Category: News

“I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong – no Viet Cong ever called me nigger.”

With those pointed words, Muhammad Ali explained his opposition to the US war in Vietnam and justified his refusal to submit himself to the draft. He declared himself a conscientious objector. After declining three times to step forward for induction into the US Armed Forces in April of 1967 in Houston, Texas, the reigning world heavyweight boxing champion was arrested, stripped of his title and state boxing licenses, and thrown into a three-year legal battle ending with his exoneration (on technical grounds) by the US Supreme Court.

No one ever seriously doubted the physical courage of Muhammed Ali (born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. in 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky). An Olympic gold medalist and winner of eight Golden Gloves titles, he became the youngest man ever to unseat a reigning heavyweight boxing champion at 22.

Continue reading “Muhammad Ali: A Profile in Moral Courage”

One of the downsides of the US “regime change” business is that when you break it, you often have to buy it. It’s all fun and games when you wander through the streets of Kiev with a bag of cookies encouraging the people to overthrow their government, or when you appear on stage before a riotous mob and alongside avowed national-socialists violently overthrowing a democratically-elected government.

What gets messy is when you get your way, the old government is overthrown, your “guys” seize power, and it turns out corruption and economic mismanagement are worse than before the US-backed “liberation.”

So what do you do when interventions go badly? If you are the US government spending other people’s money, you simply escalate. In Libya and Iraq, that means going back in with US boots on the ground.

Continue reading “Obama Hands Corrupt Ukraine Another Billion US Dollars”

I have been meaning to discuss an article from the 4 May 2016 edition of The Sun for almost a month, but I have put it off in part because the whole issue is so utterly depressing. There have been a few different short pieces in mainstream media outlets featuring the perspectives of drone operators, some of whom are females. Yes, for the first time in history, women can hope to achieve full equality in the military realm, because physical strength is no longer a requirement for active combat duty. Pushing buttons and manipulating joysticks to annihilate human beings is an equal opportunity vocation.

In the article in The Sun, a female Royal Air Force Reaper drone operator shares her view of what she is doing as she facilitates the execution of persons located thousands of miles away. When asked to elaborate upon their role, drone operators generally fall into one of two camps: either they have abandoned the profession and now regret what they did, or they are still “lighting up” targets in good conscience and believe themselves to be saving the world from evil. Both Canadians and Americans have expressed reservations about what they were asked to do while serving as drone operators. Unsurprisingly, given the normalization of drone warfare under US President Obama, there are also quite a few targeted killing enthusiasts.

Continue reading “Lessons From Tina, RAF Reaper Drone Operator Who Likens ISIS to the Nazis”

The neoconservative, Democrat-heavy Center for a New American Security (CNAS) has created a foreign policy blueprint for what they hope is a future Hillary Clinton presidency. Unsurprisingly, it is heavy on the “need” for the US military to much more aggressively dominate the globe. The Obama Administration was far too dovish, according to CNAS “experts.” No one should be shocked that yet another militaristic Beltway “think tank” is funded predominantly by the military-industrial complex. Will Americans continue to be fooled by those who line their pockets with cash while making the rest of less safe and more poor? We give it our two cents in today’s Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

Actual Black Person and National Security Advisor Susan Rice told graduates at Florida International University in a commencement speech a week or three ago that the presence of too many “white, male, and Yale” personnel in America’s national security agencies she helps staff and run is posing a threat to the very security of the United States.

“Too often, our national security workforce has been what former Florida Senator Bob Graham called ‘white, male, and Yale,’” Rice stated. “In the halls of power, in the faces of our national security leaders, America is still not fully reflected. I’m not talking about a human resources issue. I’m highlighting a national security imperative.”

So what the hell exactly is Rice talking about that’s so dangerous besides herself?

Continue reading “Susan Rice: Too Many Smart White Guys on National Security Team Putting America at Risk”

Pro-war pundit Bill Kristol is disgusted about Donald Trump being the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Indeed, Kristol has even been searching for someone to launch an independent or third-party campaign to counter Trump.

Last weekend Kristol stirred up some interest with a tweet that “an independent candidate–an impressive one, with a strong team and a real chance” would emerge. That hasn’t happened yet. But, Mark Halperin and John Hellemann report today at Bloomberg that Republican sources say Kristol is trying to recruit National Review writer David French to launch an independent presidential run and that, while French is open to the idea, French has not yet made up his mind.

Continue reading “Bill Kristol’s Presidential Candidate: David French?”