Photo, left: Recep Tayyip Erdogan's thug bodyguards moments before they attacked peaceful Kurdish protesters and American journalists outside Brookings Institution in Washington. The District police and Seekies were thunderstruck.  
 
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  31 March 2016 / Hour 1, Block A:  Mona Charen, NRO, in re:  The lousiest recovery since the Great Depression, wages aren't rising, global disorder – could the US do something? Instead of these, we're talking about 1970s issues: abortion- Roe v Wade - and campaign managers’s manhandling reporters. It may be a dream for journos but it's a nightmare for the republic.   Ted Cruz and-has a 10-pt lead over the businessman from New York; but in gender, Cruz leads 46 to 27. Fox, Quinnipiac, MSNBC – all polls show stratospheric female disapproval of Trump.   Wisconsin polling: in Madison (university town), Kasich is doing better than Cruz; as voting moves to California, Kasich may mop up some of the Trump vote and prevent 1237.  . . .
The LA piece points to the female polling in GOP Wisconsin, in GOP national, and then to the female nation for the general.  Trump is already the least-favored candidate in polling history at 77% unfavorable, and that was before Fields and punishment.  Guessing he is now in the 80s.  Astonishing.
Thursday  31 March 2016 / Hour 1, Block B:  Mona Charen, NRO, in re:  Democrats!  Bernie Sanders is pulling ahead in Wisconsin.  Indication that she’s a weak candidate: perceived as corrupt, dishonest, old, and yesterday’s news.  Loyal support of Black women.   Terrible lack of enthusiasm.   Overheard on the Acela [Amtak] recently, her aides: We want to keep Bernie in the race because he brings enthusiasm.   . . .  GOP: Failing in the general would mean losing the Supreme Court and the Congress – “It's Biblical.”
Thursday  31 March 2016 / Hour 1, Block C:  Debra Saunders, San Francisco Chronicle, in re: GOP.  How did Gov Schwartzenegger handle his second term compared the how Pres Trump will handle is in the winter of 2021. Both rich, both TV, and iconic figures known by their given names and having zero political experience.  Arnold spoke of revising the Constitution so he could be president.   Arnold was a Milton Friedman fan – came in with a set of conservative principles, whereas Trump doesn't even have those.  How’s Arnold viewed now?  Dismissed.  Hours from when he left office he forgave a pol who was in jail on a “voluntary manslaughter” case – helped his friend and cut the guy’s sentence. 
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/saunders/article/Would-The-Donald-govern-like-Arnold-7093719.php  ; http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-trailguide-20160330-htmlstory.html#5406  ;  http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-trump-california-primary-downticket-20160331-snap-htmlstory.html
Big CA showdown on June 7.
Three veteran California Republican operatives with ties to some of the state’s top donors are launching a superPAC aimed at stopping Donald Trump from clinching the GOP nomination in the state’s June 7 primary.  “It’s our state, and if we’re the last line of defense, we’re going to do our part to stop him,” said Rob Stutzman, who previously worked for former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the 2010 gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman’s unsuccessful run.
Trump, the national Republican front-runner, leads among California Republicans, according to a new USC-Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll. But he was nearly tied with his rival Ted Cruz among likely Republican voters. So the anti-Trump effort will be aimed at boosting Cruz in targeted congressional districts, which award nearly all of the state’s 172 delegates, Stutzman said. “A vote for Cruz is a vote for an open convention, and obviously that’s the objective at this point,” he said.
Stutzman is joined by strategists Richard Temple and Ray McNally, whose firm has worked for former Presidents George W. Bush and George H. W. Bush; former Gov. Pete Wilson and entities associated with the influential GOP donor Charles Munger Jr. Their effort, which is unnamed thus far, will be competing with a handful of other national anti-Trump efforts. Stutzman said he believes they will be more effective in California since they better understand the geography and political intricacies of the state.  http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-trailguide-20160330-htmlstory.html
Thursday  31 March 2016 / Hour 1, Block D:  Debra Saunders, San Francisco Chronicle, in re:  Democrats.
 
Hour Two
Thursday  31 March 2016 / Hour 2, Block A:  David Schenker, Aufzien Fellow and director of the Program on Arab Politics at The Washington Institute;  in re: Jordan. Jordan has withstood the enormous regional pressures with amazing strength; not only huge numbers of Iraqi and other refugees, but ISIS impinging.  Jordanian Bedouin: constitute about 40% of Jordanian population; they staff the mil, bureaucracy, and intell apparatus; the other half are Palestinians.    Shiite terrorism. Muslim Brotherhood: it was doing poorly in Jordan  - divided in hawks and doves – and he govt picked the whole organization apart, turned it over to those more reliable to govt, and to less-Islamicist organizations, Now it has internal elections on April 7 – and the Jordanian govt is preventing that.  http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/growing-stress-on-jordan ;   http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/the-costs-of-lost-u.s.-credibility
Thursday  31 March 2016 / Hour 2, Block B:  Matthew Levitt is the Fromer-Wexler fellow and director of The Washington Institute's Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence; in re: Berlin & homegrown terrorism. March 21: Molenbeek in Brussels.  Beautiful, wholly- European architecture, but population deeply unintegrated into society, with children pulled from school at age twelve and unable to compete in the job market.  Lot of crime, 30% unemployment; religion isn't the basic problem, but a lot of mosques (storefront mosques).   The community has plenty of religious people, but the people engaged in terrorism are small-time criminals being preyed on by Salafist individuals.   They know nothing of praying five times a day.    For all of my meetings in Belgium, it's a federal/federal/federal system.  To solve an administrative problem, might have to male 30 or 40 phone calls to the bureaucracy. The AHA was a week after the Charlie Hebdo attacks: a raid in [Verviers}?] – found a huge, pan-European plot. The PM speaks of Molenbeek; but police had 185 vacancies.  “Civilian prevention officers” to counter Islamic radicalization – total of three people plus eight people, for 100,000 people in Molenbeek. 
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/my-journey-through-brussels-terrorist-safe-haven ; http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/terror-in-europe-combating-foreign-fighters-and-homegrown-networks;   http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/the-islamic-states-lone-wolf-era-is-over;  http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/hezbollahs-growing-threat-against-u.s.-national-security-interests-in-the-m  ;  http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/brussels-attacks-raise-questions-on-readiness
Thursday  31 March 2016 / Hour 2, Block C:  Jonathan Schanzer, FDD, in re:  Iran. Sanctions. A mystery in the Iran deal after the summer of 2015: a brand-new interpretation of the obligations of the US to Iran – the White House intends to give Iran access to the US financial system.  Until a decade ago, Iran could use US system to do forex transactions via dollars on their way to another currency. US stopped that in 2008 – made it harder for Iran to work through the formal financial sector, and Treasury identified corruption and terrorism in Iran as “toxic” to the US.   Even though we'd let Iran into SWIF and get $150 billion, it couldn’t have access to the US banking system.  The WH has now buckled again, has just announced that Iran can deal in dollars.  The last straw.  Means: It’s OK if Iran engages in terrorism, funds Houthis, etc., as long as it sort of minds the JCPOA.  Sunnis everywhere are appalled.  Secretary Lew announced the opposite.  In fact, was grilled by Congress and  assured the Congress that Iran would never be allowed to del in dollars.  It's astounding. He’ s “trying to assure that if Iran wants to make business deals not barred by the JCPOA, it should be allowed to – worth no word on Iran’s nuke program, terrorism sponsorship, et al., all of which were the predicate for barring Iran from using dollars. Not just the terrorism Task Force, but Section 311 of the Patriot Act – Iran poses a threat to the integrity to the US financial system.  The White house is ignoring this.  A textbook example of how to shake down the US.   The WH assured Congress that the dollar would always be off-limits – the US would never engage in transactions with Iran because it engages in terrorism and all the other deeds. A remarkable buckling by the Obama Administration . http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/dubowitz-mark-lawmakers-push-back-against-white-house-effort-to-open-us-markets-to-iran/  ; http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/schanzer-jonathan-the-iran-deals-bigger-loser/  ;  http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/dont-politicize-sanctions/
Thursday  31 March 2016 / Hour 2, Block D:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents; in re:  Aaron Klein, Breitbart, was amazed and exercised at the Vermont senator’s lawfare attack in Israel. Couldn't get even one senator to join him. He wants an investigation of extrajudicial killings: when someone is caught with a knife in his hand and plunging it into a passer-by the police mustn’t shoot but must ask politely for cessation. The US finds Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and multiple nations that are madly violent and have not real rule of law  and this guy Leahy  decides to focus his wrath on Israel, which is deeply committed to the rule of law and features the very cleanest democratic elections between the Atlantic and the Pacific at 38 degrees North.   Photo of Malcolm with Recep Erdogan – after the attack on Israelis in Turkey, Erdogan has been responsive.  I also met with Pres Aliyev [Azerbaijan] – they're all afraid of Iran; Khemenei is making his usual  [bone-headed] threats.   . . . Russia got ten times more deals than they invested. 
 
Hour Three
Thursday  31 March 2016 / Hour 3, Block A:  Avi Issacharoff, The Times of Israel's Middle East analyst, & Walla [portal]; in re: Palestinians.  Gaza.  Some cooperation between ISIS and Hamas – weapons transfers, and the like. Egyptians couldn't believe that.  Maaschal (in Doha) weakening?  Internal Hamas battles?   Unity govt Hamas/PA?  Huge fear: there may no longer exist a Palestinian society; rather, a West Bank society and a Gazan society. This discussion is taboo.  Defenestrating someone from the fifth floor?  Significance of the Palmyra victory?  AN achievement for the Syrian army – but symbolic. ISI withdrew from a desert city. The big challenge is east of Palmyra – Raqqa, and Mosul.  This is the capital of ISIS.  ISIS focusses on its real enemy: Shia. Will try to obliterate Israel later.   Maybe after defeats from Syria, will turn to  guerrilla war with Israel.   
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/blundering-over-dead-bodies/ ;  http://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-fatah-said-to-agree-to-elections-within-6-months/ ;   http://www.timesofisrael.com/palmyra-victory-shows-assad-putin-finally-confronting-islamic-state/ ;  http://www.timesofisrael.com/inside-hamas-a-bitter-and-very-personal-battle-for-control/
Thursday  31 March 2016 / Hour 3, Block B:   Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah, a special analyst for the Middle East at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, was formerly Foreign Policy Advisor to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Deputy Head for Assessment of Israeli Military Intelligence; in re:  Turkey & Lebanon. Turkey works to destabilize Lebanon. Turkey is unstable: 35 million Kurds have no right of self-determination – 15 million in eastern Turkey; if they proclaim independence, the Turkish army will invade and kill them. Turkey  is not a stable island in the Middle East; it's mined with problems. Potential civil war.  Erdogan also has carefully enraged Russia; has a slew of challenges.   Lost many of its traditional mkts in hte Middle East  Egypt and others have quite trading with Turkey. Expect and Islamic disaster in Turkey as Erdogan acts like an Ottoman sultan.  http://jcpa.org/article/is-turkey-planning-to-destabilize-lebanon/ ;  http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/merve-tahiroglu-erdogans-washington-visit-overshadowed-by-sanction-busters-arrest/  ;   http://edition.cnn.com/2016/03/29/politics/pentagon-orders-military-families-to-leave-southern-turkey/index.html  ;  http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/schanzer-jonathan-turkey-has-been-reckless-repressive-and-unreliable/
Thursday  31 March 2016 / Hour 3, Block C: Michael Auslin, AEI, in re: In Standpoint Magazine last week, I published a pair of articles assessing the leadership of Shinzo Abe and Xi Jinping. I argue that Shinzo Abe has confounded his critics to become Japan’s most consequential leader in recent memory, while Xi Jinping will probably leave China worse off than he found it.
http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/274845-obama-talks-cyber-with-chinese-president-xi-jinping
Thursday  31 March 2016 / Hour 3, Block D: John R Bolton, AEI, in re:  How terror is upending politics in America and Britain 
The Brussels terrorist attacks, savage evidence of terrorism’s continuing global threat, will inevitably cause political turmoil across Europe and America.
  
Hour Four
Thursday  31 March 2016 / Hour 4, Block A: Gregory R Copley, Defense and Foreign Affairs, in re:  The surprising tale of Erdogan’s personal thugs’s shoving and whapping not only legitimate Kurdish protesters but also American journalists; in Washington outside the Brookings Institution.  US police? They tried to stand between the thugs and the peaceful protesters, and wound up screaming at Erdogan’s crew, “You’re the problem.”
Protests erupt during Erdogan visit to Washington, DC  Erdogan, whose administration has been widely criticized for violating human rights and press freedoms, is in the U.S. capital to meet Vice . . .   ; News Quiz: Trump Rally or Erdogan Event?  ; Erdogan: Turkey left alone in anti-terror fight  ;  Erdogan says European countries enabled terror threat to spread  ;  Turkey's Erdogan came to Washington, and things got a bit crazy  ; Four Things to Watch During Turkish President Erdogan's Visit to . . .   http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/03/31/turkey-president-erd...
Thursday  31 March 2016 / Hour 4, Block B:  Gregory R Copley, Defense and Foreign Affairs, in re: Kurds; Turkey. Erdogan conducting himself distinctly comparably to Schickelgruber.
Thursday  31 March 2016 / Hour 4, Block C:  Richard A Epstein, Chicago Law and NYU  Law, and Hoover, in re: This past week, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the highly contentious case of Zubik v. Burwell, which addresses the extent to which religious institutions, such as the Little Sisters of the Poor, are subject to the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate. This case shows just how difficult it has become to protect religious liberty from overweening state power. As context, the case is governed by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, under which the government has to demonstrate that its violation of religious freedom was done in furtherance of a “compelling state interest.” But the state has no compelling interest in supplying contraceptive care to women, and, even if it did, it has absolutely no compelling interest in forcing the insurer of religious organizations to pay for that subsidized coverage. The expense should fall on the public purse if such payments are held to be in the public interest . .  .  http://www.hoover.org/research/plea-little-sisters   (1 of 2)
Thursday  31 March 2016 / Hour 4, Block D:    Richard A Epstein, Chicago Law and NYU  Law, and Hoover, in re: This past week, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the highly contentious case of Zubik v. Burwell, which addresses the extent to which religious institutions, such as the Little Sisters of the Poor, are subject to the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate. This case shows just how difficult it has become to protect religious liberty from overweening state power. As context, the case is governed by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, under which the government has to demonstrate that its violation of religious freedom was done in furtherance of a “compelling state interest.” But the state has no compelling interest in supplying contraceptive care to women, and, even if it did, it has absolutely no compelling interest in forcing the insurer of religious organizations to pay for that subsidized coverage. The expense should fall on the public purse if such payments are held to be in the public interest . .  .  http://www.hoover.org/research/plea-little-sisters   (2 of 2)
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