The John Batchelor Show

Thursday 12 December 2019

Air Date: 
December 12, 2019

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts: Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, the Great Voice of the Great Lakes; Sebastian Gorka, Fox; and Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents
 
Hour One
Thursday 12 December 2019/ Hour 1, Block A: Victor Davis Hanson, Hoover, in re: The success of Boris Johnson; 368-seat in a 650-seatparliament; and Jeremy Corbyn, the anti-Semite and proponent of confiscation, is reduced to 100-plus seats.  Does this connect to American rejection of AOC’s socialism?  Yes; some commonality among UK Brexit, Hong Kong rejection of hard-core communism, France and its gilets jaunes, the US and its new president.  The elites have tried to sabotage all of them. The Financial Times says:  “With this scale of victory, BoJo will complete Brexit by January and we’ll [have a radically different future].” 
Can we link this to drain the swamp in 2020?  Yes, both are eccentric personalities, ran against hard-core leftists, and won.  With Trump’s revised NAFTA, expect an Anglo-American opposition to EU’s [socialism].  Reminiscent of the Thatcher-Reagan alliance. I think the Democratic Party has been hijacked by Sanders, Warren, AOC, Schiff, Nadler, Buttegieg – they've lost their collective minds.  “Abuse of power” is not in the Constitution.
Thursday 12 December 2019/ Hour 1, Block B: Victor Davis Hanson, Hoover, in re: FT; The “Crushing majority for BoJo.” In the winter of 2018, Devin Nunes in researching the 2016 election issued a report centering on the Steele dossier, was the essential reason the FBI could get a FISA warrant on Carter page, follow him, enter his home, send drones over him, note all his calls. 
      The Nunes memo is entirely supported by Horowitz. The Schiff documents are a tissue of fiction.  Horowitz has shown Schiff to be a deceiver. Schiff had the same information that Nunes did. Why are the Democrats following this man? Every week or so Schiff would announce that he had categorical proof of Trump’s guilt, and a n upcoming bombshell. He sureveilled many people’s metadata. And his own colleagues.  It's pathetic.  Ninety per cent of the media demonized Nunes, said that the dossier wasn’t the basis of the FISA warrants.
      Eric Holder said that Barr should resign “because he’s unfit for office”—a sign of desperation; and       Holder is the only AG in history to be censured by Congress.   Clinton Foundation, Clinton-related cash — Kleinsmith fired for [extreme unethicaity].
Thursday 12 December 2019/ Hour 1, Block C: Andrew C McCarthy, Ball of Collusion, and NRO and New York Post; in re:  Dispute among Barr, Durham and Horowitz.   The House is debating Articles of Impeachment; the WSJ wrote: The incredible shrinking impeachment.
“Quid pro quo” to “bribery” to “abuse of power” to “abuse of Congress”;  Democrats are having difficulty whipping the vote.    If you have to poll-test questions – either the president did certain things or he didn’t.
Don't need a penal offense to have an impeachable offense.  Doesn't mean that basic due process goes out the window.  Need to be dealing with criminality that  anon-lawyr4 at least knows that the acing question is wrong. If you have difficulty not only describing the crime but saying why this is misconduct, you don’t have an impeachable offense,.
Any power can be abused; note that Congress’s power also can be abused.  The Democrats right now are a disciplined ideological faction.  With the numbers, it could impeach a ham sandwich.
Eric Holder’s op-ed denouncing the US AG bill Barr and demanding that he resign.
[Devin Nunes tweeted: during recess today, reporters were taking photocopies of notes that Congressmen had left on seats; the reporters were kicked out. Cop was sitting at the door doing nothing.] [Caption: Press Members Photograph Roll Call Sheet Documents Showing House Judiciary Committee votes on H.Res. 755, Articles of Impeachment (Jack Gruber-USA TODAY)]
Thursday 12 December 2019/ Hour 1, Block D: Andrew C McCarthy, Ball of Collusion, and NRO and New York Post; in re: Horowitz, answering questions on his report, has excoriated FBI sloppiness in seeking a FISA warrant against Carter Page. A new battlefield:  Eric Holder published an op-ed denouncing the US AG Bill Barr and demanding that he resign, on grounds that Barr disagrees with Horowitz’s report.
This is not Washington business as usual, but it is for Eric Holder – he had the most corrupt past of any AG: was responsible for selling and dealing in the middle of the Clinton administration,  including the scandalous pardon of Mark Rich.  Holder ran the most politicized AG office in US history; was found in contempt of Congress for sending thousands of arms to a Mexican crime group and in which a US border guard was killed.
Apparently fixing corruption is anathema to Eric Holder.  He’s still Obama’s wingman.
Now he’s doing character assassination of Bill Barr. Their present mission is to derail the Barr-Durham investigation into the Trump/Russia investigation, which clearly will damage Obama’s reputation, will be most damaging.  The decibels of the squealing are indicative of the accuracy of Barr and Durham.
Holder also issued a real threat against Durham.
Lyndon Jonson wiretapped Nixon on suspicion that the latter was having back-channel talks with North Vietnamese – which he was. Couldn’t reveal the spying because it’d redound to the disadvantage of the Democrats.
 
Hour Two
Thursday 12 December 2019/ Hour 2, Block A:  The fabulous news of the day is not only that Boris Johnson has won, but that the comprehensively anti-Jewish and anti-Israel Jeremy Corbyn is politically reduced to a puddle.
Dr. Hay (“Chai”) Cohen, in re: Ismail Haniyeh’s travel to Istanbul, and Turkish interests in Libya following a maritime agreement and reports of violating a UN arms embargo. Turkey is endeavoring to put many war weapons and the S400 into Turkish-occupied Cyprus. Ordering new batteries from Russia. Forty-two German Leopard tanks secrety disptched to Turkey. Since 2011, the Turkish navy is much expanded in the Eastern Med. Brinksmanship policy.  New deal signed between Turkey and th Govt of Natl Accord, Libya, as it seeks to cut the connection of the exclusive economic zone between Cyprus and Greece; also to [interrupt] pipeine from Cyprus to Italy; a complex chess move. A tiny Greek island, Kastellorizo or Castellorizo, two kilometers south of the Turkish mainland, halfway between Rhodes and Antalya, is strategically important. Turkish phrase:  “a precious loneliness.”  Who pays for all the Muslim Brothers in Turkey?  Apparently, Qatar.
●        https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2019/12/10/turkey-libya-maritime-border-deal-escalates-tensions-in-the-eastern-mediterranean/
●        https://thehill.com/policy/defense/474081-senate-panel-advances-turkey-sanctions-bill-over-objections-from-ankara-trump
●        https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-first-trip-beyond-egypt-since-2017-hamas-chief-haniyeh-arrives-in-turkey/
●        https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/how-turkey-is-spoiling-big-plan-for-mediterranean-gas/2019/12/10/d12a756c-1b2a-11ea-977a-15a6710ed6da_story.html
●        https://www.france24.com/en/20191212-turkey-builds-libya-ties-in-reaction-to-regional-rivals
Dr. Hay (Chai) Cohen is a scholar of modern Turkey. He is a researcher at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategic Studies and at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Research at Tel Aviv University, and a lecturer in the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at Shalem College.
Thursday 12 December 2019/ Hour 2, Block B:  Michael Makovsky, in re: No mutual defense pact between the US and Israel; it’s consdered that it’d be useful to the US. Would be a narrowly-defined pact, to be used only [in extremis]. A cardinal part of Israeli DNA is  “We defend ourselves by ourselves.”   A bunch of former NATO commanders (incl Jim Stavrides) nontheless supports such a pact.
·         https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/473026-israel-needs-us-made-weapons-to-contain-irans-aggression
·         https://www.jpost.com/American-Politics/JINSA-to-Post-Defense-pact-wouldnt-restrict-Israel-freedom-of-movement-609899
·         https://www.timesofisrael.com/ex-idf-chief-former-pentagon-head-say-us-israel-defense-pact-unneeded/
·         https://nationalinterest.org/feature/defense-treaty-israel-would-be-huge-mistake-80951
·         https://jinsa.org/sen-lindsey-graham-michael-makovsky-us-israel-mutual-defense-treaty-needed-to-benefit-both-nations/
·         https://jinsa.org/jinsa_report/for-a-narrow-u-s-israel-defense-pact/
Michael Makovsky is President and CEO of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), which he joined in 2013. JINSA is dedicated to educating Congressional, military and civilian national security decision-makers on American defense and strategic interests, primarily in the Middle East, the cornerstone of which is a robust U.S.-Israeli security cooperation. A U.S. national security expert, he has worked extensively on U.S. policy toward Iran’s nuclear program, Israel, and the broader Middle East, as well as the intersection of international energy markets and politics with U.S. national security. Makovsky has a Ph.D. in diplomatic history from Harvard University, an MBA in finance from Columbia Business School, and a B.A. in history from the University of Chicago.
