Radio America Online News Bureau

Archives for April 2020

Ex-Deputy National Security Adviser: ‘They Were Trying to Blackmail Me’

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Listen to “Ex-Deputy National Security Adviser: ‘They Were Trying to Blackmail Me'” on Spreaker.

On Wednesday, handwritten notes concerning Trump National Security Adviser Gen. Michael Flynn revealed FBI agents were approaching their January 2017 interview with Flynn for the purposes of trying to prosecute him or get him fired.

The news comes as no surprise to K.T. McFarland, who served as deputy national security adviser under Flynn, who says federal agents were looking to pin a crime on Flynn and President Trump where there was none  The FBI also put the heat on McFarland to give up information it could use to incriminate Flynn or Trump.

In an interview, with Radio America’s Greg Corombos, McFarland says the FBI set a perjury trap for Flynn and she knows what one looks like because they tried to set one for her too.

“They were trying to blackmail Gen. Flynn. They were trying to blackmail me to either admit guilt to crimes we did not commit or to implicate others.  In my case, it was to implicate Flynn or to implicate President Trump in crimes I didn’t think they had committed,” said McFarland.

She says the FBI tried to nab her in a perjury trap.  And how does a perjury trap work?

“They control all your files, all your text messages, phone logs, emails. They have them. You don’t have them. They have them and they let you see a little bit here and a little bit there and then they quiz you on it.

“If you make any kind of mistake, you get the wrong date, you say, ‘I think that was Tuesday night’ and it was really Wednesday morning, then they can jump and say, ‘Well, you should have known that. We think you’re lying. Therefore, you’re committing perjury,” said McFarland.

Listen to the full podcast to hear the two reasons the FBI and intelligence community wanted Flynn out of the White House, what crimes the FBI wanted McFarland and others to point them too, and what needs to happen to make sure these sorts of tactics don’t happen again.

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Milano & Biden, Trump vs. Polls, Prisoners & COVID-19

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Listen to “Milano & Biden, Trump vs. Polls, Prisoners & COVID-19” on Spreaker.

It’s all crazy today! Join Jim and Greg as we react to #MeToo activist Alyssa Milano suddenly finding a complicated gray area on assault allegations now that Joe Biden is one being accused. They also sigh as President Trump reportedly rejects polling data that suggests his coronavirus briefings could be hurting him politically and that he’s losing to Biden. And they recoil at the aggressive efforts to free prisoners under the pretense of virus mitigation.

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Double Standards: Comparing Media Coverage of Biden & Kavanaugh Allegations

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Listen to “Double Standards: Comparing Media Coverage of Biden & Kavanaugh Allegations” on Spreaker.

Five weeks ago, Tara Reade, a former Senate staffer for Joe Biden, accused the likely Democratic presidential nominee of a 1993 sexual assault.  Despite the emergence of information that seems to provide some corroboration for the charge, no Biden surrogate had not been asked about the matter until this week.  Biden still has not been asked.

This approach from the media looks a lot different than the feeding frenzy that took place in September 2018, when the media went rifling through Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s past after Christine Blasey Ford accused Kavanaugh of assaulting her in the early 1980’s.

Even with Ford unable to name the location or the year of her alleged assault and none of the supposed witnesses backing up her story, the media waged a relentless effort to find a pattern of such conduct by Kavanaugh – even giving credence to assertions that he was a gang rapist.

So what are we learning about the media and some politicians who seem to have very different standards for such accusations, depending upon the circumstances?  And what is the responsible way for the media to approach any story like this?

We get answers from Judicial Crisis Network President Carrie Severino, co-author of the #1 bestseller “Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Court.”

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Progress Against COVID, De Blasio’s Latest Disaster, Suspend the Election?

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Listen to “Progress Against COVID, De Blasio’s Latest Disaster, Suspend the Election?” on Spreaker.

Join Jim and Greg as they welcome encouraging news about COVID-19 testing, vaccines, and treatments that has Wall Street feeling bullish and suggesting that the Chinese communists were wrong again. They also hammer New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for breaking up the well-attended funeral of a rabbi in Brooklyn and warning that if it happens again there will be summons or arrests. And they dig into a new poll suggesting a majority of Americans would be inclined to suspend the November elections if coronavirus is still a major concern.

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Abbott’s Re-Open Plan , Politico’s Shame, Bernie Team Still Bitter

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Listen to “Abbott’s Re-Open Plan , Politico’s Shame, Bernie Team Still Bitter” on Spreaker.

Join Jim and Greg as they walk through the Texas plan to re-open the economy that’s drawing rave reviews, but they also discuss whether re-opening should be statewide policy or based on local conditions and why Democratic governors are getting far less grief for re-opening than Republicans. They also walk through Politico’s cringe-inducing apology on how badly it mangled its story on debts President Trump allegedly owed to China. And they react to the fury of the Bernie Sanders campaign over New York’s decision to cancel its presidential primary.  Is this a case of Sanders focusing on politics over the health crisis in New York or is it imperative for states to find ways to hold elections regardless of the conditions?

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What Coronavirus Modeling Tells Us About the Climate Debate

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Listen to “What Coronavirus Modeling Tells Us About the Climate Debate” on Spreaker.

Many different models of coronavirus infections and deaths are constantly in the news, and one promiment voice in the debate says the speed with which the models change gives us a very good look at the flaws in climate modeling and the “extreme” solutions being offered by advocates of the Green New Deal and other proposals.

Christopher C. Horner served on President Trump’s landing team at the Environmental Protection Agency during the presidential transition in late 2016 and early 2017.  Hormer also spent 20 years at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and is now an attorney and board member at Government Accountability and Oversight.

Horner says models have two areas ripe for intentional or unintentional manipulation – the assumptions built into the models and the quality of the data fed into them.

“If you want carbon dioxide to be a control knob, then you build that into your model.  That’s an assumption.  And you can have other assumptions about the impact of clouds as you believe it to be or sun.

“Even the UN says, ‘Well, we don’t quite know the sun’s impact on climate.’  So, maybe come back to me when you do.  That seems like a big one,” said Horner.

Horner says the rapidly fluctuating coronavirus infection and death projections even while consistently assuming social distancing and other mitigation efforts shows climate models are anything but predictive for decades or centuries from now.

In this podcast interview with Radio America’s Greg Corombos, Horner explains how the coronavirus response is a red flag for those considering dramatic economic action on the climate but he also explains how the two issues are different in very significant ways – and that climate models even admit their sweeping proposals wouldn’t accomplish anything.

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Kurtz vs. TV Doctors, Siding with China on Speech? Pelosi’s Bizarre Lie

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Listen to “Kurtz vs. TV Doctors, Siding with China on Speech? Pelosi’s Bizarre Lie” on Spreaker.

Join Jim and Greg as they examine media critic Howard Kurtz’s call for TV hosts to rely on infectious disease experts to assess the coronavirus instead of more familiar faces. They also hammer “The Atlantic” and two law professors for concluding that China’s crackdown on internet speech is a better way to go than America’s default towards free speech. And they unload on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for lying about opposing Trump’s China travel ban and for suggesting Trump was wrong even to allow American citizens and green card holders to return from China.

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Promising COVID Drug Flops, Looming Meat Problem, Trump & Disinfectants

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Listen to “Promising COVID Drug Flops, Looming Meat Problem, Trump & Disinfectants” on Spreaker.

Join Jim and Greg for the Friday martinis! After a quick discussion on Michigan Democrats censuring one of their state representatives who recovered from COVID and thanked President Trump for mentioning hydroxychloroquine, they turn to three bad martinis. First, they’re bummed to hear Chinese trials of remdesivir were apparently a bust. They also grimace as the virus is significantly limiting production at meat processing plants. And they hammer Trump and the media over Thursday’s disinfectant dust-up.

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What Will Be the Economic Toll from COVID-19?

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Listen to “What Will Be the Economic Toll from COVID-19?” on Spreaker.

On Thursday, the Department of Labor reported more than 4.4 million jobs lost in the past week.  Over the past five weeks, 26.4 million people have filed first-time jobless claims.

What are the short-term and long-term economic impacts of this hemorrhaging of jobs, productivity, and revenue?  How much has the Paycheck Protection Program helped? And how aggressively can our economy re-engage when we’re already hearing some schools may not be opening in the fall and the Centers for Disease Control believes the coronavirus could be worse in the coming winter than it is now?

Brian Wesbury is chief economist at First Trust Advisors in Wheaton, Illinois, and formerly served as chief economist for the Joint Economic Committee of Congress.  He walks us through these difficult questions, explains the indicators for and against a rise in inflation, and sizes up the recent volatility in the oil markets.

Don’t miss this critical conversation on the state of our economy.

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American Heroes, 26 Million Jobs Lost, Ugly Virus Models, Draft Day

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Listen to “American Heroes, 26 Million Jobs Lost, Ugly Virus Models, Draft Day” on Spreaker.

Join Jim and Greg as they salute the stunning dedication of employees at a polypropylene plant in Pennsylvania. They’re also staggered by more than 26 million jobs lost and discuss how to re-engage the economy responsibly. And they assess data suggesting there were tens of thousands of coronavirus cases in American cities by March 1. Finally, they forecast tonight’s NFL Draft and Greg has fun imagining how National Review drafted Jim Geraghty back in the day.

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