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POSSIBLE TOPICS: HCAD Runoff Elections; League City to discuss battery storage facilities, capital improvement projects; $122M in facility upgrades planned for Harris County jails; What’s in Houston ISD’s $4.4 billion bond plan? Here are 5 key takeaways.; Texas shrimpers are dying at a staggering rate. Houston researchers think they know why.; ERCOT says Texas could face rolling blackouts in August, as Houston officials announce cooling centers; Gov. Abbott tells Texas universities to disregard new Title IX protections for LGBTQ+ students; OPINION: Justices Sotomayor and Kagan must retire now; Some US lawmakers call for more scrutiny of news app NewsBreak over Chinese origins; OPINION: What are the implications of Hamas holding hostages in Gaza civilian homes? – Analysis; Confronting Another Axis? History, Humility, and Wishful Thinking (Part 4); 

Welcome to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig where we discuss local, state, national, and international stories. 

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. MIKE: So there is one still one more runoff election to pay attention to. This is a runoff for two of the three HCAD positions in a reputedly non-partisan race.
   1. Early voting has ended.
   2. Actual election day is Saturday, June 15^th from 7am to 7pm. If you are on line by 7PM, you must be permitted to vote, but I’m not expecting lines.
   3. Mail-in ballots must be postmarked no later than 7pm on election day, and received no later than 5pm on the next business day after the election.
   4. If you haven’t sent in your mail-in ballot by now, it probably won’t reach the country clerk in time to be counted.
   5. The Democrats who are running for HCAD are Melissa Noriega and Pelumi Adeleke.
   6. The other candidates were endorsed by the Harris County Republican Party as, “… two solid conservative candidates …”
   7. I can’t endorse anyone on air, but draw your own conclusions.
   8. If you haven’t yet sent your mail-in ballot, you can still vote in person with a provisional ballot or bring the unmailed ballot with you so it can be spoiled, and then vote as normal.
   9. In this post, I’m providing links to Harris Votes and where you can vote in Harris County.
   10. If you live outside of Harris County and can hear my voice, I encourage you to check with the clerk in your county to see if you have any runoff elections to vote in. I have links to those below this show post at ThinkwingRadio [dot]Com.
2. League City to discuss battery storage facilities, capital improvement projects; By Rachel Leland | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 3:43 PM Jun 10, 2024 CDT / Updated 3:43 PM Jun 10, 2024 CDT. TAGS: League City, Lithium-Ion Battery Storage Facility,
   11. League City will continue its months-long conversation about the prospect of building additional battery storage facilities within its city at a workshop set for June 11. …
   12. On June 11, League City officials and City Council will host a presentation and discussion work session regarding battery energy storage system sites, according to agenda documents.
   13. Community members will have [had] an opportunity to share their input before the meeting …
   14. Community Impact previously reported that on April 23, League City City Council voted to postpone making the decision to rezone a parcel of land near the east side of Caroline Street and south of FM 646 to build a lithium-ion battery storage facility.
   15. At the meeting, city officials agreed to establish guidelines for building lithium-ion battery storage facilities and to conduct a risk assessment for worst-case scenarios.
   16. That decision followed the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission recommending against a second battery facility due to too many unknowns. …
   17. MIKE: This is a follow-up on a story that Community Impact covered in April, and which I’ve previously discussed. I don’t think it needs much discussion or analysis from me except to note that this is part of a process that will be occurring in many counties and municipalities as part of America’s transition to renewable energy and the backup storage required to make it truly viable.
   18. MIKE: To me, that makes League City’s process in this matter an interesting microcosm of what is likely occurring nationally.
3. $122M in facility upgrades planned for Harris County jails; By Melissa Enaje | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 4:11 PM Jun 10, 2024 CDT / Updated 4:11 PM Jun 10, 2024 CDT. TAGS: Harris County Commissioners, Harris County Jail Facilities,
   1. At a June 4 meeting, Harris County Commissioners approved an estimated $122 million to address some of the most immediate needs throughout various Harris County jail facilities.
   2. As summer temperatures continue to rise in Harris County, failure to address the various facilities’ needs could result in continued maintenance and operational issues at the existing facilities, including system failures, according to two appointed jail committees that focus on the jail conditions.
   3. Immediate needs within the facilities are safety and security measures, as well as deferred maintenance items including fire safety, plumbing, electrical, heating ventilation and air conditioning systems.
   4. At the facility at 701 N. San Jacinto St., Houston, major system components that need attention were identified by the jail advisory committees and include, but are not limited to: Plumbing: replacing restroom lavatories, water boilers, water distribution pumps and corroded sanitary waste piping throughout the building; HVAC: replacing heating hot and chilled water pumps, unit heaters and fans throughout the building; Fire protection: replacing the full fire alarm system; [and] Electrical: replacing fluorescent lighting in the loading dock, [and] replacing aged transformers. …
   5. The JGAC plans to work closely with the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council to ensure improvements to the criminal justice system as a whole will be addressed, according to county documents. …
   6. As of press time, Community Impact did not hear back from county officials on how the $122 million will be funded. …
   7. MIKE: There is much more detail in the story if you’re interested.
   8. MIKE: Houston used to have a great talk radio personality in the 1970s and 80s named David Fowler. He was a brilliant host with a great voice who could speak on any number of topics that listeners threw at him. When he ran out of stuff to talk about, he could even make browsing the newspaper for topics sound interesting, which is no small challenge on radio.
   9. MIKE: Fowler once posed a question in the course of a discussion that I’ve never forgotten, and it’s been formative in how I think about prison or jail conditions. He asked, “Do we send people to prison as punishment, or do we send people to prison for punishment?”
   10. MIKE: This question poses a very real distinction, and I think that different people see the answer very differently.
   11. MIKE: When people are asked if prisoners should have access to things like heat and air conditioning, or whether it is acceptable to pack 4 prisoners into a cell that might be designed for two, you often get an answer to the affect of, “Prison shouldn’t be a country club.”
   12. MIKE: While that may be true … Should prison be a torture facility when the very act of incarceration is supposed to be the punishment, rather than additional punishment by horrible conditions and treatment?
   13. MIKE: And interestingly, the working conditions of prison or jail employees is almost never mentioned in the same discussion, but these people work in basically the same conditions that the prisoners live in.
   14. MIKE: So with all this being said, would it surprise you that as far as I can recall, I routinely vote “yes” for jail or prison bond issues, especially if they’re for improving inmate conditions?
   15. MIKE: Think about it next time you see one on a ballot.
4. What’s in Houston ISD’s $4.4 billion bond plan? Here are 5 key takeaways.; By Asher Lehrer-SmallORG | June 7, 2024. Tagged: Houston ISD, School Bond Package, Superintendent Mike Miles
   1. As Houston ISD leaders consider asking voters to endorse the largest school bond package in Texas history, the specifics of their plan are beginning to come into focus.
   2. HISD released this week its most detailed information yet on how it could spend $4.4 billion to renovate and rebuild campuses, fix faulty air systems, improve security and more. HISD’s state-appointed board will decide in the coming weeks whether to put a bond on the November ballot. 
   3. A successful bond election authorizes school districts to use property tax money to finance investments in campus facilities, technology and other items. HISD has said its $4.4 billion package will not raise the tax rate for bond-related expenses, which stands at about 17 cents per $100 in taxable value, or about $445 per year for the average homeowner. (Property owners pay additional taxes toward HISD operating expenses, such as employee salaries.)
   4. HISD last passed a bond 12 years ago, even though large urban school districts typically ask voters to approve a bond roughly every five years. In recent years, HISD leaders have opted against a bond election amid instability in the district, including the imminent threat of state takeover of the district.
   5. Recent polling suggests voters may be receptive to the current proposal, with about two-thirds of nearly 3,000 HISD residents surveyed by Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research saying they would support a bond if it does not raise property taxes by more than $25 per year.
   6. However, some community members also have said they don’t have confidence in Superintendent Mike Miles, who was appointed last year by Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath, to responsibly spend bond money. At recent community meetings, some attendees have distributed flyers that say “no trust, no bond.”
   7. As the HISD community takes stock of the proposed investments and what they would mean, here are five takeaways from the plans released so far. For details about proposed plans for each campus, [go to the article for more granular details and click on provided links for more information.] …
   8. MIKE: The full article is really comprehensive in its detail, so if you want to know more, click on the story link I’ve provided in this post.
   9. MIKE: I find myself in the school of thought that I don’t trust State-Appointed HISD Superintendent Mike Miles.
   10. MIKE: Throughout my life as far as I can recall, I’ve been an automatic “yes” vote for school bonds. I’m a firm believer in the need for a good education both for the individual good and the national good, but Mike Miles has shown me no reason to trust him to do with the money what he says.
   11. MIKE: In an excellent example of how breaking trust in one area of government can impact others, Metro recently announced that they will not be spending the money from their last approved bond quite the way they “promised” — and I use the word advisedly — that they would. Metro’s claim is that the voters authorized a bond, but Metro still gets to spend that money as they see fit based on what they call changing circumstances. (I’ve provided a reference link to a story about that decision.)
   12. MIKE: This precedent of a quasi-governmental entity backtracking from promises made to voters does nothing to assuage my reservations about how HISD under Mike Miles will ultimately spend any HISD bond funds.
   13. MIKE: I feel for the kids. I want them to have safe, comfortable, effective learning opportunities, but the current HISD leadership presents a serious obstacle to trust.
   14. REFERENCE: Is METRO scrapping its plans for bus rapid transit in Houston?; The region’s public transit provider, which has six new board members, recently removed from its website the pages for three planned bus rapid transit lines, including a 25.3-mile route with stops at multiple colleges and universities in the city. Bus rapid transit was part of an initiative backed by Harris County voters in 2019. By Adam Zuvanich| HOUSTONPUBLICMEDIA.ORG | Posted on May 3, 2024, 3:06 PM (Last Updated: May 3, 2024, 3:24 PM)
5. Texas shrimpers are dying at a staggering rate. Houston researchers think they know why.; By Rebekah F. Ward, Staff writer | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM | June 11, 2024. Tags: Gulf of Mexico, Commercial Fishermen, UTHealth Houston, Texas Shrimpers,
   1. Texas shrimpers face grueling work during monthlong boat stints in the Gulf of Mexico, and their limited health care access onshore adds to the industry’s striking fatality rate, a team of UTHealth researchers
   2. “For example, research shows that self-medication is an issue among commercial fishermen,” said Shannon Guillot-Wright, an environmental and occupational specialist at UTHealth Houston who led the research. Her team’s study was published last week in the American Journal of Public Health and looked at how workers dealt with the hazardous conditions, strenuous labor, long hours and harsh weather that feed the industry’s increased risks.
   3. “Some of the shrimpers told us they couldn’t afford medicine and used alcohol to cope with injuries, like back pain, which could then increase their risk of falling overboard,” she said.
   4. For shrimpers, the sequence is often deadly. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the U.S. fishing industry’s occupational fatality rate was about 40 times higher than the national average. From 2000 to 2019 in the Gulf of Mexico alone, 201 fishermen died from traumatic injuries on the job, 51% of whom worked as shrimpers. 
   5. In Texas, the labor is largely left up to migrants and refugees, many with Vietnamese and Mexican origins. While the CDC data shows vessel disasters and overboard falls caused 80% of the Gulf Coast deaths in the past two decades, Guillot-Wright said the region’s commercial shrimp fishermen were most worried about how their overall health issues led to the dangerous slips, trips and falls.
   6. “At first we thought we might need some type of intervention around personal flotation devices,” she said, but the shrimpers “kind of just laughed” at that starting point, sharing in research interviews that many had not even seen a doctor in decades.
