left: American Sniper, not the movie.
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts; Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal editorial board & host of OpinionJournal.com; Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents.
Hour One
Thursday  22 January 2015  / Hour 1, Block A: Mary Kissel, in re: Pres Obama's impending visit to India. SOTU review. Opinion Journal: Davos’s Bad Economics.  Morgan Stanley Head of Emerging Markets Ruchir Sharma on why developed country elites are wrong to call for more fiscal and monetary stimulus.
Thursday  22 January 2015  / Hour 1, Block B:  Edward W Hayes, criminal defense attorney par excellence, in re: Bill Bratton, Chief of Police of New York City Police Dept.  Pat Lynch, president of the police officers's assn.  A tough situation for de Blasio; Even the rev Sharpton is making conciliatory noises, although no one gives that any credence.  Probably a permanent rift between the mayor and the NYPD; might be mollified only by de Blaso's giving a fabulous contract to the police, but then he'd be accused of kowtowing.  Three homeless people on 53 Street between Park and Madison – police have quite writing quality-of-life summonses, which in turn reduces the city's income. / Sheldon Silver is arrested for corruption; Mayor de Blasio says, "He's a man of integrity" – meaning that his sidekick is innocent till proven guilty, whereas the police are guilty till proven innocent. "Can you square the circle?"  "Hello, Eddie??"  ". . . I'm speechless."
Thursday  22 January 2015  / Hour 1, Block C: Lara M Brown, George Washington University, in re: The responses of presidential contenders to SOTU.  “The president was thinking, ‘I don’t want to shrink from the big challenges,’ ” recalled Jon Favreau, the president’s former speechwriter, who wrote Mr. Obama’s second inaugural address. Of Tuesday’s State of the Union address, he said, “More than anything, this is the second act of that speech.” But the aftermath of the inaugural address could serve as a cautionary tale for the president and his staff at the White House as they move into the final phase of his presidency. In the two years after the inaugural speech, Mr. Obama failed to enact much of his ambitious agenda: gun control, an immigration overhaul, climate change legislation, a bipartisan budget deal and a minimum-wage increase. Much of the president’s domestic agenda was hijacked by a series of overseas crises.
     The lesson may be that even a powerful speech is no guarantee of success in a political environment where the opposition party controls Congress and a volatile world regularly surprises. But White House officials said the president remained an optimist. “He feels better about things,” one top aide said. “He feels like what we’ve been doing is taking hold. That gives him confidence.”
Thursday  22 January 2015  / Hour 1, Block D:  Francis Rose, Federal News Radio, in re:  the continuing VA scandals.
Hour Two
Thursday  22 January 2015  / Hour 2, Block A: Mike Singh, managing director at The Washington Institute and a former senior director for Middle East affairs at the National Security Council; in re:  Iran, Negotiations, Iraq.  WSJ: "Pres  Obama is displeased with the Speaker's invitation to PM Netanyahu; what he should be concerned with is the stunning lack of confidence in the Congress in Pres Obama's negotiations with Iran."  The dispute between Congress and the president has to do with American governance, but the centerpiece is that we're far from a nuclear deal with Iran; that the US and its allies are heading toward a bad deal; and what will US-Iranian relations be after such a deal?  Presorts of a new Hezbollah base blt w Iranian funds; Houthis  (under Iran) have taken over Yemen; Iranian agitation in Bahrain.  A new, 27-foot missile shown off in Iran.      http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/the-paradox-in-o...       http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/oil-prices-midte...
Thursday  22 January 2015  / Hour 2, Block B: Adriana Camisar is B’nai B’rith International's Special Advisor on Latin American Affairs; in re: The death of Alberto Nisman, a visibly not-suicidal man, initially said to be a suicide despite the fact that there was no note, no powder burn; and a fingerprint was found, a footprint was found.  Now the Argentine president, Cristina Kirchner, has now reversed her opinion, says it was not a suicide; rather, was a sinister plot to defame and destroy her.   He was "smart, energetic, serious about his investigation, and would never have committed suicide." One day he accused the government of grave misdeeds; next day he was found dead.  There have been demonstrations across the country. This reaches back to 1994 and the mass murder of Jews in Buenos Aires in a bombing strongly linked to Iran.  If Nisman's allegations prove true it'll be terrible for Cristina, as she's openly lied abut it.  "I always felt there was something behind this shameful agreement with Iran."
Thursday  22 January 2015  / Hour 2, Block C: Dina Kawar, Jordanian Ambassador to the UN, in re:  The passing of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, and the naming of his half-brother, Salman, as the new king.  We were saddened.  His half-brother has taken over; the passing away of King Abdullah was especially sad because he was very active in modernizing his society.  Jordan and Saudi Arabia have always enjoyed good relations, and face the same danger from  extremists.  At the Paris march, few Arab states attended but Jordan did, and bravi.  It was important for His Majesty and the Queen to convey the message that the terrorism we're seeing in Europe and all over the world is not the true message of Islam.  We have out own problems with __, it’s cultural; if you have a problem speak and write, don't go kill anyone.  The refugee is sue is complicated; we have almost 700,000 registered refugees; huge camps, and families spread across the country.  This is in addition to Iraqi and to Palestinians and other refugees – 20% of the country's population is refugees, and we are not a very rich nation.     . . .   Are you satisfied that the US is adequately dealing with the Syrian civil war?  A small correction  roots are a decade old of al Qaeda and others, but the Syrian regime has left the eastern part of the country a little bit on its own.. [As for stopping] ISIS from taking over- ambition to take over land and create a state – al Q wanted to kill, to create chaos everywhere - . . .    Do you expect the Palestinians to make another run for UN membership, or will focus on the ICC?  We'd like to see a solution, absent which it’s dangerous for everyone.  On 16 Jan the Min of Foreign Affairs met in Cairo to reactivate a solution; the idea of an Arab initiative did come back, to say to Israel: for peace, you'll get peace will all Arab countries.  I always wonder why the Israeli leadership ignores this because it’s so good for Israeli security, For the next moths, we actually have no pans, but if we do go to the Security Council it'll be for something positive, not confrontation.
Combatting terrorism in the region; the Syrian refugee crisis;  the question of Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Thursday  22 January 2015  / Hour 2, Block D: William J. Bratton, 42d police commissioner of the City of New York; in re: Homeland security. Threats of Islam. NYPD Hercules teams.  From lone wolf to known wolf.  Events in Paris, Tel Aviv, elsewhere, are of much concern to us, esp the "lone wolves."  What you see in grand Central or Penn Station is a heightened sense of security.  New York has 1,000 people in its antiterrorism unit, led by the very able John Miller [of FBI, DNI, and in LA]. My predecessor Ray Kelly, spent his 12 years bldg the most robust antiterrorism system probably of any city in the world, incl intell units. Now were expanding on that.    What do you want the citizenry to do?  First, to be aware we're only as good as the actionable intell we get.  However, no need to live I n fear (were we to do that, the terrorists would have won).  The reality is that they'll continue to come at us, but if they do, we're well prepared.  Protection is a collaboration NYPD-citizens.  A lone wolf operates out of his basement of living room, finds hundreds of sites that inspire him to terrorist actions The known wolves are, for example, the three young men in Paris , as they were known to authorities. The French officials simply didn't have the resources to deal with that many known wolves.   It's of growing concern. Our cooperation with the FBI is great; unfortunate to lose the excellent head of FBI in New York, but his replacement is also very good.
