Liberty & Prosperity Blog

It's heartbreaking to watch Harris Faulkner and Morgan Ortagus bearing similar crosses. They're both the parent of Jewish children growing up in a suddenly anti-Semitic world. Monday on Outnumbered, Morgan was overwhelmed with justifiable emotion . Morgan talked with Harris about their shared burden, saying "It's really hard to be a Jewish parent right now," Ortagus said. "I thought about you this weekend too, Harris, when I saw this. Because your husband is Jewish and, you know, whenever Hitler was going after [the Jews], they didn't care if your kids were half Jewish. And I thought about you as I was thinking about coming to Outnumbered and I thought, they would go after my daughter, they would go after yours as quickly as they would mine. And it's- it's just terrifying to be a Jewish parent right now." Ortagus was just getting started. Next, she said "I know this time clearly who would hide us and who would watch us go by. One thing I...

Speaker Mike Johnson just announced that the House hopes to vote on a standalone appropriations bill to support Israel this Thursday. According to the article, "House Republicans have rolled out a bill giving $14.3 billion in aid to Israel, while cutting into cash President Biden allocated toward the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) last year." That's where things get sticky. The article continues, saying "The 13-page bill released on Monday would completely offset the foreign aid by rescinding those funds from the Inflation Reduction Act passed last year. Specifically, it targets some of the $80 billion the package gave to the IRS." It's sticky because "Biden asked Congress to approve a mammoth $106 billion supplemental funding request with $14.3 billion for Israel, more than $60 billion for Ukraine, just over $13 billion for U.S. border security and an additional $10 billion in humanitarian assistance." Biden apparently thinks that massive deficit...

It's apparent that Hamas Caucus members, formerly known as the Squad, aren't the brightest bulbs in the chandelier. On Sunday, Hamas Caucus member Cori Bush "accused Israel of committing 'ethnic cleansing' in its ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza." The truth is that Cori Bush, like all members of the Hamas Caucus, is dishonest to the core. Bush took to Twitter to say "We can’t be silent about Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign. Babies, dead. Pregnant women, dead. Elderly, dead. Generations of families, dead. Millions of people in Gaza with nowhere to go being slaughtered. The U.S. must stop funding these atrocities against Palestinians." That's breathtaking dishonesty. Hamas chopped off the heads of Israeli babies. Hamas took Holocaust survivors hostage, too. I've said it before but it's worth repeating that a 2-state solution is impossible. Hamas isn't interested in Israel existing. Warning: Graphic Content This article puts the sp...

Last week, Rep. Jamaal Bowman went before a judge to enter a plea of guilty to a single misdemeanor in connection with his pulling of a fire alarm in a House office building. Prof. Jonathan Turley's post says that Rep. Bowman "Bowman will avoid jail time and get his charge dropped in three months by simply paying a $1,000 fine and writing a formal apology letter to the U.S. Capitol Police." If that sounds like preferential treatment to you, it should because it is preferential treatment. Rep. Bowman's story that he pulled the fire alarm because he was in a hurry to vote is fiction. There's video proof that shows he calmly walked up to the door, took down the signs instructing people not to use those doors, then pulling the fire alarm. Further, the video shows him walking away from the door after he pulled the alarm. It's worth noting that the video didn't show him attempting to open the door. Prof. Turley quoted Bowman as saying "I don’t know why thi...

Now that it's apparent that EVs aren't flying off showroom floors like the original iPhones flew off store shelves, it's time to call Biden's Green New Deal initiative a failure. According to the article cited above, "Top executives of Ford, General Motors and Mercedes-Benz all addressed concerns over waning demand for electric vehicles this week, as the major automakers navigate losses and price wars amid an EV push that not enough consumers are buying." The memorable line from Field of Dreams was "Build it and they will come." If I had to craft a line for Biden's EV initiative, it'd be "build something the American people don't want and they'll teach you the importance of Adam Smith's Invisible Hand." I know that isn't the pithiest rejoinder but it's the truth. Ford CEO Jim Farley "It's been a challenging situation, for sure," Ford CEO Jim Farley said during the company's third-quarter earnin...

