JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Christopher Nixon Cox
ON THE ROAD TO BAKU, by grace of Scala.com
 
Hour One
Friday 7 February 2020 / Hour 1, Block A:  Gregory Copley, Defense and Foreign Affairs,  in re: Central Asia.  On Feb 3, Mike Pompeo visited Tashkent and raised the matter of Uyghurs in Xinjiang (perhaps not as well-advised as one might wish, because it created a bit of a sandpaper with China).   Rumsfeld asked President Askar Akaev to let the US run AWACS [out of? over?] Kyrgyzstan; when Akaev was obliged to decline, Rummy was so angry that he then had Akaev deposed—Akaev was the best supporter of the US that anyone could wish for.  US is trying to resolve the matter in Afghanistan, calm enough for goods to be transshipped to the ocean.  This would add Afgh and Pakistan to the “-stans.” On this Sunday, Azerbaijani parliamentary elections.
Friday 7 February 2020 / Hour 1, Block B:  Gregory Copley, Defense and Foreign Affairs,  in re: Central Asia.  The Seventh Summit of the Council of Turkic-Speaking States now in Baku ((Five “-stans” plus Azerbaijan, Turkey and Hungary).   Many Turkic-speaking peoples scattered across Central Asia Russia, Iran, Western China.  Turkey is seen as the younger brother, since its language came from the early Kyrgyz culture. When Turkey tried to get Central Asians to work together on the problem of Uyghur mistreatment by China, the smaller nations refused.  “Common language from the Mediterranean to Siberia”—Chris Cox.  Azerbaijan was a key linchpin in the old Silk Road and remains so; this is no longer the One Belt-One Road initiative; rather, it’s a critical north-south transit hub.
Friday 7 February 2020 / Hour 1, Block C:  Conrad Black, author, Flight of the Eagle: A Strategic History of the United States; in re: Lord Black wrote a biography of Chris’s grandfather.  Acquittal: photo of the president doing his best Truman holding up the WaPo front page. The Democrats will now have to live without the Damoclean sword held over his head; they’ll have to run against his formidable record, which ranks with those of Nixon and Franklin Roosevelt.   Special Counsel Durham.  The “highly-energized left” ran flat in Iowa; if Sanders becomes the nominee, Trump will take every state and not the District of Columbia. If they can’t elevate Bloomberg, they’ll have a terrible disaster, which they’ve invited.  Rep Devin Nunes: Yes, we can re-take the House; looking for 50 seats.  The RNC and Pres Trump will not be short of funds. The mediocrity of the Dem candidates, the collusion fraud, this ridiculous impeachment—what was alleged wasn’t impeachable and he wasn’t at all guilty of any of it—this was worse that the impeachments of Nixon, Johnson.  Eighty per cent of illegal immigration has been stopped; the US is the only nation in the world where the widening disparity is being addressed, and others—every American will be aware of these, and they’ll be rewarded.  (On a plane, JB sat next to a German engineer living in Bahrain: “Are you really going to elect Bernie Sanders?? Do they want a Socialist in America?”)  Dems put Podesta back on the national committee.
Friday 7 February 2020 / Hour 1, Block D:  Jim McTague, author, Murder and Mayhem on Capitol Hill, and longtime Barron’s Washington editor; in re: Jobs report, for manufacturing.  Recession?  China supply chain?  Home-building added 44,000 well-paying jobs; strongest housing mkt since 2006.  Although mfrg didn't spike up, it didn’t go down by much so it’s a good report.  Coronavirus: hard to gauge what’s happening going forward.   The Assn of American Railroads: commodities transported are off in rail shipments, but pick-up in ten categories so we may have bottomed.  The USMCA should increase trade.  China’s demand for US mfrg probably will increase after the virus [slows down].  Fed probably won't cut interest rates because he jobs umber is strong; were the rates to lower, it’d make the US look more attractive for investment. The market doesn't like a strong jobs number.
 
Hour Two
Friday 7 February 2020 / Hour 2, Block A: Michael E Vlahos, JHU, in re: A soft winter day on the Caspian shore; national parliamentary elections this coming Sunday—with paper ballots, and all results in by the night.   
Is there a civil war in the US?  Struggle between Pompey and Crassus, and Caesar. Result was a catastrophe for the republic, and the rise of the empire. Pelosi tearing State of the Union in half?  A ritual of renunciation: the frustration she embodied after many months of trying to deal with the [edges] of the party, and seeing failure [across the board]. She basically puled the final card available to her: she substituted a ritual of denunciation place of an actual act that would have forced the ouster of the president. In doing so, she highlighted the way ahead: conflict. Violence and rancor. The caning of Charles Sumner — the EU is breaking apart; China has fissures; Russia post-Putin ins not secure; and in the US the form of govt could change.  It's a global phenomenon.  We’re already functionally an empire, not so different from the Romans’s, although they kept all the republican institutions in place.  I’m concerned: the uprising regular people against the elites, the empire is coming apart – we may be in a late phase of the American empire. Sadly we may enter a period of conflict in which the hardest thing to do is preserve American autonomy, legacy, security.
Friday 7 February 2020 / Hour 2, Block B: Michael E Vlahos, JHU, in re:  How does all this end—will China be the threat that unites the US?  A short-term path revealed in the debacle of Iowa, cf. the elections of 1982 and ‘94: see an establishment that’s shown its incapacity and is at the end of its legitimacy; and billionaire ___  in the form of Bloomberg, the lie that blue is somehow the party of the people when it's [like] the ancient regime; Red victory in 2020 will buy us space where the temperature could go down for four years. Maybe the Dems could get back in to an even keel; this happened with Bill Clinton.   Coronavirus similar to Chernobyl.  The rending of the State of the Union in half tells me there’s no going back. Like the rending of the cloth in Judaic funerary rites.  It's like burning your ships on the beach. But, there was a desperation about it; smarter Democrats may see that they suffered a desperate loss.  Adam Schiff said he’d permit Russia to take over the power of the United States.
Friday 7 February 2020 / Hour 2, Block C:  Chris Riegel, CEO, Scala.com & STRATACACHE, in re:  DARPA, the gathering of geeks, established when Ike saw that Sputnik had to be answered, was initially ARPA. That led to ARPAnet.  A nonconventional way to fund valid new and sometimes strange ideas.  UK wants to get in the same game; claims it’ll all be civilian, not defense, but . . . In France, we acquired a research company from the French equivalent of DARPA; we retasked its project for a civilian comms project.  The AI wave.  Gillian Tett [of the FT] reports that a study used China, Britain, and a US school: found that cultures have prejudices and dispositions.  dotOrg, run by the Internet Society, under ICANN.  dotOrg to be bought by the Ethos nonprofit for over a billion dollars. It earns $90 million a year!  Ester Dyson.   Scala Report.
Friday 7 February 2020 / Hour 2, Block D: Rashad Nabiyev, Azercosmos CEO, in re: Azercosmos. Azerbaijan is a democracy, and having developed its oil industry is now developing human strengths. Now, commercial space, where there’s monetizing, recruiting, esp of youth. He’s now successfully had his colleagues agree to attend a 2022 global IAC conference on space.  IAC is [large]; brings together more than 400 members from 68 countries; include multiple high technologies, Annually, over 6,000 representatives meet to discuss the space industry and its horizons.    The industry is leading to lower costs (even Roscosmos has had to lower its fees); our goal is to create an ecosystem and develop, inter al., a new strategy: partner with establish actors in the space industry, become part of global production.  Saving and monetization: we’re thinking first  how to create bigger value.  Dvp software everyone will use.  Public-private partnership.  In the next five years, we envisage to have people think of Azerbaijan in space. We currently have three satellites. We want to build capacity in the country; already have shared our experience with other Central Asian countries and outside, including down into the Indian Ocean.  We have more than three teleports in African countries, and infrastructural projects.  Now, using space-enabled technologies for a better life on Earth.
 
Hour Three
Friday 7 February 2020 / Hour 3, Block A:  Leyla Abdullayeva, Spokesperson, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan; in re: Azerbaijani election; foreign policy. (1 of 2)
Friday 7 February 2020 / Hour 3, Block B:  Leyla Abdullayeva, Spokesperson, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan; in re: Azerbaijani election; foreign policy.  (2 of 2)
Friday 7 February 2020 / Hour 3, Block C:  Vusal Huseynov, Chief of Service,  Chief of State Migration of the Republic of Azerbaijan,  in re: State Migration Service.  (1 of 2)
Friday 7 February 2020 / Hour 3, Block D:  Vusal Huseynov, Chief of Service,  Chief of State Migration of the Republic of Azerbaijan,  in re: State Migration Service.  (2 of 2)
 
Hour Four
Friday 7 February 2020 / Hour 4, Block A: Anar Karimov, Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Population, in re:  The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Population, Republic of Azerbaijan. (1 of 2)
Friday 7 February 2020 / Hour 4, Block B:  Anar Karimov, Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Population, in re:  The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Population, Republic of Azerbaijan. (1 of 2)
Friday 7 February 2020 / Hour 4, Block C:  Conrad Black, author, Flight of the Eagle: A Strategic History of the United States; in re: Lord Black wrote a biography of Chris’s grandfather.  Acquittal: photo of the president doing his best Truman holding up the WaPo front page. The Democrats will now have to live without the Damoclean sword held over his head; they’ll have to run against his formidable record, which ranks with those of Nixon and Franklin Roosevelt.   Special Counsel Durham.  The “highly-energized left” ran flat in Iowa; if Sanders becomes the nominee, Trump will take every state and not the District of Columbia. If they can’t elevate Bloomberg, they’ll have a terrible disaster, which they’ve invited.  Rep Devin Nunes: Yes, we can re-take the House; looking for 50 seats.  The RNC and Pres Trump will not be short of funds. The mediocrity of the Dem candidates, the collusion fraud, this ridiculous impeachment—what was alleged wasn’t impeachable and he wasn’t at all guilty of any of it—this was worse that the impeachments of Nixon, Johnson.  Eighty per cent of illegal immigration has been stopped; the US is the only nation in the world where the widening disparity is being addressed, and others—every American will be aware of these, and they’ll be rewarded.  (On a plane, JB sat next to a German engineer from Mumbai living in Bahrain who asked: “Are you really going to elect Bernie Sanders?? Do they want a Socialist in America?”)  Dems put Podesta back on the national committee.
Friday 7 February 2020 / Hour 4, Block D:  Jim McTague, author, Murder and Mayhem on Capitol Hill, and longtime Barron’s Washington editor; in re: Jobs report, for manufacturing.  Recession?  China supply chain?  Home-building added 44,000 well-paying jobs; strongest housing mkt since 2006.  Although mfrg didn't spike up, it didn’t go down by much so it’s a good report.  Coronavirus: hard to gauge what’s happening going forward.   The Assn of American Railroads: commodities transported are off in rail shipments, but pick-up in ten categories so we may have bottomed.  The USMCA should increase trade.  China’s demand for US mfrg probably will increase after the virus [slows down].  Fed probably won't cut interest rates because he jobs umber is strong; were the rates to lower, it’d make the US look more attractive for investment. The market doesn't like a strong jobs number.