The John Batchelor Show

Wednesday 8 July 2020

Air Date: 
July 08, 2020

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Colleagues: Gordon Chang, Daily Beast, and David Livingston, The Space Show
 
Hour One
Wednesday 8 July 2020 / Hour 1, Block A:  Lt-Gen H  R  McMaster, Hoover Institution Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow; 26th National Security Advisor; @HRMcMasterNSC
 , in re: US-Mexico-Canada Agreement [Cameus].  Supply chain; a brutal  country aggressing against Hong Kong, India, Taiwan, the South and East China Seas.  The CCP and its economic aggressions; we’ve seen the dependence of supply chains.  Bob Leithauser.  ’Twas China that prevented Mexico from realizing many of its benefits from the old NAFTA, as China abused rules immediately on joining the WTO.   ATT10--the main cybrespionage program that engaged in the greatest theft in history.  Lopez-Obrador administration is not entirely on board with the new agreement.    . . .  Scott Atlas and I wrote an op-ed on pharmaceutical supply problems; India has awakened, too.
Wednesday 8 July 2020 / Hour 1, Block B: John Tamny, RealClearMarkets, The End of Work, @johntamny , in re: John Rockefeller donated $430 mil of his $500 mil to healthcare [and forbad medical doctors to prescribe anything having to do with diet or food].    . . . Collective action is doing what’s known. Entrepreneurs search for what’s unknown.  We want the craziest inventors to attack problems.  Profit motive is essential.  It's individuals who’ve created the wealth.  When a government invests in business, it inevitably fails.  Govt can't take a reputational risk.
Wednesday 8 July 2020 / Hour 1, Block C: Michael Yon, Far East reporter based in Thailand, @Michael_Yon , in re: Office for Safeguarding National Security, China’s boot in Hong Kong.  The Great Firewall has descended; few communications today.  The Iron Curtain has fallen on HK.  More brutal than the old Soviet methods.  To be behind the Great Firewall means you can't access many websites without a VPN, which, itself, can be shut off.  If it is, Hong Kong will no longer be a global financial center, but merely like Shenzen or Shanghai.  Everyone knew this day was coming; that’s why everyone was on the streets. This was the Alamo.  They were desperate to stop it.  Did previous Washington administrations understand the power [and brutality] of Beijing?  No.  Safe for a European citizen to travel to HK to do business?  Depends on the person—neither Gordon nor I should.  All we can do now is apply political and economic pressure 
Wednesday 8 July 2020 / Hour 1, Block D: Cleo Paskal, non-resident senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, @CleoPaskal, in re: Eastern Ladakh, China invades India.  China normally does fur steps forward, three steps back; but India [no longer is playing].  India has banned 59 Chinese apps: turns out they're espionage devised to monitor location, payment, et al. Can be used for blackmail and industrial espionage. Also China needs metadata for its military AI development. Effect is economic really huge: banned TikTok, removing $6 billion valuation, and=s well as allows development in India. Very smart and quick!  It'd be excellent if the US did the same thing, which it’s contemplating.  China doesn’t let Facebook or even Wikipedia into China.  . . . Decoupling the US and China—get the Chinese out of our society.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tiktok-pompeo-united-states-weighing-ban-chinese-social-media-apps/
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/us-mulling-tiktok-ban-indias-digital-strike-to-hurt-more-than-what-china-expected/videoshow/76838104.cms=
 
Hour Two
Wednesday 8 July 2020 / Hour 2, Block A:   John Catsimatidis, Cats Roundtable, Red Apple Media, @JCats2013, in re: New York must reopen and recover soon, or confidence will dwindle and the city will not recover.  Thousands of criminals were released from Riker’s Island are out shooting children, breaking into stores, including Chanel and Macy’s. We only have fifteen months left till the mayoral election; may the police hold on till then. Disbanding the Anti-Crime Unit is a crime in itself.   We must put the criminals back in Riker’s. Walking Manhattan streets at night no longer feels safe. Thirty years ago, JAC moved into a Fifth Avenue apartment that had not only a doorman but armed security in the lobby.  JB: In Riverside Park, there were encampments of homeless people. I was mugged at twilight.  JAC : I want the police to stay till Nov 2021, when we can win back our city—if we fail, that will change not only New York City but the entire country. https://nypost.com/2020/07/08/gov-cuomo-blames-inmates-releases-lax-das-for-nyc-crime-spike/
Wednesday 8 July 2020 / Hour 2, Block B:  Dave Brady, Hoover; RealClearPolitcs;  in re: How to interpret the polling?  https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/07/07/yougov_polling_biden_skeptics_are_moderate_democrats_143640.html?utm_source=Hoover+Daily+Report&utm_campaign=4df6205600-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_07_07_06_30&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_21b1edff3c-4df6205600-72527561

YouGov Polling: Biden Skeptics Are Moderate Democrats

by David Brady, Brett Parker via Real Clear Politics
At the end of March, President Trump was on a roll: Having been acquitted by the Senate in February, he was taking credit for a coronavirus lockdown that “saved 2 million lives,” in his estimate, and was an odds-on favorite to win the 2020 election (a plus-seven-point margin in the RealClearPolitics betting average). RCP’s polling average placed his job approval rating at 47.4%, with over 50% approved of his handling of the COVID-19 crisis. 

Wednesday 8 July 2020 / Hour 2, Block C:  Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com, in re:
Wednesday 8 July 2020 / Hour 2, Block D:  Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlack.com, in re: Sun spots.  Grand Solar Minimum. 
 
Hour Three
Wednesday 8 July 2020 / Hour 3, Block A:  Salena Zito, CNN, The Middle of Somewhere column; New York Post; in re:
Wednesday 8 July 2020 / Hour 3, Block B:  Salena Zito, CNN, The Middle of Somewhere column; New York Post; in re:
Wednesday 8 July 2020 / Hour 3, Block C:  Douglas  Smith, chairman, Plymouth Rock Technologies ; in re:  The X1 Platform in surveillance.  Premier drone platform.  Threat detection company. Looking for a platform with zero Chinese components, totally US/NATO; so we built our own. Found a whole new customer base. 
Wednesday 8 July 2020 / Hour 3, Block D:  Adelle Nazarian, Gold Institute senior Fellow; @AdelleNaz, @GabrFoundation, in re: Nagorno-Karabakh, finally being discussed by EU and its Eastern Partnership.  Nagorno-Karabakh is currently in ruins.  Terrible ceasefire violation.  Armenia has demanded that it be in control of what it labels “the Republic of Artsakh.”  EU speaks of territorial integrity, but silent on this matter.  Also, why do US lawmakers have a double standard?  EU has condemned the annexation by Armenia.  Btw, it's used for illicit transit to Iran.  Azerbaijan is a model for a secular republic with a majority Muslim population. In Nagorno-Karabakh, there are mosques in which Armenians have housed pigs.
 
Hour Four
Wednesday 8 July 2020 / Hour 4, Block A:  Gregory Copley, Defense and Foreign Affairs, in re: China’s travails, including the possibility of the failure of Three Gorges Dam (400 million people downstream).   A very bad year for Xi Jinping.  China could extend its military exercises in Hainan to take over Taiwan.  Dongsya Islands (undersea oil & gas) would be an easy target, but  would that trigger a massive US response? Recall Argentina’s seizure of Falklands to prop up the then-president; didn't turn out well. Xi can either retire, or reorient Beijing back into a domestic agenda and abandon global domination.
Wednesday 8 July 2020 / Hour 4, Block B:  Gregory Copley, Defense and Foreign Affairs, in re:  Australia under strain from China; can it afford the needed, major defense expenditures increase? Indigenization, return to self-reliance ; dvp hypersonic weapons and other defense armamentaria. China is aggressively fighting this.  In time, a dominant India who’ll probably be aggressive.   Defense Intelligence Group in Australia under a three-star.  Australia plays a large role in intelligence collection regionally.  PM is aware of Xi’s aggression and of China’s extraordinary past of stealing every possible bit of intel from Australia.  
Wednesday 8 July 2020 / Hour 4, Block C: Alan Tonelson, independent economic policy analyst who blogs at RealityChek and tweets at @AlanTonelson, in re:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump/trump-weighs-executive-orders-on-china-manufacturing-immigration-aide-says-idUSKBN2471JV
 
Wednesday 8 July 2020 / Hour 4, Block D:  Bhuchug Tsering, Bhuchung Tsering, vice president of International Campaign for Tibet, in re:
https://savetibet.org/us-bans-chinese-officials-under-tibet-access-law/
https://nationalinterest.org/feature/china-has-plan-crush-tibetan-diaspora-164171