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POSSIBLE TOPICS: VOTETEXAS.GOV—Voter Information; Eyeing erosion: Brazos River projects gain state, federal funding; Montrose Management District returns, vexing some business owners; Amid white supremacist scandal, far-right billionaire powerbrokers see historic election gains in Texas; Texas counties, EPA respond to attorney general’s lawsuit on new federal climate policy; Why National Guard troops are being deployed in New York’s subways; Gender, race among factors that led to ousting of eight Houston-area judges in Democratic primary; Katie Porter prepared for the wrong war; DeSantis faces pushback in Florida as voters tire of war on woke; Biden denounces Trump for $2tn tax cuts as he unveils budget plan; Who Are the Gangs That Have Overrun Haiti’s Capital?; Swedes cheer end of long wait to join Nato; Biden admin announces new weapons package for Ukraine following months of warnings there was no money left; 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 March 5, 2024 Primary Elections are done. Runoffs will be held on May 28^th. So we can take an election breather for now, but if you need to register to vote or to update your voter information, now is a good time to take care of that. Links to county election sites for Harris and adjacent counties can be found at the bottom of this week’s blog post.
2. Eyeing erosion: Brazos River projects gain state, federal funding; By Kelly Schafler | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 11:22 AM Mar 8, 2024 CST /Updated 11:22 AM Mar 8, 2024 CST
   1. Design is underway on several projects in Sugar Land aimed at tackling erosion along the banks of the Brazos River.
   2. The erosion—which happens when flood waters reach a high enough flow rate to wear away the riverbank’s soil—was exacerbated by floods in 2015, 2016 and Hurricane Harvey in August 2017, Sugar Land City Engineer Jessie Li said.
   3. This can be seen at the 150-acre Sugar Land Memorial Park, where portions of trail near the riverbank are fenced off, with a sign asking visitors not to cross due to erosion.
   4. “We lost about probably 300-400 feet of riverbank after several [flood] events,” Li said.
   5. After years of funding efforts, the city of Sugar Land and Fort Bend County will receive millions from the state and federal government to address critical erosion points along the river as part of the Brazos River Riverbank Erosion Mitigation Project, also known as Project Brazos.
   6. A 2018 study showed that if Brazos River’s erosion was not addressed, parts of the banks could wash away further, causing billions in damages and potential loss of life due to the impact to infrastructure and homes.
   7. Two erosion studies identified 13 points along the Brazos River deemed the most critical for the erosion already seen and the projected erosion rate, officials said.
   8. Since then, officials have sought grant funding to tackle these 13 projects, said Mark Vogler, the Fort Bend County Drainage District general manager and chief engineer.
   9. Of the 13 critical sites, four locations are in the city of Sugar Land, Li said. However, one site near the New Territory neighborhood at Hwy. 99 is already under construction by a levee improvement district.
   10. Now, county and city officials will partner to tackle the remaining three locations within the city limits, and city staff will also take on an erosion site near the Riverstone community— [Riverstone is] not included in the 13, officials said. …
   11. Additionally, Hwy. 59 over the Brazos River serves as an evacuation route for not only Fort Bend County but Brazoria and Galveston counties, Li said. The U-turn road under Hwy. 59 was destroyed by erosion; the Texas Department of Transportation has plans for a project to stabilize the bridge, officials said.
   12. [Precinct 4 Commissioner Dexter McCoy said at the Feb. 13 Fort Bend County Commissioners Court meeting,] “It is highly unlikely that we’re going to get a fully functioning turnaround back in that area, but there is work that needs to get done to stabilize the area underneath the bridge still.”
   13. MIKE: The story ends with Sugar Land City Engineer Jessie Li saying this:]. “It sounds like it’s a lot of money to spend on riverbank erosion, but those areas … protect $8 billion in public infrastructure and homes. Over 700,000 county residents [are] going to [benefit] from the project.”
   14. MIKE: The story then goes into some more detail about what work will be done, where it will be done, how it will be done, and which entities will be providing funding for this work.
   15. MIKE: Fighting Mother Nature is an ongoing struggle for humanity, and frankly, humanity isn’t making the job any easier. We should be grateful that there are still local leaders who believe that government is supposed to work for all the citizenry, and not just those that vote for them, and we should be grateful that money can be found to pay for these improvements.
3. Montrose Management District returns, vexing some business owners; By Shawn Arrajj | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 12:00 AM Mar 8, 2024 CST.
   1. The Montrose Management District, dormant since 2018, is coming back online.
   2. Officials overseeing the district announced its relaunch in December, a move that was followed by the first board meeting in more than five years Dec. 14. The district collects tax revenue from certain commercial properties within its boundaries with the goal of improving public safety and the local economy. It was revived after district officials received a petition from the owners of 60 properties.
   3. “We need something to fill the void of what the city [of Houston] hasn’t been able to do—graffiti, littering, some security issues,” said Dimitri Fetokakis, a new board member and owner of the Montrose-based Greek eatery Niko Niko’s.
   4. The district’s past includes a courtroom battle with local property owners, who are once again speaking out against its relaunch, citing concerns about how few signatures were needed to bring the district back and claiming the assessment the district previously charged was not worth the services that came in return. Now, new board members are emphasizing the need for transparency and listening to the community.
   5. District officials anticipate spending around $2.17 million on average each year for the 15 years of the service plan, which lays out district projects.
   6. District Executive Director Andrea Duhon said the district will look to improve public safety by hiring a security company to have two patrol shifts immediately with longer term plans involving bringing in Houston Police Department officers to work overtime in areas where it’s needed most. The district will also install security cameras in areas that will be informed by professional input.
   7. Other initiatives would include graffiti and litter abatement. The district could also take on maintenance of projects completed by the Montrose Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, which is prohibited by law from funding maintenance work.
   8. [MIKE: I’m not sure how that can happen without a change in State law. Going on with the story …]
   9. The city of Houston maintains some TIRZ infrastructure, but a management district could help with maintenance that goes above city standards, TIRZ Chair Joe Webb said. In a Feb. 28 interview, prior to a district discussion on board members, Webb said TIRZ officials were open to working with the district, but were watching from a distance as board member appointments play out.
   10. The Montrose Management District first formed in 2011 when two existing improvement districts were merged. A management district is a governmental entity that can assess property taxes and fees on certain commercial property owners within its boundaries.
   11. The district cannot impose taxes or fees unless a petition [leads] to the district’s board requesting the services. The district then uses the funds it raises on initiatives according to a service plan approved by its board.
   12. Although the district will tax 996 properties, its [re-formation under grandfathered rules] only required a petition from 25 property owners, a standard that was raised when the law was amended in 2019 under House Bill 304.
   13. Those opposed to the district say it should abide by the new standard, which only allows a management district to form if it gets a petition “signed by the owners of a majority of the assessed value of the real property in the proposed district that would be subject to assessment by the district.” However, the new standard only applies to districts that have formed since the law was amended, district officials said.
   14. [MIKE: The story then goes into tax rates and assessments and qualifications. You can see that by going to THINKWINGRADIO (DOT) COM and clicking on the story link. Continuing with the story…]
   15. Those opposed to the district express concerns about the number of signatures needed to bring it back and what they said was a lack of benefits when it last existed.
   16. Mariana Lemesoff, owner of Avant Garden on Westheimer Road, said the district did not provide her business any benefits when it last operated.
   17. “I can’t justify the reorganization of the MMD when they were rejected by so many business property owners because they didn’t make any improvements to the neighborhood,” she said. “We all felt we were being taxed because the MMD gained the legal right to tax us. Not because they provided useful services and improvements to the neighborhood. It is a self-serving organization.” …
   18. Opponents like Daphne Scarborough, owner of The Brass Maiden, thought they were victorious in 2018 when the board voted to dissolve. However, the dissolution was contingent on a judge issuing an order to do so, and officials said that order was not issued. …
   19. The district was also sued in 2012 and has a roughly $500,000 legal settlement to pay from a judgment that district officials said they planned to follow. However, details on how that payment will be worked into its future budget were not released as of press time.
   20. At a Feb. 29 special meeting, the board’s three current members voted to appoint six new board members, which will later have to be approved by Houston Mayor John Whitmire.
   21. New members include Dan Fergus, the owner of Brasil, who attended the meeting to speak about his dissatisfaction with the district when it last operated. When asked by current board members if he would like to join the board as a way to represent business owner needs, he agreed. …
   22. District officials said the next big steps will involve getting appointments approved by Whitmire and the Houston City Council, after which another meeting will be hosted.
   23. In a Feb. 28 email, a spokesperson with Whitmire’s office said everything is under review at this time.
   24. MIKE: Andrew and I have spent a lot of time reporting on the Montrose TIRZ and discussing it. I’ve come to think that with so much local opposition to its re-creation, it should simply be dissolved.
4. Amid white supremacist scandal, far-right billionaire powerbrokers see historic election gains in Texas; By Robert Downen | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | March 8, 2024 @ 12 PM Central. TAGS: Politics, Texas House of Representatives, Tim Dunn, Farris Wilks,
   1. West Texas oil billionaires Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks entered the 2024 primary election cycle wounded.
   2. Their political network was in the middle of a scandal over its ties to white supremacists. Republicans were calling on each other to reject the billionaires’ campaign money. And their enemies believed they were vulnerable — one bad election day from losing their grip on the state.
   3. Instead, Dunn and Wilks emerged from Tuesday perhaps stronger than ever — vanquishing old political foes, positioning their allies for a November takeover of the state Legislature, and leaving little doubt as to who is winning a vicious civil war to control the state party.
   4. In race after race, more moderate conservative incumbents were trounced by candidates backed by Dunn and Wilks. Their political network made good on its vows for vengeance against House Republicans who voted to impeach their key state ally, Attorney General Ken Paxton, advancing more firebrands who campaigned against bipartisanship and backed anti-LGBTQ+ policies.
   5. Tuesday’s election also paved the way for the likely passage of legislation that would allow taxpayer money to fund private and religious schools — a key policy goal for a movement that seeks to infuse more Christianity into public life.
   6. All told, 11 of the 28 House candidates supported by the two billionaires won their primaries outright, and another eight are headed to runoffs this May. And, in a sign of how much the state party has moved rightward, five of their candidates beat incumbents in rematches from 2022 or 2020 — with some House districts swinging by double-digits in their favor. Of the candidates they backed, they donated $75,000 or more to 11 of them — six who won, and four who went to runoffs.
   7. Tuesday was a stark contrast from just two years ago, when Dunn and Wilks’ top political fundraising group poured $5.2 million into a host of longshot candidates — much more than what they spent in the current election cycle. They lost badly that year — 18 of the 19 challengers to Texas House members they backed were defeated. …
   8. Among the triumphant on Tuesday was Mitch Little, aided by at least $153,000 in Dunn and Wilks cash, who defeated Rep. Kronda Thimesch in a campaign that focused on Little’s defense of Paxton from impeachment charges in the Senate trial last summer. …
   9. And another Dunn and Wilks candidate, David Covey, stunned the state by winning more votes than House Speaker Dade Phelan — the No. 1 target of the state’s far-right in part because of his role in the Paxton impeachment and refusal to ban Democrats from House leadership positions. Phelan now faces a runoff from Covey and the prospect of being the first Texas Speaker since 1972 to lose his primary.
   10. Bottom of Form
   11. Top of Form
   12. Bottom of Form
   13. Certainly, Tuesday’s dark-red wave can’t be attributed solely to Dunn and Wilks. Texas GOP primaries have historically been decided by small shares of voters, many of them further to the right of even the party’s mainstream. This election cycle, the billionaires’ targets also overlapped with an unlikely ally, Gov. Greg Abbott, who poured more than $6 million into his quest to rid the Texas House of Republicans who defied his calls for school voucher legislation last year. (Dunn and Wilks’ political groups supported Abbott’s opponent in his 2022 gubernatorial primary.)
   14. Meanwhile, Paxton barnstormed the state as he sought retribution against incumbents who supported his impeachment. And, perhaps most importantly, former President Donald Trump was active in many contests — following the lead of Paxton and his other ally, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and offering late endorsements that bolstered right-wing candidates.
   15. Even so, the billionaires’ fingerprints appear all over the outcomes. Since January, they spent more than $3 million to support candidates through a new political action committee, “Texans United For a Conservative Majority”. That PAC is a rebrand of Defend Texas Liberty PAC, which has been at the center of a political maelstrom since early October.
   16. That controversy started barely two weeks after the state Senate acquitted Paxton in his impeachment trial — and as Defend Texas Liberty was gearing up for retribution in the primaries.
   17. Jonathan Stickland, then the president of Defend Texas Liberty, was caught hosting Nick Fuentes, a prominent antisemite and white supremacist, prompting Dunn to issue a rare public statement through the lieutenant governor. Stickland was quietly removed from his position with the PAC.
   18. Subsequent reporting by The Texas Tribune revealed other ties between white supremacists and groups funded by Dunn and Wilks, prompting outcry from some Republicans and calls for the Texas GOP to distance itself from Stickland’s groups. …
   19. Dunn and Wilks both made their fortunes in West Texas oil and, in the last 15 years, have poured more than $100 million into a constellation of political action committees, dark money groups, nonprofits and media websites that they have used to push the state GOP further to the right.
   20. Their strategy has been to incrementally move the party toward their hardline views by painting fellow conservatives as weak and ineffectual — as “RINOs,” or Republicans In Name Only — and promising well-funded primary challengers [against] lawmakers who defy their network and its aims. With almost endless wealth, they have poured millions of dollars into inexperienced candidates who often lose but advance the far right’s long-term goals by slowly normalizing once-fringe positions, bruising incumbents, depleting their campaign coffers and making them more vulnerable in the next election cycle.
   21. For years, many Republicans have denounced the strategy, noting that the state Legislature is routinely ranked as the most conservative in the country and warning that Dunn and Wilks’ no-enemies-to-our-right approach to politics would eventually cost the party elections and open the doors to outright extremists.
   22. This year’s elections show just how successful the billionaires have been in pulling the party toward their hardline views. …
   23. MIKE: The article then goes on to give specific examples of candidates they have helped and why, and how those candidates did in the primaries.
   24. MIKE: The story ends with this quote from House District 60 Representative Glenn Rogers: “History will prove that our current state government is the most corrupt ever, and is ‘bought’ by a few radical dominionist billionaires seeking to destroy public education, privatize our public schools and create a Theocracy that is both un-American and un-Texan,” Rogers wrote in a Wednesday op-ed in the Weatherford Democrat. [He ended with,]“’May God save Texas!’”
   25. MIKE: For those who are always unhappy about the CITIZENS UNITED decision that opened the floodgates to unlimited anonymous political donations via Super PACs, this is not relevant in Texas. CITIZENS UNITED is only applicable for federal elections. States make their own political donation rules for in-state elections.
   26. MIKE: In any case, what we have here is a perfect example of how lots of money in a few hands without adequate legal constraints can skew electoral results to the wishes of a few rich individuals.
   27. MIKE: We can’t do anything about billionaires short of taxing them more heavily, but we can try to do something about rules governing political contributions, whether it be in cash or in “kind”.
   28. MIKE: I think the majority of Texans know that Texas government is not only extreme, it’s corrupt. Remember that Texas allows for Citizen Ballot Initiatives. This primary season has simply made it more obvious that if the Texas Legislature won’t regulate political money, then Texas citizens must do so by a popular ballot initiative.
   29. MIKE: So now the question is, Who will get that ball rolling?
5. Speaking of Rightwing Agendas: Texas counties, EPA respond to attorney general’s lawsuit on new federal climate policy; By Melissa Enaje | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 4:14 PM Mar 11, 2024 CDT / Updated 6:54 PM Mar 12, 2024 CDT. TAGS: EPA, Ken Paxton, Air Quality,
   1. Officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Texas counties are weighing in after a lawsuit was filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in efforts to block the EPA’s new federal air quality standards.
   2. The new federal climate policy was announced 7 and aims to lower the amount of fine particulate pollution emitted by power plants, vehicles and industrial facilities by a 2032 deadline.
   3. Paxton filed a lawsuit against President Joe Biden’s administration March 8 and said in a news release that the EPA’s new air quality standards are not based on sound science and will impose significant economic harm on Texas. He said the new rule will result in the closure of manufacturing and industrial facilities, and put workers out of jobs.
   4. MIKE: The story goes into more detail on the standards and governmental entities that disagree with Paxton’s suit.
   5. MIKE: Texas has been fighting against air quality standards for most of the 45 years I’ve lived in Texas. I guess that the pro-business Republican attitude has been that they only care about healthy workers until there are old enough to retire. Then the emphysema and lung cancer can take them.
   6. MIKE: Remember Alan Grayson’s summation of the Republican Health Plan: First, don’t get sick. Second, if you do get sick, die quickly.
   7. MIKE: That sums up Texas Republicans’ attitude toward clean air.
6. Why National Guard troops are being deployed in New York’s subways; By Emmanuel Felton and Ian Duncan | WASHINGTONPOST.COM | March 7, 2024 at 4:36 p.m. EST. TAGS: New York State National Guard, New York State Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, Law Enforcement Agents, Random Attacks, New York State Troopers, Democratic New York Mayor Eric Adams,
   1. New York is sending hundreds of National Guard troops and state troopers into the New York City subway to address crime in one of the country’s largest and busiest systems, [Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul] announced on Wednesday.
   2. Crime is down in the subway system compared to the heights reached during the pandemic, but Hochul’s announcement comes after a string of high-profile incidents on the subway and a recent uptick in crime.
   3. In late February, a subway conductor was hospitalized after being slashed in the neck in an apparently random late-night attack at a train station in Brooklyn. Just days before, two commuters were attacked by a man wielding a hammer in a Queens subway station. And just hours after Hochul’s announcement, another conductor was smashed in the head with a glass bottle in another unprovoked attack. …
   4. The state’s influx of law enforcement agents will add to the 1,000 city officers [Democratic New York Mayor Eric Adams] placed in the system in February after police reported a spike in crime on the city’s subway platforms and trains. Hochul has also proposed legislation that would allow judges to bar people with criminal records from riding the subway.
   5. The announcement also comes as Republicans across the country point to urban crime as a sign that criminal justice reform efforts championed by many Democrats have failed. Some New York Democrats have said concerns that fear of crime helped Republicans pick up several congressional seats across the state in the 2022 midterm elections and want to minimize that risk this year.
   6. Restoring confidence in the subway system has also been seen as critical to the city’s recovery after the pandemic.
   7. “There’s a psychological impact, people worry they could be next, anxiety takes hold,” the governor said. “And riding the subway, which would be part of your everyday life, is filled with stress and trepidation.”
   8. What will the National Guard troops be doing? — Hochul’s plan calls for 750 members of the New York National Guard and 250 state troopers to be assigned to stations across the vast subway system.
   9. The task facing law enforcement is immense: With 472 subway stations, the city has more subway stations than any other system in the world.
   10. The guards and troopers will be stationed at the city’s busiest stations to check bags for weapons, a show of force not often seen since the days following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
   11. Some critics said they were concerned the checks could lead to racial profiling.
   12. [Said city council member Shekar Krishnan, a progressive Democrat who represents part of Queens,] “I think it is ridiculous to be placing National Guard in the subway system. We need to be investing in strategies that really keep [people] safe such as mental health services. Instead, what we are doing is fear mongering that will only lead to Black and Brown New Yorkers being further over-policed.”
   13. The elevated police presence will be temporary, according to Hochul. But she declined to give a timeline, saying she didn’t want to tip off criminals.
   14. A temporary deployment is not enough, [said] Richard Davis, president of the union representing subway workers, … in a statement. “This promised surge … cannot be just a temporary measure. It must remain in place,” Davis said. “We will not be pacified.”
   15. The number of serious crimes reported on the New York Subway system in January rose almost 47 percent compared with the same month the year before, according to NYPD data. Police logged 223 crimes in the system, an increase that was largely driven by a spike in grand larceny, which are thefts in which the perpetrator doesn’t use force. …
   16. … In a report to the MTA’s board last month, subway officials said that over the long run “we remained encouraged to see our crimes per million rider figures trend down year over year.”
   17. The rate of crimes fell in February when 148 incidents were reported — a decrease of 15 percent compared with the same period last year, according to New York Police Department data.
   18. The stepped up law enforcement presence is part of what Hochul is calling a five-point plan to address crime in the subway. which will include $20 million for mental health workers to work with people on the subway. She is also asking the legislature for money to add more cameras to the system.
   19. Judges would be able to ban people with criminal records from riding the subway altogether, under another Hochul proposal. …
   20. On social media, riders both praised the plan and posted concern.
   21. Matthew Morrison wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the plan worried him, saying that he had been stopped several times during NYPD’s controversial stop and frisk program, which allowed officers to stop people they suspected of carrying a weapon. In 2013, a federal court ruled that the program was unconstitutional and disproportionally targeted Black and Latino men.
   22. “The idea of now being subject to harassment by national guard … gives me great anxiety for basic travel again,” he wrote.
   23. Meanwhile, Brendan Delgao took to X to voice support for the plan. “It’s important to address these high profile crimes,” he wrote. “I am confident that the National Guard and MTA Police will make a positive impact.”
   24. MIKE: On some level I can see a value to National Guard troops and State Troopers as additional eyes and for potential crime-fighting interventions. But the notion of inspecting people’s bags when the goal is reducing random acts of violence seems a bit much. And while banning some individuals from the mass transit system may seem like a promising idea, I have no idea how that would be implemented in practice. Taking a train or bus bears no similarity to taking an airplane or long-haul train ticket.
   25. MIKE: I respect the effort being made, but I think that deploying the National Guard in the subways is an over-the-top response, not only in terms of effectiveness, but in terms of the disruption to these Guard Troopers’ lives and families.
   26. MIKE: But the deployment’s been done, so I guess time will tell if there is any real benefit that results from it.
7. Gender, race among factors that led to ousting of eight Houston-area judges in Democratic primary; By Adam Zuvanich | HOUSTONPUBLICMEDIA.ORG | | Posted on March 8, 2024, 7:01 AM (Last Updated: March 8, 2024, 11:46 AM) TAGS: Court Criminal Justice, Election 2024, Elections Harris County, Houston, Local, News, Politics, Texas, 2024 primary election, Democratic primary, Harris County judges, judicial elections, Texas First Court of Appeals,
   2018. Judges Mike Engelhart and Robert Schaffer have served on their civil court benches in Harris County since 2009, and both received high marks in the most recent judicial evaluation poll conducted by the Houston Bar Association. So did Justice Peter Kelly, who has held a place on Texas’ 1^st Court of Appeals since 2018.
   2019. All three lost their Democratic primary elections on Tuesday, and by wide margins. The closest of those races involved Schaffer, who received less than 45% of the vote in his loss against TaKasha Francis.
   2020. “It is disappointing that the voters did not value my experience and hard work over the past five years,” Kelly said.
   2021. South Texas College of Law professor Charles “Rocky” Rhodes said judges’ qualifications, experiences and temperaments do not often impact the outcome of judicial races in the Houston area[. [B]ecause there are 50-plus seats on the Harris County ballot, those races typically get little coverage in the news media and many voters do not know much about incumbent judges or their opponents. Voters often make their selections based on political party affiliation and, in the case of Democratic primaries, based on a candidate’s name, place on the ballot, gender, ethnicity or even perceived ethnicity inferred from their name, according to Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston. …
   2022. … The electorate in Democrat-leaning Harris County, and particularly those who vote in Democratic primaries, clearly favors women and in many cases African-American women.
   2023. Engelhart, Kelly and Schaffer, who are white men, each lost to a Black woman after filing lawsuits challenging their opponents’ eligibility to appear on the ballot, with Judge Erica Hughes beating Engelhart and attorney Amber Boyd-Cora beating Kelly. Justice Gordon Goodman of the 1^st Court of Appeals also lost his Democratic primary to a Black woman, Brendetta Scott. …
   2024. Eddie Rodriguez, the campaign manager for [Denise Brown, who won her primary against an incumbent judge,] said voters tend to have more trust in female judicial candidates, and he expects that to become even more of a factor in the future because the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature made abortion illegal in the state in 2022 after the landmark Roe vs. Wade decision from 1972 was overturned by the United States Supreme Court. And women make up the majority of Democratic primary voters in Harris County, according to Rottinghaus. …
   2025. Mary Flood, an attorney, legal media consultant and former legal journalist who works for Androvett Legal Media, said the Democratic primary results illustrate a “tragically flawed” system for electing judges, whom she said have greater control over voters’ lives than they might realize because they can make decisions that impact their finances and family dynamics. There were cases in which “ignorant voters just picked female names,” she said, which could result in less-qualified, less-capable and less-fair judges presiding over Houston-area courts.
   2026. Flood said she favors the idea of overhauling how judges are selected in Texas. Many other states have judges who are initially appointed by commissions, based on qualifications and merit, and they can subsequently be replaced by voters based on reviews of their performance.
   2027. “What happened this week has happened before in Harris County and we’ve lost some of our best jurists and sometimes replaced them with mediocrity or worse,” Flood said. “The problem is not just the ignorant voter picking a gender or familiar name or party affiliation. It’s the way we elect judges in Texas.”
   2028. Rodriguez and Kelly said Texas’ current system of electing judges is better than the alternatives, with Rodriguez saying he puts more trust in the voting public than in state lawmakers or Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. Hughes also questioned the need and desire to change the system, saying no eyebrows were raised before women and African Americans such as herself started winning judicial elections, with bench seats having historically been controlled predominantly by white men. …
   2029. MIKE: The story goes on at some length about some of the specifics of these March races and some of the other elements that may have determined the primary results.
   2030. MIKE: Systems for picking judges vary a lot from state to state. As mentioned in the story, in some places, judges are appointed by the governor, or a commission, or — like in Texas — by voters. None of these systems is perfect, and all of them can produce poor results by some people’s lights, be they voters, political partisans, or legal professionals.
   2031. MIKE: It’s hard to make decisions about down-ballot races. There can be dozens of races that seem to demand a diligent voter’s detailed attention, and that’s just unrealistic.
   2032. MIKE: I’ve fallen to a system of endorsements. I have periodically looked for groups that seem to be like-minded with me, and that do endorsements of down-ballot races. Because I have done some evaluation of the endorsers’ positions, I’ve chosen to follow their recommendations unless I have a specific preference for a down-ballot race that might contradict my trusted sources.
   2033. MIKE: This system at least removes some of my personal biases and moves choices to groups I’ve come to trust. This makes my voting less random.
   2034. MIKE: What works for you may vary, but this is what has worked for me.
8. Katie Porter prepared for the wrong war; An insider’s guide to how Katie Porter’s whiteboard wiped out. By Melanie Mason and Christopher Cadelago | POLITICO.COM | 03/10/2024 @ 07:00 AM EDT. TAGS: California, Barbara Lee, Adam Schiff, Katie Porter, 2024 Elections, Steve Garvey,
   1. Katie Porter is ending her Senate campaign the same way she started it: by pissing off members of her own party.
   2. She enraged the Democratic establishment from the get-go, jumping into the race in January 2023 before Sen. Dianne Feinstein had announced her plans to leave. Party loyalists were galled at the lack of deference to the elder senator, who would pass away months later.
   3. Now, Porter’s insistence that she lost [last] Tuesday’s primary because it was “rigged” by a deluge of special-interest spending is igniting a swift backlash from Democrats who — in the era of Donald Trump’s election denialism — seethed at any insinuation of a stolen election.
   4. “There was nothing in this election that was rigged,” said Antonio Villaraigosa, the former Los Angeles mayor and a supporter of Adam Schiff, who finished in the top two and is expected to win the seat. “And virtually everyone knows that.” …
   5. Porter rode her message of “burn the system down” to a distant third-place finish on Tuesday.
   6. This account of her downfall is based on interviews with eight campaign officials and outside close supporters who were granted anonymity to openly discuss the deliberations of her losing bid, as well as several other people involved in the race.
