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.)

“… In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression …

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way …

The third is freedom from want …

The fourth is freedom from fear …”

VIDEO: FDR’s Four Freedoms Speech (1941) (FOUR FREEDOMS SPECIFIC EXCERPT WITH TAX FAIRNESS — 31:13 to 33:29  

FULL SPEECH TRANSCRIPT: Voices of Democracy: The U.S. Oratory Project

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.

And welcome to our international fans from Singapore, Taiwan, Canada, the UK, and elsewhere.

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.

It’s the 27th week of Trump’s military occupation of Washington DC; 16 weeks since Trump deployed National Guard troops to Memphis, Tennessee; and violent ongoing federal law enforcement invasions of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Chicago, and elsewhere.

Due to time constraints, some stories may be longer in this show post than in the broadcast show itself.

1. Our next election is on March 3^rd. This is a big and very important primary.
   1. This primary election will be for governor, lieutenant governor, and 16 other statewide offices, as well as for US Senate and House representatives, judges, and county and local officials.
   2. The deadline for applying for a mail-in ballot is Feb. 20^th, so there’s still time. You can find out if you qualify at the link I’m providing in this show post at ThinkwingRadio-dot-com.
   3. Early voting starts on Feb 17^th. Election day is March 3^rd.
   4. You can get election and ballot information at HarrisVotes-dot-com, your local county or elections clerk, or at votetexas-dot-gov.
   5. In today’s show post at ThinkwingRadio-dot-com, I’ve included a few relevant links for information about voting and the primary elections, so you might consider checking it out.
   6. From the Texas Tribune, I have:
   7. Voting resources: How to vote in Texas — TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG/2026-VOTE
   8. What you need to know before voting in Texas’ March 3 primary elections — by TEXAS TRIBUNE STAFF 27, 2026
   9. Texas governor primary: Who is running and what to know — by Kayla Guo | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG |Jan. 21, 2026
   10. J. And Texas lieutenant governor primary: Who is running and what to know — by Renzo Downey | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Jan. 22, 2026
   11.  I’ve also included links to the Houston League of Women Voters
   12. And the Texas League of Women Voters
   13. As well as Ballotpedia, which always has useful voting information.
2. Speaking of elections, there’s this from CommunityImpact-dot-Com — Houston to launch new campaign finance tracker for city elections; By Sarah Brager | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 4:37 PM Feb 5, 2026 CST/Updated 4:37 PM Feb 5, 2026 CST. TAGS: Houston City Council, Mayor John Whitmire, Local Elections, Local Campaign Finance,
   1. Houston invested just over $1 million in a new campaign finance management tool, aiming to improve accuracy and fiscal accountability in local elections.
   2. … City Council approved the purchase Feb. 4, and several council members called the initiative a long-overdue replacement of the city’s dated campaign finance management system. Mayor John Whitmire also voiced support for the accountability aspects of the new tool.
   3. [Whitmire said,] “This is an ongoing issue—how you hold people accountable when they have their rights to run for office. … At the state level, you’ve got people who [owe] significant fines to the Ethics Commission, and we still allow them to file and run for office when they’re delinquent in their fines.”
   4. The city will purchase the tool from RFD & Associates — the company behind the Texas Ethics Commission’s electronic filing platform — a popular resource for tracking campaign finance contributions statewide.
   5. Houston’s new platform will incorporate web-based and mobile options for disclosure of campaign finance, lobbying and personal financial statement filings, aligning the city’s system with those of state agencies and clerk’s offices, agenda documents show. Voters will be able to more easily monitor fundraising for candidates seeking city office, as well as money donated to local policy initiatives and political parties.
   6. [According to Mary Benton, the mayor’s chief of communications,] the new tool will be implemented in two phases, the first focusing on campaign contributions and the second devoted to lobbying and personal finance.
   7. … State law mandates that all candidates running for City Council and other city offices must file campaign contributions with the city secretary’s office. Additionally, the city of Houston’s code of ordinances requires candidates to file electronically through the city’s online system, aside from a couple of exceptions.
   8. Houston’s current platform for filing and searching through electronic records dates back to 2007, and several council members said the dated technology has created challenges for accurate tracking and enforcement of filing requirements. …
   9. … Council members Mario Castillo and Julian Ramirez said the investment creates a much-needed opportunity to improve accountability for those who miss deadlines or file incorrectly.
   10. [Castillo said,] “This system is absolutely in need of an upgrade. … The lobbying forms are still done in person on paper — that just tells you how antiquated the system is. But I will also say we should be also looking at how we enforce the requirements around the filings, and folks that don’t file.”
   11. Similarly, council member Twila Carter, who serves as vice chair of the Ethics and Governance Committee, said there isn’t enough clarity about how the Committee should respond to violations and there needs to be a better arm of enforcement. …
   12. Council member Abbie Kamin also noted the current system’s failure to account for lobbyists and blackout periods, which are legally mandated timeframes when officeholders are prohibited from accepting political contributions.
   13. … Benton said the campaign finance tool is anticipated to go live on the city’s website within 60 days, with additional components for lobbying and personal finance disclosures set to launch within 180 days.
   14. MIKE: I don’t have much to say on this except that anything that holds candidates to higher standards of campaign finance accountability is a good thing.
3. This next story from HOUSTONPUBLICMEDIA reports more steps toward the Trumpian fascism that the Republican Party in Texas is enthusiastically embracing — University of Houston asks professors to sign agreement ‘not to indoctrinate’ students; By Michael Adkison | HOUSTONPUBLICMEDIA.ORG | Posted on February 6, 2026, 3:09 PM (Last Updated: February 7, 2026, 11:39 AM). TAGS: Education, Education News, Houston, Local News, Texas, American Association Of University Professors, Higher Education, Senate Bill 37, UH Chancellor Renu Khator, University Of Houston,
   1. Faculty at the University of Houston are being asked to sign their name to a memorandum that certifies their course curriculum does not “indoctrinate” students.
