AUDIO:

POSSIBLE TOPICS: VOTETEXAS.GOV—Voter Information; REGISTER TO VOTE; APPLY FOR MAIL-IN BALLOT; Tomball To Begin Enforcing Hotel Occupancy Tax Collection From Short-Term Rentals; Harris County Jurors Will Get Pay Boost Starting September; ERCOT Can’t Be Sued Over 2021 Winter Storm, Court Rules; Texas Governor Signs Bill Rescinding Water Breaks As Deadly Heat Grips State; Two Years After Surfside Collapse, A Bitter Feud Over The Oceanfront Land; COMMENTARY & DISCUSSION: What Happened In Russia And What Are The Short-, Medium- And Long-Term Consequences?; Putin Rebuts Key Elements Of African Peace Plan For Ukraine; America’s Cultural Revolution; 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!)
2. Podcast on your phone’s Podcast App
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
      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. Tomball to begin enforcing hotel occupancy tax collection from short-term rentals; By Lizzy Spangler | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 9:30 AM Jun 22, 2023 CDT
   1. Tomball will begin enforcing hotel occupancy tax, or HOT, collection from short-term rental properties, according to Finance Director Katherine Tapscott, who gave a presentation on the topic to City Council at its June 19 meeting.
   2. “At this time, we’re not seeking to require any regulatory compliance or licensing for short-term rentals,” Tapscott said. “We’re just wanting to collect that hotel occupancy tax.”
   3. The city’s vendor for collecting HOT, Avenu, will identify short-term rentals within Tomball, collect the tax and monitor for new short-term rental properties, Tapscott said. Avenu will monitor over 80 websites to stay on top of new short-term rental property listings in Tomball, according to a presentation from the company.
   4. Tomball collects a 7% HOT following the adoption of an ordinance in 2006, Tapscott said.
   5. The city defines “short term” as less than 30 days, according to Tapscott’s presentation.
   6. Tomball collects HOT from 10 hotels or motels, and one bed and breakfast facility, Tapscott said.
   7. The city also receives HOT from several short-term rental properties, but the collection wasn’t being enforced. …
   8. There are 93 active short-term rental properties in Tomball, with an average nightly rate of $236.54, according to Avenu’s presentation. At a 40% occupancy rate, the estimated HOT revenue is about $250,000. …
   9. According to its presentation, Avenu will:
      1. Discover and identify potential short-term rental properties
      2. Obtain proof that a property is a short-term rental
4. Harris County jurors will get pay boost starting September; By Melissa Enaje | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 12:08 PM Jun 22, 2023 CDT. Updated 12:08 PM Jun 22, 2023 CDT
   1. … Residents and registered voters serving jury duty from across Harris County will get a pay bump starting in September after the Texas Legislature approved the first pay increase in the state since 2005, according to Harris County officials.
   2. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 3474 on June 13 that calls for jury pay to increase from $6 to $20 for the first day and from $40 to $58 on subsequent days.
   3. Harris County District Clerk Marilyn Burgess, whose office oversees the jury summons and court process, said in a statement that she traveled to Austin several times this year in order to push for passage of jury pay increase for Texas jurors.
   4. “I am confident this jury pay increase is a necessary first step towards improving participation and having juries that reflect the diverse racial and socioeconomic demographics of Harris County,” Burgess said. “We can only achieve that if we pay our jurors fairly.” …
   5. Burgess went before Harris County Commissioners Court in March 2021 with a proposal to increase jury pay, according to a news release. She proposed for a higher rate than what was approved by the governor in June 2023, from $6 to $50 for the first day of service, and from $40 to $80 for subsequent days.
   6. Commissioners Court tabled the proposal.
   7. “More is needed in terms of jury pay, and I will continue to work with Commissioners Court to supplement the local portion of jury pay in Harris County,” Burgess said.
   8. MIKE: Personally, I always found a jury pay of $6/day to be insulting. I couldn’t even believe that they raised it to $6/day in 2005. Six dollars per day hasn’t been good pay since the 1920s. And it was exactly what I had to pay for parking. It felt like the “fix” was in.
   9. MIKE: I realize that jury duty is a civic responsibility, and there was a time in my life when I would have looked forward to serving, but even drafted soldiers get paid, plus room and board.
   10. MIKE: $20 for the first day (which is often not longer than 4 hours) at least starts to cover commuting expenses and feels like your service is valued. Paying jurors $58/day on subsequent service days, again, is not a lot of one in the scheme of things but at least makes your service feel valued.
   11. MIKE: Maybe the next thing they should do is index juror pay to inflation because in 5 years, there will be significant erosion in the value of that pay boost.
   12. ANDREW: I’m interested in serving on a jury just to have the experience, but I do think that if the state is serious about wanting most people to not resent jury duty (or at least resent it less), the pay rate really should match minimum hourly wage. Since you might have to take time off work for it, that’s time you’re not spending on earning your normal wage, and even $20 per day might not be enough to avoid jurors taking a financial hit that month.
   13. ANDREW: The other option is to require employers to give paid time off for jury service, and only compensate unemployed jurors, which could save the state a lot of money. But somehow, I don’t think the “anti-spending” angle is going to override the “pro-business” angle of Texas Republicans.
5. ERCOT can’t be sued over 2021 winter storm, court rules; By Hannah Norton | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 5:52 PM Jun 23, 2023 CDT. Updated 5:51 PM Jun 23, 2023 CDT
   1. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state power grid, is immune to lawsuits over grid issues during the 2021 winter storm, the Texas Supreme Court ruled June 23.
   2. The court determined ERCOT is a government entity, making it immune to lawsuits.
   3. “ERCOT’s governmental nature is demonstrated most prominently by the level of control and authority the state exercises over it and its accountability to the state,” wrote Chief Justice Nathan L. Hecht.
   4. The court ruled unanimously that ERCOT is part of the government [NOTE: granting it some immunity], but was split 5-4 on whether it was eligible for “sovereign”
   5. Justices dismissed two lawsuits—one from San Antonio’s municipal utility provider, CPS Energy, and the other from Panda Power Funds, a private power plant developer based near Dallas. …
   6. Separate from the storm, Panda Power requested $2 billion to alleviate “substantial financial harm” caused by inaccurate demand reports from ERCOT.
   7. ERCOT serves 90% of Texas’ population and 75% of its land. Hecht wrote that granting immunity “prevents the disruption of key governmental services, protects public funds, and respects separation of powers principles.”
   8. “Unlike any other entity previously granted immunity by this court, no statute designates ERCOT as a part of the government,” Justices Jeff Boyd and John Phillip Devine wrote in the dissenting opinion.
   9. The [dissenting] justices recommended the Texas Legislature “correct the court’s error” by removing some or all of ERCOT’s immunity through future legislation.
   10. “In this way, the Legislature could begin restoring the public’s trust following this court’s erroneous extension of sovereign immunity to a purely private corporation,” the dissent said. …
   11. In a statement, ERCOT applauded the court’s decision and emphasized that the ruling “allows us to continue to focus on our core state responsibilities on ensuring a reliable grid for Texans.”
   12. MIKE: I didn’t really have to include that last sentence from ERCOT’s statement, except that it tickled my darker sense of humor.
   13. MIKE: I’m somewhat familiar with “sovereign immunity”. At its core, it means that you can’t sue the government unless they allow you to. But this “immunity” that the Texas Supreme Court has carved out seems dubious at best.
   14. MIKE: So, ERCOT is “immune” but not “sovereign immune”? I’m unclear how that works.
   15. MIKE: Not having read the actual opinion (it’s 53 pages), I think that the opinions of dissenters on the court will ultimately stand the test of time: “no statute designates ERCOT as a part of the government,” Justices Jeff Boyd and John Phillip Devine wrote in the dissenting opinion.”
   16. MIKE: The dissenting opinion is linked in the above quote. I think it explains itself in the first 9 pages, which are light reading in plain English, double-spaced and with wide margins. It’s pretty painless, and explains itself clearly. This SCoT precedent should not be allowed to stand. (BTW, can we call it SCoT? The “Supreme Court of Texas”?)
   17. ANDREW: Well, if we can call ERCOT ERCOT, I don’t see why we can’t call SCoT SCoT. Name games aside, I can see the value in trying to avoid a sudden legal meltdown of the state’s electricity manager. With things the way they are over there, a big lawsuit might also mean outages or at least impediments to service.
   18. ANDREW: But extending this immunity to ERCOT not only sets a dangerous precedent that virtually any private organization acting on behalf of the state can have immunity extended to it, it also prevents the people directly harmed by ERCOT’s mismanagement during the Big Freeze from getting any financial restitution. This is about the only consequence that would matter for ERCOT, since it operates in the interest of for-profit power companies, who fund it through membership dues. Any legal settlements would eat into that dues money.
   19. ANDREW: This case was about some electric companies trying to seek damages, but I’m certain it will also be trotted out should any individuals try to get justice.
   20. ANDREW: To sum up, I can see the motivation behind this ruling, but the implications don’t justify it, and it should absolutely be overturned by a future court or by the Legislature.
6. Texas governor signs bill rescinding water breaks as deadly heat grips state; Measure will nullify local ordinances that provide workers protection from devastating, triple-digit temperatures. By Maanvi Singh (@maanvissingh) | THEGUARDIAN.COM | Fri 23 Jun 2023 18.38 EDT. Last modified on Sat 24 Jun 2023 11.21 EDT
   1. Amid a dangerous heatwave that has brought blistering temperatures across Texas, the state’s governor signed a law this week eliminating local rules requiring water breaks for workers.
   2. The measure, which will take effect later this year, will nullify ordinances enacted by Austin and Dallas that mandate 10-minute breaks for construction workers every four hours. It also prevents any other local governments from passing similar worker protections.
   3. Just days after Greg Abbott, the governor, ratified the law, officials said a 35-year-old utility lineman working to restore power in Marshall, Texas, died after experiencing symptoms of heat illness. The heat index – which takes into account both the temperature and humidity – was 100F (37C) while he was working.
   4. It was an omen of what could come after HB 2127 takes effect in September, wrote the Texas branch of the AFL-CIO union, referring to the far-reaching law that not only curbs cities’ right to enact worker protections, but a number of labor, agriculture, natural resources and finance measures. “Banning required rest breaks for construction workers in the Texas heat is deadly.”
   5. The law’s passage has enraged workers’ advocates, who warn that it will result in even more heat-related deaths and illnesses in a state that already tallies the highest number of worker deaths due to high temperatures. …
   6. Six out of every 10 construction workers in Texas are Latino, and labor advocates say that the law will hurt Latino and Black communities that are already disproportionately affected by extreme heat. Hispanic workers made up a third of all worker heat deaths since 2010, according to an NPR/Columbia study.
   7. Local protections are crucial, advocates say, because the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha) does not have a national heat protection standard.
   8. Still, the Republican lawmakers pushing the new law have said it eliminates a “hodgepodge of onerous and burdensome regulations” that Texas businesses face. The effort aims to prevent cities and counties from enacting progressive policies that counter the state Republican supermajority’s aims. …
   9. “For too long, progressive municipal officials and agencies have made Texas small businesses jump through contradictory and confusing hoops,” said the Republican state representative Dustin Burrows, who introduced the bill.
   10. After the state’s second-hottest summer on record last year, Democratic legislators introduced bills that would have set heat illness guidelines for Texas businesses and required mandatory breaks for government contractors, but those efforts failed to advance.
   11. Such protections are crucial, advocates say, as the climate crisis brings hotter, more prolonged heatwaves. In Texas, the number of triple-digit temperature days have nearly doubled over the past 45 years, a state report found. …
   12. [David Cruz, the communications director for League of United Latin American Citizens National (LULAC), a Latino civil rights group, said it is striking … that Republican officials want to override local protections that cost businesses just 20 minutes of their workers’ productivity, to protect against catastrophic illness and death. “We have to take a stand for what is humane,” he said.
   13. MIKE: So here is another example of the Republican Party today. It fashions itself as the small government, freedom and liberty party. Here, the small government party is forbidding small local governments from protecting their outdoor workers from global warming-induced climate change that can cause death. The rules being over-ridden don’t require shade for workers or cool-down areas. The rule is just a 10 minute break every 4 hours for water! Frankly, even those two breaks are barely helpful.
   14. MIKE: A military document called Water Requirements and Soldier Hydration provides detailed descriptions of the hydration needs of soldiers under various conditions. On PDF page 30, it’s broken down, in part, like this: “A soldier’s daily water requirements increase as a function of the total calories expended per day … because sweat losses are dependent on exercise intensity and duration of effort. For example, in temperate conditions, moderate-intensity military tasks … will elicit sweating rates of approximately 0.3 L/h, whereas hard work … will elicit sweating rates approximately [of] 0.7 L/h. The duration of physical activity also has a significant effect on water need. Although moderate-intensity work in temperate conditions might not elicit high rates of sweating …, when extended over an 8-hour period, a soldier’s daily fluid requirements increase an additional 2.4 L/d.
   15. MIKE: I wonder if Governor Abbott or anyone in the Texas legislature, while in their air-conditioned offices and legislative chambers, with water coolers close at hand, thought to consult a document like this, with its empirical measurements of human exertions and consequent hydrations needs?
   16. MIKE: But the modern Republican Party is the party of interference in local government, relaxation of child labor laws, denial of Medicaid to the poor and indigent, and distaste for Social Security and Medicare, and other regressive and oppressive beliefs.
   17. MIKE: As I often say, elections have consequences. Make sure you vote in every election you can.
   18. ANDREW: This is exactly the kind of situation that will only be improved by workers themselves. There are no laws to provide even token protection on this front anymore. If workers don’t want to die from heatstroke, they’re going to have to take water, rest, and shade breaks without anyone’s permission. If company policy doesn’t like this, workers are going to have to force those policies to change. This is called direct action, and it’s the best way to make positive changes at work, and the only viable way when the law doesn’t have your back.
   19. ANDREW: One way workers can ensure that they still get their breaks would be to coordinate so that everyone takes a break at the same time– the old logic of “they can’t fire us all”. There are other tactics workers can use if management tries to crack down: reducing productivity by doing exactly what the boss says and nothing more, intentionally working at a slower pace, intentionally making mistakes, or making demands by marching on the boss or striking. These tactics are all examples of direct action.
   20. ANDREW: I’m part of a group that teaches workers to use direct action to win their demands. It’s called the Industrial Workers of the World; their website is org, and there are branches in Houston, Austin, and North Texas (linked on the blog at thinkwingradio.com).
   21. ANDREW: I think (or at least I hope) that we will hear about a lot more instances of workers using direct action to protect both their health and their right to protect their health in the absence of laws that do it for them. Those laws are great when they exist, but they can always be repealed by lawmakers who don’t care about workplace safety. But when workers care and coordinate, they can always take action to guarantee safety themselves.
7. Two years after Surfside collapse, a bitter feud over the oceanfront land; By Tim Craig | WASHINGTONPOST.COM | June 23, 2023 at 11:40 a.m. EDT
   1. On a lot scarred by the memories of 98 people who died here two years ago, developers are hopeful a new luxury oceanfront 12-story condominium building could soon rise.
   2. The building, designed by a world-renowned architectural firm, will be constructed of glass fiber reinforced concrete and was partially inspired by one of South Florida’s most recognizable skyscrapers. As described by Dubai-based developer DAMAC International, 57 homeowners will live in a building that includes “soft, cloud-like elements” and a “facade that echo[es] the colors and textures of sand” as its stands over a pristine beach.
   3. But as the replacement for the Champlain Towers South condominium building progresses, the project is caught up in [a] bitterly personal debate over whether the 1.8-acre lot should also include space for a memorial to those killed in one of the nation’s most horrific building failures. Nearly two years ago, the condo collapsed as most residents were asleep in their beds, leading to an anguishing search-and-recovery mission and, eventually, the demolition of what was left standing.
   4. To family members who believe tiny remnants of their loved ones could still be lying undetected in crevices around the site, as well as in the ocean breezes that sweep across it each day, the proposal for a new building is the latest insult in a flawed and rushed redevelopment project.
   5. To truly honor the dead, they say, the millionaires who will call the building home should have to share the high-priced strip of land with those who never got a chance to leave the location on June 24, 2021.
   6. “I lost my sister and my brother-in-law, and we received just 1 percent of my brother-in-law and 33 percent of my sister,” said Martin Langesfeld, who was referring to his sister, Nicole Langesfeld, and her husband, Luis Sadovnic. “We can work together and incorporate a memorial on the site, and they can still build their ultra-luxurious apartments. But we don’t build over dead bodies in America.” …
   7. ANDREW: This is absolutely ghoulish. They want to build luxury condos for millionaires on the site of the collapse of a middle-class condo building? It reads like the world’s most obvious allegory for capitalism, but it’s actually happening.
   8. ANDREW: The memorial is the least they can do. There is no moral or ethical grounds for the developers to say no here. But if the developers cared about morals or ethics, they’d have said yes.
   9. ANDREW: I hope no construction company will take the project until a memorial is also in the plans. That, and maybe local protests, are about the only ways I can think of to force the developers to comply with the wishes of the victims’ families.
   10. ANDREW: On a side note, I want to mention that unfortunately, we do build over dead bodies in the US. Both figuratively with this country’s history of slavery and genocide of indigenous peoples, and literally when construction projects find human remains. I wish Mr. Langesfeld was right, but unfortunately, his pain has a lot of precedent.
   11. MIKE: I was also struck by that last part of the story that I excerpted and why I ended it there. That “we don’t build over dead bodies in America,” is kind of what stopped me in my tracks.
   12. MIKE: First a little background on this story. In the Orthodox Jewish tradition, and perhaps in Islam as well, there is a belief that all the parts of a person need to be buried. In Israel, there are Orthodox religious teams that scour an area for all parts of a dead victim for complete burial. I imagine that’s at least part of what’s at work among the families and friends here, plus that in some cases, so little in the way of remains was found.
   13. MIKE: But that part about not building over graves in America is just historically wrong. It happens more often over Black and Native American graves, but cemeteries and graveyards are abandoned and forgotten often over the centuries.
   14. MIKE: Ultimately, this is an emotional issue; even the religious part is an emotional issue. The dead are indifferent. Funerals and memorial services are for the living rather than the dead.
   15. MIKE: The Catacombs of Paris were quarries converted to ossuaries — essentially, bone storage sites. Quoting from the cited link: “Preparation work began shortly after a 1774 series of basement wall collapses around the Holy Innocents’ Cemetery added a sense of urgency to the cemetery-eliminating measure, and from 1786, nightly processions of covered wagons transferred remains from most of Paris’s cemeteries to a mine shaft opened near the Rue de la Tombe-Issoire.^[fr] …” By the time the catacombs were built, burials were mostly taking place outside of Paris. The living relatives of those who were moved were long gone.
   16. MIKE: There’s an expression: In a hundred years, who will care? Right now, the living still care.
8. MIKE: For this next portion of the show, I’m not excerpting an article because there’s too much uncertainty about what happened in Russia and what the short-, medium- and long-term consequences and outcomes will be.
   1. MIKE: If you’re the type of person that listens to this show, you have probably heard about the “military mutiny”, or “coup attempt”, or whatever they end up calling it, that occurred in Russia over the weekend.
   2. MIKE: The Wagner Group, owned and run by “Putin’s Chef”, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, literally turned on Moscow over the weekend, until he turned around and is now in Belarus.
   3. MIKE: What this all means for Prigozhin, Wagner, Belarus, Ukraine, NATO, and last but not least, Putin and Russia, is still the stuff of armchair prognostication.
   4. MIKE: Could Putin and Prigozhin still make a deal and have Wagner make a surprise raid into Ukraine’s north? Could Belarus’s President Lukashecko suddenly find himself a player in European geopolitics with a ruthless mercenary army in his borders? There are innumerable possibilities, but I would suggest that Yevgeniy Prigozhin stay away from rooftops and upper story windows.
   5. ANDREW: I have been paying some attention to the news of the Wagner Group turning on Russia, and I can’t say I was surprised. 
   6. ANDREW: In general, mercenaries are out for themselves first. When the client is paying fine and the job is reasonable, looking out for themselves means completing the contract and getting repeat business. But when that falls apart, they can use whatever force they want against whoever they want to recoup their investment. There can be exceptions, like if a group’s founder is a member of a marginalized community and is explicitly trying to protect other marginalized people, but that’s not common. The profit-driven potential for betrayal is probably the biggest practical reason for governments not to use mercenary groups (varying ethical standards is a less practical reason, but more important). 
   7. ANDREW: Unfortunately, the US government has used mercenaries before and allowed them to operate in this country. The most infamous example is probably the Pinkertons. Having been contracted for various US government operations before agencies like the FBI existed, the Pinkertons were also responsible for brutally cracking down on labor organizing. The federal government did distance themselves from the company as well as mercenaries in general with the Anti-Pinkerton Act of 1893, but the company still exists and operates in the US today. 
   8. ANDREW: It’s not the only one. Blackwater, now known as Constellis, mostly does work for the CIA and State Department in foreign nations. But their headquarters are located in Virginia. This is something of a trend; even if a company mostly does work outside of the US, they still maintain domestic corporate presences, and the federal government still hires them. That US presence, though, does open the door to further regulation– possibly even a hard-line stance against traditionally structured, for-profit companies like these and an effort to investigate their employees for domestic or international crimes.
   9. ANDREW: I would hope that the Wagner Group incident will prompt fresh scrutiny around whether these kinds of companies should be allowed to exist in the US, much less work for the government. But I suspect that the combination of lobbying, cynicism, and a preference for the status quo in politics will prove a difficult wall to scale for anyone wanting to push this conversation in a meaningful direction.
   10. MIKE: Blackwater was formed by Erik Prince, the brother of Trump’s Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. That they are now called Academi is bitter irony.
   11. MIKE: I had never heard of the Anti-Pinkerton Act, so I looked it up. Wikipedia did little more than report it, so I looked further. The US Government Accountability Office was a little more helpful: “… A company whose corporate charter specifically authorized investigative as well as protective functions and which was licensed as a detective agency was a detective agency for purposes of the Anti-Pinkerton Act and may not be employed by a Federal agency. …” In other words, it seems that you can be a detective agency or a protective agency, but not work for the US government as both, if you purport to be a detective agency.
   12. MIKE: Western nations would do well to be reminded by the Wagner Group rebellion attempt in Russia that mercenaries are self-employed, with loyalty only to their current employers.
   13. MIKE: Mercenary organizations like the Wagner Group are literal double-edged swords. Russia was just reminded of this. Mercenaries are not good for democracies either, and this is ABSOLUTELY why the US and other democracies SHOULD NOT use independent contractors, (aka, mercenaries) nor allow them to develop armies on their territories.
   14. MIKE: Sadly, this does not seem to prevent the US government from hiring mercenaries. Of course, the US government (and most other governments) don’t call them “mercenaries” anymore. They’re called “private military contractors”, and their leaders aren’t warlords; they’re CEOs. It’s all a semantic difference.
   15. MIKE: The incentives for hiring “private military contractors” are their political distance from governments; the “plausible deniability” for war crimes; the avoidance of public backlash for sending “our boys” into dubious wars; and the backend savings of veterans benefits.
   16. MIKE: Blackwater’s Erik Prince proposed to Trump that the war in Afghanistan be privatized. Blackwater would fight it more cheaply, permit withdrawal of US troops, and allow extraction of valuable minerals by US companies in the process, possibly allowing the US to “turn a profit” on the war. Fortunately, maybe even a little surprisingly, Trump turned down this proposal.
   17. MIKE: But the use of mercenary troops is addictive, corrosive and dangerous to both democracies and autocracies.
   18. MIKE: Just ask Rome how that ultimately worked out for them. Their mercenaries insisted upon more and more money and concessions from the Empire, and eventually turned on Rome when their payments could no longer meet the mercenaries’ demands.
   19. MIKE: Hey, Andrew, as far as you know, is Academi (nee Blackwater) still a contractor for the US government?
   20. ANDREW: Well, I couldn’t get a straight confirmation (because of course), but based on the present tense used in all of the relevant research I could pull up, I think they are still contracting for the federal government, yes.
   21. MIKE: So, what might distinguish the difference between a military contractor and a security contractor? Maybe heavy weapons could be the red line. There are lots of firearms that are legal to own in the US, but medium and heavy weapons like rocket launchers and tanks are beyond the pale. Maybe that’s the difference between a security contractor and a mercenary military force.
   22. MIKE: Maybe this is something that can be addressed legislatively in the future.
   23. REFERENCE: What is the Wagner Group? — NYTIMES.COM: “How did the group get its name? The group reportedly took its name from the nom de guerre of its leader, Dmitry Utkin, a retired Russian military officer. Mr. Utkin is said to have chosen Wagner to honor the composer, who was a favorite of Hitler’s. Despite the Kremlin’s denial of any ties to Wagner, Mr. Utkin has been photographed next to Mr. Putin. …”
9. FROM LAST WEEK’S ROUND OF STORIES, this is one that we didn’t get to, but now raises the observation, What a difference a week can make. I wonder what this story would have looked like today.: Putin rebuts key elements of African peace plan for Ukraine; REUTERS.COM | June 17, 2023, 5:15 PM CDT. Updated 5 hours ago
   1. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday (June 17) 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. 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.
   3. 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.
   4. 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.
   5. 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.
   6. 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. …
   7. 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. …
   8. 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. …
   9. MIKE: After the scary week Putin just had with a heavily armed mercenary military force about 125 miles from Moscow, one can only wonder how this meeting might have looked this week rather than last.
   10. MIKE: I got the sense that Putin came off as kind of arrogant. If this meeting had been conducted this now, I’m certain that Putin would not want to look weak, but might he have sounded a little more receptive?
   11. MIKE: The situation in Moscow around Putin is still probably pretty fluid. When you’ve grown up only knowing Putin as leading Russia, these sorts of things often seem unchangeable until they suddenly change. We are living through interesting times. Footnote: Boredom is a highly underrated commodity.
   12. ANDREW: I definitely think Putin will be a bit more accommodating of the African peace plan today than he was last week. He believed he was in a strong enough position to set the assumptions of the plan; the Wagner Group’s reversal has shaken that, I bet. However, I think Zelensky was the missing piece last week, and still is.
   13. ANDREW: I think the priority should be stopping further bloodshed. If Putin wants to negotiate, he needs to get Zelensky to the table. In order to do that, Putin will have to agree to withdraw at least some Russian troops– troops that undoubtedly got redeployed and shaken around when the Wagner Group incident happened. Some may already be able to be considered “withdrawn”, and who knows if the Wagner troops are in any shape to rejoin the fighting in Ukraine after their stunt. It could be strategically easier for Putin to comply with Zelensky’s conditions right now. If he has to hedge his bets, he might even be able to take the opportunity to resupply the troops he withdraws, because the troops that have been redeployed are probably already resupplying anyway.
   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.
10. Analysis: Age of crisis leaves world’s big currencies out of sync; By Alun John and Dhara Ranasinghe | REUTERS.COM | June 28, 2023, 6:53 AM CDT. Updated 12 min ago
    1. MIKE: I’m not going to read you the article. If you are interested in currency news, this is an interesting story. You can click on the link on this page. What caught my eye, though, was the title and the phrase, “Age of Crisis”. The era we’re living in may have just gotten its new name.
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