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

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

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

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 followers from China, The Netherlands, Brazil, Canada 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.

I’m excited to announce that today’s show will include a 34-minute post-election interview with Houston’s own Charles Kuffner. Kuff is a respected, long-time blogger who covers metro-Houston’s regional political scene.

It’s now the 64^th week of Trump’s recently intensified military occupation of Washington DC. As of the last time I checked on Saturday, after 53 weeks, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee’s deployment of National Guard troops to Memphis, Tennessee at Trump’s request is where they apparently remain for now.  

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. I have some post-election day thoughts …
   1. MIKE: My first observation after this election is not a new one, but it is a clearly demonstrated one: When Democrats show up to vote, they win.
   2. MIKE: That is not to underestimate or undervalue the importance of voters who were swing independents and disaffected Republicans. We’ll certainly need them in the months and years to come in both governance and elections, but the sheer size of the turnout suggests to me that Democrats turned out en masse.
   3. MIKE: There are three things that I believe it’s important to remember as the first flush of victory fades.
   4. MIKE: First, there are slightly less than two months before these newly elected state and federal Democrats actually take office. It could be remarkable how much legislative and executive mischief Republicans may attempt between now and January.
   5. MIKE: Second, and this applies especially to Texas where Republicans have been solidly entrenched for over 30 years, things can’t and won’t change overnight. Legislatures must first convene, and the legislative process never works quickly. Then, implementation of legislation takes time.
   6. MIKE: In Texas, Republicans will still control the state Senate, so legislation will have to be a compromise, but at least the state House is controlled by Democrats, so most bad legislation can be nipped in the bud before it even gets to Governor Hinojosa’s desk. But it also means that bad legislation passed by Republicans over the past 3 decades will be difficult or impossible to repeal and replace for the time being.
   7. MIKE: And third, Republicans have managed to pass amendments to the Texas Constitution that, as intended, will hem in some of the reform legislation that Democrats will want to pass. We’ll have to see how this develops.
   8. MIKE: And finally, it’s important to remember that you can always register to vote and correct your voter information for the next election. It’s never too late.
2. In the excitement of this election’s results, it’s possible that the results of the HPD-related proposition may have been missed by some. From HOUSTONPUBLICMEDIA[.]ORG — Houston passes Prop A, deprioritizing marijuana enforcement, banning no-knock warrants; By Dominic Anthony Walsh | HOUSTONPUBLICMEDIA.ORG | Posted on November 3, 2026, 4:08 PM (Last Updated: November 4, 2026, 7:15 AM). TAGS: Election 2026, Harris County, Local News, Harris County, Texas, Marijuana Possession,
   1. Voters in Houston overwhelmingly approved Proposition A, with more than 70% supporting the measure banning no-knock warrants and instructing the police department to deprioritize misdemeanor marijuana enforcement, according to unofficial results from Harris and Fort Bend Counties on Wednesday morning.
   2. The measure came about seven years after a deadly drug raid on Harding Street in Houston left two people dead — prompting the Houston Police Department (HPD) to institute a ban on no-knock warrants, which allow officers to enter properties without announcing themselves.
   3. It also followed a sharp uptick in HPD arrests for misdemeanor marijuana possession. Under Mayor John Whitmire, Houston police officers have arrested about 440 people per year for misdemeanor marijuana possession — up from an annual average of about 35 from 2021 through 2023 — according to data obtained by Houston Public Media.
   4. The proposition was placed on the ballot after political advocacy group Ground Game Texas gathered more than 40,000 signatures on a petition. It amends the city charter to “require the Houston Police Department to make enforcement of Class A and Class B misdemeanor marijuana possession its lowest law-enforcement priority ” and to “prohibit Houston police officers from requesting or executing ‘no-knock’ search warrants.”
   5. It’s similar to measures passed in other cities, including San Marcos and Dallas, which faced legal challenges from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
   6. Whitmire has argued Proposition A won’t change much.
   7. [Whitmire told reporters on Sept. 9, when the city council approved the ballot measure,] “Houstonians will get to speak, but even before the ballot initiative, (misdemeanor marijuana possession) is not a priority of HPD.”
   8. He blamed the Harris County District Attorney’s Office for prosecuting more misdemeanor marijuana possession cases. DA Sean Teare said the office is bound by state law curtailing prosecutors’ ability to turn away drug cases.
   9. [Teare told Houston Public Media in September,] “Personally, I think that we shouldn’t be using resources to investigate and prosecute marijuana cases — and I don’t believe that we’re doing that now. … But until the legislature actually gets serious about writing the laws the right way and doing something with marijuana, it’s never going to be zero.”
   10. MIKE: Mayor Whitmire said that the proposition won’t change much. By the time the next mayoral election rolls around in 2027, we’ll be able to see if he was right.
3. In other post-election mayoral backpedaling news, from HOUSTONPUBLICMEDIA[.]ORG — Houston Mayor John Whitmire directs HPD to reduce cooperation with ICE after midterm results; By Sarah Grunau / Dominic Anthony Walsh / Kyle McClenagan | HOUSTONPUBLICMEDIA.ORG | Posted on November 6, 2026, 11:35 AM (Last Updated: November 6, 2026, 4:23 PM). TAGS: City Of Houston, News, Houston Police Department, ICE Policies, Immigration Enforcement, Midterm Elections,
   1. Prompted by Democratic gains during the midterm elections, Houston Mayor John Whitmire said Friday he’s directing the Houston Police Department to reduce contact with federal immigration officers.
   2. Whitmire issued an executive order directing HPD officers to contact U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) only when a person with a civil immigration warrant is charged with a jailable offense. It marks a stark shift from the city police department’s previous policy on interacting with ICE, which drew increased scrutiny over the past year.
   3. [Whitmire said during a press conference on Friday,] “I do this to begin a healing process, reduce fear and anxiety across our community. … I also do this knowing that elections matter.”
   4. Under the executive order, officers will no longer be allowed to detain people solely due to civil immigration warrants. Officers will be prohibited from contacting ICE about those warrants unless the person is charged with a jailable offense.
   5. [Houston Police Chief Noe Diaz said,] “For example, if our police officers pull over someone for a minor traffic infraction and they write a citation, that person receives a citation and goes about their day, … HPD will no longer contact ICE if they have an administrative warrant and they are not arrested.”
   6. HPD’s interactions with ICE posed a political conundrum to Whitmire over the past year.
   7. In April, [Whitmire] joined a group of Houston City Council members in an effort to curtail the department’s coordination with federal immigration agents — by giving officers discretion over whether or not to contact ICE about civil immigration warrants, and prohibiting them from detaining people for those warrants.
   8. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott intervened, threatening to revoke more than $110 million in public safety funding. Whitmire and the city council capitulated, reversing the measure and requiring officers to detain immigrants for a “reasonable” amount of time while waiting for ICE agents to respond to warrants.
   9. Before the city council meeting in which officials walked back the ordinance, Whitmire’s staff passed out a memo to city council members detailing more than $260 million in direct appropriations to Houston from the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature in 2025. Whitmire said a battle with the state would cost the city funding in the future.
   10. Houston City Council Member Alejandra Salinas, who spearheaded the ordinance in April and opposed its reversal, told Houston Public Media on Friday the policy change was a “great step forward.”
   11. [She said,] “Today, we acknowledged the fear that we had been causing, and I’m so grateful that we can put those days behind us. … I commend the mayor and Chief Diaz for finally listening to the calls of community and taking this decisive action.”
   12. The original ordinance required HPD to provide regular reports on those interactions, and that measure survived. According to the department’s first two reports, officers contacted ICE nearly 200 times from April through September, including at least 36 instances in which HPD officers handed people directly to ICE.
   13. According to records obtained by Houston Public Media, some of those incidents came after people called emergency services for help — including for a suicide attempt and domestic violence.
   14. Abbott nor the Texas Attorney General’s Office immediately responded to a request to comment regarding Whitmire’s announcement.
   15. MIKE: I can’t honestly say how much of this policy change is a result of Proposition A winning in the election, how much is due to the coming shift in power in state government, and how much is due to Whitmire’s actual policy preferences.
   16. MIKE: Maybe the result matters more than the reason, but I’m not sure how much credit I give to what’s actually in Whitmore’s heart.
4. Next, there’s this from POLITICO[.]COM — Hegseth expands National Guard presence in DC; By Jack Detsch and Leo Shane III | POLITICO.COM | 11/05/2026 11:03 AM CST |Updated: 11/05/2026 2:56 PM CST. TAGS: Defense, Pete Hegseth, National Guard, Criminal Justice, C.,
   1. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has authorized the National Guard to begin using boats, several dozen marked police cars, Humvees and light medium tactical vehicles in the nation’s capital — an escalation of the troops’ presence that could further blur the line between their military and law enforcement role.
   2. It’s not clear why the Trump administration is making the move now. The Oct. 29 memo obtained by POLITICO detailing the expansion doesn’t provide any further details beyond doubling down on Trump’s plan to use the National Guard to crack down on what he’s called a “crime emergency” in the nation’s capital.
   3. The beefed-up presence, which will be in place through the end of the year, would see members of the National Guard driving vehicles typically used by U.S. troops on battlefields like Iraq and Afghanistan on city streets to support law enforcement officers making drug busts, though they are not allowed to pursue suspects or make arrests.
   4. [The memo stated that] The boats will conduct “perimeter security” for police conducting operations against suspected gang leaders and drug traffickers in Anacostia, the southeastern corner of the nation’s capital, … but will not conduct surveillance on U.S. citizens. Hegseth stated that federal officers “must always be on board” Guard vessels “to help arrest a criminal suspect,” including those who might try to evade law enforcement by jumping into the river.
   5. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The National Guard Bureau referred requests for comment to the Pentagon, which confirmed the deployment.
   6. An October report from the Cato Institute found that robberies and theft have fallen in Washington since the start of the Guard deployments but more serious crimes — like homicides — have remained unchanged. Assaults with dangerous weapons increased slightly.
   7. Trump first deployed National Guard troops to Washington in August 2025 after declaring a “crime emergency” in the capital. The mission has been extended several times over the last 16 months and is now expected to last through Inauguration Day 2029.
   8. Because Washington is a federal district, Trump serves as the commander in chief of the area’s national guard, though U.S. district courts have challenged how troops can be used since the initial deployment.
   9. Outgoing Mayor Muriel Bowser worked with the federal government through the surge in federal law enforcement, which Trump has praised her for. Trump said in June that he “wouldn’t like it” and threatened to “take back Washington” if the now Mayor-elect Janeese Lewis George won. She will take office in January.
   10. The number of personnel deployed to the city has fluctuated from month to month, peaking at around 5,000 over the summer. Forces have been drawn from 20 states as well as Puerto Rico.
   11. Guard troops are not permitted to handle many law enforcement duties and cannot make arrests. But they have been conducting patrols throughout the city and are authorized to carry firearms as part of their deployment. Even with the escalated presence, they are not able to carry bayonets, use intelligence assets, employ helicopters, or conduct law enforcement activity.
   12. Much of the Guard work has been focused on beautification projects, drawing complaints from Democratic lawmakers that the military mobilization has been inefficient and unnecessary.
   13. The Council of the District of Columbia’s public safety committee held a hearing Thursday on the continued Guard presence, where local leaders voiced concerns about their patrols creating a sense of intimidation and military control throughout neighborhoods.
   14. Defense Department officials told Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in August that Guard deployments are expected to cost about $1.4 billion through the end of 2028.
   15. MIKE: Even though Hegseth’s order is dated October 29^th, might it have been in anticipation of jubilation in the streets by DC citizenry? Maybe, but that’s just my suspicion.
   16. MIKE: That this is just being reported now is interesting and the actual additional post-election deployments might be a knee-jerk retaliation against the Democrats’ mid-term sweep.
5. I’ve followed Charles Kuffner’s political blog for years, and I felt that if anyone could do an interesting analysis of what Tuesday’s elections results might mean, it would be Kuff. So I asked if he’d be interesting in doing an interview, and he graciously agreed on short notice. That interview follows.
   1. [The following is a lightly edited computer transcript of my interview with Kuffner. I’ve also added some reference links into the body of the transcript.] [PLAY AUDIO: 34m]
   2. Mike Honig: My guest today is Charles Kuffner. He writes the long-running blog Off the Kuff, which covers local and state politics from a progressive perspective. Welcome to the show, Charles.
   3. Charles Kuffner: Thanks, Mike. I appreciate it. How are you?
   4. Mike Honig: OK, thank you. I’ve been hearing a lot of analysts trying to name this election, and I’ve heard a lot of names. A blue wave, a blue tsunami, a lot of people feel that doesn’t quite cover it. I’ve heard blue firestorm. Do you have some kind of a metaphor that you’ve been using for this?
   5. Charles Kuffner: I have used Blue Earthquake. Um, I mean, Tsunami works pretty well, but I like Earthquake because … I mean, I mean, it’s… you can see a tsunami coming, and we all saw something happening here, but nobody saw this. I like earthquake because of its… Um, more… it’s suddenness, it’s less predict… it was less predictable, and, I mean, the ground has literally transformed underneath all of our feet, and from our perspective.
   6. Um, it cleared out a lot of debris, and from the Republicans’ perspective, everything, everything that they built is now, either broken or in danger. So, I think earthquake works pretty well. But honestly, pick.
   7. Mike Honig: You know, the…
   8. Charles Kuffner: Pick your, pick your metaphor. They all work.
   9. Mike Honig: The way you explain it, I actually kind of like it. I was kind of thinking, and not to talk metaphors, but I was kind of thinking that, you know.
   10. Democrats shouldn’t get too overconfident, like, all of a sudden, people have decided that maybe the Democrats have the answers. I… I think it’s more a cry for help, um a rescue-me situation.
   11. Charles Kuffner: No, I agree with that completely. I mean, do you remember… I mean, there was… do you remember… before the 2008 election, I mean, there had been these series of, like, Bud Light ads featuring, uh, mostly black. cast, that was a… that was, um, the WhatsApp ads, um, and… and they… those actors did an ad that was… did a video, I don’t know if it was actually used as an ad, but it was a video that kind of spoofed those commercials.
   12. Mike Honig: Vaguely.
   13. Charles Kuffner: That was about all the things that had gone horribly wrong for people in the waning days of the George W. Bush administration, and it was used as a pro-Obama spot. Um, I think it’s kind of like that. People… I mean, I agree with your basic thesis, and, we’re not original thinkers in saying it. This was about people, including a lot of people who… for various reasons, voted for Donald Trump in 2024, thinking that he would actually do the things he said, such as lower inflation and bring back manufacturing.
   14. Um, and they very quickly realized that he was full of it, he didn’t mean any of it, and the things that he did do that he said he was going to do, like on immigration, he did so much harder and more viciously, and…
   15. To a far greater extent than anyone wanted, um, that they, they soured on. Um, this was also true of the people who didn’t vote or, or, or are mostly disconnected from politics … their approval ratings for Trump were lower even than um, regular voters. So, yes, it was a cry for help, and Democrats have a chance to build on it, and I think they can.
   16. But it is far, far, far from guaranteed. I mean it’s… again, to call it back to the 2008 election, the vibes we’re feeling now, we felt a lot back then. And President Obama and his large majorities in Congress did get a lot of stuff done.
   17. But… they could have done more, they could have moved faster, they spent way too much time tinkering around the edges of the Affordable Care Act in the hopes of making it bipartisan instead of getting it through. They didn’t get to immigration reform.
   18. They limited themselves on, um uh, the economic relief bill. They didn’t want it to be more than a trillion. They wanted they wanted limits on… they put a whole lot of… um, accountability measures on it, which, again, makes a lot of sense, but it had the effect of and also, I should say, they they put stuff out in pieces rather than all at once, and it had a positive effect, but not nearly enough.
   19. And so, by the time people went to vote in 2010, a lot of Obama supporters were either complacent or not nearly as enthusiastic, and Republicans were all mad, and we know what happened.
   20. Mike Honig: Okay.
   21. Charles Kuffner: So, Democrats have the opportunity to make good on the things that they said they were going to do, and at the national level, they can continue to run against Donald Trump, which is going to be important.
   22. But it can’t just be small bore, it can’t be it can’t be long-termism. It’s gotta be… We do what we can right now, and much better to be caught trying and failing than to say… than to say, oh, well we… sorry, we couldn’t get it done when you run into the first hint of resistance.
   23. Mike Honig: You talked about how the Obama administration was trying for bipartisanism. And, uh… You know, the Republicans, when they’re not in power, they kind of use… Democrats better nature against them. It’s almost like when they’re in the minority, they become hostage takers.
   24. Charles Kuffner: Yes.
   25. Mike Honig: And the hostage is bipartisanism. And I think that that’s a trap the Democrats really need to recognize and try to avoid this time around. Now, they don’t have supermajorities in the U.S. Senate, and of course, in Texas, they don’t have the Texas Senate. They do seem to have.
   26. Do they have a supermajority now in the Texas House or just a majority?
   27. Charles Kuffner: Oh, no, no, no. They have a majority. It’ll be a small majority. It’ll be… if they won 20 seats, which is what I understand is the count, that’ll give them something like, I don’t know, 78 or something. It’ll be a small majority. But it is a majority. They’ll have a Democratic speaker, and nothing will pass that they don’t want to pass, so that’s good. Um, I think I know where you’re going with this.
   28. Mike Honig: And we’ll have a Democratic governor who’s not quite as likely to veto things that they managed to get through the legislature.
   29. Charles Kuffner: Wouldn’t work. She… I fully expect she will have far fewer things that she needs to veto. I was I was prepared for her to be governor. With more Democrats in the House, but not a majority, and definitely having to be vetoing things left and right. Um, if she’s vetoing things.
   30. I feel like something… something has maybe gone awry. Um I mean, there’ll always be something, but for the most part, I don’t think that is going to be a problem. Um, in terms of the bipartisanship stuff. I mean at the national level.
   31. The Democrats in Congress and the Senate should be full steam ahead on whatever they want to do, um, that includes passing a bunch of things and daring Trump to veto them, um restoring Medicaid, restoring snap cuts, restoring Obamacare subsidies.
   32. You know, defunding ICE, all of it. Go whole hog, and let Trump… veto whatever he doesn’t like. I think there’s some things that they’ll be able to get through that he’ll sign, partly because there may… there may be some Republican appeal for some kind of detente-level, um, gerrymandering reform bill.
   33. There may be I do think there’ll be bipartisan support for defunding the Iran war. Um, and they might be able to I’ve heard things suggested half-jokingly, like we’ll let you have your ballroom if you let us have this, and… I, I I think he’s going to be disconnected and disengaged, and playing to his ego will still work. I mean, it’ll be um, undignified, but if it’s the only way to get something through, I’d be willing to consider it.
   34. In Texas, It’s gonna be trickier. Because the Republicans have a solid majority in the Senate. And there aren’t any moderates there. You know, there aren’t for the most part.
   35. They are used to, over the last however many years under Dan Patrick, passing what he tells them to pass and not having to compromise on anything.
   36. So, I think getting stuff through the Senate is going to be trickier, but I do think it’s possible. I do think there will be bipartisan support. For some sorts of… limits some sorts of regulations on data centers. I mean, everybody saw what happened in this election. I do think there will be some bipartisan support, potentially. For, um, again, for things like maybe online voter registration. I think there will be some bipartisan support for at least putting some guardrails.
   37. Uh, and accountability on vouchers. Again, people saw what happened in this election. Um, I don’t think any of those things are guaranteed. I think it’ll be a fight. Um it may well be that we don’t get much more done than the one bill that’s constitutionally required, which is a budget.
   38. But I, I do think there are places where, um, even the Republican Senate might be willing to play ball, um, but it’s gonna be, uh. It’s gonna be a challenge, and we’ll see… How open they are to it. Right off by how they treat Lieutenant Governor-elect Vicki Goodwin. If they basically…
   39. Mike Honig: Is, is the lieutenant, is the lieutenant governor automatically the president of the Senate?
   40. Charles Kuffner: Yes, but what powers the Lieutenant Governor has over the Senate are determined by the Senate in a majority vote on what the Senate rules are.
   41. Mike Honig: Oh, that’s going to be partisan.
   42. Charles Kuffner: Yes, and like I said, I mean, they could go whole hog and basically make her a glorified spectator.
   43. Or they could at least pay some homage to tradition and comedy, and give her some authority. I mean, they are probably not going to want her, and honestly, I can’t blame them. To, like, make committee assignments and be the arbiter of what bills come to the floor. You know, if the roles were reversed, I wouldn’t want that either. Um, but I would hope that she will have some kind of substantive role. And frankly, if she doesn’t, if they make her nothing more than a glorified spectator.
   44. I would, and she’s talked about this to some extent, I would, if I were her work as closely as you can with the house. And use your platform to talk every day about the way that this Texas Senate is being obstructive, not supporting the things that got Democrats statewide elected up and down the line.
   45. Um, and there’s a number of… Senators who will be up for election in 2028, who… you know, certainly would have been in deep trouble in a year like this, but may be in sufficient trouble even in a moderately good Democratic year.
   46. So there are things that she can do, even if they do their best to clip her wings.
   47. Mike Honig: Do you have in your mind a short list of things that Democrats will want to try to enact as quickly as possible?
