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JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, the Great Voice of the Great Lakes
 
Hour One
Monday 19 November 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: The problems of Afghanistan have been with us for millennia.  Negotiations in Qatar to allow the US to leave there.  Any terms will b e favorable to Taliban; and they won't adhere to any terms, in any case.  Taliban today: “None of what you say; we will not share power; we accept only an Islamic government, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.”  And here are still people who insist that the Taliban are moderate, care abt women’s rights, and so on.  Entirely inaccurate. Whenever they walk out of one of these meetings, they’re further legitimized and the Kabul govt is delegitimized.    They believe the US will walk away absent any promises? Hard to be sure, but at he very least they’ll string it out and wear us down. 
   Syria:  Incite the believers – a new mil j/v to take the fight to the Assad regime. Three groups, each one with links to al Qaeda; this is an al Q front.  One of the three is Guardians of the Religion, thought to be led by an al Q vet who ran training camps pre-9/11.  Insurgents still control Idlib province; Turkey & Russia. The Sochi Agreement: a demil zone in Idlib.  Another of the three is Ansar al Islam; has its own comms & ties to al Q.  Legacy al Q group.  “Focus on waging guerrilla warfare to keep the fight alive,” says Zawahiri. There are Turkish-speaking fighters among the fighters in Syria.
Monday 19 November 2018 / Hour 1, Block B: Tom Joscelyn, Long War Journal and FDD; and Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD; in re: Quds Force, Hezbollah, and terrorism.   Soleimani. 
Monday 19 November 2018 / Hour 1, Block C: Gordon Chang, Daily Beast, in re: A
Meeting: Pence vs Xi; Pence wins. “I go away for only two weeks and Xi has a nervous breakdown.” APEC summit (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) . . . Xi understands that China has to change, but won’t and can't.  Ergo, this confrontation will endure for some time, and the US will not lose. Xi is beginning to understand this and is nervous. . . . China has stolen Micron Technolgies’s newest chip, worth $8.9 billion.  They're trying to cripple our economy and put us in penury. Xi speaks in proverbs: “China will not close the door and create a small circle.”  What?  The world is no longer buying this claptrap. Even those who want a more accommodationist policy toward China realize that we need to be more resolute than we were a year ago. Beijing no longer knows how to manipulate the American political system.  Note that Nancy Pelosi just doesn't like China.  China spent a ton of money on the US midterms, and are facing a difficult time. Paul Ryan was not a tough guy on China.    
The facts are that China has stolen for years; what does Xi hear? No idea.  People probably are too afraid to tell him what’s really going on.  If he heard the facts, he’d have to be afraid. 
TGM: To expect the Democrats to be softer in China is historically inaccurate. Both Trump and Pelosi believe this in their souls – they’ll cooperate in this area.
     G20 in Argentina this month; deal to be made? I don't hear one.  Even if there were one, it wouldn't hold.  Right- they're a kleptocracy.  There’s a lot of state money going into supercomputing, AI, 5G; they’ll give us a run.  But they don't have the chips – have to buy them from us! [Gideon Rachman, FT]   China means us harm. 
Monday 19 November 2018 / Hour 1, Block D: Alan Tonelson, RealityCheck blog (@Alan Tonelson):  .
 
Hour Two
Monday 19 November 2018 / Hour 2, Block A:  David M Drucker, Washington Examiner, & John Fund, NRO, in re: John Boehner to his Republican leadership in 2007:  “Just get on television. As much and as often as possible.” Still good advice, put you can't say “Everything’s horrible, throw the bums out and re-elect us,” because the president will say, “Everything’s great; re-elect me.” Nancy Pelosi is now the real speaker.  “You never know what’ll happen if the Democrats nominate someone likable honest and not under FBI investigation.” Hmm – the Democratic nominee is likely to be a leftist.  Centrist candidates like Bloomberg and Biden, both in their seventies – can easily be [outdone] by younger, more leftist Democrats.   . . .
Monday 19 November 2018 / Hour 2, Block B:  John Fund, NRO, & David M Drucker, Washington Examiner, in re: Domestic politics.
Monday 19 November 2018 / Hour 2, Block C: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:  Have been under excellent care at Sloan Kettering, and been the beneficiary of many prayers from Malcolm who, I believe, has special access to powerful decision-makers in Heaven.   Instability in the Israeli government: things shift quickly pretty much everywhere – note Germany and the UK, for example.   The key developments were the escalating development in Gaza (massive demonstrations organized and paid for by Hamas, with shooters behind the Gazan civilians; fire balloons, massive rocketry.  Then a small group of Israelis went in to check a Hamas military activity; were spotted, shot at by Hamas and one Druse was killed, Hamas then shot 460 rockets in around the clock, with increasing range and better guidance systems, going to Ashdot, not yet to Beersheva.  Israel responded with air raids.  Now the PFLP and other groups (already boycotting the PLO in the West Bank) . . . underground tunnels. The shooters hid in the tunnels, leaving the civilians exposed.  Dilemma: how to you protect your citizens?  Criticism of the govt for having responded too mildly to the extremity of the Hamas [Iranian] deeds. . . . next election will be in Nov 2019, but maybe early elections.  Defense Min Liberman pulled out, leaving Netanyahu a one-vote margin in the Knesset.  Bennett asked for the Defense Min portfolio.  Piopulati0n in the south are a Likud stronghold, and very sensitive to security problems. 
Iran: now we’re past the institution of the sanctions. All of them are significant. Brian Hook, special envoy, using strong statements.   SPV – special-purpose vehicle – for Iran to sell oil and evade sanctions; no European country is willing to host that out of fear of the US withdrawing from trade with that country.  Iran’s Natl Security Council said it’d revert to pre-JCPOA status. No one knows exactly what that means. Last year more than 6,000 Iranian demonstrations a day against the mullahs by the citizenry.
Monday 19 November 2018 / Hour 2, Block D: Indiana Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Temple Mount very old find: First Temple, Eighth Century BCE. Details of excavations in situ on the Temple Mount.  This is from a trench for maintenance work and to clay wires, don't in a limited and controlled way. Special excavation with Waqf assistance? Found pottery, olive pits, animal bones dating back to between the Eighth and Sixth centuries BCE (no non-Kosher animals). Also coin arrowheads.  Absolute proof from archaeologists of Jewish inhabitation over this time.
Roman period: synagogue with elaborately colored Biblical stories in mosaic.  Huqoq village near the Sea of Galilee: mosaics, including three fish each one swallowing the smaller one. Also armored elephants.  Sampson, Noah’s Arc, the parting of the red Sea.
 
Hour Three
Monday 19 November 2018/ Hour 3, Block A: Admiral Gary Roughead, former United States Navy officer, 29th Chief of Naval Operations; previously served as Commander, United States Fleet Forces Command; in re: US Navy; ships.
Monday 19 November 2018/ Hour 3, Block B: Admiral Gary Roughead, former United States Navy officer, 29th Chief of Naval Operations; previously served as Commander, United States Fleet Forces Command; in re:  US Navy; ships.
Monday 19 November 2018/ Hour 3, Block C:  Francis Rose, host of Government Matters on Washington, DC's WJLA/ABC7 and NewsChannel; in re:  Veterans Admministration
Monday 19 November 2018/ Hour 3, Block D:  Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics writer, and author, Spaceport Earth: The Reinvention of Spaceflight; in re:   Asteroids.
 
Hour Four
Monday 19 November 2018/ Hour 4, Block A: Road to Disaster: A New History of America's Descent into Vietnam, by Brian VanDeMarkk
Monday 19 November 2018/ Hour 4, Block B: Road to Disaster: A New History of America's Descent into Vietnam, by Brian VanDeMarkk
Monday 19 November 2018/ Hour 4, Block C:  Death of a Generation: How the Assassinations of Diem and JFK Prolonged the Vietnam War, by Howard Jones
Monday 19 November 2018/ Hour 4, Block D:  Death of a Generation: How the Assassinations of Diem and JFK Prolonged the Vietnam War, by Howard Jones