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

1. METRO tests new bus shelter to combat extreme heat in Gulfton area; By Kevin Vu | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 2:30 PM Jul 11, 2025 CDT/Updated 2:30 PM Jul 11, 2025 CDT. TAGS: Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO), Bus Shelters, Houston Harris Heat Action Team, Heat Islands,
   1. The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County is testing a new bus shelter designed to withstand the weather elements, such as rain and heat, the agency announced in a June news release.
   2. … METRO’s new perforated bus shelters are currently in the pilot testing phase, with 12 of them installed in the Gulfton area. According to the release, traditional METRO bus shelters typically have 10-12 side panels. With the new design, perforated panels will allow more airflow while still providing coverage for the bus shelter.
   3. [METRO Board Chair Elizabeth Gonzalez Brock said in the release,] “By designing bus shelters that prioritize heat protection and weather resilience, we’re not only improving the rider experience but also investing in a more reliable, accessible transit system. These shelters will help keep our community safer and more comfortable during extreme weather while supporting long-term ridership growth and sustainability in the Gulfton community.”
   4. [The 12 new shelters are being tested along Gulfton Drive [at] Chimney Rock Road, Rampart Street, Renwick Drive, Alder Drive, and Westward Street. Along Hillcroft Avenue at Clarewood Drive, Dashwood Drive, and at Hillcroft Avenue and Bellaire Boulevard. Also at Bonhomme Road and Clarewood Drive; Fondren Road and Bellerive Drive; [and at] Kirby Drive and Westpark Drive.]
   5. … METRO pointed to a recent heat mapping campaign by the Houston Harris Heat Action Team, a project started in 2020 to measure the temperature and humidity in Harris County on a hot summer day. Results showed that Gulfton is one of several neighborhoods experiencing extreme heat, with temperatures in these areas reaching up to 14 degrees higher than in the city’s coolest neighborhoods.
   6. [Said Kenneth Brown, METRO’s director of service enhancements,] “We know how important it is for our customers to be comfortable while waiting for the bus, not just in terms of temperature, but also safety, cleanliness and seating. Our chair and our CEO are both committed to getting this right, and we’re going to keep working until we do.”
   7. MIKE: I’ll also note here that the shelters will have a QR code for people to provide feedback. That QR code is also pictured in the article, which I’ve linked to in this show post at ThinkwingRadio-dot-com, but it didn’t work for my iPhone. Maybe the image doesn’t have enough resolution.
   8. MIKE: I used to know Houston pretty well, almost to a granular level. My recollection and impression is the areas with these experimental shelters are mostly covered in concrete and asphalt, which would explain why they are so much hotter than other areas — probably more affluent areas — that have more green space, whether that be from grass, shade trees, or whatever.
   9. MIKE: I think that this is a worthwhile experiment in bringing a bit more comfort — or at least a bit less DIScomfort — to bus riders.
   10. MIKE: Personally, I might also suggest consideration of shelters’ openings facing any direction other than north, because direct sunlight is a big factor in surface temperature. Maybe cover those open faces and have exits out the sides. But I’m not a bus rider, so that’s just my idea.
   11. MIKE: In the long run, Metro might consider working with cities and counties to get more trees planted along bus and light rail routes. That can not only provide natural shade and local temperature reduction, but also because of all the other aesthetic and environmental benefits they provide to communities.
2. Houston council member wants businesses to post dress code rules after being denied entry to an establishment; By Kevin Vu | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 1:42 PM Jul 10, 2025 CDT/Updated 1:42 PM Jul 10, 2025 CDT. TAGS: Houston City Council Member Edward Pollard, Dress Code Rules, Houston, Greater Houston Restaurant Association, Administration and Regulatory Affairs Department,
   1. City Council member Edward Pollard wants nightclubs, restaurants and businesses to display their dress code rules out front after he said he and Controller Chris Hollins were denied entry to an establishment because of Hollins’ clothes.
   2. …The ordinance, proposed during the July 9 City Council meeting, would require businesses, nightclubs and dance halls to post their dress code at or near the entrance, and if not posted, it will be interpreted that there is no dress code, and “no dress code policy shall be enforced.”
   3. Pollard said this would prevent establishments from “arbitrarily selecting” who gains entry based on attire and eliminate any discriminatory practices.
   4. [Pollard said,] “For a long time, establishments in the city of Houston have used the dress code as a way to either discriminate or limit who they allow in their establishment.”
   5. This ordinance comes after he and Hollins were denied entry because Hollins was wearing tennis shoes, Pollard said.
   6. [Pollard continued,] “We’re able to finally get in after some back and forth, and then when we got in, we saw that there were other people in here wearing tennis shoes. It brought both of us to say we’ve experienced this over and over, whether it’s on Washington or Midtown, places in my district that use the dress code as a way to limit who comes in.”
   7. Hollins said in a statement that Houston is built on diversity and openness, and that there’s no room for discrimination.
   8. [Hollins said,] “In 2025, we will not tolerate unfair practices that allow bias to masquerade as routine business. If elected officials are encountering this kind of arbitrary treatment, it’s almost certain that everyday Houstonians are facing it even more often—and that’s unacceptable.”
   9. … Council member Letitia Plummer, who co-signed the proposal, said these are experiences that happen for many Houston residents, and even something that happened for her sons, after they were denied entry for wearing hats.
   10. [Plummer said,] “We need to eliminate the gray area. These are lived experiences that a lot of Houstonians experience, but because there’s nothing in place, they don’t even know how to complain about it. They don’t share it. They share it amongst their friends and their peer groups, but they don’t share it with lawmakers, because it’s never an idea in their mind that’s possible.”
   11. But the idea was met with pushback from numerous City Council members. City Council members Mary Nan Huffman and Fred Flickinger said they believe this ordinance was government overreach and something the city can’t enforce.
   12. [Huffman said,] “If the business wants to put out, it should be up to the businesses on what they post.”
   13. Flickinger said he has received complaints from the Greater Houston Restaurant Association about Pollard’s ordinance. He said he believes this is a problem the public isn’t “just aching about that we need to solve,” and that the private businesses own the property and have a right to refuse service.
