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

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

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

Welcome to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig, 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 China, France, Brazil, India, Vietnam 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 now the 55th week of Trump’s military occupation of Washington DC; and 44 weeks since those states’ governors deployed National Guard troops to Memphis, Tennessee and New Orleans, Louisiana, at Trump’s request, where they remain for now.  

The next gubernatorial election in Tennessee is in just over 2 months, and I can’t wait to see how that 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. Don’t be alarmed, because sample ballots are not yet available, but …
   3. Fair warning, our next election day is November 3.
   4. Early Voting will run from OCT 19 – 30, 2026
   5. So early voting is just about 7 weeks away. Get yourself mentally prepared.
2. From an August 5^th story by HOUSTONPUBLICMEDIA[.]ORG — Rice University will expand its free tuition program to students whose families earn up to $200K per year; By Shelby Rose | HOUSTONPUBLICMEDIA.ORG | Posted on August 5, 2026, 4:39 PM. TAGS: Education, Education News, Houston, Local News, Financial Aid, Free Tuition, Higher Education, Houston Universities, Rice University,
   1. Rice University is expanding its financial aid program, making free tuition available to more students starting in fall 2027.
   2. Under the expanded “Rice Investment” program, students from families earning up to $200,000 per year will qualify for free tuition, the university announced this week. Students from families earning less than $100,000 annually will also receive support for mandatory fees, room and board. In addition, the private university in Houston said it will “continue to meet 100% of demonstrated financial need for all families without requiring student loans.”
   3. The university says the expansion is designed to make a Rice education more accessible by reducing financial barriers for families. It’s also part of a strategic plan to increase enrollment by nearly 30% by 2028.
   4. Yvonne Romero, Rice’s vice president for enrollment and dean of admissions and financial aid, said in a news release that many families often assume they don’t qualify for financial aid.
   5. [Romero said,] “This expansion changes that conversation and simplifies the criteria. … We want students and families to know that cost should not discourage them from considering Rice.”
   6. The university launched the Rice Investment in 2019 as a way to provide loan-free financial aid to students who qualify based on their family’s financial circumstances. The program, which is funded partly by philanthropic support, currently provides free tuition to students whose families earn up to $140,000, with students from families earning $75,000 or less also qualifying to have their fees and room and board covered.
   7. MIKE: This could be good news for many students and their families who aspire to a Rice University education. I hope that giving this story a bit more exposure helps.
3. In keeping with my recent focus on water supplies on this show, from COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM — City of Katy enters stage 1 of drought contingency plan; By Bradley Dountz | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | Published August 24, 2026 at 5:12 p.m. CT. TAGS: Katy – Fulshear, Drought Contingency Plan, Water Conservation Plan,
   1. The city of Katy has entered stage 1 of its drought contingency plan, city officials announced Aug. 21.
   2. … The four-stage contingency plan was created as a part of Katy’s water conservation plan to manage drought conditions and water emergencies as the city works to supply residents with clean drinking water that meets state standards, according to the city’s website.
   3. Stage 1, or mild, aims to decrease residents’ water use by 5% based on water usage data over the last 12 months.
   4. … The first phase of the plan strives to raise public awareness of potential drought problems with residents encouraged to voluntarily reduce water usage, officials said.
   5. Other initiatives include: Advising major water users [to] collaborate to decrease water consumption; Increasing efforts on leak detection and repair; Lessening “nonessential” government water use such as street cleaning, vehicle washing and operation of ornamental fountains; Reducing government water use for landscape irrigation; Requesting residents decrease watering and/or irrigate landscape between 12 a.m. to 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. to 11:59 p.m.; [and] Reducing draining and refilling of swimming pools. However, water can be added to existing pools to replace losses from normal usage.
   6. … Residents can find out more about the drought contingency plan and how to calculate their own water usage by visiting the city’s website.
   7. MIKE: This may be a good time to remind people that are simple things you can do to conserve water that also save you money on your water bill.
   8. MIKE: Fix leaky faucets, whether they’re in your bathrooms, your kitchen, or your hose faucets outside.
   9. MIKE: If your toilet often seems to be filling, constantly or intermittently, whether it’s been recently used or not, that repair is often as quick, simple and cheap as replacing the tank flapper.
   10. MIKE: If you have a lawn sprinkler system, make sure that your connections stay dry, both when it’s running and when it’s not. I’ve seen systems that come on in the middle of the night with huge leaks, but the homeowner is unaware because they’re sleeping when I happen to be awake. You should occasionally test your system during daylight hours while you observe it.
   11. MIKE: If everyone starts with these simple things, it can cumulatively make a big difference.
4. From HOUSTONCHRONICLE[.]COM — Exclusive: U.S. attorney objects to disclosure of record detailing fatal ICE shooting; By Nicole Hensley, Matt deGrood, Staff Writers | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM | Updated Aug 28, 2026 @5:32 p.m. TAGS: ICE, Lorenzo Salgado, Houston, U.S. Attorney Aaron Reitz, Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS),
   1. A federal immigration record obtained by the Houston Chronicle provides the most detailed account yet from government agents of the events leading up to the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, revealing how an ICE operation that began with a tip from a law enforcement agency ended in a pursuit of a different white van through Houston’s East End.
   2. The records were filed in federal court by a member of the U.S. Attorney’s office and described where agents conducted surveillance, how they came to focus on the van Salgado was driving, and what agents say happened during the pursuit. The U.S. Attorney’s office objected to the document’s disclosure in a Friday statement.
   3. The records say ICE officers activated emergency lights and sirens, and allege the van struck two federal vehicles before coming to a stop, claims that witnesses have contradicted. The documents do not identify Salgado by name or describe the moment an agent opened fire, but they describe the incident in which he was driving a vehicle with three passengers.
   4. Such immigration records are typically redacted or filed under seal, according to lawyers involved in immigration cases, and the federal government has repeatedly declined to identify the agents involved in Salgado’s killing or provide key evidence to local investigators. 
   5. [U.S. Attorney Aaron Reitz said Friday,] “These are protected, limited-access filings. And they were supposed to stay that way.”
   6. Reitz did not address who was responsible for ensuring the document did not become public, but criticized the decision to publicize it, saying it would lead to people doxing federal agents and could jeopardize the investigation.
   7. [Reitz said,] “I strongly object to its dissemination, and my office is actively examining whether the law or court rules were broken in the process.”
   8. The record says “DPS troopers” provided the initial tip to ICE agents. The Texas Department of Public Safety denied having any involvement.
   9. [DPS said in a statement,] “The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) did not provide any information of any sort to ICE related to the location where the (shooting) occurred, any vehicles, other individuals or Mr. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo.”
   10. [MIKE: I’m going to engage in total speculation here and suggest the possibility that DPS troopers may have supplied the information to ICE, but that the troopers were not acting under DPS orders. We’ve heard of over-zealous law enforcement individuals cooperating with ICE in the past. Continuing …]
   11. The Texas Rangers, a branch of the state law enforcement agency, are investigating the shooting at the request of local officials.
   12. S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, who has called for more transparency in the investigation, criticized federal officials for trying to withhold key details about the case.
   13. [Said Garcia, D-Houston,] “The bottom line is that the federal government is doing everything in its power to block transparency in this case. … The identity and location of the ICE agents involved are still unknown. The details of this report have also been contradicted by eyewitness statements.”
   14. [MIKE: I’ll note here that Garcia‘s statement contradicts US Attorney Reitz’s public claim that the disclosure of the federal immigration records to the Court leaves the ICE individuals subject to doxing. The story states that, in court, Reitz only objected to their release. Continuing …]
   15. The new documents were filed Aug. 11 by a member of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in response to a petition for a writ of habeas corpus for Daniel Tirado Pantoja — one of the passengers driven by Salgado who was detained and later released from ICE detention. The writ is a legal filing challenging Tirado’s detention. 
   16. The record was partially redacted but not sealed, and obtained Thursday by the Houston Chronicle through a public terminal at the federal courthouse. It contained Tirado’s photo, personal identifying information such as date of birth and fingerprints, as well as the names of the report’s authors and other agents.
   17. The officers’ accounts mirror Reitz’s remarks in July that the federal agents mistakenly chased Salgado’s van through the neighborhood after confusing him with another target. 
   18. The federal record says the agents activated their emergency lights and sirens at two points during the pursuit.
   19. [One of the records states,] “Officers activated their emergency lights and the white van again fled”. The documents describe how two crews of federal agents pursued the van. The van’s driver turned into one of the ICE vehicles and “struck the ICE officers,” the records state.
   20. One of the records said the driver “rammed” the ICE vehicle, “constituting assault on an officer.”
   21. As the van came to a stop, the agents alleged they approached the vehicle “wearing their clearly marked ICE-issued ballistic vests and identified themselves.”
   22. The arrest warrant and records filed in immigration removal cases are akin to a local police report, said Travis Fife, an attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project. Investigators use the document to lay out the reasons for taking action, and the allegations against a person in their custody.
   23. Claims that agents activated their emergency lights and that Salgado tried to run them over contradict the accounts of some eyewitnesses who say the agents drove unmarked vehicles that didn’t use lights or sirens. The witnesses also said Salgado didn’t try to run into the agents.
   24. MIKE: These kinds of claims and counterclaims are exactly why ICE and other federal agencies should be required to use dashcams and bodycams when interacting with suspects or the public.
   25. MIKE: I asked Google AI, “Does law enforcement automatically get benefit of the doubt in court?”
   26. MIKE: The results took me to an article from 2022 at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, which I’ve linked to in this show post at ThinkwingRadio[.]com.
   27. MIKE: It says in parts, “For defense attorneys operating in a world in which “blue lives” matter and police officers are revered as inherently trustworthy, a [police officer under oath] creates an uphill battle. … Despite the constant flow of news stories about police corruption, no judge wants to call an individual police officer a liar…. it is rare that calling a witness to directly contradict a police officer proves a winning strategy.”
   28. MIKE: It goes on to discuss the struggle that defense lawyers have to get the court to change the lens through which it views law enforcement testimony.
   29. MIKE: I believe that this case will be the same. We’ll have to wait and see.
5. Speaking of ICE, next, from HOUSTONPUBLICMEDIA[.]ORG — ICE agent released after being held in Texas jail for extradition to Minnesota as federal deadline expires; By Andrew Schneider | HOUSTONPUBLICMEDIA.ORG | Posted on August 27, 2026, 11:51 AM (Last Updated: August 27, 2026, 12:51 PM). TAGS: Federal Government, Crime Criminal Justice, Immigration, International, National News, Politics, Texas, Cameron County, Christian Castro, Governor Greg Abbott, Minneapolis, ICE shooting, Tim Walz, S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),
   1. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who has been accused of shooting a Venezuelan immigrant in northern Minneapolis was released from jail in southern Texas, where he had been awaiting extradition to Minnesota.
   2. Cameron County Sheriff Manuel Trevino confirmed that Christian Castro was released from jail shortly before 7 a.m. Thursday morning. Thursday marked the maximum amount of time ICE Agent Christian Castro could be held in jail while waiting for Gov. Greg Abbott to decide whether to sign Minnesota’s extradition warrant.
