Photo, left: Florida, USA.
 
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  8 October 2015 / Hour 1, Block A: Mary Kissel, in re: Rick Scott: 'We're bigger than New York now'   State's top economist diverges from Gov. Rick Scott in job growth strategy ; Florida's top economist diverges from Gov. Rick Scott in job growth strategy ; Opinion Journal: The Congressional Budget War Heritage Foundation Senior Fellow Steve Moore on the Republican fight to maintain spending restraint.
Thursday  8 October 2015 / Hour 1, Block B:  John Fund, NRO, in re:  GOP Speakership  . . .   Either Jeb Hensarling or the chair of the Republican Study Committee.   The dog that caught the bus: the Freedom Forum.
Thursday  8 October 2015 / Hour 1, Block C: Jerry Hendrix, Center for a New American Security, in re: The Navy is preparing to send a surface ship inside the 12-nautical-mile territorial limit China claims for its man-made island chain, an action that could take place within days but awaits final approval from the Obama administration, according to military officials who spoke to Navy Times. "The Great Wall of Sand."  For the last 70 years. Adherence to maritime law has kept the oceans (per se) generally free of war, and allowed global commerce.  A freedom of navigation patrol.  US has been planning this since May ( half a year later, making the US look weak), when the islands entered public discussion, and those islands are not sovereign territory; the longer you wait to challenge such fraud, the longer China, e.g., has to distribute its fear to its neighbors.  "One war at a time, Mr Seward." Frigate goes by an island that doesn't exist, and China bumps into a US frigate? US needs to re-establish itself as a superpower, must begin somewhere. The Pacific is where we can establish our bona fides; this will not be a frigate, more likely a destroyer. Then we can look at the Med Basin and the Black Sea Basin to remind Mr Putin that we can conduct normal operations in his backyard; and we'll send ships to the Eastern Mediterranean. China will claim that the US is doing what China claimed it was doing when it trained fire-control radars in Alaska when Pres Obama was here; China will . . . nuanced. US will need to repeat this often. Philippines, Taiwan, Singapore.   Subic Bay is the finest deep-water port in the Southeast Asian region.   We need a port somewhere; joint high-speed vessels, littoral vessels ; rotate forces through there increasingly in the years to come.
Thursday  8 October 2015 / Hour 1, Block D: Bruce Thornton, Hoover, in re:  THE ROOTS OF OBAMA’S CATASTROPHIC FOREIGN POLICY And why the catastrophes are so consistent. When Russia salvoed missiles from the Caspian to Syria 40 hours ago, US claims that some fell short in Iran Moscow responds derisively, "Not accurate. All landed perfectly."  US policy ab initio was to remove the US from the word, withdraw from a unipolar world to a multipolar world – which is of no interest to others, who all want a zero-sum game in politics and military.    Besetting sin of the West since hte Nineteenth Century: the whole world is moving toward peace, prosperity, harmony.  The West dreamt of leading everyone into this utopia. However, the evidence of bloodshed, violence and death might have made people re-rethink: some might prefer obedience to God over personal comfort.  Murders, rapes, killing, catastrophes in Iraq?  This Administration sees no upside of getting involved on the heels of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.  If he US abdicates its role as sheriff of a world of shopkeepers, it collapses – which it did. Britain could abdicate its position in mid-Twentieth Century because standing behind it was a powerful., committed liberal democracy. Who stands behind the US now? (Ouch). Imagine if the problem isn't just this White House; perhaps its the American people. Think if Pres Obama said, "We'll send 200,000 group troops to Syria today." See what the polls say.
 
Hour Two
Thursday  8 October 2015 / Hour 2, Block A:   David Makovsky, Ziegler distinguished Fellow at the Washington Institute & dir, Project on the Middle East Peace Process; in re: Palestinians, violence, Abbas.  West Bank: a wave of terrorist attacks; the pattern ins a mystery: arrived in Tel Aviv on Thursday when a young Palestinian man with a screwdriver stabbed a young female soldier.  There doesn't seem to be a visible guiding hand; looks more like lone wolves, as they call such young men. . . . Custodians of the Mosque.  . . .  Jordan-Israeli coordination is good.  . . .  Banned males under the age of fifty from the Temple Mount.  
Thursday  8 October 2015 / Hour 2, Block B: Benny Avni, NY Post , in re: UN, President of the GA. On Tues I was at a small cocktail party celebrating h end of he first week of he GA; one guest was the current president of the GA from Denmark, who said: we need to be serious; the world is in trouble, there's trouble and starvation and violent. Earlier in the day his predecessor had been taken handcuffed before a judge allegedly for having taken huge bribes, perhaps by a Chinese businessman based in Macao, wanted to build an empire there, used Ashe, plus an amb from Dominican Republic, to make his Macao center  an official UN bldg.   Bibi Netanyahu spoke before a lightly-populated hall. Palestinians raised a Palestinian flag. The Quartet gave up on "everything must be agreed in direct negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis."  A few weeks ago, there was to be a meeting between Abbas and Netanayahu – it was forbidden by John Kerry!
Thursday  8 October 2015 / Hour 2, Block C: Ilan Berman, American Foreign Policy Council, in re: Iran, Russia, new Task Force Initiative. Four days after John Batchelor spoke with Ilan about Russia, Putin announced his intentions and bombs started falling from missiles out of the Caspian.  Putin wishes to look like Russia on the march, capitalizing on US weakness. Rather note that the Ukraine front is slowing down and not going well for Russia. Syria is at least in part an effort b Moscow to change the conversation. More: There were 800 Russian-origin jihadis, now it's 2,400. IF they don't fight in Syria, they'll go home and fight.  Muslims constitute 16% of Russia's population, of whom 90% are Sunni – but Russia is aligning itself with Shia Iran. Oops.  Despite triumphalism of Russia, it may be fighting another Afghanistan. Soured relations between Russia and Turkey (Southstream pipeline) and also vs Saudis, who are calling for jihad against Russia and Iran!   Latakia base.  If youre a global power, must project power globally. If Assad falls; if Latakia and Tartus go away, Russia is stripped of ability to project power in the Med.   Russian mil is 770,00, of whom half need to be deployed in the Far East just north of the Chinese border; also 50K inside Ukraine or on that border. Hard to ramp up operations in Syria.   Russian GRU (military intell) have troops in Syria: Chechens . Chechens on both sides of Syria, and Ukrainian, conflicts. Kremlin-approved strongman, Kadyirov.  There were errant Russian missiles out of Caspian, but apparently no casualties. 
Thursday  8 October 2015 / Hour 2, Block D: Anna Borshchevskaya, Forbes, and Fellow at The Washington Institute, in re: Russia in Syria.  Moscow Kreml where sit elegant, gray-haired men at fabulous, tsarist tables: keep Assad in power, and see that the conflict is not resolved, keep it complex.  Putin may target ISIS at some point in the future but that 's surely not a priority now. See: advanced antiaircraft guns. They did hit Raqqa, but just for political cover.  How is this story retold on Russian TV?  Simple: the US invented and Create ISIS, al Qaeda and other terrorist groups; Russia is protecting h sovereign govt of Assad and al of Syria; but Syria doesn't dominate h news in Russia as it does in the US.    "Deconflict" means: the Russians have to tell the Americans everything they'll do, while the Americans tell nothing.  Malcolm has just seen troop movements fm the Golan, which lends a large dollop of reality that watching news reports doesn't.  Russia now keeps the military death count a secret in all respects.  Russian Orthodox Church blesses Russian troops; parallel with protecting Christians in the Middle East. Note tens of thousands of Russians and Syrians are married.
 
Hour Three
Thursday  8 October 2015 / Hour 3, Block A: Malcolm Hoenlein, in re: Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Twelvers cult, decrees: no more talks or negotiations with the United States.  Contradicts Rouhani, who referred to talks to pen up. Meanwhle, Kahamenei is pushing weapons hither and yon. Bldg terrorist cells is expanded, esp against Israel on the Golan, Al Nusrah on the border, and ISIS growing ever stronger; 500-700 near the Israeli border; fighting against the FSA: paid $70/mo, while ISIS pays $700/mo ad people defect.   Amb Power attended no GA speech at the UN except Pres Obama's because of the convening of a US natl security meeting.  PA is cynically using lawfare at the UN, with knife attacks in Israel.  "Rocks" attacks are not pebbles – they're often in fact boulders, huge masses of rock. . . ."Darkness visible" [Milton]: anything bad can happen. High tension. Rebel forces, al Nusrah, many other groups , walk up to the fence to test Israelis and wave at the secret cameras. The have night vision, sophisticated instrumentations.  Israel has taken in over 2,000 wounded from Syria and is treating hem in Israeli hospitals,
Thursday  8 October 2015 / Hour 3, Block B: Avi Issacharoff, The Times of Israel's Middle East analyst, in re: most recently, Abbas was wishing to "quell" attacks – but there have been more than 150 individual attacks in the last 24 hours.  Abbas doesn't want these people in his own backyard not r to be the origin of the attacks – but he specifically has not condemned them "Playing with a tiger," as the violence is on the edge of out of control.  In the West Bank, demos; in Israel, attacks the PA, Abbas, is losing the ability to control events in the West Bank, itself. As soon as Fatah steps in, means that PA security forces have limited ability to control.   Last 48, 72 hours.   Hamas, sitting on the fence, is content.  Nothing from Gaza (no rockets); waiting for the fall of Mahmoud Abbas.  In the last three days, and average of three or four suicides a day in order to kill Israelis. This is spontaneous, unorganized, lone wolves.  Islamic Jihad would find this interesting just to beat the other Palestinian factions in the competition to see who can kill more Jews.  There are more than 100,000 Palestinians working inside Israel. A general closure of the West Bank would mean no resources, no food.  What's nedednow is to calm things down in eJErusalem. mNeed King Abdullah {[Jordan]. b/
 
Thursday  8 October 2015 / Hour 3, Block C: Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack, in re:
More confirmation from Curiosity of past lakes in Gale Crater   New data from Curiosity has now provided further confirmation that the deeper sedimentary layers seen in Gale Crater were likely formed far in the past by flowing water.   “Paradoxically, where there is a mountain today there was once a basin, and it was sometimes filled with water,” said John Grotzinger, the former project scientist for Mars Science Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, and lead author of the new report. “We see evidence of about 250 feet (75 meters) of sedimentary fill, and based on mapping data from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and images from Curiosity’s camera, it appears that the water-transported sedimentary deposition could have extended at least 500 to 650 feet (150 to 200) meters above the crater floor.”
       Furthermore, the total thickness of sedimentary deposits in Gale Crater that indicate interaction with water could extend higher still, perhaps up to one-half mile (800 meters) above the crater floor. Above 800 meters, Mount Sharp shows no evidence of hydrated strata, and that is the bulk of what forms Mount Sharp. Grotzinger suggests that perhaps this later segment of the crater’s history may have been dominated by dry, wind-driven deposits, as was once imagined for the lower part explored by Curiosity. This was always the reason to go and climb Mount Sharp. As Curiosity heads uphill it begins to map out the geological history of Mars, first as a wet place with liquid water, then as a dry place in which the water is gone.
Ice and blue skies on Pluto ;  New data downloaded from New Horizons has confirmed the presence of ice on the planet’s surface, as well as suggesting that the planet’s sky might actually be colored blue. The haze particles themselves are likely gray or red, but the way they scatter blue light has gotten the attention of the New Horizons science team. “That striking blue tint tells us about the size and composition of the haze particles,” said science team researcher Carly Howett, also of SwRI. “A blue sky often results from scattering of sunlight by very small particles. On Earth, those particles are very tiny nitrogen molecules. On Pluto they appear to be larger — but still relatively small — soot-like particles we call tholins.”
      Scientists believe the tholin particles form high in the atmosphere, where ultraviolet sunlight breaks apart and ionizes nitrogen and methane molecules and allows them to react with each other to form more and more complex negatively and positively charged ions. When they recombine, they form very complex macromolecules, a process first found to occur in the upper atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan. The more complex molecules continue to combine and grow until they become small particles; volatile gases condense and coat their surfaces with ice frost before they have time to fall through the atmosphere to the surface, where they add to Pluto’s red coloring.
Thursday  8 October 2015 / Hour 3, Block D:   Sebastian v Gorka, Marine Corps University, in re: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/09/world/europe/russia-syria-intervention-nato.html
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/08/politics/russian-missiles-syria-landed-iran/
 
Hour Four
Thursday  8 October 2015 / Hour 4, Block A: Dan Henninger, WSJ editorial, in re:
Republicans on the Brink; The GOP may be throwing away a chance at victory in 2016. Back in the old era of American politics—say the election of 2008—the highest goal of Republicans or Democrats was to win the presidency and to control both houses of Congress. With what the ancients then called “control of government,” the victorious party would enact legislation reflecting its beliefs and ideas.  After the 2008 elections gave Democrats control of the executive and legislative branches, they passed the Affordable Care Act and the Dodd-Frank financial reform act, which together reordered great swaths of the U.S. economy. That’s what control of government looks like, and it is rarely achieved without internal party discipline.  Opinion Journal Video Wonder Land Columnist Dan Henninger on Kevin McCarthy's decision to abandon his bid for House speaker, and what this means for the GOP. But total control doesn’t last long and often breeds . . .
Thursday  8 October 2015 / Hour 4, Block B:  Noah Rothman, Commentary magazine, in re: https://www.commentarymagazine.com/politics-ideas/liberals-democrats/gun-control-democratic-delusion/
Thursday  8 October 2015 / Hour 4, Block C: Kathy Bromage, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer at The Hartford, in re: the fifth annual Small Business Success Study
 
Thursday  8 October 2015 / Hour 4, Block D:   Jed Babbin. Washington Times, in re: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/09/world/europe/russia-syria-intervention-nato.html
 
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