Photo, left:   Federal Reserve Bank, Board of Governors meeting January 1, 1922, Washington, D.C..
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts: Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal, and Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents
 
Hour One
Thursday  17 December  2015 / Hour 1, Block A: Mary Kissel, in re:  The Fed adds 25 bps; not much, but a matter of global interest.  How long will the US expansi0m conitnue after seven years?  Will the US emulate Japan?  Need fiscal reform, lower taxes, make it easier to make money or go bankrupt – decisionmaking has to reside in Congress. http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/harry-siegel-de-blasio-pretty-nice-new-york-article-1.2468170 ;  http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/harry-siegel-friends-money-progressive-politics-article-1.2423980
Opinion Journal: The Fed’s Uncertain Future   Morgan Stanley Investment Management Emerging Markets Head Ruchir Sharma on the Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates. / Opinion Journal: The Best Worst Budget Deal  Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips evaluates Congress’s omnibus budget deal. / Opinion Journal: What’s Next for Emerging Markets?  Morgan Stanley Investment Management Emerging Markets Head Ruchir Sharma on the effect of higher U.S. interest rates on developing countries
Thursday  17 December  2015 / Hour 1, Block B: Harry Siegel, New York Daily News, in re:  Mr DeBlasio's problematic year. Liberals ae running New York City entirely; the progressives have waited 20 years.  Turns out that DeBlasio has been good on policy but a political disaster: alientated Cuomo and the GOP Albany Assmbly Senate. His first year was a spectacular of unforced errors. The whole of the New York State Legislature came under reviedw; Sheldon Silver the honcho, now will be imprisoned for the rest of his life; also the other guy, Dean Skelos and his vulgar son, in charge of the other branch. Preet Bharara, New York Southern District, has taken down the two main men; will he take the third (Governor Cuomo)?
"Sure, the mayor's a hectoring windbag -- but he's actually off to a pretty good start." Approaching the mayor’s halfway mark, three conflicting things are clear: New Yorkers don’t think much of DeBlasio’s New York, they’re stuck with him and he’s delivering on his key promises. City Hall Year http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/harry-siegel-de-blasio-pretty-nice-new-york-article-1.2468170  ;  Albany Year http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/harry-siegel-friends-money-progressive-politics-article-1.2423980
 
Thursday  17 December  2015 / Hour 1, Block C: Mary Kissel, in re: 2015 in review and anticipating 2016.  Hoi polloi?   Clintonia scandalia - tribus vicibus per annos singulos.  Cruz and Rubio as centerpieces pro tem.  Three governors having much experience.
Thursday  17 December  2015 / Hour 1, Block D: Josh Rogin , Bloomberg View, in re: 'Twixt McCain: "Burn Russia down," and Rand Paul, "None of our beeswax."   Rubio: US and Russian interests not always at variance.  Trump: "I'd have a great relationship with Vova [Vladimir Vladimorovich]."   Then Putin praised Trump today.    S400 is a powerful, integrated air defense system (from missiles to satellites to the Moskva.  Now controls Syria so well that the US can't much function. "Painting" = as soon as US fighter planes get into the mix, the S400 locks on to them as targets. Oops – fear.  US had to quite flying there.  There is a no-fly zone over Syria – it's just a Russian-run one, and it's the US that can't fly there. 
New Russian Air Defenses in Syria Keep U.S. Grounded.  There's a new crisis for the international effort to destroy the Islamic State, created by the Kremlin. The U.S. has stopped flying manned air-support missions for rebels in a key part of northern Syria due to Russia’s expansion of air defense systems there, and the Barack Obama administration is scrambling to figure out what to do about it.
Russia’s military operations inside Syria have been expanding in recent weeks, and the latest Russian deployments, made without any advance notice to the U.S., have disrupted the U.S.-led coalition's efforts to support Syrian rebel forces fighting against the Islamic State near the Turkey-Syria border, just west of the Euphrates River, several Obama administration and U.S. defense officials told us. This crucial part of the battlefield, known inside the military as Box 4, is where a number of groups have been fighting the Islamic State for control, until recently with overhead support from U.S. fighter jets. But earlier this month, Moscow deployed an SA-17 advanced air defense system near the area and began “painting” U.S. planes, targeting them with radar in what U.S. officials said was a direct and dangerous provocation. The Pentagon halted all manned flights, although U.S. drones are still flying in the area. Russia then began bombing the rebels the U.S. had been supporting.   http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-12-17/new-russian-air-defenses-in-syria-keep-u-s-grounded  After nearly two hours of debating Middle East foreign policy, Republican candidates made two things clear: All the contenders want to destroy the Islamic State. And none of them has a real plan to rid the region of terrorism
 
Hour Two
Thursday  17 December  2015 / Hour 2, Block A:  Congressman Peter Roskam (IL-6); House Ways and Means Committee; in re: Iran/ Capitol Hill. Participation of the Iranian regime in the destruction of the ummah.  What can inhibit or stop the predation. Jacofa – the deal from the Vienna Accord, although nothing has been written or signed. It's a historical fiction. This Adm has creted a false illusio, as though the "deal" is a fair accompli.  First, effort to clarify the law on state-sponsored sanctions. Thirty US states have sancitions regimes against Iran. Examples: pension funds dealing with IRGC or Iran. Strong bipartisan House support of restatement of existing law; a signal also to the intl community – this is not a settled question in the US and a majority of Americans reject the deal and we'll use every tool we can to stop it. Also, legisalation focussing esp on the IRGC, the military regime within Iran, lowers threshold – for any money to flow, IRGC participation must be at a low level (QASSEM legislation: Aggression and Militancy Act – H.R. 4258). I chair the Way & Means Oversight Committtee; hearing on the tax implications of doing bz with Iran.  Tax credits and deferral: this is scandalous if a US firm does bz with Iranians!  IRGC is a money-making crew, a state within a state: looking to starve it for cash. It's a gang within a gang, a mob.
Thursday  17 December  2015 / Hour 2, Block B:  Michael Singh, managing dir, Washington Institute, & former National Security Council; in re: Iran/ Turkey. Israel. Erdogan climbdown: Israel and Turkey had great relations till Erdogan showed up and started sending little ships to undermine Israel; but the latter is now in such deep soup with NATO, Syria, Iran, and esp Putin, that he's trying to be buddies with Israel.    . . The soi-disant deal with Iran actually lightens requirements on Iran's missiles.   Violates Security Council Resolution 1929,which proscribes any nuclear missile tests.  Parchin.    https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/the-first-strict-implementation-test-of-the-iran-nuclear-deal  ; http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/dec/15/iranian-missile-test-violated-un-ban-report/  ;  http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Israel-and-Turkey-move-closer-to-reconciliation-normalized-relations-437673
Thursday  17 December  2015 / Hour 2, Block C:  Olli Heinonen, senior Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; in re: JCPOA.
http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/next-steps-in-the-implementation-of-the-jcpoa/  ;  http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/dec/15/iranian-missile-test-violated-un-ban-report/
Thursday  17 December  2015 / Hour 2, Block D: Malcolm Hoenlein, in re:  . . . Erdogan press reporets, deeply implicated in selingoil from ISIS and other criminal activity.  Putin revelaled it publicly.   The bldg on the Temple Mount where the Waqf did illegal acts for a long time (dumping junk), is not the one mentioned in Quran – instead, was conflated many years later by an Ottoman; rather, the Prophet's (PBUHN) al Aqsa was in Taif – said by a senior treacher in Egypt.  Argentina:  a prosecutor who was about to testify in court against th then-president mysteriously died that morning Clear he was killed; the whole problem was the Iran had committed unspeakable acts in the early 1990s and then apparently bribed Pres Kirchner in order to work its way deep into South America; but the new president is ending all that.  A flight that went from New York to London was denied to a passenger with an Israeli passport; this is illegal in the US, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey invited Kuwait to cease its actgions that are illegal in the US, but Kuwait declined, so Kuwait's New York-London flight is cancelled.  Yom Kippur is now recognized as an official holiday in the UN.
 
Hour Three
Thursday  17 December  2015 / Hour 3, Block A: Eli Lake, Bloomberg View columnist; in re: Syria/ Russia.  Iran is backing off? shy? in its commitment to th Syrian civil war now that Russia's in so deep?  The Russian-led ffensive begani n Seot, arranged between Sileimani and Putin in the summer  Stories about Soleimani en route to Moscow; in that period now evidence of a new mil offensive w close coordinatin between Iran and many other fighting group. This wd be the ground component of a Russian air campaign, However, in the first 2.5 mos it's been brutal for Iran in fatalities and casualities of IRGC officers, incl possibly Soleimani, himself.  Recalculation by Iranians: committed to propping up Assad but not to losing men.  Turkey: shot down a Russian jet (oops).  Hezbollah was trying to hide the deaths of its fighters, but now are advertising their 1500 dead and many more wounded.  Fatigue among Hezb supporters? Try to decioher  different interests - Hezb, ISIS, Russia.  Sat pix on AEI critical threats blog: Russian jets land in an Iranain air field near Hamadan. New.  Also, aviation blogs speak of Russian planes ecrting Iranian fighter in air.  S400 integrated system: any radar pointing to alien or unusual thing by Russian forces will be painted by the system and thus easy to shoot down. Said that US can jam S400 [but your editor doesn't really agree].  Elite fighters from Iran being replaced by Afghans?  The battlefield is a murky picture.  Hard to know the answer to this, bu twe'll see the casualties in coming weeks.  reproits: IRGC pulling back somewhat in its Syrian deployment; Hezb taking casualties – 1/3 killed or wounded. Russia working with Iran – dunno how much or for what. http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-12-17/new-russian-air-defenses-in-syria-keep-u-s-grounded ;  http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-12-10/western-officials-iran-retreating-from-syria-fight
Thursday  17 December  2015 / Hour 3, Block B: Joseph Humire, Director of Institute Relations at the Atlas Economic Research Foundation Argentina, Latin America, Iran in Latin America; in re:  A wind moves through Argentina to clear  the rot of the Kirchner administration. Start with new govt releasing the facts of Mr Nisman's death.  One of hft biggest obstacles was te priosecutor, a woman who did a horrible job and said the death awas a suicide –no one on Earth believed that. Also, the conterintell chief, Jaime ___.  New president, Mauricio Macri, lit a menorah at thepresidential palace and established a special bureau to investigeate the AMIA bombings and the permatin of Iran into Argentina. The Iran-Argentina memorandum of understanding.  Fragmented intell svc in Argentina which doesn't report to the govt; China also is moled in.  Kirchner has a history of tampering with evidence and procedures.  One-third of intell are paid to work for Iran, China, Cuba. One-third loyal to Kirchner, who apptd them. One-third actually loyal to Argentina.  Venezuela post-Chavez.  Drop in commodities prices damages some countries.  refocissing of Iran: Hezb is active in Mexico, cd go to other countries that have fertile ground. Beware Iran, which in South America is shifting the public perception of its nuclear program (thanks to the Obama Adm "deal.").  Mexico, Brazil Argentina.    http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/12/16/argentina-dumps-iran-agreement-opens-special-bureau-investigate-amia-bombing/  ;  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/24/world/americas/mauricio-macri-took-detour-from-life-as-scion-to-argentine-presidency.html
Thursday  17 December  2015 / Hour 3, Block C: Dan Henninger, WSJ, in re: Cruz and Rubio.
Thursday  17 December  2015 / Hour 3, Block D:  Gene Marks, Washington Post, in re: http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-evidence-is-piling-up-that-higher-minimum-wages-kill-jobs-1450220824  Among the many studies supporting this conclusion is one  completed earlier this year by Texas A&M’s Jonathan Meer and MIT’s Jeremy West, which reaffirmed that “the minimum wage reduces job growth over a period of several years” and that “industries that tend to have a higher concentration of low-wage jobs show more deleterious effects on job growth from higher minimum wages.”
Long Beach business groups ask for compromise on minimum wage     http://www.presstelegram.com/social-affairs/20151215/long-beach-business-groups-ask-for-compromise-on-minimum-wage  ; 6 Things That Will Absolutely, Positively Happen to Your Business in 2016 http://www.inc.com/gene-marks/6-things-that-will-absolutely-positively-happen-to-your-business-in-2016.html
Messaging Startup Slack Creates $80 Million Fund to Invest in Other Startups  http://bloom.bg/1JaHMjB  ;  What Technologies Are Marketers Investing In? https://shar.es/1Gc84r  via @eMarketer ;  7 Trends That Will Impact Who Finds a Job in 2016 https://www.ivyexec.com/executive-insights/2015/expect-2016-job-market/
 
Hour Four
Thursday  17 December  2015 / Hour 4, Block A: Monica Crowley, Fox and Washington Enquirer; in re: Review the Year of Clinton, from her hasty explanation for the email server in March . . .  Complete text of Hillary Clinton's remarks on e-mails, Iran ...   https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../transcript-hillary-... Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton told reporters at the U.N. that she chose to use a personal e-mail account because she thought it ... At a news conference at the U.N. Tuesday, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton .... The server contains personal communications from my husband and me, and I .
to the antiseptic premier campaign speech on the weirdly non NY Roosevelt Island:  Transcript: Read the Full Text of Hillary Clinton's Campaign ... time.com/.../transcript-full-text-hillary-clinton-campaign-launch/   Hillary Clinton held the first major rally of her campaign on Saturday. ... The U.S. Announces a $1.8 Billion Arms Sale to Taiwan .... Here, on Roosevelt Island, I believe we have a continuing rendezvous with destiny.
. . . to the FBI:  FBI Seizes Four State Department Servers in Clinton Email ... freebeacon.com/.../fbi-seizes-four-state-dep...  The FBI has seized four State Department computer servers as part of its probe into how classified information was compromised on former . . .   Clinton emails reportedly still 'top secret' (1 of 4)
Thursday  17 December  2015 / Hour 4, Block B: Monica Crowley, Fox and Washington Enquirer (2 of 4)
Thursday  17 December  2015 / Hour 4, Block C: Monica Crowley, Fox and Washington Enquirer (3 of 4)
Thursday  17 December  2015 / Hour 4, Block D: Monica Crowley, Fox and Washington Enquirer (4 of 4)
 
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