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.)

“If it sounds to you like I am alarmist, that is because I am ringing an alarm …” ~ Governor JB Pritzker famously said on August 26, 2025 (“JB Pritzker BLASTS Trump: POWERFUL SPEECH protecting Illinois’ largest city”, August 26, 2025).  Full text of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s speech at news conference on reported Trump military plan for Chicago (August 26, 2025)

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 Malaysia, Belgium, Egypt, 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. I try to fact-check myself and include the links I use to do so.

It’s the 35th week of Trump’s military occupation of Washington DC; and 24 weeks since those states’ governors deployed National Guard troops to Memphis, Tennessee and New Orleans, Louisiana, at Trump’s request, which is where they remain for now.  

The next gubernatorial election in Tennessee is in about 6 months. I really want to see how that one turns out.

LAWFARE has a frequently updated chart of where US troops are currently stationed around the US. It begins tracking from 2017 to current. The list can show in ascending or descending order, and the link is in this show post at ThinkwingRadio-dot-com.

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

1. A Special Election for City Council District C took place on April 4^th:
   1. You can get more information at HarrisVotes-dot-com.
   2. It looks like there will be a runoff between Joe Panzarella, with 33.34% of the vote and who was endorsed by the Houston Chronicle, and Nick Hellyar, who got 22.54% of the vote.
   3. Technically, because Houston runs city elections as non-partisan, none of these candidates are designated by party on the ballot.
   4. Based on unofficial tallies, it looks like there will be a runoff between Joe Panzarella and Nick Hellyar.
   5. According to the Blue Voter Guide, Joe Panzarella Fundraises on ActBlue, the Democratic Party platform. Nick Hellyar is running as a candidate associated with the Democratic Party, but he declined to label himself as progressive or moderate.
   6. I know who I’ll be voting for in the runoff election. But these results really make me wish we had ranked choice voting.
   7. I don’t know if the runoff for City Council District C will be added to the May 2^nd ballot or not. I’ll keep you posted.
   8. Early voting for the May 2^nd election starts on April 20^th, which may be too soon to put this runoff on that ballot, but we’ll see.
   9. You can get the final vote tallies at HarrisVotes-dot-com.
   10. If you’re curious, I’m providing a link in this show post to HarrisVotes where you can see an interesting breakdown of how the candidates did in early voting vs. mail-in voting vs election day voting.
   11. REFERENCE: Blue Voter Guide
2. Public Service Health Announcement – A new COVID-19 variant called “Cicada” is spreading. Here’s what to know.; By Sandra Temko | CBSNEWS.COM | April 1, 2026 / 12:07 PM EDT / CBS News, TAGS: COVID-19, Omicron Variant, Cicada COVID-19 Variant,
   3. “Cicada” is trending, but not because it’s the season for the noisy insects to appear. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization are both monitoring a COVID-19 variant called BA.3.2, which is nicknamed “Cicada.”
   4. [The BA.3.2 Cicada variant] was first identified in November 2024 and has since spread to at least 23 countries. It’s also been detected in at least 25 states in the U.S. as of February, according to the CDC. But while the variant is spreading here, it’s not the dominant strain. 
   5. [Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University, told CBS News,] “Whether it will push itself to the front of the line remains to be seen. … We’ll have to wait and see.” 
   6. … The variant is a member of the Omicron family and is highly mutated, with 70 to 75 mutations. A recent study in the journal Lancet found [that] the current COVID-19 vaccine is less effective against BA.3.2 compared to the current dominant strains, although it does provide some protection.
   7. [Dr. Schaffner said,] “These are still early days, but at the moment, the conclusion seems to be there is this capacity for this new variant to evade some of the protections we have all acquired over the years.”
   8. … Currently, the CDC is not reporting a nationwide increase in severe disease from COVID-19. Case rates, emergency visits and hospitalizations are trending downward, But state rates can vary. Massachusetts and Florida are estimated as likely having an increase in cases. 
   9. [According to CBS News medical contributor Dr. Celine Gounder, editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News,] “We haven’t seen evidence of this variant causing more severe disease or an increase in hospitalizations elsewhere.”
   10. Symptoms of COVID-19 [Cicada] include fever, cough, shortness of breath, sore throat and congestion. 
   11. The CDC says it’s important to get the current COVID vaccine if you are ages 65 and older, have never received a COVID vaccine, or are at high risk for severe illness from COVID. The high-risk group includes people younger than age 65 with a chronic medical condition like heart disease, lung disease or diabetes, as well as those who are immune-compromised. 
   12. [Schaffner advised,] “Get a dose of the vaccine towards the end of May, beginning of June, in order to provide some protection against the summer increase. … We anticipate that will happen because that’s what’s happened in the past.”
   13. MIKE: I’m going to add a little personal advice as a lay person who tries to keep up with all vaccinations.
   14. MIKE: Check periodically — maybe every six months or so — with your pharmacy, doctor, or wherever you regularly go for your vaccinations.
   15. MIKE: Recommended intervals for new vaccinations or booster shots can vary a lot depending on the specific kind of vaccination. Some are annual, some are semi-annual, and some intervals may be as long as three years or just once in a lifetime.
   16. MIKE: So instead of trying to keep track of all those intervals yourself, it’s simplest to just check where you get your shots. Preferably check every six months, but certainly at least once per year.
   17. MIKE: That’s what I do.
3. From COMMUNITYIMPACT-dot-COM — Sugar Land could change regulations for city boards and commissions; By Aubrey Howell | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 4:43 PM Mar 27, 2026 CDT/Updated 4:43 PM Mar 27, 2026 CDT. TAGS: Sugar Land, Volunteer Boards And Commissions, Regulation Changes, City Boards,
   1. Sugar Land officials are considering making some regulation changes to city boards and commissions to create a more consistent, transparent and efficient process.
