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.)

“And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you–ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.” ~ John F. Kennedy, excerpt from inaugural speech (Jan. 20, 1961) VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/L8l11q_MNRY (FULL SPEECH TEXT)

 [1m 02s] Welcome to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig on KPFT Houston 90.1-HD2, Galveston 89.5-HD2, Goodrich 89.9-HD2, and Huntsville 91.9-HD2.  KPFT is Houston’s Community radio.

And welcome to our international listeners from Hong Kong, Singapore, Belgium, Vietnam, 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 do try to fact-check myself and include the links I use to do so.

It’s the 39th week of Trump’s military occupation of Washington DC; and 28 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. If you live in Harris County, there is an election calendar that you an access at com/Event-Calendar
   1. REFERENCE: Blue Voter Guide
   2. REFERENCE: League of Women Voters of Houston
2. For those Houstonians who are in City Council District C, that Runoff is taking place now.
   1. Early Voting Centers are open through Tuesday, May 12 from 7:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. (except on Sun, May 10 when they’re open from 12:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.) 
   2. On Election Day, Saturday, May 16^th, polls will be open from 7:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.
   3. And always remember that if you are on line to vote by 7PM, you cannot be turned away.
3. If you’re beginning to feel some election fatigue, the Texas STATE runoff elections begin shortly after the Council District C Runoff. These will be from the results of the primaries for state
   1. Early Voting for the Texas State Primary Runoff Elections election starts Monday May 18 and ends Friday May 22. Polls are open 7am to 7pm each day.
   2. Election Day for the Texas State Primary Runoff Elections is May 26, 2026.
   3. If you qualify for mail-in ballots, you should have already gotten your ballot for this election.
   4. Remember that creating election fatigue may be a feature rather than a bug. Don’t let yourself give in to it.
4. There is a comprehensive article covering the statewide runoffs from TEXASTRIBUNE-dot-ORG. It’s long and detailed, so I’m just going to read the intro — Here’s how to vote in Texas’ May 26 primary runoff elections; By María Méndez; Graphic by Apurva Mahajan | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | March 18, 2026, 5:00 a.m. Central/Updated April 6, 2026, 3:45 p.m. Central. TAGS: 2026 elections, Congress, John Cornyn, Ken Paxton, State Agencies,
   1. Candidates in more than 30 state and federal races are expected to face off again in the May 26 runoff after failing to secure more than half of the votes cast in the March Republican and Democratic primaries. This includes Attorney General Ken Paxton’s challenge to U.S. John Cornyn, as well as several candidates for statewide or district-based elected offices in Texas.
   2. In these undecided races, registered voters can choose their preferred candidate on May 26 or during the May 18-22 early voting period.
   3. But remember, Texas doesn’t allow double dipping. Voters who already voted in the Republican or Democratic primary this year can only vote in that same party’s runoff elections. Voters who didn’t vote in March can choose to vote in either party’s runoff. (Texans don’t have to formally register with a party.) …
   4. [The story has links to sections with information on what you need to know. Their titled:] What’s on the ballot?; What dates do I need to know?; … about voter registration requirements?; … about mail-in voting?; … about going to the polls?; [and] How can I make sure my ballot is counted?;
   5. MIKE: Among the high-profile state runoffs are Republicans: John Cornyn vs. Ken Paxton for U.S. Senate; and Mayes Middleton vs. Chip Roy for Texas attorney general
   6. MIKE: On the Democratic side, Democratic runoffs are Vikki Goodwin vs. Marcos Vélez for Lieutenant governor; and Nathan Johnson vs. Joe Jaworski for Attorney general
   7. MIKE: And thank goodness, there are no elections in June!
5. From HOUSTONCHRONICLE[.]COM — Houston subsidizes private trash pickup for HOAs. Will that continue under the new trash fee?; By Ryan Nickerson, Staff Writer | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM | May 6, 2026. TAGS: Mayor John Whitmire, Private Garbage Service, Private Garbage Service Subsidies, Monthly Trash Fee,
   1. Mayor John Whitmire is proposing a new $5 monthly trash fee, but has not said whether thousands of Houston homeowners in higher-income neighborhoods will pay it – or keep receiving city subsidies for using private garbage service. 
   2. The issue risks making a politically sensitive proposal even dicier if some residents must pay more for uneven city service while others collect city payments – even if those subsidies are a fraction of the cost of their trash service.
   3. Whitmire on Tuesday proposed his budget for the coming fiscal year, which includes a new fee starting at $5 per month — possibly rising to $25 per month by 2032 — as part of a broader effort to address a nearly $180 million deficit. 
   4. But city officials have not said how the fee would apply to roughly 47,000 households that receive more than $3 million in city subsidies each year for private trash collection. 
   5. Asked about the program during a press conference announcing his budget, Whitmire said, “That’ll be under discussion when we get through with this merger.” His proposal would move the $117 million Solid Waste Management Department from the strained general fund into the city’s utility system within Houston Public Works. 
   6. Under the city’s “sponsorship” program, Houston reimburses homeowners associations $6 per house each month if they contract with private garbage collection services instead of using the city’s Solid Waste department. The program dates back to the 1970s and was designed in part to save the city money, as it is cheaper for the city to pay the subsidy than to send municipal crews to collect trash. 
   7. The subsidy primarily benefits neighborhoods in higher-income areas such as west Houston, Kingwood, Clear Lake, and the western half of the Inner Loop, where homeowners associations are more common, according to city data. 
   8. Now, with what the Whitmire administration calls an “administrative fee” on the table, residents and neighborhood leaders say they are unsure what comes next.
   9. [Said Kimberly Raphaeli, president of the Kings Point HOA in Kingwood, which uses private trash collection and receives the city subsidy,] “Because we aren’t utilizing the service, it would not make sense for those fees to apply to us.”
