Wednesday 3 December 2014
Photo, above: Confucius on his way to Luoyang. From the Book of the Great Learning, c. ii: "On the bathtub of Tang the following words were engraved: 'If you can purify yourself a single day, do so every day. Let no day pass without purification!'" See Hour 1, Block A, Congressman Chris Smith.
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Hour One
Wednesday 3 December 2014 / Hour 1, Block A: Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ 4th District) in re: Thursday's hearing he's chairing on Confucius Institutes http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-hearing-academic-freedom-threatened-chinas-influence-us-universities) and his bill on Hong Kong http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/hongkong-11132014203119.html
So-called Confucius Institutes are now in 80 universities and many US classrooms; they were designed by the Chinese Communist Party to convey its own view of what Confucius said. The institutes have been in existence for a decade, they now train 10,000 teachers each year to influence world attitudes toward the PRC – specifically, to lie about its past, esp the horrific deeds of Mao and the Cultural Revolution. [Note: while Hitler murdered perhaps 6 million persons; and Stalin, 20 million; Mao is known to have killed or directly caused to die between 50 and 70 million Chinese people, setting a world historical record for mass murder.] Unfortunately, many American educators have ignored the overt lies of the "Confucius" Institutes because China has poured small oceans of money into US universities in order to open and control these centers of fundamental misinformation. American students are thus getting a radically untrue view of Tien An Men, Taiwan. Hong Kong, Mao, the Cultural revolution, the current crop of unelected tyrants of Beijing – everything pertaining to China and its history. Higher educati0n in America has been sold to get Chinese dollars from the Chinese dictatorship.
Africa Global Human Rights Committee – which I chair . . . China is making an all-out effort to put out a Potemkin view of China. Our academic discourse is being perverted.
Among those who will testify in front of my committee: Dr Hsiah, who worked in Beijing, was fired; Dr Perry Link, Dr Thomas Cushman. Furthermore, there's NO transparency in all the agreements China has with US universities. The American Assn of University Professors have urged universities to cut ties. Chen Kwan-jen human right case: the blind lawyer who defended women from forced abortion - extreme brutality [note: China had no anesthesia; abortions were performed . Chen testified from his hospital bed twice. He then came to the US to testify; there was a huge effort to muzzle him. He refused to be silenced; the day after e appeared in front f my committee, NYU fired him. We gave NYU fifteen different dates to answer question on whether or not their new Shanghai campus, to hold 26,000 students – where the central government will pay half of the tuition fees – caused NYU to fire Chen in exchange for a staggering amount of cash. To their credit, many NYU professors wrote to the NYU administration about the "Five No's" – can they in fact teach about Mao, the Chinese gulag system, the accurate history of the Chinese Communist Party?
Subcommittee Hearing: Is Academic Freedom Threatened by China's Influence on U.S. Universities? Chairman Smith on the hearing: “The Chinese educational market is a lucrative one, but we have to ask if there are any hidden costs for American schools and colleges seeking access to that market. By rushing to build campuses in China and signing agreements to have Chinese government entities on American campuses, are universities and schools accepting restrictions on foundational principles of American higher education? The American university model is the world’s best and they should be ambassadors for freedom and democracy globally. They should also be islands of freedom where foreign students can enjoy the fundamental freedoms denied them in their own country. Our witnesses will provide information on the growing presence of American universities in China and the presence of Chinese government educational entities on American campuses through ‘Confucius Institutes.’ They will also detail some of the costs and benefits of such educational partnerships and offer recommendations on how such partnerships can protect academic freedom and the fundamental human rights of faculty and students.”
WITNESSES: Perry Link, Ph.D., Chancellorial Chair for Innovative Teaching, University of California, Riverside. Thomas Cushman, Ph.D., Deffenbaugh de Hoyos Carlson Chair in the Social Sciences, Wellesley College. Xia Yeliang, Ph.D. ,Visiting Fellow, Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, Cato Institute. Sophie Richardson, Ph.D., China Director, Human Rights Watch
Wednesday 3 December 2014 / Hour 1, Block B: Gerrit van der Wees, Formosan Association for Public Affairs, in re: On Saturday in TW 11, 130 posts in Taiwan were up for election across the entire island – a landslide opposing Ma Ying-jeou and his KuoMinTang party, which has been in effect offering he island to Beijing. Proposed economic agreements with China – fortunately prevented by the legislature. Here, Ma accused the students of blocking his policies. A new political landscape in Taiwan and the playing field is leveler than before, as the KMT had a lot more money than the DPP (Democratic Peoples Party). This time, DPP used Internet for his campaign and did very well. In Taipei, the mayoralty was won by the challenger. The Hong Kong protests were instrumental, as Xi Jinping, the unelected tyrant of Beijing, said that the HK "One country, two systems" should apply to Taiwan – which Taiwanese people emphatically reject. Democracy is contagious.
Wednesday 3 December 2014 / Hour 1, Block C: Josh Greenman, opinion page editor of the New York Daily News, in re: Garner case in Staten Island. Began July 17 in the city suburb of Staten Island, where an encounter between a New York City policeman and a local man named Eric Garner led to Mr Garner's death. The grand jury has just decided not to return an indictment against the policeman. Many expected criminally negligent homicide. Loretta Lynch, nominee to be Attorney General and working through the Eastern District Federal System, will investigate. Millions have seen the video where MR Garner did not se force, the cop applied a chokehold and pressed him tot the ground; he repeatedly and clearly said he couldn't breathe and died soon thereafter. Most people believe that there was some culpability by the police department. The new mayor, Bill De Blasio, ran partly on a platform of cleaning up what is widely perceived to be misbehavior of the NYPD. He appointed Bill Bratton, who'd spearheaded NYC crime decline under Mayor Giuliani. Tension between police unions and De Blasio. The governor of New York an the US president have both made statements o the grand jury's conclusion.
Wednesday 3 December 2014 / Hour 1, Block D: Mark Millis, Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project at NASA (ret); in re: the vision of interstellar travel in less than one lifetime – possibly even in hours. Faster than light? Propulsions. Now in TauZero Foundation working on practical interstellar flight. Wormhole: First publ in scientific literature in 1988; there are other ways of considering he matter, but it's a thought-provoking one. There's been [assigned?] a signature of what a wormhole would give were it to pass in front of an astronomical body. The two mouths of the wormhole are seated in space, but the distance between the two is small. Path through a wormhole . . . Also warp drives. As for just moving in space, question is what is an inertial frame and what can you do with it? The movie Interstellar. Black hole has an event horizon and is quite different. Wormhole is open space; once you try to move an object through it the throat will collapse, need negative energy density[?]. In 1994, warp drive first in literature: take a segment of space-time and move it faster than light – a moving bubble of space-time by expanding space time behind the bubble and collapsing in front. Needs a lot of negative energy – and big issues on what happens when you start and stop it?? Theoretical math . . . kinda vague notions so far. Can lower energy requirements buy some means but a bit questionable. Possible to crate faster-than-light travel? Probably yes. I used to think not, but no longer have a giggle factor.
Hour Two
Wednesday 3 December 2014 / Hour 2, Block A: Heather Timmons, Asia correspondent for Quartz, Hong Kong, in re: Joshua Wong in HK, of Scholarism Group, at Admiralty is on hunger strike, both to oblige Beijing to negotiate and to prevent violent protestors from moving to the fore. Two female students are also on hunger strike with him. Occupy Central, HK's veteran democracy movement – many guys in their forties – point out that he police are growing violent, so it’s time to move the discussion into the courts, They went to a police station, turned themselves in for having violated regulations; police refused to arrest them. We saw dozens of people getting hurt in the last clash; cops were aggressively trying to drive the protestors back. Meanwhile, there's a core group of protestors who are angry and ready to be less passive. Everyone wonders, what next" Govt clearly won’t compromise. C Y Leung, top political officer, has said that democracy talks are off he table. He's made himself look intransigent; on Beijing's orders? Hard to be sure, but his life history is going along with Beijing. "An empty suit" who got his job because he convinced everyone in Beijing what he's compliant. HK tourism has increased: with Mainland tourist!
Wednesday 3 December 2014 / Hour 2, Block B: Mike Davis, professor at the University of Hong Kong Law School, in re: the Hong Kong protests, including these: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/02/us-hongkong-china-idUSKCN0JE0KI20141202 http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-30275320
The document that permitted the handover from Britain to Mainland China: Beijing now argues
that the Sino-British Treaty is now irrelevant; the British Foreign Office rejects this argument; dunno if it'll stand up. Hong Kong people care a great deal. China accepts the law only when it’s expedient; argues, "We have sole authority so be silent and obey." A Chinese deputy ambassador said the treaty was void. Britain has limited power, but it surely can name and shame. China's treaty obligations are taken seriously by dozens of governments. "Britain has no sovereignty over a HK returned to China, no moral authority." Every time there's a domestic protest, in Tibet, for example, Beijing squeals that it's always foreign influence. This kind of xenophobic talk is heard in many quarters inside China, although the govt worries about its legitimacy. DC has tried to amend a law and monitor China.
Wednesday 3 December 2014 / Hour 2, Block C: Peter Navarro, professor at University of California, Irvine and producer of the documentary Death by China, in re: Xi Jinping has spent a week saying sweet things "China will always be a nice neighbor" – even as China's imperia conduct is aggressively awful. "Soft hand, iron fist" – adamantly defending all the territorial expansion in South China Sea. I'm not buying what he's selling. Man at Johns Hopkins: "My grandmother said, 'You have to make a first impression only once'" – and China blew it a few years ago, having been on an expansionist rampage since 2008. The just-past Taiwan elections that threw Ma Ying-jeou out on his ear must have led to Xi's soft-pedalling. It’ll take a decade or three for China to repair its image. Vietnam buys subs, Singapore buys ships, Philippines bring US into Subic Bay – and Japan elected Abe out of fear of China. There's no one at the Pentagon paying any attention to this. Clinton and Hagel took a fairly strong stand, but no one else is coming in who knows anything. If the US withdraws from Asia: Japan will get [it has enough material for 4,000 warheads] the nuclear weapon. The US deal was, "We'll protect you if you don't get nukes." Most South Koreans want a nuke. War game in Bret Stephen's new book. Bill Gertz! Vietnam sent two war ships to the Philippines this week. Likely that China will grab something like Crimea – but while sanctions may work against Russia, one couldn’t keep allies on side against China, and sanctions won’t work. Ergo, submarines . . .
