Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig (@ThinkwingRadio) is now on Wednesdays at 11AM (CT) on KPFT-HD2, Houston’s Community Station. You can also hear the show:
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Welcome to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig where we discuss local, state, national, and international stories. My co-host and show editor is Andrew Ferguson.
Listen live on the radio, or on the internet from anywhere in the world! 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.)
POSSIBLE TOPICS: VOTETEXAS.GOV—Voter Information; City Council debate reveals kinks in charter amendment process; Redevelopment authority brings in $600K grant for intersection improvements at Yale, Center streets; Cypress Creek flood projects on track despite funding challenges; Abortion law doesn’t need to cover rapes because Texas will eliminate them, Abbott says; Mexico’s Supreme Court rules that abortion is not a crime; New Studies Find Evidence Of ‘Superhuman’ Immunity To COVID-19 In Some Individuals; Democrats and Lobbyists Gird for Battle Over Far-Reaching Tax Increases; NI Protocol: Further delays for Irish Sea border checks; Pakistan frets over security threats from neighbouring Afghanistan; US withdrawal from Afghanistan spells end of China’s free ride on international security; China sends 19 aircraft into Taiwan’s air defence zone; The Trouble With Airports, and How to Fix Them; More.
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- Make sure you are registered to vote! VoteTexas.GOV – Texas Voter InformationTEXAS SoS VOTE-BY-MAIL BALLOT APPLICATION (ALL TEXAS COUNTIES) HarrisVotes.com – Countywide Voting Centers, (Election Information Line (713) 755-6965), Harris County Clerk
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- Harris County “Vote-By-Mail’ Application for 2021
- Fort bend County Elections/Voter Registration Machine takes you to the proper link
- GalvestonVotes.org (Galveston County, TX)
- Liberty County Elections (Liberty County, TX)
- Montgomery County (TX) Elections
- Brazoria County (TX) Clerk Election Information
- Waller County (TX) Elections
- Chambers County (TX) Elections
- 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.
- 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.
- HarrisVotes.com – Countywide Voting CentersHARRIS COUNTY – IDENTIFICATION REQUIRED FOR VOTING: Do not possess and cannot reasonably obtain one of these IDs?
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- 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)
- You may vote early by-mail if:You are registered to vote and meet one of the following criteria:
- Away from the county of residence on Election Day and during the early voting period;
- Sick or disabled;
- 65 years of age or older on Election Day; or
- Confined in jail, but eligible to vote.
- Make sure you are registered:
- Ann Harris Bennett, Tax Assessor-Collector & Voter Registrar
- CHECK REGISTRATION STATUS HERE
- CLICK How to register to vote in Texas
- Outside Texas, try Vote.org.
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- FYI: There are no elections coming up right now in Harris County, but do make sure your registered to vote! Now is a great time! Just go to VOTETEXAS.GOV – Texas Voter Information for information/instructions.
- City Council debate reveals kinks in charter amendment process; By Emma Whalen | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 10:57 AM CDT, Sep 7, 2021
- When the Houston city secretary’s office finished verifying a petition submitted by organizers aiming to change power dynamics at City Hall, the group behind the petition said they did not expect they would have to wait two years before their proposal will be up for a citywide vote. …
- By invoking a clause in the state constitution, City Council members were legally able to file the item on the November 2023 ballot, despite an election date approaching this November. The mayor and council members who supported the move cited election costs and a potential low turnout as reasons for the delay. …
- At the same time, the Houston firefighters union is awaiting the verification of signatures on a petition it submitted to the city secretary’s office July 11. After Harris County’s Aug. 16 election filing deadline passed, it became clear the union’s proposition will not go before voters this fall either. …
- The two missed opportunities for a November election kicked off a debate about Houston residents’ access to power at City Hall.
- [Said Kellen Zale, an associate professor at the University of Houston Law Center who specializes in local government law,] “You don’t want too many elections because that does increase the cost to taxpayers and potentially causes voter confusion but … you want to make sure there’s an opportunity for elections to be held in a timely manner.”
- The two petitions … aim to alter the city charter in different ways.
- The first proposal, circulated by a bipartisan group … , aims to change the charter so any City Council member can place an item on the council’s weekly agenda as long as two other members back it. The effort is supported by wide-ranging groups, including the Houston Democratic Socialists of America and the Harris County Republican Party.
- As [currently] written, the charter only allows the mayor to place items on the agenda. …
- The second charter amendment petition lobbied by the firefighters union proposes a requirement that the union and the mayor enter binding arbitration in the event of an impasse in labor contract negotiations. … Unlike the current mediation process [where] both parties are legally required to come to an agreement, according to the Texas Local Government Code.
- The effort is the latest in a labor contract dispute between the city and the union that has resulted in numerous lawsuits and prevented the parties from agreeing to a contract since 2017. …
- The Texas Constitution allows the City Council to choose the soonest possible election date or the sooner of the next mayoral election or presidential election. Houston City Council members debated whether to put the petition on this November’s ballot or the November 2023 ballot. …
- The majority ended up choosing the 2023 election date, citing various reasons. Some stated it will have better turnout because it will also fall on the next mayoral and City Council race, and others noted the estimated $1.3 million cost to host an election is too high for one proposition.
- MIKE: The reasoning for an election delay makes some sense. While I can understand a sense among some that it’s the equivalent of, “Justice delayed is justice denied,” I think there is also something to be said for such a consequential change in the way that city government does business being determined by the heaviest voter turnout possible. I still remember that light rail — a multi-billion dollar, multidecadal project that changed the city forever – was approved on the third(?) ballot attempt by a light voter turnout; light rail was approved by a majority of 10% of the voters. I believed that Houston needed better mass transit, but I don’t – and didn’t – think that this proposal was the way to get it.
- ANDREW: I can understand why the petitioners want their items on the next ballot, but I can also understand why they’re placed later. The petitions, if passed, could let a lot more business get done faster and sooner. But the argument that as many voters as possible should have a say is a fair one. I really can’t come down on one side or the other.
- Redevelopment authority brings in $600K grant for intersection improvements at Yale, Center streets; By Shawn Arrajj | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 4:48 PM CDT, Sep 2, 2021
- … The improvements will include a new mast arm mounted traffic signal, pavement markings, pedestrian call buttons and countdown timers, and improvements to make the intersection more in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to a news release from the authority. …
- The intersection saw 27 automobile crashes between 2017 and 2019, according to the authority, citing statistics from the state’s Crash Reduction Information System. That data is part of what officials said prompted them to pursue improvements. …
- ANDREW: Accessibility is a problem in a lot of places in the US, as we may discuss later, and that’s no different in Texas cities. I’m glad to see even incremental progress on increasing accessibility.
- Cypress Creek flood projects on track despite funding challenges; By Brooke Ontiveros, Danica Lloyd | communityimpact.com | 11:50 AM Sep 3, 2021 CDT | Updated 9:47 AM Sep 6, 2021 CDT
- Three years after voters passed a $2.5 billion flood bond referendum in response to Hurricane Harvey, the Harris County Flood Control District continues to work on flood prevention projects while dealing with funding and land acquisition issues. …
- Experts recommend the district add at least 25,000 acre-feet—about 8.15 billion gallons—of stormwater detention to the Cypress Creek watershed to alleviate the area’s chronic flooding issues. By comparison, HCFCD has constructed about 50,000 acre-feet of detention countywide since the district was established in 1937, and the Tax Day Flood of April 2016 dumped about 240 billion gallons of water on Harris County over two days. …
- The district plans to build nearly 20 additional stormwater detention basins in the Cypress Creek watershed, with the potential to add nearly 14,000 acre-feet of stormwater detention. However, this number is subject to change as …the HCFCD has not determined the costs or funding sources for all the detention basins. The 2018 bond does include funds for land acquisition. …
- In addition to detention basins, HCFCD has several subdivision drainage improvement projects underway in the watershed. …
- Additionally, HCFCD plans to release Phase 2 studies on the potential for an underground flood tunnel in the Cypress Creek watershed in September for community review. If approved, … the project could take five to six years if the HCFCD can secure the billions of dollars needed for construction. …
- For reference: Harris County Flood Control District: A virtual public meeting was held about this project.
- MIKE: I felt like this was an important story to mention because this hurricane season and other recent rain events have made area residents very aware and concerned about local and regional flooding. My intent by citing the article as I have is to let me residents know that the HCFCD is working on the problem; that these projects cost time and money; but they are ongoing, and a master plan is mostly in place. The excerpted article also discusses the financial challenges of completing this project which I’ve largely omitted, but you can find details by going to the linked article.
- ANDREW: We talked last week about the Ike Dike, which is also a plan for severe weather mitigation infrastructure. That project is also having funding issues, and really it’s not surprising as these projects are often huge in scope. But they’re necessary, and they build a network of storm defense that benefit citizens, yes, but also businesses, especially all the refineries we have around here. In exchange for protecting life and property (and profit), it seems fair for corporate tax to be raised to fund the projects, or perhaps companies can generate some goodwill by donating necessary funds.
- Abortion law doesn’t need to cover rapes because Texas will eliminate them, Abbott says; | COM | Tuesday, September 7, 2021 6:27PM
- Texas Senate Bill 8 went into effect on Sept. 1. The bill, which prohibits abortions once a heartbeat can be detected in a fetus, also does not make exceptions for rape or incest.
- On Tuesday, as Gov. Greg Abbott signed the controversial voting bill, he was asked about the lack of a rape exception in the abortion law.
- “Let’s make something very clear, rape is a crime, and Texas will work tirelessly to make sure that we eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas by aggressively going out and arresting them and prosecuting them and getting them off the streets,” Abbott stated. “So, goal number one in the state of Texas is to eliminate rape, so that no woman no person will be a victim of rape.” …
- MIKE: Let’s make something very clear: That ranks as about the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard any politician say, let alone a governor; or for that matter, any person. And “stupid” is a word that I use very sparingly. “Abbott’s “Goal Number One” is clearly ‘magical thinking’. Maybe his #1 Goal should be reducing shooting deaths or fighting the pandemic, or ending voter suppression. You know … stuff he might actually have some control over.
- ANDREW: Some people have speculated that Abbott is going to “end rapes” by the same method capitalists often use: defining them out of existence. If the law assumes everyone consents, nobody can be charged for nonconsensual acts, right? Obviously this is an unlikely scenario and would rightfully face huge backlash, but honestly, I wouldn’t put it past Republicans.
- MEANWHILE: Mexico’s Supreme Court rules that abortion is not a crime; ASSOCIATED PRESS via CLICK2HOUSTON.COM | Published: September 7, 2021, 2:18 pm. Updated: September 7, 2021, 6:56 pm
- The key piece of the story for Texans: The decision could potentially open another option for Texas women seeking legal abortions. For years, some women in south Texas have crossed the border to go to Mexican pharmacies to buy misoprostol [maiso·PRAH·stol], a pill that makes up half of the two-drug combination prescribed for medical abortions. Legal abortions could become accessible now along Mexico’s long shared border with Texas.
- MIKE: Now will Texas Republicans build their “Border Wall” so that Texas women won’t be permitted to cross into Mexico?
- ANDREW: I read somewhere that the best pro-choice argument for pro-lifers is not about life, or fetuses, or ethics. It’s about government overreach. Do conservatives really want the government to be able to force people to let another person use their body? It starts with forcing pregnant people to carry to term. Where does it end? Forced transplants from you to the governor and state senators? I wouldn’t think a freedom lover would want that.
- New Studies Find Evidence Of ‘Superhuman’ Immunity To COVID-19 In Some Individuals; By Michaeleen Doucleff | NPR.ORG | September 7, 2021, 9:32 AM ET
- … [I]mmunologist Shane Crotty prefers “hybrid immunity.” …
- Over the past several months, a series of studies has found that some people mount an extraordinarily powerful immune response against SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes … COVID-19. Their bodies produce very high levels of antibodies, but they also make antibodies with great flexibility — likely capable of fighting off the coronavirus variants circulating in the world but also likely effective against variants that may emerge in the future. …
- So who is capable of mounting this “superhuman” or “hybrid” immune response? People who have had a “hybrid” exposure to the virus.
- Specifically, they were infected with the coronavirus in 2020 and then immunized with mRNA vaccines this year. “Those people have amazing responses to the vaccine,” says virologist Theodora Hatziioannou at Rockefeller University, who also helped lead several of the studies. “… The antibodies in these people’s blood can even neutralize SARS-CoV-1, the first coronavirus, which emerged 20 years ago. That virus is very, very different from SARS-CoV-2.”
- [T]hese antibodies were even able to deactivate a virus engineered, on purpose, to be highly resistant to neutralization. … But antibodies in people with the “hybrid immunity” could neutralize it.
