Photo, above: Queen Tamar the Great (Georgian: თამარი) (c. 1160 – 18 January 1213), of the Bagrationi dynasty, was Queen Regnant of Georgia from 1184 to 1213. Tamar presided over the golden age of the Medieval Georgian monarchy. Her position as the first woman to rule Georgia in her own right was emphasized by the title mep'e ("king"), commonly afforded to Tamar in Medieval Georgian sources.

. . .  In the summer of 1805 Russian troops on the river Askerani and near Zagam defeated the Persian army, saving Tbilisi from its attack. In 1810, the kingdom of Imereti (Western Georgia) was annexed by the Russian Empire after the suppression of King Solomon II's resistance. From 1803 to 1878, as a result of numerous Russian wars against Turkey and Persia, several formerly Georgian territories were annexed to the Russian Empire. These areas (Batumi, Artvin, Akhaltsikhe, Poti, and Abkhazia) now represent the majority of the territory of the present state of Georgia. Georgia was reunified for the first time in centuries but had lost its independence.

See also: Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, https://glnd.alexanderstreet.com/View/332236?setlang=zh_TW

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Co-host: Larry Kudlow, Kudlow Report CNBC, and WABC Radio

Tuesday 905P Eastern Time:  Steve Moore, WSJ, in re:   Has Mr Obama characterized the word "fair "  in a way that Romney can challenge?  SM: Americans want growth, not redistribution.  There's 1.2% growth rate, 8% unemployment [or greater], employers are not hiring workers. The one demographic group that sticks to Obama is the 18 to 29 cohort – and lots of them are living with parents and can't get a job.  LK: Why in the word would Susan Rice go to five news shows [on last Sunday] and speak inaccurately about Benghazi?    Mr Romney has failed to make the case on opportunity and incentives, has not connected dots between that and the economy. SM: I don’t buy into the idea that Americans favor "soak the rich."   Two questions: can we afford four more years of this? (no) and, if I vote for Romney, will he make things better?  LK: Why is it so hard for Romney to make a case that Reagan could make when he was asleep? SM: When I speak at colleges, I say, "The joke's on you guys -  you'll l have to pay the debt we're racking up." 

Tuesday 920P Eastern Time:  Michael D Bordo, Hoover, and WSJ, in re: Challenge to the accepted narrative of Rinehart & Rogoff*: recoveries are slower after a recession.  We studied bz cycles back to 19880: f you have a recession accompanied  by a financial crisis, will recovery be slower or faster?  Milton was my thesis advisor yrs ago; he showed that after a deep recession the recovery is usu faster (called "bounceback").  The principal exception to this pattern is the recession we're coming out of; quite different from Rinehart & Rogoff's conclusions.  When we looked at residential investment: every bz cycle in US history, it was always a leading indicator – not here and now. Consumer durables and other aspects of investment: also slow, The housing bust was a really serious event, and was unique for the US. We thinks this explains why this recession is different. Possible belated bounceback? I think the economy has its own driving mechanisms of recovery; I certainly thing we're seeing positive signs. LK: Anent macro: this president likes to use regulatory policy;  MB: I didn’t study in my research, but fiscal and financial regulatory policy are negatives, but I can’t say how much they explain. Looks as though housing explains a preponderance. Greenspan says that underlying capital goods and 20-30-year investments  . . .

Financial recessions don't lead to weak recoveries:   We found that recessions that were tied to financial crises and were 1% deeper than average have historically led to growth that is 1.5% stronger than average. This pattern holds even when we account for various measures of financial stress, such as the quality spread between safe US Treasury bonds and BAA corporate bonds and bank loans.  See: http://www.hoover.org/news/daily-report/129261

* This Time Is Different, by the economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff

 

Tuesday 935P Eastern Time:  Bill Whalen, Hoover, in re: Ten topics for the presidential debates: in the first debate, incumbents don’t always have an advantage – tends to work in favor of challenger. Romney needs to put the president on the defensive.  Obama has done a masterful job of [muddling things up].  LK: this whole Benghazi thing, and Obama goes to Vegas for a fundraiser, and Rice prevaricates in five TV shows – shd Romney just go after Obama with tough questions?  BW:  Foreign policy in a later debate; even though the election s 35 days away, they do have a couple more weeks to let the drip-drip-drip of the story work their favor.  Need to hang Obama on his earlier words. He hasn’t connected Obama's policies with the circumstances of a the middle class.   Obama's speeches have been Democratic talking points, not policy explanations. On Wednesday, he's speaking to his base.  In NC and Ohio, he needs to have his base motivated. LK: Romney has a messaging problem; he has not made the case to a $140,000/year family – a cop-and-teacher marriage: their income has dropped enormously under Obama. Can Romney say, my tax cuts will give you ore take-home pay? Or, We'll bld the Keystone pipeline? Or, I'll reduce entitlements?  BW:  Obama does have thin skin, he gets rattled.  LK: Romney cleaned Gingrich's clock – he went right at Gingrich. The 60 Minutes interview on "bumps in the road" – Obama is out of shape in debating.

Tuesday 950P Eastern Time:  Larry Kudlow, in re:  Univision – Jorge Ramos - investigation: many guns sold under Eric Holder in Mexico and killed lots of people incl a bunch of teen agers: 300 Mexican slaughtered, then the teenagers killed in Juarez.  Obama is disengaged. Benghazi is a catastrophe; a true leader would have been all over that.   Obama seriously absent on this issue. Where's his leadership?  Even when he had a deal with Boehner, then broke it at he last minute. Economy , fiscal policy, Mexican gun-running story, and now Benghazi – Romney can get these out there.  Trippi: "The new normal is the new dismal." LK: No. People like success and want America to be No. 1.  Today Romney told a Denver station: $17K might be the cut-off line – if you take tax deductions in excess of $17K, you'll lose them. Leadership  is just as important as policies. 

Tuesday 1005P (705P Pacific Time):  Bill Roggio, Long War Journal; Arif Rafiq, Middle East Institute, The Express Tribune (Intl Herald Tribune & Foreign Policy magazine; Rufus Phillips, author, Why Vietnam Matters, in re: It's time to admit that Obama's Afghanistan strategy is a total failure.  End of the fighting season: "Taliban cannot be defeated militarily, must somehow be treated at the negotiating table" said this administration; Taliban have taken our punches and rejected negotiations. They never were genuinely interested in more than getting high-level leaders out of Gitmo; a sham for years and finally US officials are throwing in the towel.  We've improvidently announced our departure in 2014. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar goes where power is; he's now with Haqqani network.    US has no strategy – mil strategy has fallen apart and there is no diplomatic strategy. 

Tuesday 1020P (720P Pacific Time): continued.

Tuesday 1035P (735P Pacific Time):  Melik Kaylan, Newsweek International, in re: Georgian elections. . Georgian Dream party, led by the billionaire Moscow quisling Ivanishvili (who carries only a French passport), has won the election and will live to rue the day. The Empire recovers lands.  Quisling claimed that Saak "lacks love" – what dos this mean? The old Soviet system of patronage, patriarchy, tyranny, laziness and corruption.  Two-hundred-year history of Russian dominance of the Caucasus. Evil telephone texts, dirty tricks, bare-knuckle stuff. 

Tuesday 1050P (750P Pacific Time):  Eli Lake, in re: US consulate in Benghazi was bombed twice in advance of 9/11 anniversary. No US presence in Benghazi – everyone's been evacuated. FBI won't go there to look in to events because there's no security. Act of war. Target packages.  Was Amb Chris Stevens aware of he threats to his life? Was he gven adequate protection?

 

Tuesday 1105P (805P Pacific Time):  Stephen Cohen, NYU, in re: Georgia and Russia. It's very important that Saakashvili has lost these elections.  Last war in 2008 was a proxy war, with American support; Bide was closely associated with the US; McCain said, then, "We are all Georgians now."  This may be the beginning of the end of twenty-year "the Georgian project" – to extend NATO all around Russia. It's the Caucasus, where so many cultures meet and there's oil, the  at this becomes most strategic. Saakashvili was very much in favor of the US. He's very correctly acknowledged defeat. Tomorrow re the presidential debates – will either Obama or Romney speak of this? Down the road, we'll hear, "Who lost Georgia?"  About a million Russians live in Georgia, whence they can send funds back to their families in Russia. Before 2008, Russia was the largest consumer of Georgian products, mostly wine. Both Medvedev and Putin have a visceral hatred of Saakashvii. Pipeline carries Caspian oil to Turkey and the West – the only one that doesn’t pass through Russia.  Russia's dong pretty well in the present Great Game.

Tuesday 1120P (820P Pacific Time):   continued.  Democracy and the Rose Revolution. The billionaire Moscow quisling Ivanishvili (who carries only a French passport), is said the have $6bil, all made in Russia in the 1990s, maybe in pharmaceuticals and real estate and a big chunk of Gazprom – Putin's company. How much of his assets are in Russia – said he liquidated two-thirds, but then still has $2bil in Gazprom. Oligarchical politics spread around he world in globalization.  In Russia, a pure oligarchical system emerged in Russia. Mikhail Prokhorov bought the New York Nets and is dvpg the Brooklyn naval yards.  Russians feel more nostalgic about Georgia than any of the other republics.    Georgia guarantees South Ozssetia and Abkhazia: they can have home rule but a federated relation with Tbilisi? Brilliant insight_______. Intended to put missile defense in Georgia; Obama said he'd be flexible after the US elections – on missile defense!  Using democratic tools, the Kremlin  has regained what it could not achieve by military. 

Obama has not yet   he's prepared to go against the political grain in the US; he'll probably go along with the "overheated anti-Russian lobby."

Georgian elections: the outcome, of which several are possible, are all fraught with danger and big consequences for DC and Moscow. For example, if the opposition wins, will Saakashvili accept it, or try to nullify the result? – and, if that, the opposition will certainly take to the streets big-time. Or if the opposition loses, will it take to the street crying "fraud," a kind of "orange revolution" in reverse? Either way, the potential for bad violence is great. Or will there be a "normal democratic" outcome, whatever that might mean in Georgia? Meanwhile, Saakashvili is heavily dependent on DC either way, and what will the powerful Georgian lobby advise him to do? Remember not only the US military presence in Georgia but the very large, essential CIA post.

..  ..  ..

The iPad robot transcribes some of John Batchelor's speech:

I'm John Batchelor this is the John Batchelor show Prof. Steve Collingham York University Russian history is here with Mary were looking at the meaning of the rejection of the Georgian lobby in Washington supporting Mr. Saakashvili these last years after the Civil War broke out in 2008 the Obama administration conjoined with the Republican Party led by Sen. McCain very much supporting the so-called democracy of the Rose Revolution in Georgia but here we are with the winner apparently supported by Moskal the mysterious Unami years bit Cieniga Manes really and oligarch who has the power to fund the Georgian dream Mr. varnish really is a French citizen because I'm told Mr. Saakashvili deprived him of his Georgian passport these are the disputes of politicians in foreign lands Staib hey cynical questions Steve but then again it's late in the evening we can barrow one Mr. Obama said famous layoff Majic that he'll have more flexibility after the election after his victory does this election results into Belizean Georgia mean that the president has less flexibility than anticipated because he lost an important outpost for the American interest now Prof. Yuet been familiar with the anti-Russian lobby in this country for 60 years they're always overheated that's there Napfle state Steve I don't think there's any surprise here what is surprising is that using democratic tools Moscow's regain something that it could not hold militarily is adolescent for the Kremlin Steamset a positive lesson I'm looking for I I'm looking for Rosy scenario we have about a minute professor Steve Connor New York University diversity Russian history to leasee passes over to Latimer potent? I'm John Batchelor this is the John Batchelor show

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Tuesday 1135P (835P Pacific Time):  Bob Zimmerman, behindtheblack, in re: Mars's weather is warmer than expected, according to the brave little toaster, Curiosity – a high as 43 degrees Fahhrenheit. At sunset, plunges to extremely low. Genesis: the story of Apollo 8, also Orbital Sciences, Space X, Russian space program reorganized to be competitive.

