In a bizarre rant after Senate passage of the huge $95 billion foreign aid bill, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell blamed journalist Tucker Carlson for Republican opposition to the overseas giveaway. The top Senate Republican implied that Carlson's reporting on rampant corruption in Ukraine makes him a "Russian asset" rather than a journalist. Also today: The McConnell/Schumer uniparty bulldozes America. Finally: merit makes a comeback at US universities.
NATO's purpose - if it ever had one - is now long since passed. The Cold War has ended and the over-blown scare of global communism has receded. So what is NATO's purpose in our era? Is it time for a radical restructuring? Also today - the Ukraine aid bill will likely be signed into law today and the military-industrial bonanza will be on. But will more weapons make a difference? Finally - is Trump secretly mad at Speaker Johnson?
According to a new article by Seymour Hersh, CIA Director William Burns traveled to Kiev earlier this year to ask Zelensky to stop skimming so much off the top of US aid money. Apparently his top generals were angry that he was skimming more than they were! Meanwhile Congress voted to send $60 billion MORE to the corrupt regime. With the money approved, calls are now going out for Western TROOPS to be sent to Ukraine. Also today: Trump's alleged "hush money" is "election interference"?
By Ron Paul
When future historians go searching for the final nail in the US coffin, they may well settle on the date April 20, 2024. On that day Congress passed legislation to fund two and a half wars, hand what’s left of our privacy over to the CIA and NSA, and give the US president the power to shut down whatever part of the Internet he disagrees with. The nearly $100 billion grossly misnamed “National Security Supplemental” guarantees that Ukrainians will continue to die in that country’s unwinnable war with Russia, that Palestinian civilians will continue to be slaughtered in Gaza with US weapons, and that the neocons will continue to push us toward a war with China. It was a total victory for the war party. The huge spending bill is all about politics for Biden, yet so many Republicans simply went along with it. The last thing the people running Biden’s White House want to see as a close election approaches are ads blaming Biden for “losing Ukraine.” The US and its allies have already sent over $300 billion to Ukraine and the country is still losing its war with Russia. Nobody believes another $60 billion will pull a victory from the jaws of defeat. But this additional money is meant to keep up appearances until November at the expense of Americans who are forced to pay for it and Ukrainians who are forced to die for it. Speaker Johnson could not have passed these monstrosities without the full support of House Democrats, as the majority of Republicans voted against more money for Ukraine. So in the worst example of “bipartisanship,” Johnson reached across the aisle, stiffed the Republican majority that elected him Speaker, and pushed through a massive gift to the warfare/(corporate) welfare state. After the House voted to send another $60 billion to notoriously corrupt Ukraine, Members waved Ukrainian flags on the House Floor and chanted “Ukraine, Ukraine.” While I find it distasteful and disgusting, in some way it seemed fitting. After all, they may as well chant the name of a foreign country because they certainly don’t care about this country! Along with sending $100 billion that we don’t have to fund more overseas war, Speaker Johnson threw in another version of the Tik Tok ban, which gives Joe Biden and future presidents the power to shut down websites at will by simply declaring them to be “foreign adversary controlled.” Not to be outdone, the US Senate on that same day passed the extension of Section 702 of the FISA Act, which not only allowed the government to continue spying on us without a warrant, but also contained new language massively expanding how they can spy on us. Many conservative voters are asking what the point of Republican control of the House is if the agenda is determined by Democrats. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is even reported to have bragged to his colleagues about how easily Speaker Johnson gave Democrats everything they wanted and asked for nothing in return. What is the silver lining in all this bad news? Most Republicans in the House voted against continuing the Ukraine war. That’s a good start. Our ideas are growing, not only across the country but even in the DC swamp. Take courage and don’t give up! Work for peace!
The government and the Fed are a tag-team of power that have pummeled America. The former spends trillions (that it doesn’t have) pretending to rule the world. The latter counterfeits those trillions into existence, destroying our economy and driving prices into the stratosphere. There can be no economic freedom living under this morally corrupt couple. Only ultimate bankruptcy. The marriage of Bank & State needs to be annulled.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said this week he considers himself a "war time" Speaker - even though we are not at war. But he seems to be at war with the American people, bringing up a bill to send a hundred billion dollars overseas while America struggles. Also today: will the Senate stop the super-spy bill?
Buried deep in the FISA Section 702 re-authorization bill is absolutely shocking language exponentially broadening the US government's ability to spy on Americans without a warrant. Turning your plumber into a federal spy agent against you? It's in there! Your gardener? Yep. Truly shocking! Also today: The US Government has submitted its "assurances" to the UK regarding the Assange extradition plan. It's not good.
By Ron Paul
House Speaker Mike Johnson betrayed liberty and the Constitution by making a full-court press to get a “clean” reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) Act through the House. Section 702 authorizes warrantless surveillance of foreign citizens. When the FISA Act was passed, surveillance state boosters promised that 702 warrantless surveillances would never be used against American citizens. However, intelligence agencies have used a loophole in 702, allowing them to subject to warrantless surveillance any American who communicated with a non-US citizen who was a 702 target. Intelligence agencies could then also conduct warrantless surveillance on any Americans who communicated with the new American target. This Section 702 loophole has been used so often to subject Americans to warrantless wiretapping that it has been referred to as the surveillance state’s crown jewel. A bipartisan coalition of Republican and Democratic House members worked to add a warrant requirement to the FISA bill. Speaker Johnson agreed to allow a vote on the House floor on an amendment requiring federal officials to get a warrant before subjecting any American to surveillance. However, he publicly opposed the amendment, as did President Biden. Prominent deep state operatives, such as former Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo, also lobbied against the amendment. The case against adding a warrant requirement to FISA consisted of hysterical claims that forcing the surveillance state to obey the Fourth Amendment would make Americans vulnerable to terrorist attacks. Particularity, the claim was made that forcing national security operatives to get a warrant before spying on US citizens would cripple the ability to respond to a “ticking time bomb” situation. Those claims were debunked by the heroic Edward Snowden, who made the American people aware of the extent of warrantless surveillance. Snowden, who worked as a government contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA), posted in a message on X (formally known as Twitter) that the warrant amendment would not stop federal agencies from acting without a warrant in a “ticking time bomb” situation. A vote was held Friday afternoon on the amendment requiring a warrant before Section 702 powers would be used to spy on American citizens. Despite the fearmongering by Mike Pompeo and others, as well as the opposition of both President Biden and Speaker Johnson, the amendment failed to pass by only one vote. The amendment would have passed had Speaker Johnson not cast a rare floor vote (speakers usually do not vote on legislation) against the amendment. When the PATRIOT Act was rushed to the House floor in the fall of 2001 — weeks after 9-11 — and voted upon before members had a chance to read it, only three Republicans voted against it. One conservative representative told me he voted for it even though he agreed with my opposition to the bill. He told me, “I can’t go back home and tell my constituents I voted against the PATRIOT Act!” While the failure to pass the warrant amendment was dispiriting, the fact that it failed by only one vote shows how much progress we have made. It should thus inspire us to keep encouraging Congress to refuse to take away real liberty in the name of promises of phantom security.
The revolt against House Speaker Mike Johnson is picking up steam, as Johnson revealed plans to take several MASSIVE foreign spending bills to the floor this week. Tying foreign aid to protecting the borders at home - once a staple in Johnson's rhetoric - has been tossed aside. Rep. Thomas Massie announced he would co-sponsor a bill to vacate the Chair - an ouster of Johnson.
After an unprecedented Iranian response to Israel's attack on its embassy in Syria, pressure is building for Israel to retaliate against the retaliation. Biden officials are panicking at the thought of a wider Mideast war in election season. What happens next? Also today, a US General admits the truth about Russia's war in Ukraine; after two years of US government lies.
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