The John Batchelor Show

Tuesday 13 March 2018

Air Date: 
March 13, 2018

Photo:
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Larry Kudlow, The Kudlow Report, CNBC; and Cumulus Media radio
 
Hour One
Tuesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 1, Block A:   Bill Whalen, Hoover Institution, in re: California
Tuesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 1, Block B:   Bill Whalen, Hoover Institution, in re:  national economy
Tuesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 1, Block C:   Brett Arends,  marketwatch.com, in re: NAFTA
Tuesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 1, Block D:   Bud Weinberg, Southern Methodist University oil & gas, in re:  Texas & NAFTA
 
Hour Two
Tuesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 2, Block A:  Eli Lake, Bloomberg, in re: Rex Tillerson leaves State after a professional history of favoring diplomacy (of the old sort). Pres Trump was much affected by the torture and murder of Otto Warmbier by North Korea.  New Secretary of State to be Mike Pompeo, whose thinking is closer to that of Pres Trump.  Iran deal: three significant drawbacks to the deal that Pres Obama negotiated, but Tillerson seemed to be willing to go more than halfway to meet the European wishes, which are basically to make lots of money in trade with Iran.
Pompeo: expect a tough-minded attitude toward Russia, especially in the wake of the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, England.
Tuesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 2, Block B:  Entifadh Qanbar,  president, The Future Foundation, in Washington, D.C., in re:  Haider Abadi, Iraqi PM, includes the Shi’a militias into the formal Iraqi armed forces. His every decision is in favor of Iran, the Supreme Leader Khamenei, never of the well-being or security of Iraq or the US.  The Shi’a loyalty is definitively to Iran.   Two weeks ago, Kirkuk was critical to the Kurds but the Shi’a gang members were active and winning and ISIS was returning.  Planning a pipeline from Kirkuk to Iran (16,000 Bbl/day).  ISIS re-emergence. Iraq buying the superb S400 air defense system from Russia, install in western Iraq near Ramadi: to protect Iran. Incidentally, that’s on the flight path from Israel to Iran.
Tuesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 2, Block C:   Josh Rogin, Global Opinion columnist in the Washington Post, in re: Mike Pompeo, Congressman from Wichita, Kansas (and has a Harvard law degree); was whisked into being director of CIA, and now toward being State Secretary.  His accession to CI may have been due to his friendship with Devin Nunes, who’s on close terms with the president.   Pompeo’s associates consider him well able to run State, which may be heading to being refreshed based on Pompeo’s management skills, and improve the morale there.  Most State staff are relieved that Tillerson is gone, but don’t know what political direction they’ll be heading.  One of Pompeo’s strengths is explaining Trump policies to the public, and conveying new ideas to the president.
Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, is to visit Washington soonest.  Pompeo is more hawkish about that region, and views Qatar with concern. 
Tuesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 2, Block D: Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics, in re:  Space Station: how to park (dock).  Rules of the road. Interior: plumbing and sanitary facilities. In an efficient life-support system, have to recycle urine to obtain water; in the ISS, when systems broke down they needed storage space, and experienced a variety of technical problems.  Need four months of real water if you intend to go to the Moon. 
Hitherto, even a century ago, everybody around the world had clocks s to different times.  For space navigation, need precise conformity with very frequent time checks.
 
Hour Three
Tuesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 3, Block A:  Lee Smith, The Tablet, in re:  Allegations of the Steele dossier.   With HIPSCI saying there’s no evidence of collusion, what will Robert Mueller do? Erik Prince went to the Seychelles in 2017, and Mueller is suddenly fascinated. A former Navy SEAL opening a backchannel with the Kremlin in the Seychelles?  Nearly systematic abuses of FISA process.  Report was in WaPo on Lee Smith —how did it get there?   Did the Washington Post interview and pay a bartender in the Seychelles?  No.  Leaks. 
Look at what happened to Mike Flynn and Jeff Sessions. Why isn't Mueller looking at these leaks?  A former Navy SEAL opening a backchannel with the Kremlin in the Seychelles? A week after the election. What’s the backchannel for?  Nonsense; and Obama Adm systematic abuses of the FISA process. Mueller’s entire case is built on abuses. Why is he not focussing on these? Makes no sense unless you think that his purpose is to conceal the abuses. 
Tuesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 3, Block B:   Lee Smith, The Tablet, in re:  Robert Mueller. His reputation for nobility seems to be overstated: he made a massive error over an extended investigation and at the end not only refused to admit his error but expressed zero remorse for having damaged reputations. Similarly, with Scooter Libby.  . . .  The notion that Tillerson is tough on Russia and Pompeo is soft on Russia?  This is [nutty] and perverse.  I see no sign of Muller’s investigation ending; rather, his political goal is to continue and expand it. Anent Erik Prince:  we’ll be seeing Qatar given a free ride.  I’ll write about it.  Mueller’s investigation has no limits.  See Andy McCarthy’s piece in the National Review.  A travesty of justice.
Tuesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 3, Block C:   Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com, in re: Jim Brindenstein wants the job as the NASA administrator. Democrats in Congress have declined to install him after a year.  The pro tem administrator for the past year has just announced that he’ll retire at the end of March.  Rubio opposes Brindenstein and McCain isn't there to vote.  In face of Big Space, this may not be a bad thing. If NASA is adrift, it puts the pork projects in [abeyance].  . . . Elon Musk.  Nanosats & the FCC: FCC accused Swarm of having launched on an Indian rocket without a launch license.  The FCC had denied the license on grounds that the sats were too small and constitute space junk, but it’s not clear that the FCC has the right to make that determination. Workaround: Rocketlab Electron launch in April.   Blue Origin reusable New Glen.  Have four launch contracts. By the 2020s, SpaceX and Blue Origin probably will dominate the market.  Unmanned comms satellites may shift to small satellites.
Tuesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 3, Block D:   Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com, in re:  . . .  Beautiful weather  on Jupiter
 
Hour Four
Tuesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 4, Block A:   Stephen Rodriguez, founder of One Defense, a senior Fellow at New America, visiting professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California; and Dr. Jerry Hendrix, senior Fellow and director of the Defense Strategies and Assessments Program at the Center for a New American Security; retired Captain in the United States Navy;  in re: How to build 355 ships
Tuesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 4, Block B:  Stephen Rodriguez, founder of One Defense, a senior Fellow at New America, visiting professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California; and Dr. Jerry Hendrix, senior Fellow and director of the Defense Strategies and Assessments Program at the Center for a New American Security; retired Captain in the United States Navy;  in re: Extending the range of aircraft carrier wings
Tuesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 4, Block C:  Barry Straus, The Death of Caesar.  Caesar’s assassination on the ides of March.
Tuesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 4, Block D:  Barry Straus, The Death of Caesar.  Caesar’s assassination on the ides of March.