   2. Houston Public Media obtained an email sent to professors in the UH honors college, asking professors to complete a course review and submit their name in a survey that reads, “Having reviewed the catalog descriptions, course objectives, student learning outcomes, and assignments, I confirm, to the best of my knowledge, are aligned.”
   3. The memo was issued as a result of Senate Bill 37, an overhaul of the public higher education system passed by the Texas legislature that took effect in September. It permits governing bodies to have greater authority over course curricula. Educators have said it will lead to censorship.
   4. Spokespeople for the University of Houston did not comment.
   5. In a letter to the university, the UH chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) said, “a number of Deans have sent emails to faculty in their colleges. … While we understand that this is a difficult and uncertain time for Texas universities and we appreciate that Deans have asserted the importance of academic freedom and emphasized correctly that there is no evidence of ‘indoctrination’ on the UH campus, … the freedom of faculty to teach consistent with their judgment and expertise are guaranteed by law and cannot be abrogated in any way by decanal prerogative.”
   6. [MIKE: So if I’m understanding that sentence correctly, it seems to be saying that UH is trying to follow Texas law, but not to worry, this is just a formality. You’ll still be able to teach stuff without government interference. Well, forgive me if I’m not persuaded that the camel’s nose isn’t already inside the tent. Continuing …]
   7. The University of Houston is not the only higher education institution placing increased scrutiny over its curriculum. A Texas A&M professor who was fired last year after a controversy over a lesson about gender identity has now sued the school. Other universities, including the University of Texas at Austin, have eliminated their faculty senates, in compliance with SB 37.
   8. [MIKE: If you don’t know what that last sentence represents in practice, consider it to be roughly like Caesar turning the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire and effectively emasculating the Roman Senate. This story includes a link to the piece that explains what eliminating the faculty senate means. Continuing …]
   9. The memo obtained by Houston Public Media outlines several guidelines for university curricula to comply with, specifically citing a November statement from UH Chancellor Renu Khator which stated, in part, “Our guiding principle is to teach[students], not to indoctrinate them.”
   10. [Honors College Dean Heidi M. Appel said in the memo to honors college faculty,] “To my knowledge, all our faculty are fulfilling these commitments and upholding these values, and I very much appreciate the work that each of you do, in and out of the classroom, to educate our students. … At the same time, with all the above tenets in mind, the Chancellor and Provost have asked us to review all course titles, course syllabi, and course content against the standards outlined above, to ensure that we are not, knowingly or unknowingly, violating our academic commitment.”
   11. Faculty are not being asked to submit their curricula or course materials but must sign their name to certify that they’ve done so themselves. Appel said the review must be completed by Feb. 13.
   12. In January, Khator told UH faculty that the Office of the Provost and General Counsel had completed a review of core curriculum as required by SB 37.
   13. The memo does not outline any consequences for failing to complete the survey. In its letter to the university, the AAUP asked administrators to “refrain from punishing faculty who refuse to sign off on them.”
   14. MIKE: This is what I see happening here: The government of the State of Texas and the Texas Republican Party are telling schools not to indoctrinate students while working toward indoctrinating students, because it’s a slow jog from telling schools what not to teach to getting around to telling them what they should
   15. MIKE: We’ve all seen this movie before in other countries like Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and Soviet Russia, among others.
   16. MIKE: And it’s only a short matter of time before this state control of what to teach and how to teach it percolates down to all schools in Texas in order to get funding and accreditation from the State of Texas.
   17. MIKE: This is the installation of tyranny using the boiling frog analogy.
   18. MIKE: After the state started academic crackdowns on state-financed universities and colleges, perhaps there should have been mass resignations, but it’s not too late.
   19. MIKE: If the presidents, deans, and instructors at our universities really want to stand up to this educational interference, mass resignations by all of them will shut the universities down and force a reckoning by the government.
   20. MIKE: Simply replacing all school governance and faculty will be extremely challenging, and mass resignations would send a message that no sycophantic attempts to find loopholes can match. But there may be other options.
4. Speaking of educators pushing back, also from HOUSTONPUBLICMEDIA — Professors, students push back as Texas A&M regents increase curriculum oversight; By Kyle McClenagan | HOUSTONPUBLICMEDIA.ORG | Posted on February 6, 2026, 3:57 PM (Last Updated: February 6, 2026, 5:28 PM). TAGS: Education, Education News, Local News, Politics, Texas, Academic Freedom, Bush School Of Government And Public Service, Race And Gender Policy, Texas A&M Board Of Regents, Texas A&M University
   1. One of the nation’s largest university systems has been in a state of academic and political turmoil over the past several months.
   2. Since September, the president of Texas A&M University has resigned, a professor has been fired and subsequently sued the university, the faculty senate has been dissolved and several courses have been canceled due to the system’s new race and gender policy — under which faculty can be put on leave or fired if they stray from approved course syllabi.
   3. During this year’s first quarterly Texas A&M System Board of Regents meeting [on] Thursday, the board approved the establishment of general education review committees at each of its 12 university campuses. These new review committees will act as an additional level of administrative supervision over course curriculum and were implemented to comply with Senate Bill 37.
   4. [MIKE: In other words, the Texas A&M system now has “academic purity” committees. Continuing …]
   5. Several faculty members and students spoke out against this oversight Thursday, including philosophy professor Martin Peterson, who said the committees were yet another form of censorship.
   6. [Peterson said,] “We have recently seen several attempts to politicize the university by closing academic programs for ideological reasons and prohibiting important topics from being taught. … Even Plato has been censored at Texas A&M in recent weeks.”
   7. Peterson’s mention of Plato was in reference to his own course syllabus, which, according to the New York Times, was flagged by university administration, who asked Peterson to remove some teachings of Plato — a central figure in Western philosophy.
   8. Texas A&M civil engineering student Robert Day also spoke to the board and said the actions by the regents are causing some [alumni] to consider taking off their Aggie rings and canceling any future donations to the university.
   9. [Day said,] “I fear the actions this board has taken to cancel the gender studies major, dismissively fire faculty and your capitulation to political pressure bear grim consequences for students who share the same mission I have to lifelong learning and critical thinking. … Academic freedom is the great equalizer and it is the protector of our ability to learn without fear.”
   10. Day’s comments on the potential risk to alumni donations came just one day after Jon Hagler, an A&M class of 1959 graduate and prominent donor to the Texas A&M Association of Former Students, published an editorial in the Dallas Morning News saying the regents had failed to protect the university’s independence.
   11. Board of Regents chair Robert Albritton said before the vote that the voices of faculty and students had been heard, but the regents could not ignore the law.
   12. [Albritton said,] “Believe it or not, it’s just really not a political issue; it’s an issue of where does A&M belong. … Do not believe you can divorce a land-grant state school from Austin. We’re not a Rice. We’re not a Harvard. We’re not a Columbia. We’re not privately funded. We are governed by people that are elected by a mandate of citizens of the state of Texas. … So, as a state institution, we’re going to listen to what they say the state of Texas wants.”
   13. [MIKE: I take exception to Regents Chair Albritton. It’s his responsibility to ignore the law, even if that means resigning rather than implementing it. I’ll go into this more in my comments at the end. Continuing …]
   14. Leonard Bright is a business professor at the Texas A&M Bush School of Government and Public Service whose ethics class was canceled three days into the fall semester due to the new race and gender policy.
   15. Bright said the continued attacks against academic freedom are beginning to blemish the reputation of the tier-1 public research university — which spends over $1 billion annually on research.
   16. [Bright said,] “We’ve got many professors that are at the top of their class. … Right now, it’s kind of centralized around [the college of] arts and sciences, but there’s no reason why that would not expand into engineering, to science. I mean, the issues that this group has are more than just about race, gender and sexuality. They disagree with a whole lot of our science. They don’t respect expertise at all. So, eventually, they’re going to come for more STEM fields as well.”
   17. Bright is also the president of the Texas A&M American Association of University Professors (AAUP), an organization that promotes academic freedom. In addition to hosting a rally on the university’s flagship campus in College Station last week, the AAUP has also started a petition against the board of regents’ new policies. The petition had over 1,000 signatures as of Friday.
   18. Bright described the current morale among faculty as low and said the regents could be setting a dangerous precedent for the future of Texas A&M.
   19. [Bright said,] “It’s going to be rough for the students, and I think Texas A&M will have to decide are they going to drive this university into the ground or are they going to pause and think about the ultimate consequences.”
   20. MIKE: I’m again reminded of the line that Charles Dickens wrote for Mr. Bumble in his book, “Oliver Twist”: “If that is the law, then the law is an ass.”
   21. MIKE: Two weeks ago, on my January 25^th show, story #3, I did a long discussion of what it means to be a collaborator when it comes to facilitating fascist policies and laws, even when seeing one’s role as trying to mitigate them. In that case, I was talking about Houston Mayor John Whitmire’s collaboration with ICE.
   22. MIKE: This is no different. It’s another example of people in positions of authority rationalizing why they are bending the knee to fascist policies, this time in education.
   23. MIKE: Board of Regents chair Robert Albritton is right. He’s obeying the law. But I think he’s implying the wrong question, which ought to be, SHOULD the Board of Regents obey the law?
   24. MIKE: Does he want to play the role of Marshal Philippe Pétain, who became the president of the Nazi puppet state of Vichy France? Pétain governed with some enthusiasm for fascist policies under the boot of the Nazis. In the end, he was tried for treason against the French state, and sentenced to death, but due to his advanced age, that was commuted to a life sentence.
   25. MIKE: I’m not actually comparing Albritton to Pétain. Albritton is more like one of Pétain’s apparatchiks, implementing Pétain’s orders with varying degrees of enthusiasm. But I still believe that the analogy applies.
   26. MIKE: Regents Chair Robert Albritton had — and still has — a choice. Rather than implementing fascist education policies, he can offer a principled letter of resignation rather than implement these policies. This is true of all the Regents board members, as well as University leadership and faculty.
   27. MIKE: Nothing would send a clearer anti-fascist message to the state government. And what could Governor Greg Abbott do about that?
   28. MIKE: Of course, he could appoint a new Board of Regents, but if all university leaders and faculty resigned, what would they govern?
   29. MIKE: A slightly lesser form of protest would be a general strike, where, again, all the leadership and faculty would simply refuse to do the work.
   30. MIKE: I have a saying that I created over 35 years ago: “Good advice is easy to give and hard to take.”
   31. MIKE: It’s easy for me to tell these folks what to do, but I’m not underestimating the enormity of the professional and economic risks they’d be taking.
   32. MIKE: Nonetheless, I think that desperate times call for desperate measures, and these suggestions are worth seriously considering if they can be done with some solidarity.
5. Meanwhile, in New York City, there’s a different kind of revolution going on. From FUTURISM-dot-COM — Mamdani Forces Delivery Apps to Pay Back $4.6 Million Cheated From Drivers; By Joe Wilkins | FUTURISM.COM | Published Feb 1, 2026 1:30 PM EST. TAGS: New York City, NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Delivery Workers, NYC Department Of Consumer And Worker Protection, Uber Eats, Fantuan, Hungry Panda, Underpaying Workers, Wage Cheats,
   1. New York City’s mayor isn’t even a month into his term, and he’s already delivering a crushing blow to delivery app companies.
   2. In a bombshell intervention, Zohran Mamdani and Department of Consumer and Worker Protection commissioner Sam Levine announced that three delivery apps will be forced to repay $4.6 million in wages held back from deliveristas, New York City’s app-based delivery workers.
   3. According to NYC Streetblog, the three main culprits being forced to settle are Uber Eats, Fantuan, and Hungry Panda. The three settlements were the result of a sweeping investigation into broader delivery app practices, which included GrubHub and DoorDash.
   4. “The era of giant corporations juicing profits by underpaying workers is over,” Levine said in a statement. “I’m proud that this agency is not only returning full back pay, but is recovering damages and penalties to send a strong message that cheating workers will not be tolerated.”
   5. Per the mayoral administration, Uber Eats unfairly deactivated and underpaid thousands of workers between December 4, 2023, and September 2, 2024. It’s now being forced to pay $3,150,000 in worker relief penalties across over 48,000 workers, in amounts ranging from $8.79 to $276.15.
   6. In addition, Uber Eats will have to pay the city of New York $350,000 in civil fines — a drop in the bucket compared to the $13.7 billion in revenue the company brought in throughout 2024, but a win for the worker-friendly administration all the same.
   7. The decision strikes a major blow to an industry that has historically relied on its political and financial largess to avoid consequences for horrifying worker abuses resulting from algorithmic management systems.
   8. [Ligia Guallpa, executive director of the Workers’ Justice Project, told NYC Streetblog in a statement,] “For years, app companies treated the law as optional — hiding behind algorithms, stealing wages, and deactivating workers without consequence. … The scale of these abuses proves what deliveristas have been saying for years: exploitation is not an accident — it’s baked into the app delivery business model.”
   9. James Parrott, a senior fellow at the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School, concurred, [saying,] “For far too long, delivery and other online labor platform companies have not only underpaid workers, but deactivated them with abandon, denying workers the ability to make a living.”
   10. Perhaps surprisingly, Uber hasn’t denied any wrongdoing and went as far as to thank officials for bringing light to the issue.
   11. In a statement to NYC Streetblog, Uber spokesman Josh Gold said that “we’re glad to have this resolved.”
   12. [He added,] “After DCWP notified us of the issue in August 2024, we immediately corrected it, agreed to pay more than the amount owed, and appreciate the new administration moving quickly to bring this to a fair conclusion.”
   13. MIKE: This is how government of, by, and for the people is supposed to work. If Mamdani is considered successful by voters over just the next year or two, it will have a major effect on American politics nationwide.
   14. MIKE: As always, time will tell.
6. Now, if you’re in the mood to enjoy some political turmoil on the Texas Republican side, there this story from HOUSTONCHRONICLE-dot-COM — Why a little known Houston Republican is such a threat to John Cornyn’s career; By Jeremy Wallace, Texas Political Writer | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM | Feb 4, 2026. TAGS: Wesley Hunt, Republican U.S. Senate candidates, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, Ken Paxton, Republican Primary,
   1. Wesley Hunt may be the least known among the Republican U.S. Senate candidates, but he’s become the most dangerous to U.S. Sen. John Cornyn’s career.
   2. With various internal polls showing he’s neck-and-neck with Cornyn for second place in the March 3 GOP primary, Cornyn’s allies in Texas and Washington have ramped up their spending to hammer Hunt, particularly in Houston. If Hunt were to finish second behind Attorney General Ken Paxton in the first round of the primary, they are likely to head to a runoff in May while Cornyn’s career comes to a halt.
   3. [In response to the attacks coming from national Republicans trying to protect Cornyn, Hunt said in a radio interview on KTRH in Houston,] “They’re scared because we’re clearly a threat to them.”
   4. Last month, a national super PAC calling itself Texans for a Conservative Majority dropped nearly $1 million on ads attacking Hunt for missing votes in Congress to campaign for the U.S. Senate.
   5. Now another shadowy group has launched an attack called “Backstabbing RINO,” which, as you can imagine from the name, is not a love letter to Hunt.
   6. [A narrator says in the ad,] “Washington Wesley is no conservative. … He’s a backstabbing RINO Texas conservatives can’t trust.”
   7. Who’s responsible for that attack? Unknown. The group claiming responsibility for it is called Conservative Texans PAC, which was just created last month and, under Federal Election Commission rules, doesn’t have to report its supporters yet.
   8. And those ads come at a time Cornyn has launched new digital ads hammering Hunt for voting in the Democratic presidential primary in 2008 instead of for the Republicans. That ad is based on a story I wrote in 2020, in which Hunt explained that he had voted in the Democratic primary as part of what was called Operation Chaos, where Republican talk show host Rush Limbaugh told Republicans in Texas to vote for Hillary Clinton and cost the Barack Obama campaign time and money before facing Republican John McCain in the fall.
   9. Hunt continues to stick to his argument that he is Trump’s most reliable partner in Washington if he gets elected. On social media on Tuesday, he posted a press release from 2022 in which he announced his support from [or does he mean “for”?] Trump for his 2024 campaign long before many other Republicans, including Cornyn, backed him.
   10. “From Day One,” Hunt wrote on X.
   11. MIKE: Republican primaries often remind me of a political discussion in my 7^th grade social studies class. There was a mayoral election in New York City. I don’t remember for sure who was running, but I remember the name of the kid in the class who made this remark that made everyone, including the teacher, crack up, and I’m still quoting him 60 years later.
   12. MIKE: In discussing the quality of the candidates we were being forced to choose among, Robert Weiner described them as being — and excuse my language here — “the cream of the crap.”
   13. MIKE: To me, that has pretty much described every Republican primary of my lifetime, starting with the 1960 elections. And it’s only gotten far, far worse.
   14. MIKE: In the Republican Primary for their Texas senatorial candidate, discussed in this story, the only real choices available are for deciding who is the most or least Trumpy, and who is most or least likely to vote for laws that legislate social norms and degrees of personal freedom allowed by the federal government.
   15. MIKE: One might compare it to choosing whether the government has their boot on your neck or your back, so it’s not much of a choice for most of us.
   16. MIKE: I have some opinions so far on candidates, but I can’t discuss them on KPFT’s air since we are a 501(c)3 apolitical entity, but I’ll probably make some suggestions in the next several weeks in a separate endorsement post on my blog.
   17. MIKE: Just for fun, I’m providing a link to the Houston Chronicle’s endorsements. At this point, in most cases, I neither agree nor disagree. I may post endorsements from other sources as I notice them.
7. From AP News — Out with the old? Young Democrats are trying to convince voters to send a new generation to Congress; By  TRÂN NGUYỄN, SOPHIE BATES, JONATHAN MATTISE and SUSAN HAIGH | APNEWS.COM | Updated 10:30 AM CST, February 2, 2026. TAGS: Democrats, Democratic Party, Grassroots Democrats, Generational Change, Gerontocracy,
   1. Mai Vang wouldn’t be born for another seven years when Bob Matsui was first elected to Congress from California in 1978. By the time Matsui died in 2005 and was replaced by his widow, Doris Matsui, Vang was still studying biology and sociology in college.
   2. Now a member of the Sacramento City Council, Vang, 40, is mounting the first serious challenge that 81-year-old Matsui has faced since she began representing the area two decades ago. Vang is among a nationwide cadre of young Democrats who are trying to oust some of their party’s most stalwart figures in Washington, channeling angst that an aging generation of lawmakers is unable or unwilling to mount a bare-knuckles opposition to President Donald Trump.
   3. [Vang said,] “I’m not waiting for permission. … Because our communities are under attack, and we need leaders in this moment that understand the day-to-day struggles of our working families, and I believe that I could be the leader in this moment.”
   4. In Trump’s first term, grassroots Democrats focused their ire on the Republican president. But now, after President Joe Biden’s reluctance to step aside in 2024 at age 81 helped pave the way for Trump’s return to the White House, many see their party’s own veterans as part of the problem.
   5. At a supporter’s house near downtown Sacramento last month, Vang chatted with about two dozen people, mostly young professionals who sipped wine or craft beer, and cheered when she committed to dismantling U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
   6. [Said Abbie Morrissey, who works at the University of California-Davis, and attended Vang’s event,] “No more wash, rinse and repeat. … We need to find young, engaged, energetic people that understand their young, engaged and energetic populations.”
   7. Matsui, who was born in a Japanese internment camp during World War II, said she’s fought Trump’s strict immigration policies and delivered billions of dollars for her district.
   8. [Matsui said in a statement,] “Experience isn’t about clinging to power. … It’s about being effective when the stakes are highest for our families.”
   9. Matsui ended 2025 with a financial advantage, reporting $785,000 in the bank, compared with $200,000 for Vang.
   10. … Evan Turnage had barely learned to walk when Rep. Bennie Thompson, a civil rights leader, was first elected to Congress from Mississippi.
   11. Now Thompson, 78, is one of the most senior Black lawmakers on Capitol Hill, and [Evan] Turnage, 33, is challenging him in the state’s Democratic primary. Turnage, who is also Black, is an antitrust lawyer who previously worked for top Senate Democrats in Washington, including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
   12. Channeling Warren’s economic populism, Turnage said Mississippi needs a representative who will fight back against what he sees as predatory corporations.
   13. [Turnage said,] “We have got to finally secure civil rights and economic rights for the people of this state. … Mr. Thompson has done a good job with being a part of the Civil Rights Movement, but what about the economic rights?”
   14. Winning those battles requires more than accumulating seniority on Capitol Hill, he said, and the modern era demands leaders who understand how social media and artificial intelligence are transforming life.
   15. [Turnage said,] “Just steadily doing the committee work with your head down behind the scenes is not how we’re gonna get the transformational change that we need here in this district.”
   16. Still, Turnage has struggled to raise significant money, which could make it hard for him to get his message out and overcome Thompson’s incumbency advantage. He ended the year with just $54,000, while Thompson had $1.7 million in his campaign account.
   17. Thompson formerly chaired the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump’s supporters. In responding to the launch of Turnage’s campaign last month, Thompson said he is confident his record will speak for itself, [saying,] “Elections were created to give people the ability to make a choice. … I trust the voters of the district.”
   18. … Some level of generational change is already coming in the next Congress, no matter what. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 85, of California, and her longtime deputy, Maryland’s Steny Hoyer, 86, are retiring from Congress when their current terms end. So are Reps. Jerry Nadler, 78, of New York, and Jan Schakowsky, 81, of Illinois. All had served for decades and decided to retire rather than face primary challengers.
   19. But others want to stay. Rep. Steve Cohen, 76, of Tennessee, is running for an 11th term. He’s up against Justin Pearson, 31, who was a sixth grader promising better school lunches as president of the student government when Cohen was first elected to Congress. He later interned for Cohen.
   20. Pearson was one of two Black Democrats expelled from the Tennessee Legislature by Republicans after leading a gun control protest inside the state Capitol building. He was quickly reinstated by local officials and later reelected.
   21. [Pearson said, tallying up Cohen’s time in the state legislature and in Congress,] “With all due respect to Steve, he’s been in office for 43 years, and he has done the best that he can possibly do, and the status quo is still what it is.”
   22. Democrats have held their party back by hanging around too long, [Pearson] said, citing Biden, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. The aging justice didn’t resign while Barack Obama was president and died at age 87 during Trump’s first term, allowing the Republican to replace her with a conservative.
   23. [Pearson said,] “Time and time again, we are seeing people who are staying in positions of power who are good people but who are no longer doing it for the benefit of their constituencies but for themselves. … And that’s wrong. And that’s not fair to us or fair to our community.”
   24. A polio survivor, Cohen has won nearly every election with more than 70% of the vote. He’s already survived a significant challenge when Willie Herenton, Memphis’ first Black mayor, ran against him in the Democratic primary in 2010. At the end of 2025, Cohen had $1.8 million on hand, while Pearson trailed with $350,000.
   25. Cohen complimented Pearson’s potential but said age shouldn’t be the criterion for judging a lawmaker. He said Pelosi, Hoyer and Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina have done some of their best work after turning 70, as did the late Reps. John Lewis of Georgia and Elijah Cummings of Maryland.
   26. [Cohen] also said he’s never been status quo, saying he was known as the “liberal lion” when he was a state senator.
   27. “I’ve always been an iconoclast,” Cohen said in an interview.
   28. [MIKE: I’ve provided a convenient link to the definition of that word for those who are curious. Continuing …]
   29. … In Connecticut, several Democrats in their 30s and 40s are challenging 77-year-old Rep. John Larson for the party’s endorsement at Connecticut’s Democratic state convention in May.
