Liberty & Prosperity Blog

It appears that we're needlessly heading for a government shutdown, thanks in large part to the stupidity and stubbornness of a handful of idiots in the House and a presidential candidate who's more interested in his own interests than what's right for the nation. Specifically, Donald Trump wants a government shutdown so Republicans can "defund these political prosecutions against me." Further, a trio of blithering idiots (Andy Biggs, Matt Gaetz and Matt Rosendale) are intent on doing whatever Trump tells them to do. Friday night, 21 Republicans voted against a stopgap CR that would've given House Republicans time to pass the 12 individual appropriations bills. Some statements essentially admitted that there were lots of positive things in the stopgap CR before they voted against the CR. For instance, Rep. Troy Nehls said "While this bill makes significant spending cuts and enhances border security, it allows illegal aliens to remain in our communities ...

Yesterday, Elon Musk travelled to Eagle Pass, TX , aka Bill Melugin's home-away-from-home. Elon visited the border because, unlike Joe Biden, Elon is interested in fixing things and solving problems. In that respect, he's one of the world's greatest citizen journalists. What's most impressive is the fact that Elon's solution to the Tex-Mex Border Catastrophe is exactly what we need. Elon said "We actually do need a wall, and we need to require people to have some shred of evidence to claim asylum to enter, as everyone is doing that. It’s a hack that you can literally Google to know exactly what to say! The (USA) border needs to be secured. This is not a partisan issue; even the elected Democrat Party leaders of New York are saying this is a severe crisis." I totally agree with Musk but I'd go further. I'd implement the DeSantis Plan of attacking the cartels. The Biden administration has failed the American people. They're derelict in their duty...

Apparently, 2024 is the presidential election when principles and integrity are optional. After the constant onslaught of polls showing Trump and Biden leading, it's difficult not to think back to when we had the option of voting for a man of integrity. The last year that happened was 1984. President Reagan, where are you when we need your vision and integrity most? This year, if we trust the polls (which I don't), our options are a grifter from Delaware and a businessman who throws his best employees under the bus without hesitation. Even Newt Gingrich thinks that the race is over for the GOP nomination. He thinks that Trump is the prohibitive favorite. I'm hoping that the American people still have common sense. I'm hoping that the American people still put a high priority on integrity. At this point, though, it's disturbing that Joe Biden and Donald Trump are the polling leaders. Here's Newt's declaration on the state of the GOP presidential primary: I...

I remember the first GOP Debate in Milwaukee. Donald Trump skipped the debate to get interviewed by Tucker Carlson. The Trump campaign did its best to play up the interview , saying that they drew a bigger audience than the debate. This morning's cable news programming focused on last night's debate, followed by today's start of the House's impeachment inquiry I found very little in terms of Trump's speech to save UAW jobs until I ran into this article . Imagine my surprise when I found out that there's some question as to whether Trump's speech was in front of the UAW workers at all. The article exposes Mr. Trump as a liar who can't be trusted. This isn't a matter of whether I like Trump's policies or whether I prefer Gov. DeSantis's or Sen. Tim Scott's or Gov. Haley's policies. It's a matter of staying true to one's principles. If we're revolting against Biden family corruption, then we can't support Mr. Trump's ...

FL Gov. Ron DeSantis showed that he isn't backing down from Donald Trump. Former NJ Gov. Chris Christie chimed in with his own criticism of Trump, saying that Trump wasn't there because he didn't want to defend his record. Then Gov. Christie looked into the camera and said "Donald, I know you're watching -- you can't help yourself. If you keep skipping these debates, people won't call you Donald Trump anymore. They'll call you Donald Duck." That was too much for Orange Man Bad to take. Trump told Fox News Digital "I thought it was much more important, considering I have a 56-point lead, for me to be dealing with the UAW and the fact that the Biden Administration is going to destroy their jobs over the next two years by going all electric vehicle." That's a lovely bit of spin but, like most of Trump's stuff these days, it's a pile of BS. Trump isn't saving anyone from anything. He's just skipping a debate. If he's ...

It's time to admit that Trumpist populism isn't the best path forward for the GOP. Further, let's admit that embracing the GOP establishment's policies are worse than Trump's populism. What's isn't getting talked about is Reaganite anti-establishment thinking. Let's remember that Reagan's 'squeaker' came in 1980. That's when he won 'just' 489 electoral votes against the 1980s equivalent of Joe Biden. In the only presidential debate in 1980, Reagan said something that resonated with the American people when he said "A recession is when your neighbor loses his job, a depression is when you lose your job and the recovery starts when Jimmy Carter loses his job." These days, Republicans think that President Reagan's beliefs are outdated. Donald Trump thinks that the Reaganite policy of calling out evil makes negotiation difficult. That's somewhat true but Reagan didn't  hesitate to tell Gorbachev to "Tear do...

