The John Batchelor Show

Wednesday 10 May 2017

Air Date: 
May 10, 2017

Photo, left: Taipei, Taiwan.
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
 
Co-hosts: Gordon Chang, Forbes.com & Daily Beast. Dr. David M. Livingston, The Space Show.
 
Hour One
Wednesday   10 May 2017  /Hour 1, Block A:  Jean Lee, global Fellow at the Wilson Center & based in Seoul; in re:  the South Korean election.
Wednesday   10 May 2017  /Hour 1, Block B:  David An, senior research Fellow at the Global Taiwan Institute & formerly at State; in re:  a billion dollars’ worth of arms sales intended. Other places may have peace via more tranquil means but because of its location, Taiwan needs to have peace through strength. US official policy on arms sales to Taiwan in to do this independently of China’s reaction.   Sen Gardner of Colorado is among those strongly in favor of selling advanced arms to Taiwan.  House Committees are very forward-looking; Executive perhaps less so.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/taiwan-arms-deal-in-limbo-as-trump-courts-china/2017/05/07/37ee5654-31ba-11e7-8674-437ddb6e813e_story.html
Wednesday   10 May 2017  /Hour 1, Block C: Michael Auslin, Director of Japan Studies at AEI, & author, The End of the Asian Century; in re: Moon Jae-in, just-elected president of South Korea, defers  to China and hopes to take over operational control of defense and joint US-ROK military event of war.    US has no Asst Secy of State or of Defense – gravely needed to protect general US interest there, and more specifically peace on the peninsula. Beijing demands (in effect) South Korean obeisance; yet the harder it pushes, the more push-back it’ll probably encounter from Koreans. “who are no pushovers.”
Wednesday   10 May 2017  /Hour 1, Block D:  Michael Auslin, Director of Japan Studies at AEI, & author, The End of the Asian Century; in re: the Philippines, Duterte.  He boasts of extrajudicial killings (that he, himself, did) and other “concerning” matters.  Smooth move for Trump to try to repair the relations that Obama obliterated. And removed US access to bases there.  Note that China also does state-sanctioned killings; Tibetans, Uyghurs, democracy activists, and mass mass deaths by obligatory abortions.  PRC demanded that the US fire PACOM commander Harry Harris or “there’ll be no cooperation [anent] North Korea”  is dumbfounding.   Because his mother is Japanese and his father a US military man, China holds that his firmness against Beijing’s relations are based on his “blood.”  [[Americans are astounded; send these unelected tyrants of Beijing a set of sheets to wear at night.]]
 
Hour Two
Wednesday   10 May 2017  /Hour 2, Block A:  Sue Mi Terry, managing director at Bower Group Asia, formerly Senior Analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency, in re:  When Moon goes to Washington, how will each president handle it?  South Koreans are eager to have a correct relationship between the two; Moon may focus on good chemistry; populace even thinking of deliverables. Nonetheless, US and ROK have different policies.  Moon appointing former Sunshine Policy people; one is a fluent Japanese-speaker, which is good.  Japan and ROK are not treaty allies with each other, only each one with the US.  http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/05/10/will-election-of-s-korea-leftist-derail-trump-s-n-korea-policy.html
Wednesday   10 May 2017  /Hour 2, Block B:  Charles Ortel, private investor and writer, in re:  China’s unimaginably huge debt load – and still no Plan B.   From 2007 to 2009, global crisis was papered over.  China cannot grow out of its problems by exporting: the world is no longer buying, and the Chinese domestic market is small. Sword of Damocles over the world economy.   . . . As  the European experiment unwinds, will create a bid for US stability.  Probably respite in the US, but likely not for China or the smaller European nations.   No visible growth engine worldwide.   http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/economy-budget/332505-china-is-far-away-but-its-bursting-bubble-will-hit-close-to    .  https://www.ft.com/content/947e751f-c9d7-37f6-bf7b-8843da41e258
Wednesday   10 May 2017  /Hour 2, Block C:  Dr. William J. Murphy, New England Institute of Technology, in re: Japan wants to buy cruise missiles; is this good for Abe at home –that the Civil Defense Forces want to have these?  Yes. 
Wednesday   10 May 2017  /Hour 2, Block D:  Gordon Chang, Forbes.com & Daily Beast; in re: Pres Moon’s appeasement of DPRK and China.   From 1998 to 2997 Sunshine Policy.
South Korean agreements with Japan: Sharing of mil intell and comfort woman agreements:  Moon may tear these up, will try to shovel money into North Korea; and every such dollar relieves China of a dollar’s worth of support.  Eventually Trump will see that either China can't or won't help with North Korea; then he’ll solve it by himself and re-evaluate defense of Taiwan. 
 
Hour Three
Wednesday   10 May 2017  /Hour 3, Block A:  Monica Crowley, Senior Fellow, London Center for Policy Research; in re:  Pennsylvania senator’s “This is Nixonian” in reference to Comey’s firing.  Then the Nixon Library began to troll Democrats who used the phrase inaccurately, and corrected the statements.   Even Clapper has said, “No evidence of collusion.’
New Yorker magazine regularly calls Pres Trump a despot: because he’s an alien organism injected into the American body politic by American voters to  reform the system.  The [entire elite], incl  the deep state, are trying to get rid of him because he’s GOP, a billionaire, and esp
Wednesday   10 May 2017  /Hour 3, Block B:  Josh Rogin, WaPo, in re: Sen McCain’s clear concerns about the Comey firing and citizens’s sentiments on the purported Russian interference. 
McCain sees the Russia investigation as a centipede. @JoshRogin   “This scandal is going to go on. I’ve seen it before,” McCain told a meeting of the Munich Security Conference core group. “This is a centipede. I guarantee you there will be more shoes to drop, I can just guarantee it. There’s just too much information that we don’t have that will be coming out.”
He called Trump’s actions against Comey “unprecedented” and said the position of FBI director has held special meaning in American public life dating back decades.
“I remember the Saturday Night Massacre,” McCain told the mostly European and American guests, referring to the 1973 incident when President Nixon fired the special prosecutor looking into the Watergate break-in, Archibald Cox.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/josh-rogin/wp/2017/05/10/john-mccain...
..  ..  .. 
John Batchelor, in re: A new dinosaur, The Destroyer of Shins, in Montana, named after Zuul in Ghostbusters; but it was vegetarian.
This new species of dinosaur looks like Zuul from Ghostbusters  I AM BECOME ZUUL, DESTROYER OF SHINS /  http://www.popsci.com/dinosaur-zuul-ghostbusters  and  http://www.businessinsider.com/zuul-crurivastator-armored-ankylosaur-din...
Wednesday   10 May 2017  /Hour 3, Block C:  Richard A Epstein, Hoover Institution, Chicago Law, NYU Law, in re:  Oct 2, 1973: aftereffects of sudden resignation of VP; and eyes on DC for Saturday Night Massacre.  Eventually, Bork fired Cox.  Demands to impeach Pres Nixon.  . . .   July 5, 2016: Comey’s announcement – no charges vs Mrs Clinton, but an excoriation; then in October, “I’ve reopened the investigation.”  Rosenstein firing memo: part one retells the behaviors that were outside the scope of what the head of FBI may do.  . . .  Comey’s horror show over the last two years. 
Wednesday   10 May 2017  /Hour 3, Block D:  Richard A Epstein, Hoover Institution, Chicago Law, NYU Law, in re:   . . . impeachment:  Need uncontested facts; and cannot impeach without support of the president’s own party.
 
Hour Four
Wednesday   10 May 2017  /Hour 4, Block A:  Bob Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com, and author, Capitalism in Space; in re: Commercial space, international review.  Space X Falcon 9; Japan, India. 
Wednesday   10 May 2017  /Hour 4, Block B:  Bob Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com, and author, Capitalism in Space; in re: Dreaming of Mars – in Europe. 
Wednesday   10 May 2017  /Hour 4, Block C:  Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, The Great Voice of the Great Lakes; and author, Liberty Risen, @ThadMcCotter; in re:  Macombe and Wayne County do not read the New Yorker. @ThadMcCotter   At a time like this, it is important to express things plainly. On Tuesday evening, Donald Trump acted like a despot. Without warning or provocation, he summarily fired the independent-minded director of the F.B.I., James Comey. Comey had been overseeing an investigation into whether [or not] there was any collusion between Trump’s Presidential campaign and the government of Russia. With Comey out of the way, Trump can now pick his own man (or woman) to run the Bureau, and this person will have the authority to close down that investigation.
That is what has happened. It amounts to a premeditated and terrifying attack on the American system of government. Quite possibly, it will usher in a constitutional crisis. Even if it doesn’t, it represents the most unnerving turn yet in what is a uniquely unnerving Presidency.
Things like this are not supposed to happen in a liberal democracy, especially in one that takes pride, as the United States does, in safeguards put in place against the arbitrary exercise of power. The F.B.I. is meant to be an independent agency, above and beyond partisan politics and personal grudges. (That is why its directors are appointed for ten-year terms.) The President is supposed to respect this independence, especially when it comes to matters in which he has, or could have, a personal interest.
Wednesday   10 May 2017  /Hour 4, Block D:  Ken Croswell, author, The Lives of Stars, and The Alchemy of the Heavens: Searching for meaning in the Milky Way; and Science Magazine, in re:
 
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