Ron Paul ‘The Maverick’ at University of Texas, Arlington

Ron Paul, the prominent libertarian communicator, has said many times that the great interest in the ideas of liberty he finds among young people on university campuses gives him reason for optimism. In fact, Paul has made it a priority to speak at universities often, seeking to help build a greater understanding of liberty among both students and people from the surrounding communities.

Most recently, Paul visited on Tuesday the University of Texas at Arlington to take part in the university’s Maverick Speakers Series. His schedule on campus included a speech to an audience of about 1,500 people in an auditorium, a separate lecture to a smaller group of students, and a book signing.

Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.

Ron Paul Says Entering Presidential Race as Libertarian Party Candidate ‘Not in the Cards’

In a new Fox Business interview, host Kennedy asks Ron Paul the question many people have considered the last couple days: With Paul’s son Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) having dropped out of the presidential race this week, how about the senior Paul jump into the 2016 presidential contest by seeking the Libertarian Party nomination? Paul responds that such a run is “not in the cards.”

Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.

Judge Napolitano: Clinton Espionage Evidence is Overwhelming. Will Obama Block Prosecution?

In a new video report at Fox News, former New Jersey Judge Andrew Napolitano predicts that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will “very soon” recommend the prosecution of Hillary Clinton for espionage based on her alleged reckless handling of US government secrets while she was Secretary of State. That indictment recommendation, Napolitano explains, will bring the matter into the “political sphere” in which President Barack Obama will have the power either to allow or prevent a prosecution.

Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.

Afghanistan Boondoggles Get Rep. Walter Jones’ Goat

Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), speaking Tuesday at a hearing of the US House Armed Services Committee, returned to a subject he has addressed many times — the US government’s incredible waste of money and lives in Afghanistan. Providing one example to illustrate the “boondoggles” that permeate US activity in Afghanistan, Jones shed light on the six million dollars the US spent on a program involving importing “rare blonde Italian goats” to Afghanistan. The pricey goats, Jones relates, may have then just been eaten instead of being used to boost the cashmere industry in Afghanistan.

Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.

Making the Super Bowl Super Authoritarian

After months of preparation, national, state, and local police have rolled out a comprehensive mass surveillance effort in the San Francisco Bay Area as the Super Bowl approaches. If you happen to be in the area over the next few days, you can expect much high-tech gadgetry and police time will be used to watch, catalogue, and analyze your activities.

Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.

Minnesota GOP Rules Change after Ron Paul Delegates Win May Give Donald Trump the Win

The Republican National Committee (RNC) was not happy that Ron Paul, who had won second place in Minnesota’s February of 2012 caucuses, ended up with over three-quarters of the state’s delegates to the Republican National Convention. The RNC was not happy with Paul’s delegates’ large wins in other states either.

The rules had allowed an outsider to win. Therefore, the insiders decided the rules needed to be changed. Well, what do you know! Because of the new rules for allotting delegates to the winner on caucus night, the insiders are now fretting that the winning of the state’s delegates by another party outsider — Donald Trump — may be unstoppable in 2016.

Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.

Ron Paul: Congress is AWOL on US Wars

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.

A New Large-Scale US Military Attack in Libya

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.

Here Come the Free Staters!

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.