The John Batchelor Show

Monday 21 March 2016

Air Date: 
March 21, 2016

Photo, left:  Soviets defend Stalingrad, 1943.  The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in Southern Russia, on the eastern boundary of Europe.
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, The Great Voice of the Great Lakes
 
Hour One
Monday 21 March 2016 / Hour 1, Block A:  Bill Roggio, FDD and LongWarJournal, and Tom Joscelyn, FDD and LongWarJournal, in re:  Ahmed Salama Mabruk, a veteran Egyptian jihadist, is now a key figure in Al Nusrah Front. Mabruk's dossier stretches back to the early 1980s, when he was first imprisoned following the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. He reportedly oversaw Egyptian Islamic Jihad and al Qaeda networks in the 1990s, before being captured in a CIA-led manhunt. He was released from an Egyptian prison following the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. / On Mar. 17, Abu Muhammad al Julani, the emir of Al Nusrah Front, issued a statement commemorating the fifth anniversary of the Syrian uprisings. Julani argued that the jihadists are inseparable from the Syrian people. Several years into the war, there are pockets of resistance to Al Nusrah, but the West has no strategy for harnessing this discontent and rolling back Al Nurah's influence within the insurgency. “We are from the people https://mail.google.com/mail/u/2/#inbox/1539bc90203bcd8dof al Sham and the people of al Sham are us.”  Islamic State is a top-down structure; al Nusrah/al Q has a bottom-up revolutionary jihadism.  Jaish al-___, The Army of Conquest, was succeeding in conquering Idlib and pushing south into the heart od the Assad regime’s operations; these forced Putin to intervene.
Monday 21 March 2016 / Hour 1, Block B:  Bill Roggio, FDD and LongWarJournal, and Tom Joscelyn, FDD and LongWarJournal, in re:  Ayman al Zawahiri’s brother released from Egyptian prison  Mohammed al Zawahiri, the younger brother of al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri, was released from an Egyptian prison earlier this week. He was imprisoned in Egypt in 1999, but released following the uprisings in 2011. He quickly became a prolific advocate for al Qaeda's jihadist ideology. Along with other al Qaeda-linked jihadists, he helped orchestrate the protest outside the US Embassy in Cairo on Sept. 11, 2012.
‘Hezbollah and Harakat al Nujaba are the twins of resistance,’ Iraqi militia spokesman says   Kabi-Nasrallah Harakat al Nujaba has a long history with Hezbollah and Iran, in both Iraq and Syria. "The blood of Hezbollah which flowed in the land of Iraq is our responsibility for so long as we exist," the group's spokesman said.
Monday 21 March 2016 / Hour 1, Block C: Gordon Chang, Forbes.com and Daily Beast, in re:  Chinese coast guard cutter is ramming Indonesian fishing boats, violating Indonesian sovereignty in Natuna Islands northwest of Borneo. – Indonesian govt is extremely displeased.  China has zero claim to the islands. The US allowed China to seize Scarboro Shoals.  We created this problem. China is the villain, but we taught China that violent aggression pays. 
Just signed: “Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement” – US will have access to five Filipino bases. China regards his as aggression – so the US and China thus are in direct conflict. If you let an aggressor benefit from a hostile act, [you’ve let a tiger out of a cage].  Sidney Morning Herald: Asian nations turn to . . .
 
The Quad: US, Japan, Australia and India; now a growing coalition of countries where everybody is cooperating, shows China that it's not just the US.   If we donlt stop China, we’ll be in a 1930s dynamic Either the US steps up or it looks like Wesern Europe
 
China’s Coast Guard rammed one of the country’s fishing boats to pry it free from the Indonesian authorities who had seized it over the weekend, angering the Indonesian government and heightening yet another diplomatic dispute over the South China Sea.
The boat was stopped for fishing illegally in Indonesia’s waters and was being towed to port when the Chinese took it back, leaving its crew in the hands of Indonesia. Jakarta reacted with uncharacteristic fury, summoning the Chinese ambassador to a meeting on Monday.
“Gordon: Shen Ding-li  [Global Times did a hit job on Gordon Chang, directed from the top of the Standing Committee] has denounced you. It means the government is insecure.” These guys know their system is a goner.  Most are just hanging around to skim off the last cream.  Others have been so closeted that they don't know how much trouble they're in.
Chinese Coast Guard Vessel Commits Hostile Act in Indonesia's Territorial Water China’s actions in the South China Sea are both brazen and lawless.  This time its coast guard intruded into Indonesia’s territorial waters and rammed a Chinese fishing vessel to prevent an arrest by Indonesian authorities.
Polite measures are not going to persuade Beijing to put an end to its dangerous conduct, unfortunately.  We are at the point where nations are going to have to threaten to use force—or perhaps actually use force—if they want to stop Chinese adventurism.  Such adventurism increasingly looks as though it will result in region-wide conflict, especially as nations band together to protect themselves in informal alliances.   
Pardon me for repeating myself.  Aggressors don’t stop until they are stopped.  
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-20/dont-take-public-fools-china-hides-millions-layoffs-jails-miners-protesting-unpaid-w     After Li Xin-chuang, head of China Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute told Xinhua that eliminating excess capacity in the steel industry will cost 400,000 jobs and could fuel “social instability”, the government went into spin mode. National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Xu Shao-shi said in February that Beijing's attempts to curb overcapacity will increase unemployment in provinces with high output of steel and coal but will not cause social unrest. Similarly, Xiao Ya-qing, who oversees the government commission that looks after state assets, said last week that the country won’t experience a wave of layoffs as a result of SOE restructuring.
But the cracks are already starting to show.
As we reported on Monday, thousands of miners in China's coal-rich (or poor depending on one's perspective) north have gone on strike over months of unpaid wages and fears that government calls to restructure their state-owned employer will lead to mass layoffs. As AFP noted, protesters were marching through the streets of Shuang-ya-shan city in Hei-long-jiang province, venting their frustration at Longmay Mining Holding Group, the biggest coal firm in northeast China.
Monday 21 March 2016 / Hour 1, Block D: John Tamny, Forbes.com and RealClearMarkets, in re: The businessman from New York shows disdain for experts, which is a favorable position, Govt spends $4 trillion PA – how?  “Stimulus” – oops; not true  Or even if it doesn't work in  he US, Washington is expert in rearranging foreign countries for $6 trillion PA.  Nope.  Tariffs not only raise the cost but make it less likely that we’ll do work that best matches our talents.    The wall with Mexico?  The most important feature of free trade is the free flow of human talent. Later stages: with devaluation of the dollar, the cost of producing goods will rise, shipping will be more expensive.  Makes us less competitive.  . . .  Seems to be no good way to get through 2016. 
“Without defending Donald Trump's policy ideas, it's easy to defend his disdain for expert advice.  Figure Clinton, Cruz and Sanders all have blue-chip advisers, yet all three express an aversion to free trade almost as confused as Trump's.  The latest criticism of Trump is that he's a ‘closed fortress’ to expert opinion, but the track record of the experts validates Trump's contempt for their ideas.”  Dislike Donald Trump, Love His Expert Disdain
 
Hour Two
Monday 21 March 2016 / Hour 2, Block A:  John Fund, NRO, and David Drucker, Washington Examiner, in re: Washington Times reports that Bill Clinton said, “If you don’t believe we can all grow together again and have to re-litigate all the facts, then you may not want to vote for her.  The awful legacy of the last eight years . . . “  In D.C., a political gaffe occurs when someone inadvertently tells the truth.  This is a gaffe of Romneyesque proportions.  It's the kind of truthful misstatement that can take over a campaign for a couple of days.  She must’ve made two calls: to her husband “Shut up!”; and to the White  House – “He doesn’t speak for me.”  Clintons much resent the FBI investigation, Obama hasn't called off the dogs.   . . . Ben Rhodes explained that Castro was speaking the truth: if you commit an act of human rights, it's a criminal deed.(!)  Obama isn't there to represent the US but to build his historical legacy.
Obama and Castros http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/19/upshot/how-donald-trump-can-fall-short-of-a-delegate-majority.html?_r=0  /  Bill Clinton slams Barack Obama's "awful legacy" washex.am/1PnlWuM pic.twitter.com/LzyNY9W8xC
Monday 21 March 2016 / Hour 2, Block B: John Fund, NRO, and David Drucker, Washington Examiner, in re: Mr Trump discovers the state of Palestine.  Who was the speechwriter for him at AIPAC?  He sort of knows the lyrics but can't carry the tune.  Contested convention?  Rules and credential: Georgia county – Trump carried it by  __ votes but 90% . . . TINO Trump in Name Only – you were selected as a delegate but have no loyalty to Trump.  Delegates locked in on first ballot?  Not in PA, inter al., where 54 delegates are unbound.  Ergo, Trump will have to do better than 1237 on the first ballot.  AZ will go to Trump; Utah to Cruz.  Watch Trump’s margin in Arizona – he needs to win by better than 10%.  In Cali, have people begun to organize CD by CD? 
Trump's Republican rivals also spoke to AIPAC — including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who mocked Trump for making repeated references to "Palestine." "Palestine has not existed since 1948," Cruz to applause from the crowd.
Monday 21 March 2016 / Hour 2, Block C: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:  Mr Trump speaks at AIPAC, refers to Palestine.    Spoke extensively on the UN resolution that‘ll cause insecurity and problems. He hit all the major points, incl, incitement; the Iran deal and undoing it;  the terror networks, the Iranian network around the Middle East, the moral equivalence issue.   All the speakers were elegantly prepared. Spoke of ”the demented minds” that put threatening Hebrew inscriptions on missiles.  One year left with Obama – applause; but 18,000 people in an arena can be electrifying. Among them: many non-Jews, Americans of every ilk and age; “Pols come here to pander; I’m not a pol and I don’t pander.” –Trump.     . . . Some spoke of opening the US embassy in Jerusalem.  Palestine:  Trump referred to “Palestine,” the name the Romans gave to the area to humiliate the Jews, who called it Judea, but Rome rudely named it after the Philistines.    A remarkably inartful [ignorant] reference. Like the high school test, “Which one does not belong here?”
Monday 21 March 2016 / Hour 2, Block D: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:  Turkey,  London. Yemen. Tunnels.  Many Israelis were in Turkey in a culinary tour; were stalked by a suicide bomber, killed three Israelis and American citizens. Warnings of additional upcoming attacks.  London preparing for up to ten simultaneous attacks because of the number of Britons in ISIS in Syria. WMD fear.  Have arrested 339 people in counterterrorism raids in 2015.  Foiled six actual plots.  Of course, they'll keep coming.  Two huge exercises in London: can deploy 10,000 troops to London on an emergency basis. To eliminate?  Eliminate the source (in Syria) and the Internet training, and the mosques that are sources of incitement. It’s overwhelming, It takes ten guys to watch ach terrorist.  /  Seventeen Jews in Yemen just removed, at the end of transfer of 50,000; an ancient community. 
D J Trump: “I've studied this issue in greater detail than almost anybody. The biggest concern with the deal is not necessarily that Iran is going to violate it, although it already has, the bigger problem is that they can keep the terms and still get to the bomb by simply running out the clock, and, of course, they keep the billions.” -- Donald J. Trump Remarks at AIPAC   Good evening. I speak to you today as a lifelong supporter and true friend of Israel. I am a newcomer to politics but not to backing the Jewish . . .    Hillary Clinton Brings Down the House at AIPAC
 
Hour Three
Monday 21 March 2016 / Hour 3, Block A: Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal Editorial Board & host of Opinion Journal on WSJ Video; in re:   Opinion Journal: Kowtowing to the Castros   Heritage Foundation Senior Fellow Mike Gonzalez on the significance of President Obama’s trip to Cuba.  Ninety per cent of the Cuban economy is controlled by Rodrigues, the son-in-law. 
Opinion Journal: Reince Priebus’s Record  Editorial Page Editor Paul Gigot on the Republican National Committee chairman’s stewardship of the GOP and the possibility of a contested convention.
Monday 21 March 2016 / Hour 3, Block B:  Jed Babbin, American Spectator, in re: Obama's trip to Cuba can't correctly be compared to Nixon's trip to China. Nixon opened a dialogue with an important adversary. Obama is just proving redundantly that he'll concede everything and get nothing in return.   ¿Cuba Sí, Obama What? | The American Spectator
 
Monday 21 March 2016 / Hour 3, Block C:   Bryan Gruley, Bloomberg Businessweek, in re:   one of the first pioneers of fracking, Aubrey McClendon, a gas guy (not oil and gas).   THE INCREDIBLE RISE AND FINAL HOURS OF AUBREY MCCLENDON On March 1, federal antitrust authorities accused Aubrey McClendon, the co-founder of Chesapeake Energy, of conspiring with a competitor. On the morning of March 2, he was killed in a one-car crash in hometown of Oklahoma City. McClendon's contrarian push into shale drilling revolutionized the global energy business and made him a billionaire. He came to embody both the free-spirited wildcatter and the entitled CEO of the 21st century who enriched himself while treating the public company he ran as his personal kingdom. Ultimately, his apparent belief that rules didn’t always apply to him may have led to his tragic end.  http://buswk.co/McClendon  (1 of 2)
 
Monday 21 March 2016 / Hour 3, Block D: Bryan Gruley, Bloomberg Businessweek, in re:   one of the first pioneers of fracking, Aubrey McClendon, a gas guy (not oil and gas).   THE INCREDIBLE RISE AND FINAL HOURS OF AUBREY MCCLENDON On March 1, federal antitrust authorities accused Aubrey McClendon, the co-founder of Chesapeake Energy, of conspiring with a competitor. On the morning of March 2, he was killed in a one-car crash in hometown of Oklahoma City. McClendon's contrarian push into shale drilling revolutionized the global energy business and made him a billionaire. He came to embody both the free-spirited wildcatter and the entitled CEO of the 21st century who enriched himself while treating the public company he ran as his personal kingdom. Ultimately, his apparent belief that rules didn’t always apply to him may have led to his tragic end.  http://buswk.co/McClendon  (2 of 2)
 
Hour Four
Monday 21 March 2016 / Hour 4, Block A:  Stalingrad: The City that Defeated the Third Reich, by Jochen Hellbeck and Christopher Tauchen (1 of 8)
Monday 21 March 2016 / Hour 4, Block B:  Stalingrad: The City that Defeated the Third Reich, by Jochen Hellbeck and Christopher Tauchen (2 of 8)
Monday 21 March 2016 / Hour 4, Block C:  Stalingrad: The City that Defeated the Third Reich, by Jochen Hellbeck and Christopher Tauchen (3 of 8)
Monday 21 March 2016 / Hour 4, Block D:   Stalingrad: The City that Defeated the Third Reich, by Jochen Hellbeck and Christopher Tauchen (4 of 8)