Thursday 30 August 2018
Caution — beware plummeting Turkish liras under the mad stewardship of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Photo: 5000 Turkish Lira Reverse.
The currency has been out of luck for years; the old Turkish banknotes reached such stellar proportions as twenty million and more for a modest purchase. After a decade of hyperinflation, six zeroes were dropped and in 2005 the old twenty million (yirmi milyon turk lirasi) became twenty.
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts: Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal, and Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents
Hour One
Thursday 30 August 2018 / Hour 1, Block A: Jeff Bliss, Pacific Watch, in re: Getting klunked in the head by a surfboard south of Huntington Beach; also general Cali round-up, Gavin Newsome: universal healthcare for illegal immigrants. . . . SFO (airport): cabbies have no access to a WC, so the taxi access ramps have become privies. Noxious! Drugs rampant around the city.
Thursday 30 August 2018 / Hour 1, Block B: Henry M Miller, Hoover, in re: Vaccines; thousands of Russian trolls an bots constantly promulgate anti-vaccine material (and some times pro-, to look credible). Goal is to sow discord in the US. “It’s only elites who get clean vaccines,” to alarm abt income inequality. Also: clickbait, which brings in malware. Further, an attack on the health and well-being of Americans, to perhaps to reinstate once-obliterated maladies such as whooping cough, measles, others Work in tandem with US NGOs. This year, 41,000 cases of measles in Europe, massively more than previously. Italy has lifted the legally-approved requirement that all children be vaccinated – expect a disaster. Discredited fraudulent 1998 paper claims a link between mumps/measles/rubella vaccine and autism, Wholly discredited. Legally-approved and -prescribed opiods
Thursday 30 August 2018 / Hour 1, Block C: James Bolt & Peter Gregory, The Young IPA Podcast (Institute for Public Affairs), Melbourne, Australia, in re: A “spill”: you (politically) get rid of your leader. Oh and thirty; motion put forward, dee-fay-ted. . . . Turnbull. Optimistic that the new PM, Scott Morrison, will be good. . . . Labour politics: we don't agree with them, but they’re not socialist – not Elizabeth Warren. We’ve had 26 years of uninterrupted growth, next election will turn on personality. . . . Scott Morrison: a Pentecostal Christian. Faith in Australian politics usu isn't a big thing. Also: WWE in October at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday 6 October.
Thursday 30 August 2018 / Hour 1, Block D: Francis Rose, Government Matters, WJLA; in re: The VA : Feds mishandle VA procedures. Morale: President is seeking to postpone/cancel the federal raise next year. Negotiation is between the White House and Congress, where Congress always has the upper hand. Already has a 1.9% increase budgeted for the federal workforce . We have more than two million federal workers. President was derisive of the federal workforce during his campaign, so this is good politics.
Hour Two
Thursday 30 August 2018 / Hour 2, Block A: Dennis Ross, Washington Institute, in re: Palestinians. Trump Adm is cancelling $200 million in annual funding to the PA. UMRWA has dealt w Palestinian refugees in a way the UN has dealt with none other. Meanwhile, Gaza is in near-catastrophic condition: almost no electricity, very very limited power; Ashkelon power plant closed often. UNRWA hires 13,000 Gazans and pays for schools. If you take the money from UNRWA and don't apply it to other activities, big problem. I suggest putting it into a different mechanism to support Palestinians. Anent peace negotiations, and negotiations in Gaza? Last thin you want is for people to feel so desperate they have nothing to lose. Need electricity, water, and sewerage. Milodnov(?) has raised funds sensibly, is productive. Do Gazans see aid as a right, not as a generous gesture from the US? Aid become habituating, which makes it easy to vilify the Trump Adm, on the street. Does PA use Qatari aid as a band-aid? Probably. Implication is that it’ll also accept a Qatari agenda – which supports Hamas.
· https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/08/29/unrwa-israel-palestine-trump-zilber/#
· https://aijac.org.au/australia-israel-review/dennis-ross-on-the-us-peace...
· https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/a-path-forward-...
· https://www.npr.org/2018/04/30/606990263/dennis-ross-comments-on-pompeos...
· https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/08/29/unrwa-israel-palestine-trump-zilber/
· https://www.timesofisrael.com/as-abbas-appears-to-soften-peace-demands-p...
Ambassador Dennis Ross is counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Prior to returning to the Institute in 2011, 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.
Thursday 30 August 2018 / Hour 2, Block B: Blaise Misztal, Bipartisan Policy Center director, in re: Turkey, and future of Syra, esp Idlib Province. AS Russian and Syrian foreces amss for an assault on Idlib, what will happen to civilians. Erdogan probably will trade Idlib to Russia and Iran, in exchange for Russian resistance to sanctions on Turkey, and even Iran. When Zarif paid a surprise visit to Turkey this week, what did they discuss? This crisis, and establishing economic benefit to Turkey. The disastrous trajectory of the lira. Turkish GDP has tripled, esp to the previously-impoverished. Erdogan points to the US as the evil foreign power that’s created this meltdown. Where men shave the sides of hteir head and leave the top long, called “an American shave”; Turkish barbers now refuse to do it.
