The John Batchelor Show

Monday 3 February 2020

Air Date: 
February 03, 2020

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, the Great Voice of the Great Lakes; Gordon Chang, The Daily Beast
 
Hour One
Monday 3 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: Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani (Al-Shamrani), seen in a new AQAP video claiming responsibility for his Dec 2019 shooting up up the Naval Air Station Pensacola; apparently sent by AQAP as a sleeper agent. His handler may have died in a recent drone strike.  AQAP released a special video dedicated to the shooting earlier today. The production features AQAP’s emir, Qasim al-Raymi, who was reportedly killed in a U.S. air strike last month. Raymi’s demise has not been officially confirmed by either the Americans or AQAP. The video was recorded prior to the bombing.    https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2020/02/aqap-claims-full-responsibility-for-shooting-at-naval-air-station-pensacola.php
The London shooting.  Press reports quickly identified the stabber as Sudesh Amman, a 20-year-old whose radical beliefs were well-known to authorities. Amman had been imprisoned for terror-related offenses and was slated to serve three years. But he was released early in late January after doing only about half that time behind bars.   . . .  In the UK, in particular, someone known to be a jihadi is often released and allowed to proceed with his malign efforts.  Steady drumbeat of small-scale attacks.   https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2020/02/london-terrorist-was-being-followed-by-authorities-when-he-attacked.php
AQAP and ISIS put out messages saying individuals can to this on their own.  Told that these are holy acts.
Monday 3 February 2020  / Hour 1, Block B: Tom Joscelyn, Long War Journal and FDD; in re:  The UN, recognizing that Taliban and al Qaeda continue to be joined at the hip.  . . .   The US government and military keep getting it wrong.  Now that the US is trying to leave, the main initiative is that State is in talks, while it pretends that Taliban could be some sort of colleague of the US. Disgraceful! State legitimizes Taliban.  . . . They have safe zones now. 
https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2020/01/un-al-qaeda-maintains-cl...
Monday 3 February 2020  / Hour 1, Block C: Gordon Chang, Daily Beast, and Claudia Rosett, Foreign Policy Fellow  at the Women’s Independent Forum; in re: The Wuhan coronavirus crisis.   Not good reporting coming from China.  What do Tien An Men in 1989, and the Hong Kong rebellion for the last months, and today’s coronavirus, have in common?  All occurred under the Chinese Communist Party. Chinese people know that the Party is a nightmare. A video has just come out of Wuhan of a young man saying, “We’re not brainwashed! but what can we do?”
Be wary of the notion of Xi being toppled.  Is this Ch ina’s Chernobyl (1986)?  That was one of the earthquakes that shook the USSR, but it was five years before the Soviet Union ceased existing. Most world leaders don't much understand the burden of the Party, and certainly are too eager to get money from it. Both NYT and WaPo published articles saying that Chinese physicians who early on tried to warn people were arrested by—the Party.
China is atrociously run; unpardonable, inexcusable, at this stage of the world. Now all of us are in danger from the physical manifestation of the virulence with which China threatens civilization.
In the US, we need to have academics and others to quit proselytizing for the Chinese Communist Party. Messages out of China in profusion: “Please help us.”
Monday 3 February 2020  / Hour 1, Block D: Michael Yon, veteran war correspondent who’s been covering the Hong Kong protests, in re: The protests; the coronavirus. I’ll enter Hong Kong tomorrow, if they let me in past the medical scan; and go to my hotel room, sterilize it, and go right out to interview people on video. Will send that to you as soon as possible.  Michael_Yon   
 
Hour Two
Monday 3 February 2020  / Hour 2, Block A:  David M Drucker, Washington Examiner, & John Fund, NRO, in re:  The Des Moines paper refused to pubish its poll results, presumably because Buttegieg’s name was unreadable on a paper. In fact, there’s a theory that it was because Bernie came in too well.   There are 99 counties in Iowa, most rural. If Biden has a decent night in the rural counties, he has a claim to stake; if not, a tougher explanation for him.   . . . A lot of downticket candidates think Bernie is poison to their candidacies; expect more interest in Bloomberg.
Monday 3 February 2020  / Hour 2, Block B:  John Fund, NRO, & David M Drucker, Washington Examiner, in re:  Manchin trying to find a way to split the baby.  Sinema AZ, Jones AL and Manchin WV, all said to be looking to vote no conviction.  Polls today: Trump is at least as strong as when all this started, perhaps a bit stronger. The question was: remove Trump or not? That would overturn an election.  Mr Schiff made a “soaring speech” according to CNN; probably most Democrats agree.  
Monday 3 February 2020  / Hour 2, Block C:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:   The Israeli-Palestinian deal.  Turkey’s mad military press.
Monday 3 February 2020 / Hour 2, Block D:  Indiana Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: A small group of Jews who lived secretly in huts on an island in a local lake; undiscovered till mid-1944. A temple, smaller than the one on the Temple Mount, but made during the Iron Age 900 BCE to early Sixth Century BCE.  Last days of Pompeii:  a [shrine?] dedicated to the Jewish victims of the volcano. Possible that the first account of the event was written buy a Jew?
 
Hour Three
Monday 3 February 2020 / Hour 3, Block A:    Elizabeth Peek, Fox, and Bill Whalen, Hoover Area 45; with Thaddeus McCotter, in re: Iowa caucuses.   The first alignment; then the nonviable candidates for the second alignment; then the third calculation that transfers all that into votes. The app designed to create utter transparency has failed, so again everyone is calling in results. A lot of jocularity on twitter. Reminds one of pyjama boy.  . . .  Whoever wins will be looking at a 2 AM press conference and victory speech.  . . . results from Iowa: zero zero zero zero.
Monday 3 February 2020 / Hour 3, Block B: Elizabeth Peek, Fox, and Bill Whalen, Hoover Area 45; with Thaddeus McCotter, in re: Klobuchar giving a jubilant speech, thanking her supporters.  Votes being entered manually; someone accidentally hung up on a secretary while live on TV; it’s a mess.  The robots sabotaged Iowa?  —This is the party that wants to take over managing American industry?
Monday 3 February 2020 / Hour 3, Block C:   Andrew C McCarthy, Ball of Collusion, in re: 
Monday 3 February 2020 / Hour 3, Block D:  Andrew C McCarthy, Ball of Collusion, in re: 
 
Hour Four
Monday 3 February 2020 / Hour 4, Block A:  Michael Pregent, Hudson Institute, in re: Iraq
Monday 3 February 2020 / Hour 4, Block B:  Jed Babbin, American Spectator, in re:
Monday 3 February 2020 / Hour 4, Block C:  The Food Police: A Well-Fed Manifesto About the Politics of Your Plate, by Jayson Lusk
Monday 3 February 2020 / Hour 4, Block D:  The Food Police: A Well-Fed Manifesto About the Politics of Your Plate, by Jayson Lusk
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