From Syria to Iran to Afghanistan to Russia, President Biden's early promises to focus on diplomacy rather than the alleged brute force of the Trump Administration has not been followed up with action. In fact, US foreign policy is as militaristic as ever. Sign up for free updates from the Ron Paul Institute so we can keep in touch in this era of censorship: http://www.RonPaulInstitute.org/subscribe
In a blistering recent Tweet, US Rep. Thomas Massie blasted the inclusion of one billion dollars in the "stimulus" bill to propagandize the American people in favor of various coronavirus vaccines. Do we really need the government taking our money to propagandize us into accepting government policy? Also today, Texas (mostly) re-opens (with some depressing exceptions) and a new peer-reviewed study sheds more light on the "stay home" policies previously used to fight the virus.
By Chris Rossini
When we look at outside circumstances, we're looking at the manifestation of ideas. This is why you'll often hear libertarians use the phrase "ideas rule the world." That phrase is not just an arrangement of empty words. They're literal and powerful. The best way that this writer can explain exactly why "ideas rule the world," is by using an analogy. The analogy will be one of a garden. Imagine you are creating your own garden. You've done all the necessary labor to get it started, and now you're staring at nothing but a patch of fertile soil. In other words, it's just a potential garden at this point. The soil is figuratively 'waiting' for the seeds that you will provide. You must initiate what this garden will look like by making choices. Which seeds will you plant? The soil doesn't care. It'll grow whatever you want. Plant a watermelon seed, and it'll produce a watermelon. Plant lilacs, and lilacs you will have. The soil will not, however, give you a cucumber if you plant a lilac. It'll return what you initiate. The soil doesn't care where the seed came from either. Whether or not you bought it, or if a friend gave it to you, doesn't matter. The soil only cares that it's a seed. Don't try to trick the soil. There are no shortcuts or "free lunches." Don't bury a stone into the ground with the expectation that something will grow. The soil doesn't recognize the fake, or the untrue, or the make-believe. Give it the truth, not the delusion. Give it the seed. The moment you make your choice, and place the seed into the ground, miracles begin to happen. Not only does the soil play its part, but so do all the elements; the sun, the seasons, the air, the rain ... Everything moves on that seed to manifest what you have chosen. You play a very small part going forward. Maybe you spray some water if it's needed. But all the action that is taking place does so without any control exerted by you. Your most important job is to guard that seed, and keep the weeds away. There are always weeds that are ready to attack. After enough time passes, the outward manifestation of your seed appears. You look out at your garden and see the results of the choice that you have made! If you're happy with what you see, you let it be and enjoy your garden. You may even plant more of what you like and enjoy an even greater abundance of it. However, if you're unhappy with what you see, it's up to you to rip it out by the roots and begin again. Hopefully you learn from your error and subsequently make a better choice next time. Now... Let's get to "ideas" and why they rule, not only your own life, but the entire world. Our outward lives are the manifestation of our ideas. It's the same exact principle. We each have our very own individual garden, our mind. The seeds that we plant are the ideas that we choose to believe. The mind doesn't care what we plant. It'll return what is planted, and nothing else. The mind doesn't care where your idea came from either. You could have thought of it yourself, heard it from a friend or family member, or (God-forbid) heard it on TV or the media. The source of the idea does not matter. But again, there are no shortcuts, or tricks. The mind doesn't recognize the fake, or the untrue, or the delusion. It will not make 2+2=5, no matter how hard you focus or concentrate on it, proclaim it, or believe it. Give it the truth. If you believe in the false, you'll never see it manifested. It's equivalent to planting a stone in the soil. You'll forever look at a blank patch of soil if you expect anything to grow. So the job that each of us individually has is a very BIG and important job. We have to each choose: "Do I believe this or not?" "Do I accept this? Or do I reject it?" The moment we make the choice, the moment we say "I believe this," we have planted the idea, and everything moves on that idea. If the idea is true and in harmony with reality, we begin to notice all sorts of unexpected things that begin to occur. The phone call comes, the person that you need shows up, the opportunity opens, the nagging problem is resolved... But how? How does it happen like that? Well, how can a massive oak tree be contained in a tiny seed? How does the perfect mixture of all the elements, the seasons, the sun and rain, turn it into a giant oak? How can a bunch of American "traitors" separate from the British Empire; the biggest and most powerful empire in the history of the world at that point? Be wary of anyone who claims to know exactly how the unexpected manifests an idea. Now, unlike seeds, human beings are conscious and always acting with a purpose or goal in mind. We're always making plans, adapting, refining, reacting... But our outer choices and actions are always based on our inner choices. Action always follows the idea. Every action has a consequence. You cannot have one without the other. And it is in these consequences that we see the results of the ideas that have been planted. We see the manifestation of them. If you're happy with what you see, you enjoy it and can do more of it if you so choose. You can have a greater abundance of what you like. However, if you're unhappy with what you see, it's up to you to replace the bad idea with a good idea in your mind, and begin again. Hopefully you learn from your error and subsequently make a better choice next time. What does all of this have to do with Liberty? Well, when we look out at the "land of the free" today we do not see the manifestation of the ideas of Liberty. Quite the opposite, and it's a result of the ideas that far too many have embraced. Just as there are always weeds that are ready to attack the garden, so there are always the mental weeds of authoritarianism and tyranny that are ready to attack Liberty. Liberty and tyranny are ideas. They are beliefs. One must always dominate the other. While in America's early history, the ideas of Liberty dominated people's minds, and subsequently their actions, so today do the ideas of tyranny dominate people's minds, and their actions reflect it with pinpoint precision. So what do we do when we look out at our garden, and don't like what we see? We rip out what was planted by the roots and plant again. Likewise what do we do when we look out at society and see authoritarianism running wild? We go right to the source...to the idea...to the mind. The task at hand is to speak the words of Liberty, over and over, in as convincing a manner as possible. The idea can't be forced on anyone, just like it can't be forced on you. It can only be accepted by one person, followed by another, followed by 10 more people, and then 1,000 more, and then 100,000 more. Once enough people say: "I believe in, and want my individual liberty," everything will move on that idea. Liberty built civilization. It can rebuild civilization.
