Liberty & Prosperity Blog

If this year's budget session doesn't give Minnesota's legislators whiplash, nothing will. This Star Tribune article opens by quietly saying that the DFL Trifecta didn't exercise fiscal responsibility. The article opens by saying "just a few short years, Minnesota swung from having a record $17.6 billion budget surplus to seeing a projected deficit on the horizon. The revelation that the state is headed toward a modest $616 million surplus in the next two-year budget cycle and a deficit of $5.1 billion in the 2028-2029 biennium gave some state legislators whiplash." Notice that the Strib article didn't mention the DFL Trifecta of DFL majorities in the Minnesota House and Minnesota Senate with a DFL governor. The DFL controlled the Executive and Legislative branches. That means the budget passed without Republican votes. That's exactly what they did. That means there are only DFL fingerprints on this budgeting disaster. There aren't any GOP fingerp...

If you read this article , you'll quickly notice identity politics' fatal flaw. Tim Walz still hasn't figured out why he and Kamala Harris got crushed by President-Elect Trump and Vice President-Elect J.D. Vance. In the spirit of bipartisanship, this might help. In the article, Walz is quoted as saying "I thought it was a real flex when the Wall Street Journal pointed out that I might have been the least wealthy person to ever run for vice president. How in the world did we lose to a billionaire or a venture capitalist, when we were making the case of a country attorney and a high school teacher?" This isn't complicated. Being a teacher means nothing to people. Being an attorney, by itself, means nothing. There's no disputing that teachers are part of the middle class. Still, they're also out of touch with the middle-class. Teachers kept schools closed during the COVID shutdown by pressuring the Biden administration to keep them closed. Further, Kamala...

If people needed proof that Joe Biden hates President-Elect Trump more than he loves this nation that he supposedly leads, I've got the receipts proving it. During his 4-year stint as Commander-in-Chief, Joe Biden never attended the annual Army-Navy game. STATEMENT: Biden didn't attend even 1 Army-Navy game in his 4 years in office. Joe Biden is a thoroughly spiteful Democrat. According to this article , "After The Daily Wire published an exclusive report revealing that the Biden administration was racing to sell off parts of the border wall before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, Texas GOP Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick fiercely declared his state was prepared to bid on every piece being sold and then give it directly to Trump." Biden is a total dirtbag. It's one thing to disagree with the incoming president's policies. That happens each time we switch presidents. To sabotage the incoming president on a major campaign promise is the personificati...

Despite what Matt Gaetz thinks of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, McCarthy got things right. Frankly, Gaetz is a traitor. I'm thankful that he's been dispatched from government. I hope he doesn't return ever again. But I digress. The reason I'm bringing up former Speaker McCarthy is because he's written this article , which I consider today's must reading. The article opens by saying "We are in a race for the future with China, and that future will be driven by Artificial Intelligence; the winner of this race will hold the keys to the engine of prosperity and freedom. But we will not win this race, and we lose more than our place in the world, if we don’t concurrently win the race for abundant, low-cost and widely distributed energy." Let's compare that with the soon-to-be-dispatched Biden administration. Their approach was to restrict fossil fuel production while essentially eliminating nuclear power. Biden and his yes-men apparently answer to AOC...

This year, 2024, President-Elect Trump won Pennsylvania's 19 Electoral Votes for the second time in three years. This article  asks whether Pennsylvania will soon follow in Ohio's footsteps in becoming a reliably ruby-red state. At this point, I'm still a little skeptical of Pennsylvania becoming that reliably ruby-red. There's no disputing the fact that Republicans are becoming more competitive in Pennsylvania. This isn't just about President-Elect Trump. It's also about doing the work that isn't getting noticed. It's about personnel on the ground. This past year, Scott Presler was on-the-ground with his troops getting to every group of Pennsylvanians registering them to vote. It's mattered. Bigtime. According to the article, "Democrats now have their 'narrowest voter registration edge in at least a half-century. What was an advantage of 1.2 million voters in 2008… is now a gap of fewer than 300,000.'" That's clearly a trend. D...

 Saturday afternoon, President-Elect Donald Trump and Vice President-Elect J.D. Vance will attend the annual Army-Navy game with some special guests. The game will be held in Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland . President-Elect Trump's special guests will be Forida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Petee Hegseth, Trump's nominee to be his Secretary of Defense. According to FactCheck.org , Gov. DeSantis "touted his military experience, saying he 'was assigned with U.S. Navy SEALs in Iraq' and 'deployed to Iraq alongside U.S. Navy SEALs.' That’s accurate: He was a Navy lawyer who advised a SEAL commander." According to this USAToday article , "Vance served in the Marine Corps for four years, from 2003-2007, and was a public affairs officer during a six-month stint in Iraq but never saw combat." As for Hegseth's military career , 1"Hegseth joined the Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps in 2001. After graduating from Princeton in 2003, H...

When Trump Border Czar Tom Homan met with NYC Mayor Eric Adams , a little bipartisanship was apparently kindled. That might lead to less confrontation on the mass deportation front. Then again, it doesn't appear as though bipartisanship is on Chicago's Democrat mayor's menu. Brandon Johnson is still insisting that he's vehemently opposed to anything with President-Elect Trump's name attached to it. First, let's examine what happened during Homan's meeting with Mayor Adams. ABCNews is reporting "New York City Mayor Eric Adams met with incoming border czar Thomas Homan to discuss their plans to remove what he says were violent undocumented immigrants." The fact that Mayor Adams is calling it their plan might signal a thawing in their relationship. They likely don't see eye-to-eye on everything related to immigration but it's a nice first step. As Homan often says, 'why wouldn't a mayor want to get criminal aliens out of his city?...

During the 2022 campaign, Gov. Tim Walz, (DFL-MN), promised Minnesotans a $2,000 "Walz Check" as part of the anticipated Minnesota state record budget surplus. Little did he know that the projected budget surplus would skyrocket to a projected $18,000,000,000 ($18 Billion). Those would've been the good old days if the DFL Trifecta acted responsibly. The Trifecta meant the DFL totally controlled Minnesota state government. Acting responsibly wasn't part of the DFL's agenda. According to KSTP's At Issue , "The state’s budget shows a short-term surplus of $616 million. Hauser sat down one-on-one with Tim Walz to discuss the 2024 presidential election, the state budget, power-sharing in the Minnesota House, and more. Republicans are seeking a new election for a Scott County house seat after 21 ballots were mistakenly discarded." Instead of giving each Minnesotan their $2,000 Walz Check, each Minnesotan who qualified got a $260 Walz Check. To give you an ...

Here we go again. In my previous article , I questioned whether the Minnesota House of Representatives 67 DFL members and 67 GOP representatives. This article is asking a similar question but in a different district. Alpha News is reporting "A judge declined to dismiss a contentious election lawsuit last week that was filed against Minnesota Democrat Curtis Johnson, paving the way for three days of hearings into whether or not he lives in the district he was elected to represent." Here we go again. Let's dig into this different story. the article continues, saying "Johnson defeated Republican Paul Wikstrom in last month’s election for Minnesota House District 40B. However, after the election, Wikstrom filed an election contest lawsuit against Johnson. In it, Wikstrom says his campaign team gathered evidence showing that Johnson resided at his Little Canada home, outside the district, in the run up to the election." Now for the evidence: “Contestee failed to est...

For a month, DFL and GOP politicians have said that they're working on a power-sharing arrangement because, supposedly, the DFL won 67 seats in the 2024 election and the GOP also won 67 seats in the House in 2024. What if that supposition is incorrect, though? This article asks the questions that nobody in the Minnesota press isa asking. The article opens by saying "The election contest between State Rep. Brad Tabke, DFL-Shakopee, and Republican Aaron Paul may end up being resolved by the Minnesota House of Representatives. At least, that’s what could occur if the issue is not settled before the state legislature convenes next year." According to the article, "Tabke’s legal team filed a response to an election contest lawsuit brought by Paul regarding the election results in District 54A of the Minnesota House of Representatives." What's at issue is the fact the recount in House District 54A (Shakopee) is unresolved, with DFL Rep. Brad Tabke leading GOP cha...

