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.
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- Next Election: May 01, 2021 – Uniform Election. Early Voting: April 19th – April 27th
- 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
- 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) <– UPDATED LINK
- 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 Centers
- HARRIS COUNTY – IDENTIFICATION REQUIRED FOR VOTING: Do not possess and cannot reasonably obtain one of these IDs?
- 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.
- HARRIS COUNTY – IDENTIFICATION REQUIRED FOR VOTING: Do not possess and cannot reasonably obtain one of these IDs?
- VoteTexas.GOV – Texas Voter Information
- Time to send in your “Vote By Mail” applications. (See Above)
- Texas Department of Motor Vehicles announces end date for waiver of vehicle title, registration requirements; By Hannah Zedaker | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM/HOUSTON | 1:38 PM Dec 15, 2020 CST | Updated 1:38 PM Dec 15, 2020 CST
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- Texans now have until April 14, 2021 to renew expired vehicle registrations …
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- MIKE: From last week’s show: Is the Republican Party becoming “The Sedition Party’? [38:27 to 39:13, 40:42 to 40:58 or 43:06, 46:20 to 47:48, 47:57 to 49:40]
- When will Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff be sworn in? – It basically depends on when Georgia’s election results can be certified. Author: Jonathan Raymond (11Alive) | COM (CHARLOTTE, NC) | Published: 3:20 PM EST January 7, 2021, Updated: 3:37 PM EST January 8, 2021
- … [W]hen do they actually become senators?
- It basically depends on the pace at which Georgia certifies its election results.
- It sounds obvious, but Warnock and Ossoff can’t officially be senators until their election victories are, well, official. That could still take a week or two.
- Here’s the general outline, as provided by the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office:
- 8th: Deadline for military and overseas ballots to come in, as well as for voters who had to use provisional ballots to fix their issue (a process known as “curing” their ballot).
- 15th: Deadline for counties to certify their results.
- 22th: Deadline for state to certify its results.
- There’s some important notes to go over here, though: Counties can basically start certifying once the deadline passes on Friday, Jan. 8 for the military/overseas/provisional ballots. So while the deadline 15, it could be done by Monday or Tuesday, for all we know. Similarly, once the counties are done, the state will likely only take another day or two (perhaps even less) to certify.
- There’s at least a decent chance the results are certified before the end of next week [by 1/15], but – all it takes is one county to hold things up.
- The day America realized how dangerous Donald Trump is; Analysis by Maeve Reston and Kevin Liptak | CNN | Updated 6:40 PM ET, Sat January 9, 2021
- When the history of the 45th presidency is written, Wednesday, January 6, will go down as the day America realized how dangerous President Donald Trump really is.
- In the span of hours, the country finally witnessed the price of its five-year experiment turning its election process into a reality show that produced an unhinged megalomanic as commander-in-chief who amassed so much power through his lies and fear-mongering that he was able to engineer an insurrection as a final act that left democracy dangling by a thread.
- Wednesday’s siege at the Capitol marked the culmination of Trump’s years-long quest to cultivate a fiercely loyal base that would do anything for him by playing on their fears and resentments as he lured them into believing his incessant lies about the sinister motives of government, election fraud and his own conduct.
- Some among America’s military allies believe Trump deliberately attempted a coup and may have had help from federal law-enforcement officials; By Mitch Prothero | COM | Jan 7, 2021, 7:58 AM
- Multiple European security officials told Insider that President Donald Trump appeared to have tacit support among US federal agencies responsible for securing the Capitol complex in Wednesday’s coup attempt.
- Insider is reporting this information because it illustrates the serious repercussions of Wednesday’s events: Even if they are mistaken, some among America’s international military allies are now willing to give credence to the idea that Trump deliberately tried to violently overturn an election and had help from some federal law-enforcement agents.
- “We train alongside the US federal law enforcement to handle these very matters, and it’s obvious that large parts of any successful plan were just ignored,” one source told us.
- Insider spoke with three officials on Thursday morning: a French police official responsible for public security in a key section of central Paris, and two intelligence officials from NATO countries who directly work in counterterrorism and counterintelligence operations involving the US, terrorism, and Russia.
- Insider spoke with three officials on Thursday morning: a French police official responsible for public security in a key section of central Paris, and two intelligence officials from NATO countries who directly work in counterterrorism and counterintelligence operations involving the US, terrorism, and Russia.
- While they did not furnish evidence that federal agency officials facilitated the chaos, Insider is reporting this information because it illustrates the scale and seriousness of Wednesday’s events: America’s international military and security allies are now willing to give serious credence to the idea that Trump deliberately tried to violently overturn an election and that some federal law-enforcement agents — by omission or otherwise — facilitated the attempt.
- One NATO source set the stage, using terms more commonly used to describe unrest in developing countries.
- “The defeated president gives a speech to a group of supporters where he tells them he was robbed of the election, denounces his own administration’s members and party as traitors, and tells his supporters to storm the building where the voting is being held,” the NATO intelligence official said.
- “The supporters, many dressed in military attire and waving revolutionary-style flags, then storm the building where the federal law-enforcement agencies controlled by the current president do not establish a security cordon, and the protesters quickly overwhelm the last line of police.
- “The president then makes a public statement to the supporters attacking the Capitol that he loves them but doesn’t really tell them to stop,” the official said. “Today I am briefing my government that we believe with a reasonable level of certainty that Donald Trump attempted a coup that failed when the system did not buckle.
- The third official, who works in counterintelligence for a NATO member, agreed that the situation could only be seen as a coup attempt, no matter how poorly considered and likely to fail, and said its implications might be too huge to immediately fathom.
- “Thank God it didn’t work, because I can’t imagine how hard it would be to sanction the US financial system,” the official said. By sanctions, he means the imposition of the diplomatic, military, and trade blockages that democratic nations usually reserve for dictatorships.
- “The broader damage around the world will be extensive in terms of reputation, and that’s why Putin doesn’t mind at all that Trump lost. …
- “Every moment the Americans spend on their own self-inflicted chaos helps China, it helps Putin, and, to a lesser extent, it helps the mini-dictators like [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan and [Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor] Orban, who breathe cynicism about politics, human rights, and democracy as their air,” the official said.
- Amazon Is Booting Parler Off Of Its Web Hosting Service – Amazon’s suspension of Parler’s account means that unless it can find another host, once the ban takes effect on Sunday Parler will go offline. By John Paczkowski, Technology and Business Editor & Ryan Mac Buzz, Feed News Reporter | BUZZFEEDNEWS.COM | Posted on January 9, 2021, at 9:07 p.m. ET, Last updated on January 9, 2021, at 10:08 p.m. ET
- Amazon notified Parler that it would be cutting off the social network favored by conservatives and extremists from its cloud hosting service Amazon Web Services, according to an email obtained by BuzzFeed News. The suspension, which will go into effect on Sunday just before midnight, means that Parler will be unable to operate and will go offline unless it can find another hosting service. …
- In an email obtained by BuzzFeed News, an AWS Trust and Safety team told Parler Chief Policy Officer Amy Peikoff that the calls for violence propagating across the social network violated its terms of service. Amazon said it was unconvinced that the service’s plan to use volunteers to moderate calls for violence and hate speech would be effective. …
- [Parler CEO John Matze wrote on Parler,] “This was a coordinated attack by the tech giants to kill competition in the market place. We were too successful too fast.”
- On Parler, reaction to the impending ban was swift and outraged with some discussing violence against Amazon. “It would be a pity if someone with explosives training were to pay a visit to some AWS data centers,” one person wrote.
- Amazon’s move comes after Apple banned Parler from its App Store on Saturday afternoon [sic], after the platform failed to introduce a moderation plan to protect public safety. … Google has also suspended Parler from its Google Play app store. …
- Amazon’s move … will remove the infrastructure from which Parler operates. …
- One user wrote: “Sounds like war! It would be a pity if someone with explosives training were to pay a visit to some AWS Data Centers — the locations of which are public knowledge.”
- Parler, which was launched in 2018, has become a safe haven for people banned by popular sites including Facebook and Twitter. The Henderson, Nevada–based company has billed itself as a free speech alternative to mainstream social networks and taken a more relaxed approach to content moderation, attracting conspiracy theorists, hate group members, and right-wing activists who have openly incited violence.
- Recent threads on Parler have called for the execution of Vice President Mike Pence and encouraged the conspiracy theory that left-wing antifa activists were behind Wednesday’s events.
- MEANWHILE, AT FOX NEWS: Capitol riot: Media mirrors Biden by vilifying police, comparing response to Black Lives Matter protests – Lawmakers, civil rights activists and professional athletes have called Wednesday’s attack an example of “White privilege”; By Brian Flood | FOX NEWS | 9 JAN 2021
- As America attempts to recover from the Capitol riot, everyone from President-elect Joe Biden and NBA star LeBron James to members of the mainstream media such as Joy Behar and Joy Reid have vilified police officers for their role in the tragic event.
- While Democrats and media members have waffled on whether or not riots are a good idea, they have remained consistent when it comes to criticizing cops. After months of calls to “defund the police,” the latest talking point is that U.S. Capitol Police would have acted differently if the rioters were largely Black.
- “No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesters yesterday that they wouldn’t have been treated very differently than the mob that stormed the Capitol,” Biden wrote Thursday on Twitter. “We all know that’s true — and it’s unacceptable.” …
- MSNBC’s Joy Reid took things further and claimed White Americans aren’t afraid of the police.
- “White Americans are never afraid of the cops, even when they are committing insurrection,” Reid said. “Even when they’re engaged in attempting to occupy our Capitol to steal the votes of people who look like me because, in their minds, they own this country, they own that Capitol. They own the cops. The cops work for them and people like me have no damn right to try to elect a president, because we don’t get to pick the president. They get to pick the president. They own the president. They own the White House. They own this country.”
- The far-left MSNBC host continued: “So when you think you own it, you own the place, you ain’t afraid of the police because the police are you and they reflect back to them … guarantee you if that was a Black Lives Matter protest in D.C, there would be people shackled, arrested, or dead.”
- [THIS IS THE FULL CLIP OF JOY REID, 4:12: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWgQ1vKCeEo&feature=youtu.be]
- MEANWHILE, IN THE REST OF THE WORLD:
- Iraq issues arrest warrant for Trump over Iran Gen. Soleimani’s death; By Ryan Morgan | AMERICANMILITARYNEWS.COM | January 07, 2021
- Iraq’s judiciary issued an arrest warrant on Thursday for President Donald Trump, for ordering the Jan. 3, 2020 airstrike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the leader of an Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) militia, in Baghdad, Iraq.
- The Associated Press reported Iraq’s judiciary issued the warrant against Trump on a charge of premeditated murder — a charge which carries the death penalty. The AP reported the warrant is likely to be carried out but is a symbolic move.
- Iran has also issued an arrest warrant for Trump and has requested Interpol’s help in arresting him, once in June and again this week.
- i) Iran reportedly asks Interpol to arrest Trump over killing of Qassem Soleimani; NY POST
- … Interpol rejected a request in June from Tehran prosecutor Ali Alqasimehr to issue a warrant for Trump, Pentagon officials and members of the US Central Command on “murder and terrorism charges.”
- The international police agency said its constitution forbids it from undertaking actions against a political figure.
- “It is strictly forbidden for the Organization to undertake any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character,” it says. …
- Pompeo lifts curbs on official US contacts with Taiwan (FROM AL-JAZEERA):– The announcement comes before a planned trip to Taiwan by the US ambassador to the UN that has drawn anger from China.
- In a statement on Saturday, Pompeo said the US State Department had for several decades “created complex internal restrictions to regulate our diplomats, service members, and other officials’ interactions with their Taiwanese counterparts”.
- “The United States government took these actions unilaterally, in an attempt to appease the Communist regime in Beijing,” he said. “No more.”
- It was not clear what the change means in practice, with Pompeo saying executive branch communications with Taiwan will be handled by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), which is owned by the US government and serves as the de facto embassy on Taiwan. …
- This week, China warned the Trump administration that it would pay a “heavy price” if Craft’s planned visit takes place.
- “The United States will pay a heavy price for its wrong action,” the Chinese mission to the UN said in a statement.
- “China strongly urges the United States to stop its crazy provocation, stop creating new difficulties for China-US relations … and stop going further on the wrong path.”
- Taiwan has benefitted from the discord, with record US arms sales and visits from other officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.
- New Zealand central bank says data system hacked; COM | 10 Jan 2021
- New Zealand’s central bank said Sunday that one of its data systems has been breached by an unidentified hacker who potentially accessed commercially and personally sensitive information.
- A third party file sharing service used by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand to share and store sensitive information had been illegally accessed, the Wellington-based bank said in a statement.
- Governor Adrian Orr said the breach has been contained. The bank’s core functions “remain sound and operational,” he said.
- Kazakhstan heads to the polls amid opposition boycott (FROM AL-JAZEERA): The ruling Nur Otan party, promising political reform, expected to score a big win in the oil-rich Central Asia country.
- Polls open in critical Kyrgyzstan vote (FROM AL-JAZEERA): Voters on Sunday will choose the country’s next leader and decide on a new political system.
- Roadside bomb kills 3 people in Afghan capital (FROM AL-JAZEERA): A spokesman for the public protection force was one of the three killed in the attack.
- Australia, US, UK, Canada condemn Hong Kong mass arrests (FROM AL-JAZEERA): Foreign ministers issue joint statement condemning last week’s arrest of more than 50 democracy activists in Hong Kong.
- Pakistani authorities work to restore power after blackout (FROM AL-JAZEERA): A major fault at a thermal power plant causes a countrywide blackout, plunging millions into darkness.
- Landslides kill 11, injure 18 in Indonesia’s West Java (FROM AL-JAZEERA): Rescuers among victims as landslides triggered by heavy rains bury homes in Cihanjuang village.
- Iraq issues arrest warrant for Trump over Iran Gen. Soleimani’s death; By Ryan Morgan | AMERICANMILITARYNEWS.COM | January 07, 2021
- The U.S. needs a democracy overhaul. Here’s what Biden’s first step should be. OPINION by Editorial Board | WASHINGTONPOST.COM | Jan. 2, 2021 at 9:00 a.m. CST
- … Mr. Trump and a disturbing number of Republican officials have made obsolete the old assumptions that each major party will play fair, that electoral results will reflect the will of the majority and that each side will willingly turn over power when defeated at the polls. The nation needs a top-to-bottom review of how it conducts elections, counts votes and assures the public of the democracy’s health, so that it resists those who want to restrict voting, trash legitimate ballots and leverage positions of trust to upend valid results. Among President-elect Joe Biden’s first acts should be to convene a high-level commission to recommend a democracy overhaul.
- The review must be wide-ranging, beginning with the electoral college itself. …
- The commission should look at encouraging more voter participation. That could mean universal voter registration …Or perhaps mail-in balloting should be expanded …The commission could even review how mandatory voting has worked in places such as Australia. …
- Some states and cities are experimenting with ranked-choice voting… This promising reform could eliminate the threat of third-party spoilers throwing elections to candidates most voters dislike.
- Voters must be assured that their ballots are secure from malicious actors and administration incompetence alike. That means stronger national standards — and federal money — for voting equipment, staff and support, including stipulations on using statistically sound methods to audit vote counts. …
- Americans should also have confidence that partisan officials will not be able to reject voting results. Internationally, the United States is unusual in that its chief voting administrators — state secretaries of state — are partisan elected officials. …
- Finally, Americans should never again have to dig up rickety old laws to determine whether arcane electoral college counting procedures might offer federal lawmakers a route to overturning a presidential election by congressional vote. The commission should recommend a thorough update of the 1887 Electoral Count Act that eliminates the possibility that a partisan Congress could reject properly certified electoral votes…
- There is much more that a democracy commission could consider. The nation’s democratic system, wounded and exposed from a rough 2020, cannot limp into 2024 in comparable or worse shape. Many of the questions raised in the past several weeks are not ones most Americans previously imagined they needed to contemplate. But they are now arguably the most important issues facing the country as it reckons with the Trump era. …
- Advocates worry vaccines will be out of reach for Black and Hispanic neighborhoods devastated by COVID-19 – In the state’s largest metropolitan areas, vaccine distribution centers like hospitals and pharmacies are more common in white, affluent neighborhoods. by Juan Pablo Garnham and Mandi Cai | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Jan. 9, 20215 AM
- … According to the Texas Department of State Health Services data, more than half of the fatalities in Texas due to COVID-19 have been Hispanic individuals and almost 10% have been Black people. Yet the state’s designated vaccination sites — mostly hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and pharmacies — are concentrated in more affluent areas where those facilities tend to be located.
- In Travis County, for example, 88 sites have been designated to administer vaccines, and roughly three quarters are in majority non-Hispanic white census tracts. And in Dallas, the southern part of the city — where people of color predominate — has fewer distribution centers than the north, which tends to be more white and affluent. Out of 140 distribution sites in Dallas County only 10 are located in majority Black census tracts while 37 are in majority Hispanic census tracts.
- People in underserved communities often don’t have vehicles and must rely on public transportation. During the pandemic, many urban transit agencies have reduced their service or limited the number of passengers to provide for social distancing.
- “This vaccine distribution has a big transportation component,” said Jill Ramírez, CEO of the Latino Health Forum, which works to promote good health care practices among the Hispanic community in Austin.
Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig 