Photo: At CPAC 2018, Sebastian Gorka, John Batchelor, Liz Peek, and Thaddeus McCotter.
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
 
CPAC 2018
Hour One
Thursday 22 February 2018 / Hour 1, Block A:  Michael Auslin, Hoover; Toshi Yoshihara, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment; Gordon Chang, Daily Beast; in re: The Quad (Japan, India, Australia, US) working together to counter Chinese aggression and expansionism. 
Thursday 22 February 2018 / Hour 1, Block B: Michael Auslin, Hoover; Toshi Yoshihara, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment; Gordon Chang, Daily Beast; in re: Xi Jinping presents himself as a world leader; is he secure and stable at home?  As far as we know, yes: has spent five years taming all possible domestic opposition, issuing “Xi Jingping thought” publication, etc.  Note that the Russian Tsarist regime collapsed within one week; there’s a certain logic to that occurring in China. He’s led with his chin on the One Belt-One Road matter and thereby put himself somewhat at risk. Has grandiose ambitions.  As other countries start to engage in normal competition with China, he’ll face a new landscape.  Note that the weakest point of tyrannies is in the succession struggle; despots do not manage that successfully.  If Xi believes that the Party needs to have a smooth succession, then he’ll try to [emulate] Deng.  . . .
Thursday 22 February 2018 / Hour 1, Block C:   Michael Auslin, Hoover; Toshi Yoshihara, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment; Gordon Chang, Daily Beast; in re: The South China Sea. Adm Harry Harris retiring to become US Ambassador to Australia.  British Defence Ministry will sortie a ship to utilize Freedom of Navigation in the South China Sea.  Have we lost the overall battle? Not at all – it can brag and bluster and claim, but can it shoot?  Nope.   ADIZ (air defense ID zone):  China demands that wayfarers announce themselves and be accepted.  China has gained a ;positional advantage by bldg these [fake] islands; obliges the US to factor in one additional flank in case of a thorny problem.  First Island Chain: neither Japan nor China has surrendered sovereignty.  In 2016, it was South China Sea all the time; then last  year, not. When we finally do turn our attention back there, it’ll be the Chinese position of 1819 — a totally new circumstance.  . . . How about India’s bldg a naval base [Seychelles?] past which China will have to ship its oil [from Arabia]?  Note that New Delhi and Hanoi are working closely together.  India now is speaking of even the East China Sea as being critical to India’s interests.  Andaman/Nicobar Islands, just West of the Malacca Straits, where India is active.  India also is concerned about its northern land border.  China creates antibodies to its expansion.  This is laid at the doorstep of Xi Jinping.  Next: China is intimately related to its stooge, Kim Jong-eun.
Thursday 22 February 2018 / Hour 1, Block D:  Michael Auslin, Hoover; Toshi Yoshihara, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment; Gordon Chang, Daily Beast; in re: China is intimately related to its stooge, Kim Jong-eun.  China refuses to accept the US at its border, which is the problem with North Korea.   US has few other options but to continue what it’s been doing, We’re at a crossroads: either live with a DRPK bomb and its ramifications, or risk a real, hot war that would obliterate the Kim regime.   US has not thought through the costs: will require a great deal of political capital and dipl work to assure our allies – Japan, South Korea, et al. — should DPRK actually have the bomb + delivery systems.  Moon Jae-in would love to have better relations with the North and worse with the US, but unfortunately for him he’s the leader of a democratic state whose citizens see the US as the only real guarantor of RoK security.  China will take any opportunity to drive a wedge ‘twixt the US and the rest of the word s China becomes the global hegemon, Its primary objective is to secure the continuation of the Party; Japan and South Korea will have to be subservient. China wants to rule the world and upend the rules-based/laws-based present world system.
