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.)

“The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war. … But we shall also do our part to build a world of peace where the weak are safe and the strong are just. We are not helpless before that task or hopeless of its success. …” ~ John F. Kennedy, Commencement Address at American University, Washington, D.C., June 10, 1963 (VIDEO EXCERPT @ 25M 56S)  (Full Text: https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/american-university-19630610)

Welcome to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig on KPFT Houston at 90.1-HD2, Galv eston 89.5-HD2, and Huntsville 91.9-HD2. KPFT is Houston’s Community radio.

And welcome to our international fans from Hong Kong, Singapore, Belgium, Poland, 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 28th week of Trump’s military occupation of Washington DC; and 17 weeks since Trump deployed National Guard troops to Memphis, Tennessee and New Orleans, Louisiana, where they will remain while Guard troops are withdrawn from other cities.

The difference is that DC is a federal district where Trump has full power, and Tennessee and Louisiana have collaborationist Republican governors who have not contested Trump’s military occupation. There are also still ongoing, though possibly reduced, federal law enforcement invasions of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Chicago, and elsewhere.

I’m providing a link in this show post at ThinkwingRadio-dot-com to a USA Today story that explains the current state of the occupations.

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 if you mail an application now, it may arrive too late.
   3. Early voting starts on Tuesday Feb 17^th through Friday February 27, from 7:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.; Except Sun, Feb. 22^nd: 12:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.)
   4. Election day is March 3^rd, Tuesday 7:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. Remember, if you’re on line to vote before 7PM, you cannot be turned away.
   5. You can get election and ballot information at HarrisVotes-dot-com, your local county or elections clerk, or at votetexas-dot-gov.
   6. 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.
   7. From the Texas Tribune, I have:
   8. Voting resources: How to vote in Texas — TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG/2026-VOTE
   9. What you need to know before voting in Texas’ March 3 primary elections — by TEXAS TRIBUNE STAFF 27, 2026
   10. Texas governor primary: Who is running and what to know — by Kayla Guo | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG |Jan. 21, 2026K.
   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.
   14. FYI, there will be a special election for City Council District C on April 4^th, but we’ll get to that when we get to it.
2. Speaking of the March primary ballot, there’s this from CLICK2HOUSTON — Former Houston City Council Member Amanda Edwards suspends congressional campaign; By Ninfa Saavedra, Digital Content Specialist | CLICK2HOUSTON.COM | Published: February 3, 2026 at 9:27 AM/Updated: February 3, 2026 at 9:34 AM. TAGS: Texas’ 18th Congressional District, Christian Menefee, Congress, Election, Politics,
   1. Former Houston City Council member Amanda Edwards announced Monday morning that she is suspending her campaign for Texas’ 18th Congressional District.
   2. Edwards made the announcement in a social media post, saying that although her name will still appear on the March 2026 Democratic primary ballot, she has decided to halt her bid for Congress.
   3. [Edwards wrote,] “I have decided to suspend my campaign for Congress … My commitment to serving and advocating for the community remains unchanged. I cannot thank you enough for working with me to elevate people over politics and to deliver results for our community.”
   4. The decision comes after Edwards lost the recent special election runoff to former Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee, who secured more than two-thirds of the vote. Edwards had previously planned to continue her run for the seat in the upcoming Democratic primary.
   5. Menefee, who was sworn into office following his special election victory, praised Edwards in a statement Monday.
   6. [Menefee said,] “It’s an honor to have run alongside Amanda Edwards in this campaign. … She’s always been a voice for the community, committed to service, and the consummate professional.”
   7. While the special election runoff and Democratic primary are separated by only a few weeks, the race is now expected to take a different turn. Menefee will face Congressman Al Green in the Democratic primary, after Green entered the race following last year’s mid-decade redistricting.
   8. The Democratic primary for the 18th Congressional District is scheduled for March 3.
   9. MIKE: This is an important bit of local election news. I’ll probably be starting a list of my preferences for the primary election soon, but it will only be available on my website at ThinkwingRadio-dot-com, since I cannot endorse candidates on KPFT’s air.
3. I don’t normally discuss local news like traffic accidents, but there’s an important lesson in this story from CLICK2HOUSTON — 8-year-old dead, 2 hospitalized after crash on W. Little York in NW Harris County; By Christian Terry, Digital Content Producer | CLICK2HOUSTON.com | Published: February 8, 2026 at 8:08 PM/Updated: February 9, 2026 at 4:34 AM. Tags: Auto Accidents, Little York, Harris County, Seat Belts, Passenger Safety,
4. 1. An 8-year-old child has died after a major crash in northwest Harris County.
   2. The crash happened in the 8700 block of W. Little York.
   3. Officials with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said it happened around 6:30 p.m. when they got calls about the crash.
   4. Major Anthony McConnell with the sheriff’s office says the vehicle was traveling eastbound on W. Little York when it entered a construction zone and crashed.
   5. [McConnell said,] “I don’t know what caused the crash, but the vehicle was able to make it through the barrels and into the construction zone.”
   6. Three people were inside the vehicle. A female driver, who McConnell says is in stable condition. An adult male and the child were both ejected from the vehicle.
   7. The three were taken to a hospital. The child was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital. The man remains in critical condition.
   8. While McConnell says it is unclear what caused the crash, he said the traffic pattern on the road had recently changed due to the construction and it is possible this confused the driver.
