AUDIO:

POSSIBLE TOPICS: VOTETEXAS.GOV—Voter Information; REGISTER TO VOTE; APPLY FOR MAIL-IN BALLOT; Fort Bend County to host passport fair for convenient documentation services; Republicans finally agree on a property tax cut; Tribal sovereignty push flops in Maine as Gov. Mills’ veto of key legislation stands; Senate Republican Tuberville calls white nationalists racist after taking heat; ‘A taste of victory’: galvanized by US supreme court, far right turns to ‘legal vigilantism’; Russian ex-submarine officer on Ukraine blacklist gunned down on morning run; What to know before Japan releases water from Fukushima nuclear plant;  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

Except for timely election info, the extensive list of voting resources will now be at the end.

1. Fort Bend County to host passport fair for convenient documentation services; By Joe Edwards | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 1:59 PM Jul 7, 2023 CDT. Updated 1:59 PM Jul 7, 2023 CDT
   15. Fort Bend County District Clerk Beverley McGrew Walker and Missouri City Mayor Robin J. Elackatt are joining forces to host the upcoming Fort Bend County Passport Fair on July 15.
   16. The details — Taking place from 8 a.m. to noon at the Missouri City Community Center, the event aims to provide a convenient and efficient platform for local residents to apply for new passports or renew their existing ones.
   17. The passport fair offers a timely opportunity for Fort Bend County residents to acquire or update their passports without the usual in-office hassles.
   18. To ensure a smooth experience, attendees are required to schedule an appointment online in advance.
   19. Visitors will have the convenience of accessing all necessary services on-site. Individuals seeking new passports or renewals using the DS-11 form can complete their applications at the fair. In addition, passport photos will be available for a fee of $15. …
   20. For additional information on the passport fair, or for the requirements to obtain or renew your passport, visit the Fort Bend County website before July 15 for further information.
   21. MIKE: From the article, it sounds like this is only for Fort Bend County residents, but the Fort Bend website doesn’t suggest that. However, it does seem that they will assign your appointment time; you may not have a choice in that. If you attend, you’ll need to pay by check or money order; no cash or credit cards. I suggest springing for the extra dollars for a passport card. It can be much more convenient than carrying your passport for some uses. If you need to get or renew a passport, this is probably as painless and inexpensive as it will ever get. Go to the link for additional or clarifying information. Fees and requirements are on the web site. You can also call the clerk’s office with questions at (281) 341-4509 during their regular office hours.
2. [Texas] Republicans finally agree on a property tax cut; by Charles Kuffner | OFFTHEKUFF.COM/WP | Jul 11th, 2023
   5. [Excerpted from THE TEXAS TRIBUNE:] The $18 billion compromise between the Texas House and Senate — which includes more than $5 billion approved for relief in 2021 — would give increased tax relief for the state’s 5.7 million homeowners and create a tax-credit pilot program for non-homesteaded properties. It would also cut taxes to small businesses and send billions of dollars to school districts so they can cut their tax rates across the board, according to details made public by state leaders Monday.
   6. The proposal must clear both chambers before it heads to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk. Abbott said he looks forward to approving it. […]
   7. [KUFFNER WRITES:] An earlier proposal sought by the House to put a tighter cap on how much taxable property values can rise each year — also known as an appraisal cap — appears to have been left out of the final deal. Instead, the new plan includes a pilot tax-savings program known as a “circuit breaker,” which calculates how much a person should pay in property taxes based on their income levels.
   8. Those tax-credit programs provide targeted relief to certain residents, like seniors, when their tax bills take up too much of their income. Details of the plan that would be included in the Texas Legislature’s new proposal were not immediately released Monday morning.
   9. Circuit breaker programs “are not as simple [as appraisal caps] but they will deliver benefits to the [low-income] people you are concerned about, without also throwing tons of money at your wealthiest homeowners,” Richard Auxier, senior policy associate at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, told The Texas Tribune earlier this year.
   10. Texas doesn’t have an income tax or a statewide property tax, which would help verify a person’s income and make such a program easier to administer. An idea to implement a circuit breaker program died in the 1990s because it came with enormous administrative costs in the absence of an income tax, according to Every Texan, a progressive think tank in Austin.
   11. Other states have a version of this type of program. Half of those are part of the income tax or property tax systems, while others are treated as rebates, according to an analysis by Every Texan. A successful program in Texas would likely need to be a rebate-style program, the analysis says.
   12. There’s more, so read the rest. The lengths to which our government will go, and the contortions they will engage in, to avoid the reality that an income tax would be simpler, fairer, and more efficient than the janky loophole-ridden special-interest-fest that is the current system never ceases to amaze me. The Chron has more.
   13. MIKE: I think Kuffner has said it well. But I would like to remind listeners that years ago, I started suggesting a progressive property tax for Texas. The way that would work is that, after exemptions, the more your house was worth, the higher your property tax rate would be, and vice versa. It’s not a perfect option, but it would be easier than trying to verify income for poor people who don’t even make enough file income tax returns as proof of earnings.
   14. ANDREW: I agree, although I do find it interesting that Republicans have compromised on a policy that at least takes income into account. Although it may be a poor substitute for an income tax, could this circuit breaker policy have the virtue of being described as a progressive tax? In the financial sense, not the political sense, of course.
3. Texas A&M recruited a UT journalism professor, then watered down the offer after ‘DEI hysteria’; The university celebrated its decision to hire Kathleen McElroy to revive its journalism program. She says she’s staying at UT after she felt judged because of her gender. By Kate McGee | TEXAS TRIBUNE via HOUSTONPUBLICMEDIA.ORG | Posted on July 11, 2023, 2:56 PM
   1. When Texas A&M University announced last month that it had hired a director to revive its journalism school, it included the kind of fanfare usually reserved for college coaches and athletes.
   2. The university set up maroon, silver and white balloons around a table outside its Academic Building for an official signing ceremony. It was there that Kathleen O. McElroy, a respected journalist with a long career, officially accepted the position to run the new program and teach as a tenured professor, pending approval from the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents.
   3. McElroy, a 1981 Texas A&M graduate, was the director of the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Journalism between 2016 and 2022, where she is a tenured professor. Before that, she spent 20 years in various editing roles at The New York Times until heading to UT Austin to pursue her doctorate.
   4. She has studied news media and race, with a focus on how to improve diversity and inclusion within newsrooms, and spent her career covering other areas like sports and obituaries. Her master’s thesis focused on the obituaries of civil rights leaders. Now, she was excited to head back to her alma mater to build a brand new program there.
   5. But in the last several weeks, McElroy told The Texas Tribune, the deal with Texas A&M fell apart.
   6. In the days after the signing ceremony, she said, A&M employees told her an increasingly vocal network of constituents within the system were expressing issues with her experience at the Times and with her work on race and diversity in newsrooms, McElroy said.
   7. Behind the scenes, A&M spent weeks altering the terms of her job. After hearing about the concerns, McElroy agreed to a five-year contract position without tenure, which would have avoided a review by regents. On Friday, she received a third offer, this time with a one-year contract and emphasizing that the appointment was at will and that she could be terminated at any time. She has rejected the offer and shared all of the offer letters with the Tribune.
   8. The situation comes at a fraught time at Texas public universities. Schools are preparing for a new state law to go into effect in January that bans offices, programs and training that promote diversity, equity and inclusion. Recently, the Texas A&M System started a systemwide audit of all DEI offices in response to the new law.
   9. Conservative Texans — from locally elected public school trustees to top state officials — have labeled several books and schools of thought that center the perspectives of people of color as “woke” ideologies that make white children feel guilty for the country’s history of racism. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court banned the consideration of race in college admissions, effectively ending affirmative action in American higher education.
   10. McElroy said she was told that her appointment was caught up in “DEI hysteria” as Texas university leaders try to figure out what type of work involving race is allowed.
   11. “I feel damaged by this entire process,” said McElroy, who is a Black woman and a native of Houston’s Third Ward, and whose father, George A. McElroy, was a pioneering Black journalist. “I’m being judged by race, maybe gender. And I don’t think other folks would face the same bars or challenges. And it seems that my being an Aggie, wanting to lead an Aggie program to what I thought would be prosperity, wasn’t enough.”
   12. A Texas A&M University spokesperson did not immediately respond to a list of emailed questions about the issue.
   13. On Friday, McElroy said, she got a call from A&M’s interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, José Luis Bermúdez, warning her that there were people who could force leadership to fire her and he could not protect her.
   14. The call came one day after the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents met and discussed personnel matters in executive session, according to a posted agenda. The board discussed McElroy’s hiring with Texas A&M President M. Katherine Banks, according to a person familiar with the situation.
   15. According to McElroy, Bermúdez told her that her hiring had “stirred up a hornet’s nest,” that there were people against her and that, “even if he hired me, these people could make him fire me … that the president and the chancellor, no one can stop that from happening,” she said.
   16. Ultimately, he advised her to stay in her tenured role at UT-Austin.
   17. On Sunday, she received the latest iteration of an offer letter, which was different from the one she publicly signed on campus. Texas A&M was now offering her a one-year contract as a professor without tenure, and a three-year appointment as the director of the journalism program, though it noted that she could be fired at any time, she said.
   18. “This offer letter on Sunday really makes it clear that they don’t want me there,” she said. “But in no shape, form or fashion would I give up a tenured position at UT for a one-year contract that emphasizes that you can be let go at any point.”
   19. Weeks after the public celebration about the new A&M position, she has rescinded her resignation at UT and will stay in Austin, according to an email sent to that school’s journalism department Tuesday morning and obtained by the Tribune. …
   20. According to the original offer letter that she signed during the June 13 ceremony, McElroy was hired as a tenured professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism and as the journalism program’s director, without an end date to her appointment. Still, the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents, whose members are appointed by the governor, would have to approve her tenure position. …
   21. [After a public signing ceremony,] the conservative website Texas Scorecard wrote a piece emphasizing McElroy’s work at UT Austin and elsewhere regarding diversity, equity and inclusion and her research on race, labeling her a “DEI proponent.”
   22. That website is the reporting arm of Empower Texans, a Tea Party-aligned group formed with millions in oil money that holds considerable influence over Texas officials. Empower Texans and its affiliated groups blur the lines between newsroom, lobbying firm and political action committee. It has aimed to upend Texas politics with pricey primary challenges to replace moderate Republicans with hard-line conservatives.
   23. In a statement, Texas A&M defended McElroy to Texas Scorecard, calling her a “superb professor, veteran journalist and proven leader.” …
   24. But McElroy said she had a conversation with Bermúdez, the interim arts and sciences dean, on June 19 that struck a different tone.
   25. According to written notes McElroy took during the calls and provided to the Tribune, Bermúdez said he wanted her to “go into this with eyes open” and that Texas A&M is different from UT Austin in terms of its politics and culture. McElroy said she was told that she had a big target on her back.
   26. Bermúdez said there were concerns about McElroy going through the tenure process, which requires the approval of the board of regents.
   27. McElroy said that Bermúdez told her that “it might be wise to consider all the ways the wheels might come off.” …
   28. [A few days later,] McElroy was further told there was “noise in the [university] system” about her, though he did not give specifics and told her that in some conservative circles, The New York Times is akin to Pravda, the newspaper of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union in the early 1900s.
   29. On June 26, McElroy met with Bermúdez and Susan Ballabina, chief external affairs officer and senior vice president for academic and strategic collaborations, to walk through the presentation to the board of regents in August. She was told to see the presentation as an opportunity to tell the regents who she is and how she fits within Aggie core values.
   30. McElroy said she left that conversation feeling positive. …
   31. On Sunday, the new offer came in for a one-year contract to teach and a three-year appointment as director.
   32. Ultimately, McElroy said she was surprised by the backlash. She said as reality set in during these talks, she remarked that she was so disappointed that not much had changed about the culture at Texas A&M since she was a student in the ’70s and ’80s. She said the university insisted it was different. It was better.
   33. “Well, it doesn’t feel that way,” she said.
   34. MIKE: Texas, Florida, and other Red states waging these culture wars are in danger of throwing there hard-won academic reputations of the late 20^th century back into their educational dark ages of the 1950s and 1960s. Until American racists can be pushed back into their closets to grumble among themselves, there will more of these kinds of stories and they will, if possible, only get uglier.
   35. MIKE: Professor McElroy’s experience is tragic and must be extremely painful and traumatic to her. It should also hurt and embarrass the majority of Americans who want better for this country.
   36. ANDREW: The reversal of affirmative action is an important backdrop for this story, but I think the real operative element here is Texas Republicans’ agenda against diversity, equity, and inclusion. Without SB 17, the state law banning DEI, I don’t think this would have happened to Professor McElroy, and even with the law in place, it might not have happened if A&M’s regents weren’t gubernatorial appointees. A lot of factors just piled up at the exact wrong time for the professor. It’s sad to see, and it’s worrying to think about how these factors will pile up for students and more vulnerable staff as well.
4. ‘A taste of victory’: galvanized by US supreme court, far right turns to ‘legal vigilantism’; Experts point to a new, lawsuit-threatening brand of rightwing activism in the wake of recent supreme court decisions. By MacKenzie Ryan | THEGUARDIAN.COM | Mon 10 Jul 2023 06.00 EDT, Last modified on Mon 10 Jul 2023 12.25 EDT
   1. After the supreme court’s recent rulings against affirmative action and anti-discrimination precedent, researchers who track the far-right movement are flagging a new model of conservative activism: legal vigilantism, an aggressive, lawsuit-threatening tactic used to intimidate universities and private institutions to comply with the new rulings.
   2. Experts have called the decisions a “catalytic event” while far-right groups and influencers are celebrating them with bigoted rhetoric online and mobilizing member support to roll back decades of progressive policy. Despite what they view as significant victories, hardline Trumpist politicians that rely on mining grievances in their quest for power may face a bleak fundraising season.
   3. Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism, said far-right groups see the supreme court’s affirmative action decision as the first step in ending discrimination against whites. He called it a gateway for “all kinds of vile and racially bigoted statements” with engagement that crosses over to the mainstream. He compared the exchange of far-right extremist ideologies and mainstream conservatism to the wax mixtures whirling together in a lava lamp. For example, the “alt-right”, anti-immigration website VDARE published an Ann Coulter column about legacy admissions and university donor preferences being less impactful than race quotas.
   4. “Now you have unbroken lines from extremist groups promoting Ann Coulter to extremist groups promoting more vile material. They can jump from one lily pond of hate to another toxic and more nauseating one,” Levin said. Extremist and fringe groups view Black people as biologically and culturally inferior whereas mainstream conservative groups are opposed to affirmative action due to a narrow reading of the constitution. Despite these differences, “even strands of violent extremism will find their way into civic discourse,” he said.
   5. Levin said the end of affirmative action is just part of how anti-Black bigotry is getting promoted. Far-right groups are not looking at the finer points of constitutional law expressed in supreme court decisions, he contended. Extremist thinking is in binary terms. This supreme court decision, he predicted, will be used to further anchor and galvanize racial discrimination against Black people while serving as an affirmation for white nationalists that white people have been cheated – part of their narrative of white supremacy. …
   6. The right’s focus on private institutions is novel, Rosenthal said, because the Republican right has historically been the political expression of private corporations. He cited Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, and Disney’s continuing legal battle over the corporations’ ability to self-govern and its denunciation of Florida’s “don’t say gay” law. This trend, he argued, corresponds with what occurs in the bastions of illiberal democracies like Hungary and Russia, where executive power has developed considerable tools to dominate private institutions.
   7. “Grievance is incredibly important to the foundational mythos of Maga. If it’s not abortion, it’s something else: Trump being persecuted by the dictatorial justice department, the threat of the woke mob, the demonization of blue states. There’s always one if not more enemies that are internal to the country,” explained Matt Dallek, professor at the George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management.
   8. MIKE: Elections have consequences. For 40 years, Conservatives and their extremist wings have been systematically and systemically altering the US courts to favor their rightwing and libertarian ideals, and their time is now. And their time is turning into the most racist, ethnocentric, misogynistic, and hateful time we’ve seen in over 50 years, and the courts are more inclined to abet their extreme values more than any time since at least the 1950s.
   9. MIKE: Elections have consequences. We’ve been hearing in every election since Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan that “this is the most important election we’ve ever had.” For many Americans, it begam to seem like a joke, but it wasn’t. The elections of Reagan, Bush 41, Bush 43, and Trump 45 were incredibly consequential, and not in good ways.
   10. MIKE: Elections have consequences. For about 2/3 of a century, even with Democratic presidents, Republican-dominated Senates called the shots in shaping our federal courts.
   11. MIKE: Elections have consequences. For most of the last 60 years — two generations! — unions were systematically suppressed and broken. So-called “Right-to-work” laws become common in the States, but they were really “right-to-discriminate” laws, and “right-to-terminate-at will” laws. These laws gave all the power to the corporate employers. Without unions, worker benefits and wages and power to negotiate were suppressed. Taxes on the wealthy and corporations were reduced and trillions of dollars in wealth shifted from the working- and middle-classes to the already-wealthy.
   12. MIKE: Then there’s The Hate. The Hate isn’t new. There’s always been The Hate and there always will be, in some people somewhere. But in Trump, the dog whistles of Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” became sirens. The Hate, by law and societal norms, had mostly been confined to the equivalent of a Pandora’s Box.
   13. MIKE: I used to observe that by the year, 2000, it seemed that open racism had become about as fashionable as spitting on the sidewalk; people still did it, but it was generally frowned upon.
   14. MIKE: It seems — and history will judge — that Trump opened the Pandora’s Box of The Hate and let it out again. He made it acceptable; politically useful; and in some quarters even fashionable again. Trump Made America Hate Again.
   15. MIKE: It had taken decades — some might say centuries — to put The Hate in a Pandora’s Box until “Donald Pandora” enthusiastically opened and welcomed The Hate out of the box.
   16. MIKE: But elections still have consequences. It’s the reason that I usually take at least a couple of minutes at the top of this show with what I now call “my voting nag”. It’s not for my fun and it’s not to annoy you or put you off the show. It’s because ALL elections really, really matter. Your local school board matters. Your county officials matter, down to the most minor volunteer elected position. The same is true of every election at every level of local, county, state, and federal elections.
   17. MIKE: Elections have consequences. Elections are not an irrelevant sideshow to your life. As we now see, election results may ultimately decide whether some people live or die. Whether real history is taught in schools or books are banned. Whether some people have to figure out which businesses will serve them and which businesses are allowed by law to reject them because of who they are or who they love. How far are we from excluding “certain people” from living in certain places because of some community’s “religious convictions”.
   18. MIKE: Elections have consequences. Don’t vote for people that run on The Hate. Don’t vote for people that subtly advocate The Hate. Don’t vote for people that are comfortable talking about Their Hate.
   19. MIKE: Elections have consequences. Your vote matters. In small elections, one vote can make the difference. Even in big elections, a handful of votes has made a difference.
   20. MIKE: Elections have consequences. Vote like your life depends on it.
   21. MIKE: Ok. That is all. Andrew?
   22. ANDREW: I think you’ve identified the problem pretty well. But the solution could use some shoring up.
   23. ANDREW: US politics are shifting rightward because there isn’t an equally strong effort for left-wing policy. Democrats’ electoral strategy has for years been to try and convert right-wing voters, then slowly bring them left. But Democrats have no appeal to conservatives; any gestures the party makes are doubled-down by Republicans. Democrats are sprinting towards goalposts that Republicans push farther and farther away.
   24. ANDREW: A working strategy would be to promote policies that compel centrists and re-engage reluctant left-wing voters. These policies would have to provably help large swaths of people with no catch; if they prove successful, some of the pragmatists in the center will start voting blue, especially those who were helped. If these policies are ambitious enough, social democrats who dropped out after Bernie could find reason to come back to the Democrats. All those votes together would make a pretty strong leftward force to counter the rightward shift.
   25. ANDREW: Mike often says that change is generational. A strategy change like this definitely would be, and we are seeing a generational transition in the Democratic Party leadership. Newer leaders are endorsing bigger and more clearly left-wing ideas. This is good, but the party is still too dedicated to the old strategy and lacking the ambition to be able to build momentum to counter the right.
   26. ANDREW: However, left-wing minor parties can have that ambition. The Green Party, for example, is talking the talk, but these parties haven’t yet gotten the chance to walk the walk for two reasons: first, election law shaped over hundreds of years by Democrats and Republicans (and Democratic-Republicans back when they were a legal entity!) has stacked the deck against minor parties. Case in point, Texas’ petitioning laws haven’t been updated by the Legislature in 118 years, as we discussed last week. These huge obstacles demoralize socialist potential voters, and since these voters aren’t interested in the Democrats’ right-lite platform, they don’t engage with the electoral process at all.
   27. ANDREW: The other obstacle to what I call challenger parties, and the other thing discouraging socialist eligible voters, is the nature of the system itself. Liberal democratic systems like the US’s are designed to discourage radical politics and funnel voters to the center… or whichever extreme manages to hijack the center. Socialists are not looking to reform capitalism, they’re looking to replace it. A capitalist electoral system can’t do that.
   28. ANDREW: Both issues would benefit greatly from electoral reforms– ranked choice voting, for one, would allow voters backup choices, removing risk from voting for the change they really want, a major boon for minor parties. The second issue, though, requires a mindset change. Radical minor parties need to argue that while voting won’t change the whole system, it can create better conditions for the people to do that through other means like social pressure. For example, Republicans in office might give drivers the right to run you down at a protest. Democrats would probably not do that, but not exactly help either. Greens would increase police oversight so that they can’t beat you with impunity at that same protest. Radical policy may not change the system alone, but it would make it safer for more people to join the movement. That’s what voting can do for the far-left, and that’s what could energize enough far-left voters to overcome the obstacles that the major parties put in front of their challengers.
   29. ANDREW: I’ve chosen to put my hope in minor parties to reverse the rightward march, but even seeing the Democrats get serious would be welcome, and might pump the brakes on this runaway Republican rolling stock.
5. Senate Republican Tuberville calls white nationalists racist after taking heat; By Richard Cowan and Moira Warburton | REUTERS.COM | July 11, 2023, 6:39 PM CDT. Updated 9 hours ago
   1. Republican U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville on Tuesday said white nationalists are racist after having denied that earlier in the day, an incident that drew criticism from the chamber’s top Democrat, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. …
   2. Schumer earlier on Tuesday took to the Senate floor to declare that Tuberville was “on a one-man mission to excuse and even defend the meaning of white nationalism.”
   3. He called on Tuberville’s fellow Republicans to urge him to apologize, recounting recent interviews in which he was asked about white nationalists serving in the U.S. military.
   4. “I call them Americans,” Tuberville responded during a May interview with an Alabama radio station.
   5. On Monday, Tuberville was pressed on that statement in an interview on CNN, and said: “If we are going to do away with most white people in this country out of the military, we’ve got huge problems.”
   6. In comments to reporters later Tuesday morning, he said that he was “totally against racism” but added: “If Democrats want to say that white nationalists are racist, I’m totally against that too.”
   7. 2 Senate Republican John Thune, asked by reporters whether Tuberville should issue an apology for his remarks, said there is no place in the Republican Party, the military or the country for white nationalism.
   8. “I’m not sure exactly what it was he thinks he was saying there,” Thune said. “I’m sure it’s probably something different than how, perhaps, it’s being interpreted.”
   9. MIKE: So the Republican Senator from Alabama is retracting his comments about White Nationalists NOT being racist. We can add the metaphorical *wink, wink*. There’s really nothing more to say.
   10. ANDREW: Oh, I think there’s more to say, though the Republicans won’t want to hear it.
   11. ANDREW: You know how in the last article, Brian Levin from the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism said that “extremist and fringe groups” are the ones who “view Black people as… inferior”, and not “mainstream conservatives”? Yeah, I don’t think you can get more mainstream conservative than nationally famous football coach Tommy frickin’ Tuberville, and he’s openly defending white nationalists.
   12. ANDREW: Not to throw Mr. Levin under the bus; this isn’t his fault. But these two articles back-to-back are a perfect illustration of how our understanding of extremism and politics generally in this country is biased in favor of the right-wing. The sitting Senate minority whip, instead of condemning Tuberville for this blatant incident of racist apologia, is trying to convince everyone that he meant something else. That is support within the federal government for white nationalism, no matter what damage control the Republican Party tries to do, and it’s evidence of a deeper problem.
   13. MIKE: Well said.
   14. Tribal sovereignty push flops in Maine as Gov. Mills’ veto of key legislation stands; Lawmakers failed to override veto, killing the legislation. ASSOCIATED PRESS via COM | Published July 6, 2023, 5:46pm EDT
6. Maine lawmakers failed Thursday to override the governor’s veto of a bill that would have expanded the sovereignty of Native American tribes in the state by ensuring more federal laws apply to them.
   1. It’s a defeat for the tribes, which are bound by a land claims settlement that puts them on different footing than the nation’s other 570 federally recognized tribes.
   2. Both chambers had voted to enact the bill with big-enough majorities to override the veto, but some House members backtracked under pressure by Democratic Gov. Janet Mills. She contends the bill was vague and would lead to lengthy and contentious litigation in coming years. …
   3. Tribal leaders criticized the governor, calling her an impediment to progress, while offering thanks to lawmakers for their support. …
   4. Mills, for her part, said she remains willing to work with the tribes to ensure they’re not excluded from benefits generally available to other federally recognized tribes, and called for a “collaborative, respectful approach” that she said has been successful in the past.
   5. It was an important bill for tribes in Maine who’ve long regretted trading some of their rights to the state under an $81.5 million settlement that was signed by President Jimmy Carter in 1980.
   6. The agreement for the Passamaquoddy, Penobscot and Maliseet, along with a 1991 agreement for the Mi’kmaq, allows them to be treated much like municipalities subject to state law instead of dealing directly with the federal government like other tribes. The agreement allowed the tribes to acquire tracts of land as long as they stayed under state law and let them receive state education dollars. But the relationship also led to disagreements, and several lawsuits.
   7. The governor contends tribal properties complicate jurisdictional concerns because so many landowners abut tribe-owned land. The governor also says just a handful of federal laws don’t apply to the tribes in Maine — such as the Indian Healthcare Improvement Act and the federal law governing disaster response — and that those can be handled on a case by case basis.
   8. Mills has urged the tribes, the attorney general and other parties to work together to craft a proposal that is “clear, thoroughly vetted, and well understood by all parties.”
   9. But the tribes increasingly see her as standing in the way of changes they say are necessary to improve their lives. Last week, Penobscot Nation Chief Kirk Francis said he thinks the governor wants “to protect an old guard and old mindset” by maintaining the status quo. And [tribal Rep. Aaron Dana, a Passamaquoddy], said Thursday that some of the governor’s comments about the legislation were “dangerous and misleading.”
   10. Supporters contend the the proposal specifically carved out certain federal laws including the Clean Water Act, Indian Mineral Development Act, Water Quality Act and Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. But the governor contends the bill’s language failed to achieve the goal. …
   11. A bill to provide full sovereignty to the tribes this session is being held over, meaning it’ll be dealt with by lawmakers next year.
   12. Tribal leaders were optimistic about the future. …
   13. [Penobscot Nation Chief Kirk Francis] added: “Though today was a loss on the floor of the House, we’re confident moving forward we will only gain greater support.”
   14. MIKE: I’ve read 2 stories on this and I’m still a little confused. I used the FOX story because it was a timely follow-up to a NET story that included the veto not being overridden, and the details were consistent. But here’s where my confusion started. In the original story I found from a day earlier, it said this:
   15. ‘Protecting an Old Guard’: Tribal Leaders Blast Mills’ Veto of Sovereignty Bill ; By Dan Neumann | MAINE BEACON via NATIVENEWSONLINE.NET | July 05, 2023
       1. … LD 2004 would change that paradigm, allowing the Wabanaki to access important federal legislation that would help the tribes develop economically, although it was amended in committee to gain Republican support by exempting several federal statutes, such as the Clean Water Act, the Water Quality Act of 1987, the Clean Air Act, the Indian Mineral Development Act, and the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.
       2. An effort by Maine’s Democratic Reps. Jared Golden and Chellie Pingree to extend those rights to the Wabanaki at the federal level died late last year when independent Sen. Angus King opposed its inclusionin a congressional budget deal. 
       3. The Mills administration also opposed the federal legislation. …
   16. MIKE: Here’s where my confusion lies, and the two stories do nothing to clear it up. The Republicans amended the bill to “[exempt] several federal statutes, such as the Clean Water Act, the Water Quality Act of 1987, the Clean Air Act, the Indian Mineral Development Act, and the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.”
   17. MIKE: It surprises me not at all that the Republicans would want such exemptions added, and I can see why some Democrats might accept that as a bipartisan price to get a bill they otherwise liked over the finish line. What I don’t understand – assuming I understand the implications of the exemptions properly — is why the tribes would support the bill with those exemptions, as if they were a good thing.
   18. MIKE: I would think that the exclusion of the various federal environmental acts would lessen protection for the tribes, even though they would be gaining more tribal sovereignty. On the one hand, I want to believe that the tribes know what is in their own best interest, but it seems like the specific exclusions noted would leave them open to corporate exploitation that would degrade their land and health.
   19. MIKE: I’ve added a reference below that better clarifies the governor’s position, but it still leaves me with questions.
   20. MIKE: Perusing what appears to be the text of the actual bill, it appears that the exclusions of federal jurisdiction are intended to put those matters under the jurisdiction of the State of Maine. Since Maine twice elected Paul LePage governor, I’m not sure how I feel about that. On the other hand, the country sort of elected Trump as president, so no system is fool proof.
   21. ANDREW: Well, neither of us having been in any rooms where anything here happened, all we can really do is speculate. I would speculate that tribal leaders were supporting this law as a stepping stone, something that could get done now, and they could leave the fight to reverse those exemptions for future legislation. It’s a risk, but tribal leaders clearly thought it was worth it, otherwise they wouldn’t have done it. It’s also possible that some of the tribe members may have wanted to wait or fight for legislation without these exemptions, or that some leaders took that position but were outvoted. I doubt anyone went into this blind, in other words.
   22. ANDREW: There is another possibility: the exempted federal laws might already not apply, since the tribes are essentially municipalities under the Maine state government. If there aren’t any equivalent state laws already on the books, the exemptions in this proposed bill may not have exposed the tribes to any more risk than they already face. From that standpoint, I could definitely see why they would support this bill, as it would have meant increased autonomy with the same amount of risk.
   23. ANDREW: I think I speak for both of us when I say that I hope the Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Maliseet, and Mi’kmaq (“Mee g-mach”) tribes are able to reach parity with other federally-recognized tribes, and get the full autonomy and protection of federal law.
   24. REFERENCE: Maine Gov. vetoes tribal sovereignty bill; Gov. Janet Mills says she supports the goals of the bill but that this particular bill would have unintended consequences. By WMTW | WABI.TV | Published: Jun. 30, 2023 at 12:15 PM CDT
   25. REFERENCE: You can read what I think is the final bill here: An Act to Restore Access to Federal Laws Beneficial to the Wabanaki Nations
   26. REFERENCE: You can read the bill’s progress and other matters here: ME LD2004 | 2023-2024 | 131st Legislature
   27. REFERENCE: Mi’kmaq is pronounced “Mee g-mach” (like the Scottish “ach”, but softer and with a shorter return), according to this video from someone who claims to be part of the tribe, and corroborated by this video from a word pronunciation YouTuber. The other tribe names in this article appear to be spoken how they are written.
7. Russian ex-submarine officer on Ukraine blacklist gunned down on morning run; By Mark Trevelyan | REUTERS.COM | July 11, 2023,12:59 PM CDT. Updated 3 hours ago
   1. A Russian military officer who had commanded a submarine in the Black Sea and appeared on a Ukrainian blacklist of alleged war criminals has been shot dead by an unknown assassin while on his morning run.
   2. Stanislav Rzhitsky, 42, was gunned down early on Monday in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar. His address, picture and personal details had appeared on the Ukrainian website Myrotvorets (Peacemaker), a vast unofficial database of people considered to be enemies of Ukraine.
   3. On Tuesday the word “Liquidated”, in red letters, had been superimposed on his photograph on the site.
   4. Russia’s state Investigative Committee said on Tuesday it had arrested a suspect in his early 60s who was found in possession of a pistol and silencer. It published a short video showing heavily armed security officers storming a house and detaining the man, who was wearing only boxer shorts.
   5. Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency published details of the killing on its website, without claiming responsibility or saying how it obtained the information. …
   6. Baza, a Russian Telegram channel with links to the security services, said the killer could have tracked Rzhitsky’s movements on an app where he posted details of his regular jogging route in Krasnodar and how long he took to complete it.
   7. Russian state media and war bloggers said Rzhitsky was deputy head of military mobilisation in the city and had previously commanded the “Krasnodar” submarine in the Black Sea.
   8. A Telegram channel used by self-styled pro-Ukraine partisans who have claimed hundreds of sabotage attacks inside Russia said – without stating evidence – that Rzhitsky was suspected of involvement in a submarine-launched cruise missile strike in July 2022 that killed at least 23 people including a 4-year-old girl in the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia. …
   9. At least two other pro-war Russian figures in the Myrotvorets database have been assassinated inside Russia since Russian forces invaded Ukraine nearly 17 months ago. Bomb attacks killed journalist Darya Dugina last August and war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in April.
   10. Russia has blamed Ukraine for the attacks. Kyiv has denied involvement, suggesting the attacks are the result of Russian infighting.
   11. MIKE: I included this story because I think it’s worthy of acknowledgment and analysis.
   12. MIKE: First, I can only surmise that the main reason that Rzhitsky was targeted was that he allegedly was responsible for firing a cruise missile into a civilian target in Ukraine. IF Rzhitsky was in fact responsible for a war crime, he deserved a trial on the allegation rather than a summary execution, which is what this assassination was.
   13. MIKE: Second, an arrest was allegedly made. We have no idea if this man actually committed the act, or was a conspirator. We don’t know if the alleged assassin is Russian, Ukrainian, or even Chechen, for example. We don’t know if the assassination was committed by anti-Putin or pro-Ukraine Russians; or if it was Ukrainian special forces, or perhaps paramilitary partisans. So we don’t know a lot, at least at this point.
   14. MIKE: As the story says, “the Ukrainian website Myrotvorets (Peacemaker), [is] a vast unofficial database of people considered to be enemies of Ukraine.” Let’s change that to “allegedly unofficial”, because, again, we don’t really know.
   15. MIKE: Finally, about the assassination itself; Rzhitsky was ex-military, and possibly responsible for launching a cruise missile targeted at civilians. Does ex-military still make him a legitimate wartime target? I don’t know. He deserved a trial for his alleged war crime, but would he ever be likely to be tried? Unlikely, but you never know in the ‘fullness of time’ what might happen.
   16. MIKE: As for the assassinations of the pro-war journalist and blogger? I’m philosophically totally opposed to that. If we support reasonably free speech as a human right, they would never have gotten a death sentence in any war crimes court. If you don’t believe that, look up the post-WW2 treatment of Tokyo Rose. A US citizen convicted of treason for broadcasting music and demoralizing messages at US troops from Japan during the Pacific War, she was captured, tried. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined $10,000 (equaling roughly $126,719.58 in current dollars.) She got out after 7 years based on good behavior as a model prisoner.
   17. MIKE: During war time, justice is “rough”, and not always “just”.
   18. ANDREW: I agree with what you’re saying, but I’m also sympathetic to the reality on the ground. Ideally, every accused war criminal would get a fair trial (and ideally a lot more wartime actions would be recognized as crimes). These processes are the closest things we have to being omnisciently certain of someone’s guilt. But war is never ideal. Sometimes opportunities to undermine the enemy have to be taken if there’s a chance that someone who hasn’t done anything wrong could be saved. Even so, there have to be limits, balances, ethical compasses. When someone is convinced they’re a hero, they’re a lot more willing to be a villain.
   19. ANDREW: This man was ex-military, which means he was no longer on active duty. But he could still have been supporting the Russian military with expertise or materials or through propaganda. Even if he wasn’t, he could have started. Whatever his past crimes, he was either an asset or a potential asset to the Russian military, and murdering him deprives the Russian military of that asset. I’m sympathetic to that argument.
   20. ANDREW: I think the people taking action based on the information on Peacemaker shouldn’t be operating without some kind of oversight, something to make sure they aren’t doing harm to people who don’t deserve it. It’s possible for wrong information to be uploaded, and that could put some innocent person in the crosshairs. But I think this incident is also a useful warning to tyrants and the people enabling them to exert their rule both abroad and at home: you are never safe as long as you are hurting innocent people.
   21. REFERENCE: ‘Tokyo Rose’ dies at 90 — Wed, 27 Sep 2006, THEGUARDIAN.COM
   22. REFERENCE: Tokyo Rose — From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

___________________________________________________________________

1. Make sure you are registered to vote!
   1. VoteTexas.GOV – Texas Voter Information
2. It’s time to snail-mail (no emails or faxes) in your application for mail-ballots,
   1. IF you qualify, GO TO TEXAS SoS VOTE-BY-MAIL BALLOT APPLICATION (ALL TEXAS COUNTIES) HarrisVotes.com­ – Countywide Voting Centers, (Election Information Line (713) 755-6965), Harris County Clerk
3. Obtain a Voter Registration Application (HarrisVotes.com)
   1. Harris County “Vote-By-Mail’ Application for 2022
   2. Austin County Elections
   3. Brazoria County (TX) Clerk Election Information
   4. Chambers County (TX) Elections
   5. Colorado County (TX) Elections
   6. Fort Bend County takes you to the proper link
   7. GalvestonVotes.org (Galveston County, TX)
   8. Harris County ((HarrisVotes.com)
   9. LibertyElections (Liberty County, TX)
   10. Montgomery County (TX) Elections
   11. Walker County Elections
   12. Waller County (TX) Elections
   13. 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?
7. 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:
   1. A government document that shows your name and an address, including your voter registration certificate
   2. Current utility bill
   3. Bank statement
   4. Government check
   5. Paycheck
   6. 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
9. CHECK REGISTRATION STATUS HERE
10. CLICK How to register to vote in Texas
11. Outside Texas, try Vote.org.
12. BE REGISTERED TO VOTE, and if eligible, REMEMBER TO FILL OUT AND MAIL NEW MAIL-IN BALLOT APPLICATIONS FOR 2023.
13. Obtain a Voter Registration Application (HarrisVotes.com)
    1. Just be registered and apply for your mail-in ballot if you may qualify.

You can track your Mail Ballot Activity from our website with direct link provided here https://www.harrisvotes.com/Tracking

__________________________________________________________________________

Remember!  When you donate to KPFT, your dollars pay for:

• Transmitter and equipment costs
• Programs like Thinkwing Radio, Politics Done Right, and other locally-generated political talk shows
• KPFT’s online streaming
• Maintaining a wide variety of music programs

Each time you turn on the radio, you can hear your dollars at work!

Make your contribution to this station right now. Just call 713 526 5738. That’s 713-526-5738. Or give online at KPFT.org!