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, 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 29th week of Trump’s military occupation of Washington DC; and 18 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National Guard troops to Memphis, Tennessee and New Orleans, Louisiana, where they will remain while Guard troops are withdrawn from other cities.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. We are now in the midst of a very important primary, with election day on March 3^rd.
   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. Early voting has started. Polls are open Sun, Feb. 22^nd: Noon – 7:00 p.m., and through Friday February 27, from 7:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.
   3. Election day is Tuesday March 3^rd, 7:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. Remember, if you’re on line to vote before 7PM, you cannot be turned away.
   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. Texas lieutenant governor primary: Who is running and what to know — by Renzo Downey | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Jan. 22, 2026
   11. K. And an explanation of the various county offices up for election, What to know about county offices on Texas’ March 3 primary ballot — by Riddhi Bora | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Feb. 17, 2026, 5:00 a.m. Central
   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. Harris County Precinct 4, UH partner to create public dashboard of mental health resources; By Sarah Brager | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 2:00 PM Feb 17, 2026 CST/Updated 2:00 PM Feb 17, 2026 CST. TAGS: Harris County Precinct 4, University of Houston, Mental Health, Katy, Cy-Fair, Tomball, The Memorial Area, Precinct 4 Commissioner Lesley Briones, Harris County Commissioners,
   1. Harris County Precinct 4 has partnered with researchers from the University of Houston to create an interactive dashboard of mental health providers in ZIP codes with limited resources.
   2. The agreement between local researchers and policymakers aims to help residents in underserved portions of Katy, Cy-Fair, Tomball, and the Memorial area [in connecting] with licensed providers, which could serve as a blueprint for addressing mental health needs countywide.
   3. … Harris County commissioners unanimously approved a one-year agreement with UH on Feb. 12.
   4. As part of the partnership, the university will create an interactive and publicly accessible online dashboard highlighting service disparities in Precinct 4, according to agreement documents.
   5. Additionally, Precinct 4 and UH will collaborate to host workshops at local community centers to facilitate open conversations about mental health and connect community members to services, the agreement shows.
   6. The project encompasses recommendations from the Justice and Safety Committee’s January 2024 report, which highlighted the need for more diverse and accessible services, Precinct 4 Commissioner Lesley Briones said during the Feb. 12 Commissioner’s Court meeting.
   7. [Briones said,] “We know the need is tremendous [and] widespread, and strategically the more data we have, then we can really inject strategy where it’s most needed.”
   8. … UH researchers Damien Kelly and Chakema Carmack published a study Oct. 15 highlighting “mental health deserts” across the Greater Houston region. The study found that ZIP codes with lower household incomes, education levels and economic development had significantly fewer licensed mental health professionals in the area.
   9. Of 96 total ZIP codes analyzed in the initial research, 43% were considered “distressed” in the U.S. Census Bureau’s Distressed Communities Index, or DCI, which rates areas based on household income, educational attainment and poverty levels, among other factors.
   10. Kelly and Carmack found distressed ZIP codes had only 1.9 licensed mental health professionals on average, and 39 ZIP codes in Greater Houston had no providers at all, Community Impact previously reported.
   11. An analysis of nine distressed ZIP codes in Precinct 4 identified 83 licensed mental health providers — including psychiatrists, counselors, therapists and social workers — serving a combined population of more than 418,000 residents. Kelly said the data could explain why some providers in the area build up months-long waiting lists. …
   12. Precinct 4 is in the process of surveying residents to better understand stigmas and barriers to care that exist at the ZIP code level, policy advisor Larisa Baretto told Community Impact. She said UH will collaborate with Precinct 4 staff to release hyperlocal reports based on the survey results so future investments can be tailored to specific neighborhoods.
   13. The survey is available in English, Spanish and Mandarin and will remain open for the next four to six weeks, Baretto said. She said the project is fully funded through UH’s Organized Research and Creative Activities Program, or ORCA.
   14. The ArcGIS interactive dashboard is in development, Precinct 4 staff and UH researchers confirmed. Kelly said residents in distressed portions of the precinct will be able to select their ZIP code and view the closest mental health providers in their area.
   15. Additionally, Kelly said the tool is designed to be digitally replicated so researchers and policymakers across the country can localize the map to their region.
   16. [Kelly said,] “If you’re in a small rural community … some of those smaller communities may not have the resources to work with a university. … We [will] have this out there so those places can see what’s going on in their neighborhoods.”
   17. … Baretto said the interactive dashboard of service providers will be made public by June. She said Precinct 4 plans to continue holding workshops after the launch to teach residents how to use the tool and continue the dialogue about mental health.
   18. Precinct 4 staff will share more information about upcoming mental health workshops on the precinct’s website and social media, she said.
   19. “We’re very hopeful that having this type of information will be able to inform investments and any partnerships we have in the future so that we can support a more coordinated approach to behavioral health and justice system planning,” Baretto said.
   20. MIKE: The story includes a chart with the ZIP codes included in this program. The link to the Precinct 4 website is also included.
   21. MIKE: I look forward to seeing this program being fully implemented for these communities, and I hope it can fulfill its intended objectives.
3. I’m not going to read too much of this next story from BBC-dot.com because you’ve probably already heard about — Stephen Colbert says CBS spiked interview with Democrat over FCC fears; By Max Matza | BBC.COM | Feb. 17, 2026. TAGS: Media, Television, Donald Trump, United States,
   1. Late-night host Stephen Colbert has accused his network of refusing to broadcast his interview with a Democratic politician over fears of retaliation by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
   2. CBS, the network which hosts the programme, denies that it “prohibited” the interview from being aired, saying it gave only “legal guidance”.
   3. On his Monday night show, Colbert said that CBS wouldn’t show his interview with Texas lawmaker James Talarico out of concerns of a response from the FCC, which has new guidance on equal airtime for political candidates.
   4. [Colbert said,] “We were told in no uncertain terms by our network’s lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast. … Then, then I was told in some uncertain terms that not only could I not have him on, I could not mention me not having him on. And because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this.”
   5. Colbert, host of The Late Show, went on to explain that new FCC guidance on the “equal time” rule — which requires TV and radio broadcasters to give equal time to rival political candidates — could have created legal trouble for the network, according to CBS lawyers.
   6. The FCC regulates radio, TV and satellite airwaves, giving it power over a range of matters, including mergers and decency complaints.
   7. CBS flatly denied Colbert’s claims in a statement on Tuesday.
   8. [The network said,] “The Late Show was not prohibited by CBS from broadcasting the interview with Rep James Talarico. … The show was provided legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC equal-time rule for two other candidates… and presented options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled. … The Late Show decided to present the interview through its YouTube channel with on-air promotion on the broadcast rather than potentially providing the equal-time options.”
   9. The full interview was later posted on YouTube, where FCC rules don’t apply.
   10. News content has traditionally been exempted from the “equal time” rule.
   11. [I’m thunderstruck. You mean we still have an “equal time” FCC rule, even after the fairness doctrine was abolished in 1987 under Ronald Reagan? Well low and behold, according to the Wikipedia article on the subject, “The fairness doctrine is not the same as the equal-time rule, which is still in place. The fairness doctrine deals with discussion of controversial issues, while the equal-time rule deals only with political candidates.” The more you know. Continuing …]
   12. But the FCC has said the rule may soon apply to late-night programmes, like Colbert’s. It may also apply to political radio programmes, which tend to skew Republican.
   13. [LOL! I’d love to see that happen … when pigs fly. But we’ll see. Continuing …]
   14. After issuing the new guidance in January, Brendan Carr, the FCC chairman known for taking an expansive view of his power, said on X that “for years, legacy TV networks assumed that their late night & daytime talk shows qualify as ‘bona fide news’ programs — even when motivated by purely partisan political purposes. … Today, the FCC reminded them of their obligation to provide all candidates with equal opportunities.”
   15. Trump has at times said he is considering pulling the FCC license for several US networks who he says have aired views that are critical of his presidency.
   16. Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS, last July agreed to pay $16m (£13.5m) to settle a legal dispute with President Donald Trump regarding an interview it broadcast on CBS with former Vice-President Kamala Harris.
   17. Business commentators have said the deal was made partly so as to not affect Paramount’s planned merger with Skydance Media, which Trump had the power to halt.
   18. Anna Gomez, the only Democrat on the FCC, condemned the response by CBS, saying it had the First Amendment constitutional right to free speech.
   19. [Gomez said in a statement,] “This is yet another troubling example of corporate capitulation in the face of this administration’s broader campaign to censor and control speech,” adding that the FCC has “no lawful authority to pressure broadcasters for political purposes”.
   20. She continued: “It is no secret that Paramount, CBS’s parent company, has regulatory matters before the government, but corporate interests cannot justify retreating from airing newsworthy content.”
   21. She has previously accused the FCC’s Republican leaders of using the equal time rule to unfairly penalise critics in violation of the constitutional right to free speech.
   22. The Late Show is due to end its 33-year run in May. Colbert has been the host since 2015.
   23. MIKE: You can watch Colbert’s entire 15 minute segment with Talarico at the YouTube link I’m providing.
   24. MIKE: I think that there’s some irony that US politicians and prominent individuals are now using social media to get around government speech restrictions — legal or otherwise — just like has occurred under other repressive regimes around the world.
   25. MIKE: Note that I’m now including the US government as an “oppressive regime” in that statement.
4. Speaking of … From NBCNEWS-dot-com — Noem’s use of Coast Guard resources strains her relationship with the military branch, sources say; By Gordon Lubold, Courtney Kube, Jonathan Allen and Julia Ainsley | NBCNEWS.COM | Feb. 17, 2026, 4:00 AM CST. TAGS: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, U.S. Coast Guard,
   1. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s relationship with U.S. Coast Guard officials has become strained throughout her first year leading the department, according to two U.S. officials, a Coast Guard official and a former Coast Guard official.
   2. The tensions between Noem and the only branch of the U.S. military overseen by DHS stem from some early decisions she made that rankled Coast Guard officials, including a verbal directive to shift Coast Guard resources from a search-and-rescue mission to find a missing service member, the sources said.
   3. Noem’s leadership at DHS has created a specific split in the Coast Guard. Many rank-and-file members are motivated by her approach, in which she showcases their work by joining them on operations and visiting their ships. Some more senior officials, however, see that approach as taking away from the Coast Guard’s traditional missions.
   4. The dynamic with more senior officials has only worsened in recent months as Noem oversaw a tenfold increase in the use of the Coast Guard’s aircraft for immigrant deportations, which has strained its limited resources, the sources said. The increase was captured in data compiled by ICE Flight Monitor, a nonprofit group that tracks deportation flights. …
   5. Noem’s focus on meeting the Trump administration’s deportation quotas appears poised to further impact Coast Guard operations in the coming months, according to new guidance recently issued to Coast Guard Air Station Sacramento this year. Based on DHS priorities, the air station, which is among those responsible for a majority of deportation flights, has designated its first priority to be the transport of detained immigrants on its C-27 aircraft within the U.S., according to multiple U.S. officials familiar with the orders.
   6. The new orders moved search-and-rescue operations, which have long been the Coast Guard’s core mission, to a lower priority, the officials familiar with the orders said. They said counternarcotics efforts and Coast Guard training are prioritized above search-and-rescue operations.
   7. The dissonance between Noem’s priorities and senior Coast Guard officials is a lesser-known part of the fallout from President Donald Trump’s mass deportation policy, and is largely playing out behind the scenes. Coast Guard officials have privately raised concerns with one another, and confided in former officials about some of Noem’s directives and use of Coast Guard resources to service her and the administration’s priorities, the current and former Coast Guard officials said.
   8. At times, the tensions have escalated into confrontations, the sources said. In one contentious incident in May, Noem’s top adviser, Corey Lewandowski, berated Coast Guard flight staff and threatened to fire them for taking off without one of the secretary’s personal items on board — a heated blanket, according to the current and former Coast Guard officials.
   9. [[The former Coast Guard official said,] “There is a general atmosphere of ‘keep your head down, you don’t want to be on the firing line.’”
   10. A spokesperson for the Coast Guard referred all questions about the reporting in this story to DHS.
   11. A spokesperson for DHS denied that there was guidance to Coast Guard Air Station Sacramento that prioritized transporting immigrants first over search-and-rescue operations. [The spokesperson said in an emailed statement,] “That’s ridiculous. No such guidance was ordered. … The Coast Guard is always ready to respond to search and rescue missions, and it carefully balances all operations and mission requirements.”
   12. The spokesperson said in response to this story, “The entire premise of your story is incorrect, and these attacks are nothing more than a politicized deep state effort to undermine President Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda and distract from the historic successes that the Department of Homeland Security and the Coast Guard have achieved since he returned to office.”
   13. [MIKE: I will note here that the only way to describe this regime is, as Al Franken once titled a book, “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them”. So I wouldn’t give a pinch of salt for any statements released by anybody in this government unless verified by reliable independent sources. Continuing …]
   14. The tension between some Coast Guard officials and Noem began after a 23-year-old Coast Guardsman went overboard into the Pacific Ocean from the cutter Waesche on Feb. 4 last year, shortly after the Senate confirmed Noem into her role, according to the two U.S. officials, the Coast Guard official and the former Coast Guard official.
   15. The Coast Guard had surged ships and aircraft to the Pacific to find the Hours into the search, Noem learned that a Coast Guard C-130 that was supposed to fly detained migrants from California to Texas was among the aircraft over the Pacific looking for the missing guardsman, and she intervened, according to the two U.S. officials and the Coast Guard official.
   16. Noem verbally instructed the acting commandant of the Coast Guard, Adm. Kevin Lunday, to pull the plane off the search-and-rescue mission so it would not miss the immigrant flight as part of the DHS’ so-called Alien Expulsion Operations, according to the two U.S. officials and the Coast Guard official. Lunday notified the National Command Center, which ordered the C-130 to fly to San Diego while other aircraft and ships involved in the search continued, according to one of the U.S. officials and the current Coast Guard official.
   17. In an effort to keep the C-130 searching for the missing service member, the regional Coast Guard command in San Diego scrambled to find two available C-27s that could fly the detained people to Texas, which freed up the C-130 to continue searching for the missing guardsman after about an hour, the two U.S. officials and the Coast Guard official said.
   18. The search ultimately went on for 190 hours covering 19,000 square miles, but the guardsman was never found. It’s not clear that Noem’s directive to pull the C-130 had any impact on the search, particularly given the Coast Guard found alternative aircraft that allowed it to return to the effort.
   19. The DHS spokesperson said a C-130 was shifted from immigrant flights to the search-and-rescue operation in the Pacific on Feb. 4 and continued on that mission until the search was suspended. The spokesperson said “the C-130 never left the search” and that there is no documentation it was diverted away from the search-and-rescue operation.
   20. Despite the differing narratives, the incident left Coast Guard officials with a negative impression of Noem, according to the two U.S. officials, the Coast Guard official and the former Coast Guard official. The incident reflected a clash of cultures between Noem’s leadership style and Coast Guard officials, the sources said.
   21. [The former Coast Guard official said,] “The primary mission was search-and-rescue. … And now the No. 1 stated mission of the Coast Guard is border security; that is a cultural change that the culture hasn’t quite caught up to.”
   22. The official added that under Noem’s leadership, “you never know what’s going to happen” and that morale at Coast Guard headquarters “is terrible.”
   23. Asked about low morale within the Coast Guard, the DHS spokesperson said, “That’s armchair speculation that’s out of touch with the reality in the service right now.”
   24. The DHS spokesperson also said the Coast Guard has used C-130 and C-27 aircraft to transport migrants “on an as-needed basis” and said its focus on immigration “is nothing new or unusual.”
   25. Under Noem’s leadership, more than 750 Coast Guard flights have been redirected from regular missions such as maritime patrols and search-and-rescue efforts, to instead fly detained immigrants to deportation hubs, according to ICE Flight Monitor. Coast Guard flights carrying immigrants jumped last year from 14 in June to 149 in November, according to the group.
   26. [MIKE: So now that we understand how DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has reoriented Coast Guard priorities, we can better understand why we have US Navy ships intercepting and destroying small boats at sea instead of simply interdicting them, as used to be the policy. This change can be summed up as, “Murder Over Interdiction.” Continuing …]
   27. A former Republican governor of South Dakota, Noem stepped into her high-profile role with a mandate from Trump to conduct a mass deportation campaign that was the focus of her attention and that of the senators who oversaw her nomination process. Neither Noem nor any lawmaker mentioned the Coast Guard at her confirmation hearing in January last year, and she was confirmed by the Senate with the support of seven Democrats.
   28. Several of the Democrats who voted to confirm Noem have taken issue with her management of other aspects of the department., Two — Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Andy Kim, D-N.J. — told NBC News last June that they regretted supporting her confirmation. …
   29. Noem, who has also rankled critics by appearing in front of detained migrants at a prison in El Salvador and budgeting $200 million for deportation ads that feature her, got off to a rocky start with some of her Coast Guard subordinates when she evicted the newly fired commandant, Linda Fagan, from housing at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling with three hours’ notice in February last year, NBC News reported.
   30. At the time, DHS officials insisted to NBC News that Fagan was not thrown out so that the housing could be provided to the secretary. …
   31. [A second DHS spokesperson said last year,] “Secretary Noem is paying fair market value for her temporary use of the facility as she faces heightened security threats following the publication of her apartment by a tabloid,”.
   32. Noem has also raised eyebrows among Coast Guard officials over her approach to traveling on Coast Guard aircraft, which is a standard practice for homeland security secretaries, according to the U.S. official, the Coast Guard official, the former Coast Guard official and one of the U.S. officials.
   33. In October, Noem sought to replace the Coast Guard aircraft that has traditionally flown the homeland security secretary with two new Gulfstream jets at a cost of $170 million. Some Coast Guard officials viewed the purchase to replace the aging aircraft as an unnecessary expense, according to the two U.S. officials, the Coast Guard official, the former Coast Guard official and two DHS officials.
   34. The two DHS officials said the Coast Guard officials were told by a senior DHS official not to raise their concerns about the purchase of the new Gulfstream jets.
   35. [One of the DHS officials said,] “… I wanted to know what money they used for those Gulfstreams, … But basically, we were shut down.”
   36. Democrats objected to the purchase of two jets, saying only one was needed and resources should instead be spent on mission aircraft such as C-130s. The top Democrats on the House Appropriations and Homeland Security committees wrote a letter to Noem in October criticizing the purchase, [saying,] “Your first priority should be to organize, train, and equip a Coast Guard that is strong enough to meet today’s mission requirements. … Instead, it appears your first priority is your own comfort.”
   37. Noem has defended the decision, saying the new jets were needed to support Coast Guard missions and noted that Congress appropriated the funding for them.
   38. The DHS spokesperson said the department received one of the Gulfstream jets last month and is expected to receive the second one in the fall. “These aircraft are the products of a planned, and long-needed update to the Coast Guard’s long-range command and control aircraft, which are essential for mission readiness and safety,” the spokesperson said, adding that they are for senior DHS and military officials.
   39. Noem recently flew on one of the newly purchased Gulfstreams to Phoenix to tout DHS’ accomplishments on the southern border over the past year.
   40. Typically, government planes that are used for members of the executive branch’s travel are returned to what is called a “sterile state” after each flight, which includes the removal of all personal items of the individuals who had traveled on it, according to the U.S. official.
   41. But Noem liked the idea of keeping some personal items on board, including a heated blanket, for her convenience, so a storage cabinet on the aircraft was reserved for that purpose in a way that ran counter to typical protocols for most government aircraft, one of the U.S. officials and the current Coast Guard official said.
   42. [The DHS spokesperson said,] “The claim that the secretary would misuse government property is ridiculous. … Secretary Noem is [the] most conscientious steward of government resources DHS has ever had.”
   43. Noem’s team clashed with Coast Guard staff last year after the Coast Guard plane she’d been flying on broke down and she had to fly back to Washington, D.C., on a backup jet, according to the two U.S. officials, the Coast Guard official, and the former Coast Guard official.
   44. While flying on the backup plane, Noem realized she had left some personal items, including her blanket, on the plane that had broken down, the two U.S. officials, the Coast Guard official and the former Coast Guard official said.
   45. When Lewandowski was informed that some of her personal items had been left behind, he yelled at the Coast Guard flight staff and threatened to fire them, according to the two U.S. officials, the Coast Guard official and the former Coast Guard official.
   46. The Coast Guard pilot came out of the cockpit to see what was happening, and Lewandowski insisted the plane return to where the broken-down jet was located to collect the secretary’s items, the U.S. official, the current Coast Guard official and the former Coast Guard official said.
   47. When the pilot refused, Lewandowski announced the pilot was relieved of his duty, according to the U.S. official, the current Coast Guard official, and the former Coast official. The pilot explained that if he was fired, he would need to land the plane immediately while another pilot was found to continue the mission to Washington, the U.S. official, the current Coast Guard official and the former Coast Guard official said.
   48. Lewandowski ultimately relented and calmer heads prevailed by the end of the trip, the two U.S. officials, the current U.S. official, and the former Coast Guard official said. The Wall Street Journal reported some details of the confrontation Friday.
   49. While the DHS spokesperson responded in an email exchange to questions about other elements of this story, the spokesperson did not provide answers to questions about the confrontation between Lewandowski and Coast Guard staff on this flight.
   50. MIKE: This is a long story, and I originally intended to heavily excerpt it. While I did take out some chunks, the more I read and thought about aspects of this story, the more I decided to keep in most of the main elements because I think they demonstrated that: a) This regime will always stand behind their corrupt and even stupid officials no matter what, and b) all of this just demonstrates how petty, arrogant, and ruthless DHS Secretary Noem is, which makes her a perfect fit in this corrupt regime.
   51. MIKE: Beyond that, I think the story speaks for itself and I have nothing to add that could possibly make Secretary Kristi Noem look any worse.
5. From the WASHINGTONPOST-dot-COM — Rubio lends hand to Hungary’s Orban as he faces tough election; By John Hudson | WASHINGTONPOST.COM | February 16, 2026 at 11:12 a.m. EST. TAGS: Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Trump Administration, Hungary, Slovakia,
   1. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sought to throw Viktor Orban a political lifeline on Monday, as the Hungarian prime minister trails in most polls ahead of an election this spring that could see Europe’s most pro-Russian and longest-ruling prime minister voted out of power.
   2. The top U.S. diplomat praised Orban’s leadership, signed a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with his government, and defended issuing Hungary an exemption from U.S. sanctions despite Orban’s decision to continue buying Russian energy.
   3. [Said Rubio standing alongside Orban during a news conference in Budapest,] “We want this country to do well, especially as long as you’re the prime minister and the leader of this country.” [Rubio added,] “President Trump is deeply committed to your success, because your success is our success.”
   4. Rubio’s support for Orban marks the latest example of the Trump administration working to keep in power right-wing populist leaders who have praised President Donald Trump and are seen as ideologically aligned. In [the] summer, political neophyte Karol Nawrocki narrowly won a presidential runoff in Poland after being invited to the White House by Trump.
   5. In a post on Truth Social last week, Trump endorsed Orban for the April elections and called him a “truly strong and powerful Leader” and “a true friend, fighter, and WINNER.”
   6. Whether the efforts by Trump and Rubio will help Orban prevail in the election remains far from clear, in part because Orban’s opponent, Peter Magyar, is also conservative and has gained traction with an anti-corruption message.
   7. Most polling shows Magyar’s party with a significant lead. [Magyar said last Sunday, as he formally launched his party’s election campaign in Budapest, [and] vowing to crack down on corruption, return Hungary to its Western European orientation, and end Orban’s nearly 16-year reign,] “We’re standing on the threshold of victory with 56 days left to go.”
   8. Magyar took control of the center-right Tisza [PRON: TEE-sah] party in 2024, the same year the party won about 30 percent of the vote in European Parliamentary elections. Before he pivoted to the center, he belonged to Orban’s Fidesz [PRON: FIH-dess] party.
   9. Orban and his Fidesz party are considered by a growing cohort of U.S. conservatives as the intellectual vanguard of policies they seek to replicate in the United States, including hard-line immigration policies and Christian nationalism.
   10. S. conservatives have praised Orban for establishing a fence on Hungary’s southern border in 2015 to keep out refugees fleeing from the Middle East and Africa. They have also praised him for cracking down on LGBTQ+ rights, such as banning the Budapest Pride celebration and approving facial recognition technology to identify scofflaws of the ban.
   11. Hungary regularly plays host to U.S. conservatives at its Conservative Political Action Conference events, which will again convene in March.
   12. Orban and the prime minister of neighboring Slovakia, whom Rubio visited on Sunday, are lonely voices in Europe in offering enthusiastic praise for Trump, who has angered traditional U.S. allies by imposing tariffs on them, threatening to take Greenland by force and attacking European digital regulations.
   13. Both Hungary and Slovakia have hailed Trump’s efforts to engage Russia and have expressed skepticism about Western support for Ukraine. Orban underscored that point on Monday, using the same hypothetical scenario Trump routinely brings up in his own remarks.
   14. [Orban said,] “If Donald Trump had been the president of the United States, this war would never have broken out. … And if he were not the president now, then we would not even stand the chance to put an end to the war.”
   15. Rubio expressed exasperation that Washington’s efforts, criticized in some parts of Europe for prioritizing Moscow’s demands over Kyiv’s, weren’t being hailed more widely.
   16. [Rubio said,] “This is one of the few wars I’ve ever seen where some people in the international community condemn you for trying to help end a war, but that’s what we’re going to do as long as our role and engagement is a positive one.”
   17. Orban also thanked the Trump administration for allowing Hungary to continue purchasing “cheap energy” from Russia despite significant efforts by the European Union to stop purchasing Russian oil and gas following the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
   18. Critics of Trump’s rapprochement with Hungary question how it serves U.S. interests.
   19. [Said Jeff Rathke, the president of American-German Institute and a former State Department official,] “Hungary now buys a greater percentage of its oil from Russia than it did at the start of the invasion. … So it is unclear how Orban contributes to any U.S. objectives aside from the ideological project of supporting right-wing, anti-European, would-be autocrats.”
   20. When asked about Hungary’s deepening business ties with China and Russia, Rubio said it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Budapest is pursuing its own national interests and emphasized the importance of Orban’s personal relationship with Trump.
   21. [Rubio said,] “I’m going to be very blunt with you. … The prime minister and the president have a very, very close personal relationship and working relationship, and I think it has been incredibly beneficial to the relationship between our two countries.”
   22. MIKE: It’s hard to know where to begin when discussing this story.
   23. MIKE: Should I start with the term that Orban has for his form of government, which he calls an “illiberal democracy”? That sounds like a relatively innocuous, focus-grouped term for his strain of authoritarianism?
   24. MIKE: Or should I dwell on the fact that our US Secretary of State praised such a government? And how do I even discuss the image of our Secretary of State effectively trying to give a pre-election boost to Orban?
   25. MIKE: How repugnant is it that US Conservatives are so supportive and closely aligned with Orban’s form of “illiberal democracy” that they fly across the Atlantic Ocean and half of Europe to hold their Conservative Political Action Conferences in Hungary, and to show their respect and fondness for “illiberal democracy”, for Orban’s Christian nationalist policies, and to perhaps even learn from them?
   26. MIKE: The Republican Party and American Conservatives have truly lost their way. They parrot the words and ideals of the American Revolutionaries of 1776, and they claim fealty to the words and ideals of the US Constitution and the Declaration of independence, but as some old commercials used to say, that’s where the similarity ends.
   27. MIKE: There have always been extremists on the American Right and Left, and that’s true of any democracy.
   28. MIKE: But I truly believe that if so many Americans were not raised from childhood with fealty to the Republican Party the way people do who are brought up in a religious faith, and if they in fact were not indoctrinated into the political faith of the American political duopoly, the actual extreme policies and ideologies of today’s Republican Party would appeal to barely a fraction of the Americans who now vote for them.
   29. MIKE: Does anyone doubt that when Trump refers to Viktor Orban as a “’truly strong and powerful Leader’ and ‘a true friend, fighter, and WINNER’”, that what he means is that Orban — as in the cases of Russia’s Putin, China’s Xi, and North Korea’s Kim — is the kind of autocratic tyrant that Trump truly admires and wishes to emulate?
   30. MIKE: I’ve lately wondered if I should begin referring to the White House as the White Nationalist’s House or the White Supremacist’s House for the duration of its Trump-Trumpist-MAGA occupation.
   31. MIKE: And when the US emulates Orban’s pro-Russian tilt on the Ukraine-Russia War by showing close American friendship with Orban, it’s like America has taken Russia’s side in the war.
   32. MIKE: Oh, wait. Since Trump came to power, we kind of have.
   33. MIKE: I thought that this part of the article was revealing when it said: “Rubio expressed exasperation that Washington’s efforts, criticized in some parts of Europe for prioritizing Moscow’s demands over Kyiv’s, weren’t being hailed more widely.
   34. And I thought it was particularly galling when Rubio responded to that sentiment by saying, “This is one of the few wars I’ve ever seen where some people in the international community condemn you for trying to help end a war, but that’s what we’re going to do as long as our role and engagement is a positive one.”
   35. MIKE: I would like to point out that 83 years ago, after Nazi Germany staged an unprovoked attack on neighboring Poland, and when Japan subsequently attacked the United States, the US eventually declared war on them and insisted on unconditional surrender.
   36. MIKE: Should we expect any less of Ukraine?
   37. MIKE: On December 8, 1941, Franklin Roosevelt called out Japan’s “dastardly and unprovoked attack” on the US bases at Pearl Harbor and in the Philippines. Was Russia’s February 24, 2022 full-scale attack on Ukraine any less dastardly and unprovoked? Is Ukraine any less entitled than the United States was to fight until they, in Roosevelt’s words, “win through to absolute victory”?
   38. MIKE: I believe that if Ukraine had the full and unwavering support — and I emphasize “full and unwavering” — of the US and the EU, that Ukraine could win this war and force Russia to disgorge all the Ukrainian territory that Russia has stolen and occupied, and could perhaps even force some degree of war reparations.
   39. MIKE: I feel ashamed that our country is currently so decisively not only on the wrong side of history, but on the wrong side of justice and international law.
   40. MIKE: Trump and the Republican party have led us down a dark corridor in our history. I hope that as a nation, we can soon find our way back to the kinds of justice and fairness that, if nothing else, our better angels aspire to, and which so many of us believe in.
   41. MIKE: By the way, for those who are interested, I’m including in this show post a link to the full text of Roosevelt’s speech calling for a declaration of war on Japan. If you choose to read it, substitute Russia for Japan and Ukraine for the United States and see how that affects your view of things.
6. And speaking of the American tilt toward Russia in the Russia-Ukraine War, from ALJAZEERA-dot-COM — Zelenskyy says US ‘too often’ pushes Ukraine, not Russia, for concessions; By News Agencies | ALJAZEERA.COM | Published On 15 Feb 2026. TAGS: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Munich Security Conference, US President Donald Trump, Russia-Ukraine War, United States-Brokered Peace Talks,
   1. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has expressed hope for United States-brokered peace talks with Russia next week, but warned that Kyiv was being asked “too often” to make concessions as he pressed his allies for “clear security guarantees”.
   2. Zelenskyy’s speech at the annual Munich Security Conference on Saturday came as US President Donald Trump seeks to broker a deal to end Europe’s biggest war since 1945.
   3. Ukraine and Russia, which ⁠invaded its neighbour in February 2022, have engaged in two rounds of talks mediated by Washington in the United Arab Emirates, which were described by the parties as constructive but achieved no breakthroughs.
   4. The three sides are due to sit down in Geneva, Switzerland, again this week.
   5. In his speech, Zelenskyy said he hoped the trilateral talks in Geneva on Tuesday and Wednesday “will be serious, substantive” and “helpful for all of us”.
   6. [Zelenskyy said,] “But honestly, sometimes it feels like the sides are talking about completely different things. … The Americans often return to the topic of concessions, and too often those concessions are discussed only in the context of Ukraine, not Russia.”
   7. He argued that there would be a greater chance of ending the war if European countries had a seat at the negotiating table, and said Ukraine had one simple point.
   8. [Zelenskyy said,] “Peace can only be built on clear security guarantees. Where there is no clear security system, war always returns.”
   9. Among the most contentious issues in the negotiations is Russia’s demand for a full withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the remaining parts of Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk that it still controls. Ukraine has rejected a unilateral pullback, while also demanding Western security guarantees to deter Russia from relaunching its invasion if a ceasefire is reached.
   10. Zelenskyy, in remarks to reporters, said the US had proposed a security guarantee lasting for 15 years after the war, but Ukraine wanted a deal for 20 years or longer. He added that Putin opposes the deployment of foreign troops in Ukraine, as it would deter any future aggression by Russia.
   11. Zelenskyy said Russia had to accept a ceasefire monitoring ‌mission ‌and an exchange of prisoners of war. He estimated that Russia currently has about 7,000 Ukrainian soldiers, while Kyiv has more than 4,000 Russian personnel.
   12. He also acknowledged feeling “a little bit” of pressure from Trump, who on Friday urged him not to miss the “opportunity” to make peace and told him “to get moving”. Zelenskyy also called for greater action from Ukraine’s allies to press Russia into making peace, both in the form of tougher sanctions and more weapons supplies.
   13. He also expressed surprise at Russia’s decision to change its delegation to the Geneva talks and said it suggested to ⁠him that Moscow wanted to delay any decisions from being agreed. …
   14. In his main speech at the Munich event, Zelenskyy also denounced Putin as a “slave to war”.
   15. He drew parallels between the current talks and the 1938 Munich Agreement, when European powers let Hitler take part of the erstwhile Czechoslovakia, only for World War II to break out the following year.
   16. [Zelenskyy warned,] “It would be an illusion to believe that this war can now be reliably ended by dividing Ukraine, just as it was an illusion to believe that sacrificing Czechoslovakia would save Europe from a great war,”.
   17. MIKE: If the US was not such a consequential power, I don’t believe that Ukraine would even accept the US to mediate as an honest broker of peace, because I don’t think that Trump is an honest broker. And I think that Ukraine’s European allies absolutely should be at the negotiating table to counterbalance current US bias toward Russia.
