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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- Live online at KPFT.org (from anywhere in the world!)
- Podcast on your phone’s Podcast App
- Visiting Archive.KPFT.ORG
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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.
POSSIBLE TOPICS: VOTETEXAS.GOV—Voter Information; Do you own an iPhone or iPad? Update your Apple devices right now; Decorative mental health resources now installed throughout Sugar Land; Many Fort Bend County flood bond projects, including those in the Sugar Land and Missouri City area, are left unfunded; A Texas school district doesn’t require masks. The state is suing the district anyway; Over 6,000 Texans have died of COVID-19 in the last month, putting the overall toll to more than 59,000; Petitions Filed to Have U.S. Supreme Court Decide on Indian Child Welfare Act Constitutionality; Texas foster care children exposed to sexual abuse, given wrong medication and neglected in unlicensed placements, new report says; ‘It’s Almost Comical:’ Starbucks Is Blatantly Trying to Crush Its Union; California recall lesson: Republicans believe in elections only when they win; Anonymous Claims to Have Stolen Huge Trove of Data From Epik, the Right-Wing’s Favorite Web Host; China’s house of cards: Evergrande threatens wider real estate market; NASA astronaut to stay on ISS for nearly a year; 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.
- Election Outlook: Monday, October 4, 2021 is the last day to register to vote for the November 2, 2021 Uniform Election
- Ideally, go to your County Elections office for specific election information.
- Do you own an iPhone or iPad? Update your Apple devices right now; By Jessica Guynn | USA TODAY | Sept. 13, 2021, updated Sept. 14, 2021
- Update iPhones and iPads to iOS 14.8, Macs to 11.6 and Apple Watches to 7.6.2.
- To update your iPhone or iPad
- Go to Settings.
- Tap General.
- Tap Software Update.
- Plug in your device (preferably with Wi-Fi access) or make sure it has 50% battery life or more.
- Tap “Install Now.”
- Decorative mental health resources now installed throughout Sugar Land; By Laura Aebi | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 3:10 PM Sep 11, 2021 CDT
- At a Sept. 7 City Council meeting, the city of Sugar Land presented six unique wooden information boxes containing information on free mental health resources that will be placed throughout the city on Sept. 10.
- “This project came about in response to two community needs,” said Suzanne Gray, the city’s cultural arts manager, at a June meeting discussing the call for artists for the program. “COVID[-19] not only affected businesses’ bottom lines, but many people’s mental health. Nationally, suicide completion rates have surged to a 30-year high. Grant funding from Fort Bend County became available, and the city saw an opportunity to pair support for our businesses, the creative sector and mental health through this project.”
- The project was executed through a partnership with … a nonprofit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicidal thoughts. …
- The boxes, which feature uplifting designs such as flowers and frogs, will be placed throughout the city, located next to positive messages embellishing the sidewalks. They were each designed and created by local artists.
- “It’s a unique approach, but one that fits in with Sugar Land residents’ expressed interest in public art to beautify the city,” Gray said in June. “This project enables us to provide that, while also making mental health materials readily available to everyone.”
- TAGS: sugar land City of Sugar Land Sugar Land City Council Suzanne Gray Star Gilani
- ANDREW: Interesting idea, but it’s a stopgap. Better to have it than not, but the only way to end mental illness is to end the circumstances– be they personal or societal– that cause it.
- Many Fort Bend County flood bond projects, including those in the Sugar Land and Missouri City area, are left unfunded; By Laura Aebi | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 3:28 PM Sep 13, 2021 CDT | Updated 3:28 PM Sep 13, 2021 CDT
- Four years after Hurricane Harvey, 10 of 25 drainage efforts from Fort Bend County’s 2019 flood bond are unfunded or on pause. However, five of the six projects affecting the Sugar Land and Missouri City areas are moving forward.
- … Fort Bend County … voters approved the county’s $83 million flood bond in November 2019—two years after Harvey devastated the area in August 2017.