   14. [Flickinger said,] “We have laws that prevent them from discriminating based on specific criteria; those laws already exist. Anybody’s being discriminated against, they have the right to sue.”
   15. The ordinance was ultimately tagged by council member Julian Ramirez, so that city officials could have further discussions and receive input from the Greater Houston Restaurant Association and the Administration and Regulatory Affairs Department.
   16. MIKE: Long time listeners to this show know I believe that non-partisan elections are just a way to hide relevant facts from the voting public. One’s party affiliation is usually a good indicator of their general political and social philosophies, so I would just as soon see non-partisan elections done away with.
   17. MIKE: That said, and before I wrote anything, I wanted to get my facts straight, so I did some cursory research just to be sure.
   18. MIKE: There’s an old saying to think before you speak. There’s a new saying to google before you write. I googled.
   19. MIKE: Admitting to my bias here, I guessed that Julian Ramirez would be a Democrat. My cursory research proved me wrong.
   20. MIKE: Of the people mentioned in this story, Edward Pollard, Letitia Plummer, and Chris Hollins are Democrats and people of color.
   21. MIKE: Mary Nan Huffman is white and blonde and was endorsed by the Republican Party. Fred Flickinger is white and was endorsed by the Republican Party.
   22. MIKE: Julian Ramirez is a Republican and a person of color.
   23. MIKE: So there are a couple of things that leap out at me from this story.
   24. MIKE: One is that certain things transcend political leanings, affiliations and philosophies. The other is that race and ethnicity are among those things.
   25. MIKE: I’m suspecting that at one time or another, Pollard, Plummer, Hollins, and Ramirez have all felt excluded and/or discriminated against on the basis of their physical appearance, not their clothing. I’ll also bet that they either felt that they couldn’t prove it, or just felt that the struggle — and maybe the danger — of arguing weren’t worth it at the time.
   26. MIKE: I’m also betting that being white, Huffman and Flickinger, whatever their other life experiences, have not felt excluded based in their whiteness.
   27. MIKE: There was an attempt to bar Hollins from entry to the establishment, reputedly for his tennis shoes. It was after finally being granted entry Pollard and Hollins saw other patrons wearing tennis shoes. That suggests a clear bias at the door, whether conscious or not, whether deliberate or not.
   28. MIKE: Based on that alone, I think that it makes sense in terms of both justice and convenience to know of any dress code, not only before attempting admittance, but before making plans to go to an establishment.
   29. MIKE: Only shirts with collars? Only with jacket and tie? No t-shirts? No sandals or flipflops? No hats? No politically, socially, or sexually provocative clothing?
   30. MIKE: That should not only be posted prominently at the entrance. That should also be prominent on the home page of any web site that the establishment has.
   31. MIKE: I’m going to digress here to a subject that is somewhat relevant to this discussion and, to be honest, to me.
   32. MIKE: “Gentleman’s Agreement” is a 1947 movie about antisemitism. As described in Wikipedia, “The film is about a journalist (played by Gregory Peck) who pretends to be Jewish to research an exposé on the widespread antisemitism in New York City and the affluent communities of New Canaan and Darien, Connecticut.”
   33. MIKE: It’s a movie worth watching, because while it focuses on antisemitism in America, the general outline of prejudice and bigotry will still feel familiar to many non-Jewish viewers.
   34. MIKE: I’m originally from New York City, a city that still has the most Jews of any city outside of Israel with almost 1 million people who identify as Jewish. Even today, that’s still about 12% of the New York City population.
   35. MIKE: Where I grew up in Brooklyn, until I was about 10, I kind of believed that there were only 4 ethnicities: Jewish, Italian, Black and Puerto Rican. TV families that were something else were almost entirely outside my experience.
   36. MIKE: When I moved to Houston in 1977, the Jewish population here was about 2%, and I don’t think that’s changed much. As of 2016, a study by the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston estimated there were around 51,000 among 26,000 Jewish households among a Houston population of 2.3 million, so still about 2%. Today, I still don’t think that’s changed much.
   37. MIKE: When I first moved here, I was the first Jew that most people had ever met. That was an entirely new experience. I got questions, and I told people that anything they wanted to ask, I’d answer to the best of my ability, as honestly as possible, without judgment. And I got questions.
   38. MIKE: When I was a window covering installer, I had one client who admitted outright that she was an antisemite, but she liked my work, so she kept using me. Other than the one conversation, we just never discussed religion.
   39. MIKE: But here’s a funny thing. While my whole family background is eastern European, most people who said I looked Jewish said that mostly after I told them I was Jewish.
   40. MIKE: But people of Hispanic background sometimes mistook me for Hispanic, even to the point of people down here talking to me in Spanish.
   41. MIKE: My hair is brown, but my mother and father both had black hair, which is not uncommon among eastern European Jews. In New York, my father was often mistaken for Italian. He even had the pencil-line mustache. In his case, people in Italian neighborhoods would sometimes start talking to him in Italian.
   42. MIKE: So my coloring is such that I can “pass” for gentile of one ethnicity or another.
   43. MIKE: Then what’s in someone’s appearance that they should be judged by? Hair? Skin? Accent? First language? Second Language?
   44. MIKE: Personally, I have no doubt that whoever met Edward Pollard and Chris Hollins at the door of that establishment wasn’t having an issue with Hollins’s tennis shoes. You may draw your own conclusions. But having a dress code posted at the door and on the web site of a public establishment eliminates at least one excuse for arbitrary exclusion.
3. Houston-Galveston Area Council invites public input on Regional Transportation Plan 2050; By Natalie Johnson | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 4:46 PM Jul 7, 2025 CDT/Updated 4:46 PM Jul 7, 2025 CDT. TAGS: Houston-Galveston Area Council, Regional Transportation Plan 2050, metro-Houston area, Baytown, League City, Texas City, Angleton, Houston, Missouri City, Shenandoah,
   1. The Houston-Galveston Area Council will host eight public meetings starting July 15 regarding the Regional Transportation Plan 2050, according to a July 3 news release.
   2. … The Regional Transportation Plan outlines future investments in roads, public transit, biking and walking infrastructure, freight systems and new transportation technologies through the year 2050, according to the news release.
   3. The meetings will be held at various locations around the Houston area and virtually for the community to learn more about the transportation trends and challenges in different counties, share ideas and ask questions.
   4. [The meetings will be held both in-person and virtually. They will take place at the following locations: July 15 in Baytown; July 24 in League City; July 24 in Texas City; July 29 in Angleton; July 31 Houston; August 6 in Missouri City; and August 8 Shenandoah.]
   5. [There will also be a Virtual-Only ZOOM meeting on August 12. Times and locations for all the meetings are in the article which I have linked to in this show post at ThinkwingRadio-dot-com.]
   6. More information about the virtual meetings can be found on H-GAC’s Regional Transportation Plan 2050 website [which the story links to].
   7. … Residents and community leaders can still participate even if they miss the meetings. To learn more about the plan, take the survey and receive updates, visit h-gac.com/regional-transportation-plan.
   8. MIKE: If you want to learn about the current plans and provide your own input, I suggest attending at least one of these meetings, virtually if nothing else. But if you want to speak at one of these meetings, I suggest going to one in person.
4. IDD non-profit Family to Family Network to close after 35 years; By Valeria Escobar | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 11:44 AM Jul 11, 2025 CDT/Updated 12:48 PM Jul 11, 2025 CDT. TAGS: Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities (IDD), Family to Family Network, nonprofit, Medicaid waivers, metro-Houston,
   1. After more than 30 years of serving families of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities, or IDD, the Houston-based nonprofit Family to Family Network has announced it will permanently close due to funding shortages, officials announced in a July 9 news release.
   2. [Executive Director Mary Jane Williams said in the release,] “For many families, we were the only place they could turn. We helped them feel seen, heard and empowered — and that impact doesn’t disappear with our closure. I hope our work inspires others to keep fighting for families who need support the most.”
   3. … Founded in 1990, the nonprofit became a resource for thousands of Texas families navigating such [things] as special education planning and Medicaid waivers for adults with IDD, per the release.
   4. Williams said the organization connected with families from Katy, Cy-Fair, Houston, Klein and Spring Branch ISDs, in addition to 40 other school districts across Houston and the state.
   5. [Board Chair Bryan Smith said in the release,] “The organization’s impact across the Greater Houston area and Texas has been extraordinary, but despite our best efforts, we were unable to secure the long-term funding needed to sustain our work. Family to Family Network gave parents the tools and confidence to advocate for their children and build better futures.”
   6. … The organization focused heavily on underserved populations, particularly single-parent households and families living at or below the poverty line, per the news release.
   7. [Williams said in an email,] “Public education is free, but you still have to advocate significantly as a family member to get services. Everything else costs money, especially adult services.”
   8. Williams said the closure leaves a significant gap in services at a time when families continue to face challenges accessing disability-related services, especially for the 57% of families helped between 2024-25 who had incomes below $50,000, Williams said.
   9. Between 2024 and 2025, the organization:
   10. Responded to more than 600 calls and emails from families seeking support;
   11. Trained over 1,000 individuals through its community events, online sessions, and the annual Autism 101 Academy;
   12. Provided services to 51% of referrals that were high school-aged or adult individuals with IDD;
   13. Served a population that was 43% Hispanic or Latino.
   14. … Willams said funding shortages are due to losses in a combination of federal funding, state contracts and local grant money, adding that there was no additional funding for IDD health authorities such as The Harris Center and Texana during the 89th Texas legislative session.
   15. Additionally, she said there were no more Medicaid waiver slots added to the current 10-to-15-year waitlist for services such as health care, job training and housing for adults with IDD, which she estimates is now 20 years long.
   16. “The funding for any disability programs is going to be tight,” Williams said in an email. “It is a sad day when systems for individuals with IDD and autism that keep people in community are not valued as important.”
   17. Similarly, the Texana Center servicing Fort Bend County announced in June that the organization would be discontinuing home and community-based services and Texas home living due to inadequate Medicaid reimbursement rates that don’t cover the cost of care as of Sept. 19.
   18. While school districts are now required to refer students with IDD to health authorities in order to facilitate the transition to adulthood, Texana representatives have said that they will manage as best they can without additional funding from the state.
   19. … While its [brick and mortar] operations will cease at the end of the month, families can continue to access resources at f2fn.org and www.texasprojectfirst.org for bilingual information on navigating the special education process in Texas, per the release.
   20. [However, on July 31, the physical location at 16225 Park Ten Place in Houston will be closing.]
   21. MIKE: I think it’s important to emphasize the you can still access these services online at the links provided in the story.
   22. MIKE: How much of this is due to current or anticipated funding shortfalls due to Republicans’ recent “big we-hate-humans bill” I can’t say. But I’m sure that that certainly didn’t help, and the timing of this announcement is probably not coincidental.
   23. MIKE: No doubt we can expect more of these terminations of community-based human services over the coming years.
   24. MIKE: Elections have consequences.
5. MIKE: Before going into Texas news, I want to mention that I won’t be discussing the Texas floods because there’s already plenty of coverage of that tragedy, and I would have nothing useful to add at this time. We’ll see what happens as things develop.
6. From the TEXAS TRIBUNE — Texas leaders have repeatedly claimed the state’s voting maps are race blind. Until the Trump DOJ disagreed.; By Eleanor Klibanoff and Gabby Birenbaum | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | July 11, 20251 PM Central. TAGS: Gov. Greg Abbott, President Donald Trump, redrawing congressional maps, US Department of Justice (DOJ), Texas, Voting Rights Act of 1965,
   1. At first, the question of whether Texas would take the extraordinary step of redrawing its congressional maps in the middle of the decade was just a political calculation — would Gov. Greg Abbott go along with President Donald Trump’s plan to try to squeeze a few more GOP seats out of the midterms, despite concerns from congressional Republicans?
   2. But then, the Department of Justice offered Texas a legal justification to pursue this long-shot strategy, warning the state in a letter Monday that four majority-minority congressional districts in the Houston and Fort Worth areas are unconstitutionally racially gerrymandered. Soon after, Abbott set a special session agenda calling for mid-cycle redistricting “in light of constitutional concerns raised by the U.S. Department of Justice.”
   3. This comes just weeks after the conclusion of a trial over Texas’ current maps, in which representatives for the state argued repeatedly that a race-blind process was used to draw the boundaries of the existing districts. Critics say the apparent reversal — with Abbott now acknowledging concerns that some districts were drawn “along strict racial lines” — suggests this is a ploy to provide Texas with political and legal cover to try and add more Republican seats.
   4. [The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund is part of a legal challenge. Thomas Saenz, president and general counsel said,] “They contended that what they drew was completely satisfactory, so now that they are acquiescing in some concocted allegation of illegality from the Trump administration is astounding.”
   5. Any new maps would inevitably face a legal challenge. Federal courts have found at least one of Texas’ maps to be in violation of the Voting Rights Act every decade since it went into effect in 1965. But these court battles can take years to resolve, and the candidate filing deadline for the 2026 midterms is just months away.
   6. Even one cycle under a new map carries high upside for Trump, whose legislative agenda rests on Republicans maintaining their slim 220-212 majority in the U.S. House. A Democratic majority could mean obstruction, investigations, and talk of impeachment.
   7. [Saenz said that with] Texas lawmakers drawing a new map so close to the midterms, “even if it violates the law, it might be left in place for one election.”
   8. … Texas’ current maps were drawn by the Republican-dominated Legislature in 2021 with an eye toward protecting incumbents and ensuring that two congressional seats Texas gained due to population growth would be held by the GOP. The maps worked as intended, with Republicans winning 25 of 38 congressional seats in 2022 and 2024.
   9. The map was immediately challenged in court by a group of plaintiffs alleging that it discriminated against Black and Latino voters. Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act prohibits election and voting practices that disadvantage minority groups, including drawing boundaries that dilute their ability to elect their preferred candidate by packing them into a single district or dispersing them throughout multiple.
   10. [MIKE: These strategies are often called “crack or pack”. Continuing …]
   11. The nearly 4-year-old legal challenge went to trial in May and has yet to be decided.
   12. At trial in El Paso, representatives for the state and its map-drawers repeatedly testified that they were blind to race when crafting the maps and said they did not draw “coalition districts,” where different minority groups are combined to constitute a majority, which the state maintains are unconstitutional.
   13. But in its July 7 letter, the DOJ argued that four of Texas’ districts should be redrawn, three because they are coalition districts, and one because it is a majority Hispanic district created as a result of neighboring coalition districts.
   14. All four seats are held by Black or Latino Democrats, or were until recently — Texas’ 18th Congressional District is currently vacant but was previously represented by Sylvester Turner, who died in March.
   15. That seat and the adjacent 9th Congressional District, represented by Rep. Al Green of Houston, are plurality Hispanic districts with sizable Black populations. The letter says those districts gave rise to Rep. Sylvia Garcia’s neighboring 29th District, where a majority of residents are Hispanic. The 33rd District, held by Rep. Marc Veasey of Fort Worth, is also an unconstitutional coalition district, the letter says.
   16. The DOJ cites a 2024 decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which found that the Voting Rights Act’s protections do not apply to racial or ethnic groups that have combined their ranks to form a majority in a district. The case, which involved a challenge to Galveston County’s commissioners court map, reversed years of precedent, including by the 5th Circuit itself, putting the appellate court for Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana at odds with most other circuits.
   17. [Assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon wrote,] “Although the state’s interest when configuring these districts was to comply with Fifth Circuit precedent prior to the 2024 … decision, that interest no longer exists,” adding these districts are “nothing more than vestiges of an unconstitutionally racially based gerrymandering past, which must now be abandoned, and must now be corrected by Texas.”
   18. In his proclamation announcing the July 21 special session, Abbott referred to “constitutional concerns” raised by the DOJ, apparently alluding to Dhillon’s letter. And on Friday, House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the Republican Senate leader, released a joint statement that said both chambers were “aligned in their focus to ensure redistricting plans remain in compliance with the U.S. Constitution.”
   19. Chad Dunn, one of the lawyers challenging the state’s current maps, said Texas’ swift acquiescence to the DOJ letter contradicts legislators’ testimony.
   20. [Said Dunn, who was previously general counsel for the Texas Democratic Party,] “During the trial we had in El Paso, ‘blind to race’ was used by a member of the Legislature more times than I can count. Now the Department of Justice is saying that the Republican legislators who authored this plan weren’t telling the truth, and actually were drawing it on the basis of race. It’s going to be interesting to get to the bottom of that.”
   21. Several of the plaintiffs asked Thursday to reopen the case for new testimony, saying the DOJ letter and the state’s testimony are “flatly contradictory.”
   22. [In what I believe is a reference to Petteway v. Galveston County, TX …]
   23. … Justin Levitt, a constitutional law expert who served in the DOJ under former President Barack Obama, said the agency misinterpreted Petteway in its letter. That 2024 decision, Levitt said, did not rule on what constitutes an unconstitutional racial gerrymander — it just asserted that the Voting Rights Act does not let individual racial or ethnic groups join together to claim that political boundaries dilute their votes.
   24. The argument laid out in the letter, he added, is not befitting of DOJ’s typical quality, in both Democratic and Republican administrations — especially on a topic so familiar to the agency.
   25. [Levitt said,] “It’s sloppily dashed-off work. It looks like the sort of thing I’d expect from an AI engine that didn’t know how to do law.”
   26. The DOJ declined to comment. Abbott’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
   27. Texas does not need legal justification to craft new maps in the middle of the decade. The Legislature did so in 2003 at the behest of then-U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. But if the DOJ letter is meant to establish a legal basis for the redistricting process’ political intent, Levitt said it’s a poorly reasoned attempt.
   28. [Levitt said,] “Nothing in this letter is going to convince Texas to redraw lines that it wasn’t planning on redrawing anyway.”
   29. This is the second time in just over a month that Texas has swiftly surrendered to a request from Trump’s DOJ. In early June, the agency sued Texas over its policy granting in-state tuition to undocumented students, just days after the Legislature adjourned without undoing that longstanding law. Texas immediately agreed to a consent judgment striking down the statute, raising questions about whether the lawsuit was legitimate or “collusive.”
