Now in our 11th year on KPFT!
AUDIO:
POSSIBLE TOPICS: VOTETEXAS.GOV—Voter Information; State Rep. Shawn Thierry, a Houston Democrat who voted with Republicans on anti-LGBTQ+ bills, headed to likely primary runoff; Getting revenge is the best revenge; Is TikTok different in China? Here’s what to know; 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; Russia [is] producing three times more artillery shells than US and Europe [Combined] for Ukraine; How Russia has avoided bankrupting itself after 2 years of waging war in Ukraine; Russia’s economy is so driven by the war in Ukraine that it cannot afford to either win or lose, economist says; US says falling trade with China could be positive; As Vietnam grows ties with U.S., a secret directive seeks to gird the Communist Party; 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:
- Live online at KPFT.org (from anywhere in the world!)
- Podcast on your phone’s Podcast App
- Visiting Archive.KPFT.ORG
- An educated electorate is a prerequisite for a democracy.
- You’re entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts.
Except for timely election info, the extensive list of voting resources will now be at the end.
- Primary Election runoffs will be held on May 28th. 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.
- Speaking of runoff elections: State Rep. Shawn Thierry, a Houston Democrat who voted with Republicans on anti-LGBTQ+ bills, headed to likely primary runoff; Challenger Lauren Ashley Simmons received [about] 49.5% of the vote in [the March 5th] Democratic primary for Texas House District 146 … Thierry, first elected to office in 2016, garnered [about ] 44.5% of the vote. By Adam Zuvanich | HOUSTONPUBLICMEDIA.ORG | Posted on March 6, 2024, 5:03 PM. TAGS: Election 2024, Elections Houston, LGBTQ+, Local, News, Politics, Texas, 2024 Primary Election, anti-LGBTQ laws, Democratic primary, Lauren Ashley Simmons, Shawn Thierry,
- State Rep. Shawn Thierry, a Houston Democrat who broke party lines last year and voted with Republicans in support of bills viewed as attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, … is headed to a runoff and could potentially be unseated outright based on the results of Tuesday’s primary elections. …
- The result was not unexpected, according to University of Houston political science professor Brandon Rottinghaus, who said Thierry surprised fellow lawmakers and her constituents when she voiced support for Senate Bill 14, the Republican-priority legislation that would ban gender-transitioning healthcare for minors in the state. Thierry also voted in support of a law prohibiting certain books from school libraries, which was viewed as discriminatory toward literature with LGBTQ+ themes, as well as a bill prohibiting collegiate athletes from competing on teams that do not align their gender at birth.
- Thierry’s votes upset fellow Democrats and prompted primary challenges from the party’s more progressive wing, with Houston Black Lives Matter activist Ashton Woods also running and finishing a distance third. Thierry, first elected in 2016, also drew support from Republicans. …
- Whichever Democrat wins the primary will face Republican Lance York, who was unopposed in his primary, in the November general election.
- [Grant Martin, a political consultant for Simmons,] said the campaign for Simmons has been building momentum as more voters in District 146 learn about Thierry’s recent voting record and the financial support her campaign has received from conservatives such as Doug Deason, a Dallas billionaire. Simmons also [has] endorsements from local workers unions and teachers unions, the Houston LGBTQ+ Political Caucus and fellow Democrats such as former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, Houston City Controller Chris Hollins and state Reps. Jessica Gonzalez and Gene Wu. …
- Thierry was not the only Democrat in the statehouse to vote with Republicans in support of some of the aforementioned legislation, with state Rep. Harold Dutton of House District 142 being another. Dutton drew three primary challengers in his district, which represents parts of east and northeast Houston, but easily held them off by receiving 60.5% of the vote. …
- MIKE: I think that this story speaks for itself. It will be interesting to see how the runoff turns out. I don’t necessarily expect a close race, but I don’t think it will be a blowout for Simmons.
- Getting revenge is the best revenge; by Charles Kuffner | OFFTHEKUFF.COM | Posted on March 4, 2024. TAGGED Dade Phelan, Election 2024, Election 2026, Ernest Bailes, Glenn Rogers, Greg Abbott, impeachment, Ken Paxton, Mike Olcott, primaries, Sid Miller, Stan Lambert, Ted Cruz, Texas, The Lege, Travis Clardy, vouchers,
- Charles Kuffner leads off the story he has excerpted from the Texas Tribune with this comment: “A lot of Republican legislators who have been targeted by Greg Abbott over vouchers and/or Ken Paxton over impeachment are feeling pretty salty about it. If they don’t want to be total doormats, their best move is to go full opponent to both of them in 2026.”
- He then begins his excerpts with this from the story: State Rep. Glenn Rogers is mad as hell, and he’s not being shy about it.
- “Kiss my ass!” he recently told a statewide Republican official who had endorsed his primary opponent.
- “Beware of this belligerent run on power,” he warned his followers on social media.
- The Graford Republican is quoting Winston Churchill, calling out “grandiose lies” by his well-funded primary opponent, Mike Olcott, and challenging Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller to a duel in a text message as he seeks to hang onto his House seat. […]
- He’s among a group of Republicans facing heat from big names in their party in a primary that has pitted former allies against each other, prompted big spending and left a pile of hurt feelings in its wake. Incumbents like Rogers have become targets over two key votes last year: on whether to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton and whether to allow school vouchers. Many feel those attacks ignore conservative records built up over years.
- Rogers is facing conservative backlash on both. Since he was first elected in 2020, he has voted against the creation of a private school voucher program, a priority issue for GOP Gov. Greg Abbott. The proposal would have diverted state funds to private or church schools for parents who want to exit the public school system and want help paying for part of tuition. The resistance of 21 Republicans, most of them rural, led to the repeated failure of the proposal last year.
- Advocates have said the public schools in Rogers’ House District 60, a mostly rural area west of Fort Worth covering Palo Pinto, Stephens and Parker counties, would lose more than $3 million if vouchers were to pass.
