Photo, left: 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts: Gordon Chang, Forbes.com.
 
Hour One
Wednesday   8 July 2015  / Hour 1, Block A: Charles Burton, professor at Brock University, in re: US and China have a fundamental difference over China's role in Asia.  Seventieth anniversary of the end of WWII – Beijing trying to re-make the discourse to write the US out of he story – yet the US (Flying Tigers, B-25s, Hiroshima, Nagasaki) was the critical element in winning the war.  Was the Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek who did 99% of the fighting; Mao most emphatically did not.   Enormous, staggering huge propaganda effort domestically to rewrite the entire history of WWII, including a special prong aimed at lying to children.  Now, in view f he disastrous Shanghai stock mkt performance with overwhelming , the Party is calling for "our patriotic duty to support the" market. The deal between the people and the Party has been, you deliver a good economy and we keep the Party.  Party is failing.
China’s Stock Market Rescue May Come at a Price  China’s aggressive response to plunging share prices undercuts its pledge to have the market play a decisive role in the economy and risks cementing investors’ belief that Beijing will always bail them out. / http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/06/us-ww2-anniversary-china-japan-idUSKCN0PG0KX20150706
Wednesday   8 July 2015  / Hour 1, Block B: Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director of Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, in re: Defector claims North Korea carries out human chemical weapons tests.  ZPU4 anti-aircraft guns to execute North Koreans.    Political prison camp No 22, people put I chambers where gas was inserted as "researchers" watched them die. Many examples of hideous deeds by the regime.   Report to be referred to the UN; not enough to persuade China to change its strategic stance, but if the report is irrefutable, then the political price of unconditional Chinese support of a regime committing crimes against humanity will grow ever-higher.
Wednesday   8 July 2015  / Hour 1, Block C: David Grinspoon, Blumberg Chair of Astrobiology, Library of Congress, in re: Volcanoes on Venus? Hot lava detected  Discovery of present-day volcanic activity on Venus would have "major implications" for understanding processes in the planet's interior . . . ; Scientists: Venus probably home to active volcanos ; There's Growing Evidence of Volcanic Activity on Venus ; Are There Active Volcanoes on Venus? / http://pluto.jhuapl.edu   ;  On Ceres: NASA's Dawn spacecraft spots pyramid-shaped structure on Ceres
Tech Gen Mag-18 hours ago
NASA's Dawn spacecraft is currently orbiting dwarf planet Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, at an altitude ...

Dawn sends stunning images of Ceres, the dwarf planet
Wednesday   8 July 2015  / Hour 1, Block D:  Anna Nemtsova, Daily Beast, in re: Ukraine’s Wonder Woman  More than 8.3 million people have seen Yulia Marushevska’s video from the Maidan uprising, but now she’s got to face down the bureaucracy she’s supposed to control. . . . Today she worked with Saakashvili in Odessa to replace old [bureaucrats] with fresh faces. She grew up in the Odessa province bordering Moldova and Rumania – Transdniestria – which currently is attached to the Russian state [?]. People don't speak of politics but of corruption and of practical matters. Saakashvili took a pubic bus to a small provincial town to speak with villagers. In less than an hour, a huge crowd had assembled on the central square. When he arrived, there was  "interesting" communication. Yulia was his guide. The road from there to the EU – Romania – barely exists.   Saakashvili's focus was civil society and how to better people's lives. There still exists a huge wound in Odessa.  At the bldg where, in May 2014, 39 people died in the fire and people were shot as they tried to escape.  People still show up with flowers and they weep.  Yulia is pretty and energetic, people like her.  She may have a political future in Ukraine. Now 31 California highway patrol officers will soon arrive to train Ukrainian police.
 
