Why should American citizens subsidize the R&D and manufacture of military materials only to have them sold overseas to the profit of the arms manufacturers? And why on earth would we send more weapons to Saudi Arabia with its abysmal human rights record and brutal war on Yemen? Very special guest Senator Rand Paul joins today’s Liberty Report to let us know what he’s doing to stop the arms floodgate:

Yesterday history was made, with the first commercial flight from the US to Cuba in more than 50 years. Here is one real foreign policy achievement of President Obama, but in fact you cannot oppose an idea whose time has come. In today’s Liberty Report we take a look at the benefits and pitfalls of the de facto normalization with Cuba:

The Department of Homeland Security is reportedly ready to announce that US elections are part of the “critical infrastructure” of the United States and thus under the Department’s control. Part of the pretext for this move is news that voting registers in Arizona and Illinois may have been been hacked — and without evidence this hack is being blamed on the Russians. Do we want the people who run the TSA to also run our elections? We discuss in today’s Liberty Report:

Ron Paul and his Liberty Report co-host Daniel McAdams sat down to discuss some of the final preparations for the “Peace and Prosperity 2016” conference to take place on September 10th in Washington, D.C. What’s the latest? Who will be speaking? What to expect? Watch this short update and if you have not already done so, get your tickets today! For a listing of the speakers and topics, click here.

Are alliance sands shifting in the Middle East? Is post-coup attempt Turkey turning increasingly to Russia and away from the US on the Syria issue? It all may be true but we went down the wrong path back in 2011 when Obama announced that “Assad must go” and dedicated the US to his overthrow. We may not be able to correct the mistakes that have been made, but the only solution to not make things worse is to just come home. Get out of the Middle East. No more regime change. Non-intervention. More today in the Liberty Report:

What is $3 billion over budget, two years overdue, and not combat ready? The new USS Gerald Ford “super” aircraft carrier! As the Pentagon together with the military-industrial complex try to justify a trillion dollars in military spending, however, conflicts must be ginned up around the world. That is one reason for the increasingly hostile position of the US against Russia and China. It justifies boondoggles like the USS Gerald Ford. It also essentially pushes Russia and China into each other’s arms and may be making a nuclear war more likely in the future. Is it really worth it just to keep Beltway defense contractors in the money? More on the 13 billion dollar boondoggle and the policies that ensure many more to come in today’s Liberty Report:

Secretary of State John Kerry was in Africa earlier this week. He visited Nigeria and promised more US military aid to the country as it struggles with an increase of activity by the terrorist group Boko Haram. Of course it was the 2011 US attack on Libya that provided a windfall of weapons for Boko Haram and enabled them to dramatically expand. Kerry said he’d look into selling Nigeria some military planes as well. He also promised a few million dollars to Kenya to help them with their elections. As usual, that money will likely help ensure that the “right” people (i.e. US puppets) win the elections. He also discussed the additional UN troops that would be trying to sort out the bloody chaos in South Sudan, another US intervention “success story.” The country was essentially created by the US to try to deny Chinese oil interests in Sudan. The result has been nothing but chaos and mayhem. Tune in to today’s Liberty Report:

Just three years after promising the American people that he would not put American boots on the ground in Syria, President Obama has directed the US military to participate in an invasion of northern Syria alongside NATO-ally Turkey. This in addition to establishing de facto US bases in eastern Syria from which US Special Forces are operating. The Syrian territory conquered today and the area around the US bases should be considered “no-fly” zones to Syrian and Russian combat aircraft. From here we can expect areas of US control to expand. Russia’s move? We don’t know. More today in the Liberty Report:

Is the US mainstream media spreading disinformation about Russia’s use of an airbase in Iran? Yesterday the New York Times reported that Iran had revoked permission for Russia to use the base due to Russia’s “ungentlemanly behavior” in discussing use of the base in public. What is strange about the story is that it is completely without a source for the claim that the permission was revoked. In fact, the speaker of the Iranian parliament today said the opposite, that Russia has not stopped using the base for refueling. So what’s going on here? More on the tense Syria/Iran/Russia/US situation in today’s Liberty Report:

Why is the US warning Syria not to shoot back at Kurdish militia members who are firing on Syrian military positions? Because US Special Forces troops are fighting alongside the Kurds. But it also may be a shift in US policy away from its stated focus on ISIS and toward a focus on removing Assad. House Speaker Paul Ryan inexplicably released a statement at the end of last week castigating the Obama Administration for failing to attack the Assad government after the 2013 chemical attack in Ghouta. That all evidence points to a false flag rather than Syrian government culpability means little to Ryan’s propaganda team. With US-backed militants facing the possibility of a crushing defeat at Aleppo, it looks as if the US may be shifting toward direct confrontation with Assad (and by default also with Russia). This and more in today’s Liberty Report:

Osama bin Laden’s youngest son, Hamza, purportedly released an audio recording earlier this week in which he called for young Saudis to get involved with al-Qaeda in Yemen and in which he called for retaliation against ongoing US military operations in several countries in the greater Middle East. Said the younger bin Laden: “We will continue striking you and targeting you in your country and abroad in response to your oppression of the people of Palestine, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia and the rest of the Muslim lands that did not survive your oppression.” Should we listen to him and start thinking about removing his recruiting tools, or do we keep doing that which helps him and others like him recruit more terrorists? Our thoughts in today’s Liberty Report:

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump delivered a major foreign policy speech in Ohio yesterday which was once again a very mixed bag. On the one hand he promised an end to regime-change and nation-building, which if he had just stopped there and stuck to it would have been a positive development. Unfortunately his positions are less driven by principles and policy than by desire to please both the pro-war and antiwar factions. Therefore he swore to defeat radical Islamic terrorism by dropping even more bombs in the Middle East, obviously not understanding that it was US bombs in the Middle East that created the problem in the first place. He wants to blame Obama and Hillary Clinton for ISIS without understanding that they were just carrying to its conclusion the interventionist policies of George W. Bush. We take a look at the ups and downs of Trump’s foreign policy speech in today’s Liberty Report: