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The Wall Street Journal is reporting that anonymous US Administration sources have secret intelligence showing that Syrian President Assad has given the order to use chlorine gas in Idlib province. Does this sound a little like the "anonymous sources" and "secret intelligence" used to lie us into the 2003 Iraq war?
By M. Butler
February 26, 2018, I had a parent meeting (one of many) with my 2nd grader's homeroom teacher/special Ed teacher/ Principal. It would be my last. We spent the next 2 days saying good bye to her many friends and teachers. On March 1, 2018 we were up and running with our first day of homeschool through the RPC. All of my friends expressed to me that they "felt sorry that I had to homeschool; that it's too much of a burden they would and could never put on their plate." "Are you going crazy just trying to pull it all together," they asked. I told them about the Ron Paul Curriculum and how this curriculum is special because it does all the teaching for me through video. All the instructors have university degrees, bachelors degrees, masters, etc. as well as a GIFT FOR TEACHING--something the public schools severely lack. As a result, I was very calm at the parent-teacher meeting that day knowing that I was going to be just fine...meanwhile, the poor teachers acted emotional trying to explain why they failed and why she was so behind. Their reasons were valid. They are no longer to create their own curriculum. They are not able to move at their own pace, they are forced to move fast. I asked how fast in comparison to teaching in the 80's when I grew up. They said, about "six times faster". They must introduce a concept then quickly test them, and move on to the next concept. There is little repetition." This means that visual learners like my daughter fall behind while auditory learners can succeed (by their standards) in this type of environment. Essentially the elementary schools across the country have taken on the role of 'ACCELERATED University programs." Only instead of teaching adults, they do it to little kids who are still developing. By the end of the meeting her teacher knew that I got it. That I understand what the problem was. She thanked me for being willing to homeschool. Then she became even more emotional and said she was tired of all of it. That she was frustrated that she can't delve into any one subject for any length of time. She threw her hands up in the air and admitted to all kinds of grievances with her job. The other teachers in the room looked down and nodded their heads in agreement." So much for the no child left behind act. More importantly though, my daughter was in terrible condition when I got her. She had developed stomach aches systematically at certain parts of the day. I assured her we were in no rush to learn and that all her stomach aches would disappear. After 2 weeks, they disappeared. I assessed her. By second grade, she did not know the whole ABC song. She could not write or form her letters that well. She didn't know every letter's sound. She did not know addition except 2+2 or 2+3. She had memorized only those two, but she really didn't understand the concept of adding. She could not count to 100. She could not count backwards. But she has always been a willing student. Fast forward 2 months and 3 weeks later. She knows the ABC song perfectly (of course!). She can count to a thousand. Her handwriting is looking better than mine. She has memorized ALL of her addition facts! Subtraction is going almost as well. She writes numbers in reading form to 100 ("seventy-eight"). She can quickly count backwards from 100. Her RP math teacher Paul Ramirez is amazing, as well as her Reading teacher. They are calm and stable. They are good examples for children. Every day she gives me a hug and says, "thank you mama for teaching me. I'm really starting to understand things. Folks. . . there was never anything wrong with her. But there is something VERY wrong with the public schools. Thanks to the department of education, my daughter is 2 years behind. However, because of the RP Curriculum I am 100% confident that she will catch up. Not only will she catch up, but she will end up smarter than the avg. employee in American by 2024. I'm not saying this to brag or take things too far. The RP Curriculum delves DEEP into the subjects, in a smooth repetitive manner. She is also learning how to problem solve -- not just quickly regurgitate info for some state mandated test. That is not true learning. By nature it is dishonest and deceitful. And besides all that, no more tears and sleepless nights for me, her mother. No stress on me to teach. Just the fun of organizing her folders, correcting her papers, sitting by her and running the computer. I wake up every day excited to run my school. I love organization. What joy fills my soul that I am fulfilling my calling as a MOTHER. The Ron Paul Curriculum is everything it promises to be and more. Visit http://www.RonPaulCurriculum.com
Iranian monetary policies, coupled with crippling U.S. sanctions, have caused a massive fall in the Iranian rial. Some Iranians are using gold to pay their rent, along with other financial transactions. Real money like gold always makes its return, but must we constantly wait for financial crisis in order to do the right things?
