The John Batchelor Show

Wednesday 11 November 2020

Air Date: 
November 11, 2020

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Colleague: Gordon Chang, Daily Beast
 
Hour One
Wednesday 11 November 2020 / Hour 1, Block A:  Andrew C McCarthy, @AndrewCMcCarthy, Ball of Collusion; and Thaddeus McCotter, @ThadMcCotter, American Greatness, in re:  Late-arriving votes, arrived after November 3, to be considered by the Supreme Court.  Chief Justice Roberts would prefer not to, but the other Justices may be looking down the road and see that this could recur. In PA, 10,000 wouldn’t be enough to put President Trump over the top. Roberts as a political actor. However, the Justices are reasonably confident that in this instance they won't be accused of deciding an election. We created problems in extending election day. 
1.    It's up to the State legislature to set the rules.   2 Even it can't change the rules late in the game—esp after voting has started.    3. Congress has the power to set the terms of certain federal elections, including when they happen. Note also: Pre-election problem: as a country, we no longer have the same information—if you vote weeks before election day, you  will have voted without critical, late-breaking information.
Absentee ballots are best given to people who explain why they need them.
Wednesday 11 November 2020 / Hour 1, Block B: Andrew C McCarthy, @AndrewCMcCarthy, Ball of Collusion; and Thaddeus McCotter, @ThadMcCotter, American Greatness, in re:   The Supreme Court and Obamacare. It’s likely to be sustained by the new Court. It's not a policy issue before the Court; it’s legal matters, esp the doctrine of severability.  Improbable that the Court would not find it severable; but they may not even get that far, may decide that red state plaintiffs don't have standing to sue because no financial penalty remains. Roberts vs Roberts: overreach by Congress to cite the Commerce Clause.  Alito in 2012: “piece of a plane needed to let it fly.” Little Sisters of the Poor no longer threaten Obamacare.
Wednesday 11 November 2020 / Hour 1, Block C:   Michael Yon: @Michael_Yon , East Asia war correspndent; and Gordon Chang: @GordonGChang, Daily Beast, in re: Fifteen Hong Kong legislators resigned from Legco: they’ll be disqualified from serving by a sudden, new rule by the Standing Committee giving Carrie Lam (the discredited Beijing-appointed actor to crush democracy in Hong Kong) the right to disqualify people. Beijing has swallowed Hong Kong, going full-Tibet. US needs to offer asylum to Hong Kongers, who now face being kidnapped into Mainland, tortured, and disappeared. Can they exit?  They may not. It may be too late for many; but those travelling in Europe or the US, take them. First there was cajoling, then warnings, now the boot. Xi Jinping believes he can do whatever he wants and the rest of the world will not impose costs on him. He doesn't seem to think he needs allies. China has underestimated the power of worldwide popular opinion. American businessmen are not safe to go to Hong Kong or China.   Xi is willing to destroy Hong Kong in order to control it.  Probably to come: Hollywood film, Escape from Hong Kong.   https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hong-kong-ousts-pro-democracy-lawmakers-rest-resign-china-control/
Wednesday 11 November 2020 / Hour 1, Block D:   James Holmes:  @NavalWarCollege, first holder of the Wylie Chair of Maritime Strategy at the Naval War College and blogger at The Naval Diplomat (navaldiplomat.com); and Gordon Chang: @GordonGChang, Daily Beast, in re:  Biden's plans for the Navy.   Under Obama, “pivot to Asia.”  Now, probably not a radical change.  The US appropriates funds year by year, but shipbuilding needs a longer timeline. Submariners: diesel (which need to surface every so often) vs. nuclear (which more rarely do). Nuclear are very quiet, but diesel subs are now quieter than formerly and, in conjunction with the Quad in the Pacific, will be an advantage; but many admirals have closed their minds.   Adm Rickover still looms over this debate.  Can we resupply the First Island Chain? Adversary will strike at big, fixed bases, such as [some] in Japan.  We can resurrect some of the basic infrastructure. South China Sea is shallow; diesel is more suited than a Virginia-class sub. https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/diesel-submarines-could-give-us-navy-advantage-against-china-172130
 
Hour Two
Wednesday 11 November 2020 / Hour 2, Block A:  Salena Zito: @SalenaZito @DCExaminer @RealClearPolitics; New York Post, CNN; Middle of Somewhere column; in re: Senator Manchin of West Virginia.  Pressure on members to go farther let than their constituency is.  Matters not with the Republicans do or what the pressure is; there are demands that Manchin will not abide.  Need Covid plan and a robust infrastructure bill.
Wednesday 11 November 2020 / Hour 2, Block B:  Salena Zito: @SalenaZito @DCExaminer @RealClearPolitics; New York Post, CNN; Middle of Somewhere column; in re: West Virginia, Ohio and Michigan in the 2020 elections.
Wednesday 11 November 2020 / Hour 2, Block C:  Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com; in re:  Request a memorial donation in honor of Laika and Sputnik. Asteroids. Apophis. “The first chapter of the end of the world”—this one is about 1,500 feet across.  Still may hit Earth in 2068 (odds: 1 in 150,000).  Planetary defense societies.   May need a rapid-response mission.  If we [humans] go to look, must do so after the fly-by so our spacecraft doesn’t accidentally change asteroid’s trajectory and make it more dangerous to Earth in the future.   Bennu  . . .
Wednesday 11 November 2020 / Hour 2, Block D: Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com; in re: Gateway: After NASA wrote the contracts, it decided to combine both [technologies] and put them on a single launch, causing loss of funds, and maybe a too-heavy rocket. NASA mgt functioning as usual: delays and over budget. This was designed to funnel money to contractors in important political zones.  We need a museum of things never launched by NASA.
Orbital tugs.   Relativity: a small-sat rocket company.  Uses 3D printing to build everything.  Firefly.  China’s pseudo-private companies are always under govt/PLA inspection. Using sold-rocket technology, which has to come from the military. China’s Galactic Energy: rocket looked exactly like the US Scout rocket
 
Hour Three
Wednesday 11 November 2020 / Hour 3, Block A: John Catsimatidis,  @JCats2013, @CatsRoundtable, Red Apple Media & Cats Roundtable radio, in re:  Serious allegations of voting fraud; mechanisms controlled by a relative of Pelosi, and Feinstein’s husband. Dominion, a Canadian firm whose software is used in voting in many states, managed to switch Trump votes to Biden votes.   Let the Constitutionally-designed process take its time and method. Whoever wins, wins.  It’s not the place of a television channel to declare an electoral winner.  Intentional malfeasants should go to prison. In the US, red overshadows blue ten to one in territory; yet in cities is where the votes are.  Need fair ID—perhaps fingerprints or eye scan. New York governor proclaims a possible new shutdown: the people should know what the truth is. If you do ten million tests instead of one million, there’ll be more found to have contracted the virus—but our current death rate is ’way down.
Wednesday 11 November 2020 / Hour 3, Block B:  Gregory Zuckerman,  @GZuckerman, Wall Street Journal Special Writer, and author, The Man Who Solved the Markets; in re:   Tom Steyer: what significance will he have in a potential Biden cabinet? The founder of Blackstone was often on the phone to Washington; however, not quite the same in a Biden adm.  Here: Roger Ferguson, TIAA Kreft, a former Federal Reserve governor.   Margaret Chinwe Anadu, managing director at Goldman Sachs.  Robert Mercer. 
Wednesday 11 November 2020 / Hour 3, Block C:  Peter Huessy: @MitchellStudies , @hobeyoco, @HuessyPeter, director of Strategic Deterrent Studies of the Mitchell Institute of the Air Force Association; and Gordon Chang, @GordonGChang, Daily Beast, in re:  https://www.cbsnews.com/news/joe-biden-expected-to-engage-global-partners-un-on-covid-climate-change-and-nuclear-standoffs/
Wednesday 11 November 2020 / Hour 3, Block D: David P. Goldman, author of the just-released You Will Be Assimilated: China's Plan to Sino-form the World, and Gordon Chang: @GordonGChang, Daily Beast, in re:  China
[David P. Goldman watched China unfold its imperial plan from the inside, as an investment banker in China and strategic consultant, and as a principal of a great Asian news organization, the Asia Times.]   https://www.reuters.com/article/huawei-m-a-digital-china-exclusive/exclusive-huawei-to-sell-smartphone-unit-for-15-billion-to-shenzhen-government-digital-china-others-sources-idUSKBN27Q0HJ
 
Hour Four
Wednesday 11 November 2020 / Hour 4, Block A:  Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam, by Fredrik Logevall
Wednesday 11 November 2020 / Hour 4, Block B:  Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam, by Fredrik Logevall
Wednesday 11 November 2020 / Hour 4, Block C:  Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam, by Fredrik Logevall
Wednesday 11 November 2020 / Hour 4, Block D:  Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam, by Fredrik Logevall
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