Hour Two
Wednesday   8 July 2015  / Hour 2, Block A: Andrew Collier, Managing Director, Orient Capital Research based in Hong Kong; in re:  his trip to Vietnam and the latest in the Chinese economy.  Markets go up and down.  A bull mkt may be followed by a bear market (down 20%).  The Chinese Communist Party is trying to defy gravity. Trees grow to Heaven; catch a falling knife.  Chinese once were held in awe, now are seen to be mortal. Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index The Party forbids the mkt to go down:  half the stocks are shut down, major investors forbidden to sell, Party buying stocks – what's left to do:  This is absurd and infeasible.  Margin financing for stocks:  like te Fed showing u at NASDAQ.     We're talking 300 or 400 billion, but the larger mkt is multiple trillion, so the Party is looking inept.  Party's concern is always control, to forbid unrest. Afeared of iron workers' demonstrating in the streets. PBOC probably is not guiding; probably the brokers have cooked up this plan.   Andrew in Vietnam:  Mansfield Fdn will soon hold a law conference there; bright future in the next five or ten years. The national Party isn’t big enough or large enough to control all parts f the economy. TPP: Vietnam by far will be the biggest winner; will replace China in low-income goods, biggest group of young worker.  Why does Xi Jinping get tangled up in "trees grow to Heaven"?  Maybe because they’ve got arrogant and think they can solve this with more cash. Chinese citizens are having hteir property confiscated – forbidden to sell is confiscated.
 
Wednesday   8 July 2015  / Hour 2, Block B: Christian Whiton, president of the Hamilton Foundation, in re: Claim made by China on part of the Philippines. David takes on Goliath.  Finding the limitations of arbitration under the Law of the Sea Treaty. Never has it had a significant military, having depended on the US, then kicked the US out. Almost every neighbor of China is in a similar boat anent territory. The Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague: probably will rule against China, which will not accept that.  China holds that might makes right and it's time for it to expand.  China has been so aggressive that everyone nearby except Cambodia is unhappy with China and wants a greater US presence.   Anecdotally, military are surprised wt China's construction of artificial shoals in the South China Sea. Unusual events and responses; a matter of some concern.  Not only South China Sea nations but also Japan and India are basically coalesced against Chinese aggression. Japan is becoming a "normal" nation with a normal military and geopolitical policy; thanks to China for this.  Need to convey to China that its North Korea friend will contribute to deterioration of its reputation – but now China is doing this to itself.   http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/china-snub-arbitration-hearing-feud-philippines-32244266
Wednesday   8 July 2015  / Hour 2, Block C:  Sadanand Dhume, AEI & WSJ, in re: The Politics of Gay Rights in India. Opposition to homosexuality in India may appear relatively broad, but it doesn’t run particularly deep. It was merely frowned upon (the culpable needed to take a bath in his clothes) until the British rendered it illegal (377 in 1860, but rarely enforced) in the mid-Nineteenth Century; then Britain removed the laws on its books in 1967, but it stayed on in India.  Urban-rural split where the villages are traditional and oppose homosexuality, whereas urbanites tend not to as much.  What this does is allows corrupt officials to harass poor people.  Sonia Gandhi (Congress Party, out of power) has called it archaic and unjust. Modi (BJP, in power) has said naught but his colleagues have made unhelpful statements. Matter has gone to the Indian supreme court, which ruled "the wrong way."
Wednesday   8 July 2015  / Hour 2, Block D: Aaron Back, Heard on the Street, WSJ Hong Kong; in re: . . . This time, Chinese officials said, "The mkt wil continue to go up."  Enormous mistake this leadership has made. The mkt rally wasn't just that – it became govt policy.  Now their prestige is on ht e line, As the mkt has been crashing, they’ve thrown everything at it to keep it at the height.  Nutty. Chinese people can’t get adequate returns in banks so aim at stocks; but when the govt sets targets for a rally it's no longer a market exercise.  There are seven people at the top of the Communist Party who make all decisions, and they don't; know much about stock markets. One school of thought: stock mkt doesn’t much matter because only 10% of the people own stocks; but another school of thought holds that the damage is to the economic credibility of the Chinese leadership. Who'll take the blame? The head securities regulator may take the fall, or conceivably Li Kaichung if things get out of hand.
     Beijing appears to be doing everything possible to spread panic.  Premier Li Keqiang could write a book about how to create a crisis and then turn it into a regime-threatening event. 
   There’s been a lot of drama in financial markets this past week. A week ago on Monday, I argued that Chinese stock markets have further to fall. Unlike when the last China equity bubble burst in 2007, this will have a significant negative impact on the broader economy. In other news, Sony pulled a disappointing move by issuing equity and diluting investors for reasons that remain unclear. On the Samsung restructuring, Elliott still has a decent chance to derail the merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries, despite a setback in court. India is one generation behind; Pakistan: rising tide of fundamentalism; Sri Lanka is a bit more open, as is Nepal; not necessarily Bangladesh.
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China’s Economy Not Immune to Market Sickness
By Aaron Back; 30 June 2015 ; The Wall Street Journal
 
This time around, what happens in the Shanghai stock market may not stay there.
 
The Shanghai Composite is off nearly 22% from its peak just over two weeks ago, including Monday's 3.3% fall. China's rate cut over the weekend did little to restore investor confidence. The market might well have rallied on Monday if not for jitters over Greece, but that will be little comfort to Chinese investors with losses. Still, many China watchers are sanguine on the economic implications. Historically, the gyrations of China's stock market have had little impact on the broader economy. After the last Chinese equity bubble burst in 2007 to 2008, stock prices were in the doldrums for more than five years, but this didn't stop China from clocking impressive growth in gross domestic product for much of that period.
 
The "wealth effect" seen in the U.S. and other developed countries -- by which households tend to feel wealthier when stocks rise, or poorer when they fall, and adjust their spending plans accordingly -- hasn't been as strong in China.  In part, this is because stocks are less widely owned. Fewer than 10% of Chinese households own shares, compared with more than half of Americans. In China, people tend to rely more on physical real estate and fixed pensions for their retirement savings.
 
It would be a mistake, though, to assume that China will shrug off this market meltdown. For one thing, hectic activity at brokerages and trading firms has lent direct support to an otherwise sluggish economy. According to Capital Economics, this alone boosted the economic growth rate by half a percentage point in the first quarter, when GDP was up 7% from a year earlier. Losing this support could cut a full percentage point off the annual growth rate, Capital Economics estimates. Rising stock prices also have prompted a wave of equity issuance, which has helped wean companies off dependence on debt finance. If this avenue closes, China will find it that much harder to cut debt levels.  The pain could spread further if stock losses cause a wave of defaults for those who borrowed money to invest. There is some 2.2 trillion yuan ($354 billion) of margin financing in the market currently, which Goldman Sachs estimates is equivalent to 12% of free float market cap of marginable stocks, or 3.5% of GDP. Goldman called both of these ratios "easily the highest in the history of global equity markets," in a note on Monday.
 
Finally, there is the less quantifiable hit to national sentiment. If things don't soon stabilize, the stock slide could hurt domestic and international confidence in President Xi Jinping's reform agenda, and in the very competence of China's economic managers. Stocks in China still are expensive. The overall domestic market as of Friday was priced at 19 times forward earnings, but the ratio for the median stock was 44 times forward earnings, driven by exuberant rises in small and midcap stocks, according to Goldman. At these valuations, the market has plenty of room to fall. It won't be only Chinese stock gamblers who feel the effects.
http://nationalinterest.org/feature/could-chinas-collapsing-stock-market-take-down-its-economy-13270
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Hour Three
Wednesday   8 July 2015  / Hour 3, Block A: An Empire on the Edge: How Britain Came to Fight America, by Nick Bunker; part II of III (segment 1 of 4)
Wednesday   8 July 2015  / Hour 3, Block B: An Empire on the Edge: How Britain Came to Fight America, by Nick Bunker; part II of III (segment 2 of 4)
Wednesday   8 July 2015  / Hour 3, Block C: An Empire on the Edge: How Britain Came to Fight America, by Nick Bunker; part II of III (segment 3 of 4)
Wednesday   8 July 2015  / Hour 3, Block D: An Empire on the Edge: How Britain Came to Fight America, by Nick Bunker; part II of III (segment 4 of 4)
Hour Four
Wednesday   8 July 2015  / Hour 4, Block A:  Monica Crowley, Fox, & Washington Times Online opinion editor; in re: Hillary Clinton: 'People should and do trust me'  ;  Hillary Clinton: A Woman Shouldn't Have to Share the $10 Bill ; Hillary Clinton not amused by fax machine mockery;  Hillary Clinton Defends Email Use and Trustworthiness Hillary Clinton on Tuesday said voters should trust her and defended her use of a private email server while secretary of state, saying she "went . . .   ;  Hillary Clinton Ties Jeb Bush to GOP Field on Immigration
Wednesday   8 July 2015  / Hour 4, Block B: Monica Crowley, Fox, & Washington Times Online opinion editor; in re: Hillary Clinton Speaks Out About Donald Trump's Immigration ... ; First Draft | Hillary Clinton Tests Message Before Liberals in Iowa ; Hillary Clinton: Republican candidates 'on a spectrum of hostility ... ; CNN Reporter Who Interviewed Hillary Clinton Sharply Criticizes ...
Wednesday   8 July 2015  / Hour 4, Block C: Aaron Klein, KleinOnline and Investigative Radio, in re:  http://www.timesofisrael.com/us-not-updating-israel-on-iran-talks-say-israeli-officials/  The prime minister spoke out again against the deal Tuesday, calling Iran “the greatest threat to world peace” and insisting world powers were caving in to Tehran’s demands.
“Iran, which is the greatest patron of terror in the world, is extorting from world powers more and more concessions,” Netanyahu said at a memorial ceremony at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem that marked 111 years since the death of Zionist movement founder Theodor Herzl.
Wednesday   8 July 2015  / Hour 4, Block D:   Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re: New Horizon pix; small space and BIG space.
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The Story of the Boston Tea Party ShipsThe three ships that participated in the B.T.P. were named the Dartmouth, Eleanor and the Beaver.
Dartmouth - Captain Hall, carried 114 chests of tea; arrived on Sunday, November 28th
Eleanor - Captain Coffin, carried 114 chests of tea; arrived on Thursday, December 2nd
Beaver - Captain Bruce, carried 112 chests of tea, docked on Wednesday, December 15th
Apparently the Beaver was delayed for medical reasons. A case of smallpox broke out on the ship and it was quarantined in the outer harbor for two weeks.
There was also a fourth ship sent to Boston, the William. It was due to come in but the vessel was damaged by a storm and had to come ashore at Cape Cod with salvable payload but the ship was totally lost.
 
Sometimes the tea party ships are mistakenly called British. In fact only the tea belonged to East India Tea Company but the ships themselves were American. Nantucket was home port to two ships that were involved in the Boston Tea Party, the Beaver and the Dartmouth. The ships were owned by the Rotch family whose offices were located at the foot of Main Street in the brick building now called The Pacific Club.
Francis Rotch the son of the owner, Joseph Rotch was caught in between the Patriots who did not allow the ships to unload and the Governor Hutchinson who did not permit the ships to go back to Britain. Likely not without the Governor’s pull, the customs officers rushed the necessary paperwork for the import of the tea, after which the ship could not legally set sail for England with the tea still on board.
An armed guard of patriots was posted at the wharf to prevent the tea coming ashore, while a naval blockade of the harbor prevented the ships from leaving. As a result the owner of the ships risked them being confiscated by the navy or even sunk.
Mr. Rotch tried to negotiate but was not successful. In this situation perhaps even the patriots were sympathetic. This may explain the fact that the “Mohawks” who attacked the ship did not damage the ships themselves, only the tea. The ships’ crews later stated that nothing had been damaged or destroyed except the tea - and the protesters swept the decks clean afterwards
History of Dartmouth
HMS Dartmouth specifications W: 9.84 (3m). L: 79 (24m). Hull: wood. Built: <1773.
Dartmouth was the first tea party ship and has been stationed in the harbor for a while and it is therefore the most known. Even though the ship made history for carrying tea it was built for a different purpose – offshore whaling. Its story begins in Bedford Village, MA where many residents were whalers and shipbuilders.
Around 1780, William Rotch, Jr., a Nantucket Quaker moved to Bedford Village. Rotch was a third-generation whaling merchant and banker. He immediately decided to use his capital to develop the whale fishery. Rotch gave whaling a substantial impetus, and it continued to be New Bedford's chief industry for more than a hundred years. Rotch was the owner of the first ship to be launched in Bedford Village, the Dartmouth, built in 1767. Her initial voyage was to London with a cargo of whale oil. After Dartmouth New Bedford's ship building industry started to grow and attracted many leading ship builders including George Claghorn.
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