AUDIO:

POSSIBLE TOPICS: VOTETEXAS.GOV—Voter Information; REGISTER TO VOTE; APPLY FOR MAIL-IN BALLOT; Pasadena City Council runoff elections turnout; ‘They took my money’ | Man says City of Houston pulled $7,500 out of his account for high water bill; Staff for U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia take first step toward forming a union; Ahead of Juneteenth, congressional lawmakers again seek to remove exception for slavery from US Constitution; Well-funded Christian group behind US effort to roll back LGBTQ+ rights; Judge orders stretch of pipeline that crosses tribal land to shut down in three years; A court ruling took tribal land off Wisconsin tax rolls. The victory for the tribes has blown a hole in municipal budgets; How will the Federal Reserve’s rate hike pause affect the dollar?; Kakhovka collapse: image emerges of apparently explosive-laden car at dam; Putin rebuts key elements of African peace plan for Ukraine; 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. Obtain a Voter Registration Application (HarrisVotes.com)
   3. Harris County “Vote-By-Mail’ Application for 2022
      1. Austin County Elections
      2. Brazoria County (TX) Clerk Election Information
      3. Chambers County (TX) Elections
      4. Colorado County (TX) Elections
      5. Fort Bend County takes you to the proper link
      6. GalvestonVotes.org (Galveston County, TX)
      7. Harris County ((HarrisVotes.com)
      8. LibertyElections (Liberty County, TX)
      9. Montgomery County (TX) Elections
      10. Walker County Elections
      11. Waller County (TX) Elections
      12. Wharton County Elections
   4. 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.
   5. 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.
   6. 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. Just be registered and apply for your mail-in ballot if you may qualify.
   3. You can track your Mail Ballot Activity from our website with direct link provided here https://www.harrisvotes.com/Tracking
3. MIKE: Last week, we briefly discussed the Pasadena City Council runoff elections, and I expressed curiosity as to the turnout. This week, I decided to check. Overall turnout in that runoff averaged about 7.2%. Precinct turnout ranged from a low of about 3.9% in Pct. 242 to a high of about 10% in Pct. 793. All-in-all, that’s pretty sad, but frankly was overall twice what I expected. So, I’m not sure if that turnout is good news or bad news. My suggestion last week still holds: If mail-in ballots were universal, then receiving a ballot in the mail would let you know that there’s an obscure election coming up. I bet it would also probably boost turnout up to at least 25%. Twenty-five percent is still low, but it would be over triple what we had.
   1. MIKE: As an aside, we need to go back to partisan elections for all elected offices, but do it with ranked-choice voting. That resolves a few kinds of election shenanigans.
4. ‘They took my money’ | Man says City of Houston pulled $7,500 out of his account for high water bill; By Anayeli Ruiz | KHOU.COM | Published: 5:58 PM CDT June 20, 2023. Updated: 6:40 PM CDT June 20, 2023
   1. Carl Castoreno said he usually pays about $45 a month for his water bill … and he said the water bill has never been over $100.
   2. [Then] the City of Houston recently sent him a $7,500 bill. On top of that, even after Castoreno called to contest the bill and the City said it wouldn’t deduct money from his account, the money still ended up being pulled out of his bank account.
   3. Castoreno … said he initially called the City to find out what was going on with the extremely high bill.
   4. “Everything is going to be handled. You can’t do anything right now. All you can do is wait,” Castoreno said they told him.
   5. His account was frozen. He said he couldn’t even remove the autopay feature. Castoreno said the City worker on the phone promised him that the money wouldn’t be taken from his account, but that proved to be untrue, Castoreno said. “I got a $7,500 bill and they took my money, …” he said. …
   6. Castoreno said he got new plumbing installed about six months ago. Just to be safe, he said he called his plumber to inspect the home and make sure there wasn’t a leak.
   7. “That’s impossible. Not unless something was cracked open. We would have seen evidence of that amount of water. I don’t see that evidence here,” the plumber said.
   8. Castoreno is stuck in the middle of a stressful financial situation. …
   9. KHOU 11 News reached out to the City, which said it couldn’t comment about Castoreno or provide any information about his account until he signed a consent form, which he did sign and sent back to the City. …
   10. [Houston] customer account services work directly with customers on questions they have. Call 713-371-1400 for more information.
   11. MIKE: There’s so much we don’t know here that it’s hard to comment. We don’t know if the City checked the meter for errors. We don’t know the nature of the new plumbing work. We don’t know if the bills subsequent to that work were actual readings or estimates. The invoice shown in the report looks wonky; the prior month was $6400 and the City took no money, so this was an ongoing issue before the money was deducted. I hope I see a follow-up story on this.
   12. MIKE: I learned long ago that paying bills is easy; barely paying bills is hard. I didn’t do autopay on bills until I knew that I had enough reserve, but I still keep an eye on bills.
   13. MIKE: Autopay can be a great convenience and can save late fees, but it’s not for everyone and it has risks. If you’re afraid you’ll forget a bill, set up auto-scheduled payments on your end, from your internet banking. That reminds you of a bill coming due, and makes sure you at least pay a substantial partial payment.
   14. MIKE: FYI, I got hit with a $1000 water bill from a broken pipe. I contested it right away but ultimately had no choice but to pay it. When my house burned down in 2008, I got hit with a $500 gas bill for the gas that helped burn my house down. Had to pay it. Life can be unfair.
   15. ANDREW: Unfortunately, knowing how unfair life can be doesn’t keep food on the table. There really should be a standing, automatic policy for utility services that if there’s an increase of over 50 times the previous month’s bill, the customer is notified but the money isn’t deducted until the service can verify that the charge is accurate. We could have used it after the Big Freeze, when people’s electric bills were sky-high.
5. Staff for U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia take first step toward forming a union; Employees for the Houston Democrat become the first congressional office from Texas trying to unionize under rules adopted last year. by Matthew Choi | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | June 16, 2023, 1 PM Central
   1. Staff members in the Washington and district offices of U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, have taken the initial step toward forming a union — the first Texas congressional office to do so.
   2. Staff in Garcia’s office filed a petition with the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights in May, the first step toward voting to form a union, and went public with the effort Thursday.
   3. In a statement to The Texas Tribune, the staffers said: “Our boss has fought for workers’ rights for decades, and this is an opportunity for her and every member of Congress to walk the walk.”
   4. “To quote Congresswoman Garcia, ‘unions fight for the dignity and respect of working people.’ We look forward to joining the eleven other offices who have successfully unionized and hope that our efforts will help start a conversation for more congressional staffers in the future,” the statement said.
   5. A House resolution approved last year gave congressional offices the right to collective bargaining, and a small number of Democratic offices — none from Texas — have already voted to form unions.
   6. Garcia was an original co-sponsor of the House resolution as well as the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which sought to expand and strengthen organizing rights for workers across the country. The PRO Act passed the House in 2021 but never made it out of the Senate.
   7. A staff member familiar with the effort said staffers are happy with Garcia’s leadership but wanted an avenue to secure standard work protections and to negotiate with managers, including Garcia’s longtime chief of staff, John Chapa Gorczynski. Garcia’s Washington-based deputy chief of staff, Courtney Broderick, and district deputy chief of staff, Chris McCarthy, are also included in office management. …
   8. Gorczynski said there hasn’t been any discussion between management and the staffers about the union effort, but they plan to meet in the coming weeks.
   9. Garcia, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, was one of the first Hispanic Texas women elected to Congress and quickly made a mark serving as an impeachment manager during former President Donald Trump’s first Senate impeachment trial. Garcia previously served in a variety of offices in Harris County, including state senator, Houston city controller and city council member.
   10. MIKE: I found this news surprising. I had no idea that congressional staffs could unionize. Honestly, I’d never even thought about it. But it makes sense.
   11. MIKE We hear stories of staffers being used and abused in various ways: Crazy schedules, verbal abuse, sexual harassment, etc. In that context, once you think about it, unionization of congressional staffers makes sense. It would provide guidelines for how people can be managed respectfully and grievance procedures at the least. Overtime pay is probably not an option since staffers tend to be salaried workers, but maybe limits on hours worked per day or per week could be negotiated.
   12. MIKE: Rep. Garcia’s staff is not the first to unionize. According to the story, eleven other staffs have unionized, so I’d like to see more coverage of how that has worked out in other Congressional offices.
   13. ANDREW: I, on the other hand, didn’t know that Congressional staff couldn’t unionize until this House resolution passed last year. I suppose I always assumed they were covered under the same unions as other federal civil servants and government employees are. Well, a win for workers in one shop is good for workers everywhere. I hope to see more staffs unionize, and I hope one of them approaches my union, the Industrial Workers of the World. I’m curious how well our solidarity organizing model would work in this situation.
   14. REFERENCE: Your Right to Form a Union — National Labor
       Relations Board
   15. REFERENCE: Unions 101 — US Department of Labor
   16. REFERENCE: Your Rights to Unionize — AFLCIO.ORG
6. Ahead of Juneteenth, congressional lawmakers again seek to remove exception for slavery from US Constitution; By Shawna Mizelle | CNN | Published 12:54 PM EDT, Fri June 16, 2023
   1. A group of Democratic lawmakers has reintroduced a joint resolution to negate a clause in the 13th Amendment of the Constitution that permits slavery or involuntary servitude “as a punishment for crime.”
   2. The “Abolition Amendment” was introduced on [last] Wednesday ahead of Juneteenth – the national holiday commemorating the end of slavery – by Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Rep. Nikema Williams of Georgia.
