The John Batchelor Show

Thursday 28 April 2016

Air Date: 
April 28, 2016

Photo, left:  An American national park; see Hour 1, Block C, Terry Anderson, PERC (Bozeman, Montana) and Shawn Regan (PERC, Montana). This photo is of a remote river in Gates of the Arctic Wilderness is a wilderness area in the U.S. state of Alaska. Located in the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, it is 7,245,600-acre in area, the third-largest designated wilderness area in the United States (after the Wrangell-Saint Elias Wilderness and the Mollie Beattie Wilderness, both also in Alaska).
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts: Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal Editorial Board & host of Opinion Journal on WSJ Video.
 
Hour One
Thursday  28 April 2016 / Hour 1, Block A:  Mona Charen, NRO, in re:   . . .  by now, we usu would have had a GOP frontrunner who’d consolidated his delegates; the current chaos is a result of the current frontrunner’s [disorganization].  Mrs Clinton reached out to “thoughtful Republicans and independent voters.” After her thundering against Wall Street, can she get away with this? Considering her opposition now, probably yes. She’s a tactician, and will say whatever she needs to say. In the GOP race, the content matters less than the tone.  . . .  Bill Clinton: He’s gifted; has the ability to reach the very unhappy, blue-collar voters who've come out en masse – those in West Virginia and Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas. Dan Henninger writes of Hilary’s triangulation:  she went off to the left with pushing from Sen Sanders, now is trying to tack back to the center; can she?  It's tough — she needs the African-American vote so can't criticize Obama too much, but has to signal that she’s different. A tightrope.
Thursday  28 April 2016 / Hour 1, Block B:  Ed Hayes, Esq, criminal defense attorney par excellence, in re: Tammany Hall controlled  New York City from the Civil war till today. Preet Bharara has moved against Shelly Silver and   .  Now, the mayor, Bill DeBlasio, is facing possible major legal problems.  He spent many months trying to get rid of carriage horses f/nb/o his real estate buddies, and he seems to have  shove d a bunch of frail and ancient elders out of an old-persons’ home in Brooklyn – also for real estate interests.  Meanwhile, the Federal attorney would, indeed, indict a ham sandwich if it’d get him media play.  Andy Cuomo. The ultra-Orthodox community and the police – looseness and indiscipline in financial matters.  Is DeBlasio out of his league with Tammany Hall? Yes – he got too far to see [what’s going on]. 
Thursday  28 April 2016 / Hour 1, Block C: Terry Anderson, PERC (Bozeman, Montana) and Shawn Regan (PERC, Montana) via Bangor Daily News, in re:  Happy hundredth birthday, national parks! What’s wrong with the national parks is – everything.  “Deferred maintenance” is the polite term. A $12 bil backlog in deferred maintenance – five times higher than its budget from Congress – trails, wastewater systems, forestry, everything. It's not politically feasible fro pols to fund the systems that  need mundane, routine maintenance – they’d rather fund new park and get photo ops.  We need to be able to charge realistic users’s fees.  Competition from, for example, the VA for veterans. Aim also for public-/private partnerships – where private can supply services. Or franchise parks: operate under the banner of the Parks Service and under its imprimatur, but private sector would manage the parks.  “America’s parks are Americas Best Idea” – parks were imagined and built by railroads, which also built the hotels. The hotels now desperately need upgrading.  Free-market environmentalism: for individual parks to retain the funds they bring in and use for their own maintenance. Right here in Montana is the American Prairie Reserve (a nonprofit buying lands and depending on private funding to safeguard the land).     And Congressmen whose districts include natl parks – innovating? No. They see parks a s a way to bring in more state money via tourism. They want to bld up the towns around the parks, but care naught for putting in a new sewage system (this is now a critical problem and absolutely must be dealt with wisely) .   We just got an email from member of the Pitt River Tribe in Washington who was enthusiastic about this. 
How to Create a National Park Without Taxpayers’ Footing the Bill  Should the federal government create a national park in the North Woods? It’s a question that divides many in Maine. Some fear the effects of more federal control in the state. Others say a new park will bring economic growth to a depressed region. 
Thursday  28 April 2016 / Hour 1, Block D: Francis Rose, National Defense Week, francisrose.com and Rose Content Strategies; in re: Jeff Miller is encouraged by an omnibus pkg for a long time (a grab-all Congressional bill) ;  he was concerned that the Senate might not go as far as he did, but he now reports that he’s very pleased with  the Senate bill, and the two Houses will negotiate to unify them and send the bill to the president’s desk.  CHOICE program. Straw-man document: the VA should become only a payer, and the whole care network should be disbanded – but few agree with this.  Wise people hold that the provision system should be much smaller but maintain care for those maladies suffered only by veterans.  A VA employee is alleged to have participated in an armed robbery (she’s allegedly an accessory to an armed bank robbery), but the VA hasn't even moved to sequester her.  Later on, the reason was: she didn't do this as part of her VA responsibilities. [yike]. 
Miller Statement on Senate Veterans Omnibus Legislation — Following reports of a deal in the Senate regarding an omnibus package of veterans legislation, Chairman Miller released the following statement: “News of this deal is a positive development. If what Sens. Isakson and Blumenthal are working on passes the Senate, I look forward to immediately engaging in conference committee negotiations in order to move a VA reform package to the president’s desk.” – Rep. Jeff Miller, Chairman, House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
Message from the VA Under Secretary for Health, David J. Shulkin, M.D., April 22, 2016   http://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=2781  On April 19, I testified before the House Veteran Affairs Committee during a hearing related to delays in Veteran’s Access to Healthcare. In the course of that hearing, a member of the Committee said that it was his understanding that the Department of Veterans Affairs refused to fire a VA Caribbean Health Care System employee who was convicted of an armed robbery in Puerto Rico. The member further asked what VA was doing to “take care of the situation.” My response to the member was “If I misspeak on this, I will commit I will get back to you by the end of the day, but it is my understanding that person is not currently working at the VA in San Juan.”   Details of the bill  http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/benefits/veterans/2016/04/27/all-veterans-would-eligible-choice-under-proposed-bill/83610484/   Update on Puerto Rico armed robbery case   http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016/04/27/lawyer-pans-vas-explanation-for-not-firing-convicted-employee.html
National Defense Week:  Former DoD Undersecretary of Defense Comptroller Bob Hale calls the House Armed Services Committee’s new policy and budgeting plan a gimmick: http://www.military.com/daily-news/2016/04/27/carter-troubled-house-gop-plan-cut-wartime-money.html   The Army’s Doug Wiltse [pron: wilt-see] explains the next Network Integration Evaluation, which starts Monday 2 May:  http://www.arcic.army.mil/Initiatives/network-integration-evaluation.aspx
 
