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:
- Live online at KPFT.org (from anywhere in the world!)
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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; Residents in Sienna neighborhood plead for help from HOA with feral hog invasion; ‘It’s a nightmare’: Residents demand repairs, pest control at complex for people with mental health needs; Unconventional Houston shelter signals shift in housing reform to include expertise of formerly homeless; How much are Houston-area schools spending to help kids who’ve fallen behind?; As holidays arrive, more than 55% of Texans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19; Ground breaks on Shepherd Drive, Durham Drive improvement project in the Heights; 40% of San Francisco’s traffic deaths are from left turns. These design fixes could change that; As critical race theory and mask mandate debates heat up, Texas GOP takes aim at local school board and municipal races; Federal officials now investigating I-45 expansion project; Bob Dole: A Legacy In Shades of Gray; MSNBC anchor appears to downplay Bob Dole’s accomplishments after his death because of his support for Trump; House approves $768 billion defense bill with strong support, despite some discord among Democrats; At Summit, U.S., Canada and Mexico Avoid Thorny Questions; What’s Driving Putin’s Ukraine Brinkmanship?; The Pandemic Is Beating Putin; The small nuclear power plants billed as an energy fix; 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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- Yesterday was December 7th. For those who don’t know or don’t recall, it was the 80th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. As Abraham Lincoln said in his Gettysburg Address: “The world will little note, nor long remember …” As generations pass, so it will always be.
- December 11, 2021: Joint Runoff Election
- Early Voting Has Ended: as of yesterday, December 7
- ELECTION DAY IS SATURDAY, DEC. 11
- Ballot information available at com
- There are a number of local races that need runoffs. LOCAL ELECTIONS MATTER TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY!!!
- VOTE!
- Residents in Sienna neighborhood plead for help from HOA with feral hog invasion; Homeowners want HOA to help protect their property. By Brandon Walker, Reporter | CLICK2HOUSTON.COM | Published: December 7, 2021 10:23 pm
- MIKE: The Sienna neighborhood near Missouri City in Fort Bend County has an ongoing issue with feral hogs.
- [Teresa Hanna] lives in Sienna where sightings of feral hogs aren’t new — and neither is the damage they’ve been known to cause. Hanna’s neighbors have had the same problem, as of late …
- This time, Hanna said she wanted a more permanent solution and she wanted Sienna’s HOA to help her develop one. … Hanna said a representative in the community’s front office told her not much could be done because the hogs are wild and invasive. …
- Sandra Denton is the general manager of Sienna Associations.
- Denton said the levees and rivers that wind through Fort Bend County pave a prime path for porkers.
- “The hog population seems to be a bit higher this year than we’ve seen in the past,” she said.
- Denton said Sienna offers recommendations for residents, but the hogs are wild, invasive, and according to Denton, not within Sienna’s ability to remove.
- “We always share that they can treat their yard to get rid of the grubs and there are certain chemicals and treatments available,” Denton said. …
- ANDREW: Some questions:
- How do the hogs and the grubs they’re after impact the ecosystem? Would it be harmed if they were gone?
- What’s the environmental impact of the de-grubbing techniques?
- ‘It’s a nightmare’: Residents demand repairs, pest control at complex for people with mental health needs; A. Schuetz, Staff writer | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM | Nov. 30, 2021, Updated: Nov. 30, 2021 10:19 a.m.
- In the 14-unit Acres Homes Garden Apartments, toilets will not flush, lights will not turn on, and cockroach nymphs scamper across walls, counters and floors. In at least one unit, tenants say the ceiling still is damaged from a pipe that burst in February’s freeze. In another, the residents say water seeps under the front door onto the living room floor whenever it rains. …
- On Nov. 21, tenants delivered a letter to the Housing Corporation of Greater Houston, a nonprofit that develops and manages low-income housing in Houston. Their list of demands included adequate repairs and maintenance, carried out in a timely manner, and control of pests and rodents. The Houston Housing Management Corporation, the subsidiary of the Housing Corporation that manages the property, responded the next day with an offer to discuss the demands on Tuesday morning.