   3. The 13th Amendment presently says, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” The new resolution would clarify: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude may be imposed as a punishment for a crime.”
   4. The resolution would not seek to “interfere with opportunities for incarcerated people to consent to work,” its sponsors said.
   5. It’s no easy task to amend the Constitution – the resolution would require a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress before it is sent to the states, where at least 38 legislatures would need to approve it for ratification – and the effort to erase the slavery exception has failed in previous congressional sessions.
   6. But advocates are encouraged by recent state-level efforts to amend their constitutions to remove the exception. …
   7. Those pushing the legislation told CNN that most Americans don’t realize the “loophole” in the 13th Amendment. In a news release, they said that the “slavery clause” led to higher rates of arrests among Black Americans for “minor crimes, like loitering or vagrancy, codified in ‘Black Codes’” throughout the Jim Crow era.
   8. The resolution’s sponsors said the clause incentivized “minor crime convictions and drove the over-incarceration of Black Americans on infamous prison plantations like Parchman in Mississippi and Angola in Louisiana.” …
   9. Asked by CNN if the latest effort will garner bipartisan support, Merkley said, “There’s been a sense that this is really something that needs to be fixed. But there isn’t kind of the urgency of like a debt ceiling problem or a health care bill or something of that nature.”
   10. “To me, this is urgent. It’s unacceptable that our Constitution allows slavery. It’s way past time to remedy this clause,” he added.
   11. The movement to end the exception is also taking place on a statewide level, as the caveat is included in some state constitutions.
   12. In November, voters in Alabama, Vermont, Oregon and Tennessee approved a measure to rid the punishment clause once and for all, while a similar measure failed in Louisiana.
   13. Merkley told CNN that the statewide efforts give “legitimacy to the conversation about expunging it from the 13th Amendment.”
   14. MIKE: I’ve read about this before; both the proposed amendment to the 13^th, and the reasons why it’s needed.
   15. MIKE Aside from the potential abuse of legal process to arrest people for minor infractions and then use them as “slave labor”, there’s not just the question of choice. There’s the question of fair compensation.
   16. MIKE: Prisoners work for literally pennies per hour, even when they’re contracted out to private enterprise. In an excerpt from org: “[P]risons appear to be paying incarcerated people less today than they were in 2001. The average of the minimum daily wages paid to incarcerated workers for non-industry prison jobs is now 86 cents, down from 93 cents reported in 2001. The average maximum daily wage for the same prison jobs has declined more significantly, from $4.73 in 2001 to $3.45 today. What changed? At least seven states appear to have lowered their maximum wages, and South Carolina no longer pays wages for most regular prison jobs – assignments that paid up to $4.80 per day in 2001. With a few rare exceptions, regular prison jobs are still unpaid in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, and Texas. Incarcerated people assigned to work for state-owned businesses earn between 33 cents and $1.41 per hour on average. …”
   17. MIKE: You might as what happens to these wages, assuming prisoners get wages at all: “The question of wages paid for prison labor is an important one, especially when we consider the relative costs of fees charged and things sold to incarcerated people. The value of a dollar is different when you earn pennies per hour. (And in six states, the wage is almost always zero pennies per hour.) In Colorado, for example, it costs an incarcerated woman two weeks’ wages to buy a box of tampons; maybe more if there’s a shortage. Saving up for a $10 phone card would take almost two weeks for an incarcerated person working in a Pennsylvania …”
   18. MIKE: I’ve linked to the article if you want to start there. I’m sure there’s a great deal more information on this topic online.
   19. ANDREW: This loophole absolutely has been and is still being used today to enable the racist economic exploitation of Black people by criminalizing and dehumanizing them. That situation needs to change, and though I believe it will only cease when we live in a society no longer built upon extraction and exploitation, closing this loophole would undoubtedly be a step forward. But I have two concerns with Senator Merkley’s resolution.
   20. ANDREW: The first is with something in the text. One of the Whereas clauses ends with the phrase “it is not the intent of Congress… to modify any employment protections currently available to people in correctional institutions”. To me, this clause removes any bite from this resolution. Any potential for this language to force prison wages to match minimum wage is cut off, because the intent of this resolution is expressly stated not to change employment protections, which I would think would include minimum wage laws.
   21. ANDREW: The second concern is with what’s not in the text. This is a very short and very light amendment. It contains no extensive reforms to the US criminal legal system, and without that I have to wonder how this amendment is expected to change anything. It’s more of a statement of intent than anything else, and sometimes that’s needed to make upcoming changes more palatable. However, I worry that this resolution itself is essentially symbolic, but that many liberals will think that closing this loophole will automatically fix the laws enabling abuse and discrimination against Black people in the US. I worry that when the time comes, many of the people supporting this resolution won’t step up to push for the long, detailed changes that will have a real impact.
   22. ANDREW: I would like to see this resolution pass without that one concerning clause. Whether it does or not, I encourage all of our listeners to understand that this won’t be the end. There will be more change needed, and it is extremely important to stay engaged and aware of what efforts are being made, both within the law and in the real world, to make that change happen.
   23. REFERENCE: How much do incarcerated people earn in each state? — PRISONPOLICY.ORG
7. Well-funded Christian group behind US effort to roll back LGBTQ+ rights; By Adam Gabbatt in New York (@adamgabbatt) | THEGUARDIAN.COM | Mon 19 Jun 2023 06.00 EDT Last modified on Mon 19 Jun 2023 06.44 EDT
   1. With the US besieged by a rightwing culture war campaign that aims to strip away rights from LGBTQ+ people and others, blame tends to be focused on Republican politicians and conservative media figures.
   2. But lurking behind efforts to roll back abortion rights, to demonize trans people, and to peel back the protections afforded to gay and queer Americans is a shadowy, well-funded rightwing legal organization, experts say.
   3. Since it was formed in 1994, Alliance Defending Freedom has been at the center of a nationwide effort to limit the rights of women and LGBTQ+ people, all in the name of Christianity. The Southern Poverty Law Center has termed it an “anti-LGBTQ hate group” that has extended its tentacles into nearly every area of the culture wars.
   4. In the process, it has won the ear of some of the most influential people in the US, and become “a danger to every American who values their freedoms”, according to Glaad, the LGBTQ+ advocacy organization.
   5. Through “model legislation” and lawsuits filed across the country, ADF aims to overturn same-sex marriage, enact a total ban on abortion, and strip away the already minimal rights that trans people are afforded in the US.
   6. Under the Trump administration, the group found its way into the highest echelons of power, advising Jeff Sessions, the then attorney general, before he announced sweeping guidance to protect “religious liberty” which chipped away at LGBTQ+ protections.
   7. The organization counts among its sometime associates Amy Coney Barrett, the supreme court justice who the Washington Post reported spoke five times at an ADF training program established to push a “distinctly Christian worldview in every area of law”.
   8. ADF is engaged in “a very strong campaign to put a certain type of religious view at the center of American life”, said Rabia Muqaddam, senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights.
   9. “[The ADF campaign] extends to abortion, it extends to LGBTQ folks, to immigration, to what kind of religion we think is America, what kind of people we think are American,” Muqaddam said.
   10. “It’s as dramatic as that. I think we are in a fight to preserve democracy and preserve America as a place where we do tolerate and encourage and empower everyone.”
   11. ADF was founded in 1994 by a group of “leaders in the Christian community”, according to its website. Among those leaders was James Dobson, the founder of the anti-LGBTQ+ Focus on the Family organization who has said the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting, in which 20 children and six adults were killed, was a “judgment” from God because of declining church numbers. …
   12. The organization is currently behind the lawsuit 303 Creative, Inc v Elenis, which the supreme court is expected to decide this month, and which could chip away at LGBTQ+ rights. It’s a case that is classic ADF – a seemingly manufactured issue which the group has managed to chase all the way through the American legal system.
   13. The plaintiff, 303 Creative, is a website design company. 303 Creative has never made wedding websites, but its owner, Lorie Smith, claims her first amendment rights are being impinged because, if she were to start making wedding websites, she would not want to make them for same-sex couples – which would violate Colorado’s anti-discrimination laws.
   14. Another ADF obsession is abortion. It was involved, Muqaddam said, in crafting a 15-week abortion ban in Mississippi – which prompted a legal case that found its way to the supreme court – eventually resulting in Roe v Wade, which guaranteed the right to abortion, being overturned in 2022. …
   15. “They enacted a law that they knew was unconstitutional, they enacted it for the purpose of generating case after case after case to push it out to the supreme court until they found a court that was sympathetic to their argument,” Muqaddam said.
   16. She added: “I think that’s exactly what is happening in the LGBTQ context as well. Their goal is to limit individual rights as much as possible.”
   17. The ADF website shows the breadth of its involvement in rightwing culture wars. The organization touts its work opposing abortion, on opposing same-sex marriage and opposing trans rights.
   18. “We advocate for laws and precedents that promote human flourishing by recognizing the important differences between men and women and honoring God’s design for marriage between one man and one woman,” ADF’s website reads.
   19. But Emerson Hodges, a research analyst at the SPLC, said what ADF is really doing is attempting to “undo LGBTQ social and legislative progress”.
   20. “They go under the guise of religious liberty, and religious freedom. What that means, though, is this religious liberty to discriminate and the religious freedom to invalidate LGBTQ individuals,” Hodges said. …
   21. An article on ADF’s website states that it is a “biblical truth” that “men and women are physically different”, and the organization has duly worked to prevent trans people taking part in women’s sports.
   22. The group sued a school district in Minnesota in 2016, and in 2021 a judge in Connecticut dismissed an ADF lawsuit which sought to prevent transgender athletes competing in high school sports. The same year, ADF backed a lawsuit brought by a teacher in Virginia who had said he would not use a transgender child’s preferred pronouns because that would amount to “sinning against our God”. …
   23. “[ADF’s] obsession with targeting LGBTQ people is unhinged and drastically out of touch with supermajorities of Americans who support LGBTQ people and laws to protect us from discrimination,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and chief executive of Glaad.
   24. “Everyone should understand the truth: the ADF is simply an anti-LGBTQ group trying to abuse levers of government to push discrimination and keep their warped sense of control.
   25. “They’ve also worked to ban the right to choose, and are in cahoots with other extremist groups to oppress marginalized people. ADF is a danger to every American who values their freedoms – to be ourselves, live freely, and be welcome to contribute and to succeed in every area of society.”
   26. MIKE: Groups that include words like “Liberty” and “Freedom” in their name are almost always fighting against aspects of those things. I often find myself struggling for a way to say their names without, sort of, validating them.
   27. MIKE: I can’t use the term “so-called”, because that’s what they are I can’t say “self-described because of course they’re self-described.
   28. MIKE: So far, I think the term I have settled on, at least for the time being, is “deceptively named”. So, we would have the “deceptively-named Alliance Defending Freedom”; the “deceptively-named House Freedom Caucus”; the “deceptively-named American Freedom Party”; the “deceptively-named Moms for Liberty”.
   29. MIKE: What all these groups have in common is using the words “freedom” or “liberty” in their chosen names when they actually believe in liberty and freedom only for themselves and people like them. They should really use words like “oppression” or “exclusion” in their names, if they believed in truth-in-advertising. But groups like this use words like “truth” the way they use “liberty” and “freedom”. Then we would have honestly-named groups like “the Alliance Defending Oppression”; the “House Oppression Caucus”; The American Exclusion Party; or the “Moms for Exclusion”.
   30. Your “hate-dar” should always tingle when a group uses “liberty” or “freedom” in their official names.
   31. ANDREW: I think it’s also important to consider how essential the US court system is to the right’s campaign of oppression. So many of these changes are handed down by right-wing judges because the people advocating for them know how deeply unpopular they are and thus how unlikely they are to get these changes enacted into law by large legislative bodies that represent many different views.
   32. ANDREW: Instead, they target smaller legislative bodies that are packed with right-wingers to enact these laws that get challenged in higher and higher courts until it finally falls to a handful of unelected, serving-for-life, politically-entrenched people to decide for the rest of us. I don’t pretend to know the exact reforms needed, but I think there’s an obvious problem with that structure.
   33. REFERENCE: “Freedom” is America’s latest political football, But on the right and left, politicians are groping for a new definition of what it means — ECONOMIST.COM (Login or sign-up required)
8. Judge orders stretch of pipeline that crosses tribal land to shut down in three years; by Zack Budryk | THEHILL.COM | 06/19/23 2:08 PM ET
   1. A federal judge has ordered a Canadian oil firm to shut down a section of its pipeline in Wisconsin that crosses tribal land, a partial victory for indigenous groups that have long opposed the project.
   2. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge William Conley of the Western District of Wisconsin, an Obama appointee, sided with members of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa over a stretch of the Line 5 pipeline from Canadian firm Enbridge.
   3. The tribe has argued the area of the pipeline is at risk of rupture, while erosion of the banks of the Bad River has left only about 15 feet of land separating the pipeline and the river.
   4. Conley agreed with the tribe on the environmental risks of the situation but did not agree a state of emergency warranted an immediate shutdown.
   5. In addition to ruling for a gradual shutdown within three years, he ordered the energy firm to pay the tribe $5 million in damages for trespassing.
   6. His Friday ruling expressed concerns that an immediate halt to the pipeline would disrupt energy security in the area and make consumer fuel costs spiral.
   7. “The court has been and still is wary of permanently shutting down the pipeline without providing adequate time for market adjustments, and hopefully, even for Enbridge to complete a proposed reroute of Line 5, which Enbridge represents would likely take 5 years for permitting and a turnkey bypass to be put in place,” Conley wrote.
   8. “However, Enbridge has now had 10 years since losing its rights of way, including four years of litigating, to move its bypass forward,” he added. “Considering all the evidence, the court cannot countenance an indefinite delay or even justify what would amount to a five-year forced easement with little realistic prospect of a reroute proceeding even then. Nevertheless, the court will give Enbridge an additional three years to complete a reroute.”
   9. The ruling comes two years after the Biden administration ordered a thorough environmental review of the tunnel used to house Line 5.
   10. In a statement to The Hill, Enbridge hailed the decision as a partial win but said the Canadian company will appeal the ruling. …
   11. ANDREW: This ruling is certainly encouraging, but more lenient to Enbridge than I think is needed.
   12. ANDREW: For one thing, I would have required Enbridge to fund action to prepare for a rupture, including readying response, mitigation, and clean-up operations. That’d be on top of the $5 million the company has to pay to the Chippewa, which I would have increased to at least 50% of the revenue made from transporting that oil through the section of pipeline on tribal land.
   13. ANDREW: For another, I do actually agree that an immediate shutdown is too risky for the people relying on the energy from the oil in that pipeline. Three years, however, seems a long time to risk a rupture. I would have sought advice from experts in energy infrastructure without connections to Enbridge to determine what other options there are to keep those communities’ lights on, and how long it would take to implement them. I would hope there would be a feasible option that would only take one or two years or less to implement, and I’d give Enbridge that amount of time to figure something out and order it covered under any existing agreements Enbridge had with those communities so they can’t suddenly gouge people.
   14. ANDREW: But that’s not the ruling that was handed down. I’ll happily push for future cases like this to be harder on the companies violating people’s rights and putting them at risk, but for the moment, all we can do is hope the pipeline stays intact long enough to be shut off.
   15. MIKE: I think that this reassertion of tribal rights over their land is another positive step in yielding back to tribes the treaty rights that were agreed to by prior US governments.
9. A court ruling took tribal land off Wisconsin tax rolls. The victory for the tribes has blown a hole in municipal budgets; Under a 19th-century treaty, tribes are immune to state taxation for all time. Now tribal and nontribal leaders face new challenges. By Danielle Kaeding | WPR.ORG (Wisconsin Public Radio) | Published: Tuesday, June 20, 2023, 6:00am
   1. [The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa has won an important victory. A] decision from a three-judge panel on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals stems from a 2018 lawsuit brought by four northern Wisconsin tribes[that] sued the state and towns over taxation of their lands.
   2. The tribes argued lands owned by their members can’t be taxed because the 1854 treaty that established their reservations gave them immunity from state taxation for all time. The state’s position was that land owned by the tribes since 1854 couldn’t be taxed – but any land that had ever been sold to someone outside the tribes could be, even if the land was later sold back to tribal members … The court ruled in favor of the tribes in August, and in November the state declined to appeal the decision. …
   3. The legal issue is really about the boundary between state and tribal sovereignty rather than taxation, according to Richard Monette. He’s a professor of law and director of the Great Lakes Indigenous Law Center at UW-Madison. …
   4. MIKE: The article is really interesting and detailed, and could have significant implications for tribal rights generally.
   5. MIKE: The story leans heavily on the tax implications and fiscal for tribal members and non-members on tribal lands, but it’s really about more than that both legally and historically. I suggest reading the article.
   6. ANDREW: Funny that another story involving the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa also involves the issue of knock-on effects of court rulings. Sure, the impact of this ruling on municipal budgets is something that needs to be considered. But it’s not the responsibility of the Chippewa, or of the court. The state government, or federal government if need be, should step in and provide temporary funding to transition these municipal governments into their new tax realities. Or, we could cut the military budget a little bit and drown every municipality in the country in money. That’s always an option.
   7. MIKE: I think what’s really interesting and important is the number of pro-tribal court judgments over the last several years. The precedents are really important going forward.
   8. REFERENCE: Are Native Americans eligible to run for President? (Not authoritative, but an interesting point of departure.)
   9. REFERENCE: The Case for Tribal Statehood; Democrats have advocated for years to add D.C. and Puerto Rico to the 50 states. There’s a constitutional path for statehood for tribes too. (November 8, 2022) —NEWREPUBLIC.COM
10. How will the Federal Reserve’s rate hike pause affect the dollar?; IMF chief says inflation is a priority. By Samantha Delouya | CNN.COM | Published 5:04 PM EDT, Thu June 15, 2023
    1. On Wednesday [6/14/2023], the Federal Reserve hit pause on its benchmark interest rate after hiking 10 times in a row in a battle to cool the US economy and tame inflation.
    2. That rate-hiking campaign has … helped pump up the US dollar, maintaining an unexpected strength that reverberates across the economy. However, with the Fed’s pause, many experts believe the dollar’s muscle could start to give out.
    3. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against six other currencies, has fallen since hitting a 20-year high in September, but it’s still trading at near multi-year highs.
    4. “Given the fact that the Fed has raised interest rates in the US at the fastest pace in about 40 years… that’s attracted flows, which has helped keep the dollar strong,” Lisa Shalett, chief investment officer at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, told CNN.
    5. A strong dollar affects prices, tourism and trade: The ripple effect of a robust dollar permeates various parts of the economic picture, from international trade to tourism.
    6. For one, a strong dollar directly impacts the cost of importing goods. Products made in foreign countries become cheaper, relative to American-made goods. That benefits customers of big box stores, like Walmart, that sell foreign-made goods. Even as the United States experiences inflation, these products stay relatively cheaper, Shalett said.
    7. “One of the underappreciated dimensions of a strong dollar is that it weighs on inflation,” she said.
    8. However, there are downsides to the dollar’s strength: US-made goods look more expensive in comparison to cheaper imports, reducing US exports, according to Joseph Gagnon, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
    9. “When US companies aren’t exporting as much, that means they’re not producing as much, so they don’t need as many workers,” he said.
    10. That’s not the only way a strong dollar may hurt American workers and businesses, according to Gagnon.
    11. While Americans may find trips abroad relatively cheaper during times of dollar strength, tourism to the United States may take a hit.
    12. “It makes it more expensive for foreigners to come to the US, which reduces demand for US restaurants, hotels and attractions,” Gagnon said.
    13. Stronger than expected: The US dollar is often called a “safe haven currency” for its perceived stability. According to the Federal Reserve, it is the most used currency in foreign transactions.
    14. Its recent persistent strength, even as the central bank attempts to tamp down the US economy, has surprised some who track the currency.
    15. “The US dollar has been very strong because the US economy has been very strong — relatively stronger than most other economies,” Gagnon said.
    16. Relative weakness in European and Asian economies has also added investors’ appetite for the dollar, according to Gagnon. …
    17. [I]n the longer term, several developments could challenge the US dollar’s supremacy, according to Shalett.
    18. She pointed to the United States’ growing debt levels and a potential shrinking appetite from foreign investors in US debt, along with increasing talk of “dedollarization,” meaning countries reducing their reliance on the US dollar as a reserve currency.
    19. MIKE: In some ways, the US dollar is the most over-rated currency in the world. The US runs an almost consistent trade deficit and balance of payments deficit. There are more dollars circulating outside the US than inside it. If the US was any other nation, its currency would be considerably less valuable.
    20. MIKE: But the US after WW2 was half of the world’s economy. We were the market for the world, and most international transactions were in dollars, so of course the US dollar became the world’s reserve currency.
    21. MIKE: Our continuing status as a reserve currency is due partly to being, still, one of the largest markets in the world. We’ve also never redenominated our currency, so any US currency ever minted or printed can still be redeemed at face value. We’ve paid our debts on time, something which radical Republicans don’t seem to recognize as internationally important.
    22. MIKE: And then, there’s inertia. When a viable system has been in place for along time, it tends to remain in place until some major change in circumstances forces a change.
    23. MIKE: The US dollar will not rein supreme forever, and like many empires, when it’s decline comes, it may be more sudden and painful than we can imagine. We need to be prepared for that day, and be prepared to manage it in as painless a way as possible.
    24. ANDREW: I agree, though I would add that the strong position of the US dollar has allowed the federal government to exercise soft power in many other countries around the world, which in turn leads those nations to trade more with the US and use the US dollar as more of their reserve currency, giving the dollar even more strength. Opinions on the morality and ethics of that situation aside, I think it’s an important thing to remember when discussing how the US dollar got where it is today.
    25. ANDREW: As for a painless transition, I too think that should be a priority, and that the people most at risk from that pain (and thus the ones most in need of insulation from it) are the working class. As we discussed in a show last October, this interest rate hike isn’t exactly a metaphorical down pillow. To me, that doesn’t inspire confidence that when the dollar does come down, the Fed will try very hard to keep working people fed and housed through it. We’ll just have to try and ensure that other parts of government will.
11. Kakhovka collapse: image emerges of apparently explosive-laden car at dam; Photograph taken by Ukrainian drone on 28 May said to offer further evidence Russia was behind breach. By Daniel Boffey in Kyiv | THEGUARDIAN.COM | Mon 19 Jun 2023 05.58 EDT, Last modified on Mon 19 Jun 2023 09.14 EDT
    1. A photograph of a car apparently laden with explosives parked at the top of Ukraine’s Kakhovka dam shortly before it gave way is said to offer further evidence Russia was behind the incident.
    2. The image, taken by a Ukrainian drone and given to Associated Press, was taken on 28 May. It appears to show a white car with its roof cut open, revealing large barrels inside, one of which appears to have a landmine attached to its lid. A cable runs from the barrel towards the side of the river held by Russian forces.
    3. A Ukrainian special forces communications official told the Associated Press he believed the car was there to stop any Ukrainian advance on the dam and to amplify a planned explosion originating in the machine room. …
    4. Seismic signals from an explosion at the dam were picked up on sensors at 2.35am and 2.54am on 6 June. The size of the explosion is said to discount an external attack as being the cause.
    5. The Institute for the Study of War, a US thinktank that has monitored Russian actions in Ukraine since the war began, has claimed that “the balance of evidence, reasoning, and rhetoric suggests that the Russians deliberately damaged the dam”.
