Mon, Jan 4, 2021, 3PM (CT) #KPFTHouston 90.1FM. POSSIBLE TOPICS: Voting info; “Vote By Mail” applications; TX DMV end date for waiver; GEORGIA RUNOFF; PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CERTIFICATION; Adobe Flash is officially dead; Eat a python to save the Everglades?; Austin not allowed to restrict dining-in at restaurants; The Pandemic Disproved Urban Progressives’ Theory About Gentrification; Eligible Texans can’t get answers about the COVID-19 vaccine; Trump called the USMCA the best trade deal ever. Analysts say not likely to help TX during pandemic; Census Bureau to miss deadline, jeopardizing Trump plan; Is the Republican Party becoming “The Sedition Party”?; Homes of Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi Are Reported Vandalized; The U.S. needs a democracy overhaul. Here’s what Biden’s first step should be; more. Guest: [AUDIO/VIDEO]

Leave a reply

This program was recorded early in the morning on SUNDAY, January 3. Due to Covid-19, shows are being prerecorded beginning March 13, 2020 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 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.

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

An educated electorate is a prerequisite for a democracy.
You’re entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts.

SIGNOFF QUOTE[s]: The Four Freedoms, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Four Freedoms were goals articulated by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt on January 6, 1941. In an address known as the Four Freedoms speech (technically the 1941 State of the Union address), he proposed four fundamental freedoms that people “everywhere in the world” ought to enjoy:

~ Roosevelt delivered his speech 11 months before the United States declared war on Japan, December 8, 1941

“There’s a reason why you separate military and police. One fights the enemy of the State. The other serves and protects the People. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the State tend t become the People.” ~ Commander Adama, “Battlestar Galactica” (“WATER”, Season 1 episode 2, at the 28 minute mark.)

POSSIBLE TOPICS: Voting info; “Vote By Mail” applications; TX DMV end date for waiver; GEORGIA RUNOFF; PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CERTIFICATION; Adobe Flash is officially dead; Eat a python to save the Everglades?; Austin not allowed to restrict dining-in at restaurants; The Pandemic Disproved Urban Progressives’ Theory About Gentrification; Eligible Texans can’t get answers about the COVID-19 vaccine; Trump called the USMCA the best trade deal ever. Analysts say not likely to help TX during pandemic; Census Bureau to miss deadline, jeopardizing Trump plan; Is the Republican Party becoming “The Sedition Party”?; Homes of Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi Are Reported Vandalized; The U.S. needs a democracy overhaul. Here’s what Biden’s first step should be; more.