   10. Raphaeli said her neighborhood would be unlikely to switch to city trash pickup, even if the subsidy is removed and costs increase.
   11. [Raphaeli said,] “We’ve heard the horror of city trash and post-hurricane debris pickup is terrible and some areas not being serviced for weeks at a time. … We have zero problems with ours because theoretically we pay a little bit more for a higher level of service.”
   12. Other HOA board members across the city said the subsidy, while helpful, is only a dent in the cost of private service. If they were to receive any additional fees for services they are not using, they said they would need to factor that into future decisions [about whether] they want to continue using private trash services.
   13. Greg Sergesketter, a member of the Memorial Thicket HOA, said the subsidy doesn’t present an equity issue because his neighborhood is already paying more than $20 each month for private trash collection.
   14. With the $6 subsidy, Sergesketter said, “we’ve already made the decision that it’s worth the $14 to go to private trash.”
   15. A decade ago, when former mayor Sylvester Turner briefly proposed removing the subsidy, Sergesketter and his HOA told city leaders they would add the city collection on top of their existing private trash pickup – but they would be unlikely to do so, he said, if the city begins charging a fee. 
   16. At the same time, residents in neighborhoods that rely on city trash pickup say the proposal raises concerns about fairness.
   17. Lindsay Williams is president of the Greater Eastwood Super Neighborhood, which uses city trash service and would pay the fee. Her neighbors are open to a modest monthly charge if it leads to better service, she said. But continuing to subsidize private trash collection while asking others to pay a new fee, Williams said, could deepen inequities.
   18. [Williams said,] “I would be concerned that there are HOAs that are able to get a subsidy for $6 per household, and then there are residents that are going to be paying that fee and don’t know if it’s actually going to solve any of the problems that they are seeing.”
   19. University of Houston political scientist Brandon Rottinghaus said the proposal puts the mayor in a difficult position, balancing financial needs with political risk. City council districts G, E and C – the areas with the most private trash subsidies – also typically are the districts with the highest voter turnout in municipal elections.
   20. Whitmire won all three districts in the 2023 mayoral runoff. The current council members in those districts did not respond to calls for comment Tuesday. 
   21. [Rottinghaus said,] “Trash is political. Period. … Taxes related to trash are going to have a significant impact.”
   22. Rottinghaus said the existing subsidy tends to benefit more affluent neighborhoods, raising concerns about fairness if lower-income residents are asked to pay a new fee while those subsidies remain in place. 
   23. [Rottinghaus said,] “The optics of having two Houstons is troublesome. … You’ve got one set of residents who can afford to pay for trash collection of their liking and the rest who have to pay the city fee and get the services from the city.”
   24. MIKE: First, in the interests of full disclosure, my HOA pays for private trash pickup. That also means I have no experience with trash pickup by the City of Houston.
   25. MIKE: That said, I can see that there are actually many angles to this question of trash subsidies.
   26. MIKE: It’s true that the city probably saves a fair amount of money and resources when large segments of the city pay for their own service, even when the subsidy is figured in.
   27. MIKE: It’s also true that not paying the city for trash pickup when HOAs pay for it themselves is a choice, and it may well lead to better service for those homes.
   28. MIKE: And it’s equally true that the homes that get private trash pickup through their HOA are usually more affluent than those with city trash pickup.
   29. MIKE: And yet …
   30. MIKE: The homeowners with private trash pickup are still paying city taxes, so the argument can be made that they are paying for a city service whether they are getting it or not.
   31. MIKE: But the same argument is made back and forth when people with no school age kids, or who put their kids in private schools, complain that they are still paying school taxes. The typical response is that an educated population is a public good, whether you have kids going to public school or not.
   32. MIKE: And of course, love it or hate it, Texas now has a school voucher program that theoretically addresses that complaint.
   33. MIKE: But wait a moment. Houston isn’t technically considering the addition of a trash pickup fee. Houston is adding a trash pickup administrative fee! With that fig leaf, the fee could apply to everyone, because both trash pickup and trash subsidies require administration!
   34. MIKE: So with that, both things could end up being true. HOAs with private trash pickup can continue getting the subsidy, while paying the $5 per month to administer the subsidy.
   35. MIKE: Last week, I made the case for paying for solid waste disposal through property taxes. My argument was that since property taxes are flat taxes paid on escalating property values, they’re as close as we can get to a progressive tax.
   36. MIKE: Since then, it further occurred to me that while a fee of any kind for trash pickup is not tax deductible, property taxes including the cost of trash pickup already are and would continue to be.
   37. MIKE: So those are all things to weigh on this debate.
6. Next, from CLICK2HOUSTON[.]COM — Houston drivers paid nearly $1 billion in tolls — so why are they still stuck in traffic?; By Mario Díaz, Investigative Reporter | CLICK2HOUSTON.COM | Published: May 7, 2026 at 1:57 PM/Updated: May 7, 2026 at 3:17 PM. TAGS: Harris County Toll Road Authority, HCTRA, Investigates,
   1. [Houstonians are tired paying to sit in traffic.]
   2. However, it’s the continuous reality along some parts of Beltway 8 which is operated by the Harris County Toll Road Authority — better known as HCTRA.
   3. Overall, HCTRA is responsible for a system that consists of 133 miles, and in recent years they’ve launched a “Keep it Moving” campaign designed to attract and sell drivers.
   4. One problem [is that] drivers tell us they are routinely not moving. The system they pay for is not working for them, and as a result they are exiting the Beltway for a faster commute along surface streets.
   5. [Said Roberto Treviño, the Executive Director of HCTRA,] “We’ve heard that feedback, but we’ve also heard the feedback that the lighting is good on our system, the condition of the roadway is really well.”
   6. However, a good roadway and lights? These are baseline expectations for drivers.
   7. But, paying to sit in traffic or to flee from it because surface streets work better is another avenue altogether.
   8. [In a recent interview, Treviño said to 2 Investigates,] “I can’t speak for the people who are making the decision to get off our system, as we start taking a look at the traffic we are monitoring where the traffic is and we do have plans to address the congestion on our system.”
   9. In 2025, HCTRA collected $874 million dollars in toll revenue, according to Treviño.
   10. … In fact, HCTRA’s finances show that in Treviño’s first year in 2021 he was the only executive making an annual salary over $200,000. The agency lists his salary from five years ago at $287,492.40.
   11. Fast forward to 2026 and the number is now at nine executives making north of $200,000 with Treviño’s publicly funded salary at $490,000.20.
   12. Treviño justified his salary and those of his team with a system that is well-kept and with tolls that have not gone up in ten years.
   13. … The bigger question is what happens to the hundreds of millions of dollars that leave the toll road system?
   14. After [KPRC] filed a Texas Public Information Act request, HCTRA provided 2 Investigates with records showing that last year, $398,613,574 dollars transferred to Harris County Commissioners for “mobility projects” in their precincts.
   15. So what projects did the dollars go to?
   16. [Said Treviño,] “So that is one of the things, once that transfers out it is no longer in HCTRA’s financials, and those projects are no longer operated.”
   17. [MIKE: I was tempted to edit that quote for clarity, but I decided not to. I decided that Treviño’s chronically limited verbal coherence in his answers deserved to be read as-is. Continuing …]
   18. [When asked …] who is overseeing these dollars, Treviño said, “It varies between the county engineer and HCTRA.”
   19. But when reminded that the money goes to the county and [Treviño] doesn’t get involved with it?
   20. Treviño quickly acknowledged, “I am getting involved now, because here recently commissioners court adopted it, where HCTRA is going to hire a third party auditor. It’s going to audit the use of those funds, so that is where my involvement is in now recently.”
   21. … However, as of right now, no real-time transparency exists. Not even a dashboard for drivers to see where their toll dollars are being parked.
   22. [Said Treviño,] “We’ve been very transparent. You can find anything on our website. Anything in the county budget book. There should be no secret as to where the money is going.”
   23. We reminded [the] HCTRA Director [that] there is $398 million dollars going from his agency to the county, yet he did not know of any projects?
   24. [Said Treviño,] “That is not my topic as the Executive Director of HCTRA to speak to. That money got transferred out of HCTRA, [so] it is not my responsibility or role at the county to speak on that behalf.”
   25. We did ask Treviño if there was any kind of dashboard to see how hundreds of millions in public dollars transferred from HCTRA to the county are being spent, but he admitted, “I cannot point you to any one specific dashboard.”
   26. However, he did admit that, “I think transparency is a great idea. How you do that is not up to me to decide? But I’m all about transparency and I support transparency, but I am not going to be the decider as to how that is going to be conveyed to the citizens of Harris County and our users.”
   27. MIKE: I think that 2 Investigates has done some good work here.
   28. MIKE: To recap, Roberto Treviño is the Executive Director of HCTRA, and he thinks that transparency is a great idea, but he is not the “decider of how that transparency is “conveyed” to the citizens of the county or the tollway users? And he cannot point to any one dashboard showing how money is being spent? And I infer from that answer that there isn’t any dashboard to show how money is being spent.
   29. MIKE: And yet, for all that, within five years, his salary has almost doubled from over $287k to nearly a half million dollars per year. And over five years, the number of executives earning over $200k per year has gone from just one — Treviño — to nine.
   30. MIKE: Frankly, it sounds to me like HCTRA Executive Director Roberto Treviño isn’t doing much a job of executive directing at the HCTRA for all the money he’s being paid — or paying himself? — and I have no idea how he has justified his pay bumps based on the answers he gives in this story. And those salary increases sound like a bit of hanky-panky is going on, pay-wise.
   31. MIKE: The Harris County Commissioners Court has broad authority over HCTRA’s operations, projects, and budget. While the Harris County Commissioners Court is responsible for overseeing how the HCTRA spends its money on specific projects, it does appear to be responsible for oversight of the HCTRA.
   32. MIKE: If that is the case, I think its way past time for the Harris County Commissioners Court to exercise that power and do a deep dive into the administration and operations of the HCTRA in order to see if there is a need for new management, and to audit the HCTRA for any possible improper expenditures of funds for salaries or any other suspicious spending.
7. In “rising sea levels” news, from THEGUARDIAN[.]COM — Point of no return’: New Orleans relocation must start now due to sea level [rise], study finds; By Oliver Milman | THEGUARDIAN.COM | Mon 4 May 2026 05.00 EDT. TAGS: New Orleans, Louisiana, Climate crisis, Sea level, news,
   1. The process of relocating people from New Orleans should start immediately, as the city has reached a “point of no return” that will see it surrounded by the ocean within decades due to the climate crisis, a stark new study has concluded.
   2. Ongoing sea-level rise and the rampant erosion of wetlands in southern Louisiana will swallow up the New Orleans area within a few generations, with the new paper estimating the city “may well be surrounded by the Gulf of Mexico before the end of this century”.
   3. Low-lying southern Louisiana faces multiple threats, with rising sea levels driven by global heating, compounded by strengthening hurricanes [that are] also a feature of the climate crisis, and the gradual subsidence of a coastline that has been carved apart by the oil and gas industry.
   4. Southern Louisiana is facing 3-7 metres of sea-level rise [MIKE: That’s about 10-23 feet] and the loss of three-quarters of its remaining coastal wetlands, which will cause the shoreline “to migrate as much as … (62 miles) inland”, thereby stranding New Orleans and Baton Rouge, according to the study, which compared today’s rising global temperatures with a period of similar heat 125,000 years ago that caused a rise in sea level.
   5. This scenario makes the region the “most physically vulnerable coastal zone in the world”, the researchers state, and requires immediate action to prepare a smooth transition [to safer ground] for people away from New Orleans, which has a population of about 360,000 people … .