- And like the majority of his fellow House Republicans, Rogers supported the impeachment of Paxton on charges of bribery and unfitness for office. In the months since he was acquitted by the Senate, Paxton has campaigned hard against the GOP lawmakers who accused him of corruption.
- Now Rogers has found himself in the crosshairs of just about any Republican with any official power in Texas — except for House Speaker Dade Phelan, who is facing his own well-funded GOP primary opponent in Beaumont. In addition to Abbott, Paxton and Miller, Olcott has the support of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Texas GOP Chair Matt Rinaldi. On Tuesday, he received the endorsement of former President Donald Trump.
- That has been frustrating for Rogers, who called the governor’s recent decision to endorse his pro-voucher opponent “a single-issue endorsement” in an interview with a local CBS station. The endorsement ignored his efforts to fight for his district and ignored his voting record, he said.
- “It doesn’t seem to matter about the integrity of the candidate, what their legislative productivity is,” he said. “It’s simply, ‘Do you support vouchers and I’ll endorse you.’ I think that’s unprecedented. I’ve been a very strong supporter of his, and we differ on this one issue, and he’s chosen to endorse my opponent.”
- Other Abbott and Paxton targets are similarly upset.
- Ernest Bailes, R-Shepherd, lamented the governor’s “vindictive nature” against Republicans he said were simply trying to represent their constituents’ best interests. “Governor Abbott is expending an astronomical amount of resources this campaign cycle, in order to unseat members who serve their districts, instead of his will,” Bailes wrote in a Facebook post Monday. “He made one trip to my district last week and [is] coming back again later this month, in order to do his absolute best to make sure that our next representative is someone who has sworn [fealty] to his agenda, rather than that of representing this district.”[…]
- In some cases, Abbott’s and Paxton’s focus on single issues has pitted them against each other in primaries.
- Travis Clardy, R-Nacogdoches, opposed vouchers, but also opposed impeachment, earning him the backing of Paxton. That forced Paxton to defend himself from backlash from many conservative voucher supporters on X.
- “I’m not ashamed at all. Travis Clardy took a lot of bullets to stand up for me,” Paxton wrote. “However, you feel about him, he stood with me and the voters of Texas, and I appreciate that.”
- Meanwhile, Clardy had harsh words for Abbott, who endorsed him in past races, but has now come out strongly against him for his anti-voucher vote.
- “Threatening and bullying is not effective leadership,” Clardy told the Texas Monthly last year. “I think you can go over and review the entire lexicon of Dale Carnegie and Zig Ziglar and not find bullying and threatening as a desired tactic. But here we are. And I don’t get it.”
- To Reps. Rogers and Bailes and Clardy and Stan Lambert and anyone else who opposed vouchers and/or supported impeachment and now are being attacked and vilified by Abbott and Paxton and their billionaire theocrat enablers, there’s only one thing you can do whether you survive this primary or not. You must do everything in your power to oppose Abbott and Paxton and whoever else is on that same train with them in 2026. Easy enough to do in the next primary, but you have to do it in the general as well, because we know they’ll survive their primaries. Do that however you want – voting third party, writing someone in, and skipping those races are all options if supporting the Democrat is a bridge too far – just be loud and proud about it and tell everyone who supported you to do the same. These guys are never going to stop coming after you as long as they’re in power. The one way to fix it is to get them out of power.
- Up to you. Stand up for yourself, or take all this abuse and reward the abusers by trotting back to them and forgetting it ever happened. Which one will make it easier for you to look in the mirror going forward?
- [Kuff adds,] One more thing:
- Rogers also has the endorsement of the Associated Republicans of Texas, a 50-year-old political group that has endorsed most of the targeted Republicans in the House primaries and had upwards of $3 million cash on hand last month.
- Jamie McWright, president of the organization, said the group’s focus is to elect pro-business Republicans that represent their districts and can win in a general election against a Democrat.
- “There is no litmus test, there is no scorecard, there is no conservative ranking for us,” McWright said. “We really do look for business-minded conservatives who want to come to Austin and get things done. We believe in a big-tent Republican party, and winning where we can with Republicans.”
- And while a healthy primary that forces discussion on the issues is nothing new in Texas politics, McWright said, it’s “extremely disheartening” that the especially divisive tenor of this cycle threatens to confuse and deter the participation of “thoughtful Republicans” in the entire process.
- “I think you’ve got a lot of really good Republican voters who may end up staying home because they’re so confused,” she said. “And I think anytime we discourage people from voting, we’re hurting our own democracy. And that’s just a real shame.”
- Kuff then goes on to sum up this story: The same advice applies to groups like the Associated Republicans of Texas, except I would insist that they do support the Democratic opponents of Abbott and Paxton in 2026. I know, Democrats can’t win statewide in Texas, blah blah blah. You know what might help? Having a couple hundred thousand Republicans vote Democratic in those races. I mean, assuming that groups like ART have that kind of actual clout. If they’re nothing but a clearinghouse for a few big-money donors, then yeah, just whine impotently and keep on keeping on. But if you do have a decent number of likeminded supporters, and you want to effect change, well, that’s how you do like. Like I said, up to you and the person looking back at you in that mirror.
- MIKE: Charles Kuffner speaks his piece in an inimitable way. I feel no need to add anything.
- Is TikTok different in China? Here’s what to know; Critics of TikTok have pointed to an allegedly tamer version in China. By Max Zahn | ABCNEWS.GO.COM | March 19, 2024, 7:53 AM. TAGS: TikTok, ByteDance, Douyin,
- The push in Washington, D.C., for a potential TikTok ban has drawn mounting scrutiny toward the app over data privacy risks tied to Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance.
- In making their case, some critics point to an allegedly tamer version of the app in China, suggesting that ByteDance unleashed a more potent product in the U.S. to hook consumers and vacuum up their data.
- Experts who spoke to ABC News, however, downplayed the content-related differences between TikTok and its Chinese counterpart, Douyin, saying the distinctions largely owe to stiff regulations in China centered on youth social media use and political dissent.
- The differences between the two apps highlight a comparatively permissive legal environment for social media in the U.S., protecting free expression but also leaving some users — especially young ones — vulnerable to addictive behavior, the experts said. …
- TikTok has faced growing scrutiny over fears that user data could fall into the possession of the Chinese government and the app could be weaponized by China to spread misinformation.
- There is little evidence that TikTok has shared U.S. user data with the Chinese government or that the Chinese government has asked the app to do so, cybersecurity experts previously told ABC News.
- The version of Douyin used by Chinese adults resembles U.S.-based TikTok, except for some propaganda in favor of the Chinese Communist Party and a lack of alternative viewpoints on hot-button topics, said Kaiser Kuo, the host of “Sinica Podcast,” a U.S.-based podcast on current affairs in China. …
- More noticeable differences between TikTok and Douyin arise when the respective apps are looked at through the lens of young users, some experts said. In the U.S., children experience the same version of TikTok as adults, while children in China see a modified version of Douyin that includes more educational content, they said.
- In recent years, China has cracked down on internet use among children. In 2021, the Chinese government enacted a law calling for “the creation and broadcast of online content conducive to the healthy growth of minors.”
- That same year, Douyin imposed a 40-minute daily limit for users under 14. Last year, Chinese regulators introduced a rule that would limit children under age 18 to two hours of smartphone screen time each day.
- “There are very different laws about how companies in China can target children,” Aynne Kokas, a professor of media studies at the University of Virginia and author of “Trafficking Data: How China is Winning the Battle for Digital Sovereignty,” told ABC News.
- “The U.S. regulatory environment is highly permissive and allows for profoundly addictive apps to emerge,” Kokas added.
- Due to comparatively strict data privacy regulations in China, ByteDance accesses less user data from Douyin than from TikTok, Kokas said. However, she added, Chinese privacy protections limiting corporate conduct do not bar the government from accessing a wealth of data.
- “That’s a really important caveat,” Kokas said.
- While Congress has yet to regulate youth social media use, lawmakers in some states have begun to push for reforms. In June, Connecticut amended its data privacy law to mandate online platforms undertake child safety assessments and assist young users in staying away from damaging posts. Legislators in a handful of states have followed suit with similar proposals.
- Mark Jia, a professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, pointed out “substantial similarities” between TikTok and Douyin overall, except for some differences tied to e-commerce and search functions.
- But, he added, a prevalence of educational content on the youth version of TikTok likely stems from strict regulations and demand for such videos among children preparing for high-stakes, competitive exams.
- The content on the children’s version of Douyin results from “top-down pressure from authorities, as well as bottom-up demand from its users,” Jia said.
- While acknowledging similarities between TikTok and Douyin, experts who spoke to ABC News differed over the threat to U.S. security posed by TikTok.
- Kokas, of the University of Virginia, said dependence upon TikTok for U.S. economic activity and political dialogue could end up “fundamentally destabilizing.” By contrast, Kuo, of the “Sinica Podcast,” dismissed the backlash against TikTok as a “moral panic.”
- MIKE: I don’t use TikTok and have never signed up for it, and I don’t even know what the app requires of you to join, so it’s hard for me to comment on it personally. The closest I can come to having an opinion is to draw an analogy to my feelings on Kaspersky antivirus and cybersecurity software.
- MIKE: Kaspersky is a multinational cybersecurity company based in Moscow, Russia. To this day, Kaspersky is considered a “Gold Standard” company for cybersecurity.
- MIKE: Nonetheless, after the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014, and particularly after Russian election interference in 2016, Kaspersky software was banned on all US government computers, and many companies and users remain wary of it.
- MIKE: The company’s founder, Eugene Kaspersky, has said many times that the Russian government has absolutely no role in the company, and that the company does not share user information with the Kremlin.
- MIKE: Nonetheless, the company is based in Moscow, and one must assume that if the government there demanded information or cooperation from Kaspersky, they would be hard-pressed to refuse.
- MIKE: For that reason, I no longer have Kaspersky installed on my computer.
- MIKE: Then, there is WeChat. WeChat, called WeiXin” in China, is an “everything” app. In China, it’s used for email, texting, sending photos and videos, Voice-Over-Internet-Provider (or “VOIP”) calls, and even — or especially — financial transactions, among other things. It’s the “everything app” that Facebook is trying to be, and that Elon Musk wants X to be.
- MIKE: Use of WeChat is not limited to China. In fact, you can download it from the Apple store and probably the Android store. The vast majority of users are Chinese speakers, often but not necessarily expatriate Chinese who want to stay in touch with family, friends, and professional colleagues.
- MIKE: There are significant privacy concerns for users of WeChat. For example, quoting this section of Wikipedia, “Human rights activist Hu Jia was jailed for three years for sedition. He speculated that the officials of the Internal Security Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security listened to his voicemail messages that were directed to his friends, repeating the words displayed within the voice mail messages to Hu.”
- MIKE: In June 2020, WeChat was banned in India over privacy and security concerns. It was also briefly banned in Russia in 2017.
- MIKE: There’s much more information on Kaspersky and WeChat in the reference links I’ve provided at the end of this story.
- MIKE: But to get back to the point of the article I’m discussing, I see TikTok as concerning in the same way that I see Kaspersky and WeChat as concerning.
- MIKE: It’s not just a matter of “if” or “what” they are sharing with their respective governments now, although that’s certainly a concern. Rather, it’s my certainty that, if push comes to shove, these companies will share their user data if their governments demand it, just as companies in the US and Europe will share customer data if the proper legal steps are followed, and sometimes maybe even if they’re not.