- “The Houston Housing Management Corp. has timely responded to all requests for repairs,” Bill Haley, the Housing Corporation’s executive director, wrote in an email. … “The demands in the letter entail mostly maintenance items that are in process or repairs that are being bid on by contractors,” he said, adding the property manager plans to complete the repairs as soon as possible. …
- There are not many apartment complexes that specialize in serving people with mental illnesses, and the units at Acres Homes Garden Apartments are subsidized so tenants spend no more than 30 percent of their incomes on rent. As a result, many say tenants they do not feel they have the option of moving. …
- … [Kent Churchill] moved into Acres Homes Garden Apartments in 2014 … He was drawn by the idea of housing that could afford him stability and independence, especially after living in a personal care home, which he found unstimulating. “I liked this place because it’s independent — you can come and go as you please,” he said. And for the first few years, he said, “It was very good.” …
- In recent years, however, Churchill and others said their repair requests have gone unanswered. …
- Together, [Churchill and neighbor Richard Caudill] decided to contact the Houston Tenants Union, an organization that coaches tenants on how to place pressure on landlords to make changes such as repairs. A few months later, they and other tenants delivered the demand letter.
- “Housing conditions need to be safe and they need to be secure, and when those conditions are not met, that’s something that needs addressing,” said Caleb Miller, the organizer at the Houston Tenants Union who is advising tenants at Acres Homes Garden Apartments. “These are issues tenants face all over the city, all over the country. We’re an organization that believes that building tenant power is the best way to combat these issues.” …
- ANDREW: Love to see HTU in action. I hope the Acres tenants get all their demands met and tenants in other complexes start organizing too.
- Unconventional Houston shelter signals shift in housing reform to include expertise of formerly homeless; A. Schuetz, Staff writer | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM | Nov. 29, 2021, Updated: Nov. 29, 2021 6:38 p.m.
- At the Life Center in Independence Heights, the formerly homeless run an unconventional transitional living facility. It doesn’t require people to spend certain hours in the building, nor does it push them to “graduate” until they’ve found permanent housing. What’s more, it’s staffed by people who have been through Life Center’s services themselves, people who turn the hardest experiences of their lives into a valuable asset not many share.
- The value of that hard-earned perspective, called “testimony” at the Life Center and “lived experience” in other groups addressing homelessness, has gained traction in recent years. Increasingly, nonprofits and government groups are seeking the advice of people with lived experience as they make plans for addressing homelessness; the Coalition of the Homeless in Houston and Harris County lists two “consumer representatives” on its steering committee.
- “The only chance we have for truly ending homelessness lies in the expertise and leadership of those who have been impacted most by the experience of homelessness,” says the National Coalition for the Homeless in a report on homeless leadership. …
- While the importance of lived experience is gaining traction, Eva Thibaudeau-Graczyk, head of the permanent supportive housing provider Temenos Community Development Corp., said the best models have a blend of staff with lived experience and supportive staff. The supportive staff can then work to meet the emotional, mental health and professional needs of the staff with lived experience. …
- She also worried about the Life Center working outside of the Houston area’s homeless response system, the Way Home, a portal that assesses residents and works to match them with housing. Life Center staff were hesitant about becoming part of Houston’s homeless response team, uncertain of how complicated or burdensome the membership would be.
- But Thibaudeau-Graczyk said that such a system helps protect residents and connect them to further resources. “Part of being part of the system is you’re held to certain standards about how you operate and how you treat residents,” she said. The system is also used to connect people such as the population served by the Life Center with permanent supportive housing.
- ANDREW: As I said last show, people in a system are the best ones to lead it. Goes for both the foster system and houseless support. As for Life Center not joining Way Home, I’m part of a group that has been invited into a coalition of other community groups before, and we haven’t joined because the coalition’s expectations of us aren’t really figured out yet. If Life Center is in a similar position, I think it’s fair to hold off on joining Way Home for now.
- How much are Houston-area schools spending to help kids who’ve fallen behind?; More than $1.8 billion in federal ESSER III funds have been allocated to 94 local charter schools and school districts in and around Houston. Author: Jeremy Rogalski | KHOU.COM | Published: 8:51 PM CST November 29, 2021, Updated: 10:20 PM CST November 29, 2021
- Learning loss has accelerated dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic, but schools and districts across Houston vary widely as to how much they’re spending towards catching students up who have fallen behind. …
- A KHOU 11 News analysis of grant applications for the latest round of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ESSER III funds, reveals more than $1.8 billion has been allocated to 94 “local education agencies,” which are charter schools and school districts in the greater Houston area.
- Under the federal rules, those educational entities must set aside at least 20% to programs that address learning loss. Those may include high-dosage tutoring, hiring specialized interventionists and expanding summer school opportunities. The remaining money may be spent on everything from HEPA filters and other pandemic-related safety improvements to capital expenditures. …
- Turns out, 34 districts and charter schools in the Houston area are only dedicating the 20% minimum, according to their applications. On the flip side, 18 have promised to use 66% or more for learning loss mitigation. …
- … Goose Creek ISD, which is all in. The Baytown district is spending 100% of ESSER III funding toward catching kids up. … A large chunk of the federal grant money is paying retired teachers to come back to school for intensive one-on-one and small group tutoring sessions. …
- None of the major districts that listed 20% for learning loss on their grant applications agreed to an interview, except for Humble ISD.
- “It’s appropriate if you’re using other dollars to support your students and make sure that they are being successful,” Humble Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Fagen said.
- Fagen said the district decided to dedicate more state funding toward learning loss, which are recurring dollars, not short-term “one-and-done” money. “The federal dollars will ultimately run out,” Fagen said.
- As part of its annual budget going forward, Humble ISD hired 50 teachers to double staff in some at-risk elementary classrooms identified by data and metrics. Students who have fallen behind the most now have two teachers instead of one.
- “We bring those (teacher to student) ratios from 1 to 20, which is a more difficult scenario to personalize learning, to a ratio of 1 to 10,” Fagen said.
- VIDEO LINK
- INTERACTIVE GRAPHIC LINK
- ANDREW: Depending on district size, 20% may be more than enough to catch students up. IMO, better angle would have been what districts are doing, not how much spending. All well and good to spend $100k on catching up, but if it goes to a grifter who shows up, talks at students for an hour, and leaves, it’s no better than only spending enough to catch 2 of every 10 students up.
- As holidays arrive, more than 55% of Texans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, by Texas Tribune Staff Updated: Dec. 7, 2021
- MIKE: The key information is in the story title. So, “Yay?”
- Ground breaks on Shepherd Drive, Durham Drive improvement project in the Heights; By Shawn Arrajj | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 1:16 PM Dec 6, 2021 CST | Updated 1:16 PM Dec 6, 2021 CST
- Although an actual groundbreaking is not expected to take place until January, a ceremonial shovel was put into the ground Dec. 4 for a project that will transform Shepherd and Durham drives in the Houston Heights over the next five years.
- The redevelopment project—which spans roughly 5 miles from the northern segment of Loop 610 to I-10 West—will reduce the number of traffic lanes on each road from four to three while adding protected bike lanes and installing sidewalks. The roadways being redeveloped date back to the 1950s …
- The lane reduction is warranted based on current and future traffic volume projections, Houston Public Works Director Carol Haddock said.
- In addition to the lane reduction, the project also includes installing new traffic signals, crosswalk striping, new signal timing to reduce congestion and crashes, the repositioning of some bus stops, protected bike lanes, wider sidewalks, more trees, and the replacement of underground water and sewer infrastructure while the road is being redone. …
- Citing [a 2019] study, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said the project will reduce common vehicle crashes by 50%, pedestrian crashes by 67% and bicycle crashes by 38%. …
- Construction is expected to begin in January on Phase 1, and construction on Phase 2 could start in 2023. The overall project is expected to be ongoing for 5-6 years.
- 40% of San Francisco’s traffic deaths are from left turns. These design fixes could change that; The city is dramatically rethinking its intersections to make dangerous left turns a thing of the past. By Nate Berg | FASTCOMPANY.COM | 12-06-21
- Drivers turning left are responsible for a disturbingly high proportion of pedestrian injuries and deaths in the city of San Francisco. Solving the problem could be a matter of design.
- More than 300 people are injured by left-turning drivers every year in San Francisco. In 2019, 40% of traffic deaths occurred when drivers making left turns hit pedestrians – mostly people using crosswalks who weren’t seen by drivers until it was too late. Now, the city is dramatically rethinking its intersections to make these dangerous left turns a thing of the past.
- The scope of the problem became evident back in 2018, when the San Francisco Department of Public Health analyzed five years’ worth of left-turn crash data. The agency then teamed up with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) to better understand why so many deaths were happening in left turn situations. What they found was a mix of design issues and common driver behaviors that unnecessarily put pedestrians at risk. To address both of these problems, SFMTA launched the Safer Intersections Project to test out new approaches to intersection design, as well as a $2 million grant-funded public education campaign aimed at reducing unsafe driving. The effort is part of the city’s Vision Zero plan, which aims to eliminate traffic-related deaths.
- “Unsafe left turns are not unique to San Francisco,” says Uyen Ngo, project manager and Vision Zero education and outreach coordinator at the SFMTA. “We believe the design interventions and education campaign work are applicable to other cities.”
- On the design side, the agency found that part of the reason left turns are so dangerous is that drivers are often going too fast and turning at too tight of an angle to properly see whether a pedestrian might be crossing the street. …
- The intersection retrofits are aimed at changing the way drivers navigate during left turns, and include the placement of vertical posts partly inside intersections, six-foot rubber speed bumps that extend the centerline of travel lanes, and large painted zones that show drives where not to drive. These physical elements force drivers to slow down and make more of a right-angle turn through the intersection as opposed to a fast swooping curve. By making it harder to turn quickly, drivers have more time to see people crossing the road.
- The design interventions were installed at seven intersections in the city last fall. After a year of monitoring, SFMTA has found that the altered intersections have had significant impacts on the speed and safety of left turns. The interventions reduced the average speed at which drivers make left turns by 17%, and brought a 71% reduction in drivers taking turns faster than 15 miles per hour. More data will be collected to see whether these interventions result in reduced collisions, injuries, and deaths. …
- San Francisco’s improved left turns are more than an experiment. These kinds of street engineering changes have been implemented in other cities, including Washington, D.C.; New York; and Portland, Oregon; and studies in those cities have shown similar reductions in speed during turns. SFMTA is now in the process of determining where else these interventions can be put in place across the city. Its Vision Zero plan calls for interventions to be installed in 35 additional intersections. …
- ANDREW: I wonder if SF has the unprotected, flashing-arrow left turn, or if all left turns are protected. My car accident happened at a flashing-arrow left turn at a busy intersection where I couldn’t see if a car was coming. If that turn had been protected, oncoming traffic would have had to stop, and the accident wouldn’t have happened. I think most people take left turns fast because they have to time it between oncoming cars. Making all left turns protected would give people time to take the turn at a safer speed.
- As critical race theory and mask mandate debates heat up, Texas GOP takes aim at local school board and municipal races; The Republican Party of Texas announced Monday it had launched a new Local Government Committee to work with county parties on backing candidates for nonpartisan local offices. by Patrick Svitek | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Dec. 7, 20215 AM Central
- Texas Republicans are increasing their involvement in local races, hoping to do more to influence municipal and school board elections that have turned into political battlegrounds during the coronavirus pandemic.
- The state Republican Party announced Monday it had formed a new Local Government Committee to work with county parties on backing candidates in nonpartisan local elections, where issues like mask mandates and the teaching of what some conservatives call critical race theory have become flashpoints. …
- The state Democratic Party has been supporting local nonpartisan candidates through a program, Project LIFT, that started in 2015. The program, which stands for Local Investment in the Future of Texas, recruits, trains and provides resources to people running for municipal offices and school board. …
- MIKE: Calling local races officially non-partisan has always seemed like a deceptive joke to me. Allowing local races to have partisan labels would just be “truth in advertising”.
- Federal officials now investigating I-45 expansion project; By Andy Cerota, Anchor & Reporter | CLICK2HOUSTON.COM | Published: December 6, 2021 5:59 pm, Updated: December 6, 2021 7:40 pm
- In the heart of Houston’s Greater 5th Ward is Bruce Elementary. Its future may be in jeopardy, according to critics of the I-45 expansion project, if the plans to redesign and expand the I-45 from downtown Houston to Greenspoint to Beltway 8 don’t get a second look.
- “We just want fairness. …,” said U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, (D) Texas 18th District. “We want the best quality transportation we can get — safe and secure, but respectful of long term residents, the history and the health of the environment of the business quality,” Jackson Lee said.
- Congresswoman Jackson Lee said she believes TxDot’s current design unfairly targets historic neighborhoods and communities of color that are home to public housing.
- The federal government is now investigating whether the project violates civil rights. …
- While most of the project is largely still on pause, last week, limited work was allowed to continue after being halted for nine months. Jackson Lee said this won’t end the federal investigation. …
- ANDREW: Highways have been used to disrupt communities of color. Many community members have already spoken against the project, and that lawsuit is still looming. Definitely cause for investigation.
- Bob Dole: A Legacy In Shades of Gray
- “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones; So let it be with Caesar.” ~ From Julius Caesar, as spoken by Marc Antony, and written by William Shakespeare
- MIKE: The Right has freaked out over a tweet by MSNBC’s Mehdi Hassan:
- MSNBC anchor appears to downplay Bob Dole’s accomplishments after his death because of his support for Trump; Dole passed early Sunday morning at age 98. By Lindsay Kornick | Fox News | 12/6/2021
- Progressive MSNBC anchor Mehdi Hasan posted [I added the link because Fox News did not – Mike] what many considered to be an inappropriate dig on former presidential candidate Bob Dole’s passing. …
- The New York Times highlighted Dole’s military and public service in a tweet announcing his passing, but Hasan used the tweet to also highlight Dole’s support of President Trump.
- “Bob Dole, who endorsed and voted for Trump twice, and called himself a ‘Trumper’ as recently as July, has passed away,” Hasan tweeted.
- Critics called out Hasan for what they took as to be an unnecessary comment on the day of Dole’s passing. …
- American Conservative Magazine contributing editor Sohrab Ahmari tweeted, “Mehdi Hasan, who has said non-Muslims are like animals*, has once more beckowned himself on Twitter dot com.* Actual thing Hasan has said — look it up.” …
- MIKE: So I looked it up. Because we are on radio, you can’t see that the references in the Fox News article are asterisked, as if there is a footnote. There is not, nor is there a link. This is what Hassan said, as cited in an article in The Atlantic from Jan. 19, 2021: “MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan argues that we should think of Trump’s followers as if they were al-Qaeda members, who move freely among us because they are white, rather than brown and Muslim.”
- MIKE: The article then has a further comment: “The former DHS official Juliette Kayyem agrees that we should treat MAGA as a terrorist movement and Trump as its Osama bin Laden….”
- MIKE: I also looked up the “non-Muslims are like animals” quote. If it exists in that form, I couldn’t find it, except as repeated in other Conservative and Rightwing articles and posts.
- MIKE: Many Conservatives like to refer to Liberals as “snowflakes” who are easily riled up. These Conservatives should look in a mirror. And they should not rile up other Conservatives by lying about what Liberals and Progressives say.
- MIKE: Another lesson we might all perhaps take is this: No one is pure. All of us live our lives in shades of grey. “So let it be with Caesar.”
- REFERENCE — Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan): Bob Dole, who endorsed and voted for Trump twice, and called himself a ‘Trumper’ as recently as July, has passed away. https://twitter.com/mehdirhasan/status/1467553988409237515?s=20
- The New York Times (@nytimes) · Dec 5: Breaking News: Bob Dole is dead at 98. He overcame grievous war wounds to become Senate majority leader, spending decades on the national stage. https://nyti.ms/3Il8dt4 11:58 AM · Dec 5, 2021Twitter Web App
- ANDREW: I’m not sure this is news. It’s people yelling at each other on Twitter. Just turn your phones off, folks.
- House approves $768 billion defense bill with strong support, despite some discord among Democrats; By Karoun Demirjian | WASHINGTONPOST.COM | Dec. 7, 2021 at 6:05 p.m. EST, Updated at 11:12 p.m. EST
- MIKE: So I was curious what caused an “uproar”. It was this: “[S]everal key policy provisions that had won clear majority support in Congress — including to more broadly change the military justice system, require women to register with Selective Service and repeal the Iraq War authorization — were discarded as lawmakers in the House and Senate raced to strike a compromise on the measure that dictates funding for the Pentagon and other defense operations in the year ahead. Their omission caused an uproar among some lawmakers, even as others cheered the legislation as comprehensive and historic. The bill next heads to the Senate, where it is expected to pass and move on to the White House for President Biden’s approval.”
- MIKE: Perhaps the “uproar” was real or it was performance art, or a bit of both. It’s often hard to remember the famous quote: “Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable…the art of the next best.” (In German: Die Politik ist die Lehre vom Möglichen.) ~ Prince Otto von Bismarck. Source: St. Petersburgische Zeitung. https://www.shmoop.com/quotes/politics-art-of-impossible.html
- MIKE: There’s also another famous quote: “When you’re up to your ass in alligators, it’s hard to remember that your initial goal was to drain the swamp.”
- ANDREW: Another case of Republicans dictating what’s “possible” and Democrats rolling over and going with it.
- 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 | 18, 2021, Updated 7:43 p.m. ET
- 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.
- 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. …
- 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. …
- 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. …
- 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.” …
- 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.
- 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.
- “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.”
- 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.
- 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. …
- 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.
- “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.”
- 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.”
- 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.
- “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.”
- 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.
- ANDREW: If Mexican immigration enforcement has Biden over a barrel, I have an idea to get out of that plus stop a lot of human rights abuses: freedom to remain. Stop requiring visas, stop going after anyone who overstays them. If there’s no warrant out on you, you can enter the US, no problem. We could save a bundle on ICE. All we’d need is the passport checkers we already have. People wouldn’t be arrested for trying to find a better life, families wouldn’t be broken up, and sadistic people would have their power stripped from them. Diplomatically, no need to have another nation enforce your immigration laws if there aren’t any immigration laws in the first place. But that would require duopoly politicians to give up the “immigrants” scapegoat.
- There are two opinion pieces in the NYTIMES.COM that are worth reading, but that we don’t have time to discuss properly.
- A useful history and geopolitical perspective: What’s Driving Putin’s Ukraine Brinkmanship?; There are tactical reasons for threatening an invasion, but the real cause may lie in the Kremlin’s fixation with righting what it sees as a historical injustice. By Anton Troianovski | NYTIMES.COM | Dec. 5, 2021
- A reminder that diseases can change the course of history: The Pandemic Is Beating Putin; By Alexey Kovalev | NYTIMES.COM | Dec. 8, 2021, 1:00 a.m. ET
- 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
- “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.
- His nuclear power company is one of several developing a new generation of smaller nuclear power plants.
- Like others in the industry, Mr Schonfeldt wants to address fears over safety.
- In Seaborg’s case their reactors will be housed on floating barges and use molten salt to moderate reactions.
- Mr Schonfeldt argues that this set-up and location means large-scale disasters, perhaps caused by a terrorist attack, simply aren’t possible.
- “If a terrorist bombs the reactor and the salt sprays everywhere, then it solidifies and stays. You go and clean it up,” he says. …
- The makers of these smaller reactors also claim that as well as being safer, they will be much less expensive than their larger cousins. …
- 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).
- This means that 90% of a Rolls-Royce SMR power plant could be built, or assembled, in factory conditions. …
- Based in California, Radiant Nuclear’s ambitious tagline is ‘making nuclear more portable’ and it wants to shrink nuclear power plants down even further.
- It says it is developing a reactor the size of a shipping container, that could be easily transported by truck.
- The project is still in the very early stages, with the company planning a fuelled demonstration in 2026 and units in production by 2028.
- But Radiant does not see its reactors competing for market share with the big power plants that connect to the energy grid.
- 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. …
- However, anti-nuclear campaigners are not persuaded or reassured by safety claims coming from new entrants to the nuclear power market.
- “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.
- 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”
- “It will be held at the site, and eventually transferred to Sellafield, or a geological disposal facility deep underground,” he explains.
- 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. …
- ANDREW: Not totally against nuclear power, but I do think nuclear weapons are encouraged by it, so we can’t truly rely on it until we disarm. Also concerned about the waste produced. Yes, we can bury it, but that’s not a solution, it’s a stopgap. It shouldn’t be our main source of energy until we drastically reduce the waste produced. Plus I would think new plants would have the same issue that renewables have with environmental impact of building materials.
Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig 