Photo, above: Moscow stock exchange.  Text from 2013: For the first time in Russia's history, physical precious metals would be traded to boost liquidity in the market and attract more participants.  Mikhail Orlenko, director of the commodity market of the Moscow exchange said the exchange is going to start trading gold and silver by the end of this year, and platinum and palladium in 2014. 

See: Hour 2, Block C: Dave Weinberg, DefendDemocracy. 

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

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

Hour One

Thursday  29 May 2014 / Hour 1, Block A: David M Drucker, Washington Examiner Sr Congressional correspondent, in re:  Cochran's Fight: Up Close and All Too Personal
 The ads tie Sen. Thad Cochran’s primary challenger to a stomach-turning crime: a grave violation of privacy in the nursing home where the senator’s stricken wife resides. In blaring language, they warn voters that the “McDaniel campaign scandal” is spreading, enveloping several men with direct ties to the ladder-climbing state lawmaker seeking to topple Cochran.

Thursday  29 May 2014 / Hour 1, Block B:  Edward W Hayes, criminal defense attorney par excellence, and John Cahill, candidate for NYS Attorney-General, in re: GOP supports Dream Act, inclusivity; need immigration reform nationally. I'm a proud son of Irish immigrants, embrace Latinos and immigrants from around the world.  Family values. Tuition assistance, 

Thursday  29 May 2014 / Hour 1, Block C: James Paterson, IPA/Australia, in re: Winkgate; 16,000 jobs lost; Meow. Conservative govts get in power and suddenly lack the courage of their convictions. 

Thursday  29 May 2014 / Hour 1, Block D: Francis Rose, Federal News Radio, in re:  VA, where people have died because of bureaucratic venality, is much worse.  GAO says that waitlists date back to the year 2000.  Pattern: multiple Congressional aspirants calling for an investigation. Can the White House solve this?  Who has conspicuously not spoken: Boehner.  Lets say the Friday 4P dump is that Secy Shinseki has resigned – that gives all the senators a chance to claim, "I called for Shinseki to resign and he's gone – I have pull with the president." That might give you an extra point or two in a close race.  MK: VA needn't give g0vt health care – should be privatized with vouchers.   

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Richard Griffin, the acting inspector general at the VA, testified at a May 15 Senate hearing that his office was already in contact with DOJ about potential criminal conduct in Phoenix, Ariz.

“OIG criminal investigators, including IT forensic experts, are also assisting the team,” Griffin said. “We are working with Federal prosecutors from the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona and the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice here in Washington so that we can determine any conduct that we discover that merits criminal prosecution.”

Sens. Franken, Shaheen Join Call for Shinseki to Resign

VA IG interim report: http://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USVAOIG/bulletins/baa5e1

“Lastly, while conducting our work at the Phoenix HCS our on-site OIG staff and OIG Hotline receive numerous allegations daily of mismanagement, inappropriate hiring decisions, sexual harassment, and bullying behavior by mid- and senior-level managers at this facility. We are assessing the validity of these complaints and if true, the impact to the facility’s senior leadership’s ability to make effective improvements to patients’ access to care.”

 

HVAC Chair Miller calls for Shinseki’s resignation for first time:

“Today the inspector general confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt what was becoming more obvious by the day: wait time schemes and data manipulation are systemic throughout VA and are putting veterans at risk in Phoenix and across the country. Right now, there are two things that need to happen. Attorney General Eric Holder should launch a criminal investigation into VA’s widespread scheduling corruption and VA Secretary Eric Shinseki should resign immediately. Shinseki is a good man who has served his country honorably, but he has failed to get VA’s health care system in order despite repeated and frequent warnings from Congress, the Government Accountability Office and the IG. What’s worse, to this day, Shinseki – in both word and deed – appears completely oblivious to the severity of the health care challenges facing the department. VA needs a leader who will take swift and decisive action to discipline employees responsible for mismanagement, negligence and corruption that harms veterans while taking bold steps to replace the department’s culture of complacency with a climate of accountability. Sec. Shinseki has proven time and again he is not that leader. That’s why it’s time for him to go.”

Hour Two

Thursday  29 May 2014 / Hour 2, Block A: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: growth of anti-immigrant sentiments across Europe, and rise of Golden Dawn in Greece and comparable parties; incl in Hungary and France  - Marine LePen got 25% of the vote; eke Britain, Austria and Holland.  All relevant to the horrible murders at the Jewish museum.   In France, 600,000 Jews, yet the anti-Semitism seems most virulent there: a lot of unemployed North African youth who’ve been radicalized by imams.  Many hundreds of people with European or American passports have been fighting in jihadist battles intend to return and fight at home.  In Israel: 750 candidates for office on June 10; six will split the vote for prime minister.  Pressure from women's organizations building for Dahlia ____ (in the supreme court).

Thursday  29 May 2014 / Hour 2, Block B: Steven A. Cook, Hasib J. Sabbagh senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, in re:  Egyptian elections; Turkey.  Al Sisi didn’t shine in the just-finished elections, but he'll govern, and the trajectory is clearly authoritarian, Muslim Brotherhood:  analogy is 1950s and 1960s, when Nasser tried to destroy the organization – many in jail of expats in Qatar, London, Istanbul.  Propagandizing. MB ramping up over the summer toward autumn elections.  Washington: DOD wants to pick up business as usual, eke State, but 1200 people sentenced to death recently and that's a big human rights problem.  Need Sisi to make some gesture in Cairo so the US can argue that relations are legitimate.  Nasty insurgency in Cairo, spreading around; blast walls.  First anniversary of Gezi Park protest in Istanbul:  probably won’t see that scale of protests now; recall also the poorly-handled mining disaster (300 dead) and the melee when the PM visited – he slapped a protestors, called him "an [offspring] of Israel."  Erdogan: has he changed the color of his coat?  He derived political benefit from taking on Israel directly, and hailed regionally as saying what they'd hoped their leaders would.  Significant amts of gas of Israel's coast; quickest pipeline would be via Turkey. 

Thursday  29 May 2014 / Hour 2, Block C: Dave Weinberg, DefendDemocracy, in re:  Gulf Council, Saudi Arabia, Chinese missiles. Zarif invited to Riyadh!  Saudi FM announced the invitation; he hasn’t shown up yet – Saudis and Iranians are running proxy wars in Syria and a few other places; however, Saudis are engaging neighbors rather than be stuck out in the cold as Washington [[flakes out. –ed.]].  Emir of Kuwait in Iran this coming weekend.  Oman, Qatar, UAE, all are targets of connection by Iran, which is fighting the GCC.  Esp in Bahrain, Saudi eastern province, Kuwait and Yemen:  . . .    Note that US Gulf allies will never accept any nuclear deal with Iran until they see the US using all elements of US power to force Iran to dial back on its rampant seditionist behavior.  GCC sees the US in retreat. In Saudi: over the last year, four significant changes in Saudi leadership – ossified gerontocracy   - in governors; removal of controversial intell chief; appt of the deputy crow prince to marginalize rivals; and shifts in defense establishments to isolate the Minster, who’s a rival of the king.  Saudis point to the Ukraine crisis as another indicator of US [flaccidity]; also, Qatar has invested several billions in the Russian stock market. 

Thursday  29 May 2014 / Hour 2, Block D: Charles Kupchan, Whitney Shepardson senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, in re: European parliament is much weaker than US Congress, as EU is not a federation.  Recent elections will affect the EU parliament into  go-slow approach, as some want to loosen the union and the 25% of Euroscpetics may benefit. Centrists parties still dominate,  In France UK, Denmark, Greece: not comfortable with immigration and concentration of power in Brussels.  Immigrants; volatile issue b/c of Shengen, allowing free travel across borders.   Unemployment high in southern tier – youth at 50% along Med.  Add in the flow of immigrants, get a nasty mix.  the EU becomes the scapegoat.  Israelis concerned . In Hungary and Greece, parties are openly anti-Jewish and neofascists. Most of the other winning parties trying to clean up act – incl the Front National in France.   Not exactly a fascist resurgence, but a growing discontent.  Very large Jewish population in France, not in Italy; in Italy, Jews feel comfortable; not alt all in France right now.  France continues to define nationhood in ethnic terms: you’re French if you've lived here for generations, eat baguettes and brie; not from French stock not welcome.  On the other hand, it’s a bit schizophrenic in that Jews have been prime minister and held highest positions. In France, Muslim community is 5 million. 

Hour Three

Thursday  29 May 2014 / Hour 3, Block A:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:  . . . If you don’t enforce the rules in place, you’re inviting worse = moral hazard. Vide:  Hamas, PA.   Josh Rogin reports that the Jobar synagogue was deliberately flattened by the Assad regime in Damascus – the oldest in Syria. In Hebrew: Elijah the Prophet synagogue, said that Elijah hid underneath from his persecutors.  Also, 33 churches and hundreds of mosques destroyed by the regime.  Vast numbers of totally irreplaceable objects have been destroyed; some probably stolen to sell.   Where's UNESCO? Where's the UN?  So busy condemning Israel that they can’t be responsible for their tasks.  Erdogan in Turkey:  a Turkish court orders the arrest of Israeli leaders, four senior generals, from Marmora event. The Turkish-Israeli negotiation s stipulate that Turkey won’t do that; said that Ankara has filed with Interpol.  Turkish people are bright, ambitious, creative – very dissatisfied with the nation's direction, need a new leadership to return to the centrist past. 

Thursday  29 May 2014 / Hour 3, Block B: Yohanan Plesner, former member of the Knesset for Kadima and now president of the Israel Democracy Institute; in re: Israeli presidential elections – Dalia vs Dalia - Dalia Itzik, Dalia Dorner. Apolitical role of the president in Israel: is head of state, but not of government, so has little formal authority.

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The head of state is vested with powers to act as the chief public representative of that state.

The term head of government is often used, differentiating it from the term head of state, e.g., as in article 7 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, article 1 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Internationally Protected Persons, including Diplomatic Agents and the United Nations protocol list. A common title for many heads of government is prime minister. This is used as a formal title in many states, but also informally a generic term to describe whichever office is considered the principal minister under an otherwise styled head of state, as Minister — Latin for servants or subordinates — is a common title for members of a government (but many other titles are in use, e.g. chancellor and secretary of state).

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Thursday  29 May 2014 / Hour 3, Block C: Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re:

Thursday  29 May 2014 / Hour 3, Block D: John Tamny, Realclearmarkets.com, in re: It's not a guess or speculation: per former Fed Vice Chair Donald Kohn, the consensus view at the Fed is that low unemployment is the cause of inflation.  Janet Yellen is part of this consensus despite the fact that low unemployment going back to Pericles has never been the cause of inflation.  That abundant prosperity is the Fed's perceived enemy is yet another reminder that the Fed's powers need to be trimmed.  Your Low Unemployment and Prosperity Are a Thorn in Janet Yellen's Side

Hour Four

Thursday  29 May 2014 / Hour 4, Block A: FDR's Funeral Train: A Betrayed Widow, a Soviet Spy, and a Presidency in the Balance by Robert Klara (1 of 4)

Thursday  29 May 2014 / Hour 4, Block B: FDR's Funeral Train: A Betrayed Widow, a Soviet Spy, and a Presidency in the Balance by Robert Klara (2 of 4)

Thursday  29 May 2014 / Hour 4, Block C: FDR's Funeral Train: A Betrayed Widow, a Soviet Spy, and a Presidency in the Balance by Robert Klara (3 of 4)

Thursday  29 May 2014 / Hour 4, Block D: FDR's Funeral Train: A Betrayed Widow, a Soviet Spy, and a Presidency in the Balance by Robert Klara (4 of 4)

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