Monday 12 September 2016
Photo, left: Village Hall, Ashton Hayes — “English Village Becomes Climate Leader by Quietly Cleaning Up Its Own Patch; in The New York Times – see Hour Four, Block A.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/22/science/english-village-becomes-climate-leader-by-quietly-cleaning-up-its-own-patch.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fearth&action=click&contentCollection=earth®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, The Great Voice of the Great Lakes
Hour One
Monday 12 September 2016 / Hour 1, Block A: Tom Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor & FDD, in re: The Egyptian al Zawahiri, the most underrated jihadi of all time: he’s still standing, has been hunted by world intell svcs since the 1980s and here in 2016 we’re still speaking of him, and he’s in control of large forces; an evil genius. After al Baghdadi left al Qaeda, Zawahiri went on to build the largest standing paramilitary army perhaps in the world. Al Q has loyal followers from West Africa through the Levant and down to Southeast Asia.
Not enough attention has been given to him and his organization; we face a very dangerous foe. Recruit foreign fighters and draw out some via social media. But al Q plan ins long-term: inculcate local forces to their ideology – Mahgreb, East Arica, Levant, et al. Shebaab: in August 2010, Bill Roggio reported that Shebaab was already in al Qaeda even though al Q and Shebaab were committed to keeping that fact secret. Al Q is on the march and raising armies. [Note: much strategic info on al Qaeda in this segment; pls listen to the podcast for considerable data.]
Fifteen years after the 9/11 attacks, al Qaeda fights on. Fifteen years after 9/11, Al Qaeda remains a threat to the West despite not carrying out a large-scale attack in years. The group is waging insurgencies in several countries and is far larger than it was on 9/11.
The Iraqi Shiite militia leader Akram al Kabi has met with top Iranian government official in Iran. Kabi, who’s a member of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces that has become an official part of the Iraqi government, boldly proclaimed his allegiance to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei
Monday 12 September 2016 / Hour 1, Block B: Tom Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor & FDD, in re: Hundreds of jihadi martyrs throw themselves into their lethal work, In 2001, there were 60 such attacks per annum; in 2016, Jan to Aug, 729 in eight months, being an average 40 per month! Yesterday, seen suicide bombers in one day in Iraq. VBIED attacks: they broadcast this via the AMAQ News Agency. So frequent they don't even broadcast each martyr.
Yemen: Western analysts carelessly assumed that al Q wasn’t interested in establishing a state, but of course it is. For a year, it controlled a large swath of densely-populated Yemeni territory – bigger than Raqqah. In April 2016, an Arab coalition went in and al Q melted away; the US has long been taking out key AQAP bigwigs by drone but al Q replaces them all right away. A deep bench.
Tarin Kot is the second provincial capital in the south that is under direct threat of a Taliban takeover. Lashkar Gah in neighboring Helmand province is also contested by the Taliban.
On the Jazeera: All three strikes took place in the province of Shabwa, where AQAP remains entrenched despite an offensive spearheaded by the United Arab Emirates to dislodge the group from southern Yemen.
Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Qods Force, was spotted in southern Aleppo on September 6, inspecting the positions of the Iraqi Shiite militia Harakat al Nujaba in advance of an assault
Monday 12 September 2016 / Hour 1, Block C: Gordon G. Chang, Daily Beast & Forbes.com, in re: North Korea tests a nuke, then demands international aid after disastrous flood. Five nukes in the hands of irrational gangsters and thugs in North Korea. Groundhog nuke day: fifth test, intl condemnation while China is the major backer. Xi sent a Chinese observer to watch happily. Is there a way to rein in DPRK? First, quit selling DPRK fissile material. Also transporter erector launchers whose missiles can land in the US Lower Forty-eight, China could cut North Korea off from Bank of China, and will not unless the US imposes costs on China. Pres Pak of South Korea has threatened to nuke Pyongyang if needed; has long advocated regime change in Pyongyang; closed joint industrial zone; added sanctions. US Treasury declared North Korea to be __ but the US has taken no step in connection with that. When some American city is a radioactive pile of rubble, the American president has no right to say, “I could have stopped this but I didn't want to annoy the North Koreans,” Ashton Carter actually said, “This fifth blast is China’s fault,” That’s a favorable shift.
After horrible floods, demand for massive aid swiftly. If the West sends money and channels it through the regime, that’ll be very bad (and it won’t be used for the populace). If aid agencies utilize funds directly, that’ll be a good thing.
DPRK is on track to hit New York City with a nuclear bomb by 2018. Scale: 10 to 13 kilotons; don't know if it’s plutonium or uranium. US sniffer planes not getting the info because the tests are so far underground.
Pres Duterte insulted Pres Obama with “unusually creative vulgarity”; now has ordered the US out of Mindanao in the Philippines – just as the islands are under attack from China (vide: Mischief Reef and Scarborough Shoals, already gone to China).
North Korea defied the world with a nuclear test. Now it seeks aid for a flood disaster. After a typhoon struck last month, more than 130 people were killed and 395 more are still missing. At least 100,000 people were left homeless.
And: conversation from February 2013; https://audioboom.com/boos/5035097-nuke-groundhog-day-three-years-ago-north-korea-s-third-nuclear-test-gordongchang
..
S. Korea unveils plan to raze Pyongyang in case of signs of nuclear attack SEOUL, Sept. 11 (Yonhap) -- South Korea has already developed a plan to annihilate the North Korean capital of Pyongyang through intensive bombing in case the North shows any signs of a nuclear attack, a military source in Seoul said Sunday.
"Every Pyongyang district, particularly where the North Korean leadership is possibly hidden, will be completely destroyed by ballistic missiles and high-explosive shells as soon as the North shows any signs of using a nuclear weapon. In other words, the North's capital city will be reduced to ashes and removed from the map," the source said.
Monday 12 September 2016 / Hour 1, Block D: Eli Lake, Bloomberg, in re: During the G20 Kerry tried to make a deal w Lavrov and of course failed. White House was growing impatient and annoyed with Kerry. . . . Hope that Russia will cease the horrifying barrel bombing in Syria. [Don't hold breath] The Russian enjoy humiliating John Kerry, who keeps going back. It's a tragedy that‘d cross into comedy if he stakes weren’t so high. . . . Russia not equipped to fight in any meaningful way against a terrorist group. YUS military can. But Russia merely bombs populaces into oblivion. Progressives in the US and Europe shrug and say, “There’s nothing we can do.” Wrong! https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-09-11/kerry-brokers-trump-s-plan-for-syria
Hour Two
Monday 12 September 2016 / Hour 2, Block A: David M Drucker, Washington Examiner Senior Congressional correspondent; John Fund, NRO, in re: John Batchelor arrived on 12 Sept 2001; because many stations had lost broadcast towers, he spoke to a large New York and other audiences. Fifteen years later, too many ironies; a Q is still a most-dangerous creature.
9/11. Lessons learned for campaigning. NY Times editor says he’ll publish Mr Trump’s tax forms even if it meant facing jail to do so, How curious of an editor to jump in to the thick of news. If Mr Trump were the poltroon and clown that the left claims, . . .
Mrs Clinton has pneumonia? The campaign is frustrated with the candidate for not immediately revealing what the matter was on Saturday. Inability to be candid. High-level staffers (not the close confidantes; the professionals) know that you can’t pull this stuff, but the candidate is too secretive. She lost 48 hours of messaging, This is what a Clinton presidency would look like. The equivalent of electing Nixon after the voters knew about Watergate. Imagine a titanic battle ‘twixt Clinton and the Congress. She had he same kind of reactions during her husband’s presidency. When it looked as though . . . Mrs Clinton’s unusual decision-making. Health and the Campaign for President, '12, '36, '40, '44, '56, '16
Monday 12 September 2016 / Hour 2, Block B: David M Drucker, Washington Examiner Senior Congressional correspondent; John Fund, NRO, in re: The Deplorables. What was Clinton thinking? Was this the pneumonia speaking? The message was intended; the mode wasn’t exactly. Her apology was partial – her base wants her to argue that a lot of Trumpists are racist or accepting of racists. This could rub swing voters the wrong way; but will it cost her votes? Probably not. / Yes, clumsy wording; but for her to cast such a wide net is a sign of condescension – reminiscent of Obama’s “guns and Bibles” elitism. She denigrates her opposition and his supporters as she doesn't like them. How did FDR do this? “Malefactors of great wealth”! The rest of the quote: “The other half of his supporters I completely understand.” She had a tin ear at the Barbara Streisand concert?
