Liberty & Prosperity Blog

It's now apparent that Democrats are fighting a losing fight against President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill. Thanks to Ron Johnson's change in how he'll vote, Republicans should now have the votes to pass the bill. NPR is reporting "Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin says he voted to advance President Trump's tax and spending bill after being "satisfied" with President Trump's commitment to reduce federal spending. That gives Republicans at least 51 votes, which is the magic number for passage. Lisa Murkowski can't vote against the bill because there's too many oil and natural gas provisions in the bill. Voting against oil and natural gas interests in Alaska is like voting against the Packers in Wisconsin or voting against hog farmers in Iowa. It's political suicide. NPR isa also reporting that "Johnson, who originally voted no, cast the deciding vote late Saturday to advance debate on the nearly 1,000-page bill that incl...

While Zohran Mamdani is grabbing most of the headlines, AOC has enjoyed herself after endorsing Mamdani and campaigning with him. Still, I've enjoyed watching NY Assemblyman Matt Slater take AOC to the proverbial woodshed. WGME 13 is reporting "New York State Assemblyman Matt Slater, R-District 94, fired back at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. on Tuesday, after she claimed to have originally come from New York City’s Bronx borough. " After AOC got into a Twitter fight with President Trump, AOC replied "Also, I’m a Bronx girl. You should know that we can eat Queens boys for breakfast. Respectfully." That's when Slater entered the fight. In his tweet , Slater questioned AOC, asking her "@AOC, if you're a BX girl then why are you in my Yorktown yearbook? Give it up already." There you have it. AOC caught lying. I don't think it's the first time she's gotten caught. After Assemblyman Slater's dust-up with AOC, Slater was inv...

Anyone that thinks Zohran Mamdani's New York City is a progressive utopia hasn't read Mamdani's campaign website . Let's see what's part of Mamdani's agenda. The highest-profile item on Mamdani's agenda is his idea for "city-owned grocery stores." According to his own website, Mamdani said that "Food prices are out of control. Nearly 9 in 10 New Yorkers say the cost of groceries is rising faster than their income. Only the very wealthiest aren’t feeling squeezed at the register." The dirty little secret is that big government liberalism is more expensive than limited government conservatism. Florida's population is a little less than double the size of New York State's. Despite that statistic, New York State's state budget is almost twice the size of Florida's state budget. Another high-profile agenda item on Mamdani's website is "no cost childcare." According to Mamdani, "After rent, the biggest cost f...

To hear Democrats tell it, unmasking ICE agents is the patriotic thing to do. In reality, Democrats are just hoping to justify their doxxing of ICE agents. This LA Times op-ed/b> highlights the Democrats' flawed thinking. The LA Times op[-ed opensby saying "The images are jarring. Across the country, federal law enforcement officers in plain clothes and wearing ski masks and balaclavas are seizing and detaining protesters, students and even elected officials. These scenes evoke images of government thugs in violent regimes disappearing opponents." What's intentionally omitted is that death threats against ICE agents have increased by 413% since President Trump took office. In President Trump's mass deportation program, ICE agents are rounding up the 'worst first', aka national security threats and the most violent criminal gangs. Telling us that we need to unmask ICE agents is the same as giving the world's most dangerous gangs the information to t...

This week, Kathy Hochul took the opportunity to criticize Elise Stefanik for voting to cut Medicaid benefits for illegal aliens. Stefanik didn't take the criticism lightly, instead returning fire on Gov. Hochul . Initially, Gov. Hochul, the Democrat governor of New York State who took over when Andrew Cuomo resigned in disgrace, initially "accused Stefanik of voting 'to put five hospitals in her district on the chopping block, endangering her own constituents’ lives, health, and jobs—all to serve Donald Trump. I won't stand for it. I’m fighting like hell to save New Yorkers' health care,' said Hochul." Rather than sit there and take it, Stefanik replied "You didn’t get exposed enough during our last round when you testified and were totally exposed for your dangerous and failed sanctuary state policies?? Let’s do Medicaid now. NY’s Medicaid program is rampant with tens of billions of waste, fraud, and abuse under Kathy’s watch. Kathy Hochul, the Wors...

I suspect that Zohran Mamdani is about to have a well-funded, charismatic, articulate challenger for the New York City mayor's job. I suspect that because Bill Ackman  has made a generous offer . In his tweet, Ackman said "If you were ever thinking about running for office or running for a higher office than you currently hold, this is likely the best opportunity that you are going to have." Best of all, he said "Who is your best centrist candidate who could go toe-to-toe with Mamdani on the campaign trail and on the debate stage? Let’s crowdsource the names and then do a poll. If someone is ready to raise their hand, I will take care of the fundraising." A young, articulate candidate would be foolish not to step into that type of opportunity. That candidate would step into a well-built campaign that's already well-financed. Last night, Hannity announced that former Gov. Cuomo has decided to stay in the race, presumably to siphon votes away from Mamdani. I s...

David Marcus has written this analysis article to highlight the GOP{'s recent election success vs. the Democrats' post-2008 nosedive. 2008, of course, was the year then-Sen. Barack Obama won the White House. Since then, it's been downhill for the Democrats and not in a small way. Marcus opened his analysis piece by writing "On Tuesday, New York City’s Democrat voters chose as their nominee for mayor, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, who ran on a socialist platform that at times made Sen. Bernie Sanders look like an editor at National Review. Among the insane socialist programs Mamdani has floated are city owned grocery stores just like in Cuba, replacing police with social workers, and a freeze on rents, this goes along with his toxic stance that Israel has no right to exist as a Jewish state." In the real world, each of these policies would be seen as proof that Democrats have a death wish. In New York and other blue states, it's proof that you're sufficientl...

If ever there was a man with the crisis of seeing Iran through rose-colored glasses, it's former Biden Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Blinken, BTW, is one of the worst secretaries of State, with his chief 'rival' being John Kerry of JCPOA fame. But I digress. This morning, Blinken wrote this guest essay in the New York Times. In the guest essay, Blinken "condemned President Donald Trump’s strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities on Tuesday, though he held out some hope they’d have their intended effect. The strike on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities by the United States was unwise and unnecessary. Now that it’s done, I very much hope it succeeded." What was "unwise", Mr. Blinken, was loosening the sanctions on Iran because Iran was on the verge of an economic collapse. By loosening the sanctions, billions of dollars came rushing in. Suddenly, Iran was flush with cash to fund their terrorist proxies. What part of that sounds wise? After that, Blinken ...

House Democrats are s-l-o-w-l-y growing out of their Trump impeachment obsession. They aren't close to shaking their unhealthy insistence on impeaching President Trump but more Democrats have noticed that voting on President Trump's impeachment isn't helping Democrats. Tuesday afternoon, Rep. Al Green, (D-TX), brought a single article of impeachment against President Trump. To say that things didn't go well for Rep. Green is understatement. The report quoted Rep. Green as saying "I take no delight in what I’m doing. I do this because no one person should have the power to take over 300 million people to war without consulting with the Congress of the United States of America." That isn't true. I didn't hear a peep from Democrats when Barack Obama sent troops into Libya to take out Moammar Qaddafi . Rep. Green was silent about Libya even though he's been in the House since 2005 . But I digress. The truth is that if it weren't for double standa...

When Donald Trump took to Truth Social Monday afternoon, it was to make a major announcement. As President Trump posted his message , he wrote "CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE! It has been fully agreed by and between Israel and Iran that there will be a Complete and Total CEASEFIRE (in approximately 6 hours from now, when Israel and Iran have wound down and completed their in progress, final missions!), for 12 hours, at which point the War will be considered, ENDED! Officially, Iran will start the CEASEFIRE and, upon the 12th Hour, Israel will start the CEASEFIRE and, upon the 24th Hour, an Official END to THE 12 DAY WAR will be saluted by the World. During each CEASEFIRE, the other side will remain PEACEFUL and RESPECTFUL. On the assumption that everything works as it should, which it will, I would like to congratulate both Countries, Israel and Iran, on having the Stamina, Courage, and Intelligence to end, what should be called, “THE 12 DAY WAR.” This is a War that could have gone o...

When Barack Obama hit the political scene, he had a freshness that people found appealing. By the time he ran for reelection, his appeal had diminished, his character had started getting questioned. He'd started using strawman arguments to sell his less-than-popular agenda. Obama had become a laughingstock to conservatives. While James Rosen was diplomatic in this NYPost op-ed , I won't be diplomatic. First, Obama had started sounding like a socialist by mocking Donald Trump by saying "You can't drill your way to cheaper oil prices." It was fun listening to Newt Gingrich tell Sean Hannity that the secret to cheaper oil prices was to "Drill here, drill now, pay less." I would've paid a pretty penny to see the look on Obama's face when gas prices started dropping. In fact, they didn't stop dropping until they were less than $2.00 a gallon. These days, Obama's trash-talking has gotten exposed. Tax cuts for the rich in the Tax Cuts and Jobs A...

