United States Department of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, in a Monday press conference, attacked cryptocurrencies, including Facebook’s planned Libra. Mnuchin charged that Libra and other cryptocurrencies “could be misused by money launderers and terrorist financiers” and are a “national security issue.” Further stated Mnuchin: “Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have been exploited to support billions of dollars of illicit activity like cybercrime, tax evasion, extortion, ransomware, illicit drugs and human trafficking.”
Mnuchin, however, likely has no real reason for such concerns about Libra. It looks like backers of Libra are prepared to help the US government crack down on cryptocurrencies and financial privacy.
Starting off a new interview with Ron Paul at the Wall Street for Main Street show, host Jason Burack asked Paul, who served in the United States House of Representatives as a Republican from Texas and ran three times for US president promoting a noninterventionist foreign policy, about the extent of influence in favor of militarism in Washington, DC.
Continue readingA United States House of Representatives subcommittee held a hearing on Wednesday at which countrywide marijuana legalization was considered. The hearing of the Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee appears designed to start off deliberative action in the House out of which the advancement of legalization legislation to the House floor will arise. However, the focus by Democratic majority House members on racial issues in the hearing titled “Marijuana Laws in America: Racial Justice and the Need for Reform” suggests the move toward legalization is off to a rocky start.
Continue readingOn Sunday, author Marianne Williamson did something very unusual for a political candidate. She sent out an email to raise funds for one of her Democratic presidential primary opponents — former United States Senator Mike Gravel. The stated purpose of her email was to help increase the number of contributors to Gravel’s campaign by 10,000 so he can meet the contributors threshold for participation in future Democratic primary presidential debates.
Continue readingIn a Friday editorial at the American Conservative, James Bovard examines a multitude of reasons why Americans rationally fear having an interaction with a cop. At the root, explains, Bovard, there are too many laws providing reasons for police to exercise force and too few restraints on when and how that force may be exercised.
Bovard writes his editorial as a response to South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s comment in a June Democratic presidential primary debate that Buttigieg is “determined to bring about a day when a white person driving a vehicle and a black person driving a vehicle, when they see a police officer approaching, feels the exact same thing — a feeling not of fear but of safety.”
Continue readingPhillip M. Baily reported Wednesday at the Louisville Courier Journal on a apparent effort by national Republican Party figures to defeat United States House of Representatives Member Thomas Massie (R-KY) in the 2020 Republican primary.
Why the effort to defeat Massie? Maybe it is because Massie has been a strong advocate for nonintervention overseas and respect for liberty in America since he won election to the House in 2012.
Continue readingThe Declaration of Independence, celebrated each July Fourth, does not speak of creating a powerful new government. Instead, it challenges the excessive power exercised in various ways by the British government in the American colonies. Over the many decades since the document’s publication, the increased rejection of the recognition that the colonies and then the American states are free and independent is tied to the growing of the United States government’s power and the decreasing respect for liberty in America.
Continue readingLast week, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed into law marijuana legalization in his state, making Illinois the 11th state to legalize and the second to do so via legislation approved by a state legislature and signed by a governor instead of through a voters-approved ballot measure. New Mexico may soon follow in adopting legislature and governor-approved marijuana legalization.
Continue readingSpeaking this week with host Rick Sanchez at RT, Ron Paul, who founded the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity in 2013 after leaving the United States House of Representatives, discussed how special interests and executive branch officials work to push the US into wars, including against Iran. In doing so, Paul notes, they seek to overcome the inclination of the American people to oppose intervention overseas.
Continue readingOn Tuesday, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed into law a marijuana legalization bill. Due to the enactment of this legislation, over 12 million more Americans now live in a state where marijuana legalization has been adopted. In total, well over 90 million Americans live in the 11 states that have legalized marijuana.
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