Photo, above: Welcome to the Polish Base on the New Cold War's Front Lines: Lask air force base in Poland, where U.S. and Polish pilots track Russia's activities. See Hour 1, Block C, Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Hour One

Friday  14 November 2014 / Hour 1, Block A: Liz Peek, The Fiscal Times & Fox, in re:  Republicans need to boost the morale of the nation. This is doable, and comes more naturally to the GOP than to Democrats, who tend to be a sour lot. Picture Hillary Clinton as homecoming queen and you’ll get the point.

Friday  14 November 2014 / Hour 1, Block B:  Elbridge Colby, New Center for American Studies, in re: Richard Fontaine in The Wall Street Journal,  "A Republican Congress Is Good News for Asia." It lays out a suggested agenda on Asia for the new Republican majority in Congress. 

Friday  14 November 2014 / Hour 1, Block C: Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics, in re: Joe spent some time on a Polish airbase that's on the front lines of the new Cold War dynamic in Europe. One the year's biggest national security trends is Russian warplanes making provocative flights over Eastern Europe. Coverage of the air base in Poland is now online at [more]

Friday  14 November 2014 / Hour 1, Block D:  Harry Siegel, New York Daily News, in re: Now that New York City cops vow to respect the 1977 state law
decriminalizing pot possession, can we talk legalization? Daily News column today   The NYPD went back to the future with Commissioner Bill Bratton and
Mayor de Blasio’s announcement Monday that cops will finally honor a
37-year-old law and stop arresting people for possession of less than
about an ounce of pot.

Hour Two

Friday  14 November 2014 / Hour 2, Block A:  Joseph Rago, WSJ editorial board & Pulitzer Prizewinner, in re:     How Scott Walker Keeps Winning   The
Wisconsin governor, Scott Walker, on his brawls with public unions and the key to conservative governance in a state with populist liberal traditions. (1 of 2)

Friday  14 November 2014 / Hour 2, Block B: Joseph Rago, WSJ editorial board & Pulitzer Prizewinner, in re:     How Scott Walker Keeps Winning   The
Wisconsin governor, Scott Walker, on his brawls with public unions and the key to conservative governance in a state with populist liberal traditions.  [more] (2 of 2)

Friday  14 November 2014 / Hour 2, Block C:  Peter Berkowitz, Hoover, in re:  If Republicans send a Keystone bill to Mr. Obama before the Nebraska verdict, the president is likely to veto it. But people familiar with the president’s thinking say that when it comes to climate change policy, Mr. Obama sees the E.P.A. regulations as the centerpiece of his environmental agenda and the Keystone pipeline as a sideline issue. [more]

CONGRESS: Rise of the Republican Pragmatists - Expect the new GOP majorities in Congress to press forward with a governing agenda, avoiding the intra-party conflicts of years past, writes politics editor Josh Kraushaar in his latest "Against the Grain" column. FULL STORY

Friday  14 November 2014 / Hour 2, Block D:  Henry I Miller, M.D., Hoover & Forbes.com, in re: USDA approves GMO potato designed by Simplot   The U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved commercial planting of a potato that's genetically modified to resist bruising . . .

Hour Three

Friday  14 November 2014 / Hour 3, Block A:  Richard A Epstein, Hoover Institution, Chicago Law, in re: In the aftermath of the decisive Republican sweep of the midterm elections, the question on everyone’s mind is how the Republicans will govern now that they control the Senate and have a larger cushion to work with in the House. The overall objective seems clear enough: find ways to whittle down the size of government and to reverse the current trends of higher taxes and greater regulation. The question is how they should go about achieving this objective. Though they may be tempted to overturn major legislative items like Obamacare, they should exercise restraint at this point in the game . . .  [more] (1 of 2)

Friday  14 November 2014 / Hour 3, Block B: Richard A Epstein, Hoover Institution, Chicago Law, in re: In the aftermath of the decisive Republican sweep of the midterm elections, the question on everyone’s mind is how the Republicans will govern now that they control the Senate and have a larger cushion to work with in the House. The overall objective seems clear enough: find ways to whittle down the size of government and to reverse the current trends of higher taxes and greater regulation. The question is how they should go about achieving this objective. Though they may be tempted to overturn major legislative items like Obamacare, they should exercise restraint at this point in the game . . .  [more] (2 of 2)

Friday  14 November 2014 / Hour 3, Block C:  Ken Croswell, Science Magazine, in re: The clearest image yet of planets forming around a star has been unveiled by astronomers working on the ALMA array of radio telescopes in Chile. The image shows a series of concentric rings of material surrounding HL Tauri – a very young star that is only about one million years old.  [more]

Friday  14 November 2014 / Hour 3, Block D:   Francis Rose, Federal News Radio, in re: Is the new VA Secretary Already Losing His Luster?  The honeymoon period for Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald is officially over.  Barely three months after the former Procter & Gamble CEO was unanimously confirmed to run the embattled agency, he has come under fire for not moving fast enough to solve its myriad problems. Veteran advocates and lawmakers—particularly Republicans—say they are concerned about the VA's ability to implement a reform bill and discipline employees involved in a widespread data-manipulation scandal.

McDonald has tried to quell those concerns, insisting he's following the new Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act when it comes to getting rid of VA employees. The bill, passed in late July, gave the department more funding, decreased the time some employees have to appeal a disciplinary decision, and provided veterans with more access to non-VA health care.  "If a member of Congress wants me to follow a different procedure, they need to pass a different law," said McDonald during an interview with CNN on Monday afternoon. His appearance was the latest stop in his media blitz ahead of Veterans Day on Tuesday.  [more]

Hour Four

Friday  14 November 2014 / Hour 4, Block A:  "Mr. President": George Washington and the Making of the Nation's Highest Office, by Harlow Giles Unger (1 of 4)

Friday  14 November 2014 / Hour 4, Block B: "Mr. President": George Washington and the Making of the Nation's Highest Office, by Harlow Giles Unger (2 of 4)

Friday  14 November 2014 / Hour 4, Block C: "Mr. President": George Washington and the Making of the Nation's Highest Office, by Harlow Giles Unger (3 of 4)

Friday  14 November 2014 / Hour 4, Block D: "Mr. President": George Washington and the Making of the Nation's Highest Office, by Harlow Giles Unger (4 of 4)

..  ..  ..