Photo, left: Gorgeous Lajes: perfect weather, ravishing landscapes, countless waterfalls, fabulous diving, and fabled Portuguese food.  All inexpensive for a family paid in dollars.  
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  15 September 2016 / Hour 1, Block A: Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal Editorial Board & host of Opinion Journal on WSJ Video; in re: Presidential health records (Dr Oz standard?). Mrs Clinton looks much restored, which is good; the problem, however, is transparency. In the age of social media, we demand clear information and to be treated as adults.  They were in the White House in a different age, were used to cloaking everything in secrecy.
Why Ford is moving to Mexico: if you cut taxes and regulations, and thus the cost of mfrg in the US, they’d mfr in the US—we have a rule of law here, the transport system is better, and many other reasons why Ford would, in fact, prefer to manufacture in the US. 
If Mr Trump focussed on growth, he’d lift everyone up.
Trump's childcare welfare: Ivanka Trump on a child care program – he’s campaigning like a Democrat with a vast new entitlement that adds a lot of costs on to businesses and reduces thereby the number of possible jobs, What's crushing the federal budget is not defense, it’s welfare plus impressive amounts of waste and fraud associated with it.
How to fix the Fed.
Thursday  15 September 2016 / Hour 1, Block B: Veronique de Rugy, Mercatus Center, in re: Economic plan Donald Trump just detailed this afternoon at the Economic Club of New York…?  Mr Trump’s economic plan as laid out today at the Economic Club of New York. Close to a flat tax, 35%  US bz abroad: if you bring your money back to the US, you’ll be paying 35% tax. He’s gone all reformecon (a branch of the GOP who think that conservative ideas aren't saleable, so need to include fillips – to subsidize child care, et al.) on us, but we knew that. He was criticized; “I want to listen to my daughter, subsidize child care, and [propose a lot of Democratic-sounding pan].   Carving the tax code with tax credits takes us away from simplifying taxes. He has to pay for a lot of welfare programs.   Boost earned-income tax credit. Increase marginal tax rates for those who want to work more hours.  You can’t look just at the corporate site; he doesn't want to touch entitlement spending, not touch defense spending He sounds like a big-government fellow (Tammany Hall).  Trump is a career Democrat appropriating conservative locutions – infrastructure spending welfare, a concept of trade rooted in the 1970s and 80s.  A mish-mash. I can’t imagine that his family care would make it through Congress; but the business side would. Bipartisan support for corporate tax reforms. 
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We need to see more details from the Trump campaign but here are the most important things to say about it:
1.      He understands that economic growth is incredibly important and he has made growth the cornerstone of his plan. Contrast this to Clinton’s plan where there is no plan for boosting economic growth with effective measures. The Democrats have checked out on the growth path and it is disconcerting. Trump hasn’t.
2.      His previous plan was very expensive and he took this criticism seriously. He ended cutting a lot of money out of the plan including by raising the top marginal personal income tax rates from 25 to 33 percent.
3.      He has retain the really good part of this plan: the reform of the business tax. We can’t overstate how important and how growth enhancing a reform  of the corporate income tax is. This is very positive.
4.       He understands how much growth could be generated by getting rid of bad regulations and lightening our regulatory burden.
5.      While his numbers add up better, it is not enough. Unfortunately, he is refusing to reform entitlement programs. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are the drivers of our future debt and they need to be reformed to get us off the terribly unsustainable path we are on.
6.      He is pandering to conservatives by refusing to touch defense spending. It is silly because the same waste, fraud and abuse that plague other programs exist in defense spending.       
Thursday  15 September 2016 / Hour 1, Block C:  Michael Rubin, AEI via Commentary Magazine; with Gordon Chang, Daily Beast and Forbes.com; in re: the Azores.  The US has heavily utilized the Lajes mid-Atlantic airbase in every relevant geopolitical crisis for decades; Pentagon says that it’d be cheaper and better to move the base to the UK. Turns out that is an overt, straight-up lie that the Pentagon  has loudly told Congress.  The Azores are the only base from which the US can patrol the __ Atlantic Ocean by submarine; now ere about to forfeit that to China, which is moving in gangbusters, and the Russians.  Consider Djibouti (Horn of Africa), and Columbo (Sri Lanka), where Chinese subs have docked twice.  
Right now, the American Lajes base looks like  California. One of he pleasantest, most beautiful places I’ve ever been; not only hospitable and having a lovely climate, it's also an intell center, right in the middle of African and European time zones on one side  and Washington on the other.
Is this awful decision reversible? Pentagon has actively lied to Congress for years; and the Deputy SecDef has just notified Congress that the DoD will start sending vast amounts of taxpayer money to build a replica base in the UK – over a billion dollars. 
Recall that the US turned over its bases in Vietnam to the Vietnamese and thereby the Russians.   Now we want them back.
Michael has written here over the past year about the Pentagon’s decision to scale-back, if not draw-down completely, from Lajes Field, an air base on Terceira Island in the Azores. That island chain is a strategically located archipelago in the middle if the Atlantic Ocean that the United States has both pressed into service in every major crisis since World War II and which has been an important base to from which to monitor enemy submarines in the Atlantic basin.  MICHAEL RUBIN / SEPT. 14, 2016
Thursday  15 September 2016 / Hour 1, Block D:  Dan Henninger, WSJ , in re: Les Miserables, les Deplorables . . .  whom Mrs Clinton described at a Barbara Streisand fundraiser as racist, sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic, and one more in the basket of deplorables.  His is what the progressive Democratic Party thinks of many Americans: Trumpians are like Les Mis characters living in rags and brown coats  a mass of phobic Americans seething in rage a everything around them. We're seeing the revolt of the populace against the elites.   What began as legitimate complaints has become a moral condescension.  Mrs Clinton’s moral superciliousness. Bullying—the progressive algorithm, a set of social rules that click in, can drive politics to their point of view:  you’re morally suspect while they are morally superior. She proposes one federal program after another; these are distant rom the country’s core concerns – the majority are fed up.  Values Voters Summit looked past Mr Trump’s foibles: evangelical vote, was a time when the left spoke of the religious right taking over America, but that’s not even charged any more. They feel marginalized, pushed aside and run over. Anger? Frustration? Fed up?  Have been pushed so hard they’ll sit down with a candidate like Donald Trump. http://www.wsj.com/articles/les-deplorables-1473895470?tesla=y
 
 
Hour Two
Thursday  15 September 2016 / Hour 2, Block A:  Jonathan Schanzer, FDD, in re: MOU, Iran. Everywhere, we find Iran’s hand.  US agrees to a $38 bil (over ten  years) aid package to Israel. Finally inked after months of wrangling the largest aid from the US to any country in American history, $3.8 bil PA.  It's a ten-year signature, so Israel must plan for a total decade. When the Iran nuclear deal begins to sunset, the arms embargo expires, ballistic missile ban ends in seven years and Iran ahs billions f dollars and a full nuclear program, plus Iranian cyberwarfare capabilities – how to plan?
Only out clause is “times of significant conflict” Israel can ask for help with defensive-only weapons. This MOU eliminates Congress from its Constitutional role of voting for spending.
Kerry has protected Iran’s interests in Syria; billions to Iran’s coffers in cash. On the Hill, Pres Obama is weighing in on how to punish Israel, settlements; financial diminution; fight in the USN against Res 242.  His vision in the Middle East is a stronger Iran and a weaker Israel.  At the end of the money to Israel, it will all have been spent inside the US.   MOU: fnds hat go to Israeli defense industry will diminish over six years *(starting when?) so Israel’s defense industry will have to shift, which is not bad.    Some of the systems developed by Israelis have much benefitted the US DOD, for example Iron Dome; Trophy Tank Defense; others.
