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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.

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• 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
   2. May 7 Constitutional & Local Election
      1. Have you gotten your mail-in ballot yet? I have mine.
      2. Early Voting by Personal Appearance has begun! (EVERYPLACE EXCEPT BRAZORIA CTY, WALLER CTY (SORT OF))
      3. 03May – Last Day of Early Voting by Personal Appearance
      4. 07May – Election Day & Last day to Receive Ballot by Mail
      5. MIKE: Personally, I recommend voting against both if these proposed Texas Constitutional amendments for reasons I discussed on the April 13^th
   3. May 24 Primary Runoff & Precinct Chair Election
      1. 13May – Last Day to Apply by Mail (Received, not Postmarked)
      2. 16May – First Day of Early Voting by Personal Appearance
      3. 20May – Last Day of Early Voting by Personal Appearance
      4. 24May – Election Day & Last Day to Receive Ballot by Mail
3. MIKE:
   1. FYI, Waller and Brazoria Counties have no information on their election pages for the May 24^th Runoffs. This is spite of the fact that they’re not only running consecutively only about 2 weeks apart. They’re also running CONCURRENTLY, in the sense that certain registration requirements overlapped, and mail-in ballots overlap. If I had not already mailed in my ballot for the May 7^th election, I would have TWO mail-in ballots in my hands now. This is a prescription for confusion.
   2. MIKE NOTE: DO NOT mail in both ballots in one envelope!!  This is a surefire way to get both ballots rejected. Each ballot must go in the CORRECT set of envelopes for that ballot. Please DO NOT get them confused! Then mail them, each with the necessary postage, when you have filled them out and sealed them in their respective envelopes.
   3. MIKE: Brazoria County doesn’t address this at all. Waller requires you to go to the elections home page (where they do have info on the May 7^th election), and then find a tab called “CURRENT ELECTIONS” to find info on the election for May 24^th. Further, Brazoria has no email address for contacting them. You can only talk to then on the phone or in person during their business hours.
   4. MIKE: The same appears to be true for Waller County: no email address for contacting them. You can only talk to then on the phone or in person during their business hours.
   5. MIKE: So, it appears that neither Waller nor Brazoria Counties are eager to make communications with them convenient. But to be fair, they make phone numbers and addresses easy to find.
4. ELECTION NOTE:
   1. Some current ballots have only the proposed amendments to the Texas constitution. If you have some local offices also at stake on your ballot, CommunityImpact.com has a number of election-related articles, so I suggest checking them out.
   2. Other sources of election information: The League of Women Voters of Texas’s has a nonpartisan Voters Guide available English or Spanish. Also com, among others.
   3. Brazoria County now has a good table explaining various types of voting and their deadlines for the May 7^th They still have nothing on the May 24^th Runoff elections.
5. Conroe City Council to vote April 28 on increasing homestead exemption to 20%; By Maegan Kirby | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 2:21 PM Apr 26, 2022 CDT | Updated 2:21 PM Apr 26, 2022 CDT
   1. With notices of high property appraisals from the Montgomery Central Appraisal District recently released, Conroe City Council will vote on an ordinance to increase the city’s property tax homestead exemption from 2.5% to 20% at its April 28 meeting …
   2. If approved, the ordinance would give residents a larger exemption from property taxes and relief from increased real estate appraisals. An exemption of 20% is the maximum allowed by law, according to the release. …
6. Mother says she can’t enroll her son in school due to hair policy at East Bernard ISD; By Brandon Walker | COM | Published: April 26, 2022, 11:06 PM
   1. A mother in East Bernard [TX] said she was told she cannot enroll her son into the district’s high school unless he cut his dreadlocks. …
   2. East Bernard ISD’s student handbook outlines its dress code and hair policy, which also forbids “braided hair or twisted rows/strands.”  …
   3. A federal judge in Aug. 2020 ruled the Barbers Hill Independent School District’s dress code was discriminatory after two Black students were suspended over the length of their dreadlocks.  The school district eventually revised its policy.
   4. Magnolia ISD also revised its policy in Dec. 2021 after the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas [and several other parties] challenged the policy in October on behalf of six boys and one non-binary student who said the policy was opposite of their values.
   5. Brian Klosterboer, an attorney with ACLU Texas, questioned the constitutionality of East Bernard’s policy. Klosterboer said, following previous lawsuits, school districts across Texas have taken it upon themselves to modify their policies, eliminating hair requirements. …
   6. Shaundra Lewis, a professor at Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law, said the lawsuits establish the precedence of rights being violated, but said they don’t stop school districts from keeping them.
   7. “They can continue to make these policies. The question is, can they enforce the policies?” Lewis asked.
   8. The question of enforcement depends on whether a parent challenges the policy.
   9. [Lewis said], “If any parent challenges it on the bases that it interferes with their first amendment right to freedom of religion or is discriminatory, then it cannot be legally upheld. …
   10. A formal complaint against East Bernard ISD has not been filed. …
   11. REFERENCE: US House passes CROWN Act that would ban race-based hair discrimination; By Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN | Published 11:28 AM EDT, Fri March 18, 2022 —…  The bill now heads to the Senate, where Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey has sponsored the chamber’s version of the bill. The Biden administration this week said it “strongly supports” the CROWN Act and “looks forward to working with the Congress to enact this legislation and ensure that it is effectively implemented.” …
7. Amid a teacher shortage, some Texas educators are losing their licenses for quitting during the school year; The policy sidelines educators, often for two school years, at a time when districts are already struggling to keep teachers in the classrooms. by Brian Lopez and Jason Beeferman | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | April 19, 202218 hours ago
   1. … [H]undreds of Texas teachers … have become disillusioned with the profession. There’s the low average salary that has remained stagnant for nearly a decade. Then the frequent switches to virtual learning and back to the classroom caused by the coronavirus pandemic. And the newer requirement to complete a 60- to 120-hour course on reading, known as Reading Academies, if teachers for kindergarten through third grade want to keep their jobs in 2023. And there’s the recouping of learning progress lost during the pandemic. …
   2. … Over the last six months, a record number of teachers have been reported to the state for leaving in the middle of the school year. Doing so means a district can have a teacher’s license revoked. …
   3. Districts in the past have reported teachers to the state for leaving before their contracts are up, but over the last year there has been a surge in such reports — at the same time as a statewide teacher shortage.
   4. At least 471 contract abandonment reports have been sent to the state, according to recent data. That’s a 60% increase from the 2021 fiscal year. …
   5. Teachers who opt to leave in the middle of a school year can be reported to the state, and the State Board for Educator Certification can either suspend or revoke a teacher’s certification. In most cases, teachers receive a one-year suspension of their certification. Teachers can leave the job penalty-free if they do so 45 days before the school year begins. …
   6. The state has recently adopted new flexibility when looking at these contract-abandonment cases. Exceptions can be made if a teacher is changing positions, resigning because of safety concerns or experiencing a reduction in pay.
   7. But still, the surge in reports boils down to districts needing a teacher in a classroom, and school officials are trying anything in their power to discourage teachers from leaving before their contracts are up. …
   8. Zeph Capo, president of the Texas American Federation of Teachers, said school districts that are losing more teachers this school year are finding it increasingly difficult to replace them in the middle of the year.
   9. “Every single one of those individuals have made a conscious decision to say they no longer give a damn about their teacher certification because conditions have gotten that bad,” Capo said.
   10. When talking about Texas’ teacher shortage, experts usually point to teachers being overworked and underpaid. But Capo believes these teachers aren’t leaving in the middle of the year and potentially risking their certification over more pay. He believes it’s become an issue of health, safety and respect. …
8. In Democratic runoff for South Texas congressional seat, nonprofit backing a candidate is accused of campaign finance violations; Michelle Vallejo faces Ruben Ramirez in a runoff for the Democratic nomination in the 15th Congressional District. A nonprofit that supports Vallejo is accused of breaking campaign finance rules. by Patrick Svitek | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | April 26, 2022, 6 hours ago
   1. As Democratic voters prepare to pick their party’s nominee for one of the nation’s most closely watched congressional races, a Rio Grande Valley nonprofit is being accused of violating federal campaign finance law for how it has backed one of the candidates.
   2. Michelle Vallejo, a small business owner from Alton, faces Ruben Ramirez, a former candidate for the seat, in the May 24 Democratic primary runoff for South Texas’ 15th Congressional District. Vallejo’s most important backer is LUPE Votes, the political arm of La Unión del Pueblo Entero, a nonprofit founded by the famed labor-rights activists César Chávez and Dolores Huerta.
   3. The nonprofit that LUPE Votes operates did not disclose its spending in the primary until over a month after it ended, missing deadlines for disclosure, including some that fell before the March 1 contest. Now, a Ramirez supporter has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission that calls out the late filing and accuses the nonprofit of illegally coordinating with Vallejo’s campaign as she secured a place in the runoff by just over 300 votes. …
   4. LUPE Votes declined to comment, but lawyers advised the group at the start of the primary about how to make sure it did not run afoul of FEC coordination rules, according to a memo obtained by The Texas Tribune.
   5. The FEC complaint was filed last week by Alma Espinoza, a teacher from the Rio Grande Valley who has donated $1,200 to Ramirez’s campaign, according to FEC records. …
   6. The runoff is being closely watched because the 15th District is Republicans’ top pickup opportunity in November as they push to make new inroads in South Texas. …
   7. Vallejo is running as an unapologetic progressive, while Ramirez is making a more moderate pitch, arguing national Democrats have gone too far to the left for South Texans. …
   8. LUPE Votes recruited Vallejo last year after the current 15th District incumbent, Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-McAllen, decided to seek reelection in a neighboring district due to redistricting. The group was looking for a progressive Democrat with deep community ties. …
   9. Campaign finance experts agree that the complaints about the late disclosure and incomplete disclaimer appear to be clear-cut violations. …
   10. [T]he complaint alleges illegal coordination given the overlap between the Vallejo campaign and the LUPE Votes entities. …
   11. A Dec. 8 memo obtained by the Tribune and addressed to “all LUPE employees and consultants” outlined which employees were working for the PAC and the nonprofit, and it outlined steps to maintain an “internal firewall” to guard against illegal coordination.
   12. Campaign finance experts say illegal coordination can be difficult to prove and the FEC has shown very little interest in going after it. …
9. Lawsuit filed over Llano County libraries, by Charles Kuffner | OFFTHEKUFF.COM, excerpted from TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Apr 26th, 2022
   1. Seven Llano County residents filed a federal lawsuit Monday against the county judge, commissioners, library board members and library systems director for restricting and banning books from its three-branch public library system.
   2. The lawsuit states that the county judge, commissioners and library director removed several books off shelves, suspended access to digital library books, replaced the Llano County library board with community members in favor of book bans, halted new library book orders and allowed the library board to close its meetings to the public in a coordinated censorship campaign that violates the First Amendment and 14th Amendment.
   3. The plaintiffs … insist their constitutional rights were violated when public officials censored books based on content and failed to provide proper notice or an avenue for community comment.
   4. When the plaintiffs attempted to check out several removed books, they said, they were denied access.
   5. “Public libraries are not places of government indoctrination. They are not places where the people in power can dictate what their citizens are permitted to read about and learn,” the lawsuit states. “When government actors target public library books because they disagree with and intend to suppress the ideas contained within them, it jeopardizes the freedoms of everyone.”
   6. Plaintiffs’ lawyer Ellen Leonida said she plans to file a preliminary injunction this week to get books back on shelves and access to the digital library distributor, OverDrive, reinstated while the lawsuit is pending. Leonida also wants the lawsuit to serve as a warning that small groups like the one in this case cannot control the availability of books without legal resistance.
   7. “They can’t censor books, unequivocally, based on viewpoints that they disagree with,” Leonida said. …
   8. In November, Bonnie Wallace, who eventually became the vice chair of the new Llano County library board, emailed Llano County Judge Ron Cunningham with a list of 60 books on Krause’s list that were available in Llano libraries, according to emails referenced in the lawsuit and obtained by The Texas Tribune. Later that day, Cunningham directed library system director Amber Milum to remove “all books that depict any type of sexual activity or questionable nudity.”
   9. In addition to library books’ removal, Cunningham told librarians to stop ordering new publications in November, according to the lawsuit. …
   10. As Kuffner then writes, “I had to reread this and then check Google to make sure I got this right: We are talking about the PUBLIC LIBRARIES in Llano County, not the school libraries. Do you want Commissioners Court deciding what books you can read? I didn’t think so. Here’s some local coverage with more details.”
10. Pushing for “school choice,” U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz splits with Gov. Greg Abbott in his endorsements for Texas House runoffs; Typically political allies, two of the state’s top Republicans have endorsed different candidates in six GOP primary runoff races. by Patrick Svitek | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | April 19, 202218 hours ago
    1. Greg Abbott and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz are finding themselves increasingly at odds as they try to shape the next Republican majority in the Texas House, splitting their endorsements in a host of primary runoffs in which candidates appear to differ on “school choice.” …
    2. … Cruz appears to be flexing his well-documented affinity for candidates who support school choice, a term Republicans have used for several years to describe programs that give parents state money to send their kids to schools outside of the state’s public education system. …
    3. Cruz has spoken openly about his thinking when it comes to endorsements. In January, he said that if someone voted against school choice, the chances of them getting his endorsement are “essentially zero.” And if someone supports school choice, Cruz added, he will consider “engaging and engaging hard.”
    4. Abbott’s runoff endorsement strategy is not as obvious and his picks have left some school choice activists frustrated. He has generally supported the concept and, earlier this year, he predicted that in the next legislative session Texans will see a “stronger, swifter, more powerful movement advocating school choice than you’ve ever seen in the history of the state of Texas.” …
11. Charges Dropped Against Tennessee Woman Who Was Jailed Over Voter Fraud; Pamela Moses, who was sentenced in January to six years in a case that outraged voting rights supporters, will not face a new trial, a district attorney said. By Sophie Kasakove and Eduardo Medina | NYTIMES.COM | April 23, 2022, Updated 5:29 p.m. ET
    1. A Tennessee prosecutor dropped all criminal charges on Friday against Pamela Moses, a Memphis woman with a previous felony conviction who was sentenced to six years and one day in prison in January after she tried to restore her right to vote in 2019.
    2. The voter fraud conviction from her trial was thrown out in February after a judge ruled that the Tennessee Department of Correction had improperly withheld evidence that was later uncovered by The Guardian. Ms. Moses had been set to appear in court on Monday to find out whether prosecutors would pursue a retrial.
    3. But Ms. Moses will no longer face a second trial “in the interest of judicial economy,” Amy Weirich, the district attorney of Shelby County, said in a statement. Ms. Moses spent 82 days in custody on this case, “which is sufficient,” Ms. Weirich said. Ms. Moses is also permanently barred from registering to vote or voting in Tennessee. Ms. Weirich declined to comment further on the case.
    4. The sentencing of Ms. Moses, who is Black, had spurred outrage among voting rights supporters who said that the case highlighted racial disparities in the criminal prosecution of voting fraud cases and opaque voting restoration rights laws that sow confusion and leave many people with felony convictions unsure of their rights. …
    5. “The case should not have been prosecuted right from the beginning because there was no trickery,” [said her lawyer, Bede Anyanwu]. Ms. Moses declined to comment on Saturday.
    6. In recent years, Republican officials have moved to crack down on voter fraud, despite the fact that the crime remains a very rare and often accidental occurrence.
    7. Florida election officials made just 75 referrals to law enforcement agencies regarding potential fraud during the 2020 election, out of more than 11 million votes cast, according to data from the Florida secretary of state’s office. Of those investigations, only four cases have been prosecuted as voter fraud. …
    8. “What we see consistently is honest mistakes made by returning citizens are penalized to the max, and true bad intentions are not being penalized to the same extent,” said Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections for Common Cause, a government watchdog group. “And usually in those cases, the defendants are white.” …
    9. MIKE: There’s more to Ms. Moses’ individual story, which you can read by clicking on the article link.
    10. MIKE:Now let’s hear a story about how the literally-duplicitous voting irregularities of a prominent white Republican politician, Mark Meadows, were handled.
12. Officials: Mark Meadows was registered to vote in 3 states; Meg Kinnard | USATODAY/Associated Press | April 25, 2022
    1. Mark Meadows — a former chief of staff to President Donald Trump who was removed from North Carolina voter rolls earlier this month — is still a registered voter in two other states, according to officials and a published report.
    2. Chris Whitmire, a spokesperson for the South Carolina Elections Commission, told The Associated Press the former Republican congressman and his wife registered as voters in the state in March 2022.
    3. “That’s when he became active,” Whitmire said, noting that neither Meadows had yet cast a vote in the state. “From our perspective, it just looks like any new South Carolina voter.”
    4. The South Carolina registration was first reported by The Washington Post, which noted that Meadows had been a registered voter simultaneously in three states — [North and South Carolina, and Virginia — until North Carolina removed him from its rolls earlier this month. Meadows remains a registered Virginia voter, the paper reported. An email sent by The Associated Press to the Virginia Department of Elections was not immediately returned Friday.
    5. Mark and Debra Meadows bought a home on picturesque Lake Keowee [SC] for $1.6 million in July, according to records for the property, which was listed on their South Carolina voter registration records. …
    6. Public records indicate Meadows had been registered to vote in Virginia and North Carolina, where he listed a mobile home that he never owned — and may never have visited — weeks before casting an absentee 2020 presidential election ballot in the state. …
    7. Last month, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein’s office asked the State Bureau of Investigation to investigate.
    8. About a year after he registered in North Carolina, Meadows registered to vote in Alexandria, Virginia, just weeks before Virginia’s high-profile governor’s election last fall, the records indicate.
    9. Meadows frequently raised the prospect of voter fraud before the 2020 presidential election — as polls showed Trump trailing now-President Joe Biden — and in the months after Trump’s loss, to suggest Biden was not the legitimate winner. …
    10. [Chris Whitmire, the South Carolina elections spokesman, said that when he registered with South Carolina, Meadows should have notified any other jurisdictions of his new status.
    11. Through the Electronic Registration Information Center, a consortium through which states exchange data about voter registration, Whitmire also said officials periodically pull voter lists and remove those who have more recently registered in a new state.
    12. MIKE: Interesting contrast, eh? The only hope for equitable justice is this part of the story: “Last month, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein’s office asked the State Bureau of Investigation to investigate.”
    13. MIKE: Hope springs eternal for equal treatment under the law, but I’m not holding my breath. … And that cynical attitude I have is really, really sad.
13. Austin’s assertion that US wants to ‘weaken’ Russia underlines Biden strategy shift; By Natasha Bertrand, Kylie Atwood, Kevin Liptak and Alex Marquardt | CNN | Updated 2:26 AM EDT, Tue April 26, 2022
    1. As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has transformed into a grinding war of attrition with no meaningful peace deal in sight, the US and its allies have begun to convey a new, longer-term goal for the war: to defeat Russia so decisively on the battlefield that it will be deterred from launching such an attack ever again.
    2. That message was delivered most clearly on Monday, when Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told reporters after a trip to Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv that “we want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.”
    3. A National Security Council spokesperson said that Austin’s comments were consistent with what the US’ goals have been for months – namely, “to make this invasion a strategic failure for Russia.”
    4. “We want Ukraine to win,” the spokesperson added. “One of our goals has been to limit Russia’s ability to do something like this again, as Secretary Austin said. That’s why we are arming the Ukrainians with weapons and equipment to defend themselves from Russian attacks, and it’s why we are using sanctions and export controls that are directly targeted at Russia’s defense industry to undercut Russia’s economic and military power to threaten and attack its neighbors.” …
    5. Russia coming out of the conflict weaker than before is an idea that other Biden administration officials have referenced. US officials, however, had previously been reluctant to state as plainly that the [US’s] goal is to see Russia fail, and be militarily neutered in the long term, remaining cautiously optimistic that some kind of negotiated settlement could be reached.
    6. One eastern European official told CNN that mentality was incredibly frustrating. “The only solution to this is for Ukraine to win,” he said.
    7. The shift in strategy has come about over the past few weeks, evidenced by a growing tolerance for increased risk with the more complex, western weaponry being sent in, and is a reflection of the belief that Putin’s goals in Ukraine would not end if he manages to seize part of Ukraine, as they didn’t after the 2014 annexation of Crimea, a British diplomat said. …
    8. Now, there is a growing realization among US and Western officials – especially after the Russians’ massacre of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha – that Russia needs to be hurt so much economically and on the battlefield that its aggression is stopped for good, US and Western officials told CNN. …
    9. Biden administration officials are optimistic that that is an achievable goal, sources told CNN. Administration officials and congressional sources said they believe that the continued military support to Ukraine could result in significant blows to Russia that will impair their long-term military capabilities, strategically benefiting the US. …
    10. Russia’s poor performance and significant losses on the battlefield have contributed significantly to the US’ increasingly emboldened posture, officials said.
    11. Whereas Washington had been previously concerned that sending heavy artillery might be viewed as a provocation, Biden has announced billions of dollars in new shipments of tanks, missiles and ammunition over the past month, an indication that some initial worries about escalating the conflict have waned.
    12. The US is also preparing to train Ukraine’s armed forces on more state-of-the-art, NATO-capable weapons systems, Austin told reporters on Monday – a move that will allow the US and its allies to provide more powerful weapons to Ukraine more quickly, since those systems are more readily available than the Soviet-era equipment the west has had to scrounge for to date.
    13. “There are a number of shifts happening simultaneously,” the British diplomat said. “One is looking at future capabilities and that’s related to the artillery and more modern weaponry. Two, let’s take out what’s on the battlefield.” …
    14. Ambassador Nathan Sales, who until 2021 served as acting under secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights at the State Department, said the “bottom line” is that “a weaker Russia means a more stable world,” and that the US should prepare for its Russia policy.