   3. Tim Walz and attorneys for Minnesota had sought to extend Castro’s detention, saying there was a high risk Castro might flee to Mexico. They also sought to compel Abbott to sign the extradition warrant, arguing Abbott’s failure to sign the warrant after more than two months amounted to a refusal to do so. On Wednesday, Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. denied both requests, setting the stage for Castro’s release.
   4. [Said Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesman for Abbott,] “The court was right to reject Governor Walz’s absurd claim. … The Constitution requires deliberate consideration of extradition requests, and tasks Governor Abbott to ‘decide, upon such evidence as he may deem satisfactory’ whether ‘the person demanded is a fugitive.’ Today’s order rebuffs Minnesota’s efforts to conscript federal courts into commandeering the authority of Governor Abbott’s office.”
   5. Castro allegedly shot Julio Sosa-Celis through the door of Sosa-Celis’s home in January, while Castro was deployed to north Minneapolis as part of ICE’s Operation Metro Surge. Castro initially claimed Sosa-Celis had attacked him, but this was contradicted by surveillance footage.
   6. This led to Hennepin County, Minnesota, charging Castro with four counts of assault and one of falsely reporting a crime. By that time, however, Castro had left Minnesota, prompting a county judge to issue a nationwide warrant for his arrest. Castro was arrested in May in a county along the Texas-Mexico border.
   7. No attorney spoke for Castro in the Texas extradition case, and he has not made any kind of public statement since.
   8. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison issued a written statement saying he was disturbed to learn of Castro’s release from jail.
   9. [Ellison said,] “Christian Castro is a fugitive from justice who still must answer for his crimes in Minnesota. … He should turn himself [in today] to face them. In the meantime, we will continue our lawsuit to force Abbott to do his legal and constitutional duty.”
   10. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty advanced a similar argument during a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, following the court’s decision.
   11. [Moriarty said,] “I am told that Governor Abbott claims to be tough on crime. … How exactly is he tough on crime by manipulating an extradition process that is supposed to be administrative, to protect a man who shot into a house with children inside, lied about it and is under investigation by the federal government?”
   12. MIKE: I think that Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty made the point succinctly. Abbott deliberately ran out the clock on Minnesota’s extradition request simply by not saying yes or no.
   13. MIKE: Thus, Governor Abbott’s actions have protected an indicted interstate fugitive from facing justice and getting his day in court to either clear himself or be convicted.
   14. MIKE: Perhaps not in legal terms but in lay terms, Gov. Abbott might be considered an accessory after the fact in helping Castro to evade justice. And I don’t think there’s a Republican official in Texas that has raised any objections to Abbott’s actions in this case. So much for Republicans being the “law and order” party.
   15. MIKE: If the circumstances were reversed, and Minnesota Governor Walz had a Texas fugitive with an arrest warrant in jail, refused to extradite him, and then released him, even thought he might be a fight risk to, say, Canada, Texas Gov. Abbott and Texas and national Republicans would be screaming holy hell about how Democratic Governor Walz was a typical soft-on-crime liberal, and how Walz was aiding and abetting a Texas fugitive to evade justice in Texas.
   16. MIKE: Perhaps our Texas Department of Public Safety will be keeping an eye on ICE Agent Christian Castro so that he doesn’t leave the state or simply disappear, but I’m not holding my breath.
   17. MIKE: While Governor Abbott may not technically have broken any laws, it could be argued that he was derelict in his duty to follow the intent of the law.
   18. MIKE: Remember that Texas Governor Greg Abbott sent Texas National Guard troops to Minnesota at Trump’s request, an action that every Texan and every US state governor should have found abhorrent under the circumstances.
   19. MIKE: Texans will have two opportunities to help rectify our current state and national crises.
   20. MIKE: This year, in just a few weeks, we get to vote for our next Texas senator and our congressional representatives.
   21. MIKE: Next year, in 2027, we vote for Texas state governor, and state legislators, senators, and the rest. Remember how Republicans are only tough on crime when it suits them.
   22. MIKE: And remember that elections are supposed to have consequences. Vote for the consequences you want.
6. This next story is from August 8^th, but as far as I can tell, there is no further news on this story, and the proposal is still pending. From WIRED[.]COM — Census Proposal Would Stop Counting Undocumented Immigrants — and Ignore Race and Sexual Orientation; By Vittoria Elliott | WIRED.COM | Aug 8, 2026 10:03 AM. TAGS: US Census, Immigration, Race, LGBTQ+, Politics, US Department of Commerce, Constitutional Law,
   1. The US Department of Commerce, which oversees the Census Bureau, is circulating a proposed rule that would cease the collection of demographic data on racial minorities and LGBTQ+ people and prevent undocumented immigrants from being counted in the 2030 census, according to documents viewed by WIRED.
   2. The decision could have far-reaching implications for federal funding, particularly in states where there are substantial numbers of racial and ethnic minorities, as well as on immigrant communities across the country.
   3. The proposed rule, which is being circulated across government agencies for review, says the census will eliminate questions about race and sexual orientation “to protect from any distortions created from the inclusion of personal questions.” The memo also states that “illegal aliens (among others) should not be included in the apportionment count, they are not true inhabitants, members of the body politics [sic], or persons with ‘usual residence’ in the United States.”
   4. This would likely require the reintroduction of a census question about a respondent’s citizenship. During Donald Trump’s first presidential term, Republicans attempted to add a citizenship question to the census for the first time since 1950. The effort was struck down by the Supreme Court, 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts siding with the Court’s then-larger liberal bloc on the grounds that the justification for adding the question was “contrived.” The decision did not, though, find that citizenship questions are inherently unconstitutional.
   5. The Department of Commerce did not reply to requests for comment.
   6. [Says Danah Boyd, a professor at Cornell University who studies the census, referencing the landmark voter protection legislation that the Supreme Court dismantled earlier this year,] “This is about the Voting Rights Act.” Eliminating the collection of these data, she says, would make it difficult to make basic assessments, like whether a congressional district is predominantly made of minorities.
   7. [Says Boyd,] “If we don’t know certain things, we can’t challenge them politically. … If we don’t know that certain peoples live in a particular geography, we can’t say, ‘Oh my gosh, here’s some massive inequality.’”
   8. [MIKE: I’d like to ask here if anyone else remembers that during the early days of the Covid pandemic when Trump was president that he didn’t want to allow sick passengers on cruise ships to dock because then we’d have to count them as sick in the United States, and he wanted to keep the numbers low? I found a BUSINESSINSIDER[.]COM article from March 5, 2020 called, “Trump said he wants to keep Grand Princess cruise passengers on the ship so that US coronavirus numbers don’t ‘double.’” Omitting census questions about ethnicity or sexual orientation is using that same logic. What the government doesn’t know … Anyway, Continuing …]
   9. Republicans and the Trump administration have long taken aim at the census. More recently, members of the Trump administration have attacked a little-known statistical method called “differential privacy,” which is used to prevent census data from being used to re-identify individual respondents, claiming that it makes the results inaccurate. In August 2025, Republican representative August Pfluger made another attempt to reintroduce a citizenship question on the census, sponsoring a bill called the COUNT Act, and in October, Republican senator Jim Banks of Indiana published a letter to Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, writing, “There is a credible argument that the framers of the Constitution designed the Census to cover lawful inhabitants and not those who are present illegally.”
   10. Census questions are set between two and three years in advance of the actual survey, based on priorities set by the administration. The data from the census inform everything from the apportionment of congressional seats to federal funding that is allocated based on the size of a population.
   11. An employee at the Department of Health and Human Services, who asked to remain anonymous because they are not authorized to speak to the press, tells WIRED that “many HHS programs use Census data to appropriate funding. Removing undocumented individuals from the census will cause localities with high numbers of those populations to lose critical federal funding.”
   12. The employee says that removal of racial categories could specifically impact Native populations, which sometimes receive specialized funding, [saying]. “Some programs use the ‘American Indian or Alaska Native’ category from the Census to make determinations of grants set aside for Tribal entities.”
   13. An employee at the Department of Commerce, who also spoke to WIRED on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the press, says that they are concerned that adding a citizenship question to the census would make people who are undocumented — or who have undocumented family members — afraid to be counted.
   14. [The employee at the Department of Commerce says,] “Even if [the administration doesn’t] do anything operationally like ICE or anything like that, they can make people feel as if they answer the Census they will be rounded up.”
   15. [Says Professor Boyd,] “When you eliminate people and when you make people too afraid to participate because of the eliminations of other peoples, you will actually, purposefully suppress the number of people who are in a geography. And that is a way of trying to make certain that you erase their political power and their access to federal funding.”
   16. MIKE: The consequences of not counting everyone within the borders of the United States are discussed and explained by an article I found from August 2025 called “What Happens If the Census Doesn’t Count Everyone?”, which I’ve linked to in this show post at ThinkwingRadio[.]com.
   17. MIKE: The Constitution refers to the US census in Article I, Section 2, Clause 3, known as the Enumeration or Census Clause. It says in substantial part, “Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. …”
   18. MIKE: The “Three Fifths” qualification was voided and the original language updated by the 14^th Amendment Section 2, which says in part, “Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. …”
   19. MIKE: I’m not by any stretch a lawyer, and there may be subsequent constitutional law of which I’m unaware, but it seems to me that the language is plain enough. Torturous efforts by an alliance of White Supremacists and religious homophobes notwithstanding, the language is clear: Every person residing in the in any of the United States must be counted in the decennial census. Anything else is a perversion of the intent of the law, even if Trump’s Supreme Court should rule otherwise.
   20. MIKE: We’ll all need to keep an eye on this battle, which will likely be decided one way or the other based on the results of the 2028 presidential election, but possibly by the 2026 congressional elections.
   21. MIKE: Stay tuned.
7. On my January 25, 2026 show, I read a story from STRIPES[.]COM called, “Pentagon says it will ‘refocus’ Stars and Stripes content”. This was a story from Stars and Stripes itself in which it warned that, “The Pentagon said on social media [that] it would take over editorial content decision-making for Stars and Stripes in a statement from the Defense Department’s top spokesman.” This next story from CBSNEWS[.]com gives us another installment of that threat, and we might view it as an example not of creeping fascism but of galloping fascism — Fired Stars and Stripes journalists sue Hegseth and Pentagon spokesperson; By Jacob Rosen, Eleanor Watson, Kathryn Watson | CBSNEWS.COM | Updated on: August 27, 2026 / 5:29 PM EDT. TAGS: Stars and Stripes, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, The Pentagon, Censorship, Defense Department,
   1. Three fired Stars and Stripes journalists sued Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and two other top Pentagon officials in federal court Thursday, claiming the Trump administration is attempting to fire them illegally as part of its “extraordinary censorship efforts” against the military news outlet.
   2. The plaintiffs — publisher Max Lederer, editor-in-chief Erik Slavin and reporter Lara Korte — were given separation notices last week. The cause cited was insubordination. 
   3. They alleged that they were fired both for “speaking up as private citizens in support of the press’s freedom to cover military operations,” and because of their reporting on rough conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier. The lawsuit names Hegseth, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, and aide Andrew Brey as defendants.
   4. Slavin and Korte said the alleged insubordination cited in their termination notices was related to interviews they gave to CBS News for a piece on “CBS Sunday Morning” that aired in July. In the story, Korte said that she worked for Stars and Stripes, “not for the Pentagon, not for any administration, [and] not for any policymaker.”