   2. The city has 13 volunteer boards and commissions, including the Animal Advisory Board, Building Standards Commission, Imperial Development District, Planning and Zoning Commission, and the Sugar Land 4B Corp., according to its website.
   3. … The potential changes will help better align all boards and commissions to create a clear process for service, said City Clerk Linda Mendenhall at a March 24 City Council workshop meeting.
   4. Key changes include: Changing terms from Oct. 1-Sept. 30 to Jan. 1-Dec. 31 to align with calendar years; Proposing two-year staggered terms across all boards; Adding position numbers for all boards; Requiring acknowledgement of term limits and attendance requirements; [and] Designating certain positions as indefinite, such as employee-related appointments.
   5. Following the new proposed schedules, Mendenhall said applications would now open for available positions in September, followed by a meet and greet and interviews in October.
   6. Appointments would be made in November with oaths of office and ethics training then held at the first City Council meeting in December, she said.
   7. … City staff will refine board and commission governing documents before returning to City Council at another workshop meeting for review, Mendenhall said. The final documents will then be presented to council for approval.
   8. MIKE: I don’t live in Sugar Land, but these sorts of changes make sense to me. I thought it would be useful to help publicize them for the citizens of Sugar Land, and for any other municipalities that might find such ideas useful.
4. From CLICK2HOUSTON-dot-com — Whitmire disputes controller’s $174M deficit warning, says Houston will balance budget without raising taxes; By Paige Hubbard | CLICK2HOUSTON | Published: April 3, 2026 at 2:06 PM/Updated: April 3, 2026 at 5:21 PM. TAGS: Houston, Mayor John Whitmire, Houston Controller, Chris Hollins, Taxes,
   1. Houston Mayor John Whitmire is pushing back against City Controller Chris Hollins’ warning that the city could be facing a $174 million general fund deficit in 2026, calling the outlook overstated and insisting Houston can close any gap without raising taxes.
   2. Hollins says the city is headed for a budget shortfall this year, arguing the city’s current budget was presented as balanced while relying heavily on reserve funds and projections that didn’t materialize. He has also pointed to soaring police and fire overtime as a major driver of the deficit, saying those costs were not properly budgeted.
   3. In a statement provided to KPRC 2, Whitmire said his administration has “a solid plan to balance the budget without raising taxes,” citing the Ernst & Young efficiency study as a roadmap for cost savings.
   4. [Whitmire said,] “Based on the EY (Ernst and Young) Efficiency study, my administration is implementing efficiencies and eliminating waste, fraud and duplication, which will help reduce the shortfall.”
   5. The mayor also criticized Hollins’ absence from a recent city finance meeting, [saying,] “The controller missed this week’s finance meeting, where we began outlining the administration’s approach.”
   6. Whitmire pointed to past disagreement over taxes, saying Hollins previously claimed the city would need to raise property taxes.
   7. [Whitmire said,] “Last year, the controller said we would have to raise property taxes. … He was wrong then, and he is wrong now. We will balance the budget without raising taxes, and I look forward to working with him.”
   8. Hollins also released the following statement:
   9. “My role is to be the taxpayers’ watchdog. My office monitors the City’s finances, analyzes the numbers, and puts clear, actionable information in front of the mayor and City Council so they can make informed decisions.
   10. We are providing the information, but it is sadly not being acted upon. And the result is what we are experiencing today.
   11. We are now facing a $174 million General Fund deficit for Fiscal Year 2026 — the largest single-year drawdown of reserves in Houston’s history.
   12. This didn’t happen overnight. It happened one decision at a time.
   13. Time and time again, we have warned the mayor about the obvious consequences of his poor financial decisions, and we have highlighted the need for a real financial plan for Houston. The mayor continues to ignore these warnings, leaving Houston taxpayers on the hook.”
   14. City leaders have been grappling with budget pressures tied to rising costs, including overtime spending in public safety departments. The 2026 budget process is expected to continue in the coming months as the administration and council refine projections and identify savings.
   15. MIKE: Drawing down Houston’s financial reserves is not a good way to balance a budget. The reserves are there for a reason: Namely, to pay for unexpected expenses caused by unexpected disasters or other problems.
   16. MIKE: Let me share some personal experience.
   17. MIKE: When I took my first apartment, I came up with a tight but realistic budget. There was just one problem. There was always some unexpected expense. I found myself constantly borrowing from the next week’s or next month’s budget to pay for those unexpected expenses.
   18. MIKE: Eventually, I realized that there were always unexpected expenses, and after a little calculation, I budgeted additional money for what might be called “the predictable unknown”.
   19. MIKE: For Whitmire to balance the budget using Houston’s reserve funds is like Whitmire is saying that there will be no “predictable unknowns” on his watch, and that’s just foolhardy.
   20. MIKE: A smart budget shouldn’t be balanced by drawing down reserves. A smart budget should, when necessary, be replenishing reserves.
   21. MIKE: Mayor Whitmire says that he can balance the city’s budget without raising taxes. I have no doubt that’s true. It all comes down to what he’s willing to cut or what regressive fees he’s willing to impose.
   22. MIKE: As I often say, you get the government you pay for.
5. From TEXASTRIBUN-dot-ORG — White Texans, students previously in private school or home-school make up bulk of voucher applicants; by Jaden Edison | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | April 1, 2026, 9:00 a.m. Central. TAGS: Texas, School Vouchers, Texas Comptroller’s Office,
   1. Most of Texas’ school voucher applications come from white families and children who previously attended a private school or home-school.
   2. The Texas comptroller’s office, which manages the program, released preliminary data before applications for families interested in vouchers closed Tuesday night. The program will allow them to use taxpayer funds to pay for private school or home-schooling costs.
   3. Of the 256,700 Texans who applied as of late March, 45% are white, 23% are Hispanic and 11% are Black. Low-income families make up 36% of applicants — defined as a family of four earning $66,000 or less per year.
   4. For comparison, 24% of Texas public school students are white, 54% are Hispanic and 13% are Black. About 60% of public school students are considered low-income — defined as a family of four earning $61,050 or less annually.
   5. In addition, about 73% of applicants attended a private school or home-school during the 2024-25 academic year. The comptroller did not provide data on students’ current enrollment.
   6. The state is expected to release final data this week. 
   7. [Carrie Griffith, executive director of Our Schools Our Democracy, a public education advocacy group, said in a statement,] “It’s not surprising that a state as big as Texas has more voucher applicants than other smaller states, especially with such a large marketing budget. … It’s also not surprising that so few public school families have applied for a private school voucher.”
   8. Griffith added, “Public schools deliver special education services, provide transportation, support extracurriculars, keep kids safe, and prepare them for life. They are one of Texas’s most effective, unifying public institutions. And the data remains undeniable: Most Texans want strong, fully funded public schools — not vouchers.”
   9. Most participating families with children in private schools will receive about $10,500 annually. Home-schoolers can receive up to $2,000 per year. Children with disabilities qualify for up to $30,000 — an amount based on what it would cost to educate that child in a public school.
   10. In other states with voucher programs structured like Texas’, white families with children previously in private school make up the majority of participants.
   11. Top of Form
   12. Bottom of Form
   13. Travis Pillow, a spokesperson for the comptroller, said Texas anticipates having only enough funding for children with disabilities and students from low- and middle-income families. Program participants, Pillow believes, will look different than the pool of applicants.
   14. [Pillow said,] “We are working on a detailed report that captures all our outreach efforts for year 1, but we know there’s going to be more work to do to get the word out in year 2 and beyond. … We’ll be looking for opportunities to reach more families we didn’t reach in year 1 and for ways to build trust in this new program.”
   15. Demand for the program exceeds $1 billion in available funding, which means the state will conduct a lottery to determine who can receive vouchers. The state will consider, in order of priority:
   16. Students with disabilities and their siblings in families with an annual income at or below 500% of the federal poverty level, which includes a four-person household earning less than roughly $165,000 a year (12% of applicants);
   17. Families at or below 200% of the poverty level, which includes a four-person household earning less than roughly $66,000 (31% of applicants);
   18. Families between 200% and 500% of the poverty level (30% of applicants);
   19. [And] Families at or above 500% of the poverty level (22% of applicants); these families can receive up to $200 million of the program’s total budget. Children who attended public school for at least 90% of the prior school year will receive priority within this group (5% of applicants).
   20. Families must still find private schools — which are generally not required to accommodate students with disabilities, [and] who make up 14% of applicants — to accept their children. That will ultimately determine who receives voucher funding.
   21. Parents must have their children enrolled in a school by July 15. Later this month, families will begin finding out if they can receive voucher funding.
   22. MIKE: That “White Texans, students previously in private school or home-school make up bulk of voucher applicants” is no surprise. It’s a feature, not a bug.
   23. MIKE: Rightwing Texas Republicans have ruled the state of Texas for nearly 30 years. That has given them the time and power to incrementally make Texas over in their image.
   24. MIKE: Among their missions has been systematically starving government services of tax revenue; controlling the taxing authority and budget choices of county and city governments; flattening tax regimes and making them maximally regressive to favor the wealthy and well-to-do over the struggling middle and working classes; and of course, starving public education to favor private schools and home-school families.
   25. MIKE: Parents have a right to seek the best possible education for their kids. That education should be available in their local public school system. That it often is not, is due to a mixture of Texas Republican policies and preferences.
6. But rather than go on a personal rant now, I’m going to read an article from The Texas Observer from February 4, 2025 that I think is extremely relevant to the previous story — The ‘Texas Three-Step’: Defund, Demonize, and Privatize Public Schools; by Chloe Latham Sikes | TEXASOBSERVER.ORG | February 4, 2025, 7:37 AM, CST. TAGS: 89th Legislative Session, Public Education, School Vouchers,
   1. Texas state lawmakers have gaveled in and started stepping to the tune of well-funded efforts to pass private school vouchers and undercut public schools. It’s a tired tune that state leaders sang throughout 2023’s lengthy legislative season, though it lacked the backup vocals of thousands of Texas families. Now, with a chorus of new legislators in office, the volume is a bit louder under the dome, but lawmakers still risk stepping on millions of public school students and their families. State leaders and many lawmakers have frolicked with billionaires in what we at the Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) call the “Texas Three-Step” to defund, demonize, and privatize public schools. 
   2. The dance goes like this.
   3. Step one: Withhold much-needed public school funding for students and teachers. Through a regular session and four special sessions in 2023, lawmakers failed to pass additional public school funding. Now, school districts are left with budget shortfalls due to federal COVID-19 relief dollars drying up, unfunded state mandates, and fluctuating enrollment which results in less funding.
   4. Step two: Pass policies that restrict students’ access to enriching curricula and impose unfunded mandates, while characterizing public schools as “failing.”
   5. [MIKE: Yes, the standard Republican policy is to break it and then claim that government can’t do it. Continuing …]
   6. Over the past 15 years, lawmakers cut giant holes in education budgets (from which we still haven’t recovered), reduced the rigor of college readiness coursework that students needed to graduate, and passed censorship policies that restrict students’ reading and learning opportunities. 
   7. Step three: Make deals with well-funded special interest groups to divert public education dollars to private institutions without public oversight and against public outcry. Hundreds of parents, grandparents, students, and other community members showed up to testify in front of lawmakers against private school vouchers throughout the 2023 legislative sessions …
   8. About 90 percent of Texas students attend public schools. Private school vouchers in other states often go to students who already attended private schools, meaning they become subsidies for families who had already decided to pay for private school, at the expense of public schools that must serve all students. For example, in Arkansas, 95 percent of voucher recipients never attended public school before receiving a voucher.
