Category: News

When Rachel Maddow finished a 26-minute monologue that spanned two segments on her MSNBC program last Thursday night, her grave tones indicated that she thought she’d just delivered a whale of a story. But actually it was more like minnow – and a specious one at that.

Convoluted and labored, Maddow’s narrative tried to make major hay out of a report from Moscow that a high-ranking Russian intelligence official had been dragged out of a meeting, arrested and charged with treason. Weirdly, Maddow kept presenting that barebones story as verification that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin had directly ordered the hacking and release of Democratic campaign emails in order to get Donald Trump elected president.

Continue reading “Is Rachel Maddow Becoming a Liberal Glenn Beck?”

You will often see potentially important pieces of legislation languish in the US House. A bill will remain active, meaning that it can be brought to the Floor at any time. But it flies just under the radar. Other times the language floats around Washington for years until a “crisis” necessitates its activation and passage. As we know well, what eventually became the PATRIOT Act – one of the single greatest attacks on civil liberties in US history – started out and spent much of its early life as a sugar-plumb fairy dancing in neocon fantasies. Then came 9/11 and it was dusted off and imposed on the American people. And the United States has never been – and may never be – the same. Either way, these measures are important if seldom seen.

So it may well be with H.J.Res. 10, introduced in the House just as the new Congress began at the beginning of this month. The title of the bill tells the tale: a bill “To authorize the use of the United States Armed Forces to achieve the goal of preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.” This legislation, introduced by Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL), is as it appears: an authorization for the President to use military force against Iran. But it is much worse than that.

Continue reading “Pre-Emptive Attack Iran Bill Active in US House”

Angela Keaton and Lucy Steigerwald take a crack at what we hope will be a brand new, weekly podcast for the site. We’ll talk war, antiwar, police, imperialism, and all that chipper stuff. In episode one, Keaton and Steigerwald talk Chelsea Manning, new President Trump, and whether the women of this week’s marches are allies, or not. (Hint: maybe, but Hillary Clinton ain’t.)

How did the US empire begin? In his important new book, The True Flag: Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of American Empire, Stephen Kinzer tells the story of the nationwide debate in 1898 over whether the US should attempt to intervene in the affairs of the rest of the world. Is that debate over? Mr. Kinzer joins us to discuss in today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

Yesterday (Thursday) at the State Department five officials resigned or retired. Another one today.

The media has gone near-insane, claiming State is crumbling in protest under the Trump administration. This is not true. What happened at State is very routine.

Leaving the Department are head of the Management Bureau Pat Kennedy (above), Assistant Secretary of State for Administration Joyce Anne Barr, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Michele Bond, Ambassador Gentry O. Smith, director of the Office of Foreign Missions, arms control official Tom Countryman, and Victoria Nuland.

Continue reading “Those ‘Resignations’: What Really Happened at the State Department”

Washington is talking about military spending reform…again. Much of the noise emanating from the think tanks on this subject is intended to maintain the policy status quo at all costs while giving the impression that money is being spent more carefully. But the issue is not whether the practice of charging $800 for hammer can be eliminated, but rather whether the United States really needs to maintain 800 military bases overseas. Real reform versus phony reform in today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.