Liberty & Prosperity Blog

Tuesday, Rebecca Kiessling became a household name. That's because Ms. Kiessling's riveting testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee brought the House down. Ms. Kiessling "lost her 18-year-old son Kyler and 20-year-old son Caleb in July 2020 after they consumed what they believed were Percocet pills. A 17-year-old girl also died in the same incident, but the individual who sold the fentanyl-filled counterfeit Percocet pills and also consumed them survived." Ms. Kiessling continued, saying "Because he survived, [police] had leads to who he got it from, and they actually could try to start tracing it back. Law enforcement made it clear to me that this fentanyl came from Mexico — came from our southern border." Democrats have the audacity to say that Biden's policies are working. Democrats "have pointed to increased seizures under the Biden administration at the ports of entry as a sign that attempts to stop the drug are working." ...

Democrats are facing a developing crisis thanks to paying the Due Diligence Group hundreds of thousands of dollars to get their hands on "the private military records of several House Republican candidates in 2022." Additionally, the "Democratic Senatorial Campaign [Committee], which seeks to elect Democrats to the Senate, gave the Due Diligence Group $173,000 during the 2022 election cycle as well as another three payments of more than $30,000 after the election, according to the Federal Election Commission. Additionally, the political research firm received more than $110,000 from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee between January 2021 and December 2022, filings show." Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said "Department of the Air Force employees did not follow proper procedures requiring the member's authorizing signature consenting to the release of information. There was no evidence of political motivation or malicious intent on the part ...

Apparently, the lab leak conspiracy theorists got it right. The U.S. Department of Energy has officially concluded that COVID-19 "most likely arose from a laboratory leak." That's "according to a classified intelligence report recently provided to the White House and key members of Congress." Meanwhile, GWU Law Professor Jonathan Turley said that he's most upset about "the censorship, not the science." On the bright side, Prof. Turley said that "now there will be an actual debate. For years, the media and government allied to treat anyone raising a lab theory as one of three possibilities: conspiracy theorist or racists or racist conspiracy theorists." Now that we've disposed of these accusations, let's start looking into why the medical establishment was so intent on ridiculing the lab leak theorists. This wasn't just a philosophical disagreement between doctors who simply disagreed. This was all-out war against those who d...

It's time for GOP presidential candidates to tell the American people how they'll get the nation back on the right track economically. That's the subject of Larry Kudlow's opening riff from Friday's show. In his opening riff, Kudlow said "There's no question that the Joe Biden economic malaise continues, but there is a big question: where's the Republican presidential campaign growth and prosperity solution plan?" The first thing that's got to happen to restore prosperity is to ditch The Democrats' environmental policy. Democrats don't have an energy policy. Democrats are laser-focused on climate change. Producing plentiful energy isn't the Democrats' priority. That means Republican presidential candidates need to state emphatically that the path to prosperity starts with a robust fossil fuel energy infrastructure bill. You can't achieve energy dominance without opening federal lands, building pipelines and increasing refi...

While Joe Biden blathers on about inflation improving, families aren't feeling that. This op-ed is helpful in explaining why the CPI isn't reflecting how families are feeling. The op-ed introduces the Omelet Price Index. This index is explained "The CPI measures a large basket of consumer goods from airfares to used cars and many things in between. But the CPI does not capture the true impact of inflation on families. To be more accurate, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), publishers of the CPI, decided to measure 'core inflation' by excluding food and energy prices, which can be more volatile. It was a nice try, but food and energy, such as gasoline, are a large part of the goods purchased by your average family. This explains why the CPI cooling and a trip to the grocery store can elicit different outcomes. I don't doubt that Core CPI is a useful tool for economists. I don't doubt, though, that it's virtually useless to families trying to figure o...

Kurt Volker is currently a Distinguished Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA.) For quite some time, Amb. Volker has been "a leading expert in US foreign and national security policy." Further, he served as a "US Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations from 2017-2019 and as US Ambassador to NATO from 2008-2009." That's quite the resume. Today, Amb. Volker wrote an op-ed titled "Urgency Must Replace Complacency in West’s Ukraine Policy." Praise the Lord and ship the ammunition and fighter jets into Ukraine. It's time we treated this like a perfect opportunity to topple a nuclear power, which is exactly what this opportunity is. Early in the op-ed, Amb. Volker writes "Speaking just ahead of the first anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Western leaders at the Munich Security Conference voiced a commitment to Ukraine 'for as long as it takes' (although no one says what “it” is.) President Bid...

