AUDIO:

GUEST: Joining our program from Boulder, Colorado, brother Moji Agha is an Iranian-American reformist Muslim Sufi “monk” (or dervish) and a bilingual poet and writer. He is a retired psychologist and university faculty in cultural psychology. Among the non-profits he has founded are the Mossadegh Legacy Institute, the  Iranian Nonviolence Initiative, the  Culture-analysis Institute,  and Intersectional Circles Initiative.  

POSSIBLE TOPICS: VOTETEXAS.GOV—Voter Information; REGISTER TO VOTE; APPLY FOR MAIL-IN BALLOT; Oct. 10 Deadline to REGISTER TO VOTE; APPLY FOR MAIL-IN BALLOT; Everything you need to know before voting for Houston’s new mayor in November election; A CIA-backed 1953 coup in Iran haunts the country with people still trying to make sense of it; New $23M Sunrise Lofts serves Texas youth aging out of foster care; GOP silences [a] ‘Tennessee Three’ Democrat on House floor for [1] day on ‘out of order’ rule; crowd erupts; The Unconstitutional Expulsion of Legislators; 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.

Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig (@ThinkwingRadio) is now on Wednesdays at 11AM (CT) or Thursdays at 6PM on KPFT 90.1 FM-HD2, Houston’s Community Media. You can also hear the show:

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

1. The NOVEMBER 7^TH GENERAL ELECTION will be here before you know it. I know it seems incredible, so:
   
   1. Make sure to register to vote, or update your address by the October 10thdeadline. That’s just a few weeks away. (Click here for more information on voter registration.)
   2. The deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot is Friday, October 27. (Click here for the application.)So print it, fill it out, and then snail-mail it to ARRIVE before the deadline.
   3. For more voting information 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 [00:24]
   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. MIKE: This episode of Thinkwing Radio is going to be a little different because I’ll be interviewing a guest, Moji Agha. I’ll give him a proper introduction in a minute.
   1. MIKE: This August is the 70^th anniversary of the CIA-backed coup in Iran that overthrew Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh. I ran across an Associated Press article about this event — or series of events — and it made me realize that while I knew of the coup, I really didn’t know anything about the coup, or the circumstances surrounding it.
   2. MIKE: While the phrase, “CIA-Backed Iran Coup” has become a catch-phrase synonymous with US interference in the affairs of other countries, how many of us really know anything about it, or the events that precipitated it and that made it seem necessary from a US perspective at the time?
   3. MIKE: Those questions made me want to do a deeper dive into the subject for myself and for my listeners. Our one-hour talk has been condensed and broken into 3 parts, and edited and rearranged for clarity by my extremely capable audio editor, Andrew Ferguson.
   4. MIKE: At the bottom of this segment are a number of references and links that I hope will be useful as starting points for those of you who will have been made more curious about these crucial events. In this show post, I’ve included our working outline for the interview:
      
