Photo, above: Fars News Agency [the official Iranian news outlet]  claims Snowden docs prove aliens helped Hitler, and currently control U.S. gov’t   An Iranian news agency alleges that documents provided by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden prove that “an alien/extraterrestrial intelligence agenda is driving US domestic and international policy, and has been doing so since at least 1945,” The Fars News Agency asserts that the shadow alien government running the United States is based in Nevada, and these aliens previously ran Nazi Germany. The Washington Post reports, “As proof that aliens were secretly behind the Nazis, the report explains that Germany built hundreds of submarines toward the end of the war, far more than would have been possible with mere human technology.”  But, the Post continues, “It does not explain why aliens with access to interstellar travel built subs that were so grossly incapable against the British navy, or why all-powerful extraterrestrials were unable to help the Nazis resist an invasion by Allied forces that are mere cavemen relative to their own technology. So far, these are pretty unimpressive aliens.”

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Co-host: Thaddeus McCotter, "recovering politician"

Hour One

Monday  13 January 2014  / Hour 1, Block A: Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD, in re: "core al Qaeda" means what? 

Monday  13 January 2014  / Hour 1, Block B:  Thomas Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor, in re: Abu Sufian ben Qumu: this guy in Benghazi the night that four Americans were killed is entirely associated with al Qaeda; Washington denies that globally-known and -accepted fact.  Even among the al Qaeda world he's considered extreme. "Catch and release."

Monday  13 January 2014  / Hour 1, Block C: Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review & Pirates fan, and Lara M Brown, political analyst and author, in re: Chris Christie. Obamacare.  To be skewered by the media is a badge of honor.  "Doesn't matter what they say as long as they spell my name right."  "The political class is not only psychotic – it's solipsistic."   New Jersey and traffic? Pew poll said that people brushed of the G W Bridge cones in favor of fretting about the weather. People are paying attention to cold weather, bills, the lousy jobs report and the Dow sinking.  "My estimation of Gov Christie is that if you hit your ball into his yard he wouldn't give it back." With this scandal, he now looks like every other ol' pol – back-scratching and snark.

Obamacare: enrollees are older, sicker, and poorer than is actually needed to keep it working.

In Connecticut, only 8% of the enrollees have actually paid.  

Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: These days, 140 characters can uplift or upend a promising political career within moments of being posted on Twitter.  Founded in 2006, the social media forum allows people to read, write and share messages — or tweets — that are limited to a maximum 140 characters per posting.

During this year's congressional and gubernatorial campaigns, experts say, one whimsical tweet that sounds clever inside a candidate's head easily could be taken out of context by someone else online. The impact could crash a career and perhaps even tip the balance of power in Washington or a state capital.   . . .   “The speed at which information of high concern travels through media has become blinding,” said Bruce Haynes, a Washington-based Republican strategist. “Twenty years ago, it took 24 hours for high-concern information to travel through media. Ten years ago, it took four hours. Today it takes four minutes.”

member Senate and 36 governor's races. All U.S. senators, 97 percent of House members and 49 governors have Twitter accounts, according to Bridget Coyne of the Twitter Government team (@gov).

An unknown number of their opponents might use the site to connect with voters as well.

Some members of Congress use Twitter “like a virtual town hall,” Coyne said, who touts the site as a way for people to “follow and tweet with the candidates, political reporters, and other informed citizens to stay up-to-date with the latest news.”

Monday  13 January 2014  / Hour 1, Block D:  Thaddeus McCotter, in re: Your member of Congress, most likely, is much, much richer than you. As the National Journal digital editor Matt Berman writes, for the first time ever, most U.S. lawmakers are millionaires, according to a new analysis from the Center for Responsive Politics:

"Congressional Democrats had a slightly higher median net worth than Republicans, $1.04 million to $1 million respectively. It's not like there's been some kind of major, recent financial sea-change though. The last analysis had those numbers at $990,000 for Democrats and $907,000 for Republicans.  Unsurprisingly, Senators on the whole are much wealthier than House members on the whole: The median net worth in the Senate was $2.7 million, compared to a $896,000 median net worth in the House. Senate Republicans are the ones who are truly raking it in, with a $2.9 million median net worth."  [more]

Hour Two

Monday  13 January 2014  / Hour 2, Block A:  David M Drucker, Washington Examiner Sr Congressional correspondent, and John Fund, National Review Online, in re:  Tammany Hall. Obamacare. Chris Christie.  (1 of 2)

Monday  13 January 2014  / Hour 2, Block B: David M Drucker, Washington Examiner Sr Congressional correspondent, and John Fund, National Review Online, in re: Obamacare. Health care.  "Older, sicker, poorer" – a demo mix that could [undercut/sink] the ACA. Once a subsidy is granted, it’s extremely difficult to get rid of.  Need to get rid of the parts that are destroying this insurance: hair transplants, gynecology for men, and the like.  "Keep your doctor – change your Senator."

Monday  13 January 2014  / Hour 2, Block C: Gregory Copley, author, in re: Update on the Tony Abbott government policy shifts: carbon tax, boatlifts,  - and defense with Chinese aggression in South China Sea, and the Sino-Japanese-Korean Cold War under way in North Asia.

Toby Abbott has an overwhelming majority in the Lower House. Labor left a carbon tax; Tony Abbott swore to reverse that immediately, has to get that through the Senate (where there'll be elections later this year). They'd never explained how adding a tax would reverse global warming – or that more CO2 came out of the Icelandic volcano that from humans in a million years.  Indonesia and Australia have enjoyed good relations; however, Indonesian govt has allowed huge numbers of boat-refugees (many of them Afghans, Sudanese, Iranians, who destroy their passports so they can't be returned to their natal land) to pass through Indonesia and continue to Australia, Abbott elected on promise to stop the boat people, which requires the cooperation of Indonesia – but too many Indonesians are being paid off.   Australians began to tow the boats back to Indonesia, which created an uproar. Taiwan, Diaoytai: very strong historical claims on the islands. Pres. Ma (Taiwan) speaks of considerable mining for mineral resources around the islands (Senkakus/Diaoyu/Diaoyutai).

New alliance structure in the Pacific. Australia and Canada will be key partners, esp in Polar regions.

Monday  13 January 2014  / Hour 2, Block D: Gordon Chang, Forbes.com, in re; China – lie a fat man pushing his big belly against neighbors – is now enforcing "fishing curbs" – no fishing vessel may enter the South China Sea without Beijing; permission.   The PLA Navy uses "fishing" to advance is warlike intentions – exercising sovereign jurisdiction over a vast portion of the South China Sea; all neighbors are alarmed.   "Xi Jin-ping wants to be the Mao Tse-tung, who worshipped violence." – this looks a lot like 1914 Europe. Inexact parallel, but China does want to provoke a war.  Comes down to a bunch f "Big Men."  His belligerence is born of insecurity; policing power moved from Interior Ministry to Army, the guys with guns. He's worried about his own political position and about the Party in society. So many rumors of assassination attempts.   Many – incl Willie Lam – say that . . .     Incidentally, this is terrible for the Chinese economy. 

Hour Three

Monday  13 January 2014  / Hour 3, Block A:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:  Ariel Sharon, hero of multiple wars and saved both Israel and, as it turned out, peace in the Middle East in face of actual Soviet forces moving in.  Sharon has died; he la in state at the Knesset; initial funeral service there. Second service at Sharon's ranch in the Negev: he was transported there to be buried next to his wife.  His sons spoke, memorial prayers said.   During the ranch ceremony, rockets fired toward it. Iron Dome deployed there.  John Batchelor spoke with Ariel Sharon in December 2005: the weapons being smuggled into Gaza via the Philadelphi Route? Sharon replied that Abbas hadn't done much about anything, anyway.  Sharon had one goal: the defense and security of Israel. He destroyed four large communities in the West Bank in order to offer a gift to the Palestinians.  The 55th Brigade, Sinai, given rubber boats and told to cross he Suez Canal ad wait. The did. Sharon shows up with a bandage on his head from shrapnel. The soldiers thought, "Sharon says hat we're behind enemy lines but we'll be OK – so we're OK."   When Sharon had the Egyptian army surrounded, Kissinger intervened and forced Israel to back off.  Nontransparency of the White House agreement with Iran. 

Monday  13 January 2014  / Hour 3, Block B: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:  Iran interim agreement of 23 Nov; now a new agreement starting in February, P5+1 and Teheran.  The White House will not permit members of the US Senate to read the agreement fashioned with Iran. Senators need to pass on this but may not read it. Why"?  "Catherine Ashton, the crypto-foreign minister of the EU, doesn't want anyone to."  Sen Mark Kirk tweeted, "Why can’t we see this?"  Agreement package allows Iran to install new-generation centrifuges for R&D."    Turkey and Iran signed an oil for goods treaty, of which Russia is able to take advantage.  Who facilitated the gold-for-cash deal between Turkey and Iran? Also, this deal will be an accelerant to the end of sanctions.  The EU rejects the  US Senate's ability to see a treaty it’s  supposed to be part of.

43 Republicans and 14 Democrats favor legislation that hold Iran to keeping its word; the NSC said that if the Senators support this legislation, "they support war" – which enrages the Senators, of course. 

