JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, the Great Voice of the Great Lakes
 
Hour One
Monday 6 January 2020 / 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: The US shot down Yamamoto and changed the course of the Second War. Yamamoto and Soleimani both showed arrogance and sloppiness. Mohandas was also the deputy leader of the Popular Mobilization Forces, which reports to the Iraqi PM, being the Iraqi equivalent of the IRGC.  Mohandas, also, was responsible for killing at least hundreds of people. He and Soleimani worked closely together.  See the Reuters report on the plot they were working on.  The Exile is a book in which Soleimani is profiled.  IRGC Quds Force had strong, if irregular, working relations with al Qaeda.
Monday 6 January 2020 / Hour 1, Block B: Tom Joscelyn, Long War Journal and FDD; and Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD; in re:  Al Qaeda and Taliban linger to taunt the authorities.  This last attack was in Kenya, not Somalia. 
Monday 6 January 2020 / Hour 1, Block C: Gordon Chang, Daily Beast, in re: Both Russia and China dominate the World Island; last week, a naval drill with Iran.  China has very long had deep links with Iran, which wouldn't have a nuclear weapons program had it not been fed by China.   China says, “Iran wouldn’t have foresworn its halt to its nuclear weapons program were it not for the US, whose fault it is.”  At this moment, Chinese tankers turn off their tracking devices in order to onload Iranian oil, ignoring sanctions.  The chocolate cake phase.  . . .  Trump has basically said that, in offering to bomb cultural sites, he acknowledges no limits; and, with national cultural sites damaged, the regime will be even less loved by a hostile populace.   If the current Iranian regime gone way, China is in trouble.
The Chinese pneumonia from Wuhan (in central China) is not an ordinary malady; seems to be out of control in China. Medical workers in biosuits at the University of Hong Kong. May not be exactly pneumonia, either.  Chinese regime hasn't learned anything since SARS, fifteen years ago.
Monday 6 January 2020 / Hour 1, Block D: Michael Yon, @Michael_Yon, Hong Kong reporter, in re:  A new bully boy brought in to rule Hong Kong out of Beijing. Not a really good idea.  A bully is the last thing to bring in to a deeply disaffected Hong Kong. Video of a non-Chinese-born cop with Michael Yon, Bradley Rice[?], head of Mong Kok police, speaks with a British accent. Michael accused him of being a sell-out; he replied in front of cameras that he was “just doing his job”— which hearkens back to Nuremburg.  Hong Kongers tend to be very circumspect; and they’re good counterpunchers.  Also: apparent civilians carrying fold-up batons who pepper-spray civilians and even other undercover cops.  Weird and unwholesome. 
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hongkong-protests-china-liasion/new-c...
 
Hour Two 
Monday 6 January 2020 / Hour 2, Block A:  David M Drucker, Washington Examiner, & John Fund, NRO, in re:  We’re melodrama’ed out with the Soleimani killing and the (where is it?) impeachment.  Senate reconvenes tomorrow. Should John Bolton testify?  . . .  Polls on Trump were at 47% even before the Soleimani killing.  Astonishing event could be that the president of the US get a sympathy vote because of an overseas attack on his corporate or personal property.  Democratic politicians were not given a heads-up about the hit on Soleimani . . . and the president seems to be gaining, not losing, public approbation. Congress can do whatever it wants; problem is, it tends not to be jealous of its own power.
If you don't like what President Trump is doing, wait five minutes; if you like what President Trump is doing, wait five minutes.
Monday 6 January 2020 / Hour 2, Block B:  John Fund, NRO, & David M Drucker, Washington Examiner, in re:  . . . .
Monday 6 January 2020 / Hour 2, Block C:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Soleimani’s death; gangsters who ran Murder Inc. The reaction is critical for the success of the US and our ally Israel.
Monday 6 January 2020 / Hour 2, Block D:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:
 
Hour Three
Monday 6 January 2020 / Hour 3, Block A:   Brenda Shaffer, Georgetown University, in re: Azerbaijan is a Shi’a nation, generous and welcoming of all faiths and ethnicities.  Immediately following the death of a monster, Soleimani:  Azerbaijan is a Shia nation, culturally generous.  Iran has lowered its flag at its Baku embassy.
Azerbaijan has had a great year, has reduced its debt and increased its foreign currency.  Iran has had a bad one, specially under US sanctions.  Oil at $77 /Bbl.    About one-third of the Iranian population is originally Azerbaijani; even the Supreme Leader Khamenei is of that ethnicity. I don't believe that “millions of Iranians [willingly] attended the funeral,” as reported. As long as this crisis carries on, Russia benefits from the high price of oil; and Russia and Iran as far from being allies. Israel and Azerbaijan have worked together closely for years.  The ICC threatens to travel to Israel to bring charges of war crimes.  Does that suggest that it might one day even look in to the matter of Nargorno-Karabakh?  Maybe – Azerbaijan, Georgia, and other territories. 
Nicaragua is the only nation that recognizes the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Monday 6 January 2020 / Hour 3, Block B:  Lou Ann Hammond, DrivingtheNation.com, in re: Carlos Ghosn, long the successful and frankly brilliant head of Nissan/Renault; now fugitive from Japan in Lebanon. Charged with squandering or arrogating large amounts of money.  Travelled to Osaka by bullet train, into a private aircraft in a huge music box, flew to Turkey and thence to Lebanon. In Ghosn’s absence, stock prices for both Nissan and Renault have gone down ar0und 40%.  Renault has brought in a bunch of Michelin people, who are wonderfully responsible.   Under Ghosn, the two firms shard components; but when Renault wanted to have a bit more say, and also bring in Mitsubishi, Nissan directors thought, “Whoa!”  Banks own most of Nissan stock. 
Fujimori, former Peruvian president, got in trouble for bribery, embezzlement, murder, horrid deeds, and claimed harbor in Japan, which has no extradition treaty with Peru.  . .  . My opinion is that Ghosn would do best to stay in Lebanon. It’s probably a lot more convenient for Japan to have Ghosn gone gone gone.
Monday 6 January 2020 / Hour 3, Block C:  Gregory Copley, Defense and Foreign Affairs, in re: On New Year’s Eve, the attack on the American embassy compound in Ira by a terrorist proxy of Iran. Dead with Solemani, the planner, is Mohandas, who headed the Iraqi forces..  How these attacks and deaths affect the region.   A fairly desperate and strategically ignorant leader, Ali Khamenei: told Pres Rouhani and FM Zarif that they could not continue talks with the US, which had begun in Baghdad.  Khamenei aid, “We need a war with the US because that’s what saved Khomeini in the [early 1980s].  Khamenei thought that would save his leadership, in view of the recent riot in the streets of Iran.  He thought hat attacking the [December] US embassy in Baghdad would be best, and that the US would more or less accept to leave quietly.
Soleimani flew into Baghdad this time, which he never did, but this time broke his own rule, was met at airport by Abu Mahdi al Mohandas. Which is when they were targetted.
Trump has consistently avoided direct conflict. The options the Pentagon presented were,  in fact, far more violent than what was done.  Khamenei made a major blunder; as he grows more desperate, the next blunder will be greater – probably attacking Israel, which would be the end of, among other things, Khamenei’s rule.
A swarm attack might overwhelm Israel’s ability to defend itself, in all instances but Israeli nuclear capability would be in the air, and second-level reaction also.
The whole escalation-toward-Israel is partly based on its thought that it can obliterate Israel without response. Now, after Soleimani, Khamenei probably will be more cautious. He’s old, ill, and somewhat delusional. Wants to empower his son to replace him, which probably won't happen.  Khamenei actually thought that the US was [fearful and nonresponsive] even though Moscow urged more caution. Iran was happy to do joint exercises with Russia and the PRC, but it nonetheless wasn’t [deeply cooperating with them].  They provided camouflage that led Khamenei to misjudge everything.  Soleimani was probably the only one who could have corrected Khamenei, but the former has been replaced by someone very capable.
Monday 6 January 2020 / Hour 3, Block D:   Gregory Copley, Defense and Foreign Affairs, in re: Australian fires: the culmination of two decades of ultra-Green policies, plus 98 people arrested in Queensland, alone, for intentionally staring fires.  Historically, famers built firebreaks, esp in winter and spring. The Greens stopped that, saying it was “against Nature.”  A farmer spent $100,000  to fight government charges when he built firebreaks around his house. Turns out that when the ghastly fires came to his neighborhood, only his survived.   All the Green politicians are urban people, not rural!  PM Scott Morrison had to hedge his speech.  Need to return to proper land and water management.
 
Hour Four
Monday 6 January 2020 / Hour 4, Block A:  [book]
Monday 6 January 2020 / Hour 4, Block B:  [book]
Monday 6 January 2020 / Hour 4, Block C:  [book]
Monday 6 January 2020 / Hour 4, Block D:  [book]
..  ..  ..