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.)

MIKE: These were the good old says, when John F Kennedy could say with conviction: “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, Galveston 89.5-HD2, and Huntsville 91.9-HD2. KPFT is Houston’s Community radio.

And welcome to our international listeners from Germany, India, Australia, Japan 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. I try to fact-check myself and include the links I use to do so. Articles and commentaries often include lots of internet links for those of you who want to dig deeper.

It’s the 30th week of Trump’s military occupation of Washington DC; and 19 weeks since Trump deployed National Guard troops to Memphis, Tennessee and New Orleans, Louisiana, where they remain for now.

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. Primary Election Day is March 3^rd.
   1. This primary election is 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 ended.
   3. Election Day polls are open 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. Texas lieutenant governor primary: Who is running and what to know — by Renzo Downey | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Jan. 22, 2026
   11. 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. I’ve also included links to the Houston League of Women Voters and the  Texas League of Women Voters, as well as Ballotpedia, which always has useful voting information.
   13. If you’re looking for endorsements, Charles Kuffner has a link called A few primary resources for you; Posted on February 18, 2026 by Charles Kuffner
   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. On my February 5^th show, I discussed some of the distinctions between different kinds of collaboration with an occupying power. Does a leader cooperate enthusiastically with the occupiers, or does a leader try to mitigate the worst effects of the occupier’s policies to the maximum degree possible without endangering themselves? In this story from the HOUSTONCHRONICLE-dot-COM, we get to revisit that dilemma — Houston Mayor Whitmire says state law requires ICE cooperation. Some Texas police agencies disagree.; By Sam González Kelly, Matt deGrood, Julián Aguilar, Staff Writers | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM | Feb 27, 2026. TAGS: Handling ICE warrants, ‘We are not immigration officers’, criminal warrants, Cooperating with ICE, Confusion in the ranks, No policy as policy,
3. 1. As President Donald Trump continues his crackdown against immigrants living in the country illegally, Houston Mayor John Whitmire has defended his police department’s cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying his hands are tied by state and federal law. 
   2. But at least one major Texas law enforcement agency, the Dallas Police Department, has instructed its officers not to call ICE when they encounter people with noncriminal administrative warrants, according to records obtained by the Houston Chronicle.
   3. And a survey by the Chronicle of dozens of police departments, sheriff’s offices and constables indicates that agencies in the Houston area and across the state have taken different approaches to handling ICE warrants, with some officers seeking guidance about the legalities of detaining immigrants and contacting ICE.
   4. The scattershot approaches illustrate the difficulties that law enforcement agencies face in policing immigrant communities under the second Trump administration, and show that officials in some jurisdictions don’t have a clear idea of how to respond when police encounter administrative ICE warrants in the field.
   5. The key question is whether police departments are legally required to honor ICE warrants that haven’t been signed by a judge. 
   6. The addition of civil immigration warrants to a national crime database last year led HPD to report over 150 immigrants to ICE so far in Trump’s second term, mostly during routine encounters such as traffic stops, according to data obtained by the Chronicle. Federal immigration agents arrested people in nearly a quarter of those cases.
   7. The Chronicle’s analysis of 35 law enforcement responses and internal communications shows that some agencies’ policies largely echo Houston’s cooperative approach, while others have opted not to maintain a policy at all. Some said they haven’t encountered the issue since Trump took office in January.
   8. S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, said some of the confusion stems from the White House’s order that local law enforcement officers treat administrative warrants like all others or risk losing federal funding.
   9. [Said Garcia, who previously served as a municipal court judge and a state senator,] “I met with (Houston Police Chief Noe Diaz) and I told him these are not arrest warrants. These are not signed by a judge. … But the hiccup is that the Trump administration dumped them into the system. They’re all there. And now they send them a memo saying, ‘You must execute on all of them or else you lose the federal funding.’ That’s the big stick.”
   10. Diaz did not respond to a request for comment about Garcia’s comments.
   11. How should local police handle ICE warrants?: Early in Trump’s second term, federal officials for the first time added over 700,000 ICE administrative warrants to the National Crime Information Center, a federal database available to law enforcement agencies across the country that has historically been used for criminal warrants.
   12. The ICE administrative warrants are internal documents that agents use to make arrests on civil immigration violations such as outstanding deportation orders. Administrative warrants are not signed by judges, and some legal experts have argued that they do not give local law enforcement agencies the authority to detain people on ICE’s behalf. 
   13. The introduction of so many administrative warrants into daily law enforcement proceedings has put Texas police, sheriffs and constables in a difficult position, said Elissa Steglich, clinical professor and co-director of the University of Texas School of Law’s Immigration Clinic.
   14. If agencies explicitly direct their officers not to call ICE, they will likely run afoul of a 2017 state law known as Senate Bill 4 that bans cities and counties from prohibiting cooperation with immigration enforcement, Steglich said. Additionally, some local leaders have openly fretted that if departments instruct their officers not to honor the warrants, they could lose federal grant funding.
   15. On the other hand, if they use the warrants to detain immigrants without criminal charges, they risk violating the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution prohibiting unreasonable searches and seizures, Steglich said. 
   16. … Houston police officers reported residents to ICE at least 154 times since the start of 2025, almost all of which were the result of administrative warrants that officers found during traffic stops.
   17. Whitmire has said that SB4 forces HPD to cooperate with ICE in such circumstances, and that Houston’s approach is no different than that of any other law enforcement agency in the area. 
   18. The Chronicle’s survey of dozens of local law enforcement agencies, however, has not backed up Whitmire’s assertion that other Texas departments are all handling it the same way. Dallas, the third-largest city in Texas, for example, has strictly prohibited its officers from honoring the administrative warrants. 
   19. [A March 5 training bulletin prohibiting the practice stated,] “Administrative warrants are civil warrants and are not based on criminal offenses. … If an officer receives an NCIC administrative warrant hit and no criminal offense is present, the officer shall not confirm the warrant or arrest the individual.”
   20. Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux told the Chronicle that his officers are cooperating with federal law enforcement on task forces and investigations aimed at tackling violent criminals and human trafficking. 
   21. [Chief Comeaux said,] “For me, I’ve been very consistent from Day 1 — we will cooperate with federal partners on certain investigations. … But we are not immigration officers, we’re not going to be working immigration cases. But we are proactively working and targeting violent felons.”
   22. … Some agencies in the Houston area took relatively clear stances against administrative warrants as well. In Precinct 7, Constable Smokie Philips’ office clearly instructed officers to disregard them.
   23. Precinct 7 officials provided a copy of the office’s recent arrest procedures as of Jan. 1, 2025, that say deputies should not treat unauthorized entry into the country as an “on-going offense” that occurs in the presence of an officer.
   24. [The guidance adds,] “Deputies shall not make any inquiries as to the citizenship status of any person. … Deputies will contact ICE regarding a person only if that person is arrested on a separate criminal charge (other than a class C misdemeanor) and the deputy knows that person is an illegal alien.”
   25. When asked specifically about the administrative warrants, Constable James “Smokie” Phillips said his agency “doesn’t deal” with those.
   26. [Said Constable Phillips,] “We only deal with the criminal warrant aspect. An administrative warrant is not a criminal warrant.”
   27. In the southeast suburb of Deer Park, a police department spokesman initially told the Chronicle that officers would call any law enforcement agency that entered a “valid and confirmed” warrant into the NCIC, and that ICE would be contacted if a person with a warrant had committed a separate criminal offense. 
   28. However, when asked directly if administrative warrants alone were enough for an officer to call ICE, the spokesman simply said “no.” 
   29. Police department brass in nearby La Porte discussed how to address the administrative warrants after an officer stopped an Uber driver with one, according to emails obtained by the Chronicle.
   30. The officer called ICE, where someone said they could send an agent to detain the driver if the officer could hold him for three hours. Unwilling to hold the driver without any charges, the officer let him go.
   31. [The officer’s sergeant wrote to superiors,] “I am not familiar with the ICE detainers or hits like this one. … Need game plan for these encounters.”
   32. Eventually, Assistant Chief Bennie Boles dug up the relevant department policy that stated “an officer should not detain any individual for any length of time for a civil violation of federal immigration laws or a related civil warrant.”
   33. While the policy does not address whether officers may call ICE to notify them of a hit on an administrative warrant, it does make clear that La Porte police officers are not allowed to detain subjects while they wait for ICE, unless they are suspected of a separate criminal violation.
   34. [Assistant Chief Boles wrote,] “Our policy indicates we should not arrest on a misdemeanor basis in order to hold a person on an ICE detainer. … Basically, if it is something we regularly arrest people for, we are good to go.”
   35. … Police departments in other major Texas cities like San Antonio, Austin and Fort Worth are handling the administrative warrants similarly to Houston.
   36. In San Antonio, records obtained by the Chronicle show that Deputy Chief Michelle Ramos emailed officers in March warning them that ICE had recently added the administrative warrants to the NCIC, and advising them that they did not have the authority to make arrests on those warrants without other criminal charges. She did, however, instruct officers to notify ICE and ask them to come to the scene and make the arrest themselves.
   37. In Fort Worth, police leaders amended their general orders last summer to specify that officers are not prohibited from calling ICE if they find someone with an administrative warrant during a “lawful detention,” but did not clarify whether traffic stops are included under that definition. 
   38. Austin police leaders have adopted a similar policy to Houston’s but responded to public outrage in a different way, doubling down on the approach with a general order that explicitly allows for cooperation with ICE.
   39. Austin’s City Council has mandated that police officials report all interactions with ICE since 2018. Though the department has been publishing these statistics for years, it found itself under renewed scrutiny in January after the Austin American-Statesmen reported that officers called ICE on a Honduran woman who was reporting domestic violence. The woman and her 5-year-old daughter, a U.S. citizen, were subsequently deported.
   40. After the case became public, Chief Lisa Davis announced that the department was amending its policy to explicitly give officers discretion over whether to call ICE on administrative warrants, with permission from a supervisor. Davis said at the time that the policy was issued in order to dispel confusion among officers and keep the department in compliance with SB4. 
   41. The situation bears striking similarities to an incident in Houston last spring in which HPD officers called ICE on a Salvadoran woman who had called police to report harassment from an abusive ex-partner. In that case, ICE officers declined to come and detain the woman, but the incident sparked similar outrage among Houston immigration advocates.
   42. Some local law enforcement agencies, like the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office, have largely hewed to Houston’s policy, saying that deputies will not make arrests on administrative warrants alone, but that ICE would be contacted if “an agent is needed at the scene.” The department’s policy notes that deputies will collect information to provide to ICE for a follow-up if an agent can’t arrive promptly.
   43. Still other local agencies, including the Montgomery and Galveston County sheriff’s offices and the League City Police Department, have taken cooperation a step further by entering into formal 287(g) agreements with the federal government, allowing ICE agents to deputize some local officers to make immigration arrests. 
   44. While these agreements do not give officers the authority to make immigration arrests without a separate criminal charge, officials from the Montgomery County and League City departments did confirm that officers treat administrative warrants like any other. 
   45. The Galveston County sheriff’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
   46. … [Internal communications and statements show that] Police departments in some Houston suburbs have struggled to understand the implications of the administrative warrants and whether police are obliged to recognize them …
   47. In Missouri City, police officials tried to get ahead of the issue by drafting an immigration directive that was sent to top brass and later obtained by the Chronicle through an open records request. The guidance on administrative warrants prompted a back-and-forth between a dispatch manager and an assistant chief that suggests confusion lingered even after the directive was sent. 
