Thursday 6/20/19: Cal Thomas, Anne Arundel School Board member Josie Urrea, Steve Moore, Star Parker and guest host Chris Stigall
6am – A/B/C 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.
6am – D 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.
6am – E Chuck Todd Says Migrant Detention Facilities Aren’t Nazi Concentration Camps, Gets Ratioed (HotAir) — Chuck Todd came out and said what far too few Democrats were willing to say yesterday. The detention centers on our southern border are not Nazi concentration camps. In saying this he sidestepped the dodge that AOC and other progressives were using yesterday, pretending that when she spoke of concentration camps she wasn’t referring to Nazi camps. That’s clearly not the case though it was a small minority of Democrats willing to admit as much. Todd started from the position that she meant Nazi camps (she used the phrase “never again” and called Trump a “fascist”) and then pointed out that you can disagree with the detention of migrants without breaking Godwin’s Law. “If you want to criticize the shameful treatment of people at our southern border, fine. You’ll have plenty of company. But be careful comparing them to Nazi concentration camps because they’re not at all comparable, in the slightest,” Todd said.
6am – F Syrian refugee arrested for alleged ISIS terror plot to attack Christian church in Pittsburgh. Federal prosecutors say that a Syrian refugee was arrested for allegedly planning a terror attack on a Christian church in Pittsburgh. 21-year-old Mustafa Mousab Alowemer was accused of the plot “to support the cause of ISIS and to inspire other ISIS supporters in the United States.” The Department of Justice announced the arrest on Wednesday. Alowemer was born in Daraa, Syria, and came to the United States as a refugee in 2016, according to the criminal filing. “Alowemer also distributed propaganda materials, offered to provide potential targets in the Pittsburgh area, requested a weapon with a silencer, and recorded a video of himself pledging an oath of allegiance to the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,” read a statement from the DOJ. The complaint alleges that he was targeting the Legacy International Worship Center in Pittsburgh for a bomb attack because they had Nigerian attendees and he wanted “revenge for [ISIS] brothers in Nigeria.”