Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes
Certainly this early in the first term, it might be premature to issue judgements on Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., but we confess he has turned out to be even worse than our most disturbing nightmare. He has divided the country further, by pitting the masked against the unmasked, the vaccinated against the unvaccinated. He has attempted to […]
Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes
Many in the media are raising legitimate questions about tactical aspects of the Biden Blunder in Afghanistan. Among them are things we have questioned ourselves, such as why was Bagram Airbase abandoned, why dismantle the intelligence capabilities, long before consideration was given to the U.S. citizens likely to still be in-country? The military leaves last, […]
Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
We would not for one moment diminish the seriousness of the debacle Biden has made of his “withdrawal” from Afghanistan. When a great superpower is this badly managed, history suggests ugly and terrible things will follow. It is said that nature abhors a vacuum and that has always been the case in foreign policy. Weakness […]
Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes
In politics, often it is the optics of a situation, not necessarily the facts that determine the eventual political repercussions of a particular event. Sometimes no amount of effort can undo the impact of the striking visual message. The Economist, the reliably left-leaning publication of the international business elite suggests the implications of Biden’s botched withdrawal […]
Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes
To “reimagine” is a favorite buzzword on the Left. Embedded in the idea is that imagination alone can change reality. The reality you see is a social construct. All previous people were idiots and what they learned about living together is nonsense. We don’t need nation-states or nuclear families; we don’t even need the sexes… just […]
Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes
China has taken a number of steps of late to restrict enterprise. Press reports often phrase that there has been a “crackdown” on the private sector as if a private sector really exists in China. In other cases, they have stepped in, as in the case of Hong Kong, to destroy freedom and the economic […]
Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes
We are about to reach a milestone that is little considered by the public at large. It was 50 years ago, on August 15, 1971, that President Richard Nixon decided to take the US off the last remnant of the gold standard. The facts are, as you will see, that a number of very important relationships […]
Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes
“Think of the tulip bubble. It’s very easy to look back at that episode and throw stones: ‘How could anyone in their right mind ever consider paying almost one million dollars for a single tuber?’ one might ask even as he lives in a glass house represented by his trading portfolio made up of shitcoins or memestocks worth, in […]
Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes
“In essence, financial technology is a time machine we have built ourselves. It can’t move people through time, but it can move their money. As a result, it alters the economic position of our current and future selves. It also changes the way we think. Finance has stretched the ability of humans to imagine and […]
Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes
An amicus brief means “friend of the court.” In this case, we mean the brief spearheaded by the Attorneys General of Arizona and Missouri, and joined by 26 other states, asking the Supreme Court of the United States to set aside restrictions in New York, and other states, that will not allow citizens to fully […]
Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes
In common conversation, one often hears the expression “don’t go there.” It means the conversation has reached a point whereby going any further with the topic is going to create stress, disagreement, controversy, and discomfort. Well, someone has to go there, and so we will. We are talking about the obvious cognitive decline of the […]
Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes
The history of World War II is a well-worn path. Historians and journalists have been writing about it for about 75 years. You would not think much could be added to “the story”. If that is what you think, then you would be wrong. This new book is a required addition to your bookshelf. Be assured, […]
Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes
I don’t know about you, but I am getting increasingly confused by the swirling stories about a resurgence of Covid or its variants. It is clearly not just me. The financial markets have been bucking like a bronco trying to figure out how serious this is, whether governments will go back to failed lockdown policies, […]
Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes
In what rightfully can be described as one of the most anti-free speech pronouncements ever made by the U.S. government, the Biden administration has come clean on its incestuous relationship with Big Tech. The jaw-dropping news was first delivered July 15 by White House press secretary Jen Psaki when she said: “We are in regular […]
Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
The widening implications will likely depend on whether the results show there has been significant discrepancy or fraud, whether those results are credible and believable, and whether the press actually covers the story and public opinion shifts. Once Republicans believe they have a solid case, then strategies will need to be developed to go into […]
Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes
The following question was recently posed in Just Facts Daily. The question stimulated The Prickly Pear Editors’ comments follow the explanation of the answer. What portion of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. have false identity documents that might allow them to illegally work, vote, and receive welfare? Is it 10%, 25%, 50%? And your […]
Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
Facing Reality: Two Truths About Race In American Charles Murray, Encounter Books There is likely no other intellectual today willing to write on the controversies in social science concerning human achievement with the courage and wisdom of Charles Murray. Universities used to be the place where anything could be discussed and reasonable people could work […]
Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
Many in the state of Arizona and, unquestionably, throughout the nation, are awaiting the results of the Arizona audit. At this writing, we do not know the results of the audit. We will reserve judgement on that. We wish more would just wait to see evidence before commenting. The spinmeisters have been at work for […]
Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes
Recently, the Democrat Senator from Hawaii, Mazie Hirono stated that Democrats were not in favor of defunding the police. Although she is not known for making intelligent statements, this one went well beyond many of her previous inanities directly into idiocy. It does not reflect well on Hawaii that she remains in office. What you […]
Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes
The Swiss have one of the few federal systems in the world. And interestingly, they are perhaps the only country to limit government power through a federal system of cantons and direct initiative voting that developed before, and independently of England. Other countries that have a dispersion of power systems like the United States and […]
Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes
The stock market has been climbing, although of late it has tended to levitate near old highs. The economy is recovering to be sure, but it is not clear what will happen when all the stimulus checks get fully worked into the system, and further transfers to consumers cease. Meanwhile, economists debate whether inflation, which […]
Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes
The issue seems to perfectly match the discordance of our times. As the media and political elites lecture us about “gun violence” and attempt to take our rights away, average Americans are buying guns and ammunition at a record pace. Some 40% of first-time buyers are women. What do average Americans know that the elites do […]
Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes
In late April, the Supreme Court announced it would take an important gun case, something they have not done for 11 years. The case will review a New York law that severely restricts the ability of law-abiding citizens to carry a gun outside of their homes. The case is New York Rifle and Pistol Association […]
Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
The Federal Reserve Board is one of the most difficult institutions to understand, yet it has an outsized influence on the way we live and conduct our politics. It is nominally a private institution owned by the banks it supervises whose governors are appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the […]
Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
Readers are doubtless aware that Jim Crow was a system of state-sanctioned discrimination against black people for the basic reason of their skin color. Housing was segregated as was public accommodations and education. It was almost universally the product of the Democrat Party. Northern Liberals united with Southern bigots to ensure the rule of the […]
Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes
What portion of state prison inmates who carried a gun during crimes for which they were jailed obtained their firearms from gun shows? This is a question to ask yourself as President Biden has made the “gun show loophole” a big part of his push to restrict the Second Amendment rights of Americans. What is […]
Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
In late March, former President George Bush dismissed “populist” sentiments gaining ascendancy in the Republican Party as transitory and meaningless. Or, that is at least what we think he said. The reason for the doubt is that the word fritter, is a verb, and usually means to waste or incrementally exhaust money or time with […]
Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes
Dennis Prager, perhaps the most cerebral of talk show hosts, makes the distinction between being a “Liberal” and being a “Leftist.” That distinction is important as we observe how far to the Left the Democrat Party has moved away from its ideological moorings. As an illustration, let’s look at what most of us thought a […]
Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes
Those of us of a certain age remember when inflation was a problem. For example, during the post-Vietnam War period, inflation was a vexing political issue that found few solutions. The value of money was falling, which is another way to say that prices were rising. It took more money to buy the same amount […]
Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes
People who loudly proclaim the unrestricted right of foreigners to break American immigration laws are usually the same people who condemn earlier immigrants (settlers) that displaced the land and culture of native Americans? People who often support the complete legalization of drugs, hallucinogenic mushrooms and cacti also tend to also be opposed to tobacco smoking […]
Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
We have a new form of government. One we did not consciously select. This is just one of the bizarre elements of the ongoing Wuhan virus crisis and subsequent lockdown. What is remarkable is the fundamental abuse of power we have endured. In reality, the government has on a very basic level, ignored structural protections […]
Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes
Even for those not religiously inclined, the wisdom of the Golden Rule is widely acknowledged. As a civilizing instinct, treating others as you wish to be treated is an admonition of considerable heft. It is abundantly clear, that at the present time living in the United States could readily benefit from its application. In the […]
Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes
All this money printing threatens to eventually create a sugar high in equities. We aren’t there yet, but markets are floating on a sea of new money. In fact, it’s more like a tsunami! Inflation hedges (real estate, commodities, materials companies) will do well. Traditional fixed income (long-term bonds) is at risk. The return of […]
Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
