So-called "help" from government leads to crisis, which leads to more calls for "help," and even bigger crisis! The student debt catastrophe is a picture-perfect example of this mentality in action. Government "help" created the problem and calls for more government "help" will make things exponentially worse!
By Norm Singleton
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has worked out a deal with Democrats to vote on an amendment stating that the president does not have congressional authorization to go to war with Iran in exchange for moving the FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act forward. The vote on final passage of the NDAA will occur today, June 27, while the vote on presidential authority (or lack thereof) to wage war in Iran will occur tomorrow, June 28. Friday’s vote will be held open all day to ensure all senators—including those running for the Democratic nomination for president— are able to return to DC following this week’s debates to vote. Campaign for Liberty supporters who oppose wasting trillions of dollars and thousands of lives on another no-win, unconstitutional war should contact their senators and tell them to vote for the amendment affirming that the president lacks congressional authority to go to war. This article was originally published at Campaign for Liberty.
The US/Iran conflict is coming to a crisis point this weekend, with a vote in the Senate on war powers, Iran set to breach its agreed to stockpile limits on enriched nuclear material, and strong words of warning from the Russian government. Will this weekend's Trump/Putin meeting in Japan de-escalate tensions?
By Liberty Report Staff
As the Saudi genocide of Yemen continues, everything's coming up roses for the US arms dealers who are supplying the Saudi killing machine. Billions in arms sales are made yearly and foreign agents lobbying for the Saudis and the United Arab Emirates are making millions. Meanwhile, millions of Yemeni civilians face starvation, disease, and death in the four year Saudi war of aggression on them.
By Chris Rossini
1989 - The Cold War comes to an end. The Warsaw Pact dissolves. Socialism was nothing more than a starvation philosophy with a good PR department. Socialist governments around the world racked up deaths totaling hundreds of millions, and it all came crashing down. Did the U.S. demobilize, bring the troops home, close down NATO, and let freedom ring? No! NATO was expanded, military adventures escalated with dreams of total U.S. world hegemony and the U.S. military-industrial-complex became the biggest Socialist program to ever exist on Earth! How's that for irony. The year 2000 comes along and the dot-com stock market bubble bursts. Are the mal-investments created by the Federal Reserve unwound? Are the markets freed to clear out the waste? Are the debts liquidated? No! The Fed runs the printing presses and creates a housing mania that dwarfs the stock market bubble in size. All rationality is tossed aside and house-flipping becomes all the rage. House-flipping! The housing bubble bursts and takes down a handful of major financial institutions with it. But are the mal-investments unwound and liquidated? Are the markets freed to clear out all the waste? Are all the bad debts liquidated? No way! The Fed, under a euphemism known as QE, pumps trillions, and Trillions and TRILLIONS of dollars, creating the biggest bubble of them all. This bubble is then re-branded as the "greatest economy ever"! The greatest economy ever! Government 'guaranteed' well over a trillion dollars in student loans to make college "accessible," only to drown students in debt, while concomitantly driving UP the costs of college and driving DOWN the value of a college degree. Lots of debt .... lots of degrees ... lots of heartache and stress. What's the latest chatter? --- Just make college free! It's not just the young who were bamboozled by government "help." Older generations were were seduced by it as well. Promises to seniors via Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid have reached unfathomable levels. The U.S. government's UNFUNDED liabilities are estimated to be in the hundreds of trillions! What's the latest chatter? --- Just make healthcare free for everyone! Free for everyone! Budget deficits? --- The largest ever, with government spending almost a trillion more than it takes in taxes. Government's debt? --- The largest ever, with $22 trillion that can never, ever, be paid back. No matter where one looks, government is stepping on the accelerator to bankruptcy and default. What's the antidote?....The cure?...The remedy? It just sits patiently and waits. It has all the time in the world, and is in no rush...It's timeless. It's never imposed by force, since force is its antithesis. It just waits for people to seek after it, desire it and recognize it. It's invaluable and irreplaceable. It goes by the name of Individual Liberty. Americans once had the finest healthcare system in the world — a free-market healthcare system. It was so reasonably priced that hardly anyone had medical insurance, with the possible exception of catastrophic insurance. It was a system in which people in all income categories were being treated. Doctors, who at that time loved their profession, would voluntarily provide free healthcare services to poor people simple out of sense of moral obligation.
The Senate Majority Leader is attempting to block consideration of an amendment to the National Defense Authorization bill that would withhold funds for any attack on Iran without Congressional approval. As usual, the debate is not about whether or not to go to war or even debate a war, but to make partisan political points.
By Ron Paul
President Trump did the smart thing last week by calling off a US airstrike on Iran over the downing of an American spy drone near or within Iranian territorial waters. According to press reports, the president over-ruled virtually all his top advisors – Bolton, Pompeo, and Haspel – who all wanted another undeclared and unauthorized US war in the Middle East. Is Iran really the aggressive one? When you unilaterally pull out of an agreement that was reducing tensions and boosting trade; when you begin applying sanctions designed to completely destroy another country’s economy; when you position military assets right offshore of that country; when you threaten to destroy that country on a regular basis, calling it a campaign of “maximum pressure,” to me it seems a stretch to play the victim when that country retaliates by shooting a spy plane that is likely looking for the best way to attack. Even if the US spy plane was not in Iranian airspace – but it increasingly looks like it was – it was just another part of an already-existing US war on Iran. Yes, sanctions are a form of war, not a substitute for war. The media are also a big part of the problem. The same media that praised Trump as “presidential” when he fired rockets into Syria on what turned out to be false claims that Assad gassed his own people, has been attacking Trump for not bombing Iran. From Left to Right – with one important exception – the major media is all braying for war. Why? They can afford to cheer death and destruction because they will not suffer the agony of war. Networks will benefit by capturing big ratings and big money and new media stars will be born. President Trump has said he does not want to be the one to start a new war in the Middle East. He seemed to prove that by avoiding the urgings of his closest advisors to attack Iran. It is hard to imagine a president having top advisors who work at cross-purposes to him, planning and plotting their wars – and maybe more – behind his back. Even Trump seems to recognize that his national security advisor is not really serving his administration well. Over the weekend he said in an interview, “John Bolton is absolutely a hawk. If it was up to him he'd take on the whole world at one time, okay?” I think when you have a national security advisor who wants to fight the whole world at once, you have a problem. Does anyone believe we will be more secure after spending a few trillion more dollars and making a few hundred million more enemies? What does “victory” even look like? President Trump is in a bind and it is of his own making. Iran has shown that it is not willing to take its marching orders from Washington, which means “maximum pressure” from the US will not work. He has two options remaining in that case: risk it all by launching a war or make a gesture toward peace. A war would ruin his presidency – and a lot more. I would urge the president to issue waivers to China, India, Turkey, and the others who wish to continue buying Iranian oil and invite the Iranian leadership to meet at a neutral location. And fire Bolton and Pompeo. |
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