Dr. Bonner Cohen from the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) comments on the State of California's lawsuit against multiple oil companies and a trade group. The claim is that their production of petroleum is to blame for a varierty of environmental and economic problems. Cohen responds to the claims and argues that bad policy in California is responsible for their problems.

RedState.com writer Mike Miller discusses a recent RealClearPolitics.com survey that asked voters about freedom of speech and, in some ways, personal freedom overall. The survey shows that a surprising percentage of Americans say there's too much freedom of speech, especially on social media. While self-described Democratic voters are more likely than others to say government should do more to hinder speech they find problematic, sizeable percentages of Independent and Republican voters agreed with that premise.

American Firearms Association president Chris Dorr assesses the announcement that President Biden has established a Presidential Office of Gun Violence Prevention. In his view, the office is just another effort by the Administration to push gun control legislation that's unconstotutional.

* this conversation originially airs on NewsTalk STL in St. Louis.

A last-minute deal in Congress keeps the federal government functioning for the time being. The spending plan passed shortly after this conversation occured keeps the proverbial lights on for another 45 days. Bankrate.com senior analyst Mark Hamrick discusses the effect the instability in Congress can have on other aspects of the economy.

This isn't the first time a government shutdown has been a risk and even though another short term shutdown isn't likely to be catastrophic, Hamrick points out that the runaway debt and deficits that are not being fixed is unsustainable.

The Heartland Institute's Samantha Fillmore takes note of the rising number of Covid infections being reported and recalls the authoritarian reaction to the illness over the past few years. In many states, state law allows governors to act unilaterally - or allow local office holders - to restrict individual freedoms.

Fillmore argues that pressure should be put on state lawmakers to reform the laws that allow governors to declare emergencies and allow the same thing to happen again.

The competition for the GOP's presidential nomination moves into the next phase of the campaign following the second debate. In this discussion, FreeThePeople.org writer Dr. Aaron Pomerantz discusses his recent article challenging the party and the candidates on what they are bringing to our national discussion. In other words, what do they stand FOR?

Here's the article: https://freethepeople.org/the-republican-party-doesnt-stand-for-anything/

* image courtesy of FreeThePeople.org

The R Street Institute's James Wallner explains how our national government has gotten to the point - again - where funding to run government operations could expire and cause a partial shutdown. He also discusses how a shutdown would affect most Americans.

Remnants of the Green New Deal ended up in the Inflation Reducation Act. Among those are incentives for electric vehicle production. The Biden Administration is adding to those incentives with a push for vehicle mandates that, eventually, will make it difficult to produce gas combustion engines in compliance with increased fuel efficiency and other standards.

In this discussion, Phil Kerpen from American Commitment argues that the mandates and incentives are not only about which vehicles are on the road. He believes that are also about which vehicles we'll eventually be allowed to buy and that could be part of a bigger push for more control over our lives as part of an environmental, big-government agenda.

Earlier this month, New Mexico Gov Michelle Lujan Grisham declared a public health emergency in part of her state. The emergency she declared claimed gun violence was the health emergency and then she cited that declaration as the basis of an executive order to suspend the right to keep and bear arms in the affected area.

Tom Knighton from BearingArms.com responds to the decision, which was quickly struck down by a judge, and discusses the recent trend of suspending rights in the name of dealing with an emergency.

John Tamny, president of the Parkview Institute and editor or RealClearMarkets.com, discusses the possibility of health and/or elected officials trying to bring back Covid-era lockdowns, restrictions, and mandates. He argues for noncompliance with any orders, and there have been some issued in recent months.

Tamny also argues that the use of government force during declared emergenies is counterproductive.