Now in our 12th year on KPFT!

FYI: WordPress is forcing me to work with a new type of editor, so things will look … different … for a while. I’m hoping I’ll improve with a learning curve. Please bear with me, and let me know of any odd glitches you see that I may not, so I can try to fix them. — Mike

Beginning April 20th, Thinkwing Radio will air on KPFT 90.1-HD2 on Sundays at 1PM, and will re-air on Mondays at 2PM and Wednesdays at 11AM. Thanks for listening!

AUDIO:

 

Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig (@ThinkwingRadio) is now on Sundays at 1PM and re-runs Wednesday at 11AM (CT) on KPFT 90.1 FM-HD2, Houston’s Community Media. You can also hear the show:

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1. 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 fifth week of Trump’s military occupation of Los Angeles and the first week of his deployment of Marines to his “Alligator Alcatraz”.

   1. Food insecurity rate sees increase in Fort Bend County; By Grace Hu | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 5:39 PM Jul 3, 2025 CDT/Updated 5:39 PM Jul 3, 2025 CDT. TAGS: Fort Bend County, Food Insecurity, Poverty Line,
      1. Between 2022-23, Fort Bend County saw a 1.6 percentage point increase in the overall rate of food insecurity, from 11.1% in 2022 to 12.7% as of 2023, according to Feeding America’s 2025 “Map the Meal Gap” report published May 14. The 12.7% equates to roughly 100,000 people who are currently food insecure.
      2. The food insecurity rate in children has stayed constant between 2022-23 at 16.6%, which corresponds to around 38,000 food-insecure children as of 2023, according to the report.
      3. … As of 2023, [only] an estimated 37% of these 100,000 people qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the nation’s largest food assistance program, according to the report. Of the 38,000 food-insecure children, 55% are likely ineligible for federal nutrition programs as of 2023—which require the household income to be at or below 185% the poverty line.
      4. [MIKE: Thanks to Trump and his Republicans, that number is only likely to get worse. Continuing …]
      5. … The average meal cost in Fort Bend County as of 2023, estimated by the Current Population Survey, was $3.43, whereas in 2019, it was $3.03, according to the report.
      6. The annual budget shortfall, based on the Current Population Survey, has also grown from $37.4 million in 2019 to $70.7 million in 2023. This is the total amount of money food-insecure individuals report needing on average to purchase enough food to meet their nutritional needs.
      7. Food insecurity impacts people from all backgrounds, but Black and Latino individuals experience food insecurity at a higher rate. In Fort Bend, that translates to 22% and 19%, respectively, of those populations who are food-insecure, according to the report.
      8. … Nationally, the overall food insecurity rate in the S. is 14.3% as of 2023, equating to over 47 million food-insecure individuals. In Texas, the food insecurity rate is 17.6% as of 2023—around 5.36 million food-insecure individuals, according to the report.
      9. Food insecurity is often linked to one or multiple factors, including household income, expenses, and the surrounding social and physical environment. While the issue affects communities everywhere, the impact varies, according to the report.
      10. View the 2025 “Map the Meal Gap” report
      11. MIKE: If 14.3% of Americans are food insecure but that number is 23% higher in Texas, what does that say about Republican governance in Texas? I’ll tell you.
      12. MIKE: It means that for all of Texas’s bragging about being business friendly, the part Republicans won’t say out loud is that Texas is human-hostile.
      13. MIKE: I want listeners to consider that number for the cost of an average meal: $3.43. Is that $3.43 for each of three meals per day? The article doesn’t say, just that’s an average meal cost. So let’s say that number is for three meals per day, totaling $10.29.
      14. MIKE: You can still usually find a deal for a large 1-topping pizza with 8 slices for about $11 with tax. Can one person make that stretch for 3 meals? Perhaps. If all you drink is water. That might net you about 1600 or so calories per day. Many people can live on that but most of them will lose weight. And no coffee or milk or snacks or dessert on that budget.
      15. MIKE: Of course, that meal doesn’t have to be pizza, since homemade meals can be cheaper overall, but ingredients cost money. Sometimes that means that homemade is cheaper than store bought, but consider that if you wanted to make that large 1-topping pizza at home, the ingredients would cost you more than $10-11.
      16. MIKE: All I’m saying is that making meals at that price per meal is an ongoing challenge that makes life an unending struggle that can affect not just physical health but also mental health.
      17. MIKE: And if I stick with my pizza-themed analogy, let me go one step further in a way that addresses Trump’s “let them eat cake” big bill.
      18. MIKE: The top 1% of Americans own about 30% of the nation’s wealth, and wealth is often shown as a pie chart, so let’s stick with that. If you had a single large pizza and 8 people to divide it among, one person would get 30% of that pie, or 2-1/2 slices.
      19. MIKE: Now let’s take that analogy a little further. The bottom 50% of Americans own about 2.5% of the nation’s wealth. So if we continue dividing that same pie according to this ratio, now one person gets 2-1/2 slices, 3 people share 5-1/4 slices, and the last 4 people get to divide about 1/4 of a slice.
      20. MIKE: Confronted with that stark case of division inequality, how do you think the 8 people in that room with that one large pizza would get along at mealtime?
      21. MIKE: I leave it to your imagination. Now put it in the context of the bill just passed by the Republican Congress and that Trump has signed with great pomp and pride.
      22. MIKE: And imagine America over the next 3-1/2 years.
   2. $2M in grants awarded to 6 Houston-area workforce skill training programs; By Natalie Johnson | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 4:42 PM Jul 2, 2025 CDT/Updated 4:42 PM Jul 2, 2025 CDT. TAGS: Workforce Skills Training And Job Placement Programs, Texas, Houston TX, Gov. Greg Abbott,
      7. Greg Abbott awarded over $7.3 million in Texas Talent Connections grants to 22 workforce skills training and job placement programs across the state July 1, according to a July 1 news release.
      8. Six of those programs — Alliance of Community Assistance Ministries, Brazosport College, Houston’s Capital IDEA, Per Scholas, The Women’s Resource of Greater Houston and Volunteers of America-Houston — are in the Greater Houston area and were awarded [a total] over $2 million.
      9. … Alliance of Community Assistance Ministries, Inc. received $350,000 for year one of the Health Care Careers Initiative in the Greater Houston area, according to the release. This program helps individuals secure employment as medical, dental or nursing assistants.
      10. Brazosport College was awarded $349,432 for the first year of the Opportunity Connect: Re-Engaging Opportunity Youth project in Brazoria County. It aims to re-engage youth through education and skills training for occupations in health care and construction trades, according to the release.
      11. Houston’s Capital IDEA, Inc. was awarded $350,000 for year three of the Future-Focused Texas Workforce Pathways in Nursing and Technology project. The grant provides education and training in nursing and technology fields for unemployed or underemployed low-income adults, according to the release.
      12. Per Scholas, Inc. was awarded $350,000 for year two of the Creating Economic Mobility and Robust Futures through IT Training project. It provides tuition-free technical skill training for analysts, technicians and engineers, according to the release.
      13. The YourLife Careers program by the Women’s Resource of Greater Houston was awarded $347,929 for its first year. It is a 12-month program that provides 100 low-income women with training and opportunities in high-paying jobs in trades, health care industries and nondestructive testing, according to the release.
      14. Volunteers of America-Houston received $350,000 for the first year of the IGNITE: Empowering Youth through Technology project, according to the release. The program will serve 250 youth from ages 17-25 and provide training in health care, information technology trades, digital media and entrepreneurship.
      15. … “To continue to meet workforce demands in an expanding economy, Texas is connecting more Texans to the skills training needed for the better job and bigger paycheck opportunities we provide,” Abbott said via news release. “Together with our community partners and entrepreneurs, we will build an even stronger Texas workforce of tomorrow.”
      16. MIKE: All of this is good news, with caveats.
      17. MIKE: First, any time I here of State money going to a ministry, I consider that highly problematic.
      18. MIKE: Also, the Ministries’, Houston’s Capital IDEA’s, and Per Scholas program grants don’t say how many students those programs will serve with that money, so that’s a relevant detail that I’d like reported.
      19. MIKE: The YourLife Careers program will serve 100 women in 12-month programs for $348,000, and the Volunteers of America-Houston program’s $350,000 grant will serve 250 young adults. (I have trouble calling anyone over 19 or 20 a “youth”.)
      20. MIKE: So what does all this mean in the Big Picture?
      21. MIKE: Well, I’d like to know if all or any of these programs are non-profit? I always feel more confident in the efficacy and value of non-profit education and training programs.
      22. MIKE: And of course, for several hundred people, this is probably good news.
      23. MIKE: Now, imagine what Texas and Houston could do for their citizens if the State government didn’t keep lowering the caps and permissions available for tax revenue. Instead of the flat tax regimes that Texas has created that disfavor the less wealthy, we could have progressive income taxes and lower property taxes.
      24. MIKE: We could have less expensive higher education as well as government-sponsored vocational and trade training.
      25. MIKE: We could have less food insecurity and better Medicaid coverage.
      26. MIKE: If Texas raised its minimum wage, maybe we’d have fewer working Texans needing government assistance, thus reducing the need for government-sponsored food and medical assistance.
      27. MIKE: I keep saying that you get the government you pay for, but Republicans keep saying they don’t want any government, paid for or not. And especially no government aid to the needy, because helping the needy is apparently against modern ideals of Christianity unless there’s something in it for them.
      28. MIKE: And all of this reflects back on Trump’s and the Republicans’ “let them eat cake” big bill that they’re all so proud of.
      29. MIKE: Maybe this is a good time to play FDR’s response during the 1936 election to Republicans campaigning against his New Deal programs. You can find it online under “Let me warn you.”
      30. [PLAY AUDIO: 0:57s] TRANSCRIPT: “Let me warn you, and let me warn the nation, against the smooth evasion that says ‘Of course we believe these things. We believe in social security. We believe in work for the unemployed. We believe in saving homes. Cross our hearts and hope to die. ‘We believe in all these things. But we do not like the way that the present administration is doing them. Just turn them over to us. We will do all of them, we will do more of them, we will do them better and, most important of all, the doing of them will not cost anybody anything.’”
      31. MIKE: That particular clip is from a Thom Hartman video because it’s a cleaner copy. His version starts at the 20 second mark.
      32. MIKE: If all of that sounds perfectly familiar, it’s because Republicans have been trying to kill these programs for 90 years, and this is as close as they’ve come to succeeding in all that time.
      33. MIKE: Maybe we should just play this every day for 60 days before every election. It so perfectly STILL exemplifies the Republican Party almost 100 years later, but now with fascism.
      34. I might even make it my new outro audio for October and November before every election.
   3. Here’s what’s in Trump’s GOP megabill and how it will affect Texans; By Gabby Birenbaum and Owen Dahlkamp | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | July 3, 2025@7 PM Central. TAGS: President Donald Trump, Domestic Policy Agenda, Texas, “Big Beautiful Bill”, Megabill,
      1. MIKE: There are lots of specifics in this story that I’ve edited out for time, you can read them by going to the article link in the show post.
      2. After months of intense back-and-forth negotiations, on-the-floor haggling, and threats to tank the legislation, Republicans’ massive tax and spending bill is heading to President Donald Trump’s desk to become law.
      3. The wide-ranging megabill is the vehicle for much of Trump’s domestic policy agenda for his second term in the White House, with major changes in health care, immigration and tax policy that are sure to touch nearly every American. Here are the major ways Texas will be affected.
      4. ACA and Medicaid — Over 300,000 Texans could lose their health insurance once the Medicaid changes passed by Congress take effect in 2027.
      5. Medicaid, a federal-state health insurance program for low-income and disabled people, insures over 4 million Texans. The federal government paid for nearly two-thirds of the program’s $57 billion costs in Texas during the 2023 fiscal year…
      6. Using estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, KFF projects that Texas stands to lose 10% of its federal Medicaid funds over the next decade, or $39 billion.
      7. The cuts could be particularly potent in the Rio Grande Valley, which has an outsized number of Medicaid recipients, and in rural areas, where hospitals rely on Medicaid payments. Texas already has the highest uninsured rate in the nation.
      8. Beyond Medicaid, the bill makes it harder to enroll in coverage through Affordable Care Act marketplaces and allows for the expiration of Biden-era enhanced premium tax credits that lower out-of-pocket costs for people with ACA marketplace coverage. Because Texas is among the 10 states that have never expanded Medicaid under the ACA, its residents rely heavily on marketplace coverage and the soon-to-expire tax credits.
      9. Taken together, KFF estimates that the megabill’s provisions will lead to 1.7 million Texans losing their coverage, adding to the nearly 5 million children and adults under 65 who currently lack health insurance.
      10. The GOP megabill also imposes national work requirements on Medicaid for the first time in the program’s history — but only for enrollees in states that have expanded Medicaid, meaning they will not apply to existing Texas Medicaid recipients.
      11. Before the Senate passed the bill this week, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said in a floor speech that the work requirements would strengthen Medicaid for its intended recipients — children, the disabled and pregnant women. …
      12. Texas Democrats have homed in on Medicaid cuts as the most devastating portion of the bill. …
      13. SNAP — The Republican bill also includes deep cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, previously known as food stamps.
      14. But the size of Texas’ SNAP cut is up in the air, dependent on how often the state errs in over- or underpaying benefit recipients.
      15. Under the bill, states will have to cover a portion of SNAP benefits — which are currently paid for by the federal government in full — based on the percentage of erroneous payments made. States with an error rate under 6% will not have to share the cost, while states above that will be on the hook for escalating costs tied to their error rate.
      16. Texas logged an error rate of 8.3% in fiscal 2024 — meaning that, had the law been in place, the state would have been responsible for 10% of the cost of SNAP benefits, or $716 million per year, according to the North Texas Food Bank. …
      17. In addition, Texas will now need to pay for 75% of the administrative cost of running the SNAP program, up from the current 50% rate. Feeding Texas, the statewide network of food banks, estimates that the new arrangement will cost the state $89.5 million annually.
      18. Republicans also tightened SNAP work requirements in the bill. Previously, recipients over age 52 and those with children under 18 in their house were exempted from having to meet such requirements. Now, able-bodied Texans between the ages of 52 and 65 and those with children over 14 must prove they are working at least 80 hours per month to qualify for benefits.
      19. Immigration and the border — Among the top priorities for Texas members was securing money to reimburse the state for the billions it spent on immigration enforcement along the southern border under the Biden administration. That money is now poised to flow to Texas after making it into the bill’s final draft. …
      20. Texas’ GOP delegation at first pushed congressional leaders to include $12 billion in reimbursements for states that spent money on border enforcement. Cornyn secured an additional $1.5 billion in the Senate version, upping the available grants to $13.5 billion. The rules for this pot of money ensure that Texas has the largest claim to the funds of any state. …
      21. Clean energy — The bill rolled back several key provisions of former President Joe Biden’s landmark Inflation Reduction Act, which created tax credits for clean energy projects to spur industry investment.
      22. Those subsidies will be phased out under a provision that reserves the tax credits only for solar and wind projects that are up and running by the end of 2027. Projects that start construction within a year of the law’s enactment — including those that become operational post-2027 — also will remain eligible.
      23. Several Republicans, including U.S. Rep. Chip Roy of Austin, wanted to see the credits abolished immediately. Roy claimed that clean energy cannot reliably power Texas’ grid, as some energy generators, such as solar panels and wind turbines, can only produce electricity in favorable weather conditions. He also said the credits subsidize foreign manufacturers whose renewable energy products dominate the American market. …
      24. Tax cuts — The centerpiece of the Republican megabill is the extension of an array of income tax cuts from the 2017 tax-cut package Trump signed into law during his first term.
      25. Set to expire at the end of the year, the cuts were permanently enshrined in the bill, allowing most Americans to continue benefiting.
      26. Republicans on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee estimate that a family of four earning the median income in Texas — $75,780 — would have seen its tax bill rise by $1,550 if the 2017 cuts had expired and tax rates had reverted to their Obama-era levels.
      27. Independent analyses of the bill have found that its benefits will mostly flow to the wealthy, while tax savings for the lowest earners will be largely offset by benefit cuts.
      28. A state-by-state analysis by the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank, found that the top 1% of Texans — or those making over $806,800 — will see the biggest share of the tax cuts. Those top earners will save 3.4%, or an average of $114,680 per year, on their federal income tax due to the passage of the bill. …
      29. And seniors can add $6,000 to their standard deduction, also through the 2028 tax year.
      30. Trump accounts — Born out of a late-night poker game last year, Cruz championed the idea of “Trump accounts,” a provision included in the bill that will seed $1,000 in a tax-deferred investment account for nearly every child born in America in 2025 and beyond. As each recipient ages into adulthood, family, friends and nonprofits will be able to contribute up to $5,000 annually. Once they reach 18, the beneficiaries will be able to access half the funds for limited purposes — such as educational expenses, starting a small business or placing a down payment on a home. They can withdraw the rest once they reach age 31. …
      31. This obviously benefits wealthy families enormously. Continuing …]
      32. Pell Grant program — The megabill narrowly avoided cuts to the Pell Grant that would have devastated nearly half a million Texas students who depend on the aid to pay for college.
      33. The House initially proposed stricter requirements to qualify for the Pell Grant, which helps cover costs for low-income students and is the largest source of grant aid in Texas. Students would have had to take more college credits each semester to get the full award, and students who are enrolled less than half-time would have lost access to the aid entirely.
      34. In the end, the Senate stripped those changes after college access advocates sounded alarms about the educational barriers they would have raised.
      35. The bill does prevent students from qualifying for the Pell Grant if their college already covers the full cost of attendance. Many schools across Texas offer so-called “promise programs” that cover tuition and fees after Pell grant kicks in.
      36. Republicans on Capitol Hill also extended Pell Grants to short-term workforce training programs, which can last just eight to 15 weeks. …
      37. Incentives for K-12 scholarships — The legislation also includes one of Cruz’s priorities: annual tax credits for people who donate to nonprofits that give scholarships to elementary and secondary school students — a framework supporters call “school choice” and that is similar to private school vouchers. …
      38. Under the provision, donors will receive a tax break equal to the amount they give to K-12 scholarship-granting organizations, including those that help students pay to attend private schools. The credit will max out at $1,700 annually, down from an earlier cap of 10% of the donor’s income, and states will get to opt in, meaning Democratic-controlled states could decline to participate. …
      39. Moving the Space Shuttle Discovery — Another provision secured by Cornyn requires the NASA administrator to consider [emphasis mine] moving the Space Shuttle Discovery from its current home in Virginia to the Johnson Space Center in Houston. …
      40. The senior Texas senator also secured an additional $10 billion in funding to support programs at the Houston space center and more money for the International Space Station and NASA’s Moon and Mars exploration program, known as Artemis.
      41. MIKE: Even without the details I’ve cut, I think it’s obvious that all of this mostly favors the well-to-do and wealthy, and further disadvantages the less fortunate and poor.
      42. MIKE: These are eternal Republicans goals. Well, mission finally accomplished!
   4. Texas’ immigration law is unconstitutional, appeals court rules; By Uriel J. García | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | July 4, 2025. TAGS: U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Immigration, Texas, Texas Bill SB 4,
      1. In a late-night ruling Thursday, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals continued to block Texas from enforcing a 2023 immigration law that would allow local police to arrest people they suspect crossed the Texas-Mexico border illegally.
      2. A three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based court handed down a 2-1 ruling that the law, known as Senate Bill 4, conflicts with federal law. The court also reinforced the federal government’s primary role in immigration enforcement.
      3. [The ruling says,] “For nearly 150 years, the Supreme Court has recognized that the power to control immigration — the entry, admission, and removal of aliens — is exclusively a federal power.”
      4. After the Texas Legislature passed SB 4 in 2023, the Biden administration filed a lawsuit to block it. A U.S. District judge sided with the administration, then Texas appealed that ruling.
      5. Earlier this year, the Trump administration dropped the federal government’s legal challenge to the law. The lawsuit continued, however, because El Paso County and two immigrant rights groups — the Austin-based American Gateways and the El Paso-based Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center — continued with their challenge. The groups are being represented by lawyers from the Texas Civil Rights Project.
      6. The [Texas] law would make it a state crime to cross the Texas-Mexico border between ports of entry. If a police officer believes they have evidence that a person illegally crossed the Rio Grande, that person could be charged with a Class B misdemeanor, which carries a punishment of up to six months in jail. For subsequent offenses, the person could be charged with a second-degree felony and face up to 20 years in prison.
      7. The law says that if the migrant is convicted and has served their sentence, a judge must order police to transport them to a port of entry for removal from the country. A judge could drop the charges if a migrant voluntarily agrees to return to Mexico
      8. MIKE: So Texas got good news and bad news on immigration enforcement this week. The bad news was this ruling that Texas is not a country and can’t regulate the US border
      9. MIKE: But the good news for Texas — at least for the Republicans in Texas — is that Trump’s big new “Let Them Eat Cake” Bill has increased ICE’s budget by about 4000%. Stated another way if you’re not great at math, next year’s ICE budget was increased 40 times over its current budget.
      10. MIKE: So Righties in Texas can look forward to more daytime abductions that may or may not be kidnappings, by masked people in plain clothes who may or may not be actual federal agents, and who may or may not be illegally abducting US citizens, and they almost certainly will not be abducting dangerous illegal immigrants.
   5. MIKE: I have some comments:
      1. Make no mistake. What we are witnessing now in the United States may be about to cross the line from creeping fascism to creeping Nazism.
      2. You may ask what brings me to this conclusion and how I can describe current US government policies in such heinous terms.
      3. Well, let’s look at the record. Masked people in plain clothes pulling people off the street into unmarked cars without any official identification or paperwork, or any due process. Check.
      4. Abducting people with no due process even as they are following the law and going to court as part of their lawful immigration obligations. Check.
      5. Building concentration camps, but sanitizing the idea by calling them the less horrific-sounding “detention camps”, while holding people in conditions that actually mirror Nazi concentration camps. Check.
      6. Our government is so proud of their so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” that they’re selling swag with that name. A line that even Hitler’s Nazis didn’t think to cross. Check.
      7. A cabinet official stating her belief that Habeas Corpus means that Donald Trump can deport anyone to anywhere without due process. I’ll give that a qualified checkmark because I’m not sure that even Heinrich Himmler ever actually said anything like that.
      8. Our government is now not just deporting people to their countries of alleged origin. People are being deported to 3^rd countries all over the world that the deportees have no ethnic, linguistic, or historical ties to and — even better — they’re war zones!
