Liberty & Prosperity Blog

Tim Scott's rebuttal to Joe Biden's first address to a joint session of Congress stole Wednesday night's show. If you just read Sen. Scott's speech , you won't get the full impact of his speech. Sen. Scott opened with a sensible tone, saying "We just heard President Biden's first address to Congress. Our President seems like a good man. His speech was full of good words." Then Sen. Scott went on the attack, saying "But President Biden promised you a specific kind of leadership. He promised to unite a nation. To lower the temperature. To govern for all Americans, no matter how we voted. That was the pitch. You just heard it again. But our nation is starving for more than empty platitudes. We need policies and progress that bring us closer together. But three months in, the actions of the President and his party are pulling us further apart." In order to get the full impact, though, people need to watch Sen. Scott's speech: Then Sen. Sco...

Rumor has it that Joe Biden delivered a speech to a joint session of Congress last night. Normally, those speeches are delivered from the Speaker's perch. Last night, Joe Biden's speech sounded like it was from La-La Land. To any well-informed listener, Joe sounded like his Neil Kinnock/plagiarism days. In the speech's opening, Biden said "100 days ago, America’s house was on fire. We had to act. And thanks to the extraordinary leadership of Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Schumer, and with the overwhelming support of the American people, Democrats, Independents, and Republicans, we did act. Together, we passed the American Rescue Plan, one of the most consequential rescue packages in American history. We’re already seeing the results. After I promised 100 million COVID-19 vaccine shots in 100 days – we will have provided over 220 million COVID shots in 100 days. We’re marshalling every federal resource. We’ve gotten the vaccine to nearly 40,000 pharmacies and ove...

Joe Biden repeatedly said that his administration would "follow the science." He's fallen short of that promise. Tuesday, Mr. Biden walked out of the White House wearing a mask to announce "new CDC guidelines eliminating the need for face coverings at such gatherings." The White House touted this speech as a major speech on COVID-19. It wasn't. Joe Biden and the Democrats insist that he's following the science on this. That isn't true. Last summer, which is almost a year ago, a DHS study showed that COVID-19 dies in sunlight virtually instantly. In fact, most people are safer outdoors than indoors. Further, it's virtually impossible to spread COVID-19 through incidental contact with others. The president’s appearance on the North Lawn was designed to herald the eased mask restrictions for people, such as himself, who are fully vaccinated. After walking to the podium in the black face covering, Biden took it off and said, "Starting today, ...

Saying that Republicans hit the jackpot in the reapportionment phase of redistricting is a bit overheated. It isn't overheated, though, to say that the GOP won reapportionment . Alpha News notes "Most forecasters agree that Republicans, however, have the advantage going into redistricting. The GOP has complete control over the process in Texas, Florida and North Carolina, where a combined 84 seats could be at play." It's interesting that "Texas is set to gain two congressional seats, the bureau said, bringing its total to 38 and its number of electoral votes to 40. Florida is set to gain one congressional seat, bringing its total to 28 and its number of electoral votes to 30." Florida and Texas were both expected to gain more than that. Oregon, Montana, Colorado and North Carolina will each gain an additional seat, fueled by population growth across the Sun Belt and northwestern U.S. Montana is the only state in the country to go from one to two congressi...

Let Them Play Minnesota's lawsuit might've put the Walz administration, starting with the Minnesota Department of Health, aka MDH, in a difficult position. Previously, Let Them Play Minnesota "filed a lawsuit against Walz for requiring youth athletes to wear masks while competing. Now, the group has amended its complaint to reflect evidence of the Walz administration’s effort to connect COVID-19 deaths in long-term care facilities to youth sports." This will require some pretty fancy tap-dancing on the state's behalf. That's' because "Let Them Play claims to be in possession of email evidence proving Walz officials engaged in a 'complete fabrication' of the risks associated with youth sporting events." "As people push back on youth sports and whether they really need to be ended, we need to more explicitly tie youth sports to LTC," an unnamed political consultant said in an email, which was sent the same day the governor sh...

People thinking that Minneapolis isn't dying haven't read Grace Bureau's article in the College Fix. In the article, Ms. Bureau writes "Minneapolis is my home. My happiest memories are here. It’s where I learned to ride a bike, had my first date, received my high school diploma. But today, I’m too afraid to even walk in my neighborhood by myself. The ACE Hardware down the street? The one that I used to bike to in the summer? Robbed twice in the past five days. The Walgreens next to my elementary school? Molotov cocktail thrown into it." Later, she wrote "My church, my beloved, tiny, Lutheran church, organized social justice marches for our congregation while refusing to reinstate in-person services (they’re still virtual, by the way)." Why wouldn't things work that way, Grace? To these metro churches, political activism is definitely more important than imparting biblical wisdom. Bit-by-bit, Democrats are changing the political landscape in urban ...

Joe Biden wants to torment farmers with the Waters of the United States, aka WOTUS, rule again. This isn't surprising. It's just terribly disappointing. WOTUS "sought to give unprecedented power to unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., at the expense of farmers, ranchers, small business owners and the American people." Further, "the courts ruled that the 2015 definition was more expansive than the statute and the Constitution allow. WOTUS provided none of the clarity and certainty it promised. Instead, it created confusion and put landowners at risk by giving federal agencies almost unlimited authority to regulate, at their discretion, any low spot where rainwater collects. This included common farm ditches, streams, small ponds, creeks and isolated wetlands found on and near farms and ranches across the nation, no matter how small or seemingly unconnected they may be to true 'navigable waters.'" In the original Clean Water Act, navigable wat...

It's anyone's guess whether the Chauvin verdicts will get reversed. One of the alternate jurors said "she worried about future 'rioting and destruction' and even personal harm if the jury did not agree to a guilty verdict." Juror 96, aka Lisa Christensen, "said she had 'mixed feelings' due to the threat of social unrest that came with the case. 'There was a question on the questionnaire about it and I put I did not know. The reason, at that time, was I did not know what the outcome was going to be, so I felt like either way you are going to disappoint one group or the other. I did not want to go through rioting and destruction again and I was concerned about people coming to my house if they were not happy with the verdict.'" It's impossible to think that the potential rioting and destruction didn't affect jurors. Judge Cahill should've sequestered the jury because information about this trial couldn't be avoided. F...

When Ma'Khia Bryant pinned a woman against a vehicle, she pulled a knife out and threatened that woman with that knife. The parrots in the MSM insisted that the 2 girls got into a fight. That isn't what happened. Ms. Bryant was involved in another fight before attacking the teenager in the pink outfit. The teenager in the pink outfit was walking towards the officer when Bryant attacked. That's assault with a deadly weapon. That's far beyond a simple fight. Video captured by a neighbor's motion detector shows virtually everything from the time the first squad car arrived. I saw 2 things in this video that I consider noteworthy: In the video from the officers' body cams, a man wearing blue jeans is lining up to kick a woman who is lying on the sidewalk. The woman on the sidewalk fell there after getting pushed by Ma'Khia Bryant. Bryant then moved to the teenager in the pink outfit. When Bryant switched to attacking the girl in pink, Bryant blindsided the u...

A total of 23 DFL senators voted against Sen. Jeff Howe's resolution condemning "the removal of the Minnesota National Guard from the St. Paul Labor Center." Senate DFL Leader Susan Kent opposed "the resolution because it 'represents political posturing. It is adding to the tensions. It is playing with matches in a dry field,' Kent said of the resolution, which she voted against 'out of protest for the very fact that we are spending our valuable time doing this when what we need to be doing is working on behalf of the people of Minnesota.'" A look at the heart of Sen. Howe's resolution shows that that's DFL spin. Here's text from the heart of Sen. Howe's resolution: WHEREAS , the Governor activated the Minnesota National Guard on February 5, 2021, to protect public safety and security, and the lives, property, and rights of residents, businesses, and protesters alike; and WHEREAS , the citizen soldiers of the Minnesota Nation...

My jaw hit the floor when I heard Gov. Walz say that replaying the 9+ minute videotape of George Floyd's death "have desensitized the horrificness of what was witnessed on that Memorial Day last year." Gov. Walz then continued, saying "And we're here this week because of that act. Plain and simple, where we watched a man's humanity get taken and then we watched his life be taken. Last June, we watched that pain and anger pour out into our streets here, across the country and around the world. That civil unrest that followed here in Minnesota left nearly 1,000 businesses in ruin and the lifestream of many with them." Later, Gov. Walz continued, saying "they very clearly stated that if the systemic changes that need to be made aren't made that things would repeat themselves. And when I say things, I mean the horrific deaths of young black men over and over and a systemic feeling in this state that not everybody gets the same opportunities. And j...

Marjorie Taylor Greene isn't one to mince words on indelicate subjects. When Democrat Maxine Waters told rioters/looters/activists that they should "get more confrontational" if they don't get a murder conviction for Derek Chauvin , Rep. Taylor Greene replied "I'll be introducing a resolution to expel Rep. Maxine Waters from Congress for her continual incitement of violence." Since it takes two-thirds of the members of the House to vote to expel a member, it isn't likely that Rep. Waters will get expelled. That doesn't mean that this is a frivolous enterprise. Dean Phillips and Angie Craig are so-called moderate Democrats representing Twin Cities suburbs. Phillips' district is just west of George Floyd Square. They're living in fear of riots daily. Predictably, the NRCC issued a statement: "Telling rioters who have burned buildings, looted stores, and assaulted journalists to get 'more confrontational' is incredibly irresp...

Something telling happened Sunday afternoon. A man in his 20s carjacked a car at gunpoint . Then the carjacker led police on a chase before crashing the vehicle. After crashing the vehicle, the carjacker allegedly "fired several shots at officers. He then crashed the second stolen car, and attempted to carjack two other drivers at gunpoint before he was fired upon by several officers." According to the article, "Burnsville police say a carjacking suspect is dead after a shootout with officers Sunday afternoon. It happened at about 3 p.m. on Interstate 35W at County Road 13. Police say the suspect, a white man in his 20s , was being pursued by officers for driving a vehicle with stolen plates. The man crashed that car, then carjacked a woman at gunpoint." This video highlights the fact that Black Lives Matter showed up at the scene: BLM chanted "you gotta stop shooting and killing people." It's unknown if they knew at the time that the alleged carjac...

Apparently, the Minneapolis City Council didn't embarrass itself enough when it voted unanimously to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department. Now, they're back to take another stab at embarrassing themselves with regard to enforcing the law. The Minneapolis City Council voted unanimously "for the development of a new Traffic Safety Division. This was first reported by KMSP-TV, aka Fox9 News. Fox9 reported "the City Council approved for staff to design and develop recommendations for the proposed new division, which would not be a part of the Minneapolis Police Department." This City Council is both stupid and unserious. They've voted unanimously to put these law enforcement officers' lives in danger. To a thug who doesn't care about laws, it's irrelevant whether the person pulling them over is part of the Minneapolis Police Department or whether they're part of the Traffic Safety Division. This was supposedly a routine traffic stop: D...

Tim Walz's weekly e-letter update includes "A Message on Daunte Wright." In the letter, Walz writes "The Governor and First Lady are praying for Daunte Wright’s family and loved ones as Minnesota mourns another life of a Black man taken by law enforcement. The death of Daunte Wright is a tragedy. He was a young man, a father, a friend, and a son. We must take meaningful action to fight systemic injustice, pursue bold police accountability reforms, and make lasting change. In these challenging times, the Governor’s duty is to preserve the First Amendment right of peaceful protests while protecting public safety. We must ensure communities have the space they deserve to grieve and call for change. As we support peaceful protest, we must also recognize the painful reality that there are bad actors who wish to exploit the movement. If anyone tries to use this tragedy to harm our communities, we have a robust public safety response and they will be arrested." Noti...

