JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
 
Hour One
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 1, Block A:  Dan Henninger, WSJ editorial board &  Wonder Land column; in re:  In 2001, Dan was walking from his office in the World Financial Center to a nearby Brooks Brothers to buy a cummerbund for his son’s wedding when he looked up and saw a plane flying too low. He looked again and the plane was in the building. Thus began his September 11. 
Mail-in ballots are causing upset and court cases across the country. / Mrs Clinton’s demand that Democrats simply not accept any possible trump win in November.  She’s willing to see the entire electoral system torn to shreds rather than allow it to function normally.  Is there any way to prevent this boat from going over the falls?  . . . 
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 1, Block B: Jeff Bliss, #PacificWatch, Pacific Watch, in re: In the Bay Area, sunrise and sunset are colored red, but people who live in the area of the fires send me photos of daytime being an unworldly night. Huge, pyroclastic clouds going ‘way up in the air. Cool, wet air comes in off the Pacific, creates a ceiling; as the smoke and particulates travel up through it, they get caught at a ceiling, rapped by wet air, leads to an orange-red glow down below. “Looks like the surface of Mars.”  Cars drive with lights on; in Portland, people wear a mask at home because of the bad air. Choking, sick smell.
We have fires in every Western state, from Montana to the Coast to Nevada and Colorado. Why so many?  Some of the California policies have led to these problems:  mayn’t do controlled burns or clear forest underbrush. Policies and practices have created a situation out of control.  Gov Gavin Newsom blames the whole thing on climate change.  
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 1, Block C:  Gene Marks,  @genemarks   #SmallBusinessAmerica @Guardian, and at TheHill; in re: PPPs have been successful so far.  A few weeks ago presidential order that by 10 Sept states are eligible to receive $300 per week per recipient for unemployment programs.   Businesses starting to look at rehiring.  A well-known restaurateur in Philadelphia whose restaurant remained closed because of the city’s regulations  posted a photo of Philly’s mayor eating at a restaurant in Maryland; the owner was furious Increasingly, small businesses are simply opening without permission.  In many red stats, esp in the South, business owner are optimistic; not so in the Northeast. San Antonio has fewer closures and more business than does a similarly-sized city in California.  Coming soon: competing vaccines.  Will employees be required to get a vaccine? What if one person says, “I just read that the one you recommend isn’t ineffective”?
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 1, Block D: Gene Marks,  @genemarks   #SmallBusinessAmerica @Guardian; in re: Are employees getting needed support for parents who face irregular school days?  Extremely frustrating for small businesses. Almost 1/3 of employees feel unsupported, Many teachers and teachers’s union refuse to return to school leaving the burden on working parents.  Now a federal law requiring companies to pay each employee 2/3 of salary for the next twelve weeks. Can't be done.  . . . MS Word will include voice transcription. Can talk into your Word doc!  . . .  A bunch of Amazon drivers bought extra phones, hung them from trees near Amazon warehouses, and got the orders for a delivery driver nearest to the warehouse on these phones, which then forwarded the order to wherever the drivers were. Entrepreneurial genius. 
 
Hour Two
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 2, Block A:  Michael E Vlahos, Johns Hopkins, in re: Are we in a civil war?  The [notorious] Atlantic article smear saying the Trump refused to visit a WWI cemetery  in France and derided the servicemen who died. 
Transition Integrity Project, a Stalinist-sounding appellation, was intended to provide a [route] to a coup so Trump can’t win: people won't see it as a coup, but as the [salvation of American democracy]. Trying to set up an unimpeachable story of certitude to treat Trump as the antidemocrat, and to have Trump, the GOP, and all who aren't BLM and allies as racist, evil. Thereby the Constitution itself becomes the true enemy. The coup d’etat will be embraced by Americans as the only way to save democracy—not the Republic, which will no longer exist, but democracy.  . . . Existential postulates: for 200 years the rules of succession were inviolate; now in 18 mos we've gone from “the electoral College is bad” to its being something evil and in need of replacement. The Constitution as a whole becomes illegitimate, encapsulated in this one small part of it the Electoral College  “From the foot of Hercules” you can discern and see the entire man.
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 2, Block B:  Michael E Vlahos, Johns Hopkins, in re: Are we now preparing for a civil war or an insurrection or for an entity to be called something other than the United States of America?  A main question: what will the military do?    We have the voices of esteemed general, incl Mattis, who speak against the president.   You can't go to one of the hallowed cemeteries in France or Belgium and speak ill of it or the soldiers.   They’re obviously putting together a mosaic saying, “Look at the forces of despotism.”  A canard to make people hate Trump.  Have giant demonstrations planned even now to be in the millions, to create a similar situation as now obtains in Byelorus against Lukashenko.
Does the military step aside or get recruited? Already recruited higher brass.  Never-Trumpers, antipopulist by definition. 
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 2, Block C:  Chris Riegel, Scala.com, in re: Apple removes two games, Epic and Fortnight, in a dispute over the fees (roughly 30% of the cost to consumers) Apple charges.  Those fourteen-year-old boys are the geniuses of the future Apple has built an ecosystem unrivalled, exceptionally powerful.  The Verge. Thirty per cent is reminiscent of what the Gambinos charged in New York [the vig?]. Apple is <15% of the global phone market, but 60% in the US.  China setting up its own ecosystem; Beijing considers the number of Apple stores in a city to indicate the status of the [consumers].  Each Apple employee brings in $1.962 million of cash coming in.  “Did you ever think that the guy at the top of the mountain  wasn’t just put there?” —Vince Lombardi.
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 2, Block D:  Francis Rose, @FRoseDC,  Host of @GovMattersTV @ ABC7News & WJLA 24/7 News. Washington D.C., in re:  Walking to work on 9/11; arrived at work at 8:50 AM, boss was watching TV.   Boss said, “That’s not a private plane. This is a big deal.”   When we learned of the Pentagon, he turned and said, “We all have to get out of here.”  As I walked back to the Metro, wondered if I should even get on it.  Then saw the smoke plumes from across the river. I rode the Metro about 20 min to Grove; wondered , “Is this the day I die?”  At 9:37 AM, the flight struck the Pentagon.
Feds largely regard telework as successful; but is it sustainable? How long can people work remotely? Do we have the infrastructure?
Who's in charge of space traffic control? Apparently no one. / Reagan Library:  Roger Zakheim runs the Reagan National Defense Forum; photo of the recent meeting with a fellow in back wearing a cowboy hat: a bust of Ronald Reagan. 
 
Hour Three
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 3, Block A:  Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com, in re:  ULA. Boeing.  Northrup Grumman. The military; big space goes awry.  
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 3, Block B:  Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com, in re:
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 3, Block C:  Lt-Gen Steven Lloyd Kwast, USAF (ret), Space Force; and David Livingston, The Space Show, in re:  Constitution puts civilian control in charge of what the military does. Congress: “The Space Force will defend American interests in space.”  Public-private partnerships: directed by Congress. We’re in a great race with China and other powers for control; this will change the economy, science, and much else, in the future. Federalist Papers: the purpose of the Navy is the same as for the Space Force.  Mars 2020 Perseverance Mission: space Forced born out of the Air Force; interpretation of Space force to join a fight.  If Americans get highjacked by China, for example, Americans will expect the Space Force to rescue them;  Admirals vs Generals discussion.    Navy cruises the seas at all times; Army goes in to solve a problem and leaves.  The DoD bureaucracy never transforms itself, always requires Congress to intervene. Trying to get the Space Force to think of itself as defending commerce.
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 3, Block D:  Lt-Gen Steven Lloyd Kwast, USAF (ret), Space Force; and David Livingston, The Space Show, in re:   Leading Space Force General for heavy lift acquisition.  Even the words  are refusing to use [contemporary] facts.  The Space Force is not embracing private innovation of Musk Branson, and the other innovators.  Congress has demanded public-private partnerships, but Air Force is timid in fear of alienating [big interests?]. 
Culture is how an organization moves fast. If you take people from an extant organization and slap a new uniform on them you get the same mind-set.  What needs to be done:  Adm Hyman Rickover went to industry and elsewhere, found the brightest people. put them through a gantlet of excellent training. Bringing Space Force people in only from the Air Force is myopic. 
 
Hour Four
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 4, Block A: The Lost World of the Old Ones: Discoveries in the Ancient Southwest, by David Roberts
Kit Carson was ordered to kill all the Navajo males and take women and children captive, by a fanatic who intended to send them to a concentration camp, walking 300 miles.  Carson disobeyed, won the surrender of 9,000 Navajo. Escape by several bands. Fortress Rock, in the Canyon de Chelly.  Held out there on the summit for months.  Ran out of water; lowered men and clay pots to the steam next to sleeping US Army sentries.   . . . 
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 4, Block B:  The Lost World of the Old Ones: Discoveries in the Ancient Southwest, by David Roberts
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 4, Block C:  The Lost World of the Old Ones: Discoveries in the Ancient Southwest, by David Roberts
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 4, Block D:  The Lost World of the Old Ones: Discoveries in the Ancient Southwest, by David Roberts