The John Batchelor Show

Thursday 12 January 2017

Air Date: 
January 12, 2017

Photo, left: 
 
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  12 January 2017    / Hour 1, Block A: Devin Nunes, Chairman of House Intelligence Committee,  and CA-22, in re:   Mike Pompeo was graduated first in his class at West Point; is a respected Congressman from Kansas; today’s hearing on his accession to head of CIA looks successful.   He went to Vienna, discovered the secret side agreements of the notorious Iran deal.   
Gen Mattis: “The US must continue its deals and keep its pledges; also that Iran is a bad actor in the region.”    Everyone here is re-learning that Iran is a very bad actor; another weapons shipment to Yemen just caught.    Gen Mattis was relieved by Pres Obama because Mattis wanted to take action in response to extraordinarily aggressive weapons shipments by Iran to conflict areas.   Putin?  Got away with murder, annexed Crimea, saved Assad, is on the march, Will have to be negotiated strongly with by Trump, or . . .
Tom Rooney, Congressman from Fla, a lawyer, will lead the new NSA and cyber subcommittee.  When NSA was under attack from Snowden and others, got a black eye; Rooney and others were screaming that the US was being invaded daily and nothing was being done under the Obama Administration. Big changes coming in Trump Administration.
Thursday  12 January 2017    / Hour 1, Block B: Devin Nunes, Chairman of House Intelligence Committee,  and CA-22, in re:  Most countries have a VAT, where products that enter a country are taxed;.  Mexico and China tax US goods; US does not tax Chines or Mexican.  We can slap tariffs, or we can a have  border; adjusted system:  change the ax cod, get rid of income tax; cash-flow. When you export, no tax; when you import, a non-deductible expense.  You bld something in Mexico, 50% of materials are from the US, so you deduct 50% of the cost.  Today, shelter companies everywhere to hide cash, whereas this encourages mfrg in and bringing cash back to the US.  This is a consumption system, modelled by the economist David Radford, originally called the X-tax.
The business tax cut:  can be done by August.  A simple, cash-flow system that’ll rein in the IRS.
Nunes Statement on New Actions Against Russia   WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes today issued the following statement on President Obama’s announcement of new actions against Russia:
“The House Intelligence Committee has been urging President Obama for years to take strong action to deter Russia’s worldwide aggression, including its cyber-hacking operations. Now, with just a few weeks left in office, the President has suddenly decided that some stronger measures are indeed warranted. This kind of indecision and delay helps to explain why now, at the end of Obama’s eight-year presidency, America’s influence has collapsed among both our allies and our enemies.”    http://thehill.com/policy/finance/313771-chamber-president-urges-focus-on-long-term-benefits-of-tax-reform
Thursday  12 January 2017    / Hour 1, Block C:  Edward W Hayes, Daily Beast sartorial columnist, and criminal defense attorney par excellence, in re: The 40 Pct in New York City’s South Bronx: NYPD is overwhelmed and outmanned; murder investigations slow in outer boroughs. When you cease Stop, Question and Frisk, there’s an increase in people carrying guns.   . . .  You get the number of cops that there are screams for; ergo, more to ricer neighborhoods. Only one way to stop drugs: stop in the street, get search warrants; will respond only to a very aggressive use of force.  Nine of the 14 most violent precincts in New York are in the Bronx?   We have a very diverse police department; but forty years later it's returning to what Eddie fought when he was a DA.  Police as an occupying force?  Commish wants to empower the beat cop: he says “Here’s where the bad guys are”; get a search warrant, send in a squad. Detectives work 36-hour shifts; they buy Chinese take-out for murder suspects because the suspects are hungry. The current segregation of poor people is greater now than earlier. A bad day in the South Bronx is hell on Earth.  And the people who work there work very hard, long hours; go home and lock the door and don’t go out.   We respect the police, and residents: all brave people. 
Thursday  12 January 2017    / Hour 1, Block D:  Terry Anderson, PERC Montana & Hoover,  and Unlocking the Wealth of Indian Nations author; in re: Certainty for States and Tribes Act for 2016 to reverse the damage done to Native Americans in the Nineteenth Century done by prejudiced officials, Start by listening to the tribe on energy dvpt;  locked up by Dept of the Interior so the tribes stay broke  and the federal govt . The Crows, however, have a huge strip mine to bring in funds, and now are covering it to be pristine and original.  Southern Utes,  Confederated Tribes in ND, Navajo, all examples of how Indian county can make strides forward in getting out of poverty while maintaining natural beauty. Bring back federalism, including tribes. 
Rep Ryan Zinke (Montana), a Whitefish native who served as a Navy SEAL commander, is a breath of fresh air.   BIA insists on being the schoolmarm of the tribes. See: Indian Business Journal.   His is the moment for tribes to lift themselves out of Nineteenth Century colonialism  There are maybe three BIA bureaucrats for every two Indians; will not want to give up power.
Trump’s support came from the center of the country; East and West Coast carry [excessive power] in environmental legislation.  Envtl groups file lawsuits against agencies?  “We were tied in a giant Gordian knot by these lawsuits.”  Right behind my house is a forest that’ll burn if no one is allowed to manage the underbrush.
 
