Weds, November 24, 2021, 11 AM (CT). TOPICS: VOTETEXAS.GOV — Voter Information; Facing funding challenges, [Houston] looks for sidewalk fixes; Local organizations step up as Texas struggles to find homes for foster youth without adequate placement; Evictions in some Texas cities are almost back to normal levels as tenant help dries up; Texas grid vulnerable to blackouts during severe winter weather, even with new preparations, ERCOT estimates show; U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert joins Texas Republicans running against Attorney General Ken Paxton; The Plague Is More Likely Now Thanks to Climate Change; How the media mistakes a slogan for a story; At Summit, U.S., Canada and Mexico Avoid Thorny Questions; US added to list of ‘backsliding’ democracies for first time; The small nuclear power plants billed as an energy fix; New Zealand gang leaders unite to urge community to get Covid shots; House of Gucci and the trouble with extreme actor makeovers; More. [AUDIO/VIDEO] #KPFTHouston 90.1-HD2

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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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POSSIBLE TOPICS: VOTETEXAS.GOV—Voter Information; Facing funding challenges, [Houston] looks for sidewalk fixes; Local organizations step up as Texas struggles to find homes for foster youth without adequate placement; Evictions in some Texas cities are almost back to normal levels as tenant help dries up; Texas grid vulnerable to blackouts during severe winter weather, even with new preparations, ERCOT estimates show; U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert joins Texas Republicans running against Attorney General Ken Paxton; The Plague Is More Likely Now Thanks to Climate Change; How the media mistakes a slogan for a story; At Summit, U.S., Canada and Mexico Avoid Thorny Questions; US added to list of ‘backsliding’ democracies for first time; The small nuclear power plants billed as an energy fix; New Zealand gang leaders unite to urge community to get Covid shots; House of Gucci and the trouble with extreme actor makeovers; More.

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Make sure you are registered to vote! VoteTexas.GOV – Texas Voter Information TEXAS SoS VOTE-BY-MAIL BALLOT APPLICATION (ALL TEXAS COUNTIES) HarrisVotes.com – Countywide Voting Centers, (Election Information Line (713) 755-6965), Harris County Clerk
1. 1. Harris County “Vote-By-Mail’ Application for 2021
  2. Fort bend County Elections/Voter Registration Machine takes you to the proper link
  3. GalvestonVotes.org (Galveston County, TX)
  4. Liberty County Elections (Liberty County, TX)
  5. Montgomery County (TX) Elections
  6. Brazoria County (TX) Clerk Election Information
  7. Waller County (TX) Elections
  8. Chambers County (TX) Elections
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. HarrisVotes.com – Countywide Voting CentersHARRIS COUNTY – IDENTIFICATION REQUIRED FOR VOTING: Do not possess and cannot reasonably obtain one of these IDs?
    1. 1. Fill out a declaration at the polls describing a reasonable impediment to obtaining it, and show a copy or original of one of the following supporting forms of ID:
      2. A government document that shows your name and an address, including your voter registration certificate
      3. Current utility bill
      4. Bank statement
      5. Government check
      6. Paycheck
      7. A certified domestic (from a U.S. state or territory) birth certificate or (b) a document confirming birth admissible in a court of law which establishes your identity (which may include a foreign birth document)
    2. You may vote early by-mail if:You are registered to vote and meet one of the following criteria:
      1. Away from the county of residence on Election Day and during the early voting period;
      2. Sick or disabled;
      3. 65 years of age or older on Election Day; or
      4. Confined in jail, but eligible to vote.
    3. Make sure you are registered:
    4. Ann Harris Bennett, Tax Assessor-Collector & Voter Registrar
    5. CHECK REGISTRATION STATUS HERE
    6. CLICK How to register to vote in Texas
    7. Outside Texas, try Vote.org.
December 11, 2021: Joint Runoff Election
1. Early Voting: November 29 – December 7
2. No Ballot information available yet at com
3. There are a number of local races that need runoffs. LOCAL ELECTIONS MATTER TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY!!!
4. VOTE!
Facing funding challenges, [Houston] looks for sidewalk fixes; By Shawn Arrajj | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 9:09 PM Nov 14, 2021 CST | Updated 9:09 PM Nov 14, 2021 CST
1. A pair of Houston City Council members are looking to build momentum for several initiatives launched over the past few years by the city to improve sidewalks citywide.
