The John Batchelor Show

Monday 16 February 2015

Air Date: 
February 16, 2015

Photo, left: 
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, The Great Voice of the Great Lakes; and author, Liberty Risen
 
Hour One
Monday   16 February 2015  / Hour 1, Block A:  Thomas Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor, & Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD, in re: Islamic State 'province' in Libya claims capture of town   One of the Islamic State's so-called provinces in Libya claims to have captured the town of Nawfaliyah. The group has also assaulted several buildings in Sirte, reportedly taking control of the local radio and television stations. 
Monday   16 February 2015  / Hour 1, Block B: Thomas Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor, & Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD, in re: Islamic State takes over large portions of town near key airbase in Anbar  After months of besieging al Baghdadi in Iraq's Anbar province, the Islamic State was able to take over large swaths of the town. Additionally, at least eight jihadists attacked the Al Asad airbase where US Marines are stationed.
Monday   16 February 2015  / Hour 1, Block C: Murad Ismail, Sinjar Crisis Group, in re:  When ISIS attacked Sinjar, about 3,000 Yazidis went toe h mountain to defend their compatriots as well as possible.  They eventually became part of the Kurdish Peshmerga system, although some elements are still independent and not part of Peshmerga or YPG. When ISIS attacked some people in ((December?)), Yazidis managed to return fire. Possibly 20 Arabs were killed, but no civilian and no woman. It was unlike the scale practiced by ISIS/Da'ish, which killed children, women, everyone at hand. Unfortunately, Yazidis are functionally defenseless, being mostly unarmed. Without international protection all Yazidis will be obliterated. Need the establishment of a safe zone. Otherwise, no Yazidis or Christians in Iraq for any time in the future.  Most Yazidis are not in Turkey, although 20m000 are there. Originally supported by UNHCR and he generous local Turks, but rather little from the Turkish government.  Living conditions are not better than in Iraq – there were 70,000 in Turkey, but 50m, 000 returned to Iraq because conditions were harsh.
We've slipped into anarchy – mass murder in Libya, in Eastern Ukraine, and a coup attempt in Caracas over the weekend A sense that order has slipped away in the Twenty-first Century and the US  has no place in it. Withdrawal of the US, failure of strategic policies; disorder will continue to mount. Exacerbated by the usually-beneficent communications revolution: the absence of right reason, and he ability to secure domestic tranquility for ourselves and others.
The US took over Iraq, now the Yazidis  are suffering.
There's a downplaying in Iraq, Syria, Yemen – all over the Middle East – of how disastrous ISIS is. If it's not cleared up soon, it will be almost impossible to rectify.  Natives of Iraq were there on the land for thousands of years before Islam arrived; the govt should defend hem but doesn’t.  In 2003 there were 1.5 million Christians and a million Yazidis living in peace; now, all attacks. After invading Iraq, the US has a moral obligation to defend the people.
Yazda.org
Monday   16 February 2015  / Hour 1, Block D:   Gordon Chang, Forbes.com, in re:  Hsin Hua released a propaganda article to rebut the notion that China has moved away from Deng's "keep a low profile."  They do have the idea that because they're Chinese and magnificent, and everyone will believe the piece. There are so many holes in it that it makes Swiss cheese look whole. Low Beijing expectations anent the coming trip to the US in Sept 2015, merely want the US not to prevent China from grabbing parts of the Philippines, Vietnam, others.  Beijing sees tha4e American paradigm: does nothing till it’s pushed to far, then it responds hugely and successfully. As for Alibaba and its superstar Jack Ma head.  Its earnings disappointed: revenues incr of 37%, but that was less than expected. Then a Chinese agency accused it of selling fakes.  If Alibaba were to roar back with great earnings, investors might return, but powerful Beijing agency has just launched a second investigation. 
State media: #China is "only defending its legal rights and interests by claiming sovereignty over certain islands"    http://t.co/FO580kqZYe /original Tweet: https://twitter.com/Julia_Famularo/status/567034262725996544
Hour Two
Monday   16 February 2015  / Hour 2, Block A:  David M Drucker, Washington Examiner Senior Congressional correspondent, in re: . . .    Republicans will be blamed if DHS runs out of money.   Dems know that if they filibuster the GOP will roll over and play dead . . . 
Monday   16 February 2015  / Hour 2, Block B:  David M Drucker, Washington Examiner Senior Congressional correspondent, in re:  Kevin McCarthy to House GOP: We're winning  House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy sent his Republicans home for the Presidents Day recess with an attaboy. In a memorandum to House Republicans sent Friday, McCarthy ticked off a list of... Read More…  /  DHS  http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/boehner-dhs-funding-can-run-out-democr... /    Panel head calls halt to 'paroles' for illegals A top House Republican sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Friday, ordering him to stop an Obama administration executive action that creates a pathway to citizenship... Read More…
Monday   16 February 2015  / Hour 2, Block C: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: A major shift has occurred in Europe, where Jews were long in denial. Now something has changed.  Forty thousand cars a year are burned in France.  Jews now see that they have to do something to cover their own security, Both Jews and gentiles are speaking of leaving. Netanyahu did not say every Jews should leave Europe – what he said was that those who stay must create their own security, and those who want to leave are welcome in Israel. European Jews are now much concerned about travel, any public demonstration of their faith. Concern about public gatherings.  They see the educational systems failing to inoculate students with the realities. Finally, European leaders are finally using the term, "Islamic terrorism." Why is Netanyahu going to speak to Congress?  Because what's being negotiated now endangers Israel's future, and Congress is the best place to communicate to a worldwide audience.  American officials are in Israel now in talks; Netanyahu implies that the US is not sharing basic info on the Iranian deal.  Transparencies? Missiles?   IAEA people are more concerned about what they don’t know than what they do – esp Parchin, which has been paved over to hide its activities. from zero to 2,000 centrifuges to 19,000.  Heavy-water reactor from Fordow; scepticism that a deal could be reached. Arab leaders speak of increasing Iranian aggressiveness.
 
Netanyahu: If Iran deal is good, why hide it from Israel? l PM takes Obama Administration to task, saying it is his ‘obligation’ to warn US lawmakers on nuclear talks
Monday   16 February 2015  / Hour 2, Block D:   Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Yemen in civil war and anarchy. Libya similarly, and the mass-murder of Egyptian Christians. 
Grief wracks Egypt village after beheadings in Libya.  After nearly 50 days with no news of their fate, families receive video showing decapitation of 21 Christian laborers.
EL-AOUR, Egypt (AP) — A village of small mud alleys and brick homes is shattered by grief. Women draped in black are hoarse from screaming. Men sob in silence, at times shaking their heads as if to expel the horror from their minds.
      Just last year, 13 young men from el-Aour, a Christian-majority farming community in Egypt’s Nile River Valley, traveled to neighboring Libya, among the tens of thousands of impoverished Egyptians seeking work there. But they became victims of Libya’s chaos. They were among 21 Christians dragged off by militants in December and January. After nearly 50 days knowing nothing of their fate, their families on late Sunday saw their monstrous, videotaped last moments: The 21, wearing orange jumpsuits, were marched onto a Libyan beach, forced to kneel with a masked, knife-wielding militant standing behind each, and then beheaded.
      The deaths touched everyone in the village’s population of around 3,400. On Monday, Bushra Fawzi could not stop weeping. He saw his son Shenouda in the video.  “I had been looking for a bride for him,” Fawzi gasped. “He is my first and eldest son. My first joy and happiness.”
     “I want his body back. If they dumped it in the sea, I want it back. If they set fire to it, I want its dust.” And he wanted revenge — to “take hold of his murderer, tear him apart, eat his liver and his flesh.”  He and others in the village vented anger at the Egyptian government, saying it failed to help them. Many accused it of ignoring them because they were Christian. “If there were Muslims among the 21, they would have been rescued. But no one paid attention,” one woman screamed to reporters outside her house. President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi “did nothing for our sons because they are Christians.”  After the video came out, el-Sissi went on national TV and vowed vengeance, and hours later, Egyptian warplane struck Islamic State group targets in their main stronghold in Libya, Darna. In a show of support, el-Sissi visited the pope of Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Christian Church at the main cathedral in . . .  [more]
Hour Three
Monday   16 February 2015  / Hour 3, Block A:  Conrad Black, publisher, author, in re: . . . In this climate, as Ben Wellings and Helen Baxendale have shown, the Anglosphere came back to life as an alternative ambition, advanced by a powerful alliance of global media moguls (Conrad Black, in particular), outspoken politicians, well-known commentators and intellectual outriders, who all shared an insurgent ideological agenda and a strong sense of disgruntlement with the direction and character of mainstream conservatism . . .
Michael Kenny is the director of the Mile End Institute at Queen Mary, University of London.  Nick Pearce is the director of the Institute for Public Policy Research. He writes in a personal capacity. http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/02/rise-anglosphere-how-right-dreamed-new-conservative-world-order
Monday   16 February 2015  / Hour 3, Block B:  Francis Rose, Federal News Radio, in re: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/021315-739439-veterans-administration-secretary-asks-what-have-you-done.htm?p=full
Monday   16 February 2015  / Hour 3, Block C:  Michael Balter, Archaeology 
magazine, in re: First Farmers Were Also Sailors
Monday   16 February 2015  / Hour 3, Block D:   James Gorman, Science Times, in re: The Map-makers.    Learning How Little We Know About the Brain
Hour Four
Monday  16 February 2015  / Hour 4, Block A: The Founders at Home: The Building of America, 1735-1817,  by Myron Magnet  (1 of 4)

Monday  16 February 2015  / Hour 4, Block B: The Founders at Home: The Building of America, 1735-1817,  by Myron Magnet  (2 of 4)
Monday  16 February 2015  / Hour 4, Block C: God of Liberty: A Religious History of the American Revolution by Thomas S. Kidd; (1 of 2)

Monday  16 February 2015  / Hour 4, Block D: God of Liberty: A Religious History of the American Revolution by Thomas S. Kidd; (2 of 2)
 
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