Hour Two
Thursday  12 January 2017    / Hour 2, Block A:  Congressman Eliot Engel, in re: Congressional update. United Nations Security Council.  Israel is the US’s closest ally in the Middle East.  Res 2334 was disgraceful and it was shocking that the US did not veto it. Reps. Engel and Royce, a model of bipartisan collaboration and cooperation.  Paris meeting on 15 January:  the only way to get movement in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute is for the two parties to sit ace to face and work it out, Cannot be decided by a UN resolution for some French congress of 72 countries, absent any Palestinian or Israeli. Note that Israel left Gaza and tore up those settlements, for peace; what did it get?  Rockets, tunnels, murders.
We don’t need lectures from the Secy of State, as ever condemning Israel and nothing much on terrorism, incitement violence.   Earliest on, Israelis  accepted a tiny state; Arabs attacked to obliterate Israel, which them gathered up a little more land – whcih Arabs have consistently demanded back since then.
Congressman Engel is the Ranking Member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He also serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee. He is the founder and Co-Chair of the House Oil and National Security Caucus, which is seeking clean, energy efficient alternatives to America's over-reliance on oil. He also sits on the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, the Bipartisan Task Force for Combatting Anti-Semitism, the HIV/AIDS Caucus, the Long Island Sound Caucus, and the Animal Protection Caucus, among others.
·         https://democrats-foreignaffairs.house.gov/news/press-releases/engel-floor-speech-condemning-anti-israel-un-resolution
·         https://democrats-foreignaffairs.house.gov/news/press-releases/engel-statement-kerry-speech
·         https://democrats-foreignaffairs.house.gov/news/press-releases/engel-statement-unsc-vote-israeli-settlements
·         https://democrats-foreignaffairs.house.gov/news/press-releases/engel-statement-postponed-unsc-vote-israeli-settlements
Thursday  12 January 2017    / Hour 2, Block B:  Eli Lake, Bloomberg View, in re:  Paris conference, “make-believe”: the Middle East is on fire, so the conference is meaningless. The international system is under strain right now; yet Hollande is having a talk without Palestinians or Israelis. Will Kerry’s attendance sanctify the event?  UN Secy Gen will not attend.
Trump Cabinet positions and hearings; Mattis is clear-eyed in his view of Iran; Tillerson played his cards close to the vest.  I was upset that he couldn't call Putin a war criminal.
What's Plan B?  They’re flailing – their world view is failing – this is the end of an era, maybe of an epoch.  The entire intl system is failing; we have critical matters to deal with.
John Kerry is reduced to being a ridiculous figure; ne of he most pathetic we've ever had. Surrounded by sycophants in his echo chamber. 
Policies in Jerusalem: will the Trump Adm acknowledge “Jerusalem. Israel”?  I don't want to get ahead of it, but it looks as though yes. In the House, 100 Democrats voted against Obama.  That says a lot. 
Eli Lake is a Bloomberg View columnist. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.
 ·         http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Jewish-groups-speak-out-against-Paris-peace-conference-following-UN-vote-477292
·         http://www.timesofisrael.com/kerry-to-attend-mideast-peace-conference-in-paris/
·         http://www.timesofisrael.com/kerry-to-attend-mideast-peace-conference-in-paris/
·         https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-01-12/trump-shakes-things-up-his-future-cabinet-calms-things-down
Thursday  12 January 2017    / Hour 2, Block C:  Omri Ceren, Managing Director for Press and Strategy at The Israel Project , in re: Iranian uranium stockpiling, heavy waterThe U stockpile is how high?  Dunno – got a ton of secret exemptions plus extra uranium, all secret, by the Obama Adm. Just got an exemption not to count 100kg of U Iran has (total allowance; 100kg); and they’re getting 116 metric tons of fissile material.  And the US is paying for its heavy water, millions of dollars. Heavy water is a coolant, has extra neurons, can create extra plutonium  Iran has had limitations but overproduced; turned to Obama: either buy this off f us or the deal will collapse. 
Looks as thought the 8.6 million deal + the ten bombs of U, were worked out in a July working group. All kept from the American people.  Iran is not in technical violation of the deal: the pernicious fact is that Obama has been granting Iran secret exemptions! A broad spectrum in the policy community on what it means to enforce he deal. It would have collapsed anyway because its survived this long only because of secret exemptions and enormous bribery by Obama to keep the deal afloat.  For eight years we’ve pretended that Iran is a super-advanced govt. Not; When they want something they take a bunch of hostages in small boats.  They’re thugs. Civilized cultures banned this 3,500 years ago. As soon as they encounter push-back, they fold. This highlights how insane were the words f Kerry and Obama, “We can't do better than this or we’ll lose the deal.”  Trump and enhanced security measures: confidential but nonclassified, e.g., the ransom agreements, agreements on secret exemptions – have no business being classified and need to be released immediately Next, classified stuff that can be declassified.    Two guys I State have as their jobs how to maintain the Iran deal.
Omri Ceren is the Managing Director for Press and Strategy at The Israel Project. He is a political operative and an academic who has been involved in politics and journalism for over a decade, with a focus on Israel and Iran issues. Ceren is a Ph.D. candidate in Communication at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School.
·         http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/olli-heinonen1-iran-stockpiling-uranium-far-above-current-needs/
·         http://www.aei.org/publication/deceased-iranian-president-rafsanjani-was-no-moderate/?utm_source=paramount&utm_medium=email&utm_content=AEITODAY&utm_campaign=011017
·         https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2017/01/09/irans-rafsanjani-a-legacy-of-terrorism-and-repression-behind-a-facade-of-moderation/?utm_term=.1ac645096c42
·         http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/senior-fellow-the-death-of-ali-akbar-hashemi-rafsanjani-a-machiavellian-prince/
·         http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/01/09/diplomats-iran-natural-uranium-batch/96367868/
Thursday  12 January 2017    / Hour 2, Block D:  Malcolm Hoenlein, in re: Explosions at the Damascus airport; see vid at Times of Israel.   Using missiles; this may have been an air strike, but S300 would make that more difficult What's happening in Syria? Millions of refugees,  half-million dead, two million wounded; not attention by the world community to 60&% unemployment and not enough food Whole infrastructure is smugglers and the like. Life expectancy dropped 20 years. Most children have no school to go to. Cannot be resolved by talks Will take massive nation rebuilding.
Understand how blatant “ in the PA budget, over $360 mill allocated to families of terrorist, Fellow too a flatbed ruck ran over many people, backed up, ran over them again; his wife will get for life $760/mo plus a one-time payment of thousands of dollars.
At last, having been under murderous terrorist attacks, some Europeans began to understand; the Brandenburg Gate was lit up with Israeli flag, and similar in Holland.
IDF is preparing for yet another war with Hamas, whose plan is to infiltrate many many fighters into Israel proper with fighters via tunnels.   Now have 9,000 members; know how to manipulate the system.  Got a lot of NATO weapons stolen in Libya, ended up in Gaza. 
 
Hour Three
Thursday  12 January 2017    / Hour 3, Block A:  Benjamin Mueller and Al Baker, NYT, in re:  "Crimes in Manhattan must be solved.  The outer boroughs are like forgotten."  (1 0f 2)
After the bullet shells get counted, the blood dries and the votive candles burn out, people peer down from housing-project windows and see crime scenes gone cold: a band of yellow police tape blowing in the breeze.
The South Bronx, just across the Harlem River from Manhattan and once shorthand for urban dysfunction, still suffers violence at levels long ago slashed in many other parts of New York City. And yet the city’s efforts to fight it remain splintered, underfunded and burdened by scandal.
In the 40th Precinct, at the southern tip of the Bronx, as in other poor, minority neighborhoods across the country, people long hounded for small-time infractions are crying out for more protection against grievous injury or death. By September, four of every five shootings in the precinct this year were unsolved.
Out of the city’s 77 precincts, the 40th has the highest murder rate but the fewest detectives per violent crime, reflecting disparities in staffing that hit hardest in some neighborhoods outside Manhattan, according to a New York Times analysis of Police Department data. Investigators in the precinct are saddled with twice the number of cases the department recommends, even as their bosses are called to Police Headquarters to answer for the sharpest crime rise in the city this year.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/31/nyregion/bronx-murder-40th-precinct-police-residents.html?rref=collection%2Fseriescollection%2Fbronx-new-york-murder-40th-precinct&action=click&contentCollection=nyregion&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection
Thursday  12 January 2017    / Hour 3, Block B: Benjamin Mueller and Al Baker, NYT, in re:  "Crimes in Manhattan must be solved.  The outer boroughs are like forgotten."  (2 0f 2)
Thursday  12 January 2017    / Hour 3, Block C: Sebastian v Gorka, VP & professor of Strategy and Irregular Warfare, Institute of World Politics, in re: 
Iraq
General Mattis did not say how many American troops should be kept in Iraq, but he asserted that the United States needed to maintain its influence there long after Mosul was captured from the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. “Our principal interest in Iraq is to ensure that it does not become a rump state of the regime in Tehran,” he wrote. “It will be essential to fold any efforts in Iraq following ISIS’s defeat in Mosul into an integrated regional strategy.”
Syria
General Mattis did not offer a solution for the conflict in Syria, which has killed hundreds of thousands. But he described the fighting as a major threat to American national security interests, offering a more alarming view of the crisis than the Obama administration and, at times, than Mr. Trump. “The brutal civil war in Syria has destabilized the Middle East, contributed to the destabilization of Europe and threatened allies like Israel, Jordan and Turkey, all while ISIS, Iran and Russia have profited from the chaos — none of which has been in America’s national interest,” he wrote.
Russia
General Mattis said he supported Mr. Trump’s “desire to engage” with Russia, but he provided a vivid catalog of the potential dangers. “Challenges posed by Russia include alarming messages from Moscow regarding the use of nuclear weapons; treaty violations; the use of hybrid warfare tactics to destabilize other countries; and involvement in hacking and information warfare,” he wrote.
NATO
There was nothing in General Mattis’s responses that would make American support for NATO conditional on financial contributions of its members, as Mr. Trump has suggested. He said the alliance “enormously” benefits American security. “The alliance must harness renewed political will to confront and walk back aggressive Russian actions,” said General Mattis, who added that it was also important for NATO members to meet their military spending goals.
Cuba
General Mattis said he opposed military exchanges or security cooperation with Raúl Castro’s Cuba.
Afghanistan
General Mattis did not say what American troop levels should be in Afghanistan, but he indicated that he saw the country as important to American interests. “We all remember what it felt like on 9/11 and 9/12,” he wrote. “We should do what is necessary to prevent such an attack from occurring again.”
Iran
While the Obama administration has held out hope for better relations with Tehran, General Mattis said he saw Iran as an increasing threat. “Iranian malign influence in the region is growing,” he wrote.
Terrorism
Mr. Trump said during the campaign that it might be necessary to “take out” terrorists’ families to win the war against the Islamic State. General Mattis categorically opposes such an approach. “The killing of noncombatants in a war against a nonstate enemy violates Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions,” he wrote. “Legal questions aside, it is my view that such actions would be self-defeating and a betrayal of our ideals.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/12/us/politics/james-mattis-defense-secretary-nominee.html?_r=0  (1 of 2)
Thursday  12 January 2017    / Hour 3, Block D:  Sebastian v Gorka, VP & professor of Strategy and Irregular Warfare, Institute of World Politics  (2 of 2)
  
Hour Four
Thursday  12 January 2017    / Hour 4, Block A: Deadly Sky: The American Combat Airman in World War II, by John C. McManus   (1 of 4)
“McManus is a master of the art of oral history and one of the outstanding historians of World War II.”—Donald L. Miller, Author of Masters of the Air
John C. McManus, author of The Dead and Those About to Die and September Hope, reveals the terror and triumph that shared the fiery skies of World War II—from the first dogfights over Europe to the last Kamikaze attacks over the Pacific.
This insightful chronicle takes readers inside the experiences of America’s fighter pilots and bomber crews, an incredible assortment of men who, in nearly four years of warfare all over the globe, suffered over 120,000 casualties with over 40,000 killed.
Their stories span the earth into every corner of the combat theaters in both Europe and the Pacific. And the aircraft explored are as varied, tough, and legendary as the men who flew them­—from the indomitable heavy-duty warhorse that was the B-17 Flying Fortress to the sleek, lethal P-51 Mustang fighter.
In Deadly Sky, master historian John C. McManus goes beyond the familiar tales of aerial heroism, capturing the sights and sounds, the toil and fear, the adrenaline and the pain of the American airmen who faced death with every mission. In this important, thoroughly-researched work, McManus uncovers the true nature of fighting—and dying—in the skies over World War II.   https://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Sky-American-Combat-Airman/dp/045147564X/r...-2
Thursday  12 January 2017    / Hour 4, Block B:  Deadly Sky: The American Combat Airman in World War II, by John C. McManus   (2 of 4)
Thursday  12 January 2017    / Hour 4, Block C:  Deadly Sky: The American Combat Airman in World War II, by John C. McManus   (3 of 4)
Thursday  12 January 2017    / Hour 4, Block D:  Deadly Sky: The American Combat Airman in World War II, by John C. McManus   (4 of 4)