The John Batchelor Show

Wednesday 31 May, 2017

Air Date: 
May 31, 2017

Photo, left: North Korea parade
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW 
Co-hosts: Gordon Chang, Daily Beast and Forbes.com 
 
Hour One
Wednesday 31 May 2017 / Hour 1, Block A:  Sung-Yoon Lee, Fletcher School at Tufts University, in re:  . . .  China has been a main support for North Korea, keeping it weak and wholly dependent on China in order to prevent it from being a military threat.  South Korea also has been an enabler. Pouring in bullions of dollars no, questions asked.  US needs to create direct communication with people of South Korea, to tell them what’s going on in DPRK; also, to DPRK, “whose crimes have no parallel,” according to the UN.
It comes down to blocking streams of hard currency. Need to undermine the strength of the North Korean rogue state.  
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/17/opinion/why-do-we-appease-north-korea.html?ref=opinion&_r=0
http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/28/asia/north-korea-fires-unidentified-projectile/
https://www.stripes.com/news/pacific/north-korean-leader-claims-new-anti-aircraft-weapon-ready-for-mass-production-1.470792
Wednesday 31 May 2017 / Hour 1, Block B:  Andrew Collier, managing director of Orient Capital Research in Hong Kong, in re: China’s housing crisis sitting atop all the other structural problems suggests a major crash coming because of the massive, Brobdingnagian debt.  Underlying problem is that the Chinese economy is debt-fuelled. This stage is uncomfortably similar to what we saw in the US in 2006.  A lot of senior Chinese officials are aware of this. The latest shell game is to shift debt from large entities on to private households.   
https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonchang/2017/05/28/chinas-response-to-moodys-more-worrying-than-the-downgrade/#7cc477fa6118
Wednesday 31 May 2017 / Hour 1, Block C: Anthony Ruggiero,  FDD,  in re: when will North Korea be able to send a miniaturized nuclear bomb to the hit the US?  Probably ICBM by 2020.  Moving slowly and carefully through the process.  Correx: rather quickly. Started long-range missile problem in 1998;  US troops and Guam are already in danger. House bill to prevent DPRK from obtaining or using US dollars.  Get US banks on board to go to Chinese banks, make them the first line of defense: If you want to continue having access to dollars, need to ensure that DPRK is shut out. Second stage could be sanctions and regulatory fines against Chinese banks.   The enormous Bank of China is highly complicit.  US Treasury has a lot has a lot of tools. And experience with Iran; needs only to be unleashed.  North Korean slave labor: 120,000 slaves working abroad for China, Russia, Qatar.  Slaves sent internationally bring in $500 million a year for Pyongyang?
We’ve had decades of failure of US govt to protect US people.  DPRK is a terrorist state; why has State Dept refused to let it be designated as such?
Wednesday 31 May 2017 / Hour 1, Block D: Gordon Chang, Daily Beast, and Forbes.com;  in re: North Korea. 
 
Hour Two
Wednesday 31 May 2017 / Hour 2, Block A:  Bob Collins, 37-year veteran adviser to the Department of Defense now based in Seoul, in re: New South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, is committed to appeasing North Korea.  US obliged by treaty to defend South Korea should that be necessary; yet Moon seems determined to remove the THAAD battery  (normally six launchers + one radar; so far, only two launchers installed) missile defense system.  Moon seems to be clueless about many critical technical details; also has poor communications with his own defense department.  . . . The problem with South Korea’s silent majority is that it's poor at mobilizing public opinion, unlike Moon. However, Moon’s policies are shaky and unclear. 
http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/war-with-north-korea-an-inside-look-at-how-us-troops-would-respond-worldwide
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/may/22/south-korea-thaad-protesters-see-us-militarism-not/
Wednesday 31 May 2017 / Hour 2, Block B: Chris Harmer, senior military analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, in re: The Chinese-militarized islands of the South China Sea: a US warship goes within 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef in a freedom of navigation exercise.   US Adm Harry Harris was threatened by China!  US Navy wants to do maximum number of these in South China Sea, but decision rests with Washington. Most recent was after 217 days – so long, it becomes meaningless.  Is there a split ’twixt China’s foreign policy crew and its military? Looks like militarization of Chinese foreign policy.
China makes a move, we make a move, China makes a move — a never-ending chess game. The sure-fire way to lose is to quit playing, China has decided to grab and militarize as much of the South China Sea as it can, and that it will ignore international courts and everyone’s protestations. We can incentivize our allies not to accept Chinese ownership over these stolen or manufactured islands.  
http://www.defensenews.com/articles/chinese-among-invitees-to-major-us-exercise
Wednesday 31 May 2017 / Hour 2, Block C:  Captain Jerry Hendrix (ret), CNAS, in re:  For 100 years since Mahan, we've known that the Navy is __.  
Two carries strike groups  USS Carl Vincent &  (out of our total of ten) now on station; probably a third (Nimitz) en route.  Need three to keep action alive for 24/7.  We also have Burke-class escort ships with Tomahawks, and two missile-carrying subs nearby.    . . . [much material here]
Wednesday 31 May 2017 / Hour 2, Block D: Captain Jerry Hendrix (ret), CNAS, in re:  USS George Dewey.  As opposed to FON exercises under Obama Adm, this was not an innocent passage profile but conducted normal mil operations as  on the high seas. Did man-overboard drills.  Drew alarm and fear from China (flew almost in to a US P3 with extremely dangerous intercepts), which is trying to assert ownership over non-Chinese territory: losing face in the region, and China grows wroth.  RIMPAC, rim of the Pacific, largest joint exercise, every  to year.  China did participate, but sends intell ships to surveille, which is universally considered to be extremely rude. Trump Adm  has again invited China. Why?  Bureaucratic inertia? 
 
Hour Three
Wednesday 31 May 2017 / Hour 3, Block A: Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, The Great Voice of the Great Lakes; in re:  Russia gat now morphs into other House Intell Committee subpoenas: to Susan Rice, John Brennan and Samantha Power.  Commentary!
Wednesday 31 May 2017 / Hour 3, Block B:  Monica Crowley,  , in re: Mrs Clinton speaks endlessly of her 2016 candidacy, incl at Radcliffe and the Code Conference. Nov 8: the Russians did it; Comey did it; Trump did it. What did she do? She had a profound corruption problem likeability problem, FBI problem, and she ran a bad campaign.   . . . Her campaign was a direct offshoot of her husband’s having run (and won). She’s made profound sacrifices in her professional life and marriage in order to be able to run for the presidency.  A grave, and understandable, psychological renovation.  She believes that the voters of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and around the country fell for fake news and she lost only because others unethically interfered.  Delusional.  She may think she can run in 2020 at her then-age of 73.  Widely among those who voted against her were Clinton voters. She and her advisors ignored the industrial rust belt – and  haven't changed a scintilla since then.  The same Democrats who put Barack Obama in power then put Trump in power.  
Wednesday 31 May 2017 / Hour 3, Block C:  Tom Joscelyn, Long War Journal, in re: the massive attack i Kabul in the diplomatic section  Deadliest suicide bombing in Afghanistan since 2001. Killings have spiked because of ISIS [overactivity].   . . .  
Wednesday 31 May 2017 / Hour 3, Block D:  Eric Trager, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy; in re: Egypt; Copts.  Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood sees everyone who’s not with them (Christians, non-MB Muslims, Baha’i, Jews, everyone) as an enemy. Toxic.   . . .  MB actually believes that el Sisi has Jewish heritage, and call him a Jew who's in  pocket of Israel.  
 
Hour Four
Wednesday 31 May 2017 / Hour 4, Block A: Ben MacIntyre, Doubecross, PART 1 of 2.
Wednesday 31 May 2017 / Hour 4, Block B: same.
Wednesday 31 May 2017 / Hour 4, Block C:John McManus: Those who are about to die, PART 2 of 4.
Wednesday 31 May 2017 / Hour 4, Block D: same