Thursday 12 December 2019/ Hour 2, Block C:  David Pollock, in re: Lebanon polling. Although Shi’a in Lebanon know that Hezbollah is a stooge for Iran, many still spport it as a sort of last-ditch self-protective measure.  It's viciousy anti-American and, worse, pro-Assad, which is inexcusable. And the Maronite Christians’s support for Hezbollah has taken a nosedive.
“If Israel made any mistake, Iran would attack Israel from Lebanse territory,” said an Iranian. Many Lebanese said NO. Hezbollah instantly responded, “Neutrality is treason,” and beat protestors, burned their tents.  This is a sign that US sanctions against Iran are effective. That alone isnt enough to overthrow Hezbollah or Teheran, but if it brings hundreds of thousands out in the street to protest the murder of over 500 innocent Iraqis by Iranian snipers, then we may start to see a transformation in the whole regional agenda. Also, general disgust.
·         https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/fikraforum/view/new-lebanon-poll-despite-protests-most-shiites-still-back-hezbollah-and-ira
·         https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-12/lebanon-asks-imf-wb-for-technical-assistance-on-rescue-plan
·         https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Iran-News/Lebanese-officials-protest-Iranian-threat-to-attack-Israel-from-Lebanon-610713
·         https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/02/us/politics/trump-lebanon-aid.html
David Pollock, Bernstein Fellow at The Washington Institute, focuses on the political dynamics of Middle East countries. He is the director of Project Fikra, a program of research, publication, and network-building designed to generate policy ideas for promoting positive change and countering the spread of extremism in the Middle East. At the forefront of this effort is Fikra Forum, a unique Arabic-English bilingual online platform that promotes exchanges between mainstream Muslims and Arab democrats and U.S. decision makers and opinion leaders.
Thursday 12 December 2019/ Hour 2, Block D: Malcolm Hoenlein, in re: the tragic murders in Jersey City two days ago. Pres Trump signed a bill saying that Title VI of the Civil Rights Act includes Jews.  Corbyn, massive loser in today’s election, is welcome to join his friends in Hades, where a seat has been kept warm for him
 
Hour Three
Thursday 12 December 2019/ Hour 3, Block A:  Alireza Nader, in re: Iran: a thousand citizens murdered by the regime in the last few weeks with shoot-to-kill order to the IRGC
●        https://www.foxnews.com/world/iran-underground-tunnel-missile-storage
●        https://www.inss.org.il/publication/irans-nuclear-violations-jcpoa-and-beyond/
●        https://apnews.com/a7f3f7fc4cce40699e72061217634d33
●        https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/france-germany-and-uk-say-iran-has-nuclear-cap
●        able-missiles/2019/12/04/a2f747b2-16eb-11ea-80d6-d0ca7007273f_story.html       
●        https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-nuclear-missiles/iran-wants-to-expand-missile-range-despite-u-s-ire-idUSKBN1O31GQ
●        https://en.radiofarda.com/a/france-germany-and-uk-say-iran-has-nuclear-capable-missiles/30308957.html
●        https://www.wsj.com/articles/europe-poised-to-increase-pressure-on-iran-over-nuclear-deal-violations-11575625191
●        https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/10/world/middleeast/Iran-bank-hacking-protests.html
●        https://www.ft.com/content/efc55050-19b3-11ea-97df-cc63de1d73f4
●        https://www.wsj.com/articles/saudi-arabia-seeks-to-ease-tensions-with-iran-11576178194
Alireza Nader, senior Fellow at FDD, was an International Policy Analyst at the Rand Corporation and author of a number of reports on Iran for the Rand Corporation. He subsequently worked as an advisor to the Anti-Defamation League. He currently serves on the ADL's Task Force to Protect Minority Communities of Middle East.  Throughout his career, Nader has advised the U.S. government on Iran, and is regularly called upon to share his analysis with senior policymakers. Nader has testified before Congress and is often interviewed by the media.
Thursday 12 December 2019/ Hour 3, Block B:  Lenny Ben David, in re: How Hamas procures its weaponry; Hamas’s strategy as it deals with Gaza’s economic instability, and domestic challenges within Gaza. 