·         http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/schanzer-jonathan-us-38b-military-aid-package-to-israel-sends-a-message/
·         http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/obama-israel-aid-critics-228098#ixzz4KAzZZ07l
·         http://www.pmo.gov.il/English/MediaCenter/Spokesman/Pages/spokeStatement140916.aspx
·         http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/annie-fixler-13-billion-of-the-cash-to-iran-was-taxpayer-money/
·         http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-security-syria-iran-idUSKCN11H0B7
Jonathan Schanzer is the VP for research at FDD. Prior to joining FDD in February 2010, Dr. Schanzer worked as a terrorism finance analyst at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where he played an integral role in the designation of numerous terrorist financiers. 
Thursday  15 September 2016 / Hour 2, Block B:  Bassem Edi,  Palestinian human rights activist; in re:   Arab & Palestinian affairs.
Arab states frustrated with the Palestinian Authority, where Abbas and sons have stolen hundreds of millions of dollars, and the major Arab states no longer want to support the PA.  Fatah has tried to push Abbas, who hired West Bank lawyers to appeal to the Palestinian Supreme Court to postpone the imminent elections. Majority of Palestinians have lost faith in Abbas’s leadership. International community must review. Abbas’s only support today is from Europe and the American administration.
OK, but we read so much about the boycott/divest movement?  “I don't believe in boycotts; those who call for BDS  used to be jobless and here have found a job. Money on the suffering of Palestinian people. Just like UNRWA. This will not solve the conflict. BDS policy is to increase European anti-Jewish policies—not to bring peace to Palestinians but merely to destroy Israel.
As long as Abbas is alive we’ll suffer. He refuses to keep Fatah’s mandate. These days Abbas is worried about his [dukedom?] in the West Bank, wants to be sure that nothing will damage his family, and so delayed the appointment of his successor.  Iran has become the main threat to the Middle East. The Iranian-American deal was awful, but it created one positive: it almost paved the way for Israel to cooperate with Arab countries. Two weeks ago, a high-level Saudi delegation visited Israel!”
         http://bassemeidhumanrights.com/
         https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bassem_Eid
         http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/0,2506,L-4667098,00.html
         http://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-spends-100-million-a-year-on-military-infrastructure/
Bassam Edi is a Palestinian human rights activist.  He is a political analyst and commentator on Arab and Palestinian affairs
Thursday  15 September 2016 / Hour 2, Block C: David Makovsky, Washington Institute, in re:  MOU. Don't underestimate the US-Israeli friendship. However, there was tension in the talks. Note also Congressional disagreement on American defense spending. Israel doesn’t want to take a penny out of US funding to Jordan.  . . . This president has often gone for broke on unpopular matters – Cuba, et al.  Will he go for  Security Council resolution? Can’t know. If Hillary Clinton wins he’ll be more reticent in order to leave space for her to make decisions.  Israelis much appreciate US aid, and America is extremely popular in Israel. Why the heavy criticism from Ehud Barak?  The arrows are pointed at Netanyahu, not Obama.  Appearance of having been bought off? .  . .  General Yaalon? Not speaking of details. See WashingtonInstitute.org video of him  He’s avoiding inserting himself into this discussion.
         https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/josh-rogin/wp/2016/09/14/obama-and-israel-cut-congress-out-of-the-aid-game/
         https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/israel-us-sign-massive-military-aid-package-in-low-key-ceremony-at-the-state-department/2016/09/14/23035db6-7abd-11e6-ac8e-cf8e0dd91dc7_story.html
         https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/ehud-barak-netanyahus-reckless-conduct-endangers-israel/2016/09/14/73686d3a-79ed-11e6-bd86-b7bbd53d2b5d_story.html?utm_term=.5a2affc16fc6
         http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/john-cappello-with-mou-us-and-israel-cement-strategic-relationship-for-next-decade/
         http://www.pmo.gov.il/English/MediaCenter/Spokesman/Pages/spokeStatement140916.aspx
David Makovsky is the Ziegler distinguished fellow at The Washington Institute and director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process. He is also an adjunct professor in Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). In 2013-2014, he worked in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of State, serving as a senior advisor to the Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations. Before joining The Washington Institute, Mr. Makovsky was an award-winning journalist who covered the peace process from 1989 to 2000. He is the former executive editor of the Jerusalem Post, was diplomatic correspondent for Israel's leading daily, Haaretz, and is a former contributing editor to U.S. News and World Report. 
