The John Batchelor Show

Monday 4 November 2019

Air Date: 
November 04, 2019

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, the Great Voice of the Great Lakes     
 
Hour One
Monday 4 November 2019/ Hour 1, Block A: Tom Joscelyn, Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies; & Senior Editor for FDD's Long War Journal; The new Emir of the Faithful — of ISIS — named at the shura council (senior council of elders/advisors).  His true identity hasn't been confirmed. The IS spokesman  has also been rapidly replaced by Abu Hamza al Qureshi (as though he’s a descendant of the Prophet; not too likely).  Baghdadi could plausibly claim he was a scholar of Islamic jurisprudence; trying to give Abu Ibrahim similar bona fides. 
Monday 4 November 2019/ Hour 1, Block B:  John Yoo, Hoover, in re: “Impeachment or bust!”  The intention of the Democrats was to find an impeachable offense. Impeachment and criminal law are quite different things; after the Mueller report, all that was left was impeachment.
After several forays, we land at the Ukraine mess, now moving precipitately. According to Hamilton, impeachment is to be a mixture of law and politics; did not want the power of impeachment to be used by Congress to control the Executive branch and its policies; ergo, required the vote to be held in the Senate.  “Treason, bribery or other high misdemeanors” — must be “an offense against the body politic.”
Monday 4 November 2019/ Hour 1, Block C: Gordon Chang, Daily Beast, in re:  China’s decline: one-third of provinces fall short of economic goals. Jilin, Heilongjiang, Liaoning, the Northeast rust belt, are doing poorly, whereas the south is doing better.  lot of inland growth  recently, but that seems to be drawing to a close. The Northeast keeps being unable to progress economically. Last month’s PMI was ’way below what was expected.  Xi has taken good money from the private sector and thrown it at the public sector. That cannot endure.  . . . China simply isn't growing as fast as the US is.  Massive capital outflows, but also (see Simon Constable in Forbes): Chinese individuals are pouring money into gold ETFs. Anything to get out of renminbi-denominated assets.  Consumer sectors are underwater.  Btw, it is not a consumption-driven economy. The NE rust belt is where steel and lignite (bad-coal) mining is, and the SOEs — the state-owned enterprises.  Rich-poor divergence is growing.  Pollution all over the country, the water is scarce, and the soil is toxic. India and China together produce most of the world’s greenhouse gasses.
Monday 4 November 2019/ Hour 1, Block D: Michael Yon, Hong Kong reporter, in re:  The violence visited in Hong Kong youth.. Carrie Lam, head of the unelected HK legislature.  Complaint by Xinhua regime news agency: “The attack on our HK office was barbaric.” *  [Note: we still have no confirmation that such an attack actually occurred. -- ed]  Its propaganda is not popular in Hong Kong.  “I haven't heard this breaking news on Xinhua, but reporters are regularly attacked.”   The protests are decentralized; I’ve been to about 80, was up till four this morning, Have hundreds of hours of livestreaming on my Facebook page. One day, I covered five protests. The Mong Kok area has a huge number.   Police tactics change all the time – using Chinese tear gas, which is worse than US-made tear gas.”   What's the reaction of innocent bystanders? They seem to be angry by far mostly at the police.  People recently stuck in cars, police tear-gassed a traffic jam. Recently, a bus passing through got gassed and the driver succumbed. I call the police “the fumigators,” Sometimes ten or twenty attacks a night — hitting apartment buildings, everyone. The authorities keep repeating inappropriate and ineffective tactics — groundhog day every day.
..
Addendum: Interesting that this is just down the road from me, and several journalists I know also had not heard of it yet.  So many actions on that we cannot keep up unless we just constantly monitor feeds.  So much going on.  Reminds me of Iraq/Afghanistan/Thailand, where attacks would happen a kilometer away and I’d hear about them from my sister in America.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/03/chinas-news-agency-condemns-attack-on-its-hong-kong-office-as-barbaric
 