- Mark Vogler, the Fort Bend County Drainage District general manager and chief engineer, said most of the paused projects are due to a lack of supplemental funding. He described the county’s bids for grants to use with bond money as “wishful thinking.” …
- Despite the delays, some of the bond work is being done in Missouri City through cooperation with city officials, … both Missouri City and Sugar Land officials said they are working on their own drainage mitigation projects. …
- One stalled project affecting the Sugar Land and Missouri City area is a $6.25 million flooding mitigation structure at Flat Bank Creek, which was delayed due to lack of funding. That structure would have aimed to prevent flood waters from backing up.
- While Flat Bank Creek’s flood structure project is stalled, its $2.5 million erosion repair project secured the funding it needed and is moving forward with the bid process. Fort Bend County Drainage District officials said they are working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA] to repair erosion damage and sloughing.
- “The banks are starting to slough, which means they’re starting to slide off and just fall in,” Vogler said. “If the bank falls in, the levee at the top is going to have a tendency to fall in or lose stability.”
- Additionally, Vogler said the county applied for $96 million in funding from the Texas General Land Office in 2020 but learned in May it did not receive any. …
- Moreover, the channel repair, erosion repair and desilting projects were meant to restore the damage done by Hurricane Harvey—not mitigate future damage, Vogler said. …
- While many projects were not able to secure the funding needed to move forward, others were fully funded by the bond or secured funding elsewhere, such as FEMA or the Natural Resources Conservation Service. …
- While the county continues to work toward securing funding for additional projects, both Missouri City and Sugar Land are working independently to improve their preparation for another major flooding event. …
- [And] While city and county officials are working to make improvements to mitigate flooding, Texas residents who insure their properties through the National Flood Insurance Program will soon be subject to a cost increase.
- FEMA said in April it will be implementing a new methodology to determine a property’s flood risk. Dubbed Risk Rating 2.0, the change will go into effect Oct. 1, increasing flood insurance rates for 77% of NFIP policyholders, FEMA estimated. …
- Risk Rating 2.0 will go into effect Oct. 1 for new flood insurance policyholders and April 1, 2022, for renewed policies. While prices are expected to increase, it is federally mandated that a flood insurance premium cannot go up by more than 18% per year, FEMA said.
- Additionally, flood insurance policies take 30 days to go into effect, so any policy bought after Sept. 1 will not qualify for being grandfathered in. Both Sugar Land and Missouri City have publicly voiced their opposition to the change.
- ANDREW: It’s easy to say that the Texas GLO should be less stingy, especially where genuine public safety is concerned. But would that be enough to solve the funding problem? Not necessarily. I wonder if Fort Bend understated the cash necessary for the projects in order to make the bond more likely to pass.
- A Texas school district doesn’t require masks. The state is suing the district anyway. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued nine more school districts over their masking rules. One says it doesn’t mandate them. Another says it doesn’t enforce mask-wearing at Paxton’s request. by Joshua Fechter | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Sept. 14, 2021, 3 hours ago
- … Midway Independent School District is a Waco-area district that sits on a list compiled by the attorney general’s office of school districts and counties that have flouted Gov. Greg Abbott’s ban and put in place their own mask-wearing orders.
- The hitch? Midway ISD doesn’t mandate that students, teachers, school staff or visitors don masks while on school premises, a district spokesperson said Wednesday. Midway officials have tried to convince the attorney general’s office the district doesn’t have a mandate — but to no avail. …
- Under Midway’s virus protocol, campuses can issue 10-day “mask directives” that encourage mask-wearing on the premises if virus transmission reaches a certain level — but doesn’t require it. The attorney general’s office pointed to that protocol as the basis of its lawsuit against the district, but declined to answer other questions from The Texas Tribune. …
- McGregor Independent School District, another district near Waco, did require mask-wearing if virus transmission became too severe but, at Paxton’s request, did not enforce the mandate, Superintendent James Lenamon said in a statement.
