Houston Mayor Annise Parker [L] with Mike, just before the show. (Dec. 14, 2015)

THINKWING RADIO MOVED TO MONDAYS @ 9-10 PM, BEGINNING 4/13/2015.

SHOW AUDIO: 

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

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.)

Welcome to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig (@ThinkwingRadio), a listener call-in show (every Monday night from 9-10PM CT) on KPFT-FM 90.1 (Houston). My engineer and discussion partner is Egberto Willies (@EgbertoWillies).

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.

GUESTS (If any): (More complete biographical info on my guests are below Source links.):  Houston Mayor Annise Parker

TOPICS: The Houston Chronicle Acts Like the Houston City Government Elections AreNo Biggie; Paying It Forward; Clinton Losing to Rubio?;Multiculturalism: Good or Bad?

• “Pay It Forward (2001)”: The movie is about the “Big Idea” of doing 3 big things for 3 people, and asking each of them to ‘pay it forward’.
  • I would go a step further and suggest that we’re always paying stuff forward; big things and little things, and good things and bad things.
  • Sometimes the absence of an action is, itself, an action.
    • : Not saying ‘thank you’ is the absence of an action, but it satill has the potential impact of an action
  • One of the stupidest things about ‘Brick and Mortar’ web sites: How hard it is to find a Store Locator.
• Sunday 12/13 – the day after Houston and Texas election runoffs, the top story on the Houston Chronicle website is “DMV rejects even more bad plates”
  • Any wonder that I don’t take the Chronicle seriously?
• • Crude Falls Below $35 per Barrel in New York for First Time Since 2009, Bloomberg {Dec 14, 2015]
    • DAMN YOU, OBAMA!!
• Multiculturalism is a sham, says Angela Merkel, By Rick Noack December 14
  • What does “multiculturalism” mean to you?
  • If a certain amount of ‘cultural assimilation’ is essential to the political and social health of a country, how much is enough? Or too much?
  • Canada as an example: English and French are supposed to have equal standing in the country, but have you been to Quebec? French is pretty much the exclusive language.
• Marco Rubio ‘stomps’ Hillary Clinton in NBCNews Poll
  • Clinton Would Trounce Trump But Lose to Rubio, Carson: [NBC/WSJ] Poll – NBC News Dec 14 2015, 12:00 am ET
    • From the article: “Rubio, a senator from Florida, would fare the best overall against Clinton, winning a head-to-head clash 48 percent to 45 percent. Among independents, his margin of victory would be 44 percent to her 37 percent.”
    • 48% to 45% is not to be disregarded, but is within the statistical margin of error and therefore still a statistical tie.
    • The margin among so-called “Independents” (which in most cases are what are often called “low information voters”) is concerning, but potentially can change.
    • These numbers are snapshots in time and will, I guarantee, change dramatically over the next 6 months.
• Egypt: No Evidence So Far of Terrorism in Metrojet Plane Crash
  • Whom to believe?:
    • The Egyptians, trying to salvage their Sharm al Sheik tourism industry, or
    • Russia, finding a convenient excuse to intervene in Syria.
• Russia fires on Turkish ship to ‘avoid collision’ in Aegean Sea, By Gul Tuysuz, Sara Sidner and James Griffiths (CNN) Updated 6:23 AM ET, Mon December 14, 2015
  • I thought radio communications, signal lamps and collision horn blasts were more typical warnings of collision with another ship. Those 2 warning shots must have been real signs of desperation.
• Kentucky voters hoping for a broken campaign promise, By Steve Benen, 12/14/15 11:21 AM (The Rachel Maddow Show / The MaddowBlog)
  • “Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R) could be forgiven for thinking he has a mandate for his agenda. The far-right political novice ran on a platform of, among other things, scrapping Medicaid expansion and taking existing health benefits away from thousands of struggling families – and he won easily, giving him an opportunity to deliver on what he told voters he’d do.”
  • Typical: Folks like the ACA and Medicaid/Medicare, but have been taught to HATE “Obamacare”.
  • We can blame the Republican propaganda machine fore that, but what is the Democrats’ part of that responsibility?
• Hillary Clinton targets corporate inversion with new ‘exit tax’ plan: Tax is part of Democratic presidential frontrunner’s strategy to ‘rein in Wall Street’ on the heels of Pfizer’s plan to merge with Allergan and move to Ireland. The proposals are part of Clinton’s larger economic agenda, which includes boosting infrastructure spending by $275bn. Photograph: Jose Luis Magana/AP

