SHOW AUDIO: Link is usually posted within about 72 hours of show broadcast. We take callers during this show.

TOPIC:  SUPPORT KPFT! Chris Sampson talks cyber-war, Former British lawmaker Louise Mensch at heart of Trump wiretap allegations, How Donald Trump Is Reviving American Democracy, Recording your police, Daylight Saving Time – Ugh, Private prisons are ‘in’ again, Murderous Veterinarian in Montrose, 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.

SIGN-OFF QUOTE[s]:

“We don’t need more confirmation that there’s something wrong with Donald Trump. Let’s instead find ways to rebuild what is rational. And the Democrats, goddamn it, get a little backbone, get a little spine. The only person I can trust anymore is Al Franken, who has a great brain and a great heart. I believe what he says.” ~ David Letterman, from “In Conversation: David Letterman”, By David Marchese  (March 5, 2017)

 

1. Daylight Saving Time Makes People Clumsy, Lazy and Sick, By Nathan DiCamillo [NEWSWEEK] On 3/11/17 at 8:55 AM

• Studies show that Daylight Saving Time—which starts at 2 a.m. Sunday—disrupts your circadian rhythm, the biological clock that’s synchronized with the rising and setting of the sun and regulates bodily processes such as sleep, metabolism and hormonal secretions.
• When we are sleep deprived, the connectivity between neural circuits is impaired. Sleep resets the weight of these neural circuits. Like a computer microprocessor, these circuits in the brain must be tuned well for us to make decisions. Otherwise you have cognitive inflexibility. “To be flexible you have to be able to process a lot of info,” [says Dr. Michael Halassa, an assistant professor of neuroscience at New York University.] “People default to a lower processing capacity when they can’t process a lot of information.” Judges who hand out tougher sentences on Monday morning may not be mean; they may just be suffering from cognitive inflexibility caused by sleep deprivation.
• Joseph Cooke, chairman of the Department of Medicine at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Queens, a community teaching hospital in Flushing, New York, warns that sleep deprivation contributes to “our disease processes.” People at risk of heart attack and stroke should plan ahead for the missing hour of sleep. Sleep deprivation increases blood pressure and heart rate.
• Since Americans are already generally sleep deprived, the daylight saving time lag can be especially detrimental to the public. Cooke suggests easing into the change in sleep pattern. “Try going to bed 15 to 20 minutes earlier each night a few nights before daylight saving,” Cooke says. Turning off blue light from phones and laptops, following your normal pre-sleep ritual,  and avoiding stimulants such as caffeine three to four hours before bedtime will ensure the quality of your sleep time. Exercising releases endorphins that put you in a better mood and relaxes your body, preparing it for sleep. A 15 to 20 minute “power nap” on Monday may also alleviate many of the symptoms associated with sleep deprivation—especially since March 13 is “National Napping Day.”

Veterinarian & boyfriend charged with hiring hitman to take out exes, By Brett Barrouquere, [Chron.com / Houston Chronicle] Published 3:18 pm, Saturday, March 11, 2017

• Veterinarian Valerie McDaniel and her boyfriend, Leon Jacob, are charged with trying to hire a hitman to kill their exes. Police say instead they dealt with an undercover Houston police officer.
• McDaniel runs The Montrose Veterinary Clinic. On Saturday, the clinic’s website listed her as a doctor and made no mention of her arrest. They are expected in court on Monday.