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/30/us-china-southchinasea-idUSKCN0JE04J20141130
Wednesday 3 December 2014 / Hour 2, Block D: David Feith, WSJ, in re: By 2020, when the US Navy plans to station 67 submarines and surface ships in the Asia-Pacific, China could have 351.online.wsj.com/articles/essen… Chinese Foreign Minister rebukes Britain for concern over Chinese abuse of power and refusal to allow a formal British delegation into Mainland. Beijing blasts London to oppose the democracy movement. Aggressive authoritarian policies of Beijing: used against the people of Hong Kong (although not half as bad as what it uses against its Mainland citizens) ; deep disdain by the unelected tyrants of Being toward HK. Squeezing the police for being an honest body instead of an arm of the tyranny. Abrogation of the Joint Treaty. While Beijing is scornful of HK, Taiwan rejects unification with Mainland. Also, the world of the authoritarian govt of China is typically not worth the paper it's written on. The HK govt has been unwilling to negotiate with the democrats even though an 18-year-old is starving himself perhaps to death. Beijing has no shame. C Y Leung's handling of the protests has put his reputation to a new low.
Hour Three
Wednesday 3 December 2014 / Hour 3, Block A: Richard A Epstein, Hoover Institution, Chicago Law, in re: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/04/nyregion/grand-jury-said-to-bring-no-charges-in-staten-island-chokehold-death-of-eric-garner.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
Wednesday 3 December 2014 / Hour 3, Block B: Richard A Epstein, Hoover Institution, Chicago Law, in re: “Ferguson and the Rule of Law,” in which he argues: “Activists and critics are making an explosive situation even worse.” All persons, including police officers, are entitled to act in self-defense. Police officers, according the Supreme Court, have still greater latitude in the use of force to prevent the commission of other crimes. In my view, the prior physical altercation in the car between Brown and Wilson cannot be ignored in judging Wilson’s fatal decision to shoot moments later. Perhaps Brown did not intend to attack Wilson, but it is Wilson’s subjective perception of danger that matters, which in the heat of the moment was shaped by the previous attack. It is hard to condemn his choice as unreasonable, especially if Wilson is entitled to the benefit of the doubt. http://www.hoover.org/research/ferguson-and-rule-law
Wednesday 3 December 2014 / Hour 3, Block C: Aaron Klein, KleinOnline and Investigative Radio, in re: Iranian Jets Strike ISIS Near ‘Buffer Zone’ on Iraqi Border Tehran is showing a new willingness to conduct military operations openly on foreign battlefields rather than covertly and through proxies. Iraqi Leader Seeks Additional Aid in ISIS Fight
Wednesday 3 December 2014 / Hour 3, Block D: Amos Guiora, University of Utah, in re: 'Drone court' should approve US strikes, University of Utah law The Washington Times5 days ago - The drone drops a bomb or fires a missile that executes the suspect. University of Utah law professor Amos Guiora is pushing for another step ...
Hour Four
Wednesday 3 December 2014 / Hour 4, Block A: Monica Crowley, Washington Times online opinion editor, in re: Jeb Bush: GOP Nominee Should Be Willing to 'Lose the Primary to Win the General' Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Monday said that for a Republican to win a presidential ... Jeb Bush nearing decision whether or not to run for president in 2016
Jeb Bush: "I Would Never Subjugate My Family" to Run for President RealClearPolitics
Wednesday 3 December 2014 / Hour 4, Block B: Monica Crowley, Washington Times online opinion editor, in re: Mitt Romney, Ben Carson Lead GOP Pack in 2016 Poll
Wall Street Journal In this March 2014 file photo, Ben Carson, professor emeritus at Johns Hopkins School of ... Fiorina returns to NH on Friday Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina will return to New Hampshire for the first time since telling national news ... Ex-HP CEO Fiorina Considering 2016 Presidential Run eWeek Will Carly Fiorina Sheepishly Demonize GOP Opponents on the Road to the White House? OC Weekly
Wednesday 3 December 2014 / Hour 4, Block C: Josh Rogin, Bloomberg View, in re: http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-12-03/have-republicans-won-the-pentagon
Wednesday 3 December 2014 / Hour 4, Block D: Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, in re: http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-12-03/have-republicans-won-the-pentagon
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