Photo, left: Cuba's Ladies in White walking home peacefully from Sunday Mass. See  Hour 2, Block A,  Mary Anastasia O'Grady, WSJ, on Cuban dissidents beg to see the Pope. 
On the morning of March 18, 2003, Cuban officials stormed the homes of 75 dissidents on the grounds that they were undermining the authority of the government by accepting aid from the U.S. government. Among the 75 arrested, 29 were independent journalists who were simply exercising their human right to freedom of expression. The rest of the arrested citizens were librarians and human rights activists who were members of a peaceful campaign, called the Varela Project. that demands greater rights and freedoms for Cuban citizens.1 The dissidents were convicted of breaching Article 91 of the Penal Code, as well as Law 88, for allegedly “jeopardizing the independence of their country.” The average sentence handed out to these peaceful protestors was between 6-28 years.

In response to the arrest of their loved ones, spouses and relatives created a counter-movement against the government. Ever since two weeks after the 2003 crackdown, these “Ladies in White," (Damas de Blanco) have attended Mass every Sunday, wearing only white clothing to convey their wish for peace and justice. The international community has responded to this peaceful protest with positive encouragement, such as awarding the women the European Union’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 2005.  --by Rachel Segal, on UMich site [http://sitemaker.umich.edu/infosurgentscuba/black_spring_]
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-Host: Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal Editorial Board & host of Opinion Journal on WSJ Video.
 
Hour One
Thursday  24 September 2015 / Hour 1, Block A:  Mary Kissel, in re: The Fed - "dovish is an unerstatement" - where Janet Yellin is tryng to smooth ruffled feathers overseas and say, Oh dont worry, it'll be all right.  Not a cheering vista.
Thursday  24 September 2015 / Hour 1, Block B: Douglas Rivers, Hoover senior Fellow & via Real Clear Politics; in re: Initially, Trump took his support from lower half of the GOP field, Santorum, Cruz, Huckabee.   Voters not strongly affiliated with their candidate? Not, since everyone's casting about at this stage. The Trump coalition looks not at all like a typical GOP coalition. Opposed to immigration reform, but more moderate than most Republicans.  Trump drew votes not from Bush.  Who Are Trump's Supporters? When Donald Trump announced he was running for president on June 16, the idea seemed faintly ridiculous. The Washington Post said that he faced “an uphill battle to be taken seriously by his rivals, political watchers and the media.
Thursday  24 September 2015 / Hour 1, Block C: Michael Auslin, American Enterprise Institute, Director of Japan Studies; in re: A tale f two china: one is somewhat rising, still in foreign and security arenas in Asia, bldg islands in the sea; coercing neighbors; big Soviet-style mil parades. People now understand the reality of the China who's strong but not cooperative, The other china is heading into significant headwinds, at best; already in economic stagnation, crackdown on civil society and unstable. The Obama Adm is still trying to ignore even the first China – let's be nice. The mutual nonaggression pact between this White House and Beijing is a CYA deal for Obama, who's accomplished naught during his eight years. Leaving the Washington with the world in a series of disasters.  "Strategic partnership" – not. I think that the right kind of president in 2017 could return the world to an equilibrium. Moscow and Beijing have taken the measure of Pres Obama and seen that he does nothing & they can walk over him – he's in 'way over his head.  Over history, Russia and China have seen each other as not friends.  I think there'll be a paradigm shift in our thinking: from a strong-China fear to a weak-China fear.  We do need a US leader who speaks directly to Chinese people, esp Chinese elites.  We need to think clearly about what kind of stability we want to see.  China is a dictatorship that's misled people for years; some in the Congress see that.  . . . Sen Rubio.
Sino-U.S. Cyber Pact Reveals Failure of U.S.-China Policy If Barack Obama signs a landmark cyberspace agreement with visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping this week in Washington, D.C., it will be hailed as evidence that Beijing and Washington can forge an adult, working relationship on a critical security issue. In reality, the very need to negotiate such a pact reveals the failure of America’s decades-long China policy and the inability of the U.S. government to understand China’s evolving threat to U.S. interests.
Step back from any discussion of the specifics of such an agreement. Consider instead the state of relations that must hold between two nations for their top leadership to even contemplate a pact that, in the words of the New York Times, would embrace “a commitment by each country that it will not be the first to use cyber weapons to cripple other’s critical infrastructure during peacetime …” Not wartime, mind you, but peacetime. Why should such an issue even need to be addressed between two nations that had any type of working relationship based on trust? Note, too, the implications of . . . [more]                      
Thursday  24 September 2015 / Hour 1, Block D:  Eli Lake, BloombergView, in re:  Did the Pentagon skew figures on ISIS intell? Info from "the best": sigint, drones.  How're we doing?  Controversial to the pint of people being at risk.  Devin Nunes quotation.  "Whistleblowers" -  CENTCOM analysts say their reports have been altered to mask the fact that much of the last year's bombing vs ISIS has been ineffective.  ISIS command and control is growing and strengthening. ["Any fool can see that we're losing this."]  The Ofc of the DNI may do its own investigation + lots of Hose and Senate Committees looking, And beyond the ISIS war: Congressman Nunes has identified the possibility of intell being denied as far as 2012, with the same CENTCOM. A lot of such stories are bubbling up: after 2011 Pres Obama had a narrative: "We've killed bin Ladin and now the war on terror is over" – but of course it isn't.  Last week, DIA chief said he's not sure that Iraq and Syria will continue to exist as states.  Investigations Into Islamic State Intel Scandal Expand
 