Police falsely told a man he couldn’t film them. ‘I’m an attorney,’ he said. ‘I know what the law is.’ (with VIDEOS), By Peter Holley [WASHINGTON POST] March 10, 2017 at 7:35

Justice Department will again use private prisons, By Matt Zapotosky [Washington Post] February 23 at 7:04 PM

1. The Justice Department will once again use private prisons to house federal inmates, reversing an Obama-era directive to stop using the facilities, which officials had then deemed less safe and less effective than those run by the government.
2. In a one-paragraph memo, Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the previous directive to the Bureau of Prisons to either reduce or decline to renew private-prison contracts as they came due.
3. “The memorandum changed long-standing policy and practice, and impaired the Bureau’s ability to meet the future needs of the federal correctional system,” Sessions wrote. “Therefore, I direct the Bureau to return to its previous approach.”
4. The directive marks a significant policy shift from the previous administration, although the practical impact might be somewhat muted.
5. Most inmates are housed in state prisons, rather than federal ones. Even when the Justice Department announced it would no longer use private facilities, the action only affected 13 prisons, housing a little more than 22,000 inmates. The original directive also did not apply to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Marshals Service detainees, who are technically in the federal system but not under the purview of the federal Bureau of Prisons

20 years after 7 Israeli schoolgirls were killed, some hail Jordanian shooter as a hero upon his release – Mother reacts to release of Jordanian shooter who killed 7 Israeli schoolgirls, By Ruth Eglash and Taylor Luck [WASHINGTON POST] March 12, 2017 at 8:47 AM

1. “It is not logic. It is feeling — a sense of revenge, a kind of compensation, a way of dealing with Israelis the same way they deal with Palestinians — killing them outside the law without being punished,” said Oraib al-Rantawi, director of the Amman-based Al Quds Center for Political Studies.
2. “It is not shocking to see Jordanians supporting this guy, despite the fact what he did is not something you could feel honorable about,” Rantawi said.

The mystery of Donald Trump and the New Jersey cemetery, David A. Fahrenthold [The Washington Post] 3/11/2017 10 hrs ago

1. BEDMINSTER, N.J.— In rural New Jersey, the president’s business has proposed an unusual real estate project. It wants to build a cemetery. Or maybe not. Or maybe two.
2. According to plans filed with local and state authorities, the Trump Organization has proposed to build a pair of graveyards at the site of its tony Trump National Bedminster golf course.
3. One would be small, 10 plots overlooking the first hole. It was intended — or so they said — for Trump and his family. “Mr. Trump . . . specifically chose this property for his final resting place as it is his favorite property,” his company wrote in a filing with the state in 2014.
4. The other proposed cemetery would have 284 lots for sale to the public. There, buyers could pay for a kind of eternal membership in Trump’s club — even if it isn’t clear Trump himself would ever join them. Those are the plans.
5. But Trump has been talking about cemeteries here for 10 years — and he’s shown the same unpredictable decision-making style about his death that he has about so many things in his life. His plans have gone through at least five major overhauls. Trump has reconsidered his own burial spot at least twice.
6. Local officials were left puzzling, wondering what angle Trump was playing.
7. Did the world’s most famous Manhattanite really want to be buried in nowheresville New Jersey?
8. If not . . . well, why in the world was he pretending like he did?
9. “It never made any sense to me,” said Robert Holtaway, a longtime town official who heard Trump’s plans on the Bedminster Land Use Board. But, he said, “we don’t question motives. We’re there as a land use board.”
10. The two latest cemetery plans have now both been approved by local officials. But construction has not begun on either one. The question of how to proceed — or whether to proceed — is now left to Trump’s sons Eric and Donald Jr., who have taken day-to-day control of the Trump Organization.
11. Both Eric Trump and a Trump Organization spokeswoman declined to comment about what they planned to do.
12. President Trump already has a family burial plot: his parents and his brother Fred are buried together at All Faiths Cemetery in Queens. So it was a surprise, back in 2007, when Trump announced he wanted a mausoleum for himself in New Jersey.
13. “It’s never something you like to think about, but it makes sense,” Trump told the New York Post. He was 60 years old at the time. “This is such beautiful land, and Bedminster is one of the richest places in the country.”
14. The plan was big: 19 feet high. Stone. Obelisks. Set smack in the middle of the golf course. In Bedminster — a wealthy horse-country town 43 miles west of New York City — officials had some concerns about hosting a reality TV star’s tomb. The huge structure would seem garish, out of place. And there were ongoing worries that the spot might become an “attractive nuisance,” tempting curiosity-seekers to trespass on club grounds.
15. Trump offered a concession. The tomb would be versatile. It could also be a festive wedding . . . tomb. “We’re planning a mausoleum/chapel,” Trump said, according to a news report from the time.
16. That didn’t do it.
17. “Give me a break. Give me a break,” Holtaway, the town official, remembered thinking. “Why would anyone ever get married in a building with no windows?”
18. Trump withdrew the plan to be buried in New Jersey. But five years later, he was back with another one. Now, the mausoleum was out — but, instead, he had a plan to build a large cemetery with more than 1,000 graves, including one for him.
19. The idea, apparently, was that Trump’s golf-club members would buy the other plots, seizing the chance at eternal membership.
20. “It’s one thing to be buried in a typical cemetery,” said Ed Russo, a consultant who represented Trump here. “But it’s another if you’re buried alongside the fifth fairway of Trump National.”
21. The town was, again, skeptical. So Trump whittled it down to just 10 graves, enough for himself and his family members.
22. Which family members, exactly? “Only the good Trumps,” Russo said, according to a video of the town land use board. He did not elaborate.
23. The town approved. The state approved, granting a cemetery license in late 2014.
24. Then Trump changed his mind. Russo told the town that Trump might want to be buried somewhere in Florida, after all. Trump lived part time at his Mar-a-Lago Club before his election (and, now, after the election as well).
25. Then, with approval for the small cemetery in hand, Trump came back with a new plan, for a bigger cemetery. This time, the plan was for 284 graves. The cemetery would be run by a nonprofit, and Trump’s golf course would handle maintenance, grass-cutting and gravedigging.
26. This plan, on the surface, made little sense.
27. For one thing, it would be a very poor way to make money.
28. The cemetery business is bad in New Jersey, because the land is expensive, plots sell for cheap, and cremation is stealing their customers.

• You need volume to succeed. And the volume at Trump’s cemetery would be very low.

1. Trump’s cemetery — with people selected by a kind of membership committee — would handle just one to two burials per year, officials said. Cemetery plots in New Jersey cost, at most, a few thousand dollars each. The money, such as it was, would go to the nonprofit company.
2. But maybe the point wasn’t to make money. Could this whole thing have been a scheme to reduce the Trump Organization’s real estate taxes? After all, nonprofit cemeteries pay no taxes on their land.
3. That’s possible, experts said. But, in this case, the savings would hardly be worth the trouble. That’s because Trump had already found a way to lower his taxes on that wooded, largely unused parcel. He had convinced the township to declare a farm, because some trees on the site are turned into mulch. Because of pro-farmer tax policies, Trump’s company pays just $16.31 per year in taxes on the parcel, which he bought for $461,000.
4. “It’s always been my suspicion that there’s something we don’t know,” about the explanation behind the seemingly inexplicable cemetery plan, said Bedminster land-use board member Nick Strakhov. So why were they doing it?
5. “I did not ask,” Strakhov said. “It’s an obvious question.”

7. Employees who decline genetic testing could face penalties under proposed bill, By Lena H. Sun, ((c) 2017, The Washington Post), March 11, 2017 at 5:44 pm | (UPDATED: March 12, 2017 at 8:12 am)

Mike: Republicans are all about choice: Affordable medical insurance or die quickly; Continual medical coverage or a 30-50% penalty; Provide your genetic makeup or pay a 30-50% penalty (or maybe don’t get the job based on your genetic make-up).

Republicans don’t believe in evolution, but seem very certain of the need for Social Darwinism.

This proposed legislation is monstrous and stands against every meaning of personal privacy.

The Republican definitions of “liberty” and “freedom” apparently means freedom to share your medical history with your prospective employer.

Obamacare revision would reduce insured numbers by 24 million, CBO projects, By Amy Goldstein, Elise Viebeck, Kelsey Snell and Mike DeBonis March 13 at 7:29 PM [Washington Post]

1. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s proposal to revise the Affordable Care Act would lower the number of Americans with health insurance by 24 million while reducing the federal deficit by $337 billion by 2026, congressional budget analysts said Monday.
2. House Republicans’ proposal to rewrite federal health-care law would more than reverse the gains the Affordable Care Act has made in the number of Americans with health insurance, while curbing the federal deficit, according to a widely-anticipated forecast by congressional budget analysts.
3. The analysis, released late Monday afternoon by the Congressional Budget Office, predicts that 24 million fewer people would have health coverage over the coming decade, nearly doubling the share of Americans who are uninsured from 10 to 19 percent. But the GOP legislation, which has been speeding through House committees since it was introduced a week ago, would lower the deficit by $337 billion during that time, primarily by lessening spending on Medicaid and government aid to help people buy health plans on their own.
4. The report predicted that premiums would be 15 percent to 20 percent higher in the first year compared with the Affordable Care Act and 10 percent lower on average after 2026. By and large, older Americans would pay “substantially” more and younger Americans less, the report said.

• Elon Musk’s SpaceX plans to fly two private citizens around the moon by late next year, By Christian Davenport and Joel Achenbach [Washington Post] February 27, 2017 at 6:15 PM
  • SpaceX said Monday it plans to fly two private citizens on a mission around the moon by late 2018 as part of a lunar journey that would last about a week and travel deeper into space than any human has ventured before.
• Time to talk Trump impeachment: Jason Sattler, By Jason Sattler [USAToday] Published 3:24 p.m. ET Feb. 26, 2017 | Updated 11 hours ago
  • Republicans are burying Trump transgressions. Democrats need to make sure they get noticed.
  • Bannon predicts there will be an ideological ‘fight every day’
  • Atop Trump’s agenda, Bannon said, was the “deconstruction of the administrative state” — meaning a system of taxes, regulations and trade pacts that the president and his advisers believe stymie economic growth and infringe upon one’s sovereignty.
  • “If you look at these Cabinet nominees, they were selected for a reason, and that is deconstruction,” Bannon said. He posited that Trump’s announcement withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership was “one of the most pivotal moments in modern American history.”
  • Bannon picked up that theme Thursday in his remarks at CPAC: “They’re corporatist, globalist media that are adamantly opposed to an economic nationalist agenda like Donald Trump has.”
  • Bannon also said, “If you look at the opposition party [e., the Press] and how they portrayed the campaign and how they portrayed the transition and how they portray the administration, it’s always wrong.”Bannon: Trump administration is in unending battle for ‘deconstruction of the administrative state’, By Philip Rucker (Washington Post) February 23, 2017 at 2:47 PM
• Why Trump is skipping the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, By Dean Obeidallah, CNN, Updated 4:58 PM ET, Sun February 26, 2017
  • CNN Is Considering Skipping White House Correspondents’ Dinner: The cable network, which Donald Trump has repeatedly called “fake news,” is discussing internally about whether to attend the annual star-studded dinner, sources say. By Steven Perlberg [BuzzFeed News Reporter] posted on Feb. 23, 2017, at 7:45 p.m.
  • CNN is still actively discussing internally whether it will ultimately send staffers to the event, which is scheduled for April 29, according to one of these people.
  • Plus, some in the media world are wondering whether Trump will even end up attending the event. The White House did not immediately return a request for comment.
• Americans are seriously stressed out about the future of the country, survey finds, By Colby Itkowitz [www.washingtonpost.com] February 15, 2017
  • The American Psychological Association polls Americans about their stress every year, and it’s common for many of those polled to report anxiety around personal life issues like work and money. This time, however, people are also citing politics as a serious stressor in their lives.
  • Last year, the APA, which represents psychologists across the country, heard from its members that their patients were experiencing high levels of anxiety in the lead-up to the presidential election. Since November, those emotions haven’t let up. They’ve actually gotten worse with political talk consuming therapy sessions.