   9. After Florida expanded its voucher program in 2023, only 13 percent of new participants had previously attended a public school, and 44 percent of new participants came from families that earned more than $120,000 for a household of four or did not submit income.
   10. … Senate Bill 2, [which passed and was signed into law on May 3, 2025,] is considered a universal voucher program, meaning any school-age child is eligible whether they are already in private or home school, in public school, or entering school for the first time. By the state’s own estimate, most current students projected to participate in the proposed voucher program will have already been in private or home school.
   11. [MIKE: So by definition, most of the students who are, or will be, benefiting from the voucher program come from families that can already afford their private schooling. So the voucher money will basically be funds that could have gone to Texas public schools. When I continue, this next part should make most of you really angry: ]
   12. This Texas three-step is a clumsy dance that’s especially out of step for students with disabilities, Black and Latino students, students from households with low incomes, and students of diverse gender identities who experience a lack of educational protections and increased discrimination in these programs, according to national research.
   13. Multiple studies on voucher programs across several states further show they are ineffective in increasing students’ academic outcomes. Private schools have no publicly elected boards and no state accountability for academic or financial performance, and parents have less access to what is taught or how students are treated in their classrooms. That means vouchers use public money to fund less transparent and less effective educational options.
   14. A 2020 study by EdWeek Research Center found that private school voucher programs across 29 states rarely required transparent reporting on student achievement or graduation rates, or information as basic as teachers’ education qualifications. Most of the programs allowed private schools to discriminate against students’ religious and gender identities for admission.
   15. [MIKE: Again, this is a Republican strategic feature, not a bug. Continuing …]
   16. Only five of the 29 states required private schools benefiting from the voucher program to admit students with disabilities. Overall, the programs obscured transparency, reduced accountability, and permitted discrimination.
   17. (Texas’ SB 2 is no different: The bill does not include clear reporting requirements for voucher participants’ learning progress, and only includes self-reported data from graduated students on college, career, or military readiness metrics; no provisions guarantee acceptance into the program, or private schools for students with disabilities; and schools or other education providers have full autonomy to discriminate against students and families based broadly on their “religious or institutional values.”)
   18. Most Texas families don’t dance the Three-Step because we know that our public schools matter to our communities and our students. Texans know that giving public money to private schools and companies with no oversight, no accountability, and no student and parental protections for educational services is more about profit than parental control.
   19. Parents and students in public schools should be empowered to be active collaborators in their school communities, and state leaders can support them through increasing public school funding, supporting positive school climates through rigorous courses and materials, and supporting the teacher workforce through fair compensation, trainings, and in-school support.
   20. Texas lawmakers are three-stepping with billionaires and special interest groups, but it’s the 5.6 million students in public schools and their families in every corner of the state who will foot the bill.
   21. MIKE: These voucher programs are designed and intended to support very affluent families who want educations for their children that can discriminate based on race, religion, and other reasons at their discretion.
   22. MIKE: Texas is a so-called “Right To Work” state. In practice, that means that employment is “at will”, and you can be terminated for any reason at all. Now, in an analogy, Texas and other voucher states have become the equivalent of “Right To Educate” states, which in practice means that the state supports schools that can discriminate ‘at will’; schools that are religion or ideology-based; schools that are more often than not, elitist; schools that fail in the mission of creating a cohesive and tolerant American public; and in the process of all this, the state starves public schools that cannot discriminate, and that also serve as a culturally unifying force in this country.
   23. MIKE: One of the side-effects of these policies — probably an intentional one — is what amounts to a state funding of “white flight” from public schools, while simultaneously taking funds from public schools and sending that money to private schools. Money that could improve the quality of public education, and that could provide superior education to ALL students, as is their right as US citizens.
   24. MIKE: In short, publicly funded private school vouchers are un-American in just about every way you can think of.
7. And speaking of Rightwing attacks on education, from 404MEDIA.CO — ‘BLOCKADE’: The Right Is Using AI Content Scanners to Try to Supercharge Book Banning; By Claire Woodcock | 404MEDIA.CO | Apr 1, 2026 at 9:00 AM. TAGS: Book Banning, Conservative Advocacy Groups, Artificial Intelligence (AI),
   1. Conservative parents’ advocacy groups have been experimenting with using commercially available artificial intelligence tools to help them flag more books they’ve deemed pornographic to be removed from public schools and libraries. Even though LLMs are notoriously error-prone, and the books in question aren’t pornographic, these groups continue to explore use cases for AI anyway. 
   2. One such experiment indicates a desire to accelerate content production of book reviews for conservative book-rating sites. BLOCKADE, which stands for “Blocking Lustful Overzealous Content, Keeping Away Depravity and Extremism,” relies on xAI or OpenAI API keys to generate book reports from PDF [and/or] ePUB files, basing the analysis on a set of parameters that are publicly available through the creator’s Github page. 
   3. The program’s script includes a list of roughly 300 words, each assigned a severity score that contributes to an overall appropriateness score based on their own metrics. The script explicitly defines “educational inappropriateness” as “content offensive to conservative values,” while also asking the AI “not to include any additional text or explanation” for its decisions. 
   4. [Jeremy Blackburn, associate professor of computer science and director of the Institute for AI and Society at Binghamton University, told 404 Media,] “If you want to classify content in this kind of context, maybe toxicity with offensive content, troublesome content — whoever it is it finds troublesome — asking for an explanation is super useful.” …
   5. Blackburn notes that there’s a lot of control relinquished to a chatbot as to what the definition of pornography or conservative values is. The definition is whatever the AI model has defined it as. 