It's apparent that Ken Martin's critics within the DNC seem to be fighting a winning fight. This article appears to be the first article to critically wound Martin. The article opens by saying "Four-and-a-half months after the Democratic National Committee chair pledged to focus on fighting Donald Trump, Ken Martin’s short tenure leading the organization has been engulfed by bitter infighting. Even longtime party insiders are getting impatient." Martin's problems start with fundraising. This article reports that "Democrats’ main fundraising committee is losing big donors and so cash-strapped that its officials have discussed borrowing money just to keep the lights on , with one source spilling to The Post that if things don’t turn around before the 2026 midterms, the party is 'f–ked.' 'We are six months in and we’re drowning,' a source close to the Democratic National Committee told The Post about the current rate of contributions. 'The ...

It's obvious that Iran's Fordow nuclear facility isn't long for this world. It might be taken out with U.S. bunker buster bombs, which weigh 30,000 lbs. each. Given Israel's covert operations expertise, the Israelis might take it out themselves. It might be a combination of things. Still, I'm 95% certain that the Fordow facility will soon be history. The question is whether Trump will take out Fordow before the DNC fires Ken Martin. UPDATE: That didn't take long to find out the answer. Fox News is reporting that "President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social Saturday that U.S. forces have successfully launched attacks on Iranian nuclear sites. 'We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and [Isfahan],' Trump wrote in the post. 'All planes are now outside of Iran air space.'" Predictably, the internet is buzzing with reports of this military strike. It isn't oversta...

Apppparently, Ilhan Omar' appreciation for the nation that saved her sorry butt is limited st best. Rep. Omar's intelligence apparently limited, too. Last Friday, in an intervview with Democracy Nowq, Rep. Omar said "I mean, I grew up in a dictatorship, and I don’t even remember ever witnessing anything like that, to have a democracy, a beacon of hope for the world, to now be turned into one of the—you know, one of the worst countries, where the military are in our streets, without any regard for people’s constitutional rights, while our president is spending millions of dollars prompting himself up like a failed dictator with a military parade." What ingratitude. What a blithering idiot! Without that Army, which is now 250 years old (It was formed before our nation existed), the nation that she now calls home wouldn't exist. Without that Army, they wouldn't have defeated the British. At the time the British were colonizers. Back then, the British government ...

It's amazing how predictable hte DNC is. Shortly after reading this article about how DNC Chair Ken Martin "is weak and whiny, this counterpoint article appeared in the same publication highlighting a hard-fighting Martin telling President Trump to f--- off. This hard-fighting Martin article seems a little far-fetched to me. When Martin was the chair of the DFL in Minnesota, he was lippy but rarely did he use salty language. First, let's dig into the 'weak and whiny' article. In the article, the first thing I noticed was that it relied early on anonymous sources. It opened by saying "Democrats are becoming increasingly frustrated over Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Ken Martin’s leadership and worsening infighting in the committee, Politico reported on Thursday." OUCH! Then it continues, saying " One anonymous DNC member told Politico they believe Martin — who was elected to the role in February — is 'weak and whiny.' Meanwhi...

Tim Walz, Minnesota's DFL governor, testifed last Thursday that Minnesota isn't a sanctuary state. Predictably, Gov. Walz wasn't entirely honest with Tom Emmer during Rep. Emmer's cross-examination of Walz. During Emmer's powerful cross-examination, Gov. Walz insisted that Minnesota isn't a sanctuary state. Keep that in mind while reading this article . First, this article isn't for the faint-of-heart. Next, it's obvious that Gov. Walz isn't comfortable telling the truth. Let's get into the report. Pay particulalr close attention to the dates included in the report. The report opens by saying "A Guatemalan national convicted of sexually abusing his stepdaughter is now facing federal charges after allegedly dragging a deportation officer down a Bloomington street with his car during a violent immigration arrest attempt. According to a criminal complaint, Roberto Carlos Munoz, 39, was charged with assaulting a federal officer with a deadly we...

Back at the start of May (May 8th, to be precise) I wrote this article about "the coming Trump Booom." I quoted Newt Gingrich's article, which is where I found the title for the article. In his interview, Newt said that "we can buy from India, Japan, South Korea or Vietnam. We dono't need China." China can't survive without our market. We're the biggest market in the world. China and the EU combined are just barely bigger than the U.S. by itself. During her interview with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, NYPost column writer Miranda Devine wrote "Blue-collar workers have seen real wage growth of almost two percent in the first five months of President Donald Trump’s second term, the largest increase for any administration in nearly 60 years. The 1.7% pay bump is in stark contrast to negative growth under Joe Biden, according to new data from the US Department of the Treasury. Since Richard Nixon in 1969, Trump has been the only president...

Apparently, Democrats want to display that they don't have the first clue about our nation's Constitution. This article highlights the arrest of "New York City comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander" as he atteempts top prevent ICE agents from arresting an illegal alien. Interfering with the arrest of an illegal alien is a federal crime. That's apparently lost on Jack Mirkinson, the article's author. He wrote "Here are federal agents—not local police officers—essentially kidnapping a high-profile elected official in the biggest city in the United States, on camera as he loudly points out that they have no jurisdiction or legal grounds to hold him." Mirkinson omits the part about the illegal alien that ICE was in the process of arresting. Lander was repeatedly told to let go of the illegal alien that qas being taken into custody. Lander refused. That's his mistake. The truth is that Lander didn't hqve the right to interfere with the ar...

The NY Post is reporting that Tim Walz, Minnesota's far-left Democrat governor, is now imploring Minnesotans to "lead with grace and compassion" just a month after Gov. Walz called ICE agents "Donald Trump’s modern-day Gestapo." Gov. Walz also said "Now is the time for us to recommit to the core values of this country … talk to a neighbor rather than arguing. Debate an issue. Shake hands. Find common ground." Gov. Walz isn't in touch with people. I don't recall the last time that I argued with a neighbor. It's definitely 20+ years. That isn't because I'm the personification of virtue. It's because arguing with neighbors seemss like a foreign thing. More than anything else, it's because I'm a live-and-let-live kind of person. Tim Walz isn't a live-and-let-live kind of person. During COVID, he established a snitch line so neighbors could call in neighbors' violations of Gov. Walz's arbitrary rules. I'm to...

The Institute for the Study of War is conducting daily studies on the effect Israel's air strikes are having on Iran's facilities in and near Tehran.According to today's report, "Israel struck military and military-industrial sites around Tehran as part of its ongoing campaign into Iran. There are also unverified reports of an Israeli strike around the Fordow nuclear site." Another sign that Israel is winning is this WSJ article reporting that "Iran has been urgently signaling that it seeks an end to hostilities and resumption of talks over its nuclear programs, sending messages to Israel and the U.S. via Arab intermediaries, Middle Eastern and European officials said." Iran had 60 days to negotiate a peaceful settlement to the war it's been waging against Israel since 1979. Grnted, most of the hostilities haven't been open clashes. They've been primarily fought by the Iranians' proxies (Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis) with Iran provi...

After the arrest of Vance Luther Boelter Sunday night, Tim Walz, Minnesota's ultraliberal DFL governor, held an impromptu press availability. Summoning all the decorum in his body, Walz simply couldn't resist taking another cheap shot at Presaident Trump . According to the article, the man who called ICE agents "modern day Gestapo" instructed people that "This cannot be the norm. It cannot be the way that we deal with our political differences. While Walz sometimes talks a good game, that's just part of his schtick. It isn't who he really is. Last Friday, Gov. Walz questioned America's moral authority . Then he went further, asking "Who is the voice in the world now... who holds the moral authority?...It might be the CHINESE." Back in Minnesota, Gov. Walz told reporters at the press availability "A moment in this country where we watch violence erupt, this cannot be the norm. It cannot be the way that we deal with our political differ...

After the biggest manhunt in Minnesota history, " Vance Boelter has been arrested in Green Isle, Minnesota." Fox 9 is reporting "Boelter is the suspect in the assassination of Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, and injured Sen. John Hoffman and his wife. Rep. Hortman and her husband Mark were fatally shot in their Brooklyn Park home early Saturday morning. Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were shot and injured in their Champlin home." Yvette Hoffmann, the wife of State Sen. John Hoffmann, has confirmed that she was shot 8 times. Further, she said that Sen. Hoffmann was shot 9 times. According the charging document filed with the court, Boelter is charged with 4 counts, each count being "Murder - 2nd Degree." STATEMENT OF PROBABLE CAUSE On or about June 14, 2025, at approximately 2:05 a.m., Champlin Police officers responded to a shooting at a residence in Champlin, Hennepin County, Minnesota. The 911 caller reported that a masked person had co...

Saturday morning brought horrific news to Minnesotans when it was reported that Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband had been shot and killed by a man who wore a police officer's uniform. At the press conference, it was reported that the man drove a vehicle that looked like a police officer's SUV. Eventually, the man was identified as Vance Boelter, age 57. Police officers originally responded to a 9-1-1 call at the home of Minnesota State Sen. John Hoffmann. It was later reported that the officers that responded to the Hoffmann 9-1-1 call took the initiative to check on Speaker Hortman's home because her home in Brooklyn Park is just 5 miles from Hoffmann's home in Champlin. Upon arriving at Hortman's home, they spotted a police SUV. That's when they came face-to-face with Boelter. Boelter ran back inside Hortman's home, then escaped through another door. Boelter is still a fugitive as this article is published. He's considered armed and dan...

By now, we've heard about Alex Padilla's intrusion into DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's press conference. For those of you who've been living under a rock, Padilla is California'a senior senator in the U.S. Senate. Yesterday, Sen. Padilla decided to interrupt Secretay Noem's presser while not identifying himself as a member of the Senate. It's as if he thought he was a household name. He isn't. He's a nobody backbencher. Sen. Padilla didn't even wear his U.S. Senate security pin. After Sen. Padilla's fundraising stunt, he exchanged phone numbers with Secretary Noem during a meeting with Secretary Noem which both people described as productive. The NYPost is reporting "California Sen. Alex Padilla was chucked out of a Los Angeles news briefing as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem discussed the ongoing anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement riots that have engulfed the city — before being thrown to the ground and handcuffed." Wh...

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer cross-examined Tim Walz, Minnesota's ultraliberal DFL governor, during Thursday's House OvErsight Committee hearing. During his opening statement, Gov. Walz stated "We have a broken immigration system in this country. I think everyone in this room agrees with that, but nothing Minnesota has done to serve its own people stands in the way of the federal government managing border security and policies." Actually, most Republicans would dispute that statement. We had a broken immigration system during the 4 years of the Biden administration because Joe Biden and Alejandro Mayorkas refused to enforce boprder laws. Further, they lied and said that the border was closed when the border was wide open. Additionally, the Biden administration insisted that Congress needed to pass a semi-bipaprtisan bill to fix the problem. The problem for Democrats is that Presaident Trump fixed the border within a month oof starting his second term in office. Ille...

This morning, Kathy Hochul did her best to ssstick to her talking points during the House Oversight Comittee's hearing on sanctuary cities policies. In a fiery exchange with Gov. Hochul, Elise Stefanik didn't let her filibuster her way through Ms. Stefanik's cross-examination. AOL is reporting that "Stefanik invoked an executive order immigration signed by Hochul, along with a number of recent crimes committed by those who were in the country without authorization, including the burning of a woman on the New York City subway last year." I watched that cross-examination live. Calling that cross-examination riveting is understatement. Rep. Stefanik is quoted as saying "This is Kathy Hochul’s New York. It’s one of the many reasons why you’re hemorrhaging support from hardworking New York families. They’re horrific crimes that are committed on your watch. You signed this executive order on your first day in office. You signed it again and again this January....

Ahead of Thursday morning's House Oversight Committee Hearing, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer told Alpha News that Tim "Walz would 'deflect, filibuster, and even outright lie' during the hearing—part of a broader effort, Emmer said, to reframe his immigration record as inclusive, rather than dangerous." I wrote this post earlier this week to predict that Walz and Pritzker woudn't "be timid sheep. This is a national stage, their chance to make an impression on potential presidential voters. They'll likely be feisty." It's a virtual lead-pipe cinch that Gov. Walz will hide behind Minnesota law that isn't aligned with Article VI, Clause II, otherwisie known as the Supremacy Clause . The Supremacy Clause says "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land ; and the ...

It's long past time that Minnesota school boards started eliminating DEI's influence from our schools. Alpha News is reporting that "The Prior Lake-Savage school board rescinded a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) resolution during its meeting Monday night." Apparently, things got pretty contentious during the meeting. School board member Amy Bullyan asked "Does this resolution in and of itself serve the whole in a unifying way?" Alpha News is reporting "The resolution was passed in 2020 and addressed things like 'implicit bias's and 'anti-racism.'" The resolution says "Racism and implicit bias manifest in myriad ways, including, but not limited to, hate speech, open hostility and bigotry, systematic and institutionalized practices and policies, microaggressions, color-blind ideology, willful ignorance, and unconscious bias in decision making, each of which have the effect of negatively impacting Black, Indigenous, and pe...

In 2023, the budget year of the DFL Trifecta, touted a major K-12 spending increase . This year, the DFL messaging is quite different . First, let's examine the jubilation for the 2023 DFL Trifecta budget session. CBS reported that "A large K-12 education funding package that includes a $2.2 billion boost for schools is on its way to Gov. Tim Walz's desk for signature. It includes indexing the per pupil formula funding to the rate of inflation in future years—capped at 3%—with a boost of 4% next fiscal year and 2% the following year. There's additional money to cover some of costs for special education programs, recruit more teachers of color and hire more school psychologists." Later, CBS, aka WCCO, reported "Democrats praised the bill as a 'transformational' investment in education not seen before in the legislature." The fact that the bill was met with such jubilation says everything about the DFL's K-12 priorities. Fast forward to today...