Photo, left: Times Square, NYC.
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
 
Hour One
Friday  5 June 2015 / Hour 1, Block A: Jim McTague, Barron's Washington, in re: Strong Job Growth Puts Eyes on Fed U.S. employers ramped up hiring last month, signaling a rebound in overall growth after a bumpy start to the second quarter and nudging the Federal Reserve toward its first interest-rate increase in nearly a decade. Analysis: Fed on Track for Rate Rise. The Jobs Report in 12 Charts.  U.S. Stocks Close Slightly Lower
Friday  5 June 2015 / Hour 1, Block B:  Philip Terzian, Weekly Standard, in re: Bad Vibrations in Baltimore  (The Scrapbook) The Washington Post has never paid much attention to nearby Baltimore. Which is no great shock, of course: Downtown Baltimore is 40 miles from the Post newsroom, which tends to ignore the immediate Virginia and Maryland suburbs of Washington as well. The Scrapbook has always found this regrettable, and a little puzzling, too, since we would guess that the vast majority of Post subscribers live in those same Virginia and Maryland suburbs. But the Post’s business is the business of the Post, not The Scrapbook—and as long they spell the name of The Weekly Standard correctly, we’ll leave it at that. 
However, even the Post couldn’t shield its eyes from the recent riots in Baltimore, which were prompted by the death of a young man in police custody and, as riots invariably do, devastated the lives and property of people least capable of recovering from disorder and violence. But that is not quite the way the Post approached the story. In its news and editorial pages alike, its primary interest has been to lay the blame for Baltimore’s various problems squarely at the foot of Baltimore’s police department, which has found itself besieged by press and public and, in those neighborhoods most affected by violence and vandalism, surrounded (along with the fire department) by hostile crowds and assorted armed insurrectionists.
Friday  5 June 2015 / Hour 1, Block C: Richard A Epstein, Hoover Institution, Chicago Law, in re:  The Other Commerce Clause <http://www.hoover.org/research/other-commerce-clause?utm_source=hdr&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2015-05-26> (1 of 2)
Friday  5 June 2015 / Hour 1, Block D: Richard A Epstein, Hoover Institution, Chicago Law, in re:  The Other Commerce Clause <http://www.hoover.org/research/other-commerce-clause?utm_source=hdr&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2015-05-26> (2 of 2)
 
Hour Two
Friday  5 June 2015 / Hour 2, Block A:  Harry Siegel, New York Daily News, in re:  spring surge in shootings is no reason to reverse on stop and frisk — or to hire hundreds of new cops.  Daily News column today: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/harry-siegel-guns-drawn-de-blasio-stands-ground-article-1.2245739
When killings and shootings spiked last spring, much of the city held its breath, waiting to see if New York’s “bad old days” were returning along with our first Democratic mayor in 20 years, and a veteran of the Dinkins administration at that. Police Commissioner Bill Bratton responded to the rise by sending more cops to the bloodiest neighborhoods for a “Summer All Out” push and taking aim at the “worst of the worst” responsible for a vastly outsized share of gun violence.
Friday  5 June 2015 / Hour 2, Block B:     Matt Richtel,  NYT, in re: Distracted Driving Debate Reaches Eye Level Windshield devices claim to reduce risk by projecting information from a smartphone into a driver’s line of vision, but some experts say the additional stimulus will be too distracting.
Friday  5 June 2015 / Hour 2, Block C:  Liz Peek, The Fiscal Times & Fox, in re: If Obamacare Collapses, These 9 Ideas Could Save the GOP. Very soon, the Supreme Court could upend U.S. healthcare. A decision in King v. Burwell is expected by the end of June; five sloppy words in a giant sloppy law could turn Obamacare into Obamabust. What then?