· http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/dr-aykan-erdemir-the-fallout-of... bailout/
· https://www.cfr.org/blog/we-wanted-turkey-be-partner-it-was-never-going-...
· https://www.cfr.org/article/west-must-face-reality-turkey
· https://www.axios.com/turkeys-economic-woes-could-spell-trouble-for-syri...
· https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-turkey-currency/...
· https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/30/turkish-lira-sinks-after-reports-that-a-...
Blaise Misztal is the director of BPC’s national security program. He previously served as the project’s associate director and senior policy analyst. At BPC, Misztal has researched a variety national security issues, including Iran and its nuclear program, Turkey, cybersecurity, stabilizing fragile states, and public diplomacy in the 21st century. He has testified before Congress and published op-eds in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, The New Republic, and Roll Call.
Thursday 30 August 2018 / Hour 2, Block C: Hillel Neuer, UN Watch, in re: The UN, UNRWA. The function of UN refugee work is to help refugees establish themselves and become healthy, and prosper. UNRWA has done exactly the opposite for Palestinians, who've been trapped for 70 years. Palestinians living in Jordan for generations are called by UNRWA “refugees,” although no other peoples on Earth have been labelled as refugees by the UN after a generation of living elsewhere. Further, Palestinians living in the West Bank are also called refugees – but they're living in Palestine. Why this appellati0n? A Swiss called UNRWA “not part of the solution but part of the problem” – and was threatened with having his seat on the Security Council denied in the next election. There are: a humanitarian issue and a political issue. Palestinians need to take responsibility for their own future —and deserve to have that. The problem is that UNRWA is politicizing : the home of Palestinians is not Palestine but Israel. When internati0nals pressure Israel to allow tons and tons of cement into Gaza to bld schools and hospitals, and it does so, Hamas then uses the cement to bld terrorist tunnels.. We should not be surprised at that, since Hamas teaches children almost from birth that their true home is the land that the Israelis have stolen, UNRWA is about creating a deeply anti-Israeli narrative, one engendered by Arab states in the late 1940s. US aid to UNRWA is now suspended. Big story in Foreign Policy earlier: leaked emails from Jared Kushner about his wanting to dismantle UNRWA, Ha’aretz: These reports abt the US are not true.
● https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/unrwa-historic-decision/
● https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2018/08/285428.htm
● http://www.defenddemocracy.org/content/uploads/documents/FDD-Summit-Amba...
● https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/iran-goes-to-uns-highe...
Hillel Neuer is the Executive Director of United Nations Watch, a human rights group based in Geneva, Switzerland. The Tribune de Genève described Neuer as a human rights activist who is “feared and dreaded” by the world’s dictatorships. He chairs the annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights, a gathering of dissidents organized by 25 NGOs, and was recently awarded an honorary Doctorate of Laws from McGill University. In 2016, the City of Chicago declared a “Hillel Neuer Day” in honor of his human rights work. Neuer has published widely on international law and human rights, and has appeared in debates on CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera. Prior to UN Watch, as a litigation associate at the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, Neuer was cited by the U.S. Federal Court for the high quality of his pro bono advocacy. He holds four degrees in law and politics, and is a member of the New York Bar.
Thursday 30 August 2018 / Hour 2, Block D: Jonathan Schanzer, FDD, in re: Syria, Iran, and the FDD Summit in Washington. The anarchy of Syria is the curse the Levant and will be for the century – damaged lives of millions, in Syria, Europe, the US. Idlib Province: we’re watching a battle now looming in Idlib, one the of te last territories not controlled by Assad, esp on the Med coast. The power controlling the jihadi forces is Turkey; ergo, a clash of regional powers, where Iran and Syria are about to go to war with Turkey (via proxies). A terrible time for Turkey, esp as the lira tanks. When Zarif just went to visit Erdogan, must have spoken of the US sancrions coming into force in November; Iran, of course, has a history of evading sanctions. Both have antipathy for Trump, but are at loggerheads. Turkey and Iran are carving up the map. Putin is playing a masterful game – outreach to Israel, Iran, Turkey; is the power broker in the Levant. He most wants to control the air space and poke a finger in the eye of the US. Europe unhappy about exiting the JCPOA but the major corporations have been leaving, with almost none left today. Very bleak for mullahs. I think we're beginning to see the dam break
● https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/irans-response-...
● http://www.defenddemocracy.org/content/uploads/documents/FDD-Summit-Bria...
● https://www.timesofisrael.com/france-says-iran-cant-avoid-talks-on-missi...
● https://www.wsj.com/articles/you-can-run-but-you-cant-hide-from-iran-san...
● https://www.wsj.com/articles/expose-the-palestinian-refugee-scam-1530833146
Since joining the FDD in February 2010, Dr. Schanzer has been singularly focussed on ensuring that FDD delivers not only accurate and timely research, but also research that is useful to decision makers inside the Beltway, across America, and around the world. Dr. Schanzer brings solid scholarship and public policy credentials to his job of overseeing FDD's research. He 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. A former research Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Dr. Schanzer has studied Middle East history in four countries. He earned his Ph.D. from King's College London, where he wrote his dissertation on the U.S. Congress and its efforts to combat terrorism in the 20th century.
Hour Three
Thursday 30 August 2018 / Hour 3, Block A: Michael Rubin, AEI, in re: Iran. Jeremy Corbyn keeps making textbook anti-Jewish statements, British Parliament: he normalizes hatred. Recently said one c9uldn;t be both a British citizen and a Zionist, Laid a wreathe at the Tunisian monument for those who conducted the Munich Olympics massacre, He’s not a clever liar so he keeps getting caught, He may be the next leader. Where are the voices of other Labour leaders? Sheer hatred of Western liberal values – ionizing Iran, and others. Will we be living with this for generations? Twelve senior Corbyn staff members were in Facebook groups praising Naziism, threatening killing Theresa May. Tony Blair and others won't speak out; cowards. Does anti-Jewish feeling . . . Left assumes all those in power are bad; right considers power to be used well or badly. When you speak with Iranians, they don't understand why so many in the West are fooled by the mullahs. Syrian/Iranian axis; worse, Turkey/Qatar/Muslim Brotherhood alliance is much more worrisome. It’s not abt US sanctions; it's the broader mismanagement of the Iranian economy, Supreme Leader is not long for this world; looks as though the IRGC will take over. Persian Gulf exercises: unmanned aerial vehicles – drones – are most dangerous, Why do we have carriers in the Persian Gulf where Iran can Iran can easily attack? Much better to have them in the Indian Ocean, where the US could attack in safety, That prospect alarms the Iranians. Turkey: People taking out loans to pay existing loans, A huge financial bubble
● https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/the-uks-labour-party-has-effe...
● https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/syria/iran-and-syria-seal-milit...
● https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-iran-russia-prepare-to-batt...
● https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-nuclear-minister/iranian-parliam...
● http://www.aei.org/publication/the-us-missed-its-chance-in-afghanistan/
● https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/responding-to-i...
Michael Rubin is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, where he researches Arab politics, the Gulf Cooperation Council, Iran, Iraq, the Kurds, terrorism, and Turkey. He concurrently teaches classes on terrorism for the FBI and on security, politics, religion, and history for US and NATO military units. A former Pentagon official, Dr. Rubin has lived in post-revolution Iran, Yemen, and both pre- and postwar Iraq, and he spent time with the Taliban before 9/11. He is the author, coauthor, and coeditor of several books exploring Iranian history, American diplomacy, Kurdish studies, and Shi’ite politics, including
Kurdistan Rising (AEI Press, 2016), Dancing with the Devil: The Perils of Engaging Rogue Regimes (Encounter Books, 2014); and Eternal Iran: Continuity and Chaos (Palgrave, 2005).
Thursday 30 August 2018 / Hour 3, Block B: Malcolm Hoenlein, in re: Iran in Syria: a new factory found via satellite, a ne missile factory blt by Iran in Wad (Johanan?). In NW Syria. Like the facility that Israel took out long ago, I think this is for surface-to-surface missiles, in a facility that cd also create chem weapons to put on missiles. Can’t hit it because it’s right next to a Russian facility. Diplomatic problem, Russia doing its biggest drill in the Med, Iran in the Gulf.
US and Egypt in a mil drill. Iran takes US to ICJ calling US deeds a violation of a very old agreement and illegal. US says: it’s a national security measure, for which the ICJ has no standing, Context of Iran’s increasing frustration, Its oil exports dropped from 2.3 to 1.5 mil BBl/day; cod go to 800,00 bbls. Lots of tankers don't want to ship Iranian oil. Mnuchin reinforcing the sanctions. The bigger picture: Khamenei putting blame on Rouhani as corruption! Khamenei’s move vs Rouhani is a major shake-up. In Eastern Europe, it wasn't the rioting that broke the USSR there, it was the leaders’s refusing to obey orders. Abbas doing all he can to sabotage every deal. US finally saying the money we give to the PA provides no benefit to the US taxpayer; ergo, cutting $200 mil, and perhaps it’ll go down to zero, as the PA undermines US efforts to bring about peace.
Thursday 30 August 2018 / Hour 3, Block C: Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack,com, in re:
Thursday 30 August 2018 / Hour 3, Block D: Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack,com, in re:
Hour Four
Thursday 30 August 2018 / Hour 4, Block A: Sebastian Gorka, Fox news senior political strategist, in re: Cybercommand. Iranians’s hacking into US cyber; the $150 billion in palletized notes, predominantly in euros, that Pres Obama air shipped (at night) to Iran have been used in part to damage basic US interests.
Thursday 30 August 2018 / Hour 4, Block B: Lee Smith, RealClearInvestigations, & Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute; in re: Dramatis personae of Russiagate. Patently bogus IC claims. Devin Nunes: The documents we’re urging b declassified are worse than what we’ve seen so far.
Thursday 30 August 2018 / Hour 4, Block C: Northern Armageddon: The Battle of the Plains of Abraham and the Making of the American Revolution, by D. Peter MacLeod
Thursday 30 August 2018 / Hour 4, Block D: Northern Armageddon: The Battle of the Plains of Abraham and the Making of the American Revolution, by D. Peter MacLeod