Yesterday, I wrote this post about Gov. DeSantis's interview with Mark Levin of Life, Liberty & Levin fame. I included this CBS article in my post. The CBS article includes the report that Donald Trump was so excited to endorse then-Rep. DeSantis that he didn't even wait until DeSantis announced his candidacy to endorse Gov. DeSantis. In the tweet , Trump wrote "Congressman Ron DeSantis is a brilliant young leader, Yale and then Harvard Law, who would make a GREAT Governor of Florida. He loves our Country and is a true FIGHTER." The tweet is dated 12:40 PM · Dec 22, 2017. That's significant because this article is titled "Trump claims Ron DeSantis cried in front of him while asking for his endorsement back in 2018." The latter article is dated Feb 2, 2023, 11:34 PM CST. One of the things that Trump insists happened was that "There were tears coming down from his eyes. He said: 'If you endorse me, I'll win.'" Also according to...

It isn't a secret that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is the smartest candidate in the presidential race. As proof, Gov. DeSantis can point to the fact that he's a graduate of Yale and Harvard Law School. After that, Gov. DeSantis joined the U.S. Navy and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. After that, DeSantis served as a legal adviser to SEAL Team One. Gov. DeSantis did these things before being deployed to Gitmo in 2006, then Iraq in 2007 before the age of 30. With a resume like that, it's easy to think of Gov. DeSantis as a self-made man. That apparently bothers thin-skinned people like Donald Trump, who thinks that he's responsible for Gov. DeSantis's meteoric political rise. That's quite ironic considering the fact that then-Pres. Trump endorsed then-Rep. DeSantis before DeSantis announced his candidacy for Governor. According to  this report from CBS News , "President Trump has endorsed Republican congressman Ron DeSantis for Florida governor. Mr. Tr...

Each month, Dr. Louis Johnston is interviewed by Almanac co-hosts Eric Eskola and Cathy Wurzer about the economy. Usually, it's a solo interview. This Friday night, Dr. Johnston was joined by Dr. Jeanne Boeh. Dr. Johnston teaches economics at St. Benedict's University and St. John's University. Dr. Boeh teaches economics at Augsburg University. The second question came from Mr. Eskola. He said "With the Fed now looking at the current situation, I think you 2 have taught us that accelerated growth means higher interest rates." Dr. Johnston replied "Well, the idea is that accelerated growth supposedly means higher inflation and so you have to use higher interest rates to put on the brakes. The problem is that they've put on the brakes and we still have really rapid growth and inflation is coming down. Now wait a minute. This isn't supposed to work this way. So I think that that's what's confusing a lot of people." Here's the video for t...

Mike Johnson isn't a well-established name in DC. As the new Speaker of the House, though, he's in the position to make news anytime he's interviewed. That's what happened last night when he sat down for his first interview since becoming Speaker on Wednesday. Speaker Johnson made news in his interview with Sean Hannity when he said that the House will pass a standalone bill appropriating $14,500,000,000 in aid for Israel. That wasn't the only news on aid to Israel, though. Speaker Johnson also said that the appropriation of that money would include pay-fors rather than adding to the debt and deficit. In his interview, Speaker Johnson told White House staff that "I told White House staff that the consensus with House Republicans is that we need to bifurcate those issues." That's making news in a different way, too, in that it's a major difference from Mitch McConnell's position on aid to Ukraine and Israel. McConnell is a pork-monster. He love...

The US Air Force finally swung into action Thursday night, hitting 2 facilities used by "Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.," aka Iran's IRGC. The NYTimes is reporting "The United States carried out two airstrikes against facilities used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and its proxies in eastern Syria early Friday in retaliation for a flurry of recent rocket and drone attacks against American forces in Iraq and Syria." U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin issued a statement Thursday night saying "These precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups." While I'm happy that the U.S. finally took action against Iran, I'm dismayed that the Biden administration didn't take more forceful, non-military action against Iran. Further, I'm most dismayed that the Biden administration didn't keep ...

