Photo, left: The Medal "for Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (Медаль «За доблестный труд в Великой Отечественной войне 1941–1945 гг.») was a World War II civilian labour award of the Soviet Union established on June 6, 1945 by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR to recognise the valiant and selfless labour of Soviet citizens in the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War. Its statute was later amended by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on July 18, 1980.  See Hour 4, Block D, Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus.
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Larry Kudlow, CNBC senior advisor; & Cumulus Media radio
 
Hour One
Tuesday  20 January 2015/ Hour 1, Block A: President Obama's sixth State of the Union speech
Tuesday  20 January 2015/ Hour 1, Block B: President Obama's sixth State of the Union speech
Tuesday  20 January 2015/ Hour 1, Block C: President Obama's sixth State of the Union speech
Tuesday  20 January 2015/ Hour 1, Block D: President Obama's sixth State of the Union speech
 
Hour Two
Tuesday  20 January 2015/ Hour 2, Block A: Pres Obama in SOTU.
Tuesday  20 January 2015/ Hour 2, Block B: Larry Kudlow, in re: SOTU, which embraced governmental programs, adjustments, interventions – no mention of entrepreneurial growth, the frontier spirit, the fundamental American can-do mentality.  The president spoke of the country's improving economy and increasing oil independence – while himself having opposed the Keystone XL pipeline, among other promising projects.
Tuesday  20 January 2015/ Hour 2, Block C: Stephen Moore, chief economist, Heritage Foundation, in re: SOTU.  . . .  The array of govt programs is dazzling.  . . . The family in Minneapolis, where the parents worked ceaselessly and didn’t take vacations in order to pay off student loans and save for retirement, in no way asked for government assistance. The president seems to have missed the point.  Imagine if one always said, "100% government-subsidized" instead of "free."   LK: "I think the Sandinistas have taken over."  . . . 
Tuesday  20 January 2015/ Hour 2, Block D: Stephen Moore, chief economist, Heritage Foundation, in re:  SOTU.
 
Hour Three
Tuesday  20 January 2015/ Hour 3, Block A: Kori Schake, Hoover, in re: . . . are our only two choices John Wayne or John Kerry? The president never once in an hour identified a single thing the Congress has done that's beneficial – he seems to be unable to give credit anywhere, and that's essential in building domestic or international coalitions.   Remember that in 2013 Putin and Lavrov helped him out in Syria, saved him from a red line he never wanted to enforce. His ridiculing Romney for saying that Russia was a threat . . .   Cybersecurity: China has pirated everything possible of our real national security secrets, but the president never alluded to that.  Pres Obama sounded more triumphalist and unilateral than [even] Pres Bush did.  Europe: soaring rhetoric that isn’t connecting to the Administration's day-to-day choices.   No defense expert in the US agrees that the US is winning against Da'ish.   Iran: the deadline for the deal was last month, and we don’t have a deal.  Imperious disdain unconnected to the legislative realities of the bodies he was addressing. 
2 US Navy ships moved from Gulf of Aden to Red Sea to assist US Embassy in Yemen if an evacuation is deemed necessary.  / Feinstein: Evacuate Yemen Embassy Now  The U.S. government should immediately close and evacuate the U.S. Embassy in Sana'a, Yemen, according to Senator Dianne Feinstein, the Democratic vice-chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.  I asked her today if the embassy, which remains open despite raging violence throughout the Yemeni capital, should be closed. She responded: “Based on what I know so far, yes.”
Tuesday  20 January 2015/ Hour 3, Block B:  Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review & Pirates fan, in re: The coming GOP campaign for the presidential nomination. South Carolina – the Palmetto State – as a harbinger and an honest broker.  A lot of political machines are gone, along with new demographics.
Tuesday  20 January 2015/ Hour 3, Block C:   Mary Anastasia O'Grady, Wall Street Journal, in re: Oscar Paya in 2012: murdered by agents of the state in Cuba; his daughter Rosa Maria Paya wants justice, is still being harassed by the government. Parallel to the very recent murder of Nisman.
Tuesday  20 January 2015/ Hour 3, Block D:  Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re: Big Russian space – selling a seat to Sara Brightman to Soyuz – and private space: SpaceX has another launch coming on 9 Feb.
 
Hour Four
Tuesday  20 January 2015/ Hour 4, Block A:  Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus; author: Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War, & The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag after Stalin; in re:  Ukraine – renewed intense violence around Donetsk airport, Mariupol, Half-million call-up within Ukraine;
Tuesday  20 January 2015/ Hour 4, Block B: Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus; in re: Sanctions n Russia; people have decided to tough it out.
Tuesday  20 January 2015/ Hour 4, Block C: Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus; in re: Invited to the Auschwitz commemoration: Poroshenko, not Putin.
Tuesday  20 January 2015/ Hour 4, Block D: Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus; in re: Pres Obama not attending the 70th anniversary of the Great Patriotic War, in Moscow in May.  Pres Putin has approved a memorial in Moscow to Stalin's victims.
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