Life and Works of Confucius by Prospero Intorcetta, 1687.  In 2004, the Chinese Communist government launched Confucius Institutes, a propaganda arm designed to tidy up the government’s regrettable image after Tien An Men and other violent events that have been swept under the rug.   
“The straightforward mission and goal of CIs are to improve and reshape the image of China" as "recalibrated and discoursed by Beijing government." -- H. Yang and Michael Hsiao
. . . The Toronto Confucius Institute (CI) was inaugurated in May, and was set to begin oits rollout of programs in schools this fall. However, after an outcry from concerned parents and human rights activists protesting the Chinese Communist regime’s influence in the Canadian education system, a TDSB committee on June 11 voted to suspend the partnership with the CI pending further information.  . . .    At least one trustee also received a letter from Ping Tan, founder of the National Congress of Chinese Canadians (NCCC), expressing support for the Toronto CI.
Epoch Times has reported that, according to Chen Yonglin, a high-profile Chinese defector who sought asylum in Australia, the NCCC is at the top of a pyramid of groups set up by the Chinese Embassy and consulates in Canada to control and influence the Chinese community and the Canadian government.
“Organizations like the National Congress were founded based on issues that Chinese Canadians care about, and using the name of unity,” Chen said. “But the real purpose was to further the interests of the Chinese regime in Canada and to lobby the Canadian government.”
The NCCC has also held events in Canada to oppose the spiritual discipline Falun Gong, which is heavily persecuted by the Chinese regime, as well as events in support of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) control in Tibet. The NCCC has denied claims by Chen and says it is “absolutely is not controlled by any party or political force.” Trustees who voted to suspend the Toronto CI cited a lack of information about the partnership and concerns they heard from parents.
Wikipedia: . . .  At a hearing of the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission, Anne-Marie Brady, a University of Canterbury political science professor, testified that China considers propaganda work the "life blood of the Party-State in the current era", and promotes foreign propaganda towards the Overseas Chinese community through Confucius Institutes and activities such as "root-seeking" cultural tours. Three years later, Professor Brady analogized, "If we had a U.S. government agency that was stating that it was a tool for U.S. government propaganda, my colleagues would be up in arms about having a center like that on campus."
There has also been criticism over the Communist Party’s appropriation of Confucius. Under Mao Zedong, Confucian values and teachings were perennial targets of criticism and suppression, being viewed as vestiges of feudalism. According to Asia Times Online, the Chinese Communist Party under Mao Zedong criticized Confucian teachings as "rubbish that should be thrown into the 'Ash heap of history'" while the 21st-century CCP uses Confucianism as "an assistant to the Chinese god of wealth (and a representative of Chinese diplomacy), but not a tutor for Chinese soul."
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
 
Co-hosts: Gordon Chang, Forbes.com & Daily Beast. Dr. David M. Livingston, The Space Show.
 
Hour One
Wednesday   1 June  2016 / Hour 1, Block A: Charles Burton, professor at Brock University, in re: Chinese are largely funding US private education.  When the Chinese students study here, do they adopt US values? Not much, but a little.  As for Australia, the financially-pressed newspapers are pressured and advertisers not to allow criticism of China.  Publish the China Daily supplement; it's about suppressing information. They do buy influence, but don't get much and spend a huge amount for a paltry return. Think of ”Confucius Institutes” – supposed to convey the glorious Chinese history, but what the world hears is that they lie about liberty of thought and deed in Communist China.  The CCP thinks that it can be seen as being more authoritative on China than are Western journalists and govts – but that ain’t working out, either.  Btw, the CCP prefers Trump as a businessman; that’s a billion votes right there!
New York Times produces a Chinese-language edition – which is blocked to China.  Why are Western govts not demanding reciprocity, i.e., freedom to publish inside China?  The CCP pays for propagandistic newspaper supplements in major Western papers– again, to little success – and the US govt needs to push back.  For fundamental ethical reasons, Western papers won't publish visibly inaccurate info; why do they accept the lying swill of China’s paid supplements?  We need to demand reciprocity, and if the CCP forbids Western info, we need to refuse their stuff. After all, we refuse tobacco ads in our papers.  http://www.smh.com.au/business/media-and-marketing/chinas-propaganda-arms-push-soft-power-in-australian-media-deals-20160531-gp7yz6.html
Wednesday   1 June  2016 / Hour 1, Block B:  Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director of Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, in re: Looks as though Kim Jong-eun – dictatorial rogue state, criminal behavior, torture, gun-running – endorses Donald Trump. Its main objective is its own survival, it maintains itself through violence and deception.  Has long since squandered any smidgeon of intl credibility it may have had.   . . . When Trump spoke with Anderson Cooper of CNN, said he’d be glad to walk away from treaties with South Korea and Japan – which would thrill North Korea.  Removal of US forces from Korean peninsula would be a huge step toward reunification under the Kim regime. South Korean soldiers are good, but for technical reasons the security of South Korea and the East Asian region depend on US forces’ being present.   Eun looks young inexperienced, ignorant and brutal. His advisors follow his father’s playbook.  http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/31/north-korea-praises-trump-and-urges-us-voters-to-reject-dull-hillary
Amazing:    North Korea praises Trump and urges US voters to reject 'dull Hillary'.  State media outlet welcomes Republican candidate’s ‘far-sighted’ policies and suggestion that he will withdraw troops from Seoul.    North Korean state media has praised US presidential hopeful Donald Trump, describing him as a “wise politician” and “far-sighted candidate” who could help unify the Korean peninsula.
An editorial in DPRK Today, an official media outlet, welcomed the Republican presidential candidate’s proposal to hold direct talks with Kim Jong-un, saying he could help bring about Pyongyang’s “Yankee go home” policy.  /   “There are many positive aspects to Trump’s ‘inflammatory policies’,” wrote Han Yong-mook, who described himself as a Chinese North Korean scholar.
“Trump said he will not get involved in the war between the South and the North, isn’t this fortunate from North Korea’ perspective?” Analysts said that although the editorial was not officially from Pyongyang, it was sure to reflect thinking inside the regime.
“This is very striking,” said Aidan Foster-Carter of the University of Leeds. “Admittedly it is not exactly Pyongyang speaking, or at least not the DPRK government in an official capacity. But it is certainly Pyongyang flying a kite, or testing the waters. “For the rest of us, this is a timely reminder – if it were needed – of just how completely Trump plans to tear up established US policy in the region.”
The editorial referred to Trump’s speech in March, in which he suggested he would withdraw US military forces from Seoul if South Korea did not increase spending on defence. http://www.hrnk.org/uploads/pdfs/KKJ_Gulag_INC_FinalFinal_WEB.pdf
Wednesday   1 June  2016 / Hour 1, Block C: Aaron Klein,  Breitbart Middle East Bureau Chief, in re: Iran is finding success in Iraq, with US air support. In the SW of Fallujah, the ISIS stronghold (40 mi West of Baghdad); the offensive has gone on for five days, using the suburbs so to speak, from which to launch in to center. Houses and streets are booby-trapped; human shields. Iraqi troops have done a bad job – not secured the outskirts. Battles won led ot by US-trained troops by Shiite militias trained by Soleimani.  Diplomatic and mil fallout: Iranian militias are central players in Iraq; compare the Lebanese model where Hezbollah is a state within a state.   Parallel in Mosul, Tikrit, other cities.   The US-trained Iraqi military can't even take the outskirts of city.   US has spent billions of dollars for . . . forget it.  Fallujah will be fully liberated; who’ll take over – the Iraqi military?  What happens when it fails in the next battle?  May determine the future of Iraq as an Iranian subject.  Why did Iran flaunt Soleimani on the battlefield?  Rivalries in he Iranian Foreign Ministry and IRGC, but he answers only to Khamenei, the Supreme Leader.   Vast expansion Planned; attacks on Israel and rival gangs in the West Bank, sponsored by Iran; Hamas knows this and so is competing with Iran, creating its own units from Fatah militia members. All bad news for Abbas, who dedicated a street in his own honor (“to liberate Jerusalem”), and his name has been desecrated by his compatriots. Hamas and Egypt working together at present.
