Photo, left:  See Hour 1, Block B, Stephen Yates, chairman of the Idaho Republican Party, CEO of D.C. International Advisory, and former advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney, on the latest in the Taiwan presidential election and his meeting with the frontrunner, Tsai Ing-wen, candidate of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, called the DPP.
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts: Gordon Chang, Forbes.com. Dr. David M. Livingston, The Space Show.
 
Hour One
Wednesday   14 October 2015  / Hour 1, Block A: James Holmes, professor of strategy at the Naval War College and a former surface warfare officer, in re: What we did and did not hear last night in Dem debate on China: very little. Only Jim Webb made a good effort. The Spratley Islands – constructing artificial isles and claiming territorial sovereignty therearound for twelve miles  – "the Great Wall of Sand."  US Navy launches Freedom of Navigation Operations.   China pokes everyone in the eye on this, on cybertrade, on multiple matters.   Defining the Law of the Sea in the South China Sea.   US has changed policy in face of "indisputable sovereignty over [those territories]"  Freedom of navigation has generally not been a problem; China is putting teeth into the matter by bldg airfields, et al.  "Unbridled arrogance." as China clained "innocent passage" at the Aleutians – that w so clearly bogus; UN convention says ships need to notify before exercising rights, and a bunch of other consideration.  China is working unilaterally to modify intl law - not a good idea. Second Artillery Corps – a threat to use conventional anti-ship missiles (the carrier-killer), but conceivably also nuclear – and drones.   China is convinced that kismet has US heading over and out, while China is growing up. 
    SecDef takes hard line on China. Ash Carter declared that the United States military would sail and fly wherever international law allowed, including the disputed South China Sea. Speaking at a two-day meeting between U.S. and Australian foreign and defense ministers, he declared: “Make no mistake, the United States will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows, as we do around the world, and the South China Sea will not be an exception. We will do that in the time and places of our choosing.” Now let’s see if there’s follow-through and then how the Chinese respond.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/13/world/asia/us-asia-south-china-sea-patrols.html?_r=0
Wednesday   14 October 2015  / Hour 1, Block B: Stephen Yates, chairman of the Idaho Republican Party, CEO of D.C. International Advisory, and former advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney, in re:  the latest in the Taiwan presidential election and his meeting with the frontrunner, Tsai Ing-wen, candidate of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party. Everyone in Taipei thinks TIW will win, so KMT/Pan Blue (Chiang Kai-shek's remnant crew) is now having to think how to win lesser elections, since it nominated an extremist who's gung-how to give Taiwan to Beijing./Mainland China – not attractive if you prefer not to live under a killer tyranny. KMT may actually change candidates this weekend.  So far, the DPP has never yet had a majority in the Yuan (Legislature), but may do so now.  If the KMT, current ruling party, cleaves to handing over a free democracy to an unelected tyranny, it may be voted out of power forever.  TIW won't sacrifice Taiwanese sovereignty but will promote cross-Strait relations. Presidential election on 16 Jan: will Beijing pull a fast one? Cd be Mainland influence another is nefarious Beijing influence within Taiwan – recall 2004 shootings. Beijing could [maliciously] damage Taiwanese investments in China. 
Wednesday   14 October 2015  / Hour 1, Block C: Marc D. Rayman, NASA JPL - "the boss of Ceres" - in re:  peculiar nature of this dwarf planet: one is that there are more craters than we expected; over millions of years, we thought that the considerable amount of ice would gradually be smoothed over; but not.  An impact wd form a crater, but over millions of years the material would relax to its original shape; rather, debris is accumulating and the craters are not changing in shape. Colder than we thought? Different composition?  The mysterious, glowing bright spots may be salt accretions – pointing to interior activity? If so, could be subsurface water that's made its way to the surface, was sublimated (water turned to gas) and left behind dissolved materials.  If it's seen to be salt, we may not [never?] know what kind of salt.  Note one giant mountain on Ceres, rises 20,000 feet from a plain; is strangely steep and well defined. Steep slopes go right into unremarkable ground, with bright streak going down.  We're taking pix in stereo; in December, in lower orbit, will get even better photos.  /Almost a question of philosophy: great diversity in the Solar System will (eventually) be explained.  Each Man mission adds a piece: how you go from a large, interstellar cloud of dust to one that forms a Sun in the middle and planets circling it. Vesta was said to have proto-Earth material; Ceres seems different, but bodies like it may have been part of the source of the water we have on Earth, whereas Vesta would have contributed the rocky material. 
Study suggests Ceres acts as sponge collecting asteroid impact debris  ; Pink is turning up everywhere with Ceres Fire Occator's topography, as in a technicolor dream ; http://go.nasa.gov/1P5FqZh  #NASABeyond #Ceres ; Russell also explained that the presence of salt in those bright spots would indicate that the surface of Ceres is active and that the salts are "derived from the interior somehow" rather than being carried by an asteroid that impacted Ceres in the past. He cautioned that NASA does not yet have a good understanding of how the salt gets out onto the surface, which seems to be entirely dry.; How did this mountain on #Ceres form? Still trying to figure it out.
Wednesday   14 October 2015  / Hour 1, Block D: Rick Fisher, senior Fellow, International Assessment and Strategy Center, in re:   PLA going to base an antiaircraft -HQ6 battery, short-range air-defense system, 7.5 mi range, based on an Italian based on an American design.  We're art the anniversary of h umbrella movement; an excuse to send a few hundred (a thousand) more troops on top of he 6,000 still there. Rotated every 14 mos lest they develop any local sympathies.  kept behind locked gates and fed agitprop against Hong Kong  In HK, people wear the Union Jack to say, "Things were better under the British." Trash-talk in the SCMP (South China Morning Post) an unnamed PLA source spoke of the Second Artillery Corps – the rocket corps - to intimidate the US. Is the carrier-killer (US carriers)  in the SAC? The Dong-feng 21-D, then the Dong-feng 26, which has a 4,000 km range – maneuverable: twist, turn, can mess up interception calculations by ship computers.  Rumor that they targetted an early space-tracking ship about four years ago. Not confirmed.  Slabs in China that have pockmarks showing a well-targetted slab.  US electronic warfare capabilities are extensive but unspoken. We should be sending ships there once a month or more.
 
Hour Two
Wednesday   14 October 2015  / Hour 2, Block A: Bruce Bechtol, professor at Angelo State University and author, North Korea and Regional Security in the Kim Jong-un Era, in re: the threat of North Korea and China: missiles that can do severe damage to the entire globe.  May be in ht hands of uncontrolled forces in DRPK – anniversary of the founding of the Workers' Party in DPRK:  KN08, missile with 5,600 mi range – can easily reach California, Oregon - first in 2012, then last Sat one with a longer range. The NORAD commander and the USFK commander have both testified that DOD and US intell says that it cd carry a nuclear warhead, was operational, and could hit the US.  Looks precisely like the Soviet R29R, which can reach the US. Mobile – easy to hide it. China gave DPRK the capacity to make it mobile. Gulf-class submarine (original from the Soviets) – carries a 1969-1974 carries and R29Romeo.  Cuba now sending commanders to help save Assad in Syria – but before the Russian adventure, North Korea had soldiers on the ground – as early as 2011.  they have guys at the forward edge of the battlefield firing chemical weapons, and brought the chemical munitions. Advised on how attack the civilian population. SCUDS fired w chem. warheads fired a rebels. Also, a SCUD D with longer range for Israel and 15 to 22 North Korean aviators are currently flying sorties for Assad.
. . .The capability of North Korea's KN-08 mobile missile to deliver a nuclear warhead to the continental United States.  http://freebeacon.com/national-security/admiral-north-korea-can-hit-u-s-with-long-range-nuclear-missile/
Wednesday   14 October 2015  / Hour 2, Block B: Peter Navarro, professor at the University of California, Irvine, and author of upcoming book, Crouching Tiger: What China's Militarism Means for the World, in re: what the Democratic candidates said about China during the debate. Clinton and Sanders had one-liners about Asia – while China steals our jobs then builds a war machine to kill us all.  Sanders spoke a lot about  jobs and the economy but declined to speak of China and others gaming our system  Mrs Clinton has huge liabilities as godmother of the alleged pivot to Asia – intended to move 50% of our military to Asia. Our incredibly shrinking navy – by 2020 will have a fraction of the ships.  Her husband brought China into  the WTO, we lost 50,000 factories!     War might occur from overflights of the human-built islands. In 2001 we saw Chinese planes collide and ships be [challenged?]   Ware we trading with China when it engages in unfair trade practices and use the money to build a war machine aimed at its neighbors and the US?
Wednesday   14 October 2015  / Hour 2, Block C:  Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and Dr Lara M Brown, George Washington University, in re: Democratic Debate Debrief: Bernie Sanders won a moral victory, Hillary Clinton won on points, but the real winner of the Democrats’ fist debate was Joe Biden. click her for linK Debate: Clinton shines because all the other stones are dull  Bernie Sanders won a moral victory, Hillary Clinton won on points, but the real winner of the Democrats’ first debate was Joe Biden, said Bruce Haynes, media strategist at Purple Strategies in Washington.
Clinton confidently took to the stage last night in Las Vegas with rivals Sanders, a Vermont socialist U.S. Senator, Martin O’Malley and Lincoln Chaffee, former governors of Maryland and Rhode Island respectively, and former Virginia U.S. Senator Jim Webb. “Clinton managed her way nicely through a field of lesser candidates,” said Haynes. “She showed passion at times and a greater depth on the issues than her opponents.”
But the main thing you felt watching this debate was that Hillary needs an actual opponent. “The Democratic party needs Joe Biden in this race – not because he would win, although he might, but because Clinton needs a real challenge,” said Haynes. Throughout the debate Clinton transmitted through her poise and moderate answers that she would not be challenged by the four men on stage and that she was making her argument for her general election Republican opponent. In short, she had no competition on the stage that would challenge her – great for the moment, but bad for the long game and bad for the Democrat Party as a whole. Her only stumbles were . . . [more]
Wednesday   14 October 2015  / Hour 2, Block D:  John Bolton, AEI, in re: What resources are required for our national defense? In addition to political will and determination, America needs the resources necessary to match its strategic priorities. While aggregate federal spending must be dramatically reduced, the reality is that Obama has slashed military and intelligence spending catastrophically, gravely impairing our defense capabilities. Even as a new president cuts domestic spending to acceptable levels, military and intelligence spending must rise significantly and urgently, as with Ronald Reagan in 1981. Rhetoric is costless, but budget allocations are scored in hard dollars.

Many important issues face America but 2016 voters should not give presidential candidates a second look if they cannot persuasively answer national security questions like these.   read this article online
 
Hour Three
Wednesday   14 October 2015  / Hour 3, Block A:  Monica Crowley, Washington Examiner and Fox, in re: The Debate Lesson: America Now Has an Openly Socialist [Democratic] Party. Sure, this batch of candidates sounded like a bunch of loons. They contended socialism is mostly about standing up to the richest one percent and promoting entrepreneurs and small business; climate change is the biggest national security threat facing the nation; college educations should be free for everyone; all lives don’t matter, black lives do; Obama is simultaneously an enormously successful president in managing the economy and the middle class is collapsing and there’s a need for a “New New Deal” which is in fact an Old Old Idea, considering how FDR called for a Second New Deal in 1935. The audience in Nevada applauded higher taxes, believes that Hillary Clinton doesn’t need to answer any more questions, supports the complete shutdown of the NSA domestic surveillance program, and that Obamacare benefits should be extended to illegal immigrants. There are kindergarten classes with more realistic assessments of cost-benefit tradeoffs than the crowd watching this debate at the Wynn Las Vegas. So yes, the candidates sounded like hard-Left, pie-in-the-sky, free-ice-cream-for-everyone, Socialist pander bears. But they do so because that is what the Democratic Party’s primary voters demand. Don’t blame them; blame the party rank-and-file that craves these promises, rhetoric, and worldview. With that in mind, Hillary Clinton is the class of the field on that stage, and the only real obstacle to the nomination that remains is a Joe Biden bid. Compared with everyone else, she’s polished and knows what she’s doing. Even when she’s being robotic and inauthentic, she’s remembering her talking points, pivoting to her preferred issues. The software upgrades to her personality may look awkward when she’s alone, but she’s still a much, much better candidate than anybody else on that stage. Sure, she was duplicitous, but she’s a Clinton; that’s baked in the cake — for example Hillary said during the debate she had hoped that the Trans Pacific Partnership would be the gold standard; in her book, she said it was the gold standard. . . .[more]
Wednesday   14 October 2015  / Hour 3, Block B: Monica Crowley, Washington Examiner and Fox, in re: With that in mind, Hillary Clinton is the class of the field on that stage, and the only real obstacle to the nomination that remains is a Joe Biden bid. Compared with everyone else, she’s polished and knows what she’s doing. Even when she’s being robotic and inauthentic, she’s remembering her talking points, pivoting to her preferred issues. The software upgrades to her personality may look awkward when she’s alone, but she’s still a much, much better candidate than anybody else on that stage. Sure, she was duplicitous, but she’s a Clinton; that’s baked in the cake — for example, Hillary said during the debate she had hoped that the Trans Pacific Partnership would be the gold standard; in her book, she said it was the gold standard.
Wednesday   14 October 2015  / Hour 3, Block C: Monica Crowley, Washington Examiner and Fox, in re: Speaker or not, Paul Ryan's career might never be the same Rep. Paul Ryan in the eye of the media storm. Regardless of his decision on the . . .
Wednesday   14 October 2015  / Hour 3, Block D: Monica Crowley, Washington Examiner and Fox, in re: Monica's very recent rip to Auschwitz and Birkenau. The persecution of Israel today – miserably consistent with the persecution of Jews seventy years go.
 
Hour Four
Wednesday   14 October 2015  / Hour 4, Block A: American Warlords: How Roosevelt's High Command Led America to Victory in World War II, by Jonathan W. Jordan PART III of III. (1 of 4)
Wednesday   14 October 2015  / Hour 4, Block B: American Warlords: How Roosevelt's High Command Led America to Victory in World War II, by Jonathan W. Jordan PART III of III. (2 of 4)
Wednesday   14 October 2015  / Hour 4, Block C: American Warlords: How Roosevelt's High Command Led America to Victory in World War II, by Jonathan W. Jordan PART III of III. (3 of 4)
Wednesday   14 October 2015  / Hour 4, Block D: American Warlords: How Roosevelt's High Command Led America to Victory in World War II, by Jonathan W. Jordan PART III of III. (4 of 4)