Hour Two
Thursday  28 April 2016 / Hour 2, Block A:  Dan Henninger, Wall Street Journal editorial board, deputy editor of the editorial page, in re: http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-clinton-pivot-begins-1461799244?tesla=y  The Acela Primary: If you’re a Democrat, an independent, or a thoughtful Republican . . . “ –the Great Hillary Pivot to the center.  She then spoke fo th economy and how peopke are struggling and the economy isn't working for them – oops, the same one that Pres Obama says is good?  Then in Indianapolis Bill Clinton spoke: 80% of Americans are making the same amount they were 15 years ago.   Trump’s candidacy is almost a complete function of the economy.  Clintons will now figure out how to move into the Trump base.  Recall Clinton  & Gore in the Nineties: “Worst economy since the Great Depression.”  In 2008, I went to hear Hillary speak in northern Ohio –she was knocking it out of the park.  Can really stump in blue-collar areas.  If Bill does his 1990s thing alongside of her, she’s formidable. 
Thursday  28 April 2016 / Hour 2, Block B: Simon Constable, New York-based journalist; frmr WSJ staff columnist; author, The WSJ Guide to the 50 Economic Indicators That Really Matter. Has written for Barron’s & South China Morning Post; in re:   Forbes Video: Why Silver May Head to $25  http://www.forbes.com/video/4858023496001
Forbes Video: What the Fed Can Learn from Carl Sagan http://www.forbes.com/video/4856054867001
Barron's: It’s Time to Pump Up Your Oil Exposure   http://www.barrons.com/articles/its-time-to-pump-up-your-oil-exposure-1460174659
TheStreet: Millennial Educators: Add Finance Classes for Elementary School Kids  http://www.thestreet.com/story/13523660/1/millennial-educators-add-finance-classes-for-elementary-school-kids.html
OZY: Is This the End of Cheap Food?  http://www.ozy.com/pov/is-this-the-end-of-cheap-food/68153
U.S. News: Say Goodbye to Utilities Stocks as We Know Them  http://money.usnews.com/investing/articles/2016-04-06/say-goodbye-to-utilities-stocks-as-we-know-them
Thursday  28 April 2016 / Hour 2, Block C:  Richard Epstein, Hoover, NYU Law, Chicago Law, in re: Grant Neal, a student at Colorado State University-Pueblo, was suspended for sexual assault after he had consensual sexual intercourse with an unnamed woman. He has now filed suit to challenge that suspension, both against the CSU-Pueblo and the United States Department of Education and its Office for Civil Rights. He should win, and for good reason. The charge against Neal was brought by a “peer” of the woman involved, who, according to the allegations in the complaint, denied that she had been raped. But the university took action nonetheless thanks in part to the Kafkaesque rules announced in the well-known and highly controversial Dear Colleague letter issued by the OCR in 2011. The letter uses shaky data to claim that sexual harassment is a serious problem on campus, and it insists that schools handle cases of it aggressively. But the OCR’s guidance violates the fundamental tenets of due process . . .
A third-party complainant overran the two persons who’d had a consensual relationship and demanded that Federal regulations be interpreted in a malign way.  “When snitches start running things, that’s a mark of a totalitarian regime.” Because it’s not a law, it cannot be challenged; can be fought only after an arrest, which of course doesn't occur. The 1946 Administrative Procedures Act, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, allows various entities to persecute students and others, who then have no recourse.   http://www.hoover.org/research/title-ix-juggernaut (1 of 2)
Thursday  28 April 2016 / Hour 2, Block D: Richard Epstein, Hoover, NYU Law, Chicago Law, in re: Grant Neal, a student at Colorado State University-Pueblo, was suspended for sexual assault after he had consensual sexual intercourse with an unnamed woman. He has now filed suit to challenge that suspension, both against the CSU-Pueblo and the United States Department of Education and its Office for Civil Rights. He should win, and for good reason. The charge against Neal was brought by a “peer” of the woman involved, who, according to the allegations in the complaint, denied that she had been raped. But the university took action nonetheless thanks in part to the Kafkaesque rules announced in the well-known and highly controversial Dear Colleague letter issued by the OCR in 2011. The letter uses shaky data to claim that sexual harassment is a serious problem on campus, and it insists that schools handle cases of it aggressively. But the OCR’s guidance violates the fundamental tenets of due process . . . http://www.hoover.org/research/title-ix-juggernaut
..
Title IX Juggernaut Intimidates the Academy. The Administrative State Wins.   RichardAEpstein. @HooverInst.  Major miscarriages of justice often stem from unsound judicial and administrative procedures. Consider the story of Grant Neal, a student on an athletic scholarship at Colorado State University-Pueblo. Neal was suspended for sexual assault after he had consensual sexual intercourse with an unnamed woman. He has now filed suit to challenge that suspension, both against the CSU-Pueblo and the United States Department of Education and its Office for Civil Rights.
He should win, and for good reason. All legal actions begin with complaints, usually from a purported victim. But Neal’s case was different. The charge was brought against him by a “peer” of the woman involved, who, according to the allegations in the complaint, denied that she had been raped. The purported victim told the school investigator: “He’s a good guy. He’s not a rapist, he’s not a criminal, it’s not even worth any of this hoopla.” That should have put an end to the entire matter. Nonetheless, CSU-Pueblo has suspended Neal as long as his alleged victim remains on campus. The stigma of the sanction makes it impossible for him to transfer anywhere else. It is a classic case of defamation by public action, for which recourse is all too difficult to obtain. (2 of 2)
 
