Photo, left - out of the aether: a US surveillance plane flying not too far from one of the false, just-glued-together islands that China is constructing in order to lay claim to huge swaths of ocean, received a broadcast: "This is the Chinese navy. This is the Chinese navy. Please go away to avoid misunderstanding."  Exclusive: China warns U.S. surveillance plane
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts:  Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal editorial board & host of OpinionJournal.com.  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents.
Hour One
Thursday  21 May 2015  / Hour 1, Block A: Sean Trende, realclearpolitics, in re: GOP has been on the upswing for years, is stronger than it's been since the 1920s.  over elected at the peak of the GOP before a deep fall.  GOP could win the presidency in '16, go into a depression, and then all out of favor for years.   We decided to look at various branches of govt and put them together in a single metric.  Demographics.  [Much polling and analytical discussion.] Latino, females, Millennials.  . . .  The only constant is change; cannot predict what politics will look like a decade hence. 
Thursday  21 May 2015  / Hour 1, Block B:  Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal editorial board & host of OpinionJournal.com; in re: As Ramadi falls to ISIS, the Middle East is blowing up, China is overtly aggressing against its neighbors, including important US allies – and Pres Obama goes to the Coast Guard Academy to speak on: the dangers of climate change. "Climate change destabilized the Arab world, leading to the current wars." He called Ramadi "a setback." Note that a US serveillance plane flying not too far from one of the false, just-glued-together islands that China is constructing in order to lay claim to huge swaths of ocean, received a broadcast: "This is the Chinese navy. This is the Chinese navy. Please go away to avoid misunderstanding."
Thursday  21 May 2015  / Hour 1, Block C: Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post, in re: 10 reasons why the Clinton-Blumenthal story is a big deal  Her ongoing reliance with an infamous attack dog spells trouble  The discovery that Hillary Clinton received some 25 memos from Clinton family confidant and hatchet man Sidney Blumenthal is causing another round of angst for Democrats. It should. Why are the memos a problem? . . . They show the degree to which Hillary Clinton defied the . . .
“From time to time, as a private citizen and friend, I provided Secretary Clinton with material on a variety of topics that I thought she might find interesting or helpful. The reports I sent her came from sources I considered reliable,” he wrote in the statement provided to MSNBC. 
Blumenthal, who was recently subpoenaed to testify before a congressional committee, added that he would comply. “I have informed the House Select Committee on Benghazi that I will cooperate with its inquiry and look forward to answering the Committee’s questions,” he added.   Blumenthal’s statement came via his attorney, James Cole, who until January was the deputy attorney general of the United States. He is now a partner in the Government Litigation & Investigations practice at the law firm Sidley Austin LLP.  . . .
Thursday  21 May 2015  / Hour 1, Block D:  Liz Peek, The Fiscal Times & Fox, in re: http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Blogs/Peek-POV/2015/05/21/Why-Clintons-Really-Established-Their-Foundation#sthash.PUUNFmyz.dpuf    Why the Clintons Really Established Their Foundation In a recent column, I suggested that stockholders in companies that donate to the Clinton Foundation should protest that misuse of funds. Why am I so opposed to an organization that is supposedly doing good works?  Ask yourself this: Why does the Clinton Foundation exist? Most such entities are established by people who have a great deal of money – like Bill Gates, or the Fords -- who want their funds to go to charitable purposes, often beyond their lifetimes. Our tax code allows people to donate their wealth to a foundation and take a tax deduction; a foundation can earn tax-free investment returns on the money, thus helping to perpetuate its existence.
The Clintons did not have great wealth when they established the foundation in 2001. That was the year that Bill Clinton moved out of the White House; at the time, according to Hillary, they were “dead broke.” What better way to pile up some dough than set up a foundation, and ask their friends and political allies to support it – and them?   If their ambition had been to use their celebrity to do good works, the Clintons could have endorsed a major non-profit like the Red Cross or the American Cancer Society– as Jimmy Carter has with Habitat for Humanity. They did not need to set up their own foundation.
The enormous foundation, with revenues of $295 million last year, and assets of almost $300 million, serves to keep Hillary and Bill ever in the spotlight and to keep their cronies like Sidney Blumenthal employed between political gigs. It backed Bill’s 2007 book Giving, which netted him $6.3 million. It provides first class travel and lavish events at which they can attract and hit up donors who enjoy mingling with movie stars. Note: unlike most charity galas - those lavish events lose money.  Corporations should not fund political slush funds like the Clinton Foundation. There are too many instances of apparent quid pro quo, and in any event the foundation fails to pass most objective tests of transparency and efficiency. Both Charity Navigator and the Better Business Bureau have recently declined to rate the organization.  
