Photo, left: Singapore.
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, The Great Voice of the Great Lakes; and author, Liberty Risen
 
Hour One
Monday  23 March 2015  / Hour 1, Block A: Thomas Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor, & Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD, in re:  Analysis: Why AQAP quickly denied any connection to mosque attacks  The Islamic State's attacks on Houthi civilians are part of a deliberate strategy. AQAP tries to avoid such operations, but the permissibility of deliberately killing Shiite civilians is still debated in jihadist circles.  read more →
Islamic State claims suicide attacks in Sana’a mosques  The coordinated suicide assault is the first high-profile attack by the Islamic State inside Yemen.   read more →
Monday  23 March 2015  / Hour 1, Block B: Thomas Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor, & Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD, in re: US military, diplomatic personnel quit Yemen as country descends into civil war    US military advisors based at Al Anad Air Base have been withdrawn after AQAP briefly took control of a nearby city. The advisors were at the forefront in battling al Qaeda's branch in Yemen.  read more→
Monday  23 March 2015  / Hour 1, Block C: Michael Auslin, Director of Japan Studies, AEI, in re: Beware the homegrown terrorists   Friday marks the 20th anniversary of the Tokyo sarin-gas attack. As the world struggles to respond to the threat of Islamic State and related terror groups, and as the Boston marathon bombing trial determines the fate of one of America’s most notorious homegrown terrorists, there are still lessons to be learned from the atrocities committed by the group once known as Aum Shinrikyo.
Founded in 1984 by self-proclaimed messiah Shoko Asahara, Aum Shinrikyo was a nonsensical mishmash of millenarian beliefs and yogic practices. Back in an age when domestic terrorism was still treated as an inconvenience, Aum received official government recognition in Japan in 1989 as a religious organization. It thus gained certain legal protections, insulating itself from domestic surveillance as it began recruiting adherents. Like al Qaeda the following decade, Aum appealed to some of Japan’s young elites and recruited from leading universities. It also was one of the first cases of homegrown terrorism in a developed democracy, a specter that today darkens Europe and potentially the U.S. During the 1980s, Aum Shinrikyo became, like Islamic State today, a religious death-cult eventually focused on killing innocents. It targeted for death the leaders of . . .
The Common Spectator http://cmnspectator.blogspot.com/
Monday  23 March 2015  / Hour 1, Block D:  Gordon Chang, Forbes.com, in re: China Trounces U.S. ‘Smart Power’
 A case study in declining American influence. The Obama Administration has advertised that by using “smart power” it would enhance U.S. influence around the world. So it’s worth noting an episode in which China is routing the U.S. in economic diplomacy.
Beijing has never made a secret of its belief in checkbook politics, and in recent years it has spent vast sums in pursuit of its regional ambitions: $40 billion for a Silk Road Fund to develop trade through Central Asia, $41 billion to lead a development bank with Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa, billions more in soft loans to countries in Southeast Asia, a “Maritime Silk Road” of ports across the Indian Ocean.  China’s latest venture is the $50 billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which is supposed to provide financing for some of the $8 trillion in projects that the Asian Development Bank estimated the region needs this decade. The Obama Administration has rightly opposed the AIIB, but its entreaties have been ignored.
Since the AIIB came into being last October, it has picked up 26 Asian members, from Bangladesh to Vietnam. Over the past week Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and New Zealand also signed on, over emphatic objections from Washington.  “We are wary about a trend toward constant accommodation of China, which is not the best way to engage a rising power,” a senior Administration official told the Financial Times. The official also complained that Britain had signed up for the AIIB after “virtually no consultation with the U.S.,” though British officials insist they consulted for over a month through the G-7 including with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew.
The U.S. is right to worry about Britain’s habit of appeasing China for commercial purposes, especially since London has also abandoned its historic responsibility to speak up for the freedom of its former colony Hong Kong. But this affair is also a telling indicator of how much diplomatic influence the U.S. has lost, not least with its European allies.  As for the AIIB, it’s worth asking why the world needs another development bank. The World Bank has a long history of mismanagement and tolerance for corruption, and Europeans ousted bank president Paul Wolfowitz because he withheld financing from corrupt regimes. The smaller development banks have been even more problematic.  The AIIB is likely to enhance China’s influence far more than it will help its supposed beneficiaries. Poor regimes willing to stay on Beijing’s good side will earn cheap loans on lax terms, but the bank will promote a version of China’s state capitalism, not transparent markets.
Gresham’s Law applies to economic development: Bad money drives out good. Ports, bridges and other public works funded by artificially cheap capital, with poor or corrupt oversight, become boondoggles that burden states with debt, raise default risks and often stifle productive private investment. The trillions of dollars Asia needs for public works will never materialize unless private investors see reliable, non-corrupt opportunities for returns. Easy public loans that perpetuate cronyism don’t help.  This “smart power” trouncing makes the completion of the pending Pacific trade pact all the more crucial, lest the U.S. cede even more economic leadership to China. Six years into the Obama Administration, the disheartening truth is that the U.S. has lost clout across the world—with its friends as much as with adversaries..
Hour Two
Monday  23 March 2015  / Hour 2, Block A: David M Drucker, Washington Examiner Senior Congressional correspondent, in re: Ted  Cruz's announcement in Lynchburg, VA, of his candidacy for the US presidency. . . .  et al. http://www.nationalreview.com/article/415793/joe-biden-democrats-donald-trump-john-fund    Obamacare at 5: America divided  Comparing the public's reaction to Obamacare versus other big-government programs.   Republicans to Obama: Get over Netanyahu, stop Iran and Islamic State  Several top Republicans voiced that criticism of Obama's Middle East policy Sunday.  (1 of 2)
Monday  23 March 2015  / Hour 2, Block B: David M Drucker, Washington Examiner Senior Congressional correspondent, in re: Hillary’s fun plans Know what adults are missing out on? Fun. That’s what Hillary Clinton told the crowd this week at the American Camp Association of New York and New Jersey’s Tri-State CAM
Can a smart, articulate, 40-something first term Senator trained in constitutional law, who disdains his colleagues and lacks executive experience, make the leap to the White House? President Obama proved it was possible in 2008, and now Ted Cruz will try to show that a Republican can do it too after announcing his campaign for the White House on Monday.  Neither man will like this comparison, and their world views are as divergent as any two men in politics. Yet Messrs. Obama and Cruz are strikingly similar in their pedigrees and political style. They were raised middle-class but made their way to the Ivy League and beyond by dint of talent.  They became lawyers but mainly as a launching pad to politics. The President was a state senator, Mr. Cruz the Texas solicitor general. Mr. Cruz is a better debater, and Mr. Obama a better speech-maker, but both are better talkers than listeners. Above all, they are political solo-artists in an age that rewards entrepreneurial candidates. They saw the Senate as a stepping-stone to the White House rather than a place to contribute or get something done.
Mr. Obama ran as the true-believing antiwar liberal to win his party’s nomination. Mr. Cruz plans to run as the only true-believing, courageous conservative in the GOP field. Like Mr. Obama, he will run as much against Washington and his own party “establishment” as against the other party.  . . .  (2 of 2)
Monday  23 March 2015  / Hour 2, Block C:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough Says the Israeli Occupation 'Must End'  Next year, McDonough added, Israel will receive F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets, making it the . . .   Barack Obamas top aide says Israeli occupation must end   Top White House official calls for end to '50-year occupation'
Monday  23 March 2015  / Hour 2, Block D: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:   Nowruz: Khamenei issued fatwa vs nuclear weapons?  No, that's false.  Peteaeus: The Iranian regime is not our all; our interests fundamentally diverge. When we try to make excuses for them,  . ..     Khamenei constantly calls for "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" and now says that Iran won't rest till the Iranian flag flies over the White House.   Saudis report that the US deal with Iran is starting a regional Middle East arms race. Iranian ship unloads 180 tons of weapons for Houthis, plus a 200 MW power plant. Kerry claims that $500 mil of weapons are missing; they’re not missing – they were openly taken by the Houthis.  "Somalia looks good compared to what we’re seeing in Yemen right now." It was Iran that overturned the Yemeni elected govt; why isn’t this part of the conversation? This was the proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia. 
Yemen foes square off as fears of war, Saudi-Iran rivalry grow   The turmoil has made Yemen a front in Saudi Arabia's region-wide rivalry with Iran, mainly . . .   Yemen Confounds U.S. Counterterror Strategy  The Obama administration’s calculated gamble during the past three years in Yemen has crumbled in recent days. 
Hour Three
Monday  23 March 2015  / Hour 3, Block A:  Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal editorial board & host of OpinionJournal.com; in re: Opinion Journal: Singapore: After Lee Kuan Yew   Editorial Page Editor Paul Gigot on his personal experience with the Singapore strongman, who died Monday at the age of 91.  /  Opinion Journal: The Ted Cruz Political Calculus  Hoover Institution Research Fellow Bill Whalen weighs the pros and cons of the Texas Senator’s run for the nation’s highest . . .
Monday  23 March 2015  / Hour 3, Block B:  Kori Schake, Hoover & Foreign Policy, in re: Choose Your Own Nuke Deal Adventure . . .  "The problem was with the addressee: they should have reminded the White House that no treaty can be concluded without the consent of the Senate." 
Monday  23 March 2015  / Hour 3, Block C:  Francis Rose, Federal News Radio, in re: http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/benefits/veterans/2015/03/21/troubled-va-medical-center-in-tomah-gets-new-leadership/25137663/.    Then:   http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2015/03/19/va-watchdog-stands-by-decision-not-to-release-report/25048581/   ;  then:  http://www.federalnewsradio.com/538/3822443/VA-disputes-House-lawmakers-claim-of-nation-state-attack   ;  ties in with  http://www.federalnewsradio.com/538/3822149/Obama-nominates-new-leadership-for-VA
Monday  23 March 2015  / Hour 3, Block D: David Hawkings, Roll Call, in re:  Why the GOP Will Likely Attack the Potemkin White House  If budget resolutions are aspirational, sketching the big picture Congress envisions for government, then spending bills are the polar opposite: Blueprints that lawmakers micromanage down to the smallest line item. As arguments began over budgetary targets measured in multiples of billions, another annual ritual climaxed elsewhere on the Hill last week: Appropriations subcommittees were picking nits measured in the low-end millions (sometimes less) at 30 different hearings. A dozen more are planned before spring recess starts at the end of this week.   Read more of this post
Hour Four
Monday  23 March 2015  / Hour 4, Block A: Against the Tide: Rickover's Leadership Principles and the Rise of the Nuclear Navy, by Rear Admiral Dave Oliver USN (Ret.) (1 of 4)  Against the Tide is a leadership book that illustrates how Adm. Hyman Rickover made a unique impact on American and Navy culture. Dave Oliver is the first former nuclear submarine commander who sailed for the venerable admiral to write about Rickover's management techniques. Oliver draws upon a wealth of untold stories to show how one man changed American and Navy culture while altering the course of history. The driving force behind America's nuclear submarine navy, Rickover revolutionized naval warfare while concurrently proving to be a wellspring of innovation that drove American technology in the latter half of the twentieth-century. As a testament to his success, Rickover's single-minded focus on safety protected both American citizens and sailors from nuclear contamination, a record that is in stark contrast to the dozens of nuclear reactor accidents suffered by the Russians.



While Rickover has been the subject of a number of biographies, little has been written about his unique management practices that changed the culture of a two-hundred-year-old institution and affected the outcome of the Cold War. Rickover's achievements have been obscured because they were largely conducted in secret and because he possessed a demanding and abrasive personality that alienated many potential supporters. Nevertheless he was an extraordinary manager with significant lessons for all those in decision-making positions.


The author had the good fortune to know and to serve under Rickover during much of his thirty-year career in the Navy and is singularly qualified to demonstrate the management and leadership principles behind Rickover's success.
Monday  23 March 2015  / Hour 4, Block B: Against the Tide: Rickover's Leadership Principles and the Rise of the Nuclear Navy, by Rear Admiral Dave Oliver USN (Ret.) (2 of 4)
Monday  23 March 2015  / Hour 4, Block C: Against the Tide: Rickover's Leadership Principles and the Rise of the Nuclear Navy, by Rear Admiral Dave Oliver USN (Ret.) (3 of 4)
Monday  23 March 2015  / Hour 4, Block D: Against the Tide: Rickover's Leadership Principles and the Rise of the Nuclear Navy, by Rear Admiral Dave Oliver USN (Ret.) (4 of 4)
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