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TOPIC:  SUPPORT KPFT! Trump Inauguration coming, New Theory on Titanic Sinking, Eight men are as rich as half the world, Lazy Passwords, New DB Cooper Theory, US Troops Arrive in Poland, European leaders shocked as Trump slams NATO and EU, FDR’s Four Freedoms, GOP Congress Claims Mandate & lays plans to propel sweeping conservative agenda, Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, Support Progressive Causes, more

GUEST: OPEN FORUM

Welcome to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig (@ThinkwingRadio), a listener call-in show  airing live every Monday night from 9-10 PM (CT) on KPFT-FM 90.1 (Houston). My engineer is Bob Gartner.

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;
  

  Houston Mayor Annise Parker [L] with Mike, just before the show. (Dec. 7, 2015)

• An educated electorate is a prerequisite for a democracy.

SIGNOFF QUOTE[s]:

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” ~ John F. Kennedy, March 13, 1962. Audio-only portion is from remarks on the first anniversary of the Alliance for Progress, 13 March 1962. Youtube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLvIDFC6rLc

LINKS:

1. Unless something happens to change it, Donald Trump will be inaugurated as President of the United States on Friday. God help us all.

2. Oxfam: Eight men are as rich as half the world: “Obscene” for so much wealth to be in hands of so few, says charity director Winnie Byanyima. [AL-JAZEERA] JAN 16, 2017, Source: AP news agency]

a.   The gap between the super-rich and the poorest half of the world’s population is starker than previously thought, with just eight men, including Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg, owning as much wealth as 3.6 billion people, according to an analysis by Oxfam released Monday.

3. Titanic was sunk by FIRE, claims journalist investigating the ill-fated cruise ship: New documentary claims blaze on board sealed the liner’s fate before it even left Northern Ireland, By KATHRYN CAIN, 31st December 2016, 3:21 pm (https://www.thesun.co.uk/)
4. The worst passwords of 2016 are as lazy as ever: Please, stop using “123456.”, By Charlie Osborne for Zero Day (ZDNet) | January 13, 2017 — 14:00 GMT (06:00 PST)
5. The D.B. Cooper case baffled investigators for decades. Now, scientists have a new theory, By Amy B Wang, (Washington Post) January 16 at 7:00 AM
   1. In 1971, a well-dressed passenger hijacked a Northwest Orient flight, demanded $200,000 and later escaped by parachuting out of the back of the plane with the ransom money.
   2. But who exactly was “D.B. Cooper,” the mysterious man who managed to pull off the heist and disappear without a trace?
   3. More than four decades later, three amateur scientists think they may have found evidence that would narrow down Cooper’s identity to that of an aerospace engineer or a manager, possibly at Boeing.

6. After Trump tweet, ethics office to U.S. employees: do not endorse products, By Emily Stephenson (REUTERS) WASHINGTON
   1. A day after President-elect Donald Trump encouraged supporters to “Buy L.L. Bean,” a U.S. ethics watchdog on Friday warned federal employees they must not endorse products or companies.
   2. The U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) said on its official Twitter account: “All executive branch employees must refrain from misuse of position, including endorsements.”
7. European leaders shocked as Trump slams NATO and EU, raising fears of transatlantic split, Washington Post, 1/16/2017
   1. BRUSSELS – European leaders grappled with the jolting reality of President-elect Donald Trump’s skepticism of the European Union on Monday, saying they might have to stand without the United States at their side during the Trump presidency.
   2. The possibility of an unprecedented breach in transatlantic relations came after Trump — who embraced anti-E.U. insurgents during his campaign and following his victory — said in weekend remarks that the 28-nation European Union was bound for a breakup and that he was indifferent to its fate. He also said NATO’s current configuration is “obsolete,” even as he professed commitment to Europe’s defense.
   3. “If Trump isn’t a Russian Puppet, then he needs to stop acting like one” ~ msg  1503 of 1595  at  12/12/2016 1:51:34 PMby windfallwilly
8. ‘We waited for decades’: Polish leaders hail arrival of U.S. troops, By Donovan Slack , USA TODAY Published 1:10 p.m. ET Jan. 14, 2017 | Updated 17 hours ago
   1. “We have waited for you for a very long time,” Polish Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz said during a ceremony in the western Polish town of Zagan, the Associated Press reported.
   2. Some 3,000 American troops are being deployed in Poland and six other countries under NATO’s “Operation Atlantic Resolve,” which was launched after Russia’s takeover of Crimea in 2014.
   3. The Polish arrival ceremony comes more than two decades after the last Soviet troops left the country and just ahead of the swearing in of President-elect Donald Trump, who critics fear will embolden Russia.
9. Chinese state-run media: China will ‘take off the gloves’ if Trump continues to provoke Beijing over Taiwan, by Christian Shepherd, Reuters
10. Congress Quietly Passes New Rule Allowing House Members To Hide Records From Ethics Probes: Politicians can now shield expenditures from investigations. BY Mary Papenfuss 01/10/2017 05:25 am ET
11. Paul Ryan faces (and flunks) health care test, By Steve Benen, 01/13/17 08:00 AM (The Rachel Maddow Show / The MaddowBlog )
    1. Early on in House Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) town-hall event last night, the congressman fielded a question from a voter who seemed like an ally. The man, who owns a small business in a red state, explained that he had worked for the Reagan and Bush campaigns, and he opposed the Affordable Care Act.At least, he used to. This same man explained that he faced a life-threatening form of cancer, which was treated because he had coverage through the Affordable Care Act. “I want to thank President Obama from the bottom of my heart,” the man said, “because I would be dead if it weren’t for him.”
12. The Unraveling of Julian Assange, By Eli Lake [Bloomberg.com] Jan 6, 2017 ( Updated Jan 6, 2017 8:40 AM EST

 SOURCES WHICH MAY BE RELEVANT TO OTHER DISCUSSION:

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

• Russian Interference Could Give Courts Legal Authority To Install Clinton, By Alex Mohajer, Political Writer and Commentator (Huffington Post) 12/10/2016 06:28 am ET | Updated 6 days ago (12/13/2016)
  • …at least one federal court decision suggests there may be some federal case law on the question of whether it is possible to invalidate the outcome of an election after the fact when there is fraud, and replace a candidate benefitted by fraud with his opponent. The case, Marks v. Stinson, is the first and only known case in which a federal judge reversed an election outcome.
  • [In] a case originally brought before a federal district judge in Pennsylvania in 1993, which was subsequently appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in 1994. The Third Circuit partially upheld the federal judge’s decision to intervene and invalidate a 1993 state senate election due to fraud. Interestingly, the federal district judge ordered the winner be removed from office and the subsequent vacancy be filled by his opponent.
  • In February 1994, after Stinson had already taken office, the federal judge ordered he “be removed from his State Senate office and that [his opponent, Bruce Marks] be certified the winner within 72 hours.”
  • Two of the elected officials who testified in the Pennsylvania case said under oath that they were aware of the fraud, had intentionally failed to enforce laws, and hurried to certify Stinson the winner in order to bury the story. To some, the narrative draws parallels to the Washington Post’s revelation that Republican Mitch McConnell was aware of the CIA’s conclusion that Russians had intervened and opted to do nothing.
  • The case deliberates interesting rationale that could theoretically be applied in part if, after Donald Trump assumes office, it is shown that Russian hacking (or any fraud, for that matter) robbed Hillary Clinton of the presidency. The case offers clues that imply courts may intervene.
  • There is also, of course, no constitutional Electoral College process or system in Pennsylvania, so the situations are not exactly analogous. But the reasoning behind the federal court’s decision may hold muster. It is not clear how the case would impact a presidential election.
  • | Updated 6 days ago [MARKS v. STINSON | 19 F.3d 873 (1994) | Leagle.com]
  • BREAKING: Russian Interference In The Election Just Handed Hillary The White House (DETAILS), December 10, 2016 New Century Times
    • His opponent in the race, Republican Bruce Marks was then made the winner. The judge who made the ruling, Judge Clarence Newcomer, said:

      “Substantial evidence was presented establishing massive absentee ballot fraud, deception, intimidation, harassment and forgery.”

      According to the New York Times: “Judge Newcomer ordered that Mr. Stinson, a 49-year-old former assistant deputy mayor of Philadelphia, be removed from his State Senate office and that Mr. Marks, a 36-year-old lawyer and former aide to United States Senator Arlen Specter, be certified the winner within 72 hours.”

