Adam Dick

Ron Paul holds the top place in a Newsmax list of the 100 most influential libertarians released Thursday. “Perhaps no one has done more to bring the libertarian platform into the national spotlight than Ron Paul,” begins the description of Paul in the list.

Since his last presidential campaign and retirement from the United States House of Representatives several years ago, Paul has kept busy communicating his ideas and commenting on the news. Paul has done so via means including his weekly column and his 2015 book Swords into Plowshares, as well as by hosting the Ron Paul Liberty Report each weekday and serving as chairman of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity (RPI).

Talking about RPI, several members of the RPI Advisory and Academic Boards — Water Block, Robert Higgs, Thomas Massie, Andrew Napolitano, and Lew Rockwell — are keeping Paul company on the most influential libertarians list.

Reprinted with permission from the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.

The Texas House of Representatives approved a resolution (SJR 2) on Thursday requesting that the United States Congress call a new constitutional convention — the first since the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that resulted in the drafting of the current US Constitution to replace the then-in-operation Articles of Confederation. The state Senate had already approved a constitutional convention resolution, and Texas Governor Greg Abbott, in a Thursday statement, indicated his support.

It is not just the Texas government that is requesting a new constitutional convention. Jonathan Tilove reported Thursday at the Austin American-Statesman that ten other states have made requests similar to the Texas request that Congress call a constitutional convention to propose an amendment or amendments related to a few particular listed goals. The number is higher for state legislatures requesting a constitutional convention to propose a US balanced budget amendment.

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Part of noninterventionism in foreign affairs is refraining from using threats, sanctions, foreign aid, or military attacks to make the governments of other countries change their actions in their own countries. The United States government has drifted so far from adherence to this standard that much media coverage expresses distress and amazement, due to Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal domestic actions, that US President Donald Trump cordially spoke Saturday with Duterte in a phone call and invited Duterte to visit Trump at the White House.

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Last week, someone posted at Twitter comments attacking Ron Paul. The comments absurdly labeled Paul — who has spent decades arguing for peace, free markets, and liberty — as adhering to “xenophobia” and promoting both “anti-trade conspiracy theories” and “a hideous corruption of libertarian ideas.”

“So what?” you may ask. After all, ignorant or spiteful comments are posted on the internet all the time. An important difference is that the someone who posted the comment on Twitter in this case has the title of Vice President For Research at the Cato Institute, a large Washington, DC-based think tank that presents itself as “dedicated to the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets and peace.” Coming from a person with such an affiliation, the absurd comments may lead people not well informed about Paul to shut off considering Paul’s educational efforts.

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On Tuesday, I was a guest for the second time on Joe Cristiano’s Liberty Talk Radio show. Cristiano is a well-informed and thoughtful talk show host. He adeptly handles interviews, ensuring they are both entertaining and educational. The Tuesday interview begins with an in-depth discussion of the war on drugs before shifting to a discussion of Donald Trump’s performance as president. Spoiler alert, Cristiano and I are not very pleased with Trump’s actions so far, though I do point to a couple bright spots.

Watch the complete interview here:

You can find my previous Liberty Talk Radio interview here.

Reprinted with permission from the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.