The John Batchelor Show

Tuesday 12 May 2020

Air Date: 
May 12, 2020

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
 
Hour One
Tuesday 12 May 2020   / Hour 1, Block A:  Elizabeth Peek, TheHill and Fox News; in re:   Microsoft Amazon, Tesla: market retraced a lot of its losses on the theory that we’d pen up sooner, and therapies may appear; since we entered this o an extremely strong market, [recovery is possible.] Fauci testified today before the Senate and warned against opening too quickly. Markets are skittish.  Governors open with restrictions, and so far it’s all doing well.  The mainstream media has so alarmed everyone.  In Penn Station today, Pret a Manger was open!  My Pret was open.   The New York mayor is saying: open in June.  Elon Musk no respecter of authority, has pushed his way to reopening in California and it's unlikely the governor will shut him down so he takes his factory and leaves.  Georgia activity is now up 70% higher. We seem to  be advancing toward herd immunity, with a much lower fatality number.  Twitter announces that all employees may work at home forever.   Even Milan is back: not on public transport, but driving.   In New York people don’t think they can be safe on mass transit.  In New York: telework, private transport and staggered work hours.   Airlines, hospitality, etc., will not come back soon.  This economy has been hurt pretty badly. 
Tuesday 12 May 2020   / Hour 1, Block B:  Elizabeth Peek, TheHill and Fox News; in re: he aid packages from Washington.  Ms Pelosi believes that the New Deal is essential along with the Green New Deal.  She presents herself as FDR, or perhaps Eleanor.  Even when the economy had virtually zero unemployment, Democrats were still urging government-controlled programs.  Today’s bill is their signaling to Americans that they want to protect children and give free everything to everybody. Unfortunately, this can't happen; the best that we can do is to have a healthy economy. They think that keeping us all in lockdown will damage Trump’s presidency.  Biden: to placate the Sanders bloc, Biden has moved very, very far left in every policy, incl education.  He wasn’t heading toward acclamation as a nominee, but the established Democrats put him in this place.   Both Schumer and Pelosi see themselves as Rooseveltian; but they’re pushing the economy to [disaster].
Tuesday 12 May 2020   / Hour 1, Block C:  Bill Whalen, @Hooverwhalen, Hoover Area 45 podcast and The Goodfellahs; in re: Both putative presidential candidates are in their seventies, and Biden has said he’ll pick a female as his vice-president.  Biden has already put himself in a box; has taken Cuomo, Newsom, Booker are all off the table.  It helps to look at competency, and Biden is quite quite senior.  I’d say the Senator from California [Kamela] is the best bet; or the New York governor is more qualified.  Try Janet Napolitano.  The allegation that he abused a staff member is not settled.  Then the January meeting in the Oval, discussing Michael Flynn. Biden will be 77 years old, but he has the media in his corner. 
Tuesday 12 May 2020   / Hour 1, Block D:  Bud Weinstein, SMU Energy Institute @SMUCox; in re: Niall Ferguson of Hoover wrote a paper: Imagine Biden in White House, Pelosi in   and Schumer in  ; they’d ban fracking.  What worries be is the environmentalists who think banning fracking will save the planet.  By interfering with the market forces that have let us become an energy superpower, I worry about this. In a hundred years, fossil fuels may go away, but not for he next thirty years; and renewable can't do the job.  Liquefied natural gas?  US is the third-largest in the world after Australia and Qatar. I hope we’ll see an increase in demand n the next months.  We shouldn't just give up the ghost right now.  For he most part, the objections to fracking have been disproven; perhaps excepting tiny earthquakes.  Over a million wells have been drilled in the last decades. The real goal is to kill the industry.  Green New Deal is a fantasy: many of the proposals are not feasible.  Some wind, some solar, and distributed energy all come to 15% of the electrons consumed by American households. Electricity demand is ’way down right now.  Natgas is the winner right now; the market will bring in renewables. 
 
Hour Two
Tuesday 12 May 2020   / Hour 2, Block A:  Gregory Copley, International Strategic Studies Association; in re: A boisterous US economy  has been slowed to stopped; Chinese non-transparency seems to b ___.  There’s no such thing as wholly free trade. Since China came to dominate the global supply chain, subordinate countries have become dependent on China, which can dictate. Their sovereignty has been compromised. De facto tributaries to Beijing.  The global pandemic has put an end to that; Beijing can’t exercise suzerain power.  When there was a global currency,  . . .  What saves society is in a sense sovereignty and nationalism.  , , ,  In Europe,  because of the euro, Germany was able to dictate much in the same way Beijing has.  Tariffs become essential when you need to build domestic self-reliance; the problem is you have to be sure they don't dampen internal efficiencies.  Management of trade.  The USSR did this extensively; made sure they were trading within their own economic zone. Subject to loyalties.  US and China have reasons to trade, esp China needs foodstuffs. If you control the trade, then you have political and strategic power. If you continue to dominate, that’s what’s [unethical?]. China is not a helpmate but a foe.  China will dump goods to prevent others from strengthening their manufacturing capacities.  Australia will help correct China’s bad acting, but will suffer from that.
Tuesday 12 May 2020   / Hour 2, Block B:  Gregory Copley, International Strategic Studies Association; in re: reports that China will not assume its previous position, as the CCP [faces] having to accept some of the responsibility for the virus.  No indication that China has ever stopped or ever will stop stealing intellectual property, esp military, on which it depends.  Xi never had anyone to blame, but now he’s got the virus and also the world’s hostility to blame. China uses saber-rattling.  The CCP is in turmoil, and Xi is looking for an external threat to save his own position. The BND warned. 
Tuesday 12 May 2020   / Hour 2, Block C:   Joseph Humire, @jmhumire, FDD; and Maria Fernanda Cabal, @MariaFdaCabal, Colombian Senate; in re: Nayib Bukele appears to have strong ties to Venezuela. His father was Sunni Muslim, lead that community throughout South America; ties to Qatar and Iran?   What does Bogota think of Bukele?  Most people don't know of him, or that he was a member of FMLM.   La gente in general think he’s a strong young leader. Salvador is a failed state: GDP is broken; they survive because of remittances from the USA; have dreadful criminality. A tragic and upsetting photo from El Salvador where prisoners were crushed together like meat.  Is it a gang-infested nation? Yes, a long history thereof.  MS13 gang years ago tried to make a pact, which empowered the gang leaders. Bukele is showing both authoritarian tendencies, and a tendency to lie. Much concern. . . .  Brazil. In Bogota. People need to go back to work.
Tuesday 12 May 2020   / Hour 2, Block D:  Joseph Humire, @jmhumire, FDD; and Maria Fernanda Cabal, @MariaFdaCabal, Colombian Senate; in re: Venezuela and Iran; a darkening picture.  Some Americans are being displayed on Venezuelan TV, similar to how dictatorships have done in thee past.  Why is Venezuela doing this?  Maduro regime looking for a smoking gun to blame an effort to overthrow his regime.  Grabbed two former Green Berets, put them in front of cameras and forced them to say that President Trump was their boss.  This is threatening to Colombia, as Duque has good strong relations with the US.  For Maduro, Colombia is an enemy because it enjoys good relations with the US.  Using double-agents. Mahan Air, Iranian rogue airline. Is Venezuela being infected by its ally?  The plane goes to China, Iran, and sometimes Tunisia.  Carrying the virus. 
 
Hour Three
Tuesday 12 May 2020   / Hour 3, Block A:  Henry Miller,  @henryimiller, Pacific Research Institute, in re: The virus is a total attack on the organs of the body. Different from what we’ve commonly seen.  With widespread effects like this, look for common element: risk values here are all vascular.  Receptor, ACE-2, seems to be the common element. It's present in vascular tissue, respiratory tract, kidneys, heart. 
Tuesday 12 May 2020   / Hour 3, Block B:  Henry Miller, @henryimiller , Pacific Research Institute, in re:  . . . We need adequate testing for viral presence in swabs, and have to do enough contact tracing to suppress subsequent spread.  Need beds and ventilators.  Aggressive reopening not consonant with what Drs Birx and Fauci, and I, consider important.  Infections in children, massive inflammation syndrome in New York. 
Tuesday 12 May 2020   / Hour 3, Block C:  Joseph Sternberg, @josephsternberg, @WSJOpinion, WSJ editorial board; London bureau chief; in re:  Observes the UK as it goes through the virus crisis, with dire casualties and hotspots.  BoJo was gravely ill in hospital.   . . . Project fear.  The virus is now with the human race forever.  This isn’t about eradication, it's about management.  Neil Ferguson, Imperial College: big problems with modeling, going back to 2001 (foot and mouth disease: infamously terrible job of modelling; culled 6 million animals at enormous cost, but was wrong). If it looks too terrible to be true—it isn’t true.  Ferguson departed from public speaking because of his private life. 
Tuesday 12 May 2020   / Hour 3, Block D: Joseph Sternberg, @josephsternberg, @WSJOpinion, WSJ editorial board; London bureau chief; in re:  The Joseph Sternberg metric of British parks.  Silly rules. “Stay home, save lives”—still using that? No; now it’s, “Stay alert, save lives.”    
 
Hour Four
Tuesday 12 May 2020   / Hour 4, Block A:  Andrew C McCarthy, Ball of Collusion; and Thaddeus McCotter, American Greatness; in re: What crime did the Russiagate plotters commit?
@ThadMcCotter; @AndrewCMcCarthy
Tuesday 12 May 2020   / Hour 4, Block B:  Andrew C McCarthy, Ball of Collusion; and Thaddeus McCotter, American Greatness; in re:  Grenell unmasks the unmaskers.
@ThadMcCotter; @AndrewCMcCarthy
Tuesday 12 May 2020   / Hour 4, Block C:  Tyler Rogoway @Aviation_Intel; in re:  Tom Cruise vs ISS.
Tuesday 12 May 2020   / Hour 4, Block D:  Tyler Rogoway @Aviation_Intel; in re:  remembering the F-111 bomb run on Qaddafi