   30. Larson, a fixture in state politics, has represented the Hartford and central Connecticut-based 1st Congressional District since 1999. Concerns about his health and age intensified last year after he abruptly stopped speaking during a speech on the House floor. His office later said the 13-term lawmaker had suffered a complex partial seizure.
   31. Larson has said medication helps control the condition and he is fit to seek a 14th term. Still, he is facing serious Democratic opposition for the first time in his congressional career.
   32. Former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, 46, is widely viewed as the leading challenger, buoyed by his name recognition and fundraising. A Rhodes scholar, lawyer and U.S. Navy Reserve officer, Bronin was a sophomore at Yale when Larson was first elected to Congress. He ended 2025 with $1.5 million in the bank, compared with Larson’s $1 million.
   33. Bronin has said the Democratic Party’s reluctance to embrace generational change, highlighted by Biden’s aborted reelection campaign, played a major role in his decision to challenge Larson, arguing that long-tenured leadership has weakened the party at a critical moment.
   34. [Bronin said,] “I’m running because I think our country is in crisis and the Democratic Party has been too weak and too cautious to meet this moment. … Part of meeting this moment means getting new members of Congress, new Democratic leaders who have the energy and courage and clarity of mission that this moment demands.”
   35. When he recently visited a food hall in Hartford, a couple closer in age to Larson than Bronin said they still think it’s time to replace the veteran lawmaker.
   36. [Said Dan Schnaidt, 73, a Democrat who lives in the district,] “He’s done a good job, and we appreciate everything he’s done, but it’s time for new blood, for new ideas.”
   37. Schnaidt’s wife, Cynthia Tucker, 73, said Larson has been a great member of Congress but it’s time for a change, [saying,] “Go out on a high note, and let somebody new come in.”
   38. Larson is leaning on his progressive credentials and touting his experience as a virtue.
   39. [Larson’s campaign manager, Gerry Gerratana, said in a statement,] “Another Wall Street-funded corporate lawyer using this office as a stepping stone is not the kind of change this district needs. It deserves a progressive champion like John Larson who grew up in the district, understands the challenges people face because he’s seen them firsthand, and has a proven record of taking on Trump.”
   40. MIKE: When Bill Clinton was elected in 1992, it was noted that he was the first president since WW2 who was not alive during that war. The WW2 generation had remained in political power longer than any preceding generation in US history, due in no small part to longer American lifespans than ever before.
   41. MIKE: The same can probably now be said of the Baby Boomer generation.
   42. MIKE: Age alone is not a criterion for whether or not a politician should retire, but it is certainly one criterion to consider.
   43. MIKE: Aging is always in a battle with the actuarial tables. People do not get sick or die in birth order, but at a certain point, mortality, and physical and mental capabilities must be factored into the equation.
   44. MIKE: Age can yield valuable experience and wisdom, some of which is useful in one’s 7^th decade of life, and some of which may no longer be as applicable as it once was.
   45. MIKE: I realized about 10 years ago that I was no longer able to give my stepdaughter relevant career advice. The world of careers, hiring, job interviews, required skills, etc. had just changed too much. I came to understand that that didn’t mean I had nothing left to offer her in terms of my life experience. It just meant that what I could still offer her was qualitatively different.
   46. MIKE: We must inescapably conclude that we are currently governed largely by a gerontocracy.
   47. MIKE: The experience of our elder states-people is not something to uselessly discard, but we also need younger people in government with their youthful energy, current life experience, new ideas, and — perhaps — the now-necessary pugnaciousness that they bring along with their current challenging life experience.
   48. MIKE: Charles de Gaulle is credited with saying that the cemeteries are full of indispensable men. There are septuagenarians in our government that I still really like, and whom I feel still have much to contribute, but no one is immortal.
   49. MIKE: The story mentions Ruth Bader Ginsburg. When Obama was president, Bader Ginsberg was already in her 80s and had been fighting cancer. I was among those who felt that it was way past her time to retire and let Obama replace her on the Supreme Court. For reasons unknown to most of us, she never resigned and instead died in office while Trump was president. Her failure — or perhaps, refusal — to step down when Barack Obama could have appointed her replacement allowed Trump to appoint our worst-case scenario.
   50. MIKE: Why?
   51. MIKE: Did she think in some part of her mind that she was immortal and could survive another presidential term? Was she so certain that Hillary Clinton would be the next president that she didn’t think it would matter?
   52. MIKE: For all the good she did on the bench, her failure to account for her own mortality in the face of national necessity will always be a black mark on her legacy.
   53. MIKE: Even considering the different accidents of health of body and mind, I don’t think anyone should serve beyond their 80^th Perhaps most should retire long before that. And of course, that is also what elections are for.
   54. MIKE: It is said that during Roman triumphal parades, a slave would ride behind the conquering general whispering, “Remember. You are only a man.”
   55. Maybe not every office holder in their 70s should retire at the end of their terms, but perhaps there should be someone like that ancient Roman slave who can whisper candidly in their ear that they are only mortal.
8. And apropos of the last story, from the Washington Post on January 14^th — Boomers are staying in the job market as Gen Z struggles to break through; By Taylor Telford | WASHINGTONPOST.COM | January 14, 2026. TAGS: Average New Hire Age, Gen Z, Boomers, Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Employment, Hiring, Job Opportunities, Labor Markets,
   1. Since graduating from Barnard College of Columbia University in 2024, Menasha Thomas has learned to navigate the swirl of networking and referrals, online job-search groups, and interview processes. But after 14 months of soldiering through scores of applications, the 23-year-old has yet to put her urban planning degree to use in a full-time job. … [S]he knows many other recent grads also are struggling to get started professionally. She recently landed a paid internship with a real estate company, for which she feels “extremely grateful.”
   2. Fresh research from the workforce data company Revelio Labs sheds light on the factors making it harder for applicants like Thomas: chiefly, an aging population and more people working well into their 60s and 70s, coupled with a labor market in which companies are culling roles and seeking more experienced candidates when they do hire.
