JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Colleagues: Sebastian Gorka, Fox and America Frst Radio; and Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents
 
Hour One
Thursday 23 April 2020 / Hour 1, Block A:  Steve Moore, Committee to Unleash Prosperity; in re: If we go into June, the damage will be very severe.  Obviously, public health is a central concern so we want to use best practices; but we gotta get our economy an society up and running. Increases in social pathologies right now: suicide, heart attacks, child abuse; could make the case that staying shut down now is more dangerous than not.
The president is highly cognizant of all this.  The small businesses aren't getting the safety ramp that the big businesses are. The red states are starting to open up; blue states, not.  In your interview with t eh New York Times, . . .  If New York stays closed till July4, there’ll be tumbleweeds rolling down Fifth Avenue.  The streets are empty.  . .  . No bailout of blue states, including my home state of Illinois. The co-sovereignty of federalism. 
Thursday 23 April 2020 / Hour 1, Block B: Conrad Black, NRO and author, in re:  The origin points to the to biosafety labs in Wuhan. Will Canada join in the intl call for an inquiry?   Justin Trudeau has been unusually to China.  The Canadian public has expressed serious concern about the virus, so Trudeau probably will go along with it [to some extent].  In the US, the public believes 66% that China is not a rival but a foe. In the US, there’s been a rivalry, unlike in Canada. The West thought that economic improvement in China would lead to democracy. We rejoice n the shift of millions of starving people to a healthier state, but the conduct of the government is a different matter. 
The impeachment.  They were trying to impeach him in an election year, while he focused on just getting the job done.  The Democratic leadership wasted time on that.  Richard Nixon would be appalled at all this; but he left a fair bit hanging out, whereas there’s no actual evidence against Mr Trump.  Not one American in a hundred can remember the reason for the impeachment process.
Thursday 23 April 2020 / Hour 1, Block C: Professor Lee Ohanian, Hoover, in re:  The California budget on its last legs.  Arnold invested in field hospitals; but at a recession, Gov Brown decided such things were frills to Gov Newsom had to scramble and pay very high prices.  Same crisis as 1020, or can California get out of this?? It’s in a deeper fall than it was  decade ago – for the last six weeks, has erased job growth of the entire last decade. Has 4 million unemployed out of a labor force or 20 million.  Arnold saw the H1N1, so invested in hospitals, protective gear; Brown: most of the eqpt went to the national guard and disposed of it at pennies on the dollar.  Newsom speaks of the rainy-day fund all the time: “We’ve built up a $20 mil surplus” – but its spoken for, as expenditures expand and revenues dry up. Cali relies on income tax more than any other state and on higher incomes (50% tax).
Thursday 23 April 2020 / Hour 1, Block D: Veronique de Rugy, Mercatus, and Arnold Kling, Mercatus; in re: The SBA. CARES Act: it’s an emergency, but the SBA takes its time.  Give everyone with a checking account, businesses and individuals, an overdraft line of credit through the bank, till 2022;  have a low interest of 1%: it’ll be repayable.  Eighty per cent of small businesses are sole proprietorships. This would require no bureaucracy. If people don’t default on their mortgage or rent, that helps the national economy and protects banks.  We’re not contemplating forgiveness at this stage. Creates the needed incentive: it's available, so  you needn’t rush to spend it.  Some will spend it, some won’t; some may not need a line of credit after two months, and so forth.  
 
Hour Two
Thursday 23 April 2020 / Hour 2, Block A:  Yossi Kuperwasser, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, and former head of the research division in the Israel Defence Force (IDF) Military Intelligence division and Director General of the Israel Ministry of Strategic Affairs; in re:  In this attack, Hezbollah has a base inside Syria from which they can hit Israel, and bring in material from Iran to do so. A car driving from Syria to Lebanon to carry eqpt to help with precision in attack.  Assad is a minor player because he doesn’t control his territory; Iranians and Hezbollah do whatever they want, in exchange for which they keep him in power and help him have strength in the north. Now, strain between Americans and Iran; so Iran feels urgency to attack Israel.  Hezbollah was given permission by Syrians to deploy along Israeli border; Khamenei likes it so he can move Iranian forces to more urgent areas in the north.  The flagrancy is a message to say, “We can do whatever we like.”  Are they indifferent to the virus in their troops?  They can do two things at once: show up in force—Iranian planes kept arriving with corona virus in Lebanon—and also prepare for escalation of [kinetic] conflict with the US. 
Thursday 23 April 2020 / Hour 2, Block B:  Ariel Kahana, in re: The resolution of the electoral confusion: on the third try, Netanyahu and Gantz agree to collaborate for the benefit of Israel #in-the-time-of-the-virus.
Thursday 23 April 2020 / Hour 2, Block C:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:  Iran has a nascent space program seen as a cover for its ballistic missile experimentation. Launched a missile into space, breaking a UN sanction against it. More and more aggressive both in air and on the sea. Have upgraded IRGC and anti-warship missiles that can go 400-plus miles.  A pattern in every area.  Many reports that Iran is pulling back from Hezb funding, due both to oil prices and US sanctions.  Hezb has independent funding in Europe. The San Remo Conference* in 1920: after WWII, the Ottoman Empire, defeated; converted the Balfour Declaration into a practical reality.
*wikipdia: The San Remo conference was an international meeting of the post-World War I Allied Supreme Council as an outgrowth of the Paris Peace Conference, held at Villa Devachan in Sanremo, Italy, from 19 to 26 April 1920. The San Remo Resolution passed on 25 April 1920 determined the allocation of Class "A" League of Nations mandates for the administration of three then-undefined Ottoman territories in the Middle East: "Palestine", "Syria" and "Mesopotamia". 
Thursday 23 April 2020 / Hour 2, Block D: Behnam Ben Taleblu, FDD, in re:  The predator state of Iran is active: Iran launches satellite, and president orders Navy to shoot down dangerously harassing boats. Satellite is preparation for ballistic missiles.  The three-stage carrier rocket, and the satellite, the Noor [Light] was produced entirely by the Revolutionary Guard Force.  Proclaimed as military right off the bat. Iranian Space Agency.  Abrogation of JCPOA.  Lots of room for Washington.  Regime is forcibly trying to open up the economy [as is China, using slave labor from Xinjiang concentration camps.] Virus?  In Iran, the bottom line counts more than Iranian lives. 
 
Hour Three
Thursday 23 April 2020 / Hour 3, Block A: Victor Davis Hanson, Hoover, in re:
Flatten the curve: intended to reduce the number of patients in hospitals so they wouldn't be overwhelmed. Now we have surplus beds. Jeff Bliss sends photos of a traffic jam on the 405; people are going back to work. As the weather warms up, we’ll see if the virus can survive in heat and humidity.
Thursday 23 April 2020 / Hour 3, Block B: Victor Davis Hanson, Hoover, in re: Wuhan labs.
Thursday 23 April 2020 / Hour 3, Block C: Sebastian Gorka, America First radio, in re:  Who makes the economy work? Human beings!  Not robots. It's a false dichotomy to say it’s between working and Covid deaths. State actors hacked into hospitals and  healthcare operations. China uses [this] for propaganda, and here are voices in the US who parrot the Chinese line.   Setting aside whether or not it was an intentional virus – they disappeared doctors, destroyed medical evidence; once 143 nations were infected, they went on a massive disinformation campaign using ambassadors, journalists, everyone who could be marshalled. The scale of arrogance that the PRC is evidencing.  Americans get it; do the Democrats get it??  Joe Biden sure doesn't.  And his son Hunter is still on Chinese boards of directors.  The PPP? Free money is never free.
Thursday 23 April 2020 / Hour 3, Block D:  Sebastian Gorka, America First radio, in re: Andrew Cuomo. 
 
Hour Four
Thursday 23 April 2020 / Hour 4, Block A:  Hotel Mars, episode n.  Anatoly Zak, Russian Space Web, & Dr David Livingston, The Space Show, in re: Anti-satellite test
Thursday 23 April 2020 / Hour 4, Block B: Hotel Mars, episode n.  Anatoly Zak, Russian Space Web, & Dr David Livingston, The Space Show, in re: Heavy lift launch pad.
Thursday  23 April 2020 / Hour 4, Block C: Andrew McCarthy, @AndrewCMcCarthy @NRO, Ball of Collusion, and Thaddeus McCotter, NRO @ThadMcCotter @theamgreatness, American Greatness, in re: Russiagate update
Thursday 23 April 2020 / Hour 4, Block D:  Andrew McCarthy, @AndrewCMcCarthy @NRO ,  Ball of Collusion, and Thaddeus McCotter, American Greatness,. @ThadMcCotter @theamgreatness;  in re: Virus. A.G.Barr on the limits of governors commanding "house arrest" https://t.co/jCbmfYnl5y
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