SHOW AUDIO: Link is usually posted within about 72 hours of show broadcast. We take callers during this show at 713-526-5738.

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.)

Please take a moment to visit Pledge.KPFT.org and choose THINKWING RADIO from the drop-down list when you donate. Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig (@ThinkwingRadio on Twitter), is 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.

 

 

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]:

“Where enough money calls the tune, the general public will not be heard.” ~ Justice Stephen Breyer’s dissent in McCutcheon v. FEC (2014) (Dissenting)

 

 

1. ACA (aka OBAMACARE): Healthcare.gov

   1. 2018 Open Enrollment runs from Nov 1 – Dec 15. Are you ready?

2. ELECTIONS
   1. HarrisVotes.com
   2. VoteTexas.gov
   3. Election Day: Nov 7
3. Texas church gunman had threatened his mother-in-law, who attended services there, officials say, by Eva Ruth Moravec and Mark Berman November 6, 2017 [WaPo] at 3:59 PM
   1. SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Tex. — The massacre here that killed more than two dozen people — the youngest of them just 18 months old — occurred amid an ongoing “domestic situation” involving the gunman and his relatives, at least one of whom had attended the church, law enforcement officials said Monday.
   2. While authorities have not publicly identified a motive for the attack, they emphasized that the shooting did not appear to be fueled by racial or religious issues, as has been the case during other rampages at houses of worship. Instead, they pointed to the gunman’s issues with his relatives, saying he had sent “threatening texts” to his mother-in-law, who was not there Sunday.
4. Joy Reid straightens out the alleged Hillary/Uranium deal with whoop-ass:
   1. twitter.com/WabLBXtSTi <–  PLAY THIS(10/29/17, 16:20)

1. A Message from Moe about Puerto Rico… ❤️ #TheSimpsons pic.twitter.com/iH1lGjjN37 A Message From Moe About Puerto Rico | Season 29 | THE SIMPSONS 7:45 PM – 3 Nov 2017

   3. Trump in Asia
      1. Trump feeds Koi fish with Abe. Meant to be slow, contemplative task, Trump loses patience and dumps food into Koi pool.
      2. Trump in Tokyo: U.S.-Japan Security Ties Confront Tough Challenges, by Greg Earl [warontherocks.com/] November 6, 2017
         1. “In the lead-up to the Tokyo meetings this week, the Trump administration has already paid Abe the compliment of lending support to his longstanding push for a more formal security relationshipin the region between the United States, Japan, India, and Australia in order to send a signal to China. The challenge will be whether Trump can maintain an approach to North Korea in line with Abe’s firm and disciplined stance, and not embarrass his host with demands for unilateral trade concessions just when Abe is trying to secure a TPP agreement at next week’s Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation group meeting in Vietnam.”
         2. “… Trump left for his Asian trip with some comments about Japan in a television interviewthat were likely intended to play up Abe as a tough, strong leader, but which may not go down so well with Japanese people. He told Fox News: “Japan is a warrior nation, and I tell China and I tell everyone else that listens, I mean, you’re gonna have yourself a big problem with Japan pretty soon if you allow this to continue with North Korea.” While he didn’t explain the reference, it is consistent with the U.S. president’s past sympathy with the idea of Japan developing its own nuclear weapons partly to reduce the cost of the alliance for the United States.”
   • “This is unlikely to be helpful domestically to Abe at a time when he is trying to carefully maintain public support for a constitutional referendum simply to recognize the country’s Self-Defense Force as a conventional military force that can operate abroad….”
   4. How Japan’s youth see the kamikaze pilots of WW2, By Mariko Oi (BBC.COM) 3-November 2017
      1. During World War Two, thousands of Japanese pilots volunteered to be kamikaze, suicidally crashing their planes in the name of their emperor. More than 70 years on, the BBC’s Mariko Oi asks what these once revered men mean to Japan’s youth.
      2. Irrational, heroic and stupid: this was what three young people in Tokyo said when I asked them about their views on the kamikaze….
      3. It is difficult to verify the figures, but it is believed that 3-4,000 Japanese pilots crashed their planes into an enemy target on purpose.
      4. Only 10% of missions were believed to be successful but they sank some 50 Allied vessels.
      5. Would you fight for your country? A survey of several countries in 2015 by Win/Gallup found that 11% of Japanese people would be prepared to fight for their country.
   • Pakistan: 89%
   • India: 75%
   • Turkey: 73%
   • China: 71%
   • Russia: 59%
   • US: 44%
   • UK: 27%
   • Japan: 11%
   5. The Republican Party Is Gearing Up for War on the Rule of Law, By Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) http://nymag.com October 30, 2017 9:25 am
      1. The Republican Party has sent mixed signals for months about how it plans to respond to Robert Mueller’s investigation of the Russia scandal …But in the days leading up to the first arrests, beginning today with former campaign manager Paul Manafort, the signals have changed, and the dashboard is now flashing red. The party apparatus is gearing up for a frontal attack on Mueller in particular, and the idea that a president can be held legally accountable in general.
      2. The Republican Congress is using its investigative apparatus not to discover the extent of Russian interference in the election, but instead to lash out at Trump’s political opponents. The Republicans have developed a bizarre theory of alt-collusion, which holds that the real interference was Russia feeding false allegations against Donald Trump to private investigator Christopher Steele. Since the FBI investigated Steele’s charges, the FBI is the agency that colluded. And since Robert Mueller is close with the FBI, Mueller, too, is tainted.
      3. The Wall Street Journal editorial page has been serving as a barely filtered outlet for this line of attack from Republicans in Congress. The page has called for Mueller to resign, and other Republican media outlets spent the weekend amplifying this message.
      4. In today’s Journal op-ed page, two Republican former Department of Justice staffers, David Rivkin and Lee Casey, who frequently pop up in the media to defend party-line arguments, take the argument to its next step. They urge Trump to issue sweeping pardons to everybody involved in the scandal, himself included, so as to hopefully neuter Mueller’s investigation.
      5. And would it be an overreach of sorts for Trump to quash an investigation into himself and his cronies? No, they argue. Indeed, they insist he can halt any investigation he likes:
      7. Consider the breathtaking scope of this claim. They argue that the president can order any prosecutor or law-enforcement official to halt any investigation or criminal proceeding. What if the president hired some goons to break into and bug the opposing party’s headquarters? He could order the Department of Justice and FBI not to investigate and fire them if they did. What if he hired some goons to beat up or kill reporters or the opposing party? Same answer. The president, they argue, has unlimited right to protect himself and his allies from law enforcement as he sees fit.
   6. Puerto Rico power restoration: Why it is taking so long, By Alan Gomez and Rick Jervis, USA TODAY Published 3:09 p.m. ET Oct. 30, 2017 | Updated 3:46 p.m. ET Oct. 31, 2017
      1. …Hurricane Maria decimated Puerto Rico on Sept. 20, simply clearing that first step to provide assistance became a complicated process that significantly delayed deploying power crews. The result: 70% of the island remains without power nearly six weeks later.
      2. Lakeland Electric, a utility in Central Florida, has both sent and received assistance after multiple storms in recent years, a now-standardized process that allows fleets of trucks to roll out quickly across the country after a disaster. But Lakeland’s general manager, Joel Ivy, said he’s never gone through a process like the one after Maria.
      3. Ivy spent the first few days after the storm just figuring out exactly who was in charge. His team spent another week negotiating a contract with Whitefish Energy Holdings, the small Montana company hired by Puerto Rico’s electric authority to oversee the restoration of the island’s power grid.
      4. Lakeland’s first linemen finally arrived in San Juan on Saturday — 36 days after Maria made landfall.
      5. “It’s been difficult,” Ivy said.
         1. Puerto Rico: After Dark Chapter, Future Hope Using Technology Government Technology (blog)
         2. Puerto Rico Governor Seeks To Cancel $300 Million Whitefish Contract CBS New York
   • Local business owners aid Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria PA home page
   1. Wall Street Journal–NBCNews.com
   2. all 212 news articles »

   What do belts around Proxima Centauri mean for exoplanet research?, By John Wenz  |  Published: Friday, November 03, 2017 [http://www.astronomy.com]

2. TV Talk:
   1. “The Good Place”
   2. “The Orville”
   3. “Adam Ruins Everything”

TOPICS FROM PREVIOUS WEEKS:

 

LINKS:

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

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]
• 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

 SOURCES WHICH MAY BE RELEVANT TO OTHER DISCUSSION:

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

1. Trial Balloon for a Coup? Analyzing the news of the past 24 hours, by Yonatan Zunger
2. 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:
   1. Freedom of speech
   2. Freedom of worship
   3. Freedom from want
   4. Freedom from fear
   5. 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.

• 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]

__________________________________________________________________