      9. And we have recently been warned that even naturalized citizens are not safe. Anyone that Trump doesn’t like might be subject to denaturalization and subsequent deportation to lord-knows-where since many of the naturalized people would end up being officially stateless.
      10. It’s not a matter of whether Trump can do that, because the Supreme Court has said that the president can do anything as part of his official duties without being prosecuted, so the only question is will Trump do that?
      11. Hey, Libya or South Sudan or Rwanda, here we come!
      12. Tell me that this isn’t reminiscent of the early years of Nazi Germany when so-called undesirables were allowed to emigrate to any country that would take them. Maybe soon, we’ll be charging exorbitant prices for exit visas for people that see the handwriting on the wall and want to escape the United States.
      13. In the 1930s, before the war, the German government would grant émigrés an exit visa if the price was right, and if the would-be émigrés didn’t take cash or valuables that the Nazi government considered property due to the Reich.
      14. Eventually in Germany, even that door closed, and the concentration camps — the “detention” camps, as they were called — became extermination camps, either by working the inmates to death or simply murdering them.
      15. Before the Nazi camps became death camps, the Nazis had numerous other names for them depending on their alleged functions, and some of those names were relatively innocuous. These are listed in the Wikipedia link I’m providing.
      16. The Nazis had Civilian Workers Camps, Custody Camps, Civilian Internment Camps, Germanization Facilities, Housing Camps, National Labor Service Camps, Police Custody Camps, Security Camps, and Youth Protection Camps, among others.
      17. Later, there were the more-accurately-named Camps for Jews, Concentration camps, Aktion T4 Euthanasia centers, Gestapo camps, Gypsy camps, and Military brothels.
      18. We’re not nearly at that latter camp stage yet, but be warned. It can be a slippery slope. And if you ever thought that they couldn’t find Americans to do those jobs, I think most of you are coming around to the idea that it wouldn’t pose a problem.
      19. We currently have lots of federal, state and city law enforcement around the country who feel protected because they’re “just following orders”.
      20. I hope that in the back of their minds they can be frequently reminded how that worked out for German and Japanese officials, officers, and camp guards around 1946.
   6. US military says 200 Marines being sent to support ICE in Florida; By Reuters | REUTERS.COM | July 3, 20255:32 PM CDT. TAGS: Immigration, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), US Marines,
      1. The U.S. military said on Thursday it will send 200 Marines to Florida to provide administrative and logistical support to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
      2. The Marines are the first wave of U.S. Northern Command’s support to the immigration enforcement agency’s mission, it said.
      3. “Service members participating in this mission will perform strictly non-law enforcement duties within ICE facilities,” USNORTHCOM said in a statement.
      4. It said their roles will focus on administrative and logistical tasks, and they are specifically prohibited from direct contact with individuals in ICE custody or involvement in any aspect of the custody chain.
      5. Last month, the Pentagon authorized the mobilization of up to 700 Department of Defense personnel to support ICE in Florida, Louisiana and Texas.
      6. President Donald Trump also deployed 700 Marines to Los Angeles in June to protect immigration agents during raids to arrest migrants in the United States illegally.
      7. MIKE: I might rephrase that last sentence to, “[Allegedly] to protect immigration agents during raids to arrest migrants in the United States illegally.”
      8. MIKE: If this government obeyed law and rules, they could follow due process and expect cooperation from local law enforcement.
      9. MIKE: Deploying active-duty military personnel — Marines, no less — is becoming a habit with this government; an illegal, authoritarian habit. Keep an eye on this development.
   7. Can Trump strip [Elon] Musk and [Zohran] Mamdani of their US citizenship?; By Sarah Shamim | ALJAZEERA.COM | Published On 2 Jul 2025. TAGS: US Federal Law, Denaturalization, Naturalization, US Citizenship,
      1. MIKE: There’s only one part of this article that I’m going to read, because it’s the most salient:
      2. On what grounds can the US revoke citizenship for naturalized citizens?
      3. Under certain circumstances, US citizens by naturalization can lose their status as citizens. This process is also called denaturalization.
      4. This can happen if naturalized citizens commit certain crimes, including terrorism, war crimes, human rights violations, sex crimes or naturalization fraud, meaning they obtained their citizenship through fraud, misrepresentation or illegal procurement.
      5. On June 11, the Justice Department issued a memo stating that it would “prioritise denaturalization” by instituting civil proceedings for people “if they either ‘illegally procured’ naturalization or procured naturalization by ‘concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation’.”
      6. The memo added: “The Civil Division shall prioritize and maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings in all cases permitted by law and supported by the evidence.”
      7. A naturalized citizen can also lose their citizenship if they commit an act of treason against the US, or run for public office or join the military of a foreign country.
      8. Most recently, the Justice Department announced on June 13 that UK citizen Elliott Duke, a convicted collector and distributor of child sexual abuse material, had been denaturalized. In a news release, the Justice Department said Duke enlisted in the US Army in 2012 and began receiving and sending child sex abuse material online while serving in Germany. Duke did not list this crime in his naturalization application in 2013. He was convicted of receipt and possession of child pornography in 2014.
      9. Could either Musk or Mamdani be denaturalized?
      10. It is not likely, according to experts.
      11. [Said Michael Kagan, professor of law at University of Nevada, Las Vegas,] “Denaturalization is limited to cases where the government can prove material fraud in their original applications. It is rare and unlikely for either Musk or Mamdani. This appears to be irresponsible rhetoric designed to intimidate political opponents.”
      12. What is the history of denaturalization in the US?
      13. The US has revoked the citizenship of naturalized citizens on different occasions over the past few decades.
      14. Cases of denaturalization were more frequent during the first half of the 20th century while the two world wars and, later, the Cold War with the Soviet Union were ongoing. Between 1926 and the mid-1940s, hundreds of people were denaturalized every year, according to political scientist Patrick Weil, author of The Sovereign Citizen, published in 2017.
      15. The US government frequently tried to denaturalize citizens during the two “Red Scare” periods of 1917 to 1920 and 1947 to 1957, when the fear of communism was particularly high in the US. During this time, it was also very hard to obtain US citizenship by naturalization.
      16. People who were denaturalized at the time included communists and Nazi sympathisers. Two famous cases were:
      17. Emma Goldman, an anarchist activist who was born in Lithuania, which was then part of the Russian Empire. Goldman migrated to the US in 1885. When World War I broke out, she opposed US involvement and military conscription. For this, she was jailed in 1917 for two years at the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City. By the time of her release, the hysteria around communism had taken form in the US and in 1919, she was denaturalized and deported to Soviet Russia.
      18. Paul Knauer was born in Germany and arrived in the US in 1925. He became a citizen in 1937. In 1946, Knauer was denaturalized on the grounds that he concealed his affiliation with the German-American Bund, an organisation considered to promote Nazi propaganda.
      19. In 1967, the trend for denaturalization slowed down when the US Supreme Court ruled that a US citizen could not be involuntarily deprived of their citizenship unless they met the specific criteria of having obtained naturalization by fraud or of having committed serious offences.
      20. The ruling came at the end of a case involving Beys Afroyim, who was born in Poland and became a naturalized US citizen in 1926. The US government tried to revoke his citizenship because Afroyim had voted in an Israeli legislative election in 1951.
      21. In ruling this, the Supreme Court repealed a US federal law which said that US citizens could lose their citizenship if they vote in a foreign election.
      22. MIKE: If you want to read the complete article, you can click on the story link in this show post.
      23. MIKE: I hate to sound like a broken record, but we are in the midst of an attempted totalitarian takeover of our government. We can only hope that elections will still matter in 2026, and that this authoritarian regime will not have found a way to corrupt or delay them.
   8. The US dollar is on track for its worst year in modern history; By Liz Hoffman | SEMAFOR.COM | Jul 3, 2025, 10:37am CDT. TAGS: US Dollar, US Exports, US Trade, De-Dollarization, Currency Exchange Markets,
      1. The US dollar is on track for its worst year in modern history and may not be done falling yet. The greenback is down more than 7% this year and Morgan Stanley predicts it could fall another 10%. A weaker dollar could make US exports more competitive, boosting Trump’s plan to rebalance US trade, but makes imports more expensive, adding to the sting of tariffs.
      2. The question ahead is whether the dollar doesn’t just lose its value, but its role at the center of the global financial system. So far, there are few alternatives. And efforts to de-dollarize — central banks shifting into gold, China shoveling its currency into developing nations through swap lines — haven’t meaningfully shifted the picture.
      3. But as political economist Ngaire [PRON: NAAR-ee] Woods wrote for Semafor in an essay earlier this year, “they haven’t dethroned the dollar, but that’s because the US government has protected it through sound policy and global engagement.”
      4. Food for thought: The year that came closest to 2025 in dollar depreciation was 1973, and the result was then-President Richard Nixon taking the US off the gold standard. “Big moves in the dollar tend to create moments of instability,” Morgan Stanley’s Wilson said.
      5. MIKE: Several times on this show, I’ve discussed the dollar in international trade and what I and others consider its highly inflated value on the world markets.
      6. MIKE: About half of all US currency is held outside the United States. When we talk about currency, we’re talking about the bills and coins you might use on a daily basis, so this does not appear to include things like Treasury Bills or other financial instruments.
      7. MIKE: There’s a Wikipedia page called International Use Of The U.S. Dollar that I’m linking to if you’re interested in digging further.
      8. MIKE: The size of the US economy as a percentage of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has shrunk considerably from a high of about 50% after World War 2 to around 26% today, but all things are relative. This still makes us by far the largest economy in the world.
      9. MIKE: But all the advantages the US has had since the end of WW2 in terms of our central position in world trade, our global currency dominance, and even our military dominance are a result of our economic and military alliances that all branch from the Allied victory in 1945.
      10. MIKE: But nothing lasts forever, and nothing lasts without attendance to detail.
      11. MIKE: From Wikipedia, “Economist Paul Samuelson … stated in 2005 that at some uncertain future period … pressures would precipitate a run against the U.S. dollar with serious global financial consequences.^[10]”
      12. MIKE: The poor governance by the Republican Party over decades — especially their determination to cut tax revenue as well as the IRS’s ability to collect it — has increasingly endangered the very economic dominance that they have come to take for granted.
      13. MIKE: Republicans’ frequent threats to default on the national debt by withholding increases in the debt ceiling have further hurt the reputation of the dollar solidity over the past 2 decades, even to the point that this country’s formerly perfect credit rating has been downgraded twice now. We should probably call them the “Mitch McConnell Downgrades”, because he was the political architect.
      14. MIKE: The current US regime run by Trump and his extremist Republican followers may be bringing about the very currency disaster that Paul Samuelson had warned us against, and which I’ve discussed on this show from time to time.
      15. MIKE: Cutting taxes on billionaires while decreasing tax collections and building in a substantial increase in our national debt is likely to raise interest rates, but as big a macro-economic deal as that is, it may still be the least of it.
      16. MIKE: At the same time as he is creating economic and financial uncertainty on a global scale, Trump’s mindlessly confrontational style of dealing with allies is driving them away from us, some more than others.
      17. MIKE: There are periodic and sometimes serious concerns that countries like Japan and China could decide to sell their substantial US government debt holdings. This would dramatically increase interest rates and probably crash the US dollar.
      18. MIKE: In my estimation, there is every indication that Trump and the Republicans are bringing about, or at least hastening, the end of the so-called “American Century”.
      19. MIKE: There may come a time when “this too shall pass” won’t be true.
      20. MIKE: A character in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises is asked, “How did you go bankrupt?” The answer he gets is, “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”
      21. MIKE: Sometimes, countries and even empires fall like that. Just ask the Soviet Union.
      22. MIKE: Oh, wait. You can’t, because they don’t exist anymore.
      23. REFERENCE: The U.S. Share of the Global Economy Over Time — VISUALCAPITALIST.COM
   9. This could be an important story. It reports a detail that should warrant more reporting — China tells EU it can’t accept Russia losing its war against Ukraine, official says; By Nick Paton Walsh, CNN Chief International Security Correspondent | CNN.COM | Published 12:38 PM EDT, Fri July 4, 2025. TAGS: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Ukraine, Russia, Ukraine-Russia War, United States, China,
      1. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the European Union’s top diplomat that Beijing can’t accept Russia losing its war against Ukraine as this could allow the United States to turn its full attention to China, an official briefed on the talks said, contradicting Beijing’s public position of neutrality in the conflict.
      2. The admission came during what the official said was a four-hour meeting with EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas on Wednesday in Brussels that “featured tough but respectful exchanges, covering a broad range of issues from cyber security [and] rare earths to trade imbalances, Taiwan, and [the] Middle East.”
      3. The official said Wang’s private remarks suggested Beijing might prefer a protracted war in Ukraine that keeps the United States from focusing on its rivalry with China. They echo concerns of critics of China’s policy that Beijing has geopolitically much more at stake in the Ukrainian conflict than its admitted position of neutrality.
      4. On Friday, at a regular Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs briefing, spokeswoman Mao Ning was asked about the exchange, which was first reported in the South China Morning Post, and re-affirmed Beijing’s long-standing position on the three-year war.
      5. [Mao Ning said,] “China is not a party to the Ukraine issue. China’s position on the Ukraine crisis is objective and consistent; that is, negotiation, ceasefire and peace. A prolonged Ukraine crisis serves no one’s interests.”
      6. She added that China wanted a political settlement as quickly as possible [saying,] “Together with the international community and in light of the will of the parties concerned, we will continue playing a constructive role towards this end.”
      7. China’s public statements on the Ukraine war mask a more complex picture.
      8. Just weeks before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Chinese leader Xi Jinping declared a “no limits” partnership with Moscow and since then political and economic ties have strengthened.
      9. China has put itself forward as a possible peacemaker, but as CNN has previously reported the stakes are high for Beijing, not least potentially losing a major partner in Russia.
      10. China has also rejected growing accusations it is providing near-military support to Russia. Ukraine has sanctioned several Chinese companies for providing Russia drone components and technology for use in missile production.
      11. MIKE: This puts a different complexion on the war in Ukraine. And it might give the United States a reason to step up arms shipments to Ukraine; or it would, if we had a normal American government in power.
      12. MIKE: It shouldn’t be taking rocket scientists to recognize that even beyond the justice of Ukraine’s position as an invaded nation, the Chinese are pointing out in so many words what the US and its allies should already have figured out: That it’s in China’s interest for the US (and its allies, presumably) to remain bogged down and concerned about a massive land war on Europe’s territory.
      13. MIKE: There is some historical irony here on one front. That Russia’s ally, China, is doing to Russia what China and Russia did to the US in Vietnam: Keeping them bogged down. China and Russia gave enough assistance to North Vietnam to keep the US from winning and to keep the North from losing.
      14. MIKE: Now, for Russia, the shoe is on the other foot. Having bogged themselves down in a costly war in Ukraine, Putin would love to get some decisive aid from China to overwhelm the Ukrainians, but that wouldn’t be in China’s broader geopolitical interest. Instead, it’s now in China’s interest to keep Russia bogged down as a sacrificial counter to keep the US and NATO from focusing on the Indo-Pacific.
      15. MIKE: There is also a greater danger here, though. We already know that North Korea has sent at least 15,000 troops into western Russia to help defend Kursk against the Ukrainians there. Certainly North Korea benefits from this in terms of money and technology as prices the Russians are paying. But perhaps the Chinese acted as interlocutors to make this happen as a way of aiding Russia, but still somewhat indirectly.
      16. MIKE: As for dangers, consider this. In 1950, North Korea invaded the South with encouragement and material support from the Soviet Union and China. It’s important to remember the context.
      17. MIKE: This may sound tangential, but I will circle back, I promise.
      18. MIKE: By 1950, the Soviets had recently acquired large regions of influence as well as a considerable amount of territory as a result of the Second World War. (Also remember here that Stalin had participated in the partition of Poland with Nazi Germany, thinking it was a great opportunity to reacquire what had been part of Imperial Russia.) The Soviets were also making trouble with Communist guerilla wars and political insurgencies in many countries that are now part of NATO.
      19. MIKE: In the meantime, the Chinese Communists had taken over mainland China only about a year earlier. China still considered the Soviets their “Big Brother”, both ideologically and materially.
      20. MIKE: In the West, it was looking like Soviet-style Communism might be in the ascendency. It certainly was an aggressive force.
      21. MIKE: When North Korea invaded the South — the Republic of Korea (the ROK) — they all but overwhelmed them very quickly.
      22. MIKE: The United States wanted to act, but hoped it could be a United Nations-sanctioned enterprise. Rather than veto a UN resolution to that effect, Russia boycotted the Security Council meeting, and the resolution passed.
      23. MIKE: With the UN as political cover, and with some assistance from American allies, the US invaded South Korea at Inchon. It established a beachhead and began driving the Northerners back to their border.
      24. MIKE: Douglas McArthur argued for pushing the North Koreans all the way back to the Chinese border at the Yalu River, thereby liberating the north from Soviet and Chinese domination. The Chinese didn’t like this at all and a month after the Inchon invasion, counterattacked with their own troops, driving the US and its allies back to the vicinity of the original pre-war border, which is where the armistice line stands today.
      25. MIKE: This is where we come back to today’s Ukraine-Russia War, and the Chinese Foreign Minister’s remarks that China can’t afford for Russia to lose that war.
      26. MIKE: What if China views a Ukrainian victory over Russia with the same seriousness that they viewed an incipient North Korean defeat in October 1950? What if they decided to intervene in Ukraine as they did in Korea to prevent this from happening? Do the Chinese see this as a national interest serious enough to justify direct intervention with their armed forces to aid their Russian ally?
      27. MIKE: It was the Korean experience that prevented the US from directly invading North Vietnam, which also directly bordered China.
      28. MIKE: The situation for China in Ukraine is not the same as the situation was in Korea. Ukraine does not border China. In fact, the distance from central China to Ukraine is over 4300 miles across at least Russia, but the shortest routes would involve other countries.
      29. MIKE: This is where the stakes can become really high. What would the Chinese do, and what would it take for them to do it?
      30. MIKE: It would be great of the US still had a well-led, well-functioning intelligence community to try to find out.
   10. Meanwhile, in Europe — Ukraine ‘most important task’ in German foreign policy; By Matt Ford with AFP, AP, Reuters, dpa | DW.COM | June 30, 2025. TAGS: Black Sea, BRICS, Dmitry Medvedev, Russia, Ukraine, Russia’s Partial Mobilization, Germany,
       1. German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul arrived in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on [last] Monday morning with promises of continued support for Ukraine against the ongoing Russian invasion.
       2. [Wadephul said after arriving in Kyiv by train on an unannounced visit,] “We will continue to stand firmly by Ukraine’s side so that it can continue to defend itself successfully — with modern air defense and other weapons, with humanitarian and economic aid. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is not ceding on any of his maximalist demands. He doesn’t want negotiations; he wants a capitulation.”
       3. In a statement released by the German Foreign Ministry, Wadephul was also quoted as saying: “Ukraine’s freedom and liberty is the most important task in our foreign and security policy.”
       4. Wadephul, of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz‘s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), previously visited the western Ukrainian city of Lviv shortly after taking office in May, but his first visit to the capital Kyiv on Monday came after weeks of intensifying Russian bombardments.
       5. On Saturday night, the Ukrainian Air Force battled to fight off what it described as the “most massive airstrike” on the country since the start of Russia‘s full-scale invasion in February 2022, consisting of 477 drones and 60 missiles, 475 of which were eliminated.
       6. Over the course of last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had launched over 114 missiles, over 1,270 drones and almost 1,100 glide bombs at targets across Ukraine.
       7. [Wadephul said,] “Ukraine will determine whether Europe remains a place where freedom and human dignity prevail — or becomes a continent where violence redraws borders. That is why we remain fully committed to supporting Ukraine [and demonstrating] our resolve as Europeans.”
       8. Wadephul is scheduled to hold talks with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha [PRON: see-BEE-ha] and pay tribute to the victims of the Babyn Yar massacre, where Nazi occupation forces murdered more than 33,000 Jewish men, women and children in a ravine on the outskirts of Kyiv in 1941.
       9. High-level discussions between German business leaders and Ukrainian officials are also planned, according to the German Foreign Office.
       10. Germany is the second-biggest provider of military aid to Ukraine after the United States, but Berlin continues to withhold its powerful, long-range Taurus missiles due to fears of escalating the conflict.
       11. Instead, Chancellor Merz pledged in May to help Ukraine develop its own long-range missile capabilities that would be free of any Western-imposed limitations — and provide a degree of independence from US support, which has appeared increasingly uncertain under the Trump administration.
       12. Washington has not announced any additional backing for Kyiv since January, although President Donald Trump didn’t rule out providing additional Patriot air defense missiles after a meeting with President Zelenskyy at the NATO summit in The Hague last week.
       13. Meanwhile, on the battlefield, Russian troops continue to make incremental gains, with state media and military bloggers claiming that Russian troops have captured the small village of Dachnoye, just inside Ukraine’s eastern Dnipropetrovsk region.
       14. Unlike the eastern regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, as well as the Crimean peninsula, Russia has not claimed to have annexed Dnipropetrovsk.
       15. Also on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that a commitment by NATO countries to increase defense spending to 5% of the GDP could ultimately lead to the collapse of the alliance.
       16. Asked about remarks by Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who reportedly claimed that an arms race between Russia and the West could trigger the fall of President Vladimir Putin, Lavrov responded: “Given that he is such a predictor, he probably foresees that a catastrophic increase in the budget of NATO countries will, according to my estimates, also lead to the collapse of this organization.”
       17. On Friday, Putin suggested Moscow was planning on cutting its military expenditure from next year. Russia is currently spending around 6.3% of its GDP on its armed forces, the highest level since the Cold War, with defense spending accounting for around 32% of the 2025 federal budget.
       18. MIKE: I thought that this was an appropriate story to follow the last one. There are a lot of players in this war, with lots of different national interests and security concerns.
       19. MIKE: Coincidentally I was speaking with a customer service person on the phone last week, a young woman who happened to be in Slovakia, which shares a short border with Ukraine. We got to talking a bit, which often happens when you’re doing tech support and waiting for machines to do stuff in their own good time.
       20. MIKE: She seemed remarkably blasé about the Ukraine war next door to her country. Slovakia is a NATO ally, and that may give her some sense of national security, but she did share that she had a plan B to move to a third country if things should require it.
       21. MIKE: Life goes on, but it still pays to be prepared.

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!

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