    6. Ukraine’s intelligence service released an intercepted conversation it claimed was between a Russian soldier and someone else in which the soldier said “our sabotage groups were there. They wanted to create a scare with the dam. It didn’t quite go according to plan.”
    7. ANDREW: Even acknowledging the pro-NATO bias of these sources, that seems pretty convincing. What intrigues me is the idea that, quote, “It didn’t quite go according to plan.” This suggests that the Russians may have, as we’ve speculated on past shows, not intended to fully destroy the dam, or not to have set it off at the moment they did, and possibly that they’ve now disadvantaged themselves in some way. It’ll be interesting to see what information comes out of this situation next.
    8. MIKE: I actually kind of agree with that brief summation.
12. Putin rebuts key elements of African peace plan for Ukraine; REUTERS | June 17, 2023, 5:15 PM CDT. Updated 5 hours ago
    1. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday gave African leaders seeking to mediate in the war in Ukraine a list of reasons why he believed many of their proposals were misguided, pouring cold water on a plan already largely dismissed by Kyiv.
    2. The African leaders were seeking agreement on a series of “confidence building measures”, even as Kyiv last week began a counteroffensive to push back Russian forces from the swathes of southern and eastern Ukraine that they occupy.
    3. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said after meeting them in Kyiv on Friday that peace talks would require Moscow to withdraw its forces from occupied Ukrainian territory, something Russia has said is not negotiable.
    4. Putin opened Saturday’s talks with representatives of Senegal, Egypt, Zambia, Uganda, Congo Republic, Comoros and South Africa in a palace near St Petersburg by stressing Russia’s commitment to the continent.
    5. But after presentations from the Comoran, Senegalese and South African presidents, he stepped in to challenge the assumptions of the plan – predicated on acceptance of internationally recognised borders – before the round of statements could go any further.
    6. Putin reiterated his position that Ukraine and its Western allies had started the conflict long before Russia sent its armed forces over the border in February last year, something they deny.
    7. He said the West, not Russia, was responsible for a sharp rise in global food prices early last year that has hit Africa especially hard.
    8. He told the delegation that Ukrainian grain exports from Black Sea ports that Russia has permitted for the past year were doing nothing to alleviate Africa’s difficulties with high food prices because they had largely gone to wealthy countries.
    9. And he said Russia had never refused talks with the Ukrainian side, which had been blocked by Kyiv. Moscow has, however, repeatedly said any peace must allow for “new realities”, meaning its declared annexation of five Ukrainian provinces, four of which it only partially controls – a red line for Kyiv.
    10. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in televised remarks that Moscow shared the “main approaches” of the African plan, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying it was “difficult to realise”.
    11. Peskov said Putin had shown interest in the plan, whose 10 points South African President Cyril Ramaphosa laid out in his presentation, and Russia would continue dialogue with the African countries.
    12. Lavrov said they had not brought the Russian leader any message from Zelenskiy. …
    13. ANDREW: I think the objective here should be to get peace talks started. This story says to me that Putin wants to negotiate; in order to do that, he needs Zelensky at the table, and in order to get Zelensky at the table, Putin will need to agree to at least withdraw some Russian troops. Some of those forces have to be more battered than others; he could take the ones in the worst shape back to Russia, possibly for a resupply if he has to hedge his bets. That might be enough to get Ukraine to consider the African proposal.
    14. ANDREW: If I were advising Putin, I would be strongly suggesting he pivot his rhetoric about this invasion. Make it about liberating the separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. Get Ukraine to agree to let those regions break away in exchange for Russian troops withdrawing from all other occupied Ukrainian territory, including Crimea. He could sell the whole invasion to the Russian people as a strategic move to aid friendly liberation movements, something about self-determination, stop hemorrhaging troops and materials, and get some sanctions lifted. Ukraine could get Crimea back and have a win against Russia under its belt. Everybody gains.
    15. ANDREW: But I fear that such an outcome would require this war being just about territory, and not ideology. For Russia, I think this war is about Russian nationalism and chauvinism. For Ukraine, I think it’s about not losing their country (which, fair), but also about proving their mettle against Russia. I think these ideological motivations are what really stand in the way of finding a peaceful and maybe even just way of stopping the bloodshed.
    16. MIKE: Your point about a peace plan that would allow Putin to withdraw some of the more battered units of the Russian army for rest and refitting is precisely why Ukraine is against such a plan. Sometimes wars need to reach some kind of a conclusion, otherwise any ceasefire is nothing more than an intermission for more violence and bloodshed later, after battered forces have been rested and resupplied.
    17. MIKE: Russia needs to yield back sovereign Ukrainian territory with some kind of signed treaty and guarantees. Reparations are for the parties to decide. Anything else gives Russia a victory and would likely lead to further territorial adventurism in the future; possibly by Russia, and perhaps by others.

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