Thursday  15 September 2016 / Hour 2, Block D:   David Schenker, Washington Institute, in re:  Syria, Jordan. Jordan is at the center of an intell operation against ISIS. Will do what they have to in order to please the US, have been hit by ISIS recently, US has troops and aircraft in Jordan.  Will host Joint Implementation Center where the US and Russia cooperate.  Russians say that the “moderate” Syrian opposition is attacking areas in Syria. Not clear if that’s true. Of course, Assad regime is, for sure.  We do see a partial reduction of hostilities, but no aid has yet arrived.
Jordan is the best Arab ally of the US, have been doing a fairly good job, is considered the gold standard for an Arab army, but are imperfect. An attack on a mil outpost north of Amman, and one in the east where US troops were;  both Jordanian guard soldiers were asleep. There was a terrible incident with Jordanian intell: US had provided specialized weapons that wound up on the black market and were used by a radicalized Jordanian solder to kill. Jordan is in the sights of ISIS.  Seventy thousand Syrian IDPs (internally displaced persons); ISIS is much in the area.  Mass terrorist attack in Jordan similar to Mumbai or Paris?  In one bldg there were eight guys; Jordan’s counterterror ops then spend twelve hours to kill the eight guys -  it was a mess.  Jordan has capabilities, What’s  the trust level, Amman-Moscow?   Exists, but closer to the US; 10% of natl budget comes from US. Have close intell sharing with CIA, and not as close with Russia.  In the upcoming Joint Implementation Center, US will share intell with Russia on Syrian rebels – disclosure of US sources and methods, of strategy and tactics, to Moscow.  US DOD is not happy.
How much is Iran active in Jordan or on its border? Active on the border; working on Golan, Hezbollah sometimes moves south near he Jordanian border; maybe no presence inside Jordan, although rumor of Iran having generated Jordanian intell. Unlikely, since 97% f Jordanians are Sunni.
         http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/cracks-start-to-show-in-jordan
         http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/what-will-year-two-of-russias-syria-intervention-bring
         http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/in-syria-talks-with-russia-john-kerrys-hand-is-missing-a-key-card
         https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/09/14/75000-syrians-are-trapped-near-jordans-border-satellite-images-show-some-are-dying/
David Schenker is the Aufzien fellow and director of the Program on Arab Politics at The Washington Institute. Previously, he served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense as Levant country director, the Pentagon's top policy aide on the Arab countries of the Levant. In that capacity, he was responsible for advising the secretary and other senior Pentagon leadership on the military and political affairs of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and the Palestinian territories. He was awarded the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Civilian Service in 2005.
 
Hour Three
Thursday  15 September 2016 / Hour 3, Block A: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:   Sen Dan Coates, Indiana, who will soon retire, is a key member of the Senate Intell Committee; has moved to punish the Palestinian Authority for rewarding terrorists to the tune of $130 million per year, plus $155 million per year to support terrorists’s families—this is specifically an incentive program to terrorists paid by US tax dollars. If the terrorist goes to jail, his family gets a pension for ever.  Huge incentive to violate the law. Some parents express joy because they'll be paid off.  US has given $5 billon. 
Iran: 31 incidents of harassment of US ships; now doing the same in air. The IRGC, in charge of security in the Straits of Hormuz, warned the US to remove its ships. IRGC sent fast attacks ship at 100 yards.  Demand now that US ships not be in international waters—and now threaten to shoot US planes out of the air as we give Iran billons of dollars. Iran demands that Shiites do their hajj in Karbala n Iraq.  US is not required to absorb the first round!
