Photo, left:  Charlie Hebdo cover, 1 November 2011; “A hundred strokes of lash if you don’t die laughing!”  See Hour 1, Block D,  Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD.
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts:  Gordon Chang, Forbes.com, & Dr. David M. Livingston, The Space Show,
Hour One
Wednesday  7 January 2015 / Hour 1, Block A: Scott Harold, full political scientist at Rand Corporation, in re:  the security implications of http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30653825
Wednesday  7 January 2015 / Hour 1, Block B:  Cleo Paskal, associate fellow, Energy, Environment and Resources at Chatham House & author, Global Warring: How Environmental, Economic, and Political Crises Will Redraw the World Map, in re:
Wednesday  7 January 2015 / Hour 1, Block C: William Harwood, CBS News/Kennedy Space Center, in re: SpaceX launch and the recovery scheduled for Tuesday; upcoming 2015 space news items
Wednesday  7 January 2015 / Hour 1, Block D:  Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD, in re: the massacre at Charlie Hebdo in Paris this morning. Terrorists who attacked French magazine displayed professional training  Videos from the scene of today's attack show the two gunmen engaging a French policeman on the streets of Paris. Two police officers are among 12 people killed in the terrorist attack on the headquarters of a satirical French magazine. Have identified at least two of the attackers; three brothers, the youngest seems to have turned himself in. [more] “If they coordinated four such attacks simultaneously in the US, it’d probably close the country down for days. . . .   Our time frame is within elections; theirs is decades and centuries.” One of the brothers is said to have been [fought] in Iraq.  The executions were military.  How many places now are there with training camps?  Over seventy.  The police in Paris are outgunned; they’re not ready for this. You’d think that at the door to a magazine that’s been firebombed and received death threats, there;d be someone well-armed on guard.  JB: On the 200th anniversary of Waterloo, the French must relearn a lesson: Never, never be outgunned.
Hour Two
Wednesday  7 January 2015 / Hour 2, Block A:  Charles Burton, professor at Brock University, in re:  http://www.cnbc.com/id/102308056
Wednesday  7 January 2015 / Hour 2, Block B:  Bruce Bechtol, professor at Angelo State University and author, North Korea and Regional Security in the Kim Jong-un Era, in re: North Korea doubles the size of its cyberarmy in order to paralyze the South.  Weapons systems, Iran, North Korea: a distinct possibility.  Iran and DPRK currently collaborating on naval weapons, tanks, artillery small arms, and chemical weapons, as well as more antique, conventional matters.  Also a 2012 agreement to collaborate on cyberwork.  Ergo, the US needs a more comprehensive US plan to deal with the overall problem. Tripartite set of rogue nation states – Syria, Iran, North Korea.  A few sanctions here and there do little; need to look at their financial networks and much intl cooperation. Bonko Delta Asia.  These smaller states have big-power sponsors, China and Russia.  The Sony hack was North Korea and China.    Last week’s sanctions: two front companies and several individuals, of whom two were in China.  Is there a coherence to North Korea’s predation?  Used to be composed of a provocation that led to a payoff.  This time, it’s not.  Within the DPRK Party, an official memorandum: Nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles and cyberwarfare are all permitted and encouraged in order to “get money out of the US.”
Wednesday  7 January 2015 / Hour 2, Block C:  David Feith, Wall Street Journal Asia in Hong Kong, in re: The Chinese Empire’s Burning Peripheries Crackdowns in Hong Kong and Xinjiang threaten Taiwan—and regional peace.  China’s paramount leader, Xi Jinping, frequently reiterates that China is pursuing “peaceful development.” On a trip to France last year, he described his country as “peaceful, pleasant and civilized.” But 2014 saw the rhetoric of peace wearing increasingly thin. / Looks like a continuation of centralized Beijing crushing moderate forces; similar in Hong Kong to places in Mainland China, incl Tibet and Xinjjiang; the destruction of the very qualities that have made HK a vital place: a free press, honest law enforcement, free courts, are being obliterated.  Beijing destroys itself to preserve the power of the Communist Party. Barclay’s study: 47% of China’s rich plan to leave China within five years.  Calculation that it’s worth it to run the risk of losing Hong Kong rather than let it govern itself and be a model for the entirely unliberated billion-plus in China.  August 1937, the destruction of Shanghai during the Japan-China war.  Currently are expats in similar denial?  . . .   Xi is not in the business of political benevolence, but of control; HK could point out that Xi oughtn’t lose China’s actual financial capital (Shanghai can’t be because of corruption and Beijing’s heavy-handed control).  . . .   There is no doubt but that the hammer is ready to fall.
