Friday 30 October 2020
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Hour One
Friday 30 October 2020 / Hour 1, Block A: Dan Henninger: @DanHenninger, @WSJOpinion; editorial board and Wonder Land column; in re: Jim Clyburn, of South Carolina: decided that the moderate, centrist SC vote for Democrats ought to go for Biden. Why? Three major political events this year: virus (starting to be seen in February); riots (starting 25 May); and Rep Clyburn’s endorsement of Biden on 26 Feb. Suddenly, Clyburn, et al., feared that Bernie Sanders might get the Dem nomination—a debacle for Dems, so they should focus on Biden. Biden’s campaign is built around “against Trump.” Since Sanders now is at peace with Biden, must mean that Biden has accepted Sanders’s program. The violence and looting weren’t at all random; it was an ideological movement. Democrats have a dark vision of America. Dems were searching for a moderate alternative. The Sanders-Warren agenda by and large is outside the comfort zone of most Americans. Biden’s fragility has accelerated and become an issue in the campaign. Major google search: “How do I change my vote?”
Friday 30 October 2020 / Hour 1, Block B: Jeff Bliss: #PacificWatch, in re: Shopping at San Francisco’s Post Street, the high end, incl the St Francis Hotel, Cartier, Bloomingdale’s, Bulgari: boarded up. Long has enjoyed rich shoppers, incl many Asian tourists. Local authorities are preparing for post-election chaos and boarding everything up. In LA, Rodeo Drive: plywood also in short supply and board up. Beverly Hills: Mayor Garcetti is assuring people, “All is well.” Why? . . . Disneyland laying off 28,000; also Universal. Both have begged governor not to shut them down, but governor ignores them. A fire near Irvine, which was saved because they got airdrop and helos right away, and also a shorter Sta Ana wind period (from the east) than expected. Fire continues near Yorba Linda.
Friday 30 October 2020 / Hour 1, Block C: Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com; in re: Osiris Rex visits Nightingale on asteroid Bennu. Secured an unexpectedly large sample; now have got the sample head inside the return capsule and sealed it. Will head for Earth in March 2021, arrive in Sept 2023. Had to cancel intended manoeuvers, incl a spin that would have told us how much material is there: proto-Solar System dust! Ryugu/Hayabusa 2: created a crater to open up the interior of the asteroid to find inside material. This upset the asteroid for a thirty-meter radius. “Philae is a robotic European Space Agency lander that accompanied the Rosetta spacecraft until it separated to land on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko” It bounced once; have reviewed and one of Philae’s arms actually was held there for almost two minutes; left several different impacts. Have decided that the comet is “frothy” – more so than a cappuccino. Density of Styrofoam. A bright meteor that burned over Western Alaska on 15 Oct; set off regional sensors designed to monitor volcanic eruptions. Have we found China’s landing sites on Mars? Utopia Plantatia. We have high-res pix of that location; China removed the coordinates from media.
Friday 30 October 2020 / Hour 1, Block D: Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com; in re: Lacquer on valves gummed up the valves; will swap out engines. ISS air leak: may be from age (twenty years) of Zvezda. Vostochny official arrested for fraud.
Hour Two
Friday 30 October 2020 / Hour 2, Block A: Devin Nunes, @DevinNunes, CA-22, Countdown to Socialism, in re: Bidens have entangled themselves with unsavory Chinese officials, at least two of whom are or were in prison. China has carefully laid down a global intell network heavily in Africa. Bidens were trying to make money with Chinese Communist partners; brought in an American to run it, Tony Bobulinski, whose testimony is damning. The $1.5 billion from China to Hunter? The $3,5 million from the widow of the mayor of Moscow is inexplicable. Almost could take what was quietly known of Bidens to create the sick, dirty tales of Fusion GPS. Obtain a controlling interest in Rosneft?? Not likely for Carter Page; but the Bidens were interested. Amanda Milius’s film derived from Lee Smith’s book:
Friday 30 October 2020 / Hour 2, Block B: Devin Nunes, @DevinNunes, CA-22, Countdown to Socialism, in re:
Friday 30 October 2020 / Hour 2, Block C: 1/2 Rasmus Nielsen, @ras_nielsen, UC Berkeley & Univ. of Copenhagen, computational/statistical genomics, population; in re: “Population genomics of the Viking world.” Nature magazine. 16 Sept 2020.
The maritime expansion of Scandinavian populations during the Viking Age (around AD 750–1050) was a far-flung transformation in world history. Swedish Vikings in Estonia: one, of four brothers buried together, with another relative nearby. Sometimes even dogs were buried. Have 442 archaeological sites from Scandinavia to Greenland. Using genomes to compare a wide range of people: drill out a tiny amount of bone mass to analyze; now can develop the entire genome, can do hundreds. Denmark spread to England; Sweden to Baltics; Norway to Iceland, Greenland, and Ireland. At least three major groups, plus Russians. Much DNA from Southern Europe came in. Spans from 2800 BC to 1600 AD. Hunter-gatherers; farmers; and steppe-related ancestors. Anatolia arrived maybe 8,000 years ago! Maybe 3,000 years ago: herders and warriors from Siberian steppe. Can still find all these components in modern Europeans.
“The maritime expansion of Scandinavian populations during the Viking Age (about AD 750–1050) was a far-flung transformation in world history1,2. Here we sequenced the genomes of 442 humans from archaeological sites across Europe and Greenland (to a median depth of about 1×) to understand the global influence of this expansion.” https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2688-8
Friday 30 October 2020 / Hour 2, Block D: 2/2 Rasmus Nielsen, @ras_nielsen, UC Berkeley & Univ. of Copenhagen, computational/statistical genomics, population; in re: “Population genomics of the Viking world.” Nature magazine. 16 Sept 2020. Migrations from seafaring and new technologies Greenland before the Little Ice Age: came from Iceland, In Tenth Century, Eric the Red sailed to Greenland, settled there. Likely contact with Vineland in North America. Disappeared in Fifteenth Century. Looked for inbreeding. Very few people and they slowly died out; must have been a relatively large population. Inuit?
Traits: pigmentation associated with peoples; in Denmark: dark-haired Vikings. Don’t know where that came from. Trading centers—towns on sailing routes—evinced cultural diversity. Vikings were more interested in trade than rampaging. Being a Viking was an occupation, not an ethnicity.
Friday 30 October 2020 / Hour 3, Block A: Michael Vlahos: @JHUWorldCrisis; Johns Hopkins; in re: Are we now in a civil war?? Urban-rural; globalist/nationalist; lue/red.
In Rome. Was won by the populists of today? Caesar Augustus abandoned Rome, moved to Capri.
Tiberius was a nontransparent figure, successful general, indifferent to the empire,. Is the US now an empire? Rome was determined never to become an empire, which was tied to Tarquinius, last king—and Rome hated kings; yet it became an empire, but never named it that. . . . Joe Biden is the Senatorial class. Donald Trump is nothing like a Senator. . . . We’re more like an earlier point in the Roman revolution, when populares believed there could be a savior who’d keep the republic alive. . . . Frankly, red is not going to go quietly into this good-night.
Friday 30 October 2020 / Hour 3, Block B: Michael Vlahos: @JHUWorldCrisis; Johns Hopkins; in re: We have a giant foreign policy establishment that wants to continue ruling world. Not possible with the existential divide within the country/empire. Invites [nasty] meddling from enemies abroad. US establishment refuses to notice, understand, figure this out, as it runs the risk of destroying out century-long dominance. I think now we’re on a razor’s edge, a precipice. Blue lowers the boom on red. Red still have a lot of fight in them.
Friday 30 October 2020 / Hour 3, Block C: Chris Riegel: @Scala, @STRATACACHE; in re: Will Disneyland close before Disneyworld opens? Disney in Paris is shut. Maybe Disneyworld will, soon. We're on a great social experiment: is the cure of lockdown worse than the virus? Nationalism currently is seen as negative, but historically was patriotic. Globalization has benefits and detriments. Will Bezos personally buy CNN? The phrase “fake news” is all over the globe. We’ve grown the GDP at a 33% per annum rate without the major cities of the coasts. US bz can adapt to any scenario; but rules defined by pols ad hoc and at will are not clear. Be clear and consistent!
Friday 30 October 2020 / Hour 3, Block D: Francis Rose, @FRoseDC, Host of @GovMattersTV @ ABC7News & WJLA 24/7 News. Washington D.C., in re: Bipartisan evaluation of US intell. China. It’s heartening is someone who speaks to Congress on a regular basis everyone gets it now, and there seems to be agreement on what to do about it. Joint intell group among six branches of military to prevent duplication and have everyone know what the others are doing, esp in AI. Recall SEATO. Organize allies. Remote working from remote places. Bulk of State workforce are foreign nationals. If State can have success with remote work from 200-plus embassies what does that mean about the future of work? What to do with the empty bldgs in DC?
Hour Four
Friday 30 October 2020 / Hour 4, Block A: Alaric the Goth: An Outsider's History of the Fall of Rome, by Douglas Boin. November 401 AD, Alaric the Philarch, was head of a prefecture and basically fired, so—with no further career prospects—marched over the Alps toward Rome. Decided to take aggressive action; goes westward with troops. Born on the Danube on an island. North of the Danube was the northern border of the Roman empire. Rivers, deserts; Tigris & Euphrates—beyond the borders were “barbarians.” His tribal allegiances were in Gothia. “Romanitas,” where -as signifies attributes, qualities. Here, the quality of being a Roman citizen. Deeply attractive to non-Romans.
Friday 30 October 2020 / Hour 4, Block B: Alaric the Goth: An Outsider's History of the Fall of Rome, by Douglas Boin. Emperor St Theodorus I.
Friday 30 October 2020 / Hour 4, Block C: Alaric the Goth: An Outsider's History of the Fall of Rome, by Douglas Boin
Friday 30 October 2020 / Hour 4, Block D: Alaric the Goth: An Outsider's History of the Fall of Rome, by Douglas Boin
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