Suffice it to say that Sen. Chuck Grassley, the incoming chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, put together a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray that's utterly devastating. In Sen. Grassley's 11-page letter to Dir. Wray, Sen Grassley laid out in painstaking detail all of the times that the FBI failed to respond to Sen. Grassley's letters for information. The letter starts by saying "Seven years ago, I presided over your confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, after President Trump nominated you to become only the eighth FBI Director in the Bureau’s 116-year history. The Senate confirmed you to your current position in hopes you’d bring needed change to the FBI after the politicization and scandal presided over by your predecessor, Director James Comey. While I sincerely congratulated you on your nomination, I reminded you that an FBI Director’s ten-year term is a ceiling, not a floor, and laid down my expectations for your service. These...

Now that the Penny trial is over, it's time to tackle a bigger problem. It's time to shut down BLM's lies and Alvin Bragg's racist tendencies. New Yorkers can't fire Hawk Newsome because he isn't an elected official. Thank God for small miracles. Alvin Bragg, though, can be fired because he's an elected official. First, let's discuss Hawk Newsome. Mr. Newsome is one of the co-founders of the Black Lives Matters organization. He's a race hustler. In this video , Newsome insisted that Daniel Penny was a vigilante. The definition of vigilante is "any person who takes the law into their own hands, such as by avenging a crime." According to received testimony, that isn't what happened. According to that testimony, Daniel Penny rescued his fellow passengers on that subway. What's happening here is that Mr. Newsome didn't pay attention to the facts. What his motivation is for not paying attention is open to interpretation, to put it d...

It's a semi-great day for good Samaritans in New York City. Daniel Penny has been found not guilty of criminally negligent homicide. CBS New York City is reporting that "Daniel Penny has been found not guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely on a New York City subway car in 2023. Penny, a 26-year-old Marine veteran, pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide." I said semi-great day because these charges shouldn't have been brought in the first place. Penny acted in self-defense. CBS is also reporting "The judge dismissed the manslaughter charge Friday after jurors said they could not come to a unanimous decision. The jury could only consider the negligent homicide charge if Penny was cleared of manslaughter. About 15 protesters lined up outside the courthouse Monday, chanting "justice for Jordan Neely." Inside, Penny's defense team asked for a mistrial and onc...

The WSJ is reporting that the Assad family regime has collapsed . What comes next is anyone's guess. The WSJ article opens by saying "The Assad family dictatorship that ruled Syria for more than 50 years collapsed Sunday, with rebel forces claiming control of Damascus and President Bashar al-Assad escaping to Russia. The events set off celebrations among the long-repressed population but also sparked worries about how the events would reverberate across the Middle East." The only things keeping the Assad regime alive were Iran, Russia and Hezbollah. After the IDF decimated Iran and Hezbollah, Russia was the only other protector Syria had left. With President-Elect Trump talking ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, Russia knew that its days were numbered. Apparently, it didn't take rebel forces long to delegitimize the Assad regime. The WSJ is also reporting "Rebel forces poured into the capital overnight, just over a week after launching a campaign that swept th...

Democrats haven't hesitated in lying about the mission envisioned by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the co-chairs of DOGE, aka the Department of Government Efficiency.  Pocahontas, aka Sen. Elizabeth Warren is already insisting that DOGE will strip seniors of their Social Security and Medicare benefits. She actually told Fox Business Capitol Hill correspondent Hillary Vaughn that last week. That's further proof that Democrats won't hesitate to lie. Larry Kudlow, who served both President Reagan and President Trump, now anchors his own show. He devoted this opening riff to telling his viewers what DOGE intends to focus on. First, he established his bona fides on the subject, saying "In my frequent conversations with Vivek Ramaswamy, it seems like chopping down the Regulatory State and reducing the overextended government power of the executive branch is a principal DOGE goal." Then Mr. Kudlow got into the heart of the matter on DOGE, saying this: I've served s...

Anyone who objectively watched Minnesota's elections this year knows that we were a laughingstock to the nation. Only Arizona and California were bigger laughingstocks. California counted its last vote right before Pearl Harbor Day. That's more than a month after Election Day. Yikes! In Minnesota, we finished counting our votes much sooner than that. That said, California didn't lose 20 of their ballots like Minnesota. How can you lose 20 day-of ballots? That should be impossible! These things shouldn't ever happen. Period. While we're reforming things, let's reform Minnesota's tax code. It's time to drop the Walz-Dayton saying that the rich must pay their fair share. The biggest reason why 'the rich' don't pay their fair share is because of the special packages that are given to companies to attract them to Minnesota.  That's foolish because those companies leave for other states the minute the special packages expire. The only time the...

As Barack Obama becomes more of a relic of history, the more he becomes politically irrelevant. This week, President Obama gave a preachy speech at the Obama Foundation's Democracy Forum. It reminded people that he's turning into a bit off a scold during his decline. I first about the subject in this post after he scolded African-American men about what he considered a lack of loyalty towards Kamala Harris. It didn't dawn on him that his policies haven't worked. It was just expected that these men would remain loyal to Obama despite the fact that his policies failed these men. That expectation of loyoalty is what I'd call chutzpah. In Obama's mind, apparently, people are expected to remain loyal despite his policies (think Obamacare) failed to live up to Obama's hype. To most people, they won't stay loyal if the policy fails. In this article , Obama is quoted as saying "Pluralism is not about holding hands and singing ‘Kumbaya,’. It is not about ab...

After reading this Washington Examiner article , I'm amazed that Minnesota's DFL Gov. Tim Walz was surprised that he and VP Kamala Harris lost. Last week, Gov. Walz told KSTP political reporter Tom Hauser "It felt like at the rallies, at the things I was going to, the shops I was going in, that the momentum was going our way, and it obviously wasn’t. So, yeah, I was a little surprised. I really, I thought we had a positive message and I thought the country was ready for that." For those of you who don't live in Minnesota, KSTP is affiliated with the ABC network. That's a little difficult to believe, especially since a) Trump won all 7 battleground states, b) each of the fifty states moved right compared to 4 years prior and c) Trump gained ground with each of the minority groups. Other than that, there was a 12,000,000-vote swing in the popular vote. Other than that, the Harris-Walz ticket was exceptionally competitive. Andy Brehm nailed it with this tweet: Wo...

After Democrats took out Matt Gaetz as President-Elect Trump's AG nominee, Democrats thought that'd be their blueprint for taking out other Trump cabinet nominees. Atop their list to take out was Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth, DNI nominee Tulsi Gabbard, HHS Secretary nominee Robert Kennedy Jr. and FBI Director nominee Kash Patel. At this moment, it looks like the only nominee Trump might lose is his nominee to be his Labor secretary. According to this article , it looks like the Democrats' smear campaign is fading, thanks in large part to the structural deficiencies of the campaign. For instance, the Hegseth campaign is based entirely on anonymous sources. If you're going for the king, you need something sturdier than that. That won't take out the king. By cocmparison, "is shoring up support from key Republican senators as a concerted smear campaign against him based on years-old allegations from anonymous sources has been disputed by many on-the-recor...

According to Mark Halperin, Joe Biden has never been a strong fundraiser . After getting shoved out of this year's presidential race, professional Democrat fundraisers are signaling that they won't contribute to a Biden presidential library. Instead, it sounds like they're more willing to contribute to a Biden presidential "bookmobile." Figuring out Democrats is like trying to figure out women. It's a waste of time. That's like assuming that they've used to using logic. Halperin said "I mean there will be some version, maybe more like a bookmobile than an actual library. But this is not a surprise. He’s never been a good fundraiser and the donors are really annoyed." These fundraisers didn't object when the DNC restricted the rule so that Biden would be the only candidate, thereby ensuring a primary without competition. When Biden bombed in the June 27th debate , Democrats went into full-fledged panic mode. That night on CNN and MSNBC, De...

When Robert O'Brien was Donald Trump's National Security Advisor during President-Elect Trump's first term in office, the world was a world of stability. What isn't that well-known is that O'Brien was excellent at hostage negotiations. He understood the principles of leverage and peace through strength. What's even more important, he wasn't afraid to hint that the stick was about to be deployed. As the head of the National Security Council, he worked with Kash Patel. As someone who worked with him and who gave him assignments, O'Brien knows Patel's capabilities. That's why I take it seriously when O'Brien wrote "President-elect Trump has assembled one of the most diverse and capable cabinets in American history, and he has done so at a record pace. His nomination of Kash Patel to be director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is an excellent choice that adds further luster to the new administration." Next, he wrote "Mr. Pa...

The Deep State is doing its best to besmirch Pete Hegseth's name. If this were the Oscars, NBC would be nominated for Best Actor while CBS would be nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Duane Patterson's article highlights when NBC and CBS jumped the shark. Patterson wrote "In the wake of another Beltway special smear job originating out of NBC News, but gleefully echoed by CBS and other elite media, 10 anonymous sources have allegedly claimed that Hegseth has a severe drinking problem, and it impacted his performance on air at Fox News. Hegseth vehemently denies it, as do 10 more Fox News current colleagues that have gone on the record to call BS on the NBC story. Before yesterday, there seemed to be a growing sense that there were going to be too many Republicans in the upper chamber queasy about walking this plank, and two different names were floated as replacements - Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis." If this is the best that NBC an...

When President Reagan delivered his final address from the Oval Office on January 11, 1989, he said "I even remember one highly respected economist saying, back in 1982, that "The engines of economic growth have shut down here, and they're likely to stay that way for years to come." Well, he and the other opinion leaders were wrong. The fact is, what they called "radical" was really "right." What they called "dangerous" was just "desperately needed." It didn't take long for those 'experts' to eat some humble pie. " Two years later, another economic summit with pretty much the same cast. At the big opening meeting we all got together, and all of a sudden, just for a moment, I saw that everyone was just sitting there looking at me. And then one of them broke the silence. 'Tell us about the American miracle,' he said." Right now, lots of progressive economists have hinted that DOGE is unsophisticat...

It's easy to tell which Cabinet nominees scare the Deep State the most. Kash Patel frightens the Deep State the most. This morning, NBC is reporting that Kash Patel "promoted a supplement line this year that purports without evidence to help people 'detox' from Covid vaccines." Even if this is true, and I'm not sure it is, who cares? Kash Patel is President-Elect Trump's pick to replace FBI Director Christopher Wray. Patel isn't Trump's nominee for the head of the NIH, FDA or CDC. If confirmed, Patel would be tasked with cleaning out Deep State thugs like Jim Comey, Andy McCabe and Andy McCabe. The FBI has gotten politicized by the Left to torment Catholics and pro-lifers and label parents who attend school board meetings as domestic terrorists. The FBI is like a sewer filled with toxic waste. We wouldn't know about the faux Steele Dossier without the work of Kash Patel, Devin Nunes and Trey Gowdy. Trey and Nunes laid it out last night during...

Joe Biden's mountain of failures, starting with his failed Afghanistan withdrawal, then continuing with his 'minor incursions' press conference and his open borders policy have Democrats reeling. That's just the start of Democrats' problems. Joe's painful cognitive decline and Joe's pardon of Hunter (and his imminent pardoning of his partners in crime, aka Jim and Frank Biden) must have Democrats wondering if they'll ever win. Prior to Donald Trump's thumping of Kamala Harris, people talked about the Democrats' machine. They aren't talking about that machine much anymore. The Bernie Sanders/AOC wing of the Democrat Party is accusing the DLC wing of the Democrat Party of forgetting about kitchen table issues. The DLC wing of the Democrat Party is accusing the Bernie/AOC wing of being too crazy for most Americans. The Democrats' Identity Crisis The Democrats' crisis is that both wings are right -- and wrong. Right now, the Democrat Part...

Joe Biden's reputation is in tatters, thanks in large part to his dishonesty. Early in his political career, he was known for his plagiarizing of Neal Kinnock's speech. That knocked him out of the 1988 Democrat presidential race. Throughout the years, he's been so dishonest that the media that's protected him the last 4 years have called him gaffe prone. Actually, he's just been a corrupt lying SOB. Now onto Mr. Baker's brilliant article . Mr. Baker opens his article by saying "It turns out we didn’t have to wait until Jan. 20 for the tyranny to start. The Democrats were right all along when they warned that a bad outcome would give us a president ready to abuse power to serve his own interests and lie about it. But it’s Joe Biden leading the way." Democrats aren't about preserving democracy. They're about gaining power, then maintaining power. Joe Biden has been about corruption since his early days in the Senate. He's used his position on...