Photo, left: Four thousand year old Dolmen of Upper Galilee.
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, The Great Voice of the Great Lakes
 
Hour One
Monday 6 March 2017  / Hour 1, Block A: Tom Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor & FDD, in re:  Al Qaeda grows carefully  and robustly. 
Monday 6 March 2017  / Hour 1, Block B: Tom Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor & FDD, in re:  Al Qaeda grows carefully  and robustly.  It now spans from westernmost Africa to Southeast Asia.  This is vastly larger than it was in 2001. 
Monday 6 March 2017  / Hour 1, Block C:  Gordon G. Chang, Daily Beast & Forbes.com, in re: THAAD in South Korea to protect against missile strikes from Kim Jong-il.   North Korea’s expansion of its military program and considerable income from selling materiel and delivery systems to other rogue states – Pakistan, Iran, China, inter al.  Test of American political will as China warns against deploying THAAD; Trump administration appears to be responding wisely. 
DPRK missiles are a Chinese proxy to intimidate South Korea.  China tests the new US administration.  Fortunately, SecDef Mattis’s first overseas visit was to South Korea.
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Beijing, after arming North Korea, is trying to intimidate South Korea into not defending itself, a bold attempt to get Seoul to not host an American missile-defense system.  As China's actions undermine U.S. security, it looks like time for Washington to come to the aid of its ally. https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonchang/2017/03/05/china-trying-to-crush-south-koreas-economy/#4545c8d3349c
Monday 6 March 2017  / Hour 1, Block D: Alan Tonelson, independent blogger, and Gordon G. Chang, Daily Beast & Forbes.com, in re:  Chinese growth at 6.5%?  D’you believe that? Mr Wang waxes thrilled with this amazing report.  Unh – the Chinese growth target keeps going down; problem for a dictatorship.  When growth slows and the prospect looms of people being thrown out of work, that constitutes a puzzle.   They’d probably have to step up exports to the US to solve this; in 2016, trade surplus was $360 bil.  Just printing more money and building empty cities hasn't worked.  The election of Pres Trump has created an obstacle to that sort of export plans.  However, Trump doesn’t even have half-full staffing yet – Wilbur Ross was accepted only last week, and others are being blocked by Congressional slow-walking.  Also: there simply exist  few knowledgable people in these matters who cleave to a Trumpian ethos on trade.  Hie thee out to buy more Chinese goods.
 
Hour Two
Monday 6 March 2017  / Hour 2, Block A:   David M Drucker, Washington Examiner Senior Congressional correspondent; John Fund, NRO, in re:  The emperor has no clothes?  No, no; he looks wonderful  . . .   The president initiates tweetstorms on Saturday morning from Mar-a-Lago when his staff isn’t with him and his son-in-law is hors de combat from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.  These tweets seriously damage his credibility and capacity to function at a sophisticated level   . . . Insurgents and pragmatists in Congress; taxes and health care. 
Monday 6 March 2017  / Hour 2, Block B: David M Drucker, Washington Examiner Senior Congressional correspondent; John Fund, NRO, in re:  The Democratic strategy to deal with Trump legislation is: Russia, Russia, Russia. They actually believe that the election was stolen from them by Russians.  The Labour Party in England lost a bunch of successive elections, realized it had to lighten up on socialism and grow more centrist to win. The Democrats have gone the other way. Russia  will dominate the first year of this administration.   The Democratic base is so enraged that the Hill can't d anything strategic, work toward long-term impact. Rod Rosenstein to the center ring for haring as Deputy Attorney General.
 
