JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Colleagues: Gordon Chang, Daily Beast.
 
Hour One
Wednesday 6 January 2021 / Hour 1, Block A:  Henry Miller, @HenryIMiller @PacificResearch HenryMillerMD.org, Pacific Research Institute [HenryMillerMD.org], in re:     
B.1.1.7 spreads more readily; began in the UK, now in over three dozen other countries and several US states.  It’s not specifically more deadly, but there’s a greater viral load in the upper respiratory tract.  Greater transmissibility portends more illness and strain on hospitals.   Every time an RNA virus duplicates itself, it mutates, often neutrally.  In Denmark, more people are falling sick, more rapidly. 
Wednesday 6 January 2021 / Hour 1, Block B: Henry Miller, @HenryIMiller @PacificResearch HenryMillerMD.org, Pacific Research Institute [HenryMillerMD.org], in re:   May nursing-home workers don't want to be vaccinated.  Except for special circumstances, “they ought not be allowed to endanger all the patients.”  The psychotic medical worker who left vaccine out overnight is a terrorist. In West Virginia, the wrong fluid was injected intramuscularly; an incomprehensible mistake. The EU cleared Moderna’s vaccine.
Wednesday 6 January 2021 / Hour 1, Block C:  Henry Sokolowski, executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center & Hoover Institution; and Gordon Chang, @GordonGChang, Daily Beast, in re:  All Against All.    Ballistic weapons, nuclear weapons, and space policy.  Russia, China, the US.  We’re trading a lot, at least with China; quite unlike the Cold War.  Another complication is that our ideological opposition to what's going on in China and Russia is a lot less than the fear and loathing were during the Cold War. Finally, our allies have reason to want to do business with them.  China’s and Russia’s militaries work hand in glove with each other. A change is that many people know the malice of China in intentionally releasing the virus, with over 300,000 deaths.  However, many of China’s trading partners want nothing to do with China’s strategic cooperation.
      South Korea wants to rejoin with the North; not fully [aligned] with Japan. India and Australia.  A lot of other stuff needs attending to beneath that. It's a lot more complicated than formerly.  Space:  does this moot the success of strategic arms treaties of the last century?  No.  . . . an upcoming period of US vulnerability is space. Deterrence: a different meaning from during h Cold War; no longer based in seas, air, ground, but on eyes, ears, voice from space. Absent these, a sort of lobotomy.  
 
Wednesday 6 January 2021 / Hour 1, Block D:  Charles Burton: @cburton001, blogs at RealityChek; and senior Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Centre for Advancing Canada's Interests Abroad; and Gordon Chang, @GordonGChang, Daily Beast, in re:  Xi concentrates civilian mobilization in the military.   Giving the military too much power doesn't always bode well, incl for Xi now. Worrisome. Is little-bitty Hong Kong a threat to Xi? Yes, could threaten his Western relations.  Xinjiang, Tibet. China is becoming a military state. Geostrategic goals to the Belt and Road Initiative.   https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3115988/chinas-military-takes-charge-war-powers-new-defence-law
     How has extended deterrence changed since the end of the Cold War and how should those changes impact US space policies and investments?
     Biggest anti-satellite threats the US and its allies face.
     Should we rely on Arms Control understandings and the commercial space sector, which is deploying massive numbers of low-Earth orbit systems that our military could use, to deter military adventurism against us or our allies?
     Must the US secure immediate space dominance or superiority to deter military or commercial harm being inflicted to it and its allies?  Or is insisting on immediately achieving this a mistake?
     To what extent should the US and its allies cooperate with China and Russia on space activities?
 
Hour Two
Wednesday 6 January 2021 / Hour 2, Block A: Andrew C McCarthy, @AndrewCMcCarthy, Ball of Collusion; and Thaddeus McCotter, @ThadMcCotter, American Greatness, in re: Disorder in the Capitol.
Wednesday 6 January 2021 / Hour 2, Block B:  Andrew C McCarthy, @AndrewCMcCarthy, Ball of Collusion; and Thaddeus McCotter, @ThadMcCotter, American Greatness, in re:  Disorder in the Capitol. 
Wednesday 6 January 2021 / Hour 2, Block C:  Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com; in re:   he small Zvezda leak, now permanently patched, with an exterior spacewalk determining that it wasn’t a hit from a micrometeorite. Dmitri Rogozin: will send up special eqpt to check a second small leak. Russians secretive.  Speculate that the problem is the capsule’s twenty-year-old age, that it’s stress fractures.  . . . US had 40 launches last year, mostly Musk. Largest number since 1968. “Sky’s the limit.”  . . . Superheavy in Boca Chica: first level of a 100% reusable; can relaunch within an hour. The launch pad actually grabs the returning missile: “berthing.”  
Wednesday 6 January 2021 / Hour 2, Block D: Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com; in re:  Sunspots. Summer on Mars: strange, “cryptic” terrain on the southern icecap.   Rebuild Arecibo for $8 million?  Not enough, but the Puerto Rican government has committed.  Too much corruption; maybe get money from Congress.  
 
Hour Three
Wednesday 6 January 2021 / Hour 3, Block A:  John Catsimatidis,  @JCats2013, @CatsRoundtable, Red Apple Media & Cats Roundtable radio, in re:The fog of war. Disturbing : guns drawn in the halls of Congress.  The Vice-president’s letter explaining that his role is ministerial, ceremonial, not to make decisions.   Ninety-nine per cent of the demonstrators were peaceful, Trump demonstrators. When Trump said to go home, they went home  They were infiltrated by Antifa and Black Lives Matter.  Who are they? Where does their money come from? The people who broke into the Capitol were also seen in Arizona [in similar behavior]. The woman who was shot in the neck has died. Why guns—why not a taser?  We’re entitled to the truth.  The vaccine will be solved in 90 days; it's the crime and mentally-ill problem in New York.  Man in a car with his mother, surrounded by demonstrators who broke the windscreen. Terrifying; it's the so-called “bail-reform” law, which is simply lawlessness.   Cuomo and DeBlasio. We’re killing our city—everything’s closed: theater, restaurants, hotels.  New York’s closure is hurting the whole country. Joe Biden needs the US economy to recover. Buffalo Bills in the finals; Cuomo asked for a certain number of fans to attend but the Bills are miffed by previous Cuomo conduct.
Wednesday 6 January 2021 / Hour 3, Block B:  Richard Epstein: @RichardAEpstein, Chicago Law, NYU Law, Hoover Defining Ideas, in re: Merrick Garland is a distinguished jurist.  Has his hands full in current events.
Wednesday 6 January 2021 / Hour 3, Block C:  Cleo Paskal, @CleoPaskal, non-resident senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, & the Guardian; and Gordon Chang, @GordonGChang,Daily Beast, in re: Vancouver.  The Canadian government is using Chinese expats to cooperate with Chinese crime.  The Canadian foreign policy establishment fears annoying Beijing.   One:  CCP activities in the Chinese community (note also the Sikh community in Canada, which organizes and funds Sikh activities); and . . .    activists will fundraise, coerce, corral.  
    Canada is one of he Five Eyes. With China [dug in to Canada], what does this bode for the rest of the alliance?  Pierre Trudeau visited China in 19465, and again in 1960. He met Mao and Chou En-lai; recognized China in 1970 before the UN did. The US intell community has been tracking this for a long time, but it’s difficult to determine how [dangerous] it is.  Political and commercial communities want easy ties so they can make money; intelligence and security communities are rightly worried.  Given the evidence that China is a bad actor, does Justin Trudeau explain? Not really; he expresses admiration.  The Canadian public.  Watch the Canada-China Business Council, the Grand Central Station of the ties. Discussion of the two Michaels [kidnapped by the CCP]: a dead silence. 
https://www.defensenews.com/training-sim/2021/01/05/israel-and-india-test-of-mrsam-air-defense-system/
Wednesday 6 January 2021 / Hour 3, Block D:  Gordon Chang, @GordonGChang, Daily Beast, in re:  CCP in Hong Kong: 53 pro-democracy activists arrested by 1,000 security officers; persecuted and tormented.  China has not adopted a strategy that will serve it well. Those arrested were not intimidated. The business community is opposed to these arrests and is starting to speak out – they could be next. Note Jack Ma’s imprisonment.   US social media platforms have good information and the US Congress is alert to that.  Xi Jinping, “I am the president for life,” recognizes that it’s not all working. Chinese military taking over civilian powers; a lot of events simultaneously, which is [meaningful].  Following the Versailles Treaty, Mao got his start in protests similar to the ones now. Clearly, the CCP is worried about the May 4thMovement.  It's dealing with forces that are zealous, whereas the Party no longer has its funding spirit.  There’ll be many more arrests and more resistance.   The Party will fail; does it read history?  Xi will not acknowledge failure.
 
Hour Four
Wednesday 6 January 2021 / Hour 4, Block A: Patrick Tucker, Sci-Tech editor for @DefenseOne, @DefTechPat, in re:  Training robots for the military. Similar to training canines?
Wednesday 6 January 2021 / Hour 4, Block B: Patrick Tucker, Sci-Tech editor for @DefenseOne, @DefTechPat, in re:  Artificial skin, individual heat signatures, incl nonstate adversaries who have night goggles.   Off-the-shelf gaming headset used for pilot training. Doug Masters has to rehearse [flying].  New headsets are smaller, cheaper, more effective than any written test.  The U2 is still flying!   Environmental conditions similar to those in space
Wednesday 6 January 2021 / Hour 4, Block C: @AmbJohnBolton, American Foundation for Security and Freedom (fasfreedom.com); in re:   Biden foreign policy; North Korea; China. Afr decades, is North Korea still enjoying the upper hand?  Four administrations have failed to deal adequately – economic sanctions, pressure, diplomatic negotiations; all not working.  Pres Moon in the Blue House: heir to the Sunshine policy, a most naïve view of North Korea. Rests on the premise that DPRK would be a reliable partner in a prospective reunification.  Moon Jae-in has another year. Biden intends to restore the JCPOA. DPRK seems to count on Iranian missile tests for the moment. Dangerous situation.  For decades, it’s been clear that Beijing is not an honest broker: DPRK threatens the entire region, giving China leverage while [acting as though it’s not involved].  Kerry’s single mission on climate change rests on his saying that he moved China into a better position. All foreign policy initiatives risk being set aside in favor of Biden’s creating [more amiable] relations with China. 
Wednesday 6 January 2021 / Hour 4, Block D:  Sadanand Dhume, @dhume, @AEI, @wsj; AEI & WSJ; in re: