JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Colleagues: Sebastian Gorka, America First radio and Fox; and Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents
 
Hour One
Thursday 29 October 2020  / Hour 1, Block A: Victor Davis Hanson: @VDHanson; Hoover Institution, in re:  NRO, looking at he two candidates in four matters.
Foreign policy: Mr Biden has not given us a detailed view of his policies; we can assume it won’t be discontinuous with Obama policy.  Trump has made peace in the Middle East, creating masses of kosher restaurants, and now bringing in a kosher ship for the overflow.
Would Biden say, “Peace is unwise; I prefer to send $700 million a year to the Palestinian Authority”?  “Revert to Iran deal; reset China; quit demanding the agreed 2% from European allies”? If Biden is elected, within 60 days North Korea, China, Russia and Iran will test Biden.
Evo Morales, narcoterrorist past president of Bolivia, is in Caracas meeting with Maduro and a planeload of Iranians. 
Domestic:  Mr Trump has advocated and created an energy superpower.   Biden?  He seems to be oblivious to the US being the largest producer in the world, and the largest natgas export.  By crashing the world oil price, we've denied Iran and Russia their vast O&G revenues.    Obama felt that the more you appease China and ignore its theft of IP and others, then the more it’ll turn toward democracy. That did not work.
Thursday 29 October 2020  / Hour 1, Block B: Victor Davis Hanson: @VDHanson; Hoover Institution, in re:  Mr Biden has been in a basement for 6, 7, 8 mos,  What do we make of him?  He’s a vessel; is there because Bernie Sanders and AOC decided not to leave, so when Bloomberg failed, AOC and crew demanded a specifically socialist govt.  When Biden is asked about Hunter, he says, “I never got a dime from a foreign govt.” 
The cruelest thing Biden did was accuse the driver of the car in which his first wife died of being drunk—when the opposite was true.
Biden said Obama was the first clean Black; and told Corn Pop stories; and his importuning of young women.  His family has deliberately involved itself with the Chinese; they’re all compromised. 
Thursday 29 October 2020  / Hour 1, Block C: Veronique de Rugy, @veroderugy, Mercatus Center, in re: Economy grew 7.4% in the third quarter—a staggeringly good pace. Demand for $2.2 trillion in compensation for Americans’s being stuck at home. Why do we need money from Congress?  Lack of humility, as though that’d do better than money from investors and actual work by citizens. When we had 14% unemployment, we also spent $2 trillion; now we’re at 7% and  they still want to spend the same. Keynes at the end of his life withdrew his notion that govt spending multiplies value. He realized that we get maybe 36 cents on a dollar.  (Can get 88 cents’ return on a dollar.) “We don't care about stimulus, just about people who need help”—put the PPP money to keep people employed went to big, rich companies.  Requirement was to return idle resources back to work. CARES Act/Heroes Act, Mrs Pelosi’s bill. Economy can't be stimulated if the stores are closed. You'd think they’d adjust their response to the state of the economy, but they don’t—that’s not what they care about. The airlines will get their bailout & it'll help shareholders and creditors; won't help the employees.
Thursday 29 October 2020  / Hour 1, Block D: Mary O’Grady: @MaryAnastasiaOG; WSJ editorial board; The Americas column; in re:  Cuban journalist. Castro kept saying he believed in democracy but refused to have elections; encroached on journalists.  Some journalists took his side and turned on their colleagues: it was journalists who did unethical thing to their own brethren.  He destroyed the private sector, so no more advertising.
Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega. He and cronies bought up al the media except a few independent media who criticize him in blogs; Ortega provides a gag law: anything govt decides is fake news can be criminalized
 
Hour Two
Thursday 29 October 2020  / Hour 2, Block A:  Sebastian Gorka, @SebGorka, America First radio, in re: What are we not hearing about the economy?   Nothing but good news. Are we still voting our pocketbook? New York Post reports the verified story of Hunter Biden while the large media refuse to report our annual growth rate of over 33%.  I’d say yes, it's the economy—but only as it’s affected by 48 hours of reporting from Philadelphia: rioting, looting, and orders to the PD not to arrest anyone except for murder.  The lethal, self-inflicted wound of Biden on fracking.   . . .  No pragmatists left in the establishment.  When the neophyte presents the Green New Deal, which formerly would have been laughed away. . . Mr Dorsey doesn’t seem to be up to his job.  He looked as though he was from a homeless shelter.   These are not monopolies; they’re cartels. What does it mean that Mr Biden’s family is compromised by the PRC?
Thursday 29 October 2020  / Hour 2, Block B:  Sebastian Gorka, @SebGorka, America First radio, in re: Imagine Biden is elected and the major media have not reported on his family’s compromised position with China.  Does all the [national security problem] disappear?
Thursday 29 October 2020  / Hour 2, Block C:  Conrad Black, @ConradMBlack, publisher, littérateur, commentator; in re:  Jon Meacham: “The privileged white lizard mentality of many Americans.” He was the last editor of Newsweek in the WaPo era. He’s become the family historian of the Bush family; not profound, but respectable.    https://tennesseestar.com/2020/10/28/commentary-the-medias-smear-job-cam...
Thursday 29 October 2020  / Hour 2, Block D:  Monica Crowley, TreasurySpox & @MonicaCrowley  @USTreasury ; Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs for the U.S. Department of the Treasury; in re: We hit 33.1% growth, crushed he previous historical record—the great American economic comeback. More to be done, but Pres Trump’s pro-growth policies are [restoring our economy].  We expect a dynamite fourth quarter and 2021. Democrats in negotiations have issued a long list of unrelated demands.   The blue states have a much higher unemployment rate—California is high, Florida is 2%. 
   
Hour Three
Thursday 29 October 2020  / Hour 3, Block A:  Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, @FleurHassanN, in re:  The deputy mayor flew to Dubai, found a shortage of kosher restaurants; sending a huge cruise ship to the bay to provide kosher food. “Kosherrabia,” Abraham Accords—business and tourism opportunity. Mount of Olives & Temple Mount. Turkey-Jerusalem. Jerusalem passports. I’ve never been received as well anywhere as I was in the UAE; felt like long-lost cousins’ being reunited. Israel and UAE are the two financial centers of the Middle East.  Fantastic partners in many ventures; and for us, a gateway the East and to Africa. Israel has long had Christians as important visitors; now, I find Emiratis’ wishing to come pray in the Holy Mount.  Muslim tourism in the holy city.  The visa regime will be: no visa. Planning a high-tech park in East Jerusalem.  This is very much also about [helping] Arabs in Jerusalem.
Fleur Hassan-Nahoum is the Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem for Foreign Relations Economic Development and Tourism. The Deputy Mayor is the co-founder of the UAE-Israel Business Council.
· https://www.khaleejtimes.com/business-and-technology-review/welcome-to-the-uae-shalom
· https://themedialine.org/by-region/officials-visa-free-israel-uae-pact-historic-although-familiar/
· https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/us-passports-for-citizens-from-jerusalem-to-say-born-in-israel-report-647285
· https://www.israelhayom.com/2020/06/03/turkey-opens-new-islamic-center-near-the-western-wall/
Thursday 29 October 2020  / Hour 3, Block B: Josh Gottheimer, @JoshGottheimer, @RepJoshG ; in re: Bunker-busters, their utility to Israel.   IAEA confirmed that Iran is bldg yet another underground nuclear plant.  . . . Abraham Accords have changed the narrative the Arab world; “pay to slay” program by the Palestinian Authority. A chart showing how much money goes to the terrorist who murders an Israeli.  Yesterday Twitter said, “Holocaust deniers are not engaging in hate speech.”  I’ve introduced legislation that hold companies accountable and places criminal penalties on them.