Tuesday, Joe Biden's publicity stunt found him visiting a UAW picket line to signal to the rank-and-file that he stood with them. Biden told the rank-and-file that he stood with them despite undermining them with his push for EVs. Joe Biden isn't a hero for the unions. He's perfectly willing to throw them under the bus if the bus is electric. Recently, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg got into a fight over EVs with Scott Perry regarding the building of EVs. Secretary Buttigieg's primary argument was that we have to win the race to building EVs because, otherwise, China will build them. Chairman Perry didn't say this so I will: if China wants to demolish their economy, and it appears they do at this point, let them. This isn't a race to see who builds the next great invention. It's just another idiotic idea pushed by this administration. But I digress. Let's head back to Detroit to check in with Joe Biden at the UAW picket line. When Shawn Fain...

In an attempt to hide his contempt for Internal Combustion Engines, Joe Biden will join the UAW picket line today . Let's hope that the UAW doesn't recognize the fact that Joe Biden is selling the UAW down the river with his pro-EV policies. Whenever an EV rolls off the GM or Stellantis assembly line, more UAW jobs disappear to right-to-work states or China. The White House is doing its best to spin this strike in Biden's direction. That's especially difficult when the truth is that Biden is paving the path for increased unemployment for UAW workers. The only thing that can save UAW jobs is a change in automotive policies. Anything short of that is spin. According to ABCNews’s reporting, "President Joe Biden will join the United Auto Workers picket line Tuesday in his strongest show of support yet for union members striking against General Motors, Ford and Stellantis. Biden announced Friday on X that he would travel to Wayne County, Michigan, 'to join the picke...

Depending on what David Weiss does or doesn't do, Hunter Biden might have lots of headaches to deal with in the near future. Mike Davis, the founder of the Article III Project told the Washington Times that "If Weiss intends to restore any integrity to his investigation, he must immediately and aggressively move forward with all readily probable charges against Hunter, including related to foreign bribery and corruption, being an unregistered foreign agent, wire fraud, tax evasion, and conspiracy." Susan Ferrechio's article opens by saying "President Biden’s son Hunter Biden has not dodged potential criminal charges for the taxes he failed to pay while serving on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings nearly a decade ago." Then she wrote "Legal experts say Mr. Weiss can revive the case because Hunter Biden has not paid the taxes. He could be charged with conspiracy to commit tax fraud, which could lead investigators to evidence of Mr. B...

I wish I could take credit for that snappy title but that I can't. If I did, I'd be pulling a Biden-style plagiarism. The title comes from Phil Flynn's Daily Energy Report . Phil's report opens by saying "A disjointed US energy policy is restraining US oil and gas output that should be much higher than it is. Ill-advised releases from the strategic petroleum reserves, laughable price caps, and a slew of nonsense regulations have hampered the US oil and gas industry and have hurt the US economy. You can say that the record US oil and gas production by the EIA is proof that the Biden administration has not restrained US oil and gas output but if you look at the US oil and gas rig count and talk to people in the oil and gas industry, you know that is incorrect. Rig counts don’t lie, and energy industry leaders are left scratching their heads as to a regulatory environment that is based on optics and politics and has little to do with reducing carbon emissions. " ...

Anti-religious organizations have talked for decades about the importance of keeping religion separated from government. Almost automatically, they've argued that religion shouldn't have a part in government. That's wrong-headed thinking. The Constitution, especially including the Bill of Rights, was written to restrict government, not We the People. Therefore, when the Freedom From Religion Foundation, aka FFRF, sent a letter complaining to Auburn University President Christopher Roberts about a mass baptism, one of which was conducted by Auburn's head football coach, it drew a reaction from the Alliance Defending Freedom . In their letter to Auburn, FFRF said "These ongoing and repeated constitutional violations at the University create a coercive environment that excludes those students who don’t subscribe to the Christian views being pushed onto players by their coaches." First, it's quite the provocative accusation to say that "students who don’t...

