The John Batchelor Show

Monday 20 August 2018

Air Date: 
August 20, 2018

Photo: Yingpan Man, a nearly perfectly preserved 2,000-year-old Caucasoid mummy, discovered in what now is Western China.
     The discovery of Chärchän Man, along with dozens of other perfectly preserved mummies found in Turkestan in western China, has made archaeologists question the old perceptions of prehistoric cultural exchange. Although the mummies have been known to exist for decades, no one paid them much attention until 1987 when Victor Mair, professor of Chinese studies at the University of Pennsylvania, began to take interest in them following a visit to an obscure museum in the town of Ürümchi (also spelled Ürümqi). So what were Westerners doing in China 3,000 years ago and just how much did they influence Chinese culture?  Modern DNA and ancient DNA show that Uighurs, Kazaks, Krygyzs, the peoples of Central Asia are all mixed Caucasian and East Asian
     Ancient blue-eyed peoples (see: Indiana Hoenlein, Hour 2, Block D) ranged from present-day Turkey and Iran to the Taklamakan desert/Tarim Basin in Eastern Turkestan, and of course the British Isles. 
An article: . . . Solid as a warrior of the Caledonii tribe, the man's hair is reddish brown flecked with grey, framing high cheekbones, a long nose, full lips and a ginger beard. When he lived three thousand years ago, he stood six feet tall, and was buried wearing a red twill tunic and tartan leggings. He looks like a Bronze Age European. In fact, he's every inch a Celt. Even his DNA says so.
But this is no early Celt from central Scotland. This is the mummified corpse of Cherchen Man, unearthed from the scorched sands of the Taklamakan Desert in the far-flung region of Xinjiang in western China, and now housed in a new museum in the provincial capital of Urumqi. In the language spoken by the local Uighur people in Xinjiang, "Taklamakan" means: "You come in and never come out."  . . . The eastern Celts spoke a now-dead language called Tocharian, which is related to Celtic languages and part of the Indo-European group. They seem to have been a peaceful folk, as there are few weapons among the Cherchen find and there is little evidence of a caste system.  https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/a-meeting-of-civilisations...
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, the Great Voice of the Great Lakes
 
Hour One
Monday 20 August 2018 / Hour 1, Block A: Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD; in re: Ibrahim ____, al Q premier bombmaker in AQAP
Wanted AQAP bomb maker rumored killed in US drone strike   The death of Ibrahim al Asiri, one of the most dangerous and wanted men in the world, has yet to be confirmed. If he is confirmed to have been killed, his death will likely have minimal impact on AQAP as he has shared his expertise for well over a decade.
Taliban fighters loot district center in Ghazni / THREAT MATRIX /  In what has become an all too familiar scene in Afghanistan, Taliban fighters celebrated their victory and looted a district center in broad daylight, without fear of reprisal.
Monday 20 August 2018 / Hour 1, Block B: Benham Ben Taleblu, FDD, in re: Iran past the JCPOA.  Caspian Basin  countries will have to decide: stand firmly w the US on security and economic matters, or not. Trump Adm is signalling this. Rhetorically, Iranians assert tht they can carry on w European support, but in reality the strength f US dollar, collapse of the rial, dithering of Euros – it’s clear that the sanctions will compel Iran to [buckle under] and Iranian panic is evident.  Leadership criticism of Zarif and Rouhani, both identified with the JCPOA.  IRGC touts a two-pronged approach; Zarif/Rouhani cleaving to deal; another camp of conservatives want to engage/hoodwink the US. John Bolton in Jerusalem to confer w Binjyamin Netanhyahu.  Iranian provocations in the Gulf, Sahel, et al. 
Monday 20 August 2018 / Hour 1, Block C: Gordon Chang, Daily Beast, in re: China  . Low-level delegation to DC to discuss inequities of China-US trade over the years. China ordinarily doesn't comply with the WTO.  Trump Adm has applies $30 bil in tariffs, about to apply over $200 bil.  WSJ says that US businesses are afraid of the sanctions – but there’s zero sign of that in the stock market, in growth, in consumer spending,  We can win this trade war because we hold all the high cards. Chinese are dazed, dunno what to do. Americans are “voting with their credit cards,” whereas China has inadequate consumer strength.  What’s driving the Chinese economy are investment and stimulus. 
No heartland defections from Trump – who’s negotiated huge European soybean purchases to make up for the loss of Chinese buyers.
Imran Khan learns that he can't afford to accept any more loans from China (Belt and Road – which even China can't afford now, along w modernization of its military, at hundreds of millions of dollars, to take over Taiwan and Japanese islands and big chunks of India). 
China has a chip on its shoulder thinking that  the world owes a great deal to China. Middle Kingdom thinking.  It can do whatever it wants and all the rest of us merely need to accept it.
If Trump should decide to use US power, no more CCP or Xi Jinping.  Massive change for China
Monday 20 August 2018 / Hour 1, Block D: Paul Giarra, President of Global Strategies & Transformation; and strategic planner, defense analyst, and regional expert (and volunteer sailing instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy!), in re: China and the fleet.  Vehement Chinese antagonism to the John McCain National Defense Act:  CFIUS* may be the most important aspect of the NDAA – could do harm to the so-far-unobstructed Chinese effort to take everything it sees.  The new bill will stop it and we need to be sure it’s enforced.  Chinese have done us a favor by flagging the CFIUS. The y protest t much.  Depending deeply on Chinese goodwill: intellectuals. merchants, and the political class, which wants no argument.  . . . Otherwise, the NDAA is weak. 
. . . Navy force structure not capable of taking on saturation of Chinese missile attacks.  Replace fleet with hypervelocity projectiles?
*CFIUS: The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, is an inter-agency committee of the United States Government that reviews the national security implications of foreign investments in U.S. companies or operations. / Also: on June 27, 2018, President Trump announced that he intends to rely on FIRRMA (Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act) —rather than impose separate investment restrictions—to address the investment-related technology-theft issues identified earlier this year by the US Trade Representative's Section 301 investigation into China.
 
Hour Two
Monday 20 August 2018 / Hour 2, Block A:  David M Drucker, Washington Examiner,  & John Fund, NRO, in re: Russiagate.  In this ring, the Manafort trial with no resolution after days, and a puzzled jury.  George Pappadapoulos communing with a Maltese professor in Rome, Joseph Mifsud; and the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn, cooperating for thirty hours of Q&A with Mueller.
Manafort trial looks like a slam-dunk; that the prosecution hasn't done so so far suggests  . . .  Media demanding the names and addresses of the jurors!  Very scary
Monday 20 August 2018 / Hour 2, Block B:  John Fund, NRO, & David M Drucker, Washington Examiner, in re: Andrew Cuomo: “America never was great.”  Elizabeth Warren: Redistribute profits. Stockholders? 
Monday 20 August 2018 / Hour 2, Block C: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Bolton in Israel.   Turkey & F35 maintenance (shifted from Turkey to Israel). PA-Gaza.   Gaza deal; talks in Cairo. Abbas obstructs.  Deutsche Telekom and DeutscheBahn. Soleimani with a picture of the White House exploding.  Brian Hook appointment, State Dept.  Corbyn update: actively anti-Jewish, honors Back September and mass-murderers of Jews. The onus doesn’t fall on Corbyn – by now,  it falls on the Labour Party and the English people. 
 

Iranian threats to US and more. Companies pull out.
Sale of SodaStream is a blow to BDS.  Russia on drone attacks in Syria.
 
Monday 20 August 2018 / Hour 2, Block D: Indiana Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:  Archaeologists Find 3,200-Year-Old Cheese in an Egyptian Tomb  Oldest solid cheese ever found so far.https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/16/science/oldest-cheese-ever-egypt-tomb...
Mysterious 6500-year-old culture in Israel was brought by migrants, researchers say  Bones from a massive Galilee necropolis.  Blue-eyed, fair-skinned; likely from Turkey. “Genetic analysis shows ancient Galilean farmers warmly embraced blue-eyed, fair-skinned immigrants from Iran and Turkey in the late Copper Age”
https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/MAGAZINE-mysterious-6-500-year-old-c...
 
 
Hour Three
Monday 20 August 2018/ Hour 3, Block A: Ryan Payne, president of Payne Capital Management (PCM); on WABC Saturdays and Sundays;  in re: Markets (DJIA, et al.)  The recent correcti0n is natural and healthy. Right now, the fundamentals re amazingly good. Earnings growth is spectacular, rates going up slowly.  All very, very good.
Monday 20 August 2018/ Hour 3, Block B: Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics, in re: Space ports.
Monday 20 August 2018/ Hour 3, Block C:  Andrew C. McCarthy, III, American columnist for National Review columnist; served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York; in re: Robert Mueller Shouldn’t Even Ask Trump for an Interview; for months, these columns have contended that, on the question whether President Trump should agree to a request by Special Counsel Robert Mueller III for an interview, the burden of persuasion has been imposed on the wrong party. That is, the president should not even be asked to submit to questioning at this point; the prosecutor must first establish that the president (1) is implicated in a serious crime and (2) has information or evidence that the prosecutor is unable to obtain from any other source.
That argument is bolstered by this weekend’s New York Times report that, with the president’s consent, Mueller’s team has conducted 30 hours of interviews with White House counsel Donald F. McGahn, II. Having secured testimony from the president’s top lawyer, the special counsel is in no position to claim that he needs the president’s own testimony. 
The president’s consent to make McGahn available to prosecutors is extraordinary, as it involves waiving both executive privilege and attorney–client privilege . . . 
https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/08/robert-mueller-donald-trump-inter...
Monday 20 August 2018/ Hour 3, Block D:  Andrew C. McCarthy, III, American columnist for National Review columnist; served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York; in re:  In McGahn Report, the New York Times ‘Attempts’ to Find CorruptionThe president’s critics are trying to build an obstruction case based on reading Trump’s mind.  The thing to bear in mind is that the president of the United States does not “attempt” to fire anyone in the executive branch. The chief executive either fires an inferior executive official or he does not. “Attempt” does not enter into it.
Yet “attempt” is the foundation on which the New York Times’ Michael S. Schmidt and Maggie Haberman build their blockbuster report this weekend about the decision by President Trump — apparently on the advice of his first team of lawyers — to waive executive privilege and attorney-client privilege so that prosecutors on the staff of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III could interview White House Counsel Donald F. McGahn II.
I will in another column address the significance of the waiver. (To my mind, it bolsters the already strong argument that the president should not agree to be interviewed by the special counsel.) For now, let’s keep our eye on the ball: the question of whether there is an obstruction case against the president. . . .  https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/08/donald-mcgahn-report-trump-critics-try-to-read-mind-motives/
 
Hour Four
Monday 20 August 2018/ Hour 4, Block A: Jeremy Carl, research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, focus on energy policy, U.S. politics, and immigration reform; in re: Takes a spin with NPR; gets wooed then suddenly dropped.
Monday 20 August 2018/ Hour 4, Block B: Iain Murray, Competitive Enterprise Institute, in re: Theory of free trade; China is a special case.
Monday 20 August 2018/ Hour 4, Block C:  Give Me a Fast Ship: The Continental Navy and America's Revolution at Sea, by Tim McGrath
Monday 20 August 2018/ Hour 4, Block D:  Give Me a Fast Ship: The Continental Navy and America's Revolution at Sea, by Tim McGrath
 
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