   5. More than a month later, the newspaper published a piece detailing flagging mental health, and food and water shortages aboard the Lincoln, which has been deployed for nine months. A day after that story ran, the lawsuit says, the defendants “ordered plaintiff Max Lederer, Stripes’ publisher, to present notices of separation to Mr. Slavin and Ms. Korte.”
   6. [The lawsuit reads,] “The notices charged them with insubordination for the statements they made five and one-half weeks earlier on ‘CBS Sunday Morning.'”
   7. [Lederer] did not deliver the notices. [He] announced his intent to retire at the end of September over “fundamental” differences with the Defense Department, but the Pentagon fired him before he could.
   8. [MIKE: Very much a Trumpian thing. Continuing …]
   9. The three fired staffers’ complaint says they are “facing imminent retaliation and termination in violation of their First Amendment and statutory rights.”
   10. [The lawsuit reads,] “This action seeks to prevent the blatant violation of the First Amendment rights of these journalists and challenges the U.S. Department of Defense’s (“DoD”) extraordinary censorship efforts in violation of both the First Amendment and DoD regulations and policies.”
   11. CBS News has reached out to the Pentagon for comment.
   12. Stars and Stripes was first published during the Civil War, and in recent decades, the paper has prided itself on its editorial independence — meaning the federal government does not dictate what it can and can’t publish.
   13. Roughly half of the paper’s $29 million annual budget comes from taxpayers, a person familiar with the newspaper’s operations told CBS News last week. Readership has declined since its peaks during the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and World War II, according to two U.S. officials, but an average of 4 million people see Stars and Stripes each day. Print editions overseas also reach service members in remote locations where internet access is spotty and unreliable. 
   14. Earlier this year, Parnell said the Defense Department would make sweeping changes to the paper. He vowed to “modernize its operations, refocus its content away from woke distractions that syphon morale, and adapt it to serve a new generation of service members.” The Pentagon later sought to stop the paper from running syndicated articles by wire services, Slavin has said.
   15. Shortly after the firings, Stars and Stripes published an open letter from Navy Capt. William Urban, who said he was tapped to serve as military deputy to the publisher. Urban wrote that his priorities were to produce “the highest quality of editorially independent reporting,” while modernizing the paper and boosting its advertising revenue.
   16. MIKE: In the history of tyranny, there is no record of tyrants tolerating a free press. Google AI agrees with me.
   17. MIKE: The DoD already has the right to censor sensitive or operational information from articles in STARS & STRIPES if writers get careless, something which I’m sure rarely if ever happens.
   18. MIKE: This ongoing effort to censor or silence STARS & STRIPES is another struggle by Trump and Republicans to stifle speech they don’t like wherever they may find it, and going the extra mile to punish individuals who are perceived to have crossed them.
8. Two weeks ago, I discussed Trump’s aversion to renewable power. While this next story is a couple of months old, I thought it would be an interesting follow-up to that story and discussion. From ABCNEWS[.]COM on June 12 — Solar generates more energy than coal in US for 1st time: Report; By Julia Jacobo | ABCNEWS.COM | June 12, 2026, 4:04 AM. TAGS: US Electrical Grid, Energy Information Administration (EIA), Total Electricity Demand, Solar Power, Renewable Energy, Coal Power,
   1. The amount of solar power generated in the U.S. is continuing to grow despite efforts from the Trump administration to slow down the renewable energy sector, according to two reports released this week.
   2. The U.S. has generated more power from solar compared to coal for the first time, according to a report by Ember, a think tank focused on the clean energy transition. In May 2026, solar supplied 12.8% of U.S. electricity, while coal supplied 12.2%, according to an analysis of official monthly and preliminary hourly generation data.
   3. A record 45.5 terawatt-hours (TWh) of solar energy was generated in May 2026, exceeding the output from May 2025 by 17%, the think tank found. …
   4. The amount of energy from coal generated in the U.S. has been nearly cut in half in the last five years, falling from 19.7% of total power generated in May 2021 to 12.2% [in May 2026]. Production of coal power rose slightly in May 2026 …, but it remained 11% below May 2025 levels.
   5. [Nicolas Fulghum, an Ember senior data analyst, said in a statement,] “Overtaking coal for the first month on record shows just how far solar has come, from a niche contributor to the third-largest and fastest-growing source of power in the U.S. electricity system.”
   6. Another report … further points to the growing solar sector in the U.S. In the first quarter of 2026, the U.S. has added 7.8 gigawatts (GW) of new solar capacity with more than 6 million solar installations nationwide, according to a report by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and analytics firm Wood Mackenzie.
   7. Electricity demand continues to surge, especially from tech companies seeking to secure power sources to meet the growing demands of AI and the data centers that run them, according to the report.
   8. Solar power is the fastest-growing source of electricity in the U.S., according to Climate Central, an environmental nonprofit.
   9. There is currently enough solar installed in the U.S. to power about 50 million households, according to SEIA. By 2034, there will be enough solar capacity to power 100 million households.
   10. The growth is continuing “despite headwinds in Washington,” according to a press release by SEIA.
   11. In August 2025, the Environmental Protection Agency canceled Solar for All, a $7 billion Biden-era solar grant program intended to help pay for resident solar projects and lower energy bills for middle to low-income households.
   12. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin wrote on X at the time that the EPA no longer has the statutory authority to administer the program or the appropriated funds to “keep the program alive,” touting the move as a savings to U.S. taxpayers.
   13. States won by President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election accounted for 74% of all solar capacity installed in the first quarter, according to the SEIA report. Texas, Florida, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Arizona and Mississippi ranked among the top 10 states for new solar additions.
   14. [Darren Van’t Hof, interim president and CEO of the SEIA, said in a statement,] “In a world of fluctuating fuel prices, energy buyers have made it clear that they want the security, low cost, and speed of solar and storage, which commanded a massive 91% of all new capacity built in Q1.”
   15. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is attempting to bolster the coal industry in the U.S. with the allocation of more than $700 million in federal funds to upgrade coal power plants and U.S. exports.
   16. The administration is using wartime authorities under the 1950 Defense Production Act to allot $425 million to 13 existing coal plants, and $75 million for an export terminal in California, as well as another $185 million in grant funding from the Energy Department to build two new coal plants in Alaska and West Virginia and [to] restart a plant in Maryland, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
   17. Coal construction has significantly declined since the 1970s and 1980s, according to the EPA. No utility-scale coal construction has occurred in the past decade.
   18. Trump has touted coal as clean in the past, but experts say coal emits carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, and several other pollutants. Scientists says it is a direct contributor to global warming and human-amplified climate change.
   19. MIKE: FYI, there is no such thing as “clean coal”.
   20. MIKE: As you read how the Trump regime is fighting against both progress and history on renewable energy, it’s worth remembering that the first president to put solar panels on the White House was Jimmy Carter, and the first president to remove solar panels from the White House was Ronald Reagan.
   21. MIKE: In other words, for almost half a century, ever since Ronald Reagan was president, Republicans have been holding back energy progress in this country in constant obeisance to their campaign donors as they genuflect to the oil, gas and coal industries.
   22. MIKE: According to an ARSTECHNICA[.]COM article from November of 2025, “The massive growth in solar has also led to overproduction of power in the spring and autumn, when heating/cooling demands are lowest. That, in turn, has led to a surge in battery construction to absorb the cheap power and sell it back after the Sun sets. The impact of batteries was nearly impossible to discern as recently as 2023, but data from May and June of 2025 shows batteries pulling in lots of power at mid-day, and using it in the early evening to completely offset what would otherwise be an enormous surge in the use of natural gas. Not every state has the sorts of solar resources available to California. But the economics of solar power suggest that other states are likely to experience this sort of growth in the coming years. And, while the Trump administration has been openly hostile to solar power from the moment it took office, so far there is no sign of that hostility at the grid level.”
   23. MIKE: As I understand it, California’s problem is that a lot of early solar adopters didn’t understand the benefits or economics of having backup batteries as part of their system. That’s been changing, in both new systems and retrofits.
   24. MIKE: My solar panels cover about 45% of my electricity use in a given year, but I’ve noted that I generate more than I consume in the spring and fall. I know that seems paradoxical given the summer’s longer days, but it makes sense. During the hottest months, even with longer sunlight hours, AC consumes a lot more energy than my system generates.
   25. MIKE: I bought solar for emergency backup power rather than simply energy savings. The savings just help to offset the cost of the system.
   26. MIKE: I monitor my batteries closely to keep them seasonally adjusted. I keep their minimum storage level at 45-75% charged by the end of a sunny day, so I don’t sell anything back to the grid.
   27. MIKE: When fully charged, my dual backup batteries can run my house for several hours, and I’ll almost always have power for some portion of any given day in the event of a major outage.
   28. MIKE: On my January 19^th show, I discussed a story that three of Australia’s states are generating so much solar power that for three hours per day, regional residents are encouraged to use free electricity. The energy program described then is still in effect as of July 1, 2026, making this story still current. That’s not just a statement about how much solar power they’re generating. It’s also a consequence of having insufficient utility-level battery capacity to store excess daytime solar power. I suspect that is a problem they will address eventually, but in the meantime, residents of those regions have a good thing going.
   29. Maybe California, for one, should take a tip from Australia and encourage people to charge batteries during the day to soak up power that can’t be stored by utility-based batteries. It may also be worth thinking about changing peak pricing strategies. Just a couple of things to make you go, “Hmmmm.”
9. Just to show you how Europe is addressing companies that contribute to global warming and climate change, there’s this very short piece from REUTERS[.]COM on July 27, 2026 TotalEnergies to appeal French court decision ordering it to adapt its business to climate change; By America Hernandez | REUTERS.COM | July 27, 2026@2:18 AM CDT/Updated July 27, 2026. TAGS: TotalEnergies, Exploration & Production, Energy, Climate Change, Climate Solutions, Political Lobbying, Global Warming,
   1. French oil major ​TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA), will appeal a Paris court decision ordering it ‌to bring its business in line with climate change goals.
   2. The first-of-its-kind French ruling had found Total was responsible for the ​planet-warming emissions released when customers use its fuel ​products, under France’s corporate “duty of vigilance” law. [This ruling] was seen as a victory for the ​climate campaigners who filed the suit.
   3. Climate litigation against ​oil majors has produced mixed results in recent years. A landmark Dutch ruling ordering Shell (SHEL.L), to cut emissions was later overturned on appeal ​and is under review by the Netherlands Supreme Court.
   4. [TotalEnergies said ​in a statement,] “The ​company considers, in line with the position taken by the ‌Public ⁠Prosecutor’s Office in these proceedings, that climate change, as a global phenomenon, does not fall within the scope of the duty of vigilance law. … Imposing ​companies in ⁠energy, defense, aeronautics, or automotive sectors to control risks resulting from the use ​of their products by their customers ​does not ⁠appear to be consistent with the objectives of the law, or the principles of legal certainty and ⁠freedom ​to conduct business.”
   5. Once filed, ​TotalEnergies will argue its case before the Paris Court of Appeal.
   6. MIKE: When I checked on August 25, an appeal by TotalEnergies had not yet been reported.
10. Then, a month later came this next story, which I thought made an interesting juxtaposition to the last one. Also, although this story focuses on TotalEnergies’ moves to secure pipelines for their oil, it also speaks to moves being undertaken by the wider oil and gas industry in light of the Strait of Hormuz becoming a new geopolitical and geoeconomic choke point. From OILPRICE[.]COM — TotalEnergies Backs Two Major Oil Pipelines to Bypass Hormuz; By Charles Kennedy | OILPRICE.COM | Aug 24, 2026, 1:27 PM CDT. TAGS: TotalEnergies, Exploration & Production, Energy, Climate Change, oil pipelines, Strait of Hormuz, Abu Dhabi,
    1. TotalEnergies will invest in two major oil pipelines designed to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, backing Abu Dhabi’s expansion of its Fujairah export route and a planned pipeline carrying Iraqi crude through Syria to the Mediterranean.
    2. CEO Patrick Pouyanné announced the commitments Monday at the ONS energy conference in Norway, two months after saying investment in alternative Gulf export routes had become an “absolute priority” for TotalEnergies following the paralysis of Hormuz during the Iran war. The company has not disclosed how much it will invest or what stakes it will take in either project.
    3. [According to Reuters, Pouyanné said,] “We will become partners of the pipeline moving from Baghdad to Syria, but I will also invest in Abu Dhabi, in doubling the Fujairah pipeline.”
    4. The UAE’s existing Habshan-Fujairah pipeline can carry up to 1.8 million barrels per day from Abu Dhabi’s oil fields to the Gulf of Oman, allowing those barrels to reach international markets without passing through Hormuz. Abu Dhabi plans to roughly double its bypass capacity by next year as the Iran war exposes the limits of the existing system.
    5. TotalEnergies is making a similar hedge in Iraq, proposing an Iraq-Syria pipeline that would give Baghdad a Mediterranean export route for crude that currently leaves predominantly through its southern Persian Gulf terminals. The project could cost around $15 billion and take at least four years to complete, according to recent estimates.
    6. [Pouyanné told the conference,] “We are today probably the largest trader of oil from Iraq or from Qatar … and it’s clear to me that I need to put a certain amount of equity to invest in an alternative route.” 
    7. Before the war, roughly a fifth of global oil supply moved through Hormuz. Six months of severely disrupted tanker traffic have now spurred project development into overdrive.
    8. MIKE: It could be argued that these pipelines should have been built years if not decades ago. After their upfront cost, pipelines are the cheapest way to transport oil, but nothing is without disadvantages. Pipeline routes are inflexible.
    9. MIKE: They’re not like garden or fire hoses that can be aimed instantly in a new direction. Even modern monster tankers cost more per barrel, but they can be routed anywhere that has an appropriate port facility. That’s important when usage patterns, demand, and inventories fluctuate.
    10. MIKE: It’s worth noting that these new pipelines do not seem to be going to end-users or refiners. They’re being built to transport oil to alternative seaports, ultimately to be loaded, again, on to tankers.
    11. MIKE: Carl von Clausewitz, the Prussian army officer and military theorist, is often paraphrased as saying that War is Politics by other Means.
    12. MIKE: Trump and Putin have reminded the world that war, employed as power politics — even stupid power politics — can put a serious crimp in the global economy. Thus, all shipping routes need to be planned with emergency alternatives in mind.
    13. MIKE: I thought that this story made an interesting follow-on to the last one because, even just weeks after TotalEnergies was ordered by a French court decision to adapt its business to climate change, here they are doing the same old thing.
    14. MIKE: Of course, trying to change how petroleum companies do business is, I think, a lot like trying to stop a 2-mile long moving train. There’s not much in the world that can do that, and in any case, the result will not be pretty.
    15. MIKE: The world cannot wean itself of oil and gas overnight, even if it wanted to. And the fact remains that petrochemicals are so versatile and important that we’ll never entirely displace oil and gas as raw materials.
    16. MIKE: But TotalEnergies and other oil and gas companies have the financial resources to make the energy transition happen. They need to be brought into the renewable energy and energy storage business, and it’s up to governments and other organizations to show them how they can do that successfully and profitably.
11. Trump keeps saying that he’s Making America Great Again. Next, I’m going to play for you a couple of speeches I recently ran across from the European Parliament. Trump and his MAGA Republican sheep keep telling us how much “respect” Trump has brought to America from the other nations around the world. I thought that you might want to hear what elected officials are saying about Trump’s America in the European parliament. First up is Valerie Hayer, a member of the European Parliament (MEP) in a speech from February 2026. The audio is a consecutive translation, so it might be a little hard to understand at parts. There is a French transcript included with the speech video, which I’m linking to. I’ve used Google Translate to convert it to English and pasted it into this show post at ThinkwingRadio[.]com if you want to read along with the audio. The speech is titled, “Europe MP Valerie Hayer Slams Trump’s ‘Authoritarian Regime’, Says ‘Trumpism Madness’ Threat To Europeans”, and is subtitled, “ICE armed wing of Trump’s madness’. It runs about 2m 31s. TAGS: Donald Trump, European Parliament, Brussels, Trumpism, Eupolitics, ICE ,US, Europe, Valerie Hayer,
    1. 0:00 The oldest modern democracy, the United States, is sliding toward an authoritarian regime. In the year since Donald Trump’s re-election,
    2. 0:08 American checks and balances—once thought to be among the strongest in the world—have been trampled upon. And within this emerging authoritarian regime,
    3. 0:16 the immigration agency, ICE, plays a central role. Today, ICE is no longer merely a federal agency tasked with combating illegal immigration.
    4. 0:26 It has become the enforcement arm of a regime gone mad—a power that kills its own citizens.
    5. 0:32 Ren Good and Alex Pretty were cowardly killed in Minneapolis by agents acting out of control.
    6. 0:40 ICE offered no aid to Ren Good.
