Wherein Christine Flowers Nails It, AGAIN!

 

Photos: INSIDE A Cold War Military Bunker!

We're on a grand tour of flyover country (including stops in Colorado, Wyoming and South Dakota) and we're loving it. And, yes -- we've visited Mount Rushmore which is truly breathtaking. But more on that later.

For now, we want to show you one of the most unusual (and newest!) tourist attractions out here and that is the decommissioned Delta missile site somewhere in the middle of what seems to be Nowhere, South Dakota.

From 1963 until the early 1990s, the missile silo at Delta-09 contained a fully operational Minuteman Missile, bearing a 1.2 megaton nuclear warhead. The Delta-09 missile silo was one of 150 spread across western South Dakota. In total there were 1,000 Minuteman missiles deployed from the 1960's into the early 1990's. Many of them were decommissioned after the signing of the START Treaty in 1991.

We visited both the missile silo and the larger launch control site. Control site tours are very limited, conducted by a National Park Service ranger and must be booked well in advance. The tour will take you into the control center where air force personnel were present 24/7. You'll pass through their living quarters and then down into the highly secure operations facility in a underground, sealed, concrete bunker. 

This is a taste of cold war military operations that you're unlikely to find almost anywhere else. And yes, as you can see, photos are permitted.

Check it out!

Trump Wins At SCOTUS: Ballroom Gets A 'GO!'

From Eric Daugherty on X: 

BREAKING — TRUMP WINS AT SCOTUS: The Supreme Court 5-4 has just GREENLIT White House ballroom military complex construction INDEFINITELY, with Chief Justice ROBERTS joining the liberals LET'S GO! SCOTUS says the group who sued likely DOES NOT HAVE STANDING, exactly what Trump has been arguing Roberts made a HORRIBLE move siding against Trump. This suit was fallacious from the start! The "National Trust for Historic Preservation" can shove it. Construction is FULL steam ahead.

Don't Mess With JD Vance, Or His Wife!

🚨 JD VANCE IS UNLEASHED!

"Whatever you wanna talk about, Abdul?"

"KEEP MY WIFE'S NAME THE HELL OUT OF YOUR MOUTH."

"Because she's WAY out of your league."

🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/iWaws0qGUd

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) August 31, 2026

Record investments, Record Sales, American Jobs!

Vice President JD Vance is in Michigan today to mark the comeback of American manufacturing under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump. Since taking office, the Trump Administration has onshored production, restored factory jobs, and put vehicles back on Michigan assembly lines — while delivering tax relief that leaves more money in workers’ pockets and driving a sharp decline in crime across the state.

Record Investments. Record Sales. American Jobs. Michigan is locking in tens of billions in new capital and thousands of high-paying jobs as companies respond to the Trump Administration’s America First agenda. General Motors is investing $6 billion in U.S. manufacturing — including a major expansion at its Orion Township plant — and is onshoring more production to meet demand for American-built vehicles. GM is also adding an overtime shift at Flint as pickup demand surges. Ford Motor Company is investing $3 billion in its BlueOval Battery Park in Marshall, creating 1,700 new jobs. Ford added a third shift at the Dearborn Truck Plant as the F-series continues to dominate global pickup sales. Stellantis is investing $388 million in a state-of-the-art “megahub” in Van Buren Township, $140 million to expand its Detroit plant, and $100 million to add production at Warren. Detroit Diesel is recalling laid-off workers and adding a third shift. 2025 marked the strongest year for new vehicle sales since 2019. Ford posted its best annual U.S. sales in six years. General Motors delivered soaring overall volume and its strongest SUV performance in decades. Jeep sales rose for the first time since 2018.

A Broader Manufacturing Boom Across Michigan Michigan is winning in advanced manufacturing, energy, aerospace, food production, and the infrastructure of the AI economy. OpenAI, Oracle, and Related Digital are building a hyperscale data center campus in Saline Township — investing more than $7 billion, with thousands of construction jobs and hundreds of permanent positions. Pratt Industries pledged $5 billion to reindustrialize America, with thousands of jobs headed to Michigan workers. Corning is investing $1.5 billion in Saginaw County, adding more than 400 new advanced manufacturing jobs. Chobani is investing $567 million to expand its La Colombe plant in Norton Shores, creating hundreds of new jobs and sharply increasing purchases of Michigan milk. GE Aerospace is investing $60 million to boost aircraft engine and avionics production at its Michigan facilities. Saginaw Control & Engineering is investing $50 million to expand in Thomas Township. Adrian Steel is investing $43.4 million to significantly grow its operations. American Rheinmetall is investing $31.7 million in its Michigan facilities.

Historic Tax Relief for Michigan Workers and Families President Trump’s Working Families Tax Cuts put money back in Michiganders’ pockets. No Tax on Social Security: About 1.7 million Michigan seniors benefit from the new senior deduction. No Tax on Overtime and No Tax on Tips: Roughly a quarter of Michigan employees regularly work overtime and can benefit — so workers keep more of what they earn. Made-in-America Auto Loan Interest: Families who buy a vehicle assembled in the U.S. can deduct the interest — a tax cut that doubles as industrial policy. Bigger Refunds: Michigan taxpayers saw average refunds of $3,508. Rural Health Investments: Michigan secured about $173 million in first-year Rural Health Transformation Program funding. Protecting Jobs and Wages: The Working Families Tax Cuts safeguarded 170,000 Texas jobs, $30 billion in state GDP, and $15 billion in workers’ wages.

Michiganders are Safer The Trump Administration is making Michigan safe again — and the numbers tell the success. So far in 2026, violent offenses are down compared to the same period last year — with homicide down 19%, rape down 18%, and robbery down 17%. In 2025, violent crime and motor vehicle thefts all fell compared to the previous year. In 2025, Detroit recorded the fewest homicides since 1964 and the first time the city fell below 200 killings in six decades.

The Man Who Taxed Toilet Paper!

This is not the setup to a joke. Nor is it the punchline. This is the history of New Jersey and one of its governors.

His name was James J. Florio. I actually knew the guy and, full disclosure, worked on one of his first campaigns for public office.  Once, by the way, was enough. Anyway, in 1990, Florio decided that New Jersey government needed another $2.8 billion.

So he went looking for it. And looking. And looking.

Eventually, he found it in places New Jerseyans never imagined government would go—including into their most private parts and, disposable paper products like . . . wait for it . . . TOILET PAPER!

And New Jersey went nuts because Florio decided the state would tax toilet paper. It was sort of like taxing the right to take a crap. And it triggered a massive tax revolt. An anti-tax organization, Hands Across New Jersey, actually adopted toilet paper as its emblem making toilet paper the symbol of the whole sorry business. 

People waved rolls of toilet paper at protests. They put rolls on their car antennas. Anti-tax protesters turned bathroom tissue into a political weapon, streaming it from buildings, trees and utility poles.

The revolution had a roll!

Florio, of course, insisted the tax increases were necessary. Governors have budgets to balance and bills to pay, after all, he argued. 

But there was one little problem. The people paying the bills were not amused.

Three years later, Florio ran for reelection. The voters ran him out of office. Republican Christie Whitman beat him by only about 26,000 votes, but the message was considerably larger: Don't mess with us! Especially not our toilet paper.

There was even a happy ending. Sort of. In 1991, the state backed off the tax on household paper products and exempted toilet tissue. Toilet paper was liberated!

Alas, New Jersey taxpayers were not. And therein lies the real joke. The state apparently learned one lesson: Don't tax toilet paper. But it did not learn the other lesson: Don't keep taxing the people who buy it.

Because New Jersey continued doing what New Jersey does so  disgustingly well  -- finding new taxes, new fees, new surcharges and new reasons why taxpayers should hand over more of what they earn.

We learned that the hard way. Again. And again. And again. To the point where New Jersey's runaway taxes have never really abated.

Still, Florio  did accomplish something few politicians ever have. He united New Jersey. Republicans hated him. Democrats came to hate what he did. And independents hated paying for it. 

What's more everybody—everybody—could get behind one simple proposition: Nobody wants government sticking its hand where it doesn't belong.

But New Jersey's bloated  appetite for taxes?  Still going strong. In fact, the state recently came out on top as the highest taxed state in the union.

Which proves that while politicians can sometimes learn from history, they don't necessarily learn the lesson taxpayers want them to learn.

They learned not to tax the toilet paper.

They never learned to stop giving the shaft to the taxpayer.

How Dinosaurs Helped Fight The Great Depression

We'e been on an extended journey out west with stops in parts of Wyoming, Colorado and South Dakota including  Denver, Vail, Deadwood, Mount Rushmore and Rapid City where we stopped at that town's famed Dinosaur Park which sits high above the city.

While some may shrug off the park today as a few old dinosaur statues on a hill, it was actually built to help capture traffic coming to Mount Rushmore and was, for its time, quite an accomplishment.

The City of Rapid City credits Dinosaur Park (built in 1936 during the Great Depression and when Mount Rushmore was still being carved out) for beginning Rapid City's transformation into a major tourist destination

The dinosaurs originally were painted gray, and were changed to cartoonish green and white in the 1950s. They are made of concrete, are virtually indestructible and were crafted by men in need of employment, hired by the federal government during the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

Dinosaurs were selected to represent those roaming the Western United States, including Apatosaurus, Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, and Edmontosaurus annectens. A Protoceratops and a Dimetrodon were added later.

Generations of families have come to visit Deano, the quirky 80-foot-long Apatosaurus, and his six other dinosaur friends, straddling Rapid City’s skyline on Dakota Hogback Ridge.

The Park was refurbished in 2024. The multi-million dollar project focused on aesthetic improvements, including repainting the concrete dinosaurs, and improving accessibility.

The park was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. If you ever come out this way, be sure to include it as part of your visit!

C'mon Now, Ya Know It's The Truth!

 

In Michigan, The Choice Couldn't Be Clearer!

🚨 JUST IN: Trump-backed Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers just DROPPED this ad on Abdul El-Sayed

"Abdul says football is RACIST, S*XIST and dominated by toxic masculinity. Let's get this straight. Abdul thinks football is bad, but men playing women's sports is GOOD? That's… pic.twitter.com/ZSbblNFFS8

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) August 29, 2026

As We Approach The Anniversary, Remember THIS

 

Nearly 3,000 people were murdered on the morning of September 11, 2001. They did not simply “die.” 
They were slaughtered by Islamic terrorists. 
And when someone now recounts September 11 by softening the murder of Americans into passive tragedy, only to recover his moral outrage when discussing America’s response, he reveals where his sympathy and anger actually reside. 
Think about what it takes for a human being to look down from nearly 100 stories and conclude that hitting the pavement at terminal velocity is preferable to what is happening behind them. 
These victims did not choose death because they wanted to die. They chose one form of death because Islamic terrorists had left them facing another… suffocation, incineration, or being crushed beneath a collapsing skyscraper. 
September 11 was the deliberate mass murder of Americans, in their offices, aboard their airplanes, and on American soil, by Islamic terrorists.