Painting, left, by John Rogers Herbert depicts a particularly controversial speech before the Assembly by Philip Nye against presbyterian church government.
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Larry Kudlow, CNBC senior advisor; & Cumulus Media radio
 
Hour One
Tuesday  12 May 2015  / Hour 1, Block A: Sudeep Reddy, WSJ economics editor, Washington, in re:  all Democrats voted against the TPP, against their own president. Politics are strange: trade is a tough sell - Dem unions fear losing jobs; history dictates that free trade is good for growth [i.e., rich people’s growth]. China isn’t in the TPP.  Tariff reductions are like tax cuts. If you tax the whole economy less, consumer prices go down and exports increase. People’s reactions to TPP connect to their understanding of NAFTA and other trade mechanisms. Eventually, Senate will find a way to package this is a way more attractive to constituents. Note arm-wrestling between Elizabeth Warren and Pres Obama, perhaps soon also Mrs Clinton. President has been representing TPP as a growth potential – which may be accurate in the long run, since open markets and trade tend to benefit the world, but in the short run, workers in plants see that they’ve lost their livelihood to East Asia, inter al. LK:  Real incomes with the Reagan-Canada deal: states show that mfg exports are at record highs.  I think Pres Obama is doing a sloppy job of introducing the TPP.
Tuesday  12 May 2015  / Hour 1, Block B:    Sudeep Reddy, WSJ economics editor, Washington, in re:   Jobs report, the economy and the numbers http://blogs.wsj.com/briefly/2015/05/08/april-jobs-report-the-numbers/
U.S. Posts Biggest Monthly Budget Surplus in Seven Years  Tax receipts surged in April to generate the largest monthly U.S. budget surplus in seven years, a sign that deficits could decline more than analysts had expected amid a continuing economic expansion.
Tuesday  12 May 2015  / Hour 1, Block C: Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post, in re:  You need a scorecard: WH perspective: in the seventh year of a a presidency, hourglass running out, lame-duckism writ large; can he overcome this in the TPP?  Next, within the Dem Party, people have lurched left and continue to; it has an “inevitable” nominee who remains silent – she doesn’t know how to deal with the shift in the Party and she reacted with an excess of caution. Third, is Mitch McConnell going to put this puzzle back together gain for economic growth, repairing relations with allies, et al. Can he negotiate some tweaks to satisfy liberals. Does he want to? (Probably  yes. He’s on a streak demonstrating the _______ an govern.)  Note that Pres Obama has bashed Elizabeth Warren – is trashing her daily. He’s been doing this to GOP for years – demeans, disparages, dismisses, doesn’t listen.  He’s thin-skinned, prickly; if you disagree wit him, yre ou’evil, or fill in the blank. Looked as though TPP began with Pres Obama’s embassy to East Asia: a trade deal with ROK and the TPP at the same time. Also, he’s desperate to have one foreign policy success.  Does he president now have a library and foundation to build so will welcome overseas donations. Jeb Bush waffles on his independence from his father’s thinking; he doesn’t inspire confidence, is not as sharp, focussed, disciplined as are some other candidates.  He also botched the Common Core question. If Obama loses the trade deal, what of the Iranian deal?  Maybe the Congress is starting to flex some of its atrophied muscles, may thus not accept the dreadful (proposed) Iran deal.
Tuesday  12 May 2015  / Hour 1, Block D: Dennis Berman, WSJ business editor, The Game, in re: Verizon offers to buy aol, an ancient good idea that failed, bought by Time Warner, failed again .  Bought today by Verizon.  AOL today is a random collection of data collectors online.  Still gets hundreds of millions a year from dial-up, but that’s secondary.  Verizon is a dumb pipeline provider in a highly –regulated in  Growth of wifi-only networks, will get better. Republic Wireless is imitated by Google – switches connection priority; huge threat to Verizon, Note Verizon and Google launching blimps of [transmission] eqpt Your current $70/month for wifi is no longer assure 2015-05-12o the providors.  Content: people want a la carte. FCC has given us Net neutrality.  You pay for 2 Gig of data download but few use that much.  You overpay for what you don't use – which makes it profitable,
 
Hour Two
Tuesday  12 May 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: John Kerry went to Sochi where the Russians smiled. 
“It's NATO’s opinion that war could break out in easten Ukraine at any moment.” One voice wants a military showdown with Russia; has an info agency out of Brussels NATO and DC; on the other side, group led by Merkel that brokered a February agreement that was mostly a ceasefire.   War faction sees the underlying cause as Russian aggression. Minsk, the Normandy Format, see the cause as a Ukrainian civil war requiring negotiation.  . . .  On 10 May Merkel went to Moscow, said again, “There’s no military solution.” Kerry has now aligned himself, advertently or not, with the no-military side.  The Kerry trip to Sochi to meet Lavrov was a given; not initially sure that Putin would step down in rank and meet with Kerry. Something was agreed between Merkel and Putin. 
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/john-kerry-sanctions-relief-russia...
http://www.wsj.com/articles/nato-chief-jens-stoltenberg-says-russia-has-...
Tuesday  12 May 2015  / Hour 2, Block B: Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus, in re:
1.  John Kerry in Sochi for a few hours.   http://www.wsj.com/articles/kerry-arrives-in-russia-for-first-direct-talks-with-putin-in-two-years-1431416574   Mr. Kerry will spend several hours in Sochi on Tuesday before heading to Antalya, Turkey, for a Wednesday meeting with foreign ministers of North Atlantic Treaty Organization nations. Mr. Kerry will also meet with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. 1a.  Kerry meets Putin in Russia The West accuses Russia of arming rebels in eastern Ukraineand sending troops there ...  Mr Kerry and Mr Lavrov laid wreaths at a World War Two memorial earlier on Tuesday.   State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said Mr Kerry's trip was "part of our ongoing effort to maintain direct lines of communication with senior Russian officials and to ensure US views are clearly conveyed"     1b.  Boris Nemtsov report alleging 220 RU soldiers KIA in Ukraine. The visit came on the same day that opposition activists published a report, originally compiled by murdered Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov, alleging that 220 Russian soldiers had died in two key battles in eastern Ukraine.
2.  NATO Stoltenberg accusing and warning. NATO Chief Jens Stoltenberg Says Russia Has Violated Ukraine ...  The cease-fire agreement in eastern Ukraine is being routinely ... NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance is ...   Mr. Stoltenberg added that Russia has continued to provide Ukrainian separatists with heavy weapons, artillery, training, and personnel. “That is also a blatant violation” of the agreement signed in mid-February, he said.  Russian authorities—who deny providing aid or troops to the rebels in Ukraine—agree the cease-fire is being routinely violated. But they blame the Ukrainian government in Kiev, asserting that most civilian casualties have been on the separatist side.  “This is the answer to the question as to who is bombing, or is aiming, at whom,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said recently.
2a  Kaliningrad and NATO  Putin's Tanks Draw Cheers in Russian City Jammed Between NATO Nations. . . . the Kaliningrad region found itself wedged between two EU and NATO countries—Poland.   . . . Tanks and ballistic missiles lumbered past thousands of spectators gathered in Kaliningrad on Saturday to mark the 70th anniversary of the Allied victory in Europe, an historic triumph for Russia that the Kremlin has used to whip up a new nationalist fervor.
4.  Angel Merkel and Sanctions  This visit comes two days after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the annexation of Crimea had caused "a serious setback in our relations" during a joint press conference with Mr Putin in Moscow. In the Kremlin's official translation of her comments, the word "criminal" was deleted from her description of the annexation. The German leader has already said that the EU plans to extend sanctions against Russia, unless there is progress on implementing the Minsk peace deal for Ukraine in full.
4.  Marco Rubio recommends Ukraine join NATO    http://hotair.com/archives/2015/05/08/marco-rubio-ukraine-should-be-allowed-to-join-nato/
[W]e must enlarge NATO. Allies need to overcome the roadblocks to enlargement before the next NATO summit — including by inviting Montenegro to join the alliance — and to reaffirm that the open door policy is still intact and applies to any NATO aspirant, including Ukraine if it so chooses. Forged during the effort to bind postwar Europe together and to America, and proven through decades of the East-West conflict, NATO remains central to our security.
5.  RFL/RFE attacks Cohen.  Why? Why now?   http://www.rferl.org/content/stephen-cohen-us-scholar-controversial-putin-apologist/26997584.html  ; http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32705610    (2 of 4)
Tuesday  12 May 2015  / Hour 2, Block C:  Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus (3 of 4)  The enormous May 9 parade, seventieth anniversary of the end of World War II, the Great Patriotic War. The Immortals.  . . . Putin has signed a deal with Turkey to make it a hub for O&G.  Putin has said to Greece: if he EU doesn’t want you, we’ll give you loans transit fees – and end our sanctions on Greek agriculture. After WWII, the USSR put up an Iron Curtain to keep the rest of the world out.  In the last fourteen months, despite all, we see Russia leaving the West – it's been kicked out.   Marco Rubio: Ukraine should be allowed to join NATO « Hot ...  . . . Is this an ominous preview of what Rubio would do as president or just rhetorical . . .   (3 of 4)
Tuesday  12 May 2015  / Hour 2, Block D:  Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus  (4 of 4)
 
Hour Three
Tuesday  12 May 2015  / Hour 3, Block A: Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review & Pirates fan, in re:   CLICK HERE FOR LINK  More and more Americans are worried that life will worsen for the next generation, so a central issue in the 2016 presidential election will be “reigniting the promise of America,” according to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.  And to win the White House, Republicans need to mobilize conservatives who have not voted in recent elections, Cruz told the Tribune-Review. People who were “uninspired or unmotivated to show up for either party” across the Midwest and New England — including evangelical Christians, Reagan Democrats, independents and women — are important for the party to court, he said.
CLICK HERE FOR LINK   A subtle but constant collision occurs in the nation's capital every day. It is something that people who work here wouldn't necessarily notice because of their jobs, or that first-time visitors might overlook as they take in the architecture and history. On one side you have the sheer weight and power of the federal bureaucracy that so irks and burdens Americans. The U.S. government has well more than 2,000 overlapping, under-performing, over-regulating, inefficient agencies, so removed from their original purposes that no one knows how many agencies, offices and government corporations exist.   . . .
Tuesday  12 May 2015  / Hour 3, Block B: Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re: 1. Russians confirm they’re considering flipping cargo and crew launches.  2. Construction begins at SpaceX spaceport in Brownsville.   3. Curiosity takes spectacular sunset image on Mars.  4. New images of Ceres's bright spots.
Tuesday  12 May 2015  / Hour 3, Block C:  Sarah Westwood, Washington Examiner, in re: Clinton Foundation accepts new foreign donations despite campaign promise
Tuesday  12 May 2015  / Hour 3, Block D:  Scott Michaels, Retro Report video documentary (at NYTimes.com), in re:  What we've learned since the 1993 outbreak of E. coli at Jack in the Box. That outbreak, from undercooked hamburgers at Jack in the Box restaurants across the West Coast, killed four children and sounded a wake-up call about the dangers lurking in our food. It ushered in major changes in how beef is inspected and focussed national attention on food safety. But twenty years later, how far have we come in protecting our food supply?
 
Hour Four
Tuesday  12 May 2015  / Hour 4, Block A:  The Hon John Nicolson, MP: Scottish National Party member from East Dunbartonshire to Westminster, in re:  Detailed recounting of the rather thrilling campaign for the seat: the candidate’s initial concerns over the direction of the campaign;  the events of the evening culminating in his surpassing victory; the vote-counters’s completing the tally of thousands of paper ballots and, at the end, at three in the morning, their slumping in fatigue. The announcements, the acceptance speech. (1 of 4)
Tuesday  12 May 2015  / Hour 4, Block B: The Hon John Nicolson, MP:  The wave election for the SNP.  Polls closed at 10PM; BBC exit poll said that the SNP would win 58 seats. Every LibDem but one was defeated in Scotland, Every single Labour pol was defeated. We ended up with 56 out of 59 seats – unprecedented in Scottish history and a disastrous shock to Labour.  The role of the third party:  when you see the cenotaphs you see the party leaders looking grave.  Privileges in Commons – may ask two questions – plus some state funding  We’re now the third party, will sit on various committees, will chair some.  LibDems have eight seats in the whole UK - we’ve gone from six to 56 seats, have [physically replaced the LibDems—even their privileges, offices, responsibilities. Some of the old representatives had grown sloppy.  I’m getting well-wishes from Conservatives, Greens, everybody.   (2 of 4)
Tuesday  12 May 2015  / Hour 4, Block C: The Hon John Nicolson, MP:  Labout in mourning: took a blow from losing so many seats in Scotland, It came together in 1895, umbrella for a lot of ideologies (incl Socialists, ); in 1945 first won seats. Then Clement Atlee became a leading figure. Seventy years later, Labour is in a crisis. Many becoming unkind to Ed Miliband, the Labour leader who swiftly resigned His own brother: ”He failed to stand up for the aspirations of the middle classes.”  He sounded like a sort of tax-and-spend Liberal in England – but in Scotland, the Labour members became too fond of Westminster, in effect too conservative. IN fact, Labour issued pamphlet claiming one set of principles in England, and different pamphlets making opposing claims in Scotland, Unfortunately, some of each crossed the border for voters to read, which lost a lot of votes.  Some now recommend that Labour split in to two parties, one north of the order and one in England.  Today in Westminster I walked through rooms, found the sole surviving member fro Scotland.  LibDems now have a name that’s toxic – “not keeping their electoral promises.”  Ooops.   Commons now say that conservatives have won, and the only party enjoying itself is SNP.  (3 of 4
Tuesday  12 May 2015  / Hour 4, Block D:  The Hon John Nicolson, MP:  Cameron wanted to show that the Tories are for working people; and _ , and _______. Voted for 30 bil pounds of welfare cuts . Crucially: Conservatives are fanatically anti-Europe, want to pull out of the EU at any cost; would have a catastrophic effect on jobs in the UK.  We were told that we’re a family of nations, wouldn’t be dominated; First Minister of Scotland said if you want to pull out must have a majority vote in the four constituent [nations].  . . .  Cameron has a very thin majority. His predecessor, John Major, had his life made into a hell by his back-benchers.  Crossing the line from being a journalist to being an elected official: the journos hope we’ll make a mistake and they’re a bit let down when we don’t.  Conservatives come up to shake your hand. It's such a theatrical place; many polished, went to Eaton; a lofty air.  I can kind of see why drama producers find it so interesting; it’s a bit like Hogwarts.   (4 of 4)
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