Just in case Joe Biden was wondering, RFK Jr. isn't disappearing from the presidential race anytime soon. Just to remind Biden of that, RFK Jr. published this op-ed for Newsweek. The topic of RFK Jr.'s op-ed is illegal immigration. Kennedy opened his op-ed by quoting NYC Mayor Eric Adams, who said "We are about to experience a financial tsunami that I don't think the city has ever experienced. Every service in this city is going to be impacted, from child services to our seniors, to housing." Next, Kennedy wrote "According to Adams, the status quo of 110,000 migrant arrivals in just the last year is utterly unsustainable and threatens to 'destroy the city.' To address the financial impact of the crisis, which he estimates could cost $12 billion by 2025, he directed city agencies to cut 5 percent from spending by November." If it’s Joe Biden’s goal to ruin NYC , he’s on the right track. Next, he wrote this: New York is hardly alone. Cities across...

Ever since Joe Manchin caved to Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer on the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, political experts have written that seat off as a Democrat hold. Democrats know that seat's gone, as in it would take divine intervention to keep that in the Blue column. Other states that Democrats will have to fight to keep are Montana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is new to that list. Bob Casey, Jr. is the senior senator there, mostly because he's lived off of his dad's reputation for decades. To Minnesotans, that's what Skip Humphrey did for years as Minnesota's AG. But I digress. Back to Pennsylvania. This cycle, Bob Casey has a legitimate challenger. His name is David McCormick. Before making his official announcement, though, McCormick got GOP leadership lined up behind him . There's little doubt that Democrats will attack McCormick. This threatens to become the nastiest race in the 2024 cycle. Next, there's little doubt how Democrats will atta...

Merrick Garland has another difficulty to suffer through. Michael Batdorf, the IRS Director of Field Operations, " told the House Ways and Means Committee in a closed-door interview on Sept. 12th that he personally felt 'frustrated' by the refusal of the Justice Department to approve tax charges that IRS agents viewed as well-supported by evidence, according to a transcript of the interview obtained by the Washington Examiner." On Wednesday, Merrick Garland testified before the House Judiciary Committee , with most of the Committee's questions being about David Weiss's investigation into Hunter Biden's international pay-to-play operation. During that testimony, Garland insisted that Weiss was free to prosecute any charge in any district in the U.S. That appears to be false, as Washington Examiner investigative reporter Sarah Bedford reports "IRS Agent Gary Shapley, a whistleblower, was removed from the Hunter Biden case at the explicit direction of W...

Apparently, Donald Trump thinks he doesn't need to interview for the job he wants. Put simply, Donald Trump thinks that debating is a waste of time. He's said that he's leading by such huge margins that he'd be foolish to debate. In Trump's mind, everything is about him. There's no narcissism in Trump's family. He got all of it. The Wall Street Journal's Editorial Board wrote this editorial to call out Mr. Trump. In their editorial, they wrote "Donald Trump has a big lead in the polls for the GOP presidential nomination, but he’s acting as if he has already won. After skipping the first GOP debate, he is also planning to blow off the second one, scheduled for next week at the Reagan Presidential Library in California. Instead Mr. Trump will give a speech to union workers in Detroit. Trump has essentially said that people know him, that he doesn't need to debate the other top-tier candidates. That suggests that Mr. Trump is worried that he'l...

If you think that big, sometimes prohibitive, leads in major national polls mean that Donald Trump is the favorite to be the GOP nominee, you might want to dig a little deeper than the horserace number in those polls. Karl Rove certainly isn't a Trump fan so what he writes in his weekly WSJ op-ed should be taken with a grain of salt before accepting it as truth. In this week's column, though, Rove appears to be onto something when he wrote "Nor has Mr. Trump helped himself with his narcissistic insistence on full fealty. He wants political figures to fawn over him. If they don’t, he can turn on them, as when he attacked the popular Govs. Kim Reynolds of Iowa and Chris Sununu of New Hampshire." Trump thinks that he can simply bulldoze people with his overwhelming stage presence. That certainly worked in 2016. It worked against him in 2020, when the Biden campaign picked their spots while criticizing him, then retreating to his home again. Whether that works in 2024 is...

Merrick Garland did his best to tap-dance through a mine field during Jim Jordan's Judiciary Committee hearing on David Weiss's intentional mishandling of Hunter Biden's corruption investigation. He failed. Jim Jordan nailed Garland during Chairman Jordan's cross-examination of AG Garland. Before that, though, Garland tap-danced himself right into the middle of a mine field during his opening statement. During his opening statement, Garland said "Our job is to pursue justice, without fear or favor. Our job is not to do what is politically convenient. Our job is not to take orders from the president, from Congress or from anyone else about who or what to criminally investigate. As the President himself has said, and I reaffirm today, I am not the president's lawyer. I will add I am not Congress’s prosecutor. The Justice Department works for the American people. Our job is to follow the facts and the law. That is what we do." AG Garland is right in this res...

