JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
 
Hour One
Thursday  31 December 2015 / Hour 1, Block A: Jerry Hendrix, Center for a New American Security - senior Fellow and the Director of the Defense Strategies and Assessments Program, in re:  Spending defense dollars for the future. Inter al., in Retreat from Range: The Rise and Fall of Carrier Aviation, he argues that aircraft carriers, at a cost over $13 billion a piece, risk becoming obsolete without a major shift in strategy. (1 of 2)
Thursday  31 December 2015 / Hour 1, Block B: Jerry Hendrix, Center for a New American Security - senior Fellow and the Director of the Defense Strategies and Assessments Program, in re:  Spending defense dollars for the future. Inter al., in Retreat from Range: The Rise and Fall of Carrier Aviation, he argues that aircraft carriers, at a cost over $13 billion a piece, risk becoming obsolete without a major shift in strategy. (2 of 2)
Thursday  31 December 2015 / Hour 1, Block C: Ian Urbina, NYT, in re: the outlaw ocean. In this series on lawlessness on the high seas, Ian Urbina reveals that crime and violence in international waters often go unpunished. (1 of 2) http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/24/world/the-outlaw-ocean.html
Thursday  31 December 2015 / Hour 1, Block D: Ian Urbina, NYT, in re: the outlaw ocean. In this series on lawlessness on the high seas, Ian Urbina reveals that crime and violence in international waters often go unpunished. (2 of 2) http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/24/world/the-outlaw-ocean.html
 
Hour Two
Thursday  31 December 2015 / Hour 2, Block A:  Michael Auslin, AEI, in re: nuclear arsenals. " When the Chinese Communist Party held a huge military parade on Tiananmen Square on September 3, it did more than mark the 70th anniversary of the defeat of Japan. By parading some of China’s most advanced ballistic missiles, it also put America and the world on notice that it has steadily become a major nuclear power. China was jostling for position in a crowded field in what some are calling a “new nuclear age.” Yet even as America’s two-decade vacation from nukes is ending, the country’s nuclear thinking remains obsessed with an old enemy, Russia. In order to navigate the unwelcome return of nuclear weapons to international politics, U.S. nuclear strategy and planning need to change, as well, and new questions need to be asked about our strategic environment." (1 of 2)
Thursday  31 December 2015 / Hour 2, Block B: Michael Auslin, AEI, in re: nuclear arsenals. ". . . For a country focused on terrorism and counterinsurgency for nearly 15 years, talk of nuclear conflict seems a throwback to the days of Fail Safe and On the Beach. Yet the disconnect works at two levels. In Washington, D.C., nuclear weapons have been out of fashion since the end of the Cold War and the standing down of the iconic Strategic Air Command, in 1992. Until Vladimir Putin decided to annex Crimea and invade eastern Ukraine, Russia was dismissed by administrations of both parties as a geopolitical has-been, and its nuclear force fit only for further negotiated reductions. Moreover, President Obama’s 2009 Prague call for “global zero” further fueled the belief that nuclear weapons were a horror whose time had come and gone. The fact that the world’s nuclear powers, and some would-be powers, were recommitting to their nuclear arsenals was largely ignored by U.S. policymakers and analysts more focused on immediate threats. America’s fearsome nuclear arsenal sat quietly in . . . " (2 of 2)
Thursday  31 December 2015 / Hour 2, Block C:  Sohrab Ahmari, WSJ Editorial, in re:  Lviv, Ukraine, training for NATO troops.   " 'I believe the Russians are mobilizing right now for a war that they think is going to happen in five or six years—not that they’re going to start a war in five or six years, but I think they are anticipating that things are going to happen, and that they will be in a war of some sort, of some scale, with somebody within the next five or six years.'
So says Lt. Gen. Frederick 'Ben' Hodges, commander of U.S. Army Europe. It’s Monday evening at the Army’s Lucius D. Clay garrison near Wiesbaden, a small town in southwest Germany. The air outside is freezing, the ground coated by a thin layer of snow. Moscow lies 1,500 miles east, but Russia comes up almost immediately as I sit down to dinner with Gen. Hodges and one of his aides in a cozy dining room at the base.
'Strong Europe!' reads a sign on one of the walls. Next to it is the U.S. Army Europe insignia, a burning sword set against a blue shield. The two signs represent the strategic framework the three-star general has introduced—building on America’s decades-long role on the Continent—since taking command last year of the 30,000 or so U.S. soldiers stationed in Europe.
The U.S. military presence in Europe is more vital at this moment than it has been in many years. American engagement is . . ." (1 of 2)
Thursday  31 December 2015 / Hour 2, Block D: Sohrab Ahmari, WSJ Editorial, in re:  Lviv, Ukraine, training for NATO troops.  ". . . The new weapons Mr. Putin has supplied to these proxies include 'some of the latest air-defense systems,' says Gen. Hodges. 'They also have brought in some of the latest, most-effective jamming, what we would call electronic-warfare, systems.' This level of assistance suggests Ukraine 'is not a foray, not a demonstration. They're deploying capabilities way above and beyond anything that any militia or rebel organization could ever come up with.'  The fact that the political class in the West is still splitting hairs about . . ." (2 of 2)
 
Hour Three
Thursday  31 December 2015 / Hour 3, Block A: John Tamny, RealClearMarkets.com and Forbes.com, in re: Popular Economics: What the Rolling Stones, Downton Abbey, and LeBron James Can Teach You about Economics (1 of 2)  "POPULAR ECONOMICS is a well-written, passionate book extolling the benefits of free-market forces to achieve an optimal allocation of resources, and allow the US economy to really roar. The author writes in an easy-to-understand style, and the book is well-organized. Each chapter covers a specific idea in the realm of regulation, economics, or taxation.  John Tamny makes a good case for low taxes: "Taxes are not only a price on work. They are also a price on the productive use of wealth." John points out the futility of raising taxes on the rich: "The rich are highly mobile, and they will put their capital to work in the most favorable environment." I thought the author's points were right on target.
 