Hour Three
Thursday  22 January 2015  / Hour 3, Block A:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:   Alberto Nisman died as part of a chain: in the 1994 bombing and mass killing in Buenos Aires, Rafsanjani and Velayati are both named in Interpol "red notices."  Argentine president is under investigtion for taking bribes from Iran.  The AMIA bombing followed the bombing of he Israeli embassy, in which many Argentine civilian passers-by were killed. The notion that Nisman committed suicide is visibly wrong.  This has all been going on for a long time.  Sens Menendez and Kirk are both up to speed on this matter; Senatorial debate on sanctions of Iran; a transparent dispute between the Senate and the White House. Yemen: the resident has left the palace, fled Sanaa to Aden?  Yemen is a failed state, overrun by the Houthis, who in turn are a surrogate army of Iran.  A blow to the region.  Pres Obama said that the two foreign policy successes were Afghanistan and Yemen!  The West kept getting warnings of Houthi invasion, ignored them. Houthis now have access to sophisticated weaponry.  Al Quds [Iranian strike force] commander was a ballistic missiles expert, happened to be in a caravan that was struck by an Israeli missile trying o stop what looked like an imminent invasion from Golan into Israel. Iran is assisting an attack on Israel by Hezbollah: escalate tensions, have terrorist attacks, perhaps fire 1,000 missile s a day ( a new kind of missile).
Thursday  22 January 2015  / Hour 3, Block B: Mansour (nom de guerre) in Amman, Libyan citizen born in Benghazi, invested in Libyan national affairs; in re: conditions in Libya.  Two major fights: vs the Islamist/jihadists/al Q, and within Libya among factions.  First we'll speak of the fight against Islamist terrorists: the do not subscribe to democracy or Libya as a nation-state. After the death of Amb Stevens, the Libyan army started the fight vs terrorism, esp in Benghazi, and I'm pleased to say we're winning.  Exportation of oil: very low production (2300K Bbl/day, for local consumption). Libyan army under leadership of Chief of Staff, apptd by Parliament, is fighting street by street in Benghazi, overwhelming terrorists.
http://www.businessinsider.com/libyan-militants-just-seized-a-central-bank-branch-with-as-much-as-100-billion-inside-2015-1 ; http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30913458
Thursday  22 January 2015  / Hour 3, Block C: Conrad Black, in re:  TERROR IN FRANCE The French Fight Rediscovering our backbone.
Thursday  22 January 2015  / Hour 3, Block D:   Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re:  Unhappy with the "2014 is the warmest year ever" – he challenges this as bad science.  Also, plumes emerging from Comet 67P as it approaches the Sun.
Hour Four
Thursday  22 January 2015  / Hour 4, Block A: Dan Henninger, WSJ WONDER LAND, in re: Obama's American Sniper
Thursday  22 January 2015  / Hour 4, Block B: David Weidner, WSJ/Marketwatch, in re:  Tim Cook's missed opportunity   The Apple CEO is creating his own legacy, but emerging from Steve Jobs's shadow is tough.  David Weidner writes from San Francisco.
Thursday  22 January 2015  / Hour 4, Block C: Allen Meltzer, Hoover, in re:  The Obama Administration, the Federal Reserve, and independent economists have to answer the central question about this recovery. Why did the enormous, sustained monetary stimulus have so little effect on real output, employment, and prices?
My answer is in two parts. First, the Federal Reserve’s policy is based on major economic errors. It tried to resolve real economic problems by printing money. They should know that is not possible. Second, the real problems were created by the Obama administration. Its insistence on imposing costly regulations on firms and industries, its support for stronger labor unions, its opposition to tax reduction, and its other policies based on what the Economist magazine called “the Criminalization of American Business” have hampered the economic recovery.  http://www.hoover.org/research/three-strikes-against-fed
Thursday  22 January 2015  / Hour 4, Block D: Robert M. Cutler, Central Asianist, oil & gas analyst; in re: Russia's "Turk Stream" Pipeline Idea: New Energy Move against Europe?  Russia continues to play hardball with natural gas for the European Union, trying to get Brussels to sacrifice Ukraine in return for the promise of better relations with Moscow. The European Commission's vice-president for energy union, Maros Sefcovic, visited Russia on January 14 to ask exactly what Moscow's intentions were about the now-cancelled South Stream pipeline. Russian President Vladimir Putin had announced late last year a Russian plan to substitute for it a huge 63 billion cubic meter per year (bcm/y) pipeline project under the Black Sea to Turkey and then up to the Turkish-Greek border.
 
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