Photo, left: Yazidi refugees driven from their homes by ISIS, now in UN-sponsored and other camps in northwestern Iraq (in Kurdistan). Entire families live in 12' x 15' tents. Because the Yazidi religion requires everyone to be clean – immaculate, if possible – and perfectly neat at all times, even under these straitened conditions Yazidi families live in dignity. Perhaps with no food, no winter clothing, difficult-of-access facilities, and bereft of their homes and savings, but always clean. 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
 
Co-hosts:  Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal editorial board & host of OpinionJournal.com & Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents.
Hour One
Thursday  29 January 2015  / Hour 1, Block A: Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal editorial board & host of OpinionJournal.com; in re:   Keystone XL pipeline; number of votes in the Senate, possible presidential veto, and the return of the bill.  Anwar &  Alaska.  Pres Obama compares Anwar to Yosemite.  Mixed messages punishing Alaskans and state govt there.  Goldwater Institute of Education; president and the 529s: to be taxed on distribution, said in SOTU. Now he's climbed down.  MK: "The real money is in the middle class" – he may mean to tax only the "1%" but that couldn’t possibly finance all the proposed new expenditures.   . . .
Thursday  29 January 2015  / Hour 1, Block B:  Edward W Hayes, criminal defense attorney par excellence, in re: Moreland Commission opened by Gov Cuomo with fanfare, then swiftly shut down by him as it went to look at the records of a law firm and finding Sheldon Silver, an immensely powerful Democrat upon whom the governor has had to depend.  The Attorney-General subpoenaed the records of the law firm, which tried to quash the subpoena – and the Moreland Commission shut down. Culprit is the AG Schneiderman.  This is overtly outrageous. Further, any national aspirations Cuomo may have had are now dead.  Our tisking about corruption n India, Nigeria, Greece, is all alost dwarfed by the staggering corruption in Albany. The asbestos racket – plaintiffs's attorneys' filing spurious charges.  "A rock was rolled; it's a big rock."   U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.   Could Sheldon Silver roll on Andrew Cuomo?  As the coming corruption prosecution of former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver . . .    'Shocked' law firm gives Silver the boot    6 Days That Felled Sheldon Silver, the Speaker Who Ruled Albany for Decades
Thursday  29 January 2015  / Hour 1, Block C: John Roskam, Executive Director of the Institute of Public Affairs,  Australia, in Australian Financial Review: Ideas & Liberty  and Freedom of Speech  and  Economics & Deregulation; in re:  Tony Abbott and his poortunity to right the ship, rein in out-of-control spending, et al., and he's a big-govt disappointment.  Julie Bishop, Australian Foreign minister, in New York last week, is starting to look like a PM candidate.  . . .  The siege in the cafe.
Free markets better than climate faith  It's entirely appropriate that a few weeks ago the Pope should talk about climate change. Climate change has after all become a matter of faith . . .   Charlie challenges the Coalition   Charlie Hebdo changes everything and nothing. The cover of the latest edition of the magazine features a caricature of Muhammad. That cover has . . .  The only real tax reform is lower tax  It is a myth that Australia is a low-tax country, because we're not. In fact we're on the verge of becoming a country with higher than average . . .
Thursday  29 January 2015  / Hour 1, Block D: Murad Ismael, Yazidi activist, Sinjar crisis group, Yazda.org, in re:  ISIS held Yazidi elders, tortured them, then were going to kill them to avoid the obligations of feeding and housing them, but released them for entirely unknown reasons. They're disoriented, are in need of assistance.  Two to three thousand young women – in fact, children from the age of eight on – are still enslaved and being brutalized by ISSI in Mosul, in villages and in Syria, esp Raqqah. Many have been turned over to males from around he word, to gangs of men, to be sold as slaves.  Yazda Center has just been established [in Duhoq?] to receive the heavily traumatized women, many of whom are destitute, have no money at all for food or clothes, in many cases are wearing summer sandals in the depth of winter, and some of whom have daily panic attacks.  We probably have obtained minimal funding from Baghdad to obtain some sort of professional help for the escaped slaves.  Over five thousand people are missing, cannot be found.
Yazidis have formed their own militia, are seeking arms [note: need heavy arms to counter ISIS's armamentarium. –ed.]  and have approached Israel.  When our people have the weapons and capacity to protect themselves, similar to what’s happening to the Christian minority in Iraq - in Ninevah, in Kurdistan . . .   We look to all democratic nations to stand by us. Many Yazidis make the parallel to the Holocaust, what happened to the Jewish people, which whom we feel a kindred spirit.  Yazda.org        http://www.jns.org/news-briefs/2015/1/29/iraqi-yazidis-appeal-to-israel-for-military-aid-to-fight-islamic-state#.VMrLz8Y6lUQ=            http://www.jns.org/news-briefs/2015/1/29/iraqi-yazidis-appeal-to-israel-for-military-aid-to-fight-islamic-state#.VMrLz8Y6lUQ=
Hour Two
Thursday  29 January 2015  / Hour 2, Block A: Andrew J. Tabler is a senior Fellow in the Program on Arab Politics at The Washington Institute, in re: Syria, ISIS, Hezbollah. SOTU pointed to the success, so to speak, of US policy opposing ISIS in the Iraqi and Syrian civil wars. The US policy in the Syrian civil war vs ISIS: are we containing it? Degrading and defeating it? Ignoring the whole thing?  We're only containing ISIS as pertains to Syria. The coalition bombing campaign will only [lightly] degrade ISIS.  At the end, Assad has to go in order to put the pieces of the country back together again; otherwise, it'll be divided, incl with a big section to ISIS.  President in SOTU spoke mostly of domestic affairs – what he'd like to be able to do; unfortunately, many festering problems in intl affairs. Neglect of Syria gave birth to ISIS.  How did Russia hear the speech absent ISIS or Assad or chem. weapons attacks reference.  Signals that Assad may stay for a while.  However, Russia knows that at some point Assad will have to leave.  Hoping for Moscow to pull a rabbit out of a hat.  Magical thinking?  We have an Iraq-centered policy largely because we have assets in Iraq.   Washington walking back form the red line: we lost then.  US military is deploying trainers into Jordan to train Syrian "moderates"  Only models for this: Kurdistan in the 1990s, and with the Free French during WWII.   A Syrian Bay of Pigs?   The intl system fights against partition of countries; we need to see it as a divided country [in order to deal with the reality].
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/uncoordinated-deconfliction-in-syria-a-recipe-to-contain-not-defeat-isis       http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/the-isis-fight-and-the-state-of-the-union-address
Thursday  29 January 2015  / Hour 2, Block B: Elliott Abrams is a senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations; in re: Saudi succession, US-Israel relations.
New king: King Salman, who’s just made many appointments, incl commoners (moderately meritocratic), and fired two of Abdullah's sons.  He's widely reputed to have advanced dementia, yet has made very surprising appointments in his first days on the throne.
New Crown Prince: Muqrin, a former head of intell, widely liked, the youngest-surviving son of Abdulaziz, founder of the modern Saudi kingdom.  He's not an intellectual; the big question is who will be the next king? (All previous kings have been brothers.)
Deputy Crown Prince: Mohammed bin Nayef, age 55 (a Suderi), could reign for thirty years.
"The late Crown Prince Nayef's son Mohammed, has been named Deputy Crown Prince by the Allegiance Council, as such is second in line to the throne of Saudi Arabia after the Crown Prince, and opens up the succession to the grandsons strictly on merit."
King's son: Mohammed bin Salman, is both Min of Defense and Min of the Court.
The oil minister is staying in his post.   Prince Bandar: king has just dissolved his National Security Council and fired Bandar, who's now through. 
http://www.cfr.org/presidents-and-chiefs-of-state/overkill-riyadh/p36053  http://time.com/3680147/the-saudi-king-abdullah-dead-salman-transition/  http://blogs.cfr.org/abrams/2015/01/26/about-that-netanyahu-invitation-to-address-congress/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+eabrams+%28Elliott+Abrams%3A+Pressure+Points%29
Thursday  29 January 2015  / Hour 2, Block C: Ambassador Ronald Lauder, now World Jewish Congress, in re: 70th anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz: 310 survivors were brought in yesterday. Ten years ago there were 1,500 survivors. I fear that at he 75th anniversary there may be few or none. This is the last time to bring many people to explain in their own words of what happened in Auschwitz.  "Ronald – you gave the most powerful speech at the 70th anniversary; addressed the world leaders there and issued a challenge to them: Be careful Twenty or thirty years after Auschwitz no one wanted to be associated with anti-Semitism, but now many across Europe and elsewhere do  This is occurring in art because of education Also, in Eastern Europe, pseudo-Nazi parties.  I pointed out that 120,000 Christians have been killed in the last year, as well as many Muslims I said, "You must stop this now; 1930  and today look badly similar." In Buenos Aires, people believed hat they could get away with murdering Jews, and then with murdering Nisman; I do not hear objections from Washington or elsewhere."  "IN the 1930s, people stayed quiet; today, we cannot possibly afford to be silent."  "First, Jews must stand up, speak out, hold their govts responsible. Also speak to many groups: 'Anti-Semitism is just he first step; soon, Anti-Christian, anti-Muslim.  Also, look at those who went to Syria and Iraq who did not go to learn to cook couscous; they went to learn to be terrorists'."  "They know that the first group to attack is journalists. If you can silence the reporters, then you can go after the others.  Need the governments to act." "Hollande knows well what must be done; what he doesn’t know is what tit takes to do all this – a major effort. If you do it now, you can reverse it; if you wait too long, it cannot be reversed."  Broader significance of what’s going on Europe.
Thursday  29 January 2015  / Hour 2, Block D: David Schenker is the Aufzien fellow and director of the Program on Arab Politics at The Washington Institute; in re: Jordanian hostages. Hezbollah.  Mohammed al-Momani is demanding proof that the Jordanian pilot is still alive? He crashed over Raqqah a few weeks ago; ISIS offered a deal for a Japanese journo, trade for the woman who attacked three Jordanian hotels in 2005, her husband died but her suicide belt didn't work.  The Coalition partnership is not at all popular in Jordan.  King faced with a dilemma where the parents of the Japanese journalist Kenji Goto say [unfairly] that the king is now responsible for their son's survival. Many Salafists in Jordan.   Planned Caliphate from Morocco to Jordan.  Two weeks ago the Israelis hit a convoy in Lebanon in the Golan, killed a senior op named Mughiya (son of the notorious Imad Mughniya, one of the top three Hezbollah martyrs of all time).  The hit was thought to be against and Iranian IRGC general who was setting up a massive operation in Lebanon in order to invade Israel.
Hour Three
Thursday  29 January 2015  / Hour 3, Block A: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents; in re:  Washington, Teheran. Sen Menendez of NJ, a strong voice for holding Iran responsible; now other Dems working with him on Menendez-Kirk Sanctions Bill in the Senate (already passed in the House).  The Senate Banking C'ee voted 18-4 to report the Iran Sanctions Bill to the floor.   Wendy Sherman is the lead WH negotiator in discussions with Iran; "She's capable of leading a Democratic primary in Massachusetts."
. . . negotiating team, led by Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, which he called  “an ideal team for running a Democratic primary for Congress in Massachusetts.”
Twenty-six bombings in the Sinai; "Sinai Province of the Islamic State."  Pres al-Sisi of Egypt; many tunnels. Today a graduation ceremony of 15,000 Hamas fighters!  ISIS is stopping people whom it considers to be collaborators and summarily beheading them.  Savagery of Iraq and Syria is now in Sinai.   ICC: ca case can be brought before the ICC only be a state; to boot, if PA succeeds, it itself is likely to be brought up on grave charges. Mohammed Dahlan maybe a successor of Abbas (now almost eighty years old; elected to a four-year term a decade ago).
“The notion the Obama administration has put forward of the Iranians helping us in Syria in Iraq is like hiring the local town pyromaniac psycho to serve on the volunteer fire department,” [Kirk] said.
Thursday  29 January 2015  / Hour 3, Block B: Jonathan Spyer is a Middle East analyst, author and journalist specializing in the areas of Israel, Lebanon, Syria and broader issues of regional strategy. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, and a Fellow at the Middle East Forum; in re:   . . .  the north is a tinderbox, from Kinetra to  . . .  further confrontation down the line is more or less inevitable.  The last eight pretty-quiet years have ended in he last few weeks. Kobani: the Kurds seem to have taken 90% of Kobani city, is significant in that it shows that US air power over a committed ground force (Peshmerga) can accomplish a lot.  ISIS appears to have reached the limits of its expansion in Iraq, in Diyala, in Kobani Not he beginning of the end, but significant.   ISIS has not yet appeared in the southwest in Syria. Al Nusrah, the ISIS rival, is doing its best; should ISIS appear on their turf we'll see [a new game]. Assad's forces have suffered setbacks in the last week – lost a major highway to the rebels. 
Thursday  29 January 2015  / Hour 3, Block C: Dr. David H Grinspoon, Astrobiology chair, Library of Congress; astrobiology curator, Denver Museum of Nature & Science, in re: http://www.popsci.com/researchers-discover-replica-solar-system-dating-back-11-billion-years
Thursday  29 January 2015  / Hour 3, Block D:     Daniel Henninger, WSJ WONDER LAND, in re: Obama's Peter Pan Economics
Hour Four
Thursday  29 January 2015  / Hour 4, Block A: Thomas Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor & FDD, in re: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/former-us-marine-killed-islamic-state-s-tripoli-province_828927.html     Officials: Detainee swapped for Bergdahl suspected of militant ...
Thursday  29 January 2015  / Hour 4, Block B:  Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re: http://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/air-force-gives-more-launches-to-ula/
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Thursday  29 January 2015  / Hour 4, Block C:  Seb Gorka, Marine Corps University & Breitbart, in re: http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/01/29/america-versus-the-world-how-we-lost-it-all/
Thursday  29 January 2015  / Hour 4, Block D:   Josh Rogin, Bloomberg View, in re: Kirk: Obama Can’t Stop Iran Sanctions  Congress is going to move forward with Iran sanctions legislation sooner rather than later, and there’s nothing the Barack Obama administration can do to stop it. That's the word from one of the two authors of the bill that passed the Senator Banking Committee today . . . [more]