JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
 
Hour One
Friday 21 December    2020 / Hour 1, Block A: Tom Joscelyn, @thomasjoscelyn,Long War Journal and @FDD; and Bill Roggio, @billroggio, Long War Journal and @FDD; Generation Jihad, in re:  The truth is that Israel has dvpt a sophisticated network in Iran to take out nuclear scientists. They’re also targeting al Qaeda leaders. This is separate from events in Iraq, where many of he groups are still loyal to Iran: 20 million Shi’a there from whom Iran can recruit.  Still have boots on the ground.   [US media] are speaking of the Iran deal, but not of . . .   The US already has a much-reduced footprint from the peak.  Question henceforth: will Biden continue this?  Not necessary to overextend the US if one keeps a useful, small footprint.  Withdrawal from Afghanistan:  looks as though the US  is exiting; who will take its place? This is the first time that NATO has more forces there (4,000) that the US does.  May be 2,500 by the time Biden takes office.  Taliban will fill the space.  Russia may back individuals; China not eager to send troops, Iran on the periphery.  Attacks are at an all-time high. Taliban don't want a negotiated settlement, they want to win, have told everyone in Dubai that they’ve won. 
Friday 21 December    2020 / Hour 1, Block B: Tom Joscelyn, @thomasjoscelyn,Long War Journal and @FDD; and Bill Roggio, @billroggio, Long War Journal and @FDD; Generation Jihad, in re:   
Al Shebaab, long part of al Qaeda: A Kenyan was planning a 9/11-scale attack.  Flight training in the Philippines; arrested there after three years, transferred to US custody this month.  Washington pretends that Shebaab is separate; in fact, it was tasked by al Qaeda’s external operations wing with running a 9/11-style plot.   They’re eager to do something enormous again.  Isn’t anyone showing up at a flight school saying, “I want to learn to fly a 747” suspect? So far, we have two pilots; expect more.   Most Americans don’t know about the huge number of pilots that have been stopped.  As the US leaves Somalia, will it just become ungoverned space?   — US has a large presence in Djibouti.  Special ops teams coordinate with local [intell, military & constabulary]. The fight isn’t going well; Shebaab controls at least a quarter of Somalian territory; conduct raids from rural villages.    
Friday 21 December    2020 / Hour 1, Block C:  Michael Yon: @Michael_Yon, war correspondent;andGordon Chang, @GordonGChang,Daily Beast, in re:   China’s imperial overreach:  is the money running out? Looks that way; its to policy banks that fund such things have much reduced what they're laying out , esp for the Belt and Road; countries are defaulting.   Xi Jinping is being blamed, doesn't speak of Belt and Road anymore.  China is trying to get the IMF to give money to the poor countries that need funds to repay China.  Senator Cruz of Texas has put on  hold a bill that would let Hong Kongers fleeing the CCP to arrive in the US. He theory is that that would let the CCP send spies, but no one believes this. The US is their best, last chance.  Think of East Europeans behind the Iron Curtain.  We’re shutting one window and leaving ten open.  We need in haste to bring in as many Hong Kongers as we can. Jimmy Lai is in chains and may never be free again.  Why did the CCP move now instead of earlier?  HK was one of the finest places in the world to live. Tens of thousands of Americans were living there; don’t really want to leave.  Further, no one wants to break up families—and the CCP would persecute remaining families.  The US cracked the USS: we need to do the same thing with the CCP. Why would Cruz take this position—Texas immigration interests?  https://nationalinterest.org/feature/china-has-imperial-overstretch-prob...
Friday 21 December    2020 / Hour 1, Block D:  Andrew Collier, managing director of Orient Capital Research based in  Hong Kong, andGordon Chang, @GordonGChang,Daily Beast, in re:   The Chinese govt doesn't mind private companies that help the govt. Jack Ma put together a megacorporation, Alibaba, and a $34 billion IPO—then the regulators stopped it suddenly after Ma gave a speech suggesting that the regulators weren’t very good. Now the Wall Street Journal says he then had to offer the leadership partial ownership. There are a trillion foreign dollars in the Chinese bond market—apparently, anything to make a buck.  Small bz there are starving for money, so Ant Group was being enormously helpful.  Central Bank: We don't want anyone in fintech to get too big.  Struggle between Jack Ma and officials who have struck back. This is going to be a play that may continue for a long time. “Never want to be the tallest sunflower.”  Govt and banks cannot do fintech efficiently.  
 
Hour Two
Friday 21 December    2020 / Hour 2, Block A:  Terry Anderson, Hover, in re: 
Deb Holland will be the first Native American to head the Interior Department, wil be able to free the tribes from he perpetual paternalism of the BIA.  Native Americans are the poorest of any group in ht US, and face drug and alcohol problems.   Interior own 56 million acres of Indian lands “till they’re found to be competent and capable.” — Federal law! As racist as anyone could imaging.   Bill Yellowtail, Crow (Montana) says that the situation Interior has required for two centuries has  created a culture of “learned helplessness.”  He did his undergrad work at Dartmouth. Tribes depend on govt grants: not even allowed to fix their house without federal permission, or improve tribal police without permission. Quit thinking about grants and think of revenues.
      Southern Ute have created a fund; can she [liberate] all tribes this way?  She’ll need to find tribal leaders who want to renew their tribal economies and quit depending on the federal government.   Trump was interested in doing this but the Department of the Interior [had too many problems].   Pueblo tribes have some resources and can, if needed, open casinos.  
Friday 21 December    2020 / Hour 2, Block B:  Dr David Schneider, Ortho_Colorado Hospital, in re:  Yes, I was vaccinated last Thursday. Conspiratorial opposition to vaccines: social media; humans like gossip; and the US vaccine development sounds almost too good to be true. The two inventors must win the Nobel Prize next year.
Friday 21 December    2020 / Hour 2, Block C:  New World Report.Joseph Humire @jmhumire, @securefreesoc, and Senator Maria Fernanda Cabal @MariaFdaCabal, in re:
Sanctions are a policy tool., not a policy. For Trump, it was to put financial pressure on the Marduro regime; and it worked only modestly, but established the desired structure. Biden: will need strategy in place before deciding on tools.  Today 98% of Venezuelans live below the poverty line! As they flee to other countries, they destabilize the whole region.  Chavez used his oil money to bribe small Caribbean states; now changed, but OAS doesn't have many tools in its toolbox to deal with criminal and terrorist networks.  Iran and Russia have been central in propping up the failed regime—but China also has been, esp to fight the US. . .  . The Venezuelan state no longer sexists;  has only criminal networks.   . . . Top characters have parked their money internationally  
Friday 21 December    2020 / Hour 2, Block D: New World Report.Joseph Humire @jmhumire, @securefreesoc, and Senator Maria Fernanda Cabal @MariaFdaCabal, in re:  Brazil. President Bolsonaro has been controversial; his govt wants to subsidize the poor during the pandemic. Death count there is extremely high, and the economy hasn't been shut down.  
 
Hour Three
Friday 21 December    2020 / Hour 3, Block A:  Malcolm Hoenlein, @conf_of_pres, Conference of Presidents, and Thaddeus McCotter, @ThadMcCotter, American Greatness, in re: in re: Zarif said: No changes to the old Iran deal/JCPOA! Head of IAEA made strong statements: We’re back to square one, need new negotiations.  Fordow was supposed to have been closed and destroyed, whereas it’s now hugely expanded and fortified with antiaircraft guns. Saudis have stripped out the horrible texts on hatred for all sorts of people, are educating a new generation.  Libya, Lockerbie, 1988. Germany: the Halle city synagogue attack on Yom Kippur. The killer couldn’t get through the door, so shot two passers-by on the street and broadcast all events live. 
The EU has ruled against halal and kosher slaughter (case came from Flanders) n ground that animals must be stunned first. Measure primarily against Moslems.  / EU court acknowledged that anti-Semitism is a Europe-wide problem.  Yes, there are Jeremy Corbins all over Europe; this bigotry is widely tolerated and progressively more violent. By 59-41, Palestinians oppose a two-state solution; everyone wants new elections. Sixty-six percent want Abbas to resign. The PA is a RICO operation and everybody knows it; they're so divided, and dissidents are disappeared. No one leader has emerged. Abbas’s internal forces are very effective.  CUFI, led by Pastor John Hagee, now has doubled its membership to ten million! In all 50 states.
Friday 21 December    2020 / Hour 3, Block B:  Indiana Hoenlein, @conf_of_pres, Conference of Presidents, and  Thaddeus McCotter, @ThadMcCotter, American Greatness, in re: in re: Discoveries in the Garden of Gethsemane: found a 2,000 year-old ritual bath from the time of Jesus’ presence in Jerusalem, and a 1,500-year-old Byzantine church on the Mount of Olives.  Jerusalem’s tower of David has an Arabic inscription at the bottom. ‘Twas not the Crusaders who built it but the Moslems.  A sultan tore it down and filled the moat.  Rebuilt it later with Arabic on the walls; this sheds light on the whole period.  
Friday 21 December    2020 / Hour 3, Block C:  Andrew C McCarthy, @AndrewCMcCarthy, Ball of Collusion; and Thaddeus McCotter, @ThadMcCotter, American Greatness, in re: The remains f the 2020 election, Bill Barr: no large gathering of voting machines to question the vote totals or electoral college results. He sees no reason to.  Trump had counsel asked DHS to take custody of voting machines. A lot of saber-rattling in the govt. We have 50 state elections run by state legislatures. Federal authority is advisory, not supervisory. Also, if you asked a court to seize the machines, it would point out that Trump campaign has consistently declined to call the problem fraud; so how would you even get in to the ballpark?  The reason to see the machines is to see if there was fraud; but I’m convinced this is more political.  More about the narrative than the legal case.  Too many typos in the legal briefs; sloppy; would be rejected if it were a dissertation.  The federal suit in Georgia was workmanlike.  A Freudian one.  Under extreme time pressure.  No one on the president’s team has extensive experience in voting matters; Democrats have hardened workers.  GOP is outmanned, not a large enough budget. January 6: if one member each of House and Senate objects, it goes into debate for two hours.  We’re in unknown territory.  There may be one historical instance: the 1960 election when Hawaii was new to the union; poignant denouement. If GOP takes the position that the election was [bogus], it risks losing all the downballot wins.
Friday 21 December    2020 / Hour 3, Block D:  Andrew C McCarthy, @AndrewCMcCarthy, Ball of Collusion; and Thaddeus McCotter, @ThadMcCotter, American Greatness, in re: Vice-president Biden.
Hour Four
Friday 21 December    2020 / Hour 4, Block A:  John Marshall: The Chief Justice Who Saved the Nation,by Harlow Giles Unger
Friday 21 December    2020 / Hour 4, Block B:  John Marshall: The Chief Justice Who Saved the Nation,by Harlow Giles Unger

Friday 21 December    2020 / Hour 4, Block C:  John Marshall: The Chief Justice Who Saved the Nation,by Harlow Giles Unger
Friday 21 December    2020 / Hour 4, Block D:  John Marshall: The Chief Justice Who Saved the Nation,by Harlow Giles Unger