Archives for May 2018

‘The Presidents and the Pastime’

May 31, 2018 by GregC

President Trump was once a top baseball prospect, the first President Bush was thought to be a Hall of Fame caliber fielder, and Bush may not have become commander-in-chief without critical support from a baseball legend.

These are just some of the nuggets in the new book from former presidential speechwriter and prolific baseball author Curt Smith in his new work, “The Presidents and the Pastime.”

Baseball roots in the U.S. go back to our founding, as colonists played “rounders.” By the 1860’s, President Lincoln was giving federal workers time off to attend games, and in 1910, President William Howard Taft began the long tradition of presidents throwing out the first pitch of the season in or near the nation’s capital.

So what’s behind the connection? Quoting George H.W. Bush, Smith says “baseball has everything.”

“He meant it was an honorable game, an honest game,a game that anyone could play, a game that anyone no matter how small or large nor any color (could play),” said Smith.

“He meant that it was an inherently American game, that it was ours, that we invented it. He meant that it was a game that he had been taught by his father and that he had taught his son, who of course would also become president,” he said.

That son would use baseball in one of the most important moments of American history. Just weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, President George W. Bush threw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium for a World Series game between the New York Yankees and the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Smith says his writing on that powerful moment might what he’s most proud of in “The Presidents and the Pastime.”

He shared some of it with us.

“He met a roaring ovation as he left the Yankees dugout, red and blue states vanishing. He passed the first base dugout and then moved towards the mound, ready to throw to a catcher behind the plate. Add the fury in every seat, every tear, the emotion overwhelmed.

“Bush wound up and threw a perfect strike to the Yankees’ Jorge Posada, exactly splitting the plate, precisely at the knees, as if he had lovingly placed the ball in the catcher’s glove. The crowd exploded. It’s cry for justice piercing the cool Bronx air.

“Slowly, Bush left the field. Gary Cooper in ‘High Noon,’ a hero now more than he had ever been or ever would be again,” read Smith.

Bush threw a perfect strike with the eyes of the world watching and while wearing a bullet-proof vest. However, the current occupant of the Oval Office was a great ballplayer too. Smith says Donald Trump had the tools to be a major league player, but turned it down in classic Trump style.

“Trump was a terrific prospect. In prep school, he was viewed as ‘can’t miss’ by the Phillies and the Red Sox, both of whom were primed to sign him. The only problem was that Trump didn’t want to sign a contract. The reason was, as he said, ‘I didn’t want baseball money. I wanted big money,'” said Smith.

Smith suspects the elder Bush was the best all-around player among our presidents. As captain of the Yale team, Smith reports that scouts thought Bush had hall of fame skills as a defender. It was the other part of the game where he struggled.

“The problem was that he wasn’t even a good field-no hit player. He was a great field-zero hit player almost. As a result, his chances for the bigs were zero,” said Smith.

Baseball also played a key role in the first President Bush winning the GOP nomination in 1988. After a third place finish in Iowa, Bush had to win in New Hampshire to keep his campaign alive.

Forty-six years earlier, as a young Naval aviator, Bush met Boston Red Sox star Ted Williams, who was training pilots for action in World War II. The two became lifelong friends and when Bush was on the political ropes, Williams stepped up to rally his friend among the New England fans who adored him at Fenway Park.

“Ted Williams, to Bush’s total surprise, flies his own plane from his home in Florida to New Hampshire, shocked Bush, and stumped the next three days with Bush and resurrected Bush’s presidential campaign,” said Smith.

Smith wrote the book in part to highlight the presidents’ love affair with baseball and in part to urge Major League Baseball to make the game more attractive to younger generations by speeding up the game through shorter intervals between pitches, not allowing batters to leave the batter’s box so much, and beefing up the strike zone.

He also urges President Trump to throw out a first pitch, even if the crowd does not receive him well. Smith says it is vital to save and strengthen the American pastime.

“These are serious times. This is a serious topic. Baseball has better wake up and realize that if you lose one generation or two generations, you never get them back,” said Smith.

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Right to Try, Rhodes Reacting to Defeat, Samantha Bee & the Left’s Free Pass

May 31, 2018 by GregC

Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America serve up only good martinis today, although the last one comes with a twist. They cheer Congress and President Trump for enacting “Right to Try” legislation, allowing terminally ill patients to undergo promising treatments not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration. They also get a lot of enjoyment out of the excerpt from an upcoming HBO documentary that shows Obama Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes truly speechless after Donald Trump was declared the winner on Election Night 2016. And just two days after ABC fired Roseanne Barr for her horrible tweet about Valerie Jarrett, Samantha Bee puts the left on the spot after using a vile word to describe Ivanka Trump.

Illegal Immigrant Kids: What’s Really Happening?

May 30, 2018 by GregC

For weeks, the Trump administration has been blasted in mainstream and social media for separating parents and children caught crossing into the U.S. illegally and for allegedly allowing 1,500 minors to go missing, some even into the hands of gangs and human traffickers.

However, a leading immigration expert says parents are responsible for the separation and the Trump administration is actually doing a much more responsible job of tracking kids than previous administrations.

Center for Immigration Studies Director of Policy Studies Jessica Vaughan says adult-child separation is standard operating procedure at the border in several circumstances. In some cases, the adults are not the parents. Some kids are being smuggled and other parents send their kids with other adults to establish a “deportation shield” for them in America.

While all of the above scenarios are on the rise, Vaughan says Trump administration policy is responsible for many of the cases, but only because the administration is enforcing the law.

“The Trump administration, seeing no end in sight to the continued influx from Central America who are coming here illegally and hoping to be released and live here indefinitely, is implementing a zero-tolerance policy. Under the law, people who enter illegally are charged with a crime,” said Vaughan.

She says the decision by parents to illegally enter the U.S. is responsible for separating families.

“The children cannot go to federal detention with them, so they are being put into protective custody, in a system that’s handled by the Office of Refugee Resettlement and cared for until their parents’ criminal prosecution is dealt with,” said Vaughan, who says the families are then reunited, usually for deportation.

While sometimes referred to as “prisons” by the media and certain activist groups, Vaughan says the facilities are more like a group home or dormitory. They learn English, get health care, have recreation time and field trips.

However, relatives who pass federal screening and promise to stay in contact with the government can take these minors into custody.

And that’s where the number of unaccounted minors starts to rise. Vaughan says some of those minors run away from their family members and some of the people taking custody of the children refuse to get back in touch with the government to hide their own questionable status or to keep their young relative in the U.S.

Others, sadly, wind up in the custody of gangs or human traffickers.

Vaughan says the problem accelerated with the perfect storm of a surge in unaccompanied minors over the past few years and lax Obama administration observation of what was happening to those minors in the custody of others.

“Under the Obama administration, there was no follow-up being done, no background checks, no home studies, no making sure that the person was going to care for them appropriately and was not going to be abusing them,” said Vaughan.

As a result, it was easy for the minors and their caretakers to fall off the map.

“They just don’t see any reason to check in with the government. They accomplished their goal of getting here and being able to live here. So they just ignore the call,” said Vaughan.

Vaughan says the government is still tasked with finding all of these people and assuring their well-being. She says the Trump approach is much more responsible.

“It’s only under the Trump administration, which actually increased the vetting and the home studies and the monitoring of these kids that advocacy groups have started to complain, which seems to me to be for political purposes. They weren’t complaining when the Obama administration was doing this in a much more irresponsible way. But they’re complaining now because they want to score political points,” said Vaughan.

In addition, Vaughan cautions Americans not to think of all minors as cuddly kindergartners. She says a disturbing percentage of them are teenagers or older (while claiming to be minors) in order to join gangs such as MS-13.

“[Immigration and Customs Enforcement] estimates that about 30 percent of the MS-13 gang members that they’ve arrested in the last year originally arrived here as minors in exactly this scenario,” said Vaughan.

