Thursday 4 August 2016
Photo, left:
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts: Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal Editorial Board & host of Opinion Journal on WSJ Video. Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents.
Hour One
Thursday 4 August 2016 / Hour 1, Block A: Georgina Downer, Institute of Public Affairs, Australia, in re: Bully-boy tactic out of China; Global Times editorial needs to be taken in context
It’s a pushy tabloid, subsidiary of the Peoples Daily. We’re a primary supplier of raw materials to China so it's unlikely that China will cause a military confrontation with us. We hold to liberty and are not daunted. As for China’s militarizing Woody Island and taking possession: We need to maintain the status quo and roll it back Very worrisome dvpts in the last few years; we Australia and the US need to work together to maintain freedom of navigation. Operation Gateway: an FON endeavor for decades, around the South China Sea. US, Japan, and SE Asian partners all collaborate in this. China had a hand in negotiating Law of the Sea. We need to keep reminding China of the benefit of keeping FON worldwide. Xi is probably trying to keep his domestic constituency [in his camp]. Showing Chinese strength in the seas is red meat to the masses. Eke his “anti-corruption” drive – which is none too transparent.
Thursday 4 August 2016 / Hour 1, Block B: Ed Hayes, Esq., criminal defense attorney par excellence, and now weekly columnist in the Daily Beast, on style; in re: Chef Brown of Dallas has made sure that his police force is diversified – 25% Black population and 25% Black police. He’s a natural leader. / In New York City suddenly the police commissioner has resigned as of September. He’s never stayed long enough in a job to get a pension, so now he has to go work in the private sector for a while. He invented COMSTAT – a way to track and fight crime across the city rather than precinct by precinct. Next: Chief O’Neill: impeccably honest and very popular, can shift the force from Italian and Irish to this plus Hispanic. Bratton met with people, went out and talked. O’Neill has to live up to that way of handling himself. Bratton is a genius and he’s hard to follow. NYPD is also in the middle of a terrible scandal that in a sense stretches back 70 years. A high police official rode on a private plane with a prostitute and took expensive gifts for his wife. Appalling. Ghastly.
Thursday 4 August 2016 / Hour 1, Block C: Richard A. Epstein, Hoover via Defining Ideas, in re: The Poverty of Progressivism. Four more years of Democratic rule is the path to economic stagnation and social discontent. . . . Donald Trump has lapsed into incoherency. His virtue is that he’s so blitheringly stupid so has no proposals, unlike Mrs Clinton, who has a bunch of bad proposals. Thus an ignorant fool and one side and a person whose ignorance knows no bounds on the other. / Thomas Piketty / http://www.hoover.org/profiles/richard-epstein
http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2016/08/01/hillarys-trillion-dollar-irs-tax-hikes-will-hit-your-wallet/#3a1fa9cb3953 (1 of 2)
Thursday 4 August 2016 / Hour 1, Block D: Richard A. Epstein, Hoover via Defining Ideas, in re: Progressives are so confident of their theory that they always blame economic problems on a previous, GOP administration. Facts show that if you lower taxes, people invest a lot more in business and thereby generate a lot money, so the govt gets a smaller piece of a much larger pie and thereby gains a larger income. The [richest years] in history were 1870 to 1940.
The Poverty of Progressivism. Four more years of Democratic rule is the path to economic stagnation and social discontent. http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2016/08/01/hillarys-trillion-dollar-irs-tax-hikes-will-hit-your-wallet/#3a1fa9cb3953 (2 of 2)
Hour Two
Thursday 4 August 2016 / Hour 2, Block A: Elliott Abrams, CFR, in re: US State Dept on Israel. MOU. US policy in the Middle East. State has a genuine cunning motive for misstatements of fact on Israel: the audience is no longer Israel this late in the Administration, so it's a message to Europeans. (“Join the fun”; it's a dog-whistle to the Euros.) The French proposal doesn’t want to address settlements; it wants all-new negotiations, which no one thinks is useful Palestinians not interested at present. Male Adumim (pop 32,000) is a vast housing complex near Jerusalem, isolated area connected to Jerusalem by a road. “We’re disturbed that ‘settlements’ have been advertised . . .” - but this is inside Jerusalem, and the new apartments constitute a small number. Why does State say, “There goes the whole peace process”?? Palestinians are suing the English for hre Balfour Declaration of a hundred hears ago – and God for giving the land to Abraham. . . .
