Except for timely election info, the extensive list of voting resources will now be at the end.

“There’s a reason why you separate military and police. One fights the enemy of the State. The other serves and protects the People. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the State tend to become the People.” ~ Commander Adama, “Battlestar Galactica” (“WATER”, Season 1 episode 2, at the 28 minute mark.)

“… In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression …

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way …

The third is freedom from want …

The fourth is freedom from fear …”

VIDEO: FDR’s Four Freedoms Speech (1941) (FOUR FREEDOMS SPECIFIC EXCERPT WITH TAX FAIRNESS — 31:13 to 33:29  

FULL SPEECH TRANSCRIPT: Voices of Democracy: The U.S. Oratory Project

Welcome to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig, now in its 14^th year on KPFT from Houston 90.1-HD2, Galveston 89.5-HD2, Livingston/Goodrich 89.9-HD2, and Huntsville 91.9-HD2. KPFT is Houston’s Community radio.

And welcome to our international listeners from Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Belgium, 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 47^th week of Trump’s military occupation of Washington DC; and 36 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 4 months. I can’t wait to see how that one turns out.

LAWFARE has a chart of where US troops are currently stationed around the US. The link is in this show post at ThinkwingRadio[.]com.

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

1. This first story is along the lines of a public health advisory. It was published on July 2^nd, before the holiday, but better late than never. From CHRON[.]COM — The FDA says these Texas favorites have a history of Cyclospora outbreaks; By Michael Shapiro, Digital News Reporter | CHRON.COM | July 2, 2026. TAGS: Cyclospora, Cyclospora Outbreaks, Food Risks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC), FDA,
   1. Texans may want to think twice before loading up on some of their favorite fresh produce this summer.
   2. The United States is currently dealing with an outbreak of Cyclospora, a parasite that causes a collection of unpleasant symptoms including watery diarrhea, cramping, increased [gassiness], and nausea. Cyclospora is linked to a number of common fruits and vegetables, per the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), many of which are favorites of Texans each summer.
   3. According to the FDA, foods previously associated with Cyclospora outbreaks include:
   4. Mesclun [“MESS-klun”] lettuce and salad mixes — Frequently implicated because they’re eaten raw and difficult to thoroughly clean.
   5. Cilantro — One of the foods most commonly linked to U.S. Cyclospora outbreaks, especially when imported.
   6. Basil — Fresh basil has been tied to multiple multistate outbreaks, including a major 2019 outbreak linked to imports.
   7. Snow peas — Raw snow peas have been associated with Cyclospora illnesses in past investigations.
   8. Raspberries — Imported raspberries have been linked to several Cyclospora outbreaks over the past three decades.
   9. Blackberries and other fresh berries — While less common than raspberries, fresh berries have also been implicated because they’re typically eaten without cooking.
   10. Spinach and leafy greens — Raw leafy vegetables can become contaminated before harvest or during processing.
   11. Per the CDC, simply washing and properly preparing these foods isn’t a guaranteed way to avoid Cyclospora, creating a scary luck-of-the-draw situation for Texans eating certain produce. A 2019 Cyclospora outbreak emerged from imported berries and herbs from Mexico, and in 2018, 400 people were infected with Cyclospora through tainted salads at McDonald’s.
   12. New York is currently the nation’s leader in Cyclospora in the recent outbreak, with 31-to-80 cases reported from May 1 to June 16. But the Lone Star State still ranks near the top of the United States, joining Illinois as the only other state with more than 10 cases. Per the CDC, both Texas and Illinois have reported 11-to-30 cases of Cyclospora as of mid-June. The nationwide outbreak of 145 Cyclospora cases has led to 20 hospitalizations to date, though no deaths have been reported. 
   13. Cyclospora is often contracted through contaminated food or water, often ingested during travel outside the United States. The CDC has yet to identify the specific source of Cyclospora in the 145 reported cases nationwide. Antibiotics are the most effective way to combat Cyclospora, and without treatment, the unseemly symptoms can last for months. 
   14. Current individuals who contracted Cyclospora in recent months range from 17-to-89 years old. The CDC reported in June its “investigations to identify potential sources [of Cyclospora] are ongoing.”
   15. MIKE: Why is New York beating Texas? Is it okay that we’re not #1 in Cyclospora?
   16. MIKE: But seriously, when I was growing up in the 1950s and 60s, reports of foodborne illness were not non-existent, but they were much less common.
   17. MIKE: It was never recommended that you cook eggs so that the yolk was thoroughly cooked. You cooked chicken thoroughly because it tasted better that way.
   18. MIKE: And the only food that you were warned to cook thoroughly to avoid trichinosis was pork.
   19. MIKE: Of course, when I was growing up in those decades, information was harder to disseminate and acquire. For example, the research I did just for this commentary would have been literally impossible.
   20. MIKE: Also, growing seasons really mattered because we imported far less food. As an example, the first time I tasted a mango was about 1958 in Miami Beach. That was because they never made it as far north as New York.
   21. MIKE: As technology improved and transportation of food over long distances became both more feasible and cheaper, food began arriving in places and at seasons that were never before possible. As an example, think kiwi fruit, the vast majority of which is produced in China, Italy, New Zealand, and Greece. But we’ve paid a health price for some of that.
   22. MIKE: At this point, I’ll warn you that my comments and analysis here ended up being much more extensive than I had planned.
   23. MIKE: To quote the CenterForFoodsafety[.]org in part, “One likely cause is overcrowded conditions in factory farms, where animals get sick and pass the disease on to other animals.  Another factor is our wide distribution system, in which contaminated food is transported across the nation.  Also, we are increasingly relying on imported foods with unknown safety standards. (For example, a full 60 percent of our seafood is imported.)  Adding to this perfect storm is dangerous government deregulation and inadequate funding for inspections and oversight. Taken together, this is a recipe for food safety disaster.”