She says gangs brought in a lot of people under the more lax rules.

“When we [had] such a lenient policy like this, of releasing minors to anybody who shows up to claim them, then bad actors are going to take advantage of it and they have done so. It’s caused a lot of problems in places like Long Island and the Washington, D.C, suburbs, and Texas, and other places where these gangs have suddenly become much more active and are causing a lot of problems,” said Vaughan.

Greitens Finally Goes, More Trump Gripe Sessions, ‘Roseanne’ Whiplash

May 30, 2018 by GregC

Listen to “Greitens Finally Goes, More Trump Gripe Sessions, ‘Roseanne’ Whiplash” on Spreaker.

Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America tackle four big stories today. First, they welcome the resignation of disgraced GOP Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens. After another Twitter slam against his attorney general, they wonder why President Trump doesn’t just fire Jeff Sessions if he hates him so much. They also discuss the massive shift in opinion on free speech on both the left and right after ABC cancels “Roseanne” after Roseanne Barr’s racist tweet. And they marvel at the fake assassination of a reporter in Ukraine to smoke out the people really trying to kill him.

‘First Step’ Toward Prison Reform

May 29, 2018 by GregC

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a prison reform bill last week that aims to better prepare inmates for re-entering society, a leading criminal justice reform advocate is blasting liberals for suggesting the legislation is a wasted opportunity because it does not include sentencing reforms.

The bipartisan “First Step Act” passed the House 360-59 but faces a much bigger hurdle in the Senate because of the demand for sentencing reforms. Organizations like the Brennan Center for Justice call the House bill a “piecemeal improvement masquerading as real reform.”

Right on Crime Director Derek Cohen says opposing a bill for what’s not in it makes no sense.

“The idea that this is the only bite at the apple, therefore we should do something strong or do nothing at all is a completely self-defeating argument,” said Cohen.

“You are literally making that choice between a modest bill, the bill that’s in front of us right now, or nothing. I think that is a tough sell to these families that have individuals incarcerated and have to drive more than 500 miles to go see their relatives that are getting put in programming that doesn’t help,” said Cohen.

Liberal groups want Congress to address mandatory minimum sentencing, arguing that such policies force non-violent offenders to spend much more time in prison than necessary and makes it harder for them to re-enter society when their sentences end.

Cohen wouldn’t mind seeing some sentencing reforms in the “First Step Act,” but he cautions there is no plan that would pass right now.

“The problem is there is no consensus as to what a package of sentencing reforms looks like, on the left or the right,” he said, noting that despite some common ground, the left and the right have some deep differences on criminal justice reform.

“Folks on the left tend to support more affirmative programs, like actually providing folks with jobs or compelling people to not inquire about criminal history, ‘ban the box’ as it’s known.

“The conservative answer to that is simply indemnifying landlords for renting to these folks…indemnifying employers for employing these folks. Make it more attractive for these folks to actually be hired,” said Cohen, who says employers often rave about the former convicts they’ve hired because those offenders are so eager to prove themselves worthy of the job.

So what is in the bill passed by the House? Cohen says it’s geared towards easing burdens on families and better preparing convicts to contribute to their communities when they get out of prison.

“It looks at how we have these folks in prison. What are we doing to lower their recidivism, lowering their chance of re-offending once they’re out. That includes criminogenic rehabilitation. It includes education. It includes training. It includes making the decision before we plug folks into one of those programs that it is a program that particular person needs, as opposed to just spinning our tires or wasting our money.

“It also tries to move individuals closer to their home to better facilitate re-entry, so that family can still come and visit and prison ministry that might exist in their community might be able to visit with them in their facility – to really deliver that kind of warm handoff we’ve come to understand in criminal justice, to make sure we’re not just shooting somebody out the door and basically hoping they don’t re-offend,” said Cohen.

In addition to calling for more targeted education and job training programs, the bill also calls for a risk-needs assessment for prisoners who need help reacting properly to stressful situations and providing the help they need.