Today is the first full day of Mike Johnson's speakership and things are already happening that would put the federal budget on a path to a balanced budget while funding the government this fiscal year . Republicans' first priority is to fund the government this year. NBC is reporting "Even ultraconservative lawmakers who firmly oppose stopgap bills said after he won the speakership that they're willing to give him the space to pursue his plan, explaining that they trust him and that he inherited a tough situation. It's a sign that Johnson, R-La., will have a honeymoon period with the fractious and narrow House majority." The CR would fund government until the House passes the 12 appropriations bills. Passing these appropriations bills will put pressure on Senate Democrats to pass appropriations bills, too, rather than passing an omnibus spending bill right before Christmas. The omnibus spending bill is the Omniparty's favorite stunt in passing overbloate...

Now that the House has its latest speaker, it's time to get back to work. Mostly, that means funding the government in the form of passing the remaining 8 appropriations bills through regular order. Now that the House is operational again, it didn't take long for Chuck Grassley, aka Chairman Jamie Comer's partner in crime, to drop another bombshell on the FBI and DOJ . In his letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray and U.S. Attorney Gen. Merrick Garland, Sen. Grassley wrote "This letter is based on years of investigation, including the provision of information, records, and allegations from multiple Justice Department whistleblowers that indicate there is, and has been, an effort among certain Justice Department and FBI officials to improperly delay and stop full and complete investigative activity into the Biden family. An essential question that must be answered is this: did the FBI investigate the information or shut it down? Indeed, if those sources were improperly...

Since Hamas's invasion of Israel, the world, especially the Middle East, appears to be falling apart. It isn't that the Middle East is the only place falling apart. It's just the place where the dysfunction is most visible. You can thank Joe Biden for that fiasco. The common denominators when talking about Biden's failed withdrawal from Afghanistan, Pres. Putin's invasion of Ukraine, Iran's meddling in the Middle East, China's meddling in the Middle East and Indo-Pacific and the open Tex-Mex border are policies and leadership. Barack Obama's op-ed needs to be ridiculed mercilessly. Early in the op-ed, he wrote "But even as we support Israel, we should also be clear that how Israel prosecutes this fight against Hamas matters. In particular, it matters, as President Biden has repeatedly emphasized, that Israel’s military strategy abides by international law , including those laws that seek to avoid, to every extent possible, the death or suffering of...

It's seemed like the House GOP should be renamed 'The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight." I'd note that their aim was just fine when they aimed their fire at each other. They were Olympic-class marksmen when it came to that. Enough with the metaphors and onto the story at hand. It isn't news that House Republicans have picked Mike Johnson to replace Kevin McCarthy as Speaker. What's news is that it appears as though Republicans have united around him . Because it's been such a difficult ordeal, I'm still in 'Missouri mode'. Don't tell me you're united. Let your pro-Johnson votes do the speaking. Still, there's signs that warrant optimism. For instance, "A subsequent roll call vote where members were called upon by name to say whether they would support Johnson on the floor saw no one vote against him, and just a few lawmakers voting 'present.' Johnson vowed to uphold conservative values in a press conference after th...

Yocheved Lifshitz held a press conference from a Tel Aviv hospital this morning. In her daughter Sharone Lifshitz's words, Hamas terrorists put her on a motorcycle , "My mom is saying she was taken on the back of a motor bike with her body with her legs on one side and her head on the other side." According to Fox News Foreign Correspondent Trey Yingst's reporting, "Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, was taken from Israel on Oct. 7 alongside her 83-year-old husband Oded, who still remains held inside the Gaza Strip. Lifshitz said civilians beat her once she was brought into Gaza before being moved into an extensive tunnel system where Hamas did provide hostages with some medicine and hygiene supplies." These are the people that Joe Biden is negotiating with. Biden is negotiating with terrorists whose civilians torture the elderly. Now Yocheved and Oded Lifshitz are separated from each other. These are the Hamas terrorists that the Democrats' Hamas Caucus are defend...

Predictably, Joe Biden's instincts have proven terrible, this time on Hamas and the 2-State Solution. He's of the ill-informed opinion that it's possible to negotiate with terrorists. While it isn't impossible, the odds against successfully negotiating with terrorists are low. Plug Joe Biden, one of history's worst negotiators, into the equation and the odds change from slim to nonexistent. After reading this NYPost article , it's clear that the Biden administration prefers appeasement and never-ending negotiation over annihilation. They seem to think that people who've chanted 'Death to America' and 'Death to Israel' for the past 40+ years are just misunderstood. When terrorists tell you they want to kill you, trust them. When terrorists invade a music festival and kill people with hand grenades and knives, then kidnap babies and children, trust that these aren't nice neighbors. Hamas is playing the Biden administration like a fiddle. Th...

On October 19, 2023, Christopher F. Rufo posted this tweet in his attempt to identify pro-Palestinian professors. The tweet specifically identifies "Adhy Kim (Harvard), RH Lossin (Harvard), Eman Abdelhadi (UChicago), Sophie Lewis (Penn), Marty Cain (Cornell), Maz Do (Cornell), Addie Tsai (William & Mary), Aaron Aceves (UT) and Joshua Nguyen (Tufts)" as prominent "academics [who] have signed a letter justifying violent struggle against Israel." Included in the tweet is the link to these professors' letter. The academics' letter opens by saying "We are writers who unequivocally stand with Palestine and its fight for liberation against the illegal occupation of “Israel" and the violent settler colonial apartheid state. We strongly condemn the response of western media and political actors at all levels of government in their dissemination of misinformation and propaganda, intended to manufacture consent for the genocide of Palestinian people....

If you want to learn how fascists operate, pray that Rep. Dean Phillips, (D-MN), jumps into the Democrat presidential primary this week. No political party fights their members more than Democrats. Democrats are famous for rigging their presidential nomination 'fights'. According to this Alpha News article , "Rep. Dean Phillips (D., Minn.) told House colleagues that he plans to run for the Democratic presidential nomination, two sources told Politico. A third source who spoke to Phillips told Politico he seemed less resolved, replying, 'We'll see' when asked whether he’ll run." First, if Phillips runs, his congressional seat will open up. At this point, I don't know if that's a seat the GOP can flip. I suspect it isn't. Next, it's preposterous to think that a do-nothing back-bench member of the House has a chance of getting 5% of the vote in any of the early states. The only way this makes sense is if Phillips is really running for governor...

I'm tired of hearing people like FNC's Brit Hume and the WSJ's Daniel Henninger talking about what they're characterizing as Joe Biden's strong speech from the Oval Office Thursday night. In Brit Hume's defense, he didn't have the opportunity to read Biden's speech . Henninger had plenty of time to read the shocking policy statement Biden made about Ukraine. When Biden said "On Ukraine, I’m asking Congress to make sure we can continue to send Ukraine the weapons they need to defend themselves and their country without interruption so Ukraine can stop Putin’s brutality in Ukraine", I wondered why he didn't speak of winning. After all, Biden clearly thinks they're capable of defeating Putin's military. Otherwise, he wouldn't have said "When Putin invaded Ukraine, he thought he would take Kyiv and all of Ukraine in a matter of days. Well, over a year later, Putin has failed, and he continues to fail. Kyiv still stands because...

Things are heating up for Joe Biden, aka the Brand . This summer, Joe Biden said "Where's the money?" when he was accused of being part of Hunter Biden's pay-to-play scheme. I wrote this post yesterday to highlight a check paid out from Jim Biden's personal account to Joe Biden's personal account. The check memo line says that it was for a loan repayment. FYI- They're still searching for the original loan from Joe to Jim. Speculation is that loan is fiction. That was Friday's news. Saturday is a different Biden fiasco story that will pose more problems for the Big Guy. This story, though, raises questions that are more difficult to explain away. RedState's Nick Arama wrote this article in which he highlights a sticker-to-explain transaction. According to the article, "Now there's a report that Joe Biden, the guy who always talked about how he was one of the poor senators, paid almost $2.75 million in cash for his Rehoboth Beach home in ...

Jim Biden must've found a bunch of 4-leaf clovers. Either that or he's an integral part of the Biden Crime Syndicate. I'm betting on the latter. Friday, the House Oversight Committee posted a tweet showing a personal check from Jim Biden to Joe Biden for the exact amount of $200,000. In the memo line of the check are the words saying "loan repayment." That's just part of the story. First, Jim Biden "received $600,000 in loans from, Americore—a financially distressed and failing rural hospital operator. According to bankruptcy court documents, James Biden received these loans 'based upon representations that his last name, ‘Biden,’ could ‘open doors’ and that he could obtain a large investment from the Middle East based on his political connections.'" That's just part of it. Additionally, "On March 1, 2018, Americore wired a $200,000 loan into James and Sara Biden’s personal bank account, not their business bank account. And then on ...

Mariam el-Khatib was the first interview Friday night on Almanac. el-Khatib is part of an organization called American Muslims for Palestine. She was brought on to talk about the Israeli-Palestinian war over Gaza. The first point she made was to call for an immediate cease-fire. When asked about that, Khatib said that was a solid starting point, signaling that they wanted more than that. Khatib then said "the bare minimum we're asking for is we just want to stop seeing people die, stop seeing kids being pulled from the rubble, parents burying their own children so our first focus is to call for a cease-fire." Later, Khatib said "I have another friend whose family was in the hospital that was attacked." That's been debunked. The Hospital wasn't attacked. Further, the Hospital wasn't hit. A rocket launched by Palestinian Islamic Jihad launched the missile with the intent of hitting a target Israel. The missile wasn't intended to hit inside Gaza. Un...

As I watched this video , I realized that the so-called 2-state solution is actually a situation calling for a peace-loving nation (Israel) to live next door to terrorists whose goal is to eliminate Israel. That's stupidity on steroids. After examining Joe Biden's spending proposal for Ukraine, Israel, border security  and Taiwan, it's apparent that Biden is trying to play both sides. Speaking out of one side of his mouth, Biden says he staunchly supports Israel. Speaking out of the other side of his mouth, Biden's proposal includes $10,000,000,000 for 'humanitarian aid' for Gaza. They should call it what it actually is. The government in Gaza is run by Hamas. That means humanitarian aid is just Biden's way of sending $10,000,000,000 to Hamas, the people that want to eliminate Israel. It's impossible to staunchly support Israel if you're sending Hamas $10,000,000,000 in cash. It's one thing if the 2-state solution was just a geographic dispute be...

When it comes to spending taxpayers' money foolishly, Joe Biden is in a class by himself. He's the worst in U.S. presidential history. Biden's special spending request is outlined in this article . According to the article, Biden is requesting "$60 billion given to Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel", "$10 billion has been earmarked for humanitarian aid and $7 billion for the Indo-Pacific region." Buried within last night's speech was the Biden administration's Ukraine policy. Biden said "On Ukraine, I’m asking Congress to make sure we can continue to send Ukraine the weapons they need to defend themselves and their country without interruption so Ukraine can stop Putin’s brutality in Ukraine." Notice what isn't included in Biden's policy? It's pretty glaring, actually. He's all-but-officially admitted that the U.S. policy in Ukraine is another 20-year war. Notice that Biden said that he wants Ukraine to be able to ...

After reading the transcript of Joe Biden's Oval Office address to the nation, one thing is inescapable. The speech gave him 2 perfect opportunities to sell his foreign policy vision. Unfortunately for Joe, Joe missed both opportunities. Before getting to those opportunities, though, I need to highlight this partial paragraph. In it, Biden said "Iran is supporting Russia in Ukraine, and it’s supporting Hamas and other terrorist groups in the region. And we’ll continue to hold them accountable, I might add." First, that's a total of 27 words spent talking about Iran. Just 27 words? Seriously? They're the cause of this disruption. A majority of Republicans have questioned the part about holding Iran accountable. It's my opinion that that's fiction. I've written multiple times about what Biden inherited. Biden inherited a placid Middle East, an Iran that was broke thanks to crippling sanctions on the mullahs and an economy that was collapsing. Today, the...

The most frequent headlines associated with tonight's Oval Office address is that Joe Biden will push for $100,000,000,000 in aid for Israel and Ukraine. According to CNN's reporting, "The primetime address will take place on the eve of the White House requesting north of $100 billion from Congress to deliver aid and resources to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and the US border with Mexico. Biden is expected to make the argument that supporting Ukraine and Israel is a matter of US national security when the world is at an inflection point. 'He’s going to make the case that the cost of inaction and the cost of walking away is much higher,' according to one official." That's nice but will he put the spotlight on Iran's role in funding the violence in Gaza and northern Israel? If he doesn't forcefully threaten Iran with the hardest-hitting sanctions in U.S.-Iranian history, then Biden's speech will be a failure. Period. If Iran keeps selling oil to Chi...

For the second straight day, Republicans found a different set of flimsy excuses to whiff on picking a new Speaker . Matt Gaetz started this fiasco by sabotaging Kevin McCarthy's Speakership by sabotaging bills to fund the government, then whining that then-Speaker McCarthy didn't follow regular order. Gaetz should be primaried for undercutting McCarthy's speakership. Further, his political career should be over for sabotaging a speaker who was trying to fix most of the problems that Gaetz claims he wants fixed. Bacon sabotaged Jordan like Gaetz sabotaged then-Speaker McCarthy. Bacon should be primaried just like Gaetz. UPDATE: JIM JORDAN will not hold a third ballot for speaker . He will back PATRICK MCHENRY as an interim speaker until JANUARY. Let's hope that these Republicans can get their heads screwed on straight by January. Most importantly, let's hope that their egos do a vanishing act so that they simply want to serve the people. You can't serve the peo...

The more Vivek Ramaswamy talks about foreign policy, the more unqualified he sounds. Last night, he tweeted that "we’re at risk of making the sequel" before predicting these things: Here’s what’s about to play out: Israel mounts a ground invasion of Gaza imminently. Hezbollah strikes Israel from the North, making good on its threat for Israel crossing the red line of invading Gaza. Once Israel is in a two-front war, the U.S. is effectively forced to engage militarily. Iran-backed militias in Iraq & Yemen attack U.S. targets in the Middle East, making good on their threats if the U.S. engages in Israel. Civilian casualties in Gaza cause other countries to turn their backs on Israel, while radicalized Palestinians back Hamas 2.0 to fill the leadership vacuum in Gaza. That's the personification of not knowing history. If Mr. Ramaswamy understood history, he'd know that the next time the U.S. sent in troops to help Israel, the next time will be the first time. Israel...

The media is gushing over Nikki Haley as the newest chief rival to Donald Trump. I'm not buying that BS any more than I think that Rashida Tlaib is open-minded towards Israel. Within minutes of a bomb hitting a hospital in Gaza, Tlaib posted this tweet , which said "Israel just bombed the Baptist Hospital killing 500 Palestinians (doctors, children, patients) just like that." Tlaib posted that literally minutes after the news broke. How could she know who fired off the bomb? But I digress. The subject that I want to hit in this post is how different Joe Biden is from Gov. Ron DeSantis. To use Joe Concha's line, "Joe Biden works 24/7 for the American people; 24 hours a week, 7 months a year." By contrast, Gov. DeSantis issued an executive order directing the Florida Department of Emergency Management to rescue Floridians from Israel and return them to Florida. He campaigned in New Hampshire and Iowa, too. Then he returned to Tampa to greet returning Floridian...