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POSSIBLE TOPICS: VOTETEXAS.GOV—Voter Information; State, local election officials target mail-in ballot rejections in Cy-Fair; Republican Harris County Commissioner Jack Cagle proposes solution to budget, tax rate impasse; Texas A&M’s early voting location was popular during general elections before it was moved off campus; Gov. Greg Abbott acknowledges New York City mayor’s office reached out about migrant busing efforts; Biden administration scales back student debt relief for millions amid legal concerns; CPAC backpedals on pro-Russia tweet as some U.S. conservatives back Putin; How Liz Truss Did So Much Damage in So Few Days; 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:

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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.

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. State, local election officials target mail-in ballot rejections in Cy-Fair; By Rachel Carlton, Emily Lincke, Wesley Gardner, Danica Lloyd | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 2:45 PM Oct 4, 2022 CDT, Updated 2:45 PM Oct 4, 2022 CDT
   1. Ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm election, state officials and Harris County election leaders are hoping to lower the rates of rejected mail-in ballots, which spiked compared to previous years during primary elections held in March and May.
   2. The increased rejection rates were seen in elections held six to eight months after Senate Bill 1 added new voting requirements to Texas elections. The number of mail-in ballots rejected in Harris County skyrocketed following the passage of SB 1 in September 2021, jumping from 135 mail-in ballot rejections during the Nov. 6, 2018, midterm election to about 6,900 rejected ballots in the March 1 primary election, according to Harris County Elections Administrator’s Office
   3. Leah Shah, the director of communications and voter outreach for the Harris County elections administrator’s office, said the “historic rate” of mail-in ballot rejections was a big challenge for the county during the March and May primaries.
   4. “There are new requirements under the law that require different information, including Texas ID or Social Security,” Shah said. “We found that a lot of people who were filling the forms out both for the application and the return ballot were missing those required fields, and that created a kind of a domino effect of rejections.”
   5. Statewide, 24,636 mail-in ballots were rejected in the March 1 primary election—roughly 12.4% of all mail-in ballots submitted, according to state data. According to a 2021 S. Election Assistance Commission report, Texas rejected roughly 8,300, or about 0.8%, of the nearly 1 million mail-in ballots cast in the 2020 presidential election.
   6. Although mail-in ballot rejections surged in March, in the two elections held since then, the number of rejected mail-in ballots declined, according to state data. …
   7. Sam Taylor, assistant secretary of state for communications, said he believes the decline in mail-in ballot rejection rates from March to May can be attributed to voters adjusting to the voting changes.
   8. However, Taylor said the addition of reconciliation reports—which require counties to compare the number of voters who cast valid ballots with the number of votes counted by their tabulation system—has added a new layer of transparency. …
   9. While the state and Harris County saw decreases in mail-in ballot rejections from March’s primary election to elections held in May, Renee Cross, senior director of the Hobby School of Public Affairs at the University of Houston, said she believes the effect of SB 1 might not be completely visible until the November election. …
   10. To be eligible to vote by mail in Texas, state law dictates an individual must be age 65 or older, sick or disabled, out of the country, expected to give birth or confined to jail but otherwise eligible to vote. …
   11. Under SB 1, voters are required to provide a partial Social Security number or driver’s license number on their mail-in ballot applications to receive ballots. Once voters receive their ballots, they must include the same numbers used on their applications for the ballots to be counted.
   12. Shah said even though the final number of mail-in ballot rejection rates was 19.2% for the March primary, the percentage of ballots flagged for rejection before being corrected was close to 90%. This meant added time and labor for county workers to help voters correct their ballots. …
   13. While the privacy flap is required by law, Taylor said after hearing feedback from counties that the ID portion of the ballot was being missed by voters, the state adjusted the ballot’s design ahead of the November election. Changes include an added red outline to the ID portion of the ballot so it would be more noticeable. …
   14. In preparation for Nov. 8, [Leah Shah, the director of communications and voter outreach for the Harris County elections administrator’s office] said Harris County officials have launched an educational campaign and community outreach programs to educate voters. The county also added informational inserts to ballots to remind voters to fill out required fields and updated its voting resource website. Shah noted Harris County also has a call center staffed with dozens of people who can answer voters’ questions ahead of November. …
   15. MIKE: Before my excerpts, the article itself was longer and more detailed about confusion and obstacles mail-in voters may encounter. Clarifying graphics are also included. I strongly suggest going to ThinkwingRadio.com and clicking on this article link to read the whole thing.
