Photo:  Samantha Harkins honored for being named a top lobbyist.
See: Josh Rogin, Hour 1, Block C: Alibaba and other major firms are doing massive IPOs based perhaps on total fiction; some are complete frauds. Finally, Wall Street and Washington have begun to look.  This has been the largest transfer of wealth from any country to any other in history [US to China]. The huge financial services industry is making tons of money helping Chinese [weasel around].  When a Chinese firm robs Americans – well, it's not illegal in China to rob Americans; and the US has a whole lot of pension funds in there. Of course, the US financial services industry has huge power in the form of lobbyists in DC. 
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Gordon Chang, Forbes.com
 
Hour One
Wednesday 5 September 2018/ Hour 1, Block A: Walter Lohman, director at the Asian Studies Center at The Heritage Foundation,   in re:  ASEAN in Singapore, then APEC summit in Port Moresby; lack of US [power] in  the coming decade.  . . . In Asia, it's requisite for the leader to attend such a meeting; nice that the VP gets there, but in fact looks like/feels like a snub. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-31/trump-to-skip-asia-summits-as-doubts-over-u-s-commitment-linger
Wednesday 5 September 2018/ Hour 1, Block B: Rebecca Heinrichs, senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, in re:  China and the North Korean economy.  Coming soonest: Vostok 18 exercise – largest since the Cold War — Russia, China, Mongolia, others in a massive military exercise.  China openly violating sanctions:  Max pressure regime of Trump does not work without China, which is North Korea's enabler.  China walked the straight and narrow until the Singapore summit, then it ravelled, and China is the main support of DPRK.    . . . Pyongyang thought this Adm wd treat them as all previous Adm had – cat and mouse, US is a sucker that relieves sanctions to try to get the deal. Needless to say, Trump and advisors don't do that.  “We don't lift sanctions until we actually see dismantlement of DPRK nuclear facilities.” . . .  Trump gins up the economy then wields it like a weapon to get [what he wants]. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/north-korea/china-eases-economic-pressure-north-korea-undercutting-trump-admin-n906166
Wednesday 5 September 2018/ Hour 1, Block C:  Josh Rogin, Washington Post, in re:  Myriad unusual investment structures in China, no compliance there.  No way to audit books even as they issue all sorts of papers; China calls basic investment info secret.”  Alibaba and other major firms are doing massive IPOs based perhaps on total fiction, and some are non-existing frauds, Finally, Wall Street and Washington have begun to look.  Largest transfer of wealth from any country to any other in history. Huge fin svcs industry is making tons of money helping Chinese [weasel around].  When a Chinese from robs Americans – it's not illegal in China to rob Americans and the US has a whole lot of pension funds in there. Of course, US fin svcs industry has huge power [lobbyists] in DC.   . . . Who follows Mattis?  Some in WH expect Mattis to wrap it up after two years, leave honorably on his own terms. (Not always easy there.)  List of replacements? At the top is Gen Jack Keane, who has good relations with pretty much everyone.  Also Sen Tom Cotton and Jim Talent.   What does Keane think abt reorganizati0n of the military? Supports Trump nat sec policy and Mattis’s defense strategy, focusses on the Middle East, and supports much strengthening the US military.
Wednesday 5 September 2018/ Hour 1, Block D:  Bill Gertz, senior editor of the Washington Free Beacon, in re: China hates it when you refer to the Three Ts: Taiwan, Tien An Men, and Tibet (and now add Uyghurs).  US China Economic Review Commission: how China influences US policies and behaviors by giving money to US think tanks – millions of dollars from a quasi-military intell entity. The deal is: say nothing negative about China—which skews US education.  It's been extremely effective; China has organized retired US mil officials in the The Sanya Initiative [“launched in 2008 with support from retired Adm. Bill Owens, a former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the China Association for International Friendly Contact {CAIFC}, a Chinese military front organization, the report said.”]. (Adm Bill Owens made millions doing bz in China). Key is access to China: if you're a China scholar and can’t get a visa, you're in trouble professionally. I was to meet ____ at ___ under the aegis of the Hudson Institute. Chinese then called all members of Hudson and threatened them; mirable dictu, Hudson caved in and cancelled.  Hong Kong; Hutchison Whampoa.  China is running a very intensive global campaign against US institutions. FBI is charged with countering malign foreign influences; there are intentionally held just below the threshold of criminal activities, so countering is a real legal challenge.  It's essential that we have a much better understanding to this; “anti-anti-Communism.”  Need to educate the American people on the nature and scale of this attack. [See also: https://freebeacon.com/national-security/chinese-government-influencing-...
 
Hour Two
Wednesday 5 September 2018/ Hour 2, Block A:  Alan Tonelson, independent economic policy analyst who blogs at RealityChek and tweets at @AlanTonelson, in re: US on track for 4.7% growth!  [Atlanta Fed, yesterday]  . . .  Pres Trump’s electoral support depends on farm states.   We might se 5% growth in Q3 while China’s economy is growing ever more slowly.  Soy is critical in Chinese food production chains.  Recently, as pork prices have ascended, China’s political stability looks weaker.  Comment period on tariffs expires at midnight Thursday; he can impose tariffs as early as Friday – but needn’t do so till after the November elections, “Threats are most effective before they're used” but in the past, the US has cried wolf a lot; bad idea to wait?  China’s leaders are nervous but, more tellingly, investors in China’s stock market are pulling back swiftly, much to the alarm of leadership.  . . .   “Fold” is a poker term.   https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-04/as-trump-mulls-tariffs-china-s-industrial-ambitions-loom-large
Wednesday 5 September 2018/ Hour 2, Block B:  Rick Fisher, senior Fellow on Asian Military Affairs at the International Assessment and Strategy Center, in re: Unfolding of the Sino-Russian alliance; critical for the Chinese PLA, first time it will have participated in a modern, combined arms, joint exercise in Russia [methods]. There’ll be a return invitation to continue  the education.  Last year held nuclear missile defense tabletop exercise.  Must be thinking of nuclear missile offense operations.  Head of Chinese navy to visit the Pentagon: why?? A routine invitation, return inv for Secy Mattis’s visit earlier this year.   Recall that Yamamoto attended Harvard.    US long held that hospitality to adversaries wd persuade hem to be friends.  Most emphatically has not worked.  Had we spent the same effort trying to get inside the CCP or PLA we might actually know something.  Clearly, what we’ve don't hither to has failed; maybe w we need not to speak with them at all. That’d scare ‘em and show that we’re even tougher, more willful, more resolute than they are.  Coincidence that it starts on September 11?  Not at all.   https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-usa-military/despite-tensions-china-says-navy-chief-plans-to-visit-us-next-month-idUSKCN1LF0Q1
Wednesday 5 September 2018/ Hour 2, Block C: Cliff May, FDD president, in re: Religious supremacy. We are in a sense in a word war and can’t decided which the fight and which not until we see the “intersectionality.”  . .  . EU does not get it; Federica Mogherini absolutely sides with Iran; Russia an enemy; Turkey is a frenemy at best.   . . .
Wednesday 5 September 2018/ Hour 2, Block D:  Monica Crowley, London Center for Policy Research, in re: Kavanaugh will be confirmed; so Democrats no there losing this fight. In Senate you see “resistance,” “proxy for Trump,” etc. Loudest voices in opposition are presidential candidates. Grandstanding led by Harris and Booker, to get TV clips for the race.   400K new jobs; unemployment at near-record lows; moving off food stamps by the millions. Deregulation, unleashing the energy sector.  “We’re living in the good old days.”
 
Hour Three
Wednesday 5 September 2018/ Hour 3, Block A:  Maria Maffucci, director, Human Life Review, “intellectual backbone of the Pro-Life Movement”; in re: The vote in Ireland.
Wednesday 5 September 2018/ Hour 3, Block B:  Maria Maffucci, director, Human Life Review, “intellectual backbone of the Pro-Life Movement”; in re: Not just birth issues, but quality of life.
Wednesday 5 September 2018/ Hour 3, Block C:  Dr Lara M. Brown, Director, Graduate School of Political Management, The George Washington University; and Salena Zito, New York Post and CNN, in re:  
Wednesday 5 September 2018/ Hour 3, Block D:  Ryan Radia, Competitive Enterprise Institute research Fellow and regulatory counsel  (@RyanRadia), in re:  Social media and politics.
 
Hour Four
Wednesday 5 September 2018/ Hour 4, Block A: September Hope: The American Side of a Bridge Too Far, by John C. McManus
Wednesday 5 September 2018/ Hour 4, Block B: September Hope: The American Side of a Bridge Too Far, by John C. McManus
Wednesday 5 September 2018/ Hour 4, Block C:  Flight of the Eagle: The Grand Strategies That Brought America from Colonial Dependence to World Leadership, by Conrad Black
Wednesday 5 September 2018/ Hour 4, Block D:  Flight of the Eagle: The Grand Strategies That Brought America from Colonial Dependence to World Leadership, by Conrad Black
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