Thursday 10 December 2015
Photo, left: Street art, Caracas, Venezuela.
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts: Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal Editorial Board & host of Opinion Journal on WSJ Video. Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents.
Hour One
Thursday 10 December 2015 / Hour 1, Block A: Debra J. Saunders, San Francisco Chronicle, in re: California gun laws and the futility of the remarks by CA law enforcement so far. http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/commentary/article/Assault-weapons-ban-wouldn-t-make-us-safer-6684577.php
Thursday 10 December 2015 / Hour 1, Block B: Debra J. Saunders, San Francisco Chronicle, in re:
Thursday 10 December 2015 / Hour 1, Block C: Francis Rose, francisrose.com, in re: VA scandals: Marco Rubio speaks of the travails of his brother Mario, a 65-year-old veteran who needs dental work and has had a devil of a time getting the requisite and promised help. Turns out that even the brother of a US Senator can't get through the thicket. An elderly veteran was beaten to death in Louisiana by Frederick Kevin Harris, a nurse's aide at the VA hospital. [http://www.myarklamiss.com/crime/nursing-assistant-charged-with-manslaug... Harris is out of jail and reporting for work. Prosecutors in Dec 2013 decided that Harris killed someone in march; was charged with manslaughter, not murder, bail down to $10K. The VA decided not to pursue it – but ht coroner did, determined wrongdoing, and referred the investigation to the VA Inspector general – which was held up by the manslaughter, not murder, charge. Btw, Harris also failed to pay his taxes; still gets a federal paycheck. These cases are now showing up art the rate of two a week. It's gone from drip-drip to avalanche. The mother of an Iraq war veteran is selling the letter that the president of the United States sent her: the Dept of Veterans Affairs has accomplished nothing, and she desperately needs money for her son, who saved two other soldiers. His injury was labelled "minor" – but it is not. Rubio: the VA should get out of duplicative health care, vets should have vouchers to hire medical help nearby, and then the VA could specialize in veteran-related medicine. Meanwhile, the VA has spent millions of dollars on artwork for its buildings.
BEST & WORST WORKPLACE: NASA Is the Best Place to Work in Government, Homeland Security Is the Worst — Again The level of job satisfaction among federal employees at agencies with similar missions in areas such as law enforcement and public health varies widely, according to a new analysis of the "Best Places to Work in Government." By Government Executive's Senior Correspondent Kellie Lunney http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/vets-mom-forced-to-sell-obama-letter-to-cover-va-failures-he-promised-to-fix/article/2577854 Vet's mom forced to sell Obama letter to cover VA failures he promised to fix
Thursday 10 December 2015 / Hour 1, Block D: Daniel Henninger, WSJ, in re: Law and Order Returns. Reading over the headlines from October 1968. A longtime friend of the terrorist gunman Syed Farook faces likely criminal charges for providing the rifles used in the California mass killing, the Daily News has learned. Enrique Marquez, 24, remained a free man Wednesday as the investigation into the ISIS-inspired slaughter continued — but it appeared he faced imminent arrest, a source told The News. “Looks like it,” said the source, saying there was no indication that the transfers of the rifles from buyer Marquez to his pal was done with the legally required paperwork. Marquez, who reportedly checked himself into a mental hospital after the shooting, was also tied to the killer’s family by marriage, documents show. The family connection comes as Marquez reportedly confessed to investigators that he and Farook planned a 2012 terror attack in the United States — only to abandon the idea after they became spooked. Marquez bought the .223-caliber DPMS model AR-15 and a Smith & Wesson M&P15 about four years ago — both weapons ending up with Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik. Officials believe Enrique Marquez bought two rifles for Syed Farook in 2011 or 2012. Officials believe Enrique Marquez bought two rifles for Syed Farook in 2011 or 2012. A trace of the weapons’ ownership goes directly to Marquez, who could face state charges under California’s strict gun laws and a possible federal charge of proving material support to a terrorist. A licensed dealer is required for any firearm transfer, and no paperwork was found showing the rifles were legitimately . . .
