Liberty & Prosperity Blog

Alvin Bragg's indictment of President Trump is likely to live in infamy. It's an indictment in search of a solid legal foundation. George Washington University Law School Professor Jonathan Turley put it most eloquently in this blog post when he wrote "Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has finally made history. He has indicted former President Donald Trump as part of an investigation, possibly for hush money payments. We are all waiting to see the text of the indictment to confirm the basis for this unprecedented act. But history in this case — and in this country — is not on Bragg’s side." Turley continued, saying "The only crime that has been discussed in this case is an unprecedented attempt to revive a misdemeanor for falsifying business documents that expired years ago. If that is still the basis of Thursday’s indictment, Bragg could not have raised a weaker basis to prosecute a former president. If reports are accurate, he may attempt to “bootstrap” ...

Whether you are a believer or not, there is no doubt that there is a spiritual battle going on today. Right from wrong and evil versus good. I have always told my children we are on the devils playground. I’ve always told my children that being a Christian would not be easy. As the world was hit with chaos when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, parents were left with lots ofquestions and fear; at the time I had four children in four very different stages of life ranging from high school, middle school elementary and preschool. I watched the chaos and hectic mess of every day unfold before my eyes. They say seeing is “believing.” What I saw was the family foundation being stripped from parents. Parents being called domestic terrorists and being put on an FBI watchlist. Parents were getting banned and barred like throwing candy in a parade. I know this firsthand because it personally happened to me. When I reached out to school personnel about a Sexting class that would be taught to fifth grad...

After Alejandro Mayorkas, the Secretary of Homeland Security, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre might be the most corrupt member of Joe Biden's administration. During Wednesday's daily briefing, KJP appeared to signal that she's ok with confiscating guns . During the 2020 presidential election, Robert Francis O'Rourke said "Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47." Then Biden, on the night that O'Rourke endorsed him, said that O'Rourke will be "taking care of the gun problem with me." Then Biden said, "you're going to be the one who leads this effort." That's just the start of things. During Wednesday's briefing, a "reporter asked if Joe Biden supported 'not just banning the sale and manufacture of semi-automatic weapons, but further than that, confiscation?'" This isn't difficult in the eyes of this nations Founding Fathers. In the opening paragraph of the Declaration of ...

Why the Minnesota Parental Bill of Rights is Desperately Needed By Jeff Johnson, Ph.D. Jeff Johnson served on the St. Cloud City Council from 2010-2018 and is a retired university professor. He also served on a school board as a member, vice chair, and chair. He is currently a high school teacher. His combined teaching, school board experience, and being a parent of high school children has provided unique insights into school policies and parental rights. He is locally known as the Minnesota axe grinder who likes to “grind the axe” when it comes to corruption, coverup, bad behavior, and wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars. Background Years ago, when I served as school board chair, I clearly remember explaining to parents in an open house setting that teachers and parents have distinct roles. The parents’ role is to raise their children. The teachers’ role is to provide an education. There is an expectation that parents and school personnel will cooperatively work together to achieve...

Brief examination of rights and roles in the Parental Bill of Rights Phyllis VanBuren, Ph.D. March 28, 2023 As a parent, grandparent and life-long learner and educator, I was invited to join a small group of concerned citizens—concerned about our children and their academic preparation, especially in our government-funded schools. As members of this group, we believe that the views and academic concerns of each community are determined by the elected school board members—elected by us, the members of the community. We also believe that parents have the right to respectfully address this body, the administrators, and teachers about the children and receive open and honest responses. When Gary asked me to pick out specific rights in the Parental Bill of Rights, I found four that related to two more general topics—surveys and curriculum. Rights # 8 and #9 Parents generally assume that schools now are like the ones they attended—whenever that was. Unfortunately, school personnel and polici...

Disclosure Generates Trust By John W. Palmer, Ph.D. March 26, 2023 As I was leaving my man cave to spend time with my wife the phone rang. Blogger Gary Gross was calling. I answered the call and Gary asked me to select one of the 16 Parental Rights articulated in a recently released document to provide the reason the right was included in the list of “Parental Bill of Rights” (insert link to the document). When my wife laid down for a nap, I checked my email and the first article published in today’s daily Alpha News gave me evidence which support including right number 4 (full disclosure of all information regarding their child including all official and unofficial school records. School personnel will not willfully conceal information or events from the child’s parent unless a unique legal circumstance exists such as a “no contact” order issued by a judge is in effect.) The headline of the Alpha News article reads: Police: Robbinsdale school officials ‘hampered’ investigation into gu...

Last Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed their Parents Bill of Rights bill. Tiffany Justice and Tina Descovich, the co-founders of Moms for Liberty, praised the passage of the bill, though they also admitted that it won't go anywhere in the U.S. Senate. In their joint statement, Justice and Descovich said "Today, the US House took bold action in support of American parents with children in the public school system. Parents have fundamental rights to speak up, be involved and ask questions of their child’s public school leaders and school boards. Parental rights do not end at the classroom door." Later in their joint statement, they said "It is dumbfounding that the involvement of parents with their child’s education has become partisan issue. And, it is disheartening to hear that this issue is so political the US Senate will not even take up this bill." Here in Minnesota, a group of ordinary citizens have been pulled together to champion Minnesota...

Tim Walz has a major character flaw. It's a flaw he shares with Joe Biden. That flaw was exposed (by Walz himself) when he unveiled his Little Free Library . At the event, Walz "took shots at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Wednesday, saying the Republican’s state is 'where freedom goes to die.'" Walz insists that classics like "1984," "Of Mice and Men," "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Lord of the Flies" are banned in Florida. Shortly after the event, Reuters did a factcheck. That factcheck found that those classics "are included in Florida’s Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking. " In short, Tim Walz is who we knew he was -- a thoroughly dishonest man, just like Joe Biden is. This wasn't a misstep. It was intentional. I know that it's intentional because Tim Walz had to set things up for him to say that Florida "is 'where freedom goes to die.'" The article continued, saying "The remarks w...

The competition between Minnesota and its neighboring states (think Iowa and North Dakota) ended when Minnesota's DFL Governor Tim Walz agreed with his DFL co-conspirators in the House and Senate on budget targets that will spend most of Minnesota's projected surplus rather than making Minnesota's tax system more competitive with its neighbors. According to Alpha News, "Minnesota lawmakers agreed to spend an additional $17.9 billion on top of the base budget of $52.4 billion, likely depleting the state’s current $17.2 billion surplus. The target includes $3 billion in tax breaks but doesn’t specify how relief will be delivered. Gov. Tim Walz, Senate Majority Leader Kari Dziedzic, and House Speaker Melissa Hortman said they reached budget target numbers that include investments for kids and families, the largest tax cut in state history, and funding to improve health and safety." Noticeably missing from the targets is long-term tax reform. That guarantees Minnesot...

DFL Gov. Tim Walz is pushing Minnesota to the brink of irrelevance. This isn't a partisan attack. It's a policy attack. The DFL's machine doesn't listen to people. The DFL just crushes dissent. In the DFL's view, dissent isn't optional. It's crushed. Gov. Walz's education agenda includes a push for ethnic studies . According to DFL legislation, "Ethnic studies analyzes the ways in which race and racism have been and continue to be powerful social, cultural, and political forces, and the connection of race to the stratification of other groups, including stratification based on gender, class, sexuality, religion, and legal status." Parents are fighting back. "Kofi Montzka, a mother to three boys, said the language of the bill tells kids of color that they are stuck in a caste system based on their race. You might ask: why in the world would a black person speak against ethnic studies? Because not everything that sounds good is good," s...

Is the Trump grand jury falling apart? That's definitely one of the theories circulating after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg called off today's grand jury session. Fox News is reporting "Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office has 'canceled' the grand jury meeting that was scheduled to take place Wednesday as part of the investigation into former President Donald Trump, amid speculation of a possible indictment." Further, Fox is reporting that the "grand jury was notified Wednesday morning and was placed 'on standby' for Thursday." Alan Dershowitz told Sean Hannity last night that former federal prosecutor Robert Costello's testimony "I think that Bragg now only has two possible results from that. Number one, he can say, ‘alright, I’m going to try to make the case without Cohen.’ He cannot use Cohen as a witness anymore. That would be unethical because of the testimony that Costello gave. Or he could say, ‘lo...

DFL politicians love talking up Minnesota. Increasingly, investors are taking a different view of Minnesota. For quite some time, actually, investors prefer North Dakota over Minnesota. For example, Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary spent time in North Dakota . O'Leary's team was in Fargo. O'Leary's "team have partnered with North Dakota to invest $45 million into early-stage companies. 'I was amazed at how much interest there was because everybody is beginning to realize there are certain states that we call no-go states. And there are go-to states. And North Dakota is emerging as a go-to state,' said O’Leary." O'Leary isn't interested in hostile takeovers. That's evidenced by him saying "We’re in this for the long run. And we think that there is a lot more money interested in coming here, but primarily for the competition of states." By contrast, Minnesota's government model isn't built around attracting investors. Minn...

It's painfully obvious that Lydia Glaize, a Democrat state representative from Georgia, isn't worried about insulting parents . If she was worried about insult Georgia parents, she wouldn't have said "I see parents being able to direct their child’s education, and they are already in the lower 25 percentile. Meaning, a lot of those parents did not finish high school, could not finish their own education. I am extremely concerned that we would put money in their hands, that entire piece of life in the hands of parents who are not qualified to make those decisions, and they don’t have the money to put in the difference that their child would need to attend a private school." Representative Glaize is referring to the Georgia Promise Scholarship Act. After mentioning students attending private schools, Rep. Glaize admitted that "her children attended private schools, but said parents should pay for tuition themselves and expressed opposition to vouchers that woul...

The Conventional Wisdom reports all say that Donald Trump will be indicted today. Apparently, Alvin Bragg, Manhattan's District Attorney, will indict Donald Trump on (pardon the pun) trumped up charges that he violated federal campaign finance regulations when he allegedly had convicted perjurer Michael Cohen pay hush money to alleged mistress Stormy Daniels. Since Conventional Wisdom always gets it right, this should be accepted as Gospel fact. Conventional Wisdom also informs us that this will cause a stampede of support to Trump as we rally around Trump, our one and only savior. A recent email update from TrumpStatements.org declares "One path, defined by apathy and fatigue, will be the abandonment of America’s Constitution, the destruction of the rule of law, and result in the beginning of the end for the Great American Experiment. The other path, led by patriots who stand up and get involved right now, is the only hope we have for saving America and the writing of Ameri...

This afternoon, Cassie Fredregill forwarded an email to me from Doug Dahlberg, who is a member of the Little Falls School Board. The email was sent using an email that isn't his official email listed on the school board's website . On the school board website, Dahlberg is listed as being the treasurer, with his email address being ddahlberg@lfalls.k12.mn.us; on the email sent to Cassie Fredregill, his email address is Doug@pinecountrybank.com. What's interesting is that there's a line at the bottom of Dahlberg's email to Fredregill that says "IMPORTANT NOTICE: This message may contain confidential, privileged information and is intended only for the addressee. If you are not the intended recipient, you may not use, copy or disclose any information contained in the message. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and delete the message. Thank you." Since Mr. Dahlberg has a Little Falls K-12 email address listed ...

This past week has been one of the most stimulating weeks I've experienced in ages. Last Saturday, I was contacted by Cassie Fredregill, a parent-warrior who doesn't have an inch of back-down. When Cassie's 10-year-old daughter brought home disturbing news from school, Cassie emailed her daughter's teacher to find out more about this controversial class. Making a long story short, that led to lots of attention getting paid to Cassie's situation. That, in turn, led to Cassie getting interviewed by Mitch Berg Saturday afternoon. After Mitch's interview of Cassie, a friend of this blog called me to rave about the quality of Cassie's interview. During our conversation, I said that it's time for Minnesota's parents to have their own bill of rights. This friend has a Ph.D. in Education Administration so he excitedly volunteered to write a first draft bill of rights. I volunteered to proofread it after this friend and Cassie finish putting it together. If ...

It's been well-known that 60 Minutes has used lots of deception to push their narrative. The last time that was news was probably during the Space Shuttle program. Still, it's worth noting that 60 Minutes hasn't let go of that time-tested tactic. They're still too tied to the deception. A perfect case-in-point is provided in an excerpt from Gov. DeSantis' memoir, which was published by RealClearInvestigations . They published a transcript of Sharyn Alfonsi's ambush interview of Gov. Ron DeSantis. Before they published the transcript, they wrote "Here, from 'The Courage to Be Free,' is DeSantis's account of what he describes as unfair treatment by '60 Minutes' of his handling of COVID-19 vaccine distribution in 2021; correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi suggested it was 'pay for play' favoring the Publix supermarket chain. As vindication and riposte, the governor offers an unedited transcript of his clash with the reporter -- that is, inc...

If any banking officials have confidence in Janet Yellen's abilities, that's news. She got ripped to shreds during Thursday's Senate Finance Committee hearing. Secretary Yellen sai "Our banking system remains sound and Americans can feel confident that their deposits will be there when they need them." Why would people trust someone that's obviously having this much difficulty answering questions? A Treasury Secretary that had this little command of the issues is, in my estimation, in over her head. That's far too important of a position to have someone that's that unsteady. Secretary Yellen doesn't inspire confidence. That's before questioning San Francisco Fed Chief Mary Daly. Daly's responsibility "was supposed to be supervising Silicon Valley Bank but apparently was too busy playing politics and pushing woke agendas to regulate rogue banks like SVB, the second-biggest bank failure on record." Apparently, "Daly had othe...

As I wrote in this article , Little Falls Superintendent Greg Johnson hasn't treated Cassie Fredregill with the respect she deserves. In fact, he hasn't put out the word to his teachers that Cassie's children aren't to be mistreated. Sheila Qualls wrote in this article that "Fredregill also claimed that the teacher is retaliating against her daughter. 'My daughter is getting in trouble almost every day. She’s losing all her privileges at school. When the class gets movie time or popcorn days, she’s not allowed to be part of those activities,' Fredregill said. 'She’s not allowed to do recess. She can’t have free time. She has to eat lunch and then go straight back to the classroom. Fredregill said the teacher’s behavior is taking a toll on her daughter and causing 'emotional damage.'" Since reading Qualls' article, I've learned that Fredregill's high school daughter is getting mistreated. Even her son in kindergarten is getting ...

Let's suppose that Joe Biden decides not to run for re-election in 2024. It's a given that Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom would jump into the race within 24-48 hours. According to this Daily Beast puff piece , there's a possibility that Minnesota tough guy and Gov. Tim Walz would be tempted to jump into the race. The Daily Beast's opinion is that Gov. Walz is a Democrat tough guy who wouldn't hesitate to stand up to Gov. DeSantis. That's foolishness. Gov. Walz is the blithering idiot who picked Peggy Flanagan to be a heartbeat away from Minnesota's governorship. Don't forget that this is the same Peggy Flanagan who infamously said "When our children tell us who they are, it is our job as grown-ups to listen and to believe them. That’s what it means to be a good parent." Gov. Walz is the idiot who thinks it's a good idea to let 10-year-olds determine whether they're a boy or a girl: When he signed an executive order on Wednesday making Minnes...

Peggy Flanagan apparently doesn't know what a parent's responsibilities are. It's apparent because she said something so stupid that it'd make Kamala's speechwriters blush. At a press availability, Flanagan said "When our children tell us who they are, it is our job as grown-ups to listen and to believe them. That’s what it means to be a good parent." That's breathtakingly, frighteningly stupid. Children aren't allowed to sign contracts for a reason. They're often incapable of making mature decisions because that part of the brain takes time to develop. Further, children haven't accumulated the wisdom that comes with a multitude of different experiences. With those experiences come mistakes. Mistakes are often the best teachers because success often is one step ahead of complacency. A mistake often sharpens the mind and increases discipline. According to the article, "The viral comment was made during a press conference earlier this m...

Joe Biden is attempting to thread the needle by opening 3 pads of the Willow Oil Field. In order to placate the Democrats' environmentalist base after Willow, Biden shut down or limited drilling in Alaska or in the Arctic Ocean. Meanwhile, House Republicans don't have to thread the needle. They just introduced H.R.1, aka the Lower Energy Costs Act. The bill seeks to "cut red tape and increase [domestic] energy production." According to House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, H.R. 1 seeks to "to cut red tape and increase energy production here at home so we can lower energy costs and stop our dependence on hostile foreign countries for our energy and minerals." The political goal is to highlight the failure of Biden's (and the Democrats') energy policy. Under the Democrats'-Biden watch, gas at the pump reached $5.00 a gallon nationwide for the first time in our nation's history. This is just a political ploy to get Biden past the 2024 election. ...

Saying that Cassie Fredregill and her daughter have gotten mistreated by the Little Falls Middle School ( correction- Randall Elementary School) and by Superintendent Greg Johnson is understatement. If Johnson thought that Mrs. Fredregill would just go away, they thought wrong. Now, Fredregill's dispute with the school has taken on a higher profile. Sheila Qualls from Alpha News just published this article about the dispute. In the article, Mrs. Qualls wrote "dozens of parents and community members attended the Little Falls School Board meeting Monday night, some holding signs calling Superintendent Greg Johnson a 'groomer.' They were there to support Cassie Fredregill, who said the district is retaliating against her for requesting the curriculum." Mrs. Qualls, the wife of GOP gubernatorial candidate Kendall Qualls, then wrote that Fredregill "repeatedly insisted on reviewing the curriculum for her fifth-grade daughter’s class in early November. At the end...