●        http://jcpa.org/where-and-how-does-hamas-get-its-weapons/
●        https://www.timesofisrael.com/eyeing-economic-benefits-hamas-wants-deal-with-israel-idf-believes/
●        https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-first-trip-beyond-egypt-since-2017-hamas-chief-haniyeh-arrives-in-turkey/
●        https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Palestinians-edge-toward-elections-609914
Lenny Ben-David is the Jerusalem Center’s Director of Publications. Ben-David served for 25 years in senior posts in AIPAC in Washington and Jerusalem. He served as Israel’s Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy in Washington, D.C. He is the author of, American Interests in the Holy Land Revealed in Early Photographs.
Thursday 12 December 2019/ Hour 3, Block C:  Sebastian Gorka, America First Radio and author, The War for America's Soul: Donald Trump, the Left's Assault on America, and How We Take Back Our Country; in re:  Is there a sense of alarm in Washington? In New York, this feels like a very casual impeachment. Yes, alarm in some Democratic quarters as they push through as fast as they can. If a president challenges something in Congress and takes it to the courts, is that impeachable?  [No.]  The eighteen votes . . .  Democrats are anxious about even maintaining the majority in 2020. Mrs Pelosi is bragging about not whipping the vote. At least ten Dem Congressmen are queasy about holding their seats . . .  this Adm has added $11 trillion to the GDP, removed ISIS from its caliphate, et al.  Peace and prosperity to America the likes of which we haven’t seen for at least two generations.
The Steele dossier, all invented, was the chief document on which the impeachment was based. We owe Devin Nunes enormous gratitude. You can’t make 51 mistakes in the FISA warrant applications all of which favor Mrs Clinton, but none favoring Mr Trump, so it was not merely careless errors. Expect criminal referrals.
       Eric Holder, Mr Obama’s wingman: his excoriating op-ed suggests that Mssrs Barr and Durham have material dangerous to Obama and Holder. Durham has found evidence of felony crimes; therefore, a secret grand jury can be empaneled. Spring or summer is the expected date of Durham’s report.  Time to buy popcorn.  Seb grew up in London; elections today: an overwhelming victory for BoJo and a total repudiation of Labour: Jeremy Corbyn‘s outré radicalization of UK politics. He lost more than 70 seats for the Labour party; Boris Johnson has 368 seats.
Thursday 12 December 2019/ Hour 3, Block D: Sebastian Gorka, America First Radio and author, The War for America's Soul: Donald Trump, the Left's Assault on America, and How We Take Back Our Country; in re:  The Trump Adm is all about winning— and boy are we winning.  The jobs report, + 266,000 jobs, that‘s better than in the previous 66 years, esp since the most vulnerable members of society are doing the best.
       Today Steve Moore was on my show and extremely excited. The last president said the US economy will ever come back. But we now have more jobs available than people looking – functionally, zero unemployment, and only in three years.  Trump didn’t create the jobs, he just stood back and let the private sector create them after the tax cuts and jobs act of 2017.
      Now Mexico and Canada and the US are united in a trade agreement. One of the reasons for this is that the US jobs number is so impressive.  Beijing is watching, too. Beijing still thinks 20% it can play Trump for a rube; they’ll eventually pay for that.
      The undistinguished dictator of the failed state of North Korea:  the spoiled little child wanting attention.  With the US a net energy exporter and NATO revitalized, it's only a matter of time before [these states come to agree]. 
 
Hour Four
Thursday 12 December 2019/ Hour 4, Block A: Svetlana Lokhova, @RealSLokhova , author of The Spy Who Changed History, and scholar of Russian espionage, in re:   Flynn and Halper. Svetlana attended a Dec 2014 dinner at the lodge of the Master of Pembroke College in  Cambridge. Guest of honor was Gen Flynn. The first instance of the anti-Trump op was in Dec 2016.  The genius behind that was Stefan Halper, ONA; MI6? CIA? FBI?  Don't know.
At Cambridge, in the Alison Richard Building, a hastily-organized conference including Vin Webber, Madeleine Albright, Sir Richard Dearlove, Peter ____ Eamonn(?) and other important players.  Lecture hall with morning and evening sessions.
      It was getting close to the election, in the middle of the US campaign; July is the moment when it dawns on many that the impossible could happen, that Clinton might lose and Trump could win.  Halper gave as speech on the deficiencies of he Clinton campaign, and thereby Trump could win unless the focus shifted to Trump. Then this conference was hastily organized; entitled, “The Race that Changed the World.”  In attendance are now-familiar characters.   On stage: a man named Stephen Schrage, supposedly the conference organizer; he named himself as a student of Stefan Halper, but he was an Asst Secy of State and had strong CIA links.  Ph9to shows the back of Carter Page’s head.  Schrage had invited Page in June.  Halper targetted Page one-and-a-half months before acknowledging the beginning of the plan of the conference.
Thursday 12 December 2019/ Hour 4, Block B: Svetlana Lokhova, @RealSLokhova , author of The Spy Who Changed History, and scholar of Russian espionage, in re:  Internet photos from a previous conference that ____ had attended together.  On __ July, someone shrewdly organizing had been surveilling Trump campaign before Crossfire Hurricane (April and before).    On 4 July Svetlana wrote to Gen Flynn as she was looking for a US publisher;  Flynn asked to see a copy of the book proposal, so Svetlana made a very personalized copy of the proposal and went only to Flynn. Mysteriously, that doc fell in to the hands of Luke Harding, a premier investigative for a UK newspaper and a colleague of Christopher Steele. At this point, Svetlana has no information that she’s under surveillance.  Now we know that Halper regularly wore a wire and had invited Svetlana to dinner a few months earlier in order to entrap her in his web.
Thursday 12 December 2019/ Hour 4, Block C:  Svetlana Lokhova, @RealSLokhova , author of The Spy Who Changed History, and scholar of Russian espionage, in re:   An envelope arrives at the White House in early Aug 2016, from John Brennan, spy chief in the US.  To the president, Obama, “eyes only,”  and remarks that the Trump campaign may have been penetrated by the Russians (astoundingly).  A few days previously  . . . . $200K; now suddenly $400K that Halper receives.  “A former amb to India and a former Deputy Foreign Minister” – both are Trubnikov, former head of the Russian intell service.  Halper boasted that he’d been hired to investigate the Russians. Christopher Steele has a breakfast meeting at Mayflower with Bruce Ohr, tells him that Putin has Trump over a barrel; had heard it from the former head of Russian intell. Now the dossier and Steele are both averring this; it seems to have come from Halper. Now the FBI calls Page “a foreign agent.”
      Svetlana still didn't believe that she was the target of anything.
      Dec 2016, Flynn was apptd Natl Security Advisor; the academic Svetlanta gets a call from Sean O’Neill, chief political reporter at the Times of London: he’d read an article stating that Stefan Halper and Richard Dearlove had resigned from the tiny Cambridge Intell Seminar in Dec because it had been penetrated by Russian intell.  Wholly not true, but suddenly scary; Svetlana called lawyers right away. Now suddenly, a media story that Svetlana was a spy and had had an affair with Gen Flynn.
Thursday 12 December 2019/ Hour 4, Block D:  Svetlana Lokhova, @RealSLokhova , author of The Spy Who Changed History, and scholar of Russian espionage, in re: She now was called a spy of GRU, or KGB/FSU, you pick.  Now she’s smear by inference as Halper told the media she was a Russian spy.   British laws prevent that from being published, but it appears in the US:  Obama tried to prevent Flynn from being appointed Nat Security Advisor, but failed.  Sidney Powell, attorney, has filed papers saying that Clapper had telephoned David Ignatius, WaPo, and ordered him to “take a kill shot” on Gen Flynn.
      Ignatius published a leak about a call with Kislyak, and then on 13 Feb Flynn was fired by Trump. On 28 Feb 2017, Ignatius flew to London to meet me and others about “my relationship with Gen Flynn.”   Suddenly three large publications called to ask me about this. First was Wall Street Journal; reporter was close to Obama; second was Jane Harris of WaPo. They proceeded to go around Cambridge University and spread the rumor from Halper that I‘d had an affair with Flynn, and that I’d left the rom with him.
      I get a panicked call from a Professor Kent, who was too shocked to speak well. I was at home with a neonate.  . . .   [More to come.]
      Brennan was supposed to speak to Congress the day after Comey had, in March; Nunes cancelled, unknown why; eventually it took place in May.
3 June 2017 Flynn was officially cleared of being a Russian agent after an investigation. On 30 Jan 2017, FBI formally clears him of all charges.  The lies occurred one month later, so they knew he was not an agent; so, instead, they went to the press.
.