The John Batchelor Show

Monday 29 June 2020

Air Date: 
June 29, 2020

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Colleague: Thaddeus McCotter, American Greatness
 
Hour One
Monday 29 June 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: Rumor that Russia secretly offered bounties for Afghan fighter for killing Americans.  No evidence found so far; the story appeared in New York Times, only; can't tell what it was supposed to have paid for. Sounds like an unconfirmed intell report. 
Monday 29 June 2020  / Hour 1, Block B: Tom Joscelyn, Long War Journal and FDD; and Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD; in re:  There are Taliban apologists in the US government.  Many don't buy their [tale].  
Monday 29 June 2020  / Hour 1, Block C:  Michael Yon, East Asia reporter based in Thailand, and Gordon Chang, Daily Beast, in re: Hong Kong's National Security Law.  Beijing will take action against Hong Kongers who are guilty of “egregious conduct.”  The Draft National Security Law for Hong Kong—written up by Reuters in Beijing.  The National Peoples Congress in China bypasses the HK Legislative Council, since it’s extremely unpopular there; so Beijing is ramming it down people’s throats.  The patriots in HK are very concerned. Deleting twitter and other accounts to sterilize it as much as possible.  Going underground.   The law probably will be enacted tomorrow; Beijing can immediately grab patriots and haul them into [realistically: prison and torture, never to be heard of again] on Mainland.  This tears families in half. Many tragic stories already.  This is an escalation of bad relations between Beijing and  Washington.  Hong Kong’s longer-term future will not be as a global financial center, as it will not be under the rule of law. Expect New York and London to receive the [overflow]. Millions of videos have been made over the several years, so no way to hide.   Thailand cooperates with China and people have been kidnapped from here.
Monday 29 June 2020  / Hour 1, Block D:  Cleo Paskal, non-resident senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, in re:  The latest in India.  A wide front on Himalayan frontier: a major Chinese deployment across the Line of Actual Control.  China has declared about four different lines; from 1962, China has advanced much past that line.  Definitely China creating the situation; escalation can stop if China withdraws back to originally-agreed line.  Incursions in prior years; this time is different, much grimmer.  Probably more than China can deal with, since it’s also taking on six countries in the South China Sea plus the US Navy.   India is a democracy where they care about the twenty-nine whom China killed on the border.  Universally discussed among all Indians. China does not know how to handle a defeat.  The transgressions are so clear; this is a volatile, complex situation.  Talk of how to build up the Quad. Japan needs to bolster its capabilities, interoperability.  India wants C130s, weapons to [intimidate] China at the border, but because of the Wuhan flu, India is broke. US needs to do lend-lease to India. Concerned about corruption in Delhi, might buy wrong weapons systems, e.g., from Russia, which is close to China.   China’s taking on everybody makes no sense, so it must be to distract Chinese people from domestic matters.
 
Hour Two
Monday 29 June 2020  / Hour 2, Block A:  Paul Gregory, Hoover, in re: Putin looks to extend his presidency indefinitely. Coronavirus threw his scheduled referendum off, till 1 July.  Calls for Putin’s slate t e wiped clean so e can stay till 2036, when he’ll be 83 (or older).  Below the surface: evidence of Putin’s only known opponent, Novalny, on a Sunday show.  Voter turnout—two worries: need a good turnout (not 48%, e.g.) and for the yes vote.  In outer regions, you have a week to vote (or you get a visit . . . ).  Last polls, from early June, show that it may be all right for Putin. The big question is, how much voter fraud will have to be used?  Russian people are alert to electoral fraud. Putin fatigue. Trust measure: down to about 32%, was at 70% or so. Too dangerous to be an ex-president.
Monday 29 June 2020  / Hour 2, Block B:  Markos Kounalakis, Hoover, in re: Graveyard of fallen monuments; and what is to be done?  Gorky Park, graveyard of monuments; a park central in Moscow; in one corner is the graveyard to fallen monuments, where they went after they were torn down. Felix Dzerzhinsky, “the Iron Pole,” who basically founded the KGB.  The gulag stories In the basement where the executions were. No flowers; grass grown through the plinth. A period of total bloodthirstiness.  How will we look at our history?  Budapest: Memento Park, monuments of huge scale.  As we grapple with the dark history of our own.  Czech Republic, once Czechoslovakia: The Pink Tank.  Tanks used in the Prague Spring; Soviets were ruthless.  1986:Velvet Revolution.  To defang this potent symbol, citizens doused the whole tank in hot ink. Statue of Reagan stands next to a plinth; remains because of a Soviet treaty; continued between Russia and Hungary.  To honor Reagan . .  . The Smithsonian should take over the task of what to do with former Confederate statues. 
Monday 29 June 2020  / Hour 2, Block C:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Explosion visible from Teheran: a huge fireball arose, probably from a sprawling underground complex for missile development.  Unlikely to have been a gas leak. Iranian arrest warrant for Donald Trump and 36 others; asked Interpol to detain all them for having killed Soleimani in Baghdad.    Syria.  Kremlin is pulling back from Assad’s killing his own people.  Turks imposing their own currency on Northern Syria.  Official exchange rate is 1,512 Lebanese pounds to the US dollar; black mkt: 7,000 to the dollar. Slid 40% in the last week.  Seems to be a failed state.  Hezbollah is taking billions from the Lebanese budget, active in the whole region.   BDS rallies, 1 July: organized nationally and in Madrid: students for Palestine and others planning  demos. “No police and no Zionists!” Not really legal in the US.  Using a notorious anti-Jewish cartoonist who won a prize in Iran.  Racism and bigotry.  Palestine is chartering busses it can’t fill; carried many to Ramallah, where the people simply left before the speeches were over. 
Monday 29 June 2020   / Hour 2, Block D: Indiana Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:  The Assyrian army 2,7000 years ago, copper-covered arrowheads.  Warheads found regionally; Assyrian army’s conquest attributed to this new technology, swept down as far as Egypt.  Associated with a nomadic people from the steppe; some with two or three blades!  Used aerodynamics impressively well. King Nebuchadnezzar.
 
Hour Three
Monday 29 June 2020   / Hour 3, Block A:  David Horowitz, Blitz, and Big Agenda, in re: Two books.  “Ed got the joke.”  The professionals and their advisors don’t give a fig about the country or the people or the country, This is the system that Trump has obstructed.  Democrats have controlled every [major] city for a hundred  years, have done zero about massive injustices, horrible unemployment, all the ghastly situations. All of a sudden, the Democrats for the first time called Trump a racist.  Ed Gillespie is working with them.  Trump’s party is one of patriots; Pelosi’s party is one of traitors.  . . .  It’s America that’s the target of the looting and rioting. 
Monday 29 June 2020   / Hour 3, Block B:  David Horowitz, Blitz, and Big Agenda, in re:  If FDR had resuscitated Hitler, we’d call him a traitor; Obama did that to Iran.  Valerie Jarrett.  BLM is a lynch mob, in bed with Hamas. 
Monday 29 June 2020   / Hour 3, Block C:  Andrew C McCarthy, Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency; in re: Nonsensical iconoclasm. NRO: article on systemic racism.  Defund the police; in New York, from $6 bil to $5 bil, which would [much diminish the NYPD’s abilities].  Rioters want severe police reform; away from Giuliani and Bratton models, which brought NYC homicides down 86%.   “Defund the police” is an anthem. Want to slipstream behind occasional explosive events and use them to file lawsuits against municipalities and the police;  departments wind up signing consent decrees to become, in effect, social workers instead of law enforcers. 
Monday 29 June 2020   / Hour 3, Block D:  Andrew C McCarthy, Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency; in re:  The 5 Jan 2017 meeting in the White House with President Obama, VP Biden, Susan Rice, and several others. 
 
Hour Four
Monday 29 June 2020   / Hour 4, Block A:  John Fund, NRO, in re:
Monday 29 June 2020   / Hour 4, Block B:  Harry Siegel, New York Daily News, in re:
Monday 29 June 2020   / Hour 4, Block C:  Lorenzo Fiori, Milan and Florence, in re:
Monday 29 June 2020   / Hour 4, Block D:  David M Drucker, Washington Examiner, in re:
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