Listen to “Shanahan Withdraws Defense Secretary Nomination” on Spreaker.
Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan withdrew his nomination for Defense Secretary Tuesday after allegations of domestic abuse surfaced. Montie Montgomery has more.
by GregC
Listen to “Shanahan Withdraws Defense Secretary Nomination” on Spreaker.
Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan withdrew his nomination for Defense Secretary Tuesday after allegations of domestic abuse surfaced. Montie Montgomery has more.
by GregC
David French of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America discuss Harvard’s decision to rescind the admittance of Kyle Kashuv, a Parkland shooting survivor and conservative, for controversial past statements. They analyze the general misinformation and public ignorance about Medicare-for-All. And for today’s crazy martini, they discuss O.J. Simpson joining the Twittersphere.
by GregC
Listen to “Why the Trade War Hurts China More” on Spreaker.
The United States and China are engaged in high-level trade talks punctuated by tariffs inflicted in both directions, and while U.S. consumers may soon feel the pinch of higher prices, a leading China expert says the communist regime in Beijing is suffering far more.
“China has a trade-dependent economy and we do not,” said Gordon Chang, an East Asia policy expert and author of “The Coming Collapse of China.” “Last year, China’s trade surplus with the U.S. accounted for 199.3 percent of it’s overall merchandise surplus. That’s incredible dependence on access to the U.S. market.”
According to Chang, the U.S. needs to hammer China for anywhere between $150-600 billion to counter China’s prolific theft of U.S. intellectual property, or IP.
Many free trade advocates, including those in President Trump’s own party, agree that China is running roughshod over intellectual property rights but they contend Trump’s approach will only result in higher costs for American consumers.
Chang agrees that Americans will feel some pain, but he believes it will be mild compared to the impact on China.
“Yes, these tariffs will hurt us but China, up to now, has been absorbing probably more of the cost of these tariffs than we have. So President Trump has been correct,” said Chang, who warns the financial impact on American consumers will get more severe the longer the trade impasse continues.
“As he extends tariffs to all Chinese good, which could happen in the not-too-distant future, then the percentage borne by the United States will be higher for sure. But at some point, we have got to recognize that we cannot sustain the loss of all of this IP and that this is a critical threat to our economy and our society,” said Chang.
But Chang insists if we’re going to stop China’s predatory practices, the U.S. must pursue this course.
“We’ve just got to realize that we cannot get out of decades of misguided trade policy with China and expect there will be no cost. There is a cost already and we’re going to have to bear it in ways which are more obvious than in the past,” said Chang.
Listen to the full podcast to hear whether no deal is better than a good deal with China for the foreseeable future and why Chang thinks Trump is making a big mistake in how he is dealing with China when it comes to the North Korean nuclear threat.
by GregC
David French of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America discuss Hong Kong hitting pause on an extradition agreement with the Chinese government following massive protests. They also examine the Supreme Court’s approach to Christian vendors vs. the LGBT agenda. They consider what comes next after Iran’s decision to exceed the low-grade uranium limit set by the 2015 nuclear deal. And they also discuss the Trump campaign’s decision to fire its pollsters after unfavorable leaks of bad numbers.
by GregC
Listen to “Illinois: Abortion Now Legal for Any Reason or No Reason at All” on Spreaker.
Illinois now has perhaps the most permissive abortion laws in the nation after Democrats pushed an expansive new bill through the legislature and Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed it into law on Wednesday.
Democrats billed the proposal as shoring up existing law over concern that the U.S. Supreme Court could soon reverse Roe v. Wade, but Republican State Rep. Tom Morrison says the legislation was far more sweeping than that, starting with how lawmakers view abortion.
“The most important thing it does is that it says that abortion is a fundamental right of women – actually not just women. The sponsor of the bill said anyone with a uterus and ovaries, so I guess that’s not just women today as they would define it,” said Morrison.
When it comes to specifics, Morrison says the expansion of abortion access is obvious.
“This bill was 126 pages long and expanded [permissiveness of abortion]. It removed clinic regulations. It removed provisions to have two doctors involved in a late-term abortion. There’s a provision for non-physicians to do abortions up to a certain point,” said Morrison.
According to Morrison, the bill also changes the definition of a viable unborn baby.
“It’s now left up to what the doctor determines at the moment, rather than having two doctors agree on a case by case basis,” said Morrison, who adds that the lone doctor can be the abortion provider and a late-term pregnancy can be considered non-viable simply because the baby would need to be flown to another facility for care in a neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU.
In addition, Morrison fears the legislation will be very dangerous for mothers who suffer complications from an abortion. He says the new law does not require a coroner to investigate the deaths of women who were patients at abortion clinics, essentially allowing those deaths to vanish into the wind.
Among the most controversial provisions is the provision to allow abortions at any stage of pregnancy, even when the child could survive outside of the mother. While supporters frequently refer to parents making the decision after discovering their child is severely deformed, Morrison says there’s no mention of that issue in the bill.
In fact, Morrison says reasons like “familial health” are cited as reasons for an abortion at any stage.
“It could mean anything. It could mean financial health. It could mean mental health. It could mean a mother doesn’t like stretch marks and that would impact her perception of her body image.
“It’s totally up to interpretation. Maybe it it’s that a family already has a boy and they want a girl, so they abort the child because the child isn’t the sex that the couple wants. Maybe it’s that sleep would be interrupted for someone in the family,” said Morrison.
Morrison does believe the recent string of pro-life legislation banning abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected played a role in the pro-abortion legislation advancing in Illinois. He says momentum for aborting viable babies was pretty tepid before that.
“Even some of of the pro-choice legislators were reluctant to support those bills. Those southern states, as they moved forward on their bills and signed them into law, then the proponents in Illinois figured they had the green light to offer a counter to what was happening in those other states,” said Morrison.
Listen to the full podcast to hear Morrison also explain how the new Illinois law could soon lead to the overturning of parental notification and consent laws for minors seeking abortions, how Illinois abortion providers are circumventing the ban on partial birth abortions and much more.
by GregC
Listen to “President Trump Stands By Conway” on Spreaker.
The US Office of Special Council released a statement saying Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway should be fired for violating the Hatch Act. Donald Trump in an appearance on Fox and Friends disagrees. Montie Montgomery reports.
by GregC
Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America discuss the lineup of the two Democratic debates. They also evaluate Joe Biden’s vow that cancer will be cured if he’s elected president and Joy Behar of ‘The View’ suggesting climate change makes a cure much tougher. And they break down the political battle between New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Rev. Al Sharpton over a proposed ban on menthol cigarettes in the Big Apple.
by GregC
Listen to “Big Tech Targets Conservatives” on Spreaker.
The nation’s largest technology giants are abandoning their positions as free speech advocates and actively taking sides to silence and punish conservatives, and Project Veritas President James O’Keefe says Pinterest’s treatment of his group and the pro-life organization Live Action is the latest proof.
A whistleblower reached out to Project Veritas to report that Live Action was inaccessible on Pinterest because it was included in the site’s “porn domain,” which blocks access to pornographic sites. When confronted with this obvious error, Pinterest removed Live Action from the porn domain.
But a short time later, Pinterest banned Live action altogether. That’s because the whistleblower provided more information that Project Veritas promptly made public about how the site openly discriminated against Live Action.
“There was a conversation internally on a Slack thread, which is a text-messaging internal thread and the employee at Pinterest actually said that in the private messaging board [a Pinterest official] said, ‘I’ve seen Live Action on there.’
“She basically said it shouldn’t be on there but we’re going to keep it on there. That proved that the executives at Pinterest knew that Live Action wasn’t pornography but was putting it on the list anyway,” said O’Keefe.
But the crackdown wasn’t done. Project Veritas published a video highlighting that Pinterest was intentionally classifying Live Action incorrectly. Not only did Pinterest boot Live Action off the platform, but YouTube banned the video and Twitter suspended the Project Veritas account for publishing private information.
Right-leaning sites like PJ Media and Zero Hedge were also lumped in the porn domain.
O’Keefe calls this a watershed moment in which the major social media sites and “big tech” are no longer presenting themselves as champions of free speech but of a political and ideological agenda.
“The big tech companies have drawn a line in the sand. They’re choosing to have an editorial agenda. they’re no longer just big tech companies that have platforms. They’re publishers. Now they’re trying to stop and censor and prohibit the American people from having the information that’ll wake them up, that’ll shake them awake,” said O’Keefe.
Listen to the full podcast to hear O’Keefe explain why he believes the big tech companies are actually more powerful than the three branches of government and far more powerful than the traditional media outlets of network and cable news and the major newspapers. He also details what he wants the tech companies to admit and why he finds it Orwellian that the tech crackdown on conservatives coincides with liberal politicians declaring that certain – including being pro-life – are no longer acceptable in public discourse.
by GregC
Listen to “US Accuses Iran of Oil Tanker Attacks” on Spreaker.
The United States is accusing Iran of attacking two oil tankers Thursday. Montie Montgomery reports.
by GregC
Listen to “Young Dems Turn on Biden, Tankers Attacked in Gulf, Acosta’s Ego Trip” on Spreaker.
Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America discuss Beto O’Rourke and other Democratic presidential candidates attacking Joe Biden for his age and ties to the Obama administration. They also discuss the attack on two oil tankers in the Persian Gulf as tensions escalate. And they get a good laugh as CNN’s Jim Acosta and Don Lemon offer a comical defense of their organization’s coverage of the Trump administration.