The John Batchelor Show

Tuesday10 October 2017

Air Date: 
October 10, 2017

Photo: 1942 postage stamp featuring Dr Sun Yat-sen, father of the Republic of China. Today is Ten-ten day, the National Day of China.  Celebrated on Taiwan.
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Larry Kudlow, The Kudlow Report, CNBC; and Cumulus Media radio
 
Hour One
Tuesday  10 October 2017 / Hour 1, Block A: David M Drucker, CNN and Washington Examiner, in re:  GOP dysfunction in Congress. Tax bill easier to pass than healthcare? Not. 
Tuesday  10 October 2017 / Hour 1, Block B: David M Drucker, CNN and Washington Examiner, in re: Sen Corker and the present functioning of the GOP. Candidate Blackburn of Tennessee.
Tuesday  10 October 2017 / Hour 1, Block C: Scott Atlas, M.D., Hoover, in re:  How to reorganize the health-care discussion to improve the quality of the provision and also lower costs.
Tuesday  10 October 2017 / Hour 1, Block D: Brian Domitrovic,  professor of history at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, and author of Econoclasts: The Rebels Who Sparked the Supply-Side Revolution and Restored American Prosperity; in re: Is it accurate or not that, historically, significant tax reductions have led to major economic booms?  Why is Larry Summers reduced to ad hominem attacks in the FT? Are we heading in to the last stand of Keynesians?  [Not hold breath.] In a few weeks we celebrate the birthday of Robert Mundell [24 October; incidentally, this is also UN Day.] Hello, Nicholas!
JFK and the Reagan Revolution: A Secret History of American Prosperit, by Lawrence Kudlow and Brian Domitrovic
 
Hour Two
Tuesday  10 October 2017 / 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:  American journalist members of Russia Today (RT) are quitting en masse as they “fear for their security.”  Are we, also, about to fear a knock on the door?   Justice Dept demands that RT register as a foreign agent – a law designed in 1938 to protect the US against Nazis.  My opinion is that the new cold war we’re in is more dangerous than was the original Cold War.  “Cold war” generically describes relations between two countries that are more in conflict than in agreement.   . . .
Tuesday  10 October 2017 / 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 dangers proceeding from angry words from the US toward Russia; Russians are convinced that the “the US is already at war with Russia.”  NATO build-up and manoueuvers circumscribing Western Russia; Ukraine-Kiev avers it intends to recover Crimea and eastern Ukraine, to which Moscow is wholly unlikely to accede.  Russophone American CNN reporter goes to Moscow, interviews principals; now says: “Arms control is hanging by a thread.”
Tuesday  10 October 2017 / 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:  . .  . NYT speaks of “weaponized” information – comes to us from a hostile foreign power and must be censored.  Hang on; let's check facts here.   . . . Baltics.  War preparations. US War College.  Suwalki Gap (edge of Poland, between Byelorus and Kaliningrad).  Getting brigades to there with no hours to spare.   . . .  The Steele Dossier [good Lord; it’s been massively, overwhelmingly discredited. Still discussed?  If so: who initially paid for the comprehensively inaccurate material cited in it?  Surprise: some rich Democrats in preparation for the 2016 general election. --ed].
Tuesday  10 October 2017 / 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:  The Steele Dossier is junk, trash. Go read of it on Buzzfeed.   I predicted that when the opposition becomes desperate, they’ll go resuscitate that junk. And lo, that’s what they're doing.
New factors: the myth that Russia, unlike the old USSR, is too weak to wage cold war and thus eventually will capitulate. No empirical evidence for that.  Note that today Russia is the world’s leading exporter of grains; predict it’ll one day bring in more revenue than oil. Another myth that Russia is isolated in world affairs – but the king of Saudi Arabia has just visited there; and unlike the old Soviet bloc, which was angry and unwilling and economically a mess, today’s Russia carries no such burden, has voluntary and profitable partners and allies from the BRICSA and plenty of other nations.  Note that China was long a rival of the USSR; today, China and Russia are allies and partners: Politically, economically, militarily.  Be wary, our side!
 
Hour Three
Tuesday  10 October 2017 / Hour 3, Block A:  Jeff Bliss, Pacific Watch, in re: Catastrophic fires in northern and southern California   
Tuesday  10 October 2017 / Hour 3, Block B:   Robert Graboyes, senior research Fellow and Health Care Scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University; in re: Pres Trump will sign an executive order allowing Americans to buy health insurance across state lines?  I think it’ll  help little if at all – few insurance companies will use it.  Imagine a co. in Idaho wanting to sell in New York: a huge time and money investment to set that up.  To boot, there isn't that much regulatory difference between one state and another. Change cost structure?  Yes, in that Idahoans are by and large healthier, and doctors in Boise have lower costs than those in New York.  Life insurance is a different kettle of fish; only three questions: healthy when we sold the policy? Have you paid our annual premium? Have you died in the past year?
Modern economics assume that humans behave in rational ways and make consistent decisions. Richard Thaler, 2017 Nobelist, holds that we make mistakes, have odd thoughts, predictable ways of deviating from standard economics. Nudge factor.
Tuesday  10 October 2017 / Hour 3, Block C:   Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack,com, and author, “Capitalism in Space,” in re:  Three commercial satellites launched  this week – all in one day.  Iridium.  ISS becomes increasingly a private operation. . . . World View: was going to be tourist flights; now Stratellite high-altitude balloon can fly for weeks or years for recon, research, observation.  Team Indus, a finalist for X Prize, needs funds; crowdfunding?
Tuesday  10 October 2017 / Hour 3, Block D: Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack,com, and author, “Capitalism in Space,” in re: Inuit people demand an ESA launch be called off because of possible atmospheric contamination.  Inuit Circumpolar Council: birthing ground of all the  animals we eat. Nobody really knows the effects.  
USAF wants to spend money on launches through 2022. Asking for bids.  Ariane Group.  [more]
 
Hour Four
Tuesday  10 October 2017 / Hour 4, Block A:  Gregg Jones, Last Stand at Khe Sanh: The U.S. Marines' Finest Hour in Vietnam
Tuesday  10 October 2017 / Hour 4, Block B:  Gregg Jones, Last Stand at Khe Sanh: The U.S. Marines' Finest Hour in Vietnam
Tuesday  10 October 2017 / Hour 4, Block C:  Douglas Niles, A Noble Cause: American Battlefield Victories in Vietnam
Tuesday  10 October 2017 / Hour 4, Block D:  Douglas Niles, A Noble Cause: American Battlefield Victories in Vietnam