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We Americans Really Need To Just Mind Our Own Business

Posted by M. C. on October 24, 2023

The Ron Paul Liberty Report

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Three front war…

Posted by M. C. on October 24, 2023

Biden Election Strategy: ‘Let’s Fight Three Wars at Once!’

By dragging the United States into this war, President Biden has planted the seeds of innumerable 9/11-style blowback attacks on the US. Yet he has the audacity to claim that all of this is keeping us safe.

http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2023/october/23/biden-election-strategy-let-s-fight-three-wars-at-once/

Written by Ron Paul

President Joe Biden announced last week that the United States would be funding – and possibly fighting – three wars in three different parts of the world at the same time. It is an ambitious foreign policy for a president who doesn’t even seem to be able to express a coherent thought without the help of a teleprompter.

Nearly every word of Biden’s speech was untrue, including the preposterous suggestion that “American leadership is what holds the world together. American alliances are what keep us, America, safe.”

US interventionism in Ukraine for over ten years and in the Middle East for decades has brought those two regions to the brink of an explosion unlike anything seen before. And if that is not enough, Biden’s neocons are also determined to take us to war with China over Taiwan. The world is literally falling apart in front of us as Biden claims we are the only thing holding it together!

After a brutal attack on Israel by Hamas earlier this month, Israel declared war not just on the terrorists who attacked its territory, but on the entire population of Gaza itself. Israel’s policy of collective punishment – razing Gaza to the ground – has inflamed Muslims from the Middle East to Asia to Western capitals. The anger rages more fiercely than we have seen in decades, perhaps since the founding of Israel in 1948.

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Republican Solutions Would Destabilize Central America, Not Fix It

Posted by M. C. on October 24, 2023

Yes, very shocking news: trying to make the civilian population of another state so miserable they choose to try and overthrow the regime doesn’t work.

Geez, if only Washington had known that from repeatedly trying it before…like in Iraq…or Iran…or Cuba…

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/republican-solutions-would-destabilize-central-america-not-fix-it/

by Joseph Solis-Mullen

frontier

Watching the Republican Party presidential debates has been surreal in many ways. Apart from the awkward spectacle of Mike Pence and Chris Christie acting like they have a chance at the Oval Office, perhaps nothing has been more confounding than the new, hottest idea: bombing and invading Mexico to solve the drug crisis. And it gets better! Because while they’re at it, the military will solve the migrant crisis, too.

This really is baffling.

Except for those monied interests who benefit from its continued fighting, the drug war has been a total failure. Pick any metric you like.

So, too, but for those monied interests who benefit from its continued fighting, the Global War on Terror has been a failure on all fronts. Again, pick any metric you like.

So why would a war on “narco-terrorism” be expected to go any differently?

I mean really, taking a step back, does the fact that so many of the migrants are now Venezuelan not strike these Republicans or their voters as in any way odd? No more than the fact that so many of the same migrants headed north thirty years ago were Guatemalan and Salvadoran.

Nor that efforts by each of the previous administrations at intervention and influence operations in Latin America (Honduras in 2009, Bolivia in 2019, or Venezuela in 2020) have all been failures.

It really is strange. One would think that a policy that generated such obvious negative consequences would have surely been abandoned. But it hasn’t. And just as destroying the Middle East and destabilizing North Africa led to the migrant crisis Europe is still enduring, Washington’s focus on isolating and impoverishing an already populous and poor country like Venezuela has prompted many of them to pack up and leave

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Trapping Wild Pigs

Posted by M. C. on October 24, 2023

Replace the corn every day. Once they’ve become dependent on the free food, erect a section of fence down one side of the clearing. When they get used to the fence, they’ll begin to eat the corn again. Then you erect another side of the fence.

Continue until you have all four sides of the fence up, with a gate in the final side.

Then, when the pigs enter the pen to feed, you close the gate.

Only a few will have both the insight and temerity necessary to make a dash for the gate as it’s now closing.

by Jeff Thomas

Most of us would like to assume that we’re smarter than pigs, but are we? Let’s have a look.

Pigs are pretty intelligent mammals, and forest-dwelling wild pigs are known to be especially wily.

However, there’s a traditional method for trapping them.

First, find a small clearing in the forest and put some corn on the ground.

After you leave, the pigs will find it. They’ll also return the next day to see if there’s more.

Replace the corn every day. Once they’ve become dependent on the free food, erect a section of fence down one side of the clearing. When they get used to the fence, they’ll begin to eat the corn again. Then you erect another side of the fence.

Continue until you have all four sides of the fence up, with a gate in the final side.

Then, when the pigs enter the pen to feed, you close the gate.

At first, the pigs will run around, trying to escape. But if you toss in more corn, they’ll eventually calm down and go back to eating.

