Miniature, left: Muslim and Christian playing lutes (ouds), miniature from Cantigas de Santa Maria by king Alfonso X.  A harmonious scene not favored by the just-reelected Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey.
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts: Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal editorial board. Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents.
 
Hour One
Thursday 5 November 2015  / Hour 1, Block A: Mary Kissel, in re:  . . .  national politics. "The Affordable Care Act is ht greatest gift to the Republican Party."  Upcoming Asian summit. China vastly increases the amount of coal it allows itself to burn.  Autocratic countries are the worst polluters.  "Carbon intensity: autocratic countries have low, democratic countries have high, carbon intensity.
Thursday 5 November 2015  / Hour 1, Block B:  Edward W Hayes, criminal defense attorney par excellence, in re: 
Thursday 5 November 2015  / Hour 1, Block C: Patrick Chovanec, Silvercrest Asset Management, in re:  BRICs, esp Brazil's suffering from the commodities crash (ore to China).  The offshore oil that was to generate growth: they squandered the wealth before they actually got it. Underinvested in dvpg infrastructure, handed out goodies, have too-low productivity, and oil price is so low that the offshore oil reserves are too expensive to drill for.   Lula and Dilma -  statist control of industries; one of the most closed economies in the world.  Bought into the China model, and of course fell flat on its face.   They use the word "crisis" all the time – the reality, it’s a crisis not of economic or currency, but of productivity. Power concentrated at the top.  They do have real security problems, although I personally had a good experience.  Hosting an Olympics is the last thing they need to do. Australia: commodity boom is over; they were in denial for a while, now need to adjust their economy. It’s still expensive because of the commodity boom and domestic protection of labor mkt.   Australians igned TPP and an agreement with China to sell it ag and service.  Turnbull, new PM, was sidetracked from having set aside the carbon tax, et al. 
Thursday 5 November 2015  / Hour 1, Block D: Patrick Chovanec, Silvercrest Asset Management, in re: All the chatter about Chinese ec reform: consolidating industries into state-owned oligopolies. Hardly reform.  Xi has eight re years; has scared all possible competitors; has not delivered anything valuable economically, always prioritizes politics and control.  Economy deteriorates.   How climate change influenced Australia's extreme weather in 2014 ;  Scientists have linked climate change to several extreme weather events that hit Australia last year, including city melting heatwaves, record hot ... ;  Global Concern about Climate Change, Broad Support for Limiting ... ; Opinion: China's economy is a lot stronger than you think it is ; A lot of analysts distrust Chinese economic data. ... because it confirms that China is successfully making the transition to a consumer economy ... ;  As China's Economy Slows, Consumers Pick Up Some of the Slack ;  China's economy is a lot stronger than you think it is
Hour Two
Thursday 5 November 2015  / Hour 2, Block A: Brooke Goldstein, human rights attorney, author, filmmaker.  Lawfare Project director; in re: Kuwait Airlines banned Israeli citizens from its aircraft. This is madness.   Secy of Transportation endorsed the Lawfare protest. This has been going on for ten years - completely illegally; the Administrations knew of it and did nothing, Imagine if an airline refused passage to African-Americans.  Violation of New York State law, federal law, Port Authority regs.  Port Authority sent a strong letter yesterday; Kuwait Airline will have to change policy or leave the US.  Saudis wont allow certain nationals if the country itself wont allow them in, which fed regs accept.  BDS is rooted in the Arab League boycott – coordinate funded and run by Arab League. Kuwait discriminates by law against Jews, against companies the does business wit Jews – is completely racist and bigoted and in regard to national origin; in violation of Open Skies agreement. August 1990 – US gave blood and treasure to save Kuwait.. Palestinian Boycott, EU boycott.
Thursday 5 November 2015  / Hour 2, Block B: Ali Afoneh, FDD, in re:  Iran post-deal, IRGC in Syria. IRGC as an expeditionary force in Syria, as a symmetrical warfare unit.  Decisions from what level? Count 170 IRGC killed in Syria since 2013(?): bloodiest month was Oct 2015. Russia began air attacks in September.  No longer sending the al Quds Force to Syria, but regular ground forces. IRGC created for domestic purposes, now merged into Basiji. Regime is most afraid of its own population, so based in city centers to oppress the populace. Now obliged to send more forces to Syria, which changes the nature of IRGC.  Becoming one large, intl Quds Force. Foreign nationals fighting in IRGC are granted Iranian passport. 
Thursday 5 November 2015  / Hour 2, Block C: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Britons and others stop flying over Sinai after he crash of the Russian jet: seems to have been a bomb that brought down the A321 Airbus Metrojet.  Now Da'ish  . . . Hamas has helped ISIS/Da'ish troops; el Sisi flooded Hamas tunnels.  ISIS struck at Russia, at Egypt's tourism industry; carriers are flying people out without their luggage.  Plane seems to have been flying at on ly 20,000 ft.  ISIS has advertised its terrorist activities, instilled fear.  The Free Syrian Army is hardly aid, whereas ISIS pays a lot.     PM Netanyhu to visit the US next month.
 Thursday 5 November 2015  / Hour 2, Block D: Dr. Aykan Erdemir is a former member of the Turkish Parliament (2011-2015) who served in the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee, EU Harmonization Committee, and the Ad Hoc Parliamentary Committee on the IT Sector and the Internet; in re:  Erdogan's re-election was indeed to provide stability to Turkey but wil in fact do the opposite.  After June, he's been ever more brutal and aggressive – in media, NGOs, minorities, fear in Ankara, mass killings of Kurds: elections thrown into the arms of AK , which will increase conflict with dissidents at home and people across border.  Turkey is now a troublemaker in NATO. Putin prefers Turkey to be a problem inside the alliance rather than being outside it.  This past weekend, Russian forays into Turkish air space.  Paradox: great interdependency between the two, and both are autocrats. Turkey depends on Russian gas. Both in proxy wars in Syria.  Putin's disregard for Turkish/NATO airspace is embarrassing for Erdogan, who nonetheless can’t do much about it. Erdogan making war on all Kurds, incl Syrian and Iraqi?  Border is closed to Kurds but porous to Sunni radicals.  NGOs in solidarity to Rojava camps: Turkey gets very rough. Last month, one volunteer was killed, but Erdogan won't allow his body to be repatriated back to Turkey.
Hour Three
Thursday 5 November 2015  / Hour 3, Block A:  Dr. Aykan Erdemir is a former member of the Turkish Parliament (2011-2015); in re:  Turkey.  Gaza blockade, Turkish intrusions in order to split with Israel  - had been allies and traders for years.  The future is not bright for tribals and different religious factions under Erdogan; will pull apart along the Bosphorus. During the last 12 years under AKP Turkey has descended into greater intolerance, hatred, authoritarianism. Turkey democracy is at risk, December elections made that more concrete. The only way Muslims, Christians, and Jews could live together would be under the rule of law, whereas Erdogan holds to an authoritarian Mulsim identity, has been a mastermind of _______ized Turkey.   June elections: first time a pro-Kurdish party passed the 10% election threshold, mobilizing Kurds and in coalition with other parties, showing that they can all transcend religious divides. Erdogan will not give up, has terrorized the HDP – attacked and torched 100-plus of their offices;  has silenced media, badly beaten reporters.  Intimidate opposition and take full control. Would rather murder many than lose powers.  Arrested 300 genereals, but forced a new pragmatic modus vivendi beween military and Erdogan as they agreed on a crackdown on Kurdish people.  His Syrian policies are widely unpopular. The Pakistanization of Turkey!
Thursday 5 November 2015  / Hour 3, Block B: Daniel Polisar is the Provost of Shalem College in Jerusalem, the first liberal arts college in Israel; I re: What do Palestinians most want?  Current Abbas campaign denying the very existence of ancient Jewish temples.  Why des a majority of Palestinians buy into this myth?  First, they definitely do: in a series of questions, 72% said that yes, Jews have an ancient history but then most said that denying that Palestinians all have an ancient history in the Holy Land is morally wrong, There seems to be no way to ask Palestinians if they'll share Jerusalem – even if they get most of East Jerusalem and Temple Mount; not willing to share.  "Who’s mostly responsible for" questions – Palestinian Authority inefficiency, teenage kidnappings, many kinds of problems: they always blame Israel, both for the past and for what will happen next; "Israel is deeply diabolical."  What are Israel's intentions for the Temple Mount?"   11%: "we think Israel will maintain the stats quo [where Jews are banned from praying].  But most say that Israel will destroy mosques and build the Third Temple.  JB: Are these delusions coming from despair?  DP: I think not.  A view has been inculcated over decades from PA leadership that Israel is extraordinarily powerful and diabolical. It’s more a measure of a self-induced fear unconnected to reality. Most Israelis support a two-state solution, but Palestinians say that Israel wants to drive out all Arabs and claim all real estate. This has zero basis in reality.  
Thursday 5 November 2015  / Hour 3, Block C:  Richard A. Epstein, Chicago Law, NYU Law, and Hoover; via via Defining Ideas; in re: Abortion and the Supreme Court  The rational basis test should not undo the constitutional rights protected in Roe and Casey.
Thursday 5 November 2015  / Hour 3, Block D:  Richard A. Epstein, Chicago Law, NYU Law, and Hoover; via via Defining Ideas; in re:  There is a constant temptation on the part of judges and scholars to avoid this conclusion by splitting the constitutional universe between those individual rights that merit serious protection and those that do not. One famous way of framing that distinction is to say that the higher protection is given to “discrete and insular minorities” who are unable to protect themselves in the political process. However, fundamentalist Christian groups surely are unable to protect themselves in states that have adopted strong civil rights laws. Nonetheless, the application of this test inspires people to do rhetorical handstands to announce themselves as politically vulnerable in order to gain an additional leg up in contentious constitutional adjudications.
The correct approach is to scrap any rational basis test that allows state legislatures to paper over their improper motivation with high-sounding statements of lofty legislative purposes. The need to increase judicial scrutiny when any test involving undue burdens is implicated is not confined to the abortion cases, but runs the full length of constitutional law. The Supreme Court should stop the charade in WWO, and do so in an opinion that rejects the rational basis test across the board. http://www.hoover.org/research/abortion-and-supreme-court
 
Hour Four
Thursday 5 November 2015  / Hour 4, Block A: The Greatest Comeback: How Richard Nixon Rose from Defeat to Create the New Majority by Patrick J. Buchanan (1 of 4)
Thursday 5 November 2015  / Hour 4, Block B: The Greatest Comeback: How Richard Nixon Rose from Defeat to Create the New Majority by Patrick J. Buchanan (2 of 4)
Thursday 5 November 2015  / Hour 4, Block C: The Greatest Comeback: How Richard Nixon Rose from Defeat to Create the New Majority by Patrick J. Buchanan (3 of 4)
Thursday 5 November 2015  / Hour 4, Block D: The Greatest Comeback: How Richard Nixon Rose from Defeat to Create the New Majority by Patrick J. Buchanan (4 of 4)