JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Colleagues: Sebastian Gorka, America First radio and Fox; and Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents
 
Hour One
Thursday 4 June 2020  / Hour 1, Block A:  Victor Davis Hanson, Hoover and NRO, in re: The puzzle of Joe Biden.  His weaknesses are the strength of the campaign: unlike any other candidate we've had, in that he seems to lack interest in leaving his basement; and he speaks of his age and apparent debilities.  “I can get you across the finish line.”  The #MeToo Movement; his son Hunter’s involvement with Ukraine and PRC; and Biden’s connection to the unfinished business of Russiagate. He’s been in suspended animation.  Think Tara Reid; his naïve words on China; his accusations of Trump’s culpability coupled with Mueller’s exoneration; his talks of Indians in doughnut shops and of the bizarre Corn Pop.  And, “You ain’t Black if you vote for Trump instead of me.”  Biden seems not to be cognitively up to campaigning, going to a convention, debating.  The plan seems to be to have him elected without his ever answering questions.  George Will’s writing of a monster; Mattis evoking Nazi analogies! against Trump. Surrogates highjacking the larger campaign, one after another.  Biden got 77% of the Democratic vote in Pennsylvania; the other 23% goes to Sanders and Gabbard.  They have only Joe Biden right now; he’s a placeholder.  Outsource the campaign, squeak by in November, hand off the presidency to a vice-president in 2021. This is the party of the Squad, Bernie, and the like.  The CNN reporter says he has no evidence of violence in the demonstrations with a building in flames behind him and a box of stolen Adidas falling at his feet on camera.  https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/06/joe-biden-paradox-his-weaknesses-are-his-strengths-not-running-for-president/
Thursday 4 June 2020  / Hour 1, Block B:  Victor Davis Hanson, Hoover, in re: Disorder across America, and foes: Russia and its subset Iran, and China.  Xi Jinping has launched against all his foes – India, the US, and presumably against Uyghurs.  Does China think it can knock out out the US?  Dunno; but they may have concluded that for their regime to survive thy have no choice but to try. Reminiscent of Hitler in 1939.  “Do you really want to die for Taiwan, Hong Kong, a Himalayan border spat?”   Biden has no credible position on China.  “If he’s elected, China will move on Taiwan” because he’s in no position politically to defend Taiwan.  His party is infected with Chinese ties.  “Rapprochement and appeasement.”  https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/06/coronavirus-pandemic-china-beijing-becoming-authentically-belligerent/#slide-1
Some of China’s recent military activities:
First Taiwan Strait Crisis (1954–1955)
Second Taiwan Strait Crisis  (1958)
Tibetan Uprising  (1959)
China–Burma border campaign  (1960–1961)
Xinjiang conflict  (1960–present)
Sino-Indian War (1962)
Vietnam War (1965–1969)
Nathu La and Cho La clashes (1967)
Sino-Soviet Border Conflict: Zhenbao Island Incident (1969)
Battle of the Paracel Islands (1974)
Sino-Vietnamese War (1979)
Sino-Vietnamese conflicts  (1979–1991)
Third Taiwan Strait Crisis  (1996)
War on Terror  (2001–present)
Operation Ocean Shield  (2009–2016)
Northern Mali conflict  (2012–present)
Continuing Chinese invasions of India (1962 –present)
Thursday 4 June 2020  / Hour 1, Block C:  Conrad Black, publisher & author; in re:  The disorder across America is the reigning story, with the virus preventing dining in restaurants.  Provide compensation?  The 1968 riots did a lot of harm to poor people; here, we have widespread problems in all neighborhoods by organized gangs using cell phones to go where police are not; fortunately, fewer fatalities, but more [theatrical] damage, entirely to uninvolved persons.  . .  . Nixon said, I’m entirely in favor of and sympathy with peaceful demonstrations. I won’t countenance physical violence, setting fires, damaging property. https://www.amazon.com/Richard-M-Nixon-Life-Full/dp/1586485199
Thursday 4 June 2020  / Hour 1, Block D:  Mary Anastasia O’Grady, WSJ and Americas column; in re:  Canada’s Greens. Elizabeth May, celebrate, “Oil is dead!” and those losing their incomes need to be compensated.  Logic: oil prices went briefly below zero; spat between Saudis and Russians; the O&G bz, esp in Alberta, is on its knees.  What does the rest of Canada think of these revenues dying up?  Can't power cars on witchcraft; today, still need O&G, which generated over 5% of Canada’s GDP from 2014 to 2019; averaged $8 billion annually. An additional benefit is not being dependent on other countries, some of which are not amiable, for energy.  The Bloc Quebecois has told Trudeau: “Don't you dare help the oil sector.” The country is at a crossroads; if the O&G sector is to recover, it’ll need investment and to be seen by investors as a growth industry.  If Trudeau refuses to put a good plan out, there’ll be trouble in the whole sector.  Trudeau is waffling between Green and energy.    https://www.wsj.com/articles/will-canada-send-oil-and-gas-packing-11590954041
 
Hour Two
Thursday 4 June 2020  / Hour 2, Block A:  Representative Lee Zeldin, in re: What does it take or the House to join the Senate in United States–Israel Security Assistance Authorization Act of 2020?
Congressman Lee Zeldin has represented New York’s First Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2015. Currently, Congressman Zeldin serves on two House Committees: Financial Services and Foreign Affairs, where he serves as Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Additionally, Congressman Zeldin serves as co-chair of the Long Island Sound Caucus and founding member of the National Estuary Program Caucus and as one of two Jewish Republicans in Congress, also serves as co-chairman of the House Republican Israel Caucus, which has over 100 members.
●        https://www.rubio.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Press-Releases&id=E218C7D6-CD80-47F3-B064-DFA0A3AE7B52
●        https://www.printfriendly.com/p/g/2ku4K7
Thursday 4 June 2020  / Hour 2, Block B:  Dr. Eran Lerman, in re: The Trump peace plan and Israel’s security from the West Bank to the Jordan Valley.
Col. (res.) Dr. Eran Lerman, vice president of JISS, is an expert on Israel’s foreign relations, and on the Middle East. He was deputy director for foreign policy and international affairs at the National Security Council in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, and held senior posts in IDF Military Intelligence for over 20 years. He also served for eight years as director of the Israel and Middle East office of the American Jewish Committee. He teaches in the Middle East studies program at Shalem College in Jerusalem, and in post-graduate programs at Tel Aviv University and the National Defense College.
·         https://jiss.org.il/en/lerman-inbar-phased-implementation-of-trump-peace-plan/
·         https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-russian-egyptian-foreign-ministers-say-annexation-will-spark-regional-violence-1.8896366
·         https://www.timesofisrael.com/gantz-tells-army-to-step-up-preparations-as-west-bank-annexation-looms/
·         https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-highly-unlikely-to-back-july-1-annexation-toi-told-mapping-far-from-done/
Thursday 4 June 2020  / Hour 2, Block C:  Alireza Nader, in re: Iran’s recent spike in COVID cases; new speaker of the parliament; minority groups in Iran.
Alireza Nader is a senior Fellow focusing on Iran and U.S. policy in the Middle East. He also researches the Islamic Republic’s systematic repression of religious freedom and currently serves on ADL’s Task Force on Middle East Minorities.
●        https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2020/06/02/khamenei-loyalist-speaker/
●        https://en.radiofarda.com/a/parliament-s-think-tank-chief-calls-for-reforms-to-save-iran-s-failing-economy/30650876.html
●        https://nypost.com/2020/05/21/irans-new-push-to-erase-its-millennia-of-jewish-history/
Thursday 4 June 2020  / Hour 2, Block D:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Erdogan trying to establish a political base.  Europe’s enormous Turkish population; Erdogan moving into Sweden [and Germany?].  Establish shari’a over secular law.   Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (Muslim Brotherhood).  Russia and Turkey have a surrogate war in Libya, and are even doing surrogate recruiting across the Middle East.  Turkey intervenes vs Hafter, vas Russia and the UAE.   More MiG29 fighters into Syria.  Pipeline from Moscow to Damascus to Tripoli.  Russian recruits in Syria, incl Palestinian Jihad, and 600 from Homs province. British mercenaries offered $650,000 to run helos (but it became too dangerous and they had to flee).  Iran selling electricity to Iraq; trying also Turkey, Venezuela. Glass House in Damascus; thousands pass daily:  HQ for the Iranian intell ops in Syria; is very sophisticated.  Base for Iran Revolutionary Guards. Anti-Kurdish thrust in Syria.  
 
Hour Three
Thursday 4 June 2020  / Hour 3, Block A:  Sebastian Gorka, America First radio, in re: Disorder of these last days following the tragedy in Minnesota. Now, violence suggests organized looting.  Vehicles driving up to stores with burglar tools, plundering, and leaving?   Confirmed that bricks are being pre-positioned as weapons.  Media assay this is about George Floyd, justice, and Black Lives Matter.    But five Black Americans have been murdered by rioters in the last days, A 77-year-old beaten on the sidewalk; a 22-yearold shot by rioters.  In 19568  there emerged the Civil Rights Act. Violence was in deprived neighborhoods—destroying buildings This is distinct: its against the highest-end stores on Fifth Avenue, Rodeo Drive. Looks like an organized attack on America using the grief from the murder of George Floyd. The video of an elderly couple trying to protect their store being attacked by a 6’4” man with a 2x4. “Either Wall Street is filled with maniacs or they see across to the other side of the valley.”—Art Laffer.
       Amazingly positive signs of some par of the larger market snapping back like a rubber band; some of real estate seems to be there. In Fairfield  County, Connecticut, houses on the market for a year are bought; same in Suffolk County, Long Island plus incredible mortgage deals. 
Thursday 4 June 2020  / Hour 3, Block B:  Sebastian Gorka, America First radio, in re: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019: the country hobbled by the Mueller investigation. Rod Rosenstein, umm, “didn’t much notice . . .”   He admitted he hadn't read the [fourth]  FISA warrant he’d signed to spy for the first time in American history on a sitting president. Didn't read?   Agreed that in 2016 there was zero evidence of what he’d signed off on.  A shambles.  He kept the paralyzed country for months; now worming his ay out.  Oleaginous bureaucratic Deep-State survivor.  Admitted “irregular surveillance” by the NSA as far back as 2014. Trump wasn’t even a candidate then. What was the NSA doing against Americans then? In the midst of a corona-virus crisis, and billons’ worth of damage by rioters . . .   Strength of Biden’s campaign?  How do you measure – efficacy of the candidate, or fundraising?  Huge fundraising increase after the murder of George Floyd (most regrettable opportunism). Otherwise, “Joe Biden’s campaign is doing great—as long as he stays in the basement.”
Thursday 4 June 2020  / Hour 3, Block C:  Henry Miller, Pacific Research Institute, in re: One of the dumbest bureaucrats on the planet [a Swede who needs to be booted out]. Hygienic procedure are insufficient in nursing homes.  The regulators [slept through] the early stages. 
Thursday 4 June 2020  / Hour 3, Block D:  Captain Christopher H. Sharman, representing the US Navy, & a National Security Affairs Fellow at the Hoover Institution; in re:  The historic 2018 visit of the  Carl Vincent  aircraft carrier  to Vietnam, first US Navy visit in four decades.  The Navy Times reported excitedly on the visit.  US very interested in collaborating with a strategic partner. Last year, another naval visit to Danang, of the Theodore Roosevelt.   As the US grows closer, Vietnam grows more confident in standing up to China.  The 2018 visit was successful in its welcome; and China watched closely.  We made sure we were not the first large deck to visit; instead, Japan was first, bringing in a helo carrier, which opened the door to other nations.  US visit helped to build trust; planning took a year.  . . . The armed, man-made islands by which China claims huge swaths of the South China Sea.  Many regional nations have started to push back against China; Philippines has suspended it abrogation of the visit [permission] to the US.  An Arleigh-Burke-class FON operation in the Paracels.   Demonstrate US presence in the region.
 
Hour Four
Thursday 4 June 2020  / Hour 4, Block A: Normandy '44: D-Day and the Epic 77-Day Battle for France, by James Holland
Thursday 4 June 2020  / Hour 4, Block B: Normandy '44: D-Day and the Epic 77-Day Battle for France, by James Holland
Thursday 4 June 2020  / Hour 4, Block C: Normandy '44: D-Day and the Epic 77-Day Battle for France, by James Holland
Thursday 4 June 2020  / Hour 4, Block D: Normandy '44: D-Day and the Epic 77-Day Battle for France, by James Holland
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