The RPI Challenge

Two years ago last Saturday (May 7, 2020) Adam Schiff (D, California), Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, was forced to perform what Nixon co-conspirator John Ehrlichman famously called a "modified limited hangout." On that day, Schiff released sworn testimony that there was zero technical evidence that Russia – or anyone else – hacked those DNC emails so prejudicial to Hillary Clinton (later published by WikiLeaks). Now, please, before you put me in Putin’s or Trump’s pocket, read on:...

The most egregious and blatant official US disinformation campaign in years took place three weeks before the 2020 presidential election. That was when dozens of former intelligence officials purported, in an open letter, to believe that authentic emails regarding Joe Biden's activities in China and Ukraine, reported by The New York Post, were "Russian disinformation.” That quasi-official proclamation enabled liberal corporate media outlets to uncritically mock and then ignore those emails as...

According to reports, Elon Musk is now expected to take over as the temporary CEO of Twitter as soon as his financing of the purchase is finalized. It is good news because buying Twitter may prove a mere skirmish in comparison to the coming battle. Political forces in the United States and abroad are already aligning to resist his effort to restore free speech to social media. If history has shown one thing, it is that it is easier to lose rights than to regain them. Musk has a product in...

According to a report from The New York Times citing unnamed senior US officials, intelligence provided by the US on Russian military units has helped Ukraine target and kill Russian generals. Ukraine has claimed to have killed 12 Russian generals, but the number is not confirmed, and Kyiv has an interest in exaggerating its success on the battlefield, and the officials wouldn’t specify how many Russian officers were killed as a result of the assistance. But either way, the claim by US...

It has been two weeks since a United States district court struck down President Joe Biden’s mandate, imposed through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), that people wear masks when traveling via public transportation, or by taxi or ride-share service, as well as when at related locations, such as airports. After the court decision, most transportation companies and locations have been quick to make clear that people are free to leave their faces uncovered. Many people have...

Donald Trump has been well relegated to the sidelines of America’s political debate, but the TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) lives on, more virulent than ever. The latter is what’s behind Washington’s descent into the current mindless Ukraine war fever—an outbreak of irrationality that makes even the post-9/11 hysteria seem like an orderly discourse. At the center of this madness, of course, is Vladimir Putin, the Devil Incarnate. Prior to February 24th he had attained that designation in...

Inflation in the US is at forty-year highs, while interest rates on ten-year Treasury notes just hit 3 percent—signaling trouble for home buyers. Truck drivers pay more than $1,000 to fill their rigs with $5 per gallon diesel to deliver your increasingly expensive groceries and Amazon packages. Crime and homelessness skyrocket in large cities, exacerbated by virulent opioids like fentanyl and krokodil. And America’s proxy war with Russia in Ukraine gives rise to the most serious threats of...

In one of the great foreign policy blunders of modern times, US and European leaders repeatedly disregarded Vladimir Putin’s warnings that Russia would never tolerate Ukraine becoming a NATO military asset. Because of resistance from the French and German governments (which had as much to do with Ukraine’s chronic corruption as with concerns about Russia’s reaction), the Alliance delayed offering Kyiv a Membership Action Plan – an essential step toward membership. Nevertheless, at the 2008...

What has the Department of Homeland Security’s Disinformation Governance Board — or rather, the Biden Administration’s Ministry Of Truth — been up to since its founding?  Nobody really knows, but the timeline of its creation coincides with increasingly disturbing activities launched within Homeland Security to target not Russians, but American citizens. Far from targeting foreign disinformation or anything of the sort, the activities of DHS have increasingly focused on targeting and...

(This is a shortened version of a Ron Paul Institute free update. Subscribe here) A few reflections about the current status of the US/Russia war. Yes, I wrote it: US/Russia war. Let's call things what they really are. In fact, this is no conspiracy theory at all. The true goal of US policy in the region was revealed this past week by none other than US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, when he clarified that the aim wasn't really to help plucky upstart Ukraine recover its "democracy," but...

The US-centralized empire’s use of propaganda, censorship and Silicon Valley algorithm manipulationis the single most urgent issue of our time, because it’s what prevents attention from being drawn to all other issues. And all signs indicate it’s set to get much, much worse.I feel the need to reiterate once again that the censorship we’re seeing about Ukraine is of a whole new kind than anything we’ve seen before. There’s no pretense that it’s done to save lives or protect democracy this time...

A Florida bill restricting classroom instruction regarding sexuality in kindergarten through third grade has become the latest culture war skirmish.Supporters of the bill say government schools have no business being involved in this type of instruction with young students. They make a good point. The use of government power to indoctrinate children in certain political and social beliefs — regardless of the wishes of parents — is a major problem.While the instruction at issue in Florida is...

Many politicians and pundits are in full panic over Elon Musk’s threat to restore free speech values to Twitter. While Hillary Clinton has called upon Europeans to step in to maintain such censorship and Barack Obama has called for US regulations, the Biden Administration has created a new Disinformation Governance Board in the Department of Homeland Security. It appointed an executive director, Nina Jankowicz, who is literally pitch perfect as an advocate for both corporate and state...

In March of 2003, as the United States military prepared for its imminent invasion of Iraq, Paul Wolfowitz suggested to US Congress members that the US would not foot the bill for rebuilding Iraq after the devastation the US invasion would bring to the country. Wolfowitz, who was then deputy secretary of defense, assured Congress members that Iraq, through its oil revenue, could pay for its own reconstruction. Reality turned out much different. As Krishnadev Calamur wrote at The Atlantic in...

Politico's Christopher Miller noted earlier that the record-smashing $33 billion spending package that the White House is proposing for Ukraine actually "dwarfs the annual defense budgets of most nations." To which we naturally asked: how many billions of dollars does it take to turn a 'proxy' war into a 'direct conflict'? For starters it's clear that such a massive amount of taxpayer money means that Washington clearly doesn't expect that the war will end anytime soon, as multiple US defense...