Category Archives: Liberty Report

Liberty Report

Ron Paul: Liquidation, Bankruptcy Possible Solutions To Greek Debt Burden

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There is no way for the people to vote themselves out of the Greek debt burden, according to Ron Paul. So does Sunday’s strong “no” vote in Greece mean that the Keynesian crisis will continue?

In today’s Liberty Report, Paul discussed how 61 percent of the people in Greece voted yesterday to drop the euro, to not follow the International Monetary Fund and to get good loans. The reaction? “The markets fizzled and the market is still down, but it’s not in a panic state,” Paul said.

Daniel McAdams, co-host of the Liberty Report, said the vote reflects “the real sense of anger among Greeks, probably shared by a lot of other Europeans of the European bureaucracy.”

This problem of debt spending and bad loans is going to happen for a long time to come because of Keynesian economics, Paul said. Those in central economic planning, not only on the local level but in the European Union and the IMF, are making mistakes. “It’s like building skyscrapers with a yardstick that changes every day,” Paul said. “You have to give up on these basic principles that debt is good, debt is money.”

Philosophically, operating under Keynesian principles, governments have to come to rescue when these companies continue to accumulate debt without an corrections, Paul said. Now the Greeks are dealing with what to do with the debt. Liquidation and bankruptcy are likely the only solutions.

Watch the full episode above and check out more episodes of the Ron Paul Liberty Report here at Truth In Media.

In case you missed Ben Swann’s Truth In Media episode on ISIS watch it below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6kdi1UXxhY

Liberty Report

Ron Paul: ‘Nearly Impossible To Opt-Out’ Of California Vaccine Law

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What are the implications for our liberties when government decides to play doctor with its citizens?

Consider the California vaccine law. It’s nearly impossible to opt-out of the new mandatory laws approved by Gov. Jerry Brown, according to Ron Paul. The law is among the most restrictive mandatory vaccine laws in the United States. Actor and comedian Jim Carrey took to Twitter to vent his frustrations with the law, calling it “corporate fascism.”

Watch the full episode above and check out more episodes of the Ron Paul Liberty Report here at Truth In Media.

In case you missed Ben Swann’s Truth In Media episode on ISIS watch it below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6kdi1UXxhY

Liberty Report

Ron Paul Questions Obama’s Plan to Restore Full Relations With Cuba

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President Barack Obama’s announcement today that the United States will restore full relations with Cuba is a good start, according to Ron Paul. But he still questions whether Congress will block funding for an American embassy in Havana, and has concerns about the travel and trade embargo.

“It’s about time,” Paul said. “The Americans and the Cubans are signing a document that says that we will have diplomatic relations and that we will have [an] embassy open up in Cuba. That, of course, is something that when I was in office and you helped so much in trying to get better relations with Cuba and move this along. It looks like this is going to happen, but my guess is that it’s not going to be snap our fingers and everything back to normal.”

Paul shared some history of the breakdown of relations between the U.S. and Cuba, recalling a time when the U.S. had an embassy there. It was during the time of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who Paul said had a role in the breakdown of relations through his support of Fulgencio Batista. “It turns out that Batista wasn’t exactly an easy guy to defend,” Paul said, and explained how Batista created a military coup in 1952 with the assistance of the U.S. government—the year Eisenhower was first elected.

Our government may not be involved in Cuba militarily, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t intervening in foreign affairs, Paul explained, saying that we should not get involved in trying to perfect other government systems around the world until the U.S. has achieved its definition of perfect protection of human rights and civil liberties here at home.

Despite his optimism about the embassy and government cooperation, Paul said that it isn’t necessarily the best way to establish relations. “It should be people to people,” he said.

Watch the full episode above and check out more episodes of the Ron Paul Liberty Report here at Truth In Media.

In case you missed Ben Swann’s Truth In Media episode on ISIS watch it below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6kdi1UXxhY

Liberty Report

Ron Paul: Are Neocons Rethinking Animosity Toward Al Qaeda?

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Neoconservatives are rethinking animosity toward al Qaeda, which they say is the enemy of our enemy. Did they forget the connection between al Qaeda and 9/11?

Ron Paul discussed this in his latest Liberty Report, saying that the neocons are unwilling to consider that American policy in Iraq and Syria wrong. Rather, they continually push for changing tactics—but the tactics are a total failure. This could be why neocons are looking to reach out to al Qaeda, he said.

According to Liberty Report co-host Daniel McAdams, the neocon perspective is that it’s all Obama’s fault for not invading Syria in 2013 on trumped up charges of President Bashar al Assad using chemical weapons on his own people. Now, backed in a corner, the neocons believe we have to look at other allies, and that we need to change our ideas about al Qaeda.

At 3:19, McAdams traces our government’s strategy against Iraq and Syria to a 1996 document presented by U.S. officials to the Israeli government. The document, he said, was essentially a list for Israeli dominance in the Middle East. The document is called “A Clean Break.”

“Number-one on that list was we’ve got to get rid of Assad in Syria because it challenges policies not just there but toward Lebanon,” McAdams said. “So the roadmap to get there was first going through Iraq and overthrowing Hussein—which they did—then moving on to Syria. It sounds conspiratorial, but if you follow the way events actually happened, they have happened that way. And then you have the myth of the Arab Spring, which was a spontaneous uprising, they say. But it was really nothing of the sort.”

Watch the full episode above and check out more episodes of the Ron Paul Liberty Report here at Truth In Media.

In case you missed Ben Swann’s Truth In Media episode on ISIS watch it below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6kdi1UXxhY

Liberty Report

Ron Paul On Same-Sex Marriage: Why Is Government Involved In Sacrament?

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Last week the Supreme Court decided to overrule state laws and allow same-sex marriage across the nation. While many news outlets reported this decision as granting a new right, former Texas Rep. Ron Paul reminded viewers of his Liberty Report that rights do not come from our government—they are natural to us all. A 5-4 ruling does not mean same-sex marriage is a new right, he said.

“I think it raises the issue of licensing,” Paul explained. “What they are really talking about is they are changing how you can get a license. The federal courts are overruling what states have done and in many ways they are changing the definition of marriage, which seems to be way beyond what governments are supposed to do. . . . I’m convinced that this could have been prevented by maybe having a lot less laws in the land.”

Daniel McAdams, co-host of the Liberty Report, commented that both sides have it wrong, that the traditional family supporters and the same-sex marriage supporters are missing the point. Paul agreed, and shared his views on marriage.

“I see marriage as a sacrament, but not everybody wants to see it as a sacrament,” he said. “Why is the government involved in sacrament?” He likened the idea of a government-issued license for marriage to having a government-issued license for baptism.

“If we lived in a libertarian free society, you would be able to make your own decision as long as you didn’t exert aggression against somebody else,” Paul continued. “Those who believe in traditional marriage could have a traditional marriage and get married in a church, and those who want a secular marriage can do that too. But I don’t think we’re anywhere close to that today.”

Watch the full episode above and check out more episodes of the Ron Paul Liberty Report here at Truth In Media.

In case you missed Ben Swann’s Truth In Media episode on ISIS watch it below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6kdi1UXxhY

Liberty Report

Ron Paul: Why Is The U.S. Spoiling For Perpetual War?

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Why is the U.S. government seeking perpetual war and searching for confrontation around the globe?

Ron Paul posed this question in his latest episode of the Liberty Report, along with his co-host Daniel McAdams. From Russia to Syria to outer space, our government is extending its reach toward more trouble, Paul noted. However, the American people are not so much concerned about retaliation as they are concerned about the loss of liberties from their own government, he said.

According to McAdams, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter was in Estonia this week to announce that we are going to send up to 40,000 NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) troops and weapons to Russia’s border in response to Russian aggression. McAdams cited a quote from Carter he found hypocritical: “What’s odd about it is the level of rhetoric,” Carter told CBS News. “That’s what’s so out of tune with the times and the way responsible world leaders.”

“There are brush fires everywhere that the U.S. is pouring gasoline on,” McAdams said.

With no victory in sight, our government is now telling us that this is going to continue, Paul said. “Our people had an election and voted for somebody who came across as less aggressive for war. . . .” but it’s continued.

Paul admitted that it is a challenge to determine all the motivations from all those who perpetuate war. One thing they don’t understand, he said, is “the unintended consequences and underestimation of the enemy.”

“I don’t think they know and understand the history,” Paul said of our hawkish government leaders. “It’s almost like they’re back in 1918.”

McAdams agreed. “The rest of the world is perplexed too,” he said. “The first thing the U.S. does is to look for a military solution.”

Paul said there are still people in Congress who believe war is good for the economy when, in fact, war costs something much more important than dollars—it costs lives.

Watch the full episode above and check out more episodes of the Ron Paul Liberty Report here at Truth In Media.

In case you missed Ben Swann’s Truth In Media episode on ISIS watch it below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6kdi1UXxhY

Liberty Report

Ron Paul: How Can U.S. Government Killing People Be Justified As ‘Doing What Is Necessary’?

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A vicious dictator, Joseph Stalin, is quoted as having said, “One man being killed is a tragedy. Killing millions is nothing but a statistic.”

In his latest Liberty Report, three-time presidential candidate and former Texas Rep. Ron Paul discussed the relevance of this quote to the way government and media treats these tragedies and statistics.

“We are now very concerned about tragic death,” Paul said, referencing the recent deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, who were killed at the hands of a militarized police force. There are a lot of emotions surrounding these tragedies, and those emotions are sometimes used by people to make certain points. At the same time, other deaths are being ignored.

When Lady Nancy Astor confronted Stalin, asking him how long he would continue killing people, he is know to have said, “As long as it’s necessary.”

That is the psychological framework from which he operated, Paul noted. “Is that the direction we’re going in?”

If you add up deaths from American bombs and sanctions, there are a lot of people who have been killed, Paul said. When Madeleine Albright was confronted on 60 Minutes in 1996 with the statistic that 500,000 Iraqi children had died, and asked if the price was worth it, Albright replied that “We think the price is worth it.”

By that standard, the U.S. government killing people seems to be just “doing what is necessary,” Paul said.

And how long will our war in the Middle East go on? U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has said to prepare for a “long war“.

We have come to a point where, legally speaking, we can say anyone opposed to the government is a terrorist, Paul said—even if we are going in and invading another country. Paul said that if they shoot back, then they are a terrorist.

When the media reports on a small event, they use it to take away power from the individual and give it to the state, according to Liberty Report co-host Daniel McAdams. The tragedy of a million dead shows the failure of power, he explained. Paul agreed, noting that government and media succeed in changing our attitudes of these events, and that we make heroes out of the people who are killing people endlessly.

Watch the full episode above and check out more episodes of the Ron Paul Liberty Report here at Truth In Media.

In case you missed Ben Swann’s Truth In Media episode on ISIS watch it below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6kdi1UXxhY

Liberty Report

Ron Paul: Prepare For A Bear Market In Bonds

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Hello everybody. Thank you for tuning in to the Liberty Report. This is a special update on the economy and why we should prepare for a bear market in bonds.

The problems we face today come from an attitude that there is such a thing as a free lunch. Thought the majority of the people may endorse it, rarely do those who seek a free lunch bother to ask who ends up paying for it. It is not just the poor who are looking for a free lunch—the rich do so as well. It’s called welfarism.

Endorsing the use of aggression to achieve this redistribution of wealth is acceptable for those who believe they’ll benefit from it. Generally, that’s the majority of the people. Some know that the principle of welfarism is a scam in that one group, the recipients of the free lunch, will benefit at the expense of another—the producers of wealth.

Others believe it to be moral and the only way society can care for the poor, and therefore they endorse government force to redistribute all wealth in a free and equitable manner. They ignore the challenging question as to who will produce the wealth to be passed out.

Economists like Paul Krugman belong to this group. If we give Krugman and the philosophic allies the benefit of doubt the main selfish motive that drives their efforts is an intellectual need in gratification that their views must never be abandoned, or it will be seen as an admission of mistaken economic and social theories.

It is this intellectual stubbornness to prove they are right regardless that has driven our economy and much of the rest of the world’s as well since the 1930s Great Depression. The current fragility of the world economy is a consequence of that policy. Understanding the cause and effect of central economic planning, especially with the emphasis on central banking and fiat money, is required. If sound economic growth is to be restored, certain principles must be understood and followed.

One of the most important economic items to contend with is the need for a market rate of interest. This must replace the silly notion that the Federal Open Market Committee or even the chairman of the Federal Reserve alone is so all wise that they can know what the rate of interest should be to regulate the economy. This one policy of manipulating interest rates to a lower-than-market level has caused great harm to the economy. And the full effects of pretending our money managers have the wisdom to know what the proper rate should be, especially since the 2008 [recession] has not yet been felt.

The consequences will not be minor. Surprises will be many, since we are in uncertain waters and the world has never faced the gross misallocation of capital that exists today. The process is self-limiting. It will come to an end, and it’s not going to be far into the future.

Interest rates, which are the cost of borrowing money, when set by economic authoritarians are literally price fixing. Fixing prices fouls up the machinery of a smooth-running economy. Interest rates have a pervasive influence on all economic transactions. Fictitious interest rates assure that accurate economic calculation is impossible. While it may seem to work for significant periods of time, the results are fragile, requiring corrections to restore true economic growth.

Capital in a free market comes from savings and not from a central bank creating credit out of thin air. This in itself is inflation, regardless of what government optimistic reports of the CPI claim. The central bank’s ability to plan the economy in this manner is a fiction and only leads to problems that overwhelm the markets, eventually wiping out the middle class.

The credit and new money, when created by a central bank, is delivered to the market in a political fashion for which the one percent receive special benefits. It allows the pyramiding of debt to fractional reserve banking, which compounds the long-term problems.

It may be fun while it lasts, but it always ends with a crash. . . .

Watch the full episode above and check out more episodes of the Ron Paul Liberty Report here at Truth In Media.

In case you missed Ben Swann’s Truth In Media episode on ISIS watch it below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6kdi1UXxhY

Liberty Report

Ron Paul: We’d Be ‘Better Off’ Without National Endowment for Democracy

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It’s been around a while, but a lot of people don’t know a whole lot about the National Endowment for Democracy. The organization is in the news because one of its founders, Allen Weinstein, just passed away.

“I sort of wish the National Endowment for Democracy would pass away,” Ron Paul said in his latest Liberty Report. “I believe we would all be better off.”

The National Endowment for Democracy has been around since the early 1980s. It was established under then-President Ronald Reagan as the Cold War was going on to operate as the overt arm of the Central Intelligence Agency.

“That should have made us very suspicious of what was going on,” Paul said. The three-time presidential candidate and former Texas Representative Paul explained that the organization has provided hundreds of millions of dollars to organizations like the labor group AFL-CIO and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce since it was founded. The way the funding is spent is hard to trace, he said.

“It’s interesting,” Daniel McAdams, co-host of the Liberty Report, said in the episode. “If you remember back . . . in the late 60s, early 70s when Radio Free Europe was exposed as a CIA front, and it was a huge explosion. And then, one by one, more CIA front organizations were exposed worldwide. So when Reagan came in—and unfortunately the neocons glommed onto him—they pushed this idea, ‘Hey, let’s hide in plain sight.’

“The CIA’s fingerprints were all over it from the beginning. In fact, Weinstein’s famous quote was [paraphrasing], ‘Well, we at the NED do overtly what the CIA used to do covertly.’”

Paul said the NED was motivated to keep the organization largely unaccountable. “It was more mischief, confusion,” he noted. “It was harder to trace. There are a lot of organizations involved that they fund. And they continue to do it.

“Of course, the irony of all this is most Americans and the people in Congress who don’t pay attention and say, ‘We’ve got to compete a little bit’ in this propaganda, even if they hear, ‘Well, they get involved in radio propaganda’ and these different things.”

Paul then raised concern about the efforts of this organization to spread democracy.

“In the true sense of the word, democracy is the worst reason for us to exist, let alone be an aggressor to promote ‘democracy,’” Paul said. “They want you to think that these countries would be better off if they had democratic election of leaders. But what if they haven’t had democratic elected leaders for 6,000 years. Are they all of a sudden going to adapt?”

Watch the full episode above and check out more episodes of the Ron Paul Liberty Report here at Truth In Media.

In case you missed Ben Swann’s Truth In Media episode on ISIS watch it below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6kdi1UXxhY

Liberty Report

Ron Paul: House Refuses To Curb Obama’s War In The Middle East

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Around the same time a bill to slow down President Barack Obama’s war in the Middle East came to a vote in the House yesterday, a committee heard concerns from U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and others that our efforts to recruit and train Iraqi forces aren’t going so well.

The vote was on H.Con.Res 55, which leveraged section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution that provides a check on a president who deploys military without a declaration of war in an attempt to quiet the war drums the United States has been beating in the fight against ISIS and President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. It failed 139-288.

In his latest Liberty Report, three-time presidential candidate and former Texas Rep. Ron Paul said this bill might have passed “if we had more constitutionalists and anti-war people” thinking about following the constitution and waiting for a declaration of war.

In Carter’s comments to the House Armed Services Committee, it’s now clear that our military is having trouble recruiting Iraqis to fight the Islamic State. They’ve recruiting just 7,000 Iraqis—far from the goal of recruiting and training 24,000 Iraqi troops. Moreover, Carter said sending U.S. combat troops over there instead would not produce an enduring result.

“I think they only have two options,” Paul said. “If they won’t fight—and there are quite a few reasons for that—and they want to win the war, the neocons have a simple solution and you hear it every day—send American troops. . . . But, there is another option. And since they’re at an impasse, the would have to consider our argument. If it’s not going well, why don’t we leave?”

To those who consider this surrender, Paul shared a personal story of when he left active duty in 1965 and the messages coming from the military demanding that we need more troops. “Another policy can’t be tactical,” Paul said. “It has to be strategic.”

Watch the full episode above and check out more episodes of the Ron Paul Liberty Report here at Truth In Media.

In case you missed Ben Swann’s Truth In Media episode on ISIS watch it below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6kdi1UXxhY

Liberty Report

Ron Paul: Guest Lew Rockwell Discusses The Future Of Liberty

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From the future of liberty to the federal budget and foreign policy, Lew Rockwell provided his perspective as a special guest on today’s Liberty Report.

Rockwell joined his former colleague and Liberty Report co-host Daniel McAdams in sharing praise for the man they have worked for since his days in elected office—three-time presidential candidate and former Texas Rep. Ron Paul.

According to Paul, he and Rockwell met in the mid-70s while Rockwell worked for a magazine called Private Practice. Rockwell was also a book editor, serving as editor for Ludwig von Mises. Together, Rockwell and Paul share a common goal to increase awareness of Mises’ work and an interest in Austrian economics.

During the interview, Paul asked Rockwell for his thoughts on the freedom movement in the 1970s compared to how it is today. “If you look at the evening news and you look at the disaster of monetary policy, economic policy, foreign policy and Washington D.C. you get one impression,” he said. “What is your impression on the progress—if we are making any progress—compared to 40 years ago with what’s going on today?”

“I think there’s been huge progress,” Rockwell replied. “You’re absolutely right. The commanding heights of the media and the government and so forth are bad guys, are liars, are cheats, are people who . . . don’t even watch them. Don’t turn on FOX. Don’t turn on any of these networks. Get your news from the Internet, from Daniel at the Ron Paul Institute and other places like that.

“You would absolutely get the impression that we’re sunk, the bad guys have won everything, they control everything. But actually, underneath that, especially among young people—and Ron, you’ve been the most powerful reason for this. You guys have made a huge difference, huge progress. I remember so strongly back to the last time you ran for president, the PEW Research people did a poll of young people who supported you, and they wanted to know what was the key issue. . . . It turned out that the key issue for young people was war and peace. They were against the wars. They wanted peace. And that’s why they loved you.”

Paul also inquired Rockwell’s opinion on today’s congressional hearing by the budget committee on how the Republicans are going to support a balanced budget.

“First of all, we should mention that there is off-budget spending,” Rockwell noted. “There’s the official budget, but there’s all kinds of spending that goes on off budget. We can do that in our own lives, right? If the family budget is under strain, you just do the spending off budget. That’s the government. The Republicans, of course, have never been for a balanced budget. This is just a propaganda trick. Democrats of course have their propaganda tricks too. But anytime the Republicans have had control of the government, under Reagan, under Bush and so forth, of course they don’t balance the budget. They believe in deficits.”

“. . . It’s one of the terrible things about having a Federal Reserve, a central bank, that today Congress is trying to decide who should they kill next, who they’re going to bomb next, what war should they start next. There’s never a consideration about how we’re going to pay. That’s not even an issue because, of course, the Fed will print up the money.”

Watch the full episode above and check out more episodes of the Ron Paul Liberty Report here at Truth In Media.

In case you missed Ben Swann’s Truth In Media episode on ISIS watch it below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6kdi1UXxhY

Foreign Policy, Liberty Report

Ron Paul: Though Congress Blocks Nazi Training In Ukraine, U.S. Policy Remains Unchanged

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Despite a vote in Congress to prevent U.S. taxpayer dollars from funding Nazi training in Ukraine, the American foreign policy of interventionism remains unchanged, according to Ron Paul.

In his latest Liberty Report, the three-time presidential candidate and former U.S. representative from Texas juxtaposed the North Atlantic Trade Organization’s move—supported by the U.S.—to curtail Russian aggression by sending weaponry and 5,000 troops to eastern Europe, with the House of Representatives’ recent vote to prohibit funding for the Azov Battalion, an openly Nazi volunteer brigade in Ukraine.

“It’s hard to figure out exactly why we would need to be doing this,” Paul said. “Who do you think is behind this? What benefit do you think the American people are going to gain from us sending a lot of equipment to eastern Europe?”

Daniel McAdams, co-host of the Liberty Report, reminded the audience of a longstanding agreement between NATO and the Russians that the organization would not permanently position western troops or weaponry in the Balkans. “This would certainly, if not violate the agreement, come up against it,” McAdams said. “But the whole idea that putting 5,000 Americans as some sort of a tripwire against an 800,000-person strong Russian army, it makes absolutely no sense from a military perspective.”

Paul pointed out that the blame for this action is that we have to curtail Russian aggression. But what has the Russian government had to say about the matter? Paul read the following statement made by Russian President Vladimir Putin: “I think that only an insane person and only in a dream can imagine that Russia would suddenly attack NATO. I think some countries are simply taking advantage of people’s fears with regard to Russia.”

McAdams compared the movement of NATO and American troops to Russia’s border to a bad dream, noting that if Russia moves some troops within its own country, it could be considered Russian aggression.

Though the New York Times and other media outlets reported that this action hasn’t been approved by the U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter or President Obama, Paul wondered how far this could go without the two at least knowing about it. Congress hasn’t had an agreement either on these plans either, Paul said.

Running parallel to this story is the fact that U.S.-led training of in Kiev might be helping the wrong people. Paul cited a report from Robert Perry on how many of the volunteer brigades receiving American support are openly Nazi. Now the House has passed an amendment that prohibits this sort of training for one Nazi group in particular—the Azov Battalion.

Is this any assurance? Even if there is an amendment, does that change anything?

Watch the full episode above and check out more episodes of the Ron Paul Liberty Report here at Truth In Media.

In case you missed Ben Swann’s Truth In Media episode on ISIS watch it below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6kdi1UXxhY

Liberty Report

Ron Paul: After 800 Years, Is The Magna Carta Still Alive?

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Today marks the 800th anniversary of what many consider the most important power-limiting document in history—the Magna Carta.

“It is a significant document,” Ron Paul said in his latest Liberty Report. “Some would like to downplay it. I was most fascinated with reviewing its history on exactly why the barons went and confronted the king and said ‘We’ve had it with you, ‘Mr.’ King. And no more.’ Two things: the king himself declared a war—he was fighting and losing a war with France, it was costing a lot of money—and he was taxing the barons. And they finally put their foot down. So this is great. The document that was written has a lot of great stuff in it.”

Paul discussed how this event and its corresponding document planted seeds for the future, influencing our own founders and the development of our constitution. Despite its many great impacts, events of the past 100 years don’t seem to reflect the principles solidified with the Magna Carta. Paul cited the institution of the income tax as a confiscation of wealth, as well as the inflationary system of the Federal Reserve, plus change in foreign policy that has come to allow the president to essentially declare war.

“I would say it’s gotten a lot worse, especially since 9/11 [and] in the last 15 years,” Paul said. He noted the National Defense Authorization Act allowing perpetual detention without due process of law and the confiscation of assets through asset forfeiture as two examples of terrible decisions being made on behalf of our country.

“The most important thing that people remember, and I remember it during the debate, and that was habeas corpus,” Paul explained. “You can’t hold people—and we were holding people with the NDAA—without a hearing [or] a trial by jury.” Under the Magna Carta, parliament was a superior branch of government—not the king, Paul said.

As he admired the action taken to write down the ideas into what became the Magna Carta and actually confront the king about them, Paul wondered if such an event could happen again today.

“The big challenge is, can we raise up a generation of individuals that will look at the history of liberty and say that we can make progress?”

Daniel McAdams, co-host of the Liberty Report, talked about these individuals as the elected representatives of the public and how they aren’t doing their job.

“They’ll say, well, this was just a noble standing up for their own,” McAdams said. “It wasn’t a democratic move. All of these revisionist views of the Magna Carta are so irrelevant because at its core it’s something that you’ve always talked about. It is these legislators—by virtue of them being in the aristocracy, of course—but these legislators standing up to the executive branch and limiting his power. This is something that is absolutely lacking currently in our government.”

Watch the full episode above and check out more episodes of the Ron Paul Liberty Report here at Truth In Media.

Liberty Report

Ron Paul: Europeans Oppose NATO War With Russia

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While the North Atlantic Treaty Organization beats war drums and the media propagates opposition to Russia, a new survey shows that the majority of the European people oppose NATO war with Russia.

The poll, conducted by PEW Research shows that populations in these countries are firmly against war with Russia even if Russian forces attack a NATO member country.

In his latest Liberty Report, three-time presidential candidate and former Texas Rep. Ron Paul discussed the poll findings, his thoughts on NATO and war with Russia. “One disappointing thing was that more than the majority of the American people and the Canadian people were for getting engaged and sending troops,” Paul said. “That’s not the case in Europe.” Paul also noted that the poll shows older people skewing in favor of intervention while younger people are more pro-peace.

“I think one of our problems is that we creep into war, and it’s not done by accident,” Paul explained. An example of this creeping is yesterday’s vote in Congress to raise the discussion on whether or not we should allow President Barack Obama the authority to use military force in the war on the Islamic State. Moreover, the sanctions imposed on other countries by the U.S. government is essentially an act of war, he said.

Though there may have been some questions on the economic impact of taking on Russia over Ukraine, sanctions don’t seem to be opposed. The U.S. pushed for broad new sanctions against Russia at G-7 in April of last year, and Truth In Media reported on a new series of sanctions against Russia by the U.S. and European Union last July.

“I think the people, maybe too often, maybe in Canada and in the United States, they get their opinions from FOX and MSNBC,” Paul said. “And they sort-of preach this doctrine that we have these obligations to go and fight these wars. But it really doesn’t solve what our country ought to do with NATO. I’m afraid NATO is going to be with us for a very long time. I see it as only a tool for our propaganda.”

Paul has been vocal in his position against NATO for years and has cited former Sen. Robert A. Taft’s reasoning for opposing the creation of the NATO alliance from the start.

And NATO is only expanding. Liberty Report co-host Daniel McAdams pointed out that the alliance is building a new headquarters with a hefty price tag. In spite of this, McAdams cited statistics showing U.S. opinion of NATO is shifting toward disapproval.

Paul again reinforced the idea that putting tough sanctions on a country is an act of war. “There was another figure I thought was interesting about how militant the Russians are now, how they’re ready to come, ‘the Russians are coming’,” he explained. “. . . and here, the people closest to them aren’t too worried about it.” If you examine military expenditures and consider who is spending the most, the U.S. reigns supreme. Second is China, followed by Saudi Arabia and then Russia.

“It’s perpetual war for perpetual peace because we are the good guys and we’re after the evil doers and we’re an exceptional nation,” Paul said. “It puts us in a tough spot because there is so much greatness that has been associated with America and the advancement for the cause of Liberty. But I can’t argue that the advancement for the cause of liberty has been very good for the past 100 years. But these people that argue the case that because of our greatness and we protect liberty—and you can make a case for the evil doers ISIS—but think of who does more beheadings than ISIS. It happens to be Saudi Arabia. So this is the problem, and this also opens up the door for advancing our cause and our foreign policy, which is the traditional American foreign policy. It is one that the founders advised.”

Watch the full episode above and check out more episodes of the Ron Paul Liberty Report here at Truth In Media.

In case you missed Ben Swann’s Truth In Media episode on ISIS watch it below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6kdi1UXxhY

Liberty Report

Ron Paul: TPA Would Give Obama Unconstitutional Authority For TPP

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The hotly debated Trade Promotion Authority could be approved by Congress today, granting unconstitutional authority to President Barack Obama, according to Ron Paul.

In his latest Liberty Report, the three-time presidential candidate and former congressman from Texas offered his perspective on the TPA. He described it as “the transfer of power from the Congress to the president to design some trade agreements, which, quite frankly, is unconstitutional because the responsibility falls on the Congress.”

“It’s a little bit more complex than this, and more so this time than before,” Paul said, noting that the TPA is something he has voted on numerous times while in Congress. “This trade promotion authority, also called fast track, involves more than one piece of legislation.” This time it looks like Congress will give Obama unconstitutional authority.

Daniel McAdams, co-host of the Liberty Report, explained that the TPA would facilitate the implementation of three pending trade deals, one of which is the Trans-Pacific Partnership. “The other two are secret,” McAdams said.

There is a shroud of secrecy around the TPP as well, Paul detailed. “This is unbelievable,” he said. “The lobbyists, the people who represent big business, the corporations, have been allowed to read those where the members of Congress are not allowed to read it.” Though he conceded that “fast track” is a good descriptive term about the expeditious manner of the TPA, the term does not accurately describe the legislation as also being a manner of keeping the facts behind closed doors.

Moreover, Congressman Paul Ryan was quoted supporting the secrecy of TPA and TPP, saying, “It’s classified. It will be made public once it’s agreed to.”

Did he just take a page out of Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi’s book? Consider how the Republicans were up in arms when Pelosi said Congress needed to pass Obamacare before the public could read it. “This just goes to show how the elites are really of one mind and one party,” McAdams said.

Paul agreed. “The one thing that bugs me still as much as it did back then was the hypocrisy of it,” he said. “So here they want to classify it and keep it secret. ‘We’re not allowed to do it.’ ‘It’s best for the country.’ ‘It’s for freedom and free trade.’ At the same time, when the president had a little bit of diplomacy going on, the Congress came down pretty hard.” Though the Congress “might have been technically correct” in their demand for transparency in that situation, Paul said he does believe that the president should be able to have some private talks with other countries.

Point being, the Congress seems to lack principle when it comes to how transparency should be applied. “At one time they’re for all this transparency, and another time they want to cover up,” Paul said.

Watch the full episode above and check out more episodes of the Ron Paul Liberty Report here at Truth In Media. And check out the Liberty Report episode “Fast-Track: Free Trade or Protectionism?” here.

In case you missed Ben Swann’s Truth In Media episode on ISIS watch it below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6kdi1UXxhY

Foreign Policy, Liberty Report

Ron Paul: Is Chaos An Excuse For Escalating U.S. Forces In Iraq?

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Despite admission of failed policies, the strategy for resolving the the battle against the Islamic State seems to be escalating U.S forces in Iraq.

It’s been 12 years since the war started, yet three-time presidential candidate and former Texas Rep. Ron Paul has been dealing with our government’s intervention in Iraq since 1998. Even with half a million people killed and billions of dollars wasted, it seems the policy direction is staying the same.

President Barack Obama announced Monday that despite not having a specific strategy for Iraq, he is sending 500 troops there to set up a new base. These troops won’t be on the front lines, Obama said.

In his latest Liberty Report, Paul countered that any truck, any base, any embassy—any U.S. presence over there is a target. He asked, “Where are the front lines?”

Paul shared his thoughts on the efforts to rally support from other countries in the fight against the ISIS. “I’ve heard some of the generals on TV and some of the political pundits say, well, we need to get Turkey to act differently and be on our side more,” he said. “At the same time, you don’t hear much about what Israel should be doing. Nobody really talks about Israel. But they are very much involved.”

Daniel McAdams, co-host of the Liberty Report, concurred. “Certainly, in regard to Syria and the goal of overthrowing Assad, Israel is firmly on the side of Turkey and Saudi Arabia, which is in favor of overthrow,” McAdams said. “In fact, it’s been shown many times that Israel treats wounded al Nusra fighters—which is the al Qaeda franchise in Syria—on Israeli soil. So they are certainly involved in this.”

Paul also noted U.S. Gen. John Allen‘s comments about about the U.S. military fighting the ideology of ISIS. “ISIS is not the country of Syria or Iraq,” Paul said. “It’s amorphous and it is ideological. Ideas, good and bad, are very difficult to handle. But when that idea becomes popular with the people, good and bad, the ideology becomes very important.”

Watch the full episode above and check out more episodes of the Ron Paul Liberty Report here at Truth In Media.

In case you missed Ben Swann’s Truth In Media episode on ISIS watch it below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6kdi1UXxhY

Liberty Report

Ron Paul: Will Victims, Suspects Of Deadly Waco Biker Rally Receive Justice?

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Circumstances surrounding the deadly Waco biker rally remain unclear, and local police are shielding details of the incident from the public.

“This just builds up more suspicion on our government,” Ron Paul said during his latest Liberty Report.

The three-time presidential candidate and former Texas Representative Paul raised concerns about the ever-growing number of questions about the biker rally shooting, including why the Federal Bureau of Investigation was involved, what evidence the Waco Police Department gathered from the incident, how the shooting got started, the number of weapons on the scene, and who shot whom.

Nearly 1,000 bikers rallied in Waco this past weekend in support of the biker rally shooting victims—nine individuals died as a result of gunshot wounds—and the 143 bikers who remain behind bars without charge.

The Waco Police Department’s decision not to release any information about the incident or evidence collected from the scene harkened to the redacted 28 pages of the 9/11 Joint Congressional Inquiry report, Paul said.

“This seems like wholesale injustice,” Paul said. “My suspicion is they have a lot of evidence.”

Paul also addressed the issue of proportionality in the way police respond to public disturbances. Proportionality, as it is considered in just war theory, “should be considered here,” he said.

“There is disturbance of peaceful operations and there’s a responsibility to check into it. But to end up with a bunch of people getting killed, and then all of a sudden arresting all of these people? They could have taken their names and addresses down or something like that. They could probably review a camera pretty quickly, say, within an hour or two they will decide who might have been more involved.”

Another recent incident exemplifying the need for proportionality also comes out of Texas. Video shows aggressive police response at a disturbance call to a pool party in McKinney had “no proportionality that we saw,” Paul said. He noted, “We would get a little rowdy as kids but we never dealt with that.”

Watch the full episode above and check out more episodes of the Ron Paul Liberty Report here at Truth In Media.

In case you missed Ben Swann’s Truth In Media episode on ISIS watch it below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6kdi1UXxhY

Foreign Policy, Liberty Report

Ron Paul: Should We Expect Blowback From U.S. Drone Strikes?

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U.S. officials have assured the American people that the 34 killed at a funeral in Afghanistan last week were all terrorists. At the same time, CIA Director John Brennan admitted that our foreign policy can spur terrorism. Should we expect more blowback from U.S. drone strikes?

“Our solution was that our officials that we control in Afghanistan along with our government decided that all 34 at the funeral were terrorists and therefore this was an acceptable practice,” three-time presidential candidate and former Texas Rep. Ron Paul said in the latest episode of his Liberty Report.

Paul cited comments from Air Force Lt. Gen. John Hesterman that the war against the Islamic State (ISIS) is very effective. Lieutenant Hesterman said U.S. pilots are killing more than 1,000 terrorists per month and that the airstrikes are so effective that they don’t kill civilians, and government troops don’t get killed.

“I don’t know what newspapers he reads or reports he reads, but I understand ISIS is not exactly a perfect situation over there,” Paul said. “. . . I don’t know about you, but I have trouble buying into this.”

Liberty Report co-host Daniel McAdams compared Lieutenant Hesterman’s comments about killing 1,000 terrorists each month to the U.S. measuring its success during the Vietnam War by how many Vietcong were killed. “Meanwhile, we were losing the war,” McAdams said.

In drone strikes like the one that hit the funeral in Afghanistan, McAdams claimed that U.S. officials simply redefine who is a terrorist and who isn’t based on the situation.

“You can almost imagine by the terms of our own NDAA that anyone attending a funeral of a Taliban person would be supporting, aiding and abetting,” McAdams said. “So even if it was a kid . . . but what the people there on the ground claim is that at least 20 people were civilians who were killed. And I don’t know, maybe people on the ground would have an incentive to lie, but they certainly would seem to know better.”

Paul questioned whether the killing is a success or inviting more blowback, citing comments from Brennan that terrorists are essentially anyone who resists our American occupation of other countries.

“That makes it pretty convenient then,” McAdams replied. “I remember the Obama administration redefining a terrorist was as any male of military fighting age. So that would relieve them of the actual burden of proving that they were all actual terrorists.”

During an interview on Face The Nation, Brennan said, “I think the president has tried to make sure that we’re able to push the envelop when we can protect this country. But we have to recognize that sometimes our engagement and direct involvement will stimulate and spur additional threats to our national security interest.”

Paul said the quote is very telling of the problems with U.S. foreign policy. “Our intervention hurts our national security because we invite retaliation and blowback,” he said.

Watch the full episode above and check out more episodes of the Ron Paul Liberty Report here at Truth In Media.

In case you missed Ben Swann’s Truth In Media episode on ISIS watch it below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6kdi1UXxhY

Foreign Policy, International, Liberty Report

Ron Paul: Turkish Stream Pipeline Linked To Coup Brewing In Macedonia

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A coup is brewing in Macedonia that could have ties to plans to build a gas pipeline from Russia to western Europe, according to Ron Paul.

“That area could all of a sudden burst forth and be a very violent area again,” the three-time presidential candidate and former Texas Representative Paul said of Macedonia during his latest Liberty Report. The episode covered the politics tied to developing instability in the region.

Liberty Report co-host Daniel McAdams dove into background on the subject. It involved a Russian pipeline project called South Stream. South Stream designed to carry fuel from Russia to western Europe without having to go through battle-ridden Ukraine. The pipeline’s path went through Bulgaria, up through Romania, into Hungary and, from there, into the European Union.

Under pressure from the United States, Bulgaria backed out of the project and the E.U. stopped supporting it. Russian president Vladimir Putin declared South Stream dead in December.

Despite efforts from the Bulgarian government in February to try to reinstate South Stream, Putin instead signed a deal with Turkey to develop the pipeline along an alternate route. Now called Turkish Stream, the pipeline would avoid Bulgaria and go through Turkey, up through Greece and then north, through Macedonia, to Serbia, Hungary and then Austria. The pipeline is expected to be operational and sending gas to the E.U. by December 2016.

The U.S. is now putting pressure on Macedonia for its involvement with the revived project, McAdams said.

“It’s very interesting—the U.S started turning against the Macedonian government, which was elected just last year in elections that were recognized as legitimate elections,” McAdams noted. :The U.S. started running afoul of him, of the Prime Minister [Nikola] Gruevski, after . . . he refused to go along with the sanctions against Russia. The main U.S. policy followed by the E.U. as well is you’ve got to go for sanctions on Russia, you’ve got to isolate Russia. So that kind of painted a target on his back. And then agreeing to participate in the Turk-Stream was like the final nail in the coffin.”

McAdams then claimed that a large non-governmental organization called CIVIL is working in Macedonia trying to stir up people to overthrow the government. Visiting CIVIL’s website, it is clear that the organization is supported by the U.S. government, the Open Society Foundations (George Soros‘ organization) and the Swiss and German governments.

Moreover, U.S. and E.U. leaders this week went to Macedonia to negotiate with the government essentially to negotiate capitulation, McAdams said. “Even though they were freely elected—we say we support democracy—here comes the E.U. and the U.S. saying you’ve got to hold early elections next year and you’ve got to have a transitional government in the meantime,” he said. “Essentially it’s an overthrow without blood in the streets.”

“It’s another coup,” Paul said, “but it’s not the coups we think of, the violence, they throw them out or put pressure on people that they have to leave. And this is a case that looks clean, new and neater. But if no outside forces were involved there probably wouldn’t be an election right now.”

McAdams questioned what it would be like if another country came to the U.S. and tried to do what the U.S. is reportedly doing in Macedonia. He asked, “Can you imagine if the Chinese came over and told Obama you’ve got to cut your time as president two years short because you did some bad things like spying on the Americans?”

“They’re shooting themselves in the head,” McAdams continued. “What, do they think they’re going to get shale oil from the U.S.? They need this energy yet they somehow keep following the U.S. dictate to shut off these pipelines.”

Watch the full episode above and check out more episodes of the Ron Paul Liberty Report here at Truth In Media.

In case you missed Ben Swann’s Truth In Media episode on ISIS watch it below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6kdi1UXxhY

Government Corruption, Liberty Report

Ron Paul Talks Regime Change, JFK Assassination with Jacob Hornberger

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What really happened to John F. Kennedy?

Ron Paul addressed the JFK assassination and its connections to regime change around the globe in his latest Liberty Report, featuring an interview with Future of Freedom Foundation President Jacob Hornberger.

Hornberger recently published an e-book on the subject and shared his argument that the national security establishment was involved in the JFK assassination. He decided to publish the e-book, titled “Regime Change: The JFK Assassination” after retaining Douglas Horne to create a video lecture on the subject of JFK’s autopsy performed at Bethesda Naval Hospital. Horne, he explained, served the assassination records review board back in the 1990s, working to make public secret documents held by the national security establishment—specifically the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency and Secret Service.

Hornberger described recording the video lecture with Horn as “one of the most interesting experiences that we’ve had in our 25-year history here at the Future of Freedom Foundation.”

With the release of the video lecture were two corresponding e-books: “The Kennedy Autopsy,” written by Hornberger, and “JFK’s War with the National Security Establishment,” written by Horne. The success of the video and e-books inspired Hornberger to continue the pursuit of answers to questions many Americans have about the JFK assassination.

In this new book, Hornberger argues that the assassination was orchestrated by the national security establishment in the context of other regime change operations that occurred between the 1950s and 1970s, including those in Iran, Guatemala, Chile, Cuba and Indonesia.

“We’re always looking for signs of optimism, and I think one place we can find it is that the American people will eventually wake up,” Paul stated. “It’s astounding how many people are agreeing with you. There’s something strange going on. The official report is not correct and governments don’t tell us the truth. . . . Once you challenge that, they accuse you of being unpatriotic.”

To this point, Hornberger replied that there are opposing views of patriotism surrounding this issue and many others.

“You have to keep in mind that if things were carried out as the way that many of us believe they were, that doesn’t mean that the people who were doing this were operating out of ill motives or bad motives or unpatriotic motives,” Hornberger said. “They themselves consider themselves tremendous patriots the way they do today whenever they’re creating a national security state operation,” just as those who question the government narrative may consider themselves patriots.

Watch the video above to learn more about Hornberger’s new book and specific comparisons of regime change around the globe to the JFK assassination. Check back weekdays for new episodes of the Ron Paul Liberty Report here at Truth In Media.

In case you missed Ben Swann’s Truth In Media episode on ISIS watch it below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6kdi1UXxhY