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 radio

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 24th week of Trump’s National Guard troops in Los Angeles; the 15th week of Trump’s military occupation of Washington DC; 6 weeks since Trump deployed National Guard troops to Memphis, Tennessee; and an ongoing federal law enforcement occupation in Chicago.

1. Harris County will have runoff elections on December 13, with early voting running from December 1^st though the 9^th;
2. A BIT MORE ABOUT ELECTION DAY
   1. If you use mail-in ballots to vote, this may be useful information for you.
   2. My wife and I both mail in our ballots. This year, the HarrisVotes-dot-com website didn’t show them received, so I checked by phone (713-755-6965) on Monday, 11/10. I was informed that they had an issue this year (for the first time) with the ballot tracking site updating, and our ballots never showed received, but were.
   3. I mailed my ballot from Houston. It went into the USPS system on the Wednesday evening before election day (10/29). It apparently was received and counted on Oct. 31.
   4. My wife mailed in her ballot from another county. It went into the USPS system by the Tuesday evening (10/30) before election day. It was apparently received and counted on Nov. 5^th, the day after official election day.
   5. So be warned on USPS delivery times.
3. Houston City Council dismisses request to increase water rates; By Emily Lincke | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 5:31 PM Nov 12, 2025 CST/Updated 5:30 PM Nov 12, 2025 CST. TAGS: Houston City Council, Aqua Texas, Water Rates,
   1. Houston City Council rejected a request from a company to raise water rates for residents and business owners at its 12 meeting.
   2. The request, which came from national utilities company Aqua Texas, would have raised around $30 million in additional revenue for the company.
   3. … Submitted June 20, Aqua Texas’ request asked for a consolidated statewide tariff, which would bring $17.8 million more in water revenue and $11.4 million more in wastewater revenue to the company under the new consolidated system, according to Houston City Council 12 meeting documents.
   4. The actual rate change for Houston residents would have varied, but it could have impacted 93 residential customers and at least 62 commercial customers within the city’s limits, according to meeting documents. Across the state, Aqua Texas has about 76,000 water customers and 25,300 wastewater customers. …
   5. … Council member Fred Flickinger said he spoke to Kingwood residents who receive water service from Aqua Texas, and they were dissatisfied with the company.
   6. [Flickinger said,] “Here [Aqua Texas is] coming back and asking for this huge increase, which I think is a travesty for the residents, given how terrible the water service has been. Unfortunately, the city isn’t able to provide it because we don’t have the capacity in that specific area.”
   7. A media request with Aqua Texas was pending as of press time Nov. 12. A comment from the company will be added, if provided.
   8. … Aqua Texas also submitted a request for unincorporated areas to the Public Utility Commission of Texas and will likely appeal the city’s decision to that commission, according to meeting documents.
   9. MIKE: On their web site, within the Houston-Harris County metro region, Aqua Texas serves all or parts of Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Grimes, Harris, Jefferson, Liberty, Matagorda, Montgomery, Polk, San Jacinto, Trinity and Wharton Counties.
   10. MIKE: I went to the Texas Public Utilities Commission web site, and I tried to find more information for possible rate increase requests that are pending outside of Houston but in adjacent counties, but had no luck.
   11. MIKE: If I see any more stories along this vein that impact our metro area, I’ll try to mention them.
   12. MIKE: In a related vein, however, it’s useful to have the PUC’s contact information wherever you keep your addresses. You can go to PUC-dot-TEXAS-dot-GOV to find more ways to contact them and file any utility complaints you may have.
4. Mayor John Whitmire defends HPD as criticism mounts over ICE cooperation: ‘Don’t politicize this’; By Abby Church, City Hall Reporter | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM | Nov 12, 2025. TAGS: Mayor John Whitmire, Houston Police Department (HPD), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),
   1. Mayor John Whitmire on Wednesday defended the Houston Police Department’s work and denounced “inflamed rhetoric” on social media from politicians protesting the city’s cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
   2. On Saturday, Whitmire spoke at a conference with Bill King of Rice University’s Baker Institute of Public Policy about how the city is cooperating with ICE after denying and giving vague answers about the extent to which police were involved with the agency for months.
   3. [Whitmire said,] “I’m not going to say that we’re not cooperating with ICE, because that’s frankly not true.”
   4. Following Whitmire’s statement, Council Member Mario Castillo and council candidate Alejandra Salinas took to social media to denounce the cooperation and call for more transparency.
   5. Castillo, in addition to calling for a public explanation of the extent of the city’s involvement with ICE, said he was going to pause his office’s requests to fund overtime for HPD officers until he knew the dollars were not going toward cooperating with ICE.
   6. [Castillo posted on X,] “Reports that HPD has been coordinating with ICE contradicts months of public statements to the contrary.”
   7. Salinas also posted on X, saying the cooperation and lack of information was “wrong” and said one of her relatives was wrongly detained by the federal agency.
   8. [Salinas wrote,] “I am profoundly disappointed in the lack of transparency by the administration. Our city should not enable wrongful actors.”
   9. Whitmire during Wednesday’s City Council meeting said the outcry is “alarming people unnecessarily” and “politicizing a very emotional issue.” 
   10. [Whitmire said,] “We didn’t ask for this challenge. We can strongly disagree with the actions of the federal government, but we’re here to follow the law,” adding that “when there’s a warrant for someone’s arrest, we have no choice but to submit them to the agency that has the warrant” like other agencies have been doing across the region.
   11. The mayor said when he does stings at clubs with the police chief across the city, groups of 50 to 100 people are only checked for drugs and firearms and sent home without being asked about their immigration status. He added HPD officers don’t ask about immigration status when they’re pulled over for traffic violations.
   12. [Of course the problem here is one of trust in the Mayor’s veracity, and I think that ship has already sailed. Continuing …]
   13. Doug Griffith, the police union president, told council members his officers don’t go in search for immigration violations, especially with the department’s current shortage of 1,500 officers. He added that the standard procedure for officers was checking for outstanding warrants and referring the individual to the agency that issued it, whether it was ICE or the FBI.