  • Because so many of its members were reporting election-related stress, the APA added questions about politics to its annual survey in August. When the negative feelings didn’t ease up, APA did another survey in January to capture stress levels post-election. In August, 71 percent of Americans reported feeling a physical or emotional symptom of stress at least one day that month. In January, 80 percent had symptoms such as tension headaches or feeling overwhelmed or depressed.
  • The survey, conducted by Harris Poll, found 66 percent of Americans reported stress about the future of the country, 57 percent about the current political climate and 49 percent about the election outcome. Minority groups, millennials, those living in urban areas, and those with a college education had higher levels of stress about the election, which is unsurprising since those demographics tend to lean left politically.
  • While Democrats surveyed were overwhelmingly more stressed about the election outcome than Republicans (72 percent to 26 percent), a majority of people from both parties, 59 percent of Republicans and 76 percent of Democrats, said they are stressed about the future of the country.
  • From Daily Kos: “MAJOR BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: SCOTUS docket # 16-907 WILL BE DISTRIBUTED FOR CONFERENCE to the Justices on March 17, 2017!”
    • BACKGROUND: Petition Before SCOTUS Seeks To Nullify Election, by FisherShannon [dailykos.com/] Feb 12, 2017 9:58am CST
      • SEE: http://revote2017.org/
    • While the world is paying attention to theatrical battles over President Trump’s executive orders and cabinet nominees, a largely unnoticed and potentially landmark case sits before the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. A petition for a writ of mandamus seeking to nullify the results of the 2016 U.S. Presidential election sits on the SCOTUS docket.
    • A petition for a writ of mandamus is a filing imploring a Court to take mandatory action in the nature of public duty. The writ – filed Jan 18, 2017 by Diane Blumstein, Donna Soodalter-Toman, and Nancy Goodman – has been assigned docket number 16-907.
    • The main argument for the writ is that, per Article IV § 4 of the U.S. Constitution, it is the job of the federal government to keep U.S. territory safe from foreign invasion. The Constitution stipulates, “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion.” The petition cites evidence of such an invasion, namely the Russian hacking, and asks that the entire 2016 election be nullified, all the way back to the primaries, on the grounds that cyber-territory in the U.S. was invaded with the intention of altering the results of our Presidential election. The petitioners seek an entirely new election.
    • A response [was] due from SCOTUS on February 21 with an answer as to whether the Court will hear oral arguments in this case. The fact that this petition for a writ of mandamus is being considered is quite remarkable. SCOTUS estimates that just 0.01% of cases filed with the court are granted plenary review with oral arguments, so the odds are stacked against this case being heard, but the writ is on the docket and they hold out hope that the odds are in their favor.
    • Writ of Mandamus – Wikipedia
    • Mandamus (Latin for “We command”) is a judicial remedy in the form of an order from a superior court,^[1] to any government subordinate court, corporation, or public authority—to do (or forbear from doing) some specific act which that body is obliged under law to do (or refrain from doing)—and which is in the nature of public duty, and in certain cases one of a statutory duty. It cannot be issued to compel an authority to do something against statutory provision. For example, it cannot be used to force a lower court to reject or authorize applications that have been made, but if the court refuses to rule one way or the other then a mandamus can be used to order the court to rule on the applications.
    • Mandamus may be a command to do an administrative action or not to take a particular action, and it is supplemented by legal rights. In the American legal system it must be a judicially enforceable and legally protected right before one suffering a grievance can ask for a mandamus. A person can be said to be aggrieved only when he is denied a legal right by someone who has a legal duty to do something and abstains from doing it.
• Yemen SEAL Raid Has Yielded No Significant Intelligence: Officials, by Cynthia McFadden, William M. Arkin and Ken Dilanian [NBCNEWS.COM] Feb 27 2017, 7:04 pm ET