Hour Two
Thursday  24 September 2015 / Hour 2, Block A:  Mary Anastasia O'Grady, WSJ, in re: Cuban dissidents beg to see the Pope.
Thursday  24 September 2015 / Hour 2, Block B: John Tamny, Forbes.com & RealClearPolitics, in re: Mad Men's Early Struggles Mock the Obnoxious Conceit that Is Antitrust  Mad Men was as usual up for all the major Emmy awards last night in keeping with its status as one of television's greatest achievements.  What's less known is that Mad Men's creator was rejected for eight years before the show found a home at AMC, The Sopranos nearly died in the cradle too, as did Breaking Bad.  Antitrust gnats laughably presume to see into the future, but as the frequent fallibility of great entertainment minds remind us, the future is very difficult to know. 
Thursday  24 September 2015 / Hour 2, Block C:  Lou Ann Hammond, Driving the Nation.com, in re:  . . . a dynometer goes only on the back tires; CARB tricked the car. a VW, into thinking it was in the real world (where VW emissions are illegally high – 40X higher) instead of being tested in a lab (where VW had programmed the car to be good, and release only the legal amount of emission).  Now every single one of the cars has to be returned to mfr for a fix, which hasn't yet been figured out; and then the owner has to reregister the car. [A perfect ending to a tale of a car factory founded by Schicklgruber.—ed.]
CARB clarifies if you may sell your used Volkswagen diesel vehicle on Driving the Nation  [Dave Clegern, California Air Resources Board {CARB} spokesman, spoke with Lou Ann Hammond, CEO, Driving the Nation, today.] I asked Clegern if the diesels on the road right now were in compliance and if they could be sold as used in California. Clegern said that if you own a diesel car right now you can sell it.
The catch comes once Volkswagen and CARB have figured out the fix to bring the diesel car into compliance with CARB diesel regulations. You have six months to get the fix and register your car. If after six months you haven’t registered your car, DMV will tag your car. After that, you cannot register your car if you have not taken it into the dealership to have it fixed. Will it take only one fix or will there be multiple fixes? Will the fix change your fuel economy? What will the audit/smog check look like in the future?
Thursday  24 September 2015 / Hour 2, Block D: Patrick Tucker, DefenseOne, in re:  White House: No Cyber Attack Pact with China, ror Now, The Next Wave of Cyberattacks Won’t Steal Data — They’ll Change It, Hacking Critical Infrastructure: A How-To Guide
 
