Monday 24 March 2014
Photo, above: Student protesters occupy the Taiwanese Legislature on Wednesday to protest against the act by the ruling Kuomintang party to ratify a controversial service and trade agreement with China. (Ashley Pon/Getty Images) Hundreds of students have occupied Taiwan’s Legislature to protest against an impending trade agreement with China, fearing the pact would give the mainland too much political influence and economic clout over the democratic, self-governed island.
The protesters burst into the legislative chamber late Tuesday and quickly occupied it despite police efforts to drive them out, news reports said. The students said they were demanding that the island’s President Ma Ying-jeou apologize to the Taiwanese people over the trade pact, and that the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) party scrap a review that is part of the process of implementing the deal. [Widely thought, and with some evidence, that Ma has had surreptitious agreements with the unelected tyrants of Beijing to deliver Taiwan to Beijing. The quid pro quo is thought to be cold cash, although the KMT has ever held the ideological position that Taiwan is merely "the little island," and the Taiwanese mixed-blood population not quite as good as the pure Han, such as Chiang Kai-shek and his associates. In other words, the protesting students may be correct.]
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Thaddeus McCotter, WJR: The Great Voice of the Great Lakes.
Hour One
Monday 24 March 2014 / Hour 1, Block A: Aaron Task, Yahoo Finance, in re: from the G8 to GM . . . The Brooklyn Nets will be "repatriated" by the oligarch Prokhorov from New York to Moscow on the advice of Vl Putin. The Brooklyn Nyets? China's biggest trading partner has been Europe, which is mired in a deep slowdown; China's export economy has cooled more than their domestic economy has heated up. GM has grave problems before the bankruptcy; said nothing. The Street hasn’t taken a big chunk out. GM could be looking at a fine in the high hundred-millions. A lot of people take great confidence from Mary Barra's handling of these crises.
Are tougher penalties against Russia to come? U.S. penalties against a Russian bank and the Kremlin's inner circle have pinched Moscow, but their effectiveness is in doubt if the goal is to get President Vladimir Putin to roll back his forces from Crimea or prevent more land grabs.
Wall Street to Investors: Time to Cash In Some Chips Even as Wall Street pros celebrate the bull market's five-year anniversary, some are counseling investors to sell select shares and be careful about new investments.
U.S. regulators failed to spot deadly GM defects that others saw Retired Wisconsin state trooper Keith Young and his wife were sitting at the kitchen table last month when a story on the evening news jarred them: General Motors Co was recalling 1.6 million vehicles for faulty ignition switches. . . .
Monday 24 March 2014 / Hour 1, Block B: Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD; Thomas Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor, in re: Obama Adm definition of "core al Qaeda" – but they’re pretty adept at replacing people killed – a deep bench. We're fighting an enemy that's built itself for insurgencies. Chechens are excellently reared. Doku Umarov's death of a week ago – his successor has launched attacks in Moscow. Heard that Russian advisors are engaged, but not confirmed – certainly, Russians would prefer to kill Chechens in Syria than see them return home to the Caucasus.
Al Nusrah Front official confirms senior al Qaeda leader has been killed The head of al Qaeda's "Victory Committee," Sanafi al Nasr, who was also a key ally of the Al Nusrah Front, was killed yesterday in Syria's coastal province of Latakia.
Chechen commander for Al Nusrah Front reported killed in fighting against Syrian forces Muhammad al Shishani is said to have been killed while fighting alongside the Jaish al Muhajireen wal Ansar and the Al Nusrah Front against Syrian forces.
Al Qaeda official in Syria was extremist preacher in Australia An Al Nusrah Front video released on March 17 features Abu Sulayman al Muhajir, who was an extremist preacher in Australia. Abu Sulayman says he relocated to Syria, where he was part of al Qaeda's mediation effort in the dispute between Al Nusrah and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham (ISIS). He criticizes ISIS in the video.
Al Qaeda veteran appears in Al Nusrah Front video, criticizes rival In a video released on March 18, the Al Nusrah Front identifies Abu Firas al Suri as a leader within the group. Al Suri, who has a long al Qaeda pedigree, was dispatched to Syria from Yemen to try to mediate the dispute between Al Nusrah and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham.
Taliban claim suicide assault on Jalalabad police HQ The Taliban suicide assault team stormed a police headquarters and killed the district chief and nine policemen while fighting off Afghan forces for six hours.
Monday 24 March 2014 / Hour 1, Block C: Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD; Thomas Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor, in re: Islamists are fighting not only vs Assad, but against their own kindred. Rivalry between al Nusrah Front and the Islamic State of the Levant and Iraq . Now heated and violent, online and on the ground. Propaganda fight identifies leadership we’ve ever heard of before; some have pedigree s back to the late 1980s – very seasoned guys; ID'd in videos; we call these "the old-school talent" We follow 100 to 150 websites, many of them twitter feeds. Announced today an interview with Ayman al Zawahiri tomorrow. A massive online world – one cleric has 290,0000 followers. Aggressively pushing their online. The Islamic Caucasus Emirate – Doku Umarov (announced his death on 18 March) was progenitor of many attacks; his successor has had seven years of training. Putin afraid of Crimean Tatars, whom he considers to be susceptible to Chechen blandishments and training, Turkey turns a blind eye to such recruiting. Turkey has made a dangerous turn where it’s flirting with jihadist groups. ISIS got kicked out of the al Q club for effusing to follow a playbook – avoi killing brethren unnecessarily in order to bld a broader base of support; milder paradigm for al Q, more violent for ISIS. The Syrian civil war is a [suppurating wound] that can spread and contaminate the whole region.
Monday 24 March 2014 / Hour 1, Block D: Lara M Brown, George Washington University; Francis Rose, Federal News Radio, in re: A sinkhole of bureaucracy BREAKING POINTS | Deep in an underground mine in Boyers, Pa., amid 28,000 filing cabinets, government workers process the retirement files of federal employees. On paper. By hand. In 2014. ‘This is truly deplorable’ How the outdated system works -- All federal employees's retirement papers are only on paper; not digitized; of course, Congress may not have voted in enough dollars to do this, so we have caves with filing cabinets. This is irrational. However, it’s old hat: think of thee different OPM directors who tried to modernize that system; Congress came back and said, "What'd you do with all that money?" Dozens of different formats; now all converge in the limestone quarry in Pennsylvania – 55 years ago.
The ACA comes due in seven days. No one expects the targets to be hit; allowances will be made. In Detroit, people getting threatening letters. Even small businesses that file quarterly have to file a form saying one is [innocent]. Former director of WH affairs wrote, "The ACA Is Working." Pelosi said the ACA is something to be proud of. The dynamic is just to keep saying, "What problem?"
Five Reasons Neither Party Is Winning Politically on the ACA It's hardly news that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is unpopular. The President's ratings are seriously underwater on handling the issue.
If the IRS Calls, Hang Up Taxpayers have lost more than $1 million to IRS scams . . .
Hour Two
Monday 24 March 2014 / Hour 2, Block A: John Fund, National Review Online; David M Drucker, Washington Examiner Sr Congressional correspondent, in re: Seven days to ACA launch.
Jimmy Carter: President Obama hasn’t asked my advice in dealing with Russia Lawmakers call for military aid for Ukraine Republicans could retake the Senate. But can they keep it? THE FIX | A look at 11 Senate races most likely to switch parties this November. House GOP committed to Obamacare alternative, but passing a bill this year is another story
Monday 24 March 2014 / Hour 2, Block B: John Fund, National Review Online; David M Drucker, Washington Examiner Sr Congressional correspondent, in re:
Monday 24 March 2014 / Hour 2, Block C: Paul Barrett, Bloomberg, in re: Will the Government Rescue GM Again?
Monday 24 March 2014 / Hour 2, Block D: Gordon Chang, Forbes.com, in re: Xi Ji-ping visits Pres Obama: Talking about aggression vs Tibetans, Uyghurs, national minorities; routinely threatening Japan ad South Korea and neighbors to the south – all with no negative consequence. Xi and Obama talking right past each other with no agreement. Before Reagan, US Administrations mumbled that the Soviet Union was an immutable fact; Reagan said, "Nuts. We win, they lose." Chinese mfrg is 45% of the economy, has been declining for a long time; number of jobs is substantially diminished. ""Tweak as you go" policy. Chinese economy was 60%-plus I under Mao, is not-w int e Thirties. Bad idea. Taiwan: Pres Ma of Taiwan is being compared to Hitler. Student protestors have taken over the Legislature over the Cross-Strait Trade Agreement – which he said would be transparent, but it wasn't. Ma has an approval rating of 15% on a good day.
#China's attempt to shift its economic model will require many policy adjustments, warns the World Bank.
Isaac Stone Fish (@isaacstonefish) Photo comparing Taiwan President Ma to Hitler @jguanghong: 马特勒来了！ pic.twitter.com/03elMwF9YA William Albano 艾惟 (@NiuB)
China HSBC Manufacturing PMI Falls to Eight-Month Low "It's probably better for the economy of China that there is a slowdown." - Total CEO Christophe de Margerie. video
Hour Three
Monday 24 March 2014 / Hour 3, Block A: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Fourth Palestinian prisoner release to occur – but Abbas said, "No freeze/no free" and he refuses to rescind the "right of return" – violates all principles agreed on, and no commitment to end the conflict. The release perforce is now Prisoner releases were originally to give cover to Abbas to coe back to the table. Note that Israel is always asked to give, to make tangible concessions, while Palestinians emphatically are not. In West Bank, PA has lost control of the camps; shoot-outs. Hamas celebrating rejectionism. Israel looks at all this and asks, What are we doing? Ashton speaks of "promising" new talks with Iran. See testimony in UN today on Iran's fomenting violence in many countries. Continue to support terrorist operations. Note oil for gold, gold for reactors – oil for everything. Iran builds a scale model of the USS Abraham Lincoln – could have got one cheaper on Amazon. Built the model in order to blow it up and advertise on domestically that the regime has blown up the real ship? Weird. Note Catherine Ashton sitting laughing with Zarif; however, she spoke with regime opposition so they cancelled her dinner. Iran offers to exchange oil for a reactor with Russia?
Monday 24 March 2014 / Hour 3, Block B: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Jimmy Carter & BDS – boycott, divest, sanctions – a plan to try to destroy Israel, which is now largely opposed by Carter because a good deal of the damage is done against Palestinians, whose well-paid jobs depend on Israeli exports. University of Michigan: today vile epithets hurled at Jewish students, "Kike" "dirty Jew" and other names, and harassed; university spokesman said, Oh, it's not serious; it’s just student activism. Only after physical violence was closely threatened did the administrators call the campus police. In Paris: a Jewish teacher was forced against a wall, badly beaten, marked with a swastika – on the one-year anniversary of the Toulouse attacks. UK: MI5 finally notices that a lot of British citizens have been recruited and trained in jihad, and fought in local wars and terrorist attacks; now returning to UK. Every country in Europe carries this burden; eke the US. These guys are coming back with a mission.
Monday 24 March 2014 / Hour 3, Block C: David Grinspoon, Library of Congress, in re: Mercury (the planet) shrinks as it cools; MESSENGER images show shrinking left scars on the planet’s surface.
skyandtelescope. com/news/Active-Volcanoes-on-Venus-251323301.html
wired. com/wiredscience/2014/03/mars-gully-not-water/
space. com/25186-cassini-spies-titan-waves.html
Monday 24 March 2014 / Hour 3, Block D: Michael J. Petri, Hoover, in re: “Kid, I’m Sorry, but You’re Just Not College Material”
Hour Four
Monday 24 March 2014 / Hour 4, Block A: Jeff Foust, Space Review, in re:
Reusability and other issues facing the launch industry While many in the space community are fascinated with SpaceX's experiments with reusability and their implications for launch prices, that excitement doesn't necessarily extend to other companies in the launch industry. Jeff Foust reports on what issues are currently of greater interest and importance to them.
Yet amidst a crackdown that has killed over 1,000 Morsi supporters, Muslim Brothers aren’t turning the other cheek. Armed with improvised weapons such as flaming aerosol cans and Molotov cocktails, they are directing a campaign of lower-profile violence against various governmental and civilian targets, aiming to stir chaos and thereby weaken the post-Morsi regime. Ironically, they are embracing the same tactics that anti-Brotherhood activists used to undermine Morsi’s authority after his November 2012 power grab.
To promote these violent efforts, Muslim Brothers appeal to their supporters through social media, establishing violent Facebook groups that have attracted thousands of “likes.” For example, the “Execution Movement” Facebook page, which was founded in early September to call for the deaths of Egypt’s top security officials, urges its roughly 3,000 followers to burn police cars. “There are 34,750 police officers in Egypt … 80% of them have cars,” reads a January 26 post that spread across pro-Brotherhood Facebook pages. “If we exploit the current situation of chaos and, during the night…burned 1000 [police] vehicle . . . Either the government will compensate [the officers] with new cars, which will cause imbalance in the budget and popular anger . . . or leave them without cars like the rest of the population, and . . .
Monday 24 March 2014 / Hour 4, Block C: Shawn Regan, PERC, in re: "Unlocking the Wealth of Nations" – Indian nations' lands are rich; need to obtain the benefits. (1 of 2)
Monday 24 March 2014 / Hour 4, Block D: Shawn Regan, PERC, in re: "Unlocking the Wealth of Nations" – Indian nations' lands are rich; need to obtain the benefits. (2 of 2)
.. .. ..
Music
Hour 1: Crimson Tide. Underworld. Skyline.
Hour 2: The Eagle. Road to Perdition. Hero.
Hour 3: Persia. Starship Troopers. Ides of March.
Hour 4: Ides of March. Persia. Last of the Mohicans.
..