Hour Two
Thursday 10 December 2015 / Hour 2, Block A: Michael Doran, senior Fellow, Hudson Institute, in re: Pres Obama: Putin is just about to turn the corner; trust me. Russians will converge with the US and we'll all be in a grand coalition against ISIS. None of the evidence that things are not going his way seems to have affected Pres Obama's policy. He believes that the region will be better off if we work in a concert system with the Russians and Iranians, despite occasional disagreements. Make them stakeholders. Pres Obama has compartmentalized, so US has sanctions against Russia in connection with Ukraine even while trying to create a coalition in the Middle East. . . . No inclination by the US to confront Iran's violations.
http://www.hudson.org/research/11974-our-man-in-moscow# Our Man in Moscow The jihadists struck Paris on November 13. On that Friday the 13th, the band on stage in the Bataclan theater, where 89 people were murdered, was Eagles of Death Metal. The song it was playing was “Kiss of the Devil.” The details sound like something out of Hollywood, but the horror was deadly real. In total, the terrorists would murder 130 people, the vast majority in the prime of their lives.
The multiple massacre left France reeling, vulnerable, and also deeply confused—but not about the nature of the operation. Islamic State (IS) took responsibility for the attacks, which were clearly another spillover from the Syrian civil war. Their so-called mastermind, the Belgian Abdelhamid Abaaoud, had spent time in Syria as the head of an IS unit devoted to dispatching jihadis to Europe. Earlier in the year, in a profile in Dabiq, IS’s propaganda magazine, Abaaoud flaunted the fact that he was planning acts of mass murder. “We spent months trying to find a way into Europe,” he said, “and by Allah’s strength, we succeeded in finally making our way to Belgium. We were then able to obtain weapons and set up a safe house while we planned to carry out operations against the Crusaders.”
So the problem was clear, as was the threat: global jihad enjoyed a safe haven in Syria, which allowed it to build jihadi networks across Europe and the Middle East. French confusion stemmed not from identifying that threat but from figuring out what, practically, could be done about it. In the immediate aftermath of the attack, Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French president, stepped forward. France, he said, is “in the worst of situations. We are sufficiently prominent to be a target, but not prominent enough to eradicate these barbarians.” His solution: “[T]he Russians must be associated with the work of the coalition to destroy [Islamic State].”
Sarkozy’s proposal was not new. Vladimir Putin himself had first floated the idea of a unified alliance against Islamic State two months earlier, at the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. At the time, the government of François Hollande responded tepidly, observing that Russia was less interested in defeating Islamic State than in propping up the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad: a vicious sectarian actor whose wholesale slaughter of Sunni Muslims was IS’s greatest recruiting tool. In the view of the French government, Assad’s barbarism, abetted as it was by the Russians and the Iranians, was thus also the main cause of the refugee crisis plaguing Europe; until he was deposed, a stable new order would never arise.
This position was intellectually compelling, but now, in the aftermath of the November 13 attacks, the French public expected action, not analysis. The image of Putin’s fighter-bombers laying waste to Islamic State, however unrealistic, was politically popular among
Thursday 10 December 2015 / Hour 2, Block B: Congressman Lee M Zeldin, (NY-1; R), in re: House resolution & Iran deal. The president's speech on Sunday was a good chance to explicate US policy; unfortunately, not much, What's more important is whether or not we're defeating the enemies overseas so they don't come here. Announcement of sending 50 special ops to the hottest place on the globe – but not to fight. Concern about capacity to accomplish the mission. Still waiting for a strategy that'll win. The concerns about the Iran deal? I don't think it even was a deal. There are states across the US that have sanctions n place against Iran and the feds are challenging the states's legal ability to have them. Iran is currently imprisoning a pastor, a Marine, other Americans. As for the "deal," not even a deal, and nothing was ever signed.
Thirty states have divestment laws against Iran, some of them strict. Iran's support of terrorism and ghastly anti-human rights deeds.
Thursday 10 December 2015 / Hour 2, Block C: Fabrice Balanche, University of Lyon & Fellow at The Washington Institute; in re: Syria. A Syrian republic on the way? A federal system (power-sharing) with the same borders? True that Assad's forces still control two-thirds of the population? Sixteen million . . . 2 million under Da'esh; 2 million ___ . . . Six-and-a half million have fled; very poor people cannot. The middle class sells everything they own – house, car, everything – to get $20 K to get the family out of Lebanon and perhaps on to Europe. Internally displaced persons: 6.5 Million according to the UN. Also note a Kurdish influx, and others. In Iraq: Mosul, Kirkuk; then to the east or north to flee. Recall Versailles Treaty, France given real estate under Sykes-Picot.