- Nonetheless, Paxton sued the district. …
- Paxton announced lawsuits against seven other districts Tuesday …
- Last week, Paxton sued six districts — the first time he had done so since the dispute between the state’s Republican leadership and local officials began in August.
- “There will be more to come as lawlessness continues across the state,” Paxton’s office wrote in a tweet Tuesday afternoon. …
- Paris ISD officials had taken the novel approach of requiring students to wear masks as part of the dress code — which the district’s general counsel Dennis Eichelbaum credited with keeping absences related to COVID-19 low.
- “Thank goodness we have the attorney general to come to our rescue,” Eichelbaum said.
- Speaking of which: Over 6,000 Texans have died of COVID-19 in the last month, putting the overall toll to more than 59,000 — TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG
- The Texas Tribune is using daily data from the Texas Department of State Health Services to track coronavirus vaccinations, cases, hospitalizations and deaths. The state data comes from vaccine providers, city and county health departments, hospitals and laboratories. It may not represent all cases of the disease given limited testing.
- MIKE: Sarcasm alert! So here again we have examples of two enduring philosophies of the modern Republican Party: A) Local control is about freedom, until we can overrule your local control, and B) Republicans are allegedly “pro-life” until you’re born, but then they want to kill you. And of course, you have to love Ken Paxton’s tirade about “lawlessness [continuing] across the state.” The lawlessness Paxton describes is school districts trying their reasonable best to protect the lives and health of children, educators, parents, and more.
- MIKE: Maybe it’s time to create what we might call “breath-easies” in schools. A lookout signals when everyone has to take off their masks when the state’s C-men (“Covid-men”) come poking around. When those guys leave, the “Breathe-easies” re-open and masks go back up. It would all be very Prohibition-y.
- MIKE: If protecting public health according to science is lawlessness, I say let’s have more of it. Because Ken Paxton and Greg Abbott obviously don’t recognize a battle against actual tyranny when they see it.
- ANDREW: Good to see Mike coming around to my way of thinking on lawlessness (ha ha). In seriousness, this is further proof that Republican ”governance” is more like a wild rampage. “Let’s sue all the schools in Texas, even if they’re complying with our ridiculous demands!” What a joke.
- Petitions Filed to Have U.S. Supreme Court Decide on Indian Child Welfare Act Constitutionality; By Native News Online Staff | NATIVENEWSONLINE.NET | September 07, 2021
- The state of Texas, four tribes and several parents have filed petitions asking the Supreme Court to review the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).
- The petitions stem from U.S. 5th Court of Appeals decision last April in the Brackeen v. Halaand, (formerly Brackeen v. Bernhardt), that … originally alleged the ICWA is unconstitutional for discriminating against non-Native families in the placement of Native children.
- Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 in response to Native children being removed from their homes and placed with non-Native families. Research by the National Indian Child Welfare Association found that between 25 percent and 35 percent of all Native children were forcibly removed from their home by state child welfare and private adoption agencies. Of them, 85 percent were placed with non-Native families, even when fit and willing relatives were available. ICWA is a safeguard aimed at preventing such a crisis from occurring by enabling tribes and families to be involved in child welfare cases.
- The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) on Monday released the following statement:
- “On September 3, 2021, the United States, tribal defendants, and state and private plaintiffs filed petitions asking the United States Supreme Court to review the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’s decision in Brackeen v. Haaland, a case challenging the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). The Protect ICWA Campaign stands with the United States and tribal defendants who have defended ICWA and its critical protections for Indian children and families who are in state court child custody proceedings.
- “ICWA represents the gold standard in child welfare practice and has helped tens of thousands of Indian children and families find fairness and healing in state child welfare systems for over 40 years.” …
- MIKE: So my first thought, sadly, is that whatever side the State of Texas is on is probably the wrong side.