   6. [Professor Blackburn added,] “There’s just a lot of responsibility being abdicated. … [if] you’re abdicating the responsibility with this kind of [unsophisticated] prompting strategy with no real thought into how to evaluate what comes out of these models.”
   7. Intellectual freedom advocates are alarmed by the frequency [with] which censors rely on AI to help them determine what books to remove from public spaces. When BLOCKADE is finished interpreting conservative values to mean whatever xAI or OpenAI’s LLMs say they mean, it builds a risk profile for the book that the user can then export as a PDF that looks a lot like the book reviews organizations like Moms for Liberty popularized before AI chatbots were on the market. The format has inspired numerous copycats from organizations that take the idea a step further, using heat maps to monitor books they don’t like that remain available in school libraries by aggregating data by state, district, school building and the number of books in circulation. In other instances, activists use social media channels to highlight their experiments with using AI chatbots to challenge passages for possible violations of state laws. 
   8. In every case, these reviews are designed to be submitted as attachments to formal book challenges to districts, fueling the removal of totally normal books from schools nationwide, and shouldn’t be confused with those from publishing industry professionals. They also disproportionately target titles that feature historically underrepresented — and often misrepresented — characters and voices that grapple with big ideas like consent, prejudice and free will, which are important issues for young people to reckon with. Often, these reviews are used to justify formal challenges to their availability in school classrooms and libraries and as a tool to falsely accuse school staff of egregious misconduct. Increasingly, these reviews are—to some extent—informed by AI outputs.  …
   9. MIKE: This story is quite a bit longer. It goes into reasons, objections, free speech questions, etc. You can read the full article by clicking on the article link I provide in this show post at ThinkWingRadio-dot-com.
   10. MIKE: But the overwhelming feeling I came away with after reading this was, “Wow! What a bunch of fragile snowflakes!”
   11. MIKE: These people are dedicating a huge amount of effort, money, and time to keep their precious little feelings from getting hurt. They’re also ultimately not doing their children any favors by shielding them from the wider world they’ll be growing up in.
   12. MIKE: Most of these children will grow up into adults just like their parents: Irrationally fearful of people unlike themselves, living in a state of constantly anxious fragility as they navigate a world outside of their religious conservative bubble. Assuming of course that they ever actually explore outside the bubble.
   13. MIKE: Perhaps we should require that the books they successfully ban be burned in a public bonfire. Do you think that symbolism would ignite more resistance to these figurative book burners (pun intended)? I’d be interested in your thoughts.
8. In war news, from EURASIANTIMES-dot-COM — 11 MQ-9 Reapers Downed in Iran in Under 2 Weeks: U.S. Officials Confirm Heavy Losses—What’s Going Wrong?; By Sakshi Tiwari | EURASIANTIMES.COM | March 15, 2026. TAGS: US Air Force (USAF), Operation Epic Fury, MQ-9 Reaper Drones,
   1. A pioneer for the US Air Force (USAF) and US special forces for nearly two decades, the MQ-9 has been in a rough patch over the past two years, including the ongoing war in Iran.
   2. Since the USA, along with Israel, launched “Operation Epic Fury” against Iran on February 28, the MQ-9 has been at the forefront of conducting ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) and strike missions on Iranian military targets.
   3. Recently, a video showing the footage of an MQ-9 Reaper unleashing a Hellfire missile at a ballistic missile launcher near Shiraz, southern Iran, as it was preparing to fire, was shared widely on social media.
   4. Interestingly, several videos showing the destruction of military assets inside Iran … have reportedly been recorded by the Reaper.
   5. These videos show precision strikes on ground targets, including mobile launchers, aircraft, and other critical infrastructure, often recorded by the drone’s infrared or electro-optical cameras.
   6. Nonetheless, … in just two weeks of the conflict, Iran (as well as regional militias …) has managed to down nearly a dozen of these unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), virtually making the battlefield a graveyard of Reapers.
   7. Citing two US officials, CBS News reported that 11 MQ-9 Reapers had been downed by Iranian forces in the conflict by March 9, 2026. [The] Air and Space Forces Magazine stated that the US has lost 10 drones so far.
   8. According to reports, Reapers have been instrumental in reducing the rate of Iranian attacks and are considered a critical part of the kill chain since they enable coordinated precision strikes on Iranian targets and enhance the survivability of manned fighters.
   9. Nonetheless, the loss of 11 drones in less than two weeks is likely to be a major blow to the USAF, particularly because each drone costs about $16 to $30 million. This calculation becomes much worse when Reaper losses to Houthi fire are calculated.
   10. Earlier, the Yemen-based militia claimed to have downed 15 to 20 MQ-9 Reaper drones during the US military campaign between 2023 and 2025. According to reports, at least seven drones were lost between March 15 and April 23, 2025.
   11. The rampant Reaper shoot-downs highlight the vulnerabilities of these drones, such as their slow speed, large radar cross-section, and reliance on beyond-line-of-sight communications, in high-threat environments such as those in Iran. [Some argue] that their use in counter-terrorism operations is very different from their use on a modern battlefield saturated with a range of legacy and modern air defence systems.
   12. Iran’s layered defences, which combine [both Russian and Iran-produced] systems … remain operational despite heavy initial strikes by the US and Israel.
   13. Moreover, mobile air defence is difficult to fully suppress, allowing them to exploit the Reaper’s slow, non-stealthy profile.
   14. According to some unverified reports, which EurAsian Times is trying to confirm, at least one of these losses involved a “total link failure” in the Reaper, attributed to Iranian Electronic Warfare (EW) units using high-power GPS spoofing or jamming to disrupt the satellite command link.
   15. Notably, some other claims swirling on social media state that Iran has been deploying a unique loitering, self-targeting surface-to-air missile called the “358” missile to intercept US MQ-9 Reaper drones.