Wednesday   1 June  2016 / Hour 1, Block D:  Aaron Klein,  Breitbart Middle East Bureau Chief, in re: . . .  Hamas and Egypt working together at present.  Gaza Strip and Sinai.  Operation launched, roadside bombs in the last few hours killing six soldiers, plus eight ISIS members.  Egypt in a strange coalition w Hamas to “take care of” some ISIS groups who see Sinai as one of its capitals of its intended Islamic caliphate.  Syria not looking promising, need ndew HQ, thinking of Sinai. The larger geopolitical scheme in Egypt: el Sisi hasn't as much support as he needs and ISIS aims for global jihad Streaming from Gaza into Sinai .  Hamas gets it: if there’s an ISIS caliphate in Sinai, good-bye Hamas.  Sirte in Libya:  they want to  liberate Jerusalem, create a Sinai caliphate.  In Quran, the so-called Muslim prophet Moses received the Ten Commandments in Sinai.   ISIS claims that a pilgrimage to Sinai is more important than one to Mecca! / Unusual diseases among Syrian refugees: polio, measles, hepatitis A, and leishmeniasis [a parasitic disease  by the hundreds of thousands; may be spreading to Europe. I spoke w the CDC, which is concerned because the disease can b asymptomatic for years.   Much concern.  Major epidemic proceeding across North Africa; will arrive in Europe.   French initiative:  demand a timetable for a Palestinian state, including permanent status for refugees, locations, everything, Note that the PA has repeatedly refused to enter negotiations; meeting on Thursday where Israel won't attend by John Kerry will and will Russia,  /  Attack tunnels on Israel-Gaza border: collapsing? Not consistent with Nature.   Cement is pouring into the Gaza Strip, used by Hamas to bld tunnels, and underground cities. 
 
Hour Two
Wednesday   1 June  2016 / Hour 2, Block A:  Christopher Harmer is a Senior Naval Analyst with the Middle East Security Project; Institute for the Study of War; in re:  China has built bogus islands now announces it’ll establish an ADIZ (air defense identification zone) – for which there’s no intl controlling authority.  Each country sets it up as it wants, unilaterally; anyone flying through can choose to comply or not.  Recognizing an ADIZ constitutes de facto recognition of China’s sovereignty.   China has decided to include both Japanese and South Korean airspaces in its claims, without any consent, of course. Canada and US jointly declare an ADIZ in the North; similar to NATO.  This  is unique t0 China, which  claims sovereignty over airspace internationally recognized as belonging to other nations. “Every war has begun with two words: ‘Too late.’ ” Shangri-La meting  of flag officers and uniforms to speak on differences between China and other interested parties. The USN should refuse to comply; but constitutionally our US civilian American leadership doesn’t understand how grave this is. Once PRC claims these islands, it claims sovereignty over the entire South China Sea.  USN no loner has the throw eight to challenge this.  Danger to freedom in the Western Pacific Rim.  No Plan B: Adm Harris of PACOM needs backing of the US president.
Any response needs to start with leadership.  USN is about to abdicate Freedom of Navigation in the South China Sea.  The “too late” comes in if we get a strategic consensus that we need to defends our allies:  an existing threat already stockpiles d with radars, missiles, anti-aircraft artilleries, If we wait much longer to challenge, it’ll be de facto if not de jure PRC’s.   The little countries don't have the mass to stand up to the PRC.  Fear a repeat of the Argentine Falklands War: when PRC internal domestic dissension increases, Beijing may start a war to distract, and China is well equipped – “not a third-rate country like Argentine.”
Wednesday   1 June  2016 / Hour 2, Block B:  Harry Kazianis, senior Fellow for Defense Policy at the Center for the National Interest, in re:  When  a Chinese fishing boat intruded into Indonesian waters, Jakarta seized the boat, was much opposed by Beijing, and returned the boat. Now, the same thing happens but Indonesia now sends out a much larger boat.   China is deploying 2,800-ton  [huge] vessels to fish so Indonesia has had no choice but to send out larger ships – this time, use a destroyer to detain the Chinese fishing trawler.  In Senkakus, China is matching Japanese vessels  taking old naval vessels, stripping naval hardware and deploying them [not credibly] as coast guard vessels – 10,000 tons [enormous!].  Western media need to focus on this – could be the genesis fo a shooting war.  “A fat man who keeps pushing his corpulent belly at you; you fall off the cliff while he laughs at you.”  China seized Scarborough Shoal visibly illegally and Washington did nothing.  Nothing.  If the US in 2012 had enforced the Filipino treaty with China, this wouldn’t be happening this way.  http://qz.com/695526/indonesia-had-another-high-seas-encounter-with-china-but-this-time-it-brought-a-bigger-boat/
Wednesday   1 June  2016 / Hour 2, Block C:  David R. Henderson, research Fellow at the Hoover Institution; also assoc professor of economics at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California; in re:  . . .  The American economy is robust and has many moving pieces. 
Wednesday   1 June  2016 / Hour 2, Block D:  Charles Ortel, managing director of the research firm Newport Value Partners, in re:  the effect of a Fed rate hike on the global economy, and this China’s pressing Yellin to give advance warning of a US Fed rate hike. 
Today the Treasury Dept put North Korea under US banking sanctions, which in effect freezes it out of the intl banking system. . . .  China is dying to speak with Yellin to see what the Fed will do in raising interest rates – this month? July?   Renminbi is under much pressure. China’s desperate play: one of the biggest holders of US securities asking for an inside trading tip.   Her conversation with them will be kept secret; China has leverage.  In a speech last fall she referred to China and Asian mkts thirteen times; China can bring down the world banking system, may get a heads-p – but if that happens, [may it be] the last time China gets advance info. Larry Summers proposes flooding the Solar System with cash. Currently, most of the advanced economies, and even others, are under much threat to have labor replaced by robots.  The world has way to much debt, and flagging demand.  Unusual factors staring us in the face – huge debt and low demand.  Yelling can give China an extra month for two, but its debt is north of 400% of its GDP.  Made on good push in March to show the world how well-off they were – but hen it plummeted and he economy is limping badly now.  Interest rates have been suppressed way below historical lows since 2009 – dangerously long.   Low low low in hope it’d stimulate the economy, but it hasn't.   After this much time, it's a sign that we need to go a different direction: the US economy is in better shape than everyone else.    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-25/china-said-to-plan-pressing-u-s-on-timing-of-fed-rate-increase
Treasury Imposes Sanctions on North Korea, Cutting Access to Banks   With private cybersecurity firms linking North Korea to recent computer attacks that absconded with at least $81 million, the Treasury Department moved on Wednesday to choke off Pyongyang’s remaining access to the global financial system, designating the country a “primary” money launderer.  The Treasury, employing sanctions techniques that helped pressure Iran to give up much of its nuclear program, said it would seek to impose what are known as secondary sanctions against the reclusive communist country. That means that it could cut off from the American financial system any bank or company that conducts banking transactions with Pyongyang.
As a practical matter, that would largely affect Chinese banks, which facilitate North Korea’s financial transactions with Beijing, its largest trading partner. It could also affect some institutions in the nominally autonomous Chinese regions of Macau and Hong Kong, as well as in Singapore, where Pyongyang has often gone to hide the true nature of its banking activities, and to pay for missiles, nuclear fuel and the huge infrastructure it has built around those programs.
The designation, officials said, was in the works long before evidence emerged linking the country’s aggressive hackers to the bank thefts, which involved stealing the credentials that banks use to access the Swift system, a global network that thousands of financial firms use to authorize payments from one account to another. In interviews, administration officials said . . .   In this case, the sanctions were proposed most immediately because of a Treasury investigation that concluded North Korea uses hard currency to finance its nuclear and missile programs. The department invoked a section of the Patriot Act to ban banks from processing any banking transaction that runs through North Korea.   . . .  http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/02/world/asia/treasury-imposes-sanctions-...
 
Hour Three
Wednesday   1 June  2016 / Hour 3, Block A:  Monica Crowley, Fox, & Washington Times Online opinion editor; in re: The theory of the Democratic puzzle is that he Obamas and Clintons loathe each other to a huge degree; plus ideological dimension – In the 1990s Bill Clinton was a pragmatic, Blue-Dog centrist Democrat.  When he ran, he dragged the Dems from the radical left to the center; was rewarded by being elected twice.   Today’s Democratic Party is Mr Obama’s, moved back to the radical left.   He will not allow the Party to return to the hands of the Clintons as he doesn't trust them any direction. He needs a successor he can control, and who’ll carry on his revolution, and someone who won’t investigate the disasters of the last eight years – health care, immigrati0n, Benghazi, Fast and Furious many; he’s stopped  the investigations he didn't want.  The compbinati0n of personal and ideological animus suggests that Mrs Clinton will go down in flames, whereas Mr Biden could hold the course, and at his age he’ll be one term; and last August he met secretly with Elizabeth Warren, who’d be a perfect sequel to Mr Obama.  As this theory is speculated on very widely, note no disagreement from Biden or Warren. Now seems to be assented to by Steve Forbes, Doug Schoen, John Fund, and others.  As everyone attacks Trump, no one rides to Mrs Clinton’s defense.  The dog that doesn’t bark.  (1 of 4)
Wednesday   1 June  2016 / Hour 3, Block B:  Monica Crowley, Fox, & Washington Times Online opinion editor; in re:  Emails Block Clinton Pivot to the Positive   “Close allies of Hillary Clinton are encouraging the Democratic front-runner to spend less time honing her attacks on Donald Trump — and more time focusing on a clear and positive message about her own campaign,” Politico reports.  “But the State Department inspector general’s report released last week has thrown an email-shaped roadblock into Clinton’s path as she attempts to whittle down her high negative ratings. And that has complicated the already difficult task of reshaping perceptions about a universally-known candidate.” (2 of 4)
Wednesday   1 June  2016 / Hour 3, Block C:  Monica Crowley, Fox, & Washington Times Online opinion editor; in re: Donald Trump is the Trump campaign. H’;s a master at getting the media to pay attention, has no ground game Does He need money, and traditional organization, esp in swing states (esp Ohio and Pennsylvania; maybe Florida);  get-out-the-vote, and data analytics - need boatloads of money to do these.  Blue states?  New Jersey poll: Trump vs Clinton, within 4 points in New Jersey!  Hasn't voted GOP since Reagan or 1988.   Very expensive media markets.  I calculate that he needs $5 million a day for 120 days,. Is there another way to do this?  I don’t know.  Hos first major fundraiser , in California, brought in $6 mil (Carl Icahn is a major supporter).  Momentum for Trump.  . . .  (3 of 4)
Wednesday   1 June  2016 / Hour 3, Block D: Monica Crowley, Fox, & Washington Times Online opinion editor (4 of 4)
 
Hour Four
Wednesday   1 June  2016 / Hour 4, Block A:   The Battle for Hell's Island: How a Small Band of Carrier Dive-Bombers Helped Save Guadalcanal, by Stephen L. Moore.
From the author of Pacific Payback comes the gripping true story of the Cactus Air Force and how this rugged crew of Dive-Bombers helped save Guadalcanal and won the war.
November 1942: Japanese and American forces have been fighting for control of Guadalcanal, a small but pivotal island in Japan’s expansion through the South Pacific. Both sides have endured months of grueling battle under the worst circumstances: hellish jungles, meager rations, and tropical diseases, which have taken a severe mental and physical toll on the combatants. The Japanese call Guadalcanal Jigoku no Jima—Hell's Island.
Amid a seeming stalemate, a small group of U.S. Navy dive bombers are called upon to help determine the island's fate. The men have until recently been serving in their respective squadrons aboard the USS Lexington and the USS Yorktown, fighting in the thick of the Pacific War's aerial battles. Their skills have been honed to a fine edge, even as injury and death inexorably have depleted their ranks. When their carriers are lost, many of the men end up on the USS Enterprise. Battle damage to that carrier then forces them from their home at sea to operating from Henderson Field, a small dirt-and-gravel airstrip on Guadalcanal.
With some Marine and Army Air Force planes, they help form the Cactus Air Force, a motley assemblage of fliers tasked with holding the line while making dangerous flights from their jungle airfield. Pounded by daily Japanese air assaults, nightly warship bombardments, and sniper attacks from the jungle, pilots and gunners rarely last more than a few weeks before succumbing to tropical ailments, injury, exhaustion, and death. But when the Japanese launch a final offensive to take the island once and for all, these dive-bomber jocks answer the call of duty—and try to perform miracles in turning back an enemy warship armada, a host of fighter planes, and a convoy of troop transports.
A remarkable story of grit, guts, and heroism, The Battle for Hell's Island reveals how command of the South Pacific, and the outcome of the Pacific War, depended on control of a single dirt airstrip—and the small group of battle-weary aviators sent to protect it with their lives. (1 of 8)
Wednesday   1 June  2016 / Hour 4, Block B:  The Battle for Hell's Island: How a Small Band of Carrier Dive-Bombers Helped Save Guadalcanal, by Stephen L. Moore. (2 of 8)
Wednesday   1 June  2016 / Hour 4, Block C: The Battle for Hell's Island: How a Small Band of Carrier Dive-Bombers Helped Save Guadalcanal, by Stephen L. Moore.  (3 of 8)
Wednesday   1 June  2016 / Hour 4, Block D: The Battle for Hell's Island: How a Small Band of Carrier Dive-Bombers Helped Save Guadalcanal, by Stephen L. Moore.  (4 of 8)
..  ..  ..