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It is a race against time for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu: a new poll shows Americans have dramatically turned against Israel while President Trump has unveiled a new "deal" for Gaza that looks designed to fail.
In today's Responsible Statecraft, Kelley Vlahos writes that the US government forced sale of the popular social network platform TikTok will chiefly benefit the government of Israel. Israel had long complained that Gen Z was disproportionately critical of Israel on TikTok. The forced sale to ultra pro-Israel businessman Larry Ellison has already reportedly resulted in a shift in tone. Is this a US government violation of the First Amendment?
By Ron Paul
In my first column after the events of Jan. 6th, 2021, I criticized those who called the protest a “coup,” pointing out that, “Some of the same politicians and bureaucrats denouncing the ridiculous farce at the Capitol as if it were the equivalent of 9/11 have been involved for decades in planning and executing real coups overseas. In their real coups, many thousands of civilians have died.” The media at the time played up the violence committed by a relative few at the protest to stoke a national outcry and demands for “justice.” More than 1,500 Americans were charged over the incident and nearly 500 were imprisoned, including outrageous prison sentences for relatively minor crimes like entering the Capitol building through doors opened by the police, and filming the event. While most Democrats and Republicans in Congress harshly denounced the January 6th “insurrectionists,” a few Members displayed the appropriate skepticism over accepted government narratives. Rep. Thomas Massie, for example, was relentless in his search for answers to a simple but critically important question: How many of the “insurrectionists” were actually undercover FBI agents and other law enforcement officers and what role might they have played in inciting the violence. Massie grilled then-Attorney General Merrick Garland several times, but Garland would not budge. He refused to say whether there had been any undercover federal agents in the crowd, though of course he must have known. Last week we learned a little more of the truth. With the release of the FBI’s long lost “after action” report, we now know that more than 250 undercover agents were in the crowd. According to the report, they were given roles including crowd control that they were not suited for. Some agents cited in the report complained of political biases in the Bureau against conservatives. What other tasks might have been given to a “politicized” FBI undercover team? In addition to the undercover agents, there were more than two dozen paid informants in the Jan. 6th crowd. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), who chairs the subcommittee investigating the matter, asks an important question: “With that many paid informants being in the crowd, we want to know how many were in the crowd, how many were in the building, but I also want to know, were they paid to inform or instigate?” Were they paid to inform, or to instigate? That is a good question. We do know that the event was used by the incoming Biden Administration to demonize and persecute the political opposition. There is no telling how many Americans would have liked to use their First Amendment guarantee of free speech to criticize the Biden Administration but were silenced by fear of persecution, or worse. It’s easy to conclude, seeing so many arrested and handed long sentences for non-violent “crimes,” that it’s better to keep quiet. At the time, the US was still in the grip of Covid tyranny, where speaking out against “the Science” could get you “cancelled” or worse. This was another way to silence people who were not “going along with the program.” In the end, January 6th, 2021, was a coup of sorts. It was a coup against the First Amendment. The lesson for all of us is that if we do not regularly but peacefully exercise our First Amendment guarantees we will definitely lose them, regardless of who is in power.
On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting, President Trump met with Arab and Muslim leaders to tell them that he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. Should they believe him? Also today: Zelensky's "charm offensive"?
President Trump's post yesterday on Truth Social left most Ukraine war watchers speechless, as he claimed that Ukraine could not only take back all of its country from Russia but "perhaps even more." Is Trump trolling? Trolling Europe? Or just bonkers? Also today, Syria's "former" al-Qaeda leader makes waves at the UN...
President Trump's address to the UN General Assembly has left some national delegations seeing red, as his blunt style is not what they are accustomed to. What are the highlights and lowlights of the speech? Does the UN matter? Also, Speaker Johnson is losing the war for the soul of the conservative movement...and that's a good thing!
In a Truth Social post over the weekend, President Trump warned that if Afghanistan did not "give back" Bagram air base to the United States, "bad things are going to happen." Twenty years wasn't enough? Also today: Trump threatens Venezuela if it does not receive back the Venezuelans in this country. Finally: Bondi gets her marching orders from Trump in yet another Truth Social post.
By Ron Paul
The covid lockdowns caused many Americans to stop trusting the government’s propaganda and led to a 39 percent increase in homeschooling in the 2020-21 school year. While the number of homeschoolers did decline some after this jump, homeschooling has continued growing in popularity over the last several years. Today, approximately six percent of American school children are homeschooled. Parents choose to homeschool for a variety of reasons, including objections to certain political and social agendas promoted by some government schools. Many parents became aware of how many government schools were sacrificing education for indoctrination while observing their children’s covid-era “virtual” classrooms. Some parents started homeschooling as a temporary measure but discovered they could teach their children as well, or better, than the so-called experts. This makes sense. No one knows a child’s skills, interests, strengths, and weaknesses better than the child’s parents. Two recent developments are going to increase homeschooling’s popularity. First is the troubling results of the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). NAEP is commonly referred to as “the nation’s report card.” In NAEP’s latest assessment the average eighth grade science score was significantly lower than the pre-lockdown 2019 score. Other scores including for twelfth grade mathematics and reading are lower than they were ten or more years ago. To put this in perspective, consider that in 1992 spending per pupil was an inflation-adjusted 12,000 dollars, whereas the average per pupil spending in 2021 (the most recent year for which figures are available) was 17,500 dollars — a nearly 50 percent increase. The decline in scores also follows a series of federal education “reforms” that were supposed to “fix” American education by giving more power to the federal government. The second reason homeschooling will grow even more popular is two provisions of the “Big Beautiful Bill” (BBB). These provisions provide tax benefits for parents who choose alternatives to government schools, including homeschooling. First, the BBB expands the use of tax-free 529 Education Savings Accounts. Money in these accounts can be used for a variety of expenses such as curriculum materials, online education, and tutoring. The BBB also provides tax-credits for donations to Scholarship-Granting Organizations (SGO) SGOs provide scholarships to families, including homeschooling families to cover a variety of educational expenses. Giving Americans more control over the education dollar will do more to improve education than any centralized “reform.” Parents looking for a homeschooling curriculum incorporating the ideas of liberty should consider my online curriculum. My curriculum provides students with a solid education in history, literature, mathematics, and the sciences. It also gives students the opportunity to create their own websites and internet-based businesses. This provides students with “real world” entrepreneurial experience that will be useful to them no matter what career path they choose. The curriculum is designed to be self-taught, with students helping, and learning from, each other via online forums. Starting in the fourth grade, students are required to write at least one essay a week. Students also take a course in public speaking. The curriculum emphasizes the history, philosophy, and economics of liberty, but it never substitutes indoctrination for education. The goal is to produce students with superior critical thinking skills. If you think my curriculum may meet the needs of your child, please visit www.RonPaulCurriculum.com for more information.
While America is known as a "capitalistic' society with "free markets," the reality is far different. A nation that once had a very limited government now has the biggest government in the history of mankind. Money is counterfeited by the trillions and the price-fixing of interest rates is policy. Government "regulators" are staffed by people who go through a "revolving door" from the "regulated" corporation to the government. In fact, that is the greatest danger that America -- and the rest of the world faces -- the merger of corporation and state; the fusion of power and money. That's a far better description of modern America; not "capitalism" or "free markets."
Conservatives are celebrating the firing of late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel after ill-chosen remarks about the killing of Charlie Kirk. Those on the Left are crying "cancel culture" on the Right. But there is something important that is being missed regardless of one's views on Kimmel. Also today: Trump's "special envoy" for the Ukraine war goes full John Bolton - will he finally get sacked?
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