   6. Louisiana has already experienced population loss in recent years, and [the paper warns that this] trend will accelerate in a disordered way, should no action be taken to confront the perils faced by its largest city and surrounding communities.
   7. [A perspectives paper is a scholarly article that provides an assessment, rather than new data. The perspectives paper published in the Nature Sustainability journal added,] “While climate mitigation should remain the first step to prevent the worst outcomes, coastal Louisiana has evidently already crossed the point of no return.”
   8. Billions of dollars have been spent to fortify New Orleans with a vast network of levees, floodgates, and pumps erected after 2005’s catastrophic Hurricane Katrina. But [the new paper warns that] the growing threats to the city mean the levees, which already require hefty upgrades to remain sufficient, will not be able to save the city in the long run.
   9. ]Said Jesse Keenan, an expert in climate adaptation at Tulane University and one of the paper’s five co-authors,] “In paleo-climate terms, New Orleans is gone; the question is how long it has.”
   10. Keenan said the timeframe available to plan a retreat isn’t certain but “it’s most likely decades rather than centuries”.
   11. [He added,] “Even if you stopped climate change today, New Orleans’s days are still numbered. … It will be surrounded by open water, and you can’t keep an island situated below sea level afloat. There’s no amount of money that can do that.”
   12. City, state and federal leaders should begin work to help support people moving away from the New Orleans region in a coordinated way, starting with the most vulnerable communities, such as those in Plaquemines parish who live outside the levee system, Keenan said.
   13. [Keenan said,] “New Orleans is in a terminal condition, and we need to be clear with the patient that it is terminal. … There is an opportunity for palliative care; we can transition people and the economy. We can get ahead of this.”
   14. But, he added, “no politician wants to [be] first [to] give this terminal diagnosis. They will speak about it behind closed doors, but never in public.”
   15. New Orleans faces obvious challenges — situated in a bowl-shaped basin below sea level, the city already has 99% of its population at major risk of severe flooding, the worst exposure of any US city according to a separate study released last week.
   16. [Said Wanyun Shao, a co-author of this study and a geographer at the University of Alabama,] “Even compared to all other US cities, New Orleans really stands out, which is alarming. … There is no specific timeline to how long New Orleans has left but we know it’s in big trouble. They are facing one of the highest sea level rises in the world and I don’t know how long human effort can fight against that tide. It’s like a timebomb.”
   17. Shao said she concurred that relocation of people would have to take place. [She said,] “I know it’s a politically and emotionally charged issue; there are people with a deep attachment to New Orleans. … But managed retreat, no matter how unappealing it may be, is the ultimate solution at some point.”
   18. A major pressure upon this southern cultural hotspot is that its surrounding land is briskly receding. Since the 1930s, Louisiana has lost 2,000 sq miles of land to coastal erosion, equivalent to the size of Delaware, with a further 3,000 sq miles set to vanish over the next 50 years. The rate of land loss is so rapid that a football pitch-sized area is wiped out every 100 minutes.
   19. To help counter this, Louisiana last decade settled upon a new sort of plan that eschewed building yet more flood defenses and instead sought to harness the Mississippi River’s natural ability to rebuild land. Levees and other infrastructure have, until now, straitjacketed the naturally meandering Mississippi and pushed the sediment it carries straight into the Gulf of Mexico, rather than replenish the coastal wetlands.
   20. The so-called Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project, which broke ground in 2023, would help restore a more natural flow in the Mississippi Delta and allow sediment to build up in coastal areas where it has been lost. More than 20 sq miles of new land would be created over the next 50 years under the plan, the project estimated.
   21. However, Jeff Landry, Louisiana’s Republican governor, scrapped the project last year, arguing its $3bn cost was too high and that it threatened the state’s fishing industry. [Landry said at the time,] “This level of spending is unsustainable,” adding that the project imperiled the livelihoods of “people who have sustained our state for generations”.
   22. Proponents of the project, which was funded via a settlement from BP over the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010, decried the decision as disastrous for the state, pointing out fishing communities will need to move anyway because of worsening erosion.
   23. Garret Graves, a Republican former congressman who once led the state’s coastal restoration agency, said Landry was guilty of a “boneheaded decision” that would “result in one of the largest setbacks for our coast and the protection of our communities in decades”.
   24. According to the new research paper, the loss of the sediment diversion plan “effectively means giving up on extensive portions of coastal Louisiana, including the New Orleans area”.
   25. A legal effort to force oil and gas companies to pay for damage to Louisiana’s coastline, meanwhile, is also in doubt. This month, the US supreme court allowed the fossil fuel industry to federally contest a state jury decision that Chevron pay $740m to remedy harm caused to wetlands by dredging canals, drilling wells and dumping wastewater.
   26. [[Climate adaptation expert Keenan said,] “The combination of these decisions is driving a scenario where the state has stopped trying to build land. … That just accelerates the timeline. They could be buying time, but that option is foreclosed now, meaning it’s a certainty the New Orleans levees will fail again multiple times. The flood water will have nowhere else to go.”
   27. While the US has never wholesale moved a major city before, numerous communities have relocated for economic reasons in the past, with some now being shifted due to the climate crisis, too. In Louisiana, the government could start planning and building appropriate infrastructure in safer areas on the other side of Lake Pontchartrain, the large estuary that sits to the north of New Orleans, Keenan said.
   28. [Keenan said,] “This could be an opportunity for New Orleans to help migrate people further north, invest in long-term infrastructure and make that sustainable. … That exodus has already begun, so if nothing is done, people will just trickle out over time and it will be an uncoordinated mess. The market will speak as people won’t be able to get insurance. Louisiana has to stop the bleeding and acknowledge this is happening. But at the moment there is no plan.”
   29. Timothy Dixon, an expert in coastal environments at the University of South Florida who was not involved in the new paper, said the study “does a nice job” of highlighting the challenge Louisiana faces with subsiding land combined with rising sea levels.
   30. [Said Dixon, whose own research has recommended a measured retreat from coastal Louisiana,] “New Orleans is not going to disappear in 10 years or anything like that, but policymakers really should’ve thought about a relocation plan a century ago. … Governments may not have the ability to just command people to leave, but people will volunteer to move and we are seeing that already. I’m not optimistic our political system is capable of dealing with this stuff; it will take leadership and unpopular decisions. Also, many people don’t want to move. They love where they are born.”
   31. [Louisiana Gov. Landry’s] office was contacted for comment but did not respond.
   32. MIKE: I was selling appliances at Sears after Katrina hit Louisiana, and the massive migration of people from the New Orleans region was obvious.
   33. MIKE: What this story, and the paper it’s citing, are saying is that we’ll either see massive periodic migrations of Louisiana refugees after catastrophic storms, or we can develop a public partnership of the city, parish, state and federal governments to manage this migration in an orderly fashion that does the least damage to people’s lives and livelihoods, and somewhat protects the economy of Louisiana.
   34. MIKE: It would be a shame to lose the history and architecture that makes New Orleans what it is. Perhaps planned retreat could help to save some of that.
   35. MIKE: Republican Gov. Landry and others can deny the reality of what’s happening, but that doesn’t change anything. This is one of those situations where folks can actively make a choice, or reality will chaotically force a choice upon them.
8. In economics news, from AXIOS[.]COM — NY Fed confirms economy’s K-shaped dynamics; By Courtenay Brown, Neil Irwin | COM | May 1, 2026. TAGS: Economy, K-shaped Economy, Federal Reserve Bank of New York,
   1. The uncomfortable new normal for the U.S. economy [is that] spending growth [is] concentrated at the top of the income ladder, a split largely explained by wealth gains from financial assets.
   2. The K-shaped economy is real, though it is not particularly new. That’s the conclusion of research out Friday morning from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
   3. It confirms an economic risk lurking beneath an economy that is navigating relentless disruption — a war driving energy prices higher, AI uncertainty, and more — where spending growth is concentrated in a single cohort that could pull back sharply with a market downturn.
   4. [In the meantime,] Low-income households have been squeezed by inflation running persistently above the national average, leaving them with little buffer against any additional shock.
   5. … [New York Fed researchers wrote in a blog post,] “Reliance on a single segment of the economy has important implications for spending growth and its fragility, as well as for economic vulnerability and policy.”
   6. … Since January 2023, real retail spending has grown at an uneven pace across income groups, according to the New York Fed data.
   7. High-income households — those earning more than $125,000 annually — saw cumulative real spending growth of about 7.6% through March 2026.
   8. Middle-income households gained about 3%. Low-income households, [those] earning under $40,000, gained just over 1%.
   9. … Before the COVID-19 pandemic, lower-income households actually outpaced the wealthy in spending growth. The divergence opened in 2023 after pandemic-era relief programs for lower- and middle-income households ran out.
   10. Researchers say that the split has been sustained, and “the recent growth in retail spending has been mostly due to the high-income households.”
   11. [In any case,] The New York Fed data shows [that] real spending has turned negative across all income groups in recent months, even as the gap between high- and low-income households persists.
   12. … Wage growth has been mixed across income groups, making it an incomplete explanation of the K-shaped dynamic. The New York Fed points to wealth and inflation as the more powerful drivers.
   13. Strong consumer spending among the richest consumers is helped by huge asset returns.
   14. Since 2023, the real net worth of the top 1% of earners has climbed more than 25%, fueled largely by surging financial assets, while the middle 40% of households has gained less than 10%, the New York Fed finds.
   15. [New York Fed researchers wrote,] “The substantial role played by financial assets raises questions regarding the potential vulnerability of retail spending to a financial market correction.”
   16. … As [these authors] wrote earlier this year, economists have cast doubt on the K-shaped narrative.
   17. For instance, Pantheon Macroeconomics argued that the wealthiest households have accounted for a roughly stable 40% share of total consumer spending for 25 years, a finding that doesn’t necessarily contradict New York Fed research.
   18. But it cuts at a more pressing question: Whether the economy’s reliance on a single cohort is a new vulnerability or a long-standing norm of American consumption.
   19. MIKE: In my comments in this show post at ThinkwingRadio[.]com, I’ve included a link that does some explaining about what the K-shaped economy
   20. MIKE: As a non-economist lay person, to me, this represents a fundamental economic and social problem.
   21. MIKE: I discussed what I consider a source of this problem in the context of a related article that I read on the April 26 edition of this show.
   22. MIKE: In that show, I pointed out that there’s a small number of people in the US that have obscene wealth in the many billions of dollars, as well as people with great wealth in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
   23. MIKE: According to my research at the time, in 2022, “… families in the top 1 percent … held 27 percent [of the wealth]”, and that in 2025, “The top 10% of households by wealth … held 67.2% of total household wealth.
   24. MIKE: On the other hand, “The bottom 50% of households by wealth had $60,000 on average. As a group, they held 2.5% of total household wealth.” I discuss that a bit more in the next story.
   25. MIKE: Those numbers seem unsustainable to me. Both socially and economically, I don’t believe that a peaceful society can long survive that kind of imbalance and maintain national and civil stability.
   26. MIKE: I also commented in that show that this asset imbalance amounts to a hoarding of resources by a small segment of society at the expense of 50-90% of the rest of our population. I believe that it is therefore a grave societal harm.
   27. MIKE: The story I read today looks at the K-shaped economy simply as problem of economic growth and whether that growth can be sustained with support from just one small segment that controls a majority of the nation’s wealth.
   28. MIKE: I have a Big Picture concern, because it means that our economy is looking more and more like a Third World country where you have a small privileged and wealthy class, while the majority of people struggle in poverty or on the edge of poverty.