Stanford University Medical School professor Dr. Jay Bhattacharya is featured in Newsweek Magazine condemning the lockdowns across the United States to fight the virus, calling them the biggest mistake ever made by public health authorities. A new study released by none other than the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) ironically appears to bolster Dr. Bhattacharya's claim. Is the truth starting to seep out from the Berlin Wall of lies?
By Ron Paul
According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), 2021 will be the second year in a row in which the federal debt exceeds Gross Domestic Product (GDP). CBO also projected that this year’s federal deficit will be 2.3 trillion dollars, which is 900 billion dollars less than last year. However, CBO’s projections do not include the 1.9 trillion dollars “stimulus” bill Congress is likely to pass. The CBO’s report was largely ignored by Congress and the media. One reason the report did not get the attention it deserves is Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s continued commitment to making sure Fed policies enable Congress to spend as much as Congress deems necessary to address the economic fallout from the coronavirus panic. As financial analyst Peter Schiff points out, the Fed’s commitment to ensuring the government can run up massive debt means the Fed will not allow interest rates to increase to anywhere near what they would be in a free market. This is because increasing interest rates would cause the federal government’s debt payments to rise to unsustainable levels. Yet, the Fed cannot admit it is going to keep rates near, or even below, zero indefinitely without unsettling the markets. So, the Fed continues to promise interest rate hikes in the future and the markets pretend to believe the Fed. When (or if) the lockdowns end, the Fed will find a new crisis justifying “temporarily” keeping interest rates low. The Federal Reserve has not just endorsed massive federal spending, Fed Chairman Powell has also endorsed masks, vaccines, and social distancing to defeat the coronavirus and restore the economy. It is disappointing, but not surprising, to see the Fed go full Fauci. The overreaction to coronavirus is a cause of the explosion in federal spending and debt we have witnessed over the last year. However, federal spending already greatly increased from January 2017 until the lockdowns. This spending growth occurred under a Republican president, a Republican Senate, and, from 2017 to 2019, a Republican House. One bright spot in Democratic control of the presidency and both houses of Congress is more Republicans will fight excessive spending and claim to be “deficit hawks.” Republican hypocrisy in claiming to care about spending and debt only when a Democrat sits in the Oval Office is one reason why Democrats can so easily disregard debt. Another reason is the left’s embrace of Modern Monetary Theory. Modern Monetary Theory is the latest version of the fairy tale that politicians need not worry about debt and deficits as long as the central bank can monetize the federal debt. Unless the government changes course, America will experience a crisis greater than the Great Depression. The crisis will include a final rejection of the dollar’s world reserve currency status. There will also be much increased price inflation. At that point Congress will have no choice but to limit spending, although it will try to hide cuts in popular entitlement programs by “adjusting” government measures of inflation. Congress could then blame the Fed for the reduction in value of government benefits. Those who know the truth have two responsibilities. First, ensure they and their families are protected when the crash comes. Second, redouble efforts to spread the ideas of liberty and grow the liberty movement so politicians are pressured to cut spending and debt and to end the Fed.
Congress is expected to vote on the final passage of the massive $1.9 trillion "Covid" bailout package that many Republicans are claiming is a bailout for blue states who cratered their economies with Covid lockdowns. Is there truth to this claim, or is there enough pork for all?
The U.S. Constitution, the "Supreme Law of The Land," was designed to chain down the U.S. federal government. Considering the U.S. federal government is the biggest government to ever exist on Earth, it's obvious that the Constitution has failed. Those in power found a loophole. What if "private" corporations, that are intimately tied to government, do the things that government itself is legally forbidden from doing? This loophole has brought us the circumstances that we deal with today.
The FBI and Homeland Security are issuing warnings that a second "siege" of the US Capitol may be staged today, citing "chatter" among extremist groups. Does all of this sound like the scare propaganda from the dark days of the "War on Terror"? Endless warnings of "chatter" to justify further restrictions on our liberty like the so-called PATRIOT Act? Are they blowing propaganda smoke or should we be afraid?
Yesterday's announcement by Texas Governor Greg Abbott that effective March 10th the statewide mask mandate and partial lockdown would be lifted was a huge blow to the lockdowners. There is a feeling of the fall of the Berlin Wall of virus tyranny. But many are left questioning: why the authoritarian over-reach in the first place? Will Abbott be punished politically?
By Chris Rossini
Human life is personal, very personal. No two completely identical things exist in the universe. This doesn't just apply to grains of sand, but also to each and every human being as well. We're each a one-of-a-kind, never to be copied, never to be reproduced, individual. We each occupy our own specific place in the universe, and it cannot be occupied by anyone else. We are each born at different times and in different locations. We are each raised under different conditions, by different people, and in different environments. We all individually think....alone, with our own minds. We all make our own choices, which manifest into consequences that we individually experience. No one else can possibly experience what we each individually experience. Others may be able to relate. They may be able imagine themselves in our shoes. But they wear their own shoes and can never actually wear ours. We all purposefully act, every second of the day, to achieve ends that we've individually chosen. We decide what is important to us in every moment. What is important to us, may be abhorrent to others. They decide what is important to themselves. We all experience different events, in our own unique ways. Others may be a part of, or participate in the same event, but we each interpret the meaning of the event to ourselves. We each respond to events based on our own knowledge, prior experiences, adopted beliefs and state of mind. As Ludwig von Mises wrote: "The environment determines the situation but not the response." We each choose our own responses. These responses can never be predicted ahead of time, with precision; not even by our own selves! We can hope to respond to an event in a certain way, should it occur, but we don't know for sure what we will choose until that moment arrives. Uncertainty and unpredictability are unavoidable fixtures of human life. Because of this we are all perpetually ignorant, no matter how smart our Moms said we are. Mises pointed out: “There is for man no such thing as omniscience.” Since we are all perpetually ignorant, it means we can never get rid of risk. We must each decide what we believe to be risky. The determination of risk is extremely personal. What seems risky to you may not seem risky to me. What seems risky to you today, may not seem risky to you tomorrow. What an 80 year old believes to be risky, may not be risky to a 20 year old. What a Californian believes to be risky, may not be risky to a Floridian. Risk is a personal assessment. It cannot be determined by anyone else for you. Other people can certainly make suggestions. They can try to persuade you, and provide you with information that they deem to be important. But you are the King or Queen that decides whether or not to believe them. You make the call. Yay? or Nay? Whatever you decide will come with the attendant consequences. There's no going back and blaming someone else that may have duped you. For it is you who decided to believe them. You own the consequence of your decision. It should be obvious by now that human life is extreme, unequivocal, and complete diversity. Individual Liberty is our nature and there's no escaping it, no matter how hard anyone tries to do so. As such, it does no good to fear Individual Liberty. If you're going to choose to fear something, you're better off fearing tyranny instead. For tyranny is the real danger to every individual, including the tyrants themselves. Tyranny seeks to abolish and destroy the diversity of life. It is the seeking of turning the different into the identical; in trying to make the heterogeneous into the homogeneous; in trying to make uniformity where it does not, and cannot, ever exist. Tyranny is the attempt in creating unified thought ... or unified opinion. Tyranny is the attempt to create a single interpretation to an event. Tyranny is the attempt to create a single risk assessment that applies to every unique individual. Tyranny is the attempt to impose one-size-fits-all by force. The key word here is "attempt." Tyranny can never actually succeed in achieving any of these ends. It can only be attempted. That's as far as it can go, and needless to say, tyranny has been repeatedly attempted. These attempts have created every mass horror story throughout human history. 1 million dead here....10 million dead there...All the mass horror stories carry the same theme: The desire to create uniformity where it can never exist. It can be attempted through war against another nation, or even war against one's own nation. The Communists of the 1900's were driven by the philosophy of creating uniformity in their own nations (followed by the rest of the world, of course). The result was hundreds of millions of their own people dead. So while Individual Liberty means Life...Tyranny means certain death. Life is hard....Individual Liberty is hard... Why make it exponentially harder by embracing tyranny? Why attempt the impossible? Is the possible not enough? Why continually attempt to create uniformity in world of diverse and unique individuals? Tyranny cannot bring certainty to the uncertainty that we all must deal with. It cannot bring safety to an existence filled with risk. Uniformity cannot exist...To desire uniformity is to desire the complete destruction of humanity. So if we have no choice but to be free and sovereign individuals (and we don't) then we best take the bull by the horns and live like it. For to fear Individual Liberty is to fear Life itself. |
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