   9. The driver is getting checked for signs of intoxication and they will be getting a statement from her about what happened.
   10. McConnell is asking for any witnesses who may have seen what happened to call the Harris County Sheriff’s Office at 713-221-6000.
   11. MIKE: People don’t get thrown out of vehicles in an accident unless they’re not wearing their seat belts.
   12. MIKE: Incredibly, there still seem to be a lot of folks who, even after literally 50 years of public education from many sources, are under the serious misapprehension that “being thrown clear” in an accident somehow makes them safer. Well, nothing could be further from the truth.
   13. MIKE: Accidents are called accidents for a reason. They’re unintended and unexpected. That’s why they’re not called “on-purposes”.
   14. MIKE: The safety equipment in modern cars is designed to prevent or mitigate numerous kinds of injuries in the event of a car or vehicle collision.
   15. MIKE: Seat belts are intended to keep you in the car in the event of an accident so that you’re not thrown out of the vehicle where you can subsequently be hit by other traffic or crushed by a vehicle rolling over on you.
   16. MIKE: They’re also intended to keep you from being thrown through the windshield or being thrown into other passengers or vehicle contents. Even the shatterproof glass in a vehicle was patented in 1909 and became standard in the 1910s and 1920s so that auto glass didn’t slice people to ribbons when it broke in the event of a collision.
   17. MIKE: The airbags that deploy in an initial impact are not gentle. But they are further insurance against being thrown against the interior of the vehicle in a high-impact collision. However, they can only deploy once and deflate quickly. Seatbelts help to protect you in the event of secondary impacts.
   18. MIKE: A very common injury used to be drivers being thrown against the steering wheel in an accident and getting literally speared by the steering column. Steering columns have since been designed to crush in the event of a driver impact but, again, that’s one of the things that the shoulder restraint of seat belts are designed to prevent.
   19. MIKE: Many modern vehicles have side impact airbags called “side curtain airbags” or “head-side airbags”. These offer some protection against side impacts, as do the side-impact door beams built into modern cars.
   20. MIKE: Even the expensive damage that people complain about in what they think are minor accidents is actually a safety feature. The crush zones in a modern vehicle are designed to absorb the energy of impact before it gets to the driver and passengers. Even the engine is designed to drop under the car in a serious front impact so that it’s less likely to enter the passenger compartment, crushing and burning legs and bodies.
   21. MIKE: But even with all these safety improvements designed into vehicles trying to protect passengers from the various impacts that occur in various kinds of vehicle collisions, it’s impossible to entirely protect people from themselves.
   22. MIKE: This is a very longwinded way of saying … People, just wear your seatbelts! They’re much more comfortable in modern vehicles, and they can save you from serious injury or death.
5. From Politico-dot-com — Minneapolis retreat could undercut Democrats’ message as shutdown looms; By Myah Ward and Eric Bazail-Eimil | POLITICO.COM | 02/12/2026 05:30 PM EST. TAGS: White House, Minneapolis, Minnesota, ICE immigration enforcement operation, Democrats, ICE,
   1. The Trump administration’s decision to end its immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis could undermine Democrats’ messaging leverage on the eve of an expected partial government shutdown.
   2. By pulling out of Minneapolis — the epicenter of the left’s fight to overhaul federal immigration enforcement after federal agents killed two American citizens — administration officials and allies argue that Democrats will lose political steam as attention gradually fades from the administration’s aggressive enforcement actions.
   3. [Granted anonymity to speak candidly, an administration official said,] “I know everyone was concerned about ICE’s future if we kept acting like idiots. … If we are really doing our job well, you won’t notice or have anything to complain about.”
   4. [The person added,] “It’s a side effect of Tom [Homan]’s leadership,” pointing to the hope that the border czar’s presence in Minneapolis could tame tensions on the ground.
   5. The administration’s retreat in Minnesota comes as immigration hawks have pushed Trump officials to stand firm and avoid caving to Democratic demands on policy changes in exchange for funding the Department of Homeland Security. Those demands have included a prohibition on federal agents wearing masks, to an expansive limit on places where agents can operate. The belief among some administration officials and allies is that Democrats will eventually bend once agencies such as TSA and FEMA begin to feel the squeeze of a prolonged shutdown.
   6. A person close to the Trump administration, granted anonymity to discuss private conversations, said the de-escalation in Minneapolis will help avoid “major incidents” and keep immigration enforcement “off the front pages” in the weeks ahead[, adding, “Then Democrats start to lose their leverage a little bit.” …
   7. [On Thursday morning, Homan] announced that the immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota was ending, a pronouncement that came hours after the White House sent text of its funding counterproposal to Democrats late Wednesday. A senior White House official, granted anonymity to speak about internal thinking, said the decision to leave Minneapolis “functionally … isn’t about leverage” but about “executing immigration enforcement in a way that keeps the American public safe.”
   8. [Said the senior White House official,] “I think certainly when Democrats talk about progress being made — what is progress, if not the surge ending in Minneapolis and a serious, detailed, substantive and binding proposal dealing with Department of Homeland Security enforcement practices on the table? … If that’s not progress, I don’t know what is.”
   9. But Democrats insist that the retreat in Minneapolis does not mark a serious, lasting change in the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation efforts. Though a victory, Democrats feel the Minneapolis withdrawal doesn’t negate the need for legislative changes to how ICE and Border Patrol operate across the country.
   10. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said ICE’s “abuses cannot be solved through executive fiat alone,” and that Democrats will continue to push for legislation — a message other Democratic lawmakers echoed on Thursday.
   11. [Said Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.),] “Just because [Trump’s] slinking out of Minneapolis doesn’t mean he won’t do it to another city, another town, he won’t try to put them at a polling place. … So the need for significant reforms stands, regardless of whether he’s trying at the 11th hour to pull back.”
   12. Democrats this week panned the White House’s funding offer as “insufficient” and “unserious,” arguing that it didn’t address some of their major demands, including requiring federal law enforcement officials to obtain a judicial warrant before entering private property.
   13. The senior White House official declined to detail the administration’s offer, but said the legislative specs sent to Democrats are “substantive” and “serious” and that they’re willing to “work in a bipartisan way to ensure — as we’ve seen with Tom Homan in Minneapolis — that we’re enforcing immigration law in the optimal way possible.” The official added that the judicial warrant policy is a red line for the White House, as well as any concessions that might impede the president’s efforts to fulfill his immigration agenda.
   14. Homan on Thursday, speaking from Minneapolis, said a significant drawdown of agents was already underway, and that it would continue into next week. And hours after his announcement, acting ICE chief Todd Lyons told the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee that his agency will be looking at “lessons learned” after Minneapolis.
   15. Republicans on Capitol Hill have echoed the White House’s argument that the actions are evidence the administration is looking to make progress in negotiations. Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Thursday that the White House “has given more and more ground on these key issues.”
   16. [Thune said,] “I think the moves that have been made as recently as today by Tom Homan to pull everybody out of Minneapolis, I think is also certainly a demonstration of good faith.”
   17. In a speech on the Senate floor, Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee panel in charge of DHS funding, also said Homan’s announcement represents a major concession.
   18. [Britt said on Thursday,] “We have exchanged text. That’s what you do in a negotiation, you work to find a pathway forward. … There was an announcement today that shows we are operating in good faith.”
   19. MIKE: I don’t think that the Democrats have to worry much about Trump’s withdrawal “undercutting” them. I can assure you that memories of these brutal occupations will linger far longer than a few months.
   20. MIKE: From my perspective, first and foremost, I don’t think it’s possible to ever see the Trump regime negotiating or acting in “good faith”. I just don’t think it’s in their political or personal DNA to act in good faith.
   21. MIKE: Therefore, anything that this regime says or does should automatically be viewed with suspicion. If they show a velvet glove, Democrats should be looking around for the hammer.
   22. MIKE: The Democrats and the American people are dealing with a duplicitous regime with both ulterior and overtly expressed motives, and both are antithetical to the ideals that America has represented during my lifetime.
   23. MIKE: That leads us to the next story.
6. I think that the way to view any regime compromise is best explained in this next opinion piece from HARTMANNREPORT-dot-COM. Please note that the words used are Hartmann’s, and not mine — The Most Dangerous Moment Is When Authoritarians Seem to Compromise; By Thom Hartmann | HARTMANNREPORT.COM | Jan 28, 2026. TAGS: Authoritarianism, Kristin Holmes, CNN, Tom Homan, Greg Bovino, Kristi Noem, Fascist governments, Viktor Orbán, Vladimir Putin,
   1. Over on Threads last night, sierracascadia posted:
   2. “CNN BREAKING: Kristin Holmes reports Stephen Miller is saying ‘there may have been a breach of protocol’ and Noem is blabbering about how she was in touch with Trump and Miller for her talking points. Miller is saying that he got his information CBP trying to shove it down to Bovino! This [f-ing] clown show guys. They are all going down.”
   3. Meanwhile, Democrats are celebrating the replacement of Nazi-cosplayer Greg Bovino and eager puppy-killer and adulterer Kristi Noem with Tom Homan, who merely takes $50,000 bribes in burger bags and is therefore presumably more reasonable. Blue collar versus white collar, and all that.
   4. But, wait a minute. Slow down. It’s way too premature to toast the dawn of a new era.
   5. Fascist governments don’t rise in one giant arc, nor do they collapse that way. It’s more of what electrical engineers and ham radio operators would call a “sawtooth pattern.” Climb an inch up toward fascism, get pushback from the public so you back down a half-inch until things quiet down, then move up another inch in another step toward the ultimate goal of total tyranny.
   6. Learn from your own mistakes, while getting the public used to each step, so Trump and his lickspittles can move onto the next falling domino in the process of ending democracy and replacing it with strongman oligarchic autocracy.
   7. Step-by-step, the fascist leadership gets there. As has happened so often in other countries across history.
   8. In other words, ICE is still operating on the assumption of complete immunity, still kicking in doors without Fourth Amendment warrants, still capable of killing you or me without ever answering for it. And they know it.
   9. We are still on the path to dictatorship.
   10. Eventually, people in countries that are in the process of flipping from democracy to fascism figure out that they’re now living in a dictatorship; by then, however, it’s usually too late.
   11. For people in Hungary, it was May, 2020 when Orbán started arresting people for their Facebook posts. For folks in Russia, it was December, 2011 when Alexi Navalny and his supporters were first assaulted in public and then arrested and sent to brutal gulags in Siberia. For Germans, it was July 14, 1933 — six months after he became chancellor — when Hitler outlawed all political parties except his own.