   29. MIKE: Such countries always have the potential for violence fueled by frustration, anger, and resentment, and the US is ultimately not immune. In fact, given easy access to guns of all sorts here, we might be even more susceptible than most.
   30. MIKE: Thus, as I see it, this K-shaped economy isn’t just an economics issue. It’s a warning sign of a national security problem of the highest order.
   31. MIKE: You often hear Conservatives — especially Conservatives who are financially well off — complain that people should pick themselves up by their own bootstraps — a physical impossibility — and work harder if they want to do better.
   32. MIKE: Over the years, when I’ve had this argument with a Conservative about the value of a social safety net provided by the government, I always frame it for them as a form of life insurance, and explain it this way …
   33. MIKE: People aren’t going to just quietly live on the street and under bridges — hungry, cold and sick — because the wealthy resent helping them to live basic, decent lives. At some point, these people might metaphorically storm the Bastille, putting the wealthy — their homes, their property, the very lives of themselves and those they love — at literal risk.
   34. MIKE: At first, it sounds like an extreme argument to make, but it is supported by centuries of history. I find that it often stops the debate and provokes some thought.
   35. MIKE: Rachel Maddow once did several shows about a trip she took to Kabul, Afghanistan. She showed the fortified compounds of the wealthy alongside dirt roads, trash-filled streets, and people scouring open garbage dumps for survival.
   36. MIKE: When the very wealthy become greedy and indifferent to the lives of their fellow countrymen, this can be the ultimate outcome.
   37. MIKE: It then makes the general populace susceptible to political and religious extremists who promise something better. Then comes the violence.
   38. MIKE: Are we on that road? If so, how close are we? If there is violence caused by economic insecurity and hardship, would it be gradual, or would it be like a sudden explosion originating from many places almost all at once?
   39. MIKE: Let’s hope we don’t have to find out.
9. Along these same lines, from THEGUARDIAN[.]COM — New York real estate titan likens the phrase ‘tax the rich’ to racial slurs; By Gaya Gupta | THEGUARDIAN.COM | Wed 6 May 2026 13.49 EDT. TAGS: New York City, The super-rich, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, news,
   1. The phrase “tax the rich” can be “just as hateful as some disgusting racial slurs”, according to the New York City billionaire Steve Roth, who said that the top 1% should be “praised and thanked”.
   2. Speaking on his company’s quarterly earnings call on Tuesday, Roth, the CEO of Vornado Realty Trust, expressed his support for fellow billionaire and the CEO of Citadel, Ken Griffin, who was singled out in the 15 April announcement by New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, of the state’s first “pied-à-terre” tax on second homes valued at more than $5m. In a video, Mamdani announced the policy in front of Griffin’s penthouse, which he said was purchased for $238m.
   3. [Roth said,] “We are all shocked that our young mayor would pull this stunt in front of Ken’s home and single him out for ridicule. … This was both irresponsible and dangerous.”
   4. Roth said that Vornado followed the rules and paid its fair share in taxes, which amounts to $560m in real estate taxes this year, and he was “very proud of our lifetime of achievement. … I must say that I consider the phrase ‘tax the rich’ – quote tax the rich – spit out with anger and contempt by politicians both here and across the country, to be just as hateful as some disgusting racial slurs, and even the phrase from the ‘river to the sea’,” he said, referring to the controversial pro-Palestinian slogan.
   5. [MIKE: I’ll be focusing on the obscenity of that remark in my comments. Continuing …]
   6. “But, [he continued,] “the rich whom the politicians are targeting, starting with nothing, are the epitome of the American dream. … They are our largest employers and largest philanthropists, and it is the 1% that makes 50% of New York’s income taxes. [MIKE: That by itself should say something.] They are at the top of the great American economic pyramid for a reason. They should be praised and thanked.”
   7. Mamdani’s press secretary, Joe Calvello, said in a statement that the mayor wanted all New Yorkers to succeed, including “business owners and entrepreneurs who create good-paying jobs and make this city the economic engine of America”, and Griffin, “a major employer in our city and a powerful figure in our economy”.
   8. [Calvello said,] “That does not negate the fact, however, that our tax system is fundamentally broken. It rewards extreme wealth while working people are pushed to the brink. … The status quo is unsustainable and unjust. If we want this city to become a place that working people can afford, we need meaningful tax reform that includes the wealthiest New Yorkers contributing their fair share.”
   9. Roth, who has supported Donald Trump since 2016 and donated $150,000 to Andrew Cuomo’s campaign, suggested drafting Griffin to lead an effort to “elect right-minded candidates”. But he also conceded that Mamdani was “young, smart and energetic”, and said that he was pulling for him to succeed.
   10. [Roth said,] “With a little tweak here, a little tweak there, his leadership could make this great city even greater. … He will learn over time that growing a tax base is a winner and raising taxes is a loser … and that the hard-working 1% are allies, not enemies.”
   11. MIKE: Of course I have to start by observing that equating the phrase “tax the rich” with hateful racial and ethnic slurs suggests that “New York City billionaire Steve Roth” has developed an almost laughable victim complex while living a life that 90% of Americans can’t even imagine. And in my opinion, even making that kind comparison is obscene.
   12. MIKE: Now I could see if he was that upset by phrases like “eat the rich” or “get out the guillotines”. But to feel that “tax the rich” amounts to hate speech shows just how out of touch and sheltered Roth has become.
   13. MIKE: On my April 26^th show, I reported that, “… families in the top 1 percent … held 27 percent [of the wealth], up from 23 percent in 1989,” and “According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, in 2025, “The top 10% of households by wealth had $8.1 million on average [and as] a group, they held 67.2% of total household wealth. The bottom 50% of households by wealth had $60,000 on average. As a group, they held 2.5% of total household wealth.”
   14. MIKE: This week, let me dig a bit deeper. According to a CNBC story from Oct 3, 2025, … [As of the 2^nd quarter of 2025,] The top 1% held 29% of total household wealth …” For context, “the top 0.1%, [are] those with a net worth of at least $46 million …,” and that echelon holds “over $23 trillion [in] total wealth.”
   15. MIKE: To put that in some context, as of 2022, according to a story in the Business Times, “The 0.1 per cent now account for 13.6 per cent of total household wealth.”
   16. MIKE: Now to be fair, all of these numbers are highly variable depending on the source and the time when the source story was written, but the essence of these numbers doesn’t change.
   17. MIKE: I’ve done research on the question of which party is better for the country generally, and even the wealthy in particular.
   18. MIKE: Over and over, from both liberal and conservative thinktanks, the result is the same. Everyone does better under Democratic administrations, even the rich. The wealthy pay higher taxes, which the government spends, which then goes to all the contractors and government employees that the government pays. Those payees then spend that money at businesses where much of the additional profits go to the already-rich.
   19. MIKE: I learned long ago that companies understand that they can’t survive without salespeople. They just hate paying them.
   20. MIKE: Wealthy taxpayers are the same. Ultimately, even when paying higher taxes, the rich net more wealth under higher-tax regimes than under Reaganistic low-tax regimes. They just hate making out those checks to the IRS.
   21. MIKE: In sum, billionaire Steve Roth and others of his ilk need to somehow get reattached to the reality that 90% of Americans are living in, especially those Americans in the bottom 50%. Otherwise, he may have a chance to hear what hate speech against the ultrawealthy really sounds like.
10. Along the same lines, speaking of the trials and tribulations of the bottom 50%, from TEXASTRIBUNE[.]ORG — Texas leads nation in utility shutoffs as electric bills rise, federal report finds; By David Martin Davies, Texas Public Radio | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | May 4, 2026, 6:24 p.m. Central. TAGS: Texas, Residential Electricity Shutoffs, U.S. Energy Information Administration, Utility Disconnections,
    1. Texas had more residential electricity shutoffs than any other state in 2024, according to a new federal report that offers one of the clearest national pictures yet of how often households are left in the dark because they cannot pay their bills.
    2. The U.S. Energy Information Administration found that utilities disconnected residential electricity service 13.4 million times nationwide in 2024. Texas accounted for more than 3 million of those disconnections, the highest total in the country.
    3. The report also found Texas had [over 206k] residential natural gas disconnections, again the largest state total.
    4. Margo Weisz, executive director of the Texas Energy Poverty Research Institute [TEPRI], said the numbers show that Texas is an outlier. She said Texas residents make up about 9% of the nation’s electricity customers but accounted for 22.5% of all electricity disconnections.
    5. [Weisz told Texas Public Radio,] “So we’re seeing a real challenge specifically in Texas where we purport to have very low electricity bills.”
    6. Weisz said the problem is especially acute for low- and moderate-income Texans. TEPRI survey data found that half of those households report struggling every month to pay energy bills. Many cut back on basic needs, including food, medicine or school supplies, to keep the lights on.
    7. The pressure is rising as electricity bills climb.
    8. A TEPRI affordability outlook found residential electricity prices in the ERCOT competitive retail market rose by roughly 30% between 2021 and 2025, adding about $35 to $40 a month to a typical low- or moderate-income household’s bill. The group projects another 29% increase from 2025 to 2030, driven largely by transmission and distribution investments.
    9. Those investments are tied in part to Texas’ rapid growth, extreme weather demands, grid hardening after the 2021 winter blackout, and new large electricity users, including data centers, crypto mining and industrial operations.
    10. ERCOT serves about 90% of Texas electric demand, and recent reporting has shown the grid operator is facing a surge of large-load requests as data centers and heavy industry seek power connections.
    11. For customers who are disconnected, Weisz said the burden can deepen. They may have to enter a payment plan, pay overdue balances and fees, or find another retail electric provider — often at less favorable terms.
    12. [Weisz said,] “Once you’re disconnected, you don’t have sort of the same level of choice in terms of accessing affordable plans. … So your electricity actually becomes more expensive because you have to get paid up before you can get reconnected again.”
    13. For Texans already limiting air conditioning use during hot weather to avoid higher bills, Weisz said the stakes are about more than household budgets.
    14. [Said Weisz,] “Energy is foundational to our daily life.”
    15. MIKE: Imagine when your power goes out for a few hours or a day. Then imagine what it’s like when the power is deliberately cut off, and you have no idea how or when you’ll be able to get reconnected. So you live as long as you have to with no lights, no fans, no heat or air conditioning, no hot water, and no electric appliances such as electric stoves or microwaves.
    16. MIKE: Its barely better than living on the street and this is a reality for millions of Texans and other Americans every year.
    17. MIKE: In what is so far still the richest country in the world with the most billionaires in the world, in my opinion, this is both intolerable and unsustainable.
    18. MIKE: Something must be done. Increasing the national minimum wage would be just a start. We need a major reform to the progressivity of income taxes, as well as tax incentives for companies to put more of their profits into worker wage increases rather than executive pay.
11. From ARSTECHNICA[.]COM — FDA vaccine studies censored by Trump admin after finding benefits of shots; By Beth Mole | ARSTECHNICA.COM | May 6, 2026 11:19 AM. TAGS: Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration, safety and efficacy of vaccines,
    1. Despite Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s pledge to provide “radical transparency,” the agencies under his control continue to suppress scientific research that conflicts with his anti-vaccine agenda.
    2. On Tuesday, The New York Times reported confirmation from the Department of Health and Human Services that the Food and Drug Administration had blocked the publication of studies showing the safety and efficacy of vaccines against COVID-19 and shingles. The revelation follows a report from The Washington Post last month that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scrapped a scientifically vetted study previously scheduled for publication that found COVID-19 vaccines sharply cut the risk of emergency care and hospitalization among healthy adults. The study was ultimately rejected by Kennedy’s acting CDC director, who claimed to have concerns about the study’s methodology.
