JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, the Great Voice of the Great Lakes
 
Hour One
Scala.com Report
Monday 2 March 2020  / 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: This is not a peace deal with Taliban; it’s a three-page withdrawal agreement of concessions to Taliban.  Prisoner swap?  In one clause, the US agreed to facilitate the release of up to 5K prisoners held by the Afgh govt in exchange for 1K prisoners held by Taliban.  Taliban says it won't allow al Q to organize international attack s against the US.  Taliban have been saying this forever, and of course it’s not true.  The “seven-day reduction in violence” period is over.   It's all absurd, Kabuki theater.  We’re dealing with very flawed agreement. I don't agree with the way President Trump expresses some situations but I agree that the generals have [not been able to explain satisfactorily].
 
Walkbase Report
Monday 2 March 2020  / Hour 1, Block B: Tom Joscelyn, Long War Journal and FDD; and Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD; in re: Are there still training bases in Afgh? We don't know.  A US general reported seeing an enormous al Q camp in Afghanistan—thirty square miles.    We know Taliban have run camps training the Tajik jihadists.  Taliban control more territory than they in did in 2015, as the UN reports.  It’s been time to go for a couple of years, but let’s be honest about what we’re leaving.  Last time we left Taliban with raining c amps we know what happened.  Kabul govt is at risk without US support. It probably will not survive. Six or seven provincial capitals probably will fall. If the US won't be clear-eyed about this . . .
Monday 2 March 2020  / Hour 1, Block C: Gordon Chang, Daily Beast, in re: The knuckleheads who created this have now committed another error.   The Covid-19 virus can reawaken and re-infect a patient in some cases.
Mass program to move Uyghurs from concentration camps in Xinjiang into factories in the east of the country; Nike brags that it has great inspections but pretends not to know of slave labor designed for cultural genocide in the manufacture of its shoes. 
“Wuhan’s health commissioner said the possibility of limited human-to-human transmission cannot be denied.”  Weasel-words.  Meanwhile, the Party held a big conclave in Wuhan—and many attendees are ill.     Gordon Chang:  “A stunning . . .     Then the pot-luck dinner for 40,000 families in January.”   Party destroyed lots of medical samples; feared people would stay home and stop working. This let Wuhanese infect each other and people around the country – and now the world.  It's on every continent but Antarctica.  Why is the SCMP revealing all that’s wrong?  Party officials using info to get at their adversaries. Blame back and forth between officials in Wuhan and Beijing; infighting in public, which is rare. On 26 Jan, Wuhan mayor wanted to do something but was prevented from doing so by national officials.  The Communist party of Chna massively failed the planet, because we tolerated this for decades, calling it a “miracle,”  It's not a miracle. Carries Lam is launching attacks.
Monday 2 March 2020  / Hour 1, Block D: Michael Yon, veteran war correspondent who’s been covering the Hong Kong protests, in re: Be careful when they arrest freedom-speakers. In Hong Kong: Jimmy Lai and others, then 115 more. Beatings, night after night. Insurgency diminished during the time of the China Plague, but only to avoid large groups. The emotions and fighting spirit as much as ever.  Jimmy Lai; publisher Apple Daily, the sole frer paper in HK. He and other advocates were scooped up for a protest months ago. This is an effort to decapitate the freedom movement. When my wife and I and several others were dining at Jimmy Lai’s house some months ago, we left and his house was firebombed to intimidate him. Since he can't be  intimidated, they had to arrest him.
Apple Daily is quite popular in Taiwan as well as in Hong Kong.  The Chinese Communist Party continues to make huge errors in judgment. They're making Jimmy and two others  into martyrs.  Implementing actins to please Xi Jinping, but [displeasing]Hong Kong.  They keep doubling down on what doesn't work—the definition of insanity. Consistently beating and teargassing people.
Xi is really hardheaded and cannot admit error.    Thailand has named Covid-19 “seasonal flu.”  It's gonna sneak up and smash everybody.
 
Hour Two
Monday 2 March 2020  / Hour 2, Block A:  David M Drucker, Washington Examiner, & John Fund, NRO, in re:  Tonight, we have to entertain how the Democrats are preparing for the nomination: most have suddenly veered in favor of Biden. Buttigieg, Klobuchar and Beto all have suddenly endorsed Biden—to stop Bernie.  When a party tries to stop someone, he usually prevails, although here Bernie hasn't proven he can do well with a cross-section of the Democratic Party. His low showing in South Carolina shows that he has a big uphill climb. 
Biden is s6ill a bad candidate—his cognitive abilities are in question, and [all the other matters]. As for Biden: no Obama endorsement.   Obama wants to campaign for the party no matter who wins. [[Although the Obamas and Bidens do not care for each other.]]
Monday 2 March 2020  / Hour 2, Block B:  John Fund, NRO, & David M Drucker, Washington Examiner, in re:  Sanders, Biden; Trump.  Whom would the president like to run against?  He may not care but will take down all comers. The Democrats do not want Sanders to be the nominee.  . . . In hindsight: Pres Trump attracted a cross-section of voters, whereas Sanders is not doing so.  Bernie Sanders is a hothouse flower; represents an extremist ideology and is harder to [integrate]. 
Monday 2 March 2020  / Hour 2, Block C:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Netanyahu wins in a complicated voting process. What’s Erdogan doing in Syria now?  Erdogan asked US for air support; US said it’d be contingent on Turkey’s refusing the S400.  Seems to be spiraling out of control.  Turkey has released the gates for migrants: 30,000 on the Greek border, thousands more trying to enter Europe; Europeans trying to seal borders. The critical matter: NATO.  This is NATO versus Russia.  No one is telling Erdogan “no” because he’s a human trafficker using refugees to get money. Syrian war has driven almost a million refugees toward the Turkish border. Greece is stretched tot the limit; is constantly fending off Turkish intrusions, and is overwhelmed by entrants.  The Azerbaijani Minister of Finance addressed the gathering at CPAC; first representative of a Sunni Muslim nation to do so.  Significant numbers of dead in Iran of Covid-19
Monday 2 March 2020   / Hour 2, Block D: Indiana Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:  A 220-yr-old piano begun in Turin in 1799 by a mater harpsichord-maker who died; it was finished in the 1800s by his descendants.  Eventually to Umberto I, then in Nazi hands; it was buried in the desert with a mine-detector . . . ; travelled around the world, will now be auctioned for a million dollars; “a visual masterpiece.”
A thousand-year-old Bible from 1028   AD, lost for decades; with scholars’s note from over the years. 
 
Hour Three
Monday 2 March 2020   / Hour 3, Block A:   Steve Moore, Commitee to Unleash Prosperity, in re:    Fed must accommodate Corona virus by adding liquidity
Monday 2 March 2020   / Hour 3, Block B:   Behnam Ben Taleblu,  FDD, in re:  Covid-19eppidemic in Iran, product of knuckleheads
Monday 2 March 2020   / Hour 3, Block C:   Andrew C McCarthy, Ball of Collusion, and Thaddeus McCotter, American Greatness, in re:    Trump lawsuit vs the New York Times
Monday 2 March 2020   / Hour 3, Block D:   Andrew C McCarthy, Ball of Collusion, and Thaddeus McCotter, American Greatness, in re:   The smearing of Flynn: how that was part of Russiagate
 
Hour Four
Monday 2 March 2020   / Hour 4, Block A:   Blind over Cuba: The Photo Gap and the Missile Crisis (Foreign Relations and the Presidency), by David M. Barrett and Max Holland
Monday 2 March 2020   / Hour 4, Block B:   Blind over Cuba: The Photo Gap and the Missile Crisis (Foreign Relations and the Presidency), by David M. Barrett and Max Holland
Monday 2 March 2020   / Hour 4, Block C:   Blind over Cuba: The Photo Gap and the Missile Crisis (Foreign Relations and the Presidency), by David M. Barrett and Max Holland
Monday 2 March 2020   / Hour 4, Block D:  Blind over Cuba: The Photo Gap and the Missile Crisis (Foreign Relations and the Presidency), by David M. Barrett and Max Holland
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