Photo, left: 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts: Gordon Chang, Forbes.com. Steve Herman, VOA Asia. Dr. David M. Livingston, The Space Show.
 
Hour One
Wednesday   2 December 2015  / Hour 1, Block A:    James Holmes, professor of strategy at the Naval War College and a former surface warfare officer, in re: Japan could make a fairly good showing if it had to: personnel, men, seamanship, tactical capacity: all in favor of Japan.  Rules of engagement are probably restrictive to avoid an inadvertent conflict. Japanese and Chinese coast guard ships in close proximity daily.   Nov 2013 ADIZ asserts sovereignty over Senkakus – no consultation with regional nations. Most unhappy.  Current Chinese flights trying to stir up trouble:  working to out the onus on the Japanese navy to make the first move. http://www.dw.com/en/japan-may-deploy-troops-missiles-near-disputed-islands/a-18886571 ; http://news.yahoo.com/large-chinese-military-fleet-flies-near-japan-islands-035354583.html
Wednesday   2 December 2015  / Hour 1, Block B: Christian Johnson, film producer, in re:  a documentary about Tibet, State of Control, which will premier in San Francisco tomorrow; also Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founder of Crowdstrike Inc, [a cybersecurity firm] whose interview is featured in the documentary.  We had to take small cameras and act as tourists; filmed break-ins, intimidations, extremely negative deeds.  . . .    Chinese mil intell is extremely aggressive.  Doesn't the Chinese govt basically own the Tibetan govt in exile in Dharamsala?  Operation Ghostnet, found in 2009: a lot of computers used by HH the Dalai Lama were penetrated; with malicious code, could turn on microcameras and microphones.  While we were out of our hotel room, Chinese broke in every day, hacked our associates worldwide, left a low dose of strychnine in food for us. Not to kill, but to intimidate.
Wednesday   2 December 2015  / Hour 1, Block C: Anatoly Zak, Russian Space Web and Russia Explored, in re: the new cold war, but watch low-Earth orbit. Is Russia reviving the early-warning satellite system?  Came into fruition a few days ago: warn Russian govt of incoming missile, or any heat event (Infrared telescope: fire, jet engine, etc.). Could see planes  - e.g., Su-24, in Syria.  Sats probably in geostationary orbit.  . . . Dual-purpose spacecraft. Also openly mil launches, and soon a proton launch: data – surveillance, related s them to ground control Important for battle. Coming: Baitorak – agreement between Russia and Kazakhstan in 2004: bld a lunch pad for new-gen Angara rocket.  Was to be exclusively for commercial missions & Kaz wd help pay.  . . . Russia proposes returning to the Moon in 20122: Russian mil probably wd prefer the money be spent on communications and practical matters.  Worse, the project was designed before the current economic problem.  Human flight requires a destination. Europe and Russia have similar problems . . . Recall Rosetta, which just landed on a comet.  If Europe and Russia can join forces and budgets, it'd make sense. 
Wednesday   2 December 2015  / Hour 1, Block D: Steve Herman, VOA Asia, and Ian-Benjamin Herman, in re: Japan is in an aecon0mic funk; Shinzo Abe was to have cured this – the three arrows in his quiver – and no third arrow [reform: cleaning up the gangs & corruption]. Japanese society can't sallow this bitter a pill; the only way to clear up the economic problem is to let in massive immigration, which Japanese won't.  "Demographics are so awful that the last Japanese person dies in the Third Millennium."  Substantial change in Japan has always been the result of a cataclysm – the Black Ships, WWII.  In Japan, 83% of employers say they're struggling to employ people; cf. global number of 38%. Could, for example, hire Chinese citizens for service workers.  Filipina nurses can barely manage to get licensed in Japan.  Ruth Benedict, Chrysanthemum and the Sword.   Japanese people are welcoming to you as a guest, but don't stick around too long. The Diet. The Ji-ey-dai (self-defense forces.)  The only reason we see potential militarism in Japan is Chinese provocations. Japan frankly wants nothing more than good trading relations.
Hour Two
Wednesday   2 December 2015  / Hour 2, Block A:  Anne Stevenson Yang, co-founder of J Capital Research in Beijing and author of China Alone: The Emergence from, and Potential Return to Isolation, in re:  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-30/imf-backs-yuan-in-reserve-currency-club-after-rejection-in-2010 ; http://www.wsj.com/articles/renminbi-slips-slightly-on-news-of-inclusion-in-imf-currency-basket-1448908044
Wednesday   2 December 2015  / Hour 2, Block B: Cleo Paskal, Visiting Trudeau Fellow, University of Montreal's Center for International Studies and Associate Fellow, Chatham House, in re:  https://www.minnpost.com/foreign-concept/2015/12/why-india-key-player-paris-climate-talks ; http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-on-day-2-of-climate-summit-india-holds-its-ground-2150963
Wednesday   2 December 2015  / Hour 2, Block C:  Dr. Haroro J. Ingram, Research Fellow, Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, Australian National University (Canberra), in re: Strategy of ISIS containment began to emerge – unfortunately, may have given time for it to dvp stronger support. Fundamental Western misunderstandings of ISIS: assumption that it was territory-based, but in fact it's an insurgency and needs space and time. Containment helped ISIS dvp stronger ties in ___ areas and increase its influence regionally & nationally.
A more direct approach – go straight to destroy, hold the degrade – would have helped, but the local actors need to be more responsible for what's happening in their own backyard. Need more heavy lifting from them.
In sum: somebody should have acted faster. "Degrade and destroy" and "containment" assumed that ISIS depended on coercion, but it's a lot more complex than that. Now we see blowback from strategic missteps. Al Qaeda is in competition, has commanders on battlefields, etc, and makes ISIS look less accomplished. In Australia: a perpetual possibility in this type of conflict that _. . . Al Q and its franchises are playing a stronger, more strategic long game (ISIS is more boom-and-bust).  As vacuums are created, e.g., in Syria as oppo forces are weakened, or ISIS is weakened, there's always potential for another group to enter and take advantage, or for breakaway groups to start. 
Unfortunately, we've taken our eyes of al Q – are focused myopically on one threat at a time.   In any war, proportionality matters; is  ISIS a threat to the US? Not really, nor to Europe or Australia. We need to be sober and calculating in understanding this.  My  fear is that we're helping to perpetuate the problem by inflating the threat posed by this group; we must be careful not to fuel IS propaganda. Australia has had several plots this year but the govt is working carefully.
http://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australian_outlook/the-war-on-islamic-state-after-paris-a-strategy-remaining-and-expanding/ ; https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2015/10/14/what-analysis-of-the-islamic-states-messaging-keeps-missing/
Wednesday   2 December 2015  / Hour 2, Block D:  Bill McGurn, WSJ Editorial, in re: Chris Christie's Second Wind
Hour Three
Wednesday   2 December 2015  / Hour 3, Block A:  Monica Crowley, Fox News and Washington Times, in re: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-34989302 ; http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007698
Wednesday   2 December 2015  / Hour 3, Block B: Monica Crowley, Fox News and Washington Times, in re: Erdogan uses his F-16 to shoot down Russian Su-24 when both planes are in Syrian air space.  In effect a proxy hot war between the US and Russia – this is grave.  . . . 
Wednesday   2 December 2015  / Hour 3, Block C: Monica Crowley, Fox News and Washington Times, in re:  Chris Christie always was a larger-than-life character who spake the truth, and pushed back at enemies, the press, whatever. Trump has grabbed that mantle, but if Trump falters there's a big opportunity for Christie and also for Cruz.  If you put a man at he top of the ticket, can he deliver his own state?  Nope.   Jersey votes blue at the presidential level. . . . on any given day, I count around fifteen large guns along my daily commute.  We're well protected.
Wednesday   2 December 2015  / Hour 3, Block D: Monica Crowley, Fox News and Washington Times, in re: Mrs Clinton's thousands and thousands of emails. Vetted once, twice, thrice, by discerning eyes She's exceedingly concerned about how she looks; less about getting it right. Note FDR and Jimmy Walker.  . . . With Mrs C, we know she's a liar; what we might as well focus on is competence. 
Hour Four
Wednesday   2 December 2015  / Hour 4, Block A: Claude Berubé, author and Navy intell, in re:  Syren's Song: A Connor Stark Novel, and lawlessness of the Indian Ocean Basin, fragility of governance there, and inability if the US to project power thereupon.  US has 274 battle force ships; Indian Ocean is an enormous space. It's not just pirates operating there; it's national states profiting: smuggling, drugs, weapons, fish, everything,   China is there; playing the long game slow and very steady. Flotillas: supply ship for 6 mos + destroyer + frigate. Islands: Chinese arches – turns out to be cricket stadium: Chinese bring in engineers to make friends; these islands all just switched allegiance form Taiwan to Mainland for UN voting.   (1)
Wednesday   2 December 2015  / Hour 4, Block B: Claude Berubé, author and Navy intell, in re:  Syren's Song: A Connor Stark Novel, and lawlessness of the Indian Ocean Basin, fragility of governance there, and inability if the US to project power thereupon. (2)
Wednesday   2 December 2015  / Hour 4, Block C: John Avlon, Daily Beast, in re:  Trump Threatens Ransom for Next Debate Appearance https://politicalwire.com/2015/12/01/trump-threatens-ransom-for-next-debate-appearance/ …‬ via @politicalwire‬ ; Taegan Goddard ‏@politicalwire :  Even a Trump Loss Is a Trump Win http://buff.ly/1O1w1gX‬
Wednesday   2 December 2015  / Hour 4, Block D:   David Davenport,  , in re: http://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddavenport/2015/12/01/presentism-the-dangerous-virus-spreading-across-college-campuses/