   16. However, [these] are unverified reports, and more information could emerge when the war is over.
   17. [MIKE: I had questions about a surface-to-air (or SAM) missile being described as “loitering”. From some quick research, it might be more accurate to describe it as “mobile”. I’m linking to a story from 2022 that discussed this air defense weapon. The good news, for what it’s worth, is that the US has obtained 5 of these missiles in a nearly complete state as well as components. So the US is in a position to learn its weaknesses, as well as reverse-engineering it for American military use. Continuing …]
   18. Although experts believe that the use of the Reapers has ensured that manned US fighters are not downed inside enemy territory, the mounting losses of MQ-9 Reapers demonstrate Iran’s capability to neutralise aerial threats, meaning that complete air superiority has not really been achieved.
   19. On its part, the US CENTCOM has confirmed that MQ-9 Reapers are operating as part of Operation Epic Fury, but it has refused to divulge any information on losses or the role assigned to these unmanned systems.
   20. In addition to the MQ-9 Reaper, the IRGC (Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps) has claimed the downing of 104 drones, including Hermes, Heron, and Orbiter. According to the IRGC, at least one of the Israeli Hermes drones shot down was captured intact.
   21. [MIKE: Mr. Spock once said, “Military secrets are the most fleeting of all.” The Iranians once captured an intact MQ-9 Reaper drone, and they no doubt learned a lot from it. The fact is that once a weapon is used on the battlefield, it becomes fair game for capture, analysis, replication, and development of counter-weapons by an enemy. With all the various wars going on in the world using the best weapons that nations can apply, there will be a lot more cross-pollination and development in the world of advanced war tech and of defense tech. Continuing …]
   22. The Reaper was designed as a hunter-killer UAV that would combine long-endurance intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) with lethal-strike capability against mobile targets.
   23. After entering service in 2007, the platform was deployed extensively in counterterrorism and counter-insurgency throughout the “War on Terror”, flying thousands of sorties for close air support, overwatch, and high-value target strikes in Afghanistan.
   24. Subsequently, the drones were deployed in counter-ISIS operations in Iraq, Syria, and Libya. … 
   25. In the past few years, the drones have been deployed to strike the Yemen-based Houthis and other Iranian regional proxies. …
   26. Before the drones arrived in the Middle East for Operation Epic Fury, they were deployed to Puerto Rico in the Caribbean, ahead of the operation against Venezuela that saw the “extraction” of former President Nicolas Maduro.
   27. Critics have argued that Reaper’s slow speed makes it vulnerable to advanced air defences. Nonetheless, its supporters contend that the drone has been modified to stay relevant in modern combat and bolster the success rate of strikes against adversaries.
   28. It has been equipped with the Multi-Spectral Targeting System (MTS-B) … for target acquisition at ranges up to several miles. This [allows] the drone to detect and designate small, fast-moving aerial targets, such as other drones, even though its sensors are optimised for ground observation rather than high-speed air intercepts.
   29. Reapers have a 1,000-mile range, an endurance of about 27 hours, and the ability to stay on station for extended durations. This offers continuous “eyes in the sky” for overwatch, combat search-and-rescue, convoy protection, target development, close air support, and terminal guidance — much more than manned fighters can maintain without refuelling or crew fatigue.
   30. The drone is a bomb truck of sorts, with a payload capacity of about 3,850 pounds [and] can carry a combination of weapons …
   31. According to reports, the laser-guided JDAMs that Air Force and Navy fighters seem to be dropping in Epic Fury are guided by the MQ-9 Reapers, as seen in videos released by CENTCOM earlier this month.
   32. Often referred to as offering “unique capability” for dynamic strikes in irregular warfare or permissive environments, its sophisticated multispectral sensors, including electro-optic and infrared sensors, synthetic aperture radar, and laser designators, enable extremely accurate targeting.
   33. Despite these cutting-edge capabilities, the hunter-killer drone continues to be hunted in adversarial land at a time when the US is boasting complete military dominance.
   34. MIKE: The Reaper is thus still a highly capable, but very expensive, drone that may still have its uses, but may not be particularly survivable in a battlefield against a near-peer adversary, or even an irregular adversary with access to relatively advanced and relatively cheap anti-drone weaponry.
   35. MIKE: We are in an era similar to the end of armored knights or of arrayed battle lines facing each other. New weapons technology is not only making old strategies and doctrines obsolete. They’re also changing the balance of power between states with wealth and presumed dominance against smaller states and even insurgencies.
   36. MIKE: Asymmetric warfare has been an evolving challenge to great powers since at least the middle of the 20^th century, but it’s now become a mature threat to those powers and the way in which they attempt to maintain their military supremacy.
   37. MIKE: One of my over-arching questions is that these new asymmetric threats from cheap, plentiful drones has been prominent in the Ukraine-Russia war since 2022. Why, four years later, are we not better prepared to use cheap drone swarms of our own as well as to defend against them? This seems to me to be a serious failure of preparedness by our own military.
9. This drone question becomes even more relevant in the context of this next story. If we had done a better job of preparing for 21^st century drone warfare, would it even have been necessary to risk an F-15 and its crew over Iran? From WASHINGTONPOST-dot-COM — Two U.S. warplanes shot down; search ongoing in Iran for 1 missing crew member; By Tara Copp and Alex Horton | WASHINGTONPOST.COM | April 3, 2026 at 5:49 p.m. EDT/ Updated today at 5:49 p.m. EDT. TAGS: U.S. Military Aircraft, Iran, Search-And-Rescue Efforts,
   1. Two U.S. military aircraft were shot down in separate incidents [last] Friday while conducting combat operations against Iran, setting off a frantic search-and-rescue effort that remains ongoing for one missing crew member, U.S. officials said.
