AUDIO:

POSSIBLE TOPICS: VOTETEXAS.GOV—Voter Information; REGISTER TO VOTE; APPLY FOR MAIL-IN BALLOT; How America Took Out The Nord Stream Pipeline (CODA); “Y’all tryna take our community”: Parents share their outrage during first public meeting over Houston ISD takeover; Harris County commissioners approve $7.4M for jail staff bonuses, body cameras; California Gov. Newsom announces new vision for San Quentin State Prison: ‘We have failed for too long’ You have the right to a lawyer, but public defenders note a lack of resources, respect; Rand Paul calls for DA Alvin Bragg to be jailed for ‘disgusting abuse of power’ in Trump probe; EU agrees to send Ukraine one million artillery shells; Putin says Russia will “respond accordingly” if Ukraine gets depleted uranium shells from U.K., claiming they have “nuclear component”;More.

Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig (@ThinkwingRadio) is now on Wednesdays at 11AM (CT) on KPFT FM-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.

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

1. Make sure you are registered to vote! VoteTexas.GOV – Texas Voter Information
   1. It;s time to snail-mail (no emails or faxes) in your application for mail-ballots, IF you qualify TEXAS SoS VOTE-BY-MAIL BALLOT APPLICATION (ALL TEXAS COUNTIES) HarrisVotes.com­ – Countywide Voting Centers, (Election Information Line (713) 755-6965), Harris County Clerk
   2. 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.
   
   1. You can track your Mail Ballot Activity from our website with direct link provided here https://www.harrisvotes.com/Tracking
3. MIKE: Before we begin, I just want to add a thought on a story we discussed on last week’s show: How America Took Out The Nord Stream Pipeline. Whoever blew the pipeline, it’s worth noting that only 3 out of 4 pipelines were sabotaged. I’m betting that the fourth pipeline had a charge that didn’t detonate, and that it’s either still there or has been removed to hide evidence.
4. “Y’all tryna take our community”: Parents share their outrage during first public meeting over Houston ISD takeover; The Texas Education Agency announced on March 15 that it would replace the current superintendent and its democratically elected school board with a new board of managers as soon as June 1. by Brian Lopez | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | March 21, 2023, 4 hours ago
   1. Houston community members were irate Tuesday night as state education officials tried to explain the process of taking over their school district. State officials did not take questions about the effects such a move could have on Houston Independent School District, which is the largest in Texas, but did try to recruit community members to replace the existing school board. …
   2. It was the first meeting that the state agency held in Houston since it announced on March 15 that it would replace the district’s current superintendent, Millard House II, and its democratically elected school board with its own “board of managers” in response to years of underperforming schools, mainly Phillis Wheatley High School.
   3. The high school received a failing accountability grade from the agency for five years in a row. It reached that threshold in 2019, but a court injunction had delayed any action from the TEA until this year. TEA Commissioner Mike Morath has said a Texas law passed in 2015 mandates that he either close the failing campus or appoint a new board of managers, effectively taking over the whole district.
   4. MIKE: This is another classic example of Republicans being all for local government until they’re in control of State government. But there’s another example of this mentality that had especially dire consequences.
   5. MIKE: Michigan has Emergency Manager Law, where the State can take over local elected governments that are being fiscally “mismanaged”. The governor was empowered to appoint his or her own “emergency managers” to run a city or town. At the time I learned about this, I called it the closest thing to a Fascist State in the United States. Oddly, the communities where this was done happened to be largely minority majority municipalities. In Flint, Michigan, the appointment of a so-called emergency manager was directly responsible for the Flint water crisis, which is still ongoing in some respects.
   6. ANDREW: This takeover is absolutely in line with Republican strategy around the country. Look for opportunities to seize power locally, and then use that seizure of power to enable the same strategy at higher levels. If there aren’t any opportunities, make them; usually by blowing a small issue out of proportion so that there’s an excuse for a Republican-dominated authority to step in. The TEA is acting here not as an independent regulator, but as an arm of the Texas Republican Party, and that should greatly disturb everyone in the state.
   7. REFERENCE: [Michigan] Emergency Manager Law — GOV
   8. REFERENCE: Does Michigan still have an emergency manager law? Yes. “For the City of Detroit, the state legislature passed a separate law forming a financial review commission to exercise financial check on city government as it exited bankruptcy and emergency management. As of June 27, 2018, there are no Emergency Managers in Michigan for the first time since 2000.” — Detroit News, 2018
5. Harris County commissioners approve $7.4M for jail staff bonuses, body cameras; By Emily Lincke | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM| 4:24 PM Mar 17, 2023 CDT, Updated 4:24 PM Mar 17, 2023 CDT
   1. Employee retention bonuses and new body cameras for detention officers are key components of the $7.4 million initiative approved by Harris County commissioners March 14 to improve jail operations.
   2. What they’re saying: “Given the [county’s] existing $6 million deficit [and] the projected long-term deficit … I don’t think it’s particularly a financially responsible decision to make to fund these programs, but I think it’s a matter of life or death,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo
   3. The details: The $7.4 million package—to be funded by the county’s general fund and American Rescue Plan Act money—was approved unanimously by the court and will pay for: $2,000 retention incentives for all detention officers at a total cost of about $3 million; The purchase of new body cameras, which will include a panic button, to be worn by detention officers; The creation of new leadership positions for the jail, such as jail population specialists and a director of health care quality assurance; and The hiring of a third-party expert to improve retention efforts for the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.
   4. “We hope this helps convince some [employees] to stay around longer to stabilize our workforce until the commissioner’s court is able to implement more significant pay raises that we all agree are needed,” Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez …
   5. The full story: Harris County’s jail has been found out of compliance by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards for 14 out of the last 20 years, Gonzalez said. Twenty-seven inmate deaths were reported in 2022.
   6. The future: On March 14, commissioners also heard a presentation from Harris County Public Health on needs at the jail, such as: Expanded virtual care for cardiology and neurology, which will be implemented this month; Adding a mobile computed tomography scan unit, which is to be implemented this fall; New facilities such as a medical unit—which would include almost 200 patient beds—a central clinic and a dental clinic, which will be considered in the fiscal year 2024 budget cycle; and Funding for more medical officers and additional substance use help, which will be considered in the FY 2024 budget cycle.
   7. MIKE: I had several reactions to this story.
   8. MIKE: My first impression from this story was, “Wow! This is a really positive development!” My second impression was, “The money will have to come from somewhere, unless the State legislature keeps kneecapping local taxing authorities.” My third impression was, “With a Republican commissioner on the court, this was unanimous?!” My fourth impression was, “How bad do conditions have to be to “found out of compliance by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards”?!
   9. MIKE: We did a show in July 2019 about the Norwegian penal system (reference link below this story). Norway is exemplary in their rehabilitation of convicted felons, and they demonstrate this with an uncommonly low recidivism rate. Harris County and Texas have a looong way to go to even approach the results that Norway gets in rehabilitating prisoners, but I hope this is some kind of start.
   10. MIKE: On that note, there’s a related story from California. On that note, we’ll be discussing a related story from California after Andrew gives his thoughts. Andrew?
   11. ANDREW: I’m not nearly as excited as you, Mike. None of the things funded with this 7.4 million dollars are guaranteed to improve prisoners’ lives, which should be the priority when talking about prison funding. The body cameras might reduce unreasonable force by prison guards if they can’t be turned off, and the new positions could easily turn into nothing but convenient scapegoats for higher officials. Hell, half the money went to bonuses for guards, who are part of the problem.
   12. ANDREW: That funding should have gone to HCPH’s recommendations first, because improved medical care and addiction treatment will actually help prisoners. The next priority should be air conditioning, which is essential for life in Texas, yet most prisons don’t have.
   13. MIKE: I’m sorry if I impressed you as being excited. More like mildly pleased under the circumstances. The bonuses are for personnel retention, which is always a problem. The body cams are hopefully to protect both inmates and guards. The other positions they’re creating are meant to be helpful to both prisoners and guards, and perhaps will be. I won’t minimize the awful conditions of prisons and jails generally, but money has to come from somewhere to pay for improvements, and the desire has to be there to make This is at least an effort to start.
   14. MIKE: Further, the recommendations by the Harris County Public Health weren’t ignored or rejected. They were only just heard about a week ago.
   15. ANDREW: The recommendations were heard on the same day the funding package passed. Although, I suppose just because the recommendations were made, doesn’t mean they were ready to be voted on right away. I see your point, so I’ll modify my statement: I would rather have seen this spending held for the medical improvements and other prisoner quality-of-life upgrades once a package can be proposed. Addressing prisoners’ needs would lead to reduced discontent, which if not enough on its own, would make the jobs of the prison guards easier and help guard retention rates.
   16. MIKE: As far as providing things like AC, decent medical care, etc., I agree. But if you wait to do it all, you’ll end up with none.
   17. REFERENCE: Item 9 — THINKWING RADIO SHOW (2019-7-8): How Norway turns criminals into good neighbours; BBC.COM | 7 July 2019
6. California Gov. Newsom announces new vision for San Quentin State Prison: ‘We have failed for too long’ [says Newsom]; “We want to be the preeminent restorative justice facility in the world.” By Meredith Deliso | ABCNEWS.GO.COM | March 17, 2023, 4:27 PM
   1. California’s oldest state prison will get overhauled into a “one-of-a-kind” correctional institution that borrows rehabilitation practices from places such as Norway, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said.
   2. Under the proposed $20 million plan, San Quentin State Prison will be transformed from a maximum-security prison into one focused on rehabilitation and education to improve public safety and reduce recidivism rates in the state, Newsom said. More immediately, it would also be renamed San Quentin Rehabilitation Center.
   3. Newsom visited the prison, located in Marin County on a peninsula north of the Golden Gate Bridge, Friday afternoon to announce the plan, which he said he hopes becomes a model for the nation and world.
   4. “We want to be the preeminent restorative justice facility in the world,” Newsom told reporters.
   5. Officials highlighted high rates of recidivism in California — two-thirds of people incarcerated in the state will return to prison within three years of their release, according to state Department of Corrections figures. …
   6. An advisory group made up of criminal justice, rehabilitation and public safety experts will advise the state on the transformation. Formerly incarcerated individuals, representatives of crime victims and survivors — a “critical” part of this process, Newsom said — will also be among the members. …
   7. The San Quentin plan is the latest in the Democratic governor’s efforts to reform the state’s prison system, which have included ending the state’s use of private for-profit prisons and placing a moratorium on executions in the state.
   8. San Quentin’s death row unit, the nation’s largest, is being shut down and all condemned inmates moved to other prisons. Both the existing condemned row housing unit and a Prison Industry Authority warehouse “will be transformed into a center for innovation focused on education, rehabilitation and breaking cycles of crime,” Newsom’s office said.
   9. The model in Norway — known for its low recidivism rates and emphasis on humanity in the prison system — has inspired practices in other facilities in California’s state prison system, as well as in North Dakota, Oregon and Pennsylvania.
   10. The Anti-Recidivism Coalition, an advocacy group that works to end mass incarceration, called California’s plan a “massive move towards rehabilitation.”
   11. The governor’s plan has faced some pushback from state lawmakers over what the changes mean for victims and how it would work.
   12. Republican state Assemblymember Tom Lackey said the proposal has “zero consideration for the victims of crimes.” Republican state Assemblymember Joe Patterson said he was “skeptical” of the program “given the secret prison releases by this administration.” …
   13. Newsom said the new plan is “building off the success” of other rehabilitation programs in San Quentin, which is known for its own accredited liberal arts degree program, a popular podcast “Ear Hustle” and the inmate-produced newspaper the San Quentin News. …
   14. MIKE: I’m glad the prison system in Norway is referenced. (Link here.) I’m glad that both Newsom’s office and the article mention Norway in this context.
   15. MIKE: Let’s be honest with ourselves. States — even so-called Progressive States — mostly treat people in their care like crap. It’s not just prisoners that are treated like crap..
   16. MIKE: Wards of the State are treated like crap. Children in foster programs are, by and large, treated like crap. Juvenile incarceration facilities mostly treat kids like crap. State mental health facilities are often abominable.
   17. MIKE: It’s not necessarily because the people running these programs are bad. Many of them really want to make the system work the way it should. But they’re treated the way I once said in a job exit interview: Overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated. You really can’t do more with less, and you certainly can’t do everything with nothing.
   18. MIKE: States run on tax revenue. Have you ever heard a politician say that they have to increase taxes in order to treat prisoners and institutionalized children and illegal immigrants better? If you have, it wasn’t during an election campaign.
   19. MIKE: What Newsom is trying to do takes real courage. Frankly, he won’t be the first government official in US history to try to seriously reform a State or Federal prison system. The problem is that any positive reforms typically don’t last long once the reformer is off the scene. Let’s hope this time is different, and that California creates a successful and enduring model that is eventually emulated by other states and governments.
   20. ANDREW: I also hope Governor Newsom’s plan will help make life in prison more bearable and last through changes in office. But we need to keep perspective and understand that this plan will not be enough. As far as I know, federal law requires all states to have prisons, and sets out restrictions for what people can and cannot do in prison. These laws create a system that aims to punish every crime, in a wrongheaded attempt to reduce future crime and a more sinister attempt to retain control over the public.
   21. ANDREW: The reason the current criminal legal system has such high recidivism is that punishment does not reduce crime, because crime is not a choice people make. People commit crimes– even major, violent, and repeated crimes– because they are either taught by society to hate other people so that they can be more easily exploited, or because they are forced into desperate situations by that same society that wants to exploit them as much as possible while providing for as few of their needs as possible.
   22. ANDREW: But the actually effective path of providing for those needs and giving people less harmful ways out of desperation is incompatible with the exploitation that our society requires, so punishment is made the goal. As long as punishment remains the goal, reform will have limited effectiveness, because that punishment and the guards and police who make that punishment happen will still do harm, regardless of how the people who run or make the system work personally feel.
   23. ANDREW: With all that said, I don’t think Governor Newsom can do much to change the goal of punishment. That change would have to come from the federal level, as it would require changing a major portion of federal law, and then providing support to states to implement those changes and make changes to their own laws. So while I wish California the best of luck, I know the real fight is in Washington.
   24. MIKE: I fundamentally disagree with your comment that “crime is not a choice people make.” In the vast majority of cases where the incarcerated people are actually guilty, we’re not talking about the equivalent of stealing a loaf of bread because they’re hungry. We’re talking about a mix of violent crime, significant property crime, or repeat offenders. These people made choices.
   25. MIKE: I’m not going to defend the quality, fairness, or accuracy of the American criminal justice system or the conditions in which many or most prisoners are kept, but in the cases of the actually-guilty, the vast majority absolutely made choices. That is not to say that our society didn’t fail many of them. I’ll agree with you on this point: Society in general — not just American — is more inclined to punish criminals than to try and rehabilitate them.
7. You have the right to a lawyer, but public defenders note a lack of resources, respect; By Carrie Johnson | NPR.ORG | March 18, 2023, 5:00 AM ET
   1. Sixty years ago today the Supreme Court ruled that people accused of crimes but without means to pay for a lawyer would be provided with one at public expense.
   2. The promise of that landmark ruling in Gideon v. Wainwright has been frustrated by heavy caseloads for public defenders and tight budgets that prioritize police, prosecutors and prisons over the right to counsel.
   3. “Understaffed, crushing caseloads, underpaid and undervalued, and this is a conscious decision that our legislatures make throughout this country,” said Stan German, executive director of New York County Defender Services, at an event in Washington, D.C., this week.
   4. The American legal system is built on the idea that evenly matched adversaries — a prosecutor and a defense attorney — will clash in court, and that back and forth will bring out the truth.
   5. But Yasmin Cader, deputy legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union and a former public defender, said things don’t work that way much of the time, especially for people with lower incomes.
   6. “The reality is that in criminal courtrooms across this nation we often find ourselves looking at an assembly line of justice where people are simply processed and rights go unprotected,” Cader said. …
   7. Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta notes that “Defending those accused of crimes is not just a nice thing to do, it is a constitutional requirement. That constitutional requirement helps ensure fairness and legitimacy — and for that reason, every actor in the criminal justice system should be invested in the work of public defenders.”
   8. The Biden administration is making access to the courts a priority, reestablishing a standalone Access to Justice office and putting Rachel Rossi, a former public defender, in charge.
   9. In recent weeks, Rossi and other senior Justice Department leaders have traveled across the country to listen to public defenders and hear more about their needs. DOJ also made clear that state and local governments can tap an important source of federal grant funding to pay for public defense. …
   10. MIKE: What did I say earlier about how governments all over the world treat people in their care? Until people beg to pay taxes to care about people in government care, it will always be an uphill battle.
   11. MIKE: Associate Ag Gupta said in part that people need to be “invested in the work.” I don’t think he meant to say that literally, but he should have.
   12. MIKE: Instead, the story mentioned that “… DOJ also made clear that state and local governments can tap an important source of federal grant funding to pay for public defense.” And where does that money come from? Taxpayers. And asked individually if they want their tax raised to fund public defenders, would a majority say “yes”?
   13. ANDREW: Don’t forget that one of the major factors is the proportion of funding to police vs public defenders. Sure, it would be nice if everyone wanted to pay more taxes (or if we adopted a progressive income tax so the rich paid their share). But even if that isn’t happening, state and local governments can still redirect funds from police to public defenders.
   14. ANDREW: They’d need a good reason to do that, of course. Public pressure would be nice, but the attorneys themselves could actually put that pressure on. About a year ago now, a branch of the Industrial Workers of the World helped a group of Virginia public defenders unionize to demand better workload balance and more funding. I’d never considered that these kinds of attorneys could organize until I heard about this effort, but I think it’s very promising. Not just for addressing these workers’ grievances, but for ensuring adequate funding to make these essential services available to everyone. I hope more public defenders begin unionizing and pushing for more funding.
8. Rand Paul calls for DA Alvin Bragg to be jailed for ‘disgusting abuse of power’ in Trump probe; By Victor Nava | NYPOST.COM | March 21, 2023, 8:42pm
   1. Rand Paul ripped into Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Tuesday over his handling of the criminal investigation into Donald Trump that might lead to the former president being indicted.
   2. “A Trump indictment would be a disgusting abuse of power. The DA should be put in jail,” Paul (R-Ky.) wrote in a scathing tweet on Tuesday.
   3. Paul is the latest Republican to accuse Bragg of leading a politically motivated investigation into the 76-year-old former president …
   4. House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) wrote to the Democratic Manhattan DA on Monday calling his plans to charge Trump “an unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority.” …
   5. MIKE: If Rand Paul, Jim Jordan and James Comer want to talk about an abuse of power, maybe they should be educated about how the US Justice system is supposed to work. First there are investigations. Then, if warranted, there are indictments. Then, if things get that far, there’s a trial and hopefully a verdict. To use their elected positions to call for over-ruling that process — or worse, calling for the jailing of an elected local prosecutor — is blatant interference in the course of justice and an attempt at prosecutor intimidation. I believe the latter is, itself, a crime.
   6. MIKE: “Threatening the government officials of the United States is a felony under federal law. Threatening the president of the United States is a felony under 18 U.S.C. § 871, punishable by up to 5 years of imprisonment, that is investigated by the United States Secret Service.” — From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
   7. MIKE: Granted, Alvin Bragg is not a federal official, but similar laws apply around the country to State and local officials. These three Republican officeholders should all know better. Rand Paul in particular is technically flirting close to a felony in the City and State of New York. All other people saying these sorts of things — Republican officials in particular — should be duly warned.
   8. ANDREW: While I support your comments in spirit, I should say that believing an elected official has committed a crime and that they should face legal consequences, including jail time, for that perceived crime is not a threat. However, I wouldn’t put it past the Republican party to escalate to actually threatening Mr. Bragg.
   9. ANDREW: This whole reaction to the investigation is classic sports-team politics. Republicans’ logic here is this: Trump is “our guy,” and because he’s “our guy” and we want to “win”, we’ve got to stand behind him. Doesn’t matter what he did or didn’t do, or what legal rights the government has to investigate him. If he’s investigated, indicted, or worse, imprisoned, that would make our “team” look bad, and then we might “lose”, and we can’t have that. It’s arrogant, egotistical, and pathetic.
   10. MIKE: Actually, I have a reference in these notes citing chapter and verse of why this would amount to a federal crime: Intimidating an elected official in the performance of their duties. It’s no less a crime than witness tampering or jury tampering. Should Rand Paul be indicted for this potential felony under New York law? I don’t know. But should he know better as a government official? You bet.
9. EU agrees to send Ukraine one million artillery shells; EU defence and foreign ministers backed an initiative aimed at providing Ukraine with one million artillery shells within the next 12 months. COM | Published On 20 Mar 2023
   2. European Union (EU) ministers have agreed on a two-billion-euro ($2.14bn) plan to raid their own arsenals and jointly purchase ammunition for Ukraine.
   3. EU defence and foreign ministers backed an initiative aimed at providing Ukraine with one million artillery shells in the next 12 months as well as replenishing EU stocks during a meeting held in Brussels on Monday. …
   4. [T]he programme involves support to Europe’s defence industry so that it can ramp up production in the longer term. EU officials have said that new joint orders could be placed by May if the plan is endorsed in its entirety. …
   5. Kyiv has complained that its forces are having to ration firepower as Russia’s year-long invasion of Ukraine has turned into a grinding war of attrition.
   6. Germany’s defence industry says it stands ready to ramp up its output, including the kinds of arms and ammunition needed by Ukraine, but that it needs clarity about what governments want before investing in further production capacity.
   7. Ukraine had told the EU it wants 350,000 shells a month to help its troops hold back Moscow’s onslaught and allow them to launch fresh counteroffensives later in the year. …
   8. The US Department of State also announced on Monday that the US will send Ukraine $350m in weapons and equipment, including various types of ammunition, such as rockets, and an undisclosed number of fuel tanker trucks and riverine boats.
   9. MIKE: I support helping Ukraine against Russia as much as we possibly can with weapons and materiel. Russia took pieces of Georgia in 1993 (North Ossetia and Abkhazia), and again in 2008 (South Ossetia). It took Crimea in 2014 and invaded Ukraine again in 2022.
   10. MIKE: If you want to draw analogies to WW2, Crimea was the equivalent of Czechoslovakia and the second invasion of Ukraine was Poland. Except that Poland fell within 26 days and Ukraine defended itself long enough to persuade the West to send military aid. Military transportation has advanced a lot since 1939, which is why we can offer Ukraine the material support that Poland never got. Ukraine’s tenacity and courage may be saving Europe from a wider military conflagration, and hopefully will defeat Russia, but time will tell.
   11. ANDREW: I also support helping Ukraine defend its uncontested borders, but it’s important to me that any military aid not be used as leverage for undue influence over the Ukrainian government after the war. This includes pressuring Ukraine to do what the US and its allies want when Ukraine is reluctant, but also counting the aid as debt that Ukraine would have to pay back to the NATO countries. Doing the right thing doesn’t come with a guarantee of personal benefit, and it’s not right to try and create one when someone needs your help.
   12. MIKE: First, you’re inferring a lot in the future tense. Second, Ukraine is told what is aid and what is debt. Relatively little is debt. But it’s worth noting that the UK didn’t retire all its WW2 debt to the US until 2006, even though a lot was forgiven. So there’s that.
10. Putin says Russia will “respond accordingly” if Ukraine gets depleted uranium shells from U.K., claiming they have “nuclear component”; COM, CBS/AFP | Updated on: March 21, 2023 / 6:55 PM
    1. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Moscow would “respond accordingly” if Britain gives Ukraine military supplies, including armor-piercing ammunition containing depleted uranium. …
    2. Putin was reacting to a written response by a U.K. defense minister, Annabel Goldie, who was asked whether “any of the ammunition currently being supplied to Ukraine contains depleted uranium.”
    3. She responded on Monday that “alongside our granting of a squadron of Challenger 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine, we will be providing ammunition including armour piercing rounds which contain depleted uranium.” She said the rounds “are highly effective in defeating modern tanks and armoured vehicles.”
    4. Depleted uranium is a by-product of the nuclear enrichment process used to make nuclear fuel or nuclear weapons. It is around 60% as radioactive as natural uranium and its heaviness lends itself for use in armor-piercing rounds, since it helps them easily penetrate steel. …
    5. The United Nations Environment Program has described depleted uranium as a “chemically and radiologically toxic heavy metal.” Depleted uranium munitions were used in conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and Iraq, and were suspected of being a possible cause of “Gulf War syndrome,” a collection of debilitating symptoms suffered by veterans of the 1990-91 war. 
    6. Researchers from the U.K.’s University of Portsmouth tested sufferers to examine levels of residual depleted uranium in their bodies and say their 2021 study “conclusively” proved that none of them were exposed to significant amounts of depleted uranium.
    7. Anti-nuclear organization [Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament] condemned the decision to send the ammunition to Ukraine, calling it an “additional environmental and health disaster for those living through the conflict”, as toxic or radioactive dust can be released on impact.
    8. MIKE: I remember these shells being used in Kosovo, and I recall feeling surprised and uncomfortable. “Uranium” sounded scary. “Depleted” didn’t make it sound any better. Being only 60% as radioactive as natural uranium doesn’t help, because natural uranium is mostly deep in the ground. Debris from DU shells is not.
    9. MIKE: I can understand the military logic behind their use, but I can’t support it. And I can’t imagine the Ukrainians being enthusiastic about using these shells on their own territory.
    10. ANDREW: I agree with you entirely here, Mike. Supplying these uranium rounds is also going to add unnecessary tension to an already dangerous situation, if Russia’s response is anything to go by. One way or another, this war will end, and it will end a lot easier if (ideally) both sides don’t rile each other up unnecessarily today.
    11. MIKE: I have to ask what qualifies as “riling each other up” in the context of cross-border military invasions?
    12. REFERENCE: Nato urged to clean up its uranium debris in Kosovo – COM, JAN 2001

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