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Ignore the Doublespeak: We’re in a Recession <[link removed]> - American families cannot afford what they were purchasing just a year and a half ago. That means a lower standard of living, but don’t expect any sympathy from Biden administration officials. Their focus seems to be on technicalities, not the average American’s cost of living. The latest economic doublespeak from the Biden administration is a stern warning to not believe your lying eyes. President Joe Biden, who said Thursday, “That doesn’t sound like recession to me,” seems to want us to believe the economy is in far better shape than the stark reality right in front of our faces. Heritage Expert: EJ Antoni <[link removed]>
Litigation in State Courts Puts Pro-Life Laws on Hold <[link removed]> - Long before American independence, legislatures were enacting laws to restrict the killing of human beings before birth. In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court put a stop to those pro-life efforts by manufacturing a constitutional right to abortion in Roe v. Wade and taking away the legislative power to protect life in this way. But on June 24, the high court acknowledged that its decision in Roe had been “egregiously wrong from the start” and overruled it. Although that decision eliminated the U.S. Constitution as an obstacle to protecting the unborn, abortion advocates now are changing venues and arguing in state courts that pro-life laws violate state constitutions. Wyoming and North Dakota are home to two of those legal challenges. Heritage Experts: Thomas Jipping <[link removed]> and Sarah Parshall Perry <[link removed]>
Biden’s Middle East Trip Should be Judged by Its
Long-Term Security Results <[link removed]> - Stability in the Middle East hinges on containing threats emanating from Iran and minimizing hostile outside influences. The more unstable the region becomes, the more it will be open to Chinese and Russian influence. President Joe Biden’s recent Middle East trip did little to advance regional stability. But progress was being made through quiet Arab-Israeli security cooperation well before Air Force 1 headed East, and with leadership from the White House, an effective regional air defense system is possible. Heritage Experts: James Phillips <[link removed]> and John Venable <[link removed]>
The SPLC Backs Woke History at James Madison's
Montpelier <[link removed]> - You might think Montpelier would focus on Madison’s numerous accomplishments, particularly his role in shaping the Constitution and the nation. You would be wrong. They now concentrate almost exclusively on slavery, its “central role in the framing of the nation” and its “lasting legacies." In so doing, Montpelier ignores and diminishes Madison and puts identity politics over the American Founding. Heritage Expert: Brenda Hafera <[link removed]>
DOJ’s Partisan Shell Game Raises Ethics Issues About Pamela Karlan <[link removed]> - As a tenured law professor at Stanford University, Pamela Karlan earned $1 million a year. We now know that she stayed on the Stanford payroll, at that same impressive salary, during the entire 17 months she served as the Justice Department’s principal deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights. Karlan left her DOJ post on July 1, just one day before the department delivered documents to the American Accountability Foundation under a Freedom of Information Act request that revealed her unorthodox and ethically suspect arrangement with the Biden administration. Karlan is a radical leftist. As a political appointee at DOJ, she threatened to sue the Arizona Senate over its audit of the 2020 election in Maricopa County, absurdly claiming that such an audit violated the Voting Rights Act. She was also behind DOJ’s latest lawsuit against Arizona for trying to verify the citizenship of its voters. Heritage Expert: Hans von Spakvosky <[link removed]>
Trading for Prisoners Held Abroad Like Brittney Griner Is
Politically Expedient, but Ill-Advised <[link removed]> - Last week, I wrote in the Federalist about Brittney Griner, a player for the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA, who was arrested in Russia in February for possession of a small amount of cannabis oil. Since then, Griner’s trial is playing out as predicted. In Russia, such cases are tried by judges, not juries, and the rate of acquittal is less than 1%. It’s hard for Americans to understand why a respectable athlete like Griner should be arrested for possession of a tiny amount of cannabis oil that she maintains is for medical purposes and which would be legal in many parts of the U.S. Heritage Expert: Simon Hankinson <[link removed]>
Inflation Reduction Act—or Radical Green New Deal? <[link removed]> - Make no mistake, the so-called Inflation Reduction Act unveiled Wednesday by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., will do nothing that its supporters state—in fact, it will do quite the opposite. If passed, the act will increase the prices that Americans pay for energy, make the United States less energy secure, and do absolutely nothing for the environment. Perhaps more insidious, it will hurt Americans who live in coal-rich states, like Manchin’s West Virginia, the most. Heritage Expert: Katie Tubb <[link removed]>
Democrats Fixate On Gay Marriage While The Country Crumbles <[link removed]> - Last week, House Democrats forced a snap vote on a bill that aims to codify same-sex marriage and more in federal law. The House passed the “Respect for Marriage Act” (RMA) 267-157. Forty-seven Republicans joined the majority. The bill could come up for a vote in the Senate in the next two weeks. If enough Republican senators join the Democrats to overcome a filibuster, President Biden could sign it into law before the 2022 election. Heritage Experts: Jay Richards <[link removed]> and Jared Eckert <[link removed]>
Education Savings Accounts Empower Families When Public Schools Fail
Them <[link removed]> - It is significant, then, that the switch from homeschooling and private schools back to assigned schools has been slower than the drop in public school enrollment. One survey found that while homeschooling increased by 63 percent in the 2020-2021 school year, the number of homeschooling families only decreased by 17 percent the following year. As of 2021, some 3 million students were using learning pods, which are independent parent or teacher-led groups that resemble homeschool co-op arrangements. Heritage Expert: Jonathan Butcher <[link removed]>
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