Photo: The Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, meets the acquiescent American then-State Secretary, John Kerry.  Mildly reminiscent of a previous American Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, who, on meeting Kim Jong-il, toasted him with Champagne and declared, "We can do business with this man."
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, the Great Voice of the Great Lakes
 
Hour One
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Monday 15 October 2018 / Hour 1, Block A: Tom Joscelyn, Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies; & Senior Editor for FDD's Long War Journal; and Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD; in re: 
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Monday 15 October 2018 / Hour 1, Block B: Tom Joscelyn, Long War Journal and FDD; and Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD; in re:  Somalia: Shebaab is executing spies; it's an insurgency seeking to take over territory for the caliphate; to bld an Islamic emirate there.  US rtying to prop up the weak govt as a bulwark against Shebaab, Scare campaign.
Shabaab attacks Somali force in southern Somalia THREAT MATRIX BY BILL ROGGIO & ALEXANDRA GUTOWSKI | This is the third time in the past month that US forces have conducted defensive airstrikes following Shabaab attacks. 
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Monday 15 October 2018 / Hour 1, Block C:  Gordon Chang, Daily Beast; John Batchelor explains that during the Cold War, when the KGB followed Chinese dips in Moscow, that was the best detail because the Chinese were so bland.  Today, they're having tantrums worthy of pre-school. Wang Yi, Foreign Minister, had a loud stampy-footy; chastised Mike Pompeo. Now we see other officials imitating him, or some model.  Why? Gordon: First, China really is frustrated as things aren't going their way, and they’re not used to that. For background, Xi Jinping just demands the maximum position – going after Americans or jailing millions of Uyghurs; and the underlings need to imitate him to show that they’re on board with Xi’s programs.. . .  A little bit of panic on the part of senior Chinese officials. If you go back six months, everything was going China’s way; they may have got a little flabby. They've been bullying people and getting their way—not only small countries, but large ones, including the US. Trump decided he’d had enough of that and pushed back. Starting to see real problems in the Chinese economy – drops in auto sales, consumption all the rest of it. Causing concern. . . . A dimming Chinese GDP and a strengthening GDP; does Xi understand that this is cyclical, that they can take a recession and come back from it?  I don’t think they want a recession.  China got a lot of praise for promises on climate; now we see their increased use of coal, more emissions, more CFCs; they’re using the factories to produce. They just don’t know if they can get to the other side of this. Thaddeus McCotter: The CCP has said that liberty is the enemy of prosperity.  . . . GGC:  Xi Jinping is not an aberration he’s the inevitable result of communism.
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Monday 15 October 2018 / Hour 1, Block D:  David Maxwell, FDD, & Gord Chang discuss a piece in the Chosen Ibo newspaper: US cautions seven South Korean banks against [improper associations] with North Korea. A warning with two paths: Moon agreed to maximum pressure; but now that he’s had three summits with Kim, he wants maximum engagement.   Moon Jae-in‘s Number One goal is unification of the two Koreas; he’s doing everything possible to help Kim Jong-un; his advisors in their youth advocated the overthrow of the South Korean government, so the political establishment in South Korea is very pro-Kim and against the US. Is this sinister?  Moon wants peace at any cost. If he were malevolent, he’d do exactly what he’s doing now, so his intentions don't matter.  He’s undercutting American efforts to denuclearize North Korea. Moon says the intl community must recognize DPRK’s pledges, although it's done nothing to denuclearize.  . . . The North’s proposal of “one peninsula, two governments” is a way for Kim to [sabotage] the South.  Moon wants peace at any cost. 
 
Hour Two
Monday 15 October 2018 / Hour 2, Block A:  David M Drucker, Washington Examiner, & John Fund, NRO, in Budapest in re: Running for re-election Sen Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts; she announced unasked that her genealogy includes some sort of Indigenous American blood, maybe 1,o64th.  It happens to be based on bloodlines from Peru, Colombia, and one other Central American nation, but not Lenni Lenape or Cherokee.  Recall that she claimed that her parents had to elope because her mother’s parents forbad her to marry an Indian.  We now see that that’s impossible. Cherokee elders say that she’s done damage to Cherokee interests.
She also has claimed connection to the Trail of Tears; she’s borrowing from a major American tragedy.
Mrs Clinton remarked on her husband’s 1998 relationship with Miss Lewinski: ABC’s The View have thrown Hillary over the side, but Democrats will probably just tape her into silence and immobility for the next 21 days.
Monday 15 October 2018 / Hour 2, Block B:  John Fund, NRO in re:  In the 69 battleground districts, an ABC poll says that the point spread is 1% (and the GOP is 1 point ahead) — which is not a lock. 
The US economy is terrific, and Americans vote on pocketbook issues.  Donald Trump has alienated a lot of women. We’re heading to a much closer House result than people expect.
The Senate?  Poll movement where you didn’t expect.   Dems are defending more seats than they [want to].  The president is acting very presidential, very confident. 
Monday 15 October 2018 / Hour 2, Block C: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Senate passes two bills. Disappearance of Jamal Kashoggi in Turkey. Pastor Brunson.  Weakness of Turkish economy.  
Monday 15 October 2018 / Hour 2, Block D: Indiana Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: The ancient entrance to the City f Jerusalem:  one of the most exciting discoveries of recent time – a 2,100-year-old Aramaic inscription in Aramaic in Hebrew letters with the earliest known use of the word “Jerusalem.” Also found a pottery factory. UNESCO had just claimed that the Cave of the Patriarchs was not Hebrew/Jewish.
Headless Pharisees: near the Russian compound, a new academy of arts & design; found 125 skeletons . Opened an ancient cistern (200 BC?);  Hasmoneans; Alexander Yanai may have decapitated the Pharisees.  See: The Book of Nahum.   
 
Hour Three
Monday 15 October 2018/ Hour 3, Block A:  Peter Berkowitz, RealClearPolicy & Hoover Institution, in re:   Liberalism  (1 of 2)
Monday 15 October 2018/ Hour 3, Block B:  Peter Berkowitz, RealClearPolicy & Hoover Institution, in re:   Liberalism  (1 of 2)
Monday 15 October 2018/ Hour 3, Block C:  Richard A Epstein, Chicago Law, NYU Law, Hoover Institution; in re:  Supreme Court (1 of 2)
Monday 15 October 2018/ Hour 3, Block D:  Richard A Epstein, Chicago Law, NYU Law, Hoover Institution; in re:  Supreme Court (1 of 2)
 
Hour Four
Monday 15 October 2018/ Hour 4, Block A:  I Will Hold: The Story of USMC Legend Clifton B. Cates, from Belleau Wood to Victory in the Great War, by James Carl Nelson
Monday 15 October 2018/ Hour 4, Block B: I Will Hold: The Story of USMC Legend Clifton B. Cates, from Belleau Wood to Victory in the Great War, by James Carl Nelson
Monday 15 October 2018/ Hour 4, Block C:  Enduring Courage: Ace Pilot Eddie Rickenbacker and the Dawn of the Age of Speed, by John F. Ross
Monday 15 October 2018/ Hour 4, Block D:  Enduring Courage: Ace Pilot Eddie Rickenbacker and the Dawn of the Age of Speed, by John F. Ross
 
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