The John Batchelor Show

Thursday 12 May 2016

Air Date: 
May 12, 2016

Map, left, in commemortion of the hundredth anniversary of the agreement that's largely generated today's Middle Eastern chaos: The Sykes-Picot Agreement, officially known as the Asia Minor Agreement, was a secret agreement between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the French Third Republic, with the assent of the Russian Empire, defining their proposed spheres of influence and control in Southwestern Asia should the Triple Entente succeed in defeating the Ottoman Empire during World War I. The negotiation of the treaty occurred between November 1915 and March 1916, the agreement was signed on 16 May 1916, and was exposed to the public in Izvestia and Pravda on 23 November 1917 and in the British Guardian on November 26, 1917.
The Agreement is considered to have shaped the region, defining the borders of Iraq and Syria and leading to the current conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts: Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal Editorial Board & host of Opinion Journal on WSJ Video. Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents.
 
Hour One
Thursday  12 May 2016 / Hour 1, Block A:  Charles Pellegrino, author, To Hell and Back: Last Train from Hiroshima*, and Michael Auslin, AEI, in re: Hiroshima. (1 of 2)
“It's hard to read beyond the point at which the writer has Japan surrendering six days after the Hiroshima bombing. After Nagasaki on August 9, there was a five-day moratorium against bombing with anything except warnings on paper (60 other cities and now several towns were already in ashes from fire bombings with every experimental bomb except the "bat bomb"). When Hirohito decided to go for surrender he was actually held captive in the palace, with one of his friends hacked to pieces, in a revolt by several warlords who would not quit. It was the 3,000-plane raid of August 14 that broke the impasse and allowed the surrender order to be broadcast on August 15. (There was no more nuclear material immediately ready so Charles Sweeney actually dropped a Fat Man design [essentially, the world's largest ball of Torpex explosive] on a remaining Toyota plant. So, actually, three atomic bombs were dropped on Japan - one, minus a plutonium core.”
..  ..  .. 
Today the White House announced that President Obama will visit Hiroshima, the site where the U.S. dropped its first atomic bomb in WWII, in late-May. While visiting Hiroshima, President Obama intends to call for a world without nuclear weapons, however in Forbes, I argue that he could better use this opportunity to rally the liberal nations of the world to defend against the growing threats to global stability.  "Obama should go to Hiroshima — but not for the reason he gave"
Obama to be first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima
No sitting U.S. president has ever visited the site of the world's first atomic bombing that killed 140,000 people in 1945, out of concern that such a trip might be interpreted as an apology.
WorldViews: More Americans think Hiroshima bombing was wrong / http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36258866
 
“…The world instead never should have had to confront the horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or the fire bombing of Dresden, or the D-Day invasion. If statesmen and rulers had taken seriously their responsibility to protect, the world would have been spared a slaughter that few of us today can imagine.
“When Barack Obama visits the Cenotaph in Hiroshima, he should therefore not talk about a world without nuclear weapons, for such a thing is more fanciful now than in 2009. Instead, he should stand by his Japanese counterpart, and reflect on our ability to move past the gaping wounds of war, to ally together to keep peace. He should laud the long record of partnership among democratic nations that emerged from the ashes of war.
“Above all, Obama should use his visit to reaffirm the liberal world’s commitment to preserving and defending today’s precarious global order, in the face of murderous rampages by IS, of Russian aggression in Europe and the Middle East, and of increasingly threatening Chinese and North Korean actions….”
 
https://www.aei.org/publication/obama-should-go-to-hiroshima-but-not-for...
 