While I don't think that the alternative media asked irrelevant questions of Pothole Pete Buttigieg, I think they could've asked sharper questions. Thanks to Katie Pavlich's tipsheet article , we have a representative, though not comprehensive list of questions asked of Secretary Buttigieg. Rebecca Brannon, an independent photojournalist who usually covers Minnesota politics, protests, riots and crime, highlighted the fact that Buttigieg's press secretary was willing to answer questions -- if the journalists turned off their cameras. It didn't take long for the alt-media to reject that option, as it should have been rejected. The Buttigieg trip was strictly a photo-op. The Biden administration wanted to show that they'd visited. If they want video evidence of visiting, they should be willing to take questions with the cameras rolling. An unidentified female journalist asked Secretary Buttigieg's press secretary why it took Buttigieg so long to make a statem...

Salena Zito just visited East Palestine, OH. She notes that Palestine is "pronounced Pal-e-steen." Then she notes that the Biden administration didn't show a serious presence until last week. Pete Buttigieg didn't arrive until today. When he got there, he started from a defensive posture. Considering the fact that he didn't take an interest in the catastrophe until last week, that's understandable. By the time that Secretary Buttigieg got to East Palestine, he was facing fierce criticism in the form of Sen. Marco Rubio demanding "Biden fire him for a 'gross level of incompetence and apathy' pertaining to the derailment crisis, his handling of the Southwest Airline holiday meltdown, and more." Buttigieg didn't handle first contact with East Palestine, saying "We've been here from the first hours of the incident as an administration, and it's why our interests in East Palestine and in keeping our railroads safe doesn't go...

While Joe Biden visited Ukraine and Poland and Pete Buttigieg took some personal time , Donald Trump took a trip to East Palestine , OH, to support the people who haven't gotten a bit of support from the Biden administration. When East Palestine needed the Biden administration's help, Joe Biden wasn't in the United States. He didn't even instruct his Transportation Secretary or EPA Administrator to visit East Palestine and find out more about the derailment of the Norfolk Southern train that carried toxic chemicals. Characteristically, Trump met with first responders on the ground dealing with the disaster. Whatever one thinks of Donald Trump, and Lord knows that I'm not always a fan, it's impossible to be fair and not be impressed with Trump's problem-solving abilities. First, he meets with the on-the-ground experts, then he supports the first responders while gathering information from them. In this instance, Trump gathered his information while paying fo...

Appearing on the Tucker Carlson Tonight show Tuesday night, Vivek Ramaswamy announced that he's running for the GOP nomination in 2024. Though it's unlikely that Republicans will highlight the fact that Mr. Ramaswamy is the son of Indian immigrants, this now means that the GOP presidential field is more diverse than the Democrats' field will be if Biden decides not to run for re-election. Nikki Haley is also the offspring of Indian immigrants who came here legally. Despite that racial and intellectual diversity in their field of candidates, DNC Chair Jaime Harrison issued a statement saying "one thing is clear: The race for the MAGA base is getting messier and more crowded by the day. 'Over the next few months, Republicans are guaranteed to take exceedingly extreme positions on everything from banning abortion to cutting Social Security and Medicare and we look forward to continuing to ensure every American knows just how extreme the MAGA agenda is.'" De...

When Joe Biden took office, he picked up where President Obama left off in his war on fossil fuels. It isn't like President Obama was kind to the fossil fuel industry. The fracking revolution happened in spite of Obama, not because of him. Way back in 2008, then-candidate Obama said "You know, when I was asked earlier about the issue of coal, uh, you know; Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad. Because I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, you know, natural gas, you name it, whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, uh, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers." Joe Biden seeks to outdo his old boss in terms of waging war against fossil fuels. According to this op-ed , "President Biden is showing 'outright hostility' to the U.S. oil industry by turning to ...

I've heard too many arguments against giving Ukraine the weaponry they need to win. This morning, for instance, while Lisa Boothe guest-hosted on Fox & Friends, she argued against sending more money and arms to Ukraine. She worried whether the war was winnable. (It is.) Piers Morgan stated that the war was winnable. It's time to dust off a pair of successful GOP battle plans. First and most important, it's time to dust off the Powell Doctrine. In a nutshell, the Powell Doctrine, named after then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Collin Powell, asks whether a "vital national security interest" had been threatened, whether "a clear and attainable objective" existed and whether "a plausible exit strategy to avoid endless entanglement" exists. The answer to each of those questions is emphatically yes. The other battle plan is more of a mindset. When asked what his strategy was towards the Soviets, President Reagan said "Simple. We win. They lo...

I didn't know until this morning that Jill McLaughlin is a parental rights activist. Honestly, I didn't know who she was until this morning. I'm thankful that I know more about her now. Thanks to this article , I'm now aware that Peter Hobart Elementary School isn't a school I'd recommend. Thanks to Jill McLaughlin's interview, I now suspect that Hobart is a slippery school. In the AlphaNews article, McLaughlin said "We were notified via email on a Thursday that that very week was Black Lives Matter at School Week." Check this out: This week is Black Lives Matter at Schools Week. The goal of the Black Lives Matter at School Week is to spark ongoing engagement with critical issues of social justice. Issues and principles focused on include: Restorative Justice Empathy Loving Engagement Diversity Globalism Identity Affirmation Collective Value Intergenerationalism Week after week, our Peter Hobart fifth graders share that racism is an issue they fee...

Shortly after the Biden administration issued new regulations regarding the Waters of the United States, aka WOTUS, 24 state attorneys general filed a lawsuit to prevent these regulations from redefining what is subject to federal jurisdiction. According to the article, "The lawsuit is the latest attempt by Republicans to overturn a rule they say places an undue burden on landowners; nearly 150 members of Congress introduced a resolution against the new Biden EPA rule on Feb. 2, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit on Jan. 18. The attorneys general [say] the Biden administration’s redefinition of 'navigable waters' rule exceeds the authority granted to the EPA under the Clean Water Act and potentially raises constitutional concerns." That doesn't mean these waters won't be regulated. It simply means that they'd be regulated by the appropriate state government. West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey announced the lawsuit during a ...

This year's DFL majorities in the State House and State Senate passed the Blackout Bill, which requires that 100% of Minnesota's energy be 100% carbon-free by 2040. After DFL Gov. Tim Walz signed the bill into law, Republican Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota announced that North Dakota would be filing a federal lawsuit against Minnesota, presumably because the bill violates the Constitution's Interstate Commerce Clause (ICC). The ICC gives Congress, not governors and legislatures, the authority to regulate interstate commerce. This time, the environmental activists have set their sights on something closer to home . This time, the DFL Greenies "are proposing a pair of bills that would significantly impact the state's backyards and neighborhood ice rinks in an effort to combat climate change. State Reps. Jerry Newton and Heather Edelson, members of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, introduced legislation on Monday that would block the sale of common lands...

If you haven't heard of Andrew L. Carter, don't feel bad. Until late this afternoon, I hadn't heard of him, either. Carter is the judge from New York's Southern District who presided over a lawsuit brought by a blogger and Rumble. The lawsuit objected to the Hateful Conduct Law , which Kathy Hochul, New York's governor, signed into law. This law didn't stand much of a chance of becoming enforced because it "defines hateful conduct broadly as 'the use of a social media network to vilify, humiliate, or incite violence against a group or a class of persons on the basis of race, color, religion, ethnicity, national origin, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.'" In other words, " much of what the bill defines as 'hateful conduct' is protected by the First Amendment. Despite a disclaimer that '[n]othing in this section shall be construed … as an obligation imposed on a social media network that...