Hour Three
Thursday  24 September 2015 / Hour 3, Block A:  Tyler Rogoway, FoxtrotAlpha, in re: Su-25 Frogfoots and Su-24 Fencers Arrive at Russia's Burgeoning Syrian Base. Perilous Puzzle: Su-30SM Fighter Jets Appear at Russia's Growing Base in Syria
Thursday  24 September 2015 / Hour 3, Block B: Tyler Rogoway, FoxtrotAlpha, in re: Intense Videos from Centar 2015, Russia's Largest Military Exercise ; Russian Fighter Jets Are in Syria, Air Force Boss Wants Raptor Base in Europe
Thursday  24 September 2015 / Hour 3, Block C: Robert Zimmerman, behind the black, in re: Global warming advocates call for the prosecution of scientists who disagree with them  Fascists: Twenty global warming scientists have written a public letter to President Obama demanding he prosecute those who challenge their claim that humans are causing the climate to warm. We appreciate that you are making aggressive and imaginative use of the limited tools available to you in the face of a recalcitrant Congress. One additional tool – recently proposed by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse – is a RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) investigation of corporations and other organizations that have knowingly deceived the American people about the risks of climate change, as a means to forestall America’s response to climate change.
The very fact that these global warming scientists find it necessary to demand their opponents be prosecuted proves that their claims are invalid. If they had the facts on their side, there would be no need for them to call for the government to prosecute and possibly imprison those who disagree with them. They could simply cite the facts, using a willing press to spread the news, and the opposition of this small minority of skeptics would make little difference. The public would pay the skeptics no mind. The public however is not stupid and has been following this story with great interest. They might not be convinced that the skeptics are right, but the public is also very doubtful about the claims of the global warming advocates. Instead, the public is aware that the science of the climate is very uncertain, and that more facts are required before they will be convinced about anything. What this letter does prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, is that many important members of the global warming community are downright fascists, and do not believe in freedom and the first amendment.
Thursday  24 September 2015 / Hour 3, Block D:   Eric Tingwall, Car & Driver, in re: Diesel Cheating Scandal Claiming Top Engineers at VW ; Firms Trip Over One Another Filing Class-Action Lawsuits against VW ; Volkswagen Group CEO Resigns in Wake of Diesel Emissions Scandal ;  Volkswagen Offering Payments to US Dealers in Wake of Diesel Emissions Scandal  ; The VW Diesel Scandal Is Much Worse Than a Recall — It’s Outright Deceit
 
Hour Four
Thursday  24 September 2015 / Hour 4, Block A: Last Man Off: A True Story of Disaster and Survival on the Antarctic Seas, by Matt Lewis (1 of 4)
An Amazon Best Book of May 2015: In 1998, a young Scotsman named Matt Lewis sought to boost to his budding career as a marine biologist by securing a position as the "scientific observer" on a fishing vessel. Though he would be considered an officer, his role would be limited and relatively tame compared to the rest of the crews’: documenting wildlife the boat encountered, while also keeping notes on the crew’s adherence to fishing regulations. A coin flip landed him aboard the Sudur Havid, a South African boat bound for the outer waters of Antarctica’s frigid and tempestuous Southern Ocean. Even though his novice eyes, Lewis was immediately struck by its apparent unreadiness, including a dearth of adequate boots and survival suits, and a crew seemingly unprepared for work in the harsh polar environment.
His misgivings were soon realized. As winds rose and whipped the seas into a ship-tossing frenzy, the fuel- and fish-heavy boat listed, taking on water. A disastrous and inexplicable chain of decisions--starting with the Sudur Havid’s chief officers and running down through the ship’s engineers and some of the crew--doomed the ship, putting Lewis in the unlikely position of organizing the frantic evacuation. These are not spoilers--Lewis’s narrative is rich with detail, putting readers in the thick of the action as the panic-struck men stuff themselves into three inadequate rafts and embark on a nightmarish struggle on the open ocean. Last Man Off is a tale of survival, not an adventure story; and while the particulars are often grim and the outcome unhappy, Lewis's book is a sort of catharsis, a compelling testimonial to his experience and the ones that didn’t return. --Jon Foro
Thursday  24 September 2015 / Hour 4, Block B: Last Man Off: A True Story of Disaster and Survival on the Antarctic Seas, by Matt Lewis (2 of 4)
Thursday  24 September 2015 / Hour 4, Block C: Last Man Off: A True Story of Disaster and Survival on the Antarctic Seas, by Matt Lewis (3 of 4)
Thursday  24 September 2015 / Hour 4, Block D: Last Man Off: A True Story of Disaster and Survival on the Antarctic Seas, by Matt Lewis (4 of 4)