Ill Literacy: Books with Benson

Heartland Institute hosts Billy Aouste and Chris Talgo attempt to dissect the wide ranging and complicated President Donald Trump impeachment case into two simple quests. The first: what does the constitution outline as impeachable offenses? Second: is what Trump did egregious compared to the behavior of other Presidents? They also investigate the two charges against the President - abuse of power and obstruction of Congress - what they mean and how serious they are. Though the media have been in a frenzy and you're probably sick of all this impeachment news, we hope you give it a listen!

Heartland Institute Center for Constitutional Reform Policy Advisor Dr. William J. Murphy discusses the proposal his organization, Good Government Now, has developed to strengthen congressional subpoena enforcement capacity. The proposal would establish an inherent contempt enforcement process whereby Congress could conduct trials of, convict, and directly sanction executive branch officials who defy congressional subpoenas with heavy personal fines ranging from $25,000 to $250,000. It also features a provision authorizing Congress to appoint private attorneys to prosecute persistently recalcitrant executive branch witnesses for criminal contempt in the event the inherent contempt fines are insufficient to motivate their compliance with a subpoena, an unfortunate necessity given the refusal of DOJ to undertake such prosecutions since 2006.  More information about these proposals is available on our website at: Inherent Contempt Enforcement Rule or https://goodgovernmentnow.org/modified-inherent-contempt-enforcement-rule/.

For the full podcast and more episodes, visit The Federalist Society here: 

A New York City ordinance caused a lawsuit to be brought to the Supreme Court level this month. This ordinance made the transport of a weapon illegal except from a person's home to seven New York Police Department shooting ranges. The weapon must be unloaded and locked as well. Residents could not transport their weapons out of the city, state, or to a second home, essentially locked between their home and these ranges.

Project Manager Lennie Jarratt discusses this with John Steigerwald of The John Steigerwald Show in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on AM 1250 The Answer, WPGP. Listen to the full interview here.

Brian Kilmeade, co-host of Fox & Friends on the Fox News Channel and nationally syndicated host of “The Brian Kilmeade Show,” joins the Heartland Daily Podcast to talk about his new book Andrew Jackson and The Miracle Of New Orleans. The Heartland Institute’s Jim Lakely and Kilmeade talk about the recent midterm election, Donald Trump and his stem-winder of a post-election press conference, and then get into the history of our seventh president. Why are “popular history” books so important to our national conversation about what it means to be an American? Why has “Old Hickory” fallen into disrepute among modern historians and academia? Why was the United States and Britain again at war fewer than 30 years after the end of the American Revolution? What would have happened if America lost? Why was the Battle of New Orleans a “miracle”? What influence has Andrew Jackson had on American history, world history, and the presidents who followed him?

Get Andrew Jackson and The Miracle Of New Orleans at Amazon.com.

www.amazon.com/gp/product/073521…_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

Learn more about author Brian Kilmeade and where to meet him on his national book tour.

www.briankilmeade.com/

There’s no getting around it, mass shootings are a huge problem plaguing the country. When a mass shooting happens, people scramble for solutions to the problem, the gun control debate ignites, and pundits take sides on the issue. Recently, many have looked at red flag laws as a solution. We break down what these laws are, what effect they will have, and why they are not the answer.

Show Notes

Modern Monetary Theory - https://jacobinmag.com/2019/02/mmt-modern-monetary-theory-doug-henwood-overton-window

Tax Foundation - How Much Revenue Would a 70% Top Tax Rate Raise? An Initial Analysis

https://taxfoundation.org/70-tax-proposal/

Tease last episode: Deep Dive - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vi2_aNsm9r8&t=66s

Freedom Foundation – National Education Association is not about education

https://www.freedomfoundation.com/labor/national-education-association-is-not-about-education/

ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT

National Review – AOC’s Chief of Staff Admits the Green New Deal Is Not about Climate Change.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/aocs-chief-of-staff-admits-the-green-new-deal-is-not-about-climate-change/

Manhattan Institute – New York, Prepare for Green Blackouts

https://www.manhattan-institute.org/new-york-prepare-for-more-green-blackouts-nuclear-solar-wind

HIGHER EDUCATION

The Political Views of Philosophy Majors

http://dailynous.com/2019/07/15/political-views-philosophy-majors/?fbclid=IwAR3nukVHG5gfHZcEfm2YM8WiaLfJ_wMYgeciTHkk5yWjrEWUEGKHC6qe2fA

78% of Philosophy majors have a somewhat or very favorable view on socialism

HEALTH

Dishonest Kamala Harris now claiming $32 trillion healthcare plan won’t require middle-class tax hikes

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/dishonest-kamala-harris-now-claiming-32-trillion-healthcare-plan-wont-require-middle-class-tax-hikes

The Declaration of Independence set forth the great experiment that is America.  In this episode of the Heartland Daily Podcast, David Shestokas guides us through the history of America’s independence.  Author of Creating the Declaration of Independence, Shestokas discusses the minutia behind what it took to have the document writer, and the dangers behind writing it. Was Thomas Jefferson the preferred choice to write the Declaration of Independence?  Did he want to write it?  Join us to learn all about Creating the Declaration of Independence.

Purchase Creating the Declaration of Independence here.

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of capitalism, striking down a Tennessee statute which essentially discriminated against non-residents by requiring liquor store retailers to be residents of the state for two years prior to obtaining a retailer liquor permit, and to be a resident for 10 years in order to renew their liquor license.

Anya Bidwell is an attorney at the Institute for Justice and litigates cases to protect and promote economic, speech, and property rights. Anya was also an attorney on Tennessee Wine and Spirits Retailers Association v. Russell F. Thomas, in which the Supreme Court struck down Tennessee’s residency law.

Anya joins the podcast to discuss the case, its reliance on the Constitution’s Commerce Clause, and the effects the ruling with have on other state’s regulatory statutes.

For more information on IJ and Anya’s work, you can visit https://ij.org/. You can find more information about Short Circuit here, and their podcast and newsletter. To reach Anya directly, email [email protected].

Roger Koppl discusses the inherent problem of the government’s monopoly on crime labs, pointing to institutional incentives for experts in a variety of fields. From fingerprint analysis to DNA matching, Roger estimates that 20,000 individuals are wrongly convicted each year in the United States because of faulty forensic evidence.

Koppl has consulted with the Innocence Project, an organization that challenges wrongful convictions, on this issue. Koppl says that competition among experts is the fairest way to judge differing opinions, and suggests that standards for evidence testing be established, such as randomly having evidence tested by a second lab and “sequentially unmasking” identification of case information to testers in order to prevent bias.

Purchase Expert Failure here: https://www.amazon.com/Failure-Cambridge-Studies-Economics-Society/dp/1316503046