Photo: Israeli drip irrigation is a type of micro-irrigation that has the potential to save water and nutrients by allowing water to drip slowly to the roots of plants, either from above the soil surface or buried below the surface. The goal is to place water directly into the root zone and minimize evaporation. Drip irrigation systems distribute water through a network of valves, pipes, tubing, and emitters. Depending on how well designed, installed, maintained, and operated it is, a drip irrigation system can be more efficient than other types of irrigation systems, such as surface irrigation or sprinkler irrigation., 
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Tuesday co-host: Larry Kudlow, Director of the National Economic Council under Pres Donald Trump.  (This evening, Larry Kudlow was unable to attend; will return next week.)
 
Hour One
Tuesday 17 April 2018/ Hour 1, Block A:.  Liz Peek, Fiscal Times and Fox News, in re:  [Recounting of daily news, incl Israeli consultation with US on strikes against Iranian redoubts in Syria.]   US economy is humming along very well. China’s deference to current US policy on tariffs, esp anent automobiles.  In the contretemps between the two on trade, China has more to lose than the US does.  Hitherto, China has obliged foreign mfrs to transfer all technology to China, which the set out to produce the goods independently [and laugh at the dumb老鬼 lao-guei]. 
Israel is becoming a net exporter of both energy and water in the region. On 8 Nov 2016, US energy producers enjoyed an enormous boost as it anticipated a diminution of [strangling] federal regulations.  The war on fossil fuels under Pres Obama : O&G was the industry best at creating jobs but the president ignored it.  The most beneficial thing we can do f/b/o the US is to drive oil prices down and also lift the stranglehold that Russia has on Europe with its energy transmissions. 
There’s a buoyant economy here in Israel, too. 
Tuesday 17 April 2018/ Hour 1, Block B:   Liz Peek, Fiscal Times and Fox News, in re:  James Comey — world’s tallest Boy Scout or something else?  Hos tortured remarks:  those who thought he was honorable are shocked: his book is tawdry; it's so undignified; people called it “bitchy” as he wrote of very personal attributes of President Trump.   I think he wanted to regain the admiration of the Hillary Clinton camp, but ha not much won them over.  Trump voters see him as not only dishonorable or a snake, but corrupt. I think he’s badly damaged the reputation of he FBI. The Stephanopoulos interview was most upsetting ot me: never asked any tough question, e.g., never followed up on Clinton allegations, many others.  Softball. Pretty bad;  both Stephanopoulos and Comey have come under heavy criticism for it.
Tuesday 17 April 2018/ Hour 1, Block C:   Steve Moore, Heritage, in re:  JB: Israel becoming an energy and water exporter; have met fans of Steve Moore here in Israel, esp US energy producers from Texas, Oklahoma, California, Kansas. 
SM:  Glad to have fans in Israel; and that’s a great story.  Wouldn't it be great if Israel and the US became net O&G exporters to break the back of OPEC? 
JB: Natgas field being developed under the Med between Cyprus and Israel.
SM:   Horizontal drilling, only a decade old, can produce oil profitably at $60 Bbl instead of $80. 
JB: Deregulation has meant everything to the US O&G producers – instead of waking up every morning afraid of the onslaught of new regulations, they can now bounce out of bed intent on fresh production.
SM: Another terrific change is that this Administration is working on opening Federal lands to drilling – not Yosemite or Yellowstone, but unused land. 
JB: These fellows were convinced that if Mrs Clinton had won and continued Obamas policies it would have been the end of America.
SM: Of all the nations in the world, the US has most reduced its emissions, by dint of increasing use of natgas.  . . .  Obama people were determined to stop natgas , too, by imputing methane to it. 
JB: These O&G men encouraged everyone to head to Bismark, or Tulsa, or Fargo – they need workers!
Tuesday 17 April 2018/ Hour 1, Block D:   Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics, in re:   Kwajalein atoll space fence and space geeks. Boat or plane to get there.  Radar facility out of a Hardy boys movie: a space fence by the US Air Force. Kwajalein is 2,000 mi west of Hawaii, and close to the Equator.  Shooting up to low-Earth and geosynchronous orbits: can track well. “Fence” is a trip line.  Space sensors being raised everywhere in a sort of grid-like pattern.  Looks as though Russians are reopening their program.   Can detect things in space as small as a marble.
On this atoll are space geeks launching “sounding rocket missions.”  NASA’s sounding rocket squad, Wallops Island, test a lot of suborbital. 
 
Hour Two
Tuesday 17 April 2018/ Hour 2, Block A:  Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus; American Committee for East-West Accord; author: Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War, & The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag after Stalin;  in re:    JB:  Have recently left Cracow, within driving distance of Ukraine, and flown to Israel; in both places, among the hottest conflict zones on Earth.  Here in Middle East, Russia has good relations with Kurds, Turks, Israelis, Syrians, Egyptians — everyone.  Drone sent over Golan I to Israel.  Then 80&% of Russian people approved war in Ukraine.  . . . Poles are fiercely anti-Russian, ready to go to war; Ukrainians also ready to join the Poles.  New cold war, also in cyberspace: routine for US to speak of Russian troll factories or troll armies. FBI head says the US president is a blackmail victim of the Russians. 
SFC: Sounds as though you, I, and Comey are all troll victims.  Had you been in Southeastern Ukraine, you would have seen a different [POV] on Russia.  Cuban missile crisis of 1962: it was an iconic event; we were supposed to earn all manner of survival lessons.  . .  . Seems as though the lessons of yesteryear are vaporized during this new cold war; esp when the Trump Adm decided to launch those missiles on 7 April; we came close to a new missile crisis. Recall that Putin & Defense Min and Foreign Min said that Russia would strike back if installations were attacked if any US attack either killed any Russia (some were killed by US-backed proxy fighters; Russia stood down, but said it if it happened again Russia wd strike back at US troops and launcher); also, on 1 March Putin said Russia wd protect its allies, being above all  Syria, specifically Damascus. 
Tuesday 17 April 2018/ Hour 2, Block B:  Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus; American Committee for East-West Accord; author: Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War, & The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag after Stalin;  in re:  The airstrike by France, UK and Washington: successful?  An escalation one more time?  This is escalation. How did we get to that moment? Let’s recall that since winning the presidency Trump has been hectored daily about not being tough enough against Russia; and the Russiagate crowd keeps moving the end zone, where the goal is war.  As a result, Trump has been in effect trapped into a contradictory Russia policy: sends arms to Ukraine, agrees to some sanctions then reverses; then pushes back against Haley at the UN.
In the Skirpal affair in England, it was alleged that Russians tried to kill a former Russian spy with a nerve agent – and no proof ever offered.  The official story presented by Theresa May has fallen apart as her own labs said it couldn’t identify the agent and said it wasn’t lethal since the two didn't die and are being released from hospital.
 . . . Pres Trump has been heavily pressed to do something against Assad. 
Tuesday 17 April 2018/ Hour 2, Block C:  Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus; American Committee for East-West Accord; author: Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War, & The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag after Stalin;  in re:  On 13-14 April, the attack: the attack did not wait for the evidence. Was it destroyed during the attacks?  Dunno – skimpy info on what was attacked.  Now we have the alleged crime by Assad of using chlorine gas against his own people;
Trump had proposed a US-Russia summit to discuss the new nuclear weapons each possesses.  It was clear all along that Trump did not want to launch the missiles. Note that it was a grand coalition of two – France and UK. Mattis did not support the strikes.  Trump and the Kremlin wanted to avoid a Cuban missile crisis–style event. So US warned Russia that the strike was coming and what would be struck.  Russians are embedded with Syrians; we told them to get out of there. In preliminary reports, no one was killed; except in Israeli strikes against the Iranian base on the other side of Damascus.
Today, anent the US strike, no Syrians were killed. Stuck a “chemical facility” – nothing important was struck. I conclude this was for show, done for domestic US political reasons. Politics pure and simple. Americans went out of their way not to cross Putin’s red lines. What does this tell us?
That this reckless policy toward the other nuclear superpower is being driven by US domestic politics and thing more. That Stormy Daniels is of more importance to the [anti-Trumpers] than is the risk of nuclear war.  Trump was traduced.  Might mean that Trump isn’t strong enough to resist, must prove his innocence with acts of war.  His campaign promise to work smoothly with Russia has been [largely abandoned].   There are at least four members of Congress preparing to speak out.  Sen Paul?  Umm.  
If you speak in favor of dialogue, you're condemned, Or, diplomacy has been criminalized.  A far as I can tell, Trump doesn’t have top aides favoring détente with Russia; instead, he has Haley and Pompeo, war mongers.  He seems to be a very alone president in Russia policy. 
Tuesday 17 April 2018/ Hour 2, Block D:  Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus; American Committee for East-West Accord; author: Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War, & The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag after Stalin; in re:  Crisis of new cold war grows deeper.  What would work now to lean toward rapprochement?  Not sure; tonight marks the completion of our four years of this discussion.  Our new cold war with Russia is much ore dangerous than was the previous one: hot war possibilities – Ukraine, Syria, and a new factor: since I was small, the American resident has been empowered to speak with Russia to avoid war, beginning with Eisenhower – but not  Trump, who’s under [threat]of being called soft on Russia.   Kennedy was free to negotiate with Russia to avoid nuclear war. If we get into such a crisis now, where war with Russia looms wd Pres Trump be free to negotiate with Pres Putin? I think not.  We're in greater danger now than we’ve ever been. For lack of a better word, so far, Putin has been a moderate. 
The war party in the Kremlin.  There will be a next time. 
 
Hour Three
Tuesday 17 April 2018/ Hour 3, Block A:  Anonymous Soldiers: The Struggle for Israel, 1917-1947, by Bruce Hoffman
Tuesday 17 April 2018/ Hour 3, Block B:  Anonymous Soldiers: The Struggle for Israel, 1917-1947, by Bruce Hoffman
Tuesday 17 April 2018/ Hour 3, Block C:  Anonymous Soldiers: The Struggle for Israel, 1917-1947, by Bruce Hoffman
Tuesday 17 April 2018/ Hour 3, Block D:  Anonymous Soldiers: The Struggle for Israel, 1917-1947, by Bruce Hoffman
 
Hour Four
Tuesday 17 April 2018/ Hour 4, Block A:  The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East, by Eugene Rogan
Tuesday 17 April 2018/ Hour 4, Block B:  The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East, by Eugene Rogan
Tuesday 17 April 2018/ Hour 4, Block C:  The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East, by Eugene Rogan
Tuesday 17 April 2018/ Hour 4, Block D:  The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East, by Eugene Rogan