S8 Ep833: TREAMING THE MAKING OF JBS, FEATURING THADDEUS MCCOTTER AND JACK BURNHAM, 5-5-26

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

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4.5 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 6 May 2026

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

STREAMING THE MAKING OF JBS, FEATURING THADDEUS MCCOTTER AND JACK BURNHAM, 5-5-26

1/4: John Batchelor describes his co-host, Thaddeus McCotter (a former member of Congress and writer for American Greatness), as a "good colleague of many years" and his "partisan advisor." He also frequently consults with Jack Burnham, a senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, regarding Chinese cyber operations and "unrestricted warfare."

2/4: Batchelor frames the program around the concept of "pocketbook politics," arguing that while voters talk about foreign affairs, they generally "vote pocketbook." He explores how current events, such as the conflict with Iran and rising gasoline prices, blend foreign policy with domestic economic concerns.

3/4: Batchelor guides segments on the "geopolitics of our European allies" and "Asian adversaries," specifically focusing on Moscow and Beijing. He expresses particular interest in the Chinese government's campaign to "interrupt, to intervene, to thieve, to just generally harass" the United States through cyber hacking groups like Salt Typhoon and Silk Typhoon.

4/4: Batchelor often takes a "meta" approach to the broadcast, noting when the "making of the show becomes the theme of the show." He manages the program's timing and transitions, ending the session by referencing the "Roman Orchestra"—a term he uses for the closing music—and noting the need to pay "union wages" to the musicians as the segment concludes.

Transcript

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0:00.0	that understands that right now, I think they understand that there's not a whole lot of short-term
0:05.8	relief they can do short of resolving the Iranian conflict. And that does not seem to be happening
0:12.0	anytime soon. So to a certain extent, the dynamics are starting to harden in place that do not
0:19.7	bode well for the Republican Party right now.
0:21.9	Because the Republican Party in 2024 with Donald Trump's election, you saw some inroads
0:27.0	in places people did not expect, especially with young people, especially some minorities,
0:31.9	Hispanic males, African-American males, younger ones. And they've lost those, according to the poll numbers.
0:40.1	So basically you saw an entire generation, many people in a younger generation,
0:46.0	deciding to give Republicans a chance, see if they can fix the economy, open things up for them,
0:51.2	to give them a brighter future, maybe a pathway to the American dream.
0:54.4	And right now they're feeling as if that was a mistake.
0:58.1	Excellent. I think we should begin right away because we have a situation that now that I'm
1:03.9	confident it's pocketbook, pocketbook, pocketbook. I was pretty sure, but I wanted to make sure that
1:09.1	I had the formula right right now.
1:12.3	We vote pocketbook.
1:13.3	We talk a lot of other issues like foreign affairs, but we vote pocketbook.
1:18.9	Yeah, well, it can, but it can be in overriding in really severe, grave instances,
1:25.2	such as you saw with Vietnam at the height of the Vietnam War, where you saw
1:29.3	in 2002 mid-term election for George Bush following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001,
1:36.0	but those are outliers. Generally, it's pocketbook. All right, we'll begin immediately.
1:42.9	A way I propose this is we start with
1:45.6	Pocket Book and then for the second
	...

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