Category: News

On November 8, just as President Trump was clinching new business deals with the repressive Communist government of China, the Trump administration announced new rules rolling back President Obama’s opening with Cuba. The new regulations are supposed to punish hotels, stores and other businesses tied to the Cuban military and instead direct economic activity toward businesses controlled by regular Cuban citizens.

But on a visit to the island on a 40-person delegation organized by the peace group CodePink, I found that Cuba’s small private businesses, the very sector the Trump administration says it wants to encourage, are already feeling the blow.

Continue reading “Cubans Are Starting Small Businesses, but the US Is Hurting Them”

If you heard mention of people being shackled on the deck of a ship out in the ocean for weeks or months exposed to the elements and with only a bucket for a bathroom, you might assume the full story is about the cruel actions of pirates or slave traders from centuries past. However, as reporter Seth Freed Wessler recounts, the United States Coast Guard routinely subjects individuals alleged to be involved in the transport of cocaine between South America and Central America to such conditions.

Continue reading “Depraved Treatment of Drug War Captives on US Coast Guard Ships”

The US general in charge of the war in Afghanistan has announced that with the new US strategy we are “turning the corner” in the 16 year war. Where have we heard that before? Over and over since the election of Hamid Karzai in 2004! Turning the corner? Hardly! Today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

Stalemate: That’s the word of choice being used by U.S. generals to describe the Afghan War. What, exactly, is a stalemate? I played chess at an early age, caught up in the Bobby Fischer craze of the early 1970s, and I still play occasionally. In chess, a stalemate is a special kind of draw, and an often frustrating one. Put concisely, “Stalemate is a situation in the game of chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check but has no legal move.”

For example, I may be winning decisively, with only my opponent’s king left on the board. But if I carelessly put my opponent’s (unchecked) king in such a position that his only move is into harm (or “check”), the position is stalemated. My decisive material advantage makes no difference: the game is over, it’s a draw. In effect, given my material advantage, it’s a win for him and a loss for me.

Is the Afghan War “stalemated”? Not according to the US military, since it believes the “stalemate” can be reversed, that the US can still “win.” Indeed, President Trump has already gone on record last week as saying his administration is winning in Afghanistan. No stalemate here.

Continue reading “The Afghan War Isn’t a Stalemate: It’s a Defeat”

The Trump Administration is increasingly isolated at the UN Security Council, as the UN has once again certified that Iran is in compliance with its obligations under the P5+1 agreement. Trump argues that Iran is not in compliance with the “spirit” of the deal – a confusing claim that is difficult to understand. Are they looking to replay the Iraq war on Iran? Tune in to today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

At at time when many in the US are obsessed with the idea that Russia might have meddled in our elections last year, the US State Department has announced a new program to overtly meddle in the election of Hungary – a fellow NATO member country. Is this another case of “do as we say, not as we do”? Tune in to today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report:

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.