You can then smile at the herd of pigs you’ve caught and say to yourself that this is why humans are smarter than pigs.

But unfortunately, that’s not always so.

In fact, the description above is the essence of trapping humans into collectivism.

Collectivism begins when a government starts offering free stuff to the population. At first, it’s something simple like free education or food stamps for the poor.

But soon, political leaders talk increasingly of “entitlements” – a wonderful concept that by its very name suggests that this is something that’s owed to you, and if other politicians don’t support the idea, then they’re denying you your rights.

Once the idea of free stuff has become the norm and, more importantly, when the populace has come to depend upon it as a significant part of their “diet,” more free stuff is offered.

It matters little whether the new entitlements are welfare, healthcare, free college, or a guaranteed basic wage. What’s important is that the herd come to rely on the entitlements.

Then, it’s time to erect the fence.

Naturally, in order to expand the volume of free stuff, greater taxation will be required. And of course, some rights will have to be sacrificed.

And just like the pigs, all that’s really necessary to get humans to comply is to make the increase in fencing gradual. People focus more on the corn than the fence.

Once they’re substantially dependent, it’s time to shut the gate.

What this looks like in collectivism is that new restrictions come into play that restrict freedoms.

You may be told that you cannot expatriate without paying a large penalty. You may be told that your bank deposit may be confiscated in an emergency situation. You may even be told that the government has the right to deny you the freedom to congregate, or even to go to work, for whatever trumped-up reason.

And of course, that’s the point at which the pigs run around, hoping to escape the new restrictions. But more entitlements are offered, and in the end, the entitlements are accepted as being more valuable than the freedom of self-determination.

Even at this point, most people will remain compliant. But there’s a final stage: The corn ration is “temporarily” cut due to fiscal problems. Then it’s cut again… and again.

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America’s Crisis Of Faith: Poll Reveals More Americans Are Rejecting The Constitution And Embracing Violence

Posted by M. C. on October 24, 2023

We are now in an existential struggle to preserve the values that founded the most successful constitutional system in the history of the world.

It is our legacy that now can be either boldly defended by a grateful people or lost in the whimper of a disinterested generation.

Rejection of the Constitution began at roughly the time the ink was dry. Government employees are required to uphold the constitution. The very few that try are duly punished.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/americas-crisis-faith-poll-reveals-more-americans-are-rejecting-constitution-and

Tyler Durden's Photo

by Tyler Durden

Monday, Oct 23, 2023 – 09:40 PM

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

Below is my column in Fox.com on the poll released last week showing an increasing number of citizens have lost faith in our constitutional system and now view violence as warranted to silence those with opposing views.

It is a crisis of faith that represents the greatest possible threat to our Republic. The loss of faith and fealty constitutes one of the greatest crises that our nation has faced since its foundation.

Here is the column:

A recent startling poll shows that a majority of voters not only view the opposing party as a threat to the nation but justifying violence to combat their agenda. The poll captures a crisis of faith that I have been writing about for over a decade as an academic and a commentator. Many now question democracy as a sustainable system of government. It represents the single greatest threat to this nation: a citizenry that has lost faith not just with our system of government but with each other.

The polls by the University of Virginia Center for Politics shows a nation at war with itself. Fifty-two percent of Biden supporters say Republicans are now a threat to American life while 47 percent of Trump supporters say the same about Democrats.

Among Biden supporters, 41 percent now believe violence is justified “to stop [Republicans] from achieving their goals.” An almost identical percentage, 38 percent, of Trump supporters now embrace violence to stop Democrats.

Not surprisingly, many of these people have lost faith in democracy. Some 31 percent of Trump supporters believe that the nation should explore alternative forms of government.  Roughly a quarter (24 percent) of Biden supporters also question the viability of democracy.

Faith is the one thing that no system of government can do without. Without faith in the underlying values of a constitutional system, authority rests on a mix of coercion and capitulation.

For years, I have written about this growing loss of faith and how it has been fueled by our intellectual and political elites. In the echo chamber of news and social media, citizens constantly hear how the opposing party is composed of “traitors” and how the constitutional system works to protect enemies of the people.

Viewers now get a steady diet of figures like MSNBC commentator Elie Mystal who called the U.S. Constitution “trash” and argued that we should simply just dump it.

In a New York Times column, “The Constitution Is Broken and Should Not Be Reclaimed,” law professors Ryan D. Doerfler of Harvard and Samuel Moyn of Yale called for the Constitution to be “radically altered” to “reclaim America from constitutionalism.”

See the rest here

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Former US Rep. Justin Amash’s Relatives Killed in Israeli Bombing

Posted by M. C. on October 23, 2023

Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church is the third oldest existing Christian church in the world, standing very nearly since the time of Christ.

