Photo, above: World War I, the bloodiest war in history till then as well as one of the most unnecessary, ended on Armistice Day on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, 11 November 1918.  Three years earlier, as troops suffered in frozen, wet, filthy trenches facing each other, on Christmas Eve, both the British and the German soldiers simply ceased firing at each other. Independently, each side began to sing Christmas carols – and then, hearing he strains from only  yards away, began to sing together.  By and by, they emerged from their underground mud and joined each other in Christmas songs and greetings.

From The Illustrated London News of January 9, 1915: "British and German Soldiers Arm-in-Arm Exchanging Headgear: A Christmas Truce between Opposing Trenches"

The Illustrated London News's illustration of the Christmas Truce: "British and German Soldiers Arm-in-Arm Exchanging Headgear: A Christmas Truce between Opposing Trenches" The subcaption reads "Saxons and Anglo-Saxons fraternising on the field of battle at the season of peace and goodwill: Officers and men from the German and British trenches meet and greet one another—A German officer photographing a group of foes and friends.  (German: Weihnachtsfrieden; French: Trêve de Noël)

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Co-host: Larry Kudlow, CNBC senior advisor; & Cumulus Media radio

Hour One

Tuesday  11 November 2014 / Hour 1, Block A:  Stephen Moore, chief economist, Heritage Foundation, in re: On Veterans' Day, today – also Armistice Day, the elventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month: My father is 93, served in WWII in the Pacific . . . in the elections, clear the American people get it: you can't print-money-your-way to prosperity.  Scott Walker is the GOP front-runner in the presidential campaign. This is his third victory for low-spend, low-tax platform – in Wisconsin, no less.  "Won more elections than the Bears have beat the Packers." Eke Susanna Martinez in New Mexico; John Kasich; Doug Ducey (founded the ice cream store).   Even the NYT wrote of cutting "middle-class" taxes.  Restoring growth could be the biggest challenge of our time. Our Milquetoast president.  Net neutrality would be a disaster, as the govt almost never gets it right.  "If you like your Internet, you can keep it." 

Tuesday  11 November 2014 / Hour 1, Block B: :  Stephen Moore, chief economist, Heritage Foundation, in re: Larry Kudlow's father, Irv Kudlow, served in WWII.  . . .  We need to repatriate about $2 trillion that's offshore [by reducing corporate taxes]; Pres Obama will object.  GOP should sell this on grounds that a drop in the corporate tax will benefit working people.  Helps salaries and benefits of the existing workforce – lower the corporate tax from 35% to 20%. The question is, can Pres Obama pull a Bill Clinton and move to the center?  Looks like no.  Looks as though he's an ideologue who won’t.  Put bills on his desk and let him veto. And then let Mrs Clinton offer her opinions. 

Tuesday  11 November 2014 / Hour 1, Block C: Bill Whalen, Hoover Institution, in re: Mr Boehner – GOP had 270 in 1948; now he has a bigger cushion; in 2018 and 2018, GOP probably locked in to a majority for the next several cycles.  . . . Georgia 12th, John Barrow lost – last Dem from the Deep South.  Low turnout across the country – 36.5%.  Maine 1 (Aroostook): Gov LePage won.   . . .  29 Secretaries of State in the US – will help control election fraud.  Over 4,000 GOP legislators.   . . .   Could draw a ring around the Great Lakes.   . . . Find me someone other than Elizabeth Warren who'll jump in the race and challenge Mrs Clinton.  . . .

Tuesday  11 November 2014 / Hour 1, Block D: Bill Whalen, Hoover Institution, in re: domestic politics, elections.

Hour Two

Tuesday  11 November 2014 / 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:  Pres Obama's negligence toward Russia.  The Ukrainian ceasefire – supposed to be coupled with negotiations, nowhere in evidence.   Donetsk airport is in complete ruins, bldgs occupied by both sides.  Airstrips destroyed, radar gone.  Fighting goes on almost like Stalingrad, room by room. Also Mariupl, on the sea, on the way to Crimea.  Also the entire city of Donetsk – two children in school jus tilled by [mortar?].  Hard to believe that rebels are shelling their own city, which strongly suggests the shelling is being done by Kiev.  . . .   Rebels redeploying heavy artillery, tanks, trucks . . .   Reporting is so biased, elliptical,  that we're reduced to speculation on what’s happening. 

Tuesday  11 November 2014 / Hour 2, Block B: Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus; in re:  No one n Moscow want a new cold war; all think it’s been forced on them by the West, so they're digging in to conduct one for decades to come.  The world has changed in front f our ayes – new political, economic, energy-based alliances.  Europe is splitting  in two.  The tendency we spoke of years ago comes to fruition: the Chinese-Russian entente. In fact, this is an historic change.  A fundamental shift in the nature of world politics.  . . .   BRICS.  Russia signed a deal today to sell six re nuclear reactors to Iran – a rich deal that further binds Iran to Russia. When you see Putin look confident, it’s a man who knows what cards he has to play and knows how to play them. 

 In China, Obama spars with Putin on Ukraine  The president spoke three times with the Russian leader, the White House confirmed. President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a brief chat Monday at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, but aides say the geopolitical adversaries didn't have time for a serious discussion. "They only had a brief encounter where they didn't have time to cover issues," a senior administration official said Monday, promising more information if the pair discussed specific topics later this week. The brief encounter comes after the two have clashed on a number of international issues in recent months, most notably Russia’s repeated incursions into Ukraine. Moscow has annexed Ukrainian territory and has . . .