The Senate stays a frail-majority GOP?
Trump and GOTV.
• Trump Suggests No Moderators at Debates
• State Poll Roundup: Monday
• Bonus Quote of the Day
• The Least Transparent Candidate in Modern History
• Trump Foundation Is Not Like Other Charities
• Trump Plans to Stay Quiet on Clinton’s Health
• Obama Approval Continues to Climb
• “42% of Trump Supporters Are Racist”
• Quote of the Day
• Mexican Peso Tracks Trump’s Performance
• Trump Is Just Pat Buchanan with Better Timing
• Third-Party Support Could Open Door to Trump
Monday 12 September 2016 / Hour 2, Block C: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: MOU status. Am has taken over he appropriations function, according to Lindsay Graham, who’s quite unhappy. This limits purchases from Israeli companies, inter al. Thirty-seven Senators wrote asking for Adm to increase defense funding. Israeli defense forces need to know because suppliers need advance planning. . . . Syrian cease-fire? Ramifications for everyone, incl population exchanges, to replace Aleppo Sunnis with Iraqi Shia families. Hafaz al Assad populated Damascus from 1947 on, when there were 300 Alawites; when he died, there were half a million Trying to create a Sunni-free corridor up to the Alawite enclave on the Mediterranean coast. . . . Assad might have to cede region to Iran, incl their pseudo-forces from Iraq, Pakistan, Lebanon, Afghanistan and other places. We now see Gen Soleimani, IRGC Qods Forces commander . Golan. A de facto partition- Kurdish buffer zone. If the US goal were a power-sharing agreement, it couldn't sign off on Iran having free rein, but US won’t have final veto power. Note hat the IRGC does not send its own forces to die; rather, it sends in foreign forces (Iraqis, Afghans, any others) . Hajj: no Iranian pilgrim this year. The conflict between Iran and Saudis is escalating. The 464 Iranians killed in 2015 hajj crush: memorialized in Iranian ceremonies; Iran proposes to take away the two holy cites from Saudis. Iran boasts of signing major deals Putin today defended Iran as having “nonnuclear threat.” It therefore feels more empowered in other endeavors, incl taking over the Golan. Iran is insane, but acting rationally as it's being rewarded for bad actions. “Greatest danger is in crushing the caliphate – of which Iran is a part. Iran and al Q have a long history of cooperation, as al Q has enjoyed Teheran sanctuary for many years. IRGC supported Hezbollah financially and militarily from early on. Note 1998 attacks. How to use the weakness of the West in responding to terrorism. Threats of IS to Europe.
Monday 12 September 2016 / Hour 2, Block D: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Thousands of ISIS fighters recruited from all over the Levant and ex-Yugoslavia and SE Asia – have disappeared. Of 900 Brits, half have returned; 1200 Frenchmen have returned, ISIS caused 730 suicide attacks this year. They’re on the run, moving fighters to Europe, US officials testifying. Die Bild: 500-plus ISIS fighters in Germany now to create attacks; so have hit teams plus fanatical lone wolves. In France, the national intell have 15,000 people on the police radar. No way they can monitor. In Belgium, uncovered a plan to kill Christians in shopping malls.
Thaddeus: We know that Iran is a state sponsor of terror and yet French are about to build Peugeots in Iran (while decrying Israel). / Palestinians have cancelled the upcoming elections, with everyone at everyone’s throat. Court ruled against . . . Abbas doesn't want elections. Whispers of Moscow talks between Palestinians and Israelis; Abbas demands preconditions while Netanyahu says they needn’t have any precondition. Dahlan is a potential opponent of Abbas. / Archaeological find proving Jews in ancient-most Holy Land. Palestinians recently tore up the ancient Temple, converted the astounding artifacts to rubble; Israelis and other archaeologist managed painstakingly reconstruct the shards and to prove the historicity of an ancient Jewish temple on the Temple Mount, which now the UN calls Haram esh-Sharif; the temple having been there since perhaps a millennium before the Prophet (PBUH).
Hour Three
Monday 12 September 2016 / Hour 3, Block A: JFK and the Reagan Revolution: A Secret History of American Prosperity; published Sep 6, 2016; by Lawrence Kudlow and Brian Domitrovic (1 of 4)
The fascinating, suppressed history of how JFK pioneered supply-side economics. John F. Kennedy was the first president since the 1920s to slash tax rates across the board, becoming one of the earliest supply-siders. Sly, today’s Democrats have ignored JFK’s tax-cut legacy and have opted instead for an anti-growth, tax-hiking redistribution program, undermining America’s economy.
One person who followed JFK’s tax-cut growth model was Ronald Reagan. This is the never-before-told story of the link between JFK and Ronald Reagan. This is the secret history of American prosperity.
JFK realized that high taxes that punished success and fanned class warfare harmed the economy. In the 1950s, when high tax rates prevailed, America endured recessions every two or three years and the ranks of the unemployed swelled. Only in the 1960s did an uninterrupted boom at a high rate of growth (averaging 5 per cent per year) drive a tremendous increase in jobs for the long term. The difference was Kennedy’s economic policy, particularly his push for sweeping tax-rate cuts.
Kennedy was so successful in the ’60s that he directly inspired Ronald Reagan’s tax cut revolution in the 1980s, which rejuvenated the economy and gave us another boom that lasted for two decades.
Lawrence Kudlow and Brian Domitrovic reveal the secret history of American prosperity by exploring the little-known battles within the Kennedy administration. They show why JFK rejected the advice of his Keynesian advisors, turning instead to the ideas proposed by the non-Keynesians on his team of rivals.
We meet a fascinating cast of characters, especially Treasury Secretary Douglas Dillon, a Republican. Dillon’s opponents, such as the liberal economists Paul Samuelson, James Tobin, and Walter Heller, fought to maintain the high tax rates—including an astonishing 91% top rate—that were smothering the economy. In a wrenching struggle for the mind of the president, Dillon convinced JFK of the long-term dangers of nosebleed income-tax rates, big spending, and loose money. Ultimately, JFK chose Dillon’s tax cuts and sound-dollar policies and rejected Samuelson and Heller.
In response to Kennedy’s revolutionary tax cut, the economy soared. But as the 1960s wore on, the departed president’s priorities were undone by the government-expanding and tax-hiking mistakes of Presidents Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter. The resulting recessions and the “stagflation” of the 1970s took the nation off its natural course of growth and prosperity-- until JFK’s true heirs returned to the White House in the Reagan era.
Kudlow and Domitrovic make a convincing case that the solutions needed to solve the long economic stagnation of the early twenty-first century are once again the free-market principles of limited government, low tax rates, and a strong dollar. We simply need to embrace the bipartisan wisdom of two great presidents, unleash prosperity, and recover the greatness of America.
Monday 12 September 2016 / Hour 3, Block B: JFK and the Reagan Revolution: A Secret History of American Prosperity; published Sep 6, 2016; by Lawrence Kudlow and Brian Domitrovic (2 of 4)
Monday 12 September 2016 / Hour 3, Block C: JFK and the Reagan Revolution: A Secret History of American Prosperity; published Sep 6, 2016; by Lawrence Kudlow and Brian Domitrovic (3 of 4)
Monday 12 September 2016 / Hour 3, Block D: JFK and the Reagan Revolution: A Secret History of American Prosperity; published Sep 6, 2016; by Lawrence Kudlow and Brian Domitrovic (4 of 4)
Hour Four
Monday 12 September 2016 / Hour 4, Block A: Tatiana Schlossberg, NYT, in re: English Village Becomes Climate Leader by Quietly Cleaning Up Its Own Patch
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/22/science/english-village-becomes-climate-leader-by-quietly-cleaning-up-its-own-patch.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fearth&action=click&contentCollection=earth®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront
Monday 12 September 2016 / Hour 4, Block B: Jack Healy, NYT, in re:
“Yes, we’re homeless,” he said, sitting in the shade of his camper here in the Arapaho National Forest. “No, we’re not vagrants. No, we’re not beggars. We just barely are making it. What you see is by the grace of God.” To millions of adventurers and campers, America’s national forests are a boundless backyard for hiking trips, rafting, hunting and mountain biking. But for thousands of homeless people and hard-up wanderers, they have become a retreat of last resort.
Forest law enforcement officers say they are seeing more dislocated people living off the land, often driven there by drug and alcohol addiction, mental health problems, lost jobs or scarce housing in costly mountain towns. And as officers deal with more emergency calls, drug overdoses, illegal fires and trash piles deep in the woods, tensions are boiling in places like Nederland that lie on the fringes of the United States’ forests and loosely patrolled public lands.
“The anger is palpable,” said Hansen Wendlandt, the pastor at the Nederland Community Presbyterian Church.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/22/us/as-homeless-find-refuge-in-forests-anger-is-palpable-in-nearby-towns.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fearth&action=click&contentCollection=earth®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0 ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arapaho_National_Forest
Monday 1o2 September 2016 / Hour 4, Block C: Gregory Copley, StrategicStudies director; GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs; & author, UnCivilization, in re: “Weathering the Strategic Storm.” Nigeria Failure. Revelations that the People’s Republic of China was developing a next-generation, long-range strategic bomber and a so-called sixth-generation fighter aircraft should have come as no surprise to Western defense leaders. The news has, however, been met with skepticism and incredulity. And confusion as to how to respond.
There is little doubt that US Pres. Barack Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton threw down the gauntlet to the PRC when, in 2009, they declared the US “pivot to Asia.” It turned out to be an empty gesture, which only highlighted the lack of strategy from the Obama Administration. Given that the Administration had abandoned US global strategic credibility and prestige, and had begun even then to hollow out the coherent ethos of the US military capability, the PRC had but one option: to take a deep breath and seize the only option open to it.
That option was to move to achieve geostrategic positioning while the US weakened itself and could not respond; and, for Chinese domestic and global reasons, to call the bluff of the US by building the one durable and overarching weapon that Washington had abandoned: prestige. This writer noted, days after Barack Obama had been elected to the US presidency in early November 2008, that this situation would befall the US if the president-elect carried through with his stated policies:
“The states of the world are going their own way. They will play with the US when it suits them. They will look Washington in the eye, and turn away when they wish. As the US ability to build security coalitions (or to retain them in, say, Afghanistan or Iraq) declines, US diplomats will become more strident, and yet more ineffective, in their pressures on onetime allies and foes. Their coercive powers will be seen, increasingly, as having been vacated.
That situation now prevails and, as the Obama Administration has spent almost a decade hollowing out US strategic and military thinking — and neutering its military leadership thinking and strategic innovation — and instead giving great wealth and priority to the State Department . . . ”
Monday 12 September 2016 / Hour 4, Block D: Gregory Copley, StrategicStudies director; GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs; & author, UnCivilization, in re: Nigeria’s economy is in a state of near free-fall, with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimating the country’s 2015 GDP at $296 billion, down from an estimated $510-billion for 2013. Once again, Nigeria’s GDP has slipped below South Africa’s ($301-billion for 2015). The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in June 2015 allowed for the emergence of a true market exchange for the naira, which promptly saw the naira fall from N282.25 to the US$ in July 2016 to N314.75 in September 2016.