Photo, above:  Mary Barra, new GM president. Bravissima!

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Hour One

Tuesday  10 December  2013 / Hour 1, Block A: LouAnn Hammond, DrivingtheNation.com, in re: Mary Barra Named GM CEO, Automaker's First Female Chief   At long last, Detroit is getting some girl power: automaker General Motors has named its first female CEO, the company announced Tuesday morning. Mary Barra, the company’s executive vice president of global product development, purchasing and supply chain, will take over for current CEO Dan Akerson on January 15, 2014.

Akerson, who has been GM’s chairman and chief executive since September 2010, had been considering a departure but decided to advance his succession plan because his wife was recently diagnosed with a late stage of cancer.

“I will leave with great satisfaction in what we have accomplished, great optimism over what is ahead and great pride that we are restoring General Motors as America’s standard bearer in the global auto industry,” Akerson said in a message to  . . . [more]

Tuesday  10 December  2013 / Hour 1, Block B:    Francis Rose, Federal News Radio, in re:  a (sort-of)  bipartisan deal, each side saying it doesn't like the budget decision – Dems wanted $1.42 trillion, get almost a trillion: spit evenly 'twixt the DoD and civilian agencies. Sequester is put off for several years.  "Saved $28 bil over ten years by requiring the president to  . . . " what?  In 2022, mene mene!  IRS: John Koskinen went before the Senate today, signaled a tad of bipartisanship.  Baucus and Hatch both liked him.  He promised to restore the IRS to the confidence of the American people and to restore the faith of the IRS employees in their leadership. 

Lawmakers Set to Announce Budget Deal   "House and Senate negotiators are on the verge of announcing a budget agreement that would avert a government shutdown and bring a rare dose of stability to Congress's fiscal policy-making over the next two years," the Wall Street Journal reports.

"The 56-38 vote showed partisan divisions remain deep after Democrats changed rules to eliminate filibusters on most nominations. The move came after Republicans blocked votes on Ms. Millett and two other nominees for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, considered one of the nation's most influential because it considers lawsuits challenging major federal rules and regulations." – also confirmed Mel Watt. The new rules work the way Sen Reid wants them to. 

Tuesday  10 December  2013 / Hour 1, Block C: Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re: A Brazilian Earth research satellite was lost today when a Chinese Long March rocket failed to put it into orbit.  The cause of the failure is not yet known. This failure, however, is a strong boost for SpaceX, as China is its strongest competitor in terms of price.

The competition heats up: Russia’s deputy prime minister is pushing to accelerate the completion of Russia’s new spaceport in Vostochny.  The first scheduled launch is now planned for 2015, but this article suggests they are trying to make it happen by the fall of 2014.

Tbe competition heats up: International Launch Services ((ILS) has successfully launched its Russian Proton rocket to put another commercial communications satellite into orbit.  This launch solidifies the recovery of the Proton rocket since the disastrous July launch. With the Russian government forcing a consolidation of all Russian aerospace companies into one government-owned cooperation, however, it is unclear what will happen to ILS and Khrunichev (the Russian company that makes the Proton).

Tuesday  10 December  2013 / Hour 1, Block D:   James Taranto, Wall Street Journal, in re: Those Unattainable Invincibles  MoveOn.org worries about adverse selection. [hilarious]  See: DoYougGotInsurance [dot] com; see kegstand and growsurance

Hour Two

Tuesday  10 December  2013 / Hour 2, Block A: Josh Rogin, Senior Correspondent, The Daily Beast, in re: the FSA used to be the Free Syrian Army, a generally pro-democratic crew, led by Gen Salim Idriss. Over the last months, under a string of broken promises and failures by the Obama Administration, now  the FSA is all but evaporated, superseded by Islamists groups, notably al Qaeda, al Nusra Front, and ISIS.   Obama adm. is trying to get these latter to participate in "negotiations" in Geneva (or perhaps in Montreux; no hotel rooms in Geneva because of an annual watch convention, whereas the only decent hotel in Montreux may or may not be full of intl holiday-makers), which they categorically never will.  When Pres Obama decided to cancel the strike on Assad in retaliation for his [purported] use of chem weapons, that deed basically destroyed the FSA.  Now there's a new confederation of Islamic groups.  In the end, the Obama adm never supplied the FSA with any useful weapons or eqpt; only food plus a few odds and ends. Their materiel and weaponry came from Saudi Arabs and Qatar. 

