The John Batchelor Show

Monday 23 April 2018

Air Date: 
April 23, 2018

Photo: Watergate Complex 1972-74
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, the Great Voice of the Great Lakes
 
Hour One
Monday   23 April 2018 / Hour 1, Block A: Tom Joscelyn, Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies; & Senior Editor for FDD's Long War Journal; and Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD; in re:  Helmand and Kuduz provinces: Taliban effectively control most of these. US was losing when it had massive troop levels there; why does it think it can win anything with 10,000 troops?
Monday   23 April 2018 / Hour 1, Block B: Tom Joscelyn, Long War Journal and FDD; and Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD; in re:   ISIS is doing quite well in media/propaganda, is successfully fighting Assad’s troops in Damascus and has a lot of pull in western Syria. Taliban isprospering in Afghanistan, is holding courts
Monday   23 April 2018 / Hour 1, Block C: Gordon Chang, Daily Beast and Forbes,com, in re: North Korea: nuke and missile testing moratoria, plus closing another site. Kim made concessions (of a sort) before the proposed meeting to stave off John Bolton’s whispering in Pres Trump’s ear, “Bomb ’em.”  Xi wants not to appear impotent. Has been sidelined, which undercuts Chinese foreign policy goals – it's outside the peace process.  Xi will visit Pyongyang in June, is scrambling to make himself relevant.
China has been a malign presence in the negotiations from 2003-2009.  China currently is not in the discussion.  Japan: Abe wants his abductees back, and North Korea to give up his short-range missiles (plus US goals). US has many ways to succeed here; essential that it not revert to the errors of antecedent presidents, going back at least to Clinton, perhaps to G H W Bush.
Monday   23 April 2018 / Hour 1, Block D: Chuck Roth, Daily Caller, in re: Russiagate player list grows, but George Papadapoulos’s name keeps reappearing, incl in his bibulous talk with an Australian dip.
Stefan Halper: currently a prof at University of Cambridge. His name emerged last month as having met with GP in May 2016,  . . .  writing a policy paper on Turkish/Cypriot/Greek geopolitics. Halper? suddenly asked about [Clinton?] emails.   At Cambridge. Former head of MI6; Halper’s father-in-law was CIA (in Bay of Pigs fiasco).   . . .  Carter Page. . . . Late Aug/early Sept 2016, a third campaign official was contacted by Mr Halper.    Lots of strange connections and coincidences.  Halper did show up in the presidential campaign.
 
Hour Two
Monday   23 April 2018 / Hour 2, Block A:  David M Drucker, Washington Examiner, and John Fund, NRO, in re:  Mike Pompeo is confirmed as state secretary.  Positive recommendation . . .  Pompeo is a security hawk who subscribes to projecting US power.  VA:  Dr Jackson (Pres Trump’s personal physician while in office) nominated as head of VA: his selection has been sidelined for unknown reasons.  The vendors don't like an unknown quantity; they want someone who’ll keep signing contracts and keep the gravy train going.
Mrs Bush’s funeral: a photo of four presidents and three First Ladies all smiling agreeably; are they happy to work together?  No. Recall: everybody loves you when you’re dead.
Comity in Washington?  Not much.  They look as though they share values?  Egad, not. This is a very excusive club of retired presidents.
Monday   23 April 2018 / Hour 2, Block B:  David M Drucker, Washington Examiner, and John Fund, NRO, in re:  The Trump-Kim summit?  Yes, the threat is real. No progress for at last twenty years. Depends on whether or not Pres Trump understands how and why not to trust DPRK and thus enter a pact in which he’s swindled.  If he avoids that, he won’t lose politically at all.   One sour note: the most powerful person in the world meets with a tin pot dictator; teaches other low-level tyrants that the way to get such a meeting is to threaten the US.
If Trump makes a deal with Kim and Kim swindles him, that’ll be awful.  Trump is eager to be successful; remember that a bad deal is worse than no deal at all.
Monday   23 April 2018 / Hour 2, Block C: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:  Travelling recently in the Holy Land, we watched the building of berm, 12-15 feet tall of earth; behind that, on the Israeli side, a fence being constructed that goes far below ground level, perhaps 100 feet.  Hamas keeps devising new tricks; these recall fire ships: a ship filled with explosives is sent into a harbor where all ships are set afire and explode.  Hamas built a fire kite that landed in a warehouse and set a fire. Just one symptom; Hamas works hard to tunnel underground, to rush the border, to use human shields — even the EU parliament, always anti-Israeli, condemned that — so Hamas has blt a tunnel 30 feet deep.  One tunnel collapsed on the weekend, and an explosion of some kind occurred in Gaza today.  Using kites to set farmers’ field alight.  Hamas will sabotage any effort at a peace agreement, Note also the 14 May dedication of the US embassy in Jerusalem.  In the four months since the president made this decision, there’s been no increase in violence, protests or arrests.  One can hope that this has been a tempest in a teapot.
Kuala Lumpur: two men on a moterbike shoot and kill Fahdi __, a 35-yr-old member of Hamas, a rocket master and head of Hamas guidance systems. Israel has in effect said that it wasn’t involved in this; a fair argument that it was, instead, a settling of internal accounts.
Romania moving its embassy to Jerusalem.  Govt, but not PM, endorsed this. Romania will be chair of EU Council in several months.  Hamas and Fatah: internal power struggles, and betw Hamas and PA. It's about covering up the suffering of the people while Hamas diverts a massive quantities of goods to its own ends. Little electricity and not enough water – nothing to do with Egypt or Israel; it's all Hamas corruption.
Monday   23 April 2018 / Hour 2, Block D: Indiana Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Naked mole rats turn out to be natural archaeologist: can go without oxygen for 18 min, resistant to pain and to cancer. Burrow into the ground and expel the dirt; send up pottery shards and other information  - e.g., slag reveals smelting – and now info about the kingdom in Jerusalem. Assyrians destroyed it, but we found arrowheads. Indication that there was an alliance, perhaps with a Canaanite kingdom; an older period underneath, probably from the kingdoms. Naked mole rates are native to the area.
Mossad ran a seaside resort in Sudan (originally blt by Sudan, but no water, electricity or road) t bring in Ethiopian refugees surreptitiously.  Brought in diving gear, air conditioning units. Had many paying guests, incl British military.  Made a profit! All nutty. Abandoned in 1985.
 
Hour Three
Monday 23 April 2018/ Hour 3, Block A:  Revolution Song: A Story of American Freedom,  by Russell Shorto
Monday 23 April 2018/ Hour 3, Block B:  Revolution Song: A Story of American Freedom,  by Russell Shorto
Monday 23 April 2018/ Hour 3, Block C:  Andrew C McCarthy, NRO, and Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, in re: Andrew McCabe
Monday 23 April 2018/ Hour 3, Block D:  Andrew C McCarthy, NRO, and Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, in re: Andrew McCabe
 
Hour Four
Monday 23 April 2018/ Hour 4, Block A: Brenda Shaffer,  , in re: Oil & gas and finance, esp Central Asia
Bio: http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/about/experts/list/brenda-shaffer
Monday 23 April 2018/ Hour 4, Block B:  Harry Segal, New York Daily News and the Daily Beast, in re:  The NYPD and Mayor Bill DeBlasio
Monday 23 April 2018/ Hour 4, Block C:  Gregory Copley, Defense & Foreign Affairs, in re:  Watergate; the fate of the world (1 of 2)
Monday 23 April 2018/ Hour 4, Block D:  Gregory Copley, Defense & Foreign Affairs, in re:  Watergate; the fate of the world (2 of 2)