The John Batchelor Show

Tuesday 6 December 2016

Air Date: 
December 06, 2016

Photo, left:
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Larry Kudlow, CNBC senior advisor; & Cumulus Media radio
 
Hour One
Tuesday  6 December  2016   / Hou,r 1, Block A:  Steve Moore, Trump transition team; formerly senior economist at Heritage; in re:
Kathleen Hartnett White was EPA dir in Texas, educed all of Texas’s carbon emissions; is now frontrunner to head federal EPA. We need to fix infrastructure, bld LNG terminals, pipelines, refineries —five or six million new jobs in this.   A lot of the coal jobs can be revived.  Most US electricity today comes from coal— US has the cleanest coal on Earth.  Obama Adm has been focussed on climate change, not energy dvpt.  Indian reservations are sitting on billions’ worth of energy that the federal govt has prevented First Nations from claiming and selling. In less than a decade, tbe US can become the dominant energy producer on Earth.
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Trump & Pence, First 100 Days. @StephenMoore,.The new administration’s first priorities would include curbing illegal immigration, abolishing and then replacing Mr. Obama’s signature health-care system, nominating a justice to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court, and strengthening the military, said Mr. Pence, whose wife, Karen Pence, sat nearby during the interview.
By springtime, the Trump administration would work with congressional leaders “to move fundamental tax reform” meant to “free up the pent-up energy in the American economy,” he said. Pillars of the tax overhaul would include lowering marginal tax rates, reducing the corporate tax rate “from some of the highest in the industrialized world” to 15%, and repatriating corporate cash held overseas, he said. Such measures would “benefit American workers and strengthen American incomes,” said Mr. Pence, who will soon relinquish his post as governor of Indiana.  http://www.wsj.com/articles/vice-president-elect-mike-pence-says-trump-administration-plans-ambitious-agenda-1480653486
Fueling Freedom: Exposing the Mad War on Energy, by Stephen Moore &  Kathleen Hartnett White
Tuesday  6 December  2016   / Hour 1, Block B:  Steve Moore, senior economist at Heritage; in re:  Trump administration —taxes, infrastructure. Business tax – for all 26.5 million ___________.  Repatriation of $2 trillion, of which 10%  will be $200 billion, applicable to infrastructure; and that will raise the GDP by 1%.
Cutting bz tax from 35% to 15%.  Give us 100 days for bz tax cut and till the end of the year. Cut tax on C corps and S corps: beneficiaries are the workers.  School vouchers:  rather than spend $20 bil PA on Dept of Education, grant it to parents of children in failing school districts; let them go to good schools. 
Dems keep arguing for “more infrastructure” – we’re still paying for a 12-year-old plan and still waiting for shovel-ready jobs.  Steve Mnuchin at Treasury: tax bill is part of his personal legacy. David Malpass at OMB!  We hope he winds up at the Fed, as chairman.
Tuesday  6 December  2016   / Hour 1, Block C: Scott Gottlieb, AEI &  WSJ, in re:  Four legs of a new health-care system.  Let everyone not having medical coverage get a tax credit same as cost of health care; buy a catastrophic plan. Couple that with a health savings account. Pre-tax dollars. 
Imagine; you're hit by a car, hospital for a month and then long recuperation. Health savings acct for routine costs.   Provide a one-time tax credit.  Pre-existing conditions.  Cannot be dropped nor have premiums go up.  High-risk pools? May not need but people who fall out of the mkt may . . . 
Need to deregulate the entire ins mkt.  Start w Medicare. Let patients contract directly with Doctors – maybe pay a set monthly fee.
Tuesday  6 December  2016   / Hour 1, Block D: Isaac Stone Fish,  ; in re:
 
Hour Two
Tuesday  6 December  2016   / Hour 2, Block A:  Stephen F. Cohen, Prof. Emeritus of Russian Studies/History/Politics at NYU and Princeton; also Board of American Committee for East-West Accord (eastwestaccord.com); in re:
Tales of the New Cold War: New McCarthyism. Stephen F. Cohen, @NYU @Princeton University. EastWestAccord.com
TITLE V--MATTERS RELATING TO FOREIGN COUNTRIES
SEC. 501. COMMITTEE TO COUNTER ACTIVE MEASURES BY THE RUSSIAN
              FEDERATION TO EXERT COVERT INFLUENCE OVER PEOPLES AND
              GOVERNMENTS.
    (a) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) Active measures by russia to exert covert influence.--
        The term
“appropriate committees of Congress'' means--
                    (A) the congressional intelligence committees;
                    (B) the Committee on Armed Services and the
                Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate; and
                    (C) the Committee on Armed Services and the
                Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of
                Representatives.
    (b) Establishment.--The President shall establish a committee to
counter active measures by Russia to exert covert influence over
peoples and governments.
    (c) Membership.--
            (1) In general.--The committee established under subsection
        (b) shall be comprised of [sic; meaning: composed of] members who may vote on matters
        before the committee, one of each of whom shall be appointed by
        the following:
                    (A) The Director of National Intelligence.
                    (B) The Secretary of State.
                    (C) The Secretary of Defense.
                    (D) The Secretary of the Treasury.
                    (E) The Attorney General.
                    (F) The Secretary of Energy.
                    (G) The Director of the Federal Bureau of
                Investigation.
                    (H) The head of each of the other elements of the
                intelligence community.
                    (I) The head of any other agency or department of
                the United States Government designated by the
                President for purposes of this section.
            (2) Chair.--The member of the committee appointed by the
        Secretary of State pursuant to paragraph (1)(B) shall serve as
        the chair of the committee.
    (d) Meetings.--The committee shall meet at the direction of the
chair, but not less often than once per month.
    (e) Duties.--The duties of the committee established under
subsection (b) shall be as follows:
            (1) To counter active measures by Russia to exert covert
        influence over peoples and government by exposing falsehoods,
        agents of influence, corruption, human rights abuses,
        terrorism, and assassinations carried out by the security
        services or political elites of the Russian Federation or their
        proxies.
            (2) Such other duties as the President may designate for
        purposes of this section.
    (f) Staff.--The committee established under subsection (b) may
employ such staff as the members of such committee consider
appropriate. Funds for the employment of the staff shall be derived
from amounts specifically designated for that purpose in the classified
annex of this Act.
http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/legislation/intelligence-authorization-act-fiscal-year-2017-reported-june-6-2016
 
Tuesday  6 December  2016   / Hour 2, Block B:  Stephen F. Cohen, Prof. Emeritus of Russian Studies/History/Politics at NYU and Princeton; also Board of American Committee for East-West Accord (eastwestaccord.com) (2 of 4)
Tuesday  6 December  2016   / Hour 2, Block C:  Stephen F. Cohen, Prof. Emeritus of Russian Studies/History/Politics at NYU and Princeton; also Board of American Committee for East-West Accord (eastwestaccord.com) (2 of 4)
Tuesday  6 December  2016   / Hour 2, Block D: Stephen F. Cohen, Prof. Emeritus of Russian Studies/History/Politics at NYU and Princeton; also Board of American Committee for East-West Accord (eastwestaccord.com) (3 of 4)
 
Hour Three
Tuesday  6 December  2016   / Hour 3, Block A:   Dr Lara M Brown, George Washington University, and Salena Zito, New York Post & CNN, in re:  Trump Defines Populism 2016: Carrier, Boeing, Softbank. Joe Biden for Democratic Everyman. @SalenaZito, CNN. @LaraMBrownPHD, @GWSPM (1 of 2)
Tuesday  6 December  2016   / Hour 3, Block B:  Dr Lara M Brown, George Washington University, and Salena Zito, New York Post & CNN, in re:  Trump Defines Populism 2016: Carrier, Boeing, Softbank. Joe Biden for Democratic Everyman. @SalenaZito, CNN. @LaraMBrownPHD, @GWSPM (2 of 2)
Tuesday  6 December  2016   / Hour 3, Block C:   Joel Green, NASA, and David Livingston, SpaceShow.com, in re:  Waiting for the James Webb Space Telescope. Joel Green, NASA. David Livingson, SpaceShow.com.  “The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), previously known as Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST), is a Flagship-class space observatory under construction and scheduled to launch in October 2018. The JWST will offer unprecedented resolution and sensitivity from long-wavelength (orange-red) visible light, through near-infrared to the mid-infrared (0.6 to 27 micrometers). While Hubble has a 2.4-meter (7.9 ft) mirror, the JWST features a larger and segmented 6.5-meter-diameter (21 ft 4 in) primary mirror and will be located near the Earth–Sun L2 point. A large sunshield will keep its mirror and four science instruments below 50 K (−220 °C; −370 °F).
JWST's capabilities will enable a broad range of investigations across the fields of astronomy and cosmology.[5] One particular goal involves observing some of the most distant events and objects in the Universe, such as the formation of the first galaxies. These types of targets are beyond the reach of current ground and space-based instruments. Another goal is understanding the formation of stars and planets. This will include direct imaging of exoplanets.
In gestation since 1996,[6] the project represents an international collaboration of about 17 countries[7] led by NASA, and with significant contributions from the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. It is named after James E. Webb, the second administrator of NASA, who played an integral role in the Apollo program . . .  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope.
Tuesday  6 December  2016   / Hour 3, Block D: Joel Green, NASA, and David Livingston, SpaceShow.com (2 of 2)
 
Hour Four
Tuesday  6 December  2016   / Hour 4, Block A:  Michael Schwirtz, New York Times, in re: The Tragedies of the 54,000 Inmates in New York State Prisons. @MichaelSchwirtz
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York announced on Monday that he was ordering an investigation into racial bias in the state prison system after an investigation by The New York Times found that black inmates were punished at significantly higher rates than whites, sent to solitary confinement more often and held there longer.
The investigation analyzed nearly 60,000 disciplinary cases from 2015 and interviewed inmates at prisons around the state who said that guards often used racism to instill subservience.
“I am directing the state inspector general to investigate the allegations of racial disparities in discipline in state prisons and to recommend appropriate reforms for immediate implementation,” Governor Cuomo said in a statement issued on Monday, calling the report “disturbing.”
One of the most striking examples of bias documented was at Clinton Correctional Facility near the Canadian border, the site of a dramatic escape by two white inmates last year. Only one of the 998 guards at the prison is African-American, and black inmates there were nearly four times as likely as whites to be sent to isolation and were held there for an average of 125 days, compared with 90 days for whites, The Times found.
Mr. Cuomo also said he planned to nominate several minority candidates to the state parole board. The Times’s investigation found that black inmates were denied parole at higher rates than whites. Of the current board’s 13 members, only one is a black man and none are Latino men, while the state prison population is nearly three-quarters black and Latino….
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/05/nyregion/governor-cuomo-orders-investigation-of-racial-bias-in-ny-state-prisons.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
Gouverneur Correctional Facility Male, 24  The inmate is serving three to six years for stealing sneakers and for illegally possessing a handgun. He said he stole the sneakers while looting after Hurricane Sandy. At the time of the interview, he had been in solitary confinement for bribery and extortion. He has one prior state prison stint. He was initially given probation for the burglary, but was sent to prison after being caught with the .357 Magnum handgun, which he said he bought for protection.
Q. Why didn’t you get dog instead of a gun? Instead of a G-U-N, you could have gotten a D-O-G, and the dog, you wouldn’t have gotten in trouble for — —
A. You are right.
Q. I’ve got a 130-pound French mastiff and 120-pound American bulldog that’s only 8 months. Do you think somebody would be scared of that if you come to my house?
A. Yeah.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/04/nyregion/new-york-parole-d...
Tuesday  6 December  2016   / Hour 4, Block B:  Michael Schwirtz, New York Times, in re: The Tragedies of the 54,000 Inmates in New York State Prisons. @MichaelSchwirtz (2 of 2)
Tuesday  6 December  2016   / Hour 4, Block C: Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com, in re: The recent failure by Curiosity to drill has caused engineers to stop the rover in its tracks while they analyze the cause of the problem.
The rover team learned Dec. 1 that Curiosity did not complete the commands for drilling. The rover detected a fault in an early step in which the “drill feed” mechanism did not extend the drill to touch the rock target with the bit. “We are in the process of defining a set of diagnostic tests to carefully assess the drill feed mechanism. We are using our test rover here on Earth to try out these tests before we run them on Mars,” Curiosity Deputy Project Manager Steven Lee, at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said Monday. “To be cautious, until we run the tests on Curiosity, we want to restrict any dynamic changes that could affect the diagnosis. That means not moving the arm and not driving, which could shake it.”
Two among the set of possible causes being assessed are that a brake on the drill feed mechanism did not disengage fully or that an electronic encoder for the mechanism’s motor did not function as expected. Lee said that workarounds may exist for both of those scenarios, but the first step is to identify why the motor did not operate properly last week.
Though they do not say so, the problem is almost certainly related to a fundamental design flaw in the drill’s design that causes intermittent short-circuits when they use it, and has the possibility of shorting out the entire rover if they are not careful.  http://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/drill-i...
Curiosity is at a site on lower Mount Sharp selected for what would be the mission's seventh sample-collection drilling of 2016. The rover team learned Dec. 1 that Curiosity did not complete the commands for drilling. The rover detected a fault in an early step in which the "drill feed" mechanism did not extend the drill to touch the rock target with the bit.
"We are in the process of defining a set of diagnostic tests to carefully assess the drill feed mechanism. We are using our test rover here on Earth to try out these tests before we run them on Mars," Curiosity Deputy Project Manager Steven Lee, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said Monday. "To be cautious, until we run the tests on Curiosity, we want to restrict any dynamic changes that could affect the diagnosis. That means not moving the arm and not driving, which could shake it."
Two among the set of possible causes being assessed are that a brake on the drill feed mechanism did not disengage fully or that an electronic encoder for the mechanism's motor did not function as expected. Lee said that workarounds may exist for both of those scenarios, but the first step is to identify why the motor did not operate properly last week.
The drill feed mechanism pushes the front of the drill outward from the turret of tools at the end of Curiosity's robotic arm. The drill collects powdered rock that is analyzed by laboratory instruments inside the rover. While arm movements and driving are on hold, the rover is using cameras and a spectrometer on its mast, and a suite of environmental monitoring capabilities. http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6692
Tuesday  6 December  2016   / Hour 4, Block D:   Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com (2 of 2)
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