   2. The F-15E fighter jet and the A-10 attack plane both were hit by incoming fire, U.S. officials said. One of two crew members aboard the F-15, which crashed inside Iran, was rescued, though their condition was not immediately clear, the officials said. The A-10 pilot navigated the damaged plane to Kuwaiti airspace before ejecting and was subsequently rescued, they added.
   3. Two U.S. search-and-rescue helicopters also were hit by Iranian fire that injured U.S. personnel on board, though both aircraft have safely returned to their base, the officials said.
   4. The developments, confirmed by three U.S. officials speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an evolving situation, belied earlier assertions by the Trump administration that U.S. forces had obtained air superiority over Iran and raised immediate questions about how much of the country’s arsenal remained after a month of targeted strikes on the regime’s weapons facilities.
   5. Spokespeople for the Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment.
   6. The search-and-rescue effort for the missing F-15 crew member marked the most perilous moment yet for U.S. troops in the war, putting the missing airman and the rescuers more directly in the line of Iranian fire. It is the first known instance of a crewed American aircraft being brought down inside hostile territory since the conflict began.
   7. Friday’s developments represent a potential political liability for President Donald Trump, who is facing strong pushback from opponents of the Iran war — including among some of his supporters, who elected him to a second term based, in part, on his campaign promises to avoid costly military entanglements. In a prime-time address this week, the president sought to defend his increasingly unpopular decision to start the conflict while asserting that the operation is “nearing completion.” It was not immediately clear how Friday’s developments could affect that announced timeline.
   8. Iranian television broadcast a statement from local merchants in western Iran offering a reward for recovery of the downed crew members. Another broadcast called on residents to “target” any Americans they found. IRIB, the state broadcaster, said on social media that “many people” had gone to the crash site and that the Iranian military “called on the people NOT TO LET anyone mistreat the pilot.”
   9. Trump has said little publicly about the situation. In very brief remarks to NBC News, he rejected the idea that Friday’s developments might impede efforts to negotiate an end to the conflict. A British news site, the Independent, asked him in a phone call what his response would be if the missing crew member were captured or hurt by Iran. “We hope that’s not going to happen,” the president responded, declining to comment further.
   10. Combat search-and-rescue operations are some of the riskiest missions carried out by the U.S. military. Aircrews and recovery personnel are on constant standby for such operations, then they rush into a rapidly evolving and chaotic environment. While these personnel are backed by combat-capable troops, helicopters and planes used for such missions are vulnerable to enemy fire because they fly lower to the ground and must rely on other armed aircraft to protect them.
   11. “It’s a high-risk mission,” said retired Gen. James Slife, the former commander of U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command, which specializes in infiltration and combat search-and-rescue missions. [Gen. James Slife added,] “The longer somebody is on the ground, the less opportunity you have to safely recover them.”
   12. Teams are launched immediately, usually with incomplete information on what to expect, because of the risks faced by downed pilots and the chance that if they are captured, then they will be exploited by U.S. adversaries, Slife said.
   13. [Slife said,] “In addition to the moral obligation we feel to make every effort to recover our isolated personnel, you want to deny the adversary the opportunity to use a captured service member as propaganda.”
   14. Video verified by The Washington Post shows a C-130 refueling aircraft flying low in Iran, about 90 miles east from its border with Iraq. The tanker is shown fueling two HH-60G helicopters, which specialize in combat search and rescue, said Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
   15. [Cancian said,] “The fact that they are flying so low and slow indicates willingness to take a lot of risk.”
   16. Friday’s incident contradicts Trump’s frequent claims that U.S. aircraft are “roaming” the skies over Iran unimpeded. In his speech Wednesday night, the president said, “They have no antiaircraft equipment. Their radar is 100 percent annihilated. We are unstoppable as a military force.”
   17. Experts said Trump’s soaring rhetoric about U.S. military achievements gave a false picture of the threat Tehran posed to American aircraft.
   18. [Said Kelly Grieco, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center, a Washington think tank,] “From a military perspective, the idea that Iran’s antiaircraft capacity was eliminated made no sense.” [She added,] “I’m sure we’ve done great damage to radars, long-range missiles, and fixed surface-to-air missiles but something like a MANPAD you can fire from a shoulder is really hard to find,” she said, referring to the acronym for a man-portable air-defense system. “As we’ve seen today, if you fly low enough, antiaircraft artillery or MANPADs present a significant threat.”
   19. Trump has similarly claimed that Iran’s missile stockpiles and launchers have been destroyed, although missile and drone attacks continue — albeit to a lesser degree than earlier in the war — on U.S. installations and allies in the region.
   20. On Thursday, just hours after declaring in his address that the war was “nearing completion,” U.S. aircraft blew up a major bridge near Tehran. Trump said in a social media post that “Our Military …. hasn’t even started destroying what’s left” and promised to begin destruction of electricity power plants. Later in the day, the IRGC announced that a “large number” of ballistic and cruise missile and “suicide drones” had been launched against U.S. bases in the United Arab Emirates.
   21. To date, 13 American service members have been killed as a result of Operation Epic Fury, the Trump administration’s name for its war on Iran. Seven died as a result of hostile fire. Six were killed in a plane crash in Iraq. Nearly 370 others have been wounded during the conflict, according to publicly released tallies.
   22. Friday’s incident marks the fourth loss of an F-15 since the Iran war began. In early March, Kuwaiti personnel mistakenly shot down three of the jets. All six crew members ejected and were recovered safely. It was the first known loss of an A-10 during the conflict. That development was reported earlier by the New York Times.
   23. MIKE: Warfare, military doctrine, and combat situations have evolved dramatically over the last four years, and it doesn’t seem that our military — and probably other militaries as well — have done an adequate job of preparing and adapting to the new battlefield realities.
   24. MIKE: Our current military may be designed and built in such a way that it’s not exactly a Maginot line, but we may be using the equivalent of battleships against aircraft carriers, and we know how that turned out in the Pacific War. After that conflict, battleships became effectively obsolete.
