The political violence in Charlottesville yesterday was as predictable as it was futile. One person was killed and dozens badly injured, marking a new low in the political and cultural wars that are as heated as any time since in America since the 1960s.
This relentless politicization of American culture has eroded goodwill and inflamed the worst impulses in society. Antifa and the alt-right may represent simple-minded expressions of hatred and fear, but both groups are animated entirely by politics: the perception that others can impose their will on us politically. The only lasting solution to political violence is to make politics matter less.
We’ve allowed politics to invade every aspect of American life, from religion and family life to sex and sexuality, from bathrooms to ball fields to the workplace. But what has it gotten us besides identity politics on steroids? The “personal is political” is hardly the rallying cry of a free and confident nation. Even as we enjoy historically unparalleled material prosperity, we are dispirited by the 2016 election hangover and looking for scapegoats to explain the American malaise.
It’s easy to decry Antifa and its violent leftwing rhetoric. It’s easy to decry the alt-Right, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and fascists. It’s more important to understand them as exemplars of a new political age. Progressives demanded permanent revolution; conservatives responded by becoming permanent reactionaries. And the media bias (overwhelmingly anti-right) makes things worse: one “side” becomes convinced of its moral superiority, while the other becomes convinced the fix is in.
We suspect, without knowing, that a Hillary voter is just a step or two removed from a bandanna-clad Antifa, while a Mitt Romney voter is but a few degrees removed from an alt-Right nationalist marching in the streets. This may seem farcical, but the political society promoted by Clinton and Romney encourages it. Everyone must take a side, and live with the excesses.
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By suggesting that he might order a US regime-change invasion of Venezuela, President Trump has inadvertently shown why North Korea has been desperately trying to develop nuclear weapons — to serve as a deterrent or defense against one of the US national-security state storied regime-change operations. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Venezuela and, for that matter, other Third World countries who stand up to the US Empire, also seeking to put their hands on nuclear weapons. What better way to deter a US regime-change operation against them?
Think back to the Cuban Missile Crisis. The US national-security establishment had initiated a military invasion of the Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, had exhorted President Kennedy to bomb Cuba during that invasion, and then had recommended that the president implement a fraudulent pretext (i.e., Operation Northwoods) for a full-scale military invasion of Cuba.
That’s why Cuba, which had never initiated any acts of aggression against the United States, wanted Soviet nuclear missiles installed in Cuba. Cuba’s leader Fidel Castro knew that there was no way that Cuba could defeat the United States in a regular, conventional war. Everyone knows that the military establishment in the United States is so large and so powerful that it can easily smash any Third World nation, including Cuba, North Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Venezuela.
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Is Hate Speech Free Speech?
Where does free speech end and hate speech begin? Conservatives and liberals are squaring off after Charlottesville but is there another solution to the problem? What's the libertarian position? Join us today for the Liberty Report...
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Libya Update: Russia Changes the Game
A totally unexpected strategy emerged on the Russian side after yesterday's meeting with Field Marshall Haftar in Moscow. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's announced shift in Russian policy, couched in appropriate diplomatic language as shown in his Press Release below, changed Russia's game plan at a stroke. It appears that the Russian government has totally endorsed the United Nations track on Libya, saying it was was the right and only way to go and that the dodgy Paris Accord of the 25 July was the basis for peace.
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Trump Administration Demands Information On Over A Million Visitors To Anti-Trump Website
A web host called “DreamHost” has gone to court to challenge a demand from the Trump Administration for information on more than 1 million visitors to an anti-Trump website. The demand would covered 1.3 million IP addresses and raises highly troubling free speech and associational concerns. At a minimum, the demand appears wildly too broad and could easily chill political speech for those who oppose this Administration.
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End Of Iran Nuke Deal? What Comes Next...
President Trump was angry with his Secretary of State for recertifying Iranian compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal. Even though Iran remains in compliance with the deal. What will happen when the next recertification comes due toward the end of summer? Will the US oppose its allies and the United Nations by unilaterally refusing to accept that Iran is abiding by the agreement? Already this morning the Iranian president has threatened to pull out of the deal if the US keeps adding sanctions on Iran with no justification. What next? Tune in to today's Liberty Report...
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Lew Rockwell: US Should Butt Out and Let South Korea Deal with North Korea
Interviewed recently on RT, Ludwig von Mises Institute Chairman Lew Rockwell offered bold suggestions for altering United States foreign policy in regard to North Korea. Rockwell argues in the interview that the path to avoiding what “could be the worst military disaster in human history” involves the US government calming down, stopping threatening North Korea (including the threat to destroy the country), repealing US sanctions on North Korea, pulling the US troops out of South Korea “where they’d be sitting ducks if warfare breaks out,” and “letting the South Koreans handle this.”
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New Aug. 1:
Rep. John J. Duncan, Jr. (R-TN) announced on Monday that he will not seek reelection in 2018 to the United States House of Representatives. In addition to being one of the longest-serving Republican members of the House (representing the second district of Tennessee since 1988), Duncan, who argues that being antiwar is a conservative position, is also one of the House’s strongest proponents for peace.
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