The John Batchelor Show

Monday 16 December 2019

Air Date: 
December 16, 2019

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, the Great Voice of the Great Lakes
 
Hour One
Monday 16 December 2019 / Hour 1, Block A: Tom Joscelyn, Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies; & Senior Editor for FDD's Long War Journal; and Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD; in re: Bagram Airbase. “The suicide assault”: a guy drives up in a truck, detonates, outpour men in vests with heavy guns, and they attack inside, This has been used everywhere al Q operates. Taliban have adopted it – two killed and seventy in hospital.   This is in the middle of “negotiations” – “When you attack, we withdraw troops.”  Khalilzad is always tepid in responses; it’s quite embarrassing, actually. Laura Logan and her atty say that she lost her CBS job because of defamatory material in New York magazine.
Sen Graham: perhaps thousands of mil personnel will be withdrawn from Afghanistan in the coming days. 
Monday 16 December 2019 / Hour 1, Block B: Tom Joscelyn, Long War Journal and FDD; and Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD; in re:  Afghanistan; al Qaeda and Taliban. The Bagram Airbase attack.  The Kabul Attack Network.   A host of groups pooled resources.
Monday 16 December 2019 / Hour 1, Block C: Gordon Chang, Daily Beast, in re:  The China-US trade deal: very disappointing from US point of view.  An Arsenal player tweeted in favor of Uyghurs: Xi Jinping threw a global fit. Stalin wasn’t a very good sport, either, but he probably felt more secure than Xi usually does.  Even Mao was more secure than Xi –If Xi makes another policy mistake, things could go very badly for him.  At a critical time, the US threw a lifeline to Xi – if you throw a little more, China can sustain its system. This is terrible.  Meanwhile, we think that the US tariffs reduced the Chinese economy by 2%. If we starve the beast, we can actually end up in a peaceful world; instead, we gave China a little bit more life, meaning it can sustain itself.   . . .   The SOEs are built-in failure.
Monday 16 December 2019 / Hour 1, Block D: Michael_Yon,  @Michael_Yon  Hong Kong reporter; in re:  Why are the HK police so big compared to the HK population; with such big shoulders and unusual training; why do they look like PLA soldiers? They shot one reporter in the face on Sunday night with a kinetic round, beat up others; were very violent toward other citizens.  One came up, very tall, shoulder-surfing & looking at my videos, very fit, wearing a mask with glasses and no name tab or identifying feature. Spoke English well. Doesn't sound at all like the Hong Kong police, who are shorter and thinner than I [Gordon Chang] am.  Every HK cop wears ID. These are PLA officers; they use chemicals in water cannon and chemicals in other uses: illegal in civilian but not military use.
Rotated in from PLA and State Security.  Carrie Lam, doing her duty visit to Beijing, where Xi expressed report for her; when she returns to HK, what will happen?
 
Hour Two
Monday 16 December 2019 / Hour 2, Block A:  David M Drucker, Washington Examiner, & John Fund, NRO, in re:  Rep Slotkin from Lansing, Michigan: a first-termer, air-dropped in, has to tell her voters to trust her against the president.  Never any doubt that she’d go that way.  CNN and Ox may try to call on ___, but these are the forgotten men of the debates. History began on July 24 of this year when Pres Trump called the president of Ukraine. Nothing ever happened before that,. . . .  A group of Dem fro swing districts wrote an op-ed to say that an impeachment was necesssary, which forced Pelosi to call for an inquiry.
Monday 16 December 2019 / Hour 2, Block B:  John Fund, NRO, & David M Drucker, Washington Examiner, in re:  The first US AG to be held in contempt of Congress, Eric Holder, Pres Obama’s “wingman,” calls Bill Barr “unfit” for office. 
Monday 16 December 2019 / Hour 2, Block C:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Israeli politics & strategy
Monday 16 December 2019  / Hour 2, Block D: Indiana Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Ancient finds, especially a fermented-fish factory
 
Hour Three
Monday 16 December 2019  / Hour 3, Block A: Andrew C McCarthy, author, Ball of Collusion, in re:  Bill Barr and Nancy Pelosi (1 of 2)
Monday 16 December 2019  / Hour 3, Block B: Andrew C McCarthy, author, Ball of Collusion, in re:  Bill Barr and Nancy Pelosi (2 of 2)
Monday 16 December 2019  / Hour 3, Block C:  Charles Reagan, Nerds on site, in re: Cybersecurity at all levels.  https://www.nerdsonsite.com/about-us/services-list/
Monday 16 December 2019  / Hour 3, Block D:  John Tamny, RealClearPolitics, in re: inflation
 
Hour Four
Monday 16 December 2019  / Hour 4, Block A:  Great Society: A New History, by Amity Shlaes  |
Monday 16 December 2019  / Hour 4, Block B:  Great Society: A New History, by Amity Shlaes
Monday 16 December 2019  / Hour 4, Block C:  Great Society: A New History, by Amity Shlaes
Monday 16 December 2019  / Hour 4, Block D:  Great Society: A New History, by Amity Shlaes 
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