Building a Broad Coalition - Ron Paul Congressional Staff Panel at RPI Media & War Conference9/7/2018
How can we defeat the warmongers and interventionists? Rep. Paul's Congressional policy team reunites (with the addition of Liberty Report co-host Chris Rossini) to talk about how to reach out not just across the aisle but beyond the aisle.
By Brian Balfour
Is the economy “overheating,” or is it “humming” along smoothly? Should the Federal Reserve “prime the pump” to spur investment, or “pump the brakes?” Such questions of course use an engine metaphor to describe the economy. But why? In fact, the economy is more like a complex ecosystem rather than an engine or machine. Indeed, a machine is consciously designed to accomplish one main purpose, and its parts fitted together to achieve that objective. The economy, in contrast, is comprised of a complex, constantly evolving web of transactions between buyers and sellers. Elaborate and intricate patterns of production and exchange involving human beings emerge, based on the multitude of their individual preferences and desires. These patterns are constantly in flux. Unlike a machine, which is made to accomplish a singular goal or purpose, the economy does not have one goal or purpose, but billions of them. What is ‘the Market’? In his 1949 magnum opus “Human Action,” economist Ludwig von Mises provided an insightful description of the economy. Referring to it as “the market,” Mises wrote: “The market is not a place, a thing, or a collective entity. The market is a process, actuated by the interplay of the actions of the various individuals cooperating under the division of labor. The forces determining the – continually changing – state of the market are the value judgments of these individuals and their actions as directed by these value judgments.” Note Mises’ emphasis on the market not being any sort of entity, meaning that it can have no designed purpose or desired outcome. Rather, he describes the economy as a process, one comprised of “the adjustment of the individual actions of the various members of the market society to the requirements of mutual cooperation.” Thus, the economy is not an entity or organization with a will of its own. Instead, it is a self-organizing process of individuals and entities interacting with each other that involves constant adjustment by its participants. Individuals are constantly altering their needs and wants and adjusting to changing prices and choices. Entrepreneurs are continually adjusting to consumer preferences, and attempting to anticipate demand, in a world offering near unlimited options and combinations with which to create goods and services, but scarce resources. The Goal is Control So why the desire by progressives and many on the Left to reduce the economy to a cold, faceless machine with a purpose of its own? The answer can be reduced to two words: social control. It is much easier for government planners to control the economy when the public perceives it as some mechanical entity, that can be improved simply by pushing the right buttons or turning the right dials. For instance, during the depths of the Great Recession, Paul Krugman in 2008 found inspiration from one of his favorite John Maynard Keynes quotes, ““we have magneto [alternator] trouble.” Krugman likened the economic downturn to an instance of a “crucial part” of the “economic engine” malfunctioning, and rhetorically asking “(a)nybody know a good mechanic?”. Giving the Economy a Will of its Own Or worse still, is attempting to personify the economy itself, as Hillary Clinton and countless others put it: “an economy that works for everyone.” As if the economy is an entity with a will of its own, that decides who it “works” for, and a goal in mind that it is “working” toward. Engines should be designed and controlled by an external force to ensure it is working “properly.” A massive entity with a will of its own needs oversight to ensure those intentions are not evil. So imagine how much easier it is to sell the public on government controls of a tool or engine, or reining in the sinister intentions of a villainous entity, compared to what government economic intervention really is: controlling the voluntary actions of human beings attempting to improve their lives as they best see fit. Beyond protecting property rights and enforcing contracts to ensure against theft, harm or fraud; state intervention in the market necessarily involves the ruling class forcibly overriding the preferences of you, your neighbors and your loved ones. Regulating “the Economy” Means Overriding Individual Preferences Most government regulations involve restrictions on the actions of people. Certain behaviors are prohibited or mandated, often with the threat of punishment. That doesn’t sound quite as romanticized as finding a “good mechanic” to fix a “malfunctioning engine”, does it? Or consider government wealth redistribution programs. These involve the state forcibly taking the earned income of some to give as an unearned benefit to others, while much of the loot goes to bureaucrats tasked with administering these behemoth schemes. If this more accurate description was actually used, I doubt the “economy that works for everyone” sales pitch would gather much support. Since their beginning, Leftists have viewed the market as “chaos” unless guided by the conscious direction of a centralized overseer. What makes such thinking so dangerous is that Leftists have the hubris to appoint themselves as the wise overlords who decide how scarce resources should be allocated among their subjects. In such a system, people are mere pawns on a chessboard to be moved around by the planners. Such truths are hidden by economic planners who deftly conceal their lust for social control by characterizing the economy as a sort of machine in need of an operator, or an entity with a will of its own that – without the proper guidance – would wreak havoc and destruction on society. But peel back that cloak, and realize that central planning, regulations and government intervention of all sorts involves the forcible control of the actions of flesh and blood humans. For the economy is not an engine, or a tool, and does not perform any “work.” The economy is you and me.