   7. So the UTHealth team pivoted: It still used interviews and observations for its research, but focused a parallel action plan on bringing health care to the workers. The group opened a monthly dockside clinic in Galveston that has seen more than 300 patients in the past three years, a program it plans to expand.
   8. Still, the study found that shrimpers working along the Gulf Coast were more vulnerable to death and danger because of psychological distress, skewed risk recognition and precarious employment. It said these social inequities were tied to support systems like health care, but “will not be eliminated through a mobile clinic alone.”
   9. MIKE: I would have hoped that Obamacare might have reached down to this population, but for whatever reason, it apparently has not. The story touches on prescription cost as a problem, so maybe shrimpers find that even subsidized ACA policies are too expensive for them. And of course, Texas still does little to aid accessibility to affordable healthcare, whether it’s by Obamacare, Medicaid, or other programs.
   10. MIKE: Beside cost, accessibility is implied as a problem. Aside from being on their boats for weeks at a time, finding a clinic that they can readily access also seems to be a limiting factor.
   11. MIKE: I and other progressives see this as a human wellness problem that needs to be improved because it’s the right thing to do. If I had to pitch this to Conservatives, I’d try to make the economic case that healthy workers are more effective, efficient, and productive workers.
   12. MIKE: I hope I get to see some follow-up on this study down the road.
6. ERCOT says Texas could face rolling blackouts in August, as Houston officials announce cooling centers; The report found that energy demand throughout the state of Texas could reach as high as 78,000 megawatts in August. And city and county officials will open 22 cooling centers for the summer. By, Lucio Vasquez / Tom Perumean | HOUSTONPUBLICMEDIA.ORG | Posted on June 7, 2024, 4:25 PM. TAGS: Energy & Environment ERCOT Texas Electricity Energy Grid ERCOT
   1. Energy demand in Texas could dangerously approach the state’s total electrical supply this summer, leading to a 16% chance of an electric grid emergency and a 12% chance of rolling blackouts in August, according to a new report from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.
   2. ERCOT, the entity responsible for managing the flow of electric power to more than 26 million Texas customers, released a monthly outlook for resource adequacy for August on Friday. The report found that energy demand throughout the state of Texas could reach as high as 78,000 megawatts in August. That’s just below the state’s projected supply of nearly 83,000 megawatts for August.
   3. However, the report details a 16% chance that operating energy reserves could drop below 2,500 megawatts, and a 12% that reserves could dip below 1,500 megawatts — which could potentially trigger rolling blackouts to prevent a statewide grid failure.
   4. Ed Hirs, an energy fellow at the University of Houston, said he’s skeptical of the accuracy of ERCOT’s projection. He said the projection relies on the state’s energy sources operating as expected, which may not be the case as temperatures continue to rise. According to Hirs, the increasing heat could cause issues at some power plants “because their coolant systems become overwhelmed.”
   5. “Keep in mind, ERCOT doesn’t operate these plants. ERCOT can call them into service, but does not invest, does not maintain the power plants,” Hirs said. “To a certain extent, it’s a bit like herding cats.”
   6. Hirs believes ERCOT tends to “undershoot on their demand forecasts for the peaks.”
   7. “I think we’ll blow past 78,000 megawatts many times this summer,” he said.
   8. The state’s power grid has been under scrutiny since the catastrophic winter storm in February 2021, which left millions without power due to widespread blackouts. Since then, ERCOT and state lawmakers have implemented measures to bolster grid resilience, including the addition of more power generation capacity and improved winterization of power plants. Meanwhile, Reliant Energy on Friday, along with Houston Mayor Pro-Tem Martha Castex-Tatum and Harris County Commissioner Adrian Garcia, announced that the Beat the Heat program is back.
   9. … Twenty-two cooling centers will open across Houston for all who need a break from the stifling heat. …
   10. The Houston Health Department will offer tips and … care packages to ensure residents stay safe during extreme temperatures and, like in years past, Reliant is offering to help residents with their electricity bills and electricity usage.
   11. “Over 1,000 cooling devices will be provided and more than $180,000 will also be donated as part of the program,” Castex-Tatum said. “The Beat the Heat Program is a testament to the power of community and public-private partnerships.”
   12. Houston Health Department Assistant Director Deborah Moore gave advice for those who will be out during the heat: “Stay hydrated and activate a buddy plan, where you check on your friends and your friends check on you.”
   13. “Remember to check on your neighbors, especially our seniors, the children, the families that are the most vulnerable in our communities during these hot summer months,” Moore said.
   14. MIKE: First, I have to say that naming something an “electric reliability council” is a bit like naming a country a “democratic people’s republic”. It’s often the first sign that you’re being gaslighted.
   15. MIKE: Second, it’s been 3-1/2 years since the infamous winter storm of February 2021, and the government of Texas is still jacking around with claims of greater resiliency in the Texas grid.
   16. MIKE: Ed Hirs said it well: “[ERCOT’s] projection relies on the state’s energy sources operating as expected,” and, “… ERCOT can call [plants] into service, but does not invest [in or maintain] the power plants …”
   17. MIKE: Also that, “ERCOT tends to ‘undershoot on their demand forecasts for the peaks.’”
   18. MIKE: In business the best strategy is to under-promise and over-deliver. For government employees and organizations, the impulse is to over-promise and under-deliver, because that’s the best way to avoid — or at least postpone — getting into trouble.
   19. MIKE: Why are Texas Republicans not emphasizing upgrading power infrastructure to the wind and solar farms in west Texas to enhance their transmission potential throughout the state? Maybe because wind and solar don’t use hydrocarbons.
   20. MIKE: Why is Texas not integrating itself more effectively with the North American grid? Maybe because Texas Republicans still have a Civil War-era, States Rights, vaguely secessionist mentality about keeping the Feds out of their business.
   21. MIKE: Of course, all of the preceding is “in my humble opinion.” We’ll see how well the Electric Reliability Council of Texas does at justifying its name come August. Oh, and maybe February.
7. Abbott tells Texas universities to disregard new Title IX protections for LGBTQ+ students; By Hannah Norton | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 9:00 AM Jun 10, 2024 CDT. TAGS: Gov. Greg Abbott, Texas Education Agency, Federal Civil Rights Act Title IX,
   1. Doubling down on previous statements, Gov. Greg Abbott directed Texas’ public universities and community colleges on May 8 to ignore new Title IX regulations that expand protections for LGBTQ+ students.
   2. The Republican governor gave similar direction to the Texas Education Agency, which oversees public K-12 schools, on April 29.
   3. Title IX, a federal civil rights law passed in 1972, prohibits sex-based discrimination at federally funded colleges and K-12 schools. An expanded version of the law, which is set to take effect Aug. 1, bans discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and pregnancy.
   4. In a letter to college and university leaders, Abbott said the updated rules “[contradict] the original purpose and spirit of the law to support the advancement of women.”
   5. “President Biden wants to force every school across the country to treat boys and men as if they were girls and women, and to accept every student’s self-declared gender identity, exceeding his authority as President in order to impose a leftist belief on the next generation,” Abbott wrote.
   6. [MIKE: I’ll pause here for a moment to point out that Conservatives have no qualms about imposing Rightwing beliefs on the next generation, but continuing …]
   7. Attorney General Ken Paxton also sued the Biden administration in an attempt to block the changes. Several other Republican-led states have filed similar suits.
   8. Abbott said the new rules defy Texas laws barring transgender student athletes from joining teams that align with their gender identity in K-12 schools and public universities.
   9. The updated regulations do not directly reference sports. The U.S. Department of Education is still considering changes to its Title IX requirements for athletics, according to an April 19 news release.
   10. Last year, state lawmakers passed Senate Bill 15, requiring public college athletes to compete on sports teams based on the sex they were assigned at birth. Supporters of the law argued it would level the playing field for female athletes, while LGBTQ+ advocates said it could isolate transgender athletes and conflict with NCAA rules.
   11. The NCAA allows transgender students to compete based on their gender identity as long as they meet sport-specific requirements, including providing documentation of their testosterone levels.
   12. “Texas will stand up not only to President Biden’s rewrite of Title IX, but also his plans to destroy the legacy of women’s collegiate sports,” Abbott wrote.
   13. The expanded Title IX rules say schools cannot discriminate against LGBTQ+ students and employees, must provide reasonable accommodations for pregnant students, and must offer support for people experiencing sexual violence and harassment.
   14. “For more than 50 years, Title IX has promised an equal opportunity to learn and thrive in our nation’s schools free from sex discrimination,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in the release. “These final regulations build on the legacy of Title IX by clarifying that all our nation’s students can access schools that are safe, welcoming and respect their rights.”
   15. MIKE: So far, I see these new rules as simply reinforcing the 14^th Amendment requirement of equal treatment under the law. All people in the United States are entitled to be treated equally. It’s actually pathetic that there have to be additional tweaks to laws and regulations to accomplish this objective, and that there is constantly so much resistance to this basic moral and legal principle from the Right.
   16. MIKE: Texas and other States will no doubt try to push this litigation to the Supreme Court. And no doubt the first hurdle will be to see which party’s rules are enjoined from taking effect: Texas or the Feds.
8. Speaking of the Supreme Court — OPINION: Justices Sotomayor and Kagan must retire now; I am begging the justices to learn from Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s historic mistake. By Ian Millhiser | VOX.COM | Jun 10, 2024, 5:30 AM CDT. TAGS: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Merrick Garland, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, US Supreme Court, Senate Confirmation,
   1. [MIKE: I want to say up front, that I’ve taken out most of the speculation about 2024 election results while trying to leave the case posed in the title. Now to the article …]
   2. … [I]f Justices Sonia Sotomayor or Elena Kagan remain on the Supreme Court past this year, they risk allowing their seat to be filled by a convicted felon who tried to overthrow the duly elected government of the United States of America, inciting an insurrection at the United States Capitol in the process.
   3. The full picture for liberals on the Supreme Court is even grimmer. It is still possible that Biden will prevail this November — polls fairly consistently suggest that the most engaged voters prefer the incumbent — but Democrats need a miracle to keep their majority in the malapportioned United States Senate. …
   4. In the likely event that Democrats lose control of the Senate in November, they may not have a realistic shot at regaining the Senate again until 2030 or even later — and that’s assuming that population shifts do not place the Senate permanently in Republican Party hands.
   5. We already know that, if Republicans control the Senate, no Democrat is likely to be confirmed to the Supreme Court. Just ask Merrick Garland. 
   6. That means that, unless Sotomayor (who turns 70 this month) and Kagan (who is 64) are certain that they will survive well into the 2030s, now is their last chance to leave their Supreme Court seats to someone who won’t spend their tenure on the bench tearing apart everything these two women tried to accomplish during their careers.
   7. [C]ountless rights that millions of Americans take for granted will be on the chopping block if Sotomayor and Kagan are swapped out for, say, another Clarence Thomas. …
   8. One of the most significant Supreme Court developments under President Biden is that the Court’s Republicans have invented more and more baroque reasons to veto policy decisions that Congress entrusted to federal agencies within the Executive Branch — something that it emphatically did not do when Trump was in the White House. The policy merits of Biden’s student loan cancellation program are debatable, for example, but it was clearly and unambiguously authorized by an Act of Congress. The Republican justices made up a reason to strike it down anyway.
   9. Those same Republicans, moreover, now appear poised to overrule a seminal Reagan-era precedent limiting the judiciary’s power to determine federal policy. 
