The John Batchelor Show

Wednesday 5 February 2020

Air Date: 
February 05, 2020

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts: Gordon Chang @GordonGChang, Daily Beast; and Thaddeus McCotter @ThadMcCotter, American Greatness
 
Hour One
Wednesday 5 February 2020 Hour 1, Block A:  Charles Burton, senior Fellow at the Centre for Advancing Canada's Interests Abroad at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, in re: The coronavirus outbreak. Canada hasn't been able to evacuate her citizens from Wuhan because of complicated political relations — probably in order to get Meng back to China. Canadians are being rated poorly in Wuhan. Chinese people’s traditional understanding is that natural [disasters] are harbingers of the end of a dynasty, her, an end to the Xi dynasty. Chinese govt is now cracking down on citizens.   Also: bird flu, swine flue, and other maladies emanating from live annual markets, which the government has not controlled.
Also: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/feb/3/fighting-the-coronavirus...
Wednesday 5 February 2020 Hour 1, Block B:  Arthur Waldron, Lauder Professor of International Relations at the University of Pennsylvania, on the cause of the coronavirus outbreak and the breakdown of trust and social cohesion. China is establishing vast concentration camps for workers who may possibly have contracted Wuhan coronavirus; everyone sent to tents in fields with drainage ditches for sanitary functions. Everyone held for two weeks; anyone with no symptoms than allowed to go back tot his factory; if ill, sent on to ”a different place.”  So far: 54,000 sick, 25,000 deaths.  Like the terrible plagues of the T`ang Dynasty in the 700s.
Wednesday 5 February 2020 Hour 1, Block C:  Michael Yon, Hong Kong reporter, in re:  Michael landed in Hong Kong to return to his job, was kicked out (“deported”)  for no evident reason; is back in Thailand. In the airport, he was taken to a private room, interviewed extensively,  refused information on why he was being deported.  After all the other matters, only truth-telling and transparency will help the Chinese people.   Behind all this, the govt intends to remove anyone who can broadcast truth to the world: it's in meltdown from coronavirus, the other illnesses, the Taiwan elections, the Hong Kong rebellion — a perfect storm showing the vast incompetence and opacity of Beijing.  The officials demanded Michael sign documents, which he declined to do, and that he cease recording, although he had other machines running so the story instantly went viral.  Michael will immediately head to Taiwan.  The authorities are moving against those who tell the truth; it’s dangerous.  The concentration camps with tents are a perfect breeding-ground for the virus. 
Wednesday 5 February 2020 Hour 1, Block D: Fraser Howie, co-author of Red Capitalism: The Fragile Financial Foundation of China's Extraordinary Rise, on China's currency war on the U.S.. The Chinese national team basically jumps in and buys what’s needed when the market starts to tank. You’ve got to think that the effect of all this in the market will be quite severe.  The emergency purchases constitute a free-market move of buying into private companies.   . . . It’ll be at least another month before we can have a decent picture of this; perhaps a longer and deeper malaise.
 
Hour Two
Wednesday 5 February 2020 Hour 2, Block A:  Elin Suleymanov, Ambassador of Azerbaijan to the United States; in re: The significance of the upcoming federal parliamentary elections: a demonstration of the transformation of a badly-abused Soviet client state into a democratic nation.  Much dynamism in Azerbaijan. Snap election; things changing rapidly; building up success making this a successful country. Young Western-educated candidates; hot  debates for the 125 seats with 1,300-plus candidates. International an local observers.  Strong participation from both the cities and the villages.  Tural Karimli has applications from Russia, Israel, elsewhere, to open start-ups, especially tech. “We need to change the black gold [oil and gas] into human gold.” —Pres. Ilham Aliyev.   Baku has become a gem of a city regionally; is the capital the Caspian region as a whole.    Credit and financing programs.  The Central Election Commission
Wednesday 5 February 2020 Hour 2, Block B:  Andrew Collier, managing director of Orient Capital Research in Hong Kong and author of Shadow Banking and the Rise of Capitalism in China, in re:  The effect of the coronavirus epidemic on Hong Kong: shares in mainland toilet-paper factories fell as  surgical masks, hand sanitizer, toilet paper and even rice became scarce. Trade wars, protests, now the virus. Mild panic because no one knows where this is headed Many people are not leaving home much; activities curtailed.  As usual, Carrie Lam fails to rise to the challenge of the virus.  S&P global: disrupt automobile supply chain. Mainland committee of nine has exactly one health-care practitioner. Bad virus reporting on Mainland; good or questionable numbers of the ill in Hong Kong.   
Wednesday 5 February 2020 Hour 2, Block C:  Tara O of the East Asia Research Center eastasiaresearch.org/ and Fellow at the Institute for Corean-American Studies in re: Her recent research trip to Seoul. In South Korea: 19 coronavirus patients.  People are very, very concerned; even Korean physicians want the border with China to be closed, although Moon Jae-in so far has refused. Ten thousand Chinese tourists enter South Korea daily. China asked not to have the borders closed so the collaborationist Moon has complied.  Moon is paying tribute fees to China as a vassal state. North Korea said it closed its border with China. Moon sent a million masks to China despite a shortage in South Korea.  Moon:  You’re not allowed to say “Wuhan virus” or China virus”; must say, “New kind of coronavirus.”
Also: https://eastasiaresearch.org/2020/02/02/4-years-jail-for-libel-regarding...
Wednesday 5 February 2020 Hour 2, Block D: Ahmad Obali, founder of Gunaz TV, a TV studio in Chicago; broadcasts two hours a day to Iran, is now an enemy of the state; in re: Upcoming elections in Azerbaijan, and how excited the citizens are to vote for their future—and how happy Iranians would be to be able to, also.  Without US pressure, the current Iranian govt would stay for years and year.  In Tabriz, everyone knows what’s  happening in Azerbaijan.
Gunaz TV =  (South Azerbaijan) Guni Azerbaijan 
 
Hour Three
Wednesday 5 February 2020 Hour 3, Block A: John Fund, NRO; Bill Whalen, Hoover podcast Area 45; Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, in re:  The impeachment. The State of the Union speech
Wednesday 5 February 2020 Hour 3, Block B:  John Fund, NRO; Bill Whalen, Hoover podcast Area 45; Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, in re:  Iowa, New Hampshire —and thereafter.
Wednesday 5 February 2020 Hour 3, Block C:  Tural Karimli, Innovation Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan, in re: Our ambition is to become the regional Silicon Valley in Azerbaijan.  We were the first country to have an oil tanker, an oil pipeline, an oil drill.  We've been a font of innovation for well over a century.
“Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed a decree on the establishment of the Innovation Agency under the Ministry of Transport, Communications & High Technologies.
The decree says that the Agency will be set up on the basis of the State IT Development Fund and Hi-Tech Park LLC.
“The Agency will become a legal entity of public law to render assistance to local business entities in acquisition of modern technologies and technological solutions and organizing their transfer, supporting scientific research of innovative orientation, encouraging innovative projects (including startups), financing them through grants, subsidized loans and investments in authorized capital (including venture financing), promoting innovation initiative.”   1 /2  http://abc.az/mobile/view.php?id=19575&lng=en
Wednesday 5 February 2020 Hour 3, Block D: Tural Karimli, Innovation Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan, in re: Our ambition is to become the regional Silicon Valley in Azerbaijan.  We were the first country to have an oil tanker, an oil pipeline, an oil drill.  We've been a font of innovation for well over a century.
“Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed a decree on the establishment of the Innovation Agency under the Ministry of Transport, Communications & High Technologies.
The decree says that the Agency will be set up on the basis of the State IT Development Fund and Hi-Tech Park LLC.
“The Agency will become a legal entity of public law to render assistance to local business entities in acquisition of modern technologies and technological solutions and organizing their transfer, supporting scientific research of innovative orientation, encouraging innovative projects (including startups), financing them through grants, subsidized loans and investments in authorized capital (including venture financing), promoting innovation initiative.”    2/2
http://abc.az/mobile/view.php?id=19575&lng=en
 
Hour Four
Wednesday 5 February 2020 Hour 4, Block A: Elin Suleymanov, Ambassador of Azerbaijan to the United States; in re: The significance of the upcoming federal parliamentary elections: a demonstration of the transformation of a badly-abused Soviet client state into a democratic nation.  Much dynamism in Azerbaijan. Snap election; things changing rapidly; building up success making this a successful country. Young Western-educated candidates; hot  debates for the 125 seats with 1,300-plus candidates. International an local observers.  Strong participation from both the cities and the villages.  Tural Karimli has applications from Russia, Israel, elsewhere, to open start-ups, especially tech. “We need to change the black gold [oil and gas] into human gold.” —Pres. Ilham Aliyev.   Baku has become a gem of a city regionally; is the capital the Caspian region as a whole.    Credit and financing programs.  The Central Election Commission
Wednesday 5 February 2020 Hour 4, Block B: Arthur Waldron, Lauder Professor of International Relations at the University of Pennsylvania, on the cause of the coronavirus outbreak and the breakdown of trust and social cohesion. China is establishing vast concentration camps for workers who may possibly have contracted Wuhan coronavirus; everyone sent to tents in fields with drainage ditches for sanitary functions. Everyone held for two weeks; anyone with no symptoms than allowed to go back tot his factory; if ill, sent on to ”a different place.”  So far: 54,000 sick, 25,000 deaths.  Like the terrible plagues of the T`ang Dynasty in the 700s.
Wednesday 5 February 2020 Hour 4, Block C:  Robert Zimmerman, BehndtheBlack.com, in re:  NASA and its budget.
Wednesday 5 February 2020 Hour 4, Block D:  Robert Zimmerman, BehndtheBlack.com, in re: Solar rovers and Mars