JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Colleagues: Gordon Chang, Daily Beast, and David Livingston, The Space Show
 
Hour One
Wednesday 28 October  2020 / Hour 1, Block A: John Tamny, @johntamny, RealClearPolitics, in re: Rocket-wrecked population on a distant planet--
Wednesday 28 October  2020 / Hour 1, Block B: John Tamny, @johntamny, RealClearPolitics, in re:  Twitter and the like under much scrutiny. Dorsey shuts down the New York Post account and refuses to reopen it even though the story that angered Dorsey, concerning Hunter Biden, is highly relevant to the public and especially to the election.   Since when does conservatives want the govt to interfere in the operation of a private company?  Twitter is not the Commons; its private enterprise.    Twitter has made an economic decision. 
Wednesday 28 October  2020 / Hour 1, Block C: Brandon Weichert, @WeTheBrandon, author, Winning Space, How America Remains a Superpower; and Gordon Chang, @GordonGChang, Daily Beast, in re:  The Obama administration's failure to compete in space, allowing both Russia and China to catch up and perhaps even surpass us
Chang-I rocket is on the Moon. China is looking to win the second Moon race. Fit race, everyone just wanted to plant a flag; now, china wants to stay and strip-mine the Moon for rare commodities.  Head of Chinese Moon program said, We view the universe a s an ocean and the Moon as the South China Sea. Also are working on mining asteroids, On 1 Nov, will launch a probe, then place a satellite on geosynchronous orbit to inspect asteroids, then soon thereafter begin mining.  Osiris Rex, US, got to Bennu asteroid and scooped up material in proof of concept operation, China has a concerted strategy, which the US does not. Long March 5B, earlier this year, was a success.  Joe Biden wants to work hand in hand with Chinese space work, share all US information with China.  Space is already militarized and weaponized— not by the US. Will reorient the intl community to make everyone dependent on China.  US commercial space is untethered and can go anywhere.  However, it has hurdles in getting contracts form NASA and DoD; however, American lobbyists, like Neil Bush, are trying to get US firms to go partner with China. 
Wednesday 28 October  2020 / Hour 1, Block D: Bruce Bechtol, Angelo State; North Korean Military Proliferation in the Middle East and Africa: Enabling Violence and Instability, in re: https://nationalinterest.org/blog/korea-watch/north-korea-china-and-iran-axis-missiles-171367
North Korea keeps improving its long-range missiles. This is the 80-ton missile sanctioned in DPRK ad Iran. China now has brokered a deal where Norks sell a lot of missies, protected by Chinese. Big Brother enters Little Brother’s markets an the latter enjoys protection. Iron Triangle of China, DPRK and Iran.  DPRK can land a missile on the US West Coast. “This is the worst-case event.”  The UN [won't do much].  Did Trump go the wrong way in trying to [pacify] North Korea?  Yes, I think so.   Looking to cut a new deal with Syria, financed by both Iran and China. Also selling widely in Africa. Latin America:  Hezbollah is in Venezuela, and Norks deal with it a lot.
 
Hour Two
Wednesday 28 October  2020 / Hour 2, Block A:  Salena Zito,  @SalenaZito @DCExaminer @RealClearPolitics; New York Post, CNN; Middle of Somewhere column; in re:  Coal miner: Sara Vance.  Coal miners’s daughter—both parents mined in Green Co, PA.  Worked 1200 feet underground.   Wept in the ninth month of pregnancy because her belly was in the way of her shoveling  thermal coal, goes to power plants and keeps the country warm.  In 2012, Pres Obama broke the FDR coalition, made coal an enemy. In 2016, voted for Trump. Now, Trump needs 50,000 more votes than in 2016. Mostly farmers, energy workers, evangelicals.
Wednesday 28 October  2020 / Hour 2, Block B:  Salena Zito,  @SalenaZito @DCExaminer @RealClearPolitics; New York Post, CNN; Middle of Somewhere column; in re: 
Wednesday 28 October  2020 / Hour 2, Block C:  Amity Shlaes, The Great Society, a New History; in re:  Walter Reuther, UAW, supported young people to organize; discovered that Tom Hayden and cohort were much farther left than the union—led to SDS, Weathermen.  Port Huron Statement.  Union wanted better work conditions, not riots or to destroy the country. In 1968 Democratic convention: The left attacked Chicago police.  Riots probably caused Nixon to win the election.  Hayden didn’t give a fig about union concerns, went to North Korea. Union leaders were furious at themselves for having funded this.  Reuther’s dream was lost when Humphrey lost the election.
Wednesday 28 October  2020 / Hour 2, Block D: Hotel Mars, episode n. David Livingston: @SpaceShow  #HotelMars; and Harold C. Connolly Jr., AMNH, & founding Chair and Professor of the Department of Geology at Rowan University; in re: “During the ‘Touch-and-Go’ sample collection event on October 20, 2020, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collected more than enough surface material (at least 60 grams) of the near-Earth asteroid Bennu to meet one of its main mission requirements, according to the mission scientists.”
Nightingale landing spot on Bennu; we were ecstatic through the whole process.  Descent was flawless; ascent backwards was flawless. Spacecraft went 10 cm into the asteroid.  Telemetry. Stowed sample in the hold.   Asteroids are treasure chests back to 6 billion years ago. The dust in Osiris Rex is from before our Solar System, Sun was to become a main sequence star.
 
Hour Three
Wednesday 28 October  2020 / Hour 3, Block A: John Catsimatidis,  @JCats2013, @CatsRoundtable, Red Apple Media & Cats Roundtable radio, in re: res Trump said New York City was a ghost town; mayor took strong exception.   The office towers and he businesses that depend on those worker, are empty.  Normally, we get 55 million visitors a year; restaurants are closed.  New York is in trouble; a major contributory factor is the politicians. The rest of the c0untry is open, as are theater boroughs.  Ninety per cent of our money comes from banks and Wall Street. Whose New York is it?  Rioting in Philadelphia; police are afraid to intervene and lose their pensions. Whose Philadelphia is it? New York had 30,000 mentally ill in hospital; they were all sent into the street, so now there are 3,000 in hospitals.  The police commissioner is not the highest law-enforcement person in New York the mayor is.  Steve Cohen, hedge-fund owner, bought the New York Mets.  Now mayor DeBlasio is looking at the deal as though there’s something wrong with it.   He’s trying to be relevant [and maybe have his palm crossed with silver –ed].  Cousin Brucie, 6 to 10 PM Saturdays; soon, Tony Orlando (“Tie a Yellow Ribbon around the Old Oak Tree”)
Wednesday 28 October  2020 / Hour 3, Block B:  Brett Arends: @BrettArends; @Marketwatch ROI column; in re: How are Sturm Ruger and Smith and Wesson doing?  Up.  May mean that Biden is winning Am obliged to be sceptical. If there’s a Democratic sweep, people will buy guns.  We’re Silicon Valley Nation. Congress today was speaking condescendingly to these Masters of the Universe.  Jack Dorsey of Twitter, which iced out the New York Post for a political gripe, was smithereened by Ted Cruz.  Dorsey said, “No, Twitter couldn’t affect a US election.”  “I hear the concerns and acknowledge them.”  Ouch!  Downhill from there. Dorsey was pathetic.  There’s no competition to YouTube, Google search, Twitter. They have more power than Standard Oil ever did. 
Wednesday 28 October  2020 / Hour 3, Block C:  Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com; in re:  Asteroid Bennu and NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex. Sample material is escaping from the storage, Mylar flaps on the sample chamber, can't close because there’s a rock in the way.  Afraid to fire thrusters in case it shakes up material and they lose more. Complicated process.  Chief scientist confident that they got 100 oz or more.  Moon: Clavius crater. Detected tiny amount of water molecules, found by spectroscopy—in mid-latitudes.   Chandrayan 1, years ago, sensed a lot of potential hydrogen molecules.  Asteroid Psyche is rusting. Its predecessor may have been a planet. Hubble ultraviolet suggests that the iron on it is rusting.  Eventually, we’ll discover that some of the asteroids are linked to the formation of the Earth.
Wednesday 28 October  2020 / Hour 3, Block D:  Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com; in re: 
 
Hour Four
Wednesday 28 October  2020 / Hour 4, Block A: Richard Epstein: @RichardAEpstein, Chicago Law, NYU Law, Hoover Defining Ideas, in re:   Opioid crisis.
Wednesday 28 October  2020 / Hour 4, Block B: Richard Epstein: @RichardAEpstein, Chicago Law, NYU Law, Hoover Defining Ideas, in re:   Extending election day in Pennsylvania: next iteration.
Wednesday 28 October  2020 / Hour 4, Block C: Tara O of the East Asia Research Center (https://eastasiaresearch.org/), and Gordon Chang: @GordonGChang, Daily Beast, in re: Samsung: passing of the chairman, Mr Lee. Leaving behind billions; if the son now in charge inherited all of it, he’d have to pay 10 billion in taxes (65% inheritance tax). How did he make so much money so quickly?  China is entering the picture; has got Samsung technology for free under demand of Moon Jae-in, who admires Mao and his system, believes in communist ideals: state ownership of property and businesses.  This is Moon’s chance to experiment in Korea by state control of Samsung. The reason China’s economy is struggling to recover is because of the massive inefficiency of the SOEs—the worst way to deal with people’s money.  HuaWei doesn't have an adequate supply of chips; may get a lifeline from Samsung. https://twitter.com/DrTaraO/status/1320206651492892673
Wednesday 28 October  2020 / Hour 4, Block D:  Cleo Paskal, non-resident senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and Gordon Chang: @GordonGChang, Daily Beast, in re: Secretary Pompeo and Secretary Esper went to India to meet with their c0unterparts and PM Modi. Last summer, India sent a warship to the South China Sea to warn China to [back off].  India’s new strategic thinking understands that if China took Taiwan, that’d close the First Island Chain, providing a major security problem to India—and could easily lead to China taking the Philippines and Vietnam, which would leave many more troops to continue China’s invasion of the Himalayas and steal Indian territory.   https://www.npr.org/2020/10/27/928153680/u-s-and-india-sign-military-agreement-during-pompeo-esper-trip
https://thediplomat.com/2020/10/yes-virginia-the-trump-administration-does-have-a-china-strategy/
 
..  ..  ..