Photo, left: 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts: Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, the Great Voice of the Great Lakes, and Gordon Chang, Forbes.com
 
Hour One
Wednesday 14 June 2017 / Hour 1, Block A:  Thaddeus McCotter, in re: Rep Steve Scalise shot in an early-morning Congressional baseball practice game in Alexandria, Virginia.   Too many people have abstracted violence and lost track of real violence.  Do Congressmen need additional special security?  That adds one extra layer between the Representative and the sovereign people he represents. 
Wednesday 14 June 2017 / Hour 1, Block B: Sung-Yoon Lee, professor at The Fletcher School at Tufts University, in re:  Dennis Rodman and Otto Warmbier. A student, Otto Warmbier, was held prisoner n North Korea in a coma for over a year, from March 2016.  DPRK claimed the coma was the result of botulism poisoning.  A break in pattern as it was overt cruelty  A Christian pastor was grabbed and tortured, incl sexually tortured.   There are still three US citizens and six South Koreans being held there. 
Yesterday morning Dennis Rodman was mocked for going to North Korea, then Otto Warmbier’s condition was publicized.  Rodman has held Kim’s baby daughter in his arms, did not as of then have a male heir.  Human rights, deliberate mass starvation, crimes against humanity. 
DPRK threatens a sixth nuclear test and continues to shoot out missiles.  Signals: DPRK continues to  behave as it has for decades, according to its own schedule irrespective of Chinese (its chief enabler) pressure.  First-veer summit between the new ROK president and Pres Trump in late June: note the last decades of failed policy vis-à-vis North Korea, and that South Korea has recently given $4.4 billion of unrestricted aid. 
Wednesday 14 June 2017 / Hour 1, Block C: Kelley Currie, senior Fellow with the Project 2049 Institute, in re: One Belt, One Road [revived Silk Road; to all of Asia, to Africa and Europe] and Southeast Asia, in re: Bump in the road.  One belt. One Road is a huge project, a philosophical and ideological exercise as much as an economic one: the Chinese dream, restoration of China to its proper place at the center of Asia, a Sinocentric order, and pushing US and Western influence to the edges.  Trying to export China’s development model to other countries—state-owned enterprises, ignoring local peoples as projects run through their territory. People fight back. Democratizing Burma; Rakhine State, oil and gas pipelines to port. Landgrabs, disregarding local opinion, coopting local elites, propaganda.  Not smooth.  Also trouble in  Pakistan as ISIS killer attack Chinese workers.  Problems in Burma? Wait’ll you get to the Middle East.
China trying to build a dam in Burma, awaiting approval.   . . .  Really?  Have they ever heard of an environmental study?  In fact, there are multiple dam projects planned for Burma, which desperately needs electricity.  Working to win over Aung San Suu Kyi’s party. People demanding transparency and accountability. Not congenial to Beijing, which always blames foreigners, esp US and other Western powers.  https://www.the-american-interest.com/2017/06/11/chinas-belt-and-road-hi...
 
Wednesday 14 June 2017 / Hour 1, Block D:  Elin Suleymanov, Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the United States,  in re:  . . .  61 % of Azerbaijani labor force is women, including in the professions. Pres Aliyev met with Pres Rouhani anent a railroad bridge from Azerbaijan to Iran. 
 
Hour Two
Wednesday 14 June 2017 / Hour 2, Block A:  Andy McCarthy, in re; the political climate in Washington, and mishandlig of the investigation by the Trump Adm. (part 1 of 2)
Wednesday 14 June 2017 / Hour 2, Block B:   Andy McCarthy, in re; the political climate in Washington, and mishandlig of the investigation by the Trump Adm. (part 2 of 2)
Wednesday 14 June 2017 / Hour 2, Block C:  Gregory R Copley, Defense and Foreign Affairs, in re: Qatar.  Saudi Arabia and Qatar aren't ready to sit down and talk.  Secy Tillerson’s approach is at variance – at odds – with Pres Trump’s.   Obama Adm wanted an in to Sunni organizations, incl Muslim Brotherhood, al Qaeda, Da’ish.  Qatar and Turkey wanted to use MB and Da’ish to further its [power] against Saudi Arabia, a long-term adversary.  Saudis in dire straights , failed in relations with Russia, desperately needed US to back it up, esp in Yemen. So when US said, cut off Qatar’s funding of terrorist groups, Saudis agreed.  Iran saw an opening in Sunni states’s armor and so jumped in to ally [even more] with Qatar.  Recall also Hamas in Gaza; all of them anti-Egyptian. Iran wants to get in to Somalia, Eritrea, and East Africa; big rivalry between the Saudi-led coalition and the Qatar-Turkey dyad.  The real pressure is, will Turkey allow Qatar to negotiate with its antagonists? Turkey now has no strength to do anything anywhere – Pres Erdogan neutered Turkey’s armed forces in order to get rid of all possible domestic political opposition.  Unlikely to led to armed conflict in the near future; look to a strengthening of Iran-Qatar ties as Iran sends much-needed food to Qatar. 
Wednesday 14 June 2017 / Hour 2, Block D: Gregory R Copley, Defense and Foreign Affairs, in re: Europe. Supercities, megacities, gather the best unto themselves  but depend on exogenous sources, e.g., water.  The real war under way around the world aren’t “good TV” – not formal clashes, but the war within civilizations, in cultures. Passionate.  Civilizations have already gone in to abeyance to some degree; hallmark of civilization is quantification, legalization, structure.  Western civ now proceeding on autopilot; the structures are eroding civilization. Clash ‘twixt urban and regional cultures. Theresa May: should have got back in to the debate and didn't. Saml Huntington’s clash of civilizations – so simplistic!  Note break-up of Yugoslavia.  The killings we saw in Virginia this morning was the impassioned clash. Civilizations function on law; cultures function on lore. Cultures are in the ascendancy right now.  
 
Hour Three
Wednesday 14 June 2017 / Hour 3, Block A: Lara M Brown, in re: Washington shooting; the Scalise tragedy. Partisanship.
Wednesday 14 June 2017 / Hour 3, Block B: Peter Berkowitz, Hoover, in re: Elites vs populists; Washington .
Wednesday 14 June 2017 / Hour 3, Block C:  Mark Skousen, economist and fonder of Freedom Fest, in re: Freedom Fest in Las Vegas.
Wednesday 14 June 2017 / Hour 3, Block D:  Ken Croswell, in re: Stars
 
Hour Four
Wednesday 14 June 2017 / Hour 4, Block A: Andrew Roberts, Napoleon Part III
Wednesday 14 June 2017 / Hour 4, Block B: Andrew Roberts, Napoleon  Part III
Wednesday 14 June 2017 / Hour 4, Block C:  Thomas Reiss, The Black Count (part II of 2)
Wednesday 14 June 2017 / Hour 4, Block D:  Thomas Reiss, The Black Count (part II of 2)
..  ..  ..