#liberty

Weekly Update --- Federal Reserve: Enemy of Liberty and Prosperity
Video - Tuesday November 19, 2019 - Ron Paul
By Ron Paul - Lost in the media’s obsession with the impeachment circus last week was Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s testimony on the state of the economy before the Joint Economic Committee. In his testimony, Chairman Powell warned that when the next recession inevitably occurs, the US Government’s over $23 trillion debt would prevent Congress from increasing spending to revive the economy.

Powell also said that the Fed’s current low interest rate policies would prevent the Fed from using its traditional methods of increasing the money supply and further lowering interest rates to jump-start economic growth in a recession. Hopefully, Powell is correct that when the next recession hits the Federal Reserve and Congress will be unable to “stimulate” the economy with cheap money and new spending.

Interest rates are the price of money and, as with all prices, government manipulation of interest rates distorts the signals regarding market conditions. Artificially low interest rates lead to malinvestment and the creation of bubbles. Recessions are a painful but necessary correction that allows the economy to cleanse itself of these distortions. When the Federal Reserve and Congress try to stimulate the economy, they introduce new distortions, making it impossible for the economy to heal itself. Fiscal and monetary stimulus may temporally create the illusions of prosperity, but in reality they merely create another bubble that will eventually burst starting the boom-and-bust cycle all over again. So, the best thing Congress and the Federal Reserve can do to help the economy recover from a recession is nothing.

Powell is the latest Federal Reserve Chair to warn of the dangers of government debt, which is ironic since the Federal Reserve is the great enabler of deficit spending. Government manipulation of the value of money allows politicians to hide the true costs of their warfare and welfare. This is why throughout history governments have sought the power to dictate what is and is not money and determine the value of the monetary unit. Today’s central bankers are the heirs of the medieval kings who shaved off the edges of gold coins, then ordered the people to pretend that shaved coins were just as valuable as unshaved coins.

Instead of shaving gold coins, today’s central bankers facilitate the growth of government by purchasing government securities in order to keep interest rates—and thus the government’s borrowing costs— low. The Federal Reserve’s interventions enable the expansion of government well beyond what would be politically palatable if politicians had to finance the entire welfare-warfare state through direct taxation or borrowing at market interest rates, which would increase interest rates for private sector borrowers, lower growth, and increase unemployment.

Since the creation of the Federal Reserve, the US dollar has lost over 96 percent of its value. The Federal Reserve-caused decline in purchasing power is a stealth tax. This inflation tax does not affect the financial elites—who receive new money created by the Federal Reserve before the Fed’s actions have diminished the dollar’s purchasing power—but has hurt middle-and-working class Americans whose purchasing power is continuously reduced by the Federal Reserve. The inflation tax is not just the most hidden, but the most regressive of taxes.

The Federal Reserve is responsible for the growth of government, the loss of liberty, the rise in income inequality, and the boom-and-bust economic cycle. All those who support liberty, peace, and prosperity should join the effort to audit and end the Fed.

http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/federal-reserve-enemy-of-liberty-and-prosperity
http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2019/november/18/federal-reserve-enemy-of-liberty-and-prosperity/

Copyright © 2019 by RonPaul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given.
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Conservatives Against Liberty
Video - Tuesday July 16, 2019 - Ron Paul
By Ron Paul - Recently several prominent social and populist conservatives have attacked libertarianism. These conservatives, some of whom are allies in the fight against our hyper-interventionist foreign policy, blame libertarianism for a variety of social and economic ills. The conservative attack on libertarianism — like the attack on the freedom philosophy launched by leftists — is rooted in factual, economic, and philosophical errors.

Libertarianism’s right-wing critics claim libertarianism is the dominant ideology of the Republican establishment. This is an odd claim since the Republican leadership embraces anti-libertarian policies like endless wars, restrictions on civil liberties, government interference in our personal lives, and massive spending increases on welfare as well as warfare.

Anti-libertarian conservatives confuse libertarianism with the authoritarian “neoliberalism” embraced by both major parties. This confusion may be why these conservatives blame libertarians for the American middle class’s eroding standard of living. Conservatives are correct to be concerned about the economic challenges facing the average American, but they are mistaken to place the blame on the free market.

The American people are not suffering from an excess of free markets. They suffer from an excess of taxes, regulations, and, especially, fiat money. Therefore, populist conservatives should join libertarians in seeking to eliminate federal regulations, repeal the 16th Amendment, and restore a free-market monetary system.

Instead of fighting to end the welfare-regulatory system that benefits economic and political elites at the expense of average Americans, populist conservatives are promoting increased economic interventionism. For example, many populist conservatives support increased infrastructure spending and tariffs and other forms of protectionism.

Like all forms of central planning, these schemes prevent goods and services from being used for the purposes most valued by consumers. This distorts the marketplace and lowers living standards — including of people whose jobs are temporally saved or created by these government interventions. Those workers would be better off in the long term finding new jobs in a free market.

Anti-free-market conservatives ignore how their policies harm those they claim to care about. For example, protectionism harms farmers and others working in businesses depending on international trade.

The most common complaint of social conservatives is that libertarianism promotes immorality. These conservatives confuse a libertarian’s opposition to outlawing drugs, for example, with moral approval of drug use. Many libertarians condemn drug use and other destructive behaviors. However, libertarians reject the use of government force to prevent individuals from choosing to engage in these behaviors. Instead, libertarians support the right of individuals to use peaceful means to persuade others not to engage in destructive or immoral behaviors.

Libertarians also support the right of individuals not to associate with, or to subsidize in any way, those whose lifestyles or beliefs they find objectionable. Social conservatives object to libertarians because social conservatives wish to use government power to force people to be good. This is the worst type of statism because it seeks to control our minds and souls.

Most people accept the idea that it is wrong to initiate force against those engaging in peaceful behaviors. Libertarians apply this nonaggression principle to government. Making government follow the nonaggression principle would end unjust wars, income and inflation taxes, and the destruction caused by the use of force to control what we do with our property, how we raise our children, who we associate with, and what we put into our bodies. Making governments abide by the nonaggression principle is the only way to restore a society that is free, prosperous, and moral.
http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/conservatives-against-liberty
http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2019/july/15/conservatives-against-liberty/

Copyright © 2019 by RonPaul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given.
Please donate to the Ron Paul Institute

Weekly Update --- Medical IDs: Enemy of Privacy, Liberty, and Health
Video - Monday June 17, 2019 - Dr. Ron Paul
By Ron Paul - Last week, the House of Representatives voted in favor of a Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill amendment to repeal the prohibition on the use of federal funds to create a “unique patient identifier.” Unless this prohibition, which I originally sponsored in 1998, is reinstated, the federal government will have the authority to assign every American a medical ID. This ID will be used to store and track every American’s medical history.

A unique patient identifier would allow federal bureaucrats and government-favored special interests to access health information simply by entering an individual’s unique patient ID into a database. This system would also facilitate the collection of health information without a warrant by surveillance state operatives.

The health records database could easily be linked to other similar databases, such as those containing gun purchase records or education records. If mandatory E-Verify becomes law, the health records database could even be linked to it, allowing employers to examine a potential employee’s medical history.

The possibility that the unique patient identifier system may be linked to a database containing information regarding gun ownership is especially disturbing given the bipartisan support for “red flag” laws. These laws allow the government to deny respect for someone’s Second Amendment rights without due process and based solely on an allegation that the individual is mentally unstable and likely to commit an act of gun violence. Combining red flag laws with the unique patient identifier system would leave a gun owner who ever sought psychiatric help for any reason at risk of losing his ability to legally possess a gun.

Unscrupulous government officials could use medical information to harass those whose political activities challenge the status quo. Anyone who doubts this should ask themselves what a future J. Edgar Hoover or Lois Lerner would do with access to the medical information of those involved in political movements he wishes to silence.

The unique patient identifier undermines one of the foundations of quality health care: the doctor-patient relationship. Accurate diagnosis requires that patients share intimate details about their lives — ranging from details about their diet and exercise habits to their sexual history and alcohol and drug use — with their physicians. If patients legitimately fear information shared will be compromised, they will be unwilling to be completely honest with their physicians, making it impossible for physicians to effectively treat their patients.

Proponents of the unique patient identifier claim it will improve efficiency. But, in a free society, the government should never endanger privacy or liberty for efficiency. Besides, when has any government intervention in health care ever improved efficiency or increased patients’ or health care providers’ satisfaction with the system?

The unique patient identifier system puts the desires of government bureaucrats and politically powerful special interests ahead of the needs of individual patients and health care providers. Instead of further intervening in health care and further destroying our privacy and our liberties, Congress should give patients control over their health care by giving them control over health care dollars through expanding access to Health Savings Accounts and health care tax credits. In a free market, patients and doctors can and will work tighter to ensure patients’ records are maintained in a manner that provides maximum efficiency without endangering privacy or liberty.
http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/medical-ids-enemy-of-privacy-liberty-and-health
http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2019/june/17/medical-ids-enemy-of-privacy-liberty-and-health/

Copyright © 2019 by RonPaul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given.
Please donate to the Ron Paul Institute

Free Speech?

Only if one is a leftist hippy homo loving race mixer whistling past the graveyard of the West on the way to Sodom or what the cucks of the world call 'tolerant' of being ‘enriched’ by the diversity horde.

The real fact is that, in the modern USA – and the ‘free’ world more generally – One truly only has 'free speech' if one says what the left allows one to say. Every thing else is labeled 'hate'.

Hateful speech gets censored using 'terms of service', codes of conduct, ethical standards and other low life lawyer games here in the USA, while at the same time SJW types aided by the Media, Academia and Government, will go after one’s employment – hate has no right to participate in the workplace – threatening one’s surely weak willed boss with the hellfire of 'racism' if they don't shun one like a leprous apostate. They will hammer away and do everything possible to drum one out of society forthwith and posthaste, since they decide what is to be freely said in this free land and no others.

So yeah anyone 'can' freely say anything IF they are willing to risk their good name, job and the security of their family.

The parody starts when the oppressive menstruating SJW apparatchiks pretend that they are being oppressed by the people they have decided to hold their little inquisitions upon – Oh yes they will LOOK for folks talking about things they don't like.

Claim to be triggered.

Denounce the person they intruded upon with shaming control words like racism and hater.

All the while trying to rally the crowd to denounce the person intruded upon by the little communist agitator.

And then as a final act the agitators will pretend that they are the 'victim' of an aggression, if their intended victim fights back against their nonsense accusations.

It happens all the time on social media, at schools, parks, stores and frankly we can only imagine where else, that the purveyors of perversion, and putrefaction, look for anyone having a conversation about race, nation, history, biology, politics, or any other subject not to their liking. Find what they FEEL to be nonconformity – Then Commence to pretend that they have the right to 'look' heretics over to see if us unwashed racists live up to PC orthodoxy in our deeds and thoughts.

In their arrogance, they act like Bolshevik Informers and Fat Cat Party Bosses! They act as if their feelings are the Law. As if their whim is our Moral imperative. As if they are the living face of ORDER, JUSTICE and PEACE. They seem to think that the White Majority need their leave or permission to think and speak as we wish, will or whim.

Triggers coming, clutch the pearls baby --

We are not subject to SJW or the Lefts pseudo-morality. We simply grant them NO power to dispose of our person, let alone to control, order or otherwise inform, our thoughts, feelings or actions. Let them VOTE – We shall VETO!

Veto – I REFUSE CONSENT! Yes, WE refuse to consent to their bully boy games and badgering antics of the SJW types. Lawyer games are based on paper; Fire is greater than paper.
We refuse to allow these modern day Babylonian Temple Merchants the RIGHT to hold judgment over us. We will not be harped on by harridans as if they are our headmistress.

That is for cucks, punks, sissies, and boys.

We tell such as this to shut their lips and mind their own shop. We realize that We are NOT subject to the PC folks' will. We refuse to allow these lowly and vile hoi polloi the right to judge us, as we are the rightful Lords of This Land.

We do not allow the enemy to shame us into accepting defeat. Mice allow cats to badger them.

The correct response to 'your a racist' is not 'no I am not' it is 'racism, racist, hater and the rest are imaginary concepts with no basis in fact, so only idiots babble about them as if they matter'. The correct response to 'you hate X' is 'no, rather you hate me because I won't agree with your view about X, but thanks for trying to manipulate me anyways.' The old 'but you are really afraid of Y' game is best counted with a variant of 'we will go into the tank with Y, Y being a bear, RIGHT after you do.'

The correct response to most PC accusations is bluntly,’What you say and think does not matter in the least, now Shut Your Lips, or physically force us to comply, Please Leave as your Commie Gibberish is NOT Welcome.’

Never defend always deflect and attack. Always challenge their authority and make them carry the load of defending their insane world view. Deflect; Attack; Defeat!

The PC bots will double down on the names, huff, puff, rave, stomp, maybe even cry, but if you hold to the guns, they will go away in obvious defeat. This will leave YOU able to have your say to the crowd. This simple fact will encourage others to defy these PC commie control freaks in the future. They shame, you refuse to care, they flee, you win.

Deflect, Attack, Defeat!