AUDIO:

POSSIBLE TOPICS: VOTETEXAS.GOV—Voter Information; Jersey Village residents share feedback, hear updates on potential baseball stadium; Pearland City Council hires legal counsel and starts search for new city manager; City of Sugar Land wraps up 2019 bond-funded drainage projects; Harris County operating with slimmer budgets for law enforcement, flood control, hospital district after tax rate standoff; Advocates hope federal investigation brings fixes to Houston’s illegal dumping woes; Cruz: “Of course” Trump was wrong to call for terminating Constitution; GOP slowly begins to condemn Trump’s call to terminate Constitution, but many remain silent; Ukraine war: How Germany ended reliance on Russian gas; More

Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig (@ThinkwingRadio) is now on Wednesdays at 11AM (CT) on KPFTFM-HD2, Houston’s Community Station. You can also hear the show:

1. Live online at KPFT.ORG
2. Download with Google Podcasts, available from the Android and iPhone App Stores.
3. Or by visiting ARCHIVE.KPFT.ORG for previous version of this show and over 100 other KPFT programs.

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 NEW MAIL-IN BALLOT APPLICATIONS FOR 2023 AFTER JANUARY 1, 2023.
   
   1. You can track your Mail Ballot Activity from our website with the direct link provided here https://www.harrisvotes.com/Tracking
3. MIKE: Today we’ll be discussing stories about Jersey Village, Pearland, Sugar Land, Houston, Harris County, the nation and the world.
4. Jersey Village residents share feedback, hear updates on potential baseball stadium; By Danica Lloyd | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 5:37 PM Dec 6, 2022 CST, Updated 5:37 PM Dec 6, 2022 CST
   1. Jersey Village Mayor Bobby Warren fielded dozens of questions from residents 5 at a town hall meeting on the city’s Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone No. 2—the future site of a new City Hall building and mixed-use development slated to offer retail, restaurant, housing and entertainment options at Jones Road south of Hwy. 290.
   2. This spring, the city commissioned Convention Sports and Leisure International to conduct a study on the feasibility of a baseball stadium at this site. The firm recommended a 4,500-seat stadium based on the location and the surrounding area’s demographics. …
   3. At the Dec. 5 town hall meeting, residents expressed concerns with this proposal, including potential noise produced from the stadium, environmental hazards that may be present at the site and the chance the project would not be profitable. Warren responded to each of these.
   4. “I think people would be very impressed with the natural beauty that accompanies the development,” he said in response to a citizen’s concern about losing trees. “It definitely is going to be a lot better than if we had not bought this land and had that paved over with car lots for dealerships and warehouses.” …
   5. The city purchased 33 acres of land along Jones Road in 2018 for $8.2 million …
   6. [City Manager Austin Bleess] said the development’s potential to elevate the city’s retail, dining and entertainment offerings could also encourage redevelopment elsewhere in the 270-acre extraterritorial jurisdiction and increase the city’s tax base. …
   7. Council Member Sheri Sheppard said while residents may want to see something other than a baseball stadium at the site, she believes it makes sense based on the “challenge” the property presents.
   8. “Unfortunately, that piece of property on the other side [of Hwy. 290] presents a challenge because of the railroad, and it really is a barrier to the type of development that we all had hoped to have over there. Because of how it’s laid out and because of the railroad, you’re never going to have an H-E-B that’s going to want to come and develop that property,” Sheppard said. “So this is very much a way, because the railroad is not going to impact a stadium, … to spark that development and change the characteristic of that piece of property over there.”
   9. [You can watch] the full town hall meeting here.
   10. REFERENCE: Jersey Village baseball stadium feasibility study released — COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM
   11. REFERENCE: Village Center TIRZ — JERSEYVILLAGETX.COM
   12. MIKE: I’m somewhat familiar with this area. Putting a stadium of some sort on the south side of 290 makes some sense. Its uses would be relatively unaffected by passing trains, and it might even act as a sound barrier for much of the remaining section of the property. It will be interesting to see what Jersey Village ultimately does with this property and how things — pardon the pun — develop over the next few years.
   13. ANDREW: First, we’ve talked before about trees in new developments and how just having trees isn’t always good for the environment. They need to be long-lived species of trees that are native to that particular ecosystem, and I hope the city is going to make sure the developers do plant the right kind of trees.
   14. ANDREW: Second, I clicked through and read more of the article, and my main concern with the situation is the developers’ plan seeming to focus on “high-end multifamily housing”. Great for taxes as long as you can get people to move in, and I’m not saying there should be none of the more expensive kinds of housing in this development, but there’s always a need for affordable housing. It seems from the article like the city isn’t interested in offers to develop so-called “low-end” housing because they don’t think such projects would be as profitable for the city.
   15. ANDREW: While I understand the need for governments to remain financially solvent, they also have an obligation to satisfy current residents’ essential needs, and affordable housing is one such need that shouldn’t be eschewed in favor of trying to convince richer folks to move in. If I were a resident of Jersey Village, I’d be asking the council to make sure that the development does include a significant amount of affordable housing.
5. Pearland City Council hires legal counsel and starts search for new city manager; By Daniel Weeks | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 12:18 AM Dec 6, 2022 CST, Updated 1:04 AM Dec 6, 2022 CST
   10. The Pearland City Council authorized the hiring of legal counsel for potential litigation following a worksheet error that caused a $10.3 million deficit and began the process of hiring a new city manager. …
   11. Mayor Kevin Cole said the city is hiring legal counsel for the purpose of acquiring a “corrected worksheet,” referring to the sheet from Brazoria County that contained incorrect information regarding property values in Harris County, causing the city’s deficit.
   12. “The way the law is set up, if there’s a clerical error or any kind of an error in the [property tax value assessment] worksheet, you can’t fix it. So everybody knows it’s wrong, but there’s no fix,” Cole said.
   13. Cole said a corrected worksheet would allow the city to work with the correct values in the creation of next year’s budget. He said he could not comment further due to the potential for litigation. …
   14. MIKE: There’s more to this story and the mess they’re in, and I’ve linked to it in my blog post. I have no real comment here except that this is a story we’ve been following, so I thought we should update it.
6. City of Sugar Land wraps up 2019 bond-funded drainage projects; By Renee Farmer | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 10:32 AM Dec 6, 2022 CST, Updated 10:32 AM Dec 6, 2022 CST
   1. After 200 Sugar Land houses flooded during Hurricane Harvey in August 2017, drainage emerged as a top priority for the city, city officials said.
   2. Sugar Land voters approved a $90.76 million general obligation bond in November 2019, which included $47.6 million for drainage under Proposition A. Three years later, following a pandemic and rising construction costs, the city has checked four of 10 projects off the list.
   3. When the city was developing the bond, drainage stood out as a top-priority need, City Engineer Jessie Li said, with those areas that flooded during Harvey taking top priority.
   4. An additional concern arose over street ponding, which hindered emergency responders and people’s ability to travel. …
   5. Li said through the combination of resident input, the drainage study and modeling—prioritized by need and what the city could afford—the city decided on the 10 projects to pursue. …
   6. Since 2019, Li said the city has made “significant progress” on those drainage projects. Four of the 10 have been completed, and the city has made design progress on the remaining six. …
   7. MIKE: This is an example of a city getting the government they pay for, and government doing its job. A bond issue is floated for a vital infrastructure need so it can be built as soon as possible. The citizens then pay taxes to pay off the infrastructure bonds while benefitting from the infrastructure that would arrive much too late under a “pay as you go” plan. Kudos to Sugar Land.
7. And then there are the political games played by Republican Harris County commissioners:
8. Harris County operating with slimmer budgets for law enforcement, flood control, hospital district after tax rate standoff; By Rachel Carlton | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 2:22 PM Dec 5, 2022 CST, Updated 2:22 PM Dec 5, 2022 CST
   1. Headed into 2023, the new 4-1 Democratic majority on Harris County Commissioners Court will conduct county operations with a tighter budget than initially proposed after the two current Republican commissioners sat out tax rate votes, forcing the county to adopt four no-new-revenue tax rates.
   2. For six consecutive meetings in September and October, Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey and Precinct 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle refused to show. Their absences denied the court the four-member quorum necessary to hold a vote on a set of tax rates for the county’s general fund, the Harris County Flood Control District, the Port of Houston Authority and the hospital district—Harris Health System.
   3. Even after Cagle and Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia zeroed in on the same tax rate for the county’s general fund in their last-minute efforts to reach a deal, Ramsey and Cagle’s seats were empty Oct. 25 for the final opportunity to adopt proposed rates that were 1% lower overall than the previous year’s, according the Office of Management and Budget.
   4. As a result, the county reverted to the no-new-revenue rates, under which the county’s property tax revenue is capped to the same amount as the previous year plus revenue from new construction minus any increases in debt.
   5. With the combined overall rate of $0.53058 per $100 valuation, an owner of a home appraised at $300,000 eligible for the 20% homestead exemption will pay $101 less than if the proposed rate had been adopted. The difference between the proposed and adopted rates amounts to $94.2 million, $23.4 million and $135.7 million less in maintenance and operations revenue for the county’s general fund, the flood control district and Harris Health System, respectively, according to the budget office.
   6. “Just remember when your flood control project is downsized [and] when your hospital wait times get longer, you know who to thank for that,” County Judge Lina Hidalgo said Oct. 25.
   7. Ramsey and Cagle said in Oct. 25 statements they were proud to save county taxpayers collectively around $250 million in taxes. …
   8. Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, said commissioners court positions had historically been political in name only; from [Fiscal Years 2007 thru 2019], a 4-1 Republican majority held the tax rate flat at around $0.63 per $100 valuation.
   9. “We haven’t actually seen partisan politics come into play until the last couple of years where national politics has seeped into every pore of local politics,” Rottinghaus said.
   10. Once the Democrats gained the majority in 2019, they attempted to raise the county’s tax rate, leading to a quorum break by Cagle and then-Precinct 3 Commissioner Steve Radack and preventing the increase. The tax rate has been reduced each year since.
   11. While county’s budget growth is limited by Senate Bill 2—signed into law in June 2019 and requiring a city or county to hold an election if it proposes exceeding 3.5% more revenue than the previous fiscal year—as the court’s sole Republican in 2023, Ramsey cannot prevent the adoption of a higher tax rate next year.
   12. MIKE: The article is somewhat longer and goes into a lot more budgetary detail. There is one particular chart included in the story that is interesting. With a 4-to-1 Republican majority from 2008 to 2020, the tax rate was steady at 63¢/$100 of valuation. When the Democrats had a 3-to-2 majority, Cagle and Ramsey obstructed even the tax rate they had been fine with for 13 years, forcing it to drop to 53.1¢. That’s a reduction of almost 16% over the past 2 fiscal years. At a time when Harris County is still growing, that’s less money for flood mitigation; less money for new water and sewer infrastructure; less money for maintaining existing physical infrastructure; less money for new and existing law enforcement at a time when Republicans are making a lot of noise about crime rates; less money for County hospitals and clinics, etc.
   13. MIKE: There’s an argument to be made about adjusting tax rates in the face of rapidly inflating property values, but the goal here wasn’t even to maintain a steady revenue stream for the County. It was to embarrass Democrats by hampering their ability to provide services that Harris County citizens want and demand.
   14. MIKE: It’s the old Republican game of insisting that government do more with less, and then blaming Democrats for not being able to do that. Meanwhile, it’s the citizens of Harris County that suffer as human pawns in this political game.
   15. ANDREW: So what are we going to do about it? The next Commissioners’ Court should theoretically be able to raise the tax rate, which would properly fund city services for the year after next. But while we wait for that, streets are going to flood and people are going to get sicker and die waiting for hospital capacity. Sure, Republicans need to be kept at bay in the next election. But the electoral system is not able to respond to the harm being done today. We can’t rely on governments for everything; community organizing is going to have to fill the gaps.
   16. ANDREW: My advice to our listeners is to do some research to see if there are any volunteer disaster response groups, medical support groups, and general mutual aid groups in your area. If there are, take some interest in them, whether you join them or just keep up to date on what they’re doing, and let your neighbors know about them as well. If there aren’t any groups like that, consider starting some. Talk to your neighbors to ask if they would be interested and learn what skills they might have, and contact some existing groups outside of your area to get an idea of how to start helping yourself and your community when governments can’t or won’t.
   17. ANDREW: I believe that governments have a responsibility to provide for and protect the people who live under them, but I also believe that those same people need to prepare their own alternatives for the very real chance that, like now, someone in government abandons that responsibility– or never believed in it in the first place.
9. Advocates hope federal investigation brings fixes to Houston’s illegal dumping woes; By Shawn Arrajj | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 8:00 AM Dec 3, 2022 CST, Updated 9:17 AM Dec 3, 2022 CST
   1. The neighborhood in Houston’s Trinity Gardens—found in northeast Houston just outside of Loop 610—looked cleaner than it ever had.
   2. It was late July, several days after the U.S. Department of Justice announced it was opening an investigation into the city of Houston over its illegal dumping practices, namely alleged discrepancies in how quickly the city responds to dumping complaints in white neighborhoods compared to neighborhoods such as Trinity Gardens that are largely home to people of color.
   3. Prior to the investigation, representatives with Lone Star Legal Aid—a Houston nonprofit that provides pro-bono legal services to low-income individuals—have alleged illegal-dumping complaints in Trinity Gardens were often ignored or given low priority by the city of Houston, resulting in piles of trash left in vacant lots or on the side of the road for multiple months at a time, claims officials with the city of Houston have strongly denied.
   4. Although there was a clear improvement after the investigation was announced, dump sites soon returned to the Trinity Gardens community, said Amy Dinn, managing attorney with Lone Star’s environmental justice team. …
   5. The alleged quick regression epitomized the challenges the city faces in trying to combat illegal dumping, a priority focus during budget discussions that took place earlier this year for Houston’s Solid Waste Department. Meanwhile, residents in communities illegal dumpers target have been dealing with the fallout, including rodents, eyesores and drainage problems. Since the DOJ announced the investigation, Houston has made additional investments into its Solid Waste Department, one of several city entities that can identify and remove illegal dump sites. However, city officials said properly addressing the problem will likely require more funding. …
   6. Data shows the issue being most concentrated in northeast and southeast Houston, but multiple calls were also made regarding Independence Heights, Montrose and Northside communities. …
   7. District H Council Member Karla Cisneros, who represents the area, funded the installation of security cameras several years ago, and advocates have also met with Houston’s Department of Neighborhoods to work on the issue, but the problem has persisted …
   8. Mardie Paige, president of the Independence Heights Super Neighborhood, said she wanted to see the city take a more staggered approach to patrolling known dump sites, coming at different times of the day and night so violators know they could be caught at any time.
   9. In the long-range plan for the Solid Waste Department released in 2021, officials attributed illegal dumping to several causes, including residents not knowing how to properly dispose of waste and challenges with enforcement. …
   10. The Department of Justice’s investigation, which is ongoing, involves examining the city’s response to illegal dumping to detect possible discrepancies that would indicate discrimination against Black and Latino residents.
   11. Illegal dumping is a public health issue, said Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, in a news release.
   12. “Illegal dumpsites not only attract rodents, mosquitoes and other vermin that pose health risks, but they can also contaminate surface water and impact proper drainage, making areas more susceptible to flooding,” she said. …
   13. In response to the DOJ announcement, [Houston’s Mayor] Turner said in a news release the investigation was “absurd, baseless and without merit.”
   14. “The city follows up on 311 complaints about illegal dumping and aggressively pursues those responsible for illegally discarding debris on public or private property without the owner’s consent,” Turner said. …
   15. At its Aug. 16 meeting, Houston City Council approved $2.9 million for the “emergency purchase” of bulk waste collection services for the months of August and October. The move followed up on warnings issued by the solid waste department in May that staffing shortages combined with an anticipated 43% increase in bulk waste volume during summer months would result in “severe delays” and “compromise the health, safety and community aesthetics citywide.”
   16. Several months later, at its Oct. 4 meeting, the council approved just over $319,000 to purchase 10 security trailer camera systems. The cameras are being used in the northeast and southeast areas of the city to provide 24/7 surveillance in rights of way and vacant lots where illegal dumping has been a consistent problem. At the May budget workshop, [Mark Wilfalk, executive director of the Solid Waste Department,] said having a code enforcement team within the Solid Waste Department could also help.
   17. [Amy Dinn, managing attorney with Lone Star Legal Aid’s environmental justice team] said she was glad to see more investments were being made and that she is hopeful the investigation will bring solutions.
   18. “Finances are always a problem, but it’s more than that,” she said. “It takes a mindset for them to actually enforce enough that people are deterred from continuing to dump in areas. That’s what I’m hopeful for.”
   19. MIKE: When I read that District H Council Member Karla Cisneros funded installation of security cameras several years ago, and that the City has also invested in video monitoring, that seemed like a good idea that doesn’t appear to have helped. The question is, why?
   20. MIKE: Are the cameras not being monitored? Are they not recording images of the sites for later review? Are they adequate for high resolution in low-light circumstances that would better-enable identification of perpetrators?
   21. MIKE: I don’t know the answers to these questions, but an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Investment in more prompt response to complaints of illegal dumping is important but in the long run, enforcement and prevention would be better.
   22. ANDREW: I have no doubt that some of the problem comes from people simply not caring about the communities they leave trash in or caring enough about the environment to properly dispose of trash. But I think the potential for ignorance rather than malice driving the illegal dumping problem shouldn’t be overlooked.
   23. ANDREW: I think it’s a very common issue for people to need to get rid of something and go to their local government website looking for instructions on how to dispose of it, only to find confusing or incomplete lists of what trash and recycling will and won’t take– or worse, no information at all.
   24. ANDREW: I think investing in clearly communicating what kinds of materials can be placed at people’s curbs, where people can take things that can’t be picked up, and having a phone number and an online text chat to contact with more specific questions could be a good start to reducing the amount of illegal dumping as a last resort. Having more large waste recycling/processing centers around the city could also reduce the hassle hurdle to properly disposing of waste materials, and therefore further reduce illegal dumping.
10. Cruz: “Of course” Trump was wrong to call for terminating Constitution; U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz condemned the comment by the former president, but he also said that reporters were overblowing the story and should instead “focus on what matters.” Sen. John Cornyn called the move “irresponsible” on Monday. by Matthew Choi | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Dec. 6, 2022, 11 hours ago
    1. S. Sen. Ted Cruz denounced former President Donald Trump for suggesting a “termination” of the Constitution in order to overturn the 2020 election, while also framing the comment as an over-sensationalized distraction. The Texas Republican offered his remarks three days after Trump’s initial comment and after prodding from reporters.
    2. “Oh listen, of course what he said was wrong,” Cruz told Nexstar on Tuesday. “But I also think the media is engaged in a feeding frenzy. I’ve never seen reporters so excited as to run up to every Republican and say, ‘Please, please, please attack Donald Trump.’”
    3. Cruz, a self-identified constitutionalist who prides himself on having memorized the Constitution as a youth, made the comment after Trump called in a Truth Social post Saturday for “the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution” in order to rehash the 2020 election. …
    4. S. Sen. John Cornyn … called Trump’s remarks “irresponsible.” Cornyn added the Truth Social post could harm Trump’s chances of becoming the Republican presidential nominee in 2024.
    5. ANDREW: I hope it does harm Trump’s chances of winning the Republican nomination, but I doubt it will. Cruz’s comments are an attempt to normalize Trump and his beliefs despite offering the most mild criticism, and Cruz is trying to do this because he knows Trumpists are the dominant faction in the Republican Party. If Trump’s proto-fascism can be normalized, more moderates can be convinced to vote Republican… and vote for Cruz.
11. GOP slowly begins to condemn Trump’s call to terminate Constitution, but many remain silent; By Clare Foran, Manu Raju and Ted Barrett | CNN |Published 5:58 PM EST, Mon December 5, 2022
    1. Republicans returned to Washington on Monday facing a familiar drama that has played out continually in the Trump years: GOP members forced to confront a controversy that they would rather ignore.
    2. After days of silence over former President Donald Trump’s [Saturday] call to terminate the Constitution, several top Republicans have now condemned the comment. But even among those speaking out, few have said it should disqualify Trump from running again for the White House, while many more Hill Republicans have so far remained silent on the issue.
    3. And in a sign of how reluctant most Republicans are to wade into the latest Trump-driven controversy, most were quiet until pressed by reporters for comment after returning to the Capitol on Monday.
    4. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Senate Republican, told CNN that he disagrees with Trump’s post on his social network Truth Social calling for the “termination of all rules, regulations and articles, even those in the Constitution” to nullify the 2020 election results.
    5. “I swear an oath to uphold the Constitution and it is a bedrock principle – it is the principle, the bedrock of our of our country,” Thune said. “I couldn’t disagree more.” …
    6. Many congressional Republicans, however, have not yet weighed in on Trump’s comments, even as a growing number are now starting to react critically.
    7. House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy has been silent on the remarks, while Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell said that he will address Trump’s Constitution comments on Tuesday at his weekly news conference following the regularly scheduled Senate policy lunches.
    8. GOP Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia called Trump’s comments “ridiculous,” while retiring GOP Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri dismissed them, saying, “I was standing 10 feet from him when he took the oath of office and there was no emergency clause not to follow the Constitution.”
    9. GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska tweeted on Sunday, “Suggesting the termination of the Constitution is not only a betrayal of our Oath of Office, it’s an affront to our Republic.” Murkowski was one of seven Republican senators who joined with Democrats in voting to convict Trump at the conclusion of his second impeachment trial.
    10. And Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota said in a statement posted to Twitter responding to the former president’s comments, “Anyone who desires to lead our country must commit to protecting the Constitution. They should not threaten to terminate it.”
    11. But even among GOP critics, few are going so far as to say the remarks should prevent Trump from running again for the White House.
    12. Thune stopped short when asked if it disqualifies him from being president again, saying instead it will become fodder for any candidate who decides to challenge him. …
    13. REFERENCE: Trump’s Call for ‘Termination’ of Constitution Draws Rebukes; Republicans were still cautious — or silent entirely — about shunning the former president-turned-2024 candidate. — NYTIMES.COM
    14. MIKE: This is a serious crisis for the Republican Party and the United States. Elected officials have sworn to protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. For the officials who took two days or more to even publicly comment, to spout such mealy-mouthed, half-hearted remarks about the reputed leader of their party, a past president of the United States and a declared candidate for same … These officials, and the party they represent, have sacrificed any legitimate claim to the right to governance.
    15. MIKE: The appropriate response, certainly by Monday, would have been along the lines of, “That’s appalling, especially from a past president of the United States! He should immediately withdraw his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president, and resign from the party or be expelled.”
    16. MIKE: That would have been the appropriate response, but the Republican Party is years, if not decades, beyond appropriate.
    17. ANDREW: It looks like Ted Cruz isn’t the only Republican trying to normalize Republican proto-fascism for reelection’s sake. But even the Republicans who aren’t trying to pretend that nothing is wrong with the party aren’t willing to actually oppose it, because they too can see which way the wind is blowing. It’s cowardice, plain and simple.
12. Ukraine war: How Germany ended reliance on Russian gas; By Jenny Hill | BBC News | Published 23 November
    1. When Vladimir Putin switched off the gas taps to Europe, Germany more than most feared a winter of blackouts. Ministers scrambled to secure alternative supplies, painfully aware that a heavy dependence on Russian gas had left this industrial nation woefully exposed.
    2. But fast forward a few months and, as lights sparkle in the Christmas markets, there is a sense of tentative optimism in the Glühwein spiced air. Germany’s hastily assembled strategy to manage without Russian gas appears – for now – to be working.
    3. “Energy security for this winter is guaranteed,” the Chancellor Olaf Scholz told MPs in the German parliament on Wednesday morning.
    4. Not only are the country’s gas stores full; the result, in part, of a frantic – and expensive – buying operation on the world’s markets.
    5. But, up on Germany’s windswept North Sea coast, engineers have just finished building – in record time – the country’s very first import terminal for liquified natural gas (LNG).
    6. LNG is natural gas which is cooled to liquid form to reduce its volume and make easier to transport. It’s then converted back to gas form upon reaching its destination.
    7. Germany is rightly notorious for its ponderous bureaucracy; this kind of project would normally take years, but the authorities slashed away at red tape to enable completion in under 200 days. …
    8. [W]ithin weeks, tankers from countries like the US, Norway or the Emirates could deliver their cargoes here to the port of Wilhelmshaven. … And five other LNG terminals are planned. Most should be completed next year. …
    9. Just a year ago [Russia] provided Germany with 60% of its gas … Today, according to the federal energy network agency, Germany’s managing without Russian gas. But, to avoid shortages over the winter, its experts say LNG terminals must come online at the start of next year and that gas consumption must be reduced by 20%.
    10. Just getting to this point may be considered a huge national achievement. But it comes at a cost.
    11. Germany’s an economic heavyweight; what it wants, it often gets. Its new-found appetite for liquified natural gas is intensifying global demand.
    12. And that may place other, poorer countries, like Bangladesh and Pakistan, in a vulnerable position. …
    13. That … leaves them prone to blackouts and may also increase their reliance on “dirtier” fossil fuels like coal. …
    14. And what of Germany’s own ambitions for a greener future? LNG is, after all, a fossil fuel.
    15. Everyone involved in the Wilhelmshaven project are quick to insist that LNG is a “transitional” fuel. …
    16. [Germany] learned too late the value of a secure energy supply. It’s paying for it now.
    17. MIKE: I’ve talked frequently about how the world is in a wartime economy, and many people still scoff at me. But this story is about exactly that. Projects of this sort don’t get approved, funded, and built in record time other than in wartime. The increased cost of food, and especially of energy, is because higher energy costs raise the cost of everything.
    18. MIKE: And then of course, there’s corporate greed, using real price inflation as an opportunity to raise their own prices and profit margins over and above their own cost increases. In a wartime economy, this amounts to war profiteering. It’s the equivalent of price gouging for survival supplies after a natural disaster, and it should be viewed and addressed in that way.
    19. MIKE: The United States is in wartime even though we don’t have soldiers in the fight. It’s just like the US was in WW2 long before we were attacked at Pearl Harbor. The war between Russia and Ukraine is effectively a world war between Russia and most of the rest of the Northern Hemisphere countries, with neutral and poorer Southern Hemisphere countries caught in the economic crossfire.
    20. ANDREW: I would comment that the US and many of our geopolitical allies have been in a wartime economy for decades now. It’s the reason recent administrations have declared abstract wars– wars on terror, or on crime, or on drugs. Not only to manufacture public consent for drastic and draconian government policy, but to justify increased government spending, and to push for increased consumer spending in return. The fact is, war is good for business (that’s Rule of Acquisition #34). As I see it, the invasion of Ukraine is another conflict in the forever war that has gripped our entire world for decades.
    21. ANDREW: As for the situation in Germany, I understand that sometimes the only solutions to a problem are imperfect ones, and that in such situations the obligation is to minimize harm rather than avoid it entirely. But I think there is another obligation: to learn how you got here, and why all the solutions are imperfect. In this case, it goes back to the concentration of wealth in the global north. Germany, like most European nations and many post-colonial nations, made its money by extracting wealth from the global south. But people still live there, and those people still have needs, they just don’t have the capital (in money or in influence) to meet those needs as easily. So Germany meeting its needs means others can’t meet theirs.
    22. ANDREW: And because Germany focused centuries ago on expanding its territory and power (again, like most European nations), they neglected their ability to satisfy many of their own needs, in this case fuel, and relied on other nations to meet those needs for Germany. Now that focus on grabbing power over building stability — and a lack of leadership willing to course-correct — is coming back to bite them. Something to learn from.

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

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!