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) 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.

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]:

“Bad politicians are sent to Washington by good people who don’t vote.” ~ Attributed to William E. Simon (1927-2000), Secretary of the Treasury under Ronald Reagan

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

 

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GUESTS: OPEN FORUM

1. ACA (aka OBAMACARE): Healthcare.gov
   1. 1-800-318-2596 Available 24/7 days a week (except holidays)
   2. 2018 Open Enrollment runs thru Dec 15. Are you ready?
2. Runoff Elections Results for CS and HISD ß EDUCATION ELECTIONS
3. Trump intends to move US Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.
   a. Thoughts?
4. Alabama Senatorial Election tomorrow – Tuesday_- between Roy Moore (R) and Doug Jones (D).
   a. Will years of racist and political voter suppression do the trick for Roy Moore?
5. New York Subway Attack Shows Limits of Counterterror Strategy, By Joseph Ax [REUTERS/US NEWS & WORLD REPORT] Dec. 11, 2017, at 6:30 p.m.
   a. Are you alert to possible terrorist attacks in Houston airports, streets, shops, etc.?
   b. What does that alertness look like for you?
   c. Have you practiced in your head what you would do?
6. Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker fired for alleged ‘improper sexual conduct’, by Paul Farhi [WASHINGTON POST] December 11 at 5:22 PM
   a. Has “He said, “She said”, simply turned into, “She said, He’s fired”?
   b. The New Yorker magazine, one of the media outlets that has led the way in exposing sexual misconduct by prominent men, severed ties with its leading Washington reporter, Ryan Lizza, on Monday after what the magazine called “improper sexual conduct.”
   c. But Lizza vigorously denied the allegation, saying in a statement that the decision to terminate him was “a terrible mistake.”
   d. In a statement issued Monday afternoon, a New Yorker spokeswoman said: “The New Yorker recently learned that Ryan Lizza engaged in what we believe was improper sexual conduct. We have reviewed the matter and, as a result, have severed ties with Lizza. Due to a request for privacy, we are not commenting further.”
   e. The privacy request referred to Lizza’s accuser, not to Lizza himself.
   f. Lizza disputed the magazine’s determination, saying in a statement, “I am dismayed that the New Yorker has decided to characterize a respectful relationship with a woman I dated as somehow inappropriate. The New Yorker was unable to cite any company policy that was violated.”
   g. Lizza was apparently the subject of a single complaint about nonconsensual behavior, though the behavior in question hasn’t been disclosed.
   h. Douglas Wigdor, a veteran New York litigator who said he is representing the woman who accused Lizza, denied the journalist’s characterization. “In no way did Mr. Lizza’s misconduct constitute a ‘respectful relationship’ as he has now tried to characterize it,”
   i. Lizza, who previously wrote for the New Republic magazine, landed perhaps the biggest scoop of his career in July when he published an unexpurgated interview with newly named White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci. Scaramucci’s profanity-laced remarks about several of his new colleagues, including chief of staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon led to Scaramucci’s firing several days later.
7. New drug offers hope for treating Huntington’s disease, [.aljazeera.com] 2017-DEC-11
   a. An experimental drug has for the first time been shown to slow the progression of Huntington’s disease, giving hopes to patients suffering from the incurable disorder.
   b. Scientists at UK’s University College of London said on Monday that an early-stage trial found that the treatment had “successfully lowered” the levels of a toxic protein that causes the devastating genetic disease.
   c. Sarah Tabrizi, a professor of clinical neurology who led the UCL research, called the ability of the drug, IONIS-HTT(Rx), to lower the mutant huntingtin protein “ground-breaking”.
   d. “The key now is to move quickly to a larger trial to test whether IONIS-HTT(Rx) slows disease progression,” she said.
   e. The Huntington’s Disease Society of America hailed the breakthrough as “a historic moment in the fight against” the illness.
   f. What is Huntington’s disease? : Huntington’s is a disorder that causes irreversible damage to the brain, affecting patients’ movements, behaviour and ability to think clearly.
   g. It is caused by an inherited defect in a single section of DNA called the huntingtin gene.
8. 7 Reforms After Trump, by Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) 12/3/17, 19:31
   1. Repeal Shelby v Holder (LEGISLATE: Renew Voting Rights Act)
   2. Repeal Citizens United (LEGISLATE/AMENDMENT: Limit Money in Politics, abolish anonymous money in politics)
   3. Abolish electoral college (or can it be saved?)
   4. Special counsel has power to indict president
   5. Apply anti-nepotism law to White House (It was WRITTEN for White House [Robert Kennedy serving with JFK])
   6. POTUS candidates must release tax returns (LEGISLATE/AMENDMENT: for how many years)
   7. Presidents may not self-pardon (AMENDMENT OR LEGISLATION: or pardon executive appointees?)
   8. ADD:
      1. 2/3 Senate vote to confirm SCOTUS appointment
      2. WHAT ELSE???

1. National Monuments: Are they forever?
   1. Trump Slashes Size of “Bears Ears” and “Grand Staircase Monuments” in Utah
2. BREXIT: Scotland, Wales and London Want Special Brexit Deal if Northern Ireland Gets One – U.S. News & World Report
3. NET Neutrality: Why it matters.
4. Sex and Politics: Where’s the boundary between innocent and inappropriate?

TOPICS FROM PREVIOUS WEEKS:

1. 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”

LINKS:

 SOURCES WHICH MAY BE RELEVANT TO OTHER DISCUSSION:

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