Big Tech + Big Government = Censorship thumbnail

Big Tech + Big Government = Censorship

/in , , , , /by

By Erica Mitchell

Above, that’s Vijaya Gadde, who until she was fired by Elon Musk, was Twitter’s lead censor — and, as it turns out, a government suck-up. You have probably seen by now The Intercept’s jaw-dropping report about how the US Government has been collaborating with Big Tech to monitor and shape what Americans are allowed to talk about. I won’t quote the report at length here, but here’s the gist:

Note this part especially, from the report:

Got that? If you have a dissenting opinion on the lab-leak theory, on vaccines, on Critical Race Theory, on Afghanistan, or on Ukraine, then the Feds may be interested in you.

Check out this Twitter thread by Bill Roggio, editor of Long War Journal.

Same deal with Covid, and with racialist anti-Asian and anti-white policies implemented by elites, supposedly for our own good. What “inaccurate information” about “racial justice” does the US Government believes is a threat to the security of the homeland? Diversity is our strength, and if you doubt it, the Eye of Sauron notes your lack of faith and commitment to fighting racism. I’m reminded of this C.S. Lewis quote Paul Kingsnorth cites in his latest newsletter:


Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

You will notice if you read The Intercept’s report — and note well that The Intercept is a left-wing website — is how eager these tech companies were for the government to intrude:

Elon Musk fired Vijaya Gadde as one of his first acts after buying Twitter. Why do you think that these people were eager for the government to increase its monitoring of the media? Because they trust these state actors to enforce a progressive-friendly narrative. This is what it means when the Deep State has been captured by the Left.

I cannot say it often enough: this is what the people who came to America to escape Communism are warning us about in Live Not By Lies! Excerpt from the book:

What unnerves those who lived under Soviet communism is this similarity: Elites and elite institutions are abandoning old-fashioned liberalism, based in defending the rights of the individual, and replacing it with a progressive creed that regards justice in terms of groups. It encourages people to identify with groups—ethnic, sexual, and otherwise—and to think of Good and Evil as a matter of power dynamics among the groups. A utopian vision drives these progressives, one that compels them to seek to rewrite history and reinvent language to reflect their ideals of social justice.

Further, these utopian progressives are constantly changing the standards of thought, speech, and behavior. You can never be sure when those in power will come after you as a villain for having said or done something that was perfectly fine the day before. And the consequences for violating the new taboos are extreme, including losing your livelihood and having your reputation ruined forever.

People are becoming instant pariahs for having expressed a politically incorrect opinion, or in some other way provoking a progressive mob, which amplifies its scapegoating through social and conventional media. Under the guise of “diversity,” “inclusivity,” “equity,” and other egalitarian jargon, the Left creates powerful mechanisms for controlling thought and discourse and marginalizes dissenters as evil.

It is very hard for Americans who have never lived through this kind of ideological fog to recognize what is happening. To be sure, whatever this is, it is not a carbon copy of life in the Soviet Bloc nations, with their secret police, their gulags, their strict censorship, and their material deprivation. That is precisely the problem, these people warn. The fact that relative to Soviet Bloc conditions, life in the West remains so free and so prosperous is what blinds Americans to the mounting threat to our liberty. That, and the way those who take away freedom couch it in the language of liberating victims from oppression.

Or, protecting the homeland from badthinkers among its people. And for the record, I would find this every bit as repulsive and frightening if the Deep State were right-wing. Wouldn’t you?

The right-wing government of George W. Bush misled us all into the Iraq quagmire — and, as Bill Roggio says, lied to us to keep us in Afghanistan. The left-wing Obama government did the same thing about Afghanistan. Do you really trust Washington — left or right — to tell it straight to the American people about Ukraine? Whatever you think about US involvement in the Ukraine war, it ought to scare you that the US Government believes that it’s in the interest of “homeland security” to monitor and correct “disinformation” about US policy there.

Look, it’s very hard to know what’s true and what’s not anymore. Peter Savodnik had a good piece recently about how the mainstream media runs interference for John Fetterman, the disabled Democratic candidate for US Senate. Most of us are well aware how the mainstream media police the boundaries of discourse constantly to protect its sacred cows. Jonathan Chait, the liberal columnist for New York magazine, admitted in his latest piece that the Left hurts itself with this. Excerpt:

The motive for many progressives to follow these stifling conventions was sympathetic. If you believe systemic racism and inequality are the greatest crisis in America, which I do, and you also believe the racism of the Republican Party is far more dangerous than any excesses on the left, which I also do, then you might hesitate to admit to anything that might be used by Republicans to discredit the cause of racial justice. Yet that hesitation allows the most unreasonable people on the left to rope the whole progressive movement into indefensible and self-discrediting positions.

The George Floyd protests are hardly the only subject for which this dynamic has prevailed. Progressives decided that the hypothesis that COVID-19 may have originated in a laboratory rather than zoonotically was “racist” — even though this was a purely scientific question, the evidence was and is murky, and it was easier to imagine racist behavior resulting from a theory blaming COVID on Chinese cultural practices than a theory blaming China’s government. Journalists at mainstream organs followed this convention, essentially turning a scientific question into a political one. When institutions adopt illiberal norms of debate that make it impossible to challenge an accusation of racism or sexism, they open themselves inevitably to abuse.

I believe the cultural pressures that produced these errors are in remission. But they haven’t disappeared. As evidenced by the likes of Scocca and Katz, there remains a deep-seated impulse on the left to defend or deny illiberal norms. They insist the wave of hysterical accusations, overpolicing of language, and empowered outrage mobs were a figment of the critics’ imaginations, or that these things happened but were actually good, or perhaps, somehow, both. As people in these institutions begin to lose their fear of speaking truthfully, we need to honestly confront what happened.

It’s bad enough that progressive journalists do this. But to have those who control social media platforms engage in it, and to encourage involvement of the State in policing discourse? And to have a domestic security arm of the State spreading its bureaucracy into controlling the narrative behind the scenes?

Tyranny. That’s what this is: tyranny.

*****

This article was published by The American Conservative and is reproduced with permission.

TAKE ACTION

How Not to Vote in Arizona

The 2022 midterm election is fast approaching. The system for voting in Arizona is predominantly by mail-in ballots (around 80% of all ballots). On October 12th, he ballots were mailed to all voters registered for mail-in voting in the 2022 midterm elections. ‘Election day’ is next Tuesday November 8.

Once upon a time when all voters went to the polls on the day of election, the tabulated results were announced the night of the election date. If the result of a specific race was razor thin and less than a legislated margin, a recount might prevent the naming of a winner. That was the exception for calling the results of the election.

It is still this way in most first world countries but not the United States and certainly not Arizona. Voting rules (some unconstitutional) were dramatically altered in many states in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic.

We at The Prickly Pear are very concerned about the flaws in Arizona’s predominant ‘mail-in’ voting system.

Please click on the red TAKE ACTION link below to learn How Not to Vote in Arizona as a mail-in ballot voter and to be certain your vote is included in the count the evening of November 8th.

White and Woke Supremacy thumbnail

White and Woke Supremacy

/in , , , , /by

By Craig J. Cantoni

The forgotten white supremacists whose descendants pretend to be woke and virtuous.   

Below are vile, racist comments spoken by white supremacists about minorities. The supremacists and minorities will be identified after the comments.

These races have “crooked faces, coarse mouths, bad noses, heavy jaws, and low foreheads.”

They “lack the conveniences for thinking” and are “a degenerate class.”

They are “uncleanly, intemperate, quarrelsome, ignorant, and hard on women and children.”

The distinctive shape of their nose arises from “the habitual use of the quadratus muscle, the muscle of disgust, contempt, and disdain, which lead to scorn, acknowledging guilt.”

They are “vast masses of filth.”

We are imperiled by “multitudes of men of the lowest class, men out of the ranks where there was neither skill nor energy, nor any initiative of quick intelligence.”

The “hirsute, low-browed, big-faced persons of low mentality clearly belong in skins, in wattled huts at the close of the Great Ice Age.”

Note: The source of the above and much of what follows is the outstanding book, The Guarded Gate, by Daniel Okrent.

Clearly, the foregoing disgusting comments were said by Southern rednecks and right-wing extremists. Just as clearly, they were said about African Americans, Chinese Americans, Mexican Americans, and other minorities of color. And they were spoken in the dark recesses of the internet.

Wrong, wrong, wrong!

The comments were uttered in the early twentieth century and beyond by New England intellectuals, academics, politicians, and other members of high society—all of whom were white Anglo-Saxon Protestants, most of whom were progressives, and many of whom claimed that their lineage went back to the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

The comments were about Jews, Catholics, eastern Europeans, and southern Europeans, especially Italians—all of whom were seen as non-white and genetically inferior.

Such comments were published and/or praised by leading publications and universities. The publications included the Atlantic Monthly, the New York Times, the New York Times Book Review, the Saturday Evening Post, Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal, and the American Economic Review. The universities included Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Northwestern, and Carnegie Mellon. Even the American Museum of Natural History joined the bandwagon.

Leading politicians and influencers also agreed with the sentiments, including Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Henry Cabot Lodge, Eleanor Roosevelt, Margaret Sanger, Charles Scribner of publishing fame, and J.H. Kellogg of cereal fame. Others included Walter Lippmann, the famous journalist and founder of the New Republic; and Mary Harriman, the wealthiest woman in America, who had inherited her wealth from her father, E.H. Harriman, the baron of the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific Railroads.

Supremacist thinking was especially rife in the early decades of the twentieth century but also extended into later decades. For example, Look Magazine, which was a popular and widely circulated periodical, wrote that baseball great Joe DiMaggio was not a typical Italian, in that he didn’t reek of garlic and put bear grease on his hair. Another baseball great, Yogi Berra, was compared to an ape in appearance.

Incidentally, my dad and uncle grew up with Yogi in the Italian section of St. Louis, which was known as Dago Hill when I was a kid.

Return to the early twentieth century, the Breeders Association was an influential organization at the time. Its mission was not to breed better dogs but to breed better people—namely, people who were like WASPs and not people who were like Jews, Poles, Hungarians, Italians, Greeks, and so on. The organization dovetailed with the eugenics movement.

This was white supremacy for sure, or more accurately, WASP supremacy.

Another WASP supremacist was Madison Grant, the author of a popular book, The Passing of the Great Race. The book’s theme was that Americans of Nordic blood were being overrun by the “barbaric blood” of non-Nordics.

The San Francisco Chronicle said that Grant was “a thoroughly qualified ethnologist.” The Nation editorialized that his book gave “a historical concept of truths of racial evolution which as a whole is unanswerable.” The New York Times featured the book over two pages of its Sunday magazine. The National Research Council honored Grant with an appointment to its Anthropology Committee, and he was lauded by the Association for the Advancement of Science.

Another book of the same genre was Applied Eugenics, which became a leading textbook that went through four printings in six years. Its authors, diehard progressives, wrote that suitable eugenic material couldn’t be found in the “fecund stocks” of people marked by “illiteracy, squalor and tuberculosis, their high death rates, their economic straits.”

The epitome of white supremacy was William Earl Dodge, a Manhattanite, heir to three large fortunes, and breeder of horses. He authored the book, The Right to Be Well Born, which, among other supremacist themes, contended that the lower classes should have their own registry, like Clydesdales, so that potential mates could see where each other ranked on a eugenics scale.

Today, many of the descendants of the foregoing white supremacists are no doubt privileged, progressive, and well-off, having used their inherited advantages to become leaders in business, academia, the arts, and government. They are also probably woke, due to knowing their ancestral history and feeling guilty about it. As such, they embrace critical race theory, diversity and inclusion initiatives for non-whites, as well as reeducation workshops in which white students and white corporate employees are forced to confront their privilege and subconscious racism—inanities that don’t affect the privileged progeny of white supremacists, because, from their lofty heights, they are above the fray.

It’s a double travesty that the progeny are projecting their guilt and penance on the descendants of those who suffered at the hands of the progeny’s forebears. And to make it worse, today’s media, academia, and industry let them get by with it.

TAKE ACTION

How Not to Vote in Arizona

The 2022 midterm election is fast approaching. The system for voting in Arizona is predominantly by mail-in ballots (around 80% of all ballots). On October 12th, he ballots were mailed to all voters registered for mail-in voting in the 2022 midterm elections. ‘Election day’ is next Tuesday November 8.

Once upon a time when all voters went to the polls on the day of election, the tabulated results were announced the night of the election date. If the result of a specific race was razor thin and less than a legislated margin, a recount might prevent the naming of a winner. That was the exception for calling the results of the election.

It is still this way in most first world countries but not the United States and certainly not Arizona. Voting rules (some unconstitutional) were dramatically altered in many states in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic.

