Tuesday 30 August 2016
Photo, left: FARC areas of operation
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Larry Kudlow, CNBC senior advisor; & Cumulus Media radio
Hour One
Tuesday 30 August 2016 / Hour 1, Block A: Joseph Rago, Wall Street Journal, in re: The crumbling ACA. A third of counties will have one insurance company; one county (in Arizona) has none. Cost increases average 18% this year, alone; the ACA’s original architecture was not good. Insurance companies and not-for-profits are pulling out of the exchanges. Every year, wore selections, insurers can’t cover costs. Want higher subsidies and a public option: “Co-ops” did not have unltd access to fed tax dollars and so collapsed. All Mr Trump has to do is take that document off the shelf . . . A GOP House will not bail out this system – much too expensive and poorly put together – all the geniuses from MIT (Gruber) told us how this would work: higher deductibles, and higher fees, and that’d subsidize the older, sicker, poorer people. The Ph.D.s have been destroying the Fed, and now also the health-care system. It was rammed through over GOP objections; huge social laws need bipartisan buy-in; that hasn’t happened.
Obamacare is in trouble “If the program gets over this set of troubles, it could do well. . . . The Republican nominee, Donald Trump, calls the ACA “disastrous” and blames it, . . .
Marketplace troubles poised to impact swing state Senate races First, there absolutely are problems in the marketplaces. Premiums will rise much more rapidly next year than they did this year. As the Kaiser Family Foundation’s analysis for the Wall Street Journal story published this week shows, in almost a third of counties–31%–marketplace enrollees may have a choice of only one plan next year. This will affect about 19% of enrollees, primarily in rural areas, and is a substantial increase from this year. But the administration is right to point out that the vast majority of enrollees will be insulated from premium increases by government subsidies if they enroll in one of the lowest-cost plans available in their area. Still, some enrollees who receive partial or no subsidies cannot afford coverage. President Barack Obama recognized that this month in his Journal of the American Medical Association article on the law, which called for Congress to increase financial assistance for this group.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/08/29/the-aca-marketplace-problems-in...
Recent piece on minority employment in Wisconsin: http://www.wsj.com/articles/running-to-survive-in-the-year-of-trump-1471041715
Tuesday 30 August 2016 / Hour 1, Block B: Joseph Rago, Wall Street Journal, in re: The Joseph Project n Wisconsin: small suburban, and rural firms can't find and hire entry-level workers for factory jobs, whereas downtown Milwaukee urgently needs jobs. Ergo, churches are using their van to drive Milwaukee residents to jobs. First, a week-long seminar in job skills. Those who complete the training get an interview. Terrific success rate. Representative Ron Jonson, to whom many encomia, is bringing in more and more companies – about two years old, already making a big difference. LK: I ‘ve spoken at the Sheboygan Economics Club. JR: Many of the new employees are too poor to buy a car; many middle-aged persons can now meet their bills for the first time in their life.
Tuesday 30 August 2016 / Hour 1, Block C: Carson Bruno, Hoover, via Breitbart.com, in re: California's Top Export Continues to Be Its Middle Class In the latest update by the IRS for the period of 2013 to 2014, California exported a net 57,900 citizens, whose average incomes were $7,100 higher than the state’s average
Tuesday 30 August 2016 / Hour 1, Block D: Kori Schake, Hoover, in re: Why is it important for Americans to understand he military even when they haven't served – esp when they vote. Need to be able to hold political leadership accountable for expenditures, for [deeds]. Public support for the military in the US is broad but shallow. Argue that legal issues are the one area of expertise citizens think they know – but don't know anything about the laws of war; don't know that civilian casualties need to be: proportionate.” Thus don’t have stable foundation for long-term policies, such as fighting terrorism. Mr Trump: “our military is disastrous” – inaccurate and unhelpful. Mrs Clinton? We don’t know. LK: Not helpful for generals and flag officers to jump in and campaign for a candidate – the public loses respect for them. . . . KS: “Trump doesn’t have a right to judge [a general] because he never served “ – completely not true!
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Warriors and Citizens: American Views of Our Military; edited by: Kori N. Schake, James Mattis, both of Hoover.
Is there a gap between our military and our broader society?
It has been said that 1 per cent of our citizens serve and go to war and that 99 per cent go to the mall. In Warriors and Citizens, a diverse group of contributors offers perspectives on whether or not the different experiences of our military and the broader society are fraying the traditional civil relationship—and if the American public is losing connection to its military. The authors analyze extensive polling information to identify gaps between civilian and military attitudes on issues central to the military profession and the professionalism of our military, determine which if any of those gaps are problematic for sustaining the traditionally strong bonds between the American military and its broader public, analyze whether such gaps are amenable to remediation by policy means, and assess potential solutions.
The contributors also explore public disengagement and the effect of high levels of public support for the military combined with low levels of trust in elected political leaders—both recurring themes in their research. They also reflect on whether American society is becoming divorced from the requirements for success on the battlefield so that not only will it fail to comprehend our military but be willing to tolerate a military constituted along more traditional lines to protect our more progressive society.
Contributors: Rosa Brooks, Matthew Colford, Thomas Donnelly, Peter Feaver, Jim Golby, Jim Hake, Tod Lindberg, Jim Mattis, Mackubin Thomas Owens, Cody Poplin, Nadia Schadlow, Kori Schake, A. J. Sugarman, Lindsay Cohn Warrior, Benjamin Wittes
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Among other things, the book highlights that while Americans' favorable view of the military is still at an all-time high, these broad sentiments don’t appear to run particularly deep, which presents issues for effective governance. For example:
* 55% of respondents didn’t know if they had confidence in our military to perform well in wartime.
* 52% didn’t know or have an opinion on whether or not the public would tolerate large numbers of casualties.
* 57% didn’t have an opinion on whether or an effective military depends on a clear chain of command.
Why is this a problem? When the public is uneducated, there may be little penalty when the president or Congress makes ineffectual strategic decisions, if that is deploying troops in numbers inadequate to carry out strategy (such as in Iraq before 2006 and after 2010, or in Afghanistan throughout the campaign since 2001); ineffectively fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria; or not addressing the readiness degradation inflicted by budget sequestration. http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/08/24/the-disconnect-beneath-the-praise-for-u-s-military/
Hour Two
Tuesday 30 August 2016 / Hour 2, Block A: Dr Lara M Brown, George Washington University, & Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune Review, in re: Trump didn’t appear in public on Monday, suggesting he and his team are working on the Wednesday speech that could be a pivotal point on the road to November. While he’s been telegraphing a potential shift for more than a week, Trump’s public comments on immigration have muddied the waters.
In two recent interviews, Trump used both the words “softening” and “hardening” to describe his immigration evolution. “There could certainly be a softening because we’re not looking to hurt people," Trump said during a Fox News town hall on Wednesday night.
"I don't think it's a softening. I've had people say it's a hardening, actually,” he told CNN two days later. Further complicating the picture, campaign manager Kellyanne Conway and vice presidential nominee Mike Pence have said that Trump is not changing his position on immigration. http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/293731-trump-at-immigration-crossroads
2. Clinton Debate prep:
Clinton's campaign reached out to Tony Schwartz, the co-author of "The Art of the Deal," looking to get information about the GOP presidential nominee's insecurities.
The Democratic nominee's team thinks Trump is most insecure about his "intelligence, his net worth and his image as a successful businessman," the Times reported.
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/293767-clinton-campaign-talking-to-trump-ghostwriter-for-debate
3. Trump and minority outreach
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/293752-trumps-popularity-with-african-american-voters-polling-at
New PPP poll released on @maddow —
TRUMP FAV/UNFAV with African American voters is:
Fav: 0%
UnFav: 97%
Undecided 3%
4. The Senate http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/senate-races/293781-senate-dem-pac-delaying-ohio-ads
The group had reserved nearly $4 million in airtime across four Ohio markets between Sept. 6 and Oct. 3. But early Tuesday, several Republican ad buyers told The Hill that at least some of those ads — totaling about $191,000 in the Columbus and Dayton markets set to run between Sept. 6 and Sept. 19 — had been cancelled. (1 of 2)
Tuesday 30 August 2016 / Hour 2, Block B: Dr Lara M Brown, George Washington University, & Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune Review (2 of2)
Tuesday 30 August 2016 / Hour 2, Block C: Annie Correal, New York Times, in re: Jaime Correal Martinez. He wasn’t targeted for any particular reason. At the time, kidnapping for ransom was rampant in Colombia, one of the ways the rebels financed the insurgency, along with trafficking cocaine, and he was presumed to be wealthy.
What would my father think of the peace deal with his kidnappers?
While my father was being held, his travel company went out of business. We lost everything. And we were among the lucky ones. The 52-year conflict, involving the FARC, the military and brutal right-wing paramilitaries, is believed to have claimed more than 220,000 lives, left 40,000 people missing and displaced more than five million.
The news that the FARC rebels have agreed, after four years of negotiations, to permanently lay down their arms, disband and join the political system is a cause for celebration for some in Colombia. It is the closest the country has ever come to ending its conflict, the longest war in the Americas. Peace in Colombia, the elusive dream of millions who have marched in the streets, seems finally within reach. President Juan Manuel Santos called the accord the door to “a new stage in our history.” http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/29/world/americas/colombia-farc-rebels-kidnapping.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Fannie-correal&action=click&contentCollection=undefined®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection (1 of 2)
Tuesday 30 August 2016 / Hour 2, Block D: Annie Correal, New York Times (2 of 2)
Hour Three
Tuesday 30 August 2016 / Hour 3, Block A: James Taranto, Wall Street Journal, in re: Political polls & how they change. The circus of a current political campaign. Mrs Clinton’s campaign. (1 of 2)
Tuesday 30 August 2016 / Hour 3, Block B: James Taranto, Wall Street Journal (2 of 2)
Tuesday 30 August 2016 / Hour 3, Block C: Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack, in re: First relaunch of Falcon 9 first stage announced The competition heats up: SpaceX and the Luxembourg satellite company SES today announced that the of SES 10 this fall will use one of the Falcon 9 first stages that has flown previously and been recovered. From the SES press release:
“Having been the first commercial satellite operator to launch with SpaceX back in 2013, we are excited to once again be the first customer to launch on SpaceX’s first ever mission using a flight-proven rocket. We believe reusable rockets will open up a new era of spaceflight, and make access to space more efficient in terms of cost and manifest management,” said Martin Halliwell, Chief Technology Officer at SES. “This new agreement reached with SpaceX once again illustrates the faith we have in their technical and operational expertise. The due diligence the SpaceX team has demonstrated throughout the design and testing of the SES-10 mission launch vehicle gives us full confidence that SpaceX is capable of launching our first SES satellite dedicated to Latin America into space.”
I also like how they call the used first stage “flight-proven.” This story notes that the insurance cost for the launch weren’t raised either. The exact date has not yet been set, but it will be in the fourth quarter of 2016. http://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/first-r... (1 of 2)
Tuesday 30 August 2016 / Hour 3, Block D: Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack (2 of 2)
Hour Four
Tuesday 30 August 2016 / Hour 4, Block A: The Brazen Age: New York City and the American Empire: Politics, Art, and Bohemia, by David Reid Part II of II (segment 5 of 8)
https://www.amazon.com/Brazen-Age-American-Politics-Bohemia-ebook/dp/B00SPVZBI2/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1472515913&sr=1-1#nav-subnav
Tuesday 30 August 2016 / Hour 4, Block B: The Brazen Age: New York City and the American Empire: Politics, Art, and Bohemia, by David Reid Part II of II (segment 6 of 8)
Tuesday 30 August 2016 / Hour 4, Block C: The Brazen Age: New York City and the American Empire: Politics, Art, and Bohemia, by David Reid Part II of II (segment 7 of 8)
Tuesday 30 August 2016 / Hour 4, Block D: The Brazen Age: New York City and the American Empire: Politics, Art, and Bohemia, by David Reid Part II of II (segment 8 of 8)
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