- MIKE: But my second thought relates to the first sentence in the story: “The state of Texas, four tribes and several parents have filed petitions asking the Supreme Court to review the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).”
- MIKE: To me, the key phrase is, “four tribes and several parents”.
- MIKE: I assume that these groups are included in the action to give the State standing to bring the action.
- MIKE: But I would feel better about the story if it discussed the grounds being claimed by the parents and tribes listed as plaintiffs.
- MIKE: Part of this story isn’t being reported, and I don’t want to say that’s suspicious, but it’s certainly incomplete reporting.
- MIKE: In the context of the Canadian Indigenous schools scandal (STORY: Report: Over 600 bodies found at Indigenous school in Canada; ABCNews)) , I think this story deserves more detailed discussion by the writers, not less.
- ANDREW: I agree that aspects of the story still need coverage, but I think the best position to take right now is still AGAINST Texas and FOR the Act. Suspending this Act would make it easier for states to take Native children from their parents, something that historically resulted in placing them with non-native families who don’t respect the child’s origins. This weakens Native cultures by reducing the amount of people taking part in them, and, especially when considered alongside the recent abortion ban, can be used to try and get more kids adopted by conservative families to increase conservatives’ voting base. The possibility of all these things, I think, is enough to support the ICWA right now.
- Texas foster care children exposed to sexual abuse, given wrong medication and neglected in unlicensed placements, new report says; The federal judge overseeing the decade-long lawsuit against Texas for conditions in its foster care system cut this week’s hearing short. She proposed all parties involved, including the governor, “cut to the chase” to identify solutions. by Reese Oxner | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Sept. 14, 2021. Updated: 3 hours ago
- … [U.S. District Judge Janis Jack] made her suggestion of the novel approach after Paul Yetter, lead attorney representing children, asked if the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services would be willing to sit down with his team and other state agencies to discuss potential solutions. …
- Jack said that before she moves forward, she wants the governor’s signoff and support for the plan. …
- Tuesday’s hearing began after the release of the court monitors’ latest report, which detailed disturbing conditions that children in state custody endured this year after being placed in unlicensed facilities.
- Children in unlicensed placements were at times given the wrong medication, while others went without their prescribed medication for days, according to the report. Investigators found evidence of child-on-child sexual abuse. Some children ran away, and there’s evidence that some communicated with sex traffickers. Untrained staff members restrained children as young as 7, and in one placement a security guard handcuffed a child.
- The monitors also discovered that children with serious emotional disorders harmed themselves while in state custody, and some of them did not receive treatment. There is evidence that children cut themselves with sharp objects, attempted to hang themselves to the point of losing consciousness and ingested cleaning fluids.
- Unlicensed placements have continued to balloon in Texas since last year. During the first half of this year, 501 children spent at least one night in a non-licensed state-operated placement, the new report said. On average, children spent two weeks consecutively in unlicensed placements, with one child spending 144 consecutive nights in such placements.
- MIKE: The story has much more discussion of the failures of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services than what has been excerpted. I think the point of this story is that the legal struggle over the horrible experiences that children in Texas foster care have experienced for at least a decade. To some extent, this is another example of getting the government you pay for, i.e., maybe more resources would help. But I get a sense that these kids are given the same consideration given to Texas prisoners. We’ve had the discussion of whether convicts are sent to prison AS punishment or FOR punishment. This is a different story: If innocent children are submitted to the care of Texas, their lives become Dickensian in the scope of their tragedy.
- MIKE: So, a root question is not just about children or prisoners in Texas’s care. It’s about whether Texas – and I don’t want to exclude other states in this – simply doesn’t care about the human beings in its care, whether children, adults, convicts, people awaiting trial, or whatever. This long-term indifference to human welfare seems to be in the institutional DNA of Texas.