We at The Prickly Pear are very concerned about the flaws in Arizona’s predominant ‘mail-in’ voting system.

Please click on the red TAKE ACTION link below to learn How Not to Vote in Arizona as a mail-in ballot voter and to be certain your vote is included in the count the evening of November 8th.

How The Surveillance State And Big Tech Colluded To Make Twitter ‘Disinformation’ The New Terrorism thumbnail

How The Surveillance State And Big Tech Colluded To Make Twitter ‘Disinformation’ The New Terrorism

/in , , , , /by

By John Daniel Davidson

The late, great Angelo Codevilla maintained that America’s response to 9/11 was fundamentally flawed because it adopted a law enforcement approach to what is essentially a foreign policy problem. He argued that the law enforcement approach — the idea that we could detect and disrupt terrorist plots before they come to fruition, and arrest those responsible — required the construction of a vast state security and surveillance apparatus that would eventually, when the terrorist threat subsided, be turned on American citizens.

As in so much else, Codevilla was prophetic.

Earlier this week, a deeply reported piece by Ken Klippenstein and Lee Fang of The Intercept revealed an “expansive effort” by the Department of Homeland Security to curb speech it considers dangerous by pressuring tech platforms to engage in online censorship. Although DHS’s widely ridiculed “Disinformation Governance Board” was scaled back and then shut down earlier this year amid well-deserved criticism, “other initiatives are underway as DHS pivots to monitoring social media now that its original mandate — the war on terror — has been wound down.”

The security apparatus that was erected to keep us safe from al-Qaida, it seems, is looking for something else to do now, so it has decided to become the arbiter of what constitutes false and dangerous information, and therefore what political opinions Americans are allowed to express online.

Citing a trove of documents connected to an ongoing lawsuit filed by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, Klippenstein and Fang reveal a quiet pressure campaign by DHS “to try and shape online discourse” that involves frequent meetings and coordination with top tech and finance executives, and even “a formalized process for government officials to directly flag content on Facebook or Instagram and request that it be throttled or suppressed through a special Facebook portal that requires a government or law enforcement email to use.” At the time of this writing, the portal is still live.

What might DHS consider “inaccurate information” worthy of suppression? A whole host of topics, including “the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, racial justice, U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the nature of U.S. support to Ukraine.”

Because “disinformation” isn’t clearly defined, it can be whatever DHS and the federal agencies under its purview say it is. And wouldn’t you know it, disinformation turns out to be whatever ideas and opinions contradict the official narrative of the Biden administration and Democratic Party leadership on major political issues.

No surprise, then, that Big Tech appears to be OK with this. Klippenstein and Fang quote a February text from Microsoft executive Matt Masterson, a former DHS official, to a DHS director, saying: “Platforms have got to get comfortable with gov’t. It’s really interesting how hesitant they remain.”

But not, perhaps, as hesitant as Masterson thinks. Emails and documents connected to the Missouri lawsuit show a close collaboration between DHS and top executives of social media firms such as Twitter. In 2018, Congress passed and President Trump signed a bill creating an office inside DHS called the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA. It was a response to some high-profile hacking of U.S. firms such as SolarWinds and Equifax, and the idea was for CISA to protect critical national infrastructure.

But it didn’t take long for CISA to expand its definition of critical national infrastructure to include “misinformation and disinformation,” taking its cues from an advisory committee that includes Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s erstwhile head of legal affairs and policy, whom Elon Musk fired last week. Gadde was the co-author of a report in June urging CISA to take on an expansive role in policing online speech, calling on the agency to monitor “social media platforms of all sizes, mainstream media, cable news, hyper partisan media, talk radio and other online resources.”

None of this will come as a surprise to anyone who has questioned the official government narrative on Twitter or Facebook over the last two years. Did you dare to speculate online that Covid might have come from a lab leak in China? If so, then as late as December of 2020 you were promoting what NPR (among many other outlets) called a “baseless conspiracy theory” for which there is “zero evidence.”

Problem is, things move fast in the world of real-time disinformation policing, and yesterday’s baseless conspiracy theory is today’s respectable viewpoint. A newly released Senate interim report reflects what most people’s common sense suggested to them a long time ago: that the pandemic was “more likely than not” the result of a “research-related incident.”

Same with the Hunter Biden laptop story that broke ahead of the 2020 election. The story was dismissed by dozens of former top intelligence officials who claimed it was “Russian disinformation,” but we now know what anyone who bothered to look into the story knew in October 2020 — that it was all true. The laptop was real.

We also know, by Mark Zuckerberg’s own admission to Joe Rogan in August, that the FBI reached out to Facebook ahead of the 2020 election to tell them to be on the lookout for Russian disinformation. And now we know a little bit more about the FBI’s involvement. According to Klippenstein and Fang, the FBI was involved in high-level communications that allegedly led to Facebook’s suppression of the New York Post’s reporting on the laptop.

It should all outrage Americans who think the First Amendment should actually mean something, that people should be banned from the public square for expressing opinions the ruling regime dislikes. Indeed it’s hard to think of anything more un-American, and it’s not too much to say that this censorship represents a real threat to the survival of the republic.

One need not even engage the facile libertarian line that Twitter and Facebook are private companies and can do whatever they want. It’s enough to see the many ways powerful government agencies are now working hand-in-hand with private Big Tech firms to suppress online speech and censor political ideas the regime deems to be a threat.

Codevilla was exactly right. A security and surveillance apparatus originally constructed to keep us safe from terrorists has been transformed into an instrument of domestic surveillance, and is now being used against us.

*****

This article was published by The Federalist and is reproduced with permission.

TAKE ACTION

How Not to Vote in Arizona

The 2022 midterm election is fast approaching. The system for voting in Arizona is predominantly by mail-in ballots (around 80% of all ballots). On October 12th, he ballots were mailed to all voters registered for mail-in voting in the 2022 midterm elections. ‘Election day’ is next Tuesday November 8.

Once upon a time when all voters went to the polls on the day of election, the tabulated results were announced the night of the election date. If the result of a specific race was razor thin and less than a legislated margin, a recount might prevent the naming of a winner. That was the exception for calling the results of the election.

It is still this way in most first world countries but not the United States and certainly not Arizona. Voting rules (some unconstitutional) were dramatically altered in many states in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic.

We at The Prickly Pear are very concerned about the flaws in Arizona’s predominant ‘mail-in’ voting system.

Please click on the red TAKE ACTION link below to learn How Not to Vote in Arizona as a mail-in ballot voter and to be certain your vote is included in the count the evening of November 8th.

Arizona Senate GOP affirms state will ignore CDC guidance on K-12 COVID shot thumbnail

Arizona Senate GOP affirms state will ignore CDC guidance on K-12 COVID shot

/in , , , /by

By Tom Joyce

(The Center Square) – Arizona will not require public school students to be vaccinated against coronavirus regardless of what the federal government suggests, a joint statement from the Arizona state Senate majority said.

Senate leadership noted that Governor Doug Ducey signed HB 2086 into law last May. Among other things, the bill says that coronavirus vaccinations cannot be a requirement for school attendance in Arizona; the bill passed with Republican support in both chambers of the legislature.

“This is just another example of how out of touch the federal government and its agencies are with everyday families,” Senate President Karen Fann, R-Prescott, said in a press release. “With Republicans currently in control of our state government, we can promise that we will never subject Arizonans to the requirement of an experimental vaccine that has raised questions over long-term health implications.

Fann said that families should make the best decisions for themselves when it comes to coronavirus vaccines and that she doesn’t think that decision should prevent people from being able to send their children to school in the state.

“Injecting something into our bodies is a very personal choice and is one that families should have complete control over,” Fann said in the release.” Parents with children in schools should not be forced to subject their kids to an experimental vaccine as a condition of in-class instruction. Senate Republicans believe parents ultimately have the right to make medical decisions for their child, and we will not take away that freedom.”

Senate leadership released the statement in response to an Oct. 20 announcement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices updates to the 2023 childhood and adult immunization schedules recommend coronavirus vaccinations for people over six months old.

The Arizona Senate leadership release was put out on behalf of Fann; Majority Leader Rick Gray, R-Sun City; President Pro Tempore Vince Leach, R-Tucson; Majority Whip Sonny Borrelli, R-Lake Havasu City; and David Gowan, R-Sierra Vista.

*****

This article was published by The Center Square – Arizona and is reproduced with permission.

TAKE ACTION

How Not to Vote in Arizona

The 2022 midterm election is fast approaching. The system for voting in Arizona is predominantly by mail-in ballots (around 80% of all ballots). On October 12th, he ballots were mailed to all voters registered for mail-in voting in the 2022 midterm elections. ‘Election day’ is next Tuesday November 8.

Once upon a time when all voters went to the polls on the day of election, the tabulated results were announced the night of the election date. If the result of a specific race was razor thin and less than a legislated margin, a recount might prevent the naming of a winner. That was the exception for calling the results of the election.

It is still this way in most first world countries but not the United States and certainly not Arizona. Voting rules (some unconstitutional) were dramatically altered in many states in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic.

We at The Prickly Pear are very concerned about the flaws in Arizona’s predominant ‘mail-in’ voting system.

Please click on the red TAKE ACTION link below to learn How Not to Vote in Arizona as a mail-in ballot voter and to be certain your vote is included in the count the evening of November 8th.

What This Election is About thumbnail

What This Election is About

/in , , , , , /by

By Bruce Bialosky

Editors’ Note: It is no secret that The Prickly Pear believes strongly in the exceptional character of America since its founding as a Republic with individual sovereignty and government by consent of ‘We the People’. What is occurring today with the political party currently in control of the federal government is a direct result of radical and far left policies under a tragically compromised President. The past two years have been a nightmarish experience and insult for everyday Americans. Our national condition from economics to public safety, an engineered invasion of our southern border, dangerous foreign policy and a disgusting racial divide is front and center to most citizens casting their votes in this midterm election. It is important to recognize that the ideology defining Democrat public policy is not just at the federal level. Arizona Democrat candidates in this election cycle from the top of the ticket to the bottom are of the same ilk – radical ‘progressive’ and now evolving into a true socialist nature. As the author makes clear below, it is really time to vote them out. We fervently hope that a resounding Democrat electoral defeat will begin their transition back to a constitutional and foundational support of our American way of life and governing.

Yes, we are having an election next week and there could not be a clearer choice. In fact, there never has been.

I understand why some people wanted to toss Donald Trump out of office. He has a great ability to say things in ridiculously stupid ways. But he had this country in a rather good place until his replacement took over.

Let’s recount what has happened since Mr. Biden took over:

1. He has given away over $426 billion of our money to people who made a choice to take out college loans and now somehow feel oppressed. That does not include the billions he has already given away through other college loan relief programs. And yet he has proposed zero reforms to prevent this from happening again.

2. Parents in this country finally woke up to the fact the country’s public schools are dismal. This is the best thing that came out of the pandemic. They have come to realize that teachers’ unions have negligible interest in our children. The already horrific performance of these schools only became worse. Standardized test scores have plummeted from their already dismal levels. It is easy to brand the teachers’ unions as the most racist organizations in the country based on their performance with black and Hispanic children and their adamant opposition to charter schools.

3. Mr. Biden passed multiple bills that unnecessarily handed out money to people. Congress had just passed a trillion-dollar pandemic relief bill in late 2020 that had not filtered into the system when he assumed office. Then in March of 2021, the Democrats and Biden passed another $1.9 billion bill. And another. And another.

4. They committed $1.2 trillion to infrastructure. Has anyone seen any benefit from this yet? If there were bridges being fixed and roads being built it would be on the front pages of the NYT and WaPo. None to be seen.

5. These actions have caused inflation to soar. They keep blaming others as if printing $5 trillion with nothing to support it was of no consequence. This administration claims inflation is worldwide as if the largest economy in the world has nothing to do with it. As Milton Friedman stated in 1978, only Washington can cause inflation because only Washington can print money.

6. Crime has soared across the nation largely because of Democrat policies combined with Democrat DAs that favor criminals over law-abiding citizens. Forget the historically stupid idea of defunding the police. The idea of no bail laws has caused multiple repeat offenders to go back on the streets and repeat their crimes over and over and over again. If you are not looking over your shoulder in a big city, you are a fool. This is their doing.

7. The stock market has tumbled in the last year losing well over 20% of its value. This is a direct cause of Biden and his party’s leadership. This has cost hardworking Americans trillions of dollars in lost savings.

8. The way we withdrew from Afghanistan was probably the most embarrassing moment in foreign relations since the British burned our Capitol.

9. That clearly emboldened the maniac in Russia to push forward and attack Ukraine. Many countries supported defending Ukraine. But where have they been in terms of real support? Running their mouths does nothing without real backup. The Baltic states and Poland have done their fair share, but the others? Where is Biden demanding equitable support? Just wait until the place must be rebuilt and see who carries the load.

10. Biden’s horrific idea to go back into negotiating with Iran. They were virtually broke, and he gave them money. Then he turned his back on Israel and the Abraham Accords countries. Biden does not understand that only the Left in America and Iran are still buying the pile of camel manure shoveled by the Palestinians. Saudi Arabia would be in the accords by now if it were not for Biden. And a Democrat told me he really liked Biden’s foreign policy.

11. Then there is the granddaddy of the horrible policy decisions. Biden has decided to abandon any sense of border enforcement. We now have millions of new people in the country without proper immigration. The Democrats like to point to the failure of bipartisan immigration reform. No, this is on Biden and his lying surrogates who tell us the border is secure. People from all over the planet have come here. We have no idea who they are, whether they are good people and whether they can add to our country as legions of legal immigrants have before. And then there is the flood of drugs, largely fentanyl, which is killing our citizens at outrageous rates.

Did I miss anything? Yes, these people should be voted out because of their constantly scaring people by saying our democracy is in danger. No, it isn’t and just because you are going to lose an election just reminds people you are a speck in the history of the planet.

Instead of changing course to retain power in Washington, the Democrats and their allies in the MSM have resorted to personal attacks on Republican candidates because they cannot argue on the issues.

The Dems have their own flawed candidates. Katie Hobbs, a candidate for Governor in Arizona, makes Karine Jean-Pierre seem like a wordsmith. No discussion about that. Mandela Barnes, a U.S. Senate candidate in Wisconsin, seems like a normal person. But up close he is just a Leftist who makes AOC appear mainstream.

Then there is the king of freak candidates, John Fetterman in Pennsylvania. Way before he had his stroke this guy was plain weird. Walking around in a hoodie is not going to make you seem like working folk when your parents supported you until you were 49 years old. On public policy, this gentleman makes Bernie Sanders seem like Mitch McConnell. He is out there as far as one gets without being a member of the Sandinistas. Yet the press attacks Republicans.

And then there are Stacey Abrams and Robert Francis O’Rourke. They are special.

This election is all about public policy. If you feel safer, more affluent, and more secure, and your children or grandchildren are on track to a brighter future, then you should vote for the Democrats.

I personally cannot fathom how anyone based on the above would not vote these people out.

TAKE ACTION

How Not to Vote in Arizona

The 2022 midterm election is fast approaching. The system for voting in Arizona is predominantly by mail-in ballots (around 80% of all ballots). On October 12th, he ballots were mailed to all voters registered for mail-in voting in the 2022 midterm elections. ‘Election day’ is next Tuesday November 8.

Once upon a time when all voters went to the polls on the day of election, the tabulated results were announced the night of the election date. If the result of a specific race was razor thin and less than a legislated margin, a recount might prevent the naming of a winner. That was the exception for calling the results of the election.

It is still this way in most first world countries but not the United States and certainly not Arizona. Voting rules (some unconstitutional) were dramatically altered in many states in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic.

We at The Prickly Pear are very concerned about the flaws in Arizona’s predominant ‘mail-in’ voting system.

Please click on the red TAKE ACTION link below to learn How Not to Vote in Arizona as a mail-in ballot voter and to be certain your vote is included in the count the evening of November 8th.

The Atlantic Magazine Floats Covid Amnesty thumbnail

The Atlantic Magazine Floats Covid Amnesty

/in , , , , , , /by

By Neland Nobel

Perhaps sensing a groundswell of a political backlash against politicians and officials, the Atlantic magazine, long a purveyor of progressive politics, has run a major article suggesting “amnesty” for people that abused their power, and abused other people, because of Covid. Interestingly, Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers (the teacher’s union) is making a similar call.

The thrust of the article and similar arguments is that as a society, we didn’t know what was happening, and therefore misbehavior should be forgiven. Covid was new and we just didn’t know enough. That this was written by a female economics professor is all the more astounding.

While it is true officials did not fully understand Covid and were bullied by bogus “computer models”, contemporaneous evidence was available, the decision to lockdown was a policy made at the highest levels of government, and then mimicked at the state level. 

Rather than locking in the vulnerable, the healthy were locked in their homes.

Moreover, it seems odd that a professor of economics cannot figure out that if you close down the national (and world) economy, force people to stay home, and arbitrarily allow some people to work, and not others, this would screw up the economy. Some decisions don’t require reams of contemporaneous data, just logic, and understanding.

The government went way too far. While shutting down production (supply), it ginned up demand by massive deficit spending, culminating by simply handing out newly minted dollars directly to citizens (demand), regardless of financial condition, in the form of direct stimulus checks. One simply needs to understand supply and demand to know that lockdown would cause a disaster.

We will give her credit, however, for noting that what was done to people was wrong. Much of what was done was done under the name of “science”. Yet social distancing was not effective, nor were most masks, and nor were forced vaccination. There are those who won’t admit that – just witness the attempt by the government to force infants and children to receive Covid vaccines. This cohort of the population has demonstrated that they rarely die of the virus but may suffer negative long-term health issues from taking it. Yet some officials remain unrelenting even today, suggesting it become part of the normal childhood immunization protocols.

However, it was clear early on, it was the elderly with co-morbidities that were in jeopardy, not the general population.  It was also known very early, that the virus was smaller than most masks and therefore was about as effective as putting up a chain link fence to stop mosquitoes.  Yet, officials went ahead and created a mask panic that had people wearing them outdoors and even alone in their cars.

As mentioned, at least she seems to recognize that the lockdown was wrong, and therefore, she suggests amnesty because officials were working with the best information they had. You can’t ask for forgiveness unless you have done something that needs forgiveness.

But we argue contrary information was available. There was a choice made to ignore it and further, to punish those that disagreed. For example, the Great Barrington Declaration came early in the process and was not only ridiculed by the legacy government press but actions were taken by CDC officials to suppress alternative opinions. Further, they colluded with social media companies that de-platformed scientists, doctors, and citizens that might disagree with the government’s interpretation of things.

The irony is, the lack of information she decries,  was mostly because the government suppressed research and doctors who had a different point of view.  In short, they were the cause of their own lack of information and thus the harmful decisions that followed as a consequence.

Moreover, one could agree for example, that vaccinations work (subsequently disproven) but still take the position that forcing people to take it, and firing them for not doing so, was wrong. While Covid may have been new, what government can and can’t do is written into our Constitution. Simply because authorities are concerned, or have an opinion, does not give them the right to suspend the Constitution and ride roughshod over our liberties.

As far as the information problem. we at The Prickly Pear also had to work with the available information at the time period, and we responded by defending liberty and publishing the Great Barrington Declaration.  That is because he read other than government edicts and read our Constitution.

Officials could have done that as well. They chose not to.

As mentioned before, while this “amnesty movement” is starting to roll, there are many officials that simply don’t acknowledge they did anything wrong, either on the medical or legal front. Many continue to double down on failed policies. Even today, with what we know, California has moved to hurt doctors that may have disagreed by pulling their medical licenses.

Internationally, we got to watch the difference between Sweden’s response and those of China.  The difference in approach was clearly evident and we ran numerous articles on Sweden. The contention of the Atlantic that we just did not know, is blatantly disingenuous. The information was not only ignored, but it was also suppressed, and anyone who brought the contrary information to light felt the full weight of government and social stigma.

At the state level, some states had harsh regimes (typically Democrat-dominated states) while more conservative states like Florida had a light hand. Some like Arizona tried to thread the needle and go midway on policies. Information soon became available that states with the light touch had no worse results than states with a heavy hand. We reported that at the time. Yet left-leaning states persisted in their policies and in some cases, doubled down even in the face of contrary information.

So, the central thesis of the Atlantic article is simply wrong. Officials were not working with the best and latest information they had. They did not follow the Constitution. Therefore, they should be forgiven? Really? Rather, the government actively suppressed information they did not like and became even more draconian. Further, you might remember the Governor of New Jersey when asked about the legality of his measures said he had not consulted the Bill of Rights.

Last time we checked, elected officials swear to uphold the Constitution and the Bill of Rights is still the first ten amendments to that document.

The government may well have funded the research which set this plague loose on the world, then they covered it up, covered up the results of vaccine tests, and worked to censure dissidents and punish them. This needs to be investigated, not swept under the rug by amnesty.

Sorry, the abuse of power is not forgivable. You can’t ride roughshod over the Constitution, put small businesses into bankruptcy, fire people from their jobs, have the elderly die alone in depression, cause a wave of teenage suicides, ruin the education of children, and scare the hell out of people without consequences.

Those officials that abused their power should be, at the least, be relieved of their jobs.

As to the reactions citizens had to other citizens, it got pretty nasty, even within families. It ruined holidays and severed friendships. But it generally broke down to those that chose to follow government guidelines and those that were skeptical of those recommendations. Therefore, the source of the strife among people can still be traced directly back to our elected and unelected government officials. On a personal level, a case for amnesty might be made. But among officials, no way. They must be held accountable.

Further, the role of “science”, the collapse of medical integrity, and the dominant funding of research from the government are all fertile areas to criticize. Scientists should know better and so should doctors, as they took an oath to do no harm. They too should be held accountable.

The same can be said of the media, which fanned the flames of panic and government overreach. Like in so many other areas, journalism failed to do the job of an independent investigator and just became the mouthpiece for government officials. They simply could not get enough of Dr. Fauci.

Holding officials to account is an important part of our democratic civic duty. We do not want to make the same mistakes again, and if there is no punishment, there is no barrier to repeating the same mistakes.

You can see many of the same scientific and attitudinal problems surfacing with the Green New Deal, and the forced conversion of the world to their chosen energy choices. Therefore, to avoid government overreach in areas unrelated to Covid, it is right and proper to call to account those government officials that abused their power during Covid.

Amnesty no. A fair trial, yes.

TAKE ACTION

How Not to Vote in Arizona

The 2022 midterm election is fast approaching. The system for voting in Arizona is predominantly by mail-in ballots (around 80% of all ballots). On October 12th, he ballots were mailed to all voters registered for mail-in voting in the 2022 midterm elections. ‘Election day’ is next Tuesday November 8.

Once upon a time when all voters went to the polls on the day of election, the tabulated results were announced the night of the election date. If the result of a specific race was razor thin and less than a legislated margin, a recount might prevent the naming of a winner. That was the exception for calling the results of the election.

It is still this way in most first world countries but not the United States and certainly not Arizona. Voting rules (some unconstitutional) were dramatically altered in many states in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic.

We at The Prickly Pear are very concerned about the flaws in Arizona’s predominant ‘mail-in’ voting system.

Please click on the red TAKE ACTION link below to learn How Not to Vote in Arizona as a mail-in ballot voter and to be certain your vote is included in the count the evening of November 8th.

Court Rejects Pima County Plan To Sell $14M Property To Company Affiliated With Mark Kelly For 10 Dollars thumbnail

Court Rejects Pima County Plan To Sell $14M Property To Company Affiliated With Mark Kelly For 10 Dollars

/in , , , /by

By Terri Jo Neff

In 2016, Pima County used more than $15 million in county assets as collateral to lure an aspiring space tourism company connected to now-Sen. Mark Kelly to Tucson despite myriad questions about whether the deal was constitutional.

The Arizona Court of Appeals answered one of those questions on Oct. 26, ruling that a major provision of the county’s deal with World View Enterprises violated the Gift Clause of the Arizona Constitution. That deal allows World View to purchase its Pima County-financed office and manufacturing complex on prime commercial land for only $10 in 2036.

Pima County has 30 days to file a petition for review with the Arizona Supreme Court. If no petition is filed, the case goes back to the Pima County Superior Court for further proceedings in compliance with the appellate decision.

Jan Lesher, the current Pima County Administrator, notified the county supervisors that the Pima County Attorney’s Office will discuss the appellate decision during an executive session on Nov. 1.

Former Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry, with support from Kelly, attracted World View’s corporate and manufacturing operations by promising to construct a Space Port (launch pad) on county-owned land near the Tucson International Airport. In addition, the county designed and constructed a 142,000 square-foot complex on 12 acres of adjacent county-owned land.

The $19 million cost of the project, which includes interest Pima County pays for financing the construction, was justified, supporters like Kelly and Huckelberry claimed, because of the 400 high-paying jobs and $3.5 billion of economic impact World View would bring to the area.

For its part, World View is to reimburse the county’s outlay via rent payments as part of a 20-year Lease-Purchase Agreement. Then when the lease is up, World View can purchase the office / manufacturing complex (sans the Space Port property) for $10.

The problem with that provision, according to the Court of Appeals, is that the building will still have a 30-year lifespan in 2036 and a fair market value of $14 million.

“The ‘give’ then, by Pima County, is $14 million and its ‘get’ is $10,” wrote Chief Judge Karl Eppich in the Oct. 26 appellate decision. He added that the provision was “lopsided” from the perspective of the county because the purchase price represents only .0000007 percent of the property’s value.

Eppich wrote that the expenditure of public funds to benefit a private company is legal under the Arizona Constitution only when a public purpose is served and only if the benefit or consideration between the public and the private entity is not “grossly disproportionate.”

“We agree with Taxpayers that the $10 purchase option amounts to an unconstitutional subsidy because the consideration received by Pima County is grossly disproportionate to the value of the World View facility,” he wrote.

Kelly became an advisor for World View in 2013 after getting to know the company’s founders. He has continued his relationship with the company even though those founders are no longer affiliated with World View and have started a competing new space tourism company in Florida.

World View, which still claims people will travel to the edge of the stratosphere someday via its proprietary balloons, has significantly missed most of its annual staffing and payroll targets. County officials have also had to revise the agreement at least once to address several months of late rental payments.

Timothy Sandefur is vice president for Legal Affairs at the Goldwater Institute and is one of the attorneys who represent three Pima County taxpayers who sued the county shortly after the World View agreement was announced in 2016.

“County governments exist to protect the rights of citizens and allow them to pursue their own business in their own way—not to pick winners and losers in the marketplace, or gamble with taxpayer money,” Sandefur said after the appellate decision was announced. “When they do, the consequence is often that taxpayer money simply floats away.”

Sandefur also addressed the possibility that Pima County will ask the state’s highest court to consider the case.

“Although they could appeal the decision to the Arizona Supreme Court, it seems well past time for Pima County officials to admit that this entire deal was both illegal and foolhardy,” he said.

*****

This article was published by AZ Free News and is reproduced with permission.

TAKE ACTION

How Not to Vote in Arizona

The 2022 midterm election is fast approaching. The system for voting in Arizona is predominantly by mail-in ballots (around 80% of all ballots). On October 12th, he ballots were mailed to all voters registered for mail-in voting in the 2022 midterm elections. ‘Election day’ is next Tuesday November 8.

Once upon a time when all voters went to the polls on the day of election, the tabulated results were announced the night of the election date. If the result of a specific race was razor thin and less than a legislated margin, a recount might prevent the naming of a winner. That was the exception for calling the results of the election.

It is still this way in most first world countries but not the United States and certainly not Arizona. Voting rules (some unconstitutional) were dramatically altered in many states in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic.

We at The Prickly Pear are very concerned about the flaws in Arizona’s predominant ‘mail-in’ voting system.

Please click on the red TAKE ACTION link below to learn How Not to Vote in Arizona as a mail-in ballot voter and to be certain your vote is included in the count the evening of November 8th.

GOVERNMENT OVERREACH: Had Enough Yet? thumbnail

GOVERNMENT OVERREACH: Had Enough Yet?

/in , , , , /by

By Bobby Anne Flower Cox

I’m currently down here in the free state of Florida for a summit this weekend where I am one of the legal experts on the panel of lawyers (hence me being a day late in posting this week’s Substack). The lineup of speakers here has been phenomenal. Truly brilliant minds, all coming together to share information and knowledge – which you know I just love. Hence, my motto, “Knowledge is power!”

Yesterday my speech focused on our disappearing rights, thanks to the incredible amount of government overreach that we are seeing these past couple of years in the name of “COVID” and “public health and safety.” I spoke about examples we’ve been seeing at the federal level with Biden’s overreach through his various agencies such as the CDC, OSHA and the EPA, and I spoke about a similar phenomenon happening at the state level, particularly in New York with our unelected governor, Kathy Hochul.

I wasn’t sure how well the mostly-Floridian crowd of several hundred people would receive my New York-focused discussion of tyranny and how I, together with a group of NYS Legislators, slayed the proverbial dragon of unconstitutional quarantine camps promulgated by Governor Hochul and her Department of Health in their stunning attempt at truly gross overreach.

However, to my pleasant surprise, from the very start of my speech, it became obvious to me that the audience was with me. They “got it”. They realized that despite the fact that they live in a free state, some 1,000 miles away from me, they know that they should be concerned about what’s happening in New York. They know that New York seems to be the testing ground of all things communist and authoritarian, as Stew Peters pointed out in our interview. The logic is clear: if something as crazy as forced quarantine camps takes hold in New York, it’s just a matter of time until it spreads across the nation like a cancer.

So when I was on stage, I introduced myself as an attorney from New York, and I started to say, “our governor, Kathy Hochul, made a…” the crowd didn’t even let me finish my sentence – they were already booing Hochul! I couldn’t believe it. They were that familiar with (and turned off by) Hochul and her anti-Constitutional ways. To this my response was, “Wow! Even down here in Florida you know what she’s all about.” Then I joked with them that I wished they lived in New York and could vote on November 8th. There was a collective laugh from the crowd.

As I continued my speech, I told how there was a bill (A416) proposed by former Assemblyman Nick Perry, a Democrat from Brooklyn, which would allow the governor and DOH to lock up New Yorkers, no matter your age, for however long they wanted, at a location determined by the State, based only upon their mere suspicion of you having been exposed to a communicable disease – no proof needed!

I explained that for seven years (including during the height of the COVID hysteria in 2020-2021), this legislator tried to get his obscenely tyrannical bill passed into law, but he failed time and again. In fact, of the 213 members of the NYS Legislature, not one other lawmaker would back that bill. Not one. They wouldn’t touch it. It was too dystopian, too shocking to the conscience, too anti-American.

I continued to explain that, in the true fashion of a dictator, Hochul, like Cuomo before her, took the language of that toxic bill and pushed it through the Department of Health in the form of a regulation instead. With just a little bit of backdoor, constitutional run-around, the will of one lone government official became law. Of course you know from reading my prior article that regs have the same force and effect as laws, but oh how they are so much better for authoritarian regimes!

Why? Well, because regs do not require any pesky voter input, or any oversight or influence from the annoying constitutionally-conscious, elected officials in the NYS Legislature. It’s soooo much easier to carry out your edicts as a monarch if you just issue regulations through your agencies and bypass the whole carking separation of powers doctrine of the Constitution.

I digress.

Back to my speech: as I told the story of how I learned of Hochul’s “Isolation and Quarantine Procedures” regulation, its total lack of due process protections, and its glaring conflict with existing NYS law, I explained how I simply could not allow the Executive Branch of government to spiral this far out of control… so I started drafting a lawsuit against the Governor and her DOH. I knew I had to use an unconventional approach to be successful and withstand a motion to dismiss for lack of standing (see my prior article discussing “standing” here).

I explained how I needed some NYS Legislators to come on my case, for they were clearly being injured by Hochul and her DOH making a law disguised as a regulation, and I told how ultimately, Senator George Borrello, Assemblyman Chris Tague, Assemblyman Mike Lawler, and the citizens’ group, Uniting NYS, became my plaintiffs. When I continued to explain that on July 8th, the Judge ruled in our favor, striking down the reg as unconstitutional, a breach of separation of powers, and he thus barred the governor and her DOH from trying to enforce the reg, the crowd cheered!

Tyranny denied! For now.

I then mentioned that, shamefully, Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James plan to appeal my victory. Of course they haven’t moved forward with the appeal yet, since Election Day is fast approaching. Many hypothesize that they are stalling because they don’t want New York voters to know they (Hochul and James) want quarantine camps, since both of them are up for election!

After the speeches and panel discussions had ended, we had some time before the dinner segment began, so we enjoyed a cocktail hour where we were able to mingle with some of the attendees. During this time, one of the people who approached me was an older Floridian who seemed to know something about what was going on in New York.

Our chat got into the truly abhorrent anti-parental rights bills that are currently being proposed in the NYS Assembly: one that would allow minor children to make their own medical decisions without parental consent (including inoculations and sex-altering procedures), and another that would require schools to teach “comprehensive sexuality education” starting in KINDERGARTEN straight through 12th grade. (For more details on those bills, check out my other articles here and here).

This, on top of the federal government overreach examples I had discussed in my speech a short while earlier, prompted this gentleman to tell me that he’d love to walk around with a sign that says:

“Had enough yet?”

Brilliant! It was so short and simple, but so perfectly powerful. It doesn’t tell you to vote the crazy Democrats out. It doesn’t tell you to vote Republican. It doesn’t even tell you to go vote in the first place. BUT, it does make you think critically – something that is sorely lacking in our society today.

This simple question, “Had enough yet?” makes you stop and pause to think about your life: how it is going, do you feel safe, are you struggling to pay bills, are you stressed, if so, what is the source of that stress, and so on… And then it makes you realize that if you are unhappy with the world around you, then you need to change it.

*****

This article was published by Brownstone Institute and is reproduced with permission.

TAKE ACTION

How Not to Vote in Arizona

The 2022 midterm election is fast approaching. The system for voting in Arizona is predominantly by mail-in ballots (around 80% of all ballots). On October 12th, he ballots were mailed to all voters registered for mail-in voting in the 2022 midterm elections. ‘Election day’ is next Tuesday November 8.

Once upon a time when all voters went to the polls on the day of election, the tabulated results were announced the night of the election date. If the result of a specific race was razor thin and less than a legislated margin, a recount might prevent the naming of a winner. That was the exception for calling the results of the election.

It is still this way in most first world countries but not the United States and certainly not Arizona. Voting rules (some unconstitutional) were dramatically altered in many states in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic.

We at The Prickly Pear are very concerned about the flaws in Arizona’s predominant ‘mail-in’ voting system.

Please click on the red TAKE ACTION link below to learn How Not to Vote in Arizona as a mail-in ballot voter and to be certain your vote is included in the count the evening of November 8th.

BREAKING: Katie Hobbs Owes Kari Lake a HUGE Apology After Phoenix Police Identify Man Who Broke Into Hobbs’ Campaign Office thumbnail

BREAKING: Katie Hobbs Owes Kari Lake a HUGE Apology After Phoenix Police Identify Man Who Broke Into Hobbs’ Campaign Office

/in , , /by

By Jim Hoft

Phoenix police identified the man who allegedly broke into Katie Hobb’s campaign office this week.

Police arrested Daniel Mota Dos Reis in connection with the break-in.

Moto Dos Reis was already in jail after being arrested for a separate commercial burglary in the Phoenix area.

Katie Hobbs accused Kari Lake’s team of coordinating the “watergate style break-in.

Dos Reis was involved in several break-ins. Katie Hobbs was out of line. She owes Kari Lake an apology.

Phoenix police have identified the man arrested in connection with the break-in of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs’ campaign headquarters in Phoenix.

That man, Daniel Mota Dos Reis, 36, was already in jail. He was first arrested Wednesday morning for a separate commercial burglary, according to a police statement.

The break-in at Hobbs’ office was reported to police on Tuesday afternoon, and police said it occurred sometime the night before…..

*****

Continue reading at The Gateway Pundit.

TAKE ACTION

How Not to Vote in Arizona

The 2022 midterm election is fast approaching. The system for voting in Arizona is predominantly by mail-in ballots (around 80% of all ballots). On October 12th, he ballots were mailed to all voters registered for mail-in voting in the 2022 midterm elections. ‘Election day’ is next Tuesday November 8.

Once upon a time when all voters went to the polls on the day of election, the tabulated results were announced the night of the election date. If the result of a specific race was razor thin and less than a legislated margin, a recount might prevent the naming of a winner. That was the exception for calling the results of the election.

It is still this way in most first world countries but not the United States and certainly not Arizona. Voting rules (some unconstitutional) were dramatically altered in many states in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic.

We at The Prickly Pear are very concerned about the flaws in Arizona’s predominant ‘mail-in’ voting system.

Please click on the red TAKE ACTION link below to learn How Not to Vote in Arizona as a mail-in ballot voter and to be certain your vote is included in the count the evening of November 8th.

CHILDREN: Majority of Americans Believe Transgender Movement Has Gone Too Far thumbnail

CHILDREN: Majority of Americans Believe Transgender Movement Has Gone Too Far

/in , , , , /by

By Susan Berry, PhD

A new poll finds 75 percent of likely American voters believe the transgender movement has gone too far by encouraging underage minors to use drugs and surgery to transition to the opposite sex.

The survey, co-sponsored by Colorado-based Summit Ministries – which embraces a Christian worldview – and national polling firm McLaughlin & Associates, also finds 69 percent of voters who have an opinion on the issue believe the rise in transgenderism among teens is the result of influence to question their gender by social media and other cultural forces.

The poll of 1,000 likely general election voters across the country was conducted October 12-17, and has an accuracy of +/- 3.1 percent at a 95 percent confidence interval.

“What is your opinion on why transgenderism is rising amongst underage minors?” respondents were asked. “Underage minors feel free to question their gender without judgement, OR, Underage minors are being influenced to question their gender due to social media and other cultural influences.”

Among the 860 participants who answered this question, 69 percent said underage minors are being influenced to question their gender, while 31 percent said they feel free to question their gender without judgment.

“Do you believe the transgender movement has gone too far by encouraging underage minors to use drugs and surgery to transition to the opposite sex?” participants were asked.

Among the 858 respondents who answered this question, 75 percent answered “yes,” while 24 percent said, “no.”….

*****

Continue reading at The Star News Network.

TAKE ACTION

How Not to Vote in Arizona

The 2022 midterm election is fast approaching. The system for voting in Arizona is predominantly by mail-in ballots (around 80% of all ballots). On October 12th, he ballots were mailed to all voters registered for mail-in voting in the 2022 midterm elections. ‘Election day’ is next Tuesday November 8.

Once upon a time when all voters went to the polls on the day of election, the tabulated results were announced the night of the election date. If the result of a specific race was razor thin and less than a legislated margin, a recount might prevent the naming of a winner. That was the exception for calling the results of the election.

It is still this way in most first world countries but not the United States and certainly not Arizona. Voting rules (some unconstitutional) were dramatically altered in many states in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic.

We at The Prickly Pear are very concerned about the flaws in Arizona’s predominant ‘mail-in’ voting system.

Please click on the red TAKE ACTION link below to learn How Not to Vote in Arizona as a mail-in ballot voter and to be certain your vote is included in the count the evening of November 8th.

Marc Victor Makes It a Two Man Race thumbnail

Marc Victor Makes It a Two Man Race

/in , , , , /by

By Neland Nobel

Libertarian candidate for the US Senate in Arizona has pulled out of the Arizona US Senate race, making it now a clear choice between Democrat incumbent Mark Kelly and Republican challenger Blake Masters.

The Prickly Pear has expressed concern that in such a tight race, votes for the libertarian candidate would be “wasted” and split the anti-socialist vote against Mark Kelly. Some have argued that Libertarians tend to pull more Democrats, but given their limited government orientation, there is little to no evidence of that view and many past examples of the contrary.

At any rate, we are pleased with the developments except that the libertarian’s withdrawal and the endorsement of Masters by Victor may have come a bit late. Many voters have already filled out their mail-in ballots and sent them in.

Those that did not follow our advice have truly wasted their vote, as their candidate is no longer in the race.

Still, at the margin, in a very close race, this is a positive development for the Master’s campaign.

The control of the US Senate hangs in the balance. Our particular concern falls into two channels.  One, we need to stop the radical Biden agenda in its tracks and stop the wild spending which has given legs to inflation. Secondly, we are very concerned about threats to end the filibuster and to pack the Supreme Court and destroy its important judicial function, which is equal to the other branches of government.

A video produced by Marc Victor is presented below:

We would like to congratulate Marc Victor for his decision and his statesmanship-like attitude. As you can see from the video, both share an interest in limited government, free markets, individual liberty, and peace.

We hope this decision has come in time to make a difference in a very close race. If you vote by mail, submit your ballot today or tomorrow. If you don’t, go to an early voting station or your polling station on election day, November 8th, and surrender your mail-in ballot to receive a new ballot and actually cast your vote in the booth to be tabulated and counted immediately for the results announced next Tuesday night.

TAKE ACTION

How Not to Vote in Arizona

The 2022 midterm election is fast approaching. The system for voting in Arizona is predominantly by mail-in ballots (around 80% of all ballots). On October 12th, he ballots were mailed to all voters registered for mail-in voting in the 2022 midterm elections. ‘Election day’ is next Tuesday November 8.

Once upon a time when all voters went to the polls on the day of election, the tabulated results were announced the night of the election date. If the result of a specific race was razor thin and less than a legislated margin, a recount might prevent the naming of a winner. That was the exception for calling the results of the election.

It is still this way in most first world countries but not the United States and certainly not Arizona. Voting rules (some unconstitutional) were dramatically altered in many states in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic.

We at The Prickly Pear are very concerned about the flaws in Arizona’s predominant ‘mail-in’ voting system.

Please click on the red TAKE ACTION link below to learn How Not to Vote in Arizona as a mail-in ballot voter and to be certain your vote is included in the count the evening of November 8th.

FOX NEWS: Arizona Senate Race – Libertarian candidate drops out, endorses Blake Masters thumbnail

FOX NEWS: Arizona Senate Race – Libertarian candidate drops out, endorses Blake Masters

/in /by

By Editorial Staff

By Timothy H.J. Nerozzi

Republican Blake Masters is facing Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly in the midterm election

The Libertarian candidate in Arizona’s Senate race has dropped out and endorsed his Republican opponent.

Libertarian Senate candidate Marc Victor, who was polling at 1% in a New York Times/Siena College poll released Monday, dropped out of the race Tuesday, throwing his weight behind Republican nominee Blake Masters. Masters is facing Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly in the midterm election.

“I’ve said from the very beginning that the reason I’m running for Senate is to promote and get us in the direction of freedom and peace and civility,” Victor said in a YouTube video announcing his endorsement.

Victor said at one point in his video, “[Masters] really is — in his heart and in his mind — he’s in favor of doing everything he can to get us very sternly, very smartly in the direction of ‘live and let live.’ And that seems like a good tradeoff to me.”

Masters, who sat down with Victor for a 20-minute recorded phone call on Monday, is hoping the competition-turned-endorsement will give him a boost in the polls.

Kelly leads Masters 51%-45% in the New York Times/Siena College poll, outside the 4.4 percentage point margin of error.

Continue reading at FoxNews.com…

Photo credit: AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin

TAKE ACTION

How Not to Vote in Arizona

The 2022 midterm election is fast approaching. The system for voting in Arizona is predominantly by mail-in ballots (around 80% of all ballots). On October 12th, he ballots were mailed to all voters registered for mail-in voting in the 2022 midterm elections. ‘Election day’ is next Tuesday November 8.

Once upon a time when all voters went to the polls on the day of election, the tabulated results were announced the night of the election date. If the result of a specific race was razor thin and less than a legislated margin, a recount might prevent the naming of a winner. That was the exception for calling the results of the election.

It is still this way in most first world countries but not the United States and certainly not Arizona. Voting rules (some unconstitutional) were dramatically altered in many states in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic.

We at The Prickly Pear are very concerned about the flaws in Arizona’s predominant ‘mail-in’ voting system.

Please click on the red TAKE ACTION link below to learn How Not to Vote in Arizona as a mail-in ballot voter and to be certain your vote is included in the count the evening of November 8th.

America Runs on Diesel! thumbnail

America Runs on Diesel!

/in , , , , , /by

By Mark T. Cicero

Editors Note: When the President of the United States said he will shut down the fossil fuel industry, what do you think happens to capital flows for the industry? When the ESG movement said they will not fund the fossil fuel industry, what do you think happens to capital flows? Well, what happens is that capital for investment does not flow, as no one wants to invest in a 20 or 30-year investment in refineries, pipelines, and production, knowing they will be put out of business before they can make a return on investment. The result is no new production infrastructure to replace what is old and wearing out. This creates a shortfall in capacity, creating shortages, plain and simple. The Progressives get what they want, a forced conversion from one fuel choice to another. But Progressives have done this before they have developed viable, practical, and affordable alternatives. So when you can’t fill your tank, farmers can’t get fuel and cut production, and the food can’t be transported to the grocery store because of fuel shortages, know that it was all because of Democrat policies.  Policies that are designed to cater to rich environmentalist contributors, and did not take into consideration the real needs of regular people.  For them, the “environment” does not include people. Especially people like you.

Unfortunately for the Green politicians, most of the US economy moves on diesel fuel. I know, I know, it’s a fossil fuel and thus more odious than the fossils that inhabit our Capital building but let’s remember that almost everything we buy is delivered by a diesel-powered truck, train, plane or boat. It’s bad enough that the cost of filling a tank with diesel fuel has jumped by 228% over the past year but now the EIA is reporting that we are down to a paltry 25-day supply in the country.

There are some who will read this and try to guess what this will mean to them. In the simplest terms, it means that nothing in this country moves. Nothing! Why so alarmist? We are not running out of gasoline so how bad can it be? Look at the fuel delivery process to your local gas station, which will end shortly after we run out of diesel fuel, and there will be nationwide gas shortages. There will be no way for the grocery stores to re-supply and those shelves will empty. If the military has any MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) left, we will all be lining up for them but we’ve probably sent them all to Ukraine along with most of our ammunition. If this administration wants to see real unrest: try holding a professional or college football game without beer and hot dogs and watch the outcome! Literally, nothing in this country will get to its destination without diesel fuel.

It was only 20 months ago when this nation was completely energy-independent. No shortages and the prices at the pump were a mere fraction of what they are now. This is not a drill, this is a core component of our economy and it is about to stop, completely. Call or write your U.S. Senators and Representatives today: let them know that they need to fix this now! And, for the love of everything you hold dear, pull the Republican levers on November 8th!  We must stop the idiots in this administration from doing any more harm to our nation.

The only way to do that is to vote RED and throw these ‘woke’ progressive and radical legislators out. YOU have that power. Your vote matters.


TAKE ACTION

How Not to Vote in Arizona

The 2022 midterm election is fast approaching. The system for voting in Arizona is predominantly by mail-in ballots (around 80% of all ballots). On October 12th, he ballots were mailed to all voters registered for mail-in voting in the 2022 midterm elections. ‘Election day’ is next Tuesday November 8.

Once upon a time when all voters went to the polls on the day of election, the tabulated results were announced the night of the election date. If the result of a specific race was razor thin and less than a legislated margin, a recount might prevent the naming of a winner. That was the exception for calling the results of the election.

It is still this way in most first world countries but not the United States and certainly not Arizona. Voting rules (some unconstitutional) were dramatically altered in many states in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic.

We at The Prickly Pear are very concerned about the flaws in Arizona’s predominant ‘mail-in’ voting system.

Please click on the red TAKE ACTION link below to learn How Not to Vote in Arizona as a mail-in ballot voter and to be certain your vote is included in the count the evening of November 8th.

Hispanic Brilliance and Blather thumbnail

Hispanic Brilliance and Blather

/in , , , /by

By Craig J. Cantoni

A self-identified Hispanic reveals the speciousness of today’s racial/ethnic labels but then falls into the same trap.

A reader of the Wall Street Journal with the surname of Flores had me cheering enthusiastically over part of what he wrote in the Reader Comments of the online edition of the newspaper. He initially showed greater insights on race and ethnicity than America’s intellectuals in academia, media, government, and departments of diversity and inclusion.

His comments, which are pasted below, were in response to a column by Wall Street Journal columnist Holman Jenkins, who had written about the political ascendancy of Latinos in Los Angeles. I will return after Flores’ comments to point out what he got right but also what he got wrong.

“Obama was a big wake-up call for the Hispanic world. We identified with his multiculturalism.  We voted overwhelmingly and believed he would be loyal.  Big mistake. Obama forgot that we got him elected. 

At the end of the day, what we have in the NY Metropolitan and similar blue state regions is ethnic tribalism. We have WASPs, Jewish, Irish, Italian, Slavic, Black, and LGBT community tribalism with Hispanic and Asian tribalism emerging.

What the Hispanic world needs to bear in mind is that Hispanic Americans are demographically destined to be 25% of the US population. That is 2000% larger than Mormons, 1200% larger than Jews, 800% larger than the LGBT community, 500% larger than Italians, 400% larger than Christian Slavs, and 100% larger than blacks. We dwarf the behemoth Irish and German immigration. [Then why are Hispanics seen as minorities?]

We Hispanics need to realize that tribalism favors us because of our domestic size and the fact that we have 650,000,000 cousins in behemoth LatAm (same time zone) and Iberia who are critical allies of the US. It behooves us to mimic other groups in this country and become ethnocentric in order to secure political power and help facilitate the creation of an Anglo-Hispanic North American Confederation or Union. 

As a general rule, American WASPs can be broken down into 7 subgroups, ethnic Catholic and Orthodox Europeans into 12, Jews into 4, Blacks into 4, Mormons into 2, and Asians into 5 subgroups. America is a melting pot with strong internal tribal affiliations.”

What Flores got right is that Americans who are labeled as White are not monolithic. Nor are they homogenous in ethnicity, skin shade, income, politics, values, privilege, worldview, and a history of being oppressed or oppressors. WASPs are not the same as Italians, who are not the same as Greeks, who are not the same as Slavs, and so on, across a hundred or so unique ethnocultural groups.

Believing that so-called white people are monolithic and homogenous, as intellectuals and demographers seem to believe, is akin to believing that Big Foot lives in the Pacific Northwest and that little green Martians landed in Roswell, New Mexico. Not only that, but it is educational malpractice to teach such false history, false anthropology, false ethnography, and false sociology to impressionable and idealistic K-12 students and college students.

Why my fuss over racial/ethnic labels? Because, as with labels of yesteryear, the six labels in vogue today are used to discriminate. Specifically, the labels of White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, Pacific Islander, and Native American determine who is included or excluded in diversity and inclusion initiatives, who gets extra admission points to prestigious universities, who is seen as bringing diversity to a board of directors, who is vilified as an oppressor and racist, and who is characterized as a disadvantaged minority, regardless of income or population numbers.

This is reminiscent of the cephalic index that was used by progressives in the early twentieth century to categorize individuals and ethnic groups by the shape of their heads, for purpose of eugenics and other discrimination. The index was developed from the “science” of craniometry, which is a fancy word for skull measurements.

Let’s turn now to what Flores got wrong.

He was wrong in believing that Hispanics are a monolithic group, a mistake that is easy to make due to the government coming up with the contrived “Hispanic” label in the early 1970s for political reasons.

Hispanics are not monolithic, of course.  They consist of Mexicans, Guatemalans, Columbians, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Peruvians, Brazilians, Iberians, and others. Then there are subgroups within each of these, including mestizos, indigenous peoples, people of different colors, and direct descendants of Spanish conquistadors and slave traders. Moreover, all of these can be divided into different socioeconomic classes. The permutations and combinations seem endless.

Oh, and let’s not overlook the millions of people of Japanese ancestry living in Latin America, plus the 30 million people of Italian ancestry living in Argentina. What label do they get? Are they Hispanic, Latino, Latinx, White, Asian, Italian, Japanese, or what?

At least the peoples of Latin America have the Spanish language in common. Well, not exactly.  Portuguese is the official language of Brazil, a nation of 209 million people.

Even if the Hispanic label were restricted to the big-three groups of Cubans, Puerto Ricans, and Mexicans, there is extensive diversity between them.

Incidentally, in the combined 40 years that I’ve lived in Tucson, Phoenix, and the barrio of San Antonio, I haven’t known any Mexican Americans or Mexican nationals who referred to themselves as Hispanic.

Flores went on to say that Italians and other ethnic groups secured political power by becoming ethnocentric. Not quite. Yes, the first and second generations of immigrants formed ethnic voter blocs, but their political power came from building coalitions with other ethnic groups, including WASPs. For sure, those who emigrated from the diverse nations bordering the Mediterranean Sea did not acquire political power by joining together and calling themselves “Mediterraneanic.”

The best book on how ethnic/racial groups did or did not obtain political power, and did or did not assimilate, was a book published in 1960 and published again in 1970 as a second edition: Beyond the Melting Pot:The Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians, and Irish of New York City, by Nathan Glazer and Daniel P. Moynihan.

Both authors were very prescient. Moynihan would go on to be a US senator (D-New York), but before that he published the landmark Labor Department study on how counterproductive welfare programs would fracture African-American nuclear families—a study that still produces howls of indignation and denial.

In the second edition of Beyond the Melting Pot, the authors warned about the divisiveness that would come from new racial categories being introduced in 1969—categories that divided Americans into oppressors and the oppressed.

A closing thought: with ever-increasing intermarriage in America, ethnic/racial labels are becoming blurred and outdated. Take my family.  My maternal and fraternal grandparents, like other Italian immigrants at the time, were not seen as white. They were part of a generation of Italian immigrants who almost never married someone who was not Italian. Intermarriage was still uncommon among my parents’ generation. But it was very common among my generation and became even more common among my son’s generation.

Speaking of my son, his mother (my wife) is Swedish and Scots-Irish. In terms of the six official race/ethnic categories, does that put him in the White category?  In turn, he is married to a wonderful woman whose dad is in one category and whose mom is in a different category. When they have children, how will it be decided for purposes of diversity and inclusion which racial/ethnic label the kids should wear? Will craniometry be used? 

A better question: Why are America’s intellectuals so stupid when it comes to the six categories?

TAKE ACTION

How Not to Vote in Arizona

The 2022 midterm election is fast approaching. The system for voting in Arizona is predominantly by mail-in ballots (around 80% of all ballots). On October 12th, he ballots were mailed to all voters registered for mail-in voting in the 2022 midterm elections. ‘Election day’ is next Tuesday November 8.

Once upon a time when all voters went to the polls on the day of election, the tabulated results were announced the night of the election date. If the result of a specific race was razor thin and less than a legislated margin, a recount might prevent the naming of a winner. That was the exception for calling the results of the election.

It is still this way in most first world countries but not the United States and certainly not Arizona. Voting rules (some unconstitutional) were dramatically altered in many states in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic.

We at The Prickly Pear are very concerned about the flaws in Arizona’s predominant ‘mail-in’ voting system.

Please click on the red TAKE ACTION link below to learn How Not to Vote in Arizona as a mail-in ballot voter and to be certain your vote is included in the count the evening of November 8th.

How Deadly Is Covid? A Major Study Defies Conventional Wisdom thumbnail

How Deadly Is Covid? A Major Study Defies Conventional Wisdom

/in , , /by

By Will Jones

COVID-19 is much less deadly in the non-elderly population than previously thought, a major new study of antibody prevalence surveys has concluded.

The study was led by Dr. John Ioannidis, Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Stanford University, who famously sounded an early warning on March 17th, 2020 with a widely-read article in Stat News, presciently arguing that “we are making decisions without reliable data” and “with lockdowns of months, if not years, life largely stops, short-term and long-term consequences are entirely unknown, and billions, not just millions, of lives may be eventually at stake.”

In the new study, which is currently undergoing peer review, Prof. Ioannidis and colleagues found that across 31 national seroprevalence studies in the pre-vaccination era, the average (median) infection fatality rate of COVID-19 was estimated to be just 0.035% for people aged 0-59 years people and 0.095% for those aged 0-69 years.

A further breakdown by age group found that the average IFR was 0.0003% at 0-19 years, 0.003% at 20-29 years, 0.011% at 30-39 years, 0.035% at 40-49 years, 0.129% at 50-59 years, and 0.501% at 60-69 years.

The study states that it shows a “much lower pre-vaccination IFR in non-elderly populations than previously suggested”.

A breakdown by country reveals the wide range of IFR values across different populations.

Infection fatality rate (IFR) and 95% confidence interval per country for people under 70 years old.

The significantly higher values for the top seven suggest some of the difference may be an artifact of, for example, the way Covid deaths are counted, particularly where excess death levels are similar. Note also that the antibody studies date from various points during the first year of the pandemic, most of them prior to the large winter wave of 2020-21, when levels of spread and numbers of deaths were more varied than later in the pandemic as subsequent waves caused countries to converge.

The reason some countries had much lower values and some much higher is not completely clear. The authors suggest that “much of the diversity in IFR across countries is explained by differences in age structure,” as per the plot below.

Meta-regression of IFR as a function of the proportion of the population under 50 years old among those 0-69 years old.

However, the age breakdown by country suggests that the IFR differed for each age group in each country, casting doubt on that suggestion. (In the chart below, note the logarithmic scale, and ignore the zig-zag lines, which are due to small countries having low numbers of deaths.)

IFR in each country per each specified age bin

Why are countries seeing differing IFRs even for the same age groups? The authors suggest a number of explanations, including data artefacts (e.g. if the number of deaths or seroprevalence are not accurately measured), presence and severity of comorbidities (for example, obesity affects 42% of the US population, but the proportion of obese adults is only 2% in Vietnam, 4% in India and under 10% in most African countries, though it affects almost 40% of South African women), the presence of frail individuals in nursing homes and differences in management, health care, overall societal support and levels of drug problems.

Prof. Ioannidis has previously published a number of papers estimating COVID-19’s IFR using seroprevalence surveys. He and his team conclude that their new estimates provide a baseline from which to assess further IFR declines following the widespread use of vaccination, prior infections and evolution of new variants such as Omicron.

*****

This article was published by The Brownstone Institute and is reproduced with permission.

TAKE ACTION

How Not to Vote in Arizona

The 2022 midterm election is fast approaching. The system for voting in Arizona is predominantly by mail-in ballots (around 80% of all ballots). On October 12th, he ballots were mailed to all voters registered for mail-in voting in the 2022 midterm elections. ‘Election day’ is next Tuesday November 8.

Once upon a time when all voters went to the polls on the day of election, the tabulated results were announced the night of the election date. If the result of a specific race was razor thin and less than a legislated margin, a recount might prevent the naming of a winner. That was the exception for calling the results of the election.

It is still this way in most first world countries but not the United States and certainly not Arizona. Voting rules (some unconstitutional) were dramatically altered in many states in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic.

We at The Prickly Pear are very concerned about the flaws in Arizona’s predominant ‘mail-in’ voting system.

Please click on the red TAKE ACTION link below to learn How Not to Vote in Arizona as a mail-in ballot voter and to be certain your vote is included in the count the evening of November 8th.

VICTORY! Arizona Court Strikes Down Pima County’s “Balloondoggle” thumbnail

VICTORY! Arizona Court Strikes Down Pima County’s “Balloondoggle”

/in /by

By Timothy Sandefur

In a major win for Arizona taxpayers—thanks to the work of the Goldwater Institute—a state appellate court yesterday declaredthat Pima County officials violated the state Constitution when they adopted a multimillion-dollar subsidy for the World View company, a business that’s supposed to take passengers on rides to the stratosphere in specially modified high-altitude balloons. The company’s promised return on investment never materialized, and the undertaking has proven to be a “balloondoggle” of epic proportions.

The Goldwater Institute filed a lawsuit on behalf of taxpayers to challenge the deal, which devoted some $15 million in public resources to the private benefit of a for-profit corporation. The county adopted the plan in 2016 as part of a scheme to improve the economy in the Tucson area. But the project did not deliver the employment numbers that county officials claimed it would, and after half a decade, the company still hasn’t succeeded in providing any passenger rides.

Pima County’s contract with World View involved the county borrowing $15 million, using government-owned buildings as collateral, and then spending the money to construct a headquarters building, a balloon manufacturing facility, and a balloon launch pad—all for Word View’s exclusive use. The company was then expected to repay the $15 million through monthly payments over the course of 20 years. At the end of that period, World View was allowed to buy the buildings for a mere $10.

In its decision yesterday, the court of appeals found that part of the deal to be the most objectionable. Even assuming the company survives for two decades and makes its monthly payments, the buildings the county constructed for World View will be worth some $14 million. To sell that “for a mere $10,” the judges wrote, would mean the county receives “.0000007 percent of the value” of the facilities. “We find it difficult to believe that a facility with an approximate value of $14 million in 2036 can fairly be exchanged for $10 without violating our constitutional proscription against subsidies or gifts to private entities,” the judges wrote.

That constitutional proscription is found in Article 9 of the Arizona Constitution, which says counties may “[n]ever give or loan [their] credit in the aid of, or make any donation or grant, by subsidy or otherwise, to any individual, association, or corporation.” That anti-subsidy provision is actually the strongest ban on corporate welfare in the United States, and the Goldwater Institute has pioneered enforcement of the prohibition, protecting taxpayers against schemes to enrich private interests at public expense.

The Goldwater Institute case against the balloondoggle began in 2016, and involved three stages of litigation—first in challenging the county’s cut-rate lease of the property, then challenging the county’s violation of Arizona procurement statutes through its back-room deal with the architect and the contractor, before reaching the constitutional issue decided today. (Although courts upheld the legality of the lease rates, a trial judge found that county officials disregarded the procurement laws when hiring the contractor and architect; an appellate court vacated that decision for technical reasons.)

Although they could appeal the decision to the Arizona Supreme Court, it seems well past time for Pima County officials to admit that this entire deal was both illegal and foolhardy. County governments exist to protect the rights of citizens and allow them to pursue their own business in their own way—not to pick winners and losers in the marketplace, or gamble with taxpayer money. When they do, the consequence is often that taxpayer money simply floats away.

You can learn more about the case here.

*****

This article was published by Goldwater Institute and is reproduced with permission.

TAKE ACTION

How Not to Vote in Arizona

The 2022 midterm election is fast approaching. The system for voting in Arizona is predominantly by mail-in ballots (around 80% of all ballots).The ballots will be mailed out to all voters registered for mail-in voting on October 12th. The actual ‘day’ of the election is Tuesday November 8th..

