Now in our 12th year on KPFT!

Going forward, new shows will broadcast on Sundays at 1PM (CT) broadcast and re-run on Wednesdays at 11AM.

AUDIO:

TOPICS:

1. Election Info;
2. ‘Every child made homeless is on you’: CFISD approves gender disclosure policy amid backlash;
3. Jersey Village City Council moves forward with pool demolition;
4. Mayor Whitmire releases efficiency audit of city departments, actual savings still unknown;
5. ‘You’ve Seen the Tweet, Right?’: Sheinbaum Aces Trump Playbook;
6. Renaming the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America” Could Cost Taxpayers Over $1 Billion!;
7. White House defends blocking AP from event for using ‘Gulf of Mexico’;
8. Speaking of which … Going forward;
9. Trump and Vance are courting Europe’s far right to spread their political gospel;
10. German officials hit back at Vance over censorship lecture: ‘Unacceptable’;
11. Baltic states begin historic switch away from Russian power grid;

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:

1. Live online at KPFT.org (from anywhere in the world!)
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Except for timely election info, the extensive list of voting resources will now be at the end.

Welcome to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig on KPFT Houston at 90.1-HD2, Galveston 89.5-HD2, and Huntsville at 91.9-HD2. KPFT is Houston’s Community Media. On this show, we discuss local, state, national, and international stories that may have slipped under your radar.

1. The next election is scheduled for May 3, 2025, with early voting beginning on April 22, 2025. Which, incredibly, is only about 9 weeks from now. The deadline to apply for a mail ballot is April 22.
   1. Voter registration applications or registration updates must be filled out and mailed at least 30 days before the election date, which in this case would be April 3^rd, which is only about 7 weeks from now. You have been warned.
2. ‘Every child made homeless is on you’: CFISD approves gender disclosure policy amid backlash; by Monique Welch | HOUSTONLANDING.ORG | February 13, 2025 | 2:29 pm. TAGS: Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, Gender Identity Policy, LGBTQ+
   1. Despite overwhelming opposition and ongoing turmoil in neighboring Katy ISD, Cypress-Fairbanks ISD trustees nearly unanimously approved a controversial gender identity policy
   2. During an hour of public comment, dozens of opponents of the policy — including students, parents and teachers — made a final plea to the board on Monday to reject the policy, which would require teachers to notify parents if their child uses a pronoun in school that is different from their biological sex. Despite vocal opposition from attendees, CFISD approved the policy in a 6-1 vote, with trustee Julie Hinaman voting against it. 
   3. Opponents to the policy argued that it will harm trans and nonbinary students who don’t feel safe disclosing their gender identity to their parents. Many cited research from the Trevor Project, which has shown that LGBTQ+ youth experience higher rates of homelessness or housing instability, suicide, and other mental health challenges.
   4. [CFISD parent Christian Kimbell told the board …,] “You have proven that you prioritize special interests over the needs of the community, and that our voices do not matter to you. Every child made homeless because of this policy is on you. Every child that faces abuse at home or at school because of this policy is on you. Every child that attempts suicide as a result of this policy is on you.”
   5. In passing the policy, CFISD — Texas’ third-largest school district with roughly 118,000 students across 96 campuses — joins a growing number of school districts across the country debating how much privacy students should be granted when it comes to their gender identity. 
   6. The decision also marks the latest controversial decision by Cy-Fair trustees since conservative elected officials won a strong majority on the board. In the last year, they’ve removed textbook chapters about vaccines and climate change, and cut librarians amid budget woes.  
   7. The “parent rights and responsibilities” policy grants parents full authority to guide their children’s beliefs, protect their well-being, and have access to complete information about them. It also mandates that students use the restrooms and locker rooms that align with their biological sex.
   8. Hinaman pointed to the lack of clarity on accommodation plans where exceptions can be made in cases of suspected abuse or prohibitions by the law. The policy states that a student and their parents may request a reasonable accommodation with a district staff member for review and together create a written plan. If a district staff member indicates that the request interferes with a “sincerely held belief” they may request a reasonable accommodation through the district’s human resources department.  
   9. “In many ways, this policy is redundant and adds bureaucracy, confusion and inefficiencies,” [trustee] Hinaman said at January’s meeting. 
   10. [Hinaman added,] “This new policy is not a priority. We have other more important issues to deal with. It’s disingenuous to sit up here and say that safety is your number one priority, or that student achievement is the main thing, or that special education is a focus, and to turn around and pass a policy that does not make kids safe. It does the opposite. [It] does not contribute to academic achievement and that targets vulnerable students subpopulations.” 
   11. Hinaman … also directly asked the board how the policy would improve reading or math proficiencies, or any other district strategic goals such as improving its graduation rate. 
   12. No one responded to her questions after a long, silent pause. 
   13. “Wow!” an attendee yelled.
   14. Hinaman said the policy originated from an email from an anti-public education organization to trustees advocating for it, and how it quickly progressed to being considered “behind closed doors” in a board subcommittee.  
   15. [Hinaman said,] “We heard overwhelming opposition from our communities. No discussion was held by the board. It was voted 6-1 without public discussion by any other trustee as we have seen again here tonight. … ‘Is this good governance?’”
   16. Todd LeCompte, the chair of the board’s policy review subcommittee, defended the policy Monday, claiming that it is consistent with state, federal, and case law regarding a parent’s right to direct the education and upbringing of their children, and that it adheres with Texas family code Chapter 32, section 32.004 and chapter 26 of the Texas education code. 
   17. Hinaman said the district’s policy is redundant. 
   18. LeCompte justified the policy by stating he believes the school district could lose federal funding for programs like food assistance, which offers free or reduced-cost meals to eligible low-income families. 
   19. [LeCompte said at Monday’s meeting,] “Taking no action could affect federal programs such as feeding our children. It would be a disgrace if some of our children went hungry if this policy failed to pass. For many of our students, it could potentially be their sole meal of the day.”
   20. The connection was met with sharp neck turns and disgruntled sighs of disapproval from attendees, including a wide-eyed Hinaman. LeCompte didn’t elaborate further and didn’t return calls to clarify.
   21. Hinaman repeatedly questioned the trustees over the policy’s intent. When they ignored her questions, she suggested they instead focus on a teacher policy that provides guidance rather than a parent policy, table the policy so it can be clarified, or dismiss the policy altogether. 
   22. The scene in the boardroom closely mirrored one that took place in neighboring Katy ISD in 2023. Katy’s passage of a nearly identical policy caused massive opposition in the district, prompted a wave of student activism, caused a transgender student to drop out, and spurred an ongoing federal investigation.   
   23. The contention and legal uncertainty brought on by Katy’s policy recently deterred Conroe ISD from passing a similar policy. Trustees ultimately decided to see how the investigation panned out before making a decision.  
   24. [Trustee] Hinaman also requested the board subcommittee take the same precaution and delay the vote given Katy’s ongoing investigation, but everything she suggested was rejected.
   25. In the last two months, the Landing has reached out to every member on the CFISD board of trustees multiple times for comment. The Landing only received a response from Hinaman, who pointed to her public comments and reiterated her discontent with the board’s new “subcommittee” structure. 
   26. … When Katy introduced the policy in August 2023, community members showed up to oppose it, resulting in hours of public comment railing against the policy. 
   27. Still, the board passed the policy by the slimmest possible margin — setting off a chain of protests, pushback, and student activism by LGBTQ+ students. 
   28. Jarred Burton, a senior from Katy ISD and the president of Obra D. Tompkins High School’s sexuality and gender alliance club, spent the last year organizing against Katy’s policy. He traveled more than 30 miles to advocate for CFISD students who may not have felt safe attending the CFISD trustee meetings, let alone speaking out. He also spoke about his experience and how the policy rocked his district and LGBTQ+ students.
   29. Burton left disappointed after speaking at the first reading of the policy at the Jan. 16 board meeting. He said he believes the election of President Donald Trump along with plans to eradicate the Department of Education influenced this vote. 
   30. [Burton said,] “I think this is emboldening them to impose these ideological culture wars onto their students because they know now … they’ll be able to get away with it.”
   31. Federal DEI programs have come under attack since Trump took office. Trump said in his inaugural speech on Jan. 20, that there are “only two genders: male and female.”
   32. [Said Burton,] “It’s just very disappointing to see that they are willing to risk their federal public funding for something that nobody wants. Other than 3 total people in this meeting, nobody has come out in support of this policy.”
   33. Supporters of the policy argued that it would provide necessary guidance to educators and prevent them from advising students on life decisions without parental consent.
   34. [Said Julie Nix over a sea of boos,] “To exclude parents from any process or decision regarding their child represents a nefarious attempt to undermine the family structure and unity.”
   35. [Nix continued,] “Consequences legally and financially reach beyond the child and are ultimately the parents’. These are facts. So to bypass parents and give trusted adults that have no financial responsibility and can walk away at any time without consequence, [the] power to keep things secret and hidden from parents, is outrageous.”
   36. Natalie Torres, who identified herself as a former educator, supports the policy. At the Jan. 16 meeting, she urged the board to provide clear instructions to educators. 
   37. [Torres said,] “In my experience, the situation created significant tension as I was navigating policies and expectations that conflicted with my personal beliefs and professional judgment. … The challenges I faced then reflect the broader issues we see in classrooms and society today where there is increasing pressure to reference individuals by genders other than what God created: male and female. This shift has raised complex questions about identity, respect and the role of educators. While it is essential to create a supportive environment for all students, it is equally important to have clear, thoughtful policies that address the implications for educators, students, and their families.”
   38. Austin Davis Ruiz, president of the Houston LGBTQ+ Political Caucus, said he wasn’t surprised by CFISD’s decision and expects to see the trend continue in other districts, particularly in rural, conservative areas.
   39. [Ruiz said.] “I think it’s not if, it’s just a matter of when. Unfortunately I think we’re going to see a wave of harm when we’re looking at LGBTQ+ students in the state, and that’s not even including what may or may not pass at [the Texas Legislature].”
   40. Now that the policy has officially been adopted, Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, commonly referred to under the acronym SEAT, is contemplating its next steps.
   41. This could include a rally or pursuing legal action as Katy students did last year, but they’re unsure how successful it’ll be if they lose Title IX protections under Trump’s administration. 
   42. [Said Cy-Fair High School junior Alissa Sundrani after Monday’s meeting,] “It’s hard because the political climate at the moment is very tumultuous. It’s harder to file things because we don’t even know if we’ll have the legal backing anymore.”
   43. While definitive plans are currently unclear, Sundrani said SEAT is going to revamp its website and build a comprehensive guide to provide resources to the community. They will also try to partner with and spur the launch of more gay and straight alliances across campuses.
   44. MIKE: This CFISD board of trustees and others are in power because a small, motivated extremist minority turned out to vote while the vast majority of more moderate voters couldn’t be bothered. As we frequently hear these days, elections have consequences. These are only some of the consequences.
   45. MIKE: And this is how fascists govern. Now that they are in power, they disregard expressed public sentiment to advance their own agendas. They target groups they don’t like. They impose their social preferences on others.
   46. MIKE: This is reflective of the current lawless minority regime in power in this country. We’re in for a long, difficult political and social struggle, and the outcome is still uncertain.
   47. MIKE: We can hope that voting still matters, but people need to show up for every election in much greater numbers. Voting matters. So does not
3. Jersey Village City Council moves forward with pool demolition; By Ryan Reynolds | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 10:00 AM Feb 13, 2025 CST. TAGS: Jersey Village City Council, Clark Henry Pool Demolition,
   1. The Jersey Village City Council selected a firm to demolish the city’s Clark Henry Pool during a 10 board meeting. …
   2. [Jersey Village Mayor Bobby Warren said in the meeting,] “It’s clear by now that from all the data we’ve been given by one of the leading aquatics firms in the country is that the options for repair or renovation don’t come with any guarantees. You could sink money into them and still continue to have the same problems. … Repair and refurbishment is not an option, and therefore demolition needs to happen.”
   3. Choosing to repair and maintain the existing pool would cost the same amount of money as building a new one, Warren said. …
   4. Q Recycling and Construction Services will demolish and remove the pool, pool deck and pump house. They will also backfill the area with dirt, according to city documents.
   5. [City Manager Austin] Bleess said the restroom area and the shade structure near the pool will not be demolished.
   6. … Clark Henry Pool was built in 1975, 50 years ago, and has exceeded the average 30-to-40-year lifespan, as previously reported by Community Impact.
   7. The Jersey Village City Council presented propositions to voters in the last two elections to address the aging facility, which has experienced issues such as leaks. Both propositions were rejected, with 58% opposing a new pool in 2024 and 59.3% voting against it in 2023.
   8. [Council member Michelle Mitcham said,] “A pool bond has now failed twice. We need a plan for a pool moving forward, … but I do not believe at all it involves the pool that is sitting there as-is now. I feel like it’s a major liability, and it’s costing us every single month it sits there.”
   9. … During budget sessions in May, the Jersey Village City Council will discuss a plan to build a new pool.
   10. [… Bleess said in the meeting,] “Happy to have a great conversation about the future of the pool there in the budget sessions in May.”
   11. MIKE: From a municipal budget perspective, I thought there was some interesting reasoning involved in Jersey Village’s thinking here.
   12. MIKE: First, taking the city government at its word, I can see how this makes financial sense. Anyone who has been faced with the choice of, for example, repairing an appliance or replacing it has confronted the risk of repairing it at a substantial cost with only a 30-day warranty on parts and labor, or biting the bullet and simply replacing that appliance with a new one. Its replacement is usually the decision that makes sense.
   13. MIKE: A leaky pool isn’t just a maintenance headache. The water that seeps from a pool into the ground creates all kinds of ground stability problems on the surrounding land and foundations. This can create even more, and more expensive, problems in outlying areas from the pool. So if the pool can’t be repaired, removal makes sense.
   14. MIKE: What interests me in this story, though, is the tidbit about two proposed bond issues for replacing the pool having already failed. It seems that JV city council has now confronted its residents with a final choice: Finance a new pool with a new bond issue next time it’s on the ballot, or do without a community pool in Jersey Village.
   15. MIKE: The question thus occurred to me, is demolishing this pool just a matter of good government, or is there an ulterior motive? Is it a way of telling JV residents that they can pass the next bond proposal for a new municipal pool, or do without one? Is this a subtle form of government extortion or just a case of yielding to the inevitable?
4. Mayor Whitmire releases efficiency audit of city departments, actual savings still unknown; by Hanna Holthaus | HOUSTONLANDING.ORG | February 13, 2025 | 4:00 am. TAGS: Mayor John Whitmire, Houston City Budget,
   1. Mayor John Whitmire on Wednesday lauded the results of a long-awaited efficiency study that found potential mismanagement of funds among city departments and a lack of accountability measures, but how much money the city could save remained unknown.
   2. The mayor’s team presented the findings of the Ernst and Young study at City Council and identified duplicative contracts, a lack of accountability in department spending and redundancy in departments as opportunities for change.
   3. Specific savings, however, largely will stay unidentified until Whitmire unveils his budget proposal in the spring.
   4. In the meantime, Whitmire said the administration plans to offer the firm another contract to help find solutions. 
   5. Whitmire’s executive team said the bulk of savings is estimated to be between 5 and 15 percent of Houston’s $2.2 billion facilities and construction budget. That represents an estimated savings of $113 million to $341 million.
   6. Whitmire repeatedly has pointed to the report as his reason to reject calls for a property tax rate increase or the implementation of new fees. He said Wednesday he would see through the auditing process before asking taxpayers to contribute more money to close Houston’s growing $330 million deficit – which could be further impacted by ongoing negotiations with the Houston Police Officers Union. 
   7. [The mayor said,] “It is so revealing why Houstonians are frustrated and why I will not go to them and ask for additional resources, until, in my judgment, regain their confidence that we’re using their money wisely.”
   8. The efficiency study examined 22 city departments, including police and fire, and focused on performance, organization, spending and forensic accounting. Ernst and Young is completing a similar audit of Houston’s tax increment reinvestment zones. 
   9. City Controller Chris Hollins last week called for an emergency task force comprised of representatives from his office, Whitmire’s office and the City Council budget committee to identify specific spending cuts. He reiterated that Wednesday following the release of the Ernst and Young report. 
   10. [Hollins said,] “The study presented today highlights some real opportunities to cut waste and improve city services. But make no mistake – a report alone won’t fix our budget. These recommendations won’t be of value if they are allowed to collect dust. The best ideas from this study must be evaluated for their financial impact, with clear timelines and full transparency.”
   11. Whitmire did not agree to Hollins’ suggestion last week. On Wednesday, he said people should not make the issue “political.”
   12. Steven David, Whitmire’s deputy chief of staff, said 80 percent of the city’s contract spending goes to 6 percent of its vendors 
   13. One change already being implemented, David said, involves the process used by departments for smaller purchases.
   14. Informal contracts worth less than $50,000 normally went through each department individually, resulting in vendors having contracts with multiple departments for the same services. David said employees that deal with purchasing in each city department will be moved into the Strategic Procurement division of the Finance Department. 
   15. Having the process centralized with internal dashboards for departments to see will help streamline purchases and contracts, David said. 
   16. Ernst and Young also found employees were splitting costs among purchasing cards – informally known as p-cards – to make purchases above allotted limits. They also were used with prohibited companies, including Amazon or PayPal.
   17. Employees across departments should not expect “pink slips” to help the city cut spending said Cynthia Wilson, the mayor’s special advisor for organizational culture and education
   18. Wilson said payroll accounts for a majority of the city’s $3 billion general fund budget. Unnecessary vacant positions will be considered for elimination, and departments need to be reorganized, she said, calling the city too much of a “top-down” operation. 
   19. According to the Ernst and Young report, approximately 40 percent of city managers oversee three or fewer employees largely because there is no path for high-performing workers to earn raises or promotions without gaining a supervisory role.
   20. City Council members thanked Whitmire and the auditors for their work on the report and said they looked forward to the results of the TIRZ audit and a review of the Solid Waste Department. 
   21. At-Large Councilmember Sallie Alcorn, who last year advocated for a property tax rate increase to close the deficit, called the report “music to her ears.”
   22. [Alcorn said,] “We’ve been knocking our heads against the wall like how can we do it?”, referencing council attempts to cut spending. [She continued,] “I love that you took it citywide. You took it citywide, and you looked at it by spending, by categories, by contracts. We’ve never done that before.”
   23. MIKE: I found the results of this report interesting, but I remain to be convinced.
   24. MIKE: Some of the results seem to offer real potential for consolidation and increased cost and performance efficiency, but I’d frankly be astonished if total cost savings in the next city budget approached 15% based solely on productivity improvements. Cutting costs by that much without cuts to services or staffing seems highly improbable, but time will tell.
5. From February 4^th — ‘You’ve Seen the Tweet, Right?’: Sheinbaum Aces Trump Playbook; By Alex Vasquez, Maya Averbuch, and Thomas Seal | BLOOMBERG.COM | February 4, 2025 at 5:00 AM CST. TAGS: Trump, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, Tariffs,
   1. It took Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum a single phone call to get Donald Trump to back off — at least temporarily — from his threat of tariffs.
   2. Canada’s Justin Trudeau needed two.
   3. It’s a testament to Sheinbaum’s ability to read the US president even though she’s been her country’s leader for much less time than Prime Minister Trudeau. Unlike the Canadian, her reaction to Trump’s tariff announcement wasn’t a threat to unleash a litany of counter measures. She just kept insisting on cooperation.
   4. Her triumph was obvious on Monday [Feb. 3], when she took the stage for her daily press address grinning. “You’ve seen the tweet, right?” she asked the crowd of reporters. Sheinbaum had announced in a post on X that, after a phone call that morning, Trump had agreed to push back the start of 25% tariffs against Mexico by a month.
   5. In exchange, Mexico would deploy 10,000 National Guard members to the nations’ shared border to stop the flow of undocumented migrants and fentanyl, by all accounts a minuscule price to pay.
   6. The Mexican president’s quick success raised the domestic heat in Canada and set a high bar for Trudeau to strike a similar deal in such a critical diplomatic moment. It also put on display how the two leaders are operating from vastly different positions of power. Sheinbaum — just four months into her six-year term — has a united government behind her, with a supermajority in Congress. Trudeau, meanwhile, is on his way out. Facing deep fractures in his ruling Liberal party, he recently resigned and will only remain prime minister until March, when a new leader steps in.
   7. Hours later on [that] Monday afternoon, Trudeau secured a tariff delay. He said Canada would appoint a “fentanyl czar” and start a joint task force with the US to address drug-trafficking and money laundering, plus beef up border security.
   8. Sheinbaum has “deftly managed President Trump,” said Pamela Starr, an international relations professor at the University of Southern California. “She’s really been going out of her way to be cooperative” when it comes to his asks.
   9. The peso and Canada’s dollar rebounded against the US dollar on Monday. The tariff delays also waylaid concerns of businesses, some of whom had been rushing to get their goods across the border.
   10. Still, neither Sheinbaum [nor] Trudeau can declare a total victory. …
   11. … Since Trump first formally threatened tariffs in November, just a couple of weeks after his election, Sheinbaum has maintained that the two could find a way to work together.
   12. She announced a plan to build reception centers on the border for the millions of deportees he promised to send. Her government publicized drug seizures and sent the top public security official to the dangerous state of Sinaloa. She also said that North America could team up against China. …
   13. It was only when she took the microphone … in Mexico, that it became clear how thrilled she was. “We reached a good agreement today. There is a relationship of respect,” she said.
   14. It was also a personal win for Sheinbaum, who had faced doubts about whether she — as a former mayor of Mexico City who had just taken office, and a woman — was the right person to challenge a volatile president. …
   15. The neighboring nations will have working groups on the issues of trade, migration and security, she said. She would continue to speak with Trump about Mexico’s public health campaign against fentanyl.
   16. She also clinched another win: “For the first time, the government of the United States says we will work together to avoid high-caliber weapons from entering Mexico,” she said, referring to how cartels acquire many of their weapons illegally from the US.
   17. But still, agreeing to send Mexico’s National Guard to the border was more of a show than any of the other measures Sheinbaum had already taken before the Monday call.
   18. [Said Alejandro Schtulmann, president of the consulting firm Emerging Markets Political Risk Analysis,] “This is an agreement that they could have reached behind closed doors. But Trump likes spectacles, and he needed to make this mess in order to reach the same agreement. For Trump, it’s a media victory. Sheinbaum’s response was good, measured, and serious.”
   19. … Sheinbaum’s tactics aside, there are stark differences in Canadian politics that made it more challenging for Trudeau to secure the tariff delay as fast as Mexico.
   20. Trudeau is leaving office in March, ahead of a Canadian election later this year after [ nearly a] decade in power. There’s also significant discontent among his constituents. Persistent inflation and falling GDP per capita have left many Canadians feeling poorer. They also bristle at Trump’s repeated desire to make Canada a 51st state of the US, imperialist rhetoric he has not used about Mexico.
   21. Just 22% approved of Trudeau, according to a December poll from the Angus Reid Institute. Sheinbaum, meanwhile, currently boasts an approval rating of about 75%. …
   22. Plus, Trudeau’s decision to fly to Mar-a-Lago while Sheinbaum stayed away may have made him look weak in Trump’s eyes, she said.
   23. … Some spectators never believed that Trump would actually follow through with tariffs on Mexico or Canada in the first place, but the threat had scared investors and posed a grave risk for exporters. …
   24. [Said Marco Oviedo, a strategist at XP Investimentos,] For Sheinbaum, “the crisis seems averted for now, but definitely Mexico is not out of the woods completely. The threat is still there. We need to wait if the results can be delivered in a month as it was agreed.”
   25. Mexico’s auto industry, for instance, will likely stockpile imports over the coming month to get ahead of potential tariffs, according to Guillermo Rosales, president of the Mexican Association of Automotive Distributors, or AMDA.
   26. [Rosales said,] The delay means “less risk of facing a generalized tariff. However, uncertainty persists and that affects the Mexican economy.”
   27. MIKE: It’s rare that a nation’s leader considers asking a neighboring country to put an additional 10,000 troops on their border as a win. It just goes to show how crazy Trump’s world view is.
   28. MIKE: For the record, I’m not against targeted tariffs as economic and industrial policy tools. They have their place in building or rebuilding specific sectors of an economy. But these blanket tariff threats against two important allies and trading partners is not only crazy. It also violates the very trade agreement with the unwieldy name of the USMCA that Trump himself negotiated in 2020.
   29. MIKE: The fact that Trump can’t be trusted to abide by agreements that he himself has negotiated is actually a case of past being prologue. Trump has historically and routinely broken contracts, and stiffed vendors and workers, and he has routinely gotten away with it. Why should anyone expect his M.O. to change now?
   30. MIKE: The difference, of course, is that in the past, he only caused his own 6 bankruptcies. Now our whole country is in danger.
6. In a case of stupid government — Renaming the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America” Could Cost Taxpayers Over $1 Billion!; Texas Reporter | Feb, 13, 2025. TAGS: #GovernmentWaste, #TaxpayerMoney, #GulfOfMexico, #NameChangeCosts,
   1. Some politicians want to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. But this isn’t just a simple name change — it would be an expensive, bureaucratic nightmare. Based on real-world government cost estimates, this symbolic change could cost taxpayers over $1 BILLION!
   2. Here’s the breakdown of what this would cost across federal, state, and local governments, along with impacts on businesses and education:
   3. Highway & Road Signs: $500 Million — … Five states (TX, LA, MS, AL, FL) would need to replace highway, road, and exit signs referencing the Gulf of Mexico. Estimated Signs: 100,000 signs (including city limit signs, state maps, and tourism signs). Cost Per Sign: $5,000 (highway signs, overhead signs, and smaller road markers). Total Cost: $500,000,000
   4. Maritime Charts & Digital Navigation: $200 Million — NOAA and the U.S. Coast Guard would need to update ALL official nautical charts, GPS databases, and navigation buoys that reference the Gulf of Mexico. Digital system updates for commercial shipping fleets, military vessels, and private boaters. Estimated Cost: $200,000,000
   5. Government Documents & Maps: $100 Million — Federal Agencies (FEMA, DOT, EPA, NOAA, etc.) would need to update thousands of official reports, response plans, legislation, websites, and maps that reference the Gulf of Mexico. State and local governments would need to change names on legal documents, regulatory filings, and promotional materials. Estimated Cost: $100,000,000
   6. Education & Textbooks: $50 Million — Every school district in five states would need to update: Textbooks, atlases, and educational materials. Standardized test questions and state assessments. Estimated Cost: $50,000,000
   7. Media, Travel & Tourism Industry: $75 Million — Travel guides, websites, and maps would need updates. Marketing for hotels, airlines, and tourism businesses that reference the Gulf of Mexico. Estimated Cost: $75,000,000
   8. Business & Private Sector Compliance: $75 Million — Shipping and logistics companies, energy firms, and real estate developers would need to update: Contracts, marketing, trademarks, and insurance documents. Estimated Cost: $75,000,000
   9. Diplomatic Fallout & International Legal Costs: $25 Million — Mexico and international organizations may challenge the change, leading to legal battles and diplomatic negotiations. Estimated Cost: $25,000,000
   10. TOTAL ESTIMATED COST: $1.025 BILLION!
   11. This is the kind of wasteful government spending that gets pushed through without taxpayers realizing the cost. All for a purely symbolic change that solves nothing.
   12. What could $1 BILLION be spent on instead? Infrastructure, veterans’ services, education, border security, disaster relief—almost anything would be a better use of taxpayer dollars!
   13. MIKE: Apropos of that story, we have this one …
7. White House defends blocking AP from event for using ‘Gulf of Mexico’; By David Folkenflik | NPR.ORG | Updated February 12, 2025@5:19 PM ET. TAGS: AP, Associated Press, Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of America,
   1. The White House on Wednesday defended its decision to block a reporter from The Associated Press from covering two official events because the news service did not refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
   2. President Trump signed an executive order on his first day renaming the Gulf “in recognition of this flourishing economic resource and its critical importance to our Nation’s economy and its people,” according to the order.
   3. The AP recommends that its journalists and the news organizations that rely on it reflect the Gulf’s historic name, but acknowledge Trump’s desired shift in language, which directly affects usage by the federal government and inside the U.S.
   4. His chief spokesperson made no apologies for seeking to impose the president’s desired language on the news agency.
   5. [White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Wednesday,] “It is a privilege to cover this White House. Nobody has the right to go into the Oval Office and ask the president of the United States questions. That’s an invitation that is given.”
   6. [She continued,] “I was very up front in my briefing on Day One that if we feel that there are lies being pushed by outlets in this room, we are going to hold those lies accountable,” Leavitt continued, in response to questions from CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. “And it is a fact that the body of water off the coast of Louisiana is called the Gulf of America. And I’m not sure why news outlets don’t want to call it that.”
   7. … AP Executive Editor Julie Pace wrote a letter to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, as Pace put it, “to object in the strongest possible terms.”
   8. In her letter, shared with NPR, Pace wrote that Leavitt told an AP reporter that its access to the Oval Office would be restricted if the news service didn’t immediately adopt Trump’s preferred named for the Gulf.
   9. [Pace wrote,] “The actions taken by the White House were plainly intended to punish the AP for the content of its speech. It is among the most basic tenets of the First Amendment that the government cannot retaliate against the public or the press for what they say.”
   10. [Pace] wrote that the AP would “vigorously defend its constitutional rights and protest the infringement on the public’s right to independent news coverage of their government and elected officials.”
   11. The events that the AP was stopped from covering were newsworthy. On Tuesday afternoon, Trump and his adviser, billionaire Elon Musk, spoke of the sweeping cuts they were making to the federal government as part of Musk’s government efficiency effort known as DOGE. Tuesday evening, an AP reporter was blocked from attending an event with a U.S. prisoner who had been released by the Russian government.
   12. The move comes as the Trump administration applies increasing pressure on mainstream news outlets, through limiting access to key venues and launching investigations.
   13. … The AP is part of a small pool of print and broadcast journalists who attend each presidential appearance to share with the larger press and the public. AP’s Stylebook is used not only by its own journalists, but by other news outlets and institutions around the globe. In its guidance, the AP advises that the body of water to the east of Mexico that stretches from Texas to Florida should retain its historic title.
   14. [The updated Stylebook entry states that,] “The Gulf of Mexico has carried that name for more than 400 years. Refer to it by its original name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen.”
   15. The U.S. Geological Survey has officially adopted “Gulf of America.” Apple and Google Maps also call it by that name when searched by users based in the U.S. (Leavitt cited their shift in making her case on Wednesday.)
   16. Outside the U.S., “Gulf of Mexico” is still used.
   17. As the AP Stylebook notes, “Trump’s order only carries authority within the United States. Mexico, as well as other countries and international bodies, do not have to recognize the name change.”
   18. … Other news organizations offered support for the AP. [Said Politico’s Eugene Daniels, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association,] “The White House cannot dictate how news organizations report the news, nor should it penalize working journalists because it is unhappy with their editors’ decisions. The move by the administration to bar a reporter from The Associated Press from an official event open to news coverage today is unacceptable.”
   19. An article in The New York Times this week made the case that the move fits with Trump’s efforts to remake the language of government, for example, by scrubbing the Biden administration’s terms of programs about race and gender from agency directives.
   20. The Times‘s Shawn McCreesh wrote that “The president said he was appointing a ‘warrior for free speech’ to run the Federal Communications Commission. That free speech warrior immediately launched investigations into NPR and PBS, and then set his sights on CBS and NBC.”
   21. The move echoes others taken against the press in the administration’s first days.
   22. Under Defense Secretary and former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, the Pentagon has dislodged eight news organizations from their workstations there, including NPR, the New York Times, NBC News, CNN, the Washington Post, Politico, the Hill, and the War Zone.
   23. Seven conservative and right-wing sites took their spots, including Breitbart radio, One America News Network, Newsmax and the New York Post. A liberal-leaning site that also was offered a workstation, HuffPost, had not asked for one.
   24. Trump had filed lawsuits against ABC News and Facebook; their parent companies recently settled his suits by paying millions of dollars apiece for his future presidential library. CBS’s parent company, Paramount, appears poised to settle another lawsuit Trump filed over a 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris during last year’s presidential race, according to several people with knowledge. They spoke on condition of anonymity given the ongoing litigation.
   25. Legal observers say the strength of Trump’s cases ranged from weak (ABC) to frivolous (Meta and CBS).
   26. At the FCC, Chairman Brendan Carr sent a letter to the chairman and chief executive of Comcast, the parent company of NBC, over its diversity, equity and inclusion efforts companywide.
   27. [According to Newsmax, which first reported on his letter Tuesday, Carr wrote,] “Promoting invidious forms of discrimination cannot be squared with any reasonable interpretation of federal law.” The FCC did not reply to NPR’s request for comment.
   28. In a statement shared with NPR, Comcast said it would respond to the FCC’s questions and that its company “has been built on a foundation of integrity of respect for all our employees and customers.”
   29. MIKE: When the government tries to control language, that is the essence of 1984-style efforts at mind control. As Big Brother understood, if you limit language, you limit thought.
   30. MIKE: Further, when the Government limits access to a news organization because of the language they use, that violates the First Amendment to the Constitution. For example, if I wanted to refer to Donald Trump as “Donaldo Trumpolini”, the First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees my right to do so. If I want to refer to Trump as “The Would-be Tyrant”, that right is also guaranteed to me by the First Amendment.
   31. MIKE: And if I want to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of Mexico because that its historic name, I have no obligation to obey Trumpolini’s new name just because his fragile ego demanded that he be remembered for attempting to put that title on this historic body of water.
   32. MIKE: Now granted, I am in no danger of risking my place at White House news conferences or Air Force One interviews, but that’s not relevant. What is relevant is that while Trump breaks the law every day he is in the White House, he has no powers of thought control over the citizens of this country. At least not yet.
8. MIKE: Speaking of which … Going forward, I will be referring to the current US government as a regime rather than an administration, because that’s what the US is currently ruled by. Our current leaders are lawless, cruel, incompetent, corrupt, greedy, oligarchic, and increasingly fascistic. They often threaten our allies, appease and cozy up to our dictatorial adversaries, give aid and comfort to rightwing extremists here and abroad, and damage our domestic and international security for their own corrupt political and economic ends.
   1. The only time I’ll call the Trump regime an “administration” is if that’s the word used in the stories I read.
   2. I’ll have more to say along these lines in the future.
9. This next article is just a case in point — Trump and Vance are courting Europe’s far right to spread their political gospel; Andrew Roth Global affairs correspondent | THEGUARDIAN.COM | Fri 14 Feb 2025 18.14 EST. TAGS: JD Vance, Europe, Trump administration, Donald Trump, US politics, Germany, The far right,
   1. The Trump administration is making a big bet on Europe’s hard right.
   2. Speaking at a conference of Europe’s leaders in Munich on Friday, the US vice-president JD Vance stunned the room by delivering what amounted to a campaign speech against Germany’s sitting government just one week before an election in which the anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim AfD is set to take second place.
   3. As Vance accused foreign leaders of suppressing free speech, failing to halt illegal migration and running in fear from voters’ true beliefs, a whisper of “Jesus Christ” and the squirming in chairs could be heard in an overflow room.
   4. Hours later he met with Alice Weidel, the leader of the AfD, breaking a taboo in German politics called the “firewall against the far-right”, meant to [keep] the anti-immigrant party with ties to extremists out of the mainstream and [out] of any ruling coalition.
   5. “It’s an incredibly controversial thing for him to do,” said Kristine Berzina, the managing director of the German Marshall Fund’s Geostrategy North, who was at the Munich Security Conference.
   6. The backing of Vance – or Elon Musk, who recently gave a video address at an AfD party summit – is unlikely to tilt the result of Germany’s elections, said Berzina. And it’s unlikely to browbeat the ruling Christian Democratic Union, which should win next week’s vote, into allowing AfD to enter any coalition.
   7. But the US right under Trump does have its eyes set on a broader transformation in Europe: the rise of populist parties that share an anti-immigration and isolationist worldview and will join the US in its assault on globalism and liberal values. They see those leaders in Viktor Orbán in Hungary, Giorgia Meloni in Italy, as well as the UK’s Reform party, and Marine Le Pen in France.
   8. [Berzina said,] “It is personal, and it is political in terms of far-right political alignment. It also opens the door to what other unprecedented things are we going to see in terms of the US hand in European politics.”
   9. Could the US president even threaten serious policy shifts like tariffs based on an unsatisfactory German coalition? [In response to that question, Berzina said,] “That would be normally unthinkable. But in 2025, very little is unthinkable.”
   10. Trump has claimed a broad mandate despite winning the popular vote by a smaller margin than any US leader since the early 2000s. And [Trump] seeks to remake politics at home and redefine the US relationship with its allies abroad, many of whom attacked him personally in the wake of the January 6 insurrection and his second presidential campaign.
   11. Vance also wanted to antagonise Europe’s leaders on Friday. He refused to meet with Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor who should be among the US’s key partners in negotiations with Russia over the future of the war in Ukraine. [One former US official told Politico of the Vance team’s approach,] “We don’t need to see him, he won’t be chancellor long,”
   12. That speaks to a trend in the Trump administration’s thinking: that voters abroad will handle what his negotiations and alliances cannot. As Vance stunned the European elite on Friday, he told them that, “if you’re running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you. You need democratic mandates to accomplish anything of value in the coming years,” he said.
   13. This is something that Vladimir Putin, who waited years for the return of a Trump administration, knows well regarding his war in Ukraine: sometimes you have to bide your time until conditions are right.
   14. And it’s something that Trump intimated about Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy as he riffed on his plan to end the war through negotiations that would cede Ukrainian territory and give up Kyiv’s designs on Nato membership.
   15. [Trump said of Zelenskyy agreeing to a deal,] “He’s going to have to do what he has to do. But, you know, his poll numbers aren’t particularly great.”
   16. MIKE: There is an old line from a cartoon called Pogo: “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” (Reference link attached in the show post.)
   17. MIKE: Well clearly, we ourselves are now the enemy of everything this country used to claim to support: Rule of law, governmental checks and balances, liberal democracy, the inviolability of national frontiers, and strong alliances as a bulwark against ambitious tyrants, among other things.
   18. MIKE: Donald Trump famously declared that he would be a dictator on Day 1. What he apparently meant was that he would be a dictator from Day One. That’s what he must have meant, because he is breaking the law willy-nilly, and the Law-and-Order Republican Party seems fine with that. And it’s only been three weeks.
   19. MIKE: The Roman Republic was established in 509 BCE (“Before the Common Era”), and it survived as a republic until Augustus declared himself emperor in 27 BCE. From that point forward, the Roman Senate become not much more than a debating society and a rubber stamp for the sitting emperor, except when it was decided that the emperor was awful and needed to be assassinated and replaced.
   20. MIKE: I don’t think we’ve reached that point yet, but the Republican Party has been reduced to a Trumpist rubber stamp. In some cases, it may be due to ideological sympathy with Trump. In some cases, it may be political opportunism. In some cases, it may be due to actual fear of punishment and retribution by Trump’s metaphorical Brown Shirts in the persons of pardoned J6-ers, as well as domestic neo-Nazis, White Supremacists, and others of similar ilk.
   21. MIKE: Make no mistake. The United States is at the Rubicon of a historic transformation no less monumental than the transition of the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire. If we cross that Rubicon, everything good that this country has proclaimed about itself and fought for over the centuries will be irrevocably lost.
   22. REFERENCE: Roman Republic — From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
   23. REFERENCE: Rome’s Transition from Republic to Empire — EDUCATION.NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC.ORG
10. German officials hit back at Vance over censorship lecture: ‘Unacceptable’; by Filip Timotija | THEHILL.COM | 02/15/25 12:24 PM ET. TAGS: Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), China , Donald Trump , Elon Musk , Europe , Free Speech , Germany , Immigration , JD Vance, Munich , Munich Security Conference , Olaf Scholz , Russia , Trump Administration , Ukraine,
    1. Germany’s top government officials hit back at Vice President Vance over his Friday speech in Munich where he lambasted European leaders, accusing them of quashing speech they disagreed with and warned that mass migration is one the biggest problems facing the European continent. 
    2. [Vance said during his first international speech at the Munich Security Conference,] “And what I worry about is the threat from within. The retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.” 
    3. Vance’s remarks were not well received by Germany’s top officials, who hammered the vice president over his free-speech critique and embrace of the country’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party.
    4. [German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Friday,] “If I understood him correctly, he is comparing conditions in parts of Europe with those in authoritarian regimes. That is unacceptable, and it is not the Europe and not the democracy in which I live and am currently campaigning.”
    5. [Pistorius continued,] “In our democracy, every opinion has a voice, and it makes it possible for parties that are partly extremists such as the AfD, and they can campaign just as any other party,” Pistorius added. “This is democracy.” 
    6. In the speech, Vance said that Russia and China are not the biggest threats facing the [continent], and briefly mentioned Ukraine as President Trump’s administration works to secure a peace deal that would end the nearly three-year war. The former Senator also defended tech billionaire Elon Musk for expressing increased interest in German politics ahead of the country’s Feb. 23 election. 
    7. Vance added that mass migration is Europe’s most pressing issue, later referencing the recent incident in Munich when an Afghanistan national ran a car into a crowd, killing at least 28 people. 
    8. [Vance said on Friday,] “More and more all over Europe, they’re voting for political leaders who promise to put an end to out-of-control migration. I happen to agree with a lot of these concerns. You don’t have to agree with me, I just think that people care.”
    9. Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz snapped back at Vance the next day, saying the U.S. vice president’s remarks around the AfD, which supports curbing migration, were “not appropriate, especially not among friends and allies. We firmly reject that.” 
    10. Vance met with AfD’s leader Alice Weidel on Friday in Germany. Musk, who penned an op-ed in support of the party, participated virtually at AfD’s rally last month. 
    11. [Scholz said during his Saturday address,] “Never again fascism, never again racism, never again aggressive war. That is why an overwhelming majority in our country opposes anyone who glorifies or justifies criminal National Socialism.” 
    12. When addressing Vance’s criticism of Europe’s speech laws, Scholz said that “today’s democracies in Germany and Europe are founded on the historic awareness and realization that democracies can be destroyed by radical anti-democrats.” 
    13. The chancellor added that is the reason why “we’ve created institutions that ensure that our democracies can defend themselves against their enemies, and rules that do not restrict or limit our freedom but protect it.”
    14. Trump defended his vice president from the White House, agreeing with the assessment that Vance relayed to European officials at the conference. 
    15. [Trump said on Friday,]  “I heard his speech, and he talked about freedom of speech. And I think it’s true in Europe, it’s losing. They’re losing their wonderful right of freedom of speech. I see it. I mean, I thought he made a very good speech, actually, a very brilliant speech.”
    16. The commander-in-chief said that Europe needs to be “careful” regarding immigration. 
    17. “And Europe has a big immigration problem. Just take a look at what’s happened with crime. Take a look at what’s happening in various parts of Europe,” the president said. “I thought his speech was very well received, actually. I have heard very good remarks.”
    18. MIKE: I once mentioned a line from the movie, “War of the Roses”, where Danny DeVito says, “When a lawyer who charges $400 per hour gives you free advice, take it.” Well, when a German government official criticizes an American vice president for making statements about free speech and democracy that are entirely backwards, listen. Because if anyone in this world recognizes a fascistic tyrant wannabe, it’s the Germans.
    19. MIKE: And you know why that is? It’s because they are taught in school to be wary of tyrants. Going forward, it’s the kind of lesson we need to teach American children.
    20. MIKE: I will agree with JD Vance on one thing: We must be wary of the enemies within. But today, the enemies within are Trump, Vance, and most of the Republican Party. They break the law without care or remorse. They attempt to control thought and speech.
    21. MIKE: Whatever gave anyone the idea that a convicted felon, serial liar, and notorious business cheat would do any less as president?
    22. MIKE: Yes, Americans will need to revisit civics lessons in our schools in more ways than one.
11. Baltic states begin historic switch away from Russian power grid; By Tom Bennett, BBC News | BBC.COM | 8-Feb-2025. TAGS: Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, European Union, Russia, BRELL,
    1. More than three decades after leaving the Soviet Union, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have begun to unplug from Russia’s electricity grid and join the EU’s network.
    2. The two-day process began [last] Saturday morning, with residents told to charge their devices, stock up on food and water, and prepare as if severe weather is forecast.
    3. Many have been told not to use lifts – while in some areas traffic lights will be turned off.
    4. A giant, specially-made clock, will count down the final seconds before the transition at a landmark ceremony in Lithuania’s capital on Sunday, attended by EU chief Ursula von der Leyen.
    5. The three nations will then officially transition away from the grid that has connected them to Russia since the years after World War Two.
    6. … The so-called Brell power grid — which stands for Belarus, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania — is controlled almost entirely by Moscow and has long been seen as a vulnerability for the former Soviet republics, which are now Nato members.
    7. Though none of them have purchased electricity from Russia since 2022, their connection to the Brell grid left them dependent on Moscow for energy flow.
    8. After disconnecting on Saturday morning, the three countries will carry out frequency tests before integrating into the European grid via Poland on Sunday.
    9. [Lithuania’s Energy … told AFP news agency.] “We are now removing Russia’s ability to use the electricity system as a tool of geopolitical blackmail.”
    10. [Prof David Smith of the Baltic Research Unit at the University of Glasgow told the BBC,] “It’s the culmination of efforts over more than 10 years or 20 years, to reduce that energy dependence. When the Baltic States joined the EU and Nato, everybody talked about them being an energy island that was still dependent on that joint electricity network with Belarus and Russia. That’s been completely broken now,” [said Smith.]
    11. Tensions between the Baltic States and Russia, which share a combined 543 mile-long (874km) border, have soared since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
    12. Since then, a spate of suspected sabotage incidents involving electricity cables and pipelines in the Baltic Sea have prompted fears that Moscow could retaliate against the shift towards EU energy. …
    13. In the past 18 months, at least 11 cables running under the Baltic Sea have been damaged. In a recent case, a ship from Russia’s “shadow fleet” of oil tankers was accused of damaging Estonia’s main power link in the Gulf of Finland. The Kremlin declined to comment.
    14. Nato has not accused Russia, but has responded by launching a new patrol mission of the region named Baltic Sentry. …
    15. A spokesperson from the Nato Energy Security Centre of Excellence told the BBC that in recent months, frequent emergency operation tests have been carried out to help prepare for potential targeted attacks on the energy system.
    16. The head of Estonia’s Cybersecurity Centre … told the BBC in a statement that Russia “may attempt to exploit this period to create uncertainty”, but said that due to international co-operation, Estonia was “well-prepared even for worst-case scenarios”.
    17. He added that cyber-attacks against the country had surged following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and ranged from “hacktivist-driven DDoS attacks [Distributed Denial-Of-Service] to more sophisticated, targeted operations against government agencies and businesses”.
    18. The Baltic states will also be on watch for disinformation campaigns related to the transition.
    19. Shortly after they notified Russia of their decision to withdraw from Brell in August 2024, campaigns emerged on social media falsely warning of supply failures and soaring prices if the countries were to leave the joint power grid.
    20. MIKE: Making a transition of this sort is challenging and expensive, and not without its own risks, but it measurably adds to the security of the Baltic nations. It’s a significant part of the changing, and increasingly dangerous, geopolitical landscape.

=====================================================

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