 
CPAC 2018
Hour Two
Thursday 22 February 2018 / Hour 2, Block A:  Liz Peek, Fiscal Times and Fox News; Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, The Great Voice of the Great Lakes;  Sebastian Gorka, Fox News, in re: Currently, 51% of the c0untry approves of tax cuts applying to 85% of the population; growth looks to be at 3.5% this year.  Happiness begins around the hearth and home.  The suffocating bureaucracy can be released [and got rid of].  The GOP is starting to realize that this president was only accidentally the candidate – he won despite the GOP establishment. As for the Democrats, I [can't figure it.] Larry Summers convinced the major voices that we’re stuck at 2% growth; still saying that even though we’re now at 3%.   . . . Remember that Hillary came out against the gig economy, alienating the Millennials. 
Thursday 22 February 2018 / Hour 2, Block B:  Liz Peek, Fiscal Times and Fox News; Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, The Great Voice of the Great Lakes;  Sebastian Gorka, Fox News, in re: peace and prosperity are what made the GOP strong in the second half of the Twentieth Century.  . . . Where’s ISIS?  Suddenly the [discussants] have all gone silent,  Pres Obama said we’d be fighting ISIS for generations; this president has compressed generations into six months.  Steve Bannon said, “I want a bumper sticker, ‘No more physical caliphate.’”  The American forces destroyed  the physical caliphate.  . . . When Pres Trump berated our NATO allies for failing to apply the agreed 2% of their GDPs on NATO, Germany inter al. still refuses.    US believes that liberty is the way to have prosperity and peace; Russia holds the opposite. . . . The Quad (Australia, India, Japan, the US): The fact that the president launched a 302 investigation of [Chinese trade actions] . . . . There’s only one strategic threat that the US faces: China. (Russia’s GDP is less than California’s). Look at what Australia has gone through: China’s purchasing political power there with cash.
Thursday 22 February 2018 / Hour 2, Block C:  Liz Peek, Fiscal Times and Fox News; Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, The Great Voice of the Great Lakes;  Sebastian Gorka, Fox News, in re: One subject that comes up all the time: called Russiagate. My opinion is that it was [concocted] by Clinton and the DNC to accuse Trump of colluding with Russia.  Investigation going on for a year with no scintilla of evidence that Trump or anyone connected with him cloud with Russia. Now [FBI and DoJ] are under a cloud.   To see a cynical politician, look at Adam Schiff.  Expect to see [media] weaponized against [our democracy].  Rep Devin Nunes & Sen Grassley.  One candidate in 2016 bought illegal surveillance on another American. 
The ad hominems against Nunes and others are terrible.  “You know you’re over the target when you get the most flak.”  There’s no defense for what they did.  This process will take mush longer than this election cycle.  Impeachment: that’s all they have.  “We don't want Americans to be safe or prosper” – Pelosi can't campaign on that.  Impeach Trump? They have no idea whom they’re dealing with.  The impeachment threat is [very real and continues.]  I hate to give constructive advice to the Democrats; fortunately, they ignore it. 
Thursday 22 February 2018 / Hour 2, Block D: Liz Peek, Fiscal Times and Fox News; Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, The Great Voice of the Great Lakes;  Sebastian Gorka, Fox News, in re: Millennials: keen on Pres Obama and the Democratic Party? But they all have 401ks. They all learned from their professors about Keynes, not Laffer.  . . .  Communism and tyranny:  This is a fight you have to fight every twenty years. . . . Why are we discussing the Laffer Curve in 2018? It should be in every textbook.  They’re not Millennials — they’re individuals.  They’re more libertarians than anything else.  They watch other Millennials listen to three-minute podcasts every day. 
Hour Three
Thursday 22 February 2018 / Hour 3, Block A: Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtze,  by Peter Harmsen. Japanese plan was to gobble up China bit by bit, but Chiang Kai-shek, from his HQ 100 mi north, planned to surprise the Japanese in a sneak attack in a place where the Japanese could not fully utilize its superior armor or artillery.  Not a flat plain, as in the north; rather, tactically difficult for Japan. 
Thursday 22 February 2018 / Hour 3, Block B: Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtze,  by Peter Harmsen
Thursday 22 February 2018 / Hour 3, Block C: Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtze,  by Peter Harmsen
Thursday 22 February 2018 / Hour 3, Block D: Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtze,  by Peter Harmsen
 
Hour Four
CPAC 2018
Thursday 22 February 2018 / Hour 4, Block A:  Michael Auslin, Hoover; Toshi Yoshihara, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment; Gordon Chang, Daily Beast; in re: The Quad (Japan, India, Australia, US) working together to counter Chinese aggression and expansionism. 
Thursday 22 February 2018 / Hour 4, Block B: Michael Auslin, Hoover; Toshi Yoshihara, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment; Gordon Chang, Daily Beast; in re: Xi Jinping presents himself as a world leader; is he secure and stable at home?  As far as we know, yes: has spent five years taming all possible domestic opposition, issuing “Xi Jingping thought” publication, etc.  Note that the Russian Tsarist regime collapsed within one week; there’s a certain logic to that occurring in China. He’s led with his chin on the One Belt-One Road matter and thereby put himself somewhat at risk. Has grandiose ambitions.  As other countries start to engage in normal competition with China, he’ll face a new landscape.  Note that the weakest point of tyrannies is in the succession struggle; despots do not manage that successfully.  If Xi believes that the Party needs to have a smooth succession, then he’ll try to [emulate] Deng.  . . .
Thursday 22 February 2018 / Hour 4, Block C:   Michael Auslin, Hoover; Toshi Yoshihara, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment; Gordon Chang, Daily Beast; in re: The South China Sea. Adm Harry Harris retiring to become US Ambassador to Australia.  British Defence Ministry will sortie a ship to utilize Freedom of Navigation in the South China Sea.  Have we lost the overall battle? Not at all – it can brag and bluster and claim, but can it shoot?  Nope.   ADIZ (air defense ID zone):  China demands that wayfarers announce themselves and be accepted.  China has gained a ;positional advantage by bldg these [fake] islands; obliges the US to factor in one additional flank in case of a thorny problem.  First Island Chain: neither Japan nor China has surrendered sovereignty.  In 2016, it was South China Sea all the time; then last  year, not. When we finally do turn our attention back there, it’ll be the Chinese position of 1819 — a totally new circumstance.  . . . How about India’s bldg a naval base [Seychelles?] past which China will have to ship its oil [from Arabia]?  Note that New Delhi and Hanoi are working closely together.  India now is speaking of even the East China Sea as being critical to India’s interests.  Andaman/Nicobar Islands, just West of the Malacca Straits, where India is active.  India also is concerned about its northern land border.  China creates antibodies to its expansion.  This is laid at the doorstep of Xi Jinping.  Next: China is intimately related to its stooge, Kim Jong-eun.
Thursday 22 February 2018 / Hour 4, Block D:  Michael Auslin, Hoover; Toshi Yoshihara, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment; Gordon Chang, Daily Beast; in re: China is intimately related to its stooge, Kim Jong-eun.  China refuses to accept the US at its border, which is the problem with North Korea.   US has few other options but to continue what it’s been doing, We’re at a crossroads: either live with a DRPK bomb and its ramifications, or risk a real, hot war that would obliterate the Kim regime.   US has not thought through the costs: will require a great deal of political capital and dipl work to assure our allies – Japan, South Korea, et al. — should DPRK actually have the bomb + delivery systems.  Moon Jae-in would love to have better relations with the North and worse with the US, but unfortunately for him he’s the leader of a democratic state whose citizens see the US as the only real guarantor of RoK security.  China will take any opportunity to drive a wedge ‘twixt the US and the rest of the word s China becomes the global hegemon, Its primary objective is to secure the continuation of the Party; Japan and South Korea will have to be subservient. China wants to rule the world and upend the rules-based/laws-based present world system.
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