Once upon a time when all voters went to the polls on the day of election, the tabulated results were announced the night of the election date. If the result of a specific race was razor thin and less than a legislated margin, a recount might prevent the naming of a winner. That was the exception for calling the results of the election. We at The Prickly Pear are very concerned about the flaws in Arizona’s predominant ‘mail-in’ voting system.

Please click on the red TAKE ACTION link below to learn How Not to Vote in Arizona as a mail-in ballot voter and to be certain your vote is included in the count the evening of November 8th.

Making Crime Into Political Violence While Ignoring Crime That Is thumbnail

Making Crime Into Political Violence While Ignoring Crime That Is

/in , , , /by

By Neland Nobel

Not too long ago, The Prickly Pear ran a piece, “Don’t Take the Bait”.  It suggested that the press and the Democrats were deliberately baiting conservatives to take action that would result in violence, so it could be to discredit conservatism.  It went on to recommend that conservatives swear off any kind of violent response to provocation and work through the political system. Good advice.

We have to admit, it did strike a nerve.  For some time we have been puzzled whether Democrats are really that stupid, or are their policies just designed to goad conservatives into doing something dumb like resorting to violence.  A good example is the blatant sexualization of children.

Regardless, we all should condemn violence against any political opponent, except if under physical attack.  In that case, it really has nothing to do with politics but rather the human right to protect oneself from harm, regardless of the motivation.

Forgotten, of course, is an entire summer of violence and arson the Democrats fomented over George Floyd and Black Lives Matter.  Forgotten as well are the attacks on Republican lawmakers during a softball game by a crazed Bernie Sanders supporter.

Then there was the “kidnapping” plot for Democrat Governor Whitmar which seems almost entirely provoked by FBI informants.

Forgotten as well were the riots after President Trump was elected, which were quite extensive.

Recently, a Republican canvasser working for Marco Rubio was beaten to a pulp.  It got some limited coverage.

Supreme Court Justices’ families have been terrorized, with one bona fide assassination attempt.

Senator Rand Paul has been attacked twice, once by a left-wing neighbor and then again with his wife, by a left-wing mob.

Pregnancy centers have been firebombed.  The Justice Department responds by arresting pro-life parents in their homes with armed swat teams.

The political violence of January 6th looms large for Democrats and the press.  Unlike the ignored riots of 2020, there have been extensive investigations and hearings, and endless breathless coverage on cable TV channels.  Still, though, no answer has been provided as to who was Roy Epps, an Arizona man caught on tape inflaming the crowd to invade the capitol building. Since he has never been arrested, and others who played a minor role have been, the role played by Federal agents in the riot is a legitimate question to ask.  The ever-vigilant press seems to have no interest in the story or the Democrat Congress.  Hopefully, that will change soon.

Closer to home, there was a burglary of the campaign headquarters of Katie Hobbs.  She immediately, without evidence, suggested this was from the Republican supporters of Kari Lake and the “violence” that surely follows from political speech that she does not like.  The local Arizona press agreed.

Kari Lake, wise as to the ways of media, knows that a lie can make it around the world several times before the truth ever gets its shoes on, struck back early and hard, interrupting the normal media recycling of falsehoods. Not too long afterward, the suspect was arrested and video came footage made available.  The criminal had been hanging around the property for some time and had no political motivation for his entry into Hobb’s headquarters.

Hobbs has yet to apologize for her disgraceful comments.

Sadly, even the Wall Street Journal has gotten confused.  On October 29, 2022, in a front page above the fold headline, “Attack in Pelosi’s Home Stirs Fears Over Political Violence.” Digging inside the main editorial page we find, “The home invasion and assault on Paul Pelosi on Friday is another sickening example of political violence in our increasingly disturbing culture. We’re glad to see the attack denounced by partisans on the right and left, but we wish we could say this will be the last such assault.”

But subsequent evidence suggests it was not a political assault at all.  The “ex-wife” of the accused says the father of her children has been mentally disturbed and homeless and that he shared her progressive political views. About the only thing the Wall Street Journal got right was that the details, which as they emerge, are indeed sickening,  but in a way though unrelated to political debate.

Exactly why this fellow was in the Pelosi home at 2 am in his underwear is still not clear. Was this a consensual meeting gone haywire or a burglary? Police were present when he hit Mr. Pelosi with a hammer, which does not say a lot about police protection. But it also means police were called before the attack, not after.

In the grand scheme of things,  this event was made more likely because of Democrat policies that have released a horde of drug-addled men onto our streets.

From what is known about David Depape, he does not fit the profile of your typical conservative Republican.  Quite the contrary, he has lived as a nudist, a supporter of LGBTQ, Black Lives Matter, and is an active drug user.

Whatever the encounter was, the interaction between Depape and Pelosi was not as the WSJ put it, “another sickening example of political violence. ” They too, jumped way out in front of the evidence, almost too eager to accuse conservatives of violence.

Perhaps the worst offender is the Presidential Press Secretary Jean-Pierre who said flat out this was “political violence” on the Sunday news shows.

From what information we presently have,  Mr. Pelosi and the assailant were both found by police in their underwear. While Mr. Pelosi at 2 am in his own home may don underwear, it does not explain why the assailant was similarly garbed. Nor does it explain why Pelosi was able to go to the bathroom where he had the opportunity to make the 911 call that brought the police. In that call, he acknowledged he knew the home “invader” as David. It is not too often you know the burglar by his first name.

However, if you know the alleged assailant, it does not sound like forced entry. How and why did Mr. Pelosi know his name? Further, Pelosi was struck with the hammer as the two struggled after the police had arrived. So, Pelosi could not have been calling about the assault, but rather likely a disagreement developing between the two of them. What kind of disagreement was it?  Were they debating the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan? Was David upset over transitory inflation?

Madam Press Secretary says the shouting of “where’s Nancy” is  “evidence” the attack was a  Republican plot just like January 6th. That is doubtful given the background of this nudist nutcase who shared his “wife’s” progressive views. More likely than not, David wanted to know if  Nancy was home because he wanted to be with Mr. Pelosi. Seriously, whatever was going on was not a political debate that turned violent.

President Biden used the same line of argument. He says the intruder used “the same chant” as the January 6th rioters. This is beneath even Biden’s poor standing.

More details are likely to emerge, but from what is known at this time, it does not sound like “political violence” to us, but rather more like deep dysfunction within the Pelosi household.  Why should Republicans be blamed for that?

But as previously noted, the press gave a pass to months of rioting and arson, and numerous attacks on Republicans and Supreme Court Justices.  But the Wall Street Journal leaps before they have the facts about the Pelosi attack and the White House Press Secretary simply lies when the facts are available.   As you listen to the interview, she is not seriously challenged on any of her preposterous charges and conclusions.

The press has sunk lower than whale dung in the Marianas Trench. Not to be outdone are the leaders of the Democrat Party.

Both Katie Hobbs and the White House are eager to claim conservatives are guilty of political violence when it did not take place and ignore violence from Progressives when it actually does take place.

We condemn political violence of all kinds, and we do not buy into the Left’s silly promotion of the idea that speech is violence, or that silence is violence. No, violence is violence. Violence is a physical force used against an opponent, not a verbal response.  Speech is not a hammer.  A hammer is a hammer, and even so, it is only dangerous if it is used to hurt a person as opposed to driving a nail.

But being California, we await legislation to ban the use of hammers by people in their underwear.

The best response available is now a little more than a week away.  If this calumny against Republicans makes you mad and you don’t like the direction this country is taking, your chance to say so is quickly approaching or already in hand with your mail-in ballot.  Let them know what you think of how they have been leading this country and get your ballot in pronto.

Vote them all out, every Democrat you can.

We suspect Republicans will win big on November 8th. Then we get to see if the Democrats will accept the results of the democratic process, or will they instead resort to the violence they condemn? If they don’t, will the press notice?

TAKE ACTION

How Not to Vote in Arizona

The 2022 midterm election is fast approaching. The system for voting in Arizona is predominantly by mail-in ballots (around 80% of all ballots).The ballots will be mailed out to all voters registered for mail-in voting on October 12th. The actual ‘day’ of the election is Tuesday November 8th..

Once upon a time when all voters went to the polls on the day of election, the tabulated results were announced the night of the election date. If the result of a specific race was razor thin and less than a legislated margin, a recount might prevent the naming of a winner. That was the exception for calling the results of the election. We at The Prickly Pear are very concerned about the flaws in Arizona’s predominant ‘mail-in’ voting system.

Please click on the red TAKE ACTION link below to learn How Not to Vote in Arizona as a mail-in ballot voter and to be certain your vote is included in the count the evening of November 8th.

“Republican” PAC Outspends Others With Millions Just to Defeat Kari Lake thumbnail

“Republican” PAC Outspends Others With Millions Just to Defeat Kari Lake

/in , , /by

By Corinne Murdock

Editors’ Note: The following information is appalling. The dark money from multiple PACSs connected to wealthy Democrat globalists and major American corporations committed to destroying any Trump-endorsed candidate should be a wake-up call to Arizona voters. Additionally, the connection of Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer (who was elected in 2020 on the promise of being a nonpartisan manager of a key nonpartisan office in Arizona) to these organizations and dark money focused on the defeat of specific candidates is a violation of his office. The best response to these egregious influences in Arizona’s 2022 election is to resoundingly elect Kari Lake as Governor, Mark Finchem as Secretary of State and Abe Hamadeh as Attorney General.

Most voters in this state utilize mail-in ballots to vote – submit your mail-in ballot by Tuesday, November 1 to be sure it is signature certified, tabulated and counted for the announced results on election eve on November 8th.

A political action committee (PAC) financed by Democrat billionaires is making good on its promise to spend millions to ensure Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s defeat.

The Republican Accountability PAC, an advocacy arm of the Republican Accountability Project (RAP), spent nearly $3.7 million on advertising against Lake according to trigger reports on the secretary of state’s campaign finance website. They began spending their millions a week after the primary election, and haven’t spent for or against any other candidates.

Those expenditures break down as follows: Trilogy Interactive, over $1 million; Google, over $840,000; Longwell Partners, over $441,000; Tegna, over $284,000; Scripps Media, nearly $245,000; Fox Corporation, nearly $230,000; Gray Media, over $222,000; Meta Platforms, over $202,000; Allen Media Broadcasting, over $100,000; Clear Channel Outdoor, over $83,000; and Extreme Reach, over $1,000.

It appears that one of the RAP leaders benefits greatly from the PAC money. Sarah Longwell [picture above], RAP executive director and the PAC’s treasurer, owns Longwell Partners. In addition to the over $441,000 her communications firm received for anti-Lake advertising, her firm has received at least over $554,000 for advertising and political consulting according to the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

Longwell, a self-described “Never Trumper” is also the Defending Democracy Together co-founder (the parent organization behind RAP, and one of the top-spending dark money groups in the 2020 election), The Bulwark publisher, and former Log Cabin Republicans national board chair.

The only media company with an Arizona address that received Republican Accountability PAC money was Tegna. The listed address is the building that houses 12News and the Arizona Republic. Tegna was formerly part of Gannett before the media giant split into two publicly traded companies in 2015: Tegna, the broadcasting and digital operations, and Gannett, the publishing operations. Gannett shareholders retained the shares that became Tegna shares.

Gannett’s primary shareholder is BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager and one of 100 strategic partners for the World Economic Forum (WEF). The WEF is the globalist lobbying organization that invented the social credit score system similar to one used currently by the Chinese government, called ESG investing or scoring, short for “Environmental, Social, and Governance” scoring.

Tegna’s board of directors consists of major corporate players representing nearly all sectors: its chairman is also a president of Dell Technologies, while other members include the executive vice president of Pfizer, the CFO of global sports entertainment giant DAZN Group and former Morgan Stanley executive, the former vice president of Coca-Cola, the former president of HBO, the former vice president and CFO of E*Trade, the president and CEO of WNET and former president of NBC, and former vice president of Time Warner Cable and HBO.

Last year, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer and Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates teamed up with RAP for a video speaking against the Arizona Senate’s audit of the 2020 election. About a month before Richer and Gates released their RAP video, RAP’s executive director Sarah Longwell donated $250 to Richer’s PAC, Pro-Democracy Republicans of Arizona.

A week before Longwell’s donation, Richer’s PAC also received $100 from Mindy Finn (formerly Feinberg), the founder of another self-described Never Trumper advocacy group called Stand up Republic. Both Defending Democracy Together and Stand Up Republic receive funding from nonprofit networks associated with Pierre Omidyar, eBay’s founder, a partner organization of the lucrative leftist dark money network originating with Arabella Advisors.