Pledge to support KPFT by Text: Listeners can now text “GIVE” to 713-526-5738 and they’ll receive a text message back with a link to KPFT’s donation page, with which they can make their pledge on-line at their convenience.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2021! (Let’s hope it’s an improvement.)
Make sure you are registered to vote!
1. VoteTexas.GOV – Texas Voter Information
  1. TEXAS SoS VOTE-BY-MAIL BALLOT APPLICATION (ALL TEXAS COUNTIES)
  2. HarrisVotes.COM – Countywide Voting Centers, (Election Information Line (713) 755-6965), Harris County Clerk
    1. Harris County “vote-by-mail’ application for 2021
  3. Fort bend County Elections/Voter Registration Machine takes you to the proper link
  4. GalvestonVotes.org (Galveston County, TX)
  5. Liberty County Elections (Liberty County, TX) <– UPDATED LINK
  6. Montgomery County (TX) Elections
  7. Brazoria County (TX) Clerk Election Information
  8. Waller County (TX) Elections
  9. Chambers County (TX) ElectionsFor personalized, nonpartisan voter guides and information,
  10. Consider visiting Vote.ORG. Ballotpedia.com and Texas League of Women Voters are also good places to get election info.
  11. 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.
  12. 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)
    2. 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.
    3. Make sure you are registered:
    4. Ann Harris Bennett, Tax Assessor-Collector & Voter Registrar
    5. CHECK REGISTRATION STATUS HERE
    6. CLICK How to register to vote in Texas
    7. Outside Texas, try Vote.org.
Time to send in your “Vote By Mail” applications. Make sure it is not date-sensitive.
1. After January first, it will be time to send in your “Vote By Mail”
2. The current forms on the election site are for 2020. I have an inquiry pending.
Texas Department of Motor Vehicles announces end date for waiver of vehicle title, registration requirements; By Hannah Zedaker | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM/HOUSTON | 1:38 PM Dec 15, 2020 CST | Updated 1:38 PM Dec 15, 2020 CST
1. 1. Texans now have until April 14, 2021 to renew expired vehicle registrations …
JAN 5: GEORGIA RUNOFF
1. Democratic control of House and Senate? Pass a new Voting Rights Act
JAN 6: PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CERTIFICATION
Adobe Flash is officially dead — what to do now; By Imad Khan | tomsguide.com | Jan 2, 2021, 6 hours ago
1. Three years ago Adobe announced that Flash Player, a once-cornerstone of interactive content online, will be ending. Well, that day has finally come, and Adobe is strongly recommending that users uninstall Flash from their computers immediately.
2. On January 1st, Adobe dropped support for Flash. That means no more annoying update prompts, the ones that also nudged you to install McAfee Security Scan Plus. According to Adobe’s Flash end of life page, “Adobe does not intend to issue Flash Player updates or security patches after the EOL Date. Adobe strongly recommends that all users uninstall Flash Player immediately.”
3. The reason Adobe is being so forceful in asking users uninstall Flash is because it has always been a security nightmare.
4. Per a piece by Adam Palmer at Infosecurity Magazine, the National Vulnerability Database returns 1,122 records for Flash Player, both the FBI and CIA put it in the top-10 routinely exploited vulnerabilities, and that criminals still try and trick people into installing fake versions of Flash on their computers. …
5. Adobe has now abandoned support for Flash, and will block all Flash content Jan. 12. (ABC7.COM (Los Angeles))
Would you eat a python to save the Everglades? – There’s a catch. The pythons might be toxic. By Patrick Pester – Staff Writer | LIVESCIENCE.COM | 3 days ago
1. MIKE: I’ve said for years that the best way to drive a nuisance species to extinction is to find an economic use for it. My idea of doing this for rats and roaches has never caught on, but putting other nuisance species on the menu is happening.
2. … Floridians could begin seeing a new slithery item on their menus — Burmese pythons. The invasive species is so out of control in the state that the government may begin encouraging the new meal as a way to help keep the snake’s numbers under control, as long as they aren’t filled with toxic mercury.
3. Before the recommendation, though, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has teamed up with the Florida Department of Health to find out if the mercury levels in pythons are safe to consume.
4. If that’s the case, python hunter Donna Kalil is already ahead of the game. She hunts pythons for the South Florida Water Management District and estimates that she’s eaten a dozen pythons over the last three years or so, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
5. [Python hunter Donna Kalil says,] “It’s a wonderful tasting meat.” She describes it as an “acquired thought process” more than an “acquired taste.” …
6. Python meat may be particularly vulnerable to mercury contamination, which poses a threat to human health. …
7. When mercury enters our freshwater and seawater systems, certain microorganisms can pick it up and convert it into methylmercury. This form builds up in the food chain as one contaminated animal is eaten by another. …
8. Some of the pythons found in the Everglades have previously registered “strikingly high levels of mercury,” more than double what the state of Florida considers safe for edible fish, Live Science previously reported. If consumed by humans, mercury poisoning may cause various conditions, including neurological and chromosomal problems and birth defects.
9. In the new research, scientists will measure mercury levels in tissue from captured pythons. …
Austin won’t be allowed to restrict dining-in at restaurants, Texas Supreme Court says – Austin Mayor Steve Adler and Travis County Judge Andy Brown sought to restrict dine-in food and beverage service both indoors and outdoors from 10:30 p.m. to 6 a.m., starting on New Year’s Eve and ending at 6 a.m. Sunday. The measure allowed restaurants to offer drive-thru, curbside pick-up, take out, or delivery services. by Shannon Najmabadi | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Jan. 1, 2021, 8 PM
1. The Supreme Court of Texas on Friday blocked Austin-area orders that restricted dining-in and drinking at restaurants through January 3. The order followed a New Year’s Day appeal by Attorney General Ken Paxton.
2. Austin Mayor Steve Adler and Travis County Judge Andy Brown announced the orders on Dec. 29 in a bid to slow spiraling coronavirus infections and hospitalizations going into New Year’s Eve. They were quickly challenged by Gov. Greg Abbott and by Paxton, who described the orders as “needlessly oppressive.” Both officials exhorted Texas restaurants to remain open in defiance of the orders, which were upheld by a district judge Thursday. In a further blow to the state, Texas’ Third Court of Appeals swiftly rejected an appeal later that night.
3. Friday’s Supreme Court order, however, directs the lower court to block enforcement of the orders, pending any further appeal. …
4. The Texas Restaurant Association said on Twitter it was grateful for Abbott and Paxton’s actions and that closing indoor dining would “not prevent holiday celebrations” but “simply move them from highly regulated businesses into completely unregulated spaces.” …
5. Austin officials have voiced alarm over the availability of intensive care unit beds as cases spread across the state. The number of hospitalized coronavirus patients statewide has reached record highs and more than 27,770 people in Texas have died with the virus. …
The Pandemic Disproved Urban Progressives’ Theory About Gentrification – The “gentrification-industrial complex” isn’t who anti-growth progressives think it is. By Jacob Anbinder, D. candidate in history at Harvard University | THEATLANTIC.COM | January 2, 2021
1. MIKE: Covid-related futurism. This lengthy article goes on in a very different direction, but I thought these opening paragraphs were interesting.
2. From California to the Northeast, a funny thing has happened recently in America’s most expensive metropolitan areas: Rents have gone down. Ever since remote workers began fleeing urban cores at the start of the coronavirus pandemic—whether to the Hamptons or their parents’ basements—urban housing markets have been flooded with empty apartments. As a result, the prices that rental units command in certain large cities have dropped dramatically, to the tune of 18 percent in Boston, 19 percent in Seattle, and nearly 25 percent in San Francisco, according to a November survey by the firm Apartment List.
3. The cause of the drop should hardly be surprising. The pandemic has radically decreased demand for big-city living while also increasing the quantity of available apartments. …
Eligible Texans can’t get answers about the COVID-19 vaccine. It’s not clear who — if anyone — has them. Getting the COVID-19 vaccine to the people eligible to receive it has proven far from easy. Its rollout in Texas has been marred by poor messaging from state officials, technical errors, logistical delays and supply shortages. by Shawn Mulcahy, Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff and Abby Livingston | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Dec. 31, 20208 PM
1. [G]etting that vaccine to the people eligible to receive it has proven far from easy. The vaccine’s rollout has been marred by poor messaging from state officials, technical errors and logistical delays.
2. As the final hours of 2020 ticked away, it was unclear whether anyone in the state knew how many doses of the vaccine had been administered here. And after state officials had expressed concern that vaccines were going unused and urged providers to give them to anyone who was eligible, many who met the qualifications were finding it difficult — if not impossible — to track down anyone with vaccines to give. Many counties asked Texans to sign up via an iPhone application or through an online registry, and some elder Texans are finding those technologies onerous.
3. The confusion left medical experts and people urgently awaiting the vaccine frustrated and questioning how the state would be able to handle smoothly administering vaccines to a population of nearly 30 million in the coming months.
4. “All of this seems to have been avoidable if it had been properly thought through,” said state Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin. …
5. Carrie Williams, a spokesperson for the Texas Hospital Association, challenged Abbott’s claim that there was an excess inventory of vaccines, saying the industry is moving as fast as possible. …
6. Vague messaging from state health officials left Texans who were desperate to get vaccinated without clear answers of where and how they schedule a vaccination. Many frantically called pharmacies, where they get their flu shots, for help. …
7. Pharmacies like CVS and H-E-B say they are still focusing on vaccinating medical workers or people in long-term care facilities. They don’t have enough doses to vaccinate the general population, they said. …
8. CVS, which plans to spend the next three months focusing on vaccinating 275,000 residents and staff at 2,000 long-term care facilities in Texas, is also not yet opening up vaccine appointments to the general public.
