The John Batchelor Show

Thursday 29 November 2012

Air Date: 
November 29, 2012

Photo, above: Christianity in China; painting thought to be the Three Magi, perhaps on Palm Sunday; from Khocho, Nestorian Temple, 683–770 CE. Wall painting, 61 × 67 cm. Currently in the Museum für Indische Kunst, Berlin-Dahlem. See 9:35 PM segment, below, on Christianity in China, with Jillian Kay Melchior of the Phillips Foundation.

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Co-hosts:  Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal editorial board, and Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents

Thursday 905P Eastern Time:  Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, in re:  MK: If the president wants middle-class tax cuts – GOP take it.

Thursday 920P Eastern Time: Don MacGillis, National Politics Editor, in re: Where in the world is John Kerry?  Mrs Clinton is leaving State; leaves a seat open, the president's prime minister/first counselor.  Meanwhile, Susan Rice has pushed her name to the fore for State. In 2004, she was one of Kerry's policy advisors. Massachusetts politics: does Kerry hold the door open or throw an elbow?  Rice's possible nomination is in deep trouble and it behooves Kerry to keep a low profile. Right now he's in Washington working on the UN treaty on the disabled. Keeps him wholly out of trouble.  Should Kerry take State, under current law the gov, Duval Patrick, picks someone to hold the seat till a special election (130 days?).

Thursday 935P Eastern Time: Jillian Kay Melchior, Phillips Fdn, also NRO correspondent on the economy , in re: China's gradual opening toward Christian charities. Christian missionaries were once the most celebrated of philanthropists in China, esp under the Ch'ing. After the war, ambiguity, Today, there are Christians and churches. State Administration for Christian Affairs: the bureaucracy that oversees religion. Many citizens not pleased, so they worship outside of the govt-sponsored faith services.  All the msgs the Communists tried to obliterate – the first shall be last; Christian love – may be winning. The Party is afraid of having citizens offer loyalty to the church before the state, above all because the state doesn’t provide many needed social services and the church steps in. During the Szech'uan earthquake, the state was remiss but Christians rushed in with help. Many conversions. Wenzhou, "the most capitalist city":  if a school is rebuilt with donated money, will it  be named in honor of the donor?  The underground church wanted to donate in a time of need, which puts the govt in yet another bind, as it’s obvious that Christians are giving huge amounts of support.  Draft Charity Law to the State Council: moving vaguely toward legitimization?  Fifth generation of Party. 

Thursday 950P Eastern Time: David M Drucker, Roll Call, in re: Gov Romney goes to White House to have lunch with Pres Obama.

The Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, blessed Sen Jerry Moran’s bid to be at the helm of the National Republican Senatorial Committee only after the Kansan agreed to a restructured NRSC that calls for him to share power with two vice chairmen. The NRSC chairman is an elected position, and Moran ran unopposed for the slot. But there was considerable resistance to the freshman senator’s bid by McConnell and other GOP members.  Dems have created successful microtargetting (actually, 'twas OSA, Obama for America; may or may not lend system to Dems); GOP actually lost seats but can’t get star players to choose candidates: GOPers don’t like anything that smacks too much of the party.

Thursday 1005P (705P Pacific Time):  Malcolm Hoenlein, in re:  Palestinians request acceptance by General Assembly to be entered as non-state observer.  If Abbas actually has control, why can’t he stop the rockets? Over two-thirds of American people oppose this move; US govt is livid.  Abbas's two sons get to keep huge sums.  Hamas has opposed this manoeuver because it implicitly accepts the existence of Israel. Cairo: expect major demos today in opposition to Morsi's dictum that he's above the law. Moslem Brothers do not back down, are becoming far more aggressive.

Thursday 1020P (720P Pacific Time): Amb Ido Aharoni, Consul General of Israel in New York, in re: Gaza-Israel border/UN vote on Palestinian non-member-state resolution. Less than nine miles from Ramallah to Jerusalem; this has been above all a PR exercise, not for the benefit of Palestinian people. Tomorrow, Palestinians will wake up and see that naught has changed: not living conditions,not the feckless leadership; anticlimactic sentiment may translate into a wave of violence. Nations that supported this PR manoeuver must know that they'll be responsible for any ensuing violence. 

Thursday 1035P (735P Pacific Time): Dr. David Pollock, Washington Institute, in re: Gazan–Palestinian media / UN vote on Palestinian statehood upgrade

Thursday 1050P (750P Pacific Time): Dr. Jonathan Schanzer, VP research, Foundation for Defense of Democracies, in re: CNN Why US-Israel ties just got warmer. Israel's Operation Pillar of Defense, after six days of air strikes on Hamas targets in Gaza, could be entering into a new phase of a larger ground invasion. In a surgical air strike on Wednesday, Israel eliminated the terrorist leader who masterminded the capture of Israeli soldier Gilat Shalit in 2006: yesterday’s attack killed Ahmed Jabari.  23 Oct: four jet aircraft over Khartoum, Sudan, bombed a munitions factory owned by the IRGC, so it destroyed a huge weapons stockpile that was intended for Hamas.  Fajr5s; SuperGrads with long reach, both got in from Sudan; SCUDs are too big to be dismantled and sent to Gaza.  Hamas and Syria seem to be on the outs. However, Hamas and Iran: it took 18 months to smuggle the rockets in to Gaza, so that's a long-term relationship.

Thursday 1105P (805P Pacific Time):   Malcolm Hoenlein, in re: A Jewish woman living in Isfahan province was  stabbed, mutilated; locals wanted to confiscate her house to append to a mosque; she didn’t want to sell, so they murdered her. Killing Christians and Bahais, with deep silence from the West, which encourages them. Egypt, Qatar and Turkey vs Iran, which latter finds in Hamas and Syrians congenial groups. Moving into Kuwait, Jordan, UAE; in newspapers, satellite transmissions and social networks. Hamas had very little regional support. Christians in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Copts, even Alawites – all minorities will be destroyed in this battle of devils. Syria is the nexus: for Turkey, to the Gulf and Egypt; for Iran: to the Med.   Morsi's Thursday speech saying he's above the law: demos in the coming hours after Friday prayers.  Erdogan pulled a similar thing in Turkey and got away with it.  Morsi needs huge funds from the IMF so treads a tightrope. This weekend held a huge re-enactment of Saladin's conquest of Jerusalem.   Will do symbolic acts of moderation but not block violent movements. .   Democracy and the press have been suspended in Egypt. NYT: Obama, disappointed in Cairo, edges closer to recognizing the Syrian opposition. Replication of Libya? You break it, you own it.

Thursday 1120P (820P Pacific Time):  Malcolm Hoenlein, in re:  Fouad Ajami, from Lebanon, says that the Syrian situation now serves strongly to destroy comity; will drag Lebanon and Jordan into the spiral; also Iran and Iraq with their Kurds.  MH: Syria; Lebanese internal strife being stirred up by Syria; Western Iraq is Sunni, Eastern Iraq under Maliki. Egypt, Morocco, others, all operating from different premises, and real domino effect. JB:  Regional tragedy. Obama and allies in Cairo and elsewhere thinks that Libya is a good model; North Africa and the Sahel did not fall in but the tribes rallied and took control. This will not work in Syria. MH: Druse in Golan are applying for Israeli citizenship in large numbers.  Syrian rebels trying to stimulate rebels to shoot into Israel to generate return attack.  JB: Today's UN GA vote is a concession by Mahmoud Abbas that his tie as a statesman is done. 

Thursday 1135P (835P Pacific Time): Anna Nemtsova, Newsweek, in re: Putin regime persecutes NGO Memorial; task to recover names and bios of those destroyed by gulag, also those persecuted by regime

Thursday 1150P (850P Pacific Time): Uriel Peled, entrepreneur, in re: doing business in Tel Aviv under the missiles: what's QR Code and how can it be improved?

Thursday/Fri 1205A (905 Pacific Time): Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, in re:  MK: If the president wants middle-class tax cuts – GOP take it.

Thursday/Fri  1220A (920 Pacific Time): Don MacGillis, National Politics Editor, in re: Where in the world is John Kerry?  Mrs Clinton is leaving State; leaves a seat open, the president's prime minister/first counselor.  Meanwhile, Susan Rice has pushed her name to the fore for State. In 2004, she was one of Kerry's policy advisors. Massachusetts politics: does Kerry hold the door open or throw an elbow?  Rice's possible nomination is in deep trouble and it behooves Kerry to keep a low profile. Right now he's in Washington working on the UN treaty on the disabled. Keeps him wholly out of trouble.  Should Kerry take State, under current law the gov, Duval Patrick, picks someone to hold the seat till a special election (130 days?).

Thursday/Fri  1235A (935P Pacific Time): William Baldwin, Forbes, in re: the death spiral of Blue States

Thursday/Fri  1250A  (950P Pacific Time): Exeunt. Ken Croswell, Science Magazine, in re: discovery of a black hole much too big for its modest galaxy, a phenomenon not explained

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