Photo, left: 
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents.
 
Hour One
Thursday 23 February 2017 / Hour 1, Block A: Sebastian Gorka, Deputy Assistant to the President on the national security advisory staff; in re:   Mass-Murdering Cutthroats & What is to be done? @SebGorka
. . . Hussein said his emirs, or local Islamic State commanders, gave him and others a green light to rape as many Yazidi and other women as they wanted.
“Young men need this,” Hussein told Reuters in an interview after a Kurdish counter-terrorism agent removed a black hood from his head. “This is normal.”
Hussein said he moved from house to house in several Iraqi cities raping women from the Yazidi sect and other minorities at a time when Islamic State was grabbing more and more territory from Iraqi security forces.
Kurdish security officials say they have evidence of Hussein raping and killing but they don't know what the scale is.
Reuters could not independently verify Hussein's account.
Witnesses and Iraqi officials say Islamic State fighters raped many Yazidi women after the group rampaged through northern Iraq in 2014. It also abducted many Yazidi women as sex slaves and killed some of their male relatives, they said.
Human rights groups have chronicled widespread abuses by Islamic State against the Yazidis.
Hussein said he also killed about 500 people since joining Islamic State in 2013.
"We shot whoever we needed to shoot and beheaded whoever we needed to beheaded," said Hussein.
He recalled how emirs trained him to kill, which was difficult at first when one person was brought for a practice kill. It became easier day by day.
"Seven, eight, ten at a time. Thirty or 40 people. We would take them in desert and kill them," said Hussein, an imposing, well-built figure, who was wearing metal handcuffs.
Eventually, he became highly efficient, never hesitating to kill. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-mosul-prisoners-idUSKBN15W1N0  ; http://heavy.com/news/2017/02/robert-hester-jr-isis-kansas-city-missouri-facebook-army-terrorist-photo-presidents-day-islamic-state-muslim-lorenzo/
Thursday 23 February 2017 / Hour 1, Block B:  Sebastian Gorka, Deputy Assistant to the President on the national security advisory staff (2 of 2)    
Thursday 23 February 2017 / Hour 1, Block C: Gregory Copley, StrategicStudies director; GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs; & author, UnCivilization, in re:  Dominica, Windward Islands, West Indies.   / The Dominica government has been selling passports for large sums to international rascals; that income was to constitute 40% of national revenues this year. International banks now refuse to transfer money into Dominica. Mr Skerrit can no longer clear his checks.  Note that the Peoples Republic of China has a huge embassy in Roseau, the capital. Skerrit shifted alliance from Taiwan, Republic of China, to the PRC.  Now Chinese ships sail under the Dominican flag. Curious.
. . . 
  The question continues to be asked in Roseau, the Dominican capital: How long can the Skerrit Government last? The answer may now be down to a period of weeks, even days, as the Government realizes that its chances of turning back on the passport revenues are slim, given the battering the prestige of the Government has taken, bringing into disrepute the validity of the Dominican passport generally.
Moreover, the incoming US Trump Administration has now taken a strong interest in the Dominica situation, particularly in light of the use of Dominica by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to have a springboard into the Caribbean, the US’s “Third Border”. One US senior source told GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs: “The parallel is there with the Soviet use of Cuba — the Cuba Missile Crisis — although it clearly is not at the same degree of danger as far as the US is concerned; at least not yet.”
And the fact that questions were being raised by British lawyers and sensitive agencies about Mr Skerrit, the passport scheme, and the links between Mr Skerrit and Commonwealth Secretary-General Baroness Scotland added fuel to the situation.
Thursday 23 February 2017 / Hour 1, Block D:  Gregory Copley, StrategicStudies director; GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs; & author, UnCivilization, in re: Government harassment of opposition politicians on absurd charges, which quickly are dropped. Also a series of private lawsuits against opposition leaders, esp the distinguished Lennox Linton, for allegedly defamatory statements.  All this does is strengthen the opposition. Baroness Scotland, now Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, owes Skerrit favors.  Senior prosecutor in Turks and Caicos has just blasted Dominica, presumably with the approval of Whitehall.   
 
Hour Two
Thursday 23 February 2017 / Hour 2, Block A:  Eric Trager, in re: Egypt
Eric Trager, the Esther K. Wagner Fellow at The Washington Institute, is an expert on Egyptian politics and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. He was in Egypt during the 2011 anti-Mubarak revolts and returns frequently to conduct firsthand interviews with leaders in Egypt's government, military, political parties, media, and civil society. His writings have appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, the Atlantic, and the New Republic.
·         https://www.thecipherbrief.com/article/middle-east/us-should-be-wary-about-overplaying-its-hand-1089
·         https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/egypt/2017-01-24/stuck-sisi
·         https://www.thecipherbrief.com/article/middle-east/egypts-economy-not-out-woods-yet-1094 re:
Thursday 23 February 2017 / Hour 2, Block B:  Michael Rubin, AEI, in re: in Kurds and Syria and Turkey.  And the CIA after Flynn.   https://www.aei.org/publication/for-the-cia-hiding-intelligence-is-nothing-new/
Thursday 23 February 2017 / Hour 2, Block C:  Claudia Rosett, Independent Women's Forum (currently in India) in re:  Amb Nikki Haley at the UN ; Salam Fayyed; the Gutteres ploy. Truth, Terror and Nikki Haley's Challenge at the UN After attending her first regular meeting of the UN Security Council devoted to the Middle East, including the Palestinian-Israeli situation, Ambassador Haley remarked to reporters, “The first thing I want to do is talk about what we just saw in there.” Calling the meeting “a bit strange,” Ambassador Haley noted how the focus of blame for everything that has gone wrong in the Middle East seemed to be placed almost entirely on Israel.   https://pjmedia.com/claudiarosett/truth-terror-and-nikki-haleys-challenge-at-the-un/
. . . “The discussion was not about Hezbollah’s illegal build-up of rockets in Lebanon,” Ambassador Haley said. “It was not about the money and weapons Iran provides to terrorists. It was not about how we defeat ISIS. It was not about how we hold Bashar al-Assad accountable for the slaughter of hundreds and thousands of civilians. No, instead, the meeting focused on criticizing Israel, the one true democracy in the Middle East. I am new around here, but I understand that’s how the Council has operated, month after month, for decades. I am here to underscore the ironclad support of the United States for Israel. I’m here to emphasize the United States is determined to stand up to the UN’s anti-Israel bias.”  ;  https://pjmedia.com/claudiarosett/bravo-to-ambassador-haley-for-blocking-uns-latest-ploy-on-palestine/ ; http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/265868/nikki-haley-puts-un-anti-israelism-crosshairs-joseph-klein
Thursday 23 February 2017 / Hour 2, Block D:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents.
 
Hour Three
Thursday 23 February 2017 / Hour 3, Block A:  Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com, in re: A solar system of exoEarths!  Scientists propose new definition for planets, reinstating Pluto.  Polar bear populations healthy and growing.   Sea Launch deal finalized?  Progress freighter successfully launched on last Soyuz-U.  Dragon docking delayed until Thursday (will be updated tomorrow). Virgin Galactic tests engine for LauncherOne
Thursday 23 February 2017 / Hour 3, Block B:
Thursday 23 February 2017 / Hour 3, Block C:  Richard A Epstein, Hoover Institution, Chicago Law, NYU Law, in re:  In December, the United States under President Barack Obama abstained on UN Resolution 2234, which “reaffirms that the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-State solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace.” This past week, American policy under President Donald Trump took a sharp turn away from that Resolution with two key announcements…  http://www.hoover.org/research/two-state-solution-west-bank
Thursday 23 February 2017 / Hour 3, Block D: Richard A Epstein, Hoover Institution, Chicago Law, NYU Law (2 of 2)
  
Hour Four
Thursday 23 February 2017 / Hour 4, Block A:  Gregory Zuckerman, WSJ; in re:  Mr. Mercer declined to comment through a spokesman. In a statement, Renaissance’s chairman and founder, Jim Simons, who has been a prominent financial backer of Democrats, said, “I have worked closely with Bob Mercer since he joined our firm almost 25 years ago. While our politics differ dramatically, I have always thought him to be of impeccable character.”
A presidential campaign that divided much of the country also has created tensions within companies. Some senior employees, accustomed to settling grievances behind closed doors, are rebelling in unusually public ways, the polarization playing out for the world to see. Days after the election, a partner at Peter Thiel ’s venture-capital firm, Founders Fund, wrote a blog post expressing fears of a Trump presidency, which Mr. Thiel had worked to promote. A spokesman for the firm declined to comment.
After the November election, Grub Hub Inc., chief executive Matt Maloney seemingly suggested in an email to staff that employees who supported Mr. Trump should resign, citing the “hateful politics” of the new president. He later said the message had been misconstrued.
Historically, some leaders of Renaissance, which is based on Long Island, N.Y., have leaned Democratic, including Mr. Simons, who donated to Hillary Clinton ’s 2016 presidential campaign.   https://www.wsj.com/articles/you-have-to-stop-renaissance-executive-tells-boss-about-trump-support-1487845803
Thursday 23 February 2017 / Hour 4, Block B:  Dan Griswold, Mercatus Center, in re:  The Trade Deficit Is Amercan Success. @DanGriswold @Mercatus   http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/economy-budget/320781-trump-trade-data-proposal-would-defy-common-sense-honest
Thursday 23 February 2017 / Hour 4, Block C:  Joshua Partlow, Kingdom of their Own. (Part III of IV) Segment 1 of 2
Thursday 23 February 2017 / Hour 4, Block D:   Joshua Partlow, Kingdom of their Own. (Part III of IV) Segment 2 of 2