John Batchelor Show
Hour One
Tuesday  5 January 2020 / Hour 1, Block A:  John Tamny, @johntamny, RealClearPolitics; author, When Politicians Panic;  in re:  Tom Cruise yelled at his film crew of Mission: Impossible 7for failing to wear masks responsibly.  Why? He’s actually running a business; needs to keep his operation insured, and his investors content. Robert Downey is the highest-paid actor in Hollywood; was formerly unable to get hired because of a substance abuse problem. The lockdowns, the protocols, have been remarkably unsuccessful, vide:New York, New Jersey, California.  The politicians keep closing businesses, destroyed lives, still refuse to acknowledge that they erred. With the same population as New York, Florida is doing much better.  If we hadn’t had the benefit of the spectacular economic success that obtained until February 2020, we couldn't have survived the [strangulation] of business that’s occurred in the last ten months. 
Tuesday  5 January 2020 / Hour 1, Block B:  John Tamny, @johntamny, RealClearPolitics, author, When Politicians Panic;  in re: Jeffrey Tucker:Pols said, limit the movement of people across borders to fight the virus. In fact, the path to immunity can be from a vaccine, or let people to get the virus and recover, thus achieving immunity. Recall the flu of 1918; pols have simply ignored how that was resolved. There’s still no vaccine to the Spanish flu.   When a small number of people make decisions for hundred of millions, there’s always a bad outcome. The virus doesn't just get bored and go away.
      In Eagle, Idaho, snow-tubing: go down hills fast.  Teenagers were running the operation
Tuesday  5 January  2020 / Hour 1, Block C:   Joseph Sternberg:  @josephsternberg, @WSJOpinion; Political Economics column; WSJ editorial board; in re:  UK, Brexit: Lockdowns have generated extraordinary problems and results. The ceremony of finally convincing all the players  [to achieve Brexit].   Sturm und Drang.   All sides claim victory.  Conflict on the border between Spain and Gibraltar. Biden can’t do much about UK-European relations.   Walter Russell Meade: “Johnson and Thatcher are post-imperial leaders.” Being the British PM is always a thankless task.
Tuesday  5 January  2020 / Hour 1, Block D:   Joseph Sternberg:  @josephsternberg, @WSJOpinion; Political Economics column; WSJ editorial board; in re: Scotland. No travel between Scotland and the rest of Britain. Is this driven by the “new variants”?  What’s frightening policy makers is theprospect that, while it's not more deadly, it spreads more quickly, and the NHS will be overwhelmed. We’re in a twilight phase where the vaccine is about to be distributed just as the virus takes a turn for the worse. Matt Hancock, Minister of Health.  Still debating rolling out the vaccine for care homes? . . .  Press lords tell scary stories:  a Christmas party at a medical facility where a caregiver dressed up as a Christmas tree, which had a tiny fan inside that wound up spreading the virus to the whole room.  The right is annoyed at the slow rollout of the vaccine; the left is blasé about the slow distribution and approves the bureaucracy.  
 
Hour Two
Tuesday  5 January 2020 / Hour 2, Block A:  Bill Whalen: @Hooverwhalen, @HooverInst,Area 45 blog; in re:  Man of the year: Elon Musk because he’s just so successful at what he does. Also, credit to him for having moved from failing California to growing Texas, where he’s advising the governor on how to bring in more business.  Woman of the year:  President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan, who dealt well with the flu crisis, and above all because she’s done brilliantly in facing down Mainland China. . . . Gavin Newsom’s management of California is a train wreck.  Cuomo, who was specifically and directly responsible for over 3,000 deaths in old-age homes, aspires to be president.
Tuesday  5 January 2020 / Hour 2, Block B:   Susan Crabtree @RealClearPolitics, White House and national political correspondent for RealClearPolitics; in re: No replacement yet for Sam Brownback, @IRF_Ambassador, Ambassador at Large for International ReligiousFreedom.  A million Uyghurs engaged in slave labor for the Chinese CCP.   Yazidis, and the continuing nightmare.  Multiple examples of religious repression worldwide; will Biden act?
Tuesday  5 January 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: Ethiopia releases its journalists without charge; will repair a major mosque; its Nobelist falls out with Sudan. Tigre Liberation Front, a Stalinist group, was in power n Ethiopia for years; sent huge amounts of money to buy pols around the world, now is enraged at being out of power.  Tigre is 98% Orthodox Christian; the TPLF represent a fraction of the population.  Blue Nile waters, the dam. Egypt supported the TPLF and the Oromo Liberation Front.
Tuesday  5 January 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:  Nigeria is not entirely a failed state – the richest 2% are doing well, and some cities are secure. Bukhari is corrupt, vicious, indecisive, temperamental.  How to fight the extremist in the Northeast.  Haven't attended to the problems of Nigeria overall. The Niger River has been broken up in recent decades, no longer good for trade or agriculture.  Christians in the south understand the north less than–even people in Manhattan. Nigeria is the last place that Beijing will abandon. Has the largest population and military in Africa.
 
Hour Three
Tuesday  5 January 2020 / Hour 3, Block A:  Elizabeth Peek, @LizPeek, Fox News and TheHill; in re:   Recovery delayed by Blue State lockdowns.
Tuesday  5 January 2020 / Hour 3, Block B:  Elizabeth Peek, @LizPeek, Fox News and TheHill; in re: Why does Pelosi want to hold on?
Tuesday  5 January  2020 / Hour 3, Block C:  New World Report.Joseph Humire @jmhumire, @securefreesoc, and Senator Maria Fernanda Cabal @MariaFdaCabal, in re:
Tuesday  5 January  2020 / Hour 3, Block D:  New World Report.Joseph Humire @jmhumire, @securefreesoc, and Senator Maria Fernanda Cabal @MariaFdaCabal, in re:
 
Hour Four
Tuesday  5 January 2020 / Hour 4, Block A: (Part 2)Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan,by Steve Coll
Tuesday  5 January 2020 / Hour 4, Block B: (Part 2)Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan,by Steve Coll
Tuesday  5 January 2020 / Hour 4, Block C:  (Part 2)Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan,by Steve Coll
Tuesday  5 January 2020 / Hour 4, Block D: (Part 2)Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan,by Steve Coll