Photo, left:  The geological time scale (GTS) is a system of chronological measurement that relates stratigraphy to time, and is used by geologists, paleontologists, and other Earth scientists to describe the timing and relationships between events that have occurred throughout Earth’s history. The table of geologic time spans presented here agrees with the nomenclature, dates and standard color codes set forth by the International Commission on Stratigraphy.
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
 
Hour One
Friday  18 March 2016 / Hour 1, Block A: Harry Siegel, Daly Beast and NY Daily News, in re:  Donald Trump’s candidacy.  http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/03/17/the-moment-that-created-the-trumpmonster.html  Nine months after descending a very classy elevator and entering the presidential arena, Donald J. Trump has made one thing plain: You sell him short at your own risk. “Even as he kept rising in the polls, it took me a long time to realize he was no summer joke before voters and their parties got down to business. I finally got it after the Sen Bernardino terror attack in December, after President Obama addressed the nation from the Oval Office, mostly repeating his own earlier lines about how we ‘will overcome’ ‘the threat from terrorism’ and eventually ‘destroy ISIL,’ calling its beliefs a ‘perverted interpretation of Islam’ and asking Americans not to buy into the terrorists’ apocalyptic vision of a ‘war between America and Islam.’ ”
Friday  18 March 2016 / Hour 1, Block B:  Francis Rose, National Defense Week, WMAL radio 105.9 FM & 630 AM Sunday mornings at 11; and francisrose,com; in re:  the Phoenix VA, and upcoming NDF broadcast.
Friday  18 March 2016 / Hour 1, Block C:  Henry I Miller, MD;  Hoover, in re:  Zika.    FDA controls issuance of new drugs, including of the leading anti-Zika drug.  FDA mandate is that a new drug “must be safe for the animal.”!  The USDA Animal and Plant Inspection Service is where this belongs. We’re in danger of having thousands of grievously ill and dead Americans because of yet another genuinely insane Washington turf struggle.    http://www.wsj.com/articles/stopping-zika-via-specially-bred-mosquitoes-...
Friday  18 March 2016 / Hour 1, Block D:  Liz Peek, Fiscal Times, in re:   TPP helped the US almost not at all but was a thunderstrike of goodness for many of our trading partners.  NAFTA:  We might not have any extant auto industry in the US were we not able to source parts from Mexico and thereby keep prices acceptable in the world market. . . . Keystone Pipeline, UBS – many large entities donated huge amounts to the Clinton Foundation, which is run in a way that entirely benefits the Clintons’s entourage.  The amount of money spent on charitable activities is small by any standards. It's an embarrassment.  . . . She works hard to make the Latino turnout large in the upcoming election. Guns: Mrs C wants the NRA vote. In 2008, Mrs C talked up how her dad taught her to shoot (to be perceived as a friend to rural communities), but in this race she pushes for gun control.
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2016/03/16/4-Hillary-Clinton-Flip-Flops-Will-Make-Voters-Think-Twice
 
 
Hour Two
Friday  18 March 2016 / Hour 2, Block A: Michael E Vlahos, Johns Hoplkins, in re:   Walls, including the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans surrounding the US.  Today, walls in North America, including between the US and Mexico, and trade walls.  Trump's and Sanders's dangerous revolt against free trade  Donald Trump's and Bernie Sanders's protectionist stances would undermine U.S. growth. (1 of 2)
Friday  18 March 2016 / Hour 2, Block B:   Michael E Vlahos, Johns Hoplkins, in re:  Trump's and Sanders's dangerous revolt against free trade  Donald Trump's and Bernie Sanders's protectionist stances would undermine U.S. growth. (2 of 2)
Friday  18 March 2016 / Hour 2, Block C:   Gene Marks, Washington Post, in re:  U.S. Housing Starts Rose 5.2% in February  http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-housing-starts-rise-5-2-in-february-1458131605?mod=pls_whats_news_us_business_f
The US economy is on track to grow 1.9% in the first quarter, per the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank's GDPNow model  http://www.breakingnews.com/item/2016/03/16/the-us-economy-is-on-track-to-grow-19-in-the-fir
Fed: Industrial Production decreased 0.5% in February  http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2016/03/fed-industrial-production-decreased-05.html
Reauthorize key small business programs http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/economy-budget/273128-reauthorize-key-small-business-programs (1 of 2)
Friday  18 March 2016 / Hour 2, Block D:  Gene Marks, Washington Post, in re:  U.S. Housing Starts Rose 5.2% in February  http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-housing-starts-rise-5-2-in-february-1458131605?mod=pls_whats_news_us_business_f
The US economy is on track to grow 1.9% in the first quarter, per the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank's GDPNow model  http://www.breakingnews.com/item/2016/03/16/the-us-economy-is-on-track-to-grow-19-in-the-fir
Fed: Industrial Production decreased 0.5% in February  http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2016/03/fed-industrial-production-decreased-05.html
Reauthorize key small business programs http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/economy-budget/273128-reauthorize-key-small-business-programs (2 of 2)
 
Hour Three
Friday  18 March 2016 / Hour 3, Block A:  Richard A Epstein, Chicago and NYU Law; Hoover; in re:   The reason Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have done so well is because of their protectionist rhetoric. In the indecorous language of the pollster Pat Caddell, Americans feel “they have been screwed” by free trade. Over the last decade, wages and growth have remained essentially stagnant, while many people have lost their jobs. It is easy to blame our economic woes on the tide of imports and the systematic movement of American jobs overseas to locations where the regulatory environment is more favorable and where the cost of labor is cheaper. But that’s only one way of looking at the problem. Another is that America’s regulatory and labor environment is hostile to growth, so firms take their business elsewhere . . . http://www.hoover.org/research/rise-american-protectionism   (1 of 2)
Friday  18 March 2016 / Hour 3, Block B:   Richard A Epstein, Chicago and NYU Law; Hoover; in re:   The reason Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have done so well is because of their protectionist rhetoric. In the indecorous language of the pollster Pat Caddell, Americans feel “they have been screwed” by free trade. Over the last decade, wages and growth have remained essentially stagnant, while many people have lost their jobs. It is easy to blame our economic woes on the tide of imports and the systematic movement of American jobs overseas to locations where the regulatory environment is more favorable and where the cost of labor is cheaper. But that’s only one way of looking at the problem. Another is that America’s regulatory and labor environment is hostile to growth, so firms take their business elsewhere . . . http://www.hoover.org/research/rise-american-protectionism   (2 of 2)
Friday  18 March 2016 / Hour 3, Block C:  Francois Sarrazin, Universite de Pierre et Marie Curie, Sorbonne; in re:   PERSPECTIVECONSERVATION: Evolution in the Anthropocene
(Science magazine 26 Feb 2016:  Vol. 351, Issue 6276).    Summary  Most current conservation strategies focus on the immediate social, cultural, and economic values of ecological diversity, functions, and services. For example, the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services mostly addresses the utilitarian management of biodiversity from local to global scales. However, besides urgent diagnosis and actions, processes that occur over evolutionary time scales are equally important for biodiversity conservation. Strategizing for conservation of nature at such long time scales will help to preserve the function—and associated services—of the natural world, as well as providing opportunities for it to evolve. This approach will foster a long-term, sustainable interaction that promotes both the persistence of nature and the wellbeing of humans.  http://science.sciencemag.org/content/351/6276/922.full (1 of 2)
Friday  18 March 2016 / Hour 3, Block D:   Francois Sarrazin, Universite de Pierre et Marie Curie, Sorbonne; in re:   PERSPECTIVECONSERVATION: Evolution in the Anthropocene
(Science magazine 26 Feb 2016:  Vol. 351, Issue 6276).    Summary  Most current conservation strategies focus on the immediate social, cultural, and economic values of ecological diversity, functions, and services. For example, the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services mostly addresses the utilitarian management of biodiversity from local to global scales. However, besides urgent diagnosis and actions, processes that occur over evolutionary time scales are equally important for biodiversity conservation. Strategizing for conservation of nature at such long time scales will help to preserve the function—and associated services—of the natural world, as well as providing opportunities for it to evolve. This approach will foster a long-term, sustainable interaction that promotes both the persistence of nature and the wellbeing of humans.  http://science.sciencemag.org/content/351/6276/922.full (2 of 2)
 
Hour Four
Friday  18 March 2016 / Hour 4, Block A:  John Fund, NRO, in re: The message to GOP delegates: Do as Trump says or it would be a shame if something happened to this nice party of yours. No self-respecting party can cave into such demands.
Donald Trump might well wind up with a majority of delegates when the GOP convention is gaveled to order in Cleveland in July. But if he falls short, he has no entitlement to the nomination or the right to tear up rules that have been in place since Lincoln’s day. His recent hints that his supporters would turn violent if they don’t get their way are more befitting the leader of a mob than a presidential candidate who claims he wants to unify the Republican party. http://www.nationalreview.com/article/432938/donald-trump-delegate-plurality-not-enough
Friday  18 March 2016 / Hour 4, Block B:  Joshua Green, Bloomberg Politics, in re  Bernie Sanders May Not Prevail, But His Revolution Is Just Getting Started  The Vermont senator won’t be the Democratic nominee, but his supporters will shape the party's future    http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-03-17/bernie-sanders-may-not-prevail-but-his-revolution-is-just-getting-started
Friday  18 March 2016 / Hour 4, Block C: Hotel Mars, episode n.  Lyle White, McGill University, in re: ExoMars 2016: Why We Keep Going Back to the Red Planet  An artist's illustration of the European Space Agency's ExoMars 2016 mission, showing the Trace Gas Orbiter releasing the Schiaparelli lander . . .   Hi-def ExoMars launch vid lacks volcanic lair vibe  Explore in depth (102 more articles)  (1 of 2)
Friday  18 March 2016 / Hour 4, Block D:   Hotel Mars, episode n.  Lyle White, McGill University, in re: ExoMars 2016: Why We Keep Going Back to the Red Planet  An artist's illustration of the European Space Agency's ExoMars 2016 mission, showing the Trace Gas Orbiter releasing the Schiaparelli lander . . .   Hi-def ExoMars launch vid lacks volcanic lair vibe  Explore in depth (102 more articles)  (2 of 2)
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