Image, above:  1911 depiction of the structure of capitalism, harbinger of the globalization under discussion in Hour 2, Block C, Henry I Miller, M.D., Hoover & Forbes.com, on: the Wealthy Activist Vandana Shiva Is a Poor Advocate for the Poor

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Hour One

Friday  18 July 2014 / Hour 1, Block A: Michael Ledeen, FDD, in re:   What If They (the Bad Guys) Believe They Are Winning?   We discount many of our enemies’ public statements as sheer propaganda, or bravado, or just stuff “for domestic consumption,” but what if it’s what they actually believe?  What if Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and the Caliphate crowd think that the Almighty is on their side, that the U.S. and Israel are on the run, and that Judgment Day is imminent?  What if Vladimir Putin is dead set on restoring a Russian Empire?  In other words, what if our domestic-profit-and-loss model of foreign policy has very little to do with our enemies’ intentions and beliefs?

A remarkable quantity of the “analysis” of the current unpleasantness is devoted to explaining what is “really” going on inside the various hostile regimes and organizations around the world, the tacit assumption being that foreign policy is only understandable in the context of domestic disputes, power plays, schemes and whatnot.  Thus, Putin’s maneuvers regarding Ukraine or Moldova are reflections of inner turmoil, Hamas’s attacks on Israel show us the internal divisions of the movement, and the proclamations of one or another Caliphate are the result of power struggles within the Islamist universe.  Thus, Iran’s annoying refusal to come to terms with “the West” is because of an ongoing spat between Iranian reformers and hard-liners.

I think we ought to take their announced intentions more seriously, especially at the very top.  I think Putin, Khamenei, Mashaal, Abbas et al. are trying to avenge what they see as historic catastrophes, and I think . . . [more]

Friday  18 July 2014 / Hour 1, Block B:   Steven Greenhouse, NYT, in re: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/15/business/equal-opportunity-employment-...

Friday  18 July 2014 / Hour 1, Block C:  Gardner Harris, NYT, in re: Poor Sanitation in India May Afflict Well-Fed Children with Malnutrition He wore thick black eyeliner to ward off the evil eye, but Vivek, a tiny 1-year-old living in a village of mud huts and diminutive people, had nonetheless fallen victim to India’s great scourge of malnutrition.

His parents seemed to be doing all the right things. His mother still breast-fed him. His family had six goats, access to fresh buffalo milk and a hut filled with hundreds of pounds of wheat and potatoes. The economy of the state where he lives has for years grown faster than almost any other. His mother said she fed him as much as he would eat and took him four times to doctors, who diagnosed malnutrition. Just before Vivek was born in this green landscape of small plots and grazing water buffalo near the Nepali border, the family even got electricity.  So why was Vivek malnourished?  [more]

Friday  18 July 2014 / Hour 1, Block D: Harry Siegel, NY Daily News, in re: Pot-smoking in New York.

Hour Two

Friday  18 July 2014 / Hour 2, Block A:  Michael Vlahos, Naval War College, in re: The sinking of the Lusitania, and today (1 of 2)  

Friday  18 July 2014 / Hour 2, Block B: Michael Vlahos, Naval War College, in re: The sinking of the Lusitania, and today (2 of 2)

Friday  18 July 2014 / Hour 2, Block C: Henry I Miller, M.D., Hoover & Forbes.com, in re: Wealthy Activist Vandana Shiva Is a Poor Advocate for the Poor  Vandana Shiva, the Indian activist who opposes modern agriculture and modern science–and well, modernity in general–is a popular guest lecturer on American campuses. Last spring, she held the Weissberg Chair in International Studies (2013-2014) at Beloit College and this fall is scheduled to lecture at Arizona State and Wake Forest universities. Although she gets good press from left-wing and environmental publications, Shiva is widely considered by the scientific community to be unbalanced (in both senses of the word) for advocating unsound, anti-social policies and promulgating disproven theories about agriculture. One hopes her remarks to university students are placed in perspective by someone who knows better.  [more]

Friday  18 July 2014 / Hour 2, Block D:  Susan Berfield, Bloomberg Businessweek, in re: Dov Charney, the smarmy founder of American Apparel [long article]

Hour Three

Friday  18 July 2014 / Hour 3, Block A:  Sadanand Dhume, WSJ, in re:  India and Modi

Friday  18 July 2014 / Hour 3, Block B:  Michael Schwittz, NYT, in re:  Rikers: Where Mental Illness Meets Brutality in Jail  After being arrested on a misdemeanor charge following a family dispute last year, Jose Bautista was unable to post $250 bail and ended up in a jail cell on Rikers Island.  A few days later, he tore his underwear, looped it around his neck and tried to hang himself from the cell’s highest bar. Four correction officers rushed in and cut him down. But instead of notifying medical personnel, they handcuffed Mr. Bautista, forced him to lie face down on the cell floor and began punching him with such force, according to New York City investigators, that he suffered a perforated bowel and needed emergency surgery. [more]

Friday  18 July 2014 / Hour 3, Block C:  Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re: Caves on the Moon. Glae Crater, and Curiosity at the meteorite. Objects sitting nonchalantly on the Moon's surface. Manned space: the Gulfies want to go to Mars. Spotless Sun: the first blank Sun since 2011; Solar Maximum ramped down abruptly.

Friday  18 July 2014 / Hour 3, Block D:   Liz Peek, The Fiscal Times & Fox, in re: Media Bias-Censors Debate Climate Change

Hour Four

Friday  18 July 2014 / Hour 4, Block A: Legitimate Target: A Criteria-Based Approach to Targeted Killing (Terrorism and Global Justice) by Amos Guiora (1 of 4)

Friday  18 July 2014 / Hour 4, Block B: Legitimate Target: A Criteria-Based Approach to Targeted Killing (Terrorism and Global Justice) by Amos Guiora (2 of 4)

Friday  18 July 2014 / Hour 4, Block C: Legitimate Target: A Criteria-Based Approach to Targeted Killing (Terrorism and Global Justice) by Amos Guiora (3 of 4)

Friday  18 July 2014 / Hour 4, Block D: Legitimate Target: A Criteria-Based Approach to Targeted Killing (Terrorism and Global Justice) by Amos Guiora (4 of 4)