Liberty & Prosperity Blog

Winning the PR war in the Russian-Ukrainian war is making a difference. Specifically, it's making a difference in attracting support for Ukraine. It's also piling up problems for President Putin. Two of the heroes in this fight are Elon Musk and Mykhailo Fedorov. Everyone knows who Musk is. Few know who Fedorov is. Fedorov is Ukraine's Vice Prime Minister. This started when Fedorov posted a tweet asking Musk for help with internet services for Ukraine: @elonmusk , while you try to colonize Mars — Russia try to occupy Ukraine! While your rockets successfully land from space — Russian rockets attack Ukrainian civil people! We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations and to address sane Russians to stand. — Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) February 26, 2022 Musk responded with this tweet: Starlink service is now active in Ukraine. More terminals en route. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 26, 2022 This is the social media version of "Hey Elon, can I borrow...

In a major reversal in military policy history, Germany has agreed to send 1,000 Javelin anti-tank missiles and 500 Stinger missiles to Ukraine: Germany's chancellery announced Saturday evening that it will send 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 "Stinger" surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine "as quickly as possible." "The Russian invasion of Ukraine marks a turning point. It threatens our entire post-war order," German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a statement. "In this situation, it is our duty to help Ukraine, to the best of our ability, to defend itself against Vladimir Putin’s invading army." This is a major shift in Germany's Ukraine policy. Most importantly, it's supplying Ukraine with what they've asked for. When President Zelenskyy rejected the U.S. invitation to get him and his family out of Ukraine, President Zelenskyy replied "The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride." Now that it's clear that Ukrain...

Just when there seemed like a leadership shortage on the international stage, that leadership arrived bigtime. I wish it'd been Joe Biden but that would've required Divine intervention. Then again, I'm a firm believer in Divine intervention. Volodymyr Zelenskyy stepped into that leadership void without hesitation. When Ukraine needed leadership the most, that's what Zelenskyy supplied. Saturday morning, Zelenskyy provided inspiration when Ukraine needed it most. Rumors had circulated that President Zelenskyy would flee Ukraine once the going got difficult. That didn't happen. President Zelenskyy took to social media to tell his fellow countrymen that he wasn't going anywhere. At this point, Ukraine is surviving because of President Zelenskyy's leadership, and Ukrainians' fierce patriotism. They're surviving despite Joe Biden's decisions. Last March, when Russia amassed 70,000 troops on Ukraine's border, Biden should've sold Ukraine Javel...

There's no disputing that Russian President Vladimir Putin has invaded the sovereign nation of Ukraine without justification or provocation. That's the babbling coming from Putin himself but that isn't worthy of serious discussion. Putin is a thug KGB officer with a lengthy history of lying whenever it's required. He hasn't hesitated even slightly in those instances. He's done what good KGB agents do reflexively. Boris Johnson hasn't hesitated in speaking truth to NATO power. Thursday, PM Johnson said "We must also collectively cease the dependence on Russian oil and gas that has for too long given Mr. Putin his grip on western politics." Johnson continued, saying "Our mission is clear. Diplomatically, politically, economically and eventually, militarily, this hideous and barbaric venture of Vladimir Putin must end in failure." Meanwhile, Joe Biden announced another set of watered-down sanctions while supposedly ordinary Ukrainians prepar...

When talking about terrorism, terrorist experts like saying that when Iran chants "Death to America" at their Friday prayer services, we should believe that they want to eliminate the U.S. I'm not calling Joe Biden a terrorist but his feeble response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine isn't an act. It's who he is. He's a feeble old man that's failing as Leader of the Free World. Initially, he said that his sanctions would be the toughest in history. They haven't hit that mark by any stretch of the imagination. It's time for Biden to go back to his drawing board and getting serious. What'd be better yet would be to admit what America already knows -- that he's in over his head and he doesn't know what he's doing. Today, Biden's crippling sanctions (that's a joke) are the return of the sanctions that he lifted a year ago on Nord Stream 2. I'm sure Putin is (not) frightened now. This is what happens when you send a senile...

Ed Morrissey notes in this article that it didn't take long for the MSM to start making excuses for Joe Biden on Putin's invasion of Ukraine. BTW, yes, it's an invasion despite it taking almost 24 hrs. for the Biden administration to call it that. (They started by calling it an incursion.) The Democrat propagandist spewing spin in the Biden administration's direction is Eugene Robinson. He's one of the Democrats' most reliable morons. Robinson wrote "If Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to gobble up another chunk of Ukraine at little or no cost to his own interests, he should have done it while Donald Trump was still president. With President Biden leading the response, Putin’s potential costs are rising — while his hoped-for benefits have evaporated." Putin must enjoy reading Robinson's columns. Biden's IQ apparently is roughly the same as Robinson's. The difference is that Robinson writes (I'm told) a column for the Washington ...

A note from JP Morgan Chase economists predicts the Fed "hiking interest rates nine consecutive times as central bank policymakers look to tackle hotter-than-expected inflation. The Fed is in a pickle because they actually must deal with both the balance sheet and inflation. Joe Biden's policies didn't create the Fed's balance sheet problem but they certainly created the inflation problem. In an analyst note to clients, the JPMorgan economists, led by Bruce Kasman, projected nine, quarter-percentage-point rate increases at every policy-setting meeting until March 2023. "We now look for the Fed to hike 25bp at each of the next nine meetings, with the policy rate approaching a neutral stance by early next year," the note said. The revised outlook comes after the Labor Department reported that the consumer price index rose 7.5% in January from a year ago, marking the fastest increase since February 1982, when inflation hit 7.6%. The CPI, which measures a bevy o...

The shortest definition in the dictionary is for the phrase routine traffic stop. It's the shortest definition because there's no such thing as a routine traffic stop, especially in Minneapolis. While it seems fundamental to enforcing the law, having the DFL and GOP define executing a traffic stop is like expecting oil and water to mix. With the Minnesota legislature getting into full swing, getting the DFL's crime-fighting bill reconciled with the GOP crime-fighting bill is like putting cats and dogs together, then expecting them to behave. This article highlights some of the differences. The Republican-led Minnesota Senate just authorized a million dollar ad campaign to attract more officers, and wants to give new recruits a $10,000 signing bonus. DFL lawmakers want more civilian review of police and to give the Post Board, which licenses officers, the right to pull an officer’s license for a criminal action even if there is not a conviction. New Hope Rep. Cedrick Frazie...

Things are going to get messy for Justin Trudeau, officially Canada's prime minister, unofficially Canada's authoritarian. That's because Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act under questionable conditions. Some Canadian politicians criticized him for invoking the Emergencies Act from the floor of Parliament. Put Candice Bergen , the interim leader of the Conservative Party in Canada, firmly in that category. Jason Kenney is Alberta's Premier. He's announced that he's filing a lawsuit against Trudeau's invoking of the Emergencies Act for insufficient constitutional grounds. Let's start with Leader Bergen's inspired leadership and fiery speeches. In this speech, Leader Bergen laid out PM Trudeau's violations of Canadians' rights: Jason Kenney used this speech to announce his lawsuit against PM Trudeau's invocation of the Emergencies Act: Alberta is filing a Court challenge to the unjustified use of the Emergencies Act. We may also intervene...

I'm old enough to remember when inflation was less than 2%, the U.S. was energy independent and energy dominant and minority unemployment rates were the lowest in U.S. history. They happened during the bad old days (according to Joe Biden and Jen Psaki) of the Trump administration. Pre-COVID, blue collar wages were rising faster than white collar wages were increasing. Gas prices were cheap. My home heating bill was significantly cheaper than it is today. Most importantly to families, their paychecks stretched much farther than they do today. Rumor has it that Joe Biden's State of the Union Address, aka SOTU Address, will focus on Biden's accomplishments. Comedians on the Gutfeld Show half-kiddingly say this should make for one of the shortest SOTU Addresses in the history of televised SOTU Addresses. There are several things needed to kill inflation. First, it's necessary for the Fed to stop printing money. That's got to stop immediately. Period. Next, it's req...

Justin Trudeau is forcing Canadians and Americans to wonder what lengths our governments will go in turning themselves into authoritarian government. In Trudeau's Canada, the government is seizing people's bank accounts. Trudeau's government is even threatening to freeze crypto accounts. That's just part of the story. Trudeau's government is acting like more like an authoritarian form of government than a democracy. This article highlights the tactics used by Trudeau's thugs: Officers smashed the window of one truck to pull the occupant out and arrest him. Protesters who refused to move were arrested one by one before they were taken away by pairs of officers. At a news conference Friday afternoon, Interim Ottawa police Chief Steve Bell credited the federal Emergencies Act, Ontario state of emergency and local state of emergency and injunction for providing tools to help officers deal with protesters. "Without the authorities that have been provided to us ...

It's obvious that the DCCC isn't connecting with voters. It's obvious because the DCCC didn't just poll on this predicament. They focus-grouped how to avoid this November's imminent catastrophe . The DCCC presentation is mostly defensive spin. It talks about how to counter Republican "attacks." There's little in the way of forward-looking vision. For instance, it specifically says "The solution does not lie in policy proposals, the pollsters found, because voters are not generally opposed to Democratic policies. 'Rather, Democrats need to demonstrate they fully understand and care about stressors in people's lives' and focus on the issues 'without stoking divisive cultural debates,' one of the slides said." TRANSLATION: Remind people that Democrats are the party of caring. That relies on Democrats convincing people that Democrat policies of defunding and demoralizing the police or doing nothing on securing the border. Repu...

Within an hour of his inauguration, Joe Biden started taking a torch to U.S. national security and U.S. prosperity. He did that by waging war on U.S. energy independence. That means Scranton Joe really doesn't care about blue collar workers. Years ago, Scranton Joe said that he didn't want George W. Bush to tell him what Bush's priorities were. Instead, he wanted Bush to show then-Sen. Biden his budget. From there, Joe said that he'd tell W what W's priorities were. In his opening riff Wednesday, Larry Kudlow exposed Joe Biden's energy policies as identical to those of the Democrats' environmental activist wing. What the Democrats' environmental activists want, the Democrats give them. What the U.S. hasn't figured out yet is that the Democrats' weak-on-fossil-fuels policies hike gas prices at home while strengthening Russia and Iran internationally. When the price for a barrel of oil spikes, Putin starts thinking 'Russian expansion'. When...

 Parents registered their disapproval with San Francisco School Board President Gabriela Lopez and members Faauuga Moliga and Allison Collins, recalling them with overwhelming majorities : San Francisco voters overwhelmingly cast their ballots to remove three members of the city’s school board Tuesday night, marking the first time in the city’s history members of the board have been recalled. In an election marred by debate over the pace of school reopenings during the pandemic and the management of controversial social issues in the district, School Board President Gabriela López and board members Faauuga Moliga and Alison Collins were all ousted, with more than 70% of voters backing the effort to recall them, preliminary results from the San Francisco Board of Elections showed. "As the first results post for the recall election, it appears we were unsuccessful at defeating my recall," Moliga said on his Facebook page. "We fought hard and ran a great campaign. I want to...

 A new Mason-Dixon poll shows Sen. Marco Rubio with a healthy 49%-42% lead over Rep. Val Demings in Florida. Initially, Democrats thought Demings as having a shot against Sen. Rubio. As Biden's approval ratings crater in Florida (and elsewhere), Demings' chances of an underdog victory shrink. Sen. Rubio is well-funded. Most importantly, he's articulate and he's a leader on national security issues. His leadership during last year's Cuban uprising helped him get off to a strong start to this campaign. With the Cuban-American vote being so important for success, Sen. Rubio established himself as steadfastly standing with the Cuban-American community. Aligning himself with Florida's small business community was another way to strengthen Sen. Rubio's ties to Florida's entrepreneurial Cuban-American community. The Mason-Dixon poll was "conducted Feb. 7-10 and released Wednesday." It "showed Rubio ahead of Demings 49% to 42% among registered vo...

When Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act to stop the Freedom Convoy, Canada's prime minister triggered a wave of criticism heard round the world. One of the first organizations to criticize Trudeau was the "Canadian Civil Liberties Association." They wrote "the truckers’ protests did not meet the standard for Trudeau to have invoked the Emergencies Act, which exists for 'the ability of the Government of Canada to preserve the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Canada' and only for actions that 'cannot be effectively dealt with under any other law of Canada.'" Without the legal eagling, it's safe to say that the weaker the case is when the law used to justify it is this exotic. First, let's learn from the CCLA, aka the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, why using the Emergencies Act isn't justified. In one of their tweets, the CCLA said "The Emergencies Act can only be invoked whe...

According to Larry Kudlow's Monday riff , the path to low inflation is pretty straightforward. According to Mr. Kudlow, the path to low inflation is to "pause spending, reform welfare and curtail the Fed's money supply." Included in Kudlow's riff was some criticism of Speaker Pelosi, too. On the Pelosi/inflation front, Kudlow said "Now, we had an interesting inflation analysis this weekend from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. On one of the Sunday shows she said sky-rocketing inflation is due to more people entering the workforce. Really?" Next, he quotes Ms. Pelosi, saying "I quote: 'The fact that people have jobs always contributes to an increase in inflation. And that's a good thing,' Pelosi said, 'but inflation is not good, you know, we have to contain it.'" That's where Kudlow takes issue with Ms. Pelosi. In his riff, Kudlow notes that "More people working is unambiguously good for America and more people working ne...

Nancy Pelosi did her best yesterday to portray Democrats as being tough on crime. Saying that Ms. Pelosi failed is understatement. What Ms. Pelosi did more than anything was prove that she's there to fundraise for Democrats and lie about any touchy subject. Pelosi said "With all the respect in the world for [Rep.] Cori Bush, that is not the position of the Democratic Party. Make no mistake: Community safety is our responsibility." If community safety is the Democrats' highest responsibility, why were they silent the entire summer of 2020? Why did our vice president advocate for raising money for the Minnesota Freedom Fund, a fund that bailed out rioters in Minneapolis? Why didn't Democrats speak out about crime at the Democratic National Convention? In Minneapolis, Jacob Frey essentially dismissed the riots in his city. When asked about the Third Precinct police station getting torched, Frey replied "Brick and mortar are not as important as life. The symbol...

It isn't a secret that Joe Biden sees implementing the Green New Deal as a major part of his legacy. If the Green New Deal is implemented, it will be a success in one sense, a failure in another. Last week, Joe Biden and Jennnifer Granholm held a Green New Deal event at the White House. Secretary Granholm is quoted as saying something that questions the Biden administration's commitment to green energy. She said "I think that there is great agreement on the need to do something on the climate." She's also quoted as saying that "Doing nothing isn't an option." Saying that we need to do something on climate isn't like saying that it's an existential threat. Predictably, the administration is facing pushback. Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina pushed back, saying "I’m afraid extreme proposals by Democrats will do nothing but destroy good-paying American jobs and ruin our economy." Meanwhile, Biden insists that he'll "work l...

Most people who follow the news noticed that Joe Biden's honeymoon pretty much ended in Afghanistan, especially after 13 soldiers died in Kabul. This article isn't about politics as much as it is about questioning what type of America we want to live in. Do we want to live in an America where partisanship rules? Or would we prefer an America where people do the right thing for the right reasons? We aren't living in an America where people consistently do the right things for the right reasons. Salena Zito's article opens by saying "The half-circle of 13 chairs that framed the statue of President Harry Truman in the heart of the historic Independence Square this past fall was placed there in the days after 13 American soldiers were killed in the attack on the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, in late August." It sets the stage for the rest of the article, which is an indictment of the media and this administration's responsiveness. The article continues: The ...

There isn't a dispute that inflation is gutting people's purchasing power. With wages rising at 6.9% and inflation rising 7.5% year-over-year, that's a pay cut. Seema Shah, the chief strategist at Principal Global Investors, is quoted as saying "U.S. annual CPI is the highest since 1982, and what’s worse is that this likely isn’t the peak. Higher-than-expected monthly gains in core CPI indicate continued underlying heat and will do nothing to relieve pressure on the Fed to tighten sharply and urgently." Earlier this week, Larry Kudlow took Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to the woodshed for predicting that inflation would drop to 2% by the end of this year. The Fed is still adding to its balance sheet. It's predicted that when the Fed starts raising interest rates, they'll raise rates by timid amounts. What's required right now is Volcker and Reagan. Unfortunately, we've got Powell and Biden. Price increases were widespread: Although energy prices...

Earlier this week, New York's Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul accidentally admitted who's running her state . Earlier this week, Hochul lifted New York's statewide mask mandate. Unfortunately for parents, Gov. Hochul's lifting of NY's mask mandate comes with an asterisk. The mask mandate ended for adults on Feb. 8 of this week. The mask mandate for children remains intact. Presumably, that means vulnerable seniors aren't required to wear masks. Meanwhile, children who are virtually indestructible in the face of COVID are still required to mask up. In what universe does that make sense? Actually, this makes perfect sense from a political perspective. Admittedly, though, it doesn't make any sense from a health standpoint. Let's start by examining this from a political standpoint. This makes perfect sense since parents votes while children don't. It makes additional political sense since children are under control of the Democrats' biggest contributor, a...

This morning, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that year-over-year inflation hit 7.5% for January . The last time we saw that was in February 1982. Consumer prices surged more than expected over the past 12 months, indicating a worsening outlook for inflation and cementing the likelihood of substantial interest rate hikes this year. The consumer price index for January, which measures the costs of dozens of everyday consumer goods, rose 7.5% compared to a year ago, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That compared to Dow Jones estimates of 7.2% for the closely watched inflation gauge. It was the highest reading since February 1982. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' report , "Increases in the indexes for food, electricity, and shelter were the largest contributors to the seasonally adjusted all items increase. The food index rose 0.9 percent in January following a 0.5-percent increase in December. The energy index also increased 0.9 percent over the month, ...

Gigi Sohn is one of Joe Biden's nominees to be an FCC commissioner. Saying that she had a difficult day during her confirmation hearing is understatement. Frankly, I don't see why her nomination hasn't been pulled from consideration. She's clearly biased against conservatives. This tweet alone is enough to seal Ms. Sohn's defeat: For all my concerns about #Facebook , I believe that Fox News has had the most negative impact on our democracy. It's state-sponsored propaganda, with few if any opposing viewpoints. Where's the hearing about that? https://t.co/Zwx6KFzrff — Gigi Sohn (@gigibsohn) October 28, 2020 This back-and-forth got heated, too: The tweet says "For all my concerns about #Facebook, I believe that Fox News has had the most negative impact on our democracy. It's state-sponsored propaganda, with few if any opposing viewpoints. Where's the hearing about that?" How can someone who thinks that Fox is "state-sponsored propagand...

 Apparently, governors in 4 blue states see the red wave handwriting on the wall. That's why they're heading for the hills on Joe Biden's mask mandate hills. The science hasn't changed on whether masks work. The right types of masks in the right situation part of the time. The vast majority of the time, masks do more harm than good. Democrat governors in New Jersey, Oregon, Delaware and Connecticut announced plans to eliminate their states' statewide mask mandates in the near future. The science hasn't changed. What's changed is that political reality has shifted in the Republicans favor in a major way. What's changed is how Democrats are now talking like Republicans. I'm betting that that's proof that Democrats are worried that they're losing bigtime on this issue. If there's anything that's verifiable, it's that Democrats recite their talking points flawlessly time-after-time. BTW, if you get Democrats off their talking points...

Big Tech's attempt at censorship hasn't stopped the blue-collar Freedom Convoy. If anything, Big Tech's attempt at censorship has incentivized more people to support the truckers' Convoy. Now Big Tech is getting criticized for attempting to silence the protests. GiveSendGo founder and CFO Jacob Wells has started criticizing GoFundMe and Big Tech "for their 'authoritarian style of social platforms,' which he says promote bias as fact and causes further division." In an interview with Fox News Digital, Wells said this: "Big Tech really has taken it upon themselves to be the arbiters of truth. And it's a place that they were never intended to be, and it's caused more damage than good. We are now stepping into that place because there is a natural pushback from many people because America was founded on these ideas of freedom." Part of what I call the American DNA is infused with liberty. In fact, that's how God created every person....

Recently, a loyal reader of this blog wrote a letter to Aric Putnam, my friend's state senator. FYI- Putnam is also my state senator. I've received permission to share my friend's letter with my readers in the hopes of showing my readers Sen. Putnam's spin. Here is the full text of my friend's letter: Dear Name Goes Here , Thanks for writing. The surplus is a big issue these days. I know it might seem like the surplus is due to over taxation, but it isn’t really. The surplus is a balance relative to a forecast. We thought we were going to have a certain amount of money, so we spent a certain amount of money, but we didn’t take care of all our needs- just some of them that we thought we could afford. It turns out we got a lot more than expected, not because tax rates were increased or too high, but because our forecast was off. We thought the pandemic was going to do some real damage to the state’s coffers and people’s incomes, so we were frugal. But some people made...

Hippocratic Oath No More By Ramblin’ Rose For the last decade or more, political campaigns have been fraught with dire predictions of “death panels” if the “other side” wins the election. Fortunately, these predictions have not been realized. Or have they? And by the medical profession, no less. This does not seem to conform with the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm to patients that we assume medical personnel follow. People see their doctor and other caregivers under the assumption of receiving treatments as patients—medications, operations, surgeries, even transplants to recover and lead a healthy life. But the Hippocratic Oath, if taken, is not legally binding. It is stunning and horrifying that numerous patients are being denied scheduled transplant surgeries because they, for personal and religious reasons, have not succumbed to the Biden administration’s demands of taking the shots. Mayo Clinic lists patients with untreated psychiatric or mental disorders who would be unable to car...

The latest KSTP/SurveyUSA Poll isn't great news for DFL Gov. Tim Walz. That's a bit disconcerting for a governor with a $7,700,000,000 (that's $7.7 billion) surplus. That's the biggest in state history. The chief takeaway of this article  comes from Steven Schier, who said that "The governor is not close to 50% against any of the Republican candidates and so if the Republican Party can raise enough money and run a good campaign they have a serious chance of being highly competitive against the governor." That's only part of the story. The other part of the story is that this is turning into a legitimate competition. The Jensen campaign just won the GOP Straw Poll. They get another boost from this poll. It'd be campaign malpractice if the Jensen campaign didn't fundraise off the fact that Jensen is the strongest competitor against Gov. Walz. According to the poll, Jensen trails Walz 43% to 40%. Gov. Walz has 100% name recognition. Scott Jensen is ju...

When Chuck Schumer was asked if Democrats would support Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema if primaried, Sen. Schumer sidestepped the question . Thanks to Sen. Schumer's evasive answer, people are wondering how deep the divide is within the Democratic Party. That's now a legitimate question. According to The Hill, "Schumer surprised some colleagues last week when he declined to say whether he would support Sinema or Manchin in a future primary and instead sidestepped the question. 'I am focused on 2022, getting things done, and winning the election on 2022,' Schumer told CNN. 'I'm not at all focused on 2024 right now, and neither should anyone else be. That's just how you lose in 2022.'" The Democrats' divide isn't just happening at the federal level. It's happening in Minneapolis, too, especially when the issue is law enforcement. The dismantle the police/activist wing of the DFL is prepared to relitigate the dismantle the police depar...