    7. 0:42 It obstructed the first aid offered by a doctor. The investigation into this mother’s death was halted by Washington.
    8. 0:49 As for Alex Pretty, he was gunned down while lying on the ground, unarmed. We all saw the videos that outraged us.
    9. 0:58 That is what the United States has become over the past year.
    10. 1:02 That is the reality of Donald Trump’s second term. A term that runs counter to American democratic values, but also to European
    11. 1:10 democratic values. Because Trumpism is not just the madness of one man—that would be too easy an explanation. No, Trumpism is an ideology. An…
    12. 1:19 Populist and nationalist ideology, an ideology that wants to spread throughout our continent. The American administration has stated this clearly.
    13. 1:29 It wants to rely on the far right, here in this chamber, throughout Europe, to destroy the European Union and implement its reactionary agenda.
    14. 1:40 If anyone doubts this, just listen to the reactions of Yansa’s supporters in Slovenia, of Georgia’s supporters
    15. 1:47 Meloni in Italy, of Marion Maréchal in France. They hold it up as a model. They justify these assassinations by pointing
    16. 1:55 at the victims’ profiles. They want ICE everywhere in Europe.
    17. 2:00 Dear colleagues, what is happening today in the United States concerns the European Union. We must not look away. Democracy
    18. 2:07 in the world is under attack and it must defend itself. So, faced with this reactionary international led by Donald Trump, we must build an
    19. 2:15 alliance, the alliance of democrats from all countries. So, I say this to the American people who oppose Trump.
    20. 2:21 I say this to citizens around the world who face arbitrariness, hatred, and intolerance. You are not alone. The European Parliament is with you.
    21. 2:31 Democrats around the world are with you. Thank you.
12. Next is a speech by Dutch MEP Anna Strolenberg from January 2026 titled, “I Don’t Want To Be Like The US (2026-JAN-21). It’s from INSTAGRAM and Strolenberg or her people already edited it down for the post. She speaks in excellent English. Unfortunately, I can’t find the full, unedited speech and I don’t have a transcript. The audio runs 1m 42s. TAGS: Dutch MEP Anna Strolenberg,
    1. MIKE: It sounds to me like Trump’s policies might be making Europe great again. After listening to these two speeches, who would like to discuss the “respect” that Trump, MAGA, and the Republican Party toadies have brought to the United States?
    2. MIKE: I think most Americans feel ashamed of what Trump has to America’s standing in the world. Frankly, all Americans should be ashamed.
13. Finally, from the NY Times — Syria and Israel Hold U.S.-Mediated Talks to Try to Ease Tensions; By Christina Goldbaum | NYTIMES.COM | Aug. 24, 2026. TAGS: Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Israel, Jordan, United States, Turkey, Türkiye,
    1. Syria and Israel held talks in Jordan [last] Sunday to ease tensions between the two countries, according to [SANA,]Syria’s state news agency, days after Israel struck an air base in Syrian territory.
    2. The talks, mediated by the United States, focused on creating mechanisms to stop Israeli operations in Syria and on reviving discussions about a security agreement between Syria and Israel, according … SANA, which cited an official at the Syrian Foreign Ministry.
    3. The Syrian delegation was led by Asaad al-Shaibani, the foreign minister, and included the heads of Syria’s general intelligence and military intelligence agencies, SANA noted.
    4. Israeli officials, who have not publicly commented on the talks, did not immediately respond to requests for further information.
    5. The two sides also discussed efforts to prevent tensions between Turkey and Israel — both neighbors of Syria — from spilling over into Syrian territory, SANA reported. Syrian and Israeli officials say the Israeli strikes on the Syrian air base last week followed a visit by a Turkish delegation to the airfield as part of discussions to rehabilitate the site. Turkish officials denied that claim.
    6. The talks on Sunday were the latest sign that President Ahmed al-Sharaa of Syria was open to diplomacy with Israel, a stark departure from his predecessors, who maintained a decades-long hostility toward the country. Mr. al-Sharaa’s government first engaged with Israel in back-channel discussions brokered by the United States last year — the first such talks in more than a decade.
    7. That diplomatic track stalled after the American-Israeli war in Iran erupted this year.
    8. So far, the discussions over the past year have not curbed Israel’s military activity in Syria since rebels led by Mr. al-Sharaa swept into the capital, Damascus, in 2024 and overthrew the government of Bashar al-Assad.
    9. The Israeli military has launched hundreds of airstrikes on military targets in Syria; deployed forces deep into parts of the country’s south, near its border with Israel; and built military outposts and supporting infrastructure in Syrian territory near the Israeli border, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a nonprofit that tracks global conflict.
    10. Israeli officials have defended the actions as necessary to ensure that hostile forces such as Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group; or the Islamic State, which remains active in Syria, cannot entrench themselves near Israel.
    11. But in Syria, the military interventions have stoked fears that Israel is seeking to maintain a long-term military presence on Syrian territory, and may expand operations beyond the southern border areas.
    12. The Trump administration — a proponent of Syria’s new government — has pushed for discussions between the two countries and publicly called for Syria to join the Abraham Accords, which established diplomatic relations between Israel and four Arab states during Mr. Trump’s first term. Syrian officials have shown no inclination to do so imminently, and the scope of the latest round of talks were more limited.
    13. After Israel struck the air base in northwestern Syria last week, the government in Damascus said that the strikes had been “an unjustified act of aggression, a flagrant violation of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and a dangerous escalation that threatens security and stability in the region.”
    14. MIKE: I can’t add much to this story except to note that Trump had talks going between Syria and Israel, and put at least a temporary halt to those talks by attacking Iran, thus damaging America’s soft diplomatic power and America’s hard military power simultaneously. An impressive 2-fer. At least he got the FIFA peace award.

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!