"An educated electorate is a prerequisite for a democracy."
Mon, Jan 25, 2021, 3PM (CT) POSSIBLE TOPICS: Voting info; “Vote By Mail” apps; TX DMV announces 4/13 end date for waiver of vehicle title, registration; Last Sears in Houston area is closing; New groundwater rules set to abolish previous pumping restrictions in areas including The Woodlands; Toxic substance or water supply? Lawmakers to weigh whether wastewater from oil fields could replenish the state’s aquifers; Dems frustrated as fight over filibuster stalls power-sharing agreement in Senate; Prominent Senate Republican warns Trump trial could spark more impeachments; Congress must face the enemy within; MORE. Guest: [AUDIO/VIDEO] #KPFTHouston 90.1FM.
This program was recorded early in the morning on SUNDAY, January 24 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.
“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.)
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Next Election: May 01, 2021 – Uniform Election. Early Voting: April 19th – April 27th
If you are denied your right to vote any place at any timeat any polling place for any reason, ask for (or demand) a provisional ballot rather than lose your vote.
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:
A government document that shows your name and an address, including your voter registration certificate
Current utility bill
Bank statement
Government check
Paycheck
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)
A KPRC 2 viewer pointed out the Sears location at Macroplaza Mall in Pasadena, formerly known as Pasadena Town Square, is set to close this Sunday, with yellow “store closing” signs posted all over.
This comes after Sears announced a wave of store closures last year due to bankruptcy.
By the start of 2021, fewer than 100 Sears and KMart stores remain in the U.S., Forbes reported.
2004–2009: On November 17, 2004, Kmart Holdings Corporation [under Eddie Lambert] announced it was going to acquire Sears, Roebuck, and Co. for $11 billion after Kmart completed its bankruptcy (USA Today Nov. 17, 2004). As a part of the acquisition, Kmart Holding Corporation along with Sears, Roebuck, and Co. was transformed into the new Sears Holdings Corporation. The new company started trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange as SHLD; Sears sold its single-letter ticker symbol ‘S’ in the New York Stock Exchange it had held since 1910 to Sprint Corporation.[43][better source needed] The new corporation announced that it would continue to operate stores under both the Sears and Kmart brands. In 2005, the company began renovating some Kmart stores and converting them to the Sears Essentials format, only to change them later to Sears Grands.[44] The combined company’s profits peaked at $1.5 billion in 2006.
MIKE: How bankrupt Kmart acquired SEARS is really quite a story.
According to WIKIPEDIA: While Kmart was going through bankruptcy, a significant amount of Kmart’s outstanding debt was purchased by ESL Investments, a hedge fund controlled by Edward Lampert. Lampert worked to accelerate the bankruptcy process.[62] … On November 17, 2004, Kmart’s management announced its intention to purchase Sears for $11 billion.[64] As part of the merger, the Kmart Holding Corporation (the company that owns Kmart) would be transferred to the new Sears Holdings Corporation and Sears would be purchased by the new Sears Holdings Corporation.
But there’s more to this story.
The Moral: The top people almost always do great. It’s the thousands of folks working for them or selling them goods that suffer.
The Lone Star Groundwater Conservation District, an entity that regulates groundwater usage in Montgomery County, adopted new groundwater rules that went into effect in September, a change that affects the amount of groundwater entities can now pump. Since 2016, certain entities that use groundwater in Montgomery County were required to cut back their usage by 30%. …
“The new rules will adversely impact much of Montgomery County,” said Jim Stinson, the general manager of The Woodlands Water Agency, which oversees and manages 11 municipal utility districts in The Woodlands. “Data clearly shows that reducing groundwater withdrawal in Montgomery County to about 65,000 acre-feet per year stabilized aquifer levels, minimizes fault movement and substantially reduces subsidence in our region.”
[“Frakking” sends] fluids … through ancient shale formations, fracturing rock and starting the flow of oil — the essential part of hydraulic fracturing technology that’s transformed America’s oil industry.
But that’s not all that comes up out of the earth.
Salty, contaminated water … is also drawn to the surface during oil production. Before an oil price war … Texas wells were producing more than 26 million barrels of the ancient and contaminated water a day …
In the oil patch, figuring out how to dispose of this water “is something that only gets worse,” said Rene Santos, an energy analyst for S&P Global Platts…
Usually, it’s later injected back underground, into separate wells — a practice that has been linked to increased seismic activity. Sometimes it’s reused in another fracking well. But a new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency decision allowing Texas to regulate the discharge of the water after it’s treated could be a first step toward new uses of the water — at least that’s what some Texas lawmakers and oil and gas producers hope.
The EPA told the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality [TCEQ] last week that the state could take charge of the federal government’s responsibilities to regulate discharging so-called “produced water,” if the water met certain toxicity standards. Previously, operators had to obtain permission from both the Texas Railroad Commission… and the EPA before discharging the water.
… State regulations for the discharges will remain the same as current federal standards, according to a TCEQ press release …
For every barrel of oil produced in the Permian Basin of West Texas, an average of six barrels of water come up with it … State Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, argues that the water could eventually help the state replenish its diminishing water supplies.
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As chairman of the state Senate Committee on Water and Rural Affairs, [State Charles Perry] helped produce an interim report ahead of the 2021 legislative session that included such a vision — and now Perry says the recent EPA decision will help get federal regulation out of the way.
“This is a water supply that hasn’t been cultivated or tapped,” Perry said. “It’s a sin to waste that resource.”
The industry, too, has “a lot of excitement” about turning the water into something of value rather than an expense, said Jason Modglin, president of the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers.
But scientists and industry observers say the idea is a long shot. Produced water contains high amounts of salt, as well as other minerals and toxins in varying amounts depending on the shale formation it comes from, and technology to make the water potable is still expensive.
Bridget Scanlon, a hydrogeologist and senior research scientist at the University of Texas at Austin, said little is known about what risks produced water could pose after treatment, and significant scientific analysis needs to be conducted before it is discharged into the environment. …
But reusing produced water is far from financially viable today, industry analysts said. It’s much cheaper to dispose of the wastewater in a well than to treat it. And it’s usually cheaper for companies to buy fresh water for hydraulic fracturing than to treat produced water for that purpose.
“The technology is there, but it’s the expense,” said [Rene Santos, an energy analyst for S&P Global Platts]. For small operators, especially, “it’s economically prohibitive to clean the water.”
Environmental groups and some scientists warn against releasing the produced water, even after treatment, into Texas streams and rivers.
“We don’t have standards for produced water — we’ve never had to deal with it,” said [Bridget Scanlon, a hydrogeologist and senior research scientist at the University of Texas at Austin] UT hydrogeologist. “I think we need to look at it in a different way than municipal wastewater.”
She said the “lowest hanging fruit” is to use the water for other fracking wells. Less treatment is necessary to do so, and more reuse of the water by industry would ease the strain on limited freshwater resources in Texas.
Environmental groups say current federal standards for treatment and discharge of produced water — which Texas says it will match as it takes over regulation — are too low to adequately protect the environment.
“Federal regulations haven’t been updated at all,” to respond to the rising problem of disposing of produced water, said Alex Ortiz, a water resources specialist for the Sierra Club’s Lone Star Chapter. “The EPA doesn’t have enough knowledge (about produced water).”
He said the Sierra Club will challenge the decision to give Texas regulatory authority, with the hope that an EPA led by the Biden administration may find a way to reverse the move. The group also aims to push state lawmakers to create tougher water discharge standards.
Texas Senators Cruz and Cornyn are back in the national spotlight with their conducts threatening the stability of a new Senate while it’s in the throws of a power-sharing debate. But what is power sharing, and how has the Senate handled in the past?
Senate Democrats are refusing to buckle to demands from Senate Republicans that they agree not to weaken filibusters against legislation, something many progressives are anxious to do in order to push through the Biden administration’s agenda as Democrats control the White House and both chambers of Congress for the first time in years. …
The tense standoff over the issue is stalling a power-sharing agreement between the parties in the 50-50 Senate, where Vice President Kamala Harris has a tie-breaking vote. …
Even though Harris can break ties in Democrats’ favor, the party can’t take full control of the Senate until reaching an agreement with Republicans on an organizing resolution. They’re operating on the organizing resolution from the last Congress, when the GOP was in the majority. Because of that, for instance, confirmation hearings for President Joe Biden’s Cabinet picks this week are being chaired by Republicans. …
Supporters of the filibuster have reason to fear it could be further diminished. Both parties have jammed through on partisan votes — known as the “nuclear option” — changes to Senate rules to weaken filibusters against nominees. The Democrats did it first in 2013 to make it easier to confirm then-President Barack Obama’s executive and judicial branch nominees. The Republicans extended it in 2017 to Supreme Court nominees clearing three of then-President Donald Trump’s picks to the high court.
On the organizing resolution, Schumer argues the Senate should adopt the same power-sharing agreement as was passed in 2001, the last time the Senate was split 50-50. That agreement said nothing about gutting the filibuster, which was not used as frequently then as it is now.
“Our caucus believes that the fairest easiest and most bipartisan way to come to an organizing resolution is to enact the 2001 agreement that senators Lott and Daschle came to in a bipartisan way back then.
MIKE: In 2001, the Senate was divided 50/50, but Dick Cheney, as Vice President and president of the Senate, had the tie-breaking vote. This is exactly the reverse of the present situation in the US Senate.
The 2000 elections resulted in a Senate composed of 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats. An historic agreement, worked out by the party floor leaders, in consultation with their party colleagues, was presented to the Senate (S.Res. 8) on January 5, 2001, and agreed to the same day. The agreement was expanded by a leadership colloquy on January 8, 2001. It remained in effect until June of 2001 …
This report describes the principal features of this and related agreements which provided for Republican[majority] chairs of all Senate committees after January 20, 2001; equal party representation on all Senate committees; equal division of committee staffs between the parties; procedures for discharging measures blocked by tie votes in committee; a restriction on the offering of cloture motions on amendable matters; restrictions on floor amendments offered by party leaders; eligibility of Senators from both parties to preside over the Senate; and general provisions seeking to reiterate the equal interest of both parties in the scheduling of Senate chamber business. Also noted is that not all aspects of Senate practice were affected by the powersharing agreement.
Committees
All Senate committees would have equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats;
a full committee chair could discharge a subcommittee from further consideration of a measure or matter, if it was not reported because of a tie vote; and
budgets and office space for all committees were equally divided, with overall committee budgets to remain within “historic levels;”3
Discharging Measures or Matters
If a measure or nomination was not reported because of a tie vote in committee, the majority or minority leader … could move to discharge the committee from further consideration of such measure or nomination;
[After an agreed upon debate period,] the Senate would vote on the discharge motion, without any intervening action, motion, or debate; and
if the committee were discharged by majority vote, the measure or matter would be placed on the appropriate Senate calendar to await further parliamentary actions.
Agenda Control and Cloture
The agreement prohibited a cloture motion from being filed on any amendable item of business during the first 12 hours in which it is debated;
required both party leaders “to seek to attain an equal balance of the interests of the two parties” in scheduling and considering Senate legislative and executive business; and
noted that the motion to proceed to any calendar item “shall continue to be considered the prerogative of the Majority Leader,” although qualifying such statement with the observation that “Senate Rules do not prohibit the right of the Democratic Leader, or any other Senator, to move to proceed to any item.” …
Minority Senators as Presiding Officers
The party leaders agreed that minority party Senators would be permitted to serve as presiding officers of the Senate. This differed from the usual Senate practice under which only majority party Senators serve as temporary presiding officers. …
[O]ne issue that was not resolved was conference committee composition. Although the agreement specified equal party strength on the Senate’s standing, special, and joint committees, it did not specify equal party strength on conference delegations. Some Senate Republicans were insistent that a majority of Senate conferees be Republicans, reflecting the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Cheney available to approve any conference compromise. As one Republican Senator noted, “I think it’s absolutely our position, and my position, that we have to control the conferences.”8 …
Conclusion: On May 24, 2001, Senator James Jeffords announced his intention to leave the Republican party, to become an Independent, and to caucus with the Senate Democrats. With Senator Jeffords’s announcement, the Democrats held a numerical edge in the Senate. On June 5, 2001, Senator Jeffords met with Senate Democrats at their weekly conference meeting. On June 6, the Senate convened with the Democrats as the acknowledged Senate majority party.
[P]rominent U.S. Senate Republican [John Cornyn] warned on Saturday that former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial could lead to the prosecution of former Democratic presidents if Republicans retake the chamber in two years.
[Cornyn, a 19-year veteran of the Senate, said in a Twitter post directed at Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer,] “If it is a good idea to impeach and try former Presidents, what about former Democratic Presidents when Republicans get the majority in 2022? Think about it and let’s do what is best for the country.” ..
Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has said the mob was “provoked” by Trump. But other Senate Republicans say that trying Trump while out of office would be unconstitutional and further divide the country.
The Kentucky Republican Party’s state central committee rejected a resolution on Saturday that urged McConnell to fully support Trump and condemn his impeachment, the Louisville Courier Journal reported. The committee voted 134-49 to uphold a ruling that the resolution was out of order, the paper said.
The party’s spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. …
Congress must face the enemy within – Members of Congress who endangered their colleagues, or who violated their oaths of office and fed the insurrection with their lies, must be held accountable for the Jan. 6 attack. By The Editorial Board | BOSTONGLOBE.COM | Updated January 24, 2021, 4:00 a.m.
This is a time for hope and for healing, but that doesn’t mean there shouldn’t also be a reckoning — especially within the halls of Congress — by those who disgraced their office, violated their oaths to uphold the Constitution, and endangered their colleagues.
There can be no reconciliation without an accounting, no peaceful collaboration without a determination about the extent of culpability of certain members of Congress in the 6 insurrection that wreaked havoc on the Capitol and forced the evacuation of the vice president, the House speaker, and most of the assembled members of Congress.
During those moments, democracy itself came under assault. Now being contemplated by some congressional leaders is a looming question: Were there elected representatives so in thrall to Donald Trump and the Big Lie of election fraud that they were complicit in this assault on the Capitol? Several Democrats believe that is the case and are demanding an investigation and answers.
House majority leader Jim Clyburn of South Carolina is among those distressed by what seemed like the rioters’ insider knowledge. It wasn’t his well-marked office off Statuary Hall that was attacked, but rather his unmarked office on the third floor “where I do most of my work,” Clyburn said.
“There are many members of the United States Congress right now who could not tell you where that office is,” he told MSNBC. “How did they know where that office was? Something’s wrong here.” …
Attention has centered on Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado, who was seen days before the invasion by two Democratic legislators with a “large” group in the tunnel that connects the Cannon House Office Building to the Capitol — though she insists that she was only leading family members on tours.
Boebert, a Republican freshman who has links to QAnon conspiracy theorists and is a gun-rights activist who vowed to bring her Glock on the Capitol grounds, has already had a run-in with Capitol Police after metal detectors were installed at the entry to the House Chamber in the wake of the riots. Boebert’s tweeting about Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s location in the midst of the riots has already brought calls for her censure.
Pelosi warned [Boebert at her] Thursday news conference that those lawmakers who actively helped the rioters will face more than mere censure.
“There will be prosecution if they aided and abetted an insurrection in which people died,” the speaker said.
… Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama actually addressed the 6 rally, telling participants, “Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass.” … House Democrats Tom Malinowski of New Jersey and Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida have already introduced a resolution calling for Brooks’s censure.
Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona, head of the House Freedom Caucus, and his Arizona colleague Representative Paul Gosar have been implicated in helping to plan the massive demonstration that preceded the riot. Biggs, through his office, has denied any such role.
And then there are those who led the fight to perpetuate the biggest lie of all by questioning the election results in key battleground states and, therefore, attempting to overturn the results of a legitimate election. Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas continued to lead their shameful effort even after the rioting that left five people, including a Capitol police officer, dead. They both openly raised campaign contributions off their despicable conduct, giving new meaning to the term blood money. (No wonderHallmark asked Hawley to return its $7,000 contribution.)
Cruz’s hometown paper, the Houston Chronicle, in an editorial called on him to resign and “deliver Texans from the shame of calling him our senator.”
As ringleaders of the effort — as those who encouraged insurrectionists by feeding their delusions — Cruz and Hawley should be held accountable by their colleagues under the 14th Amendment, which prohibits those who have engaged in insurrection from holding office.
Congress will also need to reckon with the results of an investigation into whether any of its members, including but not limited to Boebert, led “reconnaissance” tours for potential insurrectionists.
Representative Stephen Lynch’s answer to that is simple. “We’ll have to expel them,” the Massachusetts congressman told WGBH radio. “That’s pretty low, when you take an oath to support and defend the Constitution. You have colleagues there, and you’re putting them in danger.”
These are no small matters. As federal authorities fan out and bring insurrectionists to justice, the role of elected officials who used and abused their offices must not be forgotten. Those who violated their oaths to uphold the Constitution and endangered their colleagues must be held accountable. Only then can order and dignity be restored and healing within the halls of Congress begin.
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1 thought on “Mon, Jan 25, 2021, 3PM (CT) POSSIBLE TOPICS: Voting info; “Vote By Mail” apps; TX DMV announces 4/13 end date for waiver of vehicle title, registration; Last Sears in Houston area is closing; New groundwater rules set to abolish previous pumping restrictions in areas including The Woodlands; Toxic substance or water supply? Lawmakers to weigh whether wastewater from oil fields could replenish the state’s aquifers; Dems frustrated as fight over filibuster stalls power-sharing agreement in Senate; Prominent Senate Republican warns Trump trial could spark more impeachments; Congress must face the enemy within; MORE. Guest: [AUDIO/VIDEO] #KPFTHouston 90.1FM.”
Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig 
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