JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
 
Hour One
Wednesday 6 May  2020   / Hour 1, Block A:  Brett Arends, Market Watch, in re: The lockdowns have gone far beyond their original remit, which was to keep the virus from spreading too far and fast and so overwhelm the hospital system.  “Safety” is not compatible with coronaviruses. Neil Ferguson, Imperial College, London, predicted doom and disaster: manifesto, 16 March, The major challenge to suppression is that this kind of [lockdown] will have to be maintained . . . for perhaps eighteen months or more.” Mr Ferguson has just resigned for abrogating his own rules in order to go to a tryst with his married sweetheart. “Disaster socialism”: AOC says cancel the rents.  There’s a political agenda.  If we stay in lockdown much longer, there’ll be no economy to return to. 
Wednesday 6 May  2020   / Hour 1, Block B:  Patrick Hedger, Competitive Enterprise Institute,  in re:  See the film Contagion.  We all carry supercomputers in our pocket; Apple and Google bldg an app of passive contact tracing that’d show with whom you’ve come in contact; works on short-wave radio waves; phone keeps a record of anonymous ID’s, detects signals and signal strength of those around you. Can this possibly be used for law enforcement?  Apple and Google swear not.  Your phone would send out an anonymized ID that changes many times daily or weekly.   The scary stuff is already out there.  This depends on buy-in; people need to be comfortable with it. Americans’s trust in Google: 80%; in Apple: 90%.   Contact Tracing: Let the Private Sector Lead; The Washington Examiner;Kent Lassman, Patrick Hedger.  April 30, 2020
Wednesday 6 May  2020   / Hour 1, Block C:  Michael Yon, East Asia reporter, in re: PRC continues to be obdurate about the origin of the virus. Nontransparency of the Wuhan Virology Lab.  Reuters reports that PRC HK affairs office says “the city will ever be calm unless black-clad protestors are permanently removed; they’re political viruses.” Dehumanizing!  The protestors represent half of Hong Kong or more. This is not protests but an insurgency.  The anger is still there. 
Rwanda collapsed as one group called the other “cockroaches.”  Dehumanizing.  China sent many people from Wuhan directly to Chiang Mai.  Thailand seems to be under control right now. 
Wednesday 6 May  2020   / Hour 1, Block D:  Alan Tonelson, Blogs at RealityChek, U.S. Business and Industry Council Educational Foundation, in re:  Decoupling. Because the PRC refuses to be clear about the origin of he virus, we  have to consider that this virus (and subsequent ones) will be with us all our lives.  We now have a deficit if $44 billion in intl trade:  the degree to which the longstanding, massive, deficit with China has sunk like a stone. Year to date, down 32%.   Largely due to Trump Adm tariffs (on $360 bil of prospective Chinese exports to the US).  Now that people understand that the virus came from China, and China deliberately spread it outside its borders, globalism is no longer in as much favor.  More and more scepticism about trade ties with China.   We’re buying a lot less from China; some mfrg has moved back to the US, but China’s imports from the US haven't exactly taken off.  Chinese purchasing has almost nothing to do with its  income; it’s signed an agreement to buy US oil and gas, and is not doing so. Mfrs re-invent themselves, change products—rapidly; stunning display of ingenuity, creativity, speed.  Because China had frequently shown itself to be an unreliable supplier, so this began before the virus. 
 
Hour Two
Wednesday 6 May  2020   / Hour 2, Block A:  John Catsimatidis, Red Apple Media, in re: In the subways, we have a mess on our hands. Over a thousand indigents were cleared out of trains last night. How can we trust that our children, even college kids, will be safe travelling in these subways?  How can they go back to school?  We need an adequate response—not cleaning cars, but a police presence.  Taking sick people out of Rikers Island and putting them on Manhattan streets—it's wrong.  Rikers has a vast number of buildings; put the ill in them for treatment.  Eric Schmitt, Google, proposes telemedicine.  No, we need people back in town.  . . .  After Memorial Day, wear your mask; and we need frequent testing. The New York and New Jersey governors are not giving us a road map of how to return to work; until then, we have no health care, no school. Mrs Pelosi is pushing not for a solution, but to continue the problem. She holds that if the economy is failing, Trump can lose the November election. The president has turned decisions over to governors; wise, as there are many solutions.  
Wednesday 6 May  2020   / Hour 2, Block B:  Bill McGurn, WSJ, in re: A former staffer accused Joe Biden of abusing her with sexual assault when she was an intern; it took Biden 36 days to issue a response.  Seems that information is in papers of Biden’s at University of Delaware, which he has had sealed and won't open.
Wednesday 6 May  2020   / Hour 2, Block C:  John Cochrane, The Grumpy Economist; Hoover, in re:  Herd immunity definition. Give credit to smart people: they don't go to crowded restaurants, which slows the disease down.  . . . the doom-and-gloom model did not work out, Elon Musk’s projection wasn’t in the ball park.  Super-spreaders: most of the problems are cruise ships, dance halls, subways.  Choir practices have to stop for a while. 
Wednesday 6 May  2020   / Hour 2, Block D:  Ambassador Elin Suleymanov, Republic of Azerbaijan  @ElinSuleymanov; and Professor Brenda Shaffer @ProfBShaffer, Georgetown University, in re:  An anonymous website posted photographs of young Azerbaijani soldiers who’s died in battle, and next to the pictures placed photographs of them as children.  Horrifying.
Diasporas are often more fanatical than the citizens of the home country; surely this is the case of the Armenian diaspora, with population centers in California, where the realities of war and a failed economy are distant.  Senators Menendez (NJ) and Sanders (VT), inter al, have signed a petition to Washington to fund Armenian activity  . . .  These are people who adamantly oppose Israel for its expansion into the West Bank, but still support the [Russian-instigated] Armenian takeover of Nagorno-Karabakh.
 
Hour Three
Wednesday 6 May  2020   / Hour 3, Block A:  David J Blumberg, Blumberg Capital,  in re: Lessons learned for VCs and angel investors.  Some small businesses applied for federal funding; some didn’t; some relied on their trusted bank to apply but larger banks gave precedence to their larger customers. Lendio got 70,000 loans for its customers. . .  . We’ve been doing discussions, funding—everything—virtually. We give the entrepreneur extended warrants.
Wednesday 6 May  2020   / Hour 3, Block B:  David J Blumberg,  Blumberg Capital,  ,  in re:  The future will increasingly be virtual. Telemedicine, logistics, insurance —we’re impressed with the resilience of these start-ups; within a week they moved into virtual mode.  Very complicated; of the 60 in our portfolio, all accomplished it swiftly and well. Software developments tend to be introverts, who work better at home, anyway.
Wednesday 6 May  2020   / Hour 3, Block C:   Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com, in re:
Wednesday 6 May  2020   / Hour 3, Block D:   Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com, in re:
 
Hour Four
Wednesday 6 May  2020   / Hour 4, Block A: Richard Epstein, Chicago Law, NYU Law, and Hoover Institution, in re:
Wednesday 6 May  2020   / Hour 4, Block B: Richard Epstein, Chicago Law, NYU Law, and Hoover Institution, in re:
Wednesday 6 May  2020   / Hour 4, Block C:  Larry Johnson, Sic Semper Tyrannis, in re: DIA and CIA don’t really work together at all. Flynn, head of DIA, saying Syrian resistance was a failure and being pumped up by others; that ISIS was a real threat. Pres Obama said ISIS was “junior varsity,” following language from Brennan and Clapper.  Brennan, Clapper and Obama didn't care for Flynn’s analysis. Flynn didn't cook intell; that was considered rocking the boat. In August 2014 he was fired for providing legitimate information.  Turns out there was pressure on the Pentagon to minimize the threat from ISIS.  
Wednesday 6 May  2020   / Hour 4, Block D:  Larry Johnson, Sic Semper Tyrannis, in re: Part of what irritated [alarmed] Brennan, Clapper, Obama, et al., was Flynn’s information on problems with the Iran deal.  Halper said he was present at the dinner at Pembroke College, Cambridge. Halper then asserts that Flynn was recruited by Russians  [Svetlana Lukhova!].   This was a CIA-directed effort.  Flynn’s opponents in the Obama Adm still regarded Trump’s candidacy as very unlikely to succeed. Crossfire Razor (code for General Flynn).  They searched every possible database and found zero with which to condemn Flynn.  They were investigating a fiction created by Halper against Flynn, who was seen as an opponent of the Obama Adm. Massive espionage against anyone seen as a political opponent of the Obama Adm.  Collection against US citizens. Which is entirely illegal.   Finally, they alleged that Flynn had spoken with Ambassador Sergei Kisylak [everyone in Washington had done so, including your present typist], and they dug up the moribund Logan Act.   
 
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