Monday  13 January 2014  / Hour 3, Block C: Adam Nossiter, NYT, in Bangui, in re: Violence Replaces Rejoicing after Central African Leaders Resign  After thousands celebrated the resignations of two of the Central African Republic’s leaders, Christian militias renewed their fight with the Muslim rebels known as Seleka. Michel Djotodia's army swept down from the North, institute a reign of terror and violence – dozens of people killed daily, widespread looting. Basically run by thugs from the bus, who exploited the urban environment. Disaster, Eventually regional leaders said "enough."  There are no institutions; the capital, Bangui, is in advanced dilapidation. Over 100,000 people are camped in near the airport.  Yesterday, Michel Djotodia was obliged to resign, leading to a slight but visible diminution in horror. France took over long ago, established no institutions or schools, sucked all the rubber and resources out, left in 1960, . There was then nothing there- half a dozen educated people, no roads.  Ergo, coups, dictatorships, violence. French have felt a bit of guilt.  No connections between these self-identified Muslim thugs and the jihadists. French soldiers now on the ground there seem to be pretty sane about just keeping the two sides apart and disarming them.

Monday  13 January 2014  / Hour 3, Block D:   Reza Kahlili, author, A Time to Betray, in re: In the agreement that the White House won't allow Senators to see, there's language that allows Iran to use high-speed centrifuges and thus speed up its advance to being a nuclear power with both weapons and delivery system. "Dismantling eqpt" is a joke: they disconnect something that takes one day to reconnect. Nothing ended.  Meanwhile they continue with "research facilities" in 10,000 centrifuge in Natanz; will agree to nothing that eliminates their progress.  Fars News Agency: "Tall white people from alien places [not Earth] have taken over US foreign policy."  "Secret US government; the FSB cooperated in compiling this report." White House Says Iran Implementation Agreement Being Kept Secret Because of the EU.   Sen. Mark Kirk calls on the White House to make the document public. The text of an agreement reached Sunday to implement the interim nuclear deal with Iran is not available to the public because the European Union is not releasing it, the White House says. “The EU is not making the document public,” National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said on Sunday.

Asked why the document was not being released, EU foreign policy spokesman Michael Mann said that he will “have to ask about that.” Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, was closely involved in the talks in Geneva that brought around the interim nuclear deal. World powers reached an agreement this weekend to implement the interim deal reached with Iran in November to curtail its nuclear program in return for some sanctions relief; the terms of the deal are now scheduled to begin on Jan. 20. According to Reuters, Iran will receive the first $550 million in now-unblocked funds on Feb. 1.  . . .  [more]

Hour Four

Monday  13 January 2014  / Hour 4, Block A: Jed Babbin, American Spectator, in re: As SECDEF, Robert Gates was a malleable nonentity. His memoir, coming out tomorrow, apparently confirms that point.  Gatesgate and Other SGO | The American Spectator

Monday  13 January 2014  / Hour 4, Block B: Arif Rafiq, PakistanRisk, in re: Indian diplomat arrested and detained, treated like a common criminal; which deeply angered India. Beware Indian hypernationalism.  US dip expelled from India.   Civilian Government Risks Army Backlash with Musharraf Trial. On 17 November 2013, the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) government unexpectedly announced that it will prosecute former Chief of Army Staff and President Pervez Musharraf for high treason for having suspended the constitution and imposed emergency rule six years ago. Musharraf is the first military ruler in Pakistan’s history to face prosecution for subverting the constitution. If convicted, he faces a possible punishment of death or life imprisonment.  [more]

Monday  13 January 2014  / Hour 4, Block C:  Bruce Webster, AndStillIpersist.com, in re: The news I woke up to this morning (thanks to an early morning e-mail from John Fund at National Review) is that the Obama Administration will not renew its Healthcare.gov contract with CGI Federal when it expires next month, but instead will give the contract to Accenture. As Jaikumar Vijayan over at Computerworld notes:

The decision not to renew comes as frustration grows among officials of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which oversees the ACA, about the pace and quality of CGI’s work, the Post said, quoting unnamed sources. About half of the software fixes written by CGI engineers in recent months have failed on first attempt to use them, CMS officials told the Post. 

The government awarded the contract to Accenture on a sole-source, or no-bid, basis because the CGI contract expires at the end of next month. That gives Accenture less than two months to familiarize itself with the project before it takes over the complex task of fixing numerous remaining glitches.

This is not surprising, for several reasons. [more]

Monday  13 January 2014  / Hour 4, Block D:   Eric Trager, Washington Institute, in re: Salafists Are the Wild Card of Egypt's Referendum  Low Salafist turnout for this week's constitutional referendum could signal a broad base of support for growing jihadist violence against the post-Morsi government.

..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..

Music

Hour 1:  Heat. Brothers Grimm. The Recruit. 

Hour 2:  Oblivion. Captain Phillips. 

Hour 3:  War of the Worlds. Hotel Rwanda. Land of the Dead. 

Hour 4:  Land of the Dead. Breaking Bad. 

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