   3. The average new hire was 42 years old in 2025, according to a Revelio analysis released Jan. 6, versus 40.5 in 2022, and 40 in 2016.
   4. Revelio chief economist Lisa Simon, who conducted the analysis, said years of economic and political uncertainty, and the push to use artificial intelligence to reshape how work is done, have led employers to place a higher value on “experience, and be a little more risk-averse in terms of who they’re hiring and who they’re willing to bet on in this labor market.”
   5. [Simon said] It underscores the uphill battle facing younger workers in an era when “employers are just expecting candidates to hit the ground running from day one, without really giving them the opportunity to train up.”
   6. The share of workers 25 and younger went from 14.9 percent to 8.8 percent from 2022 to 2025, the analysis shows. Hiring inflows for this age group are down more than 45 percent compared with 2019, when, like now, the economy was deep into an expansion. In contrast, inflows for workers 65 and older are up nearly 80 percent in that time, Revelio’s data showed.
   7. [MIKE: I’ll note that a potentially useful data point that is not included in the article is whether and how much of that decline in the hiring of young people is due to their shrunken demographic presence compared to workers in their 40s to 60s. That may or may not be a relevant statistic. Continuing …]
   8. The report said,] “Younger workers face fewer entry opportunities. This pattern is consistent with a labor market that is slowing, becoming more selective, and prioritizing experience over long-term potential.”
   9. Meanwhile, U.S. employers are pulling back on hiring: Data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics confirmed that 2025 marked the worst year for the labor market since the pandemic-era recession. Jobs growth slumped to levels typically seen during economic downturns, with health care and social services among the few industries still adding roles. Unemployment stood at 4.4 percent, data showed.
   10. [According to data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a global human resources and outplacement firm,] Last year, employers announced [about 507,000] planned hires, down 34 percent from the [770,000] announced in 2024. … It also marked the lowest year-to-date total since 2010. Employers also announced more than 1.2 million layoffs in 2025, the highest level since 2020 and a 58 percent spike from 2024, according to Challenger’s data.
   11. [Economist Lisa Simon said that] Tight labor markets have tended to pull more entry-level applicants into the workforce, which, in turn, lowers the average age of people being hired, … but that doesn’t seem to be happening now. Evidence of older workers sticking around is starkest in occupations that are people-facing and service-intensive, such as sales representatives, real estate agents and office assistants. Revelio’s data [show] that the average starting age in these positions has crept up by about 2½ years since 2015.
   12. [The report states,] “These are roles where accumulated experience, interpersonal skills, and institutional knowledge are central to productivity — and where performance does not depend on keeping up with rapidly changing technical toolkits.”
   13. These shifts come as companies are rushing to embrace AI, with firms [investing] $252 billion in 2024, according to data from Stanford University, with billions more flooding the market in 2025. Workers ages 22 to 25 have seen a 13 percent drop-off in employment in the most AI-exposed occupations since 2022, according to another recent piece of research from Stanford.
   14. This technological change is altering how firms evaluate candidates, according to Matt Baird, a senior staff economist at LinkedIn. In today’s market, employers are “increasingly valuing experience, judgment and people skills, areas where older workers have an advantage.”
   15. When Kim Anderson founded GreySource — a recruiting firm geared toward older applicants — in 2022, she used to get about 25 requests a month from candidates asking for help. Now, she said, she’s seeing that many on a weekly basis.
   16. From what she sees with her clients, Anderson suspects that “AI and economic disruption” are weighing heaviest on young workers’ job prospects.
   17. Firms that are hiring are increasingly “looking for people that have a lot of capability organizing and leading teams,” she said, noting that there has been a “shift to skills-based hiring,” which benefits workers who have had years on the job to develop such skills.
   18. CEOs have been blunt in telegraphing this to younger workers, cautioning that traditional career advice is now less relevant.
   19. [MIKE: That refers back to what I said earlier about the diminished value of career advice for my stepdaughter. Continuing …]
   20. During a CNN appearance in November, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon urged Gen Z workers to focus on “in-demand skills” because “it’s not enough anymore to say, ‘I can work hard.’” He added that AI and coding are areas where “we know we need the skills.”
   21. In a December interview, LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky argued that having a five-year career plan is “outdated” and “a little bit foolish” in an era when workers should be more adaptable, given that “technology and the labor market and everything is moving beneath you.”
   22. McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski put out an Instagram video in December that went viral in which he told young professionals …, “This idea that there’s somebody out there who’s looking out for you, who’s going to make sure that you get that opportunity … great if it happens, but you’ve got to make things happen for yourself.”
   23. The pivot toward experience is weighing on many kinds of young workers: Research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland found that the unemployment gap between high school and college graduates has shrunk to just 2.5 percentage points, nearly an all-time low, as entry-level candidates reckon with a labor market that seems to have fewer rungs near the bottom.
   24. [Said Nicole Bachaud, a labor economist at ZipRecruiter,] “The U.S. population overall is aging, and many of the older workers who are starting to retire hold senior-level positions that younger workers are not able to fill. … In the low-hire, low-fire environment that has defined much of the last year, there is little movement elsewhere in the labor market for these young workers to break in.”
   25. Longer life expectancies are one reason the workforce is aging, Bachaud said, because “as people live longer, they tend to delay major milestones, like marriage and retirement, and prolong life phases, like working.”
   26. At 67, Janet Masters often hears friends in her age group talk wistfully about how they “can’t wait to retire.”
   27. She can’t relate. She was 55 when she got a second master’s degree and — after decades working with Fortune 500 companies — switched to working with start-ups. Masters, who lives in Colorado, says continuing to work “allows me to actually explore and learn and grow.” And, she added with a laugh, she also enjoys “seeing the money come in.” …
   28. [Bachaud said, noting that inflation has increased the cost of living significantly since 2019,] Though some older Americans are working “because they have the time, and they want to,” there’s also the “drive of necessity. … Many older Americans are ill-equipped financially to sustain themselves for a long retirement, keeping many active in the labor force for longer.”