   14. [Griffith said,] “Outside of that, we’re not working with ICE. We don’t care about ICE. They have their own job function.”
   15. [MIKE: Why we had a police union head discussing this instead of the Houston police chief is a mystery. It’s the chief who sets and enforces policy. Continuing …]
   16. Whitmire called for elected officials to “lower the rhetoric.”
   17. [Whitmire said,] “What’s the incentive to bad mouth HPD with such a sensitive issue, or even me? It’s not harming HPD. They’re doing great … The public opinion (of the department) is high. It’s not harming me. I’m doing fine. You’re harming the community that we’re all committed to serve and comfort.”
   18. Whitmire called social media posts or “click bait” criticizing HPD incorrect.
   19. [Whitmire said,] “We are a city of immigrants. We know that it’s our strength. And I would urge everybody, anybody who can hear my voice, don’t politicize this … We are the Houston Police Department. We enforce state and city laws, not immigration, not ICE.”
   20. … Castillo on Wednesday said his social media post called for increased transparency, arguing he was trying to reassure people who have fears about immigration enforcement.
   21. [Castillo said,] “When we have reassured folks this isn’t happening, this isn’t what’s going on – that’s one thing. And then the comment over the weekend … it raised a lot of questions. It brought anxiety up, and that, to me, was something that jeopardized the public’s trust with our local law enforcement.”
   22. During his time as mayor, Whitmire prided himself on his approach to running Houston by keeping his head low in an attempt to stay away from the “turmoil” unfolding in other large cities. 
   23. Where some got a verbal lashing Wednesday, Whitmire praised Council Member Joaquin Martinez for the approach he took by posting a message of support to the city’s immigrant community.
   24. [Martinez wrote,] “While some might try to inflame distrust between our immigrant families and local government, we must stand together, to support one another, and to make sure every Houstonian feels safe calling for help, going to work and sending their children to school. Immigration enforcement may be a federal issue, but building trust, safety and inclusion is local work — and that’s where my focus remains.”
   25. Martinez stayed on his course Wednesday and said he was appreciative to be a part of the effort to be intentional with words. He added the issue was among the hardest he’s had to deal with as a council member.
   26. [Martinez said,] “What ICE is doing is disgusting, and I think everybody can agree to that. But at what point do we, especially in these positions, who have an opportunity to speak up a little bit louder, provide some peace and calm in this chaos, or do we continue to inflame these conversations?”
   27. … While Whitmire has drawn criticism from residents and council members, he was praised by former Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, who appeared on a conservative podcast and spoke about the city’s ICE involvement Monday.
   28. She said Houston had a duty to comply with federal agents for the sake of public safety.
   29. [Ogg said,] “I support what Mayor Whitmire does. He won by a wide margin, and I think that shows that most Houstonians believe in what we’re talking about. They just want limited government to perform the major duties that government is responsible for, and the number one duty is to keep us safe. So I applaud Mayor Whitmire.”
   30. MIKE: To address the last part first, I think that when your actions get an endorsement from newly-minted Republican Kim Ogg, that’s being damned with faint praise.
   31. MIKE: I also think that it’s past time to reframe this debate about whether or not local government is cooperating with ICE. The real debate ought to be whether local government should cooperate with ICE. When is following the law actually just collaborating with an oppressive regime? You know … “Keeping your head low”. Going along to get along.
   32. MIKE: There comes a time when people need to stand up and be counted. Leaders of state and local governments are in the best position to do this because they have legal resources to back them up. It can even be argued that it is their responsibility to stand up and be counted against oppression as elected public servants.
   33. MIKE: In Charles Dickens’ book, “Oliver Twist”, there is a character named Mr. Bumble. At one point in the book, confronted with a law with which he disagrees, Mr. Bumble says, “If that’s the law, I say, the law is a ass!“
   34. MIKE: We are now being confronted in this country with brutal and asinine enforcement of questionable laws being interpreted in questionable ways, and being enforced with abhorrent violence and disregard for individual rights and dignity. In some cases, even being enforced despite court orders, in ways that courts have deemed improper and illegal.
   35. MIKE: To add to the despicable way that ICE claims it’s enforcing laws, there is growing and ample evidence that detainees are often being held in almost inhumane conditions equivalent to concentration camps.
   36. MIKE: Our local officials are not elected to be lapdogs in times of government overreach and oppression. That used to be the Republican mantra, until they were the government.
   37. MIKE: Mayor Whitmire says that we shouldn’t politicize this. If government oppression shouldn’t be politicized, then what should be?
   38. MIKE: Mayor Whitmore should be acting as a bulwark, protecting the people living in the city he governs and for which he carries responsibility. We should be able to rely upon our leaders to protect us from government lawlessness.
5. Veteran Georgia Prosecutor Appoints Himself to Oversee Trump Case; By Richard Fausset and Danny Hakim | NYTIMES.COM | Nov. 14, 2025/Updated 2:02 p.m. ET. TAGS: Donald Trump, S. Politics, Fani Willis, Georgia, Pete Skandalakis, Election Conspiracy,
   1. The Georgia criminal election interference case against President Trump and a number of his allies entered a new phase on Friday, as the executive director of the state’s prosecutor council appointed himself to take over the case, replacing Fani T. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, who was disqualified from pursuing it.
   2. What the change means for the future of the case was unclear. The new prosecutor, Pete Skandalakis, is a veteran Georgia lawyer who began his career as a Democrat and later switched to the Republican Party. As executive director of the nonpartisan Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, Mr. Skandalakis had been tasked by law with finding a new prosecutor to take on the complex Trump case after Ms. Willis was removed by the Georgia appellate court.
   3. In a filing in Fulton County Superior Court on Friday, Mr. Skandalakis said he reached out to “several prosecutors” in the state, but that each of them declined the appointment. So he said he decided to take on the case himself.