“That risk-needs assessment is basically an instrument that diagnoses the offender, and when it comes back it says ‘anti-social personality traits, anti-social cognitions, and they also have an anti-social peer group.’ Those three things alone are incredibly detrimental to success on re-entry,” said Cohen.

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Trump’s Memorial Day Tweet, Media’s ‘Never Mind’ Moment, California Voter Mess

May 29, 2018 by GregC

Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America return with three crazy martinis. First, they shake their heads as President Trump tweets that those who died for our country would be really proud of his economic record. They also roll their eyes as liberal politicians and media figures express outrage over images of illegal immigrant children being confined to cages – until they learn the images are from 2014 during the Obama administration and then delete their tweets. And they react to California scrambling to find records for tens of thousands of voters who were mistakenly enrolled twice, all of this just a week before primary day in the state.

Freitas Champions ‘Individual Liberty’ in Virginia Senate Race

May 25, 2018 by GregC

Virginia Del. Nick Freitas is racing to the finish line ahead of the commonwealth’s June 12th U.S. Senate primary and says his message of individual liberty, smaller government, and thriving markets is resonating with voters.

Freitas got a major political boost in March when his passionate defense of the second amendment on the floor of the Virginia House of Delegates went viral.

“When 40 million people see something, that helps with your name ID,” said Freitas.

While recent polling is scarce in the GOP primary, the viral video is helping Freitas raise his profile against primary rivals Corey Stewart and E.W. Jackson, both of whom have run statewide before. Freitas has dwarfed his rivals in fundraising in recent months and he recently secured the National Rifle Association endorsement.

Stewart, who currently serves as chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, is known for his aggressive, confrontational style of politics. He says that approach will be necessary to defeat incumbent Sen. Tim Kaine in November. He also claims that his ability to win in a blue part of Virginia makes him the natural choice for a nominee.

Freitas strongly disputes that.

“Donald Trump does not need a cheap imitation of himself in order to win in Virginia. There’s only one Donald Trump. Let Trump be Trump. What the Republican Party needs in Virginia is someone who can go around and explain and advocate for the positive, substantive policies that have made people’s lives better,” said Freitas.

“He thinks it’s a divide and conquer campaign. I think it’s more of a divide and lose campaign. It’s unfortunate because there are good things about Corey Stewart and there are good things he’s done in Prince William County.

“But there’s other things he’s done there that have really given people pause. He’s voted to raise taxes several times in Prince William County, and there’s other things that people are just skeptical of,” said Freitas.

Freitas believes he has the ability to bring people together to get things done.

“We need to be able to unify Virginians around a central message and that message is we’re going to empower you, not government programs,” said Freitas.

Freitas also believes he separates himself from Stewart and Jackson in three critical ways, starting with his service as a Green Beret in Iraq.

“I’m the only combat veteran in the race, which means I understand a key component of the federal government, which is providing for national defense. I fought counter-terrorism, counter-insurgency and unconventional warfare. President Trump needs more people in the Senate that share his view that we are not the police force in the world but we need a strong military and I can provide that kind of advice,” said Freitas, who believes the U.S. does need to be a leader on the world stage but does not need to deploy the military unless absolutely necessary.

He also says his time in the Virginia House of Delegates sets him apart from Stewart and Jackson.

“I’m also the only candidate that’s served in the legislature. So I understand what it’s like to take an idea from concept all the way through the legislative process. I know how to effectively engage constituents in the process when there’s that critical vote in the subcommittee or full committee,” said Freitas.

Third, Freitas says his message distinguishes him from the rest of the field. He says his goal is not to gain power to reward friends and punish political foes but to return power to where it belongs.

“My goal is to get in a position where we can disperse power back where it belongs and that’s to the people, that’s to states, and that’s to localities. And then if we keep the federal government within its proper boundaries so it can do its intended jobs well instead of doing a hundred other jobs poorly,” said Freitas.

But what does that look like for a candidate who embraces major strains of both conservative and libertarian thought? Where does he come down those beliefs conflict?

On the role of the military, Freitas believes in having a strong military and using overwhelming force whenever force is absolutely necessary. He also wants to see Congress return to its constitutional role of authorizing war.

On cultural issues, Freitas says his deeply-held Christian beliefs inform him on the definition of marriage but he believes much of the political debate over it misses a key point.

“You’ve got some people wanting the government to define marriage one way. You’ve got other people who want that government to define marriage another way. And I’m sitting here going, ‘Why is the government defining marriage?’

“I understand why government has to handle civil contracts, but I certainly don’t understand why the government needs to be in the process of coercing people to accept a particular definition that they may not want to,” said Freitas.

Freitas did introduce religious freedom legislation that would protect conscience rights for Virginians.

“(Former Virginia Gov.) Terry McAuliffe had signed an executive order which essentially prevented any religious organizations that happened to hold the viewpoint that marriage is between one man and one woman from being able to team with the government to help hungry, sick, and addicted people. I said that was ridiculous,” said Freitas.

On abortion, Freitas says science and the law make it clear that unborn life deserves protection.

“At the moment of conception, we’re talking about life. If we use science to determine between human life and other forms of life, we find at the moment of conception we’re talking about human life.

From a legal perspective, I don’t think there’s any doubt that we’re also talking about innocent human life. So the question for me is does the government have an obligation to protect innocent human life? I think it clearly does,” said Freitas, who was born out of a crisis pregnancy.

“I don’t know what it’s like to be that young woman who finds herself pregnant and completely unprepared for it, but I do know what it’s like to be her son,” he said.

On fiscal matters, Freitas is appalled by the $1.3 trillion omnibus shepherded through Congress and signed into law – all by Republicans. He says Congress desperately needs transparency and open debate on what is worthy of taxpayer money. He also says Congress, like the Virginia government, fails to use common sense on spending issues.

“On the things that we agree on – that are legitimate functions of government – the military, law enforcement, public safety, certain things with transportation and others – great, let’s fund them. But let’s not hold those things hostage because certain congresspeople have different goodies that they’ve got to hand out to various constituents to help their re-election chances,” said Freitas.

Freitas says he’s also ready to tackle health care policy, especially after fighting against Gov. Ralph Northam’s efforts to enact Obamacare Medicaid expansion in Virginia. In addition to stating that medical care for Medicaid patients is not much different than it is for the uninsured, he says government intervening in health care is a guaranteed failure.

“What’s so frustrating to me is that what wee clearly need in health care is more competition and more market forces, which always have a tendency to increase quality and drive down prices,”said Freitas, noting that the cost of vision correction surgery, such as Lasik, has dropped from $2,500 per eye to $500 per eye while the reliability of the procedure has improved drastically.

“Unfortunately, there are many, especially on the left, (for whom) the only solution they will accept is a government solution. The problem is government does the opposite of what we need. Government almost always causes prices to go up and quality to go down,” he said.

Weinstein Charged, New Sonic Attack on Diplomats, McCabe’s Secret $70,000 Table

May 25, 2018 by GregC

Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America are glad to see disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein charged for rape but they already see signs that Weinstein plans to portray himself as the victim. They also react to new reports of U.S. diplomats suffering from brain injury due to a possible sonic attack, this time in China. And they unload on former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe for spending $70,000 on a conference table and trying to hide it from lawmakers by redacting the purchase from a report to Congress.

Gorka Demands Obama Officials Lose Security Clearances

May 24, 2018 by GregC

Former Trump administration official Dr. Sebastian Gorka is urging the president to take decisive action against Obama administration officials involved in conducting surveillance on the Trump campaign and to release as much information on those efforts as possible.

Gorka, also the author of the forthcoming book “Why We Fight: Recovering America’s Will to Win,” is also applauding President Trump’s decision to cancel the summit with North Korea and believes this shows exactly what kind of a leader Trump is.

