Photo: The GOP in 1904.  Theodore Roosevelt leads party to landslide win in 1904
(Wikipedia image.  Permission details  PD-US.)
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts: Sebastian Gorka, Fox; and Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents
 
Hour One
Thursday 4 October 2018 / Hour 1, Block A:  Sebastian Gorka, Fox News & author, Why We Fight.  Part 1 of 2
Thursday 4 October 2018 / Hour 1, Block B: Sebastian Gorka, Fox News & author, Why We Fight.  Part 2 of 2
Thursday 4 October 2018 / Hour 1, Block C: Victor Davis Hanson, Hoover Institution senior Fellow; in re: Republicans.
Thursday 4 October 2018 / Hour 1, Block D: Victor Davis Hanson, Hoover Institution senior Fellow; in re: Republicans.
 
Hour Two
Thursday 4 October 2018 / Hour 2, Block A:  Mike Singh, in re: Iran.
●       https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pompeo-pulls-out-of-treaty-with-iran-in...
●       https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/if-trump-wants-...
●       https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/10/03/uns-top-court-says-...
●        https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/03/politics/pompeo-icj-iran-https://www.stat...
●        ruling/index.html?utm_term=image&utm_content=2018-10-04T06%3A32%3A02&utm_source=twCNNp&utm_medium=social
●       https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/trum...
●       https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2018/09/286289.htm
●       https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-security/france-points-finger-...
●       https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/10/03/uns-top-court-says-...
Michael Singh is the Lane-Swig Senior Fellow and managing director at The Washington Institute and a former senior director for Middle East affairs at the National Security Council. During his tenure at the White House from 2005 to 2008, Mr. Singh was responsible for devising and coordinating U.S. national security policy toward the region stretching from Morocco to Iran, with a particular emphasis on Iran’s nuclear and regional activities, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Syria, and security cooperation in the broader Middle East.
Thursday 4 October 2018 / Hour 2, Block B:  Boris Zilberman, in re: Russia & Syria.
         https://www.timesofisrael.com/putin-says-all-foreign-troops-should-leave...
         http://tass.com/world/1024489
         http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/new-us-sanctions-on-china-shoul...
Boris Zilberman lends his background and expertise on a range of legislative issues encompassing defense and foreign affairs to Foundation for the Defense of  Democracies’s relationships with Washington’s leading policymakers. With a focus on the Middle East and Russia, Boris provides an authoritative voice helping to frame complex issues affecting America and her allies. Boris leads FDD’s Russia work as part of the Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance which focuses on the evolving financial and strategic developments in the US-Russia relationship. Prior to joining FDD, Boris spent five years working as Manager of Defense Programs in the policy and government affairs department at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). 
Thursday 4 October 2018 / Hour 2, Block C:  John Hannah, in re: Saudi reforms . . .  Vision 2030 was triggered by the knowledge that oil won't endure forever.
         http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/trump-needs-to-start-worrying-a...
         https://www.ft.com/content/8242a416-c558-11e8-8670-c5353379f7c2
         https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-kuwait-crownprince/saudi-crown-...
         https://thehill.com/opinion/international/409617-the-worrisome-mystery-o...
         https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-un-rights/saudi-arabia...
         https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-02/yemenis-protest-curre...
John Hannah is senior counselor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where he brings two decades of experience at the highest levels of U.S. foreign policy. During the first term of President George W. Bush, he was Vice President Dick Cheney’s deputy national security advisor for the Middle East. In President Bush’s second term, John was elevated to the role of the vice president's national security advisor.
Thursday 4 October 2018 / Hour 2, Block D: Rauel Marc Gerecht, in re: Iran: gunmen attack Awazi; ISIS took credit; Iran blamed Bernard Lewis.   Khuzestan has generated much violence; growing internal tension throughout Iran between Persians (historical ethnicity) and the multiple other minorities (Arabs, Kurds, many). Provincial demonstrations started last December.  Hard to see if it’ll all explode. Largest minority is the Azeris; were they to erupt and a nationalist movement to grow, that’d be the Achilles’ heel of the regime.  I would’ve expected more violence earlier – a fair number of Sunnis in Iran, their militancy on the rise for twenty years.  The Islamic Republic has a very urban culture; biggest problem isn't even the deteriorating economy but rising expectations.  In 2009-2010, Green Movement, protesting a fraudulent election: 2 or 3 million people on the streets of Teheran. Now, also much in the provinces.
         http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/senior-fellow-irans-enemies/
         https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2018/10/04/trumps-growing-diplomati...
         http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/new-us-sanctions-on-china-shoul...
Reuel Marc Gerecht is a senior Fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.  He focuses on Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, terrorism, and intelligence. Mr. Gerecht is the author of The Wave: Man, God, and the Ballot Box in the Middle East (Hoover Institution Press, 2011), Know Thine Enemy: A Spy's Journey into Revolutionary Iran (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1997) and The Islamic Paradox: Shiite Clerics, Sunni Fundamentalists, and the Coming of Arab Democracy  (AEI Press, 2004).  He was previously a resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the  director of the Middle East Initiative at the Project for the New American Century. Earlier, he served as a Middle Eastern specialist at the CIA's Directorate of Operations.
 
Hour Three
Thursday 4 October 2018 / Hour 3, Block A: Malcolm Hoenlein, in re:  PA holding the bodies of Israelis, including a Druse and an Ethiopian . . . Palestinians have a special rate at Motel 6 in The Hague because they're there so much.  Suing the US for moving its embassy (although they don’t have standing); based on the optional protocol of the Vienna Conventions.  Iran: the mullahs take the medicines sent in and sell them on the black market.  Shake-up in Iranian politicians.  Hariri (friend of Iran) in Lebanon will announce a new govt in ten days; highest public debt and bad economic conditions; question one is how they deal with Hezbollah. 
Thursday 4 October 2018 / Hour 3, Block B:  General Yossi Kuperwasser, in re: Gaza and Syria.  ISIS is still very much in Gaza; less than formerly, but by no means extinguished. Efforts to inhibit Hamas’s cooperation with ISIS. Hamas effort to force Israel to beg Egypt for help.
         https://www.timesofisrael.com/over-100-bombs-grenades-hurled-at-troops-d...
         https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-deadly-gaza-clashes-hamas-i...
         https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/after-the-ilyus...
Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser is Director of the Project on Regional Middle East Developments at the Jerusalem Center. He was formerly Director General of the Israel Ministry of Strategic Affairs and head of the Research Division of IDF Military Intelligence.
Thursday 4 October 2018 / Hour 3, Block C:   Thomas Modly, Under Secretary of the Navy at Department of the Navy (USN aviator [ret]); in re: The Navy.  . . . Those who do best in this era of rapid change are those who are the most agile.  Also means people with agile minds – our competitive advantage. The E4S Study; Education for Sea Power.  . . .  One of its purposes is to create a strategy and orchestrate it to ensure that what happens at the War College coordinates with [Navy and other mil universities].  Knox King Pye Report, 1918. 
Thursday 4 October 2018 / Hour 3, Block D:  Thomas Modly, Under Secretary of the Navy at Department of the Navy; in re: The Navy. The fleet: when the president was a candidate, and now, speaks of 355 ships.  Surface warfare: where is the Navy going in the First Island Chain and the Second concerning area-access-denial weaponry.  I call it 355-plus: incl one-man lethality and a lot to keep our opponent guessing   UAVs:  have air wings not capable  . .  UAV tanker: will it make the air wings more effective? The decision on the MT25 is right; at that level of sophistication always can build other capabilities off that. CNAS paper just issued.
 
Hour Four
Thursday 4 October 2018 / Hour 4, Block A: Aaron Klein, Breitbart Middle East bureau chief, in re:  Gillibrand and Gillum
Thursday 4 October 2018 / Hour 4, Block B: Aaron Klein, Breitbart Middle East bureau chief, in re:  Gillibrand and Gillum
Thursday 4 October 2018 / Hour 4, Block C: TR’s Last War, by David Pietrusza
Thursday 4 October 2018 / Hour 4, Block D: TR’s Last War, by David Pietrusza
..  ..  ..