Photo, above: Windows 98 on an IBM PC 5150.png   See Hour 1, Block D, Francis Rose of Federal News Radio, where it's mentioned that the IRS is still using Windows 98 in some of its work.  Lost emails? Jettisoned hard drives?  No problem. 

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Co-hosts: Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal editorial board & host of OpinionJournal.com. Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents.

Hour One

Thursday  19 June 2014 / Hour 1, Block A:   Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review & Pirates fan, in re:   populism emerging outside of Beltway: moderate; the people want results.  You're either one of us or you're part of Washington; if the latter, you'll be thrown out. Unfortunately, the media haven’t caught up with this. at Core, a personal, economic concern combined with frustration Neither party satisfies.  Look at Charlie Rangel. who’s about to go through what Eric Cantor just did.  He's too Washington Consider Lindsay Graham, won handily because he's a great retail politician and a year ago began to spend almost all his time in South Carolina. He's in touch with local populism.  It's not anti-incumbency; it's anti-Washington.  Mrs Clinton's book tour.  I'm shocked that she's running like this – I was n her campaign bust from 2007 till the day she stepped out of the race. One Mrs Clinton began in Iowa: all Washington and elitism; heard handed to her. After 17 primaries, she ran as a populist, someone connected to her blue-collar roots.  Then she one the votes in he primary process but had lost the delegates. Now she's again running as disconnected from America.

Thursday  19 June 2014 / Hour 1, Block B:    Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal editorial board, in re: Kevin McCarthy’s California Coast. Fred Kagan says thousands of advisors are needed in Iraq.  However, many Sunnis are not extremist, would be glad to work with the US if the US showed any real support.  red knows whereof he speaks, having served there, worked with Petraeus.  President said 300 – cannot be serious.  All Iraq is divided in three parts: Kurds in te north, Shi'a in the south, Sunni part is hard to define.  Fred: now we have no leverage , having called on Maliki to leave. "Thousands of advisors" is the term from the disaster called Vietnam.  President probably calling for containment, doesn’t ant to win. Fear: Iran will control a large part of the country. "Do you trust Iran?"  Fred's response is to burst out with a hysterical laugh.  Iraq is now in civil war; this tunnel has no exit. 

Thursday  19 June 2014 / Hour 1, Block C: David M Drucker, Washington Examiner Sr Congressional correspondent,  & Bill Whalen, Hoover Institution, in re: What a Californian as Republican House Majority Leader does for the Golden State's clout.  hoover.org/research/new-m…  Steve Scalise is not Jim Jordan; is a conservative pragmatist.

Thursday  19 June 2014 / Hour 1, Block D: Francis Rose, Federal News Radio, in re: Dan Henniger at WSJ thinks the loss of Lois Lerner's many lost emails and deep-sixed hard drives are worse than Watergate.  Francis: Destroying busted hard drives is standard, esp at IRS, which has sensitive information.  As for loosing everything from 2009 to 2011 – what happened to the server on which all that lived?  What’s the status of IRS record-keeping?  IRS is supposed to keep everything.  The IRS is using Windows 98!  The Feds can’t handle IT.  Remember Cobol?  DoD has an important financial management record on Cobol. DoD has never been audited!  The Have Robert Goddard's rocket. 

Hour Two

Thursday  19 June 2014 / Hour 2, Block A: Max Boot, military historian,  & authors, Invisible Armies, in re:  Iran and Iraq. Children kidnapped in Israel.   Forces needed in Iraq?  A reasonable figure would be roughly 5,000 personnel including all levels.  Three hundred isn’t enough to change momentum of a country in collapse. Gen Petraeus: however badly we got in, let's not get out that badly.   Iran has been our most determined enemy for thirty years, even has links to ISIS.  We need to decrease,  not increase, Iranian influence in Iraq.  Will tear the country apart. Yes, spillover from Syria – a double dereliction by US, we've left a power vacuum,, the tide of extremism has engulfed two countries. Look at Turkey, Saudi, Kuwait. Yes, we saw this coming n Fallujah, but this Administration did nothing (again). We should have acted far sooner.  Also talk about Iran sending advisors at the same time as the US is. Like the US working with Nazis vs the USSR.  Assad dropping barrel bombs on Syrian civilians.   Suleimani, IRGC leader, in Baghdad pledges to protect Shia holy sites – Quds Force has deployed troops to Iraq.   We should not be contemplating coordination with the IRGC; must curb, expose, Iranian influence. 

Thursday  19 June 2014 / Hour 2, Block B:. Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:  five rockets fired by Hamas from Gaza into Israel.  Hamas kidnapped three Israeli teenagers.  Same Hamas the PA married, and the State Dept blessed.  US designate Hamas as a terrorist organization but closes its eyes to these events.  Clear that high-level Hamas officials authorized the abduction: the 65th attempt since 2013.  . . .  Abbas's wife was in an Israeli hospital lsast week. Europeans are so careless with facts. Were seeing a shift in the Middle East that will carry on for generations. Assad is issuing new ID cards – the refugees will never return.  Abbas: "We hope the missing Israeli teens will be found alive."  -- what a cynic. 

Thursday  19 June 2014 / Hour 2, Block C: Eli Groner, Israeli Minister for Economic Affairs to the United States, in re:   before the Hamas-PA marriage, the list of goals was to coordinate on salaries, Rafaq border, and presidential and legislative elections.  From the moment that Fatah decided to align with Hamas, what was out was peace with Israel: Hamas is an unreformed terrorist organization.  Israel cannot cooperate with a Hamas-backed Palestinian government – front office or back office.  . . .  Even two people sitting down to talk about apolitical business, Israel people start with discussion of these crises, esp the abduction of three children.   Same as the US followed 9/11 by tracking the evildoers to the source; Israel needs to do the same: terrorists came from Palestinian areas and we know who did it.  We hold Abbas responsible.  Prisoner swap? We value human life very highly; have made painful exchanges before, but there 's also a lot of debate over his.  Is the West Bank population turning against the Hamas action?  Question needs to be answered over time. A lot of innocent Palestinians in the West Bank are suffering – we didn’t let any workers in to Israel because fo the kidnapping, so both Palestinians and Israelis suffered. These are horrible times, painful decision, many people get punished. I hope this will cause resentment among

Thursday  19 June 2014 / Hour 2, Block D: Kenneth M. Pollack, Brookings, in re:  Iraq, Iran, the Gulf perspective. . . .  Maliki is what has made ISIS invasion possible.  Can he reverse course?  Sceptical.  Also, difficult to remove him from power.  Civil war in Iraq:  must deal with the cutthroat – but also with Teheran? He looks like Iran's viceroy. however, he dislikes the Iranians, who reciprocate it, They’ve tried twice to gt rid of him and failed. Now he's a in a hot mess and looking for help wherever he can get it.    Getting help from Iran is a lot like getting help from the Mafia. Suleimani is alredy in Baghdad. Three hundred US advisors?  Ha-ha.  We’ve squandered and surrendered all our power there.

Hour Three

Thursday  19 June 2014 / Hour 3, Block A: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Syia crisis spills over into all its neighbors; the Shi'a Crescent of yor e; the massive demographic shifts under way now. Densely populated areas in Syria are being repopulated. Sunni refugees will never be allowed back as Abbas has issued new ID cards.  Sunnis in Lebanon undermine Hezbollah, Palestinians in Jordan – now emigrating.  Iran has been converting Sunni to Shi'a in Syria – tashayu – and Saudis in there fighting that.  Mr Kerry refers longwindedly to Iraq while working with Iran, a predator state working for decades to have nuclear weapons and threatening absolutely all neighbors, who are justifiably terrified.  Saudis and Turkey helping ISIS. This crisis in Iraq didn't begin two weeks ago. The driving force for all this is Iran. Teheran is the power; can’t eliminate the possibility that the kidnapping was done by Iranian ops.  Suleimani.  Iran's commitment ot protect holy sites with IRGC.   PM Cameron is very concerned about UK fighters in Syria (said to be 400; and 800 Frenchmen) – returning to home in Europe to attack.  Also threat of ISIS in Europe. Several countries are beginning to wake up ISIS has excellent social media – not unsophisticated Australia has 300 guy s fighting in  Syria.  Sixty-minute films of people being beheaded; intended to terrorize people, including Western Europe.  These are modern men using advanced tools to get their way.  Iran and ISIS occasionally have overlapping interests. We can’t impose Western thinking, need to understand them.

Thursday  19 June 2014 / Hour 3, Block B: Jonathan Speyer, Senior Research Fellow at the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center; in re: Peshmerga pushing to protect the frontline of Kurdistan.  Moved into Kirkuk following Iraqi armed forces collapse. Don’t want to go on offensive vs ISIS; will merely defend their own areas, guard the gains they’ve made., not interest in being drawn into a larger war.  Bagdad has blocked a Kurdish declaration of  independence;  they have a de facto state larger than the island of Great Britain and can defend. Ninety-five years after Versailles broke their heart: close to sovereignty in n Iraq and in three enclaves in Syria.  Kurds are remarkably pragmatic. Will want to include Iranian Kurds, but it's not all or nothing, so will take what they can, then build later.  ISIS will not turn toward Jordan right now: Jordan has a small but real army loyal to the king and Western-equipped.  Will ISIS enter Baghdad? probably first surround and try to control water and electricity for a siege, but it’s a Shi'a city. Cannot estimate timelines; unlikely to be resolved with Iraq in the same shae as during our lifetimes; years, not months. The 300 American advisors:  to boost al Maliki's forces?  Not an exemplary democratic govt bbut entereing a war on the side of the Shi'a.

Thursday  19 June 2014 / Hour 3, Block C:  Daniel Henninger, WSJ, in re:

Thursday  19 June 2014 / Hour 3, Block D:  Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re:

Hour Four

Thursday  19 June 2014 / Hour 4, Block A:  Mary Anastasia O'Grady, Wall Street Journal, in re: Middle-Class Brazilians Are in No Mood to Party

Thursday  19 June 2014 / Hour 4, Block B:  John Markoff,  NYT, in re: Japanese Team Dominates Competition to Create Generation of Rescue Robots The Darpa Robotics Challenge is more than a showcase for a new generation of robots. It is also an attempt by the federal government to push technology forward, to create machines that can perform dangerous tasks in humans’ place.

Thursday  19 June 2014 / Hour 4, Block C:  Richard A Epstein, Hoover Institution, Chicago Law, in re: “Rewriting the First Amendment,” where Richard Epstein argues, “Democrats are pushing a proposal to throttle the political speech of their opponents.”   The creation of wealth in the United States is now held hostage by politics. So wealthy people have thrown themselves into the political arena largely for self-defense. Their activities should, of course, be condemned when they seek special breaks that result in implicit wealth transfers to themselves. But make no mistake about it: today, progressives are on the march. Their proposed amendment is intended to neutralize their opponents in order to promote their own agenda of extensive regulation and ever-greater transfer payments . . .  (1 of 2)

Thursday  19 June 2014 / Hour 4, Block D:   Richard A Epstein, Hoover Institution, Chicago Law, in re: “Rewriting the First Amendment,” where Richard Epstein argues, “Democrats are pushing a proposal to throttle the political speech of their opponents.”   The creation of wealth in the United States is now held hostage by politics. So wealthy people have thrown themselves into the political arena largely for self-defense. Their activities should, of course, be condemned when they seek special breaks that result in implicit wealth transfers to themselves. But make no mistake about it: today, progressives are on the march. Their proposed amendment is intended to neutralize their opponents in order to promote their own agenda of extensive regulation and ever-greater transfer payments . . .  (2 of 2)

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