It isn't surprising that the School Board Establishment is pushing back against Moms for Liberty's efforts to halt Moms for Liberty's push for liberty. Hardline groups of Democrats obviously love their monopoly on what students get taught in K-12. The last thing they want to do is surrender that monopoly to a bunch of well-informed moms. Democrats love grassroots politics as long as those participating are comfortable being controlled by the machine. Those uppity grassroots activists have gotten labeled as domestic terrorists by the Biden/Garland DOJ. According to USA Today's reporting , "the Southern Poverty Law Center has listed [Moms for Liberty] as an extremist group over accusations of harassing community members, advancing misinformation about LGBTQ people and fighting to remove materials about diversity from classrooms." That's rich. Having the SPLC call parents extremists is like having arsonists call firefighters a public health hazard. The SPLC i...

For years, Juan Williams was just another liberal partisan hack. After writing for the Washington Post for 23 years, Williams left for NPR, where he got fired. These days, Williams isn't just a liberal partisan hack. He's a blithering idiot liberal partisan hack. Little of what he's written the past year makes sense. Williams' latest column for the Hill could've been mistaken as being written by his grandchildren when they were in high school. In this morning's column, Williams wrote "House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry is plainly a sham, a modern-day Star Chamber. My question to right-wingers is, why stop at Hunter-gate? Why not expand the scope of the investigation to President Biden’s role into other nothingburger inquiries of recent vintage, such as Benghazi, Hillary Clinton’s emails, Solyndra and Lois Lerner?" Williams is either incredibly corrupt, which is a distinct possibility, or he's terminally stupid, which isn't that likely. It...

It's fair to say that Donald Trump is better at talking about draining the Swamp than he is at draining the Swamp. Jeffrey Tucker's article about Megyn Kelly's interview of Mr. Trump is quite enlightening on the subject. In the first paragraph, Tucker notes that "you can interview Trump provided you don’t ask perfectly obvious questions about his Covid response that shredded the Bill of Rights, wrecked his presidency, enabled mass mail-in ballots, elevated agencies to the status of dictators, and kicked off the biggest national crisis of our lifetimes from which we aren’t even close to recovering." Trump knows that his lowest marks come from his mishandling of COVID. If he avoids talking about his mishandling of COVID, he thinks that the nomination is his. He might be right about that. That's all the more reason for a daring reporter to question Trump on his mishandling of COVID. Enter Megyn Kelly. Tucker did the right thing in writing "Everyone has a ri...

During his appearance Sunday night on Trey Gowdy's Sunday Night in America, Rep. Ken Buck let loose with a bunch of questionable statements. Some specialized in weasel words. Finally, after spending what seemed like an eternity, Rep. Buck finally revealed his true intentions. He said that Republicans shouldn't pursue an impeachment inquiry. He said that Republicans should let the 3 committees investigating Hunter and Joe should continue. To be fair, Trey Gowdy opened the segment by saying some provocative things that were the verbal equivalent of clickbait. He asked "Is this payback for what Democrats did to President Trump? Have we entered an era where winning the presidency almost guarantees you will face impeachment?" That's such a shame. I expect more from Gowdy. Those questions call into question the legitimacy of the investigation. It's as if Gowdy hadn't paid attention to Devon Archer's deposition testimony, which I wrote about in this post : Mr...

However long this UAW strike lasts, this will be unlike any other UAW strike in history. That's because it's intended to be that way . Signs point to this strike lasting quite a while , especially with the new UAW president rejecting "a public offer by Jeep parent company Stellantis to boost pay 21 percent over four years." Shawn Fain, the UAW's new president, is certainly applying maximum pressure on the companies. For example, UAW workers rallied with Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday: Despit that, Fain is perhaps overplaying his hand: The union said it had “reasonably productive” conversations with Ford on Saturday and was planning to meet with GM as well. Both of those companies have offered 20-percent raises over four years. But on Sunday morning, UAW President Shawn Fain said Stellantis’ 21-percent offer and other terms presented by the automakers aren’t sufficient, and that the strike would continue. Whether Fain admits this or not, at the heart of this strike ...