9. When that does happen — John Fratamico, a CVS district leader in Texas, said this could occur in March — customers will sign up for what Fratamico called a “round-trip ticket.” Using the pharmacy’s website or app, or a 1-800 number, eligible Texans will schedule both the first and second doses of the vaccine on a first-come-first-serve basis. …
10. CVS is encouraging its customers to download its app, which will send a push notification once they are eligible to schedule appointments. …
11. [Texas] health officials are trying to fix data entry errors in the system, which likely resulted in a major overestimation of available doses.
12. [Texas state Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin said,] “More vaccine had been administered than was being revealed by the registry system,”
13. [She] told The Texas Tribune, “I think [the decision to allow the 1B group to get vaccinated] was done before we had all the information we probably should’ve had, because there wasn’t the capacity to meet that new edict.” …
Trump called the USMCA the best trade deal ever. Analysts say it’s not likely to help Texas during the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has clobbered the Texas economy and trade with Mexico, clouding the trade deal’s potential impacts, experts say. by Meena Venkataramanan and Julián Aguilar | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Aug. 12, 20206 AM
1. When the port of Laredo passed Los Angeles to become the busiest trade hub in the country in February, optimism was high in Texas.
2. An ongoing U.S. trade war with China meant a drop in traffic at West Coast trade hubs while Texas’ land ports with Mexico were on the verge of benefiting from the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a 21st century upgrade to the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement. The new agreement between the U.S., Mexico and Canada was touted by President Trump and some Democrats as a landmark deal that would ensure America stayed on top of the global economy. …
3. “When you look at this particular [free trade agreement], it’s the first one to my knowledge that didn’t really do anything to liberalize trade,” said Ken Roberts, president and founder of WorldCity, a Florida-based company that tracks trade through more than 240 countries. “It was a tweak of an old agreement.”
4. One key provision of the deal requires that a member country manufacture 75% of a vehicle’s parts in order for the vehicle to be exempt from tariffs when it moves between the countries. The old agreement mandated 62.5%. The agreement also requires that at least 40% of every vehicle must be produced in factories where workers are paid at least $16 per hour.
5. The agreement, which will be reviewed every six years, went into effect on July 1. But the pandemic is clouding the ability to forecast its immediate impacts on Texas’ trade industry …
6. [C]urrent forecasts show more than a 50% decline for those ports because of pandemic-induced disruptions. …
7. Some trade advocates point to some new projects, including the construction of cold storage warehouses along the border and the issuance of a permit for a new cross-border rail line through Laredo, as signs that the agreement is having an impact already. …
As described by com: Census Bureau will miss deadline that would allow for apportionment shenanigans, Jan 2nd, 2021 by Charles Kuffner.
1. Census Bureau to miss deadline, jeopardizing Trump plan; By MIKE SCHNEIDER | APNEWS.COM | December 30, 2020
  1. The Census Bureau will miss a year-end deadline for handing in numbers used for divvying up congressional seats, a delay that could undermine President Donald Trump’s efforts to exclude people in the country illegally from the count if the figures aren’t submitted before President-elect Joe Biden takes office.
  2. The Census Bureau plans to deliver a population count of each state in early 2021, as close to the missed deadline as possible, the statistical agency said in a statement late Wednesday. …
  3. Internal documents obtained earlier this month by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform show that Census Bureau officials don’t expect the apportionment numbers to be ready until days after Biden is inaugurated on Jan. 20.
  4. Once in office, Biden could rescind Trump’s presidential memorandum directing the Census Bureau to exclude people in the country illegally from numbers used for divvying up congressional seats among the states. An influential GOP adviser had advocated excluding them from the apportionment process in order to favor Republicans and non-Hispanic whites. …
  5. “If these are not addressed, then it is very possible that stakeholders including the Congress may not accept the results for various purposes including apportionment,” said Thompson, who oversaw 2020 census preparation as the agency’s leader during the Obama administration.
  6. He said in an email that missing the Dec. 31 target date “means that the Census Bureau is choosing to remove known errors from the 2020 Census instead of meeting the legal deadline.”
2. KUFF: See here and here for some background. It’s one less way for Trump to screw things up beyond his own administration’s reign, and we should all be happy for it. There’s also a bill in the Senate to extend the deadline for Census results by four months, which the Census Bureau had asked for back in April but which got sidelined by (among other things) the usual Trump indifference. I presume that will have a much better chance of passing if the Dem candidates can win in Georgia, but we’ll see.
Is the Republican Party becoming “The Sedition Party”?