   24. MIKE: I think that sums it up more briefly and succinctly than I could.
   25. MIKE: So why do foodborne illnesses seem more common today than in decades past, what can be done to help mitigate the risks?
   26. MIKE: Well, in summary, we can certainly make food safety regulations stronger. We can reduce or eliminate self-regulation by food processors, providers, and importers. And we can fund the FDA in a way that makes government inspection both more feasible and more effective.
   27. MIKE: I ended up spending an inordinate amount of time and energy trying to investigate how the US tries to prevent the outbreak of foodborne illness.
   28. MIKE: What I kept finding fell mostly into two categories: Ingredient safety (which is not the topic under consideration here) and mitigation of outbreaks already in progress.
   29. MIKE: I tried searching by framing my questions in a number of different ways, but I was constantly stymied in finding authoritative articles and papers about food safety in the prevention of foodborne illness related to FDA inspections, and private industry self-inspection and procedures.
   30. MIKE: Instead, I kept finding stories on the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of the food industry trying to mitigate the spread of foodborne illnesses that have already affected large numbers of people.
   31. MIKE: In other words, closing the gate after the cattle have left the corral. Or after the chickens have flown the coop. You get the point.
   32. MIKE: There was also a lot of discussion about how consumers can prevent foodborne disease, primarily by frequent handwashing during food preparation, rinsing fruits and vegetables, preventing cross contamination of foods, proper refrigeration and temperature maintenance, thorough cooking, etc.
   33. MIKE: This is all good advice, and widely and frequently mentioned in ads, food labels, etc. but was non-responsive to my question.
   34. MIKE: Also, as the story points out, Cyclospora and other diseases are not necessarily prevented by washing fruits and vegetables at home, so hygiene at the source matters.
   35. MIKE: I finally tried asking, “Did FDA once do more food safety inspections?”, and as a follow-up, “Why the FDA is struggling to meet its inspection goals?”
   36. MIKE: First, for the three years prior to COVID — in other words, prior to about January of 2020 — the FDA inspected about “17.3 percent of domestic food facilities each year. In 2022 and 2023, after standard inspection operations had resumed, FDA inspected only 13.7% [in 2022] and 13.5 percent of all food facilities [in 2023 …]”
   37. MIKE: Further, according to the same study, between 2019 and 2023, “[the] FDA [failed to] inspect 26 percent of the high-risk facilities in continuous operation within the required 3-year timeframe
   38. MIKE: When I tried to compare those numbers to food inspections before 1970, guess what? Apparently, “it wasn’t until 1976 that the landmark Food Safety and Quality Protection Act was passed. This act set the stage for modern food safety regulations as we know them today.”
   39. MIKE: And here’s a wrinkle. When I tried to find a link to the Food Safety and Quality Act, it turned out that the year it passed as stated in multiple sources was 1996 and not 1976. So there you go. Sources matter and typos happen.
   40. MIKE: In closing, I draw several conclusions from this research.
   41. MIKE: First and foremost, it always pays to be careful of the sources you use, and doublecheck if you have doubts.
   42. MIKE: Second, and I’ve raised this point before, HOW you phrase internet queries and the specific words you use make an enormous difference in the results you get or don’t get. Always remember that computers are stupid and literal.
   43. MIKE: Third, and back to the subject of food safety — and this is another point I frequently make — you get the government you pay for. If you want food to be safer, the FDA needs to hire more people who are qualified for various kinds of food inspections; inspections need to be unannounced and more frequent; and we need more tax money and/or factory inspection fees to staff the FDA appropriately. If we want every food processor to be inspected at least every three years, that means we need enough qualified FDA people to inspect a third of the industry every year. That takes money.
   44. MIKE: The debate there is how and where you find the money, but that’s beyond the scope of this piece.
   45. MIKE: So the best you can do for now is maintain the kinds of home hygiene practices that are commonly recommended and try to be aware of food and product warnings, while trying not to be too paranoid.
   46. MIKE: After all, live must go on.
2. Next from CHRON[.]COM — Does Houston have too many gas stations? One local lawmaker thinks so; By Ahmed Humble, Senior Trending Reporter | CHRON.COM | July 3, 2026. TAGS: Houston, Houston City Council Member Edward Pollard, Gas Stations, Gas Stations Near Residential Neighborhoods, Zoning, Fuel Plazas,
   1. In a city where driving is practically a requirement, one Houston lawmaker is asking whether the city might be building too many gas stations.
   2. Houston City Council Member Edward Pollard is calling on Mayor John Whitmire to impose a 90-day moratorium, or a pause, on approving new gas stations with fuel pumps located within 200 feet of residential property lines, arguing the city should take more time to evaluate the growing concentration of gas stations near residential neighborhoods.
   3. In a letter issued Thursday, Pollard said residents, civic organizations, and neighborhood leaders have repeatedly raised concerns about clusters of gas stations appearing in close proximity to residential neighborhoods.
   4. [Pollard wrote,] “The concentration of multiple gas stations within the same area can create conditions that attract higher levels of public safety concerns; however, having a diverse mix of commercial offerings can create more vibrant neighborhoods.”
   5. Pollard stressed the proposal is not intended to halt development altogether.
   6. [He explained,] “Houston continues to welcome economic growth and private investment, and gas stations remain an important part of our commercial landscape. … Rather, this temporary pause would provide the City with the opportunity to fully evaluate the available data, engage residents and industry stakeholders, and determine whether additional safeguards or policy changes are appropriate.”
   7. In a Facebook post announcing the proposal, Pollard said communities have “continuously expressed health concerns that deserve further engagement,” while emphasizing that gas stations remain “a vital and essential business for our city.”
   8. The council member said a temporary moratorium … would allow the mayor’s administration, City Council, the Houston Health Department, neighborhood representatives, and industry stakeholders to work together on what he described as “thoughtful, balanced solutions” that protect residents while preserving responsible development.
   9. … The proposal also drew support from some residents on Facebook, several of whom argued [that] Houston has become oversaturated with gas stations while lacking grocery stores and other neighborhood businesses.
   10. [One user said,] “I live in Westbury and it is beyond ridiculous at this point. We have no grocery stores within about a 10-minute drive, but tons of gas stations (and car washes). … Many of our neighbors use the gas stations for their food source a great deal of the time. This should not be the norm.”
   11. Pollard concluded in his letter that he previously raised the issue with Whitmire shortly after the mayor took office but said it never received a response.
   12. [MIKE: This seems to be a feature of this mayor’s administration and not a bug. As always, elections have consequences. Continuing …]
   13. [Pollard wrote,] “Our residents have made it clear that this issue matters to them as well. … They deserve to know their concerns are being heard and that the City is willing to take the time necessary to fully evaluate this matter before additional applications move forward.”
   14. Neither Pollard nor Whitmire could immediately be reached for this story. 
   15. MIKE: I think a key point mentioned in this story is that Mayor Whitmire is often not particularly responsive to inquiries.
   16. MIKE: But to the point of this story, context matters. I think it’s important to discuss how the notion of what we expect gas stations to be has changed over the past several decades, and how the impact they have on neighborhoods and communities has transformed.
   17. MIKE: Gas stations used to be full service. They were neighborhood places that were owned by your neighbors. They had maybe several pumps on one or two islands. They usually included a couple of mechanics’ bays and you could buy oil, beverages, or cigarettes. They consumed very small footprints, and they were mostly at major intersections.
   18. MIKE: The advent of self-service fuel pumps, the laws allowing unattended customer fueling, and the advent of pay-at-the-pump capability gradually changed that.
   19. MIKE: Today, gas stations rarely perform any sort of mechanical service. They consume the land area of small strip centers including what amounts to a small parking lot, and they can have several islands with a dozen or more fuel pumps.
   20. MIKE: What used to be the attached office is increasingly a convenience store attached to a small fast-food outlet.
   21. MIKE: It’s even possible that simply calling these things “gas stations” is no longer even adequately descriptive of what they are. Maybe they should be called “fuel depots”, “fueling plazas”, or something else. After all, the fuel they sell is often no longer just gasoline, and the products they sell are now usually far removed from just fuel.
   22. MIKE: I think that these are the kinds of gas stations that Council Member Pollard and his constituents are talking about, so it requires us to change our mental image of what modern gas stations are.
   23. MIKE: I think that Pollard has valid reasons for requesting a moratorium on city permitting of gas stations until some further consideration is made on where they should be allowed.
   24. MIKE: Personally, I think it’s also another argument for zoning in Houston, but I can’t imagine that happening in my lifetime.
3. Desalination, which used to be called “desalinization” and which is much harder to say, is probably the future of potable water access. This next article is close to home and is from TEXASTRIBUNE[.]ORG — Corpus Christi declines to seek federal grant for long-debated water desalination plant; by Colleen DeGuzman | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | June 30, 2026, 6:40 p.m. Central. TAG: Donald Trump, Water Treatment Project, Desalination Plant, Corpus Christi City Council, Corpus Christi,
   1. A sharply divided Corpus Christi City Council declined Tuesday to apply for a federal grant to help build a proposed $978.8 million water treatment project.
   2. Council members traded insults and accusations on their way to a 5-4 vote that casts further doubt on a proposed desalination plant meant to provide a drought-resistant water supply in about three years.
   3. Council members Roland Barrera, Mark Scott and Everett Roy suggested tapping a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation grant program that offers up to $120 million to help build desalination plants across the country.
   4. Barrera said he proposed the grant application with little hope of passing a bitterly conflicted City Council, but felt it was worth the effort because the city needs the funding.
   5. [Barrera said,] “I knew where it was going to go. … I’m highly disappointed, because I think we’re here to serve the community.”
   6. Council Member Carolyn Vaughn said the agenda item was a waste of the council’s time.
   7. [Vaughn said,] “I’m so glad that you admitted that you put it on here knowing full well no one was going to support it, because what you wanted to do was cause chaos.”
   8. She also defended herself and the other four opposing council members, whom she said Barrera recently called “stupid” on a radio show.
   9. [Vaughn told Barrera,] “You call people stupid, that’s such a childish thing to do. … You do that whenever you have nothing else to say.”
   10. [MIKE: I know a president who resembles that remark. Anyway …]
   11. [Council Member Eric Cantu said,] “I don’t think we’re stupid. I think we’re trying to protect the ratepayers and the taxpayers.”
   12. The City Council in September halted efforts to build a $1.2 billion desalination plant — capable of treating around 30 million gallons of seawater a day beginning in 2029 — citing concerns about the cost and environmental impact from salty discharge into Corpus Christi Bay.
   13. The city’s water department asked the council to reconsider the plant in early June after cutting the price tag to nearly $980 million. Council members deferred that decision until Sept. 1.
   14. But with an Aug. 26 deadline to apply for the federal grant, opponents said there is no approved project to seek money for.
   15. [Said Council Member Kaylynn Paxson, who voted last fall to pause the Inner Harbor project,] “We do not have an approved council project to apply this to. … At the end of the day I don’t support moving forward on this because we don’t have a project that I support to apply this for.”
   16. S. Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Victoria, announced last month that, with the support of President Donald Trump, the agency was able to remove the $30 million cap on the grant program, making Corpus Christi eligible for up to $120 million.
   17. Fewer than a dozen projects are expected to qualify for the federal agency’s WaterSMART Program this year. Applications are ranked on a point system, which prioritizes “how much of the annual demand for the service area is offset by the desalinated water,” according to the agency.
   18. The federal grant is meant to provide up to 25% of the project’s total cost to plan, design and build.
   19. During Tuesday’s debate, [Council member Mark Scott] encouraged the other city council members to think ahead.
   20. [Scott said,] “The responsible thing, the logical thing, the financially prudent thing is to direct you all to work towards that grant while we continue to do our homework on the environment, environmental impacts.”
   21. Nick Winkelmann, chief operating officer of the city’s water department, estimated it would cost the city up to $60,000 to apply for the grant, considering staff time and the consulting firm.
