Former President Donald Trump is expected to testify today in the New York civil case revolving around the alleged elevated valuation of his business empire. While the lawfare against Trump increases...so do his poll numbers! Also today: Blinken in Baghdad...he wasn't greeted as a liberator.
By Ron Paul
Faced with growing American frustration over more than $100 billion spent on a failed proxy war in Ukraine, President Biden’s handlers have hit on a gimmick to convince us that this foreign aid is actually an investment in our own economy! In his recent television address, Biden explained that as we transfer more weapons to Ukraine we then will build new weapons at home to replace them. That, explained Biden, means more American jobs and a stronger American economy. So “Project Ukraine” is not really about foreign welfare, but rather domestic corporate welfare for the military-industrial complex. Should that make us feel any better? There is no denying that this nearly two-year Ukraine/Russia war has been a boon for the US weapons industry. Profits at the military-industrial complex are back to record highs after a brief slump during the Covid scare. And the money that goes to the weapons manufactures also saturates Washington, DC: a little of it goes to the think-tanks promoting war, another little bit goes to the political campaigns of candidates who promote war, and so on. As Connor O'Keeffe reminds us in a recent article at the Mises Institute, the arguments that more war spending is good for the economy ignore the “broken window fallacy” as first explained by French economist Frédéric Bastiat in his essay, “That Which Is Seen and That Which Is Not Seen.” In the tale, a shopkeeper has a window broken and must pay to have it replaced. The locals view the mishap favorably, as they see the $50 for a new window to be a benefit to the glazier which he will then spend, thus improving the economy as a whole. What is not seen, however, is what the shopkeeper might have done with that same $50 had he not been forced to replace a broken window. Perhaps he would have invested it in a way that created far more wealth and more jobs. Unfortunately, Biden is not alone in coming up with new gimmicks to enable Washington to operate in a “business as usual” manner. New House Speaker Mike Johnson has also been busy trying to convince us that sending money overseas is actually good for our own economy. Over the weekend he appeared on Fox News to tell us that sending another $14 billion to the wealthy nation of Israel is Republicans “trying to be good stewards of the taxpayer’s resources.” How is that? Well he came up with the gimmick that they would cut $14 billion from the IRS and send it to Israel. Said Johnson, “Instead of printing new dollars or borrowing it from another nation to send over to fulfill our obligations and help our ally, we want to pay for it, what a concept, we are trying to change how Washington works.” See the trick here? They are not “paying for it” by sending the money overseas, and they are not “changing how Washington works” by doing the exact same thing they always do: stealing from the poor at home to send to the rich in foreign countries. Instead of trying to trick Americans into thinking that foreign aid and corporate welfare are good for our economy, why not just stop breaking all of our windows? Just end all foreign aid and corporate welfare! The purpose of government is not to be married to corporations, with each reinforcing the other. Government's legitimate role is not for the protection and growth of corporate profits; and corporations are not meant to strengthen government's destruction of our freedoms. But alas, this is the type of system that Americans have been living under for a very long time. Today we're discussing the "miracle" covid vax that the vast majority of Americans are now refusing to take. The truth always wins in the end. Even corporatism is no match for it.
After Israel's bombing of a Gaza refugee camp this week killed scores of civilians, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told CNN that there should be "no limit" on the number of civilians Israel can kill. In a previous interview he urged Israel to turn Gaza into post-WWII Berlin. Also today, US House passes resolution authorizing attacks on Iran.
A new article in The Guardian details the enthusiasm among the masters of Wall Street for the wars in Gaza (and Ukraine), issuing "buy" orders all around for US weapons manufacturer stocks. Meanwhile, Gaza's largest refugee camp was blown to pieces yesterday. The Biden Administration is now considering sending US troops as "peacekeepers" once the smoke clears. Good idea?
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