2. At-large Council Members Sallie Alcorn and David Robinson collaborated on the inaugural Sidewalk Summit at the end of September, bringing together transportation advocates and city staff to discuss key policies city leaders want to implement to bring more sidewalks to neighborhoods in need. …
3. However, city staff and advocates said making headway on sidewalks could require the city to revisit how it thinks about funding. For the most part, city policy places the burden of sidewalk maintenance on individual property owners. As a result, management districts and tax increment reinvestment zones also play a big role in the installation of new sidewalks, particularly in the Heights, River Oaks and Montrose areas. …
4. Current conditions: Houston maintains about 4,000-5,000 miles of sidewalks across the city, Public Works Director Carol Haddock said. However, she said those sidewalks are not necessarily continuous or accessible.
5. … Houston builds new sidewalks when the work can be done alongside a road repair or hike and bike project, and residents can also request the city build a sidewalk if it will create a safe route to a school, help a person with a disability or is along a major thoroughfare, Haddock said. …
6. Installing more sidewalks can have cascading benefits, said Bill Fulton, director of the Rice Kinder Institute for Urban Research, at the summit.
7. For example, Rice Village is known for heavy vehicular traffic, but Kinder’s 2015 parking utilization study found there are 1,000 open parking spots available at any given time within a quarter-mile radius of the center. The study found people avoided those spots because they lacked accessibility and the ability that would allow them to walk to Rice Village, Fulton said.
8. “One of the things walkability does is … encourages people to park in more logical places, not to cruise for parking places,” he said. “That improves congestion in these areas.” …
9. “The availability and condition of our sidewalks is one of utmost importance,” [Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner] said. “I think we’ve all seen sidewalks—they are there, but they are not usable. The pathway is no good to a person in a wheelchair … if the path is too difficult to navigate.” …
10. … Alcorn said she will advocate for the city to increase the percentage of its capital improvement plan that goes toward sidewalks. She also said she plans to consult with the city’s legal and finance departments to look into whether a bond referendum is a viable option for Houston.
11. REFERENCE: Reluctant Localities Are Being Dragged Into Court to Fix Sidewalks for People With Disabilities, By Maureen O’Hagan October 13, 2021
12. ANDREW: Definitely need more sidewalks, and all need to be accessible. Some cities being sued over ADA reqs on sidewalks. This doesn’t mention lawsuits, maybe because property owners pay for most sidewalks, not city gov.
Local organizations step up as Texas struggles to find homes for foster youth without adequate placement; By Chandler France | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 2:10 PM Nov 22, 2021 CST | Updated 3:02 PM Nov 22, 2021 CST
1. The amount of time foster children in Texas are spending in hotels, offices and other inadequate places has risen more than 1,000% since December 2019. …
2. Further, the number of children who spent at least one night without proper placement in August 2021 was more than seven times the number of children in September 2019, Texas Department of Family and Protective Services [DFPS] data shows.
3. Child Protective Services is responsible for selecting an adequate placement for a child when the DFPS takes temporary or permanent custody of a child. If a placement is not found, such as with kin or a foster family, the DFPS becomes the direct provider of services.
4. These children are often placed in hotels or DFPS offices, rather than foster homes or residential treatment centers. In September, a report … found placing children in these settings poses substantial risks to their safety as these placements lack regulations and resources …
5. Multiple factors have contributed to the rise in children without placement, or CWOP, including hundreds of beds lost due to facility closures, DFPS’ report said.
6. Locally, Harris and Montgomery county organizations have stepped up to try to alleviate the issue. …
7. In November 2018, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals established “heightened monitoring” of Texas’ child welfare operations. …
8. As part of heightened monitoring, child welfare facilities that contract with the state and have a history of policy violations are subject to increased inspections and corrective actions, according to the 2018 ruling. Those that do not comply could not receive foster youth or face fines, revoked licenses or contract termination.
9. As a result of the court’s order, Texas has lost 2,129 general residential beds between January 2020 and September 2021, according to the court monitors’ report, 1,213 of which were lost due to forced closures. …
10. Multiple pieces of state legislation passed in 2021 sought to address these shortages.
11. In addition, the Legislature funded $83.1 million . to hire 312 caseworkers, according to the DFPS’ September report, [and] allotted an additional $90 million to the DFPS, which will be used to retain providers and increase capacity to serve foster youth, according to the bill.
12. While heightened monitoring has led to the closure of many unsafe environments for children, it has significantly stressed the system …
13. [A]dditional beds need to be planned to anticipate closings from heightened monitoring, a former DFPS employee said.
14. Many child welfare organizations in Harris and Montgomery counties have tried to address the rise in [children without placement], nonprofit leaders said. In July, DFPS Region 6 ended its licensing of 250 foster homes in the Houston area …[which] will now be operated by locally-based organizations to involve the community more. …
15. … Court Appointed Special Advocates of Montgomery County moved into a new Conroe property in November, … The new space will provides classes and connections for CWOP, something the organization could not do before, although it can not house them …
16. ANDREW: Good that unsafe residences are closed, and good that nonprofits have stepped up, but is DFPS totally turning over foster homes a good idea? IMO, DFPS should have more funding to open more homes where kids help make decisions and give a reliable way to alert authorities who will listen if there are problems.
Evictions in some Texas cities are almost back to normal levels as tenant help dries up; by Joshua Fechter and Uriel J. García | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG |Nov. 23, 202119 hours ago
1. … Since the moratorium ended in mid-August, eviction filings in three major Texas cities tracked by Eviction Lab — Dallas, Houston and Fort Worth — have risen to nearly pre-pandemic levels as landlords file thousands of evictions each week. …
2. [E]victions have surged despite an abundance of job openings and financial help for struggling renters — though tenants’ advocates say the billions of dollars sent to Texas to help keep people in their homes has undoubtedly prevented an even larger wave of evictions after the moratorium ended.
3. Some of that uptick stems from landlords simply growing impatient as state and local rent relief programs take months to process applications from tenants seeking assistance, said Mark Melton, an attorney who leads the Dallas Eviction Advocacy Center and represents area tenants in eviction cases.
4. … Melton said. “[M]ost of the people, quite frankly, are not a month behind. Most of them are many months behind. And they’ve been waiting for months for Texas rent relief.” …
5. On top of that, tenants in Texas’ major metro areas have had to deal with dramatic rent increases sparked by a housing crunch over the past year. …
6. Amid the pandemic, state and local officials adopted measures to help keep people in their homes, such as federally funded rental assistance programs and so-called right-to-counsel programs that provided free legal representation for tenants facing eviction.
7. Those benefits are now drying up. The state agency that runs Texas’ $1.9 billion rent relief and eviction diversion program shut the door to new applicants earlier this month, citing overwhelming demand for the federally funded program.
8. Some cities and counties could even see millions of federal dollars sent to them to help struggling renters now be seized by the U.S. Treasury Department because they haven’t spent the money fast enough, according to an analysis by the nonprofit advocacy group Texas Housers. …
9. [S]aid Julia Orduña, Southeast Texas regional director for Texas Housers. “The eviction crisis has been happening long before the pandemic and will continue to happen. We just never had a microscope up to it the way that we do right now.”
10. Many of the eviction cases now flooding Texas court dockets involve tenants directly affected by the pandemic. But many stem from run-of-the-mill economic hardship. …
11. REFERENCE: Montgomery County to return over $7 million in emergency rental assistance funds to US Treasury; By Jishnu Nair | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM |12:31 PM Nov 16, 2021 CST | Updated 12:31 PM Nov 16, 2021 CST
12. ANDREW: People need somewhere to live. People don’t need to profit off of others needing somewhere to live. Rent controls, real estate ownership limits, seizure and distribution of unoccupied property, and as a stretch goal, abolition of landlordism would all seriously help this crisis. At the very least, assistance programs need funding and teeth to require landlords to wait until assistance has been denied before evicting.
Texas grid vulnerable to blackouts during severe winter weather, even with new preparations, ERCOT estimates show; by Erin Douglas | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Nov. 20, 20213 PM Central
1. Electricity outages in Texas could occur this winter if the state experiences a cold snap that forces many power plants offline at the same time as demand for power is high, according to an analysis by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. The outages could occur despite better preparations by power plants to operate in cold weather.
2. Heading into the winter, ERCOT considered five extreme scenarios in a risk assessment of the state’s power supply. …
3. The calculations show the power grid’s vulnerability to the cumulative impact of multiple pressures that could leave the system short of a significant amount of power. Power grids must keep supply and demand in balance at all times. When Texas’ grid falls below its safety margin of 2,300 megawatts of extra supply, ERCOT, the grid operator, starts taking additional precautions to avoid blackouts, such as asking residents to conserve power.