   16. ANDREW: The increase in rejections isn’t really the question here. The bill was designed to tighten verification, so more ballots are naturally going to be rejected. The question is, are these new verification measures fair, or are they designed to suppress the amount of people legitimately exercising their right to vote? That may seem like a distinction without a difference, but if this were a courtroom, Republicans would give that exact defense if the number of rejections was brought up as the problem. Stories like these (or excerpts of them) should focus more on concrete cases of mail-in voters being unfairly rejected, because Republicans would have a lot harder time defending against that.
   17. REFERENCE: Here’s what residents in the Bellaire, Meyerland, West University areas need to know ahead of Nov. 8 midterm elections | COM | Oct 4, 2022
   18. REFERENCE: Here’s what residents in the Heights, River Oaks, Montrose areas need to know ahead of Nov. 8 midterm elections | COM | Oct 4, 2022
   19. REFERENCE: Here’s what Brazoria, Galveston county residents need to know ahead of Nov. 8 midterm elections | COM | Oct 4, 2022
4. Republican Harris County Commissioner Jack Cagle proposes solution to budget, tax rate impasse; Precinct 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle said his plan would fully fund law enforcement, health care and flood control while saving taxpayers $108 million. Author: Cory McCord (KHOU), Adam Bennett | KHOU.COM | Published: 6:09 PM CDT October 4, 2022, Updated: 6:29 PM CDT October 4, 2022
   1. … Cagle and Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey, also a Republican, skipped the last two meetings, blocking a vote on the new budget and tax rate. Without them present, there weren’t enough commissioners to legally move forward. Four of the five commissioners must be present to meet quorum. …
   2. [County Judge Lina] Hidalgo said hiring freezes and fewer hospital services could happen soon. …
   3. Last weekend, Hidalgo accused the two GOP members of playing politics and threatening funding to key departments.
   4. Cagle and Ramsey previously accused Hidalgo of using scare tactics and telling the public false information about Harris County hospitals’ financial situation. …
   5. MIKE: When Republicans speak of doing stuff better and cheaper, let’s see what FDR had to say about those sorts of promises:
   6. REFERENCE, FDR QUOTE: “Let me warn you and let me warn the Nation against the smooth evasion which says, “Of course we believe all these things; we believe in social security; we believe in work for the unemployed; we believe in saving homes. Cross our hearts and hope to die, we believe in all these things; but we do not like the way the present Administration is doing them. Just turn them over to us. We will do all of them – we will do more of them – we will do them better; and, most important of all, the doing of them will not cost anybody anything.” ~ Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Opening of the 1936 Presidential Campaign ([The Opening of the 1936 Presidential Campaign -“Never Has a Nation Made Greater Strides in the Safeguarding of Democracy.” Address Delivered at Democratic State Convention, Syracuse, N. Y. September 29, 1936. VIDEO CLIP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3RHnKYNvx8
   7. MIKE: Words to remember. Words to live by.
   8. ANDREW: As you often say, Mike, “trying to do more with less eventually means trying to do everything with nothing.” Article says Cagle wants to discuss all proposals before having to vote on them. Hidalgo is willing, as long as Cagle sends his proposal in so the Court can look it over before discussing it. If Cagle wanted to move forward, he’d do this in time. If he doesn’t, he’s just trying to create a political crisis that Republicans will try to pin on Democrats at election time.
5. Texas A&M’s early voting location was popular during general elections before it was moved off campus; The Brazos County commissioner who represents the precinct where the university is located cited low turnout as a partial reason for relocating the polling location. by Alex Nguyen | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Oct. 4, 2022, 10 hours ago
   1. When Brazos County officials removed an early voting location off Texas A&M University’s campus — a decision that spurred accusations of student voter suppression — at least one county commissioner cited poor voter turnout as a partial reason for the relocation.
   2. But data shows it was one of the county’s most popular early voting sites in recent general elections.
   3. Commissioner Nancy Berry, who oversees the precinct that includes A&M, mentioned turnout at the Memorial Student Center as a supporting factor in moving the polling location to College Station City Hall for November’s midterms, according to College Station’s newspaper, The Eagle. And she similarly told the Houston Chronicle the location traditionally had “second-to-last in voter turnout” of the five early voting locations — something that Kristina Samuel, an A&M senior and president of voter engagement group MOVE Texas A&M, said she was also told.
   4. According to Brazos County in-person voting data reviewed by The Texas Tribune, the MSC had the county’s second-highest number of early voters in the 2018 and 2020 general elections. The county’s data shows that the MSC received 56,439 early voting ballots in 2018. The number fell during the pandemic in 2020 to 14,717 early votes, but this was in line with dips at all other polling locations in the county.
   5. When asked about these figures, Berry told the Tribune that what she meant by turnout was the amount of voters compared to the number of people who attend the school. She said the concentration of people on campus should have brought more early voters to the polling location.
   6. “When you think of 70,000 people that are right there and then you have another [120,000] that are spread throughout the county, and that’s not the highest voting site, even though you have that high population of people,” she said. “That was the point that it was a lower turnout number relative to the rest of the county.”
   7. But Patrick Flavin, a political science professor at Baylor University, said the high number of people who cast ballots on campus in the previous general elections should justify using it again. [Commissioner] Berry had stated that she would be in favor of bringing the MSC back for early voting next year. …
   8. “I hope all the students get registered and come vote,” Berry said. “It was a mistake and we’re trying to do the best we can to correct it within the means that we have possible.”
   9. MIKE: This kind of BS makes me so angry. Elections have consequences, and the stakes for 2023’s elections will be much, much lower. But I’m sure it was an honest mistake. *Invisible radio eyeroll*
   10. MIKE: It’s often tiresomely said that “this election is the most important in our history”, and they’ve probably been saying that since at least 1964. And you know what? Cumulatively, they were right when they said it, because each conservative Republican president left a mark that has brought us to where we are now.
   11. ANDREW: This is exactly the right way to cover voter suppression stories. Hard facts that force backpedaling out of people who try to justify voter suppression, whether it’s the result of poor decision making or conscious attempts at election meddling, which voter suppression is a form of. Of course they should bring the campus polling station back. There’s no good reason not to have polling stations on college campuses– even if students don’t use them, local residents will, because many campuses are centrally-located.
6. Greg Abbott acknowledges New York City mayor’s office reached out about migrant busing efforts; Abbott previously said Eric Adams’ office had not reached out to him about coordinating migrant arrivals in New York City and faced criticism that he was rebuffing efforts from the mayor to communicate. By Alejandro Serrano | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Oct. 4, 2022, 9 hours ago.
   1. Greg Abbott on Tuesday acknowledged New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ office sent an email that was apparently a follow-up to a conversation seeking greater coordination of Texas’ plans to bus migrants to the city — but the governor stressed that the mayor himself had not made direct contact.
   2. It was the latest in a back and forth between the two leaders who have been publicly feuding over Abbott’s efforts to bus thousands of migrants to cities run by Democratic mayors.
   3. Last month, Adams said in an interview at The Texas Tribune Festival that Abbott’s office has rebuffed their efforts to coordinate the migrants’ arrival and treatment, and is merely using the migrants as “political props” without any intention of helping them. …
   4. Abbott was again asked about whether he was rejecting efforts to coordinate with the cities on Friday during a debate with Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke … He again responded that Adams had not called his office.
   5. That comment prompted Adams’ office to release on Twitter a redacted email dated Aug. 1^st — four days before the first bus of migrants reached New York — that mayoral press secretary Fabien Levy said showed [that]someone from the mayor’s office had reached out to someone from Abbott’s office.
   6. On Tuesday, Abbott stressed that Adams himself had not reached out.
   7. “Let me be clear about it. First, the question as I recall was ‘Has the mayor ever talked to me about it or his administration,’” Abbott said Tuesday in Houston after a roundtable with Port Houston Chair Ric Campo and leaders of the energy industry. “Neither the mayor nor his administration has talked to me. From all the records that we have, from the time that we began the busing until today, there’s been no level of contact whatsoever. There was an email that was found that was sent from the office of the mayor of New York City before the busing operation began, but I am unaware of any contact — but the point that I made most clearly was the mayor himself has done nothing to reach out.”
   8. MIKE: Note that this is Abbott trying to parse himself out of, if not a lie, then at least a half truth. Sure, all politicians do that from time to time, but maybe we should give Abbott some credit: At least it’s not an outright lie. He did say some actual whoppers during the debate.
   9. ANDREW: No, we shouldn’t give him any credit. We should hammer every conspicuous silence, every half-truth, every outright lie until voters finally realize this man is out for nobody but himself, and he only tells the truth when it benefits him. Sure, a lot of his voters are the same way, but I refuse to believe most Texans are. If Abbott wanted the busing to be a legitimate option for new arrivals to the US, he’d have reached out to Eric Adams and the New York state government well before he announced the plan to make sure that the plan was handled as humanely and accessibly as possible. He didn’t because he doesn’t care one damn bit about those people.
   10. MIKE: Maybe we should talk about whose responsibility it is to call out lies of fact during a debate.
7. Biden administration scales back student debt relief for millions amid legal concerns; Education Department says that a subset of federal student loans owned by private lenders no longer qualify for relief. By Michael Stratford | politico.com | 09/29/2022 12:54 PM EDT, Updated: 09/29/2022 06:09 PM EDT
   1. The Biden administration is scaling back its debt relief program for millions of Americans over concerns about legal challenges from the student loan industry as well as a new lawsuit from Republican-led states.
   2. In a reversal, the Education Department said on Thursday it would no longer allow borrowers who have federal student loans that are owned by private entities to qualify for the relief program. The administration had previously said those borrowers would have a path to receive up to $10,000 or $20,000 of loan forgiveness.
   3. The policy change comes as the Biden administration this week faces its first major legal challenges to the loan forgiveness program, which Republicans have railed against as an illegal use of executive power that is too costly for taxpayers.
   4. On Thursday, a group of six GOP attorneys general sued to block loan forgiveness. The states of Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Carolina asked a federal judge to strike down the debt cancellation program, arguing that it’s illegal and
   5. The student loans that are guaranteed by the federal government but held by private entities account for a relatively small, and shrinking, subset of all outstanding federal student debt. They comprise just several million of the roughly 45 million Americans with federal student loans.
   6. But there are significant business interests that depend on the federally guaranteed loan program — a wide range of private lenders, banks, guaranty agencies, loan servicers and investors. That industry is widely seen, both inside and outside the administration, as presenting the greatest legal risk to the debt relief program. …
   7. MIKE: Note that “… six GOP attorneys general sued to block loan forgiveness.” That’s because Republicans hate their citizens, except insofar as they can manipulate them and get their votes. At least as long as votes still matter.
   8. MIKE: Amazingly, Texas is not on that list of states. Yet.
   9. ANDREW: I think this is a perfect example of why Democrats should get wild with policy. Republicans are going to fight what Democrats do no matter what, so why hedge? If the student debt package had also made all college free, paid for by massive taxes on the rich, Republicans would be fighting that. Nobody would be paying attention to privately-held federal student loans, or at least there would be enough of a distraction to get some of those loans forgiven. Politics is compromise, but compromising from a reasonable position nets nothing. You start by asking for way more than you need, and agree down to what you really want.
8. CPAC backpedals on pro-Russia tweet as some U.S. conservatives back Putin; The prominent conservative group decried ‘gift-giving to Ukraine’ while adopting Putin’s view of ‘Ukraine-occupied territories’. By Isaac Arnsdorf | WASHINGTONPOST.COM | Updated October 1, 2022 at 8:53 p.m. EDT, Published October 1, 2022 at 8:04 p.m. EDT
   1. Prominent Republicans are digging in against American support for Ukraine despite Russia’s threats to use nuclear weapons and evidence of mass graves and war crimes facilitated by Moscow.
   2. The Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday tweeted — and then hours later deleted — a message that called on Democrats to “end the gift-giving to Ukraine” while featuring a fluttering Russian flag. The tweet also referred to “Ukraine-occupied territories,” appearing to legitimize Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claims to annex provinces based on a referendum that the U.S. and allies view as illegal.
   3. CPAC chairman Matt Schlapp on Saturday said the tweet did not clear the normal approval process because he was traveling for a conference in Australia. … [he texted.] …
   4. In a statement, CPAC expressed support for Ukraine but maintained opposition to American aid for the embattled country. “We must oppose Putin, but American taxpayers should not be shouldering the vast majority of the cost,” the statement said.
   5. CPAC has repeatedly flirted with pro-Putin views in recent years, including hosting Hungary’s pro-Russia prime minister, Victor Orban, at a Dallas conference in August.
   6. CPAC is not alone among American conservatives in opposing Ukrainian aid despite Putin’s invasion. Fox News host Tucker Carlson has alleged U.S. sabotage for leaks in a Russian gas pipeline to Europe, baseless claims that have earned him airtime on Russian state television. Former president Donald Trump also posted a message on his Truth Social platform offering himself as a negotiator for the conflict.
   7. At a Trump rally in Michigan on Saturday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) reiterated her opposition to U.S. aid to Ukraine and said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should negotiate a peace settlement with Russia.
   8. “We have so many problems here at home, I cannot even think about sending our money over to fund a proxy war with Russia,” she said in an interview. “Zelensky doesn’t run the United States government. He is not our president, but for some reason Joe Biden bends over every single time. … The American people don’t care about that war over there.” …
   9. MIKE: As Andrew and I discussed last week (in an article cited below), “quisling” is a noun taken from a proper name. It comes from “a Norwegian military officer … and Nazi collaborator who nominally headed the government of Norway during the country’s occupation by Nazi Germany during World War II.” (Full citation below.)
   10. MIKE: What Republicans have demonstrated this past week — if you hadn’t noticed previously — is that many of them are quislings and quislings-in-waiting. They literally cheered a victory by an Italian party that literally is descended from Mussolini’s Fascists. This is because, whether they realize it or not, they are wannabe Fascists; and whether they know it or not doesn’t matter.
   11. MIKE: Many folks are confused by why the previously vociferous anti-Soviet Republicans have become pro-Putin cheerleaders and water carriers. I reached a conclusion on this question years ago and discussed it on this very show. I haven’t read this anywhere else before or since, probably because it would be a very contentious thing to say.
   12. MIKE: So many Republicans are now pro-Putin, Italy’s pro-neo-fascist Meloni, France’s pro-fascist Marine Le Pen, Hungary’s pro-fascist Orban, etc. is because the Soviets were officially promoting atheism. Putin, Meloni, Le Pen, Orban, and other ultra-rightwingers in Europe are basically Christian nationalists, as are many Republicans. If China’s Xi Jinping suddenly advocated Christianity, they’d probably overnight become pro-Xi.
   13. MIKE: I agree with very little of what might be called moderate Conservatism, but these Republicans are not Conservatives; they’re reactionary extremists. They are vipers at the chest of Constitutional America. January 6^th was the viper’s taste test. If we don’t vote these people out of our government over the next 2 years, we may not have another chance.
   14. MIKE: Those of you who have followed me for a while know I’m not prone to hyperbole. This is not hyperbole.
   15. ANDREW: Some people might be tempted to draw parallels between conservative support for Putin and the left’s advocacy for peace talks and moderation in the US’ military response to the invasion of Ukraine. I don’t see them as equatable at all. US conservatives are backing Putin because he is also a conservative. He is a capitalist, and as Mike said, Christian nationalist, and his ruling party has turned Russia into a capitalist, Christian nationalist state. It’s a political play for them– if they support Russia now, they can have one less opponent on the world stage when they try to turn the US into the same kind of state. Left-wing peace advocacy and criticism of US involvement is intended to bring about the fairest resolution possible as quickly as possible, thereby saving the most amount of lives possible– and doesn’t try to justify Russia’s invasion of uncontested Ukrainian territory. As with many cases, the difference here between left and right is the left is trying to save lives, while the right is trying to control them.
   16. 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
   17. REFERENCE: “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)
   18. REFERENCE: Vidkun Quisling — From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: 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. 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. …
9. How Liz Truss Did So Much Damage in So Few Days; By Paul Krugman, Opinion Columnist | NYTIMES.COM | Oct. 3, 2022. Paul Krugman joined The New York Times in 2000 as an Op-Ed columnist. He is distinguished professor in the Graduate Center Economics Ph.D. program and distinguished scholar at the Luxembourg Income Study Center at the City University of New York. In addition, he is professor emeritus at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.
   1. Liz Truss, who became Britain’s prime minister less than a month ago, may have set a political speed record. She certainly isn’t the first leader who has been forced to make a policy U-turn in the face of adverse market reactions. But announcing an economic program and then abandoning its central plank just 10 days later is something special.
   2. And those of us on the center-left can, I think, be forgiven for feeling a bit of schadenfreude. Conservatives constantly warn that progressive policies will be punished by the “bond vigilantes,” who, they claim, will drive up interest rates at the prospect of any increase in public spending. Such warnings usually are proved wrong. In Britain, however, the bond vigilantes actually did make an appearance: Interest rates shot up after the Truss government announced its economic plans. But the market wasn’t reacting to excessive spending; it was reacting to irresponsible tax cuts. …
   3. How big a tax cut did Truss propose? She and her officials announced their policy without a budget score, which contributed to the market’s loss of confidence. … And the particular tax cut that was just abandoned, a reduction in the top tax rate, was only part of that total.
   4. So why was the market reaction so fierce? Partly because Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng, the chancellor of the Exchequer, justified their moves with the much discredited claim that reducing top tax rates would provide a huge boost to economic growth. This raised doubts about their competence and, indeed, their connection to reality; …
   5. MIKE: I also recollect that the claim was made that the proposed tax cut would eventually pay for itself in 5 years, but I don’t remember which article cited that.
   6. MIKE: The point is that there is actually a name for the economic policy that Truss and Kwarteng proposed: It’s called “Reaganomics”. There’s also a name for the economic theory that they based their assumptions on, although they may not have done this intentionally: It’s called the “Laffer Curve”. No, really. That’s what it’s called. It was funny even at the time, and not just because the theory was so crazy.
   7. MIKE: These theories have been tried out in the real world in the US, and they resoundingly did not work. So of course, a new generation of conservatives are determined to try them again.
   8. MIKE: Reaganomics — From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: … The pillars of Reagan’s economic policy included increasing defense spending, balancing the federal budget and slowing the growth of government spending, reducing the federal income tax and capital gains tax, reducing government regulation, and tightening the money supply in order to reduce inflation.^[6]
   9. The results of Reaganomics are still debated. Supporters point to the end of stagflation, stronger GDP growth, and an entrepreneurial revolution in the decades that followed.^[7][8] Critics point to the widening income gap, what they described as an atmosphere of greed, reduced economic mobility, and the national debt tripling in eight years which ultimately reversed the post-World War II trend of a shrinking national debt as percentage of GDP.^[9][10] …
   10. In his 1980 campaign speeches, Reagan presented his economic proposals as a return to the free enterprise principles, free market economy that had been in favor before the Great Depression and FDR’s New Deal At the same time he attracted a following from the supply-side economics movement, which formed in opposition to Keynesian demand-stimulus economics. This movement produced some of the strongest supporters for Reagan’s policies during his term in office.
   11. The contention of the proponents, that the tax rate cuts would more than cover any increases in federal debt, was influenced by a theoretical taxation model based on the elasticity of tax rates, known as the Laffer curve. …
   12. MIKE: The Laffer Curve — From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: In economics, the Laffer curve [, named after Economist Arthur Laffer,] illustrates a theoretical relationship between rates of taxation and the resulting levels of the government’s tax revenue. …
   13. One implication of the Laffer curve is that increasing tax rates beyond a certain point is counter-productive for raising further tax revenue. In the United States, conservatives have used the Laffer curve to argue that lower taxes may increase tax revenue. … A 2012 poll of leading economists found none agreed, 71% disagreed, 31% were either uncertain, had no opinion or did not answer that reducing the US federal income tax rate would result in higher annual tax revenue within five years. …
   14. MIKE: So, this is more evidence that history doesn’t repeat itself but it rhymes. The rhyme is stronger when people are ignorant of history or are actively in denial of cause-and-effect that’s been proven by history
   15. ANDREW: By far the best part for me is the most recent election polling. Politico’s Poll of Polls says that as of October 2nd, 48% of respondents were considering voting Labour, and just 26% were considering voting Conservative. Some people are predicting that if an election were held now, the Conservatives would lose all but a handful of seats in Parliament– and excitingly for me, the Greens would pick up a second seat! I don’t expect that to take effect any time soon, as legislation back in March gave the power to call elections exclusively back to the Prime Minister, and if Truss doesn’t do that, it’ll be another two years and two months before the next mandatory election. But hopefully this is a sign of how the rest of Truss’ term will play out: boneheaded moves, and impending Conservative losses.
   16. ADDITIONAL REFERENCE: UK Scraps Tax Cut For Wealthy That Sparked Market Turmoil; Treasury chief Kwasi Kwarteng announced a U-turn over an unfunded tax cut unveiled just days ago that proved unpopular even with his Conservative Party. By Jill Lawless | HUFFPOST.COM | Oct 3, 2022, 06:26 AM EDT
10. 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.
    9. REFERENCE: Why getting PFAS out of our products is so hard — and why it matters; By Bella Isaacs-Thomas | PBS.ORG, Science | Updated on Sep 29, 2022 9:10 AM EDT — Published on Sep 28, 2022 5:01 PM EDT

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