Apparently, Democrats think everything that Republicans do is a "political stunt." They thought that it was a political stunt when TX Gov. Gov. Greg Abbott bussed illegal immigrants to the Naval Observatory where the Vice President lives. Democrats thought that it was a political stunt when FL Gov. DeSantis sent some illegal immigrants to Martha's Vineyard, which considers itself a sanctuary city. Time-after-time, Democrats cry "political stunt" anytime Republicans call attention to a Democrat-caused catastrophe. The latest "brazen act of political grandstanding" is next week, when the House Judiciary Committee Hearing is held in Arizona. Jerry Nadler and Pramila Jayapal, the Ranking Member on the Judiciary Committee and the Ranking Member on the Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement, respectively, "announced Democrats' refusal to cooperate with Chairman Jim Jordan's excursion to Yuma, Arizona, on Feb. 23. ...

According to White House spokesperson Ian Sams, Kevin McCarthy's visit to the U.S.-Mexico border was a "publicity stunt." Sams refused to characterize Hakeem Jeffries' trip to the border in either a positive or negative light, proving that Sams is just another dime-a-dozen political hatchetman. A day earlier, Sams said of McCarthy's co-del as "House Republicans should spend less time on partisan publicity stunts and more time working on solutions. Solutions are what President Biden is focused on, and his is plan working. House Republicans would be wise to join him to work together to strengthen our immigration system and fund border security." To quote Col. Potter from MASH, "Buffalo Bagels!" Joe Biden isn't interested in solving the border crisis. In FY2020, 460,000 illegal immigrants crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. In FY2021, the first year of Biden's administration, almost 1,740,000 illegal immigrants crossed the U.S.-Mexico border....

Just after the COVID pandemic started, students got their own union nationwide. Corey DeAngelis says that  they're called parents . If I had to give this movement a nickname, I'd call it the Parents-Students Liberation Movement. I'd call it that because that's what it's doing. According to Mr. DeAngelis, "Finally, we are freeing families from the clutches of the teachers' unions once and for all, and there's not a dang thing they can do about it." Mr. DeAngelis is a senior fellow at the American Federation for Children. That's a clever modification of Randi Weingarten's American Federation of Teachers. That's got to be terribly disturbing to Weingarten/AFT. Apparently, Weingarten's and AFT's monopoly is getting shattered. When the economy was shut down due to COVID, parents got the opportunity to watch the things that students were getting taught. It didn't take long for parents to put the proverbial foot down. The uprising ...

When it comes to fixing problems or adjusting to changing conditions, Joe Biden's administration isn't quick-footed. Actually, that's understatement. The latest examples are the Norfolk Southern derailment and the shooting down of the China spy balloon. Those aren't the only examples of the Biden administration's sluggishness. They're just the most recent. What's different this time is that Democrats are criticizing Biden's administration's response to the derailment and the Chinese spy balloon. For instance, Sen. Manchin, (D-WVA), is upset. Sen. Manchin said "he's pleased EPA Administrator Michael Regan visited the site on Thursday" before saying it isn't "acceptable that it took two weeks for a senior administration official to show up." That's being a little gentle for my liking. Biden has touted himself as an environmentalist. The derailment in East Palestine, OH happened on Feb. 3. The EPA administrator visited o...

J.D. Vance isn't an absentee politician. He isn't shying away from providing leadership during a crisis. At a time when the Biden administration can't be found, except on Twitter, J.D. Vance is on the ground in East Palestine, OH and testing the water. (Apparently, that's something that the EPA isn't willing to do.) In fact, J.D. Vance has issued a challenge to EPA Administrator Michael Regan to drink the water from the streams near the derailment site. That's a challenge Regan isn't likely to accept. Sen. Vance's challenge is serious. If the EPA has given the all-clear, which it did on their updates page , then EPA Administrator Regan should be willing to drink the water. On their Palestine updates page, the EPA said "As of the evening of Feb. 15, EPA has completed screening 486 homes, with 14 scheduled for today. Test results from the village’s municipal well sampling showed no water quality concerns. Governor DeWine issued a press release stat...

Apparently, Pete Buttigieg and Norfolk Southern were too busy to attend last night's townhall meeting in East Palestine, OH. Buttigieg and Norfolk Southern were conspicuous no-shows to the series of town hall meetings at the local gymnasium Wednesday night. Residents of East Palestine filled the gymnasium in hopes of gathering information about the derailment and how it'll affect their families. Norfolk Southern didn't attend the townhall meeting but it issued a statement, saying it "was not attending Wednesday's open house gathering with local, state and federal officials because of a 'growing physical threat to our employees and members of the community around this event.'" Dissatisfied residents expressed their discontent by calling the statement a "copout." Kathy Dyke, a resident of East Palestine, accused the railroad, saying "They’re not out here supporting, they’re not out here answering questions. For three days we didn’t even k...

