Photo, left:  Rent-a-banner (Walmart?).  Dollar Store ISIS.  Notice the guy with a flag and no weapon.  ("Don't trust him with a gun; just give him a flag.")
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
 
Hour One
Monday  3 August 2015 / Hour 1, Block A: Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD, & Thomas Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor, in re: Islamic State claims camp in Pakistan’s tribal areas  THREAT MATRIXIf the images released by the Islamic State supporter are legitimate, then Khorasan province now has a foothold in Waziristan, the epicenter of al Qaeda's base of support in Pakistan.  read →  Show of force to prove that it's in charge. Meanwhile, Quetta Shura is . . .   Coup within the Taliban but ISIS maintains a presence.  Siraj Haqqani, in the al Q shura, one of two deputy emirs to Mansour.
Former Guantanamo detainee Mullah Zakir supports new Taliban emir  According to a letter attributed to Mullah Adbul Qayoum Zakir, the former Quantanamo Bay detainee denied reports that he is at odds with new Taliban emir Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour.  read →
Taliban deny reports of Jalaluddin Haqqani’s death THREAT MATRIX  Reports surfaced that veteran jihadist leader Jalaluddin Haqqani died in 2014, but the Afghan Taliban have gone on the record stating that the patriarch of the Haqqani Network is alive.  =read →
Al Qaeda’s branch in Syria says it captured US-backed rebels The Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda's official branch in Syria, has released a statement claiming to have captured US-trained rebels belonging to a group called "Division 30." The Pentagon denied reports earlier this week that US-backed fighters had been captured by al Qaeda's jihadists. 
Monday  3 August 2015 / Hour 1, Block B: Ted Sheely, WSJ and farmer in California’s San Joaquin Valley who volunteers as a board member of The Truth About Trade & Technology, a farming-advocacy nonprofit; in re: California Farmers Aren’t the Water Hogs   You wouldn’t know it from the environmentalist rhetoric, but in the agricultural business we try not to waste a drop.   Normally we farm 100% of our acreage; in the drought, I wind up keeping pistachios and grapes since I'd lose them entirely if I ceased watering. 35% of my acreage has nothing on it – 35% of the best farmland on the planet.  Forty yrs ago, $8/acre-foot; now $2,500 per acre-foot. We had a contract with the Fed to buy water; then it passed the CVPIA [?[; which used some then more then more water for endangered species. I've had to fallow some of my property and lay off workers.  We use subsurface drip irrigation to roots, no evaporation, no weeds. California has plenty of water for farming and for the populace; environmentalists say, "absent this water, species will disappear" – and they have been disappearing nonetheless, even though half the water now goes to them.  All the California show melt is not saved!!  Half the state's water is being used, half is allowed to disappear every spring.  Ag is the biggest user of the developed water: we used 40% of the remaining water.  We're running at 98% efficiency - with those water costs, we don't apply one gallon more than we need.
Monday  3 August 2015 / Hour 1, Block C: Gordon Chang, Forbes.com, in re: China demands that a rich Chinese who fled the country and has defected to the US, Mr Ling Wang Chen, be returned from the US to China.  His brother is Ling Ji-wah, who was with Hu Jintao, Xi Jinping's predecessor whom Xi is trying to undermine.  . . .  US intell has consistently missed the Chinese power structure; the system there is unstable and US intell holds otherwise: they actually want to send back this defector!  This Administration thinks that if the US is nice to China, China will be nice to US. XI is deeply anti-American and is trying to undermine us globally; is collaborating with Russia to do this. Thaddeus: The US is being supporting the Chinese regime in order to collapse it? The economy is bad, people fleeing right and left – and the White House is sweet to the tyrants?  This is just like Iran in 2009 in the Green Revolution – when this White House refused even to acknowledge the vast numbers of Iranians in the streets trying to overturn the mullahs.  China wants to hold our head underwater; we should do the same thing in return. "The US has been at best a mixed actor on the world stage."  We  need better China policies: they threaten the US.
Secret NSA Map Pinpoints China's Cyberattack Victims A newly released NSA map reportedly shows the spots where China has attacked U.S. companies over the past five years.