   18. MIKE: I also think that Zelensky’s invocation of the 1938 Munich “peace” accord that gave Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland to Hitler and became the definition of “appeasement”. Until Hitler invaded Poland, he had gotten all his new territory without firing a shot, and evidence suggests that Hitler thought his invasion of Poland would not lead to war with Britain and France, despite their security guarantees for Poland.
   19. MIKE: Zelensky’s comment that Putin is “a slave to war” is probably correct, but the article doesn’t elaborate on what he means.
   20. MIKE: I think it applies to the old adage that wars are easier to start than to end. No leader takes their country to war planning to lose. No leader takes their country to war expecting it to become a long-term quagmire. And of course, as the saying goes, no battle plan survives contact with the enemy.
   21. MIKE: Once Putin committed Russia to a war of aggression and subjugation in Ukraine, he did in fact become a slave to the war because in the absence of a quick victory, he had no exit plan in the event of failure. In fact, there is probably no leader who starts a war with a contingency plan for exiting that war in the event of failure.
   22. MIKE: And that leads to a version of an adage of my own: it takes only one to make war, but it takes two to make peace.
   23. MIKE: Once Russia had committed to its invasion of Ukraine, it had only two choices: Continue, or completely withdraw. And even complete withdrawal would not have guaranteed peace if Ukraine still felt like an injured party.
   24. MIKE: For example, in the event Putin’s invasion failed and he subsequently withdrew his main invasion force but continued occupying Crimea, Ukraine might not have stood for that and might have continued fighting because it takes two to make peace.
   25. MIKE: Thus, Putin has become a slave to a war that he is not winning, cannot be permitted to win, and that Russia will possibly lose, but now the war is personal. Putin is a slave to the war’s continuation if he is to survive in power.
7. And speaking of living in the new 1930s, from THEGUARDIAN six weeks ago — Xi Jinping vows to reunify China and Taiwan in New Year’s Eve speech; By Amy Hawkins Senior China correspondent | THEGUARDIAN.COM | Wed 31 Dec 2025 08.47 EST. TAGS: China, Xi Jinping, Asia Pacific, Taiwan, news,
   1. China’s president, Xi Jinping, has vowed to reunify China and Taiwan in his annual New Year’s Eve speech in Beijing.
   2. Speaking the day after the conclusion of intense Chinese military drills around Taiwan, Xi said: “The reunification of our motherland, a trend of the times, is unstoppable.”
   3. China claims Taiwan, a self-governing island, as part of its territory and has long vowed to annex it, using force if necessary.
   4. US intelligence is increasingly concerned about the advancing capabilities of China’s armed forces to launch such an attack if Xi decides the time is right.
   5. [Recently,] China’s People’s Liberation Army launched live-fire military drills around Taiwan, simulating a blockade of main ports and sending its navy, air force, rocket force and coastguard to encircle Taiwan’s main island. The drills, called “Justice Mission 2025”, came closer to Taiwan than previous exercises, and involved at least 89 warplanes, the highest tally for more than a year.
   6. The drills were expected by analysts before the year’s end but were also connected by Chinese commentators to a recent arms approval by the US government for a record $11bn (£8bn) weapons sales to Taiwan.
   7. Speaking in Beijing on Wednesday evening, Xi said China “embraced the world with open arms” …
   8. The broadcast of Xi’s speech on Chinese state media was interspersed with several shots of China’s largest ever military parade, which was held in September to mark 80 years since the end of the Second World War.
   9. During the parade, which was viewed as an unbridled display of military force, Xi, Putin and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, stood side by side in Beijing – a geopolitical alignment that has been called the “axis of upheaval”.
   10. Central to Xi’s vision of a new world order is the annexation of Taiwan and the support of other countries in recognising Taiwan as part of “One China” ruled by the Chinese Communist party in Beijing, something that the majority of Taiwanese people reject.
   11. In his speech, Xi also highlighted “Taiwan Retrocession Day”, a memorial day created in 2025 to mark the anniversary of the end of Japanese imperial rule in Taiwan in 1945. This year, Taiwan also passed a law to recognise the date, 25 October, as a national holiday. The legacy of the Second World War has been a big theme in political rhetoric in China and Taiwan this year. China has emphasised its role in defeating the Japanese in that conflict, something that China feels has been underappreciated in the west. Taiwan’s president, Lai Ching-te, gave a punchy speech this year comparing Taiwan to European democracies in the 1930s that faced a threat from Nazi Germany. …
   12. Earlier in the day, Xi addressed a meeting of top Chinese Communist party officials and said that China was on track to meet its 5% GDP growth target.
   13. MIKE: Europeans and the US often date the start of World War 2 to September 1, 1939, when Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia invaded Poland.
   14. MIKE: But to East Asians, World War 2 actually started on September 18, 1931 when Japan invaded and occupied Chinese Manchuria and established the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo.
   15. MIKE: Japan then staged a second, full-scale invasion of China in Shanghai on July 7, 1937. That’s when the Second World War started in Asia in earnest.
   16. MIKE: These are the echoes of world war that we may be seeing repeated now.
   17. MIKE: Russia’s occupation of Crimea could be analogous to the Japanese invasion and occupation of Manchuria in 1931. Russia’s subsequent full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 can be seen as an analogy to Japan’s full-scale attack on China that began in 1937.
   18. MIKE: In Asia, China has long made known its territorial ambitions around east Asia and the South China Sea. While not a perfect analogy, China’s continued assertion of its ownership of Taiwan can be seen as equivalent to Hitler’s claim to German-speaking populations in territories surrounding Germany, which was his pretext for annexing Austria in the Anschluss and taking Czechoslavia’s Sudetenland.
   19. MIKE: China claims ownership of most of the South China Sea and it’s islets and resources. That can be seen as somewhat equivalent to Hitler’s claim that Germany needed lebensraum, or “living space”.
   20. MIKE: These kinds of territorial claims, assertions, and threats or attempts at violent annexation are often the preludes to a larger war.