   10. [MIKE: I believe that the author is referring here to a case that the Court may use to further dismantle the so-called “administrative state.” Continuing …]
   11. The Court, in other words, is effectively displacing the president — who is supposed to control agencies like the EPA or the Labor Department — and giving control over these Executive Branch agencies to itself. And so, it now matters enormously who sits on the Supreme Court because the nine justices will not only have the final word on all policy matters that are legitimately set by the judiciary, but [the Court] also wields a veto power over every policy decision that Congress delegated to the Executive. …
   12. Republicans on the Supreme Court, moreover, have already dismantled much of the Voting Rights Act, the landmark law that bans race discrimination in elections and that ended Jim Crow disenfranchisement in the American South. Meanwhile, two Republican judges on the Eighth Circuit recently tried to repeal the Voting Rights Act almost in its entirety.
   13. The greatest danger from a [possible] 7-2 or 8-1 Supreme Court … isn’t just that the justices could make it impossible for Democrats to govern while in office, or that the Court could implement the Republican Party’s platform from the bench. The Court could permanently entrench Republican rule, eliminating legal safeguards protecting the right to vote, and even overturning elections when Democrats somehow manage to eke out a victory. …
   14. Demanding that Democratic justices retire early comes with a price, but the alternative is far worse.
   15. Shortly after the 2022 midterm elections, [the author] published an essay much like this one, arguing that “Sotomayor and Kagan need to think about retiring.” In it, I acknowledged that Democrats will pay a price if their justices must shuffle off the Court whenever they can be replaced by younger versions of themselves, while Republican justices are free to serve for decades.
   16. One price is that appellate judges form bonds with their colleagues as they spend more time on the bench. Kagan speaks openly about cultivating a relationship with Chief Justice John Roberts, and there is significant evidence that she’s successfully persuaded Roberts to decide several important cases narrowly instead of handing down a sweeping conservative victory. Sotomayor sometimes teams up with Gorsuch, the most libertarian of the Court’s Republicans, in criminal justice cases. And there are some early signs that Sotomayor may be forming a productive bond with Barrett.
   17. There’s no guarantee that Sotomayor or Kagan’s replacement will be similarly successful in influencing their Republican peers, although that influence will obviously be lost as well if either justice is replaced by a Trump appointee.
   18. Long-serving justices can also develop cult followings that mature into legal revolutions. Justice Antonin Scalia once explained why he wrote punchy dissents laden with creative insults: “I’ve given up on the current generation — they’re gone, forget about them,” Scalia said in 2015. “But the kids in law school, I think there’s still a chance,” he added. “That’s who I write my dissents for.”
   19. Scalia understood that law students are taught the law by reading both the majority opinion and the dissent in important cases. So, if a justice writes an engaging and memorable dissent, they can shape many young lawyers’ views of the law before those lawyers are even sworn into the bar.
   20. No one has perfected this strategy more than Justice Thomas, who is known for his ambitious concurring opinions and dissents urging his Court to abandon judicial restraint and write far-right policy views into the Constitution. Among other things, Thomas embraced the same legal theory the Court once used to declare federal child labor laws unconstitutional. …
   21. For now, at least, many of Thomas’s most reactionary opinions remain pipe dreams, but he’s successfully persuaded much of the Republican legal establishment to carry his banner. More than one in eight of Trump’s appointees to the federal appellate bench are former Thomas clerks.
   22. Swapping out Sotomayor or Kagan means that they are less likely to have similar influence on the next generation of lawyers and judges. Though, again, neither justice’s ideas are likely to have much impact on the future of US law if the Court is dominated by people like Thomas. …
   23. [Another] reason why replacing experienced justices with younger blood comes at a cost: The Court is supposed to decide a wide range of technocratic cases involving complicated areas of the law …
   24. … The Court is hearing fewer cases today than it has at any point since the mid-19th century, and the Court’s diminished docket appears to have come entirely at the expense of the more technocratic cases. 
   25. The justices, in other words, are still hearing a full slate of the sort of political cases where their decisions are most likely to be influenced by whether they are Democrats or Republicans, and fewer and fewer of the sort of cases where experience matters most. 
   26. Finally, some lawmakers have expressed concerns that Sotomayor’s retirement would make the Supreme Court less representative, as she is the first and only Latina to serve as a justice. But … There are any number of qualified candidates of Latin American descent who could potentially replace Sotomayor. According to the Federal Judicial Center, Biden has appointed seven Hispanic judges to the federal courts of appeals, including Judge Myrna Pérez, a former voting rights lawyer who is two decades younger than Sotomayor.
   27. So, while there are good reasons to regret a world where veteran Democratic justices like Sotomayor and Kagan must hang up their robes much earlier than their Republican colleagues, there’s no getting around what the Supreme Court has become. It is a partisan institution, increasingly focused on political matters and increasingly eager to claim more and more power to shape national policy.
   28. And that means that it is now an institution just like Congress or the presidency. The question of which party controls the Supreme Court matters so much more than the question of which Democrats serve on the Supreme Court, that Democratic justices have a moral imperative to retire during those exceedingly rare periods when it’s actually possible to confirm another Democrat as their replacement.
   29. MIKE: There is somewhat more background and reasoning in this essay that I had to cut for purposes of time.
   30. MIKE: An irony one must take from this article is that the Right used to moan and groan all the time about activist liberal judges legislating from the bench. Oh, how the worm has turned.
   31. MIKE: This is the second opinion I’ve read over the past few months making this case for early retirement, although I believe that the first one was by a different author.
   32. MIKE: I feel the need to make an existential point before going any further: No one is guaranteed another day. Accidents happen, illnesses happen, sudden death happens. Just ask Antonin Scalia. Age is one actuarial probability for mortality, but not the only one.
   33. MIKE: But another point I want to make relates to my philosophical belief that we should get to a bridge before we cross it. However, contingency plans can be very useful, and nominations should be kept trigger-ready. Real action should wait until we actually get to the bridge.
   34. MIKE: After the November election, we’ll know whether the Democrats lost the White House or the Senate or both … Or neither. Judicially speaking, the Senate is more important than the Whiter House. As Mitch McConnell has shown us, the Senate can prevent any or all judicial nominees from being confirmed for the duration of party control. The president can only nominate, and if the Senate so decides, in this age of hyper-partisanship the president can, as the saying goes, “pound sand”.
