The John Batchelor Show

Friday 4 September 2020

Air Date: 
September 04, 2020

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
 
Hour One
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 1, Block A:  Dan Henninger, @DanHenninger ,Wonder Land column & WSJ editorial board; in re: The culture wars revive. 
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 1, Block B: Jeff Bliss, #PacificWatch, Pacific Watch, in re: The fellow wearing a jetpack and terrifying pilots high over LAX.
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 1, Block C: Veronique de Rugy, Mercatus, in re: The PP program was well-intentioned but ill-conceived.  Should have been very low-interest loans that went directly into employee’s bank account; could be a loan rather than a gift. Problem with vast national debt is that it’ll have to be repaid, perhaps by our progeny. Big debt almost always means higher taxes.
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 1, Block D: Rob Rohlfing,  Desert Mountain Energy, in re: US helium supply; global demand. From the moment it’s liquefied till it reaches the customer, you have 40 days. Thereafter, it's lost unless you can restore it by a complicated process.  Liable to lose about 50% of the volume.
 
Hour Two
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 2, Block A:  Devin Nunes, CA-22, in re:   Michael Duran’s book on Ike; the press called Ike “stupid”‑—applied to almost every Republican candidate or president. Recent attacks on President Trump, often from anonymous sources.  Recall attacks on Romney until he went anti-Trump, and against George W Bush, who suddenly in his Never-Trump incarnation has become a foreign-policy genius.  Ike was derided when he was in office. /  China: TikTok, WeChat, Huawei.
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 2, Block B:  Devin Nunes, CA-22, in re:   Mr Biden has twice left Delaware, suddenly proclaims that he does not oppose fracking.
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 2, Block C:  Chris Riegel, Scala.com CEO, in re: Fluffy and Spot, two robotic hounds, for $75,000 each will inspect a large mfrg plant.  Expect many more robots to do tasks in future. Geopolitical: for example to fly a $50 million F35 military plane. Really? Navy is using drones to find rust on ships.  China: Third-generation _____.   Economically, in China the tide is going out; is this a threat to President Xi?
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 2, Block D: Mary Anastasia O’Grady, @MaryAnastasiaOG, WSJ editorial board and Americas column; in re: Venezuela. Direct transfer of bolivars to dollars or reverse. AirTM: similar to a cryptocurrency platform; can put dollars into an account, ask AirTM to find a buyer; all elegant with no governmental  interference.  In Venezuela, if you wanted to buy dollars, had to go to a bank and apply for permission of the central bank, and then use the government’s exchange price, which are ridiculous.  With AirTM, can buy and sell at market prices.  Mr Guaido has lost popular confidence.  US will take some of the frozen assets, put them in the accounts of doctors and nurses on the front line; at $100 a month that’s quite helpful.   If you know an agent, can use WhatsApp.
 
Hour Three
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 3, Block A: Michael Vlahos, @JHUWorldCrisis , Johns Hopkins, in re: Gaius and Germanicus under Domitian: The Transition Integrity Project*, 100 [terribly important people, in this instance, Democrats], a plan for the end of the election. Four possibilities: a Biden win uncontested or contested; a Trump win uncontested or contested.  The document authors think they’re righteous to tear up the Constitution if they see that Trump has won and believe shouldn’t have.
       The US thinks of itself as republic; but the process of succession is taking on the coloration of antiquity. The document is about how to get rid of the old emperor in order to install the new one.
       This is about a possible Trump victory, either “ambiguous” if only by a few votes, or [definite] if  by many votes, and how Biden supporters can ignore previous Constitutional process and get rid of Trump. Amazing. They’ve let slip the dogs of civil war.  Many citizens will be afeared and vote only to maintain Constitutional continuity. The authors of the document seem to be unaware that they’re planning secession.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_Integrity_Project
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 3, Block B: Michael Vlahos, @JHUWorldCrisis, Johns Hopkins, in re: “Of particular concern is how the military will respond.”  What? The US military will not countenance any abrogation of the Constitution. Were the Biden campaign to remove the elected president . . . Imagine that the majority of the electors voted for Trump . . , People who can't see irony or see madness—all the hallmarks of either a religious cult or . . . Fierce wounding ostracism  . . . The New York governor actually threatened violence against the president.  The greatest iron is that this group assembled a document where, with a clear Biden victory, they’ll follow the Constitution. Not so if Biden doesn’t win.
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 3, Block C: Patrick Tucker, @DefTechPat, Defense One technology editor, in re: AI and rare earths. Chinese and US research in how to find rare earths. Highly important for all electronics, and also in defense and national security.   Lithium ion. Chinese researchers work out of University of South Carolina; in league with a Chinese university.  Find ways to achieve the same conductivity as rare earths have.  See the first 103 elements of the periodic table. AI reverse-engineers an artificial compound, then figures out the optimal combination of materials to produce that.   /  AI in drones. 
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 3, Block D: Patrick Tucker, Defense One technology editor, @DefTechPat, in re: Overlapping arms races.
 
Hour Four
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 4, Block A: Richard Epstein, @RichardAEpstein, Chicago Law, NYU Law, Hoover, in re: The George Floyd tragedy, and Mpls allegations that it was murder.  Going into a courtroom, where philosophical speculations a not welcome; evidence is. Is there a definition of “systemic racism”?  There probably are many.  Nobody has alleged the case of two people arriving at a hospital ER, one Black, one not, where the non-Black person gets preferential treatment.  In the George Floyd video, there was no obvious anger, which affects the charges in the case. . . .  Actus reus
The law of actus reus:  Actus reus literally means "guilty act," and generally refers to an overt act in furtherance of a crime. Requiring an overt act as part of a crime means that society has chosen to punish only bad deeds, not bad thoughts. To constitute criminal behavior, the actus reus and the mens rea must occur simultaneously.
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 4, Block B: Richard Epstein, @RichardAEpstein ,Chicago Law, NYU Law, Hoover, in re:
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 4, Block C:  Armies of Heaven: The First Crusade and the Quest for Apocalpse, by Jay Rubenstein.   Peter the Hermit; Germans under attack, Shia arrive to back off the Turks. Couucil of Claremont, 1035.  Saracens. 
Friday 4 September 2020  / Hour 4, Block D:  Armies of Heaven: The First Crusade and the Quest for Apocalpse, by Jay Rubenstein.  Antioch. Peter Bartholomew. The lance.