Thursday 8 March 2018
Photo: International Women’s Day (8 March) celebrated in Yekaterinburg, in Siberia, as a policeman congratulates all women drivers.
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts: Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal, and Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents
Hour One
Thursday 8 March 2018 / Hour 1, Block A: Michael Auslin, Hoover, in re: Pres Trump accepts Kim Jong-eun’s invitation to meet. What ramifications? (1)
Thursday 8 March 2018 / Hour 1, Block B: Michael Auslin, Hoover, in re: Pres Trump accepts Kim Jong-eun’s invitation to meet. What ramifications? (2) Much depends on Xi Jinping: does he become the tyrannical or suave, or what kind of dictator? China may not be as stable as the world press suggests. MA: This sort of thing has always failed What the US and West ought to have done for decades is slap down China every time it crossed an intl norm – big mistake. We seemed to think that eventually it’d democratize and grow freer. Instead, we need to show that there are consequences to [malfeasance]. Instead, we've gone 180 degrees the opposite direction: Marriott just fired an employee for “liking” a Tibetan post after China complained. Craven. Daimler-Benz, Marriott, many [boot-licking] corporations. A state without succession is a weak state. The US needs to plan for this. How? In ways to protect our interests – not affect us, our allies, our trade. Also . . . Larry Diamond on the retreat of democracy around the world. We’ve never seen anarchy in a nuclear state.
Thursday 8 March 2018 / Hour 1, Block C: Victor Davis Hansen, Hoover & NRO, in re: What is it that so deeply upsets the [never Trumpers]? 1. ____ 2. Ethically shallow. What we see as moral questions they see as whether or not he’s involved with some fantastic dossier. They also are displeased with the fact that Trump had the same number of votes as Reagan[?]. . . . They also are upset by his “crudeness.” . . . We live in an arena of social media. When Lyndon Johnson exposed himself or gave interviews on the toilet, we never got that information from the press. Marquess of Queensberry rules don’t apply to Trump. Workers who remember and mourn the loss of the great Democratic Party. Trump is like a B52 on a deep mission: when your armies are far abroad, your home arenas are naked. All you need is 10% of the Black vote and 40]?]% of the Latino vote to flip Colorado, and other places. Truck divers, fork lift drivers. . . . When you start nominating Mitt Romney, and the other [ossified] characters . . .
Thursday 8 March 2018 / Hour 1, Block D: Salena Zito, Washington Examiner, New York Post, CNN; in re:
Hour Two
Thursday 8 March 2018 / Hour 2, Block A: David Makovsky, in re: Peace process.
· http://www. washingtoninstitute.org/ policy-analysis/view/forget- the-ultimate-deal-trump-and- netanyahu-should-save-gaza- for-now
· https://www.al-monitor.com/ pulse/originals/2018/03/abbas- likely-issue-arrest-warrant- rivals-interpol-membership. html
· http://www.policyconference. org/article/transcripts/2018/ schumer.asp
· http://jcpa.org/fatah- prepares-replace-mahmoud- abbas/
· http://www.jpost.com/Arab- Israeli-Conflict/Palestinians- increase-payments-to- terrorists-to-403-million- 544343
· http://jcpa.org/the-after- abbas-issue-intensifies- tensions-among-fatah-top- brass/
· https://www.nytimes.com/ aponline/2018/03/07/world/ middleeast/ap-ml-palestinians- politics.html
David Makovsky is the Ziegler distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute and director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process. He is also an adjunct professor in Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). In 2013-2014, he worked in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of State, serving as a senior advisor to the Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations.
Thursday 8 March 2018 / Hour 2, Block B: David Adesnik , in re: Syria. Iran on Israel’s border. Syrian side of Golan Heights: Iranian bases. Iranian drones crossing the Israeli border. Assad’s campaign to [obliterate] his enemies.
· http://www.foxnews.com/ opinion/2018/02/16/militias- in-syria-could-next-attack- israel-and-launch-new-war. print.html
· http://www.israelhayom.com/ opinions/global-pressure-must- target-iran/?redirected=239323
Dr. David Adesnik is the Director of Research at FDD, where he’s responsible for the oversight of FDD publications and the supervision of FDD’s team of research analysts. His own research focuses on defense policy, strategy, and budget issues. Previously, David served as policy director at the Foreign Policy Initiative and was a visiting fellow at the Marilyn Ware Center for Security Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. For two years, he served as deputy director for Joint Data Support at the U.S. Department of Defense, where he focused on the modeling and simulation of irregular warfare and counterinsurgency. David also spent several years as research staff member at the Institute for Defense Analyses. In that capacity, he spent four months in Baghdad as an operations research and systems analyst for Multinational Corps – Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. In 2008, he was part of the foreign policy and national security staff for John McCain’s presidential campaign.
Thursday 8 March 2018 / Hour 2, Block C: Behnam Ben Taleblu, in re: North Korea. Iran.
· https://www.nytimes.com/2018/ 03/01/world/asia/south-korea- north-korea-us-talks.html
· https://www.forbes.com/sites/ heshmatalavi/2018/03/01/a- close-look-at-irans-budget/# 282ddadf6e1e
· http://www.defenddemocracy. org/media-hit/anthony- ruggiero-how-olympic- diplomacy-normalizes-north- korea/
Behnam Ben Taleblu is a Senior Iran Analyst at Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Previously, Behnam served as a Non-Resident Iran Research Fellow and Iran Research Analyst at FDD, where he leveraged his native Farsi skills in addition to subject-matter expertise. Behnam has provided FDD’s scholars, staff, and the wider foreign-policy community with open-source research and analysis on Iran-related issues including: nuclear non-proliferation, ballistic missiles, sanctions, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the foreign policy debates within the Islamic Republic, and internal Iranian politics.
Thursday 8 March 2018 / Hour 2, Block D: Joseph Humire, in re: Argentina & Kirchner. China in Latin America?
· https://www.algemeiner.com/ 2018/03/06/former-argentine- president-cristina-kirchner- facing-potential-trials-over- both-iran-linked-amia-bombing- cover-up-and-murder-of- investigator-alberto-nisman/
· https://www.timesofisrael.com/ argentina-ex-leader-kirchner- to-be-tried-over-amia-bombing- cover-up/
· http://www.meforum.org/7206/ iran-russia-and-china-central- role-in
Joseph M. Humire is the Executive Director of SFS. As a global security expert specializing on transnational threats in the Western Hemisphere, he provides regular briefings on international terrorism, transnational organized crime, Islamism and Iran’s influence in the Western Hemisphere to various entities within the U.S. Department of Defense and intelligence community, as well as prominent think tanks and universities around the world. He appears regularly before the U.S. Congress to provide briefings and testimony on national security issues and has also testified before the European, Canadian, and Andean Parliaments, as well as the Argentine and Peruvian Congress. In 2016, Mr. Humire served as an expert witness in an important terrorism trial in Lima, Peru.
Hour Three
Thursday 8 March 2018 / Hour 3, Block A: Simon Henderson, in re: Qatar. Saudi nuclear power
· http://www. washingtoninstitute.org/ policy-analysis/view/qatar- diplomacy-unraveling-a- complicated-crisis#. WqGaj3ikPjE.twitter
· https://www.bloomberg.com/ news/articles/2018-03-07/ netanyahu-warns-u-s-lawmakers- about-saudi-nuclear-power- deal?utm_source=google&utm_ medium=bd&cmpId=google
· http://www. washingtoninstitute.org/ policy-analysis/view/saudi- nuclear-power-plants-and-the- danger-of-proliferation
· http://www.israelhayom.com/ 2018/03/07/report-saudi-crown- prince-meets-senior-israeli- officials-in-egypt/
Simon Henderson is the Baker Fellow and director of the Gulf and Energy Policy Program at The Washington Institute, specializing in energy matters and the conservative Arab states of the Persian Gulf. A former journalist with the Financial Times, Mr. Henderson has also worked as a consultant, advising corporations and governments on the Persian Gulf. He became an associate of the Institute in 1999 and joined the staff in 2006. He started his career with the British Broadcasting Corporation before joining the Financial Times. His experience includes serving as a foreign correspondent in Pakistan in 1977-78, and reporting from Iran during the 1979 Islamic revolution and seizure of the U.S. embassy
Thursday 8 March 2018 / Hour 3, Block B: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents
Thursday 8 March 2018 / Hour 3, Block C: Lee Smith, The Tablet, in re: Russiagate.
Thursday 8 March 2018 / Hour 3, Block D: Lee Smith, The Tablet, in re: Russiagate.
Hour Four
Thursday 8 March 2018 / Hour 4, Block A: Sebastian Gorka, Fox News, in re: War, terrorism, geostrategy.
Thursday 8 March 2018 / Hour 4, Block B: Sebastian Gorka, Fox News, in re: War, terrorism, geostrategy.
Thursday 8 March 2018 / Hour 4, Block C: Mr President, by Harlow Giles Unger. On George Washington.
Thursday 8 March 2018 / Hour 4, Block D: Mr President, by Harlow Giles Unger. On George Washington.