The John Batchelor Show

Tuesday 10 February 2015

Air Date: 
February 10, 2015

Image, left: Transdniestria coat of arms
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Larry Kudlow, CNBC senior advisor; & Cumulus Media radio
 
Hour One
Tuesday  10 February 2015  / Hour 1, Block A:  Bill Whalen, Hoover Institution, in re: Anent Brian Williams, I've been saying, "Give him the benefit of the doubt." However, the facts re most regrettable and I'm disappointed. As for he jobs number, you can’t get around the fact that the economy is doing better.  Day at the Races: "Barack Obama, the Ronald Reagan of the Democrats."?  Oops – first, it’s a weak recovery; second, Reagan influenced the GOP in ways tha t Mr Obama is not influencing the Democratic Party, now or for the future.   Reagan always spoke of take-home pay.   After 67 mos, we have 9+ million jobs; Reagan at the same point had created 16 million; further, Reagan was a giant in foreign policy in having brought down the USSR, while Mr Obama's policies are awful.
Tuesday  10 February 2015  / Hour 1, Block B: Bill Whalen, Hoover Institution, in re: Going in to inner cities, speaking to the rich and the poor, is a renascence of Jack Kemp.  Jeb Bush is a Jack Kemp Republican.  Gov Walker of Wisconsin: brash, nothing milquetoast.  He fed conservative red meat in Iowa – guns, right to life, eet al. He's still a provincial candidate; not clear what natl appeal he has.  LK: Art Laffer, Steve Moore and I have loosed the Committee to Unleash American Prosperity.  We'll ask each candidate, "What is your message?"  Low tax rate, deregulation sound money – these are fundamentals for Ric Perry. Also, he was n re Air Force flying C130 cargo planes around the world, so foreign policy will play a role in this race.  Ric Perry's problem is Scott Walker, although Jeb Bush has gone in to Texas to take some of his money.  Henry Kissinger will support Jeb Bush.  Younger Millennials and GenXers want a new model. 
Tuesday  10 February 2015  / Hour 1, Block C: Bill Whalen, Hoover Institution, in re:  John Podesta . . .  Carly Fiorina, "Oh yes, I'm a free-market capitalist" [much mirth].  Mrs Clinton. The Sandinista wing of the Democratic Party wants all US soldiers pulled out of everywhere, no concern for ISIS.  Mrs Clinton has a chance if she has a weak opponent; it’s hard to turn the clock back fourteen years, and she simply hasn’t made herself very likable. 
Tuesday  10 February 2015  / Hour 1, Block D: Larry Kudlow, CNBC senior advisor; & Cumulus Media radio; in re:
Hour Two
Tuesday  10 February 2015  / Hour 2, Block A: Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus; author: Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War, & The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag after Stalin; in re:
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  February 10, 2015    Readout of the President's Call with President Putin of Russia
President Obama today called President Vladimir Putin of Russia to address the escalating violence in eastern Ukraine and Russia’s ongoing support for the separatists there. President Obama reiterated America’s support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. President Obama underscored the rising human toll of the fighting and underscored the importance of President Putin seizing the opportunity presented by the ongoing discussions between Russia, France,  Germany, and Ukraine to reach a peaceful resolution. The President emphasized the importance of reaching and implementing a negotiated settlement underpinned by the commitments in the Minsk agreement. However, if Russia continues its aggressive actions in Ukraine, including by sending troops, weapons, and financing to support the separatists, the costs for Russia will rise.
Tuesday  10 February 2015  / Hour 2, Block B: Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus (2 of 4), in re: http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2015/02/09/Ukraines-Second-Front-Obama-and-Kerry-Are-Now-War-Europe
http://www.wsj.com/articles/ukraine-forces-launch-offensive-near-port-of...
Tuesday  10 February 2015  / Hour 2, Block C: Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus (3 of 4); in re: http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-02-08/lavrov-s-comedy-routine...
Tuesday  10 February 2015  / Hour 2, Block D: Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus (4 of 4). 
Hour Three
Tuesday  10 February 2015  / Hour 3, Block A:   Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review & Pirates fan, in re: Scott Walker opens office in Iowa ; Scott Walker must clarify his immigration stance, critics sayhttp://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/02/08/extreme-left_dems_pushing_middle_america_away_125529.html
