JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
 
Hour One
Friday 15 May  2020  / Hour 1, Block A:  Charlie Gasparino, Fox,  in re:  Because of what I cover, my connections into baseball is mostly on the owner side.  Players hate salary caps, prefer revenue sharing. Owners say, We have no money.  Last contract says, all right to extend this emergency structure for another year if the crisis persists. The players association isn't really saying no. By Memorial Day. they’ll agree to something.
       If you work in a big building and have to ride in elevators, “the elevator problem.”  A New York City broker can easily work from home, as can traders.  Opening up the New York Exchange floor, deemed an essential service. Why?  Your wonderful brother, Dr Gasperino, had the virus, was struggling and in trouble, and now is better and back at work In Brooklyn Hospital. 
Friday 15 May  2020  / Hour 1, Block B: Francis  Rose,  Government Matters , in Washington; in re:  The frigate class can do all that with much less danger. Now, Wisconsin’s Marinette Shipyard will build the first new frigate, the FREMM* design by Fincantieri, an Italian firm.  Senator Gallagher, Wisconsin, and Senator King, Maine.   Jerry Hendrix asked, How many warships you been on?  Umm, few.   . . .  A concern about the frigate is the out-year costs, maintenance, at $6 million a year?  If we build seventy, where will the money come from?
VA nursing homes run by the states: bring them back under direct control of VA, which has done  a very good job with the Covid flu.
* an acronym that stands for “European multi-purpose frigate.” 
Friday 15 May  2020  / Hour 1, Block C: Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com, in re:
Friday 15 May  2020  / Hour 1, Block D: Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com, in re:   Mars. 
 
Hour Two
Friday 15 May  2020  / Hour 2, Block A:  Devin Nunes, CA-22;  in re: The FAANGS, which make all the tax money in California. Book: The Manipulators.  Big tech controls content, and how dangerous this can be. They always target conservative beliefs and ethos; it's bad enough that the state-run media do what they do; with the tech oligarchs, you’d believe that he Moscow prostitutes and dossier are real. Shadow-banning:  a few years ago, you’d see my tweet and retweet it. What they were doing was making t so you couldn't see my tweets. How long did that last? They allowed people to attack my family and me.  Mr Dorsey is “a left-wing hack,” You'd think that with such a good tool, he’d want to keep the public forum open A local TV show reported a San Joaquin Valley doctors’s press conference; “we think everyone needs to go back to work”—and google took it down, It's now unfindable. The mayor of San Diego said to the governor, “The hell you’ll keep our beaches closed.”
Friday 15 May  2020  / Hour 2, Block B:  Devin Nunes, CA-22;  in re:  In the winter of 2017, then-Chairman Nunes revealed unmaskings. What did you see?  “I didn't see anything about Russia.” Richard Grennell’s revelations.  The famous Midnight Run, when purportedly I rode in a cab, jumped over the White House fence, and gave secret information to the president – which, by the way, would have been entirely the possession of the president by Constitutional structure. The media have been in the thick of this since the beginnings.  Important to have reporters from all across he country able to skype in to ask questions at presidential press conferences.  Adam Schiff: has be been compromised?  Long ago we asked him to step down. The House Intell Committee no longer exists; it’s the House Impeachment Committee, which was busy at that when the Chinese were releasing the virus. Now we’re diving into the Mueller team.  Criminal referrals. 
Friday 15 May  2020  / Hour 2, Block C:  Chris Riegel, Scala.com, in re:
Friday 15 May  2020  / Hour 2, Block D:  Gregory Zuckerman, WSJ special writer; and author, The Greatest Trade Ever: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of How John Paulson Defied Wall Street and Made Financial History, and  The Frackers: The Outrageous Inside Story of the New Billionaire Wildcatter; in re:  Investing in virus stocks: the virus play.
 
