The John Batchelor Show

Tuesday 27 September 2016

Air Date: 
September 27, 2016

Image, left: Elon Musk said Tuesday that a self-sustaining colony of people could be living on Mars within 50 to 150 years. Picture, to left: An artist's conception of a human Mars base, with a cutaway revealing an interior horticultural area.
The SpaceX CEO laid out his plan to colonize the Red Planet at the International Astronautical Congress, a meeting of multiple international space exploration associations in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Musk has long said he wants to make humans an "interplanetary species," and on Tuesday he addressed many of the technical, safety and cost challenges he'll face.
His goal is to bring the price of a ticket to Mars down to around $200,000 per person -- about the median price of a house in the U.S. Compare that to $10 billion, which is what Musk said it would cost to go to Mars using current technology.
He explained that a few crucial technical advancements must be made to make that price point possible, including making rockets that are reliably reusable.
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Larry Kudlow, CNBC senior advisor; & Cumulus Media radio
 
Hour One
Tuesday  27 September 2016   / Hour 1, Block A: Steve Moore, senior economist, Heritage; in re:  The best possible way to improve the economy is a tax cut for small and large businesses, alike. Wages haven't gone up since 2000.  In Trump’s tax plan, the middle class does well. I want Mr Trump to do better – all John McLaughlin’s polls show that economy/wages/jobs are far and far and away the most important issues among the electorate.
Trump and free trade – I disagree and think that overall NAFTA has been good for the US; might renegotiate some features. Taxes and regs strangle our businesses and make them less competitive with China, India, et al.  US doesn't tax incoming goods; as almost all other countries do. Need to have a line on repatriation: spend a sentence or two on bringing back the two trillion dollars currently parked overseas to avoid the US 35% tax; rather, levy a small tax. 
Tuesday  27 September 2016   / Hour 1, Block B:  Steve Moore, senior economist, Heritage; in re:   Most countries impose a tariff on goods entering their country, maybe 15%. US shd have an import tax, not an export tax, to cerate parity.  Trump’s economic plan:  Mrs C says to tax he most successful people and give the money to people who want free things- a 65% estate tax! My father put years of sweat into building a small business; now the government wants to take over half of what you earned by labor? That's confiscatory. Mrs Clinton has across-the-board tax hikes.  In the history of America, show me one area when you can tax your way in to prosperity.
Mrs Clinton tries to shame Mr Trump for being rich – but my cab driver said, “Glad he’s rich; I just want to know how he’ll add jobs.”
I'd give DJT maybe a B- for his presentation yesterday.
Tuesday  27 September 2016   / Hour 1, Block C:  James Taranto, WSJ editorial board; in re:  Mr Adams is . . . the most prescient commentator on this election endorsed Mrs Clinton “for his own safety”; and once he did, the nasty comments stopped, but he switched his endorsement this weekend in response to Mrs Clinton’s proposed taxes.
Voters are interested in peace and prosperity. All the polls show this.  Hmm I used to argue that issues are critical. But Bill Clinton got elected easily, then Obama twice – maybe charisma is more important. 
- Yes, but Reagan came in on new economic and political policies. The Clintons wound up losing both Houses on their single-payer health care. 
- Johnson claimed that Goldwater was mad as a hatter and violent; Trump’s irregular behavior in earlier debates left him open to that sort of claim, so all he had to do last night was look rational, which he mostly did.  He accomplished the most important thing he needed to: look sane. 
The commentariat that endorses Mrs C finds Trump to be scary.   New York Time. LA Times, Washington Post, and Politico, all claimed that Mr Trump is a liar – an unusually strong accusation for Noth America.  Turns out that the Clinton campaign issued a press release on Friday on Mr Trump’s alleged lies and, oddly, actual news outlet went with it. http://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-is-now-normal-1474998944?tesla=y
Tuesday  27 September 2016   / Hour 1, Block D: David M Drucker, Senior Congressional correspondent, Washington Examiner, in re: David is a new broadcaster—see his podcasts at Washington Examiner. Today after the debate, looks as though 84 million people watched. Mrs Clinton’s staff think she did extremely well; GOP was disappointed as it appears that Mr Trump did not prepare, or at least did not prepare properly.
I would’ve assumed that Trump would have known he’d face questions on birthers, tax returns, and other obvious matters; unreadiness really hurt him, esp in the last half-hour.  Need not only to be able to respond but also to keep your opponent off-balance.   He spent a lot of time on the Iraq war; too much, wasted time. Shd have pounded on his tax proposals. 
When Mrs C was attacked in what she saw as a useless mater, she just let it roll off her back and went on to  more important issues.  Stay on message, irrespective of what someone asks or says.  Bush began to prepare for his debate against Gore in April of that year. Trump looks as though he knows that he’s taking about in intl policy and security and trade.  http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/clinton-trump-heading-into-a-pressure-...
 