In my column I singled out Coca-Cola, which is the biggest U.S. corporate donor, having shelled out between $5 and $10 million to the Clinton’s foundation – but the beverage company is certainly not alone. (Coco-Cola did not respond to an inquiry about their donations.) Here are some other companies that have contributed to the giant non-profit, all of which have donated between one and five million dollars.  I have not distinguished between companies and their foundations since generally grants from associated non-profits are overseen by management. In some cases, such as Walmart, that may not be the case. Also, I have not included foreign companies, of which there are many. Gifts from overseas firms raise quite separate issues, which have been ably explored by Peter Schweizer in Clinton Cash. Note the prevalence of heavily regulated firms in healthcare and energy – both industries that need a helping hand from elected officials. I have included their twitter handles to make it easier for stockholders to voice their opinions.  Clinton enablers:
Anheuser-Busch Foundation @AnheuserBusch
Booz Allen Hamilton @BoozAllen
Cisco @Cisco
Citi Foundation @Citi
Duke Energy @DukeEnergy
Entergy @Entergy
ExxonMobil @exxonmobil
Hewlett-Packard @hewlett-packard
Humana @Humana
Microsoft @Microsoft
Pfizer @pfizer
Proctor & Gamble @ProctorGamble
Tenet Healthcare @tenethealth
The Boeing Company @Boeing
The Dow Chemical Company @DowChemical
The Goldman Sachs Group @GoldmanSachs
The Walmart Foundation @Walmart
Thomson Reuters @thomsonreuters
Hour Two
Thursday  21 May 2015  / Hour 2, Block A: .  Michael Rubin, author, Dancing with the Devil: The Perils of Engaging Rogue Regimes, in re:  Yemen. Houthis look to ravage what's left of the resistance; and al Qaeda; and critical waterways to the North, West, South, and Southeast – the world's shipping passes through the Suez Canal. Tour of the civil wars of the Middle East: Yemen is Syria 2.0, but Iran and Saudis are increasingly willing to intervene directly, one step closer to a broader Middle Eastern war.  Ship, Djibouti.  Twenty-fve yeas ago, when Iran got its nose bloodied after mining the sea, it realized it couldn’t fight the word.  Here, Iran is escorting he ship: if it protects the ship by arms, will the West get into a war?  If the West doesn’t  inspect, that'll be a model for the future.    Ship is a couple days away from the port north to  Aden.  Until 2007, Iran spoke of the Persian Gulf as of critical Iranian interest; now, Iran says it's a regional power and means it. The Quds Force probably training Houthis, who initially were not Iranian puppets.  Hezbollah model being rebuilt – and Hezbollah trainers with them. Pres Obama spoke of the Yemen model and the Somalia models as his counterterrorism models.  N=Today, complete chaos there.  This Administration has victories of one step forward, two steps back – but we report only the first step.
Thursday  21 May 2015  / Hour 2, Block B: Jonathan Schanzer, FDD, in re: ISIS and terrorism finance.
Thursday  21 May 2015  / Hour 2, Block C: Steven A. Cook is Hasib J. Sabbagh senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, in re: Tunisian president's meeting with Pres Obama: rewarding Tunisia; "a bit show and tell" to "a major non-NATO ally of the US." . . . Over 1.2 million Syrian refugees in Turkey. 
 Ramadi.  Upcoming Turkish elections.
Thursday  21 May 2015  / Hour 2, Block D: Benjamin Weinthal is a European correspondent at The Jerusalem Post and a Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies; in re: Europe. Israel. Iranian human rights.
Hour Three
Thursday  21 May 2015  / Hour 3, Block A: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:  
Thursday  21 May 2015  / Hour 3, Block B: Emily Landau, Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), Tel Aviv, in re: Iran. Laurent Fabius, French foreign minister, Khamenei: "There will be zero inspection or interview with Iranian research scientist."  Mocking the deal. Iranians still trying to get the best-possible deal; when they stay intransigent, say what they won’t do, they see the Obama Administration make ever more concessions.  "Need 24 days' advance notice before any IAEA inspector can look at anything [military]."
Emily Landau is a senior research associate at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv, where she is also director of the Arms Control and Regional Security Project. She has published and lectured extensively on nuclear proliferation, arms control efforts, and regional security in the Middle East, including CSBMs, Arab perceptions of Israel's qualitative edge, Israeli-Egyptian relations, and the Arms Control and Regional Security working group of the Madrid peace process (ACRS); international efforts to confront the proliferation challenges posed by Iran and North Korea; Israel's nuclear image and policy; and developments in global nuclear arms control thinking in the post-Cold War world. Her current research focuses on regional dynamics and processes in the Middle East, and recent trends in global nuclear arms control thinking, including regarding the nuclear ambitions of determined proliferators.
Thursday  21 May 2015  / Hour 3, Block C: Francis Rose, Federal News Radio, in re:  VA.
Thursday  21 May 2015  / Hour 3, Block D: Aaron Klein, investigative reporter of KleinOnline and Salem Radio Network;  in re:  Israeli news, inside baseball..  Hamas. Sunni and Shia tribes.
Hour Four
Thursday  21 May 2015  / Hour 4, Block A: Alexandra Witze, author: An Island on Fire: The Extraordinary Story of Laki, the Volcano That Turned Eighteenth-Century Europe Dark by Alexandra Witze and Jeff Kanipe  (1 of 4)
Thursday  21 May 2015  / Hour 4, Block B: Alexandra Witze, author: An Island on Fire: The Extraordinary Story of Laki, the Volcano That Turned Eighteenth-Century Europe Dark by Alexandra Witze and Jeff Kanipe  (2 of 4)
Thursday  21 May 2015  / Hour 4, Block C: Alexandra Witze, author: An Island on Fire: The Extraordinary Story of Laki, the Volcano That Turned Eighteenth-Century Europe Dark by Alexandra Witze and Jeff Kanipe  (3 of 4)
Thursday  21 May 2015  / Hour 4, Block D: Alexandra Witze, author: An Island on Fire: The Extraordinary Story of Laki, the Volcano That Turned Eighteenth-Century Europe Dark by Alexandra Witze and Jeff Kanipe  (4 of 4)
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