   48. Charles Kuffner: There are things that different, uh, statewide Democrats can do, and some of them are already happening. Uh, Attorney General-elect.
   49. Nathan Johnson has already said that he will no longer follow, he will not follow Ken Paxton’s practice of suing out of state doctors who mail abortion pills into the state, and this is consistent with his position of.
   50. I’m gonna do stuff that’s legal and constitutional and in line with what the attorney general normally does. So that’s good. I, I think he hasn’t talked about this, but I would like to think that he might try to revisit that corrupt agreement that the Attorney General came to with the Trump Justice Department that nullified the Texas Dream Act from 2001. Um, and that, you may recall, the, uh, Trump Justice Department sued in one of their friendly, uh, federal courts on the grounds that this 25-year-old law was unconstitutional.
   51. Um, and the state of Texas just agreed. They didn’t, they, they did not serve the role of the attorney general and defend the, the legitimately passed by the legislature law of the state of Texas.
   52. They just rolled over and let Todd Blanch rub their belly. I think it would be entirely appropriate.
   53. For Attorney General-elect Nathan Johnson to file paperwork saying, no, actually we oppose this and we are going to defend it.
   54. Um, so that’s another thing. Um, Governor-elect Hinojosa has already said she’s going to fire Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath on day one. I, I mean, his term expires on December 31st, so I mean, she won’t technically, I guess, be firing him, she just won’t be renewing his contract or reappointing him.
   55. So that will, I think, have… downstream effects on current and ongoing, um, school district takeovers, including HISD, because the TEA commissioner is the one who appointed Mike Miles, and I would think that a new commissioner could unappoint him or appoint somebody else in his place.
   56. So that will be something. I don’t know if she has talked about it, but I would like to think that she could revoke Greg Abbott’s executive order declaring a border emergency.Um, and, you know, de-emphasize the Texas Department of Public Safety working with ICE.
   57. You know, she can certainly… I mean she might be able to… if the legislature can’t push through a reduction in ICE… in funding for border… the border boondoggle that the state of Texas has, um…  propagated over the last few years. She has a line item veto available to her. That would be later on, but that’s a thing she could do.
   58. Um… she is also she will be able to make other… I mean, appointments are a big power of the governor. Now, she’s not going to be able to just fire a bunch of people right away.
   59. She she can appoint new people as their terms end. Some people, like the… some people she can appoint, um… at… who serve at her pleasure. I mean, there’s somebody… I mean, I… I don’t have the story off the top of my head, but someone on who’s a health… you know, a health and Medicare advisor, someone on the HHS.
   60. Department of Health and Human Services that overrun that oversees health and Medicare, uh, Medicaid, I’m sorry. Um that’s, there’s a position that she would be able to appoint who’s not confirmed by the Senate. She’ll need to be a bit more careful with people who need to be confirmed by the Senate.
   61. But she can also make interim appointments and keep going back to that well as needed. And again, also, campaign against the senators who refuse to play ball. Um, so I do think there are things she can do. I mean, she just had her press conference today announcing her transition team and some other things. She’s certainly gonna…
   62. You know, call for some transparency on vouchers. The new state comptroller, Sarah Eckhart, made auditing the voucher program one of her signature issues in the campaign. So I expect some quick action on that.
   63. So that’s a… That’s a list of things that I think we will see action on pretty quickly.
   64. Mike Honig: Texas pretty much rolled over for the U.S. Attorney General, I believe, in giving them the Texas voter rolls with all kinds of identifiable information. I assume that isn’t a one-time thing, that’s probably sort of an ongoing process as the rolls evolve. Do you think that that’s something.
   65. That, essentially, they can end cooperation with?
   66. Charles Kuffner: Um, I think… I mean, I don’t know that it’s an ongoing thing, um…
   67. Mike Honig: Obviously, once the bell is rung, you can’t undo the information unless…
   68. Charles Kuffner: I… Right, and I the Secretary of State is an appointed position, and I believe the current Secretary, the current Secretary of State was only recently appointed by Greg Abbott because the previous one stepped, uh, Jane Nelson stepped down, so I, you know.
   69. I believe she will have an opportunity to appoint a new Secretary of State, so that would be a change of direction.
   70. Although, again, that’s something that needs to be confirmed by the Senate, so she might have to do what Greg Abbott did when one of his picks couldn’t get confirmed, and play the interim game. We’ll see how that goes.
   71. Mike Honig: What is her authority over the Texas Education Agency, the TEA? Is that something she can impact right away?
   72. Charles Kuffner: She appoints the commissioner. Yeah, and like I said, Mike Morath’s term is up on December 31st, so she can make an appointment as soon as she wants, and yeah, we’ll get someone new very quickly.
   73. Mike Honig: And again, this continues trickling down. What about the Board of Regents?
   74. Charles Kuffner: Well, there’s… I mean…
   75. Mike Honig: That’s a university thing specifically, right?
   76. Charles Kuffner: Right, there’s multiple boards… there’s multiple boards of regents, and again, I mean, I read about this… you know, there’s the Board of Regents, and then there’s the Chancellors, and the Board of Regents appoints the Chancellors. Um, there are some whose terms are expiring, like Cody Campbell at Texas Tech, and Again, I forget the names off the top of my head, but there are some very… um, Abbott-friendly guys whose terms are coming… are ending, um, in January, and she will be able to make some appointments. Now, you know, this is one member of a board, so it’s not like she’s gonna be able to get majorities on there quickly, but she can at least get some new voices in there and, uh, get that process started. She’ll have… she’ll have 4 years to make more appointments.
   77. Mike Honig: How quickly will these kinds of changes, do you think, trickle down to K to 12 and university curricula?
   78. Charles Kuffner: Um, I, I think, uh, it’ll come less from her, and if all the election results on the State Board of Ed hold up, the Democrats now have an 8-7 majority on that board, and they can go to work starting to reverse some of the crazy things that the previous SBOE did. So, I do think there’s some hope, possibly for some quick action. Um, certainly, the people who were… the Democrats who were elected, uh, have that in mind, so… Um, that would be one thing, and that that covers textbooks and curriculum. Some of the some of what they may be able to do is just undo what was previously adopted and go back to what was there before.
   79. You know, making changes is a longer term process.
   80. Mike Honig: Secretary of State, I try to pay a lot of attention to various things in election. I mean, my show is always, this is early voting, this is election day, these are links you can go to.
   81. Early in the process, when I went to the Texas Secretary of State, like to look for sample ballots, couldn’t find any, going almost like to yesterday, couldn’t find any. As of yesterday, I still couldn’t find election results. I finally was able to see election results today. I mean.
   82. Charles Kuffner: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
   83. Mike Honig: I have to say, I think — what is his name?
   84. Charles Kuffner: Robert Howden.
   85. Mike Honig: Yeah, he’s doing kind of a piss poor job. Is this basically subtle voter suppression? I mean, what is this?
   86. Charles Kuffner: Yeah. I don’t think so. I mean, it would be a weird way of doing it, especially since a lot of the data that was missing was from rural counties where the Republicans were winning. I think it was I mean, to be as gracious as I can to the guy, he was appointed, what, in September, something like that? He didn’t have a whole lot of time to get his feet underneath him before the election. Now the Secretary of State himself is is more of a manager, not the person doing the real work.
   87. And they have a good professional staff at the Texas Secretary of State’s office. So, I don’t know what exactly happened, um that would be something worth investigating and, and, and, uh putting a report out on it, because you were hardly the only person who noticed that. Um, but I, I, I also think I, I would expect that she’ll be appointing a new SOS at her first opportunity.
   88. Mike Honig: Do you think that after about 30 years in power, there might be some… Investigations warranted into perhaps some, uh… illegal or unethical practices in various aspects of state government, either contributors or.
   89. Charles Kuffner: Oh, I, I, I think, I think there’s, I think there’s been a lot, a whole lot of, like pay-for-play stuff going on. No bid contracts.
   90. um, appointments and other favors in return for campaign contributions. I mean, hell, that’s Elon Musk’s whole game, and I don’t care if I’m mispronouncing his name.
   91. Mike Honig: Heh!
   92. Charles Kuffner: Um…
   93. Mike Honig: Okay.
   94. Charles Kuffner: you know, so I… I do think… I mean, I… I fully expect… I mean, that would come… partly from the Comptroller’s Office doing audits, and it’ll come partly from the Attorney General’s Office doing investigations. I don’t know that…
   95. Mike Honig: And of course, House committees.
   96. Charles Kuffner: Um, yes.
   97. Mike Honig: We’re not accustomed to House committees in Texas doing investigations.
   98. Charles Kuffner: Yes, I don’t know how much of that we’ll see during the session, but I do think some of that will happen. I think it may take AG-elect Nathan Johnson a little while to gear up because he’s going to have to do a little house cleaning.
   99. I mean, as he himself says, there’s plenty of good… solid, uh, professional civil servants working in his office, and there’s also a bunch of Ken Paxton toadies who are have made that place the mess that it is. He’s got to get rid of the ladder and hire some good people to replace them, and so… some of the some of the civil service folks who much like in the national, uh, Justice Department, um may have gotten a bit hollowed out because they didn’t want to work for a partisan act.
   100. So, you know… I firmly believe that that is on the agenda. It may not be a day one thing, because I think he’s going to need to get some senior people in place in order to really dig into that sort of stuff.
   101. Mike Honig: I’ve been hearing a lot of commentators that really are just looking at this election as, okay, the Democrats won, we’re off to the races, when actually there’s two months before the elected Democrats take power. That’s a lot of time for mischief-making. Now, I realize you’re mostly a Texas political specialist. So, you can dwell mostly on that. If you want to touch on national, that’s okay. What kinds of things do we need to worry about before January 1st? [NOTE THIS STORY FROM THEHILL(.)COM]: Texas state rep calls on Abbott to curb Hinojosa’s power before inauguration]
   102. Charles Kuffner: I don’t think there’s much you need to worry about in Texas. Um, the main thing that will happen, and it will happen. I mean, it’ll really happen after everyone’s sworn in, is what the Senate does with its rules and the role of the Lieutenant Governor. There was one wingnut, um… state representative who’s demanding Greg Abbott call a special session to revisit laws, the Texas Disaster Act, which gives the governor a fair amount of executive authority in times of declared disasters.
   103. Um, but he, he vastly overstates how much power it gives, um, and I, I don’t think he’s gonna get any traction. Honestly, the fact that Greg Abbott was out there on TV at like 9 o’clock conceding graciously.
   104. Um, and… and Governor-elect Hinojosa has said that she has they… they’ve gotten full cooperation from his team so far in the tradition… in the transition. I’m not… I’m not worried about any of that, Um… nationally, I think the main thing that people have played up has been uh… Supreme Court Justices Alito and Clarence Thomas retiring.
   105. So that the Republicans ram in a couple of successors to them in the time. However, Alito has said he has no intention of retiring, and Thomas hasn’t said anything, which is his norm. I don’t think they want to retire. I think they like being where they are and doing what they do.
   106. So, you know… again, I am not too worried about any of that. Um… Yeah, I mean, there is always the possibility for shenanigans. I think some of those are more likely to happen at the state level.
   107. Um, but even there, I mean outgoing Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has rejected calls for Ohio to do what, like, Wisconsin and North Carolina had done in previous years.
   108. Mike Honig: Just to remind people, what they did was basically strip powers away from the newly elected governor.
   109. Charles Kuffner: Strip hours from the governor. Yep. And mostly on appointment matters. I mean, again, in Texas, even if there were a special session called, a lot of that sort of thing is constitutionally determined, not legislatively determined. So it wouldn’t be possible to make those changes anyway.
   110. Um, and as some people have pointed out, even if Greg Abbott did call a special session, no Democrat would have any meaning to… have any reason to attend.
   111. They just wouldn’t show up, there wouldn’t be quorum, and they can do whatever they want they can do whatever they want to them in terms of, like, fining them or whatnot. They’ll be able to redo the rules and in January. It’s…
   112. I am not worried about shenanigans in Texas, and I mean… I also think… The scope of this victory, nationally and everywhere you look, was so great, so vast, so all-encompassing.
   113. I kind of think a lot of Republicans, even the worst of the worst, kind of have their tails between their legs right now. I don’t think…
   114. Mike Honig: Walking on political eggshells.
   115. Charles Kuffner: Yeah, I, I don’t, I don’t think they, I mean, I don’t, I, I hesitate to say this because I don’t want to provide bulletin board material, but I, I don’t think they want to do anything like that right now. They’re, I mean, again, think of how we felt like after 2024. I think they want to check out, watch TV, go on vacation, and just not think about it. And I don’t blame them.
   116. Mike Honig: Aside from what we’ve discussed, do you have anything that you can think of that Democrats might have as kind of plank issues that they want to work toward that we haven’t already talked about?
   117. Charles Kuffner: Um… That one’s a little harder to say. I mean, most, most of what, I mean, well, I, I will say we, we haven’t talked about THC and, and, uh, and hemp, and actually I think that is something also where there’s bipartisan room for.
   118. You know, doing what what was originally passed, or something like it with a… that’s a bit less heavy-handed, and then passing a bill to have some sort of reasonably sensible regulatory regime over hemp, cannabis, THC products.
   119. And I mean… You know, there’s plenty of Republicans who support that. Dan Patrick was the outlier. I mean, you remember, I mean, Greg Abbott Greg Abbott vetoed the bipartisan bill that was the bipartisan bill that was passed to ban THC.
   120. You know, the one that Dan Patrick helped shove through.
   121. You know, his executive order was overly broad and restrictive. Governor Hinojosa will definitely rescind that. But I think there’s room for a bipartisan bill.
   122. To install some kind of sensible marijuana. Well, let’s say cannabis policy, um, and go from there. I think the chances of… Some form of expanded gambling? Um, are, are greater now, because again, Dan Patrick was the biggest single opponent.
   123. Mike Honig: One of the… one of the things I agree with him on, frankly.
   124. Charles Kuffner: That’s not my cup of tea. Yeah, that’s not my cup of tea, but if but that sort of thing tends to poll well, and it kind of doesn’t make sense that you can drive across the state line in literally any direction and visit a casino. Um, but they’re not here. I, I mean, I, I…
   125. Mike Honig: Well, we do have… we do have a couple of tribal casinos in Texas.
   126. Charles Kuffner: Yes, but… but, you know… they’re in limited locations, and I don’t know. Obviously, lots of big money interest want there to be casinos. Again, I’m not a big fan of that, but a lot of people are, and whatever. I it wouldn’t be my priority, but it wouldn’t shock me. I mean, obviously, there’s gonna be a push for it.
   127. Um, and you know, weirdly, I have been saying for years that the same casino interests. That have spent gazillions of dollars hiring lobbyists. You know, that has failed every two years because of Dan Patrick’s implacable obstruction.
   128. Um, it’s like, hey why don’t you just try to beat Dan Patrick and see if that helps you?
   129. Well, guess what? You know, I mean, they didn’t do it, but it happened. So I, I wouldn’t be surprised if, if that is on, if that happens. I don’t think it’ll be a priority item, but I think it’s something that once the inevitable bills come forward, and Democrats have often been the sponsors of them, I, I think they’ll proceed.
   130. Mike Honig: One of the things I talked about last week was a story that was, uh, about something called “deliverism. It’s a coined word. And, um… I included part of a press release from the NYC Mayor’s office press release about Mamdani doing a big presentation of how he’s trying to deliver on, for example, cleaning up the city streets. I mean, literally cleaning up the city streets.
   131. Charles Kuffner: Yeah, yeah.
   132. Mike Honig: And that is Mamdani basically trying to deliver on a promise as opposed to hedging and saying, well, we need to get more cooperation, or we need more budgeting. He went ahead and got it done. I think the Democrats, now that they have an opportunity in power, I think a lot of people that voted for them, a lot of the independents, a lot of the disenchanted Republicans are… kind of dubious that the Democrats will actually deliver beneficial change.
   133. I think it’s something that the Democrats really have to kind of take on as a mantra. They need to pick their fights and make sure that what they do is what can be done.
   134. Charles Kuffner: Yeah. The good news here is that … What the Democrats… ran on and appealed to, as you said, independents and disgruntled Republicans are the things that they explicitly ran on, and they will work on. And I am talking about, um, vouchers, I am talking about data centers, I’m talking about THC.
   135. Um, so, you know… To the extent that I mean, to the extent that Governor-elect Hinojosa can do executive action, I believe she will. We’ve already talked about some of these things.
   136. The worst case scenario is that the Democrats. Over perhaps with bipartisan support, pass legislation on these things. Um, and the Republicans in the Senate.
   137. Refuse to play ball, or block it, or load it up with poison pill amendments, or just strip it… strip it down to the studs.
   138. That wouldn’t be delivering, but it would be they’d get caught it would be showing that they did their best, and the one thing they couldn’t overcome was the resistance from elected officials in the other chamber.
   139. Mike Honig: And I guess that’s part of picking the right — I think that’s part of picking the right battles.
   140. Charles Kuffner: And that’s something that they can… Yeah.
   141. And like I said, I think that’s there, and that’s one reason why I think there is potentially room for some bipartisan agreement on some of these things, because those Republican senators saw what happened in this election. They saw Greg Abbott backpedal as fast as he could on data centers.
   142. Um, so I do think there’s room on that. Um the devil is in the details, and who knows what will happen.
   143. But I do think the Democrats will at least make it clear that they are focusing on these things. They will do the things that they can do.
   144. And where they can’t, it’ll… they’ll have a clear villain to point to, and it won’t be because of some… you know, it won’t be because they’ve got a majority and they refuse to do something about some weird arcane rule that requires everything to be bipartisan.
   145. They’ll be able to say, these guys blocked it, we passed it, they blocked it, now what are you going to do in this upcoming election?
   146. Mike Honig: One of the things — I’m sorry, go ahead.
   147. Charles Kuffner: Um, but before you start, we’re down to about 3 minutes left on this call. Do you want to wrap this up, or do you want to keep going?
   148. Mike Honig: I really want to get to that number seven about the, what is it, the NPVIC, the National Compact on Electoral Voting.
   149. Charles Kuffner: Why don’t we do that, and we’ll see what we want. So, go ahead and bring that up.
   150. Mike Honig: Okay, so I ran across something on Facebook that I thought was really interesting and that I don’t think I’d given a lot of thought to. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is something a lot of people don’t think about, maybe don’t know about, comes up mostly during presidential election years.
   151. And, uh, the writer of this particular post on Facebook made the point that Democrats might have enough control in enough state legislatures to basically put this compact into force by making legislative law that basically the popular vote winner gets the electoral votes of the states in the compact.
   152. It looks plausible, potentially feasible. I’m sure that there would be a lot of obstacles to it, legal, political.
   153. partisan. Um, but what do you think of… I sent you, basically, a copy of that post. What do you think of that?
   154. Charles Kuffner: Yeah, um… I think it’s something that some… I think someone will put forth a bill in the Texas House on it, and it’ll be interesting to see what the Republicans in the Senate do with it. I could see them going one of two ways.
   155. number one, they could say, you know what, this was a fluke, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Democrats, we’re gonna win Texas in 2028, and we need those electoral votes.
   156. So that’s one option. Option B is for them to say, you know what? This was such a butt-kicking that I’m worried that we could lose Texas in 2028 to Jon Ossoff, or Pete Buttigieg, or Gavin Newsom, or someone.
   157. And if Texas really does go blue at that level, we are forever screwed. And if that’s the case, let’s just try and win the popular vote.
   158. You know, which Donald Trump did do in 2024 and hope for the best. So I would say I would consider, I would not consider that to be a priority item.
   159. I would consider it to be an underdog if it is put forth.
   160. But I don’t think it’s hopeless. I think uh uh, to quote Jim Carrey from, uh, Dumb and Dumber, I’m telling you there’s a chance.
   161. Mike Honig: Any personal thoughts on how likely it is on a national level that some states might be able to put it over the top?
   162. Charles Kuffner: I think it’s pretty likely. I don’t know enough to… I don’t recall what states are involved, but I think it’s… Better than… better… more likely than not that it happens.
   163. Mike Honig: I want to thank Charles Kuffner for being on the show and after this earthquake election, as he put it. Charles does a blog called Off the Kuff, which covers local and state politics from a progressive perspective, and I feel like he had some important ideas and pieces of information to contribute, and I appreciate that very much, Charles. Thanks for taking the time.
   164. Charles Kuffner: Well, thank you for having me, Mike. I appreciate it as well, and I enjoyed talking to you and going over this stuff. Yes, my blog is called Off The Kuff. It is at offthekuff[.]com. That’s O-F-F-T-H-E-K-U-F-F [dot] com.
   165. You can also find links every day to the posts I share on Facebook at facebook.com/offthekuff, O-F-F-T-H-E-K-U-F-F. And I thank you for having me and I hope your listeners check out my site.
   166. Mike Honig: I will note that I sometimes, aside from the information you impart on your posts, in your posts, rather, that, uh… You sometimes have some very quotable quotes in your summation, so I enjoy those.
   167. Charles Kuffner: I try. I like to think I’m funny, and once in a while, once in a while, I get a little affirmation of that, which I got to tell you, I live off that high.
   168. Mike Honig: Yes, I resemble that remark. Okay, you take care, Charles. Thanks again.
   169. Charles Kuffner: Thank you, Mike.
   170. Mike Honig: Bye-bye. 

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!