Photo, above: The title page of The Guide for the Perplexed by Maimonides.  

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Co-hosts: Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal editorial board.  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents .

Hour One

Thursday  13 February 2014 / Hour 1, Block A: Rick Outzen, publisher, Pensacola Independent Daily News, in re:  Florida lost a prominent Republican Congressman from Pinellas County; now running: a woman who didn’t reside where she filed, plus another Republican.  Was a CFO; ran for governor against Rick Scott, lost because "she's talented and smart but extremely dull." Rick Scott has one f the lowest approval ratings of any governor despite an excellent economic record.  Alex Sink decided to run in a small House race, is well known in Tampa but not exciting.   . . .  Tamp is not just retirees; there are military, commercial entrepreneurs, all sorts of people. RUBIO ROBO CALL URGES PINELLAS VOTERS TO SUPPORT DAVID JOLLY

Thursday  13 February 2014 / Hour 1, Block B:  Edward W Hayes, criminal defense attorney par excellence, in re: Bishop Orlando Findlayter, taken to 67th Pct in Brooklyn after being stopped in Brownsville, having no license; then someone called the New York City mayor, who called an NYPD official to spring him.  Scott Stringer, New York City comptroller, said that  the mayor mustn't make a call for a friend.  A real stupid thing to do.  Democrats are quite unhappy.  . . .  Mayor DeBlasio will offer good remuneration to unions; from the pockets of Manhattanites . . .

Mayor de Blasio calls a top cop after pal arrested — and then the friend is freed 

A church pastor with outstanding warrants — and a position on Mayor de Blasio's inaugural committee — dodged a night in the slammer after ...   De Blasio Under Fire After Pastor Is Released from Police Custody

Thursday  13 February 2014 / Hour 1, Block C: Steve Moore, chief economist at Heritage Foundation, in re:  GOP (28 of them) voted for US debt ceiling to be raised indefinitely – wrong: suspended it entirely, not limit till March 2015! For the last five years we've raised our debt by $5 trillion to $17 trillion; acquired more debt in five years than in the first 200.  In the last three decades, the only time we've got honest budget reforms has been on the debt ceiling. Reagan, Clinton, others, used this to focus the American public's attention on our debt. Here, it's like giving a drunk another drink. First we passed a $1 trillion bill, then a massive food stamp bill, and now unlimited debt.  It’s nuts.  JB: "Keep the lights on" is the GOP plan for the next year. Don't allow the sophisticated president to blame Republicans for anything, and keep pressure on Obamacare.    SM:  In 1998, the GOP also lost their nerve and instead of picking up 35 seats in the House they lost seats.  They  win by standing up to [presidents who overspend].  I hate it when Republicans get into this fetal opposition. Dan Henninger wrote brilliantly today about school choice; I want to see some fight in these Republicans, need to advance their ideas; want to hear what they stand for.

Thursday  13 February 2014 / Hour 1, Block D:  Harry Siegel, New York Daily News columnist & editorial board member, in re:  Two powerful Dems in New York: Bill DeBlasio, city mayor and progressive; and Andrew Cuomo, governor in Albany.  Is there enough room on Planet Earth for these two men when both are vying for national power?  Bill DeBlasio with Elizabeth Warren the flag-carrier for Progressives; Cuomo, for centrist Democrats.   Cuomo wants to get more NYC votes than DeBlasio got. DeBlasio has changed the debate terms so that the only question now I how universal pre-K will get paid for. In 2016: if you're in Albany, you're one step from the White House. Also Hillary Clinton is in the picture.  Quinnipiac poll shows Cuomo higher than DeBlasio; he has a huge war chest. His likely opponents include Trump, who’s not serious.  A New York City collapse would not be in Cuomo's interest. Union contracts outstanding for years in New York City; DeBlasio put out a budget address without underlying numbers. DeB is close to SEIU, 1099, Working Families Party.   What'll Cuomo do if 1199 gangs up on him?  1199 reps health-care workers, nominally in private sector but actually paid by the state. If they push too hard Cuomo can devastate them.    The mayor of New York takes on Al Roker – the most popular television personality in the City, as Roker tweets from Sochi on school choice. Not smart by DeBlasio.

Hour Two

Thursday  13 February 2014 / Hour 2, Block A: Amb Dennis Ross, in re: the US and the churning  Middle East. Vladimir Putin today endorses al Sisi for president, although al Sisi isn’t yet formally running, Putin is competing with the US, wants to steal a march, show that he wholly support al Sis's moves vis-à-vis the Muslim Brotherhood.  Can Egypt practically shift military eqpt from huge American armamentarium?  No- only the Saudis and Emiratis can buy, not clear how long they'll care to do so.  Signal of massive Arab displeasure with the US.  The Egyptians are signaling that Egyptian errors: arresting journos and imprisoning people who put up a poster on the referendum.  US needs to have a high-level strategic dialogue.  Syria as proxy for contest with Iran. Gen Petraeus.  Provocations with ships, missile tests, centrifuges.  Three levels of concern: 1. They think we haven’t pursued US interests in Egypt because we don’t understand existential internal Struggle.  2.  Iran.  3.  Iran's expansive activities – Bahrain, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, et al.  Suppose we tried to disrupt Houthis in Yemen, or [Bashir] in Sudan?  Arabs see Iran's nukes not as the centre of the problem but as one factor.  US should enter a strategic dialogue immed with Egypt, Saudis – a senior-level delegation on where we agree and don’t; how to manage all these issues.

Thursday  13 February 2014 / Hour 2, Block B: Robert Satloff, executive director, The Washington Institute, in re: Mr Kerry has oversold his embassies . . . His approach has been more to work with Israeli leadership than merely scold them for settlements, as Obama did last term  Kerry exaggerated the  benefits of signing an agreement and the costs if they don’t.   Made a big deal of the "Arab Peace Initiative" – if Israel made peace with Palestinians, then all Muslin states would acknowledge Israel – but Israel has to make peace with both Syrians and Lebanese.  Kerry wants Bibi to say yes, entice him with US "good-faith effort" on Jordan Valley, et al. Meanwhile , the White House is throwing spanners  in the works. Oops. Last week, Tzipi Livni was asked what'd happen if the Palestinians didn’t accept? She said, "Mahmoud Abbas would pay a cost" – leading to enormous howls from Palestinians claiming that she'd threatened Abbas with death. Completely nuts.  Erekat says "no recognition ever"; US spends lots of time trying to affect Israeli opinions, zilch on Palestinian opinion. They're intelligent and deserve information .

Thursday  13 February 2014 / Hour 2, Block C: Michael Doran, senior fellow, Saban Center for Middle East Policy, in re: Suppose Mr Obama never intended to roll back Iran's nuclear program. What would that look like?  Exactly the way it looks right now.  / iran's TV wargaming vs US ships, et al.  I'm not expecting a positive outcome – years of process, we remain ever hopeful, never get to the end point which will vanish like a mirage. Congress[?] speaking for not a six-month delay but a year's delay. This Adm has mischaracterized  the situation, using "suspend, freeze, roll back" – misnomers. David Albright said, Major loophole; Iran may continue working wirh second-generation centrifuges. We've a=capped some activities but race ahead with others We'll be worse off at he end of he interim period than we were before, and unlikely to get what we need  in July, we'll se what Iran asks for; in a year, I’ll [be a new ball game].  The Obama Adm is n a unicycle, must keep peddling or it'll fall. The worst thing we did was define an open-ended process : rolls over every six months, no cap on the process. Menendez put a cap. There are real tensions among the elite – between Supreme Leader and Rouhani; no thought that Rouhani is our ally in any way.   I imagine them debating it: _____.  No one in the US [probably anywhere but Iran] actually knows what’s really going on, how decision-making occurs in Iran. We need to be prudent, assume they’re heading to a nuclear program, and stop them.  Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has asked for two Pakistani divisions and aircraft.  US has destroyed a containment policy.  CW deal in Syria is a model for the nuclear deal – we started, generated hope of a new dipl path; failed.     We look very weak.  "They pretend t surrender, we pretend to win."

Thursday  13 February 2014 / Hour 2, Block D: Tony Badran, Research Fellow, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, in re: Adjusting after Geneva; Lebanon, Hezbollah. Both Geneva and Syria are kabuki. We’ve achieved with a credible threat of force to cause chem. weapons to be removed from Syria – although Pres Obama beseeched Putin to lean on Assad to keep his commitment.  OPCW says 11% have been removed – failure!   Brahimi doesn’t believe in current process; wants instead a regional consortium: Iran, Turkey, Russia, US, all convene.  Of course, Iran refuses.  All in virtual-land. Reality is on the ground; a fight to the death.  Iran rejects any transitional govt; will accept on Assad.  No mechanism to get Assad taken anywhere for trial without a military option. Parachuted into the ICC? Fantasy.   Assad wants to continue "state institutions" – of which there is none in Syria.  Track 2 talks with Iranians with Fred [Hough]: Iranians don't buy into any of the powersharing notions in Syria; the minute Assad is diluted, the whole thing crumbles.  Les Gelb and Frank Wisner op-ed on [?].  [Ridiculous.] Adm is dying to engage Iran on Syria.  . . .  Zarif dismissed talks on Syria – meaning: keep begging and eventually you'll come to my terms. 

Hour Three

Thursday  13 February 2014 / Hour 3, Block A: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Scarlett Johanssen for Secretary of State.  New legislation in Spain on Sephardic Jews, who were of Spanish ("Sepharad" means Spain in Hebrew) Jews whose ancestors were chased from Spain in 1492.  Went to Recife, Holland Morocco – the dispersion of Jews led to the proliferation of Sephardic culture,  incl music.  Legislation granting Spanish citizenship to those who can prove they're descendants of Jews expelled from Spain.  King of Spain heard Sephardic music in diaspora, said it was so touching to hear Spanish music maintained for 500 years. "Conversos": those who converted – then, called Moranos, hidden Jews – to Christianity in order to survive Some have saved boxes of phylacteries for half a millennium; some clean their houses every Friday, maintain certain dietary traditions – but don’t know why.   Pope in Seville.  Underground scholarship. That community was very creative – called the Golden Era, incl Maimonides – until books were burnt and communities destroyed.  The Kerry Plan.  . . . Water; Knesset members stormed out.

Thursday  13 February 2014 / Hour 3, Block B: Benjamin Weinthal, FDD, in re:  eroding Iran sanctions; EU.  Dutch ambassador tweeted, "Speed dating sessions [to court] Iran." Probably $20 billion of business heading to Iran now.  Mtgs with oil people; exploratory talks are boosting Iran's economy right now   - "breathing new life and fire" into the economy.  Huge delegation of French bz went to Iran; Renault now assembling cars in Iran.  VP of Austrian Chamber of Commerce went to Iran with ten major companies, said, "No reason to comply with US laws on Iran sanctions."    Catherine Ashton wants to extends the current six-month period [thus mollycoddle Iran]. 

Thursday  13 February 2014 / Hour 3, Block C:  Michael Tomasky, The Daily Beast, in re: Rand’s Hot Monica Talk  Tweaking the Clintons may help win over Republicans for a presidential bid. But talk of a 15-year-old affair won’t convince women who oppose his libertarian policies.  What on earth is Rand Paul thinking, bringing up Monica Lewinsky? On cable TV, they shake their talking heads: ancient history, irrelevant, etc. Quite true, it’s all those things. But in terms of intra-GOP presidential-positioning politics, I think it’s actually quite shrewd, and another sign that he is not to be underestimated in terms of possibly nabbing the GOP nomination. Unfortunately for Paul—although fortunately for America—it’s only shrewd in terms of intra-GOP politics. Among the rest of the electorate, responses will range from indifference to hostility, and the “GOP War on Women” narrative won’t suffer a scratch.

Here’s what Paul is doing. First, he’s getting right with the base. As a devolutionist-libertarian, he takes some unorthodox positions from the conservative point of view—his neo-isolationist, anti-neocon foreign policy views, his comparatively soft-line views on same-sex marriage . ..

Thursday  13 February 2014 / Hour 3, Block D:  Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re: The first four cubesats of a fleet of 28 launched from ISS on Tuesday.

The four “cubesats,” each about the size of a loaf of bread, were deployed from the space station this morning and began zipping freely around Earth. Twenty-four more will join them over the coming days, filling out the “Flock 1″ satellite fleet operated by San Francisco-based startup Planet Labs. Planet Labs’ Flock 1 will provide frequent, low-cost, high-resolution imagery of Earth that could serve a variety of purposes, company officials say, from tracking deforestation and natural disasters to monitoring leaks in oil pipelines.

DARPA opens the competition for awarding the first design contracts for a new experimental unmanned space plane, set to launch in 2017.

DARPA has high expectations for the XS-1 program, which it hopes can eventually launch 3,000- to 5,000-lb (1,361 to 2,268 kilograms) payloads to orbit for less than $5 million per flight — and to do it at least 10 times per year….

DARPA officials laid out their broad vision of the robotic XS-1 vehicle in a press release issued in September: “XS-1 envisions that a reusable first stage would fly to hypersonic speeds at a suborbital altitude,” they wrote. “At that point, one or more expendable upper stages would separate and deploy a satellite into low-Earth orbit. The reusable hypersonic aircraft would then return to earth, land and be prepared for the next flight.”

But DARPA is leaving the specifics of the XS-1 system — which aims to provide routine, aircraft-like access to space — up its potential builders, Sponable said. “We don’t care if it’s vertical take-off, horizontal land, vertical-vertical, which brings in a lot of the entrepreneurs,” he said in the FISO presentation. “We don’t care if they air-launch it, air-tow it, whatever. So we’ve left all those wide open.”

This DARPA program dovetails nicely with NASA commercial manned space program, as well as the emerging suborbital tourist industry. The combination should energize the reusable launch market quite effectively.

The competition heats up? Arianespace, under severe competitive price pressure from SpaceX, begs for more subsidies from ESA.  In comments responding to a Feb. 11 audit of the French Accounting Court, Cour des Comptes, Israel said that since 2005 Arianespace has improved its competitiveness to the extent that some €200 million ($273 million) in annual subsidies from the 20-nation European Space Agency (ESA) have been halved. In addition, the reliability of the Ariane 5, which has seen 58 consecutive successes since 2002, has allowed the company to increase launch prices. The company also has reduced costs with a recent bulk buy of 18 Ariane 5 rockets that saved Arianespace 5%.

Nevertheless, Israel said the arrival of the medium-lift Falcon 9 as a competitor at the low end of the commercial communications satellite market, with prices substantially lower than what Arianespace charges for Ariane 5, means the company may be forced to ask ESA governments to increase price supports beyond the current €100 million per year. [emphasis mine]

In other words, this government-funded boondoggle doesn’t know how to compete effectively on the open market, and wants an additional government bailout to keep its head above water.

Note also the text in bold. Several commenters on this website have repeatedly insisted that SpaceX’s Falcon 9 was not the bargain claimed, despite numerous examples in the past three years of their competition saying they were that inexpensive. This statement by Arianespace’s CEO reaffirms the fact that SpaceX is cheaper, and is forcing major changes to the launch industry.   In related news, French government auditors have found much wrong with Arianespace’s current long term commercial strategy.

It’s alive! Though Chinese engineers say that Yutu is still having problems, they have gotten a signal from it. The reports continue to be vague. It appears that they are in communication with the rover, which is good, but cannot get it to do what they need or want it to do, which is bad.

Hour Four

Thursday  13 February 2014 / Hour 4, Block A: The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World by Lincoln Paine.   Part 1 of 8

Thursday  13 February 2014 / Hour 4, Block B: The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World by Lincoln Paine.   Part 2 of 8

Thursday  13 February 2014 / Hour 4, Block C: The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World by Lincoln Paine.   Part 3 of 8

Thursday  13 February 2014 / Hour 4, Block D: The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World by Lincoln Paine.   Part 4 of 8

..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..

Music

Hour 1:  Miami Vice. Sin City. iRobot. 

Hour 2:  Legion. Passion of the Christ. 

Hour 3:  Da Vinci Code. Constantine. Hidalgo. Apollo 13.

Hour 4:  Master & Commander. 

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