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Should we punish the Saudis or not over the killing of Khashoggi? Is this really the only choice being offered? That is what the mainstream media and Washington politicos and pundits would have us believe. As usual they are wrong. In this special Liberty Report we lay out how a real "America First" foreign policy would react to Saudi actions.
We hope you enjoy these highlights from Julian Assange's interview on the Ron Paul Liberty Report on Apr. 27, 2017. You can watch the entire interview here: https://youtu.be/QwkrtpXp-wg
The current situation on Julian Assange. Will he be extradited to the U.S.? Who is really pulling the strings?
By Ron Paul
The Pentagon has finally completed its first ever audit and the results are as many of us expected. After spending nearly a billion dollars to find out what has happened to trillions in unaccounted-for spending, the long look through the books has concluded that only ten percent of all Pentagon agencies pass muster. I am surprised any of them did. Even the Pentagon is not surprised by the failure of the audit. "We failed the audit. But we never expected to pass it,” said Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan. Can we imagine any large US company subject to the prying eyes of the IRS being so unfazed by the discovery that its books have been so mis-handled? As with all government programs, but especially when it comes to military spending, the failure of a program never leads to calls for funding reductions. The Pentagon’s failure to properly account for the trillions of taxpayer dollars shoveled in year after year only means, they say, that we need to send more money! Already they are claiming that with more resources – meaning money – they can fix some of the problems identified by the audit. If you subsidize something you get much more of it, and in this case we are subsidizing Pentagon incompetence. Expect much more of it. Outgoing chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Mac Thornberry, warned against concluding that this mis-handling trillions of dollars should make us hesitant to continue sending trillions more to the Pentagon. The failed audit “should not be used as an excuse for arbitrary cuts that reverse the progress we have begun on rebuilding our strength and readiness,” he said. The neocons concur. Writing in the Free Beacon, editor Matthew Continetti (who happens to be Bill Kristol’s son-in-law) warns that now is “the wrong time to cut defense.” But I agree with the young neoconservative Continetti. I would never support cutting a penny of defense. However the Pentagon’s lost trillions have nothing to do with defense. That is money propping up the high lifestyles of those connected to the military-industrial complex. Continetti and the neocons love to throw out bogeymen like China and Russia as excuses for more military spending, but in fact they are hardly objective observers. Look at how much the military contractors spend funding the neocon publications and neocon think tanks telling us that we need more military spending! All this money is stolen from the productive economy and diverted to enrich neocon cheerleaders at our expense. Of course the real problem with the Pentagon and military spending in general is not waste, fraud, and abuse. It is not ten thousand dollar toilet seats or coffee mugs. The problem with military spending is the philosophy that drives it. If the US strategy is to maintain a global military empire, there will never be enough spending. Because there is never enough to control every corner of the globe. But if we are to return to a well-defended republic, military spending could easily be reduced by 75 percent while keeping us completely safe. The choice is ours!
Ron Paul is back to answer YOUR questions! Thanks to our great viewers! We appreciate you. And check out Dr. Paul in the hot seat today!
The Fed is patting itself on the back. Its manipulation of the economy has put it "in such a good place." Have they really done it? Does central planning work? Of course not! A serious financial crisis is ahead.
By Ryan McMaken
Advocates for marijuana legalization won another victory this year as voters in Michigan voted to approve legalization of recreational marijuana in last week's election. This comes only a month after Canada finalized its legalization of recreational marijuana, making it only the second country where the national government has legalized nationwide recreational use. Nevertheless, with the addition of Michigan to the eight other states that have legalized recreational marijuana (not counting the District of Columbia), 78 million Americans now live in jurisdictions where it's been legalized. 
Were these states to form their own country, it would be the nineteenth largest country in the world — larger than the United Kingdom and France.
This new reality has already made itself felt in federal policy. In 2017, Congress voted to deny the Justice Department funds to enforce federal laws against medicinal marijuana. And when now-outgoing US Attorney General Sessions announced plans to crack down on marijuana use that had already been legalized at the state level, he received bipartisan opposition in Congress. Not even republicans in Congress from pro-legalization states want anything to do with a ratcheting up of the Drug War. Also pending in Washington is the "Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States (STATES) Act" which, is essentially a "states' rights" bill supported by both parties in the name of reining in the drug war. Its purpose is to recognize what the Tenth Amendment already makes clear: that the federal government has no authority to dictate to states as to what people can eat or smoke. One shouldn't expect many politicians to apply this philosophy across the board, although recognizing the importance of decentralization in the Drug War is a good first step. Trump has suggested he will support the bill. Illinois and New Hampshire may be next on the list for legalization, perhaps in 2020.
This article was originally published at The Mises Institute.
By Chris Rossini
The British want out of the European Union, but it's not going so well. Once a country sacrifices its sovereignty, it's not easy to get it back. The current "deal" is that the British "leave" the EU in name only. Americans can imagine it to be like the following analogy: It's 1776 and the American colonists have had enough of the British Crown. It's time to secede. Thomas Jefferson writes King George III the following memo: "Your Highness, we have a lot of grievances and have prepared a Declaration of Independence. (See attached).
And back comes King George III's response:
"Tom, thanks for writing, but that's not going to work for us over here.
Power NEVER wants to let go.
The Brexit "deal" conforms perfectly to that fact.
A new study by Brown University has found that the post 9/11 wars have, when all totaled up, cost an estimated $5.9 trillion (and counting) as interest on the borrowed money continues to accrue. What did we get for our money? Safety and security? No. More threats and more wars. Was the whole thing a scam?
By Chris Rossini
It's the same old story from the one-party state: They're all spending (i.e., wasting taxpayer money) at breakneck speed. Government doesn't stop at what they're able to rip off from our incomes. No....They go WAY beyond that. Drowning in $21 TRILLION in debt, the federal government spent $100 billion more in October of this year than what it took in from taxation. Bloomberg reports that this was a 60% jump from October of last year!
Remember that government is not a wealth-generating institution. It is parasitic. It's a taker and waster.
The more that government spends, the more it undermines the wealth generating economy. Every dollar that is taken from you by government could have been used to improve your lot in life. Those opportunities are now gone, never to be realized. Will government raise taxes to fix its financial distress? Again, bad deal for you. The last thing that you need is for them to take more! Will government issue even more debt? Bad deal for you. The more private savings that are sent to government, the less private savings are available for the productive economy. Government grabbing of resources crowds out resources that could have been used to satisfy people's urgent economic desires. Will the government lean on the Federal Reserve to create money out-of-thin-air to finance its deficits? Once again, VERY bad deal for you! For every new dollar that the Fed creates, the money in your wallet and bank account lose purchasing power. Prices will continue to rise around you. Perhaps people will need a third job (many people already have two) just to stay afloat. This is not a Republican/Democrat thing anymore, even though that's where your attention is carefully steered. This is a Power versus Liberty issue. Power is going nuts and it sees no restraints to its actions. Everyone's property and income is ripe for the taking....including yours. |
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