Photo left: David Horowtiz, author "Big Agenda." See Third Hour.
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW 
 
Hour One
Friday  7 April 2017 / Hour 1, Block A: Monica Crowley,  ,  in re:  Justice Gorsuch voted in by nuclear option.  Sen Schumer is not in a better strategic or tactical position, but the left instilled fear in his and others’s hearts by demonstrating outside his house and by other activist deeds. This may lead to extra weakness for Democrats next year.  / US bombs Syrian air field.  Msg to Moscow, China, North Korea – but above all a rebuke to Teheran. After eight years of Obama’s letting Iran run wild, we’ll need to deal with the ayatollahs and mullahs.  /  Mrs Clinton today 
said that her electoral loss was partly because of misogyny and due to Russia’s interference. The flap over Russian interference has been bogus ab initio; seems that “wiretapping” may have been done simply to gather information on GOP candidates. 
Friday  7 April 2017 / Hour 1, Block B:  Dan Henninger, WSJ editorial board,  in re: Pres Trump’s twitter account. Entertaining, but perhaps in the way of his prosecuting his complicated agenda in Washington.   Lost AHCA, awaiting tax reform; now Russia.  A complex job.  American press has a lot of problems with the citizenry right now; but there comes a time when a president can sustain only x amount of [bitter] criticism.  “Don’t pick fights with people who buy ink by the barrel.” Many people are glad to see people cracking back at the Beltway [commentators].  But the DC press is huge and powerful; some tweets are incentives to increase the negative press. Missile strikes, e.g., have been well received by some; normalizes the overall situation.  I’m not sure the press corps wants four year of armed conflict with Pres Trump some are in business to chase the news.  The pace of tweeting has slowed.  Being in the White House is like drinking from a fire hose.  
Friday  7 April 2017 / Hour 1, Block C:  Liz Peek, Fiscal Times  and Fox News; in re: 
We’re Republicans so I don’t want to go on too much about success, but Judge Gorsuch
 is a dream.  True.  I think the Democrats picked the wrong fight.  Soros-funded groups, incl “We Will Replace You” – a sort of mirror reflection of the Tea Party.  Hope to take over the House by funding Democrats.  However, Tea Party issues were generally popular, but I don't see many issues in the left playbook that are popular.  The loony left wrote, “No need to bomb Syria; done only to look good.” Nikki Haley is a surprise plus of the Trump Adm; amazing, with several forceful speeches.   Question: If Putin owns the Trump White House, did he tell Trump to send 59 Cruise missiles to Syria?  This is Pres Trump’s best week.  I also credit Mitch McConnell for seeing through the Gorsuch nomination.
Friday  7 April 2017 / Hour 1, Block D:  Gordon Chang, Daily Beast, in re:  “We have a thousand reasons to get relations right” ’twixt US and China.  Xi probably leaving Florida gritting his teeth, planning to punish the officials who set it up.  His adversaries will hold this meeting against Xi at the Nineteenth Party Congress. In February when Shinzo Abe was at Mar-a-Lago, you saw the two nations working cooperatively on an emergency basis. Last night, Trump told Xi of the missile strikes at Syria, no consultation; Xi Jinping looked like the junior partner.  North Korea is part of the Syrian weapons supply chain.  On Tuesday an anonymous senior US official spoke ominously about North Korea.  China  via North Korea is supplying chemical weapons to Syria.  North Koreans seen in Aleppo just before the chem attack.  The optics of the meeting: a resounding win for Trump.  DPRK could become more provocative, or else shrink back in its hole. If Kim disappears for a while, we’ll know he’s afraid; if not, he’ll be defiant. Abe in Tokyo: probably very pleased.  
Society for American Archaeologists: Along the Pacific Coast and across the West, find the Western Stem-point spear points.
 
 
Hour Two
Friday  7 April 2017 / Hour 2, Block A: Michael Vlahos, Johns Hopkins, in re: Caliphate.  Slaves became slave-rulers of caliphates; among Mamluks & Ottomans, inter al.  Lots of Soviet citizens, and now still Russians, are Muslim.  Russians can be guardians of the Muslim world.  Have a kid of sketchy record – blew it n Egypt under Sadat; in Jordan, and an American queen (Queen Noor, daughter of Najeeb Halaby). 
Friday  7 April 2017 / Hour 2, Block B:   Michael Vlahos, Johns Hopkins, in re: Kurdish state has grown by 40% because of Syria [Rojava].  Nervous-making for Turkey.  . . . It's China that needs the Middle East for energy. It has tremendous sub rosa opportunities.  Chinese oppression of Muslims of Muslims (Uyghurs) plus the lamentable past of China’s deeds in Tibet  render real friendship with Arab nations ore difficult  The US will grow more engaged after last night’s Tomahawk strikes; Pres Trump’s advisors are committee to empire and an imperial mission, including American [suzerainty] over a caliphate.  The last president couldn’t even get to square one on this. 
Friday  7 April 2017 / Hour 2, Block C:   Gene Marks, Washington Post, in re: Yes, I expect tax reform in 2017, probably in pieces.  Some small businesses are actually paying more than the corporate rate of 35%.  Main Street Fairness Act: not pay any more than what corporations pay; at least level the playing field.  Most growth of any state is Tennessee.  City growing fastest; Dallas.   American businesses are being flooded by Chinese fakes.   . . . Incipient Silicon Valleys in Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh. Ali Baba specializes in selling fakes, product knock-offs; Ali Baba Express aimed especially at Americans. 
Friday  7 April 2017 / Hour 2, Block D:  Gene Marks, Washington Post, in re: Swedish firm represent many works; 150 of whom have volunteered to have a microchip implanted in their hand — the chips monitor their work, their downtime, their bathroom breaks.  “Millennials are used to this.”  Android (Google): competitive with Windows and Apple.  Now more popular than Windows, Android is the most popular OS in the world – because smart phones are everywhere.  Technology and housing:  man and family live in a blue school bus, travel all over the country. Home-school the children.  The Golden Girls: Michael LaRue opened a restaurant, the Rue LaRue Café, in New York.  Whole establishment is decked out in Golden Girls artifacts. / Tax preparers are getting calls from people who claim to be their client, ask for last-minute refund destination (a different bank account) – so the refund is stolen.  On Facebook, crooks are sending out invitation to apply for a grant; then run a scam.  
 
Hour Three
Friday  7 April 2017 / Hour 3, Block A:  Jim McTague, Barron’s Washington, in re:  employment stats. Employers desperate for workers who can do the job.  . . . Auto repo’s are up; used-car prices are ‘way down. The ADP number was 165,000 jobs different from the govt number. Expect correx.  Volatility insurance rendered the market boring? Remember the 1987 one-day loss of a trillion dollars; eke the flash crash.  Is the market stable?  Yes, right now it's crazy stable; the US president is the most unpredictable [input] but the market is ignoring Washington. 
 
Friday  7 April 2017 / Hour 3, Block B:   Clifford May, FDD, in re: Homeland, about the CIA and taking on al Qaeda, all the cutthroats in the Middle East, chiefly predating Sunnis. However, Homeland has thrown it all out, gone 180 degrees; now represents a foundation for Muslims mistreated in the West, and how decent Iran is.  This is [ultra-PC], and we’re losing our freedom of speech.  Iran is a predator state!  Btw, if Iran were to abide by the Iran deal. It’d be welcomed into the league of nuclear states in a few years.  France: Charlie Hebdo has changed its stripes.  Zainab __ wrote Destroy Islamic Fascism, has resigned from the publication because it’s now afraid of criticizing Islam, Canada: M103 – asks what kind of govt actions are appropriate against Islamophobia, “systemic racism,” without defining Islamophobia.   Group: Muslims Against M103, oppose the Muslim Brotherhood’s conniving in this. Tariq __,  columnist, is a strong voice for liberty.  Note that campuses are falling in line with the Brotherhood. Ayaan Hirsan Ali has been silenced and threatened with death.    
Friday  7 April 2017 / Hour 3, Block C:  David Horowitz, author, Big Agenda, in re:  . . . Every killing field in the country, from Chicago on, is run by Democrats. One of the great things Trump has done is bring up fake news, since the media have [been very weak in reporting this].   GOP has been weak in pushing back].   Why? Conservative disposition plus cowardice.   In his first TV debate with a dozen major national figures, Megan Kelly said, “You called women fat pigs.” He responded, “That was only Rosie O’Donnell.”  
Friday  7 April 2017 / Hour 3, Block D:  David Horowitz, author, Big Agenda (2 of 2)  
 
 
Hour Four
Friday  7 April 2017 / Hour 4, Block A:  Captain Jerry Hendrix,  , in re:  Author
(Photo:File:Sinking of HMS Hood.jpg 1941: In May 1941, she and the battleship Prince of Wales were ordered to intercept the German battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, which were en route to the Atlantic where they were to attack convoys. On 24 May 1941, early in the Battle of the Denmark Strait, Hood was struck by several German shells, exploded and sank. Due to her perceived invincibility, the loss affected British morale.
The Royal Navy conducted two inquiries into the reasons for the ship's quick demise. The first, held soon after the ship's loss, concluded that Hood's aft magazine had exploded after one of Bismarck's shells penetrated the ship's armour. A second inquiry was held after complaints that the first board had failed to consider alternative explanations, such as an explosion of the ship's torpedoes. It was more thorough than the first board and concurred with the first board's conclusion.
Despite the official explanation, some historians continued to believe that the torpedoes caused the ship's loss, while others proposed an accidental explosion inside one of the ship's gun turrets that reached down into the magazine. Other historians have concentrated on the cause of the magazine explosion. The discovery of the ship's wreck in 2001 confirmed the conclusion of both boards, although the exact reason the magazines detonated is likely to remain unknown since that area of the ship was destroyed in the explosion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Hood )
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Leveraging History. @jerryhendrixii @cnasdc What Britain’s Decline and America’s Rise Can Tell Us about China’s Future.
"...China is on the move. Statements from its military and civilian leaders regarding their aspirations, their sense of grievance, and their strategic aims all center on a theme of the expansion of their influence.1 Their diplomatic actions in international venues such as the United Nations, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) conference, and the G-20 all promote a vision of a greater Chinese role in world affairs. Actions by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) naval, air, rocket elements, and space domains all demonstrate China’s intent to re-establish itself as a major player on the world’s stage. The question remains, however, what kind of “player,” and how large a role does China desire? Does it wish to join the family of nations as a co-equal power in the current globalized international order operating under accepted international laws? Does it wish to become a regional great power with a sphere of influence in eastern Asia and in the western Pacific as the imperial European powers divided up the globe for most of the 19th century? Or, perhaps most ominously, does China wish to reassert itself globally in the manner of its cultural vision of itself as the Middle Kingdom, establishing hegemonic suzerain and supplicant relationships with all nations, allowing China to maintain peace and order as it believes it did for nearly two millennia?2
These wildly different options present a series of lenses through which observers can view and judge China’s actions. There is also another lens, a historical one, through which we can observe a case study of a rising power catching, overtaking, and supplanting an established global hegemon, namely the example of the United States’ rapid rise and ultimate displacement of Great Britain during the first half of the 20th century. To what degree can the historical events of 1895–1947 inform current thoughts regarding China’s actions? Is there a historical arc or trajectory that analysts can plot for the United States’ rise and Great Britain’s decline, looking at economic, diplomatic, governance, military, and cultural factors, and then attempt to overlay similar metrics regarding China’s relationship with the United States?
Rise-and-fall analysis has been a staple of history, international relations, and political science literature for more than a century.3 There is a saying that time and tide wait for no man, and the United States’ position as the sole superpower does have an expiration date, although it is undetermined. No analyst can know for certain whether the United States is to be supplanted in the near term, nor can we know if the future will be characterized by the rise of another hegemon such as China or another paradigm such as a multipolar international system. Likewise, we cannot be sure that the future global system will continue to be characterized by an adherence to self-determination and the rule of law or devolve toward a more authoritarian model. While we cannot know the future, studies such as this can illuminate possible outcomes and provide the type of questions that can aid current decisionmakers in their deliberations...."
https://www.cnas.org/publications/reports/leveraging-history
Friday  7 April 2017 / Hour 4, Block B:  continued
Friday  7 April 2017 / Hour 4, Block C:  African Kaiser: General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and the Great War in Africa, 1914-1918 by Robert Gaudi. PART 4 of 4.
Review
“Let me say straight out that if all military histories were as thrilling and well written as Robert Gaudi’s African Kaiser, I might give up reading fiction and literary bio­graphy…Gaudi writes with the flair of a latter-day Macaulay. He sets his scenes carefully and describes naval and military action like a novelist. His sentences are models of clarity and vivacity, sometimes further enlivened with wry authorial comments.”—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post
“Robert Gaudi combines a researcher’s meticulous precision with a novelist’s consummate storytelling skill to piece together a thousand shards of forgotten history into this astonishing and irresistible confection.”—Madison Smartt Bell
About the Author
Robert Gaudi is a freelance writer and historian. At one time or another, he has worked for the National Endowment for the Arts, tended bar, and managed a classic car restoration shop. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
https://www.amazon.com/African-Kaiser-General-Lettow-Vorbeck-1914-1918/dp/0425283712/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1491459703&sr=1-1
Friday  7 April 2017 / Hour 4, Block D:   continued.