Recent, widespread reports indicate that the FBI enlisted an informant to make contact with Trump campaign officials in an effort to investigate – or instigate, as Trump alleges – the connection between the Trump campaign and Russian efforts to meddle in the 2016 campaign.

“It’s the worst political scandal in American history. What we have is one administration deciding that they can spy on another presidential candidate and his campaign for purely political reasons. For more than a year, people laughed when the president said, ‘I was surveilled.’ Now we know that not only was he surveilled, they put covert assets into his campaign,” said Gorka.

Gorka says Trump needs to respond boldly.

“Right now all the key personnel from the last administration must be stripped of their security clearances. The idea that (former CIA Director) John Brennan is feeding Russian propaganda lines on national television and still has his security clearance is absurd,” said Gorka.

He says security clearances should also be revoked for others involved in Operation Crossfire Hurricane, including former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former FBI Director James Comey and 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Gorka says transparency should also be on Trump’s short list.

“Now we have to see every document associated with Operation Crossfire Hurricane, the illegal political espionage operation authorized by the Obama administration. All those documents must be declassified and the president can do that at the stroke of a pen,” said Gorka.

Gorka is also pleased to see Trump back away from the scheduled June 12 summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un. In a letter to Kim, Trump said he was canceling the meeting because of North Korea’s “openly hostile” language in recent statements.

“North Korea has everything to lose. We have nothing to lose,” said Gorka, who says this episode exhibits the same leadership and negotiation skills that Gorka saw during his time at the White House.

“You see a man who is decisive. He knows what he wants. He’s results oriented. He cares about this country. He’s a pragmatist and a patriot,” said Gorka.

Gorka says Trump’s move to scrap the summit should come as no surprise to anyone who read Trump’s book,
“The Art of the Deal.”

“In chapter two, he states unequivocally (t0) never, ever be so wedded to any deal so that you can’t walk away at any point. That’s exactly what the president did.

“This is a man who isn’t interested in empty pablum or nice pieces of paper to wave at you. He isn’t an individual who looks at the world through ideological filters. He wants results. When he doesn’t get them, he’ll walk away,” said Gorka.

So what happens next in the effort to rid North Korea of nuclear weapons? Gorka says China will play a key role in determining just how badly the U.S.-led sanctions strain the Kim regime financially and possibly lead to an even better deal.

He also believes the days of the Kim regime are numbered.

“This is the great paradox of all dictatorships. They’re very powerful at the top. They deny individual liberties. But at the end of the day, they’re also highly vulnerable because of the denial of human of liberty that they are founded upon. So this is not a regime that can last forever,” said Gorka.

While crippling economic sanctions and and a robust military brought North Korea to the brink of denuclearization, Gorka believes the same results will be more difficult to achieve with Iran due to the Islamist mindset of its leaders.

“At the end of the day, the North Korean dictatorship is evil but they’re rational. When you’re dealing with a theocracy like Iran, there are individuals at the top, amongst the mullahs, who do not think in rational terms. Several of them believe in the occultation of the ‘Hidden Imam’and actually think ideas like apocalypse are a good thing.

“The question in Iran is who is in ascendance, the less rational individuals or the more rational individuals? If it’s the latter, then we can probably see some positive results coming out of Tehran as well,” said Gorka.

Trump Cancels Summit, Trump’s Anthem Excess, Clapper’s 2016 Delusion

May 24, 2018 by GregC

Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America applaud President Trump for backing away from next month’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, proving he is not desperate for deal and keeping Kim off balance. While denouncing kneeling during the national anthem as the time or place to make a protest, they also slam Trump for suggesting maybe NFL players who kneel for the national anthem “shouldn’t be in the country.” And they unload on former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper for randomly concluding that Russian efforts to meddle in the 2016 campaign definitely made the difference in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania and flipped the election results from Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump. Jim points out that Clapper and other Trump critics simply refuse to believe that voters made a choice they don’t like.