- ANDREW: Absolutely, states don’t care about the humans in their care. Capitalism drives to exploit people as much as possible while returning as little of what those people make to them as possible. The solution is a move away from capitalism. In the meantime, though, I actually have had trouble finding organizations trying to reform foster care by listening to the people who go through it. The organization Children’s Rights is the only one I’ve seen significantly dedicated to reform, but even they rely on “local child advocates” rather than children themselves. I think youth-run, youth-led organizations like the National Youth Rights Association should make connections with the people currently and formerly in these systems, to show governments what they want to see changed. In my opinion, they’re the experts.
- ‘It’s Almost Comical:’ Starbucks Is Blatantly Trying to Crush Its Union; Starbucks executives have swarmed Buffalo, New York stores, pulling aside workers to chat one-on-one during their breaks, at peak hours, and at night. By Lauren Kaori Gurley | VICE.COM | September 8, 2021, 5:30am
- Since three stores filed for a union election in August and announced the formation of Starbucks Workers United, management at the coffee chain has been holding group and one-on-one meetings with workers, discouraging employees from speaking to reporters and posting on social media, and sending upper management into stores to monitor workers and to help make lattes, according to documents obtained by Motherboard. Three pro-union employees say these tactics have instilled fear into workers. …
- While Starbucks has tried to distinguish itself as a progressive employer for decades by raising wages, offering health care benefits, and other perks, many of its tactics in Buffalo are standard practices used by anti-union employers to dissuade employees from engaging in collective action and unionizing. These practices include trying to make improvements and pander to workers in the lead-up to a union election. …
- In recent weeks, executives from Seattle and regional managers have swarmed local stores, pulling aside workers to chat one-on-one during their breaks, at peak hours, at night, and even on Labor Day weekend, helping baristas make coffee, clean up, and take out the trash.
- “They’re rolling up expensive suits to wash dishes and do trash runs. It’s almost comical,” said Jaz Brisack, a barista from one of the Buffalo stores that filed for a union election.
- Rossann Williams, the president of Starbucks North America—which has more than 8,000 coffee shops—also has been spending long hours in Buffalo stores, talking to workers, sitting in the parking lot, and handing out $10 gift cards to customers, according to workers. Motherboard spoke to workers in three separate stores who said that they feel surveilled, distracted, and intimidated by Williams’ sudden presence in their stores.
- A spokesperson for Starbucks noted that Williams makes stops at Starbucks around the country each week to talk to workers.
- This week, Starbucks announced that unionizing stores will hold mandatory meetings, known as “captive audience meetings,” that are regularly used by employers to dissuade and intimidate workers from unionizing by presenting anti-union rhetoric as fact. These meetings are also used as an opportunity for employers to gauge which workers are pro-union—a tactic used by many anti-union employers across the country such as Amazon, Whole Foods, and Walmart. …
- At one of these sessions, the North America president, Williams, told workers, “We don’t believe our partners need unions to speak on their behalf,” Motherboard confirmed.
- In response to employee concerns, management has suddenly replaced an oven that had been broken, fixed carpets, and sent an exterminator into a store to remove a beehive, where workers had been getting stung regularly for months. …
- Despite this sudden interest in improving conditions for their workers in Buffalo, members of Starbucks Workers United say executives, including Williams, have refused to sign a set of “fair election principles,” that the workers proposed which include allowing the union to hold meetings in response to those the company holds, refraining from bribing or threatening workers to gain their support, and agreeing to no negative repercussions in response to a successful union election.
- In an hour-long one-on-one session with Williams, Michael Sanabria, a Starbucks employee at one of the unionizing stores in Buffalo said Williams told him, “the best way for the company to listen to the partners is not have something come between us.”
- Starbucks Workers United filed for an election next week, but have not yet received approval from the National Labor Relations Board. A hearing has been scheduled for September 20.
- Tagged: coffee labor unions On the Clock
- ANDREW: I’ve heard that Starbucks has long been a unionizing white whale, and many unions have tried before, so I’m excited that things are moving here. It will be a long fight, though. Starbucks’ actions are, in my opinion, very clearly trying to discourage unionization and are very clearly illegal, but I don’t expect the NLRB to step in. As for Starbucks’ arguments, competent and democratically-run unions don’t come between a company and its workers, they put workers on the same footing as the company. When people work together on the same terms, they work harder and aren’t bogged down by resentment and internal conflict. Workers AND the company benefit in the end. But many companies choose power over workers rather than increased prosperity, and that’s why unionizing is so often a hard fight.
- California recall lesson: Republicans believe in elections only when they win; Opinion: The California recall offers more proof that Republicans will accept elections as legit only if they win. That’s a sure way to destroy democracy. By Elvia Díaz | azcentral.com, Arizona Republic | Sept. 14, 2021
- Republicans, like totalitarians, believe in elections. But only if they always win.
- New case in point? California, where voters on Tuesday appeared inclined to keep Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in a recall election.
- Cue Larry Elder, the leading Republican to replace him, who started dropping unsubstantiated claims that the election was rigged against him. …
- MIKE: According to Rachel Maddow on Monday night, Elder’s campaign web site made those claims before a single ballot had officially been counted. Or maybe even worse, perhaps Elder new the mail-in ballot count before polls closed, while it was still a tightly guarded secret. That would imply a mole in the California Secretary of State’s office.
- MIKE: But I want to be fair here. It’s not only many Republicans who have this problem. One of my persistent observations during the Democratic presidential primaries of 2016 and 2020 was that supporters of Bernie Sanders only accepted the election results when Bernie won. When Bernie lost, the vote was rigged by the Democratic Establishment. I never met a Bernie supporter who felt that way how essentially Trumpian that was.
- MIKE: America, we have a serious problem here.
- ANDREW: First, I don’t believe it’s fair to compare Trump’s claims of fraud and Bernie supporters’ claims of fraud, for two reasons: one, Bernie never agreed with the claims and certainly wasn’t responsible for them like Trump was, and two, a party primary is not administered in the same way or with the same oversight as a general election, so the claims are fundamentally different. Besides, no claim of election fraud can be dismissed out of hand as long as the US uses electronic voting– they all deserve investigation. Trump’s claims were properly investigated and found to have no merit. Bernie supporters’ claims were not. Anyway, I said a couple of weeks ago that Republicans only called this recall because they believed they’d benefit from the lowered victory requirements for the replacement election. If they had any integrity, they would have simply waited a year for the regular election.
- Anonymous Claims to Have Stolen Huge Trove of Data From Epik, the Right-Wing’s Favorite Web Host; The controversial domain registrar, which has been known to host Nazis and other unfortunate groups, apparently just had all of its data boosted. By Lucas Ropek | GIZMODO.COM | Sept. 14, 2021 | Yesterday 5:15PM
- Members of the hacktivist collective Anonymous claim to have hacked web registration company Epik, allegedly stealing “a decade’s worth of data,” including reams of information about its clients and their domains.
- Epik is controversial, having been known to host a variety of rightwing clients, including ones that previous web hosting providers, like GoDaddy, have dropped for various reasons. Its users have included conservative social media networks Parler and Gab, as well as conspiracy-theory-laden YouTube wannabe Bitchute and former President Trump fansite, The Donald. The company recently hosted prolifewhistleblower.com—the website designed to help people snitch on Texas residents who want abortions—but later forcibly removed the tip-collecting platform after determining that it had violated Epik’s terms by non-consensually collecting third-party information. …
- “This dataset is all that’s needed to trace actual ownership and management of the fascist side of the Internet that has eluded researchers, activists, and, well, just about everybody,” the release claims. …
- Gizmodo has downloaded copies of the Epik data and will be assessing its content.
- MIKE: It’s easy to cheer for this, but remember that it’s all about whose ox is gored. At the top of the show, we talked about Apple putting out an emergency security patch for an exploit they originally didn’t know was possible. All of us are at risk of becoming civilian casualties in a data war that most of us are ill-equipped to fight.
- ANDREW: I’m overjoyed by this hack. Fascism is evil and must be opposed by any and all effective means available. I take your point though that we are all at risk of having our data exposed, but I find that risk reasonable if it means fighting fascism. The best defense we have is good habits– review your accounts regularly, delete old ones, enable two-factor authentication, keep sensitive data local and encrypted, that sort of thing. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has more resources on data security.
- China’s house of cards: Evergrande threatens wider real estate market; REUTERS via ASAHI.COM | September 15, 2021 at 12:30 JST
- China Evergrande is teetering between a messy meltdown with far-reaching impacts, a managed collapse or the less likely prospect of a bailout by Beijing for what was once the country’s top-selling property developer. …
- Evergrande, which accelerated efforts to cut its debts in 2020 after regulators introduced caps, does not have any major offshore bond maturities until early next year but tardy payment of suppliers and interest on loans have brought to a head concerns that have long nagged at investors.
- Now, without access to fresh funding, Evergrande cannot pay suppliers, finish projects or raise income, prompting it to hire advisors and warn of default risk. This, along with a buyout, break-up or bailout are the scenarios now being evaluated.
- And while analysts have played down comparisons to the 2008 collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers, which caused crises at counterparties and ultimately seized up global markets, some investors have similar contagion concerns. …
- Other worries include the exposure of banks and the determination of regulators to press on with property market reforms despite hints of damaging consequences. …
- The most immediate concern is of a real estate crash rather than a Lehman-style financial crisis. An Evergrande fire sale could crush prices, causing leveraged developers to blow up and crippling a sector comprising a quarter of China’s economy. …
- But data suggests non-performing loans at commercial banks were a manageable 1.76 percent last quarter, and compared to the United States, China has far greater control over its financial system. …
- NASA astronaut to stay on ISS for nearly a year; by Jeff Foust | SPACENEWS.COM | September 14, 2021
- NASA confirmed Sept. 14 that one its astronauts, Mark Vande Hei, will remain on the International Space Station until next March, setting an American spaceflight duration record in the process. …
- The extended stay may give Vande Hei a second chance to perform a spacewalk. He was scheduled to accompany Aki Hoshide on a spacewalk last month to install equipment needed for future solar panel upgrades. However, NASA postponed it because of what it called “a minor medical issue” involving Vande Hei. The agency didn’t elaborate, but Vande Hei later tweeted that he had a pinched nerve in his neck. …
- MIKE: This is how life experience affects your interpretation of stories. I suffer from chronic back pain. It gets better or worse, but never goes away. So, Astronaut Vande Hei had to cancel a spacewalk because of a pinched nerve in his neck. OW! I can identify with that.
- MIKE: I’m not sure that this pinched nerve problem ever goes away in the absence of serious therapy or even surgery. Now you know how various rides and exercises caution you against participating if you have back problems? Imagine having to do an atmospheric re-entry with the equivalent of a 5 mph impact on landing, and having a pinched nerve in your neck. The full story gives a complex reason for why Vande Hei is getting another 6-months on the ISS, but I can’t help but wonder if part of the reason he was “it” is that they’re trying to figure out how to get him back safely with that pinched nerve in his neck. Don’t be shocked if the next resupply mission brings up a special neck brace for his return.
- ANDREW: I’m really comforted by the idea that no matter what kind of stuff is going on on Earth, space is still out there. I think about that any time I enjoy apocalypse fiction– all the stars and planets we’ve studied will still be out there, doing their thing. And in this case, it seems the same is true no matter what happens in Low Earth Orbit. I like that we can have these funny (albeit painful) human moments even in space, an environment we were never evolved to survive in. In the same way that I’m comforted by the universe being larger than us, I’m comforted by how we can still have our own little concerns in that universe.
Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig 