AUDIO:
 

POSSIBLE TOPICS: Your Voice Your Vote: All you need to know for runoff elections in Houston; More than 90,900 turn out for first week of early voting in Houston’s runoff elections; Spring ISD to launch new mariachi music program;  Putting porch pirates on notice: How one Houston-area police force is tackling a pervasive problem; Putting porch pirates on notice: How one Houston-area police force is tackling a pervasive problem; Houston to consider water billing ordinance updates as customers call for relief; United Airlines’ $2.6B expansion plan underway at IAH with plane debut, enhanced baggage system; Texas A&M to build $200 million space institute in Bay Area; Texas GOP executive committee rejects proposed ban on associating with Nazi sympathizers and Holocaust deniers; The hidden expense that’s sucking $74 billion out of the economy; 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. Your Voice Your Vote: All you need to know for runoff elections in Houston; By Mayra Moreno | ABC13.COM | Friday, November 10, 2023 5:56PM
   5. Early voting for the runoff ENDED on Dec. 5. Runoff election day is Saturday, Dec. 9.
   6. The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
   7. Even if you didn’t vote on Nov. 7, you can still vote in the runoff.
   8. If you have a mail-in ballot that you didn’t send in and you still want to vote, bring the ballot with you to the polling place. They’ll “spoil” the unused ballot and allow you to vote in person.
   9. You can visit com to find your nearest polling location, sample ballot, status of any mail-in ballot, and more.
   10. MIKE: According to Harris Votes, “…You may easily confirm your voter registration status by searching for it on our websiteor the Texas Secretary of State’s website. If you are currently living in Harris County but are registered to vote in another county, you must be registered to vote in Harris County at least 30 days prior to Election Day in order to vote in Harris County.”
   11. MIKE: But again, if you were registered to vote in the Nov. 7 election but did not, you can STILL vote in the runoffs.
2. More than 90,900 turn out for first week of early voting in Houston’s runoff elections; By Melissa Enaje | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 3:30 PM Dec 4, 2023 CST / Updated 3:30 PM Dec 4, 2023 CST
   9. Close to 91,000 Harris County voters turned out to cast a ballot during the first week of early voting ahead of the joint runoff elections on Dec. 9.
   10. According to Harris County early voting data, the average age of the in-person early voter so far in this election is about 62 years old, which is older compared to previous runoff elections and significantly older than Harris County’s average registered voter population age of 47 years old. …
   11. Vacant positions up for the Dec. 9 joint runoff election include: Houston Mayor, Houston Council members in Districts D, G, and H; Council members at-large for Positions 1, 2, 3, and 4, and also the City controller
   12. Ballot contests will vary by district, including the following differences:
   13. District 4 voters in Baytown will elect a council member.
   14. Bellaire voters will elect a new mayor.
   15. MIKE: All of these races are in Harris County, so you should be able to see your sample ballots at com.
   16. ANDREW: By my math, 80% fewer people have early voted in the runoff than voted in the general. That honestly doesn’t seem too bad by runoff standards, though even the general election was only a sliver of all of the registered voters in Harris County, so there’s virtually no chance that the runoff is going to involve a true representative majority of county voters. Still, better to have it than not, and if you do have a preference for any of the candidates running for any of the offices on your ballot, please do remember to vote and express that preference.
   17. ANDREW: Also, I got curious and checked the Brazoria County Clerk’s website, and Pearland is having its own special election for two vacated City Council seats on December 9th that I’d heard nothing about. If you’re my neighbor and you’re hearing this, you might still have time to look up the candidates and prepare to vote this Saturday. If you’re outside Pearland, you may as well check your own clerk’s website to see if any elections have snuck up on you, too.
   18. MIKE: Good points. We haven’t mentioned it in a while, but the last 2 items in every Thinkwing blog post includes lots of election information, including links for county clerks adjacent to Harris County, so you might want to check that out at com.
   19. REFERENCE: Houston early voting turnout suggests disengagement from 2023 mayoral race; By Adam Zuvanich | ORG | | Posted on November 6, 2023, 4:06 PM (Last Updated: November 6, 2023, 4:36 PM)
   20. REFERENCES: Because it’s often hard to find information on local candidates: Mona Chavarria for Pearland City Council Position 3 on Facebook; Diana Antezana, Candidate for Pearland City Council Position 6, on LinkedIn; Chad Thumann for Pearland City Council, Position 6 on Facebook; Veronica Longoria Candidate for City of Pearland Pos 6 on Facebook
3. Spring ISD to launch new mariachi music program; By Emily Lincke | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 8:00 AM Dec 5, 2023 CST
   1. Spring ISD will be establishing a mariachi music program for students in fifth grade and higher, according to a 29 blog post from the district.
   2. Under the new mariachi program, students will learn “a variety of traditional mariachi music” for vocals, guitar, vihuela, guitarron, trumpet and violin, according to the post. A start date for the program—which will be run by the district’s performing and visual arts department—has not been announced.
   3. “Mariachi is a central part of many celebrations and has been a part of the regional Mexican music scene for centuries,” Superintendent Lupita Hinojosa said via the post. “Getting to connect that history and legacy with our students here in SISD is thrilling.” …
   4. MIKE: There is more to this article. I ran across it and thought it would be a really interesting and fun thing to report on our show. As Superintendent Lupita Hinojosa says, Mariachi music is a central part of many Texas celebrations, and as such I think it’s appropriate to put this distinctive, regional music style on the curriculum as an option.
   5. MIKE: Performing arts like music don’t exist in a vacuum, and adding mariachi music to what is officially “sanctioned”, so to speak, enriches the local music scene and the students of Spring ISD, as well as surrounding communities. I think this is both a fun and exciting development.
   6. ANDREW: Absolutely, and I think having mariachi recognized as an art form worthy of classroom study helps combat the denigration that it so often faces in the disproportionately white-influenced culture we have in the US. I hope that this program gives more Spring ISD students an appreciation for mariachi, and I hope it helps Hispanic students in particular feel respected.
4. Putting porch pirates on notice: How one Houston-area police force is tackling a pervasive problem; By Bryce Newberry, Reporter | CLICK2HOUSTON.COM | Published: December 5, 2023 at 9:45 PM / Updated: December 5, 2023 at 10:16 PM. Tags: Bellaire, Crime Crackdown, Porch Pirate
   1. … In a proactive move to stop the porch pirates, one local police department is trying to outsmart the thieves with “Operation Catch Grinch.”
   2. It’s a combination of cameras, trackers, and willing people living in Bellaire who are fed up with their packages being stolen. …
   3. [Bellaire Police Chief Onesimo Lopez told KPRC 2,] “They’re looking for those unattended packages, the things that are that are sitting out there for extended periods.” “We want to make sure that when people order something online, it’s delivered and they get it.” …
   4. All of the bait packages are placed under surveillance cameras and won’t look different than regular packages, he said. But thieves will have no idea the bait packages are stuffed with trackers.
   5. “We have the ability, once that package has been taken, to follow that package and ultimately bring the person into custody,” Chief Lopez said.
   6. The operation started last week. It’s not clear how long it’ll continue …
   7. These are two ways the Bellaire Police Department recommends protecting yourself from package thieves: 1) Put something like a patio storage box outside and have packages delivered to it so they’re not visible from the street; 2) Have deliveries sent to an office or somewhere you can retrieve them while away from home.
   8. MIKE: Those are two good suggestions. Also, Amazon has designated pick-up points you can deliver stuff to. Maybe a new fringe benefit employers can offer is allowing employees to deliver stuff to work. For a large company, it can go to the mail room or other designated space. For security, pick up like a ticketed coat check at the end of the day.
   9. ANDREW: Interesting idea, though I’d be careful about reading the fine print on that benefit. You wouldn’t want the company to have the power to open your packages in case something embarrassing is inside, and you certainly wouldn’t want them throwing those packages away if you get laid off.
   10. MIKE: When my stepdaughter was working at Facebook in NYC, she often had me send things to her at her office, so it’s not impossible.
5. Houston to consider water billing ordinance updates as customers call for relief; By Shawn Arrajj | communityimpact.com | 4:20 PM Dec 5, 2023 CST
   Updated 4:25 PM Dec 5, 2023 CST
   1. Houston City Council members will discuss Dec. 6 a series of proposed changes to city ordinances that could bring relief to water customers grappling with inaccurate bills.
   2. The changes, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said, were spurred in part by complaints residents have made to city officials and to the council about the city overcharging people for water use.
   3. Turner said his administration worked for months with the city’s legal department and its public works department on crafting the ordinance changes. The changes were assessed to determine affects on the city’s financial outlook and its bond covenants, he said.
   4. The root of the problem, Turner said, is that the city’s current ordinances restrict the ability of public works officials to respond to complaints and make good on errors.
   5. “When many of the ordinances were first enacted, they were created with the assumption that all the equipment worked properly and that we received accurate readings of customers’ water use,” Turner said at a Dec. 4 news conference. “Today’s reality is quite different. Today we are faced with a high number of failing meter reading devices due to the aged infrastructure, and the city must rely on a much higher number of estimated readings, much higher than any of us would like.”
   6. The ordinance changes would allow public works staff to “resolve an overwhelming majority of disputes on the first call,” Turner said.
   7. As of press time, the agenda item language had not been uploaded to the city’s website, but Turner discussed the nine proposed ordinance changes at a Dec. 4 news conference.
      1. An ordinance to remove the limit on how many times per year a customer can have their water bill adjusted following a water leak. The current ordinance allows water customers to receive two adjustments for leaks per year.
      2. An ordinance to reduce customer bills to the average water use level if they complete their own repairs on a water leak within 30 days of receiving the bill. If a customer repairs the leak within 30-60 days, they can receive a 75% adjustment. If they complete a repair in more than 60 days, they can receive a 50% adjustment. The changes are meant to incentivize customers to make repairs to private leaks, Turner said.
      3. An ordinance to provide customers with a 100% credit for wastewater charges when they receive an adjustment to their bills when repairing a water leak. The current ordinance provides a 50% credit.
      4. An ordinance to change the threshold for when a customer can receive additional bill adjustments following a leak. The current ordinance allows customers to qualify for additional adjustments if the leak costs more than $2,000 for typical customers, or more than $250 for low-income eligible customers. The proposed ordinance would reduce the thresholds to $1,000 and $100, respectively.
      5. When customers receive high water bills with no explanation—and no leak and no meter problems are detected—a proposed ordinance would change how far a bill can be adjusted, from 150% of average water usage down to 125% of average water usage.
      6. For situations where a customer needs help in a way that does not fit into any other categories, a proposed ordinance would lower the threshold for how above average a bill has to be for someone to qualify for adjustments. The current ordinance requires a bill to be five times a customer’s average bill to quality and provides a reduction of $4,000 for one adjustment if it doesn’t exceed two billing cycles. The proposed ordinance would reduce the threshold to two times the average monthly bill and allow bills to be reduced by up to $10,000 for one adjustment that doesn’t exceed two billing cycles.
      7. In situations where a customer is paying basic service charges and they aren’t using water, a proposed ordinance would give customers the option to pay the city $150 to lock the meter and no longer be charged for basic service. The current ordinance requires a customer to pay a private plumber to cap the line and remove the meter, which Turner said can cost up to $1,500. Customers who want to reactivate a meter after locking it will not have to pay a developer impact fee, Turner said.
      8. An ordinance to provide a benefit to customers who opt into e-bills instead of paper bills of 50 cents per bill.
      9. An ordinance to codify a practice already being used by the public works department that restricts staff from correcting a residential customer’s bill if it is more than three months old, unless the correction is in the customer’s favor. The ordinance was proposed as an agenda item by City Council members Amy Peck, Carolyn Evans-Shabazz and Mary Nan Huffman.
   8. Houston Public Works Director Carol Haddock said accuracy issues in the water bill system can often be tied to failing remote reading devices that read a water meter remotely and send the information to the city.
   9. In 2019, the public works department was dealing with about 40,000 failing devices, which required staff to get manual reads on those water meters. The department was estimating water levels on about 6,000-7,000 accounts each month due to a lack of resources to read all of those devices.
   10. As of 2023, the public works department is dealing with more than 125,000 failing remote devices, Haddock said, and estimates nearly 40,000 bills per month.
   11. The city has roughly 550,000 total water accounts, Haddock said. The majority of the city’s remote reading devices were put in place in the early 2000s with an expected life span of 10-15 years, she said, and the city began the process of replacing them in 2019, a process that is ongoing.
   12. “The city is not in the business of trying to profit from people getting high water bills,” Turner said. “We want the bills to reflect [customers’] actual usage.”
   13. If the Houston City Council votes in favor of the ordinance changes, they will go into effect immediately, Haddock said at the Dec. 4 conference. Turner said the changes should not add a significant amount of money to the city’s bottom line, but did not provide an estimated financial impact to the city.
