Photo, above:  Barricades, rue Soufflot, Paris, 1789, by Émile Jean-Horace Vernet (30 June 1789 – 17 January 1863) a French painter of battles, portraits, and Orientalist Arab subjects. He was born in the Paris Louvre while his parents were staying there during the French Revolution.

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Hour One

Friday  28 February  2014 / Hour 1, Block A: Stephen F Cohen, NYU Russian Studies prof Emeritus; author, Soviet Fates & Lost Alternatives, in re:  Fast-moving events in Ukraine.  . . . They've  declared themselves the new govt. Passed laws banning the use of Russian language – but more Ukrainians speak Russian than Ukrainians.  This Parliament has no legitimacy in history, in law; the only legitimacy is thugs in  the street, The legitimate president, fairly elected, is a nasty guy who's fled to Russia.  If NATO should [madly] move to protect the Kievan interlopers, Heaven only knows what Russia would be moved to do.  . . .  New Cold War divide . . .

Friday  28 February  2014 / Hour 1, Block B: Stephen F Cohen, NYU Russian Studies prof Emeritus; author, Soviet Fates & Lost Alternatives, in re:   9/11 was a chance for US and Russia to work together: first call Pre Bush got was Pres Putin: We're with you, will do everything we can. Also gave the US the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, which absorbed many of the casualties that h US would have suffered.  Since 1991, Russia has seen a post-Soviet march against Russia where ht prize would be Ukraine.  Missile defense bases are being built in Central Europe, ostensibly directed against Iran but not logically so.  Also, political invasion of former Soviet territories,  This is a result of bipartisan US policy toward Russia. Recall the proxy war between the US and Russia in Georgia.  What's coming may not be proxy.  Chancellor Merkel has been speaking carefully w Putin. Hollande is busy in Africa; Cameron is occupied. Merkel may be the key Western player – and she's deeply displeased with Pres Obama.  Tapping her cell phone and the disgraced Victoria Nuland, who spoke impossibly and dissed specifically Merkel for having supported Vitali Klitschko.  Now Pres Obama in a stampy-footy threatens the coming G8. The real threat is to our children and grandchildren. 

Friday  28 February  2014 / Hour 1, Block C: ProPublica's Michael Grabell reports that while almost half of the 43 countries OECD collects data on -- including Italy and the Czech Republic -- restrict the duration of temp assignments, in the U.S., temps often hold such jobs without recourse for years. U.S. temp workers are also placed in some of the most dangerous jobs, resulting in amputation rates that are three times higher than those for permanent workers in several states. In at least 12 countries, including South Korea and Poland, companies are specifically banned from putting temps in these risky roles.

Friday  28 February  2014 / Hour 1, Block D:  Daniel Henninger, WSJ WONDER LAND, in re: The Growth Revolutions Erupt Ukrainians want what we've got: The benefits of real economic growth.  All future histories of the Obama presidency will analyze the phrase "leading from behind"—the idea that the U.S. superpower should behave as no more than a co-equal partner in managing the affairs of the world. Chapters will be devoted to laying this revisionist template over Libya, Syria and Iran. There is one area, though, in which the returns are already in on this new notion of American leadership: For five years, the U.S. has been leading the world economy from behind. It's not pretty.   Across the postwar [more]

Hour Two

Friday  28 February  2014 / Hour 2, Block A:  Michael Vlahos, Naval War College, in re: Street Fighting Family: The Mythic Power of Barricades and Sacrifice Why do the photos, video, and tweets out of Kiev have such mythic power? Why do demonstrations, and barricades, and people shot down, young and old, men and women alike, wring such enduring emotion (like Les Miserables)? Why do citizen risings in big, capital cities have such a hold on us? For a start, citizen-risings in cities are not war. Even when there is lots of fighting, it is never a fair fight, and we are rooting for the underdog, where the force against them is always unfairly superior, professional, and heavily armed. Plus a group of poorly armed citizens are unlike an army in almost every way. But especially this way -- Together, they are the whole community: Men, women, and children fighting together. Their backs are against the family hearth itself. Nothing could be more existential, or more motivating. Hence their entire defense is an improvisation that seeks survival in destroying the very appearance of what they fight for, as they willingly demolish their homes (cutting passages and loopholes in their townhouse rows), their streets (ripping pavers and dragging their own vehicles into barricades), their centers of civic life -- thus their very way of life -- to resist the invader. Yet the material things of life mean nothing now compared to the . . .   (1 of 2)

Barricades in front of local government building with banner that reads: 'Crimea Russia" in Simferopol, Crimea, Ukraine, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2014. Ukraine put its police on high alert after dozens of armed pro-Russia men stormed and seized local government buildings in Ukraine's Crimea region early Thursday and raised a Russian flag over a barricade.

Friday  28 February  2014 / Hour 2, Block B: Michael Vlahos, Naval War College, in re: Venezuela opposition refuses to meet with president over protests   Opposition leader says meeting would look like an endorsement of repression.  (2 of 2)

Friday  28 February  2014 / Hour 2, Block C: Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics, in re:   ICBM testing, shooting demilitarized warheads from California to the deep Pacific in less than a half-hour.   [more]  (1 of 2)

Friday  28 February  2014 / Hour 2, Block D: Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics, in re:   ICBM testing, shooting demilitarized warheads from California to the deep Pacific in less than a half-hour. .   [more]   (2 of 2)

Hour Three

Friday  28 February  2014 / Hour 3, Block A:  Seb Gorka, Associate Dean and Associate Professor of War and Conflict Studies, National Defense University, in re:  Hungarian Revolution of 1956 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 or Hungarian Uprising of 1956 (Hungarian: 1956-os forradalom or felkelés) was a spontaneous nationwide revolt against the  . . .  Hungary in 1956 seemed to sum up all that the Cold War stood for. The people of Hungary and the rest of Eastern Europe were ruled over with a rod of iron by  . . .

Friday  28 February  2014 / Hour 3, Block B: Carol Hymowitz, Bloomberg, in re: YOUR WILTING RETIREMENT.   In the wake of the AOL controversy in early February, Bloomberg Businessweek  took a closer look at  hundreds of government filings and found that, without attracting the same notice, other companies including JPMorgan Chase, Oracle, and Caesars Entertainment have reduced the amount and delayed payment of 401(k) matching funds and dragged out vesting schedules, making it harder for employees to save for old age. Roughly 23 percent of companies that reinstated 401(k) matches after the recession have since cut contributions. [more]

Friday  28 February  2014 / Hour 3, Block C: Sam Tadros, Hudson Institute, in re: Islamist Responses to the "End of Islamism"  
Current Trends in Islamist Ideology, Volume 15   [more]

Friday  28 February  2014 / Hour 3, Block D: Robert Ferdman, Quartz, in re: How America fell out of love with orange juice. America has fallen out of love with orange juice. Sales dropped almost every year for the last decade. Last year, orange juice sales hit their lowest level in at least 15 years, according to Nielsen. Over the same period, per-capita consumption fell roughly 40%. And this year is looking to be another rough one for big orange.  [more]

Hour Four

Friday  28 February  2014 / Hour 4, Block A: Liz Peek, The Fiscal Times & Fox, in re: Why Obama Will Throw U.S. Immigration Laws Overboard   A prediction: President Obama is about to unilaterally change the law…again. How do I know? The polling tells me so. Just as Mr. Obama ordered the Justice Department to stop enforcing the Defense of Marriage Act when public opinion began to favor same-sex marriage, the president is surely poised to topple our immigration laws.   

The pressure on President Obama is intense – especially from those whose favor he curried heading into the 2012 election. Young immigrants, members of United We Dream (UWD), are demanding that the president stop deportations of illegals. They recently rallied in Phoenix, marching the streets while chanting, “Obama, Obama, don’t deport my mama!” They believe him when he says he’ll use his pen and his phone as a mighty Excalibur to further his agenda; they believe him when he says they rank high on his agenda. Meanwhile, the deportations continue. 

Related: Two Immigration Plans, Two Worlds Apart   Dreamers may well be in luck. A recent Gallup poll showed for the first time that Americans are as concerned about what to do with people already in the country illegally as they are about securing our borders. Historically, people were more worried about shutting down border crossings. 

Further confirmation of a sea-change in attitude comes from a recent CNN poll. Last month, in answer to “What should be the main focus of the U.S. government in dealing with the issue of illegal immigration,” 54 percent selected “developing a plan that would allow illegal immigrants who have jobs to become legal U.S. residents.” Only 41 percent chose “developing a plan for stopping the flow of illegal immigrants into the U.S. and for deporting those already here.” In 2010, 38 percent chose the first answer while 60 percent called for tighter border security.

President Obama opened the door to Dreamers in June 2012, when he initiated a  program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. That law suspended for a renewable 2-year period . .  . [more]

Friday  28 February  2014 / Hour 4, Block B: Lauren Young, Reuters, in re:  Why U.S. kids are pocketing more allowance    Dan Zevin has been hearing a lot of reports lately about allowance inflation. His source: his 10-year-old son Leo.  [more]

Friday  28 February  2014 / Hour 4, Block C: Charles Pellegrino, author and explorer, in re: Vesuvius Blows  The Journal.  After an hour or so of exposition, Mount Vesuvius finally starts to erupt. Cue the running, screaming and falling ash (which is the most boring . .  .

Friday  28 February  2014 / Hour 4, Block D: Christopher Mim, QZ.com, in re:  Well-sourced rumors that Google was ready to pay $10bil for WhatsApp, which lets you send short msgs and images. Zuckerberg paid $19bil. Popular overseas; is above all mobile, works on nonsmartphones, so used in Africa, Europe, South America,  Uses data, only, so intl text msgs cost nothing extra. [more]

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Music

Hour 1:  Call of Duty. Michael Clayton. 

Hour 2:  Red Dawn. 

Hour 3:  Empire: Total War. Michael Clayton.

Hour 4:  Warhammer.