Tuesday  10 December  2013 / Hour 2, Block B:  Charles Pellegrino, author and explorer, in re: asteroids and comets are part of concerns in planetary defense.  Comet ISON flew close past Earth, then into the solar corona like a rifle shell, came back toward Earth like a rifle spray, sort of pellets. We really need to watch out for these smaller objects. Comets come in from Ort cloud, but change orbits all the time.  For the moment all we can do is watch – and we can't even watch well. A comet can show up suddenly and arrive within days. Note that Startran can get things up and operation very fast and cheaply. If we had eqpt that had been tested, we could get things up to mitigate  . . .  size of  Toyota Celica . . .  destroy huge comets coming toward us. At present, we don't have the engines to put in orbit to get out and do something.  Let's say we had six months: could  we get up there and mitigate it with Startran? Yes. We also need a much better space watch program. 

Titan Saturn's Moon (T-96) Flyby Coverage: Titan's northern wetlands.

Europa's chaotic terrain may harbor materials from its heated ocean. The announcement, published this week in Nature Geophysics, sent a ripple of excitement through the astrobiology community. If proven, it raises the odds that any life harbored in the heated oceans of the sixth largest moon in the Solar System will be detected.

"Ocean water is being transformed into a new kind of ice, which is rising up from the interior and may be carrying ocean material with it," reported co-author Dr. Britney Schmidt, assistant professor at Georgia Tech.

Tuesday  10 December  2013 / Hour 2, Block C:  Ty Rogoway, aviationintel, in re: LOCKHEED SKUNKWORKS MAKES A PITCH FOR THE SR-72 Aviation Week’s Guy Norris dropped a pretty huge story Friday about a follow-on of sorts, but not really, to the legendary SR-71 Blackbird.  Lamely named the SR-72 for marketing’s sake, this machine will be unmanned, capable of mach 6 speeds, have about the same range and dimensions of the SR-71, and will also be able to carry munitions as a secondary mission requirement. Breakthroughs in hybrid engine and inlet design, some of which are not fully described, will apparently make this hypersonic “regional” armed spy feasible. The aircraft would fill two roles that are on the DoD’s to do list. First, it would provide . . .   [more]

Tuesday  10 December  2013 / Hour 2, Block D:  David Firestone, NYT, in re: Who Says Math Has to Be Boring? American students are bored by math, science and engineering. They buy smartphones and tablets by the millions but don’t pursue the skills necessary to build them. Engineers and physicists are often portrayed as clueless geeks on television, and despite the high pay and the importance of such jobs to the country’s future, the vast majority of high school graduates don’t want to go after them. Nearly 90 percent of high school graduates say they’re not interested in a career or a college major involving science, technology, engineering or math, 

. . .

Q. & A. with Anthony P. Carnevale  A conversation with an outspoken advocate for education reform in the math, science, engineering and technology fields.

Hour Three

Tuesday  10 December  2013 / Hour 3, Block A:   Stephen F Cohen, NYU & Princeton Russian Studies prof Emeritus; author, Soviet Fates & Lost Alternatives, in re: Yanakovich leans toward Moscow; turmoil in Kiev.  Not a word accurate in the US press: one-dimensional, ideological, no attempt to understand Russia's side.  Ukraine can sign an economic assn agreement with the EU for democracy and some transparency. Then the Ukrainian president decided not to sign, supposedly because he was bullied by Putin. None of this is correct.  Why are we cheering for a mob to overcome a fairly-elected president. Ukraine needs funds in the coming weeks to pay urgent sovereign debts; EU offered to pay only if Ukraine underwent desperately straitening regulations. Putting buys most of Ukraine's goods and offers a lot of credit. Putin said if you happen to decide to sign with us, we'll give you markets and discounted energy.  Incidentally, Ukrainian goods are un-sellable in Europe – and btw Europe would never open its labor markets to Ukrainians.  Half of Ukrainian population leans toward Poland, Sweden, Lithuania; the other half, toward Russia.  Also, strategically, Russia needs Ukraine's agriculture and Black Sea ports. 

Apolitical Russians consider that were Putin to let Ukraine go westward and simply cease relations with Russia, that would be an infamous failure that would haunt Putin's name for generations; and if he can keep Ukraine, that will redound to his glory forever.  Note especially: the Russian fleet is in the Crimea..

Ukraine's Interior Ministry has estimated that some 100,000 protesters are taking part in mass demonstrations in Kiev, Interfax-Ukraine reported Dec. 8. The ministry has warned participants that infringing others' rights by blocking streets may come with criminal penalties.

Tuesday  10 December  2013 / Hour 3, Block B: Stephen F Cohen, NYU & Princeton Russian Studies prof Emeritus; author, Soviet Fates & Lost Alternatives, in re:  Poland fears Germany's power; Sweden and Poland have formed an alliance to bring Ukraine into their ambit – such an alliance would offset Germany. Merckel has not put herself on the front line (and in any case has built good relations with Putin). Warsaw still has some enmity for Russia, but it’s mainly a story of Poland's ancient alarm about Germany.  Poland is a profoundly divided society, itself. Ukraine is politically, culturally, economically, two countries: the south and east are ethnically Russian; western Ukraine is Catholic and Ukrainian-speaking, looks toward Poland and Lithuania.  Ukraine is not really a nation-state the way we think of that; and it’s terrible that the West is exacerbating this, Obama needs Putin to get things worked out with Iran, so will stay out of the Ukrainian debacle. 

Where's the money coming in from to keep the Ukrainian opposition afloat? Maybe Sweden and Lithuania.  Probably also private US funds, perhaps from the same sources that funded the color revolutions with the intention of being on the good side of the winning opposition and so first in line to benefit from natural resources, manufacturing, infrastructure repair, etc.

Protesters in Kiev Topple Lenin Statue as Rallies Grow  Protests in Ukraine’s capital, which have grown for two weeks and seemed to reach new heights Sunday, show the depth of rage at Ukraine’s president, who has few palatable options to defuse the country’s crisis.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk, leader of the parliamentary faction of Ukrainian opposition party "Fatherland," urged protesters to change their tactics to "guerilla attacks," RIA Novosti reported Dec. 10. Over the weekend of Dec. 8, anti-government protests in Ukraine reignited, exceeding the turnout for the previous week's protest that came in reaction to Kiev's rejection of the EU Association Agreement

Tuesday  10 December  2013 / Hour 3, Block C:   Nicholas Wapshott,  Newsweek, in re: Like many musicians, artists, and filmmakers in the 1950s, Leonard Bernstein, the flamboyant conductor of the New York Philharmonic and composer of West Side Story, was forced to defend his political views, his friends, and his right to freedom of expression.

At a time when the NSA has all Americans under permanent surveillance, the virulent campaign by the FBI to discredit such a lauded American musician by smears and innuendo is an object lesson in how the powers of the state can be abused under the guise of protecting citizens from outside dangers.  While many of his friends ran afoul of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), Bernstein became embroiled in the Red Scare witch-hunt when he applied for the routine renewal of his passport in 1953. He found the State Department had . . .  [more]

Tuesday  10 December  2013 / Hour 3, Block D:  Mike Giglio, Buzzfeed, in re: Inside Syria: Al-Qaeda Was Here [note: see this map] Rebels linked to al-Qaeda are surging in Syria, but Kurdish fighters recently rolled back some of their gains. A tour through the newly won territory gives a rare look at life under the extremists — and a window into their vision for Syria. “It’s a black-and-white world for them. You can become their enemy very fast.”   [more]

 

Hour Four

Tuesday  10 December  2013 / Hour 4, Block A: The Battle of Midway: The Naval Institute Guide to the U.S. Navy's Greatest Victory by Thomas C. Hone  PART II (1 of 4)

Tuesday  10 December  2013 / Hour 4, Block B: The Battle of Midway: The Naval Institute Guide to the U.S. Navy's Greatest Victory by Thomas C. Hone  PART II (2 of 4)

Tuesday  10 December  2013 / Hour 4, Block C: The Battle of Midway: The Naval Institute Guide to the U.S. Navy's Greatest Victory by Thomas C. Hone  PART II (3 of 4)

Tuesday  10 December  2013 / Hour 4, Block D: The Battle of Midway: The Naval Institute Guide to the U.S. Navy's Greatest Victory by Thomas C. Hone  PART II (4 of 4)

..  ..  ..

Music

Hour 1:    Rush.  Limony Snicket.  Battlestar Galactica.

Hour 2:    The Raid.  Battlestar Galactica. The Corpse's Bride.  The Italian Job.

Hour 3:    Александр Невский/Alexander Nevsky, Sergei Prokofiev.  Lord of the Rings. 

Hour 4:    The Hunted.