   14. Meanwhile, Turner said the city will continue to work to replace failed meters.
   15. ANDREW: These proposals look very reasonable – I especially like the one giving a small discount for electronic billing. 50 cents isn’t much off of an individual bill, but it can add up to a decent little savings over a few years. Plus e-billing helps reduce the pile of opened letters that tends to show up all of a sudden.
   16. ANDREW: The special considerations for low-income residents are also a welcome sight – I’m sure this situation has hit them the hardest. These ordinances aren’t going to solve the problems with Houston’s water on their own, but they will make waiting for a more comprehensive fix a lot more tenable for a lot more people. I hope they all pass as good as they are or better.
   17. MIKE: So, a point of observation here. The design lifetime of the meters was 10-15 years. One might infer from the article that the City waited about 20 years to start a replacement cycle. This is not necessarily an improper strategy. Many products last beyond their design life. Look at space exploration robots.
   18. MIKE: But these are not space exploration robots. Before about 1980, the definition of “durable goods” for the purposes of economic planning was 10 years or more. That’s the stuff you bought such as appliances that actually lasted 20-30 years with some occasional maintenance. During the 1980s, that was changed to 5 years. By the 2000s, it was 3 years, which is where it stands now. So-called non-durable goods are defined as products designed to last at least 90 days.
   19. MIKE: By the definition of that time and now, these remote meter readers were durable goods. It was reasonable to assume that you could almost set your watch by the design life. I was selling service agreements for appliances up until 2007 using that same strategy. My life experience bore that out, so I was being honest.
   20. MIKE: So let the City of Houston and all government agencies be aware: These days, when you buy something that is NOT a space probe that has a design life, that IS the life of the device. Plan on timely replacements.
6. United Airlines’ $2.6B expansion plan underway at IAH with plane debut, enhanced baggage system; By Shaheryar Khan | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 5:38 PM Nov 30, 2023 CST — Updated 5:38 PM Nov 30, 2023 CST
   2. United Airlines officials announced a $2.6 billion renovation and expansion plan for George Bush Intercontinental Airport’s Terminal B on Nov. 30. The project includes the addition of a new Early Bag Storage Facility and the Airbus A321neo.
   3. Houston City Council members gave their unanimous approval Nov. 15 for the agreement between the city and United Airlines regarding the ongoing Terminal B expansion, as previously reported by Community Impact.
   4. The United Airlines’ investment includes the Terminal B North Concourse, which is three levels, 765,000 square feet and has 22 mainline gates, according to Mario Diaz, executive director of the Houston Airport System.
   5. The new Early Bag Storage Facility, engineered by Siemens, broke ground in 2021 and will be operational by late January, according to Paul Young, facility/bag manager at United Airlines. …
   6. With the Early Bag Storage Facility, bags are stored based on flight times, allowing passengers with longer layovers or later departures to store baggage temporarily, Young said. …
   7. According to Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, the redevelopment project will bring nearly 3,000 new jobs to Houston, and the Terminal B renovation project will amplify Houston’s reputation as a “premier destination and cultivate even more opportunity for economic development—just in time for the World Cup.” …
   8. Diaz said that by 2024, IAH will be opening Terminal D-West Pier with six international gates.
   9. ANDREW: Last Time on Thinkwing Radio ... Okay, maybe not “last time”, but our November 15th show was the last I’d heard of this project. Back then, the City Controller had all sorts of concerns. Some were long-term, like the project’s design not being complete, and the study to determine whether the city could handle the debt not having been done.
   10. ANDREW: As it turns out, from following the link to the reporting done on the November 15th vote, it seems that those issues were still outstanding by that time … but at least Houston hadn’t committed any money. The vote on November 15th does seem to tie the city to this project, but split the funding into a separate later vote so the Controller could look into his concerns. But on November 29th, when the funding vote was supposed to happen, the Controller again said his concerns hadn’t been addressed and refused to allow the Council to vote on the funding.
   11. ANDREW: So now that we’re all caught up, what’s going on with this story? Well, by all accounts, this was a groundbreaking ceremony for the project, though no actual ground was broken. Some sources blamed that on the weather, but others say the funding issue is what stopped shovels from meeting earth on the 30th.
   12. ANDREW: My opinion, it was probably both. It’s not called “mudbreaking”, after all. I also echo some of my previous points: the Controller’s concerns are very reasonable, and the Mayor’s are not. If United wants to go somewhere else because the funding is taking too long, let them. In fact, United’s CEO has suggested that the company isn’t even paying attention to the funding freeze, so for the time being at least, Turner seems even more worried about nothing. 
