Photo, above: Close to the Karakoram Highway in Xinjiang (translation: New Territories), East Turkestan..  See Hour 1, Block C,  Gordon Chang, Forbes.com, in re: China standing by as US goes after ISIS.

Xinjiang is the largest political subdivision of China—it accounts for more than one sixth of China's total territory and a quarter of its boundary length. Xinjiang is split by the Tian Shan mountain range (Uyghur  تەڭرى تاغ‎ - Tengri Tagh), which divides it into two large basins: the Dzungarian Basin in the north, and the Tarim Basin in the south. A small, V-shaped wedge between these two major basins, limited by the Tian Shan's main range in the south and the Borohoro Mountains in the north, is the basin of the Ili River, which flows into Kazakhstan's Lake Balkhash; an even smaller wedge farther north is the Emin Valley.  Wkiipedia on Xinjiang.

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Guest-host: Francis Rose, Federal News Radio.

Hour One

Friday  12 September  2014 / Hour 1, Block A: General Charles Wald, USAF (ret.), in re:

((??)) led bombing campaign at beginning of Afghanistan campaign. How do we know if we’re winning or losing against ISIS?

Friday  12 September  2014 / Hour 1, Block B: Jim McTague, Barron’s, in re: Fed meeting next week; McConnell in trouble in KY, or pulling away?

Friday  12 September  2014 / Hour 1, Block C:  Gordon Chang, Forbes.com, in re:   China standing by as US goes after ISIS.

Friday  12 September  2014 / Hour 1, Block D: Lt. General David Barno, USA (ret.), First Commander, Military Operations-Afghanistan (2003-05); Senior Fellow and Co-Director of the Responsible Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security; in re: Officially a war: what does the language change mean to the war-fighter?

Hour Two

Friday  12 September  2014 / Hour 2, Block A:  Michael Vlahos, Naval War College, in re: Historical context for President Obama’s strategy against ISIS, and likelihood of success. (1 of 2)

Friday  12 September  2014 / Hour 2, Block B: Michael Vlahos, Naval War College, in re: Historical context for President Obama’s strategy against ISIS, and likelihood of success. (2 of 2)

Friday  12 September  2014 / Hour 2, Block C: David Hawkings, Senior Editor, Roll Call, in re: The 50 richest members of Congress, and how they got that way -- and the poorest member! This week’s unveiling of the 50 richest members of Congress, a signature Roll Call annual report, will underscore the recent reality that about 10 percent of the nation’s lawmakers are in the 1 percent when it comes to their net worth

Another reminder that so many members are so much wealthier than their constituents surely won’t do anything for already abysmal congressional approval ratings (an average 14.3 percent in half a dozen national polls since July 4). To most of the electorate, the roster will be just another annoying reminder of a Capitol Hill that too often seems out of touch. So the only potential suspense is about whether the revelations of riches will complicate the campaigns for the handful of endangered incumbents on the list. The answer is almost certainly not.

Four Democrats in competitive races have investment assets that exceed their debts by more than $9 million. Each of them is bidding for a second term.

The fifth richest member of the 113 Congress, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, made a fortune currently worth north of $95 million on his 1980s gamble that Americans would fall in love with the cellphone. California Rep. Scott Peters is No. 9 — not only because of his success as an environmental litigator in San Diego, but because his wife runs a lucrative private equity operation. Rep. Brad Schneider (the Illinois lawmaker is No. 34) was a highly successful business consultant and life insurance salesman back in the Chicago suburbs. And Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina (No. 41) has profited handsomely from her father’s commercial real estate empire in Florida. The only really rich Republican who’s breathing hard on the campaign trail . . .

Friday  12 September  2014 / Hour 2, Block D: Elbridge Colby, Robert M. Gates Fellow, Center for a New American Security, in re:  http://www.nationalreview.com/article/387285/our-unrealist-president-elbridge-colby

Hour Three

Friday  12 September  2014 / Hour 3, Block A: General Anthony Zinni, USMC (ret.), former Commander of US Central Command and former US special envoy to the Middle East; in re: His new book, Before the First Shots Are Fired: How America Can Win or Lose Off the Battlefield. (1 of 2)

Friday  12 September  2014 / Hour 3, Block B: General Anthony Zinni, USMC (ret.), former Commander of US Central Command and former US special envoy to the Middle East; in re: His new book, Before the First Shots Are Fired: How America Can Win or Lose Off the Battlefield. (2 of 2)

Friday  12 September  2014 / Hour 3, Block C: Francis Barry, member, editorial board, Bloomberg View, in re:  Rhode Island’s Trillion-Dollar Lesson for America

Friday  12 September  2014 / Hour 3, Block D: Darren Samuelsohn, Politico PRO, in re: President Obama’s Brain Drain

Hour Four

Friday  12 September  2014 / Hour 4, Block A: Mat Burrows, director of the Strategic Foresight Initiative in the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security, Atlantic Council; former counselor, National Intelligence Council; author, The Future, Declassified: Megatrends That Will Undo the World Unless We Take Action;  in re: How the intelligence community anticipates threats and trends; how predictable the future really is; the threat landscape for the next 20 years (1 of 4)

From Goodreads  : Twenty-five years ago when Mathew Burrows went to work for the CIA as an intelligence analyst, the world seemed frozen. Then came the fall of the Berlin Wall and the implosion of the Soviet Union; suddenly, unpredictability became a universal theme and foresight was critical. For the past decade, Burrows has overseen the creation of the Global Trends report—the key futurist guide for the White House, Departments of State and Defense, and Homeland Security. Global Trends has a history of making bold predictions and being right:

* In 2004, it argued that al-Qaeda’s centralized operations would dissolve and be replaced by groups, cells, and individuals—the very model of the 2012 Boston bombings.* In 2008, it included a scenario dubbed October Surprise, imagining a devastating late-season hurricane hitting an unprepared New York City. In The Future, Declassified, Burrows—for the first time—has expanded the most recent Global Trends report into a full-length narrative, forecasting the tectonic shifts that will drive us to 2030. A staggering amount of wholesale change is happening—from unprecedented and widespread aging to rampant urbanization and growth in a global middle class to an eastward shift in economic power and a growing number of disruptive technologies. Even our physical geography is changing as sea levels rise and faster commercial shipping routes open up through a warming Arctic region. The book concludes with its most provocative section: four fictional paths to 2030 with imagined storylines and characters based on analysis by the most authoritative figures in the intelligence community. As Burrows argues, we are living through some of the greatest and most momentous developments in history. Either we take charge and direct those or we are at their mercy. The stakes are particularly high for America’s standing in the world and for ordinary Americans who want to maintain their quality of life. Running the gamut from scary to reassuring, this riveting book is essential reading.

Friday  12 September  2014 / Hour 4, Block B: Mat Burrows, director of the Strategic Foresight Initiative in the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security, Atlantic Council; former counselor, National Intelligence Council; author, The Future, Declassified: Megatrends That Will Undo the World Unless We Take Action;  in re: How the intelligence community anticipates threats and trends; how predictable the future really is; the threat landscape for the next 20 years (2 of 4)

Friday  12 September  2014 / Hour 4, Block C: Mat Burrows, director of the Strategic Foresight Initiative in the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security, Atlantic Council; former counselor, National Intelligence Council; author, The Future, Declassified: Megatrends That Will Undo the World Unless We Take Action;  in re: How the intelligence community anticipates threats and trends; how predictable the future really is; the threat landscape for the next 20 years (3 of 4)

Friday  12 September  2014 / Hour 4, Block D: Mat Burrows, director of the Strategic Foresight Initiative in the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security, Atlantic Council; former counselor, National Intelligence Council; author, The Future, Declassified: Megatrends That Will Undo the World Unless We Take Action;  in re: How the intelligence community anticipates threats and trends; how predictable the future really is; the threat landscape for the next 20 years (4 of 4)