Tuesday 16 January 2018
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JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Larry Kudlow, The Kudlow Report, CNBC; and Cumulus Media radio. Thaddeus McCotter, WJR, the Great Voice of the Great Lakes.
Hour One
Tuesday 16 January 2018/ Hour 1, Block A:. Bill Whelan, Hoover, in re: Constitutionally, “The president shall from time to time [report] on the state of the union.” Needn’t be prime-time TV. I suggest he give one in the heartland on the economy and another at perhaps the Reagan Library on national security. Historically, the reports were in the form of a letter to Congress. The economy is the strength of the Administration right now. Go to Michigan, where he needs the 16 electoral votes, to speak on the revival of the automobile industry: Chrysler moved a plant from Mexico to Warren, Michigan, in direct consequence of the recent tax cuts; 2016 speech at the Detroit Economic Club – most successful, still well-remembered.
Tuesday 16 January 2018/ Hour 1, Block B: Bill Whelan, Hoover, in re: Chrysler moved a plant from Mexico to Warren, Michigan in direct consequence of the recent tax cuts; successful 2016 speech at the Detroit Economic Club – most successful, still well-remembered. Ed Lazear (Hoover; former chairman of Council of Economic Advisors) on immigration: correlation between nations that have a middle class and those who succeed— i.e., they've been able to receive and education. Could have fees to immigrate, or [education-based]. Majority of people who’ve come here from underdeveloped nations have wound up on the dole. Too much to ask that they have skills, and speak some English, and be familiar with US history and subscribe to our principles?
Tuesday 16 January 2018/ Hour 1, Block C: John Tamny, , in re:
People should pay the most taxes to the [jurisdictions] in which they live – state and local govt.
If I pay more to Uncle Sam than I get back, what to do about that? Btw, Medicaid is the single biggest factor.
JT: If it's about tax reform, let's make it about reform, not tax-shuffling. GOP says, We’ll cut taxes here but not there” LK: I disagree: ______; I'd like one low, flat tax rate, period. JT: If you get rid of SALT, then [the funds will redound to the fed]. LK: I’d take Uncle Sam out of he equation. The states are so generous they're bankrupting everything, including public-sector unions. JT: I want states to feel their errors. If a loophole, let it be one that [shows up states’s profligate spending]. LK: Vast discrepancies in accounting: think Tennessee. New York and Connecticut are doing themselves in. Federalism is very important, but mustn’t include tax spending to increase ____ in certain states.
Tuesday 16 January 2018/ Hour 1, Block D: Larry Kudlow, in re: NAFTA: if the president just walked away from it, the stock market would [behave badly]. Europe is making trade deals with Japan and China without us as a result of the US leaving the TPP. Montreal talks on NAFTA coming up next week and the US is participating. The afterglow of he tax cuts continues wonderfully. The economy looks great; from the bottom up people are marking up earnings. Ed Yardeni is raising his estimates to 15% profits; Strategus also raising. S&P 19x earnings.
Hour Two
Tuesday 16 January 2018/ Hour 2, Block A: Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus; American Committee for East-West Accord; author: Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War, & The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag after Stalin; in re: Incoming nuclear missile warning in Hawai’i lasted 38 minutes, entirely terrorized the population. Then a parallel event in Japan. Had Washington responded, then Russia would have done the same and we’d all be evaporated. . . .
Tuesday 16 January 2018/ Hour 2, Block B: Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus; American Committee for East-West Accord; author: Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War, & The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag after Stalin; in re:
Tuesday 16 January 2018/ Hour 2, Block C: Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus; American Committee for East-West Accord; author: Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War, & The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag after Stalin; in re: . . . Two of Obama’s intell chiefs: Brennan said Americans should avoid any contact with any Russian as it might lead down a slope to “treason”; and ___ said in a sort of ethnic slur that Russians are genetically predisposed to infiltrate and [sabotage] the United States. [These are certifiably insane –ed.]
Browder and Magnitsky Act on Russian orphans. . . . Joe Biden is running for the presidency, purportedly a “liberal.”
Tuesday 16 January 2018/ Hour 2, Block D: Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus; American Committee for East-West Accord; author: Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War, & The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag after Stalin; in re: . . . Sen Cardin’s false narrative and genuinely fake news. (Bradley Chelsea Manning will run against him.) Fifteen minutes to decide if the threat is real or not; retaliation would be basically the end of humans on Earth. Both the US and Russia could adopt a no-first-use policy on nuclear weapons. Pres Obama initiated the extremely dangerous policy of: ______.
Hour Three
Tuesday 16 January 2018/ Hour 3, Block A: Jeff Bliss, Pacific Watch, in re: Hawai’i’s false nuclear alarm that terrified residents for 38 minutes. The culprit is being reassigned with no punishment; his name will not be released. Public anger, esp toward Hawai’ian FEMA. Hawai’i is in the target zone and not ready for prime time, Not a Washington problem, a Hawai’ian problem: incompetence, corruption, lots of deixa/manana. Widespread upset concerning warning systems for tsunamis, also. Montecito. Flu: more and more people dying each day; setting up tents in parking lots, flying in medical personnel from other states. Physicians have never seen anything like this. Fever, chills, achiness, respiratory problems. High-speed rail is now off the rails.
Tuesday 16 January 2018/ Hour 3, Block B: Bill McGurn, Wall Street Journal, in re:
Tuesday 16 January 2018/ Hour 3, Block C: Andrew C McCarthy, NRO, in re: Mr Simpson’s testimony is farcical even though he’s obviously thoughtful and did a lengthy, documentary research project on Trump. Was in phase 2 when they [began to surmise a la folie]. Looks as though Simpson concluded that Trump was a bad guy and so [launched forward without objectivity.] He found an end to the novel that he liked. Early on he decided and blatantly said that Trump was unfit to be president. Simpson was hired by some aspect of the Kremlin to get rid of William Browder; Simpson is as unhappy with Browder as he is with Trump. Bizarre. Simpson’s outrage and curiosity depend on who’s paying him. (1 of 2)
Tuesday 16 January 2018/ Hour 3, Block D: Andrew C McCarthy, NRO, in re: Glenn Simpson and Russiagate (2 of 2)
Hour Four
Tuesday 16 January 2018/ Hour 4, Block A: Gregory Copley, International Strategic Studies Association & Defense & Foreign Affairs ; in re: The NSS. Issuance of National Security Strategy document: usu such documents are hardly strategic; Trump’s is more strategic but still shallow and incomplete. DoD, State, and intell community all hedged the bets. State till things its philosophy is more important than the White House’s. JCPOA (Iran deal) – a deal that the US entered into w Sec Council + Germany . . . Trump has escalated words with both North Korea and Iran; allows North Korea to escape from under the thumb of China . . . and [which brings them to negotiating table]. Iranians have painted themselves into a corner; can they get out of it? Also, US is under much pressure from Netanyahu, who holds that the only solution to Iran is [strength].
Tuesday 16 January 2018/ Hour 4, Block B: Gregory Copley, International Strategic Studies Association & Defense & Foreign Affairs ; in re:
Tuesday 16 January 2018/ Hour 4, Block C:
Tuesday 16 January 2018/ Hour 4, Block D: