Photo, left: King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa of Bahrain, at the track with Elizabeth Regina.
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts: Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal editorial board & host of OpinionJournal.com. Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents.
Hour One
Thursday  14 May 2015  / Hour 1, Block A: Bill Whalen, Hoover Institution, in re: Jeb Bush and his capabilities as a presidential candidate. . . . Jennifer Rubin has a scathing column in today’s WaPo.  NPR notes that Mrs Clinton has taken thirteen questions since declaring, six of which were, “How do you enjoy Iowa?” Vox Populi:  52% of voters in battleground states do not trust Mrs Clinton.   Reporters now keeping track of her “BS alarm.” She’s stonewalling the media; not working too well. 
Thursday  14 May 2015  / Hour 1, Block B:  Edward W Hayes, criminal defense attorney par excellence, in re: Bizarre New York story – a schizophrenic takes a hammer and whacks innocent strangers with the claw –at Eighth Avenue and 38 St, he attacks a female cop three times on the back of her neck. Her partner pulls his gun, fires four shots in three seconds hitting the madman in his head and torso, saving the woman cop’s life.  Meanwhile, Mayor de Blasio was travelling in California and elsewhere to speak of his policy endeavors.
Thursday  14 May 2015  / Hour 1, Block C:  Patrick Chovanec, managing director & chief strategist at Silvercrest Asset Management, in re: MK:  Joseph Sternberg said that Cameron was rather hiding some of his good accomplishments, so we were surprised by his surpassing victory.  PC: The major parties lost a lot of ground to fragmentations – SNP, UKIP.  . . .  The LibDems got [obliterated].  Financial universe of the City is mightily relieved.   . . .  Cameron promised to hold a referendum by 2017 on the UK remaining in the EU.  . . .  Prominent names in the US Democratic Party are moving to the left of Mayor de Blasio. 
Thursday  14 May 2015  / Hour 1, Block D:  Patrick Chovanec, managing director & chief strategist at Silvercrest Asset Management, in re: China: auto show; anti-corruption campaign, cash outflows.  Xi Jin-ping. Net easing: expectations that this is a silver bullet not good – China has played this out over the years. Absent real reform, money goes all the wrong directions.  The Chinese economy is slowing: construction, capital investment, all the major drivers. Tools in the toolbox are ineffective.
Hour Two
Thursday  14 May 2015  / Hour 2, Block A:  Eli Lake, Bloomberg View, in re:  Pres Obama's "Arab Summit" at Camp David – primarily the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council).  King of Bahrain declined the summit, went instead to visit Queen Elizabeth at an equestrian event.  Saudi king also declined, sent a representative.  Pres Obama has promised that his intended deal with Iran will present no danger to the GCC, but he's also promised to defend the Estonians, the Senkakus for Japan, et al.  Pres Obama also counsels the Gulf states to focus more on democracy than on physical safety.  White House says, "We've got  your back" – but clearly doesn’t have their front.   Also has neglected to help the needed forces in Libya, further displeasing Arab leaders.  A lot of what the president is saying about hhis Iran deal is widely seen as not credible. 
Yemen, Iran legislation, Marshall Islands, Putin.
Thursday  14 May 2015  / Hour 2, Block B:  Max Boot, military historian & foreign-policy analyst, in re: White House hasn’t commented, but the Syrian regime seems not to have been disarmed of chem weapons.  Implications for Iran?  When Iran violates, will there be no consequence?  Why is there no discussion of Syria?  The White House silence speaks volumes.   Note resupply of Houthis by Iran, with no US comment. WH has no policy, is deathly afraid of doing anything that'll punish Assad – both to avoid creating a vacuum filled by ISIS and to avoid a proxy war with Iran.  No confidence in Pres Obama from any Arab leader. Right now, the US is more afraid of Iranians than they are of us. Not good. Syria has collapsed, WH has no plan to put it together. 
Thursday  14 May 2015  / Hour 2, Block C:  Mathew McInnis, AEI, in re:   Iran, a defensive state? The history of Iran and the US since the 1950s – the MI6, CIA, Shah.   Current leadership is focused on this history since the 1940s, which is a narrative for the reason of the 1979 revolution, on which the mullahs depend.   We end to forget how paranoid and afraid they are.  More of a bully, looking for conduits to have the war fought by Hezbollah or anyone else,  Their MO is to  use others to fight their own battles. It's aggressive (not passive) since it wants to change neighboring regimes, disrupt all around through terrorism, et al. Reflects the weakness of the state, which lacks mil power and also is not an attractive model for he neighbors to accept. It resorts to other methods to accomplish its goals.  Ergo, if it signs a deal, that'll change nothing, They'll still carry on n the same way.  Were they to have a nuclear weapon, they'd probably adventure further.  We need to credit them with being strategic: not to blow up the Middle East immediately, but to continue to push; they do like Obama's shifting power from Arabs to Iran.   They’ve lost a lot over the years yet they still keep coming.  They feel there's no reason for the US to be in the region. Iran holds that in the Muslim world, they should secure themselves; to create a new security architecture, Iran would negotiate with the Saudis and everyone else. Saudis do not care for this. Saudis react with more military aggressiveness since the US is no longer there.  Khamenei believes that whoever's at the table now can’t guarantee anything; fight now for as much cash and freedom as possible before a ne S president comes in. Probably thinking of covert actions they'll get caught at. We could face a crisis early in the next presidency.  We may not have Russian or Chinese backing. 
Thursday  14 May 2015  / Hour 2, Block D:  Simon Henderson, Baker Fellow & Gulf and Energy Policy Program, director, The Washington Institute; in re: The Gulf Arabs see the Obama Administrations wants role in the Middle East, which Arabs see as dangerously mischievous while Pres Obama sees it as a sort of warm inclusivity that welcomes the Iranians. 
Hour Three
Thursday  14 May 2015  / Hour 3, Block A:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:
Thursday  14 May 2015  / Hour 3, Block B: Avi Isacharoff, Times of Israel, in re:  Iran in Gaza; new Israeli government; Palestinian international actions. A-Sabrine: a Shia group operating in Gaza and wholly supported by Iran.  Small in numbers in the beginning, but this is how movements grow. Having no other real income source, Sunni Hamas has agreed; but a few months or a year down the road, A-Sabrine may be a powerful force. Slowly, slowly bring in people to feed them, give poor children books for school, gifts; soon enough, Gazans will accept Shia. Expect parallel actions in Sinai.  ISIS may find itself somewhat edged out among Sinai Bedouins. Speculate on Israeli politics?  "Prophets are ________, but I'll try."   . . . At he end, Bibi will try to take some other parties and  . . . "  Herzog.  . . . The rocket attacks of last summer: no current threat?  Hamas not interested, nor is Israel eager to fight Hamas.  Except for Fatah and Turkey,  . . .
Thursday  14 May 2015  / Hour 3, Block C: David Grinspoon, Blumberg Chair of Astrobiology, Library of Congress, in re:  ·  Dawn Gets Closer Look at Ceres' Mystery Bright Spots  This is the closest view of dwarf planet Ceres' cratered surface captured to date — it's also ...    ·  Dawn Spacecraft Images Reveal "Ice Rinks" on Ceres   Europa's stripes are likely sea salt from a subsurface ocean darkened by radiation:  go.nasa.gov/1JFsSCV@NASAJPL pic.twitter.com/FHzjrKao83
NASA's Mercury Messenger: What It Learned Before It Crashed.  The data were gathered by NASA's Messenger, a small spacecraft that orbited Mercury for ...
Thursday  14 May 2015  / Hour 3, Block D:   John Bolton, AEI, in re: Whatever the outcome of this week's meetings, the GCC states are likely to pursue their own increasingly independent policy from Washington. Their leaders might not like it but the evidence from six years (and counting) of the Obama administration is unmistakably that America does not stand by its allies when their time of troubles comes.

The Arab monarchs are nothing if not realists and they will explore multiple options rather than relying solely on a weak, feckless president who cannot distinguish his country's interests from those of its adversaries.  That prospect is truly discouraging, highlighting that, in the precious little time remaining, America's real objective must be to do whatever is necessary to stop Iran from crossing the nuclear finish line (assuming it has not already done so undetected by us). 
Obama, however, will most probably only give evidence of the continuing decline he has wrought in American influence throughout the critical Middle East and around the world. Read this article online
Hour Four
Thursday  14 May 2015  / Hour 4, Block A: Daniel Henninger, WSJ, in re: Springtime for Dictators
Thursday  14 May 2015  / Hour 4, Block B:  Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re: Arianespace admits it is in a head-to-head competition with SpaceX   In testimony at a hearing in the French parliament the head of Arianespace admitted that the company has been in a head-to-head competition with SpaceX for the past two years, with SpaceX grabbing half the business.  He also claimed that they think they will be able to compete with SpaceX, even if it succeeds in recovering and reusing its first stage.
Israel said Arianespace fully expects SpaceX to succeed in its attempt to recover its Falcon 9 first stage.  But that’s just the start of the challenge, he said. It remains unknown what the refurbishment costs will be compared to the cost of churning out a fresh stage from an existing production line. He said it is also unclear whether commercial fleet operators will immediately accept placing $200 million telecommunications satellites on a rocket with a refurbished stage.

Finally, he said, flying a reusable stage means sacrificing first-stage performance so that enough energy is available to power it back to its recovery point. That power is thus unavailable for the mission, which is one reason why Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX thus far has attempted to recover its stages only on low-orbit missions, not for missions to geostationary transfer orbit, where most commercial satellites operate.  All true, but if Arianespace sits on its hands because of these facts it will eventually lose. It needs to rise to the challenge that SpaceX poses, not pooh-pooh the challenge.
Thursday  14 May 2015  / Hour 4, Block C:  Sarah Shears, Daily Beast, in re: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/12/brooklyn-moms-your-nail-salon-boycott-is-foolish.html
Thursday  14 May 2015  / Hour 4, Block D: Hannah Eliot, Bloomberg Businessweek, in re: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-12/every-killer-car-in-mad-max-fury-road-explained
 
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