Photo, above: Second Infantry Division landing at St-Laurent-sur-Mer, 7 June 1944

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Co-hosts: Mary Kissel, WSJ; Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents

Hour One

Thursday  6 June  2013 / Hour 1, Block A: Patrick K. O’Donnell, Back to the Front  Wounded Warriors visit Belleau Wood.

Thursday  6 June  2013 / Hour 1, Block B:   Edward W Hayes, criminal defense attorney par excellence, in re: in re: U.S. intelligence mining data from nine U.S. Internet companies in broad secret programThe National Security Agency and FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. internet companies, extracting audio, video, photographs, emails, documents and connection logs that enable analysts to track a person’s movements and contacts over time.  The highly classified program, code-named PRISM, has not been disclosed publicly before. Its establishment in 2007 and six years of exponential growth took place beneath the surface of a roiling debate over the boundaries of surveillance and privacy.

Thursday  6 June  2013 / Hour 1, Block C: David Feith, in re:  Power's 'Mea Culpa' Doctrine  What Obama's U.N. nominee thinks about America.

Thursday  6 June  2013 / Hour 1, Block D:  Jeff Bliss, The Bliss Index, in re: Problem bolts/rods appear to be from Ohio.   Other parts: Suspender ropes that hold the bridge up were fabricated by Wireco in Missouri.  SAS Hinge Pipe Beams were fabricated by Oregon Iron Works.

Lubrite Technologies from Pennsylvania provided key parts of SAS bearings that help the bridge move in an Earthquake.  The Alliance of American Manufacturing, a labor-business partnership, conducted a campaign criticizing the outsourcing...said it cost Americans jobs and resulted in poor quality. They even ran a campaign claiming that the bridge was "100% foreign steel." Caltrans refuted that, but said approximately 25% was from China (again, not the bolts/rods that are failing at this time). AAM and others dispute that saying, "...just look at the NY Times story/photos...that will tell a different story."

Signaling new urgency in the troubled Bay Bridge construction project, Caltrans boss Malcolm Dougherty is dispatching his chief deputy to "focus his full attention" on helping the bridge management team "with additional leadership for the foreseeable future."   Dougherty's right-hand man, Rick Land, will also "provide a full-time on-site liaison to Caltrans headquarters here in Sacramento," according to a memo Dougherty shot off to his staff this week.   Caltrans has been under a cloud since it was revealed in March that 32 steel rods on the new $6.4 billion eastern span had snapped when they were tightened. Questions have since been raised about 2,300 additional rods on the bridge, threatening its scheduled Labor Day weekend opening.

Notably, Dougherty's memo points out that Land is a licensed engineer whose "presence will ensure ... the highest level of confidence from the public."

Hour Two

Thursday  6 June  2013 / Hour 2, Block A:  Jonathan Schanzer, FDD, in re: new Palestinian PM; Turkey; Hezbollah  

Thursday  6 June  2013 / Hour 2, Block B:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:

Thursday  6 June  2013 / Hour 2, Block C:  Jonathan Tobin, Commentary, in re:  . . . Bulgarian govt declared Hezbollah a terrorist regime; new govt is left-er, backs off; see the hand of Moscow in this.  Hezb is in Europe, slaughters tourists in Bulgaria (unambiguously  did this deed), but new govt afraid of annoying Russia.

Thursday  6 June  2013 / Hour 2, Block D: David Schenker, The Washington Institute, in re: Sinai – a rogue state, a failed state; DMZ along Gaza and he Negev; but as Cairo conditions have deteriorated and Morsi has been losing control, Sinai has fallen under brigands, smugglers, and al Q.  Israel gave Egyt permission to have troops in Sinai, used to blow up tunnels that were being used to damage Egyptian security (even more). The Muhabarat, the intell svcs, historically have secured Sinai, blown up terrorist camps; military never been able to do so adequately.   Army publicly acknowledged coordinating with Israel; however, the Muslim Brotherhood wants nothing to do with Israel, may in future decide to tarnish the name of the military for its collaboration.  Mubarak installed his cronies, even to visit the Bedouin, who thus were cut out of all profits. Currently, Sinai is not governed; Bedu and others are just making a living. Tribal societies usu say they’re not amenable to rad ideology, but in view of the poverty there, not surprised to see a shift. 

Hour Three

Thursday  6 June  2013 / Hour 3, Block A:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: June 1944 – finally, ships offshore launch. [See Hour 2, Block C: Bulgarian govt declared Hezbollah a terrorist regime; new govt is left-er, backs off; see the hand of Moscow in this.  Hezb is in Europe, slaughters tourists in Bulgaria (unambiguously did this deed), but new govt afraid of annoying Russia.]

6 June 1944, Edward R Murrow: at 3:30AM EST, BBC announcement that the Americans had landed at [Normandy]; Beeb dispatched most of its young correspondents there, but information still thin. Ike, at SHAPE, was very anxious abt a possible German counterattack that cd drive out troops back in the water.  . . .   weather initially not kind; over the first hurdles with many more to come. 

Kunetra, near Israeli border, in military mess; movement of tanks, Syrian army largely abandoned but now returning Israel set up a hospital of refugees.  Finland, Ireland, oppose naming Hezbollah a terrorist organization.  Bushehr, Iran.  Death of Sheikh Tabheri, ens of thousands at his funeral today shouting "Death to the dictators!"  PA demands Latrun and $4 billion; Kerry there on his fifth trip in a few months, PA demands maps of the final borer, release of dozens of convicted murderers; the situation moves away from peace.  Abbas says he'll take the money, no conditions.

Thursday  6 June  2013 / Hour 3, Block B: Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah, special analyst at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, in re: Iran, Egypt, Hezbollah, Syria.  Egypt is drifting into chaos, expression of lack of grip or resove of the regime to govern Egypt.  One feature of such a regime is to look for scapegoats, here, NGOs.  Have convicted 49 innocent do-gooders to one to five years. Morsi himself is manipulated by the Supreme Guide; his presidency of Egypt is merely a symbol. All his appts, nominees, have been done by the MB. People see the army as a solution, but army is staying aloof, awaiting the right moment: will intervene, but not now; rather, when Egypt is at the brink of an abyss. Coming: more instability.  President assets he's the source of authority so the legislature will continue to legislate; courts not in agreement, so for he regime to survive it'll have to jail all the judges.  Forty-nine percent of population is still anti-MB; two cities have revolted and are autonomous!   Situation is unbearable for most Egyptians. Army will have to decide soon.  MB waited 800 years to get here; have proven t hey cannot rule Egypt.

Thursday  6 June  2013 / Hour 3, Block C: Richard Rubin, Bloomberg, in re: IRS Spock Portrayer Apologizes for Inappropriate Parody

Thursday  6 June  2013 / Hour 3, Block D: Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re: The repairs to the cracks in the first Orion capsule have withstood static stress tests.

In addition to the various loads it sustained, the Orion crew module also was pressurized to simulate the effect of the vacuum in space. This simulation allowed engineers to confirm it would hold its pressurization in a vacuum and verify repairs made to superficial cracks in the vehicle’s rear bulkhead caused by previous pressure testing in November.   The November test revealed insufficient margin in an area of the bulkhead that was unable to withstand the stress of pressurization. Armed with data from that test, engineers were able to reinforce the design to ensure structural integrity and validate the fix during this week’s test. [emphasis mine]

     I love how this NASA press release describes the cracking of the capsule bulkhead during the November testing, indicated in bold. “Insufficient margin”, eh?  Normally I'm very forgiving when things fail during engineering tests, but for the bulkhead of this capsule to crack during these tests was actually pretty shameful, considering the decades of engineering work previously done in the building of space capsules and submarines. Things can certainly go wrong when you build something new, but I don’t see anything particularly revolutionary about Orion’s design. Lots of things might fail, but making sure the bulkhead could withstand the normal and well known stresses of spaceflight should not have been one of those things. The bulkhead failure suggests to me some sloppy engineering work took place in Orion’s initial design.

 

Hour Four

Thursday  6 June  2013 / Hour 4, Block A: Barry Meier, A World of Hurt: Fixing Pain Medicine's Biggest Mistake (Kindle Single) (1 of 2)

Thursday  6 June  2013 / Hour 4, Block B: Barry Meier, A World of Hurt: Fixing Pain Medicine's Biggest Mistake (Kindle Single)  (2 of 2)

Thursday  6 June  2013 / Hour 4, Block C: Hank Greenberg: The Hero of Heroes by Rosengren, John  (1 of 2)

Thursday  6 June  2013 / Hour 4, Block D: Hank Greenberg: The Hero of Heroes by Rosengren, John  (2 of 2)

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Music

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