Interviewed Thursday on the Alex Jones Show, Ron Paul lamented that, despite the Founders having “worked so hard to allow [war] powers to be put into the hands of the body that is supposed to be closest to the people,” the Congress today “is absent, AWOL,” because Congress members “don’t want the responsibility.” “They don’t want to assume any responsibility, so they would rather give up their prerogative,” concludes Paul.
Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.
In 2011 President Barack Obama directed, without any congressional authorization, a US military attack on Libya that was marketed as “humanitarian intervention.” As RPI Director Daniel McAdams observed in August of 2014, the result of military action by the US and other governments against Libya was destruction, violence, and chaos, not the promised “democracy, prosperity, and freedom from tyranny.”
Glenn Greenwald warns in a new Intercept article that the US government is planning another go at attacking Libya. Writes Greenwald:
Just as there was no Al Qaeda or ISIS to attack in Iraq until the U.S. bombed its government, there was no ISIS in Libya until NATO bombed its. Now the U.S. is about to seize on the effects of its own bombing campaign in Libya to justify an entirely new bombing campaign in that same country.
Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.
Ron Paul will deliver two speeches in Texas this week and next. First, the former presidential candidate and member of the US House of Representatives will be speaking close to home in Houston, Texas on January 30. Three days later, on February 2, Paul will be in North Texas for an Arlington, Texas speech.
Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.
It looks like thousands — maybe tens of thousands — of libertarians will be moving to New Hampshire in the next few years. Via a vote in 2003, the Free State Project selected New Hampshire from among several low-population states as the state to target for a migration of people who share an interest in reducing government violations of liberty. Now, over 19,500 people have agreed to a Free State Project pledge saying that, once 20,000 people have made the pledge, the pledgers intend to move to New Hampshire within five years and “exert the fullest practical effort toward the creation of a society in which the maximum role of government is the protection of individuals’ rights to life, liberty, and property.” The project is over 97 percent of the way toward 20,000 pledgers, with that threshold expected to be reached soon.
Motivating the Free State Project is the reasoning that a few thousand devoted advocates for liberty can have an outsized influence in a relatively small state. This appears to already be the case with “early movers” who have relocated to New Hampshire before the pledge’s 20,000 threshold has been reached. As the Concord Monitor reported earlier this month, 18 early movers in the New Hampshire House of Representatives means “Free State movers, who represent 0.15 percent of the total population, comprise nearly 5 percent of the House.”
Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.
Many people watching the Democratic presidential debate on Sunday likely considered United States Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) advocacy that the US “move as aggressively as we can to normalize relations with Iran” as a welcome call for replacing decades of US hostility and sanctions toward Iran with peace and trade that would benefit people in both countries. Many viewers may also have noticed that Sanders’ stated opinion shares much in common with former Republican and Libertarian presidential candidate Ron Paul’s long-expressed aspiration that US antagonism toward Iran be replaced with peaceful and prosperous relations.
Paul again expressed his aspiration regarding US-Iran relations in his latest weekly editorial that concludes with the following:
Let’s hope that this new opening with Iran will allow many other productive Americans to grow wealthy through trade and business ties. Let’s hope many new productive jobs will be created on both sides. Peace is prosperous!
The Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, however, would have none of Sanders’ normalization talk. Two days after the debate, the former senator from New York and US secretary of state’s campaign released a statement from ten high-level US foreign policy crafters taking Sanders to task for, among other things, desiring a quick warming in relations between the US and Iran. Their statement declares:
…Senator Sanders’ call to ‘move aggressively’ to normalize relations with Iran – to develop a ‘warm’ relationship – breaks with President Obama, is out of step with the sober and responsible diplomatic approach that has been working for the United States, and if pursued would fail while causing consternation among our allies and partners.
In other words, do not dare give peace a chance.
Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.
Tick tock, tick tock. The clock is ticking on the investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for illegal handling of United States government secrets. It is three weeks until the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire presidential primary on February 9. That is around the date that Fox New Senior Judicial Analyst and former New Jersey Judge Andrew Napolitano has predicted the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) may announce it has collected sufficient evidence to support criminal charges against Clinton.
In a Wednesday morning interview with Bill Hemmer at Fox News, Napolitano says the outlook for Clinton in the coming days is grim. “It’s hard to believe that the FBI will not recommend indictment of Mrs. Clinton” who is “a prime candidate for prosecution” concludes Napolitano.
Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.
Would you like to share with someone a short video that provides a basic introduction to police militarization in America? A new video at Learn Liberty, featuring Independent Institute Research Fellow Abigail R. Hall, may be just what you are seeking.
The video presents in ten minutes general information regarding how police have become militarized in both equipment and behavior, as well as special interests that stand in the way of reversing police militarization.
Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.
In a new video at Fox News, Judge Andrew Napolitano suggests that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has begun a new investigation of Hillary Clinton, in addition to the ongoing investigation of if she as secretary of state in the Obama administration failed to safeguard United States government secrets. This new investigation centers on whether Clinton illegally made decisions in the State Department “to favor her husband’s foundation or her husband’s speaking gigs.”
Clinton’s husband Bill Clinton founded the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation after serving two terms as president of the United States. The Clintons’ daughter Chelsea Clinton is a member of the foundation’s board of directors, as is Bill Clinton. Hillary Clinton joined the foundation’s board shortly after leaving the State Department in February of 2013 and left the board in April of last year.
Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.
Speaking Thursday with host Chuck Todd on MSNBC before the latest Republican presidential debate, former US House of Representatives member from Texas and three-time presidential candidate Ron Paul gave his assessment of the 2016 presidential race. Paul also commented on the “great progress” libertarianism is making, noting, for example, that many states are opting out of parts of the drug war.
Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), quoted in the New York Times on Wednesday, says that whistle-blower Edward Snowden, who revealed the extraordinary scope of the United States government’s mass surveillance program, is a traitor who should be tried in court for the treasonous act of “giving aid to our enemies.” Cruz even declares that the United States Constitution supports this prosecution of Snowden.
It is not out of the ordinary for a senator to want Snowden prosecuted. But, can’t Cruz have the decency to just state his opinion without hiding behind and muddying the Constitution?
Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.