Monday 6 March 2017  / Hour 2, Block C: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:   Mr  Esfahani, an Iranian-Canadian member of Iran’s negotiating team on the Iran deal is suddenly indicted by an Iranian court.  Others also, some serving ten-year sentences. . . . USS Invincible had a close encounter - 150 yards- of an Iranian vessel taking aggressive provocations.    Iran is aiming to have its arsenal explode in 2020. In Yemen Houthis are mfrg drones under instruction from Iran (IRGC); missiles can hit Saudi territory.  Hamas and Hezbollah are deploying unmanned aerial aircraft from Iran.  Russian S-300, very advanced system, deployed in Syria, proves effective; poses a grave danger to Golan Heights.  Head of Knesset Foreign Affairs Committee spoke plainly of dangers. In Lebanon the Maronite Pres Aoun, this year a minion of Hezbollah, supports the dangers.  Back to Russia: must Moscow choose between Jerusalem and Teheran? It's coming to that – Iran intends to build a permanent base in Syria, which Israel dare not allow. Netanyahu has appealed to Moscow not to support that, which would create a base for he “Shi’a Crescent” whereby Iran would have achieved its goal of regional hegemony from Iran to the Mediterranean.  Today Rouhani met with Erdogan of Turkey; put a Band-Aid on a large wound of frayed relations.
Monday 6 March 2017  / Hour 2, Block D: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:  Indiana Hoenlein, travelling back 4,000 years to a megalithic structure in the Holy Land,  in the Upper Galillee.   The deep discovery of a dolmen – a rock assembly into a significant structure
.Lots of tells, dating back 4,00 and 5,00 years; this one is from the Bronze Age.   Man, woman and child were laid to rest under the fifty-ton dolman; offerings of ceramic pots, mysterious symbols.  Goes into Syria, Lebanon, the whole area; estimate 5,000 such rock tombs nearby.  These change scientific theories of the history of this region. Thirteen feet long, almost as wide, weighs fifty tons.   Suggests a complex societal structure in order to build such massive monuments.  . . .  PM Modi, India, will visit Israel looking at trade and other cooperative possibilities.  He may not even visit Palestinians this time.  Gov Cuomo announced a New York-Israel Commission to foster ties between New York State and Israel; twenty members, of which Malcolm Hoenlein is a leading member, on economy, trade, education, cultural, security exchanges.
Hour Three
Monday 6 March 2017  / Hour 3, Block A:   Josh Rogin, WSJ, in re; VP Mike Pence, who has a careful eye about the team he’s assembling. Gave a reassuring speech at he Munich Security Conference, where the Secretary of State was not.  Has a supportive structure; long been close to the president, and now has a portfolio: Asia.  Will exert his influence carefully, not get crosswise with anyone, but build up his responsibilities.  He will not be a proxy for a neo-Conservative policy establishment; will promote the president’s policies, not McCain’s or Graham’s. He’s a sharp thinker, able, well-briefed and el-versed; been dealing with these matters for decades. Disciplined.  His team are intell and military people.  Secretary of State Rex Tillerson: has appealed the WH initial budget proposal to slash his budget 30-plus%. 
Monday 6 March 2017  / Hour 3, Block B:   Harry Siegel, Daily Beast and New York Daily News, in re:  DeBlasio lobbyist, James Capalino; last year made $13 mil. Working Families Party. ACORN. DeBlasio is raising enormous amounts of money across the country; hungry to be a national figure.    Preet Bharara: answers will come soon. Tammany Hall never sleeps. 
Dinosaurs: In China in 2008, fossil evidence of a bird, a foetus inside its ribcage.
Monday 6 March 2017  / Hour 3, Block C:   Larry Johnson, No Quarter, in re: how to surveille a US citizen without getting caught by US investigators.  FISA court set up so a judge could sign off in case of actual suspicion of real espionage. NSA (massive sigint); is forbidden to collect info on US citizens, has a deal with the UK’s GHCQ, the comparable organization,  whereby GHCQ, having no such prohibition, collects info on Americans and NSA collects info on Britons, and they share.  No Senate Select Committee or the like will have access to this.  Seems fairly likely that Trump was alerted to this practice.
Monday 6 March 2017  / Hour 3, Block D: Jed Babbin in re: why McMaster is wrong for National Security Adviser. 
 
Hour Four
Monday 6 March 2017  / Hour 4, Block A:  Brothers at Arms: American Independence and the Men of France and Spain Who Saved It; by Larrie D. Ferreiro, part I of IV; segment 1 of 2
Monday 6 March 2017  / Hour 4, Block B:  Brothers at Arms: American Independence and the Men of France and Spain Who Saved It; by Larrie D. Ferreiro, part I of IV; segment 2 of 2
Monday 6 March 2017  / Hour 4, Block C:  Sam Tadros, in re: Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. 
Monday 6 March 2017  / Hour 4, Block D:   Henry Miller, physician and Hoover Institution, in re: the Avian flu threat
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