 SOURCES WHICH MAY BE RELEVANT TO OTHER DISCUSSION:

=======================================================

• Margaret Sanger: When researching controversial figures, always consider the source. – Mike
  
  • The Mike Wallace Interview: Margaret Sanger (9/21/57): Margaret Sanger, the leader of the birth control movement in America, talks to Wallace about why she became an advocate for birth control, over-population, the Catholic Church, and morality. (From the
    Harry Ransom Center/UT-Austin)
  • Margaret Sanger,From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Margaret Higgins Sanger,/H1> (born Margaret Louise Higgins, September 14, 1879 – September 6, 1966, also known as Margaret Sanger Slee) was an American birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse. Sanger popularized the term “birth control”, opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, and established organizations that evolved into the Planned Parenthood Federation of America
• Donald Trump:
  • The best example of why highly successful business people should absolutely NOT be president?
    • Authoritarian?
    • Unable to tolerate – or even comprehend – limits on their power?
  • Donald Trump Says He Supports Those Who ‘Roughed Up’ Protester at His Event By Nick Corasaniti (NY Times) : Trump described his supporters’ response as preferable to that of Senator Bernie Sanders, who yielded his microphone to Black Lives Matter protesters earlier this year.
  • “Trump: ‘I Don’t Make Anything’ of Black Lives Matter Movement’”, by Derek Wallbank BLOOMBERG, Powered by Bloomberg First Word).
    • Asked by GQ what he makes of Black Lives Matter movement, Donald Trump responds: “I don’t make anything of it.”
    • He further says, “I saw them steal the microphone from Bernie Sanders and he just yielded, which surprised me”; ‘‘You know, when you say it’s a big movement, I don’t think it’s a big movement. You think it’s a big movement?”
    • Trump: “To me, all lives matter. All lives matter”
  • Is Donald Trump Serious About Registering Muslims?, by David A. Graham (Nov 20, 2015): Asked how ideas he has endorsed would be different from Nazi enrollment of Jews, the Republican frontrunner simply said, “You tell me.”

  World leaders have taken to calling ISIS “Daesh,” a word the Islamic State hates, By Laura Reston (New Republic), 10 hours ago

• s France at War?: President Hollande asked lawmakers for more measures to tackle ISIS. What he didn’t ask for: authorization for a declaration of war, By Krishnadev Calamur (The Atlantic) 4:46 PM ET
• Rejecting Syrian Refugees: Republican governors are turning away those fleeing the civil war, while Jeb Bush suggests only welcoming Christians.
• The Empathy Gap Between Paris and Beirut: Why have attacks in France gotten so much more attention than bombings in Lebanon?, By David A. Graham, (Nov 2015, 1:58 PM ET) The Atlantic
• Hollande Calls for New Powers to ‘Eradicate’ ISIS After Paris Attacks, By AURELIEN BREEDEN, KIMIKO DE FREYTAS-TAMURA and KATRIN BENNHOLD (The Atlantic) NOV. 16, 2015

_____________________________________________________________________

KPFT is a 501(c)3 non-profit, and it can always use your tax-deductible support.  Most of the folks who work and broadcast at KPFT are volunteers, but it still has fixed and variable expenses, and it still costs $150/hour, 24/7/365 to keep KPFT on the air.