Photo, above: A dark matter halo is a hypothetical component of a galaxy that envelops the galactic disk and extends well beyond the edge of the visible galaxy. The halo's mass dominates the total mass. Since they consist of dark matter, halos cannot be observed directly, but their existence is inferred through their effects on the motions of stars and gas in galaxies. Dark matter halos play a key role in current models of galaxy formation and evolution. See Hour 3, Block C, Ken Croswell, Scientific American, on Ancient Halo Stars Cast the Milky Way’s First Light

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Hour One

Friday  7 November  2014 / Hour 1, Block A:  John Fund, National Review Online, in re: Obama to Nominate Lynch as Attorney General  President Barack Obama is set to nominate U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn, N.Y., Loretta Lynch, for the post of U.S. attorney . . .

King, Halbig, et al. Head to the Supreme Court  I applaud the Supreme Court’s decision to grant certiorari in King v. Burwell.  Since January, the Obama administration has been spending billions of unauthorized federal dollars, and subjecting nearly 60 million Americans to unauthorized taxes, all to hide the full cost of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or ObamaCare. The administration’s actions have not only violated the law and caused massive economic disruption, they have also subverted the democratic process. The plaintiffs in  Pruitt v. Burwell, Halbig v. Burwell, King v. Burwell, and Indiana v. IRS seek to put an end to those unlawful taxes and spending.   The Supreme Court’s decision is a rebuke to the Obama administration and its defenders, who dismissed as frivolous the plaintiffs’ efforts to defend their right not to be taxed without congressional authorization. It is essential that these cases receive expedited resolution, if only to eliminate the uncertainty currently facing states, employers, insurers, and taxpayers. Most important, these cases deserve expedited consideration because only they can bring an end to the greatest domestic-policy scandal of this administration . Click here for reference materials on these cases, including all court filings and judicial opinions. Click here for news and opinion coverage of these cases.

Friday  7 November  2014 / Hour 1, Block B:  Reza Kahlili, author, A Time to Betray, in re: IAEA Says Probe on Iran Nukes Has Stalled, Hurting Chances of Deal by Deadline  Iran's non-compliance with the probe might derail the prospects of a nuclear deal with world . . .

Friday  7 November  2014 / Hour 1, Block C: Daniel Berehulak, NYT photographer, in re:  Here's an amazing set of portraits from an Ebola clinic in Liberia: http://nyti.ms/1wMIwqt The photographer, Daniel Berehulak, is in Barcelona just now. (1 of 2)

Friday  7 November  2014 / Hour 1, Block D: Daniel Berehulak, NYT photographer, in re:  Here's an amazing set of portraits from an Ebola clinic in Liberia: http://nyti.ms/1wMIwqt The photographer, Daniel Berehulak, is in Barcelona just now. (2 of 2)

Hour Two

Friday  7 November  2014 / Hour 2, Block A:  Jim McTague, Barron's Washington, in re:  Solid Job Gains Belie Economic Unease  The U.S. labor market in October reached its longest stretch of job creation since at least World War II, a run at odds with a slow pickup in wages and voter discontent with the economy. 

Friday  7 November  2014 / Hour 2, Block B:  Francis Rose, Federal News Radio, in re: Justice Department undercuts VA explanations on not firing executives   The VA says it has held off for months on firing top management linked to a nationwide health care scandal because of ongoing criminal probes by the Department of Justice.

But the DOJ this week told House investigators it takes no position on the VA firing disgraced Phoenix hospital director Sharon Helman and others who were in charge while hundreds of veteran hospitals and clinics manipulated patient data.  House and Senate lawmakers have hammered the Department of Veterans Affairs on the lack of firings three months after Congress passed a $16.3-billion overhaul law, which included a provision allowing Secretary Bob McDonald to fire senior executives at will, replacing a process that often took months with one that takes just four weeks . . .  [more]

Friday  7 November  2014 / Hour 2, Block C: Gene Marks, INC., in re:  5 Ways to Profit From the New Republican Controlled Congress   The Republicans now control Congress. And smart business people are already making their plans. First of all, everybody calm down.

Sure, last night's elections saw the Republicans taking back full control of Congress for the first time in eight years. But we've all seen this before--a shift of power in Washington--and we all know, as experienced businesspeople, that nothing is ever as good or as bad as it seems.

So if you're a Republican, enjoy the victory. If you're a Democrat, don't get too upset. And if you're a businessperson, particularly a smart businessperson, put aside your emotions and focus more on . . .   [more]

Friday  7 November  2014 / Hour 2, Block D:  Gene Countryman, KNSS, in re: Pat Roberts pulls off a resounding win in Kansas  Republican Sen. Pat Roberts entered to a battle anthem and . . .

Hour Three

Friday  7 November  2014 / Hour 3, Block A:  Richard A Epstein, Hoover Institution, Chicago Law, in re: The President believes that the growing partisanship in American politics is the fault of the Republicans. “The bulk of my nominees, twenty years ago or even ten years ago,” said the President about his judicial nominees, “would have been considered very much centrists, well within the mainstream of American jurisprudence, not particularly fire-breathing or ideologically driven. So the fact that now Democratic appointees and Republican appointees tend to vote differently on issues really has more to do with the shift in the Republican Party and in the nature of Republican-appointed jurists. . . . Democrats haven’t moved from where they were.” The President is correct that American politics are more polarized now than ever. But it’s not clear that this is solely because of the Republican . . . [more]

Friday  7 November  2014 / Hour 3, Block B:  Richard A Epstein, Hoover Institution, Chicago Law, in re: Rauner: Need insiders to know where 'bodies are buried'  Governor-elect Bruce Rauner discusses bipartisanship and working with democrats while stopped at a Springfield cafe during his thank-you . . .

Friday  7 November  2014 / Hour 3, Block C: Ken Croswell, Scientific American, in re: Ancient Halo Stars Cast the Milky Way’s First Light  Hubble spots a star in our galaxy’s halo that likely predates its oldest star clusters  We inhabit a giant spiral-shaped galaxy that glows with hundreds of billions of stars, a colossus so massive that at least two dozen lesser galaxies revolve around it. But how did this enormous entity arise? Clues come from the Milky Way's oldest and wisest stars—those in the stellar halo, the galactic component that envelops the bright disk housing the sun. Halo stars stand out because they formed before supernova explosions had scattered a large amount of heavy elements into the galaxy, so halo stars possess little iron. The brightest halo members are iron-poor globular star clusters, spectacular objects that can pack hundreds of thousands of old stars into a sphere just a few dozen light-years across.  Now the Hubble Space Telescope has found that an individual halo star is even older than these ancient star cities and is thus an ideal time capsule passed down from the Milky Way's birth. [more]

Friday  7 November  2014 / Hour 3, Block D: Charles Blanchard, Bloomberg New Finance. in re:  UPDATE 1-TransCanada seeks approval for Energy East pipeline


Hour Four

Friday  7 November  2014 / Hour 4, Block A: Toby Wilkinson, author,  The Nile: A Journey Downriver Through Egypt's Past and Present (1 of 4)

Friday  7 November  2014 / Hour 4, Block B: Toby Wilkinson, author,  The Nile: A Journey Downriver Through Egypt's Past and Present (2 of 4)

Friday  7 November  2014 / Hour 4, Block C: Toby Wilkinson, author,  The Nile: A Journey Downriver Through Egypt's Past and Present (3 of 4)

Friday  7 November  2014 / Hour 4, Block D: Toby Wilkinson, author,  The Nile: A Journey Downriver Through Egypt's Past and Present (4 of 4)

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