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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:

1. Live online at KPFT.org (from anywhere in the world!)
2. Podcast on your phone’s Podcast App
3. Visiting Archive.KPFT.ORG

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.

• An educated electorate is a prerequisite for a democracy.
• You’re entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts.

1. 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
   1. Harris County “Vote-By-Mail’ Application for 2022
      1. Fort bend County Elections/Voter Registration Machine takes you to the proper link
      2. GalvestonVotes.org (Galveston County, TX)
      3. Liberty County Elections (Liberty County, TX)
      4. Montgomery County (TX) Elections
      5. Brazoria County (TX) Clerk Election Information
      6. Waller County (TX) Elections
      7. Chambers County (TX) Elections
      8. 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.
      9. 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.
      10. HarrisVotes.com – Countywide Voting CentersHARRIS COUNTY – IDENTIFICATION REQUIRED FOR VOTING: Do not possess and cannot reasonably obtain one of these IDs?
          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)
          8. 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.
             5. Make sure you are registered:
             6. Ann Harris Bennett, Tax Assessor-Collector & Voter Registrar
             7. CHECK REGISTRATION STATUS HERE
             8. CLICK How to register to vote in Texas
             9. Outside Texas, try Vote.org.
2. BE REGISTERED TO VOTE, and if eligible, REMEMBER TO FILL OUT AND MAIL YOUR MAIL-IN BALLOT APPLICATIONS FOR 2022
   1. You can track your Mail Ballot Activity from our website with direct link provided here https://www.harrisvotes.com/Tracking
3. May 7 Constitutional & Local Election
   1. 07Apr – Last Day to Register to Vote
   2. 25Apr – First Day of Early Voting by Personal Appearance
   3. 26Apr – Last Day to Apply for Ballot by Mail (Received, not Postmarked)
   4. 03May – Last Day of Early Voting by Personal Appearance
   5. 07May – Election Day & Last day to Receive Ballot by Mail
4. May 24 Primary Runoff & Precinct Chair Election
   1. 25Apr – Last Day to Register to Vote
   2. 13May – Last Day to Apply by Mail (Received, not Postmarked)
   3. 16May – First Day of Early Voting by Personal Appearance
   4. 20May – Last Day of Early Voting by Personal Appearance
   5. 24May – Election Day & Last Day to Receive Ballot by Mail
   6. MIKE: This is crazy. Two elections 2 weeks apart. Aside from the additional expense of this, it looks like an intentional effort to suppress voter turnout thorough “voter fatigue. So let me give you an incentive to vote by telling you a very personal story.
   7. MIKE: I quit smoking “cold turkey” in 1983 after 16 years. (I promise you this will come back to voting.) In 1991, I was going through a very nasty divorce and I happen to be at a friend’s wedding reception at his parents’ house. I was out on the patio with a small circle of folks, and everyone was smoking. Everyone. Now, in my opinion, there is no such thing as an ex-smoker, just like there’s no such thing as an ex-alcoholic. You’re always a “recovering smoker”.
   8. MIKE: So, I’d been “recovering” for about 8 years, and I could smell that lovely cigarette smoke. Several folks who knew I was trying to abstain nonetheless offered me cigarettes (i.e., they were potential enablers).
   9. MIKE: The divorce had me under extraordinary stress. At that moment, I really wanted that cigarette. Do you want to know what finally gave me the strength to say no? I didn’t want to give my soon-to-be ex the satisfaction of knowing that she had driven me to start smoking again.
   10. MIKE: So how does this relate to voting in 2 separate elections only 2 weeks apart? Because the whole idea is to discourage YOU from voting through the simple tactic of “voter fatigue”. The State of Texas has an unofficial policy (at least in so many words) of discouraging voting.
   11. MIKE: DON’T LET THEM! Don’t let them wear you down. Don’t let them discourage you. They want you to break you down and make you take that metaphorical cigarette. Be strong! Be determined! Vote, if for no other reason that THEY DON’T WANT YOU TO!
5. Harris County elections administrator announces resignation following March primaries; By Danica Lloyd | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 5:00 PM Mar 8, 2022 CST | Updated 5:00 PM Mar 8, 2022 CST
   1. Following several issues in the March 1 primary elections, Harris County Elections Administrator Isabel Longoria announced her resignation, effective July 1, at the March 8 Harris County Commissioners Court meeting. …
   2. Just after the polls closed at 7 p.m. on March 1, the Texas secretary of state’s office said in a news release Harris County would not be able to count and report votes by the statutory deadline of 7 p.m. on March 2. Longoria said she believed this state law was arbitrary, outdated and did not reflect the increased number of votes or the technological and accountability standards currently in place.
   3. [A]bout 10,000 ballots were discovered after the final count. The votes were scanned into the elections computer but were not transferred and counted. Longoria attributed the mistake to the exhaustion of her staff members, who had worked throughout the night. …
   4. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s motion to have the county administrator and county attorney’s offices engage a third-party consultant to review elections operations and recommend efficiencies for the remaining elections this year passed with the same 3-2 split vote.
   5. Before [Longoria] announced her resignation, [Harris County Pct. 3 Commissioner] Ramsey also requested Longoria be terminated “based on performance,” noting votes were counted in about six hours in previous elections. In response, Longoria said the county has been working under different circumstances with new voting machines rolled out in November and Senate Bill 1 passed last year—a law she said came with a lack of guidance from the state on how it would affect elections.
   6. Longoria noted that during her tenure, voter turnout and registration increased, and her office implemented innovative approaches to increase access to the polls, including drive-thru voting and expanded hours.
   7. Hidalgo, who also serves on the county’s elections commission, said her priorities moving forward are to protect the integrity of upcoming elections, find new leadership after a thorough search and address the issues identified. …
   8. MIKE: I just want to note that I found other coverage of this story in the Houston Chronical at CHRON.COM, but I thought this article from Community Impact provided a more well-rounded coverage.
   9. MIKE: Which segues nicely into our next story.
6. Houston philanthropies invest $20M to launch nonprofit news outlet; Paul Takahashi, Staff writer | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM | 19, 2022, Updated: Jan. 19, 2022 4:21 p.m.
   1. Five foundations, including three local philanthropies, are investing more than $20 million to launch an independent nonprofit news outlet in Houston, entering the city’s competitive media landscape.
   2. The Houston Endowment, the Kinder Foundation and Arnold Ventures on Wednesday said the yet-to-be-named news operation will be one of the largest of its kind nationally when it launches late this year or early next year on multiple platforms. The philanthropies, joined by journalism foundations The American Journalism Project and the Knight Foundation, said they seek to “elevate the voices of Houstonians” and “answer the community’s calls for additional news coverage.”
   3. “All Houstonians deserve to be informed about the issues that impact their lives,” said Ann Stern, CEO of the Houston Endowment. “We are thrilled to support the expansion of local reporting in Greater Houston – combining the highest standards of journalism with an innovative community-focused reporting model.” …
   4. Community Impact, an Austin-based hyperlocal newspaper, last month announced plans to break ground on its Houston regional headquarters this quarter. When completed later this year, more than 55 journalists and media employees are expected to work out of the new 16,000-square-foot office in Jersey Village. Over the past 15 years, several news outlets, including CultureMap and Houstonia [which appears similar in content to CultureMap — Mike], also have started operating in the city.
   5. The new Houston nonprofit news outlet was born from a two-year research effort led by the American Journalism Project, a local journalism philanthropy that conducted local focus groups, community listening sessions and surveys to analyze Houston’s media landscape and identify gaps in new coverage. The new media outlet will follow in the footsteps of the Texas Tribune, which launched 13 years ago as a statewide nonprofit, nonpartisan online news outlet covering state politics and policy. …
   6. The three local philanthropic foundations behind the new outlet said they will not have editorial control, review, oversight or influence over the journalism created and distributed.
   7. The Houston Endowment, a private foundation committed to public education and civic engagement, owned the Houston Chronicle for more than three decades before selling the newspaper in 1987 to New York-based Hearst Corp. …
   8. TAGS: Isabel Longoria Harris County Elections Commission
   9. MIKE: I actually ran across this story from other sources in different forms when the announcement was first made. I like this version of the story because of the Chronicle’s additional information about the Texas Tribune and Community Impact. This Chronicle story from January did not run across my radar because, ironically, it was paywalled. Two months later, it’s still paywalled.
   10. MIKE: Nothing says, “We need more local news sources,” than an important article about the availability of news sources, than Houston’s only major newspaper paywalling an important story about the availability of new local news sources.
   11. MIKE: As we’ve said before on this show, News is paywalled. Lies and propaganda are free.
7. Four affordable housing projects planned in Harris County earn Commissioners Court approval; By Emily Lincke | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | Mar 3, 2022, 7:15 PM CST | Updated 7:15 PM CST Mar 3, 2022
   1. Harris County Commissioners Court chose to support four affordable housing projects planned in different parts of the county Feb. 22, although only two projects were approved unanimously.
   2. While the Cole Creek Estates project and the Cypress Senior Homes project were approved unanimously, resolutions supporting the Fairbanks Crossing project and the Vecinos Apartments project were approved in a 3-2 vote with Precincts 3 and 4 Commissioners Tom Ramsey and Jack Cagle dissenting. …
   3. . The Cole Creek Estates project is planned to be built at 6850 Gessner Road, Houston, in Precinct 1, while the Cypress Senior Homes project is planned for 2823 Barker Cypress Road, Houston, in Precinct 4. Additionally, the Vecinos Apartments project is planned for the intersection of Spring Cypress and Lexington roads in Precinct 3, while the Fairbanks Crossing project is [planned] for the intersection of Warren and Fairbanks North Houston roads in Precinct 1.
   4. Before voting on the projects, Ramsey expressed his concern that some of the developers had not reached out to him about the project beforehand.
   5. “I’m not against affordable housing … [what] I am against is someone that hasn’t done their homework, that hasn’t engaged the community,” Ramsey said. “I don’t know of anybody in Old Town Spring that’s been engaged at this point.”
   6. Before commissioners voted, multiple residents spoke against the Fairbanks Crossing project, including Jill Hawley Safi, a retired teacher and Harris County resident who said the nearby schools would not be able to properly support additional students being added by the housing project. …
   7. Harris County resident Carol Money also spoke against the Fairbanks Crossing project, talking about her experience living in a high-crime area of Houston.
   8. “I know firsthand the effects that low-income developments and all of the infrastructure that supports it can have on a neighborhood,” Money said. “I’ve lived there, and I’ve moved away from it.” …
8. One of Abbott’s billionaire patrons just sued Beto; by Charles Kuffner | OFFTHEKUFF.COM | Mar 8th, 2022
   1. OMG, this is amazing – [Citing the Houston Chronicle] The former CEO of one of the nation’s biggest pipeline companies and a major donor to Gov. Greg Abbott is suing Democrat Beto O’Rourke for defamation, slander, and libel for talking about his company’s role in the 2021 Texas winter storm and referring to the executive’s subsequent donations to Abbott’s re-election as “pretty close to a bribe.”
   2. Kelcy Warren, who was a top executive at the gas pipeline company Energy Transfer Partners, filed suit against O’Rourke in San Saba County, seeking more than $1 million in damages from O’Rourke, claiming he is trying to “publicly humiliate Warren and discourage others from contributing to Gov. Abbott’s campaign.”
   3. O’Rourke on Monday responded with a press conference just 5 miles from Energy Transfer Partners’ headquarters in Dallas calling the lawsuit “frivolous” and aimed at trying to stop him from telling the truth about what happened before and after the deadly storms on Abbott’s watch.
   4. “He is trying to stop me from fighting for the people of Texas,” O’Rourke said. “And just as we did before, we are not backing down right now.” …
   5. Kuffner then writes in part: I Am Not A Lawyer, so I’m not going to pretend I know what the likelihood of success for poor downtrodden Kelcy Warren is. I do know that it’s likely months before this ever sees the inside of a courtroom, and if it somehow manages to survive a motion to dismiss it could be a couple of years before we get to the deposition and pretrial hearing stages. But suppose we were to have the lawyers on each side begin the discovery process right now. Who do you think would be more nervous about it, Beto or Abbott? I kind of don’t think Beto will have much to hide. How many emails and texts between Abbott and Warren do you think they might find?
   6. I mean, has anyone introduced ragtag man of the people Kelcy Warren to the Streisand Effect? What better way to make sure that Beto’s main campaign theme is a topic for every local news station to cover on a regular basis? I’ve already seen tweets to this effect, but my first reaction was that Beto is going to have to list this lawsuit as an in-kind donation to his campaign on the July finance report. You literally can’t buy this kind of publicity. …
9. Congress passes bill to shore up the Postal Service without cutting back on delivery; THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | March 8, 20227:29 PM ET
   1. Congress on Tuesday passed legislation that would shore up the U.S. Postal Service and ensure six-day-a-week mail delivery, sending the bill to President Joe Biden to sign into law.
   2. The long-fought postal overhaul has been years in the making and comes amid widespread complaints about mail service slowdowns. Many Americans became dependent on the Postal Service during the COVID-19 crisis, but officials have repeatedly warned that without congressional action it would run out of cash by 2024.
   3. “The post office usually delivers for us, but today we’re going to deliver for them,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
   4. Congress mustered rare bipartisan support for the Postal Service package, dropping some of the more controversial proposals to settle on core ways to save the service and ensure its future operations. Last month, the House approved the bill, 342-92, with all Democrats and most Republicans voting for it. On Tuesday, the Senate sent it to Biden’s desk on a 79-19 vote.
   5. Republican Sen. Jerry Moran said the Postal Service has been in a “death spiral” that is particularly hard on rural Americans, including in his state of Kansas, as post offices shuttered and services were cut. “Smart reforms were needed,” he said.
   6. The Postal Service Reform Act would lift unusual budget requirements that have contributed to the Postal Service’s red ink and would set in law the requirement that the mail is delivered six days a week, except in the case of federal holidays, natural disasters and a few other situations. …
   7. The bill would end a requirement that the Postal Service finance workers’ health care benefits ahead of time for the next 75 years, an obligation that private companies and federal agencies do not face.
   8. Instead, the Postal Service would require future retirees to enroll in Medicare and would pay current retirees’ actual health care costs that aren’t covered by the federal health insurance program for older people.
   9. Gone for now are ideas for cutting back on mail delivery, which had become politically toxic. Also set aside, for now, are other proposals that have been floated over the years to change postal operations, including those to privatize some services. …
   10. Criticism of the Postal Service peaked in 2020, ahead of the presidential election, as cutbacks delayed service at a time when millions of Americans were relying on mail-in ballots during the first year of the COVID-19 crisis.
   11. At the time, President Donald Trump acknowledged he was trying to starve the Postal Service of money to make it harder to process an expected surge of mail-in ballots, which he worried could cost him the election.
   12. Dominated by Trump appointees, the agency’s board of directors had tapped Louis DeJoy, a major GOP donor, as the new postmaster general. He proposed a 10-year plan to stabilize the service’s finances with steps like additional mail slowdowns, cutting some offices’ hours and perhaps higher rates.
   13. To measure the Postal Service’s progress at improving its service, the bill would also require it to set up an online “dashboard” that would be searchable by ZIP code to show how long it takes to deliver letters and packages.
   14. The legislation approved by Congress is supported by Biden, the Postal Service, postal worker unions and others.
   15. MIKE: This has been overdue many years. The Republicans passed the retirement funding obligation in a deliberate effort to strangle the Postal Service. Trump at least admitted as much in his efforts to further strangle the Postal Service. Louis DeJoy is still there doing his darndest to strangle the Postal Service until he can be pushed out as Postmaster General.
   16. MIKE: For Any Republican to be proud of doing the right thing by the Postal Service after his party has determinedly done their darndest to kill just reeks of hypocrisy.
   17. MIKE: The first thing that occurred to me was, “Why?” Why this sudden Republican desire to vote with Democrats to save the Postal Service? Inquiring minds want to know.
10. Senator forced to backtrack after saying Republicans will repeal Obamacare; Ron Johnson’s statement about scrapping Affordable Care Act if GOP wins control of Congress seen as open goal for Democrats. By Gloria Oladipo (@gaoladipo) | THEGUARDIAN.COM | Tue 8 Mar 2022 11.32 EST, Last modified on Tue 8 Mar 2022 11.35 EST
    1. The Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson said Republicans should try again to repeal the Affordable Care Act if they take back power – then retreated, under fire from the Biden administration.
    2. Speaking to Breitbart News, a far-right site, on Monday, Johnson said Republicans could “actually make good on what we established as our priorities” if they won control of Congress in midterms this year and the presidency in 2024.
    3. “For example, if we’re going to repeal and replace Obamacare – I still think we need to fix our healthcare system – we need to have the plan ahead of time so that once we get in office, we can implement it immediately, not knock around like we did last time and fail.” …
    4. The Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, has been reluctant to release details of what Republicans would do should they retake Congress in the midterms, with McConnell saying only an agenda will be revealed “when we take it back”. …
    5. MIKE: As a wizened older guy, this reminds me of two things: Nixon had a secret plan to end the Vietnam War when he ran in 1968, but he wouldn’t say what it was. America should just trust him.