This article was originally published at The Mises Institute.
The New York Times has published an explosive - but anonymous - op-ed purportedly written by a "senior official" in the Trump Administration outlining how his fellow officials are working night and day to thwart the US President's agenda. Is this a coup?
Washington is warning the Syrian government against a final assault on rebel-held Idlib province, but President Trump's own envoy has admitted that the province is controlled by al-Qaeda. US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley meanwhile claims a gas attack is coming and she knows just who's behind it. Will the battle for Idlib end with a whisper, like Aleppo, or something more dangerous...?
By Ron Paul
Assad was supposed to be gone already. President Obama thought it would be just another “regime change” operation and perhaps Assad would end up like Saddam Hussein or Yanukovych. Or maybe even Gaddafi. But he was supposed to be gone. The US spent billions to get rid of him and even provided weapons and training to the kinds of radicals that attacked the United States on 9/11. But with the help of his allies, Assad has nearly defeated this foreign-sponsored insurgency. The US fought him every step of the way. Each time the Syrian military approached another occupied city or province, Washington and its obedient allies issued the usual warnings that Assad was not liberating territory but was actually seeking to kill more of his own people. Remember Aleppo, where the US claimed Assad was planning mass slaughter once he regained control? As usual the neocons and the media were completely wrong. Even the UN has admitted that with Aleppo back in the hands of the Syrian government hundreds of thousands of Syrians have actually moved back. We are supposed to believe they willingly returned so that Assad could kill them? The truth is Aleppo is being rebuilt. Christians celebrated Easter there this spring for the first time in years. There has been no slaughter once al-Qaeda and ISIS’ hold was broken. Believe me, if there was a slaughter we would have heard about it in the media! So now, with the Syrian military and its allies prepare to liberate the final Syrian province of Idlib, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo again warns the Syrian government against re-taking its own territory. He Tweeted on Friday that: “The three million Syrians, who have already been forced out of their homes and are now in Idlib, will suffer from this aggression. Not good. The world is watching.” President Trump’s National Security Advisor, John Bolton, has also warned the Syrian government that the US will attack if it uses gas in Idlib. Of course, that warning serves as an open invitation to rebels currently holding Idlib to set off another false flag and enjoy US air support. Bolton and Pompeo are painting Idlib as a peaceful province resisting the violence of an Assad who they claim just enjoys killing his own people. But who controls Idlib province? President Trump’s own Special Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS, Brett McGurk, said in Washington just last year that, “Idlib province is the largest al-Qaeda safe-haven since 9/11, tied to directly to Ayman al Zawahiri, this is a huge problem.” Could someone please remind Pompeo and Bolton that al-Qaeda are the bad guys? After six years of a foreign-backed regime-change operation in Syria, where hundreds of thousands have been killed and the country nearly fell into the hands of ISIS and al-Qaeda, the Syrian government is on the verge of victory. Assad is hardly a saint, but does anyone really think al-Qaeda and ISIS are preferable? After all, how many Syrians fled the country when Assad was in charge versus when the US-backed “rebels” started taking over? Americans should be outraged that Pompeo and Bolton are defending al-Qaeda in Idlib. It’s time for the neocons to admit they lost. It is time to give Syria back to the Syrians. It is time to pull the US troops from Syria. It is time to just leave Syria alone!
Bubbles bubbles. What caused the financial collapse of 2008? How might the next collapse be far worse? How does the Fed play a major role in the coming collapse? Tune in!
Those who sent people to war were those who fought with them in the front lines. No longer. Statistician, bestselling author, legendary investor Nassim Nicholas Taleb tells us how neocons (and many others) have no skin in the game.
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