4. The calculations for severe risk this winter show that it wouldn’t take a storm as bad as the one in February, when hundreds of people died, to take the grid offline.
5. The most severe scenario considered by ERCOT for this winter — very high demand for power, extensive natural gas and other fossil fuel outages, and excessively low renewable power production — still does not capture the amount of power lost during February. For two days in February, Texas averaged 34,000 megawatts of outages, according to a recent federal report on the crisis. ERCOT’s seasonal assessment for this winter estimates that the state, in the worst case scenario, could have only about 10,000 to 19,000 megawatts of total outages at any one time, assuming better preparation by power plants for this winter as opposed to last. …
6. Regulators in October finalized a rule that requires power plants to use “best efforts” to ensure plants can operate this winter and requires them to fix “acute” issues from the February 2021 winter storm. …
7. “We’ve had years of poor planning of peak [demand] by ERCOT,” said Alison Silverstein, an expert on Texas’ electricity system who formerly worked at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Public Utility Commission of Texas. She spoke during a public event hosted by the environmental group the Sierra Club on Saturday. “ERCOT’s power market has historically been managed to minimize costs, not to assure excellent reliability.”
8. Four of the five extreme risk scenarios ERCOT considered would leave the grid short a significant amount of power, which would trigger outages for residents.
9. The extreme scenarios have a low chance of occurring, ERCOT emphasises [sic] in its report, and the grid operator estimates more power generation will be available than last winter.
10. Under typical winter grid conditions, the ERCOT report said, there will be sufficient power available to serve the state.
11. ANDREW: What you get when you run a gov entity for efficiency or profit over service. “Fiscal responsibility” kills. Let’s hope it doesn’t kill again this winter.
S. Rep. Louie Gohmert joins Texas Republicans running against Attorney General Ken Paxton; … At least three Democrats are also running for the job. by Patrick Svitek | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Nov. 22, 2021 Updated: 15 hours ago
1. S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler, announced Monday he is running for attorney general …
2. Gohmert is one of the most far-right members of Congress and an ardent supporter of former President Donald Trump, who has endorsed Paxton for another term.
3. As per the [Minnesota] STARTRIBUNE.COM, “[t]he candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for attorney general include Dallas-area civil rights attorney Lee Merritt, former Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski and Rochelle Garza, a former lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union from the Rio Grande Valley.” ~ https://www.startribune.com/texas-congressman-joins-gop-race-for-attorney-general/600119933/
4. ANDREW: I hope he loses, for all our sakes.
The Plague Is More Likely Now Thanks to Climate Change; A new study examines how rising temperatures in the western U.S. have influenced plague outbreaks. Yes, that By Molly Taft | gizmodo.com | Nov. 19, 2021, Today 4:50PM
1. The risk of the plague spilling over from [animals to humans] in the western U.S. has increased since 1950 thanks to climate change, a new study has found. Importantly, the research gives valuable insights into how this deadly disease has historically moved and developed in the U.S., which can help us understand more about its future.
2. “We want to understand where plague (yes, ‘The Plague,’ which is still a common wildlife disease) can exist in the United States, how where it can exist has changed over the last century, and why plague can exist in those places it does, and not say 20 miles further down the road,” study coauthor Boris Schmid said in an email.
3. Yersinia pestis is the bacteria that causes plague—including that plague, the medieval Black Death, which killed around 25 million people over the course of four years in the 1300s. The bacteria … spread to humans from animals, most infamously rats, which carry plague-infested fleas on them. Scientists have theorized that the plague, like many other infectious diseases, will probably increase its spread to humans as the planet warms and people come into increasingly closer contact with wild animals.
4. But there’s not a lot of research out there on what historically are the best conditions for the plague to develop and get out of control. As a result, there are still a lot of big questions about the plague … that remain unanswered. …
5. The study authors set about to get a better handle on these details. …
6. The study found that rodent communities in certain areas at higher elevations were up to 40% more likely to harbor the disease, which the researchers say is attributable to warming since 1950. …
7. Just because there’s a growing probability that plague can develop thanks to climate change doesn’t mean you need to start worrying about the second coming of the Black Death. Nowadays, it’s pretty treatable with modern antibiotics—but still not exactly something you want to risk lots of people catching.
8. “Plague is probably pretty low on the things to worry about, compared to risks of forest fires etc, when the western US is heating up,” [study coauthor Boris Schmid said in an email.] …
9. But the research does have important ramifications for other types of diseases—and an ominous look into our future. One crucial point: the study illustrates how just counting human cases of plague underestimates the amount of the disease incubating in wild areas in the western U.S.
10. “I think we’re probably underestimating just how much climate change could affect human and animal health,” [study coauthor Colin Carlson said over Twitter DM.] “There’s this conventional wisdom that the biggest impacts are going to be from heat and disasters, and I just don’t think that’s a sure thing – I think it’s just harder to reconstruct the climate signal for infectious diseases, because they’re a bit more complicated biologically. But the pandemic is telling us just how much those diseases matter for the world – even rare spillover events can have big consequences.”
11. ANDREW: Tangential, but one argument my mom makes against climate change is global warming and cooling cycles. Hadn’t seen much refutation of this until my union discussed Naomi Klein’s book How To Change Everything, which says those cycles happened, but over thousands of years. Recent warming is happening over a hundred, which is the problem. Long cycles cause adaptation, but recent warming is happening too fast for that– like when you drive and come to a controlled stop vs slamming on the brakes. Former is probably okay, latter can cause injury. Plus, evidence it’s human activity: past warming started, THEN carbon dioxide levels went up. This time? More CO2, consistent with industrial activity, THEN warming. Explanation not going to magically end climate denial, but I figured I should share it since I had trouble finding refutation before.
How the media mistakes a slogan for a story; By Ramishah Maruf | CNN Business | Updated 3:58 PM ET, Sun November 7, 2021
1. MIKE: As a preface, there is a video that inspired me to find this article. I strongly encourage you to go to the video that I have linked here.
2. Infrastructure week is a “cheeky” slogan, but the real story is what the infrastructure funding in the “Build Back Better” bill will accomplish, CNN chief media correspondent Brian Stelter said on “Reliable Sources” Sunday. And it’s the media’s responsibility to report the story, not just repeat catch-all slogans.
3. Critical Race Theory is another example of a concept that’s become a rallying cry.
4. “The activists who tried to [take] critical race theory from a national story into a national slogan,” Stelter said. “They knew what they were doing. They were trying to create a boogeyman and it worked.”
5. Natasha Alford, vice president of digital content at the Grio and CNN political analyst, said the media, in an attempt to answer questions, often falls into a trap of repeating phrases that are put out there to intentionally derail the public dialogue.
6. “The media has a problem with trying to answer big questions by our deadline,” Alford said.
7. And when focusing too much on slogans, the substance of the news can get pushed out of the spotlight. An October CBS poll found that only 10% of Americans know the specifics of the “Build Back Better” bill. …
8. Stelter said the format of news also can have an effect — often users have to pay a subscription to gain access to substantial, in-depth coverage. And too often complex issues, such as CRT, are portrayed in overly simplified, black and white terms. The media has also come under criticism for its reporting on the economy. …
9. [T]here is a “bad news bias,” where the media is attracted to covering the negative.
10. “Some of that bias just comes out the gate too soon,” Alford said. “I mean, it was not even 48 hours after Joe Biden’s elected, and (the media is asking) ‘is he failing us?'”
US added to list of ‘backsliding’ democracies for first time; Agence France-Presse in Stockholm via THEGUARDIAN.COM | Mon 22 Nov 2021 04.48 EST, Last modified on Mon 22 Nov 2021 05.01 EST
1. The US has been added to an annual list of “backsliding” democracies for the first time, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) thinktank has said, pointing to a “visible deterioration” it said began in 2019.
2. Globally, more than one in four people live in a backsliding democracy, a proportion that rises to more than two in three with the addition of authoritarian or “hybrid” regimes, according to the [thinktank]. …
3. The report says: “A historic turning point came in 2020-21 when former president Donald Trump questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 election results in the United States.”
4. In addition, Hudson pointed to a “decline in the quality of freedom of association and assembly during the summer of protests in 2020” after the police killing of George Floyd. …
5. The organisation’s secretary general, Kevin Casas-Zamora, said: “The visible deterioration of democracy in the United States, as seen in the increasing tendency to contest credible election results, the efforts to suppress participation (in elections), and the runaway polarisation … is one of the most concerning developments.” …
6. The number of backsliding democracies has doubled in the past decade, accounting for a quarter of the world’s population. In addition to “established democracies” such as the US, the list includes EU member states Hungary, Poland and Slovenia.
7. Two countries that were on the list last year – Ukraine and North Macedonia – were removed this year after their situations improved. Two others, Mali and Serbia, left the list because they were no longer considered democracies. …
At Summit, U.S., Canada and Mexico Avoid Thorny Questions; The meeting let North American leaders present a united front without going into detail on deeper issues, including trade disputes or migration. By Katie Rogers and Natalie Kitroeff | NYTIMES.COM | Nov. 18, 2021, Updated 7:43 p.m. ET
1. President Biden hosted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico at the White House on Thursday, a diplomatic mission that saw three leaders trying to project a united front amid trade scuffles, accusations of American protectionism and ongoing concerns over surging migration at the U.S.-Mexico border.
2. But while they agreed to form a working group on regional supply chain issues, including for critical minerals, and struck an agreement to share vaccines, the leaders seemed intent on relaying diplomatic niceties over tackling thornier questions like trade disputes or the surging numbers of migrants. …
3. The return of the summit after a five-year hiatus signaled an increased appetite among North American leaders to show a sense of strategic and economic solidarity amid a rise in competition from Asia and Europe. The gathering also comes at a critical moment for the United States, as the breakdown in global supply chains and the mass movement of people across the Americas has made cooperation with Mexico and Canada more vital than ever. …
4. In his first in-person meeting with Mr. López Obrador since becoming president, Mr. Biden, speaking through a translator, said he saw the United States and Mexico as equals. The Mexican president praised Biden’s plan to provide citizenship to over 11 million undocumented migrants living in the United States, a proposal that has gained little steam in Congress. …
5. When asked how the problem of migration could be discussed without mentioning those programs, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, told reporters that pending litigation prevented the policy, known as Remain in Mexico, from being openly discussed, “but certainly migration will be.” …
6. No accords were struck over ongoing disagreements over how each country has handled its trade commitments. Since Mr. Biden took office, the particulars of that Trump-era revision of the North American Free Trade Agreement, called the United States Mexico Canada Agreement, have been in dispute. The pact sought to update Mexico’s labor laws, encourage more auto production in North America, and open Canadian markets for American dairy farmers.
7. In recent weeks, the Canadian government has argued that the tax credit offered to American consumers who buy American-made electric vehicles is in breach of the accord. Speaking to reporters in a news conference on Monday, Mr. Trudeau said that the Biden administration’s buy-American ethos was “counterproductive” to promoting commerce between the two countries.
8. “We don’t view it that way,” Ms. Psaki said to reporters on Thursday. “In our view, the electric vehicle tax credit is an opportunity to help consumers in this country.”
9. For its part, the Biden administration has accused the Canadian government of practices that favor their domestic dairy farmers and has raised concerns that Mexico’s energy policies give state-owned companies an unfair advantage. American officials said on Wednesday that Mr. Biden planned to reaffirm U.S.M.C.A. provisions in support of labor rights protection, a reference to a dispute settled against Mexico earlier this year.
10. The leaders did strike an agreement over vaccine sharing, with Canada and Mexico agreeing to share “millions” of doses with poorer countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, an official said. …
11. Mexico, long an underdog in the relationship with its neighbors, has earned considerable leverage in a year that saw a wave of pandemic-fueled migration from Latin America. For the Biden administration, the importance of maintaining strong Mexican enforcement was made clear in September, when thousands of Haitians walked across the border to Texas.
12. “The power balance between the Mexican government and the U.S. government has shifted because of the circumstances,” said Duncan Wood, the vice president of strategy at the Wilson Center. [Mr. Wood said]Mexican officials “know they can hurt the Biden administration, and they know that the Biden administration knows that.”
13. Vice President Kamala Harris met with Mr. López Obrador during her trip to Mexico over the summer and has since been seen as an internal keeper of that relationship. In her own meeting with Mr. López Obrador on Thursday, Ms. Harris spoke of their shared interest in history but also “the issue of our mutual concern about migration and what we will do as partners to address, in particular, the root causes of migration.”
