So much for getting out of endless wars! President Trump has announced that he is sending 14,000 more US troops to the Middle East and may even send more. The reason is the manufactured "Iran threat" that Trump continues to delude himself over. Neocons are thrilled. So are Saudi Arabia and Israel, who would love nothing more than to have the US fight and die in their wars. But what about America first? Watch today's Liberty Report... read on...
I suppose that by now everyone has heard of Trump’s offer to send the American military to “wage WAR on the drug cartels and wipe them off the face of the earth,” which he asserts can be done “quickly and effectively." Trump phrased this as an offer to help, not a threat to invade, which is reassuring. AMLO, Mexico’s president, wisely declined the offer. read on...
The celebration in London of NATO's 70th year has ended with a renewed purpose: the "challenges" posed by China. NATO is a military alliance, but the attendees were careful to point out that they do not view China as an enemy. So what is the point? Tune in to today's Liberty Report... read on...
It is supremely ironic that Pentagon officials take an oath to support and defend the Constitution because they intentionally destroyed the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the Constitution when they set up their “judicial” system at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In fact, the very reason the Pentagon established its system in Cuba, rather than the United States, was to circumvent and avoid the provisions of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. read on...
French president Macron caused a stir last month by stating that NATO is suffering from brain death. At this week's NATO summit marking 70 years of the Alliance, Trump and Macron are clashing. Why is it so hard for NATO to find a purpose? Is this a sign that finally, 30 years after the Cold War, it's time to end the anti-Soviet alliance? Watch today's Liberty Report... read on...
When I retired as a Detective from the NYPD I moved to Florida and decided to join a local sheriff’s office to work as a Deputy. I needed to make some money and it was the only job for which I was qualified. I was accepted and took the job.
From the start I wanted to be the ultimate Libertarian cop. I was not going to arrest anyone for drugs or victimless crimes and I was going to try my best to make as many quality arrests as possible. For a good part of those 3 years I was able to do my thing. I tried to fade into the background. I never brought up the fact that I was retired NYPD-though my colleagues probably knew from the constant stationhouse gossip. I tried to make myself invisible to my supervisors and only interacted with them when I had to do so. And in this sheriff’s office we only held roll call once every two weeks. Sometimes I didn’t see my supervisor for two weeks at a time. And that was great for me. I worked without a partner and basically had no one breathing down my neck. So yes, I was able to do my thing.
If I came across some drug user who had drugs on them I would have them dump the drugs into a ditch and ask them for their help by looking at my clipboard of wanted dangerous felons. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t. But I got my fair share of arrests in this manner. And those same people who had helped me would come back to me on their own to try to ID other dangerous felons. I was also determined to investigate every call I received as if I was still a detective. I interviewed everyone I arrested. Oftentimes I would get confessions. read on...
For months Western media outlets have been retailing stories about riots in Hong Kong. With lip-smacking relish there have been such reports as “On October 1, China’s National Day, the first live round to hit a protester was fired by riot police pursued by protesters in the distant suburb of Tsuen Wan.” Unfortunately for the anti-China zealots in the US and Europe there were no deaths of rioting students, except one “who fell from a parking garage during a police dispersal operation… escalating tensions between police and the public that have been increasingly strained over the months of worsening violence.” The two incidents in which rioters were shot by policemen made Western headlines.
On October 15 the US House of Representatives voted unanimously for a Bill that “addresses Hong Kong’s status under US law and imposes sanctions on those responsible for human rights violations in Hong Kong” and on November 16 the Senate moved “to expedite passage of a bill that would open a path to sanctions against those seen to be eroding freedoms in the Chinese territory.”
(On November 29 the BBC reported that when Hong Kong police entered the Polytechnic University “they found 3,989 petrol bombs; 1,339 explosive items; 601 bottles of corrosive liquids; and 573 weapons” but there will be no criticism by Congress about this arsenal. US legislators apparently consider that petrol bombs intended to incinerate policemen do not violate human rights, providing they are thrown by those in mobs rioting against China.) read on...
Seventy is normally considered a ripe old age at which people should be enjoying retirement. The NATO alliance, which meets to celebrate its anniversary in London, should have been pensioned off long ago. read on...
President Trump's dropping of the "Mother of All Bombs" in Afghanistan is just the latest example of how the US war machine is delivering a scorched earth to those "liberated" by the US military. Already the environmental and health damage from that one bomb has destroyed the lives of many innocent civilians. There are millions more where that came from. Watch today's Liberty Report... read on...
Bolivian President Evo Morales was overthrown in a US-backed military coup d’état earlier this month after Bolivian army generals appeared on television demanding his resignation. As Morales fled to Mexico, the army appointed right-wing Senator Jeanine Añez as his successor. Añez, a Christian conservative who has described Bolivia’s indigenous majority as “satanic”, arrived at the presidential palace holding an oversized Bible, declaring that Christianity was re-entering the government. She immediately announced she would “take all measures necessary” to “pacify” the indigenous resistance to her takeover.
The New York Times, the United States’ most influential newspaper, immediately applauded the events, its editorial board refusing to use the word “coup” to describe the overthrow, claiming instead that Morales had “resigned,” leaving a “vacuum of power” into which Añez was forced to move. The Times presented the deposed president as an “arrogant” and “increasingly autocratic” populist tyrant “brazenly abusing” power, “stuffing” the Supreme Court with his loyalists, “crushing any institution” standing in his way, and presiding over a “highly fishy” vote. read on...