Hour Two
Tuesday  27 September 2016   / Hour 2, Block A:  Stephen F. Cohen, Prof. Emeritus of Russian Studies/History/Politics at NYU and Princeton; also Board of American Committee for East-West Accord (eastwestaccord.com); in re:  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/25/russia-accused-war-crimes-syria-un-security-council-aleppo  (1 of 4)
Tuesday  27 September 2016   / Hour 2, Block B: Stephen F. Cohen, Prof. Emeritus of Russian Studies/History/Politics at NYU and Princeton; also Board of American Committee for East-West Accord (eastwestaccord.com); in re: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-biden-idUSKCN11S059  (2 of 4)
Tuesday  27 September 2016   / Hour 2, Block C:  Stephen F. Cohen, Prof. Emeritus of Russian Studies/History/Politics at NYU and Princeton; also Board of American Committee for East-West Accord (eastwestaccord.com); in re: The Ukrainian conflict is a civil war, shd be the easiest to resolve.  . . . Minsk Accords are fine; they just ask that eastern provinces, esp Donbass, stay in Ukraine but be given more home rule – which Kyiv (controlled by the US)  has refused to implement.  . . . We now have three fronts where cold war could become hot war: Baltics, Ukraine, and Syria. Never had three fronts simultaneously during the old Cold War.  Biden in this up to his hip boots, and operating much of the situation looks like a traditional pro-consul situation; but Poroshenko is facing a heavy rightist opposition.
Tuesday  27 September 2016   / Hour 2, Block D: Stephen F. Cohen, Prof. Emeritus of Russian Studies/History/Politics at NYU and Princeton; also Board of American Committee for East-West Accord (eastwestaccord.com); in re:
 
Hour Three
Tuesday  27 September 2016   / Hour 3, Block A:  Dr Lara M Brown, George Washington University, & Salena Zito, New York Post, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, RealClearPolitics, and The Hill, in re:   http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-biden-idUSKCN11S059
Tuesday  27 September 2016   / Hour 3, Block B:  Dr Lara M Brown, George Washington University, & Salena Zito, New York Post, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, RealClearPolitics, and The Hill, in re:  
Tuesday  27 September 2016   / Hour 3, Block C:   Adam Gamoran, W T Grant Foundation, in re; Science education.  http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/353/6305/1209.full.pdf
Tuesday  27 September 2016   / Hour 3, Block D:  Donald G McNeil, NYT , in re: Zika virus.  Predict Zika’s Spread? It’s Hard Enough to Count the Cases http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/20/health/zika-spread-predictions.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0
 
Hour Four
Tuesday  27 September 2016   / Hour 4, Block A:  Robert Zimmerman, behind the black, in re: SpaceX; NASA; Roscosmos.   (1 of 4)
Tuesday  27 September 2016   / Hour 4, Block B:  Robert Zimmerman, behind the black, in re:  SpaceX; NASA; Roscosmos.  (2 of 4)
Tuesday  27 September 2016   / Hour 4, Block C:  Robert Zimmerman, behind the black, in re:  SpaceX; NASA; Roscosmos.   (3 of 4)
Tuesday  27 September 2016   / Hour 4, Block D:  Robert Zimmerman, behind the black, in re:  SpaceX; NASA; Roscosmos.   (4 of 4)