14. López Obrador, for his part, seized a moment during the meeting with Mr. Biden and Mr. Trudeau to warn of rising competition from China and the risks of a snarled global supply chain.
15. “The best, the most convenient thing, is to strengthen our economies, to strengthen our trade operations through North America and the entire continent,” he said. “It is a paradox that so much money circulates throughout North America, and the ports of the Pacific are overwhelmed with merchandise from Asia.”
16. López Obrador also said migration represented a “huge potential” to bolster the work forces of each country, and reminded Mr. Biden of his earlier commitment to find a way to offer a pathway to citizenship for the undocumented.
17. “No president in the history of the United States has expressed as you have such a clear and certain commitment to improve the situation of the migrants,” Mr. López Obrador said through a translator. “I hope that you have the support of Congress and the members of both the Democrat and Republican parties.”
18. ANDREW: Long overdue, IMO. Protest freedom, especially around race issues, has never been good here. Better than many other places, but not good enough. Electoral suppression is similar, both for voters along racial lines, but also in competitiveness of elections, with suppression of alternate parties. If we want to keep representative democracy in place, reforms like the Fair Representation Act and most of the Freedom to Vote Act (minus the campaign finance provisions) are necessary. Otherwise, we could always experiment with direct democracy.
The small nuclear power plants billed as an energy fix; By Emma Woollacott, Technology of Business reporter | BBC.COM | Published Nov 19, 2021, 4 days ago
1. “We’ll likely have more accidents than existing reactors because it’s a new technology, but these will be accidents and not disasters,” says Troels Schonfeldt, co-founder of Denmark’s Seaborg Technologies.
2. His nuclear power company is one of several developing a new generation of smaller nuclear power plants.
3. Like others in the industry, Mr Schonfeldt wants to address fears over safety.
4. In Seaborg’s case their reactors will be housed on floating barges and use molten salt to moderate reactions.
5. Mr Schonfeldt argues that this set-up and location means large-scale disasters, perhaps caused by a terrorist attack, simply aren’t possible.
6. “If a terrorist bombs the reactor and the salt sprays everywhere, then it solidifies and stays. You go and clean it up,” he says. …
7. The makers of these smaller reactors also claim that as well as being safer, they will be much less expensive than their larger cousins. …
8. That’s certainly the hope at Rolls-Royce, which has just received a £210m grant from the UK government and a £195m cash injection from a consortium of investors, to develop its own small modular reactor (SMR).
9. This means that 90% of a Rolls-Royce SMR power plant could be built, or assembled, in factory conditions. …
10. Based in California, Radiant Nuclear’s ambitious tagline is ‘making nuclear more portable’ and it wants to shrink nuclear power plants down even further.
11. It says it is developing a reactor the size of a shipping container, that could be easily transported by truck.
12. The project is still in the very early stages, with the company planning a fuelled demonstration in 2026 and units in production by 2028.
13. But Radiant does not see its reactors competing for market share with the big power plants that connect to the energy grid.
14. Instead “it’s in direct competition with the diesel generators that you’d use for back-up power, or one you’d use in a remote off-grid location,” says the company’s chief executive Doug Bernauer. …
15. However, anti-nuclear campaigners are not persuaded or reassured by safety claims coming from new entrants to the nuclear power market.
16. “SMRs will still be vulnerable to nuclear accidents and terror attacks; they risk nuclear proliferation, and can produce more nuclear waste than conventional reactors per unit of electricity,” says Kate Hudson, director general of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
17. Mr Blake from Rolls-Royce says the process for dealing with nuclear waste is well established: “Spent fuel is retained at the site and will be processed in the same way as a standard PWR (pressurised water reactor), like Sizewell or any other site”
18. “It will be held at the site, and eventually transferred to Sellafield, or a geological disposal facility deep underground,” he explains.
19. The proponents of small nuclear plants say their technology will be necessary to meet an expected doubling of demand for electricity in the UK from consumers by 2050. …
New Zealand gang leaders unite to urge community to get Covid shots; Gangs put aside their differences make video calling on the public to get the vaccine after Māori minister came up with the idea. Eva Corlett in Wellington |COM | Tue 2 Nov 2021 22.57 EDT
1. Seven New Zealand gang leaders, representing four of the country’s most well-known street gangs, have joined forces in a video urging their communities to get vaccinated, in a concept that was conjured up by a government minister.
2. The video was commissioned by the minister for Māori development, Willie Jackson, after a discussion with gang leaders, who then provided footage that was edited by Jackson’s son, Hikurangi, the Herald reported.
3. In the four-minute video, Denis O’Reilly, who joined the Black Power gang aged 19, says he had “taken a few shots” in his time, including the two shots against Covid-19, and he is asking his community “to do the same”.
4. “This is not all about gangs, this is all about our whānau (“WAY-nah”, family),” says Harry Tam of the Mongrel Mob. “One thing we need to be clear about is that this is not about the government telling us, it is about the experts telling the government, that is getting us to vaccinate to protect ourselves.” Fellow member Dennis Makalio says it was a “no-brainer” for him.
House of Gucci and the trouble with extreme actor makeovers; By Nicholas Barber | BBC.COM | 23rd November 2021
1. … Should actors have to resemble the people they are playing? Or should we just marvel at the skill that goes into transforming them into someone entirely different? The issue has become a contentious one. When Jessica Chastain’s jaw and cheeks were broadened to chipmunk-ish proportions for her recent role as Tammy Faye Bakker, the puppeteering televangelist, in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, one critic, Matt Zoller Seitz, tweeted: “I love her, but it bothers me that they didn’t even think about casting somebody who was physically closer to that type.” And when Sarah Paulson wore a fat suit to play Linda Tripp in Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story: Impeachment, her decision was condemned by… errr… Sarah Paulson. “There’s a lot of controversy around actors and fat suits, and I think that controversy is a legitimate one,” she told the Los Angeles Times in August ahead of the series’ premiere. “I think fat phobia is real. I think to pretend otherwise causes further harm. And it is a very important conversation to be had… I wouldn’t make the same choice going forward.”
2. … The wonder of theatre has always involved the use of costumes and make-up to change the actors’ appearances. …. It’s one reason why so many adaptations of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde were produced in cinema’s formative years (there were three in 1920 alone): viewers could make an immediate before-and-after comparison as an actor switched from one persona to another. …
3. A full-on transformation doesn’t harm your chances of winning an acting Oscar, either. Gain or lose half your body weight, or sit in the make-up chair for four hours every morning, and Academy voters will notice: just ask Charlize Theron (Monster), Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose), Robert De Niro (Raging Bull) and Marlon Brando (The Godfather). … Still, we could be coming to the end of an era. …
4. Kayleigh Donaldson, a pop culture writer and critic for Pajiba, is one pundit who has had enough of them. “For me, the issue is less with the notion of an actor ‘transforming’ and using the tools at their disposal,” she tells BBC Culture, “than with how that process has become so fetishised, often in ways that reveal our disdain for people who aren’t traditionally considered attractive. The promotional cycle lauds actors for being ‘brave’ in getting ‘ugly’, then sells that kind of laborious physical part of the job as the ideal means of acting. It’s why actors gaining and losing lots of weight, wearing prosthetics, and wildly changing their looks are so adored at the Oscars: you can literally see the work of acting. But at what point does it go from being a useful item in an actor’s toolbox to a distracting crutch?” …

1 thought on “Weds, November 24, 2021, 11 AM (CT). TOPICS: VOTETEXAS.GOV — Voter Information; Facing funding challenges, [Houston] looks for sidewalk fixes; Local organizations step up as Texas struggles to find homes for foster youth without adequate placement; Evictions in some Texas cities are almost back to normal levels as tenant help dries up; Texas grid vulnerable to blackouts during severe winter weather, even with new preparations, ERCOT estimates show; U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert joins Texas Republicans running against Attorney General Ken Paxton; The Plague Is More Likely Now Thanks to Climate Change; How the media mistakes a slogan for a story; At Summit, U.S., Canada and Mexico Avoid Thorny Questions; US added to list of ‘backsliding’ democracies for first time; The small nuclear power plants billed as an energy fix; New Zealand gang leaders unite to urge community to get Covid shots; House of Gucci and the trouble with extreme actor makeovers; More. [AUDIO/VIDEO] #KPFTHouston 90.1-HD2”

Pingback: Weds, December 1, 2021, 11 AM (CT). TOPICS: VOTETEXAS.GOV — Voter Information; Due to technical difficulties, this is a rerun of the show from 11/24/2021. [AUDIO/VIDEO] #KPFTHouston 90.1-HD2 | Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig

Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig

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

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