AUDIO:

POSSIBLE TOPICS: VOTETEXAS.GOV—Voter Information; BBB tips: How to help Hurricane Fiona victims [In Puerto Rico] and avoid getting scammed; Tomball hosts first naturalization ceremony on Constitution Day, swearing in 64 new U.S. citizens; Young conservatives, politicians and media stars convene near Houston to “win the culture war”; Migrants in San Antonio lured onto Massachusetts flights with false promises of housing and jobs; El Paso scrambles to move migrants off the streets and gives them free bus rides as shelters reach capacity; Arrests along U.S.-Mexico border top 2 million a [fiscal] year for the first time; How Texas’ abortion laws turned a heartbreaking fetal diagnosis into a cross-country journey; Texas has banned more books than any other state, new report shows; Texas judge rules that people under felony indictment have the right to buy guns under the Second Amendment; Judge dismisses attempt to discipline Texas AG Ken Paxton’s top aide for trying to overturn the 2020 election; Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton tells court not to trust Biden in Trump records case; Why Ken Paxton’s supporters in the Texas attorney general race are unbothered by his mounting scandals; America’s Christian majority is on track to end; HIMARS rockets have been a ‘game changer’ in Ukraine, and the US Army is now looking for ways to build up to 500 more; Russia’s Putin announces partial military mobilization; Putin Is Cornered; Billions would die from starvation in nuclear war: research; ‘Quantum Leap’ reboot brings a rare Asian American lead to network television; MORE

Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig (@ThinkwingRadio) is now on Wednesdays at 11AM (CT) on KPFT-HD2, and repeats Thursdays at 6PM starting next week on Houston’s Community Station. You can also hear the show:

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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.

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

https://www.youtube.com/embed/EwrSlzZC31w

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 Centers, HARRIS 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
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          5. Government check
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          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;
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             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. NEXT ELECTION: 2022 November General Election – November 8, 2022
   3. GENERAL ELECTIONS SCHEDULE
      Oct 11: Last day to register to vote
      24-Nov 4: Early Vote
      Oct 28: Last day to apply for a ballot by mail
      Nov. 8: ELECTION DAY!!!
3. BBB tips: How to help Hurricane Fiona victims [In Puerto Rico] and avoid getting scammed; Author: Tiffany Craig | KHOU.COM | Published: 6:17 PM CDT September 20, 2022, Updated: 6:26 PM CDT September 20, 2022
   1. Do your research and donate to charities directly instead of crowdfunding.
   2. Use a credit card and avoid sending money through a peer-to-peer app.
   3. Pay attention to red flags and be on the lookout for copycat websites.
   4. The BBB also suggests using its website bbb.org to make sure the organization you want to donate to is legitimate.
   5. ANDREW: If you donate to people directly, give small-dollar amounts that you wouldn’t be too broken up over if they went to a scammer. Google names and other details and reverse image search images to see if they might be stolen from someone else’s appeal.
4. Tomball hosts first naturalization ceremony on Constitution Day, swearing in 64 new U.S. citizens; By Anna Lotz | communityimpact.com | 2:08 PM Sep 19, 2022 CDT , Updated 2:08 PM Sep 19, 2022 CDT
   1. Sixty-four new U.S. citizens were sworn in Sept. 17 at Lone Star College-Tomball’s Beckendorf Conference Center, the first time the city of Tomball has played host to a naturalization ceremony. The Sept. 17 ceremony was held on Constitution Day. …
   2. LSC-Tomball and the LSC-Tomball Community Library hosted the naturalization ceremony, an initiative Tomball Library Director Janna Hoglund said came out of growing citizenship programs at the Tomball library.
   3. Susan Howard, the literacy coordinator for the LSC-Tomball Community Library, said she learned the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Houston Field Office was looking for more venues across Harris County to hold naturalization ceremonies …, building upon what citizenship classes the library already offered. …
   4. Howard said as candidates must be proficient in English to pursue citizenship, the library offers English as a second language and 12-week citizenship test prep courses at no cost. Upon passing the citizenship test, candidates may attend a naturalization ceremony like the one held in Tomball to take an oath of allegiance.
      Howard said she has seen more interest in the classes the last few years, growing by word of mouth … Howard said she teaches two ESL classes online and one citizenship class online. …
   5. During the Sept. 17 ceremony, citizenship candidates represented 25 countries … according to a call of countries by Bertha Johnson, Section Chief of the USCIS Houston Field Office.
   6. “Citizenship brings with it so many privileges and responsibilities; it is my duty to remind you that as an American, you will be held to the highest standards of accountability for your actions—for freedom is not free. I only ask that you choose to participate fully in the civic institutions,” Johnson said during the ceremony. “Register to vote; make your voices heard, and volunteer your time and energy to improve your community. … I am confident that with your effort, we can make this a more perfect union.” …
   7. While the ceremony was a first for Tomball, Hoglund said she hopes to continue working with USCIS to host future naturalization ceremonies.
   8. MIKE: Bertha Johnson’s invocation should be repeated periodically to all natural-born citizens. Maybe it should be incorporated in our Pledge of Allegiance, just so it can always be top-of-mind.
   9. ANDREW: Glad to see these courses are offered free. Hopefully makes naturalization a more viable route to safety and security for undocumented immigrants. More institutions should do this.
5. Young conservatives, politicians and media stars convene near Houston to “win the culture war”; The gathering at Grace Woodlands church was for the Texas Youth Summit, an annual event that promotes conservative activism among students and young adults. by Jesus Vidales | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Sept. 17, 2022, 7 PM Central
   1. The worship space at Grace Woodlands church was peppered with red MAGA hats on Saturday, as young adults gathered to hear from leading conservatives often seen on Fox News. …
   2. They were there for the fourth annual Texas Youth Summit, a two-day conference in which teenage and young adult Texans convened with politicians, ideologically aligned companies and political groups to hear lectures, meet in small groups and ultimately feel empowered, as the summit’s slogan says, “to be the catalysts to win the Culture War.”
   3. [ANDREW/MIKE COMMENTS]
   4. Speakers included Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Donald Trump Jr., talk show host Candace Owens and U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, who wore a pistol strapped to her leg as she addressed the hall. As the headliners gave their speeches, a large cross from the churches’ sanctuary was illuminated behind them.
   5. S. Rep. Matt Gaetz also spoke, the same day the Washington Post reported that he sought a preemptive pardon from President Donald Trump related to a sex trafficking investigation. On Saturday, Gaetz made no mention of the investigation, in which the U.S. Department of Justice was reportedly looking into whether he paid for women to travel across state lines for sex and had a relationship with a 17-year-old girl. Instead, he urged the young people in attendance to fight for conservative causes. …
   6. The summit was founded by Christian Collins, a former political staffer for Cruz and U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady. …
   7. According to its website, the summit strives to “identify, educate, and train students to promote principles of fiscal responsibility, free market, limited government, American Exceptionalism and the Judeo-Christian principles this country was founded on.”
   8. “The Left controls the education system, TV networks, Hollywood, and social media and they are influencing youth,” the website reads. “It’s so important youth learn the Conservative Principles that have always made and will continue to make America exceptional.”
   9. For attendees, the stakes were high.
   10. “I’m so conservative, I love my country. … So all of that stuff is just stuff we need to strive for. And they’re trying to take that away from our country,” said Manny Galvan, president of his Houston high school’s Turning Point USA chapter. “Every day we sit here, so the more we do nothing, the more that’s getting taken. The more we’re trying to fight back, the more we can gain.” …
   11. Paideia Classical School was one of the organizations tabling at the event. They have four campuses across Texas, with three of them opening up within the last three years.
   12. “We are trying to create critical thinkers with our classes,” said Loiuse Davidson, who was working the table. “Many people just accept what they first see without any research.”
