The John Batchelor Show

Friday 16 October 2020

Air Date: 
October 16, 2020

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
 
Hour One
Friday 9 October 2020 / Hour 1, Block A:  Dan Henninger: @DanHenninger, @WSJOpinion; editorial board and Wonder Land column; in re:   “The dogma lives loudly within you,” said Diane Feinstein of Amy Coney Barrett.  Feinstein apparently feels threatened by religious belief and a large family.  Is Christianity, itself, suspect and under review?  The left regards traditionalists as a danger.  Over time, the left set out marching orders: come over to our side or you’ll be ostracized. Judge Barrett represents something they see as a threat to their dominance and they have to undermine it.
Friday 9 October 2020 / Hour 1, Block B:  Jeff Bliss, #PacificWatch, in re: San Francisco real estate in a deep slough.  15  million sq ft of empty space. Landlords trying to help with rent; it's like nothing you’ve ever seen before.  No more tourists or conventions, which bugged out a few years ago when the homeless took over.  Sociologists replace police in some instances. Hallowe’en in LA: shut down trick or treat. This year: no huge candy bars from rich folk.  Disney: open in Florida; why not in California??
Friday 9 October 2020 / Hour 1, Block C: Gene Marks,  @genemarks @Guardian  #SmallBusinessAmerica @Guardian, and at TheHill; in re: The economy is recovering nicely, although industrial production diminished slightly From a consumer standpoint: up 1.9% this month; looking at a V-shaped recovery. People’s personal savings have built up, and what they do spend is online.  Record-breaking Amazon. Not clear that we need to spend another $2 trillion on another stimulus.  . . .  When you compare Trump and Biden, it's clear that Trump is better for small business.  They spend their income on the business. Biden supports a national $15/hr wage, which could crush businesses not in expensive cities.  He also supports increasing overtime wages, mandated time off, and the new independent contracting law in California: limits the use of independent contractors.  He does support infrastructure spending ($1.5 trillion); is not a draconian on immigration as Trump is.  Same with globalization . . .
Friday 9 October 2020 / Hour 1, Block D: Gene Marks,  @genemarks @Guardian  #SmallBusinessAmerica @Guardian, and at TheHill; in re:  The voting booth. Is the virus damaging start-ups, or helping new ones come into existence?   Seven to nine per cent of new businesses go bankrupt every year.  Many of them start a new business two weeks later.   I don't see an abnormal number of boarded-up stores in Philadelphia.  New business filings are up at an unprecedented pace.  A few years from now I think we’ll see some of the fruits of these start-ups.  SBA Payroll Protection Program:  $50,00 or less will be forgiven.  . .  . Bankers and accountants are still confused; hang on for a while; it’s at 1%, anyway.   Scheduling a haircut:  Google Duplex is on most Google Pixel devices; call and say, I want a haircut at this barber and on a certain date; Google Duplex calls the barber (a robocall) and arranges the appointment for you.
 
Hour Two
Friday 9 October 2020 / Hour 2, Block A:  Devin Nunes, @DevinNunes, CA-22, Countdown to Socialism, in re: Arson directed against one of Devin’s supporters who put up lawn signs. They were knocked down, so farer put up more; these also knocked down, the farmer set signs on a haystack; the haystack was burned down. Farmer used a larger haystack, which also was burned down.  A neighbor used an old mobile home, which also was burned down—nearly setting alight a family that lived nearby.  The DOJ ought to look in to this, but probably won't.  When things like this go unchallenged, they can expand into violence and chaos becoming the norm.  Normalization of the chaos that the Democratic party has encouraged recently. One-party system, whether socialism, or fascism — and health care.  We offer individual “backpacks” to each citizen at birth, which can be carried to wherever you are and used anywhere in the country.
Friday 9 October 2020 / Hour 2, Block B:  Devin Nunes, @DevinNunes, CA-22, Countdown to Socialism, in re:  Why did Obama administration unmask US citizens using intell services?  April 2017, suggestion that something was wrong.   The people who wrote the story are the same who’ve been covering up for four years.  The US Attorney involved has retired. 
Friday 9 October 2020 / Hour 2, Block C:  Chris Riegel: @Scala, @STRATACACHE; in re: OECD devises new taxes.
Friday 9 October 2020 / Hour 2, Block D:  Aaron Klein: @AaronKleinShow and strategic advisor to PM Benjamin Netanyahu; in re:  The regional success of the Abraham Accord. Palestinians
 
Hour Three
Friday 9 October 2020 / Hour 3, Block A: Mary O’Grady: @MaryAnastasiaOG; WSJ editorial board; The Americas column; in re: Bolivian election: President Evo Morales fled after voters challenged him about fixing an election; he currently lives in Argentina. Now, one of his surrogates is running for office.  Morales has for many years been head of the Federation of Coca Growers—the origin of cocaine; a hugely powerful industry. Maduro of Venezuela, and the MAS party in the Venezuela-Cuba-Iran-Russia axis to destabilize the region.  Destruction of liberal democracy. 
Friday 9 October 2020 / Hour 3, Block B: Francis Rose, @FRoseDC, Host of @GovMattersTV @ ABC7News & WJLA 24/7 News. Washington D.C., in re:  Combined joint command and control  (JADC2?). Robert Work. “Connect every sensor to every shooter.”  How to stay in front of Russia, and especially China.  Lindsay Ford (Obama Adm & Brookings) says we also will need to have more presence and hardware in the Far East.  Homeland Security cyber dept. 
Friday 9 October 2020 / Hour 3, Block C:  Veronique de Rugy, @veroderugy, Mercatus Center, in re: US tax code. The president didn’t pay much tax to the Treasury, seems to have used normal tax exemptions in the tax code.  Americans spend 8 billion hours per year complying with the code; thousands of pages to read and memorize.  Pols are lobbied; over time, the complexity builds up.  Made sense 80 years ago, but not today.  The state and local tax deductions: these have been exempted from federal tax until new codes were recently put in place. It was a subsidy to pols and to states with high taxes.   Covid Relief Bill.
Friday 9 October 2020 / Hour 3, Block D:  Hotel Mars, episode n. William Harwood: @cbs_spacenews, and David Livingston: @SpaceShow  #HotelMars; in re: Status of the ISS. Three new astronauts on a Soyuz craft. Russian seat cost $90 million. The very small leak in Zvezda.
 
Hour Four
Friday 9 October 2020 / Hour 4, Block A: Michael Vlahos: @JHUWorldCrisis; Johns Hopkins; in re: If Biden doesn’t win, the Democratic party will recognizably fragment, and that is the beginning of the civil war.  Republics tend to move toward oligarchy.  Definitely happened in Rome.  The bedrock of Roman political life was the freeholder; endless wars in faraway lands sent huge booty flooding back to Rome, creating a super-rich class, Big Men.  Assembled large dependent groups as their political base—which could swiftly be transformed into large military groups. The yuppies of the day gravitated toward the Big Men as retainers.  Then the society turned into an assemblage of competing facti0ns.    After WWII, we were a united nation. Since then, we've become a fractured society with oligarchs/Big Men.   The party system is coming apart.  Our oligarchs are . . . increasingly imperial. Our enormous, tumultuous competition cannot go on forever.  Eventually, it’ll become a unitary state that will be the end of the American republic.
Friday 9 October 2020 / Hour 4, Block B:  Michael Vlahos: @JHUWorldCrisis; Johns Hopkins; in re:  Hunter Biden revelations.  Can be a weapon in the blue party for those who oppose Biden.  Oligarchic factions staggered from crisis to crisis, then they fell apart.  Complete loss of faith in our government.  Blue has been railing saying the current president is the most criminal ever to be in the White House—then the Hunter Biden material comes to light.  The information made me nauseated. Made me want to join the Jacobins. Doesn’t bode well for the America established by the Constitution. People don't believe in voting any more, in the will of the people as there’s no “people” any more, just factions.  If Biden were to try to confiscate firearms in America, it’d be a grave misstep in an unstable situation.
Friday 9 October 2020 / Hour 4, Block C:  Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack,com, in re: Zvezda slow leak somewhere in the aft area; electron VM oxygen regenerator. Rising temperature inside the module, said to be solved.  The Artemis Accords, anent private property in space.  Gives power to citizens, takes it from government. Dmitry Rogozin declined to have Russia join, as did China: two countries that enjoy stealing intellectual property.   NASA announced that seven countries have accepted.
Friday 9 October 2020 / Hour 4, Block D:  Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack,com, in re: Osiris Rex.  In less than a week, will try to grab material from the asteroid Bennu: 20 Oct, from 5 to 6:30PM Eastern. Pluto’s mountains are made of ice.