Obama, Putin chat briefly at Asia summit  The White House signaled Tuesday that the latest round of Russia aid to separatists in Ukraine is likely to trigger another round of international sanctions against Russia, but President Barack Obama doesn’t plan to make the issue a focus of international economic summits he’s attending this week in Asia and Australia.  “We continued to be deeply troubled by Russia’s activities,” Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters traveling with Obama.

“We’ve seen the continued provision of support to separatists, including heavy weapons, that are in complete violation of the Minsk agreement,” he added, referring to a deal cut in September among Russia, Ukraine and two separatist groups.  The tension over Ukraine increased media interest in any contact between President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin as both men attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit here. A White House spokeswoman confirmed that . . .  (2 of 4)

Tuesday  11 November 2014 / Hour 2, Block C: Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus; in re: It takes a lot more than one generation to heal  civil war.  The man who’s credited with half of ending the old Cold War – Mikhail Gorbachev – looked deeply aggrieved at the renascence of this conflict.  After he lost power, two things mattered to him: he brought democracy to Russia, and he was the Russian who with Washington ended the Cold War.  He's new 83 and in poor health.   Had he not taken those steps, the old Cold War would probably continue; he watches as both of his legacies are going down the tubes: democracy is pretty well gone in Russia, and now the Cold War returns.  (How will he be seen in history?) UK not seeking cold war with Russia - David Cameron. The trio of Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev were the motivating figures to end the Cold War. I find it hard to take Cameron seriously; if he's pro-anything, it’s pro-Washington.   . . . Important US political figures: arming Kiev – this is the war party.  The most radical hawks in the Senate will probably take control: institutionalize and militarize the new cold war – in a way that risks hot war.  Are there Democrats who'll resist this?  Dunno.  HQ of the war party, probably Brussels and NATO.  Menendez, Corker.  . . . H.R.5190 - Ukraine Security Assistance Act of 2014, if passed, will be close to a declaration of war on Russia.

Interfax-Ukraine: Ukrainian prosecutor worried about volunteer battalions coming to Kiev with arms. / Human Rights in Ukraine: Disastrous Police Appointment (anent Kyiv police chief)

The Nation: Alec Luhn, Is Eastern Ukraine Becoming a People's Republic or Puppet State? Some reform-minded leaders in the Donetsk People's Republic want to create a socially oriented alternative to the oligarch-led government in Kiev - but will the Kremlin let them? (3 of 4)

Tuesday  11 November 2014 / Hour 2, Block D: Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus; in re: My analysis of how this all began, and so can be ended, is so radically different from what the American papers say – I think this began with unwise Western encroachments on Russian's boundaries, and Putin don’t want [a fight], but Putin will defend as he considers necessary.  To end, to stop this new cold war the possibility lies first in Washington. Also Kiev –which we call a democracy, but it isn’t; the rightist fighters are now threatening Poroshenko with removal if he [calms the fight]. Only Obama has the power to reverse this – we broke Kiev and, in Gen Powell's words, we own it. Pres Obama has no inclination to slow this down. We have Putin – the equivalent of Gorbachev in 1990 - who doesn't want this; and Merkel, as Thatcher, who doesn’t want this; what we don't have is the American equivalent of Reagan.  It was Poland, Swedes, and __ who invented__ Partnership to bring Ukraine to NATO by a back door.  Washington controls the IMF, NATO, and Kiev. If the White House decides the dangers are now too great and all this vilification of Putin, most of which is nonsense, has gone too far,  then the bargaining partners are in place with Merkel and Putin.  Recall that Reagan was denounced by his own party.  (4 of 4)

Hour Three

Tuesday  11 November 2014 / Hour 3, Block A:   Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review & Pirates fan, in re: Scott Walker. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/11/09/wisconsin_becomes_2016s_ohio_124613.html

In late summer, as national media reported that Republican Scott Walker would “finally” lose the Wisconsin governor's mansion in November, a man and two women paraded through the state capital campus with homemade pro-union signs, warning Walker's days in power were numbered.

Three months and a six-point margin of victory later, Walker is heading back to his state job. And Wisconsin has proven, unforeseen by Washington, that when it comes to the 2016 presidential election, it is the “new” Ohio.

Tuesday  11 November 2014 / Hour 3, Block B:  Michael Ledeen, FDD, in re: Pres Obama's Iran deal; http://bit.ly/1uUq5Ce

Tuesday  11 November 2014 / Hour 3, Block C:   Avik Roy, Forbes.com, & Manhattan Institute, in re:  Obamacare swindlers

Tuesday  11 November 2014 / Hour 3, Block D:   Coral Davenport, in re:

Hour Four

Tuesday  11 November 2014 / Hour 4, Block A: The Long Shadow: The Legacies of the Great War in the Twentieth Century, by David Reynolds (1 of 4)

Tuesday  11 November 2014 / Hour 4, Block B: The Long Shadow: The Legacies of the Great War in the Twentieth Century, by David Reynolds (2 of 4)

Tuesday  11 November 2014 / Hour 4, Block C: The Long Shadow: The Legacies of the Great War in the Twentieth Century, by David Reynolds (3 of 4)

Tuesday  11 November 2014 / Hour 4, Block D: The Long Shadow: The Legacies of the Great War in the Twentieth Century, by David Reynolds (4 of 4)

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