   35. MIKE: If the Democrats lose either or both the White House and the Senate, decisions about retirement, replacement, and confirmation can be made before the first of the year.
   36. MIKE: If the Democrats win both, then things can go forward as they are, and the Democrats can wait out the aging Thomas and Alito.
   37. MIKE: The speculation is useful, but this can all be gamed out after the general elections, so we can chill for a few more months.
9. Some US lawmakers call for more scrutiny of news app NewsBreak over Chinese origins; By Alexandra Alper and James Pearson | REUTERS.COM | June 8, 202411:23 AM CDT / Updated 8 hours ago. TAGS: NewsBreak App, Chinese Communist Party, Artificial Intelligence, Misinformation, Disinformation, Yidian, Interest Engine,
   1. Three U.S. lawmakers have called for more scrutiny of NewsBreak, a popular news aggregation app in the United States, after Reuters reported it has Chinese origins and has used artificial intelligence tools to produce erroneous stories. …
   2. “The only thing more terrifying than a company that deals in unchecked, artificially generated news, is one with deep ties to an adversarial foreign government,” said Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat who chairs the Intelligence Committee.
   3. “This is yet another example of the serious threat posed by technologies from countries of concern. It’s also a stark reminder that we need a holistic approach to addressing this threat – we simply cannot win the game of whack-a-mole with individual companies,” he said. …
   4. In response to a request from Reuters for comment about the lawmakers’ statements, NewsBreak said it was an American company: “NewsBreak is a U.S. company and always has been. Any assertion to the contrary is not true,” a spokesperson said.
   5. NewsBreak launched in the U.S. in 2015 as a subsidiary of Yidian, a Chinese news aggregation app. Both companies were founded by Jeff Zheng, the CEO of NewsBreak, and the companies share a U.S. patent registered in 2015 for an “Interest Engine” algorithm, which recommends news content based on a user’s interests and location, Reuters reported.
   6. Yidian in 2017 received praise from ruling Communist Party officials in China for its efficiency in disseminating government propaganda. Reuters found no evidence that NewsBreak censored or produced news that was favourable to the Chinese government.
   7. “This report brings to light serious questions about Newsbreak, its historical relationship with an entity that assisted the CCP, and to Chinese state-linked media,” said Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat on the House select committee on China …
   8. Reuters reported the praise Yidian received from the Communist Party in 2017, but was unable to establish that NewsBreak has any current ties with the Party.
   9. S. Representative Elise Stefanik, a Republican, said [Beijing-based] IDG Capital’s backing of NewsBreak indicated the app “deserves increased scrutiny.”
   10. “We cannot allow our foreign adversaries access to American citizen’s data to weaponize them against America’s interests,” she said. …
   11. In February, IDG Capital was added to a list of dozens of Chinese companies the Pentagon said were allegedly working with Beijing’s military.
   12. IDG Capital has previously said it has no association with the Chinese military and does not belong on that list. It declined to comment on the lawmaker’s reaction. …
   13. MIKE: I agree with Mark Warner “that we need a holistic approach to addressing this threat.”
   14. MIKE: I’m going to toss out an idea that I haven’t thought about previously, but maybe we can consider it.
   15. MIKE: The First Amendment guarantees a right of free speech, but how broad is that guarantee when it comes to non-American state-related actors? Foreign governments can speak for themselves, and the audience knows it’s a foreign government speaking, but what of foreign businesses with ownership or influence that can be traced back to a foreign government or entity? The US has laws requiring individuals and companies to register as foreign agents when they are acting on behalf of a foreign government, but maybe we need to tweak those laws a bit to include foreign information organs or foreign influencers.
   16. MIKE: It’s just something to chew on for the time being.
10. OPINION — What are the implications of Hamas holding hostages in Gaza civilian homes? – analysis; It’s important to document how Hamas has unlawfully exploited and endangered civilian areas by holding hostages in them. By SETH J. FRANTZMAN | JPOST.COM (JERUSALEM POST) | JUNE 10, 2024 @ 11:22 / Updated: JUNE 10, 2024 19:30. Tags: Gaza Strip The October 7 Massacre Gaza hostages Israel-Hamas War,
    1. [MIKE: I want to emphasize that this is an opinion piece. The author has many legitimate journalistic and experiential qualifications. I would say that this analysis is written by the author as presenting facts as are known to him, while also making certain analogies to make his point. Now, to the article …]
    2. Hamas has systematically used civilian homes to hold and hide hostages. This has become increasingly clear throughout the war in Gaza. The IDF said on June 9 that “it can be confirmed that Abdallah Aljamal was an operative in the Hamas terrorist organization, who held the hostages Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov, and Shlomi Ziv captive in his family home in Nuseirat.”
    3. This is one of many examples of how Hamas has used civilian homes, and it illustrates the apparently deep and broad support that the terrorist group has among civilians who are willing to endanger themselves for it.
    4. According to the June 9 report, “the hostages were held captive by Abdallah Aljamal and members of his family in their home. This is further evidence of the deliberate use of civilian homes and buildings by the Hamas terrorist organization to hold Israeli hostages captive in the Gaza Strip.” Aljamal is just one example of how this process worked. In the other cases where hostages were rescued, in November and February, they were also rescued from civilian homes. …
    5. The overall structure of how the civilian-Hamas network functions in Gaza has not been revealed and is probably not fully understood. For instance, one doctor who volunteered in Gaza returned in May with stories from many people he met in northern Gaza who do not support Hamas. However, he also painted a picture of how it controls hospitals and also controls the black market of stolen aid. He described a hospital in Gaza where one of the floors was a “VIP” section for those connected to Hamas. …
    6. Anyone running a shelter or a school or hospital who sees dozens of men in their thirties and forties all going to a certain floor and taking it over, would conclude that it’s Hamas. …
    7. The fact is that Hamas men would be easy to spot when they operate in groups, going into facilities or taking over certain classrooms or whole floors of buildings. Hamas operates like a mafia; the men don’t always carry guns, but they have access to them nearby.
    8. THE ROLE of civilians in backing up this Hamas network requires more investigation. However, it is clear that Hamas has been able to easily exploit the civilian environment for its own ends. Why do civilians agree to imprison hostages in their homes? Is it because they are affiliates of Hamas, are they being paid, or is there some other type of understanding?
    9. [MIKE: I would also add that civilians might be active supporters of Hamas, or they might cooperate with Hamas out of fear. What might be the consequences of non-cooperation if Hamas asks or demands it? Continuing …]
    10. Anyone who has seen films about the mafia understands that a mafia or cartel usually operates in civilian areas and that it is embedded in the civilian environment. …
    11. Many civilian homes in the Strip have tunnel shafts, munitions or weapons hidden in them. This is how Hamas has entrenched itself in the civilian environment.
    12. This criminal activity of Hamas requires more study by international organizations and human rights groups. It’s important to document how the terrorist group has unlawfully exploited and endangered civilian areas through holding hostages in them and putting weapons in civilian homes.
    13. The reluctance of many human rights groups and international groups to tackle the Hamas crimes in Gaza has enabled it to continue exploiting schools, hospitals and other locations. The recent raid that freed hostages in Nuseirat is evidence of how Hamas has brought ruin on Gaza. Many people were killed in the raid because Hamas has purposely embedded its criminal empire in densely populated areas, such as Nuseirat.
    14. MIKE: For almost 2 decades, Hamas has been embedding it military infrastructure in Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, both above and below ground. The tunnels and facilities they’ve constructed must have used aid money and materials, because those construction materials and funds had to come from somewhere.
    15. MIKE: While Israel is fighting a war that Hamas initiated with what might be described as Israel’s Pearl Harbor or 9/11, the world focuses on Israel’s military initiatives. But what about the civilians and civilian infrastructure that Hamas both uses and intrinsically endangers?
    16. MIKE: Where is the world’s outcry against Hama’s use of the entire population of Gaza as human shields?
    17. MIKE: The world media cite casualty figures reported by Hamas, which do not distinguish between casualties among their fighters versus civilian casualties.
    18. MIKE: The lasts figures I can find are that about 37,000 Gazans have died in the fighting. According to the UN’s latest released numbers, of those accounted for by IDs and other means, about 52% are women and children.
    19. MIKE: Even the UN has begun to re-examine those numbers in greater detail, and they have found that at least 10,000 of those casualties are not yet identified as to whether they are women or children or old men or men of fighting age. So that 52% number, if accurate at all, is 52% of a much lower number, meaning that the percentage of fighters in the total may be much higher. It is also almost impossible to identify Gazan casualties who are active collaborators with Hamas, such as owners; or residents of dwellings that are harboring hostages, or fighters, or military equipment, or access to tunnels or other Hamas infrastructure.
    20. MIKE: Civilian deaths and injuries happen in war. It is hoped that this so-called “collateral damage” will be kept to an absolute minimum, but when a military force deliberately embeds itself in the civilian population, what should the military calculation be? Civilians in the homes of active fighters have been put in danger by their militant family members. So who, then, is responsible for casualties among those family members? And who is committing the precipitant war crime, if there is such a thing in the Laws of War?
    21. MIKE: I have my own opinions on these questions, as I’m sure my listeners do, but it is important to view these competing claims, assertions, and evidences in the broader context of the fog of war and active dissemination of propaganda by both sides.
    22. MIKE: And having said that, let’s look at how the word “propaganda” is actually defined.
    23. MIKE: Merriam-Webster partly defines “propaganda” thusly: “the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person; and also as, “ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one’s cause or to damage an opposing cause.”
    24. MIKE: So “propaganda” might be thought of as “propagating” information — either true, false, or a mixture — in service of one’s cause.
    25. MIKE: This doesn’t mean that we must choose which side to believe, as we might support a sports team. Rather, it means we need to consider the information — the propaganda — whether intentionally slanted or not, in a balanced and informed way. We as information consumers must view the information we are exposed to with critical minds.
11. MIKE: Last week, I read the third part of an opinion piece called — Confronting Another Axis? History, Humility, and Wishful Thinking; Philip Zelikow | TNSR.ORG (Texas National Security Review) | Vol 7, Issue 3 Summer 2024. TAGS: Geopolitics, History, Cold War, Axis Powers, World War 2, The World War 2 Allies,
    1. [From] The Texas National Security Review, an interdisciplinary journal committed to excellence, scholarly rigor, and big ideas.
    2. [The author,] Philip Zelikow is … [a]n attorney and former career diplomat [whose] federal service includes work across the government in … five administrations from President Ronald Reagan through President Barack Obama. [among many other qualifications].
    3. MIKE: Which brings us to the article I’ve been reading in installments about the lessons we might apply to today’s geopolitics by studying past scenarios, and how they ultimately resolved.
    4. MIKE: This week, I’ll be reading PART 4. TO RECAP … :
    5. Drawing on his extensive experience as a historian and diplomat, Philip Zelikow warns that the United States faces an exceptionally volatile time in global politics and that the period of maximum danger might be in the next one to three years. He highlights lessons from the anti-American partnerships developed by the Axis powers in World War II and [by]Moscow and Beijing during the early Cold War. Zelikow reminds decision-makers who face Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea today to remember that adversaries can miscalculate and recalculate and that it can be difficult to fully understand internal divisions within an adversary’s government, how rival states draw their own lessons from different interpretations of history, and how they might quickly react to a new event that appears to shift power dynamics.
    6. [Now, picking up where I left off last week] — The whole story, from 1937 through June 1941, was then one where there was a revisionist core. Yet that core then was looser and less harmonized than the one that exists now. …
    7. That sort of twisty plotline played out again in its last great chapter of maneuver, the choices that led to war against the United States.
    8. [MIKE: There is then a lengthy section called “The Choices to Attack America” that I’ve abbreviated.] — The Axis, against old empires and creators of new ones, thought they had to throw off and balance American economic and cultural power and be able to confront its military power if that materialized. …
    9. … [The] Axis powers all respected American industrial potential. They hoped America would decide to stay in its hemisphere and mind its own business. They were not sure just when or whether they should do anything that would bring the United States into the war. Thus, though each side started from a posture of basic hostility, they had to make new choices. The United States decided to arm Germany’s enemies. And it decided not to abandon beleaguered China.
    10. In the neutral U.S. government of 1941 … Franklin D. Roosevelt did try hard to find an accommodation with Japan. His efforts in the first half of 1941 were entirely fruitless. In July, emboldened by German successes, Japan moved into southern Indochina. The United States [then] cut off vital oil supplies [to Japan].
    11. The U.S. oil sanctions on Japan shocked leaders in Tokyo. They recalculated. Prime Minister Konoe Fumimaro reconstituted his government and … embarked on an effort to fashion a grand bargain at a Konoe-Roosevelt summit meeting, which Roosevelt considered. But the diplomacy to prepare such a meeting … foundered at the end of September.¹²
    12. At all times, Japan was prepared to negotiate about Indochina. It was even prepared to forego the great plans for the southward advance into resource-rich British and Dutch colonies. But Japan was not prepared to yield its domination of China.
    13. When Konoe’s government failed in its diplomacy with America, the Japanese recalculated again. … Tokyo redoubled its efforts, diplomatically and militarily. The new government decided that it would either conclude a deal by the end of November — even a temporary one — or it would go to war.
    14. In this crunch time, the United States still would not write [off] China … This U.S. commitment to China was not well-understood at the time or by historians now. For Roosevelt, the commitment mainly arose from his complex calculations about the war in Europe — the need to keep the Soviet Union from collapse and therefore the need to keep Japanese troops tied down in China.¹³ It is worth recalling today, as Russia and China confront the United States, that the proximate reason for America’s entry into World War II was its determination to save those two countries from extinction.
    15. Yet for the United States, that determination created an acute global dilemma. The United States had prioritized Germany as the likely main enemy. Its strategy for Japan was deterrence. By October 1941, it became more and more apparent that the U.S. deterrent strategy might fail. So Roosevelt seriously considered a temporary deal to relax sanctions on Japan, at China’s expense.
    16. The U.S. Army and U.S. Navy supported such a deal, if only to buy time. They feared they might be embroiled in the wrong war against the wrong enemy on the wrong side of the world. The possible deal … leaked. Amid the domestic furor and British and Chinese complaints during that fateful last week of November, Roosevelt decided: No deal.
    17. Roosevelt’s reasoning was complex and global. The U.S. decision to turn down the deal with the Japanese was meant to prevent a Chinese collapse. It thus helped pin down a million Japanese troops that the Americans thought might otherwise be deployed against the Soviets.
    18. Fortunately, for reasons that no outsider really understood at the time, Hitler declared war on the United States. This German declaration was a kind of surprise. Throughout 1941, Hitler had deliberated on when or whether either Germany or Japan should go to war with the United States, vacillating back and forth. …
    19. Once the United States adopted its enormous Lend-Lease program in March 1941, Hitler assumed, as Putin now does, that he was effectively in a kind of war with the United States. Yet Hitler wished to put off any direct warfare with the United States.
    20. By late October 1941, Hitler still seemed willing to put up with American provocations and leave the ultimate war against America to “the next generation.” In early November [1941], his foreign minister was pointing the Japanese toward the British and Dutch, urging them to avoid any attack on America.
    21. Yet Hitler’s calculations about both a Japanese and German war with America finally turned around. This happened, decisively, during the second half of November 1941.¹⁴ Why then? Washington rescinded the Neutrality Acts on Nov. 13. That move would, for the first time, bring U.S. convoys into the western approaches near Britain and likely lead to clashes in 1942 unless Germany abandoned its Battle for the Atlantic.
    22. With its final diplomatic cards having just been laid on the table in Washington, [and] having set an internal deadline for a war decision, Japan began final preparations for possible war with America. On Nov. 20, Japan asked Germany to join in. Hitler therefore also had that request pending.
    23. … German military progress in the Soviet campaign seemed to clear the way. Berlin did not expect to conclude the Soviet campaign in 1941… But Berlin did assess that the Red Army was essentially broken. Germany’s 1942 campaigns would just have to mop up. That remained the prevailing assessment in Hitler’s headquarters until Dec. 18.
    24. So, toward the last week of November [1941], Hitler had said yes to Tokyo. Japan, disappointed by its final diplomatic failure in Washington, set loose its war plans. Elated by their attack on Pearl Harbor, Hitler then made his declaration of war on Dec. 11.
    25. It was only about a week after that, in the second half of December, that Hitler started receiving the full news of the weight of the Soviet counteroffensive, even though those attacks had actually begun on Dec. 5. This rough news from the East was joined by other unpleasant disillusionments …
    26. Confiding to his intimates on Jan. 15, 1942, Hitler worried aloud that he might have erred. He wondered if the odds might now favor an eventual American victory. But Hitler had not declared war on the United States because of nihilistic fanaticism. He had carefully calculated. He had calculated wrong.
    27. MIKE: This was the final part of this article. It’s often said that history doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes. I think there are important lessons and considerations that history offers here for those who are knowledgeable about it.
    28. MIKE: I’ve added some references for your consideration at the bottom of this show post.
    29. REFERENCE: Two-Theatre War — BRITANNICA.COM (Also refers to the shift to a “1½-War strategy, and the evolution back to a 2-War or 2½-War posture.)
    30. REFERENCE: Sakhalin — From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    31. REFERENCE: S. Navy Destroyer Conducts Freedom of Navigation Operation in the South China Sea — NAVY.MIL (US Navy)

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