The John Batchelor Show

Thursday 4 June 2015

Air Date: 
June 04, 2015

Photo, left: National Security Threat.
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts: Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal editorial board & host of OpinionJournal.com.  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents.
 
Hour One
Thursday  4 June 2015 / Hour 1, Block A: William Whalen, research Fellow at the Hoover Institution & media consultant and political strategist to several Republican campaigns; in re: Hillary: "the server will remain private."  Twenty-eight days of no conversations with the press – the new Hillary is worse than the old Hillary. An SNL caricature of herself. . . .   Rick Perry:  . . .  for every space he seeks to fill, there are two or three other Republicans doing so.  Jeb Bush; Donald Trump–eek.  Bernie Sanders: $5.5 billion to hire everyone 16 years old.  Martin O'Malley: to bait Mrs Clinton on Wall Street?  Michael Bloomberg?  Dunno & no one asks.  Does the mayor do well fifty miles out of New York?  "I'm not Hillary."  Gaffes: . . . like a concussion in football: it's not one that does you in, but the sum of them.
Thursday  4 June 2015 / Hour 1, Block B:  Edward W Hayes, criminal defense attorney par excellence, in re:   439 shootings; murders up 17..7% from last year same time; de Blasio blames this on gang violence. " Nothing like what we had 15 years ago; we have new strategies . . . incl gang intervention." Eddie: the essence of civil rights is physical personal safety.  MK: Some Black lives seem to matter more than others to this mayor.  JB: I got mugged twice on Manhattan's Upper West Side.  EH: It went down because Giuliani . . .  JB: The only way we can offload de Blasio is by sending him to Albany [the state capital; ergo, as governor]. 
 
From the New Yorker:    Not long after the police officers turned their backs on de Blasio at Officer Ramos’s funeral, I met with a black transit officer who has been on the force for seven years. One of the first things he asked me was whether or not I wanted to hear the truth about his experience. He did not feel comfortable discussing his experiences without anonymity, fearing that telling the truth could result in on-the-job reprisals and jeopardize his chances for promotions. (Numerous other policemen I spoke with either declined to comment or asked that their remarks be kept off the record. Their fears are not unfounded: an N.Y.P.D. officer named Adhyl Polanco was suspended, and later reassigned, after he complained internally about stop-and-frisk.) And so the officer, comfortable with the terms of anonymity, began to tell me his story:
“Born and raised in Brooklyn. I had a real tough childhood. Caribbean descent. My parents came here chasing the American Dream like anyone else,” . . .  [more]
Thursday  4 June 2015 / Hour 1, Block C: Richard Lowry, National Review, in re:   . . . anything you say maybe held against you – Miranda rights could be coming on the topic of climate change.  Pres Obama: the major security danger to the US is not the Black Sea fight, China's aggression or the Middle East civil wars – but is climate change. Remarks by Sen Sheldon Whitehouse, RI, call for us in effect to be investigated.  Pres said that the wars are cause by drought, not genocides and violence.   Syria? Iraq? Boko Haram?  "The single most sophomoric speech of his presidency."  Sen Whitehouse called for investigation of people who doubt climate change: for their possible criminal conduct.   The slippery slope: what looks absurd now can be mandatory in eight years. A deeply illiberal impulse from the left. They can’t wrap their heads around the fact that people genuinely disagree;  left wants to make that sort of speculation disreputable. Bullying.   Will this work in 2016?  Dunno, but it's a longer game than that – e.g., if you question that there's an epidemic of rape on college campuses, you'll get hooted down and harassed.  We have a First Amendment here – it's been tested by the most deceitful people fro 200 years. We’re the only country in the world with a guarantee of free speech. Thank God for that.
Climate Change: The Only Enemy Obama Wants to Obliterate  President Barack Obama is less than stalwart in the fight against ISIS and doesn’t seem overly concerned about Vladimir Putin’s predation in Ukraine or China’s aggression in the South China Sea. It is the fight against climate change, an allegedly dire threat to the nation’s security, that brings out his inner Churchill.  In remarks at the Coast Guard Academy commencement, Obama pledged his undying hostility to climate change and his determination to fight it on the beaches and in the fields. He called it “one of the most severe threats” we face and “an immediate risk to our national security.” President Obama is to climate change what Cato the Elder was to Carthage. He hailed the Coast Guard for building more fuel-efficient cutters, and the Marines for deploying with portable solar panels. It was one of the most insipid calls to arms ever made by an American commander-in-chief, and there is unlikely to be much competition until President Elizabeth Warren rallies the U.S. Navy against income inequality. From the president’s urgency, you would think that climate change is beheading American hostages and taking over large swathes of Middle Eastern countries, toward the end of establishing a hostile climate-change empire. The reality is that, even accepting his premises about . . .  [more]
Thursday  4 June 2015 / Hour 1, Block D: Sarah Westwood, Washington Examiner, in re: Sarah is the beneficiary of the gift tat will give forever: the story of the Clinton Foundation.  The only way they'll give up information is if they’re caught red-handed.  Layers: it's composed of a dozen different enterprises – Global Initiative, Climate Initiative, et al.  MOU worked out with the State Dept.  . . . We the readers need a lot more data. Note: 200,000 donors?? You can write a check, attend the CGI fundraiser for $1,000, or invite Bill Clinton to speak and pay directly to the foundation. MK: Sounds like a shake-down of charities.  . . .  SW: She's erased as many emails as she's disclosed.  Red flags: she had a temporary IG running State for her entire tenure – who doesn’t have as much oversight.  This one was manipulated by top State officials.   Concern in Dec 2o12 by the National Archives that Mrs Clinton would take her correspondence to Arkansas. Cheryl Mills was vetting VFOIA requests inconsistently with law: a political appointed making these decisions is [highly inappropriate]. Note the B5 - "withhold it if you can" – exemption.  . . . Huma Abedin had a private address on that server we guess the Cheryl Mills did, too.
Acting IGs at State Dept., National Archives ignored looming Clinton email scandal   A years-long vacancy in the State Department's Office of inspector general allowed Hillary Clinton's use of a private email account and server to hide her public records to continue unchecked,... Read More…
 
Hour Two
Thursday  4 June 2015 / Hour 2, Block A: Matthew Levitt The Washington Institute's Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence; in re: Hezbollah in Yemen. ISIS. Iraq. Across the Middle East: ruin.  Yemen is a major example; it's collapsed so far that  . .. Hezbollah in Yemen – always against the backdrop of sectarian (Sunni-Shia) conflict. Yemeni rebels are Shia; Saudis this week designated two Hezb operatives for what they're doing in Yemen.  If ISIS is allowed to grow 0- and we're leaving it unchallenged now – then ISIS cold gain a larger foothold in Yemen, partly because of its successes on the battlefield.  Both Iran and Hezb have threatened Saudis.   I hope the Saudis understand that you cant bomb them into submission, only to the negotiating table.   ute. At age 51 was fund shot in the heard in his bathroom.  Alberto Nisman's computer was accessed 60+ times after his death – a much larger and uglier story than suicide or a dispute.  parenthetically, I knew Alberto Nisman and cannot fathom any way he'd commit suicide. I don't see any hope that his investigation will proceed in any transparent or logical way. Govt been dragging his name in the mud, levied money-laundering charges against this other, photos of him – with girls?  this is now Alice in Wonderland down a spectacular rabbit hole.  After the murder, evidence was contaminated.   The victims of the AMIA bombing re suddenly being portrayed not as victims but as culpable?  One of those has been indicted for a crime that doesn't exist.  Somebody charged with "providing psychological support" – the matter at hand is that this govt is being exposed for its dirty dealings with Iran.
Thursday  4 June 2015 / Hour 2, Block B: Aaron David Miller, Vice President for New Initiatives & Distinguished Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; in re: Bibi/Obama, Obama’s Speech, Iran.  Iran might meet Kerry in New York where it has technical means to ensure encryption. Henry Kissinger was gone for 33  days in Jan 1974 for negotiations; precedent for Secretary of State to be gone for a long time.  Let's be clear: Netanyahu is no seed bump in Israeli politics; an authentic pol, reflects fears and hops of Israeli public.  The White House effort to react to Bibi's every statement was going no where. The last thing they need now is to pen a second front with the govt of Israel as they're trying to tout a comprehensive argument with Iran.  Carter still doesn't understand why his policies were so unpopular with Jews. – The smartest person in the room: doesn’t always work out too well. When Obama called himself "a member of the tribe," he pushed every button available. 
Thursday  4 June 2015 / Hour 2, Block C: Walter Russell Mead, Distinguished Scholar in American Strategy & Statesmanship,  Hudson Institute; professor of foreign affairs &humanities at Bard College; Editor-at-Large of The American Interest;  in re: anti—Semitism in geopolitics.   Goering, commander f German air force, led Germany to ruin, writing to his wife, Gerte,  from a castle: "The allies would already have fragmented and come to us begging for help were it not for the Jews, who are lying to the Allies."  Yike, It' s not an emotion of dislike or hatred; it's a theory of how the world works, and it's a bad theory.  Same kind of conspiratorial theory of how hteowrld works. With this kind of mistaken view you don't follow cause and effect as the world actually works.  Pres Obama believes in a word of rational decision-makers – Putin, ayatollah – assumes that they see the same facts in the same way he does. Hasn’t take on board the fact that there are people who think his world view is crazy, so the president keeps getting surprised. 
Thursday  4 June 2015 / Hour 2, Block D: Edwin Black, author, The Farhud, Roots of The Arab-Nazi Alliance in the Holocaust.; in re: The farhud in 1941 s an Arabic dialectical word for "violent dispossession" – a blood0-curdling massacre June 1 an2 of 1941, where Arab Nazis (Hitler Youth of Iraq) tried to obiterate al HJes in AIraq, under the mufti of Jerusalem Hajj al Husseini,  ___, Yassir Arafat's uncle.  .A WWII pogrom against Iraqi Jews who'd lived there for thousands of yearsv- men geheaded, women raped, a mass killing.  The Transfer Agreement  showed Hitler's desitere to transfer all HJews t Palestine; the mufti said, Don't send us your problems; you kill them, send them to concentration camps.  The Haji called Eichmann a special diamond."   Mufti reaised tens of thousands of Arab volunteers to fight in the Wehrmacht He also snet an army in o Bosnia: the (Eustachi). Mufti ahelped murder Serbs Jews, he  ost bloodthirsty – wore necklaces of eyeballs.  Jovinovitz concentration camp was worse than Auschwitz – the Nazis asked the mufti to reduce the violence.  Al Husseini's violent hatred predates the Nazis.  This predates the Twentieth Century: selling land to a Jew was a capital offense; encouraged a massacre n 1929 – Jews couldn't pray at the wailing wall; shouted down and sometimes shot them down, Te musftu was one of he major ar crminl, Granted amnsesty by the Brts for oil.  At-UN-Jewish-organizations-mark-seminal-Iraqi-pogrom
 
Hour Three
Thursday  4 June 2015 / Hour 3, Block A:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: BDS – boycott, divestment and sanctions, a campaign vs Israel, only; t impose economic, academic and other boycotts. The 133 heads of British universities joined to condemn the movement, It offers a cover to anti-Jews. Orange is a telecom owned 25% by the French govt; its chairman said he'd stop doing bz with Israel even though this past March he signed a ten-year deal with Israel.  This is consistent with French conduct – the French ambassador put out a noxious tweet.  Human Rights Watch asks the UN to add Israel to be add to a shame list. In fact, the Gaza children who dies were killed by Hamas using them as human shields.  Also on the shame list; Boko Haram and ISIS. Assad is not on the list.  The Secy-Gen can cut this. thousands of Palestinian children are treated each year in Israeli hospitals; this is nuts.
Thursday  4 June 2015 / Hour 3, Block B: Merve Tahiroglu is a research associate focussing on Turkey, in re: Imminent liberation by Erdogan and the PM focussed on the liberation of Jerusalem: from Saladin's capture to Constantinople to the Turkish elections – and named an airport oin southern Turkey after Saladin. ACP has been using this sort of thing for  awhile- voter base has strong feelings about Palestine.  Kurdish Natl Peopled Dem Party- HDP – is the third =-largest oppo group, but Turkey has a 10% election threshold. If the HDP falls below, it’ll have no representation; if not, it'd be significant for Erdogan. We have close to 2 million Syrian refugees in Turkey The ACP foreign policy.  Thinking that the Saudis would be a better partner than the Syrians ever were.    Turkey's connection to ISIS:  because ISIS poses a security threat; however, Turkey has supported al Nusrah, so it's possible that Turkey might also connect with ISIS . . .  Wll the AKP maybe not get a majority and oblige Erdogan to step down? No, presidency won’t; but performance of AKP is important.  Conceivably a coalition govt.
Thursday  4 June 2015 / Hour 3, Block C: Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re: Astronomers accept terms imposed on them by protesters in Hawaii  The University of Hawaii, which manages the astronomy operation on Mauna Kea, has accepted the terms laid down by the state’s governor for allowing construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope.
Essentially, the number of telescopes on the peak will have to be reduced above and beyond the original decades-old agreement, and the University will have to find money to pay for these “native” programs:
Improved cultural research, education and training: We will work with Kahu Kū Mauna and other Native Hawaiian advisors to develop new cultural training and educational programs about Maunakea. Training is currently required for people working on the mountain and we will look for opportunities for improvement. We will develop training and education programs for visitors to ensure that all who come to Maunakea understand its cultural significance and how to respect the mountain. To ensure our cultural training and education programs are accurate, effective and continuing, we will establish at UH Hilo a new program to lead and evaluate our expanded cultural stewardship and educational activities related to Maunakea. …
      New scholarship programs: The governor asked TMT to increase its support to Native Hawaiian students, particularly those from Hawaiʻi Island, who wish to pursue science and technology careers. UH recognizes its responsibilities in this area and we will launch a campaign for new scholarship programs for Hawaiʻi Island and Native Hawaiian students to increase their participation in the sciences. The university will allocate a portion of its observing time to UH Hilo for use in projects and programs to support greater participation and improved preparation of Hawaiʻi Island students for professional careers.
The first will essentially buy off the leaders of the protesters, hiring them to pound into outsiders the wonderfulness of native culture. The second, though it will provide educational scholarships — a good thing — is still essentially bigoted and discriminatory in that it determines who shall get the scholarships solely by their ethnic origin. Imagine the reaction if a university in the U.S. offered a comparable scholarship only to whites.    Senator proposes criminal charges against global warming skeptics Fascists: Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) has proposed that racketeering charges be considered against fossil fuel companies who express skepticism about human-caused global warming and dare to disagree with any environmental regulations imposed based on this theory.
As he writes today in his Washington Post op-ed:   The fossil fuel industry, its trade associations and the conservative policy institutes that often do the industry’s dirty work met at the Washington office of the American Petroleum Institute. A memo from that meeting that was leaked to the New York Times documented their plans for a multimillion-dollar public relations campaign to undermine climate science and to raise “questions among those (e.g. Congress) who chart the future U.S. course on global climate change.”
Gee, industry skeptics of global warming wish to use their first amendment rights to debate the issue! How dare they! Worse, they might use money to finance their effort! (I wonder why I and most other skeptic bloggers never get any of this cash.)
As noted at the first link, the idea that any disagreement with global warming advocacy should be criminalized is not a new thing, and has increasingly been advocated by that leftwing community. Whitehouse is now tying this to the criminalization of the use of money to express that disagreement. Tie that to the effort of the Democratic Party to rewrite the first amendment to allow government to restrict speech, and you have the basic outline of a fascist movement intent on squelching freedom.
Rosetta team proposes landing on comet to finish mission  Rather than simply turn off the spacecraft when its funding runs out at the end of 2015, Rosetta’s science team have proposed that the mission get a nine month extension, during which they will slowly spiral into the comet and gently land.  Their proposal is similar to what American scientists did with their NEAR spacecraft, which hadn’t been designed to land on an asteroid but was successfully eased onto the surface of Eros, where it operated for a very short time.
Thursday  4 June 2015 / Hour 3, Block D:   Daniel Henninger, WSJ, in re: Barack Obama, Re-Founding Father   It isn’t just “Obama’s power grabs.” It’s a redesign of the Founders’s original vision.
 
Hour Four
Thursday  4 June 2015 / Hour 4, Block A: John C McManus, author, The Dead and Those About to Die: D-Day: The Big Red One at Omaha Beach. Part 2 (1 of 4)
Thursday  4 June 2015 / Hour 4, Block B: John C McManus, author, The Dead and Those About to Die: D-Day: The Big Red One at Omaha Beach. Part 2 (2 of 4)
Thursday  4 June 2015 / Hour 4, Block C: John C McManus, author, The Dead and Those About to Die: D-Day: The Big Red One at Omaha Beach. Part 2 (3 of 4)
Thursday  4 June 2015 / Hour 4, Block D: John C McManus, author, The Dead and Those About to Die: D-Day: The Big Red One at Omaha Beach. Part 2 (4 of 4)
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