It is a Sunday morning at Buffalo Ridge Park in Northeast Phoenix. The parking lot is full. Children play on city supplied appliances, sucking their thumbs, sliming up the swings and slides with spittle that they share with others, and having a wonderful time. People are walking their dogs. Their dogs sniff each other and their […]
Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes
Normally, we would not send you rushing to read TIME MAGAZINE, a publication that has long since lost its reputation for honesty in reporting. But we urge all readers to absorb “The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election” by Molly Ball. The piece goes some distance in explaining the strange […]
Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes
Recently, it was announced that a number of retail stores, among them Bed Bath and Beyond, and Kohl’s, will be dropping the My Pillow line of bed and bath products. The reason these stores cited is the Democrat Party Line that the riot at the Capitol was an “insurrection”, and that Trump and supporters like the […]
Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes
Much righteous rhetoric has been thrown about recently about the recent capitol riots and the desecration of the “citadel of democracy.” While we join in the condemnation, we think it is largely disingenuous. Please, more log rolling, deal cutting, corruption, sexual harassment and veniality occurs within those hallowed halls than anywhere else in the country. […]
Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes
Whether by fraud or by legitimate political will, our nation has taken a turn to the political Left. We should all do our civic duty to the best of our ability, given the constraints of time and personal resources, to preserve liberty for ourselves and for our children. That is a duty to be fulfilled, […]
Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
The broad stock market had another year of gains well above average. It has rolled through the pandemic lockdown in the spring with a quick V-shaped bottom and continued to rise throughout the turmoil of the election cycle and difficult post-election period. Rarely have we seen a market so determined to persevere in the face […]
Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes
Book Review: The Great Demographic Reversal by Charles Goodhart and Manoj Pradhan. Published by Palgrave/Macmillan 2020 Economics has been referred to as the dismal science. In this book, the former chair of Banking and Finance at the London School of Economics (Goodhart) and the former head of Morgan Stanley International (Pradhan), show once again that economics […]
Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes
Editor’s Note: While we at The Prickly Pear take no joy in others’ misery, to bookend these two statements is to appreciate just how ignorant these labor leaders are about the modern Democrat Party. What on earth were they thinking? Biden-Harris Election Win a Victory for Our Nation and Working-class Americans Washington, D.C. (November 7, 2020) […]
Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
It is hard to remember a similar time when political intimidation was at this kind of frenzy. Probably the most similar period was right after the assassination of President Kennedy. Those old enough to remember recall that immediately after the shooting, the media called Dallas a city of “hate.” Kennedy was killed in the city, […]
Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
There once was a dream of a worldwide electronic web where commerce and communications could be linked, providing wide consumer choice, lower costs, and creating a marketplace of ideas. Anyone with access to the Web could access the common knowledge of the world with the keystroke of ever cheaper and more powerful devices. It created […]
Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
Piling on Trump is likely to become a cottage industry. It is an easy bet that the media will do everything it can to destroy Trump the man and the movement. The Republican loss of Georgia and the Presidential election certainly adds to the credibility of these attacks. The Republican Party is split, which will […]
Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes
The Wall Street Journal and Investor’s Business Daily have the best editorial pages in the country. It was with some disappointment we read their main editorial in the WSJ on December 31, 2020. Like many in the “legacy” Conservative movement, they just want to sweep signs of election fraud under the rug and move on with […]
Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes
Former Senator, Vice President and the new President-Elect Joe Biden has called on America to stand for “civility and national healing.” In a national address, the candidate squinted into the teleprompter and spread his signature chop gesture across the lectern. “I am the only candidate who can interest the press in healing the fissures which […]
Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes
Senator Patrick Moynihan, a former professor and Presidential aid to Presidents of both parties, is generally credited with the phrase “defining deviancy down”. He was referring to behaviors that were becoming increasingly acceptable that he felt were leading to the breakdown of family structure. The result of the destruction of the family structure has been […]
Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes
Some years ago, a popular phrase was, “you are what you eat.” Today, we might more accurately say, that from a political perspective, “you are what you read.” Perhaps the best example is the difference between the Establishment mainstream Progressive press and the more Conservative independent press. The Epoch Times is giving considerable details on […]
Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes
Professor Stephanie Kelton, an advisor to leading Democrats and the Biden campaign, has written the Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People’s Economy, a highly readable explanation of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). Replete with frequent references to Sesame Street and Spider Man, it is just the work needed to inform the young […]
Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
As the after-action reports filter in for the most recent Presidential election, for those who lost (which at this writing is still undetermined), high on the list must be the treachery of the mainstream media, the big tech companies and voter fraud. Not getting sufficient attention yet is the role played by the Libertarian Party […]