Additionally, Israel today demanded the evacuation of yet another hospital in Gaza, the Al-Quds Hospital, claiming that it was also on the bombing list.

http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/peace-and-prosperity/2023/october/20/former-us-rep-justin-amashs-relatives-killed-in-israeli-bombing/

Written by Daniel McAdams

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Former US Rep. Justin Amash (L-MI), who was the only US House Member representing the Libertarian Party, announced today on Twitter/X that several of his relatives were killed when Israel bombed Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church in Gaza. Amash’s relatives, along with many others, were seeking shelter in the Church as Israel continues to flatten Gaza.

I was really worried about this. 😔 With great sadness, I have now confirmed that several of my relatives (including Viola and Yara pictured here) were killed at Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church in Gaza, where they had been sheltering, when part of the complex was destroyed as… pic.twitter.com/w5k1xEeTgF — Justin Amash (@justinamash) October 20, 2023

As one commenter on Amash’s thread pointed out, Saint Porphyrius Church “symbolized coexistence. It’s worth noting that this church is located near the Jewish Quarter in Gaza as well.”

Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church is the third oldest existing Christian church in the world, standing very nearly since the time of Christ. Another commenter on Twitter added that “Gaza’s oldest church the Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius”…was a refuge for at least 380 civilians. At least 40 have been reported dead and more searches continue among the rubble.”

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Congress Worked on a Two Billion Dollars Aid Bill for Israel. The Israel Government Says, ‘Nah, Make it Ten Billion.’

Posted by M. C. on October 23, 2023

Come on, Secretary Yellen, can’t you show some gusto like the Israel government and up that from two to ten wars?

http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/peace-and-prosperity/2023/october/18/congress-worked-on-a-two-billion-dollars-aid-bill-for-israel-the-israel-government-says-nah-make-it-ten-billion/

Written by Adam Dick

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Over the last year and a half, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky kept himself busy repeatedly demanding more money, supplies, and weapons from the United States and other governments to pay for Ukraine’s war against Russia. No matter how much was given, he never accepted it as enough. More, more, more aid, he constantly demanded.

It looks like the Israel government is starting off in its new war on the same course of aid demands as the Ukraine government has pursued.

Last week, word was legislation was in the works in the United States Congress to provide around two billion dollars in supplementary funding to the Israel government to support its activities in its new war. Instead of just expressing thanks and waiting for the money to start flowing in, with Zelensky-level audacity the Israel government is reported to have asked the US government to provide instead five times that amount — ten billion dollars.

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Joe Biden’s Hideous $106 Billion War Package

Posted by M. C. on October 23, 2023

By David Stockman

David Stockman’s Contra Corner

What a day for another $106 billion imperial boondoggle. There is not one dime in “Joe Biden’s” war package that enhances the safety and security of the American homeland, yet all of it is being blithely charged to Uncle Sam’s vastly over-extended credit card.

Nor should you take our word for it. What’s left of the Fed-tortured bond market cried out for help this AM, tagging the 5.00% level on the benchmark 10-year UST (purple line) for the first time since June 2007.

But here’s the thing. Back then, the public debt (yellow line) was $8.8 trillion, meaning every 100 basis points of increased yield added $88 billion to annual debt service. Today, of course, the public debt is $33.5 trillion, and the incremental debt service on 100 basis points will amount to $335 billion or nearly 4X more.

Public Debt Versus Yield On 10-Year UST, 2007 to 2023

Unfortunately, 1oo basis points of higher yield isn’t the half of it. As of August 31st, the weighted average yield on the public debt was only 2.92% because during the Fed’s decade long spree of reckless money-printing the US Treasury was able to refi the public debt at absurdly low rates, including at the 0.50% bottom on the 10-year UST in July 2020.

Alas, what comes around goes around. Now the entire yield curve is trading at 5% or above, meaning that all of that ultra-cheap debt will be maturing for years to come, only to be replaced with much higher yields as far as the eye can see. At the moment, the gap between the embedded carry cost of 2.92% and an at-market level of @5.22% would amount to incremental debt service cost of nearly $800 billion per annum!

That’s right. There is a fiscal elephant in the room nearly the size of the nation’s monstrous defense budget itself, yet the semi-comatose occupant of the Oval Office chose this moment to indulge in the absolute worst game of log-rolling politics we have witness during a half-century of observation. To wit, the “Joe Biden” boondoggle includes:

  • $61 billion for the Ukraine warhawks;
  • $14 billion for virtue-signaling against Hamas;
  • $14 billion for the GOP Border War Howlers;
  • $14 billion for various bleeding heart “humanitarian” purposes;
  • $3 billion of walking around money for all the squeaky wheels not oiled above.