1. Four Freedoms, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Four Freedoms were goals articulated by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt on January 6, 1941. In an address known as the Four Freedoms speech (technically the 1941 State of the Union address), he proposed four fundamental freedoms that people “everywhere in the world” ought to enjoy:

• Freedom of speech
• Freedom of worship
• Freedom from want
• Freedom from fear
• Roosevelt delivered his speech 11 months before the United States declared war on Japan, December 8, 1941. The State of the Union speech before Congress was largely about the national security of the United States and the threat to other democracies from world war that was being waged across the continents in the eastern hemisphere. In the speech, he made a break with the tradition of United States non-interventionism that had long been held in the United States. He outlined the U.S. role in helping allies already engaged in warfare.

• Claiming mandate, GOP Congress lays plans to propel sweeping conservative agenda, By David Weigel [Washington Post] January 1, 2017 at 7:46 PM
• Republican Congress puts priority on targeting regulations, by Herb Jackson, USA TODAY 11:23 a.m. EST January 2, 2017
  • The House is expected to take up two bills — the Midnight Rules Act and the REINS Act (which stands for Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny) — that passed on largely party-line votes in the 114th, 113th and 112th congressional sessions, but died in the Senate. The REINS Act would require that before any new major regulation could take effect, the House and Senate would have to pass a resolution of approval. The Midnight Rules Act would let Congress invalidate rules in bulk that passed in the final year of a presidential term.
  • And under the 1996 Congressional Review Act, Congress can pass a resolution of disapproval to block a rule if it acts within 60 days of notification from an agency.
  • [The bill’s sponsor is Republican Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia.] The new legislation would further expand congressional power by preventing an administration from implementing rules without another vote. Under the REINS act, a proposed regulation would be deemed rejected if Congress was in session for 70 days and took no action. The bill allows for a major rule to take effect for a single 90-day period if the president determined it was necessary because of an imminent threat to health or safety or other emergency.

• Differences between Liberals, Conservatives, Libertarians and neo-Conservatives
  • Left–right politics, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    • History of the terms: The terms “left” and “right” appeared during the French Revolution of 1789 when members of the National Assembly divided into supporters of the king to the president’s right and supporters of the revolution to his left. One deputy, the Baron de Gauville, explained, “We began to recognize each other: those who were loyal to religion and the king took up positions to the right of the chair so as to avoid the shouts, oaths, and indecencies that enjoyed free rein in the opposing camp.” However the Right opposed the seating arrangement because they believed that deputies should support private or general interests but should not form factions or political parties. The contemporary press occasionally used the terms “left” and “right” to refer to the opposing sides.^[9]
  • Greens and Libertarians: The yin and yang of our political future, by Dan Sullivan (originally appearing in Green Revolution, Volume 49, No. 2, summer, 1992)
    • … Libertarians tend to be logical and analytical. They are confident that their principles will create an ideal society, even though they have no consensus of what that society would be like. Greens, on the other hand, tend to be more intuitive and imaginative. They have clear images of what kind of society they want, but are fuzzy about the principles on which that society would be based.
    • Ironically, Libertarians tend to be more utopian and uncompromising about their political positions, and are often unable to focus on politically winnable proposals to make the system more consistent with their overall goals. Greens on the other hand, embrace immediate proposals with ease, but are often unable to show how those proposals fit in to their ultimate goals.
    • The most difficult differences to reconcile, however, stem from baggage that members of each party have brought with them from their former political affiliations. Most Libertarians are overly hostile to government and cling to the fiction that virtually all private fortunes are legitimately earned. Most Greens are overly hostile to free enterprise and cling to the fiction that harmony and balance can be achieved through increased government intervention.
    • Amongst published researchers, there is agreement that the Left includes anarchists, communists, socialists, progressives, anti-capitalists, anti-imperialists, anti-racists, democratic socialists, greens, left-libertarians, social democrats, and social liberals.^[5][6][7]
    • Researchers have also said that the Right includes capitalists, conservatives, monarchists, nationalists, neoconservatives, neoliberals, reactionaries, imperialists, right-libertarians, social authoritarians, religious fundamentalists, and traditionalists.^[8]

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