Photo, left: 
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents.
 
Hour One
Thursday  8 September 2016 / Hour 1, Block A: David Feith, WSJ Hong Kong, in re:  As Pres Obama arrives at G20, aggressive snub by China at airport; then Pres Duterte of Philippines curses Pres Obama with crude insult (“son of a whore”), as Duterte is cousining up to China.   Problems over the horizon: East Asia everywhere is trying to figure out how to relate to the US, and then what sort of relations with China.  South Korea and Japan, inter al., could badly lose face with too-strong dependency on the US as the US allows its navy to dwindle to inefficient levels. 
Keeping America’s Asian Allies Onside  Crude insults from the Philippines’ leader won’t be the only headache faced by the next U.S. president.
Thursday  8 September 2016 / Hour 1, Block B:  Josh Rogin,   Trump campaign’s policy shop in Washington: Dearborn, et al. . .  . Currently has a skeleton staff of volunteers, with a few people who call in.  The people there feel ignored and neglected, have concluded that the candidate is not interested in policy/.  Had to sign nondisclosure agreements (from New YOK office, which promised to pay the staff in a vague way.  They worked hundred-hour weeks; a few were taken to New York to paid jobs; they now write speeches, etc.   Currently, however, those volunteers left in D.C., unpaid and not working there any more, are talking – at risk of being sued by Trump, who’s “the most litigious person alive.”  Active fear of suits has been most chilling — Sam Nunberg has been sued for $10 million.
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China Intimidates Asia. Trump Campaign Workers Unpaid & Gagged. @DavidFeith, WSJ.com. @JoshRogin, WashingtonPost.com.   /  Keeping America’s Asian Allies Onside  Crude insults from the Philippines’ leader won’t be the only headache faced by the next U.S. president.  http://www.wsj.com/articles/keeping-americas-asian-allies-onside-1473267172
Since April, advisers never named in campaign press releases have been working in an Alexandria-based office, writing policy memos, organizing briefings, managing surrogates and placing op-eds. They put in long hours before and during the Republican National Convention to help the campaign look like a professional operation.
But in August, shortly after the convention, most of the policy shop’s most active staffers quit. Although they signed non-disclosure agreements, several of them told me on background that the Trump policy effort has been a mess from start to finish.
“It’s a complete disaster,” one disgruntled former adviser told me. “They use and abuse people. The policy office fell apart in August when the promised checks weren’t delivered.”
Three former members, all of whom quit in August, told me that as early as April they were promised financial compensation but were later told that they would have to work as volunteers. They say the leaders of the shop, Rick Dearborn and John Mashburn, told many staffers that money was on the way but then were unable to deliver. Dearborn is Sen. Jeff Sessions’s (R-Ala.) chief of staff, while Mashburn is the former chief of staff for Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C).  
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/josh-rogin/wp/2016/09/08/inside-the-collapse-of-trumps-d-c-policy-shop/
Thursday  8 September 2016 / Hour 1, Block C: Robert Zimmerman, behind the black, in re: Titan. Comet 67B.   Trekkies at 50.  Bob Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com
Atlas 5 successfully launches OSIRIS-Rex   A ULA Atlas 5 rocket today successfully launched the U.S.’s asteroid sample return mission, OSIRIS-Rex.
http://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/atlas-5-successfully-launches-osiris-rex/
The technology of Star Trek   On this, the fiftieth anniversary of the first airing of the first Star Trek episode, here is a fascinating look at the fictional technology of the series.
I remember that Thursday evening fifty years ago very well. As a teenager I had been suffering for years watching very bad and stupid television science fiction, like Lost in Space, written as if its audiences were five year old children and thus insulting them. Still, as an avid reader of science fiction that knew the genre was sophisticated and intelligent, I held onto the hope that some new science fiction show might finally do something akin to this.
Star Trek did this and more. That first episode had all the best elements of good drama and great science fiction: a mystery, an alien, a tragic figure, and an ancient lost civilization. From that moment until the series was cancelled, I would be glued to my television set when it aired.
You can watch that first episode if you wish, though with commercials. Click on the first link above to do so. In watching it recently when Diane and I decided to rent the original series from Netflix and watch them again, I was surprised how well this episode, as well as the entire first series, has stood up over time. It is not dated. Its drama remains as good. And you know, the writing is sometimes quite stellar, to coin a phrase.    http://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/the-tec...
Sounds: Recoded from Jupiter by Juno, and some of the soundtrack from Forbidden Planet.
Thursday  8 September 2016 / Hour 1, Block D: Robert Zimmerman, behind the black, in re: NASA’s Orion program: major budget delays and tech problems. Inching their war to announcement that the flight will be delayed from 2021 to 2023 – NASA will have taken twenty years to launch one capsule. Private enterprise will have launched  a dozen missions for half the money.  .  Gobbledegook abut future missions, fro which Congress has allocated no money. 
Pascal Jaussi, head of Swiss Space Systems, zero-gravity flights ; plans for private space. Jaussi was kidnapped in late August, taken to a forest and set on fire! For extortion? Personal/ Competition in the space industry?   Very unhappy tale.  / Blue Origin pouring concrete for its Cape Canaveral factory; will remodel and use two different launch pads for orbital flights.  . . . In fifty more years, I look forward to the launch of the Starship Enterprise.    
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Swiss space firm boss left badly injured in violent attack   The founder and CEO of a Swiss space technology firm, who previously received threats against him, is in hospital with serious injuries after a vicious attack.
Pascal Jaussi, 40, who heads Swiss Space Systems (S3), was beaten up and set on fire by two unknown perpetrators on August 26th in a forest in the canton of Fribourg, reported the Tribune de Genève on Monday.
News of the attack was not released until his condition improved, said the paper. The CEO’s life is now out of danger but he remains in a serious condition in hospital, it said.
The entrepreneur was found near his vehicle and transported to Lausanne’s CHUV hospital with burns on 25 percent of his body.
According to the paper’s sources, Jaussi was forced to drive his car into a forest, where he was doused in petrol and set on fire. He managed to get himself out of the vehicle and call a friend, who alerted emergency services.
Fribourg police confirmed to the paper they were investigating the case.
According to the Tribune, Jaussi had been in touch with police in recent months after receiving threats related to his work at the company.  . . .
 
Hour Two
Thursday  8 September 2016 / Hour 2, Block A:  Congressman Ted Deutch  (FL-21), House Foreign Affairs Committee; in re:  Kremlin, Palestinians, Mahmoud Abbas, the peace scenario. Russians invite Abbas and Netanyahu to go to Moscow, Netanyahu accepted then Abbas suddenly imposed restrictions & preconditions.  House Foreign Affairs Committee favors (?) finalization of a new, long-term MOU to show US unconditional commitment to Israel, which would be very helpful.   Syria: chlorine gas attack, injuring many, esp children, by Assad regime and supported by Russia.  Abbas was a KGB agent in Syria?  (And the president of Russia spent his entire professional life in the KGB.)  PLO was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Russia during those years.  Repeated harassment of US ships in Persian Gulf by Russia – why do we let this continue??  Whole world sees US as impotent.  /  US can remind Iran that all sorts of behavior not mentioned in the Iran deal still is not acceptable.  Russians now much discussed in US presidential campaigns. Will Congress pass addtl sanctions?  Chances of doing something are high and we must continue to press Iran to release Bob Levinson, who’s been missing for 9-1/2 years.
US-Israel relations. Syria peace talks.  The $400 million that looked like a ransom. 
Thursday  8 September 2016 / Hour 2, Block B:  One Gordon Chang, Daily Beast, in re: DPRK missile launch?  5.3 earthquake seismology in Pyongyang: consonant with a missile test.   USGS said: artificial.   Yonhap: An explosion – 20 to 30 kilotons. North Korea making a lot of progress. Significance is that it occurs three days after DPRK nuclear envoy visited Beijing; would never test now unless China approved.  Pyongyang, capital of a predatory rogue state, is furious at South Korea’s Terminal High-Altitude Defense/THAD.  NoDong tests during the G20 – that did embarrass China. 
 Two  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Sunni-Shiite Middle East rivalry and hatred. Last  year at the hajj: a stampede and tragedy; Iran has used this to speak ill f Saudis, have called for internationalizing control over the two hold cities.  US needs to study and watch the effort to amplify bad relations.  Supreme Leader called Saudis incompetent; Saudis said Iranians are not Moslems! Head of Iraq’s Hezbollah will visit Iran tomorrow.  There could be a simple spark that will set this all off. Sons of the Prophet: moving troops into southern Syria to challenge rebels” in Kunetra.
Thursday  8 September 2016 / Hour 2, Block C:  Jay Solomon, author, The Iran Wars; chief foreign affairs correspondent for the WSJ; in re: Iran. Money. Vienna talks lasted for weeks, then Major-General Soleimani went to Moscow to finalize joint mil ops, Russia, Iran, Assad, to assure Assad’s rule.  Iranian chief foreign affairs advisor met in . . .   Rebels ready to cut out access by Assad to Med, which would have choked the regime.  Russia sent air power Iran sent IRGC soldiers; mobilize Shia militias around the Middle East, so far: successful.  Now besieging Aleppo, very horrible.  However, none of the parties wanted a peace deal of any sort. Washington has always held that Iran deal and Syrian talks were entirely separate – but now insiders here say that Iran would never have gone along if that had been true.  Can see Pres Obama backing off his hard line anent Assad; wrote a secret letter to Khamenei: “We’re launching strikes in Syria but not against Assad.”  US now has no leverage in the region.  True that the US never understood Iran’s broader aspirations?  Yes, disconnect.  In Lausanne, Iran’s worldly diplomats were not calling the shots; Ayatollah and Revolutionary Guards in char while Rouhani was not. Khamenei is 77 and a wild card; but in the Gulf IRGC harasses US ships. Signal as Obama leaves office: the revolution continues   (1 of 2)
Thursday  8 September 2016 / Hour 2, Block D:  Jay Solomon, author, The Iran Wars; chief foreign affairs correspondent for the WSJ; in re: Iran. Money. What does Pres Obama aim to achieve with this decidedly nontransparent Iran deal? What does he say it was for? They really believe that it averted another war in the Middle East.  They they think that when the Supreme Leader leaves it’ll open the door to a [better society].   The ransom:  sanctions on ran in some form have been in place since 1979; the harsh ones began n 2012 – oil embargo, and closure of SWIF network to Iran.  Iran was reduced to barter.  Stuxnet was a problem, but sanctions were seen as an existential threat.  The $400 mil + $1.7 bil: paid in cash! Prisoner exchange of 5 Americans for 14 Iranians, along with $1.7 bil from a 1979 arms deal with the shah that never occurred.  American hostages sitting on  tarmac in Iran, not allowed to leave till wheels up of cash plane in Geneva.  White House says “We know this cash was used for economic, not military, uses.”  However could you know?”  -- And did anyone think to mark the bills?? (2 of 2)
 
Hour Three
Thursday  8 September 2016 / Hour 3, Block A:  Behnam ben Taleblu, FDD, in re: the S-300, and Iranian satellites. Why deploy the S-300 to Fordow, which is underground and impermeable to bunker-busters?  Propaganda reason and one about nuclear intentions. Fordow supposed not to have any uranium for the next 15 years – but why deploy there? S-300 is in three parts: command truck plus radar truck, plus a silo to fire missiles at targets.  Iran wants to launch three satellites next year—same technology as for missile launches.  Iran’s ballistic missiles are surprising similar to NoDong (North Korea) and Teheran is in close contact with DPRK.   In 2012 . . . Strategic relationship dates back to the Iran-Iraq war; Khamenei visited North Korea and China before returning to Iran and staying put for next thirty ears.  Iranian resolve strengthened by US [irresolve].   Lack of Western or US resolve. One bad deal begets anther. JCPOA inking last summer, and down the slippery slope, Europe is absent but also mercantilist policy, esp France, Germany Italy; three Iranian banks want to open in Germany.  Iranian proliferation . . .
Thursday  8 September 2016 / Hour 3, Block B: Pinhas Inbari, Palestinian affairs correspondent; in re: the cancelled Palestinian elections:  what did they gain with on-again/off-again?  Or evidence of dysfunction in Palestine and they no longer want to be a democracy?  It was Abu Mazen’s personal decision; Fatah was surprised, did not understand the point? Everyone guessed it was another blame game by Hamas.  Surprise that Hamas accepted. In the West Bank: Nablus is in total anarchy now, and Hebron is closer to Jordan. Best outcome for Fatah wd be: Hamas keeps Gaza and Fatah keeps West Bank, so elimination of elections is their best decision  Abu Mazen’s positions enigmatic: he’s out of Ramallah on a state visit to Poland till Sunday, then  . . .  He holds that France is not serious about its initiative.  But Egypt, Saudis and Jordan demanded that the elections not continue: he opened the door to Hamas to enter the Wet Bank. Even Iran is supporting some radical lists so Abu Mazen gives Iran a chance o enter the West Bank, which angered Arabs.  Abbas as a long-term agent of the KGB.  The Hamas budget.
Thursday  8 September 2016 / Hour 3, Block C: Paul C. Stern,  National Academy of Science, in re:   The challenge of climate-change neoskepticism, by Paul C. Stern, John H. Perkins, Richard E. Sparks,  Robert A. Knox. http://science.sciencemag.org/content/353/6300/653.full    Opponents of policies to limit anthropogenic climate change (ACC) have offered a changing set of arguments—denying or questioning ACC's existence, magnitude, and rate of progress, the risks it presents, the integrity of climate scientists, and the value of mitigation efforts (1). Similar arguments have characterized environmental risk debates concerning arsenical insecticides in the late 1800s (2), phosphates in detergents in the 1960s (3), and the pesticide DDT in the 1960s and '70s (4). Typically, defenders of business as usual first question the scientific evidence that risks exist; then, they question the magnitude of the risks and assert that reducing them has more costs than benefits. A parallel rhetorical shift away from outright skepticism (5–7) led us to identify “neoskepticism” as a new incarnation of opposition to major efforts to limit ACC (8). This shift heightens the need for science to inform decision making under uncertainty and to improve communication and education. (1 of 2)
Thursday  8 September 2016 / Hour 3, Block D:  Paul C. Stern,  Nationl Academy of Scence, in re:   The challenge of climate-change neoskepticism, by Paul C. Stern, John H. Perkins, Richard E. Sparks,  Robert A. Knox. http://science.sciencemag.org/content/353/6300/653.full     Opponents of policies to limit anthropogenic climate change (ACC) have offered a changing set of arguments—denying or questioning ACC's existence, magnitude, and rate of progress, the risks it presents, the integrity of climate scientists, and the value of mitigation efforts (1). Similar arguments have characterized environmental risk debates concerning arsenical insecticides in the late 1800s (2), phosphates in detergents in the 1960s (3), and the pesticide DDT in the 1960s and '70s (4). Typically, defenders of business as usual first question the scientific evidence that risks exist; then, they question the magnitude of the risks and assert that reducing them has more costs than benefits. A parallel rhetorical shift away from outright skepticism (5–7) led us to identify “neoskepticism” as a new incarnation of opposition to major efforts to limit ACC (8). This shift heightens the need for science to inform decision making under uncertainty and to improve communication and education. (2 of 2)
  
Hour Four
Thursday  8 September 2016 / Hour 4, Block A:   September Hope: The American Side of a Bridge Too Far, by John C. McManus.       “In September Hope, acclaimed historian John C. McManus explores World War II’s most ambitious invasion, an immense, daring offensive to defeat Nazi Germany before the end of 1944. Operation Market-Garden is one of the war’s most famous, but least understood, battles, and McManus tells the story of the American contribution to this crucial phase of the war in Europe.
August 1944 saw the Allies achieve more significant victories than in any other month over the course of the war. Soviet armies annihilated more than twenty German divisions and pushed the hated enemy from Russia to deep inside Poland. General Eisenhower’s D-Day Invasion led to the liberation of France. Encouraged by these triumphs, British, Canadian and American armored columns plunged into Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg. The Germans were in disarray, overwhelmed on all fronts, losing soldiers by the thousands as Allied bombers pulverized their cities. For the Third Reich it seemed the end was near. Rumors swirled that the war would soon be over and that everyone would be home for Christmas.
Then came September, and Holland.
On September 17, the largest airborne drop in military history commenced—including two entire American divisions, the 101st and the 82nd. Their mission was to secure key bridges at such places as Son, Eindhoven, Grave and Nijmegen until British armored forces could relieve them. The armor would slash northeast, breech the Rhine and go wild on the north German plains. However, the Germans were much stronger than the Allies anticipated. In eight days of ferocious combat, they mauled the airborne, stymied the tanks and prevented the Allies from crossing the Rhine.
 For the first time, using never-before-seen sources and countless personal interviews, September Hope reveals the American perspective on one of the most famous and decisive battles of World War II.”  (1 of 4)
https://www.amazon.com/September-Hope-American-Side-Bridge/dp/0451237064...
 
Thursday  8 September 2016 / Hour 4, Block B:  September Hope: The American Side of a Bridge Too Far, by John C. McManus.  (2 of 4)    
Thursday  8 September 2016 / Hour 4, Block C:  September Hope: The American Side of a Bridge Too Far, by John C. McManus.  (3 of 4)    
Thursday  8 September 2016 / Hour 4, Block D:  September Hope: The American Side of a Bridge Too Far, by John C. McManus.   (4 of 4)     
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