Still, do these clueless fools not understand they are now starring fiscal catastrophe square in the face? As of Q2 2023 the annualized rate of interest expense on the public debt clocked in at $909 billion, which represented a doubling of the level which prevailed when the voters last put a Republican in the White House to, well, rein in the red ink!

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The US Empire’s PR Crisis In Gaza

Posted by M. C. on October 23, 2023

It should be clear to everyone by now that a huge percentage of the right wingers who criticized US proxy warfare via Ukraine did so only because they were worried it might take away from US proxy warfare via Israel.

https://substack.com/inbox/post/138185398

Caitlin Johnstone

The US-centralized empire is a giant network of allies, partners and assets spanning the entire globe. Many of the nations in this network, such as Israel, have strong ideologies and values systems that the empire must cooperate with to obtain their loyalty. But the empire itself has no ideology or values — it values nothing but planetary domination. The empire’s motives are no more ideological than the motives of a mugger are ideological.

So the empire has no ideology, but it is held together by cooperation with individual governments who do. The problem this creates is that sometimes the ideologies of those states cause them to do things that go against the interests of the empire as a whole. Israel can just up and decide to commit a genocidal massacre in front of everyone. Saudi Arabia can decide it’s going to dismember a Washington Post reporter with a bone saw. Proxies in Ukraine can keep saying Nazi things and sporting Nazi insignia in public. They do these things because unlike the top brass in the imperial power structure they are guided by ideology, with no regard for the need to preserve the empire’s image as a “rules-based international order”.

This often creates a PR crisis for the empire, because the public will cease consenting to the network of alliances, partners and assets if it becomes sufficiently aware of the depravity needed to hold it all together. This is typically easy to resolve because the US empire has the most sophisticated propaganda machine in the history of civilization, but that propaganda machine is operated by individuals — individuals who may have learned about Palestinian rights at university, or who were disgusted about the way their employer ran cover for Israel’s murder of Shireen Abu Akleh only to find out Israel did it and was lying. So they don’t always play along with the imperial machine in their reporting, thereby exacerbating the empire’s PR crisis.

The worst thing that could possibly happen, from the empire’s point of view, is for the public to start opening their eyes to its criminality. With Israel on a genocidal rampage as pro-Palestinian protesters flood the streets worldwide, we may be certain that the manipulators who are responsible for imperial perception management are in full crisis mode, because if a critical mass of people can pick apart this one lie, it opens up the possibility of their unplugging themselves from the whole propaganda matrix that keeps the empire operational.

The empire managers are standing by Israel’s side and doing everything they can to pretend its actions are right and just, but they are fidgeting uncomfortably, and behind the scenes we may be sure they’re in total damage control. That’s why we’re being slammed with such a mad deluge of propaganda right now, and that’s why they’re doing everything they can to censor and suppress and shut down voices who are critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza.

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Blinken Rejects Idea of Gaza Ceasefire Despite Massive Child Casualties

Posted by M. C. on October 23, 2023

Blinken also claimed Hamas is preventing American citizens from fleeing the Gaza Strip

“UNICEF says 1,524 children have been killed in the Gaza Strip during these bombings. Why isn’t the US calling for at least a temporary ceasefire?” Margaret Brennan, the host of CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” asked Blinken.

During the interview with Brennan, Blinken also claimed it was Hamas’s fault that American citizens in Gaza could not leave despite the fact that the enclave is under Israeli blockade and Egypt has not been letting people enter its territory from its one border crossing with Gaza.

antiwar.com

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday rejected the idea of the US calling for a ceasefire in Gaza when confronted with the massive number of child casualties in Israel’s onslaught.

“UNICEF says 1,524 children have been killed in the Gaza Strip during these bombings. Why isn’t the US calling for at least a temporary ceasefire?” Margaret Brennan, the host of CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” asked Blinken.

Blinken claimed that the death of children on both sides hits him “right in the heart” but did not criticize Israel’s vicious bombing campaign. He pointed to US efforts to get Israel to allow aid trucks to enter Gaza through Egypt, and Brennan then asked why the US isn’t pushing for at least a temporary ceasefire.

“Israel has to do everything it can to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Blinken said, referring to the October 7 Hamas attack. “Freezing things in place where they are now would allow Hamas to remain where it is and to repeat what it’s done some time in the future. No country could accept that,” Blinken said.

Blinken made a similar argument earlier this year when rejecting the idea of a ceasefire in Ukraine ahead of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, saying a pause in fighting would only benefit Russia. Now, it’s clear Ukraine’s counteroffensive has failed after months of brutal fighting and heavy Ukrainian casualties.

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