1. Pence Welcomes Futile Bid by G.O.P. Lawmakers to Overturn Election – Vice President Mike Pence signaled his support as 11 Republican senators and senators-elect said that they would vote to reject President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory. By Luke Broadwater | NYTIMES.COM | Jan. 2, 2021, Updated 8:35 p.m. ET
  1. Vice President Mike Pence signaled support on Saturday for a futile Republican bid to overturn the election in Congress next week, after 11 Republican senators and senators-elect said that they would vote to reject President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory when the House and Senate meet to formally certify it.
  2. The announcement by the senators — and Mr. Pence’s move to endorse it — reflected a groundswell among Republicans to defy the unambiguous results of the election and indulge President Trump’s attempts to remain in power with false claims of voting fraud. …
  3. The senators’ opposition to certifying Mr. Biden’s election will not change the outcome. But it guarantees that what would normally be a perfunctory session on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to ratify the results of the presidential election will instead become a partisan brawl, in which Republicans amplify specious claims of widespread election rigging that have been debunked and dismissed for weeks even as Mr. Trump has stoked them. …
  4. The conundrum is especially acute for Mr. Pence, who as president of the Senate has the task of presiding over Wednesday’s proceedings and declaring Mr. Biden the winner, but has his own future political aspirations to consider as well. On Friday, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by House Republicans [led by Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert] to pressure Mr. Pence to do otherwise, and instead unilaterally overturn the results. …
  5. … [On] Saturday evening, Marc Short, his chief of staff, issued a statement saying that Mr. Pence “shares the concerns of millions of Americans about voter fraud and irregularities in the last election.” The vice president … “welcomes the efforts of members of the House and Senate to use the authority they have under the law to raise objections and bring forward evidence before the Congress and the American people on Jan. 6th.”
  6. In a joint statement on Saturday, the Senate Republicans — including seven senators and four who are to be sworn in on Sunday — called for a 10-day audit of election returns in “disputed states,” and said they would vote to reject the electors from those states until one was completed. They did not elaborate on which states.
  7. The group is led by Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and includes Senators Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Steve Daines of Montana, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Mike Braun of Indiana, and Senators-elect Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.
  8. Together with Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, who announced this week that he would object to Congress’s certification of the election results, they bring to nearly one-quarter the proportion of Senate Republicans who have broken with their leaders to join the effort to invalidate Mr. Biden’s victory. In the House, where a band of conservatives has been plotting the last-ditch election objection for weeks, more than half of Republicans joined a failed lawsuit seeking to overturn the will of the voters, and more are expected to support the effort to challenge the results in Congress next week. …
  9. Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, the top Democrat on the Rules Committee with jurisdiction over federal elections, called the Republican effort a “publicity stunt” that would ultimately fail, but said it was dangerous nevertheless, amounting to “an attempt to subvert the will of the voters.” She noted in an interview that hundreds of millions of votes had already been “counted, recounted, litigated and state-certified” across the country.
  10. “These baseless claims have already been examined and dismissed by Trump’s own attorney general, dozens of courts and election officials from both parties,” said Mike Gwin, a spokesman for Mr. Biden’s campaign.
2. Trump Calls Georgia Senate Races ‘Illegal and Invalid’ – President Trump continued his assault on election integrity, baselessly claiming the presidential results and the Senate runoffs in Georgia were both invalid — which could complicate G.O.P. efforts to motivate voters. By Richard Fausset | NYTIMES.COM | Jan. 1, 2021
  1. President Trump took to Twitter Friday evening to make the unfounded assertion that Georgia’s two Senate races are “illegal and invalid,” an argument that could complicate his efforts to convince his supporters to turn out for Republican candidates in the two runoff races that will determine which party controls the Senate. …
  2. Trump has continued to make the false claim that Georgia’s election system was rigged against him in the Nov. 3 general election. Some Republican leaders are afraid that his supporters will take the president’s argument seriously, and decide that voting in a “corrupt” system is not worth their time, a development that could hand the election to the Democrats.
  3. Some strategists and political science experts in the state have said Mr. Trump’s assault on Georgia’s voting system may be at least partly responsible for the relatively light Republican turnout in the conservative strongholds of northwest Georgia … in the early voting period that ended Thursday. …
Speaker Pelosi’s house vandalized with graffiti, pig head: reports; By Sam Dorman | WDRB.COM, Fox News | Jan 2, 2021, Updated 7 hrs ago
1. On Friday, photos surfaced on social media and TMZ showing graffiti on a San Francisco garage door purportedly at the home of the Democratic congressional leader. The apparently spray-painted message read “$2K” with a line through it.