Hour Three
Friday 15 May  2020  / Hour 3, Block A: Dan Henninger, WSJ Wonder Land and editorial page; in re: Comey tweeted : “Career people please stay; we need you.” This is aimed at the xpermanent Washington establishment.
Friday 15 May  2020  / Hour 3, Block B:  Jeff Bliss, Pacific Watch, in re: Laguna Beach police chief has declared flag poles to be weapons.  Always a very blue part of Orange County, which was otherwise red. Surveillance firm promotes a drone to intercept text message, emails and more, by flying ahead of  you. The Phantom can pick up allsorts of comms. San Diego police turned away and said, No, that’s not right.  Homeless: own cities within the cities; will it remain forever after the virus is over?
Friday 15 May  2020  / Hour 3, Block C:  Mary Anastasia O’Grady, WSJ, Americas column, in re:   American Green Beret, Jordan Goudreau of Silvercorp, decided he could provoke a military uprising across Venezuela because the middle and lower ranks of the military are very unhappy. He got together a group of mercenaries and patriots, mostly Venezuelans living in Colombia; intended to enter Venezuela late at night and gather military, go in to Caracas, get Maduro, put him on a plane to the US (where there’s a $15 million reward for his head).  The whole thing had been infiltrated from the beginning.   Sunday May 3: a lot of shooting, some killed or executed; some captured. On the previous Friday, a US newspaper article on the attempt.  Secretary of State Pompeo: The US has no direct involvement. This whole thing may have discouraged and demoralized the population, but that’s a theory. 
Friday 15 May  2020  / Hour 3, Block D:  Mary Anastasia O’Grady, WSJ, Americas column, in re:   The Cubans and the Venezuelan escapade.
 
Hour Four
Friday 15 May  2020  / Hour 4, Block A: Michael E Vlahos, Johns Hopkins, in re: Richard Grennell, Acting DNI, that major figure in the Obama Adm in Dec 2106 and Jan 2017 repeatedly unmasked people concerning an investigation.  Shakespeare on killing a king.  Talking about removing an elected president of the US when he acceded to the post in a few days. Major national security figures with enormous power.  Do the 1605 Gunpowder Plot and events on 2016 suggest that a coup is under way? Fighting going on under the surface; governance in dispute and deeply in question.  Regicide and plot seen as ways to solve the problem in the immediate future.  In coups d’etat we think of the state intervening to prevent chaos, but what we’re seeing in the US, and Egypt and Ukraine, and even Mexico in 1913 and 1956, ways in which civil strife and division would be evidence that real civil war, armed contest, is imminent. The vice-present on Jan 12 requested unmasking of General Flynn—eight days before Biden was to be a private citizen. Sen Schumer on Rachel Maddow show: “The incoming president has incurred the wrath of [all the agencies], and he’d better watch out, they have ways of taking care of you.” Astonishing. 
Friday 15 May  2020  / Hour 4, Block B: Michael E Vlahos, Johns Hopkins, in re:  In any civil war, there are phases in succession, a kind of ascension of escalation; more wiling to take desperate measures. Here we have a de facto civil split, balance out by several factors taking us to a crucial victory-or-death election contest.  What we saw was a conspiracy between an outgoing president and members of the deep state; Will take away the last measure of restraint on both sides to commit themselves to a rules-based election process and abide by it. Any kind of muddy election now could lead to a coup-like . . . Guaranteed, Michael.  “Victory or death” is an existential emotion.  To remove a king is not a soft coup. “Remember remember the fifth of November” – January doesn’t rhyme with it; but it’s striking that it’s the same fifth.
Friday 15 May  2020  / Hour 4, Block C:  Henry Nau, professor emeritus, George Washington University, in re: Only three members of NATO were meeting the 2% responsibility. We had difficulties presenting policies to Europe even during the USSR; it was grave enough that we were willing to carry the load.  Now Russia is not a major power and our allies are much richer than they were 40 years ago, an objective we shared. Today, the allies will have to step up or we’ll lose this democratic word that we’ve built since 1945. Trump has increased funding for NATO, gave Ukraine weapons for eastern Ukraine. He’s saying to the Europeans, If you don't pick up your share this will collapse.  75 years later: We build that Daimler production line; we protected Germany when it was in half, yet in March 2019 Berlin deliberately cut its defense spending, thumbing its nose at Trump and the US.  What's going on? . . . Need Europe united in security and led by Germany and France.  PLA Navy; predators threatening Taiwan, Senkakus, India.
Friday 15 May  2020  / Hour 4, Block D:  Henry Nau, professor emeritus, George Washington University, in re:  Our major challenge now is in Europe and the Middle East[?] and Asia.  Trump has disposed of ISIS and kept his target on terrorism, and avoided in reacting in ways that would suck in our land forces.  Let remain small numbers for intelligence purposes. Prudent to position ourselves offshore.  The Space Force; Chinese endeavor to colonize the Moon.  Be very wary of sharing any technology relevant to that with China.