The John Batchelor Show

Monday 12 June 2017

Air Date: 
June 12, 2017

Photo, left: 
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, the Great Voice of the Great Lakes
 
Hour One
Monday  12 June 2017 / Hour 1, Block A: Tom Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor & FDD,  and Bill Roggio, Long War Journal senior editor  & FDD, in re:  Green-on-blue murders.  Nangahar. Syria: Deir al-Zour. An enemy drone the size of _____; US downed it.  Total lawlessness in a desert. 
Monday  12 June 2017 / Hour 1, Block B: Tom Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor & FDD,  and Bill Roggio, Long War Journal senior editor  & FDD, in re:  Statement by Zawahiri, the physician in charge of al Qaeda.  Speaks  to “our ummah today.”  ObL said al Q was to fight against US, Israel and bad Muslims; Zawahiri expands that to include China, Russia, and everyone else.  In Syria, there’s a debate on how to push the jihadi project forward. Some aver”: “Syria for Syrians” – which displeases al Qaeda.  “The concept of nation-states with the infidel holding sway . . .”    The global jihad.  As Sahab, al Q propaganda arm.    Puntland:  Shebaab is resurgent.  Airstrike in southern Somalia; Shebaab operating on both northern and southern front.  Al Qaeda is in  that theater; unlike the whitewash under Obama, this administration is speaking blunt about conditions. 
Monday  12 June 2017 / Hour 1, Block C:  Gordon G. Chang, Daily Beast; Joshua Stanton, One Free Korea blog; in re:  CRReports.Squarespace.com: Dismantling North Korea’s illicit financing is the swiftest way to [brig it to heel].  Reject the counsel of a lot of op-editorialists saying North Korea’s sanctions are maxxed out and mone y too well hidden Not true. Use shipping registries and legal docs to find a significant amt of DPRK’s funds in China. [Surprise.]  Foreign policy establishment keeps giving pols bad advice, as DPRK always “negotiates” then reneges. However, its two vulnerabilities are its hidden money and its population’s increasing discontent. The argument by China is both duplicitous and hypocritical.  US keeps giving China again and again the chance finally to comply with US sanctions, Hah. Still sending – sneaking – coal – into DPRK.  US does not need China’s permission to sanctions.  Trump Adm seems to be giving China till 16 July (the hundredth day after the Mar-a-Lago mtg), but what we need to do is enforce our own law.  GC: “Let’s start a campaign to put Thaddeus in charge of North Korea policy in the WH.”   JS:  Five thousand companies, of which the top ten handle 30% of the market, are doing Chinese-DPRK trade.   Strategic chokepoint: HCID (Mao Hsia-hung is chairwoman) , the go-between dozens of small Chinese firms and DPRK. Ergo, Beijing has entirely authorized HCID and the DPRK trade.   Note rockets shipment headed for Syria, intercepted at Red Sea.  China has weaponized North Korea, which now is threatening the American West Coast with nuclear missiles. Our failure to respond is an American problem. 
Monday  12 June 2017 / Hour 1, Block D: Gordon G. Chang, Daily Beast; Joshua Stanton, One Free Korea blog; in re:   Thaddeus McCotter has just returned from being an election observer in Puerto Rico, where 23% of the nation voted, of which 90-plus per cent voted for statehood.  Election ran well and smoothly, in a nonbinding plebiscite on choosing one of three: free assn, independence, or statehood.  A judge at the last minute brought in to vote 600K Puerto Ricans living off the island on the ground that they might, um, return to the island some time.  Meanwhile, Puerto Ricans have long been citizens. If they live on the mainland, they can vote there.  Many Puerto Ricans have bravely defended the country in the US armed forces.   Nonstatehood voters boycotted the election, then claimed that too few people had voted for the election to be legitimate. 
 
Hour Two
Monday  12 June 2017 / Hour 2, Block A: David M Drucker, Washington Examiner, and John Fund, NRO, in London, in re: In London, Teresa May might not hold on to prime ministership; appted Michael Gove (an adversary) to Dept of Envtl Affairs, to put as much furniture as possible between her and Boris Johnson, who’s eager to take her job.
Jeff Sessions cold assert executive privilege; there were connections with Russians that he did not disclose; who’s running what at DoJ and who initiated firing Comey? Who's holding the swords? “They all wind up dead.” Comey’s a pretty smooth operator; he may be in legal jeopardy but not in political jeopardy. Opposite for Trump and crew: not in legal trouble but deep political problems.  Trump is now in a process crime: only process matters. No crime originally but the cover-up is worse than the crime.   . . . Not Trump collusion but Russian meddling.  Mr Trump takes it all so personally that he winds up where he is.  “Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand?” 
Sessions Will Testify before Senate Intelligence Committee  Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that he will testify in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, amid questions over his role in a series of interactions between former FBI Director James Comey and President Trump, the Washington Post reports.
Sessions is expected to get questions about his involvement in the firing of Comey and the news that he offered his resignation to President Trump at one point recently.
It was not clear if the hearing would be open to the public or behind closed doors.
Monday  12 June 2017 / Hour 2, Block B:  David M Drucker, Washington Examiner, and John Fund, NRO, in re:  Senate won't hold a vote without circulating at least a draft. CBO score before the end of the month.  GOP recognizes that it absolutely must pass something or admit failure in govt – and try to explain it later. Failure is not an option.  Passing nothing is worse than passing something and trying to fix it later.  . . . Comey is like a self-righteous boy scout. President can’t resist counterpunching.  A very rough week for the president. Dems want to wound Trump, not get rid of him.  Make sure that nothing gets passed so they can blame the GOP as lame, and  capture one the Chambers in 2018.
Monday  12 June 2017 / Hour 2, Block C:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Qatar, family feud. GCC cut Qatar out (UAE: also Egypt and Bahrain): demand that it stop funding Muslim Brotherhood and terrorism and al Jazeera which has been an “ogre.”   Long have hosted Hamas leaders in Qatar; the red line is: will it commit to ending support?  Meanwhile, Iran is flying in planeloads of food to Qatar; US base is possibly threatened (although it protects Qatar). Qatar can't last too long under this choking blockade.   Qatar has a longstanding fight w Saudis and to some extent with UAE. Their new emir. Qatari gas fields are contiguous with those of Iran; strategic considerations. Small Qatari population [with very high per capita income].  UK election: may not be a bad outcome for British-Israeli relations because of the Irish Unionist Party, which is very pro-Israel (distinct from Catholic party, which is pro-Palestinian).   Corbyn regularly makes anti-Israel and perhaps anti-Jewish remarks. 
Rockets landing in Israel from Hamas: emanating from tunnels under children’s schools in Gaza. If Israel were to retaliate, it would have to blow up a school, which is impossible.  Tunnels were known to UNRWA.   Also, a high Palestinian official was in an Israeli hospital for major treatment, saw that many Palestinian children there were being treated very well side by side with Israel children; when he was released, he secretly made a very large contribution to the hospital.  
Monday  12 June 2017 / Hour 2, Block D:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: the Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican: Hugh Monsignor O’Flaherty.  Now being considered to be declared Righteous among the Gentiles.  Nazis put a price on his head and tried to capture him, but he saved many from the Nazis. Set up safe havens and special religious apartments across Rome.  The silence that greets the murder of Christians, and even Moslems, around the world – we never learn!
Calls to reduce electricity in Gaza, from Palestinian Authority and Egypt. 
Foreign Min Zarif said he’ll lay out a new plan in the Oslo Forum next week.  Iranian internal problems have multiplied. Investigation of bombings continues.  “De-escalation zones”? Armed drone over Syria shot down; escalation of Iranian technology that gravel endangers US personnel.
Saudi arms deal, 4110 mil – seven THAAD batteries and much much more, incl two sat comms and space systems and remote sensing, 
 
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Senior official of the Roman Curia, and significant figure in Catholic resistance to Nazism. During World War II, the Monsignor was responsible for saving 6,500 Allied soldiers and Jews. His ability to evade the traps set by the German Gestapo and Sicherheitsdienst (SD), earned O'Flaherty the nickname "The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican." He was the first Irishman named Notary of the Holy Office.
 
Hour Three
Monday  12 June 2017 / Hour 3, Block A:  Jerry Hendrix, Senior Fellow and the Director of the Defense Strategies and Assessments Program at the Center for a New American Security; in re:    US Navy; fleets
Monday  12 June 2017 / Hour 3, Block B:  Jed Babbin, American Spectator, in  re:  National security
Monday  12 June 2017 / Hour 3, Block C:  Andrew C McCarthy, National Review and author; former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York ; in re:  White House leaks
Monday  12 June 2017 / Hour 3, Block D:  Paul Gregory, Hoover Institution, in re:  Russia answers
 
Hour Four
Monday  12 June 2017 / Hour 4, Block A: Andrew Roberts, Napoleon
Monday  12 June 2017 / Hour 4, Block B: Andrew Roberts, Napoleon
Monday  12 June 2017 / Hour 4, Block C: Roger Meiners, PERC Montana: @perctweets, in re:  The EPA regulates reality most expensively.   Agencies are required to conduct cost-benefit analysis for regulations estimated to cost more than $100 million. Thankfully, there are hundreds such rules underway, and they forecast tremendous growth for our sluggish economy.
Consider one such regulation, the Utility Mercury and Air Toxic Standards (MATS), which applies to coal-fired power plants. Finalized by the EPA in 2011, the regulation is estimated to cost the economy about $10 billion per year. But the EPA claims the annual benefits from the rule will be between $37 billion to $90 billion. In other words, its benefits will be four to nine times higher than its costs.
The EPA doesn’t claim such benefits are theoretical. The agency says they are “monetized,” meaning they will show up in higher gross domestic product. And since GDP is about $16 trillion, this one rule should add as much as half a percent of growth to the economy—hardly a trivial amount.
Regulations have costs as well, a fact the EPA acknowledges. Implementing the MATS rule will result in the loss of 23,000 megawatts of electricity production and 200,000 jobs by 2015. It’s just one of seven major rules that will eliminate between 544,000 and 887,000 jobs and cause a 1.5 percent reduction in the nation’s electric generation capacity. (part 1 of 2) https://www.perc.org/articles/regulating-our-way-prosperity
Monday  12 June 2017 / Hour 4, Block D:  Roger Meiners, PERC Montana: @perctweets, in re:  The EPA regulates reality most expensively (continued; part 2 of 2).