  • Three probes opened into SEAL’s death in controversial Yemen raid, USA TODAY
  • Last month’s deadly commando raid in Yemen, which cost the lives of a U.S. Navy SEAL and a number of children, has so far yielded no significant intelligence, U.S. officials told NBC News.
  • Although Pentagon officials have said the raid produced “actionable intelligence,” senior officials who spoke to NBC News said they were unaware of any, even as the father of the dead SEAL questioned the premise of the raid in an interview with the Miami Herald published Sunday.
• In Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro, signs of ethnic tension are on the rise again.
• DHS Immigration Memo Underscores Urgent Need for National Guard Reform: It’s time to rethink the mission and role of the already-stretched National Guard. By Ben Manski |[BillMoyers.com] February 22, 2017
  1. A general alarm has risen in response to the recently leaked draft memo from Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly outlining steps for the deployment of National Guard units, as well as other measures, across vast regions of the country to hunt down and detain those suspected of being undocumented immigrants to the United States.
  2. The Constitution of the United States disallows the use of the National Guard to invade and occupy other countries. Instead, Article 1, Section 8 provides for the use of the Guard “to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions.” Federal statutes enacted under the authority of the Constitution describe the conditions under which the Guard may and may not be used for domestic law enforcement. Most readings of those statutes are that they do not authorize the unilateral federalization of state guard units to hunt down and detain those suspected of being undocumented immigrants. Yet as a matter of constitutional law involving at least several of the militia clauses and the Bill of Rights, the question is unclear.
  3. What is clear is that National Guard law is currently broken. The United States have not been invaded since 1941, yet over the past year, National Guard units were deployed in 70 countries, reflecting former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s statement that, “There’s no way we could conduct a global war on terror without the Guard and Reserve.”
• Vitaly I. Churkin, Russian ambassador to the U.N., dies at 64, By staff reports and news services (Washington Post) February 20, 2017 at 3:05 PM
  1. Vitaly I. Churkin, who had been Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations for more than a decade and championed Moscow’s perspective on barbarity in Syria, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and other global flash points, died Feb. 20 at a hospital in New York. He died a day before his 65th birthday.
  2. Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Vladimir Safronkov, said that his boss fell ill at his office. The cause wasn’t immediately known.
• FREE SPEECH: What’s constitutionally guaranteed and what’s culturally expected
  • 1^st Amendment:   First Amendment | Constitution | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
  • The Amendment protects us against Government interference in speech, press and religion.
  • NON-government interference – private businesses, publishers. Etc. – is more culturally entrenched but usually not illegal.
  • 1^st Amendment: FREE SPEECH: What’s constitutionally guaranteed and what’s culturally expected
    • NON-government interference – private businesses, publishers. Etc. – is more culturally entrenched but usually not illegal.
    • The Amendment protects us against Government interference in speech, press and religion.
    • First Amendment | Constitution | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
• The Four Freedoms: 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.
  • Freedom from fear
  • Freedom from want
  • Freedom of worship
  • Freedom of speech
• 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:
• 1. Four Freedoms, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  • Donald Trump is making a strong case for a recount of his own 2016 election win, By Aaron Blake, Nov 28, 2016 (Washington Post): On Sunday morning, President-elect Donald Trump assured us all that a recount of the 2016 election wouldn’t change the outcome and was a waste of resources.
    • “…the president-elect is also, unwittingly and amazingly, calling into question the results of an election that he won nearly three weeks ago. The logical extension of his argument is that all results should not be trusted. In effect, Trump is lending credence to the very same recount effort that he criticized as superfluous.
• 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.”

