Thursday 30 July 2020
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Colleagues: Sebastian Gorka, America First radio and Fox; and Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents
Hour One
Thursday 30 July 2020 / Hour 1, Block A: Victor Davis Hanson, @VDHanson; Hoover, and NRO ; in re: The Cancel culture as part f th woke culture. Self-destruction occurred in Rome-—Philip and Alexander were much less of a threat than the Persians had been a century earlier—. France caved in to the Nazis in six weeks despite having a superior military, more tanks. . . . Destroying and rewriting our past is almost a comic-book version of Orwell. . . . In Oaxaca, inter al., is a pre-Columbian society; also, Peru, or Bolivian jungles. It's the upper middle class that enjoys this agita, raises hell, then goes to get a latte. The Bolsheviks were a tiny number of people; created a putsch in a turbulent time. Media, Hollywood, entertainment industry: all exaggerate the number of people involved in tearing-down. There were few Jacobins or Salem witches; but these created a reign of terror. These people have zero agenda other than chaos.
Thursday 30 July 2020 / Hour 1, Block B: Victor Davis Hanson, @VDHanson; Hoover, and NRO ; in re: Where’s the counterrevolution? Those who hold that the chaos is designed simply no to elect Donald Trump. What are they waiting f? Might they wait too long, and the cancel culture will be victorious? Yes; that’s a real worry. Gun sales are astronomic; people growing weary of the violence, won’t even watch the NFL me Labor Day, people will start putting the pieces together. JB: The values I’ve developed as a septuagenarian are being [obliterated]. That there’s virtue-signalling all the time, and people are cut out. The [real] New York Times no longer exists. “We don't dismiss people by applying today’s standards to historical figures.” Tear down FDR because he interned Japanese? The obvious one is he Democratic Party – of the Klan, of Jim Crow, of Woodrow Wilson de-integrating the armed forces; of Robert Byrd.
Thursday 30 July 2020 / Hour 1, Block C: @AndrewCMcCarthy, Ball of Collusion, and Thaddeus McCotter @ThadMcCotter, American Greatness; in re: Judge Sullivan has no legal standing to be here; en banc on August 1. Small chance of prevailing, group skewing 7 to 3 Democratic. Court of Appeals considering on a very narrow point: No other remedy but to order Sullivan to dismiss the case? They didn’t disagree with the legal analysis of the panel. Were the intention to delay this past Election Day, how would it look different? (It wouldn't.) Sullivan called Flynn a traitor, and subscribes to the Russia hoax. A big majority of Democrats (>40%) believe the Russia hoax; this will not soon end. For example, Trump is pulling forces out of Germany—it’s reported as being a deed to help Putin.
Thursday 30 July 2020 / Hour 1, Block D: @AndrewCMcCarthy, Ball of Collusion, and Thaddeus McCotter @ThadMcCotter, American Greatness; in re: Some people think that, because Trump tweeted, “Shall we delay the election?” that the military are coming down the pike to confiscate ballot boxes. [Trump is using his very dry humor to agitate his opponents.] Of course, as a fundamental legal matter, it’s not up to the president to decide it he’ll stay or leave. This is not at all a question.
Hour Two
Thursday 30 July 2020 / Hour 2, Block A: Assaf Orion, in re: UNIFIL incident along the Lebanese-Israeli border. Thwarted an attempt attack by Hezbollah murder raid? Iran in the middle of it. UNIFIL supposed to be a buffer as well as an arbiter, was notable for its absence.
Assaf Orion is the Rueven International Fellow with The Washington Institute and is a Senior Research Fellow at INSS. Prior to retiring from the Israel Defense Forces in 2016 as a brigadier general, he held a leadership role in the Planning Directorate that included coordinating with UNIFIL and the LAF.
● https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/unifils-yearly-mandate-renewal-maintain-ends-change-ways-and-means
● https://www.timesofisrael.com/unifil-peacekeepers-launch-investigation-into-lebanon-border-incident/?
● https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/israel-to-unsc-empower-unifil-to-better-monitor-hezbollah-in-lebanon-634652
● https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/2020/07/09/a-partnership-to-nurture/
Thursday 30 July 2020 / Hour 2, Block B: Malcolm Hoenlein : @Conf_of_Pres; in re: National Day of Mourning for many historical tragedies. The failed state of Iran: war games. explosions, disruptions, infrastructure deterioration.
Thursday 30 July 2020 / Hour 2, Block C: Aykan Erdemir, in re: Erdogan converts Hagia Sophia into a mosque; he invited everyone to the inauguration, including the pope; even Muslim leaders refused to appear. Turkey is sending Uyghurs back to China! via third countries to their certain destruction. China found that it was cheap to buy Erdogan’s silence and cooperation. Turkish Secret Service (Millî İstihbarat Teşkilatı, MİT) has been trying to protect them.
Dr. Aykan Erdemir, senior director of FDD’s Turkey program, is a former member of the Turkish Parliament (2011 to 2015) who served in the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee, EU Harmonization Committee, and the Ad Hoc Parliamentary Committee on the IT Sector and the Internet.
● https://www.ft.com/content/69a222d4-b37c-4e7e-86dc-4f96b226416d
● https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/07/28/us-congress-pushes-sanctions-turkey-russia-libya-war/
● https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2020/07/24/hagia-sophia-rhetoric-adds-insult-to-injury/
● https://english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2020/07/29/Former-Turkish-PM-acknowledges-Turkey-policy-of-returning-Uighur-Muslims-to-China.html
Thursday 30 July 2020 / Hour 2, Block D: Anna Borshchevskaya, in re: Erdogan is an instrument to Russia; an unequal relation where Putin holds stronger cards.
Anna Borshchevskaya is a senior Fellow at The Washington Institute, focusing on Russia's policy toward the Middle East. In addition, she is a contributor to Oxford Analytica and a fellow at the European Foundation for Democracy. She was previously with the Atlantic Council and the Peterson Institute for International Economics. A former analyst for a U.S. military contractor in Afghanistan, she has also served as communications director at the American Islamic Congress.
· https://iranwire.com/en/features/7336
· https://www.defense.gov/Explore/News/Article/Article/2287821/russia-wagner-group-continue-military-involvement-in-libya/
· https://www.axios.com/russia-anti-satellite-weapon-test-03127d27-8b9f-47a8-a39c-edf9d89ee717.html
· https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/russia-will-hate-ukraine-cleared-move-american-javelin-missiles-front-lines-164359
· https://www.npr.org/2020/07/29/896804140/defense-secretary-esper-says-u-s-plans-to-cut-troops-in-germany-by-a-third
Hour Three
Thursday 30 July 2020 / Hour 3, Block A: Sebastian Gorka broadcasts a Salem Radio show and is national security strategist at Fox News; in re: The economy lost “32% in the last quarter”— not exactly: 32% annualized, being 9% in the last quarter, which is not good, but is less than what was expected. The Portland gangs in black: burning down the courthouse was in order to help Joe Biden? Has nothing to do with peace, justice, or Black lives; is entirely to show that Trump is not in control. Nadler said, “Antifa is a myth”! Burning down buildings while people are still inside. Three officers blinded by the demonstrators.
Thursday 30 July 2020 / Hour 3, Block B: Sebastian Gorka broadcasts a Salem Radio show and is national security strategist at Fox News; in re: En banc review of Judge Sullivan’s complicated step against Michael Flynn. Stalling game to get past the election, as Flynn is a very effective campaigner. Absurd: DoJ has said there was no crime committed, there’s no predicate. Joe Biden appears to be in very poor health. The photos of his debate cards suggests they were [pathetic].
Thursday 30 July 2020 / Hour 3, Block C: Mary Anastasia O’Grady, WSJ, Americas column and editorial board; in re: People running from Putin; went to Guatemalan office to get documentation, were followed by Russians who [spread money and] kept them in a Venezuelan court. Were exculpated by a higher court; Commission for Impunity in Guatemala has held them for fourteen years in jail. The daughter was a minor when this began. All deeply not in accord with international law.
Thursday 30 July 2020 / Hour 3, Block D: Monica Crowley, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Pubic Affairs; in re: A 32% contraction in GDP [annualized] in the last quarter, Q2: actually, a 9.5% drop. Bad, but not a surprise. Lockdown of the entire US economy. Mostly retail sales plus industrial production: March and April were the most acute period, the motive force driving the contraction. Both rebounded in May and June.
They shut us down with panicky orders, not at all well thought-out government mandate. The American people reopened in May and June—then some governors stepped in to prevent that. Now : Housing, credit card transactions, gasoline sales
Hour Four
Thursday 30 July 2020 / Hour 4, Block A: Conrad Black, author, in re: https://amgreatness.com/2020/07/23/the-five-burning-questions-of-this-election-season/
The presidential election result is now down to five questions.
· Can the president override the Democratic media’s thunderous campaign to terrorize the country over the coronavirus? (Yes. https://amgreatness.com/2020/07/27/reckoning-with-the-riots/)
- Can the president successfully connect Joe Biden’s campaign to the hooligans, anti-white racists, and urban guerrillas who effectively are being encouraged by the corrupt Democratic mayors of many of the nation’s largest cities?
- Will the economic recovery and the decline in the unemployment generated by the COVID-19 shutdown continue at its recent pace and strengthen the economy as a pro-Trump electoral argument?
Thursday 30 July 2020 / Hour 4, Block B: Conrad Black, author, in re:
- https://amgreatness.com/2020/07/23/the-five-burning-questions-of-this-election-season/ Will the Republicans make adequately clear to the country the authoritarian and Marxist implications of the Biden-Sanders unity document?
- Will special counsel John Durham indict senior members of the Obama Administration over their handling of the spurious allegation of collusion between Donald Trump and the Russian government in the 2016 election and Justice Department violations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and how will Biden himself come through it?
Thursday 30 July 2020 / Hour 4, Block C: Veronique de Rugy, Mercatus, in re:
Thursday 30 July 2020 / Hour 4, Block D: Veronique de Rugy, Mercatus, in re:
- Can the president successfully connect Joe Biden’s campaign to the hooligans, anti-white racists, and urban guerrillas who effectively are being encouraged by the corrupt Democratic mayors of many of the nation’s largest cities?
- Will the economic recovery and the decline in the unemployment generated by the COVID-19 shutdown continue at its recent pace and strengthen the economy as a pro-Trump electoral argument?
- Thursday 30 July 2020 / Hour 4, Block B: Conrad Black, author, in re:
- https://amgreatness.com/2020/07/23/the-five-burning-questions-of-this-election-season/ Will the Republicans make adequately clear to the country the authoritarian and Marxist implications of the Biden-Sanders unity document?
- Will special counsel John Durham indict senior members of the Obama Administration over their handling of the spurious allegation of collusion between Donald Trump and the Russian government in the 2016 election and Justice Department violations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and how will Biden himself come through it?
Thursday 30 July 2020 / Hour 4, Block C: Veronique de Rugy, Mercatus, in re:
Thursday 30 July 2020 / Hour 4, Block D: Veronique de Rugy, Mercatus, in re: