The John Batchelor Show

Wednesday 14 March 2018

Air Date: 
March 14, 2018

Photo:  Stephen Yates, D.C. Advisory and candidate for Lieutenant Governor in Idaho. yatesforIdaho.com; screeen shot of a photo of him when he was visiting Taiwan.
美前副總統錢尼的國安顧問葉望輝(Stephen Yates)近日訪台,外交部長李大維今(8)日證實,葉望輝昨晚已與總統蔡英文在官邸會面餐敘,在3小時的 . . . 
Google ttranslation:  Stephen Yates, the former vice president of the United States’s Vice President Cheney’s National Security Advisor, recently visited Taiwan. Foreign Minister Li Da-wei confirmed this (8th) day that Ye Wang-hui had met with President Tsai Ing-wen in the bureaucrat meeting last night. The meeting lasted for 3 hours.
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts: Gordon Chang, Forbes.com and David Livingston, The Space Show
 
Hour One
NET2PHONE NEWS
Wednesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 1, Block A:  Sung-Yoon Lee, professor at The Fletcher School at Tufts University, in re: DPRK so far has not responded to Pres Trump’s agreement to meet Kim Jong-eun.  Normal discourtesy. Long history of maneuvering of foreigners [suckers] to bring in cash to North Korea.  Beijing: strange theater going on. When any of the involved powers sees another of them surging ahead in influence, the others all grow worried. Japan held secret talks; suggest that Abe might meet Kim secretly even before Trump does.  The risk for China is simply being on the outside.http://thehill.com/opinion/international/377869-kim-jong-uns-killer-trump-trap
Wednesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 1, Block B: Charles Burton, professor at Brock University, in re:  Hashtags: #NotMyPresident, and #NeverMyPresident and #IDisagree, and posters with these printed on them– opposition to Xi Jinping by citizens, esp students, esp overseas.  Students are taking their lives in their hands with these.    At Natl Peoples Congress, a reporter nominally from the US but in fact attached to Chinese [security].  As he asked a fawning question (“As China acquires more an d more assets internationally from the OneBelt/OneRoad; how will we protect them?), a Chinese reporter next to him rolled her eyes – and that vid went viral. She may not physically survive this event. Her press credentials were pulled and her social media accounts were shut.  Meanwhile, the fact that the vid was very, very widely sent (“I received at least ten copies of it today”)  shows national discontent and ridicule of the regime.  One’s social media history in China is vastly more dangerous in China than even in the West.
The power of ridicule in places like China  - we look forward to 50,000 people rolling their eyes at once.
https://qz.com/1226524/not-my-president-chinese-students-abroad-oppose-xi-jinpings-indefinite-rule/
Wednesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 1, Block C: John Tamny, RealClearMarkets & Forbes; in re: Broadcom trying to buy Qualcomm. “Chinese have perfected the weaponization of investment.”—WSJ op-ed.  Pres Trump blocked Qualcomm’s effort to take over Broadcom.  JT: An embarrassing argument; its real HQ is in Texas but it’s ridiculous to think that the Chinese would try to steal secrets from us in order to invade the largest market, the US.
—Should Lockheed Martin be permitted to be sold to China?
—Yes.
—I disagree; shouldn't allow a military contractor be taken over by a potential adversary.  . . .  There are times in history when . . . We should not be selling companies with sensitive technologies to adversaries. 
—As the Twenty-first Century began, Apple was almost bankrupt and Netflix didn't even exist.  Technology changes rapidly. 
JB: The Chinese are visibly thieves, which is not part of capitalism.   . . . High-performance technology is central to the [future battle space]. China is possibly a ruthless actor.
JT: I think a $4 Trillion company that has a the power to block a merger is a bigger threat than [what you’re describing]. 
GC:  Need at least to contemplate that we’re in a struggle with China.
JT: I don’t think it’s the role of our military to worry about what’s happening in Asia.
Wednesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 1, Block D:  Stephen Yates, CEO of D.C. International Advisory, former advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney, & candidate for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor of Idaho in re:  Three capitals – Moscow, Berlin, Pyongyang — Mike Pompeo’s nomination as Secy of State brings an intensely acute analyst; switching into a serious gear. . . .  Some of these confirmations could take longer than May.  In principle, the White House supports streamlining functions, but a lot of angst about personnel recommendations coming from Tillerson and his supporters.  Pompeo’s a hawk: is that all right?  Ultimately, the Decider-in-chief will listen to all thoughts and then decide, I think he sees in Mattis, as my grandfather would say, “One mean Marine.” Pretty high marks for operations in the building.  Panetta used to call deputies in, tell them he loved them and spend the rest of his time distributing bottles of wine. He was well liked.    Pompeo [with a very different MO] seems to be much approved of.  GC: I’m optimistic.  
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/03/13/tillerson-vs-pompeo-two-very-different-views-of-north-korea/?utm_term=.d551ec523e95
 