   48. [Dispatch Manager Shannon Brumfeld asked,] “So confirming if it states civil warrant on the hit we are not confirming?”
   49. [Assistant Police Chief Jazton Heard responded,] “You will continue to go through your normal confirmation process if the detainer is in NCIC/TCIC.”
   50. [In what appeared to be the end of the exchange, Brumfeld replied,] “Yes sir, but it states don’t confirm on civil warrant.”
   51. The Missouri City Police Department declined to provide the directive itself, pending an opinion from the Texas Attorney General’s office. Officials did not respond to follow-up questions.
   52. The exchange in Missouri City is also an example of how law enforcement agencies often conflated administrative warrants with ICE detainers, both in internal communications and in statements offered to the Chronicle. ICE detainers, unlike administrative warrants, are specific requests from ICE to hold people who are already in custody, and are already honored by Texas law enforcement.
   53. Constable officials in Harris County Precinct 1 noted in early April that rapid changes in policy had left several law enforcement agencies unsure how to proceed when they encounter immigrants.
   54. An email from Major John Martin to Assistant Chief Lofton Harrison referenced the administrative warrants and said deputies “may get a ‘hit’” on them. But it cites the Texas Criminal Code on immigration detainer requests in its guidance on how to respond to such warrants.
   55. The email then includes instructions on what deputies should do if they get a “hit” on an administrative warrant. Those include calling the ICE Law Enforcement Support Center to verify the information, then communicating with the agency on whether the deputy should wait for ICE at the scene or have ICE agents follow up later. 
   56. … Some agencies have avoided taking a stance on such a murky legal issue by not crafting a policy around administrative warrants at all.
   57. In response to open records requests and questions about its approach, the Harris County sheriff’s office said it does not have a written policy that addresses the issue. A sheriff’s office spokesman said they expect their deputies to follow the law and “use their discretion.”
   58. Harris County does not track its deputies’ calls to ICE in the same way that the Houston Police Department does. The sheriff’s office does, however, operate the county’s jail, where it has long had an agreement to turn over inmates with immigration detainers to federal agents.
   59. Jail staff turn over around 15 people to ICE every day, or a total of nearly 5,400 people last year, according to Jason Spencer, spokesperson for the sheriff’s office. Unlike the majority of immigrants who have been turned over to ICE by officers on patrol, those in the jail are facing criminal charges.
   60. Steglich, the UT immigration expert, said unless there is litigation, congressional action or other proceedings to address the issue, administrative warrants are likely to continue causing headaches for officers.
   61. She encouraged law enforcement leaders to communicate with their communities about what approach they’re taking and why, and what ideas the community has to maintain safety.
   62. [Professor Steglich said,] “Communities are going to decide what is best. Local law enforcement needs to be responsive to the community.”
   63. MIKE: For starters, I think one thing needs to be emphasized: When ICE arrests people going to their legally scheduled immigration appearances, that is not “crack[ing] down against immigrants living in the country illegally”. That’s just a policy of getting rid of immigrants. Period.
   64. MIKE: But I think that the conclusion I draw from this story is that police and sheriff’s departments have ways of protecting their communities from the worst effects of Trumpian Republican Party immigration laws if they have the will and desire to do so.
   65. MIKE: Arresting people for reporting crimes or physical abuse is intolerable. If it’s not a crime against humanity, it should be. And the approaches taken by other law enforcement departments demonstrate to me that Whitmire and the HPD can effectively cooperate as much or as little as they want with ICE, depending on how they choose to interpret the pertinent laws.
   66. MIKE: So I think it’s fair to pose this question to Mayor Whitmire: How enthusiastic a collaborator do you wish to be when confronted with unjust and possibly illegal orders?
   67. MIKE: It’s a really tough question to answer when you’re in the crosshairs but, Mayor Whitmire, if you’ve chosen to be a public official, you have to make those tough decisions.
4. In petulant presidential child news, from the WASHINGTONPOST-dot-COM — The Kennedy Center Honors will continue during closure — with a new name; By Travis M. Andrews | WASHINGTONPOST.COM | February 27, 2026 at 10:27 a.m. EST. TAGS: The Kennedy Center, President Donald Trump, The Kennedy Center Honors,
   1. The Kennedy Center may be closing for two years, but its marquee awards show will continue, with a new name.
   2. [It] will now be called the “Trump Kennedy Center Honors.” The event will be held at an alternative venue, according to Richard Grenell, the center’s president. …
   3. News of the awards show continuation and name change was first reported by WTOP. A spokesperson for the Kennedy Center confirmed its plans to The Washington Post. …
   4. The Kennedy Center Honors were created in 1978. The idea is simple: Each year, the center honors five artists across various genres for their lasting contributing of the arts. The first class of honorees were Marian Anderson, Fred Astaire, George Balanchine, Richard Rodgers and Arthur Rubinstein. Since then, artists as far-ranging as Leonard Bernstein to George Clooney to Bette Davis to Herbie Hancock to the Grateful Dead have received it.
   5. The Honors events traditionally spanned a weekend … . It all culminated in a star-studded ceremony in the Kennedy Center’s Opera House …
   6. The president traditionally attended the ceremony … Trump famously bucked presidential tradition by not attending the Honors ceremony throughout his first term. In his second, however, he showed far greater interest in both the center and its marquee ceremony.
   7. After remaking the board of trustees, which subsequently made him chairman, Trump announced that he would buck a different Honors tradition by naming himself as the ceremony’s host. He later said he was “98 percent involved” in picking the talent, an anomalous activity for the president of the United States.
   8. The 2025 honorees were more or less in keeping with previous years — Gloria Gaynor, Sylvester Stallone, Michael Crawford, George Strait and Kiss. The primary difference was that [Trump said when he revealed the lineup in August,] “[They] all went through me. … I had a couple of wokesters. Now, we have great people.”
   9. The medallions that the honorees received were also different. The ones created by Ivan Chermayeff and made for nearly 50 years by a D.C.-area family were redesigned by Tiffany & Company.
   10. The 2025 Honors themselves boasted a much smaller roster of A-list Hollywood names than previous years, and the ratings dropped by 25 percent year-over-year, making it the least-watched Honors ceremony in history.
   11. Grenell told WTOP that the location of this year’s ceremony is “is yet to be determined, we’re already looking for different places.”
   12. MIKE: This is just another example of Trump’s insatiable need for self-aggrandizement. Does anyone doubt that if he could, Trump would rename this country something like The Trump United States of America? And then he would demand payment from the US Treasury for the naming rights?
   13. MIKE: Trump inexplicably has his supporters in this country. But he may also be the most hated American in the history the world.
   14. MIKE: A year ago, inspired by the compact meaning of the German word, “schadenfreude”, I made up a new word: “Landscham”.
   15. MIKE: My intended meaning is literally, “country shame or “nation shame”.
   16. MIKE: A possible usage would be, “I feel landscham for America.”
   17. MIKE: I keep up the mantra, “This too shall pass.” (Fingers crossed.)
5. This next story is an opinion piece written in first person, so I’ll be reading it that way. I think it’s useful to point out that Native health issues on reservations and rural health issues in rural America are not that different. In fact, rural and Native Americans should be aware of the convergences in their concerns and join together more often to amplify their political power and collective political cohesion. From NATIVENEWSONLINE-dot-NET — Guest Opinion: Why Redefining Public Health Degrees Would Harm Native and Rural Communities; By Donald Warne, MD, MPH | NATIVENEWSONLINE.NET | February 26, 2026. TAGS: Indian Health, Yahoo News, U.S. Department of Education, National Academy of Medicine, Public Health, Professional Degree Programs, Tribal Communities, Rural Communities,
   1. A proposed federal policy change could have profound health consequences — especially for Tribal and rural communities. The proposal from the U.S. Department of Education, which is open for public commentuntil March 2nd, would exclude public health and nursing from a new definition of “professional degree programs,” and could potentially affect eligibility for scholarships and financial aid. 
   2. As a physician, elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, public health leader, and Oglala Lakota community member from Pine Ridge, South Dakota, I am alarmed by what is at stake. 
   3. Public health is arguably one of the most impactful professions. The greatest gains in life expectancy over the past century are largely due to public health advances — clean water, vaccination, tobacco control, [and] maternal and child health — not medical care alone. To redefine these degrees in a way that diminishes their professional standing ignores their historic and present-day impact. 
   4. Especially concerning is the how the “professional” designation, and its implications for federal loan eligibility, impacts students. If public health and nursing lose that status, middle- and lower-income students will lose access to the funding that makes a graduate degree possible.  
   5. As is so often the case, the burden of this change would not fall evenly. Rural communities already suffer from too few trained public health and nursing professionals. This workforce gap will increase if this policy passes, and result in greater medical costs for rural states and regions. When people have to use emergency rooms for care for illness and injury that could have been prevented by upstream public health measures, it drives greater economic, social, and human capital costs to society. 
   6. My Indigenous students often come to public health organically: they’ve seen programs for diabetes, vaccination, mental health, [and] smoking reduction that improve quality of life for their families and relatives. The [urgent need] became disastrously clear during the COVID-19 pandemic. They are motivated to pursue higher education because it will help them best serve their communities, which face some of the nation’s highest rates of chronic disease and preventable mortality.  
   7. Workforce demographics are not symbolic — they directly affect quality of care. When health professionals share cultural understanding and lived experience with those they serve, the improved trust and communication results in better outcomes. In Indian Country, where health disparities are rooted in generations of underinvestment and structural inequity, we cannot afford to weaken the pathway for developing Indigenous public health leaders. 
   8. This issue is personal for me. My mother was a public health nurse who dedicated her life to caring for our community. Watching her work showed me that public health is both a calling and a career. But a calling alone does not pay tuition. If mission-driven students cannot afford the education required to improve health outcomes, our workforce will become even more fragile and unsustainable. 
   9. I’ve dedicated over 10 years to developing the world’s first Indigenous-focused Doctor of Public Health program because we need trained public health leaders who are accountable first and foremost to their communities. Policies that reduce financial access move us in the wrong direction. 
   10. As policymakers consider this change, I would ask: What is the benefit? I have not seen a clear justification. If the goal is to save money, this approach is shortsighted — student loans get repaid, and investing in public health professionals yields measurable returns through stronger communities, reduced downstream health costs, and lives saved. What I do see is risk — to workforce development, to health equity, to affordable health care — and all of these risks would be borne disproportionately by Native and other rural communities. 
   11. At a time when Tribal and rural health systems are already stretched thin, we should be strengthening — not restricting — the pathways into public health. I urge the Department of Education to revisit this proposal, and I call on lawmakers to hold them accountable to that end. Our communities depend on it. 
   12. MIKE: Again, that piece was written in the first person, so that’s how I read it. I came across this commentary in NATIVENEWSONLINE-dot-NET, which, as the name implies, concerns itself mainly with issues and people that primarily affect “Indian Country”. But the author, Dr. Warne, makes two points which struck me.
   13. MIKE: First, as the author states repeatedly, this isn’t just an “Indian Country” issue. It affects both Native Americans and any American living in a rural area with limited public health resources.
   14. MIKE: Second, Dr. Warne puts his finger on one of the most important points: What is the public health objective or benefit of downgrading public health job training from “professional degree programs” and potentially affecting eligibility for scholarships and financial aid?
   15. MIKE: Dr. Warne discusses the practical effects of exclusion in terms of social and economic advancement that may be denied to career applicants, and that’s certainly important. He also discusses the downstream effects these new exclusions would have on public health. But the “why” of this policy change is what begs for examination.
   16. MIKE: During the first Trump term and during this one, a line of policy continuity always stands out. Whatever the policy, the cruelty is almost always the point.
   17. MIKE: If you approach any otherwise inexplicable or pointless Trumpist policy from that perspective, if there is any sort of cruelty that can be targeted mostly at some group that Trumpists and collaborationist Republicans consider to be “lesser” and thereby do them some injury, that is sometimes the closest one can get to seeing a reason for a policy.
   18. MIKE: Republicans at any level of government who aid and abet the enactment of these policies — whether from genuine agreement or out of fear of retribution — are as guilty of the inherent cruelty as the Trumpist apparatchiks who design these policies.
   19. MIKE: At some point, our national honor requires a legal accounting of these individuals and their enablers.
   20. MIKE: But the other part of this piece that caught my attention was that while this article is published on a site aimed at the concerns of Native Americans, the point is made that this policy change wouldn’t impact only Native Americans.
   21. MIKE: In a sense, Dr. Warne is falling into a thought trap, perhaps because of the reading audience he’s targeting.
   22. MIKE: There are policymakers who hate social safety nets and social programs like free education, whether out of ideology or from a lack of empathy for their fellow humans.
   23. MIKE: In order to enable their nihilistic policies, it’s in their interest to divide groups and communities with common interests and concerns into competing political or social segments. By inhibiting political cohesion of these groups, the political power that these factions may wield is diluted, and thus made less effective.
   24. MIKE: I don’t know where else Dr. Warne may have submitted his opinion piece, but I hope he also submitted it to media with a wider audience, because the concerns he expresses have much broader implications to public health as a whole, which he himself points out.
   25. MIKE: Conservatives have typically enacted or proposed policies that basically punish the poor, disenfranchised or marginalized for being poor, disenfranchised or marginalized. They often love to use the phrase, “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps”, which upon a simple cursory examination is a nonsense phrase, as is explained in the brief video link I’m providing in this show post at ThinkwingRadio-dot-com.
   26. MIKE: When taken literally, it’s an impossible task. When taken literally, it’s an impossible task. You’d have to lift yourself off the floor with both feet.
   27. MIKE: We all need help in our lives in order to succeed. Some of that help is less obvious. The good fortune of finding a mentor can be considered an “intangible” that may not seem transformative to those who insist on seeing themselves as “self-made”, but it is.
   28. MIKE: On the other hand, securing an education with the help of a low-interest or no-interest loan may be seen by some on the Right as a “government handout” being subsidized by the so-called “makers” in our society for the benefit of the so-called “takers”.
   29. MIKE: I’m going to digress in this discussion with a lesson on the origin of the concept of the political Right versus the political Left.
   30. MIKE: As is explained in an old TIME article: “The story begins in France, in the summer of 1789 …. The National Assembly assembled to act as the revolution’s government [and] had a principal goal: writing a new constitution.
   31. TIME: One of the main issues … was how much power the king should have … . Would he have the right to an absolute veto?
   32. TIME: As the debate continued, those who thought the king should have an absolute veto sat on the right of the president of the assembly, and those who thought he should not — the more radical view — sat on the left of the president of the assembly. In other words, those who wanted to hew closer to tradition were on the right, and those who wanted more change were on the left.
   33. TIME: “So these groupings became known as the left and the right, and that’s where we trace the origins.” … End of excerpt.
   34. MIKE: So Left and Right can be relative to the circumstances. But from the example of the French Revolution (and in general in the US and the West) the Right — the Conservatives — favors their version of “Law & Order”: greater State power and maintaining the status quo.
   35. MIKE: The Left tends to favor political and social evolution, and providing for the needs of the people and society at large to aid them in making a better life … Or at least, not standing in their way.
   36. MIKE: So it’s useful to remember the origins of these terms and what they tend to mean in historical practice.
   37. MIKE: The lesson I’ve drawn from history is that the rich in a society should advocate for social safety nets as a form of life and property insurance. In other words, as a deterrent to social unrest that can literally endanger them and their families.
   38. MIKE: Because as a coda to this story, the French Revolution devolved into the Reign of Terror, and in just 20 years, after all that, France had itself a new emperor and some new wars.
   39. MIKE: Revolutions are unpredictable, and they lead to violence and chaos before any good comes from them, and often they result in something worse than what they overthrew.
   40. MIKE: Okay … History lesson over for now. But back to Dr. Warne’s point, this new proposal to downgrade public health careers for no obvious constructive reason is just another example of a Rightwing government derogating government policies that aid working people and their dependents. Because after all, isn’t it their fault that they’re not rich?
6. Now from THEGUARDIAN-dot-COM — Workers decry Whirlpool offshoring jobs despite praise for Trump’s tariffs; By Michael Sainato | THEGUARDIAN.COM | Thu 26 Feb 2026 @ 06.00 EST. TAGS: Trump Tariffs, Ohio, Tariffs, US Unions, Whirlpool Corporation, Manufacturing Sector, News,
   1. Workers at Whirlpool, the US’s largest appliance manufacturer and a champion of Donald Trump’s tariff policies, are criticizing the company for cutting jobs at an Iowa plant while bolstering production in Mexico.
   2. The job cuts at Whirlpool come as the company has continued to support the Trump administration’s trade policies and claimed they will help bolster US manufacturing. Trump’s trade policies appear to have done little for US manufacturing so far. The US has lost 83,000 factory jobs since Trump took office in January 2025.
   3. Effective 9 March, 341 jobs are being cut at the Whirlpool plant in Amana, Iowa. The cuts come less than a year after 250 jobs were cut in July 2025. According to International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union (IAM) officials, the company has informed them that more cuts are on the way later this year. The plant produces refrigerators under the Whirlpool, KitchenAid, Maytag and Amana brands.
   4. Whirlpool opened a new manufacturing facility in Mexico in August 2025, and union officials and workers say their manufacturing work and jobs have been moved there.
   5. Sandra Freytag, the first shift plant chair who has worked at the plant for 31 years, told the Guardian that Whirlpool began cutting production lines from the plant and moving those to Mexico several years ago.
   6. [Said Freytag,] “Now we’re seeing that they’re making our product in Mexico.”
   7. She said the number of workers at the plant had declined from nearly 3,000 just a few years ago to close to 1,300, and that she believed more cuts were likely. Whirlpool has about 20,000 employees in the US, with 14,000 in manufacturing at 10 factories.
   8. [Freytag added,] “We’re not seeing a ton of parts or new opportunities or changes in their platforms that might support all of us staying in the factory, or even staying open long term. … Whirlpool is the only big facility around this area. So [there are] about seven small towns that it’s going to devastate when those people lose their jobs, and if we lose any more, I don’t know that we’ll have small towns left in that area.”
   9. During Trump’s first term, Whirlpool sought and received tariffs on imported washing machines — their competitors — calling it a win “for American workers and consumers alike.” In 2020 Trump gave a speech at a Whirlpool plant in Ohio, calling the company a “shining example” of the “buy American and hire American” policies his administration was pursuing.
   10. According to the conservative Heritage thinktank, the tariffs drove up prices of the appliances, costing consumers $1.5bn annually and decreasing demand.
   11. Whirlpool touted Trump’s tariffs in 2025 as part of a $300m investment in Ohio and the creation of 400 to 600 jobs. Whirlpool claims 80% of its US sales are produced in the US.
   12. [In October 2025, CEO Marc Bitzer told Fox News of the investment, one of several comments the CEO made on the outlet touting tariffs in 2025,] “We would either have scaled down, made it later, or hesitated. … We’re strongly supportive of tariff policy and very thankful.”
   13. Whirlpool noted in its most recent earnings call in January 2026 that tariffs cost them $300m in 2025.
   14. Sam Cicinelli, the midwest territory general vice-president for [the IAM union], criticized Whirlpool for the layoffs after the company received millions of dollars in subsidies and tax credits in Iowa.
   15. He explained when the union was informed [of the recent job cuts] by Whirlpool: “the company also warned us that they’re going to be making even more cuts that are on the way at the end of the second quarter. This is not a one-time, one-off business decision on their part. It shows it’s a deliberate pattern of corporate abandonment.”
   16. He claimed Whirlpool had a history of laying off workers in Iowa in search for cheaper labor.
   17. Cicinelli called the layoffs “an absolute slap in the face to every American worker in this country”.
   18. Trump appeared at a Whirlpool factory in Ohio in August 2020 where he promoted the United States Mexico Canada agreement (USMCA), which he signed in 2018.
   19. Cicinelli added on Whirlpool’s job cuts: “It goes against the USMCA agreement. We should be pumping more resources into the United States. The USMCA was sold to us as the new and improved Nafta, supposed to protect these good-paying jobs, and yet this definitely tells a different story.”
   20. Kerry Waddell, who worked at the Whirlpool plant in Iowa for 36 years before currently serving as a business agent for the union, said Whirlpool workers affected by the cuts currently have no severance agreement, lose their health insurance the day they are laid off, and face reduced unemployment benefits, as Iowa cut unemployment benefit eligibility in 2022 to 16 weeks.
   21. Waddell claimed that employees had been provided with very little information on the cuts and the reasoning behind them.
   22. [Said Waddell,] “We have tremendous capacity to produce and manufacture in that facility. We’ve got a large employee base in the area for them to draw on to do that work that they’ve chosen not to. … What they’re actually doing is taking jobs out of Iowa, moving them to Mexico, and those very refrigerators are being brought back into the US for sale.”
   23. After the US Supreme Court struck down most of the Trump administration’s tariffs, Whirlpool claimed the remaining tariffs on steel and Trump’s 10% global tariff announced after the decision, would grant them a competitive edge.
   24. But workers at the Whirlpool plant in Amana, Iowa, noted that the tariffs are not preventing the company from continuing to cut jobs at the plant and move their work to Mexico.
   25. [Said Sandy Lorenz, third shift plant chair who has worked at the plant for 33 years,] “Being there over 30 years, I’ve grown myself with this company. I’ve devoted my life to them. I’ve raised my children there, and just thinking that I might not have a job in a year, it’s just devastating. … They could keep these products here, and they could keep these people working, but it just comes down to that they are greedy and want to make a little more money. And that’s the bottom line.”
   26. The White House did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
   27. Whirlpool did not comment on the union’s complaints about offshoring to Mexico.
   28. The company said in a statement: “Our recent announcement is part of a multi-year modernization plan that will transform the plant into a dynamic operation that will continue to produce best-in-class refrigerators, while also incorporating warehousing, parts production and sub-assembly work. This transformation is necessary to position the Amana plant for continued stability and success. We are committed to supporting affected employees through this transition.”
   29. The company emphasized its continued support for Trump’s tariff policies, [saying,] “We are confident that the US administration will continue to take strong actions to support domestic manufacturing and American workers,” [adding,] “The announcement of a new 15% global tariff under Section 122, the opening of new trade investigations and existence of previously-negotiated trade agreements gives us continued confidence that Whirlpool Corporation will ultimately benefit from trade policies aimed at leveling the playing field for US manufacturers.”
