Photo, above: A political unknown who's never been elected to anything before, Neel Kashkari is now in the race to be the next governor of California. Courtesy of KCRA. 

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

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

Hour One

Tuesday  27 May 2014 / Hour 1, Block A:  Neel Kashkari, candidate for California governorship; in re: Discussion of issues relevant to the current gubernatorial primary (1 of 4)

Tuesday  27 May 2014 / Hour 1, Block B:  Neel Kashkari, candidate for California governorship; in re: Discussion of issues relevant to the current gubernatorial primary (2 of 4)

Tuesday  27 May 2014 / Hour 1, Block C:  Neel Kashkari, candidate for California governorship; in re: Discussion of issues relevant to the current gubernatorial primary (3 of 4)

Tuesday  27 May 2014 / Hour 1, Block D:  Neel Kashkari, candidate for California governorship; in re: Discussion of issues relevant to the current gubernatorial primary (4 of 4)

Hour Two

Tuesday  27 May 2014 / Hour 2, Block A:  Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton prof 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: Poroshenko is more questions than answers; his first statement was belligerent, calling Ukrainians from the east "bandits and terrorists."

Tuesday  27 May 2014 / Hour 2, Block B: Stephen F. Cohen (2 of 4), in re: When the USSR broke up, big capital assets were seized by insiders and :"privatized" it – they swiftly became billionaires. Ukrainians, in their rapacity, make the Russian oligarchs look like small potatoes.  Poroshenko is a "small" oligarch has less than $10 billion. He's a go-along-to-get-along guy; a quintessential insiders; owned a T V station and began polishing his image, During protests, supported with one foot the Maidan protestors *(who were protesting oligarchs), was cautious. Timoshenko was a spent political force and is widely perceived as being vastly more corrupt than even Poroshenko.  Whom does he represent? Powerful forces behind him, not clear what they want.  

Tuesday  27 May 2014 / Hour 2, Block C: Stephen F. Cohen (3 of 4), in re:  Anna Nemtsova is writing of fighters . . .  In the beginning, Kiev decided to suppress the people seizing bldgs in half a dozen cities and claiming to secede from Kiev  Elderly women blocked tans , gave out sandwiches, Kiev created National Guard, brought in Svoboda street fighters – what the EU called a ne-fascist party – and they, still armed, are there with an official status and went on to the southeast, with masks. Now both sides are wearing masks, are irregulars, are ideological zealots.   They want a racially pure Ukraine without non-Ukrainians, without Jews or riff-raff . . . Worst atrocity was in Odessa. The fighting and killing will stop when Kiev quits sending fighters to the southeast. I though Poroshenko might do that – to the extent that Washington ahs influence on the situation, it should tell Poroshenko to stop, Meanwhile, Poroshenko said he looks for much assistance form the US – if we send him money or arms, then the casualties will be on us, too.  The chaos suits Moscow – the worse it gets, the better Russia looks. It doesn’t want the west of Ukraine, anyway.  AS instability unfolds in the southeast, there's an expiration date: Russian economy is heavily dependent on the industry f southeastern Ukraine – including military mfr.  Russia is Ukraine's largest export market – f Moscow can’t rely on the supply, it'll have to bld its own mfrg.   Poroshnko said he'd "retain Yatsienyuk" (the great favorite of Washington) as a president, although he's not authorized to do so. US states have independent trade policies with foreign states but can’t sign treaties.  If Kiev refuses to discuss a federal system, then there'll wind up being two Ukraines. 

Tuesday  27 May 2014 / Hour 2, Block D: Stephen F. Cohen (4 of 4), in re: Sanctions are a standard US reflexive first-relations. In theory, it deters the other side, but not now with Putin. Moreover, Russia can sanction the US – no space shuttle, no more help in Afghanistan or vis-à-vis Iran [not helpful now –ed.]  Why is the Obama administration sanctioning oligarchs – to what end now?  Putin just sanctioned the US and Europe big-time by signing a huge oil deal with China. Putin joked about the US sanctions – "Sorry my friends are sanctioned; I suggest they go to the European court and sue the US." It’s all part of he negotiations package I'm calling for: low-hanging fruit, no one in Washington will approach it. 

Hour Three

Tuesday  27 May 2014 / Hour 3, Block A:   Eric Trager, Washington Institute, in re: Current Egyptian elections, now extended a day longer (to three days) because of low turnout. Al Sisi wil try to coup-proof himself with aid form the military, which has long controlled a third of the Egyptian economy. Despite low turnout, as long as the election in not violent, White House probably will congratulate Sisi.

Tuesday  27 May 2014 / Hour 3, Block B:   Reza Kahlili, author, A Time to Betray, and Daily Caller, in re: Source: Iran Tested Detonators for Nuclear Weapons Unknown to IAEA

Tuesday  27 May 2014 / Hour 3, Block C:   Anna Nemtsova, Daily Beast, in re: War and Murder in Eastern Ukraine Among the raw recruits, brave patriots, right-wing crazies, and battle-hardened survivors fighting locals, Chechens, Russians and other motley insurgents in eastern Ukraine.

Tuesday  27 May 2014 / Hour 3, Block D: Seb Gorka, FDD, Natl Defense University & Breitbart, in re: Here's Why Egypt Extended Presidential Elections to a Third Day  An Egyptian supporter of former army chief and presidential candidate Abdel Fatah al-Sisi chants slogans in a street in Cairo on . . .

Hour Four

Tuesday  27 May 2014 / Hour 4, Block A:  Steven Starr, Physicians for Social Responsibility, in re: In 2009, I wrote a report summarizing these findings for the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament. Ive attached a more recent article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (written by the scientists whose work I summarized) entitled, "Self-assured destruction: the climate impacts of nuclear war."   The first sentence of the abstract . . . ( of 2)

Tuesday  27 May 2014 / Hour 4, Block B: Steven Starr, Physicians for Social Responsibility, in re: In 2009, I wrote a report summarizing these findings for the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament. Ive attached a more recent article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (written by the scientists whose work I summarized) entitled, "Self-assured destruction: the climate impacts of nuclear war."   The first sentence of the abstract . . . (2 of 2)

Tuesday  27 May 2014 / Hour 4, Block C: Jamie Dettmer, Daily Beast, in re: Ukraine

Ukraine’s Chocolate King Wins
 
Exit polls show billionaire Petro Poroshenko with over 50 percent of the vote as pro-Russian militants blocked the polls in the Eastern provinces.


Desperate Violence Before Ukraine Vote
 
At least 13 Ukrainian soldiers killed by separatists in a dawn attack. Part of a Russian plot? Or is Putin losing control?

Tuesday  27 May 2014 / Hour 4, Block D:   Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re: Virgin Galactic finally admitted to its engine troubles on Friday.  They've dumped the original engine, switching to a different engine design that the rumors have said they have been testing for the past year.  The company press release is here, with commentary here.

Though it's a good thing that the company has finally come clean and made the switch, they probably waited far too long to do it, as the problems with the old engine likely caused several years' delay in their schedule and allowing other companies to catch up with them - and thus losing the significant technological advantage that they once held.

A refurbished Russian rocket engine, to be used by the Antares rocket, failed during tests on Thursday.  This report says that the engine might even have exploded firing the test firing.

The competition heats up: The European partnership building the new Ariane 6 rocket struggles to keep its costs down to compete with SpaceX. Ariane 5 has been a huge triumph, orbiting half of the world’s communications satellites and claiming 60% of the 2012 world market for geostationary launches. But while the rocket is extremely precise and reliable it is also hugely expensive, with a single-payload flight costing €150-200 million. However, even at that price Ariane 5 launches are understood to be loss-making for ESA’s launch operator, Arianespace. Its high cost in in large part blamed on its industrial organisation; while private-sector SpaceX has tailored the Falcon programme for low cost production, the Ariane 5 project is organised in part to satisfy the demands of European multi-national politics.

Speaking exclusively to Flight Daily News, ESA’s Stefano Bianchi, who heads the Vega programme and now spends much of his time dedicated to Ariane 6 development, stresses that the programme is on course as set out by ESA’s member states, and any major change of configuration would require ministerial agreement.

But, he says, he and his colleagues are confident they can bring Ariane 6 to fruition at the target launch cost of €70 million – a level that would match or even undercut SpaceX. [emphasis mine This story is in connection with the conflict between France and Germany about how to build Ariane 6. I have specifically highlighted the cost figures to illustrate once again the reality that everyone in the industry knows (except for one commenter on my webpage), that the cost of a SpaceX launch runs in the neighborhood of $60 to $100 million, one third to half the cost of Arianespace and significantly less than the cost of practically every other launch company.

Any company that realistically wants to compete with SpaceX has to be totally honest about these facts. Their customers are honest about them, for certain.

Update: The CEO of ULA admits that the real cost of its military launches averages about $225 million per launch.  He claims they can get the cost down to $100 million per launch, but only if the military makes a bulk buy of 50 launches from them, but even that barely competes with SpaceX’s accepted launch fees ranging from $75 to $100 million, per launch. No need to buy 50 rockets from SpaceX to get these prices.

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