Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) wants to spend five trillion dollars over the next five years in a massive build-up of the US military. Dozens of ships will be be built, as well as more than a hundred new fighter jets -- including the problem-plagued F-35. The Army and Marines will greatly expand. McCain's goal is to be able to fight a conventional war in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. It's as if we are back in 1950! How much do McCain's donors in the military-industrial complex love this budget? We can only imagine. But will Trump bite? Is this the kind of spending that would really "make America great again"? As Alibaba gazillionaire Jack Ma put it so well recently in Davos, the US has wasted $14 trillion on wars over the past 30 years. More on this today in the Liberty Report... read on...
President Obama's surprise move to grant clemency to whistleblower Chelsea Manning yesterday was cheered by those who support transparency for government and jeered by those who support the national security state. What did Manning reveal? Thousands of instances of the US government breaking the law and acting against the interests of its own citizens in its activities overseas. He revealed the astronomical amount of "collateral damage," i.e. killing of civilians, as a result of the US war on Iraq. And more. Manning is blamed for costing American lives with her leaks, but not even the prosecution would make that assertion. What about those like Cheney, Rumsfeld, and "journalist" Judith Miller, whose lies and "fake news" push an Iraq war that killed thousands of Americans and likely more than a million overseas? That's OK? read on...
Although the Founders expected the legislative branch of government to be first among equals, especially in the past 20 years the executive branch has consolidated power at the expense of Congress and the Courts. But the two losing branches have been more than complicit in the process. What does this bode for our future? We turned to noted Constitutional scholar, Louis Fisher, who has written more than 500 articles and 24 books on this important issue. You won't want to miss this episode of the Liberty Report... read on...
Martin Luther King's 1967 sermons and speeches against the Vietnam war may not be as well-remembered as his famous "I have a Dream" speech, but they demonstrate a commitment to the spirit of the Nobel Peace Prize he won in 1964. Others who have won this award have not pursued a peaceful course, including the outgoing US president. King's war opposition was strongly opposed by those who championed his work in favor of civil rights, including the LBJ administration. It may also be what got him killed. We look at the antiwar King in today's Liberty Report... read on...
Watching the Senate hearing for President-elect Trump's Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, it seemed arch-neocon Bill Kristol might have been hiding somewhere feeding the former Exxon CEO his lines. He's going to stop China from accessing islands it has constructed in the South China Sea? He endorses the neocon line about Russian "aggression" against Ukraine and Crimea? If America doesn't "lead" the rest of the world, there will only be chaos and confusion? He wants to give Saudi Arabia a "pass" on its dismal human rights record? Let's hope Tillerson is just telling the likes of Marco Rubio (R-FL) what he wants to hear, but should we bet on it? Tune in to today's Liberty Report... read on...
President-elect Trump's choice for Secretary of State, former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson, has infuriated Senators and the mainstream media by doing business with Russia, doing business with Iran even while sanctions were in place, and having personal investments in China and Russia. We may argue that these "shortcomings" may indicate that he will be more hesitant to endorse counterproductive sanctions on those countries that resist Washington's will. However, it remains to be seen whether he will "grow" while in office to adopt the prevalent neocon view of the world. Our preview of tomorrow's confirmation hearing in today's Liberty Report... read on...
Tomorrow the Senate Judiciary Committee takes up Donald Trump's nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) to be his Attorney General. Sessions is billed as a "Constitutional conservative" but how is his record on civil liberties? The drug war? Whistleblowers? We hold a pre-hearing hearing in today's Liberty Report... read on...
The much-anticipated Intelligence Community report backing up its claims that the Russians hacked the US elections in November has just been released. Titled "Declassified Intelligence Community Assessment of Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections," the report is long on speculation and short on any evidence for the claims it was supposed to prove. It even came with a warning label stating that though the conclusions are reached with "high confidence," that "does not imply that the assessment is a fact or a certainty; such judgements may be wrong." We who lived through the 2002 "high confidence" in Iraqi WMDs remember this well. read on...
President-elect Donald Trump has said he wants to shrink and reform the CIA and much of the US intelligence community, which he has claimed has become very politicized. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) recently warned Trump about crossing the CIA, stating that, "You take on the intelligence community — they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you." Will Trump try to really take on the destructive policies and actions of the CIA, or will he focus on re-arranging the deck chairs and putting his own people in positions of power? Our take in today's Liberty Report... read on...
In November the Washington Post printed an article accusing some 200 independent media organizations of being "fake news" sites doing the bidding of the Kremlin. Their evidence? They had none, so very soon they were forced to walk back the story. On Friday they breathlessly reported that the Russians had hacked our energy grid, but it soon turned out they didn't bother to actually contact the company they reported hacked. It wasn't hacked. They had to walk back the story. Yes their credibility is shot, but they still churn out a steady stream of propaganda. What to do about their disintegrating credibility? Convince the US government that they should be in charge of vetting what is is fake news versus real news. It can't happen here? Tune in to today's Liberty Report... read on...
