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JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Hour One
Thursday 20 August 2015 / Hour 1, Block A: Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal editorial board & host of OpinionJournal.com; in re: Seventy-four organization, Romi Drucker in New Hampshire: pres contenders on charter schools, common core, no child left behind, and budgets. Six of the top contenders were present; the striking theme of unity: School choice is what we want. The governors are comfortable in these discussion.  Both Chris Christie and Scott Walker can speak to the teachers's uni0ons.  Bobby Jindal, JohnKasich, Jeb Bush,  . . .  Health care:  . . . block grants, move authority to state capitals and power to individuals (health savings accounts – saving tax-free and it roll over into the next year; can bld up a large nest egg).  Eighty or 90% of ACA participators are subsidized.  Success to Pres Obama is the number of people covered, not the quality of care; Scott Walker is working for better coverage at a cheaper price for more people. 
Thursday 20 August 2015 / Hour 1, Block B:  Edward Hayes, criminal defense attorney par excellence, in re: Odd behavior in Times Square, with undressed females painted from waist up, with their male financial handlers lurking close at hand. Mayor proposes closing down the pedestrian malls in Times Square; Counsellor Hayes says that doesn't solve the problem. If someone is living in the subway on platforms and in rolling stock, there ought to be a way to move him out of there.  The New York City mayor has blamed the tabloids for his problems.   Gov Cuomo has said that the topless women are illegal – although not under current laws and ordinances.
1010 WINS Exclusive: Bratton Suggests Tearing Up Times Square Pedestrian Plaza ;  The task force on problems in Times Square, co-chaired by Bratton, will report back to the . . .    ; Bratton, de Blasio may remove Times Square plazas ; Bratton's plan to save Times Square from Elmo: Rip up pedestrian plazas!
Thursday 20 August 2015 / Hour 1, Block C: Victor Davis Hanson, Hoover and Tribune Media Services, in re: When you appease an aggressive autocrat, he sees that as intrinsic weakness to be exploited – or worse, if you don't believe in your own govt, he has less respect – contempt.   North Korean shelling, Japan, Iran – as though things are reaching a crescendo, tyrants my decide to cash in their chips in the next year.  The restoration of deterrence is so hard to restore.  . . . A brittleness to geopolitical affairs; heads of state always think they can manage events, then fail. Seven years of this Administration, people getting edgy, including the intl community. We're in an arena now where there are no rules. The Trump Catharsis – he's a bull in the china shop that we want to see ruined, don't care much about the bull.  . . . Mrs Clinton weakens as Trump prances.  Dem alternatives: old white guy Biden, Kerry, Jerry Brown. Trump is thinking of charging gthe networks for showing
From Thucydides’s Athens to 21st-century America, appeasement is not a winner. The common bond among the various elements of the failed Obama foreign policy — from reset with Putin to concessions to the Iranians — is a misreading of human nature. The so-called Enlightened mind claims that the more rationally and deferentially one treats someone pathological, the more likely it is that he will respond and reform — or at least behave. The medieval mind, within us all, claims the opposite is more likely to be true. [more] /   Obama: Earning Contempt, at Home and Abroad
Thursday 20 August 2015 / Hour 1, Block D:  Cori O'Conner, WSJ editorial board asst, in re: . . . the fee-based model is typically in larger accounts; new rule will go to former commission-based model of less than $25,000.  Goal is to send people to roboadvice.  Two large camps in contest: progressive (e.g., Tom Perez), which regards competition as a danger zone fraught with exploitation, and libertarians, classical liberals, who regard the marketplace as the safest place. Former believe in expert knowledge  as the only good knowledge, the only way fully to understand; see themselves as the experts helping the rest of us benighted citizens. 
The Obama Administration may have only 17 months to go, but that's still enough time to do plenty of economic damage. Witness Labor Secretary Tom Perez, who is rushing through a new regulation for financial advisors that isn't needed, that he lacks clear legal authority to impose, and that will hurt the very people it's supposed to help. Other than that, it's a splendid idea.
For decades, brokers and other financial advisors have operated on a commission model in which they get paid a fee when customers buy or sell securities. Mr. Perez sees this model as thieves' exploiting investors. So his proposed rule would apply a fiduciary standard that currently applies to money managers to advisors who merely sell financial products (such as advising to open a rollover IRA account).
    Mr. Perez says the rule is needed to protect Americans from advisers who are pushing stocks and mutual funds to gain fat commissions but may not be best for the customers. In practice the new standard will raise costs and limit choices for people of modest means who need financial advice.
     It will do this by effectively killing the commission model for middle-income investors. Customers will need to sign a complicated contract before they receive any advice, which some say will make giving financial advice over the phone unworkable.
The financial-services firm Primerica says the rule "will be particularly devastating for those with less than $25,000 to invest, which is the lowest required minimum investment for a fee-based advisor we could find." These small investors will face either higher fees they cannot afford or letters from their financial houses saying they will have to get their financial advice on their own. About 45% of Americans have accounts with less than $25,000, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute.
    Mr. Perez has suggested in hearings that customers can receive robo-advice instead. Seriously. We're not sure we trust Siri of iPhone fame as a stock picker. We'd prefer the flesh-and-blood adviser who may have been recommended by a friend.
    When Labor first proposed the rule in 2010, it was forced to back down amid bipartisan howls in Congress. Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill (Mo.) says it will eliminate advice "for all small employer plans under 100 participants." In the House, a bipartisan group told Mr. Perez they fear his rule would divide the industry "into those who can afford an advisor and those who cannot."
The legal justification is even flimsier. In Dodd-Frank, Congress specifically gave the Securities and Exchange Commission the authority to set a fiduciary standard for brokers and investment advisers. But Mr. Perez says Labor has the authority because many retirement accounts are issued to workers through employers -- and Labor already regulates employee benefits under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (Erisa). Never mind that the expansive definition of fiduciary he seeks is at odds with the language of Erisa.
    SEC Chair Mary Jo White hasn't directly criticized Mr. Perez, but this spring she said the SEC is working on its own rule. And Daniel Gallagher, a Republican on the SEC, says in a letter to Mr. Perez that the rule will "harm investors plain and simple." He adds that, "It is clear to me that the DOL rulemaking is a fait accompli and that the comment process is merely perfunctory."
    Labor held hearings last week, and there is now another comment period. But the understandable worry in the financial community is that the hearings were a pro forma effort to cite when Labor has to defend against the inevitable legal challenge once the rule is final. Mr. Perez is determined to push through the rule before he leaves town, and you can add its costs to the list of reasons that economic growth is slower than it should be. License this article from Dow Jones Reprint Service
Hour Two
Thursday 20 August 2015 / Hour 2, Block A: Ted Deutch (FL-21), in re: Iran, secret side deal: Iran to investigate itself? Astounding.   Residents of South Florida are highly concerned about this deal; some thought the deal was more than it is, so I was able to clarify and concluded I couldn't support it.  Always requisite that Iran come clean on it's mil activities – of which Parchin is a primary factor.  Twenty-four days' notice to Iran of impending IAEA inspections is bizarre – one could clean up a host of activities in three weeks or longer. This is not an election campaign, it's the most important national security discussion we've had in years. 
Thursday 20 August 2015 / Hour 2, Block B: Alan Dershowitz, Harvard Law School prof Emeritus, and author, The Case Against the Iran Deal: How Can We Now Stop Iran from Getting Nukes? ; in re: Ther reason we should reject this deal is that we don't know what we don't know I believe that [our representatives] know what's in the side deals and purposely didn't look so they could tell Congress that they don't know.  As for disclosing sources, The president should never have taken the military option off the table. But after the midterm elections, he did just that My book has a chart on this. Tom Friedman also agrees that now Iran thinks it can negotiate as a peer an equal to the US. There's  a preliminary provision: "Iran will never seek to develop r build nuclear weapons " – and Congress passes a resolution holding that as central to the deal, maybe we can not see that as a ten-year deal delaying Iran's military nukes.  Why did Obama change? Maybe he had no military option; or he realized that the sanction regime is dying and thought he got he best-possible deal.  Now we have to plead and beg for them to make concessions, into a very weal k and porous deal. Not one Congressman thinks it's a good deal; a few think that any alternative would be worse.   This is too important to be a partisan vote.
    The greatest danger the world faces in the twenty-first century is an Iranian nuclear arsenal. That is why decisions regarding Iran’s nuclear program may be the most important of our time. The negotiations that leto this bad deal were deeply flawed. But it doesn’t follow that the deal should be rejected by Congress. If the President is right that rejecting this deal will be worse than accepting, then he has put us in the terrible position of choosing between bad and worse.
In The Case Against the Iran Deal: How Can We Stop Iran from Getting Nukes?, Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz evaluates the pros and cons of the Iran nuclear agreement. He asks the fundamental questions about what the deal means, how it will be implemented, and whether [or not] we now have the capacity to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
As a lawyer with decades of negotiation experience, and a regular commentator on Middle Eastern politics, Dershowitz explains how we could have gotten a better deal, and offers a unique analysis of the Obama administration's negotiations with Iran and the implications of a deal for Israel, the Middle East, and the global community. It is a call for both intelligent reflection and for determined action to stop Iran from getting the bomb.
The clock is ticking. We must find ways to repair the damage this deal threatens to do. This book proposes solutions along with its constructive criticism.
Thursday 20 August 2015 / Hour 2, Block C: Saeed Ghasseminejad, FDD, in re: Iran’s economy and politics and the effects of terrorism and political unrest on financial markets. We know that Iran developed nuclear warheads, not is to inspect itself and receive $150 billion.  Will Pres Rouhani use that for the beleaguered Iranian people, or use it to make war? Money will go to the Revolutionary Guards and the groups controlled directly by Khamenei (who's personally holds $100 mil or more in assets).   . . . Will target New York, ___, Washington and London.  . . .  The Iranian diaspora: does it feel at risk after his deal?  We hear of Argentines, Venezuelans, Mexicans, Gazans, celebrating the idea that there'll be cash soon.  Yes, risk: the agents are comfortable killing often.   . . .  Why you don't negotiate with wolves: their threat is part of their character. 
Thursday 20 August 2015 / Hour 2, Block D: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: cetacean mammals (dolphins) are as smart as hominids; may be so smart they're Jewish!   Hamas claims it caught a dolphin fitted out with spy eqpt: sounds nuts, but the tale is given credence – that it was trained to shoot arrows art humans, somehow attached to the dolphin. An armed Jewish dolphin.  "Dolphin" is the name of Israel's fast boat; did Hamas get confused?   Americans on the Iran deal: so far, the more people learn, the more reject it – 56% people say Congress need to reject it (up from 52% a month ago). Regrettably, it's becoming more partisan, Dems vs GOP.  Four rockets from Golan into Israel: ISIS disclaims, IRGC turns on its ops vfin Golan – the Palestinian division of al Quds Force - where Iran sends a clear message since Israel has succeeded in having advanced guidance systems being delivered to Hamas.    These were four deliberate shots; Israel retaliated by hitting 14 launch sites, which was unfortunately necessitated by the impossibility of letting this go on indefinitely.  Maj-Gen Kooperwasser: an IAF strike on Golan Heights killing Mughniya's son plus an IRGC general – why was he there?  They were setting up a front; "If they dvp a front there, Israel will have to respond vigorously" - and now it does.  US has provided $1 billion in mil eqpt to the Lebanese army in the last year – now that army and Hezbollah are doing joint patrols in violation of agreement; similarly, . . .
Hour Three
Thursday 20 August 2015 / Hour 3, Block A: Jonathan Schanzer, FDD, in re: The Odd Couple – that one was a fab marriage compared to: Turkey, Turkey-Iran relations. WSJ Europe piece on Turkey getting hit with bombings by ISIS, which it's finally opposed. Turkey and Iran are at odds because they oppose each other along Sunni-Shia sectarian divide, and Turkey works w Saudis against Houthis, but also were in $100 bil of transaction with Iran, also the $20bil gas-for-gold scheme.  Iran has had minor Kurdish problems but thinking of Assad, Hezbollah, Hamas, Iraq – Kurds don't encumber them, so Iran supports the PKK to an extent.  When Kurds fight ISIS – the most dangerous threat to survival of Assad regime, Iran will help Kurds to fight ISIS.  Turkey wanted to replace Assad with a Muslim-Brotherhood front, but still clings irrationally to the hope. Thus Turks support jihadi groups who stream across the intentionally-porous  Tfvurkish-The Obama Iran deal: about to make the Turks very rich, incl by the new O&G pipeline, but simultaneously this makes OI much stronger regional power. So Turkey invites the US to work out of Incirlik.  Half of ISIS financial stream comes from plunder; the rest from smuggling, weapons, oil sales. If Turkey cut off that [pipeline] of smuggling, would Turkey survive?? Erdogan trying to create a Putin-style  imperial presidency.  He allowed a free and fair election last time, and lost; mene mene the next time.   Kurds of northern Iraq have earned the trust of Ankara; the Turkish fear is of Syrian Kurdish fighters – the YPG, which gains most of its sustenance at present from northern Iraq.   The Muddle East.
Thursday 20 August 2015 / Hour 3, Block B: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: IAEA and Iran doc that cuts out the US and the US Congress. Satellites see a lot of earth-moving eqpt and earth moved at Parchin. Wendy Sherman said that the JAPOA  . . .
Today a Navy spokesman denied that  . . . it's not true, then backpeddalled later in the day.   Iran gets to name the inspector, no one from the US or Canada.   State denied that the document was true?  "This deal will include inspector access to Parchin and military sites."  where there's a permanent record in the isotopes in the soil; until you have the PMD you have no basis for future judgment.  this is the same as citizens's doing their own taxes and demanding a refund from the IRS without documentation.   . . . S300: missile defense system that Russia sold to Iran, then denied, and now will send; was to be two batteries, now will be four.  Eke MiG-3s to Damascus. Payment coming from the US govt in the $150 billion sanctions lifting. 
Thursday 20 August 2015 / Hour 3, Block C:  Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack, in re:
Thursday 20 August 2015 / Hour 3, Block D:   James Taranto, WSJ, in re:
Hour Four
Thursday 20 August 2015 / Hour 4, Block A: Daughters of the Samurai: A Journey from East to West and Back , by Janice P. Nimura (1 of 4)
Thursday 20 August 2015 / Hour 4, Block B: Daughters of the Samurai: A Journey from East to West and Back , by Janice P. Nimura (2 of 4)
Thursday 20 August 2015 / Hour 4, Block C: Daughters of the Samurai: A Journey from East to West and Back , by Janice P. Nimura (3 of 4)
Thursday 20 August 2015 / Hour 4, Block D: Daughters of the Samurai: A Journey from East to West and Back , by Janice P. Nimura (4 of 4)
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