Photo, left: KC10 refuelling with a boom.
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts: Gordon Chang, Forbes.com. Dr. David M. Livingston, The Space Show.
 
Hour One
Wednesday   16 September   2015  / Hour 1, Block A:  Charles Burton, Brock University, in re: Xi Jinping's state visit.   China's opaque economy is failing; the tools that the Party can use are grotesques and ineffective.  Pres Obama invites Xi Jinping to a pomp-filled state dinner with a 21-gun salute, even as China engages is extremely serious cyberespionage comparable to breaking n to federal buildings and stealing data and materials.  Optics: mostly about legitimize Xi's weakening leadership in China; also, the White House said it would American databases, civilian and governmental – then decided not to.  Very bad appearance.  Obama seems to be afraid it'd affect the US-China climate agreement, of potential Chinese support anent Iranian nuclear arrangements. The recent Chinese military parade was meant to convey that China is great power equal to the US, which the Politburo seems to believe but no one else does. / Rand Paul: engage with China /  Scott Walker: cancel the dinner / Jeb Bush: cancelling dinner is a trifle but there do exist ways to make China pay.
Wednesday   16 September   2015  / Hour 1, Block B: Nury Turkel, former president of the Uyghur American Association and now a lawyer in D.C, in re: An attack in Thailand some weeks ago, near a Bangkok shrine associated with Chinese tourists. Thai govt now blames Uyghurs of East Turkestan (called Xinjiang in western China).  There's no elected govt  in Thailand right now – a ruling junta – and this allegation pleases the unelected tyrants of Beijing.  Thai got agreed to repatriate over 100 Uyghurs from Thailand to China – God help them in China – to curry favor with Beijing. Thai statements began with the statement that the culprits went to Bangladesh then China (seriously?), then said they'd gone to Turkey.  Horrific treatment of Uyghurs by Beijing.  Internationalization of the Uyghur struggle. Turks called it "cultural genocide." Large numbers of Uyghurs have been forced to leave under repression, to borrow money from families and end up in refugee camps outside China.  Bangkok also blamed Turkey (Uyghurs speak a Turkic language); formerly, even Kurds (who speak an Indo-European language named Kurmanji) have spoken out against the Chinese repression of Uyghurs,
http://www.voanews.com/content/bangkok-bomb-plotter-flew-to-china-malaysia-lead-goes-nowhere/2959846.html
Wednesday   16 September   2015  / Hour 1, Block C: Hotel Mars, episode n. Emily Lakdawalla,
 Senior Editor & Planetary Evangelist,
planetary.org; in re: New Horizons Pluto revelations and unknowns; a boatload of new images. a giant blob crawls over Pluto's craters in the new, high-res pix.  So much diversity on Pluto's surface: one section completely smooth, bright surface – new), another cratered and old; many kinds of behaviors of ice, incl weird mounds.  Only cause of such rapid changes is Sol, changing the weather. The bright area has changed position over time – too fast for any influence but the Sun.  We're good at observing but not as much in deriving inferences.  . . . Hydrogen atmosphere: Pluto is different. . . .  Charon is an interesting-looking moon:  a younger surface than I ever expected.
Watch: New Horizons Begins to Send Back All Its Pluto Pics | WIRED  The First Pluto Photos from New Horizons' Massive Data Dump  ;  New Horizons Beams Back New Images of Charon, Pluto's Small Moons
Wednesday   16 September   2015  / Hour 1, Block D: Josh Rogin, Bloomberg View, in re:  Kerry has been speaking with Lavrov ab initio, but nothing's happened. Engagement does not produce some sort of compromise in this instance. Political solution? No political process in play. We're engaging with various actors? Nuthin's happening. Only one person in the world who thinks the mtg will produce anything, and that's John Kerry.
White House Refugee Plan Overwhelmed by Syrian Exodus  The Obama administration is preparing to announce a plan to admit more refugees over the next two years, but at this point the numbers being proposed are too small to relieve the crisis streaming out of Syria.
 
Hour Two
Wednesday   16 September   2015  / Hour 2, Block A: Michael Fonte, Washington Director of the Taiwan Democratic Progressive Party Mission in the US, in re: Taiwanese presidential election. The issue of Taiwan in on the agenda of the state visit – for the first time ever, the US has put the issue on the table. The DPP is favored in the upcoming election, Jan 2016 – commanding lead for Dr Tsai Ing-wen. Mainland China is pushing for the opposing party, the Kuo Min Tang (KMT of Chiang Kai-shek, also called Pan-Blue), which is interested in effect in handing the island of Taiwan over to Beijing, has a history if interference in the Taiwanese electoral process; and the DPP is pressing for Taiwan to remain a de facto independent nation, certainly not under the boot of the Chinese Communist Party.  Last year, the CCP proclaimed that Taiwan "could not drag on forever," threatening military force to take over.  . . .  Do we expect Barack Obama's conversation to be generous to Xi?  Last election, when the KMT was running Ma Ying-jeou, the White House leaked a paper calling the DPP "not fit to run Taiwan" – a shameful event that evoked global condemnation and presumably will not be repeated.
Wednesday   16 September   2015  / Hour 2, Block B: Andrew Collier, managing director, Orient Capital Research based in Hong Kong, in re: (1) Daiwa analyst known as 'Yuan Bear' warns of financial crisis in China; & (2) Property bubble risks popping in China’s rural southwest. Financial Times/ beyondbrics.  If the US Fed hikes rates, that'll make US investment more attractive to fleeing Chinese capital than Chinese investment is.  China's economy isn't necessarily in free-fall but it's gyrating wildly; so much uncertainty that money races to where it's safer. Construction on property has beet a main force in Chinese growth. Last month I represented a hedge fund, went to 800Kpop city near Chungching; huge high-rises, all empty. Vacancy tae s over 30%; some towns have 80% of GDP tied to the construction market.  Massive overcapacity will come home to roost soon.  When the central govt interfered in the stock mkt and couldn't control it, everyone had a big re-think. It'll take ____ years to get out of this. China manages its downturn better than Japan did – but it'll be a good ten, fifteen years to get out.  A small portion of the public invests in stock,.
Wednesday   16 September   2015  / Hour 2, Block C: Steven L Herman, Southeast Asia Bureau Chief, Voice of America,  in re: [See Hour One, Block B: "An attack in Thailand some weeks ago, near a Bangkok shrine associated with Chinese tourists. Thai govt now blames Uyghurs of East Turkestan {called Xinjiang in western China}" and the Thai junta blames Turkey.]  Turkey explains that it has no record of having been contacted by Thailand.  .   Even if the Thai govt had he resources and tools to solve this sort of crime, unlikely that the Thai authorities would use them. Have rejected international offers of forensic aid.  Since he bombing, Washington has given the junta the cold shoulder Not only politics, but tourism, above all Chinese tourist.  A crackdown o police, notoriously corrupt: many are able to pay the immigration cops in order to pass back and forth over he Thai-Cambodia border.  
Thailand Blames Uighur Militants for Bombing at Bangkok Shrine But other suspects in the bombing were Turkish, and the Thai authorities say one of them ... ; Key Bangkok Erawan shrine bomb suspect 'fled to Turkey'  ;  Thai, Turkish Officials Dispute Bangkok Bomber Whereabouts  Doesn't appear to be a major breakthrough. These three detained at Thailand's request but no move to extradite them -- basically appear to be three people who might know someone to assist in a very bungled, convoluted investigation which the longer it goes on becomes more opaque.  / With investigations stymied in Malaysia, critics of Prime Minister @NajibRazak go global. nyti.ms/1QzlUmA pic.twitter.com/l7NFO8FHl5
Wednesday   16 September   2015  / Hour 2, Block D: Monica Crowley, Fox, & Washington Times Online opinion editor; in re: live, on this evening's Republican debate.  Carly Fiorina is winning this evening's debate hands-down.  Concerning Trump's insult of Fiorina last week, Fiorina, questioned, said, "I think all the women in America know what Mr Trump meant" – which flummoxed the New York businessman into silence and frustration.  If Trump is thrown into not-first place, he may not be able to carry on with the same aplomb.  Ben Carson has surged because of his brilliance and elegance, the cool outsider; but when you're surrounded by big personalities, you have to forge in, not Ben Carson's temperament. Marco Rubio performed well, started slowly but recovered and had esp powerful answers n foreign policy (Trump and Walker stumbled on these). Walker made a great first impression coming out of Wisconsin initially, but he seems not up to the game. 
 
Hour Three
Wednesday   16 September   2015  / Hour 3, Block A: Bill Whalen, Hoover Institution, & David M Drucker, Washington Examiner, in re: live! on this evening's Republican debate. Yes, some surprises. The stand-out was Carly Fiorina, who's won the show. She understands debate tactics – you have to barge in – and she did so well. Opposite was Ben Carson, who went quiet for fifteen or twenty minutes at a time.   Regrettable when two candidates pushed hard against Jake Tapper. Eleven people on a cramped stage under a Boeing 707.  Two-hour-and forty-five minutes' debate is still going on.  Fiorina is almost trying to make the other candidates edgy.  Trump 18min; Cruz 9; Huckabee at 8. This is distorting. The networks need to stop. A nasty way to run a debate. One commercial break had an ad featuring Trump, and another mentioning Trump.  This format isn't very good with eleven people  on the stage. . . .  David Drucker at the debate in Simi Valley – was there a clear winner? A couple. Fiorina shone.  Jeb Bush  . . .  ; Rubio and Cruz extremely solid. 
Wednesday   16 September   2015  / Hour 3, Block B:  James Taranto, WSJ Editorial, in re:  The politicization of intelligence: at CENTCOM, intell was manipulated by unknown commanders. Representative Schiff. Accusation that Iraq intell was politicized was not substantiated, but it was flawed.   The Pentagon has been painting a much rosier picture than is accurate. Investigation by Pentagon IG of claims by 50 analysts that info was altered. In Florida? Washington?  "processing of intell by CENTCOM intell directorate . . . improper modification . . . dubious . . .  failure to follow established processes." The London Guardian: Jas Clapper speaks daily with head of CENTCOM, which is highly highly unusual Clapper denies this, said only once or twice a week . . .  http://www.wsj.com/articles/america-askew-1442416153?mod=djemBestOfTheWeb
Wednesday   16 September   2015  / Hour 3, Block C: Steve Moore, Heritage, in re: Five things to listen for during Janet Yellen's press conference  . . .  He thinks the biggest issue for Yellen is how she'll keep markets from overreacting.
Wednesday   16 September   2015  / Hour 3, Block D:   Molly O'Toole, DefenseOne, in re:  Only “four or five” U.S.-trained Syrians are left of the Pentagon’s $500 million program to train and equip a 15,000-strong ground force to fight the Islamic State.  http://www.defenseone.com/threats/2015/09/only-4-or-5-us-trained-rebels-are-still-fighting-syria/121136/?oref=d-topstory
 
 
Hour Four
Wednesday   16 September   2015  / Hour 4, Block A: Reagan: The Life, by H. W. Brands (part 9 of 12)  See reviews, below.
Wednesday   16 September   2015  / Hour 4, Block B: Reagan: The Life, by H. W. Brands (part 10 of 12)
Wednesday   16 September   2015  / Hour 4, Block C: Reagan: The Life, by H. W. Brands (part 11 of 12)
Wednesday   16 September   2015  / Hour 4, Block D: Reagan: The Life, by H. W. Brands (part 12 of 12)
Reviews
"H.W. Brands’ new biography tells the [Reagan] story as well as you could ask for in a single volume. A lucid and witty writer, Mr. Brands lays out the facts in short chapters that bounce along like one of the ‘bare-fisted walloping action’ films that Reagan once starred in. He has a talent for letting his sources speak for themselves . . .  Illuminating. Mr. Brands recounts Reagan’s triumphs and the scandals even-handedly." —The Economis
"Reagan is an engaging study of a man who Brands says defeated Soviet communism and achieved a halfway economic revolution. Drawing on Reagan’s diary, speeches, statements, letters and memoirs, and on interviews with the president’s aides, Brands tells a briskly paced story . . . Reagan’s legacy continues to fuel the ideas and frame the choices facing his would-be successors, and this astute biography is further evidence that the 40th president continues to cast a long shadow over a still largely conservative political order." —Washington Post
"Brands is the rare academic historian who can write like a best-selling novelist. Through meticulous research, he recreates decades-old dialogue and puts the reader inside the Oval Office, the Cabinet Room and the house in Reykjavík, Iceland where Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev debated the fate of the world and laid the groundwork for the end of the Cold War."  —USA Today
"Superb . . .  it is hard to imagine a biography of Ronald Reagan that could be more thorough, evenhanded and insightful."  —Dallas Morning News
"A lively and lucid narrative of the life of America’s 40th president  . . .  Brands is surely right that Reagan was the most persuasive political communicator since Roosevelt."  —San Francisco Chronicle 