Only in America can a poor black child dream of growing up to have a president pander to him at the National Action Network annual convention. That's what happened Wednesday when Joe Biden spoke remotely to Al Sharpton' National Action Network. Joe Biden was in full-blown pander mode Wednesday. At one point, Biden said "parts of our country are backsliding. The days of Jim Crow, passing laws that harken back to the era of poll taxes, when Black people were made to guess how many beans – how many jelly beans in a jar, or count the number of bubbles in a bar of soap before they could cast their ballot." The new Georgia law doesn't restart Jim Crow-style segregation. It simply requires that Georgians voting via absentee ballot write in the voter's driver's license number or Georgia state ID number. This is already required for voting on the day of election. Here's Joe Biden's videotaped message to the National Action Network: Democrats don't t...

Based on DFL Rep. Dan Wolgamott's statement in this article on the Minnesota state budget, it's painfully apparent that Rep. Wolgamott is an economic illiterate. In the article, Rep. Wolgamott said "We are being bold. We are raising taxes on those who can afford to chip in a little more." It's painful to listen to for multiple reasons. First and most importantly, raising tax rates rarely raises the amount of revenue that's forecast. The simple truth is that capital and labor are mobile. With South Dakota actively recruiting Minnesota businesses to relocate to their state, creating a new top marginal tax rate is a loser from a policy standpoint. Next, higher tax rates cost employees pay increases, better benefits, more job security and promotions. Hint to Rep. Wolgamott: Higher tax rates reduces business expansion. Third, higher taxes that go toward increased spending on government schools is a foolish idea. The achievement gap keeps getting wider. It's...

I knew that the disarray in Brooklyn Center was bad but I didn't realize it was out-of-control. A day after Mayor Mike Elliott fired the city manager, Officer Kim Potter and Police Chief Tim Gannon submitted their resignations . That's the chief reason why Brooklyn Center is bracing for a third straight night of rioting. Curt Boganey, the city manager and Tim Gannon, the police chief argued in favor of due process. At yesterday's press conference, Mayor Mike Elliott said that he wanted Officer Potter fired without an investigation. Here's Mayor Elliott's pro-firing statement: The key point from Elliott's statement is that, at the time of the statement, he hadn't talked with the officer or anyone at the scene. Making a decision with that type of haste is inexcusable. Here's Police Chief Gannon's statement: The 'cooler heads prevailing brigade', aka Gannon and Boganey, were dismissed or resigned but the guy throwing white gas on the fire sti...

Julian Castro's op-ed has little to do with immigration reality. It starts with a personal story, one which I'm certain is sincere though irrelevant. Rep. Castro writes "Like the children arriving at our border every day, my grandmother came to the US from Mexico at seven years old seeking a better life. She worked as a maid, a cook and a babysitter to provide for her family." The next paragraph employs tactics that all Democrat stories employ -- conflation and distortion. Castro writes "The children arriving at our border today are seeking the same safety and opportunity she sought. Instead of treating them like national security threats, we should treat them humanely, and work to improve the conditions in their home countries so that more families aren't compelled to follow in their footsteps." What's missing from Rep. Castro's op-ed is the part about how the cartels have turned those innocent children into a lucrative business . Lara Logan ...

Apparently, it's impossible to find cooler heads to prevail after the shooting death of 20-year-old Daunte Wright . Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott fired Brooklyn Center City Manager Curt Boganey after fanning racial flames by calling for Officer Kimberley Potter's termination at a mid-afternoon press conference. This wasn't destined to end well after Boganey spoke after Elliott. Boganey said "All employees working for the city of Brooklyn Center are entitled to due process with respect to discipline. This employee will receive due process and that’s really all that I can say today." Later that day, Elliott issued a statement, saying "Effective immediately our city manager has been relieved of his duties, and the deputy city manager will be assuming his duties moving forward. I will continue to work my hardest to ensure good leadership at all levels of our city government." Effective immediately our city manager has been relieved of his duties, and t...