Tuesday  10 February 2015  / Hour 3, Block B:  David Hawkings, Roll Call/CQ, in re: Not often do a congressman and an anchorman see their careers simultaneously lurching onto parallel and perilous tracks. But that’s one way of looking at what’s happening with Aaron Schock and Brian Williams.
The situations facing both the Republican House member from Illinois and the face of NBC Nightly News appear strikingly similar in many ways. Read more / t.
Tuesday  10 February 2015  / Hour 3, Block C:   Peter Berkowitz, Hoover & Real Clear Politics, in re: "Why the Left Casts a Blind Eye on Radical Islam,"
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/02/07/why_the_left_casts_a_blind_eye_on_radical_islam_125522.html
Tuesday  10 February 2015  / Hour 3, Block D:  Jed Babbin, American Spectator, in re: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/9/jed-babbin-obamas-national-security-strategy-wont-/
Hour Four
Tuesday  10 February 2015  / Hour 4, Block A:  Terry Anderson, PERC Montana & Hoover (John and Jean DeNault Senior Fellow & William A. Dunn Distinguished Senior Fellow), in re: Free Market Environmentalism for the Next Generation   Environmental legislation including the Wilderness Act, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act, to mention a few, were the hallmark of environmentalism in the 1960s and 1970s. They all reflected a command-and-control mentality aimed at correcting the perceived tendency of capitalism to run ruff shod over the environment. With children’ eyes burning from smog in Los Angeles, bald eagles' heading toward extinction, and the Cuyahoga River burning, it was easy to muster political support for these laws. . . .
Tuesday  10 February 2015  / Hour 4, Block B:  Josh Rogin, Bloomberg View, in re: “The president has to deliver Democrat votes on this and he has to show a commitment,” the senior Republican Senate aide said. “He’s actually got to prosecute the fight to get this thing passed. If he doesn’t demonstrate that he actually wants this, you might see Republicans walk.”  Obama's Islamic State war authorization limits US ground forces.
Tuesday  10 February 2015  / Hour 4, Block C: Sohrab Ahmari, WSJ London, in re: The View from NATO’s Russian Front.  The Army commander in Europe on Putin’s new way of war, Russia’s growing arsenal, and coping with U.S. military budget cuts.   In Wiesbaden, Germany:   ‘I believe the Russians are mobilizing right now for a war that they think is going to happen in five or six years—'  The Russians have “got some forces in Transdnistria,” he says of the state that broke away from Moldova in the 1990s. “They’ve got forces in Georgia. And I think they view China as their existential threat, so they’ve got a lot of capacity out there.” The Russian military is thus already somewhat stretched, and Moscow had to carve out from existing units the battalion task groups currently arrayed near eastern Ukraine. Yet “they are clearly on a path to develop, to increase, their capacity,” Gen. Hodges says. Add to this expansion that “they’ve got very good equipment, extremely good communications equipment, their [electronic-warfare] capability, T-80 tanks.” How long will it take for Russia to reach its desired military strength? “I think within another two or three years they will have that capacity,” he says.
Tuesday  10 February 2015  / Hour 4, Block D:   Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re:  Dragon returns to Earth safely   After 29 days in space, Dragon returned safely to Earth today, splashing down in the Pacific. NASA safety panel questions safety of SLS   NASA’s safety panel has issued a report questioning the safety of the early launches of the Space Launch System (SLS), partly due to the very low launch rate and the lack of any planned unmanned test flights for the rocket’s upper stage engine.
“The ASAP and the Agency remain concerned about risks introduced in the currently scheduled frequency of SLS/Orion launches, ” according to ASAP’s 2014 Annual Report. “The plan indicates a launch about every 2 to 4 years. This would challenge ground crew competency. The skills, procedures, and knowledge of conducting the launch, mission, and recovery are perish-able. The ASAP believes that an extended interval requires the relearning of many lessons and skills, in contrast to Apollo and Shuttle, which had a relatively steady cadence.”
No space project can accomplish anything with launch rate this slow. Not only does this increase the risk that inexperience will cause errors, the long time gaps make it difficult for the project to get anything done. And then there's NASA’s idea that it can put humans on this rocket without any previous launch testing of the rocket’s upper stage or the capsule’s life support systems. Why should NASA’s rocket get a pass on this kind of testing when the agency is demanding that the private companies do it?
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