If the Fifth Fleet weren’t there (based in Bahrain), wouldn’t Saudis have to do something?
Soleimani, IRGC commander, head of al Quds Brigades, travels around the region.  Hassling the US in all ways is part of strategy. Speculation that Soleimani may run for the Iranian presidency to challenge Rouhani, have an extremist military cult running the country.
ISIS: where did thousands of ISIS fighters disappear to? Many went home; still recruiting a thousand or two a month but today down to fifty; instead, more attacks in home countries of Europe, Americas, elsewhere. ISI is using tiny boys as suicide bombers.
Found an amazing mosaic on grounds of an ancient synagogue: mtg between Alexander the Great and a local. Temple floor!  Indiana Hoenlein.
Thursday  15 September 2016 / Hour 3, Block B:  Eyal Zisser , Tel Aviv University: in re: Syria. The highly regrettable Iran deal. Right now is a high holy day in the Muslim world, and people are exhausted by the six years of war in Syria. People trying to rest for a minute before facing the coming months.  Bashar al Assad has zero interest in implementing a ceasefire when he thinks he’s winning and Russia’s intervention is succeeding; time is in Assad’s favor.  Cannot trust Russia anent Syria.   This war will end by military means, not any political arrangement.  US SecDef says that sharing intell with Russians is “reckless.”  Russia is an important regional layer, must cooperate in some ways, but to trust or rely on Moscow – its interests are entirely different from Russia’s This US administration has no vision except “no boots on the ground; I don’t want to hear about this.”  US has no policy on Syrian conflict. Say they’re worried about ISIS but doing not much. US still demanding the removal of Assad form power.   Iran and Turkey?  Syria is only art f a bigger game; waiting for an American response The Russian gem e is clear: military and dip channels; if one doesn’t work they’ll try the other.   Iran, Hezbollah, Assad and Russia: an axis of evil. 
         http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=17157
         http://www.inss.org.il/index.aspx?id=4538&articleid=12360
         http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/john-hannah-russias-middle-east-offensive/
         http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Report-Syrian-army-claims-it-shot-down-Israeli-warplane-drone-467600
         http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4853140,00.html
Prof. Eyal Zisser is the Vice Rector of Tel Aviv University and the holder of The Yona and Dina Ettinger Chair in Contemporary History of the Middle East. He was the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities 2010-2015, the Director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies 2007-2010 and the Head of the Department of Middle Eastern and African History. Prof. Zisser wrote extensively on the history and the modern politics of Syria and Lebanon and the Arab-Israeli conflict.  Prof. Zisser received his Ph.D. from Tel Aviv University. He was a visiting professor in Cornell University and a visiting research fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Thursday  15 September 2016 / Hour 3, Block C: Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack, in re:  US Air Force has a monopoly contract with ULA; SpaceX sued and forced SpaceX to be able to bid on contracts. Asked an AF official this week if the SpaceX accident would affect bidding? No.  Total transparency. Also, looking at the launch pad: the damage was modest and repairable. This is rocket engineering and sometimes things go wrong.  . . . Competitors try to jump in and cause trouble, but so what?  SpaceX generally sells to big satellite companies and those are not unhappy. 
Russian ran out of money and will reduce their crews; cannot afford thrice-a-year launches to resupply, so will reduce crew to two. US is no longer buying use of Russian cargo capsule, so reduction of income flow.   
Chines today launched TianGong-2 (Heavenly Palace; 天宫二号) test module: manned space research. A 30-day mission soon, then test docking, then another mission in a year, lay ground for full-sized launch in 2020. 
Charles Bolton hesitates: If you talk abt launch vehicles, I think our responsibility is to do what normal people can't, to wit, big [developments].  Absurd – small co’s put together their launches in a tenth of the time for a tenth of the cost. He’ll be gone soon.   NASA has been old and slow for four decades.  A Congressman wants to add regulations to enforce an intl space treaty that in itself is horrid. 