   29. Inflation has driven up the price of necessities such as food and health care in recent years, and it has substantially pushed up housing costs: The median U.S. home price has risen nearly $100,000 since 2019 and is now more than $410,000, according to data from the Federal Reserve.
   30. Debra Whitman, chief public policy officer at AARP, noted that there has been a recent rise in “unretirement,” in which workers rejoin the labor force sometime after retiring. Financial needs are a primary driver in retirees returning to the labor force, she said, but others keep working because they’re not ready to give up the sense of purpose and identity they get from work. …
   31. MIKE: I’m going to start my comments with a discussion of retirement age policies in China, and then circle back to how that applies to the situation in the US that was discussed in this article.
   32. MIKE: In China, mandatory retirement age has been evolving based on what the Communist government sees as what’s most in the nation’s and party’s best interest.
   33. MIKE: The central government tries to balance two priorities: National work productivity and civil peace.
   34. MIKE: When China had a high birth rate and a large percentage of their population was young and working age, mandatory retirement ages were as low as 50.
   35. MIKE: Making sure that young people were employed and felt like they had prospects for professional and economic advancement was considered an important key to domestic tranquility.
   36. MIKE: Now, with an aging population and a shrinking working age demographic that China will be facing for at least the next 30-50 years, mandatory retirement ages are increasing.
   37. MIKE: According to an article called, “Statutory retirement age reform in China”: “In accordance with Article 1 of the Decision on Implementing the Gradual Raising of the Statutory Retirement Age, over the next 15 years, the statutory retirement age for male employees will gradually increase from 60 to 63 years old. For female employees, the statutory retirement age will be raised from 50 to 55 years old for non-management positions, and from 55 to 58 years old for those in management positions.”
   38. MIKE: Partly as a consequence of this, mandatory contributions to government retirement plans have been adjusted. According to the article I cited, workers “must reach the minimum contribution period corresponding to their chosen retirement time, in order to be eligible [for] the retirement pension.”
   39. MIKE: This isn’t unlike our situation with Social Security: trying to keep old age pensions funded in an era of a shrinking workforce and thus a shrinking income base to support those pensions.
   40. MIKE: But this is only part of a complex web of reasons for this change.
   41. MIKE: One part is to preserve institutional knowledge that older and experienced workers have. This serves as both a mentoring foundation for younger people entering the work force, as well as keeping the economic wheels turning as the available worker pool shrinks.
   42. MIKE: This may surprise some folks, but according to the International Federation of Robotics, China is the number one country in its implementation of industrial robots, and it has been for a number of years.
   43. MIKE: It may seem counterintuitive because of the classic assumption that China has plenty of people to do the nation’s work. People that must also be kept employed in the interests of civil peace.
   44. MIKE: But China has been anticipating their demographic cliff for quite a while, and using a growing robotic workforce to keep the nation’s factories and businesses running has been a national imperative.
   45. MIKE: At the same time, keeping older people working not only helps preserve China’s pension funds. It also aids national productivity by keeping more ‘hands on deck’, as it were.
   46. MIKE: The US should pay attention to what China is doing and why it’s doing it.
   47. MIKE: While increasing the retirement age to as old as 70 for full Social Security benefits in the US is rationalized as a way to keep Social Security solvent, it also serves to keep older people in the workforce longer; perhaps longer than they want, out of financial necessity. This policy then limits prospects for young people entering — or trying to enter — the US work force.
   48. MIKE: Do you know that the majority of people take Social Security benefits at the earliest opportunity, at age 62, even though they will be getting a reduced benefit for the rest of their lives? And even though their Medicare benefits still don’t kick in until they’re 65?
   49. MIKE: There are multiple reasons for that.
   50. MIKE: I remember when my father was unemployed at 40 and he despaired of finding another decent job. Well, with longer productive lifespans and healthspans, 50 is the new 40.
   51. MIKE: If someone is out of a job at 50, they may have a very hard time finding another job, let alone one that pays anything like what they’ve become accustomed to. They often struggle along until that retirement age of 62, Then they take Social Security income to supplement what they’re earning. They may also keep their jobs in order to get company-provided health insurance until Medicare begins.
   52. MIKE: At that point, rest-of-life options kick in, depending on health, savings, investments, and preferences or needs.
   53. MIKE: To circle back to the article, the lesson that the US might need to learn from China is that at this point in time, we don’t want to be forcing people to work longer. In order to make room for our younger generations, we might want to reduce the maximum benefit age in order to encourage older Americans to retire sooner and make room for the younger generations in the workforce.
   54. MIKE: This strategy will not only provide work, prospects, and upward mobility for younger people. It will also increase the wage base that we need to continue funding Social Security at adequate levels.
   55. MIKE: The question still becomes, with a shrinking number of workers, how will we pay for that?
   56. MIKE: I’m not the first to suggest increasing the cap on incomes that are taxed for SSI and Medicare.
   57. According to the Social Security Administration, “In 2026, the maximum amount of earnings subject to Social Security taxation (i.e., the taxable maximum or contribution and benefit base) is about $184,500. Earnings above this amount are not subject to the 6.2% Social Security payroll tax for employees or the 12.4% rate for self-employed individuals.”
   58. MIKE: We can increase the taxable income cap, or even remove it entirely. At the same time, we can still put a cap on what Social Security will pay upon retirement, even for millionaires or billionaires that are paying SSI tax on larger incomes with the rationale that they probably don’t need it to fund their retirement. Their increased SSI contribution is simply a ‘public good’, much like progressive taxation.
   59. MIKE: These are all public policy and legislative questions that I think urgently need to be addressed, and they will require out-of-the-box thinking that some may find difficult. Many people will find it hard to wrap their heads around the complex issues that these policies will be meant to address, because good solutions are rarely simple solutions.
   60. MIKE: But I think that we need to see our economic priorities differently in order to address our changing times and circumstances.

There’s always more to discuss, but that’s all we have time for today.

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