The John Batchelor Show

Wednesday 14 October 2020

Air Date: 
October 14, 2020

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
 
Hour One
Wednesday 14 October 2020 / Hour 1, Block A:  Henry Miller, @henryimiller, Pacific Research Institute, in re:  2016 in Lorraine County, Ohio, where police seized pills that looked like oxycodone but n fact were an experimental drug.   Apparently fraud. The online ”Canadian pharmacies” are in fact from the Middle East or Africa.  This is the Russian maffiya, Chinese triad, Hezbollah—a cash cow for all the bad actors on the planet. Americans pay money to killers.
The annual business runs between $250 billion and $450 billion. See: HenryMiller.org    China has a stranglehold on drug precursors. Obviously, these bogus drugs are life-threatening.    
Wednesday 14 October 2020 / Hour 1, Block B:  Henry Miller, @henryimiller, Pacific Research Institute, in re: How to solve this?  First, admit we have a problem.  Jail time and penalties for counterfeit pharmaceuticals is maybe three years and $10,000; whereas of illicit drugs such as heroin or cocaine, can be lifetime plus millions.  . . .  WHO estimates how many counterfeit drugs are around the world: fearfully high.  If you see an online drug ad and a price that’s too low—be suspicious; or run away. 
Wednesday 14 October 2020 / Hour 1, Block C:  Michael Yon: @Michael_Yon , East Asia reporter; and Gordon Chang, @GordonGChang, Daily Beast, in re:  Repression of Hong Kong by the Mainland authorities; and Xi Jinping’s intention to take HK down a notch, to be replaced in finance by Shanghai and industry in Shenzen.   Mainland officials have long been jealous of HK.  Xi gave a speech in Shenzen about how Shenzen is the future. Undermine HK across the board.  Shenzen has been an ATM for China.  Trying to change history curriculum in schools: force children to learn Mandarin, not Cantonese; and overwhelm HK population with Mainland immigrants.
       First, establish control by making HK less important. It's not its prosperity, but its culture of liberty and foreign population that alarm Xi.  Xi is destroying Hong Kong’s British legal system. 
Wednesday 14 October 2020 / Hour 1, Block D:  Charles Burton: @cburton001, blogs at RealityChek; and Macdonald-Laurier Institute; and Gordon Chang: @GordonGChang, Daily Beast; in re:  China and the UN ; and the arbitrary detention of two Canadians since December 2018. Many of the Canadian elites want China simply to comply with China instead of facing serious charges of fraud in a New York court.  Justin Trudeau’s attitude seems to be showing a bit of movement.  [Trudeau long has grovelled to China.] China is practiced at hostage-taking: Australians, Japanese and Americans all languish there.   Secretary Pompeo’s stands have helped a great deal.  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-china-canada/trump-trudeau-discuss-two-detained-canadians-china-grants-virtual-consular-access-idUSKBN26V0YN
 
Hour Two
Wednesday 14 October 2020 / Hour 2, Block A:  Salena Zito: @SalenaZito @DCExaminer @RealClearPolitics; New York Post, CNN;  Middle of Somewhere column; in re:  Registered GOP voter in Cranbury Township alarmed at the present chaos.  Wants uncertainty to end; it’s usually blamed on the incumbent.  President Trump needs to reassure these voters. Washington keeps misreading the messages from the voters: DC pols thinks they like their own party, whereas its often that the voters are so infuriated with the other party that they voted for its opponent.  Wiley Coyote.  Is Joe Biden the alternative to today’s chaos? No. Not about Biden; it's about Trump and covid.  Trump is losing senior citizens; if he does that, he loses the election.   If Trump happens to lose, then 2022 ends up being 2010 all over again, a good year for Republicans in both House and Senate.
Wednesday 14 October 2020 / Hour 2, Block B:  Salena Zito: @SalenaZito @DCExaminer @RealClearPolitics; New York Post, CNN; Middle of Somewhere column; in re:  Senator Pat Toomey from Pennsylvania.  Was president of the Club for Growth, is a free-trader, so disagrees with Trump on some matters but respects the success of his trade policies.
Wednesday 14 October 2020 / Hour 2, Block C:  Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com; in re:  Core module, Russian habitation , Zvezda: temperature is going up and up.  (The Zvezda Service Module [ Звезда, "star"] was the first fully Russian contribution to the International Space Station and served as the early cornerstone for the first human habitation of the station. Launched in 2000, so is old.) Roscosos Gateway: proposed space station near the Moon; a halfway place en route. Rogozin is sort of backing out of the agreement as it’s too US-centered.  Would need to sign the Artemis Accord, which Russians oppose. Docking ports compatibility.  Bridenstine.  Rogozin wants to partner with China.  Blue Origin.  Drago n manned flight delayed till mid-November.
Wednesday 14 October 2020 / Hour 2, Block D:  Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com; in re: 
 
Hour Three
Wednesday 14 October 2020 / Hour 3, Block A:  John Catsimatidis,  @JCats2013, @CatsRoundtable, Red Apple Media & Cats Roundtable radio, in re:  State of the City, the State, the Union: Seven Liberal Democratic candidates for NYC mayor aim to fire the Police Commissioner; & What is to be done? John Catsimatidis @JCats2013 @CatsRoundtable @JohnCats
Wednesday 14 October 2020 / Hour 3, Block B:  Matt Warner, Atlas Network CEO, in re: Atlas Network is a nonprofit grantmaking organization committed to supporting local NGOs in more than 90 countries.  World poverty Day on Saturday 17 October
Wednesday 14 October 2020 / Hour 3, Block C:  David Maxwell, @DavidMaxwell161, senior Fellow at FDD, & Gordon Chang: @GordonGChang, Daily Beast; in re: US Ambassador to the Republic of Korea: “South Korea doesn’t have to remain allied with the US.” What I think he meant to say was that we’ve had an alliance for seventy years; henceforth, it’ll be stronger as both sides commit to the structure they choose; South Korea needn’t be a junior partner.  Moon Jae-in in the past has leant to China, but he’ll be in power for two more years.  A long-term view shows that we’ve weathered some difficult periods.  It’s to our benefit to maintain a presence in East Asia and the Pacific.  Guam and Wake Island.  Is it wise to maintain a target of US personnel so close to China?  Our five alliance partners in the Indo-Pacific region. In future, strategic flexibility.  Great power competition one hopes in form of [nonkinetic] competition.  KPop group spoke well of the US and got in trouble culturally in Korea.  Young people, especially, support the US.  Recall that North Korea started the war, and China supported it; five million people perished. China was complicit in those deaths.     https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/south-korea-doesnt-have-to-remain-allied-with-us-ambassador-warns
Wednesday 14 October 2020 / Hour 3, Block D:  Rick Fisher, senior Fellow on Asian Military Affairs of the International Assessment and Strategy Center; and Gordon Chang: @GordonGChang, Daily Beast; in re:  North Korea displays a rocket that can hit the US.  China's assistance to North Korea's missile program. Comments on the hardware displayed in Pyongyang parade on the tenth.  We've learned that NK is adept at producing ever-larger liquid-fuelled missiles.  Outsiders call it the Hwasong-16; seems to be able to carry multiple warheads.  Yes, China's influence: the missile has to be taken rapidly to a launch point, carried here by an erector made in China or at least co-produced with China.   Fourth version of Chinese Aerospace Science and Industry Corp.  Current one has 22 wheels.  Why has the US govt failed after ten years to confront China on this?  Indians suspect that China helped profoundly in multiple-warhead mfr.  US is pouring billions into missile development, now that the US has left the INF treaty with the Soviet Union, and can restore a balance of power in East Asia, including deterring North Korea from thinking it can start a war.  The other big message from Saturday's parade is Norks's investment in heavy [military industry]. 
 
Hour Four
Wednesday 14 October 2020 / Hour 4, Block A:  1/8 The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s, by William I Hitchcock
Wednesday 14 October 2020 / Hour 4, Block B:  2/8 The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s, by William I Hitchcock
Wednesday 14 October 2020 / Hour 4, Block C:  3/8 The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s, by William I Hitchcock
Wednesday 14 October 2020 / Hour 4, Block D:  4/8 The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s, by William I Hitchcock