Hour Three
Thursday  28 April 2016 / Hour 3, Block A:  Paul Gregory, Hoover, in re: A BBC documentary is being distorted to "conclusively prove Ukrianian fighters (2) shot down MH17. " All we need is Occam's Razor to show the nonsense of this proposition.  http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulroderickgregory/2016/04/27/how-the-kremlin-lies-with-headlines-like-ukrainian-fighter-jet-shot-down-malaysia-airlines-mh17/2/#368012602930
Thursday  28 April 2016 / Hour 3, Block B:  Oriana Pawlyk, Air Force Times; in re:
http://www.airforcetimes.com/story/military/2016/04/25/f-22s-continue-training-europe-land-romania/83489748/ ; http://www.airforcetimes.com/story/military/2016/04/11/f-22-raptors-back-europe/82906446/ ; http://www.airforcetimes.com/story/military/2016/04/14/f-22s-have-returned-central-command-has-left-isis-fight/83032190/   http://www.airforcetimes.com/story/military/2016/03/12/how-improved-f-22-trains-future-wars-f-35s/81560260/
Thursday  28 April 2016 / Hour 3, Block C: Robert Zimmerman; behind the black.com, in re:  Dragon to go to Mars in 2018   The competition heats up: Though no details have yet been released, SpaceX has announced through its twitter feed that they plan to send a Dragon to Mars by 2018. This is not really a surprise, as rumors have been circulating literally for years of Musk’s Martian goals. Nor am I doubtful they can do it. What is important about this announcement is that it suggests that they are now confident that the delays for the first Falcon Heavy launch are mostly over, and that it will happen in the fall as presently planned. With this rocket they will have the launch capability to do a test flight to Mars.
Thursday  28 April 2016 / Hour 3, Block D: Robert Zimmerman; behind the black.com, in re:  New Hubble image of Red Rectangle  Cool image time! I think the Red Rectangle might be my favorite planetary nebula. The new image on the right, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, is the best yet of this weirdly shaped object. And it continues to suggest, as I noted whimsically in an article about it for Sky & Telescope back in November 2014, that this is a web being spin by the universe’s largest spider.
 
Hour Four
Thursday  28 April 2016 / Hour 4, Block A: Hitler's Forgotten Children: A True Story of the Lebensborn Program and One Woman's Search for Her Real Identity, by Ingrid von Oelhafen and Tim Tate (1 of 4)
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Created by Heinrich Himmler, the Lebensborn program abducted as many as half a million children from across Europe. Through a process called Germanization, they were to become the next generation of the Aryan master race in the second phase of the Final Solution. 
In the summer of 1942, parents across Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia were required to submit their children to medical checks designed to assess racial purity. One such child, Erika Matko, was nine months old when Nazi doctors declared her fit to be a “Child of Hitler.” Taken to Germany and placed with politically vetted foster parents, Erika was renamed Ingrid von Oelhafen. Many years later, Ingrid began to uncover the truth of her identity.
Although the Nazis destroyed many Lebensborn records, Ingrid unearthed rare documents, including Nuremberg trial testimony about her own abduction. Following the evidence back to her place of birth, Ingrid discovered an even more shocking secret: a woman named Erika Matko, who as an infant had been given to Ingrid’s mother as a replacement child. 
Hitler’s Forgotten Children is both a harrowing personal memoir and a devastating investigation into the awful crimes and monstrous scope of the Lebensborn program.
Thursday  28 April 2016 / Hour 4, Block B:  Hitler's Forgotten Children: A True Story of the Lebensborn Program and One Woman's Search for Her Real Identity, by Ingrid von Oelhafen and Tim Tate (2 of 4)
Thursday  28 April 2016 / Hour 4, Block C:  Hitler's Forgotten Children: A True Story of the Lebensborn Program and One Woman's Search for Her Real Identity, by Ingrid von Oelhafen and Tim Tate (3 of 4)
Thursday  28 April 2016 / Hour 4, Block D:  Hitler's Forgotten Children: A True Story of the Lebensborn Program and One Woman's Search for Her Real Identity, by Ingrid von Oelhafen and Tim Tate (4 of 4)
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