The John Batchelor Show

Monday 27 June 2016

Air Date: 
June 27, 2016

Photo, left: 
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, The Great Voice of the Great Lakes
 
Hour One
Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 1, Block A: Bill Roggio, Long War Journal senior editor  & FDD, in re: Afghanistan. Syria. Iraq.   Whether or not the UK leaves Brussels, the pirate states are pressing on.  Taliban in Ghazni Province: claim that the Afgh govt is putting out false claims – and Taliban are right. US is finally issuing air strikes against Taliban: too little too late. Afghan army is in retreat; any US plan is not working.  / Syria:  Three Russian soldiers allegedly killed on the roadside . . . Russian military says that’s not true.  Is this video designed to undermine Russian support within the population? What's the goal in issuing such a vid? First, for ISIS followers. Second, to embarrass Putin.  / Al Qaeda, Jaish al Fatah – the army of conquest: in Aleppo.  Has it been aided by US air power?  Not intensively, but, unh, yes a handful of strikes against al Nusrah Front (the Khorasan Group), where the US considerably helped al Qaeda. / Syria:  The US has no discernable plan here; ki==like WWII, where each side advanced and retreated. Can yu say that Syria remains a totally nontransparent collapse.  It's Mad Max Land.   Afghanistan: failure.  Syria: failure. The Great Voice of the Great Lakes? Success.
Islamic State claims 3 Russian soldiers killed in Syria The Islamic State's Amaq News Agency claims that three Russian soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Syria. The claim could not be immediately verified. In recent days, the Russian-Syrian-Iranian axis has suffered setbacks along the same road where the Russians were allegedly killed. [Update: A Russian Defense Ministry spokesman subsequently denied Amaq's claim.]
Taliban deny Ghazni shadow governor killed in airstrike. The Afghan Taliban denied government claims that its shadow governor for the important southeastern province of Ghazni was killed last weekend in an airstrike. Ghazni has served as a haven for the Taliban and its ally, al Qaeda.  Afghanistan’s Ministry of the Interior claimed on June 18 that Mullah Mohammad Qasim and an undisclosed number of fighters were killed in an airstrike in the Aab Band district of Ghazni. The strike also destroyed several vehicles and motorcycles,  “According to MoI [the Ministry of Interior], Mullah Qasim had a major role in terrorist activities in various parts of Ghazni province and his death will have a positive result on security situation of the province,” Khaama Press noted.  The Taliban quickly denied reports of Qasim’s death. Spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid rejected reports that Qasim was killed, and described the Ministry of Interior’s claim as “the enemy’s propaganda.”  “We strongly reject the enemy’s propaganda. Nothing has happened to our Ghazni governor Mawlawi Mohammad Qasim Samim; he is alive and occupied with his jihadist work,” Mujahid said in an official statement released on Voice of Jihad’s Pashto-language website.
Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 1, Block B: Bill Roggio, Long War Journal senior editor  & FDD, in re:  Measuring the Obama Adm ‘s last months.  The sum is disappointment. Last week, the Iraqi govt (so to speak) presented Fallujah as a success.  Late last week the Iraqi PM claimed success – a third to  half of the city was taken by Iranians supported buy US air support.  Today, claim of more success.  Late last week, vid of an Iranian supposedly captured by unidentified militants – this may in fact be a vid from 2005 or 2006.  Dunno why it was circulated.  Beside the matter of it increasing Iranian influence. People say, “Who cares? It’s beating the  Islamic State.” ISIS”  We reply, if you're worried about ISIS wait till Iran takes over the entire region.”  AQAP lost its provincial capital in Yemen; withdrew from Zinjibar and other places into the county side; but now have moved back in. Not defeated.  / Islamic State officially creates province in the Philippines Abu Khubaib The video is the culmination of the Islamic State's build up of its propaganda and activity in the region. / Nothing but defeat and despair for the good guys,
Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 1, Block C:  Gordon G. Chang, Daily Beast & Forbes.com; Josh Rogin, Washington Post Policy Column, in re: Does the Obama Adm hope to get out of the way before China militarizes Scarborough Shoals after the Hague Court ruling.  I went to Singapore to the Shangri-La Dialogue,  Finally decided to institute a robust plant on the matter: increasing budgets and defense moves, Even so, Chinese expansion and increasingly aggressive moves against neighbors move ahead. I conclude that Obama has no Plan B. Is this a defect of this administration, or is it a recurring problem of a liberal democracy doing what they always do in face of aggression, which is to wilt?  . . . Obama Adm has a strategy, but it has yet to work, Zillions of meeting, memos, etc.; but not acknowledged that there’s no result, and no contingency plan. Trying but failing.    . . .  In the end, we know how this Adm deals: don't believe that most dipl tools don’t work, so think that to do less is more.  Not invested in solving this. / Is this a face issue for Xi Jinping?  US officials were surprised at eh pain Xi is willing to endure to pursue his long-term plans, claims on 2/3 of the territory in the near abroad.    / Peoples Daily says China will gladly take a second shoal.  . . .  I just don’t believe that the US can actively promote a neutral position and then help allies; can't be half-in, half-out. Short of war, which no one wants, does the Adm think the US no longer has the economic ability to fight?   . . . China taking over . . . Pentagon on its topic; NSC on climate; State on something else. 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/the-obama-administration-is-failing-to-stop-chinas-pacific-aggression/2016/06/23/fce65f98-396c-11e6-8f7c-d4c723a2becb_story.html
The Obama administration is failing to stop China’s Pacific aggression    This month, on their way from Taiwan to Japan, a group of U.S. senators inadvertently flew over a set of islands that both the Chinese and Japanese claim as their own. The Chinese government was incensed.
Beijing announced June 25 it has closed the cross Taiwan Strait contact and communication mechanism because the new Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) president, Tsai Ing-wen, has not officially accepted the One China principle, Al Jazeera reported. Unlike its predecessor, the Nationalist Party, DPP is less committed to the idea that Taiwan and China are one nation. This has been the consensus between Taipei and Beijing since 1992, when the rival governments recognized agreement on the subject but not on who was the legitimate ruler. Tsai has said she is not interested in breaking the status quo, but Beijing is still wary, engaging in a number of international moves to intimidate the DPP. The diplomatic truce between Taipei and Beijing now appears to be broken, highlighting nascent tension between China and Taiwan’s new, potentially uncooperative ruling party.
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Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 1, Block D: Francis Rose, NationalDefenseWeek.com (WMAL) and francisrose.com, and now Channel 7 in Washington; and Channel 8 daily: "Government matters" six days a week;  in re: Brussels is puzzled; Labour overturns Corbyn; Johnson chooses the short straw – no clarity in Brexit. Defense industry: three themes –
1.  Expect UK long-term economic downturn, meaning reduced contributions to NATO & UK military.
2.  US has significantly cut down on its presence in Europe.
3.  Possibility of increase in tension with Russia – US lack of resolve, ltd resources etc.  Putin could be a more aggressive on his outer edges. Russia can act at its will not solely because of Brexit, but because this is another stopover , the next step in US lack of interest or ability to move.
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Economic uncertainty is the major factor. Jeff Miller leads veterans’s affairs in the House: he will retire from Congress; he was among the first to endorse Trump, wd he like to be VA Secretary?  Nonspecific; will go home to Florida and consider all offers.  
Link to my latest interview with Jeff Miller: http://govmatters.tv/firing-authority-at-veterans-affairs/
Brexit and defense: Washington inside sources say the themes are:
--expected British economic turmoil means reduced UK contribution to NATO
--minimal impact on US interaction with countries still in EU
--potential to increase tension with Russia, as Putin may conclude combo of US lack of resolve and EU lack of resources = a vulnerable Europe.  National Defense Week topic of interest:
http://www.peosoldier.army.mil/sep/  .  The Army wants soldiers to submit commercial products for review and possible addition to soldier portfolio.
National Defense Week News, June 26, 2016  Thanks for your interest in National Defense Week. Here's this week's lineup:  Finding low-cost commercial solutions for Army challenges and problems is the basis for the Soldier Enhancement Program. The program’s based in the Army’s Program Executive Officer Soldier. Major Trent Wilhite, Assistant Product Manager of the Soldier
 
 
Hour Two
Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 2, Block A: David M Drucker, Senior Congressional correspondent, Washington Examiner, and John Fund, NRO, in re: John Fund just returned from London and the Brexit excitement.    Polls on candidates: 132 days toll the general election; the trend is weak for the Republican candidate.  Actually, fewer than 132 because of early voting, We could have terrorist attacks, a recession, anything; Clinton could be indicted; Trump can shift modes.  Likely to be decided by 5 points or less; Clinton’s advantage because she scaled up early.  Clinton will spend $112 million starting July 5.  However, Trump is in worse shape in favorable ratings.   “I have little money; no ground game, can't keep staff “– if Trump heard that on his TV show, he’d say, “You're fired!”  The depth of the problem for the GOP?  Can’t prognosticate yet – split-ticketing? Clinton has made fewer errors in the last few weeks, but the emails are still a huge problem favoring Trump – unless the Dems dump Mrs Clinton and put in Joe Biden. /  In Westminster: the best Trump card was revolt against Establishment; in England, the swells were repudiated by the voters: you promised Europe would bring us a better life, but it didn't. The Left says “The voters don't know what they’re doing; we need to repudiate their vote.”  They’re not democrats; they're focussed on power for themselves.   . . . Washington’s political sociopaths: noticed that the mother country is breaking away from the EU with similar problems?   Boris Johnson: If we have the courage, we can make this our Independence Day!
David Lammy, the last Labour-party minister for higher education, went further and urged his colleagues in Parliament to ignore the vote and “stop the madness” of Brexit. “Parliament now needs to decide whether we should go forward with Brexit, and there should be a vote in Parliament next week,” he said. “Let us not destroy our economy on the basis of lies and the hubris of [Brexit backer] Boris Johnson.”
Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 2, Block B: David M Drucker, Senior Congressional correspondent, Washington Examiner, and John Fund, NRO, in re:  . . .   Tim Kaine, popular governor, head of DNC, and Irish!   For Clinton, Tim Kaine is the best choice by politics and imagery.  She’s turned her theme vs Trump into competence; with Kaine, he’s been involved in governing and is well-spoken Speaks very fluent Spanish. He does no harm.  Projects confidence but doesn't overplay her hand. Disagree: what would excite the left wd be Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown, and only then Time Kane.   . . . Anyone who becomes Hillary’s VP would have to expect to be a potted plant.  JB: I like Time Kaine a lot – but I’m a Republican, and I don't know if that ‘s a recommendation for the Democratic Party.
A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump in the presidential race by 12 points, 51% to 39%.  “Roughly two in three Americans say they think Trump is unqualified to lead the nation; are anxious about the idea of him as president; believe his comments about women, minorities and Muslims show an unfair bias; and see his attacks on a federal judge because of his Mexican American heritage as racist.”  A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows Clinton leading by five points, 46% to 41%.
Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 2, Block C:  Thaddeus McCotter, in re: Brexit worldwide. . . the economic elite, but it's really the larger matter of the system: cheating the middle class right now, but more importantly their children won't have a better future.   The system is broken when the two parties have put forth two people who've benefitted for the existing system and can't fix it. It's systemic.   David Reid’s book: WWI: 11 million veterans came home, struggled to make sense of their reward for surviving the Depression and winning the war.  Then the great prosperity if h e1950s and 1960s.  This sense that the people in charge aren't listening to us have been here often.  But from ’46 on, the illegal Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe, and demobe – middle class doesn’t want luxe handed to it, just wants a chance to work hard to obtain benefit English: nationalized industry and distributed food – which the Brits in fact thought was the new world, not the sharp elbows and brute force of the US.  . . . State capitalism looks like the world . .  In the US, crony capitalism; people making money off the deindustrialization.  At the end of the day, you need Madisonian balance of interest – no union at all is unbalanced.  Does any of the candidates have a solution that’s not state capitalism? . . .  Corporations leading a consumer-driven economy. . . . Can the American electorate . . .
Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 2, Block D: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Iran showed off parts of its new Russian S-300 missile defense system during National Army Day on April 17, Reuters reported. During an event in Tehran, President Hassan Rouhani said the country's armed forces and its missile defenses were no threat to neighboring countries, but would defend Iran. Russia delivered the first part of the S-300 missile defense system — which can engage multiple aircraft and ballistic missiles around 150 kilometers away — to Iran last week. Russia has said it canceled a contract to deliver S-300s to Iran in 2010 under pressure from the West. But President Vladimir Putin lifted the ban in April 2015, after an interim agreement that paved the way for a full nuclear deal with Iran that ended international sanctions. Since then, Iran's hard-line conservative Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has carried out four ballistic missile tests, upsetting the United States in part to undermine Rouhani and his economic reform efforts that could disrupt Iran's political system.
 
Hour Three
Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 3, Block A:   Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal Editorial Board & host of Opinion Journal on WSJ Video; in re: Brexit.
Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 3, Block B:   John Bolton, AEI, in re:Brexit.
Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 3, Block C:   Harry Siegel, New York Daily News and the Daily Beast, in re: interview with the New York City mayor.
Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 3, Block D:  Michael Ledeen, FDD, in re:   Why is Angela Merkel so quiet in response to Brexit?  There’s a lot of Germans who want to do the same things – it's a global movement, and hardly a country in the EU that’s happy with the EU.   Nobody’s defending the EU – looking for a way out or else how to change it, It's not just a British thing. EU has issues d a ban on dangerous things like toasters and teapots. Everybody hates the EU: tells you how to make cheese.  These people aren't elected, they’re appointed; flying all over and staying in luxury hotels.    – Is this the EU, or the UN, or Congress?  Corrupt, inefficient, ineffective people running govt that are no longer responsible to what people want. It's not just an economic thing, there’s real rage against elites.  Contempt for people who are governing us. Strong all over Latin America, too: Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela.  Congressmen make under $200K, then retire and are worth millions. How? They’re on the take.  The payoffs from the lobbies aren’t postponed any more – people arrest4d and convicted for fraud all the time. I’m appalled at the reporting on Brexit – as though it was a group of crazy Brits who didn't know what they re doing, It's a worldwide movement, transition from a world we knew to one we don't know. A bureaucracy that bans toasters is in trouble.  Vulnerability for charismatic leadership – that’s what to worry about: the emergence of charismatic populist leaders all over Europe.   Europe in turmoil. The globe following.  http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelledeen/2016/06/26/brexit-is-not-a-british-revolution-its-part-of-a-global-revolt/#269c2b073c7a
 
Hour Four
Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 4, Block A: The Paper Trail: An Unexpected History of a Revolutionary Invention, by Alexander Monro   (1 of 4)
Battle of Tallas in todays; Kazakhstan, where Chinese and Muslim armies fight; Muslims win.  It's said that Chinese taught the Muslims how to make paper then.
Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 4, Block B:  The Paper Trail: An Unexpected History of a Revolutionary Invention, by Alexander Monro   (2 of 4)
Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 4, Block C:  The Paper Trail: An Unexpected History of a Revolutionary Invention, by Alexander Monro   (3 of 4)
Monday 11 January 2016 / Hour 4, Block D:  The Paper Trail: An Unexpected History of a Revolutionary Invention, by Alexander Monro   (4 of 4)
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