· http://blogs.cfr.org/abrams/2016/07/28/the-new-state-department-assault-on-israel/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+eabrams+%28Elliott+Abrams%3A+Pressure+Points%29
· http://jcpa.org/the-curious-state-department-announcement-on-israeli-settlements/
· http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4835747,00.html
· http://www.timesofisrael.com/at-democratic-confab-dermer-touts-israel-as-bipartisan-cause/
Elliott Abrams is senior Fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, DC. He served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor in the administration of President George W. Bush, where he supervised U.S. policy in the Middle East for the White House.
Thursday 4 August 2016 / Hour 2, Block B: Steve Cook, CFR, in re: Egypt. Egypt claims it has “cancelled” the leader of Islamic State in Sinai. Abu Douah al Ansari been leading a nasty insurgency in the Sinai state. A propaganda victory for Cairo. Egyptian society has been on war footing for too long. Erdogan: swinging ‘twixt dictator and victim. The mass arrests have now moved into it the secret police, the MİT, running training camps for “rebels” in Syria. Uses victim stance to advance his authoritarianism inside Turkey. He blames the US for the aborted coup of some days ago; the domestic pro-govt press (everybody) blames the US because Erdogan’s main rival, Fetullah Gulen, lives in the US. Could the US extradite him? Unh, yeah. Will be adjudicated in the US court system even though Turks have tried to politicize the process. Would need a preponderance of evidence. Lilley that some of Gulen’s followers were involve in the coup. Erdogan on his way to Moscow? The one person Erdogan fears is Putin – for cause. Will Erdogan crack down on Kurds? Russia could shift its position on Kurds iff Turkey gives Putin something. How does a NATAO member do this and stay a member? Lots of questions about this – and no mechanism for removing a member of NATO. A large challenge to the 45th president of the US. Catherine the Great wanted Constantinople.
· http://blogs.cfr.org/cook/2016/08/01/turkeys-failed-coup-and-the-united-states/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+scook+%28Steven+A.+Cook%3A+From+the+Potomac+to+the+Euphrates%29
· http://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-security-usa-purge-idUSKCN1082U8
· http://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/regional-implications-failed-coup-detat-purges-turkey-initial-indicators/
· http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/08/turkey-arrest-warrant-fethullah-gulen-160804134641736.html
· http://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-august-4-2016/
Steven A. Cook is Eni Enrico Mattei senior Fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He is an expert on Arab and Turkish politics as well as U.S.-Middle East policy. Prior to joining CFR, Cook was a research Fellow at the Brookings Institution (2001–2002) and a Soref research Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (1995–1996).
Thursday 4 August 2016 / Hour 2, Block C: Anna Borshchevskaya, Washington Institute, in re: DNC hacking. Russian-Iranian and Russian-Syrian relations. The New Great Game – Persia (now called Iran) and the US standing in pro tem for Britain. Teheran and Moscow seems to be agreeable – the two powers should be in opposition; how’s this? Several pieces to it: one, Russia’s concern in Central Asia to ward off Shi’as. Taliban in Afghanistan is both anti Shi’a and anti-Russian. Two, larger goals: opposition to Western democracy. Very complicated history; have been competitors but now goals align. Above all prevent a pro-Western Iran emerge. Major concern: Russian involvement in Syria shows an anti-Sunni tilt; and Russia is affected by Sunni extremism across the country. Transfer of S300 to Iran is a huge matter. Russia froze the deal before under intense pressure, but it's finally occurred. Lots of concerns for Israel’s security, Common interests tend to untie Russia and Iran tactically, Iran complained, “Whey aren't we getting the S400?” On the economic front, relations have been much weaker; stronger on the political front. Mesopotamia: news about Syria has almost disappeared from Russian press; populace is concerned about a second Afghanistan. As for Aleppo, shootdown of Russian helo. [One-third of Aleppo’s population is starving to death as you rad this. Russia emphatically is not a local peacemaker. --ed] Putin is cleansing Syria: decisive action by the US, long overdue, would shift this radically. Erdogan in Petersburg: Putin and he will try to move toward some sort of economic normalization. Two boys able to compartmentalize matters . . . Maybe they’ll discuss ISIS. Assassinations of Chechens in Turkey . . . Who might do that?? Cui bono? . . .