   22. Grant applicants are required to provide a feasibility study. Completed by Corpus Christi a few weeks ago, the study found that the plant’s salty discharge would not affect sea life — although opponents have questioned the fairness of the environmental study.
   23. Council Member Gil Hernandez voted against applying for the grant because the City Council hasn’t yet approved the project. [Hernandez said,] “This is not the appropriate time to vote on this.”
   24. Before Tuesday’s meeting, he said he is hesitant about using federal funds for the proposed project.
   25. [Hernandez told The Texas Tribune, “Anything with the federal government is just, they take our money in taxes, and they give it back to us with requirements and strings. … Then you have to do all sorts of reporting and it’s a monster to do.”
   26. But Dolly Trolley, the Corpus Christi school board president, told the City Council on Tuesday that the grant was an important opportunity.
   27. [Ms. Trolley said,] “If the city does not apply for this grant, it seems like we’re looking [away from] what is essentially free money. … Many of you have argued against this project based on cost, and this grant and subsequent grant funds that might be available will make this drought-proof project much more affordable for our region.”
   28. Mary Carlson, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Reclamation, said desalination is a critical tool for diversifying water supplies.
   29. “As we continue to manage through the impacts of severe drought, desalination offers potential new and reliable water supplies for communities” she said in a statement.
   30. MIKE: You may have heard that Corpus Christi is facing a water crisis so severe that Governor Greg Abbott has threatened to take over the city government, so this debate about building essential infrastructure versus taking money from the big, bad federal government sounds a bit like fiddling while the city burns, which is something Republicans seem to do a lot of these days.
   31. MIKE: As regular listeners to this show may know, for me, every article creates a potential rabbit hole for me to go down, and this story was no exception.
   32. MIKE: As I read it, it seemed to me that the only valid objection to this desalination plant was the environmental one. Namely, what do they do with the concentrated brine resulting from the process? If improperly disposed of, it can severely damage the nearby ecosystems.
   33. MIKE: That pushed me down the rabbit hole.
   34. MIKE: It turns out that if the council members and citizens who share that concern had done some basic web searches, the answers are out there, and plenty of them.
   35. MIKE: Out of a vast number of articles on the subject, I picked two. (This one and this one.)
4. I’m going to read the one from MIT[.]EDU because even though it’s from 2019, it’s still relevant and relatively short — Turning desalination waste into a useful resource; By David L. Chandler, MIT News Office | MIT.EDU | Publication Date: February 13, 2019. TAGS: Research, Water, Mechanical engineering, Desalination, School of Engineering, Energy, Chemical engineering, Sustainability, Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS), Energy efficiency,
   1. The rapidly growing desalination industry produces water for drinking and for agriculture in the world’s arid coastal regions. But it leaves behind as a waste product a lot of highly concentrated brine, which is usually disposed of by dumping it back into the sea, a process that requires costly pumping systems and that must be managed carefully to prevent damage to marine ecosystems. Now, engineers at MIT say they have found a better way.
   2. In a new study, they show that through a fairly simple process the waste material can be converted into useful chemicals — including ones that can make the desalination process itself more efficient.
   3. The approach can be used to produce sodium hydroxide, among other products. Otherwise known as caustic soda, sodium hydroxide can be used to pretreat seawater going into the desalination plant. This changes the acidity of the water, which helps to prevent fouling of the membranes used to filter out the salty water — a major cause of interruptions and failures in typical reverse osmosis desalination plants.
   4. The concept is described … in the journal Nature Catalysis and in two other papers by MIT research scientist Amit Kumar, professor of mechanical engineering John. H. Lienhard V, and several others. …
   5. [Kumar says of sodium hydroxide,] “The desalination industry itself uses quite a lot of it. … They’re buying it, [and] spending money on it. So if you can make it in situ at the plant, that could be a big advantage.”
   6. The amount needed in the plants themselves is far less than the total that could be produced from the brine, so there is also potential for it to be a saleable product.
   7. Sodium hydroxide is not the only product that can be made from the waste brine: Another important chemical used by desalination plants and many other industrial processes is hydrochloric acid, which can also easily be made on site from the waste brine using established chemical processing methods. The chemical can be used for cleaning parts of the desalination plant, but is also widely used in chemical production and as a source of hydrogen.
   8. Currently, the world produces more than 100 billion liters (about 27 billion gallons) a day of water from desalination, which leaves a similar volume of concentrated brine. Much of that is pumped back out to sea, and current regulations require costly outfall systems to ensure adequate dilution of the salts. Converting the brine can thus be both economically and ecologically beneficial, especially as desalination continues to grow rapidly around the world. [Lienhard says,] “Environmentally safe discharge of brine is manageable with current technology, but it’s much better to recover resources from the brine and reduce the amount of brine released.”
   9. The method of converting the brine into useful products uses well-known and standard chemical processes, including initial nanofiltration to remove undesirable compounds, followed by one or more electrodialysis stages to produce the desired end product.
   10. While the processes being suggested are not new, the researchers have analyzed the potential for production of useful chemicals from brine and proposed a specific combination of products and chemical processes that could be turned into commercial operations to enhance the economic viability of the desalination process, while diminishing its environmental impact.
   11. [Kumar says,] “This very concentrated brine has to be handled carefully to protect life in the ocean, and it’s a resource waste, and it costs energy to pump it back out to sea,” so turning it into a useful commodity is a win-win. And sodium hydroxide is such a ubiquitous chemical that he says, “every lab at MIT has some,” so finding markets for it should not be difficult.
   12. The researchers have discussed the concept with companies that may be interested in the next step of building a prototype plant to help work out the real-world economics of the process. [Kumar says that at this stage,] “One big challenge is cost — both electricity cost and equipment cost.”
   13. The team also continues to look at the possibility of extracting other, lower-concentration materials from the brine stream, he says, including various metals and other chemicals, which could make the brine processing an even more economically viable undertaking.
   14. [Says Jurg Keller, a professor of water management at the University of Queensland in Australia, who was not involved in this work,] “One aspect that was mentioned … and strongly resonated with me was the proposal for such technologies to support more ‘localized’ or ‘decentralized’ production of these chemicals at the point-of-use. … This could have some major energy and cost benefits, since the up-concentration and transport of these chemicals often adds more cost and even higher energy demand than the actual production of these at the concentrations that are typically used.”
   15. MIKE: I asked Google Ai: “Do any existing desalination plants have brine processing facilities to reduce brine volume?”
   16. MIKE: The answer, basically, is “a few”, primarily newer ones or pilot projects. That resulted in a readable scientific article that I’m linking to as a reference for those who may be interested.
   17. MIKE: The upshot of all this in my mind is that brine-reduction schemes are available that eliminate or sharply reduce the need for brine disposal in the gulf. Further, there’s lots of research ongoing to address the problem, meaning that even better schemes may be available in the future.
   18. MIKE: Again, this is the result of less than an hour of research online.
   19. MIKE: So referring back to the Corpus Christi story, there are many routes that can be taken to make the desalination project less costly to operate, better for the environment, and that even create a useful and valuable resource stream for industry in Texas and elsewhere. Perhaps public-private partnerships that include Texas universities like Texas A&M can be established that make this sort of desalination ecosystem more effective, affordable, and profitable.
   20. MIKE: Much of the energy needed to run the plant can be obtained by building an on-site or near-site solar energy facilities with backup batteries. Again, any surplus energy that may be generated or stored can be sold back to the grid, further reducing net costs.
   21. MIKE: I hope that the Corpus Christi city council revisits this topic with the new information necessary to obtain at least the one additional vote that would pass it.
5. From CHRON[.]COM, there was this interesting and mildly entertaining opinion piece— If Mamdani’s 78 degree AC ask is communism, so is Greg Abbott’s; By Gwen Howerton, Texas Culture Reporter | CHRON.COM | July 2, 2026. TAGS: New York City, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Heat Wave, Communism, Air Conditioning (AC),
   1. It’s summer. It’s hot! This is not news to Texans, but it is to New Yorkers who are prepping for a brutal heat wave. You would think something as routine as city officials giving recommendations on how to, you know, not die during the heat wave would be above politics. But apparently, that’s communism. 
   2. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted about ways to stay cool and keep New York’s power grid from going kaput on Tuesday. On X and other platforms, Mamdani urged New Yorkers to “set your AC to 78 degrees, turn off lights/electronics you’re not using, and unplug what you can.”
   3. City buildings and private companies who contract with the city, Mamdani said, are doing their part, too.
   4. [Mamdani said,] “A stable grid means the AC stays on, and lives are saved. Let’s ease demand—and get through the heat—together.”
   5. The 78-degree AC ask immediately drew the ire of, well, everyone. Former Texans star J.J. Watt, who is apparently now doing ads via X replies, touted Austin-based power company Base.
   6. But Mamdani’s plea was like catnip to conservatives who, eager to turn [on] the New York mayor who is beloved by Gen Zers, want to paint him as an evil Stalinist. 
   7. [Conservative writer Buzz Patterson wrote.] “What’s the setting for Madison Square Garden for Taylor Swift’s wedding?”
   8. Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, fresh off a whacky hearing about MKULTRA, tweeted with some emojis,] “SoCIAlisM WoRKS thO 🥴🥴🥴,”
   9. [The noxious commentator Dave Portnoy said,] “78 degrees??? Welcome to communism people! Hope you enjoy!”
   10. And of course, Texans had to get in their digs
   11. [Far-right Rep. Brandon Gill (TX-26) wrote,] “Welcome to socialism, where the government demands you turn your house into a sauna because they can’t plan for the super unpredictable fact that it tends to get hot in the summer.”
   12. [MIKE: If this guy thinks that 78 degrees is a sauna, he hasn’t been in the right saunas.[
   13. [ Ted Cruz wrote,]”In a first-world country, you could turn on the A/C….”
   14. But there’s just one problem with both Gill and Cruz’s assessment: Mamdani did not exactly come up with the 78 degrees number. It’s not in Mao’s Little Red Book, nor did Marx discuss it in Das Kapital. In fact, many Texans and conservatives will be shocked that this little bit of communism, the idea that when it’s hot you should set your thermostat to around 78 degrees, is more pervasive than previously understood.
   15. That’s because the Energy Reliability Council of Texas, the nonprofit that runs Texas’ electrical grid, has also asked people to set their thermostats to 78 degrees. The horror!
   16. It happened in May of 2022, when people roasted ERCOT over the 78 degrees number.
   17. [One X user replied in 2022,] “Tell ERCOT we all set them to NUNYA.”
   18. [MIKE: I had to look that up. For folks my age, “NUNYA” apparently means “none of your business.” Continuing …]
   19. And before that, in 2021, amid record-breaking heat, the Marxists at ERCOT sent out a press release urging Texans “to reduce electric use as much as possible” because of “tight grid conditions.”
   20. Among the “simple actions” ERCOT recommended Texans take to “reduce electric use” in 2021?
   21. [ERCOT said,] “Set your thermostat to 78 degrees or higher — every degree of cooling increases your energy use by 6 to 8 percent.”
   22. Can you believe it? The dreaded bureaucrats at ERCOT, having consulted Leninist Theory, recommended that you, a red-blooded American, reduce your electricity consumption?
   23. When did we all become Bolsheviks??? What’s next, mockingly asking me to unplug appliances during a catastrophic, deadly freeze that crippled the state grid? Supreme Leader Greg Abbott asking me to “take simple measures to save as much energy as possible?” We are living under tyranny, I tell you! Come and take my AC from my cold dead hands, ya filthy Trotskyites!! 
   24. The United States Department of Energy also recommended that I keep my AC at “an indoor temperature between 75-78°F” to keep my home cool while saving energy during the day. After Bulwark and MSNBC commentator Sam Stein pointed this out on Thursday, however, the federal government promptly scrubbed the page. (It’s still accessible via the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.)
   25. Where does the 78 degrees number come from, anyway? [According to WFAA in Dallas,] it seems to have originated in 1979, when President Jimmy Carter asked all federal buildings to set their thermostats at 78 degrees to offset energy costs during the ’70s energy crisis.
   26. [MIKE: Note that Jimmy Carter was a nuclear engineer. Continuing …]
   27. HVAC technicians and engineers say that 78 is optimal for staying cool while keeping costs low. 
   28. That’s exactly what a communist would say, in my opinion.  
   29. MIKE: This is what Rightwingers do now. They flout their ignorance and make it sound like a virtue
   30. MIKE: These are so-called leaders and opinion-makers who spread lies, distortions, fantasies, and general bull … oney.
   31. MIKE: Is there a point when even conservative-minded voters will wise up and treat these confabulators with the scorn and dismissiveness they deserve? TBD. (To be determined.)
6. This next story came out after last week’s show, so I won’t be able to read it until after July 4^th, which is unfortunate. Nonetheless, I think it’s an interesting and important perspective to consider. From NBCNEWS.COM — As nation turns 250, many Americans say the Stars and Stripes is now a red flag; By Corky Siemaszko | NBCNEWS.COM | June 29, 2026, 5:01 AM CDT. TAGS: President Donald Trump, American Flag, MAGA, America’s 250th Birthday, July 4^th, Independence Day,
   1. To fly or not to fly an American flag? That was never a question for Bruce Watson, who has put his national pride on display for years — and nudges neighbors in his small New England town to do the same.
   2. [Watson said,] “I’m very proud of our flag. … It’s the symbol of ‘We, the People.’”
   3. But as the polarized nation marks its 250th birthday, Watson, 72, worries his Stars and Stripes may now need an asterisk. Said Watson,] “If we do fly the flag, we will also put out signs to make it clear that we are not MAGA.”
   4. The American flag is a symbol striped with many meanings, whether it’s hung on front porches, waved in parades, protests and World Cup matches, or stamped on lapel pins and boxing trunks. Like so much else in American life, it has also been tangled up in politics and the policies of President Donald Trump.
   5. NBC News asked readers to share their feelings and practices around the flag in a moment, polls suggest, when patriotism, national pride and optimism for the country’s future are all fraying. Like Watson, some say the flag can be taken as an endorsement of the current administration. For others, it isn’t tied to any one party but is a way of life.
   6. … Rather than not fly the flag, several readers said they plan to show their patriotism — and protest Trump — by flying it upside down to signal that the country is in distress.
   7. [Said Dina Bannick, 61, who lives outside Des Moines, Iowa,] “Donald Trump has turned everything upside down, so it makes sense our flag should be upside down. … It’s a shame. We used to be a proud nation. Now, our country is in distress.”
   8. Trump supporters such as Dave Cavannah, of Monson, Massachusetts, questioned such protests. The professional woodcarver is so devoted to Trump that he is busy chiseling a statue of him that right now sits partially finished on his front lawn.
   9. [Cavannah, 49, said,] “I couldn’t be prouder to be an American. … I believe Americans should be proud to fly the flag and fly it the right way. What’s shameful is that people who hate Trump are flying the flag upside down.”
   10. [MIKE: Personally, if I was the kind of person who put the flag outside my house, that is definitely how I would fly it now. Continuing …]
   11. Trump supporters have also flown the flag upside down, most notably after his defeat in the 2020 election to Joe Biden. An upside-down flag was also spotted flying outside the Virginia home of conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito in January 2021, the month pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol.
   12. … Rather than fly the Stars and Stripes, Master Sgt. Frank Chappell of the Air National Guard has gone with an alternate flag.
   13. [Said Chappell, who is assigned to the 171st Air Refueling Wing outside Pittsburgh and stressed that he was speaking only for himself,] “Part of what makes us Americans is that we can meet in the middle, we can come together in the center and find things we can all agree on. … But what Trump has been doing, through some of his rhetoric and policies, is driving a wedge between Americans, dividing us even further. So when I bought my home, I replaced the U.S. flag with the state flag of Pennsylvania.”
   14. [MIKE: I considered this idea for a moment. If I was in New York State, where I was born, would I fly the State flag? Of does that just symbolize further division and even fragmentation of the United States as a country? And then I thought about flying the Texas state flag, but had two problems with that. First, Texas is currently ruled by an increasingly corrupt, fascist, Christian nationalist party. Second — and I think this is actually kind of funny — if I wanted to fly the Texas flag upside down to indicate a state in distress, many people — maybe most people — wouldn’t notice the difference! Continuing …]
   15. Chappell is a religious affairs airman and provides crisis counseling and spiritual care for people from all faiths or none. He said he plans to fly the flag again “once I believe that the states are more united in vision, tolerance and empathy toward our fellow Americans.”
   16. Erin Beltle, 22, who lives outside Philadelphia with her parents, said her father will be flying the American flag.
   17. “But, [she said,] “if it were up to me and my mom, we’d be flying the Pride flag or the Philadelphia Eagles flag, instead. … I love our country, but I’m not feeling very proud of our country right now.”
   18. A Rhode Island teacher, who asked not to be identified to protect her family, said she, too, is flying alternate flags — the rainbow pride flag and the banner of her beloved New England Patriots.
   19. [She said,] “I was always patriotic, flew the flag, wore red, white and blue, with flags and fireworks all summer. … Now, I’ve watched Trump and MAGA turn the flag into a symbol of intolerance and hate.”
   20. The teacher said she hasn’t flown the flag since 2024, when Trump was elected for a second term.
   21. [She said,] “I have a gay son and a trans son and felt that that flag was now a symbol flown by people who don’t want my children to exist.”
   22. … Some readers said they were motivated by peer pressure more than patriotism.
   23. [Said a woman from Newtown, Pennsylvania, who also asked to remain anonymous,] “I display my flag outside my home mainly because everyone else around my neighborhood does it, even though I’m not 100% proud to be American. … I feel that if I don’t have a flag displayed somewhere, people will think I’m against our country or something.”
   24. And then there were readers like Rebecca Dyer, a mother of five who lives outside Salt Lake City, who said she flies the flag no matter who occupies the White House or how disappointed she may feel about the state of the union.
   25. [Dyer, 38, said,] “I just want to say I love our flag, I love our country, and I want people to realize this is not about one party or one person. … Yes, the last few years have been hard, and sometimes it feels like our flag has been taken over. But I’m flying the flag because I’m still proud of our country, even if it’s not where I think it should be 250 years after it was founded.”
   26. National pride may be on the decline, but flag makers have seen a boost in business this year, with government agencies, private businesses and individuals placing orders for new banners to mark the semiquincentennial.
   27. [Said Carter Beard, president of Annin Flagmakers, a sixth-generation family firm based in New Jersey that has sewn flags for events ranging from Abraham Lincoln’s funeral to the Apollo moon landing,] “Business is up for sure. … Not like 50%, but in the 20% range. This being the anniversary, we’re definitely seeing a surge of patriotism with people wanting to fly the flag.”
   28. The country may be 250 years old, but until the mid- to late-19th century, flags were displayed mainly on government buildings, historians say. It wasn’t until after the Civil War and the 1876 centennial celebration that Americans started flying their own in earnest.
   29. The battle over who can lay claim to America’s flag, historians say, has been raging since at least the Vietnam War, when both Democrats and Republicans waved it at demonstrations for or against the conflict that divided the nation.
   30. [Said Alex Wagner, an adjunct professor at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs,] “The right used it to make the point that patriotism meant that the U.S. could do no wrong even when it did. … People on the left used it to make the point that we as Americans shouldn’t be fighting a war that’s at odds with our national principles, like that of self-determination.”
   31. But it was the hard right that “seized the flag” and began smearing all liberals as unpatriotic, said Sean Wilentz, a historian at Princeton University.
   32. [Wilentz said,] “Conservative and right-wing politicians went along with this, exploited it, and the dialectic of disaffection worsened.” [He added] that Trump has amplified that brand of patriotism.
   33. Even so, Wagner said, Americans should be embracing the Stars and Stripes.
   34. [Said Wagner,] “Our flag is ever-evolving, like our country. … The United States has evolved from 13 colonies to the 50-state union that it is now, and the flag has changed along with it. It’s not MAGA’s flag. It’s not Trump’s flag. It’s the American flag, and it belongs to all of us.”
   35. MIKE: I have felt so torn by this upcoming 250^th birthday of the United States. It’s almost painful that it come at this time in our history.
   36. MIKE: Rachel Maddow, back around 2017, said something that I wish I had noted verbatim, but I didn’t.
   37. MIKE: She made a remark to the effect that the Roman Republic lasted almost 500 years before it was overthrown and morphed into the Roman Empire, and she wondered if the US would make it to 300. Especially now, I think that was a prescient statement and is still a legitimate question.
   38. MIKE: I celebrated this semiquincentennial quietly. My wife felt that she wanted to go big because regardless of MAGA and Trump, she wanted to celebrate the birth of our nation 250 years ago in spite of our current nightmare. She persuaded me, but thinking about Maddow’s remark 9 years ago, I still couldn’t work up great enthusiasm.
   39. MIKE: Depending on how 2026 and 2028 go, though, maybe I’ll be able to get excited for the United States’ 252^nd and 254^th birthdays and make up for it.
   40. MIKE: I can still look forward to the semiquincentennial of the US Constitution which will fall on March 4, 2039.
   41. MIKE: Maybe that will mark a time when we have used the mechanisms of the US Constitution to successfully overcome this Trumpist-Republican governmental tilt toward fascism and gross corruption. Of course, I would be 88 by then, but perhaps I’ll make it. In any case, it’s worth looking forward to for all Americans, especially if it works as designed.
   42. MIKE: I’d be curious to know how you celebrated it. Did you “go big”, or did you stay home? Or did you do something you felt was in between?
   43. MIKE: You can drop a comment on today’s show post at ThinkwingRadio[.]com.
7. And speaking of Justice Samuel Alito (he was mentioned briefly in the last article) … You may have heard about the US Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision reaffirming the Constitution’s guarantee of birthright citizenship. Some commentators have remarked that the decision was more like 5-1/2 to 3-1/2 or 5-4 because Kavanaugh’s decision was equivocal. Nonetheless, as they sometimes say in sports, winning ugly is still winning, and the vote will be recorded in law and history as 6-3. I think it’s worth reading this short story from THEHILL[.]COM about how the consistently curmudgeonly Justice Samuel Alito feels about this decision. — Alito slams birthright decision as ‘serious mistake’; by Sarah Davis | THEHILL.COM | 06/30/26 2:09 PM ET. TAGS: Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, Mike Johnson, Neil Gorsuch, Samuel Alito, Birthright Citizenship,
   1. Justice Samuel Alito expressed discontent with the Supreme Court’s Tuesday decisionto strike down the Trump administration’s restrictions on birthright citizenship, calling the ruling both “one of the most important decisions” in the court’s history and “a serious mistake” in a dissenting opinion.
   2. The high court ruled 6-3 that an executive ordersigned by President Trump on Day 1 of his second term violated the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment, which guarantees automatic citizenship for almost all children who are born on U.S. soil regardless of their parents’ citizenship status. 
   3. The Trump administration has sought to restrict citizenship to children with at least one parent with citizenship or permanent legal status. 
   4. Alito warned in his dissent the ruling could have “grotesque results,” including an encouragement of “birth tourism,” and national security ramifications. 
   5. [Alito wrote,] “If the Fourteenth Amendment required these results, the country would have to live with them or amend the Constitution. … But the Fourteenth Amendment does not include the rule the Court now imposes on the country. 
   6. [He continued,] “In my judgment, the Court has made a mistake that will seriously affect the country’s future.”
   7. Alito accused the majority opinion of relying “on precedent that glosses the text” of the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause and that their argument “fails on textualist grounds.” 
   8. The conservative justice specifically pointed to the 14th Amendment’s reference to a person who is “subject to the jurisdiction of,” arguing that the court’s majority failed to consider issues of dual citizenship. 
   9. [Alito wrote that,] “A great many persons who are born here to illegal immigrant parents fail this test because at birth they are automatically made nationals of their parents’ native country and, as a result, incur duties to that country. … This means that they are ‘subject to a foreign power’ and are thus not ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment.” 
   10. Alito also cited “birth tourism” in his dissent, which refers to the practice of foreign pregnant women who travel to the U.S. to obtain citizenship for their children. Republican lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), have used this argument to push for further restrictions on birthright citizenship. 
   11. [Alito wrote,] “Careful analysis of the text of the Fourteenth Amendment and the process that led to its adoption shows that it does not degrade the concept of United States citizenship in this way. … Instead, the Fourteenth Amendment confers citizenship on only those children who, at birth, owe allegiance solely to this country.”
   12. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority, joined by conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett — a Trump appointee — and the court’s three liberal justices. 
   13. Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Alito all dissented. Justice Brett Kavanaugh disagreed with the court’s ruling, but he voted to block the administration’s executive order under federal law.
   14. MIKE: I think that Justice Alito is not ruling on the 14^th Amendment as written and as previous Court precedent has interpreted it.
   15. MIKE: Rather, Alito is basing his ruling on the language that he wishes was in the 14^th Amendment and the precedent he wishes had been set by the Court.
   16. MIKE: To me, that means that Samuel Alito is not a judge ruling on facts in this and other cases. Rather, he’s an idealogue ruling in ways that advocates for the law as he wishes it existed.
   17. MIKE: I asked Google Ai: “Do Justice Alito’s decisions really follow law and precedent?”
   18. MIKE: I think that the answer, which discusses that question from several perspectives, is interesting and worth reading here. It said …
   19. GOOGLE AI: “Justice Samuel Alito’s decisions reflect a deeply conservative judicial philosophy, primarily rooted in originalism and textualism. Whether these decisions “follow law and precedent” is a subject of intense debate, as his interpretation of legal principles often leads him to conclusions that sharply break with the Court’s previous rulings. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
   20. GOOGLE AI: “Supporters and critics view his judicial record through fundamentally different lenses: [1]
   21. GOOGLE AI: “[From] The Conservative / Originalist Perspective, Proponents of Alito’s jurisprudence argue that he faithfully follows the law by prioritizing the original meaning of the Constitution and the strict text of statutes. [1, 2]
   22. GOOGLE AI: “[On] Historical Intent: They argue that when the Court’s previous precedents (like the ones overturned in major cases) departed from the original meaning, the Court had a duty to correct itself rather than perpetuate incorrect interpretations. [1, 2]
   23. GOOGLE AI: “[On] Precedent Modification: Defenders note that Alito respects stare decisis (the legal principle of determining points in litigation according to precedent) but believes it is not absolute. He has argued that cases can and should be overturned if they are found to be “egregiously wrong,” unworkable, or based on flawed reasoning. [1, 2, 3, 4]
   24. GOOGLE AI: “The Progressive/Critic Perspective, on the other hand, argue[s] that Alito’s decisions frequently discard long-standing precedent to achieve conservative policy outcomes. [1, 2, 3]
   25. GOOGLE AI: “[On] Evading Stare Decisis: Detractors contend that his approach turns precedent into a discretionary tool, allowing him and the majority to dismantle protections for established rights. [1]
   26. GOOGLE AI: “[Respecting] Judicial Activism Claims: Critics frequently characterize his approach as a form of judicial activism, wherein a specific reading of history and text is used to overrule democratic legislation and established legal frameworks, such as those impacting voting rights, labor unions, and reproductive freedom. [1, 2, 3]”
   27. MIKE: I’ll note that Google’s AI provided a number of footnote citation web links which I’ve included in this show post at ThinkwingRadio[.]com.
   28. MIKE: I admit that I only did cursory scans of a couple of them.
   29. MIKE: With respect to Google AI and the sources it’s using, I think that the statement, “Justice Samuel Alito’s decisions reflect a deeply conservative judicial philosophy, primarily rooted in originalism and textualism,” would be closer to the facts if it added the word “allegedly”. So that the statement would instead say that, Justice Samuel Alito’s decisions [allegedly] reflect a deeply conservative judicial philosophy, primarily rooted in originalism and textualism.”
   30. MIKE: As an example, an article about Alito cited from the Yale Law Journal says in part, “… Justice Alito is the most consistently conservative [justice]. His votes are almost always in line with what one would predict based on the policy preferences of the party of the President that appointed him, i.e., Republican President George W. Bush.”
   31. MIKE: That is not supposed to be the way, and why, a Justice rules.
   32. MIKE: I’ll grant that everyone has biases, but a trained and educated judge should be able to put those biases substantially aside.
   33. MIKE: But Samuel Alito and his ilk are the main reason I think that nomination hearings should be a thing of the past for most candidates, except as a nominal meet-and-greet.
   34. MIKE: Their records should speak for themselves because anything they say at a Senate hearing is likely to be as self-serving as a witness in a civil trial being required to testify against themselves. What are the odds that they’ll be entirely candid and truthful about what they’re thinking or intend?
   35. MIKE: In Alito’s case, his past writings and opinions offered far more clarity and prescience on his future opinions and rulings than his Senate hearings
   36. MIKE: Nomination hearings are a farce. The answers nominees give are almost always careful to the point of vagueness, and sometimes skirt being outright lies.
   37. MIKE: If future performance truly really mattered, it should be based on actual past performance. There are those who think that many of these Senate-confirmed nominees should be charged and tried for perjury, and I am among them.

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, Livingston/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!