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JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Gordon Chang, Daily Beast and Forbes.com.
 
Hour One
Wednesday 28 June 2017 / 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: the cycles of North Korean escalation. Sixth North Korean nuclear weapons test prepared to fire at any moment.  Provocations have taken a more strategic tone.  What Kim & crew are good at is :”deliberate planning” – when to fire missiles, etc, Not good at crisis action planning, i.e., quick response to an emergency The get fuddled and respond slowly sclerotically.  Trump has surprised DPRK on a number of levels.  A strong point is party propaganda; spew out issues that they think will deflect attention or confuse the population Speaking of executing Pres Pak deflects from a topic they dear; cooperation with US and/or RoK.  Have known of upcoming summit meeting for a long time, could have planned. May launch sixth nuke test or a battery of missiles.  The point is to gain concessions from the US and RoK.  Unusually, China said it wanted DPRK to denuclearize.  [Ha-ha. –ed.]  DPRK knows what the Trump Adm is up to.
Wednesday 28 June 2017 / Hour 1, Block B:  Gordon Chang, in re:  Pres Moon Jae-in was inaugurated on 10 May, has not staffed up, has asked for a meeting with Pres Trump awfully early.  Koran nationalism is the most powerful force on the peninsula, but his political views vis-à-vis the North are not necessarily agreeable to the voters.  THAAD system: Moon has opposed it. 
Wednesday 28 June 2017 / Hour 1, Block C:  Michael Auslin, AEI, soon to move to a Fellowship at the Hoover Institution — hooray — and stay physically based in Washington, and author, End of the Asian Century; in re: The upcoming meeting between Pres Trump and Pres Moon Jae-in; behind doors, discuss THAAD deployment, and possible freeze on DPRK nuclear program. When Moon returns to Seoul and faces a left-wing electorate that voted him in will again be next to China and under that pressure.  As an optimist, GC hopes that Moon will pull a Modi or an Abe – just be charming and steer clear of contentious topics; above all, please not a Merkel.   Moon’s general predilections to moving toward China and rejecting THAAD will be of concern to Abe and Japan.  Abe would be interested in the triangular relations among China, Korea and Japan.  People in RoK are starting to understand the nature of the Chinese threat.    . . . The degree to which China has put such heavy pressure on South Korea: it clearly feels threatened by the THAAD deployment and by the likelihood of a more activist position by Trump anent North Korea.  China seems to have overplayed its hand.  South Koreans may be upset but may feel that there’s no way out.  Why is McMaster making a public statement on more DPRK missile tests? US says that after each test then does nothing.
Wednesday 28 June 2017 / Hour 1, Block D:  Sadanand Dhume, Wall Street Journal, in re: Press freedom in India.  . . . Obama needed to press much harder concerning terrorist groups. As the US sends more troops to Afghanistan, Pakistan needs to be warned to cease funding terrorists and the Haqqani Network, and to develop working relations with India. Concerning China: it tends to cross into Indian territory at salient moments, surely did so intentionally when Modi was meeting with Trump – which merely underlined China’s unacceptable bullying.  Now that India has secured continuity in India-US relations; wants India to be a most-important ally – trade, defense, more Indian students in the US.  Arms sales: will increase Indian power in the Indian Ocean and along the Pakistani border.
 
Hour Two
Wednesday 28 June 2017 / Hour 2, Block A:  Ethan Epstein, associate editor at The Weekly Standard, in re: Moon Jae-in's upcoming meeting with Trump: Korans are concerned because they know that Moon’s and Trump’s policies . . . http://thediplomat.com/2017/06/3-things-to-know-before-south-koreas-moon-jae-in-meets-trump/
Wednesday 28 June 2017 / Hour 2, Block B:  Mark Clifford, former editor-in-chief of the South China Morning Post and a Hong Kong resident since 1992, in re: Xi Jinping will visit Hong Kong soonest, to attend the installation of the mayor/chief exec of Hong Kong, demonstrating how little autonomy Hong Kong has. It's a 99% Chinese city, and the Communist Party thinks that Hong Kong people are consummately Chinese—whereas locals identify themselves as autonomous, not Communist Chinese.  Beijing cannot grasp this. They think they’re the only embodiment of the Chinese culture/race/nation/state. Article 23 requires Hong Kong to enact sedition legislation; a million people came out on the street on a hot July day to oppose it.   Carrie Lam favors starting the Article 23 process all over again  . . . Cannot have a financial center absent the free flow of information!  China wants trembling and obedience, would strangle Hong Kong before allowing it freedom.  Economic opportunities for local kids aren’t that great but it looks good to Mainlanders.   http://edition.cnn.com/2017/06/26/asia/hong-kong-handover-exit/index.html
Wednesday 28 June 2017 / Hour 2, Block C:  Mary Anastasia O’Grady, WSJ, in re: FARC. Castro’s Cuba. (1 of 2)
Wednesday 28 June 2017 / Hour 2, Block D:  Mary Anastasia O’Grady, WSJ, in re: FARC. Castro’s Cuba.  In 1959, the Cuban economy was strong.  Reversal over the decades.  “The Cuban people need to make peace with their past”  despite the Cuban people’s being robbed by their military.  Agitprop taught that the regime is legitimate. At the moment of the revolution, it was not true that most Cuban people wanted a revolution, as Cuba was the third-richest nation in Central/South America.  What they wanted was restoration of the former constitution of 1940 that afforded a rule of law, property rights, freedoms. Small farmers, small-property owners, fought hard against Castro. Castro brought in the roughest Soviet measures (including mass, no-court executions; separating women and children and placing them in, in effect, camps) to obliterate the small farmers.  . . . Mary O’Grady proposes a Truth Commission.  “We need moral clarity on what actually happened.  I’d like to say to Mexicans, who’ve supported Castro: ‘Listen to the people’s stories!’ ” (2 of 2)
 
Hour Three
Wednesday 28 June 2017 / Hour 3, Block A: Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, the Great Voice of the Great Lakes, in re:  Russiagate.   The last months of the Obama Adm as they use the security state to watch Americans. Rep Adam Schiff, Pathfinder, said he’d implore d the Obama Adm to “do more” – make attribution and declassify info about the Russian intervention. He also said that Trump was owned by the Kremlin and susceptible to blackmail. Adam has shifted from accusation to obstruction; switching horses midstream but can’t swim. “The secret envelope passed to the president” – proof?  In 2016 Adam Schiff was very friendly with Ben Rhodes and defended the Iran deal and the WH echo chamber.  Before the election, Schiff boasted about how close he was to the Obama Adm. After the election, he blames Trump, Obama Adm, etc., but has forgot his buddy Ben Rhodes – who’s been named by Adam Kredo as the source of all the leaking about the Trump Adm. 
The Obama Adm knows full well the charges that are coming toward them and are preparing escapes.  Unmasking.  FISA court.  Susan Rice suddenly reappears publicly and claims she’s innocent, that she never leaked, in New York Magazine.  Denying everything,  The truth has its boots on and is coming. 
Wednesday 28 June 2017 / Hour 3, Block B:  Lara M Brown, Associate Professor & Interim Director, Graduate School of Political Management, George Washington University; in re: Current state of US political affairs.
Wednesday 28 June 2017 / Hour 3, Block C:  Elin Suleymanov, Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the United States; in re: The Formula One race in Azerbaijan. 
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“Sunday's race in Baku was packed with incident and intrigue. Here's our selection of some of the must-see moments you might just have missed - all from the driver's perspective . . .” https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/features/2017/6/f1-video-best-onboard-azerbaijan-baku-gp.html   /  Also: “Tempers boil over at Azerbaijan GP after Sebastian Vettel rams Lewis Hamilton twice in road-rage clash”
Wednesday 28 June 2017 / Hour 3, Block D: Henry Miller, Hoover, in re:  Russia and GMO?
 
Hour Four
Wednesday 28 June 2017 / Hour 4, Block A: Heather Cox Richardson, To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party
Wednesday 28 June 2017 / Hour 4, Block B:  Heather Cox Richardson, To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party
Wednesday 28 June 2017 / Hour 4, Block C:  David Fiske and Clifford W Brown Jr.,  Solomon Northup: The Complete Story of the Author of Twelve Years a Slave
Wednesday 28 June 2017 / Hour 4, Block D:  David Fiske and Clifford W Brown Jr.,  Solomon Northup: The Complete Story of the Author of Twelve Years a Slave