The John Batchelor Show

Monday 1 February 2021

Air Date: 
February 01, 2021

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Colleague: Thaddeus McCotter, American Greatness
 
Hour One
Monday 1 February 2021 / Hour 1, Block A: Tom Joscelyn, @thomasjoscelyn, Long War Journal and @FDD; and Bill Roggio, @billroggio, Long War Journal and @FDD; both create the podcast: Generation Jihad,  LongWarJournal; in re:JNIM, al Qaeda in Africa:  AQIM [al Qaeda in the Islamic Mahgreb], The Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims—a new jihadist coalition in West Africa, established in 2017, through the top of al Q and thence into Taliban. France kept the jihadists at bay for several years, but has grown weary and is intending to bug out.   JNIM, politically effective and “upcoming,” killed five French soldiers recently in a short time; fifty killed over the last years. 
Mali: its north is infested with jihadists; the south is filled with refugees from the north. So far, JNIM has refrained from attacking inside France. JNIM is willing to negotiate directly with local governments.  Does JNIM take orders from al Q?
Monday 1 February 2021 / Hour 1, Block B: Tom Joscelyn, Long War Journal and FDD; and Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD; in re:  Shabaab [“the Taliban of Africa”], an al Q offshoot, controls one-half of northern Kenya said the governor of the northern province; in his province, 60%  is under Shabaab. It must have tens of thousands of fighters to maintain this control. No large-scale counterinsurgency fights coming from the US; instead, will it maintain small numbers of troops to assist local governments?  
Monday 1 February 2021 / Hour 1, Block C: Michael Yon: @Michael_Yon, war correspondent;andGordon Chang, @GordonGChang, Daily Beast, in re:   British National Overseas passport no longer is recognized by the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing; HK citizens can still leave HK and travel on another document; but Beijing is trying to keep people and businesses inside HK.  The CCP is “strangling” Hong Kongers.  Every week another constriction. The US should take 100,000 Hong Kongers right now sight unseen. Beijing will further restrict the right to travel.  The CCP foreign ministry spokesman said, “Britain is trying to turn large numbers of people into second-class citizens.”  Pilots freight companies no longer want to fly into HK; they don’t care for the restrictions.  How far will Beijing take this?  Xi Jinping will take it as far as he thinks is beneficial to him; control is critical to him, and he’d destroy HK if that’s what control necessitated.  IS Great Britain of any use these days?  It still has companies in HK, notably the bank HSBC.
https://www.npr.org/2021/01/29/962008847/china-will-no-longer-recognize-british-hong-kong-travel-document
Monday 1 February 2021 / Hour 1, Block D: Charles Burton: @cburton001, blogs at RealityChek; and senior Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Centre for Advancing Canada's Interests Abroad; and Gordon Chang, @GordonGChang, Daily Beast, in re:  China is now (finally) being called “irresponsible.”  China, Australia, Germany, all expounding the line that we need to [work with] China.  Vested interests supported by the PRC to derail opposition before it gains ground. Even Nicholas Kristof is using more robust language: a sign that elite US opinion is shifting.   Xi Jinping says the same thing every year at Davos; lots of Westerners, corporate and political, gain financially from alliance with the CCP and the China lobby. Meng in Vancouver?   The money-makers recommend appeasing China, but several days ago her request to have less security was turned down by a court. Justin Trudeau, an environmentalist, has to consider the oil-rich lands of Western Canada.  Will Biden let Meng walk? He can’t—the political cost in the US would be far too great.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-xi-warns-against-confrontation-in-veiled-message-to-biden-11611590516
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/30/opinion/sunday/foreign-policy-china.html
 
Hour Two
Monday 1 February 2021 / Hour 2, Block A:  David M Drucker, Washington Examiner, & John Fund, NRO, in re:  Dave Joost, GOP attorney-general of Ohio, is interested in policy and legislation. What is a post-Trump period? 
Monday 1 February 2021 / Hour 2, Block B:  John Fund, NRO, & David M Drucker, Washington Examiner, in re: Joe Manchin is probably the second-most-powerful man in Washington. Seventy per cent of his state voted for Trump, and he won at 51%.  VP Harris’s remarks on a West Virginia TV station were unpleasant. 
Monday 1 February 2021 / Hour 2, Block C:  Richard Fontayne, CNAS, in re: 
Monday 1 February 2021   / Hour 2, Block D: 
 
Hour Three
Monday 1 February 2021   / Hour 3, Block A:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: IED near the Israeli embassy in Delhi.  
Monday 1 February 2021   / Hour 3, Block B: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:  Royal purple fabric found.  Caesarea. Origins of Islam.
Monday 1 February 2021   / Hour 3, Block C: Elin Suleymanov, @ElinSuleymanov, @azembassyus,ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan to Washington; and Brenda Shaffer: @ProfBShaffer  @FDD; Georgetown; in re:The remains of the Nagorno-Karabakh war.  As Armenians retreated, they not only destroyed most houses but cut down forests and left forest fires.  Question arises if they deposited Soviet-era nuclear and other waste. Apparently dammed a river inappropriately. Nuclear waste would affect Georgia and Iran as well as Azerbaijan. Left many landmines; it’ll take years and years to remove them. 
        Unimaginable merely a year ago, on Jan 30, the PMs of Azerbaijan and Armenia met in Moscow to discuss transport projects and economic cooperation.  “This is beautiful.”  Also cheering: the on-time and below-budget completion of the Southern Gas Corridor.
Monday 1 February 2021   / Hour 3, Block D:  Harry Siegel@harrysiegel,  New York Daily News and Daily Beast, in re: Shootings during a pandemic, mostly by people who’d been released prematurely from incarceration.  Murders up 30%. 
 
Hour Four
Monday 1 February 2021   / Hour 4, Block A: Richard Epstein: @RichardAEpstein, Chicago Law, NYU Law, Hoover Defining Ideas, in re: The Keystone Pipeline and results of its ceasing. Biden actually thinks that if you keep raising taxes you’ll keep increasing revenue.  
Monday 1 February 2021   / Hour 4, Block B: Richard Epstein: @RichardAEpstein, Chicago Law, NYU Law, Hoover Defining Ideas, in re:
Monday 1 February 2021   / Hour 4, Block C: 
Monday 1 February 2021   / Hour 4, Block D: