Photo:
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, the Great Voice of the Great Lakes
 
Hour One
Monday   9 April 2018 / Hour 1, Block A:  Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD’s Long War Journal; in re: Afghanistan, Taliban.   . . . This is a mercurial president who could turn around and pull out of Afghanistan – and that would be disastrous.   . . . Ground hog day next week.
Monday   9 April 2018 / Hour 1, Block B: Josh Rogin, Washington Post, in re: State Secretary Mike Pompeo turns to the Iranian threat & the end of US in the JCPOA. What happens next?  What strategies are in place? “An entirely, fundamentally new shift of strategy . . . If other countries want to join us, fine; if not, no problem, we’ll do it anyway.”  What does this mean for our policy in Syria?  How about Russia and China?
Seems to me that eventually the Europeans will have to cave in to US pressure because of economic considerations.  “Escalate to de-escalate.”
Iran is its own animal, has a track record.  Sanctions are as god as they go, but won’t solve all your problems.  If you confront Iran and pull out of Syria – that’s not logical.
Recall WWII: Italians invade Ethiopia.   . . .  When the tough-sounding sanctions don’t bite, don't we become [majorly] vulnerable?  Unhh – we can bully [people], but then what?   . . .
Monday   9 April 2018 / Hour 1, Block C: Gordon Chang, Daily Beast, in re:
Monday   9 April 2018 / Hour 1, Block D: Claudia Rosett, Foreign Policy Fellow, Independent Women’s Forum; in re: China & North Korea.   . .   I don’t see a diplomatic solution out there to be reached; can't think of one that can stick out of the Singapore summit. Only way I can see it going is a change of regime.   . .  a lot better than military force. “”Back US One up and load it up with nukes.” –John Bolton   https://pjmedia.com/claudiarosett/a-vital-warning-about-china-and-the-looming-decade-of-concern/
 
Hour Two
Monday   9 April 2018 / Hour 2, Block A:  David M Drucker, Washington Examiner, and John Fund, NRO, in re:  The remarkable turmoil around the various Washington investigations: those in place and those called for and those we’ll never see. Brennan, Clapper, Comey, Hayden, Lynch, Page 1 and Page 2, Rosenstein, Strzok, Wray, Yates — a vast dramatis personae.  Trump.  Both sides have acted as though they have something to hide.  Cat and mouse for over fifteen months with Congress.  Enormous number of embarrassing revelations to come.  Everyone throws their hands up – no one can possibly follow the twists and turns unless they’re paid to. I do think there are civil liberties concerns.   “It's white noise unless it matters.”
These events took place during the Obama Administration  https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/05/media-coverage-trump-russia-collu...
Monday   9 April 2018 / Hour 2, Block B:  David M Drucker, Washington Examiner, and John Fund, NRO, in re: Mrs Clinton making speeches to college graduates — the Yale commencement — about: the end of democracy. Mrs Clinton’s regrets: is this positive for the Democratic Party?  No.  . . . Hillary of Arc.  “Radical polarization of the American electorate” – ouf.  Continuing to grind that axe will not get them what they want. 
Monday   9 April 2018 / Hour 2, Block C:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:  . . . Israeli ambassador was subjected to real humiliation by Erdogan, who’s looking to hurt Israeli-Turkish ties.  Nonetheless, trade continues to increase, and the only tourism being hurt is Israelis into Turkey.  He’s playing to domestic favor as elections approach, The public expulsion of the ambassador is [quirky, to put it mildly],  Are we near the end of Ataturk’s goal of a secular Turkey? Yes, very much. Re-evaluation of Turkey’s position in NATO. The question f long0-term membership is immediate and important. 
Gaza: continuing; demos but small. 
Monday   9 April 2018 / Hour 2, Block D:  Indiana Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: New revelations from the Dead Sea Scrolls: new technology lets the Israeli Antiquities Authority use imaging technology from NASA to read . . .  fragments from Qumran.  Now, samples from the boxes can identify some of the script on the fragments – to the naked eye, looks blank.  Deuteronomy, Leviticus, and the Temple scroll; also the great Psalm Scroll, and Paleo-Hebrew, from Cave 11. They detail so much about what happened thousands of years ago.
Horse racing from the Fifth Century – the curse: a nailed-shut amulet made of lead. For a blessing: in gold or silver; for a curse: made of lead. In Jewish Aramaic. A gambler beseeches G_d and angels to curse his (opponent) and drown him in the mud.  He invokes the angel who stood in front of [Bilham’s?] donkey. 
 
Hour Three
Monday 9 April 2018/ Hour 3, Block A:  Francis Rose, award-winning broadcaster, journalist, speaker, writer, & host of Government Matters on Washington, D.C,’s WJLA/ABC7 and NewsChannel 8; in re:
Monday 9 April 2018/ Hour 3, Block B:  Lev Golinkin, The Forward, and author of A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka: A Memoir,  in re: Anti-Semitism in Ukraine. Western Ukraine, A march in Lviv, or Lvov, or Lemburg; passed back and forth between empires, and before that among marauders.   April 28, 2016: SS Galichina was a Ukrainian unit in Hitler’s Waffen SS that‘s been celebrated as part of Hitler’s butchers.  It’s routine throughout Ukraine to deface Jewish memorials, memories, synagogues.  Kiev govt so far hasn't caught anyone, keep claiming that it's Russians.  This is being done weekly.  Petro Poroshenko issued a Press release condemning anti-Jewish defamations and done zilch.
The Israeli foreign minister last year took the very unusual step of asking Ukraine to look into this.
Stepan Bandera: head of a Ukrainian nationalist branch; his men were Fascists to the core and anti-Jewish; are now being warmly celebrated by Kiev.
These are public marches, broadcast on the news, with pamphlets everywhere.
What does the US president say?  Radio Free Europe has a Ukrainian branch; they reported that march for the SS unit a though it was no big deal  a sort of harvest fair. US thereby is bankrolling publicity of the glorification of Nazi collaborators.
Also, now there are outright pogroms of Roma communities in Ukraine – one of the most vulnerable communities in Europe!
Monday 9 April 2018/ Hour 3, Block C: Andrew C. McCarthy III is an American columnist for National Review. He served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York;  in re:  New revelations that there may have been an informant in the Trump campaign; the president’s order to DoJ to look into his campaign’s having been surveilled in 2016; also, Mssrs Rosenstein and Michael Horowitz are ordered to move their work forward; their work was compromised by “the professor.”
Is Michael Horowitz the right person to enjoy the public’s trust in this matter? 
Yes, he’s one of the two correct people.  . . .  Yes, the AG has the responsibility to investigate malfeasance in DoJ, although the problem antedates his arrival.
Chairmen Gowdy and Nunes went to DoJ to discuss surveillance concerning “the professor.”   The meeting ended unhappily, as DoJ refused to provide doc; occasioned a threat of Ccontempt of Congress.  They were invited for another mtg, which the two chairmen declined as the DOJ intended to set a trap to accuse Nunes and Gowdy of leaking info, which they clearly had not done.
Does Congress still have claim to those docs? Definitely yes.    In addition to everything else, Congress has a duty to conduct oversight on all the entities that it’s created.  Also, it's Congress’s duty to check the Executive.
What’s the genesis of planting a mole in the Trump campaign – who can do that?  Presumably the FBI, but probably not alone  We’ve heard different origination accounts in various media. The first one traced everything back to Carter Page, but that became inconvenient when the Steele dossier began to explode  unverified set of reports turned out to be oppo research from the Clinton campaign. 
The n a pivot to George Papadopolous, another obscure aide who said he had connections to Russians, then to an Australian ambassador,
We have reason to believe there was a lot of govtl discussion on the Trump campaign before Papadopoulos.  Comey and McCabe briefed AG Lynch on these matters, and FBI director Comey gave a briefing to the National Security Council.  As we peel this back, a lot of govt fingerprints on this.
Who watches the watchers?
Monday 9 April 2018/ Hour 3, Block D:  Andrew C. McCarthy III is an American columnist for National Review. He served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York;  in re:  Inequity between the public email investigation of Mrs Clinton, and the closely-held investigation of Donald Trump. The prior investigation not concluded: Mrs Clinton’s email server.  Bruited about that that may have caused the public to turn away from her in the campaign   Then, accused the FBI of showing kindness to Trump and cruelty to Clinton.  Hogwash!  She was saved by not having case filed against her – obstruction of justice, et al.  Compare w Trump, an aggressive effort to prevent him from [being seen favorably].  Agencies have been aggressive.
Don't forget potentially lying to the FBI.
What do you make of he arguments that the FBI by planting amole in the Trump campaign was doing Trump a favor.  That's kind of silly.  Were you to want to be helpful, go to the campaign and give a defensive briefing.
The Horowitz report & Mrs Clinton’s emails:  can this be re-opened?  No, not as though from Square One, since the immunity agreements are still in effect, plus there’s a five-year statute of limitations. 
 
Hour Four
Monday 9 April 2018/ Hour 4, Block A: Stalin's Englishman: Guy Burgess, the Cold War, and the Cambridge Spy Ring, by Andrew Lownie
Monday 9 April 2018/ Hour 4, Block B: Stalin's Englishman: Guy Burgess, the Cold War, and the Cambridge Spy Ring, by Andrew Lownie
Monday 9 April 2018/ Hour 4, Block C:  Eric D ellow in DenverHargan, Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services, in re: How this Administration approaches the matter of pharmaceutical prices.  , , , Our system has been very opaque; the [principals} work among themselves to set prices, which are drive up to higher and higher every year. The second part is competition: we need more entrants, more innovative drugs. Crack down on gamesmanship – “shenanigans” – so tinkering with the rules doesn’t hurt American patients.  . . . Can be a major price difference between a drug administered by a physician, and the exact same drug self-administered by the patient. 
Monday 9 April 2018/ Hour 4, Block D:  Henry Miller, Hoover Institution, in re:
..  ..  ..