Photo, above: Bangui citizens seek safety at airport.  In the Central African Republic, residents in Bangui flee violence by ex-rebel fighters by heading to the airport.  See Hour 2, Block C,  Adam Nossiter, NYT, in Bangui.

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Co-host:  Thaddeus McCotter, "recovering Congressbum" at WJR, the great voice of the Great Lakes.

Hour One

Monday  20 January 2014  / Hour 1, Block A: Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD, and Arif Rafiq, PakistanRisk, in re: Taliban say Kabul suicide assault was response to ISAF raid in Parwan  The Jan. 15 raid in Parwan targeted Qari Nazar Gul, a senior Taliban leader who is involved in attacks in Kabul. The Taliban claim that the raid killed and wounded "mostly defenseless women and children."   . . .   Hakimullah Makhsoud's death was a setback for current govt in Islamabad, which prefers to focus only on the economy and sort of ignore the rest – the bombings and attacks.  In Rawalpindi, mil HQ, the Taliban wants to take the violence into the heartland, a message to the civilian govt. Pakistanis are divided: is this our war or their war?   

Monday  20 January 2014  / Hour 1, Block B: Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD, and Arif Rafiq, PakistanRisk, in re:   Terrorists housed between Pakistan and Afghanistan; we see the Taliban attacking in both directions. Pakistanis never were good allies; neither were many of our Afghans. Pakistan is a big country with nuclear weapons; we need them to address their problems.  A year down the road, they may miss us if we're not there

Monday  20 January 2014  / Hour 1, Block C: Lara M Brown,  George Washington University, and Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review & Pirates fan, in re: Is the Party over (Dem and GOP)? Not exactly, buy peple are moving away from party identity.  Many have even changed their registration to independent.  Although overwhelming distrust and dismay with parties and their having changed their brand identities, they still cleave to their original ideology.  JB: Should I put my elephant out to pasture?  No.  However, people now more and more vote straight tickets, and we see substantial polarization: people react more stridently in favor  of their ideology – but Congress has a 13% favorable rating.   Parties have evolved into hollow, monetized entities.  There used to be overlap – conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans. It’s all the way through the electorate.  JB: Does Congress look down on us, are we rubes?  TGM: No; but they see the public as a problem to be managed rather than citizens to be engaged.   In Washington, the worst thing you can hear is, when you ask a question they say, "That's really complex." What hey mean is, You’re too stupid to understand.  LMB: Heuristics* – seeing where the other guy sits and what his view is.  The tough work is having a real conversation about what you're doing, not sound bites; citizens have to be trusted to understand ideas – and elected officials have to be trusted to govern.  TGM: We're familiar with internecine, interparty fights; what we’re seeing now is intraparty disagreement. 

    * Heuristic: experience-based techniques for problem solving, learning, and discovery that give a solution that's not guaranteed to be optimal

Liberalism a Bubble About to Burst - Michael Goodwin, New York Post

Does the Tea Party Still Have Muscle? - Charles Madigan, Chicago Tribune

 

Monday  20 January 2014  / Hour 1, Block D:  Thaddeus McCotter, in re: L Brooks Patterson says "Drop Dead Detroit!" in New Yorker article ...

Lewis Brooks Patterson, an American lawyer and politician, is county executive {"the boss") of Oakland County, Michigan (next to Detroit). L. Brooks Patterson Gives Controversial Quotes As Oakland County Executive The 19-year Oakland County Executive is famous for his off-the-cuff political comments. But even Brooks raised plenty of eyebrows Wednesday at the 2012 Mackinac Policy Conference when he was asked what advice he had for the embattled Wayne County Executive, Robert Ficano, who's currently the subject of an FBI investigation. "Go in the garage, pull the door down, leave the engine running," chortled Patterson, naturally not caring that Ficano was in the audience. JB: I'm a liberal Republican; everyone knows that.  . . .  Why is he speaking badly of Detroit?  TGM: Not clear; it redounds to the disadvantage of the GOP and others.  While Patterson has been county exec, many minorities have moved in to Wayne County with no incident. Why's he doing this - and why is the New Yorker running a piece on him? To make him a surrogate polarizing character? Noteworthy that his quotations and the New Yorker article came on Dr Martin Luther King Day. 

          Can't get enough Patterson? Check out some of his wildest quotes below and let us know in the comments if we missed any.

Hour Two

Monday  20 January 2014  / Hour 2, Block A:  John Fund, National Review Online, and David M Drucker, Washington Examiner Sr Congressional correspondent, in re:  Woman who can enroll in a suitable medical insurance pan if and only if she can unenroll in her previous enrollment in Obamacare. After weeks of useless calling writing, begging, she drove to corporate headquarters, found a top executive who went into a secret, sealed list and found the right digits by which she could unenroll. 

Monday  20 January 2014  / Hour 2, Block B: John Fund, National Review Online, and David M Drucker, Washington Examiner Sr Congressional correspondent, in re: Oh good. Let's write our own State of the Union message.  Pres Obama can speak if his foreign policy successes – that'd leave 38 minutes. His economic success; that'd still leave 37. What can he speak of?  Only income inequality. His signature legislation is Obamacare; it’s not working; what can he do? He doesn’t have very good choices; his only chance of a lasting legacy legislatively is the Dems' taking back the House .  Republican instrux at the speech?  Be respectful; after that, do what you want.   The pres needs GOP to be so frustrated and upset that they behave indecorously.  He trashtalked over the weekend, and from the GOP we hear – crickets.  Are they gaining discipline?  TGM: Most Americans do not believe that the entre country is completely unfair, that a tiny minority is vampirizing the rest of us. 

Monday  20 January 2014  / Hour 2, Block C:  Adam Nossiter, NYT, in Bangui:  Numerous food trucks being prevented from entering Central African Republic from Cameroon: not CAR state left, so no one at Customs. Famine to arrive soon. Tens of thousands at the airport, close to a French peacekeeping force of 1600 troops, as there's chaos and mass violence in the streets. The former mayor of Bangui, a woman, working to stop the free fall: men have created a nightmare for the last five decades. She's the last hope after shocking acts of violence; she'd been somewhat outside of the comprehensive corruption of the political class.  The UN is present - UNICEF, World Food Programme and other agencies. The US should be playing a much greater role diplomatically than it is, could mediate; but the US has chosen to withdraw, keep its embassy closed. Source of anger among the very few dips left, who accuse the US of cowardice.  Samantha Power visited for four hours late last year.  Russians and Chinese are here; the EU and French miss the US. A fifteen-year-old young man participated in a mob lynching, then engaged in what looks like ceremonial cannibalism: he and others ate the limbs of a lynch-mob victim.    This is a predominantly Christian region that for nine months was violated by minority Muslims from the north; the populace is extremely angry at the cruelty and viciousness of the treatment they received and are responding in kind. Two Muslims were pulled from their truck, necklaced with burning tires, and they also partially cannibalized. 

Last-Ditch Effort Emerges to Restore Order in Central African Republic   An unlikely experiment is under way in the Central African Republic as a council of 135 rebels, rivals, politicians and others is trying to choose an interim president.

Monday  20 January 2014  / Hour 2, Block D:  Gordon Chang, Forbes.com, in re: China's GDP reportedly 7.7;  this means:  since the Jan mkt is down 5.7%, under Shanghai Composite of 2000. Of course, the numbers are bogus; GDP is closer to 2%.  The WMP – wealth mgt product – run by china  credit trust co as paying 10% to investors while Beijing-controlled returns are 2%(?)  Bank lent all the money to a Shaanxi mining co that's out of business; default expected at the end of January.  Foreign analysts hope for  a default to teach investors that you have to be careful and responsible, that things can genuinely go awry.  Probably the province will make investors whole, which will annoy the Central Bank. Chinese authorities see that they’re in such trouble with credit that if they don’t do something now there'll be no more chance.   Estimates that 1.6 trillion US dollars are in wealth management products.  Edward Snowden fled first to Hong Kong, at the hospitality of Beijing/HK; then on to Moscow.  Rep Rogers, Chair of House Intell, says that he was working with Russians all along; unlikely: Russians not in Hawaii, but the Chinese have thoroughly penetrated in Hawaii: Pacific Command, the FBI, and the NSA. 

Hour Three

Monday  20 January 2014  / Hour 3, Block A:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:  We  have a deal with the P5+1 but we haven’t read it. Iran claims it's ceasing 20% enrichment – folderol.  The IAEA said the increased access to monitoring falls short of what's needed to see where Iran is in enrichment and bldg the bomb. Now can go to see some uranium mines. The Araq reactor (Pn) is suppose to be restricted with no addtl bldg (although they used intervening days to do a lot of bldg) R&D and ballistic missiles and weaponzation and mil bases all not subject to IAEA visits or anybody's inspection. They have 7 tons of 5% -enriched U, and have thousands of centrifuges working and a have begun the third generation of centrifuges, Expediting to 90% quickly.    Called "Western surrender"!  Now Iran has $5bil-plus and gold coming n – they can renew petrochemical production, cars and parts production; deal with Russia worth $15 bil per month – all bypassing sanctions. Their stock market has gone up, employment going up, and Teheran has given precious little, Canadian PM in Israel to support Israel – why is it controversial that PM Harper support Israel?  Also president of Rumania, Greece, and others. Harper is trying to be outspoken in telling the truth:  "Calling Israel an Apartheid state is incorrect"   Iran will never accept a transitional govt to replace Assad, a statement in the understanding for convening Geneva II 

Temporary Nuclear Deal with Iran Takes Effect  The first orchestrated rollback in Western antinuclear economic sanctions against Iran took effect on Monday under Tehran’s temporary agreement with world powers, as all sides reported that the steps initially promised had been fulfilled.  Under the temporary agreement, Iran began suspending most advanced uranium-fuel enrichment and halted other sensitive elements of its nuclear program. In exchange, it received what the United States called “limited, targeted and reversible sanctions relief for a six-month period.”  The agreement, known in diplomatic language as the Joint Plan of Action, expires on July 20 and was intended to . . .

Monday  20 January 2014  / Hour 3, Block B: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: American Studies Assn: 134 House members signed on to criticizing the ASA's dislocated condemnation of Israel in lawfare.  ASA has 5,000 members; 19%vapproved the resolution (incoming pres teaches at NYU) – this is what the Canadian PM, Stephen Harper, was talking about in the Knesset. "These are campaigns against the Jewish people, subject them to a boycott; and Israel is the one place in the Middle East that has a democracy.  Many universities have withdrawn. The Economist: story on Saturday about P5+1 and Rohani. A graphic that was removed as it "inadvertently offended some readers"  - but definitively was . Occurring more and more frequently: delegitimization. "This is the new anti-Semitism"  Dr King: "You'll be judged not by the attacks of your enemies but by the silence of your friends."

 

The Economist has just deleted this graphic that says Israel controls Congress & Obama.

https://twitter.com/Yair_Rosenberg/status/425355371184525312

 

Monday  20 January 2014  / Hour 3, Block C:  Bruce Webster, AndStillIPersist, in re:

 

After $90 million or so, the State of North Carolina's Dept of Revenue has stopped development on a CGI project.  If you read the press, either the NC people just dropped it, or they said "Hey, it's good enough, we don't need more."  

I was brought in to do a Novell to MS migration 'cause CGI said they needed MS stuff.  Problem is, of course, is that the Novell stuff (which was very well maintained, very clean) worked just fine.

Worse yet, by the time I got there, the entire project was in trouble, and you could see the strain on people's faces.  My first week there the project manager quit in disgust.  I lasted for about 3 months after that, and finally suggested that we should do something else after my 3rd week of doing nothing but web surfing.

Anyway, yet another failed Gov't IT job.  Yet another failed CGI contract.  Yet another failure in project management due to weak PM's.  And yes, I'm into my 20th week of unemployment.

Monday  20 January 2014  / Hour 3, Block D:   David Sanger, NYT, in re: With Grip on Data, Obama Fails to Reassure Industry   While President Obama bolstered some protections for citizens, he did nothing, at least yet, to address the concerns of American technology companies about the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs.

 

Hour Four

Monday  20 January 2014  / Hour 4, Block A: Gene Marks, NYT, Huffpo, in re:

Why Are Interns Sleeping on Toilets?

Obamacare: Small Business Owners Dismayed by Options 

Monday  20 January 2014  / Hour 4, Block B:  Charlie Pellegrino, author, on asteroid mining. 'Few' space rocks are worth mining  Predictions that asteroids hold a vast resource of raw materials ripe for commercial exploitation could be some way off the mark, a study suggests

Monday  20 January 2014  / Hour 4, Block C: Implosion: The End of Russia and What It Means for America by Ilan Berman (1 of 2)

Monday  20 January 2014  / Hour 4, Block D: Implosion: The End of Russia and What It Means for America by Ilan Berman (2 of 2)

..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..

Music

Hour 1:  God of War 2. House of Cards. Enemy of the State. 

Hour 2:  Frost/Nixon. The Horde. 

Hour 3:  Gears of War 2. Game of Thrones. Avatar. 

Hour 4:  Ides of March. Enemy of the State. Crimson Tide.