Wednesday 16 December 2020
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Colleague: Gordon Chang, Daily Beast
Hour One
Wednesday 16 December 2020 / Hour 1, Block A: Richard Epstein: @RichardAEpstein, Chicago Law, NYU Law, Hoover Defining Ideas, in re: A tour down memory lane. Remember 2008? Advice to invest in Fannie and Freddy? A lo of money disappeared into the government. Collins v Mnuchin: where did the $29 billion go? Property rights and fiduciary duties, and arcana. Treasury was told to make a loan to bail out Fannie & Freddie with attention to the citizens’s funds. Not so the fellow in charge, who attended to the shareholders. Case starts in 2014, judge gives a horrible opinion on technical grounds. Conservators. By February 2017, begins Perry v Mnuchin.
SCOTUS blog: Issues(1) Whether the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s structure violates the separation of powers; and (2) whether the courts must set aside a final agency action that FHFA took when it was unconstitutionally structured and strike down the statutory provisions that make FHFA independent.
Wednesday 16 December 2020 / Hour 1, Block B: Richard Epstein: @RichardAEpstein, Chicago Law, NYU Law, Hoover Defining Ideas, in re: The Special Counsel law. A stirring denunciation of . . . Today, clamor for investigation into the dealings of Hunter Biden. Durham has taken a long time. Bidens: you almost have to have some degree of protection in these matters, esp with a partisan Attorney General. Bill Barr is very much his own man.
Wednesday 16 December 2020 / Hour 1, Block C: Nury Turkel, @nuryturkel, co-founder of the Uyghur Human Rights Project and a commissioner of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom; and Gordon Chang, Daily Beast, in re: Blood cotton, like blood diamonds, but people worked to death in cotton fields of Central Asia. The crime of the Uyghur people of East Turkestan, under the boot of the CCP dictatorship. Concentration camps, abductions, persecutions—and the cotton fields of Xinjiang. See: Wall Street Journal article.
If consumers and mills worldwide refuse to buy blood cotton, will that stop the crime? I grew up in Kashgar. What’s disturbing is that the American business community ignores it. Chopping off women’s hair, making PPE under forced-labor conditions. China purposely targets [victims] based on religion. The ICC (Intl Criminal Court) has refused to take up a case on China’s crimes against humanity on grounds that China isn't a signatory; last year, they took a case against Burma, which also is not a signatory. Huge disappointment among Uyghurs. Business leaders feign ignorance. The UN hasn't uttered a syllable on this. Would China use cash to suppress an investigation? Definitely yes. Persuasion, corruption, intimidation. China puts its best dips on human rights cases because they know they’re so vulnerable. The new US administration: I'd like to be an optimist, and this also include US national security interests. China and the global supply chains. Religious persecution is a precursor to genocide.
Wednesday 16 December 2020 / Hour 1, Block D: James Holmes: @NavalWarCollege, first holder of the Wylie Chair of Maritime Strategy at the Naval War College and blogger at The Naval Diplomat; and Gordon Chang: @GordonGChang, Daily Beast, in re: Seabees, the Naval construction battalion, invented on the fly in early WWII. Needed bases with facilities, none of which existed in the Pacific. . . . Japanese flew in the morning, arrived about noon and bombed, then left. Seabees pushed detritus back into the holes and pulled metal mats over them, all the while being shot at by Japanese snipers. Can the US Navy today adapt when it’s overwhelmed? Hope so. Do we have the improvise-on-the-fly attitude we did in WWII? It's a story of how people ignored rules in order to get things done. Problem is, if you don’t have an adversary to keep yourself sharp, can grow lax. Chinese army in Ladakh has been very unimpressive: good at intimidating but not good in battle. Guadalcanal was a victory. Japanese troops abandoned at the end, so frustrated were they by the Seabees.
Hour Two
Wednesday 16 December 2020 / Hour 2, Block A: Salena Zito:@SalenaZito @DCExaminer @RealClearPolitics; New York Post, CNN; Middle of Somewhere column; in re: Snow is falling across the Eastern seaboard and even in Pittsburgh. Wave election: a reflection of why Washington doesn't understand. Joe Biden won, narrowly, but down-ballot Republicans won a great deal. Schumer famously said: “We’ll win in Georgia and take over the country”—that’s not the message voters are sending to Washington. I believe the Midterms will also largely go to the GOP. It wasn’t about loving Democrats, it was that some took issue with trump’s comportment, Pelosi is extremely shrewd and sees this; why is she acting as though she has all power? There are two Pelosis: dog and pony show, and having to whip a goat. In January, it’ll be a carefully balanced Senate. Puts the brakes on anything big happening. Mary Annette Miller-Meeks in Congress. Christmas is a time to celebrate getting this far with your family.
Wednesday 16 December 2020 / Hour 2, Block B: Salena Zito:@SalenaZito @DCExaminer @RealClearPolitics; New York Post, CNN; Middle of Somewhere column; in re: New Alexandria, PA, off the highway (Route 22), on a rugged dirt road, then introduced to a gorgeous valley filled with Christmas trees. Families are getting out of their car, going up to cut their own tree. Caring for the farm is a year-round endeavor. Farmers shape the trees. A young man, Mr Fleming, owns 32 farms; 14,000 trees this year. It takes eight years to get a good mature tree. He plants 50 million seedlings annually. Constant replanting, reforesting. People are more nostalgic this year, prefer a real tree. Especially in Western PA, people buy several trees for their Victorian homes. Pittsburgh is not in good shape economically—stores and buildings shuttered, not a lot of people; “only riff-raff” walking down the street. Sad.
Wednesday 16 December 2020 / Hour 2, Block C: Gregory R Copley: Defense and Foreign Affairs; Gregory R Copley, The New Total War of the Twenty-first Century and the Trigger of the Fear Pandemic, in re: My adventure , voyage, in Azerbaijan; a ceasefire between two formerly Soviet states. The terms are that there are peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh. Is this a stable ceasefire? Would be very disadvantageous to Armenia, and Russia doesn’t want more fighting. A road/land route to Nakhchivan in Ganja, I was led to craters created by Scud missiles sent into a nonmilitary city with farmers, shepherds, shopkeepers. Late-Soviet architecture. The missiles atomized neighborhoods, many killed. Children’s toys, pieces of apartments. Attacks sometimes in the middle of the night when people were sleeping. Isn’t this a war crime? How about Russia providing armaments to such a regime? Armenia trying to provide strategic [fear] to Azerbaijan. Missiles could carry large throw weight but not be aimed accurately. Armenia now is playing h victim card with refugees; but Armenia displaced hundreds of thousands when it militarily took over Nagorno-Karabakh. Russia could bring about a grand bargain between the two. The Armenian lobby in the US has never been helpful in solving problems within Armenia—corruption, political problems. All it’s ever done is demand that Turkey acknowledge the Armenia genocide. Turkish flags flowing all over Azerbaijan. This has bolstered Erdogan’s self-confidence; will now throw his weight around in Libya, the Horn of Africa; but he’s out of money. New gas pipelines can now go straight into Turkey, which will claim a small fee; this could save Turkey.
Georgia hasn't helped Moscow that much recently, so Russia may approve of the new pipeline.
Thirty million Azeris live in Iran, 10 million in Azerbaijan.
Russia as a peacekeeper: gives them a lot of strength, on the ground in Azerbaijan. Russia-Iran-PRC axis to defeat the US. A Eurasian trading bloc.
Wednesday 16 December 2020 / Hour 2, Block D: Gregory R Copley: Defense and Foreign Affairs; Gregory R Copley, The New Total War of the Twenty-first Century and the Trigger of the Fear Pandemic, in re: The civil war in Ethiopia. Tigrayans. Abiy, central government successfully launched an offensive into the Tigre tribal area. Tigre, the TPLF, began the war; is a strenuously Marxist organization, was a terrorist group in the 1980s, esp against the [wicked] Derg. Controlled Ethiopia for decades, 1982-2018, with genocidal campaigns against different tribes in order to maintain dominance. Had a massive arsenal from the US, took a great deal of money from the US. Have strong relationship with Susan Rice. Fact is, they've lost the war. Abiy is doing a lot of good work with Sudan and others; WHO director is a Tigrean Marxist.
Hour Three
Wednesday 16 December 2020 / Hour 3, Block A: John Catsimatidis, @JCats2013, @CatsRoundtable, Red Apple Media & Cats Roundtable radio, in re: NY had 60 million visitors last year; now we have fewer than a million If they come merely from a 50-mile radius, are counted as a tourist. How do you kill New York in six months? Indoor dining is stopped, as is outdoor dining in the snow. An entire industry, restaurants, has gamely tried to survive; but it’s all shut down by order of the governor. The virus is 1.4 % among restaurant workers; it’s actually contagious elsewhere. Why are the mayor and governor doing this? Another subway incident: a woman shoved in front of a train; what’s the mayor doing about this? Push a law forbidding the police to deal with any homeless people. This last weekend: an ugly situation at St John the Divine, NYPD responded perfectly, rescued everyone, and the gunman died. The NYPD does the job and is not supported by pols. New York City citizens: write-scream-holler to your politicians saying you want the police [re-empowered].
Wednesday 16 December 2020 / Hour 3, Block B: Charles Burton: @cburton001, blogs at RealityChek; and senior Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Centre for Advancing Canada's Interests Abroad; and Gordon Chang, @GordonGChang, Daily Beast, in re: Meng, the Huawei executive held in Canada, has caused retaliation in China, which abducted two Canadians on trumped-up charges. We don't know their fate. China withdrew consular access for eight months in violation of the Vienna convention. Clearly, we're not putting professional expertise into this. In the third year of their incarceration, why no due process? Currently, China can still engage in torture as investigation. Arbitrary detention: they did nothing at all but be Canadian. One was merely transiting en route to Seoul. Reuters reports that US prosecutors are thinking that Meng could plead guilty and return to China—without the two Michaels’ being released. China sees this as being a matter of bringing the foreigners into line. By now, 93% of Canadians [do not favor China]; enormous gap between Trudeau and the elites and what Canadians want.
Wednesday 16 December 2020 / Hour 3, Block C: Nury Turkel, @nuryturkel, co-founder of the Uyghur Human Rights Project and a commissioner of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom; and Gordon Chang, Daily Beast, in re: Blood cotton, like blood diamonds, but people worked to death in cotton fields of Central Asia. The crime of the Uyghur people of East Turkestan, under the boot of the CCP dictatorship. Concentration camps, abductions, persecutions—and the cotton fields of Xinjiang. See: Wall Street Journal article.
If consumers and mills worldwide refuse to buy blood cotton, will that stop the crime? I grew up in Kashgar. What’s disturbing is that the American business community ignores it. Chopping off women’s hair, making PPE under forced-labor conditions. China purposely targets [victims] based on religion. The ICC (Intl Criminal Court) has refused to take up a case on China’s crimes against humanity on grounds that China isn't a signatory; last year, they took a case against Burma, which also is not a signatory. Huge disappointment among Uyghurs. Business leaders feign ignorance. The UN hasn't uttered a syllable on this. Would China use cash to suppress an investigation? Definitely yes. Persuasion, corruption, intimidation. China puts its best dips on human rights cases because they know they’re so vulnerable. The new US administration: I'd like to be an optimist, and this also include US national security interests. China and the global supply chains. Religious persecution is a precursor to genocide.
Wednesday 16 December 2020 / Hour 3, Block D: James Holmes: @NavalWarCollege, first holder of the Wylie Chair of Maritime Strategy at the Naval War College and blogger at The Naval Diplomat; and Gordon Chang: @GordonGChang, Daily Beast, in re: Seabees, the Naval construction battalion, invented on the fly in early WWII. Needed bases with facilities, none of which existed in the Pacific. . . . Japanese flew in the morning, arrived about noon and bombed, then left. Seabees pushed detritus back into the holes and pulled metal mats over them, all the while being shot at by Japanese snipers. Can the US Navy today adapt when it’s overwhelmed? Hope so. Do we have the improvise-on-the-fly attitude we did in WWII? It's a story of how people ignored rules in order to get things done. Problem is, if you don’t have an adversary to keep yourself sharp, can grow lax. Chinese army in Ladakh has been very unimpressive: good at intimidating but not good in battle. Guadalcanal was a victory. Japanese troops abandoned at the end, so frustrated were they by the Seabees.
Hour Four
Wednesday 16 December 2020 / Hour 4, Block A: Building Habitats on the Moon: Engineering Approaches to Lunar Settlements(Springer Praxis Books), by Dr Haym Benaroya, @haymbenaroya, @NJ_Opinion; Distinguished Professor, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Rutgers.
Designing a habitat for the lunar surface? You’ll need to know more than structural engineering. There are the effects of meteoroids, radiation, and low gravity. Then there are the psychological and psychosocial aspects of living in close quarters, in a dangerous environment, far away from home. All these must be considered when the habitat is sized, materials are specified, and structure is designed.
This book provides an overview of various concepts for lunar habitats and structural designs and characterizes the lunar environment—the technical and the nontechnical. The designs take into consideration psychological comfort, structural strength against seismic and thermal activity, as well as internal pressurization and 1/6 g. Also discussed are micrometeoroid modeling, risk and redundancy as well as probability and reliability, with an introduction to analytical tools that can be useful in modeling uncertainties. https://www.amazon.com/Building-Habitats-Moon-Engineering-Settlements-ebook/dp/B078YPHDJX
Wednesday 16 December 2020 / Hour 4, Block B: Building Habitats on the Moon: Engineering Approaches to Lunar Settlements(Springer Praxis Books), by Dr Haym Benaroya
Wednesday 16 December 2020 / Hour 4, Block C: Building Habitats on the Moon: Engineering Approaches to Lunar Settlements(Springer Praxis Books), by Dr Haym Benaroya
Wednesday 16 December 2020 / Hour 4, Block D: Building Habitats on the Moon: Engineering Approaches to Lunar Settlements(Springer Praxis Books), by Dr Haym Benaroya
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