The bones of our democracy — the core elements that separate that way of life from others — lie in the First Amendment to the Constitution, specifically the rights to free speech and a free press. Without the ability to speak freely, and to have things about our government reported equally freely to us, most of the rest of the concept of what was laid out on July 4, 1776 and later falls away. Thomas Jefferson himself stated that an “informed citizenry” was the key to everything. So it is with...

Reporters and pundits covering the presidential campaign of Donald Trump have been torn between two conflicting narratives: The first is that Trump is a reckless amateur and, as president with his finger on the nuclear button, he would bring the world to the brink of catastrophe. The second is that Trump is a cat’s paw for Russian President Vladimir Putin and, as president, he would, advertently or inadvertently, work to implement Moscow’s agenda for world domination. The first narrative is a...

“We’ve got to face it. Politics have entered a new stage, the television stage. Instead of long-winded public debates, the people want capsule slogans—‘Time for a change’—‘The mess in Washington’—‘More bang for a buck’—punch lines and glamour.”— A Face in the Crowd (1957) Politics is entertainment. It is a heavily scripted, tightly choreographed, star-studded, ratings-driven, mass-marketed, costly exercise in how to sell a product—in this case, a presidential candidate—to dazzled consumers who...

Wikileaks over the last few days dumped tens of thousands of emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) server. The disclosures of dirty tricks directed against Bernie Sanders contained in those emails are startling, and only add to the whirlpool of corruption and sleaze surrounding Hillary Clinton and the wheezing corpse of the democratic process. There's a lot to unpack here: -- The same people on the Clinton team who made enormous efforts to claim her private email server,...

Ron Paul Institute Senior Fellow Adam Dick’s new book A Tipping Point for Liberty: Exposing and Defeating Leviathan Government was published this week. Dick’s new book frankly explores the battle between overbearing government, both at home and abroad, and individuals’ aspirations for liberty. In A Tipping Point for Liberty, Dick describes in detail the dangers from leviathan government and presents reasons for optimism. Before joining RPI, Dick worked in the United States House of...

As terrorism struck again in Nice and Germany and… Donald Trump outlined his policy against Islamic State: as president, he will seek a full declaration of war from Congress, the first such formal invocation since Pearl Harbor. Trump was short on specifics but very clear he would take the strategies of the post-9/11 era into a presidency. Clinton, for her part, intends on “intensifying the current air campaign [and] stepping up support for local forces on the ground.” Their French counterpart,...

I recently proposed that the liberty movement capitalize on Brexit with “Fed-exit”: a campaign to “secede" from the Federal Reserve. Fed-exit could be accomplished with a few simple policy changes. Passing Audit the Fed is a good first step toward Fed-exit. Contrary to the Federal Reserve’s propaganda, auditing the Fed will not reduce the Federal Reserve’s mythical “independence.” It will simply allow Congress and the people to learn the full truth about the Fed’s conduct of monetary policy....

September 1961. Geneva, Switzerland. A Turkish classmate of mine named Turgut burst into my room, crying, “those bastards just hanged my father!” The “bastards” in question were Turkey’s generals. They had overthrown the civilian government of Adnan Menderes and hanged my friend’s father. Since, then, the mighty Turkish armed forces has tried to overthrow the government about every ten years. Last weekend’s military coup in Turkey was the fifth coup since the 1960’s. Many had believed the...

Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams issued a warning to an undisclosed number of masked protesters outside the Republican National Convention: “If you are a member of a group that causes you to have to hide your face, then you probably need a different cause.” Police claim they have received at least a dozen calls related to concerns about the small groups of black-clad “anarchists” with masks. So why is Chief Williams so concerned about the face masks? Too early for Halloween? Nope, facial...

On Friday July 15th, as the national news media were either on vacation or preparing for the opening of the Trump National Convention on Monday the 18th, the long-awaited release of the ‘missing’ 28 pages from the US Senate’s 9/11 report (“DECEMBER 2002: JOINT INQUIRY INTO INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES BEFORE AND AFTER THE TERRORIST ATTACKS OF SEPTEMBER 11, 2001”) occurred. The official title of this document is “PART FOUR – FINDING, DISCUSSION AND NARRATIVE REGARDING CERTAIN SENSITIVE...

Never has the US-led conspiracy against the sovereign state of Syria been so transparent. When recently a Syrian warplane crashed near the Syrian capital of Damascus and its pilot parachuted to safety, he was captured and promptly executed by US-backed “moderate rebels.” In what was clearly an inexcusable war crime, the story began to change almost immediately in order to shift the blame.. Reuters in its article, “Syrian warplane crashes near Damascus, rebels say pilot killed,” would report...

Despite all the articles and analysis in the wake of the Pulse nightclub shooting, one important fact seems to have been completely overlooked: the shooter validated Ron Paul’s warning that American military intervention in the Mideast causes terrorist attacks. On September 25, 2001, Congressman Ron Paul of Texas addressed the US House of Representatives. Two weeks earlier, a terrorist attack had destroyed four fully-loaded passenger aircraft, completely demolished three buildings at the World...

Relatives of troops killed in the Iraq War have launched an online crowd-funding appeal to pay for possible legal action against Tony Blair. The Iraq War Families Campaign group are trying to raise £50,000 to "bring to justice to those responsible for the war and the deaths of our loved ones". The appeal follows the Chilcot Inquiry, which sharply criticised the decision-making behind the war and said it had been poorly-planned and ended in failure. The appeal had already reached £20,000 by...

News reports about the recently released 28 pages of the Joint Inquiry into the 9/11 attacks are typically dismissive: this is nothing new, it’s just circumstantial evidence, and there’s no “smoking gun.” Yet given what the report actually says – and these news accounts are remarkably sparse when it comes to verbatim quotes – it’s hard to fathom what would constitute a smoking gun. To begin with, let’s start with what’s not in these pages: there are numerous redactions. And they are rather...

I have railed for some time against the maniacal idea of the military draft being extended to include women. Make no mistake, I oppose the draft in all forms; and think it is just as reprehensible to force men to serve and die for a cause they may or may not believe in as well. The military should be an all-volunteer army. And if it’s not, then the entire idea of liberty is nothing more than an elaborate hoax foisted on the masses. The only TRUE liberty belongs to those who cannot be...