   13. Some panels at the event urged attendees to question established research, raising conspiracy theories around COVID-19, cellphone towers and more. But more than anything, the event focused on the idea that liberals inside and outside the government were taking the country in a dangerous direction. …
   14. Phill Cady, an Air Force veteran who moved to Texas from California, [said], “Some people just see MAGA and think bad,” he said, pointing to his red “Make America Great Again” hat. “I am a Republican, but I’m not here to support that.”
   15. But from many, the message was to do more than vote. In order to win the culture war, strong political action and mobilization was needed.
   16. “If you’re a digital warrior, get better at it,” Gaetz said. “If you make phone calls and knock on doors, become more efficient, become an organizer and activist.”
   17. ANDREW: I saw an ad for that. I think two out of a total twenty speakers were anywhere near “young”. Less of a summit by youth, more of a summit at youth. That exemplifies right-wing policies and thought in general: instead of listening to and learning from those who don’t often get included, create false authority and use it to force people to live their lives your way.
6. MIKE: There was a batch of stories from the Texas Tribune that I just had to include, briefly, in this week’s show. See if these stories make you proud to be a Texan.
   1. Migrants in San Antonio lured onto Massachusetts flights with false promises of housing and jobs; Jinitzail Hernández | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Sep 16, 2022
      1. … Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis chartered the flights, though his administration did not respond to questions as to why Florida taxpayers paid to transport people from Texas to Massachusetts in a political stunt meant to draw attention to the increasing number of people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border
      2. DeSantis’ move closely resembles Abbott’s strategy to bus migrants to Democratic-led cities in response to the high number of Texas-Mexico border crossings. On Thursday, Abbott sent buses to the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., where Vice President Kamala Harris resides. Both Abbott’s buses and DeSantis’ flights have drawn criticism for exploiting vulnerable migrants for political points. …
   2. El Paso scrambles to move migrants off the streets and gives them free bus rides as shelters reach capacity; One Venezuelan couple slept on a sidewalk after a perilous trip through seven countries with their baby. After two days in El Paso, they boarded a city-funded charter bus to New York City. Uriel J. García | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Sep 20, 2022
      1. MIKE: Trump, Abbott DeSantis … Republicans for whom the cruelty is the point. Using human beings to “own the libs”. And the CBP, the Federal border patrol, is also partly responsible. There’s no excuse for turning these people out on the street. Formal arrangements should have been made
   3. Arrests along U.S.-Mexico border top 2 million a [fiscal] year for the first time; Federal authorities are on pace to make more than 2.3 million arrests during the 2022 fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. That will far exceed last year’s record of more than 1.7 million arrests. by Nick Miroff | The Washington Post | Sept. 19, 2022
      1. … Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said Monday that the strain on Democratic-run cities will force the administration to see the border surge as a crisis. …
      2. MIKE: So Cornyn basically admits that these people are being used as political pawns, and he admits to being complicit. Again, the cruelty is the point.
      3. … Biden administration officials continue to insist they are building a “safe, orderly and humane” immigration system while blaming the Trump administration for “dismantling” channels for legal migration. …
      4. Republican lawmakers blame the record number of crossings on President Joe Biden’s reversal of Trump administration border policies. …
      5. MIKE: That’s funny, because it sounds like the Republican critics are agreeing with the Biden administration. Cruelty is at least not the policy point.
   4. `How Texas’ abortion laws turned a heartbreaking fetal diagnosis into a cross-country journey; “It was just a matter of time before the baby died, or maybe I’d have to go through the trauma of carrying to term knowing I wasn’t bringing a baby home,” said 27-year-old Lauren Hall. “I couldn’t do that.” Eleanor Klibanoff | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Sep 20, 2022
      1. … the law makes no exception for lethal fetal anomalies. Pregnant people are now required to just wait, endangering their own lives with no hope of ever bringing home a baby. Or, like Hall, they can shell out thousands of dollars to abruptly travel out of state while grieving a lost pregnancy. …
      2. MIKE: Republican Policy — Again, the cruelty is the point. Punishing women — married, single or otherwise — for having sex and getting pregnant. This policy has so many layers to it. Punishing unmarried women for getting pregnant. The religious suggestion of banning abortion so as to be fruitful and multiply, no matter what. Mind you, none of this happens without men, but as Nancy Pelosi has said, “There are those in the Republican Party that think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before. (9/14/2022)”.
      3. MIKE: And mind you, birth control is next on the agenda.
   5. Texas has banned more books than any other state, new report shows; Across the country, more books have been challenged and removed as religious and conservative groups target LGBTQ and race issues. Brian Lopez| TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Sep 19, 2022
      1. 1. … Texas banned more books from school libraries this past year than any other state in the nation, targeting titles centering on race, racism, abortion and LGBTQ representation and issues, according to a new analysis by PEN America, a nonprofit organization advocating for free speech. …
         2. MIKE: Texas — Where the official state slogan should be, “The Less You know …”
   6. Texas judge rules that people under felony indictment have the right to buy guns under the Second Amendment; A judge appointed by former President Donald Trump based his decision on a June U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down New York’s concealed carry law Jolie McCullough | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Sep 19, 2022
      1. S. District Judge David Counts, appointed by former President Donald Trump to Texas’ western federal district, found that a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling from June invalidates federal law which prohibits those charged with a felony from obtaining a gun. It was not immediately clear if the ruling would be appealed. … “The Second Amendment is not a ‘second class right,’” he ruled. “No longer can courts balance away a constitutional right.”
      2. MIKE: So, gun ownership is not a second class right, but voting for some classes of people is. That’s now the essence of many states’ laws.
   7. Judge dismisses attempt to discipline Texas AG Ken Paxton’s top aide for trying to overturn the 2020 election; The State Bar of Texas brought the complaint after the aide worked on a suit to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in four states. James Barragán | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Sep 20, 2022
      1. A district judge has thrown out the State Bar of Texas’ professional misconduct case against Brent Webster, Attorney General Ken Paxton’s top aide, for his work on a case that challenged the results of the 2020 presidential election.
      2. Judge John Youngblood, a judge in Milam County who was assigned to the case in Williamson County court, sided with an argument by Webster that said letting the case move forward would violate the state constitution’s separation of powers because the state bar, an agent of the judicial branch, would be limiting the actions of the attorney general’s office, which is part of the executive branch. …
      3. MIKE: Judge John Youngblood-(R) is a State district judge first appointed by Gov. Rick Perry (R) in July 2011. But of course, political persuasion shouldn’t matter here.
   8. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton tells court not to trust Biden in Trump records case; Several other Republican attorneys general joined Paxton in bashing the Biden administration, largely over previous policy decisions they disagreed with. Zach Despart| TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Sep 20, 2022
      1. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday attacked the Biden administration in a federal court brief as part of a case involving the seizure of records from former President Donald Trump’s home in Florida.
      2. Paxton, a Trump ally … argued [that] the government under President Joe Biden cannot be trusted to act appropriately in the case involving Trump. …
      3. … The attorneys general of Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, South Carolina, Utah and West Virginia joined the brief. … With the exception of Kentucky, each of those states had joined Paxton’s unsuccessful lawsuit last year seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
      4. Friend of the court, or amicus, briefs have no formal role in deciding cases; judges are free to heed or disregard their arguments as they wish. …
   9. REFERENCE: Why Ken Paxton’s supporters in the Texas attorney general race are unbothered by his mounting scandals; Paxton’s backers say they’re looking past the FBI investigation into Paxton and his felony indictment because he’s a a strong conservative advocate fighting the Biden administration. by Patrick Svitek |ORG | May 18, 2022, 12 PM Central
7. America’s Christian majority is on track to end; By Michael Levitt (Twitter) | NPR.ORG | September 17, 20227:26 AM ET
   1. … Christianity remains the majority religion in the United States, as it has been since the country’s founding, but it’s on the decline.
   2. A new study from the Pew Research Center shows that America’s Christian majority has been shrinking for years, and if recent trends continue, Christians could make up less than half the U.S. population within a few decades.
   3. The study found that Christians accounted for about 90% of the population 50 years ago, but as of 2020 that figure had slumped to about 64%.
   4. “If recent trends in switching [changing one’s religious affiliation] hold, we projected that Christians could make up between 35% and 46% of the U.S. population in 2070,” said Stephanie Kramer, the senior researcher who led the study.
   5. The study modeled four scenarios for how religious affiliation could change, and in every case it found a sharp drop in Christianity.
   6. … Kramer said there are some theories that could help explain this phenomenon.
   7. “Some scholars say that it’s just an inevitable consequence of development for societies to secularize. Once there are strong secular institutions, once people’s basic needs are met, there’s less need for religion,” Kramer said.
   8. “Other people point out that affiliation really started to drop in the ’90s. And it may not be a coincidence that this coincides with the rise of the religious right and more associations between Christianity and conservative political ideology.” …
   9. Alongside Christian numbers in the U.S. trending down, the Pew study also found that the percentage of people who identify as “religiously unaffiliated” is rising and could one day become a majority. …
   10. Importantly, Kramer said, “religiously unaffiliated” is not synonymous with atheist, as the term also includes those who identify as “agnostic,” “spiritual” or “nothing in particular.” …
   11. ANDREW: I disagree with the idea that societies inevitably secularize. Being nonreligious is not inherently more advanced or developed or intelligent than being religious. I find the theory of Christianity declining due to its increasing association with conservatism to be much more believable.
   12. MIKE: We always talk about the 1^st Amendment’s “Establishment Clause” as separating Church and State. That was perhaps a predictable framing for a couple of centuries, but I think we really need to re-frame the Establishment Clause as “Separation of Religion and State”.
   13. MIKE: I think this makes at least 2 very important distinctions. First, not every religion worships in a church; to state the obvious, there are Jewish synagogues (sometimes referred to as “shuls”), Muslim mosques, Buddhist/Sikh/Hindu temples, etc.
   14. MIKE: Second, the phrase “Church and State” already frames the question implicitly as separating Christianity from the State, and that’s not the 1^st Amendment’s intent. Its intent has been clearly defined as separating civil government from in any way favoring, promoting or establishing any particular religion. In other words, government should be religiously agnostic.
   15. MIKE: As I’ve remarked on this show before, the Framers were all born early in the 18^th The religious wars in Europe in the previous century would have stilled existed in living memory when they were born. They would remember, or their parents would have told them about, Europe’s decades of religious wars in the 17^th century.
   16. MIKE: I claim no great historical scholarship, but I do my research. The Founders were not of one belief in God or religion.
   17. MIKE: In the article I cite as a reference, it says of the founders in part, “The largest number were raised in the three largest Christian traditions of colonial America—Anglicanism (as in the cases of John Jay, George Washington, and Edward Rutledge), Presbyterianism (as in the cases of Richard Stockton and the Rev. John Witherspoon), and Congregationalism (as in the cases of John Adams and Samuel Adams). Other Protestant groups included the Society of Friends (Quakers), the Lutherans, and the Dutch Reformed. Three Founders—Charles Carroll and Daniel Carroll of Maryland and Thomas Fitzsimmons of Pennsylvania—were of Roman Catholic …”
   18. MIKE: Many of the founders were influenced by or followed a philosophy called “Deism”, which is partly described thusly: “… Deists argued that human experience and rationality—rather than religious dogma and mystery—determine the validity of human beliefs. …” and, “… Deistic thought was immensely popular in colleges from the middle of the 18th into the 19th century. Thus, it influenced many educated (as well as uneducated) males of the Revolutionary generation. …”
   19. MIKE: I’m certain that the Establishment clause was made part of the 1^st Amendment to the Constitution because as religiously and philosophically diverse as the Founders were, each realized that the State could marginalize or persecute any one of them at any time, depending on who was in power.
   20. MIKE: As creators of the first Constitutional democracy in recorded history, state-sponsored religious persecution was a repeating European problem that the Founders wanted very much to avoid.
   21. REFERENCE: The Founding Fathers, Deism, and Christianity, By David L. Holmes — COM
8. HIMARS rockets have been a ‘game changer’ in Ukraine, and the US Army is now looking for ways to build up to 500 more; By Michael Peck | BUSINESSINSIDER.COM | Sept. 12, 2022, 15 hours ago
   1. The US Army is looking for companies that can build up to 100 HIMARS multiple rocket launchers a year.
   2. The Army’s formal request for information comes as Ukraine uses its new US-supplied M142 High-Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems to conduct devastating strikes against Russian forces.
   3. What’s interesting is that the Army lays out a five-year schedule that calls for almost 500 new HIMARS, which are currently built by Lockheed Martin. … Whether those new HIMARS are actually built depends on funding, congressional politics, and changes in the international situation and military technology. …
   4. Adding 480 new launchers would almost double the world’s supply of HIMARS. The US Army has 363 and the Marine Corps another 47. The Army said in 2021 — before Russia attacked Ukraine — that it would seek to increase its force to 547 HIMARS. … Next to Ukraine, perhaps the most notable buyer would be Taiwan, which now plans to order 29 HIMARS. Taiwan originally planned to order just 11 HIMARS …
   5. But ramping up production of HIMARS wouldn’t be easy. COVID-19 and other supply-chain woes have created procurement backlogs across the civilian and military worlds. In the best of times, boosting manufacturing capacity for weapons is difficult — even expanding production lines for old-fashioned, unguided 155 mm howitzer shells can take more than a year.
   6. Manufacturers may be reluctant to invest for fear that changes in Pentagon priorities and congressional funding will stick them with unused capacity. Exports of HIMARS and other weapons to other nations are also hostage to an ever-fluid global politics and the US’s byzantine Foreign Military Sales process.
   7. Nonetheless, HIMARS appears likely to become a desired weapon. Given sufficient demand, the US defense industry will build more.
   8. MIKE: One of the reasons I included this story is to make again the point that procurement is not like turning a spigot on and off. Just like buying a new car to your order during the best of times can take weeks, buying weapons, spacecraft, computers or anything else relies on availability, and availability depends on predictable demand. Government planning may look ahead years, but unfortunately, government funding is only annual. Whether it’s meeting national security needs or meeting national goals, dependable planning requires dependable funding.
   9. ANDREW: You’re very right, Mike. I actually don’t oppose the ability of the US to defend itself and its allies, but I oppose the abuse of that goal to excuse the formation of a soft-power global empire. I consider a budget spent mostly on defense and the massing of weapons while working people, both at home and abroad, go hungry or houseless, to be a key part of that imperialist process, not to mention inhumane. I think as a start, cutting that HIMARS order down by 80-90% and stopping export of those weapons is both practical considering supply chain shortages[,] and frees up those funds for better, more humane use. Dependable funding requires reasonable planning.
9. Russia’s Putin announces partial military mobilization; Holly Ellyatt [@HollyEllyatt] | CNBC.COM | Published Wed, Sep 21 2022, 2:14 AM EDT, Updated 2 Min Ago
   1. … A partial mobilization is a hazy concept, but it could mean that Russian businesses and citizens have to contribute more to the war effort. Russia has not yet declared war on Ukraine …
   2. Putin confirmed that military reservists would be called-up into active service, but insisted a wider conscription of Russian men of fighting age was not taking place.
   3. [According to an AP translation, Putin said,] “… we are talking about partial mobilization, that is, only citizens who are currently in the reserve will be subject to conscription, and above all, those who served in the armed forces [and] have a certain military specialty and relevant experience. …” …
   4. In what was immediately greeted as an escalatory address, Putin also accused the West of engaging in nuclear blackmail against Russia and warned again that the country had “lots of weapons to reply” … — adding that he was not bluffing. …
   5. [A]fter Moscow-installed officials in occupied areas of Ukraine announced plans to stage immediate referenda on joining Russia … — set to take place in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia this weekend and with the results widely expected to be rigged in favor of joining Russia — [these votes] would enable the Kremlin to claim, albeit falsely, that it was “defending” its own territory and citizens …
   6. ANDREW: The Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic holding these referenda is disappointing to me but not illegitimate. But the inclusion of Kherson and (Zaporeezyuh) — places that as far as I know have never had significant separatist movements– finally provides proof positive that Russia is in this conflict to expand its territory, rather than fighting fascism, pushing NATO back, or any other defensible reason. Because I am who I am, I still hold out hope that de-escalation and peace talks are possible. I just hope that if Putin is given a diplomatic off-ramp, his ambition doesn’t blind him too much to take it.
   7. REFERENCE: Putin Is Cornered; The West faces a simple choice: reduce aid to Ukraine and deliver Russia a victory, or else finish the job it has begun. By Eliot A. Cohen | THEATLANTIC.COM | September 20, 2022, 11:45 AM ET — … Ukraine is waging modern, prolonged, industrial warfare of a kind not seen since World War II. Such wars are voracious consumers of all kinds of equipment and supplies. On some days the Russians have hurled 50,000 artillery shells at the Ukrainians, who have often lobbed as little as a tenth as many back. Yes, their guns now include superior Western models, but some of their suppliers produce fewer than 5,000 rounds a year. And yes, they are more accurate (some superaccurate, in fact), but as the Russian-military proverb has it, quantity has a quality all its own. …
10. Billions would die from starvation in nuclear war: research; by Saul Elbein | THEHILL.COM | 08/15/22 11:00 AM ET
    1. More than 5 billion would die from starvation in the event of a full-scale nuclear war between the United States and Russia …
    2. That’s the worst-case scenario in a Nature Food studypublished on Monday that examined the indirect death tollcaused as soot from burning cities and forests entered the atmosphere. …
    3. Even in the most limited nuclear war the team examined — a localized nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan — global food production dived by 7 percent from soot and ash from the explosions entering the atmosphere.
    4. That number is far smaller than the crop failures the model found for the U.S.-Russia case study. But it’s also bigger than any disturbance to world food supplies since the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization started tracking them. …
    5. MIKE: We discussed this just last week. IMHO, a small, limited nuclear exchange is the most likely — and perhaps ultimately inevitable — possibility. It’s really the one that should be most discussed and, to the degree possible, planned for.
    6. ANDREW: Any preparation for limited exchange would likely be useful in full-scale exchange too.
11. ‘Quantum Leap’ reboot brings a rare Asian American lead to network television; “The show is about jumping into other people and having an experience that is maybe different than yours.” By Max Gao | NBCNEWS.COM | Sept. 19, 2022, 12:49 PM CDT
    1. When Raymond Lee first received an offer to star in “Quantum Leap,” a sequel to the beloved sci-fi series that aired from 1989 to 1993, he thought the show’s producers had made a mistake. Instead of a supporting character, he was being asked to play the lead. … It’s a dream role for Lee, who remembers watching the original with his best friend in sixth grade. …
    2. That younger generations of Asian Americans will be able to see parts of themselves in his character is particularly meaningful to Lee, who grew up in an area of California with a significant Asian population but seldom felt represented in mainstream media. …
    3. While he tries to avoid thinking about the significance of this project when cameras are rolling, Lee reiterated that the responsibility of playing one of the few Asian American leads on television right now is not lost on him. Representation “does so much for not only this industry, but every industry — for anybody to see themselves being represented in a position of leadership and [as] a person who is actively going out and doing good and saving lives,” he said. …
    4. MIKE: I’m not going to do a review of the show (although I’ve watched it), but I excerpted some parts of this otherwise promotional article that resonated with me for many reasons.
