US officials have repeatedly vilified WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange over the past several years, and intermittently called for his assassination, but just now appear to be nearing a decision to file charges against him, accusing him of crimes for involvement in the whistleblower organization. What the charges might be remain a matter of speculation, as Assange’s lawyer says they’ve heard nothing from the Justice Department. CIA chief Mike Pompeo, however, suggested the charges could be speech related, insisting Assange doesn’t get “First Amendment freedoms” because he isn’t American. read on...
According to a study carried out by British researchers back in the 1990s, the number of psychopaths in any given population is one percent. In the case of Britain that means that there are roughly 600 thousand psychopaths in that country alone. The problem is that such people tend to struggle hard for influence and power over other people, in order to be able to intimidate, bully and/or harass those who happen to find themselves in positions and situations in which they depend on those psychopaths, either as their subordinates, employees or family members. read on...
On Tuesday, I was a guest for the second time on Joe Cristiano’s Liberty Talk Radio show. Cristiano is a well-informed and thoughtful talk show host. He adeptly handles interviews, ensuring they are both entertaining and educational. The Tuesday interview begins with an in-depth discussion of the war on drugs before shifting to a discussion of Donald Trump’s performance as president. Spoiler alert, Cristiano and I are not very pleased with Trump’s actions so far, though I do point to a couple bright spots. read on...
Libertarian communicator and former presidential candidate Ron Paul examined President Donald Trump’s foreign policy regarding Russia in an in-depth discussion last week with host Sophie Shevardnadze on the RT show SophieCo. Paul says in the interview that he had been pleased with Trump’s campaign statements supporting improving United States relations with Russia and expresses concern about the Trump administration’s sudden shift away from this objective. read on...
A new episode of Five Minutes Five Issues is out. You can listen to it, and read a transcript, below. You can also find previous episodes of the show at Stitcher, iTunes, YouTube, and SoundCloud. read on...
Roughly a month ago, during the height of the mainstream media mania over Trump's alleged collusion with Russia, Judge Andrew Napolitano appeared on Fox and Friends with a startling new revelation, namely that President Obama circumvented U.S. law and employed a British intelligence agency to conduct surveillance of the Trump campaign. Despite Napolitano's assertion that the information had been confirmed by 3 separate sources, the Obama administration and foreign intelligence agencies issued immediate denials and the mainstream media was all too happy to trash the latest 'conspiracy theory' of their competitor network. read on...
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is skewed weekly by libertarian luminaries Robert Murphy and Tom Woods in their "Contra Krugman" podcast. For this episode, RPI Director Daniel McAdams joins the duo to pick apart a column by Krugman criticizing Trump's missile strike on Syria for being merely a "publicity stunt." Asks Woods: "what if what the government and mainstream media are absolutely correct and Assad personally gassed those people? Should the US have responded?" Listen to McAdams' response at Contra Krugman. read on...
At Trump’s command, the US military is adding forces and use of force everywhere: Somalia, Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan and Korea. Victory is ill-defined in all these places, but the question remains. Will Trump win? read on...
Ron Paul, in a new interview with host Anand Naidoo at CGTN, discussed what Paul calls the “accelerated” and “dangerous” United States military actions in the Middle East. Pointing to the fact that there was no Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria until the US began intervening there in support of the ouster of the Syria government, Paul warns “there are a lot of unintended consequences, a lot of blowback” that comes when the US government carelessly intervenes overseas based on a loose “national security” justification. read on...
On Palm Sunday, Syrian President Assad visited a Christian church to mark the beginning of Holy Week, a most important time on the Christian calendar. Though not himself a Christian, Assad, for all his faults, has maintained Syria as a multi-confessional, secular state, where Christians and other religious minorities can worship freely. As RPI's Daniel McAdams tells RT in the below interview, if the Trump Administration has its way and Assad is overthrown, it will likely be the last Palm Sunday for Christians in Syria. McAdams also comments on the Lavrov/Tillerson meeting in Moscow and the UN Security Council vote on Syrian chemical weapons... read on...