The John Batchelor Show

Friday 24 July 2020

Air Date: 
July 24, 2020

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
 
Hour One
Friday 24 July 2020 / Hour 1, Block A:  Dan Henninger, WSJ Wonder Land column, and editorial board; in re:  Progressives to cities: Drop dead!  Gerry Ford declined to help New York City in its time of travail; Daily News printed a headline:  Ford to city: Drop dead! [Historical note: reporters wanted to use a ruder expression, were overruled.]
The forgotten men and women now are the storekeepers of cities whose shops are being looted, closed, livelihoods being shut down.  Look for a political backlash. Hell’s Kitchen in Manhattan:   Mayor DeBlasio is housing homeless in hotels here; the vagrants and visibly demented homeless are wandering among restaurant tables demanding money.  Deeply upsetting   New Yorkers are leaving; Westchester rents are approaching those of the Hamptons.   Is this a temporary matter, or the end of the life of many cities?
Friday 24 July 2020 / Hour 1, Block B:  Dr Henry Miller, Pacific Research Institute & WSJ, in re: The long-term wear of virus recovery. Sequellae of recovery from COVID19 infection overlap with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, a variable collection of symptoms, all worrisome, can last for years. Can be almost wholly debilitating. We don't know the long-term effects.  Italian academics studied: two months after recovery, fatigue in about 55% of patents; shortness of breath; joint or chest pain; cough; loss of taste and smell; runny nose.  Note also: post-ICU syndrome, which these are not.  Mononucleosis is a classic version of: acute phase, then feeling run-down for months.   SARS and MERS.  West Nile virus, H1N1 flu, Ebola, all evince similar symptoms to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
Friday 24 July 2020 / Hour 1, Block C:  Jeff Bliss, Pacific Watch, in re: The disorder in Seattle: Orions, with dome atop, from the US Navy.  Came from a Customs & Border Patrol in Texas.  Can sweep up data—incl calls, txts, etc.--from the ground; can read a license plate at 25,000 feet.   Warnings of a huge gathering in coming days; cancelled vacations, etc. Police chief: “We’re under a consent decree; if things go haywire, protect yourself.”  Said that federal authorities are dispatched to Seattle to prevent Seattle from getting out of hand as did Portland.  . . .  Strong Antifa group in Portland.    Bay Area & Portland: mayors are besieged; why?  “You’ll never get enough, they demand free rent, free food.”  Disneyland downtown: forbidden to walk around and eat at the same time.  Trying to get more stores in its downtown; projecting $100 million-plus.  Elon Musk drills tunnels under cities: enter the tunnel, hop in a Tesla car; it’ll drop you off where you want to exit. Musk’s entry into public transportation.
Friday 24 July 2020 / Hour 1, Block D:  Francis Rose, Government Matters, WJLA, Channel 7 in Washington, D.C.; in re:  Sen Van Hollen encourages, “Let’s make telework much more of a priority and more widespread.  This is the new normal.”  DC lobbyists see they needn’t spend vast sums on rent.  Those who work at home, complain, “We never leave work.”   Patent and Trademark office: went from 75% to 100% of workforce at home.   Bosses say: work 40 hours a week.  GAO: there are 57 parallel disasters in all states right now, but the virus has engaged all ten FEMA districts at the same time.  FEMA has a poor track record of after-action reports.  We had a national cyberdirector till this administration abolished it; new one coming in.  Will coordinate all cyber-op offices in the federal government.
Senator Van Hollen, others, concerned about Trump admin plans to recall employees to offices. https://govmatters.tv/reopening-concerns-at-federal-agencies/
FEMA response challenges in Coronavirus.  https://govmatters.tv/femas-challenges-in-managing-the-coronavirus-response/
Why Congress wants, and White House will probably have to choose, a Cyber Director, and what s/he will do.  https://govmatters.tv/envisioning-a-new-national-cyber-director-role/
 
Hour Two
Friday 24 July 2020 / Hour 2, Block A:  Devin Nunes, CA-21, in re: Conversation with John Solomon, whose book, Fallout, is by a journalist observing other journalists. He sees that journos have been actively participating in the Russia hoax. How did you figure that out?  Why are there no retractions?   Originally, the hoax and its creation: Steele dossier being passed around  the press corps.  We now know the reason I was so heavily targeted was because they were participating in the hoax [which Rep Nunes was spotlighting in hearings]. I have several court cases in an effort to recover my good name.  Stall-and-delay tactics.  Lawyers have never seen cases like this where they refuse to get into discovery with wild motion after motion.  My family was targeted, harassed.  A major paper compared my family to Elvis Pressley’s girlfriend.  Smear and defame.  Are the smear artists informed? Yes. Every day they can stall—Russia never dies. They triple down; smear the Attorney General, Durham, Lindsay Graham.  Pelosi claimed Mitch McConnell has ties to Moscow. Incredible.  Hoping for a Biden election so they can close down [the investigations].  Tried to get John Solomon removed from Fox News. Cancel culture.  Is someone running this as an operation? . . .  Steele was texting in real time in 2016 with the president of Brookings Institution (largest left think tank in DC), which was heavily involved in dissemination of disinformation.   It’s possible that some of their Fellows may have been involved with Steele’s inventions. 
Friday 24 July 2020 / Hour 2, Block B:  Devin Nunes, CA-21, in re:  Disorder in American cities. BLM movement turns out to be a sophisticated movement based on Marxist principles, including defunding police and the end of the family structure.   Burning down churches, defacing national monuments.  Democrats see smearing AG Barr as their path to victory n November because they’ve aligned themselves too tightly with the extreme far left. 
Friday 24 July 2020 / Hour 2, Block C:  Gene Marks, The Guardian, the Philadelphia Inquirer; in re: In the year 536 AD, an Icelandic volcanic explosion blanketed continents and led to famine, war, plague.  That was a worse year for small businesses than 2020 is.  I think the closing of small businesses is overstated: many have hunkered down, changed methods; as for shuttered shops, many are still selling out of home, eBay, Amazon.   The flu has brought about major shifts.  We were an agrarian economy 150 years ago. The future of entrepreneurs will never change.  Most of my clients are mom-and-pops, are still very much in business. Not as [hot] a story as the doomsayers publish.  I close more deals sitting at a dinner table than on a phone.  Work-at-home rend will continue; more efficient for companies, but must be balanced.  Rental prices will go down, which is good for some businesses.  Philadelphia forever. 
Friday 24 July 2020 / Hour 2, Block D: Gene Marks, The Guardian, the Philadelphia Inquirer; in re: If you got a PPP loan, talk to your accountant about taxes! The Maine lobster industry was crushed by the flu; PPP saved it, and now you can get great deals on lobsters.   Chinese are crazy for Maine lobsters.   Bailing out lemonade stands, then taxing them? Children are invited to apply for $100 loans at Countrytimebailout.com
 
Hour Three
Friday 24 July 2020 / Hour 3, Block A: Andrew C McCarthy, Ball of Collusion, and  Thaddeus McCotter, American Greatness, in re: Orion P3s arrive in Seattle to sweep crowds for data. Security f federal infrastructure (seen in Portland, about to see in Seattle); by statute must protect federal installations.  Operation Legend is different: a number of US cities—KS City, Albuquerque, Chicago—have task force arrangements with the fed, and state police: gangs, drugs, guns.  A restraining order by a federal judge, Judge Simon, married to Suzanne Bonavici, a Democratic activist, to prevent federal agents from acting, even under siege under violent conditions. 
Friday 24 July 2020 / Hour 3, Block B:  Andrew C McCarthy, Ball of Collusion, and  Thaddeus McCotter, American Greatness, in re:  AG Barr will testify to House Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill, with Nancy Pelosi. Expect questions on Seattle, and Mr Durham.  Effort to disdain Mr Barr and portray him as politicized. Smear him as something to do with chain restaurants? What does that mean? Over my pay grade.
Friday 24 July 2020 / Hour 3, Block C:  Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com, in re: Big Space: Mars?  Subscribers and donors await info on China’s intention. It’s launched a mission to Mars to . .  . use the Long March 5 rocket, which was successful.  Also UAE; and, next week, US.  Subsurface radar looking for underground water.  Virgin Orbit. A test launch can fail, causing it to be fixed, so a “failure” isn’t always a failure.  Aerospace is splitting like an amoeba: half are putting up larger and larger payloads, while others are getting tinier and tinier (cubesats).  Using thrusters to be sure there wouldn’t be a collision.  Russia has tested an antisat weapon.  China tried it a few years ago, catastrophe, left debris scattered. 
Friday 24 July 2020 / Hour 3, Block D:  Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com, in re:  . . .  to asteroid. 
 
Hour Four
Friday 24 July 2020 / Hour 4, Block A: Michael E Vlahos, Johns Hopkins, in re:  Are we now in a civil war?  Speaking as though in Londinium, First Century AD. (Gaius and Germanicus).   US debate on democracy, anarchy, tyranny, parallel to circumstances in the time of early Christianity.  Recall Charleston fort, federal property; needed resupply, so President Lincoln decided to send reinforcements to resupply, in effect forcing the [rebels] to start the war. The Confederacy opened fire; cf. today.  Some now accuse Trump of “provoking civil war.”  The Blue (Dem establishment) are working to create a narrative to make it stick to the president; all previous narratives have failed. Now they compare him to Hitler; say that sending federal agents to protect federal property is an attack; that Trump is entirely responsible for all the violence we’ve seen around the country.  In reality, the Portland mayor, Ted Wheeler, was at the barricade erected to protect the courthouse when protesters were launching grenades.  “DHS wasn’t established to be the president’s personal militia.”  What? More than calumny.  That Trump is replacing democracy with tyranny.  In American cities we’re seeing exactly how Roman politics worked in the imperial era. Ongoing factional struggles.  To destroy to memory of an emperor by destroying his statue. 
Friday 24 July 2020 / Hour 4, Block B: Michael E Vlahos, Johns Hopkins, in re: The president and AG have acted; courts are getting involved.  AG, DEA, FBI, dispatched to cities; some have federal property, others have a history of working on task forces with local constabulary. In Portland and Seattle, the problem isn't drugs,    The total goal of American elites is power. They want political power and no other consideration will have any claim to their choices, responsibilities. The question: will the country continue with the familiar political processes? We’ve reached a point where an election may not be accepted by much/most of the country. Blue plan is to eliminate the Electoral College, elect the president entirely in Los Angeles and New York.  If they take control, they’ll have to become exactly what they decry: force back the Red with secret police, and become the tyranny they denounce.
Friday 24 July 2020 / Hour 4, Block C:  Adam J White, City Journal, and director of the Center for the Study of the Administrative State at George Mason University, in re:  Prosecutorial discretion—prosecutor has [vast] power over [citizens].  Can give a one-sided presentation of facts.  This power flows directly from executive power, presidential or gubernatorial. Is unrestrained.  Note NY DA Vance’s attempt to subpoena President Trump’s financial records.  Justice Alito: questions not just of separation of powers but also of federalism.  President must show that a subpoena is [excessive].   “Why Innocent People Plead Guilty,” in the New York Review of Books by Judge Jed S Rakoff.  Eli Lake in Commentary magazine. 
Friday 24 July 2020 / Hour 4, Block D:  Adam J White, director of the Center for the Study of the Administrative State at George Mason University, in re:  Testimony to Congress; Aaron Zelinsky. and Federal Judge Michael Mukasey, on their concerns that prosecutorial discretion is politicized. All agree it shouldn't occur, and each says the other side started it.   Elizabeth Warren could be Attorney General. In Watergate, Nixon’s own [appointees] investigated the president.  We’ve taken the wrong lessons from it, tendency to think of everything as Watergate.  Roger Stone’s dawn raid with tanks, helos.  Governmental power with no real check or balance.  Judge Sullivan’s overstepping bounds. Stone:  this raises ther questions; commutation of his sentence raises all sorts of questions. 
 @GeorgeMasonU , @adamjwhitedc