    5. MIKE: As an atheist Jew, I represent at least 2 minorities. And I have one very specific memory from when I was very young — maybe 7-ish. I grew up in a neighborhood that was predominantly Jewish and Italian, and at 7, that was the extent of my world. We were watching “Lassie”, a popular TV show at the time, and in the episode, it was Sunday and the family was going to church. It dawned on my young mind that on various TV shows, they were always going to church. I turned to my parents and asked, “Why doesn’t anyone ever go to shul (synagogue)?”
    6. MIKE: That has always stuck with me, although I couldn’t tell you why.
    7. MIKE: Upon reflection many years later and in contemporary terms, I realized that I was basically saying that I didn’t see my experience represented in any of the TV shows I watched. And in this article, that’s what Raymond Lee is saying. So in a weird way, I ‘get’ that. And I get it when Black people say it, and when Hispanic people say it, and when Asians and many others say it.
    8. MIKE: On the flip side, consider people that DO see themselves represented, but not in a way that they recognize; in narrow or unfavorable or outright racist stereotypes. Not only does “Representation” matter, but the kind of representation matters. Even Whites who are regionally or politically stereotyped complain about it, and I can ‘get’ that.
    9. MIKE: As a society and as humans, we need to tell stories. But do heroes, villains, romantic characters, or questionable protagonists have to be stereotyped as any particular group or in any particular way? Usually, not.ANDREW: As a white, middle-class, atheist-raised-Christian, young adult man, I’m pretty well catered to in entertainment. About the only aspect of me I don’t see very often in mass media is my bisexuality. But on every other count, I’ve been catered to long enough. I want to see not only more diverse characters, I want at least some of the people writing those stories to have lived experiences with them. Listening to other people gives us perspectives we’d never otherwise get. Diversity benefits everyone, including those who have been catered to already.
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13. Forever Chemicals No More? PFAS Are Destroyed With New Technique; The harmful molecules are everywhere, but chemists have made progress in developing a method to break them down. By Carl Zimmer | NYTIMES.COM | Aug. 18, 2022
    1. 1. A team of scientists has found a cheap, effective way to destroy so-called forever chemicals …
       2. The chemicals — known as PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — are found in a spectrum of products and contaminate water and soil around the world. [They remain] dangerous for generations.
       3. … In a study, published Thursday [8/19] in the journal Science, a team of researchers rendered PFAS molecules harmless by mixing them with two inexpensive compounds at a low boil [MIKE: from elsewhere in the article, “between about 175 degrees to 250 degrees Fahrenheit”]. In a matter of hours, the PFAS molecules fell apart. …
       4. The new technique might provide a way to destroy PFAS chemicals once they’ve been pulled out of contaminated water or soil. But William Dichtel, a chemist at Northwestern University and a co-author of the study, said that a lot of effort lay ahead to make it work outside the confines of a lab. …
       5. A common method to get rid of this concentrated PFAS is to burn it. But some studies indicate that incineration fails to destroy all of the chemicals and lofts the surviving pollution into the air. …
       6. MIKE: This is an advance, for sure, but in the absence of a way to pull PFAS from the environment, it would rely on boiling water and soil in a chemical mix in order to “disassemble” PFAS into less noxious compounds. (The article doesn’t specify what these compounds are.)
       7. MIKE: So this is certainly an important step forward, but a way needs to be found to break down PFAS outside the lab. Perhaps this will be a small step in that direction.
       8. ANDREW: Reflects an important part of actions against environmental damage like pollution and climate change: fixing the damage that’s already happened. Stopping things getting worse definitely important, but not alone enough to dig us out. Any progress on environmental restoration is good news.

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