Russia/ Iran:
· http://www.inss.org.il/uploadImages/systemFiles/INSS.StrAss19.2.July16.03Kam.pdf
Russia/ Syria
· http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/02/world/middleeast/russia-syria-helicopter.html
· http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/03/opinion/the-case-for-finally-bombing-assad.html?_r=0
· http://www.inss.org.il/uploadImages/systemFiles/INSS.StrAss19.2.July16.01Yadlin.pdf
Russian Hacking
· https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russian-government-hackers-penetrated-dnc-stole-opposition-research-on-trump/2016/06/14/cf006cb4-316e-11e6-8ff7-7b6c1998b7a0_story.html
· https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/how-the-kremlin-is-sure-to-keep-its-fingerprints-off-any-cyberattack/2016/08/02/26144a76-5829-11e6-8b48-0cb344221131_story.html
· http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/25/politics/democratic-convention-dnc-emails-russia/
· http://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-07-31/why-russia-keeps-getting-away-with-hacking-america
Anna Borshchevskaya is the Ira Weiner Fellow at The Washington Institute, focusing on Russia's policy toward the Middle East. In addition, she is a fellow at the European Foundation for Democracy and was previously with the Peterson Institute for International Economics and the Atlantic Council. A former analyst for a U.S. military contractor in Afghanistan, she has also served as communications director at the American Islamic Congress.
Thursday 4 August 2016 / Hour 2, Block D: Eli Lake, Bloomberg, in re: Iran. “We do not pay ransom for hostages. Not clear why cash instead of a wire transfer has made this such a high-profile story.” President is in a pinch: can't acknowledge that the US has paid: it does not pay cash ransom to non-state groups, but apparently will in exchange for prisoners of a stae, Wth Iran, we release people for Americans in Iranian jails, and also paid for a dispute going back to before the 1979 revolution, an old arms order of money the US was holding for the last shah. Coincided with cash payment of money from the shah . . . this beggars belief. Note however that Iran demanded the money in order to release prisoners that it was holding on bogus charges. Hezbollah in Lebanon. Two planes: one was empty to retrieve prisoners one was Pastor Abedini, held overnight in the airport till the second plane arrived with cash the next morning, Iranians told them this specifically. This is paying for hostages; Iran now arresting Americans every week . this only people telling this story are members of the Obama Administration. Two more: the whole negotiation to begin with: Americans were released on implementation of nuclear deal —“Two different things unconnected”– note that this is a regime of hostage-taking terrorists that the US president treats as a normal stare; despite brigandage. They’re having a hearty laugh at our expense – they never change and they continue to milk us, having taken our measure and the measure of the West.
· http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-sent-cash-to-iran-as-americans-were-freed-1470181874
· http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/pompeo-ayatollah-wants-obama-to-be-agent-of-iranian-chamber-of-commerce/article/2598446
· http://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-08-03/u-s-has-taught-iran-a-lesson-hostage-taking-pays
· http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-iran-installment-idUSKCN10E264
Eli Lake is a Bloomberg View columnist. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.
Hour Three
Thursday 4 August 2016 / Hour 3, Block A: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: West Bank elections in October; Mahmoud Abbas of PA [in the eleventh year of his four-year term] has little authority and Hamas is about to make dominant gains in the West Bank. No attractive Hamas leader except Marwan Barghouti – in prison forever for five murder convictions, five life sentences – whom the State Department astoundingly seems inclined to back. Eke Dahlan and Jube; Fatah says it's killed 11,000 Israelis. A Palestinian employe of World Vision is accused of having funneled money to Hamas: 60% of total World Vision Christian aid to Hamas’s military activities. European money is being used to undermine the govt of Israel . NGOs are high-handed and arrogant; a scam scheme. UNRWA has participates, as have many other Eurp NGOs. Egypt is plenty annoyed: trained IS soldiers and trained them to go into Egyptian Sinai. Erdogan has called a rally for next Sunday: “for democracy, against the coup” - but Erdogan has arrested maybe 60,000 civilians. Nutty. And very anti-American. The chief of staff of Israel was in Washington today and to his surprise, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs presented the Medal of Honor to the head of the Israeli Joint Chiefs.
Thursday 4 August 2016 / Hour 3, Block B: Neri Zilber, Daily Beast on Israeli thinking on the Syrian catastrophe, in re: Israel-Syria/al Nusra. He puzzle about Syria is that Assad looks stronger than ever after the Russian intervention. Does Israel need to choose between the devil and ______? Should Israel do more to topple Assad/Hezbollah; or more closer to home on the Golan front to help “moderate” Syria rebels? The issue now sounds banal – none of the rebel groups has actually fired at Israel from Golan Heights in the last five years of war. Who has fired are Assad, Hezbollah elements. Jordan has made itself a target: Jordan and Israel see the value in helping on a humanitarian level rebel elements in southern Syria. On the Jordanian-Israeli border, different: aid for moral reasons Chem weapons: probably a chem weapons attack _______. The thousands who’ve gone to Israel for medical treatment? About 2,000 in the last few years for serious treatment; then they return mum but have to tell relatives and close friends who saved heir life. In 2011 people said “Assad has only weeks left.” Many more years of warfare to come.
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· http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/08/02/how-israel-plays-syria-s-civil-war.html
· http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/damascus-control-emboldens-assad-nationally
· http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/kurdish-forces-bolster-assad-in-aleppo
· http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/state-downplays-syria-fail-it-was-not-a-deadline/article/2598418
· http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/david-weinberg-analysis-deterring-gulf-states-from-backing-the-new-al-nusrah-front/
· http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/thomas-joscelyn-analysis-al-nusrah-front-rebrands-itself-as-jabhat-fath-al-sham/
Thursday 4 August 2016 / Hour 3, Block C: Gene Marks, Washington Post, in re:
Economy
How Brexit Will Affect Small Businesses in the U.S. for Years to Come http://www.waspbarcode.com/buzz/brexit/
Massachusetts Bans Employers from Asking Applicants about Previous Pay http://nyti.ms/2afvPmn
CVS Misses Sales Expectations as Pharmacy Business Softens http://www.morningstar.com/news/dow-jones/TDJNDN_201608026290/cvs-misses-sales-expectations-as-pharmacy-business-softens.html
Midwest business conditions decline in July http://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/business/midwest-business-conditions-decline-in-july-20160801 @gazettedotcom
Social Tech
Study: 65% of marketers, agency profs rank social platforms critical to video campaigns http://bit.ly/2aZAciA
Marketers Say Facebook More Critical to Video Campaign Success than YouTube http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/281563/marketers-say-facebook-more-critical-to-video-camp.html @tobielkin @MediaPost
Facebook Live Broadcasts Will Soon Get Interruptions as Facebook Tests Live Video Ads http://www.techtimes.com/articles/172198/20160802/facebook-live-broadcasts-will-soon-get-interruptions-as-facebook-tests-live-video-ads.htm @TechTimes_News
Why your company should think twice before tweeting about the Olympics http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-your-company-should-think-twice-before-tweeting-about-the-olympics-2016-08-02 @MarketWatch
GoGoGrandparent lets people without smartphones use on-demand services like Uber https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/02/gogograndparent-lets-people-without-smartphones-use-on-demand-services-like-uber/ @fitztepper @techcrunch
Health
Spread of Zika, and cloud of fear, threatens Florida's tourism way of life https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2016/08/01/spread-of-zika-and-cloud-of-fear-threatens-floridas-tourism-way-of-life/ @drewharwell @washingtonpost
SF startup first in state to cover fertility for LGBT workers http://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/SF-startup-first-in-state-to-cover-fertility-for-9069717.php?cmpid=twitter-premium
Percentage of small employers offering health insurance drops https://shar.es/1ZY7yH
Percentage of small employers offering health insurance drops https://shar.es/1ZY7yH
Start-ups
Start-ups are bringing low-cost 401(k)s to small businesses http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/techflash/2016/08/startups-retirement-small-businesses-vanguard.html @SFBTRileyMcD @SFBusinessTimes
Alphabet’s Project Wing Delivery Drones to Be Tested in U.S. http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-08-02/google-s-project-wing-delivery-drones-to-be-tested-at-u-s-site @AlanLevin1 @bpolitics
Ice cream entrepreneur creates circle of kindness for kids in Buffalo, NY http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/humankind/2016/08/02/ice-cream-entrepreneur-creates-circle-kindness-kids/87914372/ @usatoday
Ooma Releases Office for Mobile, Aimed at Small Businesses http://mobile.eweek.com/small-business/ooma-releases-office-for-mobile-aimed-at-small-businesses.html@eWEEKNews
This start-up wants to track and sync all our data changes http://fortune.com/2016/08/02/attic-labs-data/ @gigabarb @FortuneMagazine
This is the new Microsoft: Windows slips to No. 3 amid shift to the cloud http://www.geekwire.com/2016/this-is-the-new-microsoft-windows-slips-to-no-3-as-company-shifts-to-the-cloud/ @toddbishop @GeekWire
Thursday 4 August 2016 / Hour 3, Block D: Gene Marks, Washington Post (2 of 2)
Hour Four
Thursday 4 August 2016 / Hour 4, Block A: Dan Henninger, WSJ, in re: http://www.wsj.com/articles/i-am-your-voice-1470265947?tesla=y
Thursday 4 August 2016 / Hour 4, Block B: Josh Rogin, Washington Post, in re: President Obama has decided to seek a new United Nations Security Council resolution that would call for an end to nuclear testing, a move that leading lawmakers are calling an end run around Congress.
Top administration officials, including Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, briefed lawmakers and congressional staffers this week about President Obama’s decision to push for the U.N. action this September, to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which was adopted in September 1996 but was never ratified by the Senate.
National Security Council spokesperson Ned Price told me that the administration still would like to see the Senate ratify the test ban treaty but is “looking at possible action in the UN Security Council that would call on states not to test and support the CTBT’s objectives. We will continue to explore ways to achieve this goal, being careful to protect the Senate’s constitutional role.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/josh-rogin/wp/2016/08/04/obama-will-bypass-congress-seek-u-n-resolution-on-nuclear-testing/ ; http://www.wsj.com/articles/i-am-your-voice-1470265947?tesla=y
Thursday 4 August 2016 / Hour 4, Block C: Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack, in re: After 31 months, Jade Rabbit ceases operation China’s first lunar rover, YuTu (“Jade Rabbit” in English) has finally ceased operations after 31 months.
The rover stalled shortly after it moved away from its lander, Chang’e 3, but its instruments were still able to gather data, and they did so for about 10 times longer than originally planned. http://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/after-31-months-jade-rabbit-ceases-operation/ Using data from Dawn, scientists have created their first rough map of the internal structure of Ceres.
The data indicate that Ceres is “differentiated,” which means that it has compositionally distinct layers at different depths, with the densest layer at the core. Scientists also have found that, as they suspected, Ceres is much less dense than Earth, the moon, giant asteroid Vesta (Dawn’s previous target) and other rocky bodies in our solar system. Additionally, Ceres has long been suspected to contain low-density materials such as water ice, which the study shows separated from the rocky material and rose to the outer layer along with other light materials. “We have found that the divisions between different layers are less pronounced inside Ceres than the moon and other planets in our solar system,” Park said. “Earth, with its metallic crust, semi-fluid mantle and outer crust, has a more clearly defined structure than Ceres,” Park said.
Scientists also found that high-elevation areas on Ceres displace mass in the interior. This is analogous to how a boat floats on water: the amount of displaced water depends on the mass of the boat. Similarly, scientists conclude that Ceres’ weak mantle can be pushed aside by the mass of mountains and other high topography in the outermost layer as though the high-elevation areas “float” on the material below. This phenomenon has been observed on other planets, including Earth, but this study is the first to confirm it at Ceres. (1 of 2)
Thursday 4 August 2016 / Hour 4, Block D: Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack (2 of 2)
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