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Hold My Beer

Hold My Beer

Ok, right up front I want to make it clear that this post is simply an extended riff on the same theme I have been fixed upon in my three previous offerings. So, if a bit of repetition annoys you, feel free to just ignore the following somewhat rambling observations – all of them more or less prompted by the increasingly threatening prospect of a major US/Israeli attack on Iran, and how it could set the world on fire. Just the other day, for giggles, I posed the following question to...

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Trump: ‘Very Bad Things are Going to Happen.’ Netanyahu Wants the U.S. to Destroy Iran.

Trump: ‘Very Bad Things are Going to Happen.’ Netanyahu Wants the U.S. to Destroy Iran.

In my article, “The High Price of War with Iran: $10 Gas and the Collapse of the U.S. Economy,” I reminded readers of how Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been behind the push for America to destroy Iraq, Libya, Syria and now Iran. I reviewed the severe economic consequences for the U.S. if it attacks Iran. Today, I cite the human health and atmospheric effects of a U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear research facilities. The resulting nuclear fallout would bring a catastrophe...

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First They Came for the Op-Ed Writers

First They Came for the Op-Ed Writers

On March 25, six masked federal agents seized a Turkish graduate student on the streets of Somerville, Massachusetts. Rumeysa Ozturk—who was wearing a hajib—is a Fulbright scholar working on a doctorate at Tufts University. She was abducted and vanished into the maw of the federal prison system. The Trump administration ignored a federal court order and took Ozturk from Massachusetts to Louisiana federal detention facilities. But the Trump administration knew Ozturk had criticized the...

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Trump-Putin Parley is a Bit Under the Weather

Trump-Putin Parley is a Bit Under the Weather

The Kremlin apparently came to the conclusion last week that it was about time to do some plain-speaking that US president Donald Trump’s quest for a 30-day ceasefire in the Ukraine war was a non-starter. Over the weekend, in a series of remarks, Trump reacted sharply that he’s “very angry” with President Vladimir Putin over his approach to the proposed ceasefire and threatened to levy tariffs on Moscow’s oil exports if the Russian leader does not agree to a truce within a...

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Free Speech is Worth Fighting For

Free Speech is Worth Fighting For

We do not have free speech to talk about the weather. Our Founders, particularly James Madison who drafted the Bill of Rights, understood that our rights are not privileges granted to us by government. No, it was understood at the founding that these basic natural rights outlined by Madison were granted by our Creator and thus no mere mortal could take them away. And first among these is the First Amendment which recognizes that most basic of our natural rights: the right to express ourselves...

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RPI’s ‘America in the Age of Trump 2.0’ Playlist!

RPI’s ‘America in the Age of Trump 2.0’ Playlist!

It's hard to believe it was just a week ago that we held the Ron Paul Institute's Spring Conference here in Lake Jackson. The mad frenzy to make sure the thousand things that could go wrong did not go wrong. Last minute mini-crises. Sleepless nights (for me at least). And then finally the arrival of the wonderful people who helped make this day one for the record books. It all started with a dinner at the Paul House in appreciation for the major RPI supporters who have kept us alive these...

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Diego Garcia Smells Like War

Diego Garcia Smells Like War

A significant amount of US military power has been on the move over this past week, including several B-2 strategic bombers which have landed at the US military base in Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean just over 2,000 miles southeast of Iran. According to press reports this is the most significant B-2 presence on the Island in nearly half a decade. In addition flight trackers are showing increased activity by at least nine KC-135R refueling aircraft in the region. Several C-17 cargo planes...

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Some New Tales from the Darkside

Some New Tales from the Darkside

The news cycle over the past week has been dominated by reports and analysis of the Signal group chat involving top national security officials discussing aspects of the recent air strikes which have been directed against the Houthis in Yemen. There are four basic issues that are being examined by both the media and by elected and appointed government officials. First is the apparent ignorance of ordering the strike at all since the panel appeared not to know very much about the target or why...

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Who Gives Two Hoots About the Houthis!

Who Gives Two Hoots About the Houthis!

Yesterday we noted that the ascension to NATO of the Balkan Five (Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania) and the Baltic Three (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) amounts to some kind of bad joke. Their combined active military forces total just 66,000 servicemen, which is exactly equal to the combined 66,000 man police forces of New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Likewise, their combined defense budgets are $8 billion annually or about the level of...

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First They Came for the Op-Ed Writers

Making Our Rights Disappear: The Authoritarian War on Due Process

“If Trump can disappear them, he can disappear you.”—Robert Reich The war on due process is here. No trials. No hearings. No rights. Just indefinite detention and secret deportations. This is the fate that awaits every one of us, not just immigrants (legal or otherwise), if the government’s war on the Constitution remains unchecked. More than two decades after the U.S. government in its post-9/11 frenzy transported individuals, some of whom had not been charged let alone convicted of a...

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A Brief History of the Freedom of Speech

A Brief History of the Freedom of Speech

“I disagree with what you say but will defend to the death your right to say it.”-- Voltaire (1694-1778) When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, he included in it a list of the colonists’ grievances with the British government. Notably absent were any complaints about infringement upon speech. In those days, speech was as acerbic as it is today. If words were aimed at Parliament, all words were lawful. If they were aimed directly and personally at the king -- as...

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The High Price of War with Iran: $10 Gas and the Collapse of the US Economy

The High Price of War with Iran: $10 Gas and the Collapse of the US Economy

Israel is currently in turmoil, marked by widespread protests demanding Netanyahu's resignation. Critics accuse him of prolonging war for political gain, while his dismissal of top security officials and ongoing attacks on the judiciary have further intensified the unrest. Meanwhile, Washington DC’s drumbeat for war never stops. It’s always at the expense of a decent and secure standard of living for people in this country and abroad. The Trump Administration, after the series of heady...

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It Wasn’t a Leak, It was a Devious ‘Charlie Foxtrot’

It Wasn’t a Leak, It was a Devious ‘Charlie Foxtrot’

Charlie Foxtrot is a polite euphemism for a crude military term — Clusterfu*k. That describes the first scandal of the Trump Administration. Somehow, whether deliberate or accidentally, a Zionist journalist by the name of Jeffrey Goldberg was added to a Signal chat by Trump’s National Security Advisor, Michael Waltz, or by someone who worked for Waltz. Goldberg suddenly found himself part of a group chat of Trump’s top defense, diplomatic and intelligence officials. The...

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Trump and Putin Begin Addressing Cumulated Geo-strategic Debris… Amidst Trump’s Ultimatum to Iran

Trump and Putin Begin Addressing Cumulated Geo-strategic Debris… Amidst Trump’s Ultimatum to Iran

The phone call on 18 March between Presidents Trump and Putin has happened. It was a success, insofar as it allowed both sides to label the result as “positive.” And it did not lead to a breakdown (by virtue of the smallest of concessions from Putin – an energy infrastructure truce) – something easily it could have done (i.e. devolve into impasse – with Trump excoriating Putin, as he has done to Zelensky), given the fantastical and unrealistic expectations being woven in the West that this...

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Scorch Marks in the Sand

Scorch Marks in the Sand

Javelin, Stinger, M-777 howitzer, HIMARS, Excalibur, Switchblade, all manner of electronic warfare gizmos and counter-battery radars, Bradley IFVs, Stryker, Leopard, Challenger, Abrams, Patriot, JDAMs, HARMS, Storm Shadow, ATACMS ... I'm sure I'm forgetting some. Oh, yeah … remember in early 2022 when the unveiling of the Bayraktar strike drones was hailed with great fanfare? They were predicted to be the bane of the Russian army. Instead, it was a major embarrassment for the Turks. Javelin,...

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Free Speech is Worth Fighting For

Shut Down the Department of Education!

President Trump’s executive order from last week titled “Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities” could help bring about a major step toward restoring constitutional government and improving education. The executive order directs that the secretary of education, “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law, take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local...

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