Thursday  12 May 2016 / Hour 1, Block B:  Charles Pellegrino, , and Michael Auslin, AEI, in re: Hiroshima.  . . .  What do the conservative Japanese think of Pres Obama’s impending visit? Focus needs to prevent the world from falling apart into yet another world war.  They probably think that if Pres Obama visits the museum, sees the shadow-images and all the rest, he’ll be horrified.    Is there a positive for the resident? Yes, he’s steadfastly spoken of this great danger to us and our children, but he’ll leave office not having made much of a difference to the situation. (1 of 2)
Thursday  12 May 2016 / Hour 1, Block C:  Dan Henninger, WSJ editorial board, in re: Paul Ryan, the GOP, and Mr Trump. / The rapprochement between the GOP's presumed standard-bearer and its top elected official — assuming that's what this is — is clearly a work in progress. The two are on separate planets, ideologically and temperamentally, and one much-hyped morning summit was never going to produce some magical mind-meld.
But now — after a get-together that was described by sources as pleasant, productive, even interesting — Trump and Ryan are waltzing toward "unity," or something approaching it.
The two teams are beginning a slate of policy discussions to explore their positions on key issues. They might not find agreement on some issues, but they hope they can lock arms on broad principles that will drive the election.
Ryan and Trump will meet again. And House Republican Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers extended an invitation to Trump to speak to the entire House GOP.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/paul-ryan-donald-trump-meeting-223125#ixzz48USZlgIu
Thursday  12 May 2016 / Hour 1, Block D: David Shedd,  former head of DIA, then Heritage Fdn; in re: Cyber: we’re vulnerable across the board, in infrastructure, financial data, and government – recall the OPM breach: 23 million files stolen.  There are six to ten names associated with each of the i23 million persons, so China has  a big part of a billion personal US files. How did it happen that the president gave his final State of the Union message and not even mention in passing cyber security? Sony was attacked by the North Koreans (could have been China) – so do corporations put in their own security?  The leading tech co’s are using much improved protocols – no thank to the govt.  Apple: a melodrama with DoJ, FBI, etc.   . . .
..  ..  .. 
“Last Cybersecurity Days of Obama.” David Shedd, Boston Herald.  http://www.bostonherald.com/opinion/op_ed/2016/05/shedd_obama_s_cybersecurity_plan_far_too_little_way_too_late
 
 
Hour Two
Thursday  12 May 2016 / Hour 2, Block A: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: The top Hezbollah commander in Syria, Mustafa Badreddine, was killed in a purported Israeli airstrike in the country earlier this week, according to Lebanese media reports.  Mughniya’s relative, “the Hezbollah creature,”  is extinguished by a drone at the Damascus airport. Good – exceptionally good –intell. Wonder who could have done that?   . . . .
Thursday  12 May 2016 / Hour 2, Block B:  Ambassador Dennis Ross, Washington Institute, in re: Iran & Russia.  “The Hezbollah creature,”  is extinguished by a drone at the Damascus airport: another remarkable example of Israeli intell; must alarm Hezbollah, as the fellow consistently travelled in disguise, was possibly the mist important Hezb member in drug-running, cash transfer, smuggling.  May have caused suspicion by Iranians of the Russians who, didn't seem to block the hit.   US has more forces (maybe 35,000 troops)  in the region than does Russia (with maybe 2,000 troops),  but the US is not seen as committed to changing the balance of power, whereas the Russians are perceived as winners.  When Russians intervened in the autumn, they correctly thought the Assad regime was teetering, all notwithstanding Hezbollah and a lot of Iranian forces.  Despite the Shia militias and other force, they were  not enough to save Assad; in fact, Assad needed Russian intervention.  That should show that the Iranian power isn’t as great as is thought. It took Russia to change the balance of power on the ground; ergo, Iran needs Russia.  Does Iran see Russia as a counterforce to the US?   Khamenei focuses on how to remove the US from the region. Russia and Iran have a convergence of interest in Syria, and in wanting to diminish the American presence and  influence in the Middle East.  In the Middle East these days, no question: you call Moscow before Washington.   Saudis see Israel as a bulwark against Iran; today’s hit of Mustafa Badreddine underlined that.  When Gaddafi was  . . . In the aftermath of Black September, King Hussein of Jordan sent 300 tanks across the border; Israel mobilized, so it looked as though an American friend had defeated a Soviet friend. It's not necessary to put troops on the ground in order to exercise power.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/04/opinion/the-british-lefts-jewish-problem.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/202104/anti-semitism-labour-party-corbyn
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8011/sadiq-khan
http://jcpa.org/british-policy-jews-israel/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/02/labour-has-secretly-suspended-50-members-for-anti-semitic-and-ra/
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/the-jewish-thinker/.premium-1.718793
Ambassador Dennis Ross is counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near Prior, he served two years as special assistant to President Obama and National Security Council senior director for the Central Region, and a year as special advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. A highly skilled diplomat, Ambassador Ross was U.S. point man on the peace process in both the George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations.
Thursday  12 May 2016 / Hour 2, Block C:  Michael Rubin, in re: Iran, Turkey, Russia. On Monday 16 May, hundredth anniversary of Sykes-Picot; at AEI in Washington, a grand meeting on Sykes Picot.
A hundred years after the Sykes-Picot agreement carved up the Ottoman empire: there’s a difference between artificial borders and artificial countries.   Any choice other than creating little fiefdoms?  Not really - can use religion, ethnicity, or natural features. People don't live in neat little pockets ethnically, and most everybody loves along rivers, in valleys, and the like.  Could Syria have been ruled successfully outside of a dictatorship?  I avoid that [framing]; what makes a state, govt, or monarchy stable?  Have heard that he Ottoman Empire succeeded for 500years because it didn't move against he minorities — Christians, Jews, Alawi, Ismailis, etc, —which served as physical buffers between Sunni and Shia.   Ottomans didn’t need to worry about Saudi oil or the IRGC. / delivery of Russia’s S-300 to Iran?  How many ties has that been reported the denied then withdrawn then rescheduled?  We think Iran in fact has received it; only a few weeks to redeploy. Iran deal: ballistic missiles, and the other loophole is that according to the agreement Iran may not import offensive weaponry – but that was not defined by Secy Kerry. Now the latest, most ferocious weapons are defined as “defensive” by Iran and the West has no fallback. ? The interview with Ben Rhodes: huge impact. Testimony, and hearings coming now: we need to see what their documents and
 The premise was that Rouhani was a moderate and we could negotiate [but even the CIA said that was not true. And Iran in a decade will have [an extraordinary armamentarium]. To boot, it turns out that the White House was secretly negotiating with Ahmadinejad, including letters from Obama in 2009 after which Iranian speeches mocked Pres Obama’s insistence. 
http://www.aei.org/events/the-sykes-picot-agreement-at-100-rethinking-the-map-of-the-modern-middle-east/
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/iran/uncertainty-iran-missile-tests/
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/iran/whos-hampering-iran-trade-chevrolet/
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/iran/iran-doubles-down-on-terror-islamic-jihad/
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/661e9c28d6e44eeaa57a51f6cf422fb2/kerry-businesses-using-us-sanctions-excuse-avoid-iran
http://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-has-deployed-s-300-system-minister-says/
Michael Rubin is a former Pentagon official whose major research areas are the Middle East, Turkey, Iran and diplomacy. Rubin instructs senior military officers deploying to the Middle East and Afghanistan on regional politics, and teaches classes regarding Iran, terrorism, and Arab politics on board deploying U.S. aircraft carriers. Rubin has lived in post-revolution Iran, Yemen, both pre- and post-war Iraq, and spent time with the Taliban before 9/11.
Thursday  12 May 2016 / Hour 2, Block D:  Alan Mendoza, Henry Jackson Society, in re:
•       London’s new mayor. Labour Party. European anti-Semitism: “Labour has secretly suspended 50 of its members over anti-Semitic and racist comments as officials struggle to cope with the crisis engulfing the party.   Senior sources reveal that Labour's compliance unit has been swamped by the influx of hard-left supporters following Jeremy Corbyn's election. . . .”   “Conservative Party candidate Zac Goldsmith accused Khan of giving ‘platform, oxygen and cover’ to Islamic extremists. He also accused Khan of ‘hiding behind Britain's Muslims by branding as ‘Islamophobes’ those who shed light on his past.
•       ‘The questions are genuine, they are serious. They are about his willingness to share platforms with people who want to 'drown every Israeli Jew in the sea.' It's about his having employed someone who believed the Lee Rigby murder was fabricated. It's about his career before being an MP, coaching people in how to sue the police.’ — Conservative Party candidate Zac Goldsmith.
•       In 2008, Khan gave a speech at the Global Peace and Unity Conference, an event organized by the Islam Channel, which has been censured repeatedly by British media regulators for extremism. Members of the audience were filmed flying the black flag of jihad while Khan was speaking.
•       ‘I regret giving the impression I subscribed to their views and I've been quite clear I find their views abhorrent.’ — Sadiq Khan.”
•       ‘A Muslim man with way too many extremist links to be entirely coincidental is now the Mayor of London. I suppose this is hardly a shock, though. The native English are a demographic minority (and a rapidly dwindling one) in London, whilst Muslims from Pakistan and Bangladesh are a rapidly expanding demographic.’ — British politician Paul Weston.”
Labour Party's anti-Semitism Struggle: Recognizing Jews Are a People, Not Just a Religion
The reason Britain's hard left refuses to accept that anti-Semitism can morph from traditional eugenics into parts of modern-day anti-Zionism is because it utterly rejects the notion of Jewish peoplehood.   http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/the-jewish-thinker/.premium-1.718793
Who Is Responsible for Anti-Semitism in the Labour Party? Jeremy Corbyn. Something is rotten in the United Kingdom
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/04/opinion/the-british-lefts-jewish-problem.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/202104/anti-semitism-labour-party-corbyn
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8011/sadiq-khan
http://jcpa.org/british-policy-jews-israel/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/02/labour-has-secretly-suspended-50-members-for-anti-semitic-and-ra/
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/the-jewish-thinker/.premium-1.718793
Dr. Alan Mendoza is a founder and the Executive Director of the Henry Jackson Society, and directs analysis, research focus, strategy and development for the organization. He is a Board Member of the British-American Project, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Electric Infrastructure Security Council, and of Bright Blue. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Alan is a frequent speaker at high-profile national and international events and conferences.
 
Hour Three
Thursday  12 May 2016 / Hour 3, Block A:  Joseph Humire, Center for Security and Freedom, in re: Iran in Latin America. Colombia also at risk: negotiating with FARC, narco-terrorists and once-revolutionists (that was lo-ong ago).   FARC are now based a lot in Cuba; John Kerry sat and chatted with them in Havana the other day. A mastermind behind the Buenos Aires killer-bombing was an Iranian who’s now close to Colombia.  Growing influence of Iran in South America, thousands of Iranian agents; also recruiting young people to fight in Yemen, with ISIS-even in T&T!  Iran ahs been proselytizing and recruiting in South America for years; there are many, many young men who feel disaffected and are available to be recruited.  Note also Peru: in 2014 there was almost another AMIA-style attack in Lima: a serious terrorist attack on the UN Climate Change Conference was almost pulled off.  Following the death of Hugo Chavez, when Iran wants to know what’s going on in the region it asks the Castro brothers.  Venezuela:  Iran still much there, although not as much as formerly; but there’s so much murder and crime there that Hezbollah can move around almost invisibly. However, Iran doesn't have the full support of the current Venezuelan govt.  Argentina:  Iran’s tentacles in there won’t go away just because of one recent election; it's been digging in for thirty years and is established.  Macri is trying to dig them out, but the problems come from trade, commerce, even from Germany; so Argentina will need help from US, Israel, others, to clean this up.
Argentina to Monitor Visiting Iranian Delegation Post Asharq Al-Awsat Report: Authorities in Argentina set out to investigate any information on the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) delegation’s expected visit to the Colombian capital Bogota this May.
The delegation has raised concerns of Argentinian authorities; especially that it includes Mohsen Rabbani, who is wanted by INTERPOL for the Buenos Aires AMIA bombing targeting Jewish community centers in 1992.
The Ministry of Justice and Human Rights of Argentina expressed fears regarding the anticipated visit, confirming its ongoing effort to collect encompassing data.
Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper and Latin media outlets, two days ago, circulated information on the visit. La Nación, Argentine daily newspaper, wrote that after reports published by Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper and many other Latin journalistic outlets, the visit had to raise a state of alertness.
Argentina’s ambassador to Colombia, Marcelo Astrobin, after looking into reports published by Asharq Al-Awsat, made an official call to governmental offices in Colombia requesting that adequate measures be taken to track down wanted figures expected to visit. Sources close to the Argentine presidency in Buenos Aries said that supreme authority will send a warrant to Bogota demanding an official clarification on the rumored visit. The Argentine government, troubled, warned authorities in Bogota on the aftermath of such a visit and the dangers it could entail.
Astrobin said that Colombia must understand his country’s concerns, given that the 1992 AMIA bombing investigations are a very delicate topic, and that Rabbani is an acknowledged terrorist to Argentina, which is why he should be turned in as soon as he arrives to Colombia.
He added that his country asked the INTERPOL to renew the arrest warrant it had issued for Rabbani. However, the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores (Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs) has informed Astrobin that it has not procured any information on whether Rabbani will be visiting or not.  . . .
http://english.aawsat.com/2016/05/article55350480/interpols-wanted-man-heads-iranian-delegation-colombia
http://english.aawsat.com/2016/05/article55350619/argentine-monitor-visiting-iranian-delegation-post-asharq-al-awsat-report
Thursday  12 May 2016 / Hour 3, Block B:  Aykan Erdemir, in re: Turkey.  A spring morning in Asia Minor: Davutoglu was Erdogan’s mini-me; he’d been 90% in agreement with Erdogan, but Erdogan is a control freak in his 1,050-room palace and needed 100%.  So Davutoglu was ousted (no pension or retirement package), and no one yet knows who will be PM, Foreign Minister, anything.  De facto takeover of the Turkish govt has undermined Turkey’s parliamentary democracy.  Pf is stipulated by constitution to be a nonpartisan office, but Erdogan still rule the AKP and 1,200 party delegates who in 12 days will elect a new PM; One candidate is his son-in-law, the other is in charge of his slush funds. Descending into one-man rule ad tyranny. Erdogan keeps his adversaries very close, so Davutolglu will probably have to serve as a legislator in the parliament so Pres Erdogan can control hi.  Word that Turkey has killed 3,000 ISIS fighters: from Istanbul, I can see the blowback from Turkey’s involvement in Syria.  Istanbul is kind of a ghost town; notorious traffic jams almost gone; then Erdogan claims he killed 3,000 militants. Cannot verify the numbers, and it’s very hard to believe.  Which is the bigger threat to Erdogan’s success: Putin, the PKK, or his own party, the AKP?  Hitherto, at least Davutoglu filtered Erdogan’s deeds; with Davutoglu gone, another tyrant looks highly relevant: Putin. Talk of Russian involvement with the Kurds, esp PKK; so Erdogan is trying another of his notorious U-turns in an effort to be friends with Putin. Will Putin go for it?  Is there any geopolitical utility in re-friending the Turk? Not known for sure – but remember the plane shoot-down.
“Turkey's King: Erdogan after Davutoglu,” by Soner Cagaptay, in Foreign Affairs; May 8, 2016
http://en.rfi.fr/wire/20160506-jettisoning-pm-turkeys-erdogan-marches-one-man-rule
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/turkeys-king-erdogan-after-davutoglu http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7948/turkey-erdogan-eu
http://www.wsj.com/articles/turkeys-elite-force-stages-raid-against-islamic-state-fighters-in-syria-1462868840
 http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.717794
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-turkey-islamic-state-idUSKCN0Y20XH
Dr. Aykan Erdemir is a former member of the Turkish Parliament (2011-2015) who served in the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee, EU Harmonization Committee, and the Ad Hoc Parliamentary Committee on the IT Sector and the Internet. As an outspoken defender of pluralism, minority rights, and religious freedoms in the Middle East, Dr. Erdemir has been at the forefront of the struggle against religious persecution, hate crimes, and hate speech in Turkey.
Thursday  12 May 2016 / Hour 3, Block C:  Richard A. Epstein, Hoover, via Defining Ideas; in re:  Diversity, Ivy League style, is disguised totalitarianism that impairs student choice and leaves them unprepared for the real world. Harvard's Final Clubs Debacle / Harvard Threatens Students. @RichardAEpstein, @HooverInst.
“…Last week, Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust wrote a public letter on “Single-Gender Social Organizations,” which heralds a brave new social order at Harvard and perhaps elsewhere. The targets of her letter are Harvard’s so-called final clubs—those organizations that are the last, or final, clubs that undergraduates would join before leaving Harvard. These final clubs are not located on Harvard property and they receive no funding of any sort from the University, having been officially dissociated from Harvard in 1984. There are at present 13 of them—six accept only male members; five, only female members. Two formerly all-male clubs, Fox and Spee, are now co-ed after buckling under relentless pressure from Harvard. Some 30 percent of Harvard undergraduates are members of these organizations. It seems clear that there is substantial private demand for these clubs, and, for a period of many years, little or no demand for co-ed social clubs that served these same purposes.
“These final clubs enjoy widespread acceptance among their members because some young people prefer to organize their social lives around single-sex organizations. To a classical liberal like myself, these revealed preferences count a great deal, for it would be foolish to insist that a large fraction of this nation’s future elites are so misguided about their own moral and social development that they would take steps to stunt their growth in both these dimensions. But in the eyes of progressives like Faust, these preferences should be dismissed as inconsistent with a bigger vision of a “campus free from exclusion on arbitrary grounds.” When an organization rejects “much of the student body merely because of its gender,” she writes, that “undermines the promise offered by Harvard’s diverse student body.” She then concludes on a paternalist note that these clubs “do not serve our students well when they step outside our gates into a society where gender-based discrimination is understood as unwise, unenlightened, and untenable.”… (1 of 2)
http://www.hoover.org/research/harvards-final-clubs-debacle?utm_source=hdr&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2016-05-10
Thursday  12 May 2016 / Hour 3, Block D:   Richard A. Epstein, Hoover, via Defining Ideas; in re:   “…I join you in urging the unrecognized social organizations to discard their gender-based membership practices, to adopt an open application process, and to establish greater overall transparency. I recognize, however, that not all the organizations will accept our call for reform and that some Harvard College students will still seek membership in those organizations.
“I agree with the judgment that, at this time, the College should not adopt a rule prohibiting students from joining unrecognized social organizations that retain discriminatory membership policies. Students will decide for themselves whether to engage with these organizations, as members or otherwise. But just as students have choice, so too the College must determine for itself the structure of activities that it funds or endorses (including through fellowship recommendations from the dean), or that otherwise occur under its auspices. Captains of intercollegiate sports teams and leaders of organizations funded, sponsored, or recognized by Harvard College in a very real sense represent the College. They benefit from its resources. They operate under its name. Especially as it seeks to break down structural barriers to an effectively inclusive campus, the College is right to ensure that the areas in which it provides resources and endorsement advance and reinforce its values of non-discrimination….”  (2 of 2) http://www.harvard.edu/president/news/2016/letter-on-single-gender-social-organizations
 
Hour Four
Thursday  12 May 2016 / Hour 4, Block A:  John Bolton, AEI, and Michael Ledeen, FDD, in re:  No to North Korea Nukes & Yes to Brexit. @AmbJohnBolton, AEI. @Michael Ledeen, @followFDD; author, The Field of Fight: How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies by Michael T. Flynn and Michael Ledeen.
“…Kim argued that his country’s nuclear weapons were purely for defense and deterrence, in response to hostile policies from the United States and its allies, all a familiar repetition of language from North Korean speeches over many years. But in much of the foreign press coverage of his remarks, Kim got what he wanted: The media detected a new tone amidst all the familiar rhetoric. For those Westerners obsessed with finding conciliatory gestures by nuclear-aspirant authoritarian regimes like Iran and North Korea, the new tone is never hard to find.

Pyongyang may also sense a fast-moving chance to reprise circumstances at the end of the Clinton administration, when the prospect of America’s president himself traveling to the North seemed very real. Although Kim’s father had to be satisfied with a visit by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Obama would be an easier get. Kim could figure that even a farewell visit by peripatetic Secretary of State John Kerry would at least return the North to the status quo in 2000, after long years of isolation from Washington’s top leadership.

Moreover, North Korea plays a long game. Jan. 20, 2017, is hardly far off. Kim may be calculating that Hillary Clinton would like a significant foreign-policy accomplishment early in her presidency, thereby demonstrating her seriousness and, early on, setting herself ahead of Obama’s international pace. And while Donald Trump authored, The Art of the Deal, Kim knows that Pyongyang has outmatched Washington in every negotiation since the Korean War. He may think the challenge is worth the risk….”
http://www.bostonherald.com/opinion/op_ed/2016/05/bolton_n_korea_hoping_to_hoodwink_us_again_on_nukes
“…By transferring power from Parliament in London to conference rooms in Brussels, the EU has created a democratic deficit that more and more people across the European continent increasingly resent.
The facile attempt to liken a United States of Europe to the United States of America cannot obscure the reality of two widely divergent historical experiences. America grew essentially from the original 13 colonies outward in a pattern where a common language, culture and national philosophy spread across North America over an extended period of time.
By contrast, the EU is an entirely top-down project, imposed over an ancient continent of widely diverse peoples, languages, customs and religions. And even America had differences sufficiently profound to provoke an almost unimaginably bloody civil war.
There is an inherent economic risk in abandoning arrangements and institutions built up over time. But in the sweep of European history, the EU is a newcomer. It makes sense for Britain exit now rather than wait until disaster strikes.
Obama should be smart enough to understand that….” (1 of 2)
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/john-bolton-u-leave-europe-article-1.2628019
Thursday  12 May 2016 / Hour 4, Block B:  John Bolton, AEI, and Michael Ledeen, FDD, in re:  No to North Korea Nukes & Yes to Brexit. @AmbJohnBolton, AEI. @Michael Ledeen, @followFDD; author, The Field of Fight: How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies by Michael T. Flynn and Michael Ledeen. (2 of 2)
Thursday  12 May 2016 / Hour 4, Block C:  Ann Gibbons, Science Magazine, in re:
Anthropology Confronts Harassment & “Manels.”    “…The intense session was one of a half-dozen events at the meeting—mentoring lunches, happy hours, and workshops—on combating discrimination and sexual harassment. “Biological anthropology has a problem,” said panelist Robin Nelson of Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. “But we’re not alone.”
Yet few fields are confronting the problems as vigorously, perhaps because in this discipline women have reached critical mass. Eight of AAPA’s 10 board members are women, as are 56% of AAPA members and the majority of students in most anthropology departments. “Anthropology is ‘woke,’” said biological anthropologist Nelson, choosing an expression often used to describe waking up to discrimination. “We’re not asleep anymore.”
“The field has been convulsed by several cases, including that of paleoanthropologist Brian Richmond of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, who allegedly sexually assaulted a research assistant who worked for him and harassed trainees at a field school (Science, 12 February, p. 652). Richmond is working offsite while the museum investigates his actions. His case came to light not long after an influential survey called the SAFE study revealed that sexual harassment is common during fieldwork (Science, 19 April 2013, p. 265). The study made it clear that trainees urgently need protection, especially in the field, where people live and work in close quarters. It is time to abandon the old adage that “what happens in the field stays in the field,” said biological anthropologist Michelle Bezanson of Santa Clara University in California….”  (1 of 2)
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/04/anthropologists-say-no-sexual-har...
Thursday  12 May 2016 / Hour 4, Block D:   Ann Gibbons, Science Magazine, in re:
Anthropology Confronts Harassment & “Manels.”   (2 of 2)
 
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I have travelled with Pellegrino to Japan to visit survivors of both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, and to consult with officials and historians there. Among that community he is well respected and considered an important voice for the history of these events. Pellegrino combines intense forensic detail—some of it new to history—with unfathomable heartbreak. The author unflinchingly chronicles these most devastating events in Japan, the only times nuclear weapons have been used against human beings, and begs us to hold hands and to pray that it never happens again. A must read for anyone with a conscience. (James Cameron, director, producer, engineer, and explorer)
By far the best book I have ever read on the subject. . . . No one I know has ever articulated more fully, more accurately, and more effectively the essential nature of the atomic bombings. A great book—a potential game-changer in the struggle to eliminate nuclear weapons. (Steven Leeper, Hiroshima Jogakuin University, former chair of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation)
The book opens with imagery that leaves one speechless. Pellegrino is a poet at heart, a poet with a Japanese soul. (Francis Kakugawa, poet, Hiroshima family member)
Drawing on his considerable scholarly skills as well as his poetic sensibility, Charles Pellegrino has greatly enlarged our understanding of the singular tragedy that was—and is—Hiroshima. The pages themselves seem to weep, drenched as they are in poignancy, passion, and a salutary measure of unbearable truth. ---James Morrow, author of Shambling Towards Hiroshima and This Is the Way the World Ends
http://www.amazon.com/Hell-Back-Hiroshima-Pacific-Perspectives/dp/144225...
 
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