Wednesday  7 January 2015 / Hour 2, Block D:  Aaron Back, WSJ Heard on the Street, in re: 1. Macau’s casinos have hit a losing streak; not clear that doubling down on new resorts will change their luck, at least in the near term.  / Chinese rich use casinos to use/surface/expatriate cash. However, Macau has hit a bump, no longer is as profitable, just as many new casinos and hotel beds come online.   People get fronted cash by junket operators, then cash out, then can take it from there elsewhere outside of China. Pawn shops, also, are mechanisms.  The 2014 Mainland crackdown ahs been a financial disaster for Macau.  When Stanley Ho had all control, he surfaced very little money; but now it’s a vast market of junket operators who are basically a shadow banking system.   In 2016, each casino owner will build a second casino.  To succeed, must attract poorer Chinese, “the common person,” and lower initial bets from $50, or even $250.  When a province is connected to Macau by high-speed rail, that’s when tourists pour in.   . . .
2. Why Xiaomi’s software-centric business model may justify its $45 billion valuation, and the impact of the hacking attack on Sony’s entertainment unit.   3. In Japan news, 2015 may be the year that average workers finally start to see some benefit from Abenomics. Korean exporters, though, are under pressure from the weak yen.
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Sony Feels Pain of a Botched 'Interview' Things had just started going well for Sony. Then disaster struck in Hollywood.   Shares of the Japanese electronics-and-entertainment conglomerate have rallied in recent weeks on optimism over new initiatives, including a live TV streaming service on PlayStation consoles. Now Sony's film-studio unit has canceled the release of The Interview, a comedy about the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, after hackers threatened cinema attacks. U.S. officials believe North Korea is behind the campaign.
     With hindsight, it is tempting to blame Sony for its own troubles. Leaked emails show that concerns over the film reached all the way to the CEO's office. But it is probably unfair to claim the studio should have foreseen such a commercial calamity.  It was only in 2004 that the previous North Korean leader was shown being impaled in Team America: World Police. In 1999, an intimate tryst between Saddam Hussein and Satan was central to the plot of South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut. Both were produced by units of Viacom when those dictators were in power.  The direct financial fallout is limited: the budget for The Interview was only $44 million. But it leaves Sony with just one other potential holiday blockbuster, an Annie remake starting Jamie Foxx. The bigger worry is the long-term damage to employee morale and leadership credibility at Sony Pictures. This comes at a delicate time for the studio, which makes about one-tenth of Sony's revenue. Last year, activist investor Dan Loeb of Third Point, who sought a partial spinoff of Sony's entertainment businesses, argued the studio suffers from "a complete lack of accountability and poor financial controls." He criticized Sony Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai for giving a "free pass" to studio executives Michael Lynton and Amy Pascal for producing box-office flops such as After Earth. The same two executives now have had unfortunate emails disclosed by hackers.
     Sony's box-office receipts are up around 11% this year, according to tracking website Box Office Mojo, but this comes after a punishing 39% decline in 2013. Leaked Sony emails show anxiety and confusion over how to handle the studio's crucial Spider-Man franchise after a somewhat disappointing reception for the latest web-slinger film.  This parade of woes for the film studio is particularly unfortunate, because it comes just as Sony may be on the cusp of realizing, through the new television streaming offering, its decades-old vision of synergy between electronics and entertainment. Perhaps Sony can make the best of the situation by streaming The Interview to audiences when the service launches next year. It is a twist worthy of Hollywood.
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Hour Three
Wednesday  7 January 2015 / Hour 3, Block A:  Monica Crowley, Fox, & Washington Times Online opinion editor; in re: Jeb to come clean He set up Jeb Bush and Associates, a consulting firm, in 2007. He followed that in 2008 with . . .   Jeb Bush Just Took a Big Move to Distance Himself from Mitt Romney  (1 of 2)
Wednesday  7 January 2015 / Hour 3, Block B:  Monica Crowley, Fox, & Washington Times Online opinion editor; in re:  Boehner takes revenge  John Boehner is getting revenge. After he secured his third term as speaker Tuesday . . .  (2 of 2)
Wednesday  7 January 2015 / Hour 3, Block C:  Tarek Fatah, Canadian columnist and broadcaster, in re:  Muslims must save Islam from Islamists (Toronto Sun)
Wednesday  7 January 2015 / Hour 3, Block D:   Reza Kahlili, The Daily Caller, & author, A Time to Betray, in re: Iran General: Our Ultimate Goal Is the Destruction of America and Israel
Hour Four
Wednesday  7 January 2015 / Hour 4, Block A:  Scalia: A Court of One, by Bruce Allen Murphy (1 of 4)
Wednesday  7 January 2015 / Hour 4, Block B:  Scalia: A Court of One, by Bruce Allen Murphy (2 of 4)
Wednesday  7 January 2015 / Hour 4, Block C:  Scalia: A Court of One, by Bruce Allen Murphy (3 of 4)
Wednesday  7 January 2015 / Hour 4, Block D: Scalia: A Court of One, by Bruce Allen Murphy (4 of 4)