The other top PACs spending millions against candidates are the Future Forward PAC and MoveOn.org PAC: both leftist dark money groups, both spending to defeat Trump-backed Arizona candidates. In addition to Lake, they spent to defeat attorney general candidate Abraham Hamadeh and secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem.

*****

This article was published by AZ Free News and is reproduced with permission.

TAKE ACTION

How Not to Vote in Arizona

The 2022 midterm election is fast approaching. The system for voting in Arizona is predominantly by mail-in ballots (around 80% of all ballots).The ballots will be mailed out to all voters registered for mail-in voting on October 12th. The actual ‘day’ of the election is Tuesday November 8th..

Once upon a time when all voters went to the polls on the day of election, the tabulated results were announced the night of the election date. If the result of a specific race was razor thin and less than a legislated margin, a recount might prevent the naming of a winner. That was the exception for calling the results of the election. We at The Prickly Pear are very concerned about the flaws in Arizona’s predominant ‘mail-in’ voting system.

Please click on the red TAKE ACTION link below to learn How Not to Vote in Arizona as a mail-in ballot voter and to be certain your vote is included in the count the evening of November 8th.

It Takes a Village to Take Your Child thumbnail

It Takes a Village to Take Your Child

/in , , /by

By Peachy Keenan

Hillary Clinton’s 1996 groomer handbook It Takes a Village made the case that parents can’t do it alone; you need an active and involved community to raise your children for with you. “We all depend on other adults whom we know—from teachers to doctors to neighbors to pastors—and on those whom we may not—from police to firefighters to employers to media producers [!] to political leaders—to help us inform, support, or protect our children.”

Increasingly, however, the only danger the Village wants to protect your own kids from is YOU.

America’s Favorite Supervillain, Governor Gavin Newsom, just legalized child kidnapping in California. 

State Bill 107 will allow the State to seize children from their own legal parents who are not sufficiently “affirming” of a child’s misguided wish to mutilate themselves and destroy their own lives. As the Federalist explains, “California courts will have the power to strip custody from parents, wherever they live, who doubt the wisdom of these experimental and irreversible procedures — if their child so much as steps foot in California.” In other words, even if you don’t even live in California, the long arm of the Village can capture your kid in their net.

Immediately after Newsom signed that law—almost as if there was a coordinated campaign by the village elders—the American Medical Association issued a letter to the Department of Justice begging them to imprison anyone who dares stand in the way of them having full access to your child’s body and mind. As Christopher Rufo tweeted, “The AMA asks the DOJ to ‘investigate and prosecute high-profile social media users’ who share ‘misleading information’ about ‘gender-affirming health care.’”

“Transgender medicine saves lives!” The medical experts and politicians scream at vulnerable parents. “Quick, inject your eight-year-old with experimental, off-label Lupron and synthetic chemical hormones before they/them kills their/themselves!”

Castrating and sterilizing young boys is lifesaving health care.

Double mastectomies and hysterectomies on teenage girls is pediatric best practices.

YOU are a child-abusing extremist if you object.

I wrote last year about our own family pediatrician, who is already shooing parents out of her examination room and asking teenage boys if they are “comfortable with their gender.” She somehow forgot to ask me, his mother, if I was comfortable with her unwelcome intrusion into my relationship with my own child.

The villagers are the new monsters

In the final scene of 1933’s Frankenstein, angry villagers bearing torches and pitchforks chase the monster to a lonely windmill. The monster, cornered with his captive Dr. Frankenstein, pitches his creator out the window to the mob, then dies in the inferno.

Parents have been swiftly cornered by the full-frontal assault from all directions, and many are simply cowed into tossing their child to the hounds, who terrify them with misleading statistics on suicide and “affirm your child or they’ll die.” They make the fateful decision to trust the Village.

But the Village turned on them long ago, and no one told them.

In New York, the father of an 11-year-old is fighting desperately to prevent his child from being transitioned against his will by his ex-wife (it’s always the ex-wife), who has whipped up state law enforcement and medical authorities to help her. The Village is the villain now.

Hillary’s book description reassures us that she “doesn’t believe that we should, or can, turn back the clock. False nostalgia for ‘family values’ is no solution.” Her monstrous creation launched a movement that was nothing more than a progressive apologia for the purposeful destruction of the American family wrought by progressives like her. It was a clumsy attempt to make parentless children into a societal good. “Yes, we destroyed your family and forced your mom back to her full-time job, yes! But don’t worry about it—we are all your parents now, kiddo. We have teachers, doctors, and media producers standing by—to protect you.”

She insufferably dares parents to get back to work, because the Village will take it from here. This relatively benign 1990s-era mentality is now devious government policy. “We will allow you to raise your own child until you decide to go off-script, in which case we will be forced to step in and finish the job as we see fit. Buzz off, parent.”

Hillary created this monster, and there is no capturing it this time.

As she wrote in the 2007 republished edition, “The simple message of It Takes a Village is as relevant as ever: We are all in this together.”

All together in the gulags, maybe!

It’s going to take a different kind of village to rescue children from our current monsters masquerading as benevolent leaders. They can be found in the gender clinics infesting every major hospital. They run the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association. They are legally in charge of your children now, and they’re making the rules.

You are going to have to harden your perimeter, seal the doors, and tint the windows on the minivan. Do we need to burn our babies’ birth certificates? File the serial numbers off our newborns so they can’t be traced? Create “ghost children” who are invisible to the roving mobs?

The gender fanatics have picked up their pitchforks and are headed your way to claim scalps—and scrotums—for their trophy walls.

High time to vanquish the village

And you can help me do it. For all is not lost—as Hillary herself says, we are all in this together! Pre-order my forthcoming book “Domestic Extremist: A Practical Guide to Winning the Culture War,” which I wrote as a salvo against the villainous Village mentality. And in the meantime, do your best to keep these twisted Villagers out of the only community that actually matters: your own family.

*****

This article was published by The American Mind and is reproduced with permission.

TAKE ACTION

How Not to Vote in Arizona

The 2022 midterm election is fast approaching. The system for voting in Arizona is predominantly by mail-in ballots (around 80% of all ballots).The ballots will be mailed out to all voters registered for mail-in voting on October 12th. The actual ‘day’ of the election is Tuesday November 8th..

Once upon a time when all voters went to the polls on the day of election, the tabulated results were announced the night of the election date. If the result of a specific race was razor thin and less than a legislated margin, a recount might prevent the naming of a winner. That was the exception for calling the results of the election. We at The Prickly Pear are very concerned about the flaws in Arizona’s predominant ‘mail-in’ voting system.

Please click on the red TAKE ACTION link below to learn How Not to Vote in Arizona as a mail-in ballot voter and to be certain your vote is included in the count the evening of November 8th.

Cynical Legislation to Destroy Jobs thumbnail

Cynical Legislation to Destroy Jobs

/in , , /by

By Bruce Bialosky

I have read a lot of legislation over the years, but never have I read a piece of  legislation quite as cynical as California’s AB257 Fast Food Accountability and Standards Act passed by the Legislature and signed by Gallivanting Governor Newsom. The people who created this legislation obviously think we are all fools. Allowing this to exist will destroy the jobs they believe they are protecting.

The reason this legislation was passed is quite clear (you probably have figured this) — the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has largely failed to unionize employees at fast-food restaurants and has figured out a workaround to get the employees under their control.

First, the legislation creates specific rules that allow a restaurant to be exempt from the draconian rules for one reason – the restaurant is subject to a collective bargaining agreement. Second, it creates the Fast Food Council (FFC) where nine positions are appointed by the Governor/ Legislature, and one is a career union government worker from the Department of Industrial Relations. Sure, it has two representatives from franchisors and two from franchisees, but they are being chosen by Governor Newsom. What are the chances that they will be warriors for business? Even if they are in there pitching for keeping their businesses alive, they will be outvoted 6-4 every time. I guarantee that the other six will never vote on a significant issue in favor of the business owners.

It gets worse. The legislation does not go into effect until it has 10,000 signatures on a petition by California fast-food restaurant employees. Who will be collecting those signatures? The legislation does not say, but we all know – the SEIU. The SEIU will then use those people to organize in the various restaurants.

A lot of reports have addressed the fact that (once established) they can raise the minimum wage in the subject restaurant to a maximum $22 per hour. If they only raise it to $20 per hour, they will tell us how responsible they have been. Traditionally, these positions at fast-food restaurants have largely been filled by young people with little work experience. If you have ever read about a McDonald’s franchisee operating in a largely black neighborhood, they are taking young blacks with zero work experience and making them into responsible workers. All franchisees do this. They are initially not worth the current minimum wage of $15 per hour, let alone $20 or $22 per hour.

Because of that, restaurant franchisees will turn to automation and eliminate a sizable number of these entry-level jobs. Have you been to a parking facility recently? You get a ticket from a machine and then pay electronically. All those jobs at parking facilities have evaporated. Say goodbye to walking into a McDonald’s and hearing “Good Afternoon, welcome to McDonald’s. May I take your order please?” Unless they build that into the computer screen, you will be placing your order and paying electronically.

For some reason, the legislation exempts fast-food restaurants that bake bread for sale. You will soon see Subway and like operations selling their rolls in packages of six.

To make it seem like it is not all about raising wages to a level that makes no sense, the legislation speaks significantly about the FFC creating rules regarding worker safety. Here is another point that creates cynicism. The rules only affect fast food restaurants that have 100 or more locations anywhere in the world and do not include table service restaurants. I have worked in or with restaurants for 50 years. I cannot see what safety rules are of concern to fast food employees of chains with 100 locations that do not affect sit-down restaurants or those chains with less than one hundred locations.

The legislation is loaded with ad hominem attacks on fast-food operators. It states, “For years the fast-food sector has been rife with abuse, low pay, few benefits, and minimal job security.” In another section, they state there have been numerous complaints by fast food workers. What are “numerous complaints”? That could be 20 over the years. This displays the tenor of the people who wrote this law. The last real job these people probably had was working as a teenager in a fast-food restaurant. As always, they want to tell us how to run an operation in which they have zero experience themselves.

Here is something to think about. People have been bantering about the fact that prices at fast food places covered by this law would go up 20%. That is way too low. If the wages go up as projected, the prices will go up more like 30% to 50%. It will not just be untrained, inexperienced workers getting these wages, but the supervisors will demand similar raises. If you operate a chain of ten restaurants, you will have to raise your wages commensurately or all your employees will walk across the street and take a job at Burger King. This will affect wages at casual dining establishments and dinner houses as their employees will demand wage increases or take a job at Jack-In-The-Box.

It appears the people who wrote this legislation have not been to a restaurant recently. In California with the raising of the minimum wage to $15 per hour and the Biden inflation raising the cost of all the food and supplies in a restaurant, it has already caused many people to cut back on their restaurant trips as the cost of meals has soared. Labor factors in restaurants are already out of control before this law. These new regulations will jump prices up even further cutting more visits to local restaurants and more closures. The pandemic closed thousands of restaurants already.

This is all because unions have not been able to do two things. First, they have wanted to make the franchisors mutually liable for operational decisions by franchisees and they have failed largely because it makes no sense. Second, because the fast-food industry has huge employee turnover, they cannot organize them. That is largely because of non-committed workers. Operators hate turnover. It costs them training and customer service. Hard to organize people who are not going to be on the job next month.

The fast-food industry is fighting back by attempting to get an initiative on the ballot to kill this cynical piece of legislation that will have the exact opposite effect of the supposed intent of the manipulators behind it. When that happens, make sure everyone you know signs the petition and then votes this trash legislation off the books.

*****

This article was published by Flash Report and is reprinted with permission from the author.

TAKE ACTION

How Not to Vote in Arizona

The 2022 midterm election is fast approaching. The system for voting in Arizona is predominantly by mail-in ballots (around 80% of all ballots).The ballots will be mailed out to all voters registered for mail-in voting on October 12th. The actual ‘day’ of the election is Tuesday November 8th..

Once upon a time when all voters went to the polls on the day of election, the tabulated results were announced the night of the election date. If the result of a specific race was razor thin and less than a legislated margin, a recount might prevent the naming of a winner. That was the exception for calling the results of the election. We at The Prickly Pear are very concerned about the flaws in Arizona’s predominant ‘mail-in’ voting system.

Please click on the red TAKE ACTION link below to learn How Not to Vote in Arizona as a mail-in ballot voter and to be certain your vote is included in the count the evening of November 8th.

STAY INFORMED

Receive regular news, commentary, and analysis straight to your inbox.

POWERED BY

DrRichSwier.com | ThePricklyPear.org

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.