SHOW AUDIO: kpft_2014-11-12_2200, OPEN FORUM

Link is usually posted within about 72 hours of show broadcast.

Please note We will be pre-empted on Weds., 11/19, but will return on 11/26.

Welcome to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig (@ThinkwingRadio), a listener call-in show (every Wednesday night from 10-11PM CT) on KPFT-FM 90.1 (Houston). My engineer and discussion partner is Egberto Willies (@EgbertoWillies). Listen live on the radio or on the internet from anywhere in the world! When the show is live, we take calls at 713-526-5738. (Long distance charges may apply.)  For the purposes of this show, I operate on two mottoes:

• You’re entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts;
• An educated electorate is a prerequisite for a democracy.

TONIGHT’S TOPICs May Include: 

• Rosetta Mission Probe May Have Rebounded Off Comet, By Stav Ziv 11/12/14 at 5:25 PM (NEWSweek.com)
• Obamacare enrollment for 2015 starts Saturday.
• Remember Ebola? We’ve gone from “All Ebola, all the time” in the news to, “Ebola? That still out there?”
  • We need what CNN used to be, and we need CNN HLN to be what IT used to be.
  • Stories disappear because there’s only so much you can put in a half hour or hour of news.
• Why can banks write off fines on the income tax? Can you?
  • Too Big to Tax: Settlements Are Tax Write-Offs for Banks
•  RightwingNews:
  • The wrong ‘Loretta Lynch’
  • Net Neutrality costs jobs??
• Net Neutrality: What took Obama so long? Does his party have to get smashed in elections before he acts decisively?
• Impeachment: If the GOP wants to impeach Obama, let’s talk about the DoJ sending Bush/Cheney to the Hague. I’m sure they would be welcomed with open arms.
• Voter Fraud vs. Election Fraud: What’s the difference?
  • Don’t stop property taxes or Homeowners Insurance costs: This is not always made clear
  • Leaves heirs with debt issues: Taxes and reverse mortgage debt (FROM WEB SITE: Taking out a reverse mortgage can jeopardize your ability to leave your home to your heirs. If this is a priority for you, think twice about a reverse mortgage.)
  • FROM WEB SITE: Are you on a fixed income with no other assets? If you don’t have much income, a reverse mortgage might not be the best option for you. If you take out a reverse mortgage loan and then have trouble paying your property taxes and homeowner’s insurance, you could face foreclosure.Reverse Mortgages: Good or bad
• “Underbanking”: What is it and why does it matter?
• Organ Transplants: Why the dearth of donors?
  • Stop using the word “Harvest”
  • Some participants indicated that they wouldn’t donate the organs of their next of kin if his or her heart were still beating, even if they were proclaimed brain-dead.
  • due to a belief in the afterlife and the concern for maintaining body integrity.
  • Others can’t shake the “ick” factor. Defined by researchers as “a basic disgust response to the idea of organ procurement or transplantation,” a 2011 study in Scotland found that non-donors reported higher levels of the ick factor and concern with body integrity than donors.
  • Distrust of doctors; maybe too anxious to ‘harvest’. (The only word not explored in the article.)
  • WAYS OF PROMOTING ORGAN TRANSPLANT DONATION
    • “Opt out” instead of “Opt In”.
    • Top-of-List for donors and their families.
    • In-Network donations (like a private “Donor’s Club”)

NOTE: This post is subject to update before and after the show. ______________________________________________________________________
Some of the links used for this show are BELOW the break: SOURCES (Below the break) Not all topics discussed on tonight’s show:

• A Very Smart Post About Why Touch-Screen Voting Can Never Work From a Guy Named ‘Potatohead’, By Brad Friedman on 11/11/2014 7:02am PT
• Rosetta Mission Probe May Have Rebounded Off Comet, By Stav Ziv 11/12/14 at 5:25 PM (NEWSweek.com)
  • The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta Mission website.
• Too Big to Tax: Settlements Are Tax Write-Offs for Banks, By Lynnley Browning / October 27, 2014 11:16 AM EDT (NEWSWeek.com
• JPMorgan can deduct big chunk of $13 billion deal, By Jeanne Sahadi  @CNNMoney November 19, 2013: 7:06 PM ET
• JP Morgan Chase’s $13B Settlement — And Whale-Sized Tax Deduction, By Robert W. Wood, Contributor (10/22/2013 @ 1:55AM) www.forbes.com
• Publication 17 (2013), Your Federal Income Tax, http://www.irs.gov/publications/p17/ch22.html, Internal Revenue Service:
  This chapter discusses which taxes you can deduct if you itemize deductions on ….. You cannot deduct fines and penalties paid to a government for violation of …
• Underbanked, Wikipedia
• Banking the Underbanked Directory, by [US] Office of the Controller of the Currency: This directory provides useful information and resources to national banks and federal savings associations (collectively, banks) that are interested in providing financial services to underbanked consumers.
• 2013 FDIC National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households, US FDIC
• On the other hand, if you’re particularly paranoid concerned about being surveilled: Unbanking vs. Underbanking: How to Break Up with the Financial System – Posted by: Daisy Luther | on March 24, 2013 (theorganicprepper.ca/ )
• How do I know if a reverse mortgage is a good idea for me? – [Federal] Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, Contact us (855) 411-2372
• Reverse Mortgages Backfiring on Some Seniors, Tuesday, 4 Jun 2013 | 12:05 PM ET, Diana Olick | @diana_olick (cnbc.COM), Tuesday, 4 Jun 2013 | 12:05 PM ET
• Why Don’t People Want to Donate Their Organs? Around 21 Americans die each day waiting for transplants. What’s behind the reluctance to posthumously save a life? Tiffanie Wen, Nov 10 2014, 12:05 PM ET (The ATLANTIC)

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