Photo, left: 
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
 
Co-hosts: Gordon Chang, Forbes.com & Daily Beast. Dr. David M. Livingston, The Space Show.
 
Hour One
Wednesday  2 November 2016 / Hour 1, Block A: Bob Collins, 37-year veteran adviser to the Department of Defense, and author of the just-released Pyongyang Republic: North Korea's Capital of Human Rights Denial, in re: Pres Pak scandal: normal for RoK; she probably won't resign.  North Korea is happy to hammer on the scandal.  DPRK: needs a lot of live-fire exercise – C2, and to establish a system. They have three levels:  the commander, the political ofcr, and the security ofcr. Most Musudans tested so far have not been very long-range; the upcoming one may be very long-range; have sold them to Iran and tested them there.http://www.stripes.com/news/report-north-korean-missile-launch-coming-within-days-1.436970 ; http://www.wsj.com/articles/south-korean-president-names-new-prime-minister-and-two-cabinet-ministers-1478051200
Wednesday  2 November 2016 / Hour 1, Block B:  Rick Fisher, senior Fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center, in re: . . . Chinese appear to be on their way; Russia and China are swiftly dvpg counter-stealth: radar satellite, airborne sensors, and long-range ______ Missiles. We need a 6th gen fighter, need an F22B!  China will bld at least 200   ___; Chengdu & Shengyang:  latter already being mktd in model form; are issuing specs.
J24 has long-range capability: to attack US air power at long range, and can attack ships at long range; will carry the fight out into the Second Island Chain. Contest the Eastern Pacific well into the 21st Century. Right now, J20 engine isn't quite strong enough, so we still have maybe five years in which the US can start to dvp a more advanced F35, or take a long look at the the Raptor.
Escalation under way, arms race in the air is advanced; also at sea, underwater, and in outer space. Look at the J20 and the F22.
We spent the peace dividend.   
http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/01/asia/china-j-20-stealth-fighter-introduction/  Scenes from the ongoing Zhuhai Airshow.  Sina.com catches the Saudi delegation visiting and sitting down to talk to the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation  (CASIC).  First they walk by the display . . . the DF-41 size KZ-11 solid fuel mobile space launch vehicle . . .  and the CM-302 supersonic anti ship missile.  What will they buy next?  Who knows.  
Wednesday  2 November 2016 / Hour 1, Block C: Edward Wong, New York Times, in re:  Twenty per cent of China is desert.
China calls them “ecological migrants”: 329,000 people whom the government had relocated from lands distressed by climate change, industrialization, poor policies and human activity to 161 hastily-built villages. They were the fifth wave in an environmental and poverty alleviation program that has resettled 1.14 million residents of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, a territory of dunes and mosques and camels along the ancient Silk Road. (1 of 2)
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/10/24/world/asia/living-in-chinas-expanding-deserts.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fearth&action=click&contentCollection=earth&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0 ; https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/20...
Wednesday  2 November 2016 / Hour 1, Block D:  Edward Wong, New York Times, in re:  China calls them “ecological migrants”: 329,000 people whom the government relocated from lands distressed by climate change, industrialization, poor policies and human activity to 161 hastily-built villages. (2 of 2)
 
Hour Two
Wednesday  2 November 2016 / Hour 2, Block A:  Peter Navarro, senior policy advisor to the Trump campaign,  and Alex Gray, senior defense advisor to the Trump campaign, in re: the latest on the South China Sea.
In Beijing, Najib of Malaysia being feted by Xi.  In a Trump administration, US response to China’s predation:  Carry a big stick (rebld our Navy, which is at smallest since WWI)l; peace through strength, incl economic strength – Chinese concept of comprehensive power; Mrs Clinton’s “reset for Asia”: talked loudly and carried a small stick.
This is not essentially a question of our officers or our shps; rather, we have 272 ships, Navy says e need a bare minimum of 308 to meet current responsibilities; China is already outnumbering us in Pacific. DO we have the long-term trajectory for staying power in Asia?  Cannot do that at present Current president and previous, Mr Bush, lacked political will.
Mrs Clinton and her asst Kurt Campbell: when China went onto Scarborough Shoal, they decided to broker a “peace deal” and the moment the Philippines backed off China lunged in again and seized the Shoal.  Today’s Filipino president is quite irate at the- the question is US will Mr Trump understands the importance of alliances.
Since 1945, US has provided a strong alliance for our Asian allies; Mr Trump asks about our allies’ maintaining the troops and tens of billions of dollars’ worth of technology, Cruisers, destroyers, space-based ___; Trump raising question of how much host govts pay to sustain the operation f/b/o all.  When Pres Trump allocates the money to upgrade the entire system, that will reassure our allies as words never could.
Wednesday  2 November 2016 / Hour 2, Block B: Peter Navarro, senior policy advisor to the Trump campaign,  and Alex Gray, senior defense advisor to the Trump campaign, in re: Trump's military and China policies, including: Since the day Xi got himself elected by a fe people at the top of he elite structure, all he‘s done is try to consolidate power.  China itself is running toward its own demographic and economic crisis.  Needed factors are too weak to sustain China – if China can't buy, then supplies such as Brazil and Australia are all in trouble.
Pres Trump would, in dealing with GE, for example – our recent presidents have never had the back of American corporations. Under President Trump, China will respect strength; they emphatically do not respect weakness. 
The Chinese J20, with [somewhat underpowered] Russian engine but otherwise totally Lockheed . . .   IP theft is a long-term struggle for everybody.  US needs a serious strategy: industrial-based, defense strategy. Consider the 1990s under Clinton: he acquiesced to a certain amt of Chinese industrial espionage – “boys will be boys,” blasé. Quite inappropriate. Given the J20, and undersea elements, and the PLA infantry platoons equipment and materiel –all swiped from the US— it’s unacceptable. We’re already in a trade war, which began in 2001 when Clinton shoehorned China into the WTO. We lost 70,000 factories and countless jobs.
What we need to do is trade freely and fairly.
https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/trump-pledges-350-ship-navy-support-for-critical-facilities-like-portsmouth ; http://www.voanews.com/a/3575573.html   
Wednesday  2 November 2016 / Hour 2, Block C:  Peter Navarro, senior policy advisor to the Trump campaign,  and Alex Gray, senior defense advisor to the Trump campaign, in re: TPP (TransPacific Partnership) will be elbowed aside by a Trump Adm.   Wd put 40% of world GDP—without China— and give the US the same voice as the Sultan of Brunei. TPP is strictly a back-room deal to contain the power of China. It's been pawned off  on Americans as a foreign policy goal. “Rules of origin”: wd allow China to go into Vietnam, run Chinese factories, then let Vietnam sell the goods in the US as Vietnamese [and thus not banned] goods, when they’re really Chinese. Mrs C promised us thousands of jobs- we lost 90K jobs incl from Michigan.
Bilateral deals: US  has bilateral negotiations directly with individual states  - not= more multilateral trade deals which have [gutted] US mfrg.
The spin is that security follows trade- but we’re the biggest trade partne n Earth. 
Ash Carter (SecDef): “I’d rather have TPP than another American aircraft carrier.” Lunacy!  We're taking economic instruments and substituting them for national power.  We cut defense spending (by sequestration)  . . . 
How about TPP plus another aircraft carrier?  Gordon – you’re assuming that TPP would be beneficial to the US – it does nothing for the American worker, for our mfrg; all it does is protect others’s markets in various ways. Trump trade doctrine: every deal has to benefit the US: must increase GDP, reduce trade deficit, and ______.
What Mrs Clinton signed in 2002 does none of those things.
Theater Missile Defense + space-based, early warning, cruisers, destroyers, et al.
In 2006, crippling sanctions on North Korea, which bought North Korea to the negotiating table. Then Washington decided to drop the sanctions, so DPRK reverted to very bad behavior.
Wd Trump put sanctions on China for its dealings with North Korea?  As far as we're concerned. DPRK is as dangerous to China as it is to the rest of the region. Trump sees opportunity:  we can work with China, if possible, on issues where we have a convergence.
Wednesday  2 November 2016 / Hour 2, Block D:  Martin Fackler,  Japan bureau chief, Reuters, in re: Return to Fukuishima. The decommissioning costs for Fukushima plant may rise significantly from less $800 million per year now, as works to remove nuclear fuel debris push up costs, the industry ministry said in documents prepared for the panel tasked with devising a viable financial plan for Tepco.