Joe Biden loves talking about the jobs his economic policies have created. Each month on 'Jobs Report Friday', Biden pops out to brag about his administration having created the most jobs in the first 2 years of an administration. Similarly, Biden brags that inflation is coming down each month when the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes its monthly CPI (Consumer Price Index) report. What's actually the truth is that inflation isn't coming down. It just isn't going up as fast as it went up at the start of his administration. Further, Biden omits the fact that inflation has been rising for so long that it isn't just the month-over-month or year-over-year rates that matter. It's the cumulative effect of inflation during Biden's administration.  People know that their paychecks don't stretch as far as they did during the Trump administration. Further, people know that the economy isn't growing like it did the first 3 years of the Trump administrati...

When it comes to killing blue-collar middle-class jobs, the DFL's environmental activists are unrivaled. The DFL loves talking about jobs. That's a façade. In the end, the DFL hates employers far more than they love the jobs employers create. The Center for the American Experiment published John Phelan's article about how the DFL, through one of its front groups, killed a $440,000,000 project here in Minnesota. The project will happen. It just won't happen in Cohasset, MN, as previously planned. Phelan didn't bury the lede, opening his article by saying "Back in 2021, Huber Engineered Woods, a North Carolina company, announced a $440 million operation in northeastern Minnesota. It would have brought 150 new, high-paying jobs to southwest Itasca County, and the state quickly approved $15 million in public funds to assist Huber in its construction of the facility. Last week, Huber announced that they were pulling the project." This is what happened: The cit...

Jim Clapper, the former Director of National Intelligence in the Obama administration, insists that he's the victim. Clapper insists that the letter that he and 50 other intelligence 'experts' signed is accurate in the sense that they didn't say that they knew the letter was part of a Russian disinformation operation. According to the letter, these 51 'experts' said " If we are right, this is Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in this election, and we believe strongly that Americans need to be aware of this ." These 'experts' prefaced that sentence by saying "We want to emphasize that we do not know if the emails ... are genuine or not and that we do not have evidence of Russian involvement." In other words, these 'experts' are expressing a strongly-held opinion that the Russians were interested in interfering with the 2020 presidential election. Further, these experts issued this letter just 2 weeks before the 202...

I've never visited New York City. If NYC doesn't change dramatically, visiting NYC won't be on my bucket list anytime soon. That's especially true after listening to Joe Germanotta's interview with Sandra Smith and John Roberts. Germanotta owns "the Italian eatery, Joanne Trattoria, on the Upper West Side." These days, Germanotta says "I would never raise two girls here again. It’s not safe anymore. The crime, it’s unpredictable. You don’t know where it’s going to happen, when it’s going to happen." It's worth noting that one of his daughters goes by the stage name of Lady Gaga. During the interview, Germanotta said "The Upper West Side used to be pretty immune to this stuff, but now it’s come full-circle. It’s like the city took a step back 10 years. It’s the regional traffic that’s down. The Connecticut, the Long Island, New Jersey, Westchester [customers], they are not coming into New York City." Germanotta isn't impressed w...

Joe Biden and other wild-eyed Democrats are trying to dramatically upset life in America's suburbs. If the Biden administration has its way, suburban life will be subject to federal regulations. That's why Betsy McCaughey wrote this op-ed. McCaughey's op-ed says "The Biden administration and Democrats in New York, Connecticut and other states are fighting local zoning laws in order to build high-rise apartment buildings with 'affordable' units in tree-lined, single-family neighborhoods. All in the name of equity, meaning everyone can live in a tranquil suburb, whether they've earned the money to pay for it or not." This is part of Joe Biden's war against meritocracy. If you haven't made enough money to afford a home in the suburbs or out in the country, Joe Biden is stepping into the void to make sure everyone gets their participation trophy. No longer is discipline and achievement required to live in the suburbs. Uncle Sam will step in and p...