Hour Two
NET2PHONE NEWS
Wednesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 2, Block A:  David Maxwell, retired U.S. Army Special Forces colonel and Fellow at the Institute of Corean American Studies, in re: An American (David Snedden?)  still missing in North Korea; the DPRK Kim family crime cult kidnaps foreigners for propaganda value, for language training, for a variety of purposes. Also have about 500 South Koreans who’ve been kidnapped.  The US and the world should be demand this accounting.  North Korea will tell us if we press hard enough.  However, we cannot be extorted into lifting sanctions.  North is notorious for having sanctions relief in exchange for nothing.  No quid pro quo!
Moon Jae-in has a history of being soft; the people of South Korea?  A Facebook survey today: people opposed to Moon going to the North and having a summit, on grounds that nothing good will happen: 80%.  We’re in a hearts-and-minds struggle not with the North but with Moon.
The 1980s struggle for unification was infiltrated by the North.  Today’s youth are much more conservative than was Moon’s generation; are mightily displeased with Moon’s having given Kim a free pass at the Olympics.   Immediately after the war, South Koreans returned to a flattened Seoul to cook what they could find, surrounded by body parts and a devastated landscape. South Korean books no longer allow this to be mentioned.  The notion of gradual integration between North and South into a confederation is dangerously naïve. 
The history of American war-fighting is that we run out of targets.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/summit-raises-hope-north-korea-release-us-detainees-53700915
Wednesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 2, Block B:  Alan Tonelson, independent economic policy analyst who blogs at RealityChek and tweets at @AlanTonelson, in re:  Competing in 5G. Leading-edge technologies often need a boost of govt help in order to [get on track].  In quantum computing and communications, China has a three- to five-year lead on us, which is disturbing.  . . . During the Obama Administration, enormous amts of US technology were transferred to China. Incl. Qualcomm, which is working with HuaWei. Voluntary hemorrhage of US technology to China.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/13/trump-blocks-broadcoms-qualcomm-takeover-concerns-about-china-5g.html
Wednesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 2, Block C:  Salena Zito, CNN, @cnn contributor @nypost columnist @dcexaminer; & Dr Lara M Brown , director of the Graduate School of Political Management, George Washington University; in re: Larry Kudlow and financial folks in the Cabinet.
Wednesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 2, Block D:  Salena Zito, CNN, @cnn contributor @nypost columnist @dcexaminer; & Dr Lara M Brown , director of the Graduate School of Political Management, George Washington University; in re: Larry Kudlow and financial folks in the Cabinet
 
Hour Three
Wednesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 3, Block A:   Monica Crowley, London Center for Policy Research, in re: Tillerson, Pompeo, Kudlow, Cohn, and Bolton.
Wednesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 3, Block B:   Elin Suleimanov, Azerbaijani ambassador to the United States, in re:  Azerbaijan and the Trump Administration.
Wednesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 3, Block C:   Richard Epstein, Chicago Law, NYU Law, Hoover Institution;  in re:  The Dodd-Frank Act ten years after the financial crisis.
Wednesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 3, Block D:   Richard Epstein, Chicago Law, NYU Law, Hoover Institution;  in re:  The Dodd-Frank Act ten years after the financial crisis.
 
Hour Four
Wednesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 4, Block A:  Barry Strauss, The Death of Caesar (part 3 of 4)
Wednesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 4, Block B:  Barry Strauss, The Death of Caesar (part 4 of 4)
Wednesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 4, Block C:  Hotel Mars, episode n; David Livingston,  The Space Show, and David Davenport, NASA; in re: designing the HAMMER Project to interrupt an asteroid headed for France.    Bennu: we sent a probe to investigate the contents of Asteroid Bennu.
Wednesday 14 March 2018/ Hour 4, Block D:  Hotel Mars, episode n; David Livingston,  The Space Show, and David Davenport, NASA; in re: designing the HAMMER Project to interrupt an asteroid headed for France.    Bennu: we sent a probe to investigate the contents of Asteroid Bennu.
..  ..  ..