Photo, left: Cameroonian waterfall
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, The Great Voice of the Great Lakes
 
Hour One
Monday 24 October 2016 / Hour 1, Block A: Tom Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor & FDD,  and Bill Roggio, Long War Journal senior editor  & FDD, in re:  US has launched over 300 airstrikes in Sirte to dislodge the caliphate. Offensive began in May with local militias; made progress nearby in oil fields, then it stalled in June & July; US intervened with airstrikes.  Cannot yet dislodge ISIS, of whom 550 killed, 300-plus wounded.  US has launched more than 300 airstrikes against the Islamic State in Sirte, Libya.    The US carried out 330 airstrikes against the Islamic State in Sirte, Libya between Aug. 1 and Oct. 18, according to data released by US Africa Command. Nearly half of these (150) were launched during the first 18 days of October. The figures indicate that the American air campaign has accelerated in its third month as the US and its Libyan allies are still trying to eject the Islamic State from the city.
Taliban in five capitals, and last week another , in NW Pakistan Attacked police stations and army basis; then “retreated to bases.” 
Monday 24 October 2016 / Hour 1, Block B: Tom Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor & FDD,  and Bill Roggio, Long War Journal senior editor  & FDD, in re: US airstrikes kill 8 al Qaeda operatives in central Yemen  The military said it is attempting to deny al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula "a haven" in Yemen. The group still controls rural areas in the south.
Taliban threatens another provincial capital in Afghan north  Six provincial capitals now are threatened by the Taliban. On Oct. 16, the Taliban assaulted Maimana, Faryab's capital from three directions and attacked the city's airport and an Afghan Army base, but were repulsed by Afghan forces.
US has launched more than 300 airstrikes against the Islamic State in Sirte, Libya    The US carried out 330 airstrikes against the Islamic State in Sirte, Libya between Aug. 1 and Oct. 18, according to data released by US Africa Command. Nearly half of these (150) were launched during the first 18 days of October. The figures indicate that the American air campaign has accelerated in its third month as the US and its Libyan allies are still trying to eject the Islamic State from the city.
Monday 24 October 2016 / Hour 1, Block C:  Gordon G. Chang, Daily Beast & Forbes.com, in re: The deal by Duterta and Xi suggests long-term planning.  Did Beijing pay for Duarte's election?  Is détente a front for the Beijing syndicates - or just a dupe? 
"Nine Chinese drug cartels operating in Metro Manila are behind the illegal drug operations in the country, an official said yesterday. Interior and Local Government Secretary Mel Sarmiento said some Chinese syndicates have businesses as “legal fronts” while others have connections with influential persons. [...] what is worse is that these syndicates have penetrated even the smallest municipalities in the country, he added. [...]"
The US has been aware of this situation from at least as early as 2012. http://globalnation.inquirer.net/41837/chinese-syndicates-behind-drug-trade-in-philippines-says-us
There are other cartels doing business in the country, which is a major transnational hub for the illegal drug trade, but clearly it's Chinese cartels that are the biggest problem. They are a double problem if you read through the first report, in that officials clearly believe the Chinese cartels have gained influence at the highest levels of Filipino business and government. 
China, with its predatory tactics, is trying to grab Hollywood from the U.S., but America looks like it will be saved by the precipitous fall in the Chinese box office.  http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonchang/2016/10/23/will-chinas-wandawood-grab-the-movie-industry-from-the-u-s/#27dcf35d7787
http://www.philstar.com/metro/2015/11/27/1526311/chinese-gangs-behind-philippine-illegal-drug-trade   ;
Philippines not really severing ties with US, Duterte says  ; Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has clarified his comments that seemed to call for a ...  ; Philippines 'Separation' from U.S. Jilts Hillary Clinton, Too   ; Philippines' Duterte says didn't really mean 'separation' from U.S.
Monday 24 October 2016 / Hour 1, Block D: Harry Siegel, Daily Beast & New York Daily News, in re:  Start in Nassau [County], where County Executive Ed Mangano was charged by the feds Thursday in a you-can’t-make-this-stuff-up corruption scheme involving, among other things, $450,000 for a no-show job for his wife as a “restaurant taster” that allegedly came in exchange for giving a restaurateur lucrative government contracts to provide bread and rolls to prisoners and food to emergency workers in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
The Republican, who took office as a reformer but promptly began using his $3 billion budget as a patronage operation, is now charged with selling out his nearly 1.5 million constituents to get, among other things, new hardwood floors installed in his home; [he] declares that he’ll “continue to govern. America is the greatest country in the world and you’ll have the opportunity to decide for yourself.”  http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/harry-siegel-trump-isn-bad-hombre-article-1.2840295
 
Hour Two
Monday 24 October 2016 / Hour 2, Block A:   David M Drucker, Washington Examiner Senior Congressional correspondent; John Fund, NRO, in re: The imminent presidential election.  The two-party system continues to amaze, irritate, stupefy.  (1 of 2)
Monday 24 October 2016 / Hour 2, Block B: David M Drucker, Washington Examiner Senior Congressional correspondent; John Fund, NRO, in re: The imminent presidential election.  The two-party system continues to amaze, irritate, stupefy.  (2 of 2)
Monday 24 October 2016 / Hour 2, Block C:   Mona El- Naggar, NYTimes; in re: I landed in Riyadh and spent days just talking to people. I took my camera everywhere, but I didn’t use it at that time. I wanted to figure out exactly whom to follow and to get a clearer sense of the broader story.  It was easy to find candidates in the more affluent neighborhoods of Riyadh. These women were generally more accessible, some spoke English and many had already been approached by Western reporters.
Wanting to see what I might find in less commonly traveled parts of the city, I took a ride out to areas that felt more insular. I walked into random convenience stores, real estate businesses (there were many of those), wedding halls (used for campaign events by some male candidates) and neighborhood parks on weekend nights. I wanted to feature the women whose names were on the ballots in these regions.
Eventually I found Reem. She impressed me with her sincerity. She was, however, extremely cautious because she did not want to stand out or challenge cultural norms. She thought freely but spoke carefully. When I left her house after conducting a long, off-camera conversation, I had a more complete sense of the story I would set out to do.  (1 of 2)
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/17/insider/saudi-women-vote-for-the-first...
Monday 24 October 2016 / Hour 2, Block D:   Mona El- Naggar, NYT; in re:  Women in Saudi Arabia (2 of 2)
 
Hour Three
Monday 24 October 2016 / Hour 3, Block A:   Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal Editorial Board & host of Opinion Journal on WSJ Video; in re: Opinion Journal/John Podesta’s Russia Connection.  The Editorial Page Assistant Editor James Freeman on evidence that Hillary Clinton’s top aide might have hidden ties to a Kremlin-backed investment firm.
The Clinton Cash author, Peter Schweizer, and the Trump campaign have been urging the media to pay attention to Mr. Podesta’s Russian connection and perhaps they should. The story begins in 2011 when the solar energy startup Joule Unlimited announced that Mr. Podesta had been elected to its board of directors. In a company press release, Joule’s CEO at the time lauded Mr. Podesta’s “extensive experience within the US government and internationally as well.” No one claimed Mr. Podesta was a scientific expert, but the company’s founder expressed the hope that their new associate “can help Joule build the lasting relationships needed for long-term success.”
A former White House chief of staff for President Bill Clinton, Mr. Podesta at the time was running the Center for American Progress, which supported the Obama administration’s “Russian reset.” Mr. Podesta personally lauded the effort to “build a more constructive relationship” with Russia at a 2009 event hosted by his think tank.
Mr. Podesta certainly seems to have made the effort to build a business relationship. About eight months after Mr. Podesta joined Joule in 2011, an investment fund backed by the Russian government, Rusnano, announced plans to invest about $35 million in the company. Several months later, Joule announced that Rusnano Chairman Anatoly Chubais was joining its board of directors. Around the same time, Mr. Podesta joined Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board.”  http://www.wsj.com/articles/john-podesta-and-the-russians-1477262565
Monday 24 October 2016 / Hour 3, Block B:   Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal Editorial Board & host of Opinion Journal on WSJ Video; in re: “Rusnano says it has no business with Clinton campaign,”  etc.
Monday 24 October 2016 / Hour 3, Block C: Sally Aitken, University of British Columbia, in re: “Convergent local adaptation to climate in distantly related conifers” ; Science  23 Sep 2016:
Vol. 353, Issue 6306, pp. 1431-1433 ; DOI: 10.1126/science.aaf7812 ;  http://science.sciencemag.org/content/353/6306/1431
When confronted with an adaptive challenge, such as extreme temperature, closely related species frequently evolve similar phenotypes using the same genes. Although such repeated evolution is thought to be less likely in highly polygenic traits and distantly related species, this has not been tested at the genome scale. We performed a population genomic study of convergent local adaptation among two distantly related species, lodgepole pine and interior spruce. We identified a suite of 47 genes, enriched for duplicated genes, with variants associated with spatial variation in temperature or cold hardiness in both species, providing evidence of convergent local adaptation despite 140 million years of separate evolution. These results show that adaptation to climate can be genetically constrained, with certain key genes playing nonredundant roles. (1 of 2)
** These authors contributed equally to this work:  Sam Yeaman 1,2,*, Kathryn A. Hodgins 3,*, Katie E. Lotterhos 4, Haktan Suren 5, Simon Nadeau 2, Jon C. Degner 2, Kristin A. Nurkowski 3, Pia Smets 2, Tongli Wang 2, Laura K. Gray 6, Katharina J. Liepe 6, Andreas Hamann 6, Jason A. Holliday 5, Michael C. Whitlock 7, Loren H. Rieseberg 8, Sally N. Aitken 2,†
Monday 24 October 2016 / Hour 3, Block D:  Sally Aitken, University of British Columbia, in re: “Convergent local adaptation to climate in distantly related conifers” (2 of 2)
 
Hour Four
Monday 24 October 2016 / Hour 4, Block A:  Josh Rogin, Washington Post, in re: Why is Trump rooting against U.S. troops in Mosul?  For months, Donald Trump has been promising to be tough on the Islamic State and has criticized the Obama administration for not taking the fight to the terrorists. Now that the battle of Mosul is under way, Trump has become a cheerleader for the failure of the mission while promoting a conspiracy theory that it’s all about him.
On Sunday, Trump tweeted that the ongoing Iraqi-led offensive against the Islamic State’s stronghold in Mosul was failing: . . . https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/josh-rogin/wp/2016/10/24/why-is-trump-rooting-against-u-s-troops-in-mosul/?utm_term=.ba88813b4d0c
Monday 24 October 2016 / Hour 4, Block B: Ken Croswell, New Scientist, in re: Another New Scientist scoop:  https://www.newscientist.com/article/2110005-double-star-may-light-up-the-sky-as-rare-red-nova-in-six-years/ .
Monday 24 October 2016 / Hour 4, Block C:  Justin Scheck, WSJ, in re: Tramadol: The Opioid Crisis for the Rest of the World  The root from northern Cameroon had such high levels of a painkiller called tramadol that mice given an extract and placed on a hot plate didn’t feel their feet burning at first.  (1 of 2)  http://www.wsj.com/articles/tramadol-the-opioid-crisis-for-the-rest-of-the-world-1476887401
Monday 24 October 2016 / Hour 4, Block D:   Justin Scheck, WSJ, in re: Tramadol: The Opioid Crisis for the Rest of the World  (2 of 2)