   12. But at first, the steps from democracy to fascism and tyranny always seems like “just another thing the government has to do to deal with a very real problem.” Something that reasonable people would understand and can’t reasonably object to. Something that, even if weird, makes a certain amount of sense.
   13. After all, we do have millions of people in this country without documentation….
   14. Until suddenly the mask is dropped and the twisted face of hateful fascism peers out at the country with laser-red eyes and a bloody mouth filled with threats and lies. Wearing camouflage, anonymous, face masked, carrying handcuffs and pepper spray while brandishing a gun.
   15. Today, Trump appears to be backing away from his senior toadies who’re still blaming Nicole Good and Alex Pretti for their own executions, and both Democrats and the media are proclaiming Bovino’s departure as a “victory for democracy.”
   16. It’s no such thing. This is a recalibration. Trump, like Orbán and Putin before him, is learning just how far he can go before he or his people encounter resistance[that] they can’t bludgeon their way through.
   17. They’re figuring out which messages will work to get us to accept the changes they’re making to America and our political and economic systems, including how much they can steal for themselves and their families, and which schemes won’t work out for them.
   18. This is an old playbook that dates back to Machiavelli and before. It’s how every dictator ends up fabulously rich while wielding life-or-death power.
   19. Fascism doesn’t arrive with jackboots; it arrives with media and voter fatigue. As the political theorist Hannah Arendt warned, the very “banality” and “ordinariness” of such evil is its greatest weapon.
   20. Victor Klemperer, a Jew who converted to Lutheranism and then chronicled the rise of Nazism in Germany, saw how average people learned to live with, to adapt to, to bear the unbearable. In his 1942 diary he wrote:
   21. “Today over breakfast, we talked about the extraordinary capacity of human beings to bear and become accustomed to things. The fantastic hideousness of our existence… and yet still hours of pleasure… and so we go on eking out a bare existence and go on hoping.”
   22. Sebastian Haffner, another German observer, noted in Defying Hitler that even he, a staunch anti-Nazi, found himself one day saluting, wearing a uniform, and marching (and even secretly enjoying the feeling of authority associated with it).
   23. [He wrote of himself,] “To resist seemed pointless; finally, with astonishment, he observed himself raising his arm, fitted with a swastika armband, in the Nazi salute.”
   24. And Milton Mayer, in They Thought They Were Free, described how good, decent Germans came to accept fascism. He was a Chicago reporter who, following World War II, went to Germany to interview ten “average Germans” to try to learn how such a terrible thing could have happened and, hopefully, thus prevent it from ever happening here.
   25. [A German college professor told Mayer,] “What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, … little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security….”
   26. As Mayer’s professor friend noted, and Mayer recorded in his book: “This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter. …
   27. [The friend continues, saying,] “To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it — please try to believe me — unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us had ever had occasion to develop. … [O]ne no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head.”
   28. In this conversation, Mayer’s friend suggests that he wasn’t making an excuse for not resisting the rise of the fascists but was simply pointing out what happens when you keep your head down and just assume that ultimately the good guys will win:
   29. [MIKE: I’ll mention here that there was once a very wise bit of dialog from a Star Trek episode, when McCoy observes that ‘evil’ usually wins, unless ‘good’ is very, very careful. Continuing …]
   30. [Mayer’s friend continued,] “You see, one doesn’t see exactly where or how to move. Believe me, this is true. Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. … But of course this isn’t the way it happens. In between come all the hundreds of little steps, some of them imperceptible, each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next. Step C is not so much worse than Step B, and, if you did not make a stand at Step B, why should you at Step C? And so on to Step D.
   31. “And one day, too late, your principles, if you were ever sensible of them, all rush in upon you. The burden of self-deception has grown too heavy, and some minor incident, in my case my little boy, hardly more than a baby, saying ‘Jew swine,’ collapses it all at once, and you see that everything, everything, has changed and changed completely under your nose.”
   32. [Mike: That’s the end of the friend’s quote. Now Hartmann continues …]
   33. Everything seems the same, Mayer’s friend told him. You still go to work, cash your paycheck, have friends over, go to the movies, enjoy a meal out. The regime even backs down from time to time, making things seem ever more normal. Little victories, you tell yourself.
   34. Except, as the German professor told Mayer, they’re not. One day, he said, you realize that: “The world you live in — your nation, your people — is not the world you were in at all. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays.
   35. “But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves; when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed. Now you live in a system which rules without responsibility even to God.”
   36. Sound familiar? Consider Stephen Miller’s recent musing about suspending habeas corpus to lock up immigrants and even protestors without trial: “Well, the Constitution is clear — and that, of course, is the supreme law of the land — that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of invasion.”
   37. That would’ve sparked emergency hearings a decade ago. Can you imagine if Obama had asserted such a power? Now it’s barely a blip.
   38. The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a blueprint to purge civil servants and replace them with regime loyalists in complete defiance of the Pendelton Civil Service Act (and the reasons it came into being), should have set off alarm bells. Instead, it got the same treatment Trump gave Covid and his multiple defiances of the law and the courts: denial, deflection, delay…and eventually acceptance with barely a follow-up peep from the media.
   39. It all comes back to normalization, as Gessen so brilliantly chronicled in The New York Times: “And so, just when we most need to act — while there is indeed room for action and some momentum to the resistance — we tend to be lulled into complacency by the sense of relief on the one hand and boredom on the other. Think of the trajectory of the so-called travel ban during Trump’s first term. Its first iteration drew thousands into the streets. The courts blocked it. The second iteration didn’t attract nearly as much attention, and most people didn’t notice when the third iteration of the travel ban, which had hardly changed, went into effect. Now Trump’s administration is drafting a new travel ban that targets more than five times as many countries.”
   40. Congressional Democrats, thinking they’re winning the PR war (and not realizing this is a battle within that war, not the war itself) are suggesting they’ll only vote to fund DHS/ICE this week to avoid a government shutdown under the following conditions, as Reuters reports: “Democrats are seeking: a prohibition on ICE detentions or deportations of American citizens; a ban on masks worn by ICE agents; a requirement to wear body cameras; explicit prohibitions on excessive use of force; prohibitions on raids of churches, mosques, synagogues and other places of worship, as well as hospitals and schools; and no absolute immunity from prosecution of agents violating codes of conduct.”
   41. It’s a reasonable list, if ICE were a legitimate institution worth preserving. And, of course, we do need somebody to enforce our immigration laws.
   42. But this agency has become so corrupt, has developed such a toxic culture, and has hired so many outright dangerous former felons and open racists, that it must be shut down and [be] replaced.
   43. And what about arresting and prosecuting the people who committed the murders that we know about? And investigating the ones we’ve only heard rumors of?
   44. And letting that prosecution go right up the chain of command all the way to the top, like it did during Watergate, when the Attorney General of the United States went to prison for years?
   45. Why aren’t Democrats talking like that? You know, if the shoe was on the other foot, Republicans would be.
   46. Even if Republicans were to accept all these reforms — and odds are they won’t — we’d still be on the same path toward fascism. It would just look more orderly and lawful, and we’d breathe a sigh of relief, not realizing we’d just helped the Trump regime with their latest readaptation.
   47. When we stop being shocked, we stop reacting. And when we stop reacting, democracy dies.
   48. But there is a path forward. The antidote to normalization is outrage and resistance. Not just in voting booths, but in the streets, in courtrooms, in classrooms, in boardrooms, in pulpits, and at dinner tables.
   49. Thucydides, who had one of the clearest eyes in history about the dangers faced by democracies, said: “The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet nonetheless go out to meet it.”
   50. We must regain our vision and re-sensitize ourselves. We must reclaim our capacity to be appalled.
   51. That means when Trump calls Democrats “vermin” and attacks Somalis like Representative Ilhan Omar we don’t say “that’s just Trump being Trump”; we say, “That’s fascist rhetoric.”
   52. When he promises to use the military against American citizens and sends out immigration officers dressed up like soldiers at war, we don’t shrug; we organize and demand an end to the entire rotten undertaking.
   53. History won’t forgive us for sleepwalking into tyranny. And our children won’t either.
   54. This is the time to remember that democracy is not self-sustaining. It requires outrage. It demands vigilance. And sometimes, it needs us peacefully in the streets with our fists in the air and our boots on the pavement.
   55. If we still believe in this republic, in its ideals, and in the sacred value of a free and fair society, then our answer to Trump’s authoritarianism must be more than words. It must be peaceful action.
   56. Don’t get used to fascism.
   57. Get loud. Get active. Get in its way.
   58. And demand that our Democratic leaders do the same.
   59. MIKE: I considered editing down Hartmann’s opinion piece, which is admittedly rather long. After all, to some listeners or readers, it might sound more like a tirade or a harangue.
   60. MIKE: But it’s powerful, and as a companion piece to the previous article about the Trump regime seeming to back down in Minneapolis, I thought that this was a fitting follow-up.
   61. MIKE: What Tom Hartmann is describing at length can be summed as the old “frog in the frying pan” analogy, where the frog is being cooked to death so lowly that he hardly notices it.
   62. MIKE: In this analogy, America is the frog, and the Trump regime is the frying pan, and Project 2025 is the fire under the frying pan.
   63. MIKE: The saying that, “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross,” is often attributed to Sinclair Lewis’s It Can’t Happen Here.
   64. MIKE: The quote never actually appears in the book, but the sentiment is worth paying close attention to at a time when strains of fascism, racism, and Christian Nationalism are so obvious in the statements and actions of our present government.
   65. MIKE: Much of what Tom Hartmann wrote may sound melodramatic and over the top, but I will again quote Illinois Governor JP Pritzker in defense of the tone of Tom Hartmann’s piece: “If I sound alarmist, it is because I am ringing an alarm.”
   66. MIKE: Germans posting on social media frequently see analogies to early Nazi Germany in our current government’s actions and policies. And as I and others frequently note, if anyone should be able to recognize the rise of fascism, it’s Germans.
   67. MIKE: Americans must take note, and Democrats in government must not be lulled by small apparent victories into even temporary complacency.
   68. MIKE: Remember, “If I sound alarmist, it is because I am ringing an alarm.”
7. Speaking of Nazis, from REUTERS and NBCNEWS-dot-COM — Hundreds of Nazi-linked accounts discovered at Credit Suisse, lawmaker says; By Reuters | NBCNEWS.COM | Feb. 3, 2026, 6:54 AM CST / Source: Reuters. TAGS: Switzerland, Nazi Germany, Credit Suisse, Nazi-linked Bank Accounts, UBS,
   1. [Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said ahead of a Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday on banks’ facilitation of the Holocaust,] An investigation has identified 890 accounts at Swiss lender Credit Suisse with potential Nazi links.
   2. These included previously undisclosed wartime accounts for the German Foreign Office, a German arms manufacturing company, and the German Red Cross, added the lawmaker, who chairs the committee and has followed the investigation into Credit Suisse for years.
   3. UBS, which acquired Credit Suisse in an emergency takeover in 2023, said last year it was working with former S. prosecutor Neil Barofsky to shed light on Nazi-linked accounts held at its former competitor.
   4. [MIKE: UBS is also known as the United Bank of Switzerland, for which I’ve added a link. Continuing …]
   5. [The bank said in a pre-release of its testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, characterizing the current investigation as a voluntary initiative that] Both UBS and Credit Suisse have apologized and reached a global settlement in 1999 that provided finality from claims and closure of controversy.
   6. Grassley has received two reports and an investigative update on the status of Barofsky’s investigation, the lawmaker told reporters.
   7. The review produced evidence that Credit Suisse’s banking relationships with the Nazi’s paramilitary organization, the SS, were more extensive than previously known, with the SS’s economic arm maintaining an account at the bank, Grassley said, citing the records.
   8. New details had also emerged on a scheme to help Nazis flee to Argentina, Grassley added.
   9. UBS said it accepts and deeply regrets that the World War II era was a dark period in the history of Swiss banking.
   10. [Robert Karofsky, President of UBS Americas, said according to the script,] “We approach today’s topic with solemn respect.”
   11. When taking over Credit Suisse, UBS fully committed to getting the investigation back on track and has since taken extensive steps to facilitate Barofsky’s review, Karofsky said.
   12. [Karofsky added,]“Now, with three years of experience, our priority is to complete this review so that the world can benefit from the findings in the coming final report.”
   13. The investigation is set to conclude by early summer, according to Senate Judiciary Committee aides, and a final report expected at the end of the year.
   14. MIKE: Even 80 years after the end of World War 2, the behavior of individuals, companies, financial institutions, and nations is still being litigated.
   15. MIKE: While I don’t want to minimize the sleaziness of, in this instance, Swiss banks and the Swiss government, it’s important to remember the circumstances and geography of Switzerland in the 1940s.
   16. MIKE: At that time, Switzerland was completely surrounded on three sides by “Greater Germany” and Nazi-occupied France. In the south was Nazi ally fascist Italy.
   17. MIKE: Switzerland was a declared neutral power, but that hadn’t helped other neutral countries that Germany had invaded, such as Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, and Norway.
   18. MIKE: Declared neutrality did nothing to protect a country if Germany felt a strategic need to invade them. This is the situation in which Switzerland found itself during WW2.
   19. MIKE: Given these realities, at that time, Switzerland retained its independence only insofar as Germany perceived that they were useful to the Reich.
   20. MIKE: I want to restate that this does not vindicate Swiss collaboration in accepting and laundering Nazi bank deposits and stolen gold, but it can be seen as something of a mitigating factor.
   21. MIKE: After the end of the war and the collapse of Hitler’s Nazi regime, however, I think that even fair-minded people would agree that Switzerland had a responsibility to admit to this collaborationist cooperation and own up to the Nazi bank deposits and plunder that they retained. Especially considering that those holdings were substantially comprised of stolen loot from nations and individuals that the Nazis had devastated and destroyed.
   22. MIKE: Certainly, subsequent national and corporate leaders had no excuse to keep these secrets in the postwar era.
   23. MIKE: So on the one hand, it seems crazy that these issues are still being investigated and exposed, but it’s also deplorable that the investigations and revelations are still necessary in the absence of full and honest disclosures almost a century later.
8. From POLITICO-dot-EU — Germany’s Merz blasts ‘lost’ US leadership and says global order ‘no longer exists’; By Chris Lunday | POLITICO.EU | February 13, 2026 4:33 pm CET. TAGS: EU-US military ties, European Defense, Munich Security Conference, NATO, Nuclear weapons, Security, War in Ukraine, China, France, Germany, Russia, United States, Donald Trump, Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz, NATO,
   1. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that U.S. leadership can no longer be taken for granted and Europe must prepare to stand more firmly on its own, in a stark warning to world leaders in Munich.
   2. [Merz said during the opening of the Munich Security Conference, laying out the starkest assessment yet from Berlin of a world increasingly defined by great-power rivalry,] “The leadership claim of the U.S. is being challenged, perhaps already lost. … In the era of great powers, our freedom is no longer simply guaranteed. It is under threat.”
   3. He argued the global system itself may already have collapsed, adding,] “The international order based on rights and rules … no longer exists in the way it once did.”
   4. Merz also drew a lesson from Germany’s own history, [saying,] “We Germans know a world in which might makes right would be a dark place. … Our country has gone down this path in the 20th century until the bitter and dreadful end.”
   5. Most strikingly, the chancellor confirmed discussions with French President Emmanuel Macron about a European nuclear deterrent.
   6. The speech amounted to a strategic repositioning of Germany: still anchored in NATO, but preparing for a future in which American guarantees are less reliable, and Europe must carry more responsibility.
   7. That message echoed remarks earlier in Munich from U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Elbridge Colby, who called for a “NATO 3.0” in which European allies assume a far greater share of defense burdens while Washington prioritizes other theaters.
   8. The United States wants “vigorous, capable, more self-reliant European allies,” Colby said, adding America had long carried a “vastly disproportionate share” of the burden. He singled out Germany for special praise for its “historic, tremendous shift” in defense spending.
   9. Merz signaled Berlin is already preparing for a scenario with a smaller American footprint in Europe, and that Germany may at times diverge from the U.S., saying,] “We Europeans are taking precautions. In doing so, we arrive at different conclusions than the administration in Washington.”
   10. … How far France will go to reassure its allies that they would be protected by its nuclear weapons is one of the most sensitive questions in Europe’s security architecture.
   11. [Suggesting Germany is openly considering alternatives amid uncertainty about long-term U.S. protection, Merz said,] “I spoke with Emmanuel Macron about a European nuclear deterrence.”
   12. The debate reflects fears across Europe about whether the American nuclear umbrella would protect the continent in a crisis — a concern increasingly voiced by policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic.
   13. Merz also underscored growing political and economic divergence with Washington, referencing ideological and trade disputes linked to Donald Trump’s policies.
   14. [Said Merz,] “A deep divide has opened between Europe and the United States. … The culture wars of the U.S. are not ours. And we do not believe in tariffs and protectionism, but in free trade.”
   15. The remarks signaled that tensions are no longer confined to burden-sharing in NATO but extend to economic policy and democratic norms.
   16. … Merz paired his warnings about the United States with a hardening stance toward Beijing ahead of a planned visit to China later this month. He warned China could soon rival American military power and accused it of exploiting economic dependencies — citing rare-earth export controls that disrupted German industry.
   17. The message: European autonomy will not mean alignment with China.
   18. Throughout the speech, Merz returned to a central theme — Europe is entering a harsher geopolitical era shaped by Russia’s war in Ukraine and the rise of major powers unconstrained by old international norms.
   19. He also reiterated Germany’s long-term support for Ukraine, [saying,] “This war will only end when Russia is at least economically, potentially militarily, exhausted.”
   20. He praised European solidarity, including support for Greenland’s sovereignty after Trump’s political pressure to annex the Danish territory, framing unity as Europe’s main strategic asset.
   21. [Merz said,] “This does not mean we accept this reality as fate. … We are not helpless in this world. We will open new doors and seize new opportunities.”
   22. MIKE: Merz’s comments and the shift in European defense thinking are not necessarily bad things for Europe or the US, but it’s unfortunate that these changes were precipitated by a mercurial, ignorant, dictatorially-inclined malignant narcissist like Donald Trump and his flunky Republican Party.
   23. MIKE: In the face of revanchist Russian imperialism, Europe has certainly needed to step up its self-defense efforts regardless of whether or not it can rely on its American ally, but what’s sad is that it feels it no longer can.
   24. MIKE: What’s sadder still is that for now, they cannot.
   25. MIKE: I believe that the era of nuclear non-proliferation is ending. As I discussed on my December 28^th show (item 9), the nations of the world are increasingly seeing that they need nuclear weapons as a deterrence, and for their own national security.
   26. MIKE: National leaders see Ukraine, Iran, and North Korea as examples.
   27. MIKE: Does anyone seriously think that Russia would have invaded Ukraine if they had not surrendered the nuclear weapons to Russia in 1994 based on security guarantees by the United States, the UK, and Russia?
   28. MIKE: Does anyone seriously believe that the United States would have bombed Iran last year if Iran actually possessed nuclear weapons and had the missile capability to retaliate with them?
   29. MIKE: And what would be the current status of North Korea be in the absence of their nuclear capability?
   30. MIKE: I don’t necessarily believe that there would have been some sort of pre-emptive attack on them by the US or its allies because even in the absence of nukes, North Korea still had a formidable conventional force that could quickly devastate South Korea and its capital, Seoul.
   31. MIKE: But the examples exist, and countries with the technical and financial capacity are looking hard at these examples.
   32. MIKE: In a hi-tech world, the ability to build a bomb is not that hard for many nations. The challenge is obtaining the nuclear material to fuel it.
   33. MIKE: Any nation with a nuclear reactor intended for “peaceful purposes” such as civilian power generation is producing the raw material to fuel an atomic bomb as we speak. The challenge, as Iran has been demonstrating these past few years, is the ability to refine that material down to a concentration that can enable a fission reaction, and many countries have the technology and resources to develop facilities that are capable of this task.
   34. MIKE: All that’s been required was the perceived need. With US reliability as a nuclear umbrella for non-nuclear states in greater doubt than ever, that perception is now.
   35. MIKE: I will find it entirely unsurprising if over the next decade or two, Japan and South Korea develop a nuclear deterrent.
   36. MIKE: Europe has the French nuclear Force de frappe. I would also include the British nuclear force as part of the European nuclear deterrent, even in the absence of their actual membership in the European Union.
   37. MIKE: As Tom Lehrer once asked in his 1964 satirical song, “Who’s next?” [PLAY AUDIO: 2m 17s]
9. And speaking of European defense, from Business Insider — Russia’s war in Ukraine has made its formidable air defenses an even tougher challenge for NATO, airpower analyst warns; By Sinéad Baker | BUSINESSINSIDER.COM | Feb 14, 2026, 4:47 AM CT. TAGS: Russia, NATO, Ukraine, Air Defenses,
   1. Russia’s air defenses may pose a more significant threat to NATO air forces than they would have before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a top air defense analyst warned in a recent report.
   2. Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, Ukraine has been able to destroy numerous Russian air defense systems.
   3. Justin Bronk, an air power expert at the UK’s Royal United Services Institute, warned that not only does Russia still maintain a large arsenal, but it is also still producing its most powerful systems. And its ability to use these weapons has improved through combat experience.
   4. Systems have been upgraded, crews have more experience, and Russia has become better at coordinating their use with surveillance aircraft to accurately extend their reach.
   5. Russia’s surface-to-air missile systems, Bronk wrote, “not only remain numerous, but are also likely to perform better against NATO aircraft and munitions in a hypothetical direct conflict than they would have before 2022.”
   6. Facing this challenge, NATO could struggle to sweep aside Russian air defenses in a European war to achieve air superiority — a cornerstone of Western airpower doctrine.
   7. He told Business Insider in an interview about the report that Russia’s forces are “much more experienced” and have “learned quite a lot through trial and experimentation.”
   8. A strictly air-to-air clash pitting Russian air forces against NATO aircraft likely wouldn’t go well for Moscow, Bronk predicted, but a war wouldn’t only take place in the air.
   9. Before Western jets could operate freely, European air forces would likely need to suppress or destroy Russia’s dense network of ground-based air defenses. Their volume and improved coordination could pose a serious challenge.
   10. … Ukraine has been able to achieve a “steady drumbeat” of strikes against Russian defense systems with weaponry like drones, artillery, and missiles, Bronk said, but there are still “several hundred batteries” in service, with more modern variants continuing to roll off production lines.
   11. Bronk’s analysis is based on interviews with Western air forces and ministries, data from Ukraine’s armed forces, and open-source information.
   12. He said his findings indicate that Russia’s array of ground-based integrated air defence systems “remains a highly potent threat to NATO air capabilities in a European context.”
   13. The sheer volume is a problem for NATO in Europe. [Bronk said that the] primary threat to NATO air power is Russia’s extensive ground-based surface-to-air missile coverage … .
   14. NATO notably doesn’t have a similar arsenal.
   15. The war in Ukraine has underscored how decisive ground-based air defenses can be. Russia began the war with the largest such arsenal in Europe, followed by Ukraine, and that scale has helped prevent either side from establishing air superiority.
   16. NATO has committed to increasing its arsenal of ground-based air defenses in response, with alliance defense spending soaring, but it’s not a problem that can be quickly
   17. … Both Russia’s combat aircraft crews and surface-to-air missile system operators are “significantly more combat-experienced and more capable overall than they were prior to the start of the full-scale invasion,” Bronk said.
   18. The increase in operator experience alongside hardware and software upgrades “[at] least partially offsets” some of the significant attrition that Russian SAM systems have suffered during the war against Ukraine.
   19. Improvements to the force include new tactics and procedures, software updates to improve the performance of radars, better resistance to electronic warfare, and bringing new pieces of hardware into service.
   20. New hardware includes the S-350 Vityaz, a medium-range surface-to-air missile system that first entered service in 2020.
   21. … Russia’s forces are also getting better at working together, Bronk said.
   22. He said that in a direct conflict with NATO forces in Europe, the threat to NATO aircraft “would be far better coordinated today than they were prior to 2022.”
   23. Ukraine has reported that since mid-2023, Russia’s long-range surface-to-air missiles have more frequently coordinated engagements with fighter jets near the front lines and … airborne early warning and control aircraft, allowing them to fire at Ukrainian aircraft “at ranges that the surface-to-air systems could not have been able to directly observe by themselves.”
   24. Russia could use similar strategies in a conflict with NATO, “to engage Western aircraft flying at low altitudes at longer ranges,” Bronk said. …
   25. [But, Bronk said,] At the same time, NATO’s air forces have “access to significantly more detailed and accurate data on the strengths, weaknesses, tactics, and technical characteristics of Russian SAM systems than they had before 2022.” That can’t be [overstated].
   26. [NATO understands] the threat of Russia’s ground-based air defenses better. And the weaponry and tactics to counter them do exist, Bronk said, “albeit not in sufficient numbers in Europe yet.”
   27. Ultimately, Bronk said, “Russian air defence capabilities have been boosted by combat lessons over almost four years of operations,” and that could require more from NATO to break through in a fight.Top of Form
   28. MIKE: This is what happens in wartime. Out of necessity, technology and capabilities for both offense and defense evolve more rapidly than might have seemed possible in peacetime.
   29. MIKE: Back in the 1960s, my dad made an interesting observation. While referring back to World War 2, he noted that while war does stimulate innovation, the Cold War we were in with the USSR seemed to have the same stimulative effect on technological progress as a hot war does but … you know … without the actual war.
   30. MIKE: This is another example of how valuable Ukraine is, and will continue to be, as a partner to Europe and the United States. At the present time, I doubt that any nation knows more about Russian military tactics and capabilities than they do. And while they may share that knowledge with their friends and allies, nothing equals actual experience planning, using, and actually operating with that knowledge and experience.
   31. MIKE: Aside from the necessity of making sure that Russia does not benefit territorially from their aggression, this is just another reason that Ukraine deserves the unswerving support — economically, materially, and politically — of Europe, including all NATO members, as well as other allied nations such as Japan and South Korea.

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. In the theme of this episode, we’ll end with another Tom Lehrer tune which he introduces himself with some irony. Y’all take care!  [00:21]

Tom Lehrer – We Will All Go Together When We Go (https://youtu.be/frAEmhqdLFs)  3m13s