The chapters on regulation were similarly passionate, but I don't think the author always supported his points very soundly. For those who think there should be safety regulations on airplanes, the author argues that those regulations are not necessary, since a company that crashes its airplanes will soon go out of business: "In a wholly unregulated market, an airline with a poor reputation for safety would be out of business quickly."  I would have loved to see a discussion from both sides on the safety/regulation issue. Although the author didn't discuss building safety/fire regulations, I assume that he would likewise argue for elimination of all these regulations as well. The author's position is that if an airplane crashes, or a building collapses, this would help drive the company out of business, so really, no regulations are needed.  I couldn't help but think that the author's arguments for zero regulation are based on near-perfect information to the public."
Thursday  31 December 2015 / Hour 3, Block B: John Tamny, RealClearMarkets.com and Forbes.com, in re: Popular Economics: What the Rolling Stones, Downton Abbey, and LeBron James Can Teach You about Economics (2 of 2)   "John Tamny is an Austrian Economist, although he probably would not call himself that. He understands that economics is about people - individuals and how they work, save and transact in order to improve their circumstances. He believes in the unhampered economy of individuals acting freely, which brings growth, and creates wealth through innovation. He identifies the capital-destroying activities of government: taxation, spending, regulation, trade restrictions and mistakes with fiat money. He shows how these restrict growth and cause economic crises. If government were denied all these activities, everyone would be better off. He illustrates all these points with simple, real-world examples - hence the pop culture references in the subtitle. This is a good read - and very well based in reputable economic theory."
Thursday  31 December 2015 / Hour 3, Block C: Terry Anderson, PERC Montana, in re: Cecil the Lion and big-game hunting (1 of 2)
Thursday  31 December 2015 / Hour 3, Block D: Terry Anderson, PERC Montana, in re: Cecil the Lion and big-game hunting (2 of 2)
 
 
Hour Four
Thursday  31 December 2015 / Hour 4, Block A: Sam Roberts, NYT, in re: the Rosenberg case reconsidered.   " In 1951, Morton Sobell was tried and convicted with Julius and Ethel Rosenberg on espionage charges. He served more than 18 years in Alcatraz and other federal prisons, traveled to Cuba and Vietnam after his release in 1969 and became an advocate for progressive causes.
Through it all, he maintained his innocence.
But on Thursday, Mr. Sobell, 91, dramatically reversed himself, shedding new light on a case that still fans smoldering political passions. In an interview, he admitted for the first time that he had been a Soviet spy.
And he implicated his fellow defendant Julius Rosenberg, in a conspiracy that delivered to the Soviets classified military and industrial information and what the American government described as the secret to the atomic bomb.
In the interview with The New York Times, Mr. Sobell, who lives in the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx, was asked whether, as an electrical engineer, he turned over military secrets to the Soviets during World War II when they were considered allies of the United States and were bearing the brunt of Nazi brutality. Was he, in fact, a spy? (1 of 2)
Thursday  31 December 2015 / Hour 4, Block B: Sam Roberts, NYT, in re: the Rosenberg case reconsidered. ". . . 'Yeah, yeah, yeah, call it that,' he replied. 'I never thought of it as that in those terms.'  Mr. Sobell also concurred in what has become a consensus among historians: that Ethel Rosenberg, who was executed with her husband, was aware of Julius’s espionage, but did not actively participate. 'She knew what he was doing,' he said, 'but what was she guilty of? Of being Julius’s wife.'  Mr. Sobell made his revelations on Thursday as the National Archives, in response to a lawsuit from the nonprofit National Security Archive,  . . . " (2 of 2)
Thursday  31 December 2015 / Hour 4, Block C: Hotel Mars, episode n. Dr Ashwin Vasavada, project scientist for NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, and Dr David Livingston, The Space Show, in re:  Mars update.  
"It's very likely the Gale Crater on Mars, where NASA's Curiosity  rover famously landed in 2012, was once home to expansive lakes, the space agency has confirmed. NASA scientists first proposed that the crater once contained a massive lake after analyzing data from the rover last year. Now, a new paper that was published Friday in the journal Science provides even more evidence that the red planet was once home to ancient bodies of water. 'We have geological evidence that points to long-lived lakes,' Dr. Ashwin Vasavada, project scientist for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission and a co-author of the paper . . ." (1 of 2)
Thursday  31 December 2015 / Hour 4, Block D: Dr Ashwin Vasavada, project scientist for NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, and Dr David Livingston, The Space Show, in re:  Mars update (2 of 2)