Hour Two
—Monday 4 November 2019/ Hour 2, Block A:  David M Drucker, Washington Examiner, & John Fund, NRO, in re:  Impeachment now? The Whistleblower (the ”WB”) dance. His identity has been demanded in the last hour by Rand Paul, who declares that everyone knows his name; and who also accuses Hunter Biden.  The Whistleblower began his endeavor under the assumption that he’d be protected by the statutes — but they’re designed to safeguard federal employees from unfair firing, which doesn’t apply here, so he’s not covered.  . . .  Who will investigate the investigators? Clearly, not the news media. 
Monday 4 November 2019/ Hour 2, Block B:  John Fund, NRO, & David M Drucker, Washington Examiner, in re:  Joe Biden hangs in there
Monday 4 November 2019/ Hour 2, Block C:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Troubles in the Middle East.  Iran: 4 Nov is the fortieth anniversary of Iran’s takeover by the mullahs. Americans were held hostage for over 400 days. Cyrus Day commemorates Cyrus the Great – Cyrus allowed all of his subjects to practice their chosen religion, and now, after Secretary Pompeo praised the ancient king, the mullahs have blockaded routes to his tomb. Iran's new centrifuges. Stage Four in moving away from the JCPOA — have centrifuges multiply faster than recently.  Iran blames Europeans for missing deadlines for steps, even though the Euros are endlessly pandering to Iran.  Twitter and __ routinely ban people and organizations, but until now have managed not to ban Hezbollah and Hamas, both known for mass murder. How about identifying BDS as blatantly anti-Jewish?
Hamas is going to Turkey and Qatar [for support?]   Iron Dome took down eight of ten rockets.
Democrats call to condition aid to Israel, even though it's established that there’s zero occupation in Gaza.  Cutting off Hamas and Hezbollah.
Monday 4 November 2019 / Hour 2, Block D:  Indiana Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:  November 9 and 10 are the 81st anniversary of the 1938 Kristallnacht, called Pogrom Night. A shofar from Auschwitz  has been found: it defied the Nazis, was secretly brought in by an inmate.  Has been kept quietly for 78 years. A heroic woman (a righteous Gentile?) found one of those whom she’d saved, a 92-year-old woman now in Greece. It was a poor family; Germans took them in, and the family survived thanks to the woman.  Fled to the forest. Now, both survivors and rescuers are leaving the Earth. Why is there currently such reluctance to speak of pogroms and camps? . . .  The allies knew the truth, including the United States.
 
Hour Three
Monday 4 November 2019 / Hour 3, Block A: Andrew C McCarthy, author, Ball of Collusion, in re: Ukrainegate – the unexpected (1 of 2)
Monday 4 November 2019 / Hour 3, Block B: Andrew C McCarthy, author, Ball of Collusion, in re: Ukrainegate – the unexpected (2 of 2)
Monday 4 November 2019 / Hour 3, Block C:  Victor Davis Hanson, Hoover, in re:  the military-journalism-industrial complex for Russiagate & Ukrainegate (1 of 2).
Victor’s  American Greatness piece: military-intelligence complex – try mil-intelligence-journalism complex.
The hoax: very little of this would have survived 2017, but it throve after the appointment of Mr Mueller; has survived in New York Times and elsewhere because of journos’s willingness to repeat dirty tricks.
Ironic that the Obama Administration had a deterrent effect on journalism: all communications were monitored, and anyone who leaked was in hot water. Recall the suit that intended to sabotage the Electoral College Serial iterations of the effort to drive out the president.
Lee Smith, Kim Strassel, and Andy McCarthy, all carefully refute the allegations; Trump sinks four points in polls; then raises until the game is repeated.  This occurs repeatedly  in order to keep Trump’s polls below 45%, so he might be impeached. A way of defeating Trump inch by inch.
US Attorney General and the acting director of the FBI have been speaking of how to intimidate the Cabinet to remove the president of the US.    
“We were frantically trying to leak info before Trump knew what we were dong”  -- from Obama Administration
Military-journalist-intelligence complex all seemed to deny the legitimacy of the president of the US. This will not get better.
Now, fourteen of the major candidates say they want to scrap the Electoral College; Buttagieg actually offered a plan to pack the Supreme Court— a notion that until recently was considered immoral and scandalous.  Candidates also are challenging the structure of having two Senators to each state.
Monday 4 November 2019 / Hour 3, Block D:   Victor Davis Hanson, Hoover, in re:  the military-journalism-industrial complex for Russiagate & Ukrainegate (2 of 2) 
Regicide (or, legitimacy) : no mea culpas from those who’ve created a fiction.  Unnamed Whistleblower makes the allegation that the 25 May 2019 telephone call between Pres Trump and Pres Zelensky “abused power.”  The Whistleblower is now slightly coming out from the shadows, is trying to negotiate with Devin Nunes although he has zero info, as he himself has explained. What do the Democrats want?  To open a Kavanaugh-type investigation – a blood sport.
Whistleblower knows he ditched protocol by not going to the IG first; he can't answer questions live because the questions would immediately reveal what generated his plaint. Alexander Vindman: it comes down to  ____. If you put the two together, there’s nothing there.
Pelosi thought Trump would never release the transcript. After he did, the whistleblower became wholly irrelevant. She’d now like a way out.  Democrats are thinking, The long-term narrative isn't good for us; we’d best do what we can now.
Rep Al Green said: “If we don't impeach him now he’ll win the election.”  In a Nietzschean sense, each attack that doesn’t kill him makes him stronger.
 
Hour Four
Monday 4 November 2019 / Hour 4, Block A:  Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency, by Larry Diamond
Monday 4 November 2019 / Hour 4, Block B:  Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency, by Larry Diamond
Monday 4 November 2019 / Hour 4, Block C: Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency, by Larry Diamond
Monday 4 November 2019 / Hour 4, Block D: Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency, by Larry Diamond
..  ..  ..