Monday 30 June 2014

Air Date:

June 30, 2014

Photo, above: Last to leave Vietnam, April 1975: "US Marines throwing Vietnamese people back over the embassy wall." Extraordinary tale here.

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Co-host: Thaddeus McCotter, from WJR, "The Great Voice of the Great Lakes"

Hour One

Monday 30 June 2014 / Hour 1, Block A: Thomas Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor, & Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD, in re: ISIS would have to secure Tikrit and the roads; they control most of the roads to the West in Anbar, but will have to encircle Baghdad to take the city. We found a battle plan on Zarqawi: the Battle of the Belt – basically pinch the capital and prevent it from surviving for long. Sukhoi-25s against desert fighters? They'd do better with slow turboprops over he battlefield – it’s the intelligence, . . .

Monday 30 June 2014 / Hour 1, Block B: Thomas Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor, & Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD, in re: . . . is 300 troops enough to protect the US embassy? Conceivably for a little while . . .

Monday 30 June 2014 / Hour 1, Block C: Francis Rose, Federal News Radio, in re: While total hard drive failure is uncommon, it’s not impossible. . .. An Albany, New York, nurse saw a patient unnecessarily in restraints for seven hours; she released him and now is under attack by VA. . . . Gabriel Garcia Márquez: "God help us when our subordinates lie to us to make us happy." . . . Fifty-two thousand minors at the southern border; believe it or not, Washington isn't all that focussed on this right now but of all the scandals brewing now has the most likelihood of blowing up because it’s fuelled by Mexican drug cartel money. The root of the problem: why is the cartel abusing the children now [as opposed to formerly]? Three scandals right now – IRS, VA, and border - all show no sign of resolution.

White House review of Veterans Affairs finds 'corrosive culture' A White House review of VA uncovered layers of problems that led to extended wait times for veterans to get medical care, including a "corrosive culture," little transparency or accountability and . .  .

A White House review of the Veteran Affairs Department uncovered layers of problems that led to extended wait times for veterans to get medical care, including a “corrosive culture,” little transparency or accountability and a system that encouraged the manipulation of wait times.

Written by White House deputy chief of staff Rob Nabors, the review also calls for a complete overhaul of the Veterans Health Administration, the section of the agency that administers more than 1,700 medical facilities serving veterans across the country.

The report recommended that the VHA be restructured and reformed after finding that the leadership structure is “marked by a lack of responsiveness and an inability to manage or communicate to employees or veterans.”

Although Nabors described the vast majority of the VA employees as "dedicated, hardworking and committed to the veterans they serve," he also found that . . . [more]…

42 senators urge Obama to do more to fix border crisis A bipartisan group of 42 senators called on President Obama to use his bully pulpit to clarify U.S. immigration and... [more]...

More scandals with lost emails are ahead if Congress doesn't enforce the record-keeping laws on the books A big majority of Americans believe the IRS scandal is serious and its investigation by Congress should continue until the full truth is known.  [more]…

Monday 30 June 2014 / Hour 1, Block D: Gordon Chang, Forbes.com, in re: to Shanghai: Chinese development without demand. A Shanghainese dvpr is halting a major project because he can’t get funding. The govt has been lending out money easily; but now it’s creating scattered defaults, which unintentionally creates widespread uncertainty, leading possibly to large default, there are abt 49 million uninhabited apartments right now. In Japan after the Japanese bubble, two decades of recession. Chinese oligarchs want to go after the world electric car market (caveat Tesla): huge pollution problem in many cities; also, they want the best, newest technology, so the propose to subsidize a lot of Fiskers and A123 systems. China will subsidize alternative energy sources for electric vehicles – this is how they'll [destroy themselves]. Is this also a military project? This is how they think, but the problem for China is that they generate the electricity for electric vehicles with coal! They need renewables. The uninhabited buildings: the structures are rotting; have built a copy of Manhattan – and no one is there.

Hour Two

Monday 30 June 2014 / Hour 2, Block A: John Fund, National Review Online, & David M Drucker, Washington Examiner Sr Congressional correspondent, in re: Mississippi doesn't register by party; Cochran did go after Democrats, and didn’t try to compete with McDaniels – "I am what I am – a Republican who brings home the bacon," which has been important to Mississippians. Outside forces led by Haley Barbour put together their own ground game and succeeded. Now, people have been found who voted in both primaries. Also, if get-out-the-vote money became buy-the-vote money, that'd be a problem. No party registration in Mississippi, but you're not allowed to vote in the other party's primary if you've already voted in your own primary. . . . Dems were insane to vote for the Affordable Care Act before redistricting. o

Remember Mississippi! The maneuverings to keep Thad Cochran in the Senate will not soon be forgotten.

The long road to John Boehner's lawsuit against Obama.

Although Nabors described the vast majority of the VA employees as "dedicated, hardworking and committed to the veterans they serve," he also found that . . . [more]…

42 senators urge Obama to do more to fix border crisis A bipartisan group of 42 senators called on President Obama to use his bully pulpit to clarify U.S. immigration and... [more]...

Monday 30 June 2014 / Hour 2, Block B: John Fund, National Review Online, & David M Drucker, Washington Examiner Sr Congressional correspondent, in re: 150 border patrol removed to deal with the children's crusade. This could have been without the context of blaming Congress. We see a fifty-year failure since Lyndon Johnson – chaos; and responsible compromises urgently needed. Deport children?? This coincides with a domestic belief that the president would . . . the internal Central American pipeline says get to the US now because six months from now will be too late. Iraq: ISIS using major weapons systems captured; president sends 200 more personnel – why? Never mind how many troops – how many helicopters are being prepared? Think of Diem in 1963. President may not want to be involved in a war in Iraq – he inherited one; God help the 300, now 500, American personnel there. Do not underestimate the anger Americans will feel [as the embassy is evacuated under painful circumstances]. Diem, the stooge of the US, will flee soon enough. Desert 1 – Carter; Last Man o+out – Gerald Ford; - D’Souza’s America

Monday 30 June 2014 / Hour 2, Block C: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Bodies of three kidnapped teens found; Netanyahu calls families. Bodies found buried less than 121 mi from where they were abducted. People all over Israel weeping What will be done by the PA, by the intl community – how will the kidnappers be held to account? It’s little girls in Nigeria, Christian in Iraq, people being kidnapped and killed in many places. The world needs to focus on this widespread, barbaric crime; no more crocodile tears. Children grabbed at 10P on the road; had to have been taken by a network. Murder seems paradoxical – does not well serve the PA. There's no logic in terrorism. Never expressed demands or take responsibility for the attack and murders. PA trained and incited the killers. . . . The abduction of three teenagers, then silence, then bodies – PA and/or Hamas have tried more than sixty times to abduct children. Today, hundreds of spontaneous prayer rallies worldwide. Hamas announces: "Any Israeli response will open the gates of Hell."

Israel delays decision on response to killing of three teenagers Ministers to meet again Tuesday, after funerals of Eyal Yifrach, Gil-ad Shaar and Naftali Fraenkel, whose bodies were found Monday in a field north of Hebron

Bodies of three kidnapped teens found; Netanyahu calls families Partially buried bodies of Eyal Yifrach, Gil-ad Shaar and Naftali Fraenkel, who were kidnapped on June 12, found in a field north of Hebron; cabinet meets in emergency session.

Monday 30 June 2014 / Hour 2, Block D: Jed Babbin, American Spectator, in re: The BDS War Against Israel: The Orwellian Campaign to Destroy Israel Through the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement [Kindle Edition]. ...intending to destroy Israel by two interlocked methods: violence and BDS.

Pres Obama was a student of Edward Said, who held that Palestinians were the victims of British colonialism.

Hour Three

Monday 30 June 2014 / Hour 3, Block A: James Taranto, Wall Street Journal Best of the Web, in re: The Corporate Conscience Hobby Lobby and the left's contradictions. Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Congress passed a law on strict scrutiny.

Monday 30 June 2014 / Hour 3, Block B: Rich Miller, Bloomberg, LONG-TERM UNEMPLOYED FINALLY CATCH A BREAK: Yellen Policy Affirmed as Jobless Find Work – Faced with a shrinking pool of available workers and incipient wage pressures, companies are starting to give the longer-term unemployed a second look. The number of Americans without a job for 27 weeks or more fell to 3.37 million in May from 4.35 million a year earlier, though some of that drop reflects people leaving the workforce.

Monday 30 June 2014 / Hour 3, Block C: Kamran Bokhari, VP Middle Eastern and South Asian Affairs Stratfo & the author, with Farid Senzai, of Political Islam in the Age of Democratization; in re: Ramadan.

Monday 30 June 2014 / Hour 3, Block D: John Tamny, RealClearPolitics, in re: The very notion of a 'market bubble' is a logical impossibility given the basic truth that a bull is able to express himself only insofar as a market bear is similarly able to express a view opposite the bull's. Despite this, lazy pundits attach the myth of a 'bubble' to seemingly any and every market that is going up, and then reverse their confusion when markets are going down. 'Bubble': The Default Adjective for Lazy Pundits Back in the early part of the 20th century when the automobile industry was in its infancy, there were over 2,000 car companies in operation. Notable there is that only around 1 percent survived.

Hour Four

Monday 30 June 2014 / Hour 4, Block A: Sam Baker, National Journal, in re: SCOTUS Sides with Hobby Lobby to Weaken Obamacare Mandate The Supreme Court said companies don't have to cover birth control if it violates their religious beliefs. The Supreme Court Just Dealt a Devastating Blow to Public Unions Public unions just can't catch a break these days. The Supreme Court reaffirmed this fact Monday, when it ruled in a 5-4 decision that mandatory public union dues violate members' First Amendment ...

Monday 30 June 2014 / Hour 4, Block B: Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re: Comparing the rocket vs balloon space tourism ride. The competition heats up: Yahoo today published a 5 point comparison between a ride on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo and Worldview's Voyager balloon. The winner, Virgin Galactic, but by a nose. As the story notes, Worldview is the better buy. "You can use the money you save for a nice vacation on . . . more

First test flight for balloon company The competition heats up: Worldview has successfully completed the first unmanned test flight of its stratospheric passenger balloon. The flight brought a remote-controlled, balloon-borne craft up to a height of 120,000 feet (36.5 kilometers) and back down to 50,000 feet (15 kilometers). Then the craft was cut loose from the balloon . . . more

The competition heats up: In an effort to compete with SpaceX, Arianespace has lowered the price it charges for launching smaller satellites on its Ariane 5 rocket. According to Stephen Israel, the company’s CEO, the lower prices have already produced some contracts. However, the company has not been able to institute comparable cost savings in its operations, which means it . . .will force the European launch supplier to ask European governments this year for a 16 per cent increase in annual support payments. In its 2013 annual report, Evry, France-based Arianespace said it will ask European Space Agency governments in December to allocate €116 million ($158 million) per year for the period between 2015 and 2018 to enable Arianespace to reach financial break-even. That figure compares to the current allocation of about €100 millions per ear for 2013 and 2014 that ESA governments approved in late 2012.

I wonder if the company will get these additional subsidies. In the past there were complaints from the European partners about the inability of Arianespace to make a profit. For it to lose even more money now will not make people happy. I think, however, that Israel recognizes this. He has been pushing the organization to streamline its operation. Whether he can succeed against Arianespace’s entrenched pork-laden structure remains the big question.

Monday 30 June 2014 / Hour 4, Block C: Steven Greenhouse, NYT, in re: Noncompete Clauses Increasingly Pop Up in Array of Jobs Once largely limited to the technology and sales sectors, the agreements are entering a range of fields; even camp counselors and hairstylists are being required to sign.

Monday 30 June 2014 / Hour 4, Block D: Max Holland, WashingtonDecoded, in re: Call it Joni Mitchell's revenge. This time they're not paving paradise and putting up a parking lot. They're blowing up the parking lot. And not just any parking lot. This particular parking lot — well, parking garage, if you want to get technical — is one of the most iconic venues in the history of journalism. It's the place where Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward conducted his clandestine meetings with his super-secret source, perhaps the most famous source in history: Deep Throat. The Arlington County Board in Washington, D.C.'s, Virginia suburbs recently approved a plan to knock down a couple of buildings and replace them with a new residential/commercial complex. The buildings going away are on top of the garage where Woodward and Throat met as the young reporter pursued his investigation of the Watergate break-in. Today, journalism is an embattled field. The Internet has upended the business model of traditional media, and the search for a bright digital future remains . . . [more]

Since late April, Reuters, the Orange County Register, The Nation, Los Angeles Times, and The New Yorker have published articles lamenting the lack of a director at the Richard M. Nixon Library (RMNL) in Yorba Linda, California. All the articles (excepting Jeffrey Frank’s slightly more nuanced New Yorker piece) have the same narrative, almost as if they were part of an orchestrated campaign. The uncommon delay in finding a new permanent director (going on three years) is the fault of Nixon partisans, so the story goes, who are holding out for a congenial person to rehabilitate the only president to resign in disgrace. And the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is being stymied in its admirable effort to present Nixon in an objective, unvarnished light. As proof, the articles reprise the conventional, heroic narrative about the tenure of Tim Naftali, who headed the library from 2007 to 2011. Naftali “presided over the installation of a new, historically accurate Watergate exhibit,” The Nation article said, which Nixon loyalists “vehemently objected to,” according to Reuters. That left Naftali . . . [more]

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