   30. MIKE: The fact that Trump lies is nothing new. He lies to his bankers. He lies to his contractors. He stiff his creditors. He lies to his friends. He lies to the country. He lies to our allies. He betrays those of whom he demands oaths of unswerving loyalty. He betrays and lies to America’s allies and friends. So it should come as no surprise that he lied to Whirlpool workers.
   31. MIKE: It is perhaps only slightly more surprising that Whirlpool lied to its workers. After all, Whirlpool just said in the last paragraph, in part, “The announcement of a new 15% global tariff under Section 122, the opening of new trade investigations and existence of previously-negotiated trade agreements gives us continued confidence that Whirlpool Corporation will ultimately benefit from trade policies …”
   32. MIKE: After all, self-interest is baked into US corporate law and business structures.
   33. MIKE: There used to be a television show called “Reaper”. I loved that show, and in one episode there was this brilliant observation by The Devil, delivered by actor Ray Wise, and played for laughs: “Did you know, beginning in the late 19th century, corporations were granted all the rights of the individual, but none of the annoying responsibilities? They lack, almost by design, any kind of moral compass, conscience, or compassion. Basically, corporations are a way to enact sociopathic behavior on a grand scale. In short, they’re what makes this country so damn great.” ~ The Devil (played by Ray Wise), TV Series “REAPER“, Episode 30 (aka, S2 E12): “Business Casualty”, Aired May 19, 2009
   34. MIKE: That line was funny precisely because it’s true. If corporations were people, they would be sociopaths, but I’ll go a step further. If their behavior seems sociopathic, it’s a reflection of the people that run them and use the baked-in sociopathy of the corporate structure to enact sociopathic policies.
   35. MIKE: In this sense, corporations are And the people that rise to those ultimate positions of corporate power are probably — perhaps demonstrably — on the sociopathy spectrum.
   36. MIKE: I believe that the US should make Canada and Mexico our highest diplomatic priorities because our national security relies on them more than almost anything else.
   37. MIKE: That being the case, US policies that enable the citizens in each of those countries to be prosperous in a peaceful society is in the US’s own best interest.
   38. MIKE: Often, that can be accomplished with win-win synergies, but that is not the case here, where Mexican workers are benefitting at the expense of American workers.
   39. MIKE: These policies may be Making Whirlpool Great Again, but only by beggaring American workers.
   40. MIKE: American workers and Americans at large should never be surprised when Trump or corporations lie, but that does nothing in this instance to excuse Whirlpool’s egregiously duplicitous and morally bankrupt corporate conduct as applied to their workers.
7. Next, from CalMatters and the Santa Monica Daily Press — No clear frontrunner for governor, but new poll names five with the best shot; By Dan Walters, CalMatters | SMDP.COM (Santa Monica Daily Press) | Published: February 27, 2026, 12:00 pm, TAGS: California Politics, Election For Governor, Open Primary, ‘Jungle’ Primary,
   1. For the last year, as the array of announced and potential candidates for governor constantly fluctuated, those who closely follow California politics have waited for the field to stabilize and for independent polling to reveal who really has a chance to win.
   2. We finally have the cast of characters — nine Democrats and two Republicans — and on Wednesday we also got a poll by the Public Policy Institute of California that divides it into five whose support ranges from 10% to 14% …
   3. However, the PPIC poll fails to reveal clear frontrunners for the two candidates who will emerge from the June primary election as rivals in the November runoff election, and its timing may cloud the picture even more. …
   4. [T]wo of the five double-digit candidates are Republicans — former television commentator Steve Hilton, who tops the field at 14%, and Riverside Sheriff Chad Bianco (12%) — even though it’s virtually impossible for a Republican to win the governorship in a face-to-face duel with a Democrat, given the party’s very weak voter registration.
   5. It does, however, fuel worries among some Democratic leaders that if all nine Democrats continue in the race, they could fragment their party’s vote so much that Hilton and Bianco could finish one-two in June, giving the state a GOP governor. It’s a remote possibility, but it’s at least theoretically possible.
   6. Katie Porter, a former member of Congress who ran for the U.S. Senate in 2024 but didn’t survive the top-two primary that year, is the PPIC poll’s highest ranked Democrat at 13%, probably reflecting the name identification she achieved in the Senate race.
   7. Congressman Eric Swalwell (11%) and billionaire Tom Steyer, who’s been saturating television and the internet with ads but garners just 10% support, round out the top five.
   8. The bottom six … divvy up 30% of voters in the PPIC poll. And 10% were unable to make a choice.
   9. With the primary election just a little over three months away and no true frontrunner — a very unusual scenario, given the state’s political history — the next phase will occur behind closed doors as the wealthy individuals, unions and other interest groups that finance Democratic politicians decide who to favor.
   10. Campaigning in California, with its many millions of voters, is a very expensive activity, and all candidates except Steyer must rely on the financiers setting up a shadow election in which a very few moneyed interests will cast the votes. …
   11. Democratic leaders who worry about the two Republicans finishing one-two in the primary also will be pressuring the five at the bottom to drop out, so that the party’s voters can coalesce around the few at the top.
   12. Simply put, it’s crunch time for the also-rans to either demonstrate their potential to climb into the upper ranks, thus getting enough money to continue the campaign, or fold their tents.  
   13. MIKE: This California primary, which has been dubbed a “Jungle Primary” but is technically called an “Open Primary”, is not non-partisan, but is what might be called “party-agnostic”.
   14. MIKE: According to Ballotpedia, California Proposition 14, dubbed the “Top-Two Primaries Amendment”, passed in June 2010 with almost 54% of voters saying ‘yes’.
   15. MIKE: It’s been claimed that this amendment was drawn up by Republicans. That makes sense to me because now that California is predominantly a Democratic stronghold, it’s easier to ‘game’ this system and sneak in a Republican winner.
   16. MIKE: In a sense, it makes backroom dealing a more prominent feature in the race, because party leaders and contributors are likely to decide who will be the best-funded candidates, and other minor candidates will be pushed to withdraw in order to clear the field.
   17. MIKE: This system might make some sense in a system with ranked choice voting, but otherwise, it seems to me to be a prescription for political manipulation and possible disaster.
   18. MIKE: This election, and what I consider the flawed system that’s running it, is especially important because of the political and economic weight of California in this country, so keep your fingers crossed.
8. As I’m writing this show, Trump’s and Netanyahu’s attacks on Iran are still an evolving story. I didn’t intend to comment on it at this time, but I ran across this next story from The Washington Post and thought it worthy of discussion [GIFTED ARTICLE, No Paywall] —Push from Saudis, Israel helped move Trump to attack Iran; By Michael Birnbaum, John Hudson, Karen DeYoung, Natalie Allison and Souad Mekhennet | WASHINGTONPOST.COM | February 28, 2026 at 7:31 p.m. EST/Today at 7:31 p.m. EST. TAGS: President Donald Trump, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei,
   1. President Donald Trump launched Saturday’s wide-ranging attack on Iran after a weeks-long lobbying effort by an unusual pair of U.S. allies in the Middle East — Israel and Saudi Arabia — according to four people familiar with the matter, as Israeli and U.S. forces teamed to topple Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei after nearly four decades in power.
   2. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman [aka, MBS] made multiple private phone calls to Trump over the past month advocating a U.S. attack, despite his public support for a diplomatic solution, the four people said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, continued his long-running public campaign for U.S. strikes against what he views as an existential enemy of his country.
   3. The combined effort helped lead Trump to order a massive aerial campaign against Iran’s leadership and military…
   4. The attack came despite U.S. intelligence assessments that Iran’s forces were unlikely to pose an immediate threat to the U.S. mainland within the next decade. Saturday’s attack on Iran was a break from decades of U.S. decision-making to hold back from a full-scale effort to depose the regime of a country of more than 90 million people. It also marked a stark shift from Trump’s own previous military forays, which until now have been far narrower in scope.
   5. Now Trump will bear the risk of the bet he has placed: that a major military operation conducted from the air can achieve political goals on the ground. …
   6. The Saudi push for an attack came as presidential envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner pursued negotiations with Iranian leaders over [Iran’s] nuclear and missile programs.
   7. As those talks proceeded, Riyadh issued a statement, following a phone call between the crown prince and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, that [MBS] would not allow Saudi airspace or territory to be used in an attack on Iran.
   8. In his discussions with U.S. officials, however, the Saudi leader warned that Iran would come away stronger and more dangerous if the United States did not strike now, after amassing the largest military presence in the Middle East since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, said the people, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive situation.
   9. [MBS’s] position was reinforced by his brother, Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman, who held closed-door meetings with U.S. officials in Washington in January and warned about the downsides of not attacking, the people said.
   10. The Saudi leader’s complicated position probably reflected his desire to avoid Iranian retaliation against his country’s vulnerable oil infrastructure, weighed against his view of Tehran as Riyadh’s ultimate foe in the region, said those familiar with his thinking. [But] Following the initial U.S. attack on Saturday, Iran did retaliate against Saudi Arabia. Riyadh issued a furious statement condemning the attack and calling on the international community to “take all necessary and decisive measures” to confront Iran.
   11. The Saudi Embassy did not respond to a request for comment.
   12. MIKE: From this point on, there is quite a lot about the various discussions, machinations, background, and arguments pro and con that led to these US and Israeli attacks. As usual, I’m linking to the story, and you can read the rest in full. I’ve gifted the article, so there should not be a paywall.
   13. MIKE: Aside from all the duplicitous intrigues revealed in these discussions, from the perspective of American law, politics, and the Constitution, these attacks by the US are extremely problematic. Initiating a military action of this scale — a war —in the absence of a direct threat to the US, in the absence of consultation with Congress and in the absence of enabling legislation from Congress, is probably illegal. On that basis alone, I’m appalled by it.
   14. MIKE: But of course, we’re dealing with the most corrupt, law-breaking government in American history, led by a man who has never paid the consequences for any of his felonious actions. It’s almost amazing that he’s yielded to any institutional barriers.
   15. MIKE: Be that as it may, the deed is done. Let’s talk about the act itself and the possible consequences.
   16. MIKE: First, I don’t know whether or how much the US consulted with our major allies on this course of action.
   17. MIKE: From the viewpoints of the US, Europe, and even most of the countries in the Middle East region, Iran has for 50 years, and for its own ideo-religious reasons, caused endless trouble in the form of conflict, bloodshed, the fomenting of civil war in nearby countries, and just general violent mischief. In that sense, many of the countries in the region may welcome this intervention.
   18. MIKE: Iran is already trying to retaliate with the forces and resources that it has available. If the government is not quickly overthrown or disabled, Iran’s proxies are likely to wreak havoc in the region, and given the chaos in our domestic security services, those proxies may successfully stage terror attacks — or maybe we should just call them retaliatory attacks — on our mainland.
   19. MIKE: It remains to be seen whether events and history will judge these attacks on Iran a brilliant, world-shaping event for the better, or they’ll just cause more war, destruction and chaos in the region and around the world.
   20. MIKE: We’ll have to see what the next week brings. 
9. There’s always more to discuss, but that’s all we have time for today.
10. You’ve been listening to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig from KPFT Houston 90.1-HD2, Galveston 89.5-HD2, and Huntsville 91.9-HD2. We are Houston’s Community radio. I hope you’ve enjoyed the show and found it interesting, and I look forward to sharing this time with you again next week. Y’all take care!