"Brands’ judicious biography of Ronald Reagan is as much about the art of governing as about the man himself ... Reagan emerges as a great but terribly flawed president who managed to reorient government priorities after the exhaustion of liberal administrations and ideas, but one who also burdened the country with enormous debts that his successors had to pay down."  —Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Brands' work draws richly from Reagan's presidential diaries and other recently released sources that earlier biographers couldn't tap ... His history of the important meetings with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev is detailed and balanced, with the views of both sides given equal weight. These chapters are Brands' best writing, reinforcing the significance of those arms-reduction efforts and both men's insistence on ending the threat of nuclear weapons." —Philadelphia Inquirer 
"Brands’ book stands out in the canon of works on Reagan . . .  With an expert’s talent for synthesizing earlier works, access to previously unavailable sources and new interviews, Brands creates a riveting narrative. His prose flows as smoothly as his subject’s speeches, and his insights provide a fresh look at a transformative president that celebrates his accomplishments but never ignores his blunders. A brilliant example of the biographer’s craft, Reagan deftly and boldly provides a balanced portrait of a man whose personality remains elusive but whose legacy continues to resonate."  —Richmond Times-Dispatch
"Readers will be greatly attracted to Brands' skills as a narrative historian  . . .  [he] delivers high drama in treating Reagan's handling of diplomatic affairs, tensions with the press corps and squabbles with Congress. Few American historians and biographers can compete with Brands as a powerful historical storyteller. Make no mistake, this is a first-rate presidential biography ... The definitive biography of Reagan."  —The Oregonian
"Brands is an immensely talented writer . . . [Reagan] is a pleasurable read." —The Daily Beast 
"A keenly researched book, filled with fascinating stories about a young man who escaped Illinois and an alcoholic father to pursue a dream of fame in Hollywood, eventually playing the role of his life as the leader of the free world."  —Tampa Bay Times
"Monumental life of the president whom some worship and some despise—with Brands providing plenty of justification for both reactions . . .  An exemplary work of history."  —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“A superb biographer writing at the top of his game has found the perfect subject for his narrative skills and profound understanding of the American presidency. Over the years H. W. Brands has produced an extraordinary body of historical and biographical works. This is his masterpiece.”  —Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Bully Pulpit  
“With characteristic skill and insight, H. W. Brands has painted a compelling portrait of a ubiquitous yet still-misunderstood American. From the Midwest to Hollywood to the pinnacle of power, Reagan was at once enigmatic and effective. Read this great new book to see why.”  —Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Thomas Jefferson
"A superb American historian has brought us a fascinating, judicious, original, and concise biography of one of the most important presidents in American history. It is impossible to understand the late twentieth century without understanding Ronald Reagan, and H. W. Brands here addresses an impressive range of the key mysteries of the fortieth president's epoch and life."  —Michael Beschloss, author of Presidential Courage
“Ronald Reagan understood what was best about America, and expected the best for it—which is why he led it so successfully. In Reagan, H. W. Brands expresses, with deep, deft, strokes, what will become the accepted view of a great man.”  —Richard Brookhiser, author of Founders’ Son: A Life of Abraham Lincoln
“No one loved a good story better than Ronald Reagan. His own story—synonymous with the American Century and reflected in his political evolution from New Deal Democrat to Washington-phobic conservative—has never been told better. Studded with fresh insights, empathetic and yet constructively critical, it may well be H. W. Brands’s finest book. Certainly it confirms Reagan’s place as the conservative FDR, a transforming leader whose influence on his country’s politics and governance is arguably greater than the day he left the White House.”  —Richard Norton Smith, author of On His Own Terms: A Life of Nelson Rockefeller
“National treasure H. W. Brands, who gave us the definitive single-volume biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt, completes his biographical tour d'horizon of twentieth-century politics with this superb life of Ronald Reagan. In doing so, Brands tracks the paths we wandered through the depression and the Second World War, the battle against communism, and the conservative revolution. How did we get to today’s angry, polarized nation? Read Brands’s life of Reagan, and find out.”  —John A. Farrell, author of Clarence Darrow and Tip O’Neill and the Democratic Century