Monday  3 August 2015 / Hour 1, Block D:  Brendan Bordelon, National Review, in re:  (Lots of sigint; eke the Med with the oceanic migrations that will include ISIS.  Breedlove wants a concentration of analysts – with communication at the speed of light.)  House Intel [Select Committee] Chair Devin Nunes’s One-Man War on the Pentagon The powerful Republican is battling the DoD to move a massive intelligence complex to an isolated island in the Azores, at a reported extra cost of $1.2 billion. Why? Air-traffic controllers waved off the plane carrying Representative Devin Nunes (R., Calif.) and several congressmen from the House Intelligence Committee as it descended toward the single runway at Lajes Field, a sleepy U.S. Air Force base perched along a windswept Azores island 1,000 miles from the European mainland. High winds sweeping in from the sea prevented the plane from landing, and the delegation was hastily diverted to an airstrip on a neighboring island 80 miles away.
After months of wrangling with the Defense Department, Nunes and his fellow lawmakers had come to Lajes last May to urge American officials to reverse a planned downsizing of the base. The lawmakers wanted Pentagon officials to instead move a massive, strategically vital intelligence center planned for the United Kingdom to the isolated mid-Atlantic base. The officials objected, citing a cost increase of $1.2 billion and serious operational and logistical concerns, including the base’s single runway and the area’s inclement weather, which the congressmen had experienced just the day before.
An after-action report from a Defense Department engineer shows that the group from Washington wouldn’t take no for an answer. “A few of the members and staffers were very confrontational,” the report reads. “One quote that was repeated several times was, ‘This is going to happen [relocating the intelligence facility to Lajes]. You better jump on board the train or you are going to get run over by it.’” The incident was another skirmish in the increasingly nasty war between Nunes and his allies in Congress and a group of top Pentagon officials over the fate of the obscure airbase. As chairman of the powerful Intelligence Committee, Nunes has brought the full weight of his influence to bear on the . . .   [more]
Hour Two
Monday  3 August 2015 / Hour 2, Block A:  David M Drucker, Washington Examiner Senior Congressional correspondent, & John Fund, National Review Online, in re:
Amid a steady stream of reports about her email practices as secretary of state and possible conflicts of interest involving donations to the Clinton Foundation, Mrs. Clinton’s approval ratings have been falling. The same Quinnipiac survey showed that 51% have an unfavorable view of the former secretary of state, U.S. senator and first lady, compared to 40% who see her in a favorable light. After she left the State Department in 2013, 61% had a favorable view of her; only 34% did not.  HRC distress ; GOP distress ; Biden distress
Monday  3 August 2015 / Hour 2, Block B: David M Drucker, Washington Examiner Senior Congressional correspondent, & John Fund, National Review Online, in re: Mr Trump.
Monday  3 August 2015 / Hour 2, Block C:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Nearly six in 10 American voters, 58 per cent, disapprove of the recently-reached nuclear pact, while 30 per cent approve, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll. Were that translated into the Senate and House, would be an override of the impending veto. Senate goes home on Friday; House already out. This is two-to-one – a thoroughly surprising number. However, people sell the American public short,  but in fact Americans know perfectly well that Iran is untrustworthy; they heard of the secret agreement,. French natl security advisor told US Congress that there's a much better deal to be had if this one is rejected.  The 8-yr and 5-yr bans can be suspended by Iran's deeds and that's not in the [public] agreement.   It's hard for us to believe that a country that keeps screaming "Death to America" ought to get a nuclear weapon. It's violate 20 intl agreements, has lied consistently to the IAEA, and now forbid anytime-anywhere inspections,. Dispute mechanism is deeply flawed; forget the much-touted "snapback" inspections. ICBMs.  Saudi Turkey, Qatar, others all getting nukes in reaction.    Ali Akhbar Velayati, senior advisor to the Supreme Leader: "Regardless of interpretation, the P5+1 entry into our nuclear sites is completely forbidden. This is not subject to discussion and is final."  This is precisely what Kerry and _____ said was not true.  "We're proud of our support of terrorism. "We're not required to accept everything passed by the Security Council." "We'll obtain whatever weapons we want except chem. weapons, which are forbidden internationally." The mullahs seem to know that in his lust for this agreement, Pres Obama will stop at nothing.  . . . "We want Israel eliminated because of its support for the Great Satan."
http://www.timesofisrael.com/during-kerrys-visit-gulf-allies-hail-reassu...