- MIKE: If WeChat could be compartmentalized from all your other apps and data, that might make it safe-ER, but since that’s really not an option, it’s not really worth speculating upon.
- MIKE: As you can easily guess, I will not install TikTok, and I don’t recommend it for all the reasons I’ve already stated. So, I probably lean toward banning it in the US or at least requiring US owners. And having a “Junior” version is also probably not a bad idea that we can borrow from China.
- REFERENCE: WeChat — From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (ALSO see Privacy issues)
- REFERENCE: Kaspersky Antivirus Review — SECURITY.ORG
- 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
- 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. …
- … [M]any Stockholm commuters] said they already felt safer, just a day after Sweden officially joined Nato, following a document handover in Washington. …
- Sweden embraced wartime neutrality for more than 200 years, and a decade ago a majority of residents were against joining the multinational military alliance.
- 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.
- 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.
- “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.
- 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. …
- 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. …
- Sweden’s membership application stalled because of opposition from Nato members Hungary and Turkey, who only recently reversed their positions. …
- The car rental sales agent believed Sweden’s accession “is good”, while other relatives “think it will trigger some nasty reactions from other countries”.
- 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.
- Still, in January, two top defence officials warned that Swedes should mentally and logistically start preparing for war.
- Despite accusations of alarmism, the messaging appeared to have a limited impact on the public, with few signs of panic-buying in Swedish supermarkets. …
- [Nicholas Aylott, the political scientist,] suggested that joining Nato would have a small but noticeable visual impact, which could impact public discussions.
- 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. …
- 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.
- 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 and backed by the Baltic Sea, 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.
- 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.
- In the meantime, this leads me into some stories that I’ve been saving on the Ukraine-Russia War. First, 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: Ukraine Military Aid, Military Stockpiles, Drawdown Authority, US Defense Department, Russia, Ukraine, House Republicans, President Joe Biden, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan
- 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.
- National security adviser Jake Sullivan announced the package in a briefing at the White House on Tuesday afternoon. …
- President Joe Biden [said that] the package is “not nearly enough,” and Congress needs to pass additional funding.
- “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.” …
- 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.”
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.” …
- 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.”
- “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. …
- 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. …
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- MIKE: A weak analogy might be that we’ve already blown passed 1938, and we’re well into 1939.
- 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.
- 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
- Our next story reveals that … Russia [is] producing three times more artillery shells than US and Europe [Combined] for Ukraine; By Katie Bo Lillis, Natasha Bertrand, Oren Liebermann and Haley Britzky | CNN.COM | Updated 10:30 PM EDT, Mon March 11, 2024. TAGS: Artillery Shells, War Production, Europe,
- Russia appears on track to produce nearly three times more artillery munitions than the US and Europe, a key advantage ahead of what is expected to be another Russian offensive in Ukraine later this year.
- Russia is producing about 250,000 artillery munitions per month, or about 3 million a year, according to NATO intelligence estimates of Russian defense production shared with CNN, as well as sources familiar with Western efforts to arm Ukraine. Collectively, the US and Europe have the capacity to generate only about 1.2 million munitions annually to send to Kyiv, a senior European intelligence official told CNN.
- The US military set a goal to produce 100,000 rounds of artillery a month by the end of 2025 — less than half of the Russian monthly output — and even that number is now out of reach with $60 billion in Ukraine funding stalled in Congress, a senior Army official told reporters last week.
- “What we are in now is a production war,” a senior NATO official told CNN. “The outcome in Ukraine depends on how each side is equipped to conduct this war.” …
- The shortfall comes at perhaps the most perilous moment for Ukraine’s war effort since Russia first marched on Kyiv in February 2022. US money for arming Ukraine has run out and Republican opposition in Congress has effectively halted giving any more.
- Meanwhile, Russia recently took the Ukrainian city of Avdiivka and is widely seen as having the initiative on the battlefield. Ukraine is struggling not just with ammunition but also growing manpower shortages on the front lines. …
- [MIKE: The story includes graphics showing how the front lines have changed since April 19, 2022 versus February 19, 2024.]
- The US and its allies have given Ukraine a number of highly sophisticated systems, including the M-1 Abrams tank and, soon, F-16 fighter jets. But military analysts say the war will likely be won or lost based on who fires the most artillery shells. …
- [A NATO official said that] Russia is running artillery factories “24/7” on rotating 12-hour shifts, the NATO official said. About 3.5 million Russians now work in the defense sector, up from somewhere between 2 and 2.5 million before the war. Russia is also importing ammunition: Iran sent at least 300,000 artillery shells last year — “probably more than that,” the official said — and North Korea provided at least 6,700 containers of ammunition carrying millions of shells.
- Russia has “put everything they have in the game,” the intelligence official said. …
- A rough equivalent in the US would be if President Joe Biden invoked the Defense Production Act, a US official said, which gives the president power to order companies to produce equipment expeditiously to support the nation’s national defense.
- Russia’s ramp-up is still not enough to meet its needs, US and Western officials say, and Western intelligence officials do not expect Russia to make major gains on the battlefield in the short term. There is also a limit to Russian production capacity, officials say: Russian factories will likely hit a peak sometime in the next year.
- But it’s still far beyond what the US and Europe are producing for Ukraine — especially without additional US funding. …
- MIKE: The article continues at some length.
- MIKE: To me the upshot of this story supports my contention that the US, Europe, and in fact the entire northern hemisphere is in a wartime economy, and that will only become more obvious as time passes, and the US and Europe continue to ramp up production of wartime materiel.
- MIKE: In order to support Ukraine in its war against Russia, the US has had to buy and “borrow” hundreds of thousands of artillery shells from South Korea in order to maintain its own strategic reserves. (The shells are borrowed as part of an agreement that they will not be used in Ukraine, and thus they are strictly for US stockpiles.)
- MIKE: And this is taking place while the US and our European allies are attempting to double and even triple their current production levels. These efforts are not cheap. They will come from domestic spending and also be used in part to justify tax increases in those countries that have fiscal room for such increases.
- MIKE: This is, and will be, essentially a wartime test of wills.
- MIKE: This leads us to our next story …
- REFERENCE: South Korea to lend 500,000 rounds of artillery shells to US -report; By Hyonhee Shin | COM | April 12, 2023 @ 5:16 AM CDT, Updated a year ago
- How Russia has avoided bankrupting itself after 2 years of waging war in Ukraine; By Huileng Tan | BUSINESSINSIDER.COM | Feb 18, 2024, 6:31 PM CST (TAGS: Russia, Economy, Politics, Ukraine War, Sanctions,)
- Russia’s wartime economy is
- That may sound counterintuitive, but headline GDP growth is not unusual in times of conflict.
- While there are doubts over the accuracy and completeness of the rosy economic data Russia has released over the past two years, Moscow looks poised to continue funding its war for a third year — and wars are expensive.
- “From a purely economic standpoint, Russia has considerable room to continue waging war,” Hassan Malik, a global macro strategist and Russia expert at Boston-based investment management firm Loomis Sayles, told Business Insider.
- After all, Russia has been sanction-proofing itself since 2014, when it was hit with a raft of trade restrictions after it illegally annexed Crimea from Ukraine. On top of that, it’s still supported by revenues from its oil sales.
- Here’s how Russia has managed to keep its economy strong even after two years of waging war.
- 1: By waging war outside its own borders — One critical reason Russia’s economy is still ticking is because of the location of the war.
- “The war is being fought largely on Ukrainian land, and destroying largely Ukrainian homes, businesses, and farms such that the direct impact on Russian productive capacity and households has been comparatively limited,” said Malik. …
- In 2022, the first year of the war, Russia’s economy contracted 1.2%, according to official statistics. Analysts polled by Reuters expect Russia’s GDP to have risen 3.1% in 2023. Russia has not yet released its full-year GDP growth for 2023.
- In comparison, Ukraine’s GDP plunged 29.1% in 2022 and the country’s central bank forecast the country to have grown 4.9% in 2023. It has not released official growth figures.
- In a scenario where a war is not fought on your home turf, war can act as a major demand shock, particularly for war supplies and manpower, Malik explained. That’s what happened in Russia: The war boosted the economy.
- No 2: By generating a demand for wartime goods and services — Then, there’s the demand for the goods and services that keep a war running.
- Russia’s military needs physical supplies — things like weapons, ammunition, and bandages. The demand boosts the industries that produce those goods — especially domestically, since imports into Russia are restricted due to sanctions.
- The demand for military goods is so intense that even a bakery in central Russia has been roped in to aid war efforts.
- The shop — which showed off its freshly produced drones next to just-baked bread on Russian TV — is now sanctioned by the US.
- Fighting a war also requires manpower.
- Russia was facing a demographic crisis with a declining population and falling fertility rate even before its war with Ukraine. With the onset of the war, nearly 1 million Russians — including draft-age men — have fled their homeland, shrinking the country’s labor pool even further.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin’s mobilization of men for the war created a labor crunch that has persisted since 2022.
- Last year, Russia faced a shortage of 5 million workers as workforce vacancies rose nearly 5% from a year ago. In November, Russia posted a record-low unemployment rate of 2.9%.
- Thanks to the manpower shortage, wages have risen — in turn supporting consumption and economic growth.
- 3: By being self-reliant in weapons and commodity production —Russia is a major global economy — the world’s eighth-largest in 2022 — in part due to its strong position as a producer of commodities like oil, natural gas, wheat, and metals.
- … Russia is [thus] self-sufficient in producing [those] critical commodities, … which has helped it weather years of sanctions.
- “While Western sanctions and trade restrictions have undoubtedly had some marginal impact on the Russian economy, the impact is particularly limited in a largely [self-sufficent] Russian defense industry,” said Malik …
- As one of the world’s top arms exporters, Russia can also supply itself with most of its defense needs, even for sophisticated weapons, said Malik.
- [M]easures Russia has imposed to boost its economy … further dilute the impact of Western sanctions on the Russian defense industry and wartime economy, he added.
- 4: By stimulating and steadying its economy with subsidies and policies — …
- Moscow’s attempt to prop up its wartime economy has been so aggressive that subsidies for discounted mortgages have created a housing bubble.
- The Russian government has rolled out other types of subsidized loans for businesses, further stimulating demand in the economy.
- Russian policymakers also stepped in quickly to steady the market and economy after Moscow invaded Ukraine. They took steps including shutting the Moscow Exchange for weeks, imposing capital controls, and managing monetary policy. …
- 5: By keeping external debt low and exports strong — Russia entered the war with little external debt and its current account has been in surplus thanks in part to the war’s impact on commodity prices.
- “Such developments heavily compensated for Western moves such as the freezing of the central bank’s reserves,” Malik said.
- Russia managed to allocate nearly one-third of its 2024 budget to defense spending, despite all the sanctions it’s been hit with.
- Malik isn’t the only one who thinks Russia has room to run its war for longer.
- Over the past year, experts including a former Russian deputy finance ministry in self-exile and several economists have all said Russia has the money to fund its war in Ukraine for a few years. …
- Even so, Putin is caught in an economic ‘trilemma’ — While Russia has managed to avoid economic catastrophe after invading Ukraine in 2022 and incurring sweeping Western sanctions, it doesn’t mean all is well on Putin’s home turf.
- Despite the boom, Putin is trying to solve an economic “trilemma” a former Russian central bank official said recently.
- “His challenges are threefold: he must fund his ongoing war against Ukraine, maintain his populace’s living standards, and safeguard macroeconomic stability,” Alexandra Prokopenko wrote about Putin in Foreign Policy in January.
- “Achieving the first and second goals will require higher spending, which will fuel inflation and thus prevent the achievement of the third goal,” she added.
- Putin already had to personally apologize for the price of eggs in Russia, which soared 42% in the 12 months prior to November 2023, according to data from the country’s statistics agency Rosstat.
- After all, rosy GDP figures alone are not a good measure of economic performance during wartime, said Guriev.
- “You produce weapons and munitions, you pay for them from the budget, but these weapons and munitions don’t contribute to quality of life, don’t contribute to future economic growth,” said Guriev. “They are shipped to Ukraine, where they are destroyed.”
- Russia’s contribution from the war is boosting its economy so much that there’s risk of stagnation — or even an “outright crisis” — once the conflict is over, according to a January report from the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies.
- “The longer the war lasts, the more addicted the economy will become to military spending,” wrote economists at the Austrian think tank.
- MIKE: To some extent, the economic conditions Russia is experiencing during their war in Ukraine mirror the US economic experience during and after WW2, so there is some guidance there.
- MIKE: The US had been fighting a vast war on foreign territory with negligible wartime damage or destruction at home.
- MIKE: By the end of WW2, almost 10% of the US population was in uniform. This created a very tight labor market not only for war production, but for all the other goods and services that still had to be provided to the economy during wartime. On the heels of a post-Great Depression recovery, this tight labor market meant extremely low unemployment and rising wages, yet this was occurring during a period of wartime rationing.
- MIKE: With war production through 1944, US GDP had hit all-time highs, but by 1945, there was some industrial demobilization occurring as the US government anticipated a sharp reduction in government spending and war production.
- MIKE: Demobilizing military personnel added lots of bodies to the labor force and also created housing shortages. All wartime rationing had ended by June 1947 with the end of sugar rationing, but many manufactured goods and commodities had remained in short supply for at least months after the war.
- MIKE: My father told me a story about his experience trying to buy a new 1948 Pontiac. Like the experience many folks had buying cars during and after Covid, because of shortages versus demand, the dealer wanted a markup significantly above sticker price. My father complained to General Motors HQ and got the dealer to take off the extra charges.
- MIKE: In any case, by the end of WW2, the US represented over 50% of global GDP. By 2022, that had declined to about 15% of global GDP as a result of growth elsewhere in the world rather than US decline.
- MIKE: For those who are interested, I’ve added some reference links to America’s postwar economic experience.
- So how does this history apply to wartime Russia today and in a post-war future?
- MIKE: Current Russian GDP is a reflection of wartime spending and mobilization. Due to emigration and conscription, plus a long period of falling birthrates, Russia’s labor pool is tight, unemployment is under 3%, and wages have been rising.
- MIKE: Like Russia, the US had a lot of commodity independence during the war, but still needed some imports, notably of rubber, which was controlled by Japan. This situation forced the invention of domestically-produced synthetic rubber.
- MIKE: This bears some analogy to Russia’s wartime shortages, except it’s not so much raw materials that Russia needs as high-tech items like electronics. That’s a tougher barrier to cross, and is a reason that Russia has become so dependent on China. China has a larger and more advanced electronics industry than Russia, and has become a major supplier. China (and also India) help to finance the war — and Russia’s purchase of Chinese and Indian products — by buying Russian oil at discounted prices due to Western sanctions. As I’ve mentioned in other shows, Russia is effectively becoming a vassal state of China, a historically humiliating result of Putin’s pointless war in Ukraine.
- REFERENCE: The [US] Post-War Recession (1948-1949) — TRENDSPIDER.COM
- REFERENCE: What Percentage of the [US] Population Served in WW2? — HISTORYNET.COM
- REFERENCE: Great Responsibilities and New Global Power — NATIONALWW2MUSEUM.ORG
- REFERENCE: United States’ share of global gross domestic product (GDP) adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP) from 2018 to 2028 — STATISTA.COM
- Russia’s economy is so driven by the war in Ukraine that it cannot afford to either win or lose, economist says; By Jennifer Sor | BUSINESSINSIDER.COM | Feb 23, 2024, 11:23 AM CST (TAGS: Ukraine War russia ukraine war Moscow Putin)
- Russia’s economy is completely dominated by its war in Ukraine, so much that Moscow cannot afford either to win or lose the war, according to one European economist.
- Renaud Foucart, a senior economics lecturer at Lancaster University, pointed to the dire economic situation facing Russia as the war in Ukraine wraps up its second year.
- Russia’s GDP grew 5.5% year-over-year over the third quarter of 2023, according to data from the Russian government. But most of that growth is being fueled by the nation’s monster military spending, Foucart said, with plans for the Kremlin to spend a record 36.6 trillion rubles, or $386 billion on defense this year.
- “Military pay, ammunition, tanks, planes, and compensation for dead and wounded soldiers, all contribute to the GDP figures. Put simply, the war against Ukraine is now the main driver of Russia’s economic growth” Foucart said in an op-ed for The Conversation this week.
- Other areas of Russia’s economy are hurting as the war drags on. Moscow is slammed with a severe labor shortage, thanks to young professionals fleeing the country or being pulled into the conflict. The nation is now short around 5 million workers, according to one estimate, which is causing wages to soar.
- Inflation is high at 7.4% — nearly double the 4% target of its central bank. Meanwhile, direct investment in the country has collapsed, falling around $8.7 billion in the first three quarters of 2023, per data from Russia’s central bank.
- That all puts the Kremlin in a tough position, no matter the outcome of the war in Ukraine. Even if Russia wins, the nation can’t afford to rebuild and secure Ukraine, due to the financial costs as well as the impact of remaining isolated from the rest of the global market.
- Western nations have shunned trade with Russia since it invaded Ukraine in 2022, which economists have said could severely crimp Russia’s long-term economic growth.
- As long as it remains isolated, Russia’s “best hope” is to become “entirely dependent” on China, one of its few remaining strategic allies, Foucart said.
- Meanwhile, the costs of rebuilding its own nation are already “massive,” he added, pointing to problems like broken infrastructure and social unrest in Russia.
- “A protracted stalemate might be the only solution for Russia to avoid total economic collapse,” Foucart wrote. “The Russian regime has no incentive to end the war and deal with that kind of economic reality. So it cannot afford to win the war, nor can it afford to lose it. Its economy is now entirely geared towards continuing a long and ever deadlier conflict.”
- Other economists have warned of trouble coming for Russia amid the toll of its war in Ukraine. Russia’s economy will see significantly more degradation ahead, one London-based think tank recently warned, despite talk of Russia’s resilience in the face of Western sanctions.
- MIKE: So what will be Russia’s postwar economic future?
- MIKE: With so much uncertainty about what the post-war future will look like for Russia, there are many possible scenarios. If Russia “wins” — a Pyrrhic victory at best — it will likely take them at least a generation to build their military weapons inventory to its pre-war peak. This could lead to a Russian economic future that looks a lot like its Soviet past, with a powerful emphasis on heavy industry and military production and lower emphasis on consumer goods. Assuming that Western sanctions on goods and financial services remains in place for some time into a post-war future, that would lead to significant shortages of domestically produced consumer goods, leaving the marketplace open for China and India, and possibly Iran.
- MIKE: That would equate to a sort of mercantilist — almost colonial — relationship where Russia would supply raw materials to other industrial powers and be a buyer of finished goods.
- MIKE: Russia’s postwar experience may more closely mirror Britain’s. Rationing in the UK continued into the early 1950s. (In fact, “… The UK was the last country involved in the war to stop rationing food.”) The UK was also paying off wartime debts into the 1970s. While that may better reflect Ukraine’s postwar experience — assuming it survives as a country — there’s no question that Russia is impoverishing itself and borrowing from its own future in order to fight this war. That will impact any postwar outcome for them.
- MIKE: Consider that in East Germany and East Berlin, WW2 bomb damage persisted into the 1990s, and there is still some rebuilding of WW2 damage even today. That speaks to the impoverishment and economic doldrums that existed under pro-Soviet postwar regimes.
- MIKE: This may be a much better example of a possible postwar Russian experience than America’s.
- REFERENCE: The [US] Post-War Recession (1948-1949) — TRENDSPIDER.COM
- REFERENCE: How did [British] rationing work in the Second World War? — MERL.READING.AC.UK (The Museum of English Rural Life)
- As Vietnam grows ties with U.S., a secret directive seeks to gird the Communist Party; By John Ruwitch | NPR.ORG | March 1, 2024 @ 12:43 AM ET. TAGS: Vietnam, Communist Party, S., Human Rights,
- Last summer, as the United States and Vietnam finalized plans to upgrade the bilateral relationship, the Communist leadership in Hanoi issued a secret directive that aimed to limit outside influences and protect the party’s grip on power in the face of growing exposure to the U.S. and its allies.
- Analysts say the six-page document — known as “Directive 24” and issued by the ruling Communist Party’s elite Politburo — offers a window into the motivations and concerns of party leaders as they committed to deepen Vietnam’s links with an erstwhile enemy and leverage shifting geopolitical sands to upgrade the country’s economy.
- The directive outlines a set of broad measures designed to protect national security and limit threats to the country’s political system “in the context of comprehensive and deep international integration”.
- Curtailing foreign influence — Among the provisions, it says the party should “closely manage” Vietnamese citizens who go abroad. It imposes limits on the types of labor organizing allowed in the country. It advocates tighter control over foreign aid flowing into Vietnam, and heightened vigilance “to prevent attempts to exert influence though economic, cultural and social activities.”
- It aims to curtail foreign influence in policymaking and stop groups inside and outside Vietnam from using increased international cooperation to promote civil society and domestic political organizations.
- Project88, a Vietnam-focused human rights group that shared a copy of the document with NPR, said the directive should put to rest “magical thinking” in the United States and Europe that deeper ties with Vietnam will help promote human rights in the country. …
- Vietnamese state media have referred to the directive by name, but the contents have not been made public in full. NPR was able to cross-reference the contents of the copy of the directive provided by Project88 with a copy from another source.
- Directive ahead of “comprehensive strategic partnership” with the U.S. — Directive 24 is dated July 13, 2023. Two months later, on Sept. 10, President Biden and Vietnamese Communist Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong met in Hanoi where they elevated the bilateral relationship to a “comprehensive strategic partnership”. It is the highest level of country-to-country relations recognized by the Vietnamese government. …
- Directive 24 articulates a “bottom line” — Carlyle Thayer, a Vietnam expert based in Canberra, said Hanoi is expected to complete a strategic partnership deal with Australia in the coming weeks. Vietnam already has a free trade agreement with the European Union.
- “The reason [for] these comprehensive strategic partnerships is that China’s economy was stalled, relations with China were severely hurt by its lockdown during COVID, and the global economy was slowing down. And so if Vietnam wanted to get out of wallowing and move on to high tech digital development, it needed to move forward with these modern economies,” Thayer said.
- He said Directive 24 articulates a “bottom line” as the party girds for more foreign interaction. …
- The directive comes amid a multi-year crackdown on civil society under party leader Trong that has gathered pace, according to Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
- “It really intensified during the COVID crisis when the international community wasn’t paying any attention,” he said. “What we’ve seen is the democracy and human rights advocacy group individuals and their networks have been basically wiped out in Vietnam.” …
- Project88 said the directive “does not provide a compelling national security argument for restricting rights” and contradicts both international law and the country’s constitution.
- “Foreign governments and observers must understand that Vietnam’s international integration will, as Directive 24 is implemented, coincide with increased violations of, not greater respect for, human rights,” it said.
- MIKE: The evolving relationship between the US and Vietnam can’t help but be historically interesting, and the context of that relationship is based entirely on clear-eyed self-interest.
- MIKE: But it’s interesting to note that Vietnam’s planning around this and similar relationships is probably rooted in the experience of the USSR and China.
- MIKE: For whatever reasons, the end-result of the USSR’s engagement with the West was the collapse of the Soviet Union and its eastern European empire. On the other hand, China’s engagement with the West resulted in China becoming an industrial and exporting powerhouse with an expanding presence on the world stage.
- MIKE: China’s development of “capitalism with a Chinese face” has managed the daunting task of using the West’s capitalism for its own purposes to spur growth in both economic and military power, while preserving the power and political monopoly of the Chinese Communist Party.
- MIKE: Vietnam seems to be trying to emulate the Chinese example by preemptively planning ahead how to avoid unwanted political and cultural “contamination”. It will be interesting to see how that turns out.
- NASA’s Voyager 1 sends readable message to Earth after 4 nail-biting months of gibberish; After four months of being unable to detect comprehensible data from the Voyager 1 spacecraft, NASA scientists have had fresh luck after sending a “poke.” By Emily Cooke | LIVESCIENCE.COM | Published March 16, 2024. TAGS: Voyager 1, NASA,
- After a nail-biting four months, NASA has finally received a comprehensible signal from its Voyager 1 spacecraft.
- Since November 2023, the almost-50-year-old spacecraft has been experiencing trouble with its onboard computers. Although Voyager 1, one of NASA’s longest-lived space missions, has been sending a steady radio signal to Earth, it hasn’t contained any usable data, which has perplexed scientists.
- Now, in response to a command prompt, or “poke,” sent from Earth on March 1, NASA has received a new signal from Voyager 1 that engineers have been able to decode. Mission scientists hope this information may help them explain the spacecraft’s recent communication problems.
- “The source of the issue appears to be with one of three onboard computers, the flight data subsystem (FDS), which is responsible for packaging the science and engineering data before it’s sent to Earth by the telemetry modulation unit,” NASA said in a blog post Wednesday (March 13).
- On March 1, as part of efforts to find a solution to Voyager 1’s computer issues, NASA sent a command to the FDS on the spacecraft, instructing it to use different sequences in its software package, which would effectively mean skirting around any data that may be corrupted.
- Voyager 1 is more than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth. This means any radio signals sent from our planet take 22.5 hours to reach the spacecraft, with any response taking the same time to be picked up by antennas on Earth.
- On March 3, NASA detected activity from one section of the FDS that differed from the “unreadable data stream” they’d previously been receiving. Four days later, engineers started the heavy task of trying to decode this signal. By March 10, the team discovered that the signal contained a readout of the entire FDS memory. This included the instructions for what the FDS needed to do, any values in its code that can be changed depending on commands from NASA or the spacecraft’s status, and downloadable science or engineering data. …
- NASA scientists will now “compare this readout to the one that came down before the issue arose and look for discrepancies in the code and the variables to potentially find the source of the ongoing issue,” they said in the blog post.
- However, NASA stressed that it will take time to determine if any of the insights gained from this new signal can be used to solve Voyager 1’s long-standing communication issues. …
- Voyager 1 has ventured farther from Earth than any other human-made object. It was launched in 1977, within weeks of its twin spacecraft, Voyager 2. The initial aim of the mission was to explore Jupiter and Saturn. Yet after almost five decades, and with countless discoveries under their belts, the mission continues beyond the boundaries of the solar system.
- MIKE: And so, as they say in Star Trek fan films, “The mission continues.”
=====================================================
- Make sure you are registered to vote! VoteTexas.GOV – Texas Voter Information
- 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
- Obtain a Voter Registration Application (HarrisVotes.com)
- Harris County “Vote-By-Mail’ Application for 2023
- Austin County Elections
- Brazoria County (TX) Clerk Election Information
- Chambers County (TX) Elections
- Colorado County (TX) Elections
- Fort Bend County takes you to the proper link
- GalvestonVotes.org (Galveston County, TX)
- Harris County ((HarrisVotes.com)
- LibertyElections (Liberty County, TX)
- Montgomery County (TX) Elections
- Walker County Elections
- Waller County (TX) Elections
- Wharton County Elections
- 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.
- 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.
- HarrisVotes.com – Countywide Voting Centers, HARRIS COUNTY – IDENTIFICATION REQUIRED FOR VOTING: Do not possess and cannot reasonably obtain one of these IDs?
- 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:
- A government document that shows your name and an address, including your voter registration certificate
- Current utility bill
- Bank statement
- Government check
- Paycheck
- 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)
- You may vote early by-mail if:You are registered to vote and meet one of the following criteria:
- Away from the county of residence on Election Day and during the early voting period;
- Sick or disabled;
- 65 years of age or older on Election Day; or
- Confined in jail, but eligible to vote.
- Make sure you are registered:
- Ann Harris Bennett, Tax Assessor-Collector & Voter Registrar
- CHECK REGISTRATION STATUS HERE
- CLICK How to register to vote in Texas
- Outside Texas, try Vote.org.
- BE REGISTERED TO VOTE, and if eligible, REMEMBER TO FILL OUT AND MAIL NEW MAIL-IN BALLOT APPLICATIONS FOR 2023.
- Obtain a Voter Registration Application (HarrisVotes.com)
- Just be registered and apply for your mail-in ballot if you may qualify.
- You can track your Mail Ballot Activity from our website with direct link provided here https://www.harrisvotes.com/Tracking
____________________________________________________________________________
Remember! When you donate to KPFT, your dollars pay for:
- Transmitter and equipment costs
- Programs like Thinkwing Radio, Politics Done Right, and other locally-generated political talk shows
- KPFT’s online streaming
- Maintaining a wide variety of music programs
Each time you turn on the radio, you can hear your dollars at work!
Make your contribution to this station right now. Just call 713 526 5738. That’s 713-526-5738. Or give online at KPFT.org!