Featured Articles

More Complications Arise In the Trump Universe

More Complications Arise In the Trump Universe

by | May 12, 2026 |

The top story last week, at least in terms of shock value, might well be the ongoing saga of the Trump White House ballroom, which started out as a $200 million development off of the building’s East Wing accommodating 300 guests and completely paid for by private donors. It then grew to 600 guests and the price doubled. The East Wing of the White House was then completely demolished without approval by Capitol architectural authorities to make way for a greatly expanded facility. The...

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A $1.5 Trillion Military Budget is a Gift to the Grifters

A $1.5 Trillion Military Budget is a Gift to the Grifters

by | May 11, 2026 |

Last week “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth insulted Americans by claiming that a 50 percent increase in the US military budget – from an incomprehensible one trillion dollars to an impossible one and a half trillion – was a “fiscally responsible investment.” “Thanks to President Trump’s $1.5 trillion defense budget, this War Department has moved from bureaucracy to business,” he said last Thursday. In a way he was right, though. The huge increase is much more about “business” than what is...

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More Wars and Rumors of Wars

More Wars and Rumors of Wars

by | May 11, 2026 |

President Donald Trump is back from his business trip to China which had a lot of ambiguity over issues like Taiwan without having done either much discernible damage or benefit to American interests. The trip ended with the American participants dropping all the gifts that they had received from the Chinese into a large garbage bin on the tarmac before they boarded their plane. And while the president was gone Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to everyone’s surprise announced that he was...

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2026 – Of Potatoes and Pitchforks

2026 – Of Potatoes and Pitchforks

by | May 8, 2026 |

We are stepping into a period where multiple systemic failures are colliding rather than unfolding one at a time and the usual vocabulary of crisis feels inadequate. Overlapping conflicts, tightening energy markets, fraying social contracts, sovereign debt burdens that leave little room for maneuver, and an agricultural sector standing on the edge of a perfect storm. This is not a single emergency to be managed by a single agency. It is a polycrisis, and it is arriving at a moment when the...

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The Gulf Separating the US and Iran is Too Wide to Bridge

The Gulf Separating the US and Iran is Too Wide to Bridge

by | May 8, 2026 |

As I pointed out in my last article, someone in the Trump administration who has been briefed on Trump’s upcoming statements about the war in Iran made a financial killing yesterday. This is part of a continuing pattern of deliberate deception by Trump, i.e., pretending there is great progress with talks with Iran, which in turn produces a boost in the US stock market and a decline in the futures price of oil. Here is the reality: There will be no negotiated end to the war with Iran in the...

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The Comey Indictment and Free Speech

The Comey Indictment and Free Speech

by | May 7, 2026 |

In 200-plus years of interpreting the free speech clause of the First Amendment, the courts have narrowed and expanded its scope. The Supreme Court employed a particularly narrow approach during much of the last century, through two world wars and then the Red Scare in the 1950s.  Thankfully, in the 1960s, the Warren Court began a remarkable and thus far unimpeded march toward compelling the government to tolerate open, wide, caustic and even threatening speech. When crafting the First...

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How the US-Israel Relationship Weakens America and Harms the World

How the US-Israel Relationship Weakens America and Harms the World

by | May 6, 2026 |

This article is adapted from a speech given at the Ron Paul Institute Spring Conference in Lake Jackson TX on 25 April 2026. I’m going to begin our examination of the US-Israel relationship by taking you to an unlikely location, thousands of miles from either Tel Aviv or Washington. We’re also traveling more than 36 years into the past. On December 20, 1989, the United States invaded the Republic of Panama to oust its leader, General Manuel Noriega, who had outlived his usefulness to the...

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Danger of a World Catastrophe

Danger of a World Catastrophe

by | May 5, 2026 |

The very first story on the Drudge Report on both April 23 and 24 was headlined with a quote from Bernard Arnault saying if the Iran war was not quickly settled, it could be a “world catastrophe.” I apparently do not keep up with world business as much as I should, because I did not know that Arnault is one the three richest men in the world along with Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. They trade first, second and third depending on fluctuating stock prices. Arnault heads a French conglomerate, LVMH,...