Surging costs are being addressed by the panel but it is also looking into options including a break up of Tepco, which is under state control after an earthquake and tsunami sparked meltdowns at the Fukushima reactors in March 2011.  "A combination among nuclear operators is one possibility," Yojiro Hatakeyama, a director at the industry ministry overseeing the electricity and gas industries, told reporters.
Experts say any move to merge atomic operations is likely to meet strong resistance from Japan's other nuclear operators.
Tepco has been struggling with rising costs at its Fukushima plant nearly six years after the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Hiroshige Seko, told reporters after the panel's second meeting the government will provide a firmer estimate for decommissioning costs for the nuclear plant by the end of the year.
Japan has 10 nuclear operators and all have been hit by the political fallout from the disaster, which has undermined public faith in atomic energy. All but two of Japan's 42 reactors are in shut-down mode.   http://www.reuters.com/article/us-tepco-fukushima-idUSKCN12P1JR
 
Hour Three
Wednesday  2 November 2016 / Hour 3, Block A:  Monica Crowley, Fox, & Washington Times Online opinion editor; in re:  Trump  & the Michigan Battleground. @MonicaCrowley, @FNC.  “…Chuck Todd talks about how the "Comey effect" may be affecting the race in Trump's favor. Todd said he believes the Clinton campaign is "nervous" and "starting not to trust even their own numbers."
"I think that if we see that it's a motivator," Todd said of the 'Comey effect,' "then do these states (pointing to the Rust Belt), all of them, go under five points? Do we start actually seeing the final result is somewhere under five? I think if we see that then yes it's not just momentum, it's Comey momentum."
CHUCK TODD: I think the Clinton campaign is a little bit nervous obviously and I think they're starting not to trust even their own numbers a little bit. And the fact is they haven't spent a lot of time in Michigan and if you recall Michigan caught them off guard during the primaries...
STEPHANIE RUHLE, MSNBC: Bernie Sanders.
CHUCK TODD: Their polling didn't show him winning. Their polling always showed him closer than what the public polling did so there's been this concern. Look, Michael Moore is somebody that has been shouting from the rooftops that he believes that the entire industrial Midwest is more in play than the Clinton campaign thinks, he being a guy from Flint, worked a lot with the blue collar voters. He's been screaming from the rooftops. I think some of it is simply a little bit of paranoia, but you know what? You don't want to say why didn't I go? You don't want to have any regrets.  http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/11/02/chuck_todd_electoral_map_trump_has_to_win_pa_mi_or_wi_the_comey_effect.html
Wednesday  2 November 2016 / Hour 3, Block B:  Monica Crowley, Fox, & Washington Times Online opinion editor (2 of 2)
Wednesday  2 November 2016 / Hour 3, Block C: Richard A Epstein, Hoover Institution, Chicago Law, NYU Law, in re: The obvious inquiry here is why the President, or anyone else, should think the public option will be able to cure the underlying ACA cost problem and help the government save money. Private health insurers work in many complex markets, where they manage to turn a profit. Is there any reason to think that a new and untested government provider will be able to succeed where the companies have failed? That rosy and improbable scenario would only be possible if the government received a complex set of privileges and advantages denied to their private competitors. These subsidies could take the form of receiving free or below-cost services from other government agencies—or being exempted from the various regulatory reviews and requirements imposed on their private competitors. In other words, the few surviving private firms will be competing on an uneven playing field against coddled government entities. The rise of the public option would mean virtually all private insurers exit the field. Hacker is unduly optimistic when he thinks that the outcome will be a stable equilibrium with public and private carriers. A single-payer system, with its massive inefficiencies, is the more likely result.
It is therefore necessary to rethink the problem from the ground up. The only way to do that is to examine the devastating constraints the ACA places on the overall health-care marketplace. The first point to note is that parties in competitive markets are not told the dimensions on which they are allowed to compete. They can offer whatever mix of goods and services they choose for whatever price they charge. They can target the entire market or only a single portion of it. They can enter and exit at will. They receive no direct subsidies from the government for the services they supply.  http://www.hoover.org/research/unaffordable-care-act
Richard Epstein’s inaccurate attack on Yale’s commitment to free expression and fair procedures for investigating and adjudicating sexual harassment relies on a similarly uninformed opinion piece from the Wall Street Journal. Yale strongly disagrees with the notion that there is a conflict between its commitment to free speech and its commitment to inclusiveness, diversity, and a campus free of sexual harassment…
Wednesday  2 November 2016 / Hour 3, Block D:  Richard A Epstein, Hoover Institution, Chicago Law, NYU Law (2 of 2)
 
Hour Four
Wednesday  2 November 2016 / Hour 4, Block A:  Bob Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com, in re:   Big Astronomy Quits Hawaii for the Canary Islands. TMT consortium picks Canary Islands as alternative site to Hawaii  Faced with delays from protesters and an Hawaiian government slow-walking its permit process, the consortium building the Thirty Meter Telescope has announced that it will build the telescope on the Canary Islands if it continues to be blocked in Hawaii. The article does not say when they will make this decision, but based on previous reports, they have to make their decision soon in order to begin construction no later than April 2018.
I fully expect them to abandon Hawaii, since I see no desire by the Hawaiian government to play fair during the new permit hearings. Instead, it seems to me that they are rigging this process so that it will never end. Posted from the south rim of the Grand Canyon, where Diane and I plan a nice day hike tomorrow down the Hermit Trail.  http://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/tmt-con...
Wednesday  2 November 2016 / Hour 4, Block B:  Bob Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com (2 of 2)
Wednesday  2 November 2016 / Hour 4, Block C: John Tamny, RealClearMarkets & Forbes.com; in re:  It's not well known, but O. J. Simpson was in the running for the lead in the 1984 film The Terminator. He ultimately lost out to Arnold Schwarzenegger because the studio suits felt viewers would never take Simpson seriously as a ruthless killer.  The list of Big Media misreads about the future is a long one, and that's why all the hysteria about AT&T's proposed merger with Time Warner is so ridiculous.  Predictions about what or who will be powerful or relevant in the future are not worth the paper they're printed on.  Did You Hear the One about O.J. Being Turned Down for the Terminator Lead?    http://www.forbes.com/sites/johntamny/2016/10/30/did-you-hear-the-one-ab...
Does the Fed Lead the Banks on Rates, or Do Banks Lead the Fed?  Recessions and market corrections untouched by governments author subsequent booms and rallies simply because both force precious resources away from where they're being underutilized.  That's why the popular notion that the Fed authored a stock market rally is so contradictory.  It's the starving of the laggards that makes the rallies possible in the first place.  If the Fed were actually in the position to prop up stocks, and acted on it, this could in no way redound to market health.  Just the same, the idea that the Fed's rate targeting robs savers should similarly be questioned.  Banks pay low rates of interest for lots of reasons that have nothing to do with the central bank.  Banks arguably lead the Fed on rates far more than the Fed leads banks. 
Don't Waste Money or Time on 'End of Economic Growth' Pessimists  Marc Levinson is the latest economic policy type to argue that the U.S. economy was better off and more buoyant in the aftermath of World War II thanks to the destruction of so much of the world's wealth and people alongside the communistic (death toll on its own: 100 million+) enslavement of other parts of it.  Levinson's analysis also contends that policy doesn't matter; meaning the health of the U.S. economy would be no different whether Congress wasted $4 trillion annually versus $500 billion.  For believing what is untrue and horrifying at the same time, Levinson is sure to be lionized by policy experts and top economists alike.  Forbes.com.  
You Don't Have to Love Donald Trump to Hate the Experts  The Washington Post's Catherine Rampell laments what she concludes is an increasingly anti data and anti expert electorate.  To her that means policy allegedly crucial to our wellbeing will be more difficult to implement.  Rampell misses the point.  Americans revere experts, but prefer that their mistakes take place in the private sector where they're likely to be confined to fewer people.  Anti-expert sentiment that strangely bothers Rampell is rooted in a dislike of policymaking by experts inside the federal government whose inevitable mistakes needlessly harm everyone.  RealClearMarkets.  
Wednesday  2 November 2016 / Hour 4, Block D:   John Tamny, RealClearMarkets & Forbes.com (2 of 2)