Initial Russian Strikes in Syria Are Not Targeting ISIS - Earlier today, the Russian air force, in cooperation with the Syrian army, led its first bombing runs in three of the country's provinces. According to a Syrian security source who spoke with Agence France-Presse, "The Russian and Syrian planes have conducted several raids today against terrorist positions in Hama, Homs, and Latakia, in the northwest and center of the country."
Although the AFP source did not specify the exact points that were struck, one of the "terrorist" targets has nevertheless been clearly identified: Talbisah, a village ten kilometers north of Homs, in the rebel pocket of Rastan. There are no Daesh (a.k.a. "Islamic State"/ISIS) fighters in this area -- local brigades have pledged allegiance to the al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra or rebel group Ahrar al-Sham, or remained independent. The strategic goal of the Russian strikes is to help the Syrian army and Hezbollah eliminate this rebel enclave and better protect Homs. The action could also push the 1,500 rebels still occupying the Waar district on the outskirts of Homs to seriously negotiate their departure, as they did when leaving the city center in April 2014.
Meanwhile, Russian strikes in Latakia province have hit Jabal al-Akrad, the mountainous area around Salma held by rebels since 2012. After the fall of Jisr al-Shughour last April, Jabal al-Akrad was directly connected to the large northwestern territory occupied by the rebel umbrella group "The Army of Conquest" (Jaish al-Fatah). The stronghold constitutes a direct threat to Latakia city, located less than. . . http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/initial-russian-...
Thursday 10 December 2015 / Hour 2, Block D: Omri Ceren, The Daily TIP dir, incl rapid response messaging infrastructure; in re: missile test. John Kirby at WH said, "We still don't know if Iran has done a second missile launch" – even though the rest of the world was clear that there had been one. Next day, WH spokesman Ernest also demurred: "I disagree that we didn't take action he first time – we complained to the UN about it." need PMA – previous military actions – to use as a baseline. The "PMPeacefile" - Iranian nuclear weapons research: Iran stonewalls and stonewalls. Best article was from NY Times, David Sanger, who created a chart to show how the IAEA had been [lied to]. Fear that for the next 10 to 15 years, Iran has a gun to our head: any time we do anything at all Iran doesn't like, Iran can threaten to quite the deal. Iran is caught in an escalation cycle - must continue to increase the abuse. One can imagine one camp that wants to poke the US in the eye but not destroy the US; another camp of superhardliners who actually believe that Iran got the worst side of the deal, an eschatological fight. Anyway, they're still testing nuclear-weapons-carrying missiles and he US Administration does nothing. Supreme Leader said, To get sanctions relief Iran has to: get enriched U down to 300 kg, get rid of centrifuges, and get rid of the Pn core." http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/ethnic-cleansing-threatens-syrias-unity ; http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/initial-russian-strikes-in-syria-are-not-targeting-isis
Hour Three
Thursday 10 December 2015 / Hour 3, Block A: Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs & co-founder of the Orient Research Group Ltd; in re: John Kerry at the Saban Forum called for a binational state – where Israelis and Palestinians both live together under one state. Kerry called on Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and let Palestinians to have their own state. He also wants to recognize Palestine as a state cleaned of all Jews, incl in Gaza. Palestine demands: a state with no Jewish presence, and also to have Israel resettle in its own territory from five to seven million Palestinians. PM Netanyahu declines. If Israel leaves Golan, who will take over – Da'esh? Jabat al-Nusrah? Hezbollah? Anent what's left of the Palestinian Authority: they want to weaken Israel, and push lawfare and for Security Council resolutions to the :"19767 border" – i.e., 1948 borders; and also to move massive numbers of Jews out of their homes in order to move in the five million Palestinians. Continue violence; lawfare and on the ground: "Popular resistance" which actually refers to lethal attacks – stabbings, rammings, shooting, etc. PA supports these and gives money to the perps. The Knife Intifada is supported by Fatah and PA.
Fatah, with Mahmoud Abbas at the Helm, Confirms the Confrontation Strategy toward Israel – The Fatah Central Committee gave its backing to a strategy that combines the terror intifada with diplomatic and legal moves in the international arena aimed at achieving recognition of the state of Palestine as well as an Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders with no political quid pro quo from the Palestinians. The Fatah Central Committee, convened on Sunday, December 6, 2015, at the presidential headquarters in Ramallah. Fatah is led by Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) who also serves as president of the state of Palestine, chairman of the Palestinian Authority, and leader of the PLO.
http://jcpa.org/fatah-with-mahmoud-abbas-at-the-helm-confirms-the-confro... ; http://jcpa.org/fatah-with-mahmoud-abbas-at-the-helm-confirms-the-confrontation-strategy-toward-israel/ ; http://jcpa.org/the-popular-spontaneous-intifada-is-organized-and-orchestrated-by-the-palestinian-leadership/
Thursday 10 December 2015 / Hour 3, Block B: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Russia frustrated and disdainful of both Hezbollah and IRGC participation in the Syrian civil war: slackers. The Slavic state is recruiting heavily in Syria and remains robust. A seal impression of an Israelite king found in situ, first time. Fortress built 2,000 years ago to overlook the temple, now have found the actual site, which verifies the story in Maccabees; this, however, verifies back 2,700 years ago. A sun with wings; tremendous significance.
Thursday 10 December 2015 / Hour 3, Block C: Richard A Epstein, Chicago Law, New York Law, Hoover (via Defining Ideas); (1 of 2) in re: The mass shooting in San Bernardino by the young Muslim couple Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, now clearly identified as middle-class ISIS terrorists, has created a vast sense of unease in the United States. Everyone agrees that their heinous conduct was horribly wrong. But the consensus ends there. Come to the next question, and there is hopeless disarray on the appropriate collective and individual responses to the looming threat of terrorist acts. It is best to tackle the widespread and diffuse threat of the use of deadly force head-on.
This issue is, of course, not just a domestic one. It is also a question of foreign affairs. The more the United States and its Western allies dither over using ground troops against ISIS, the more mass slaughter and mayhem is committed in the territories under ISIS control. One recent tally has ISIS as having already killed 170,000 just in Iraq. This is a major reason why the refugee flow in Germany alone is expected to reach 1.3 million by year’s end.
None of this carnage has moved the United States and its Western allies to action on the ground. But the killings, first in Paris and now in San Bernardino, have shown that there is no way to wish ISIS away as some distant Middle-Eastern problem. It is now a domestic problem that requires both a global and national response.
Today, an effective Middle East military response is not just a humanitarian imperative; it is also an integral part of our own strategy of national defense. Operating from its secure base will allow ISIS to create, by words and deeds, a trail of death in the United States and elsewhere. The quicker one cuts off the ISIS head—an all-too appropriate metaphor—the easier it will be to attack its appendages in the United States and the rest of the Western world.
Yet in his recent speech on ISIS and the San Bernardino tragedy, the President once again categorically ruled out the use of any sustained ground troops overseas, insisting that he will not put American soldiers in harm’s way for a decade in the effort to take out ISIS. And so the wound is allowed to fester indefinitely by a President who fails to acknowledge the success of the surge against far greater obstacles. In the larger sense, nothing else he says or does can compensate for the horrendous losses attributable to this delay.
The President’s indefinite timetable, of course, makes it ever more imperative, and ever more difficult, to counter the terrorist threat at home. Yet on this issue, it is distressing to see just how far off base the responses from commentators are. For instance, there have been some senseless broad-based attacks on Muslim citizens who are every bit as appalled, if not more so, at the violence committed in their religion’s name. A successful counterterrorist strategy will enlist their support, for they are in the best position to slow down the ISIS recruitment rate and to provide information to public authorities about secret weapon stashes and terrorist cells. It doesn’t help that some Muslim leaders want to place part of the blame on an extremist American foreign policy, as if the slaughter of Muslims by Muslims should be laid at the doorstep of the West. Good relations are very much a two-way street.
Then there’s the matter of gun control. No matter what the state of play is on the ground, gun control advocates around the country think the solution to mass shootings is tougher restrictions on gun access. President Obama leads the charge when he plumps “for common-sense gun safety laws, stronger background checks,” and insists that an effective countermeasure against terror is prohibiting people on no-fly lists from buying guns.
Worse still, many gun control advocates pillory anyone who disagrees with them with invective that it is hard to sort out. Perhaps the most visible attack came from U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, who right after the shooting directed his venom not toward the killers, but to the Republican Party: “Your ‘thoughts’ should be to take steps to stop this carnage. Your ‘prayers’ should be for forgiveness if you do nothing again.” But do what? According to a New York Times front-page editorial, we should not “abet would-be killers by creating gun markets for them.” And further: “It is past time to stop talking about halting the spread of firearms, and instead to reduce their number drastically.”
Dream on. Moral indignation is never in short supply during such crises, but what is needed is some assurance that the means selected will achieve the desired end. In this case, . . . http://www.hoover.org/research/we-need-more-guns-ground Defining Ideas is a journal of the Hoover Institution.
Thursday 10 December 2015 / Hour 3, Block D: Richard A Epstein, Chicago Law, New York Law, Hoover (via Defining Ideas); (2 of 2) in re: We need to reconsider our attitude toward concealed weapons. In Israel, it is common practice for off-duty police and military personnel to carry concealed handguns or other weapons. The same approach should be adopted in the United States for it is the only remedy that is likely to provide a credible first response to a terrorist attack. If you put even one person with a gun in the room, the attackers will face immediate resistance long before the police arrive in force. And because the gun won’t be in the hands of a rank amateur, it is highly unlikely that the off-duty officer or military personnel will compound the problem by foolish actions. Stopping or slowing down an attack by taking out an assailant could save many lives . . . http://www.hoover.org/research/we-need-more-guns-ground. Defining Ideas is a journal of the Hoover Institution.
Hour Four
Thursday 10 December 2015 / Hour 4, Block A: Mary Anastasia O'Grady, WSJ, in re: Cubans ran the election. http://www.wsj.com/articles/venezuelans-chance-to-cast-off-chavismo-1449446370?tesla=y (1 of 2)
Thursday 10 December 2015 / Hour 4, Block B: Mary Anastasia O'Grady, WSJ, in re: http://www.wsj.com/articles/venezuelans-chance-to-cast-off-chavismo-1449446370?tesla=y (2 of 2)
Thursday 10 December 2015 / Hour 4, Block C: Sebastian v Gorka, Marine Corps University & Breitbart, in re: Marine Corps University & Breitbart, in re: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/enrique-marquez-warned-muslims-ready-haywire-article-1.2459822
Thursday 10 December 2015 / Hour 4, Block D: Robert Zimmerman, behind the black, in re: More data says no alien civilization at KIC 8462852 New observations of the star KIC 8462852 to see if an alien civilization had produced laser signals has produced a null result, reinforcing the conclusion that the erratic dimming of the star is not caused by alien megastructures. On six nights between October 29 and November 28, 2015, scientists searched for pulses as short as a billionth of a second at the Boquete Optical SETI Observatory in Panama, using a 0.5 m Newtonian telescope. The observatory’s relatively small telescope uses a unique detection method having enhanced sensitivity to pulsed signals. If any hypothetical extraterrestrials had beamed intentional laser pulses in the visible spectrum toward Earth, the Boquete observatory could have detected them so long as they exceeded the observatory’s minimum detectable limit.
KIC 8462852 has puzzled astronomers because it shows irregular dimming unlike anything seen for another star. The anomalous light curve was measured using NASA’s Kepler telescope, as part of its search for exoplanets. However, even though a planet the size of Jupiter would cause dimming of approximately 1%, the dimming observed for KIC 8462852 was far greater – up to 22%. Just as strange, the dimming didn’t follow the regular pattern of a planet orbiting a star, but instead was unpredictable. The best explanation to date is that the dimming may have been caused by cometary fragments in a highly elliptical orbit around KIC 8462852, intercepting starlight at the same time the Kepler mission was observing it.
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