Just One Thing
We're back from a fantastic listener trip to Washington, DC. About 42 folks, including 4 cheeseheads from Wisconsin who were a lot of fun to hang out with. Some highlights for me were the original Supreme Court chamber (in the Capitol building), the Korean War Memorial, Tony Cheng's restaurant in Chinatown and, as a guy who grew up in the DC suburbs, feeling like we had the city almost to ourselves...it was so quiet.
Yesterday morning I took a run from our hotel to the Supreme Court. The scene looked like the picture attached to this blog...except I think the picture has three protesters and when I was there (around 9 AM on Monday) there were only two glum young-ish women holding signs. I'm sure the media did everything they could to make it look like a huge crowd.
Big thank you to American patriots and heroes Rip Rawlings (retired USMC) and Daniel Hoffman (retired CIA) for taking some time over a couple of evenings to come hang out with us, do some Q&A, etc.
I'll be mentioning on the air what next year's trip is though all the details are not yet finalized. Sure hope you can join us.
Today's Tremendous Guests
Tim Reichert is running for Congress, seeking the Republican nomination for the 7th Congressional District (the seat currently held by Congressman Ed Perlmutter, who is retiring). He has a strong background in economics but his issue positions on his web site give me significant concern. I also wonder, especially given the social turmoil right now regarding abortion and related issues, whether an article he wrote in the past that basically argues against contraception (using what purports to be economic reasoning) will be kryptonite for a campaign in a swing district. I'll ask the questions and you decide what you think of the answers.
Issues - Tim Reichert for Congress
Bitter Pill by Timothy Reichert | Articles | First Things
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Lis Wiehl (pronounced like "lease wheel") is a former federal prosecutor and law professor, turned TV legal analyst and author. Her new book, "A Spy in Plain Sight" is an excellent read about the incredible, horrendous, and unbelievably frustrating story of gov't incompetence surrounding arguably the most harmful spy in American history: FBI agent Robert Hanssen, whose sales of information to Russia cost the US tremendously, including in lives of our own intelligence assets. I highly recommend you buy and read this book.
Home - Lis Wiehl (liswiehlbooks.com)
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Liz Mair is a libertarian Republican activist and consultant who was able to quit smoking with the help of e-cigarettes. She joins us today to talk about how bad an idea a bill making its way through the Colorado legislature is. The bill, HB22-1064 would ban almost all flavored tobacco or synthetic nicotine products. As usual, the nanny-staters don't remember their Bastiat and don't consider the likely second-order-effect harm of their incursions into individual liberty.
Here's the bill: C:\1064_ren.txt (colorado.gov)
Here's Reason magazine's arguments against it: Colorado's proposed flavored tobacco ban would worsen public health and criminal justice inequities - Reason Foundation
Here are arguments from a group pushing the ban: Flavors Hook Kids Colorado | Stop Big Tobacco from Targeting Colorado Kids
Here's more research showing the unanticipated negative impacts of bans like these:Updated-Final-No.-222-.pdf (rstreet.org)
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Dave Rubin is a truly thought-provoking and entertaining guy, and host of the ultra-popular Rubin Report. Very happy to have him back on the show to talk about his new book, "Don't Burn This Country", a follow-up to "Don't Burn This Book." Dave has 1.2 million Twitter followers and over a million subscribers on YouTube. He's a gay former liberal who was bitten by reality and moved toward the libertarian right. This book is every bit as interesting and fun as you'd expect from Dave. See one of his latest videos below...
Dave Rubin - The Rubin Report
Don't Burn This Country by Dave Rubin: 9780593332146 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
Other Stuff
I guess this was the most likely outcome all along:
https://apnews.com/article/alabama-indiana-evansville-56e8d5ee90c2105f189f814ffd10a450
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This White House is lawless, and don't bother sending me comparisons to Trump
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I still wonder whether this issue will be as big a factor in the 2022 elections as Democrats hope it will be.
This week: Senate heads toward failed abortion vote amid fury | The Hill
Note: Republicans need to be very savvy in how they talk about this. They need to emphasize that overturning Roe is NOT the same as imposing a federal ban on abortion. It simply returns the issue to the states where it belongs. They need to emphasize, as Justice Aito did in the leaked draft opinion, that this does NOT imply the Court overturning other precedents on other issues of personal liberty such as access to contraception or the legality of gay marriage (though the arguments are strong that the latter was also wrongly decided for similar reasons as Roe.)
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Don't ever trust tax cuts brought to you by Democrats:
Colorado property tax increase to be capped for two years under bill (denverpost.com)
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Yes, this is less than the expected sale price: https://www.axios.com/2022/05/10/warhol-marilyn-monroe-painting-auctioned-195-million
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This can't be good for the self-esteem of the loser, who happens to be alive:
Deceased man wins Palmhurst mayoral election | KVEO-TV (valleycentral.com)
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How thoughtful of you! Texas man Marcus Renard Hubbard allegedly robbed home, mowed victim's yard (nypost.com)
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First graders save their teacher: Elementary students recognized as heroes for helping teacher in crisis (usatoday.com)