Josh Gottheimer represents New Jersey's Fifth Congressional District in the northernmost part of the state, which includes parts of Bergen, Passaic, Sussex, and Warren counties. In Congress, Josh serves on the House Financial Services Committee, where he works on three subcommittees: National Security, International Development and Monetary Policy Subcommittee; the Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship, and Capital Markets Subcommittee; and the Diversity and Inclusion Subcommittee.
· https://gottheimer.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=2249
· https://jewishinsider.com/2020/10/gottheimer-mast-drafting-bill-to-provide-israel-with-powerful-bunker-busters/
· https://www.timesofisrael.com/bipartisan-house-bill-will-encourage-us-to-sell-bunker-buster-bombs-to-israel/
· https://www.timesofisrael.com/twitter-ceo-suggests-holocaust-denial-not-banned-on-platform-in-senate-grilling/
Thursday 29 October 2020  / Hour 3, Block C:  Michael Rubin, @mrubin1971, in re:  Iraq, Iran, Turkey. The new prime minister, Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, is stalked at home; police don’t respond. Govt can't afford salaries; may increase oil production. Mustafa Al-Kadhimi is trying to reach the eastern Med to get investment in employment to join the anti-Turkey coalition. Sinjar: ISIS took over the 60-mile mountain. Yazidis blame Kurds, esp Barzani, for having abandoned them under fire.  Kurds under extreme threat from both Iran and Turkey; as their economies are collapsing, the govts are lashing out against minorities.  Iran fears that if Iraqi Kurds have autonomy, then Iranian Kurd will want to, also, and become democratic—another danger to Iran.  Iran claims it hasn’t enough money to feed its people but are buying high-end arms from Russia and China. When Erdogan became PM in 2013, he did so on the ground of his technocratic abilities. Now his economy is collapsing.  Cyber c0unteritell ofc in Turkey. 
Michael Rubin is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
· https://nationalinterest.org/feature/iraq%E2%80%99s-sinjar-agreement-doomed-fail-171514
· https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-28/iraq-s-crumbling-economy-is-becoming-a-threat-to-opec
· https://www.wsj.com/articles/iraq-emerges-as-new-front-for-enforcement-of-iran-oil-sanctions-11603445401
· https://thehill.com/opinion/international/521749-iran-threatens-us-kurdish-allies-in-iraq
· https://www.ft.com/content/990f13cf-613f-48a5-ac02-c8c73741a786
· https://www.aei.org/op-eds/the-reverberations-of-pompeos-iraq-threat-are-growing/
Thursday 29 October 2020  / Hour 3, Block D:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:   . . .  Jerusalem passports. The US now says that “Jerusalem” will be put in passports of those born there.  Syria and al Qaeda: Turkey recruiting Syrians to fight in Libya, In NW Syria, US drones attacked rebels.  Mohammed al Subdani was killed.  AP out of Dubai: Natanz, which was mysteriously exploded, in Iran: bldg a new nuclear assembly plant inside a mountain south of Natanz.  Centrifuges being developed; can have a bomb in three or four  months. In France, three killed, one beheaded, in a knife attack in Nice: it was anti-Christian, by an “Islamist jihadist,” as Macron said. Erdogan impugned Macron’s mental state, called for a boycott of French goods.   Escalation.  France and Turkey on opposite sides in Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict. 
 
Hour Four
Thursday 29 October 2020  / Hour 4, Block A: Andrew C McCarthy, @AndrewCMcCarthy, Ball of Collusion; and Thaddeus McCotter, @ThadMcCotter, American Greatness, in re:  FDR; “the switch in time saves nine.”  Roller-coaster  decisions recently on voting.   Kavanaugh has written two opinions and joined a third on standard principles of voting.  GOP trying to get a stay on the [dangerous] Pennsylvania decision.  Very important to straighten out voting rules before the election!  Another 5-3 on North Carolina, change of state law that ballots may be counted for nine days after an election, but must be postmarked by November 3. One: the Court doesn't want to get involved in these matters.  Two: Justices are worried that Amy Coney Barrett’s late confirmation to the Court:  Democrats ague that Trump put her on the Court to decide in his favor in a presidential voting case, if needed.  ACB bowed out elegantly, recused herself, and thereby headed off a potential conflict.
Thursday 29 October 2020  / Hour 4, Block B: Andrew C McCarthy, @AndrewCMcCarthy, Ball of Collusion; and Thaddeus McCotter, @ThadMcCotter, American Greatness, in re: New information about the Biden family, disturbing, and much of it unconfirmed.  FBI served a subpoena on a computer repair shop for a laptop that belonged to Hunter Biden.  James Rosen, at Sinclair News, reported that a Justice Dept official confirms that in 2019 the FBI opened a criminal investigation of Hunter and his associates, concerning money-laundering. It's not money laundering unless the money in the first instance was from a criminal activity.  If so, it’s a serious felony, usu associated with organized crime. A case once opened is not easily shut.
Thursday 29 October 2020  / Hour 4, Block C:  David Davenport, @HooverInst, research Fellow at the Hoover Institution; specializes in constitutional federalism, civic education; in re: For too long we’ve not given our students a good civic education. Either civic learning, or we lose it all together. Currently, no real funding for it.  Maybe five states are awakened to the need. In Rhode Island, students have filed a suit in court for the state  having failed to provide a good civic education. We provide $54 per student on STEM, and 5 cents on civics. Teachers aren’t trained, are unprepared, can't teach. An MS in education is about how to teach, not in content.   Poor education leads to civic alienation, including low voter turnout. Howard Zinn’s book is massively historically inaccurate, an actual fantasy; he had an opinion and wrote a book to conform to it.  It used to be an accepted alternative for history teachers, but now has become a standard text.  One accurate book is Land of Hope.
Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story*, by Wilfred M. McClay
Thursday 29 October 2020  / Hour 4, Block D: David Davenport, @HooverInst, research Fellow at the Hoover Institution; specializes in constitutional federalism, civic education; in re:  Rectifying this is a matter of public will.   To have a resilient democracy and operate our country, we need to [address] this.  “The Nation’s Report Card”— we do testing in reading and math but have fallen off in civics.  If we’re gong to test everything else, must test civics and history, and a student must pass to be graduated from high school. Need to start in primary school. “Building the layer cake.” We need to learn from history, warts and all. Florida got in the game early.  Maryland, Illinois, Vermont: grades 1-12, each one has an assignment,
..  ..  ..
* “We have a glut of text and trade books on American history. But what we don’t have is a compact, inexpensive, authoritative, and compulsively readable book that will offer to intelligent young Americans a coherent, persuasive, and inspiring narrative of their own country. Such an account will shape and deepen their sense of the land they inhabit, and by making them understand that land’s roots, will equip them for the privileges and responsibilities of citizenship in American society, and provide them with a vivid and enduring sense of membership in one of the greatest enterprises in human history: the exciting, perilous, and immensely consequential story of their own country.
“The existing texts simply fail to tell that story with energy and conviction. They are more likely to reflect the skeptical outlook of specialized professional academic historians, an outlook that supports a fragmented and fractured view of modern American society, and that fails to convey to young people the greater arc of that history. Or they reflect the outlook of radical critics of American society, who seek to debunk the standard American narrative, and has had an enormous, and largely negative, upon the teaching of American history in American high schools and colleges.
“This state of affairs cannot continue for long without producing serious consequences. A great nation needs and deserves a great and coherent narrative, as an expression of its own self-understanding; and it needs to convey that narrative to its young effectively. It perhaps goes without saying that such a narrative cannot be a fairy tale or a whitewash of the past; it will not be convincing if it is not truthful. But there is no necessary contradiction between an honest account and an inspiring one. This account seeks to provide both.”