AUDIO:

POSSIBLE TOPICS: VOTETEXAS.GOV—Voter Information;Oct. 10 Deadline to REGISTER TO VOTE; APPLY FOR MAIL-IN BALLOT; Naming Hurricanes; Everything you need to know before voting for Houston’s new mayor in November election; Texas Supreme Court says Harris County must abolish its elections administrator’s office by September 1; In session reacting to school shooting, Tennessee GOP lawmaker orders removal of public from hearing; These Voters Share Almost No Political Beliefs, but They Agree on One Thing: We’re Failing as a Nation; Japan to release Fukushima water into ocean from Aug. 24; China-based BRICS bank aims to de-dollarize debt by expanding local currency lending; China says African countries want industrialisation over infrastructure; Why It’s So Hard for China to Fix Its Real Estate Crisis; European Union To Require U.S. Travelers With Passports To Fill Out Visa Application; More

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

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

1. VOTING IN THE NOVEMBER 7^TH GENERAL ELECTION:
   1. Make sure to register to vote, or update your address by the October 10thdeadline. Click here for more information on voter registration. 
   2. Deadline to apply for a mail ballot is Friday, October 27. Click here for the application.Fill it out, print it, and then mail it to our office before the deadline.
   3. In HARRIS COUNTY, go to COM. For any place in Texas, you can go to VOTETEXAS.GOV
2. Everything you need to know before voting for Houston’s new mayor in November election; COM | Tuesday, August 22, 2023/ 1:29PM
   1. MIKE: This is a really comprehensive article about Houston elections: Who’s running for what (including mayor, city controller), and all city council positions.
   2. “Has my district changed? What district am I in? Your district for voting for your city councilmember may have changed since the last election. The city council approved new district boundaries on Oct. 12, 2022 as part of the redistricting process after the 2020 federal census. Houstonians can visit the city’s redistricting website to view maps and determine which council district they reside in. …”
3. Texas Supreme Court says Harris County must abolish its elections administrator’s office by September 1; The state’s top civil court will still hear a challenge to Senate Bill 1750 on November 28. But Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee said that, once dismantled, the elections administrator’s office isn’t likely to be restored. By Andrew Schneider | HOUSTONPUBLICMEDIA.ORG | | Posted on August 22, 2023, 2:41 PM
   1. Harris County will have to abolish its elections administrator’s office by September 1. The Texas Supreme Court struck down an injunction by a lower court that would have stayed legislation requiring the move pending the outcome of a county lawsuit.
   2. Senate Bill 1750 requires Harris County to shift the functions of its elections administrator to its elected county clerk and tax assessor-collector, less than two months before the start of early voting for Houston’s next mayor. The Texas Supreme Court will still hear a challenge to the law on November 28, but Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee said that’s not likely to change the outcome.
   3. “I don’t think it would be wise to abolish the office and then later to try to recreate it, absent the Texas Supreme Court telling us that the legislators’ law violates the Constitution and should not be rewritten in any way, which I would say, given their decision today, it’s unlikely you’re going to see the court say that,” Menefee said.
   4. Menefee said that the Texas Constitution prohibits the Legislature from passing a law that could only ever apply to one county. SB 1750 applies only to counties of more than 3.5 million people on September 1, 2023 – in other words, to Harris County alone.
   5. “The Texas Supreme Court effectively punted on the issue,” Menefee said. “They had the opportunity to step in and tell all the parties whether this law violates the Texas Constitution, and they refuse to do so.”
   6. The Texas Attorney General’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, the law’s author, State Senator Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston), released a statement commending the court and attacking the county’s response to the law, which passed the Legislature in May.
   7. “Harris County wasted the better part of the summer on this frivolous lawsuit,” Bettencourt said. “They need to follow the law and make the transfer complete as of September 1st so that the election in November can be run properly.”
   8. County Attorney Menefee said that he intends to push ahead with his lawsuit before the high court to overturn SB 1750, even though it has no chance of saving the elections administrator’s office.
   9. “The Texas Legislature has to be reined in,” Menefee said. “If they’re passing laws that violate the Texas Constitution, I think the court needs to do its job and say that. If not, then these provisions in the Texas Constitution have no meaning, and they certainly don’t have any teeth with respect of preventing the Legislature from doing things that violate our state’s laws.”
   10. MIKE: At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, this is what tyranny looks like. When a government ignores its own laws to achieve whatever ends it wants, that’s no longer a government of laws, but of power-hungry, lawbreaking men and women.
   11. MIKE: Remember every time it’s time to vote that elections have consequences. The tyranny you get when you don’t vote may be the one you deserve.
   12. ANDREW: I wouldn’t say anyone deserves tyranny, but I would say that refusing to vote is undermining the defense against it. Some people are prevented from voting, or believe doing so is a tacit endorsement of a broken system, I get that. But those who can vote, should, and should vote for candidates willing to oppose this kind of blatant partisan manipulation of the law and courts.
4. And speaking of rightwing tyranny: In session reacting to school shooting, Tennessee GOP lawmaker orders removal of public from hearing; By JONATHAN MATTISE and KIMBERLEE KRUESI | APNEWS.COM | Updated 5:18 PM CDT, August 22, 2023
   1. Families close to a Nashville fatal school shooting broke down in tears Tuesday after a Tennessee Republican leader ordered state troopers to remove them and others from a legislative hearing room while they waited to testify in favor of gun control measures.
   2. The emotional scene was just one of several chaotic moments that erupted during the second day of Tennessee’s special legislative session. Republican Gov. Bill Lee initially called lawmakers back to the Capitol to consider his proposal to keep firearms away from dangerous people. …
   3. However, Lee’s bill has been all but defeated by the Republican supermajority, where legislative leaders have largely refused to consider the issue. Without any debate, three variations of similar proposals for so-called extreme risk protection orders, or ERPOs, carried by Democratic Rep. Bob Freeman of Nashville, immediately failed Tuesday in the same House subcommittee where the public was kicked out.
   4. On the first day of the special session on Monday, House Republicans advanced a new set of procedural rules that carried harsh penalties for lawmakers deemed too disruptive or distracting, and banned visitors from carrying signs inside the Capitol and in legislative hearing rooms. The Senate and House also signed off on severely limiting the public from accessing the galleries where people have traditionally been allowed to watch their government in action.
   5. The actions come after the Tennessee Republicans attracted national attention for expelling two young Black Democratic lawmakers earlier this year for breaking House rules during a demonstration in support of gun control. Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson have since been reinstated to their positions, but the actions sent shock waves about the Republican supermajority’s ability to hand down strict punishments to opponents.
   6. Yet protestors on Tuesday found ways to defy the new sign ban, showing up to the House chamber with pro-gun control messages written on their bodies and clothes. Others wrote out messages on their phones and held them up for lawmakers to see. …
   7. That defiance faced a harsher response as lawmakers broke out into committee rooms to begin debating legislation. …
   8. Lowell Russell, the Republican subcommittee chairman, had also warned that he could order everyone out of the room.
   9. Shortly after, another Republican lawmaker said his bill was stalled that would let people with handgun carry permits bring guns onto K-12 and college school property if they know the school doesn’t have armed security. That announcement sparked some gun control advocates in the crowd to break out in applause.
   10. “Are we going to quiet down and listen, or are we going to sit there and clap?” Russell said.
   11. When some kept clapping, Russell said, “Alright, troopers, let’s go ahead and clear the room.”
   12. Members of the media were allowed to stay, and some members of the public who were testifying on legislation were allowed in.
   13. “We gave them three or four times to not do outbursts in the committee hearing, and unfortunately they continued after three, maybe four warnings,” Russell told The Associated Press afterward. “So unfortunately, that’s just the way it goes, if they don’t follow the rules.” …
   14. MIKE: This kind of Rightwing tyranny is just a little more subtle. The Republican supermajority passed rules making it easier and “legal” to ignore voices of the People, and to ultimately throw the People out of the chamber.
   15. MIKE: So to put this in context: the extremist Republicans in the legislature, elected from among gerrymandered Tennessee districts that were drawn so candidates could choose their voters, are ignoring the popularly-elected Republican Governor who signed the gerrymandered map into existence but at least appears to be trying to do the work of the majority of Tennesseans, and then ejecting Tennesseans who are trying to make their voices heard by the Tennessee legislature.
   16. MIKE: If this isn’t tyranny, then what is?
   17. ANDREW: I may not be a supporter of gun control, but you shouldn’t have to be to find this story disturbing. This is weaponization of decorum, a necessary concept for productive lawmaking, for the purposes of limiting political expression and representation. It is absolutely tyrannical, and I would argue even anti-republican (the philosophical concept, not the party).
   18. ANDREW: Tennessee needs more voters who understand that people like Representative Russell are snakes who can’t be trusted to advance anyone’s policy goals. If they’re willing to shut people out of the political process for being inconvenient, what’s to stop them from doing the same to you when you expect them to do their jobs?
   19. MIKE: I just want to point out that while the terms “gun control” and “gun regulation” are typically used interchangeably, they are not necessarily the same thing. “Gun control” is usually used as a scare tactic to mean gun confiscation. What is usually being discussed is “gun regulation”, which means things like licensing, the types of weapons available to the civilian population, rules regulating open-carry, etc. We can argue over the regulations, but there has never been a proposal to confiscate guns.
   20. REFERENCE: A masterclass in election-rigging: how Republicans ‘dismembered’ a Democratic stronghold — THEGUARDIAN.COM, 2022-Jan-25
   21. REFERENCE: How redistricting brought Tennessee to this moment —NBCNEWS.COM | April 11, 2023: “[P]olitics watchers in Tennessee and around the nation say that what happened was nothing new for the state’s GOP lawmakers and that the process Republicans have taken to minimize the representation of Democrats — on both the federal and state levels — has actually been years in the making. … The end result has been less representation for Democrats and for Black constituents in the state House in Nashville and in the U.S. Congress. …”
5. These Voters Share Almost No Political Beliefs, but They Agree on One Thing: We’re Failing as a Nation; In a recent poll, some Democrats and most Republicans share a sense of doom. By Ruth Igielnik | NYTIMES.COM | Aug. 19, 2023 / Updated 4:04 p.m. ET
   1. There are few things that Republicans and Democrats agree on. But one area where a significant share of each party finds common ground is a belief that the country is headed toward failure.
   2. Overall, 37 percent of registered voters say the problems are so bad that we are in danger of failing as a nation, according to the latest New York Times/Siena College poll.
   3. Fifty-six percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said we are in danger of such failure. This kind of outlook is more common among voters whose party is out of power. But it’s also noteworthy that fatalists, as we might call them, span the political spectrum. Around 20 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say they feel the same way.
   4. Where they disagree is about what may have gotten us to this point. …
   5. Republican fatalists, much like Republican voters overall, overwhelmingly support Donald J. Trump. This group is largely older — two-thirds of Republicans over 65 say the country is on the verge of failure — and less educated. They are also more likely than Republican voters overall to get their news from non-Fox conservative media sources like Newsmax or The Epoch Times.
   6. Many of these gloomy Republicans see the Biden administration’s policies as pushing the country to the verge of collapse. …
   7. “Covid gave everyone a wake-up call on what they can do to us as citizens,” said Dale Bowyer, a Republican in Fulton County, Ind. “Keeping us in our houses, not being allowed to go to certain places, it was complete control over the United States of America. They think we’re idiots and we wouldn’t notice.”
   8. While fewer Democrats see the country as nearing collapse, gender is the defining characteristic associated with this pessimistic outlook. Democratic and Republican women are more likely than their male counterparts to feel this way.
   9. “I have never seen things as bleak or as precarious as they have been the last few years,” said Ann Rubio, a Democrat and funeral director in New York City. “Saying it’s a stolen election plus Jan. 6, it’s terrifying. Now we’re taking away a woman’s right to choose. I feel like I’m watching the wheels come off something.”
   10. For many Democrats, specific issues — especially abortion — are driving their concern about the country’s direction.
   11. Brandon Thompson, 37, a Democrat and veteran living in Tampa, Fla., expressed a litany of concerns about the state of the country: “The regressive laws being passed; women don’t have abortion access in half the country; gerrymandering and stripping people’s rights to vote — stuff like this is happening literally all over the country.” [Thompson went on to say,] “If things continue to go this way, this young experiment, this young nation, is going to fall apart.”
   12. Pollsters have long asked a simple question to take the country’s temperature: Are things in the U.S. headed on the right track or are they off in the wrong direction?
   13. Americans’ views on this question have become more polarized in recent years and are often closely tied to views of the party in power. So it is not surprising, for example, that currently 85 percent of Republicans said the country was on the wrong track, compared with 46 percent of Democrats. Those numbers are often the exact opposite when there’s a Republican in the White House.
   14. Views on the country’s direction are also often closely linked to the economic environment. Currently, 65 percent of Americans say the country is headed in the wrong direction. That’s relatively high historically, though down from last summer when inflation was peaking and 77 percent of Americans said the country was headed in the wrong direction. At the height of the recession in 2008, 81 percent of Americans said the country was headed in the wrong direction.
   15. What seems surprising, however, is the large share of voters who say we’re on the verge of breaking down as a nation.
   16. “We’ve moved so far away from what this country was founded on,” said William Dickerson, a Republican from Linwood, N.C. “Society as a whole has become so self-aware that we’re infringing on people’s freedoms and the foundation of what makes America great.”
   17. He added: “We tell people what they can and can’t do with their own property and we tell people that you’re wrong because you feel a certain way.”
   18. Voters contacted for the Times/Siena survey were asked the “failing” question only if they already said things were headed in the wrong direction. And while this is the first time a question like this has been asked, the pessimistic responses still seem striking: Two-thirds of Republicans who said the country was headed in the wrong direction said things weren’t just bad — they were so bad that America was in danger of becoming a failed nation.
   19. “Republicans have Trump and others in their party who have undermined their faith in the electoral system,” said Alia Braley, a researcher at Stanford’s Digital Economy Lab who studies attitudes toward democracy. “And if Republicans believe democracy is crumbling, it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy, in that they will stop behaving like citizens of a democracy.”
   20. She added, “Democrats are often surprised to learn that Republicans are just as afraid as they are about the future of U.S. democracy, and maybe more so.”
   21. MIKE: There’s a bit more text to this story and also some very helpful graphics for those to click on the link to the story.
   22. ANDREW: And yet, these respondents will likely continue to vote for the same political party they’ve voted for all of their lives, and hope that doing the same thing over and over again somehow creates a different result this time.
   23. ANDREW: I noticed that the concerns that the Republicans quoted in the story had were all things that have happened in the US, but historically occurred more often to marginalized people than white Republican voters. “Keeping us in our houses, not being allowed to go to certain places”, how many times have cities been sent into curfew with federal enforcement when people protest against police misconduct? “We tell people that you’re wrong because you feel a certain way”–the recent wave of anti-transgender legislation and the historical Red Scares fit that bill pretty well.
   24. ANDREW: As with many of these doom and gloom predictions, conservatives advance policies that create the conditions of oppression and then blame them on everyone from the center to the left-wing. The real danger is when the center tries to work with the right to “fix” things – in reality, just enabling further backsliding. When the left proposes changing the system to resist the next wave of oppression, they get laughed off or even vilified, and the cycle begins anew. It’s a cycle we have to break if we want to see any real change.
   25. MIKE: You make some good points, Andrew. I’ve sometimes observed in the past that the Right talks derisively about “card-carrying members of the ACLU”, and yet the ACLU does more to defend actual Constitutional freedoms than almost any elected Republican. Modern Republicans, to my mind at least, tend to be of a more oppressive mindset. And I think I put that mildly.