• ======================================================
•  SOURCES WHICH MAY BE RELEVANT TO OTHER DISCUSSION:
• 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)
• How Wisdom Teeth Are Fueling the Opioid Epidemic, By Melissa Pandika 1/22/2017, [Ozy.com] via MSN
  1. … In 2015, opioids killed a record 33,000 people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About half of those deaths involved a prescription opioid. Now, a new study drills down to one source of these drugs: wisdom-tooth extractions.
  2. More than half of the opioid painkillers prescribed to patients after wisdom tooth removal surgery in a recent Drug and Alcohol Dependence study went unused.
  3. 100 million opioid pills, prescribed for wisdom-tooth extractions, go unused.
  4. Which means they’re available for misuse and abuse by patients, their loved ones or others. But the study also found that offering information about a pharmacy-based drug-disposal program, plus a financial incentive, made patients more likely to properly dispose of their unused medication, or at least plan to do so.
• Tanks Roll Through ‘Chunnel’ as Europe Frets About Trump, Russia, NBC News by Alexander Smith and Carlo Angerer and Keir Simmons 5 hrs ago
  1. … in the dead of night this week, Britain’s military sent five tanks down the 30-mile “Chunnel” to test whether it would be an effective route for forces if deployed to places such as Eastern Europe amid tensions between Russia and NATO.
  2. the potential need to fast-track forces to the Russian front served as a reminder of how seriously Washington’s allies in Europe perceive the threat on their doorstep.
  3. These allies have traditionally felt that Washington has their back, something thrown into doubt by Trump cozying up to Moscow and branding NATO “obsolete” earlier this week.
  4. Trump’s comments this week came after he suggested during his campaign that he might not honor NATO’s central tenet that an attack against one member state would be seen as an attack against all.
  5. “It’s certainly freaked people out,” according to Alexander Lanoszka, an expert in American foreign policy at City, University of London. He said Trump’s comments have brought European concerns about an emboldened Russia “into sharp focus.”
• White House vows to fight media ‘tooth and nail’ over Trump coverage, By Doina Chiacu and Jason Lange [Reuters] 1/22/2017
  1. The White House vowed on Sunday to fight the news media “tooth and nail” over what it sees as unfair attacks, with [Kellyanne Conway] saying the Trump administration had presented “alternative facts” to counter low inauguration crowd estimates.
• Trial Balloon for a Coup? Analyzing the news of the past 24 hours, by Yonatan Zunger
• Group will sue Trump over business’ foreign profits, By Cyra Master 2 hrs ago (The Hill) 1/22/2017 via MSN
  1. The Title of Nobility Clause [Also known as the Emoluments Clause] is a provision in Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution, that prohibits the federal government from granting titles of nobility, and restricts members of the government from receiving gifts, emoluments, offices or titles from foreign states without the consent of the United States Congress. Also known as the Emoluments Clause, it was designed to shield the republican character of the United States against so–called “corrupting foreign influences”. This shield is reinforced by the corresponding prohibition on state titles of nobility in Article I, Section 10, and more generally by the Republican Guarantee Clause in Article IV, Section^[2] ~ Title of Nobility Clause – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_of_Nobility_Clause
  2. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) announced Sunday night it is bringing a suit “to stop President Trump from violating the Constitution (the Constitution’s foreign emoluments clause ) by illegally receiving payments from foreign governments.”
  3. At issue is Trump’s refusal to divest from his business or place his assets into a blind trust, which would separate him entirely from his business empire. He has said his adult sons will run his business while he is in office, that they will not conduct any foreign deals and will subject any domestic deals to an ethics review.
  1. Section 1. In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.
  2. Section 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.
  3. Section 3. Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.
  4. Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
  5. Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.^[3]
• The Twenty-fifth Amendment (Amendment XXV) to the United States Constitution deals with succession to the Presidency and establishes procedures both for filling a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, as well as responding to Presidential disabilities. It supersedes the ambiguous wording of Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution, which does not expressly state whether the Vice President becomes the President or Acting President if the President dies, resigns, is removed from office or is otherwise unable to discharge the powers of the presidency.^[1] The Twenty-fifth Amendment was adopted on February 10, 1967.^[2]
• Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
• Emoluments Clause of the Constitution (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia):
  1. The Ineligibility Clause, one of the two clauses often called the Emoluments Clause,^[1][2] and sometimes also referred to as the Incompatibility Clause^[3] or the Sinecure Clause,^[4] is found in Article 1, Section 6, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution. It places limitations upon the employment of members of Congress and prohibits employees of the Executive Branch from serving in Congress during their terms in office. The name “Ineligibility Clause” is only used by a minority of writers, as compared to the name “Emoluments Clause”.^[1][2][5]
  2. The clause states: “No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time; and no Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office.”
• “Substantial evidence was presented establishing massive absentee ballot fraud, deception, intimidation, harassment and forgery.”
• The oath of office is given to the candidates who abided by the rules, and did not compromise their integrity. Inspite of all the Republican protestations, the oath of office should be given to Hillary Rodham Clinton and Tim Kaine.
• The intelligence community already has the evidence that a foreign government interfered in the election so that Trump & Pence would win. That foreign power was Russia. So long as Trump is in office, he will be beholden to Vladimir Putin. If Pence were to become President, he also would be beholden to Putin. The interference of a foreign power on behalf of one of the candidates invalidates the election, and the elected candidates are rendered unqualified to serve.
• I think Impeachment would take too long, and would not solve the problem.
• Impeachment would remove Trump, but then we get a President who believes GLBT people should be sent to some form of concentration camps to be reprogrammed.
• Some people are calling for impeachment. I believe impeachment would take too long. They first have to introduce articles of impeachment, then have hearings, then vote. If he is impeached by the House of Representatives, they then have to bring it before the Senate. The Senate would have their own hearings and then vote on whether to remove him from office. If he is removed from office, Vice President Mike Pence becomes President.
• John Ibanez, Yesterday at 2:31pm 1/29/2017
• The election must be overturned.
• John Ibanez’s post (which I have pasted below) persuaded me. His last two paragraphs locked it up. Essentially, this whole administration is tainted. They have all “bitten of the poisoned apple”, as they sometimes say in law. Therefore this administration must be pulled up by the roots of the Republic is to survive as we have known it.The solution may lie in a minor precedent called “Marks v. Stinson” ([MARKS v. STINSON | 19 F.3d 873 (1994) | Leagle.com]). The ruling states, in part: “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.”I am now convinced that as farfetched as this may sound, it is in fact the only real solution to our nation’s current dilemma.
• Up until now, I’ve been arguing that the only to remotely realistic choices we have is Pres. Trump or Pres. Pence. I know longer believe that is even Constitutionally acceptable.
• I don’t like to engage in hyperbole, but I believe we are approaching a real existential, Constitutional crisis.

• LINKS:
• Latest: Inmates cite Trump, education as motive for takeover, By Associated Press By Associated Press [National] February 1 at 6:35 PM
  1. Inmates inside a Delaware prison where four staff members were being held hostage reached out to a newspaper in two phone calls to explain their concerns, including the leadership of the U.S., educational opportunities, rehabilitation and how the state spends money on prisons.
  2. In that call, an inmate said their reasons “for doing what we’re doing” included “Donald Trump. Everything that he did. All the things that he’s doing now. We know that the institution is going to change for the worse.”
  3. That caller said education for prisoners was the inmates’ priority. They also sought effective rehabilitation for all prisoners and information about how money is allocated to prisons.
  4. LATER REPORTED: “Early Thursday, the siege ended after police breached the building and rescued a female staff member who was not injured. They also found Sgt. Steven R. Floyd, a 16-year veteran of the Delaware Department of Correction, but he was unresponsive. Floyd, 47, was declared dead a short time later…”
• Claiming mandate, GOP Congress lays plans to propel sweeping conservative agenda, By David Weigel [Washington Post] January 1, 2017 at 7:46 PM
• 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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