Even though Congress has given the Defense Department more money than either the Pentagon or the President asked for, Defense Secretary Mattis warned that our very survival was in jeopardy because we are not spending enough on the military. But spending is not the issue...it's the policy!
By Liberty Report Staff
South Koreans realize that they would suffer greatly from another war on the North. Today, their president called for peace during his speech at the UN. North Korea's neighbor wants peace, and the United States, located 6,000 miles away threatens war. During the first war in North Korea, the U.S. killed approximately 30% of the North Korean population, and a few days ago President Trump threatened all 25 million with total destruction. Just this morning, the U.S. announced an increase in sanctions, that only hurt the civilians in North Korea. By contrast, South Korea this morning pledged $8 million in aid for their neighbors in the North. There's a big disconnect here.
Adam Garrie reports:
Turning to North Korea, Moon said that “peace is calling”. He urged North Korea to choose peace of its own volition and to give up its nuclear weapons on a voluntary basis.
Donald Trump should perhaps re-watch his campaign speeches about "America First".
Going 6,000 miles away from America to destroy innocent lives is not what people voted for.
By Robert Wenzel
This has to be painful for Trump supporters. Super neocon by birth, Bill Kristol, told Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC earlier this afternoon that President Trump’s U.N. speech was “more normal” than he would have expected. He said it “sounded a little like George W. Bush to me” and that “for all of Donald Trump’s America First talk and repudiation of the Bush-McCain-Romney foreign policy,” it came across as “more standard,” even with the “Trumpian aspects.” Kristol added that this may be due to the influence of foreign policy advisors and others in the President’s circle: “The people around Trump have gotten more of a grip on Trump, I think, in foreign policy, than I would have expected… This is a more normal speech by an American president than I might have thought three, four months ago.” This article was originally published at TargetLiberty.com
By Liberty Report Staff
It's very troubling to read Gallup's poll that a majority of Americans support military action against North Korea if the United States cannot accomplish its goals by more peaceful means first. It means the war propaganda is working.....again! Because Americans are trained to believe that majorities are sacrosanct, it acts to convince many in the minority to keep quiet. Their better judgement must be off in some way. After all, if the majority says "steal," it means you have to steal. If the majority says "invade," it must mean you have to invade. If the mob is stirred into a frenzy, the mob must be right. How many times must Americans replay this same script?
A majority supported Reagan invading Grenada.
A majority supported George H.W. Bush invading Panama. A majority supported George H.W. Bush and his catastrophic decision to place troops into Saudi Arabia to get involved with a skirmish between Iraq and Kuwait. A majority supported Clinton invasions in Serbia and Kosovo. A majority supported George W. Bush's even bigger catastrophe of invading Iraq. In each case (and many others) the U.S. was not attacked by the target nations. Americans are like hampsters in a wheel. Fear ---> War Fever ---> Regret ---> Fear ---> War Fever ---> Regret "How could we have been so naive?" "They lied to us again." "We need to elect another president to wipe away the guilt of war." The next president comes along, and the same script is replayed. Around and around we go. The military should be used for defensive purposes only. The U.S. military should be defending the U.S. only. The U.S. has not been attacked by North Korea. Gallup tells us that Americans support military action anyway. Can we just skip to the regret now? Or must we go through yet another disastrous war generated by the military-industrial-complex and the majority?
President Trump's speech yesterday at the United Nations got rave reviews from neocons like John Bolton and Elliot Abrams. The US president threatened North Korea, Venezuela, Syria, Yemen, and Iran. Are the neocons on a roll?
By Liberty Report Staff
Ronald Reagan was a great campaigner. He articulated how "government is not the answer, it is the problem." Donald Trump was a great campaigner as well. He hit the right notes in order to get those votes. The American people still have a strong under-current for the ideas of freedom. Even though a lot of freedom has been snuffed away, the desire is still there. America still has a strain that doesn't want perpetual war and welfare. That's why politicians tap into this under-current when they're campaigning. They appeal to the good nature of Americans. In the case of both Reagan and Trump, however, the moment they stepped into office, they turned on a dime. Reagan would grow government like a noxious weed, and Trump is obviously doing the same.
The personnel changes that occurred under both administrations are eerily similar.
Reagan's major error was in making George H.W. Bush his Vice President. Gary North wrote about this awhile back: “I have not written much about presidential campaigns since the fall of 1980, when Reagan accepted George H. W. Bush as his Vice Presidential candidate. He had promised his supporters that he would not do this. I wrote an issue of Remnant Review titled ‘The Fix Is In.’ It was. Bush’s right-hand man, James Baker, took over running the White House staff. All of the Reaganites at the White House – there were very few – departed within a year.
Sound familiar?
In less than a year President Trump has been isolated as well. He's now thoroughly surrounded by the status quo establishment. Trump has gone from "America First" to toasting the globalists. Today Trump spoke of "the great, great potential of the United Nations." Trump is Making Globalism Great Again! The under-current in America does not want this stuff. The best that can be done is to make that under-current even stronger. Spread the ideas of liberty....far and wide. And for goodness sakes, stop believing politicians!
By Liberty Report Staff
North Korea is a socialist basket case. Socialism produces basket cases on a regular basis. It's nothing new. There's no reason to like Kim Jong-un or any other dictator in the world. Most countries don't meddle with North Korea. They mind their own business. About a century ago, the American federal government took a different path. Everything is its business. Before supporting an American war over in Korea, how about taking a quiz. No cheating.
Unless the answer to the last two questions are "YES," Americans shouldn't be looking for yet another war.