How White Are You? By Ramblin’ Rose Wow! I did not realize how much we are to hate ourselves! Political rhetoric seemed to be coming from campaigns, especially those arrows from the left-wing pundits and directed at President Trump and the Trumpsters. But this deep-seated hatred has been festering for a long time. Recently, I found that this vile hatred pre-dates, by decades, even President’s Trump announcement in 2015 to seek the White House, at least as expressed by Barnor Hesse. Barnor Hesse, associate professor of African American Studies, Political Science, and Sociology at Northwestern University, was publishing in the 20th century about whites' hatred for other races when he was really revealing his own abhorrence of whites, especially in South Africa, northern Europe and the United States. The following chart is even being used in schools to help students “work to becoming white abolitionists.” Apparently this is supported and shared by the Slow Factory Foundation that...

On November 1, 2020, the US-Mexico border was under control. On April 9, 2021, Roberta Jacobson, Joe Biden's border czar, announced that she was quitting effective at the end of April. Jacobson said that the US immigration system "is humane, orderly and safe." Michael Goodwin's response wasn't a positive review of the situation. He wrote "Only a committed virtue signaler could call it 'humane, orderly and safe' when coyotes and sex traffickers brought nearly 30,000 unaccompanied minors to the border in just February and March. Caring for them is costing taxpayers $60 million a week. Although the White House has kept the media in the dark, little snippets of the harsh reality reveal the daily depravity." While the federal government isn't letting reporters talk with people who manage the facilities, little snippets of information are escaping from Texas, which is getting swamped. Border patrol is beyond swamped. Leadership from the administ...

The Republicans' fastest path back into their House and Senate majorities, then the White House is the Democrats' overreach. If there's anything more predictable than the Democrats' overreach, it hasn't been discovered yet. By the time Democrats notice that they've gone too far, it'll be too late to save their majorities. The Democrats' overreach this time partially comes from the Democrats' support for banning fracking . The driving forces behind the fracking ban movement are Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders. Where these Democrats lead, other Democratic Socialists have followed. They've even dragged 'moderate' Joe Biden to the far left: Climate justice activists say fracking contributes to climate change. Two of the most vocal anti-fracking members of Congress, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders, introduced companion bills last year to end the practice nationwide. Ocasio-Cortez said in her release, "T...

I have a simple message to the delegates who will vote tomorrow for the officers of the MnGOP. It's time to dump Jennifer Carnahan. She can't lead an organization when one officer after another criticizes Chair Carnahan . Many current and former officials have criticized Carnahan. RNC Committeewoman Barb Sutter wrote "The state party has used fundraising vendors who get a percentage of the donations. However, over the period from October 2019 to February 2020, the oversight of those allocations was virtually nonexistent. MN GOP got to keep only 48% of the money that came in online, whether the vendor was responsible or not for the donations. Our vendors took large fees on nearly all donations throughout the life of our relationship." Sutter's email continued, saying "Rather than nurturing a vibrant environment that fosters teamwork and creativity, Jennifer uses fear to intimidate and silence her opponents. This is a drain on our party’s energy and resources...

If ever there was a city more in need of leadership at the executive level than Washington, DC, then it wasn't recently. Joe Biden and 'Commie' Harris aren't AWOL. They're virtually nonexistent. Commie Harris isn't just AWOL on border security. She's travelled to California, Atlanta, Washington, DC and Chicago . She hasn't travelled to the border: Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday visited a bakery in Chicago, coming away with a piece of German chocolate cake -- even as she faces scrutiny for not having visited the overwhelmed southern border. Harris was in the Windy City, where she toured a vaccination site that opened to union workers. She also visited Brown Sugar Bakery on the city’s South Side, where she met with owners and employees. Harris is siteseeing in Chicago while this is happening: This is happening, too: It's painfully obvious that the Biden-Harris administration won't take border security seriously. Further, it's obvi...

When Democrats need to attack a Republican, they often get help from CBS. They don't pick CBS that I know of. It's just that 60 Minutes is a reliable ally in CBS News's partisan fights. It all started with Rathergate back in Sept., 2004. Back then, CBS Nightly News anchor Dan Rather tried peddling a story that President George W. Bush had gone AWOL when he was part of the Texas Air National Guard. Rather insisted that Bill Burkett's documents were authentic. When that story collapsed, Rather insisted that the supposedly incriminating documents were "fake but accurate." Eventually, Rather was fired after being "taken to task for going to air with a controversial "60 Minutes II" story that questioned President Bush's service in the National Guard, a piece that turned out to be based on allegedly forged documents." The newest anti-GOP hit piece happened when 60 Minutes selectively edited Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' reply to a 60 Min...

John Harwood's latest article is mostly mythical. It starts by saying "For decades, Democrats and their economic advisers have agreed: broadly-shared growth requires more government investment. They've just lacked the power to invest. That's why President Joe Biden's "Build Back Better" economic plan has so energized the White House, his party and outside allies. The new President and congressional Democratic majorities have a chance, finally, to make it happen." Socialists don't understand that socialism is based on betting against human nature. While there's no doubt that government investment in roads, bridges and airports are required, there's no dodubt that this Biden bill is nothing more than the second installment payment on the Democrats' wish list. The 'infrastructure bill' is really the Green New Deal disguised as something somewhat useful. The truth is that socialists haven't figured out that certain things a...

To the Christians reading this post, I wish you a happy and holy Easter. Today represents the day when Christ defeated death by living a sinless life and rising from the dead. When the ladies arrived at the tomb, they worried about how they'd roll the stone away. This is Matthew's account : 28 Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. 2 And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone [a]from the door, and sat on it. 3 His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. 4 And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men. 5 But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. 7 And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dea...

Yesterday, the March jobs report proved that the Trump Recovery is continuing . The monthly jobs report showed that 916,000 jobs were created in March, easily outdistancing the expected 675,000 jobs that were predicted. This questions whether the $2,000,000,000,000 Biden-Pelosi COVID relief package was needed. HINT: It wasn't. The policies put in place by President Trump ushered in a gusher of new jobs and economic growth. The Trump jobs recovery started in May, 2020, when the economy unexpectedly created 2,500,000 jobs . The June jobs report showed that the economy created 4,800,000 jobs . The July jobs report showed that the economy created 1,800,000 jobs . Job creation slowed after that because Nancy Pelosi slammed the breaks on another relief package until after the election. Job creation picked back up once the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were approved and the final Trump relief package was passed. The $1.9 trillion Biden-Pelosi 'relief' package was done so Joe Bid...

I attended my first Twins game on Sunday, Sept. 10, 1966. The Twins won that day by an 11-6 score. I've been a Twins fan since then. Today, MLB (along with the Minnesota Twins) died because MLB sided with the woke mob . MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred announced that "Over the last week, we have engaged in thoughtful conversations with Clubs, former and current players, the Players Association, and The Players Alliance, among others, to listen to their views. I have decided that the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport is by relocating this year's All-Star Game and MLB Draft." MLB just made a trio of huge mistakes. MLB's first major mistake is that it's obvious that they didn't read the bill. MLB's next major mistake is that they didn't talk to the fans. MLB's third major mistake was consulting with the organization titled Civic Alliance . Here's what Civic Alliance said about themselves: Civic Alliance recognizes that a strong demo...

In the second paragraph of Karl Rove's weekly WSJ column is the statement that "Mr. Biden made three specific claims. First, that Republicans would 'end voting at 5 o’clock when working people are just getting off work.' That isn't true. No state closes its polls at 5 p.m. Iowa’s new law moved up closing time by an hour, but polls are still open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Georgia’s election reforms left the state’s 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. polling hours unchanged." Mr. Rove's article continues, saying "The president also charged 'there will be no absentee ballots.' That’s also false. Iowa’s only absentee voting change was to say ballots must arrive by 8 p.m. on Election Day. Georgia made all of one significant change to absentee voting: replacing the requirement that counties verify the signatures of mail-in voters. Instead, voters will provide the number from their driver’s license or free state-provided ID or a photocopy of the IDs given to government ...