The Vince Coglianese Show

INTERVIEW - GENERAL JACK KEANE - a retired 4 star general, former Vice Chief of Staff of the US Army, the chairman of the Institute for the Study of War and Fox News Senior Strategic Analyst – analyzed rising tensions with Iran and how the Trump administration should handle Iran.

INTERVIEW - Kelly Shackelford, President, CEO, and Chief Counsel to First Liberty

Supreme Court says Maryland ‘Peace Cross’ honoring military dead does not constitute government endorsement of religion. (Washington Post) -- A 40-foot cross erected as a tribute to World War I dead may continue to stand on public land in Maryland, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday, rejecting arguments that it represented an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. The vote was 7 to 2 for the Bladensburg Peace Cross, which towers over a busy intersection on a highway just outside the District, in Prince George’s County. But the case’s resolution prompted an outpouring of individual opinions as the court struggled to explain what should be done with displays on government property that feature religious imagery. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote the main opinion and said history and tradition must be taken into account when judging modern objections to monuments that were built with a secular purpose or have come to take on a new meaning. “The cross is undoubtedly a Christian symbol, but that fact should not blind us to everything else that the Bladensburg Cross has come to represent,” Alito wrote. “For some, that monument is a symbolic resting place for ancestors who never returned home. For others, it is a place for the community to gather and honor all veterans and their sacrifices for our Nation. For others still, it is a historical landmark. “For many of these people, destroying or defacing the Cross that has stood undisturbed for nearly a century would not be neutral and would not further the ideals of respect and tolerance embodied in the First Amendment.” Alito was joined in deciding that the cross may remain by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Clarence Thomas, Stephen G. Breyer, Elena Kagan, Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh. Alito wrote that “retaining established, religiously expressive monuments, symbols, and practices is quite different from erecting or adopting new ones. The passage of time gives rise to a strong presumption of constitutionality.”

U.S. Supreme Court: WAR ON VETERANS MEMORIALS IS OVER: High Court ends efforts by activists to cleanse public of displays of faith, including Maryland “Peace Cross” / WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, in a 7-2 decision, the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States preserved the nearly 100-year old Bladensburg WWI Veterans Memorial, along with memorials like it bearing religious symbols across the country.  Most importantly, in The American Legion v. American Humanist Association, the Justices reaffirmed that the First Amendment allows people to use religious symbols and images in public.  First Liberty Institute and the international law firm Jones Day represent The American Legion. “This is a landmark victory for religious freedom.  The days of illegitimately weaponizing the Establishment Clause and attacking religious symbols in public are over,” said Kelly Shackelford, President, CEO, and Chief Counsel to First Liberty. “Our Founders would have been appalled at this attempt to make the government hostile to our religious heritage, history, and symbols. The attempted perversion of our Constitution is now over, and every American now has more freedom than they have had in decades, with a government no longer hostile to people or expressions of faith.”

Friday 6/21/19: Kelly Shackelford, Gen. Jack Keane, White House's Adam Kennedy and co-host Chris Stigall

Friday 6/21/19: Kelly Shackelford, Gen. Jack Keane, White House's Adam Kennedy and co-host Chris Stigall

Friday 6/21/19: Kelly Shackelford, Gen. Jack Keane, White House's Adam Kennedy and co-host Chris Stigall

Friday 6/21/19: Kelly Shackelford, Gen. Jack Keane, White House's Adam Kennedy and co-host Chris Stigall

INTERVIEW – STAR PARKER – President of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education (UrbanCURE), which she started after consulting on federal welfare reform in the 90s, and she is the author of the upcoming book: “Necessary Noise: How Donald Trump Inflames the Culture War and Why This Is Good for the Future of America”

Heckling, drama mark House hearing on slavery reparations as top Dem asks, ‘Why not now?’

House committee confronts the “inheritance of slavery” in panel on reparations

House Majority leader says he expects reparations bill to get a floor vote. (The Hill) – House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Wednesday that he has every intention of bringing to the floor a proposal providing reparations for the descendants of slaves. “It will get a vote if it comes out of the committee; I expect it to come out of the committee,” Hoyer said during a press briefing in the Capitol. As Hoyer spoke, Democrats on the Judiciary Committee’s subpanel on the Constitution were holding a historic hearing on the legislation, with testimony from prominent black figures like the author Ta-Nehisi Coates, the actor Danny Glover and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), a 2020 presidential hopeful.

Star Parker: Why Pursuing ‘Slavery Reparations’ Will Lead to a LOSS of Freedom. The Black Caucus and other Leftists in the House will hold a hearing to begin a reparations commission. They have stacked the committees with leftist and communist experts to discuss “through open and constructive discourse, the legacy of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, its continuing impact on the community and the path to restorative justice.” There will be nothing open nor constructive about this. Cory Booker, who is running as a 2020 presidential candidate, introduced companion legislation in the Senate. And Democrats across the board, including every presidential candidate, have virtue signaled their approval to begin cash payments to descendants of slaves. What is our country coming to? It’s true that enslaved ancestors of blacks were robbed. They were robbed of their labor, their happiness, their lives, their property and their families. And this continued into the 20th century through racist laws that excluded blacks from opportunities available only to whites, such as the GI Bill. But our nation ended these racial hierarchies.

INTERVIEW – CAL THOMAS – Syndicated columnist

AP: Trump, in 2020 campaign mode, calls Democrats ‘radical.’ Addressing a crowd of thousands at Orlando’s Amway Center on Tuesday night, Trump complained he was “under assault from the very first day” of his presidency by a “fake news media” and an “illegal witch hunt” that had tried to keep him and his supporters down. He painted a disturbing picture of what life would look like if he loses in 2020, accusing his critics of “un-American conduct” and saying Democrats “want to destroy you and they want to destroy our country as we know it.” “A vote for any Democrat in 2020 is a vote for the rise of radical socialism and the destruction of the American dream,” he said. Trump made only passing mention of any of the Democrats running to replace him even as he tossed out “radical” and “unhinged” to describe the rival party.

TRUMP VS BIDEN FUNDRAISING:

Trump raised $24.8M in the first 24 hours of his campaign.

Biden raised $6.3M in the first 24 hours of his campaign.

Iran shoots down US drone aircraft. Tehran, Iran (CNN) Iranian forces have shot down a United States military drone, a move that appears to have escalated the volatile situation playing out between Washington and Tehran in the Middle East. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it had shot down an “intruding American spy drone” after it entered into the country’s territory Thursday, according to state-run Press TV. A US official confirmed to CNN a drone had been shot down, but said the incident occurred in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most vital shipping routes.

INTERVIEW – STEVE MOORE – former campaign economic advisor to President Trump, economist at The Heritage Foundation and author of book “Trumponomics: Inside the America First Plan to Revive Our Economy”

President Donald J. Trump awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, to economist Arthur Laffer at a ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House on Wednesday.

Fed holds rates steady, but opens the door for a rate cut in the future. A divided Federal Reserve held the line on interest rates Wednesday and indicated formally that no cuts are coming in 2019. The decision came amid divisions over what is ahead and still leaves open the possibility that policy loosening could happen before the end of the year depending on how conditions unfold.

INTERVIEW — JOSIE URREA – Vice President of the Board and a student member of the Anne Arundel School Board

AA Co. Board of Education votes to eliminate top GPA as qualification for valedictorian. ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WMAR) — In a 5-4 vote, the Anne Arundel County Board of Education decided to abolish how the county’s school valedictorians and salutatorians are chosen. Previously those honors were awarded to those students with the highest grade point average. With Wednesday night’s vote, students who earn Summa Cum Laude honors, or a weighted GPA of 4.3 or above after seven high school semesters are eligible to apply for class valedictorian or salutatorian. Under the new policy, students will be evaluated on character, leadership, scholarship, and service. Winners will be selected through a school-based process to be determined by the Superintendent of Schools.