6. Japan to release Fukushima water into ocean from Aug. 24; By Sakura Murakami and Tom Bateman | REUTERS.COM | August 22, 2023/8:08 AM CDT/Updated 7 hours ago
   1. Japan said on Tuesday it will start releasing into the sea more than 1 million metric tons of treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant on Aug. 24, going ahead with a plan heavily criticised by China.
   2. The plan, approved two years ago by the Japanese government as crucial to decommissioning the plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), has also faced criticism from local fishing groups fearing reputational damage. …
   3. The announcement comes a day after the government said it had won “a degree of understanding” from the fishing industry over the release of the water into the Pacific Ocean, even as fishing groups said they still feared the reputational damage would ruin their livelihood.
   4. The water will initially be released in smaller portions and with extra checks, with the first discharge totalling 7,800 cubic metres over about 17 days starting Thursday, Tepco said.
   5. That water will contain about 190 becquerels of tritium per litre, below the World Health Organisation drinking water limit of 10,000 becquerels per litre, according to Tepco. A becquerel is a unit of radioactivity.
   6. Japan has said that the water release is safe. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear watchdog, greenlighted the plan in July, saying that it met international standards and that the impact it would have on people and the environment was “negligible”.
   7. About 56% of respondents to a survey conducted by Japanese broadcaster FNN over the weekend said they supported the release, while 37% opposed. …
   8. Despite assurances, some neighbouring countries have also expressed scepticism over the safety of the plan, with Beijing the biggest critic.
   9. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin called the move “extremely selfish”. He said China was deeply concerned about the decision and had lodged a formal complaint.
   10. Wang said China “will take all necessary measures to protect the marine environment, food safety, and public health,” but did not mention any specific measures.
   11. Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee called the discharge “irresponsible” and said the city would “immediately activate” import controls on Japanese seafood from regions including capital Tokyo and Fukushima starting Thursday.
   12. The ban, which will also be implemented by Macau, would cover live, frozen, refrigerated, dried seafood, as well as sea salt and seaweed.
   13. South Korea said in a statement released Tuesday that it sees no problem with the scientific or technical aspects of the plan, but did not necessarily agree with or support it.
   14. The matter has required President Yoon Suk Yeol to strike a balance as he seeks better relations with Japan while risking consumer backlash at home.
   15. Despite the unease abroad, Kishida said he believed an “accurate understanding” of the matter was spreading in the international community.
   16. Japan says it will remove most radioactive elements from the water except for tritium, a hydrogen isotope that must be diluted because it is difficult to filter.
   17. “Nuclear power plants worldwide have routinely discharged water containing Tritium for over 60 years without harm to people or the environment, most at higher levels than the 22 TBq [terabecquerel] per year planned for Fukushima,” Tony Irwin, an honorary associate professor at the Australian National University, said in a note.
   18. A Japanese official said the first test results of the seawater after the discharge may be available at the start of September. Japan will also test fish in the waters near the plant, and make the test results available on the agriculture ministry’s website.
   19. MIKE: So, good news, everyone! In just 60 years, a singles year’s discharge will decay into over 900 GBq [gigabecquerel].
   20. MIKE: I jest. Sort of. It was known within a year of the Fukushima disaster that TEPCO would be remediating this until the end of the 21^st century, and possibly into the 22^nd
   21. MIKE: Radiation is measured in different amounts by many different names, so I did some research. Just for context, “the [2021] California maximum contaminant level (MCL) for tritium in drinking water is 20,000 pCi/L [or “picocuries per liter”, which equals 740 becquerels/L].” So consider how great the volume of “tritiated” water is when we translate the California “safe” standard from 740 Bq to 22 Trillion Bq.
   22. MIKE: Yes, there’s lots of dilution in lots of seawater, but the numbers don’t sound comforting. I think that if TEPCO wants to make people more comfortable with this tritiated water release, they need to do a better job of translating these incomprehensible and meaningless numbers into something that people can grasp in comparison.
   23. ANDREW: We last discussed this event on our July 19th show, and I’m going to reiterate what I said then. Japan could probably bring some of its neighbors at least a little more on board with this plan if it invited those nations’ nuclear energy regulators to help monitor this release. Not to take it over, or have them be involved in releasing it, but to help make sure it’s carried out as safely as possible. Even if nobody takes them up on it, the offer alone would serve as a show of good faith.
   24. ANDREW: It’s good to see that the Japanese government is going to make the results of some of the tests surrounding this release available to the public. However, I think to really put people’s minds at ease, the government should also commit to stop this plan if the tests return certain results, and make it publicly known what results would cause that to happen. Knowing that the science says nothing should go wrong isn’t the same thing as knowing that if something does go wrong, there’s a plan in place to stop and repair the damage.
   25. REFERENCE: Tritium — Wikipedia (“Tritium …is a rare and radioactive isotope of hydrogen with a half-life of about 12 years.”)
   26. REFERENCE: EPA FACTS ABOUT TRITIUM — “EPA has established a Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) of 4 millirem per year for beta particle and photon radioactivity from man-made radionuclides in drinking water. The average concentration of tritium which is assumed to yield 4 millirem per year is 20,000 picocuries (pCi/I). …”
   27. REFERENCE: Standards and Guidelines for Tritium in Drinking Water (INFO-0766) — NUCLEARSAFETY.GC.CA [“While the current California maximum contaminant level (MCL) for tritium in drinking water is 20,000 pCi/L (740 Bq/L), the ongoing revision of the California drinking water standards (MCLs) will consider the above-mentioned PHG for tritium in drinking water along with economic factors and technical feasibility.Nov 15, 2021”]
7. China-based BRICS bank aims to de-dollarize debt by expanding local currency lending; By Filip De Mott | BUSINESSINSIDER.COM | Aug 22, 2023, 10:19 AM CDT
   1. A development bank formed and led by the BRICS economic coalition [currently comprised of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa] is approaching de-dollarization from a debt angle, with plans to reduce dollar-denominated lending.
   2. The Shanghai-based New Development Bank is instead focusing on the use of BRICS currencies, such as South African, Brazilian, and Indian tenders. 
   3. “We expect to lend between $8 billion—$10 billion this year,” NDB President Dilma Rousseff told The Financial Times.”Our aim is to reach about 30%of everything we lend . . . in local currency.”
   4. Already, NDB has issued its first South African rand bond in mid-August, which attracted 2.67 billion rand of bids, Reuters More recently, the bank announced plans for an Indian rupee bond in October, though provided no specifics on the program’s size.
   5. The bank is the creation of the BRICS bloc … . Founded in 2015, it was formed as an alternative to the Western-led financial institutions, and has already lent $33 billion for development projects.
   6. As BRICS has recently taken to branding itself as a counterweight to the West, its members have pushed for NDB to focus more on the use of local currencies.
   7. By stepping away from the greenback, Rousseff told FT that member countries are free from the risks associated with exchange rates and US monetary policy. Meanwhile, borrowing from the NDB comes with no conditionality, as is often the case with institutions such as the International Monetary Fund.
   8. “Local currencies are not alternatives to the dollar,” she said. “They’re alternatives to a system.” …
   9. But despite the de-dollarization rhetoric, NDB’s past lending practices have been highly dependent on the greenback, a factor that has contributed to financial trouble in the recent past. 
   10. Given the lender’s ties to Russia, NDB suffered a Fitch Ratings credit downgrade last year, while Western investors grew less keen on supplying the bank with dollars. As two-thirds of its borrowing were dollar-denominated, the loss of this funding has meant that NDB’s debt servicing has grown substantially more expensive. …
   11. MIKE: Whenever you’re dealing in loans or business transactions in multiple currencies, exchange rates have to be considered as a risk factor.
   12. MIKE: All currencies fluctuate on the open exchange markets. Foreign lenders often want to make loans payable in their own local currency so they can get a real rate of return at their end. But currencies like the US Dollar become the basis of loans and trade because of its easy convertibility and relatively stable value. If the currency of your borrower or business partner is prone to high inflation or high market volatility, you denominate the loan in US dollars or similar currency to guarantee a relatively predictable real rate of return.
   13. MIKE: Lenders of Indian Rupees of South African Rands will still want a predictable local rate of return unless a national government is willing to eat a potential loss.
   14. MIKE: Here’s a question: If lender “A” lends in Rupees to Borrower “B” in, say, Bangladeshi Taka, does the lender base the interest rate on the Rupee’s floating exchange rate or the Taka’s floating exchange rate? Or is the loan denominated in a third currency like the US dollar which has a relatively stable floating exchange rate relative to both currencies?
   15. MIKE: In a world of fixed exchange rates such as existed for a while in the Bretton Woods system [The Bretton Woods system required countries to guarantee convertibility of their currencies into S. dollars to within 1% of fixed parity rates, with the dollar convertible to gold bullion for foreign governments and central banks at US$35 per troy ounce of fine gold.” (Wkipedia)], trade was easier because exchange rates among its members were fairly predictable. How will BRICS manage this?
   16. ANDREW: Those are all good observations and good questions, and I hope the discussion around the New Development Bank stays focused on whether the idea itself is workable and what shortcomings it might have, rather than which nations are involved. This article and the points you raise are very pragmatic rather than political, and I’m encouraged by that. I think that kind of tone helps promote civility and cooperation globally, which we all need right now.
   17. REFERENCE: ‘BRICS bank’ aims to issue first Indian rupee bond by October — REUTERS.COM, August 21, 2023
   18. REFERENCE: Bretton Woods system — From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
8. China says African countries want industrialisation over infrastructure; By Carien du Plessis and Tannur Anders | REUTERS.COM | August 22, 202311:37 AM CDT/Updated 15 hours ago
   1. African countries want China to shift its focus from building infrastructure on the continent to local industrialisation, China’s top Africa diplomat said on Tuesday at a briefing on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in South Africa.
   2. “African integration is already escalating and many African countries (have) asked China to consider (a) shift (of) our focus,” Wu Peng, director-general of China’s department of African affairs at its foreign ministry, said.
   3. Wu said the change was needed especially considering the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), which was launched at the start of 2021 and is intended to enable African countries to trade tariff-free in future.
   4. China will talk through its plans for African industrialisation with African leaders on Thursday at a special roundtable on the sidelines of the Aug. 22-24 meeting of the BRICS bloc – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
   5. MIKE: The story goes on briefly as China discusses its role in African investment and development.
   6. MIKE: What attracted me to this story was its title, because I think it’s a basic economic and developmental issue akin to whether the chicken or the egg comes first.
   7. MIKE: In the US and other developed nations, infrastructure is usually considered the first step in furthering economic development. Building roads and power and water to undeveloped areas is almost always done as a precursor to attracting private investment dollars, whether initiated by a private developer or a government entity.
   8. MIKE: From a Western capitalist standpoint, the ultimate objective for the recipient is to then attract foreign investors to build industry and other commercial enterprises.
   9. MIKE: The infrastructure part is supposed help attract businesses that don’t want to build all that infrastructure, or can’t afford to, before setting up shop.
   10. MIKE: If economic aid is focused on industrialization in an undeveloped area of an undeveloped economy, how do they get their power and water? How do they get parts and raw materials, or workers to their jobs, or how do they even get their products to market?
   11. MIKE: But if foreign aid focuses only on building infrastructure in an economy so undeveloped or poor that it can’t afford to use that infrastructure investment as seed capital for further development, then what’s the point?
   12. MIKE: The Chinese director-general listened to the African representatives and heard their point.
   13. MIKE: At this point, it’s worth adding some observations. First, all foreign aid has strings attached, whether it’s using that money to source purchases in the donor country, or —as is frequently the case with Western donors — tying the recipient nation to certain human rights guarantees or anti-corruption policies. With the exception of purchases from the donor nation, the Chinese don’t tie as many strings of this sort to their foreign aid and investment. Their main objective is access to resources and influence.
   14. MIKE: However, even with all that said, it’s an interesting observation. And this angle may be easier to accomplish from a Chinese perspective because the Communist-Socialist Chinese government can more-or-less order some Chinese companies to do this as a foreign policy objective, and, if necessary, pay those companies to do it.
   15. MIKE: So from a Western capitalist perspective, and with concerns about graft and human rights in the mix, how can Western governments hear these African goals and act upon them without having Chinese-style command economies?
   16. MIKE: I think that this may be an interesting geopolitical question going forward.
9. European Union to require U.S. travelers with passports to fill out visa application; By Brandon Truitt | CBSNEWS.COM | July 21, 2023 / 6:20 PM / CBS Boston
   1. New requirements are on the horizon for travelers with a U.S. passport looking to get to Europe. 
   2. The European Union continues to plan the rollout of new travel document requirements through its European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS). It would require travelers with U.S. passports to fill out an online visa application before being granted entry into the EU. 
   3. “It won’t be complicated, it’s just an annoyance,” said CBS News Travel Editor Peter Greenberg. …
   4. Greenberg was quick to point out this new system is not a done deal. Currently slated to roll out in January of 2024, the idea has been delayed before and is expected to be delayed again. [MIKE: As of my August 22, 2023 research, this is still the case.]
   5. “Because if they institute it, there is nothing to stop the Americans from instituting a visa charge for them to come into the United States,” said Greenberg. “It doesn’t prove anything other than more paperwork and more revenue that goes nowhere.” 
   6. As currently proposed, the ETIAS would be an online application at a cost of $8 per traveler. The application would ask for basic information, travel plans and history, along with other security questions. 
   7. Approval could take as little as ten minutes but as long as 96 hours for more complicated applications. …
   8. MIKE: If this visa fee passes in the EU, you’ll have Donald Trump to thank if you go visit. This is retaliation for his visa restrictions on Europeans during Covid.
   9. ANDREW: While this story doesn’t touch on it, I have a hunch that the major impact of this system rolling out would be fewer legal visitors and immigrants from the Global South, whether intentionally or not.
   10. ANDREW: There are many places around the world where eight dollars is a significant amount of money, and while people in those countries may have trouble affording an airplane ticket, they might be able to scrape fifty or a hundred dollars together over a few years to get to Europe by boat or land. Another eight dollars on top of that could mean the difference of a few months. Depending on their safety due to interpersonal violence or political instability (often traceable back to Northern imperialism), they might have to abandon their hope of a better life… or might not live to see it. 
   11. ANDREW: I’m not confident that EU officials will consider this possibility, considering the amount of people who have died in the Mediterranean while trying to reach Europe by sea while EU coast guards have stood by and done nothing, or worse actively tried to prevent migrant ships from reaching Europe. I hope that the impact of this process on migrants is ultimately minimal, but I’m concerned.
   12. REFERENCE: Will I Need an ETIAS as a US Citizen? — CIBTVISAS.COM [“As a U.S. citizen, it’s important to understand the implications of ETIAS on your upcoming travel. First, this new process is not a visa. ETIAS is a travel authorization waiver for visa-free visitors, visitors who include U.S. citizens. In fact, it will be mandatory for all countries currently in the Schengen Zone, or who currently have visa-free access to the Zone, which includes over 60 countries. More countries may be added to the ETIAS system in the future, so travelers should keep this in mind as they make future plans. Once an ETIAS is granted, it is valid for up to three years, or until your current passport expires, whichever occurs first. European countries that are not part of the Schengen Zone, will continue to have their own entry and stay requirements that must be observed by travelers.”]
   13. REFERENCE: What is ETIAS (European Travel Information and Authorisation System)? — ETIAS.COM

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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

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