Friday 15 January 2016
Photo, left:
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Hour One
Friday 15 January 2016 / Hour 1, Block A: Jim McTague, Barron's, in re: Stocks and Oil Sink Amid Another Global Selloff U.S. stocks slid and the 10-year Treasury yield dipped below 2% as steep declines in oil prices and a bear market in China heightened anxieties that have pushed global markets lower this year. 31 minutes ago . Live Analysis: Markets Falling Hard, Again ; U.S. Consumers Curbed Spending in December ; Data Show Prices Fell Last Month ; Volatile Markets Spur U.S.-Growth Worries
Friday 15 January 2016 / Hour 1, Block B: Joshua Green, Bloomberg Politics, in re: WOOING WARREN: Democratic star Elizabeth Warren is waiting to make a presidential endorsement, using it as leverage over Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. http://buswk.co/Warren
Friday 15 January 2016 / Hour 1, Block C: Marcus Weisgerber, Defense One, in re: SPECIAL REPORT: State of Defense 2016 The Army wants more troops. The Air Force wants more money and newer planes. The Navy wants more ships and is battling over what to do with the fleet it has. And the Marines — well the Corps isn't sure what comes next, but they're staying in the fight. By Defense One's Ben Watson, Bradley Peniston, Marcus Weisgerber, and Kevin Baron.
Friday 15 January 2016 / Hour 1, Block D: Peter Berkowitz, Hoover & Mosaic Magazine, in re: "The Nation-State Is Needed Now More than Ever,"
Hour Two
Friday 15 January 2016 / Hour 2, Block A: Michael Vlahos, Johns Hopkins, in re: Jingoism is patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy. Jingoism also refers to a country's advocacy for the use of threats or actual force, as opposed to peaceful relations, in efforts to safeguard what it perceives as its national interests. Colloquially, it refers to excessive bias in judging one's own country as superior to others—an extreme type of nationalism. The term originated in Britain, expressing a pugnacious attitude toward Russia in the 1870s, and appeared in the American press by 1893. ( of 2)
Friday 15 January 2016 / Hour 2, Block B: Michael Vlahos, Johns Hopkins, in re: Jingoism is patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy. Jingoism also refers to a country's advocacy for the use of threats or actual force, as opposed to peaceful relations, in efforts to safeguard what it perceives as its national interests. Colloquially, it refers to excessive bias in judging one's own country as superior to others—an extreme type of nationalism. The term originated in Britain, expressing a pugnacious attitude toward Russia in the 1870s, and appeared in the American press by 1893. ( of 2)
Friday 15 January 2016 / Hour 2, Block C: Bill Donahue, Bloomberg Businessweek, in re: MEET THE TWO BROTHERS MAKING MILLIONS OFF THE REFUGEE CRISIS IN SCANDINAVIA (1 of 2)
Friday 15 January 2016 / Hour 2, Block D: Bill Donahue, Bloomberg Businessweek, in re: MEET THE TWO BROTHERS MAKING MILLIONS OFF THE REFUGEE CRISIS IN SCANDINAVIA (2 of 2)
Hour Three
Friday 15 January 2016 / Hour 3, Block A: Harry Siegel, New York Daily News, in re: Speaking of New York values, my Daily News column Friday on Trump and Sharpton's long "friendship" of convenience. Hearing Al Sharpton riff about his old Atlantic City patron, Donald Trump, I remembered how much stranger truth really is than fiction in Gotham. In this winter of our discontent, 2016, the national conversation is ringing with the old Noo Yawk-inflected complaints of shouty uncle Bernie and the yoogely classy ravings of the Donald.* Back when Bonfire of the Vanities lit up the city in 1987, whodathunk Rev. Bacon would be a regular White House visitor, or that a Master of the Universe knock-off would be measuring the drapes there. http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/harry-siegel-he-man-rev-bacon-nyc-silly-season-article-1.2497556 (1 of 2)
Friday 15 January 2016 / Hour 3, Block B: Liz Peek, Fiscal Times, in re: Trump vs. Obama: Smackdown over State of the Union “People occupy different realities on guns,” President Obama said recently at a town hall meeting. Yes, and people -- like Donald Trump -- also occupy different realities when it comes to the state...
Friday 15 January 2016 / Hour 3, Block C: Jonathan Macey, Hoover, in re: People hate bankers. A comprehensive three-year study found that 71% of those polled would rather go to the dentist than “listen to what their bankers are saying.” Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren is reported to have a “lifetime conviction that banks are out to trick and cheat.” And presidential candidates on the left are trying to out-flank one another by suggesting ever-more onerous regulations of banks. Bernie Sanders advocates bringing back Glass-Steagall, while Hillary Clinton upped the regulatory ante, asserting that doing so “is a part of what very well could help but it is nowhere near enough.” The problem with such animosity towards banks is that it harms the economy and the very populations to whom these politicians are pandering. . . . http://www.hoover.org/research/beware-banking-animus
Friday 15 January 2016 / Hour 3, Block D: John Tamny, RealClearPolitics & Forbes.com, in re: If the Level of Savings Concerns Jack Lew, He Should Look in the Mirror Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has been campaigning lately to increase personal savings in the U.S. As evidenced by how rich Americans are, this is instruction they clearly don't need. Still, if Lew's concerned then he should look inward. While Americans save energetically as is, the biggest barriers to thrift are put in place by government.
Hour Four
Friday 15 January 2016 / Hour 4, Block A: Gregory Copley, GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs Staff, in re: Modernization of the People’s Republic of China’s Armed Forces has accelerated in terms of efficiency of structure and commitment to research and development since Pres. Xi Jinping took office on March 14, 2013.
In many respects, the streamlining of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) makes it more Westernized in its appearance as well as in its chain of command and separation of functions. Pres. Xi is clearly moving as quickly as possible to ensure that the PRC’s defense spending, significantly smaller than that of the US, is as cost-effective as possible to enable it to begin the process of global power projection in as short a timeframe as possible, to take advantage of the apparent strategic vacuum created by the withdrawal or paralysis of many US global operations, and to compete before the US has moved on to new technologies to replace its major legacy structures and systems.
Before Pres. Xi assumed the Presidency, he had already been General Secretary of the Communist Party of China since November 15, 2012, so he was ready to move rapidly on assuming full control of the Government. As important as streamlining the People’s Liberation Army has been, largely by increasing efficiency and reducing manpower levels, the major thrust was to prepare PLA forces for global operations, something which had not previously been possible for the PRC. (1 of 2)
Friday 15 January 2016 / Hour 4, Block B: Gregory Copley, GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs Staff, in re: Modernization of the People’s Republic of China’s Armed Forces has accelerated in terms of efficiency of structure and commitment to research and development since Pres. Xi Jinping took office on March 14, 2013.
In many respects, the streamlining of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) makes it more Westernized in its appearance as well as in its chain of command and separation of functions. Pres. Xi is clearly moving as quickly as possible to ensure that the PRC’s defense spending, significantly smaller than that of the US, is as cost-effective as possible to enable it to begin the process of global power projection in as short a timeframe as possible, to take advantage of the apparent strategic vacuum created by the withdrawal or paralysis of many US global operations, and to compete before the US has moved on to new technologies to replace its major legacy structures and systems.
Before Pres. Xi assumed the Presidency, he had already been General Secretary of the Communist Party of China since November 15, 2012, so he was ready to move rapidly on assuming full control of the Government. As important as streamlining the People’s Liberation Army has been, largely by increasing efficiency and reducing manpower levels, the major thrust was to prepare PLA forces for global operations, something which had not previously been possible for the PRC. (2 of 2)
Friday 15 January 2016 / Hour 4, Block C: David Grimm, Science magazine, in re: http://news.sciencemag.org/archaeology/2015/12/feature-solving-mystery-dog-domestication (1 of 2)
Friday 15 January 2016 / Hour 4, Block D: David Grimm, Science magazine, in re: http://news.sciencemag.org/archaeology/2015/12/feature-solving-mystery-dog-domestication (2 of 2)
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