The John Batchelor Show

Friday 20 July 2018

Air Date: 
July 20, 2018

Photo: 直升机停机坪  Vertiport: one version
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
 
Hour One
Friday  20 July 2018 / Hour 1, Block A:  Col Douglas Mastroianni, in re: NATO.   On his way to the Helsinki mtg, the president of the Russian Federation chose to cut across Estonian airspace, transponder on and no permission. It was a stick in the eye.  Hoped to hear the American president proclaim that, although there are occasional internal disagreements, the US will not countenance intrusions on the sovereignty of our allies; but no such.
In Estonia, a bronze statue of a fallen soldier*; in 2007 the city fathers decided to move it politely to a place a bit outside of the city, which enraged the Russians, who committed a massive cyber attack that closed down all of Estonia for two days and damaged the Estonian economy.
Kaliningrad**: at least 30,000 Russian troops positioned there, and place for many Iskander missiles. The US could not overcome these.  We can’t defend the Baltics. 
In 2004, new members were brought in to NATO, we should have discussed this then. No even Montenegro is added. We need to have enough US forces placed forward to inhibit a Russian invasion. Were 30 Americans to die, the US would be obliged to respond strongly; let’s figure this out now an avoid war.
NATO has not focussed since 1991. Europe has offloaded the whole thing to US soldiers.  There are freeloaders who expect the US to pay for everything and save them money, and others who are genuinely concerned and participate wisely. Only eight of the twenty-nine NATO nations are at or close to the agreed 2% of GDP that must be put into NATO.
*The Bronze Soldier is the informal name of a controversial Soviet World War II war memorial in Tallinn, Estonia, built at the site of several war graves, which were relocated to the nearby Tallinn Military Cemetery in 2007. It was originally named "Monument to the Liberators of Tallinn"; was later entitled by its current official name, "Monument to the Fallen in the Second World War.”
** Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea. As the westernmost territory of the USSR, the Kaliningrad Oblast became a strategically important area during the Cold War. The Soviet Baltic Fleet was headquartered in the city in the 1950s. Because of its strategic importance, Kaliningrad was closed to foreign visitors.  Kaliningrad is twinned with Norfolk, Virginia.
NATO's Vulnerable Link in Europe: Poland's Suwalki Gap  http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/natosource/nato-s-vulnerable-link-in-europe-poland-s-suwalki-gap
Friday  20 July 2018 / Hour 1, Block B: Col Douglas Mastroianni (part 2 of 2)
Friday  20 July 2018 / Hour 1, Block C: Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics, in re: Vertiports: can drive in your autonomous car to a large structure; might see a bullet train pulling in; vertiport is a transportation node. Take an elevator to the roof to the vertiport for unmanned aerial vehicles/VTOLs. 
Futurist stacked ‘em up one on top of another. What could possibly go wrong? . . .  Planners are concerned about changing human culture to accommodate these.
See: https://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/a22454961/mega-skyport-uber-flyi...
The "Mega Skyport" Is a Fanciful Future Landing Spot for Uber’s Flying Taxis  The architectural details of a new kind of transportation hub reveal a reshaped cityscape if passenger-carrying drones fill the air.
Friday  20 July 2018 / Hour 1, Block D: Jeff Bliss, Pacific Watch, in re:  California is home to semi-socialists who subscribe not so much to redistribution as to confiscation.  . . .  Seattle also has become a high-crime place.  Spreading out from skid row to the general city. In  Berkeley, a window is open.  Eddie Lee Langford decides to enter, take a shower, raid the refrigerator. Then he took the homeowner’s Tesla on as shopping trip.
Gavin Newsome spearheaded a citywide policy requiring police to report unregistered alien felonious youth to the police; now he claims to have turned over a new leaf.  San Francisco tenderloin: mayor establishes a space where it’s legal to shoot drugs.
 
Hour Two
Friday  20 July 2018 / Hour 2, Block A:  Michael E Vlahos, Johns Hopkins, in re:  The new civil war; treason. In Rome: first civil war, second civil war, the empire, then the republic. Salient point: you don’t know you're in a civil war till afterward.  
“Everyone who works for President Trump, quit now! Save your soul!”—the normally temperate and well-reasoned Ruth Marcus, Washington Post. In other words, if you work for Trump, you’re demonic.  . . . Did she realize what she’s essentially saying: labelling all Americans who supported he current president as traitors? Ever such one needs to be re-educated or brought to his knees.
Leading up to the Spanish civil war:  Pan’s Labyrinth, film. In the 1930s, Spain was a democracy with free elections. The rhetoric of the left movement, being socialists and communists was what the US Democrats say today:  The Other have no right to live in the Spain of today. Razor-thin,  election, almost exactly50/50.
The Rhetoric matters; when you declare that the president is a traitor, you’re saying he needs to be brought to trial and condemned..
In such matters, you either submit or  . . .
Friday  20 July 2018 / Hour 2, Block B:  Michael E Vlahos, Johns Hopkins, in re:  How much of a population does it take for  [politics/social structure] to flip?  It starts with rhetoric.  Wharton study: 25% to change the opinion of the whole. We have that right now on each side. Right now the blue has all the money, the connections, the EU, the networks.  The 25% countering it has 300 million firearms., and important element; plus right now the Executive and the Constitution.
The battle lines are drawn. Blee cannot separate Trump from the million who support him— see all as unreconstructed aliens, the Other.  The indissoluble basis of the civil  war – they’re not quite human, not Americans. This is why the trope of the Traitor is so powerful.
Friday  20 July 2018 / Hour 2, Block C:  Mary Anastasia O’Grady, WSJ editorial page and The Americas column; in re:   Brazil, Dilma, Lula, politics. Operation Carwash. 
Friday  20 July 2018 / Hour 2, Block D:  Mary Anastasia O’Grady, WSJ editorial page and The Americas column; in re: Central America
 
Hour Three
Friday  20 July 2018 / Hour 3, Block A: Tyler  Rogoway, The War Zone; in re:  How to respond to various threats. Frigates. Recently visited the Alpino, an impressive Italian frigate.  Can respond to a threat swiftly and “with more articulation” than an Arleigh Burke-class ship can (which can do from  air defense to ballistic missile defense).  Can respond to nonstate actors, such as pirates. Navy willing to spend up to a billion dollars on each. (A littoral combat ship [LCS] wd cost half as much, but is not capable and cannot survive a serious antiship missile threat.) First one operational by maybe 2025 
Friday  20 July 2018 / Hour 3, Block B:  Tyler  Rogoway, The War Zone; in re:  How to respond to various threats. (part 2 of 2)
Friday  20 July 2018 / Hour 3, Block C:  Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com, & author, Capitalism in Space; in re: Space engineering.  Lop-G:  lunar orbiting platform gateway. 
Friday  20 July 2018 / Hour 3, Block D:  Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com, in re: Mars (“brave little toasters struggling in the global dust storm”)
 
Hour Four
Friday  20 July 2018 / Hour 4, Block A:  Sex Matters: How Modern Feminism Lost Touch with Science, Love, and Common Sense, by Mona Charen
Friday  20 July 2018 / Hour 4, Block B:  Sex Matters: How Modern Feminism Lost Touch with Science, Love, and Common Sense, by Mona Charen
Friday  20 July 2018 / Hour 4, Block C:  Sex Matters: How Modern Feminism Lost Touch with Science, Love, and Common Sense, by Mona Charen
Friday  20 July 2018 / Hour 4, Block D:  Sex Matters: How Modern Feminism Lost Touch with Science, Love, and Common Sense, by Mona Charen