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JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Larry Kudlow, The Kudlow Report, CNBC; and Cumulus Media radio.  Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, The Great Voice of the Great Lakes.
 
Hour One
Tuesday, 2 January 2018 / Hour 1, Block A:.  Veronique de Rugy, Mercatus Center & NRO Online, in re: Joint Commission on Taxation said this Tax Reduction and Jobs Act of 2017 is not good for the middle class. This is thoroughly inaccurate. They're so biased because  they looked only at the result of all income tax paid, not how much is paid by [different groups] of taxpayers. In their unusually limited analysis, it looks regressive; whereas in fact it is a progressive tax cut.   People making $20-30,000 per annum get an 11+% tax cut.   LK: They call it a dynamic model, when in fact it’s static.  The original mark-up scoring in the fall was truthful: $50-70K would fall by 7%; millionaires would get a 5.3% cut. Even the JCT showed that these tax plans would pay for themselves with increased GDP. VdR:   . . .    JB: Deliberate distortion, dishonest? Chicanery?   LK:  The JCT refuses to show the public what's in their model – completely opaque. VdR: Not only that; the Obamacare penalty is the most regressive tax we have – 80% of those paying it make less than $50,000 PA.    LK: classic a case of garbage in-garbage out [GIGO].   . . . We need institutional changes in Washington. 
Tuesday, 2 January 2018 / Hour 1, Block B:  Veronique de Rugy, Mercatus Center & NRO Online, in re: Under Obamacare, if you decided not to buy the mandate, then you wou nd up being dunned for [$700].
Tuesday, 2 January 2018 / Hour 1, Block C: John Cochran, Senior Fellow at Hoover; in re:  . . . Rich people pay a higher fraction of taxes than do poor people in the US.  . . .  This is not about trickle down.   . . . John [C], you're not really that grumpy tonight.  JB: Repatriation?  JC: I wouldn’t count on its making a big difference, since big corporations already know how to get around taxation regs.  Further, cash in Ireland is in Irish banks that lend to the US.  JB: Immediate expensing: If you buy a piece of eqpt today, the rules hitherto have been complicated, one might not have been able to deduct the cost for up to 39 years. Under new regs, can deduct the full cost of business purchases from your taxes this year.
Tuesday, 2 January 2018 / Hour 1, Block D: Larry Kudlow, The Kudlow Report, CNBC; and Cumulus Media radio; in re: In the world economy, the US still has the numbers and will for some time to come. Japan and Canada are picking up; we’re the engine of growth.   . . .  Since the election, the Dow Jones is up 35%.
 
Hour Two
Tuesday, 2 January 2018 / Hour 2, Block A:  Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus; American Committee for East-West Accord; author: Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War, & The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag after Stalin;  in re:  Same new cold war of the last four years. Crisis began in Ukraine; breaking news that exacerbates the cold war — US will send sniper systems, et al., to “Ukrainian forces fighting a Russian-backed separatist movement.”  Four years since Maidan.  Yanukovich fleeing.  The new cold war contains several fronts that could lead to hot war, primary ne being Ukraine.   Four years ago we witnessed the militarization of the new cold war.  Saakashvili & Georgia. In the heart of Slavic civilization a civil war; we never had that during the first Cold War.   . . .
Tuesday, 2 January 2018 / Hour 2, Block B:  Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus; American Committee for East-West Accord; author: Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War, & The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag after Stalin;  in re: 
Tuesday, 2 January 2018 / Hour 2, Block C:  Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus; American Committee for East-West Accord; author: Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War, & The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag after Stalin;  in re: 
Tuesday, 2 January 2018 / Hour 2, Block D:  Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus; American Committee for East-West Accord; author: Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War, & The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag after Stalin; in re: 
 
Hour Three
Tuesday, 2 January 2018 / Hour 3, Block A:  Michael Ledeen, FDD, in re:  Iran 
Tuesday, 2 January 2018 / Hour 3, Block B:  Alireza Jafarzadeh, Deputy Director of the Washington office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran; in re: Iran.  In what the regime called “privatization” of industries and businesses, it persuaded poor people to invest all their savings into the “privatized” entities which, t turned out, merely had their ownership transferred to the IRGC – which lost all of it.  Thus many thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of Iranians are now bereft of savings, of governmental support, of everything – with national food crises and suddenly a water crisis.  The citizenry is extremely agitated; most Iranians in any case hate the regime.  The regime is afraid of the organizational capabilities of the [rebellious] movement.   . . .
Tuesday, 2 January 2018 / Hour 3, Block C:  Andrew C McCarthy, NRO online, in re: George Papdapoulos, who held a drunken conversation in a pub in London with an Australian dip in May 2016. Thus began the Russian-collusion narrative of the last 1.5 years.   . .  The New York Times counts on its readers not remembering that the story began centered on Carter Page. 
Tuesday, 2 January 2018 / Hour 3, Block D: Andrew C McCarthy, NRO online, in re: Let’s imagine that a drunken Aussie dip carries on a conversation . . . Would the FBI go to a FISA court? Depends on what he was talking about. The Steele dossier.  Even bad sources can give you [useful] info. Problem with the dossier is that it’s campaign propaganda.  Here. apparently a Democratic administration took Democratic campaign propaganda to a FSA court to get permission to surveille US citizens; if that’s what happened, that‘s a major scandal.  . . .  At this point, I don't think Mueller cares about the political narrative; I think the Democrats and the media do.
 
Hour Four
Tuesday, 2 January 2018 / Hour 4, Block A:  Simon Constable, Scotland reporter, in re: Copper is essential to building and copper doing well is highly bullish. Eke lead, which currently is much in demand for car batteries; but it’s toxic, and will fall into disuse in a few years.  . . .
Tuesday, 2 January 2018 / Hour 4, Block B:  LouAnn Hammond, DrivingtheNation.com, in re:  Car sales domestically are much reduced as the gig economy renders owning one, let alone two, cars pretty much unnecessary. JB still favors self-driving cars, which appalls the producer.
Tuesday, 2 January 2018 / Hour 4, Block C:   Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack,com, in re: First, enormous thanks to your listeners who send in contributions, which are very important in letting us continue our work.  / Second Annual Worldwide Bob Zimmerman Rocket Report: India. SpaceX.  Most launches ever in the history of space; a record for an individual company, which highlights how the industry is operating, 
Tuesday, 2 January 2018 / Hour 4, Block D: Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack,com, in re: