Listen to “Near Collision in the Pacific” on Spreaker.
Russia and the United States are both disputing what happened when a their ships almost collided.
Montie Montgomery reports.
Near Collision in the Pacific
Tariff Talk Sparks Progress, Hyde & Biden, Baldwin’s SNL Exit
Listen to “Tariff Talk Sparks Progress, Hyde & Biden, Baldwin’s SNL Exit” on Spreaker.
Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America discuss ongoing negotiations between the United States and Mexico concerning border security and tariffs. They also roll their eyes as Joe Biden flip-flops a third time on his longtime support for the Hyde Amendment, which bans federal funding for abortion. And they get a kick out of Alec Baldwin sounding like a politician as he steps away from his Trump impression on “Saturday Night Live” and discuss why Baldwin’s performance never matched the impressions other cast members did of previous presidents.
Northam & Guns: Sound Policy or Political Posturing?
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Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam is calling a special session to push new gun laws in the wake of last week’s deadly mass shooting in Virginia Beach, but a pro-second amendment lawmaker sees Northam’s move more as an attempt to burnish his own image than to seriously address incidents of deadly violence.
Earlier in the week, Northam called for seven specific items to be enacted, including universal background checks; a ban on assault weapons, bump stocks, and suppressors; an extreme risk protective order; re-instating of the one-gun-a-month law; requiring people to report lost or stolen firearms; and expanding local authority to regulate firearms – including in government buildings.
Northam’s call comes just days after a disgruntled former municipal employee in Virginia Beach killed 12 people and wounded at least six others before being killed by police.
But GOP Delegate Nick Freitas does not believe Northam is approaching the issue with sincerity. Instead, Freitas thinks the governor is trying to improve his standing among voters following his notorious medical school yearbook scandal, in which a photo of one person in blackface and another in KKK garb appeared on Northam’s personal page.
“Ever since his blackface and KKK robe scandal, everything he has done has been about trying to rejuvenate his political career. When it interferes in sound public policy, that’s a real problem,” said Freitas.
The Virginia Beach murderer legally purchased the handguns he used to shoot people in a government building, leading Freitas and other Northam critics wonder how Northam’s policy demands would have made any difference in that horrific attack.
To the contrary, Freitas says Northam’s agenda would Virginia citizens less safe.
“The whole reason why, in the United States, we value the individual’s right to be able to protect themselves and if necessary to have a firearm to do so. It’s because it actually makes a weaker person able to defend themselves from a stronger attacker.
“Every single one of these provisions they’re now pushing out creates an environment where a law-abiding citizen is going to be put at a disadvantage to somebody that is not obeying the law,” said Freitas.
Freitas says the narrow Republican majorities in the General Assembly will examine ways to make Virginians safer but that will not include the Northam agenda.
“We’re going to use this as an opportunity to actually look at all of the data points – all of the information coming in surrounding this shooting – and figure out a way that we can actually make people safer. But we’re certainly not going to succumb to this knee-jerk reaction by the governor to politicize a tragic event in order to rehabilitate his political career,” said Freitas.
Listen to the full podcast to hear Freitas discuss whether there can ever be common ground on this issue and where Virginia Republicans can take action to increase safety for people in the commonwealth.
Pelosi Wants Trump in Jail-Not Impeached
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told fellow Democrats that she’d rather see Trump behind bars-not Impeached.
Montie Montgomery reports.
Border Apprehensions Reach Record Highs
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Illegal immigration numbers are soaring: the number of border enforcement actions more than doubled in the past year. In May alone, more than 132,000 migrants were apprehended at the Southwest border. Julie Mitchell reports.
Homelessness Skyrockets in Los Angeles
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The homeless rate in the city of Los Angeles skyrocketed over the last year, leaving state and local officials frustrated at the precipitous rise. Matt Fisher reports.
Honoring D-Day Heroes, Biden’s Abortion Flip-Flop, Pelosi Prefers Prison for Trump
Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America reflect on the 75th anniversary of D-Day and applaud President Trump’s address at Normandy. They also discuss Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden walking back his position change on the Hyde Amendment and facing criticism from his rivals for not backing taxpayer-funded abortions. And they get a kick out of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly telling allies she would rather defeat President Trump and then see him prosecuted than have the House launch impeachment proceedings.
The Magnitude of D-Day
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On Thursday, millions of people will direct their eyes to ceremonies honoring the military operation that radically changed and greatly hastened the end of World War II – 75 years after it happened.
On June 6, the U.S. and our allies launched the allied invasion of Normandy known as D-Day. On that date, some 150,000 personnel attacked Nazi-occupied France from the skies, from the sea, and rushed ashore on five strategic beaches and neighboring cliffs to help free a continent from tyranny.
Today, only a tiny fraction of those veterans remain, but the magnitude of what they and their brothers in arms accomplished that day will forever reverberate through history.
So as Americans and our allies commemorate D-Day, what should we remember? Dr Thomas Conner teaches military history at Hillsdale College in Michigan and is author of “War and Remembrance: The Story of the American Battle Monuments Commission.” He says it’s hard to overstate the importance of taking the beaches and establishing another front in the European theater.
“It had to be successful for the Allies to get a foothold on the continent of Europe and begin driving the Germans back in on their own borders. The war ended in literally the ashes of Berlin, only eleven months after D-Day,” said Conner.
Listen to the full podcast to hear Conner explain how the Allies pulled off such a massive mission while keeping the Nazis completely unprepared for it, how close U.S. commanders were to declaring the mission a failure, how American soldiers adapted to parachuting into the wrong places and facing much stiffer German defenses than expected on bloody Omaha Beach and elsewhere along the coast.
He also describes the powerful experience of visiting the U.S. cemetery above Omaha Beach.
“I’ve seen more grown men cry in Normandy than anyplace else I’ve ever been and the cemetery evokes that kind of response,” said Conner. “The combination of the memorial but also the awareness that it is right in the center of the Omaha Beach battlefield is quite moving.”
Senate GOP Balks at Tariffs, Parkland Officer Faces Charges, NBA Owners Go PC
Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America are glad to see Senate Republicans expressing major reservations over the Trump administration’s proposed tariffs against Mexico. They also discuss Parkland Officer Scot Peterson facing criminal charges for his non-response to the Stoneman-Douglas High School shooting and wonder whether the charges are appropriate for his dereliction of duty. And they have some fun with the news that some NBA owners no longer want to be called “owners” because the term is racially insensitive.
The Inequality of the Equality Act
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Earlier this year, the House of Representatives passed the Equality Act. Supporters say they want to add anti-discrimination protections for sexual orientation and gender identity similar to the existing provisions for people based on sex, race, ethnicity, and religion. However, critics contend the legislation would ramp up inequality for Americans who do not agree with the LGBT agenda.
Emilie Kao directs the Devos Center for Religion and Civil Society at the Heritage Foundation. She says the Equality Act actually leads to more inequality.
“We don’t think anybody should be discriminated against simply because they are gay or transgender. Everyone should be treated with respect. But the problem with the Equality Act is that it doesn’t treat everyone with respect. It basically codifies ideologies about sexual orientation and sex differences into civil rights law. That will lead to the punishment of people who don’t agree with those viewpoints,” said Kao.
Kao says the bill would lead to an erosion of freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and parental rights.
To begin, the Equality Act would trump the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, meaning wedding vendors such as bakers and florists who feel servicing a same-sex wedding would violate their consciences would not be able to cite their sincerely-held religious beliefs when sued under this law.
Kao says it would also strip legal protections for people who simply disagree with same-sex marriage or the transgender agenda. She says teachers have been fired for refusing to use the preferred pronouns of a student identifying as a different gender and hospitals have been targeted for refusing to perform gender reassignment surgery.
According to Kao, the Equality Act would also gut parental rights. And she cited a transgender case in Ohio as a preview for what the Equality Act would do nationwide.
“A Catholic family lost custody of their daughter when the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital said that she should be taking testosterone for gender dysphoria. When the parents disagreed, the state charged the parents with child abuse and a judge terminated their custody,” said Kao.
Parents would also find themselves powerless in confronting an increasingly activist curriculum on these matters.
“In many cases, the parents are not even informed that children as young as kindergarten are being read stories in which they are told something that is a fallacy, which is that a person can transition from one sex to the other sex,” said Kao.
Listen to the full podcast to hear Kao explain how the Equality Act would lead to greater inequality and why the promoters of the legislation are determined to criminalize those who disagree with their agenda.
She says there is a lot more at stake here than most Americans realize.
“I think what people should be aware of is the endangerment of religious freedom – it’s already happening at the state level – the endangerment of parental rights, and the endangerment of women and girls’ safety and privacy, not to mention fairness in sports,” she said.