email system, raising election security concerns – The malware attack, which sent fake email replies to voters and businesses who contacted officials in the Central Texas county, spotlights an overlooked vulnerability in counties that don’t follow best practices for computer security. by Jack Gillum, Jessica Huseman, Jeff Kao and Derek Willis | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG/ProPublica Sept. 24, 20205 AM
   1. Last week, voters and election administrators who emailed Leanne Jackson, the clerk of rural Hamilton County in Central Texas, received bureaucratic-looking replies. …
   2. The text supplied passwords for an attached file. But Jackson didn’t send the messages. Instead, they came from Sri Lankan and Congolese email addresses, and they cleverly hid malicious software inside a Microsoft Word attachment. By the time Jackson learned about the forgery, it was too late. Hackers continued to fire off look-alike replies. Jackson’s three-person office, already grappling with the coronavirus pandemic, ground to a near standstill ….
   3. The previously unreported attack on Hamilton illustrates an overlooked security weakness that could hamper the November election: the vulnerability of email systems in county offices that handle the voting process from registration to casting and counting ballots. Although experts have repeatedly warned state and local officials to follow best practices for computer security, numerous smaller locales like Hamilton appear to have taken few precautionary measures. U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials have helped local governments in recent years to bolster their infrastructure, following Russian hacking attempts during the last presidential election. But desktop computers used each day in small, rural counties to send routine emails compose official documents or analyze spreadsheets can be easier targets, in part because those jurisdictions may not have the resources or know-how to update systems or afford security professionals familiar with the latest practices. …
   4. [S]uch attacks could rattle voters’ confidence — or, at worst, bring down systems on election day. The type of malware deployed against Hamilton, called Emotet, often serves as a delivery mechanism for later ransomware attacks in which swindlers commandeer a victim’s computer and freeze its files until a ransom is paid. U.S. officials have expressed concern that those attacks — which have paralyzed government agencies, police departments, schools and hospitals — could potentially disrupt the election. Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, which specializes in establishing best practices for political campaigns and election officials, said in a February 2018 report that election officials should “create a proactive security culture.” For political campaigns, the group suggested using cloud-based email and office software, which are more likely to neutralize threats like Emotet before they reach a user’s inbox. Experts said smaller governments with fewer resources should heed that advice.
10. Federal judge blocks Texas’ elimination of straight-ticket voting – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said his office has filed a motion to stop the judge’s order and will file an appeal of the district court’s ruling. by Alex Samuels | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Sept. 25, 2020 Updated: 1 hour ago | Republish
    1. Less than three weeks before early voting begins in Texas, a U.S. district judge has blocked the state from eliminating straight-ticket voting as an option for people who go to the polls this November.
    2. In a ruling issued late Friday, U.S. District Judge Marina Garcia Marmolejo cited the coronavirus pandemic, saying the elimination of the voting practice would “cause irreparable injury” to voters “by creating mass lines at the polls and increasing the amount of time voters are exposed to COVID-19.”
    3. Marmolejo also found that the GOP-backed law would “impose a discriminatory burden” on black and Hispanic voters and “create comparatively less opportunities for these voters to participate in the political process.”
    4. She acknowledged the burden the decision could put on local and state election officials, who will have to recalibrate voting machines or reprint ballots. But she reasoned that the potential harm for those suing, including the Texas Association for Retired Americans, was “outweighed by the inconveniences resulting.”
    5. The day after the ruling, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton released a statement saying that his office filed a motion to stop the judge’s order and intends to file an immediate appeal of the district court’s ruling. …
    6. Although the change was signed into law almost three years ago, a last-minute amendment to the legislation delayed its implementation until this year’s general election. The delay proved ill conceived for the majority party in 2018, when down-ballot Republicans faced a rout in urban counties where Democrats were aided by straight-ticket voting. …
11. Latinx Activists Are Closer Than Ever to Flipping Arizona—If Democrats Don’t Take Them for Granted – “We see it on campaigns, and we see it once people get elected into office. They don’t prioritize our community.” By Fernanda Echavarri | MOTHERJONES.COM | November+December 2020 Issue
    1. MIKE: RELEVANT TO TEXAS
    2. … Once the cradle of Goldwater-style Republicanism, Arizona politics are changing, due in no small part to its growing Latinx electorate, which increasingly tilts Democratic. The party cannot flip the state in November without strong turnout from Latinos, who make up nearly a quarter of the state’s eligible voters. Hanging in the balance are 11 Electoral College votes and a key race between Republican Sen. Martha McSally and Mark Kelly, the retired astronaut who’s married to former Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords. If Joe Biden carries the state, he will owe his win to the Latinx organizers and activists who have spent the past decade building networks, not to support the Democratic Party but to protect their own community.
    3. Many of the young Latinx organizers trying to get out the vote were galvanized in April 2010, when Republican Gov. Jan Brewer signed one of the nation’s most extreme anti-immigrant bills. SB 1070 required police officers to ask about the citizenship status of anyone they stopped and suspected might be in the country illegally. It also made it a crime not to produce legal residency documents when asked to do so by a cop or to have an undocumented person in your car or home. The law wreaked havoc on Latinx communities statewide, especially in Maricopa County, where Sheriff Joe Arpaio delighted in using it to intimidate and harass residents. …
    4. The law became “a powder keg for Latino activism and rebuilding the Latino movement that had been absent for 20 to 30 years here,” says Tomas Robles, co–­executive director of LUCHA.
    5. It wasn’t just young adults who were energized and enraged by SB 1070. The children who saw their parents live in fear or lost family members to deportation are now old enough to vote: An estimated 100,000 Latinx potential voters have turned 18 since the 2018 midterms. …
    6. In late July, Mi Familia Vota launched its #BastaTrump (Stop Trump) campaign, which executive director Hector Sanchez describes as the “most aggressive campaign we’ve ever had in the Latino community to focus on one particular person…Donald Trump is the biggest threat for the Latino community, probably in the history of this nation,” Sanchez says. “If he gets reelected, I’m extremely concerned for the future of the Latino and immigrant communities.” …
    7. “There needs to be investment in Latinos in the same way all other demographics get investment to ensure that our community comes to participate.”
    8. But that message of pride and hard work often gets lost when both parties try to appeal to Latinx voters with shallow “Hispandering” that takes their votes and values for granted. Eduardo Sainz, the Arizona state director of Mi Familia Vota, says that the millions of phone calls his group has made show that “the community wants to participate” in the election—if it feels that it’s being listened to. “Candidates sometimes don’t pay attention to Latinos,” Sainz says. “There needs to be investment in Latinos in the same way all other demographics get investment to ensure that our community comes to participate.” …
    9. Chuck Rocha, who headed Bernie Sanders’ successful Latinx outreach, wrote this spring in a New York Times op-ed that “if Mr. Biden takes a conventional approach”—namely courting older Latinx voters with cable ads in Spanish—“and talks to the same little sliver of Latinos in Arizona who everyone talks to, he could be in trouble.” If Biden taps into the state’s activism, Rocha says, he “can reshape the electoral map and win.” In late May, Biden named Julie Chávez Rodríguez, a granddaughter of labor activist Cesar Chávez, as a senior adviser; he also brought on Latinx vote directors in 11 states. Kumar notes approvingly that many of the new hires are young organizers who have done work on the ground.  …
    10. [H]ow do we actually build a system that is for our communities? Currently there are systems that are keeping our communities from being able to access the vote and being able to participate. So that question is very frustrating.” Sainz agrees: “Have you invested in the Latino community to ensure that they have the resources and the tools and the information to participate? The answer is no. We see it on campaigns, and we see it once people get elected into office. They don’t prioritize our community.” …
    11. Organizers point to a list of recent victories that could not have happened without the work of the Latinx community: State Sen. Russell Pearce, the architect of SB 1070, was recalled in 2011; anti-birthright-citizenship bills in the 2011 legislative session were shut down; Arpaio lost his 2016 reelection campaign; and in 2018, Arizonans elected the state’s first woman to the US Senate and the first Latina mayor of Tucson, both Democrats. And from 2014 to 2018, Latinx voter turnout increased by 50 percent nationwide. Those accomplishments are “reminders that we have power,” says Gomez. “All these incremental victories were like the wind underneath our sails.” Or as Sainz puts it, “We’ve been flipping Arizona.”
12. .The Supreme Court hasn’t been this conservative since the 1930s; By Joan Biskupic, CNN legal analyst & Supreme Court biographer | CNN.COM | Updated 6:33 PM ET, Sat September 26, 2020
    1. The US Supreme Court is on the verge of a historic transformation that could wind back the law in America for decades, in some cases to the 1930s, pre-New Deal approach.
    2. With … Donald Trump’s nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, the nine-member bench would lock in a 6-3, conservative-liberal majority, ending an era of 5-4 conservatism.
    3. This is not a simple matter of just one vote.
    4. For decades, a quartet of liberal justices has sometimes been able to secure — often through tense negotiations — a crucial fifth vote from the conservative wing. That has meant even though America’s highest bench was shifting rightward, it preserved abortion rights and narrowly declared a right to same-sex marriage.
    5. A tenuous moderation also prevented the five-justice conservative bloc from routinely reversing acts of Congress and eviscerating regulation, for example, over the environment, labor and public safety. Such regulatory authority dates to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal era, and much has been the bane of the Trump administration, its top officials and its judicial appointees. …
    6. Religious conservatives have been promoting the appointment of Barrett because of her positions on faith and the law.
    7. Law professors who have long studied the Supreme Court note that today’s conservative justices have obliged religious interests more than conservatives of a prior era. In recent cases, the Roberts court has allowed greater public funding of religious education and sided with employers who have religious objections to the Affordable Care Act’s mandate for birth control coverage. …
    8. The right-wing revolution has been more than a half century in the making, yet it has been amplified under Trump. He is getting a rare third opportunity in a single term to add a justice to the bench. …
    9. In some respects, the current chapter of Supreme Court history began when Chief Justice Earl Warren, the bulwark of individual rights and liberties, retired in 1969. Republican President Richard Nixon replaced him with Warren Burger, a jurist known for his law-and-order conservatism.
    10. Nixon then named three other justices, including William Rehnquist, who was then elevated to chief justice in 1986 by Ronald Reagan. Nixon had campaigned against Warren era rulings, such as Miranda v. Arizona, which enshrined the familiar police “Miranda rights,” but it was Reagan who more systematically and effectively set out to remake the judiciary in his image. Reagan had three appointments, in addition to Rehnquist’s elevation.
    11. Roberts, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, succeeded Rehnquist in 2005. …
    12. Of the 18 justices confirmed since 1969, 14 have come from Republican presidents, and only four from Democrats. A few GOP appointees, notably Harry Blackmun and David Souter, in time voted consistently with the liberal wing. But conservatives have dominated. (Senate Republicans in 2016 prevented a vote on Democrat Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland.)
    13. With the appointment of Barrett, the Supreme Court appears certain to have a majority, for example, to reverse a nearly century-old doctrine that allows Congress to delegate some of its power to agency discretion.
    14. Even before this moment, the court was curtailing agency authority to protect workers and consumers. In a little-noticed 2018 case, Ginsburg warned that the New Deal was under attack. The dispute involved an exemption from overtime pay rules in the Fair Labor Standards Act.
    15. As the then five-justice conservative bloc enhanced the exemptions, Ginsburg wrote in a dissenting opinion that the majority was stripping away “protection for the most vulnerable workers.”
    16. Noting that the Fair Labor Standards Act was passed in 1938, Ginsburg declared that the majority had undermined worker protections from the New Deal era, “without even acknowledging that it unsettles more than half a century of our precedent.” …
    17. Based on the records of the current conservatives and Barrett, the ideological center could now be Kavanaugh.
    18. But the ability of Roberts to retain control and keep the court from moving too fast should not be underestimated.
    19. In countless public comments in recent years, he has emphasized the impartiality of the bench. He has often set aside his own conservative instincts to ensure decisions that shielded the integrity of the Supreme Court. …
    20. One way or another, Roberts is likely to ensure that he remains largely in the majority, even if it is a solidly conservative majority.
    21. “The Rehnquist Court became the Kennedy Court,” observed Professor Strauss. “Roberts does not want this to become the Kavanaugh Court.”