   7. The voters most energized by her scathing systemic critiques — younger, more diverse, less loyal to party labels — largely didn’t show up in a primary that skewed far older, whiter and more conservative than California’s typical electorate. …
   8. In the Senate race, public and private polls showed her in the game until the home stretch when mail-in ballots started dropping in February. But by that point, she had shifted into neutral and was quickly running out of gas. Porter was done in by Schiff’s three-part formula for winning: A prolific fundraiser who ran an anti-Donald Trump message and secured the early support of House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, Schiff boosted himself and spent millions alongside allies promoting Republican Steve Garvey, while deep-pocketed corporate supporters pelted Porter with attack ads. …
   9. The contours of the race boxed her in with few targets to lob attacks of her own. Going after Schiff, a well-liked Democrat, risked alienating voters who had no appetite for an intraparty slugfest. Attacking Garvey would only further consolidate Republican voters behind him. Fourth-place finisher Lee was eating into Porter’s base, especially with liberal women in the Bay Area, but trying to peel voters away from a progressive icon and Black woman would have been rife with landmines.
   10. Instead, she railed against the political system writ large — a campaign for America’s most exclusive club that often felt like one long, expensive subtweet. Porter’s aides and allies contend she was right to stick to her guns, even when circumstances on the ground changed considerably. But she wasn’t merely a victim of those circumstances. …
   11. Some inside and outside Porter’s camp were overly optimistic about the chances of [California Rep. Barbara] Lee dropping out before the filing deadline in December. …
   12. Overall, Porter’s campaign message never changed — perhaps to her detriment.
   13. On air and on the debate stage, Porter hammered relentlessly about out-of-touch Washington, promising to “shake up the Senate.” She portrayed herself as a political newcomer, even though she’d been in Congress for five years, to draw an implicit contrast with her fellow Democrats who had each served more than two decades.
   14. It was the extension of a brand she had built in rapid time in the House, complete with her viral whiteboard prop she used to make CEOs squirm. She took particular gusto in calling out her own party; her memoir, released last year, skewered Democrats for being clueless and ineffectual more than the GOP. Just before Election Day, Rolling Stone published an interview with Porter where she torched former Sen. Barbara Boxer for not walking the walk on climate change.
   15. Her crusade against earmarks embodied that approach. She skewered the process as politicians securing money for “pet projects” — the type of backroom sausage-making that gives everyday Californians short shrift. Her stance set her apart from Schiff and Lee, both of whom said it was an essential duty of congressmembers to bring home the bacon.
   16. It was classic Porter, and something her team insists resonates with voters, but in the era of Trump, it was small potatoes, particularly coming from a Democrat. …
   17. Porter’s team knew that Schiff had a built-in advantage by running against Trump, a crisper point of contrast than Porter’s broader critique of the political system.
   18. “One of the things we struggled with was we were running against corporations and special interests and folks who have an outsized effect in determining outcomes of elections,” a senior campaign official said. “It’s just not the same sort of tangible bad guy as Trump or running against a Republican. [For Schiff], as the Trump antagonist as people see him, he always had a foil there.”
   19. Not that lacing into Schiff more bluntly would have solved her problems. Democratic voters saw both Schiff and Porter favorably, and going negative against him threatened to turn voters off. That dynamic was all the more acute for Porter as a woman. …
   20. Her team saw no need to stray from her central theme. Their focus groups found that voters preferred a candidate who would challenge the political system — even more than promising to take on Trump. People were craving authenticity, her advisers said, and swerving in her messaging as her poll numbers worsened would have undermined the brand she built.
   21. Porter, who was always a gangbusters fundraiser in the House, found herself in an unusual position as the underdog when it came to money. She didn’t come close to keeping pace with Schiff, who had his own lucrative small-donor network after gaining cable news stardom during the first Trump impeachment. …
   22. [C]ryptocurrency billionaire investors spent heavily on ads that portrayed Porter as a hypocrite, pointing to her own corporate contributors and her stint working for a mortgage servicing company before running for the House seat in 2018. …
   23. Some on her team acknowledge one strategy that could have been pursued harder: trying to blunt Garvey’s momentum by elevating another Republican, far-right perennial candidate Eric Early, to split the GOP vote.
   24. It would have been a tall order. Early is virtually unknown outside the most hardcore GOP activist circles and did not have the same compelling biography as an ex-baseball star. …
   25. At her election night party on Tuesday, after the race was called notably early against her, Porter had little to say about Schiff or Garvey. Her ire was trained at the super PAC donors who spent millions to keep her out of the Senate.
   26. “You scared them, Katie!” a fan yelled from the crowd.
   27. “I think we scared them,” she responded, before closing with a promise that hinted she may not be fully retired from the political arena. “Take my word for it — I will always, always be fighting for you.”
   28. On Friday, Porter reemerged with an email to her supporters — praising President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address as an inspiring blueprint for an America where the ultra-rich don’t dominate. Included were links to donate to Biden’s reelection campaign.
   29. MIKE: I admit that I have always liked Katie Porter. I thought that she was an important voice in the House when it came to calling corporate executives to account. But I also very much liked Rep. Adam Schiff. For some years now, I’ve felt that Schiff was smart, aggressive, and would be an important voice if and when he decided to work his way up the political food chain.
   30. MIKE: When the California Senate primary race shaped up as Schiff vs. Porter, I stopped giving money to either. And I was upset that now both of them would be leaving the House, and at least one of them would be leaving Congress altogether.
   31. MIKE: Katie Porter’s post-campaign whinging is both unfortunate and disappointing. I sincerely hope that he has not effectively ended her political career as a result. Time will tell.
9. DeSantis faces pushback in Florida as voters tire of war on woke; Conservative lawmakers rejected a host of new culture wars proposals in the legislature. By Lori Rozsa | WASHINGTONPOST.COM | Updated March 9, 2024 at 1:52 p.m. EST | Published March 9, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EST. TAGS: Florida, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, War On Woke, Culture War,
   1. The bill banning rainbow flags from public buildings in Florida sounded like a sure bet.
   2. State Rep. David Borrero (R), the legislation’s sponsor, argued that it was needed to prevent schoolchildren from being “subliminally indoctrinated.” That rationale echoed other measures championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) as part of his “war on woke.”
   3. But instead of sailing through the Republican-dominated legislature, the DeSantis-backed bill died a quick legislative death, making it only as far as one subcommittee.
   4. It wasn’t the only culture war proposal from conservative lawmakers to end up in the bill graveyard during the session that ended Friday. One rejected bill would have banned the removal of Confederate monuments. Another would have required transgender people to use their sex assigned at birth on driver’s licenses — something the state Department of Motor Vehicles is already mandating. A third proposed forbidding local and state government officials from using transgender people’s pronouns.
   5. Some of those ideas have come up in the past and may surface again next year. But the fact that the bills failed, even with public support from DeSantis, marks a change from the days when the GOP supermajority in Tallahassee passed nearly everything the governor asked for.
   6. Florida has firmly cemented itself in recent years as ground zero for the nation’s culture wars. The Sunshine State is the birthplace of conservative parental rights group Moms for Liberty, the original law restricting LGBTQ+ discussion in classrooms, one of the strictest abortion laws in the country and legislation that has led to the banning of more books than in any other state in America.
   7. But the pushback is growing.
   8. Parents and others have organized and protested schoolbook bans. Abortion rights advocates gathered enough signatures to put the issue on the ballot in Florida in November. A bill that would have established “fetal personhood” stalled before it could reach a full vote.
   9. Judges are also canceling some of DeSantis’s marquee laws, including the “Stop Woke Act.” A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled Monday that the law “exceeds the bounds” of the Constitution’s First Amendment right to freedom of speech and expression.
   10. Even the governor recently admitted the state might have gone too far in trying to remove certain books from school shelves, suggesting laws on book challenges should be “tweaked” to prevent “bad actors” from having too much influence.
   11. Democrats and other DeSantis critics say the laws that the governor has pushed will continue to shape public life in Florida for years to come, and they don’t expect the Republican supermajority in the state House to suddenly abandon conservative causes. But they do sense a shift.
   12. “When his presidential race ended, I think that a lot of his influence and power died at the same time,” said state Sen. Shevrin Jones, a South Florida Democrat. “And I think that people in Florida and across the country, including Republicans, are starting to see that the culture wars are getting us nowhere.” …
   13. MIKE: Could this be the beginning of a sea change in Florida legislative politics? Probably not, but it may be the start of cracks in the Rightwing legislative bloc.
   14. MIKE: I think it’s highly likely that now that DeSantis has been thoroughly humiliated as a current or future presidential possibility, he is now being treated like a “lame duck”, with Florida legislators seeing his extremist political positions being as perhaps less popular than they thought based on DeSantis’s primary results.
   15. MIKE: This won’t be the end of Florida’s Rightwing agenda items in the legislature. That won’t happen until Florida voters replace the extremists. But politicians periodically test the political winds, and this may be the beginning of a weather change. Time will tell.
   16. MIKE: But again, elections have consequences. If people in Florida want change, they need to be registered to vote, and they need to turn out in numbers that defy the gerrymandering and voter suppression that has become Florida’s election landscape.
10. Biden denounces Trump for $2tn tax cuts as he unveils budget plan; By Richard Luscombe and agencies | THEGUARDIAN.COM | Mon 11 Mar 2024 @ 18.34 EDT, First published on Mon 11 Mar 2024 @ 11.18 EDT. TAGS: Joe Biden ,Biden administration, US elections 2024, , US politics, Democrats, Tax and spending, US taxation, Donald Trump,
    7. Joe Biden took another swipe at Donald Trump on Monday as the president revealed his $7.3tn budget proposal for 2025 that offers tax breaks for families, lower healthcare costs, a smaller federal deficit and higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy.
    8. Biden made the remarks in an afternoon appearance in Goffstown, on the outskirts of Manchester, New Hampshire. Referring to the former president as “my predecessor”, as he did repeatedly during last week’s fiery State of the Union speech, Biden condemned Trump for “making $2tn in tax cuts” during his single term, and “expanding the federal deficit”.
    9. “I’m not anti-corporation. I’m a capitalist man. Make all the money you want. Just begin to pay your fair share in taxes,” he said. “A fair tax code is how we invest in things that make this country great.”
    10. Unlikely to pass the House and Senate to become law, the proposal for fiscal 2025 is an election-year blueprint about what the future could hold if Biden and enough of his fellow Democrats win in November. The president and his aides previewed parts of his budget going into last week’s State of the Union address, with plans to provide the fine print on Monday.
    11. If the Biden budget became law, deficits could be pruned $3tn over a decade. Parents could get an increased child tax credit. Homebuyers could get a tax credit worth $9,600. Corporate taxes would jump upward, while billionaires would be charged a minimum tax of 25%.
    12. Biden also wants Medicare to have the ability to negotiate prices on 500 prescription drugs, which could save $200bn over 10 years.
    13. The president also called on Congress to apply his $2,000 cap on drug costs and $35 insulin to everyone, not just people who have Medicare. He is also seeking to make permanent some protections in the Affordable Care Act that are set to expire next year.
    14. All of this is a chance for Biden to try to define the race on his preferred terms, just as the all-but-certain Republican nominee, Trump, wants to rally voters around his agenda.
    15. Trump, for his part, would like to increase tariffs and pump out gushers of oil. He called for a “second phase” of tax cuts as parts of his 2017 overhaul of the income tax code would expire after 2025. The Republican has also said he would slash government regulations. He has also pledged to pay down the national debt, though it is unclear how without him detailing severe spending cuts.
    16. “We’re going to do things that nobody thought was possible,” Trump said after his wins in last week’s Super Tuesday nomination contests.
    17. [Trump,] Republican US presidential candidate, speaking in an interview on CNBC, also called for action on popular US entitlement programs, including cuts, and indicated he was not likely to curb use of cryptocurrencies. …
    18. His tariff plan has spurred talk of inflation, and US treasury secretary Janet Yellen has said it would raise costs for American consumers.
    19. “I think taxes could be cut, I think other things could happen to more than adjust that. But I’m a big believer in tariffs,” Trump told CNBC, saying they help American industries when they are “being taken advantage of” by China and other nations. …
    20. Asked about Medicare, Social Security and Medicare programs and the nation’s spending and deficits, Trump told CNBC: “There is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements in terms of cutting and in terms of also the theft and the bad management.”
    21. House Republicans on Thursday voted their own budget resolution for the next fiscal year out of committee, saying it would trim deficits by $14tn over 10 years. But their measure would depend on rosy economic forecasts and sharp spending cuts, reducing $8.7tn in Medicare and Medicaid expenditures. Biden has pledged to stop any cuts to Medicare.
    22. “The House’s budget blueprint reflects the values of hard-working Americans who know that in tough economic times, you don’t spend what you don’t have – our federal government must do the same,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, said in a statement. …
    23. MIKE: There’s a CBS News story that adds some detail to Biden’s budget proposal. I’m adding a reference link to that story and another CBS News article, which also adds details about Biden’s budget proposal.
    24. MIKE: According to CBS News, “[t]he budget … aims to pay for … tax breaks [for millions of families and low-income workers, as well as senior citizens, including reviving a program that lifted millions of children out of poverty during the pandemic,] by raising taxes on corporations and the rich. One proposal, for instance, would completely reverse one of the cuts implemented by former President Donald Trump, whose 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act mostly eased the tax burdenson businesses and the nation’s highest earners.”
    25. MIKE: The CBS story then goes into some more detail about how some of these tax changes and tax breaks would work.
    26. MIKE: It’s important to emphasize that this budget will be almost impossible to pass in the current Congress. It really should be considered more of a political campaign document to show voters what a second Biden administration could do for them if they also vote him in a Democratic-controlled Congress.
    27. MIKE: As always — and this cannot be repeated often enough — elections have consequences!
    28. MIKE: As a counterpoint, to the two articles I’m citing here, I’m including a link to a NY Post article that is rather more partisan and critical of the proposed Biden budget then either The Guardian story or the CBS news story..
    29. REFERENCE: Biden unveils massive $7.3T budget with $5.5T in tax hikes, plans for ‘highest burden’ in US history; By Josh Christenson | NYPOST.COM | Published March 11, 2024 / Updated March 11, 2024, 2:26 p.m. ET
    30. REFERENCE: Biden budget would cut taxes for millions and restore breaks for families. Here’s what to know. By Aimee Picchi, Edited By Alain Sherter | CBSNEWS.COM | March 11, 2024 / 5:57 PM EDT / CBS News
11. Who Are the Gangs That Have Overrun Haiti’s Capital?; By Frances Robles, Reporting from Florida | NYTIMES.COM | March 7, 2024. TAGS: Haiti, Port-au-Prince, Gangs, Prime Minister Ariel Henry, Jimmy Chérizier, Kenya,
    1. Haiti, a Caribbean nation with a long history of upheaval, is enduring one of its worst periods of chaos.
    2. Gangs have shut down the airport; looted seaports, public buildings and shops; and attacked nearly a dozen police stations. Roads are blocked, cutting off the food supply, and 4,600 inmates were freed after prisons were attacked.
    3. The prime minister, Ariel Henry, is stranded in Puerto Rico while gang members wreak havoc, demand his resignation and hold up dozens of trucks filled with World Food Program food shipments.
    4. A state of emergency around Port-au-Prince, the capital, was extended another month.
    5. With the government on the verge of collapse, the United States and Caribbean nations are working to come up with a resolution — including a plan for a transitional government — that would restore some semblance of order to the troubled nation … .
    6. [|MIKE: As a footnote, since this story was written, CNN reports that Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry has said he will resign “after the establishment of a transitional council.”]
    7. Experts estimate that up to 200 gangs operate in Haiti, about 20 of them in Port-au-Prince. They range from small groups of a few dozen young men who share pistols to crews of roughly 1,500 men with weekly salaries and automatic weapons who belong to hierarchal organizations with bosses.
    8. Two main gang federations, G-Pèp and the G-9 Family, control many of the poorest neighborhoods in the capital. The criminal groups and their allies sometimes collude, but more often clash. The groups have been historically tied to political parties: G-9 is affiliated with the ruling Haitian Tèt Kale Party, while G-Pèp tends to support opposition parties.
    9. G-9 and its allies have largely taken over the ports and the roads around the country’s main airport. It has been nearly impossible to drive from Port-au-Prince to northern cities because gangs have seized the north-south highway.
    10. Henry left the country last week for Kenya, where he signed an agreement paving the way for a multinational force led by the east African nation to travel to Haiti and take on the gangs. Instead, in Mr. Henry’s absence, gang leaders announced a loose alliance called “Vivre Ensemble,” or “Living Together.” They launched coordinated attacks on state institutions with the goal of toppling the current government and preventing the international force from deploying. …
    11. The gangs are also hoping to set up a governing council to rule the country, and they want to help pick its members so they can exert control, said Robert Muggah, who researches Haiti for various U.N. agencies. …
    12. MIKE: Here, the article goes into some detail about the gangs, their leadership, and their claimed objectives. Going on …
    13. Why is Kenya planning to send police officers to Haiti? — Kenya was one of the few countries to answer Haiti’s international plea for help.
    14. Haiti has not held elections in eight years. Its president was assassinated nearly three years ago. Mr. Henry, the appointed prime minister, is widely considered an illegitimate leader.
    15. The state has essentially lost credibility and power — and gangs have stepped in to fill the void.
    16. Last year, nearly 5,000 people were killed and another 2,500 people were kidnapped, according to the U.N., a level of violence that doubled from the previous year’s. January was the most violent month in two years, with more than 800 people killed, according to the U.N. …
    17. In late 2022, Mr. Henry asked the international community to step up. Some nations, including the United States, expressed little interest given the grim record of past international interventions in Haiti.
    18. The United States did agree to finance most of the deployment of 1,000 Kenyan police officers, plus more from other nations, but it has been delayed by Kenyan judicial rulings.
    19. As Haitian gangs have grown in size and firepower, they have gained more territory and important infrastructure. They charge fees to pass certain highways and to recover hijacked trucks, and demand ransoms to release kidnapping victims.
    20. In recent years, violent groups have begun to spread to rural areas such as Artibonite, about 60 miles north of Port-au-Prince and one of Haiti’s main agricultural regions. Gangs invade farms and make it difficult — if not impossible — for farmers to travel and sell their goods. …
    21. Most gang members are men in their 20s who come from impoverished urban neighborhoods where opportunities are scarce. They are often aligned with elite business leaders and politicians who pay them for everything from securing cargo to amassing protesters. Political parties have used the gang members in elections to either turn out the vote — or suppress it.
    22. “In Haiti there is a long tradition of elites trying to create and fuel paramilitary groups that have over the past decades helped them to serve their interests and use violence to keep the monopoly on some commodity or for some political interests,” said Diego Da Rin, a Haiti researcher at the International Crisis Group.
    23. The concept of irregularly formed armed groups dates back decades in Haiti, and there have been several different types of violent actors in the country.
    24. During Haiti’s dictatorship under Francois Duvalier, paramilitary groups known as Tonton Macoutes were notorious for their violence and repression. In 1995, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide outlawed paramilitary groups and disbanded the Haitian armed forces.
    25. Former soldiers originally with Mr. Aristide’s movement later created local self-defense groups known as “baz,” which often followed charismatic leaders and came to rule parts of Port-au-Prince.
    26. Other past paramilitary groups include the far-right Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti and the chimères, which were affiliated with Mr. Aristide.
    27. Now the line between a baz and a gang is often blurry.
    28. People fed up with gang violence have joined a movement known as “bwa kale,” which embraces vigilante justice. They have committed extrajudicial murders and generally target criminals, often with the support of the local community.
    29. In addition, many members of a government-sanctioned environmental brigade known as B-SAP have turned against the state, bringing another group of armed people into the mix.
    30. The Haitian National Police force has seen about 3,000 of its 15,000 employees flee in the past two years. While the United States has poured nearly $200 million into the department, it is notoriously outgunned and understaffed. The department owns 47 armored cars, but in a recent visit by the U.N. investigators, less than half were operational.
    31. MIKE: Haiti has a historically problematic and violent past. Founded in 1804 as a result of the only successful slave revolt in modern history, Haiti has been governed mostly by a series of would-be emperors, dictators, autocrats, and kleptocrats.
    32. MIKE: Consequently, since its founding, Haiti has been the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and one of the poorest in the world. The current crisis of governance and the attendant violence that is resulting is just another phase in Haiti’s long history of oppressive and violent governance.
    33. MIKE: Over the centuries, there have been interventions by France, Spain, the US, and other countries. Sometimes using Haiti as a pawn in their greater geopolitical ambitions and sometimes trying to quell violence and establish stable governance, but over the long term, these efforts have done nothing to improve on Haiti’s instability and poverty.
    34. MIKE: What we are seeing now is another unfortunate chapter in Haiti’s too-familiar history.
    35. MIKE: I feel for the people of Haiti who are not only extremely poor, but frequently subjected to violence over which they have little or no control. I hope that Kenya’s intervention will help to stabilize the island and make life safer, but history suggests we not be too optimistic. If things in Haiti are to improve over the long-term, it ultimately has to be up to Haitians to accomplish it. We can hope.
    36. REFERENCE: Republic of Haiti — From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    37. REFERENCE: Haiti’s leader to resign as gangs run rampant through country engulfed in crisis; By Caitlin Stephen Hu and Michael Rios | cnn.com | Updated 4:28 PM EDT, Tue March 12, 2024
12. Swedes cheer end of long wait to join Nato; By Maddy Savage,Stockholm | BBC.COM | March 8, 2024. TAGS: War in Ukraine, Sweden, Nato, United States
    1. Almost two years after applying to join Nato, many Swedes say there is palpable relief that the wait to secure membership in the military alliance is finally over. …
    2. … [M]any Stockholm commuters] said they already felt safer, just a day after Sweden officially joined Nato, following a document handover in Washington. …
    3. Sweden embraced wartime neutrality for more than 200 years, and a decade ago a majority of residents were against joining the multinational military alliance.
    4. But support for membership crept up in the mid-2010s, amidst growing signs of Russian aggression in the region, including reports of spy planes in Baltic airspace and a suspected submarine in Swedish waters.
    5. In early 2022, the country’s then Social Democrat government – long opposed to joining Nato – reversed its position, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and Sweden swiftly applied for membership.
    6. “Swedes were horrified by Russia’s action; they saw their elites rapidly change position on Nato; and they went along with it,” explained Nicholas Aylott, a political scientist at Södertörn University and the Swedish Institute of International Affairs.
    7. Polls suggested about two thirds of voters were in favour of joining Nato as Sweden formally applied in May 2022. That figure has largely stayed constant; 63% of those asked in January 2024 said they supported Sweden becoming a Nato member, in a survey for polling firm Novus. …
    8. There is also a clear sense of pride amongst many Swedes that their small country of just 10 million is being viewed as a valuable new member by others in the alliance. …
    9. Sweden’s membership application stalled because of opposition from Nato members Hungary and Turkey, who only recently reversed their positions. …
    10. The car rental sales agent believed Sweden’s accession “is good”, while other relatives “think it will trigger some nasty reactions from other countries”.
    11. The official line from the government and the military is that there is a possibility of conflict, but since all Nato members are expected to help an ally which comes under attack, Sweden will now be better protected.
    12. Still, in January, two top defence officials warned that Swedes should mentally and logistically start preparing for war.
    13. Despite accusations of alarmism, the messaging appeared to have a limited impact on the public, with few signs of panic-buying in Swedish supermarkets. …
    14. [Nicholas Aylott, the political scientist,] suggested that joining Nato would have a small but noticeable visual impact, which could impact public discussions.
    15. He said there was already a public debate about where and when the Nato flag should be flown by public institutions, and increased military co-operation would likely result in an increased military presence in the region. …
    16. MIKE: NATO’s expansion as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a strategic ricochet of massive proportions for Vladimir Putin. It’s not just the additional 830 miles of border that Russia now shares with NATO. It’s the additional integration of the armed forces of two new nations with NATO command-and-control. It represents a new form of defense-in-depth for NATO forces.
    17. MIKE: For example, the Baltic nations of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia represented the most challenging defense problem for NATO in the event they were attacked by Russia. They used to be out on the edge of NATO’s periphery, making any serious defense and resupply difficult, if not impossible. The addition of Finland as a NATO border state complicates any calculation that Russia might make regarding the re-assimilation of those three nations, thus by itself acting as a deterrent to any Russian notions of expansion into those countries.
    18. MIKE: Ukraine is still struggling to defend itself while what Liz Cheney has described as the “Putin Wing of the Republican Party” is doing everything possible to starve Ukraine of weapons and ammunition to keep Ukraine from winning, or even holding fast, in its current war with Russia.
13. In the meantime,: The Biden admin announces new weapons package for Ukraine following months of warnings there was no money left; By Oren Liebermann, Haley Britzky and Natasha Bertrand, CNN | CNN.COM | Updated 4:45 PM EDT, Tue March 12, 2024. TAGS:
    1. The Biden administration announced another package of military aid to Ukraine worth up to $300 million on Tuesday after months of warning there was no money left, with officials saying the new funding became available as a results of savings made in weapons contracts.
    2. National security adviser Jake Sullivan announced the package in a briefing at the White House on Tuesday afternoon. …
    3. President Joe Biden [said that] the package is “not nearly enough,” and Congress needs to pass additional funding.
    4. “We must act before it literally is too late, before it’s too late, because as Poland remembers, Russia won’t stop at Ukraine,” Biden said, speaking alongside the Polish prime minister and president. “Putin will keep going, putting Europe, the United States the entire free world at risk in my view.” …
    5. In explaining how the Defense Department now has money available for Ukraine aid, a senior defense official said, “We had savings come in that will allow us to offset the cost of a new drawdown package.”
    6. The Pentagon has had approximately $4 billion in drawdown authority left to send to Ukraine – weapons and equipment pulled directly from Defense Department stocks. But the Pentagon was reluctant to use that funding, because there was no replenishment money left to refill the US inventories.
    7. The newfound savings – the result of “good negotiations” and “bundling funding across different things,” according to a second senior defense official – provided the Pentagon with an additional $300 million to use as replenishment funding, to backfill the aid sent to Kyiv.
    8. Sullivan said the new package was possible “because of unanticipated cost savings in contracts that DOD negotiated to replace equipment we’ve already sent to Ukraine through previous drawdowns.” …
    9. Sullivan said the package would only provide Ukraine enough ammunition to last weeks, and perhaps only “a couple of weeks” and will “not prevent Ukraine from running out of ammunition in the weeks to come.”
    10. “It goes without saying, this package does not displace and should not delay the critical need to pass the bipartisan national security bill,” Sullivan said. …
    11. Without the support and weapons supplies from the US, Ukraine has lost ground in the war with Russia, outnumber and outgunned by an adversary that has fully shifted its economy to a war-time footing. Last month, Russian forces raised their flag in Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine after a months-long assault. …
    12. MIKE: I was saying through much of 2022 and 2023 that when people look at price inflation caused by supply chain constraints, they need to see it through the lens of what amounts to a world war and a global wartime economy.
    13. MIKE: You might disagree, but consider that the entire northern hemisphere is essentially at war, either fighting in one (as Ukraine or Russia) or supplying or aiding one side or the other, and gearing up munitions and weapons manufacturing capabilities.
    14. MIKE: The side aiding, supporting, or supplying Ukraine includes the European Union both jointly and individually, NATO both jointly and individually, the US, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and some others on one side. Then you have Russia, North Korea, and Iran and some others on the other side.
    15. MIKE: The southern hemisphere nations are mostly not actually involved in the war, but they’re acting as neutral countries that are buying or selling to one or both sides. This financial and material aid also is a form of support for the war by allowing both sides to keep going.
    16. MIKE: A weak analogy might be that we’ve already blown passed 1938, and we’re well into 1939.
    17. MIKE: In that context, the West is still mostly lucky. It’s our money and factories at war. We might all pray that we don’t reach 1940 and 1941.
    18. REFERENCE: Russia can sustain war effort ‘for another two or three years,’ say analysts; By Christian Edwards, CNN | Published 11:00 AM EST, Wed February 14, 2024

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   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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