Unleash Prosperity Hotline – Weekend Edition Issue #705
02/03/2023, 02/04/2023, 02/05/2023
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1) How To Save Black Lives
We've been reminded again by the savage beating to death of Tyre Nichols that there are a lot of bad police out there.
But it’s also true that black deaths at the hands of law enforcement officers are tiny compared to the roughly 10,000 blacks that are murdered each year.
Another 800,000 blacks every year – a horrifically high number – are victims of non-fatal violent crimes – assault, rape, armed robbery, etc. Blacks are statistically more likely than whites to be victimized.
We also know that police shot and killed roughly 200 blacks last year – and the vast majority of these shootings were justifiable to stop a violent crime. Our friend Heather McDonald of the Manhattan Institute notes that less than 20 unarmed blacks are killed each year by police.
The chart below shows these proportions and we admit these numbers are not exact but rough estimates:
Blacks Victims of Crime
We would say these numbers are prima facie evidence that to save lives, we need more (but better), not fewer, police patrolling black neighborhoods.
2) 24 GOP Senators Sign Letter Saying No Debt Ceiling Increase Without Budget Cuts – Where Are The Other 25?
“We do not intend to vote for a debt-ceiling increase without structural reforms to address current and future fiscal realities and manage out-of-control government policies,” warns the letter to president Biden and sponsored by Mike Lee of Utah.
Fantastic. We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. Why didn’t EVERY Republican in the Senate sign?
The only way Biden can sustain his hissy-fit that he won’t negotiate any spending cuts or budget reforms on the debt ceiling is if Republicans show they are disunited. Sue enough. That’s what they are doing, and it doesn’t help when the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, isn’t on board.
Shame on these 25 surrender monkeys who refused to sign and are threatening to side with the Democrats big spenders.
3) Nearly Every House Democrat Voted Against Making Federal Employees Go Back To Work
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Capitol, only 3 House Democrats voted to require federal workers to return to the office:
Josh Harder (D-CA)
Kim Schrier (D-WA)
Susan Wild (D-PA)
That's 3 out of 212. Just 1.4% of House Democrats voted to make feds to return to work. Even though it's 2023. We remind you that COVID-19 stands for Coronavirus Disease 2019.
The bill passed anyway because every House Republican but one (Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania) voted yes.
The House will take up a bill next week to overturn a reckless law passed by the DC Council that reduces punishments for violent crimes. Hello, as we reported last week, crime is surging in DC and they are lowering the penalties.
Part of the recent DC crime spree was the direct consequences of lockdowns.
"With the spike, we have seen an increase of juvenile offenders," the chair of the city's carjacking tax force recently said. "COVID certainly contributed to that, the lack of school, the lack of accountability. Parks and Rec took a huge hit. Their programs weren’t up and running."
The collapse of public safety in DC is an important issue for Congress because Americans should feel safe when they visit their national capital and petition the government for a redress of grievances.
5) Save The Whales – By Ending Off-Shore Wind Projects?
The Biden administration is spending billions of dollars on offshore wind projects.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy wants to install dozens of turbine projects. But now some green groups are protesting.
They point to 10 dead whales that have been found on beaches in New York and New Jersey in the last two months - an unprecedented number. Activists blame the increased ship traffic and carpet bombing of the ocean floor with intense sonic mapping signals associated with the building of wind turbines.
Twelve New Jersey coastal mayors want to pause wind development until the deaths of the whales are investigated.
The Sierra Club and other Washington-based environmental groups are trashing the theory that any whales are harmed by wind turbines. These are the same groups that falsely denied that wind turbines have killed millions of birds, including Bald and Golden Eagles.
Apparently, there is no destruction of wildlife and America’s scenic landscapes that radical green groups aren’t willing to tolerate and excuse in order to advance their radical wind and solar energy agenda.