   30. Attorney General Ken Paxton claimed credit for working with the Trump administration to end what he called a “discriminatory and un-American provision.”
   31. Saenz’s group has asked a judge to allow it to intervene in that case, as well, and he said the echoes are eerie — and frustrating.
   32. “It’s a disturbing pattern, frankly, of collusion between the Department of Justice federally and the state of Texas, and that collusion should alarm everyone who believes in democratic processes at the state level,” Saenz said.
   33. MIKE: This is all partisan manipulation of representation. It’s also race-based voter suppression. It’s the government institutionalized version of City Council member Edward Pollard and Houston Controller Chris Hollins being denied entry to an establishment allegedly because Hollins was wearing tennis shoes.
   34. MIKE: Here’s the simple synopsis of this story: Texas Republicans are both hungry for power and racist. I think that summarizes it.
   35. MIKE: Now onto the next story.
7. Federal judge orders stop to indiscriminate immigration raids in Los Angeles; By Adrian Florido | NPR.ORG | July 11, 202511:08 PM ET. TAGS: Los Angeles, California, immigration sweeps, Trump administration, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Fourth Amendment,
   1. A federal judge in Los Angeles ordered the Trump administration to stop carrying out immigration sweeps in which she said federal agents have been indiscriminately arresting people across southern California without reasonable suspicion that they’re in the country illegally.
   2. Since early June, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Border Patrol and other federal agencies have been roving Los Angeles and surrounding counties arresting thousands of people in what civil rights lawyers characterized in a lawsuit last week as an unconstitutional and “extraordinary campaign of targeting people based on nothing more than the color of their skin.”
   3. In her order, Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, said there is “a mountain of evidence” to support the claim that agents are arresting people solely based on their race, accents, or the work they’re engaged in, in violation of the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable government seizure.
   4. [Frimpong wrote,] “The seizures at issue occurred unlawfully.”
   5. She issued two temporary restraining orders — one prohibiting immigration agents from arresting people without reasonable suspicion that they’re in the country illegally, and the other requiring agents to give people they arrest immediate access to lawyers. The orders, which apply to Los Angeles and six surrounding counties, are temporary while the case moves forward. But they could severely restrict the Trump administration’s ability to continue carrying out the raids that have sown fear and terror in immigrant and Latino neighborhoods since they started on June 6.
   6. [Said Mark Rosenbaum, a senior lawyer with Public Counsel, one of the legal advocacy groups that filed the suit ,]”It’s an extraordinary victory. It is a complete repudiation of the racial profiling tactics and the denial of access to lawyers that the administration has utilized, and it means that the rule of law is back in Los Angeles.”
   7. In a statement, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin criticized the ruling.
   8. [McLaughlin said,] “A district judge is undermining the will of the American people. America’s brave men and women are removing murderers, MS-13 gang members, pedophiles, rapists — truly the worst of the worst from Golden State communities. Law and order will prevail.”
   9. [MIKE: I’m going to say right here, that’s a load of … baloney … but that’s no secret to anyone. Continuing …]
   10. [The] ruling is the latest potential roadblock for President Trump as he escalates his immigration crackdown by focusing on large, Democratic-run cities whose leaders he’s accused of trying to sabotage his efforts to carry out his mass deportation plans.
   11. It came a little more than a week after Public Counsel, the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups filed an emergency class action lawsuit alleging that ICE and Border Patrol agents are engaged in widespread racial profiling, arresting people they encounter in public solely because they have brown skin or because they’re doing work often done by immigrants.
   12. Since early June, agents have repeatedly raided known hubs for Latino workers, including car washes, day laborer gathering spots, and street vendor corners. They’ve also pulled people who appear to be Latino out of their cars, and picked them up from bus stops and on sidewalks. They’ve arrested immigrants without legal status and U.S. citizens alike. Many of the arrests have been filmed by bystanders and posted to social media.
   13. In a sworn declaration, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, Pedro Vasquez Perdomo, said that on June 18, he and co-workers were sitting at a bus stop waiting for their ride to a construction job when armed, masked agents in plain clothes poured out of several unmarked cars and ran toward them. Vasquez Perdomo said he was afraid and tried to move away. The men grabbed and handcuffed him before ever asking for his identification, he said. He was arrested, detained for three weeks, and while now released, is facing deportation.
   14. He said he was never told why he was being arrested or informed of any warrant against him.
   15. [Perdomo said,] “I think that I was arrested that day at the bus stop because of how I look. I was sitting with other workers and we all look Hispanic and were wearing construction work clothes.”
   16. In a hearing at a downtown federal courthouse on Thursday, ACLU attorney Mohammad Tajsar argued that pressure to drive up immigration arrests has led agents to disregard legal and constitutional limits on their authority. In order to stop someone in public and arrest them without a warrant, an immigration agent must at least have “reasonable suspicion” that they’re in the country illegally. Federal courts have ruled a person’s appearance alone is not enough.
   17. But Tajsar pointed Judge Frimpong to numerous videos of recent immigration raids, press reports, and sworn declarations from Vasquez Perdomo and other people swept up that he said prove federal agents are detaining people who look Latino on the assumption that they’re immigrants, even though they know nothing else about them.
   18. [Tajsar said,] “They’re engaging in roving patrols in which they’re stopping people first and asking questions later. They’re not going to admit this, but the evidence is clear. They’re looking at race.”
   19. Sean Skedzielewski, an attorney for the U.S. Justice Department, denied that.
   20. [He told the judge,] “There’s no documented evidence of agents deciding to ignore the law or just pick people up because of race. That kind of conduct is just not happening.”
   21. Skedzielewski said agents out on patrol are instead trained to consider “the totality of circumstances,” which can include considering someone’s appearance along with other factors like the location of a stop, their workplace, or whether a person gets nervous when encountering an agent.
   22. [He said,] “What might seem like an arbitrary stop that comes out of nowhere, agents are performing work in the field all the time before these interactions occur. Prior surveillance of the area, of that person, of their interactions – that the person being stopped might be totally unaware of – are informing the agents’ decisions to approach in the first place.”
   23. Judge Frimpong said during Thursday’s hearing that she was skeptical of the government’s general assurances that immigration agents are not arresting people arbitrarily.
   24. [The judge said,] “What they are considering should be things that give them reasonable suspicion that this person does not have status, and I’m not seeing that.”
   25. She said the government could have been more convincing by explaining the specific reasons that agents arrested Vasquez Perdomo or several other plaintiffs in the case. But it chose not to do that.
   26. In their own declarations, four other plaintiffs, including U.S. citizens, described similar encounters with hard-charging agents who they said detained or arrested them before asking any questions.
   27. Whether immigration agents will scale back their aggressive tactics in response to the judge’s order is unclear. Attorneys for the civil rights groups have said it will be the government’s responsibility to ensure its agents are following the law and the Constitution as they continue their immigration enforcement operations. But lawyers also said they’ll aggressively enforce the judge’s order in court if they think the government is failing to comply.
   28. MIKE: How this lawless American regime will respond to this Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) remains to be seen. I wouldn’t be shocked if they flaunt it and then say that they’re actually not flaunting it, because we are now in the age of Orwell’s Ministry of Truth.
   29. MIKE: That the orders apply only to Los Angeles and six surrounding counties when this is a nationwide problem may seem like the victory is both temporary and much too small, but I read a post on Threads that gave a different perspective.
   30. MIKE: Now that Trump’s Supreme Court lapdogs have forbade district federal courts from declaring national TROs, this TRO applies to only a small region in California.
   31. MIKE: That may seem like a drawback, but the writer in Threads made the point that this opens up the potential for hundreds of these US District Courts to enact their own local and regional TROs. That would require our so-called Department of Justice to defend them in every single court, an enterprise that they are not staffed for, and which courts really have no time on their dockets for.
   32. MIKE: Whether any of this will stop the ICE Gestapo from their rampage through America’s cities, factories and farms remains to be seen, but I think that the fight is just gearing up.
8. As we move to international news, this opinion piece is written in first person by Stephen Marche, and I will be reading it that way. By way of qualification, Stephen Marche lives in Toronto and is an author of several books and a frequent opinion writer.— This Fourth of July, the world declares its independence from America; By Stephen Marche | THEGUARDIAN.COM | Fri 4 Jul 2025 06.00 EDT. TAGS: American Independence Day, British Empire, Canada, MAGA,
   1. This year, like every other year, Americans will celebrate Independence Day with flag-waving, and parades, and fireworks. The political system the flag and the parades and fireworks are supposed to represent is in tatters, but everybody likes a party. It was 249 years ago, when the United States separated from the British Empire. Over the past year it has separated from the world order it built over those 249 years, and from basic sanity and decency as well. For Americans, the madness gripping their country is a catastrophe. For non-Americans, it is an accidental revolution. This Independence Day, the world is declaring its independence from the US.
   2. As the United States retreats from the world, it is reshaping the lives of its former trading partners and allies, leaving huge holes in its wake. For Canada, where I live the sudden absence of a responsible United States has been more shocking and more terrifying than for other countries. Americans are our friends and neighbours, often our family. We have been at peace with them for 200 years, integrating with their security apparatuses and markets. Now they are explicitly planning to weaken us economically in order to annex us.
   3. The Canadian strategy, undertaken with vigor by the newly elected government of Mark Carney, has been clear in spirit at least: a polite “go f*** yourself.” After you’ve told America to f*** off, though, the real work starts. You have to figure out how to live without them.
   4. Carney has already signed major pieces of legislation to lower trade barriers inside the country, to create new trading partners, and to cement security arrangements with the European Union. But those are only the obvious beginnings.
   5. Since Donald Trump’s inauguration, I have been working on Gloves Off, an audio series trying to figure out how Canada can navigate the post-American world. I’ve been shocked by how much needs to be done. Canada is like a beautiful mansion with huge chunks of the foundation missing. We don’t even have our own secret service, just an internal security apparatus.
   6. Our military would be comically unprepared for an American annexation. Large scale-changes to national life – becoming a nuclear power, undertaking a whole society defense – may be required to survive a neighbour who is backsliding into authoritarianism every week.
   7. Under protection from America, under the assumption that its economy was globally dominant, Canada has never had to ask itself hard questions. Now we’re facing a pop quiz with terrifying consequences.
   8. The decline of America leaves a psychological gap, too. America, for all its problems, was aspirational. It was easy to poke holes in its claims to exceptionalism, but it genuinely served millions of people, myself definitely included, as a beacon of freedom and openness. But I keep thinking of that line from No Country for Old Men, just before Anton Chigurh kills Carson Wells in a hotel: “If the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?”
   9. Its great founders knew America’s vulnerabilities from inception. Washington predicted, almost exactly, the effects of partisanship the country is undergoing today.
   10. [Washington wrote in his Farewell Address,] “The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism.”
   11. Abraham Lincoln saw it all coming, [saying] “If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time or die by suicide.” The suicide is tackier than anyone imagined, but it’s been predicted since 1776.
   12. One of the great ironies of history is that the triumph of MAGA has led to the piecemeal destruction of everything that once made America great, and on every level. [America’s] power derived from a reliable trade network, with logistical chains that were the wonders of the world, combined with a huge alliance network, and the greatest scientific and technological institutes in the world. It is systematically destroying all of those strengths far more thoroughly than any enemy could.
   13. America is turning away from itself, and the rest of the world must follow. The new independence requires frankness, even brutality. There is no such thing as a deal with America anymore.
   14. Canada and Mexico made one with Trump in 2018. He broke it at the first possible opportunity. Their national word is worthless. They understand only force and money, and increasingly not even those. Their military actions are more or less random, half-considered, about as deep and significant as a social media rage post.
   15. They instantly forget who helped or hurt them. All those Afghans who saved American lives a decade ago have lived to regret it, being deported, just for the spectacle of it all, back to their torturers.
   16. There is exactly no security in being their ally. If the American government declares war on something – poverty, drugs, Islamic terrorism, anti-democratic governments – you can be quite sure that whatever they’re opposed to will be much stronger by the end of the fighting.
   17. US scholars of fascism are fleeing to Toronto, and the city has become a kind of lens through which to see the American collapse. Canada sees what America is becoming.
   18. Travel from Canada to the United States is down 45% year over year which is partly a political statement by way of boycott, but it’s also a demonstration of common sense: America has made it perfectly clear that foreigners are unwelcome and subject to violence with total impunity.
   19. But the simplest way to explain the need to step away from the United States is the most basic: no problem the world faces has an answer that can be found in America. Not politically, not economically, not socially, not culturally.
   20. It is clear that we have to start looking for answers to the world’s problems elsewhere, in ourselves and in others. There is a celebration of independence this Independence Day and it is real; it’s just for countries other than America. The lesson the Americans once taught the British, they are teaching the rest of the world: there are no necessary nations. There are no exceptional countries. There are no permanent global orders. There’s just more history, and trying to survive to stay yourself it.
   21. MIKE: Again, this is an opinion piece by Stephen Marche that was written in first person, and I’ve been reading it that way.
   22. MIKE: You may agree or disagree with all or parts of this essay, but I think that it is sobering. It expresses all the fears that I’ve expressed about what this rogue American regime has been bringing us to on the world stage, and if our allies all feel the way Marche does, it may already have come to pass.
   23. MIKE: Let’s hope that the damage that Trump and the Republicans have done and are doing to the stature and security of this nation can be at least somewhat repaired down the road.
9. I’ve talked many times on this show about how the Ukraine-Russia War is changing military doctrines all over the world. This is just one example — Ukraine made the Patriot a moving target — and taught the US Army how to fight smarter with its air defenses; By Jake Epstein | BUSINESSINSIDER.COM | Jul 11, 2025, 10:12 AM CT. TAGS: US Army, Patriot Missile Systems, Russia, Ukraine, Army Air and Missile Defense Command,
   1. The US Army is closely watching how Ukraine uses its coveted Patriot systems to fend off Russian missile attacks and is learning that, in order to best protect air defenses, it’s crucial to keep them hidden and mobile, two American officers told Business Insider.
   2. The MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile systems are the top layer of Ukraine’s air defense shield. Kyiv is believed to be operating six batteries, which have proven to be critical in defending the country against Russian aerial attacks, particularly ballistic missile strikes.
   3. Col. James Compton, the deputy operations officer for the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, explained to BI that the Ukraine war has, in some cases, reinforced US military air defense doctrine.
   4. However, he said the war has also “introduced more concepts, like how to become more mobile, how the system’s components are organized on battery sites, ways of camouflaging the equipment, and how the system can be improved to be more survivable.”
   5. [Compton added,] “This conflict has definitely made the community relook how we train, how our units are organized, as well as how we prepare for potential conflicts with robust air and missile threats.”
   6. Being mobile requires a whole-of-system approach. A Patriot battery consists of several complementary parts, including a radar, a control station, a power generator, and as many as eight launchers that can each hold four interceptor missiles. Dozens of soldiers are needed to operate the weapon.
   7. The Patriots are coveted weapons for Ukraine, giving the country its best shot at defending against Russian ballistic missile attacks. But Kyiv has long been hamstrung by a shortage of interceptor missiles, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy repeatedly calling on the US and NATO allies to send more ammunition and batteries amid worsening aerial bombardments.
   8. Chief Warrant Officer Sanjeev “Jay” Siva, a technician in the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, said Ukraine’s Patriot batteries have emerged as priority targets for Russia.
   9. He told BI that Patriot units have to prioritize movement discipline, cover and concealment tactics, and overall survivability measures in ways that haven’t been required in decades, adding that the US “can no longer operate under the assumption of relative invulnerability.”
   10. Siva said the war has given Army planners various ideas, including for creating decoys and camouflaging equipment, to confront the changing air defense landscape.
   11. Survivability is critical to maintaining a robust air defense to keep missile threats and enemy airpower at bay. The suppression and destruction of surface-to-air missile systems like the Patriots allows an enemy force to carry out more powerful air attacks. …
   12. Compton said Ukraine has “shown remarkable ingenuity in how the systems are arrayed on their tactical sites and how each site can be physically adapted to increase protection of the batteries.”
   13. Earlier this year, for instance, Ukraine started putting steel plates on the exterior of the control units of its Patriot batteries, which is where the crew sits to operate the system, to better protect them from missile shrapnel and blast fragments.
   14. [Compton said] Ukraine has “shown how the equipment can be physically adapted to protect the crews, as well as what is possible to conduct maintenance and repairs quickly and in adverse conditions.”
   15. Lessons learned from Ukraine may already be paying off. …
   16. Just last month, US soldiers in Qatar used the Patriot to defend an air base from a volley of over a dozen Iranian missiles. The Pentagon later described it as “the largest single Patriot engagement” in American military history.
   17. REFERENCE: Patriot air defenses have become top weapons — and top targets; By Jake Epstein | BUSINESSINSIDER.COM | Jul 7, 2025, 2:28 PM CT. TAGS: Ukraine War, Russian Missile Attacks, Anti-Missile Defense,
10. MIKE: The next story expands this one a bit. I’ll be reading some relevant portions — Ukraine’s Patriot demand is showing the US Army that it needs to be stockpiling interceptor missiles; By Jake Epstein | BUSINESSINSIDER.COM | Jul 8, 2025, 4:57 AM CT. TAGS: US-Made Patriot Air Defense Systems, Ukraine, Interceptor Stockpiles, Russia, NATO, United States,
    1. Ukraine’s high demand for US-made Patriot air defense systems and interceptors to defend against Russian attacks is showing the US Army that it needs to stockpile missiles for future fights, two officers told Business Insider. …
    2. However, this high-tempo operating environment has strained Patriot interceptor stockpiles. Ukraine has long been hamstrung by a shortage of missiles, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy repeatedly calling on the US and NATO allies to send more. The country has been unable to get enough of these weapons.
    3. Patriot interceptors come in multiple variants, and Ukraine is known to have received several different types of missiles since it started operating the system in 2023. This diversity of ammunition is helping inform US war planning.
    4. Col. James Compton, the deputy operations officer for the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, said that the Ukraine conflict “has highlighted that you should not stockpile one or two types of interceptors. It is obviously important to have a large number, but there are several variants of the Patriot missile,” each bringing its own capability against a threat.
    5. “There is not a ‘one size fits all’ solution,” he added, explaining that “you do not want to use the same missile against a drone that you would against a ballistic missile, and this conflict reinforces the need to plan how units are postured accordingly.”
    6. Ensuring sufficient stockpiles of each of the interceptors requires a strong defense industry and global supply chain. …
    7. As the US military looks across the Pacific at China’s growing military power and substantial arsenal of ballistic missiles, land- and ship-based air defense is top of mind. Analysts and officials have voiced concern that American forces are using up interceptors without clear plans for replacing them.
    8. Having a large number of Patriot interceptors would be critical for the US in a large-scale conflict with a peer adversary, like China or Russia. The head of Indo-Pacific Command, Adm. Samuel Paparo, has said that shipments of Patriots and interceptors to the Ukrainians have been “eating into stocks.” He said that “to say otherwise would be dishonest.”
    9. Last year, the Army awarded Lockheed Martin, one of the Patriot manufacturers, a contract to boost the annual production of PAC-3 MSE missiles to 650, up from 350 just a few years ago. The company said in March that it expects to reach this milestone by 2027.
    10. [Chief Warrant Officer Sanjeev “Jay” Siva, a technician,] stressed that the Patriot “represents a critical final tier of defense against increasingly complex threats,” like one-way attack drones and cruise missiles, and the weapons remain “the sole effective” protection against tactical ballistic missiles. He said that “addressing this capability gap is paramount to maintaining regional and global security.”
    11. MIKE: This story shows how defending Ukraine is also in our own national interest.
    12. MIKE: While I have no love or admiration for Defense Secretary Hegseth, this story suggests that his decision to temporarily stop shipments of Patriot missiles to Ukraine didn’t come out of nowhere. We have been sending them to Ukraine faster than we can replenish our own inventory, and that represents a national security problem.
    13. MIKE: It raises the question of whether Ukraine’s war against Russia is sufficiently in America’s interest that their use against a potential adversary of America’s is tantamount to our own national defense. Personally, I think it is, but I’m not the one that has to balance these things with the numbers in front of me.
    14. MIKE: Taking another year and a half to not quite double annual production of Patriot missiles while consumption rates are extremely high is its own problem. But this is representative of a widespread decline in our ability to rapidly build both basic and sophisticated military hardware, everything from artillery shells to ships.
    15. MIKE: We may eventually need some kind of partial industrial mobilization — or at least have ready-to-go plans for one — in the event of what may be an inevitable national emergency.
11. This last piece discusses defending soldiers against the dramatic changes in modern warfare. It’s heavily edited. From ARMYRECOGNITION-dot-COM — US Army to Equip Soldiers Worldwide with Advanced Danish Wearable Counter-Drone Systems for Enhanced Protection.; By Defense News Army 2025 | ARMYRECOGNITION.COM | 11 Jul, 2025. TAGS: US Army, Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems (C-UAS), Modern Warfare, Wearable Counter-Drone Systems,
    1. A “C-UAS” is a Counter-Unmanned Aerial System.
    2. … [T]he US Army expands modular drone defense [with a $26M contract to begin equipping] soldiers with wearable counter-drone systems …
    3. The Danish firm’s [deal strengthens transatlantic defense ties and] also underscores the growing role of agile counter-UAS solutions in modern warfare.
    4. The [new defense product] … integrates [a] drone detector and … jammer into a nearly 3-pound (1.3-kilogram) wearable system that can be … attached to tactical gear. [In real-time, it] enables troops to detect, track, and neutralize hostile unmanned aerial systems (UAS) while maintaining operational freedom … .
    5. Recent field trials by US European Command highlighted its adaptability during joint exercises in Germany. …
    6. [The system counters] a broad spectrum of drone threats, from commercial quadcopters to weaponized UAVs. …
    7. MIKE: Let me give you an idea how important weight is to a soldier from my own experience in a trade. A soldier’s full pack can weigh in excess of 100 pounds.
    8. MIKE: My old tool belt weighed about 35 pounds, and I wore it for 5-10 hours per day. When choosing a hammer to carry on that belt, I chose a 10oz. hammer because after a few hours, an extra 6oz. felt like a pound-and-a-half. I chose many tools that way when I could.
    9. MIKE: So to a soldier carrying this new anti-drone hardware that can save his life, those 3 pounds are a big deal. Does he add them or swap that weight for something else? Just something to think about.
12. For a last word — Hegseth announces new name of US navy ship that honored gay rights icon Harvey Milk; By Edward Helmore | THEGUARDIAN.COM | Fri 27 Jun 2025 14.40 EDT. TAGS: US military, Pete Hegseth, Trump administration, Pride, LGBTQ+ rights, news,
    1. The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has formally announced that the US navy supply vessel named in honor of the gay rights activist Harvey Milk is to be renamed after Oscar V Peterson, a chief petty officer who received the congressional Medal of Honor for his actions in the Battle of the Coral Sea in the second world war.
    2. [Hegseth announced … on X,] “We are taking the politics out of ship naming.”
    3. In an accompanying video-statement, Hegseth added: “We are not renaming the ship to anything political. This is not about political activists, unlike the previous administration. Instead, we are renaming the ship after a congressional Medal of Honor recipient.”
    4. MIKE: I’m not going to read the story but actually can agree with this comment from Pete Hegseth: “Hegseth announced on Friday on X, ‘We are taking the politics out of ship naming.’”
    5. MIKE: For once, I couldn’t agree more with Pete. Now that we’ve renamed the USS Harvey Milk, I have a few more suggestions.
    6. MIKE: Let’s rename the aircraft carriers Ronald Reagan and George W Bush so that their names don’t stick in my throat when I say them. Maybe we can also revert George W Bush to plain Intercontinental Airport Houston and take Reagan off Washington National Airport’s name.
    7. MIKE: Then Hegseth can talk to me about non-political naming.
    8. MIKE: This could become a new post-Trump trend.