Thursday  15 September 2016 / Hour 3, Block D:  Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack, in re:  Breakup of a comet, watched on  Hubble over days, made a movie: see material flying away from the comet.  Another cool Hubble photo.
Gaia launched two years ago; provide extremely precise location data for more than a billions stars in the Milky Way – parallax. With locations can get distances, then map the galaxy better. Any star, nebula, supernova: knowing precise distance and location is critical. Seems that the Milky Way is much bigger than we thought.
New Horizons; Pluto’s largest moon, Sharon, is getting tainted by Pluto (looks like rust). Methane gas escaping from Pluto gets trapped by Sharon’s atmosphere, freezes in winter and settles at the pole. Ultraviolet transforms it into  [something rust-colored].   
Mars: Phobosians?  Nyet. Fossilized rivers in the Arabia Terra region.  Now also find lakes and streams from a billion ears after we thought it had all dried up.
..  ..  .. 
New evidence of lakes and streams in Mars’ recent past   Using data from three different orbiters, scientists have mapped out a region of lakes and streams on Mars that appear to have contained liquid water a billion years after the red planet is believed to have dried up.
To bracket the time period when the fresh shallow valleys in Arabia Terra formed, scientists started with age estimates for 22 impact craters in the area. They assessed whether or not the valleys carved into the blankets of surrounding debris ejected from the craters, as an indicator of whether the valleys are older or younger than the craters. They concluded that this fairly wet period on Mars likely occurred between two and three billion years ago, long after it is generally thought that most of Mars’ original atmosphere had been lost and most of the remaining water on the planet had frozen.
The characteristics of the valleys support the interpretation that the climate was cold: “The rate at which water flowed through these valleys is consistent with runoff from melting snow,” Wilson said, “These weren’t rushing rivers. They have simple drainage patterns and did not form deep or complex systems like the ancient valley networks from early Mars.”
This region, Arabia Terra, is the same area where scientists have found fossilized rivers.  http://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/new-evi...
Photo on the site—This map of an area within the Arabia Terra region on Mars shows where hydrologic modeling predicts locations of depressions that would have been lakes (black), overlaid with a map of the preserved valleys (blue lines, with width exaggerated for recognition) that would have been streams.
The area today holds numerous features called "fresh shallow valleys." Research findings in 2016 interpret the fresh shallow valleys as evidence for flows of liquid water that occurred several hundred million years -- up to about a billion years -- after the ancient lakes and streams previously documented on Mars.
Most of the fresh shallow valleys in this northern portion of Arabia Terra terminate at the margins of model-predicted submerged basins, consistent with an interpretation of flows into lakes and out of lakes. Some valley segments connect to form longer systems, consistent with connections forged by flowing water between interspersed lakes. In the area mapped here, for example, valleys connect basin "A" to basin "B," and basin B to "Heart Lake," each lower in elevation in that chain. Detail of the valley interpreted as the northward outflow channel from basin B can be seen in the image at PIA20837. Relative topography of the region is mapped at PIA20838.)
  
Hour Four
Thursday  15 September 2016 / Hour 4, Block A: Chasing the Last Laugh: Mark Twain's Raucous and Redemptive Round-the-World Comedy Tour, by Richard Zacks (1 of 4)
Mark Twain to Wall Street to beg for funding, with Fred Hall, head of Twain’s publishing company.
Thursday  15 September 2016 / Hour 4, Block B:  Chasing the Last Laugh: Mark Twain's Raucous and Redemptive Round-the-World Comedy Tour, by Richard Zacks (2 of 4)
Thursday  15 September 2016 / Hour 4, Block C: Chasing the Last Laugh: Mark Twain's Raucous and Redemptive Round-the-World Comedy Tour, by Richard Zacks (3 of 4)
Thursday  15 September 2016 / Hour 4, Block D:  Chasing the Last Laugh: Mark Twain's Raucous and Redemptive Round-the-World Comedy Tour, by Richard Zacks (4 of 4)
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