Tuesday 1150P (850P Pacific Time): William McGurn, WSJ, in re: Pamela Geller and subway poster hate speech defended and mocked, “savages” and “jihad”

Tuesday/Wed 1205A (905 Pacific Time): :  Steve Moore, WSJ, in re:   Has Mr Obama characterized the word "affair "  in a way that Romney can challenge?  SM: Americans want growth, not redistribution.  There's 1.2% growth rate, 8% unemployment [or greater], employers are not hiring workers. The one demographic group that sticks to Obama is the 18 to 29 cohort – and lots of them are living with parents and can't get a job.  LK: Why in the word would Susan Rice go to five news shows [on last Sunday] and speak inaccurately about Benghazi?    Mr Romney has failed to make the case on opportunity and incentives, has not connected dots between that and the economy. SM: I don’t buy into the idea that Americans favor "soak the rich."   Two questions: can we afford four more years of this? (no) and, if I vote for Romney, will he make things better?  LK: Why is it so hard for Romney to make a case that Reagan could make when he was asleep? SM: When I speak at colleges, I say, "The joke's on you guys -  you'll have to pay the debt we're racking up." 

Tuesday/Wed  1220A (920 Pacific Time): Michael D Bordo, Hoover, and WSJ, in re: Challenge to the accepted narrative of Rinehart & Rogoff*: recoveries are slower after a recession.  We studied bz cycles back to 19880: f you have a recession accompanied  by a financial crisis, will recovery be slower or faster?  Milton was my thesis advisor yrs ago; he showed that after a deep recession the recovery is usu faster (called "bounceback").  The principal exception to this pattern is the recession we're coming out of; quite different from Rinehart & Rogoff's conclusions.  When we looked at residential investment: every bz cycle in US history, it was always a leading indicator – not here and now. Consumer durables and other aspects of investment: also slow, The housing bust was a really serious event, and was unique for the US. We thinks this explains why this recession is different. Possible belated bounceback? I think the economy has its own driving mechanisms of recovery; I certainly thing we're seeing positive signs. LK: Anent macro: this president likes to use regulatory policy;  MB: I didn’t study in my research, but fiscal and financial regulatory policy are negatives, but I can’t say how much they explain. Looks as though housing explains a preponderance. Greenspan says that underlying capital goods and 20-30-year investments  . . .

Financial recessions don't lead to weak recoveries:   We found that recessions that were tied to financial crises and were 1% deeper than average have historically led to growth that is 1.5% stronger than average. This pattern holds even when we account for various measures of financial stress, such as the quality spread between safe US Treasury bonds and BAA corporate bonds and bank loans.   See: http://www.hoover.org/news/daily-report/129261

* This Time Is Different, by the economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff

 

Tuesday/Wed  1235A (935P Pacific Time): Bill Whalen, Hoover, in re: Ten topics for the presidential debates: in the first debate, incumbents don’t always have an advantage – tends to work in favor of challenger. Romney needs to put the president on the defensive.  Obama has done a masterful job of [muddling things up].  LK: this whole Benghazi thing, and Obama goes to Vegas for a fundraiser, and Rice prevaricates in five TV shows – shd Romney just go after Obama with tough questions?  BW:  Foreign policy in a later debate; even though the election s 35 days away, they do have a couple more weeks to let the drip-drip-drip of the story work their favor.  Need to hang Obama on his earlier words. He hasn’t connected Obama's policies with the circumstances of a the middle class.   Obama's speeches have been Democratic talking points, not policy explanations. On Wednesday, he's speaking to his base.  In NC and Ohio, he needs to have his base motivated. LK: Romney has a messaging problem; he has not made the case to a $140,000/year family – a cop-and-teacher marriage: their income has dropped enormously under Obama. Can Romney say, my tax cuts will give you more take-home pay? Or, We'll bld the Keystone pipeline? Or, I'll reduce entitlements?  BW:  Obama does have thin skin, he gets rattled.  LK: Romney cleaned Gingrich's clock – he went right at Gingrich. The 60 Minutes interview on "bumps in the road" – Obama is out of shape in debating.

Tuesday/Wed  1250A  (950P Pacific Time): Exeunt. Jed Babbin, The Examiner, in re: what was the meaning of Netanyahu’s UN speech? what of Sun Tzu's lessons?

..  ..  ..  

Music (according to New York City broadcast times):

9 hour:  Iron Lady.  

10 hour:  Expendables.

11 hour:  Crysis. Starship Troopers.  Burn After Reading.

midnight hour:   Girl with Dragon Tattoo.

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