   25. MIKE: Drones and drone swarms have created a whole new armament realm on both land and sea. Battlefield robots will be the next major challenge in ground warfare.
   26. MIKE: When will we be adequately prepared?
10. Along those lines, from SEEKINGALPHA-dot-COM — Cheap drone ‘Lucas’ is said to signal shift in U.S. war strategy; By: Rob Williams, SA News Editor | SEEKINGALPHA.COM | Apr 01, 2026, 1:08 PM ET. TAGS: Low-Cost Attack Drones, U.S. Military, Iran, FLM-136 Drone (Lucas), Iranian technology, US Pentagon,
    1. A low-cost attack drone developed by the U.S. military is emerging as a central tool in operations against Iran, highlighting a shift toward cheaper, rapidly produced weapons over traditional high-cost systems, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
    2. The drone, known as the FLM-136 or “Lucas,” was designed by Pentagon engineers using reverse-engineered Iranian technology rather than commercial startup innovation. Officials say it moved from concept to deployment in under two years, a timeline that contrasts with the military’s historically slow procurement cycles.
    3. [MIKE: So Mr. Spock was right again. Continuing …]
    4. Early battlefield use suggests the drones have played a role in strikes on military infrastructure, including weapons sites and air defenses, contributing to a sharp decline in incoming drone attacks during the initial phase of the conflict, according to defense officials.
    5. Lucas reflects lessons drawn from prior war simulations, which indicated the U.S. could exhaust key munitions quickly in a major conflict. The program focused on building a system that could be mass-produced, operate at long range and remain inexpensive enough for sustained use.
    6. With an estimated cost between $10,000 and $55,000 per unit, the drone represents a stark contrast to traditional munitions such as cruise missiles, which can cost millions. Defense officials say scaling production of such systems is now a priority as the military adapts to conflicts where cost efficiency and volume are critical.
    7. Production is expected to be distributed across multiple smaller manufacturers, echoing industrial strategies used during World War II to rapidly expand output. The U.S. government retains the intellectual property, allowing it to coordinate manufacturing across suppliers.
    8. The system has so far been deployed in environments with limited electronic interference, but analysts caution its effectiveness may be tested in more advanced combat settings where GPS jamming and other countermeasures are more prevalent.
    9. More broadly, the deployment underscores a growing recognition within the Pentagon that it lacks enough low-cost systems, both for offensive operations and for defending against similar threats from adversaries.
    10. MIKE: So the US military isn’t standing still in the face of drone warfare, but are they really moving fast enough? Time will tell. Hopefully before we find ourselves in a major war with a well-armed peer adversary.
11. Finally, from SEEKINGALPHA-dot-COM — Startups race to build cheaper missiles as drone warfare changes economics of war; By: Rob Williams, SA News Editor | SEEKINGALPHA.COM | Mar 30, 2026, 8:37 AM ET. TAGS: Cheap Drones, Cheap Missiles, Cheap Unmanned Aircraft, Expensive Missile Systems, United States, European States, Persian Gulf States,
    1. A new wave of defense startups is working to dramatically cut the cost of intercepting drones, as modern conflicts expose the imbalance between cheap unmanned aircraft and expensive missile systems, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
    2. In recent wars, including those in Ukraine and the Middle East, militaries have relied on high-end interceptors that can cost millions of dollars to destroy drones worth only a few thousand. This mismatch has strained budgets and highlighted the need for more affordable solutions.
    3. Companies are responding by redesigning missiles with lower-cost materials, standardized components and automated production. The goal is to produce interceptors priced in the tens of thousands rather than hundreds of thousands or more.
    4. One example is Perseus Defense, founded by a former NASA engineer who left his job after recognizing the growing demand for inexpensive counter-drone weapons. The company is developing a compact missile that can be launched from multiple platforms and built quickly at a fraction of the cost of traditional systems. He has said the idea emerged from observing how existing defenses were poorly suited to large numbers of low-cost drones.
    5. Traditional missiles such as the AIM-9 Sidewinder remain highly effective, but they were designed for high-value targets like fighter jets, not mass-produced drones. As a result, their use in current conflicts is often inefficient from a cost perspective.
    6. [MIKE: Remember they used a Sidewinder to shoot down a Chineses spy or weather balloon, depending on who tells the story. Continuing …]
    7. Other startups, including Estonia-based Frankenburg Technologies, are pursuing similar approaches. Their interceptors rely on commercially available components, including technologies now common in consumer electronics. The company’s leadership has pointed out that systems once exclusive to advanced weapons, such as navigation sensors, are now widely accessible and cheaper to integrate.
    8. Demand is rising quickly. Governments in Europe, the United States and the Persian Gulf are placing orders or exploring new suppliers, while defense officials have acknowledged that smaller companies could play a key role in delivering scalable and affordable options.
    9. The urgency is driven in part by the widespread use of drones like Iran’s Shahed, which can be launched in large numbers to overwhelm air defenses. Analysts say such tactics can quickly drain stocks of expensive interceptors, forcing militaries to rethink their strategies.
    10. Still, low-cost missiles have limitations. Many are designed for short-range engagements and lack the speed, range and precision of advanced systems like Patriot interceptors, which are capable of targeting ballistic missiles.
    11. Even so, the shift toward cheaper munitions appears inevitable. Defense companies, both established and new, are investing in streamlined designs, 3D printing and artificial intelligence to reduce production time and costs. One executive described the approach as prioritizing simplicity over perfection in manufacturing, allowing faster scaling and easier assembly.
    12. As drone warfare continues to evolve, the industry is moving toward a model where affordability and volume matter as much as sophistication, reshaping how nations defend their airspace, the Journal reported.
    13. MIKE: To be continued in future episodes of ThinkwingRadio

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