War is not a joke. It's mass murder. And if the U.S. government is doing the things (to you) that are listed in those questions (spoiler: they are), perhaps that's where the focus should be. Think.
According to recent media reports, President Trump is planning to lift the restrictions on the CIA's use of drones worldwide. Will this new "counterterrorism" strategy create more terrorists than it kills?
By Chris Rossini
In America, we do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example for everyone to watch.
Those were actual words spoken by President Trump today at the UN. If only it were possible to see the thoughts swirling through the minds of everyone listening.
The words "yeah right" most likely dominated at that moment. If only the president's words were true. Instead, the U.S. government has been at constant war (both overt and covert) for an entire century. The globe is bursting with American military bases that are stationed around every corner. Tell us another one Mr. President: We are celebrating the 230th anniversary of our beloved constitution, the oldest constitution still in use in the world today. This timeless document has been the foundation of peace, prosperity and freedom for the Americans and for countless millions around the globe whose countries have found inspiration in its respect for human nature, human dignity and the rule of law.
Again, one would have to ignore the last 100 years to believe that the U.S. Constitution has been the foundation of peace. It would be, if politicians took their oaths of office seriously. They don't.
America is the greatest debtor in the history of the world. Both the government and its citizens are drowning in bills that can't possibly be paid. About half of the citizens are on federal welfare. The government will someday have to break the bad news that it's completely broke. The citizens won't be happy...to say the least. To call this "prosperity" is to butcher the meaning of the word. The Constitution is not a timeless document. It's purpose was, according to the drafters, to chain down the federal government. It failed. But wait, there's more: In America, the people govern. The people rule. And the people are sovereign. I was elected not to take power, but to give power to the American people, where it belongs.
The people definitely don't govern. That makes no sense.
Government, because it is a monopoly on violence, is a zero-sum game. Someone must win and someone must lose. Someone dictates, and someone else is expected to obey. Only in a free society would people govern their own lives. No aggressive use of force would be permitted (by anyone or any group). But since it is accepted (at this point) that government is a tool of violence to be used against others, the fight is for *some* people to control it, and others to suffer under it. Zero-sum. "The people rule" is a fairy tale. Speaking of fairy tales: As President of the United States, I will always put America first.
Well, it's been about 9 months, and even many of Trump's supporters know that this isn't true at all.
Right out of the gate, Trump started breaking his campaign promises. He has continued up to the present day. Political+Crony Globalism is still firmly the agenda. Finally, in a complete contradiction to his earlier statement about America, the president said: No one has shown more contempt for other nations and for the well-being of their own people than the depraved regime in North Korea.
If America were truly a "shining example" it would not be concerning itself with North Korea, probably the most impoverished nation on earth.
America would not have thousands of troops on North Korea's border. It would not conduct military drills on that border. A shining example is supposed to ... you know ... set an example. A new philosophy on what the role of government should be is necessary in the "land of the free". Trump is not providing that philosophy. Instead, he's standing at the podium of a globalist institution, lying to anyone who's paying attention. Liberty is far superior to this.
Press Play to hear Ron Paul deliver his Weekly Update:
By Ron Paul
Last week, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) reminded Congress that in matters of war, they have the authority and the responsibility to speak for the American people. Most Senators were not too happy about the reminder, which came in the form of a forced vote on whether to allow a vote on his amendment to repeal the Afghanistan and Iraq war resolutions of 2001 and 2002. It wasn’t easy. Sen. Paul had to jump through hoops just to get a vote on whether to have a vote. That is how bad it is in Congress! Not only does Congress refuse to rein in presidents who treat Constitutional constraints on their war authority as mere suggestions rather than as the law of the land, Congress doesn’t even want to be reminded that they alone have war authority. Congress doesn’t even want to vote on whether to vote on war!
In the end, Sen. Paul did not back down and he got his vote. Frankly, I was more than a little surprised that nearly 40 percent of the Senate voted with Rand to allow a vote on repealing authority for the two longest wars in US history. I expected less than a dozen “no” votes on tabling the amendment and was very pleasantly surprised at the outcome.
Last week, Rand said, "I don't think that anyone with an ounce of intellectual honesty believes that these authorizations from 16 years ago and 14 years ago ... authorized war in seven different countries." Are more Senators starting to see the wars his way? We can only hope so. As polls continue to demonstrate, the American people have grown tired of our interventionist foreign policy, which burns through trillions of dollars while making the world a more dangerous place rather than a safer place. Some might argue that losing the vote was a defeat. I would disagree. For the first time in years we saw US Senators on the Senate Floor debating whether the president should have authority to take the US to war anywhere he pleases. Even with just the small number of votes I thought we might have gotten on the matter, that alone would have been a great victory. But getting almost 40 percent of the Senate to vote our way? I call that a very good start! The first step toward rebalancing the separation of powers is for Congress to re-assert its authority and responsibility for declaring war. To this point, Congress has preferred to transfer its war responsibility to the president. The second step, once Congress understands its obligations, is to convince our representatives that war was not designed to be the first choice in foreign policy, but rather to be the last resort when we are under attack or when a direct attack is imminent! Just because Congress decides to approve the use of force does not mean that the war is just, justified, or wise. Congress is just as susceptible to war propaganda as the rest of America and unfortunately it is dominated by the false opinion that if you are not enthusiastic about US military solutions to disputes overseas then you are not being tough enough. In fact, it takes far more strength to exercise restraint in the face of the constant war propaganda and disinformation coming from the media and the neocons. We have achieved a small victory last week, thanks to Senator Paul. But we still have a lot of work to do! We must keep the pressure on and convert more to the cause of peace and prosperity! |
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