AUDIO:

POSSIBLE TOPICS: VOTETEXAS.GOV—Voter Information; City of Conroe creates urban forester position; Houston announces second gun buyback program for Oct. 8; Houston-area appraisal district known as HCAD changing its name in 2023; Texas AG Ken Paxton Quashes Subpoenas He Apparently Ran From on Monday; White House says it’s pushing to allow Puerto Rico fuel shipment; HURRICANES FIONA AND IAN, et al.: “Coming soon”: Lauren Boebert, MTG lead GOP celebrations over the rise of fascism in Europe; European leaders blame Russian ‘sabotage’ after Nord Stream explosions; MORE.

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 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
          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. 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. City of Conroe creates urban forester position; By Peyton MacKenzie | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 5:53 PM Sep 26, 2022 CDT, Updated 5:53 PM Sep 26, 2022 CDT
   1. On Aug. 25, Conroe City Council passed a new vegetation ordinance. The new ordinance includes amendments to the prior ordinance to include a longer list of allowed trees as well as a simplified process for administering permits. … [Conroe City Council has since] agreed to creating an urban forester position to carry out a recent vegetation ordinance … to benefit the city, as someone would be in charge of enforcing the ordinance …
   2. [T]he role will not need additional funds set aside for it due to an enforcement fund established within the new ordinance. [E]nforcement funds come from fines the city imposes on someone who violates the ordinance …
   3. The council said they would like to enforce the vegetation ordinances more heavily, which means no longer waiving fines for violations.
   4. MIKE: In an age of rising CO2 hot house gases and ongoing air pollution, having an Urban Forestry position sounds like an appealing and forward-looking idea. But I’m going to try to connect some dots here.
   5. MIKE: We have previously discussed articles on this show about communities like Montgomery and Conroe trying to prevent developers from shrinking residential lots to a more affordable and profitable size. One of the arguments City Councils have made against shrinking lots has been concerns expressed about fewer trees on the smaller lots after development, which would probably be the case. More structures per acre means less space for trees.
   6. MIKE: Now we have an Urban Forestry position in Conroe with stronger enforcement for violation of the vegetation ordinances. Would the effect be to fine developers for violating the vegetation ordinances by creating new, undersized lots without the socio-political implications of actually forbidding them?
   7. MIKE: Maybe I’m just cynical, but I’m also curious.
   8. ANDREW: That’s a very interesting theory, and certainly possible. But to counter your cynicism and take the new ordinance at face value for a moment, I like that Conroe is thinking about preserving plant life. I hope that the Urban Forester is empowered and inclined to not only make sure trees and other plants are present, but that they’re native species as well. Not letting developers just plop down the cheapest plants they can find will help promote biodiversity, reducing the chances of ecological disaster even if by a small amount
4. Houston announces second gun buyback program for Oct. 8; By Shawn Arrajj | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 4:43 PM Sep 26, 2022 CDT, Updated 4:43 PM Sep 26, 2022 CDT
   1. Leaders with the city of Houston, Harris County and the Houston Police Department announced plans for a second gun buyback event to take place Oct. 8, giving residents the chance to anonymously trade in guns they no longer want in exchange for gift cards. …
   2. The Oct. 8 event is scheduled to take place at the Westchase Park & Ride, 11050 Harwin Drive, Houston, between 8 a.m.-noon, though Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said the end time may be extended if the event again attracts large crowds. The city is boosting manpower and the number of car lanes in use for the event to accommodate more people. …
   3. Unlike the first event, the city will not provide gift cards for privately manufactured guns, which are also called “ghost guns” or [3D-printed] guns. Participants can turn those guns in, but they will not receive anything for them.
   4. The gun buyback event is part of Houston’s “One Safe Houston” plan to lower crime in the city. The city has dedicated $1 million in total to the gun buyback program, with funding coming from the federal American Rescue Plan Act. …
   5. At the Sept. 26 news conference, Turner said if the city has taken one gun off the street that would have later been stolen or used to kill someone, the initiative will have been worth it. …
   6. ANDREW: The mention of combatting crime compels me to point out that crime, specifically the murder rate, is rising around the country in both urban and rural areas at about the same rate, regardless of how “tough-on-crime” the local prosecutor is or how much money is spent on policing there. (My source is linked in the blog post for this episode at com.) Gun control and broken windows policing aren’t going to lower crime rates; policies that provide people’s basic needs so that they don’t feel the need or desire to commit crimes will. With all that said, I support gun buybacks specifically so that people who don’t want their guns anymore for whatever reason have a theoretically safe and publicly accountable place to get rid of them. I don’t know about not giving anything at all for homemade guns though; materials and labor went into that, and somebody might decide they’ll just keep their homemade gun– or worse, throw it in the trash– if they’re not going to recoup at least some of that cost.
5. Houston-area appraisal district known as HCAD changing its name in 2023; Board members voted to rename the Harris County Appraisal District as the Harris Central Appraisal District in order to distinguish the entity from county government. By Adam Zuvanich | HOUSTONPUBLICMEDIA.ORG | Posted on August 22, 2022, 8:10 AM (Last Updated: August 22, 2022, 4:56 PM)
   1. MIKE: The headline is self-explanatory and needs no more explanation. But the main details are that it will still be called HCAD and the website will still be org.
6. Texas AG Ken Paxton Quashes Subpoenas He Apparently Ran From on Monday; Texas’ Republican Attorney General says he ran because an unidentified strange man yelled, charged at him outside his home; a process server says he called the attorney general by name after leaving a business card. COM | Published September 27, 2022, Updated on September 27, 2022 at 4:11 pm
   1. Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton quashed a subpoena Tuesday that apparently caused him to run from his home Monday morning as a process server tried to deliver the documents that would have compelled him to testify in an abortion access case. …
   2. Tuesday morning, Federal Judge Robert Pitman granted a motion to quash the subpoena for Paxton’s testimony after the attorney general argued that the subpoenas had not been effectively served and neither of them was proper. In his filing, Paxton said none of the requisites for forcing him to testify had been satisfied and that as a high-ranking government official he was not subject to their subpoena. …
   3. Paxton was also granted a motion to seal two of the filings that contained his address, saying that public disclosure of the attorney general’s home address put his family at risk. The filings, which were also obtained by NBC 5, had been publicly accessible for several hours.
   4. Paxton was indicted in 2015 on state securities fraud charges but is yet to face trial amid long delays over where the felony case should be heard and payment for the special prosecutors. The FBI is investigating Paxton over allegations of corruption that eight of Paxton’s own deputies leveled at him two years ago.
   5. The Texas state bar has also brought a lawsuit seeking to discipline Paxton for allegedly misleading the U.S. Supreme Court in his suit seeking to challenge Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
   6. Paxton has broadly denied wrongdoing and remained popular among GOP voters. He faces Democratic challenger Rochelle Garza, a first-time candidate and former ACLU attorney, in the November election.
   7. Garza wrote on Twitter Tuesday. “Texans deserve an AG who will uphold the law, not run from it. — Rochelle Garza (@RochelleMGarza) September 27, 2022″
   8. MIKE: This reminded me of a line from “The Magnificent 7 (1960)”:
   9. Calvera [the Mexican bandito, as The Seven are about to leave the Mexican village]: You’ll do much better on the other side of the border. There you can steal cattle, hold up trains… all you have to face is sheriff, marshall. Once I rob a bank in Texas; your government get after me with a whole army… whole army! One little bank. Is clear the meaning: in Texas, only Texans can rob banks. (LINK)
   10. MIKE: By this logic, Ken Paxton must be a true Texan.
   11. ANDREW: Let’s acknowledge that for anyone else, there’s room to argue that being served a subpoena can be confusing. For Paxton, an alleged legal professional who should know what subpoenas are and how one is served them, there’s no excuse. I think he ran from the server, and used every loophole he could to wriggle out of the subpoena in court.
7. White House says it’s pushing to allow Puerto Rico fuel shipment; President Biden supports a waiver to allow the shipment, an official says, but the administration faces bureaucratic hurdles and political pressures. By Jeff Stein and Toluse Olorunnipa | WASHINGTONPOST.COM | September 28, 2022 at 5:00 a.m. EDT
   1. White House officials are pushing federal agencies to quickly approve a legal waiver allowing Puerto Rico to receive a shipment of diesel fuel that is being held off the island’s coast, according to a person familiar with the matter.
   2. As Puerto Rico reels from Hurricane Fiona and the administration faces continued blowback over the issue, President Biden is personally tracking the matter and supports granting the waiver, according to the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reflect private discussions.
   3. Biden faces a mounting clamor from Congress as well as Puerto Rican leaders to provide an exemption that would let the BP tanker carrying the fuel access to an island port. The ship cannot do so because of the Jones Act, a shipping law that requires goods shipped between points in the United States be carried on U.S.-flagged ships, in an effort to support U.S. shipping and labor.
   4. The ship, called GH Parks, is flagged to the Marshall Islands and departed from Texas.
   5. Administration officials say they have no legal authority to provide a blanket one-year waiver to the Jones Act, as a group of House Democrats demanded in a letter last week. Instead, White House aides are pushing the Homeland Security and Transportation departments to expedite a review that would allow them to grant a one-time exemption for this particular vessel.
   6. A spokesman for BP said a waiver request had been submitted last week. …
   7. Island advocates have emphasized that the administration granted a waiver to the Jones Act after a colonial pipeline ransomware attack led to outages in May, saying there is no reason a similar waiver could not be granted in this case. …
   8. To comply with federal law, the DHS secretary must ensure Jones Act waivers meet specific legal criteria before granting the reprieve. First, DHS must determine that waiving the Jones Act is necessary “in the interest of national defense,” though the law does not define the term. Second, the federal government must determine that no available domestic vessel could meet the same need as the foreign vessel requesting the waiver. …
   9. While the sight of a fuel tanker idling off the coast is infuriating to many on Puerto Rico and in Congress, the administration faces complex political crosscurrents. The American Maritime Partnership — a coalition that represents operators of U.S.-flagged vessels and unions covered by the Jones Act — said Monday that domestic ships were continuing to provide fuel to the island, making a waiver unnecessary.
   10. Officials from the group on Tuesday highlighted a radio interview by the executive director of the Puerto Rico Ports Authority in which he said there is enough diesel fuel on the island. Biden, who in the past has declared “unwavering support” for the Jones Act and pledged to be the most pro-union president in history, has won plaudits from labor leaders for defending the century-old law and the U.S. jobs it supports.
   11. Merchant Marine Act of 1920 (aka The Jones Act)— From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
       1. The Merchant Marine Act of 1920 is a United States federal statute that provides for the promotion and maintenance of the American merchant marine.^[1] Among other purposes, the law regulates maritime commerce in U.S. waters and between U.S. ports. … It requires that all goods transported by water between U.S. ports be carried on ships that have been constructed in the United States and that fly the U.S. flag, are owned by U.S. citizens, and are crewed by U.S. citizens and U.S. permanent residents.^[2][3] The act was introduced by Senator Wesley Jones. The law also defines certain seaman‘s rights. …
       2. 4.3 National security — One of the primary impetuses for the law was the situation that occurred during World War I when the belligerent countries withdrew their merchant fleets from commercial service to aid in the war effort. This left the US with insufficient vessels to conduct normal trade impacting the economy. Later when the U.S. joined the war there were insufficient vessels to transport war supplies, materials, and ultimately soldiers to Europe resulting in the creation of the United States Shipping Board. The U.S. engaged in a massive ship building effort including building concrete ships to make up for the lack of U.S. tonnage. The Jones Act was passed in order to prevent the U.S. from having insufficient maritime capacity in future wars.
   12. ANDREW: Both Puerto Rican officials and community members are indicating that the fuel is needed. But I agree that the Jones Act is important for labor and for maintaining supply lines. I think the one-time waiver for the GH Parks makes the most sense here and should be issued ASAP.
8. HURRICANES FIONA AND IAN, et al.:
   1. Fiona damage is widespread in eastern Canada; By Sydney Page | WASHINGTONPOST.COM | Updated September 25, 2022 at 3:08 p.m. EDT, Published September 25, 2022 at 2:56 p.m. EDT
   2. Thousands evacuate as Hurricane Ian nears Fla.; all of Cuba loses power; By Reis Thebault, Karin Brulliard, Scott Dance and Lori Rozsa. | WASHINGTONPOST.COM | Updated September 27, 2022 at 11:48 p.m. EDT, Published September 27, 2022 at 3:39 a.m. EDT
   3. Cuba suffers total electrical outage as Hurricane Ian roars through; By Matthew Hay Brown and Ana Vanessa Herrero. Updated September 27, 2022 at 11:38 p.m. EDT, Published September 27, 2022 at 10:40 p.m. EDT.
   4. “Hurricane Maria Never Finished Leaving Us”: The Aftermath of Fiona in a Puerto Rican Town; “You’re seeing the most dramatic display of inequality,” a Puerto Rican teacher and independence activist said, after Hurricane Fiona. “It hurts.” By Alana Casanova-Burgess | NEWYORKER.COM | September 27, 2022
   5. MIKE: This is turning into a cataclysmic hurricane season. Under normal circumstances, the US would probably offer aid to Canada. Possibly even Cuba, which I would favor under normal circumstances. But Florida is at risk of devastating damage and Puerto Rico is literally more than overdue for billions of dollars in aid and billions of dollars infrastructure assistance that the Trump regime never disbursed that Congress allocated.
   6. MIKE: In early 2019, I drove along I-10 to Florida and then down the Florida’s Turnpike. That took me along the coast through east Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and western Florida. The damage from hurricanes over those past several years was astonishing and still very visible. In some places, it looked like people and even States had given up on full recovery. Resources had just run out.
   7. MIKE: Areas of Houston and the surrounding area have been similarly affected by severe weather. How humans can better protect ourselves will be an ongoing challenge.
   8. ANDREW: The other obstacle to recovery from Hurricane Maria that Puerto Rico is facing is the federally-imposed Financial Control Board. The FCB is supposed to be getting Puerto Rico out of debt, but has chosen to try to accomplish that through major funding cuts to and privatization of public services, as well as reducing worker pay and benefits. These are all policies that will and are causing significant harm to the people of Puerto Rico. Disaster recovery is not just rebuilding destroyed structures, it’s also rebuilding lives, and austerity tears lives down in the name of repaying exploitative creditors. Not to mention many of these policies have been opposed by the people of Puerto Rico and the local government. All this adds up to a dire situation on the island that is only made worse with every global warming-intensified hurricane season. I would like to see some assistance offered to Canada and Cuba, but I agree that the federal government’s priority right now must be releasing the aid money Puerto Rico is due– not to the Financial Control Board, but to the Puerto Rican government directly. Rerouting a few billion dollars from defense spending into nationwide disaster recovery and preparedness should be next on the agenda.
9. “Coming soon”: Lauren Boebert, MTG lead GOP celebrations over the rise of fascism in Europe; “We need to bring that kind of conservatism to the United States,” said GOP Rep. Steve Scalise. By Jake Johnson | CommonDreams via SALON.COM | Published September 26, 2022, 2:30PM (EDT)
   1. As much of the world watched with alarm as the fascist Fratelli d’Italia party led a far-right coalition to victoryin Italy on Sunday, Republican lawmakers in the United States had a much different reaction: Open glee.
   2. Pointing happily to the far-right’s recent electoral surgein Sweden, U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., tweetedthat “the entire world is beginning to understand that the Woke Left does nothing but destroy.”
   3. “Nov. 8 is coming soon and the USA will fix our House and Senate!” added Boebert, a loyalist to former U.S. President Donald Trump. “Let freedom reign!”
   4. S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., a far-right ally of Boebert’s in the U.S. House, also applaudedSunday’s results, which position Fratelli d’Italia leader Giorgia Meloni to become Italy’s next prime minister even though her party won just around 25% of the vote in a low-turnout contest.
   5. “Congratulations to Giorgio Meloni and to the people of Italy,” Greene wrote on Twitter, misspelling the right-wing leader’s first name.
   6. In her post, Greene linked to a 2019 speechin which Meloni—who was a youth member of the fascist Italian Social Movement—railed against supposed attacks on “national identity” and “religious identity” and vowed to “defend God, country, and family.” …
   7. S. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., the House minority whip, saidin a Fox Newsappearance Sunday that “it’s interesting to see that Europe is leading the way by throwing out socialists with conservatives—and great bold conservative women like Meloni and [U.K. Prime Minister Liz] Truss.”
   8. “We need to bring that kind of conservatism to the United States,” Scalise added.
   9. S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, for his part, hailed as “spectacular” Meloni’s 2019 address to the World Congress of Families, a far-right Christian fundamentalist organization that campaigns against LGBTQ+ rightsglobally.
   10. Meloni is well-known to the right wing in the U.S., having spoken atthe Conservative Political Action Conference and met with former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, a far-right provocateur who has correctly described Meloni’s party—also known as Brothers of Italy—as “one of the old fascist parties.”
   11. “You put a reasonable face on right-wing populism, you get elected,” Bannon said of Meloni in an interview in 2018, a year in which Brothers of Italy garnered just 4% of the vote. …
   12. [Qasim Rashid, a human rights attorney, wroteon social media late Sunday,] “Hungary has a fascist leader. Sweden’s far-right party just won. And Italy has now elected a fascist leader. Eighty years after WW2, fascism is rising across Europe. And if Americans aren’t careful, the MAGA GOP will usher in that same fascism here. We cannot let that happen.”
   13. ANDREW: Fascism is taking root because center and center-left status quo politics have proven unresponsive to the needs of the working class. Efforts by the center to demonize the left have encouraged people who are going hungry and sick to reach to the right instead. The center needs to step back and accept that the only way to defeat repressive, hateful politics that benefit the rich is with policies that meet people’s needs, give them more freedom of choice, protect marginalized people, and focus on restoring dignity to working people. The center-left needs to look to the far-left for leadership here, because fascism won’t be beaten back by a promise to return to a “normal” that enables so much suffering.
   14. REFERENCE: Why Republicans are elated by ‘triumph’ of Italy’s Giorgia Meloni; US support for Italy’s likely next leader shows growing global solidarity among right-wing populists, experts say. By Ali Harb | ALJAZEERA.COM | Published On 27 Sep 2022, 27 Sep 2022
10. European leaders blame Russian ‘sabotage’ after Nord Stream explosions; By Meg Kelly, Michael Birnbaum and Mary Ilyushina| WASHINGTONPOST.COM | Updated September 27, 2022 at 4:53 p.m. EDT, Published September 27, 2022 at 6:37 a.m. EDT
    1. European leaders said Tuesday they believed dual explosions that damaged pipelines built to carry Russian natural gas to Europe were deliberate, and some officials blamed the Kremlin, suggesting the blasts were intended as a threat to the continent. The damage did not have an immediate impact on Europe’s energy supplies. Russia cut off flows earlier this month …
    2. [T]he episode is likely to mark a final end to the Nord Stream pipeline projects …
    3. “These are deliberate actions, not an accident,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen …
    4. The act “probably marks the next stage in the escalation of this situation in Ukraine,” [the Polish Prime Minister said]. …
    5. Russia denied responsibility for the damage. …
    6. Five European officials with direct knowledge of security discussions said there was a widespread assumption that Russia was behind the incident. Only Russia had the motivation, the submersible equipment and the capability, several of them said, though they cautioned that they did not yet have direct evidence of Russia’s involvement. …
    7. One official said it might have been a message to NATO: “We are close.” Another said that it could be a threat to other, non-Russian energy infrastructure, since so many pipelines crisscross the Baltic Sea, including the one inaugurated Tuesday. A third noted that crucial internet data cables lie along the bottom of the sea, and there have been long-standing concerns that Russia has a submersible program that could cut them, causing communications chaos around the world. …
    8. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that the United States was aware of unverified reports that the leaks may be the result of “an attack or some kind of sabotage.”
    9. “If it is confirmed, that’s clearly in no one’s interest,” he told reporters at the State Department. …
    10. MIKE: The story goes on from there. There’s also discussion of potential environmental damage due to methane acting as a very potent greenhouse gas.
    11. MIKE: Aside from an EU consensus that the leaks were caused by sabotage due to detection of explosions, it’s all speculation, but it’s interesting. This is like an episode of “Methane, She Wrote”. Who would really have a motive for this, and who, if anyone, might benefit?
    12. MIKE: The questions, as always, are means, motive, and opportunity. We might also add “risk of discovery of guilt”.
    13. MIKE: The Western assumption seems to be Russia. I add an “of course”. But this seems like an expensive signal for Russia to send without much self-benefit. The pipelines present a great expense in money and time, and all but ends any hope of gas sales from Russia eventually resuming, if at all.
    14. MIKE: Who else might benefit? Ukraine is a possible suspect — they might benefit from an even more urgent effort by the Western nations to replace Russian gas, but do they have or could they hire the resources, especially so far from home? Would they risk being discovered if it was them, and risk turning their allies against them?
    15. MIKE: The US has been strategically opposed to these pipelines since construction started in the 1970s. Could it be a US operation as a final nail in the coffin of strategically-disadvantageous Russian gas supplied to important allies? If we’re going to extend the net to its maximum, any large international gas consortium that wants Europe’s business could have a possible motive.
    16. MIKE: Answers will develop eventually, but I don’t think we should leap to conclusions.
    17. ANDREW: I agree with all of this. I’m surprised by that, but maybe I shouldn’t be– we’re Thinkwing Radio, meaning we’re supposed to think, which clearly nobody who’s decided it’s Russia with this little evidence has bothered to do. It’s their own pipeline – what, are they blowing it up for the insurance? Like you say, Mike, it’d be an expensive waste without much benefit, and it’d come back to bite them later. We can’t rule anything out, of course, but I find the idea that it’s a US operation– or a proxy op via one of our allies — much more plausible. Corporate sabotage is also possible, but not mutually exclusive with a US operation. We’ll just have to see what evidence turns up — assuming any does.
    18. REFERENCE: Vidkun Quisling — From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
        1. Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling (/ˈkwɪzlɪŋ/, Norwegian: [ˈvɪ̂dkʉn ˈkvɪ̂slɪŋ] (listen); 18 July 1887 – 24 October 1945) was a Norwegian military officer, politician and Nazi collaborator who nominally headed the government of Norway during the country’s occupation by Nazi Germany during World War II. In 1933, Quisling left the Farmers’ Party and founded the fascist Nasjonal Samling (National Union). Although he gained some popularity after his attacks on the political left, his party failed to win any seats in the Storting, and by 1940, it was still little more than peripheral. On 9 April 1940, with the German invasion of Norway in progress, he attempted to seize power in the world’s first radio-broadcast coup d’état but failed since the Germans refused to support his government. From 1942 to 1945, he served as Prime Minister of Norway and headed the Norwegian state administration jointly with the German civilian administrator, Josef Terboven. His pro-Nazi puppet government, known as the Quisling regime, was dominated by ministers from Nasjonal Samling. The collaborationist government participated in Germany’s Final Solution, a genocidal program targeting Jews.
        2. Quisling was put on trial during the legal purge in Norway after World War II. He was found guilty of charges including embezzlement, murder and high treason against the Norwegian state, and was sentenced to death. He was executed by firing squad at Akershus Fortress, Oslo, on 24 October 1945. …
11. 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. 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.
12.  

==========================================================

Remember!  When you donate to KPFT, your dollars pay for:

• Transmitter and equipment costs
• Programs like Thinkwing Radio, Politics Done Right, and other locally-generated political talk shows
• KPFT’s online streaming
• Maintaining a wide variety of music programs

Each time you turn on the radio, you can hear your dollars at work!

Make your contribution to this station right now. Just call 713 526 5738. That’s 713-526-5738. Or give online at KPFT.org!