AUDIO:

POSSIBLE TOPICS: VOTETEXAS.GOV—Voter Information; REGISTER TO VOTE; APPLY FOR MAIL-IN BALLOT; Last day to register is the end of April 6^th; 2023 Houston mayoral election; The Republican elephant in the room; Why are there no YIELD signs for frontage road traffic?; To The Fed, All They Have Is A Hammer, So The Whole Economy Looks Like A Nail; Mapleridge Street to remain open after sale withdrawn for section through Bellaire Triangle; Texas Senate votes to defund libraries where drag queens read to kids as it tries to limit the performances kids can attend; Texas may be about to scrap a voting security system it can’t replace; North Carolina lawmaker signals party switch with big impact; How US troops in Germany are training Ukrainians to save one another on the battlefield; 15 million people live under threat of glacial lake outburst floods, study finds; 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:

1. Live online at KPFT.org (from anywhere in the world!)
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3. Visiting Archive.KPFT.ORG

Welcome to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig where we discuss local, state, national, and international stories. My co-host and show editor is Andrew Ferguson.

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. Obtain a Voter Registration Application (HarrisVotes.com)
   3. Harris County “Vote-By-Mail’ Application for 2022
   4. Fort bend County Elections/Voter Registration Machine takes you to the proper link
   5. GalvestonVotes.org (Galveston County, TX)
   6. Liberty County Elections (Liberty County, TX)
   7. Montgomery County (TX) Elections
   8. Brazoria County (TX) Clerk Election Information
   9. Waller County (TX) Elections
   10. Chambers County (TX) Elections
   11. 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.
   12. 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.
   13. 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. Obtain a Voter Registration Application (HarrisVotes.com)
   2. FYI: The next elections according to HarrisVotes.com are May 9^th. Last day to register is the end of April 6^th. There may or not be an election in your particular election precinct, so you may have to go to your local elections clerk or go to http://www.VOTETEXAS.GOV
   3. Just be registered and apply for your mail-in ballot if you may qualify.
   4. You can track your Mail Ballot Activity from our website with direct link provided here https://www.harrisvotes.com/Tracking
3. MIKE: The Republican elephant in the room…
   1. MIKE: Any regular listeners to this show know that I hate discussing news that is fully covered — or especially news that is ridiculously over-covered — on this show. But the Trump indictments and the accompanying booking process circus require some mention and discussion.
   2. MIKE: One of the things that has really bugged me is the failure to take a mug shot. Trump voluntarily turned himself in, so can understand not being handcuffed or perp-walked into the courthouse, but getting a mugshot taken is like a rite-of-passage for those being booked. Lots of famous people, many of whom are instantly recognizable by most folks, have had mug shots taken.
   3. MIKE: One reason being given is the security complications of getting a Trump mugshot. To me, I don’t see how security would be any more complicated than Trump’s walk into the courthouse or into the court room, so I don’t buy that.
   4. MIKE: Another reason being given is that Trump may be the most recognizable man in the world, but plenty of very recognizable people — high-profile politicians and movie stars, for example — have still gone through the mugshot ritual.
   5. MIKE: I have another theory. It was a condition negotiated by Trump’s lawyers in order to get him to Manhattan from Florida without an extradition fight. The reasons are otherwise unclear. True, the Trump grift machine was all set to put this mugshot on T-shirts, banners and even … mugs. And some say that Trump was relishing the opportunity to smile for his mugshot, figuring it would be a donation moneymaker.
   6. MIKE: Maybe this is one time Trump listened to his lawyers and smarter political advisors. But the “get out of Florida free” theory is what works for me.
   7. ANDREW: I feel very similarly about the fact that we didn’t get to see him in handcuffs. I tell you, I’d be laughing at that image for the rest of my life. Though in fairness, we did get a pretty good court sketch. The man looks like the Grinch. It’s hours of fun!
   8. ANDREW: Seriously, though, you’re right in that any image of Trump being treated like any other person who breaks the law in this country would have been jumped on for merchandising and political advertising immediately. Trump’s lawyers, or possibly his PR people, must have thought that having images of their client in handcuffs or his mugshot circulating would really harm their case and/or his image. It’s the only reason I can think of that his campaign team would let this opportunity pass them by.
   9. REFERENCE: Trump Robbed of Legendary Mug Shot | COM/INTELLIGENCER | Updated Apr. 4, 2023
4. MIKE: Highway traffic is supposed to have the right-of-way when exiting. Why are there no YIELD signs for frontage road traffic?
   1. MIKE: Page 21 of the latest Texas driving test manual states this: “The driver traveling on the frontage road of a controlled-access highway MUST [caps mine] yield the right-of-way to a vehicle: 1- Entering or about to enter the frontage road from the highway, 2- leaving or about the leave the frontage road to enter the highway.”
   2. MIKE: This is such a crucial rule that I don’t know why no YIELD signs are posted on frontage roads. This yield-rule should also apply when exiting traffic needs to cross lanes quickly upon exiting. This is nearly impossible to do in the absence of yield signs for drivers on the frontage road.
   3. MIKE: A few weeks ago, there was a mini-tempest in Houston City Council about the need to re-do road striping around the city. IMHO, getting these yield signs installed is no less important.
   4. ANDREW: This is a good point, and a rule I couldn’t recall until you brought it up (though I’m sure it was covered in my driver’s ed course). I suspect it has something to do with funding, as many administrative issues like signage and such do, in Texas especially. If our listeners want something to do after the show, maybe they could play Internet Detective and see if any studies have been done on whether yield signs on frontage roads are helpful enough to warrant the cost. Y’all know how to get in touch with us, and if you don’t, you will soon!
   5. Texas DMV Handbook (2023) — DRIVING-TESTS.ORG/TEXAS/TX-DMV-DRIVERS-HANDBOOK-MANUAL
5. MIKE: To The Fed, All They Have Is A Hammer, So The Whole Economy Looks Like A Nail. Rather than use the blunt tool of interest rate hikes, why doesn’t the Fed develop focused tools to increase production where shortages are causing inflation?
   1. MIKE: In a March 7^th hearing, Sen. Elizabeth Warren [D-MA] questioned Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell about the Fed’s strategy for cooling inflation, pointing out that the rapid rate increases could throw 2 million people out of work as the price of lower inflation. Powell did not disagree, but considered it a necessary tradeoff.
   2. MIKE: This exchange got me to thinking. Inflation is basically described as too many dollars chasing too few goods or services.
   3. MIKE: Perhaps the Fed has a “hammer problem”. You know the old saying: “When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”
   4. MIKE: Maybe it’s time for the Fed and economists everywhere to question this method of taming inflation. I don’t specifically have the answer, but here’s the idea that I think should guide whatever solution is found: Find a way to target the areas of shortage in order to balance supply-and-demand. In an era of “normal” interest rates (which is about where we are now), perhaps rate reductions could be aimed specifically at business sectors that need to produce more, or perhaps applied to industries that need to use those supplies with greater efficiency in order to reduce demand, thus cooling inflation in those sectors.
   5. MIKE: Admittedly, I suffer from a lack of imagination here, but I think the basic notion of targeting sectors to balance supply-and-demand rather than the blunt tool of hammering the entire economy to achieve a hoped-for outcome is a concept worth pursuing. I just thought I’d throw the idea out there.
   6. ANDREW: We actually talked a bit about this before on our show from October 19th, 2022, which you can hear on the blog at com. In that show, I proposed my own alternative of price controls, but I like where Mike is going here. Targeted action on specific economic sectors rather than wide-ranging policy changes certainly sounds like a smarter approach.
   7. ANDREW: In that spirit, when prices are reasonable but there aren’t enough goods being produced to meet demand, it actually might be worth reducing taxes on businesses specifically in the sectors that need to churn out more supply. Not income taxes for executives, or speculation taxes on investors if that becomes a thing, but just reducing the amount of tax that the businesses as entities have to pay. My thinking here is that this could make it more attractive to start new businesses in those sectors and give existing businesses more revenue to hopefully invest in increasing production, while limiting the impact on tax revenue for social services. Any slack would be picked up by income and speculation taxes and keeping business taxes the same outside of those very specific industries.
   8. ANDREW: Sure, it’s not, you know, restructuring society to ensure everyone gets what they need to survive. But it’d probably harm fewer working people than the current playbook, meaning more folks have the energy to help the work along. The trick would be ensuring that these tax reductions are temporary, because donors to both major parties would probably quite like them to be made permanent.
   9. REFERENCE: ICYMI: At Hearing, Senator Warren Calls out Chair Powell for Fed’s Plan to Throw At Least 2 Million People Out of Work – SENATE.GOV
   10. REFERENCE: YOUTUBE VIDEO OF EXCHANGE — Committee on Banking, Housing, & Urban Affairs – 11:12:32 am – 11:18:04 am
   11. REFERENCE: Price Controls Set Off Heated Debate as History Gets a Second Look; COM | By Ben Casselman and Jeanna Smialek | Jan. 13, 2022
6. MIKE: But that’s enough of our crazy ideas. Let’s get to some news stories.
7. Mapleridge Street to remain open after sale withdrawn for section through Bellaire Triangle; By Melissa Enaje | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 5:18 PM Apr 4, 2023 CDT, Updated 5:32 PM Apr 4, 2023 CDT
   1. Bellaire City Council is no longer proceeding with the potential sale of a portion of Mapleridge Street in a deal that would have closed the street to vehicle traffic in order to expand one of the first shopping centers in the city.
   2. The announcement was made during the public comments portion of the April 3 City Council meeting. According to Mayor Andrew Friedberg, the developers interested in acquiring the land, initially for a $1 agreement, did not meet the city’s extended deadline. …
   3. The mayor said that the City Council will not be considering the matter any further. …
   4. MIKE: The story from Community Impact includes a Google Map of the area in question. The section of Mapleridge that was up for “sale” (and I put that in quotation marks because $1 is just a technicality for a legal transfer of ownership) is a short one-block stretch that lies between Bissonnet St. and Bellaire Blvd. If someone is leaving the Triangle and needs to go to one road or the other, that may not be too bad, but actually transiting that small section of road to cross both is probably a real safety hazard.
   5. MIKE: In principle, I’m against closing streets for private advantage at the expense of commuters and travelers. They did that in Lower Manhattan when they built the World Trade Center Towers, and it really screwed traffic in that area. It’s worth noting that when the new Freedom Tower was built, they added pass-throughs and re-opened streets.
   6. MIKE: I think a better idea in this instance would be to turn that street into a short pedestrian mall. Maybe the city could even rent some space to vendor carts and generate some revenue that way, as well as adding some welcoming atmosphere. It might be an asset to businesses in the Triangle, and it would end TWO dangerous traffic intersections. And as Andrew often says, more pedestrian spaces are good things.
   7. ANDREW: Huh. I guess that ventriloquist class I took wasn’t bunk after all! I think that’s a great idea, Mike. I’m not familiar with the area, because I don’t leave my house, but I can certainly imagine the danger from a street connecting two very busy thoroughfares like that. I think pedestrianizing this street is a real opportunity for Bellaire to make this section of its city safer to live, work, and shop in, and I hope a local resident proposes it to the City Council before the matter is totally forgotten about. Whether they credit Thinkwing for the idea or not is their call.
8. Texas Senate votes to defund libraries where drag queens read to kids as it tries to limit the performances kids can attend; The Senate expanded the bill targeting drag queen story hours before two Democrats joined Republicans in advancing it. The upper chamber also gave preliminary approval to a bill limiting other drag performances kids can see. by Alex Nguyen | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | April 4, 2023 Updated: 8 hours ago
   1. For months, Texas Senators have said their bills targeting drag shows are meant to protect children from sexually explicit performances.
   2. Some Democrats, drag performers and businesses catering to LGBTQ Texans have fiercely pushed back against the implication that all drag performances are inherently sexual. They’ve also said some bills restrict free expression enshrined in the First Amendment as they’ve testified against bills in legislative hearings and rallied in opposition at the Texas Capitol.
   3. And, bill opponents say, the Republican proposals are helping to fuel an overall backlash against drag — as performers have increasingly seen protests and threats coordinated against them by activists and extremist groups.
   4. [Austin-based drag performer Brigitte Bandit told The Texas Tribune last month,] “We just need to understand that drag is not inherently sexual, and queer expression is not inherently sexual.”
   5. Amid some of the criticism, Republican Sen. Bryan Hughes of Mineola, who was the architect of some of Texas’ most conservative legislation in 2021, narrowed his legislative push to restrict drag shows. And on Tuesday, he secured initial Senate approval for his Senate Bill 12, which bars kids from drag shows only if the performances are overly lewd and lascivious.
   6. But moments later, the Senate also preliminarily voted 20-9 from the chamber floor to defund public libraries where drag queens are allowed to read to children. Senate Bill 1601 does not tie its financial penalties to the performers’ behavior — and essentially targets all libraries’ drag queen story hours, which are aimed at promoting literacy and encouraging children to read. …
   7. Hughes didn’t explicitly say what SB 1601 would protect kids from. Instead, during the bill’s Senate and committee debates, he brought up an example of the Houston public library hosting a registered sex offender as one of its storytime program’s drag queens because the library didn’t do a background check as evidence for backing the bill.
   8. On the other hand, drag performers and their allies pointed out during the bill’s committee hearing that kids are more likely to be harmed by gun violence or sexual abuse perpetrated by church members.
   9. Royce West of Dallas is the only Democrat to approve SB 1601. Democratic Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa of McAllen voted in support of the measure from the Senate floor, but later said he actually opposes it and will be switching his vote. …
   10. Lawmakers, most of whom are Republicans, are pushing a bevy of bills during this legislative session that threaten to upend the lives of many LGBTQ Texans. The Senate last week approved a bill that would prohibit transgender kids from updating their birth certificate so that it matches their gender. GOP lawmakers want to limit classroom instruction, school activities and teacher guidance about sexual orientation and gender identity in schools. And also on Tuesday, the Senate gave final approval to a proposed ban on transgender kids accessing puberty blockers and hormone therapy.
   11. Republican Sen. Drew Springer of Muenster successfully broadened SB 1601 to bar libraries from receiving any public money the year following any events in which drag performers read to kids. This means facilities violating the proposed restriction could lose revenue streams from their local governments — a crucial part of their budgets. …
   12. SB 12 is more narrow when compared to other Republican proposals for restricting drag shows. For instance, Hughes’ other proposal, Senate Bill 476, defines drag shows more broadly as individuals wearing outfits or makeup that indicate a gender different from their gender assigned at birth while performing in front of an audience for entertainment.
   13. This wider definition could have covered activities unrelated to drag such as a transgender person singing karaoke with friends in a bar, for example, or an actor wearing a costume as part of a Shakespeare play that involves wearing clothes traditionally associated with a different gender.
   14. Drag performers insist that SB 12 is an attack on their First Amendment rights and say the bill’s language is imprecise, opening it up to multiple interpretations. During the Tuesday Senate debate, some Democratic lawmakers also characterized the bill as “overly broad.”
   15. [Austin-based drag performer Lawrie Bird told the Tribune last month,] “The language in the bill is so purposefully vague that it could encapsulate many forms of queer art and try to shut them down.”
   16. The bill’s opponents added that it would harm restaurants and bars that use drag shows to draw in more customers or charities that host these performances as fundraisers. The measure could particularly impact businesses owned by LGBTQ Texans, they said. …
   17. As bills focused on the LGBTQ community have moved through the legislature this year, drag performers, transgender Texans and community advocates have also questioned the sincerity of lawmakers’ claims that they’re trying to protect children. Many say legislators are further stigmatizing people.
   18. “I’ve had shows canceled. We’ve had people show up with guns — that’s more terrifying to kids than me looking like this right now,” said Bandit last month, while donned in a bright pink floor-length gown and a big pink wig inside the Texas Capitol.
   19. MIKE: There’s a lot more to this article, so you might want to click on the link I provide and read it yourself.
   20. MIKE: While going over this story, remember that modern Conservatives generally, and Texas Conservatives especially, are still supposed to be all for local control and personal freedom. Except, you know, when they’re not. Which is anytime they have other ideas about local control and personal freedom.
   21. MIKE: In researching my comments here, I learned that the First Amendment is so strong that it’s NOT illegal to yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater. (See references I’ve cited below.) There may be other consequences like civil suits by anyone injured as a result, but it’s not illegal.
   22. MIKE: Further, from a strictly technical point of view, I don’t know that there is any law requiring the State of Texas to fund public libraries, so I suppose they could withdraw their funding if they don’t like what the libraries are doing. The Federal government uses that same logic as a club against discriminatory policies by schools and universities that receive federal funding.
   23. MIKE: But these various State laws would not prevent local governments and private donors from funding public libraries and preserving free speech.
   24. MIKE: Of course, the so-called “freedom-loving” Conservatives in Austin have also hobbled local ability to raise taxes by whatever means localities find necessary and suitable. They’ve outlawed income taxes and also capped property taxes. On a local level, there aren’t many other options.
   25. MIKE: I guess what this all comes down to is that elections have consequences. That is why I start almost every show with a reminder to be registered to vote, and to vote. Real freedom starts with each one of us at the polls.
   26. ANDREW: I’m deeply disappointed in Royce West. I daresay this might be enough to get some Democratic voters in Dallas looking at their third-party options on the ballot. I hope he reconsiders his vote like Juan Hinojosa did.
   27. ANDREW: I noted that the article said the bill would in fact prevent libraries that host drag performers from receiving local government funds as well, but after pulling up the bill’s text (it’s really short as a lot of these base-pleasing bills tend to be), it does actually specify state funding would be prohibited. This is an unfortunate error in the article, and may have caused slightly more concern than is needed. But it’s still a bad bill, still an example of Republican hypocrisy (they don’t care, but voters should), and could absolutely sink libraries in low-income areas of the state.
   28. REFERENCE: America’s Favorite Flimsy Pretext for Limiting Free Speech; Accusing people of “shouting ‘Fire’ in a crowded theater” isn’t sufficient grounds for regulating what they say. By Jeff Kosseff | THEATLANTIC.COM | January 4, 2022
   29. REFERENCE: Shouting fire in a crowded theater — From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
9. Texas may be about to scrap a voting security system it can’t replace; It took years to build the multi-state system known as ERIC, which weeds out duplicate, deceased and suspicious voter registrations. Texas Republicans want to dump it, but there’s no viable alternative. By Natalia Contreras | Votebeat and The Texas Tribune | March 28, 2023, 5 AM Central
   1. With some Texas Republicans pushing the state to abandon one its best tools for preventing voter fraud — a coalition of states that share voting roll data to weed out duplicate and suspicious registrations — the secretary of state’s office is trying to discern if it can build a replacement.
   2. But the effort could easily stall or take years, experts say. Similar efforts in other states over the past two decades have not worked, or have been shut down, because they lacked bipartisan support from multiple states and access to the kind of national data that produces accurate cross-state voter list matching — all of which the Electronic Information Registration Center, or ERIC, spent years developing.
   3. The push to have Texas become the latest state to withdraw from ERIC, a long-standing effort by nearly 30 states, is rooted in a yearlong misinformation campaign that spread through right-wing media platforms and advocacy groups.
   4. If the state decides to leave the program but fails to produce a similar tool, Texas’ voter rolls will inevitably be less accurate, which could fuel claims of voter fraud, experts say. That could increase costs for counties who’d be more likely to send election mailers to voters who have moved out of state or died, because outdated information would linger on the voter rolls. And the state, too, would spend more than it would save by leaving the program because it would need to build the technical infrastructure and meet the federal security requirements needed to protect sensitive data in order to make an alternative viable.
   5. Sam Taylor, a spokesperson for the Texas secretary of state’s office, declined to comment on the feasibility of developing a new alternative to ERIC. He told Votebeat, however, that at least Georgia and Nevada — states that are currently members of ERIC and supportive of the program — and Oklahoma have expressed interest in working with Texas on the project. Taylor said research is also underway on the cost of developing such a system.
   6. In no small part, experts note, the coalition ERIC built over many years worked, because member states — led by both Democrats and Republicans — agreed to come together in a good-faith effort to share the necessary data and information to help maintain voter rolls across state lines. But in recent months, political pressure on Republican-led states has put the coalition at risk. Last year, Louisiana, then Alabama, followed by Florida, West Virginia, Missouri, and most recently Ohio and Iowa, announced they would depart. Texas could be next: The Texas Legislature is already considering various bills to leave ERIC.
   7. [T]he state’s attempt at replacing the program both would not be an efficient solution and could have implications for the states that remain in ERIC by making it harder for states to join together across party lines, said Marc Meredith, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert on election administration [who] has also done research on voter list maintenance.
   8. [Meredith said,] “It would be incredibly disappointing to end up with basically two versions of the same thing because the value of data grows exponentially as you can make more and more comparisons between states.” [He] added that by leaving the program, Texas will deprive itself of all the other states’ data while preventing the other states from obtaining data on more than 16 million registered voters in the state. “It’s not like if you split the world and have 25 states in one [program] and 25 states in another, [it] would be equally good. It’s actually more than double the bad.” …
   9. MIKE: As usual, this is an excerpt. There is more detail to this story. This is just another example of Rightwing hypocrisy. If they’re really so concerned about voter fraud, why scrap something that works with no viable replacement in sight? If they think they can design something better, the usual policy would be to design it and then run the two systems side-by-side for several years to compare results.
   10. MIKE: But that assumes that they’re acting in good faith. I would question that assumption.
   11. MIKE: FYI, there is another section subtitled, “Past efforts to cross-check voter rolls without ERIC have failed.’
   12. ANDREW: I think I know exactly why Republicans in Texas and the other states are doing this. I’m speculating, but I think it’s pretty informed speculation. Republicans are taking states out of ERIC to create more opportunity for voter fraud, which regardless of if it actually happens or not, Republicans can use as further justification to pass more restrictive voter requirements. These new requirements are specifically designed to be difficult for low-income people and Black people to be able to satisfy. These groups tend not to vote Republican, so by passing laws that make it harder for them to vote, Republicans pave the way to win more elections. It’s tantamount to Hitler’s 1933 Enabling Act. It’s despicable.
   13. REFERENCE: The Enabling Act — US Holocaust Memorial Museum. The Enabling Act allowed the Reich government to issue laws without the consent of Germany’s parliament, laying the foundation for the complete Nazification of German society. The law was passed on March 23, 1933, and published the following day. Its full name was the “Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Reich.”
10. North Carolina lawmaker signals party switch with big impact; By Gary D. Robertson | ASSOCIATED PRESS via CLICK2HOUSTON.COM | Published: April 4, 2023 at 6:27 PM
    1. Speculation is rising in the North Carolina legislature that a Democrat[, Rep. Tricia Cotham of Mecklenburg County,] is about to switch parties and give Republicans a complete veto-proof majority in the General Assembly, a move that could affect legislation on immigration, abortion and voting. …
    2. If the Democrat does switch parties, it would be a major political setback for Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and allies in their attempts to block conservative initiatives during the governor’s final two years in office.
    3. It could make it easier for Republicans to enact bills that would force sheriffs to cooperate with federal immigration agents and prevent counting absentee ballots received after Election Day. The GOP is also debating if and how to place further restrictions on abortion. …
    4. MIKE: The story goes into rather more detail, but leaves out what I think is a crucial element: Cotham was just elected last year and took office on January 1, 2023. She ran against 3 other Democrats and won by a plurality of under 48%. For her to run as a Democrat and switch parties (if that’s what will happen) 3 months after taking office is classic false advertising. She must have known this was the plan.
    5. MIKE This is more proof that elections require runoffs (at the least) or ranked choice voting. More than half of voters didn’t want her to win, so this is a real slap in the face to her district.
    6. ANDREW: That’s absolutely right. In a functioning democracy, bait-and-switches like this would either be much more difficult or impossible, depending on whether you prefer voting for candidates or parties to hold seats. Ranked-choice voting works in both cases, and it ensures that the winner or winners of an election are actually supported by a majority of the electorate. So even if a party switch happened under RCV, it’s far more likely to be a possibility that the electorate considered and was okay with.
11. How US troops in Germany are training Ukrainians to save one another on the battlefield; By Haley Britzky, CNN.COM | Published 8:04 AM EDT, Sun March 26, 2023
    1. For US troops, the training is nothing new: Applying tourniquets, clearing someone’s airway, recognizing signs of traumatic brain injuries.
    2. But to the Ukrainian troops receiving it, the training is literally a matter of life or death on the battlefield in the war against Russia.
    3. US troops have been providing critical medical instruction and combat casualty care to Ukrainians at Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany for almost a year, in between other significant training on weapon systems. And while it may not be as high profile as that on tanks, Patriot missile systems, or combined arms tactics, it could arguably have an even more immediate impact on the battlefield.
    4. “Just knowing and keeping in the back of our minds that everything we were doing and saying would have that direct impact on their ability to save lives, and to save each other, and to prolong their lives during their fight for their country – it definitely is going to I think stick with us for the rest of our careers,” Sgt. Alexis Ballard, a combat medic, who helped start the medical training program in Germany, told CNN.
    5. Ballard and Capt. Christina Whitler, the field artillery squadron physician assistant, were among the medics on-site last May as Ukrainians were training on M777 Howitzers. It’s typical for medics to be present at a range during training, and hoping to be as useful as possible, Whitler told CNN she spoke with a Ukrainian leader on the ground to see what else they might need.
    6. The answer was clear: More medical training.
    7. In many cases, the soldiers making up Ukraine’s military are everyday citizens with no military or medical background. 1st Lt. Kristjana McCarthy, a medical operations officer with the New York National Guard who is currently conducting the training in Germany, told CNN that they have people “who worked in hospitals for years before the war working side by side with somebody who was a physical education teacher.”
    8. Indeed, Whitler said when they began the lessons, some Ukrainians had already been trained by US soldiers previously, while others were “brand new” to the military “because of the current situation in Ukraine.”
    9. Combat medical training couldn’t be more crucial; as of November last year, roughly 100,000 Ukrainian troops were believed to have been killed or wounded since Russia’s invasion began in February 2022. There’s no end to the war in sight …
    10. The training is similar in many ways to what US soldiers get. But unlike those US troops, the Ukrainians had come straight from a battlefield and were preparing to go back.
    11. Oftentimes, Whitler said Ukrainian troops brought up real-world examples that they’d experienced in the war raging just miles away. They asked what to do next time if they were to see a similar injury, and in some cases they asked what they could have done to save a fellow soldier, if only they’d known how.
    12. “Those conversations were hard,” Whitler said, “and sometimes we just were able to provide some solace that they did everything they could, and even if there was an OR right next to them, a surgeon couldn’t have saved them.” …
    13. Two New York National Guard soldiers who are now training Ukrainians … told CNN it now includes simulations on mannequins, practicing responding to mass casualty events, and addressing burns and fractures.
    14. But it’s … human-to-human moments that will stick with the Americans long after the mission is over.
    15. Ballard said it was clear that many knew they’d soon be “going directly back into it” and “potentially experiencing some of the same things” they were still trying to process.
    16. So sometimes, Americans were there just to listen, and “if nothing else to … reassure them that they’re doing an amazing job and that they couldn’t have done anything better.”
    17. Whitler also recalled moments talking to Ukrainian troops who were exhibiting signs of traumatic brain injuries due to Russian artillery impact – symptoms like dizziness, headaches, or just feeling angrier or more irritable. They were frustrated, but Whitler reassured them that what they were experiencing was, unfortunately, normal.
    18. “I think we did provide a little bit of comfort in that way,” she said, “that they knew ‘I should be experiencing this and hopefully it will go away.’” …
    19. Ballard specifically recalled training the troops on how to use a nasopharyngeal airway, which is a thin tube inserted through a patient’s nose to open up their airway.
    20. “We would ask for a volunteer, and, of course, one of the older gentlemen would throw up one of the younger gentlemen to go up,” Ballard said, smiling. Everyone would gather around as closely as they could and watch as they inserted the tube into the soldier’s nose.
    21. “Hearing people’s reactions, it’s the exact same way that all the soldiers I’ve taught have reacted. But watching them do it was absolutely hilarious,” she said, “and was just one of those bonding moments to have with them I think is definitely going to stick with me.”
    22. Those moments made it all the more difficult to see them leave at the end of the training. Whitler and Ballard recalled a graduation ceremony for their Ukrainian partners to acknowledge all they’d learned and done. It was “very emotional,” Ballard said.
    23. “They’re fighting for their lives,” Ballard said. “And they’re fighting for their home. And the absolute least we can do is try to help them.”
    24. MIKE: There’s really nothing I can add here as a comment, except to try to imagine what it must be like to be Ukrainian and having to go through this, and how basic their need for assistance can be.
    25. ANDREW: I think this article is most useful as a media analysis exercise. What is the purpose of this article? Who benefits from that purpose, and how? What messages might it contain, and which of those messages are obvious and which ones are less obvious?
    26. ANDREW: My answers to those questions: the purpose of the article is to humanize the Ukrainian and US soldiers involved in the war in Ukraine. The US and Ukrainian militaries benefit most directly, because by humanizing the soldiers involved, the audience is more likely to sympathize with them. If the audience is a member of the public, they might write to their representatives or speak to other people they know in support of the Ukrainian military and the US’ aid to Ukraine. If the audience is an elected official, they might make decisions that increase funding to both militaries. And of course, when a military benefits, its government does too.
    27. ANDREW: The article’s obvious messages are that the Ukrainians are on the right side of the conflict, and that the US troops are doing a good thing by teaching Ukrainians these medical skills. The less obvious messages are that the war should end as quickly as possible (the emphasis on the death toll and the fact that many Ukrainian combatants have no military background), but also that peace efforts shouldn’t be taken seriously (from “there’s no end to the war in sight”).
    28. ANDREW: Do I disagree with those messages? Not all of them, and not entirely. But I think it’s important to be able to read between the lines and judge the truth for yourself in all news stories, and especially for stories like this that cover some aspect of war in a positive light, no matter how justified the cause is. This is because just causes can quickly become excuses for atrocity, and the best way to prevent that from happening is to be able to recognize it and argue against it. Examining stories like this closely is a good way to start.
12. 15 million people live under threat of glacial lake outburst floods, study finds; By The Associated Press | Published: Feb. 07, 2023, 11:30 a.m.
    1. As glaciers meltand pour massive amounts of water into nearby lakes, 15 million people across the globe live under the threat of a sudden and deadly outburst flood, a new study finds.
    2. More than half of those living in the shadow of the disaster called glacial lake outburst floods are in just four countries: India, Pakistan, Peru and China, according to a study in Tuesday’s Nature Communications. A second study, awaiting publication in a peer-reviewed journal, catalogs more than 150 glacial flood outbursts in history and recent times.
    3. It’s a threat Americans and Europeans rarely think about, but 1 million people live within just 6 miles of potentially unstable glacial-fed lakes, the study calculated. …
    4. Scientists say so far it doesn’t seem like climate changehas made those floods more frequent, but as glaciers shrink with warming, the amount of water in the lakes grows, making them more dangerous in those rare situations when dams burst. …
    5. The trouble is that scientists are focusing too much attention on the Pakistan, India, China and the Himalayas, often called High Mountain Asia, and somewhat ignoring the Andes, [said study said study co-author Tom Robinson, a disaster risk scientist at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.] The second and third highest risk basins are in Peru’s Santa basin, and Bolivia’s Beni basin, the paper said. …
    6. Three lake basins in the United States and Canada rank high for threats, from the Pacific Northwest to Alaska, but aren’t nearly as high as areas in Asia and the Andes with few people in the danger zone. They are in Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula — distinct from the Mendenhall glacier near Juneau — northeast Washington [State] and west central British Columbia. …
    7. Andrew: A while back, I actually sent Mike an obituary for Washington State’s Hinman glacier, which had melted to the point it was no longer considered a glacier in August 2022. As far as I know, this hasn’t had any major sudden impact on the bodies of water near it, but it’s absolutely a sign that while these floods aren’t a risk to us in the US right now, we’re well on our way to it. Even if we weren’t, though, it’s still not good news. I’m not even sure how folks in those countries are supposed to prepare for this. I wonder if our hurricane preparedness principles here in Texas might be useful for surviving an outburst flood.
    8. MIKE: Glacial lake outbursts were perhaps more common at the end of the last Ice Age. There are some significant geological examples in the US Pacific Northwest and British Columbia. Glacial dam collapses may figure into “great flood” legends in many civilizations around the world. In a sense, we are now seeing — or accelerating — the true end of the last Ice Age.
    9. REFERENCE: Western US ‘megafloods’ during last ice age might not have been so mega — ORG

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