The John Batchelor Show

Monday 10 February 2020

Air Date: 
February 10, 2020

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts: Christopher Nixon Cox, Thaddeus McCotter, American Greatness.
 
Hour One
Monday 10 February 2020  / Hour 1, Block A: Tom Joscelyn, Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies; & Senior Editor for FDD's Long War Journal  in re: Snow this morning in Baku; that is, in parts of Baku and not in others.
John Batchelor and Chris Cox visited the  Gobustan, limesone caves next to the Caspian that have been occupied for 20, 000 years—with rock carving, including pictures of animals from 15,000 years ago. Similar to oxen, goats, and perhaps cheetahs.
      LongWarJournal.com:  The White House has confirmed that AQAP's leader, Qasim al-Rimi, was killed in a counterterrorism operation. Rimi served as a "deputy" to Ayman al-Zawahiri, meaning that he was likely part of al-Qaeda's global management team.   CNC: Trump Adm is doing a very effective job in taking out terrorists. TJ: There ‘s a whole intell program to do this; DoD carries through as pols come and go.
Monday 10 February 2020  / Hour 1, Block B: Tom Joscelyn, Long War Journal and FDD;; in re: Across the Caspian is Afghanistan, where anther green-on-blue killing took place, in Nangahar Province:  “Two U.S. soldiers were killed and six wounded in a so-called insider attack in eastern Afghanistan's Nangarhar province late Saturday when an Afghan dressed in an Afghan army uniform opened fire, the U.S. military said.”  Teeming with jihadist groups; al Q is deeply embedded there.
SPONSORED BY SCALA.COM
Monday 10 February 2020  / Hour 1, Block C: Gordon Chang, Daily Beast, in re: Coronavirus.  Economy.  SCMP, owned by TenCent/AliBaba/the CCP.   Hubei province medical authorities have been dismissed. China integrated with the global supply chain.  Meetings suddenly cancelled in Asia, in Europe.  Many of the cases in Europe came from one meeting of executives in Singapore.  For China, it will be a two-quarter phenomenon, as the virus'll die off in summer.  Foxconn, which assembles iPhones, has permission to continue production, but . . .
This will disrupt Walmart for a while.  We’ll know the extent of paralysis in the Chinese market in several days; we know there’ll be substantial diminution in production and consumption. Coming: regime meetings usually in the first week of March in Beijing. The fragility of and danger to supply chains coming from China. Also, China has started to use its position as factory floor to the world to gain geopolitical powers.  Companies will have to diversify their supply chains —faster than intended. AP estimates that coronavirus; GDP in China, according to the regime, has gone from  5.7 to 5 – and those numbers are twice to three times what’s accurate.  “My view is that the economy is contracting; oil consumption is down 20% year on year.” It probably grew abt 2% last year, and [in view of the exigencies] has to be contracting this year; and continuous delivery of prosperity is what’s kept the CCP in power.  Desperation.  Note: lower gas prices constitute an automatic tax cut.
Monday 10 February 2020  / Hour 1, Block D: Michael Yon, veteran war correspondent who’s been covering the Hong Kong protests, in re, in re:  Targetting journos in HK, demanding all data, especially videos and photo. On Saturday, 61 people, including reporters, were arrested. I’ve had to advise all HK journos to encrypt all their data with a strong password. With the Wuhan virus, it's an economic meltdown in China, an existential threat. Michael was turned away from Hong Kong; and it wasn't a result of his assertiveness; rather, its become clear that pretty much all reporters hate the CCP, an d those turned away have included the meek.
Concern that having no reporter in town would allow the CCP to crack down heavily, parallel to T`ien An Men.
 
Hour Two
Monday 10 February 2020  / Hour 2, Block A:  David M Drucker, Washington Examiner, & John Fund, NRO, in re: New Hampshire. Coronavirus and economic risk to November. Amy Klobuchar (“call me Amy”), a klobosurge – is it real? Pete Buttigieg, who claims to be the centrist candidate of the leftists.  Biden will come in fourth or fifth; will Warren come in well, or fourth or fifth?  Dixville Notch. . . .  “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?” @johnfund
Monday 10 February 2020  / Hour 2, Block B:  John Fund, NRO, & David M Drucker, Washington Examiner, in re: The richest person ever to run for sovereign leader of a democracy, Michael Bloomberg.  How will he translate to Detroit?  Not much to the blue-collar population, as he’s anti-gun and  . . . He was once a Republican and now is a billionaire; neither helps here.  However, compared to Bernie Sanders, he doesn't look so bad.  Doug Schoen says the political picture has changed so much, why not Bloomberg? He’s attracting small-business owners. We’ll see if it’s possible simply to buy an election. Every downticket Dem running knows that this is the election that’ll draw line for the next decade. 
Monday 10 February 2020  / Hour 2, Block C:  Henry Miller, Pacific Research Institute, in re: UK cases all stem from a single person who was in Singapore, then went to an Alpine ski chalet at Mont Blanc and infected Britons. No new evidence to pin down the incubation period, 3 to 24 days. Mortality rate is around 2-2.5%, significantly lower than that in people hospitalized with flu.
No reports from Africa—because it’s going undetected?  Penetration  in population in Hubei province is much larger than we know – not enough diagnostic kits, for one thing.  If a lot of people have been infected sub-clinically, they’ll have antibodies, and the virus will have a harder time [getting people ill].  Is this a medical emergency or a public health failure?  It’s the former in China; in fact, a damaged economy is a health risk. Not a medical emergency elsewhere.
Monday 10 February 2020  / Hour 2, Block D: Arif Rahimov of FormulaOne Azerbaijani Grand Prix in June 2020, in re: Tightest turn in all of formula one, at speed; Turn 10, the worst, is less than eight meters at 70mph.  Straightaways were at 370 km/hr.
 
Hour Three
Monday 10 February 2020   / Hour 3, Block A:  Hikmet Hajiyev, National Security Adviser, Republic of Azerbaijan, in re: 
Monday 10 February 2020   / Hour 3, Block B:  Hikmet Hajiyev, National Security Adviser, Republic of Azerbaijan, in re:
Monday 10 February 2020   / Hour 3, Block C:   Tural Ganjaliyev, MP Khankendi District
Monday 10 February 2020   / Hour 3, Block D:   Tural Ganjaliyev, MP Khankendi District
 
Hour Four
Monday 10 February 2020  / Hour 4, Block A: Tom Joscelyn, Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies; & Senior Editor for FDD's Long War Journal  in re: Snow this morning in Baku; that is, in parts of Baku and not in others.
John Batchelor and Chris Cox visited the  Gobustan, limesone caves next to the Caspian that have been occupied for 20, 000 years—with rock carving, including pictures of animals from 15,000 years ago. Similar to oxen, goats, and perhaps cheetahs.
      LongWarJournal.com:  The White House has confirmed that AQAP's leader, Qasim al-Rimi, was killed in a counterterrorism operation. Rimi served as a "deputy" to Ayman al-Zawahiri, meaning that he was likely part of al-Qaeda's global management team.   CNC: Trump Adm is doing a very effective job in taking out terrorists. TJ: There ‘s a whole intell program to do this; DoD carries through as pols come and go.
Monday 10 February 2020  / Hour 4, Block B: Tom Joscelyn, Long War Journal and FDD;; in re: Across the Caspian is Afghanistan, where anther green-on-blue killing took place, in Nangahar Province:  “Two U.S. soldiers were killed and six wounded in a so-called insider attack in eastern Afghanistan's Nangarhar province late Saturday when an Afghan dressed in an Afghan army uniform opened fire, the U.S. military said.”  Teeming with jihadist groups; al Q is deeply embedded there.
SPONSORED BY SCALA.COM
Monday 10 February 2020  / Hour 4, Block C: Gordon Chang, Daily Beast, in re: Coronavirus.  Economy.  SCMP, owned by TenCent/AliBaba/the CCP.   Hubei province medical authorities have been dismissed. China integrated with the global supply chain.  Meetings suddenly cancelled in Asia, in Europe.  Many of the cases in Europe came from one meeting of executives in Singapore.  For China, it will be a two-quarter phenomenon, as the virus'll die off in summer.  Foxconn, which assembles iPhones, has permission to continue production, but . . .
This will disrupt Walmart for a while.  We’ll know the extent of paralysis in the Chinese market in several days; we know there’ll be substantial diminution in production and consumption. Coming: regime meetings usually in the first week of March in Beijing. The fragility of and danger to supply chains coming from China. Also, China has started to use its position as factory floor to the world to gain geopolitical powers.  Companies will have to diversify their supply chains —faster than intended. AP estimates that coronavirus; GDP in China, according to the regime, has gone from  5.7 to 5 – and those numbers are twice to three times what’s accurate.  “My view is that the economy is contracting; oil consumption is down 20% year on year.” It probably grew abt 2% last year, and [in view of the exigencies] has to be contracting this year; and continuous delivery of prosperity is what’s kept the CCP in power.  Desperation.  Note: lower gas prices constitute an automatic tax cut.
Monday 10 February 2020  / Hour 4, Block D: Michael Yon, veteran war correspondent who’s been covering the Hong Kong protests, in re, in re:  Targetting journos in HK, demanding all data, especially videos and photo. On Saturday, 61 people, including reporters, were arrested. I’ve had to advise all HK journos to encrypt all their data with a strong password. With the Wuhan virus, it's an economic meltdown in China, an existential threat. Michael was turned away from Hong Kong; and it wasn't a result of his assertiveness; rather, its become clear that pretty much all reporters hate the CCP, an d those turned away have included the meek.
Concern that having no reporter in town would allow the CCP to crack down heavily, parallel to T`ien An Men.