   4. In a statement, Mr. Skandalakis said that while it would have “been simple” to tell the court he could not find a replacement for Ms. Willis — a move that would have likely led to its prompt dismissal — he decided that would not be “the right course of action.”
   5. [Mr. Skandalakis said,] “The public has a legitimate interest in the outcome of this case. Accordingly, it is important that someone make an informed and transparent determination about how best to proceed.”
   6. As the new prosecutor, Mr. Skandalakis now has the authority to steer the case in a number of directions, including taking it to trial as it is, striking plea deals, dropping some charges, or striking the case altogether.
   7. [Said Anthony Michael Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University,] “He would have the same prosecutorial discretion afforded to any sitting prosecutor. He does have the obligation under Georgia law to review every individual case for which probable cause for prosecution exists, and to make a determination, based on an analysis of the facts, whether to proceed. And he has an ethical obligation to not pursue charges where he doesn’t believe he could secure a conviction.”
   8. In a statement on Friday morning, Steve Sadow, Mr. Trump’s lead defense lawyer in Georgia, said, “This politically charged prosecution has to come to an end. We remain confident that a fair and impartial review will lead to a dismissal of the case against President Trump.”
   9. Norm Eisen, a critic of Mr. Trump and executive chairman of the Democracy Defenders Fund, said in an interview that Mr. Skandalakis’ decision to appoint himself was “a welcome development for our democracy.”
   10. [Mr. Eisen said,] “If we don’t have accountability for what happened in the aftermath of the 2020 election, we’re at risk of it happening again.”
   11. The Georgia criminal charges leveled against the president and an eclectic group of his supporters — including Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York and lawyer for Mr. Trump, and Trevian Kutti, a onetime publicist for Kanye West — lie beyond the federal pardon power of presidents.
   12. The case had been moving toward trial when late last year, Ms. Willis was disqualified from prosecuting it. Months earlier, defense lawyers exposed that Ms. Willis and Nathan Wade, an outside lawyer whom she hired to manage the prosecution, had been romantic partners. The defense accused Ms. Willis of “self-dealing” by going on vacations with Mr. Wade that he had paid for, at least in part.
   13. Willis fought her removal, but in September, the Georgia Supreme Court declined to intervene, ending the appeals process.
   14. The indictment, handed up in August 2023, accused Mr. Trump and 18 of his allies of organizing a criminal racketeering enterprise to reverse the 2020 election results in the state, which Mr. Trump narrowly lost that year. Part of the basis for the indictment was a phone call Mr. Trump made in January 2021 to Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s Republican secretary of state. During the call, Mr. Trump pressured Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to overturn the election results.
   15. The call was part of a multistate strategy by the Trump campaign to keep Mr. Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election, resulting in criminal charges in five states.
   16. Trump faces state election interference charges only in Georgia, but some of those involved in efforts to keep him in office were charged in other states as well.
   17. A Michigan case against fake electors acting on his behalf was dismissed this year. Similar cases in Nevada and Arizona are mired in legal challenges.
   18. A federal criminal elections case against him, parallel to the Georgia case, was dropped after he won the 2024 election, and a separate federal criminal case related to Mr. Trump’s handling of classified documents when he left office in 2021 was dismissed last year.
   19. In a fourth criminal case against Mr. Trump, related to payments to cover up a sex scandal during the 2016 presidential campaign, a jury in New York found him guilty on 34 felony counts last year. The president has appealed that conviction.
   20. Skandalakis is a well-known figure in Georgia legal and political circles. In 2022, he stepped in when a judge disqualified Ms. Willis from developing an election interference case against the state’s lieutenant governor, Burt Jones, a Trump ally who was recruited by Mr. Trump’s 2020 campaign to serve as a bogus elector.
   21. Jones had been told he was a target of the broader Trump investigation by Ms. Willis’s office. But Ms. Willis was ultimately prohibited from pursuing charges against Mr. Jones because she had hosted a fund-raiser for one of his political rivals. As with the current case, Mr. Skandalakis, because of his position on the state prosecutors’ council, was required by law to find a replacement prosecutor to determine whether Mr. Jones should be charged.
   22. Skandalakis took nearly two years to do so, and ended up deciding that he would be the best person for the job. He took another five months to conclude that Mr. Jones should not be prosecuted, concluding that Mr. Jones “did not act with criminal intent.”
   23. In another high-profile matter in 2022, the Georgia attorney general chose Mr. Skandalakis to determine whether criminal charges were warranted against two Atlanta police officers after one of them fatally shot a Black man, Rayshard Brooks, during an arrest attempt in 2020. Mr. Skandalakis eventually determined that charges against the officers were not warranted.
   24. Since Mr. Trump took office this year, the Justice Department has embarked on a retribution campaign against those who prosecuted him and Democrats he perceives as enemies, shattering norms that had long kept a symbolic wall between presidents and federal prosecutors. In September, Mr. Trump wrote in a social media post that Ms. Willis was among those who “are now CRIMINALS who will hopefully pay serious consequences for their illegal actions.” …
   25. The Justice Department has already brought charges against Letitia James, New York’s attorney general, and James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, over the objection of career prosecutors who found insufficient evidence. Mr. Trump has also called for charges against an array of others, including Jack Smith, the special counsel who brought two federal criminal indictments against him.
   26. Willis became a hero to some on the left as she investigated, and then began prosecuting, Mr. Trump. A succession of Trump allies were subpoenaed to testify in Atlanta ahead of the indictment, including Senator Lindsey Graham and Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff.
   27. But the case was quickly swamped by legal challenges from a brigade of defense lawyers, including the disqualification effort. Willis pushed back in fiery testimony during a February 2024 court hearing, saying, “I’m not on trial, no matter how hard you try to put me on trial.”
   28. MIKE: It’s been said that the wheels of justice turn slowly, but grind exceedingly fine. When you have enough money and resources, the “slow” part has been pretty obvious, especially in any legal proceeding against Trump.
