Photo, left: Hezbollah Brigade convoy in Iraq with US Army equipment, likely handed over to the militias by Iraqi military under direction of Iran.
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, The Great Voice of the Great Lakes; and author, Liberty Risen.
 
Hour One
Monday  2 February 2015  / Hour 1, Block A: Thomas Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor, & Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD, in re: US drones kill 4 AQAP fighters in southern Yemen  The strike is the second this week, and is an indication that the US counterterrorism program in Yemen will continue despite the Houthi takeover of the capital.
Al Nusrah Front battles Western-backed rebels outside Aleppo  The Al Nusrah Front has taken the fight to the Hazm Movement in the areas surrounding Aleppo. Hazm is one of the few rebel groups to receive Western aid and arms in the Syrian war. 
Islamic State's Sinai 'province' claims simultaneous attacks on Egyptian military, police  The group's attacks are likely its deadliest since it swore allegiance to the Islamic State last November. 
Al Qaeda sharia officials address Caucasus defectors in joint statement   Sharia officials from both Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the Al Nusrah Front, two official branches of al Qaeda, have signed a statement saying that the Islamic State's 'caliphate' is invalid. The statement is addressed to the Caucasus jihadists who announced their allegiance to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi in December. 
Taliban claim insider attack at Kabul Airport that killed 3 US contractors  The commander of police at the airport confirmed that a guard killed the three contractors. The green-on-blue or insider attack is the first of its kind recorded so far this year.
Monday  2 February 2015  / Hour 1, Block B: Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD, & in re:  Thomas Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor, in re: Houthis in Yemen: US trying to wage war on the cheap; this war is not winnable by remote control. A failed policy in Yemen and all around the region.  Same problem in Waziristan, where we have no real idea whom we’re killing.  Like trying to rid a termite infestation by using a magnifying glass and killing them one by one.    Also: multiple simultaneous car bombing by ISIS in Sinai.  Egypt has just announced that it's reconstituted its force there; fighting an insurgency war?  Need to take all the tribes opposing ISIS in Sinai and work together. Otherwise, no way to win.   Also: a Pakistani emir has now allied himself with ISIS as the Khorasan province member.  After Hakimullah Massoud, the Taliban assemblage broke up.
Monday  2 February 2015  / Hour 1, Block C: Andrew C. McCarthy, in re:  WAR ON TERROR  The Taliban Are Terrorists Why Obama pretends they are not.  . . .  A member of the Pakistani Taliban has just let Taliban to join ISIS as the Khorasan (AfPakia region) member. The Deputy Governor of that region is a former Guantanamo detainee.  Pres Obama's strategy from the beginning has been to atomize the various terrorist arms of the global jihadist movement, describe them as though each was a small, local group un connected to global Islamic supremacism.  In this, al Q is now as much of a threat to us as it was on 9/11, while ISIS is at least as dangerous to us Meanwhile, there are ongoing attempts at rapprochement between ISIS and al Qaeda. There's one Islamic supremacist movement that targets the West. This administration cannot admit that the word is not what it wishes the world would be; rather, it thinks that its language can change events on the ground. Recall the loopiness a few years back; "The Muslim Brotherhood/Ikhwan is a moderate secular organization."   Yikes – not.   Insight: This is Orwellian newspeak by ignorant people. They deprive us of knowing who the enemy is.  Their world view is that the US is responsible for all bad developments everywhere.   They sympathize with the jihadists.  Recall Lord Halifax and Neville Chamberlain. The Ministry of Peace says it's not . . .
Monday  2 February 2015  / Hour 1, Block D:  Gordon Chang, Forbes.com, in re: 2017 elections for chief executive of Hong Kong. Some of the Democracy  protestors have turned themselves in – and now are back on the street demonstrating, They’re about to be incarcerated for demanding that the contact that Beijing signed to allow some measures of freedom to Hong Kongnese. London is despicable: has agreed to accept Beijing's ne proposal, which about half of the Hong Kong population rejects. Britain wants good trade ties with China and the Foreign Office thinks it can secure that by caving in. Consistent Brit foreign policy, mirrors Euro policy. f it wer up ti them to secure democracy around the world we'd be in a lot of trouble. Uyghurs are trying to flee the oppression and horrific Han policies of cultural genocide; Beijing wants Muslim govt everywhere not to be aware of this, since Uyghurs are Turkic Muslims.  Same as Tibet: China trying to shut down the underground railways out of Tibet to freedom.. Brits won’t lift a finger vs China unless China looks weak.
Hour Two
Monday  2 February 2015  / Hour 2, Block A:  John Fund, National Review Online, & David M Drucker, Washington Examiner Senior Congressional correspondent, in re: James Robertson walks 21 miles to and from his work – seven miles to a bus, then five miles to his plant; works a night shift at Schain Mold & Engineering in Rochester Hills., makes $10 an hour.   "As for the possibility that a new federal program, available from Detroit's bus system, might provide a small-bus service that would pick Robertson up at home and deliver him directly to his job temporarily, he said: 'I'd rather they spent that money on a 24-hour bus system, not on some little bus for me. This city needs buses going 24/7. You can tell the city council and mayor I said that.' "
. . . Scott Walker has more achievements than charisma.  When Romney withdrew, he called for a candidate "not as well known as I am" – a shot against Jeb Bush? He was probably distressed to see so many of his donors and staff defecting to Bush. 
Story of Detroiter who walks 21 miles a day to work gets people moving  Did you have a rough commute to work this morning? Whatever it was, and however long it took, it likely pales in comparison to the Detroit man who walks 21 miles every day to and from his $10-an-hour manufacturing job — although thanks to the generosity of strangers, he may get off his feet soon.  As detailed in the Detroit Free Press, James Robertson, 56, has been making the four-hour trek from his Detroit home to work at a injection molding shop in Rochester Hills, some 23 miles away. For a shift that begins at 2 p.m., Robertson leaves home at 8 a.m., catching some buses between 7-mile walking stints. At 10 p.m., he faces a minimum 12-mile walk to and from buses, a trek that due to the lack of transit means he usually gets home around 4 a.m., for two hours of sleep.
His attendance record? Almost perfect.
Robertson's plight may be most stunning for illustrating one of those odd secrets about Detroit: The Motor City has a problem with moving people. At 26 percent, Detroit ranks seventh among large U.S. cities for its share of households without a vehicle — just behind Chicago and Baltimore. While those cities have trains and subways, Detroit lacks a true mass-transit system, relying instead of a threadbare network of buses that rarely reach into the deep suburbs where many jobs have gone. (And it's true: the city sold off its streetcars in the '50s at the urging of automotive companies.) As a result, Detroiters use public transit about as often as people in Indianapolis or Kansas City — places where cars are essential.   [more]
To donate:  http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/oakland/2015/02/01/james-...
Monday  2 February 2015  / Hour 2, Block B: John Fund, National Review Online, & David M Drucker, Washington Examiner Senior Congressional correspondent, in re:  . . .   Republicans promised to govern "normally" – caveat trench warfare, continuing resolutions.  Elizabeth Warren: "The president doesn’t have her panache and style." . . tax the rich tax the rich – Ms Warren's line despite her being quite well-to-do.  In fact proposals these days are tax the middle class in death/estate taxes.  "The president had declared his own fantasy budget. The 529 whopper is merely [emblematic]."  The taxman knows that he money reposes in the middle class, and that's where he'll go to get his funds.  Paycheck protection and paycheck augmentation.  The president's four trillion-dollar budget lands thump!
Monday  2 February 2015  / Hour 2, Block C:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:  Hezbollah congratulated itself for the double murder, called it "the first installment of an open account between us and Israel" – as Nasrallah sent a message to Israel to say that it doesn’t want a real war. However, it also announced that "Israel now has Iran on its border."  Kornet missiles, armor-penetrating, from Iran given to Hezbollah; these plus attack tunnels pose an additional danger hat Israel feels, and explains why Israel is so sensitive to the current negotiations with Iran. Hezbollah posted a blog saying it will retaliate against Netanyahu's children.
Enlisting North and central Africans, all from specific areas either suffering from unemployment or under the heel of a radical imam; pay recruits $3,000 per month, vastly more than most Africans could earn otherwise, and then the trainees go back home as trained killers.  Normal route today is to fly to Turkey, but some come through Lebanon, or other European entry points to Turkey, thence to Syria and Iraq. Some fly directly in to Iraq; naught done to inhibit that movement.  This is the most chaotic, anarchic, and laden with possibility of escalation, as now he Syrian war is acting as a cancer.  
Behind Nasrallah's message: Syria, Iran and Hezbollah are one united front  Two main messages stand out from Nasrallah's Friday address, but what the Hezbollah . . .      Obama lacks strategy to stop Islamic State expansion  As the U.S. fights the Islamic State to a stalemate in Iraq, the terrorist army also is looking ... On Thursday, the Islamic militant group Sinai Province, claiming allegiance to the . . .     Sisi Blames Muslim Brotherhood for Bombings in Sinai     Jihadist Terror Attacks in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula Kill at Least 30
Monday  2 February 2015  / Hour 2, Block D: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:  US Treasury's Sanctions Czar Says Iran, Russia, Islamic State . . . Iran's economy is now fundamentally incapable of recovery without a nuclear accommodation with the West, increasing . . .   In the nuclear talks, what if Iran can't get to yes?
Hour Three
Monday  2 February 2015  / Hour 3, Block A:    Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal editorial board & host of OpinionJournal.com; in re: http://www.wsj.com/articles/political-diary-hensarlings-housing-history-lesson-1422386002   also   http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2015/01/freddie-mac-mortgage-serious.html
Monday  2 February 2015  / Hour 3, Block B:  Mona Charen, NRO, in re: FOREIGN POLICY - A Better Cuba Deal  All their political prisoners should be released.
Monday  2 February 2015  / Hour 3, Block C:  Coral Davenport, NYT, in re: For States That Don’t File Carbon-Cutting Plans, E.P.A. Will Impose ‘Model Rule’  Republicans and the coal industry were quick to criticize the move, which is meant to pre-empt states that refuse to submit plans of their own. Risks from Climate Change  President Obama issued an executive order requiring that all federally funded construction projects take into account the flood risks linked to global warming.   Obama’s Plan: Allow Drilling in Atlantic, but Limit It in Arctic The Obama administration moved Tuesday to open up a vast stretch of East Coast waters to oil and gas drilling.
Monday  2 February 2015  / Hour 3, Block D:   Sophie Quinton, National Journal, in re: Next America correspondent Sophie Quinton looks at how a University of Iowa program is closing the AP participation gap by offering high school students access to free, online AP Placement courses.
Hour Four
Monday  2 February 2015  / Hour 4, Block A:  Bill Whalen, Hoover Institution, in re: To Win White House in 2016, GOP Must Appeal to Middle Class  Sacramento Bee ;  A Senate Coronation in California?  The Hill
Monday  2 February 2015  / Hour 4, Block B:  Stephen Moore, chief economist, Heritage Foundation, in re:  Obama Estate Tax Plan: Die Once, Get Taxed Twice
Monday  2 February 2015  / Hour 4, Block C:  Francis Rose, Federal News Radio, in re: Miller Statement on the President’s VA Budget Request  Today Chairman Miller released the following statement regarding President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2016 VA budget request.   “I am committed to providing the Department of Veterans Affairs with the resources it needs to take care of our nation’s veterans. But if there’s one thing we’ve learned over the last year, it’s that VA’s numbers cannot be trusted. Furthermore, whether it's funding, staffing, or information technology tools, Congress has given this administration nearly everything it has asked for to increase access to VA health care and overcome perennial challenges such as the department’s mountain of backlogged disability benefits compensation claims. For its part, VA has left hundreds of millions in health care funding unspent since 2010 as thousands of veterans languished on waiting lists and squandered more than $1 billion on a host of botched construction projects, acquisition failures and extravagant employee conferences. That’s why we will ensure President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2016 VA budget request receives the scrutiny it is due over the coming weeks. Additionally, the president’s idea to reallocate a portion of Veterans Choice Program funding to other areas of VA is a complete non-starter, which I will not support. When a near-unanimous Congress worked with President Obama last year to create the choice program, we made a promise to veterans to give them more freedom in their health care decisions. I will not stand idly by while the president attempts to renege on that promise. – Rep. Jeff Miller, Chairman, House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
Monday  2 February 2015  / Hour 4, Block D:   Anna Nemtsova, Daily Beast, in re: Confessions of a Putin Strategist Officials on both sides of the Ukraine conflict agree “full-scale, continental war” is a growing possibility.   Peace negotiations were supposed to take place between Moscow and Kiev last Thursday. They didn’t. On Friday, in both capitals, officials talked about full-scale war threatening to erupt in Donbas, the rebellious eastern region of Ukraine. Each side blamed the other for violence and atrocities, after an artillery attack hit a public bus and killed 12 passengers on the road between Donetsk and Mariupol earlier in the week. The strike targeted a Ukrainian army position, a checkpoint; the army blamed  separatists, while separatist officials said the Ukrainians had fired on their own
position to simulate a separatist atrocity. Both Kiev and Moscow demanded an investigation by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
The new ceasefire negotiations, which had been planned for weeks by both sides of the conflict, seemed to be forgotten, and the question looms whether a peace agreement with Ukraine is possible at all.  According to Sergei Markov, an informal advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Moscow did not have a good peace plan in the first place. “No peace negotiations can happen,” he told The Daily Beast, “so long as certain Ukrainian officials … are responsible for decision making in Kiev; and they want to drag Russia into a full-scale war, as that is the only way they can keep power.” Markov, speaking as we waited for Putin to address the Public Chamber at Moscow State University on Thursday, mentioned three names . . . [MORE]
Ukraine Rebels’ Next Stop: Kiev?
       If the port city falls to Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine, the road to Russia’s dream of... [MORE]
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