- These findings show how powerful the mRNA vaccines can be in people with prior exposure to SARS-CoV-2, she says. “There’s a lot of research now focused on finding a pan-coronavirus vaccine that would protect against all future variants. Our findings tell you that we already have it.
- “But there’s a catch, right?” she adds: You first need to be sick with COVID-19. “After natural infections, the antibodies seem to evolve and become not only more potent but also broader. They become more resistant to mutations within the [virus].” …
- Immunologist John Wherry, at the University of Pennsylvania, is a bit more hopeful. “In our research, we already see some of this antibody evolution happening in people who are just vaccinated,” he says, “although it probably happens faster in people who have been infected.” …
- ANDREW:There’s been fear that COVID might become a recurring illness, like the flu. Hopefully this hybrid immunity can prevent that and more people will develop it.
- Democrats and Lobbyists Gird for Battle Over Far-Reaching Tax Increases; Congressional committees this week begin drafting tax increases on the wealthy and corporations to pay for a $3.5 trillion social policy bill, but the targets are putting up a fight. By Jonathan Weisman, Alan Rappeport and Jim Tankersley | NYTIMES.COM | Sept. 7, 2021
- … On Thursday, the House Ways and Means Committee is set to begin formally drafting its voluminous piece of the 10-year measure to combat climate change and reweave the nation’s social safety net, with paid family and medical leave, expanded public education, new Medicare benefits and more. The committee’s purview includes much of that social policy, but also the tax increases needed to pay for it. …
- [C]orporate interests, led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable and Americans for Tax Reform, have mobilized a multifaceted lobbying and advertising blitz to stop the tax increases — or at least mitigate them.
- “They’re lobbying to try to escape their obligation to pay the taxes they owe, leaving working families to pay a larger share of the burden,” Mr. Biden said at the White House on Friday. “Somebody has got to pay.” …
- Many Democrats are determined to tax the wealth of America’s fabulously rich, much of which goes untaxed for decades before being passed along to heirs. Currently, for instance, when large estates are passed on at death, heirs are allowed to value the stocks, real estate and other assets at the price they would fetch at the time of the original owner’s death. They pay taxes only on the gain in value from that point once the assets are sold. If the assets are not sold, they are not taxed at all. …
- Biden wants to have heirs to large fortunes pay taxes when the original owner dies. Those taxes would be levied on inherited assets based on the gain in value from when those assets were initially purchased. …
- Even more significantly, the Finance Committee is looking at taxing the accumulated wealth of billionaires, regardless of whether it is sold. Extremely wealthy Americans like … Amazon founder Jeff Bezos would have a decade to pay a one-time tax on the value of assets like stocks that have been accruing value for years. They would then pay taxes each year on the annual gain in value of their stocks, bonds and other assets, much like many Americans pay property taxes on the annually assessed value of their homes.
- Another key component is the international tax code. The Biden administration has called for doubling the tax that companies pay on foreign earnings to 21 percent, so the United States complies with an international tax deal that the administration is brokering, which would usher in a global corporate minimum tax of at least 15 percent. …
- [S]ome Democratic lawmakers have expressed concern that U.S. companies would still be at a competitive disadvantage if other countries enacted minimum tax rates as low as 15 percent and the United States had a higher rate. …
- Republicans are already on the attack. After the disappointing monthly jobs report on Friday, Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, the ranking Republican on the Ways and Means Committee, said the slowing economy would “only get worse if the Democrats’ trillions in tax hikes and welfare spending is rammed through Congress in September.”
- Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the chairman of the Finance Committee, said he understood that business groups and Republicans would howl that the tax increases would kill jobs, stifle the economy and hurt ordinary, struggling Americans.
- “The big lobbies are going to attack you under any circumstance,” he said, “and half the time they’re just making it up.”
- But he insisted that the politics had changed. Americans who struggled during the coronavirus pandemic can see how rich others have become. New revelations from a trove of tax records leaked to ProPublica showed that household names like Mr. Bezos and Elon Musk paid virtually no federal taxes. …
- Administration officials insisted that taxing the rich and corporations would help sell the bill. …
- MIKE: Inheritance taxes aren’t “Death Taxes”. They’re deferred capital gains taxes. And I’m uncomfortable with taxing “unrealized capital gains” as part of property taxes on the rich, but I might consider it fair to tax “theoretically realized capital gains” if the rich use them as collateral for loans to access wealth. As for the comparison to property taxes, I’d like to suggest again the notion of progressive property taxes. If you can afford a home worth tens of millions or hundreds of millions, of dollars, then you can afford a higher property tax rate.
- ANDREW: This should be a no-brainer, but I could see the Manchin and Sinema wannabes standing in the way to put self-made success stories over reality once again. I’d say people should write them letters, but that assumes they’ll be read.
- NI Protocol: Further delays for Irish Sea border checks; By John Campbell, BBC News NI Economics & Business Editor |BBC.COM | Published 2021-9-7
- The checks are a requirement of the Northern Ireland Protocol, a deal reached by the UK and EU in 2019.
- It means some products need to be checked as they arrive from GB but grace periods mean that not all the checks have been implemented.
- Some of these grace periods were due to expire at the end of September but the government has now indefinitely extended them. …
- The UK wants a fundamental renegotiation of the protocol but the EU has said that is not possible, although it is prepared to consider additional flexibilities. …
- In a statement on Monday evening the European Commission [said in part] … , “The Protocol is an integral part of the Withdrawal Agreement and the agreed solution between the UK and the EU to the problems caused by Brexit for the island of Ireland. … Both sides are legally bound to fulfil their obligations under the Agreement. …”
- The European Commission said it would not agree to a renegotiation of the Protocol.
- MIKE: Brexit was, is, and will continue to be a bad idea, if only because of the strains it puts on the “union” part of the United Kingdom. And that isn’t the only reason. It harms the British economy in every nation of the Union. It endangers Irish peace. And it diminishes Britain in a geopolitical sense. Brexit is not only the UK shooting itself in the foot; it’s the UK not even bothering to get treatment for the gunshot wound.
- MIKE: Make a special point of listening for my “Brexit is ‘ALIEN‘” analogy. This is a sample dialog where Brett and Parker play the UK. The rest of the crew is the EU.
- ANDREW: The arguments for the English to just accept that Ireland isn’t theirs anymore and leave just keep piling up. Brexit is just the latest.
- Pakistan frets over security threats from neighbouring Afghanistan; By Gibran Peshimam | REUTERS | September 1, 2021, 1:58 AM CDT. Last Updated 3 hours ago
- There is growing concern among Pakistani officials about security in neighbouring Afghanistan, as the Taliban tries to form a government and stabilise the country following the departure of U.S. and other foreign forces.
- Islamabad is particularly worried about militant fighters from a separate, Pakistani Taliban group crossing from Afghanistan and launching lethal attacks on its territory. Thousands of Pakistanis have been killed in jihadist violence in the last two decades. …
- “The next two to three months are critical,” a senior Pakistani official said, adding that Islamabad feared a rise in militant attacks along the Afghan-Pakistan border, as the Taliban tried to fill a vacuum left by the collapse of Afghan forces and the Western-backed administration.
- “We (the international community) have to assist the Taliban in reorganising their army in order for them to control their territory,” the source added, referring to the threat posed by resurgent rival militant groups including Islamic State.
- S. officials have repeatedly accused Pakistan of supporting the Afghan Taliban, which fought in a civil war in the mid-1990s before seizing power in 1996. Islamabad, one of the few capitals to recognise the Taliban government that was toppled in 2001, denies the charge. …
- The [Pakistani ]official, who has direct knowledge of the country’s security decisions, said Pakistan planned to send security and intelligence officials … to Kabul to help the Taliban reorganise the Afghan military. …
- The official warned that Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K), a loosely-affiliated offshoot of Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, was actively looking to launch attacks and recruit new fighters. …
- The United States recently launched two drone strikes targeting ISIS-K militants, including one in Kabul and one near the eastern border with Pakistan. …
- The Taliban criticised the strikes as a “clear attack on Afghan territory”.
- Pakistan, whose armed forces also possess unmanned drones as well as conventional aircraft, will avoid intervening directly in Afghanistan if at all possible, said the [Pakistani] official.
- The Afghan Taliban have reassured their neighbour that they will not allow their territory to be used by anyone planning attacks on Pakistan or any other country.
- But Islamabad expected the Afghan Taliban to hand over militants planning attacks against Pakistan, the official added, or at least force them from their mutual border, where Pakistani troops have been on high alert in recent weeks.
- ANDREW: I don’t think I’m alone in not wanting the int’l community to help the Taliban reorganize into a government. First, it would surely make it harder for Afghan civilians to resist the Taliban, which I think is the only way a stable, fair government is going to arise there. Second, if the Taliban does set up a gov’t, they would be in a much better position to attack Pakistan themselves, a real possibility IMO. I don’t blame Pakistan for being nervous, but I don’t think trying to prop up the Taliban is a smart reaction.
- US withdrawal from Afghanistan spells end of China’s free ride on international security; By Christian Le Miere (@c_lemiere) | CHANNELNEWSASIA.COM | 25 Aug 2021 06:15AM (Updated: 25 Aug 2021 06:15AM) (Mediacorp is Singapore’s largest content creator and transmedia platform)
- Dateline — HONG KONG: With the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, the US in the 21st century has replicated the ignominious exits by the UK in the 19th century and the Soviets in the 20th. …
- …the US withdrawal is not all good news for the Chinese government for two reasons.
- First, the US withdrawal is part of a wider strategic shift in Washington, attempting to end costly campaigns in the Middle East and Afghanistan so that military and geopolitical attention can be focused more intently on the Indo-Pacific, as vice-president Kamala Harris hinted while in Singapore this week, and China more specifically.
- In essence, the US is bringing to an end land campaigns in Asia to better concentrate on the maritime domain in the Western Pacific.
- Second, the US withdrawal highlights an uncomfortable new reality for Beijing. For the last 40 years of its remarkable economic development, it has been able to free ride on the US global security presence. …
- Beijing, meanwhile, has had to expend no blood or treasure to benefit from these interventions, and could focus domestically on rapidly developing its economy, military, and social cohesion, with only brief and limited international security operations. …
- Now, that free ride appears to be coming to an end. The US is withdrawing from Middle East theatres in Afghanistan and Iraq just as China is growing its commercial presence and interests overseas. … Pakistan is a case in point. … A suicide bombing in mid-July killed nine Chinese citizens working on the Dasu dam [in Pakistan], part of CPEC. Another suicide bombing last Friday (Aug 20) at the Gwadar East Bay Expressway, another key [China-Pakistan Economic Corridor] project, injured a Chinese national. …
- China has been a net oil importer since 1993. In 2020, five of the top 10 suppliers of oil to China were Gulf states. Securing this vital source of energy is now one of China’s key strategic goals, as well as ensuring stability in the oil markets more broadly.
- As a result, Beijing has steadily been enhancing its security presence in Central Asia and the Middle East. The country’s first overseas military base was inaugurated in Djibouti in 2017, and has since been expanded with an aircraft carrier pier added in April. Washington expects more bases will follow. …
- This is not to say that China is ready to take on a role as global policeman. …
- [T]he Chinese Communist Party has for years painstakingly attempted to craft a narrative of China’s peaceful rise, contrasting it with the conflict-laden past few decades of US foreign policy.
- Beijing’s strategic priorities also remain focused on its maritime near-abroad, over Taiwan, the South China Sea and the East China Sea.
- And so China is unlikely to make the same mistakes on military interventions in Afghanistan as did the British, Soviets and Americans.
- Nevertheless, the US withdrawal from Kabul, as well as Baghdad, and drawdowns elsewhere is creating a very different strategic picture when viewed from Beijing.
- With growing overseas interests and unstable, ungoverned areas near China’s western frontier, the calculations for Chinese security interventions may be shifting. …
- It is yet to be seen if the US withdrawal from Afghanistan will be followed by similar Chinese adventurism. The country’s economic interests there are few, save for a concession on a US$4 billion copper mine in Mes Aynak, the world’s second largest, that has been stalled for a decade.
- And while Beijing is very keen to ensure Afghanistan under the Taliban does not become a training ground for extremists or, more importantly, Uyghur separatist militants, it has proactively engaged diplomatically with the Taliban to gain assurances of that very fact.
- Still, it is now clear for Beijing that in Afghanistan, as elsewhere in the world, it must increasingly shoulder this security burden itself. Its free ride is over.
- ANDREW: I agree it’s unlikely that China will try to take the same approach the US has to international security. I think it’s pretty obvious that that approach benefits the larger country at the expense of the smaller country, and often leads to collapse and humiliating retreat when most of the smaller country’s resources have been extracted. I don’t think China is interested in that kind of economic expansion plan, at the very least because it’s not sustainable. I expect border security and claim defense to be given more priority.
- China sends 19 aircraft into Taiwan’s air defence zone; Sortie by People’s Liberation Army air force includes fighter jets and bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons. By Helen Davidson in Taipei @heldavidson | THEGUARDIAN.COM | Mon 6 Sep 2021 05.34 EDT. Last modified on Mon 6 Sep 2021 23.37 EDT
- China’s military sent 19 aircraft into Taiwan’s “air defence identification zone” on Sunday, including several nuclear-capable bombers, on the eve of Taipei’s annual war games exercises.
- The sortie by China’s People’s Liberation Army air force was one of the largest in weeks …
- The area is not Taiwan’s territorial airspace but the sorties provoke Taiwan’s air force to scramble jets in response, and on Sunday missile monitoring systems were also deployed. …
- In recent weeks, military vessels from the US and the UK have also sailed through the region, with a US warship and a US Coast Guard cutter going through the Taiwan Strait.
- The Taiwan strait and nearby South China and East China Seas are geopolitically sensitive … Beijing considers Taiwan to be a province of China under what it calls the “one China principle”, and has not ruled out the use of force to “reunite” it. It considers the Tsai Ing-wen-led Taiwanese government to be separatist. Tsai’s administration maintains that Taiwan is already an independent state. …
- The US maintains a policy that does not guarantee or rule out coming to Taiwan’s defence in the event of an attack …
- Japan has also become increasingly vocal with its concerns over the China threat. Its deputy prime minister remarked in July that an attack on Taiwan could be considered an existential threat to Japan – which would trigger constitutional permissions for the country to engage militarily. …
- ANDREW: War games in view of a rival country are really just provocation. It’s the same in the Korean peninsula. The US forces in the South show their teeth, and the North mobilizes to warn them off, everyone backs down, but if anything had gone wrong, things could have kicked off. It’s not worth the risk. You want maximum preparedness? Go practice in an ally’s waters or territory. That, or just leave the ships in port for a while. Maybe people will calm down enough to talk to each other.
- MIKE’S CURMUDGEON MOMENT: The Trouble With Airports, and How to Fix Them, With all the aggravation associated with flying these days, airport designers are hoping to calm things down with outdoor spaces, wide-open views, less noise and even foliage. By Elaine Glusac | NYTIMES.COM | Sept. 7, 2021
- ARTICLE SUBTITLES: The quiet airport movement; ‘Biophilic’ design; Humanizing airports; Conjuring a sense of place
- MIKE: Talk about “Humanizing Airports”? Airports now have So. Much. Walking. And much of it is by design. Kiosks and shops are rented out, and moving sidewalks have literally been removed to force you to pass the vendors. Some passageways are now winding, forcing you to pass more shopping opportunities, but also more walking. The sheer number of gates can involve walking miles inside of an airport. The whole experience is just debilitating. If there is a hell, and if I go to it, it might be an international airport, where the security line requires you to get naked after an interminable wait; your airplane is always at the last and furthest gate; your plane’s departure is delayed and you’re in the last boarding group; when you deplane, baggage claim is a 3 mile walk; and your baggage is in the last carousel where you wait 30 minutes for the first bags to appear.
- ANDREW: Ah, here’s that accessibility discussion I mentioned earlier. Mike definitely makes a lot of good points, but in my view, these problems mostly come down to capitalism. It’s cheaper to make airports bigger to handle more flights but not install accessibility features. Long hallways mean more retail space. Annoying boarding practices are inefficient for passengers, but efficient for selling first-class tickets (see CGP Grey’s YouTube video The Better Boarding Method Airlines Won’t Use). A thirteen-dollar grilled cheese sandwich is because you can’t go anywhere else. Profit is the problem. However, with the exception of inaccessibility, I find an odd charm in airports and air travel. It’s a weird realm where all of these things are not only normal, but expected. Everywhere looks the same. An hour and a minute both pass slowly. Everywhere you sit, you’re almost comfortable, but not quite. Add the excitement of literally being thousands of feet up in the air and going to see a new place, and it’s intoxicating, in its own way. God I miss airports. If you do too, there is a free video game on itch.io that is just exploring an airport terminal. It’s called Interminal, and I keep intending to play it and forget about it. Anyway. I agree that airports can be better, and they should be better, and I say that because I love them.
Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig 