Except for timely election info, the extensive list of voting resources will now be at the end.

“There’s a reason why you separate military and police. One fights the enemy of the State. The other serves and protects the People. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the State tend to become the People.” ~ Commander Adama, “Battlestar Galactica” (“WATER”, Season 1 episode 2, at the 28 minute mark.)

Welcome to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig on KPFT Houston at 90.1-HD2, Galveston 89.5-HD2, and Huntsville 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. At my website, THINKWINGRADIO-dot-COM, I link to all the articles I read and cite, as well as other relevant sources. Articles and commentaries often include lots of internet links for those of you who want to dig deeper.

This begins the fourth week of Trump’s military occupation of Los Angeles.

1. Houston’s $16.7B CIP budget passes, but amendments, ordinances for transparency delayed to future meetings; By Kevin Vu | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 5:11 PM Jun 25, 2025 CDT/Updated 5:11 PM Jun 25, 2025 CDT. TAGS: Houston City Council, Houston Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), Infrastructure, Government Transparency,
   16. Houston City Council approved the $16.7 billion Capital Improvement Plan [CIP] for fiscal year 2026-30, prioritizing nearly half of its funding to improving the city’s water and wastewater infrastructure, during the June 25 City Council meeting.
   17. … The CIP budget was passed unanimously, with [3] council members … absent.
   18. The $16.7 billion budget is a $2.2 billion increase compared to FY 2025-29. Half of the CIP is going toward improving the city’s water and wastewater infrastructure, with the water utility system receiving $4.3 billion and wastewater treatment facilities receiving $3.8 billion.
   19. Nearly $2.6 billion is going to Build Houston Forward, an initiative to improve the city’s drainage system and streets. Funding is going toward projects such as: $750 million: citywide street and traffic rehabilitation; $775 million: neighborhood drainage; $131 million: regional stormwater detention; [and] $128 million: Lake Houston Dam Spillway Improvement Project.
   20. The Houston Airport System will also receive $2.7 billion to expand, update and maintain the airport system, with each airport receiving their own funding for projects such as: $2.01 billion: George Bush International for the Terminal B redevelopment project; $643 million: [to] William P. Hobby for improvements to the airport’s taxiway and runways, restrooms and HVAC system; [and] $49 million: [to the] Ellington Field/Spaceport for improvements to its airfield and drainage master plan construction.
   21. Another $913 million is going toward public improvement projects such as: 246 million: over the next five years toward city vehicles; $112 million: [for] repairs to municipal courts as part of Hurricane Harvey recovery; $18.3 million: [for a] new fire station located at 5830 Old Spanish Trail in South Houston; [and] $16.8 million: [for a] new fire station located at 910 Forest Cove Drive in Kingwood. …
   22. Council member Julian Ramirez’s amendments to provide more transparency on changes made to major infrastructure projects in the CIP were moved to be discussed in a future council committee meeting in the next 60 days, potentially setting the policy as a permanent ordinance to apply not just to the CIP projects, but other infrastructure projects as well. …
   23. Houston Mayor John Whitmire said he supports the idea and hopes to get a “working product” on the policy. He said his administration and city’s directors are an “open door” and are willing to communicate and send as many reports to council members as possible. …
   24. Council member Edward Pollard said this proposed policy started after numerous council members noticed last-minute changes made to infrastructure projects.
   25. [Pollard said,] “Conversation has come from lack of transparency and notice when we hear last minute about changes to ongoing projects that many times may not even be on the CIP specifically, but could be under Public Works, [or] could be under TIRZ.”
   26. … An ordinance proposed by council member Mario Castillo to allow a public session to occur once a month in the evening to boost community engagement with City Council was also tagged during the meeting and will reappear on the agenda July 9.
   27. Castex-Tatum, who tagged the ordinance, said she wanted to receive more public feedback on the matter.
   28. MIKE: I’ve omitted reading most dollar amounts, but they are in the story.
   29. MIKE: Government transparency is seeming more important than ever given the times we’re living in. Last minute changes in budgets or legislation without adequate notice are unacceptable, and I tend to think they occur when someone wants something done without too much publicity. That’s inherently a bad thing.
   30. MIKE: There are things I say periodically on this show that occasionally bear repeating.
   31. MIKE: One of them is that our government structures are not designed to be efficient. They’re designed to be safe. That is why in all our governments from federal to local, we always have executive, legislative, and judicial branches.
   32. MIKE: Those branches must always remain in equal dynamic tension in order for government to both function properly and to be safe.
2. Some Harris County Democrats want to oust Houston Mayor John Whitmire from the party; By Michael Garcia, Staff writer | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM | June 22, 2025. TAGS: Harris County Democratic Party, Mayor John Whitmire,
   1. A group of Harris County Democratic precinct chairs and residents gathered Sunday in the East End and called for John Whitmire to be removed from the party after accusing the Houston mayor of acting against the party’s interests.
   2. The Democrats aired their complaints before convening a meeting of the County Executive Committee meeting: They criticized Whitmire for attending a fundraiser for a Republican congressman, the city’s apparent cooperation with Trump administration immigration agents and budget concerns, among other things.
   3. The Chronicle reached out to the mayor’s office Sunday evening but did not immediately receive a response.
   4. Cameron Campbell, a Harris County Democratic precinct chair also known as Coach Cam, stood in front of the BakerRipley building in East End Sunday afternoon and pulled from his experience as an athlete when talking about the Houston mayor.
   5. [Campbell said,] “We don’t have to be friends to be teammates. But what makes a teammate is sitting in the boat and rowing in the same direction. Anybody who is in the boat and is rowing in the opposite direction is not a teammate. When the current mayor of Houston decided that it was ok for him to fundraise for a Republican … That moment was a moment when you were no longer our teammate.” 
   6. Whitmire, then a state senator, defeated U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee in a runoff election in December 2023 by about 30 percentage points to become Houston’s 63rd mayor.
   7. In April, Whitmire attended a fundraiser for Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw, who represents northeast Houston. At the time, about 30 precinct and Congressional chairs with the Harris County Democratic Party signed a resolution to admonish Whitmire, accusing him of undermining the “values and mission of the Democratic Party.”
   8. The news conference comes as a group of Houstonians aiming to oust the mayor announced a timeline for their efforts to petition for a recall election.
   9. MIKE: This is what I’d characterize as a ‘rolling ball’. And it’s rolling in a way that is distinctly adverse to Mayor Whitmire. I’ll try to tell you about this and related developments as they occur.
   10. MIKE: But before I wrap on this article, I’m going to throw out an idea that probably no one will like, and which has its own risks.
   11. MIKE: I still think that John Whitmire would win on a Democratic ticket for governor precisely because he’s such a conservative Democrat.
   12. MIKE: I don’t think it will happen first and foremost because I don’t think Whitmire would be willing to give up his mayorship to run.
   13. MIKE: But the risk is that, if he ran as a Democrat for Texas governor and won, what would prevent him from switching parties and becoming a Republican?
   14. MIKE: A case in point is Eric Johnson, who was elected mayor of Dallas as a Democrat in 2019. In May 2023, he was re-elected as mayor, still a Democrat, with an unbelievable 98.7% of the vote. But in September of 2023, Johnson switched parties and became a Republican. He claimed that he was never well-liked within the party as either a Texas state representative or as mayor, and his objective was to join with the Republicans as a way to better serve the City of Dallas. There’s a YouTube video of his explanation and reasoning which I’m linking to in this show post at thinkwingradio-dot-com. (The interview with Johnson start at 7m37s on the video.)
   15. MIKE: That was not a particularly popular decision among many of the voters in Dallas, who felt like they had been sold a bait-and-switch mayor.
   16. MIKE: You might be asking, how does this apply to John Whitmire if he should choose to run for governor? Well, this is all highly hypothetical, but first, if he was voted out of the Harris County and/or the Texas Democratic Party and if he did run for governor, would he run as an Independent or as a Republican?
   17. MIKE: If he ran as a Republican, he’d have to go through a Republican primary, and that may not appeal to him. As an Independent, he’d have to go through many hoops just to get on the ballot. I’ve read stories on this show about how hard that can be by deliberate design. Whitmire has a huge campaign war chest, but trying to get on the Texas ballot as an independent would be hugely expensive and difficult, on top of the expense of running in the general election.
   18. MIKE: And because Texas doesn’t have runoffs for state positions, whoever won in a 3-way race would probably win by a plurality and not a majority. Running as an Independent might put Whitmire in the position of being spoiler a and not a winner. Again, that probably wouldn’t appeal to him.
   19. MIKE: If Whitmire wasn’t expelled from the Harris County or Texas Democratic Party, it’s entirely possible that if Whitmire ran for governor in the Democratic primary, pragmatic voters might put him over the line as the nominee. But if Whitmire was elected governor as a conservative Democrat, what would there be to stop him from “pulling a Johnson” and switching parties after he’s sworn in?
   20. MIKE: Again, as a highly hypothetical proposition, is there any way that in exchange for not expelling Whitmire from the Party, that the Texas Democratic Party could extract a binding pledge from Whitmire that if he ran for governor and won, that he would remain a Democrat?
   21. MIKE: First, I doubt that Whitmire would agree to such a pledge just on principle. But second, I don’t think that any such pledge could be made binding. It would simply be a promise that could be broken.
   22. MIKE: But finally, and candidly, if John Whitmire actually wanted to run for governor, he could have done that in the last election cycle, and he didn’t.
   23. MIKE: I don’t know what his reasoning was at the time, but I suspect that whatever it was, it hasn’t changed. Time will tell.
3. ‘The formula is flawed’: Harris County officials say funding not available for all planned projects from 2018’s $2.5B flood bond; By Melissa Enaje | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 4:18 PM Jun 27, 2025 CDT/Updated 4:18 PM Jun 27, 2025 CDT. TAGS: Harris County, the Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD), Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, 2018 Flood Bond Program,
   2. Harris County commissioners are discussing a litany of challenges surrounding the 2018 flood bond program, a $2.5 billion initiative voters approved that tasked the Harris County Flood Control District [HCFCD] to complete mitigation projects over 10 years.
   3. Commissioners spoke with HCFCD Executive Director Christina Petersen at the June 26 court meeting and reviewed concerns including a $1 billion shortfall amid rising project costs.
   4. [Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said,] “We are not going to be able to do all the projects that people were promised, and that failure was built into the bond, and that’s disappointing.”
   5. As a result, Harris County commissioners approved several motions for HCFCD [that is] tasked with alleviating [issues. These] include prioritizing funding for a list of high-need projects, referred to as Quartile 1 projects. [These] are high-need projects [and are] scored based on criteria such as existing drainage levels and social vulnerability indexes, according to HCFCD documents.
   6. The motions passed by a 4-1 vote, with Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey dissenting in the first motion. Ramsey voted in favor of other motions that included the creation of a public dashboard that residents can view online to see various project status updates every six months or as soon as available.
   7. [HCFCD’s Petersen said,] “One of our challenges … is the amount of work we need to do is so great. This current bond program, as we all know, isn’t enough. We have so much work we have to do in so many places.”
   8. … Resident Doris Brown [is a member of a community organization, Northeast Action Collective, which advocates for improved living conditions for northeast Houston neighborhoods. She] told commissioners she believes the system wasn’t working to ensure historically neglected communities of color have the same protections as more affluent ones. …
   9. [Brown said,] “We’re tired of flooding. The bond we voted for in 2018 requires equity. When this court discussed the bond, you promised the prioritization system would be followed to help flood-prone communities. This was your commitment.”
   10. … A project schedule detailing all future projects will return to Commissioners Court on Sept. 18. …
   11. … In 2018, Harris County voters approved $2.5 billion in bonds to finance flood damage reduction projects after Hurricane Harvey in August 2017 … left widespread flooding, property damage and displacement along the Texas coast. The bond was designed to complete flood control and mitigation projects over approximately 10 years, Petersen said, although the original timeline was shortened from 15 to 10 years.
   12. Vulnerable populations fared worse when it came to recovering from Harvey, according to a report by the University of Houston that [was] published on the hurricane’s fifth anniversary in 2022.
   13. … According to Petersen, the allocation of the 2018 [$2.5 billion in] funds and their percentages by precincts were as follows: Precinct 1: $526.8 million, 21%; Precinct 2: $481.3 million, 19%; Precinct 3: $634.2 million, 25%; Precinct 4: $425.4 million, 17%; [and] Countywide projects: $432 million, 17%.
   14. MIKE: Included in the original story is a comprehensive table for the projects that the Harris County Flood Control District’s Quartile 1 projects will prioritize for funding, but it’s too long to read here.
   15. MIKE: As always, if you have particular interest in this topic, I refer you to the story which I’ve linked to in this show’s blog post.
   16. MIKE: There is one line in the story that puzzled me, because it was not addressed or explained further. County Judge Hidalgo said, “We are not going to be able to do all the projects that people were promised, and that failure was built into the bond … .”
   17. MIKE: I have no idea what that means. I wish the reporter dug into that a bit more for clarification purposes, because if there was something in the bond language that inhibited how projects were done or allocated, that’s something that definitely needs to be addressed in future bond proposals.
4. Lawsuit Challenging 2024 Election Results Highlights Irregularities Familiar To Rockland Voters; By RCBJ-Connect | RCBIZJOURNAL.COM aka ROCKLAND COUNTY (NY) BUSINESS JOURNAL | June 17, 2025. TAGS: 2024 Election, Senate Candidate Diane Sare,
   1. Litigation in Rockland County Supreme Court is not going to invalidate or overturn the 2024 Senate or Presidential election. It is not going to force a special election, and it is not going to result in a court-appointed election monitor. At best, and only because the County Board of Elections did not seek an outright dismissal of the complaint, the Court may order a recount of voting for the Senate and Presidential elections in Rockland County.
   2. Much hype in the media, both locally and internationally, has surrounded this litigation but it will not change the outcome of the election. At best, it will either uncover irregularities at the Rockland County Board of Elections, or show that the so-called anomaly can be explained by the makeup of the “bloc” vote.
   3. The Court, on its own on March 3rd, dismissed the claims to invalidate the 2024 election results, to hold a new special election, and to appoint a monitor. Last week, presiding Justice Rachel Tanguay, ordered that discovery move forward, based on part of the Board of Elections’ Answer to the complaint acknowledging that some discovery may result in an amendment to its answer.
   4. The petition, filed back in December of 2024, was by three individuals (one of whom ran for Senate on the La Rouche party line, the other two were Rockland County voters) and SMART Legislation (which bills itself as a government organization advocating for the rights of all U.S. voters). It sought a recount of votes, and asked the Court to invalidate the 2024 Senate and Presidential election in Rockland County, schedule a new Senate and Presidential special election, and assign a court-appointed election monitor.
   5. SMART Legislation’s website makes no claim that it is actually a government organization, despite representations in the Petition. The affidavit of Lulu Friesdat, co-founder of SMART Legislation, describes herself as an election journalist, and that SMART Legislation is an “unincorporated action partner of SMART Elections”. No expert affidavit by a statistician was offered supporting election fraud.
   6. Petitioners’ claims that the vote count was improper were based on affidavits from individuals who said they voted for Senate Candidate Diane Sare, and that their votes did not appear on the final voting tally published by the County Board of Elections. Sare, and other plaintiffs, in affidavits claim Sare received more votes than the Rockland County Board of Elections recorded.
   7. The claims were also based on what petitioners described as statistical anomalies regarding votes cast in the 2024 election – specifically that the votes for President and Senate were not aligned. In other words, there were split-ticket inconsistencies in the voting because votes tallied for Democrat Kristen Gillibrand did not align with votes tallied for Kamala Harris. Plaintiffs claim the lack of consistency – voters voting for a Democrat for Senate and a Republican for President – supported an issue of irregularity.
   8. More specifically, a review of the final voting tallies show about a dozen voting districts in the Town of Ramapo where Kamala Harris received between 1-5% of the vote (including districts where Kamala Harris received zero votes) and Kristin Gillibrand received 30-70% of the vote. Petitioners claim this sort of disparity in splitting the ticket is evidence supporting a hand recount.
   9. One example is in Ramapo District 35 (which encompasses Rockland’s Hasidic community): Donald Trump received 552 votes compared to zero votes for Kamala Harris. In the same District, Democrat Kristen Gillibrand received 327 votes to Republican Sapraicone’s 84 votes. Other Districts, including Ramapo’s 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 28, 30 and 33 and 36th voting districts, had similar voting patterns.
   10. While Petitioners cited this as evidence of irregularity, Rocklanders have long been aware of uniformity of what is called the “bloc” vote to turn out overwhelming support for a favored candidate, regardless of party affiliation. This voting pattern was consistent among several Ramapo districts, where Kamala Harris scored single digit votes while Gillibrand won her Senate race with a substantial majority.  The anomalies petitioners have cited are likely explained by “bloc” voting patterns.
   11. In March, the individual named petitioners voluntarily dismissed their claims, but still asserted there were irregularities in the voting. Only SMART Legislation remains in the case.
   12. The County Board of Elections did not seek dismissal of the case, but decided instead to answer the complaint denying the allegation, asserting that the threshold for a recount was not met, while tacitly acknowledging that some discovery may be warranted.
   13. MIKE: This is a relatively small recount, but it could evolve into a big deal.
   14. MIKE: If a hand recount reveals any significant irregularities, it might have a snowball effect and precipitate lawsuits for recounts in other states and jurisdictions.
   15. MIKE: This will be interesting to watch. Stay tuned.
5. Sonia Sotomayor Puts It Clearly: None of Our Rights Are Safe; By Shirin Ali | SLATE.COM | June 27, 2025@4:52 PM. TAGS: Donald Trump, Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor,
   1. In a scathing dissent against the Supreme Court’s birthright citizenship decision on Friday, Justice Sonia Sotomayor is clear about what just happened: The Trump administration set a trap for the court, and the conservative justices walked right into it.
   2. In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order undoing birthright citizenship, a right that is guaranteed in the 14^th Numerous plaintiffs—including 22 states—filed suit, and three separate lower-court judges found that the order was blatantly unconstitutional. Each of them issued nationwide injunctions that prevented the executive order from taking effect anywhere across the country.
   3. The Trump administration appealed up to the Supreme Court, and at oral argument in May, it presented the case as a chance to consider whether nationwide injunctions themselves are unconstitutional. That framing paved the way for the high court to allow Trump to violate the 14^th Amendment in half of U.S. states—without seeming, on paper, as if it were making a decision about the amendment at all. It also allowed the conservative supermajority to take away one of the judiciary’s main tools for upholding the law.
   4. On Friday, the Supreme Court’s conservative justices gave Trump what he wanted: They decided that the three nationwide injunctions apply only to the plaintiffs, effectively limiting birthright citizenship to those 22 states and the District of Columbia, two immigrants’ rights groups, and four pregnant women.
   5. [Sotomayor writes,] “The gamesmanship in this request is apparent and the Government makes no attempts to hide it. Yet shamefully, this Court plays along.” And by doing so, Sotomayor notes, her conservative colleagues — three of whom Trump installed in his first term — are creating a “new legal regime” in which all of our rights are at risk.
   6. Here are some of the most cutting lines from Sotomayor’s dissent, which Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined.
   7. Oftentimes, legal issues arise that require judges to read between the lines of the Constitution and make assumptions about what the Framers intended. Sotomayor argues that birthright citizenship is simply not one of those issues, as it clearly states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
   8. And the 14^th Amendment includes the equal protection clause, which also affirms that citizenship does not discriminate based on race, sex, ethnicity, religion, or, as Sotomayor notes, parentage.
   9. Sotomayor points to a 2009 decision, Nken v. Holder, in which the Supreme Court ruled that issuing a stay on a lower court’s order is “not a matter of a right” but “an exercise of judicial discretion.” Yet, in accepting the Trump administration’s request to consider nationwide injunctions while ignoring the merits of the president’s birthright citizenship executive order, the court’s conservative majority is rejecting any semblance of equity. Plus, knowing that the order is patently unlawful simply gives more reason to deny the federal government’s application for review.
   10. Sotomayor also criticized the majority’s decision to accept this case under the court’s shadow docket, which it has been doing numerous times for the Trump administration as it appeals lower-court decisions it doesn’t like: “Our emergency docket is not a mechanism for an expedited appeal.”
   11. The federal government attempted to argue that it will suffer irreparable harm by not being able to enforce Trump’s executive order. But, Sotomayor argues, this is not possible, since the executive branch doesn’t have the right to enforce an order that’s clearly unconstitutional. The power to issue executive orders doesn’t permit any president to “rewrite the Constitution or statutory provisions at a whim.”
   12. The bottom line, Sotomayor says, is that “the injunctions do no more harm to the Executive than the Constitution and federal law do.”
   13. In her dissent, Sotomayor calls attention to how the conservative justices — who say they are committed to interpretations of the Constitution supported by history and tradition — have a very selective reading of history when it suits them.
   14. In the majority’s opinion, they rule that universal injunctions “likely exceed the equitable authority that Congress has granted to federal courts.” But Sotomayor explains that federal courts have long exercised their authority to enjoin state and federal laws, including in cases dating back to the 19^th In fact, “the majority does not identify a single case, from the founding era or otherwise, in which this Court held that federal courts may never issue universal injunctions or broaden equitable relief that extends to nonparties,” Sotomayor writes.
   15. Sotomayor argues that the equities at stake in the birthright citizenship executive order should alone force the court to rule against the federal government in this case. Newborns are poised to face “the gravest harms imaginable,” as they are set to lose one of the most vital rights afforded to them under the Constitution. Citizenship is an integral part of American society and enables parents to provide for their children via public programs like Medicaid and food stamps.
   16. The only chance infants now have left, the justice writes, is if “their parents have sufficient resources to file individual suits or successfully challenge the Citizenship Order in removal proceedings.” That’s because the majority has left only one option for immigrants who were not part of the initial wave of lawsuits and now stand to be affected by Trump’s order: file a class action lawsuit.
   17. Within hours of the court releasing its decision, the president held a press conference and confirmed that his administration will “promptly file” to move forward with actions that lower-court judges have blocked. Since the beginning of this year, judges have launched numerous nationwide injunctions against the Trump administration’s unlawful executive actions, including one blocking Trump’s rescission of foreign aid and cutting off funding to schools with DEI initiatives.
   18. Now, without nationwide injunctions as a check on the president’s power, we’re entering uncharted territory.
   19. [Sotomayor writes in her dissent,] “The rule of law is not a given in this Nation, nor any other. It is a precept of our democracy that will endure only if those brave enough in every branch fight for its survival.”
   20. SELECTED QUOTES FROM SOTOMAYOR’S OPINION:
   21. “Few constitutional questions can be answered by resort to the text of the Constitution alone, but this is one. The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees birthright citizenship.”
   22. “Suppose an executive order barred women from receiving unemployment benefits or black citizens from voting. Is the Government irreparably harmed, and entitled to emergency relief, by a district court order universally enjoining such policies? The majority, apparently, would say yes.”
   23. “This Court endorses the radical proposition that the President is harmed, irreparably, whenever he cannot do something he wants to do, even if what he wants to do is break the law.”
   24. “A majority that has repeatedly pledged its fealty to ‘history and tradition’ thus eliminates an equitable power firmly grounded in centuries of equitable principles and practice.”
   25. “To allow the Government to enforce [the birthright citizenship executive order] against even one newborn child is an assault on our constitutional order and antithetical to equity and public interest.”
   26. “The Court’s decision is nothing less than an open invitation for the Government to bypass the Constitution.”
   27. “No right is safe in the new legal regime the Court creates. Today, the threat is to birthright citizenship. Tomorrow, a different administration may try to seize firearms from law-abiding citizens or prevent people of certain faiths from gathering to worship.”
   28. MIKE: These are strong and important statements, and may be judged by history to ultimately be more important that the majority opinion.
   29. MIKE: This is a rogue Supreme Court, dead set on remaking the United States one overturned precedent at a time. So if you don’t know what stare decisis means, don’t concern yourself. At least six Supreme Court Justices don’t know what it means either.
6. Now let’s see in this next story what some of the implications of this ruling are. From the Texas Tribune — “It will affect all families”: Challenges await Texas parents if birthright citizenship ends; By Uriel J. García, Berenice Garcia and Carlos Nogueras Ramos | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | June 27, 2025. TAGS: Health care Immigration Politics State Government Donald Trump, Birthright Citizenship,
   1. Texas parents may face bureaucratic obstacles next month in obtaining United States citizenship for their newborns after the S. Supreme Court ended a nationwide injunction on President Donald Trump’s executive order that seeks to eliminate the constitutional right.
   2. The 6-3 ruling ignited a fresh wave of concern among immigrant rights activists, local elected officials, and health care administrators who will be tasked with carrying out the order.
   3. Shortly after the ruling, civil and immigrant rights groups filed a class-action lawsuit against the Trump administration, which could lead to a nationwide ruling that would prevent Trump’s executive order from taking effect. But as of Friday, the Supreme Court ruling allows the Trump administration to implement this policy 30 days from now, in 28 states, including Texas, that are not legally challenging Trump’s executive order.
   4. Efrén C. Olivares, vice president of litigation and legal strategy at the National Immigration Law Center, said that “nothing changes for the next 30 days, and anyone born in the United States is still a U.S. citizen.”
   5. The scope of the executive order — which aims to prevent the children of undocumented immigrants from obtaining citizenship, a long-standing guarantee given to anyone born in the U.S. that dates back to the end of the American Civil War — will extend beyond immigrants, experts said. The result will [create] a bureaucratic nightmare and a modern-day caste system.
   6. All new parents in states that are not fighting the order will have to prove they are in the country legally if they want their children to also get citizenship, said Elora Mukherjee, director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School.
   7. [Murkherjee said,] “The immediate effect of the ruling is deep uncertainty for families across the country about whether their babies will be born as US citizens or not. It’s worth noting that if this order does take effect, it will affect all families, not just immigrant families, because every family will be required to prove their citizenship status or their lawful permanent resident status in the hospital delivery room.”
   8. Leaving a baby stateless can also lead to their deportation, but to what country will depend on who is willing to accept a baby born in the U.S. without citizenship, [Murkherjee] said.
   9. [Domingo Garcia, national president of the League of Latin American Citizens United, an advocacy group with chapters in Texas said,] “You could have thousands of babies that are essentially stateless. It’s a very cruel and unjust place to put babies and families in.”
   10. According to the Pew Research Center, [in 2016, which is the latest year for which data is available, about 250,000 babies were born to undocumented immigrants in the U.S., [constituting] 6% of the total births.] In Texas, which is among the states leading the country in live births, an average of more than 377,000 babies are born annually.
   11. As of now, state officials and some hospitals have said they’ve not received any instructions from the federal government on how to proceed with potentially implementing Trump’s executive order.
   12. [Lara Anton, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services, said,] “A birth certificate is simply a record of an event that occurred in Texas. They’re required to be filed for any birth in Texas, regardless of citizenship or immigration status, and citizenship is not a field on the birth certificate.”
   13. Rural Texas hospitals don’t plan on withholding birth certificates for babies born in their facilities, said John Henderson, president and CEO of the Texas Organization of Rural and Community Hospitals, representing 157 hospitals in the state.
   14. The certificate is meant to record a birth, and [Henderson said,] hospitals “are still the source of truth when it comes to birth certificates and registry, and that’s the same tomorrow as it is today.”
   15. Henderson added he is not concerned about the ruling’s effects on hospitals, but on the patients who might avoid seeking care as a result.
   16. [Henderson said,] “I don’t think hospitals will change the way that they provide care to anyone, but there might be a reluctance to go to a hospital when you need it.”
   17. If a birth certificate issued at an American hospital is not enough to prove citizenship, then it would be worthless, said Robert H. Crane, a retired immigration attorney in McAllen.
   18. [Crane said,] “The birth certificate will not prove that they’re a U.S. citizen for all these purposes — the Social Security agency won’t accept it, it won’t get you a Texas driver’s license, won’t get you a U.S. passport. It’s virtually useless.”
   19. Obtaining a U.S. passport would require a much higher burden of proof, such as documentation of their parents’ lawful status.
   20. [Crane said,] “It’s so chaotic that I can’t imagine how it would be administered.”
   21. The Trump administration has also not said how it plans to implement this policy, if it could. Last month, during arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court, the lawyer representing the Trump administration said he doesn’t know how it could be implemented.
   22. [U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer told Justice Brett Kavanaugh,] “The federal officials will have to figure that out essentially.” [Kavanaugh then] pressed [Sauer] to explain how and who will be in charge of determining if a baby is a U.S. citizen.
   23. [Sauer conceded,] “We don’t know, because the agencies were never given the opportunity to formulate the guidance.”
   24. [Fawcett, the county’s highest-ranking elected official, said,] “The clear direction is just not quite there on exactly what we’re supposed to be doing here. Are we not allowing U.S.-born children citizenship when that’s the standard practice?”
   25. The U.S. is one of 30 countries in the world that automatically classifies babies born on its soil as citizens, regardless of their parents’ immigration status. In other parts of the world, citizenship is determined by the citizenship or nationality of the parents. Only children born in the U.S. to foreign diplomats are not classified as U.S. citizens because they’re not subject to the U.S. Constitution.
   26. MIKE: What we now have in this country is a rogue Supreme Court that is constantly overturning settled law, and is now even overturning settled Constitutional law.
   27. MIKE: Even though this ruling doesn’t technically address birthright citizenship, it effectively does.
   28. MIKE: Even with all the details and examples given in this story, there is one that I didn’t see addressed. Namely, if someone is born in this country whose parents are here illegally, how many generations does that illegitimacy go back into the past or forward to the future?
   29. MIKE: Here’s an example of what I mean.
   30. MIKE: Suppose that someone is born here, but whose parents came to this country illegally. And suppose that person marries someone else who is born here but whose parents came to this country illegally.
   31. MIKE: Are those two people citizens?
   32. MIKE: Now, let’s further suppose that this married couple has children. If these parents are no longer considered to be citizens due to their parentage, are their children now not citizens? We could end up in a situations where you have to go back into genealogy databases.
   33. MIKE: I don’t think that this is a farfetched example. It might be likely that two people growing up in similar communities with similar local histories could decide to marry. And those two people could easily have similar family and historical backgrounds.
   34. MIKE: This could also raise questions about the birthright citizenship of Trump’s eldest children. Is having one US citizen parent enough to confer citizenship on the children of Ivana Trump? For that matter, should we now have to examine the legitimacy of Donald Trump’s own citizenship?
   35. MIKE: Trump’s father was born to German immigrant parents and his mother was born in Scotland. Does that mean that Donald Trump may not have the requisite citizenship to even serve as president? And does this raise further questions about the citizenship of his own children?
   36. MIKE: Aside from being an affront to the letter of the Constitution, this SCOTUS ruling creates all kinds of practical and administrative problems. I even think that in a very literal way, the Court has now created a Dis-United States where even citizenship is not the same everywhere.
   37. MIKE: Can this ruling stand and still allow us to define the 50 United States as one country???
7. The Republican Plot to Un-Educate America; By Astra Taylor, Eleni Schirmer | NEWREPUBLIC.COM | June 23, 2025. TAGS: Politics, Education, Big Beautiful Bill, Donald Trump, Higher Education, College, Christopher Rufo, Economy,
   1. The Trump administration’s bombastic attacks on the nation’s most prestigious universities have commanded the public’s attention all year long. Now congressional Republicans are poised to dramatically expand that onslaught. If you think the last few months have been bad for Harvard, brace yourself—the [so-called] “big, beautiful bill” is coming, and with it, a new dimension of destruction. 
   2. While it’s mostly gone unremarked upon in the mainstream media, institutions of higher learning across the country are about to be pummeled by the looming reconciliation bill, which may portend an extinction event for higher education as we know it. The bill weaponizes working-class families’ reliance on debt to finance their college dreams with such intensity that not only will it push millions to the financial brink, it will [also] push them out of higher education altogether. 
   3. [MIKE: This may be an appropriate point to mention that one of the key premises of this show is that an educated electorate is a prerequisite for a democracy. Continuing …]
   4. For colleges and universities, the potential fallout is hard to overstate. Whatever schools survive are likely to be drained of working- and middle-class families, instead populated only by society’s most wealthy. As it is, millions of people rightly consider universities to be a costly endeavor that is irrelevant to their everyday life. But rather than remaking higher ed into a vibrant and more democratic institution, this bill threatens to do the opposite.
   5. It will cement the stereotype of higher education as an elite institution into an ironclad reality. On June 25, student debtors and their allies [protested] these devastating cuts in Washington, D.C. But so far, very few elected officials are sounding the alarm on these issues with the fever pitch they deserve, let alone doing the work required to slow down and obstruct their passage into law.  
   6. [MIKE: This story predates the announcement that Democrats will try to force a reading of the 1000-page bill before a vote can be taken. Continuing …]
   7. The overhaul of the student lending system championed by Republican legislators has nothing to do with fiscal responsibility or balancing the budget. Instead, it provides an ominous articulation of the Republican Party’s authoritarian ambitions, one that is chillingly consistent with the bill’s massive increasesfor immigration and border security. This is not a budget bill; it is a debt and deportation bill — and one built on the fascist foundation laid by the Heritage Foundation’s now-notorious Project 2025.
   8. As of this month, Lindsey Burke, formerly the Heritage Foundation’s top education policy official, serves as the Education Department’s deputy chief of staff for policy and programs. As the author of Project 2025’s chapter on education policy, Burke recommended gutting student loan relief (along with diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and scientific research funding) to bring universities to heel and reorient American society toward the far right. 
   9. In the words of influential conservative activist Christopher Rufo, “Reforming the student loan programs could put the whole university sector into a significant recession” and [a] state of “existential terror.” The goal is to use economic policy to impose an unpopular and stifling ideological agenda, [extracted through] punitive student debt. 
   10. Whereas President Biden’s administration was defined by debates over how much student debt should get canceled and how quickly, this bill kicks away the concept of student loan relief altogether. In a draconian sweep, this bill removes the congressionally authorized power to cancel federal student loans that sitting presidents have long possessed. This means that even if the Democrats win back the White House in 2028, the next president will lack a critical tool — one that Biden possessed but, to his lasting shame, refused to use. 
   11. Though many details are not yet settled, as the Senate and House negotiate between their respective versions, there is no doubt that the bill’s impact will be immediate and profound. Eight million student debtors will see their monthly payments spike from $0 to over $400.
   12. Dentists and doctors who choose to work in low-paying community health care centers will no longer be eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness programs, dramatically reducingthe number of health care providers in communities that are already underserved. The bill even comes after the long-standing, Republican-approved federal student loan repayment plans, which allow borrowers to discharge their debts after a certain number of years of regular payments. 
   13. While existing repayment programs cancel loans after 10 to 25 years of repayment, this bill moves the goalposts back to 30 years. As it is, Americans over 60 are the fastest-growing demographic of student debtors: the only age cohort to increase every single quarter of President Biden’s administration. This bill will all but ensure millions of working people carry their debts until death. 
   14. [MIKE: Worth noting here that while I haven’t seen these contracts, it’s possible that the remaining balance of these student loans may survive after death by requiring the estates of the deceased to pay up! Continuing …]
   15. House Republicans, whose proposals are even more extreme than their Senate colleagues’, want to end subsidized loans, driving up costs by tens of thousands of dollars, and place restrictive caps on federal loan amounts. The House bill viciously cuts Pell Grants while increasing the course load required for part-time students to access aid, making it more difficult for people with jobs or family responsibilities to afford to study. 
   16. Both House and Senate versions strive to reduce Parent PLUS and Grad PLUS programs, decreasing working-class families’ abilities to take on loans commensurate with the costs of tuition.
   17. Families that can’t afford to pay up front will either have to take their chances with private lenders — who are likely to shut out the neediest families — or choose to forgo the education altogether. Those who take the gamble will face rising debt loads with little possibility of relief, prompting a doom loop of delinquencies, defaults, and tanked credit scores, exacerbating the financial precarity of already over-stressed and stretched borrowers. 
   18. [This starts to sound a bit like miners who used to be tied to company housing and the company store, with ever-rising debt keeping them trapped in the employment of the mine. Except that the mine didn’t drive them into actual bankruptcy. Also, even in declaring bankruptcy, discharging student debt — whether federal or private — can be difficult or impossible, so there’s no real relief there. Continuing …]
   19. These cuts won’t just harm students who rely on loans to afford college; they will take the doors off colleges’ and universities’ capacity to expand minds and redistribute opportunity.
   20. Lost revenue will encourage schools to close programs, squeeze staff, and perhaps shutter entirely. A proposed endowment tax for colleges and universities has prompted fury among higher education lobbyists, but those players have said very little about the bill’s vigorous imposition of debt as a tool of social control. 
   21. Most insidiously, the House bill conscripts colleges and universities themselves into debt. Under the guise of “accountability,” House Republicans want to force colleges and universities to pay back any unpaid federal loans for “high risk” students. This move is designed to penalize institutions for serving the low-income students who often struggle to pay their loans, and [to] discourage them from offering majors that are not maximally remunerative. They want to turn the working-class kid studying to become a social worker, artist, or a physician into a liability to her university. 
   22. This kind of social engineering through debt isn’t new. In fact, it hails from the origins of the student loan crisis. In the early 1960s, an ambitious politician named Ronald Reagan made his name by picking a fight with the students protesting racism and war on the state’s then tuition-free campuses. [Reagan said,] “Those there to agitate and not to study might think twice before they pay tuition — they might think twice how much they want to pay to carry a picket sign.”
   23. As California’s governor, Reagan tapped into his base’s anxieties about a rapidly integrating and evolving society to chip away at state support for education. As president, he doubled down on this strategy, following the recommendations of the first edition of the Heritage Foundation’s Mandate for Leadership, Project 2025’s precursor, slashing Pell Grants and tightening student loan eligibility for middle-class families. 
   24. As Ryann Liebanthall details in Unburdened, an in-depth history of the student debt crisis, the number of Black college freshmen fell by nearly 8 percent between 1980 and 1983.
   25. More than any other figure, Reagan deserves credit for undermining what once passed as common sense in the U.S. — the principle that public college should be high quality, widely accessible, and tuition-free. Like today’s Republicans, Reagan invoked the figure of the student protester, the specter of racial equality, and the tool of student debt to implement a retrograde agenda. 
   26. Contemporary Republicans are even more brazen. Consider a recent report released by the Heritage Foundation that recommends terminating higher education “subsidies” and student loan cancellation in order to “increase the married birthrate.” What does this goulash mean in plain English?
   27. Widespread access to college has enabled women to envision lives beyond childrearing; restricting access will increase fertility rates. Conservative power players are more than willing to cast the country into a scientific dark age in their quest to shore up traditional worldviews, outmoded hierarchies, and concentrated wealth. 
   28. The reconciliation bill threatens to supercharge their oligarchic cause. Rising costs will reinforce the perception that education is the domain of an out-of-touch elite, prompting many to abandon or abort their academic dreams, which will resegregate broad swaths of society.
   29. The threat of mounting debt will discourage people from studying their passions or pursuing careers in public service, steering them instead toward the private sector or the military.
   30. [MIKE: This may be a good time to remind folks of a tweet on Aug 25, 2022 by then-Representative (now a senator) @SenJimBanks. In that tweet, he said, “Student loan forgiveness undermines one of our military’s greatest recruitment tools at a time of dangerously low enlistments.” This is a gaffe that reveals the exact mind-set of many of these anti-education Republicans. Remember that typically, a gaffe is when a politician accidentally speaks the truth. Continuing …]
   31. [Denying higher education to young people will steer more of them into the private sector. It] will weaken the general bargaining position of workers, who will be less able to use education as a path of upward mobility, while making the labor force more docile; [and] workers burdened by debt are less likely to strike.
   32. By funneling student debtors’ ballooning payments into Wall Street coffers and regressive tax cuts, it will ensure that social and economic disparities become more entrenched.
   33. And it will shrink our horizons. At their best, colleges and universities are not just places where people get trained in a skill or earn a degree; they enable people to grapple with bigger questions — to find out who they are, to unlock what they want to be and do, to discover how the world is made, and to dream how it could be remade differently.
   34. This is why authoritarians find education so threatening, and why the reconciliation bill must be understood as a strike against our freedom to question, learn, and choose our fates. Even, or especially, when that process challenges authority.
   35. While some Democratic leaders have begun to warn of the economic dangers posed by this bill, none yet seem to grasp the existential stakes — nor the transformative vision required to build the political will required to change course. 
   36. Where higher education is concerned, it is not enough to defend a status quo that the American public knows is broken. Today, an astonishing $1.6 trillion in federal student loans crushes nearly 43 million people. This insurmountable burden has made ordinary people increasingly skeptical of the value of education and more susceptible to anti-intellectual appeals.
   37. To counter the Republicans’ vision for higher education, Democrats must go far beyond a milquetoast goal of a less predatory student debt system. They must articulate a galvanizing vision for free college. The measure is popular: Surveys show that many people, including pluralities of Republicans and independents, are supportive of free college, despite decades of Republican propaganda demonizing academia.
   38. In recent months, faculty, staff, students, and student debtors have come together to lay this groundwork. It’s time for Democratic politicians to catch up. We need a legislative and executive agenda that courageously resists Republican tyranny by defending higher education as a public good that is both universal and free. Free as in cost and, just as importantly, free as in aimed at enhancing individual and collective freedom. We can’t afford anything less.
   39. MIKE: I’ll say this again: “An educated electorate is a prerequisite for a democracy.” This is why even — or especially — the college-educated Republicans in Congress want to suppress education. The educated class is always a thorn in the side of autocrats. That’s why they are always the most persecuted and arrested of any class in dictatorships.
   40. MIKE: Education is the enemy of tyranny. So after tyrants hang (or subvert) all the lawyers, as Shakespeare suggested, they arrest the intellectuals.
   41. MIKE: This is the time for all good people to come to the aid of their country!
8. Fired DOJ lawyer exposes Bondi’s blatant disregard for the law; By Alix Breeden, Daily Kos Staff | DAILYKOS.COM | Tuesday, June 24, 2025 at 4:00:14p CDT. TAGS: #Deportation, #DOJ, #ElSalvador, #Immigration, #PamBondi, #JudgeBoasberg, #ErezReuveni, #KilmarAbregoGarcia,
   1. Erez Reuveni, a top lawyer who was kicked to the curb by the Department of Justice for not defending their agenda to deport men to El Salvador without due process, has officially blown the whistle. 
   2. The lawyer filed a 27-page report Tuesday [last week], obtained by The New York Times, detailing the many ways in which Attorney General Pam Bondi and judicial nominee Emil Bove III have illegally dodged and intimidated others to get their way. 
   3. On one hand, this information feels less than shocking given how President Donald Trump and his team outright ignored orders to stop planes that were en route to detainment centers. However, this marks the first time someone who was on the inside has spoken out about it specifically. 
   4. In the filing, Reuveni recalls how Bove — whose nomination for circuit court judge [took place last] Wednesday — blatantly ignored Judge James E. Boasberg’s orders to keep planeloads of immigrants on U.S. soil. Not only that, but Reuveni’s supervisor, Drew Ensign, allegedly lied to Boasberg’s face during a hearing when asked if he knew about any upcoming plans to fly immigrants to other detention centers in the next 24 to 48 hours. 
   5. According to the report, Ensign told Boasberg, “I don’t know the answer to that question.”
   6. But if you ask Reuveni, the potential new circuit judge had informed him just the day before. 
   7. [According to Reuveni,] “Ensign had been present in the previous day’s meeting when Emil Bove stated clearly that one or more planes containing individuals subject to the [Alien Enemies Act] would be taking off over the weekend no matter what.”
   8. Reuveni went on to detail how Bove and others withheld information for as long as possible from Boasberg to keep the deportation flights in the air. 
   9. And as the former top lawyer laid out example after example showing how the administration was brazenly defying the courts, he eventually recalled how he was faced with his own ultimatum. 
   10. In the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland father who was wrongly abducted by ICE and deported to El Salvador’s terrorism confinement center, Reuveni was tasked with defending the U.S. government’s decision to keep Garcia locked up. However, as the facts unfolded, Reuveni could not. According to his filing, he was asked by another supervisor, August Flentje, to sign testimony stating that Garcia was a terrorist. Ultimately, he chose not to, which led to his firing. 
   11. While Garcia has returned … to the U.S. and Trump’s cronies lost the fight of labeling him as a dangerous MS-13 gang member, his legal battles are still ongoing. As of [last] Monday, a judge ordered his release for an ongoing human smuggling case—the Trump administration’s latest claim. 
   12. However, the DOJ is threatening to deport Garcia the moment he steps outside of jail. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement obtained by CBS Monday that Garcia “will never go free on American soil.”
   13. Then again, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes doesn’t see a reason for all of the hostility. 
   14. [Holmes wrote,] “Overall, the Court cannot find from the evidence presented that Abrego Garcia’s release clearly and convincingly poses an irremediable danger to other persons or to the community.”
   15. Garcia’s case is ongoing, but he may be one of the lucky men who has seen the outside of El Salvador’s CECOT. Of the over 250 immigrants deported, so far only Garcia has been granted any sort of due process for the crimes he is accused of committing. 
   16. Other men, such as 24-year-old Widmer Josneyder Agelviz-Sanguino, are still being held despite the only provided evidence for their imprisonment being the tattoos on their body. 
   17. MIKE: There are 17 more months to the 2026 elections. The future depends on us.
9. US sees spate of arrests of civilians impersonating Ice officers; By José Olivares | THEGUARDIAN.COM | Sat 28 Jun 2025 17.14 EDT. TAGS: US policing, US immigration, Trump administration, California, West Coast, US politics, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),
   1. Police in southern California arrested a man suspected of posing as a federal immigration officer this week, the latest in a series of such arrests, as masked, plainclothes immigration agents are deployed nationwide to meet the Trump administration’s mass deportation targets.
   2. The man, Fernando Diaz, was arrested by Huntington Park police after officers said they found a loaded gun and official-looking documents with Department of Homeland Security headings in his SUV, according to NBC Los Angeles. Officers were impounding his vehicle for parking in a handicapped zone when Diaz asked to retrieve items inside, the police said. Among the items seen by officers in the car were “multiple copies of passports not registered under the individual’s name”, NBC reports.
   3. Diaz was arrested for possession of the allegedly unregistered firearm and released on bail.
   4. The Huntington Park police chief and mayor accused Diaz of impersonating an immigration agent at a news conference, a move Diaz later told the NBC News affiliate he was surprised by.
   5. Diaz also denied to the outlet that he had posed as an officer with border patrol or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice). At the news conference, police showed reporters paper they found inside his car with an official-looking US Customs and Border Protection header.
   6. The arrest is one of several cases involving people allegedly impersonating immigration officials, as the nationwide crackdown on undocumented immigrants intensifies.
   7. Experts have warned that federal agents’ increased practice of masking while carrying out immigration raids and arrests makes it easier for imposters to pose as federal officers.
   8. Around the country, the sight of ICE officers emerging from unmarked cars in plainclothes to make arrests has become increasingly common.
   9. In March, for instance, a Tufts University student was seen on video being arrested by masked ICE officials outside her apartment, after her visa had been revoked for writing an opinion article in her university newspaper advocating for Palestinian rights. And many federal agents operating in the Los Angeles region in recent weeks have been masked.
   10. In late January, a week after Trump took office, a man in South Carolina was arrested and charged with kidnapping and impersonating an officer, after allegedly presenting himself as an ICE officer and detaining a group of Latino men.
   11. In February, two people impersonating ICE officers attempted to enter a Temple University residence hall. CNN reported that Philadelphia police later arrested one of them, a 22-year-old student, who was charged with impersonating an officer.
   12. In North Carolina the same week, another man, Carl Thomas Bennett, was arrested after allegedly impersonating an ICE officer and sexually assaulting a woman. Bennett reportedly threatened to deport the woman if she did not comply.
   13. In April, a man in Indiantown, Florida, was arrested for impersonating an Ice officer and targeting immigrants. Two men reported to the police that the man had performed a fake traffic stop, and then asked for their documents and immigration status.
   14. Mike German, a former FBI agent and fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, told the Guardian last week that the shootings of two Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota, by a suspect who allegedly impersonated a police officer, highlights the danger of police not looking like police.
   15. [German said,] “Federal agents wearing masks and casual clothing significantly increases this risk of any citizen dressing up in a way that fools the public into believing they are law enforcement so they can engage in illegal activity. It is a public safety threat, and it’s also a threat to the agents and officers themselves, because people will not immediately be able to distinguish between who is engaged in legitimate activity or illegitimate activity when violence is occurring in public.”
   16. MIKE: I’m actually surprised that there haven’t been more documented cases of these sorts. I think that this should emphasize not only to victims of ICE sweeps, but also to bystanders who are witnesses to such sweeps, to reflexively think of calling 911 and reporting a possible attempted kidnapping.
   17. MIKE: If this is the game that these alleged federal agents are going to play in masks and plain clothes, and refusing to show official badges and ID, then it’s perfectly reasonable for all witnesses — citizens or not — to assume that a kidnapping is taking place and to call city or county police to come immediately to the scene as an emergency.
   18. MIKE: As this story makes clear, you may be exactly right in doing so.
10. Spaniards turn water pistols on visitors to protest mass tourism; By The Associated Press | NPR.ORG | June 16, 2025@1:09 AM ET. TAGS: Spain, Tourism, Protests, Venice, Italy, Lisbon, Portugal, Short-term Rentals,
    1. Protesters used water pistols against unsuspecting tourists in Barcelona and on the Spanish island of Mallorca on Sunday as demonstrators marched to demand a rethink of an economic model they believe is fueling a housing crunch and erasing the character of their hometowns.
    2. The marches were part of the first coordinated effort by activists concerned with the ills of overtourism across southern Europe’s top destinations. While several thousands rallied in Mallorca in the biggest gathering of the day, hundreds more gathered in other Spanish cities, as well as in Venice, Italy, and Portugal’s capital, Lisbon.
    3. [Andreu Martínez said in Barcelona with a chuckle after spritzing a couple seated at an outdoor café,] “The squirt guns are to bother the tourists a bit. Barcelona has been handed to the tourists. This is a fight to give Barcelona back to its residents.”
    4. Martínez, a 42-year-old administrative assistant, is one of a growing number of residents who are convinced that tourism has gone too far in the city of 1.7 million people. Barcelona hosted 15.5 million visitors last year eager to see Antoni Gaudí’s La Sagrada Familia basilica and the Las Ramblas promenade.
    5. Martínez says his rent has risen over 30% as more apartments in his neighborhood are rented to tourists for short-term stays. He said there is a knock-on effect of traditional stores being replaced by businesses catering to tourists, like souvenir shops, burger joints and “bubble tea” spots.
    6. [Martínez said,] “Our lives, as lifelong residents of Barcelona, are coming to an end. We are being pushed out systematically.”
    7. Around 5,000 people gathered in Palma, the capital of Mallorca, with some toting water guns as well and chanting “Everywhere you look, all you see are tourists.”
    8. The tourists who were targeted by water blasts laughed it off. The Balearic island is a favorite for British and German sun-seekers. It has seen housing costs skyrocket as homes are diverted to the short-term rental market.
    9. Hundreds more marched in Granada, in southern Spain, and in the northern city of San Sebastián, as well as the island of Ibiza.
    10. In Venice, a couple of dozen protesters unfurled a banner calling for a halt to new hotel beds in the lagoon city in front of two recently completed structures; one is in the popular tourist destination’s historic center where activists say the last resident, an elderly woman, was kicked out last year.
    11. … Protesters in Barcelona blew whistles and held up homemade signs saying, “One more tourist, one less resident.” They stuck stickers saying, “Citizen Self-Defense,” in Catalan, and “Tourist Go Home,” in English, with a drawing of a water pistol on the doors of hotels and hostels.
    12. There was tension when the march stopped in front of a large hostel, where a group emptied their water guns at two workers positioned in the entrance. They also set off firecrackers next to the hostel and opened a can of pink smoke. One worker spat at the protesters as he slammed the hostel’s doors.
    13. American tourists Wanda and Bill Dorozenski were walking along Barcelona’s main luxury shopping boulevard where the protest started. They received a squirt or two, but she said it was actually refreshing given the 83-degree Fahrenheit (28.3 degrees Celsius) weather.
    14. “That’s lovely, thank you sweetheart,” Wanda said to the squirter. [She went on to say,] “I am not going to complain. These people are feeling something to them that is very personal, and is perhaps destroying some areas (of the city).”
    15. There were also many marchers with water pistols who didn’t fire at bystanders and instead solely used them to spray themselves to keep cool.
    16. … Cities across the world are struggling with how to cope with mass tourism and a boom in short-term rental platforms, like Airbnb, but perhaps nowhere has surging discontent been so evident as in Spain, where protesters in Barcelona first took to firing squirt guns at tourists during a protest last summer.
    17. There has also been a confluence of the pro-housing and anti-tourism struggles in Spain, whose 48 million residents welcomed record 94 million international visitors in 2024. When thousands marched through the streets of Spain’s capital in April, some held homemade signs saying “Get Airbnb out of our neighborhoods.”
    18. Spanish authorities are striving to show they hear the public outcry while not hurting an industry that contributes 12% of gross domestic product.
    19. Last month, Spain’s government ordered Airbnb to remove almost 66,000 holiday rentals from the platform that it said had violated local rules.
    20. Spain’s Consumer Rights Minister Pablo Bustinduy told The Associated Press shortly after the crackdown on Airbnb that the tourism sector “cannot jeopardize the constitutional rights of the Spanish people,” which enshrines their right to housing and well-being. Carlos Cuerpo, the economy minister, said in a separate interview that the government is aware it must tackle the unwanted side effects of mass tourism.
    21. The boldest move was made by Barcelona’s town hall, which stunned Airbnb and other services who help rent properties to tourists by announcing last year the elimination of all 10,000 short-term rental licenses in the city by 2028.
    22. That sentiment was back in force on Sunday, where people held up signs saying “Your Airbnb was my home.”
    23. … The short-term rental industry, for its part, believes it is being treated unfairly.
    24. “I think a lot of our politicians have found an easy scapegoat to blame for the inefficiencies of their policies in terms of housing and tourism over the last 10, 15, 20 years,” Airbnb’s general director for Spain and Portugal, Jaime Rodríguez de Santiago recently told the AP.
    25. That argument either hasn’t trickled down to the ordinary residents of Barcelona, or isn’t resonating.
    26. Txema Escorsa, a teacher in Barcelona, doesn’t just oppose Airbnb in his home city, he has ceased to use it even when traveling elsewhere, out of principle.
    27. “In the end, you realize that this is taking away housing from people,” he said.

There’s always more to discuss, but that’s all we have time for today. You’ve been listening to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig from KPFT Houston 90.1-HD2, Galveston 89.5-HD2, and Huntsville 91.9-HD2. We are Houston’s Community Media. I hope you’ve enjoyed the show and found it interesting, and I look forward to sharing this time with you again next week. Y’all take care!