Open Sources Show Notes for Thursday January 7, 2016

We’re back! It’s the beginning of year two on Open Sources Guelph, and the beginning of a new year, and when those two forces combined it makes for a very busy work week indeed. More trouble in the Middle East? Check. Presidential Election talk? Check? Current U.S. President makes last ditch effort for gun control? Check. Nuts that prove the reason why gun control is needed? Check, and double check!

This Thursday, January 7, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:

1) Another Middle East Powder Keg. Saudi Arabia rung in 2016 by executing nearly 50 people including Shia cleric Nimr Baqir al-Nimr. Typically, when Saudi Arabia executes a bunch of people, it just gets the usual amount of condemnation, but when the biggest Shiite power in Middle East beheads a popular Sheikh from the Shia side of Islam, you’re going to have a problem. After Iranian citizens set fire to the Saudi embassy in Tehran, Arab powers have been lining up on either side of the religious divide, but what will the global implications be of this major sectarian stand-off?

2) Countdown to Iowa. After months of build-up, the Presidential Election officially begins in just a few more weeks with the Iowa Caucuses, the first time voters will mark their own ballots as to who they think should be their party’s nominee for President. Not much has changed since we last talked about the American election, but Donald Trump continues to get more belligerent, this time dredging up ghosts of political scandals past by evoking the indiscretions of Hillary Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton. How will the candidates shake out now that the stakes in the race are real?

3) Obama Goes Solo (Again). In a tearful speech at the White House Wednesday, Barack Obama kicked off his final year in office with a move to use his executive authority to take some kind of action on gun control. The President is looking to close loopholes by having small dealers and gun show exhibitors keep proper records and perform background checks before selling, but with a powerful pro-gun lobby and dwindling influence in an election year, can Obama still be the change he wants to deliver?

4) Standoff in Oregon. A group of anti-government militia men took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon Sunday to protest the re-sentencing of two ranchers charged with setting fire to public land. Led by Ammon Bundy, son of infamous federal grazing fee scofflaw Cliven Bundy, is leading the so-called Citizens for Constitutional Freedom who plan to occupy the refuge for the long-term and are spoiling for a fight with the tyrannical (in their mind) Federal government, even as the ranchers they rallied to defend surrendered themselves to the law. Are we in the midst of another Waco, or are these guys just wacko?