Liberty & Prosperity Blog

Over the past 2 months, Democrats have put forth the image of aggrieved civil rights leaders. Their latest civil rights cause, of course, is abortion. Unless it's stripping people of their right to defend themselves, aka protesting the Second Amendment. In the Democrats' order of importance, though, nothing compares with the Democrats' cultish obsession with abortion. So obsessed with killing viable unborn babies have Democrats become that one of their crazies travelled from California to Maryland to assassinate a Supreme Court justice . It's what the WSJ's Daniel Henninger has titled the bullhorn politics of abortion . The key to understanding the dominant wing of the Democrat Party, according to Henninger, is to understand that they cut their teeth as community organizers. The minute these armed-to-the-teeth snowflakes gets offended, they take to the streets, bullhorns in hand, prepared to intimidate sane-minded people to get their way: Many Democrats in office to...

Language—now a captive of the “woke” culture By Ramblin’ Rose Does an automobile have gender? Yes, in Spanish, it is el coche (masculine); in French, it is la voiture (feminine); in German, it is das Auto (neuter). But, woke culture no longer accepts the linguistic integrity of a language—not for things or people. Our very youngest children are learning that they get to decide what their biological gender is and which pronouns they will employ—even before they know that a “pronoun” is. A college professor lost his job for using the “new proper name” of a student and not employing the designated pronouns. Three middle school boys in Wisconsin were labeled sexual predators for not using the designated pronouns of a classmate even when they did address the person by the new chosen name. Other cases abound. Last September, sources listed 78 pronouns in English. Two years ago, I engaged in an exchange about the term “Latinx” to reference Spanish-speaking people. (Note: According to Sp...

This weekend, Fox News Contributor Gianno Caldwell got the worst news imaginable when he learned that his 18-year-old brother Christian had gotten murdered on the streets of Chicago . Chicago is the most dangerous big city in the United States. Under Lori Lightfoot's 'leadership' (that's a joke), things won't improve until the city changes policing policies. Yes, Chicago needs to fully fund the police. More importantly, though, they need to unhandcuff the police. During his interview with Sean Hannity, Gianno said "You can’t go downtown Chicago now without looking around your shoulder. You may be shot there. The truth of the matter is we need to uncuff the police and that’s what happened the policies, the soft-on-crime policies that have been pushed by many of the elected officials here are only causing more crime. They've only bared dead fruit and now my family is paying the price." Where is the BLM organization? Don't they care when black teenag...

Since the Supreme Court's Friday ruling that overturned the Roe and Casey precedents, Democrats have started a chant that insists that the Supreme Court has lost its legitimacy. In that context, it isn't surprising that this article continues that chanting point. The article opens by saying "When the US Supreme Court this week radically expanded the Second Amendment and declared most any restrictions on guns to be presumptively unconstitutional, then overturned five decades of reproductive rights and created a likely desert for abortion access all the way from Idaho to Florida, America’s grim new reality became painfully clear." First, when the Supreme Court overturned New York's anti-gun law, it didn't "radically" expand the Second Amendment. It said that New York's gun law was so unreasonable that it made it virtually impossible to protect one's self or their family. To get a concealed-carry permit, a person had to prove that they were bei...

While everyone's heard about the SCOTUS ruling on Dobbs, the case that overturned Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood, Dobbs was hardly the only major case decided last week. At stake in Carson v. Makin was "Maine’s exclusion of funds from religious schools in a school-choice program." Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion. In it, Chief Justice Roberts wrote that while "a state need not subsidize private education", he also wrote that "once a state decides to do so, it cannot disqualify some private schools solely because they are religious." To disqualify it on religious grounds would be the personification of discrimination. Then there's the Second Amendment case titled New York Rifle & Pistol Inc. v. Bruen . Justice Thomas wrote the majority opinion. In the majority opinion, Justice Thomas wrote that "New York’s law violated the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment — which says citizens have a right to equal prot...

When the Supreme Court handed down their ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson, people across the nation worried how Democrats would react if Roe was overturned. Shortly after 10:00 am ET, the ruling was announced. Roe and Casey had been overturned. Pro-lifers that had gathered at the Supreme Court wept tears of joy. Pro-abortionists like Jane's Revenge let out their anger. The haters' anger was exposed . Elected Democrat leaders ripped their masks off and showed their true self. Democrat fringe groups ripped their masks away, too: Vandals targeted a pro-life center in Lynchburg, Virginia, with threatening graffiti and broken windows following the U.S. Supreme Court voting to overturn Roe. V. Wade on Friday. "If abortion ain’t safe, you ain’t safe," red graffiti states on an entrance area of the Blue Ridge Pregnancy Center, photos posted by local police show. Lynchburg Police responded to the pregnancy center at about 10:40 a.m. on Saturday. Officers found "that the buildin...

 The minute that Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood were overturned , Democrats started fearmongering. Joe Biden displayed the most calm, waiting until the afternoon to react. In the morning, Speaker Pelosi made this statement : Today, the Republican-controlled Supreme Court has achieved the GOP’s dark and extreme goal of ripping away women’s right to make their own reproductive health decisions. Because of Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, the Republican Party and their supermajority on the Supreme Court, American women today have less freedom than their mothers. With Roe now out of their way, radical Republicans are charging ahead with their crusade to criminalize health freedom. In the Congress, Republicans are plotting a nationwide abortion ban. In the states, Republicans want to arrest doctors for offering reproductive care and women for terminating a pregnancy. GOP extremists are even threatening to criminalize contraception, as well as in-vitro fertilization and post-...

A friend of mine sent me an article from Politico Nightly on the topic of the state of our economy. Saying that it's sloppy journalism is understatement. In the article, it says "RECESSION IS COMING! — You read it here first, people. Take it to the bank. The U.S. is headed toward an economic downturn. Because it always is." As i told my friend, there are 2 types of recessions: the type that's caused by the business cycle and the type that's caused by terrible economic policies. This recession is from the latter. When you implement policies that cut oil production within hours of the start of your administration, it's going to create inflation and hurt growth. Again, that's what's happening now. When Pelosi passed the American Rescue Plan and Biden signed it into law, Obama Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said it would ignite inflation. That's proof that inflation wasn't just predictable. It was predicted . The economy was already growing at a...

There's little doubt that Joe Biden wants to kill the fossil fuel industry. It's apparent that he sees that as the biggest part of his political legacy. Thankfully, James Freeman's column highlights how Biden is playing 2 different games on energy. In public, he has to say that he's doing everything he can to bring down gas prices. Once he's back in his office, though, a sinister Joe Biden comes to life. According to Freeman's column, "Every week it seems the White House has a new political gimmick intended to suggest opposition to high gasoline prices. But beneath the public relations, voters should observe the broad administrative campaign to make energy more expensive. As if Washington doesn’t already have enough environmental regulators, Biden appointees with no expertise on the subject and no authorization from Congress are attempting to enact climate rules that don’t even appear to be legal." Joe Biden isn't trusted by the voters because t...

It's ancient history that Joe Biden thinks of himself as the smartest guy in the room. It's apparent he thinks that he thinks that his quips are effective, too. Recently, Mike Wirth, the Chevron CEO, wrote a letter replying to Biden's letter to oil companies CEOs. This afternoon, Biden called Wirth "sensitive" after Wirth told Biden that Biden should work with the oil industry instead of playing political stunts aimed at scoring political points with the Green New Deal wing of the Democrat Party. First, Biden said "He’s mildly sensitive. I didn’t know they’d get their feelings hurt that quickly. Look, we need more refining capacity. This idea that they don’t have oil to drill and to bring up is simply not true." That statement makes Biden sound like a punk on a schoolyard who isn't quite cool enough to score points substantively. The question isn't whether they have oil to drill. The question is whether Biden will cripple the oil industry with ...

When it comes to messaging, Joe Biden is terrible. Last week, Biden signed an executive order that would "curtail the practice of so-called conversion therapy, prevent youth suicide, and allow the homeless to seek shelters consistent with their gender identity. The president also took credit for creating an "X" gender option on U.S. passports, among other actions." It's clear that Biden is demagoguing Florida's Parental Rights in Education bill. Even then, Biden can't get it right. Thanks to Log Cabin Republicans, Democrats are getting pushback. In their statement, Log Cabin Republicans said "It’s unfortunate that President Biden again used a podium at the White House this afternoon to mislead on and demonize the common sense parental rights law in Florida and other similar bills across the country that protect young children from woke lesson plans around gender and sexual identity." According to the article, Jill Biden spoke before President ...

It's stunning that a Mexican-born American is teaching lifelong Americans what it's like to be a patriotic American. According to James Freeman's latest column , that's exactly what's happening. Representative-Elect Mayra Flores was born in Mexico but moved here legally at the age of 6. Last week, she won the special election for the TX-34 seat in Congress, making her the first Mexican-born member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Freeman starts his column, saying "'God, Family, Country' may sound like a slogan from a bygone era, but it seems that many voters of all backgrounds still kind of dig it. Perhaps they feel that society’s largest institutions are too often waging war against all three. Like so many of our nation’s most patriotic citizens, the candidate who rode that message to a historic election win on Tuesday was not born here." That's because Democrats have politicized virtually every institution in the U.S. The Democrats'...

Each week, I can't wait for Salena Zito's latest column. This week, Salena's column  highlights the scam behind Joe Biden's Green New Deal push. In the article, she wrote "The pitch to the people of Cambria County when the Maple Hill Solar Farm was first announced two years ago was that the $200 million project would create 150 megawatts of electricity while eliminating 150,000 tons of carbon emissions that fossil fuel plants would have emitted — and that it would employ 250 workers at peak construction." It shouldn't shock anyone that the Maple Hill Solar Farm still isn't finished. In fact, it isn't even close. Salena continues, saying "Climb to the top of the mountain where the solar farm is and you see thousands of racking systems spread across hundreds of acres that hold solar modules — but no panels. The scene is jarring. The question is: Why?" I'd say that jarring is the right word alright. I'd say that this is upsetting: T...

 Democrats have criticized President Trump as a constant threat to democracy. Democrats on the January 6 Committee have insisted repeatedly that we almost lost our democracy that day. In reality, that's more than a little over-the-top in terms of melodrama. While there was some lawlessness that day, we didn't come close to losing our government that day. That's just the Democrats' chanting point. It isn't reality. That being said, there have been some tense times where this nation's institutions have come under attack. Kim Strassel is one of DC's most gifted political writers. In this article , she wrote about some real threats to democracy. None of the things she wrote about have anything to do with January 6. Her Potomac Watch article starts in Oregon. Here's what she wrote: Viewers of the Jan. 6 committee docudrama this week received two new installments of the standard liberal narrative: America nearly lost its democracy thanks to an extremist GOP. ...

 In the past month, a fringe domestic terrorist organization titled Jane's Revenge has started terrorizing pro-life charities. In the past month, they've issued several communiqué after their terrorist attacks, including this communiqué after their latest terrorist attack. In Jane's Revenge's communiqué, the leftist/Marxist organization said "You have seen that we are real, and that we are not merely pushing empty words. As we said: we are not one group but many. You have seen us in Madison WI, Ft. Collins CO, Reisertown MA, Olympia WA, Des Moines IA, Lynwood WA, Washington DC, Ashville NC, Buffalo NY, Hollywood FL, Vancouver WA, Frederick MA, Denton TX, Gresham OR, Eugene OR, Portland OR, among others, and we work in countless locations invisibly. You’ve read the communiqués from the various cells, you’ve seen the proliferating messages in graffiti and elsewhere, and you know that we are serious." If Jane's Revenge isn't the personification of a terr...

The Biden administration keeps dishonestly saying that a) there's nothing they can do about gas prices and b) high gas prices are part of Putin's fault. Those statements are disinformation. Newt Gingrich's latest article highlights what can be done to alleviate today's record-high gas prices. Further, the American Petroleum Institute has published this 10-point plan  that would quickly lower gas prices. Newt highlights what's possible if the right policies are implemented. None of these policies are currently in place. In fact, the Obama-Biden administration fought against Newt's policies. That isn't that surprising since then-Candidate Obama once said that his Cap-and-Trade plan would cause electricity prices to necessarily skyrocket. The other thing that's important to note is that the Biden administration and its surrogates insist that there's nothing they can do because we're part of a global oil market. That's a BS excuse. We've bee...

If Joe Biden doesn't run for re-election, it won't surprise anyone. Still, Democrats face a difficult decision in picking his replacement at the top of their ticket in 2024. VP Harris has earned 2 unflattering nicknames that say everything about her chances: the Cackling Pantsuit and Biden's Insurance Policy. If Harris is the Democrats' nominee in '24, Democrats will lose with fewer than 150 electoral votes. Republicans might finish Election Night 2024 with a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate if Ms. Harris is the nominee. If Mayor Pete is the Democrats' nominee, the bloodbath will be roughly the same as the Harris bloodbath. Mayor Pete's mishandling of the baby food shortage and the supply chain shortages have exposed him as a identity politics candidate. His work ethic will be challenged, too, after taking 2 months off after adopting 2 children. He isn't a top-tier candidate. Biden's failed presidency will tie a millstone around the Democrat n...

Rick Scott likely thinks that he's putting the Biden administration on the defensive. If Marco Rubio or John Kennedy was the messenger in the fight against Joe Biden, this fight would be called after 2 rounds, 3 rounds at the most. Scott is the chairman of the GOP Senate Campaign Committee, aka the NRSC. Yesterday, Sen. Scott put out a TV ad that criticizes "Biden for 'destroying America's economy.'" Factually, that's an accurate statement. Despite Scott's accurate statement, the Biden administration couldn't resist the temptation to reply. "White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates told Fox News Monday" replied, saying "Those are interesting words to choose about a President who inherited an economy in its worst state of crisis since the Great Depression and delivered historic economic growth and unprecedented job creation to make our recovery the strongest of any in the world." (Mr. Bates seems a little hot under-the-co...

When Karl Rove challenged Juan Williams on the subject of the attempted assassination of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Williams got hit hard. Rove got the better of Williams , especially in this exchange: ROVE: Absolutely. I mean, this is -- look, this is sort of personal. I know Ashley and Brett Kavanaugh personally from our time together in the White House. And I -- it's amazing to me. The law is clear, you quoted it. It goes on to say "with the intent of influencing any judge." And I love it, the American Civil Liberties Union says, yes, this is the statue but we interpret it the following way. We point to a Supreme Court case that suggests that as long as they keep moving in front of the house -- if they are stationary, they should be arrested but if they are moving in front of the house they have a right to try and influence a Supreme Court justice. And that is ridiculous. And if it is true, I didn't see Senator Schumer moving very much behind that microphone in fron...

Kevin Walling is often called a moderate Democrat when appearing on Fox. This article is proof that he is the personification of a moderate Democrat. That isn't meant as a compliment. As with those Democrats campaigning for elected office, Kevin Walling plays a moderate because he's closer to center-left than the members of the Squad. First, Walling spent a paragraph telling us what we've rejected. He said "Americans are hurting and hurting badly. Parents are struggling to find baby formula, gas prices have never been higher, and food prices across most products are inching higher every month. Global supply chains were already severely hurt by COVID-19, compounded recently by China’s inability to get the Coronavirus under control. Russia’s unprovoked and illegal invasion of Ukraine has exacerbated both the inflation crisis (especially when it comes to the price of oil) and supply chain issues." Then he said "Republicans are practically gleeful given these ci...

For the past 2-3 months, Republicans and economists have worried whether Bidenflation would tip the Trump recovery into Joe Biden's recession. This article by CNBC's Jeff Cox suggests that Joe Biden's recession has arrived. Further, this study of consumer sentiment found that consumer sentiment dropped 14% from May, "continuing a downward trend over the last year and reaching its lowest recorded value..." The CNBC article opened by saying "The case that a recession is looming over the U.S. got stronger Friday, as blistering inflation and historic lows in consumer sentiment painted an increasingly dark economic picture. As if the consumer price index increase of 8.6% wasn’t bad enough news, that release was followed later in the morning by the University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment. That widely followed gauge of optimism registered a paltry 50.2, the lowest in survey data going back to 1978. That’s lower than the depths of the Covid outbreak, low...

Frequently, Louis Johnston, an economics professor at St. John's University, aka SJU, and the College of St. Benedicts, aka CSB, provides economic insight into the latest economics news. On this Friday night's Almanac, Professor Johnston sounded more like a wind-up doll filled with DNC talking points than he sounded like a professional economist. The first question for Johnston was what led to the jump in Friday's CPI (Consumer Price Index) report that measures consumer inflation. (The CPI for May was 8.6% year-over-year.) Johnston replied "Two things. You mentioned gas prices. That includes anything that has anything to do with crude oil or natural gas and the other thing is anything that has to do with commodity prices, especially things like agricultural commodities. The war in Ukraine is affecting both of those things and as long as the war in Ukraine is going on, we're going to see price increases." Next, he was asked about whether the war in Ukraine. Spe...

I watched last night's dull docudrama, aka 1/6 Hearing, so you wouldn't have to. ABC reports that "our democracy is in danger." That's actually a quote from Committee Chair Bennie Thompson. The biggest takeaway from last night's first hearing is that Democrats need something more than what they trotted out last night. To hear Thompson tell it, a disorganized, unprepared bunch of people were on the verge of toppling the world's biggest superpower without any firearms and without much of a plan. The videotape showed some unarmed people unexpectedly getting into the Capitol. Others clearly had a plan, though they weren't that well-equipped. Another takeaway was that nothing jumped out at people. That's stunning considering the fact that the Democrats' key witnesses weren't cross-examined. That's because Speaker Pelosi vetoed the people that Kevin McCarthy picked. Think of it like a trial where only the prosecutors got to call witnesses an...

Joe Biden's first visit to Jimmy Kimmel's show worked out perfectly for both men. Most importantly, Joe Biden didn't have to answer any difficult follow-up questions. Almost as important, Jimmy Kimmel got to come off as semi-serious. Throw in the fact that Kimmel got to get a little misty-eyed and it was a near-perfect night. Biden accused President Trump of abusing the Constitution, then accused Republicans of being "a MAGA Party." For good measure, he said that today's Republican Party "is not your father's Republican Party" while throwing in the accusation that the NRA intimidates Republicans into voting against gun legislation. Biden said that he's talked to Republicans "behind the scenes" who've hinted that they'd vote for gun control legislation if they could vote with a secret ballot. That's rich considering the fact that he hasn't talked with Republicans since months before signing the bipartisan infrastruct...

For months, people have criticized Joe Biden's "gaffes." For months, I've rejected those euphemisms. What most people call gaffes are either Joe Biden's lies or proof of Joe's dementia. This tweet  isn't proof of Joe's dementia. It's just another Biden lie. The tweet says "At the time I took office about 16 months ago, the economy had stalled and COVID was out of control. Today, thanks to the economic plan and the vaccination plan that my Administration put into action, America has achieved the most robust recovery in modern history." GDP Facts First, the economy hadn't stalled before Biden took office. In Q3 of 2020, GDP was almost 35%. That's the largest quarter of growth in US history. In Q4 of 2020, GDP grew by 4.8%. In Q1 of 2021, GDP grew by 6.5%. By comparison, GDP for Q1 of 2022 contracted by 1.5%. The Fed says that GDP is growing by 1.3% this quarter, which is Q2 of 2022. Observations It doesn't take an economist to k...

The January 6 Kangaroo Court is in for a legal fight. I won't call them a committee because they aren't obeying the rules establishing their committee . Under the rules establishing the committee, subpoenas can't be issued without a ranking member of the committee. When Kevin McCarthy submitted his list of committee members, he named Jim Jordan as the ranking member. In an unprecedented stunt, Speaker Pelosi rejected both Jim Jordan and Jim Banks. As a result, the other named members refused to serve. Instead of stopping this charade, Pelosi named Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger as window-dressing for the kangaroo court. Congressional committees have the authority to conduct oversight for legislative purposes. That's a routine part of their responsibilities. Only special authorization, specifically impeachment investigations, gives the Congress the authority to conduct oversight for law enforcement purposes. The so-called 1/6 Committee isn't authorized for that type o...

 Each month, Joe Biden recites essentially the same speech telling the American people that the economy is creating jobs. After that, he mentions that job growth at the start of an administration is the strongest in history. Still later, he mentions that the economy was a mess when he took over. (That's a bald-faced lie.) I wrote in this post  that GDP for Q4 of 2020 was 4.8% and that the GDP for Q1 of 2021 was 6.5%. That's a far cry from being a mess. A mess would be the economy contracting by 1.5% or thereabouts. That's what happened in Q1 of 2022. According to the Fed, we're currently growing the economy at 1.3%. That qualifies as a mess, too, especially with inflation this high. The thing that's been missing from Biden's monthly speeches is the breakdown by races. This month's report showed the unemployment rate for whites steady, with the African-American unemployment rate and Hispanic unemployment rate getting higher. The unemployment rate for Asian-Am...