    6. MIKE: The second thing it remind me of is Oprah Winfrey’s paraphrase of something Maya Angelou said to her: “When someone shows you who they are believe them the first time.” The Republicans have shown us time and again who they are. They are Nixon’s secret plan to end the Vietnam War.
11. Stalled and frustrated, Putin will likely ‘double down’ in the coming weeks, CIA says; By Greg Myre | NPR.ORG | March 8, 20221:59 PM ET | 3-Minute Listen : Download
    1. CIA Director William Burns said Tuesday that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has fallen far short of Vladimir Putin’s expectations and that he believes the Russian president is likely to escalate military operations.
    2. “I think Putin is angry and frustrated right now. He’s likely to double down and try to grind down the Ukrainian military with no regard for civilian casualties,” Burns testified before the House Intelligence Committee. “His military planning and assumptions were based on a quick, decisive victory.”
    3. Burns was one of several intelligence chiefs who appeared before the committee’s annual hearing on worldwide threats.
    4. The CIA director said Putin premised his war on four false assumptions: He thought Ukraine was weak, he believed Europe was distracted and wouldn’t mount a strong response, he thought Russia’s economy was prepared to withstand sanctions and he believed Russia’s military had been modernized and would fight effectively.
    5. “He’s been proven wrong on every count,” said Burns, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2005 to 2008.
    6. The CIA director says he now expects Putin to escalate military operations while the Ukrainians will continue to resist fiercely. The likely result, he says, is “an ugly next few weeks” of fighting for control of Ukraine’s cities, including the capital, Kyiv.
    7. “His own military’s performance has been largely ineffective,” Burns said of Putin. “Instead of seizing Kyiv within the first two days of the campaign, which is what his plan was premised upon, after nearly two full weeks they still have not been able to fully encircle the city.” …
    8. Meanwhile, the director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, said Putin’s longer-term plans for Ukraine are still uncertain.
    9. “What’s unclear at this stage is whether Russia will continue to pursue a maximalist plan to capture all or most of Ukraine, which we assess would require more resources,” Haines said. “If they pursue the maximalist plan, we judge it will be especially challenging for the Russians to hold and control Ukrainian territory and install a sustainable pro-Russian regime in Kyiv.”
    10. Burns agreed that Putin does not appear to have a defined plan for what he would do if Russian forces took control of Ukraine. …
12. ON THE AFTERSHOW — U.S. to ban oil imports from Russia as White House explores drastic plans to buffer economy from energy shock; President Biden acknowledged the pain higher costs were inflicting on Americans but said the U.S. and its allies had to isolate Moscow economically. By Jeff Stein, Tyler Pager and Anna Phillips | WASHINGTONPOST.COM | March 9, 2022 at 9:00 a.m. EST | Updated yesterday at 10:14 p.m. EST
    1. MIKE: You’ve heard enough about the news on this, but I want to make a point. There’s a meme going around. I will paraphrase: “If prices go up at the pump, it’s temporary fallout. Think of it as the price of freedom. You aren’t sitting on a concrete floor in a train terminal in a foreign country, holding your cat, and having left everything and everyone else behind.”
    2. MIKE: I was born in 1951, less than 5½ years after World War 2 ended. I don’t remember the Korean War or the lingering postwar scarcity of some products or even Eisenhower being president. You would probably have to be at least 5 or 10 years older than me to remember wartime rationing or wage and price controls. THAT was sacrifice.
    3. MIKE: Even during the Vietnam War, federal policy was known as “Guns and Butter”, a war policy that required no economic or material sacrifice of most Americans other than a tax surcharge. That war was not “all-in” like WW2, and the idea was to keep resistance to the war tamped down. No rationing and business as usual … as long as you weren’t drafted and sent there.
    4. MIKE: Our all-volunteer military is a result of that time. Conscription was “out”. “You volunteered for it” was “in”. Or as Trump once coldly put it to a Gold Star widow, “He knew what he signed up for ( Oct 17, 2017)”.
    5. Price hikes hurt. Even before the Ukraine invasion, I went into some grocery stores wondering how people could afford to eat. But if that’s all the skin we have to put into the game, we’ll have been lucky.
    6. MIKE: Call it “Putin’s Price Increases.” As it is, count your blessings, because the jury is still out.