The John Batchelor Show

Friday 4 September 2015

Air Date: 
September 04, 2015

Photo, left: 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Hour One
Friday 4 September 2015 / Hour 1, Block A: Jim McTague, economist, senior writer for Barron's Washington, and author, Crapshoot Investing, in re:  US economic reports. Blurry Job Picture Poses Test for Fed   U.S. employment growth slowed in August but the jobless rate fell to the lowest level since 2008, a mixed reading less than two weeks before a crucial Fed meeting. Stocks Lower after Jobs Report  August Jobs Report, by the Numbers
Friday 4 September 2015 / Hour 1, Block B:   Harry Siegel, New York Daily News, in re: Moynihan Report of 1960s, plus Black Lives Matter.  Tuesday, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton mumbled on national television that “the disintegration of values” in black families that Daniel Patrick Moynihan pointed to 50 years ago helped explain inner-city crime in today’s New York City. Activists accused Bratton of blaming the victims of racism for it — echoing the charge leveled against Moynihan back in 1965. Mayor de Blasio stepped in Wednesday to give a rare push back to his top cop, declaring “that report literally is half a century old and I think society has changed a lot.”
Friday 4 September 2015 / Hour 1, Block C: Devin Nunes (CA-22), Chairman of House Select Committee on Intelligence; and Gordon Chang, Forbes.com, in re: Lajes in the Azores and the DoD. Lajes, until most recently a major US air base and intelligence hub, is within 2,500 miles of New York, and DoD may be turning over to China.  China calls Portugal, 'The weak spot of Europe."   . . . Update: Valadao and Costa probe Department of Defense Report ...  Relocating facilities to Lajes Field, instead of building new facilities at RAF ... used by DOD in evaluating the siting of a JIAC at Lajes Field in the ... ; Terceira: China's interest in strategic Lajes Air Field unfolding – Azores Evidence of Chinese fleets routinely patrolling the Atlantic Ocean, near ... that China may have thrown an eye on the military Lajes Air Field, on ... ; Defense Officials Praise Troops' Actions in Train Attack "On behalf of all the men and women of the Department of Defense, ... Stone, assigned to the 65th Air Base Group, Lajes Air Base, Azores, ... ; Lajes Field Airman, fellow travelers stop attack on French train (1 of 2)
 
Archaeologists uncover a Neolithic massacre in early Europe Europe’s first farmers carried out brutal acts against their neighbors
Friday 4 September 2015 / Hour 1, Block D: Devin Nunes (CA-22), Chairman of House Select Committee on Intelligence; and Gordon Chang, Forbes.com, in re: Lajes in the Azores and the DoD . . .  Germany, Benelux or the UK are where DoD prefers to have these HQ, where salaries are six times those in Lajes, where there are already 650 existing homes in excellent shape, as ell as a health center, storage, intelligence center, and everything else one needs. DoD proposes to send $300 million in London to replicate these facilities.  China is lobbying in Lisbon to take over the American base at Lajes.  Influence-peddling.  Chinese leadership has visited Lajes numerous times! - (2 of 2)
 
New mystery for Native American origins Rival papers compete to explain surprising link to Australia and Melanesia. http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2015/07/new-mystery-native-american-origins
Hour Two
Friday 4 September 2015 / Hour 2, Block A:  Michal Vlahos, Naval War College; in re:  Kinship systems.  This is a turning point in the cavalcade of humanity. We need to decide if were a set of separate and [unrelated] entities, or a unity of humans where everyone belongs to each other. The most successful of the latter was he United States esp in 1945 - and offered the world the vision of a united humanity, and offered itself as the guardian of that.  A kind of kinship oath; goes back to the origins of our republic as God's agent to redeem humanity and fulfill the agenda of the Divine.  Europe has a conundrum, coming from a wholly different [ethos].  Not-kin: the little family collapsed no the railroad tracks in Budapest – not of ours?    . . .  Migrants are just pure, tragic people.
Friday 4 September 2015 / Hour 2, Block B: Michal Vlahos,  Naval War College; in re: Across Europe, Africa – people repressing forward believing they can find a place of peace.  In 1912, end of the Balkans War; ECB and IMF.  In Athens today there are men from Bangladesh selling cigarettes n the streets; children for Afghanistan or Kurdistan also in Greece – it's too much for Greece, which has been failed by Germany and long has been ostracized as a detail of the Ottoman culture.   Collapsing European fertility.  . . . The US should become more directly available to Europe to help; and the suffering and tragedy will not just go away.   Lesbos mayor calls for help after migrant ferry riot Clashes broke out on the Greek islands of Lesbos on Friday after 1,000 people, mostly Afghans, attempted to rush onto a ferry heading to the ... ; The Latest: Migrants in Bicske break past Hungarian riot police ... ; The Latest: British PM: Don't cross the seas to EuropeMigrants facing "hellish" conditions as crisis in Europe intensifies ; Refugee crisis: Hundreds set off from Budapest on foot – as it ... ; European migrant crisis: A country-by-country glance
Friday 4 September 2015 / Hour 2, Block C:   Francis Rose, Federal News Radio, in re: http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/09/04/ig-report-300000-veterans-died-while-waiting-health-care-va.html?ESRC=eb.nl  ; Denver hospital update  ; New VA health care leader speaks out for first time  ;  Veterans Benefits Administration claims success in cutting backlog
Friday 4 September 2015 / Hour 2, Block D: Liz Peek, Fiscal Times, in re:  Ted Cruz is one smart cookie. Everyone says so (Alan Dershowitz calls him “off-the-charts brilliant”). But now we know so – look how he’s playing Donald Trump. Alone among the GOP contenders, Cruz has chosen to climb aboard Trump’s bandwagon, rather than bash the blowhard billionaire. Recently, Cruz invited Trump to speak at a rally protesting the Iran nuke deal in Washington -- effectively guaranteeing a capacity crowd and plenty of news coverage.
Trump, who loves to be loved, confirmed, “We are talking to Ted Cruz--who is a friend of mine and a good guy--about doing something very big over the next two weeks in Washington….”  Just like that, the Texas Senator’s demonstration against the Iran agreement became “very big.” And Trump followers are on notice that Cruz is a stand-up guy. That separates Trump from nearly every other Republican contender--rivals Trump has variously described as stupid or worse. For Cruz, the praise is bankable, and it may well come in handy.  ;  Related: Trump Is Still Surging: Here’s Who Can Stop Him
Hour Three
Friday 4 September 2015 / Hour 3, Block A: James Angelos,  The Full Catastrophe: Travels Among the New Greek Ruins (1 of 4)
Friday 4 September 2015 / Hour 3, Block B: James Angelos,  The Full Catastrophe: Travels Among the New Greek Ruins (2 of 4)
Friday 4 September 2015 / Hour 3, Block C: James Angelos,  The Full Catastrophe: Travels Among the New Greek Ruins (3 of 4)
Friday 4 September 2015 / Hour 3, Block D: James Angelos,  The Full Catastrophe: Travels Among the New Greek Ruins (4 of 4)
Hour Four
Friday 4 September 2015 / Hour 4, Block A: Josh Rogin, Bloomberg View, in re:  Trump's Foreign Policy Is All Over the Map  Donald Trump's shortcomings on foreign policy extend way beyond his inability to name terror group leaders on a radio interview. The entirety of his utterances reveal a potential president who would reshape U.S. foreign policy into a mess of conflicting and often incoherent policies, and delegate the most important issues of national security to as-yet unnamed subordinates.
Friday 4 September 2015 / Hour 4, Block B:  Michael Ledeen, FDD, in re: http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelledeen/2015/09/03/the-lame-duck-whos-dancing/
Friday 4 September 2015 / Hour 4, Block C: Marcus Weisgerber, Defense One Global Business Reporter, in re: Ukraine Aims to Rebuild Navy  A year after Russian soldiers seized Crimea and most of the Ukrainian fleet, Kiev is sniffing around for new ships. However, getting them will be difficult.
Friday 4 September 2015 / Hour 4, Block D: Boeing names its CST-100 manned capsule Starliner  The competition heats up: Boeing today unveiled “Starliner” as the new name for its CST-100 manned capsule. This intensifies the competition because the new name is something the public can grab and identify. As long as Boeing was using the boring acronym they were holding back to stay in the boring do-nothing pork-laden government-funded NASA environment. Grabbing the public means they want the public to buy this product.
Soyuz capsule maneuvers to avoid space junk  The manned Soyuz capsule bringing three astronauts to ISS was forced to make a maneuver this morning to avoid a collision with a fragment from a Japanese rocket launched in 1989.  While space junk is an increasing problem, for a object to threaten a manned capsule making maneuvers in low Earth orbit is extremely rare. It appears from the story however that U.S. and Russian trackers thought there was a very good chance of an actual collision and took action to avoid it.
First Falcon Heavy launch now scheduled for April/May 2016  The competition heats up: SpaceX is now aiming for a spring launch of the first Falcon Heavy.  That first launch will be a demonstration mission without a paying customer. That launch will be followed in September by the Space Test Program 2 mission for the Air Force, carrying 37 satellites. Rosen said the company was also planning Falcon Heavy launches of satellites for Inmarsat and ViaSat before the end of 2016, but did not give estimated dates for those missions.  Though no one should bet a lot of money on this launch schedule, if they get even half this accomplished they will be doing quite well. This, combined with the possibility that they will safely land the first stage of the Falcon 9 by then as well, will put SpaceX in an undeniably dominate position in the launch market.