   13. ANDREW: I think it’s possible that the agreement on the 15th is behind United’s relaxed attitude, and if so, that would mean it was a smart move on the City Council’s part. I just hope they show the same level of intelligence when it comes to giving the Controller’s office the time they need to square everything away.
   14. MIKE: As always, I thank Andrew for doing the legwork to fill in the plot holes, as it were.
   15. MIKE: I included this story partly as a follow-up. As I recalled, the City wanted some more assurances from United that they wouldn’t somehow skimp or walk out on this deal because of the money that the City would contribute through bond issues. Now that there has been an informal “mudbreaking”, things are looking firmer while it seems — Correct Andrew? — that the City is still no more obligated to kick in their dime than they were before.
   16. MIKE: Now, if only the City would demand greater ease-of-access through these interminable terminals and their gate areas, I might use air travel a little more …
7. Texas A&M to build $200 million space institute in Bay Area; By James T. Norman | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 2:56 PM Nov 28, 2023 CST —
   Updated 2:56 PM Nov 28, 2023 CST
   1. Texas A&M officials are planning a new $200 million space institute [next to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Clear Lake] that will work in conjunction with NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Once built, it will be the first of its kind in the U.S. …
   2. The project, much of which is being funded through the state of Texas, is in the design process at the moment …
   3. Along with support mission training, robotics and aeronautics work, the new facility will replicate both the Mars and lunar surfaces, which will allow for better training and technology opportunities, [Texas A&M Chancellor John Sharp] said.
   4. The announcement comes as NASA is working toward more trips to outer space, including to the moon.
   5. Texas A&M regents approved the project back in August, according to the college’s website.
   6. In addition to the new facility, Sharp talked about several things Texas A&M is doing and bringing to the area. …
   7. [C]ollege officials are working toward bringing a $51 million engineering building to the Galveston campus.
   8. In the realm of space, the college has more than 300 ongoing space projects, which total up to $50 million worth of research, Sharp said.
   9. MIKE: I’m all for investing in infrastructure to enhance space exploration and utilization. The US has been a leader is development of space technology and transportation for most of the last 50 years. (Not all, but most.) At a time when nations around the globe are getting into the space business with increasingly sophisticated capabilities, the US most maintain its leadership at or near the head of the pack.
   10. ANDREW: I agree. I’d like to see that leadership be in common with other nations, especially geopolitical rivals, because humanity’s efforts in space should benefit everyone on this big blue marble. But whether you agree with my view, Mike’s view, or another view entirely, more space infrastructure is cool, and it comes with plenty of economic advantages like spending and jobs as well.
8. Texas GOP executive committee rejects proposed ban on associating with Nazi sympathizers and Holocaust deniers; Some members of the committee said such a ban, proposed two months after a prominent conservative activist was caught meeting with a famous white supremacist, might be a “slippery slope” or too vague. by Robert Downen | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Dec. 2, 2023 — Updated: Dec. 3, 2023
   1. Two months after a prominent conservative activist and fundraiser was caught hosting white supremacist Nick Fuentes, leaders of the Republican Party of Texas have voted against barring the party from associating with known Nazi sympathizers and Holocaust deniers.
   2. In a 32-29 vote on Saturday, members of the Texas GOP’s executive committee stripped a pro-Israel resolution of a clause that would have included the ban— delivering a major blow to a faction that has called for the party to confront its ties to groups that have recently employed, elevated or associated with outspoken white supremacists or antisemitic figures.
   3. In October, The Texas Tribune published photos of Fuentes, an avowed admirer of Adolf Hitler who has called for a “holy war” against Jews, entering and leaving the offices of Pale Horse Strategies, a consulting firm for far-right candidates and movements. Pale Horse Strategies is owned by Jonathan Stickland, a former state representative and at the time the leader of a political action committee, Defend Texas Liberty, that two West Texas oil billionaires have used to fund right-wing movements, candidates and politicians in the state — including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton. …
   4. Defend Texas Liberty has not publicly commented on the scandal, save for a two-sentence statement condemning those who’ve tried to connect the PAC to Fuentes’ “incendiary” views. …
   5. Tim Dunn, one of the two West Texas oil billionaires who funds Defend Texas Liberty, confirmed the meeting between Fuentes and Stickland and called it a “serious blunder,” according to a statement from Patrick.
   6. In response to the scandal — as well as subsequent reporting from the Tribune that detailed other links between Defend Texas Liberty and white supremacists — nearly half of the Texas GOP’s executive committee had called for the party to cut ties with Defend Texas Liberty and groups it funds until Stickland was removed from any position of power, and a full explanation for the Fuentes meeting was given.
   7. The proposed demands were significantly watered down ahead of the party’s quarterly meeting this weekend. Rather than calling for a break from Defend Texas Liberty, the faction proposed general language that would have barred associations with individuals or groups “known to espouse or tolerate antisemitism, pro-Nazi sympathies or Holocaust denial.”
   8. But even that general statement was not enough to sway a majority of the executive committee. In at-times tense debate on Saturday, members argued that words like “tolerate” or “antisemitism” were too vague or subjective, and could create future problems for the party, its leaders and candidates.
   9. “It could put you on a slippery slope,” said committee member Dan Tully.
   10. Supporters of the language disagreed. They noted that the language was already a compromise, didn’t specifically name any group or individual and would lend credence to the Texas GOP’s stances in support of Israel.
   11. “To take it out sends a very disturbing message,” said Rolando Garcia, a Houston-based committee member who drafted the language. “We’re not specifying any individual or association. This is simply a statement of principle.“
   12. Other committee members questioned how their colleagues could find words like “antisemitism” too vague, despite frequently lobbing it and other terms at their political opponents.
   13. “I just don’t understand how people who routinely refer to others as leftists, liberals, communists, socialists and RINOs (‘Republicans in Name Only’) don’t have the discernment to define what a Nazi is,” committee member Morgan Cisneros Graham told the Tribune after the vote.
   14. House Speaker Dade Phelan similarly condemned the vote Saturday evening, calling it “despicable” on X, formerly known as Twitter.
   15. The Texas GOP executive committee “can’t even bring themselves to denounce neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers or cut ties with their top donor who brought them to the dance,” Phelan wrote. “There is a moral, anti-Semitic rot festering within the fringes of BOTH parties that must be stopped.” …
   16. The party’s internecine conflict has exploded into all-out war since the impeachment and acquittal of Paxton, a crucial Defend Texas Liberty ally whose political life has been subsidized by the PAC’s billionaire funders. After Paxton’s acquittal, Defend Texas Liberty vowed scorched-earth campaigns against those who supported the attorney general’s removal, and promised massive spending ahead of next year’s primary elections.
   17. Then came the news of the Stickland and Fuentes meeting — a political bombshell that quickly intensified infighting and prompted some in the Texas GOP to question the party’s proximity to racists and extremists. In the wake of the Tribune’s reporting, House Speaker Dade Phelan and other House Republicans called on their colleagues to donate money the money they’ve received from Defend Texas Liberty to pro-Israel charities.
   18. Many of the PAC’s beneficiaries have been defiant in the face of those calls, instead accusing Phelan of politicizing antisemitism and attempting to discredit the Tribune’s reporting and downplay the scandal. …
   19. “If you want to pass a resolution, I would make it positive,” ,” [said Sen. Bob Hall — an Edgewood Republican who has received $50,000 from Defend Texas Liberty] to executive committee members on Friday. “We don’t need to do our enemy’s work for them.”
   20. Hall reiterated that stance in an interview with the Tribune, calling the Fuentes meeting a “mistake” but claiming that there was “no evidence” that Stickland or Defend Texas Liberty are antisemitic.
   21. “I’ve had meetings with transgenders, gays and lesbians,” said Hall. “Does that make me a transgender, gay or a lesbian?”
   22. Asked if he was comparing gay people to white supremacists or Hitler admirers like Fuentes, Hall responded: “I’m talking about people who are political hot potatoes.”
   23. MIKE: The good news here is that almost half of the Texas Republicans’ executive committee voted for this proposal. The bad news is that a solid majority of them did not. Because, I suppose, it’s much too hard to figure out from either their own personal experience or the wider media if someone with whom they associate is an outspoken racist, or an antisemite, or a misogynist, or a White supremacist, or an avowed Nazi, or a homophobe. Especially when so many of them and the people with whom they associate fall into these categories.
   24. MIKE: It’s still true that birds of a feather do tend to flock together.
   25. ANDREW: It’s all about plausible deniability. If they condemn antisemitism, and racism, and sexism, and homophobia, and outright Nazism, they prove that they know what those things are, and then they have to actually do something to distance themselves from those things. By claiming the resolution is “too vague” and creates a “slippery slope” where people who aren’t proud bigots could get mistaken for such, they create a narrative where they can say any criticism of their Nazi friends is a case of mistaken identity – “he’s not a Nazi, he just sounds like one!” – and therefore Republicans aren’t Nazis or Nazi supporters by associating with them. Classic politician tactic. Business as usual for the GOP.
9. The hidden expense that’s sucking $74 billion out of the economy; Bartie Scott | BUSINESSINSIDER.COM | Nov 30, 2023, 4:28 AM CST
   1. On Lyndale Street in the Logan Square neighborhood of downtown Chicago sits a six-unit condo building. The rather average building is home to more than a dozen residents, a mix of professional couples and families with kids. Everyone in the small community pays homeowners-association fees to cover building improvements, various repairs, and basic amenities like upkeep of the common area and trash removal. But lately the Lyndale Street residents have been sharing a new burden: soaring insurance costs.
   2. The cost of insuring the property jumped by 43% from 2019 to 2022, forcing the board members in charge of managing the building’s finances to make some tough choices. The board shopped around each year for lower insurance prices and tried to find other ways to save money, such as having the board president do the landscaping. But even with all the creative thinking, the board had to raise HOA fees by 15% over the past four years to help cover the higher insurance costs. A former resident who served as the board’s president but recently resigned to move to the suburbs, told me that trash removal and insurance were the two main culprits for what they called a “mind-boggling” 47% increase in fees since the building’s construction was finished in 2017. …
   3. The financial squeeze facing the Lyndale Street residents isn’t unique. The cost to insure major investments like homes and cars has over the past few years been skyrocketing, hitting owners’ pocketbooks and trickling down to renters. Because this insurance is often essential, the increased prices are putting a vise on consumers’ ability to spend elsewhere. Economists worry that rising property-insurance costs — on top of pressures like student-loan repayment and dwindling savings — could cause many Americans’ household budgets to finally crack and hamstring the driving force behind the US economy’s sustained strength. …
   4. The reasons for the jump in insurance prices are varied, but the most obvious is the climate crisis. The number and intensity of destructive weather events are on the rise, causing greater damage to homes and cars. Inflation has made the work and materials necessary for repairs more expensive. As insurers are forced to pay out more in damages, they end up raising their prices. In recent years they haven’t raised premiums enough to cover their costs — the American Property Casualty Insurance Association suggests the industry lost nearly $26 billion in 2022. …
   5. This adds up to higher insurance bills, particularly for people in especially disaster-prone places. Florida, for example, has over the past three years been hit by 21 disasters that each caused at least $1 billion worth of damage, [the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA] reports. …
   6. Insurance is just one of many non-negotiables increasing in price, Francesco D’Acunto, an associate professor of finance at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, told me. As utility bills, groceries, and other basic goods get more expensive, he said, people spend less on services like dining and travel and products like clothing. …
   7. Rising insurance costs could inflict more pain on another bruised area of the economy: housing affordability. A lack of available homes in the US has pushed affordability to its lowest level since 1985. A family earning their state’s median income can’t afford a mortgage on a median-priced home in 14 states; in 2019, that applied to only two states. …
   8. While economists [this writer] spoke with were worried about the effects of these rising costs, they didn’t necessarily think homeowners insurance would be what tipped the scales to send the broader economy into a recession — $74 billion may seem sizable, but it represents only about 0.4% of total consumer spending in 2022. …
   9. The biggest threat, economists said, is to three groups: people on fixed incomes, people in older homes, and people in high-risk areas. Think a retiree living in an older home in Florida, or someone on disability in California whose home needs repairs to be insurable. People on fixed incomes, like Social Security or disability, can’t afford a bill that grows faster than the inflation adjustment that comes with their monthly checks. If they’ve already paid off their home and no longer have a mortgage requiring insurance, they might just decide to go uninsured. Older homes are at the most risk of weather-related damage, and their repairs could be the most costly. For this reason, insurance companies could decline to cover them or require costly upgrades before agreeing to a policy. As a result, economists said, these market forces could incentivize people to avoid living in certain areas of the country. …
   10. Economists told [this writer] that the increasing pressure on insurers and the rising needs of homeowners means the future of insurance could look a lot like the flood-insurance market. Since 1968, the federal government has offered policies through the National Flood Insurance Act, though Congress opened the door to more private options in 2012. Flooding is by far the most common type of home damage in the US, making it a losing business for private companies. So most homeowners’ policies don’t offer it. The law allowed the federal government to take on the burden in the name of protecting American property.
   11. As claims of all kinds rise, one solution is to shift more of the cost to the public balance sheet. Another is to adopt stricter government regulation of home-insurance policies. Lawmakers in California are trying that approach. They issued a flurry of executive orders in September aimed at transitioning more policyholders back to private insurance from the state’s last-resort plan by requiring insurance companies to cover high-risk areas, incentivizing homeowners to take precautions against wildfires, and hiring more staff to review rates and enforce regulations.
   12. The government could also increasingly invest in better infrastructure to mitigate damage from extreme weather. [Said Mark Pauly of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business,] “That’s why we have government,” “to protect against things that individuals can’t protect against. Like, I can’t build a levee.” …
   13. MIKE: I actually think the story makes good points, but is, perhaps of necessity, missing the larger picture.
   14. MIKE: Yes, Climate change is a big part of the picture, as are rising replacement costs for materials.
   15. MIKE: But this is also a macro-economic story. For example, housing supplies are short partly because of Covid, when housing construction plummeted and people largely stopped selling their houses and stayed put, shortening liquidity in that market.
   16. MIKE: As things have gotten more expensive over decades — a 2% inflation rate compounded annually is still a lot over time — wages have not kept up. Three-year car loans have become 7-year car loans. Homes that were $50 thousand are now $150 thousand. Insuring those things gets more expensive because replacing them gets more expensive.
   17. MIKE: This takes us back to the ongoing problem of wealth concentration at a stratum where it only gets accumulated, not spent.
   18. MIKE: Every chart shows inflation-adjusted wages close to flat or sometimes negative since 1980. Highly-paid workers and the Top 1% showed dramatic income increases during that same period.
   19. MIKE: Surprisingly or not, real wage growth tends to climb under Democratic governance and tend to slow or go negative under Republican governance. You can check the references I’ve provided below this story at my website.
   20. MIKE: These days, the same can be said if democracy.
   21. ANDREW: Would raising the minimum wage solve all these problems? Probably not. In fact, I can’t think of a single policy that would solve everything. But a bunch of smaller policies that address specific needs (wage increases, public insurance, climate action, price or profit management) could make a collective positive impact greater than the sum of its parts. The economic landscape would be transformed, and that may be scary to some people, but a transformation is already happening – one that makes everything worse. Convincing people that the unknown is a better bet than the certain doom is always the trick.
   22. MIKE: Perhaps.
   23. REFERENCE: Wage Stagnation in Nine Charts [thru 2015]— ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE, January 6, 2015
   24. REFERENCE: Median inflation adjusted hourly earnings of wage and salary workers in the United States from 1979 to 2021 — STATISTA.COM
10. Here’s a novelty item: Did Trump Share Post with Article Saying Trump Dictatorship Is ‘Increasingly Inevitable’?; By David Emery | SNOPES.COM | Published Dec 5, 2023
    1. TRUE! It is true that on Dec. 4, Trump “ReTruthed” (as reposting is called on the Truth Social social platform) a post by @MillsforFlorida, the official account of U.S. Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., advocating Trump’s reelection and prominently linking to the aforementioned Post opinion article about an “increasingly inevitable” Trump dictatorship …
    2. In a nutshell, the op-ed article argues that if Trump were reelected in 2024, the odds are “pretty good” that his presidency would turn into a dictatorship. …
    3. MIKE: I have gifted the mentioned Washington Post article here without a paywall. Just follow this link. It’s really pretty alarming! And at least implicitly, Trump seems to agree with it and endorse it!
    4. MIKE: In a post on Threads, I’ve called this opinion piece a DEFCON 5 alert, as in DEFend the CONstitution. I don’t think Trump, if nominated by the Republicans, will lose by a landslide. Given the way our Electoral College works, I’m not even sure he’d lose. But I have no illusions that it can be close.
    5. ANDREW: Of course, it’s always possible he didn’t even read the article before ReTruthing (eugh) the post. But I certainly wouldn’t put it past him to see an article openly worrying about his ascension to President-for-Life status and go, “Yeah, that sounds pretty good”.

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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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