The John Batchelor Show

June 18, 2012

Air Date: 
June 18, 2012

Monday 905P Eastern Time (605P Pacific Time):   .Jim McTague, Baron's Washington, in re:  UNCH.  This administration has the recession on life support, so we'll have it for another five years or so.Romney is the most uninspiring politician since Cal Coolidge; he could stay at home and sit on his front porch. People will be voting against Obama, not in favor of Romney. The demise of the euro is the curtain-call for the socialized economies of Europe. 

McTague celebrates Roger Clemens, who for the first time - walked.  The Justice Dept prosecution of a great, great pitcher failed. 
 
Monday 920P Eastern Time (620P Pacific Time):   .  Lou Ann Hammond, Driving the Nation.com, in re: hybrids.  Cf. Chevy Volts, Priuses.  Around 25 mpg is what gasoline-only cars normally get these days (Prius can get 50 MPG).  In California, 7.88 per day for commutation to and from work - in a Prius, around $2. In a Chevy Volt, could  go 50mi on $3+; first 35 mi are electric, thereafter on gasoline.
 
At 100mi/day: $15.76 in a gasoline-engine car.
 
Monday 935P Eastern Time (635P Pacific Time):   .Lara Brown, Villanova, and Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, in re: Mr Obama must win Pennsylvania; Mr Romney must win Ohio.   Tomlin and Manchin will not be attending the Democratic Natl Convention in North Carolina. Mark Crisp, who beat Jason Atmyer, also will not attand. These are energy-rich parts of the country. President hasn't been in Pittsburgh since last autumn; when he was, the stadium was half-full and local pols were not there.  Democrats win PA by ensuring the collar counties of Philadelphia are loyal.  Need white, college-educated women there. In the rest of the state, president has a problem with blue-collar voters. As for collar counties of Pittsburgh:  central part of state is wholly conservative; hard to imagine that the collar counties will go to Obama. Messina, Axelrod and Plouffe are microtargetting to get to 279. In Eastern PA, alliance with white women and gays will help.  Lilly Ledbetter Act.
 
Monday 950P Eastern Time (650P Pacific Time):   .Sam Tadros, Hudson Institute and George Washington University, in re: Egypt.  Mohammed Morsi has a commanding lead in the elections (51.9%?); has made extremely vituperative remarks about non-Muslims and about Israel.  Probably will be declared president of Egypt in  Thursday.  Ahmed Shafiq claims he's "wining beyond all doubt."  About 13,099 polling stations; absent the kind of organization that the Moslem Brotherhood has, hard to gather accurate data quickly. 
 
Egypt still hasn;t a constitution; parliament was supposed to have written in in hte last month. Military took over. Supreme Court has just invalidated parliament.  First declaration says the president will take his oath of office in front of the constitutional court. Other points: regular army promotions only by SCAF.   SCAF will select who'll write the constitution. The army continues to be a state within a state.
 
Monday 1005P (705P Pacific Time):   .Taegan Goddard, Political Wire, and John Fund, American Spectator, in re: This is the last Monday before Supreme Court ruling  on the Affordable Care Act. After three horrible weeks for the Obama campaign, changed subject to immigration. Strength: enthusiasm among women, and Latino, voters.    JF: Obama [basically: won't win.]  JA: That's a perfect conservative wish list.  TG: 75% of Americans think that the US is headed for another recession.  Obama is thought to have to go heavily negative.  JF: No love for Romney among conservatives; but it's probably hard to demonize him. JA: Imagine if Mitt Romney had run for governor of Utah instead of governor of Massachusetts. Big political difference.
 
Monday 1020P (720P Pacific Time):   .continued.    Wa-wa - the Pennsylvania chain similar to 7-11 - is named from the Lenni Lenape word for goose.  John Batchelor abandoned the American league as a child, became a rd Sox fan.  Meanwhile, Obama is leading in all Pennsylvania polls.  
 
Monday 1035P (735P Pacific Time):   . Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: two Russian Black Sea fleet ships in Syrian port of Tartus.  Carrying attack helos; British pulled insurance on the ships yesterday. Russia, China, Syria and Iran carrying out major war games: 400 planes, 90,000 troops to come? Chinese ships to come through Suez Canal in late June. GrRU Spyetznatz teams from Chechnya; 5,000 from Russia, alone. Preparing to protect Syria from the West and the North.  Concurrent with P5+1 talks on Iran; will allow Iran to take a much tougher stance, and will affect the meeting in Moscow. Direct challenge from Putin to Obama. Blatant move in the face of Security Council resolutions on Syria.    
 
Infiltration to Eilat, from Sinai.  New IDF units to protect Israel's southern border, which has   Al Q controls at least two small viallages. Huge challenge to Israel and esp to the Egyptian military, which has failed.  Security threat to Egypt, Saudi, Jordan, the Gulf.  Muslim Brothers have been clever in avoiding challenging the military, which controls at one-third of the Egyptian economy. MB will  hold on to as much power as it can, then fight it out thereafter.  Ergo, Morsi as president, SCAF writes constitution.  
 
Monday 1050P (750P Pacific Time):   . Gordon Chang, Forbes.com and The Daily, in re: Successful docking of three-person crew of Shenzhou 9 with the  Tiangong space laboratory, which of course is not a civilian project.  ISS prohibits military personnel, so China eschews.  Woman, 23, seven months' pregnant, had a forced abortion; pictures got on Internet with mass rage around the country. Govt also often allows mother to give birth then kills the infant.  Party's one-child party is hated; will have to have a reckoning.  Economy: stimulus program doesn't seem to be working.  Some effort to stimulate domestic consumption, but overall further depresses consumption.
 
The shoes that continue to drop from the centipede named Bo Xilai. New Chungqing Party Secretary tries to distance himself from Bo. Much continuing infighting, as many provincial cities haven't yet picked their delegates to the Eighteenth Party Congress; hithertofore, have done so well in advance.  
 
(headlines) Bo Xilai Damaged Communist Party's Image, Says Successor. Zhang China Abandons Role of Global Engine as Wen Tempers Stimulus.
 
Monday 1105P (805P Pacific Time):   .Steven Erlanger, NYT, in re: French elections; Valerie vs Segolene 
 
Monday 1120P (820P Pacific Time):   .Hannah Seligson, NYT, in re: Nurturing a baby and a start-up business  
 
Monday 1135P (835P Pacific Time):   .Declan Walsh, NYT, in re; profile of a teacher returning at 95; at Chitral  
 
Monday 1150P (850P Pacific Time):   .Jack Ewing, International Herald Tribune, in re: ECN demand enforcement mechanism; trouble with euro continues  
 
Monday/Tues 1205A (905 Pacific Time):   .Aaron Klein, WABC, in re: attacks on Eilat border; Gaza infiltration; Cairo disturbances, threats  
 
Monday/Tues  1220A (920 Pacific Time):   .Reza Kahlili, author, in re: Iranian negotiations in Moscow nonstarter, fail; Iranian, Chinese, Syrian, and Russian joint exercises
 
Monday/Tues  1235A (935P Pacific Time):   .Lara Brown, Villanova, and Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, in re: Mr Obama must win Pennsylvania; Mr Romney must win Ohio.   Tomlin and Manchin will not be attending the Democratic Natl Convention in North Carolina. Mark Crisp, who beat Jason Atmyer, also will not attand. These are energy-rich parts of the country. President hasn't been in Pittsburgh since last autumn; when he was, the stadium was half-full and local pols were not there.  Democrats win PA by ensuring the collar counties of Philadelphia are loyal.  Need white, college-educated women there. In the rest of the state, president has a problem with blue-collar voters. As for collar counties of Pittsburgh:  central part of state is wholly conservative; hard to imagine that the collar counties will go to Obama. Messina, Axelrod and Plouffe are microtargetting to get to 279. In Eastern PA, alliance with white women and gays will help.  Lilly Ledbetter Act.
 
Monday/Tues  1250A  (950P Pacific Time): Jeff Bliss, The Bliss Index, in re: Golden Gate Audubon Society, lecture on magical Madagascar. 
 
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Music
 
 
Hour 1
 
The Ghost Writer by Alexandre Desplat
Hatfields & McCoys by John Debney and Tony Morales
Prince of Persia by Harry Gregson-Williams
 
Hour 2
 
Appaloosa by Jeff Beal
True Grit by Carter Burwell
Babylon AD by Atli Orvarsson
 
Hour 3
 
The Artist by Ludovic Bource
Atonement by Dario Marianelli
Barry Lyndon by Various Artists
 
Hour 4
 
Snow White and the Huntsman by James Newton Howard
All the King's Men by James Horner