Monday  3 August 2015 / Hour 2, Block D: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: John Kerry in pursuit of the Nobel Prize . . .  off to Cairo and the Gulf Cooperation Council. CGCC summit where Kerry and Lavrov were present at the same time.  The Saudis are the most enraged, saying that Israel has a better ability to defend itself against Iran than Saudis do. US has promised to send F16s as a bribe; then al Azhar condemned Iranian interference, constituting criticism of the deal.  Iran is offering all sorts of weapons systems, Russia and the S300: upgraded for Iran (cancelled deal in 2010; now renewed in April).  Re-release of the ayatollah's speeches: how to turn the Jews of the Middle East into dhimmis. Competition with ISIS, also in the Supreme Leader's new book: hegemony of Iran will be overriding in the region.  He above all condemns Israel as a loyal ally of the Great Satan.   He uses words for effacement and annihilation, but in fact refers to low-grade wearing-down.  He asserts that Palestinians and their relatives worldwide are entitled to vote to rid Israel of the Jews.
The new Sunni-Shia divide in Washington: Mrs Clinton's Huma Abedin, and now Mr Kerry's new son-in-law, an Iranian.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/americans-growing-more-skeptical-of-iran-de... ; http://www.timesofisrael.com/ex-security-chiefs-urge-netanyahu-to-accept-iran-deal/
 
Hour Three
Monday  3 August 2015 / Hour 3, Block A:  Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal editorial board & OpinionJournal.com; in re:  Will Joe Biden Jump In?   Editorial Page Editor Paul Gigot on why the Vice President may challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Monday  3 August 2015 / Hour 3, Block B: Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal editorial board & OpinionJournal.com; in re:  Scamming Obamacare  Bartley Fellow Nicholas Desatnick on a recent Government Accountability Office investigation into the website’s lax controls.   Opinion Journal: The Price of Curbing Carbon  Editorial Page Editor Paul Gigot discusses the Clean Power Plan, the first-ever national standard imposed on existing power plants. Photos: Getty Images
Monday  3 August 2015 / Hour 3, Block C:  Robert Nelson, PERC Montana, in re:  manageable ecology of national forests. (1 of 2)
Monday  3 August 2015 / Hour 3, Block D: Robert Nelson, PERC Montana, in re:  manageable ecology of national forests. (2 of 2)
 
Hour Four
Monday  3 August 2015 / Hour 4, Block A:  Ty Rogoway, Foxtrot Alpha, in re:
Monday  3 August 2015 / Hour 4, Block B: Simon Constable, TheStreet.com;  Forbes.com; Barron’s; & author, The WSJ Guide to the Fifty Economic Indicators That Really Matter; in re: TheStreet: 10 Secrets to Kickstarter Success (It's Not About Facebook).   .
Monday  3 August 2015 / Hour 4, Block C: Paul R. Gregory, Hoover & Forbes, in  Russia's Veto of The MH17 UN Criminal Tribunal Is an Admission of Guilt Vladimir Putin is minimizing his losses. Yesterday, Russia vetoed the UN resolution (proposed by the four countries that suffered the greatest loss of human life) to form a Criminal Tribunal to punish those directly and indirectly responsible for the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17. Of the 15 members of the Security Council, 11 voted for the tribunal, three Russian-friendly countries abstained, while Russia cast its veto. Russia, which officially claims to have nothing to do with the tragedy and lost no citizens, justified its veto by asserting that a UN Criminal Tribunal appointed by the UN Secretary General will turn into a “political show.” There can be no other conclusion, writes a Russian opposition figure: In its “panic” to avoid a real investigation, Russia has “admitted its guilt” with its UN veto. . . .
If Russia were innocent (and Ukraine or the U.S. were guilty instead, as Russian propaganda claims), why would it object to a tribunal? Especially one formed by the UN, where the country has its share of allies.. . .  [more]
Monday  3 August 2015 / Hour 4, Block D:   Kate Galbraith,  , in re: http://www.calmatters.org/articles/california-climate-change-policy-overview/
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