    3. Similarly at the FDA, two studies on COVID-19 vaccines by agency scientists were accepted for publication at medical journals, according to the Times. But unnamed FDA officials directed the agency scientists to withdraw the studies. While a preliminary abstract of one of the studies presented at a conference last fall remains online, the Times obtained a copy of the full manuscript, the conclusion of which reads, “Given the available evidence, FDA continues to conclude the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks.”
    4. In addition, the Times learned that FDA officials did not allow agency scientists to submit two abstracts for studies on Shingrix, a shingles vaccine, to a major drug safety conference. The studies reportedly bolstered known efficacy and safety data of the vaccines.
    5. HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said in a statement that the axed COVID studies “were withdrawn because the authors drew broad conclusions that were not supported by the underlying data. The FDA acted to protect the integrity of its scientific process and ensure that any work associated with the agency meets its high standards.”
    6. Of the shingles study looking at efficacy, he said, “The design of that study fell outside the agency’s purview.” Nixon did not address why the Shingrix safety study was withheld.
    7. MIKE: This is Robert Kennedy Jr. raising your risk of serious disease for his own ideological reasons. Always remember the elections have consequences and show up to vote like your life depends on it.
12. Finally, from REUTERS[.]COM — Taiwan president defiant as he begins Eswatini trip; China calls him a ‘rat’; By Reuters | REUTERS.COM | May 2, 20268:08 PM CDT. TAGS: China, Taiwan, Taipei, Beijing,
    1. Taiwan has a right to engage with the world and no ‌country can stop that, President Lai Ching-te told Eswatini’s king after he arrived [on] a surprise trip that Taipei says Beijing tried to stop, as China condemned him as a “rat”.
    2. China views democratically governed Taiwan as part of its territory with ​no right to state-to-state ties, a position Taiwan’s government strongly disputes, and Beijing has ​demanded countries stop any engagements with the island.
    3. Last month, Taiwan said China … forced ⁠three Indian Ocean countries to pull overflight permission for Lai’s aircraft to travel to the ​small southern African kingdom of Eswatini [formerly Swaziland] for the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession. It ​is one of only 12 countries with formal ties with Taipei.
    4. [Referring to Taiwan’s official name, Lai told the king, in comments ​provided by the presidential office [last] Sunday,] “The Republic of China, Taiwan, is a sovereign nation and a Taiwan that belongs to the world. … The 23 million people of Taiwan have the right ​to engage with the world, and no country has the right — nor should any country attempt — to prevent ‌Taiwan from ⁠contributing to the world.”
    5. [MIKE: That phrasing, buried in the middle of this article, could almost be considered a major political announcement. It could almost have been the story’s headline. I’ll discuss that in more detail in my comments. Continuing …]
    6. Lai arrived in the former Swaziland, home to around 1.3 million people, on Saturday, on a trip neither government had announced beforehand, having taken an Eswatini government aircraft.
    7. The “arrive then announce” model is commonly used in high-level international diplomacy, minimising the “uncertain risks of potential interference from ​external forces”, a senior ​Taiwan security official ⁠said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.
    8. Late Saturday, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said Lai had “skulked” his way to ​Eswatini.
    9. [A spokesperson said in a statement,]”Lai Ching-te’s despicable conduct — like a rat scurrying across the street — will ​inevitably be ⁠met with ridicule by the international community.”
    10. Taiwan’s China-policy-making Mainland Affairs Council said Lai did not need Beijing’s permission to go anywhere.
    11. [It added,] “The Taiwan Affairs Office’s fishwife’s gutter talk ⁠is ​boring in the extreme.”
    12. Lai’s cancelled plans last month ​due to the overflight problem had prompted criticism of China from the U.S., and concern from the European Union, Britain, France ​and Germany.
    13. MIKE: When some governments are mad at each other, you’ve got to love the resort to low-brow sniping. “Skulked”? “Despicable conduct”? “Like a rat scurrying across the street”?  “Fishwife’s gutter talk”?
    14. MIKE: I always find myself startled when countries use this kind of talk in official diplomatic or public statements. It sounds like middle school.
    15. MIKE: Nonetheless, this is serious stuff.
    16. MIKE: When the president of Taiwan officially refers in a public statement to the Republic of China — the official name for Taiwan — as a sovereign nation, the PRC Chinese consider those to be literal fighting words because they imply that Taiwan considers itself a separate and independent nation.
    17. MIKE: For about 50 years, the US has maintained what is called “strategic ambiguity”. This allowed the US and China to establish diplomatic relations with the official position that there is one China, and Taiwan is a part of China.
    18. MIKE: This phrasing nicely sidestepped the question of which government actually is the legitimate ruler of this one China. Thus, for both political and national security reasons, Taiwan has refrained from ever referring to itself as a sovereign nation due to fear of angering the PRC.
    19. MIKE: Thus, when the president of Taiwan says publicly that it’s a sovereign nation, he’s essentially candidly declaring — or at least implying — Taiwan’s independence from China. This casts aside the strategic ambiguity typically favored by both Taiwan and the PRC. Doing so puts the PRC government in a corner.
    20. MIKE: The government of mainland China — the People’s Republic of China — has made it clear that it will not tolerate a Taiwan that declares its independence as a sovereign nation. It has said many times that, if necessary, it will take Taiwan by force to end the ‘fiction’ of One China and make it an official reality.
    21. MIKE: So when Taiwanese President Lai uses those words, I hope he wasn’t speaking carelessly off the cuff. It will be interesting to see if the government of Taiwan walks back that statement.

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

You’ve been listening to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig from KPFT Houston 90.1-HD2, Galveston 89.5-HD2, Goodrich 89.9-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!