   5. PART 1: CA. 10 MINUTES: What Happened 70 years ago This Month?
      1. The geopolitics of the era: Post WW2 Great Power competition
      2. Late 1940s-1950s: Cult of the Manifest Destiny
         1. Anti-communism
         2. Anti socialism, and anti-Democratic-Socialism
         3. Anti-democracy
      3. Mohammad Mosaddegh: Ambitions and goals — From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
         1. Events leading up to the 1953 Coup: External and internal forces for and against The Coup
         2. The near and long-term impacts of the coup
   6. PART 2: CA. 10 MINUTES — The Three Frames
      1. The evil interdependence (especially as the “enemy”) of internal despotism and external colonialism.
      2. “Make … Great Again” — and examples of it around the world, and
      3. Ideological vs. Democratic Populism.
   7. PART 3: CA. 10 MINUTES
      1. Indigenous Iranian Nonviolence: Please see the site ( https://iranian-nonviolence.blogspot.com/) for:
         1. Modern Day Iran: An important regional power with its own internal struggles
         2. The four goals of the Iranian Nonviolence (IN) initiative,
         3. The “Drop your end of the rope” analogy, and
         4. The ancient poems of Iranian nonviolence.
   8. MIKE: And now, the interview.
   9. REFERENCE: A CIA-backed 1953 coup in Iran haunts the country with people still trying to make sense of it; By NASSER KARIMI and JON GAMBRELL| APNEWS.COM | Updated 12:10 AM CDT, August 25, 2023
   10. REFERENCE: How The CIA Overthrew Iran’s Democracy In 4 Days — NPR, February 7, 2019
   11. REFERENCE: 1953 Iranian coup d’état — From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (“… Judging Mosaddegh to be unamenable and fearing the growing influence of the communist Tudeh, UK prime minister Winston Churchill and the Eisenhower administration decided in early 1953 to overthrow Iran’s government. The preceding Truman administration had opposed a coup, fearing the precedent that Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) involvement would set,^[18]: 3 and the U.S. government had been considering unilateral action (without UK support) to assist the Mosaddegh government as late as 1952.^[ …”)
   12. REFERENCE: Mohammad Mosaddegh — From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
   13. REFERENCE: Mossadegh Legacy Institute — encouraged by Noam Chomsky: http://mossadeghlegacyinstitute.blogspot.com/(Moji Agha, Founder) 
   14. REFERENCE: Moji Agha’s 2015 Easter “Un-Sermon” at the Glendale (AZ) UU church –35 min. video
   15. REFERENCE: IRANIAN NONVIOLENCE * Rumi: Impossible to wash blood with blood, IMPOSSIBLE!
   16. REFERENCE: May 8, 2023 — NH Peace Action’s Peace and Justice Conversations (Video). The program’s brief outline:
       1. Indigenous Iranian Nonviolence: Please see the site (Blog Post) for: [a] The four goals of the Iranian Nonviolence (IN) initiative, [b] Drop your end of the rope analogy, and [c] The ancient poems of Iranian nonviolence.
       2. The Three Frames:
          1. The evil interdependence (especially as the “enemy”) of internal despotism and external colonialism.
          2. ..Great Again — and examples of it around the world, and
          3. Ideological vs. Democratic Populism.
       3. REFERENCE: Intersectional Circles Initiative
4. In local news: New $23M Sunrise Lofts serves Texas youth aging out of foster care; By Melissa Enaje | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 5:55 PM Aug 25, 2023 CDT (Updated 5:55 PM Aug 25, 2023 CDT)
   1. Houston and Harris County officials joined nonprofit Tejano Center for Community Concerns and numerous partners for a ribbon-cutting and grand opening Aug. 25 for Sunrise Lofts, a new housing development and community serving young adults who are aging out of foster care.
   2. Sunrise Lofts in Houston’s EaDo, or east of downtown Houston, sits on nearly 2 acres of land and will have 89 apartments where youth can live and receive wraparound services that would support independent living.
   3. According to Tejano Center officials, when youth age out of foster care in Texas at age 18, very few housing options are available, which leads many of the young adults to becoming unhoused and living on the streets. Data from the Administration for Children and Families shows 20% of young adults who have aged out of foster care were incarcerated during the last two years by age 19, and 42% will experience homelessness by the time they turn 21.
   4. “One of the greatest issues that we find of homelessness is in fact the aging out of foster care—young people, who are vitally a part of the talent and the opportunities of our nation,” U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee said. “When homeless persons find homes, they are our neighbors, and they’re in a neighborhood. This is an eclectic neighborhood, and Sunrise will provide the teaching that we need.”
   5. Sunrise Lofts will have staff and case managers on-site to provide wraparound services and life skills training to youth, including: Vocational and job skills training, High school diploma obtainment options, Child care, Health care, [and] Mental health support
   6. Amenities in the complex include [a Weight room, Bike room, Game room, Library, and an Open pantry where residents can choose groceries, free of charge, twice a month—a partnership with nonprofit La Tiendita.] …
   7. Officials from Tejano Center said the public is invited to donate for welcome baskets that will be distributed to youth when they move-in. Guidance on donation amounts were: $250 welcome basket; $170 new TV; $300 lease deposit
   8. More information can be found here.
   9. MIKE: This is a big deal and I’m really happy for the young adults who find a home and assistance here. One of the ironic tragedies of modern America is that no one wants houseless people around, but local governments mostly don’t seem to feel an urgent need to house them. They just keep forcing them to move someplace else while losing the few possessions they’ve managed to accumulate. It’s a problem that money can solve, but the political will to find and use the money is rarely adequate.
5. MIKE: Last week, I used the word “tyranny” in connection with two stories; one about the Texas legislature and one about the Tennessee legislature. I did not use that word lightly. Andrew and I spent a lot of time discussing whether or not it was appropriate.  I’ve continued to think about it ever since, and it’s made me pay special attention to stories about partisan legislatures and how they deal with speech and dissent as they relate to operational legislative decorum. Then this story came up 2 days ago:
   
6. GOP silences [a] ‘Tennessee Three’ Democrat on House floor for [1] day on ‘out of order’ rule; crowd erupts; By KIMBERLEE KRUESI and JONATHAN MATTISE | APNEWS.COM | Updated 8:49 PM CDT, August 28, 2023 [01:27]
   1. Republican lawmakers voted Monday to temporarily silence a Democratic member of the so-called Tennessee Three during an already tense House floor session after determining the young Black member violated newly enacted rules designed to punish disruptive members.
   2. The move directed at Rep. Justin Jones prohibited him from speaking on and debating bills for the remainder of the day, which came a week into a special session that Republican Gov. Bill Lee called in reaction to a deadly shooting at a Christian elementary school in Nashville in March. …
   3. House Speaker Cameron Sexton had warned Jones not to stray off topic. Under new rules adopted by the GOP-dominant chamber last week, members can be silenced anywhere from a day to the rest of the year for not sticking to the bill being debated. …
   4. Among the new slate of strict rules that House Republicans signed off on last week was a ban on the public holding signs during floor and committee proceedings. A Tennessee judge has since blocked the sign ban from being enforced after agreeing with civil rights activists that the prohibition likely violated free speech rights.
   5. While the state is fighting to uphold the ban, Chancellor Anne Martin stood by her decision Monday, noting that “the state has no interest in enforcing an unconstitutional restriction.”
7. MIKE: This last story provoked me to do some research for articles on parliamentary decorum versus protection of various types of First Amendment free speech. I liked this one from the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law. It’s recent — from this past May — and it’s thoughtful. It’s titled, …
8. The Unconstitutional Expulsion of Legislators; Legislatures can expel members, but not when it is to discriminate based on race or free speech. By Robyn Sanders and Andrew Garber | BRENNANCENTER.ORG | Published: May 25, 2023 / Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law
   1. … The events in Tennessee fit into a broader trend of partisan majorities removing or otherwise disempowering elected officials for their political views. In Montana, a Republican supermajority in the house votedto remove Rep. Zooey Zephyr (D) from the floor and committee meetings for the last week of the session after Zephyr, the state’s first openly transgender lawmaker, spoke against a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
   2. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) removedAndrew Warren, an elected county prosecutor, from office last year because he promised not to enforce the state’s newly enacted anti-abortion law. A federal judge condemnedDeSantis for violating the prosecutor’s First Amendment right to free speech, explaining that a “governor cannot properly suspend a state attorney based on policy differences.” DeSantis now threatens to remove Monique Worrell, another elected prosecutor, over disagreements with her charging decisions.
   3. In Wisconsin, legislators pledgedto consider impeaching Janet Protasiewicz [Pron.: “pro-toe-SAY-wits”], a newly elected state supreme court justice, before she ever ruled on a case. They pointed to no wrongdoing by the justice, only the possibility that she would rulebased on her “personal beliefs,” a reference to her campaign comments supporting abortion rights and denouncing gerrymandering.
   4. Even in an era of American democratic backsliding, the silencing and removal of legitimately elected officials over policy disagreements or for other invidious purposes is a startling development. By turning a measure meant to punish criminality or grossly unethical conduct into a political weapon, the Tennessee legislature undertook an unprecedented, likely discriminatory, and probably unconstitutional removal of two representatives. …
   5. Not once in the last 100 years have legislators removed their colleagues solely based on what those colleagues said or believed. The S.and TennesseeConstitutions grant their legislative chambers identical powers. Each may “determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member.” The two bodies have the same expulsion power, and many other state legislatures operate under similar rules.
   6. In its 230-year history, Congress has limited expulsions to cases of treason and bribery convictions. It has expelledonly 20 members: 1 for supporting plans for a British attack on Florida in 1797, 17 for supporting the Confederacy in 1861, and 1 each in 1980 and 2002 over convictions for accepting bribes.
   7. State legislatures have limited their use of the expulsion power to similar offenses for more than a century. Our research found 122 state legislators have been banned since the ratification of the Constitution in 1788. In 29 instances, the offender engaged in bribery and corruption. In 21 cases, expulsion followed other criminal convictions such as tax evasion, extortion, assault, lying to federal agents, or electoral fraud. Ten bans resulted from sexual or domestic offenses, three for violence or fighting, four for corrupted elections, and nine for disloyalty. …
   8. … In an expulsion gambit more brazen than any other in American history, the Georgia General Assembly ejected33 Black members in 1868 after agreeing Black citizens did not have the right to hold office in the state. The Georgia Supreme Court subsequently overturnedthe expulsions, and the Black legislators were able to serve in their elected roles. After the rise to power of reactionary politicians and the Ku Klux Klan, however, at least a quarter of the 33 representatives were murdered, beaten, threatened, or jailed.
   9. Finally, our research revealed eight instances in which a legislator’s speech or views led to their expulsion. In 1875, the North Carolina House of Representatives expelleda member for “non-belief in the existence of God.” At the tail end of World War I, during the first Red Scare, the New York State Assembly ejectedfive members for being socialists, arguing that members of the Socialist Party could not be loyal to the United States. The last two were State Representatives Jones and Pearson. …
   10. Jones and Pearson stand alone as the first legislators in a century expelled for their speech on a matter of public and legislative importance. They did not threaten or make false accusations about their colleagues. They committed no crime. They merely used their office to promote the interests of their constituents, a fact unchanged by any pretense about causing a disruption. …
   11. The courts have rarely considered whether legislatures retain the power to expel a member. This is unsurprising: expulsions are so uncommon — and usually are carried out for reasons that relate to a member’s criminal or unethical conduct — that the matter has had few chances to wind up in court.
   12. In 1966, however, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on a similar question of legislative exclusion in Bond v. Floyd. After Julian Bond, an electee to the Georgia House of Representatives, endorsed a statement opposing the Vietnam War, house leadership asserted that his statement was grounds to deny him admission to the legislative body. The Court unanimously ordered the Georgia house to seat Bond and made clear that the legislature could not ignore nor limit First Amendment free speech rights when it considered excluding an elected official.
   13. Bond presents a close analogy to the expulsions of Jones and Pearson. In its decision, the Court explained that the First Amendment “requires that legislators be given the widest latitude to express their views on issues of policy” without legal repercussions. The principles affirmed in Bond would presumably also bar the legislative removal of two elected representatives for their policy views concerning gun violence. …
   14. Other cases that have confronted related issues of legislative power provide instruction on how to approach the novel expulsions in Tennessee. They reveal a long-standing recognition by the Supreme Court that legislators must not use their expulsion power to trample free speech, illegally discriminate, or harm minority voters.
   15. In 1892, the Supreme Court recognized in United States v. Ballin that “[t]he Constitution empowers each house to determine its rules of proceedings. It may not by its rules ignore constitutional restraints or violate fundamental rights.” Much like federal law enables an employer to fire an at-will employee for any reason except a discriminatory one, legislatures cannot expel a member for exercising a constitutional right. … [07:22]
   16. In each of these cases, the Supreme Court acknowledges that legislatures have broad powers, including to expel members. But in no case does the Court suggest that the legislature’s right to expel defeats other constitutional rights granted to all Americans, including legislators and the voters who elect them. Expulsion is a power, not a superpower.
   17. REFERENCE: GOP silences ‘Tennessee Three’ Democrat on House floor for day on ‘out of order’ rule; crowd erupts; By KIMBERLEE KRUESI and JONATHAN MATTISE | APNEWS.COM | Updated 8:49 PM CDT, August 28, 2023

 

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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 2023
      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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