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TOPIC:  SUPPORT KPFT!  Bombing Syria: Right Or Wrong – Machiavellian Political Maneuver Coordinated Between Trump-Putin-Assad? Was It Pointless Or Politically Savvy (For Trump)? Republicans Use Nuclear Option To Approve Gorsuch For Supreme Court – Payback For Sen. Harry Reid Or GOP Long-Time Plan? 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]:

“Declining nations glory in their past accomplishments because their future looks so bleak. Rising nations become great by looking to the future, investing in their people and their infrastructure, and taking risks.” ~ Michael R. Honig, from “Letter to Alan Grayson: Going To The Moon Is NOT A Lunatic Idea”, Posted on January 31, 2012  

1. United Airlines has a new flying class: “Drag ‘n’ Go”
   1. United Airlines passenger dragged off flight suffered concussion, broken nose, by John Bacon , USA TODAY Published 10:06 a.m. ET April 13, 2017 | Updated 4:15 p.m. ET April 13, 2017
   2. What next? Scorpion stings passenger on United Airlines flight, By Chuck Johnston, [CNN] Updated 2:41 PM ET, Fri April 14, 2017
      1. The same day a passenger was infamously dragged off a United plane in Chicago, a man on a United flight from Houston to Calgary was allegedly stung by a scorpion.
      2. The venomous creature fell from an overhead bin and landed on Richard Bell’s hair as he was eating lunch Sunday in his business class seat, according to his wife Linda.
   3. United Airlines boots bride and groom traveling to their wedding from half-empty plane, by USA Today Network Brandi Smith & Hannah Lawson, KHOU-TV, Houston Published 7:01 a.m. ET April 17, 2017
   4. That time passengers were told to give up their seats for United’s CEO and his family, David LazarusContact Reporter [LA TIMES] APRIL 12, 2017
2. HISD offers explanation of new ‘recapture’ referendum: Support urged for paying state after amount reduced, By Shelby Webb, March 29, 2017 Updated: March 29, 2017 9:41pm
   1. Related Posts:
      1. Reintroducing recapture, by Charles Kuffner, . Apr 2nd, 2017
      2. Recapture re-vote will happen

iii.    HISD Board to discuss recapture re-vote today

Sung and Vilaseca sworn in at HISD

HOUSTON ELECTIONS — AGAIN: “Reintroducing recapture”, by Charles Kuffner

Wednesday’s [March 29, 2017] forum served as the latest update in a school finance saga that has pitted Houston ISD against the state after 62 percent of local residents voted in November against paying the state millions in so-called recapture fees.

Board President Wanda Adams, who hosted the town hall, thanked those present for voting against recapture in November. But she asked them to vote in favor of writing a recapture check. “Because of your no vote, you actually won. We were the first district ever to tell the state no, the first to say we will not write a check until you fund public education,” Adams said. “This is not a vote on recapture; it’s a vote on how you want us to pay it,” Reed said.”

3. Stressed Out? You Probably Don’t Have it as Bad as People in Alabama, the Most Stressed State, By Janice Williams [NEWSWEEK] 4/3/17 at 4:33 PM
   1. While just about everyone living in America is stressed out about something, whether the political climate, the economy, personal finances or family issues, people in Alabama have it the worst. The Yellowhammer state was found to have the highest level of stress of all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia in WalletHub’s recent study of most- and least-stressed states.
   2. The study used data from the U.S. Census, Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to evaluate four key dimensions including family-related stress, health/safety-related stress, work-related stress and money-related stress based on factors like cost of childcare, housing affordability, number of hours worked in a day and job security.
   3. Southern states ranked the highest for the most cases of stress; Alabama ranked number one for the overall highest level of stress, followed by Louisiana and then Mississippi.
   4. Alabama had, per capita, the highest number of people with poor health and the fewest psychologists. Alabamans also got the least number of hours of sleep a night and had some of the lowest credit scores.
4. Trump calls Erdogan to congratulate him on contested referendum, Turkey says, By Carol Morello By Carol Morello April 17 at 7:34 PM
   1. President Trump called to congratulate Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday after a referendum greatly expanding his powers, according to Turkish officials, despite a more circumspect State Department response to Sunday’s vote, which international election observers declared unfair.
5. US: China sends ‘positive signals’ it will help defuse North Korea crisis, by Oren Dorell , [USA TODAY] Published 3:14 p.m. ET April 17, 2017 | Updated
   1. China sent the Trump administration “positive signals”  that it will increase economic sanctions to pressure ally North Korea to abandon its development of nuclear weapons and missiles, a threat that has raised the prospect of a military confrontation with the United States, the State Department revealed Monday.
   2. “We’ve gotten a lot of positive signals from the Chinese but it takes time,” Susan Thornton, acting assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said on a conference call with reporters. “You don’t know if these kinds of economic pressure will work until it works.”
6. How Many Robots Does It Take to Replace a Human Job?, By Gillian B. White [The Atlantic Daily] Mar 30, 2017
   1. Recent studies from McKinsey and the economists Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael A. Osborne estimate that around 45 percent of workers currently perform tasks that could be automated in the near future. And the World Bank estimates that around 57 percent of jobs could be automated within the next 20 years.
   2. The study’s authors find that the addition of one robot per 1,000 workers reduces the employment-to-population ratio (the number of people actually employed in an area divided by the number of people of working age) by 0.18 to 0.34 percentage points, and reduces wages by between 0.25 and 0.5 percent. On the low end, this amounts to one new robot replacing around three workers. The impact is unsurprisingly most pronounced in manufacturing (particularly in the production side of the auto industry), electronics, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals, among others. Perhaps most importantly, there were negative effects for virtually all workers except managers.
   3. As many scholars note, more advanced robots in the workforce could mean a shift in human labor, rather than the eradication of it.
7. 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.”
   4. FREE SPEECH: What’s constitutionally guaranteed and what’s culturally expected
8. 1^st Amendment:
   1. 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.
   2. The Amendment protects us against Government interference in speech, press and religion.
   3. NON-government interference – private businesses, publishers. Etc. – is more culturally entrenched but usually not illegal.
9. A Civics discussion:
   1. Our founders did not design our government to be “efficient”. They designed it to be “safe”.
   2. People who say that they want government to run like a business miss the point: Government is NOT a business.
   3. People who say that they want government to run like a household miss the point: Government is NOT a household.
   4. Government is a Sovereign, which is an entirely different and unique thing, totally unlike a business or a household.
   5. No one branch of government is meant to be ‘supreme’. The 3 branches of government – executive, legislative and judicial – were designed to be co-equal.
   6. The tug-of-war that goes on among them – this inefficient, tug-of-war that goes on among them – is designed to slow things down, and make them “safe” but “inefficient’.
   7. In today’s terminology, the inefficiency designed into our government is not a “bug”. It’s a “feature”.
   8. I’ve said for many years that people who have run big businesses should not be politicians, and certainly should not be president. If there was ever an example of why I believe that, it’s Trump.
   9. We are now experiencing the wisdom of that “feature”, as the Trump regime attempts to establish its Supremacy over the other branches.
10. 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.”

11. Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

a.   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]

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]

1. 3. 2. 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
      3. 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.
      4. 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.
      5. 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.”
      6. FREE SPEECH: What’s constitutionally guaranteed and what’s culturally expected
      7. 1^st Amendment:

   b.   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.

   1. The Amendment protects us against Government interference in speech, press and religion.
   2. NON-government interference – private businesses, publishers. Etc. – is more culturally entrenched but usually not illegal.
   3. A Civics discussion:
   4. Our founders did not design our government to be “efficient”. They designed it to be “safe”.
   5. People who say that they want government to run like a business miss the point: Government is NOT a business.
   6. People who say that they want government to run like a household miss the point: Government is NOT a household.
   7. Government is a Sovereign, which is an entirely different and unique thing, totally unlike a business or a household.
   8. No one branch of government is meant to be ‘supreme’. The 3 branches of government – executive, legislative and judicial – were designed to be co-equal.
   9. The tug-of-war that goes on among them – this inefficient, tug-of-war that goes on among them – is designed to slow things down, and make them “safe” but “inefficient’.
   10. In today’s terminology, the inefficiency designed into our government is not a “bug”. It’s a “feature”.
   11. I’ve said for many years that people who have run big businesses should not be politicians, and certainly should not be president. If there was ever an example of why I believe that, it’s Trump.
   12. We are now experiencing the wisdom of that “feature”, as the Trump regime attempts to establish its Supremacy over the other branches.
   13. Emoluments Clause of the Constitution (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia):
   14. 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]
   15. 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.”

   11. Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

   a.   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]

2. What next? Scorpion stings passenger on United Airlines flight, By Chuck Johnston, [CNN] Updated 2:41 PM ET, Fri April 14, 2017
   1. The same day a passenger was infamously dragged off a United plane in Chicago, a man on a United flight from Houston to Calgary was allegedly stung by a scorpion.
   2. The venomous creature fell from an overhead bin and landed on Richard Bell’s hair as he was eating lunch Sunday in his business class seat, according to his wife Linda.
   3. United Airlines boots bride and groom traveling to their wedding from half-empty plane, by USA Today Network Brandi Smith & Hannah Lawson, KHOU-TV, Houston Published 7:01 a.m. ET April 17, 2017
   4. That time passengers were told to give up their seats for United’s CEO and his family, David LazarusContact Reporter [LA TIMES] APRIL 12, 2017
3. HISD offers explanation of new ‘recapture’ referendum: Support urged for paying state after amount reduced, By Shelby Webb, March 29, 2017 Updated: March 29, 2017 9:41pm
   1. Related Posts:
      1. Reintroducing recapture, by Charles Kuffner, . Apr 2nd, 2017
      2. Recapture re-vote will happen
         1. HISD Board to discuss recapture re-vote today
         2. Sung and Vilaseca sworn in at HISD
      3.                               iii.    HOUSTON ELECTIONS — AGAIN: “Reintroducing recapture”, by Charles KuffnerWednesday’s [March 29, 2017] forum served as the latest update in a school finance saga that has pitted Houston ISD against the state after 62 percent of local residents voted in November against paying the state millions in so-called recapture fees. Board President Wanda Adams, who hosted the town hall, thanked those present for voting against recapture in November. But she asked them to vote in favor of writing a recapture check. “Because of your no vote, you actually won. We were the first district ever to tell the state no, the first to say we will not write a check until you fund public education,” Adams said. “This is not a vote on recapture; it’s a vote on how you want us to pay it,” Reed said.”
4. Section 1. In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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]

1. DHS Immigration Memo Underscore7s 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.”

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

 SOURCES WHICH MAY BE RELEVANT TO OTHER DISCUSSION:

LINKS:

• 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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