   29. MIKE: The question is, what does the “fine” part mean? Does it mean that justice eventually arrives at the correct conclusion? Or does it mean that, with enough money and other resources, justice gets so bogged down in motions and trivia that eventually, evidence disappears, and witnesses die, ultimately forcing a plea deal or a dismissal?
   30. MIKE: The jury, as they say, is still out on the Georgia case.
6. Emboldened, Kennedy Allies Embrace a Label They Once Rejected: ‘Anti-Vax’; By Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Reporting from Austin, Texas | NYTIMES.COM | Nov. 10, 2025/Updated 9:54 a.m. ET. TAGS: Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Anti-Vax, MAHA Institute, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
   1. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. likes to say that he is not anti-vaccine, he is “pro-safety.” But when 1,000 of his supporters gathered in Austin, Texas, last weekend for a celebratory conference to chart the future of their movement, they embraced a term — “anti-vax” — some once regarded as a slur.
   2. [Declared Del Bigtree, a close ally of Mr. Kennedy who served as his communications director during his presidential campaign,] “God is an anti-vaxxer, and he needs you to speak up.”
   3. Bigtree spoke during a session that looked back on his 2016 documentary asserting that there was a cover-up of a link between vaccines and autism.
   4. [Said Mark Gorton, the president of the MAHA Institute, a group that works to advance Mr. Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda,] “I’ve come to this anti-vax conference with a message that we need to be more boldly anti-vax.” Mr. Gorton assailed the website of Mr. Kennedy’s former nonprofit as “some pretty weak anti-vaxxery.”
   5. The conference, hosted by Children’s Health Defense, the nonprofit Mr. Kennedy founded and led until he ran for president in 2023, was titled “Moment of Truth.” For the activists, homeopaths, physicians, lawyers and vaccine-wary parents who attended, it amounted to what Rebecca Hardy, co-founder of the advocacy group Texans for Vaccine Choice, called “a family reunion.”
   6. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puts vaccination at the top of its list of the “10 great public health achievements” of the 20th century. Vaccines wiped out smallpox and virtually eliminated polio. PhRma, the drug industry trade group, says vaccination programs are “smart investments” that save lives and drive down health care costs.
   7. Kennedy, the nation’s most prominent vaccine critic, did not attend, but … Now that he holds clout in Washington, his backers are reveling in their newfound power.
   8. [Brian Hooker, the chief scientific officer of Children’s Health Defense, recalling his early advocacy with Mr. Kennedy, told the crowd,] “We were persona non grata absolutely wherever we went.” He added, “That man personally went through the valley of the shadow of death for our kids, and to see him in this particular position, we all couldn’t be happier.”
   9. The mood of the conference was one of passion and anger. Numerous large-scale studies have failed to demonstrate a link between vaccines and autism. But many of the conference attendees, especially parents of children with autism, do not accept those findings.
   10. They accuse the mainstream media and the medical establishment of having ignored them for decades. Some young adults who have autism attended with their parents. …
   11. The political divisions kindled by the coronavirus pandemic were on full display.
   12. Senator Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican who has repeatedly accused Dr. Anthony Fauci of covering up evidence that the coronavirus leaked from a laboratory, gave a talk entitled, “Why Isn’t Tony Fauci in Prison?” Mr. Paul threatened to subpoena Dr. Fauci if he does not agree to testify voluntarily. Dr. Fauci declined to comment.
   13. Another Republican, Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, also spoke. He and Mr. Paul were supposed to attend in person. But they were stuck in Washington to vote on the government shutdown, and addressed the group virtually.
   14. Kennedy’s wife, the actress Cheryl Hines, and the actor and comedian Russell Brand were special guests at a Saturday night dinner to promote Ms. Hines’s new book. Dr. Joseph Ladapo, the Florida surgeon general who likened vaccine mandates to slavery, spoke. So did Andrew Wakefield, whose now-retracted 1998 study linking vaccines to autism cost him his medical license. Both were lauded as heroes.
   15. Speakers warned against the “surveillance state” and the dangers of electromagnetic radiation. Attendees were asked to put their cellphones on airplane mode to mitigate the collective exposure in the room. They were urged to use cash, not credit cards, which can be tracked. A pastor insisted that the government had abridged religious freedom by shuttering churches during the pandemic.
   16. [The pastor declared,] “Your faith is on an auction block when a crisis comes.” Adding, “When faith is silenced, so is science.”
   17. One panel discussion featured young adults with autism and their parents demonstrating the “spellers method,” a technique that aims to help nonverbal people communicate.
   18. Skeptics say the method, which involves tapping on a keyboard and interpretation from a parent or other facilitator, has not been subjected to rigorous scientific study and question whether the facilitators are guiding the communications. Charles Eisenstein, Mr. Kennedy’s former speechwriter, who moderated the session, asked the nonverbal participants what they would like to say about human potential.
   19. [One said,] “We are brilliant and marginalized.” …
   20. Facts were sometimes in short supply. Catherine Austin Fitts, an investment banker who served in the first Bush administration, warned that Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder whose philanthropic work on vaccines made him a nemesis of their movement, is “promoting an electric tattoo that goes under your skin,” to replace cell phones. Microsoft is exploring the idea of “smart tattoos” — wearable sensors that would be attached to, but not inserted under, the skin. Mr. Gates left Microsoft’s board in 2020.
   21. Vaccines, though, were the common thread. Mr. Kennedy’s rise, fueled in part by anger over lockdowns and vaccine mandates, has been accompanied by the development of an alternative ecosystem of physicians and academics who offer a dark vision.
   22. The movement’s embrace of the anti-vax moniker is reminiscent of other movements that reclaimed derogatory terms.
   23. Gavin de Becker, Mr. Kennedy’s longtime security consultant, offered a riff on a line made famous by Mr. Kennedy’s uncle, President John F. Kennedy, who spoke briefly in German during a 1963 visit to West Berlin. [Mr. de Becker declared,] “Ich bin anti-vaxxer!”
   24. Not everyone was happy about the resurrection of the term. Dr. Hooker, the Children’s Health Defense chief scientific officer, did not seem pleased.
   25. [Hooker said,] “I’m a scientist. I want to be more demure about the whole thing and a little bit more circumspect.” He added that if a “broad, sweeping epidemic” emerged, “and I was thoroughly convinced that the only way out of it was to immunize, I’d be for it.”
   26. Bigtree, who declared that “God is an anti-vaxxer,” offered a different take. [He said,] “I think it’s like anything else that’s using a pejorative long enough. You just decide you’re either going to fight it or embrace it.”
   27. MIKE: So with this story, I think I can sum of Trump’s Republican Party, at least as I perceive it.
   28. MIKE: I think it’s now fair to categorize Trump’s Republican Party as out-and-proud pro-crime, pro-disease, and pro-hunger.
   29. MIKE: How do I arrive at such a harsh summary of the Republican Party?
   30. MIKE: Every party has its cranks and extremists, but these MAHA folks may take the Darwin Award. I have little sympathy for them because they’re adults and the consequences they may suffer are on their heads. But in my opinion, being anti-vax is basically being pro-disease. Full stop.
   31. MIKE: My real concerns are for the minor children of these folks who legally and practically have little recourse. I have read at least one story where teenagers basically sneaked a course of vaccinations behind their parents’ backs, resulting in family repercussions.
   32. MIKE: Republicans also seem to be anti-public health, based on their opposition to ACA/ObamaCare support and drastic Medicaid cuts.
   33. MIKE: Former Florida Rep. Alan Grayson once described the Republican health plan as follows: 1- Don’t get sick and 2- If you get sick, die quickly.
   34. MIKE: I don’t see that anything has changed. If anything, it’s gotten more emphatic.
   35. MIKE: Then there’s the pro-crime aspect of the party.
   36. MIKE: Trump has pardoned or commuted the sentences of many hundreds of people. The beneficiaries range from corrupt politicians, to white collar criminals, to violent criminals who have acted on his behalf. I found a count of about 1700 so far in 2025. So from this, I must conclude that Trump is a pro-crime president. From the silence of his party about these pardons and commutations, I must also conclude that the Republican Party is now a pro-crime party.
   37. MIKE: And as far as being pro-hunger? What else can you call a party whose president tries to actively prevent food assistance from reaching hungry families?
   38. MIKE: So is Trump’s Republican Party pro-crime, pro-disease, and pro-hunger?
   39. MIKE: Convince me I’m wrong.
   40. MIKE: I’ve included reference links in this show post at ThinkwingRadio-dot-com for those who may be interested.
   41. REFERENCE: List of people granted executive clemency in the second Trump presidency — From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
   42. REFERENCE: Teens Sneaking Behind Parents’ Backs To Get Covid Vaccine — KFFHEALTHNEWS.ORG
7. The Trump Administration Plans to Introduce 50-Year Mortgages. Here’s What That Would Mean for Home Buyers; by Chantelle Lee, Reporter | TIME.COM | Nov 11, 2025 @ 10:44 AM CT. TAGS: Politics, housing, President Donald Trump, 50-year mortgages, 30-year mortgages, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte,
   1. The Trump Administration is working to introduce 50-year mortgages for home buyers — a plan that has drawn criticism even from some of the President’s allies, and that experts warn could come with potentially major drawbacks.
   2. President Donald Trump suggested that his Administration would introduce 50-year mortgages in a Truth Social post over the weekend. Soon after, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte posted on X: “Thanks to President Trump, we are indeed working on The 50 year Mortgage — a complete game changer.”
   3. The 50-year mortgage would mark a significant extension on the most common type of mortgage in the U.S., a 30-year fixed mortgage, in which the loan is amortized — or paid off — over a 30-year period.
   4. Several right-wing commentators and lawmakers were quick to voice opposition to the idea, which Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green said in a post on X would “ultimately reward the banks, mortgage lenders. and home builders while people pay far more in interest over time and die before they ever pay off their home.”
   5. [MIKE: It must be awfully chilly in Hell, because I agree with MTG. Continuing …]
   6. The Trump Administration’s proposal also generated criticism from housing experts, who say that the benefits to home buyers would be minimal. Here’s what a 50-year mortgage would mean for prospective home buyers.
   7. What are the benefits? The monthly payments for a 50-year mortgage would be lower than those for a 30-year mortgage, according to Alex Schwartz, professor of urban policy at The New School. 
   8. Imagine, for instance, that a person is purchasing a $500,000 home with a 30-year mortgage. The current average interest rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage is about 6.22%, according to Freddie Mac. That means if the home buyer put down a down payment of 20%, their monthly payment of the principal and interest would be $2,455, according to Fannie Mae’s mortgage calculator. But if they took out a 50-year mortgage, again with a down payment of 20%, then their monthly payment of principal and interest—assuming that the interest rate is the same—would be $2,171, according to Fannie Mae. That’s a little under $300 less than the monthly payment for a 30-year mortgage.
   9. [Professor Schwartz says of the difference between monthly payments for 30- and 50-year mortgages,] “It’s a reduction, but it’s not dramatic.”
   10. He also notes that the interest rate for a 50-year mortgage likely wouldn’t be the same as that for a 30-year mortgage, which could reduce the potential savings. A higher interest rate is just one of a few possible drawbacks to a 50-year mortgage, he says.
   11. [I’ll discuss that a bit more in my comments at the end. Continuing …]
   12. What are the drawbacks? One drawback of a 50-year mortgage is that it would take home buyers longer to pay off their debt.
   13. [Prof Schwartz says,] “If you were 30 years old and bought a home with a 30-year mortgage, it would be owned free and clear at age 60, so you’d only have to pay property taxes and maintenance on the home, no longer having to pay a mortgage during your older years or retirement. … If you were now paying a loan for a 50-year mortgage, and you’re 30, the mortgage wouldn’t end until you’re 80, and so you would have a period of time, most likely during retirement, where you have to pay the debt service costs on top of the property taxes and maintenance.”
   14. The other issue, Schwartz says, is that homeowners wouldn’t build equity as quickly with a 50-year mortgage as they would with a 30-year mortgage. For the first several years of a mortgage, a homeowner is primarily paying interest; it takes several years before they actually start reducing their debt. Buyers with a 50-year mortgage would be paying down their debt much more slowly compared to a 30-year mortgage.
   15. If housing prices go down, Schwartz fears that people with a 50-year mortgage may then have negative equity, meaning they would owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth.
   16. Schwartz also says that, most likely, the interest rate for a 50-year mortgage would be higher than that of a 30-year mortgage. Currently, interest rates for 30-year mortgages are higher than those of 15-year mortgages.
   17. [Schwartz says,] “There are major trade-offs here. Your monthly payment is somewhat reduced, [but] it will take a lot longer to build equity in your home, it would take longer to actually retire the mortgage, so that when you’re older your housing affordability problems would be greater when you’re out of the workforce than they would be if you have a 30-year mortgage, and you are at greater risk of having negative equity.”
   18. Would a 50-year mortgage help address housing affordability? According to Schwartz, not in any significant way. For people who are “squeezed” on their current mortgage, if they chose to refinance for a 50-year mortgage, their monthly payments would become more affordable, Schwartz says. But he warns that a longer-term mortgage would carry significant risks.
   19. [Schwartz says,] “Is this going to make home ownership more accessible for first-time home buyers? I don’t think so.”
   20. Amid criticism over the proposal, Pulte acknowledged in a post on X on Sunday, “We hear you. We are laser focused on ensuring the American Dream for YOUNG PEOPLE and that can only happen on the economic level of homebuying. A 50 Year Mortgage is simply a potential weapon in a WIDE arsenal of solutions that we are developing right now. STAY TUNED!”
   21. The President also responded to criticism over the idea. In an interview with Fox News that aired on Monday, he said a 50-year mortgage is “not even a big deal.”
   22. “All it means is you pay less per month,” Trump said. “You pay it over a longer period of time. It’s not like a big factor. It might help a little bit.”
   23. MIKE: First, I’ll start with the caveat that I am in no way a qualified financial advisor, so everything I’m about to say is just my personal opinion.
   24. MIKE: For all the reasons mentioned in the article, a 50-year mortgage is a really bad idea.
   25. MIKE: When buying homes, I’ve occasionally gamed out the idea of a longer mortgage than 30 years just to see if it held any benefits. Of course, the effort was purely theoretical, since no bank will give you a mortgage longer than that, but also theoretically, you could always refinance down the line and add some years to the mortgage.
   26. MIKE: I sort of did that, in a way. We took out a 15-year mortgage when we bought our current Houston home, which seemed like a good idea at the time. As any accountant will tell you, a 15-year mortgage saves you a lot of interest over the course of the mortgage, but compressing payments into that kind of short timeframe can make the payments burdensome. About 7 years down the road, that became the case for us, so when offered the opportunity to refinance, we did.
   27. MIKE: We got a slightly better rate on a new 15-year mortgage, but that wasn’t the main impetus. Because we had already paid about half of the original loan principal, the new loan payments were much lower and more affordable, at just about 60% of the original payment. The end result was that we paid off the house in 22 years instead of 15 or 30, and we had much more financial breathing space in that last period.
   28. MIKE: On the other hand, a 50-year mortgage offers very little financial advantage. First, to allow for a half-century of uncertain inflation risk to the lender, the interest rate is likely to be higher. Also, if that small difference in monthly payment for another 20 years of debt is the difference between barely affording a house and not buying one, you probably shouldn’t buy one. At least not yet.
   29. MIKE: A 50-year mortgage is like being in bonded servitude … or like having a large student loan, which can feel like the same thing. There’s a fair likelihood that you’ll never pay it off in your lifetime, and you’ll leave some portion of your mortgage debt to your estate after you die.
   30. MIKE: That’s no way to live, and it’s certainly no way to build generational wealth for your children and heirs.
   31. MIKE: On the other hand, the only possible reason to look at a 50-year loan is to get into a home at the current market, with the very clear plan to refinance to a 15- or 30-year loan at the first opportunity. Ideally, not more than 5 years down the road. But inertia is a hard thing to fight, and many folks will likely just stick with the mortgage they originally took out, which would be really unfortunate.
   32. MIKE: There is one way to do something similar to a 50-year mortgage now, but without the lifetime indebtedness, but it’s important to emphasize that it’s not for everyone.
   33. MIKE: If you can find a lender to do this, take out a 5-year interest-only loan with a balloon payment at the end, but amortized over 30 years. If your budget permits at any point, you can add extra principal payments along the way. That gives you the minimum possible payment, locks in a home price, and — assuming the home continues to appreciate in value — allows you to gain equity on the property.
   34. MIKE: You might be able to foresee other ways to game this out, but the bottom line is that to promote 50-year loans as a new norm is just another debt-trap being set up by the banker class.
8. In international news, from the EURASIANTIMES — “No Third-Hand F-16s”! Columbia Threatens To Buy Russian Fighters; Accuses U.S. Of Derailing Gripen Deal; By Nitin J Ticku | EURASIANTIMES.COM | November 13, 2025. TAGS: Saab Gripen jets, Colombia, Colombian President Gustavo Petro, Sweden, Lockheed-Martin F-16,
   1. Colombia announced in April that it would acquire Saab Gripen jets to replace its aging Israeli Kfir fighters. If the deal actually goes through, this could make Colombia the second country in South America, after Brazil, to operate Swedish aircraft.
   2. Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced the selection of the Saab Gripen-E/F fighter jet on April 2 in a statement published on the social media site X. Petro said the country had signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) with the Swedish government. 
   3. [Machine-translated to English, the statement read,] “After the letter of intent signed by the government of the Kingdom of Sweden, and having approved the country’s strategic air defense as a prioritized project, I inform: The fleet of aircraft to be acquired is completely new, cutting-edge technology, already implemented in Brazil, and they are of the Saab 39 Gripen brand.”
   4. Earlier, Colombian Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez said in an interview that the country would decide to acquire a new fighter jet “within months.” Sanchez said the country was evaluating its options, including the F-16, the Swedish Gripen, and the French Rafale. 
   5. Interestingly, another South American country, Argentina, decided to acquire 24 second-hand Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcons from Denmark in April 2024, while rejecting China’s JF-17 Thunder.
   6. The JF-17, co-developed by China’s Chengdu Aircraft Corporation and Pakistan, had emerged as a frontrunner by 2023. Priced at approximately $25–30 million per unit, the Block III variant offered modern AESA radar …, PL-15 beyond-visual-range missiles, and a robust electronic warfare suite.
   7. Beijing sweetened the package with favorable financing — up to 85% covered through soft loans from the China Export-Import Bank — and promises of technology transfer. For cash-strapped Argentina, the JF-17 appeared as a pragmatic solution to replace its obsolete A-4AR Fighting Hawks [MIKE: I’ve added a link about this aircraft in the show post at ThinkwingRadio-dot-com. Continuing …]
   8. The F-16, by contrast, arrived with battle-tested reliability and Western interoperability. Denmark’s Block 15 MLU (Mid-Life Update) jets — upgraded in the 1990s … — offered immediate combat readiness. The US approved the transfer under its Excess Defense Articles program, waiving typical refurbishment delays.
   9. Argentina secured 18 single-seat F-16AMs and six twin-seat F-16BMs, plus a weapons package including AIM-120 AMRAAMs and AIM-9 Sidewinders.
   10. President Javier Milei’s pro-Western foreign policy, including Argentina’s bid for NATO “global partner” status, aligned with Washington’s strategic interest in countering China’s regional influence.
   11. The US provided $300 million in Foreign Military Financing — unprecedented for a non-NATO ally — effectively slashing Argentina’s outlay to under $15 million per jet. Training began in Arizona by late 2025, with full operational capability targeted for 2027.
   12. The JF-17’s rejection underscored a broader lesson: in modern fighter procurement, lifecycle costs, supply chain security, and alliance compatibility are critical.
   13. Will History Repeat With Colombia?
   14. [The Columbian] President said [in part] in a November 2 tweet:]
   15. “This article from El Tiempo only proves two things, both utterly dreadful.
   16. The USA has been tailing my family.
   17. The issue of the fury from US government officials, first and foremost, seems to be that I didn’t buy the second-hand F-16s which the USA offered me, but instead opted for the brand-new Gripens from Sweden.
   18. Colombian law allows me to make this deal. As far as I know, Sweden isn’t a terrorist country, nor are the owners of Gripen drug traffickers. They tried to criminalise Lula for the same reason, too. …”
   19. The US reportedly proposed up to 24 aircraft (a mix of donated second-hand Block 50/52s and new Block 70s) for about $4.2 billion, emphasizing interoperability with Colombia’s existing U.S.-sourced fleet (e.g., C-130s, [and] Black Hawks).
   20. Second-hand F-16s were highlighted as cost-effective, with upgrades like AESA radars and AIM-120 missiles.
   21. Reports claim that the US may be trying to derail the Gripen deal, leveraging its control over key components:
   22. [For example,] The Gripen E/F relies on the U.S.-made General Electric F414-GE-39E engine, which is subject to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). In January–March 2025, under the Trump administration, Washington signaled a potential export veto to block re-export licenses, explicitly to steer Colombia toward F-16s.
   23. Saab executives denied a formal block, calling the reports “misleading,” but sources such as Infodefensa and SA Defensa described it as a “full veto” tactic.
   24. Diplomatic and Economic Leverage: The US ramped up “diplomatic and economic pressure,” including trade threats, sanctions hints, and accusations of lax anti-drug efforts under Petro.
   25. In February 2025, US officials met with Colombia’s defense minister to laud the F-16’s “strengths,’ such as NATO interoperability. This echoed the broader US strategy to dominate Latin American arms sales.
   26. Tensions peaked when the US suspended arms sales and imposed personal sanctions on Petro’s family, citing drug trafficking failures. Petro responded by threatening a “strategic shift” to Russian Su-30SM or Su-35 jets, framing US actions as coercive imperialism.
   27. In July 2025, Colombia confirmed orders for 16 [Gripen] jets, with Saab emphasizing “all licenses in order.”
   28. No pivot to F-16s has occurred, and Petro’s defiance — bolstered by Sweden’s support and Brazil’s operational data — signals Colombia’s pushback against US dominance.
   29. For now, Colombia’s choice prioritizes cost, autonomy, and diversification over US pressure. Whether the US can pull off another Argentina-like deal remains to be seen.
   30. MIKE: Whether this jet deal with Colombia might have unfolded differently under a different US president is unknown, but Trump’s bullying ways were certainly no help in securing this deal for America’s Lockheed-Martin.
   31. MIKE: Comparing fighter aircraft is a tricky thing. Technological supremacy within a class of aircraft isn’t just a matter of statistics. All aircraft are designed with performance trade-offs which are compensated for with tactics and training.
   32. MIKE: By all accounts, the Gripen is a good, modern fighter aircraft, and may be ideal for the kinds of potential conflicts that South American countries must plan for.
   33. MIKE: Since Sweden is now a NATO member, their military tech is likely to become ever more integrated with NATO interoperability specifications.
9. And speaking of Trump bullying Latin America, from NPR — S. official says the ‘table is being set’ for possible military action against Venezuela; By Laura Sullivan | NPR.ORG | November 15, 2025@2:12 PM ET. TAGS: Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, Caribbean, US President Trump,
   1. The world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, will arrive in the northern Caribbean on Sunday as tensions with Venezuela grow, according to a U.S. military official. The carrier will join 15,000 service members, including 2,000 Marines aboard an amphibious assault ship.
   2. The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, told NPR the “table is being set” for possible military action. Administration officials are continuing to hold high-level meetings with members of Congress and foreign leaders amid ongoing military exercises.
   3. It remains unclear, however, if President Trump will use military force against Venezuela. The U.S. has conducted 20 strikes on boats in the region so far, saying they were ferrying drugs trafficked from the country. In August, the U.S. government set a $50 million reward for the arrest of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
   4. But officials told NPR that the arrival of the USS Gerald Ford, which was pulled from the Mediterranean Sea, could be just another pressure tactic on Maduro, who has put his own forces on high alert.
   5. On Friday, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, “I sort of made up my mind” about whether to launch an attack.
   6. “I can’t tell you what it is,” he said, “but we made a lot of progress with Venezuela in terms of stopping drugs from pouring in.”
   7. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Thursday on social media that a “mission” was under way called “Operation Southern Spear.”
   8. “This mission defends our Homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our Homeland from the drugs that are killing our people,” he wrote. “The Western Hemisphere is America’s neighborhood and we will protect it.”
   9. The increased activity comes after the high-profile resignation last month of U.S. four-star Adm. Alvin Holsey, who had been overseeing the boat strikes. He abruptly left his post two years early. Pentagon sources told NPR they believe it was because he objected to the assaults on the alleged drug boats, which have so far killed 80 people, and struck boats that did not appear to be showing any immediate hostile intent.
   10. MIKE: I remember at one of his cordial meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky, Trump made a joking remark about what a great deal it is that if you’re a president running a war, you don’t have to have elections.
   11. MIKE: Right then and there, I knew what he had in mind. I just didn’t know where he might start that election-canceling war.
   12. MIKE: When Trump started making aggressive noises about Venezuela, moving air and naval assets to the Caribbean, reopening bases in Puerto Rico, and practicing amphibious assaults, one likely option became clear.
   13. MIKE: If Trump wasn’t going to invade Gaza, he was going to invade Venezuela.
   14. MIKE: If I was a draft-age young man now, I’d be both worried and angry at my prospects of fighting a pointless and entirely unnecessary war.
   15. MIKE: Whatever you thought of our war in Vietnam, at least a case could be made that there was a geopolitical purpose that could be argued, whether you agreed with it or not.
   16. MIKE: No such case can be made for a war with Venezuela.
   17. MIKE: In fact, after trying to mend international political fences with those countries for the better part of the last half century, fighting an American war in South America would be enormously counter-productive, just further alienating Latin countries in the Western Hemisphere who have lots of history with American military interference going back almost 200 years.
   18. MIKE: Republicans in Congress must join with Democrats right now to stop this drumbeat of war in its tracks.
10. And speaking of the drumbeat of war, from DW-dot-com — Germany to introduce voluntary military service; By Sabine Kinkartz | DW.COM | 13-NOV-2025. TAGS: Bundeswehr, German Armed Forces, German Rearmament, Russia-Ukraine War,
    1. Although the German armed forces, the Bundeswehr, needs tens of thousands more soldiers, there will be no return to compulsory military service, according to the governing parties. “The new military service is initially based on voluntary service,” is the key sentence of the draft bill, which will go before the German parliament in December. In future, however, there will be mandatory physical assessments for all 18-year-old men.
    2. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, from the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), plans to launch the new voluntary military service — with better conditions and pay than old-style conscription — at the start of January.
    3. [Said the Social Democrat after the coalition leaders reached an agreement,] “Other European countries, especially Nordic ones, have shown that the principle of voluntary service combined with attractiveness works — and I expect it to be the same here.” [Pistorius stressed that] The number of applicants is increasing, [and] the recruitment figures are rising. The aim is to recruit 20,000 new volunteers by 2026. They will receive €2,600 ($3,025) per month before tax.
    4. The governing parties have been at loggerheads over recent months over whether the armed services could recruit enough volunteers to satisfy Germany’s defense needs. The Bundeswehr currently has around 182,000 soldiers. Yet at least 260,000 will be needed by 2035 to fulfill NATO
    5. Politicians from the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), argued that this ambitious goal could only be achieved with a return to compulsory military service, or at least with a mechanism that automatically triggered a return to compulsory military service in the event that there were not enough volunteers.
    6. The Social Democrats, however, strictly rejected a return to compulsory military service. Now the parties have reached a compromise. If volunteer numbers don’t tally up, the Bundestag will have to decide whether to introduce “compulsory military service on demand” for a certain number of young men.
    7. The CDU/CSU parliamentary group has also praised the agreement. Alexander Hoffmann [of the CSU] described it as achieving the “right mix of free will and obligation.”
    8. Although military service remains voluntary, all 18-year-old men will have to fill out questionnaires, called a “declaration of willingness,” from 2026. They will have to answer questions about their physical fitness and their willingness to serve in the armed forces.
    9. All 18-year-olds will, in fact, receive a QR code that links to the survey. Women can choose to fill it in and express their willingness to serve in the Bundeswehr. But this will not be mandatory because Germany’s Basic Law stipulates that only men can be conscripted.
    10. From July 2027, all 18-year-old men will also be subject to a medical examination to see if they are fit for duty, starting with men born in 2008. Around 300,000 young men per year will be affected. The defense minister argues that this is the only way for the Bundeswehr to get an idea of who could be called up in the event of a conflict. …
    11. With the end of compulsory military service in 2011, [conscription] offices were abolished. The Defense Ministry is now rushing to create a new infrastructure and is already inspecting properties for this purpose. Pistorius emphasized that the Bundeswehr’s new “career centers” should not be anything like the dusty offices of bygone years. They should be modern, bright and airy, just like in Sweden.
    12. The government’s compromise on military service has been met with criticism, particularly from those affected. School student body representative Quentin Gärtner criticized the agreement as inadequate. … [Said Gärtner,] “There is not even the slightest signal that the state is prepared to take responsibility for us.” …
    13. [Opposition politician Sören Pellmann] said the coalition had simply postponed the dispute. “You don’t have to be a prophet to realize that compulsory military service is coming.” …
    14. MIKE: I’m afraid I’m inclined to agree.