2. “Cancel Rent?” “We want everything!” Another line appeared to read “UBI!” referring to the concept of universal basic income.
3. MIKE: There was also a crossed-A symbol, which is usually a trademark for Anarchists. That doesn’t automatically mean anarchists actually painted it.
  1. Circle-A (SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA): “Enclosed A” redirects here. For the Unicode character, see Enclosed Alphanumerics. For the email address symbol (@), see At sign. For other uses, see Circled-a.
  2. The symbol composed of the capital letter A surrounded by a circle is universally recognized as a symbol of anarchism^[1] and has been established in global youth culture since the 1970s.^[16] Cindy Milstein writes that the A represents the Greek anarkhia (‘without ruler/authority’), and the circle can be read as the letter O, standing for order or organization, a reference to Pierre-Joseph Proudhon‘s definition of anarchism from his 1840 book What Is Property?: “as man seeks justice in equality, so society seeks order in anarchy”^[17] (French: la société cherche l’ordre dans l’anarchie).^[18][19]
  3. In the 1970s, anarcho-punk and punk rock bands such as Crass began using the circle-A symbol in red,^[20] thereby introducing it to non-anarchists. Crass founder Penny Rimbaud would later say that the band probably first saw the symbol while traveling through France.^[21]
4. Homes of Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi Are Reported Vandalized – Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, called the vandalism of his Louisville, Ky., home a “radical tantrum” taken from a “toxic playbook.” By Allyson Waller | NYTIMES.COM | Jan. 2, 2021, 2:21 p.m. ET
  1. In a statement on Saturday, Mr. McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, lamented what he called a “radical tantrum” drawn from a “toxic playbook.” The Louisville station WDRB-TV reported that the senator’s home was tagged overnight with red and white spray paint. Photos show writing on the front of the home, including “Weres my money” on the front door. The Louisville Metro Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday.
  2. “I’ve spent my career fighting for the First Amendment and defending peaceful protest,” Mr. McConnell said in the statement. “I appreciate every Kentuckian who has engaged in the democratic process whether they agree with me or not. This is different. Vandalism and the politics of fear have no place in our society.” …
  3. MIKE: Other text appears to read “McConnell Kills The Poor”, and some other graffiti on the brick that is unreadable.
The U.S. needs a democracy overhaul. Here’s what Biden’s first step should be. OPINION by Editorial Board | WASHINGTONPOST.COM | Jan. 2, 2021 at 9:00 a.m. CST
1. … Mr. Trump and a disturbing number of Republican officials have made obsolete the old assumptions that each major party will play fair, that electoral results will reflect the will of the majority and that each side will willingly turn over power when defeated at the polls. The nation needs a top-to-bottom review of how it conducts elections, counts votes and assures the public of the democracy’s health, so that it resists those who want to restrict voting, trash legitimate ballots and leverage positions of trust to upend valid results. Among President-elect Joe Biden’s first acts should be to convene a high-level commission to recommend a democracy overhaul.
2. The review must be wide-ranging, beginning with the electoral college itself. …
3. The commission should look at encouraging more voter participation. That could mean universal voter registration …Or perhaps mail-in balloting should be expanded …The commission could even review how mandatory voting has worked in places such as Australia. …
4. Some states and cities are experimenting with ranked-choice voting… This promising reform could eliminate the threat of third-party spoilers throwing elections to candidates most voters dislike.
5. Voters must be assured that their ballots are secure from malicious actors and administration incompetence alike. That means stronger national standards — and federal money — for voting equipment, staff and support, including stipulations on using statistically sound methods to audit vote counts. …
6. Americans should also have confidence that partisan officials will not be able to reject voting results. Internationally, the United States is unusual in that its chief voting administrators — state secretaries of state — are partisan elected officials. …
7. Finally, Americans should never again have to dig up rickety old laws to determine whether arcane electoral college counting procedures might offer federal lawmakers a route to overturning a presidential election by congressional vote. The commission should recommend a thorough update of the 1887 Electoral Count Act that eliminates the possibility that a partisan Congress could reject properly certified electoral votes…
8. There is much more that a democracy commission could consider. The nation’s democratic system, wounded and exposed from a rough 2020, cannot limp into 2024 in comparable or worse shape. Many of the questions raised in the past several weeks are not ones most Americans previously imagined they needed to contemplate. But they are now arguably the most important issues facing the country as it reckons with the Trump era.

Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig

"An educated electorate is a prerequisite for a democracy."

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Rate this:

Share this:

Like this:

Leave a Reply Cancel reply