In that event, healthcare will emerge as a defining issue in the 2016 election. Assuming Hillary Clinton is the Democratic candidate, her failure to develop a national insurance program in 1992 and her secretive missteps along the way, will again grab the nation’s spotlight. At the same time, voters will demand that Republicans outline an alternative to the Affordable Care Act. By 2017, for example, Obamacare could be replaced by Rubiocare.   Related: Double Digit Rate Hikes Loom for Obamacare
Friday  5 June 2015 / Hour 2, Block D:  Ann Marlowe, Hudson Institute, in re: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/06/02/behind-the-mediterranean-migrant-crisis.html
Hour Three
Friday  5 June 2015 / Hour 3, Block A:  Michael Vlahos, Naval War College, & Jerry Hendrix, Center for a New American Security, in re:  India, US discuss measures for South China Sea stability amid ...   NEW DELHI: India and the USA on Wednesday discussed situation in the South China Sea region and measures that could lead to stability in ... / China Defends Projects in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, Objects to ...   / China rejects misinterpretation of lnt'l laws.   One of China's major Hawks plays cute in DC:  https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/06/04/col-liu-and-dr-pillsbury-have-a-dre...
Monday night in a tony mansion in Washington’s leafy Georgetown district, two China hawks held a book party together. Unusually, one of them was Chinese: Liu Mingfu, a retired colonel in China’s People’s Liberation Army and author of The China Dream, a book about how China can displace the United States to become the world’s most powerful country. Liu suggests that Beijing should pour resources into its military, so that the United States won’t dare meddle with China in the seas off of its coast. “Turn some money bags into bullet holders,” he writes. Published in China in 2010, the book probably played a role in influencing Chinese President Xi Jinping to adopt the book’s title as his favorite slogan.
The English edition was published in May, and Liu was in Washington on a book tour. Liu shared the floor with the mansion’s owner, Michael Pillsbury, a self-identified former “Panda hugger” and longtime China strategist at the Pentagon. Pillsbury’s book, The Hundred-Year Marathon, which was published earlier this year, argues that China has a “secret strategy to replace America as the global superpower” by 2049 — 100 years after Mao Zedong established his rule over the country. Pillsbury told me that China “is essentially outsmarting us in this game of thrones,” and that as a result, the United States needs a strategy to manage China’s rise.
“I really like Dr. Pillsbury,” Liu told the audience, a collection of China observers that skewed healthily to the right – far enough that a moderate in the audience felt the need to tell me privately, “I’m only here ironically.” . .  . (1 of 4)
Friday  5 June 2015 / Hour 3, Block B: Michael Vlahos, Naval War College, & Jerry Hendrix, Center for a New American Security (2 of 4)
Friday  5 June 2015 / Hour 3, Block C: Michael Vlahos, Naval War College, & Jerry Hendrix, Center for a New American Security (3 of 4)
Friday  5 June 2015 / Hour 3, Block D: Michael Vlahos, Naval War College, & Jerry Hendrix, Center for a New American Security (4 of 4)
Hour Four
Friday  5 June 2015 / Hour 4, Block A: Ian Morris, Stratfor, in re: Iranian Power Is Not Inevitable (1 of 2)
Friday  5 June 2015 / Hour 4, Block B: Ian Morris, Stratfor, in re: Iranian Power Is Not Inevitable (2 of 2)
Friday  5 June 2015 / Hour 4, Block C: Robert M Cutler EurasianSecurity,com, in re: Turkey and Caspian Sea gas   Caspian Sea gas is not so plentiful in Turkmenistan, where the main
deposits are in the countrys southwest. Yet with the completion of the East-West Pipeline (EWP), that gas is starting to become politically available for export westward through the South Caucasus and Turkey to the European Union. That is so especially with Russia politically weakened by the Ukraine imbroglio and the EU more intent than ever finally to establish its autonomy in energy policy. Ashgabat turned away from Russia following an industrial dispute in
2007, and in 2009 China became its main gas export market. The country holds nearly one-tenth of total proven global reserves yet does not wish to become overdependent on the Chinese market. In 2009, Russian unilaterally cut imports from 40 billion cubic meters per year (bcm/y) to 11 bcm/y and has recently announced that imports from Turkmenistan for 2015 will fall to 4 bcm/y. Ashgabat does not wish to risk repeating such an experience with China.  [more]
Friday  5 June 2015 / Hour 4, Block D:   John Ross, author, Enduring Courage. (Eddie Rickenbacher)