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A Negotiated Settlement for a Sovereign Iran is Nigh Impossible

A Negotiated Settlement for a Sovereign Iran is Nigh Impossible

by | May 5, 2026 |

Putting two sides together — let alone three — who have wildly diverse chronicles of their histories and even less commonality in charting their future national trajectory was innately unlikely to reach an agreed settlement. More likely in such ill-prepared encounters is often an ill-tempered recapitulation of the general lack of congruence. This was the case in last month’s Islamabad “talks” between the US and Iran — with Israel acting as third-party proxy for “collective forces” trying to...

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Trump Strikes Out Again

Trump Strikes Out Again

by | May 5, 2026 |

On Friday, Donald Trump was at it again. He posted on Truth Social a photoshopped picture of his face next to those of the four earlier presidents carved in stone on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. At least he was grinning, not displaying his usual snarl or sneer with his little fist raised defiantly in the air showing what a tough guy he is! That stern presidential portrait will be on display on the first page of the new United States passports which will be...

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House Majority Leader Insists the Price of Gas is Low

House Majority Leader Insists the Price of Gas is Low

by | May 5, 2026 |

In his February 24 State of the Union Speech, United States President Donald Trump claimed gas prices in America were much lower than they actually were. This was part of Trump’s effort to claim credit for an asserted vastly improved economy. Several days later, the war against Iran, which Trump started along with the Israel government, resulted in gas prices shooting up further. The war-caused sustained gas price increase led to Trump changing his message. Come April 23, in response to a...

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House Resolution Calls for Tech Companies to Censor Speech

House Resolution Calls for Tech Companies to Censor Speech

by | May 4, 2026 |

This one slipped under the wire. Tucker Carlson talked about it the other day, but beyond that, it is flying sans transponder. On February 29, New Jersey Democrat Josh Gottheimer and New York Republican Mike Lawler introduced “a bipartisan resolution condemning the rise of antisemitic, hate-filled rhetoric disseminated by prominent online personalities, including Hasan Piker and Candace Owens, and calling on social media platforms and public leaders to take stronger action against hate,”...

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No Appetite for War at the Ron Paul Spring Conference

No Appetite for War at the Ron Paul Spring Conference

by | May 4, 2026 |

“You are the smartest people. I’m late to the party.” – former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to the Ron Paul Spring Conference audience “You have been right for so long. You have been awake longer than most Americans.” – former National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent to the Ron Paul Spring Conference audience The theme of Ron Paul’s Spring Conference in Lake Jackson, Texas was “War is Back on the Menu” but participants from all over the US weren’t placing any orders. The event program...

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A $1.5 Trillion Military Budget is a Gift to the Grifters

Government Kills the Spirit

by | May 4, 2026 |

One of the industries hardest hit by the spike in fuel prices caused by the Iran War is airlines. Jet fuel prices have doubled since the start of the war. Airlines have reacted to the fuel price increase by raising fares and baggage fees, as well as by cutting routes. Raising prices is not a good option for “budget” airlines since their main appeal to consumers is their low prices. Increasing prices could cause these carriers to lose business. The financial strain from the increased fuel costs...

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The Bogus Blockade Claim of the US Department of War

The Bogus Blockade Claim of the US Department of War

by | May 1, 2026 |

Pete Hegseth is lying about the US blockade of Iranian ports. On April 12, after JD Vance announced that talks with Iran had failed, Trump declared a naval blockade of Iranian ports and coastal areas. CENTCOM clarified that the blockade would be enforced against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports, but would not impede freedom of navigation for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports. Now, after more than two weeks, Pete Hegseth...

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The Mechanistic Fallacy — Why the West So Often Fails at Geopolitics

The Mechanistic Fallacy — Why the West So Often Fails at Geopolitics

by | Apr 30, 2026 |

Some fifteen years ago I wrote that western reliance on its lens of secular rationality was no longer adequate as a means to understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It was becoming obvious — even then — that the future of the region would be one of wars increasingly defined by religious symbols: i.e. Al-Aqsa versus the Third Temple. Since then, things have moved on: In Israel, national elections in November 2022 brought a new leadership committed to founding Israel on the “Land of...

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