Unleash Prosperity Hotline – Weekend Edition Issue #843
08/25/2023, 08/26/2023, 08/27/2023
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1) Biden’s New Energy Strategy – Get More Oil From Venezuela
The Biden White House is freaked out about the sudden spurt in gas prices at the pump – which are now over $4 a gallon in many states. High gas prices agitate voters, so the White House has come up with a plan to bring down prices: get more oil — not from Texas or Oklahoma or Alaska — but from…Venezuela. Yep, the gangster/socialist Nicolas Maduro is going to help bring prices down.
As energy expert Phil Flynn explains: “The hope is a lifting of sanctions on Venezuela will be better able to export that now coveted heavy blend of dirty oil that is so good in yielding Diesel that globally is undersupplied.”
By the way: Does anyone in their right mind think that Maduro will allow free elections?
2) Biden’s Higher Mortgage Rates Will Cost Homebuyers $32,000
Mortgage rates were 2.9% when Trump left office; now they are 7.1%. The median home value today is roughly $410,000.
As the chart below from CTUP senior fellow EJ Antoni shows, this means the typical mortgage payment has risen to almost $900 more per month. It’s the Bidenomics mortgage tax each and every month for 360 months on a 30-year home loan.
That means over the course of the loan, a young family pays $32,000 more. If you buy a home in a high home value area of California or Florida your total payments will be closer to $50,000 higher.
3) In Chicago – What’s Worse? Corruption or Progressive Incompetence?
Al Capone is the most famous Illinois gangster of all time, but now we are learning that Mike Madigan — Speaker of the Illinois House for 36 years who ran a pay-to-play syndicate for decades — may be a close second.
Madigan was finally chased from office in 2021 after being implicated in a bribery scheme in which Commonwealth Edison offered sleazy and lucrative contracts and jobs to his close allies.
Madigan’s trial is scheduled soon and the prosecution’s case will be strengthened by this week’s perjury and obstruction of Justice conviction of Tim Mapes, Madigan’s chief of staff for two decades.
Over the decades Democrats like Madigan and “the boss” Richard M. Daley were corrupt - and payoffs were a cost of doing business. But at least if you bribed the right people things got done. Chicago was known as “the city that works.” The garbage got collected.
The new progressive Democrats, like Mayor Brandon Johnson, are more honest – but they are ideological to the point of complete incompetence. They can’t fight crime, they can’t fix the potholes, they can’t get the homeless off the streets, the schools don’t teach, and they raise taxes through the roof as business owners and wealthy residents flee.
We think the old-style Democrats were less harmful. What do you think?
4) Canadian Court Orders Jordan Peterson to Reeducation Camp
Jordan Peterson, a clinical psychologist who is now Chancellor of Ralston College in Savannah, Georgia, is Canada’s most popular public intellectual with lectures and podcasts that reach millions of people with a message supporting classical Western learning and emotional self-reliance. He has four million Twitter followers.
But his views have earned him the enmity of Canada’s “woke” College of Psychologists, which decided to try to regulate his personal beliefs, even though they had nothing to with his profession. They ordered him to take a “coaching program” at his own expense to “reflect on, and ameliorate his professionalism in public statements.” Otherwise, he would face a charge of unprofessional conduct and could potentially lose his license.
In response, Peterson acknowledged he could improve his language and promised to consult personal advisors to improve it. But he refused any Orwellian “reeducation” camp. “Social media is the modern town square,” his lawyers argued in a court challenge to the mandated coaching. “Vigorous debate in these forums is essential to the healthy functioning of democracy.”
But Canada lacks a vigorous First Amendment protecting free speech and this week an Ontario court dismissed both Peterson’s claim and counteroffer and ordered to pay $25,000 in court costs. The court ruled he must take “responsibility for the risk of harm that flows from him speaking in (his) trusted capacity” even though he hasn't worked as a psychologist for the last six years.
Among the offensive tweets that spurred Peterson’s colleagues to sanction him was one about a plus-size model on the cover of a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover: “Sorry. Not Beautiful. And no amount of authoritarian tolerance is going to change that.” He was also guilty of calling an Ontario local official an “appalling self-righteous moralizing thing.”
The court — in our opinion — could be describing its own ruling in the Peterson case. Peterson promises to appeal.
5) No More – Even Progressive Officials Are Revolting Against Mad Homeless Policy
It’s real news when the mayor of San Francisco and California’s progressive governor Gavin Newsom both bitterly criticize an activist federal judge for handcuffing sensible homeless policies.
That’s what happened this week when Mayor London Breed spoke at a protest in front of the city’s federal courthouse blasting a judge’s injunction against her ability to clear homeless encampments. Breed said the city has to be “able to clear the streets.”
"I get that people suffer from mental illness. I get they suffer from addiction,” Breed said. “But if we have a place for people to move, you should not be forced to just allow people to be on the sidewalk."
Breed called out U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu, who imposed the ban, for “micromanaging” the city’s shelter program when she “doesn’t even live here.”
Governor Newsom sent Breed a message of support, blaming the courts for “costly delays that slow progress.”
The two found another ally in Rafael Mandelman, the city supervisor for the Castro district, who told the rally that “allowing the encampments to persist … is terrible for the city. We have hundreds of people a year dying of overdoses.”
Waves of homeless people are hollowing out the downtowns of major cities all over the country. The realization that it’s progressive policies that exacerbate the problem has come late, but it’s a hopeful sign that now some of the most “woke” politicians are trying to stop the insanity.
During Wednesday's debate, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem ran ads on Fox, letting people know her state is open for business. She’s been a great governor – and her refusal to bow down to the Anthony Fauci lockdowns saved the state’s schools and businesses.
The ad highlights the state’s pro-growth policies including no state income tax and professional licensing reform that have kept the state economy booming.
Kristi should be near the top of any list of Vice President choices.