   21. MIKE: So, welcome back to the 1930s. And we know how they ended.
   22. MIKE: In today’s show post at ThinkwingRadio-dot-com, I’ve included several reference links in my comments that can make for interesting reading, even if you think you know about these events.
8. China Dreams of Challenging US Dollar Supremacy; By Micah McCartney, China News Reporter | NEWSWEEK.COM | Published Feb 14, 2026 at 05:00 AM EST. TAGS: Chinese Yuan Or Renminbi, U.S. Dollar, China, Financial Markets, United States,
   1. President Xi Jinping has set his sights on a “powerful” currency befitting China’s growing stature on the world stage, one that could challenge if not erode the U.S. dollar’s decades-long dominance in financial markets.
   2. But the Chinese yuan, or renminbi, is unlikely to become a key player in foreign exchange reserves without sweeping structural reforms that Beijing has been hesitant to make, analysts say.
   3. Despite lackluster consumer demand and a five-year housing slump, China still is by many measures in an enviable position. It is the world’s second-largest economy by nominal gross domestic product — and the largest in purchasing power parity terms — and it drove 30 percent of global economic growth last year, Chinese officials say.
   4. China also boasts the largest banking system by assets, enabling it to fund large-scale infrastructure projects at home and abroad. It also has the world’s largest stockpile of foreign exchange reserves — a substantial buffer against financial shocks.
   5. Yet for all China’s economic heft, the yuan remains a featherweight, accounting for around 2 percent of foreign reserves in central banks worldwide, compared with the greenback’s 56.3 percent, the euro’s 20.3 percent and the British pound’s 4.7 percent.
   6. China’s financial institutions are weaker than those of advanced economies and the government has set strict limits on the amount of yuan that leaves the country. Beijing controls the currency’s value rather than allowing markets to determine the exchange rate, a practice that has kept trade deficits high and export prices low — much to Washington’s chagrin.
   7. This managed system has helped shield China but has also limited its currency’s global appeal as a strong reserve asset, all in service of the long-ruling Communist Party‘s ultimate goal: domestic stability.
   8. … Recent signals from Zhongnanhai, however, suggest renewed intent in expanding the yuan’s international role. China watchers say this interest is likely driven by an increasingly uncertain global landscape and doubts about S. stewardship of the dollar-based financial order under President Donald Trump.
   9. China should work to build a “powerful yuan” with reserve currency status and broad use in international trade, investment and foreign exchange markets, Xi said in a 2024 speech …
   10. [Kevin Lam, an economist at the Pantheon Macroeconomic analytics firm said in a recent LinkedIn post,] “From China’s perspective, the timing was ideal to repost an old 2024 speech by Xi, as global investors are speculating on a broader ‘weak dollar policy’ amid news on Fed’s credibility, joint USD-JPY intervention, Trump’s depreciation remarks, and the recent geopolitical upheaval.”
   11. The yuan will “undoubtedly increase” its share of reserve holdings in emerging markets as they diversify to hedge against the fraught landscape, Eswar Prasad, an economics professor at Cornell University, told Newsweek.
   12. This would be especially true in countries with strong trade links to China or those exposed to Western sanctions, such as Russia, which increasingly turned to yuan-denominated trade after being severed from the global financial system over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
   13. Over the past decade, Beijing has loosened restrictions on foreign investors, including central banks, acquiring Chinese fixed income securities. This has “enticed many reserve managers in other countries to increase their exposure to yuan-denominated assets,” Prasad said.
   14. But [he said] there were clear constraints, “Since the renminbi remains a nonconvertible currency subject to capital controls, and given foreign investors’ lack of trust in China’s institutional framework, there are limits to the renminbi’s rise as a reserve currency and especially as a safe haven currency.”
   15. … Predictions that the yuan could be on the cusp of becoming a leading reserve currency were overstated, said George Magnus, an economist with Oxford University’s China Center.
   16. [Magnus told Newsweek,] ” … China’s capital markets are far too immature and unconducive. It’s a tiny fraction of global reserve assets and likely to remain so.”
   17. The obstacles are greater than a lack of full convertibility alone. A currency typically rises to reserve status when the rest of the world can accumulate large, liquid claims on the issuing country through open capital markets or persistent trade deficits — conditions China has historically avoided.
   18. [Magnus said,] “To have a reserve currency, you need, among many other things, to allow foreigners to accumulate claims on you.” China’s policy framework limits both the scale and ease with which global investors can do so, he said. …
   19. China’s Foreign Ministry did not respond to a written request for comment before publication.
   20. MIKE: I think that this article hits the nail on the head, especially in outlining the obstacles to the yuan becoming a large reserve currency. And because it’s about the Chinese yuan, it doesn’t talk much about the headwinds buffeting the US dollar.
   21. MIKE: Policy-makers since at least Richard Nixon have wanted a weaker dollar to lower trade deficits and to encourage manufacturing and buying American.
   22. MIKE: A weaker dollar versus, for example, the Chinese yuan would mean that Chinese goods would be more expensive, so US customers would import and buy less.
   23. MIKE: It would also mean that US manufacturers would be more competitive, because US goods would cost less in foreign currencies.
   24. MIKE: The US dollar and the Chinese yuan are both paradoxical currencies for polar opposite reasons.
   25. MIKE: There are so many US dollars overseas that the US currency would be much weaker in a rational currency market, but the US dollar has always seemed like a reliable currency, especially since WW2, when the US dominated the global economy.
   26. MIKE: On the other hand, due to its large and persistent trade surpluses, the Chinese yuan should have a much higher value relative to the US dollar and other currencies because there is so little it widely available to pay for Chinese products in Chinese currency, but the Chinese government keeps the yuan artificially low to encourage those trade surpluses.
   27. MIKE: Those two factors are the main reasons that China has an uphill battle replacing the US dollar in world trade. 

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